Nankana Sahib (; ) is a city and capital of

Nankana Sahib District Nankana Sahib District (; ) is a district in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Nankana Sahib is the seat of the district government, and Shahkot is the largest urban center. The district of Nankana Sahib is located about west of Lahore and abo ...

in the

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

province of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. It is named after the first Guru of the

Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Sikh'' ...

Guru Nanak Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539; Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; pronunciation: , ), also known as ('Father Nanak'), was an Indian spiritual teacher, mystic and poet, who is regarded as the founder of Sikhism and is t ...

, who was born in the city and first began preaching here. Nankana Sahib is among the most important religious sites for the Sikh religion. It is located about west of

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

and about east of

Faisalabad Faisalabad, formerly known as Lyallpur, is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, second-largest city and primary List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, industrial center of the Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan ...

. According to the census of 2017 the city has a population of 110,135 inhabitants. Until 2005, it was a part of the Sheikhupura District.

History

Originally, the locality was founded by a Hindu ruler named Raja Vairat and was originally named Raipur but it was destroyed during the Islamic invasions of the Indian subcontinent. A later, re-built township on the site of the first settlement was founded during the

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi was a Medieval India, late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries.

rule by Rai Bhoi, a

Rajput Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating fro ...

of Bhati stock whose Hindu ancestor had converted to Islam due to the influence of Sufism, and thus was known as Rai-Bhoi-Di-Talwandi. His great-grand son Rai Bular Bhatti, renamed it as 'Nankana Sahib' after the birth of

. The Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, originally constructed by

during the Mughal era in around 1600 CE was renovated in 1819–20 CE by Gian-Punjab

Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839) was the founder and first maharaja of the Sikh Empire, in the northwest Indian subcontinent, ruling from 1801 until his death in 1839. Born to Maha Singh, the leader of the Sukerchakia Misl ...

The Sikh Conference of Panjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Peshawar, Kangra and Hazara. During the

Akali movement The Akali movement (IPA: ; known in Punjabi as the Akali Morcha), also called the Gurdwara Reform Movement, was a campaign to bring reform in the gurdwaras (the Sikhism, Sikh places of worship) in India during the early 1920s. The movement led to ...

, on 20 February 1921, Narain Das, the

Udasi Udasis ( Gurmukhi: ਉਦਾਸੀ ਸੰਪਰਦਾ; ''udāsī saparadā'') (Devanagari: उदासी संप्रदाय), also spelt as Udasins, also known as Nanak Putras (meaning "sons of Nanak"), are a religious sect of ascetic ' ...

mahant (clergy) of the gurdwara at Nankana Sahib, ordered his men to fire on Akali protesters, leading to the Nankana massacre. The firing was widely condemned, and an agitation was launched until the control of this historic Janam Asthan Gurdwara was restored to the Sikhs. Again in the 1930s and 1940s the Sikhs added more buildings and more architectural design.

Geography

Nankana Sahib and it surroundings were formerly a tehsil of Sheikhupura District. In May 2005, the provincial government raised the status of Nankana Sahib to a district as a way of promoting development in the area. The present status is District Nankana Sahib has three tehsils: Nankana Sahib, Shah Kot, and Sangla Hill. Before December 2008, District Nankana Sahib also included Safdarabad Tehsil. There are plans to construct a university as well as hospitals and health care facilities by the district government with mutual interest of local communities and family of Rai Bular. In 2007, the Pakistan government announced a plan to set up a university on Sikh religion and culture at Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak. Chairman of Pakistan's Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), Gen (R) Zulfikar Ali Khan, said that "The international Guru Nanak University planned at Nankana Sahib would have the best architecture, curricula and research centre on Sikh religion and culture".

Notable places

* Quba Masjid (A replica of Quba Masjid of Madina) * Gurdwara Janam Asthan * Nankana Lake Resort * Residency of Baba Guru Nanak *Gurdwara Patti Sahib *Gurdwara Bal Leela *Gurdwara Mal Ji Sahib *Gurdwara Kiara Sahib *Gurdwara Tambu Sahib And other historical

Gurdwara A gurdwara or gurudwara () is a place of assembly and place of worship, worship in Sikhism, but its normal meaning is "place of guru" or "home of guru". Sikhism, Sikhs also refer to gurdwaras as ''Gurdwara Sahib''. People from all faiths and rel ...

s of

Sikhism Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...

Notable people

, founder and first of the

Sikh Gurus The Sikh gurus (Punjabi language, Punjabi: ਸਿੱਖ ਗੁਰੂ; Hindi: सिख गुरु) are the spiritual masters of Sikhism, who established the religion over the course of about two and a half centuries, beginning in 1469. The year ...

* Rai Bular Bhatti * Mohammad Irfan, Pakistani cricketer * Rai Mansab Ali Khan * Rai Rashid Ahmed Khan * Shizra Mansab Ali Khan * Ganga Ram * Ijaz Shah *

Babra Sharif Babra Sharif (; born 10 December 1954) is a Pakistani film actress, best known for her acting roles from the mid-1970s to the 1990s. She is one of the most popular actress of 1970s, 1980s and 1990s as well a leading actress in urdu films. She ...

, film actor * Barjees Tahir

Demographics

The partition of India and Pakistan significantly changed the demographic composition of Pakistan's cities with the vast majority of Hindus and Sikhs having to leave Pakistan and vice versa for Muslims in India. The

2023 Pakistani Census The 2023 Census of Pakistan was the detailed enumeration of the Pakistani population and the seventh national census in the country. It was conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. It was also the first ever digital census to be held in ...

however showed that while still overwhelmingly Muslim at 97%, there is now a re-established Sikh community in the holy city their founder

was born in. This can be attributed to the migration of the Pakhtun Sikhs to the city fleeing from Taliban insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Data from the 2023 census shows that the city of Nankana Sahib has a

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

population of 1,875 out of a total population of 130,041. Nankana Sahib is the only city in

where Sikhs are the largest minority religion comprising just under 1.5% of the population. There is also a significant

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

population of 1,734 in the city making up 1.3% of the population. The city is overwhelmingly Punjabi speaking, with Punjabi speakers comprising over 96.3% of the population. 2.5% also stated

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

as their mother tongue. The average household size in 2023 was 6.3 per household while the 2017-2023 average annual growth rate was 2.82%.