Tarn Taran district is one of the districts in the

Majha Majha ( ''Mājhā''; ; from "mañjhlā" )Punjabi language, Punjabi: ਮਾਝਾ , is a region located in the central parts of the historical Punjab region, presently split between the republics of Pakistan and India. It extends north from the ...

region of

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 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The main cities are

Tarn Taran Sahib Tarn Taran Sahib is a city in the Majha region of the state of Punjab, India. It is the district headquarters and hosts the municipal council of Tarn Taran district. Gurdwara Sri Tarn Taran Sahib, a prominent Sikh shrine, is located in the c ...

, Bhikhiwind,

Khadur Sahib Khadur Sahib is a town and a nagar panchayat in Tarn Taran district of Khadur Sahib tehsil of the Majha region of Indian state of Punjab. Khadur Sahib is a historical place in view of eight out of ten sikh gurus having visited this place. T ...

and Patti. The City of

is a holy place for

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 ...

s. Tarn Taran's Sikh population makes it the most heavily concentrated administrative district of Sikhs in India and the world. Tarn Taran district was formed in 2006 out of

Amritsar District Amritsar district is one of the twenty three districts that make up the Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab. Located in the Majha region of Punjab, the city of Amritsar is the headquarters of this district. As of 2011, it is the second most ...

. The declaration to this effect was made by Captain

Amarinder Singh Amarinder Singh (born 11 March 1942) is an Indian politician, military historian, former royal and Indian Army veteran who served as the 15th Chief Minister of Punjab. His father, Yadavindra Singh, was the last Maharaja of the princely st ...

, Chief Minister of Punjab, during the celebrations marking the martyrdom day of Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji. With this, it became the 19th district of

. It has four tehsils, which are Bhikhiwind, Patti, Khadur Sahib and Tarn Taran Sahib. The District Headquarters is headed by the Deputy Commissioner, along with a Senior Superintendent of Police, Civil Surgeon, district Education Officer, Improvement Trust and a Municipal Council. The district judiciary is headed by the District and Session Judge, aided by several Additional District and Sessions Judges, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, and other officials.

Location

Tarn Taran is located in the state of

, in far northern

. It is surrounded by district of

Amritsar Amritsar, also known as Ambarsar, is the second-List of cities in Punjab, India by population, largest city in the India, Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab, after Ludhiana. Located in the Majha region, it is a major cultural, transportatio ...

in the north, district

Kapurthala Kapurthala () is a city in Punjab state of India. It is the administrative headquarters of Kapurthala District. It was the capital of the Kapurthala State, a princely state in British India. The aesthetic mix of the city with its prominent b ...

in the east, district Ferozepur in the south and

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# ...

in the west.

Coordinates

Taran taran district lies between 31 0 05’, and 31 0 30’ 05 north

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

74 0 30’ and 75 0 15’ 05“ east

longitudes Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter ...

. The area falls in

Survey Of India The Survey of India is India's central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying.

History

The foundation of Tarn Taran city was laid by fifth Sikh guru,

Guru Arjan Dev Guru Arjan (Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਅਰਜਨ, pronunciation: ; 15 April 1563 – 30 May 1606) was the fifth of the ten total Sikh Gurus. He compiled the first official edition of the Sikh scripture called the Adi Granth, which later expande ...

in 1596. The area of Tarn Taran Sahib later came under the control of the

Bhangi Misl The Bhangi Misl ( Punjabi pronunciation: ə̃˨ŋɡiː mɪsəl was a large and powerful Sikh Misl headquartered in Amritsar. It was founded in the early 18th century by ''Sardar'' Chhajja Singh Dhillon,Sikh History (2004)"The Bhangi Misal" ...

ruled by a powerful Sikh family of Dhillon clan from 1716 to 1810. During the 1965 India–Pakistan war, the town of Khem Karan was captured by the Pakistan army during early September 1965. The Pakistani forces were later defeated during the battle of Asal Uttar, that was fought from 8 to 10 September. At that time, it was the largest tank battle since the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Khem Karan remained under Pakistani occupation for about six months till the signing of

Tashkent agreement The Tashkent Declaration was signed between India and Pakistan on 10 January 1966 to resolve the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. Peace was achieved on 23 September through interventions by the Soviet Union and the United States, both of which pus ...

between India and Pakistan on 10 January 1966. During the war, the people of the area had to leave their houses and go far away. Many houses, crops and railway tracks were destroyed. In the areas occupied by Pakistan, many houses were looted by Pakistani troops. Even the doors and windows were removed. During the

Insurgency in Punjab, India The Insurgency in Punjab was an armed campaign by the separatists of the Khalistan movement from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Economic and social pressures driven by the Green Revolution in India, Green Revolution prompted calls for Sikh aut ...

, Tarn Taran was the key stronghold of well-funded and armed Sikh separatist groups. Several key separatist leaders trace their origins to Tarn Taran, including but not limited to Sukhdev Singh Babbar, co-founder of

Babbar Khalsa Babbar Khalsa, officially Babbar Khalsa International (BKI, , ), is a Khalistani militant organisation that aims to create an independent nation-state of Khalistan in the Punjab region. It has used armed attacks, assassinations and bombings in ...

Avtar Singh Brahma Avtar Singh Brahma (1951 – 22 July 1988) was a Sikh militant ( kharku) and one of the main founding figures and the second leader of Khalistan Liberation Force, founded in 1986, during the insurgency in Punjab, India. Avtar Singh became kno ...

, co-founder of the Khalistan Liberation Force, Labh Singh of the

Khalistan Commando Force The Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) is a Sikh Khalistani militant organisation operating in the state of Punjab, India with prominent members based in Canada, United Kingdom and Pakistan. Its objective is the creation of a Sikh independent stat ...

, and Gurbachan Singh Manochahal founder of the Bhindranwale Tiger Force of Khalistan. In the fall of 1984, the Tarn Taran district was impacted by Operation Woodrose which resulted in the establishment of arms trafficking between Pakistan's

Inter-Services Intelligence The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is the premier Pakistani Intelligence community, intelligence agency of Pakistan. It is responsible for gathering, processing, and analyzing any information from around the world that is deemed relevant t ...

and Sikh militants in Tarn Taran, initiated by former Pakistani President Muhammad Zia Ul-Haq. By the end of the 1980s and following Zia's death, Pakistan began to reallocate support for militancy from Punjab toward

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

. Today, the Tarn Taran district remains one of the most adversely impacted districts for narcotics and arms trafficking from Pakistan. In the post-independence era,

Partap Singh Kairon Partap Singh Kairon (1 October 1901 – 6 February 1965) was the 3rd Chief Minister of the Punjab province (then comprising Punjab, Haryana and part of Himachal Pradesh), and is widely acknowledged as the architect of post-Independence Punjab P ...

is among Tarn Taran's most well known residents. Kairon was a freedom fighter during British rule and served as the 3rd Chief Minister of Punjab from 1956-1964. He was assassinated in Sonipat district, now within Haryana, on February 8th, 1965.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Tarn Taran district has a

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

of 1,119,627, roughly equal to the nation of

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

or the US state of

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

. This gives it a ranking of 413th in India (out of a total of

640 Year 640 ( DCXL) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 640 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming y ...

). The district has a population density of . Its

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...

over the decade 2001-2011 was 19.28%. Tarn Taran has a

sex ratio A sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. However, many species deviate from an even sex ratio, ei ...

of 898

females An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and male ...

for every 1000 males, and a

literacy rate Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

of 69.4%. Scheduled Castes made up 33.71% of the population.

Religion

The table below shows the population of different religions in absolute numbers in the urban and rural areas of Tarn Taran district. Tarn Taran district has the highest % share of Sikhs among all the districts of Punjab followed by

Moga district Moga district is one of the twenty-three districts in the state of Punjab, India. It became the 17th district of Punjab state on 24 November 1995, being cut from the Faridkot and Firozpur districts. Moga district is among the largest produc ...

(as of 2011 census).

Health

As of 2018, the number of registered doctors in Taran Taran district were 84 and registered nurses were 3,378. That means that the average population served per doctor in the district was 15,210 in that year, which was the highest in the state. The table below shows the data from the district nutrition profile of children below the age of 5 years, in Taran Taran, as of year 2020. The table below shows the district nutrition profile of Taran Taran of women between the ages of 15 and 49 years, as of year 2020. The table below shows the current use of family planning methods by currently married women between the age of 15 and 49 years, in Taran Taran district. The table below shows the number of road accidents and people affected in Taran Taran district by year.

Economy

The income of

Municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

and

Municipal corporations Municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally ow ...

in Taran Taran district from municipal rates and taxes in the year 2018 was 54,566 thousand rupees. As of 2014–15, there were 452 registered Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) units in the Taran Taran district, which provided employment to 2,717 people. There were 6 Medium and Large industrial units, which provided employment to 609 people.

Politics

Kashmir Singh Sohal from Aam Admi Party is the MLA from Tarn Taran Assembly Constituency. He was elected in

2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election Legislative Assembly elections were held in Elections in Punjab, India, Punjab on 2022 elections in India, 20 February 2022 to elect the List of constituencies of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, 117 members of the Sixteenth Punjab Legislative ...

Transport

Air

There is no commercial airport in the district. The nearest airport is Amritsar International Airport. Direct International flights are available to key cities around the world in the likes of London, Birmingham, Dubai, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Doha, Tashkent and Ashgabat. Domestic connections are available to almost every major city of

Rail

The rail network provides good connectivity across the district. Amritsar-Khemkaran and Beas-Tarn Taran railway lines pass through Tarn Taran district. Tarn Taran Junction railway station provides cross connectivity between these two lines. A new project of rail line from Patti to Makhu has been approved by railways since 2013 but not started till date due to delay by state government on land acquisition.

Road

The district is well connected through national highways to rest of Punjab state and nationally. Following national highways pass through the district. * National Highway 54 * National Highway 354 * National Highway 703B * National Highway 703AA (Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji Marg).

Towns and villages

The villages and towns of Tarn Taran District include: * Bhullar *

Banwalipur Banwalipur is a village in Kapurthala district of Punjab State, India. It is located from Kapurthala, which is both district and sub-district headquarters of Banwalipur. The village is administrated by a Sarpanch who is an elected representa ...

* Bhikhiwind * Chhichhrewal * Dilawalpur * Fatehabad * Goindwal *

* Kallah *

Khalra Khalra village is located in Patti Tehsil of Tarn Taran district in Punjab, India. It is situated 27 km away from sub-district headquarter Patti and 35 km away from district headquarter Tarn Taran. According to Census 2011 informatio ...

* Khem Karan * Maniyala Jai Singh Wala * Mari Kamboki * Mohanpura * Mughalwala * Munda Pind * Naushehra Pannuan * Patti *

Sur Singh Sawai Raja Soor Singh or Suraj Mal or Suraj Singh (24 April 1571 – 7 September 1619), was the ruler of the Rathore Kingdom of Marwar from 11 July 1595 until his death in 1619. His sister Manavati, also known as, Bilqis Makani was the consor ...

Notable people

Gurbaksh Chahal Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (born July 17, 1982) is an Indian Americans, Indian-American entrepreneur who has founded, managed, and frequently sold several internet advertising companies. Chahal founded his first advertising network at the age of 16 ...

, an

Indian-American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, who are also referred to as "Indians" or "Am ...

internet entrepreneur and founder of several internet advertising companies * Kirpal Singh Chugh, an Indian

nephrologist Nephrology is a specialty for both adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (renal physiology) and kidney disease (renal pathophysiology), the preservation of kid ...

and considered by many to have been the father of nephrology in India *

Satyavati Devi (born 1905) Satyavati Devi (28 February 1905 – 26 October 2010) was an Indian freedom fighter and Gandhian. At the time of her death on 26 October 2010, she was India's oldest living freedom fighter. She was born in a Punjabi Hindu family in Tarn Taran ...

- Noted Freedom fighter * Deepak Dhawan - State Committee member of CPI(M), President of Guru Nanak Dev University (AISF), and Prominent writer. *

Prem Dhillon Premjeet Singh Dhillon (born 4 January 1995) is an Indian singer and songwriter associated with Music of Punjab, Punjabi music. Dhillon is best known for singles "Boot Cut", "Old Skool" and "Majha Block". Personal life Premjeet Singh Dhillon w ...

, Punjabi singer and artist *

Krishan Kant Krishan Kant (28 February 1927 – 27 July 2002) was an Indian politician who served as the vice president of India from 1997 until his death in 2002. Prior to his vice presidency, Kant was the governor of Andhra Pradesh from 1990 to 1997. He ...

- Former Vice President of India * Jaswant Singh Khalra, Prominent Human Rights activist *

Nizam Lohar Nizam Lohar (; 1835 — 1877) was a revolutionary who rebelled against the colonial government that led to bloodshed which sent shockwaves throughout Britain. In Punjab, he and others defied repressive laws of the government, looted governmen ...

, 19th century heroic rebel of the Punjab *

Surender Mohan Pathak Surender Mohan Pathak (born 19 February 1940) is an author of Hindi-language crime fiction with nearly 300 novels to his credit. His writing career, along with his full-time job in Indian Telephone Industries, Delhi, began in the early 1960s ...

, a Hindi-language

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...

writer *

Lala Achint Ram Lala Achint Ram (19 August 1898 – 1961) was an Indian freedom fighter, Gandhian and a member of the Indian National Congress party. He was one of the first three members of Servants of the People Society, established by Lala Lajpat Rai i ...

- Noted freedom fighter, Member of the constituent assembly, Later parliamentarian * Mian Muhammad Sharif - Pakistani businessman, father of Nawaz and

Shehbaz Sharif Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif (born 23 September 1951) is a Pakistani politician and businessman who has served as the 20th Prime Minister of Pakistan, prime minister of Pakistan since March 2024, having previously been in the role between Ap ...

, former

prime ministers of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan (, Roman Urdu, romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Cabinet of Pakistan, cabinet, desp ...

* Ritu Singh, a

Dalit Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold var ...

activist *

Praveen Kumar Sobti Praveen Kumar Sobti (6 December 1947 – 7 February 2022) was an Indian hammer and discus thrower, actor, politician, and soldier with Border Security Force. As a 20-year-old he joined then newly raised Border Security Force from where he ...

, an athlete, actor and politician * Mohan Singh Tur, former Jathedar of Akal Takht, Amritsar and Member of Lok Sabha

References

Imperial Gazetteer2 of India, Volume 5, page 319 -- Imperial Gazetteer of India -- Digital South Asia Library

External links

Official website

DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK TARN TARAN - 2011 Census
{{Authority control Districts of Punjab, India 2006 establishments in Punjab, India