Qadian (; ) is a town and a municipal council in Gurdaspur district, north-east of Amritsar, situated north-east of Batala city in the state of Punjab, India. Qadian is the birthplace of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement within Islam. It remained the headquarters of the movement until the Partition of India in 1947.
History
Qadian was established in 1530 by Mirza Hadi Baig, a religious scholar dedicated to Islam and the first
Qadi in the area. Mirza Hadi Baig was from a royal household of Mirza of the
Mughal Empire. He migrated from
Samarkand and settled in Punjab where he was granted a vast tract of land comprising 80 villages by the emperor
Babur. Because of his religious beliefs, he named the center of the 80 villages
Islam Pur Qazi and governed from there. Over time, the name of the town changed to
Qazi Maji, then
Qadi, and eventually it became known as 'Qadian'. The term
Qadiani is used as a slur to refer to Ahmadi Muslims, primarily in Pakistan.
Qadian and the surrounding areas later fell to the Ramgarhia under the leadership of Jassa Singh Ramgarhia who offered the ruling Qazis, two villages which they refused. In 1834, during the rule of Ranjit Singh, the region consisting of Qadian and five adjoining villages was given to Mirza Ghulam Murtaza, father of Ghulam Ahmad in return for military support in Kashmir, Mahadi, the Kulu valley, Peshawar and Hazara region.
Ahmadiyya Movement
A remote and unknown town, Qadian emerged as a centre of religious learning in 1889, when Mirza Ghulam Ahmad established the
Ahmadiyya. In 1891 it became the venue for the Community's annual gatherings. Qadian remained the administrative headquarters and capital of the
Khalifatul Masih until the partition of India in 1947, when much of the Community migrated to Pakistan.
Partition
Prior to the Partition of India, Qadian being the central headquarters of the
Ahmadiyya, had around 14,000 Ahmadis spread across approximately 19 different neighborhoods and villages.
Following the partition, Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad, the second Khalifa of the Community, carefully oversaw the safe migration of Ahmadis from Qadian to the newly founded state, instructing 313 men, including two of his own sons, to stay in Qadian and guard the sites holy to Ahmadis, conferring upon them the title
darveshān-i qādiyān (the dervishes of Qadian) and eventually moving the headquarters to
Rabwah, Pakistan.
Qadian experienced extreme violence and bloodshed during and after the partition of India, and many of its neighbouring areas and villages became devoid of Muslims, who were either lynched or displaced by militant Sikhs and Hindus backed by the Indian Army at that time. Despite many Muslims deciding to remain in India, in Qadian or its neighboring areas, they were, at a low, persecuted, or forthrightly killed. A curfew on Qadian was intermittent for several months after the partition. Many religious places were either forcibly occupied and converted, defaced, ransacked and or vandalised.
At the height of violence during the partition, Qadian had become a makeshift refugee camp for over 50,000 displaced Muslims.
Geography
Qadian is located at . It has an average elevation of 250 metres (820 feet).
Demographics
Qadian has a population of 23,632.
Males constituted 54% of the population and females 46%. Qadian has an average literacy rate of 75%, slightly higher than the national average of 74.04%: male literacy is 78%, and female literacy is 70%. 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Languages
Most of the residents of Qadian are speakers of the
Punjabi language. A significant minority, about a 1/10 of the population, also speak the
Urdu language. In areas like
Mohallah Ahmadiyya, Urdu signs are a common sight.
Religion
Hinduism is the largest religion in Qadian, with significant populations of the adherents of
Sikhism and
Islam.
The table below shows the population of different religious groups in Qadian and their
sex ratio, as of 2011 census.
India - C-01: Population by religious community, Punjab - 2011, Qadian (M Cl + OG)
!Religion!!Total!!Female!!Male!!Gender ratio |
| 886 |
| 939 |
| 748 |
| 907 |
|
|
| 857 |
| 627 |
| 883 |
Islam
Today in Qadian, there are 11 mosques belonging to the
Ahmadiyya community most of which date before the partition. Initially the majority of the mosques were based on the Urdu neighbourhood names (with the exception of Aqsa Mosque and Mubarak Mosque), but many have been renamed, following their renovation in 2012.
-
Aqsa Mosque (1876)
-
Mubarak Mosque (1883)
-
Noor Mosque (1910)
-
Nasirabad Mosque (1913)
-
Fazl Mosque (1914)
-
Rahman Mosque (1927)
-
Subhan Mosque (1935)
-
Mumtaz Mosque (1936)
-
Anwaar Mosque (1939)
-
Masroor Mosque (2015)
Further, three mosques existed prior to the partition, but have since been occupied, namely:
-
Darul Fazl Mosque
-
Darus Sa'at Mosque
-
Starhousry Factory Mosque
Outside of Qadian, in the neighbouring areas, an additional four mosques of Kahlwan and Nangal Bagbana exist, namely:
| +
!Name
!Year
!Area |
| Tahir Mosque | 1997 | Nangal |
| Basharat Mosque | Pre-partition |
| Mehdi Mosque | 2004 | Kahlwan |
| Mahmood Mosque | 2012 |
Transport
Railway
Qadian is connected through its railway station, which was built back in November 1928.
It is located in the Darul Barakat area and served by the 'Mela special line', a 55-kilometer track, linking it to
Amritsar via
Batala,
with a proposed
Qadian-Beas Line which was sanctioned back in 2011.
Politics
The town is part of the Qadian Assembly Constituency.
Notable monuments
Hospitals
Education
Prior to the Partition of India, two major educational institutes in Qadian were established. The
Talim-ul-Islam High School was founded in 1889, and the
Talim-ul-Islam College was founded in 1898. During the partition, these institutes were forcibly occupied and the college was converted and continues to operate as the Sikh National College.
Today around 13 educational institutes exist consisting of several public schools, along with a number of private educational institutes such as:
-
Jamia Ahmadiyya Qadian
-
Talim-ul-Islam Senior Secondary School
-
Nusrat Girls High School
-
Nusrat Women College
Notable people
Although Qadian is relatively remote and has a very small population, it has many notable historical, religious and political figures;
Religious Leaders
Ahmadiyya Caliphs
-
Hakeem Noor-ud-Din from 1908 to 1914
-
Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad from 1914 to 1965
-
Mirza Nasir Ahmad from 1965 to 1982
-
Mirza Tahir Ahmad from 1982 to 2003
Poets
Military Leaders
Politicians
-
Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa
-
Partap Singh Bajwa
-
Charanjit Kaur Bajwa
Bibliography
External links
