Gurdaspur

Gurdaspur is a border district of northern Punjab, facing Pakistan, and also the name of its headquarters town. The district's own history page says the town was founded by Guriya Ji in the early 17th century and named after him.

Key moments

• 1485: Guru Nanak married Sulkhani, daughter of Mool Chand of Pakhoke, now Dera Baba Nanak, in what is today Batala tehsil.
• 7 December 1715: after an eight-month siege at Gurdas Nangal, about six kilometres from the town, imperial armies broke through and captured Banda Singh Bahadur and his starving companions. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says 740 prisoners were marched to Delhi in heavy chains, and dates Banda Singh's execution to 9 June 1716.
• 1808 and 1811: Maharaja Ranjit Singh broke the power of the Ramgarhia and then the Kanhaya misls here and took over the whole district.
• 1947: under the Radcliffe Award only Shakargarh tehsil of the district went to Pakistan. Muslim residents left, and Hindu and Sikh refugees from Sialkot and Shakargarh settled in the district after crossing the Ravi bridge.

The conversion dispute. The district is the centre of a dispute over Christian growth among Dalit families of the border belt, chiefly Mazhabi Sikhs and Valmiki Hindus. ThePrint reported on 2 December 2021 that Kamal Bakshi, state president of the United Christian Front, put the churches of Amritsar and Gurdaspur together at 600 to 700, with 60 to 70 per cent built in five years. The 2011 census showed Christians as 7.68 per cent of Gurdaspur district, which ThePrint called the district where they are most concentrated. Bakshi says at least 23 per cent are Christian and that the census undercounts them, which ThePrint did not verify. Giani Harpreet Singh, then jathedar of the Akal Takht, alleged that Sikhs in border villages were being converted by force and money. Bakshi and a convert quoted by ThePrint reject this and say people come for equality. The SGPC answered with the door-to-door campaign Ghar Ghar Andar Dharamsaal.

The Tribune reported on 10 February 2023 that the district's Christian population had "doubled to nearly 4 lakh" in five years, with 120-odd churches and some 400 pastors. These were the reporter's own figures, with no census or source given. The same article quotes an unnamed SGPC member objecting that Christian hymns imitate kirtan, and quotes clergy in the district who say attendance is voluntary and healing is faith healing, not coercion. Because the counts rest on interested or unnamed sources, none of them should be repeated as settled.

What it means to the Panth. The district holds places from Guru Nanak's marriage to Banda Singh's last battle, and today it is one of the border districts where the Akal Takht and the SGPC have taken up the conversion question.