district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
in the state of
Punjab, India
Punjab (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the States and union territories of India, Indian states of Himachal ...
. The district headquarters is
Mansa Mansa may refer to:
Places In India
* Mansa, Gujarat, a town in northern Gujarat, Western India; the capital of:
** Mansa, Gujarat Assembly constituency
** Mansa State, a princely state under the Mahi Kantha Agency in India
* Mansa district, ...
city. Mansa district was formed on 13 April 1992 from the erst while district of Bathinda. The district has three tehsils: Mansa, Budhlada and
Sardulgarh
Sardulgarh is a City in Mansa district in the Indian state of Punjab. Surrounded by cities of Mansa city, Sirsa, Tohana, Bathinda, Fatehabad. It is a Sub-Division (Tehsil) of District Mansa. Its old name was Tadalan or Dhudalan/Dhudhal.
Geog ...
; and five development blocks: Mansa, Budhlada, Sardulgarh, Bhikhi and
Jhunir
Jhunir, sometimes spelled Jhuner, is a town in the Sardulgarh tehsil of Mansa district in Punjab, India. It is also a block of the district.
Geography
Jhunir is located at Google maps on State Highway 13, in the Mansa district of Indian Punj ...
.
Geography
The district is roughly triangular in shape and is bounded on the northwest by Bathinda district, on the northeast by
Sangrur district
Sangrur district is in the state of Punjab in northern India. Sangrur city is the district headquarters. It is one of the five districts in Patiala Division in the Indian state of Punjab. Neighbouring districts are Malerkotla (north), Barnala ...
, and on the south by
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
state. It is situated on the
Bathinda
Bathinda is a city and municipal corporation in Punjab, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of Bathinda District. It is located in northwestern India in the Malwa Region, west of the capital city of Chandigarh and is the fifth l ...
-
Jind
Jind is one of the largest and oldest city in Jind district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is administrative headquarter of Jind district. Rani Talab is the main destination for tourists while Pandu-Pindara and Ramrai are the main religiou ...
-
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
railway and the
Barnala
Barnala is a city in the state of Punjab of India. Barnala city serves as the headquarters of the Barnala district which was formed in 2006. Prior to formation of Barnala district, this city was located in Sangrur district. It is situated ne ...
-
Sardulgarh
Sardulgarh is a City in Mansa district in the Indian state of Punjab. Surrounded by cities of Mansa city, Sirsa, Tohana, Bathinda, Fatehabad. It is a Sub-Division (Tehsil) of District Mansa. Its old name was Tadalan or Dhudalan/Dhudhal.
Geog ...
-
Sirsa
Sirsa is a city and a municipal council in Sirsa district in the westernmost region of the Indian state of Haryana, bordering Punjab and Rajasthan. It is located in Thar desert. It is located 250 kilometres north-west of New Delhi and 260 kilome ...
road. The district is divided into three
tehsil
A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...
Mansa Mansa may refer to:
Places In India
* Mansa, Gujarat, a town in northern Gujarat, Western India; the capital of:
** Mansa, Gujarat Assembly constituency
** Mansa State, a princely state under the Mahi Kantha Agency in India
* Mansa district, ...
, and
Sardulgarh
Sardulgarh is a City in Mansa district in the Indian state of Punjab. Surrounded by cities of Mansa city, Sirsa, Tohana, Bathinda, Fatehabad. It is a Sub-Division (Tehsil) of District Mansa. Its old name was Tadalan or Dhudalan/Dhudhal.
Geog ...
. The
Ghaggar River
The Ghaggar-Hakra River is an intermittent river in India and Pakistan that flows only during the monsoon season. The river is known as Ghaggar in India, before the Ottu barrage, and as the Hakra in Pakistan, downstream of the barrage, ending ...
flows through the Sardulgarh Tehsil in the southwestern corner of the district.
History
Mansa District was formerly a part of the Phulkia Sikh Dynasty (1722–1948) then part of
Kaithal
Kaithal () is a city and municipal council in the Kaithal district of the Indian state of Haryana. Kaithal was previously a part of Karnal district and later, Kurukshetra district until 1 November 1989, when it became the headquarters of the K ...
Sikh Kingdom (1762–1857).
The present district was formed on 13 April 1992 from the erstwhile
Bathinda district
Bathinda district is in Malwa region of Punjab, India. The district encompasses an area of 3,385 square kilometers. By area, Bathinda district is the second-largest in Punjab, after Ludhiana District. It is bounded by Faridkot district and Moga ...
. The town is said to have been founded by Bhai Gurdas who hailed from Dhingar, Mansa district. He is said to have been married at this place among the Dhaliwal Jat Sikh. Once he came to his in-laws to take his wife along with him but they refused to send her. At this, Bhai Gurdas sat in
meditation
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...
before the house of his in-laws. After some time, the parents of the girl agreed to send their daughter with Bhai Gurdas. But he refused to take her along with him, stating that he had now renounced the worldly way of life. In his memory, his Smadh was constructed where a fair is held every year in March–April. People in large numbers attend the fair and offer
Laddu
''Laddu'' or ''laddoo'' (; ms, kuih laddu; id, kue laddu) is a spherical sweet originating from India and spread through the Indian subcontinent and the Malay world. Laddus are primarily made from flour, fat (ghee/butter/oil) and sugar or ...
s and Gur (
jaggery
Jaggery is a traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar consumed in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Africa. It is a concentrated product of cane juice and often date or palm sap without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can ...
) at Smadh. Class ‘A’ municipality has been functioning in the town since 1952. The town has two
Colleges
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...
, viz. Govt. Nehru Memorial Post Graduate College and S.D. Kanya Mahavidyalaya College, 3 Senior Secondary Schools, 90
High Schools
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
, 1
Middle School
A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...
, 1
Primary School
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
, and one District
Library
A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
and has one civil hospital, 3
Dispensaries
A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital, industrial plant, or other organization that dispenses medications, medical supplies, and in some cases even medical and dental treatment. In a traditional dispensary set-up, a pharmacist dispense ...
, 1
Ayurvedic
Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population rep ...
, and 4
Homeopathic
Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dise ...
dispensaries. There are two
police stations
The police are a Law enforcement organization, constituted body of Law enforcement officer, persons empowered by a State (polity), state, with the aim to law enforcement, enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citize ...
i.e. PS City and PS Sadar and also a
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
.
Ancient period
The ancient history of the Mansa district has been traced to the
Indus Valley
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
civilization. The
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
finds at different villages of Mansa district are almost similar to those of
Harappa
Harappa (; Urdu/ pnb, ) is an archaeological site in Punjab, Pakistan, about west of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named after the site, which takes its name from a mode ...
and
Mohenjo-Daro
Mohenjo-daro (; sd, موئن جو دڙو'', ''meaning 'Mound of the Dead Men'; It is divided into three parts ''Pre-Harappa'', ''Harappa'' and ''Late Harappa''.
Demographics
According to the 2011 census Mansa district has a population of 769,751, roughly equal to the US state of
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
. This gives it a ranking of 489th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 11.62%. Mansa has a
sex ratio
The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as 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. Many species devia ...
of 880 females for every 1000 males and a
literacy rate
Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...
of 62.8%.
At the time of the 2011 census, 96.53% of the population spoke Punjabi and 2.77%
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
as their first language.
Agriculture and industry
Mansa is situated in the
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
belt of Punjab and therefore popularly called the "Area of
white gold
Pure gold is slightly reddish yellow in color, but colored gold in various other colors can be produced by alloying gold with other elements.
Colored golds can be classified in three groups:
* Alloys with silver and copper in various proportions ...
". Indeed, agriculture forms the backbone of the district economy.
Mansa is home to the largest
Thermal Power Plant
A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a stea ...
of
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
. The Thermal Power Plant has the capacity to produce 1980MW of electricity
Industrially, the district is very deficient, yet some
trade
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market.
An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
and
industry
Industry may refer to:
Economics
* Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity
* Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery
* The wider industrial sector ...
is being carried out in urban areas.
Major cities and towns
Village Ubha
Ubha is situated in Mansa District. It is famous for its temple.
Bareta
Bareta is situated on
Bathinda
Bathinda is a city and municipal corporation in Punjab, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of Bathinda District. It is located in northwestern India in the Malwa Region, west of the capital city of Chandigarh and is the fifth l ...
–
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
railway line.
Budhlada
Budhlada was named after the two brothers,
Budha
Budha ( sa, बुध) is a Sanskrit word that connotes the planet Mercury. Budha, in Hindu legends, is also a deity.
He is also known as Soumya (Sanskrit: सौम्य, lit. ''son of Moon''), Rauhineya and Tunga and is the Nakshatra lo ...
and
Ladha
Ladha ( ps, لده; ur, لدها) or Lada is a town in South Waziristan, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (formerly in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, now merged with province). Just 10 km north of Ladha is the city of Makeen, while 10 ...
, who were
khatri
Khatri is a caste of the Indian subcontinent that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantilistic professions such as banking and trade, they were the d ...
by
caste
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
. It is also situated on
Bathinda
Bathinda is a city and municipal corporation in Punjab, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of Bathinda District. It is located in northwestern India in the Malwa Region, west of the capital city of Chandigarh and is the fifth l ...
-
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
railway line. It was the largest market of Eastern Punjab and a very big recruitment centre for
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
Sahitya Akademi Award
The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
winner for Best Drama Director, hails from the village of Kishagarh Farwaahi
*
Aman Dhaliwal
Aman Singh Dhaliwal (born 24 July 1986) is an Indian model-turned-actor, who works in Punjabi cinema, where he is known as action hero. He is from the city of Mansa, Punjab. Best known for his changing looks with each role, he has worked in Bo ...
, Indian model and actor
*
Deep Dhillon
Deep Dhillon is an Indian actor who works in Hindi and Punjabi cinema. He played the role of Jayadratha in the famous Indian TV serial ''Mahabharat'' and appeared as Sahasrarjun in the TV serial '' Vishnu Puran''. He is known for playing Ins ...
, Indian actor
*
Gavie Chahal
Navdeepak Singh Chahal better known by his stage name Gavie Chahal, is an Indian actor who primarily works in Hindi and Punjabi cinema.
Career
Chahal won the title of Mr. Punjab in 2000. His first music video, "Jattan de putt saadh ho gaye" ...
, Indian actor, hails from the village of Sher Khan Wala
*
Harmanjeet Singh
Harmanjeet Singh (born 1991) is a poet and lyricist. He won the Yuva Puraskar for his book Rani Tatt. Rani Tatt is a work of poems and prose on Punjab and looks at aspects through the prism of nature. He also wrote the song "Laung Laachi" for the ...
, Indian poet and lyricist
* Kulwinder Billa, Indian singer, hails from the village of Dhaipi
*
Nisha Bano
Nisha Singh is an Indian actress and singer who works in the Punjabi entertainment industry.
Early career
She was born in Mansa, Punjab. She completed her schooling at Yogesh Memorial public school in Mansa, Punjab. She was very active in ar ...
, Indian actress and singer
*
Nirmal Rishi
Nirmal Rishi is an Indian Punjabi film and television actress. She is most remembered for her role as Gulabo Maasi in her first movie Long Da Lishkara (1983). She is best known for appearing in Punjabi movies like Nikka Zaildar, Nikka Zai ...
, Indian actress of film and television
* Sawarn Singh, Indian Olympic rower
*
Sidhu Moose Wala
Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu (11 June 1993 – 29 May 2022), better known by his stage name Sidhu Moose Wala, was an Indian rapper, singer and actor. He rose to the mainstream with his track "So High". In 2018, he released his debut album '' PBX 1' ...
, Indian singer and politician; from the village of Moosa, his namesake
*
Shipra Goyal
Shipra Goyal is an Indian singer, popular for her songs like "Ishq Bulava", "Angreji Wali Madam", "Ungli", "Tutti Bole Wedding Di", "Yadaan Teriyaan", "Lovely VS PU", "Mainu Ishq Lagaa" and "Paro".
Early life
Though her paternal roots are i ...