Qadian


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 Qazi 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 Sikhs under the leadership of Jassa Singh Ramgarhia who offered the ruling Qazis, two villages which they refused. In 1834, during the rule of Maharaja 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.

Ahmadiyya Movement

A remote and unknown town, Qadian emerged as a centre of religious learning in 1889, when Mirza Ghulam Ahmad established the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. It was historically a Muslim-majority town, a Muslim enclave within the wider Gurdaspur District in British Punjab.
In 1891 it became the venue for the community's annual gatherings. Qadian remained the administrative headquarters and capital of the Ahmadiyya Caliphate 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 Muslim Community, 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 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.

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

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 gender ratio, as of 2011 census.
ReligionTotalFemaleMaleGender ratio
Hindu12,2635,7646,499886
Sikh7,4313,5993,832939
Muslim3,0651,3121,753748
Christian788375413907
Jain202--
Other religions1367857
Not stated702743627
Total23,63211,08312,549883

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, but many have been renamed, following their renovation in 2012.
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:
NameYearArea
Tahir Mosque1997Nangal
Basharat MosquePre-partitionNangal
Basheer MosqueNangal
Mehdi Mosque2004Kahlwan
Mahmood Mosque2012Kahlwan

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

  • Jamia Ahmadiyya Qadian
  • Bahishti Maqbara cemetery

    Hospitals

  • Noor Hospital

    Education

Before the partition, 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:
Although Qadian is relatively remote and has a very small population, it has many notable historical, religious and political figures;

Religious Leaders

  • Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

    Ahmadiyya Caliphs">Ahmadiyya Caliphate">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

  • Shiv Kumar Batalvi

    Military Leaders

  • Dilbagh Singh
  • Mirza Ghulam Murtaza
  • Mirza Hadi Baig

    Politicians

  • Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa
  • Partap Singh Bajwa
  • Charanjit Kaur Bajwa