Town in Gujranwala District, Punjab, Pakistan
Town in Punjab, Pakistan
Qila Didar Singh (Urdu: قلعہ دِيدار سِنگھ), is a town of Gujranwala District, Punjab, Pakistan.[2] west of Gujranwala city - the district capital. Its population was estimated to be 66,491 in 2017.[1]
Qila Didar Singh lies on the Gujranwala-Hafizabad Road, 17 km west of Gujranwala. The town's rice market is one of the largest in the Punjab.
In 2007, Qila Didar Singh was administratively upgraded to City Town, one of four in the Gujranwala District
History
This town was established in the 1790s by the Sikh Mann Sardars of Mughalchak. When Didar Singh was married, his father gave him the lands surrounding the part of Qila Didar Singh that is currently known as "Old/Inside part of Qila". The name Qila implies a fort; this name originates in the fact that Didar Singh's family had a very large and tall mansion, which was surrounded by smaller houses. Because there was a wall surrounding the whole town with several gates, the town had the appearance of a fort.[3]
During the Indian rebellion of 1857, British troops during chase of the rebels, arrived at the Qila and surrounded it, believing it to be a fort. Representatives of the townspeople however managed to convince the troops that the town was not in fact a fortification.
In 1947, the year of Pakistan's independence from the British Indian Empire, Qila Didar Singh was a very small town with mainly Sikh and Hindu population. Most of the Sikhs and Hindus living in the town moved to the Indian part of the Punjab and many Muslim immigrants moved to the area from East Punjab and Haryana.
Source of income
Due to fertile soil of the surrounding area, the economic backbone of Qila Didar Singh is agriculture; the main cash crops being rice in the summer and wheat in winter.
Most people from Qila Didar Singh are self employed, have their own business because of very big rice market and lot of customer for other commodities also come from the surrounding villages. There are government employees, private employees and factory workers. There has been considerable migration from the area to other countries. Even in the British Colonial days, many local tailors became contractors of the army to supply uniforms and shoes. Many of them settled in Cyprus and Singapore. They brought prosperity to the town. Residents of Qila Didar Singh are not farmers but people living in villages around Qila Didar Singh earn their living from rice and wheat fields. A couple of hundred people from Qila Didar Singh commute to Gujranwala daily for labour or to do technical jobs in various small industries in the city. Leaving their families at home, many others work in different parts of Pakistan for their living.[4]
