Nankana Sahib is a city and capital of Nankana Sahib District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is named after the first Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Nanak, who was born in the city and first began preaching here. Nankana Sahib is the most important religious site for the Sikh religion. It is located about west of Lahore and about east of Faisalabad. According to the census of 2017 the city has a population of 79,540 inhabitants. Until 2005, it was the part of Sheikhupura District.
History
The township was founded by Rai Bhoi, a Muslim and thus was known as Rai-Bhoi-Di-Talwandi. His great-grand son Rai Bular Bhatti, renamed it as 'Nankana Sahib' after the birth of Guru Nanak. The Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, originally constructed in around 1600 CE was renovated in 1819–20 CE by Gian-Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh The Sikh Conference of Panjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Peshawar, Kangra and Hazara. During the Akali movement, on 20 February 1921, Narain Das, the Udasimahant of the gurdwara at Nankana Sahib, ordered his men to fire on Akali protesters, leading to the Nankana massacre. The firing was widely condemned, and an agitation was launched until the control of this historic Janam Asthan Gurdwara was restored to the Sikhs. Again in the 1930s and 1940s the Sikhs added more buildings and more architectural design. Migration between India and Pakistan was continuous before independence. By the 1940s Western Punjab was predominantly Muslim and supported the Muslim League and Pakistan Movement. After independence in August 1947, the minority Sikhs and Hindus migrated to India while the Muslim refugees from India settled in the Western Punjab and across Pakistan.
Geography
Nankana Sahib and it surroundings were formerly a tehsil of Sheikhupura District. In May 2005, the provincial government raised the status of Nankana Sahib to a district as a way of promoting development in the area. The present status is District Nankana Sahib has three tehsils: Nankana Sahib, Shah Kot, and Sangla Hill. Before December 2008, District Nankana Sahib also included Safdarabad Tehsil. There are plans to construct a university as well as hospitals and health care facilities by the district government with mutual interest of local communities and family of Rai Bular. In 2007, the Pakistan government announced a plan to set up a university on Sikh religion and culture at Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak. Chairman of Pakistan's Evacuee Trust Property Board, Gen Zulfikar Ali Khan, said that "The international Guru Nanak University planned at Nankana Sahib would have the best architecture, curricula and research centre on Sikh religion and culture",. In 2019 after prolonged efforts of the Sikh community the historical Gurudwara on Nankana sahib was given direct access to piligrims via the Kartarpur corridor project. The first batch of Sikh pilgrims arrived in Pakistan on 12 November, the historical occasion of the 550th gurupurab of Guru Nanak, the founding guru of Sikhism.
