Daska
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Daska is a small industrial city with a population of around 200,000 in the Punjab region of Pakistan. The town has the status of Tehseel (Sub District) and is one of three Tahseels of district Sialkot.
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[edit] History
Daska is an relatively small industrial city in the Eastern part of the Pakistani province of Punjab. It has gained a measure of prominence due the large number of products which are produced there including agricultural machines, sporting goods, musical instruments and surgical goods. The area around the city is well known for farming and cottage industries.The city and its people enjoy a reputation for being industrious and warm hearted. The name Daska is said to be a distortion of Dah Kos. The term "Dah" is the Persian word for the numeral ten and "Kos" refers to a unit of distance used in Mughal times. The town was situated some ten "Kos" between neighbouring Gujranwala and Sialkot which remain much larger centres. Hence Dah Kos became Das Kos in the local Punjabi language. This was further shortened to Daska. The principal Jat clans of Daska and its environs include the Ghumman, Khokhar, Bajwa and Cheema. The Jats are said to have originated from Scythian invaders from Central Asia. In addition the local population contains large numbers of Kashmiris, Gujjars and Pakhtuns. A number of Biharis from Eastern India have been settled outside Daska in the early 1970s. The local dialect of Punjabi is the Western or Northern Dialect akin to that spoken in Sialkot. A native speaker from Daska and Sialkot District will easily recognize another native speaker of the area due its rhythmic melodious sound, the use of several distinct words and aspects of syntax.
Before the independence of Pakistan in 1947 the city of Daska was under British colonial rule. Daska became famous largely due to the exploits of Jagga who was an admired rebel leader and outlaw fighting against British Imperial rule. In the Punjab he came to be admired as a hero to the masses because of his brave stand against the European rulers. Much like Robin Hood he would loot from the wealthy and redistribute this wealth to poorer sections of society. Most of the wealthy in the area around Daska were native collaborators of the colonial British. Jagga has a prominent place in the Punjabi poetry because of his bravery and generousity.
Daska's role in the organized freedom movement is well documented. The nascent sense of nationalism among Punjabi Muslims evolved in the area. The people of the Punjab were a mixure of races and peoples who had been part of a number of kingdoms and territories. The area around Daska had been part of Alexander the Great's Greek Empire, Persia's grand Khorasan, the Turkic Mughal Empire and most recently the rule of Sikhs before the arrival of the colonial British. The panoply of peoples living around Daska bear living testament to its storied past. The British Indian Empire added these people to its realm in the latter half of the nineteenth century unlike other parts of the British Raj which were under British rule from as early as the 1600s. The local people around Daska, especially the majority Muslim population, related little to the Indian National Congress which was primarily a party of the Hindu majority in peninsular India. Daska embraced the cause of the Muslim League which was furthering the struggle of native Muslims. The First Meeting of the Muslim League was held on the 13th of April 1942 at Mian Lal Dian Ghuman's House in Mohallah Altaf Garaha. Participants of the meeting included Chaudhri Faquir Mohammad Saraf, Gulam Rasool Jarrah, Mian Lal Dian Zergar,Mohammad Dian Dar and Mian Jalal Din Ghuman. These early members opened their hearts and their pockets for the cause of an independent Pakistan. The Ghuman Brothers were "Darugars" or in the pyrotechnic business. This helped the local Muslim League by supplying their knowledge of ammunition production. Daska has produced a great many personalities who have impacted Pakistani politics and history. Pakistan's first Foreign Minister Sir Chaudhry Muhammad Zafarullah Khan hailed from the city. He went on to become the Chief Justice of the International Court of Justice at the Hague. Daska's history would be incomplete without mentioning the great social worker Hakeem Ghulam Rasool Sial who migrated to Daska in 1947 from Gurdaspur. He was a renowned physician and social worker who was responsible for the creation of many Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) at a time when there was no concept of social welfare organizations.
Government Christian High School Daska was the first modern educational institution in Daska. It was established by The Church of Scotland which came to the area in 1855 and set up the Scotch Mission High School and the Scotch Mission College (later renamed Murray College) in Sialkot in 1889. The Scotch Mission High School which is now known as the Government Christian High School was established in Daska in 1888.
"I Still Remember a Small Town in Punjab" by O.P. Narula (Available at Amazon.com) is well written book about the life in the city before 1947. Daska's rural population is mainly agrairian - Jats(Cheema, Goraya, Dhillon, Ghumman, Bajwa, Sandhu, Sahi), Rajpoots, Kashmiries and Gujjars. A good source of informaiton about the culture of the area is an M. Sc Anthropology research thesis (M. Mansoor, 1988, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan) which is an ethnographic study of Raja Ghumman - a neighbouring village.
[edit] Industry and Business
Daska is known for its agriculture products, sports goods, manufacturing spare parts, and for high quality rice. Potatos, wheat, rice and sugar canes are the major crops. Diesel Engines used mainly for irrigation purposes and milling wheat to produce flour, were the major form of industry from 1947 to 1985. Mughal families living in Daska Town were heavily involved in this business, and they have now advanced into the production of washing machines and electric fans (a major regional industry).
[edit] Location
- 105 km from Lahore
- 28 km from Sialkot
- 25 km from Gujranwala
- 17 km from Sambrial
[edit] Transportation
The city is most easily accessible by road from all major cities. A link road for Daska is also proposed for Sialkot-Lahore motorway. The nearest railway station is about 17km away (Sambrial railway station). Sialkot International Airport is the closest airlink. It currently handles only cargo but passenger flights are planned to start in the future.
[edit] External links
DaskaCity.com [1]
