Katlaheri

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Katlaheri is a village situated in the Karnal district of Haryana. It is at a distance of 19 kilometers from Karnal and five kilometers from Jundla on the road to Assandh.

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[edit] Population

Katlaheri is a small village with a population of about 6000. The two main land owning castes residing in the village are Ror and Rajput. The gotra among the Rors of the village is Kadian and among the Rajputs it is Chauhan.

[edit] History

Katlaheri is a young village and it was established after the Third Battle of Panipat, which took place in the year 1761. Before the Third Battle of Panipat, the Ror Kadians of the village used to live in Shahpur, which is within a radius of 15 kilometers from Katlaheri. Elders of the village say that the army of the Afghan warlord Ahmad Shah Abdali was passing by Shahpur village when a Ror elder had commented that the boys of Shahpur were stronger than the Afghan soldiers. The warlord took personal affront and ordered a sacking of the village. The entire village was burnt down and all the Rors were killed. One boy by the name of Jungla (Jungle as in forest) was out with his cattle and he survived this massacre.

Jungla observed a huge fire when he headed towards the village for the night and understood that something was wrong. He changed his direction and reached the Gonder village, which had a strong Hindu Rajput presence. A Chauhan Rajput of the village met Jungla and asked him where he went. Jungla told this gentleman his whole story. This Rajput gentleman had no issue from his wife and he took Jungla to his wife and asked if she would like to bring him up. This Rajput lady was very gracious and appeared more than willing to call someone a son of her own. This kind couple brought up Jungla and when he came of age, they found him a nice bride from among the Rors of the region.

Jungla had many sons from this marriage. By the grace of Sri Rama, the Rajput had children as well in the meantime. Once, a son of Jungla had a fight with one of the sons of the Rajput and the boy of the Rajput died. After this incident, this boy ran away from Gonder village and did not show his face to either Jungla or the Rajput. He started living in the forest and kept a cow hidden at a particular spot within the forest.

One of the sons of the Rajput from Gonder also felt an urge to move out of the village after falling out with his brothers. He met Jungla's son at some distance in the forest after moving out of the village and asked him if he knew of any good place to settle down. Jungla's son said that he knew an excellent spot in the forest where he kept a cow for himself and took him there. These two gentlemen chose to live there with their wives and kids. They called it Katlaheri and established the village around 1786. Now why they called it Katlaheri has another interesting story behind it. It is said that a band of miscreants had been troubling the Hindus of the area and they were all killed by these two founders of Katlaheri at this very spot and thus the name from "Katla" (with a soft 't') or "Killing".

[edit] Genealogy

For the Ror Kadians of the Katlaheri village, the names of the main elders in the generations since Jungla have been,

  • Jungla
  • Rura, Kura
  • Kumta
  • Koriya
  • Bhagwana
  • Ram Diya, Arjun
  • Kurdiya Ram, Ganeshi Ram and Mewa Ram (from Arjun)
  • Dharam Pal, Shish Pal, Jaspal and Bal Singh (from Ganeshi Ram); Hisam Singh (from Kurdiya Ram); Mange Ram (from Mewa Ram)

Many children have already been born in the 9th and 10th generations of the village as well.

[edit] Achievements

Katlaheri was one of the first villages of the region to get a school. After India became a sovereign, democratic republic in 1947, the elders of Katlaheri realized that their village had small land-holdings compared to the neighbouring villages and they needed a strong educational base to prepare for the future. Chaudhary Kurdiya Ram and a few others decided to approach Pratap Singh Kairon, the first Chief Minister of Punjab. The Chief Minister approved their petition for the establishment of a private school in the village, which would be recognised by the state board.

This school was established and it took a lot of effort from the leading elders of the village to build it and get qualified teachers from Karnal to teach in it. But all that struggle and sacrifice has brought results and Katlaheri has one of the highest employment rates in the area.

Boys of Katlaheri have gone on to study at prestigious institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology and have done rather well for themselves and for the village. Katlaheri also has a great tradition in "Armed Forces". There are nearly 500 boys and men from the village serving in either Haryana Police or in the Indian Army. There is a saying in Chandigarh that there is at least one Ror Kadian in every Police Station of Chandigarh city and they are all from Katlaheri.

[edit] Personalities

  • Baba Bhagwana (1870-1955)
Words fall short to describe the magnificence and greatness of Baba Bhagwana. He built a "Haveli" of small bricks, a specimen that survives till date and has few equals in the area. He was a benevolent and kind elder, one whose judgment was valued from Katlaheri to Haridwar. When there used to be a famine, he used to give money, horses and carts to the village trader and asked him to obtain food from anywhere in the country for the citizens of the village. His kindness knew no bounds and people say that there was a time a man from Saharanpur district came to Katlaheri and said to Baba Bhagwana to take his lands from him. The lands being talked about were no less than a "Jagir" as they encompassed the entire Ganga-Yamuna "Khadar" of Yamunanagar, Saharanpur and Haridwar. This gentleman was unable to pay the tax on his land-holdings. Baba Bhagwana not only gave him the money to pay the taxes for the next ten years but he also let him keep his lands.

[edit] See Also