Nabha

A princely capital

Nabha is a town in Patiala district, Punjab, India. The district census handbook describes it as the capital of the former princely state of Nabha until that state’s integration into the Patiala and East Punjab States Union in 1948. It records the town’s railway and road connections and describes a fort, gates and gardens associated with its history. A former princely state covered an area different from the modern town or tehsil, so historical maps need dates and boundaries. The handbook’s descriptions of buildings and their uses reflect its publication period, not a current condition survey.[1]

The Jaito agitation

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee’s institutional history connects the Jaito Morcha of the 1920s with the removal of the Maharaja of Nabha and the interruption of a religious recitation at Gurdwara Gangsar in Jaito. It records a subsequent procession and police firing in February 1924. Jaito was a place within the former Nabha State; it should not be confused with Nabha town. The committee’s account is an important perspective on the movement, and a fuller history benefits from contemporary reports and scholarship as well as records created by the authorities and participants.[2]

A contemporary account

Jawaharlal Nehru’s published court statement describes his visit to Jaito, arrest and subsequent arrival at Nabha in September 1923. He gives his own account of the circumstances and challenges the legality of the action taken against him and his companions. The statement is a contemporary participant’s evidence, not a neutral record of every side of the dispute. It can be read with court records, official correspondence and accounts of Sikh participants to understand the competing perspectives. The episode connects Nabha’s prison and courts with a wider struggle over political authority and religious institutions in the princely state.[3]

The 2011 census counted 67,972 people in Nabha municipal town.[4]