Ludhiana (Punjabi: Ludhiāṇā, pronounced[lʊ́(d̪)tɪ̀ɪˈäːɳäː]) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 as of the 2011 census and distributed over 159.37 km (61.53 sq mi), making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. It is a major industrial center of Northern India, referred to as "India's Manchester" by the BBC. It is also known as the commercial capital of Punjab.
It stands on the old bank of Sutlej River, that is now 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) to the south of its present course. The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has placed Ludhiana on the 48th position among the top 100 smart cities, and the city has been ranked as one of the easiest cities in India for business according to the World Bank.
Amritsar, also known as Ambarsar, is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. Located in the Majha region, it is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre. The city is the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district. It is situated 217 km (135 mi) north-west of Chandigarh, and 455 km (283 mi) north-west of New Delhi. It is 28 km (17.4 mi) from the India-Pakistan border, and 47 km (29 mi) north-east of Lahore, Pakistan.
According to the 2011 census, the city had a population of 1,132,383. It is one of the ten municipal corporations in the state; Karamjit Singh Rintu is serving as the mayor of the city. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Amritsar is the second-most populous city in Punjab and the most populous metropolitan region in the state, with a population of roughly 2 million. Amritsar is the centre of the Amritsar Metropolitan Region.
Punjab grew out of the settlements along the five rivers, which served as an important route to the Near East as early as the ancient Indus Valley civilization, dating back to 3000 BCE, followed by migrations of the Indo-Aryan peoples. Agriculture has been the chief economic feature of the Punjab and formed the foundation of Punjabi culture. The Punjab emerged as an important agricultural region, especially following the Green Revolution during the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, and has been described as the "breadbasket of both India and Pakistan."
Ludhiana in the context of Hapur Junction railway station
Hapur Junction railway station is the main railway station serving Hapur city in the Hapur district, Uttar Pradesh. Its code is HPU. The station consists of five platforms. Hapur is a major railway junction of northern India. Two lines – Delhi–Moradabad and Meerut–Bulandshahr–Khurja – pass through the city.
Born to a family with aristocratic roots in Qadian, rural Punjab, Ahmad emerged as a writer and debater for Islam. When he was just over forty years of age, his father died and around that time he claimed that God began to communicate with him. In 1889, he took a pledge of allegiance from forty of his supporters at Ludhiana and formed a community of followers upon what he claimed was divine instruction, stipulating ten conditions of initiation, an event that marks the establishment of the Ahmadiyya movement. The mission of the movement, according to him, was the reinstatement of the absolute oneness of God, the revival of Islam through the moral reformation of society along Islamic ideals, and the global propagation of Islam in its pristine form. As opposed to the Christian and mainstream Islamic view of Jesus (or Isa), being alive in heaven to return towards the end of time, Ahmad asserted that he had in fact survived crucifixion and died a natural death. He traveled extensively across the Punjab preaching his religious ideas and rallied support by combining a reformist programme with his personal revelations which he claimed to receive from God, attracting thereby substantial following within his lifetime as well as considerable hostility particularly from the Muslim Ulama. He is known to have engaged in numerous public debates and dialogues with Christian missionaries, Muslim scholars and Hindu revivalists.
