Amritsar

Amritsar, city in northern India, in Punjab State, near Lahore, Pakistan. The city, surrounded by a fertile region where grain, sugarcane, and cotton are produced, is an important trade, transportation, and manufacturing center with extensive textile and chemical industries. Amritsar was founded in 1574 by Ram Das, a guru, or teacher, of the Sikh religion. In the city is the principal shrine of Sikhism, the Golden Temple, surrounded by the sacred Amrita Saras (Pool of Immortality), in which Sikhs bathe to become spiritually purified.

Amritsar was a center of Indian resistance to British rule; in 1919 nearly 400 demonstrators were killed when British troops fired upon a political gathering. The city was a center of protest against the 1947 partition of Punjab between India and Pakistan. Amritsar was again an arena of conflict in June 1984, when the Indian government, in an effort to check terrorism by Sikhs demanding greater autonomy for the Punjab, sent troops to occupy the Golden Temple, claiming the terrorists had been using it as their headquarters; hundreds were killed in the confrontation. Population (2001) 1,011,327.