Minhas Villages in Punjab (India)

Anshupal & Baba Mati Dev, both grandsons of Biram Dev Minhas, a commander with first Mughal emperor, Babar established the Minhas clan villages of Daroli Kalan, Droli Khurd, Damunda, Padhiana & Paldi in East Punjab around the year 1530. Almost all these villages are located approximately seven kilometres from the town of Adampur except the village of Paldi and Dughe, which is in the Garhshankar Teshil in the Hoshiarpur District. The villages of Manko and Rajowal adjacent to Droli Kalan are inhabited by the Dhillon, Nijjar and Sandhu Jat clans. The villages of Dughe and areas of the Hoshiarpur District were settled by the Minhas-Dogras that trace their ancestry to Kaliash in the late 16th century.
The village of Haripur which is just 2.5 kilometres from Adampur, also initially belonged to Haria Singh Minhas of the village of Damunda (the birthplace of world famous economist Professor Bagicha Singh Minhas recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 2003). This village was however surrendered, because of the criminal charges brought up against Haria Singh of molesting labourer women, on the direction of Lehna Singh Majithia, the in charge of Droli Kalan during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Today, although the owners of lands in these villages are mostly Jats because of the enforcement of new Land Laws by the British in the year 1920, the land revenue record even today stands in the name of the Minhas Rajputs of Droli, Padhiana & Damunda.