Amritsar

Guru Nanak founded Sikhism in the 15th century, but it was the fourth Guru, Ram Das, who in 1577 excavated the sacred pool that gave Amritsar its name—Amrit Sarovar, 'Pool of Nectar.' The Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) was built at its centre, and the city grew around the temple like tissue around bone. Every Sikh gurdwara worldwide orients itself spiritually toward this single point.

The British massacre at Jallianwala Bagh on 13 April 1919—where General Dyer ordered troops to fire on unarmed civilians, killing at least 379 people in an enclosed garden—became the inflection point for Indian independence. The event functioned as an alarm call that propagated through the entire independence movement. Gandhi's non-cooperation movement began within months.

Partition in 1947 drew the India-Pakistan border 28 kilometres from Amritsar. The Wagah border crossing, the only road link between the two nuclear powers, once processed over $2.4 billion in annual bilateral trade before geopolitical crises slashed flows to a fraction—a corridor narrower than most city streets that controls the economic relationship between two nuclear states. Operation Blue Star in June 1984—when the Indian Army stormed the Golden Temple to flush out Sikh militants—killed hundreds of people—official figures say 493, but independent estimates range much higher and led directly to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards four months later.

Amritsar's 1.2 million residents sustain an economy built on religious tourism, textiles, and agricultural trade. The Golden Temple feeds 100,000 people daily through its langar (community kitchen)—the world's largest free meal service, operating on volunteer labour and donations alone. The textile industry, concentrated in the Amritsar-Ludhiana corridor, generates over $3 billion annually in woollen and cotton products. Amritsar's GDP per capita exceeds the Punjab state average by 15%, driven by the temple economy's multiplier effect on hospitality, transport, and retail. Like a banyan tree that drops aerial roots to create new trunks, the Golden Temple's religious authority has propagated economic structures—hospitality, transport, retail—that now stand independently but remain connected to the original root. The city demonstrates how a single cultural institution can function as keystone species—generating economic activity that sustains an entire urban ecosystem.