Faridabad's History

History books says Sufi Saint Baba Farid established this city. We also believe this because peace and communal harmony is in the roots of Faridabad. Baba Farid’s dargah is located in Old Faridabad.

According to journalist Yusuf Kirmani, next to this dargah there was a Talab (pond) and Barahi Mela was organized on the banks of this pond. But due to negligence of authorties the pond was lost in dust. Mela is still organized there but there’s no more a pond now. This yearly event is a big example of communal harmony. But Mr. Kirmani says that now this mela is losing it’s charm and very few people attend this event. He’s been witness to this place and he has many memories about this cultural event. He thinks one day, some people will come out and they will revive that historical pond. Faridabad is now city of multi languages with different races and religions, a real cosmopolitan character.

You name a state and language, people of that area can be found. But this picture was not same before India-Pakistan partition. Before that this place had more Muslim population and was surrounded by Gujjar community. There are still some mohalla (locality) in Old Faridabad, which has original name like Syedwara, Khatriwara, Gali Nabwaian, Takia. One can find some old houses which were shaped as Imambaras. But no one has property papers so no one can claim on them. It shows that there was Azadari before partition but due to division of country, all shias’ and other Muslim population left the city and migrated to Pakistan.

 After partition, people from Pakistan started coming to this city and the city was ready to welcome them. In 1956, H.P Nanda established Escorts factory and people started coming here in search of jobs. Slowly this city got converted into a cosmopolitan character. Big companies like Lakhani, Bata, Escorts, ABB, Star Wire established their units here. Once it used to be the main industrial city of Haryana, but due to political reasons, Gurgaon started getting importance.

Soon Gurgaon emerged as IT Hub of North India and Faridabad got neglected. Govt. started collecting more funds from this city than Gurgaon but politicians always gave importance to Gurgaon. Anyway, Faridabad still has its uniqueness and is marching towards progress. Soon the city will be connected through Delhi Metro Rail and commuting towards Delhi will be smoother.