Jamia Masjid, Nathowal

The Jamia Masjid is the Friday mosque of Nathowal, a village in Ludhiana district about 12 km from Raikot and 54 km from Ludhiana. It was built around the time of the 1947 Partition, when some twelve local Muslim families left for Pakistan but about 50 stayed on, with the backing of Sikh neighbours who did not want them to go.

That cooperation showed again when the mosque was repaired in 2015. Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs all contributed, and roughly 65 per cent of the Rs 25 lakh spent came from Sikh and Hindu residents. At the time Nathowal had about 7,000 people, around 500 of them Muslim.