Ever wonder why so many "wala" in Dehradun.

Do you ever wonder why so many places use “wala” as suffix in Dehradun? Or simply put why so many “walas” are there in Dehradun? To satisfy your curious child let us take you through history hidden behind every “wala" in the City. Some are named according to a particular place's importance or importance of local culture some just for the identification purpose.

So let’s take you to little farther in history. After Anglo-Nepalese War (1 November 1814 – 4 March 1816) fought between the Gorkhali army of the Kingdom of Gorkha (present-day Nepal) and the British forces of the East India Company Dehradun as it is today came under the direct rule of East India Company and Brits were quite impressed with the beauty of Dehradun. British wanted to develop this place as a hill station for Brit officers and their wives as it was way cooler than the rest of the green plain fields of UP and nearby, and easily accessible too but there are constant threats to the region from near kingdoms and including Gorkha Kingdom since Brits almost lost the war until Treaty of Sugauli was signed in 1816 AD. After capturing the regions it was only logical that they with the local population of few thousand named the areas based on any specialty it had which also suitable for locals to pronounce without any issue, hence the names came up keeping specifics related to the particular places in mind.

Most of these “walas” based on the rural areas or the outskirts of Dehradun has been named based on their specifications, for example,” AAMWALA” is a place near shahastradhara road was used because the place had been known for its mango farms. Dhammawala was known because Shri Guru Ram Rai visited this place so it became famous “Dham”. In Tunwala there used to be many Toona trees (referred to as “Tun” in Hindi) hence the name Tunwala. Brahmanwala near Majra has been named because many Brahmin families used to settle there. These Brahmins were called to worship and rituals. It is said that due to this it was called Brahmanwala. Let's talk about Rangadwala. Rangad is a type of rice that was once grown in Punjab, earlier this rice was cultivated in abundance in this area, and hence it came to be known as Rangadwala.

Since there is no written history about why these places have suffixes of “WALA” there could be many reasons behind the naming of all the places. It could be that one place in a rural area by default had waala in its suffix and the rest places took waala as a suffix from it so that they just have to search for a prefix and suffix that can be kept as waala or it could be just to differentiate between different places. Whatever the reason is it certainly makes our beloved city of Dehradun unique and gives us all another reason to fall in love all over again.

Below is the list of “walas” in Dehradun. Do let us know in the comment section case we missed out on any name.

A: Adowala, Adhoiwala, Ambiwala, Amwala, Anarwala, Athurwala, Aulikeasrwala

B: Badamawala, Badonwala, Badwala, Bairagiwala, Bajawala, Bakralwala, Baksarwala, Balawala (Ballawala), Balliwala, Baluwala, Banjarawala, Banshiwala, Barotiwala, Belawala, Bhaanwala, Bhandariwala, Bhaniawala, Bharatwala, Bharuwala, Bhattonwala, Bhauwala, Bhimawala, Bhojawala, Bhuttowala, Boradi Athurwala, Brahmanwala, Brahmawala, Bulakiwala, Bulawala, Bullawala

C: Chadamiwala, Chak Jogiwala, Chaksaliya wala, Chaktunwala, Chidderwala, Chotuwala, Chukkuwala

D: Danda Khudanewala, Danda Nooriwala, Dandi Kidduwala, Daudwala, Deshwala, Dobhalwala, Doiwala, Donkwala, Dalanwala, Dhamawala, Dharmawala, Dujiawala

F: Fandowala

G: Gajiawala, Ghammuwala, Gujrowala, Gumaniwala

H: Hadowala, Hansuwala, Haranshwala, Harawala (Harrawala), Harbhajwala, Hariyawala, Harvashwala, Hinduwala, Horawala

J: Jaintanwala, Jamniwala, Jamoliwala, Jamunwala, Jassowala, Jatowala, Jeevanwala, Jhabrawala, Jhadowala, Jhariwala (Jahariwala), Jheelwala, Jogiwala

K: Kaluwala, Kandarwala, Kanharwala, Kaichiwala, Kedarwala, Kesowala, Khadamiwala, Khand Raiwala, Khandraywala, Kheragopiwala, Kidduwala, Kudkawala, Kuwanwala

L: Lachhiwala, Lakhanwala

M: Madhowala-Satowala, Makkawala, Malukawala, Manduwala, Mangluwala, Mehuwala, Missarwala Kala, Miyanwala, Mohabbewala, Morowala, Mothrowala, Msandwala

N: Nagal Badowala, Nagal Bulandawala, Naliwala, Nawabwala, Nathuvawala, Nimbuwala, Nunawala, Nyamwala

P: Pashmiwala, Patiyowala, Paudwala, Phanduwala, Pitthuwala, Premnagar-Doiwala, Purohitwala

R: Rainiwala, Raiwala, Rajawala, Ramsawala, Randharwala, Ranjhawala, Retiwala

S: Sabhawala, Salawala, Saloniwala, Sangityawala, Sarang Dharwala, Saranghwala, Shekhuwala, Shewala Kala (Sevala Kala), Sudhowala, Sunderwala

T: Tailiwala, Tunnwala, Tuntowala

U: Udiwala

V: Vijaypur Gopiwala, Virgirwala