Firozpur district

History

Sikh Period

In the 18th century, religious persecution led the Sikhs to form strong warrior groups called Misls, united in resisting Mughal rule. In 1760, they defeated the Mughal Governor of Lahore. In 1763, Hari Singh of the Bhangi Misl sacked Kasur, and his commander Gujjar Singh crossed the Sutlej to capture Ferozepur, handing it over to his nephew Gurbakhsh Singh. Though the Dogars resisted, Gurbakhsh Singh subdued them and expanded his territory on both sides of the Sutlej. Around 1792, he gave Ferozepur to his second son, Dhanna Singh, who proved to be a weak ruler. Facing rebellion, Nihal Singh Atariwala, a Favourite Sardar of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, crossed the Sutlej and surrounded his lands. At this time, the British East India Company began offering protection to Trans-Sutlej chiefs. Dhanna Singh accepted British protection, preventing Ranjit Singh from expanding eastward.

Dhanna Singh died in 1818–19, and his widow Lachhman Kaur succeeded him. She died in 1835 without an heir, after which the British took control of Ferozepur Jagir.

First Sikh War

The First Anglo-Sikh War was mainly fought in Ferozepur district. The Sikh leadership was divided and could not properly guide the Khalsa Army of Ranjit Singh. The Sikhs crossed the Sutlej River to fight the British but were often let down by their commanders.

The first battle was at Mudki, where victory was close, but Sikh commander Lal Singh abandoned his troops. At Ferozeshah, another Sikh leader, Teja Singh, fled when victory was near, saving the British from defeat. Later, Sikh commander Ranjhor Singh won at Baddowal but lost at Aliwal. At the decisive battle of Sobraon, Gulab Singh betrayed the Sikhs by giving the British their battle plans three day before the battle. During the fight, Teja Singh again fled, causing a Sikh defeat.

British Period

The Treaty of Lahore was signed in 1846, and as a result, the British took control of all the land east of the Sutlej River. This land was divided among the districts of Ferozepur, Badhni, and Ludhiana. Ferozepur district received the areas of Zira, Mudki, Khai, and parts of Kot Kapura, Guru Har Sahai, Jhumba, Kot Bhai, Bhucho, and Meharaj. In 1847, the Badhni district was dissolved, and its areas—Mallanwala, Makhu, Dharmkot, Kot Isa Khan, Badhni, Chuhar Chak, Mari, and Sada Singh Wala—were added to Ferozepur district. Sultankhanwala was also taken from Faridkot State in exchange. In 1852, parts of Muktsar and Kot Kapura were added to Ferozepur. In 1855, the area of Chirk was returned to Kalsia State. In 1856, the Nawab of Mamdot was removed because of his and his son's wrongdoings, and his lands were added to Ferozepur district. In 1884, Sirsa district was divided, and the western part, including Fazilka tehsil and about 40 villages of Dabwali tehsil, became part of Ferozepur district.[[File:Map_of_the_protected_Sikh_states_exhibiting_the_possessions_of_the_petty_chiefs_and_independent_Jagirdars_in_the_Punjab,copy_from_1843(F.4-6)_(cropped)_Jhumba_Estate.jpg|right|thumb|250x2500px|Map showing Jhumba Estate — Ca. 1829–35 (cropped from original)]]The Guru of Guru Har Sahai and the Bhai of Jhumba and Bhai of Arnauli, in the Kot Bhai area, were given the title of jagirdars when Punjab was annexed by the British in 1846. They continued to collect their share of revenue in the form of crops until the 1872 land settlement.**

Mahraj Ilaka was a group of 38 villages that formed a British-administered exclave of Ferzopur district, entirely surrounded by Phulkia & Faridkot State during the British era.** The Charik Ilaka a group 7 villages was an enclave within the district and an exclave of Kalsia State.**

Modern Period

Following the Partition of Punjab Province, Ferozepur district became part of India. Amid the communal violence and mass migrations, a total of 349,767 sikh, hindu refugees from areas that became part of Pakistan settled in Ferozepur district, by 1951 Census. Much of this refugee population hailed from Bahawalpur State and the districts of Montgomery, Sheikhupura, Lyallpur, and Lahore, crossing the border into Ferozepur.

Faridkot State, accepted dominion of the Indian Union and became a tehsil of Bathinda district. Bathinda district itself became part of the PEPSU in 1948, which was later merged into the state of Punjab in 1956. While the Charik area—an exclave of Kalsia State and an enclave of Ferozpur's Moga tehsil—also became part of Bathinda district, it was transferred to Moga tehsil of Ferozepur district in 1950 by Absorption of Enclaves Order. Additionally, the Maharaj-Nathana ilaqa, a group of 38 villages that formed an exclave of Ferozepur District and was transferred to Bathinda district in 1959.

In 1960, two villages—Mohd. Yar Chishti and Chak Mohd. Usman—of Fazilka tehsil in Ferozepur district were completely transferred to Pakistan, along with parts of 12 other villages that had no population. Later, in 1970, Jhumba along with seven villages was transferred to Bathinda district.

In 1972, a new Faridkot district was created by combining Faridkot tehsil (from Bathinda district) and the Moga and Muktsar tehsils (from Ferozepur district). Later, in 1995, Moga & Mukatsar of Faridkot district was carved out to form the new Moga district. In 1999, Moga district expanded by gaining the Dharamkot block from Zira tehsil of Ferozepur district.This included 45 villages from Zira tehsil and 47 villages from Makhu sub-tehsil, along with the entire Dharamkot sub-tehsil of Zira tehsil of Ferozepur district.

Later, in 2011, Ferozepur district had six tehsils: Fazilka, Abohar, Jalalabad, Ferozepur, Zira. From these, Abohar and Fazilka tehsils, along with a part of Jalalabad tehsil, were separated to form the new Fazilka district. The remaining portion of Jalalabad tehsil was reorganized to create the new Guru Har Sahai tehsil within Ferozepur district.

Administration

The district is administratively into the following tehsils & block

• Firozpur – Firozpur, Ghall Khurd (block)
• Zira – Makhu, Zira (block)
• Guru Har Sahai – Guru Har Sahai, Mamdot (block)

Demographics

According to the 2011 Census the undivided Firozpur district had a population of 2,029,074. This gives it a ranking of 230th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of 380 PD/sqkm. Its population growth rate over the decade 2001–2011 was 16.08%. Firozpur has a sex ratio of 893 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 69.8%. (This data is before the creation of Fazilka district.)

After bifurcation of Fazilika district, the residual district has a population of 1,001,931. Scheduled Castes made up 42.85% of the population.

Gender

The table below shows the sex ratio of Firozpur district through decades.

The table below shows the child sex ratio of children below the age of 6 years in the rural and urban areas of Firozpur district.

Religion

Language

At the time of the 2011 census, 93.01% of the population spoke Punjabi and 5.67% Rajasthani as their first language.

Health

The table below shows the number of road accidents and people affected in Firozpur district by year.

Politics

Land and genealogical records

Shajjra Nasb (also known as Kursee Nama) records of some villages of Firozpur district from 1887–1958 have been digitized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints via FamilySearch and are available for online viewing. These records detail land ownership pedigrees for families of the village. The genealogical importance of such records for the purpose of family history research was raised by Gurcharan Singh Gill of Moga. Gill discovered in 1986 that tax-records in the district were attached to a genealogical pedigree going back four generations. These records have been described as being one of the few surviving records of Punjabi genealogy, as census records in India were rarely preserved. The more recent records were written in Punjabi using Gurmukhi script and the older records were written in Urdu in Nastaliq script. The names of more than 250,000 individuals have been extracted from the records by Gill.

Notable people

• Mohinder Singh Randhawa, a historian, civil servant, botanist, and author
• Harvinder Sahota, an Indian American cardiologist, researcher and inventor, known for the invention of Perfusion Balloon Angioplasty known as "Sahota Perfusion Balloon"
• Kamaljeet Sandhu, an athlete, first Indian woman to win an individual gold medal in Asian Games and receiver of Padma Shri award.
• Man Mohan Sondhi, researcher in speech processing and signal processing who worked at Bell Laboratories, famous for his research on echo cancellation.
• Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa, first Hazoori Ragi to awarded the Padma Shri, highly regarded ragi with knowledge of all 31 Raags of Guru Granth Sahib.
• Sada Kaur, Rani of Sarkar-e-Khalsa.
• Gerry Whent, founder and first chief executive of Vodafone.
• Mahabali Shera, Indian professional wrestler.
• Bano Qudsia, a Pakistani novelist, playwright and spiritualist
• Verma Malik, an active freedom fighter during the British Raj, a lyricist in bollywood and punjabi movies, poet.
• Frederick Currie (cricketer), an English first-class cricketer and British Army officer.

Notes

References

References

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3. Page No. 6, 7- Feropzur District Census Handbook 1961, Punjab (India) [https://censusindia.gov.in/nada/index.php/catalog/29055 Access here]
4. Page no. 272 – [[iarchive:dli.ministry.08579. Ferozpur District Gazett 1983]]
5. page no. 226 & 239- '''DISTRICT GAZETTEER, FEROZEPUR DISTRICT, 1915''' [https://revenue.punjab.gov.in/?q=punjab-state-gazetteer Access here]
6. page no. 2- '''DISTRICT GAZETTEER, FEROZEPUR DISTRICT, 1915''' [https://revenue.punjab.gov.in/?q=punjab-state-gazetteer Access here]
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10. Page No. 1- Feropzur District Census Handbook 1951, Punjab (India) [https://censusindia.gov.in/nada/index.php/catalog/29056/study-description Access here]
11. Page No. 10,11 – [https://censusindia.gov.in/nada/index.php/catalog/30478 General Population Tables, Part II-A , Vol-XIII, Punjab – Census 1961]
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