CENSUS OF INDIA~ 1961 PUNJAB DISTRICT CENSUS HANDBOOK No. 12 FEROZEPUR DISTRICT' R L. ANAND Superintendent of Census, Operations and Enumeration Commissioner, Punjab Published by the Government of Punjab 1965 CENSUS OF INDIA 1961 A-CENTRAL GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS ~~ations relating to Punjab bear Volume No. XIII, and are bound separately as follows ;- Part I-A , . General Report Part IV-B · . Tables on Housing and Establish- ments Part I-B Report on Vital Statistics Part V-A Special Tables on Scheduled PartI-C(i) · . Subsidiary Tables Castes and Scheduled Tribes Part V-B · . Eth_nographic Notes on Scheduled Part I-C(ii) · . Subsidiary Tables Castes and Scheduled Tribes Part II-A · . General Population Tables Part VI · . Village Survey Monographs : 44 in number, each relating to an Part II-B(i) · . General Economic Tables (Tables individual village B-I to B-IV, B-VIn and B-IX) Part VII-A Report on Selected Handicrafts Part 11-B (ii) · . General Economic Tables (Tables B-V to B-VII) Part VII-B Report and Tables on Fairs and Festivals Part H-C (i) · . Social and Cultural Tables Part VIII-A Administrative Report: Enurnera- tion (Not for sale) Part H-C (ii) · . Migration Tables Part VIII-B Administrative Report: Tabula- Part III · . Household Economic Tables tion (Not for sale) Part IV-A Report on Housing and Establish- Part IX · . Socio-Economic Atla~ ments B-PUNJAB GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS 19 Volumes of District Census Handboo ks ;- DCH-l · . Hissar DCH-ll · . Ludhiana DCH-2 · . Rohtak DCH-12 · . Ferozepur DCH-3 Gurgaon DCH-13 · . Amritsar DCH-4 · . Karnal DCH-14 Gurdaspur DCH-S · . Ambala DCH-IS · . Kapurthala DCH-6 Simla DCH-16 · . Bhatinda DCH-7 · . Kangra DCH-I7 · . Sangrur DCH-8 · . Lahaul and Spiti DCH-18 · . Patiala DCH-9 · . Hoshiarpur DCH-19 · . Mahendragarh DCH-IO Jullundur PREFACE The main reports and statistical volumes pertaining to the 1961-census fall under thre""e @{d'a~ps (lu the basis of territory coverage. The All-India Reports and Tables compiled in the office of the Reg1Sk.a.r.:rt~Retal, India, encompass the entire country. The reports compiled by the State Superintendents relate to inCIiVidual States and Centrally Administered Terrftories. The third group consists of District Census Handbooks the scope of which is limited to individual Districts, and they give information for each town and village .. The Hand­ books have been compiled by the Superintendent of Census Operations, but are published by the State Govern­ ment. The District Census Handbooks were published for the first time at the 1951-census. They proved very useful with the officers working in Community Development Blocks, Tahsils and Districts, and were consul­ ted in connection with elections and by students of social sciences interested in local problems. It was, therefore, decided to continue with this series at the 1961-census. This Handbook contains the essential census data for each village and town (according to wards) in the 'District. Besides, some very useful information collected from various State Departments has been included in it, trying to make it a self-contained book of reference for the District. The book is divided into four parts. Part I is mostly descriptive and consists offour chapters. Chapter I introduces the District, giving information on its location, physical features, climate, fauna and flora, towns and places of interest, a brief history of the District and its administrative machinery. In Chapter II are discussed the use of land, niain crops and irrigation, industries, trade and commerce, and communications. In Chapter III the salient features of population are discussed. Chapter IV deals with social and developmental activities, and achievements during the First and Second Five-Year Plans. In Pa.rt II are presented the statistics secured from various Government Departments relating to rainfall, temperature, land utilisation, irrigation, area and yield of principal crops, livestock, industry co-operation, education, printing and publishing, entertainments, medical and health, births and deaths, transport and communications, community development activities, banks and insurance, and justice. Then comes a Table on the fairs and festivals in the District. The Tables relating to the 1961-census are presented in Part III. Part IV contains a Directory ofViUages and Towns, showing the location of educational institutions, hospitals and dispensaries, post and tele~raph offices, electrification and protected water-supply; area; number of occupied residential houses and households living therein; popUlation; persons belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; number of literate and' edu­ cated persons; number of workers in nine broad industrial categories; and number of non-workers. , The book contains several maps, There is a map of the District showing the administrative boundaries, roads and railways, rivers and canals, and location of towns. Another map shows the distribution of popUlation in the District by dots: the popUlation of towns is shown by proportionate circles; and of rural areas by dots, one dot representi:gg 200 persons. For each Tahsil in the District two types of maps have been prepared, one showing the location of social amenities, and the second showing the boundaries of villages and towns. These maps were prepated in the Cartographic Section in the State Census Office, jointly by Kumaris Ranbir Sokhi and Satwinder H. Singh, both M.As' in Geography. This publication is the outcome of the joint efforts of a large number of workers and Government Departments, and grateful acknowledgement is made of the help received from them. Within the Census Organisa­ tion mention needs to be made of Shri Jaswant Singh Dilawary, Statistical Assistant and Shri Vishwa Mitter, Supervisor, under the supervision of Shri T. P. Garg, P.C.S., Deputy Superintendent of Census Operations, for preparing the Tables presented in Part II and of Shri Goverdhan Dass Singla, Statistical Assistant and Sarvshri Dharam Paul Jain and Joginder Nath Suri, Tabulation Assistants, under the supervision of Shri Pawan Kumar, Tabulation Officer, for preparing the Tables presented in Parts III and IV. Shri Sita Ram, P.C.S., Deputy Superintendent of Census Operations, Punjab, paid a number of visits to the various parts of the Ferozepur District, and after collecting information by personal observations and discus­ sions with a large number of persons, produced the draft of this Handbook. My thanks are due also to Shri K. C. Kuriyan, Controller of Printing & Stationery, Punjab, and his . Deputy, Shri Tara Chand, for their personal attention in the printing of the book. R. L. ANAND, CHANPIGARH : Superintendent of Census Operations November 11, 1965. and Enumeration Commissioner, Punjab. PART I INTRODUCTION TO THE DISTRICT CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Name.-Ferozepur, the name of the District and its headquarters, means the 'town of Feroze'. The Ferozepur town is reported to have been founded by Fetozeshah Tughlak, Emperor of Delhi, who ruled from 1351 to 1387. The Manj Rajputs, however, aver that the town was founded by their chief, Feroze Khan, in the middle of the 16th century. Location and Boundaries.-Ferozepur District occupies the south-west corner of Punjab along the Indo­ Pakistan frontier. The District lies between north latitude 29°-54'-10" and 31 °-09'-45" and between east longi­ tude 73 °-51' and 75°-25'-10". In shape it is somewhat like capital E tilted eastward with the centre bar removed. The maximum length of the District from north to south is about 100 miles, but the width ,varies from 10 to 60 miles. The boundary of Ferozepur on the east runs along Ludhiana, Sangrur and Bhatinda Districts. On the north-east the river Sutlej separates it from Jullundur and Kapurthala Districts. The united stream of the Sutlej and Beas separates it from Amritsar District in the north-west, and further down for a length of some 80 miles from West Pakistan. Its southern portion touches Rajasthan, and the Hissar District lies to its south-east. Area.-According to the Surveyor General, India, the area of the District is 3,872 sq. miles, but the Director of Land Records, Punjab, places it at 3,887.6 sq. miles. It is the third biggest District of the Punjab, the first two being Kangra (6,292 sq. miles) and Hissar (5,363 sq. miles). The area is distributed among five Tahsils as shown below :- Area (sq. miles) Tahsil Total Rural Urban Fazilka 1,048.8 1,040.8 8.0 Muktsar 1,003.6 1',001. 5 2.1 Ferozepur 689.3 677.5 . 11.8 Moga 650.7 648.0 2.7 Zira 495.2 494.2 0.4 The Ferozepur Tahsil provides the neck from which the Zira and Moga Tahsils jut out towards the east. The main body of the District consists of the Muktsar and Fazilka Tahsils, the former in the middle and the latter in the south. PHYSICAL FEATURES The land lacks in marked physical features, such as, hills or rocks. It is a plain of alluvial formation, sloping gently at a rate of 1i feet per mile from north-east towards south-west. The elevation from sea level of some towns in the District is as follows :- Town Height above sea level feet Moga 720 Zira 695 Muktsar 650 Ferozepur ' 649 Fazilka 588 The District has three main natural belts which run somewhat parallel to the course of the Sutlej. Ad­ joining the river is the bet area which in Fazilka Tahsil is called hithar : a riverain tract with hard alluvial dark grey 'clay iIltermixed with strata of sand. It is traversed by depressions which mark the shifts in the course taken by the river in comparatively recent times. South-east of the bet and at a slightly higher level lies the lower roM or 4 Mudki plain, where the soil is fo the most part light and sandy.