Introduction To The Book 'City Of Faridkot - Past and Present' By Fauja Singh 

One of the projects undertaken by our Department of Punjab Historical Studies is to bring out monographs on various historical towns of the Malwa region of Punjab. In 1972 the first such work was produced on Sirhind bearing the title, Sirhind Through The Ages. The present monograph on Faridkot is the second in the series. Hopefully, this will soon be followed by similar works on other towns of the region, namely Patiala, Ropar, Banur, Samana, Sunam, Sangrur and Bhatinda.

In producing a study on a comparatively small place like Faridkot the main difficulty always is paucity of source materials. Only a few files of records of the erstwhile Faridkot State have come down to us but even they are deficient in so far as the affairs of the town proper are concerned. Therefore we have had perforce to depend upon such secondary sources as we could conveniently lay our hands upon. Notable among these are Wali-ullah Siddiqi's Aina-i-Bairar Bans, Professor Harbans Singh's Faridkot Itihas Bare, Griffin's Rajas of the Punjab, the Gazetteers of Faridkot State, Phulkian States and the districts of Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Bhatinda, Hissar and Giani Atma Singh's unpublished work, Darbar Faridkot. It is however a matter of some satisfaction that for some aspects atleast we were able to benefit from primary and semi-primary sources. For instance the account of Parja Mandal movement in the State has been reconstructed from press reports and interviews with prominent actors in the national struggle. Similarly, the description of social, civic and economic life has been based on a socio­economic survey of Faridkot city conducted by my co-author Ramesh Chander Rabra in 1971 for his post-graduate dissertation.

As it is, the utmost that may be said with regard to this work is that it is only a pioneering attempt to be followed by more intensive studies by whole-time researchers. One particu­lary important aspect revealed by this study, which requires deeper investigation and which can surely impart a new dimen­sion to our researches into the cultural heritage of our people, is the pattern of Bhatti settlements in Malwa and their impact on the social life of its inhabitants. With a view to underscoring the point, genealogical tables of the major branches of these Bhatti people have been given at the end in the form of an appendix which has been prepared by my 'colleague, Sardar Parm Bakhshish Singh.

I owe a deep debt of gratitude to our worthy Vice-Chancellor, Sardarni Inderjit Kaur Sandhu who has always taken deep interest in the project. It is her kindness alone that bas made this publication possible. My grateful thanks are also due to my colleagues Sardars Parm Bakhshish Singh, Ajit Singh and Kirpal Singh who painstakingly went through the manuscript and made several valuable suggestions. I shall be failing in my duty if I do not place on record my sense of gratitude to Professor G.S. Talib, Principal Gurcharan Singh and Sardar Gurnek Singh Neki for their valuable help in the preparation of this work. Last but not the least, I express my sincere thanks to the Production & Sales" Officer, Sardar Hazara Singh, for its speedy production and excellent get-up.

FAUJA SINGH