History of Fazilka : Firozpur District Gazzette

Fazlika: - Headquarters of the tehsil/subdivisions of Fazlika are connected both by rail and road. It is a junction and terminus railway station of the Rewari-Bathinda-Fazlika Section of the metre-gauge line of the Northern Railway. It is also connected by the Fazilka-Firozpur Cantonment section of the broad-gauge line of the Northern Railway. By rail, Fazlika is 80 km from Kot Kapura, 428 km from Rewari and 99 km from Firozpur cantonment. By road, it is 87 km from Firozpur. 56 km from Malaut, 34 km from Abohar and 15 km from the international Sulemanki border with Pakistan. Its population was 3,406 in 1868, 6,651 in 1881, 10985 in 1911, 25935 in 1951, 32015 in 1961, 36,281 in 1971 and 43,548 in 1981.

When in 1844, the tract of country on the Satluj was ceded by Bahawalpur, there was no village where Fazilka now stands, but Vans Agnew, the first officer stationed there, built himself a bungalow, in which the office of the Subdivisional Officer (Civil), Fazilka, is now located. From that bungalow, the place became known as Bangla, a name still given to the town and tehsil by the people. Two years later, Oliver established a few shops there, and gave the place the name of Fazilka from Fazil, one of early Wattu settlers. Its favrouable position near the Satluj enabled it to engross almost the whole of the export trade from the great desert tract towards Sind (now in Pakistan), and made it very soon a flourishing market. A most destructive flood visited Fazlika in 1908 and practically the whole of the town collapsed and had to be rebuilt.

It is a class Ii municipality. There are a degree college (M.R. College), 3 high schools for boys and 1 higher secondary school for girls; 3 middle schools (2 for boys and 1 for girls) and 12 primary schools. There are two libraries, viz. the Sunam Rai Municipal Library and the Sadhu Ashram Library. There are three rest-houses, viz. the P.W.D. Rest-House, the Canal Rest-House and the Market Committee Rest-House, the Canal Rest-House and Market Committee Rest-House, besides one serai, viz. Aggarwal Ashram. There are a civil hospital, a maternity and child-health centre; 4 private Ayurvedic dispensaries; a veterinary hospital; a police-station and sadar police-station; and a post and telegraph office, 2 sub-post offices and a telephone exchange. There are three separate parks for men, women and children, situated adjacent to one another. There is a centrally located clock tower.

Before the partition of the country in 1947, Fazlika was the biggest wool market in India, but thereafter the trade has been hit very hard, with a major portion of the supply area going to Pakistan and the Bikaner Town gradually attracting the raw wool produced in Rajasthan. Other products, for which the town is known, are baan, moorhas and sirkis.
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