ਜ਼ੀਰਾਜ਼ੀਰਾ

Zira is a town in Ferozepur district of Punjab, India, and the headquarters of Zira tehsil. The 2011 census counted 37,498 residents. An old town founded in 1508, it is known for its 1890 Jain temple and for standing near Mudki, where the first battle of the First Anglo-Sikh War was fought in 1845.

ਇਤਿਹਾਸ

Zira began as wasteland. In 1508, Ahmad Shah came from Gugera and founded Zira Khas. He was later driven out by Sher Shah Suri, and nearly all the villages of the ilaqa, the revenue tract around the town, were settled under Sher Shah's rule. Still later, Mohar Singh was driven out by Dewan Mokham Chand, Maharaja Ranjit Singh's general, and the ilaqa was added to the Lahore Demesne. The tract was then split in two: the eastern portion, which kept the name Zira, was given to Sarbuland Khan, and the western portion, renamed the ilaqa of Ambarhar, was made the appanage of Kanwar Sher Singh. Sher Singh later took the whole ilaqa and abolished the Ambarhar subdivision.

The town became a municipality in the British period; the constitution year is given as 1867 in one source and 1876 in another. Its population was recorded as 2,702 in 1853. Zira saw revolutionary activity in the freedom movement: the Zira Bomb Case of October 1930 took place here, and the Zira Bar Association was formed the same year. The origin of the town's name has not been found in any source.

Partition touched Zira directly. The town's tehsil, along with ਫੇਰੋਜ਼ੇਪੁਰ's, appeared in a draft of the Radcliffe award allotted to Pakistan; the final award gave both to India, a decision Muhammad Ali Jinnah called unjust, incomprehensible and perverse. At Partition, Zira city was about 51 percent Muslim, 35 percent Sikh and 14 percent Hindu; almost all the Muslim residents migrated to Pakistan, settling in Pakpattan, Khanewal, Vehari, Sahiwal and Muzaffargarh districts, and many took the name Zirvi.

What happened at Mudki in 1845?

On 18 December 1845, the first battle of the First Anglo-Sikh War was fought at Mudki, a short drive from Zira. The Khalsa Army of the Sikh Empire, about 10,000 men with 22 guns under Lal Singh, the empire's vizier, met the British East India Company's force of about 10,000 to 11,000 men with 42 guns under Commander-in-Chief Sir Hugh Gough, with Governor General Sir Henry Hardinge present on the field. The British won after night fighting, and the battle picked up the nickname Midnight Mudki. British losses were 215 killed and 657 wounded, including Brigadier Robert Sale, who was mortally wounded and died on 21 December; Sikh losses were about 300 killed, and Lal Singh was alleged to have fled the battlefield early. The battlefield lies about 29 km from ਫੇਰੋਜ਼ੇਪੁਰ. At Mudki today stand Gurdwara Shahid Ganj and a battle monument, though the monument is reported to be in poor condition.

Geography & people

Zira stands south-east of ਫੇਰੋਜ਼ੇਪੁਰ city at 30.97 N, 74.99 E, in the wheat, paddy and cotton country of the district. The road distance to Ferozepur is roughly 37 to 41 km. It is one of three tehsils of Firozpur district, alongside Firozpur and Guru Har Sahai. The town's PIN code is 142047, its telephone code 01682, and its vehicle registration mark is PB-47.

The 2011 census counted 37,498 people in the town including its outgrowth (the municipal council area alone held 36,732). There were 19,610 men and 17,888 women. By religion, the town was Sikh 22,515, Hindu 14,000, Christian 403, Muslim 213 and Jain 173. Literacy was 63 percent (66 for men, 59 for women), and 13 percent of the population was under six.

Places of interest

Zira's most notable building is the Jain Swetambar Temple, constructed in 1890 and dedicated to Parshvanathji Maharaj, the 23rd Tirthankara. The temple is known for its wall paintings depicting ancient Jain culture and history and for its very old brass icons. It is tied to Vijayanand Suriji Maharaj, born at Zira in 1837, the first guru of the Mandir Margi sect of the Swetambars, a scholar, poet and social reformer who advocated idol worship; he performed the temple's pratishtha ceremony in 1896. Gurudwara Babe Ke stands about 3.5 km south of the town. The grain market is the town's working heart, with the Market Committee and the Food Corporation of India's Zira Centre handling the wheat and paddy trade. For visitors interested in the 1845 war, Gurdwara Shahid Ganj and the battle monument at Mudki are the nearby stop.

Notable people

Artist Jarnail Singh was born at Zira on 12 June 1956, the son of painter Kirpal Singh, who is known for his paintings of Sikh warriors and the Anglo-Sikh wars. A Panjab University graduate, Jarnail Singh won the Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi awards in 1979 and 1980 and is known for his Punjab Paintings of history, rural life and portraiture. In politics, Inderjit Singh Zira was a senior Congress leader and former Punjab minister; he died of cancer on 12 May 2021 at a private hospital in Mohali, aged 63. His elder son Kulbir Singh Zira, born at Basti Bute Wali in Zira on 12 April 1980, was the town's sarpanch from 2013 to 2018 and the Congress MLA from Zira from 2017 to 2022, losing the seat in 2022 to Naresh Kataria of the Aam Aadmi Party, the town's sitting MLA. The Jain reformer Vijayanand Suriji Maharaj, born at Zira in 1837, is the town's most remembered religious figure.

Getting there

National Highway 54, which runs from Pathankot through Amritsar and Faridkot to Bathinda and Dabwali, passes through Zira, according to the Punjab Public Works Department's highway table. Zira has no confirmed railway station of its own; the nearest station is at Makhu to the north, on the Jalandhar-Firozpur line. By road, ਫੇਰੋਜ਼ੇਪੁਰ is roughly 40 km away, Mudki about 24 km, and Moga about 25 km. Buses link the town with ਮੱਖੂ, ਮੋਗਾ and Ferozepur.

Today

Zira is an agricultural market town: the mandi, the Market Committee and the procurement agencies set its rhythm. The town has also been at the centre of a major environmental fight. Malbros International, a distillery and ethanol plant at Mansoorwal village in Zira tehsil, faced a 177-day agitation by farmers from 44 villages that began on 24 July 2022, and the Punjab government ordered the factory closed in January 2023. On 2 November 2025, the state government told the National Green Tribunal that the distillery had caused serious environmental damage and sought its permanent closure, rejecting the owner's request to run only the ethanol plant under the polluter pays principle; the next tribunal hearing was set for 24 November.