Balasinor

Balasinor
city
Nickname(s): Land of Achievers
Balasinor

Location in Gujarat, India

Coordinates: 22°57′N 73°20′E / 22.95°N 73.33°E / 22.95; 73.33Coordinates: 22°57′N 73°20′E / 22.95°N 73.33°E / 22.95; 73.33
Country  India
State Gujarat
District Mahisagar
Elevation 72 m (236 ft)
Population (2014)
 • Total 42,000
Languages
 • Official Gujarati, Hindi, Urdu, English
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN 388255
Telephone code 02690
Vehicle registration Old Gj 07 new Gj 35

Balasinor (also referred to as Vadasinor) is a town located in the Mahisagar district, Balasinor is sortly in Gujarat new 34th District Gujarat, India. Formerly a princely state of the Babi (Yusufzai Pathan) dynasty, it was created on 28 September 1758[1] out of the Junagadh Babis (famously related to Parveen Babi of Bollywood fame).

History

Main article: Balasinor State

Balasinor State was founded in the 18th century. The rulers were titled Nawab Babi.[2]

Rulers

The current titular nawab[3] is Muhammed Salabat Khanji II (who happened to be the only Babi to go to Mumbai to claim Parveen Babi's body on her death). The heir and son of Muhammed Salabat Khanji II is Salauddinkhan Babi, born 1979 and educated at the Rajkumar College, Rajkot. The erstwhile royal family run their residence "the Garden Palace" as a heritage hotel and a luxury camp called the "Camp Dinosaur" a unit of Kasbah Camps.

Another famous titular princess of the kingdom is Aaliya Sultana Babi, who in 2009 travelled to Ingatestone in the UK to find a husband. Her trip was recorded in BBC Three's Undercover Princesses. The scion of this family, Salauddinkhan Babi participated in a similar show in the Netherlands in 2010 in which he was trying to find a wife. He lived and worked in Amsterdam.The show is currently on air on SBS6 in the Netherlands. It is called "Coming to Holland".[4] Nawabzada Salauddin was invited by TLC USA to participate in a TV show called Secret Princes which was aired on TLC USA beginning 21 September 2012. It is a show based on the Undercover Princes. Salauddin lived and worked in Atlanta undercover for this show along with three other aristocrats.

Geography

Balasinor is located at 22°57′N 73°20′E / 22.95°N 73.33°E / 22.95; 73.33, on the National Highway Number 59 and the Gujarat State Highway Number 2.

Demographics

As of the 2001 Indian census,[5] Balasinor had a population of 33,704.

It had a literacy rate of 70.5% and a ratio of 940 women for every 1000 men. 12.6% of the population was between the ages 0 to 6. A large section of the population has migrated to cities since India's independence. For example a recent telephone directory of the migrated Dashanima Vanik people (a trader caste of Vaishnava sect) shows some 3,000 households in Mumbai comprising 120+ pages and some 15,000 people, where there are only five pages for Balasinor proper in the directory.[6][7] As witnessed by his sister,[8] even the son of the Nawab of this former princely state has migrated to Mumbai to "pursue his career". In fact when one visits Balasinor one is struck by the large sections of the town that have buildings sitting empty especially along the main Vhora trader street.

According to Chambers's Concise Gazetteer Of The World from 1914, the population of Balasinor town was approximately 9,000 at the time.

India's Jurassic Park

In the early 1980s, palaeontologists stumbled upon dinosaur bones and fossils during a regular geological survey of this mineral-rich area.[9] The find sent ripples of excitement through neighbouring villages and many residents picked up fossilised eggs, brought them home and worshipped them. Since then excavations have thrown up a veritable trove of dinosaur remains—eggs, bones, a skeleton which is now kept in a Calcutta (Kolkata) museum—bringing hordes of scientists and tourists to Balasinor.

Piecing together the evidence in Balasinor, researchers now believe that Gujarat is home to one of the largest clutch of dinosaur hatcheries in the world. At least 13 species of dinosaurs lived here, possibly for more than 100 million years until their extinction some 66 million years ago. The soft soil made hatching and protecting eggs easier for the animals. So well-protected are the fossilised eggs found here that many researchers call them the best-preserved eggs in the world after the ones found in Aix-en-Provence in France.

These fossilised dinosaur remains have triggered what tourism officials of the Gujarat state call "Dinosaur Tourism".[9]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.worldstatesmen.org/India_princes_A-J.html
  2. ↑ http://rulers.org/indstat1.html
  3. ↑ http://uqconnect.net/~zzhsoszy/ips/b/balasinor.html
  4. ↑ http://www.sbs6.nl/web/show/id=528477/langid=43/dbid=345/typeofpage=73941
  5. ↑ "Census of India 2001: Data from the 2001 Census, including cities, villages and towns (Provisional)". Census Commission of India. Archived from the original on 2004-06-16. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
  6. ↑ Shree Balasinor Navyuvak Sangh Telephone Directory
  7. ↑ http://www.balasinorusa.org/about_us.php
  8. ↑ Garden Palace Balasinor
  9. 1 2 The dinosaur wonders of India's Jurassic Park. BBC News. 11 May 2010.
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