Dewas

This article is about the municipality in Madhya Pradesh, India. For its namesake district, see Dewas District.
For other uses, see Dewas (disambiguation).
Dewas
देवास
town

Dewas
Coordinates: 22°58′N 76°04′E / 22.96°N 76.06°E / 22.96; 76.06Coordinates: 22°58′N 76°04′E / 22.96°N 76.06°E / 22.96; 76.06
Country India
State Madhya Pradesh
Government
 • Body Dewas Municipal Corporation
Elevation 535 m (1,755 ft)
Population (2001)
 • Total 289,438 (Census 2,011)
 • Rank 6th highest in Madhya Pradesh
Languages
 • Official Hindi, Marathi
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN 455001
Telephone code 91-(0)7272
Vehicle registration MP-41
Website www.dewas.nic.in

Dewas (Hindi/Marathi: देवास) is an ancient town situated on the Malwa plateau in the West-central part of Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, about 143 km south west from state capital, Bhopal and 35 km from Indore the commercial capital of the state. It is the administrative center of the Dewas District, and was formerly the seat of two '15 Gun Salute' princely states during the British Raj, Dewas Junior state and Dewas senior state, ruled by the royal Maratha 'Puar' (or 'Pawar').[1] Today, Dewas is an industrial town and houses government's bank note press which is largest of its kind in Asia.[2]

Origin of name

The name Dewas is derived from the Devi Vaishini hill in the city, commonly known as Tekri. The hill has a temple of deity Devi Tulja Bhawani, Chamunda Mata and Kalika Mata. The word Dewas is also believed to be a sandhi of words Dev deity and Vas Marathi for abode, thus Dewas means abode of the deity or god. Swami Shivom Tirtha wrote the History of the hill (Tekri)of Dewas in his book—Sadhan Shikhar. E.M.Forster wrote a Travelogue named -The Hill of Devi in 1953.The Hill of Devi is his non-fictional account of him.

The district gets its name from the district headquarters town, Dewas which is said to have been derived on the basis of two traditions. One is that Dewas lies on the foot of a conical hill, known as Chamunda hill about 300 ft. above the ground level on top of which the shrine of Chamunda is located. The image of the Goddess is cut in rocky wall of a cave. It is, therefore, known as Devi Vashini or the Goddess's residence. From this the name Dewas (dev-vas) seems to have been derived. The other view of the probable origin is from the name of the founder of the village Dewasa Bania.
The present Dewas district broadly corresponds to the twin treaty States in Malwa Political charge of the Central India Agency, divided into a Senior and a Junior branch of the early twentieth century with some adjustments of other territories. There were two district chief ships with separate administrations, acting independently in most matters, sharing the same capital town of Dewas. Consequent upon the merger of princely States and the formation of Madhya Bharat State in 1948 there was reconstitution of boundaries and thus the district in the present form was constituted. The reconstituted district was, however, formed by merging 242 villages of the two tahsils of Dewas of the former Senior and Junior State, 452 villages of Sonkatch tahsil and of 99 villages of Ujjain tahsil of former Gwalior state, 99 villages of Nimanpur tahsil of former Dhar state, one village of Jawar tahsil of former Bhopal State, and then the existing tahsils of Kannod and Khategaon of former Holkar State. With the reorganization of States on linguistic basis on 1stNovember 1956, Madhya Bharat, with other territories got merged to form the New state of Madhya Pradesh and thus Dewas continues to be one of the districts in it.
The district is now divided into 9 tehsils viz. Sonkatch, Dewas, Bagli, Kannod, Tonk-Khurd, Khategaon, Satwas, Hatpipliya and Udainagar. Dewas tehsil is situated on the north-western part of the district, Sonkatch on the north-eastern part, Bagli on the south, Kannod on the south-central part and Khategaon on the South-east. Weather road connects all the tahsil head quarters. The Head-quarters of Dewas tehsil, which is also the district headquarters, is situated on The Bombay-Agra National Highway No.3 and is also connected by broad-gauge railway line of western Railway.

Geography

Dewas lies northeast of Indore, southeast of Ujjain, and southwest of Shajapur. The city is located on the level plains of the Malwa plateau; to the south, the land rises gently to the Vindhya Range, which is the source of the Chambal and Kali Sindh rivers that flow north through the district on their way to the Ganges.The main river in dewas is Kshipra, which is known as holy river.Dewas is also known for the mata Mandir which is situated at the hill which is famous in the name of mata tekri.

Demographics

As of 2013 India census,[3] Dewas had a population of 289,438. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Dewas has an average literacy rate of 69%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 77% and, female literacy is 61%. In Dewas, 7% of the population is under 5 years of age. As it was a Maratha-ruled state, Marathi and Hindi are widely spoken languages in Dewas.[4]

Religion in Dewas
Religion Percent
Hindus
  
 76%
Muslims
  
 20%
Jains
  
 2%
Others†
  
 1.50%
Christians
  
 .50%
Distribution of religions
†Includes Sikhs (1%), Buddhists (<0.5%).

Industrial connection

Dewas has many industrial units providing employment to thousands of industrial workers. It has some industrial areas on Indore road and also few pockets of industries on Ujjain road.

Dewas has many mid-sized and small industries. The largest companies include Tatas, Kirloskers, Arvind Mills, S Kumars, Tata – Cummins, Gajra Gears,Gabriel India Ltd, Ranbaxy Labs, Steel Tubes, John Deere and the Bank Note press. The rapid industrialization took place in the late 70s and early 80s, but due to inadequate infrastructure, the pace has been slower since the late 80s. There are still large companies delivering substantial profits however. Dewas is known as the Soya capital of India and is a major part of the soya bean processing industry in the country.

In recent years, some industries have closed their operations due to a shortage of sufficient infrastructure to support growth. The main factor is the shortage of water as the water table has significantly reduced due to excessive usage in previous decades.

Due to its high location above mean sea level and at one corner of plateau, constant wind flows in the region making it perfectly suited for harvesting wind energy. MP wind farms have chosen an ideal location for planting more than 100 huge monster like wind mills on a hill some 13 km from Dewas. It generates around 15 megawatts of power. A few private companies have financed these to get uninterrupted power supply.

Dewas Ke Bhagirath

Dewas is known for their water management and irrigation programs in rural areas. Until 2005 Dewas was a drought area and farmers was having major problems as production was at very low level. But after Umakant Umrao took over as district collector of Dewas things started changing. Today village farmers have plenty of water and it is helping them for removing their poverty. Dewas district became model for other districts in India.

United Nations selected Dewas district's community water management works in the best three water management practices in the world under the category of "Best Water Management Practices" for 2011-2012.[5][6] Dewas was finalist in 'Water for Life’ United Nation's-Water Best Practices Award 2012 edition.

United Nations praised Bhagirath Krishhak Abhiyan of Dewas district started by district administrator Umakant Umrao.[7] Documentary film made by Public Service Broadcasting Trust about Dewas water revolution is featured on Lok Sabha TV.[8]

Education

Higher Education

Major schools

Media (Local)

Print Media (Daily newspapers): Satyakaar, Naidunia, Dainik bhaskar, rajsthan patrika, dabang dunia, free press, Raj Express, Dewas Darpan, BPN Times.

Electronic Media: Regional News Channel Reporter(ETV), Bansal News MP/CG., Red9 SR, Times Hindi, Sadhna News, Bharat Samachar, Pearls MP&CG news channel

Transport

Railways

Dewas Junction(DWX), is a Standard Broad Gauge Railway Station which belongs to Ratlam Division of Western Railway (India) Zone, is well connected with all major cities of India.The Railway station is also awarded by the Western Railway India

Dewas Junction lies on Indore Junction BG – Ujjain Junction branch line and it has one line originating and going towards Maksi Junction which connects Nagda Bhopal Junction WR-CR link line. Indore – Ujjain line has been eletrified now. This would rather increase some more speed and connectivity.

Rail station board

There are regular trains plying to Mumbai (BCT), Delhi (NDLS), Kolkata (HWH), Chennai (MAS), Pune (PUNE), Ahmedabad (ADI), Lucknow (LKO), Jaipur (JP), Kanpur (CNB), Patna (PNBE), Thiruvananthapuram (TVC), Coimbatore (CNB), Eranakulam (ERS), Nagpur (NGP), Jammutavi (JAT), Amritsar (ASR), Dehradun (DDN), Ajmer (AII), Jodhpur (JU), Chhindwara (CWA), Jabalpur (JBP), Gandhinagar (GNC), Gwalior (GWL), Bhilwara (BHL), Udaipur (UDZ) and other major cities.

Roadways

Dewas is well connected to major cities of the State through an extensive network of national and state highways. NH3 Agra Mumbai National highway (A.B. Road) passes through the town. NH 86 starts from Dewas and goes up to Kanpur passing through UP via Ashta, Sehore, Bhopal, Raisen, Sanchi, Vidisha, Sagar, Chhatarpur, Malhara. Dewas is well connected with both cities Bhopal and Indore, political and commercial capital of MP respectively. Dewas is connected to Bhopal by 4 lane expressway highway known as Dewas-Bhopal Corridor. It is described as one of the best roads in central India. It is 142.6 km access controlled road made by SPV promoted by Chetak Enterprise Ltd. (CEL), Welspun Projects Limited. (WPL; previously known as MSK Projects (India) Limited and BSBK Ltd.

Princely history

Main article: Dewas State

Dewas was formerly the capital of two princely states of British India. The original state was founded in the first half of the 18th century by the brothers Tukaji Rao (senior) and Jivaji Rao (junior), from the Puar clan of Marathas, who advanced into Malwa with the Maratha Peshwa, Baji Rao, in 1728. The brothers divided the territory among themselves; their descendants ruled as the senior and junior branches of the family. After 1841, each branch ruled his own portion as a separate state, though the lands belonging to each were so intimately entangled, that even in Dewas, the capital town, the two sides of the main street were under different administrations and had different arrangements for water supply and lighting. The senior branch had an area of 446 sq mi (1,160 km2). and a population of in 62,312 in 1901, while the area of the junior branch was 440 sq mi (1,100 km2). and had a population of 54,904 in 1901.[9] Both Dewas states were in the Malwa Agency of the Central India Agency. After India's independence in 1947, the Rajas of Dewas acceded to India, and their states were integrated into Madhya Bharat, which became a state of India in 1950. In 1956, Madhya Bharat was merged into Madhya Pradesh state.

Cinema

Abhinav Cineplex, Ujjain Road. Orbit Theatre, Balgarh Road is not functional anymore.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Dewas, MP
  2. ↑ bank note, press DEWAS. "Bank Note Press (BNP) Dewas". official government website. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  3. ↑ "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.
  4. ↑ List of cities in Madhya Pradesh by population
  5. ↑ http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/finalists2012.shtml
  6. ↑ https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/upscportal/VZfwkwqgEpQ/etTAxzYjgIYJ
  7. ↑ http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/finalists2012.shtml
  8. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RHAjnwXZmU
  9. ↑  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Dewas". Encyclopædia Britannica 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 137.

External links

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