Fatehpur district

Fatehpur(Haswan) district फ़तेहपुर ज़िला فتح پور ضلع
District of Uttar Pradesh
Location of Fatehpur(Haswan) district in Uttar Pradesh
Country	India
State	Uttar Pradesh
Administrative division	Allahabad
Headquarters	Fatehpur, Fatehpur
Government
• Lok Sabha constituencies	Niranjan Jyoti
• Assembly seats	Vikram Singh
Area
• Total	4,152 km^2 (1,603 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	2,675,384
• Density	640/km^2 (1,700/sq mi)
Demographics
• Literacy	58.6%
Major highways	NH 2
Website	Official website

Fatehpur District (Hindi: फ़तेहपुर ज़िला, Urdu: فتح پور ضلع‎) is one of the 71 districts of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. The district covers an area of 4,152 km². The district has a population of 2,308,384 (2001 Census). Fatehpur city is the administrative headquarters of the district. Located on the banks of the sacred rivers Ganges and Yamuna, Fatehpur was mentioned in the puranic literature. The ghats of Bhitaura and Asani were described as sacred in the puranas. Bhitaura, the site of the sage Bhrigu, was an important source of learning. Fatehpur district is a part of Allahabad Division.

This district is situated between two important cities: Allahabad, which is also known as "Prayag", and Kanpur of the state Uttar Pradesh. Fatehpur is well connected with those cities by train routes and roads. The distance from Allahabad is 117 km and from Kanpur is 76 km by railway. The north boundary of the district is limited by the river Ganges and its southern boundary is the river Yamuna.

In the Vedic era the region of this district was known as "Antardesh", which means the fertile area between two big rivers. Later, it was known as "Madhyadesh" which means central region. The northern region of the district is influenced with "Avadhi" culture while the southern part shows effect of the "Bundelkhand". The territory covered by the present-day Fatehpur district was part of Vatsa, which was one among sixteen mahajanapadas described in the Buddhist literature.

History

The known history of Fatehpur is as old as the Vedic era. General Karningham has written about "Bhitaura" and "Asani" places of this district, while discussing the heritage of the Vedic Period. There is evidence that the Chinese traveller Xuanzang visited the Asani area within this district.

In village Renh, which is 25 km in the south-west of Fatehpur town, some articles of archaeological interest have been found, which date from 800 B.C. Many artifacts, including coins, bricks and idols of the Maurya period, 'Kushan period & Gupta period have been found throughout the district. Many temples of the Gupta period still exist in village Tenduli, Korari and Sarhan Bujurg which are important archaeological sites. Golden coins of period of Chandragupta II have been recovered from the village of Bijauli. The bricks used in the fort of Asani are also of the Gupta Period.

There is an old decaying fort in Ayah said to have been built by the martial Arakhs (also called 'Arkawanshi kshatriyas'), who ruled this region (including Khaga) before the 11th century. The Arakh rulers were the worshippers of the Sun God ('Lord Arka' अर्कदेव) and Lord Shiva, hence many ancient Sun and Shiva idols have been found in and around the region. The British chronicles the fort.

Khajuha town, situated on Mughal road is a very old town. Its description has been found in the old Hindu scripture "Brahm Puran", which is 5000 years old.

In 1561 A.D., Moghal emperor Humayun passed through this town while invading Jaunpur state. On 5 January 1659 A.D., Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had a fierce battle with his brother prince Shah Shuja (Mughal), and killed him near this place. To celebrate the victory, he constructed a large beautiful garden "Badshahi Bagh" and a big lodge having 130 rooms. During the Mughal regime, the control of Fatehpur changed hands between rulers of Jaunpur, Delhi and Kannauj.

In 1801 A.D., this region came under the control of East India Company. In 1826 A.D., Fatehpur was redesignated as the District headquarters. It has many historic places like Bawni(52) Imli in which English men were allegedly hanged on a tree during excesses in the Great Indian Mutiny. It is situated on Bindiki.

In 1966 this was given the status of a sub-division (Paragana), while the headquarters was at Bhitaura, which is now a block office.

Economy

In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Fatehpur one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640).^[1] It is one of the 34 districts in Uttar Pradesh currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).^[1]

Divisions

The district is divided into 3 sub-divisions, namely, Fatehpur, Bindki and Khaga. These sub-divisions are further divided into 13 development blocks: Airaya, Amauli, Asothar, Bahua, Bhitaura, Deomai, Dhata, Haswa, Hathgam, Khajuha, Malwan, Teliyani and Vijayipur.

According to the 2011 census Fatehpur district has a population of 2,632,684,^[2] roughly equal to the nation of Kuwait^[3] or the US state of Nevada.^[4] This gives it a ranking of 154th in India (out of a total of 640).^[2] The district has a population density of 634 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,640/sq mi) .^[2] Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 14.05%.^[2] Fatehpur has a sex ratio of 900 females for every 1000 males,^[2] and a literacy rate of 68.78%.^[2]

Korari: is a very important place from archaeological view point. This place has two brick temples, having amazing carving on the outer faces. The temple is tilted in its own axis about 4°. Every panel has different design.

Bawan Imali: This monument is the symbol of sacrifices offered by freedom fighters. On 28 April 1858, fifty two freedom fighters were hanged on an "Imali" tree by the British army. The "Imali" tree still exists, people believe that the growth of tree has stopped after the massacre. This place is very near to town Khajuha in Bindki Subdivision of the district.

Bhitaura: This block headquarters is situated at the bank of holy river Ganges. This is the place where renowned saint Bhrigu worshipped for a long time that's why called Bhrigu Thaura. Here, flow of river Ganges is towards the north, which is very important from the religious point of view.

Ghazipur: This is a very large and ancient town which have a lot of historical account. Ghandhiji, Indira Gandhi, Syam Lal Gupta ‘Parsad’, Hema Malini, Chinese traveller Huan Tsuang, Raj Babbar, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh yadav, Rajesh Pilot, Sushma Swaraj, Jagdambica pal, etc. visited here. Paina Quila (Fort), Ghazipur quila (Fort; now it’s converted into Police station), Dargah, Tuglaki Maszid (Mosque), Murchaura (Battle field) are few monuments. Mevati muhalla, Kanchanpur, Puranathana, Premnagar, Subhas Market, Purani bazaar, Chauk, Dera, etc. are famous areas here

Notable people

• Sohan Lal Dwivedi. A poet, who has said "Rashtrakavi" by Gandhi ji. He was born in 1905 in gram Khutila-sijouli, Bindki sub-division of this district.

• Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi. Renowned personality, freedom fighter influenced by Gandhi ideology, was born in Hathgaon.
• Niaz Fatehpuri (1884–1966) was a fiction-writer of repute, whose Urdu short-stories, which are poems in prose, are considered to be on a par with those of Munshi Premchand and find a prominent place in Urdu literature. He was also an Urdu poet and critic, and a polemicist who dared to raise his voice against fundamentalism. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1962 for his services to Urdu.
• V. P. Singh (1931–2008), the 7th prime minister of India, was elected to Parliament from Fatehpur.
• L.R. Agrawal (1931-2016) He was the first taxation advocate of fatehpur; founder of taxation bar association fatehpur, janpad fatehpur kar adhivakta jansangh & sarv vaishvya samaj; executive member of mahatma Gandhi post graduate college fatehpur (1975-2000); president of vishva Hindu parishad for 33 years; chairman (1964-1970) of town area kishanpur elected by people as candidate of bhartiya jansangh with a symbol of "deepak"; District General Secretary of Bhartiya jansangh; and charter member of lions club fatehpur.

Transport

Fatehpur is fairly well connected to other parts of Uttar Pradesh and India with national and state highways. The national highway (NH2) (Grand Trunk Road known as G.T. Road) passes through Fatehpur. Fatehpur is 78 km from Kanpur, 121 km from Allahabad and state capital Lucknow is 120 km away. There are frequent buses to Kanpur, Allahabad, Banda, Uttar Pradesh, and Lucknow.

Fatehpur is a historic region in the context of the Great Indian Mutiny of 1857.

Railways

This city is connected with important cities by train. Fatehpur Station is on the main route of New Delhi-kolkata. Trains are available frequently. It has longest platform of any station on the route from Howrah to Delhi. This fact is disputed as the longest platforms are Jhansi (not on Delhi-Howrah route) followed by Dehri-on-Son (on Delhi-Howrah route). "As a matter of fact, the longest platform in India is Gorakhpur(Yes, it's longer than Kharagpur)."& The Chauri Chaura goes to Gorakhpur, UttarPradesh.

On 10 July 2011, a derailment near Malwan killed 70 passengers, and injured at more than 300.^[5]

References

1. Ministry of Panchayati Raj (8 September 2009). "A Note on the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme" (PDF). National Institute of Rural Development. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
2. "District Census 2011". Census2011.co.in. 2011. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
3. US Directorate of Intelligence. "Country Comparison:Population". Retrieved 2011-10-01. Kuwait 2,595,62 line feed character in |quote= at position 7 (help)
4. "2010 Resident Population Data". U. S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2011-09-30. Nevada 2,700,551 line feed character in |quote= at position 7 (help)
5. "India Train Crash Death Toll Climbs to 68". The Guardian. Associated Press. 11 July 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2011.

External links

• Fatehpur district official website
• Fatehpur district blog