Saharanpur is a city and a municipal corporation in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is also the administrativeheadquarters of Saharanpur district.
Saharanpur city’s name was given after the Saint Shah Haroon Chishti. A very famous temple of “Shakumbri Devi” is situated in Saharanpur. Lakhs of pilgrims visits the temple during navratras. Some peoples says that it was founded by Sah Ranbirsingh, a Jainnobleman,who laid the foundations of the present-day city on the site of an army cantonment.
Saharanpur is declared as one amongst the 100 Smart Cities by MOUD as a part of Smart Cities Missionof the Government of India.
Contents
- History
- Maratha rule (1757–1803 AD)
- British colonial period (1803–1947 AD)
- Geography and Climate
- Demographics
- Government and politics
- Civic utilities
- Culture
- Places of interest
- Transport
- References
- External links
History
Maratha rule (1757–1803 AD)
In 1757, the Maratha Army invaded the Saharanpur region, which resulted in Najeeb-ud-Daula losing control of Saharanpur to the Maratha rulers Raghunath Rao and Malharao Holkar. The conflict between Rohillas and Marathas came to an end on 18 December 1788 with the arrest of Ghulam Qadir, the grandson of Najeeb-ud-Daula, who was defeated by the Maratha general Mahadaji Scindia. The most significant contribution of Nawab Ghulam Qadir to Saharanpur city is the Nawab Ganj area and the Ahmedabadi fortress therein, which still stands. The death of Ghulam Qadir put an end to the Rohilla administration in Saharanpur and it became the northernmost district of the Maratha Empire. Ghani Bahadur Banda was appointed its first Maratha governor. The Maratha Regime saw the construction of the Bhuteshwar Temple and Bagheshwar Temple in Saharanpur city. In 1803, following the Second Anglo-Maratha War, when British East India Company defeated the Maratha Empire, Saharanpur came under British suzerainty.
British colonial period (1803–1947 AD)
When India rebelled in 1857 against the foreign Company’s occupation, now referred to as the First War of Indian Independence, the Saharanpur and the present-day Muzaffarnagar Districts were part of that uprising. The centre of freedom fighters’ operations was Shamli, a small town in the Muzaffarnagar region which was liberated for some time. After the uprising failed, British retribution was severe. Death and destruction were particularly directed against Muslims of the region, whom the British considered as the main instigators of the rebellion; Muslim society was devastated beyond recognition. When social reconstruction started, the cultural and political history of Muslims began to revolve around Deoband and Aligarh. Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi and Maulana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, both proponents of the reformer Shah Waliullah’s ideology for social and political rejuvenation, established a school in Deoband in 1867. It found popularity and global recognition as the Darul Uloom. Its founders’ mission was twofold: to raise and spread a team of scholars able to awaken the religious and social consciousness of Muslims through peaceful methods and to make efforts, through them, to educate Muslims in their faith and culture; and to bring about a feeling of nationalism and national unity by promoting the concept of Hindu-Muslim unity and a united India. Muslim scholars in the city of Saharanpur were active supporters of this ideology and went on to establish the Mazahirul Uloom Saharanpur theological seminary six months later.
Geography and Climate
Saharanpur is located at 29.97°N 77.55°E, about 140 kilometres (87 mi) south-southeast of Chandigarh, 170 kilometres (110 mi) north-northeast of Delhi, 65 kilometres (40 mi) north-northeast of Shamli and about 61 kilometres (38 mi) south-west of Dehradun. It has an average elevation of 269 metres (883 ft). Saharanpur is a part of a geographical doabregion. Saharanpur district join four states together Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana.
| hideClimate data for Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 20 (68) |
22 (72) |
28 (82) |
35 (95) |
38 (100) |
37 (99) |
33 (91) |
32 (90) |
32 (90) |
31 (88) |
26 (79) |
21 (70) |
30 (86) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 13 (55) |
15 (59) |
20 (68) |
26 (79) |
30 (86) |
37 (99) |
29 (84) |
28 (82) |
27 (81) |
23 (73) |
18 (64) |
13 (55) |
23 (73) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 6 (43) |
8 (46) |
12 (54) |
18 (64) |
23 (73) |
26 (79) |
25 (77) |
25 (77) |
22 (72) |
16 (61) |
10 (50) |
6 (43) |
16 (61) |
| Average precipitationmm (inches) | 30 (1.2) |
40 (1.6) |
20 (0.8) |
10 (0.4) |
10 (0.4) |
70 (2.8) |
240 (9.4) |
200 (7.9) |
120 (4.7) |
20 (0.8) |
0 (0) |
10 (0.4) |
830 (32.7) |
| Average precipitation days | 1.7 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 2.8 | 7.5 | 7.6 | 2.7 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 30.3 |
| Source: Weatherbase | |||||||||||||
Demographics
Barbers in Saharanpur, a painting by Edwin Lord Weeks (1849–1903)
| hideHistorical population | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Population | %± | |
| 1901 | 66,254 |
—
|
|
| 1911 | 62,850 | −5.1% | |
| 1921 | 62,261 | −0.9% | |
| 1931 | 78,665 | 26.3% | |
| 1941 | 105,622 | 34.3% | |
| 1951 | 148,435 | 40.5% | |
| 1961 | 185,213 | 24.8% | |
| 1971 | 225,396 | 21.7% | |
| 1981 | 295,355 | 31.0% | |
| 1991 | 374,945 | 26.9% | |
| 2001 | 455,754 | 21.6% | |
| 2011 | 705,478 | 54.8% | |
| Source:470–471 | |||
According to the 2011 Indian census, Saharanpur had a population of 705,478, 12.5% of whom were under the age of six, living in 129,856 households within the municipal corporation limits.:26–27 The city is spread over an area of 46.74 km2(18.05 sq mi) and with a population density of 15,093.67/km2(39,092.4/sq mi), is the eleventh most populous city in Uttar Pradesh.Saharanpur had a population of 455,754 in 2001 and 374,945 in 1991.
Males constitute of 52.7% of the total population while females constitute of 47.3% of the total population and thus, the city has a sex ratio of 891 females for every 1,000 males. The city has an average literacy rate of 76.32%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes account for 14.2% and 0.1% of the population respectively.There are 233,196 people, constituting about 33% of the total population, who live in slums in the city.
Roughly half of the city’s population are Hindus, who form a slight majority, while Muslimsconstitute about forty five percent of the total population. Sikhs and Jains are also present in smaller numbers.
The most widely spoken language in Saharanpur is Hindi, which alongwith Urdu is the official language of Uttar Pradesh. There are significant numbers of Urdu and Punjabi speakers, while Haryanvi is also spoken by some people. The standard dialect of Hindi spoken is the Khari Boli dialect.
Government and politics
Saharanpur city is governed by Saharanpur Municipal Corporation, erstwhile Municipal Council. The city is divided into 4 zones and 70 wards, represented by 70 councillors who were elected by municipal or local elections in 2017 for a five-year term. The head of the administrative wing is the Municipal Commissioner, currently Gyanendra Singh while the head of the elected wing is the MayorSanjeev Walia from the BJP.
The city is also part of the Saharanpur Lok Sabha constituency, which elected Haji Fazlur Rehman from the Bahujan Samaj Party in 2019 as the Member of Parliament, and part of the Saharanpur Assembly constituency that elected Masood Akhtar from the Indian National Congress in 2017 as the MLA.
Civic utilities
There is only one sewage treatment plant located in Saharanpur,while most of the waste water is discharged into the Hindon river, further polluting it.
Culture
Places of interest
The Saharanpur Botanical Gardens, known as the Company Garden and once the preserve of British East India Company, is one of the oldest existing gardens in India, dating to before 1750. Then named Farahat-Bakhsh, it was originally a pleasure ground set out by a local chief, Intazam ud-ullah. In 1817, it was acquired by the British East India Company and placed under the authority of the District Surgeon. Joseph Dalton Hooker says of this Botanical Garden that “Amongst its greatest triumphs may be considered the introduction of the tea-plant from China, a fact I allude to, as many of my English readers may not be aware that the establishment of the tea-trade in the Himalaya and Assam is almost entirely the work of the superintendents of the gardens of Calcutta and Seharunpore.“
In 1887, when the Botanical Survey of India was set up to reform the country’s botanical sciences, Saharanpur became the centre for the survey of the northern Indian flora. The Garden is seen historically as being second only to the Calcutta Gardens for its contribution to science and economy in India. Under private auspices today, it is full of greenery and has many different kinds of plants and flowers.
Transport
A train passing through Saharanpur Railway Station
Two major National Highways pass through Saharanpur — NH 709B and NH 344. The NH 709B originates in Saharanpur and connects it to Delhi via Shamli and Baghpat, while the NH 344 connects Saharanpur with Ambala, Yamunanagar and Roorkee.Uttar Pradesh State Highway 57, commonly known as Delhi-Yamunotri highway, also passes through the city. The Delhi–Saharanpur–Dehradun Expressway has also been proposed, which will be ready by March 2024.
Saharanpur Junction is the primary railway station serving the city. The station is under the administrative control of Ambala railway division of the Northern Railways, and is located at the junction of Moradabad–Ambala line, Delhi–Meerut–Saharanpur line and the Delhi–Shamli–Saharanpur line. Saharanpur was connected with rail lines when the Scinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway completed the 483-kilometre-long (300 mi) Amritsar–Ambala–Saharanpur–Ghaziabad line in 1870 connecting Multan (now in Pakistan) with Delhi. Another line connecting Saharanpur with Moradabad was completed in 1886.
The Shahdara–Saharanpur light railway connecting Shahdara in Delhi with Saharanpur was opened to traffic in 1907. The railway was built in 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow gauge and total length was 94.24 miles (151.66 km). However, due to increasing losses, the railway was closed in 1970. It was later converted to 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) broad gauge and was repopened in the late 1970s. Saharanpur falls on the route of the proposed 1,839-kilometre (1,143 mi) Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor project.