Balaghat District - History

History

At the beginning of the 18th century, the district was divided among two Gond kingdoms; the portion of the district west of the Wainganga was part of the Gond kingdom of Deogarh, while the eastern portion was part of the Garha-Mandla kingdom.

The Deogarh kingdom was annexed by the Bhonsle Marathas of Nagpur in 1743, and shortly thereafter conquered all but the northern section of the district. This section, together with the rest of the Garha-Mandla kingdom, was annexed in 1781 to the Maratha province of Saugor, then under control of the Maratha Peshwa. In 1798 the Bhonsles also obtained the former Garha-Mandla territories.

In 1818, at the conclusion of the Third Anglo-Maratha War, The Nagpur kingdom became a princely state of British India. In 1853, the Nagpur kingdom, including Balaghat District, was annexed by the British, and became the new province of Nagpur. Balaghat District was then divided among the British districts of Seoni and Bhandara. Nagpur Province was reorganized into the Central Provinces in 1861.

Balaghat District was constituted during the years 1867 by amalgamation of parts of the Bhandara, Mandla and Seoni districts. The headquarters of the district was originally called "Burha" or "Boora". Later, however, this name fell into disuse and was replaced by "Balaghat", which was originally the name of the district only. Administratively, the district was divided into two tehsils, Baihar tehsil in the north, which included the plateau region, and Balaghat tehsil, which included the more settled lowlands in the south. The new district was part of the Central Provinces' Nagpur Division.

In the middle of the 19th Century the upper part of the district was a lightly settled, but a handsome Buddhist temple of cut stone, belonging to some remote period, is suggestive of a civilization which had disappeared before historic times. The first Deputy-Commissioner of the district, Colonel Bloomfield, encouraged the settlement of Baihar tehsil with Ponwar Marathas from the Wainganga Valley. About that time one Lachhman Naik established the first villages on the Paraswara plateau.Malanjkhand is the most popular copper mine in Asian Region.

In 1868-1869 the rains ceased a month before time, causing the failure of the lowland rice crop and a famine. The district suffered very severely from the famine of 1896-1897, when the output of all crops fell to only 17 percent of normal. The district suffered again in 1899-1900, when the rice crop failed again, falling to only 23 percent of normal. The population in 1901 was 326,521, having decreased 15% in the decade 1891-1901, due to the effects of famine.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, the district had only 15 miles (24 km) of paved roads, together with 208 miles (335 km) of unpaved roads. The Jabalpur-Gondia railway line through the district was completed in 1904, with six stations in the district.

After Indian Independence in 1947, the Central Provinces became the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. In 1956, Balaghat District became part of the Jabalpur Division of Madhya Pradesh, when the districts to the south of Balaghat, including Gondiya, Bhandara, and Nagpur districts, were transferred to Bombay State.

Balaghat District is currently a part of the Red Corridor. Balaghat district was constituted during the years 1867-1873 by amalgamation of parts of the Bhandara, Mandia, and Seoni Districts. Its name signifies “above the ghats” and is due to the fact that the original purpose of Government in constituting the District was to effect the colonization of the tracts above the ghats.The headquarters of the District was originally called Burha or Boora. Later, however, this name fell into disuse and was replaced by ‘Balaghat’ which was originally the name of the District only.

In MP Balaghat dist. has a lot of natural beauty, mineral deposits and also prosperous with forests. There are too many tells for the nomination of Balaghat. BUDHA, this name is given by the historians of 1743-1751-time period. Balaghat comes under the BHANDARA dist. RAGHUJI is the first Maratha who comes this place from KIRNAPUR SIDE.

In 1845, DALHOUSIE started the tradition of adoption (GOD LENE KI PRATHA). Through this tradition states of the GOND emperors were added to the BRITISH states, at that time the actual name of this place was BARAHGHAT. For the fixing of this name the name is sanded to the capital of that time CALCUTTA before 1911. The name BARAHGHAT is so because all the name of hills contain the word GHAT, In which MASEN GHAT, KANJAI GHAT, RAMRAMA GHAT, BASA GHAT, DONGRI GHAT, SELAN GHAT, BHAISANA GHAT, SALETEKRI GHAT, DONGARIA GHAT, KAVAHRGAD GHAT, AHMADPUR GHAT, TEEPAGAD GHAT are important. When this word was sanded to CALCUTTA it merged with ANGL word and the name was BARAGHAT. When this was return from there the name changed "a" as BALAGHAT means in the position of ‘r’ there is ‘l’ permitted. In 1956 it was declared as Independent dist.