Banswara

Banswara is located at 23.55°N 74.45°E / 23.55; 74.45.[2] It has an average elevation of 302 metres (990 ft).

Banswara District is in southern Rajasthan with an area of 5,999 square kilometres (2,316 sq mi) located between 23.11° N to 23.56° N latitudes and 73.58° E to 74.49° E. longitudes. It is bounded on the north-east by Dhariawad, Pipalkoot & Arnod tehsils of Pratapgarh district of Rajasthan; on the east by Ratlam district of Madhya Pradesh; on the west by Sagwara and on north-west by Aspur tehsils of Dungarpur district of Rajasthan; on the south-east by Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh and on south & south-west the Dahod district of Gujarat. The region represents a rugged terrain undulated by short ridges west of Banswara. The eastern part of it is occupied by flat-topped hills of the Deccan trap. It has the southern end of the Aravali mountains. The drainage system belongs to the Mahi river which originates from Amjera hills near Dhar in Madhya Preadesh. Its main tributaries are Anas, Chanp, Erav, Hiran and Kagdi. The Mahi Bajaj Sagar Dam has been constructed on the Mahi, about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) away from Banswara town. The Right and Left Main Canals and their distributaries irrigate 60,149 hectares (601.49 km²) of land. Normal annual rainfall is about 82.59 centimetres (32.52 in).

The main crops are maize, wheat, rice, cotton soya bean and gram. Graphite, soapstone, dolomite, rock phosphate, limestone and a variety of marbles are mined in the region, with some deposits of gold found around Jagpura. About 20% of the area is designated as forested land, but most of the forest land is devoid of trees in the non-monsoon months.[3]

Banswara (literally "the bamboo country") was a Rajput feudatory state in Rajputana during British India. It borders Gujarat and is bounded on the north by the native states of Dungarpur and Udaipur or Mewar; on the northeast and east by Partapgarh; on the south by the dominions of Holkar and the state of Jabua; and on the west by the state of Rewa Kantha.

Banswara state was about 45 miles (72 km) in length from north to south and 33 miles (53 km) in breadth from east to west and had an area of 1,606 square miles (4,160 km²).[4] The population in 1941 was 258,760.[5]

Banswara district forms eastern part of the region known as Vagad or Vagwar. The district was formerly a state ruled by the Maharavals. It is named so because of the bamboo which were found in abundance in the forests.

Banswara massacre is also known as Rajasthan's ‘Jallianwala Bagh’, a little known event of the British Raj era.

On 17 November 1913, Banswara district of South Rajasthan was witness to a little-known massacre of around 1500 tribals by the British, echoing the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in which 329 people were killed in firing. British forces opened fire on tribals who had gathered on the Mangarh hillock situated in the Aravali mountains on the Rajasthan-Gujarat border. The tribals were led by their leader Govind Guru who inspired them to throw off the yoke of British rule.

Govind Guru, influenced by social reformers like Dayanand Saraswati, launched the 'Bhagat movement among the Bhils asking them to adhere to vegetarianism, and abstain from all types of intoxicants. The movement slowly took on a political hue and turned into a movement against the oppressive policies of the British.

The Bhils began opposing taxes imposed by the British and forced labour imposed by the princely states of Banswara, Santrampur, Dungarpur and Kushalgarh. Worried by the tribal revolt, the Britishers and princely states decided to crush the uprising. From October 1913, Govind guru asked his followers to gather at Mangarh hill from where they would conduct their operations.

The British asked them to vacate Mangarh hill by 15 November, but they refused. On 17 November, the tribals were gathering for a meeting when the British forces under Maj S Bailey and Capt E Stiley opened fire from cannons and guns on the crowd. Though there are no official estimates, locals say about 2500 people were killed in cold blood.

Govind guru was captured and exiled from the area. He was imprisoned in Hyderabad jail and released in 1919 on grounds of good behavior. But as he was exiled from his homeland, he settled in Limdi in Gujarat where he died in 1931. The site of the massacre is today known as Mangarh Dham and the locals are demanding that a national memorial be built there in memory of the martyrs.

The Banswara district lies in the southernmost part of Rajasthan. It is surrounded by Pratapgarh in the north, Dungarpur in the west, Ratlam and Jhabua districts of Madhya Pradesh in the east and south and Dahod district, Gujarat to the south.

Since 2012 Government engineering College has been started and in State Budget of 2013–14 declared for Starting of one Medical college in Banswara.

For opening of one nuclear power plant, & Two Super critical thermal power plant & Railway line (Ratlam -Dungarpur via Banswara) various Proceeding of State Govt is going on.

As of 2001 India census,[8] Banswara city had a population of 101,177. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Banswara city has an average literacy rate of 86.98%, higher than the national average of 59.5%, with 92.76% of the males and 81.01% of females literate.

Kagdi Pick Up Weir

Situated amidst the Aravali valley, Banswara represents tribal culture in Rajasthan. With a landscape predominated by bamboo trees (Hindi: बाँस) the region came to be known as Banswara. Banswara town was founded by King Jagmal Singh.[9] The town has eleven and a half Swayambhoo Shivalingas; it was also called 'Lodhikashi' or little Kashi. Yet another name is 'An Area of Hundred Islands'. Situated in southern Rajasthan, the town borders Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Due to this inter-regional neighborhood, the Vagdi culture has emerged as a mixture of Gujarati, Malwi, Rajasthani and Mewari cultures. Banswara district is rich in forests, hills and wildlife. Tribals are the natives of this region.

The district has a climate which is milder than that in the desert regions in further north and north-west.

• Maximum temperature is 45 degrees Celsius to 46 degrees Celsius.
• Minimum temperature is 10 degrees Celsius to 20 degrees Celsius
• Normal annual rainfall is 922.4 mm

Banswara Municipal Board has been upgraded to Municipal council (Nagar Parishad).

In 2018 the MLA of this region is [Arjun Singh Bamaniya].

Haridev Joshi is from a village name Khandu in Banswara district and was chief minister of Rajasthan thrice. Under Haridev Joshi Banswara saw much development, most prominently, the construction of Mahi Bajaj Sagar dam.

The total transformer capacity in the district is 63.1 MV·A. Of the 1,431 villages 1,219 villages were electrified up to 31 March 2000.

The Mahi river flows on the borders of Peepalkhoot and Ghatol and Banswara Panchayat Samitis. The Mahi project has the capacity to irrigate an area of 800 square kilometres.

Schools and higher educational institutions in Banswara are administered either by the Directorate of Education, the government, or private organizations. In 2008–09, there were 1,995 primary and middle schools, 283 secondary and senior secondary schools in the city. The higher education institutions in the city included Two Govt P.G.Colleges and & Eight Private colleges. For technical education one Govt. Polytechnic and one government engineering college and two ITIs.

Private schools in the city—which employ either English or Hindi as the language of instruction—are affiliated to one of two administering bodies: the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education and the Central Board for Secondary Education.

some school for example:- Kendriya vidyalaya, St. Paul senior secondary school, Ankur senior secondary school,

The focus on political reportage, including regular television broadcasts of Indian parliament sessions. Many country-wide media agencies, among them the state-owned Press Trust of India and Doordarshan, are based in the city. Television programming in the city includes two free terrestrial television channels offered by Doordarshan, and several Hindi, English and regional-languages cable channels offered by multi-system operators. Satellite television, in contrast, is yet to gain large-scale subscribership in the city.

Print journalism remains a popular news medium. During the year 2005–06, newspapers—in Hindi languages—were published from the city. Of these, Hindi language newspapers, and included Dainik Bhaskar, Rajasthan Patrika. Other major English newspapers include Indian Express, Business Standard, The Times of India, The Hindu.

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