Ballia District

Ballia district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ballia district is a part of Azamgarh division situated in the east of Uttar Pradesh. The main economic activity is agriculture. City is the district headquarters and commercial market of this district. It is the birthplace of former prime minister of India Chandra Sekhar Singh
There are six tehsils in this district: Ballia, Bansdih, Rasra, Bairia, Sikandarpur and Belthara. Rasra is the second major commercial area of the district, having a government sugar mill and a cotton weaving industry. Though Ballia's core occupation is agriculture there are some additional small industries. Maniar is known for its bindi industry and is a major supplier.

History

There is a temple of Kameshwar Dham in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh. The specialty of this temple is that here Lord Shiva got angry and consumed Kamadeva. Lord Shri Ram, Lakshmana had come along with Maharishi Vishvamitra to this land. Sage Durvasa did penance here. Devotees from far and wide come to visit this temple. It is believed about this Dham that it is the same place mentioned in Shiva Purana and Valmiki Ramayana where Lord Shiva burnt the commander of the gods Kamadeva to ashes. Here even today there is that half-burnt, green mango tree (tree) hiding behind which Kamadeva shot a flower arrow at Lord Shankar, who was absorbed in the samadhi.
Ballia district was established in 1879 out of Ghazipur district along with some parts of Azamgarh district. Before being separated, Ballia tehsil had formed a subdivision of Ghazipur district, comprising the parganas of Ballia, Doaba, and Kharid. In addition, the new district included the parganas of Lakhnesar and Kopachit from Ghazipur district, as well as Bhadaon and Sikandarpur from Azamgarh district. These formed the tehsil of Rasra.

Some administrative changes then took place in the following years. In April 1882, Bansdih tehsil was created out of Kharid pargana along with the new pargana of Sikandarpur East, which was formed out of 225 villages of Sikandarpur pargana. At the same time, 212 villages of Kopachit pargana were detached to form the new pargana of Kopachit East, which went into Ballia tehsil. Then in April 1883, tappa Dhaka of pargana Zahurabad was joined with Sikandarpur West, and in November 1884, 13 villages of Lakhnesar pargana that lay on the right bank of the Sarju were transferred back into Ghazipur district. Another major change happened in March 1892, when the parganas of Garha and Sarai Kota, previously in Muhammadabad tehsil of Ghazipur district, were moved into Ballia and placed in Ballia tehsil.

Other, more minor, changes also took place due to the shifting course of the major rivers. For example, in June 1892, the village of Diara Khawaspur was transferred into Ballia district from Shahabad district because it had now come to be on the left bank of the Ganges. Then in January 1896, the four villages of Bijaura, Sital Patti, Sheopur, and Bhelsipah were transferred into Ballia from Shahabad for the same reason. However, these changes had little impact on the local population because when the villages became flooded, residents generally retreated inland on the same side of the river, rather than crossing over into the new district.

Until 1794, the area of modern Ballia district had formed part of Benares State. On 27 October of that year, Raja Mahip Narayan Singh signed a treaty to cede the territory to the British.

Struggle for independence

In 1908, students at the government school in Ballia held a procession to celebrate the release of nationalist writer B.G. Tilak from prison. When the students reached the kutchery, the police made a lathi charge on them and many students were maimed. 25 students were expelled and many others quit in order to focus on political activities.

When Mahatma Gandhi launched the non-cooperation movement in the early 1920s, the people in Ballia district responded enthusiastically. A volunteer force of 2,600 was raised in the district to help organise meetings and protests and conduct night patrols. The district also contributed a sum of 13,000 rupees to the Tilak Memorial Swaraj Fund. Stores selling alcohol were picketed, and many palm trees were cut down throughout the district (due to their being used to make arrack). Law courts and government offices were boycotted, and many students stopped attending school in order to take part in meetings and processions. British goods were also boycotted, and foreign goods were burnt in public: among the recorded incidents in Ballia district were one ganja seller in Rasra and a number of cloth merchants in Ballia who publicly burnt their wares in protest.

On April 4, 1922, Jawaharlal Nehru spoke to a crowd of 3,000 people in Ballia. Then, on June 21 and 22, Motilal Nehru and Madan Mohan Malaviya also gave addresses at Rasra and Ballia, where they promoted Swadeshi ideas including the revival of hand-spinning and hand-weaving, ending untouchability among Hindus, prohibition of alcohol, and Hindu-Muslim unity. Their speeches received very positive receptions, and a national school was established at Bansdih while spinning wheels were distributed in rural parts of the district.

Jawaharlal Nehru returned to Ballia in 1923, where he gave a speech denouncing Gandhi's arrest and imprisonment. As a result, on March 18 (exactly one year after Gandhi's arrest), members of the district held a total hartal. Gandhi himself later visited the district in 1925, where he thanked the district residents for their enthusiastic participation in the non-cooperation movement. Later, in protest of the Simon Commission in 1928, all schools run by the Ballia district board were closed and a complete hartal observed.

In early 1930, many Ballia district residents took part in the salt satyagraha. Then beginning on April 12, salt was publicly manufactured in Ballia in violation of the British salt law. People in Reoti, Rasra, and Bansdih later followed suit.

Quit India Movement

During the Quit India Movement of 1942, Ballia district saw much activity, leading to it gaining the nickname "Revolutionary Ballia". On August 15, people raised the Indian tricolour at the Bairia police station, but the officers took it down. In protest, on the 18th, a crowd of some 25,000 people gathered and attempted to replace the flag. The police officers opened fire on the protestors, killing at least 20 and injuring about 100 more. This began around 14:00 and continued for about six hours. That night, however, the police evacuated the station, and it was occupied by the protestors the next morning.

The violence against protestors at Bairia outraged locals, who took up arms in spite of the ideal of nonviolent resistance generally prevailing until then. A crowd of around 50,000 marched toward the district jail to free their compatriots whom the British had arrested. When the district magistrate (who was himself Indian) learned of this, he went to the imprisoned local leaders, including Chittu Pandey, and offered to release them provided they pacified the crowd. When they refused, the magistrate asked them to ensure that no harm was done to the treasury, jail, and government property. When they refused again, and the magistrate was left with no choice but to release them unconditionally and merely hope they would then leave the government property alone.

After their release, the leaders held a massive town hall meeting, where Chittu Pandey urged the people "not to indulge in sabotage or similar activities." Many disregarded this, however, so outraged were they at the British police's violence, and went about looting houses of government officers along with those viewed as collaborators with the government, as well as shops selling liquor and foreign cloth. The district magistrate, now sure that the treasury would be raided, ordered the currency amounts to be noted and then the money itself burned. On August 20, the people of Ballia proclaimed independence from the British, declared itself part of the Congress raj, and set up a local governing body with Chittu Pandey at its head.

However, British troops entered Ballia during the night of August 22–23 and deposed the local government. They arrested anyone who had taken part — or was suspected to have taken part — in the revolutionary activities, beat and tortured them, and burned down their houses. Some were intentionally starved. In March 1944, Feroze Gandhi and a lawyer from Allahabad came by rail to give legal representation to the prisoners; their arrival was celebrated by a growing crowd that became a procession as they made their way to the Chowk. Other lawyers then followed suit.

In 1972, in honour of the anniversary of the independence of India, 616 people in Ballia district were recognized for their (or their family members') contributions during the struggle for independence with copper plate inscriptions.

Demography

According to the 2011 census Ballia district has a population of 3,239,774, roughly equal to the nation of Mauritania or the US state of Iowa. This gives it a ranking of 108th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 16.73%. Ballia has a sex ratio of 937 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 73.94%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes made up 15.27% and 3.40% of the population respectively.

Among the largest Hindu groups in Ballia district are the Rajputs, with many of them living throughout the district. Some two dozen Dalit groups live in Ballia district, with the largest being the Chamars and the Dobgars.

Most Muslims in Ballia district belong to the Sunni tradition of Islam, although there is also a small portion who practice Shia Islam. The largest Muslim community is the Julahas, whose traditional occuption of weaving is still widespread. The second-largest Muslim group is the Sheikhs, who generally are most numerous in Rasra tehsil; their subdivisions include Siddiqui, Ansari, Quraishi, Usmani, Faruqui, and Abbasi.

There is also a small Sikh population in Ballia district, most of whom are originally immigrants from Pakistan. They mostly live in urban areas.

Languages

At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 81.96% of the population in the district spoke Bhojpuri, 16.97% Hindi and 0.94% Urdu

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