Deoband is a town and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Saharanpur district Saharanpur district is the northernmost of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state, India. Bordering the states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and close to the foothills of Shivalik range, it lies in the northern part of the Doab r ...

in the state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

, India, about 150 km from

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

Darul Uloom Deoband The Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic seminary (darul uloom) in India at which the Sunni Deobandi Islamic movement began. It is located in Deoband, a town in Saharanpur district, Uttar Pradesh. The seminary was established by Muhammad Qasim ...

, an Islamic seminary and one of the largest Islamic Institution of India is located there.

Etymology

The native

Hindi-Urdu Hindustani (; Devanagari: , * * * * ; Perso-Arabic: , , ) is the ''lingua franca'' of Northern and Central India and Pakistan. Hindustani is a pluricentric language with two standard registers, known as Hindi and Urdu. Thus, the langu ...

name for the place is "Devband". According to one theory, it derives from "

devi Devī (; Sanskrit: देवी) is the Sanskrit word for 'goddess'; the masculine form is ''deva''. ''Devi'' and ''deva'' mean 'heavenly, divine, anything of excellence', and are also gender-specific terms for a deity in Hinduism. The conce ...

" (goddess) and "van" (forest), when this place was full of forests in the

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

-era. A related argument is that it is derived from "devi" and "vandan" (praise), referring to the local

Durga Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around co ...

temples.

History

The 16th century Hindu saint

Hith Harivansh Mahaprabhu Shri Hit Harivansh Chandra Mahaprabhu (another spelling, Hita Harivaṃśa, 1509–1552) is a Braj-language bhakti poet- sant and the founder of Radha Vallabh Sampradaya. His principal work is the hymnal ''Hita-Caurāsī''. Born in Baad Graa ...

and the founder of the Radhavallabh Sampradaya of

Vaishnavism Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

based in

Vrindavan Vrindavan (; ), also spelt Vrindaban and Brindaban, is a historical city in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located in the Braj Bhoomi region and holds religious importance in Hinduism as Krishna spent most of his childho ...

, lived in Deoband. Deoband is listed in the

Ain-i-Akbari The ''Ain-i-Akbari'' ( fa, ) or the "Administration of Akbar", is a 16th-century detailed document recording the administration of the Mughal Empire under Emperor Akbar, written by his court historian, Abu'l Fazl in the Persian language. It for ...

as a

pargana Pargana ( bn, পরগনা, , hi, परगना, ur, پرگنہ) or parganah, also spelt pergunnah during the time of the Sultanate period, Mughal times and British Raj, is a former administrative unit of the Indian subcontinent and each ...

under Saharanpur sarkar, producing a revenue of 6,477,977

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, a ...

s for the imperial treasury and supplying a force of 300 infantry and 60 cavalry. It had a brick fort at the time. The

learning centre was established on 21 May 1866 by

Fazlur Rahman Usmani Fazlur Rahmān Usmāni (1831 – 15 June 1907) was an Indian Muslim scholar and poet who co-founded the Darul Uloom Deoband. He was father of the scholars, Aziz-ur-Rahman Usmani and Shabbir Ahmad Usmani. His grandson Atiqur Rahman Usmani was th ...

Sayyid Muhammad Abid Sayyid Muhammad Abid (also known as Hāji Abid Hussain) (1834–1912) was an Indian Muslim scholar who co-founded Darul Uloom Deoband. He was the Vice Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband for three times. Name and lineage His ism (given name) wa ...

Muhammad Qasim Nanotawi Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi (1832 – 15 April 1880) () was an Indian Sunni Hanafi Maturidi Islamic Scholar, theologian and a Sufi who was one of the main founders of the Deobandi Movement, starting from the Darul Uloom Deoband. Name and lin ...

Mehtab Ali Mehtab may refer to: * Mehtab (actress), Indian actress * Mehtab Kadınefendi, wife Sultan Abdülmecid I * Mehtab Bagh Mehtab Bagh () is a charbagh complex in Agra, North India. It lies north of the Taj Mahal complex and the Agra Fort on the o ...

, Nehal Ahmad and

Zulfiqar Ali Deobandi Zulfiqar ( ar, ذُو ٱلْفَقَار, Ḏū-l-Faqār, ), also spelled ''Zu al-Faqar'', ''Zulfikar'', ''Dhu al-Faqar'', ''Dhulfaqar'' or ''Dhulfiqar'', is the sword of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Middle Eastern weapons are commonly inscribed w ...

. The

Deobandi Islamic movement Deobandi is a Islamic revival, revivalist movement within Sunni Islam, adhering to the Hanafi school of law, formed in the late 19th century around the Darul Uloom Deoband, Darul Uloom Madrassa in Deoband, India, from which the name derives, ...

originated in the Darul Uloom.

Geography

Deoband is located at . It has an average elevation of .

Demographics

Deoband has a population of 97,037 of which 53,538 are males while 43,499 are females as per the report released by Census India 2011. The population of children aged 0–6 is 12,200 which is 12.57% of the total population. The

sex ratio The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species devia ...

is 812 females per 1000 males against the state average of 912. The child sex ratio in Deoband is around 917 compared to the Uttar Pradesh state average of 902. The effective literacy rate (for population 7 years and above) is 75.23%, higher than the state average of 67.68% with male literacy of 79.59% and the female literacy rate is 69.77%. Out of the total population, 24,559 were engaged in work or business activity. Of this, 22,551 were males while 2,008 were females and 89.91% were engaged in main work. The

Scheduled Caste The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

population was 3,576. Deoband had a total of 16,530 households in 2011. Deoband Nagar Palika Parishad has a total administration over 15,630 houses to which it supplies basic amenities like water and

sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residenc ...

. It is also authorized to build roads within Nagar Palika Parishad limits and impose taxes on properties coming under its jurisdiction.

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Saharanpur district Deoband

Etymology

History

Geography

Demographics

See also

References