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 ...

in Saharanpur district 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 195 ...

, 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, 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 lang ...

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 K ...

-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 c ...

temples.

History

The 16th century Hindu saint Hith Harivansh Mahaprabhu 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 ...

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 dams for the imperial treasury and supplying a force of 300 infantry and 60 cavalry. It had a brick fort at the time. The Darul Uloom Deoband learning centre was established on 21 May 1866 by Fazlur Rahman Usmani, Sayyid Muhammad Abid, Muhammad Qasim Nanotawi,

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 ...

, 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 wi ...

. The Deobandi Islamic movement 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 dev ...

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. 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