Gonda district (

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

: गोण्डा/गोंडा,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

districts of Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, has 75 districts. These districts, most of which have populations above 10 lakhs, and are grouped into 18 divisions for administrative convenience. Division wise listing of districts Area-wis ...

, India. The city of Gonda is the district headquarters, and also the administrative centre for the

Devipatan Division Devipatan division is an administrative geographical unit of Uttar Pradesh state of India. Currently (2005), the division consists of districts of: * Gonda, * Bahraich, * Shravasti, and * Balarampur. * Gonda is headquarters of this div ...

. The total area of Gonda district is .

History

Under the

Nawabs of Awadh The Nawab of Awadh or the Nawab of Oudh was the title of the rulers who governed the state of Awadh (anglicised as Oudh) in north India during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Nawabs of Awadh belonged to a dynasty of Persian origin from Nishapu ...

, Gonda was originally part of the Nizamat of

Gorakhpur Gorakhpur is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, along the banks of the Rapti river in the Purvanchal region. It is situated 272 kilometers east of the state capital Lucknow. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur dist ...

, but after Gorakhpur was ceded to the British in 1801, Gonda was united with

Bahraich district Bahraich district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh state of India, and Bahraich town is the district headquarters. Bahraich District is a part of Devipatan Division. History According to some other historians in the middle age this pla ...

. It was created as a separate district by the British when they annexed Awadh in 1856. In 1875, parts of Gonda district between Baghaura Tal and the

Arrah river Arrah (also transliterated as Ara) is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district (formerly known as Shahabad district) in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the headquarters of Bhojpur district, located near the confluence of the ...

were ceded to

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

by the British government. The territory covered by the present district of Gonda formed part of the ancient

Kosala Kingdom Kosala Proper or simply Kosala is the kingdom of the celebrated personality of Treta Yuga, Raghava Rama. Ayodhya was its capital, presently in Ayodhya district, Uttar Pradesh. Rama's sons Lava (Ramayana) and Kusha inherited parts of this ...

. After the going of

lord Rama Rama (; ), Ram, Raman or Ramar, also known as Ramachandra (; , ), is a major deity in Hinduism. He is the seventh and one of the most popular ''avatars'' of Vishnu. In Rama-centric traditions of Hinduism, he is considered the Supreme Being ...

, the celebrated sovereign of the Solar line who ruled

Kosala The Kingdom of Kosala (Sanskrit: ) was an ancient Indian kingdom with a rich culture, corresponding to the area within the region of Awadh in present-day Uttar Pradesh to Western Odisha. It emerged as a janapada, small state during the late Ve ...

, the kingdom was divided into two portions defined by the

Ghaghara Ghaghara, also called Karnali, is a perennial trans-boundary river originating on the Tibetan Plateau near Lake Manasarovar. The Karnali cuts through the Himalayas in Nepal and joins the Sharda River at Brahmaghat in India. Together they form th ...

river. The northern portion was then ruled by his son,

Lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

with the city of

Sravasti Shravasti ( sa, श्रावस्ती, translit=Śrāvastī; pi, 𑀲𑀸𑀯𑀢𑁆𑀣𑀻, translit=Sāvatthī) is a city and district headquarter of Shravasti district in Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. It was the capital of the an ...

as his capital. More recently, ancient

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

remains dating to the early days of Buddhism have been found throughout the region, including at Sravasti. Gonda played a significant part in the Indian struggle for independence, with many people from the region actively involved: including Maharaja Aksh Valmikan, who escaped to Nepal, freedom fighters like

Chandra Shekhar Azad Chandra Shekhar Tiwari ( (23 July 1906 – 27 February 1931), popularly known as Chandra Shekhar Azad, was an Indian revolutionary who reorganised the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) under its new name of Hindustan Socialist Republican ...

took shelter in the district, and

Rajendra Lahiri Rajendra Nath Lahiri (29 June 1901 — 17 December 1927), known simply as Rajendra Lahiri, was an Indian revolutionary, who was a mastermind behind the Kakori conspiracy and Dakshineshwar bombing. He was active member of Hindustan Republican As ...

was incarcerated and hanged in the Gonda Jail. In more recent times, the district received media attention throughout India due to the protracted court case surrounding the murder of 13 people known as the

1982 Gonda Encounter The 1982 Gonda Encounter is an ongoing criminal case involving the murder of 13 people including the Deputy Superintendent of police in Gonda district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. On 5 March 2013 three police personnel were given Capital ...

Industry

There are several sugar mills, rice mills and many other small industries and handicraft industry. One of the India's six

Indian Telephone Industries ITI Limited, earlier known as Indian Telephone Industries Limited, is a central public sector undertaking in India. It is under the ownership of Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications , Government of India. It was founde ...

is situated at

Mankapur Mankapur is a town and a nagar panchayat in Gonda district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is a constituency of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly currently headed by BJP. It borders Gonda to the West, Rehra to the North, Maskanawa to t ...

, and the largest

sugar mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw or white sugar. The term is also used to refer to the equipment that crushes the sticks of sugar cane to extract the juice. Processing There are a number of steps in pro ...

in India is situated at Kundarkhi. In 2006 the

Ministry of Panchayati Raj The Ministry of Panchayati Raj is a branch of the Government of India. Ministry of Panchayati Raj looks into all matters relating to the Panchayati Raj and Panchayati Raj Institutions. It was created in May 2004. The ministry is headed by a m ...

named Gonda one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the 34 districts in Uttar Pradesh currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Demographics

Population

According to the 2011 census Gonda district has a

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of 3,433,919, roughly equal to the nation of

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

or the US state of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. This gives it a ranking of 95th in India (out of a total of 640). The total number of literates in the district is 1,679,99 which constitute 48.9% of the total population. Population in the age range of 0 to 6 years was 572,386. The effective literacy (population 7 years and above) was 58.7%. The district has a population density of . Its

population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 83 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to ...

over the decade 2001-2011 was 24.17%, higher than the average of Uttar Pradesh (20.09%). Gonda has a

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 ...

of 921

females Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females a ...

for every 1000 males, and a sex ratio among children 0–6 years old of 926, both higher than the state average (908 and 899 respectively). Scheduled Castes made up 15.49% of the population. The human development index of the Gonda district is very low.

Tehsils (Sub-district)

There are four

Tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

s in Gonda district. #

Colonelganj Colonelganj is a town and a municipal board in Gonda district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Geography and agriculture Colonelganj is located at . It has an average elevation of 119 metres (390 feet). It has an ideal climate f ...

# Gonda #

# Tarabganj

Blocks

Gonda district comprises 16 Blocks: # Babhanjot # Belsar # Chhapia # Colonelganj # Haldharmau # Itiathok # Jhanjhari # Katra Bazar # Mankapur # Mujehana # Nawabganj # Pandri Kripal # Paraspur # Rupaidih # Tarabganj # Wazirganj

Religion

Gonda district is Hindu-majority, but with a significant Muslim minority.

Languages

The official language of the district is

and additional official language is

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, 81.03% of the population in the district spoke

, 16.04%

Awadhi Awadhi (; ), also known as Audhi (), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in northern India and Nepal. It is primarily spoken in the Awadh region of present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. The name ''Awadh'' is connected to Ayodhya, the ancient city, w ...

and 2.68%

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Languages spoken in the district include

, a tongue of the

Hindi continuum The Hindi Belt, also known as the Hindi Heartland, is a linguistic region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern and western India where various Central Indo-Aryan languages subsumed under the term 'Hindi' (for example, by the I ...

spoken by over 38 million people, mainly in the

Awadh Awadh (), known in British historical texts as Avadh or Oudh, is a region in the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. It is synonymous with the Kośāla region of ...

region; and

Education

The effective

literacy rate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...

(7+) is 58.71%, the state average (69.72%). The government of India has created a special scheme for underdeveloped districts through the "Backward Region Grant Fund". Gonda is one of the recipients of this fund.

Public health

Gonda has 15 hospitals, 27

Ayurvedic Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population rep ...

hospitals, 11

Homeopathic Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dise ...

hospitals and 2

Unani Unani or Yunani medicine (Urdu: ''tibb yūnānī'') is Perso-Arabic traditional medicine as practiced in Muslim culture in South Asia and modern day Central Asia. Unani medicine is pseudoscientific. The Indian Medical Association describes U ...

hospitals, in addition to 66 Government Primary Health Centres. Gonda is one of the districts in the list of top 100 districts in order of Infant Mortality Rate in 2011 census data. It also comes in the top 57 districts with the highest maternal mortality rate Gonda has been listed as cleanest city in entire Uttar Pradesh according to the Swachhta Sarvekshan 2022 overturning its last position in the country as per the 2017 survey.

Notable people

* Adam Gondvi * Avadh Ojha Sir * Vinod Singh (Gonda politician) * Bawan Singh * Ketki Devi Singh * Mahboob Meena Shah * Raja Devi Bakhsh Singh

References

External links

*
Alternative Web Site Of the Gonda District

at ''

The Imperial Gazetteer of India ''The Imperial Gazetteer of India'' was a gazetteer of the British Indian Empire, and is now a historical reference work. It was first published in 1881. Sir William Wilson Hunter made the original plans of the book, starting in 1869.< ...

'', 1908, v. 12, p. 311-319. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonda District Districts of Uttar Pradesh