Khandwa district, formerly known as the East Nimar district, is a

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

of the

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

state in central India. The city of

Khandwa Khandwa is a city and a nagar nigam in the Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Khandwa district, formerly known as East Nimar District. Khandwa is a major railway junction; the Malwa line conn ...

is the administrative headquarters of the district. Other notable towns in the district include

Mundi Mundi is a city and Tehsil in the Khandwa district of Nimar region the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is situated in North Side of East Nimar District. Mundi is an ancient city, with many places of worship, like many other cities in In ...

Harsud Harsud was a town and municipality in Khandwa in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Although the town was more than 700 years old, it was submerged under the waters of the Indira Sagar dam in July 2004. Geography Harsud was located at and had ...

, Pandhana and Omkareshwar.

Geography

The district has an area of , and a population 1,310,061 (2011 census).

District lies in the

Nimar Nimar is the southwestern region of Madhya Pradesh state in west-central India. This region has sub-regions which include Nimad, Khandya and Bhuwana. The region lies south of the Vindhya Range, and consists of two portions of the Narmada and ...

region, which includes the lower valley of the Narmada River, Kherkhali River, Choti Tawa River, Shiva River. The Narmada forms part of the northern boundary of the district, and the

Satpura Range The Satpura Range is a range of hills in central India. The range rises in eastern Gujarat running east through the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and ends in Chhattisgarh. The range parallels the Vindhya Range to the north, and these ...

form the southern boundary of the district. Burhanpur District, to the south, lies in the basin of the

Tapti River The Tapti River (or Tapi) is a river in central India located to the south of the Narmada river that flows westwards before draining into the Arabian Sea. The river has a length of around and flows through the states of Maharashtra, Gujara ...

. The pass through the Satpuras connecting Khandwa and

Burhanpur Burhanpur'' is a historical city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the administrative seat of Burhanpur District. It is situated on the north bank of the Tapti River and northeast of city of Mumbai, southwest of the state's capi ...

is one of the main routes connecting northern and southern India, and the fortress of

Asirgarh Asirgarh Fort is an Indian fortress ''(qila)'' situated in the Satpura Range about north of the city of Burhanpur, in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Because the fortress commands a pass through the Satpuras connecting the valleys of the ...

, which commands the pass, is known as the "Key to the Deccan". Betul and

Harda Harda is a town and a municipality in Harda district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Harda is the administrative headquarters of Harda. History Mughal period During the Mughal period, Harda was a mahal in the Handia sarkar. In 1742 ...

districts lie to the east, Dewas District to the north, and

Khargone District Khargone district, formerly known as West Nimar district, is a district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. The district lies in the Nimar region, and is part of the Indore Division. Khargone city is the headquarters of this district whi ...

to the west.

History

Khandwa district was surrendered by the

Maratha The Marathi people ( Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as ...

s to the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

in 1818, and later became part of the Central Provinces and Berar. The area to the west, which forms the present Khargone district, was part of the princely state of Indore. After India's independence in 1947, the Central Provinces and Berar became the new Indian state of

. The Khandwa district was known as "Nimar District" before 1954, when the state of

Madhya Bharat Madhya Bharat, also known as Malwa Union, was an Indian state in west-central India, created on 28 May 1948 from twenty-five princely states which until 1947 had been part of the Central India Agency, with Jiwajirao Scindia as its Rajpramukh. ...

to the west was merged with the state of Madhya Pradesh. Later it came to be called "East Nimar district", and a separate "West Nimar district" with headquarters at

Khargone Khargone is a city and administrative headquarters of an Khargone district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The city is located on the bank of the Kunda river and is known for its cotton and chilly (chili pepper) production. It is also ...

was established. The East Nimar district was part of the Nerbudda (Narmada) Division of the Central Provinces and Berar, which became the state of Madhya Bharat (later

) after India's independence in 1947. Khandwa was known as East Nimar until recently. Burhanpur District was separated from Khandwa District on 15 August 2003. Khandwa District is part of

Indore Division Indore division is an administrative geographical unit of Madhya Pradesh state of India. Indore is the administrative headquarters of the division. The division consists of districts of Indore, Barwani, Burhanpur, Dhar, Jhabua, Khandwa, Kharg ...

Economy

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 ...

named Khandwa one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the 24 districts in Madhya Pradesh currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Khandwa 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 1,310,061, This gives it a ranking of 374th in India (out of a total of 640). 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 21.44%. East Nimar 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 d ...

of 944

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 ...

for every 1,000 males, and a

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 ...

of 67.53%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes made up 11.95% and 35.05% of the population respectively.

Languages

At the time of the

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 ...

, 40.59% of the population in the district spoke

Nimadi Nimadi is a Western Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Nimar region of west-central India within the state of Madhya Pradesh. This region lies adjacent to Maharashtra and south of Malwa. The districts where Nimadi is spoken are: Barwani, Khandwa ...

, 33.84%

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 ...

, 9.71% Korku, 3.20%

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Bhili, 2.06% Bareli, 1.67% Banjari, 1.24% Gondi and 1.05%

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

as their first language. Languages spoken include

, a

Bhil Bhil or Bheel is an ethnic group in western India. They speak the Bhil languages, a subgroup of the Western Zone of the Indo-Aryan languages. As of 2013, Bhils were the largest tribal group in India. Bhils are listed as tribal people of t ...

language with approximately 64 000 speakers, written in the

Devanagari script Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental syste ...

Cities of Khandwa

Major cities of Khnadwa include

, Pandhana and Omkareshwar.

Notable people

Ashok Kumar Kumudlal Ganguly (13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), better known by his stage name Ashok Kumar and also by Dadamoni, was an Indian actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema and who was a member of the cinematic Ganguly family. He ...

, actor * Kishore Kumar, singer and actor *

Anoop Kumar Kalyan Kumar Ganguly ( bn, কল্যাণ কুমার গাঙ্গুলী) (born 9 January 1926 – 20 September 1997), better known by his stage name Anoop Kumar ( bn, অনুপ কুমার hi, अनूप कुमा ...

* Bhagwantrao Mandloi, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh * Pt.

Makhanlal Chaturvedi Pandit Makhanlal Chaturvedi (4 April 1889 – 30 January 1968), also called Pandit ji, was an Indian poet, writer, essayist, playwright and a journalist who is particularly remembered for his participation in India's national struggle for indepe ...

, Hindi poet & freedom fighter *

Shaan (singer) Shantanu Mukherjee (born 30 September 1972), popularly known as Shaan, is an Indian playback singer, composer, live perfomer ,actor and television personality. He has recorded songs for films and albums in various Indian languages and has est ...

* Saroo Brierley was born in Khandwa and lived there until about the age of five years when he was lost and adopted by a family in AustraliaBrierley, Saroo (2013). ''A Long Way Home''. Viking, Australia

References

External links

Official website

Khandwa Mandi Bhav
{{coord, 21, 49, 48, N, 76, 20, 24, E, region:IN-MP_type:adm2nd_source:kolossus-nowiki, display=title Districts of Madhya Pradesh