Manbazar I

Manbazar I is a community development block (CD block) that forms an administrative division in the Manbazar subdivision of the Purulia district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

History

Background

The ''Jaina Bhagavati-Sutra'' of the 5th century AD mentions that Purulia was one of the sixteen mahajanapadas and was a part of the kingdom known as Vajra-bhumi in ancient times. In 1833, Manbhum district was carved out of the Jungle Mahals district, with headquarters at Manbazar. In 1838, the headquarters was transferred to Purulia. After independence, when Manbhum district was a part of Bihar, efforts were made to impose Hindi on the Bengali-speaking majority of the district and it led to the Bengali Language Movement (Manbhum). In 1956, the Manbhum district was partitioned between Bihar and West Bengal under the States Reorganization Act and the Bihar and West Bengal (Transfer of Territories) Act 1956.

Maoist activities

Manbazar, along with certain other areas such as Banduan, Jhalda, and Jaipur were part of the area of violent activities by the Maoists, also referred to as Naxalites.

Red corridor

106 districts spanning 10 states across India, described as being part of the left wing extremism activities, constitutes the Red corridor. In West Bengal the districts of Paschim Medinipur, Bankura, Purulia and Birbhum are part of the Red corridor. However, as of July 2016, there had been no reported incidents of Maoist related activities from these districts for the previous 4 years.

The CPI (Maoist) extremism affected CD blocks in the Purulia district were: Jhalda I, Jhalda II, Arsha, Baghmundi, Balarampur, Barabazar, Manbazar II and Bandwan. Certain reports also included the Manbazar I and Joypur CD blocks and some times indicted the whole of Purulia district.

The Lalgarh movement, which started attracting attention after the failed assassination attempt on Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, then chief minister of West Bengal, in the Salboni area of the Paschim Medinipur district, on 2 November 2008 and the police action that followed, had also spread over to these areas. The movement was not just a political struggle but an armed struggle that concurrently took the look of a social struggle. A large number of CPI (M) activists were killed. Although the epi-centre of the movement was Lalgarh, it was spread across 19 police stations in three adjoining districts – Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia, all thickly forested and near the border with Jharkhand. The deployment of CRPF and other forces started on 11 June 2009. The movement came to an end after the 2011 state assembly elections and change of government in West Bengal. The death of Kishenji, the Maoist commander, on 24 November 2011, was the last major landmark.

Geography

Manbazar is located at .

The Manbazar I CD block is located in the eastern part of the district. The Kangsabati River flows through the CD block in to the Kangsabati Reservoir. The lower Kangsabati basin has degraded lowlands.

The Manbazar I CD block is bounded by the Puncha CD block on the north, the Hirbandh CD block, in the Bankura district, on the east, the Manbazar II CD block on the south and the Barabazar CD block on the west.

The Manbazar I CD block has an area of 381.32 km². It has 1 panchayat samity, 10 gram panchayats, 114 gram sansads, 244 mouzas, 219 inhabited villages and one census town. Manbazar, Kenda (partly) and Puncha (partly) police stations serve this CD block. Headquarters of this CD block are at Manbazar.

The Kangsabati Project has submerged large areas of the Purulia district in the Manbazar area.

Gram panchayats of the Manbazar I CD block/ panchayat samiti are: Baramasya-Ramnagar, Bamni-Majhihira, Bhalubasa, Bisri, Chandra-Pairachali, Dhanara, Gopalnagar, Jitujuri, Kamta-Jangidiri and Manbazar.

Demographics

Population

According to the 2011 Census of India the Manbazar I CD block had a total population of 154,071, of which 144,550 were rural and 9,521 were urban. There were 78,039 (51%) males and 76,032 (49%) females. There were 19,777 persons in the age range of 0 to 6 years. The Scheduled Castes numbered 34,575 (22.44%) and the Scheduled Tribes numbered 33,942 (22.03%).

According to the 2001 census, the Manbazar I CD block had a total population of 127,609, out of which 64,310 were males and 63,299 were females. The Manbazar I CD block registered a population growth of 8.56 per cent during the 1991-2001 decade. Decadal growth for the Purulia district was 13.96 per cent. Decadal growth in West Bengal was 17.84 per cent.

Census Towns in the Manbazar I CD block are (2011 census figures in brackets): Manbazar (9,521).

Large villages (with 4,000+ population) in the Manbazar I CD block are (2011 census figures in brackets): Jitujori (4,339).

Other villages in the Manbazar I CD block are (2011 census figures in brackets): Kenda (3,803), Bhalubasa (2,789), Bamni (2,481), Majhihira (2,104), Jangidiri (1,151), Kamta (1,783), Chandra (1,172), Payrachali (1,668), Barmesya (1,169) and Ramnagar (1,103).

Literacy

According to the 2011 census the total number of literate persons in the Manbazar I CD block was 85,654 (63.78% of the population over 6 years) out of which males numbered 52,481 (77.35% of the male population over 6 years) and females numbered 32,813 (49.38%) of the female population over 6 years). The gender disparity (the difference between female and male literacy rates) was 27.97%.

See also – List of West Bengal districts ranked by literacy rate

Language and religion

In the 2001 census, Bengali was the mother tongue for 76.6% of the population of the district, followed by Santali 11.4%, Kurmali Thar 7.7%, Hindi 1.9%, Urdu