{{Infobox settlement , name = Ratangarh , other_name = Aazamgarh , settlement_type = Village , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , pushpin_map = India Uttar Pradesh , pushpin_label_position = right , pushpin_map_alt = , pushpin_map_caption = Location in Uttar Pradesh, India , coordinates = {{coord, 29.103, N, 78.363, E, display=inline,title , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = {{flag, India , subdivision_type1 =

State State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

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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 ...

, subdivision_type2 =

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 counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

, subdivision_name2 = Bijnor , established_title = , established_date = , founder = Rao Zokha Singh Tyagi , named_for = , government_type = , governing_body = , unit_pref = Metric , area_footnotes = , area_rank = , area_total_km2 = , elevation_footnotes = , elevation_m = , population_total = , population_as_of = , population_rank = , population_density_km2 = auto , population_demonym = , population_footnotes = , demographics_type1 = Languages , demographics1_title1 = Official , demographics1_info1 =

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 ...

, timezone1 =

IST Ist or IST may refer to: Information Science and Technology * Bachelor's or Master's degree in Information Science and Technology * Graduate School / Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Japan * Graduate School ...

, utc_offset1 = +5:30 , postal_code_type =

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, postal_code = 246734 , area_code_type = Telephone code , area_code = 01345 , registration_plate = up-20-.... , blank1_name_sec1 = Nearest city , blank1_info_sec1 = Moradabad , blank2_name_sec1 =

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

constituency , blank2_info_sec1 = bijnor , blank3_name_sec1 =

Vidhan Sabha The State Legislative Assembly, or Vidhan Sabha, or also Saasana Sabha, is a legislative body in the states and union territories of India. In the 28 states and 3 union territories with a unicameral state legislature, it is the sole legislati ...

constituency , blank3_info_sec1 = chandpur , website = , footnotes = Ratangarh is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the northwestern

Rohilkhand Rohilkhand (previously Rampur State) is a region in the northwestern part of Uttar Pradesh, India, that is centered on the Rampur, Bareilly and Moradabad divisions. It is part of the upper Ganges Plain, and is named after the Rohilla tribe. Th ...

region of

state of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is located in the administrative district of

Bijnor Bijnor is a city and a municipal board in Bijnor district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, IndiaRao Zokha Singh Tyagi Atreya . He was a former commander (or ''Rao'') of the northern branch of the Maratha Confederate Army, whose control ranged to the

Tarai , image =Terai nepal.jpg , image_size = , image_alt = , caption =Aerial view of Terai plains near Biratnagar, Nepal , map = , map_size = , map_alt = , map_caption = , biogeographic_realm = Indomalayan realm , global200 = Terai-Duar savanna ...

baselands of the Himalayas. After the Maratha decline that followed the Battle of Delhi, he became a mercenary-adventurer. For a period, he served as the Commanding General (''Sipehsalar'') of the

principality A principality (or sometimes princedom) can either be a monarchical feudatory or a sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a regnant-monarch with the title of prince and/or princess, or by a monarch with another title considered to fall under ...

Sardhana Sardhana is a city and a municipal board in Meerut district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is northeast of New Delhi and 13 mi from Meerut. It is 5 km from Meerut Karnal National Highway and 12 km from National Highway 5 ...

near

Meerut Meerut (, IAST: ''Meraṭh'') is a city in Meerut district of the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city lies northeast of the national capital New Delhi, within the National Capital Region and west of the state capital ...

. He then moved on to found his own principality (or ''riyasat'') with Ratangarh at its center. Ratangarh (literal meaning: Jewel Fort) was established near the site of an older defunct settlement called Azamgarh (literal meaning: Supreme Fort). Since the last days of the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

, government revenue documents have interchangeably referred to the village as Ratangarh, Azamgarh-urf-Ratangarh (literally: Azamgarh-alias-Ratangarh), or Ratangarh-urf-Azamgarh. Along with the rest of Rohilkhand, Ratangarh was affected by the general rebellion against the British in 1857. Economic depression followed for a period. However, it was one of the first settlements in India to be

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

, in the mid-1920s, and this brought about a revival. A school was established in the 1930s. A largely feudal

agrarian system An agrarian system is the dynamic set of economic and technological factors that affect agricultural practices. It is premised on the idea that different systems have developed depending on the natural and social conditions specific to a particula ...

(

Zamindari A zamindar ( Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as a ...

) held sway until the 1940s, after which a combination of legislature-driven Land Reform (such as the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition Act, 1950 and the Uttar Pradesh Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1960) and the

Bhoodan The Bhoodan movement (Land Gift movement), also known as the Bloodless Revolution, was a voluntary land reform movement in India. It was initiated by Gandhian Vinoba Bhave in 1951 at Pochampally village, Pochampally The Bhoodan movement attempted ...

movement brought about land redistribution, similar to other areas of Rohilkhand. At the independence and partition of India in 1947, the region as a whole witnessed an influx of

Punjabis The Punjabis ( Punjabi: ; ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ; romanised as Panjābīs), are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group associated with the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of eastern Pakistan and northwestern India. The ...

and

Sikhs Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism (Sikhi), a monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ...

from the areas that now comprise

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, though Ratangarh itself was relatively unaffected by this demographic change. In a notable event, on 6 April 1885, a meteorite was sighted over Ratangarh and fell close to the nearby settlement of Chandpur.

Demography and culture

The village reflects the broader cultural background of the region of

, flavored by its proximity to the hill state of

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

. The language is the Western Hindi/Urdu dialect of

Khari Boli Kauravi ( hi, कौरवी, ur, ), also known as Khaṛībolī is a set of Western Hindi varieties of Shauraseni Prakrit mainly spoken in Northwestern Uttar Pradesh. Standard Hindi and Urdu are based on Khariboli, specifically on its De ...

, and is extensively

Persianized Persianization () or Persification (; fa, پارسی‌سازی), is a sociological process of cultural change in which a non-Persian society becomes "Persianate", meaning it either directly adopts or becomes strongly influenced by the Persian ...

in its vocabulary. The population is largely

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

with a significant

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

(both

Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...

and

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

) minority. Local castes in this region of Rohilkhand include

Tyagi Tyagi originally called Taga, is a cultivator caste who claim Brahmin status. The landholding community is confined to Western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan. They are often considered the highest of the agricultural castes. During t ...

Ahir Ahir or Aheer are a community of traditionally non-elite pastoralists in India, most members of which identify as being of the Indian Yadav community because they consider the two terms to be synonymous. The Ahirs are variously described as a ...

Yadav Yadav refers to a grouping of traditionally non-elite, Quote: "The Yadavs were traditionally a low-to-middle-ranking cluster of pastoral-peasant castes that have become a significant political force in Uttar Pradesh (and other northern state ...

Jat The Jat people ((), ()) are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subse ...

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

Rohilla Rohillas are a community of Pashtun ancestry, historically found in Rohilkhand, a region in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It forms the largest Pashtun diaspora community in India, and has given its name to the Rohilkhand region. The Ro ...

Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...

(after whom the region is named), and

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the Caste system in India, castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold Varna (Hinduism), varna syste ...

. As in Uttarakhand and

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 ...

, the most important festival is Dashehra, commemorating the victory of

Lord Ram 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 ...

over

Ravan Ravana (; , , ) is a rakshasa king of the island of Lanka, and the chief antagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana'' and its adaptations. In the ''Ramayana'', Ravana is described to be the eldest son of sage Vishrava and Rakshasa, rakshasi Kaik ...

. A traditional folk-play (''

Ramlila Ramlila (Rāmlīlā) (literally 'Rama's lila or play') is any dramatic folk re-enactment of the life of Rama according to the ancient Hindu epic ''Ramayana'' or secondary literature based on it such as the ''Ramcharitmanas''. It particularly ...

''), that dramatizes the

Ramayan The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th to 4th centuries BCE, and later stages ...

, is enacted over several consecutive nights, culminating on Dashehra. Though the play has Hindu religious significance, both the Hindu and Muslim communities participate in the festivities. Other important festivals include

Holi Holi (), also known as the Festival of Colours, the Festival of Spring, and the Festival of Love,The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) p. 874 "Holi /'həʊli:/ noun a Hindu spring festival ...". is an ancient Hindu religious festival ...

Eid-ul-Fitr , nickname = Festival of Breaking the Fast, Lesser Eid, Sweet Eid, Sugar Feast , observedby = Muslims , type = Islamic , longtype = Islamic , significance = Commemoration to mark the end of fasting in Ramadan , dat ...

Eid-ul-Azha Eid al-Adha () is the second and the larger of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam (the other being Eid al-Fitr). It honours the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ismail (Ishmael) as an act of obedience to Allah's comm ...

, Moharram and

Diwali Diwali (), Dewali, Divali, or Deepavali ( IAST: ''dīpāvalī''), also known as the Festival of Lights, related to Jain Diwali, Bandi Chhor Divas, Tihar, Swanti, Sohrai, and Bandna, is a religious celebration in Indian religions. It is ...

Ecology

For the first century after its foundation, the environs of the village were heavily forested, and contiguous with the Tarai forests that hemmed the Himalayan foothills. Wildlife (

chital deer The chital or cheetal (''Axis axis''; ), also known as the spotted deer, chital deer, and axis deer, is a deer species native to the Indian subcontinent. It was first described and given a binomial name by German naturalist Johann Christian Po ...

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

hare Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The ge ...

porcupine Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family, Erethizont ...

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

and

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

) was widespread. Pressures stemming from the rapid population increase in the twentieth century resulted in mass-

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...

. These species are now confined to the nearby

Jim Corbett National Park Jim Corbett National Park is a national park in India located in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand state. The first national park in India, it was established in 1936 during the British Raj and named ''Hailey National Park'' after William ...

, with only monkeys and peacocks remaining in numbers in the village area. Snakes and hares continue to be common in the farm fields.

Geography and climate

Ratangarh is located at

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

29°6'10"N and

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...

78°21'50"E, along the highway that connects Fina (often anglicized as "Pheona") with Noorpur. The main village has a triangular shape with the highway, a string of ponds and a rural road as the three edges. The village is at an approximate altitude of 750 feet, and the terrain is largely flat. The temperature ranges from a daytime maximum of about 42 °C (108 °F) at the height of summer to a nighttime minimum of about 0 °C (32 °F) during the coldest period of winter. There are five seasons - hot and dry summer, monsoonal rains, mild autumn, moderate winter and mild spring. Midwinter frost is common, and often damaging to crops and fruit. As with many areas of northwestern India, northern Pakistan and western Nepal, the region is part of the non-monsoonal

Western Disturbance A western disturbance is an extratropical storm originating in the Mediterranean region that brings sudden winter rain to the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent, which extends as east as up to northern parts of Bangladesh and South easte ...

rain system that provides winter rains necessary for the wheat crop. While it gets relatively hot in the summer, the 1886 edition of the Imperial Gazetteer of India compared the district's climate favorably to that of both the Tarai and areas further south: "Its proximity to the Himalayas renders the climate of Bijnor cool and pleasant, while the abundance of drainage channels prevents the District from being as unhealthy as other tracts near the foot of the mountains."

Economy

The economy is primarily based on agriculture (grains and fruit). Staples (mainly

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

, with some jau or barley and bajra or pearl millet) are produced. There are also many

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

fields, and fruit orchards (

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree ''Mangifera indica''. It is believed to have originated in the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South a ...

mulberry ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identif ...

, pomegranate, jamun or rose apple and shareefa or sugar apple). Limited quantities of anjeer or fig and ber or Indian jujube are also produced. In non-agricultural activity, there are some retail outlets, doctors, flour mills and teachers. Land reform and urban-bound migration and divestment by the former ''zamindars'' has resulted in some economic equalization, with a more evenly distributed pattern of land ownership, including by Dalits. Many youth from all segments of the population seek careers in the small towns nearby ( Fina, Chandpur,

Sherkot Sherkot is a city and Municipal board in the Bijnor of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. History Sherkot, was founded by Emperor Sher Shah Suri, an Afghan ruler of the Sur Dynasty, who ruled North India from 1540 AD to 1545 AD after defeating ...

Bijnor Bijnor is a city and a municipal board in Bijnor district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India Meerut Meerut (, IAST: ''Meraṭh'') is a city in Meerut district of the western part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city lies northeast of the national capital New Delhi, within the National Capital Region and west of the state capital ...

, Hardwar,

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 ...

Notable residents

* Deep Tyagi (1928–1969), Assistant Commissioner for the Indian Family Planning program until 1969 *

Mahavir Tyagi Mahavir Tyagi (31 December 1899 – 22 May 1980) was a prominent Indian independence fighter and parliamentarian from Dehra Dun, Uttar Pradesh (now in Uttarakhand) India. Early life Tyagi was born on 31 December 1899 at Dhabarsi, Moradabad ...

(1899-1980), Indian independence activist and parliamentarian * Munishwar Dayal Tyagi (1935-2003), Director All India Radio * Durgesh Tyagi One of the Royal personality belonging to royal lineage of Seohara Rihasat. * Avnish Tyagi (1965–present), CPRI, shimla * Sunil Tyagi, a lawyer based in Delhi and founder partner of law firm Zeus Law www.zeus.firm.in (1967–present). He has been author of articles in newspaper Hindustan Times and panelist on TV Channels - NDTV, CNBC TV 18 and Zee Business. * Sanjeev Tyagi, an actor famous for his role in TV Program “Crime Patrol” (1971–present). He has also acted in bollywood movies. * Pramod Kumar Atreya, Retired Vise President Manglore Oil Refinery, Managing Director Indian Oil, Board Of Directors Indian Oil SriLanka * Sudhir Atreya, Retired Head of Department for Architectire at Indian Indian Institute of Technology

References

* "History of the Bijnor Rebellion," Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Idarah-i-Adabiyat-i-Dlli, Delhi, 1982. Originally, "''Tareekh-e-Sarkashi-e-Zilaa-e-Bijnor''," published in 1858. * "History of Bijnor," B.C. Verma, 1974. * "Tawareekh-e-Taghawi," Haji Ashfaqullah, Kankhal (United Provinces), 1934. * "Samru: The Fearless Warrior," Jaipal Singh, Srishti Press, 2004. * "Dominance and Mobilisation: Rural Politics in Western Uttar Pradesh, 1930-1980," Zoja Hasan, Sage Publications, 1989. * "Forests on Fire: Ecology and Politics in the Himalayan Tarai," Ajay Rawat, Cosmo Publications. * "A Study of Land Reforms in Uttar Pradesh," Baljit Singh and Shridhar Misra, ''The Journal of Asian Studies'', 1966, Volume 25. * "Land Reforms in India: Constitutional and Legal Approach (with Special Reference to Uttar Pradesh)," Pramod Kumar Agrawal, MD Publications, 1993. * "Bhoodan and the Landless," S.V. Khandewale and K.R. Nanekar, Popular Prakashan, 1973. * "Rohilkund : Its Terai and Irrigation," Lt. Jones and Rev. T. Smith, ''The Calcutta Review'', Volume V, Number IX, 1846. * "The Imperial Gazetteer of India," W.W. Hunter (Director General of Statistics, Government of British India), Trubner and Company, London, 1886. Cities and towns in Bijnor district