Singhbhum was a district of India during 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 himsel ...

, part of the

Chota Nagpur Division Chota Nagpur Division, also known as the South-West Frontier, was an administrative division of British India. It included most of the present-day state of Jharkhand as well as adjacent portions of West Bengal, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh. History ...

of the

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

. It was located in the present-day Indian

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 ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

. Chaibasa was the district headquarters. Located in the southern limit of the

Chota Nagpur Plateau The Chota Nagpur Plateau is a plateau in eastern India, which covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar. The Indo-Gangetic plain lies to the north and east of the plateau, and the bas ...

, Singhbhum included the

Kolhan Kolhan is a village in the Palghar district of Maharashtra, India. It is located in the Dahanu taluka. Demographics According to the 2011 census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, ...

estate located in its southeastern part. The district has been divided into three smaller districts, being East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum and Saraikela Kharsawan all are present in Jharkhand state of India. This

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 ...

is one of the leading producer of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

in India.

Geography

It is bounded with

Ranchi District Ranchi district is the most populous district of Jharkhand state in eastern India. Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, is the district headquarters. It was established as a district in 1899. History Iron slag, potsherds and iron tools have been ...

in the north, with the

Saraikela Saraikela (also spelled Seraikella) is the district headquarters and a nagar panchayat in the Seraikela Sadar subdivision of the Seraikela Kharsawan district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. It was formerly the capital of the Odia Saraikela St ...

and

Kharsawan Kharsawan garh is a town and a notified area in the Seraikela Sadar subdivision of the Seraikela Kharsawan district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. History Kharsawan (also spelt as Kharsuan) was founded around 1650. It was one of the Oriya P ...

princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj, British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, ...

s in the east, with

Mayurbhanj Mayurbhanj district is one of the 30 districts in Odisha state in eastern India. It is the largest district of Odisha by area. Its headquarters are at Baripada. Other major towns are Rairangpur, Karanjia and Udala. , it is the third-most-popu ...

and

Keonjhar Kendujhar is a town with municipality in Kendujhar District in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kendujhar district, and it is one of the fifth scheduled areas of Odisha. Climate Politics Mohan char ...

in the south as well as with

Bonai Bonai State ( or, ବଣାଇ), was a princely state during the British Raj in what is today India. It was one of the Chota Nagpur States and had its capital at Bonaigarh,Malleson, G. B.: An historical sketch of the native states of India, Londo ...

and

Gangpur Gangpur is a census town in Burdwan II CD Block in Bardhaman Sadar North subdivision of Purba Bardhaman district in West Bengal, India. Geography Location The location code of Gangpur Villa is 320193, according to the 2011 census. The dista ...

in the southwest. Singhbhum District had an area of and a population of 613,579 in 1901.Wilson Hunter, Sir William; Sutherland Cotton, James; Sir Richard Burn, Sir William Stevenson Meyer. Great Britain India Office. ''

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.< ...

''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908

History

The Singhbhum area was never invaded by either the

Marathas 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 a M ...

or the

Mughals 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 ...

. The first relationships between the Raja of Singhbhum and the British were established in 1767 when he approached the Resident at Midnapore requesting protection. In 1820 the Raja became a feudatory of the British. The state was under the political control of the Commissioner of the

until 1912, under the

Bihar and Orissa Province Bihar and Orissa was a province of British India, which included the present-day Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha. The territories were conquered by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries, and were governed by the then Indian C ...

until 1936 and then under Chhota Nagpur Division until the end of the

. Following the

independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

Singhbhum District became part of the Indian Union as a district of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

. The district has in recent decades been divided into three smaller districts, being

East Singhbhum East Singhbhum is one of the 24 districts of Jharkhand, India. It was created on 16 January 1990. More than 50% of the district is covered by dense forests and mountains, where wild animals once roamed freely. It is known for being a centre of ind ...

West Singhbhum West Singhbhum or Pashchimi Singhbhum is one of the 24 districts of Jharkhand state, India. It came into existence on 16 January 1990, when the old Singhbhum district (then in Bihar) was bifurcated. Chaibasa is the district headquarters. The di ...

and Saraikela Kharsawan. All the three are currently part of

state of India. The major Indian languages spoken in this region are Hindi, Bengali, Odia, Kurmali and many tribal languages.

Etymology

Singhbhum gets its name from the 16th century military general Man Singh 1 who is known for his conquests Of Bihar, Odisha and parts of Bengal. He later also served as the governor ( Subahdar) of this region during the reign of King

Akbar Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

References

{{coord, 22, 30, N, 85, 30, E, display=title, region:IN_type:adm2nd_source:GNS-enwiki Former districts of Bihar Bengal Presidency