Wardha district (Marathi pronunciation: �əɾd̪ʰaː is in the state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India and the second-most populous country subdi ...

in western

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. This district is a part of Nagpur Division. The city of

Wardha Wardha is a city and a municipal council in Wardha district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Wardha district. Wardha gets its name from the Wardha River which flows at the north, west and south bound ...

is the administrative headquarters of the district.

Hinganghat Hinganghat is a city in Wardha district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Hinganghat is the biggest city in Wardha district, in terms of area and population as well. The city is administered by a municipal council and is located about fro ...

Pulgaon Pulgaon () is a municipal council in Wardha district in the India state of Maharashtra. The nearest city is Wardha, away via the Mumbai–Nagpur Expressway. Located near Pulgaon is the Central Ammunition Depot, a military area and the second ...

, Arvi and Wardha are the major cities in the district. The district had a population of 1,300,774, of which 26.28% were urban as of 2011.

History

The history of the Wardha district dates back to ancient times. It was included in the empires of the

Maurya The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...

Shungas The Shunga Empire (IAST: ') was an ancient Indian dynasty from Magadha that controlled areas of the most of the northern Indian subcontinent from around 185 to 73 BCE. The dynasty was established by Pushyamitra, after taking the throne of the M ...

Satavahanas The Satavahanas (''Sādavāhana'' or ''Sātavāhana'', IAST: ), also referred to as the Andhras in the Puranas, were an ancient Indian dynasty based in the Deccan region. Most modern scholars believe that the Satavahana rule began in the lat ...

and

Vakatakas The Vakataka dynasty () was an ancient Indian dynasty that originated from the Deccan in the mid-3rd century CE. Their state is believed to have extended from the southern edges of Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra River in th ...

. Pravarpur, now modern-day Pavnar, was once the capital of the Vakataka dynasty. Vakatakas were contemporaries of the Imperial

Guptas The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gold ...

. The daughter of

Chandragupta II Chandragupta II (r.c. 376-415), also known by his title Vikramaditya, as well as Chandragupta Vikramaditya, was the third ruler of the Gupta Empire in India, and was one of the most powerful emperors of the Gupta dynasty. Chandragupta continue ...

Prabhavatigupta Prabhavatigupta (died ), was a Gupta princess and Vakataka queen who was the consort of Maharaja Rudrasena II. Following the death of her husband, she effectively ruled the Vakataka kingdom as regent from about 390 to 410. Early life Prabha ...

, was married to the Vakataka ruler Rudrasena II. The

Vakataka Dynasty The Vakataka dynasty () was an ancient Indian dynasty that originated from the Deccan in the mid-3rd century CE. Their state is believed to have extended from the southern edges of Malwa and Gujarat in the north to the Tungabhadra River in the ...

lasted from the 2nd to the 5th centuries AD. Their state stretched from the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea ( ar, اَلْبَحرْ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Bahr al-ˁArabī) is a region of the northern Indian Ocean bounded on the north by Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channe ...

in the west to the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line bet ...

in the east and from the Narmada River in the north to the Krishna-Godavari Delta in the south. Later on, Wardha was ruled by the

Chalukya The Chalukya dynasty () was a Classical Indian dynasty that ruled large parts of southern and central India between the 6th and the 12th centuries. During this period, they ruled as three related yet individual dynasties. The earliest dynast ...

s, the

Rashtrakuta Rashtrakuta ( IAST: ') (r. 753-982 CE) was a royal Indian dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian subcontinent between the sixth and 10th centuries. The earliest known Rashtrakuta inscription is a 7th-century copper plate grant detailing the ...

s, the

Yadava The Yadava (literally, descended from Yadu) were an ancient Indian people who believed to be descended from Yadu, a legendary king of Chandravamsha lineage. The community was formed of various clans, being the Abhira, Andhaka, Vrishni, and ...

s, the

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526).

, the Bahamani Sultanate, the Muslim ruler of Berar, the Gonds and the Marathas. Raja Buland Shah of Gond and Raghuji of Bhonsale were the prominent rulers in the medieval period. Ashti town in Wardha district was ruled by the Mughals in the guidance of Nawab Muhammad Khan Niazi who was Subedar and Mansabdar in the Mughal empire in the reign of Emperor Akbar he got Ashti as a jagir. Nawab Ahmad Khan Niazi was the elder son of Nawab Muhammad Khan Niazi who also served as Mansabdar and Jagirdar in the Mughal court in the reign of Emperor Jahangir he got Ashti as Pergana as his ancestral property. Ahmad Khan Niazi defeated Rahim Khan Dakhni and captured Ellichpur from the Berar empire for the Mughals. In the 1850s, Wardha, then a part of

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nagpur is projected to ...

, fell into the hands of the British. They included Wardha in the Central Province. Wardha is a sister city for Sevagram and both were used as major centers for the Indian Independence Movement, especially as headquarters for an annual meet of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

in 1934 and

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

's Ashram. The existing Wardha district was part of

district till 1862. Further, it was separated for convenient administrative purposes and Kawatha near Pulgaon was the district headquarters. In the year 1866, the district headquarters moved to Palakwadi village, which was rebuilt as Wardha city. Central Ammunition Depot, located in Pulgaon, is the second-largest ammunition depot in Asia.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Wardha 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 usi ...

of 1,300,774, roughly equal to the nation of

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

or the US state of

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. This gives it a ranking of 377th in India (out of a total of 640). The district has a population density of . Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 4.8%. Wardha 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 dev ...

of 946

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 1000 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 87.22%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 14.52% and 11.49% of the population respectively. 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. Informatio ...

, 87.78% of the population in the district spoke Marathi, 6.88%

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 ...

and 1.26%

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' 2011 Census of India, Population By Mother Tongue
/ref>

Politics

Lok Sabha Seat *Wardha = Ramdas Tadas (BJP) Assembly Seats *Wardha = Dr. Pankaj Rajesh Bhoyar (BJP) *Deoli =

Ranjit Kamble Ranjit Kamble is the former State Minister of Water Supply and Sanitation, Food and Civil Supplies, Consumer Protection, Tourism and Public Works (PWD) in the Government of Maharashtra in India. He is leader from the Indian National Congress ...

(INC) *Arvi = Dadarao Keche (BJP) *Hinganghat =

Samir Trambakrao Kunawar Samir Trambakrao Kunawar is a member of the 13th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. He represents the Hinganghat Assembly Constituency. He belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party Kunawar had contested the same seat as independent in 2009, losing b ...

(BJP)

Prominent people

* Abdul Shafee, Senior Politician of

Baba Amte Murlidhar Devidas Amte, popularly known as Baba Amte, (26 December 1914 – 9 February 2008) was an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for his work for the rehabilitation and empowerment of people suffering from leprosy ...

, India's Social and moral leader (born 24 December 1914 ) at

Vinoba Bhave Vinayak Narahari, also known as Vinoba Bhave (; 11 September 1895 – 15 November 1982), was an Indian advocate of nonviolence and human rights. Often called ''Acharya'' (Sanskrit teacher), he is best known for the Bhoodan Movement. He is con ...

, Freedom fighter and social worker *

Jamnalal Bajaj Jamnalal Kaniram Bajaj (4 November 1889 – 11 February 1942) was an Indian industrialist. He founded the Bajaj Group of companies in the 1920s, and the group now has 24 companies, including six that are listed on the bourses. He was also a c ...

, Freedom Fighter *

Abhay and Rani Bang Abhay Bang and Rani Bang are Indian activists and community health researchers working in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, India. Together, they have overseen a programme that has substantially reduced infant mortality rates, one whic ...

, Social Workers, rendering medical services to the poor adiwasi people of Gadchiroli district. * Dr. Rajat Kinhekar *

Sindhutai Sapkal Sindhutai Sapkal (14 November 1948 – 4 January 2022) was an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for her work in raising orphaned children in India. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2021 in Social Work category. Ear ...

, A Social Activist and Social Worker, working for orphans.

References

External links

Wardha district websiteWardha Zilla Parishad
{{Coord, 20, 50, N, 78, 36, E, region:IN_type:adm2nd, display=title Districts of Maharashtra 1862 establishments in India Vidarbha