Gorakhpur district is one of the 75

districts of Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, has 75 districts. These districts, most of which have populations above 10 lakhs, and are grouped into 18 divisions for administrative convenience. Division wise listing of districts Area-wis ...

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 ...

in northern India. This district is a part of the Gorakhpur division. The city of

Gorakhpur Gorakhpur is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, along the banks of the Rapti river in the Purvanchal region. It is situated 272 kilometers east of the state capital Lucknow. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur dist ...

, or Gorakhpur is the administrative headquarters of this district and Gorakhpur division. It borders Sant Kabir Nagar district to the west,

Kushinagar Kushinagar ( Hindustani: or ; Pali: ; Sanskrit: ) is a town in the Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is an important and popular Buddhist pilgrimage site, where Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha attained ''parinirvana''. Etymo ...

and Deoria districts to the east, and Maharajganj and Azamgarh districts to the north and south.

History

The district was ceded by the

Nawab of Awadh The Nawab of Awadh or the Nawab of Oudh was the title of the rulers who governed the state of Awadh (anglicised as Oudh) in north India during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Nawabs of Awadh belonged to a dynasty of Persian origin from Nishapu ...

to the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

in 1801. It was the location of the

Chauri Chaura incident 200px, Chauri Chaura Martyrs Memorial, alt= The Chauri Chaura incident took place on 4 February 1922 ( according to the Indian government's official data ) at Chauri Chaura, in the Gorakhpur district, in the United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh ...

in 1922. It was earlier expanded to the north to the

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 ...

border but the northern part was carved out to form a new

Maharajganj district Maharajganj district is one of the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India, and the town of Maharajganj is the district headquarters. District is a part Gorakhpur division. It is located in Terai regions of Himalayas, bordering Ne ...

in 1989.

Geography

Gorakhpur district lies between latitude 26°46'N and longitude 83°2'E. The district covers an area of . The district lies in the

Purvanchal Purvanchal () is a subregion of the Bhojpuri region of India which comprises eastern Uttar Pradesh. Purvanchal region gained independence from the Avadh and Mughal rule under Zamindar Balwant Singh, a Bhumihar zamindar from Benaras State. I ...

region of

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 ...

. The district is situated about 270 kilometers east of

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

and about 102 kilometers from

Border. It is situated on the banks of the Rapti River. The district is part of

Gorakhpur division Gorakhpur division is an administrative geographical unit of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. Gorakhpur is the administrative headquarters of the division. Currently (2017), the division consists of four districts: Districts * Gorakhpu ...

Demographics

Religion

According to the 2011 census, Gorakhpur 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 4,440,895, roughly equal to the nation of

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

or the US state of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. This gives it a ranking of 40th 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 17.81%. Gorakhpur 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 devia ...

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 a ...

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 70.83%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes made up 21.08% and 0.41% of the population respectively.

Languages

The official language of the district is

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 ...

and additional official language is

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

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 ...

, 51.31% of the population in the district identified as

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

speakers, 46.48% as

speakers and 2.02%

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Bhojpuri Bhojpuri (;Bhojpuri entry, Oxford Dictionaries
, Oxford U ...

is the local language of Gorakhpur. The Bhojpuri variant of

Kaithi Kaithi (), also called Kayathi () or Kayasthi (), is a historical Brahmic script that was used widely in parts of Northern and Eastern India, primarily in the present-day states of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar. In particular, it was us ...

is the indigenous script of Bhojpuri language.

Economy

The economy of the district in early 2000s was comparatively low to other major districts in the state, but since 2014 Gorakhpur district is developing on a good rate and its economy is also increased. The Gorakhpur Development Authority (GDA) handles all the development projects in this District.

Attractions

Geeta Press Gita Press is the world's largest publisher of Hindu religious texts.Encyclopædia Brita ...

Gorakhnath Temple The Shri Gorakhnath Mandir also known as Gorakhnath Temple is a temple of the Nath monastic order group of the Nath tradition. The name Gorakhnath derives from the medieval saint, Gorakshanath (c. 11th century), a yogi who travelled widely acro ...

Gorakhpur Zoo Shaheed Ashfaq Ullah Khan Zoological Park or Gorakhpur Zoological Garden commonly known as Gorakhpur Zoo is in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is named after independence activist Ashfaqulla Khan. With an area of 121 acres, it is the second ...

Chauri Chaura Chauri Chaura (''Pargana:'' Haveli, Tehsil: Gorakhpur) is a town near Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. The town is located at a distance of 16km from Gorakhpur, on the State Highway between Gorakhpur and Deoria. The town railway station is loc ...

Incident Memorial * Ramgarh Tal Lake

Education

Gorakhpur district is home of government run universities like

Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University DDU Gorakhpur University (simply known as University of Gorakhpur) is located in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh. The University of Gorakhpur is a teaching and residential-cum-affiliating University. It is about . from the downtown to the east and al ...

Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology (MMMUT) is a university in Gorakhpur. It was established in 2013 by upgrading Madan Mohan Malaviya Engineering College (MMMEC) into a university. . History MMMUT has its roots with Madan Mohan M ...

and Maha Yogi Guru Gorakhnath Ayush University. It also has a private university named

Mahayogi Gorakhnath University Mahayogi Gorakhnath University is a private university in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is established by the Uttar Pradesh Private Universities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 (U.P. Ordinance no. 4 of 2021) along with United University and ...

. It has two medical colleges named

Baba Raghav Das Medical College Baba Raghav Das Medical College, Gorakhpur is a medical college in Gorakhpur, India. It is run by the government of Uttar Pradesh. The hospital affiliated to the College is the only tertiary care centre in a 300 km2 region around Gora ...

and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Gorakhpur.

Notable people

Yogi Adityanath Yogi Adityanath (born on 5 June 1972 as Ajay Singh Bisht),

, Indian Hindu monk and politician serving as the 21st and current Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. *

Firaq Gorakhpuri Raghupati Sahay (28 August 1896 – 3 March 1982), also known by his pen name Firaq Gorakhpuri, was an Indian writer, critic, and, according to one commentator, one of the most noted contemporary Urdu poets from India. He established himself ...

, Urdu scholar, professor Allahabad University. *

Anurag Kashyap Anurag Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian filmmaker and actor known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is the recipient of several accolades, including four Filmfare Awards. For his contributions to film, the Government of France a ...

, Indian filmmaker. *

Vidya Niwas Mishra Vidya Niwas Mishra (28 January 1926 – 14 February 2005) was an Indian scholar, a Hindi-Sanskrit littérateur, and a journalist. He was honoured with Padma Bhushan. Life He was born on 14 January 1926 at Pakardiha in Gorakhpur district of Utta ...

, Hindi-Sanskrit littérateur, and a journalist. *

Hari Shankar Tiwari Hari Shankar Tiwari is an Indian gangster and politician from Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Tiwari was a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from the village Tanda, Chillupar in Gorakhpur district. Politics Tiwari was the fir ...

, politician, former cabinet minister in Uttar Pradesh government and multiple time MLA from Chillupar constituency.