Nanoor
Encyclopedia
Nanoor , is a town with a police station in Bolpur
subdivision of Birbhum district
in the India
n state
of West Bengal
. Nanoor is the birthplace of 14th century lyric poet Chandidas
of Vaishnava Padavali fame. It is developing as a craft centre with NGO
support. With the massacres in 2000, Nannor was in intense media focus.
Nanoor is located in the south-eastern corner of the district which is an alluvial plain between Ajay River
and Mayurakshi River
. It has hot and dry summers, spread over March – May, followed by the monsoon from June to September. 78 per cent of the rainfall occurs during this period.
As per historical records there have been at least 13 intensive droughts between the years 1799 and 1855. The drought of 1836-37 was particularly severe. Floods also wreak havoc. Some 7,000 mud houses either collapsed or remained in bad shape in Nanoor and three other blocks, affecting around 15,000 villagers in 2004.
It is 47 km from Suri, 18 km from Bolpur
/Santiniketan
and 29 km from Ahmedpur
.
organised an excavation programme in Nanoor in 1932 and 1957 but nothing much has happened since then. The archaeological discoveries at Jalundi village in Nanoor
block in 2007 are believed to be the ruins of the ancient Pala or Sen dynasties.
or belong to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Although the population is talented they hardly had an opprtunity to earn a decent living. The Institute of International Social Development – an international NGO
, based and headquartered in Kolkata, has initiated steps to rectify the situation. The artisans get an opportunit to people from different countries. Such people visit Nanoor to have a first hand experiene of the living and working conditions of artisans. Internationally renowned designers are helping the artisans to use the traditional kantha
craft for producing modern-day utilities.
Traditionally, there used to be a weekly market, locally called hat. Apart from vegetables, such needs as pottery, wooden materials, iron materials, baskets, seeds etc. were available. With the passage of time the periodicity gradually increased till it became a daily market.
The Hindu
wrote, “On a long term, the killings, symbolising the birth of a new theatre of violence after Keshpur in district Midnapore - where deaths and maiming in political clashes have become a bizarre routine - constitute an extremely disturbing augury for the society in Bengal."
The prime witness to the Nanoor killings was injured in an attack allegedly by CPI-M activists.The Statesman in an editorial wrote, “The sole purpose in attacking the prime witness in the gruesome Nanoor massacre of July 2000 in which 11 Trinamul Congress
supporters were slaughtered by armed CPI(M) cadres was to shield those responsible and abort their trial, by hook or by crook. The irony is that although five years have elapsed since the occurrence of the horrendous killings by the Marxists, the trial of their 79 accused comrades has not yet begun. Repeated postponement of hearing (at least seven in the last two years) because of failure of the accused to turn up in court has made the outcome uncertain.”
The Nanoor area has continued to be turbulent, with political clashes and murders continuing. On the basis of a FIR (first information report) lodged with the police against CPI(M) men, the police made arrests and in August 2001 they submitted charge sheets against 82 accused. The trial started in 2000 and continued for eight years. The court verdict is expected in November 2010.
Japeswar Shiva-Charturdashi Mela is organized at Japeswar in the Nanoor area. Local heresay traces back the history of the Shiva temple to 1000 BC.
Radhamadhab Mela is organized at Charkalgram on 14 Chaitra
and continues for a week.
Pirer mela is organized at Sherpur for 5/6 days in the month of Magha.
In the month of Falgun
a fair is organized at Basapara. It was started by Atai Mian, a zamindar of the area.
See also - Fairs in Birbhum
Bolpur
Bolpur-Santiniketan is a municipality in Birbhum District in the state of West Bengal, India. It is 145 km north of Kolkata and is best known for the proximity to Visva Bharati, the university set up by Rabindranath Tagore the Nobel laureate poet...
subdivision of Birbhum district
Birbhum district
Birbhum district is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the northernmost district of Burdwan division—one of the three administrative divisions of West Bengal. The district headquarters is located at Suri...
in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n state
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...
of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
. Nanoor is the birthplace of 14th century lyric poet Chandidas
Chandidas
Chandidas refers to medieval poet of Bengal. Over 1250 poems related to the love of Radha and Krishna in Bengali with the bhanita of Chandidas are found with three different sobriquets along with his name, , Dvija and Dina as well as without any sobriquet also...
of Vaishnava Padavali fame. It is developing as a craft centre with NGO
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
support. With the massacres in 2000, Nannor was in intense media focus.
Geography
Nanoor is located at 23.70°N 87.86°E. It has an average elevation of 24 metres (78.7 ft).Nanoor is located in the south-eastern corner of the district which is an alluvial plain between Ajay River
Ajay River
The Ajay River is a major river in Jharkhand and West Bengal. The word “Ajay” means “not conquered”.-Geography:The Ajay River originates on a small hill about 300 metres high, south west of Munger in Bihar. It then flows through Jharkhand and enters West Bengal at Simjuri, near Chittaranjan...
and Mayurakshi River
Mayurakshi River
Mayurakshi River is a major river in West Bengal, India, with a long history of devastating floods.It has its source on Trikut hill, about 16 km from Deoghar in Jharkhand state. It flows through Jharkhand and then through the districts of Birbhum and Murshidabad in West Bengal before flowing...
. It has hot and dry summers, spread over March – May, followed by the monsoon from June to September. 78 per cent of the rainfall occurs during this period.
As per historical records there have been at least 13 intensive droughts between the years 1799 and 1855. The drought of 1836-37 was particularly severe. Floods also wreak havoc. Some 7,000 mud houses either collapsed or remained in bad shape in Nanoor and three other blocks, affecting around 15,000 villagers in 2004.
It is 47 km from Suri, 18 km from Bolpur
Bolpur
Bolpur-Santiniketan is a municipality in Birbhum District in the state of West Bengal, India. It is 145 km north of Kolkata and is best known for the proximity to Visva Bharati, the university set up by Rabindranath Tagore the Nobel laureate poet...
/Santiniketan
Santiniketan
Santiniketan is a small town near Bolpur in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India, approximately 180 kilometres north of Kolkata . It was made famous by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose vision became what is now a university town that attracts thousands of visitors each year...
and 29 km from Ahmedpur
Ahmedpur, Birbhum
Ahmedpur is a town in the Suri Sadar subdivision of Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Ahmedpur is a village panchayat under Sainthia panchayat of Birbum Zilla Parishad...
.
Archaeological finds
The archaeological department of Calcutta UniversityUniversity of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta is a public university located in the city of Kolkata , India, founded on 24 January 1857...
organised an excavation programme in Nanoor in 1932 and 1957 but nothing much has happened since then. The archaeological discoveries at Jalundi village in Nanoor
Nanoor (community development block)
Nanoor is an administrative division in Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Nanoor police station serves this block...
block in 2007 are believed to be the ruins of the ancient Pala or Sen dynasties.
Economics
Nanoor Block covering 24 villages, is economically backward. It has many artisan families who live below the poverty line. A large secion of the population is either MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
or belong to the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Although the population is talented they hardly had an opprtunity to earn a decent living. The Institute of International Social Development – an international NGO
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
, based and headquartered in Kolkata, has initiated steps to rectify the situation. The artisans get an opportunit to people from different countries. Such people visit Nanoor to have a first hand experiene of the living and working conditions of artisans. Internationally renowned designers are helping the artisans to use the traditional kantha
Kantha
Kantha is a type of embroidery popular in Bangladesh and in West Bengal, India. The use of kantha is popular in saris traditionally worn by women in Bengal, but any garment or cloth with kantha embroidery may be called a kantha garment.Kantha stitching is also used to make simple quilts...
craft for producing modern-day utilities.
Traditionally, there used to be a weekly market, locally called hat. Apart from vegetables, such needs as pottery, wooden materials, iron materials, baskets, seeds etc. were available. With the passage of time the periodicity gradually increased till it became a daily market.
Nanoor massacre
On 27 July 2000, CPI(M) activists allegedly killed 11 landless agricultural labourers in Suchpur, near Nanoor and under Nanoor police station. Just after the massacre CPI(M) leaders said those killed were dacoits but a few days later they admitted that the dead were landless farmers and that they were killed over a land dispute. Two of the CPI(M)'s senior leaders, Anil Biswas and Biman Bose, both politburo members, condemned the Nanoor killings as well as the loss of lives in incidents of violence in the preceding weeks.The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
wrote, “On a long term, the killings, symbolising the birth of a new theatre of violence after Keshpur in district Midnapore - where deaths and maiming in political clashes have become a bizarre routine - constitute an extremely disturbing augury for the society in Bengal."
The prime witness to the Nanoor killings was injured in an attack allegedly by CPI-M activists.The Statesman in an editorial wrote, “The sole purpose in attacking the prime witness in the gruesome Nanoor massacre of July 2000 in which 11 Trinamul Congress
All India Trinamool Congress
The All India Trinamool Congress is a state political party in West Bengal. Founded in 1 January 1998, the party is led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Trinamool Congress is currently the second largest member of the ruling United Progressive Alliance coalition...
supporters were slaughtered by armed CPI(M) cadres was to shield those responsible and abort their trial, by hook or by crook. The irony is that although five years have elapsed since the occurrence of the horrendous killings by the Marxists, the trial of their 79 accused comrades has not yet begun. Repeated postponement of hearing (at least seven in the last two years) because of failure of the accused to turn up in court has made the outcome uncertain.”
The Nanoor area has continued to be turbulent, with political clashes and murders continuing. On the basis of a FIR (first information report) lodged with the police against CPI(M) men, the police made arrests and in August 2001 they submitted charge sheets against 82 accused. The trial started in 2000 and continued for eight years. The court verdict is expected in November 2010.
Temples
There is a temple dedicated to Devi Basuli at Nanoor. The Navaratna temple at Brahmandihi, and the Chand Roy temple and four Shiva temples at Uchkaran are amongst the temples under the protection of the state archaeological department. The renowned Navaratna temple was undertaken by the ASI but is now in bad shape. The four Shiva temples carry somewhat unique terra cotta sculptures that need preservation. In 2001, the invaluable and rare black-stone Saraswati idol went missing from the Bishalakshmi temple.Fairs
A fair is organized annually on the occasion of dol purnima (full moon) on the bank of the Dontapukur at Nanoor in memory of Dwija Chandidas and Rajakini Tami. It is called Chandidas Mela and was earlier organized near Bisalkshi temple.Japeswar Shiva-Charturdashi Mela is organized at Japeswar in the Nanoor area. Local heresay traces back the history of the Shiva temple to 1000 BC.
Radhamadhab Mela is organized at Charkalgram on 14 Chaitra
Chaitra
Chaitra is a month of the Hindu calendar....
and continues for a week.
Pirer mela is organized at Sherpur for 5/6 days in the month of Magha.
In the month of Falgun
Falgun
Falgun is the eleventh month in the नेपाली Nepali calendar বঙ্গাব্দ Bangla Calendar and the Bikram Sambat. This also marks the arrival of spring,the sixth and final season in Nepal and Bangladesh...
a fair is organized at Basapara. It was started by Atai Mian, a zamindar of the area.
See also - Fairs in Birbhum
Fairs in Birbhum
Fairs in Birbhum refers to the many fairs that take place in Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal.- Backdrop :Birbhum is a large but primarily rural district dotted with small towns...