Yavatmal
Encyclopedia
Yavatmal is a city and municipal council
Municipal council
A municipal council is the local government of a municipality. Specifically the term can refer to the institutions of various countries that can be translated by this term...

 of the Yavatmal district
Yavatmal District
Yavatmal district is a district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is located in the region of Vidarbha, in the east-central part of the state...

 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 Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

. The name derives from the Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

 Yavat (mountain) and mal (row).

Demographics

yavatmal ,district in Amravati administrative division.
As of the 2001 Indian census, Yavatmal district had a population of 24,60,482 of which 51 per cent (12,67,117) were male and 49 per cent (11,93,365) female. The district has an average literacy rate of 74%, higher than the national average of 59.5% with male literacy at 83 per cent, and that for females at 74 percent. In Yavatmal, 12 per cent of the population is under six years of age. Population density is 181 persons per square kilometre while the total rural population is 20,01,034 and the urban population 4,59,448. The percentage of the population belonging to Scheduled Caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...

s stands at 10.92 per cent and for Scheduled Tribes 21.46 per cent with a gender ratio of 942 females per 1000 males. About 34 per cent of the population live below the poverty line.

Economy

Both cotton-ginning and and pressing are carried on in Yavatmal while the town is also the chief trading centre in the district, and connected by road with Dhamangaon station, 29 miles (46.7 km) away. It is also known as "Cotton City" and during British rule
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

 was classified as a hill station
Hill station
A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia , but also in Africa , for towns founded by European colonial rulers as refuges from the summer heat, up where temperatures are cooler...

. The narrow gauge Shakuntala Express railway has passed through the town since the British era, although today its locomotives run on diesel rather than the original coal. A train service operates once a day between this station and Murtizapur.

Major business establishments in Yavatmal include the Raymonds factory which produces special fibre for jeans.

There is a brand new 106 acre (0.42896716 km²) textile Special Economic Zone (SEZ) under construction while HLL Unilever has also decided to restart the plant they currently have in the city.

Government sources reveal that the city will have railway connectivity by 2012. The airport is undergoing a facelift and flights to Mumbai and Pune will begin shortly.

Other local businesses in the town are dominated by the presence of agricultural supply facilities used by the nearby farming community.

Yavatmal's younger generation is slowly joining the 21st century workforce and there are a number of computer learning centres and educational institutes.

The major industrial centres are at MIDC Lohara, Darwha, Digras, Pusad, Umerkhed, Wani, Umari, Pandharkawada, Ralegaon and Babhulgaon, Ner, and Wani-Maregaon with the main market places in Yavatmal City, Wani, Darwha, Digras, Akola Bazar
Akola bazar
Akola Bazar is a small town in Yavatmal district. It is called as Akola Bazar because of the weekly market held on every Friday.-Demographics:...

, Ghatanji
Ghatanji
Ghatanji is a very old city and municipal council in Yavatmal district in the state of Maharashtra, India. It is also known as Cotton City, because in this area farmer produces fine quality of cottons. It is also a place of pilgrimage of Brahmalin Shree Sant Maroti Maharaj having Devasthan near...

, Mohada, Pusad, Umerkhed and Pandharkawada.

Banking sevices are available in the Yavatmal, Pusad, Digras, Ghatanji and Pandharkawada and Wani areas.

Education

Prominent educational institutes :

Private schools such as St.Aloysius High School, Free Methodist English High School and the Giants English Medium School , School Of Scholars, Yavatmal Public School.

amongst others provide good quality English middle-grade education. Tutorial facilities are found across the city.

History

Formerly known as "Yeoti" or "Yevtmal", Yavatmal City was the main town of the Berar Sultanate
Berar Sultanate
-Berar in Ancient History:Subah Berar and Gondwana the Vidarbha region known as Gulshan-e-Berar in medieval period since Khilji dynasty to mughal period according Aine-Akbari and Alimgeer Namah report the berar is hole Fourteen sarkar...

 and according to old writings "the safest place in the world". The then region of Yavatmal (now Yavatmal district), was part of the dominion of Aladdin Hassan Bahman Shah who founded the Bahmani Sultanate
Bahmani Sultanate
The Bahmani Sultanate was a Muslim state of the Deccan in southern India and one of the great medieval Indian kingdoms...

 in 1347. In 1572, Murtaza Shah ruler of the Ahmadnagar Sultanate
Ahmadnagar Sultanate
The Ahmadnagar Sultanate سلطان احمد نگر was a late medieval Indian kingdom, located in the northwestern Deccan, between the sultanates of Gujarat and Bijapur. Malik Ahmad, the Bahmani governor of Junnar after defeating the Bahmani army led by general Jahangir Khan on 28 May 1490 declared...

 (now another district of Maharashtra state also referred as "Sambhaji Nagar" or simply "Nagar"), annexed the Yavatmal district, then in 1596, Chand Bibi
Chand Bibi
Chand Bibi , also known as Chand Khatun or Chand Sultana, was an Indian Muslim woman warrior. She acted as the Regent of Bijapur and Regent of Ahmednagar...

, warrior queen of Ahmadnagar, ceded the district of Yavatmal to the Mughal Empire
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire ,‎ or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...

, rulers of a large part of India. Following the death of the sixth Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb
Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...

 in 1707, Yavatmal was passed on to the Maratha Empire
Maratha Empire
The Maratha Empire or the Maratha Confederacy was an Indian imperial power that existed from 1674 to 1818. At its peak, the empire covered much of South Asia, encompassing a territory of over 2.8 million km²....

. When Raghoji I Bhonsle
Raghoji I Bhonsle
Raghoji I Bhonsle was a Maratha general who took control of the Nagpur Kingdom in east-central Indiaduring the reign of Shahu. His successors ruled the kingdom until 1853....

 became ruler of the Nagpur kingdom
Nagpur kingdom
The Kingdom of Nagpur was a kingdom in east-central India founded by the Gond rulers of Deogarh in the early 18th century. It came under the rule of Marathas of the Bhonsle dynasty in the mid-18th century...

 in 1783, he included the Yavatmal district in his territory. After the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 created Berar Province
Berar Province
Berar Province, known also as the Hyderabad Assigned Districts, was a province of British India. The province, formerly ruled by the Nizam of Hyderabad, was administered by the British after 1853, although the Nizam retained formal sovereignty over the province...

 in 1853, Yavatmal became part of East Berar District in 1863 and later part of the South East Berar district, both districts of the Central Provinces and Berar
Central Provinces and Berar
The Central Provinces and Berar was a province of British India. The province comprised British conquests from the Mughals and Marathas in central India, and covered much of present-day Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra states. Its capital was Nagpur. The Central Provinces was formed in...

. Yavatmal remained part of Madhya Pradesh until the 1956 reorganization of states when it was transferred to the state of Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

 (Bombay). With the creation of the Maharashtra state on 1 May 1960, Yavatmal district became a part of it. The district has given two chief minister to the Maharashtra state, Vasantrao Naik
Vasantrao Naik
Vasantrao Naik was an Indian politician who served as Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1963 until 1975. He was born in Gavli, Pusad in 1913. His experience in grassroots politics made him a responsible legislator...

 and Sudhakarrao Naik
Sudhakarrao Naik
Sudhakarrao Rajusing Naik was an Indian politician who served as Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 25 June 1991 until 22 February 1993...

 along with many other politicians and personalities such as freedom-fighter Loknayak Bapuji Ane and social worker Babaji Datey. Post-independence, the district of Yavatmal consistently favored the Congress Party
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 in its political leanings with state government representatives (MLAs) and central government representatives (MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

s) elected by the people of Yavatmal coming largely from the Congress Party. In the 1990s, the trend reversed with the election of members of the Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...

 (BJP) to the prominent positions of MP and MLAs to represent Yavatmal both at state and central government levels.

Yavatmal Municipal Council

Yavatmal municipal council was constituted in 1869 but was dissolved shortly thereafter.
It was again established in 1894 and thus forms the oldest municipal council in district. Mr. Eliot was first Mayor and Lietenant W. Hege was Deputy Mayor.
Mr. Govind Punaji Bari was the first Indian Mayor on Yavatmal Municipal council(02/01/1914 to 31/05/1932).Under his period yavatmal got electricity facility. From 22/12/1934 elections were conducted for the place of Mayor, before that he used to get appointed. The area under its jurisdiction is 3.2 square miles.

Language and culture

The principal language of Yavatmal district is Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

. However, since the district has numerous Scheduled and Nomadic Tribes, various other languages are also spoken in the form of Gormati or Banjari, Gondi
Gondi language
Gondi is spoken by the Gondi people. It is a Central-Dravidian language, spoken by about two million people chiefly in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattishgarh and in various adjoining areas of neighbouring states...

, Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

, Sindhi
Sindhi language
Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan that is spoken by the Sindhi people. In India, it is among 22 constitutionally recognized languages, where Sindhis are a sizeable minority. It is spoken by 53,410,910 people in Pakistan, according to the national government's Statistics Division...

 and Marwari
Marwari language
The Marwari language , also variously Marvari, Marwadi, Marvadi), is spoken in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Marwari is also found in the neighboring state of Gujarat and Haryana and in Eastern Pakistan...

.

In 1973 the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan
Marathi Sahitya Sammelan
Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan is a conference for literary discussions by Marathi writers. Though the conference has sometimes been held in a town outside the Indian state of Maharashtra, it is typically held annually in one of the towns in Maharashtra where Marathi is the mother tongue...

, (Marathi Literature Conference) took place in Yavatmal city presided over by Gajanan Digambar Madgulkar.

The district has various entrenched cultures and has India's most ancient tribal communities – the Gond Raja, Gond Pardhan, Kolam, Aandh and Banjara amongst others.

Various Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

 fairs take place in the district including:
  1. Maroti and Gajanan Maharaj Fair in Ghatanji
  2. Shri Chintamani Fair at Kalamb
  3. Shri Dutt Jayanti Fair at Mahur
  4. The Jambhora and Mahashiv Ratri in Wani, Pusan and Mahagaon.
  5. Shri Rangnaath Swamy in Wani 6. Amba Devi, Kelapur.


Yavatmal also has liberal culture in both its urban and rural areas and experiences fairs such as the Ghanti Baba ka Uroos in Digras and Uroos in Aarni.

Festivals like Diwali
Diwali
Diwali or DeepavaliThe name of the festival in various regional languages include:, , , , , , , , , , , , , popularly known as the "festival of lights," is a festival celebrated between mid-October and mid-December for different reasons...

, Dasara, Bakari-Eid, Ramzaan Eid, Gudi Padwa
Gudi Padwa
Gudi Padwa or Gudhi Padwa , is the Marathi name for the Hindu holiday of Chaitra Shukla Pratipada. It is celebrated on the first day of the Chaitra month to mark the beginning of the New year according to the lunisolar Hindu calendar...

 and almost all Hindu-Muslim occasions are celebrated. The district is also home to a Buddhist community.

Agriculture and other industries

Yavatmal is also considered a tribal district of Maharashtra and a land of farmers. Major crops grown are cotton (kapoos), yellow beans (toor), wheat (gahu), sugarcane (oos), groundnut (bhooimung), and chillies (mirchi).

Despite the districts many major rivers—which include the Painganga
Painganga River
The Penganga River is the chief river of the Yavatmal district and Washim district in the Maharashtra state in India and flows along the south east boundaries of the district in a winding, meandering course. It is deeply entrenched and not able to be navigated...

, Wardha
Wardha River
- Origin :Wardha originates at an altitude of 777 meters Satpura Range near Multai in Betul District of Madhya Pradesh.- Course :From the origin it flows 32 km in Madhya pradesh and then enters into Maharastra. After traversing 528 km, it joins Wainganga together called Pranhita, which ultimately...

, Arnavati, Pus, Kuhu, Waghari and Benbala—Yavatmal's agricultural conditions suffer constantly due to the unavailability of water in most parts of the district. Yavatmal City itself also has a problem with drinking water. Agriculture is also often impacted by droughts, floods or heavy rains and nowadays the situation is so bad that Yavatmal district has the highest number of farmer suicides in India. The Indian prime minister has visited the area to assess the situation.

Aside from agriculture, there are other small scale industries such as ginning and pressing, handmade paper, weaving, oil mills, textile mills (the Raymond Factory in Yavatmal), and nylon ropes amongst others.
A new 106 acre (0.42896716 km²) Textile SEZ has been proposed in the city. The Hindustan Lever Plant also commenced production in December 2010.
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