Sherghati

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Sherghati
Sherghati
State - District(s)	Bihar - Gaya
Coordinates	24.57° N 84.78° E
Area - Elevation	- 121 m
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
Population (2001) - Density	32,358 -

Sherghati is a town located in the Gaya District in Bihar, India. Previously a commissionary under the British Raj, it is now a premier town in Gaya district. Being situated beside the Grand Trunk road, it is directly connected to Delhi and Kolkata.

Sherghati literally means 'the valley of lions'. The name finds its origin in the name of the great administrator and ruler, Sher Shah Suri. But, now it has become an allegory to honour the brave-hearted people of the area.

It is the location of one of the first discoveries of a Mars meteorite, the Shergotty meteorite, whose fall was witnessed in 1865. Meteorites with similar physical characteristics to this original one are called shergottites.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Industries
4 Land Reforms
5 Demographics
6 Education
7 References

[edit] History

For centuries, until the accession of Akbar to the throne of Delhi, Sherghati had been inhabited by the adivasis that continue to live in the southern state of Jharkhand. The Kol community constituted the majority of the adivasi population of Sherghati.

According to the legend, when Aurangzeb attacked Sherghati after conquering Aurngabad, the brave Kols of Sherghati stopped the Mughal army at the river side and did not let them enter the borders of Sherghati. The two brave soldiers of the Mughal army under the Aurangzeb's rule, Karm Ali and Sultan Ali were brought to death by the Kols. They were entombed at a temple which the army was about to demolish. The temple still exits at the same site and has been a place of worship by both the Hindus and the Muslims. The temple now has taken the form of a Mazar. This is probably one the reasons why the towns that come after Sherghati while coming from Aurngabad retain their original adivasi names (Dobhi, Barachatti, Chauparan, etc.).

Later, during the British Raj these adivasis were involved in a series of revolts against the British.

In 1934, a minor earthquake occurred in Sherghati, but it is not reported to be much devastating. In 1976, Sherghati was hit by huge flood. It claimed around 5-10 percent of the total area of Sherghati. The famous staircase well and the old jail-khana got drowned in that calamity.

[edit] Geography

Sherghati is located at 24.57° N 84.78° E^[1]. It has an average elevation of 121 metres (396 feet).

Sherghati is the southern most major town of Bihar. It shares the common boundary with the Chatra district of Jharkhand. The thick forest belt of Jharkhand looses its presence while we reach Sherghati. It has two main rivers one is Morhar and the other is called boodhi nadi or the old river.

[edit] Industries

Like most of the towns in Bihar, Sherghati is also prominently dominated by the agri based industries. The major cash crops produced here are rice, wheat, pulses, groundnut and sugar cane. Industrialization of this area, as is the case with the most of Bihar, has largely been neglected by the successive state and central governments. The major reason for the private sector not participating in the process is the lack of basic facilities like electricity, irrigation and roads. Electricity, for example, is available for only 6 to 8 hours per day. This statistic is as per the present scenario, earlier (before 2000) it used to be 2 to 4 hours per day, with several days without any supply.

Around forty to fifty years back the condition of industries in this area was far better comparatively. Since, at that time most of the Indian villages did not had access to electricity, the cost of production for the industries in Sherghati was almost the same as in the other villages. But, as soon as electricity reached the remote villages in other parts of the country, the industrialists (though small scale) in Sherghati faced fierce competitions from them and this led to the closure of industries that had just started to flourish in this area. One typical example is the closure of Sheo Narayan Flour and Oil Mills which is situated in the Gola Bazar area of Sherghati. It was started in the 1950s by Shri Ram Sharan Prasad Arya, an inhabitant of the area. At that time there were only two to three oil mills in the entire Gaya District. The entire plant was imported from England via Calcutta. But, the functioning of the mill was finally stopped in 1980s after a series of interrupts.

At present there is probably no industry (even small scale) in Sherghati that can boast of a considerable growth rate. Although Sherghati has potential to grow on this front, it still lacks in law and order implementation.

[edit] Land Reforms

Sherghati has always been in news for the communist uprising that has rose heights in this area. Sherghati is the home of the various extremist organizations like Naxalites, MCC (Maoist Communist Centre), PWG (Peoples War Group), etc. and their counterparts, the Ranvir Sena.

In 1952, the ‘Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act’ was passed and a large portion of the Sherghati Estate (Darbar House) which was owned by Babu Panchratan Lal, Babu Brijmohan Lal and Shri Shiv Prasad Rauniyar was handed over to the government. They were the zamindars of Sherghati region and occupied a lot of land in this area.

But, the discontent of the underprivileged, landless and the unemployed sections remained even after the reforms. The reasons are obvious, the crumbling industries giving rise to the extreme unemployment, in addition to the rapidly growing population. These people mostly belong to the SC/ST or the OBC. In most of the cases they join the extremist organizations, mentioned earlier, as an alternative to earn their livelihood.

[edit] Demographics

As of 2001 India census^GRIndia, Sherghati had a population of 32,358. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Sherghati has an average literacy rate of 56%, lower than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 62%, and female literacy is 49%. In Sherghati, 19% of the population is under 6 years of age.

[edit] Education

The condition of the education machinery in Sherghati has become slightly better (at least at the school level) since the DAV Public School has opened its branch in the town (in around 1992). It was a result of a lot of effort by the locals and the DAV managing committee.

In spite of the dreary education system in Sherghati there were people who went places in search of higher studies. Shri Laxmi Prasad BA was the first graduate in the town. Shri Aditya Prasad (of the Sherghati Darbar House) was among the first in the town to get a degree in engineering, that too from London, way back in 1950. Subodh Kumar Gupta I.A.S. Jharkhand Cadre and noted story teller Prabhat Manjudarshi also hail from Sherghati Darbar House family.

Shahzad Akhtar Khan, son of Abdul Moqueem Khan of Lodi Shaheed, passed out from University of Wales, Swansea, United Kingdom and is now working as Consultant for DFID (Department for International Development)

List of Schools: