Dewas

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  ?Dewas
Madhya Pradesh • India
Map indicating the location of Dewas
Location of Dewas
 Dewas 
Coordinates: 22°35′N 76°04′E / 22.58, 76.06
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)
Area
• Elevation
• 535 m (1,755 ft)
Population 245,000 (Census 2,001) (2001)
Codes
• Pincode
• Telephone
• Vehicle
• 455 0xx
• +91-(0)7272
• MP-41

Coordinates: 22°35′N 76°04′E / 22.58, 76.06Dewas (Hindi:देवास)is a town situated on the Malwa plateau in the West-central part of indian state called Madhya Pradesh. It is the administrative center of the Dewas District, and was formerly the seat of two princely states during the British Raj. Today, Dewas is an industrial town, with companies like Ranbaxy and Tata International being prominent players. Tekri, a hillock, which is in the centre of the town, holds a panoramic view.

Contents

[edit] Origin of name

The name Dewas is derived from the Devi Vaishini hill near the city. The hill has a temple of deity Devi Chamunda. The word Dewas is also believed to be a sandhi of words Dev (deity) and Vas (Hindi for abode), thus Dewas means abode of the deity or god.

[edit] Geography

Dewas lies northeast of Indore, southeast of Ujjain, and southwest of Shajapur. The town is located on the level plains of the Malwa plateau; to the south, the land rises gently to the Vindhya Range, which is the source of the Chambal and Kali Sindh rivers that flow north through the district on their way to the Ganges. Dewas lies at the foot of the conical Chamunda Hill, on the summit of which is the Devi Vindhyavasini temple. Nagara, which is home to Jain and Hindu temple ruins, lies just south of the city of Dewas.

Dewas is located at 22.97° N 76.07° E[1]. It has an average elevation of 598 metres (1961 feet).

[edit] Demographics

As of 2001 India census[2], Dewas had a population of 231,672. Dewas registered 40.1% growth in population during decade 1991-2001 which is way above indian population growth average. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Dewas has an average literacy rate of 69%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 77% and, female literacy is 61%. In Dewas, 15% of the population is under 6 years of age.

[edit] Industrial Connection

Dewas boasts many Industrial units providing employment to thousands of industrial workers. It has a couple of industrial areas on Indore road and also few pockets of industries on Ujjain road.

Main industries here are

Bank Note Press - Bank Note Press, Dewas, an industrial unit of Government of India, ministry of finance, Department of Economic Affairs, was conceived in the year 1969 and estiblished in 1974.

Tata International - Tata International has evolved from an export house into an international business company with a global turnover of US$ 850 million in 2006-07. In international trading, it encompasses the entire value chain from sourcing products to delivery. The company has taken on various value-added roles and has stakes in a cross-section of businesses

Dewas is an Industrial town of the state. It has got many mid-sized and small industries under its belt. The big wigs include Tatas, kirloskers, Arvind mills, S Kumars, Tata - Cummins, Gajra Gears, Ranbaxy Labs, Steel Tubes, Bank Note press . The rapid industrialization took place in the late 70s and early 80s. But due to inadequate infrastructure, the pace is very slow since late 80s. Still there are big units churning out profits. Dewas is known as Soya capital of India. Dewas has got major share in the soyabean processing in India.

In recent years, few industries have closed their operations due to shortage of sufficient infrastructure to support growth. Main is shortage of water as water table has significantly gone down due to excessive usage in previous decades.

Due to its high location above mean sea level and at one corner of plateau, constant wind flows in the region making it perfectly suited for harvesting wind energy. MP wind farms have chosen an ideal location for planting more than 100 huge monster like wind mills on a hill some 13 km from DEWAS. It generates around 15 megawatts of power. Few private companies have financed these to get un interrupted power supply.

[edit] Education

Dewas has got many good schools for education up to HSC level. For higher education there are few colleges but students prefer to move to Indore as it has got more advanced facilities and options for higher education and various professional courses to chose from.

Major colleges :

Govt. K.P. College affiliated to Vikram University, Govt Girls Degree College, Prestige institute of Management

Major schools:

Everest English H.S. School, B.C.M JR College, Kendriya Vidialaya Dewas, St. Mary's Covent, Govt NVM no.1 & no.2, Chimnabai Girls School, Radhabai Girls School, Sacred Heart H.S. School, Vindhyachal Academy, Sarswati Shishu vidhya mandir(both Balgarh & Vijay nager). Central India Academy

[edit] Transport

Air Connectivity

Nearest Airport is Indore (36 KM) which is well connected with Major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Bhopal, Gwalior. Many service operators like Jet airways, Indian, Kindfisher, Air Deccan operates on various route giving customers flexibility to chose various levels of services. Indore Airport is one hour drive from Dewas.

Train Connectivity

Dewas Jn.(DWX), is a Standard Broad Gauge Railway Station which belongs to Ratlam Division of Western Railway (India) Zone, is well connected with all major cities of india.

Dewas Junction lies on Indore - Ujjain branch line and it has one line originating and going towards Maksi Junction which connects Nagda Bhopal WR-CR link line. Indore - Ujjain line is not electrified and diesel engines mostly WDM2/3 pull trains on this sector.

There are regular trains plying to Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Kanpur, Patna, Trivendrum, Coimbatore, Cochin, Nagpur, Jammu and other major cities.

All trains, including superfast and express trains, stops here.

Road Connectivity

Dewas is well connected to major cities in state and Central India through extensive network of national and state highways. NH3 Agra Mumbai National highway passes through the town. NH 86 starts from Dewas and goes up to UP border passing through Chhatarpur - Hirapur - Banda - Sagar - Rahatgarh - Vidisha - Raisen - Bhopal - Sehore - Ashta.

There are regular buses, both by state run transport services as well as private operators for nearby towns.

Public transport services are not well developed and restricted to only tempos on Mumbai Agra road and few Auto rickshaws with fixed rates. It is advisable to fix the rate before boarding as they do not run on meters.

[edit] Princely history

Dewas was formerly the capital of not one but two princely states of British India. The original state was founded in the first half of the 18th century by the brothers Tukaji Rao (senior) and Jivaji Rao (junior), from the Pawar clan of Marathas, who advanced into Malwa with the Maratha Peshwa, Baji Rao, in 1728. The brothers divided the territory among themselves; their descendants ruled as the senior and junior branches of the family. After 1841, each branch ruled his own portion as a separate state, though the lands belonging to each were so intimately entangled, that even in Dewas, the capital town, the two sides of the main street were under different administrations and had different arrangements for water supply and lighting. The senior branch had an area of 446 sq. mi. and a population of in 62,312 in 1901, while the area of the junior branch was 440 sq. mi. and had a population of 54,904 in 1901. Both Dewas states was in the Malwa Agency of the Central India Agency. After India's independence in 1947, the Rajas of Dewas acceded to India, and their states were integrated into Madhya Bharat, which became a state of India in 1950. In 1956, Madhya Bharat was merged into Madhya Pradesh state.[3]

[edit] The E.M. Forster connection

A lovely and highly informative account of life in Dewas at the eve of Independence is provided by E. M. Forster in his book, The Hill of Devi. The title of the book itself refers to the hill on which the temple to Chamunda is located. E. M. Forster was private secretary to the raja of Dewas Senior, and is perhaps best known for his far more famous work, A Passage to India, which was made into an Oscar winning movie by Sir David Lean, starring Victor Bannerjee and Sir Alec Guinness.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Falling Rain Genomics, Inc - Dewas
  2. ^ Census of India 2001: Data from the 2001 Census, including cities, villages and towns. (Provisional). Census Commission of India. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.
  3. ^ This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.