Kurwai

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

?Kurwai Madhya Pradesh • India
Coordinates: (find coordinates)
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
District(s)	Vidisha
Population	13,737 (2001)

Kurwai is a town and a Nagar Panchayat in Vidisha district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

1 History
2 Demographics
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

Kurwai was formerly a Muslim princely state of British India. The state was 368 km² in area and in 1892 boasted a population of 24,631. The state, which came under British sovereignty in the early nineteenth century, was founded in 1730 by Mohammed Dalair Khan, an Afghan rising through merit in the Mughal army. His descendants ruled the state until June 15, 1948, when the last ruling Nawab acceded to the Indian Government. Kurwai became part of the newly-created state of Madhya Bharat, and was added to Vidisha District. Madhya Bharat was merged into Madhya Pradesh on November 1, 1956.

Sarwar Ali Khan, son of the last Nawab of Kurwai, married Abida Sultan of Bhopal, eldest daughter and heiress presumptive of the Nawab of Bhopal. They had one son named Shahryar Khan. Abida Sultan gave up her right to the throne of Bhopal and opted for the Muslim nation Pakistan in 1950, eventually entering that country's Foreign service. Abida Sultan arrived in the newly created Pakistan when she was 37 and a mother of a young son. She was to spend the greater part of her life in Pakistan. She died in 2002. Shaharyar Khan was to become the Foreign Secretary of Pakistan and then the Chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board.

Nawab Sarwar Ali Khan's second wife was Princess Ayesha, daughter of the Nawab of Wai. They had three children, Kaiser Zaman, Zafar Ali Khan and Munawar Ali Khan. Kaiser Zaman studied English at Somerville College, Oxford University and later founded All Saints School Bhopal.

[edit] Demographics

As of 2001 India census^[1], Kurwai had a population of 13,737. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Kurwai has an average literacy rate of 61%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 69%, and female literacy is 53%. In Kurwai, 18% of the population is under 6 years of age.