Jorhat district

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This article is about the district. For its eponymous headquarters, see Jorhat.
Jorhat district
যোৰহাট জিলা
District of Assam
Location of Jorhat district in Assam
Country India
State Assam
Headquarters Jorhat
Tehsils 1. Jorhat East, 2. Jorhat West, 3. Titabor, 4. Teok, 5. Mariani, 6. Majuli
Government
 • Lok Sabha constituencies 1. Jorhat
 • Assembly seats 1. Jorhat, 2. Titabor, 3. Mariani, 4. Teok, 5. Dergaon 6. Majuli
Area
 • Total 2,852 km2 (1,101 sq mi)
Population (2011)
 • Total 1,091,295
 • Density 380/km2 (990/sq mi)
Demographics
 • Literacy 83.42 %
 • Sex ratio 956 female per 1000 male
Major highways NH-37
Website Official website

Jorhat {Pron:ˈʤɔ:(r)ˌhɑ:t} is an administrative district of Assam, located in the central part of Brahmaputra Valley. The district is bounded by Lakhimpur district on north, Nagaland state on the south, Sivasagar on the east and Golaghat on the west. On the North of the district, the river Brahmaputra forms the largest riverine island of the world. The administrative seat is located at Jorhat town.

Earlier Jorhat was a sub-division of undivided Sibsagar district. In 1983 Jorhat was carved out of Sibsagar District and was made a separate district.

History

"Jorhat" or "Jorehaut" means two hats or mandis-“Macharhat” and “Chowkihat” which existed on the two different banks of the river Bhugdoi during the 18th century, Jorhat was the last capital of the Ahom Kingdom. In 1794 the Ahom king Gaurinath Singha shifted the capital from Sibsagar (erstwhile ”Rangpur”) to Jorhat. This town was a flourishing and commercial metropolis but completely destroyed after a series of the Burmese invasions since 1817 till the arrival of the British force in 1824 under the Stewardship of David Scott and Captain Richard.

The British rule, though, was not free from rebellions and revolutions, contributed to reemergence of this historical town. From the very first decade of the British rule, the great revolutionists who emerged were Gomdhar Konwar, Jeuram and Piyali, British system of administration, came into vogue in 1839 with an established Police Thana. During the great “Sepoy Mutiny” the anti-British plot hatched by Maniram Dewan and Piyali Barua was sabotaged, and these leaders were hanged in public at this very place in 1858.[1]

In 1885, a narrow-gauge train service (Jorhat Provincial Railway) had come into operation and ultimately became instrumental in rapid growth of tea industry.

Though the civil sub-division under Sibsagar district at Jorhat was formed in 1869, this great place was declared as administration head quarter of the undivided Sibsagar district in 1911, which comprised the present Sibsagar, Jorhat and Golaghat and parts of Karbi-Anglong district with Major A. Playfair as the first deputy commissioner.

The modern-day district of Jorhat was created in 1983 when it was split from Sibsagar district.[2]

Geography

On the north of the district, the river Brahmaputra forms the largest riverine island of the world, Majuli, spreading over 924.6 km². with a population of about 1.50 lakh being threatened by the constant erosion by this mighty, unstable river Majuli had been the principal place of pilgrimage of Vaishnavites since the ages of the Ahom rules. There are several Satras resembling medieval monasteries headed by Satradhikars preaching and teaching the Vaishnavism which was initiated by Sankardeva (1449–1568). Each Satra has unknown wealth of Vaishnav Scriptures and extensive revenue free lands being cultivated by the “Bhakats” of the Satras.

Jorhat district occupies an area of 2,851 square kilometres (1,101 sq mi),[3] comparatively equivalent to Russia's Zemlya Georga.[4] Floods frequent the island every year without any exception. The mean annual rainfall of the district is 2029 mm.

District Administration

The District Administration is headed by Deputy Commissioner Mr. Solanki Vishal Vasant, IAS who is an Officer belonging to 2005 Batch of IAS (Assam-Meghalaya Cadre). Amanjeet Kaur is the newly appointed Superintendent of Police (SP) of Jorhat District, Assam belongs to the IPS batch of 2009 (Assam-Meghalaya cadre).

Economy

There are about 135 tea gardens, including out gardens, and the predominant field crop is rice, with per capita food grain production of 205 kg per annum. The district has a number of small scale and cottage industries in the field of cane work and bamboo work, silver jewelry, furniture making, brass smithy, umbrella making, soap manufacturing, packaged food manufacturing etc.

Divisions

There are six Assam Legislative Assembly constituencies in this district: Dergaon, Jorhat, Titabor, Mariani, Teok, and Majuli.[5] Dergaon is designated for scheduled castes and Majuli is designated for scheduled tribes.[5] Dergaon is in the Kaliabor Lok Sabha constituency, Majuli is in the Lakhimpur Lok Sabha constituency, whilst the other four are in the Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency.[6]

Demographics

According to the 2011 census Jorhat district has a population of 1,091,295,[7] roughly equal to the nation of Cyprus[8] or the US state of Rhode Island.[9] This gives it a ranking of 419th in India (out of a total of 640).[7] The district has a population density of 383 inhabitants per square kilometre (990 /sq mi) .[7] Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 9.21%.[7] Jorhat has a sex ratio of 956 females for every 1000 males,[7] and a literacy rate of 83.42%.[7]

The district has SC and ST population of 7.61% and 12.09% respectively of the total population. However, the Majuli Sub-Division has a tribal population of 70% who are primarily “Misings”.

Languages

The primary language of Jorhat and the entire state of Assam is Assamese. Other languages spoken include Aiton, which with approximately 1500 speakers is closely related to Shan and written in the Burmese script.[10]

Culture

The cultural environment which prevails in Jorhat is the result of untiring effort of people to preserve its culture.

Notable personalities

Jorhat has been able to produce many creative writers, historians, journalists. Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya, the first Assamese to win India's highest literature award, the Jnanpith Award, was from Jorhat.[11] Apart from it, Jorhat is the home of internationally reputed ideologist and educationist like Krishna Kanta Handique, former Vice Chancellor of Gauhati University.

Bollywood singer Zubeen Garg Is also from here.

Jadav Payeng, is known as the "Forest man of India" due to his diligent efforts to reforest this district. In 1979, at age 16 he started to plant trees to prevent erosion and has continued to plant trees ever since.

Flora and fauna

In 1997 Jorhat district became home to the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, which has an area of 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi).,[12] is a protected area which is home of hoolock gibbons. There is an another forest called Mulai Kathoni, a man made forest covering 550 hectares of area on a Brahmaputra river sandbar located near Kokilamukh area.

Education

Jorhat is considered a good place for modern education. The Jorhat Government Boys School is the oldest school established in 1883 with special facilities for Science teaching. The Jagannath Barooah College is the oldest College in the district set up in 1930 and said to be first college and in upper Assam. Later, however many degree colleges and schools came up. The people of Jorhat can rightly be proud of being a part of its glorious heritage and culture. Other schools are Carmel Convent School, Balya Bhavan, Hemalata Handique Memorial Institute, Don Bosco, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bahona Boys High School and many more.

Jorhat is the seat of learning with a first and only agricultural university in the whole N.E. Region - Assam Agricultural University, established in 1948 in addition to the Jorhat Engineering College (1960), North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST) (1961), Prince of Wales Institute Of Engineering & Technology (POWIET) (1926), Tocklai Experimental Station (1911), Jorhat Medical College (2009) and Kaziranga University (2012) along with other prestigious establishment like Rowriah IAF Base, ONGC, Oil India, etc.

Media

The healthy education and cultural life of Jorhat can be best judged from the fact that the district has as many as five daily newspapers published from here. They are namely-

  1. The Janambhumi group
  2. G.L. Publication groups

The Janambhumi Group of Newspapers-

The Saptahik Janambhumi, the Dainik Janambhumi and the Eastern Clarion, the Spatahik Janambhumi celebrated its 50 years of circulation and in the same way the Dainik Janambhumi crossed its 25 years of existence.

The G.L. Publication publishes three newspapers from Guwahati and Jorhat simultaneously. They are the North East Times (English) Amar Asom (Assamese) and the Purbanchal Prohori (Hindi).

The other newspapers published from Jorhat are Dainik Agradoot, Asomiya Khobor and The Telegraph.

References

  1. ↑ Guptajit Pathak (2008). Assamese Women in Indian Independence Movement: With a Special Emphasis on Kanaklata Barua. Mittal Publications. p. 75. ISBN 978-81-8324-233-2. Retrieved 21 April 2012. 
  2. ↑ Law, Gwillim (2011-09-25). "Districts of India". Statoids. Retrieved 2011-10-11. 
  3. ↑ Srivastava, Dayawanti et al. (ed.) (2010). "States and Union Territories: Assam: Government". India 2010: A Reference Annual (54th ed.). New Delhi, India: Additional Director General, Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Government of India. p. 1116. ISBN 978-81-230-1617-7. 
  4. ↑ "Island Directory Tables: Islands by Land Area". United Nations Environment Program. 1998-02-18. Retrieved 2011-10-11. "Zemlya Georga 2,821km2" 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "List of Assembly Constituencies showing their Revenue & Election District wise break - up". Chief Electoral Officer, Assam website. Retrieved 26 September 2011. 
  6. ↑ "List of Assembly Constituencies showing their Parliamentary Constituencies wise break - up". Chief Electoral Officer, Assam website. Retrieved 26 September 2011. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 "District Census 2011". Census2011.co.in. 2011. Retrieved 2011-09-30. 
  8. ↑ US Directorate of Intelligence. "Country Comparison:Population". Retrieved 2011-10-01. "Cyprus 1,120,489 July 2011 est." 
  9. ↑ "2010 Resident Population Data". U. S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 2011-09-30. "Rhode Island 1,052,567" 
  10. ↑ M. Paul Lewis, ed. (2009). "Aiton: A language of India". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (16th edition ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved 2011-09-28. 
  11. ↑ "Bhattacharya, Birendrakumar" in Amaresh Datta, ed., Encyclopaedia of Indian literature vol. 1 (Sahitya Akademi, 1987), ISBN 978-81-260-1803-1, p. 482 (excerpt available at Google Books).
  12. ↑ Indian Ministry of Forests and Environment. "Protected areas: Assam". Retrieved September 25, 2011. 

External links

 Lakhimpur district Dibrugarh district
Sonitpur district Sibsagar district
   Jorhat district  
Golaghat district Wokha district, Nagaland Mokokchung district, Nagaland

Coordinates: 26°45′00″N 94°13′00″E / 26.75°N 94.2167°E / 26.75; 94.2167

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