GAZETTEER OF INDIA UTTAR PRADESH District Muzaffarnagar UTTAR PRADESH DISTRICT GAZETTEERS MUZAFFARNAGAR ■AHSLl PI AS a* TAR¥K I.AiSv State Editor Published by the Government of Uttar Pradesh (Department of District Gazetteers, U. P„ Lucknow) and Printed by Superintendent Printing & Stationery, U. p, at fbe Government Press, Rampur 1989 Price Rs. 52.00 PREFACE Earlier accounts regarding the Muzaffarnagar district are E. T. Atkinson’s Statistical, Descriptive and Histori¬ cal Account of the North-Western Provinces of India, Vol. II, (1875), various Settlement Reports of the region and H. R. Nevill’s Muzaffarnagar : A Gazetteer (Allahabad, 1903), and its supplements. The present Gazetteer of the district is the twenty- eighth in the series of revised District Gazetteers of the State of Uttar Pradesh which are being published under a scheme jointly sponsored and financed by the Union and the State Governments. A bibliography of the published works used in the preparation of this Gazetteer appears at its end. The census data of 1961 and 1971 have been made the basis for the statistics mentioned in the Gazetteer. I am grateful to the Chairman and members of the State Advisory Board, Dr P. N. Chopra, Ed.',tor, Gazetteers, Central Gazetteers Unit, Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi, and to all those officials and non-officials who have helped in the bringing out of this Gazetteer. D. P. VARUN l.UCKNOW : November 8, 1976 ADVISORY BOARD 1. Sri Swami Prasad Singh, Revenue Minister, Chairman Government of Uttar Pradesh 2. Sri G. C. Chaturvedi, Commissioner-eum- Viet-Chairmsn Secretary, Revenue Department 3. Dr P. N. Masaldan, Head of the Department Monker of Political Science, Lucknow University 4. Dr R. N. Nagar, Professor Modern History, ,, Lucknow University 5. Dr R. L. Dwivedi, Head of the Department of Geography, Allahabad University 6. Dr Lallan Ji GopaL, Head of the Department „ of Ancient History, Banaras Hindu University 7. Dr B. N. Puri, Professor Ancient History, „ Lucknow University 8. Pt. Srinarayana Chaturvedi, Editor, „ ‘Saraswati’, Lucknow 9. Dr. S. S. Sidhu, Head of the Department of „ Social and Preventive Medicine, Medical College, Lucknow? University 10. Dr P. N. Chopra, Editor. Gazetteers, Central „ Gazetteers Unit, New Delhi 11. Dr K. P. Srivastava, Keeper of Archives, „ Allahabad 12. Dr N. P. Joshi, Director, State Museum, Lucknow 13. Srimati Madhuri Srivastava, State Editor, Member/ District Gazetteers, U. P. Lucknow Secretary CONTENTS Preface Advisory Board Map of the District Chapter Page I General 1 II History 18 III People 45 IV Agriculture and Irrigation 79 V Industries 106 VI Banking, Trade and Commerce 116 VII Communications 128 VIII Miscellaneous Occupations 138 IX Economic Trends 143 X General Administration 157 XI Revenue Administration 100 XII Law and Order and Justice 172 XIII Other Departments . 184 XIV Local Self-government .. 187 XV Education and Culture 222 XVI Medical and Public Health Services .. 237 XVII Other Social Services . 252 XVIII Public Life and Voluntary Social Service Organisations .. 262 XIX Places of Interest .. 272 Appendix Conversion Factors 291 Glossary 293 Bibliography 297 Index 303 ** 11 Description of Illustrations Facing Page 1. Rang Mahal (residence of Saiyids), Jansath ... 27 2. Dargah Baba Gharib Das, Bhukarheri ... 274 3. Begum Samru’s stronghold, Budhana ... 274 4. Thakurdwara (temple), Charthawal (reign of Jahangir) ... 275 5. Mosque of Shah Abdul Razzaq and his four sons, Jhinjhana 278 6. Fort (Garhi) of Ishaq, Kakrauli ... 280 7. Jain Temple, Kandhla ... 281 8. Two hundred years old Chaupal (khap) at Shoron 286 9. Temple of Sukhdeva, Shukartal ... 287 10. Tomb of Gharib Shah, Shoron ... 287 11. Old Fort, Wahlena 290 CHAPTER I GENERAL Origin of Name of District The district is named after its headquarters town, Muzaffar- nagar, which was founded in the reign of Shahjahan at the site of an old town known as Sarot or Sarwat. Abdul Muzaffar Khan, a minister of the emperor Shahjahan, received from him in jagir forty villages in parganas Khatauli and Sarwat, along with the title Khanjahan Shah-jahani. Sarwat was the chief town of his possessions but it was at that time almost deserted. Khanjahan started building a new town near Sarwat on lands taken from Sujru and Khera. It was, however, completed by his son Abul Mansur Khan and named Muzaffarnagar after his late father Abdul Muzaffar Khan. Location, Boundaries, Area and Population Location and Boundaries—The district is roughly rectangular in shape and lies between Lat. 29° 11' N. and 29° 43' N. and Long. 77° 04* E. and 78° 07' E. It. forms a part of the Meerut Division and is situated in the doab of the Ganga and the Yamuna between the districts of Saharanpur on the north and Meerut on the south. On the west the Yamuna separates it from district Karnal of the Haryana State, and on the east the Ganga forms the boundary between this district and the district of Bijnor. Its extreme length from east to west is about 98 km. while the extreme breadth from north to south is about 58 km. The average length and breadth are about 84 km. and 50 km. respectively. Area—According to the central statistical organisation and the surveyor general of India, the district covered 4,245 sq. km. in 1971 and stood 42nd in the State in respect of area. The agency of the State board of revenue, however, reported the area as 4,271.1 sq. km., which is a little higher, because of the employment of a some¬ what faulty method of calculation. The district is subject to flu¬ vial action of the Ganga and the Yamuna giving rise to frequent changes in its area. Population—According to the census of 1971, the district has a population of 18,02,289 (females 8,17,794), the rural population be¬ ing 15,52,474 (females 7,03,288) and the urban 2,49,815 (females 1,14,506), standing 19th in the State. History of District as Administrative Unit After the British occupation in 1803 the area comprising the present district was attached to Moradabad, but in the following year it was assigned to Saharanpur which then extended from the Siwalik hills to as far south as the northern parganas of Buland- shahr, then a part of Aligarh. Part of the tract was administered by the Resident at Delhi until 1806, when the entire area was di¬ vided into the northern and the southern charges under the MUZAFFARNAGAR district 2 collectors stationed at Saharanpur and Meerut. In 1824, a sub- collectorship was created at Muzaffarnagar with revenue jurisdic¬ tion over the parganas of Muzaffarnagar, Baghra, Shamli, Bidauli, Jhinjhana, Charthawal, Khatauli, Jauli, Pur Chhapar, Gordhanpur, Bhukarheri, Jansath, Shoron, and Lalukheri. The sub-collectorship was converted into a regular district in 1826, when the parganas otf Lakhnauti and Nurnagar were also taken away from district Saharanpur and merged in this district. In 1842, 134 villages were transferred from Saharanpur to this district, comprising 72 villages from Thana Bhawan, 16 from Chaunsatkheri, 12 from Roorkee, 10 from Deoband, five each from Gangoh, Nanauta and Manglaur, four from Nakur, three from Saharanpur, and one each from Rampur and Jaurasi. These were distributed as follows: Thana Bhawan retained 53 villages, while 20 each were assigned to Jhinjhana and Charthawal, 16 to Gordhanpur, five to Baghra, four each to Shamli, Bidauli and Muzaffarnagar, three to Pur, two to Kairana and one each to Budhana, Jansath and Khatauli. In return for this 93 villages were transferred to Saharanpur at the same time. From the old pargana of Lakhnauti 58 villages were given to Gangoh, three to Nakur, seven to Rampur and one to Katha. Of the remainder, 17 villages were taken from Nur¬ nagar, five from Pur Chhapar and two from Baghra. In the same year parganas Shikarpur, Budhana, Kandhla, Kairana, Gangeru, Phugana, Titarwara, and Bhuma Sambalhera were separated from district Meerut and added to this district. Of these Gangeru con¬ taining two villages and Phugana having seven villages were absorbed in Kandhla, and Titwara comprising eight villages in Kairana. Shoron and Lalukheri each containing six villages, and Jauli and Sambalhera, containing 16 each were also added to the neighbouring parganas. In 1853, there were many other changes of minor importance, the alterations being chiefly internal. Twe¬ lve villages were transferred from district Meerut to Muzaffarnagar. Between the years 1841 and 1861, because of the change in the course of the Yamuna six villages were separated from this dis¬ trict and added to district Karnal. In 1925, Chandipur of tahsil Kairana was also transferred to district Karnal. As a result of the eastward fluvial action of the Ganga in the period between 1842 and 1900, a total of 31 villages were taken out of Bijnor and added to this district. It was only in 1954 that five villages from this district were transferred to Bijnor as a result of the river taking a westward course. The neighbouring district of Karnal in Haryana has received a number of villages from tahsil Kairana of this district. This Dhakwala was transferred to it in 1951, Rana Mazra, Jalalpur, and Kandhla in 1961, and Dilwara and Andhera in 1965, Sub-divisions, Tahsils and Thanas The district is divided into four subdivisions : Muzaffarnagar, Kairana, Budhana, and Jansath, each comprising a tahsil of the same name. Tahsil Muzaffarnagar which comprises the parganas of Muza¬ ffarnagar, Charthawal, Baghra, Pur Chhapar, and Gordhanpur, occupies the central and north-eastern portions of the district and 3 CH. I—GENERAL is bounded on the north by district Saharanpur, on the east by the river Ganga which separates it from district Bijnor, on the south by tahsils Jansath and Budhana, and on the west by tahsil Kairana.