Midnapore district

Etymology

There are conflicting accounts of how the name Medinipur came to be. One account claims that Medinipur was named after a local deity "Medinimata" (literally "mother of the world", a Shakti incarnation). According to Sri Hari Sadhan Das, the district got its name from "Medinikar", the founder of the city in 1238, who was the son of "Prankara", the feudal king of "Gondichadesh". He was also the writer of "Medinikosh". Hara Prasad Shastri thinks that the city Medinikar established it around the time he wrote the book (1200-1431). He is said to have built the fort called "Kornelgola" situated in the city.

History

Mediaeval to colonial history

In ancient times the region seems to be highly influenced by Jainism and Buddhism. The kingdom of Shashanka and Harshavardhana also included part of undivided Midnapore in their kingdom. However, the most significant archaeological site in the region is the bustling port of Tamralipta near present-day Tamluk, a site noted in the travelogues of Faxian and Xuanzang. Later Chaitanya passed through the area on his way from Puri to Varanasi as documented in the Chaitanya Charitamrita. After the fall of last independent Hindu dynasty of Kalinga-Utkala, Gajapati Mukunda Deva in the 16th century, this region came under one of the five Sarkars of Mughalbandi Odisha i.e. Jaleswar Sarkar which was ruled by the Subehdar of Odisha. The north boundary of Jaleswar was Tamluk and south was Soro and Dhalbhumgarh in the west to the Bay of Bengal in the east. Bahadur Khan was the ruler of Jaleswar Sarkar or Hijli (including Midnapore) during the time of Shah Jehan. He was defeated by Shah Shuja, the second son of Shah Jehan, then the subahdar of Bengal.

During the era of the Muslim rulers of Bengal nawab, Alivardi Khan's general Mir Jafar fought successfully against Mir Habib's lieutenant Sayyid Nur near Midnapore in 1746. This was part of his campaign to regain Odisha and thwart the Maratha attacks on Bengal. Mir Habib came up from Balasore and was joined by the Marathas, but Mir Jafar fled to Burdwan, leaving Mir Habib to retake Midnapore with ease. Alivardi Khan defeated Janoji Bhosle, a Maratha chieftain, in a severely contested battle near Burdwan in 1747 and Janoji fled to Midnapore. The Marathas held on to Odisha including Midnapore until 1749 when it was reconquered by Alivardi Khan. The Marathas continued to raid Midnapore, which proved disastrous for the residents.

In 1756, Alivardi Khan died and his successor was Siraj-ud-daulah. On 20 June 1757, he was betrayed by Mir Jafar to the East India Company under the command of Lord Robert Clive at Plassey. This consolidated the company's hold on Bengal and Odisha (along with Midnapore). The district of Midnapore which included Dhalbhum or Ghatshila, now in Singhbhum, Jharkhand was annexed in 1760 along with Burdwan and Chittagong both handed over to the East India Company by Mir Qasim. The last free king of Dhalbhum was imprisoned in Midnapore.

Some of the Malla kings of Mallabhum in the Bankura district held land in northern Midnapore district, while the Raj rules of Narajole, Jhargram, Lalgarh, Jamboni, and Chandrakona held sway in their local areas. The Raj rulers in Rajasthan would pay homage to Jagannath but carves out their own territories under the supremacy of the Hindu empires of Odisha. The Mallick Zamindars also ruled over an extensively large area during the British rule. They also built the Jagannath Temple of Midnapore.

Partition of the district

The earliest recorded attempt to divide Midnapore district was announced during the time of the British Raj in 1915.{{cite book

In independent India, successive governments had expressed a desire to divide the district but this was never done until the government led by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee finalized the details of the partition and set a date.{{cite news | archive-url = https://archive.today/20140314222620/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1011231/national.htm#head3 | archive-date = 14 March 2014 | access-date = 13 October 2006 |access-date = 13 October 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071008070510/http://www.anandabazar.com/archive/1020101/1raj2.htm |archive-date = 8 October 2007 | access-date = 13 October 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081112044743/http://www.telegraphindia.com/archives/archive.html | archive-date = 12 November 2008

Midnapore district was bifurcated into two districts, Purba Medinipur and Paschim Medinipur, on 1 January 2002. The Medinipur Sadar, Kharagpur, Jhargram, and Ghatal subdivision were placed in Paschim Medinipur, with Midnapore as headquarters. While Tamluk, Contai, and Haldia subdivision were placed in the Purba Medinipur district with district headquarters at Tamluk.{{cite web |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071008070342/http://www.anandabazar.com/archive/1020102/2raj1.htm |archive-date = 8 October 2007 |access-date = 13 October 2006

Demographics

|1872 |2,542,920 |1881 |2,515,567 |1891 |2,631,466 |1901 |2,789,114 |1911 |2,821,201 |1921 |2,666,660 |1931 |2,799,093 |1941 |3,190,647 |1951 |3,359,022 |1961 |4,341,855 |1971 |5,509,247 |1981 |6,742,796 |1991 |8,331,912 |2001 |9,610,788

Religion

According to the 2001 Census people are Hindus, are Muslims, are Christians, are Sikhs, are Buddhist, Jains, and didn't stated any religious affiliation, while the rest are adherent of tribal faiths (primarily Sari and Sarna Dharma) and other unclassified sect and beliefs.

Languages

At the time of 2001, the last census of the district, Bengali speakers accounted for 90.47% (8.7 million), Santali 5% (480,000), and Hindi 1.38% (130,000). Kurmali (0.7%), Urdu (0.62%), Telugu (0.58%), and Odia (0.37%) had 68,000, 60,000, 56,000, and 36,000 speakers, respectively. Mundari (0.21%) and Koda (0.11%) had 20,000 and 11,000 speakers.

Social groups

As of the last census of the district, i.e. the 2001 Census, Scheduled Communities accounted for half of the total population, with Scheduled Castes comprising 33.6% (1,576,337) and Scheduled Tribes 17% (798,684). However, according to the 1931 census, out of a total population of 2,789,093 in Midnapore district, the Mahishya (incl. Chasa-Kaibrata, Mahisya-Kshatriya) community accounted for 31.67%, followed by Santal (6.09%), Bagdi (5.51%), Brahman (4.29%), Sadgop (3.93%), Kurmi (3.07%), Tanti and Tatwa (3.04%), Baisnaba (2.21%), Kayastha (1.98%), Raju (1.96%), Bhumij (1.62%), Adi-Kaibrata (1.61%), Goala (1.5%), Namsudra (1.33%), Pod (1.32%), Napit (1.29%), Dhobi (1.18%), Kamar (1.17%), and Kalu and Teli (1.11%). Communities accounting for between 1% and 0.1% of the population included Kumhar, Hari, Tili, Dom, Bhuiya, Bauri, Rajput, Kora, Lodha, Rajbansi, Muchi, Mal, Kaora, Barui, Suri, Jogi, Rajwar, Tiyar, Karenga, Kandra, Mahli, Mali, and Munda. The Muslim community made up 7.62% of the population, including Mumin (Jholaha) at 0.25% and Sayyad at 0.27%, while the remaining 7.6% of the population consisted of various smaller minority communities each below 0.1%.

References

References

1. Mukherjee, Deblina. (2024-09-21). "Banditry or Peasant Insurgency? Contextualizing and Analysing the Chuar Rebellion of Midnapore Under East India Company (1770s–1800)". Contemporary Voice of Dalit.
2. (1963). "Report of the Population Estimates of India (1820-1030) - Census 1961". Government of India Ministry of Home Affairs Office of the Registrar General, India.
3. Beverley, H.. (1872). "Report of the Census of Bengal 1872". Bengal Secretariat Press.
4. "Census of India 2001, West Bengal, District Census Handbook, Madinipur, Series – 20, Part – A & B, Village and Town Directory, Village and Town Wise Primary Census Abstract". Directorate of Census Operations, West Bengal.
5. (1997). "Medinipur O Swadhinata". Reba Das.
6. (1921). "Medinipurer Itihas". Haridāsa Caṭṭopādhyāẏa, Gurudāsa Caṭṭopādhyāẏa.
7. ".:: Legacy of Midnapore - Midnapore ::.".
8. (22 August 2008). "1400-yr-old monastery unearthed". The Times of India.
9. "Gloom and Bloom: The Case of Jagannatha Temples in Midnapore District". [[Government of Odisha]].
10. Saha, Sudhir Chandra. (1973). "The Scheme for Partition of Midnapur in Different Phases and ITS Impact". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress.
11. (April 1992). "Population Trends in Midnapore District, West Bengal, 1872–1981". Vidyasagar University.
12. "District Handbooks Midnapur - Census 1951". Superintendent of Census Operations, West Bengal.
13. "A-02: Decadal variation in population 1901-2011, West Bengal, India, 2011".
14. "C-01: Population by religious community, West Bengal - 2001". [[Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India]].
15. "C-16: Population by mother tongue, West Bengal - 2001". [[Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India]].
16. "PCA-TOT: Primary Census Abstract Total, West Bengal - 2001".
17. "Census of India – 1931, Bengal & Sikkim, Tables, Part II, Vol-V".