Sultanpur district General information
Sultanpur is a district in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. The district is a part of Faizabad Division.It's administrative head is Sultanpur. It has an area of 1713 sq. rn. The surface is generally level, being broken only by ravines in the neighborhood of the rivers. The central portion is highly cultivated, while in the south are widespread arid plains and swampy jhils or marshes. The principal river is the Gomti River, which passes through the centre of the district and affords a valuable highway for commerce. Minor streams are the Kandu, Pili, Tengha and Nandhia, the last two being of onieimiiortanee, as their channels form the outlet for the superfluous water of the jhils, draining into the Sai. There: are ner the decade. o forests in the district, only stunted dhdk jungles used for fuel. In the population was 1,083,904, showing an increase of less than 1% over the decade.Due to its plain fertile land and irrigation facilities It has got an agricultural importance .Primarily an agricultural district, its principal crops are rice, pulses, wheat, barley, sugarcane and a little poppy. Jagdishpur is the main industrial area in the district with BHEL(Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited), Indo gulf (urea factory) and some leather factories established in that area . Apart from these the district also has Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) testing centre located in Korwa near Munshiganj and ACC cement factory in Gauriganj. The main line of the Oudh & Rohilkhand railway from Lucknow to Rae Bareli and Mogul Serai serves the south-western portion. Politically the district is famous for its Amethi constituency due to its association with Gandhi family.
History
The Sultanpur district Gazeteer published in 1903 A.D. throws some light on the history and origine of the district. It is seen that the chief land owning families of the past were the Rajputs of the various clans, who possessed 76.16 percent of the total land area. Among them the Rajkumars along-held over one-fourth of the district, while their kinsmen, the Bachgotis and Rajwars owned 11.4 and 3.4 percent, respectively. The Rajkumars were the proprietors of nearly the whole of Aldemau. Their chief was the Raja of Dera. The head of Bachgotis was the Raja of Kurwar while the taluqdar of Samrathpur represented another branch of the family. The chief of Rajwars was the taluqdar of Pratabpur. Another member of the Rajwars family was the Raja of Hasanpur. Allied to him were the families of Maniarpur and Gangeo and between them they owned a large portion of the central area. Next to Bachgotis and their kinsmen come the Bandhalgotis, who owned almost the whole of Amethi pargana. Their head was the Raja of Amethi while the taluqdar Shahgarh belonged to the same clan. The Rajputs with large properties in the district were the Bhale Sultans who owned 4.72 percent, the Kanhapurias with 4.7 percent, and the Bais with 2.8 percent. Of the Bhale Sultans half were Hindus and half Mussalmans. They were dwelling in the north west corner of the district in the parganas of Isauli, Musafirkhana and Jagdishpur. The Kanhpurias were chiefly confined to pargana Gaura Jamo, almost the whole of which belonged to them. The Bais were scattered about in small groups.
Another important branch of the land owning clans was the house of Raj Sah. Raj Sah had three sons, Ishri Singh, Chakrasen Singh and Rup Chand. From Ishari Singh, after nine generations came Bijai Chand, who had three sons. Harkaran Deo. Jit Rai, and Jionarain. Harkaran Deo was the ancestor of Nanemau taluqdar; the descendants of Jit Rai were the owners of Meopur Dahla, Meopur Dhaurua, and Bhadaiyan; and from Jionarain descended the Raja of Dera. The fourth descendant of Jionarain led the the first of the six colonies of Rajkumars across the Gomti and planted himself at Dera on the banks of the river. This house became one of the main branches of the Bachgotis of Sultanpur.
At the begining of the nineteenth century Babu Madho Singh, eleventh in descent from Jionarain was the rular of the estate which consisted of 101 villages. Babu Madho Singh who is remembered as the successful leader and who managed his property well died in 1823. He was succeded by his widow, Thakurain Dariao Kunwar, a most remarkable woman, who through toil and turmoil not only bravely held her own, but added to her estates than her husband had done in his life time. The direct line of succession had ended with the death of Thakurain's husband, Babu Madho singh. The Next male collateral heir was Babu Rustam Sah, whom Thakurain disliked. Babu Rustam Sah was in the service of Maharaja Man Singh, the nazim of the day and with his help succeded in capturing Thakurain and made her write a deed in his favour. That formidable woman, whose pride was hurt grieved for a few months and died. Rustam Sah was given the possession of the property by the nazim. Rustam Sah came to know later that the nazim had ulterior motives in helping him. A fight would have followed and Rustam would have killed nazim, but for a pandit who advised him that the time was not propitious. Later, Rustam Sah sought asylum across the British border and was made the taluqdar of Dera, which consisted of 336 villages. Rustam Sah rendered excellent service during the Mutiny. He died in 1877 and was succeded by his nephew, Raja Rudra Pratap Singh.
Bariar Singh, the youngest brother of Rustam Sah, received an estate of 20 villages and three pattis in the parganas of Baraunsa and Aldemau in return for services rendered during the Mutiny. This property was known as Damodra or Sultanpur.
All these local rajas were under the control of Dilli hukumat and nawabs of Avadh.
Geography
The district is a part of Faizabad Division of Uttar Pradesh and lies between 81.32 and 82.41 degrees east longitude and 25.59 and 26.40 north latitude. It is bounded by Faizabad district in the north and Pratapgarh in south. In the east its boundary touches Azamgarh, Ambedkar Nagar, Jaunpur and west it touches Barabanki and Raebareli districts.
River
The only mineral of importance is kankar found in great abunmdance all along the bed of Gomti. It lies at a depth ranging from a few centimeters to about one meter from the surface, in a stratum of about the same thickness. The kankars are of four types : bichua a first rate road metal, somewhat black in apperance, mathia, lighter and softer variety with which a quantity of clay or earth is always intermixed, patharia, a sandy stony metal, chatan, a hard yellow metal of considerable value. The reefs all along the Gomti also contain fossil formation of yellow color from which excellent lime is obtained. Reh or saline efflorescence is found in usar lands specially in tehsil Amethi. Clay is found in almost in every part of the district. A variety of clay known as multani mitti is found in the village of Dewar in pargana Chanda at a distance of about five kilometer from river Gomti. The village (Dewar) lies on the bank of a rain stream and the earth is found in a layer of about 15 cm thickness at a depth of about a meter. It is used for pottery and dyeing purposes.
Land
The land of Sultanpur district is generally plane except some regions around the Gomti river which drains almost the whole district. However, the southern part of Sultanpur drains towards Sai river flowing through the Pratapgarh district.
Climate
The climate of Sultanpur is semi-arid with very hot summer and equally cold winter season. During the summer months i.e.May-June, the maximum temperature goes beyond 44 degrees Celcius and in winter months of Dec.-Jan. it is around 3-4 degrees.
Area
Geographic area of the district is 4436 sq km. It may be called an agrarian area as agriculture is the main occupation of the people. Sultanpur, the head quarter of the district is the only town of importance having municipal board. Other town areas are Amethi, Musafirkhana, Dostpur, Kadipur and Koeripur. There are six tehsils and tewnty two development blocks which form the district. Namely, Sadar (Sultanpur), Kadipur, Musafirkhana, Amethi, Gauriganj and newly formed Lambhua are the tehsils. There are one municipality and five town areas in the district.