| Census
2011
District population : 18,47,023
Growth : 15.13%
Sex Ratio : 971
Literacy : 80
Brief About Dharwad District
Dharwad, also known as Dharwar, is a town in India's
Karnataka state. Dharwad is famous for its Dharwad Peda - a milk
based sweetmeat. Dharwad is the administrative seat of the district
of the same name. The municipality (resulting from a merger with
neighbouring Hubli in 1961) covers 191 sq. km. Dharwad is located
425km northwest of Bangalore, on the main highway between Bangalore
and Pune in Maharashtra. KREIS North Unit of National Projects Construction
Corporation is Head Quartered here.
History
The word "Dharwad" means a place of rest in
a long travel or a small habitation. For centuries, Dharwad acted
as a gateway between Malenaadu (western mountains) and Bayalu seeme
(plains) and it became a resting place for the travelers. Another
theory is, during Vijayanagara rule of Dharwad, there was a ruler
by name "Dharav" (1403) and Dharwad got its name from
him. There are some inscriptions that refer to Dharwad as Kampana
Sthana. Inscriptions found near Durga Devi temple, in Narendra (a
village near by) and the local RLS high school date back to 12th
century and have references to Dharwad. This puts Dharwad at least
900 years old. The Chalukyas ruled Dharwad during 12th century.
A stone inscription indicates that there was a ruler by the name
BhaskaraDeva in 1117. In the 14th century the district was first
overrun by the Bahmani Sultanate, after which it was annexed to
the newly established Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, an official
of which named Dhar Rao, according to local tradition, built the
fort at Dharwad town in 1403. After the defeat of the king of Vijayanagar
at Talikot (1565), Dharwad was for a few years practically independent
under its Hindu governor; but in 1573 the fort was captured by the
sultan of Bijapur, Adil Shah, and Dharwad was annexed to his dominions.
Adil Shah built a fort in an area later called MannaKille, and later
Nazratabad. With this fort, the strategic importance of Dharwad
increased and it thus attracted the attention of subsequent conquerors,
including Aurangzeb, Shivaji, Aurangzeb's son Mu Azam, Peshwa Balaji
Rao, Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan and finally the British colonizers.
In 1685, the fort was taken by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, and
Dharwad, on the break-up of the Mughal empire, fell under the sway
of the Maratha Peshwa of Pune. In 1764 the province was overrun
by Hyder Ali of Mysore, who in 1778 captured the fort of Dharwad.
The fort was retaken in 1791 by the Marathas. After the final defeat
of the Peshwa by the British in 1818, Dharwar was incorporated into
the territory of the British East India Company's Bombay Presidency.
During early 19th century, when British were expanding their kingdom,
they faced lot of opposition from local rulers, including Baba Saheb
of Naragund and Kittur Rani Chennamma. Dharwad was peaceful for
most of late 19th century. During those times, the British started
English Medium school in Dharwad in 1848 and in 1856, started town
municipality. Later in 1863, the Basel Mission organization started
another school. In 1867 British opened another school, Varmal school,
which later on became known as Training college. In 1883, the municipality
area included Sidapur, Lakamanhalli, Haveri Pete, Bagtalan, Madihal,
Galaganjikop, Malapur, Kamalapur, Narayanpur, Saptapur, Atti kolla
and Hosayellapur. The British government also established the Railway
station in 1888. The town had a station on the Southern Mahratta
railway. By 1901 the town had a population of 31,279, and was home
to several cotton ginning factories, a cotton mill, and two high
schools, one maintained by the government and the other by the Basel
German Mission. After India's independence in 1947, Bombay Presidency
was reconstituted as India's Bombay state. In 1956 the southern,
Kannada-speaking districts of Bombay state, including Dharwad, were
added to Mysore state, renamed Karnataka in 1972. Dharwad takes
great pride in being a 'University Town', being home to the Karnatak
University and the Univesity of Agricultural Sciences as well as
numerous other colleges. In 1961 the town merged with the adjacent
town of Hubli to become a single municipality, Hubli-Dharwad. The
population of the twin cities is 786,000, and is the second-largest
conurbation in Karnataka, after Bangalore. Hubli-Dharwad's population
increased 22.99% between 1981 and 1991, from 527,108 to 648,298,
and by 21.2% between 1991 and 2001.
Genaral
Dharwad District has an area of 427 sq. km., and a population
of 1,603,794 (2001 census), a 16.65% increase from the 1991 census.
The district is bounded by Gadag district on the northeast and east,
by Haveri district on the south, by Uttara Kannada district on the
southwest and west, and by Belgaum district on the northwest and
north. Before 1997 the district had an area of 13738 sq. km. In
1997, the new districts of Gadag and Haveri were created out of
Dharwad's former territory, and a portion of Dharwad district was
combined with lands formerly part of three other districts to create
the new district of Davanagere. |
