Hazaribagh

Anchal Hazaribagh Sadar, Jila Hazaribagh, Jharkhand.
Hazaribag city is governed by Municipal Corporation which comes under Hazaribag Metropolitan Region. The Hazaribag city is located in Jharkhand state of India.
As per provisional reports of Census India, population of Hazaribag in 2011 is 142,489
Although Hazaribag city has population of 142,489; its urban / metropolitan population is 153,595.
Hazaribagh is a city and a municipality in Hazaribagh district in the state of Jharkhand. It is the divisional headquarters of North Chotanagpur division. It is famous as a health resort and for Hazaribagh National Park (17 km from city).Etymologially, the word Hazaribagh is made of two words, hazar meaning 'thousand', and bagh meaning 'tiger'. Hence the literal meaning of Hazaribagh is 'City of thousand tigers'.However with the reduced population of tigers, the name was changed to Hazaribag (the city of a thousand gardens). According to Sir John Houlton the town takes its name from the small villages of Okni and Hazari – shown in old maps as Ocunhazry. The last syllable in its name probably originated in a mango-grove, which formed a camping ground for troops and travellers marching along the ‘new military road’ from Kolkata to Varanasi, constructed in 1782 and the following years. The Grand Trunk Road subsequently replaced this military road in the mid-eighteen hundreds, but the lay out differed at places, particularly around Hazaribagh. A dilapidated watch tower meant to guard the military road is still visible on Tower Hill, near Silwar.In very early times the district was covered with inaccessible forests to which non- Aryan tribes who refused to surrender to the steadily advancing Aryans, retired at different times. Though out the Turko-Afghan period (up to 1526), the area remained virtually free from external influence. It was only with the accession of Akbar to the throne of Delhi in 1556, that Muslim influence penetrated Jharkhand, then known to the Mughals as Kokrah. In 1585, Akbar sent a force under the command of Shahbaj Khan to reduce the Raja of Chotanagpur to the position of a tributary. After the death of Akbar in 1605, the area presumably regained its independence. This necessitated an expedition in 1616 by Ibrahim Khan Fateh Jang, the Governor of Bihar and brother of Queen Noorjehan. Ibrahim Khan defeated and captured Durjan Sal, the 46th Raja of Chotanagpur. He was imprisoned for 12 years but was later released and reinstated on the throne after he had shown his ability in distinguishing a real diamond from a fake one.

In 1632 Chotanagpur was given as Jagir to the Governor at Patna for an annual payment of Rs. 136000. This was raised to Rs. 161000 in 1636 A.D. During the reign of Muhammad Shah (1719–1748), Sarballand Khan, the Governor of then Bihar, marched against the Raja of Chotanagpur and obtained his submission. Another expedition was led by Fakhruddoula, the Governor of Bihar in 1731. He came to terms with the Raja of Chotanagpur.

This situation continued until the occupation of the country by the British. During the Muslim period, the main estates in the district were Ramgarh, Kunda, Chai and Kharagdiha. Subsequent to the Kol uprising in 1831 which, however, did not seriously affect Hazaribag, the administrative structure of the territory was changed. The paraganas Ramgarh, Kharagdiha, Kendi and Kunda became parts of the South-West Frontier Agency and were formed into a division named Hazaribag as the administrative headquarters.

During British rule one had go by train to Giridih and then travel in a vehicle called push-push to Hazaribagh. It was pushed and pulled by human force over hilly tracts. It was exciting journey across rivers and through dense forests infested with bandits and wild animals. Rabindranath Tagore travelled in a push-push along the route in 1885. He has recorded the experience in an essay, Chotanagpur families. When the Grand Chord was opened in 1906, Hazaribagh Road station was linked with the town. For many years, Lal Motor Company operated the rail-cum-bus service between Hazaribagh town and Hazaribagh Road station.The town became a cantonment in 1790, the Ramgarh battalion having been raised ten years earlier. It was then part of Ramgarh district. It became a district headquarter in 1834. The cantonment flourished till 1884.This resulted in a planned old city. This part of the town is known as Boddam Bazar, after the officer who laid it out. Many Englishmen settled in Hazaribagh during the British period. They built large bungalow type houses, quite often with sloping roofs. Many of them were great hunters and hunting stories abound in the town by word of mouth. Most of them left after independence. Tutu Imam topped the list of hunting legends in the town. A century back it was common for tigers and leopards to poach upon livestock in the outskirts of the town.

Hazaribagh Central Jail housed many leaders of the Indian freedom movement, including Dr. Rajendra Prasad, later the first president of India. The popular leader Jayaprakash Narayan was put under arrest in this jail during the Quit India Movement of 1942. His escape from this high security prison and the support he received from the local people is one of the legends of the Indian Independence movement.

During the early years of World War II an internment camp ("parole camp") for German civilians was in the town. In June 1942 it housed 36 women, 5 men and 16 children. 21 females with 13 children, had been transferred on 25. Februar 1942 from Diyatalawa. In autumn they were transferred to the family camps at Purandhar or Satara.A small but effective Bengali community settled at Hazaribagh in the nineteenth century when the area was in Bengal Presidency and the British administration was looking for people with English education. The small community Contributed considerably towards the development of the place.

Ray Bahadur Jadunath Mukhopadhay(Mukherjee) one of early settlers is much talked about. He helped in setting up the Durga Puja mandap, the Brahmo Samaj and the first girls’ school in the town. Chanchala Niyogi physically got the school going around 1895. Those were the days when people thought that by educating their daughters they were paving the way for their widowhood. Around 1920, the new school building was built with the initiative of Braja Kumar Niyogi with funds mainly from the estate of Raja of Ramgarh. Great Scholars such as Mahesh Chandra Ghosh, and Dhirendranath Choudhury, made the town their home. The poet Kamini Roy lived in the town for some years. Manmathanath Dasgupta, a Brahmo missionary spent many years in Hazaribagh working amongst the down trodden. Sarat Kumar Gupta contributed towards the development of the town in many ways. Doctors such as Mandindra Bhushan Banerjee (Panna Babu) , Bikash Kumar Sen, Sambhu Nath Roy and Benoy Chandra Chatterjee were prominent personalities. The noted Bengali author and writer for many Hindi films like SUJATA, Subodh Ghosh was born and brought up in Hazaribagh. Many of his stories are set in the region.

Keshub Chunder Sen, the great Brahmo Leader, accompanied by Trailokyanath Sanyal, had visited Hazaribagh in 1874 to recoup his health. He wrote many pieces during his short stay and participated in Bhadrotsav celebrations. After his death in 1884, a public hall on the Main Road was named Keshub Hall in his memory. Amongst the Brahmo missionaries who visited Hazaribagh regularly was Pramathalal Sen.

Rai Bahadur Kalipada Sarkar was a leading advocate. He was the chairman of Municipalty, chairman of District Board, President Bar Association and also member of council. Incidentally, KP Sarkar was the first Indian to be the chairman of Hazaribag Municipalty.

Another notable Bengali of the first half of the 20th century was Rai Bahadur Surendra Nath Roy, the noted government Pleader and a patron of the arts. Suren babu migrated from village Raghunathpur (Nadia, Bengal), where he was a zamindar (জমিদার) and the title 'Rai Bahadur' was conferred on him by the British, in 1890 to practice law in the Civil Court at Hazaribagh. For a time he was President Bar Association and was the co-founder of Annada High School (Bengali School). He also acted as the custodian of the minor Kamakhya Narayan Singh, the erstwhile Raja of Ramgarh Ramgarh Raj.