Chamba district explained

Chamba district
Settlement Type:District of Himachal Pradesh
Total Type:Total
Coor Pinpoint:Chamba, Himachal Pradesh
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name: India
Subdivision Type1:State
Subdivision Name1: Himachal Pradesh
Subdivision Type2:Division
Subdivision Name2:Chamba
Established Title:Established
Seat Type:Headquarters
Seat:Chamba
Parts Type:Tehsils
Parts Style:para
P1:7
Area Total Km2:6522
Population As Of:2011
Population Total:519,080
Population Density Km2:auto
Demographics1 Title1:Literacy
Demographics1 Title2:Sex ratio
Leader Title1:Lok Sabha constituencies
Leader Name1:1
Leader Title2:Vidhan Sabha constituencies
Leader Name2:5
Timezone1:IST
Utc Offset1:+05:30
Website:http://hpchamba.nic.in/

Chamba district is the northwestern district of Himachal Pradesh, in India, with its headquarters in Chamba town. The towns of Dalhousie, Khajjhiar and Churah Valley are popular hill stations and vacation spots for the people from the plains of northern India.

Economy

In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Chamba one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640). It is one of the two districts in Himachal Pradesh currently receiving funds from the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGF).[1]

Demographics

Population

According to the 2011 census Chamba district has a population of 519,080,[2] roughly equal to the nation of Cape Verde.[3] This gives it a ranking of 544th in India (out of a total of 640).[2] The district has a population density of 80PD/sqkm .[2] Its population growth rate over the decade 2001–2011 was 12.58%.[2] Chamba has a sex ratio of 989 females for every 1000 males,[2] and a literacy rate of 73.19%. 6.96% of the population lived in urban areas. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes made up 21.52% and 26.10% of the population respectively.[2] The Gaddis, the largest Scheduled Tribe in Himachal Pradesh, mainly live in Chamba district.

Religion

Religious
group! colspan="2"
1901[4] 1911[5] [6] 1921[7] 1931[8] 1941[9]
119,327126,269130,489135,254155,910
8,3328,75010,52910,83912,318
80141242112107
70816394190
22627541568383
35330
00000
00000
Others00000
Total population127,834135,873141,867146,870168,908

Languages

The majority of the people of the district are native speakers of languages in the Himachali group. These primarily include Chambeali (the first language reported by 23% of the population in the 2011 census), Gaddi or Bharmauri (22%), Churahi (14%), Pangwali (3.5%) and Bhateali (2.9%). Other languages spoken are Hindi (2.9%), Gujari (1.9%), Kashmiri (1.3%) and Punjabi (1.1%).[10] [11]

Politics

See main article: 14th Himachal Pradesh Assembly.

ConstituencyPartyMLARemark
No.Name
1Churah (SC)Hans Raj
2Bharmour (ST)Janak Raj
3ChambaNeeraj Nayar
4DalhousieD S Thakur
5BhattiyatKuldeep Singh PathaniaSpeaker

Education

Schools

Interesting places

A yet another place of interest in Chamba town is the Bhuri Singh Museum at Chamba which came into existence on 14 September 1908. It is named after Raja Bhuri Singh who ruled Chamba from 1904 to 1919. Bhuri Singh donated his family collection of paintings to the museum. The embroidered Chamba-Rumals are related in style since their drawings were made by pahari painters though the embroidery was done by the household ladies.

Salooni is 56 km from Chamba.

Khajjiar is mini Switzerland in Chamba. Bhalei Mata Temple is famous in Chamba. It is 35 km from Chamba. Chhudra is 25 km from Chamba.

Villages

Fair and festivals

Chamba is famous for its vivid festivals. The Suhi Mata festival is held for four days in March/April every year in memory of princess Sui. She is known to have sacrificed her life for the cause of her people, that is, the people of Chamba.

At the time of the harvest of the maize crop, which is the main crop of this region, to express happiness and to enjoy after a hard toil, locals celebrate Minjar festival. This week long fare/ Mela is the most popular Mela of Chamba.

The temple was built by Sahil Varman in the honour of his daughter Champavati who is worshipped as a goddess in Chamba. This journey of one thousand years is a repository a civilised, cultured and developed society which existed in the lap of the Himalayas. The unique architect of houses and temples, splendid wood and metal craft, world fame Chamba Rumal and Chappal and the pahari paintings are some salient features of this one thousand years young town.

The Chamba town has a number of temples, Palaces and stylised buildings. Laxmi Narayana Temple, which is the main temple of Chamba town, was built by Sahil Varman in the 10th century AD. There are several other temples within the complex.

The temple of Radha Krishna, Shiva Temple of Chandergupta and Gauri Shankar Temple are among these. The ancient temple of Vajreshwari is believed to be 1000 years old and is dedicated to Devi Vajreshwari-Goddess of lightning.

The Sui Mata temple can be divided into three parts which can physically spread apart. The Hari Rai temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu and dates back to 11th century.

Reference of Chamba town would be incomplete without the majestic Chaugan. It is the heart and hub centre of all activities in Chamba. Tradition is silent as to its use as a polo ground and the name is etymologically distinct from Chaugan, the Persian name of Polo, being of Sanskrit origin and meaning 'four-sided'. Initially the five Chaugan were a single patch of meadow.

To mark the completion of 1000 years of this town, the Government of Himachal Pradesh had celebrated the millennium of this town from 14 to 20 April 2006 in a most befitting way. The celebrations has provided the people the opportunity to have a firsthand knowledge of the rich cultural and historical past of the Chamba town.

Notable residents

Chamba district is represented in Lok Sabha by the Member of Parliament elected from Kangra (Lok Sabha constituency). Earlier it is represented for first 4 elections to Lok Sabha as member elected from Chamba (Lok Sabha constituency). The MP elected from Chamba seat were A. R Sewal in 1952, Padam Dev in 1957, Chattar Singh in 1962 and Vikram Chand Mahajan in 1967.[13]

External links

32.5544°N 76.1239°W

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ministry of Panchayati Raj . 8 September 2009 . A Note on the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme . National Institute of Rural Development . 27 September 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120405033402/http://www.nird.org.in/brgf/doc/brgf_BackgroundNote.pdf . 5 April 2012.
  2. Web site: 2011 . District Census Handbook: Chamba . censusindia.gov.in . Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India.
  3. Web site: US Directorate of Intelligence . Country Comparison:Population . https://web.archive.org/web/20070613004507/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html . dead . 13 June 2007 . 1 October 2011 . Cape Verde 516,100 July 2011 est..
  4. Web site: Census of India 1901. [Vol. 17A]. Imperial tables, I-VIII, X-XV, XVII and XVIII for the Punjab, with the native states under the political control of the Punjab Government, and for the North-west Frontier Province. ]. saoa.crl.25363739 . 30 March 2024 . 1901 . 34.
  5. Web site: Census of India 1911. Vol. 14, Punjab. Pt. 2, Tables. . saoa.crl.25393788 . 30 March 2024 . 1911 . 27.
  6. Web site: Census Of India 1911 Punjab Vol XIV Part II . 30 March 2024 . 1911 . 27 . Kaul, Harikishan.
  7. Web site: Census of India 1921. Vol. 15, Punjab and Delhi. Pt. 2, Tables. . saoa.crl.25430165 . 30 March 2024 . 1921 . 29.
  8. Web site: Census of India 1931. Vol. 17, Punjab. Pt. 2, Tables. . saoa.crl.25793242 . 30 March 2024 . 1931 . 277.
  9. Web site: Census of India, 1941. Vol. 6, Punjab . saoa.crl.28215541 . 30 March 2024 . 1941 . 42 . India Census Commissioner . 6 .
  10. Web site: Table C-16 Population by Mother Tongue: Himachal Pradesh . www.censusindia.gov.in . Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. The census returns also include 24% who identify their language as Pahari; this can include speakers of any of the above-listed varieties of Himachali.
  11. Web site: Eberhard. David M.. Simons. Gary F.. Fennig. Charles D.. 2019. India – Languages. 22nd. Ethnologue. SIL International.
  12. Dhiman . Vishal Kumar . Bandyopadhyay . Bosudha . Singh . Jagdeep . Kumar . Akhilesh . Chaudhary . Akshay . Himachal Pradesh's Gaddi Tribe: A Socio-Cultural Study . ECS Transactions . 9 March 2024 . 10061–10068 . 10.1149/10701.10061ecst . 1 April 2022. 107 . 2022ECSTr.10710061D .
  13. Web site: All Members of Lok Sabha (Since 1952) Members Biographical Sketches. 21 December 2017.