Sakchi was a village in north eastern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n territory of Singhbhum which was selected by

Jamsetji Tata Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata (3 March 1839 – 19 May 1904) was an Indian industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate. He established the city of Jamshedpur. Born into a Zoroastrian Parsi family in ...

to be the location of a planned steel city, which in 1919 became

Jamshedpur Jamshedpur (; ), also known as Tatanagar, is a major industrial city in eastern India. It is the List of cities in Jharkhand by population, largest city in the state of Jharkhand. With a population of 629,658 in the city limits and 1.3 million ...

. Sakchi is now part of the city between the

Tata Steel Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, with its primary operations based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. It is a subsidiary of the Tata Group. Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel ...

site and the river Subarnarekha. Then it was known as Kalimati. Due to the presence of iron ore, river water and sand, Jamsetji Tata decided to establish TISCO (Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited) there. The company is now known as

Ltd.

Overview

Even today running through Sakchi is the Kalimati Road. During

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, a railway line connecting

Howrah Howrah (; ; alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River, opposite to its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively ...

(

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

) was started. Jamshedpur is in the Indian mineral-rich state of Jharkhand which was earlier in South

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

. As

was established, the first planned urban settlement started in Sakchi area and it included businessmen ( Gujaratis,

Parsis The Parsis or Parsees () are a Zoroastrian ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. They are descended from Persian refugees who migrated to the Indian subcontinent during and after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, w ...

Punjabis The Punjabis (Punjabi language, Punjabi: ; ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ; romanised as Pañjābī) are an Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group associated with the Punjab region, comprising areas of northwestern India and eastern Paki ...

), servicemen (

Biharis Bihari () is a demonym given to the inhabitants of the Indian state of Bihar. Bihari people can be separated into three main Indo-Aryan ( Bihari-speaking) ethnolinguistic groups: Bhojpuris, Maithils and Magahis. They are also further divid ...

Bengalis Bengalis ( ), also rendered as endonym and exonym, endonym Bangalee, are an Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the Bengal region of South Asia. The current population is divi ...

, Oriyas,

Telugus Telugu people (), also called Āndhras, are an ethno-linguistic group who speak the Telugu language and are native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Yanam district of Puducherry. They are the most populous of the four ...

Kannadigas The Kannadigas or Kannadigaru (), often referred to as Kannada people, are a Dravidian ethno-linguistic group who natively speak Kannada, primarily in the south Indian state of Karnataka and its surrounding regions. The Kannada language belongs ...

, Marathis,

Tamils The Tamils ( ), also known by their endonym Tamilar, are a Dravidian peoples, Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Tamil language is o ...

, and

Malayali The Malayali people (; also spelt Malayalee and sometimes known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala and Union Territory of Lakshadweep in India, occupying its south ...

s). Many people who then migrated from

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

East Bengal East Bengal (; ''Purbô Bangla/Purbôbongo'') was the eastern province of the Dominion of Pakistan, which covered the territory of modern-day Bangladesh. It consisted of the eastern portion of the Bengal region, and existed from 1947 until 195 ...

(now

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

and

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

are now permanent residents of Jamshedpur city and their ancestral homes were either lost or sold after separation of East Pakistan (Bangladesh). Old houses of Bengalis, Parsis, Anglo-Indians and Gujaratis can still be seen in Aambagan, Hill Cart Road, Kalimati Road, Pennar road, Sakchi Bazar areas of Sakchi. A few such houses are also present in Bistupur. Once, there used to be a single line railway track which would carry sand for the factory in present-day Aambagan Maidan near the Masjid, it does not exist anymore. Mode of transport in the Jamshedpur city were buggies and taxis. There were single lane roads with old British style street lamps. Most roads between Sakchi and Bistupur were surrounded by jungles. The city is unique because it is a very small town even today with extreme ends being covered within 45 minutes (including traffic). It is not a metro city, yet it has the demography of a metro town as people from all ethnicities live here as permanent residents. Sakchi is located in the centre of the city, with Bistupur, Kadma, and Sonari lying in the West. In the East, lies Baradwari, Kasidih, Bhalubasa, Sitaramdera, Agrico and Sidhgora. In the North, lies

Mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...

which is also one of the busiest locations of the city and down south lies Burmamines, Tatanagar station, Jugsalai and Parsudih. Sakchi today has numerous cinema halls, Sakchi Bazaar used to hold Mangla Market (Tuesday market) every Tuesday on footpath, till 2010. Sakchi Market (or Sakchi Bazaar) is the oldest market in the city.

History

In April 1904, Dorabji Tata, Shapurji Saklatvala and C. M. Weld, went on a journey to locate a site rich in

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

. One day they reached to Sakchi village, situated in the dense forests of the

Chota Nagpur plateau The Chota Nagpur Plateau () is a plateau in eastern India, which covers much of Jharkhand state as well as adjacent parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar. The Indo-Gangetic plain lies to the north and east of the plateau, and th ...

, near the convergence of the Subarnarekha and Kharkai rivers. It appeared to be an ideal choice for a steel plant and the location was selected. Sakchi was a tribal village, mainly inhabited by the Bhumij and Santhal tribes. Sakchi village was populated by 17 families of Bhumij, and its two hamlets – Kashidih consisted 18 families of Bhumij and 3 families of Santhal; and Mahulbeda consisted 17 families of Santhal. The construction of the plant began in 1908, the plant rolled its first steel ingot on 16 February 1912. In 1919, Lord Chelmsford renamed Sakchi to

in honour of its founder, Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata.

Civic administration

There is a police station at Sakchi.{{cite web , url = https://jhpolice.gov.in/east-singhbhum , title = District Police Profile – East Singhbhum , publisher = Jharkhand Police , access-date = 30 December 2021 , archive-date = 22 June 2022 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220622213448/https://www.jhpolice.gov.in/east-singhbhum , url-status = dead

References

Jamshedpur