Pilkhuwa is a town and a

municipal board A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Hapur district Hapur district (earlier Panchsheel Nagar) is a recently formed district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with a population of 1,338,211 at the 2011 Census. It arose as an area leading in the trade of grains and jaggery. This district on the ...

in the

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 ...

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

. It is located 12 km from

Hapur Hapur is a city in, as well as the headquarters of, Hapur district, in Uttar Pradesh, India. Located about east of New Delhi, the city is part of the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR). National Highway 9 passes through the city, connecting ...

, the district headquarters. It is famous for its textile products and handloom industry and for transportation, here is also a railway station. It is located on National Highway-9, which connects the

National Capital Territory of Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India.

Name

According to Paul Whalley, the name ''Pilkhuwā'' comes from the name of the

pilkhan ''Ficus virens'' is a plant of the genus ''Ficus'' found in Pakistan, India, east and Southeast Asia, through Malaysia and into Northern Australia. Its common name is white fig; it is locally known as ''pilkhan'' and in the Kunwinjku language it ...

tree, from a variant form ''pilkhu''.

History

In the 12th century, Delhi was ruled by the Rajput King Raja Anangpal Singh Tomar. The etymology of Pilkhuwa lies in the story of an elephant named "Pil", that disappeared from Delhi state, after which the king sent his son to find it. When the search team made a stop at the village of Pilkhuwa, people gathered around them and began saying "Pil-Khuwa", meaning "Pil is lost". In 1235, Pilkhuwa was established by the Tomar Kings under the Tomar Dynasty. However, in the 14th century, when the Tomar Kings were defeated by the

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi was a Medieval India, late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries.

, the Rajput population of Pilkhuwa was affected and their rule came to an end. Pilkhuwa was part of

Meerut Meerut (, ISO 15919, ISO: ''Mēraṭh'') is a city in the western region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Located in the Meerut district, it is northeast of the national capital, New Delhi, and is ...

district until 1976, when on the anniversary of

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

's birth, the then-chief minister N. D. Tiwari declared

Ghaziabad Ghaziabad () is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and a part of Delhi NCR. It is the administrative headquarters of Ghaziabad district and is the largest city in Western Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 1,729,000. Ghaziaba ...

as a new district. Later on, Ghaziabad was divided into two districts: Ghaziabad and Panchsheel Nagar by

Bahujan Samaj Party The Bahujan Samaj Party ( BSP) is a political party in India that was formed to represent Bahujans (literally means "community in majority"), referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes (OBC), along with Religious ...

chief minister

Mayawati Kumari Mayawati (born Kumari Mayawati Das; 15 January 1956) is an Indian politician who served as the 18th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1995 to 1995, 1997 to 1997, 2002 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2012. She is the national president of t ...

on 28 September 2011, and Pilkhuwa became part of Panchsheel Nagar. At the time, Panchsheel Nagar was the newly-given name to the city of

; local people were unhappy about the name change, however. Due to political clashes between the

Samajwadi Party The Samajwadi Party ( SP; ) is a Socialism, socialist political party in India. It was founded on 4 October 1992 by former Janata Dal politician Mulayam Singh Yadav and is headquartered in New Delhi. It is the third-largest political party in ...

and

, the subsequent chief minister

Akhilesh Yadav Akhilesh Yadav (; born 1 July 1973) is an Indian politician and national president of the Samajwadi Party who served as the 20th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Having assumed the chief minister's office on 15 March 2012 at the age of 38, he ...

changed the district name to

on 23 July 2012, retaining the original name. Finally, Pilkhuwa became part of

Demographics

As of the 2011 Indian Census, Pilkhuwa had a total population of 83,736, of which 44,226 were males and 39,510 were females. The population within the 0-6 age group was 12,468. The total number of literates in Pilkhuwa was 55,936, which constituted 66.8% of the population. Male literacy was 73.3% and female literacy was 59.5%. The effective literacy rate of the 7+ population of Pilkhuwa was 78.5%, of which male literacy rate was 86.5% and female literacy rate was 69.6%. The Scheduled Castes population was 14,370. Pilkhuwa had 13,746 households in 2011.

Economy

Pilkhuwa is notable for its handloom cotton textiles and exotic printing on

khadi Khadi (, ), derived from khaddar, is a hand-spun and woven natural fibre cloth promoted by Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi as Swadeshi movement, ''swadeshi (of homeland)'' for the freedom struggle of India and the term is used throughout the Indian sub ...

and handloom fabrics. There were 120 medium scale industries, 1400

power looms A power loom is a mechanized loom. Shuttle looms The main components of the loom are the warp beam, heddles, harnesses, shuttle, reed, and takeup roll. In the loom, yarn processing includes shedding, picking, battening and taking-up operations ...

and 3 ''niwar'' factories in Pilkhuwa in 1991. 7000 persons employed in textile production, 2000 in cloth sheet washing, 500 in pressing machines, 500 in dyeing, 100 in ''kundis'' and 200 in stamping and design. Most of the handloom cloths manufactured in Pilkhuwa is supplied to

apart from centres in other parts of India and abroad.

Educational institutes

* Raj Kumar Goel Engineering College * Saraswati Medical College

Notable people

Kumar Vishwas Kumar Vishwas (born Vishwas Kumar Sharma; 10 February 1970) is an Indian Hindi poet, a lecturer and former politician. He was one of the founding members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and a former member of its National Executive. Life and car ...

Manish Sisodia Manish Sisodia (born 5 January 1972) is an Indian politician, journalist and former social activist who served as the first Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi from 2015 to 2023. He represented the Patparganj Assembly constituency, Patparganj const ...

References

{{Hapur district Cities and towns in Hapur district