Tehri-Garhwal
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Tehri Garhwal is a
district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...
in the hill state of
Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...
, India. Its administrative headquarters is at
New Tehri New Tehri is where Vidushi lives a city and a municipal board in Tehri Garhwal District in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of Tehri Garhwal District. This urban municipality area has 11 wards, from Vidh ...
. The district has a population of 618,931 (2011 census), a 2.35% increase over the previous decade. It is surrounded by
Rudraprayag District Rudraprayag is a district of the state of Uttarakhand of northern India. The district occupies an area of 1984 km2. The town of Rudraprayag is the administrative headquarters of the district. The district is bounded by Uttarkashi District ...
in the east,
Dehradun District Dehradun district () is a district in Garhwal which is a part of Uttarakhand state in northern India. The district headquarters is Dehradun, which has also served as the interim capital of Uttarakhand since its founding in 2000. The district ha ...
in the west, Uttarkashi District in the north, and
Pauri Garhwal District Pauri Garhwal is a district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Its headquarters is in the town of Pauri. It is sometimes referred to simply as Garhwal district, though it should not be confused with the larger Garhwal region of which it is ...
in the south. Tehri Garhwal is a part of the Himalayas.


Etymology

The name ''Tehri'' has been derived from ''Trihari'', signifying a place that washes away the three types of sins – sins born out of Mansa, Vacha and Karmana or thought, word and deed, respectively. ''Garh'' in
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
means fort.


History


Early

Prior to 734 CE, the region was divided into 48 which were ruled by independent kings. These were brought into one province by
Gaurav Tewari {{Short description, Male given name Gaurav is an Indian and Nepalese male name. The name literally means 'honor', 'pride' or 'respect'. Notable people named Gaurav *Gaurav S Bajaj (born 1990), Indian television actor * Gaurav Bhatt, Indian Music D ...
, a prince of
Malwa Malwa () is a historical region, historical list of regions in India, region of west-central India occupying a plateau of volcanic origin. Geologically, the Malwa Plateau generally refers to the volcanic plateau, volcanic upland north of the ...
. Kanakpal, on his visit to Badrinath, had met the then mightiest king Bhanu Pratap who later married his only daughter to the prince and handed over his kingdom to him. Kanakpal Singh and his descendants gradually conquered all the and ruled the whole of
Garhwal Kingdom Kingdom of Garhwal ( ''गढ़वाल राज्य'' ) was an Himalayan kingdom in the current north-western Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India, founded in 823 CE by Kanak Pal the progenitor of the Panwar dynasty that ruled ove ...
for the next 915 years, up to 1803.


Gorkha Rule

In 1803, the
Gorkhas The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with the endonym Gorkhali ( Nepali: गोर्खाली ), are soldiers native to the Indian subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of North India. The Gurkha units consist of Nepali and ...
invaded Garhwal commanded by army generals
Amar Singh Thapa Amar Singh Thapa distinguished as Badakaji Amar Singh Thapa(), or Amar Singh Thapa The Elder, (also spelled Ambar Simha) also known by the honorific name Bada Kaji ("Senior Kaji") or Budha Kaji ("The Old Kaji"), was a Gorkha Kingdom, Gorkhali mil ...
, Hastidal Shah Chautariya, Bamshah Chautariya and Ranjor Thapa against King
Pradyumna Shah Pradyumna Shah or Pradyuman Shah, also known as Pradyumna Chand, was the 54th ruler of the Panwar Dynasty and the last independent monarch of the Kingdom of Garhwal. Before that he had also served as the Raja of the Kingdom of Kumaon until he ...
and his sons Kunwar Parakrama Shah and Kunwar Pritam Shah. The Garhwal and Gorkha armies fought at Khurbura and the Garhwal king was killed. The Gorkhas occupied
Dehradun Dehradun (), also known as Dehra Doon, is the winter capital and the List of cities in Uttarakhand by population, most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Dehradun district, d ...
,
Saharanpur Saharanpur is a city and a Municipal corporation (India), municipal corporation in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is also the public administration, administrative headquarters of Saharanpur district. Saharanpur city's name was given after the Sain ...
and
Shimla Shimla, also known as Simla ( the official name until 1972), is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of British India. After independence, the city ...
and later extended their kingdom up to Kangra. From 1787 to 1812, the Gorkhas invaded and occupied nearly 200 villages which were under the control of the
East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
. The British argued with the king but to no avail. The
Gurkha War The Anglo-Nepalese War (1 November 1814 – 4 March 1816), also known as the Gorkha War or Nepal-Company War, was fought between the Gorkhali army of the Kingdom of Nepal (present-day Nepal) and the forces of the British East India Company ...
began in 1814, when an army of 8,000 under Major General Marley attacked
Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...
. Four thousand soldiers under Major General Wood started an operation from
Gorakhpur Gorakhpur is a city in the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, along the banks of the West Rapti River, Rapti river in the Purvanchal , Purvanchal region. It is situated 272 kilometres east of ...
and 3,500 soldiers attempted to take over Dehradun under Major General Zileswy. The British army captured Dehradun on 30 November 1814 and moved towards Kumaon. The Gorkha commanders Hastidal Shah and Jayrakha were killed at Vinayathal. The war ended with the
Sugauli Treaty The Treaty of Sugauli (also spelled Sugowlee, Sagauli and Segqulee), the treaty that established the boundary line of Nepal, was signed on 4 March 1816 between the East India Company and Guru Gajraj Mishra following the Anglo-Nepalese War of ...
, signed on 2 December 1815 and ratified on 4 March 1816 by Gorkha supreme commander Bamshah and thus, British rule started in the hills. The East India Company then merged Kumaon, Dehradun and east Garhwal into the British Empire while west Garhwal was given back to Sudarshan Shah, then becoming known as Tehri Riyasat.


Garhwal Kingdom

Tehri Garhwal or the Garhwal Kingdom, was a princely state, ruled by the Rajput Parmar (Shah) dynasty. Later, it became a part of the
Punjab Hill States Agency The Punjab States Agency was an agency of the British Raj. The agency was created in 1921, on the model of the Central India Agency and Rajputana Agency, and dealt with forty princely states in northwest India formerly dealt with by the Prov ...
of
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 ...
, which consists of the present day Tehri Garhwal District and most of the Uttarkashi district. In 1901, it had an area of about and a population of 268,885. The ruler was given the title of raja, but after 1913, he was honoured with the title of Maharaja. The ruler was entitled to salutes of 11 guns and had a
privy purse The Privy Purse is the British sovereign's private income, mostly from the Duchy of Lancaster. This amounted to £20.1 million in net income for the year to 31 March 2018. Overview The Duchy is a landed estate of approximately 46,000 acres (20 ...
of rupees 300,000. King Sudarshan Shah established his capital at Tehri town and afterwards his successors Pratap Shah, Kirti Shah and Narendra Shah established their capital a
Pratap Nagar
Kirtinagar Kirtinagar is a town and a Nagar Panchayat and a Taluk in Tehri Garhwal district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Uttarakhand. Geography Kirtinagar is located at . Kirtinagar Taluk contains around 20 villages. History Kir ...
and
Narendra Nagar Narendranagar is a town and a municipal board in Tehri Garhwal district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Uttarakhand. Geography Narendranagar is located at . It has an average elevation of 1,020 metres (3,349 fe ...
, respectively. Their dynasty ruled over this region from 1815 to 1949. During the Quit India Movement people of this region actively worked for the independence of the country. Ultimately, when the country was declared independent in 1947, the inhabitants of Tehri Riyasat (Tehri State) started their movement to free themselves from the clutches of the maharaja. Due to this movement, the situation became out of his control and it was difficult for him to rule over the region. Consequently, the 60th king of Panwar Vansh,
Manabendra Shah Lt. Col. Maharaja Manabendra Shah (26 May 1921 – 5 January 2007) was a member of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represented the Tehri Garhwal constituency of Uttarakhand and was a member of the I ...
, accepted the sovereignty of the Indian government. Thus, in August 1949, Tehri Riyasat was merged into
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 ...
and was given the status of a new district, the Tehri Garhwal district. Subsequently, on 24 February 1960, the state government separated its one
tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...
which was given the status of a separate district named
Uttarkashi Uttarkashi is a town and the headquarters of Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand, India. Geography Uttarkashi is located at . It has an average elevation of . Demographics India census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is t ...
. The former royal palace of the Maharaja of Tehri Garhwal at
Narendra Nagar Narendranagar is a town and a municipal board in Tehri Garhwal district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Uttarakhand. Geography Narendranagar is located at . It has an average elevation of 1,020 metres (3,349 fe ...
, now houses the Ananda In the Himalayas spa, established 2000.


Modern developments

In the 1960s, Tehri Garhwal extended much farther east than it currently does. In 1997, much of the eastern portion of Tehri Garhwal was detached and merged with portions of the
Pauri Garhwal district Pauri Garhwal is a district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Its headquarters is in the town of Pauri. It is sometimes referred to simply as Garhwal district, though it should not be confused with the larger Garhwal region of which it is ...
and the
Chamoli district Chamoli district is a district of the Uttarakhand state of India. It is bounded by China's Xizang Autonomous Region to the north, and by the Uttarakhand districts of Pithoragarh district, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar district, Bageshwar to the eas ...
to form the
Rudraprayag district Rudraprayag is a district of the state of Uttarakhand of northern India. The district occupies an area of 1984 km2. The town of Rudraprayag is the administrative headquarters of the district. The district is bounded by Uttarkashi District ...
. Tehri Lake
With a surface area of 52 km2, a man-made lake in
New Tehri New Tehri is where Vidushi lives a city and a municipal board in Tehri Garhwal District in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of Tehri Garhwal District. This urban municipality area has 11 wards, from Vidh ...
, is the largest lake in Uttarakhand. It has good options for Adventure Sports and various water sports like Boating, Banana Boat, Bandwagon Boat, Jet Ski, Water Skiing, Para-sailing, Kayaking.


Economy

Tehri Garhwal economy revolves around
Public sector undertakings Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) in India are government-owned entities in which at least 51% of stake is under the ownership of the Government of India or state governments. These types of firms can also be a joint venture of multiple PSUs. ...
, Agriculture and Tourism.


Crops

Dry season crops include wheat, barley, masoor, Bengal and red gram, rapeseed and mustard, and pea. Wet season crops include rice, barnyard millet, finger millet, black gram, sesame and soybean. Various fruits and spices grow in the district also.


Assembly Constituencies

# Ghanshali (SC) #
Devprayag Devprayag (Deva prayāga) is a town and a nagar panchayat, near New Tehri city in Tehri Garhwal District in the state of Uttarakhand, India, and is the final one of the Panch Prayag (five confluences) of Alaknanda River where Alaknanda meets ...
# Narendranagar # Pratapnagar #
Tehri New Tehri is where Vidushi lives a city and a municipal board in Tehri Garhwal District in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of Tehri Garhwal District. This urban municipality area has 11 wards, from Vidh ...
# Dhanulti


Administrative setup

The district of Tehri Garhwal is divided into two subdivisions: Kirti Nagar and Tehri-Pratap Nagar. It has seven tehsils, one sub-tehsil, nine blocks, two municipalities and four town area committees. The district covers 76 Nagar Panchayats and 928 gram panchayats. It has 1,847 revenue villages and 2,508 clusters.


Villages

*
Gairi Rajputon Ki Gairi Rajputon Ki is a village in Partapnagar Tehsil of the Tehri Garhwal district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Location Gairi Rajputon Ki is inhabited by about 180 families. Demographics Gairi Rajputon Ki has a population of 508 ma ...
*
Bairola Bairola is a village in the quili patti of Tehri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand state, India where a large community of Uniyal Brahmins lives. The Garhwali language Garhwali (, , in native pronunciation) is an Indo-Aryan language of t ...


Demographics

According to the 2011 census Tehri Garhwal district has a
population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...
of 618,931, roughly equal to the nation of
Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...
or the US state of
Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...
. This gives it a ranking of 520th in India (out of a total of
688 __NOTOC__ Year 688 (Roman numerals, DCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 688 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevale ...
). The district has a population density of . Its
population growth rate Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to around 70 million annu ...
over the decade 2001–2011 was 1.93%. Tehri Garhwal has a
sex ratio A sex ratio is the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. However, many species deviate from an even sex ratio, ei ...
of 1078
females An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and male ...
for every 1000 males, and a
literacy rate Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...
of 75.1%. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes make up 16.50% and 0.14% of the population respectively. Hindus number 596,769; Muslims 6,390 (1.05%); and Sikhs 561. The major first language of the district is Garhwali, accounting for 90.5% of the population according to the 2011 census.
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
is widely used as a
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...
, but is the first language of only 6% of the people. Other languages spoken include Jaunsari (0.98%) and Nepali (0.95%).


Notable people

*
Anand Sharan Raturi Anand Sharan Raturi (born 1919) was an Indian educator who became the first Vice-Chancellor of M. J. P. Rohilkhand University in Uttar Pradesh, India. Raturi was born in Godi-Sirai, Tehri Grahwal district in India to Satya Sharan Raturi and ...
, educator *
Sunderlal Bahuguna Sunderlal Bahuguna (9 January 1927 – 21 May 2021) was an Indian environmentalist and Chipko movement leader. The idea of the Chipko movement was suggested by his wife Vimla Bahuguna and him. He fought for the preservation of forests in the ...
, environmentalist * Sridev suman freedom fighter, social activist


See also

*
Garhwal Kingdom Kingdom of Garhwal ( ''गढ़वाल राज्य'' ) was an Himalayan kingdom in the current north-western Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, India, founded in 823 CE by Kanak Pal the progenitor of the Panwar dynasty that ruled ove ...


References


External links

*
Complete Uttarakhand InformationComplete Garhwal Information
* , an engraving of a painting by David Cox for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1832 with a poetical illustration by
Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. Landon's writings are emblematic of the transition from Romanticism to Victorian literature. Her first major b ...
. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tehri Garhwal District Districts of Uttarakhand Uttarakhand Garhwal division