Ratlam

This article is about the municipality in Madhya Pradesh, India. For its namesake district, see Ratlam District.

Ratlam, रतलाम
—  city  —
Ratlam, रतलाम Location of Ratlam, रतलाम in Madhya Pradesh and India
Coordinates	23°19′N 75°04′E
Country	India
Region	Malwa
State	Madhya Pradesh
District(s)	Ratlam
M.L.A.
Population	1,214,536(District) (2011)
Time zone	IST (UTC+05:30)
Codes • Pincode • 457001 • Telephone • +07412 • Vehicle • MP-43
Website	www.ratlam.nic.in/

Ratlam  pronunciation (Hindi: रतलाम), known historically as Ratnapuri, is a city in the Malwa region in Madhya Pradesh state of central India. The town of Ratlam lies 480 m above sea level. It is the administrative headquarters of Ratlam District.
Ratlam is one of the important Districts of Madhya Pradesh Which is situated in the North West part of the State "The MALWA" Region. The New Town of Ratlam was founded by Captain Borthwick in 1829 with regular and broadened streets and well built houses. Ratlam was once one of the first Commercial Towns in Central India being the centre of an extensive trade in opium, tobacco and salt. It was also famous in Malwa for its bargains called Sattas. Before the opening of the Railway Line to Kahndwa in 1872, there was no better mart than Ratlam. The District of Ratlam was created in June 1948 and was reorganised in January 1949. It covers the area of the former princely State of Ratlam, Jaora, Sailana, Piploda. Ringnod Tehsil of Dewas Senior, Alot Tehsil of Dewas Junior and parts of Mandsaur Tehsil of Gwalior State, a few villages of Dhar State and Chief Commissioners provinces of Pant Piploda. The District is known after the Headquarters town, Ratlam which was also the headquarter of Princely State of Ratlam.

General Introduction

No. of Revenue District	1
Population	1,214,536
No. of Tehsil	5
Block H.Q.	6
Total Villages	1051
No. of Villages(Inhabited)	985

Early history

Ratlam was given to Ratan Singh Rathore a as a gift by Shah Jahan.Shah Jahan loved watching elephant fights therefore he held an event and chose his favorite war elephants and invited all the clans of rajputana to watch and from the Rathore clan Ratan Singh was chosen. As the festival was beginning one of the elephants went berserk and was going towards Shah Jahan and no one in the crowd was brave enough to take a step to protect him,everyone fearing for their own lives fled but one, it was Ratan Singh, he swiftly climbed the elephant and stabbed the elephants head with his sword and killed it .Shah Jahan who saw this with his own eyes was so impressed by his bravery that he gave him the whole ratlam state and proclaimed him as the king of Ratlam.

Princely history

Main article: Ratlam State

Ratlam was a princely state in British India, part of Malwa agency of Central India. For long period the Ratlam region was under rule of the Rathor's. The rulers were Suryavanshi Rathors to which Maharaja of Jodhpur, Bikaner and Kishangarh belonged.The first Ruler was the Maharaja Ratan Singh, he married 12 wives (amongst others), Maharani Sukhroopde Kanwar Shekhawat Ji Sahiba, daughter of Kunwar Purshottam Das of Jhajhar (Shekhawati) in Rajasthan. She committed sati in 1658. The state had an area of 902 sq. mi., which was closely interlaced with the territory of the princely state of Sailana, Semaliya, Kanwas,. In 1901, the state had a population of 83,773; the town of Ratlam had a population of 36,321. The state enjoyed an estimated revenue, Rs.34,000 and paid a tribute of Rs.2,850. The town was a junction on the Rajputana-Malwa Railway, and was an important trade centre, especially of opium.

Picnic spots

Ratlam is surrounded with lots of picnic spots in all the directions. At the one end the JVL temple which is a huge and very beautiful place for visit. And at another end the Paryavaran Park which is famous for its location. And the most famous is Kalika Mata Mandir at the center of Ratlam . It is also surrounded by ample of waterfalls at the outskirts like Jhaamar-Patli, Kedareshwar,Isarthuni and many more..

Specialities of Ratlam

Ratlam is known for its savory snacks that are made from chick-pea flour, cloves, and pepper. The Ratlami Sev is a speciality snack which is famous all over India, Daal Baati/Daal Bafla, with laddu and clarified butter is traditional food of Malwa region which is also common in Ratlam.

Ratlam is also growing in the field of education. It also has two engineering college with IT/CS/Elect branches to specialize in.

Ratlam provides a good market for gold and silver with many shops selling a range of quality jewellery, chandni chowk is the place famous in all of the malwa, for gold trade

Ratlam is a Western Railways Junction, with connectivity to almost all the major cities in India.

Looking to the strategic location of Ratlam due to its proximity to Gujarat and Rajasthan with itself in Madhya Pradesh, and being a prominent rail junction, this town is considered an important conduit for illegal opium grown in the neighbouring districts of Mandsaur and Neemuch. Incidentally, Ratlam is the Head Quarters of the Regional Narcotics Operations and an Important and Strategic Location for the Law Enforcement Agencies (Narcotics) for this reason.

For Education also Ratlam has ample facilities, Ratlam house Govt Arts & Science College, Commerce College, Law College, & Homeopethic college. Ratlam is also having Impact Education as one of the best centre for Technical(Software & Hardware) and Job Oriented courses.

Business

Ratlam's Chandni Chowk is very famous for its gold and silver shops. People from all over the state come to Ratlam for purchasing gold and silver. It has a lot of jewellery shops, and is famous for designing of jewellery.
Ratlam has several chemical factories, namely JVL, Hightech, IPCA, Shaba Chemicals, Bordiya Chemicals, Sujjan Chemicals etc. There are a number of manufacturing units of Copper wires and plastic rope etc. Ratlam is also famous for its gold and ornaments for its purity and designs. Ratlami Namkin (sev) is famous throughout the country. Famous namkin shops are the Gelda namkin, Amar nakmin and Jalaram sweets.
It is also Famous for its Mava [a by product of Milk (also known as Khoa/khoya/Ricotta Cheese)] which is distributed from Ratlam to various other parts of state.

The city Ratlam is well connected with other commercial cities of India.

Geography

Ratlam
Climate chart (explanation)
J F M A M J J A S O N D     4   26 10     2   29 12     2   34 17     1   38 22     8   39 25     126   36 24     299   30 22     305   28 22     227   30 21     34   33 19     17   30 15     3   27 11 Average max. and min. temperatures in °C Precipitation totals in mm Source: IMD
Imperial conversion J F M A M J J A S O N D     0.2   79 50     0.1   84 54     0.1   93 63     0   100 72     0.3   102 77     5   97 75     12   86 72     12   82 72     8.9   86 70     1.3   91 66     0.7   86 59     0.1   81 52 Average max. and min. temperatures in °F Precipitation totals in inches

Ratlam, like most of Madhya Pradesh, has a transitional climate between a tropical wet and dry and a humid sub-tropical climate. Three distinct seasons are observed, summer, monsoon and winter. Summers start in mid-March and can be extremely hot in April and May. Highs can reach 45 °C (113 °F), although the humidity is extremely low. The monsoon season starts in late June, with temperatures averaging around 26 °C (79 °F), with sustained, torrential rainfall and high humidity. The average rain fall is 36 inches. Winters start in mid-November and are dry, mild and sunny. Temperatures average about 4–15 °C (39–59 °F), but can fall close to freezing on some nights. In summer temperature can be sometimes as high as 48–50 °C (118–122 °F) and in winters it can be as low as 2 °C (36 °F).

Ratlam gets moderate rainfall of 35 to 38 inches (890 to 970 mm) during July–September due to the southwest monsoon.

Major crops grown in Ratlam include wheat, barley, gram with some variety of fruits including grapes.

Transport

Railways

Ratlam Junction is a major junction and rail division on Indian Railways on meter and broad gauge lines. It comes under Western Railways zone of Indian Railways.

There are Four major Railway Tracks passes through Ratlam City, these are along Mumbai, Delhi, Ajmer and Khandwa, among which the railway track along Khandwa is a Meter Gauge track.

Depictions

In the movie The Burning Train, Ratlam's was the first railway station where the authorities realize that the train will not stop.

Ratlam was allegedly depicted in a scene of the Hindi film Jab We Met where the protagonists get stranded after missing a train. The shooting was not done in the actual town of Ratlam. The sets were recreated elsewhere, including railway station.

Roads

Ratlam is connected to Indore and Neemuch via National Highway no. 79.

Demographics

As of 2001 India census, Ratlam had a population of 221,267. Males constitute 52% of the population and females 48%. Ratlam has an average literacy rate of 75%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 80%, and female literacy is 69%. In Ratlam, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Education

Ratlam is mostly self dependent up to school level education having numerous English medium and Hindi medium schools.
However, for Higher Education, people of Ratlam prefer Ujjain, Indore and Bhopal. Ratlam has 3 government colleges, one homeopathic college, and two Engineering colleges. Ratlam is looking forward to also have a medical college.

People from Ratlam

In field of politics Pt. Motilal Dave, Jhalani, Himmat Kothari, Paras Saklecha and Sahilendra Daga are well known. In the field of education Pt. Bhanwar Lal Bhati, Dr. Jai Kumar Jalaj, Dr. Rekha Shastri, Sr. Reggi, Dr. D.N. Pachori are the notable names.

External links

• Ratlam official site
• Government Post Graduate College
• Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur Academy
• St. Joseph's Convent School, Ratlam
• Kendriya Vidyalaya Ratlam
• Morning Star School Ratlam
• Genealogy of the ruling chiefs of Ratlam
• www.eratlam.com
• Ratlam Search Engine, Shopping, Property, Jobs, Mobile Directory, Ratlam Map & many more...