Sherghati
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Template:Infobox Indian jurisdiction Sherghati (formerly Shergotty) is a subdivision-level town of the Gaya District in Bihar, India. The Morhar River surrounds it; that is why the length of the city is much more than the width.
An origin story says that Sher Shah Suri, formerly known as Farid Khan, had hunted a lion at this very place; subsequently Farid was known as Sher Khan, and when he became the ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, defeating Humayun, became Sher Shah. During British rule, Sherghati was a place of administrative importance as a Commissionary headquarters.
The economy of the town is based on trade. Sherghati is a famous market of crops. The farmers of the neighbouring village come to sell their farm produce, and traders of crops buy them. N.H. 2 passes through the town. This road is also known as Grand Trunk Road, touching Calcutta on the one side and Pashawar (Pakistan) on the other side. This road was renovated in 2007 under the Golden Quadrilateral Project of the Government of India.
The place is also famous for freedom fighters. During the Indian Independence struggle, the residents of Sherghati contributed to the movement. The Zamindars of the town contributed by donating land during the Bhudan Movement.
There is one remarkable geographical incident associated with Sherghat. A meteorite fell here in 1865; it is now kept in a London museum and is known as the Shergotty meteorite.
History
For centuries, until the accession of Akbar to the throne of Delhi, Sherghati had been inhabited by the adivasis that continue to live in the southern state of Jharkhand. The Kol community constituted the majority of the adivasi population of Sherghati.
According to the legend, when Aurangzeb attacked Sherghati after conquering Aurngabad, the brave Kols of Sherghati stopped the Mughal army at the bank of Morhar river and did not let them enter the borders of Sherghati. The two brave soldiers of the Mughal army under the Aurangzeb's rule, Quamar Ali and Sultan Ali were brought to death by the Kols. they were entombed river side near Hamzapur. Now this place is worshiped by both the Hindus and the Muslims. This is probably one the reasons why the towns that come after Sherghati while coming from Aurngabad retain their original adivasi names (Dobhi, Barachatti, Chauparan, etc.).
Later, during the British Raj these adivasis were involved in a series of revolts against the British.
In 1934, a minor earthquake occurred in Sherghati but did not do much damage. In 1976, Sherghati was hit by a huge flood that claimed around 5-10 percent of the total area of Sherghati. The famous staircase well and the old jail-khana were submerged in that calamity.
Geography
Sherghati is located at 24°34′N 84°47′E / 24.57°N 84.78°E[1]. It has an average elevation of 121 metres (396 feet).
Sherghati is the southern most major town of Bihar. It shares the common boundary with the Chatra district of Jharkhand. The thick forest belt of Jharkhand loses its presence while we reach Sherghati. It has two main rivers one is Morhar and the other is called Sorhar (boodhi nadi) or the old river.
Industries
Like most of the towns in Bihar, Sherghati is prominently dominated by agri-based industries. The major cash crops produced here are rice, wheat, pulses, groundnut and sugar cane. Industrialization of this area, as is the case with most of Bihar, has largely been neglected by the successive state and central governments. The major reason for the private sector not participating in the process is the lack of basic facilities like electricity, irrigation and roads. Electricity, for example, is available for only 6 to 8 hours per day. This statistic is as per the present scenario, earlier (before 2000) it used to be 2 to 4 hours per day, with several days without any supply.
Around forty to fifty years back, the condition of industries in this area was far better comparatively. Since at that time most of the Indian villages did not have access to electricity, the cost of production for industries in Sherghati was almost the same as in other villages. But as soon as electricity reached the remote villages in other parts of the country, the industrialists (though small-scale) in Sherghati faced fierce competition from them, and this led to the closure of industries that had just started to flourish in this area. One typical example is the closure of Sheo Narayan Flour and Oil Mills, which was situated in the Gola Bazar area of Sherghati. It was started in the 1950s by Ram Sharan Prasad Arya, a local businessman. At that time there were only two or three oil mills in the entire Gaya District. The entire plant was imported from England via Calcutta. But the functioning of the mill was finally stopped in the 1980s after a series of interruptions.
At present there is probably no industry (even small-scale) in Sherghati that can boast of a considerable growth rate. Although Sherghati has potential to grow on this front, it still lacks in law and order implementation. Now some development witnessed the progress of the area especially in the communication. Entrepreneurship is the up and coming major employment sector of the area, and there are a few success stories.
Land reforms
Sherghati has always been in the news for Communist uprisings in the area. Sherghati is the home of various extremist organizations like Naxalites, MCC (Maoist Communist Centre), PWG (Peoples War Group), etc. and their counterparts, the Ranvir Sena.
In 1952, the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act was passed, and a large portion of the Sherghati Estate (Darbar House), which was owned by Babu Panchratan Lal, Babu Brijmohan Lal and Shiv Prasad Rauniyar,Awadh gupta nana of sumit prakash was handed over to the government. They were the zamindars of Sherghati region and occupied a lot of land in the area.still the famous and rich area of sherghati is darbar house(SPA)
But the discontent of the underprivileged, landless and the unemployed sections remained even after the reforms. The crumbling industries give rise to extreme unemployment, in addition to the rapidly growing population. These people mostly belong to the SC/ST or the OBC. In most cases, they join the extremist organizations, mentioned earlier, as an alternative to earn their livelihoods.
Demographics
As of 2001[update] India census[2], Sherghati had a population of 32,358. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Sherghati has an average literacy rate of 56%, lower than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 62%, and female literacy is 56%. In Sherghati, 19% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Education
The condition of the education machinery in Sherghati has become slightly better (at least at the school level) since the DAV Public School opened its branch in the town (around 1992). In spite of the dreary education system in Sherghati, there have been people who went places in search of higher studies. Aditya Prasad (of the Sherghati Darbar House) was among the first in the town to get a degree in engineering, in London in 1924. Subodh Kumar Gupta I.A.S. Jharkhand Cadre and noted storyteller Prabhat Manjudarshi also hail from the Darbar House family.
- Schools
- Dr Zaheer Tishna Memorial School(co-education)
- BMC School, Ramna
- Royal Public School
- Ranglal High School
- DAV Public School (co-education)
- Rajkiya Abhyaas Buniyadi Vidyalay (Basic School)
- Gurukul Residential School
- Urdu Middle School
- Muslim Urdu Academy
- Little Flower School
- Prakash Vidyalay
- Sir Syed Memorial School, Karma, Bhadeya
- Girls' schools
- Manorama Kanya Pathshala
- Girls High School
- Training schools
- District Training School (for teachers)
- Colleges
- Mahant Shatanand Giri college
Health
- Top Three old medicine shops
- Vishwas medico
- Kumar medical hall
- Narayan Medical hall