OLD and NEW HISTORY of SIWAN

OLD and NEW HISTORY of SIWAN.

Siwan is one of the districts of Bihar state, India. Siwan is the administrative headquarters of Siwan district. Siwan district is a part of Saran Division since 1972. The town is known for its great past especially for First President of Indian Republic who belonged to Jeeradei[1]. The district is also known as Aliganj Sawan after the name of Ali Bux. Siwan has hist...orical and mythological importance attached to it.Ancient and medieval history

Situated in the western part of the State, Siwan was a part of Kosala Mahajanapada during 5th century BC. A recently excavated marvelous statue of Lord Vishnu at Village Bherbania from underneath a tree indicates that there were large numbers of followers of Lord Vishnu in the area. As the legend goes, Dronacharya of Mahabharat belonged to village ‘DON’ in Darauli Block. Some believe Siwan to be the place where Lord Buddha died. Siwan was a part of Banaras Kingdom during 8th century. Muslims came here in the 13th century. Sikandar Lodi brought this area under his kingdom in 15th century. Babar crossed Ghaghra River near Siswan in his return journey. During the reign of Moghul emperor Akbar, area of Siwan was covered under Saran, which was one of the six Sarkar for collection of land revenue.

Modern history

At the end of 17th century, the Dutch came here first followed by the English. After the battle of Buxar in 1764, Siwan (Saran) became a part of Bengal in 1765. Siwan played an important role during first independence movement. Since ancient times, the region was famous for the stalwart and sturdy ‘Bhojpuries’, who have always been noted for their martial spirit and physical endurance and from whom the army and police personnel were largely drawn. A good number of them rebelled and rendered their services to Babu Kunwar Singh during movement of 1857. The anti pardah movement in Bihar was started by Sri Braj Kishore Prasad who belonged to Siwan in response to the Non Co-Operative movement in 1920. A big meeting was organised at Darauli in Siwan District on the eve of the Kartik Purnima Mela under the leadership of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, who had thrown away his lucrative practice as an advocate in the Patna High Court at the call of Gandhiji. In the wake of this movement Maulana Mazharul Haque, who came in Siwan to stay with his maternal uncle Dr. Saiyyad Mahmood, had constructed an ashram on the Patna-Danapur road, which subsequently became Sadaquat Ashram.

The next phase of the Non co-operation movement known as the Civil Disobedience movement of 1930, was fully supported in Siwan. In connection with the Satyagrah Movement Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru made a whirlwind tour of the different parts of Bihar. One of the famous meetings he addressed was at Maharajganj. A few persons of present Siwan District played an important role in the attainment of independence and rose to the national level. Shaheed Sarai formally called Jublie Sarai in British Raj holds an important place in history of Siwan. The sarai was a hub for the pro independence ignited minds and it is the place where three soldiers of independence died in British firing. Hence, it was named Shaheed Sarai. One of the most prolific writers of India, Pandit Rahul Sankritayayana, started peasant movement here between 1937 and 1938. During visit to Champaran Mahatma Gandhi and Madan Mohan Malviya visited Siwan and Gandhiji even spent a night at Ziradei in the house of Dr. Rajendra Prasad. The chowki on which he slept then is still kept intact there.

Formation as District
The major changes in the jurisdiction of the district were creation of Siwan as district and the changes resulting there from due to implementation of Trivedi Award on 10 June 1970. The award resulted substantial alteration of jurisdiction of the district. Siwan was being declared as a district in 1972 in which it was proposed to include 10 blocks of Gopalganj and 13 blocks of Siwan subdivisions. Two blocks Bhagwanpur and Basantpur of Siwan were declared to be added to the jurisdiction of proposed Marhaura subdivision. But after one year later in 1973 Gopalganj was made a separate district with its 10 blocks included in Siwan earlier and thus Siwan constituted its original 15 blocks including Bhagwanpur and Basantpur blocks. Trivedi Award was implemented on 10 June 1970. Thereby fourteen villages of Siwan having an area of 13,092 acres (52.98 km2) were transferred to U.P. and twelve villages of U.P. with an area of 6,679 acres (27.03 km2) were transferred to Siwan. The basis of this transfer was the position of Ghaghara River in 1885. After 1885, the course of the river changed from time to time resulting in intermixing the areas of U.P. with those of Siwan. Hence, the position of 1885 was taken to be the base and those transfer were made accordingly. Before the Trivedi Award, the boundary of Siwan with U.P. was flexible with the course of the river. After the Award, this boundary was fixed by installing pillars on the conspicuous points, the maintenance of which is done by Govt. of Utter Pradesh and the administration of Siwan as per the provisions of the Awards. Thus after this Awards, the so far flexible boundary of Siwan vis-a-vis U.P. on both banks of Ghaghara river was given a stability. Presently four more blocks have been created namely Lakri Nabiganj, Nautan, Jiradei and Hasanpura block. Out of these newly created blocks Lakri Nabiganj is functional and rests of the three are not functional. Thus, there are sixteen functional blocks in the district.

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