Saharanpur City
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Saharanpur City
Head-quarters of the District and tahsil of the same name in the United Provinces, situated in 29 57' N. and 77 33' E., 988 miles by rail from Howrah and 1,069 from Bombay. It lies on the old load from the Doab to the Punjab, and is the noi th- em terminus of the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway main line, which here meets the North-Western Railway. The population has risen in the last thirty years : (1872) 43,844, (1881) 59,194, (1891) 63,194, and (1901) 66,254. More than half the total are Musalmans (37,614). The history of the city has been given in that of the District. It was founded about 1340, and derives its name from a Musalman saint, Shah Haran Chishti. In Akbar's time it was the capital of a sarkdr, and was sufficiently important to be constituted a mint town.
The city lies in a low moist situation on both sides of the Dhamaula Nadl, and is also traversed by the Pandhoi Nadi In 1870 both of these streams were improved and deepened, with marked benefit to the public health. In 1900 the main city dram was paved and cunetted, and a scheme for flushing all drains is under consideration. About three-fourths of the houses are built of brick, and trade is increasing. The opening of the Noith-Western Railway in 1869 gave the first impetus, and the construction of the Oudh and Rohilkhand line in 1886 has still further increased the importance of Saharanpur. The place has, however, lost the traffic to the hill station of Mussoorie, which now passes by the Hardwar-Dehra Railway, opened in 1900. Besides the ordinary District staff, the officer in charge of the Botanical Survey of Upper India and the Executive Engineei, upper division, Eastern Jumna Canal, reside here. Saharanpur also has large railway workshops, which employed 241 hands in 1903, and in the same year two cotton-gins employed 158 and a rice-mill 92 hands. Wood- carving is an important industry, and really good work can be obtained. The Government Botanical gardens, founded in 1817 on the site of an old garden of the Rohillas, covering an area of 156 acres, sell large quantities of fruit trees, strawberry plants, timber, ornamental trees and shrubs, and flower and vegetable seeds, besides supplying drugs to Government. The former stud farm, with an area of 2,413 acres, is now a reserve remount depot, at which imported horses are trained and acclimatized foi the army. The American Methodist and Presby- terian Churches have missions here, and there is a fine Muhammadan mosque built on the model of the Jama Masjid at Delhi.
Saharanpur was constituted a municipality in 1867. The income and expenditure during the ten years ending 1901 averaged Rs. 62,000 and Rs. 59,000. In 1903-4 the income was Rs. 93,000, chiefly derived from octroi (Rs. 65,000); and the expenditure was Rs. 77,000.
