Kota/ Kotah City
Kotah City, 1908
Capital of the State of the same name in Rajputana, situated on the right bank of the Chambal in 25 degree 11' N. and 75 degree 51' E., about 45 miles by metalled road west of Baran station on the Blna- Baran branch of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, and about 120 miles south-east of Ajmer. It is said that, in the fourteenth century, some Bhils of the Koteah clan who then lived here were attacked and ousted by Jet Singh, the grandson of Rao Dewa of Bundi, who settled in the place, and built a town which he called Kotah. It was held by Bundi till 1625, when, with its dependencies, it was granted by Jahangir to Madho Singh, the first chief of Kotah, and became the capital of the State then formed. It has since increased in size and importance, and is now one of the eight cities of Rajputana. It is surrounded on three sides by a high and massive crenelated wall, with well-fortified bastions at regular intervals, while on the west the river Chambal— 400 yards wide and crossed by an iron pontoon-bridge, except in the rains, when the passage is made by ferry — forms a natural barrier. The city possesses six massive double gates closed nightly at 1 1 p.m., and may be divided into three well-defined and distinct areas, each separated from the next by a high wall : namely, Ladpura, Ram- pura, and the city proper, the latter including the old town or purdni basti. In the southern extremity is the old palace, an imposing pile of buildings overlooking the river. Of the numerous temples, the most famous is that of MathureshjT, the idol in which is said to have been brought from Gokul in Muttra, while the oldest is probably that of Nilkanth Mahadeo.
The population has been gradually decreasing, as the following figures show : in 1881, 40,270; in 1891, 38,620; and in 1901, 33,657. This is said to be due partly to the fact that the place, situated on the western border of the State and at a considerable distance from the railway, is not a general trade centre, and partly because, with the improved administration and the greater security afforded to life and property, the people have spread more into the country. Another probable reason for the falling off in population is the unhealthiness of the site, caused by the water of the Kishor Sagar (or lake) on the east percolating through the soil to the river on the west. The greater pro- portional decrease in the last decade is certainly due to the famine of 1 899-1900 and the severe outbreak of malarial fever that im- mediately followed it. Of the total population in 1901, Hindus num- bered 23,132, or nearly 69 per cent., and Musalmans 9,027, or about 27 per cent. The principal manufactures are muslins, both white and coloured, silver table-ornaments, and a little country paper. An oppor- tunity for seeing the various industries occurs each year, when an exhibition is held generally in February. A municipal committee, which was formed in 1874, has done much to improve the sanitation of the place. The income (derived mainly from an octroi duty on all imports) and the expenditure are each about Rs. 20,000 a year. The Central jail is a commodious and well-managed building, with accommodation for 468 prisoners. The daily average number in 1904 was 428, the expenditure exceeded Rs. 23,000, and the profits from manufactures (carpets, rugs, cotton cloth, &c.) were about Rs. 2,000. Excluding private educational institutions, there are 4 schools main- tained by the State, which were attended in 1904-5 by about 400 boys and 30 girls. The Maharao's high school and the nobles' school teach up to the matriculation standard of the Allahabad University. Attached to the high school is a class recently started for flafte'dris, in which sur- veying is taught; and the nobles' school has a boarding-house where the boys are fed and lodged free by the State. Including the hospital attached to the jail, there are four medical institutions at Kotah, with accommodation for 79 in-patients. The Victoria Hospital, reserved for females, was opened in 1890 and has 22 beds. Among places of interest in the neighbourhood of the city may be mentioned the Maharao's new palace, called after him the Umed Bhawan, which is lighted with electricity ; the extensive and well-kept gardens, containing a public library and reading-room ; and several palaces, such as the Amar Niwas, the Brij Bilas, and the Chhatarpura.
Why Kota is so killing
The Times of India Jan 03 2016
Akhilesh Singh
18-hour study schedules A brutal sorting system that segregates `average' students No fee refund policies for those who want out `We can't take it anymore.
Our parents have told us to return home only after cracking IIT-JEE,“ said two distressed young students to psychologist Dr ML Agarwal in Jawaharnagar, Kota. The boys were both from Bhatinda, Punjab, where they lived in large joint families.They found themselves unable to cope in their new environment, with daily tutorial classes, and having to study for up to 18 hours a day . “It took months of therapy at a rehabilitation centre, and the involvement of their families, to restore them,“ says Dr Agarwal.
These breakdowns are all too common, across a city that reinvented itself in the late '90s as coaching hub for the hyper-competitive engineering and medical school exams. Roughly 1.6 lakh teenagers from the surrounding states flock to Kota's coaching institutes every year, paying between 50,000 and a lakh for annual tuition. Some begin early , as coaching centres also run ghost schools where they enroll middle-school students. In a few institutes, they are taught by IIT alumni, who claim salaries of Rs 1.5-2 crore for their expertise. Neither coaching centres nor hostels have exit policies or refunds, so for students who borrow money to come to Kota, the stakes are even higher.
Most students live in rented rooms with minimal facilities. They may desperately dream of IIT, but many of them are unprepared for the psychological costs. Kota has now become a byword for student suicides. A 14-year-old boy killed himself recently , the 30th suicide last year. Purushottam Singh, whose nephew Shivdutt committed suicide on December 22, is in tears as he talks of the boy . Back home in Kollari village, Dholpur, Singh says, “there were high expectations of him. His family and neighbours had already started calling him doctor sahib.“
The parents of 17-year-old Suresh Mishra (name changed), from Vidisha, now regret having sent him to Kota. “It started with headache, fatigue and bed-wetting. He now suffers from blackouts, partial memory loss and occasional hallucinations,“ says his father Mukund.
Around the world, student burnout is caused by high rates of physical and emotional exhaustion, a sense of being depersonalised, and a shrunken sense of personal achievement. Kota is a cauldron for all these feelings, with other factors like the fear of letting down one's family , or not having any career alternatives.
All around Kota, the message is to excel, or be left behind. Billboards celebrate success and star students. Entry into IITs or the other engineering and medical schools is seen as the only measure of worth. Coaching institutes, though, admit anyone who can pay the fee. Then begins the brutal sorting of students into different batch es on the basis of their performance. Those who lag in their studies live in terror of these internal assessments, and struggle with their sense of inadequacy . Some are doubly challenged, with the Class XII board and the competitive exams.
The problem, though, is that while Kota's coaching centres can find and hone smart stu dents into the perfect JEE test-takers, they are thrown by “weakness“ in students. Their performance criteria does not factor in vulnerability or burnout at all, making it hard for students to seek help.As Naveen Maheshwari, the director of Kota's largest coaching institute puts it, “average performers are bound to fail“ in this competitive place. “In such an environment, parents should understand that IITs and AIIMS are not the end of the world. They should stop imposing their own dreams on children.“
And yet, the idea that coaching centres have a responsibility for the mental wellbeing of stu dents in their tutelage is only now dawning on them. Maheshwari now plans to institute ran dom silent psychometric tests to detect vulner able students who can be kept under watch.
However, he claims that students get even more depressed if their parents take them back home.
Meanwhile, jolted by the serial suicides, the district administration is also awakening to its responsibility. Kota collector Ravi Kumar, says, “We have taken some steps, like an advisory to coaching institutes to screen students for apti tude. We are setting up a helpline to counsel students.“
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.
