Bidar (district)

Bidar ; District ಬೀದರ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆ
State	Karnataka
Division :	Gulbarga
Administrative headquarters :	Bidar
Area :	5,448 km²
Residents :	1,700,018 (2011)
Population density :	314 inhabitants / km²
Website :	bidar.nic.in

The district of Bidar ( Kannada : ಬೀದರ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆ ) is a district of the Indian state of Karnataka . The administrative seat is the eponymous city of Bidar .

geography

View from Bidar Fort

The Bidar district is located in the extreme northeast of Karnataka on the border with the neighboring states of Telangana and Maharashtra . Neighboring districts are Gulbarga (Karnataka) in the south, Osmanabad in the west, Latur in the northwest and Nanded in the north (all Maharashtra) and Medak (Telangana) in the east.

The area of the Bidar district is 5,448 square kilometers. The area belongs to the highlands of Dekkan and has an average height of 580 to 610 meters above sea level. Most of the terrain is flat. The most important river in the district is the Manjira , a tributary of the Godavari .

The Bidar District is divided into the five taluks Basavakalyan, Bhalki, Aurad, Bidar and Homnabad.

history

Mausoleums of the Bahmani rulers

The area of the Bidar District has been under the rule of changing dynasties throughout its history. The city of Kalyani (today Basavakalyan ), located in today's district area, was the capital of the Western Chalukya from the middle of the 11th century until the fall of the empire at the end of the 12th century . In 1321, the Muslim rule began in Bidar when it was conquered by the Sultanate of Delhi . In 1347 Bidar came under the rule of the Bahmani Sultanate , which had split off from Delhi and subsequently developed into an important power factor in the Deccan. In 1430 the Bahmani sultans moved their capital from Gulbarga to Bidar. At the turn of the 15th to the 16th century, the Bahmani Sultanate disintegrated due to internal conflicts and split into the five Deccan sultanates . One of these was the Bidar Sultanate , founded in 1492 , which existed until it was subjugated by the Bijapur Sultanate in 1609. Around 1656, Bidar was finally conquered by the Mughal Empire under Aurangzeb . In 1724 Bidar again came to Hyderabad , which had split off from the Mughal Empire under Asaf Jah I. During the British colonial era , Hyderabad became a nominally independent princely state under British sovereignty.

The Bidar district was established in 1866 as an administrative unit of the princely state of Hyderabad. After Indian independence in 1947, Hyderabad was incorporated as a federal state in India. When the Indian states were reorganized according to the language boundaries by the States Reorganization Act in 1956 , the Bidar district was divided: Its western part, in which Marathi was spoken predominantly , (Taluks Ahmadpur , Nilanga and Udgir ) came to the state of Bombay (from 1960 Maharashtra ) and a smaller part in the east, in which Telugu was mostly spoken, (Taluk Narayankhed ) was added to the state of Andhra Pradesh . The remaining district of Bidar came to the Kannada-speaking state of Mysore (renamed Karnataka in 1973 ).

population

Farmer with ochenpflug in the Bidar district

According to the 2011 Indian census, the Bidar district has 1,700,018 inhabitants. Between 2001 and 2011, the population grew by 13.2 percent and thus somewhat more slowly than the average in Karnataka (15.7 percent). The population density of 312 people per square kilometer corresponds to the average of the state. (319 inhabitants per square kilometer). 23.0 percent of the residents of the Bidar district live in cities (the mean value in Karnataka is 38.6 percent). At 71.0 percent, the literacy rate is below the Karnataka average of 75.6 percent.

According to the 2001 census, Hindus made up the majority of the population in the Bidar district, at 67.9 percent. However, their share is lower than in the rest of Karnataka. There is also a large Muslim minority of 19.7 percent. After Dakshina Kannada , Bidar has the second highest Muslim population in the districts of Karnataka. The Muslim population is mainly concentrated in the cities: Here they make up more than a third of the population. 8.1 percent of the residents of Gulbarga District are Buddhists . This makes Bidar the district of Karnataka with the highest proportion of Buddhists. These are followers of Dalit Buddhism , founded in the 20th century by the social reformer BR Ambedkar , which is based in the neighboring state of Maharashtra, but is also widespread in the northernmost districts of Karnataka. There is also a small Christian minority of 2.9 percent.

In addition to Kannada , the main language of Karnataka, Marathi and Telugu , the languages of the neighboring states of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, and Urdu , which is common among the Muslim population as in most parts of the state , are also spoken in the Bidar district . Because of the high proportion of its speakers in the population, Urdu has the status of an associated official language in the Gulbarga district.