Ballia district


Ballia district is one of the districts of Uttar Pradesh, India. Ballia district is a part of Azamgarh division situated in the east of Uttar Pradesh. The main economic activity is agriculture. Ballia City is the district headquarters and commercial market of this district. There are six tehsils in this district: Ballia, Bansdih, Rasra, Bairia, Sikandarpur and Belthara. Rasra is the second major commercial area of the district, having a government sugar mill and a cotton weaving industry. Though Ballia's core occupation is agriculture there are some additional small industries. Maniar is known for its bindi industry and is a major supplier.

Demography

According to the 2011 census Ballia district has a population of 3,239,774, roughly equal to the nation of Mauritania or the US state of Iowa. This gives it a ranking of 108th in India. The district has a population density of. Its population growth rate over the decade 2001-2011 was 16.73%. Ballia has a sex ratio of 937 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 73.94%.

Languages

At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 98.97% of the population in the district spoke Hindi and 0.94% Urdu as their first language.
Languages include Hindi, Urdu and Bhojpuri, a tongue in the Indo-Aryan languages group with almost 51,000,000 speakers, written in both the Devanagari and Kaithi scripts.
Hindi is the most commonly spoken language in the district. Many people also use Bhojpuri as their primary language.
English is the main language of communication on electronic and social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Whatsapp, and Google.

Culture

Contribution of Ballia to Hindi Literature is immense as many prominent scholars hail from Ballia such as Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Bhairav Prasad Gupt and Amar Kant. Other notable persons belonging to the district are brother duo Baldev Upadhyaya, Sanskrit critic and Krishndev Upadhyaya, Bhojpuri scholar with works in Bhojpuri folk literature and Hindi litterateur Doodhnath Singh and Dr. Rambichar Pandey. Ballia is surrounded by two major river Ganga and Ghaghra that make this land more fertile.
Ballia is also considered as a holy Hindu city. It has big and small temples. Bhrigu temple in Bhrigu Ashram is a temple where Bhrigu Muni was supposed to reside. Bhrigu muni is the one who according to ancient Hindu texts hit Lord Vishnu on his chest. Behind Bhrigu Ashram earlier River Ganga used to flow. A Dadri Mela is still held annually in the winter season and people from all around the Ballia and neighboring districts come here to visit it. It lasts about a month. Ballia is also known for "Sonadih ka Mela" which is held every year in the month of April for 15 days.

Cuisine

Ballia is famous for its dish, Litti Chokha. It's popularly served in many stalls and restaurants across the city.
Puri of this region is popular because of its large size. It is served in marriages, and other functions.

Political

Ballia was the home of some distinguished freedom fighters who fought against the oppressive British imperialist government and managed to liberate the area from the British Raj from Ballia for a few days from 19 August 1942 under the leadership of Chittu Pandey and others. Due to this, the Ballia region is also known as Baaghi Ballia.
Notable political personalities from this district include Ram Nagina Singh, Ex-MP 1952 in Ballia from the Prajatantrik Socialist Party. Chandra Shekhar, also known as the 'Young Turk' became the 8th prime minister of India on 10 November 1990 and continued till 21 June 1991. He was born and brought up in Ibrahimpatti village in Ballia district. He holds the record as the longest serving member of Lok sabha for Ballia constituency.
Mangal Pandey, the well-known freedom fighter was also from this city and was the first person to participate in an armed struggle against the British East India Company in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Chittu Pandey, Murli Manohar, Tarkeshwar Pandey, Tripurari Mishra, Gauri Shankar Rai and hundreds of leaders fought for independence during that period. Murli Manohar, Tarkeshwar Pandey, and Gauri Shankar Rai were members of Lok Sabha and are no more. Gauri Shankar Rai was a member of UP Assembly, UP Council and as Member of Indian Parliament.

Tourism

There are a number of tourist attractions in Ballia, which include:

Divisions

University

The Jananayak Chandrashekhar University, Ballia is a state university established in 2016 by the Government of Uttar Pradesh in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh.
It is an affiliating university and it began its first season in 2016-17 with 122 colleges of Ballia. These 122 colleges of Ballia were formerly affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi. For the 2016-17 academic year, exams were conducted by Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi but students were awarded a degree of Jananayak Chandrashekhar University, Ballia.

Colleges and schools

State colleges