| Voice of Mandi : Mohammad
Afzal
The various socio economic and development challenges are as follows.
There are no hospitals in our district. The villages do not have
any medical facilities. For getting treated, people are forced to
travel around 12 Km to reach the nearest hospital. There are no
recreational facilities for the senior citizens of our district.
Even the transportation facilities are Kaput.
Mandi District
Area, Population & Sex Ratio
Geographical Area : 3950.0 Km2
Population in Mandi (Census 2011)
Total Population
Total : 9,99,518
Male : 4,96,787
Female : 5,02,731
Under 6 population
Total : 1,09,963
Male : 57496
Female : 52467
Disabled population
Total disabled population : 24214
In seeing : 9272
In speech : 2011
In hearing : 2671
In movement : 7711
Mental : 2549
Rank ( VoiceOfBharat.org Analysis
)
Backwardness : Does not figure in list of 447 backward
districts
Sex Ratio Rank : 532
(Rank one is least sex ratio - Cenus 2001)
HIV Category District : D
(HIV Sentinel Surveillance 2004 - 2006)
Disability : 382 (Census 2001)
Literacy Ratio : 117 (Census 2001)
Minority : Does not figure in MCD
Brief About Mandi District
The present District Of Mandi was formed with the merger of two
princely states Mandi and Suket on 15th April 1948, when the State
of Himachal Pradesh came into existence. Ever since the formation
of the district, it has not witnessd any changes in it's jurisdiction.
The chiefs of Mandi and Suket are said to be from
a common ancestor of the Chandravanshi line of Rajputs of Sena dynasty
of Bengal and they claim their descent from the Pandavas of the
Mahabharata. The ancestors of the line believed to have ruled for
1,700 years in Indarprastha(Delhi), until one Khemraj was driven
out by his Wazir, Bisarp, who then took over the throne. Khemraj,
having lost his knogdom, fled eastward and settled in Bengal, where
13 of his successors are said to have ruled for 350 years. From
there they had to flee to Ropar in Punjab, but here also the king,
Rup Sen, was killed and one of his sons, Bir Sen, fled to the hills
and reached Suket.The State of Suket is said to have been founded
by Bir Sen, an ancestor of the Sena Dynasty of Bengal. The seperation
of Mandi from suket took place about the year 1200 AD. Upto that
time, it was the single state of Suket. The then reigning chief
Sahu Sen had a quarrel with his younger brother Bahu Sen, who left
Suket to seek his fortunes elsewhere. Bahu Sen after leaving Suket
settled at Manglan in Kullu, where his descendents lived for 11
generations. Then then chief, Kranchan Sen was killed fighting against
the Kullu Raja and his Rani, who was pregnant at that time. fled
alone to her father who was the chief of Seokot, who had no son.
Here she gave birth to a baby boy who was named Ban, the tree under
which he was born. Ban had hardly crossed the age of 15 when he
defeated the chief of Kilti who used to plunder travellers.On the
death of the chief of Seokot, Ban succeeded to the chiefship of
Seokot. He, after some time killed the Rana of Sakor and took posesssion
of his lands. he then changed his residence to Bhiu, on the banks
of Beas and a few miles from the present Mandi town.
Mandi emerged as a seperate state in the begining
of the sixteenth century. Down the line of descendants of Ban came
Ajbar Sen, nineteenth in descent from Bahu Sen, who founded Mandi
Town in 1527 AD, the capital of the erstwhile state of Mandi and
the headquarters of the now Mandi District. Ajbar Sen was the first
great ruler of Mandi. He was probably the first to assume the designation
of Raja. He consolidated the territories that he had inherited and
added to them new ones that he wrested from the hands of his neighbours.
He built a palace here and adorned it with four towers. He also
built the temple of Bhut Nath and his Rani constructed that of Trilok
Nath.
Down the line of descendants was Raja Sidh Sen,
who succeeded Raja Gur Sen in 1978 AD. Mandi had never been so powerful
before his reign and after that never was. He captured great areas
from the adjoining areas. it was during his reign that Guru Govind
Singh, the tenth guru of the sikhs visited Mandi in the close of
the 17th century. He had been imprisoned by Raja singh, the chief
of Kullu, from whom he had sought assistance against Mughal troops
and his followers believe that Guruji escaped by using miraculous
powers. Raja Sidh Sen, who is also considered to be a posessor of
great miraculous powers, entertained his with great hospitality.
He built the great tank before the palace. He also built the temples
of "Sidh Ganesha" and "Trilokinath".
The entire history of both the states of Mandi
and Suket is littered with wars with among themselves and other
adjoining states. These two states had always been rivals and generally
enemies, but there was no great result of their warfare. The fertile
valley of Balh was the common ground of desire and dispute.
On 21st February 1846 the chiefs of Mandi and Suket
visited Mr. Erskine, Suprintendent of the Hill States for the British
Government, owing their allegiance to the Britishers and securing
their protection. on 9th march, 1846 a treaty was concluded between
the British Government and the Sikh Durbar whereby the whole of
the Doab area between the Beas and the Sutlej was ceeded to the
British Government, and this included the ststes of Mandi and Suket
also.
On 1st November 1921, both the state of Mandi and
Suket were transferred from the political control of Punjab Government
to that of Government of India till 15th August 1947, India's Independence
Day.
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