Jhansi

Etymology

According to a legend the Raja of Orchha was sitting on the roof of his palace with his friend, the Raja of Jaitpur, and asked the latter whether he could discern this new fort that he had built on Bangara hill, and he replied that he could see it 'jhainsi' (meaning rather indistinct). This name 'Jhainsi' in course of time became corrupted to 'Jhansi'. It was one of the most strategically situated forts of central India being built on an elevated rock rising out of the plain and commanding the city and the surrounding country.

History

In the 18th century the town of Jhansi served as the capital of a Maratha province and later the Princely State of Jhansi from 1804 till 1853, when the territory became a part of British India.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census, Jhansi has a population of 505,693, its urban agglomeration a population of 547,638. The literacy rate of Jhansi is 83.02%, higher than the state average of 67.68%. The sex ratio is 905 females for every 1000 males. Jhansi city has 57th rank among the most populated cities of India, according to the 2011 census.

Jhansi Cantonment

According to the Indian Census of 2001 there were 21,917 people in Jhansi Cantonment, of whom 56% were male and 44% female (men 12,264; women 9,653; children 2,612). The rate of literacy was 80%.

Geography and climate

Jhansi is located at 25.4333 N 78.5833 E. It has an average elevation of 284 metres (935 feet). Jhansi lies on the plateau of central India, an area dominated by rocky relief and minerals underneath the soil. The city has a natural slope in the north as it is on the south western border of the vast Tarai plains of Uttar Pradesh and the elevation rises on the south. The land is suitable for species of citrus fruit and crops include wheat, pulses, peas, and oilseeds. The region relies heavily on Monsoon the rains for irrigation purposes. Under an ambitious canal project (the Rajghat canal), the government is constructing a network of canals for irrigation in Jhansi and Lalitpur and some part of Madhya Pradesh. The trade in agricultural products (including grain and oilseeds) is of great economic importance. The city is also a centre of brassware manufacture.

Climate

Being on a rocky plateau, Jhansi experiences extreme temperatures. Winter begins in October with the retreat of the Southwest Monsoon (Jhansi does not experience any rainfall from the Northeast Monsoon) and peaks in mid-December. The mercury generally reads about 4 degrees minimum and 21 degrees maximum. Spring arrives by the end of February and is a short-lived phase of transition. Summer begins by April and summer temperatures can peak at 47 degrees in May. The rainy season starts by the third week of June (although this is variable year to year). Monsoon rains gradually weaken in September and the season ends by the last week of September. In the rainy season, the average daily high temperature hovers around 36 degrees Celsius with high humidity. The average rainfall for the city is about 900 mm per year, occurring almost entirely within the three-and-a-half months of the Southwest Monsoon. In summer Jhansi experiences temperatures as high as 45-47 degrees and in winter the temperatures fall as low as 0-1 degrees (recorded in winter 2011).

Jhansi Fort

The early 17th century fort was made by Raja Bir Singh on top of a hill known as Bangara as an army stronghold. The Karak Bijli cannon is within the fort. There is also a museum near the fort which has a collection of sculpture and provides an insight into the history of Bundelkhand.

Government Museum; and Rani Mahal

In the Government Museum there are collections of weapons, statues, dresses and photographs that represent the Chandela dynasty and a picture gallery of the Gupta period. There are also terracottas, bronzes, manuscripts, paintings and coins.Government museum specifically keep the belonging of rani of jhansi, example: her sword, armour and utensils. The museum is closed on Mondays and second Saturday of every month.

The Rani Mahal was the palace of Rani Lakshmi Bai and has now been converted into a museum. It houses a collection of archaeological remains of the period between the 9th and 12th centuries AD.

An engineering college named as Bundelkhand Institute of Engineering & Technology a state govt engineering college

Other places of interest

Temples: Iskcon Temple, Laxmi Temple; Shri Kali Temple; Karguan Jain Temple.--Christian churches: Sacred Heart Church St. Jude's Shrine; St Antony's Cathedral.--Gangadhar Rao-Ki-Chhatri (tomb).--Laxmi Bai Park; Narayan Bagh; Jari Ka Math; Barua Sagar & Fort; Garhmau Lake; Herbal Garden.

Jhansi Mahotsav

Annually organised in jhansi in winter season. rani laxmibai birthday

Jhansi in popular culture

Higher education

Medical and Technical Colleges

Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical college Hospital Jhansi was established in 1968, is named after the "Jhansi ki Rani" Maha Rani Laxmi Bai. The college admits 100 students each year for medical course and nearly 54 post graduate student in various specialties.

In October 2009, the Union health ministry had given approvals for setting up an institute equivalent to AIIMS, the first in bundelkhand region and developing central agriculture university.

Research institutes

Transport

The city is well connected to other parts of India by railways and major highways.

Railways

Jhansi Junction has its own Division of the Indian North Central Railways. It is well connected by train services to all parts of the country, including four metropolitan cities. There are direct trains to Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Guwahati, Visakhapatnam, Nagpur, Agra, Gwalior, Trivandrum, Indore, Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Pune, Jammu, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhopal, Mahoba, Khajuraho, Gaya, Jalgaon, Bhusaval, Jabalpur, Kanpur, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Bandra and other major towns. A list of all train services passing through Jhansi Junction can be found here.

Jhansi Junction is a major railway junction of Indian Railways: a major intercity hub and a technical stoppage for many superfast trains in India. Jhansi has its own division in the North Central Railway zone of Indian Railways. It lies on the main Delhi-Chennai and Delhi-Mumbai lines. The station code is JHS.

History

The railway station was built by the British in the late 1880s. After a long survey of three places the current site was selected for the station. The station has a massive fort-like building painted in maroon and off white.

The station had three platforms in the beginning. Platform One is 2,525 feet (770 m) long making it the seventh longest in the world so could easily handle two trains at a time. Platforms two and three are also long enoungh to do this. The first Shatabdi Express of India started between New Delhi and Jhansi. Earlier Jhansi used to be a part of Central railways zone headquartered at Mumbai but now comes under NCR headquartered at Allahabad.

Connectivity

Jhansi Junction is linked with many industrial and important cities of India by direct trains like Gwalior, New Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Lucknow, Bhopal, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Jammu, Agra, Bhubaneshwar, Ahmedabad, etc.

Jhansi Junction is served by 4 broad gauge routes:

1. Jhansi - Gwalior Junction - New Delhi
2. Jhansi - Kanpur Central - Lucknow
3. Jhansi - Bhopal - Mumbai
4. Jhansi - Manikpur - Allahabad
5. Jhansi - Shivpuri - Sawai Madhopur (proposed)

Jhansi is an important destination for tourists intending to go to Khajuraho (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and to Orchha.

Trains originating from Jhansi

1. 12279/12280 Jhansi Hazrat Nizamuddin (Delhi) Taj Express.
2. 11109/11110 Jhansi Lucknow Junction Intercity Express.
3. 11103/11104 Jhansi Bandra Terminus (Mumbai) Express.(via Gwalior, Ujjain, Ratlam, Surat
4. 11105/11106 Jhansi Kolkata Pratham Swatrantata Sangram Express.(via Kanpur, Patna)
5. 11801/11802 Jhansi etawah express
6. 21125/21126 Jhansi Gwalior Indore Express
7. 51815/51816 Jhansi Agra Fort Passenger
8. 51831/51832 Jhansi Agra Cantt Passenger
9. 51803/51804 Jhansi Kanpur Central Passenger
10. 54157/54158 Jhansi Kanpur Central Passenger
11. 51813/51814 Jhansi Lucknow Charbagh Passenger
12. 51807/51808 Jhansi Banda Passenger
13. 54159/54160 Jhansi Banda Passenger
14. 51805/51806 Jhansi Manikpur Passenger
15. 51819/51820 Jhansi Allahabad Jn Passenger
16. 51817/51818 Jhansi Tikamgarh Passenger
17. 51821/51822 Jhansi Khajuraho Passenger
18. 51811/51812 Jhansi Bina Passenger
19. 51827/51828 Jhansi Itarsi Nagpur Passenger

and several other passengers and shuttles trains connecting Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra Cantt, Allahabad, Manikpur, Banda Jn, Khajuraho, Tikamgarh, Bhopal, Bina and Itarsi.

Facilities

Jhansi Junction has seven platforms, 4 broad over-bridges. Due to heavy usage, two new platforms are planned, increasing the total to 11. Five pairs of the Rajdhani Express as well as the Bhopal — New Delhi Shatabdi Express pass through Jhansi.Three pairs of Duronto Express also have their technical stoppages at Jhansi. All state Sampark Krantis passing through Jhansi have official stops at Jhansi. In all more than 150 trains stop at Jhansi Junction everyday.

There are tourist information offices of both the Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh governments.

Road transport

Jhansi is located at the junction of these National Highways: NH-12A; NH-25; NH-26; NH-75; and NH-76. Thus, Jhansi commands a strategic position in the roadways network as highways in 5 different directions diverge from it.

The towns and major cites connected to it are Datia, Gwalior, Lalitpur, Agra, New Delhi, Bhopal, Allahabad, Kanpur, Orchha, Shivpuri, Tikamgarh, Unnao Balaji, Sagar

The proposed north-south and east-west corridors of the Golden-Quadrilateral Highway project pass and cross each other only in Jhansi and the city is also well connected to Kanpur, Lucknow and Madhya Pradesh by road. The four lane national highway is at the last stage of its completion, giving a boom in infrastructure and other sectors in Jhansi and nearby areas;

Air transport

Jhansi Airport is a military aviation base built in the British era used by the Indian army and political visitors. Though there are provisions for private aircraft to land, there are no civil aviation operations. There had been a demand to make it operational for commercial purposes in the 1990s and again in the 2000s. The Uttar Pradesh government announced the construction of an all new civil aviation base to support tourism in Bundelkhand in April 2011. The Indian army maintains an objection to extension of the military aviation. So, the government has examined three different places other than army aviation base for the airport in Jhansi. Gwalior Airport is the nearest airport from Jhansi.

Major markets

Armed forces

The Jhansi Cantonment was the site of the accommodation for British civil and military personnel in the period of British rule in India. Within the cantonment is Sacred Heart Church, a Roman Catholic church built early in the 20th century.

Newspapers

Many national and local newspapers are published in Jhansi in Hindi, Urdu and English:

Radio

Jhansi has two radio stations: 92.7 BIG FM and 103.0 AIR FM.

Cinema

Jhansi currently has two cinema halls which are operating rest are under construction.

1.Elite Cinema

2.Khilona Cinema

Sport

Sports stadiums in Jhansi are Dhyanchand Stadium; Railway Stadium; and LVM Sports Place.

Notable people associated with Jhansi

Jhansi in literature

Two novels by John Masters are set in the fictional town of Bhowani. According to the author, writing in the Glossary to the earlier novel, Nightrunners of Bengal, Bhowani is an "imaginary town. To get a geographical bearing on the story it should be imagined to be about where Jhansi really is - 25.27 N., 78.33 E." Nightrunners of Bengal is set during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 at "Bhowani" (the title alludes to the mysterious distribution of "chapatis" to village headmen which preceded the revolt). Bhowani Junction is set in 1946/47 the eve of independence. In each novel the main character is a British army officer named Colonel Rodney Savage, one of a succession of such men from the same family.

Christina Rossetti wrote a short poem about the fate of the Skene family at Jhansi during the Indian Mutiny. It is entitled 'In the Round Tower at Jhansi - 8 June 1857'. It was published in 1862 in the same volume as her more celebrated poem 'Goblin Market'. Some time afterwards, Rossetti discovered that she had been misinformed about the husband and wife's suicide pact in the face of a murderous and implacable enemy ('The swarming howling wretches below' the tower walls) which is the poem's subject, but did not delete it from later editions.

Jhansi also appears as the backdrop for a portion of the George MacDonald Fraser novel Flashman in the Great Game set just before and during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.