Hazara District
Hazara District was a district of Peshawar Division in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. It existed until 1976, when it was split into the districts of Abbottabad and Mansehra,[1] with the new district of Haripur subsequently splitting off from Abbottabad, and Battagram and Torghar – from Mansehra.
Geography
[edit]The Imperial Gazetteer of India described the district as follows:
Northernmost District of the North - West Frontier Province, and the only portion of that Province east of the Indus. It lies between 33° 44′ and 35° 10′ N. and 72° 33′ and 74° 6′ E., with an area Of 2,858, or, including Tanāwal, 3,062 square miles. The District consists of a long tongue of British territory running north and south for 120 miles. The southern base is 56 miles in width, and the centre 40, while the Kāgān valley, in the north east, is only about 15 miles broad. On the north the Kāgān range separates the District from Chilās, a dependency of Kashmir; and on the east the range which borders the left bank of the Kunhār river and the Jhelum separates it from Kashmir, Punch, and the Punjab, District of Rawalpindi ; north-west lie the Black Mountain and the lofty ranges which overhang the eastern bank of the Indus; and on the south is Attock District of the Punjab. Thus the District lies like a wedge of British territory driven in between Kashmir on the east and the independent hills on the west. Hazara presents every gradation of scenery, altitude, and climate. The valley of the Harroh, only 1,500 feet above sea-level, merges into the Hazara plain, an area of 200 square miles, with a mean elevation of 2,500 feet. Higher again is the Orāsh plain, where Abbottābād lies between 4,000 and 5,000 feet above the sea. Lastly the Kāgān valley, comprising one-third of the total area, is a sparsely populated mountain glen, shut in by parallel ranges of hills which rise to 17,000 feet above the sea. Never more than 15 miles apart, these ranges throw out spurs across the valley, leaving only a narrow central gorge through which the Kunhar river forces an outlet to the Jhelum.[2]
Demographics
[edit]| Religious group |
1881[3] | 1891[4] | 1901[5] | 1911[6] | 1921[7] | 1931[8] | 1941[9] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | |
Islam 
|
385,759 | 94.76% | 488,453 | 94.61% | 533,120 | 95.15% | 572,972 | 95.02% | 591,058 | 94.97% | 636,794 | 95.03% | 756,004 | 94.95% |
Hinduism 
|
19,843 | 4.87% | 23,983 | 4.65% | 23,031 | 4.11% | 24,389 | 4.04% | 26,038 | 4.18% | 25,260 | 3.77% | 30,267 | 3.8% |
Sikhism 
|
1,381 | 0.34% | 3,609 | 0.7% | 4,036 | 0.72% | 5,489 | 0.91% | 4,850 | 0.78% | 7,630 | 1.14% | 9,220 | 1.16% |
Christianity 
|
90 | 0.02% | 236 | 0.05% | 101 | 0.02% | 178 | 0.03% | 403 | 0.06% | 432 | 0.06% | 737 | 0.09% |
Jainism 
|
0 | 0% | 3 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
Zoroastrianism 
|
0 | 0% | 4 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 1 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
Buddhism .svg){kind=small}
|
0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 2 | 0% |
Judaism 
|
— | — | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Others | 2 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
| Total population | 407,075 | 100% | 516,288 | 100% | 560,288 | 100% | 603,028 | 100% | 622,349 | 100% | 670,117 | 100% | 796,230 | 100% |
| Note: British North-West Frontier Province era district borders are not an exact match in the present-day due to various bifurcations to district borders — which since created new districts — throughout the region during the post-independence era that have taken into account population increases. | ||||||||||||||
Current status
[edit]The Hazara District is now divided into Abbottabad, Mansehra and Haripur districts.
References
[edit]- ^ 1998 District census report of Mansehra. Census publication. Vol. 62. Islamabad: Population Census Organization, Statistics Division, Government of Pakistan. 2000. p. 1.
- ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 13, p. 74.
- ^ "Census of India, 1881 Report on the Census of the Panjáb Taken on the 17th of February 1881, vol. II". 1881. p. 17. JSTOR saoa.crl.25057657. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
- ^ "The Punjab and its feudatories, part II--Imperial Tables and Supplementary Returns for the British Territory". 1891. p. 14. JSTOR saoa.crl.25318669. Retrieved 22 June 2024.
- ^ "Census of India 1901. [Vol. 17A]. Imperial tables, I-VIII, X-XV, XVII and XVIII for the Punjab, with the native states under the political control of the Punjab Government, and for the North-west Frontier Province". 1901. p. 34. JSTOR saoa.crl.25363739. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
- ^ "Census of India 1911. Vol. 13, North-west Frontier Province : part I, Report; part II, Tables". 1911. p. 306. JSTOR saoa.crl.25394102. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
- ^ "Census of India 1921. Vol. 14, North-west Frontier Province : part I, Report; part II, Tables". 1921. p. 344. JSTOR saoa.crl.25430163. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
- ^ Mallam, G. L.; Dundas, A. D. F. (1933). "Census of India, 1931, vol. XV. North-west frontier province. Part I-Report. Part II-Tables". Peshawar, Printed by the manager, Government stationery and printing, 1933. p. 373. JSTOR saoa.crl.25793233. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
- ^ "Census of India, 1941. Vol. 10, North-West Frontier Province". 1941. p. 22. JSTOR saoa.crl.28215543. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
