Bagar, also Bagad (बागड़) a term meaning the "dry country",[1] is a region refers in north-western India in north Rajasthan, West Haryana, south west Punjab, India where the Bagri language is spoken and which is inhabited by Bagri people. The region is characterised by sandy tracks and shifting sand dunes which are now irrigated by canals.[2]
| Historical Region of Rajasthan, India Bagar/बागड़/باگر | |
 | |
| Location | Northwestern India |
| Language | Bagri |
| Dynasties | Yaudheya
|
| Historical capitals | Bikaner, Shaikhsar, Hanumangarh |
Etymology
editBagar means the prairie (grazing shrubs and grassland) of northern Rajputana,[3] which likely comes from eponymous Arabic word "bagar" meaning "cow" (sacred to Hindus),[4] derived from the Arabic word "cattle".[5][6] Baggara in Arabic means "cattle herders".[5][7] Bagar tract refers to the semi-arid semi-fertile rain-fed sandy shrubby grassland tract at the confluence of arid Thar Desert and fertile bangar and khadir areas of Indo-Gangetic Plain, which as historically inhabited by the cattle herders who remained semi-nomadic until they began to adapt to settled life in the mid to late Medieval Period. Before the adoption of the Arabic name bagar, the area was earlier known as Jangladesh during the Vedic era of Mahabharata and even in early medieval times at least until the end of Hindu reign of Prithviraj Chauhan.
Bagar tracts
editBagar (Hindi: बागड़) region is characterised by Bagar tracts which are long strips of shifting sand dunes called tibba (टिब्बा) and relatively semi-fertile lands and the area between them is called lal (लाळ) in northern districts of Rajasthan and along the northwestern districts of Haryana.[8]
Geography
editThe Bagar region has potentially very fertile alluvial soil interspersed with highly permeable very sandy tracts in several places with water table more than 100 feet below ground containing brackish water usually unfit for human consumption, where dust storms frequent during the warm summer months from April till the end of July when monsoon arrives.
Previously, the drinking water availability in the Bagar tract was solely based on the rain & wells and irrigation was possible only in the small areas of Ghaggar basin of Bagar region in districts of Fatehabad, Sirsa, Hanumangarh, Sri Ganganagar and Anupgarh where the seasonal Ghaggar river flows.
Earlier Western Yamuna Canal and after 1963 Bhakra Nangal Dam canal system provides the water for irrigation in most of Haryana including all of the Bagar region falling in Haryana on its western border.
The Ganga canal in 1927 and in 1984 Indira Gandhi Canal irrigation also known as Rajasthan Canal brought the water of Sutlej and Beas rivers to the fields of Rajasthan including its Bagar tract, stabilizing the sand dunes and soil erosion by preventing the expansion of desert.[9][8]
Geographically, the Bagar region lies between the:
- Malwa, Punjab to the north,
- The Shekhawati region and the Marwar region of Rajasthan to the south.
- The Aravali Range to the southeast in the Charkhi Dadri district & Tosham tehsil of Bhiwani district,
- Ahirwal region of Haryana also in the southeast.
- The eastern border in bounded to the Haryanavi speaking region of haryana.
- In the west of Bagar region lies the Rohi(रोई)/Cholistan desert of Punjab (Pakistan) with a few Bagri speakers in the Bahawalpur district & Bahawalnagar district.
| States | Districts |
|---|---|
| Rajasthan |
|
| Punjab |
|
| Haryana |
|
Bagri language
editBagri (बागड़ी), a dialect of overlapping Rajasthani language, Haryanvi language and Punjabi language of the Indo-Aryan family, spoken by about five million speakers residing in Bagar region of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab states in India.[10][11]
There are 40 Constituencies of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan legislative assemblies where the Bagri language is spoken by majority of the population.
- In Punjab, there 4 constituencies of Fazilka and Sri Muktsar Sahib in South Punjab where Bagri speakers decides the fate of elections. Out of 4 constituencies only 1 constituency is reserved for SC candidate.
- In Haryana, there are 15 constituencies in north west haryana which comes under the Bagar region out of which 2 constituencies are reserved for SC candidates.
- In Rajasthan, there are 21 constituencies of Rajasthan Legislative Assembly which comes under the Bagar region in North Rajasthan. Meanwhile, 4 constituencies out of 21 constituencies are reserved for SC candidates.
Rajasthan
editFollowing is the list of the constituencies and the candidates from Bhartiya Janata Party,[14] Congress party[15] and the Independent candidates[16] appeared in 2023 Rajasthan Legislative Assembly election[17] from the Bagri speaking region of Rajasthan.
| Bagar Region (बागड़) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Seats | Indian National Congress | Bharatiya Janata Party | Others | ||
| 2023 | 21 | 10 |  1
|
9 |  0
|
2 |
| 2018 | 21 | 9 | 8
|
9 |  7
|
3 |
| 2013 | 21 | 1 | 10
|
16 | 8
|
4 |
| Constituency | Winner | Runner Up | Margin | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Name | Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |||
| Sri Ganganagar district | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Sadulshahar (1) | Gurveer Singh Brar | BJP | 74,433 | 37.58 | Om Bishnoi | IND | 58,973 | 29.77 | 15,460 | ||
| 2 | Ganganagar (2) | Jaydeep Bihani | BJP | 81,001 | 44.66 | Karuna Ashok Chandak | IND | 51,222 | 28.24 | 29,779 | ||
| 3 | Karanpur (3) | Rupinder Singh Kooner | INC | 94,950 | 48.55 | Surender Pal Singh | BJP | 83,667 | 42.78 | 11,283 | ||
| 4 | Suratgarh (4) | Dungar Ram Gedar | INC | 1,16,841 | 55.87 | Rampratap Kasania | BJP | 66,382 | 31.74 | 50,459 | ||
| Anupgarh district | ||||||||||||
| 5 | Raisinghnagar (SC- 5) | Sohan Lal Nayak | INC | 79,586 | 37.08 | Balvir Singh Luthra | BJP | 65,561 | 30.54 | 14,025 | ||
| 6 | Anupgarh (SC-6) | Shimla Devi | INC | 1,02,746 | 53.18 | Santosh Bawri | BJP | 64,865 | 33.58 | 37,881 | ||
| Hanumangarh district | ||||||||||||
| 7 | Sangaria (7) | Abhimanyu Poonia | INC | 98,341 | 47.40 | Gurdeep Singh | BJP | 56,331 | 27.15 | 42,010 | ||
| 8 | Hanumangarh (8) | Ganesh Raj Bansal | IND | 89,323 | 37.03 | Amit Sahu | BJP | 79,625 | 33.01 | 9,698 | ||
| 9 | Pilibanga (SC-9) | Vinod Kumar | INC | 1,43,091 | 57.84 | Dharmendra Kumar | BJP | 87,818 | 35.50 | 55,273 | ||
| 10 | Nohar (10) | Amit Chachan | INC | 1,03,623 | 43.22 | Abhishek Matoria | BJP | 1,02,728 | 42.85 | 895 | ||
| 11 | Bhadra (11) | Sanjeev Kumar Beniwal | BJP | 1,02,748 | 44.68 | Balwan Poonia | CPI(M) | 1,01,616 | 44.19 | 1,132 | ||
| Bikaner district | ||||||||||||
| 12 | Khajuwala (SC-12) | Vishwanath Meghwal | BJP | 91,276 | 51.47 | Govind Ram Meghwal | INC | 73,902 | 41.67 | 17,374 | ||
| 13 | Bikaner West (13) | Jethanand Vyas | BJP | 98,648 | 54.51 | Bulaki Das Kalla | INC | 78,454 | 43.35 | 20,194 | ||
| 14 | Bikaner East (14) | Siddhi Kumari | BJP | 89,917 | 53.07 | Yashpal Gehlot | INC | 70,614 | 41.68 | 19,303 | ||
| 15 | Lunkaransar (16) | Sumit Godara | BJP | 60452 | 29.98 | Rajendra Moond | INC | 51583 | 25.58 | 8869 | ||
| 16 | Dungargarh(17) | Tarachand Saraswat | BJP | 65,690 | 32.55 | Manglaram Godara | INC | 57,565 | 28.52 | 8,125 | ||
| Churu district | ||||||||||||
| 17 | Sadulpur (19) | Manoj kumar | BSP | 64,368 | 32.92 | Krishna Poonia | INC | 61,794 | 31.60 | 2,574 | ||
| 18 | Taranagar (20) | Narendra Budania | INC | 1,08,236 | 49.52 | Rajendra Rathore | BJP | 97,891 | 44.78 | 10,345 | ||
| 19 | Sardarshahar(21) | Anil Kumar Sharma | INC | 99,582 | 42.27 | Rajakaran Choudhary | IND | 77,250 | 32.79 | 22,332 | ||
| 20 | Churu (22) | Harlal Saharan | BJP | 99,432 | 50.05 | Rafique Mandelia | INC | 92,558 | 46.59 | 6,874 | ||
| 21 | Ratangarh (23) | Poosaram Godara | INC | 1,09,383 | 53.69 | Abhinesh Maharshi | BJP | 79,720 | 39.13 | 29,663 | ||
Haryana
editFollowing is the list of constituencies and Members of Legislative Assembly from the Bagri speaking region of North Western Haryana.
Punjab
editFollowing is the list of constituencies and MLA in the Punjab Legislative Assembly from Fazilka district and southern part of Sri Muktsar Sahib district with the significant presence of Bagri Speakers in South Punjab, India.
| District | No. | Constituency | Name | Party | Bench | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fazilka | 1 | Fazilka – (80) | Narinderpal Singh Sawna | Aam Aadmi Party | Government | |
| 2 | Abohar – (81) | Sandeep Jakhar | Indian National Congress | Opposition | ||
| 3 | Balluana – (82) (SC) | Amandeep Singh ‘Goldy’ Musafir | Aam Aadmi Party | Government | ||
| Sri Muktsar Sahib | 4 | Lambi – (83) | Gurmeet Singh Khudian | Aam Aadmi Party | Government | |
Gallery
edit-
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-
-
-
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Bagar tract through Ganganagar district, Anupgarh district, Hanumangarh district, Churu district and Bikaner district in Rajasthan -
-
Bagri as minor language is spoken in Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar district of Punjab, Pakistan, though not considered parts of Bagar tract.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Nonica Datta, "Forming an identity", The Tribune, 3 July 1999.
- ^ "Revised Land and Revenue Settlement of Hisar District 9006-9011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
- ^ Elaine King,1998, Tales & legends of India, Page 61.
- ^ 2002, Abubakar Garba, "State, city and society: processes of urbanisation", University of Maiduguri – Centre for Trans Saharan Studies, Archaeological Association of Nigeria, Page 82.
- ^ a b Deepak Kumar Behera, Georg Pfeffer, 2002, The concept of tribal society, Page 284.
- ^ Mohamet Lawan, 1997, No travel is little, Page 66.
- ^ Jemera Rone, Brian Owsley, Human Rights Watch/Africa, 1996, Behind the Red Line: Political Repression in Sudan, Page 274.
- ^ a b c d India. Superintendent of Census Operations, Punjab; Anand, R. L. (1965). District census handbook, Punjab. University of California Libraries. [Chandigarh] : Govt. of Punjab.
- ^ E. Walter Coward, 1980, "Irrigation and Agricultural Development in Asia: Perspectives from the social sciences", Cornell University press, page 302, ISBN 0801498716.
- ^ a b c d Gusain, Lakhan: Reflexives in Bagri. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1994
- ^ a b c Gusain, Lakhan: Limitations of Literacy in Bagri. Nicholas Ostler & Blair Rudes (eds.). Endangered Languages and Literacy. Proceedings of the Fourth FEL Conference. University of North Carolina, Charlotte, 21–24 September 2000
- ^ Census India 2001
- ^ a b c "The map shows study area and the Eco-cultural regions of Haryana (Modified after Singh, 1994; Khan and Dahiya, 2021) [, 10]". www.researchgate.net. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
- ^ "Election Commission of India".
- ^ "Election Commission of India".
- ^ "Election Commission of India".
- ^ "Election".
- ^ India Today (4 December 2023). "Rajasthan Election Results 2023: Full list of winners". Archived from the original on 12 December 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
- ^ India TV (3 December 2023). "Rajasthan Election Result 2023: Constituency-wise full list of BJP, Congress, BSP and RLP winners". Archived from the original on 12 December 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2023.