Bagar (region)

Not to be confused with the Bhattiana region.

Historical region Bagar
Location	Northwestern India 29°58′N74°32′E / 29.967°N 74.533°E / 29.967; 74.533
Language	Bagri
Dynasties	Yaudheya Established 5th century BCE Disestablished 3rd-4th century CE Bhati Established 255 AD Disestablished 1527 AD at Bhatner Rathore Established – 1488(15th century) in Lower Bagar region Established – 1527 AD in Bhatner Disestablished –1949(20th century)
Historical capitals	Bikaner, Shaikhsar, Hanumangarh

Bagar, also Bagad, a term meaning the "dry country", ^[1] is a reference to a region in north-western India in north Rajasthan, West Haryana, south-west Punjab, India where the Bagri language is spoken and which is inhabited by the Bagri people. The region is characterised by sandy tracks and shifting sand dunes which are now irrigated by canals. ^[2]

Etymology

Bagar means the prairie (grazing shrubs and grassland) of northern Rajputana, ^[3] which likely comes from eponymous Arabic word "baqar" or "bagar" (بقرة) 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

Bagar (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

The 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 in Pakistan's Punjab province, with a few Bagri speakers in Pakistan's Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar districts.

Geographical extent of Bagar region.

States	Districts
Rajasthan	Anupgarh district, Sri Ganganagar district, Hanumangarh district, Khajuwala, Chhatargarh, Loonkaransar, Pugal, Sri Dungargarh and Bikaner tehsils of Bikaner district, Taranagar, Sardarshahar, Rajgarh, Sidhmukh, Bhanipura, Ratangarh and Churu tehsils in Churu district. [10] [8]
Punjab	Abohar & Fazilka tehsils of Fazilka district, Southern villages of Sri Muktsar Sahib district. [10] [11] [12]
Haryana	Sirsa district, Fatehabad district, [13] Barwala, Adampur and Hisar tehsils of Hisar district. [10] [11] [8] Siwani, Loharu and Tosham tehsils of Bhiwani district [13] Badhra tehsil of Charkhi Dadri district [13]

Bagri language

Main article: Bagri language

A Bagri speaker.

Bagri (बागड़ी), a dialect of overlapping Rajasthani language, Haryanvi language and Punjabi language of the Indo-Aryan family, is spoken by about five million speakers residing in Bagar region of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab states in India. ^{[10] [11]}

Politics of Bagar Region (Constituencies and MLA)

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 decide 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

Following 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.

Source: ^{[18] [19]}

District	Constituency		Member of Legislative Assembly			Remarks
	No.	Name	Name	Party
Sri Ganganagar	1	Sadulshahar	Gurveer Singh Brar		BJP
	2	Ganganagar	Jaydeep Bihani		BJP
	3	Karanpur	Rupinder Singh Kooner		INC
	4	Suratgarh	Dungar Ram Gedar		INC
	5	Raisinghnagar (SC)	Sohan Lal Nayak		INC
	6	Anupgarh (SC)	Shimla Devi		INC
Hanumangarh	7	Sangaria	Abhimanyu Poonia		INC
	8	Hanumangarh	Ganesh Raj Bansal		IND
	9	Pilibanga (SC)	Vinod Gothwal		INC
	10	Nohar	Amit Chachan		INC
	11	Bhadra	Sanjeev Kumar Beniwal		BJP
Bikaner	12	Khajuwala (SC)	Vishwanath Meghwal		BJP
	13	Bikaner West	Jethanand Vyas		BJP
	14	Bikaner East	Siddhi Kumari		BJP
	15	Kolayat	Anshuman Singh Bhati		BJP
	16	Lunkaransar	Sumit Godara		BJP	Cabinet Minister
	17	Dungargarh	Tarachand Saraswat		BJP
	18	Nokha	Sushila Rameshwar Dudi		INC
Churu	19	Sadulpur	Manoj Nyangli		SHS	Merged With Shiv Sena From BSP
	20	Taranagar	Narendra Budania		INC
	21	Sardarshahar	Anil Kumar Sharma		INC

Haryana

Following is the list of constituencies and Members of Legislative Assembly from the Bagri speaking region of North Western Haryana.

District	No.	Constituency	Name	Party		Alliance		Remarks	Reservation
Fatehabad	1	Tohana -(39)	Paramvir Singh		Indian National Congress		INDIA
	2	Fatehabad – (40)	Dura Ram		Bharatiya Janata Party		NDA
	3	Ratia – (41)	Jarnail Singh		Indian National Congress		INDIA		SC
Sirsa	4	Kalanwali – (42)	Shishpal Singh		Indian National Congress		INDIA		SC
	5	Dabwali – (43)	Aditya Devilal		Indian National Lok Dal		None
	6	Rania – (44)	Arjun Chautala		INLD		None
	7	Sirsa – (45)	Gokul Setia		Indian National Congress		INDIA
	8	Ellenabad – (46)	Bharat Singh Beniwal		Indian National Congress		INDIA
Hisar	9	Adampur (46)	Chander Parkash		Indian National Congress		INDIA
	10	Uklana (48)	Naresh Selwal		Indian National Congress		INDIA
	11	Barwala (51)	Ranbir Singh Gangwa		Bhartiya Janata Party		NDA	Cabinet Minister
	12	Hisar – (52)	Savitri Jindal		Independent		NDA
Bhiwani	13	Loharu (54)	Rajbir Fartia		Indian National Congress		INDIA
	14	Tosham (58)	Shruti Choudhry		Bhartiya Janata Party		NDA	Cabinet minister
Charkhi Dadri	15	Badhra (55)	Umed Singh		Bharatiya Janata Party		NDA

Punjab

Following 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		Independent politician	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

• 
  Sirsa district
• 
  Fatehabad district
• 
  Hisar district
• 
  Bhiwani district
• 
  Charkhi Dadri district
• 
  Bagar tract through Ganganagar district, Anupgarh district, Hanumangarh district, Churu district and Bikaner district in Rajasthan
• 
  Bagar tract through Fazilka district and southern villages of Muktsar district of Punjab (India)
• 
  Bagri as minor language is spoken in Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar district of Punjab, Pakistan, though not considered parts of Bagar tract.

See also

• Barani, Nehri, Nalli
• Bhattiana
• Chak (village)
• Dhani (settlement type)
• Doab
• Jangladesh
• Johad
• Khadir and Bangar
• Punjab region
• Divisions of Haryana

References

1. Nonica Datta, "Forming an identity", The Tribune, 3 July 1999.
2. "Revised Land and Revenue Settlement of Hisar District 9006-9011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
3. Elaine King,1998, Tales & legends of India, Page 61.
4. 2002, Abubakar Garba, "State, city and society: processes of urbanisation", University of Maiduguri – Centre for Trans Saharan Studies, Archaeological Association of Nigeria, Page 82.
5. Deepak Kumar Behera, Georg Pfeffer, 2002, The concept of tribal society, Page 284.
6. Mohamet Lawan, 1997, No travel is little, Page 66.
7. Jemera Rone, Brian Owsley, Human Rights Watch/Africa, 1996, Behind the Red Line: Political Repression in Sudan, Page 274.
8. India. Superintendent of Census Operations, Punjab; Anand, R. L. (1965). District census handbook, Punjab. University of California Libraries. [Chandigarh] : Govt. of Punjab.
9. E. Walter Coward, 1980, "Irrigation and Agricultural Development in Asia: Perspectives from the social sciences", Cornell University press, page 302, ISBN   0801498716.
10. Gusain, Lakhan: Reflexives in Bagri. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1994
11. 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
12. Census India 2001
13. "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.
14. "Election Commission of India".
15. "Election Commission of India".
16. "Election Commission of India".
17. "Election".
18. 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.
19. 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.