Yavatmal at Glance

History (Introduction)

It is conjectured that the name of Yavatmal district in the past was Yavat or Yavate (a plateau) or Yavatecha Mahaal (Borough or Division of Yavate). The Ein-e-Akbari written by Abul Fazal, a famous writer in the court of King Akbar, also alludes to Yavatmal district as Yot-Lohar. Lohar is the name of a village 5 km to the west of Yavatmal while Yot is probably an Urdu corruption of the name Yavat. Yavatmal City was main town of Berar. Yavatmal was earlier also spelled as YEOTMAL or YEVTMAL. Region of Yavatmal (now District of Yavatmal) was part of the dominion of Allauddin Bahamani Shah-The founder of Bahamandy dynasty since 1347. In 1572 ruler of Ahmadnagar (Now another district of Maharashtra state of India which is also referred as Sambhaji Nagar or simply Nagar)annexed the Yavatmal District. In 1596, Chand Bibi the queen of Ahmadnagar, ceded the district of Yavatmal to Moughals (One of the ruler of India) . After the death of Aurangzeb the moughal king in 1707, Yavatmal was paased on to the Great Marathas. When Raghuji Bhosle became the ruler of Nagpur in 1783, he included the Yavatmal district in his kingdom. After British East India Company took over Berar in 1853, by 1863, Yavatmal became part of East Berar District and later of South East Berar district which were districts of Central Provinces.

Quite late before the 1947, Yavatmal was part of Madhya Pradesh but in 1956 after the reorganization of states in India District of Yavatmal was transferred to Bombay state. When the state of Maharashtra came into existence in 1960 (1st of May), Yavatmal District became part of part of Maharashtra. This District has given two chief minister to Maharashtra State (Shri Vasantrao Naik and Shri Sudhakarrao Naik) and many more great politicians & great Personalities like Loknayak Bapuji Ane the great Freedom fighter, Babaji Daate the great social worker & Jawaharlal Darda, founder of the most popular daily newspaper Lokmat in Maharashtra, was based in Yavatmal. Shri Darda was also active in the Independence struggle. Post-independence, this district of Yavatmal has consistently favored Congress Party (Indira) in its political leanings. So the state government representatives (known in India as Member of Legislative assembly or MLA) and central government representatives (known in India as Member of Parliament or MP) elected by people in Yavatmal have been largely from Congress party (Indira). In the 90’s, the trend has reversed, though; with the election of members of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)to the prominent positions of MP and MLAs to represent Yavatmal both at state and central government levels.