Mewat

Mewat District is a district of Haryana Haryana state in India. It is located at southern edge of Haryana. Its area is 1,912 square km and the population is one million. It is semi-arid and its economy is mainly rain-fed agriculture.

Mewat is also a region of Haryana and Rajasthan states in northwestern India. The loose boundaries of Mewat are not precisely determined but generally include Mewat District of Haryana and parts of Alwar, Bharatpur, and Dholpur districts of Rajasthan. The region roughly corresponds to the ancient kingdom of Matsya, founded in the 5th century BCE. Mewati dialect, a slight variant of the Haryanvi and Rajasthani dialects, of Hindi is spoken in rural areas of the region.

It was a part of Alwar princely state until independence. The Delhi-Gurgaon-Alwar-Jaipur highway used to pass through Mewat until late 1960s when the new national highway (NH 8) was constructed bypassing Mewat.

[edit] Demography

Mewat District has predominantly rural population (95%) with a few small towns.

Mewat's population has a large share of Muslims. The Muslim residents are known as "Mev" or "Meo" but the Hindus in Mewat are not called "Meo". Thus the word "Meo" is both region-specific and religion-specific. The Muslims living in adjacent Alwar and Bharatpur districts of Rajasthan are also known as "Meo". They are Gujjars converted from Hinduism to Islam in 15th century. Some of them were reconverted to Hinduism by Arya Samaj just after independence. The reconverted persons are no longer called "Meo" and they again belong to Gujjar caste.

[edit] Recent Developments

Mewat District was a part of Gurgaon District of Haryana until 2004. It became a district in 2005. It is predominantly rural with a few small towns.

Though the district is in NCR (National Capital Region) and just 50 km from Delhi airport, it has remained undeveloped. The industrial estates created by Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation remained under-utilised. However, due to expansion of building activities in nearby Gurgaon the land prices in Mewat have gone up considerably and the land is being bought by investors and developers. This has created sudden wealth with persons who have sold or are selling their agricultural land.

The planned Rewari-Bhiwadi-Palwal railway line will pass through Mewat and its district headquarter town, Nuh, if and when it is constructed. The Gurgaon-Sohna-Nuh-Alwar road is planned to be widened to six or eight lanes and made an national highway.

[edit] External links

• Mewat Development Agency
• http://www.rkktrust.org/

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