Osmanabad District
Osmanabad District, along with the other four districts of the Marathwada region, was formerly a part if the Nizam’s State. After the Reorganisation of the States in 1956 the region was included in the then Bombay State into Maharashtra and Gujarat in 1960, Osmanabad along with the other districts of Marathwada has become an integral part of Maharashtra.
In 1880 A.D. the Hyderabad State Government proposed to compile Gazetteers for all the District of the Nizam’s Dominions. However, only the Aurangabad District Gazetteers was Completed in 1884. It was edited by Muir Nawaz Jang ( Maulvi Said Mahdi Ali) who in his prefatory note wrote:
“It will be observed that the present work embodies much information of a general character, which carries it beyond the scope usually assigned to local Gazetteers. The district is one of more than ordinary interest, and supplies the best materials for tracing out the institutions of the country. The caves of Ajanta,Elura and Aurangabad illustrate better, than anything else, the habits and customs of the early inhabitants and the great revolutions of religious life and thought which pervaded the whole of India.”*(Aurangabad District gazetteer, 1884,p.ii.)
In 1909 was compiled the Gazetteer of the Hyderabad State by Mirza Mehdy Khan in which a brief sketch about Osmanabad district was given.
In Bombay Presidency as early as 1843 an attempt was made to arrange for the preparation of statistical accounts of the different districts. The following extract1 (Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol.I, Part I (History of Gujarat),pp.iii and iv.) will be found interesting as giving an idea of the intention of those who desired to have such Accounts compiled:-
“Government called on Revenue Commissioners to obtain from all the Collectors as part of their Annual Report, the fullest available information regarding their districts….. Government remarked that as Collectors and their Assistants during the large portion of the year moved about the district in constant and intimate communication with all classes, they possessed advantages which no other public officers enjoyed of acquiring full knowledge of the condition of the country, the causes of progress or retrogradation, the good measures which require to be fostered and extended, the evil measures which call for abandonment, the defects in existing institutions which require to be remedied, and the nature of the remedies to be applied. Collectors also, it was observed, have an opportunity of judging of the effect of British rule on the condition and character of the people, on their caste prejudices, and on their superstitious observances. They can trace any alteration for the better or worse in dwellings, clothing and diet, and can observe, the use of improved implements of husbandry or other crafts, the habits of locomotion, the state of education, particularly among the higher classes whose decaying means and energy under our most levelling system compared with that of presiding Governments will attract their attention. Finally they can learn how far existing village institutions are effectual to their end and may be made available for self government and in management of local taxation for local purposes.”
“In obedience to these orders, reports were received from the Collectors of Ahmedabad, Broach, Kaira, Thana and Khandesh. Some of the reports contained much interesting information. These five northern reports were practically the only result of the Circular Letter of 1843.”
