Karwi Town

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This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

Karwi Town

Head-quarters of the subdivision and tahsil of the same name, in Banda District, United Provinces, situated in 25 degree 12' N. and 8o° 54' E., near the Paisuni river and on a branch of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway. Population (1901), 7,743. Karwi was a British cantonment from 1805 to 1816; and in 1829 it became the principal residence of a Maratha chieftain who lived in almost regal state, and built several beautiful temples and large wells. Numerous traders from the Deccan were thus attracted to Karwi. During the Mutiny, Narayan Rao, after the murder at Banda of the Joint-Magis- trate of Karwi, assumed the government, and retained his independence for eight months amid the subsequent anarchy. The accumulations of his family constituted the great treasure afterwards famous as ' the Kirwee and Banda Prize Money.'

The Bara, a large building which formed the palace of Narayan Rao's family, was confiscated, with most of the other property, and now serves as a tahslli, police station, and school. The other public buildings are a jail and dispensary. A Joint- Magistrate and an Assistant District Superintendent of police are stationed at Karwi, which also contains branches of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the American Methodist Mission. The town is administered, together with the adjacent village of Tarahuwan, under Act XX of 1856. Karwi declined for a time after the Mutiny; but the railway, opened in 1899, has caused it to become the most important trade centre in the District. Cotton, grain, ghi, and other produce are largely exported. A cotton-gin, opened in 1900, employed 180 hands in 1903, and there is a small manufacture of embroidered plush. There are three schools, with 170 buys and 25 girls.