Radhanpur

Radhanpur is a town and a municipality in Patan district in the Indian state of Gujarat.

Origin of name

According to the tradition, the city is named after Radhan Khan, a descendant of Fateh Khan Baloch. Fateh Khan Baloch received a freedom from the Gujarat Sultan Ahmad Shah III, which included the territory of the later day city of Radhanpur.

History

Radhanpur belonged to the Vaghelas and was known as Lunavada after Vaghela Lunaji of the Sardhara branch of that tribe. Subsequently, it was held as a fief under the Gujarat Sultanate, by Fateh Khan Baloch, and is said to have been named Radhanpur after Radhan Khan of that family.

Babi ancestors either entered India accompanying Mughal emperor Humayun or entered the service of Sultan Muzaffar III of Gujarat Sultanate (1561 - 1572). Bahadur Khan Babi was, in the reign of Shah Jahan, appointed manager of Tharad, and his son Sher Khan Babi made manager, thanadar, of Chunval in 1663. Their decendents controlled various villages around Radhanpur from 1693 to 1730 as Mughal fief. In 1743, Babi decendent Jawan Mard Khan II took over viceroyalty of Ahmedabad and controlled several villages in North Gujarat. He was defeated by Maratha Gaekwads in 1753 at Ahmedabad and Gaekwads agreed to his demand of control of villages in North Gujarat. His decendents lost some of these villages to Gaekwads subsequently. In 1813, Sher Khan made a treaty with the Gaekwar and British and became British protectorate. His decendents ruled the state until independence of India in 1947.

Narendra Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: [nəreːnd̪rə d̪ɑːmoːd̪ərəd̪ɑːs moːd̪iː], born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India, in office since 26 May 2014. Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Varanasi. He led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which gave the party a majority in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) – a first for any party since 1984 – and was credited for 2014 BJP electoral victories in the states of Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

Since taking office as Prime Minister, Modi's administration has focused on reforming and modernising India's infrastructure and government, reducing bureaucracy, encouraging increased foreign direct investment, improving national standards of health and sanitation and improving foreign relations. Modi has been appreciated for starting initiatives like Swachh Bharat Mission, Make in India and Digital India. Earlier, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi's economic policies (credited with encouraging economic growth in Gujarat) have been praised, although his administration has also been criticised for failing to significantly improve the human development in the state and failing to prevent the 2002 Gujarat riots. A Hindu nationalist and a former member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Modi remains a controversial figure domestically and internationally, despite his progressivism. Known for his tech savvy image, he is the second most followed politician on social media after U.S. President Barack Obama.