History of Ahmedabad
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Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...
is the largest city in the state of Gujarat. It is located in western India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
on the banks of the River Sabarmati
Sabarmati River
The Sabarmati River is a river in western India and one of the biggest rivers of north Gujarat. River Sabarmati is one of the major West flowing river of Gujarat which originates from Dhebar lake in Aravalli Range of the Udaipur District of Rajasthan and meets the Gulf of Cambay of Arabian Sea...
. The city has been under different rulers since its creation and thus had a rich history. The city has been a former capital of Gujarat and has been the home to most important leaders of India like Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
and Sardar Patel during the Indian independence movement
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
. Ahmedabad is also the cultural and economical centre of Gujarat and the seventh largest city of India.
Origin of name
There is a legend associated with Ahmedabad. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, an independent sultanate ruled by the MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
Muzaffarid dynasty
Muzaffarid dynasty
The Muzaffarid dynasty were sultans of Gujarat in western India from 1391 to 1583. The founder of the dynasty was Zafar Khan Muzaffar who was governor of Gujarat under the Delhi Sultanate. Zafar Khan's father Sadharan, was a Jat convert to Islam...
was established in Gujarat. Sultan Ahmed Shah
Ahmed Shah of Gujarat
Ahmed Shah of Gujarat was a sultan of Gujarat's ruling Muzaffarid dynasty from 1411 until his death in 1442. Today, he is famously known as Ahmed Shah Badshah of Ahmedabad....
, while camping on the banks of the Sabarmati river, saw a hare chasing a dog. The sultan was intrigued by this and asked his spiritual adviser for explanation. The sage pointed out unique characteristics in the land which nurtured such rare qualities which turned a timid hare to chase a ferocious dog. Impressed by this, the sultan, who had been looking for a place to build his new capital, decided to found the capital here and called it Ahmedabad.
Archaeological evidence points to the occupation of the site from a much earlier period than that of Sultan Ahmed Shah. It was known in ancient times as Ashapalli or Ashaval. In the eleventh century the Solanki
Solanki
The Solanki was a royal Hindu Indian dynasty that ruled parts of western and central India between the 10th to 13th centuries. A number of scholars including V. A. Smith assign them Gurjar origin....
King Karandev I, ruler of Anhilwara (modern Patan), waged a war against the Bhil
Bhil
Bhils are primarily an Adivasi people of Central India. Bhils are also settled in the Tharparkar District of Sindh, Pakistan. They speak the Bhil languages, a subgroup of the Western Zone of the Indo-Aryan languages....
king of Ashaval. After his victory he established a city called Karnavati on the banks Sabarmati at the site of modern Ahmedabad. Solanki rule lasted until the thirteenth century, when Gujarat came under the control of the Vaghela dynasty of Dwarka
Dwarka
Dwarka also spelled Dvarka, Dwaraka, and Dvaraka, is a city and a municipality of Jamnagar district in the Gujarat state in India. Dwarka , also known as Dwarawati in Sanskrit literature is rated as one of the seven most ancient cities in the country...
.
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Early economy
On founding the city in 1411, Ahmed Shah invited merchants and traders to the new city, which became a prosperous commercial, trading and industrial city, with textiles as its most important products. Wealthy Hindu and Jain merchants made up the commercial class dominating the community, eventually as the oldest and most established families, while Muslims were the skilled weavers working for them and (until Maratha rule) the government officials ultimately ruling them. For centuries, the city existed without depending on feudal lords or patronage from a single court. An efficient system of lending, banking, credit and accounting developed, and Ahmedabad financiers developed a sophisticated banking network across the country. They were influential in the MughalMughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
Court and loaned money to the ruling classes through the 16th and 17th centuries.
Social institutions to safeguard various economic interests included the mahajans, guilds of merchants, and panches, guilds for artisans. The leader of the community, who came from the Jain business elites, was known as the nagarsheth, who would resolve disputes between mahajans and individuals and who interceded with royal officials. Under the nagarsheth, the city remained free from interference from the state or other powers.
Sultanate rule
Gujarat was then conquered by the Sultanate of Delhi at the end of the thirteenth century. In 1487 Mahmud BegadaMahmud Begada
Sultan Abu'l Fath Nasir-ud-Din Mahmud Shah I, popularly known as Mahmud Begada was the most prominent sultan of Gujarat. He was the great-grandson of Ahmad Shah I, the founder of the Muzaffarid dynasty, and of the city of Ahmedabad in the present-day state of Gujarat, India. He was known to be...
, the grandson of Ahmed Shah, fortified the city with an outer city wall six miles in circumference and consisting of 12 gates
Ahmedabad's Darwajas
Old Ahmedabad city, Gujarat's commercial and financial centre, was encompassed within a fort. This Bhadra fort had 12 darwajas . Each of the darwaja has beautiful carvings, calligraphy and some of them even balconies....
, 189 bastions and over 6,000 battlements to protect it from outside invaders. The last Sultan of Ahmedabad was Muzaffar II.
Mughal rule
Gujarat was conquered by the MughalMughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
emperor Akbar in 1573. During the Mughal reign, Ahmedabad became one of the empire's thriving centres of trade, especially in textiles, which were exported as far as Europe. Jehangir, son of Akbar, visited Ahmedabad in 1617 but did not like it and called it Gardabad, the city of dust. Shahjahan spent the prime of his life in the city, and also built the Moti Shahi Mahal in Shahibaug.
During Mughal rule, with the rise of Surat
Surat
Surat , also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital city of the Indian state of Gujarat. Surat is India's Eighth most populous city and Ninth-most populous urban agglomeration. It is also administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India. The city proper...
as a rival commercial centre, Ahmedabad lost some of its lustre, but it remained the chief city of Gujarat. Several prominent merchants such as Shantidas Jhaveri
Shantidas Jhaveri
Shantidas Jhaveri was an influential Indian jeweller, sarraf and sahukar during the Mughal era. He was the wealthiest merchant in the Ahmedabad city during the 17th century. He was also a philanthropist, who made donations to temples and schools.- Early life :Shantidas Jhaveri was an Oswal Jain...
were based out of Ahmedabad.
Maratha rule
In 1753, the armies of the MarathaMaratha
The Maratha are an Indian caste, predominantly in the state of Maharashtra. The term Marāthā has three related usages: within the Marathi speaking region it describes the dominant Maratha caste; outside Maharashtra it can refer to the entire regional population of Marathi-speaking people;...
generals Raghunath Rao and Damaji Gaekwad captured the city and ended Mughal rule in Ahmedabad. A famine in 1630 and the constant power struggle between the Peshwa
Peshwa
A Peshwa is the titular equivalent of a modern Prime Minister. Emporer Shivaji created the Peshwa designation in order to more effectively delegate administrative duties during the growth of the Maratha Empire. Prior to 1749, Peshwas held office for 8-9 years and controlled the Maratha army...
and the Gaekwad virtually destroyed the city. Many suburbs of the city were deserted and many mansions lay in ruins.
British rule
On February 18, 1780, during the First Anglo-Maratha WarFirst Anglo-Maratha War
The First Anglo-Maratha War was the first of three Anglo-Maratha wars fought between the British East India Company and Maratha Empire in India. The war began with the Treaty of Surat and ended with the Treaty of Salbai.-Background:...
, a British force under James Hartley
James Hartley (Indian Army officer)
James Hartley , was a British officer in the service of the East India Company, whose service involved mainly wars against the Maratha Empire and against Tipu Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore.-Start of military career in India:...
stormed and captured Ahmedabad, but it was handed back to the Marathas at the end of the war.
The British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
definitely took over the city in 1818. A military cantonment was established in 1824, a municipal government in 1858, and a railway link between Ahmedabad and Bombay (Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
) in 1864. Ahmedabad grew rapidly, becoming an important center of trade and textile manufacturing.
The old mercantile and industrial elite, with their relative sophistication in matters of industry, trade and financing, were well poised to expand under British rule, using their own financing for new technology, represented by British machinery. Instead of just a few merchants introducing new industrial machinery, as elsewhere in India, in Ahmedabad the mercantile class as a whole supported the new techniques, even though hand spinners and handloom weavers, as well as female spinners in the outlying communities had their traditional operations upset as a result. They and others were recruited into the new manufacturing plants. The merchant class tended to support the British, thinking the rule provided more security than under the Marathas, lower taxes (including lower octroi
Octroi
Octroi is a local tax collected on various articles brought into a district for consumption.-Antiquity:Octroi taxes have a respectable antiquity, being known in Roman times as vectigalia...
), and more property rights.
Unlike most other areas of India, British rule meant no major upsetting of the community's traditional social system, although the traditional peasant landowning class, the Banias
Banias
Banias is an archaeological site by the ancient city of Caesarea Philippi, located at the foot of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights...
and Patadars, were absorbed into the Jain business community. The British did not have a financing vacuum to fill in the city, so their presence was limited to administrative and military spheres. Unlike other Indian cities, Amehdabad lacked a comprador
Comprador
Comprador or Compradore is a term used to describe native managers of European business houses in East Asia.-History:...
class or dominant, Western-educated middle class. Western education was slower to be introduced into the city than in most other Indian cities. There was very little English higher education available in the city and no English-language newspapers there in the 19th century.
Instead of education in English language and culture, technology education was promoted in the late 19th century. Ranchhodlal Chhotalal
Ranchhodlal Chhotalal
Ranchhodlal Chhotalal was a pioneer of the textile industry in Ahmedabad. He was awarded the title of Rao Bahadur by the British Government....
, the nagar brahmin who founded a spinning and weaving company in the city in 1859, ordered the city to withdraw its support for a high school in 1886 and instead finance technical education. Starting in 1889, the city financed scholarships for technical students. With no Western-oriented academic center in the city, there was no opposing political reaction to Western influences, and the city. "The entire discourse of tradition versus modernity, thrown up by exposure to Western literature and culture, was almost non-existent in Ahmedabad," according to literary scholar Svati Joshi.
Schools for girls, primarily for those in the upper classes, were founded in the mid-19th century. Maganbhai Karamchand, a Jain businessman, and Harkor Shethani, a Jain widow. One visitor, Mary Carpenter
Mary Carpenter
Mary Carpenter was an English educational and social reformer. The daughter of a Unitarian minister, she founded a ragged school and reformatories, bringing previously unavailable educational opportunities to poor children and young offenders in Bristol.She published articles and books on her work...
, wrote in 1856 after visiting the city, "I found how very far behind Ahmedabad these other places [like Calcutta] were in effort to promote female education among the leading hindoos, in emancipation of the ladies from the thraldom imposed by custom; and in self-effort for improvement on their own part."
The struggle for independence
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
from the British soon took roots in the city. In 1915, Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
came from South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and established two ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
s in the city, the Kochrab Ashram near Paldi in 1915 and the Satyagrah Ashram on the banks of Sabarmati in 1917. The latter was later called Harijan Ashram or Sabarmati Ashram
Sabarmati Ashram
Sabarmati Ashram is located in the Ahmedabad suburb of Sabarmati adjoining to famous Ashram Road, at the bank of River Sabarmati, 4 miles from the town hall. This was one of the residences of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi...
. He started the salt satyagraha
Salt Satyagraha
The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagrahah began with the Dandi March on March 12, 1930, and was an important part of the Indian independence movement. It was a campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly in colonial India, and triggered the wider...
in 1930. He and many followers marched from his ashram to the coastal village of Dandi, Gujarat
Dandi, Gujarat
Dandi is a small village in the Jalalpore district, Gujarat, India. It is located on the coast of the Arabian Sea near the city of Navsari.It shot into worldwide prominence in 1930 when Mahatma Gandhi selected it to be the place for the Salt Satyagraha. He marched from Ahmedabad to Dandi with...
, to protest against the British imposing a tax on salt. Before he left the ashram, he vowed not to return to the ashram until India became independent.
Post independence
After independence, Ahmedabad became a provincial town of BombayBombay State
The Bombay State was a state of India, dissolved with the formation of Maharashtra and Gujarat states on May 1, 1960.-History:During British rule, portions of the western coast of India under direct British rule were part of the Bombay Presidency...
. On May 1, 1960, Ahmedabad became a state capital as a result of the bifurcation of the state of Bombay into two states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. A large number of educational and research institutions were founded in the city in the 1960s. In February 1974, Ahmedabad occupied the centre-stage of national politics with launch of the Nav Nirman
Nav Nirman
The Nav Nirman movement was a socio-political movement that occurred in 1974 in Gujarat. It started of as an argument over a 20% hike in hostel food bill in the L.E...
agitation. It started of as an argument over a 20% hike in hostel food bill in the L.D. College of Engineering, but ignited an agitation which later snowballed into the Nav Nirman movement. This movement caused the then chief minister of Gujarat, Chimanbhai Patel
Chimanbhai Patel
-Education:He born on 3 June 1929 in Chikodra village of Sankheda Tehsil in Vadodara district. He was elected the first president of student union of The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Vadodara in 1950. He has done Masters in Economics from that university.-Political career:He has been...
, to resign and also gave Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...
one of the excuses for imposing the Emergency
Indian Emergency (1975 - 77)
The Indian Emergency of 25 June 1975 – 21 March 1977 was a 21-month period, when President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, upon advice by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, declared a state of emergency under Article 352 of the Constitution of India, effectively bestowing on her the power to rule by decree,...
on June 25, 1975. There were two major anti-reservation
Reservation in India
Reservation in India is a form of affirmative action designed to improve the well being of socially backward and underrepresented communities of citizens in India. There are laws in place, wherein a certain percentage of total available slots in Jobs and Education are set aside for people from...
protests in 1981 and 1985. On 26 January 2001, a devastating earthquake
2001 Gujarat earthquake
The 2001 Gujarat earthquake occurred on January 26, 2001, India's 52nd Republic Day, at 08:46 AM local time and lasted for over two minutes. The epicentre was about 9 km south-southwest of the village of Chobari in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch District of Gujarat, India...
centred near Bhuj
Bhuj
Bhuj is a city and a municipality in Kachchh district in the state of Gujarat, India.-History:It was established by Rao Hamirji in 1510 and was made the state capital by Rao Khengarji I in 1549. Its foundation stone as state capital laid formally on Vikram Samvat 1604 Maagha 5th...
, measuring 6.9 on the richter scale
Richter magnitude scale
The expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....
, struck the city. As many as 50 multistoried buildings collapsed killing 752 people