History of Ahmedabad

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an overview

Ahmedabad is the largest city in the state of Gujarat. It is located in western India on the banks of the River Sabarmati. The city served as political as well as economical capital of the region since its establishment. The earliest settlement can be recorded around the 12th century under Chaulukya dynasty rule. The present city was founded on 26 February 1411 and announced as the capital on 4 March 1411 by Ahmed Shah I of Gujarat Sultanate as a new capital. Under the rule of sultanate (1411–1511) the city prospered followed by decline (1511–1572) when the capital was transferred to Champaner. For next 135 years (1572–1707), the city renewed greatness under the early rulers of Mughal Empire. The city suffered due to political instability (1707–1817) under late Mughal rulers followed by joint rule between Maratha and Mughal. The city further suffered following joint Maratha rule. The city again progressed when politically stabilized when British East India Company established the rule in the city (1818–1857). The city further renewed growth when it gain political freedom by establishment of municipality and opening of railway under British crown rule (1857–1947). Following arrival of Mahatma Gandhi in 1915, the city became centre stage of Indian independence movement. Many activists like Sardar Patel served the municipality of the city before taking part in the movement. After independence, the city was a part of Bombay state. When Gujarat was carved out in 1960, it again became the capital of the state until establishment of Gandhinagar in 1965. Ahmedabad is also the cultural and economical centre of Gujarat and the seventh largest city of India.

Al Bīrūnī mentions Asāval as a trading town on the route from Anhilvada Patan to Cambay. In the eleventh century, Karṇa of Caulukya dynasty ruling from Anhilwad Patan (1072–1094) defeated and killed Āśā, the Bhil chieftain of Āśāpallī, near modern Ahmedabad. He then established a temple to the goddess Kocharabā and a temple to the goddess Jayantī at Āśāpallī. He also founded the nearby city of Karṇavatī where he reigned, erected a temple to Karṇeśvara, and excavated a tank called Karṇasāgara. None of these temples have survived to the present day. In 1053, the Kaach Masjid mosque was erected in the Tajpur quarter of modern Ahmedabad, only about twenty years after Mahmud of Ghazni's invasion of Gujarat.

According to Jinaprabhā Sūri, there was a battle near Āśāpalli in 1299 between Karṇa of the Vaghela dynasty and Ullu Khāna (Ulugh Khān), general of the Delhi Sultanate ruler 'Alā ud Dīn, which resulted in Karṇa's defeat and the end of his reign.

Zafar Khan Muzaffar (later Muzaffar Shah I) of Muzaffarid dynasty was appointed as governor of Gujarat by Nasir ud Din Muhammad bin Tughluq IV in 1391. Zafar Khan's father Sadharan, were Tāṅks converted to Islam, adopted the name Wajih ul Mulk, and had given his sister in marriage to Firuz Shah Tughlaq. Zafar Khan defeated Farhat ul Mulk near Anhilwad Patan and made the city his capital. When the Sultanate was weakened by the sacking of Delhi by Timur in 1398, and Zafar Khan took the opportunity to establish himself as sultan of an independent Gujarat. He declared himself independent in 1407 and founded the Gujarat Sultanate. The next sultan, his grandson Ahmad Shah I defeated a Bhil or Koli chief of Ashaval, and founded the new city.

Mahmud was succeeded by Muzaffar Shah II who ruled until 1526. He was succeeded by Bahadur Shah. During his reign, Gujarat was under pressure from the expanding Mughal Empire under emperors Babur (died 1530) and Humayun (1530–1540), and from the Portuguese, who were establishing fortified settlements on the Gujarat coast to expand their power in India from their base in Goa. He preferred Champaner to Ahmedabad and expanded his reign to central India and to South Gujarat. Bahadur Shah repelled Siege of Diu by Portuguese in 1531 with help of Ottoman Empire and signed Treaty of Bassein. For short period of 1535, Mughal emperor Humayun conquered Gujarat and appointed his brother Aaskari, the governor of Ahmedabad. Bahadur Shah allied with Portuguese and regained power in 1535 but was killed by Portuguese in February 1537. In the disorders that followed his death, the power of the Gujarat Sultans waned, their revenues fell, and the capital, its trade crippled by Portuguese competition, was impoverished and harassed by the constant quarrels of unruly nobles. The capital was shifted back to Ahmedabad in 1537. Following Siege of Diu in 1538, the Portuguese secured the greater part of the profits that formerly enriched the merchants of Ahmedabad. In 1554 the partition of Gujarat among the nobles, leaving to the nominal king Ahmad Shah II (1554–1561), only the city and neighbourhood of Ahmedabad further affected the city. It was captured by Chingiz Khan in 1571 and later by Alaf Khan. In 1571, the city had twelve wards within the walls and others outside. Its chief industries were the manufacture of silk, gold and silver thread, and lac. It yielded a yearly revenue of £155,000 (Rs. 15,50,000) as of 1860. 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.

Mughal emperor Akbar entered Gujarat and won Anhilwad Patan in 1572. In November 1572, after receiving the submission of its nobles, he made Gujarat a province of his empire, and appointed a governor. When Akbar was gone, the rebel Mirzas connected to Timurid dynasty, backed by some of the Gujarat nobles, came against Ahmedabad in 1573. Two years later in 1575, at a second siege Muzaffar Husain Mirza all but took the city. In 1583 Muzaffar Shah III, the last ruler of Gujarat sultanate, recaptured Ahmedabad and spoiled it of gold, jewels, and fine cloth. Akbar sent Mirza Khan, one of his chief nobles, leading the Mughal army against Ahmedabad. The armies clashed on 22 January 1584 at Sarkhej, after a hard fought battle, routed Muzzafar's army and forced him to flee to Kathiawar. Raised to be Khan Khanan or head of the nobles, Mirza Khan turned the Sarkhej battlefield into a garden, Fateh Bagh (later Fateh vadi), the garden of victory, for long one of the chief sights of Ahmedabad. Khan Khanan governed the city from 1583 to 1590. In the early years of the seventeenth century Ahmedabad increased in size. Its governor Shaikh Farid Bukhari, or Syed Murtaza, who ruled from 1606 to 1609 founded a new ward Bukhari Mohalla and built Wajihuddin's Tomb. In 1613, a company of thirty two Englishmen under Mr. Aldworth, the first representatives of British East India Company, came to Ahmedabad. On 15 December 1617, Sir Thomas Roe came to Ahmedabad. About three weeks later on 6 January 1618, Mughal emperor Jahangir gave an audience to him. The Dutch traders also visited him. Jahangir stayed in the city for nine months but was unimpressed by its environment calling it Gardabad, the city of dust. His wife Nur Jahan governed the city during this period. In 1616 Prince Khurram, afterwards, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, was made governor. During his government from 1616 to 1622, he built Moti Shahi Mahal in 1621 and royal baths in the Bhadra fort. Jain merchant Shantidas Jhaveri started building Chintamani Parshwanath temple in Saraspur in 1622. Shortly after (1626), the English traveller Sir Thomas Herbert describes Ahmedabad as "the megapolis of Gujarat, circled by a strong wall with many large and comely streets, shops full of aromatic gums, perfumes and spices, silks, cottons, calicoes and choice Indian and China rarities, owned and sold by the abstemious Banians who here surpass for number the other inhabitants." In 1629 and 1630 Ahmedabad passed through two years of famine known as Satyashiyo Dukal so severe that its streets were blocked by the dying, and those who could move, wandered to other countries. For the poor and destitute soup kitchens, langar khanas, were established. The famine over, the city soon regained its prosperity. In 1636, Azam Khan started construction of Azam Khan Sarai in Bhadra. During the next thirty years (1640–1670), the fortunes of Ahmedabad were at their best. The most distinguished governors were Azam Khan (1635–1642), Aurangzeb (1644–1646), and Murad Bakhsh (1654–1657). In 1638, Johan Albrecht de Mandelslo visited the city. During this time the only disorder was in 1644 a riot between Hindus and Muslims in which under Aurangzeb's orders the temple of Chintamani Parswanath near Saraspur was mutilated. Aurangzeb ascended the throne at Delhi 1658. In 1664, the revenue concessions were offered to Europeans and Tavernier came to the city. English Ambassador Sir Thomas Roe visited the city in 1672 again. The jizya tax was imposed on non Muslims in 1681 and the riots broke out due to famine in the city. The city was flooded up to Teen Darwaza in 1683. Though for several years (1683–1689) affected by attacks of pestilence, Ahmedabad seems to have lost little in wealth. In 1695 it was the headquarters of manufactures, 'the greatest city in India, nothing inferior to Venice for rich silks and gold stuffs curiously wrought with birds and flowers.' With the close of Aurangzeb's (1707) reign began a period of disorder. During Mughal rule, with the rise of Surat as a rival commercial center, Ahmedabad lost some of its lustre, but it remained the chief city of Gujarat. Under the terms of the under the Treaty of Salbai (24 February 1783) Ahmedabad was restored to the Peshwa, the Gaekwad's interest being as before, limited to one half of the revenue and the command of one of the gates. For some years tho city improved, its manufactures in 1789 being incomparably better than those of Surat. Then the 1790 famine caused fresh distress, and a few years later only a quarter of the space within the walls was inhabited. At this time (1798–1800) Aba Salukar, tho Peshwa's Governor, indebted and oppressive, ill used the people, and embezzled the Gaekwad's revenues. Advancing against Salukar, Govind Rao Gaekwad defeated him near Shah e Alam and, pursuing him into the citadel, made him prisoner. On this the Peshwa, who from private dislike to Aba was secretly pleased, granted the Gaekwad, for a yearly payment of £50,000 (Rs. 5,00,000), a five year lease of his share of the Gujarat revenues. This arrangement, renewed for ten years in 1804, continued in force till 1814. Though the city was considerably recovered, the famine in 1812 devastated its people. After the Second Anglo Maratha War, the British East India Company had gained considerable political power and territories. When Peshwa appointed Trimbak Dengle as governor on 23 October 1814, the relationship between Gaekwad and Peshwa deteriorated. Gaekwad sent an envoy to the Peshwa in Pune to negotiate a dispute regarding revenue collection. The envoy, Gangadhar Shastri, was under British protection. He was murdered, and the Peshwa's minister Trimbak Dengle was suspected of the crime. The British seized the opportunity to force Baji Rao II sign the Treaty of Poona (13 June 1817). Under the terms of the treaty, the Peshwa agreed, for a yearly payment of £45,000 (Rs. 4,50,000), to let in perpetuity to the Gaekwar the farm of Ahmedabad. Under the same treaty the Peshwa agreed, that this revenue from the Ahmedabad farm, should be paid by the Gaekwar to the British as part of the British claims on the Peshwa's revenues. A few months later (6 November 1817), it was arranged with the Gaekwad that he should, in payment of a subsidiary force, cede to the British the rights he had obtained under the Peshwa's farm, and, in exchange for territory near Baroda, give up his own share in the city of Ahmedabad. The only exception to this transfer was that the Gaekwad was allowed to keep his fort, Gaekwad Haveli, in the south west corner of the city. In 1753, the armies of the Maratha 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 and the Gaekwad virtually destroyed the city. Many suburbs of the city were deserted and many mansions lay in ruins.

Dunlop, British Collector of Kaira took over administration of the city in 1818. In June 1819, Rann of Kutch earthquake hit the city damaging several monuments and houses in the city. The political stability, establishment of order and the lowering of the taxes, gave a great impetus to trade and the city was for a time busy and prosperous. The population rose from 80,000 in 1817 to about 88,000 in 1824. During the eight following years a special cess was levied on ghee and other products and at a cost of £25,000 (Rs. 2,50,000) the city walls were repaired. About the same time a cantonment was established on a site to the north of the city, chosen in 1830 by Sir John Malcolm. These (1825–1832), though some of them years of agricultural depression and dull trade, brought a further increase of population to 90,000. In the next ten years the state of the city improved. The population rose (1816) to about 95,000. The Hutheesing Jain Temple, completed in 1848, and other buildings of that time (1844–1846) show that some of the city merchants were possessed of very great wealth. The public funds available after the walls were finished were made use of for municipal purposes. Streets were widened and thoroughfares watered. During the following years the improvement continued. Ahmedabad's gold, silk, and carved wood work again (1855) became famous, and its merchants and brokers enjoyed a name for liberality, wealth and enlightenment. During the rebellion of 1857, the government quickly contained the mutineers of the Gujarat Irregular Horse and of the 2nd Grenadier Regiment. On the arrival of the 86th Regiment in January 1858, the city was disarmed, when 25,000 arms chiefly matchlocks and swords were surrendered.

From 1857 to 1865, it was a time of great prosperity. The municipal government was established in 1858. The American Civil War (1863–1865) helped the economy of the city. The railway connecting Ahmedabad with Bombay was opened in 1864. Ahmedabad grew rapidly, becoming an important center of trade and textile manufacturing. The city was greatly damaged by floods in 1868 and in 1875. In 1877, the city suffered from fire. On 27 January 1877, there was an explosion of gunpowder in a Bohora's shop. This shop, in which were more than 500 pounds of gunpowder, was about ten at night found to be on fire. The gunpowder exploded burning five shops and killing eighty eight people. Two months later, on the night of 24 March 1877, a fire broke out in the chief enclosure, pol, of the Sarangpur area. The street was very narrow and lined with four story high houses. It was only with the greatest difficulty that the fire engines could be brought to play on the fire. Military help was called in and by ten next morning the fire was got under, but not until ninety four houses had been burned and property worth £60,000 (Rs. 6,00,000) destroyed. In 1878, the lower classes suffered from high prices of food grains while the upper classes from the dullness of trade and losses in Bombay mills. 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), 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 and Patidars, 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, Ahmedabad lacked a comprador 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. Ahmedabad's economic base became more diverse with the establishment of heavy and chemical industry during the same period. At that time the city was seen as an economic role model around the world. Many countries sought to emulate India's economic planning strategy and one of them, South Korea, copied the city's second "Five Year Plan" and the World Financial Center in Seoul is designed and modelled after Ahmedabad. Ahmedabad had both a municipal corporation and the Ahmedabad Divisional Council in the 1960s, which developed schools, colleges, roads, municipal gardens, and parks. The Ahmedabad Divisional Council had working committees for education, roads, and residential development and planning. In the late 1970s, the capital shifted to the newly built, well planned city of Gandhinagar. This marked the start of a long period of decline in the city, marked by a lack of development. In February 1974, Ahmedabad occupied the centre stage of national politics with launch of the Navnirman agitation. It started off 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, to resign and also gave Indira Gandhi one of the excuses for imposing the Emergency on 25 June 1975. In the 1980s, a reservation policy was introduced in the country, which led to anti reservation protests in 1981 and 1985. The protests witnessed violent clashes between people belonging to various castes. On 26 January 2001, a devastating earthquake centred near Bhuj, measuring 6.9 on the richter scale, struck the city. As many as 50 multistoried buildings collapsed killing 752 people. The following year, a three day period of violence between Hindus and Muslims in the western Indian state of Gujarat, known as the 2002 Gujarat violence, spread to Ahmedabad; refugee camps were set up around the city and economy was affected. Sabarmati Riverfront project started in 2004. The 2008 Ahmedabad bombings, a series of seventeen bomb blasts, killed and injured several people. Militant group Harkat ul Jihad claimed responsibility for the attacks. Ahmedabad BRTS was inaugurated in 2009. The construction of Ahmedabad Metro began in 2015 and the operation began in March 2019.