indore

Indore
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This article is about Indore city. For other uses see Indore (disambiguation)
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इन्दौर
Indore
Madhya Pradesh • India
Indore
Coordinates: 22.42, 75.54
Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)
Area
• Elevation 3,898 km² (1,505 sq mi)
• 553 m (1,814 ft)
District(s) Indore
Population
• Density 1,835,915 (2001)
• 471 /km² (1,220 /sq mi)
Language(s) Hindi, English,
Mayor Uma Shashi Sharma
Codes
• Pincode
• Telephone
• Vehicle
• 4520xx(01-18)
• +731
• MP-09
Website: www.indore.nic.in


Coordinates: 22.42, 75.54
Indore Hindi:इन्दौर) pronunciation (help·info), the largest city in the Malwa region of Central India and the commercial capital of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is situated on the Malwa Plateau, just south of the Satpura Range. Indore is the administrative headquarters of the Indore District and the Indore Division, and formerly served as the capital of the former princely state of Indore and the summer capital of the erstwhile state of Central India. It is currently the largest city in Madhya Pradesh.Contents [hide]
1 Origin of name
2 History
3 Geography
4 Transport
4.1 Airport
4.2 Railways
4.3 Roads
4.4 Local Transport
5 Demographics
6 Trade and commerce
7 Corporate presence
7.1 Traditional businesses
7.2 Software Technology Park Indore
8 Education
9 Media
10 Sports
11 Healthcare
12 Culture
12.1 Food
12.2 Main festivals
13 Government and politics
14 Places of interest
15 Trivia
16 See also
17 References
18 External links


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Origin of name

The name Indore originated from the Indreshwar temple constructed in 1741 by local landowners. [1]

[edit]
History This article contains Indic text.
Without rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes or other symbols instead of Indic characters; or irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts.


The ancestors of the founders of Indore were hereditary Zamindars and indigenous landholders (Jehangirdars) of Malwa. In Mughal times, the founders of these families received titles such as Rao and Chaudhari, which established their claim to the land. In the 18'th century, control of Malwa passed to the Peshwa clan, and the Chaudharis came to be known as "Mandloi"s (derived from Mandals) because of the language they used and eventually the Holkars conferred the family with the title of Rao Raja. (pp. 68-70) Major General Sir John Malcolm's Central India Part I). The family retained its possessions of royalty, which included having an elephant, Nishan, Danka and Gadi even after the advent of Holkars and also retained the right of performing the first puja of Dushera (Shami Pujan) before the Holkar rulers. Under Mughal rule, the family enjoyed great influence and was accorded confirmatory sanads by the Emperors Aurangzeb, Alamgir and Farukhshayar, confirming their 'Jagir' rights. Rao Nandlal Chaudhary Zamindar, upon visiting the court of Delhi, received a special place in the emperor’s court along with two jewel studded swords (now at display in the Royal British Museum under the family's name) and confirmatory sanads. Raja Savai Jai singh of Jaipur a personal friend of his gifted him with a special "Gold Langar" which guaranteed a special place to him in all the Durbars of India. The family’s respectability and influence over Malwa was instrumental in the ascent of the Peshwas and Holkars to rulership of this region.

Rao Nandlal Chaudhary, the founder of Indore, was the Chief Zamindar (landlord), and had an army of 2000 soldiers. In 1713, Nizam was appointed as the controller of the Deccan plateau area, which renewed the struggle between the Marathas and the Mughals. From time to time the Maratha invaders kept harassing the people of Malwa and thus Rao Nandlal arranged to pay 25000 rupees to them in return for guaranteeing the safety and security of his people, upon which the invaders returned back to the Deccan. (Memoirs of Malwa: Major General Sir John Malcolm: year 1912)

While visiting the temple of Indreshwar near the banks of river Saraswati, Rao Nandlal found the location to be safe and strategically located, being surrounded by rivers on all sides. He started moving his people in, constructed the fort of Shree Sansthan Bada Rawala to protect them from harassment by Marathas and Mughals. The city was named Indrapur (after Lord Indreshwar), and eventually came to be known as Indore.When Auragzeb was visiting this area, he halted at Bada Ganpati Temple. The priest told him that he do not have means of earning on this Great Auragzeb, The Mugal ruler offered land of city to this temple. The priest family was called "Zamidars" of Rawala.

Baji Rao Peshwa finally received the Viceroyalty of Malwa in 1743 A.D. and was bound by a treaty forbidding him from ever infringing upon the rights of Zamindars. Malhar Rao Holkar was one of the four signatories who guaranteed the proper fulfillment of the conditions. (Major General Sir John Malcolm’s, Memoirs of Central India Vol. I pp.94-95). Upon victory the Peshwas appointed Malhar Rao Holkar as a “Subhedar”, which marked the beginning of Holkars' reign in Malwa.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Thus, Indore came to be ruled by the Maratha Maharajas of the Holkar dynasty. The dynasty's founder, Malhar Rao Holkar, (1694-1766), was granted control of Malwa Maratha armies in 1724, and in 1733, was installed as the Maratha governor of the region. By the end of his reign, the Holkar state was de facto independent. He was succeeded by his daughter-in-law Ahilyabai Holkar who ruled from 1767 to 1795. She ruled from a palace-fort at Maheshwar, south of Indore on the Narmada River. Ahilyabai Holkar was an architectural patron who donated money for the construction of Hindu temples across India. In 1818, the Holkars were defeated by the British in the Third Anglo-Maratha War, and the Holkar kingdom became a part of the British Raj. As a result of this defeat in the Battle of Mahidpur, the treaty of Mandsaur was signed, through which the Cantonment town of Mhow was handed over to the British. The treaty also decreed that the capital of the Holkar state would shift from Maheshwar to Indore.

After India's independence in 1947, Indore, along with a number of neighboring princely states, became part of the Indian state of Madhya Bharat. Indore was designated the summer capital of this newly created state. On November 1, 1956, Madhya Bharat was merged into Madhya Pradesh and Bhopal chosen the capital. The city palace was the seat of administration of the rulers of the Malwa region – The Holkars (26th May 1728 to 20 April 1948 ). The Rajbada was burnt in the 1984 riots, and thus converted into a garden ,till 2006 when the present Maharani of Indore, H.H Ushadevi Holkar, decided to rebuild the wada to its past glory. H.H Ushadevi Holkar invited architects Himanshu Dudwadkar and Shreya Bhargava to design this challenging project and in 2007 the Rajbada found its place back in history. It became the only historic structure in India to have been rebuilt with exactly the same style, materials and method of construction as those of 250 years ago.
See also: Malwa

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Geography This section requires expansion.


Indore is located in the western region of Madhya Pradesh, and is close to the centre of India. Indore has an average elevation of 553 metres.

The surrounding areas are part of the black cotton soil region of India.
Temperature variation along the year

The Malwa region has large seasonal temperature variations. During the winter season (November - February), the night-time lows are around 10°C. At the peak of winter, the temperature can drop to as low as 2°C to 3°C. The lowest temperature ever recorded is 1.5°C. During the summer, (April - June), the days are hot (35 to 40°C) with the peak-summer-day-temperature (in May) sometimes touching 45°C. Unlike other places in central India however, the summer nights in Indore are cool and pleasant. Due to Indore's location on the southern edge of the Malwa Plateau, a cool breeze (also referred to as Shab-e-Malwa) in the evenings makes them quite pleasant.

Indore gets moderate rainfall of 30 to 35 inches (760 to 890 mm) during July-September due to the southwest monsoon.

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Transport

The city is well connected via rail, road and air transport services. Indore has for a long time been a rail and road transportation hub. To stay in Indore, there are a lot of hotels and dharamshalas near the railway station and main bus station (sarwate bus terminal).

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Airport

Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport connects Indore directly to Bombay, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Jabalpur, Raipur, Jaipur, Nagpur,Pune,Bangalore and Bhopal in India. Major airlines operating flights to Indore include Indian, Jet Airways, JetLite, Kingfisher Airlines and Deccan Aviation. Indore still lacks direct connectivity to major south Indian cities like Chennai. Plans are underway to upgrade the airport to an international airport by the end of 2008.[10]. The airport provides free wireless internet connectivity using Wi-Fi.

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Railways

The Indore railway network is part of the Ratlam Division of the Western Railways. The tracks leading into the city are not electrified.

Indore is one of the several places in India with both meter gauge and broad gauge railways tracks operational. Regular train services connect Indore to most parts of the country. There are direct trains to Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta (Howrah), Chennai, Trivandrum, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Poona, Jammu, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhopal, Nagpur, Patna and other major towns. For other major towns, trains are availble from Ujjain, Khandwa, and Bhopal which can be reached by Train or road within 2-5 hrs. The Indore junction is the main station in the city. Four other small stations, Rajendra Nagar, Lokmanya Nagar, Saifee Nagar and Lakshmibai Nagar provide short distance services to nearby towns and villages.

Indore lies on the longest remaining functional meter gauge line in India between Jaipur and Purna. The section from Nimach to Ajmer is scheduled for gauge conversion under project Unigauge.

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Roads

Indore is well connected to other parts of Madhya Pradesh and India through national and state highways. There are some major highways which pass through Indore and connect it to some major cities. They are: the Agra-Bombay national highway (NH3), NH59 to Ahmedabad to the West and to the East to Betul, Itarsi and Bhopal by a state highway. The city is connected to the Khandwa town by the Khandwa Toll Road, towards the south of the city. In the North-West, the city is connected to the holy city of Ujjain via the Ujjain Road. There are bus services to and from all major and minor cities near Indore, the prominent ones being Bhopal, Barwani, Khandwa, Ujjain, Dewas, Shajapur, Dhar, Ratlam, Khargoan, Jhabua and Agar.
Subhash Marg

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Local Transport

Indore has one of finest public transport system.In December 2005, the municipal corporation launched the Indore City Bus service, an extensive service with 24 routes servicing most areas in city. The service has received very favourable press,[11] and has been called the first modern bus system in India. The company runs 53 low floor buses, equipped with GPS devices, electronic sign boards and computerised vending machines. The Indore City Bus corporation made a profit of 1 crore rupees within nine months of the inception of its operation and is seen as an excellent model by several other mid size Indian cities.[12]

The other means of local public transport are the mini-buses (called Nagar sevas by the locals) and the Tempos, which are often overcrowded and uncomfortable. Auto rickshaws are a staple as in all other Indian cities, to get around when other transportation is not available. The tempos and auto-rickshaws are notorious for pollution, but the local government has plans to replace the tempos with vans that run on Liquified Petroleum Gas [2].

The Indore municipal corporation also launched in 2005 the Indore city van, a seven-seater Maruti Omni.

Even Maruti's latest brand SX4 has been launched as Public transport vehicle in Dec 2007.It will be charged Rs. 15/km. Added facility to the older Public Transport.

Indore, the largest metropolitan city of the state of Madhya Pradesh, is fast emerging as a centre of trade and commerce. In the context of rapid growth of the city, increasing mobility, high travel demand, increasing intensity of traffic, congestion, delays, accidents and other such problems, public mass transport system of the city stands out as the most critical issue. The intra-city public transport system is essentially road based with 500 private minibuses , 550 tempos and 10000 auto rickshaws. Since there was no specialized and effective regulatory agency to monitor the system a special purpose vehicle in the form of public limited company “ Indore City Transport Services Ltd.” was set up to operate and manage the public transport system in Indore with private sector participation to overcome financial constraints.

The aforesaid company has identified and took permission for 18 high travel demand routes from RTA and has already started operation of its 37 ultra-modern low floor buses. These city buses with 2 broad doors are allowing passengers to board and alight quickly and easily, save time and fuel, and give better run-times and improved economy to the bus operators. Real time vehicle tracking and fully computerized ticket vending system are some other highlights. O&M and other regulatory measures are being exercised by the company.

The main sources of revenue for the system are the fare box collection, advertising, passes revenue and bidding amount by private participants. The optimum fare structure has been decided to meet twin objective of Equity access to poor and incentive for upper middle class to prefer these buses over their own vehicles. The fares have been kept reasonable to give healthy competition to existing minibuses and tempos, low enough to secure fullest utilization and high enough to ensure viability of the system within the government norms. System of monthly, weekly, employee and student passes will ensure the fullest utilisation of the new system.

Financial evaluation of the project was carried out with the objective of determining its financial viability and assessing its potential for implementation on a commercial format. At this stage, projected financial analysis estimates the likely returns to the operators, company and people at large.

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Demographics This section requires expansion.


Indore is the most populous city in Madhya Pradesh with population of about 1,597,441 according to the 2001 census. [3] Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Indore has an average literacy rate of 72%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 78%, and female literacy is 65%. In Indore, 13% of the population is under 6 years of age. The city is undergoing a fast rise in population owing to its growing stature as a commercial city. The average annual growth rate of population is around 3% as per the statistics of census 2001. Hindi is the main language, Punjabi & Sindhi is also spoken in Indore. Malvi is the local language.