BHOPAL (MADHYA PRADESH)

Bhopal is the capital of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of Bhopal district and Bhopal division. The city was the capital of the former Bhopal State. Bhopal is known as the City of Lakes for its various natural as well as artificial lakes and is also one of the greenest cities in India. It is the 17th largest city in the country and 131st in the world.

A Y-class city, Bhopal houses various institutions and installations of national importance, including ISRO's Master Control Facility and BHEL. Bhopal is home to the largest number of Institutes of National Importance in India, namely IISER, MANIT,SPA, AIIMS and NLIU.

The city attracted international attention in December 1984 after the Bhopal disaster, when a Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide manufacturing plant (now owned by Dow Chemical Company) leaked a mixture of deadly gases composed mainly ofmethyl isocyanate, leading to one of the worst industrial disasters in the world's history. The Bhopal disaster continues to be a part of the socio-political debate and a logistical challenge for the people of Bhopal.

Bhopal has been selected as one of the first twenty Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under PM Narendra Modi'sflagship Smart Cities Mission. 

History

According to folklore, Bhopal was founded in 11th century by the Paramara king Bhoja, who ruled from his capital at Dhar. This theory states that Bhopal was originally known as Bhojpal after a dam ("pal") constructed by the king's minister. No available archaeological evidence, inscriptions or historical texts support the claim about an earlier settlement founded by Bhoja at the same place, although the Bhojeshwar Templeascribed to him exists at Bhojpur, which is located 28 km from Bhopal. An alternative theory says that the city is named after another king called Bhupala (or Bhupal).

In the early 18th century, Bhopal was a small village in the local Gond kingdom. The modern Bhopal city was established by Dost Mohammad Khan (1672–1728), an Afghansoldier in the Mughal army.After the death of the emperor Aurangzeb, Khan started providing mercenary services to several local chieftains in the politically unstable Malwaregion. In 1709, he took on the lease of Berasia estate, and later annexed several territories in the region to establish the Bhopal State. Khan received the territory of Bhopal from the Gond queen Kamlapati in lieu of payment for mercenary services, and usurped her kingdom after her death. In the 1720s, he built the Fatehgarh fort in the village, which developed into the city of Bhopal over the next few decades.

Bhopal became a princely state after signing a treaty with the British East India Company in 1818.Between 1819 and 1926, the state was ruled by four women, Begums, – unique in the royalty of those days - under British suzerainty. Qudsia Begum was the first woman ruler, who was succeeded by her only daughter Sikandar Begum, who in turn was succeeded by her only daughter, Shahjehan Begum. Sultan Jahan Begum was the last woman ruler, who after 25 years of rule, abdicated in favour of her son, Hamidullah Khan. The rule of Begums gave the city its waterworks, railways, a postal system and a municipality constituted in 1907.

Bhopal State was the second-largest Muslim-ruled princely state, the first being Hyderabad. After the independence of India in 1947, the last Nawab expressed his wish to retain Bhopal as a separate unit. Agitations against the Nawab broke out in December 1948, leading to the arrest of prominent leaders including Shankar Dayal Sharma. Later, the political detainees were released, and the Nawab signed the agreement for Bhopal's merger with the Union of India on 30 April 1949. The Bhopal state was taken over by the Union Government of India on 1 June 1949. Hindu Sindhi refugees from Pakistan were accommodated in Bairagarh, a western suburb of Bhopal (now renamed to Sant Hirdaram Nagar). According to the States Reorganization Act of 1956, the Bhopal state was integrated into the state of Madhya Pradesh, and Bhopal was declared as its capital. The population of the city rose rapidly thereafter.