History of Pune

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Pune is the 9th most populous city in India and one of the largest in the state of Maharashtra.

Although area around Pune has history going back millennia, the more recent history of the city is closely related to the rise of the Maratha empire from the 17th–18th century. Pune first came under Maratha control in the early 1600s when Maloji Bhosale was granted fiefdom of Pune by the Nizam Shahi of Ahmednagar. When Maloji's son, Shahaji had to join campaigns in faraway southern India for the Adil Shahi sultanate, he selected Pune for the residence of his wife, Jijabai and younger son, Shivaji (1630-1680), the future founder of the Maratha empire.^[1] Although Shivaji spent part of his childhood and teenage years in Pune, the actual control of Pune region shifted between the Bhosale family of Shivaji, the Adil Shahi dynasty, and the Mughals.

In the early 1700s, Pune and its surrounding areas were granted to the newly appointed Maratha Peshwa, Balaji Vishwanath by Chhatrapati Shahu, grandson of Shivaji. Balaji Vishwanath's son, and successor as the Peshwa, Bajirao I made Pune as his seat of administration. That spurred growth in the city during Bajirao's rule which was continued by his descendants for the best part of 18th century. The city was a political and commercial center of the Indian subcontinent during that period.^[2] This came to an end with the Marathas losing to the British East India Company during the Third Anglo-Maratha War in 1818.

After the fall of Peshwa rule in 1818, the British East India Company made the city one of its major military bases. They established military cantonments in the eastern part of the city, and another one at nearby Khadki.The city was known by the name of Poona during British rule and for a few decades after Indian independence. The company rule came to an end when in 1858, under the terms of Proclamation issued by Queen Victoria, the Bombay Presidency, along with Pune and the rest of British India, came under the direct rule of the British crown.British rule, over more than a century, saw huge changes in the social, political, economic, and cultural life of the city. These included the introduction of railways, telegraph, roads, modern education, hospitals and social changes. Prior to the British takeover, the city was confined to the eastern bank of the Mutha river. Since then, the city has grown on both sides of the river. During British rule, Pune was made into the monsoon capital of the Bombay presidency. Palaces, parks, a golf course, a racecourse, and a boating lake were some of the facilities that were constructed to accommodate the leisurely pursuits of the ruling British elites of Bombay presidency that stayed in the city during the monsoon season, and the military personnel. In the 19th and early 20th century, Pune was the center of social reform, and at the turn of the 20th century, the center of Nationalism. For the latter, it was considered by the British as the center of political unrest against their rule. The social reform movement by Jyotiba Phule in the latter half of 1800s saw establishment of schools for girls as well as for the Dalits. In 1890s, nationalist leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak promoted public celebration of Ganesh festival as a hidden means for political activism, intellectual discourse, poetry recitals, plays, concerts, and folk dances.

The post-independence era after 1947 saw Pune turning from a mid-size city to a large metropolis. Industrial development started in the outlining areas of the city such as Hadapsar, Bhosari, and Pimpri in the 1950s.The first big operation to set up shop was the government run Hindustan Antibiotics in Pimpri in 1954.The area around Bhosari was set aside for industrial development, by the newly created Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) in the early 1960s. MIDC provided the necessary infrastructure for new businesses to set up operations. The status of Pune was elevated from town to city, when the Municipality was converted into Pune Mahanagar Palika or the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) in the year 1950.This period saw a huge influx of people to the city due to opportunities offered by the boom in the manufacturing industry, and lately in the software field. The influx has been from other areas of Maharashtra as well as from outside the state. The post-independence period has also seen further growth in the higher education sector in the city. This included the establishment of the University of Pune (now, Savitribai Phule Pune University) in 1949, the National Chemical Laboratory in 1950 and the National Defence Academy in 1955.The Panshet flood of 1961 resulted in a huge loss of housing on the riverbank and spurred the growth of new suburbs. In the 1990s, the city emerged as a major information technology hub.