Malegaon

History

Malegaon (previously Mulligaum) is located on the Mumbai-Agra national highway (N.H.03) at the confluence of the Mausam (previously Moosy) and Girna rivers. Situated on the road linking Mumbai and Agra — now National Highway No 3 — it used to be a small junction known as Maliwadi (hamlet of gardens). It quickly gained the reputation for being a source of employment in 1740 when a local jahagirdar, Naro Shankar Raje Bahadur, started building a fort in the area. As the fort took 25 years, a sizeable number of Muslim workers and artisans from places like Surat and northern India settled in the area. After the British capture of the Malegaon fort in 1818, Muslims from Hyderabad migrated to the region. The 1857 revolt saw many Muslims from the north locate themselves here, and the pattern kept repeating itself over the years. Malegaon, with its growing Muslim presence, became something of a shelter and a source of employment for the community whenever it faced reversals. If famine in 1862 forced Muslim weavers in the Varanasi area to move to Malegaon, the political upheavals in the Hyderabad of the late 1940s and 1950s saw a similar exodus to the town. Communal riots, specially from the 1960s onward, have also undoubtedly contributed to swelling the number of Muslim migrants to Malegaon.

Geography

Malegaon is located at the confluence of Girna and Mausam rivers, at elevation of 438 metres (1437 feet) at 18.42°N 77.53°E / 18.42; 77.53. It is located at around 280 km northeast of state capital Mumbai. It has good connectivity with nearby cities like Nashik, Manmad, Mumbai and Dhule.

Industry and Economy

Malegaon is major hub for cloth weaving using early twentieth century power looms. The era of power looms in Malegaon emerged after 1935. Malegaon was a traditional handloom-weaving centre in Maharashtra. Most of the preparatory work before weaving like starching the yarn, transferring it over the tubes, preparing tanabana was done by the women. Even after power looms were introduced, women continued to help their menfolk in the weaving procedure.

With the introduction of power looms, the cloth industry in Malegaon flourished due to increased productivity. Many people bought power looms and very few were left with handlooms.It has an estimated 3 lakh power looms producing about 1 crore (10 million) meters of cloth every day. It attracts workers from various part of India, majority of migrants from U.P., Khandesh and Deccan, due to lower cost of living and Muslim dominance.

Malegaon of late has been diversifying and new industries are rapidly expanding. PVC pipe manufacturing is one such industry. Malegaon is soon becoming a regional centre for PVC pipes.

In recent times, the power loom industry is going through difficult phase due to various factors like fluctuating government policies, frequent electricity outage, lack of political will, middleman at every stage and reluctance to migrate to advanced machines. Though it is still a major source of employment, most of workers struggle to make a living. As a result, the city has observed a change in migration pattern wherein the worker prefer to move to Metros compared to Malegaon for better and stable job opportunities.

Religion and Demographics

As of 2011 India census, Malegaon city had a population of 576,425. Males constitute 51% of the population and females 49%. Malegaon has an average literacy rate of 73%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: Male literacy is 70%, and female literacy is 61%. About 18% of the population is under 6 years of age.

Malegaon is Muslim majority city with approximately 78.95% of city population following Islam as their religion. Hinduism is second most popular religion in city of Malegaon with approximately 18.50% following it. In Malegaon city, Christianity is followed by 0.10%, Jainism by 0.82%, Buddhism by 1.42% and Sikhism by 0.04%. Around 0.02% stated 'Other Religion', approximately 0.15% stated 'No Particular Religion'. The exact numbers are as follows Muslims 379,927, Hindu 89,011, Buddhist 6,830, Jain 3,933, Not Stated 725, Christian 504, Sikh 201, Others 97.

Proposal to carve out Malegaon District

The Nashik District is under proposal to be divided and a separate Malegaon district be carved out. Due to increasing population, the city of Malegaon already have almost all District administration offices. On 3 October 1981, the then chief minister of Maharashtra, Abdur Rehman Antulay on a day-long visit to the city had announced that Malegaon would be declared a district within six months. However, the decision was put on the backburner after Antulay relinquished office in January 1982 and the plan has not seen the light of day till date.

Political leaders and activists of Malegaon are united on this issue. According to Azeez Mukadam they have jointly met every chief minister who was in the office after Antulay to remind them of the promise he had made on behalf of the state. On 21 May 1998, when former chief minister Manohar Joshi was in Malegaon to induct local Congress leader Prashant Hiray into the Shiv Sena, he also promised that his government would be declaring Malegaon a district very soon.

"His deputy Gopinath Munde was in fact more outright. He said that only a non-Congress government like theirs could convert Malegaon into a district", Mukadam, who is part of the 25-year-old campaign.

Top schools and colleges in Malegaon

The vast city's education system has been able to support various languages (Marathi/Urdu/English) through numerous institutions. There are enough number of schools available for primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary education. There are junior colleges and senior colleges too affiliated by Pune University. One can find the engineering college also but there is an urgent need of Medical Colleges and Management Institutions. The students of Malegaon are forced to travel to nearby cities for higher education. Colleges in Malegaon include:

Urdu in Malegaon

With hundreds of Urdu Schools, Colleges and Madrasas, Malegaon is major centre of the Urdu language in modern India. Urdu is prevalent in all eastern parts of city. There still exists sign boards in Urdu in all parts of city much similar to undivided India. Malegaon Municipal Corporation releases its meeting agenda's and proceedings in Urdu since 8 December 2013. Malegaon Municipal Corporation has been named with freedom fighter and first Indian education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Bhawan, Malegaon.

Malegaon hosted a ten-day Urdu Festival from 3 January 2014.{} and has hosted the All India Urdu Book Fair, organised by the National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language.{}

Bomb blast

On 29 September 2008, three bombs exploded in the States of Gujarat and Maharashtra killing 8 persons and injuring 80. During the investigation in Maharashtra, a Hindu group was alleged to have been involved in the blasts. Three of the arrested persons were identified as Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Shiv Narayan Gopal Singh Kalsanghra and Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu. All three were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Nashik, which remanded them to custody till 3 November. On 28 October, the Shiv Sena, came out in support of the accused saying that the arrests were merely political in nature. Lending credence to this, the party chief, Uddhav Thackeray, pointed out a potential conflict of interest in political rivalry as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) controlled the relevant ministry. NIA, National Investigation Agency, has found no evidence against Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and it has recommended the court to drop all charges against her.

The Army officer Prasad Shrikant Purohit was also accused of being involved in the blast. His counsel alleged that he was being falsely framed for political reasons because he has intelligence data of a sensitive nature pertaining to the operations of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, which could embarrass some quarters.He was sent on bail by the Supreme Court after 9 years of trial on August 21st 2017.

Mollywood (Film Industry of Malegaon)

Malegaon's notoriously wacky spoof industry has introduced many classic Hollywood and Bollywood characters to the satellite town of Malegaon by giving them its quintessential dialogue, looks, circumstances and well, food. After having conquered local imagination with such cult spoofs as Malegaon ki Sholay, Malegaon ke Karan arjun,Malegaon ka James Bond and Supermen of Malegaon, the impoverished film-maker invaded national television with his second version of Malegaon Ka Chintu, Chintu ban gaya Gentleman, a mute comedy based loosely on Mr. Bean. A crew named sky view pictures in Malegaon also produce and make movies. They have made several short films like "Dillage", "Caller Tunes", "The Lost Lover", and "Independence". The crew is currently working on their next feature film.

State Highway 10 (Maharashtra)

State Highway 10 (Maharashtra)

MLAs from Malegaon Constituency for Maharashtra Assembly

MLAs from Malegaon Outer Constituency for Maharashtra Assembly

Agriculture

Villages nearby Malegaon & towards Satana, Nampur & are indulged into agriculture & major producers of Onion. Pomegranate is another crop of commercial importance which is being cultivated by farmers in nearby pockets. Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) of Malegaon has front office at Malegaon & research farm at Vadel. There is also a campus of Mahatma Gandhi Vidyamandir's H. H. Sri Sri Murlidhara Swamiji College of Agriculture located at Malegaon Camp area.