Cities appear and disappear only to reappear in the
tableaux of Indian civilization. The historic city of
Ahmedabad was founded in the surge of Islamic conquests
that had swept through India. It was established in 1411
AD by a noble, Ahmed Shah, who had rebelled against his
overlords in Delhi. The new rulers of Gujarat, keen on
stablishing their superiority in the material realm, had
undertaken a frenzied program of building activities in
their new capital of Ahmedabad. Their model was the
impressive Hindu architecture of the previous centuries
which they wanted to outshine. The result, after one and a
half centuries, was the ‘Sultanate
Architecture’ of Ahmedabad, considered a high point
of world architectural heritage. This architecture along
with the Jain, Swaminarayan and Hindu temples of the city
is a veritable safari of monumental architecture which
attracts lovers of beauty from across the world to the
city.
The architecture and the design of the new town of
Ahmedabad (Latt. 23* 00, Long. 72* 35’), a walled
town situated on the river Sabarmati, was a continuation
of the Hindu building traditions by other means. These
‘other means’ were the new stylistic elements
brought in by the new rulers. The city lies close to an
older Solanki trading centre, on the 371 km long river
Sabarmati and is 173 feet above the sea level. That
it was the seat of a splendorous court is testified by a
French traveler, Taverniere, who had visited the town in
the eighteenth century describing it as “the
headquarters of manufacturing, the greatest city in India,
nothing inferior to Venice for rich silks and gold stuffs
curiously wrought with birds and flowers.”
A treaty with the then rulers of western India, the Poona
Peshwas, brought Ahmedabad under the British rule in 1817.
The British were keen on annexing Ahmedabad because of
“the commanding influence which the sovereignty over
the city of Ahmedabad confers on its possessor in the
estimation of the country at large.” At the time of
the British arrival, the medieval economy of Ahmedabad had
hung on three threads: gold, silk, and cotton. The British
rule of law helped flowering the strength of the Ahmedabad
mahajans (trade guilds), and aided by the opium trade to
China, by 1839 the town was “in a most flourishing
condition and progressing rapidly.”
Modern textile technology
further oiled the Gujarati virtues in
‘reinventing’ Ahmedabad. Its booming business
in textiles had given Ahmedabad the status of
‘Manchester of India’ by the First World
War.The success of modern textile industry in
Ahmedabad is a puzzle for the business historian as the
town was considered unsuitable for the industry.Some of
these mills survived as late as 1989. The flourishing of
textile industry in Ahmedabad may be viewed as the triumph
of Gujarati virtues of pragmatism, innovation and creative
collaboration. It was for this town that Mahatma Gandhi
had felt a predilection after his return from South Africa
in 1917, staying on in the town for thirteen years and
directing the historically unheard of non-violent movement
against colonial power in favour of self-determination for
the Indian people.
Their successes in textiles turned the 19th
century Ahmedabad mahajans in to fine institution-
builders; they played important role in creating
institutions like PRL, IIM, NID, ATIRA and CEPT during the
middle of the 20th century. The buildings of these
institutions had attracted modern masters of world
architecture like Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier to the city
in the 1950s .Pharmaceuticals, Construction and Textiles
are the main industries of Ahmedabad of today. The town
contributes 14% of the total investments in all stock
exchanges of India. The Municipal Corporation was formed
in 1950 (present budget: 120 million $ US, area 191 sq km,
population: 4.5 millions). Sardar Patel, a great comrade
of Mahatma Gandhi and the architect of modern India, was
once a mayor of Ahmedabad. Sardar’s vision of Indian
cities as heavens for Indian urban dwellers is the
lodestar that directs the movement of this great city
towards its future.
The city
of Ahmedabad, now the seventh largest metropolis in India
and the largest in the state of Gujarat, was founded in
1411 AD as a walled city on the eastern bank of the river
Sabarmati. Historically Ahmedabad has been one of the most
important centers of trade and commerce in western India.
It is also a major industrial and financial city
contributing about 14% of the total investments in all
stock exchanges in India and 60% of the total productivity
of the state. It is the home of several scientific and
educational institutions of national, regional and global
importance. The city has a great architectural tradition
reflected in many exquisite monuments, temples and modern
buildings.