Ahmedabad ( ), also spelt Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per the 2011 population census) makes it the fifth-most populous city in India, and the encompassing urban agglomeration population estimated at 8,854,444 (as of 2024) is the seventh-most populous in India. Ahmedabad is located near the banks of the Sabarmati River, from the capital of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, also known as its twin city.
Ahmedabad has emerged as an important economic, industrial and cultural hub in India. It is the second-largest producer of cotton in India, due to which it was known as the 'Manchester of India' along with Kanpur. The Ahmedabad Stock Exchange (before it was shut down in 2018) was the country's second-oldest. Cricket is a popular sport in Ahmedabad; the Narendra Modi Stadium at Motera can accommodate 132,000 spectators, making it the largest stadium in the world. The Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave located near the stadium will be one of the biggest in the country once complete.
The effects of the liberalisation of the Indian economy have energised the city's economy towards tertiary sector activities such as commerce, communication and construction. Ahmedabad's increasing population has increased demand in the construction and housing industries, resulting in the development of skyscrapers.
In 2010, Ahmedabad was ranked third in Forbess list of fastest growing cities of the decade. In 2012, The Times of India chose Ahmedabad as India's best city to live in. The gross domestic product of Ahmedabad metro was estimated at $136.1 billion in 2023. In 2020, Ahmedabad was ranked as the third-best city in India to live in by the Ease of Living Index. In July 2022, Time magazine included Ahmedabad in its list of the world's 50 greatest places of 2022.
Ahmedabad has been selected as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under the Government of Indias flagship Smart Cities Mission. In July 2017, the historic city of Ahmedabad, or Old Ahmedabad, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
History
Toponymy
Based on relics found in several neighbourhoods of the old city and on writings of the Persian historian al-Biruni, it is surmised that an early Bhil tribal group settlement was known as Ashaval.
According to Merutunga, Karna, the Chaulukya (Solanki) ruler of Anhilvada (modern Patan), successfully launched a military campaign against Ashaval and founded a city nearby called Karnavati. The location of Karnavati is not definitively known. References from the 14th and 15th centuries mention Ashaval but do not mention Karnavati.
Ahmad Shah I of the Gujarat Sultanate transferred its capital from Anhilvada to Ashaval in 1411 CE; as was customary, the city was subsequently renamed Ahmedabad after the Sultan.
Early history
The area around Ahmedabad has been inhabited since the 11th century, when it was known as Ashaval. At that time, Karna, the Chaulukya (Solanki) ruler of Anhilwara (modern Patan), waged a successful war against the Bhil king of Ashaval, and established a city called Karnavati on the banks of the Sabarmati. Solanki rule lasted until the 13th century, when Gujarat came under the control of the Vaghela dynasty of Dholka. Gujarat subsequently came under the control of the Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century. However, by the early 15th century, the local Muslim governor Zafar Khan Muzaffar established his independence from the Delhi Sultanate and crowned himself Sultan of Gujarat as Muzaffar Shah I, thereby founding the Muzaffarid dynasty. In 1411, the area came under the control of his grandson, Sultan Ahmed Shah, who selected the forested area along the banks of the Sabarmati river for his new capital. He laid the foundation of a new walled city near Karnavati and named it Ahmedabad after himself. According to other versions, he named the city after four Muslim saints in the area who all had the name Ahmed. Ahmed Shah I laid the foundation of the city on 26 February 1411 (at 1.20 pm, Thursday, the second day of Dhu al-Qi'dah, Hijri year 813) at Manek Burj. Manek Burj is named after the legendary 15th-century Hindu saint, Maneknath, who intervened to help Ahmed Shah I build Bhadra Fort in 1411. Ahmed Shah I chose it as the new capital on 4 March 1411. Chandan and Rajesh Nath, 13th generation descendants of Saint Maneknath, perform puja and hoist the flag on Manek Burj on Ahmedabad's foundation day and for the Vijayadashami festival every year.<!--ref name="TimesPub11"/-->
thumb|City walls of Ahmedabad, 1866
In 1487, Mahmud Begada, the great-great-grandson of Ahmed Shah, fortified the city with an outer wall in circumference and consisting of twelve gates, 189 bastions, and over 6,000 battlements. In 1535 Humayun briefly occupied Ahmedabad after capturing Champaner when the ruler of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah, fled to Diu. Ahmedabad was then reoccupied by the Muzaffarid dynasty until 1573 when Gujarat was conquered by the Mughal emperor Akbar. During the Mughal reign, Ahmedabad became one of the Empire's thriving centres of trade, mainly in textiles, which were exported as far as Europe. The Mughal ruler Shah Jahan spent the prime of his life in the city, sponsoring the construction of the Moti Shahi Mahal in Shahibaug. The Deccan Famine of 1630–32 affected the city, as did famines in 1650 and 1686. Ahmedabad remained the provincial headquarters of the Mughals until 1758, when they surrendered the city to the Marathas.
Modern history
thumb|A market scene in Ahmedabad, 1901
During the period of Maratha governance, the city became the centre of a conflict between the Peshwa of Poona and the Gaekwad of Baroda. In 1780, during the First Anglo-Maratha War, a British force under James Hartley stormed and captured Ahmedabad, but it was handed back to the Marathas at the end of the war. The British East India Company took over the city in 1818 during the Third Anglo-Maratha War.
thumb|left|Ahmedabad and its environs, ca 1914
The Indian independence movement developed roots in the city when Mahatma Gandhi established two ashrams – the Kochrab Ashram near Paldi in 1915 and the Satyagraha Ashram (now Sabarmati Ashram) on the banks of the Sabarmati in 1917 – which would become centres of nationalist activities. During the mass protests against the Rowlatt Act in 1919, textile workers burned down 51 government buildings across the city in protest against a British attempt to extend wartime regulations after the First World War. In the 1920s, textile workers and teachers went on strike, demanding civil rights and better pay and working conditions. In 1930, Gandhi initiated the Salt Satyagraha from Ahmedabad by embarking from his ashram on the Dandi March. The city's administration and economic institutions were rendered inoperative in the early 1930s by the large numbers of people who took to the streets in peaceful protests, and again in 1942 during the Quit India Movement.
Post-independence
Following independence and the partition of India in 1947, the city was scarred by the intense communal violence that broke out between Hindus and Muslims in 1947. Ahmedabad was the focus of settlement by Hindu migrants from Pakistan, who expanded the city's population and transformed its demographics and economy.
By 1960, Ahmedabad had become a metropolis with a population of over one million people, with classical and colonial European-style buildings lining the city's thoroughfares. It was chosen as the capital of Gujarat after the partition of the State of Bombay on 1 May 1960. During this period, a large number of educational and research institutions were founded in the city, making it a centre for higher education, science, and technology. Ahmedabad's economic base became more diverse with the establishment of heavy and chemical industry during the same period. thumb|[[Sabarmati Ashram, established by Mahatma Gandhi]]
In the late 1970s, the capital shifted to the newly built city of Gandhinagar. This marked the start of a long period of decline in Ahmedabad, marked by a lack of development. The 1974 Navnirman agitation, a protest against a 20% hike in the hostel food fees at the L.D. College of Engineering in Ahmedabad, snowballed into a movement to remove Chimanbhai Patel, then chief minister of Gujarat. In the 1980s, a reservation policy was introduced in the country, which led to anti-reservation protests in 1981 and 1985. The protests witnessed violent clashes between people belonging to various castes. The city was considerably impacted by the 2001 Gujarat earthquake; up to 50 multi-storey buildings collapsed, killing 752 people and causing significant damage. The following year, three days of violence between Hindus and Muslims in the western Indian state of Gujarat, known as the 2002 Gujarat riots, spread to Ahmedabad; in eastern Chamanpura, 69 people were killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre on 28 February 2002. Refugee camps were set up around the city, housing 50,000 Muslims, as well as some small Hindu camps.
The 2008 Ahmedabad bombings, a series of seventeen bomb blasts, killed and injured many people. The terrorist group Harkat-ul-Jihad claimed responsibility for the attacks. In 2020, the city hosted the Namaste Trump event at the newly built Narendra Modi Stadium, the world's largest.
Demographics
Population
City population increased by 23.43% from 4,519,000 to 5,577,940 (2,938,985 males and 2,638,955 females resulting in a sex ratio of 898 females per 1,000 males) making Ahmedabad the fifth most populous city in India. The urban agglomeration centred upon Ahmedabad had a population of 6,352,254 and was the seventh most populous urban agglomeration in India . The population of children aged 0 to 6 was 621,034 (336,063 males and 284,971 females resulting in a child sex ratio of 848 females per 1,000 males) .
Poverty
In the mid-1970s and early 1980s, the textile mills that were responsible for much of Ahmedabad's wealth faced competition from automation and domestic speciality looms. Several mills closed down, leaving between 40,000 and 50,000 people without a source of income, and many moved into informal settlements in the city centre. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), the governing and administrative body of the city, simultaneously lost much of its tax base and saw an increased demand for services. In the 1990s, newly emerging pharmaceutical, chemical, and automobile manufacturing industries required skilled labour, so many migrants seeking work ended up in the informal sector and settled in slums.
Ahmedabad has made efforts to reduce poverty and improve the living conditions of poor residents. The urban poverty rate has declined from 28% in 1993–1994 to 10% in 2011–2012. In addition, participating households were granted a minimum de facto tenure of ten years. The project cost a total of 4,350 million. Community members and the private sector each contributed 600 million, NGOs provided 90 million, and the AMC paid for the rest of the project. The SNP received the 2006 UN-Habitat Dubai International Award for Best Practice to Improve the Living Environment. However, concerns remain about the community's responsibility and capacity for the maintenance of the new infrastructure. Additionally, trust was weakened when the AMC demolished two of the slums that were upgraded as part of SNP to create recreational parks. Buddhists, people following other religions and those who did not state any religion make up the remainder.
- The Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Mirzapur is the cathedral of the Diocese of Ahmedabad.
{| class="wikitable collapsible sortable"
! rowspan="2" |Religious group
! colspan="2" |1891
! colspan="2" |1941
! colspan="2" |2001
|-
!Population (human biology)|
!
!Population (human biology)|
!
!Population (human biology)|
!
|-
|Hinduism 16x16px
|102,619
|
|426,498
|
|2,853,494
|
|-
|Islam 15x15px
|30,946
|
|116,301
|
|476,620
|
|-
|Jainism 26x26px
|12,747
|
|30,935
|
|141,607
|
|-
|Christianity 21x21px
|1,031
|
|8,467
|
|32,917
|
|-
|Zoroastrianism 15x15px
|723
|
!—
!—
!—
!—
|-
|Animism
|156
|
!—
!—
!—
!—
|-
|Judaism 17x17px
|153
|
!—
!—
!—
!—
|-
|Sikhism19x19px
!—
!—
|825
|
|8,801
|
|-
|Buddhism15x15px
!—
!—
!—
!—
|2,064
|
|-
|Other
|37
|
|8,241
|
|2,678
|
|-
!Total population
!148,412
!
!591,267
!
!3,520,085
|
|}
Most of the residents of Ahmedabad are native Gujaratis, but there is a large population with origins outside the state who speak a variety of languages, mainly Hindi and Urdu (among Muslims). There is a Sindhi community dating from Partition, and a Marathi community dating back to Maratha rule over Gujarat. The city is home to some 2,000 Parsis (Zoroastrians), and some 125 members of the Bene Israel Jewish community. There is also one synagogue in the city.