Bangalore, the IT hub of India, has always been a city full of commerce and activities. Situated in Karnataka State in South India, Bangalore was once an enormous jungle with lush greenery all around. Over Centuries, the city has transformed from a commercial town, a British military base camp to today’s high brimming metropolis. This article focuses on major events that Bangalore has undergone a lot of transformation and now is one of the megacities of the country.
According to the historians, Bangalore was founded by a local chief of Vijaynagar, Kempe Gowda in 1537. Like many other townships during that time, the forts were laid according to the cardinal axis, the temple is the central cosmic axis. Similarly, Kempe Gowde built an enormous mud fort that had four gates signifying the axiality of the town. The main streets connecting the gates were called ‘petes’ or the markets where major commerce was conducted. Within the town, many temples and tanks were built during the 1600s.
During the medieval period, Bangalore was once ruled by Mughals for some period of time. But in 1690, Chikka Devarajor Wodeyar, the fourteenth Maharaja of Mysore conquered the fort from Aurangzeb’s follower, Qasim Khan. Wodeyar expanded the fortification of the city in terms of ensuring the safety and security of the main town. In 1759, Haider Ali Khan was handed over the city as he became the personal ‘Jehangir’.
By the end of the century, Bangalore became the center of a struggle between conflicting forces. The threat from East India Company grew, and the series of war started from 1767 till 1799 between Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan against the British Empire. The famous Anglo-Mysore Wars came to an end in 1799 by killing of Tipu Sultan and Haider Ali resulting in the dismantlement of Mysore for the benefits of East India Company.
In 1800, Bangalore became the manufacturing and trading center for the whole region of Mysore. Due to its climatic condition, the agricultural products and the vegetables that grew in the region got high demands from the whole country. In 1807, the British East India Company decided to set up its military base station at Bangalore. The cantonment area got established in the city for military people, British civilians, and administrative personnel.
As a typical colonial state, the ‘civil and military station’ or cantonment had spacious street layouts with bungalows and gardens. The Native settlement called ‘blackpally’ inhibited by service providers from south India. During the British period, industrialization in the city was at the peak. Due to close proximity from Mangalore, a port town, Bangalore was the center of trade and commerce. Many new settlements in the gridiron pattern emerged in the city.
Post-Independence, Bangalore was expanding in terms of residential development. In 1960, the city got a new sort of development in the field of education and telecommunication. The establishment of Bangalore University and Indian Telephone Industries lead to an influx of migrants in huge numbers. Due to which overcrowding population, high traffic jams, and the formation of urban villages were seen in the city. Throughout the 1980s, Bangalore was experiencing infrastructural development of high-speed corridors, new townships, and high rise buildings.
The city boomed in the 1990s, due to the establishment of Information Technology enables the service sector. The urban sprawl could be seen in the city and a new way of living can now be seen in the city. Mall culture was experienced the first time in Bangalore. People now understood the whole new concept of living, work, and play. The city was also termed as “Silicon Valley of India”, as it served as the nation’s leading exporter of IT services. To serve the high demand for workforce and mobility, many IT corridors were constructed during this period of time.
Today, traveling in the city is self-explanatory how and why it is called the city for the young entrepreneurs. Bangalore- or Bengaluru as it’s currently called in the Kannada language is among the top 14 leading global ecosystems that provide topmost infrastructure to start-ups. Not only in terms of construction of tech parks or infrastructure but also providing a high-level educational system makes the city unique in its own self.
The excitement in the city can be seen through various experimental concepts that people come up in day to day basis. A lot of café’s, lounges and co-working culture has been started in this city only. People love to explore new ideas and are open to new thought processes. Apart from the high-class development in the city, the government also supports and facilitates the concepts of digitization and start-up culture. Prime Minister, Narendra Modi had carved the plans for “Start-up India” and “Digital India” that indeed helped the tech industries to blossom in their own way.
Bengaluru, that was once a small settlement, is now transforming as a megacity that provides world-class infrastructural amenities and bests IT services throughout the world.
