Clockwise from topː Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalay at Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad Railway Station, CEPT University, Kankaria Lake and the Kirti Stambh at Hutheesing Temple.

Ahmedabad is the largest city and former capital of the Indian state of Gujarat. It is located on the banks of the Sabarmati River, 30 km (19 mi) from the state capital Gandhinagar. It is also ranked third in Forbes' list of fastest growing cities of the decade and also the fifth largest city and seventh largest metropolitan area of India.

Quotes

  • The Sabarmati Ashram, which was founded in 1918 on the west bank of the Sabarmati River, was the second home for Mahatma Gandhi. This was his headquarters while he fought for his ideals of Indian independence. It was from here that he devised his plan for the final struggle for India’s freedom. His cottage, Hriday Kunj, is still fairly intact and is now a small museum that contains some of his personal items such as his round eyeglasses, wooden slippers, books, and letters. They still make handicrafts at the ashrama.
    • Knapp Stephen, Spiritual India Handbook (2011)
  • What beauty and excellence can the founder of the city seen in this wretched city with its dust-laden air, its hot winds, its dry river-bed, its brackish nasty water and its thron covered suburbs.
  • During nine months of Jehangir;s stay in Ahmadabad [in 1608] his favourite wife Nur Jahan governor of the city
    • Colonel Briggs, in Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Ahmedabad, p. 255
  • Until the beginning of the twentieth century most of Ahmedabad’s population resided within the Fort Walls [on the eastern bank of the Sabaramati River. The opening of the first Ahmedabad textile mill in 1861 and of the railway line between Ahmedabad and Bombay [now Mumbai] three years was a harbinger of the city’s rapid expansion. The developing textile industry generated waves of migration into the city and extensive growth of its population and territory.
Panoramic view of Ahmedabad
  • Socially, economically and in its structural and spatial design, the city had gradually been divided into three parts. From the end of 1960s, Ahmedabad became the story of three cities.
    • B.K. Roy Burman, in Social profile, in Communalism, Caste and Hindu Nationalism: The Violence in Gujarat, p. 32
  • Under the blows of frequent Muslim pestering, such as the petty terror which drove Hindus out of certain neighbourhoods in Ahmedabad (as attested by a state law prohibiting inter-community sales of real estate in the wake of communal riots, a law routinely circumvented by Muslim mafia dons using stooges), they developed a strong resentment [...] In some southern cities, major Hindu temples have been isolated from their constituency of worshippers after Muslims strategically bought up all the real estate around the temple. In Ahmedabad, Hindus have practically been driven out of the old city. In such an important economic centre, the planning by Muslim Gulf-based mafias was obvious. One Muslim, or his Hindu stooge, would buy up a house in a Hindu neighbourhood... The next stage is that life for Hindus is made uncomfortable, initially in perfectly legal ways,... [later] a bogus Hindu provocation of Muslim sentiments is enacted and a communal riot ensues.... Hindus start panic-selling their houses.... The mafia dons distribute the loot among their supporters.
    • Elst, K. The Problem with Secularism (2007)
  • The walled city, with its twelve gates and numerous mosques, temples and towers, was founded in 1411 by Ahmad Shah on the eastern bank of the Sabarmati River. Despite its dilapidated condition, the Indian Islamic architecture and the houses decorated with wood carvings attest to its affluent status.
    • Anjana Desai, in Environmental Perceptions, in Communalism, Caste and Hindu Nationalism: The Violence in Gujarat, p. 33
  • The first to move beyond the walls with the growth of the city’s population were the wealthy mill-owners. They built bungalows in the northern suburb of Shahibag. From the early 1920s, wealthy members of upper-caste groups began moving to the western side of the river, where they constructed housing societies. These small cooperative apartment buildings, alongside buildings, became the new residential pattern in the area.
    • Kenneth L. Gillion, in “Ahmedabad” in Communalism, Caste and Hindu Nationalism: The Violence in Gujarat, p. 34
Mahatma Gandhi: This is the right place for our activities to carry on the search for Truth and develop Fearlessness- for on one side, are the iron bolts of the foreigners, and on the other, thunderbolts.
  • This is the right place for our activities to carry on the search for Truth and develop Fearlessness- for on one side, are the iron bolts of the foreigners, and on the other, thunderbolts of Mother Nature.
  • Amedahad being inhabited also by a great number of heathens, there are Pagods, or Idol-Temples it it. That which was called the Pagod of Santidas was the chief, before King Auranzeb converted it into a Mosque. When he performed that ceremony, he caused a cow to be killed in the place, knowing very well, that after such an action, the Gentiles according to their Law, could worship no more therein. All round the temple there is a cloyster furnished with lovely Cells, beautified with Figures of Marble in relief, representing naked Women sitting after the Oriental fashion. The inside Roof of the Mosque is pretty enough, and the Walls are full of the Figures of Men and Beasts ; but Auranzeb, who hath always made a show of an affected Devotion, which at length raised him to the Throne, caused the Noses of all these Figures which added a great deal of Magnificence to that Mosque, to be beat off.
    • Description of the temple built by Shantidas Jhaveri. Indian Records Series Indian Travels Of Thevenot And Careri Cited in Harsh Narain, The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute: Focus on Muslim Sources, Appendix VI
  • Ahmadabad is one of the largest towns in India, and there is a considerable trade in silken stuffs, gold and silver tapestries, and others mixed with silk ; saltpetre, sugar, ginger, both candied and plain, tamarinds, mirabolans, and indigo cakes, which are made at three leagues from Ahmadabad, at a large town called Suarkei.There was formerly a pagoda in this place, which the Musalinans seized and converted into a mosque. Before entering it you traverse three great courts paved with marble, and surrounded by galleries, but you are not allowed to place foot in the third without removing your shoes. The exterior of the mosque is ornamented with mosaic, the greater part of which consists of agates of different colours, obtained from the mountains of Cambay, only two days’ journey thence.
    • Description of the temple built by Shantidas Jhaveri. Travels In India Vol.-i by Tavernier Jean-baptiste Cited in Harsh Narain, The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute: Focus on Muslim Sources, Appendix VI
  • “One day at Ahmadabad it was reported that many of the infidel and superstitious sect of the Seoras (Jains) of Gujarat had made several very great and splendid temples, and having placed in them their false gods, had managed to secure a large degree of respect for themselves and that the women who went for worship in those temples were polluted by them and other people… The Emperor Jahangir ordered them banished from the country, and their temples to be, demolished. Their idol was thrown down on the uppermost step of the mosque, that it might be trodden upon by those who came to say their daily prayers there. By this order of the Emperor, the infidels were exceedingly disgraced, and Islam exalted…”
    • Ahmadabad (Gujarat) Intikhab-i-Jahangir Shabi Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own historians, Vol. VI, p. 451.
  • During the Subedari of religious-minded, noble prince, vestiges of the Temple of Chintaman situated on the side of Saraspur built by Satidas jeweller, were removed under the Prince's order and a masjid was erected on its remains. It was named 'Quwwat-ul-Islam.
    • Aurangzeb. Ahmadabad (Gujarat) . Mirat-i-Ahmadi by Ali Muhammad Khan, in Mirat-i-Ahmdi, translated into English by M.F. Lokhandwala, Baroda, 1965, P. 194
  • In Ahmadabad and other parganas of Gujarat, in the days before my accession, temples were destroyed by my order. They have been repaired and idol worship has been resumed. Carry out the former orders.
    • Aurangzeb. Farman dated 20 November 1665 recorded in Mirat-i-Ahmadi, p. 275; translated by Jadunath Sarkar in History of Aurangzib: Mainly Based on Persian Sources - Vol. III, p. 185; Ayodhya Revisited by Kunal Kishore, p. 575; The Crescent in India: A Study in Medieval History by Shripad Rama Sharma, p. 554; Hindu Temples, what Happened to Them: The Islamic Evidence, by Arun Shourie & Sita Ram Goel, p. 33

Historic city of Ahmadabad

UNESCO Historic city of Ahmadabad

...... After AD. 1411 came to be erected the oldest extant fortification of the city, viz., the square Bhadra towers, which with massive form included the royal citadel on an area of about 16 hectares.
  • Its wealth of wooden architecture of settlements is also a great heritage for which the city is well known since centuries and is considered a storehouse of integrated crafts which extended from block making for textile printing to some of the finest expressions in traditional houses and temple building arts...Its economic enterprise sustaining the city and state, its wisdom in financial expertise and its guild tradition for community co-existence, leading to a world class status in textiles in 19th century.
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