Bangalore: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Geography and Location

Aerial map

Bangalore(anglicised from Bengalūru or Bengaluuru) is the capital city of Karnataka. It has 4.5 million inhabitants and is the fourth largest city in India (2004)[3]. Post independence, Bangalore evolved into a hub for major heavyweight industries such as Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., Indian Space Research Organization and the Southern Training Command for the Indian Air Force. More recently, Bangalore has distinguished itself as the Information Technology capital of India.

Geography

Set in the heart of the South - the Deccan Plateau, with an average elevation of 900 m above sea level, Bangalore has pleasant weather, with highs ranging from around 24°C in winter to 35°C during summer, despite being between the very tropical latitudes of 12° 39' N and 13° N.

Bangalore is believed to have been founded in 1537 by Kempe Gowda (c. 1510 - 1570). During the time of the Puranas, this region was known as 'kalyanapuri' or 'Kalyananagara', the 'City Auspicious'. The Mauryan Emperor, Chandragupta Maurya, renounced his throne to become a Jain Monk at Shravanabelagola, a Jain piligrimage center, south west of Bangalore. After the arrival of the British, the city was given the anglicised name of "Bangalore". The place mentioned as 'Benguluru' in the Ganga record is originally a hamlet, even now called as Halebengaluru near Kodigehalli, not far away from Hebbal. It is said that Kempegowda I, when he built the new capital town in about 1537 called it Bangalore as his mother and wife belonged to the hamlet Bangalore, now called Halebengaluru. Another version suggests that the name Bangalore derives from Benda Kalu, which means "Boiled Beans". It is said that a humble old lady served a 10th century ruler, King Veeraballa of Vijayanagara who lost his way in the forest. He liked the food so much he named the place Benda Kaluru, meaning "the city of boiled beans", to commemorate the event.

The reign of Bangalore changed hands several times. It was ruled by the kings of the Bijapur dynasty in 1638, and the Maratha ruler Shahji Bhosle took over in 1638. After 50 years of Maratha rule Bangalore was conquered by the Moghuls in 1686. The city was leased to the Mysore ruler Chikkadevaraya by the Mughuls around 1689 and Chikkadevaraya expanded the Bangalore fort to the south and built the Venkataramana temple in this fort area. This new fort in granite was strengthened by Haider who secured Bangalore as jahgir in 1759. The British under Lord Cornwallis conquered the place in 1799 after defeating Tipu.

Bangalore was hit by a plague epidemic in 1898. The epidemic took a large toll and many of the temples were built during this time. Many of these temples are called 'Maramma' temples after the plague deity. It is believed that this epidemic helped in the development of Bangalore and improvements in sanitation and health facilities helped in modernizing Bangalore. A plague officer was appointed and the city was divided into four wards. Telephone lines were laid to help coordinate anti-plague operations. Regulations for building new houses with proper facilities of sanitation came into effect. A health officer was appointed in 1898 and the Victoria Hospital was inaugurated in 1900 by Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy. It is also believed that the advent of raiways was a causal factor for the epidemic.

The plague of 1898 also led to the expansion of Bangalore. Basavanagudi(named after the Basaveshwara Temple or the Bull Temple in the Sunkenahalli village) and Malleshwaram (named after the Kadu Malleshwara Temple in the old Mallapura village) were created during this time. Kalasipalyam(near the old fort) and Gandhinagar were created between 1921-1931. Kumara Park came into existence in 1947 and Jayanagar in 1948.

The former Cantonment, named as Civil and Military Station after 1881 had roads named according to military conventions. Thus, there was Artillery Rd., Brigade Rd., Infantry Rd., Cavalry Rd., etc. The South Parade(presently Mahatma Gandhi Road) was to the south of the Parade Ground. The cantonment area was administered by a Resident and his quarters was called the Residency and hence the Residency Road. In around 1883, three extensions were added to the Municipal area of the Cantonment, namely, Richmond Town, followed by Benson Town and Cleveland Town.

Bangalore, popularly known as the Garden City and city of lakes, is famous for its pleasant climate and cosmopolitan lifestyle. Kannada, the state language of Karnataka, is widely spoken here. Many people are fluent in more than one language. There are also a large number of people with Telugu and Tamil as their mother tongues, together said to almost match the number of those whose mother tongue is Kannada. English is widely understood, and spoken with variable fluency. Thanks to a large number of central government establishments with many employees from northern India, movies and television, Hindi is also widely understood. With the rapid growth of the information technology industry in Bangalore, English is becoming a standard.

Native Bangaloreans are accomodating, liberal and hospitable as evidenced by the fact that over 51% of Bangalore's population consists of expatriates from other parts of India as well as foreign nationals. This cultural diversity makes Bangalore one of India's truly cosmopolitian cities.

Bangalore is home to the Indian Institute of Science, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM, Bangalore), the National Law School of India University, and the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences. Bangalore also plays host to a large number of Engineering and Medical science institutions that churn out educated professionls in large numbers further fuelling the industry.

Long before Bangalore was ever called the Silicon Valley of India, the city made its name as headquaters to some of the largest national heavy industries of India. The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) headquaters was based in Bangalore, and was for the most part dedicated to R&D activities for indigenous fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force. Today, HAL develops and maintains an impressive fleet of fighter aircraft and trainers for the Indian Airforce including Sukhoi 30 Flankers and Jaguars.

Annual airshows showcasing inventories from HAL and international corporations such as Sukhoi, Lockheed Martin, Mirage and BAE are held at the Yalahanka Airforce base near Bangalore.

The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) is also headquartered in Bangalore and is dedicated to the development of aerospace technologies. NAL has a staff strenght of over 1,300 employees and often works in conjunction with HAL.

In June 1972, the Government of India set up the Space Commission and Department of Science (DOS). India's premire space research organization, the ISRO was created under the DOS and headquartered in Bangalore. The main objective of ISRO includes developments of satellites and launch vehicles. Aryabhatta, India's first satellite, was developed and successfully launched by ISRO. Since then, the organization has successfully launched numerous other space vehicles such as Bhaskara, Rohini, APPLE, SLV-3, and recently some PSLVs and GSLVs. ISRO also heads India's ambitious moon program.

Bangalore is also a major manufacturing base and houses such public sector manufacturing giants as BHEL, BEL and ITI.

Bangalore is called the "Silicon Valley of India" due to the large number of computer and technology companies, as well as the related infrastructure, located there. Many multinational corporations, especially computer hardware and software giants, have operations in Bangalore. Electronics City, located in the southern outskirts of Bangalore, is an industrial park spread over 330 acres. Bangalore houses more than a hundred industries, including IT industry leaders such as IBM, Dell, Oracle, HP, SAP, Motorola, Satyam, Infosys, Siemens, ITI, Honeywell, Wipro and MindTree.

The city is known as the "Garden City of India", and the many public parks, including the Lal Bagh are a testament to the city's green beauty.

Bangalore has a very active night culture and is home to over 200 pubs. Some notable places to the night life in Bangalore are Pecos, [The Club Inferno]], Insomnia, "Spinn",iBar, Urban Edge, Club X, Styx (a pub for hard rock fans), fBar (fashion, et al) and Opium.

Infrastrutural woes

Initially a Grade B city in India, Bangalore was not built to accomodate the massive influx of skilled and unskilled workers from other parts of Karnataka and India. The fastest growing city in Asia now has to struggle with a constantly and rapidly increasing population of technocrats and blue collar workers. Being a land-locked city, Bangalore neither has access to a shoreline, like Mumbai or Calcutta to meet the water needs of its 4 million plus people, nor deep pockets to purchase electricity for its needs. The result is a constant power shedding, mandatory stoppage of electricity supply to residential areas.

The cities roads were not designed to accomodate the massive traffic that now prevails in Bangalore. As the city expands and absorbs other towns into it, so does the neccessity of proper planning and road infrastructure to commute through the city.

Bangalore is also considered by some to be India's most neglected city. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited owned and operated the airport that was subsequently used for commerical civil aviation by the Government of Karnataka. Most airports are controlled by the Airports Authority of India. This led to a constant three way tussle between the HAL, the Government of Karnataka and the Indian Air Force.

Eventually, a plan for a full scale international airport was planned at Devanahalli, 30 kilometers from Bangalore, which also became a war ground for Central and State political parties. The clearance for the construction of the $288 million airport was eventually granted in June 2004. The major stakeholders of this project include Siemens-Zurich Airport-L&T consortium, Airports Authority of India and Karnataka State Investment and Industrial Development Corporation.

Fraught with infrastructural problems as Bangalore is, several prominent businessmen such as Wipro's Azim Premji have threatened to pull out of the city unless there is a drastic improvement in facilities within the next few years.

According to the Census of India 2001 results, 345,200 people live in slums in Bangalore or 8% of the population. Interestingly, the sex ratio of the slum population was 948 females/1000 males compared to the overall sex ratio of Bangalore of 915 females/1000 males.

Something to watch may be the development of a new Magazine written by and for the slum-dwellers, Slum Jagathu.

• Indian Institute of Science (IISc), India's premier educational institution
• Indian Institute of Management (IIMB), India's premier management school
• Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIITB)
• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
• Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR)
• The University of Agricultural Sciences
• National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS)
• National Centre for Software Technology (NCST), now C-DAC
• National Law School of India University (NLSIU)
• National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT)
• R.V College of Engineering (RVCE)
• B.M.S College of Engineering (BMSCE)
• P.E.S.Institute Of Technology (PESIT)
• University Visweshwaraya College of Engineering(UVCE)
• Bangalore Institute of Technology (BIT)

• Vidhana Soudha, home of the Karnataka Legistative branch
• Attara Kacheri, home of the Karnataka High Court
• The Nandi Temple -- Basavanagudi (Kannada word, meaning Bull Temple)
• Lalbagh Botanical Garden
• Cubbon Park
• Hebbal lake
• Sankey Tank
• Visvesvaraya Industrial And Technological Museum (VITM)
• Kempe Gowda's watch towers
• Ulsoor Lake
• Nehru Planetarium
• Tipu's Summer Palace
• ISKCON temple
• GaviGangadhareshwara temple

• Birdwatchers' Field Club of Bangalore
• Association of Bangalore Amateur Astronomers ABAA
• Karnataka Quiz Association KQA
• Bangalore PalmOS Users Group BPUG [4]
• Bangalore Amateur Radio Club BARC [5]
• Bangalore Linux User Group BLUG [6]

• B.S. Chandrashekhar, cricketer
• Vasundhara Das, actress, singer
• Rahul Dravid, cricketer
• Lara Dutta, actress, Miss Universe, 2000
• Nafisa Joseph, model, MTV VJ, Miss India '97
• Syed Kirmani, cricketer
• Anil Kumble, cricketer
• U.R. Anantha Murthy, writer
• N.R. Narayana Murthy, industrialist (IT), founder of Infosys Technologies Ltd.
• Erapalli Prasanna, cricketer
• Azim Premji, industrialist (IT), India's richest man (as of 2004). Founder of WiproTechnologies.
• Dr. Rajkumar, actor, cultural icon
• Sir C.V. Raman, physicist
• Soundarya, South-Indian film actress
• Javagal Srinath, cricketer
• Sir M. Visvesvarayya, engineer and statesman

Indian States and Territories
Andhra Pradesh | Arunachal Pradesh | Assam | Bihar | Chhattisgarh | Goa | Gujarat | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu and Kashmir | Jharkhand | Karnataka | Kerala | Madhya Pradesh | Maharashtra | Manipur | Meghalaya | Mizoram | Nagaland | Orissa | Punjab | Rajasthan | Sikkim | Tamil Nadu | Tripura | Uttaranchal | Uttar Pradesh | West Bengal
Union Territories: Andaman and Nicobar Islands | Chandigarh | Dadra and Nagar Haveli | Daman and Diu | Lakshadweep | Pondicherry
National Capital Territory: Delhi