Ulhasnagar History, India

Ulhasnagar is one of those cities of India which have rich heritage and hold remains of the historical culture of India. Although Ulhasnagar didn’t actually exist during the medieval ages or during those days when India was fighting for its Independence but after Independence till today Ulhasnagar has experienced everything which the developing India has faced.

Ulhasnagar was born when around 100000 refuges (of Sindhi descent) were relocated near Kalyan (some 5 kilometers from Kalyan). These refugees were of West Pakistan which was created after the partition of India in 1947. Soon this refugee camp became permanent place for these refugees and they started to make themselves comfortable in and around the area. The willingness of these refugees to stay in this area prompted the government to give this land the status of a township. Hence, by 1949 Ulhasnagar had become a township. Ulhasnagar means city of joy (where Ulhas means joy and nagar means city) and this joyous name was given by C. Rajagopalachari who was the governor of India in those days.

A small railway station was built somewhere in the year of 1955 to ease the traveling needs of the locals of Ulhasnagar. It was early 1960 when the municipality of Ulhasnagar did officially come into office. Arjun K. Ballani was the first chief of Ulhasnagar and this was the time when municipal council of Ulhasnagar was finally nominated for the first time. 1965 was the year when first elections for the municipal council of Ulhasnagar took place.

The tiny city is spread over an area of around 22 kilometer square and has around 350000 Sindhis living in it. Ulhasnagar is said to be the city which has the highest number of people of Sindhi descent amongst all cities of India.

Sindhis got nothing as help from the India government but with their hard work they have brought up the yearly profits of Ulhasnagar to be around $ 200 million as per the stats of year 1995.

During its early years, Ulhasnagar faced illegal construction because the free land was available and the government wasn’t ready to help the refugees. It was some years back that the government had ordered the demolition of all the illegal buildings but Pappu Kalani, a famous politician of the city, worked day and night to pass an order that legalized all the illegal buildings. This literally saved huge number of people from becoming homeless.