Ahmednagar

Ahmednagar, officially renamed Ahilyanagar, is a city and the headquarters of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, India. It was founded in 1494 by Ahmad Nizam Shah I on the site of an older city, Bhingar, where he had won a battle against Bahamani forces, and it keeps several dozen buildings and sites from the Nizam Shahi period. Ahmednagar Fort, once considered almost impregnable, was used by the British to detain Jawaharlal Nehru and other nationalists, and Nehru wrote The Discovery of India there in 1944. The city hosts the Indian Armoured Corps Centre and School and other army establishments. It lies in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats with a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh) and often suffers drought. The 2011 census counted 350,859 residents, and the article says the city is home to 19 sugar factories and is the birthplace of the cooperative movement.