Bhopal

Bhopal takes its name from Raja Bhoj, the Paramara king of the 11th century who is credited with building the great dam that created the lake at the city's western edge. The modern city began much later, in the early 18th century, when Dost Mohammad Khan, an Afghan soldier who had served the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, took control of the area as Mughal power collapsed and made a fortified settlement at Bhopal his base. The state he founded survived the turmoil of the 18th century, signed a treaty with the British in 1818 and remained a princely state until independence.

Its most unusual period followed. From 1819 to 1926 Bhopal was ruled, with one short break, by four women in succession: Qudsia Begum, her daughter Sikandar, her granddaughter Shah Jahan and her great-granddaughter Sultan Jahan. They built the mosques, palaces and waterworks that still define the old city, founded schools and a modern administration, and made Bhopal one of the best-known princely states in India. The last ruler, Nawab Hamidullah Khan, resisted joining the new republic; Bhopal acceded to India in 1949 and became the capital of the new state of Madhya Pradesh in 1956, which brought a planned new town of wide roads and government colonies south of the lakes.

On the night of 2–3 December 1984 methyl isocyanate gas escaped from a Union Carbide pesticide plant on the northern edge of the city and spread through densely populated neighbourhoods. Thousands of people died within days and many thousands more were injured or left with lasting illness, in what is widely described as the worst industrial disaster in history. Litigation, compensation and the contamination of the abandoned site have remained live issues ever since, and survivors' organisations still campaign in the city.

Bhopal is often described as a meeting of two cities: the Muslim old town of the Begums north of the lakes, and the planned Hindu-majority new town built after 1956 to the south. Urdu poetry, Nawabi manners and a tradition of composed, courteous speech belong to the first; the state government, its universities and a large migrant middle class from across Madhya Pradesh belong to the second. The result is a capital that is calmer and less commercial than Indore, its larger rival to the west.

The city has an outsized place in Indian cultural life for its size, mostly through institutions founded in the 1980s. Bharat Bhavan brought together galleries of tribal and contemporary art, a theatre repertory and a poetry archive in one building above the lake, and gave Adivasi artists from Madhya Pradesh a national platform; the Museum of Mankind, on another hill nearby, reconstructs village architecture from every part of the country. Both reflect a long state interest in the tribal traditions of the plateau.

Festivals follow both calendars. Eid transforms the Chowk, Ramadan nights keep the old-city lanes busy until very late, and the annual Tablighi gathering on the city's outskirts draws enormous crowds. Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Durga Puja bring pandals and processions to the newer colonies, and immersion processions end at the lakes. Hindi is the language of daily life, with Urdu widely spoken and read in the old city.

About 1.8 million people lived in Bhopal at the 2011 census, and the urban area has grown steadily since, spreading south and east across the plateau. Government is the city's main business: the state secretariat, the assembly building designed by Charles Correa, courts, universities and the offices that go with them employ a large share of the middle class, and the coaching institutes of MP Nagar prepare thousands of young people for public service examinations. Textile and electrical works, a heavy-engineering plant to the east and a growing technology park make up much of the rest.

Residential life divides sharply by area. The old city is dense, poorer and mostly Muslim, built of narrow lanes and small shops; the colonies laid out after 1956 — Arera, Shahpura, Kolar Road and the newer suburbs beyond — are grids of houses and flats with their own markets and parks. Rents and property prices are low by the standards of Indian state capitals, which is part of the city's appeal.

The rhythm of the day is unhurried. Mornings begin with poha and tea at street stalls, offices and shops run through to the evening with a long lunch break, and families walk or sit along the lakes after dark. Water supply, traffic congestion and the unresolved clean-up of the Union Carbide site are the recurring civic arguments, along with the building of the metro across the city.

Bhopali cooking is the meat-heavy Mughlai tradition of a princely court, and the old city is where to find it. Korma here means mutton slow-cooked in a thick yoghurt and onion gravy; seekh and boti kebabs are grilled over charcoal at stalls around the Chowk and Ibrahimpura; and rezala, biryani and haleem, the wheat-and-meat porridge eaten in Ramadan, are all part of the repertoire. Bread is the accompaniment rather than rice — sheermal, naan and roghni roti — and many of these dishes are cooked in small family kitchens rather than restaurants.

The vegetarian food of Madhya Pradesh dominates the newer districts. Poha, flattened rice steamed with onion, turmeric and mustard seed and topped with crisp sev and raw onion, is the breakfast of the whole state, often eaten with a hot jalebi alongside. Dal bafla, the Malwa dish of baked wheat balls dipped in ghee and eaten with lentils, appears at celebrations; samosas, kachori and chaat fill the afternoon; and milk sweets, above all thick reduced-milk barfi and gulab jamun, are bought from shops in New Market and the old bazaars.

Two things finish a Bhopali meal. Paan, betel leaf folded around lime, areca nut and sweet or savoury fillings, has a particular local reputation and is sold from stalls on almost every corner. And tea — strong, sweet and boiled with milk — is drunk all day from glasses at roadside stands, with lassi in clay cups and cold sugarcane juice taking over in the hot months.