Surat

Surat (Gujarati: સુરત, also known as Suryapur, is the commercial capital of the Indian state of Gujarat.It is the administrative capital of Surat district and one of the fastest growing cities in India with a population in 2010 nearly the double of that in 2001. The city has been ranked 36th in the list of world's largest cities. Surat Metropolitan Region is widely regarded as one of the cleanest Metropolitan Regions in the country with the city proper being the third cleanest city in India.

The city is located 306 km south of state capital Gandhinagar, and is situated on the left bank of the Tapti River (Tapi), the centre being around 22 km (14 miles) from its mouth. A moat divides the older parts of the city, with its narrow streets and handsome houses, and the newer suburbs. The city is largely recognized for its textile and diamond businesses. It is also known as the diamond capital of the world and the textile capital of India. 92% of the world's diamonds are cut and polished in Surat. It has one of the highest GDP growth rates in India at 11.5% as of 2008. Surat was the primary port of India during the Mughal period, a distinction it lost to Bombay during the British Raj.

Surat is mentioned in the Sanskrit epic, the Mahābhārata, when Lord Krishna stopped there en route from Mathura to Dwarka. According to other later Sanskrit records, the area was ruled by the Western Chālukyas in 610 CE, and continued to be ruled by Hindu kings until it was captured by one of the generals of Quṭbuddīn Aibak. The Parsis started to settle there in the 12th century, and added greatly to its prosperity. In the early centuries during the reign of Maratha King, the port of Surat was used as the gateway to Mecca for pilgrims of the Hajj from India's interior regions. Both the Makkai Pul and the Mughal Sarai guest house for hajjis (pilgrims) are indicators of this historical significance.

Local traditions state that the city as we know it today was founded in the last years of the fifteenth century by a Brahman named Gopi, who called it Suryapūr (City of the Sun). In 1512 and 1530 Surat was burned and ravaged by the Portuguese Empire who were trying to maintain influence in the area. In 1513, the Portuguese traveler, Duarte Barbosa, described Surat as an important seaport, frequented by many ships from Malabar and various parts of the world. By 1520, the name of the city was Surat.

Surat eclipsed Khambhat as the major port of western India, when Khambhat's harbour began to silt up by the end of fifteenth century. During the reigns of the Mughal emperor Akbar, Jahāngīr and Shāh Jahān, Surat rose to become a chief commercial city of India and an imperial mint was established there. As the major port on the west coast of India, Surat also served as the port for the Hajj to Mecca. At the end of the 16th century, the Portuguese were undisputed masters of the Surat sea trade. There still is a picturesque fortress on the banks of the river built in 1540.

In 1608, ships from the British East India Company started docking in Surat, using it as a trade and transit point. In 1615, the British Captain Best, followed by Captain Downton, overcame Portuguese naval supremacy and obtained an imperial firman establishing a British factory at Surat following the Battle of Swally. The city was made the seat of a presidency under the British East India Company after the success of the embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the court of emperor Jehangir. The Dutch also founded a factory.

At its zenith, Surat was popularly viewed as the city of Kubera, the God of Wealth. In 1664 the Maratha King Shivaji attacked Surat, a key Mughal power centre, and a wealthy port town which generated a million rupees in taxes. When Shivaji arrived in Surat, he demanded tribute from the Mughal commander of the army stationed for port security. The tribute was refused and instead of battling the Marathas, the Mughal commander(Stationed at the Surat fort) sent an emissary to assassinate Shivaji, but in vain. Shivaji conquered the city and forces under his command exacted their revenge. Shivaji's army sacked Surat for nearly 3 weeks, looting both the Mughal and Portuguese trading centers.

The prosperity of Surat received a fatal blow when Surat was ceded to the British as part of the dowry for Catherine of Braganza's wedding to Charles II in 1662. Shortly afterwards, in 1668, the British East India company established a factory in Bombay (Mumbai) and Surat began its relative decline concurrent with the rise of British interests in Bombay.

Surat was sacked again by Shivaji in 1670. By 1687, the British East India Company had moved the presidency to Bombay. At its height, Surat's population reached an estimated 800,000, but by the middle of the 19th century the number had fallen to 80,000. The British took control of Surat again in 1759, and assumed all government powers of the city in 1800.

The city and the surrounding district remained comparatively tranquil during British rule. Even during the Revolt of 1857 (also known as the first struggle for India's independence), peace was not disturbed, owing to the largely mercantile interests of the local population.In the 19th century the Bawamia family was the wealthiest and most powerful family in the city of Surat, they were also heavily involved in the development of the city by focusing on maximizing exports to increase revenue and hence increase savings which led to investment in the diamond industry.

A fire and a flood in 1837 destroyed many of buildings of Surat. Among the interesting monuments that survive that destruction are the tombs of English and Dutch merchants and their families, dating to the 17th century, including those of the Oxenden brothers.

By the early 20th century, the population had slowly climbed to 119,306 and Surat was a center of trade and manufacturing, although some of its former industries, such as shipbuilding, were extinct. There were cotton mills, factories for ginning and pressing cotton, rice-cleaning mills and paper mills. Fine cotton goods were woven on hand-looms, and there were special manufactures of silk brocade and gold embroidery (known as Jari). The chief trades were organized in guilds. Manufacturing and trading brought an eclectic mix of ethnicity to the city, making Surat's culture unique.

In 1992, violent riots took place between Hindus and Muslims, the first and worst of their kind in the modern history of Surat. In 1994, a combination of heavy rains and blocked drains led to flooding of the city. A number of dead street animals and public waste were not removed in time and a plague epidemic spread through the city, which caused a number of countries to impose travel and trade sanctions. The municipal commissioner during that time, S. R. Rao and the people of Surat worked hard in the late 1990s to clean the city.

Surat is also home to the royal descendants of the amejee family which settled in Gujarat. The family were known to have to also have lineage to the mogul emperors. The family governed the manikpur district and were later known as the Bhana family.
Old English & Dutch Cemetery

The structure of the Old English and Old Dutch cemeteries in Surat is dominated by the largest monuments of Europeans in all over India. These graves are also some of the oldest tombs which have survived from the earliest times of British and Dutch activities at Surat.

The English traders settled in Surat in 1608 followed by the Dutch in 1617. French and also Swedes - even for just a short period - commenced trading-enterprises here. However, it seems that there are no re-mainders of their burial culture left today. Along with the Dutch also Armenian traders left a quite big cemetery in Surat. Both nations share the same burial ground only separated by a wall.
Geography

Surat the second capital of Gujarat is growing much as its neighboring metro Bombay and by 2020 it is estimated that Surat will be the largest city in Gujarat state and its urbanization will stretch from Kosamba in north to Billimora in south. Surat is a port city situated on the banks of the Tapti river (damming of the Tapti caused the original port facilities to close, the nearest port is now in the Hazira area of Surat Metropolitan Region). The city is located at 21°10′N 72°50′E / 21.17°N 72.83°E / 21.17; 72.83.[7] It has an average elevation of 13 meters. The Surat district is surrounded by Bharuch, Narmada (North), Navsari and Dang (South) districts. To the west is the Gulf of Cambay. The climate is tropical and monsoon rainfall is abundant (about 2,500 mm a year).

Surat has grown in area since the early 1700s. The oldest part of the city developed in the area between the train station and the area known as Athwalines. Since the 1970s most of the new development including the most desirable location for the city's burgeoning middle and upper class is the area between Athwalines and the coast at Dumas.
Climate

Surat has a Tropical monsoon climate, moderated strongly by the Arabian Sea. The summer begins in early March and lasts till June. April and May are the hottest months, the average temperature being 37 °C. Monsoon begins in late June and the city receives about 800 mm of rain by the end of September, with the average temperature being around 28 °C during those months. October and November see the retreat of the monsoon and a return of high temperatures till late November. Winter starts in December and ends in late February, with average temperatures of around 12 °C, and little rain.

Very often heavy monsoon rain brings floods in the Tapi basin area. In last two decades, the city has witnessed major floods every four years, the worst being the flood of August 2006, perhaps the costliest in the city's history. In the second week of August 2006, a massive flood caused severe damage to the city of Surat. According to a report released by Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad (IIM-A), massive flood after release of water from Ukai Dam had caused major human tragedy and property damage estimated at Rs 22,000 cr on that day. In less than three days, at least 150 people died directly due to flood and many other due to water-borne diseases that followed. More than 1500 animal carcasses were later hauled out of the mud.

The gross domestic product of Surat metro was estimated at $10 billion in 2010. Surat is known for diamonds, textiles and recently for diamond-studded gold jewellery manufacturing. Real Estate is a new emerging business in Surat.

Surat is famous for its diamond industry and textile industry, along with silk and chemicals. It is at the heart of the world's diamond-polishing industry, which in 2005 cut 95% of the world's diamond pieces and earned India $15 billion in exports. Gujarati diamond cutters emigrating from East Africa established the industry in 1901 and by the 1970s Surat-based diamond cutters began exporting stones to the US for the first time. Though much of the polishing work takes place on small weight stones, Surat's workshops have set their eyes on the lucrative market for finishing larger, pricier stones in the future.

The November 18, 2008 issue of the Wall Street Journal had an article about the diamond industry in Surat. It claims that 80% of the world's finished diamonds are cut and polished in this city. However the wages of the industry's workers remained flat for years and 250,000 workers, or one-third of the city's diamond industry workforce, has left between 2005–2008, leaving about 500,000. Only after a July 2008 strike did the workers obtain a 20% salary raise, their first in a decade.Most of diamonds are pollished in varachha area

Textiles

Surat is known for producing world-class synthetic textiles.".

Surti households have been declared the most prosperous in the country by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and Future Capital Research's Roopa Purushothaman in their latest study. The average annual household income (AHI) in the diamond city is Rs 4.57 lakh - the highest in the country.[10] The study says that Surat's AHI is almost equal to China's per capita income of 2007 and double the national per capita income. Even its GDP growth of 11.5 per cent for the many consecutive years is the fastest in the country. Recently Surat's diamond and textile industry faced the recession due to slowdown in US economy but is recovering. JARI, the oldest business in Surat, and 80000 embroidery units make the city a major center of the embroidery industry.