History[edit]
Ulhasnagar is a municipal town and the headquarters of the Tahsil bearing the same name. It is a railway station on the Mumbai-Pune route of the Central Railway. Ulhasnagar, a colony of migrants in the aftermath of the Partition of India (1947), is 61 years old. Situated 58 km from Mumbai, the once-barren land has developed into a rich town of Thane district. Originally, known as Kalyan Military transit camp (or Kalyan Camp), Ulhasnagar was set up especially to accommodate 6,000 soldiers and 30,000 others during World War II. There were 2,126 barracks and about 1,173 housed personals. The majority of barracks had large central halls with rooms attached to either end. The camp had a deserted look at the end of the war and served as a ready and commercial ideal ground for Partition victims. Sindhis, in particular, began life anew in the new land.
After the partition of India, over 100,000 Sindhi-speaking refugees from the newly created West Pakistan were relocated to deserted military camps five kilometres from Kalyan. The area was converted into a township in 1949 and foundation ceremony took place on 8 August 1949. The township was named Ulhasnagar by the then Governor-general of India, C. Rajagopalachari (literally 'city of joy'; ulhas=joy; nagar=city). Rajagopalachari also laid the foundation stone for the township.
A suburban railway station was built in 1955. In January 1960, Ulhasnagar Municipality was formed, with Arjun K. Ballani as first chief, and a municipal council was nominated. In 1965, elections to this council were held for the first time. Now this 28 square kilometre area has 389,000 people of Sindhi descent, the largest enclave of Sindhis in India. The town lies outside Mumbai city but within the Mumbai Conurbation. In 2010, the estimated population of Sindhi Hindus in Ulhasnagar was 400,000.[4] Ulhasnagar is one of the major exporter of jeans, clothes ,School Bags and fabrics not just in India but all over the world. Monthly production of jeans here is more than 20 million.
