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Malegaon Fort

The Malegaon Fort, situated on the bank of Mausam river, was constructed during the reign of Maratha king Narav Shankar in 1765 AD. The British army attacked on the fort in 1818 AD. However, they British army found it difficult to conquer the fort for a few weeks since it was guarded by highly trained 310 Arab warriors. The rest 40 guards were Indian Muslims. On June 14, 1818 AD the British army conquered the 77 ft tall fort. One the West the fort has the river, while the it has trench on its East, North and South.

Mughals ruled Malegaon upto 1636 AD, Nizam Shahi upto 1724 AD and the Marathas had taken over the fort by 1760 AD. The fort has a shrine on its top and a temple on the ground.

One of the country's heritage structures, the fort is in a dilapidated state. While a slum has come up within the fort premises, a state government sanctioned school is being run here too.

Education at a glance

This is the Malegaon High school and junior college building, located in the sprawling compound of the 50-year-old school. The school has over 7,000 students (pre primary to high school section). A photograph by Asif Ansari


In 1880, Britishers started the first school in Malegaon known as Anglo Vernacular school. Three years later, a Christian missionary school was also started. In the year 1900, a municipal solitary school was started by the government. In 1903, the civic body started the first Urdu and Marathi school for girls. In 1907, the first Urdu private school, Anjuman Hidayat-e-Islam, started. In 1927, Anglo Urdu High school, first Urdu high school, was started. In 1930, an organisation, Anjuman Moinuttulaba, was founded to prevent and control the school drop-outs.

Malegaon Municipal Corporation run schools:
There are 58 Urdu primary schools with a strength of 25,881 students while the Marathi primary schools have 3,824 students.

Private schools:
Urdu Medium:
Urdu primary schools run by private institution cross the figure of 36 with 35,000 students. In 30 private high schools, 24,000 students are studying. The number of junior colleges being run by Urdu institution is around five with 2,500.
(Around 89,000 students are studying in pre-primary to junior college level Urdu medium institution)


Marathi Medium:
There are 13 private Marathi primary schools with 10,000 students while in 15 Marathi high schools 18,000 students are studying. A total of seven junior colleges are being run by Marathi and English medium institutions with 2,321 students.
(Around 33,606 students are studying in pre-primary to junior college level Marathi medium institution)


English Medium:
There are total seven primary schools that teach around 3,000 students. In two English medium high schools around 1,031 students are studying.
(Around 4,124 students are studying in pre-primary to junior college level English medium institution)

Well-known Urdu High schools and colleges:
* A T T High school and Junior college: Founded in 1954
* The Malegaon High school and Junior college was started in 1956
* J A T Girls' High school was first started in 1962
* Jamhoor High school and Junior college was founded in 1963
* Tehzeeb High School and Junior college was founded in 1969
* Shaikh Usman High school and Junior college was started in 1978
* Jaamiat-ul-Huda was started in 1979
* Swess High school was started in 1989

Malegaon voters’ list will soon be in Urdu too

A FIRST IN STATE


Mateen Hafeez | TNN

Mumbai: Malegaon’s 2.38 lakh voters will soon have their names in the voters’ list in Urdu. With this, Malegaon will become the first city in Maharashtra to have the voters’ list in Urdu. This step has been taken to avoid mistakes in names and addresses.

Officials said this was the brainchild of Ajay More, sub-divisional magistrate, who has been conducting meetings with the citizens and political parties. Malegaon, which has a 6 lakhplus population at present, is divided into east and west by a river, Mausam. The eastern side of the town has 100% Urdu-speaking population. Officials said that several mistakes in the voters’ list were brought to the notice of the election commission officials.

It is learnt that educated unemployed youths would be hired to conduct a survey and correct the names, besides compiling them in Urdu. According to an estimate, 1,080 youths will be assigned the job for survey in the 72 municipal corporation constituencies in Malegaon.

The Times of India, March 20,2010

United We Stand

This photograph shows the city's Jama Masjid and next to that stands a Hanuman Temple on the Western bank of the Mausam river in Malegaon. The local bazaar is adjacent to the mosque and temple where the vegetable vendors are mostly Hindus while the buyers are the people from Muslim community. The mosque has a capacity of around 4,000 devotees while the temple has a capacity of around 200 devotees at a time. A picture by Asif Ansari