Belgaum

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Belgaum is a town in northwest Karnataka, India. It is the headquarters of Belgaum district. It derives its name from sanskrit 'Venugram' (village of bamboos). The town is situated nearly 2,500 ft (762 m) above sea-level. INDAL (Indian Aluminium Company) is located at Belgaum. Belgaum also has a number of training centres of the Indian Armed Forces, and an air base of the Indian Air Force. The British had a sizable infantry post here, having realised the military importance of its geographic location. Perhaps that is one of the reasons for Belgaum's sobriquet The Cradle of Infantry. Development of a Rail Network for movement of resources and later troops was one of the means employed by both the East India Company and the British to exert control over India. Belgaum's Railway Station, the Mahatma Gandhi Railway Station was established by the British. A signboard declaring the sobriquet can be seen hung on Platform 1 at the Railway Station.

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Before 1956, Belgaum was a part of the then Bombay state. Hence, Marathi is the most widely spoken langauge in Belgaum city.

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Karnataka: Karnataka (ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ in Kannada) is one of the four southern states of India. Before 1973, the state was known as Mysore state, as it was formed out of the former Kingdom of Mysore in 1950, and enlarged in 1956 to include the Kannada-speaking regions of neighb...

India: The Republic of India is a country in South Asia which comprises most of the Indian subcontinent. India has a coastline which stretches over seven thousand kilometres, and shares its borders with Pakistan to the west, the People's Republic of China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, and Bangladesh...

Belgaum district: Belgaum District has, by the 2001 Census of India, a population of approximately 4.2 million. The district has an area of 12,000 sq. km., and is bounded on the west and north by Maharashtra state, on the northeast by Bijapur district, on the east by Bagalkot district, on the southeast by Gadag distr...