Deolali, or Devlali (), is a small hill station and a census town in Nashik district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Now it is part of

Nashik Metropolitan Region Nashik Metropolitan Region (NMR) is the metropolitan region around the city of Nashik. The Nashik Metropolitan Region Development Authority (NMRDA) is the planning and development authority of the region formed. NMRDA is headed by the Chief ...

. Deolali has an important army base. Deolali Camp, one of the oldest Indian military centres in the country, started the Air Force Station, the School of Artillery of the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

, and other establishments in this region. Deolali has plenty of temples and tourist destinations.

History

British period

Deolali was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

camp 100 miles north-east of

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

(then called Bombay). It was the original location of the Army Staff College (now the

Defence Services Staff College , motto_lang = sa , mottoeng = ''To War with Wisdom'' , established = (as the ''Army Staff College'', Deolali) , type = Defence Service Training Institute , affiliation = , endowment = , administrative_staff = , faculty = , pres ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and the

Pakistan Command and Staff College ( ''romanized'': Pir Sho Biyamooz Saadi)English: Grow old, learning Saadi ur, سیکھتے ہوئے عمر رسیدہ ہو جاؤ، سعدی , established = (as the ''Army Staff College'' in Deolali, British India) , closed ...

). It is also the source of the British slang noun doolally tap, loosely meaning "camp fever", and referring to the apparent madness of men waiting for ships back to Britain after finishing their

tour of duty For military personnel, a tour of duty is usually a period of time spent in combat or in a hostile environment. In an army, for instance, soldiers on active duty serve 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the length of their service commitment. ...

. By the 1940s this had been widely shortened to just " doolally", an adjective meaning " mad (insane)" or " eccentric".

Demographics

As of

2011 Indian Census The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, Deolali had a total population of 54,027, of which 28,269 were males and 25,758 were females. Population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 6,085. The total number of literates in Deolali was 43,172, which constituted 79.9% of the population with male literacy of 83.5% and female literacy of 76.0%. The effective literacy rate of 7+ population of Deolali was 90.1%, of which male literacy rate was 94.3% and female literacy rate was 85.4%. The

Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

population was 11,540 and 1,982 respectively. Deolali had 11696 households in 2011. India

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

, Deolali had a population of 50,617, of which males were 27,693 (55%) of the population and females were 22,924 (45%). Population in the age group 0–6 years was 6,024. The total number of literates were 39,215, which constituted 77.5% of the total population. The effective literacy of population 7 years and above was 87.9%.

Transportation

Railways

Devlali railway station is very close to the cantonment where a large number of important trains halt. Located 17 km from

Nashik Nashik (, Marathi: aːʃik, also called as Nasik ) is a city in the northern region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Situated on the banks of river Godavari, Nashik is the third largest city in Maharashtra, after Mumbai and Pune. Nashi ...

city, there is air connectivity as an Air Terminal has been constructed at Ozar airfield.

Education

Notable educational institutes include: * Barnes School

Places of interest

Around the town, It is also a town with various health sanatoriums and temples, including the Muktidham temple at

Nashik Road Nashik Road (sometimes referred to as Nasik Road) is a suburb of Nashik that contains the city's railway station. The name 'Nashik Road' was originally used for the town surrounding the station (about 8 km or 5 miles southwest from the heart of ...

. The town is also famous for Buddhist caves, popularly known as Pandavleni Caves. The golf course, inside the Deolali Cantonment, was one of the largest in India at the time of its development by the British. The Shrine of

Infant Jesus The Christ Child, also known as Divine Infant, Baby Jesus, Infant Jesus, the Divine Child, Child Jesus, the Holy Child, Santo Niño, and to some as Señor Noemi refers to Jesus Christ from his nativity to age 12. The four canonical gospels, a ...

, which is a Christian pilgrim centre is located 8 km away from Deolali. The Artillery Museum, which was established in 2000 and is open to the public.

In popular culture

* The town was the setting for the first four series of the British

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

It Ain't Half Hot Mum ''It Ain't Half Hot, Mum'' is a BBC television sitcom about a Royal Artillery concert party based in Deolali in British India and the fictional village of Tin Min in Burma, during the last months of the Second World War. It was written by Jimm ...

'', set in 1945.

References

External links

Questions & Answers: Doolally tap:

Michael Quinion Michael Quinion (born c. 1943) is a British etymologist and writer. He ran World Wide Words, a website devoted to linguistics. He graduated from Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he studied physical sciences and after which he joined BBC radio as a ...

, 1996–2005
World Wide Words

{{Nashik district Cities and towns in Nashik district