Koregaon Bhima is a panchayat village and

census town In India and some other countries, a census town is designated as a town that satisfies certain characteristics. India In India, a census town is one which is not statutorily notified and administered as a town, but nevertheless whose population ...

2011 Census Village code for Koregaon Bhima = 555672, in the state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

,2001 Census Village code for Koregaon Bhima = 03050100, on the left (north) bank of the Bhima River. Administratively, Koregaon Bhima is under

Shirur Taluka Shirur taluka, is a taluka in Haveli subdivision of Pune district of state of Maharashtra in India. The town is situated on the bank of river Ghod and hence it was also known as Ghodnadi in 20th Century. The town is on the border of Pune & Ahm ...

of Pune District in Maharashtra. There is only the single town of Koregaon Bhima in the Koregaon Bhima gram panchayat. The town of Koregaon Bhima is 10 km along the SH 60 motorway southwest of the village of Shikrapur, and 28 km by road northeast of the city of Pune. It is the site of the

Battle of Koregaon The Battle of Koregaon was fought on 1 January 1818 between the British East India Company and the Peshwa faction of the Maratha Confederacy, at Koregaon Bhima. A 28,000-strong force led by Peshwa Baji Rao II whilst on their way to attack th ...

fought on 1 January 1818.

History

The

took place on 1 January 1818 between the army of

Peshwa The Peshwa was the second highest office in the Maratha Empire, next in rank and prestige only to that of the Chhatrapati. Initially serving as the appointed prime minister in the Maratha Kingdom, the office became hereditary when Shahu gave t ...

Baji Rao II and an

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

force, mainly Mahars. The Peshwa, with some 28,000 troops encamped at Phulgaon nearby, dispatched about 2000 of his soldiers to attack the Company force of some 800. The Company troops successfully defended themselves against the attack, and the Peshwa withdrew at night fearing the arrival of a larger British force. After the British victory in the

War War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

, the Company commissioned a victory

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

in Koregaon to commemorate its fallen soldiers. 22 of the 49 names of the slain soldiers on the pillar are that of

Mahar Mahar is one of the Indian caste found largely in the state of Maharashtra and neighbouring areas. Most of the Mahar community followed B. R. Ambedkar in converting to Buddhism in the middle of the 20th century. As of 2017 the Mahar caste w ...

caste. Today, the Mahars, who were formerly considered as untouchable, regard it as a symbol of their victory over the high-caste Peshwa, and gather in large numbers at the site on the anniversary of the battle. This battle has attained legendary status in Dalit history. The Dalits who follow BR Ambedkar view this battle as a victory of Mahars over the injustice and torture meted out to them by the Brahminical Peshwas.

Demographics

In the 2001 census, the village of Koregaon Bhima had 8,999 inhabitants, with 5,178 males (57.5%) and 3,821 females (42.5%), for a gender ratio of 738 females per thousand males.

2018 violence

References

External links

* * {{Pune district topics , state=autocollapse Villages in Pune district