Koregaon Bhima


Koregaon Bhima is a panchayat village and census town in the state of Maharashtra, India, on the left bank of the Bhima River. Administratively, Koregaon Bhima is under Shirur Taluka 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 fought on 1 January 1818.

History

The Battle of Koregaon took place on 1 January 1818 between the army of Peshwa Baji Rao II of Maratha Confederacy, and a small East India Company force that included native as well as British men. The Peshwa, whose 28,000-strong force encamped at the nearby Phulgaon, dispatched 20,000 of his soldiers to attack the 834-strong Company force. 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 Third Anglo-Maratha War, the Company commissioned a victory obelisk in Koregaon to commemorate its fallen soldiers. 22 of the 49 names of the slain soldiers on the pillar are that of Mahar 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.
On January 1, 2018, when Dalits gathered in the nearby Vadhu Budruk to attend an event to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Bhima Koregaon, there were violent clashes between Dalits and Marathas, resulting in the death of at least one person and injuries to several others. The main event at the victory memorial at Bhima Koregaon was largely peaceful but clashes were reported from neighbouring villages. Due to aggravation of violence, the Dalits of Maharashtra had declared a statewide bandh on 3 January 2018. The bandh turned violent, with the protesters forcibly shutting down establishments, blocking roads and vandalizing vehicles.

Demographics

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