Pune District

Pune district पुणे जिल्हा
District of Maharashtra
Location of Pune district in Maharashtra
Country	India
State	Maharashtra
Administrative division	Pune Division
Headquarters	Pune
Government
• Lok Sabha constituencies	1. Pune, 2. Baramati, 3. Shirur, 4. Maval (Shared with Raigad District) Based on (Election Commission website)
• Assembly seats	21
Area
• Total	15,642 km² (6,039 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	9,426,959
• Density	600/km² (1,600/sq mi)
Demographics
• Literacy	87.19%
• Sex ratio	919
Major highways	NH-4, NH-9, NH-50
Website	Official website

Pune (District) is situated in Maharashtra state of India. Pune city is the district headquarters. In the most recent census on 2011, the total population of the district was 9,426,959, making it the fourth most populous district in India (out of 640). Urban population comprises 58.08% of the total population. The current population of Pune urban agglomerate is over 5 million.

With the establishment of the Nizamshahi rule with Ahmednagar as its headquarters, practically the whole of the Pune territory, perhaps with the exception of Indapur, which still continued to be under at least the nominal suzerainty of Yusuf Adil Khan of Bijapur, came under the unified control of the Nizamshahi. The territory was formed into a separate district or sarkar, with sub-divisions called paragana and smaller ranges called prant or desh. From such records as are available it appears that the revenue collection was mostly farmed amongst the important chieftains who were henchmen of the Nizamshahi. There was indeed an officer of the Nizamshahi who was charged with the responsibility of supervising and administering the functions of police and criminal justice, civil suits, as a rule, seem to have been referred to local panchayats.

Ahmednagar king had to bear the brunt of a heavy attack from the Mughal armies which converged on the capital in 1595. It was at this time that, with a view to enlisting the strongest possible local support against the Mughal invaders and to stabilise the administration of the territories under Ahmednagar rule, a policy of conferring on local Maratha chieftains increasing power was initiated by the Ahmednagar rulers. Amongst the chieftains so favoured was Maloji Bhosale, who was made a Rana in 1595, and the districts of Pune and Supa were conferred upon him as a jagir. Maloji Bhosale was also given charge of the forts of Shivneri and Chakan, which have played a very important part in the early political history of the Pune territory. Even before his coming into the title of Raja, Maloji had several watans as patil for a number of villages, including Verul which at that time was a part of Vidarbha. Maloji had married Dipabai, sister of Jagpalrao Naik Nimbalkar, the deshmukh of Phaltan. Maloji Bhonsle was thus one of the most exalted and at the same time the best connected chieftains of the Maratha country at this critical juncture when the Nizamshahi of Ahmednagar was entering upon a very intense struggle for existence against the on-coming forces of the Mughals. In the year 1600, Ahmednagar was captured by the Mughals. Thus, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, the suzerainty over the possessions of the Ahmednagar kingdom, including the Pune territory, passed to the Mughals. Malik Ambar, the faithful minister of Nizam Shah, raised Murtaza II to the Nizamshahi throne with its temporary headquarters at Junnar. For nearly a generation, Malik Ambar continued to guide the destinies of the Nizamshahi kingdom, and as the Pune area was practically the seat of the Nizamshahi government, the good effects of the all-sided reforms of Malik Ambar were witnessed in the administrative and economic life of the region. By the time Malik Ambar died in 1626, the revenue system of the Pune area had been put on a sound and liberal basis. The farming system which was in vogue for a long time and which raised its head again till the advent of British rule in all periods of political unsettlement was at least of the time being put a stop to.

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Wikipedia