Kanpur is the popular and biggiest important
industrial centre in Uttar Pradesh with its own historical, religious and
commercial importance. Kanpur is located on
the banks of the river Ganga. Kanpur, the name
of the city derived from Kanhiyapur (the city of Lord Krishna). It has the
population of 6 million people. It is famous for
leather and textile goods of superior quality. It is now one of the main
industrialized cities. Kanpur city is famous for leather, wool, cotton,
vegetable oil mills, chemical works and sugar refineries. Formerly known as
Manchester of the country, it is now also called the commercial capital of the
state.
Geography of Kanpur
The city's coordinates are 26.4670° North and 80.3500° East, placing it 83 km
from Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh. Kanpur, along with Allahabad
and Fatehpur, are part of the Lower Doab, which in antiquity was known as the
Vats country. It is surrounded by two main rivers of India, the Ganges in the
north-east and the Pandu river (Yamuna) in the south. The districts surrounding
Kanpur are Hamirpur in the south and Unnao in the north-east
Cultural
History of Kanpur
About 25 km from Kanpur is Bithoor. Legend has it that the
wife of
Lord Rama came to live at the ashram of the sage Valmiki, after Rama
expelled her from Ayodhya. It was here that Sita gave birth to the twins Lav
and Kush, and disappeared back into the earth when confronted by a
repentant Rama. Bithoor is also the site of the fort to which Nana Sahib escaped
following the British retaking of Kanpur. Today, Bithoor is a tourist spot on
the banks of the Ganges and Kanpur is expanding very fast with new residential
complexes sprouting up everywhere.
After 1857 it became an important center of the Leather and
Textile industries. The Government Harness and Saddler Factory was started in
1860 to supply the army with leather products, followed by Cooper Allen & Co. in
1880. The first cotton textile mill, the Elgin Mills,was started in 1862 and
Muir Mills in 1882, and many others that followed in the next 40 years, such as
Victoria Mills and Atherton West & Co. (Atherton Mills), made Cawnpore a major
textile producer.
