The earliest mentions about Meerut can be traced in Ramayana, where the land used to be known as “Maya Rashtra”, or the capital of May danav, the King of the demons. His daughter Mandodari became the queen consort of Ravana of Lanka. Close to Meerut’s Northeast, is a place where the remains were found of the ancient city of Hastinapur, the capital of Pandavas of Mahabharata, which was washed away by Ganges floods. The city also contained a Harappan settlement known as Alamgirpur, which was believed to be the easternmost settlement of the Indus valley civilisation. The land had been a centre of Buddhism too, during the reign of the Mauryan Dynasty. Having been at the center point location of northern India, it has also witnessed muslim conquests between 11th-17th century AD incessantly. Finally, during the British Raj, it is from here that the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the British East India Company, was started. This first war for Independence gifted an immortal fame for the city. But the damage this land witnessed for decades because of the frequent riots later on, left the city dry and dreaded.
This disturbed perspective about the city started to change after 2014, when the present government saw the potential of Meerut to become the super-district of UP. The city is on the wheels of unprecedented development since then, with mega projects like Rapid Rail, expressways, IT HUBs, sports facilities being inaugurated and planned. The construction of the ambitious Delhi-Meerut Rapid Rail Transit System is being done with a power-pace across the district.
The Ganga Expressway (594 km in length) project is also in the pipeline, which will directly connect Meerut (Western UP) to Prayagraj (Eastern UP). Work is also underway for the establishment of an IT Park in the city, land (~2.5 Acre) for which has already been provided by the Meerut Development Authority. All these projects are not only going to give a boost to employment, but will also strengthen connectivity.
The foundation-laying ceremony of the ‘Major Dhyan Chand Sports University’ in Meerut, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, is an example of this. After almost three decades, the city had the privilege of welcoming India’s Prime Minister (fourth time) on its soil. The first PM to visit the city was Jawahar Lal Nehru, followed by Indira Gandhi and later, Chandrashekar Singh in 1990-91.
Meerut, already popular as the world’s manufacturing hub for top quality cricket goods, had provided the shot puts and javelins that Swapna Barman (heptathlon), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (shot put) and Neeraj Chopra (javelin throw) used to win their gold medals in 2018 Asian Games. With the opening of this sports university, Meerut will have all the tools to not just cater to sports industry and businesses, but also provide a strong, accessible platform to many sports enthusiasts in the region. The sports goods export share of the city already closes to one-third of the total figure. In addition to this, a combination of world-class sports equipments and intense all-sports training environment at the new university, holds a potential to change the sports landscape of not just the city, not just the region, but of the entire country.
Another outcome of such a developmental expansion is the employement and encouragement among the youth, belonging not just to Meerut but to nearby villages, sister-towns and neighbouring districts.
It is rather interesting to see how the land of Meerut, that has held significance in the ‘Treta’ Yug, the ‘Dwapar Yug’, the Harappan era, and the colonial era, is shaping up in the New Modern India.
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