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The
present city was founded in the early 18th century by Bhakt Buland,
a Gond prince of the kingdom of Deogad in the Chhindwara district.
Seeing the advantage of civilized life in Delhi, he started to build
Nagpur as his new capital. His successor Chand Sultan continued the
work. On Chand Sultan's death in 1739, disputes regarding succession
arose and Raghuji Bhonsle, the Maratha governor of Berar, helped to
restore the elder son to the throne. As the dissentions continued,
Raghuji Bhonsle again intervened in 1743, and the control of Nagpur
slowly passed on from the Gonds to the Marathas. It became the
capital of the Bhonsles.
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With the Bhonsle
dynasty came the vast class of cultivators in Vidarbha. Raghuji's
successors lost some territories to the Peshwas of Pune and the
Nizam of Hyderabad. In 1803, Bhonsles (along with their allies
Scindias [Shinde] of Gwalior) at Assaye and Argaon (Argaum). In
1811 Pindaris attacked Nagpur. Bhonsles again lost to the British
in 1817 and Nagpur came under British influence. In 1853 Raghuji
III died without an heir to his kingdom. As a result, the city
lapsed into British control under Lord Dalhousie's Doctrine of
Lapse. { This policy was one of the reasons which led to the
Indian War of Independence [Sepoys' Mutiny : as referred to by the
British] in 1857}
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In 1861, Nagpur
became the capital of the Central Provinces. The advent of the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIP) in 1867 spurred its
development as a trade centre. After Indian independence, Nagpur
became the capital of Madhya Bharat state (C.P. and Berar). In
1960, the marathi majority Vidarbha region was merged with the
new state of Maharashtra and Nagpur was designated the second
capital of Maharashtra state, alternating with Bombay as the
seat of the Maharashtra state legislature.
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