Bengaluru

Bengaluru, long known in English as Bangalore until 2006, occupies a plateau in southern India at roughly 900 metres above sea level. It serves as the capital of Karnataka and, by the 2011 census, housed some 8.4 million inhabitants within its municipal limits, making it India’s third most populous city and the largest in the south. The wider metropolitan agglomeration extended to about 8.5 million residents then, ranking fifth nationally. Spread over 741 km² of mostly flat terrain, the region lies at the heart of the Mysore Plateau, part of the greater Deccan Plateau. Its highest elevation, near Doddabettahalli, reaches 962 m; to the south lie rocky hills of granite and gneiss. Soil types range from red laterite to clayey loams, and scattered water bodies punctuate scrubland and diminishing forest patches. Once more than two thirds forested in the early 1970s, urban growth has reduced canopy cover to under 15 per cent today.

Archaeology suggests human settlement as early as 4000 BCE. The name “Bengalooru” first appears in an 890 CE Kannada inscription at Nageshwara Temple. From the fourth century CE, control passed to the Western Ganga dynasty, then to the Cholas in the eleventh century, followed by the Hoysalas and Vijayanagara rulers. In 1537, Kempe Gowda I, acting under Vijayanagara’s suzerainty, founded the mud fort whose precincts form today’s oldest districts, the petes. After Vijayanagara’s decline, he proclaimed autonomy and successive Gowda chiefs expanded the settlement. In 1638, forces of the Bijapur Sultanate defeated Kempe Gowda III; the city became a jagir of Shahaji Bhonsle. The Mughals later transferred control to Mysore’s Wodeyar dynasty. Upon the death of Krishnaraja Wodeyar II in 1759, Hyder Ali seized power, handing it in turn to his son, Tipu Sultan.

British forces captured the city during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. Under the princely State of Mysore, the old petes remained the administrative core while, in 1809, the East India Company established a cantonment to the east. By the late nineteenth century, two distinct settlements—pete and cantonment—stood side by side. Following India’s independence in 1947, these merged under a single municipal administration in 1949. The city was declared capital of Mysore State, which in 1973 was renamed Karnataka. In English usage “Bangalore” persisted until the state government reverted to “Bengaluru” in 2006.

Climate records classify Bengaluru as a tropical savanna zone with clearly demarcated dry and wet seasons. Its elevation tempers heat; summers—March through May—occasionally exceed 35 °C but seldom climb above 36 °C. April averages a high of 34.1 °C. The northeast and southwest monsoons deliver most rain between June and September, peaking in September with afternoon and evening storms. Post-monsoon rains follow in October and November. Winters bring overnight lows near 15 °C in January. The all-time high, 39.2 °C, occurred on 24 April 2016, and the all-time low, 7.8 °C, dates to January 1884. Though sited in a relatively stable seismic zone, earthquakes up to magnitude 4.5 have been felt.

By 2023, Bengaluru’s metropolitan GDP reached an estimated US $359.9 billion, placing it among India’s most productive urban regions. Services account for roughly 39.5 per cent of output, manufacturing 36 per cent, and agriculture 2.3 per cent. The city hosts India’s leading information-technology complex, earning it the sobriquet “Silicon Valley of India.” Over 2,000 IT firms operate within its boundaries, while state-owned manufacturers also maintain sizeable plants. Major industrial clusters extend into neighbouring districts, the metropolitan region totaling 7,005 km² across Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural and Ramanagara. The Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority, formed in 1985, oversees regional planning.

Demographically, the 2011 census recorded 8,443,675 residents in the municipal area and 8,499,399 in urban agglomeration. By 2016, estimates placed the agglomeration at about 10.45 million, reflecting steady inward migration. Scheduled castes and tribes comprise some 13.2 per cent of the populace. Inequality measures yield a Gini index of 0.64. Approximately 16 per cent of city-dwellers live in roughly 600 slums, often lacking reliable water and sanitation. Public health and infrastructure disparities persist between affluent and working-class neighbourhoods. Yet in 2020, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs ranked Bengaluru India’s most livable city among those over one million inhabitants.

Religious adherents split primarily among Hindus (78.9 per cent as of 2011), Muslims (13.9 per cent), Christians (5.4 per cent) and Jains (1 per cent). Muslim communities include Dakhini and Urdu speakers, Kutchi Memons and Mappilas. Christian groups encompass Roman Catholic sub-communities—Tamil, Mangalorean and Malayali—alongside various Protestant denominations and migrants from India’s northeast.

Transport infrastructure spans air, rail, metro, road and bus networks. The city’s first airfield, established by Hindustan Aircraft Limited in 1941, served until 2008, when Kempegowda International Airport opened 31 km north at Devanahalli. It now ranks third in India by passenger volume, linked to the city by air-conditioned express buses. Rail service began in 1864 with the Cantonment–Jolarpettai line; successive expansions formed part of Madras-Bangalore Mail and the Southern Railway zone. Today, the South Western Railway oversees eighteen city stations, including Bengaluru City, Yesvantpur, Cantonment and Baiyappanahalli. A suburban rail network remains planned for 2026. Since 2011, Namma Metro has carried passengers on two lines totalling 76.95 km—making it India’s second-longest metro system—with three additional lines under construction.

Roadways include some 14,000 km of streets. A 10 km Inner Ring Road links Koramangala to Indira Nagar; a 60 km Outer Ring Road encircles the city’s core. A proposed 74 km Peripheral Ring Road would connect major arterial routes. The city lies on the Golden Quadrilateral highway network, served by National Highways 44, 48, 75, 275, 648 and 948. The Bengaluru–Mysuru Expressway has operated since March 2023; others under construction or proposed aim to improve connectivity with Chennai, Pune and Nagpur–Hyderabad corridors.

Bus transit within metropolitan limits falls to the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation, founded in 1997. By 2024 it ran 57,667 daily trips on some 5,766 routes with a fleet of 6,340 vehicles, including over 1,100 electric buses and air-conditioned services to the airport. The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation manages inter-city routes from major depots at Kempegowda, Shantinagar and Mysuru Road bus stations. Informal services—vans, auto-rickshaws, metered taxis—supplement official networks.

Vehicle registrations average 1,530 new entries per day; by 2023 the urban fleet neared ten million, of which some 7.5 million are two-wheelers. Unplanned growth has exacerbated congestion and pollution. Flyovers and one-way systems offer limited relief. A 2016 study found over one-third of diesel vehicles exceeding emission standards.

Despite these challenges, green spaces endure. As of 2024, municipal authorities maintain 1,288 parks. Lal Bagh, begun in the 1760s and expanded into a 240-acre botanical reserve in the nineteenth century, incorporates a primordial gneiss hillock and a late-sixteenth-century watchtower built by Kempe Gowda, alongside a glasshouse modelled on London’s Crystal Palace. It hosts a semi-annual flower show coinciding with national celebrations. Cubbon Park, covering 300 acres in the city centre since 1870, contains the city aquarium and central library. Bannerghatta National Park, some 260 km² to the south, preserves native wildlife, while the former central prison has become Freedom Park.

Cultural life includes longstanding single-screen cinemas—Elgin Talkies opened in 1896—and, more recently, multiplex complexes. Theatrical productions of varied genres and languages appear in venues across the metropolitan area.

Over two centuries, Bengaluru has absorbed shifting regimes and rapid urbanisation. Its landscape combines colonial cantonments, medieval petes and modern glass-and-steel towers. It remains defined by a moderate climate, pockets of verdure and the tensions of uneven growth. Statistical measures reflect both its economic heft and its social divide. Yet its identity persists in stone inscriptions, fortifications and groves of flowering trees that remind inhabitants of earlier eras, even as the city evolves.