Question

Which city is called ‘Manchester of India’?
A. Ahmedabad
B. Coimbatore
C. Mumbai
D. Jaipur

Answer 1

Hint:
The city is also known as “Boston of East” and is the second-largest producer of cotton in India.
Earlier it was known by the name Karnavati.

Complete answer:
The most important commodity traded in Ancient India to Modern India was cotton. The cotton textile industry emerged in 1818 AD when the first cotton textile mill was established at “Fort Gloster” near Calcutta. But the initial modern cotton textile mill was started in Bombay in 1854 by the local Parsi entrepreneur with the name of “Bombay Spinning & Weaving Company”.

The Cotton Textile centres in India are distributed into four regions: western, southern, northern and the eastern region. The states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal have an excessive degree of concentration of this industry and particularly in the three cities of Bombay, Ahmedabad and Coimbatore.

Option (A) Ahmedabad: It is known as the ‘Manchester of India & Boston of East’. It is also the second-largest centre of the cotton textile industry, the first being Mumbai. The other major centres in Gujarat are- Surat, Vadodara, Bharauch, Bhavnagar, Nadiad, Porbandar, Rajkot, Navsari, Mauri and Viramgam.

Ahmedabad is known as the “Manchester of India” because of similarity with the well-known cotton textile centre of Manchester, Great Britain and the following reasons.
Ahmedabad is situated on the bank of Sabarmati River (like Manchester is located on the banks of River Irwell). Its water is good for dying thread.

Climatic conditions are also appropriate for spinning and weaving fine thread.
Cotton textile products of this region have a good demand inside and outside India.
The flat terrain and easy availability of land are suitable for setting up the mills.

Option (B) Coimbatore: It is a city located in the state of Tamil Nadu and is referred to as the "Manchester of South India" due to its extensive textile industry, fed by the surrounding cotton fields. Hence, it is an incorrect option.

Option (C) Mumbai: The capital of Maharashtra, is known as the “city of dreams” because migrants from every part of the country move to the city in search of a better life. Hence, it is an incorrect option.

Option (D) Jaipur: The capital of Rajasthan, has got two popular nicknames “Paris of India” and the more popular one is the “Pink City of India”. Hence, this option is also incorrect.

Therefore the correct answer is A

Note
The city of Manchester, England, well known as the world's first industrial city, is known by the name of “Cottonopolis” and in the nineteenth century, it was the home of the cotton industry in Britain.

It was also famous as “Cotton City”. The first textile mill was built in Manchester by Richard Arkwright in 1781.