Mhow

Mhow, officially Dr. Ambedkar Nagar, is a town in the Indore district in Madhya Pradesh state of India. It is located south-west of Indore city, towards Mumbai on the old Mumbai-Agra Road. The town was renamed as Dr. Ambedkar Nagar in 2003, by the Government of Madhya Pradesh. Some articles in popular literature state that 'MHOW' stands for Military Headquarters Of War. However, this is a backronym, and there is no proof to support the theory that the name of the village comes from the acronym. The village near Mhow was called Mhow Gaon in the Mughal/Maratha eras, when English was not used in India. The Cantonment which came up in 1818 during the Third Anglo-Maratha War, came to be known as Mhow Cantt after the name of this village. Sir John Malcolm spelt the name of this town as MOW in his writings. The 1918 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica also mentions 'MAU'. However, the Cantonment was referred to by British officers as Mhow at least as early as the end of 1823 (letter from Lt Edward Squibb to his father in London). This cantonment town was founded in 1818 by John Malcolm as a result of the Treaty of Mandsaur between the English and the Holkars who were the Maratha Maharajas of Indore. John Malcolm's forces had defeated the Holkars of the Maratha Confederacy at the Battle of Mahidpur on 21 December 1817. It was after this battle that the capital of the Holkars moved from the town of Maheshwar on the banks of the Narmada to Indore. Mhow used to be the headquarters of the 5th (Mhow) Division of the Southern Command during the British Raj. Today this small town is associated with the Indian Army and with B. R. Ambedkar who was born here. Mhow was a meter gauge railway district headquarters during the British Raj and even after 1947. Mhow finally has a broad gauge connection with Indore but regular train services are yet to commence. According to Hindu religious texts, Janapav Kuti near Mhow is said to be the birthplace of Parashurama, an avatar of Vishnu.