title: Thomas Meunier

text: Meunier was signed by Club Brugge in January 2011 for a transfer fee of 200,000 euros, with the actual transfer to be completed during the 2011 summer transfer window. A few days earlier, Club Brugge had just missed out on the transfers of Dalibor Veselinović and Jelle Van Damme and therefore wanted to make sure Meunier would not become the third near miss. Club Brugge managed to complete the deal before any of the several other interested Belgian clubs (Anderlecht, Standard Liège, Sint-Truiden and Zulte Waregem) could.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: Ahead of the new season, Meunier was given the number 19 shirt. On 31 July 2011, Club Brugge played its first match of the 2011–12 season against Westerlo in which Meunier was allowed to play the final 20 minutes. Meunier played a decent match, getting on the score sheet in the process. It wasn't until on 21 September 2011 when he scored again, in a 3–2 win over Dessel Sport. He then scored three goals in five appearances in all competitions between 16 October 2011 and 3 November 2011 against Gent, Genk and Birmingham City. Since making his debut for Club Brugge, Meunier established himself in the first team, playing in the midfield position. As a result, he signed a contract extension, to keep him at the club until 2016. Despite injuries, Meunier finished his first season at Club Brugge, making 49 appearances and scoring 5 times in all competitions. At the end of the 2011–12 season, Meunier's goal against Genk earned him third place for Goal of the Season.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: At the start of the 2012–13 season, Meunier started the season well when he scored in the first four league matches against Waasland-Beveren, Charleroi, KV Mechelen and Beerschot. After the match, Meunier talked about scoring regularly, saying "Last season I scored three times. My ambition was to do better. But this is very close." He started out playing in the right–wing position. However, Meunier suffered injuries on two occasions that kept him out until November. He didn't return until 17 November 2012, coming on as a second–half substitute, in a 6–2 win over Waasland-Beveren. After returning, Meunier began playing in the right–back position, which he said was no problem. Around late–January, he suffered an injury once again and was sidelined until March. After returning to the first from injury, Meunier regained his first team place, where he played in the right–back position for the rest of the season. At the end of the 2012–13 season, Meunier went on to make 28 appearances and scoring 4 times in all competitions.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: At the start of the 2013–14 season, Meunier was sidelined until September, after an operation on a groin injury. Since returning from injury, Meunier quickly returned to the first team, regaining his right–back position and helped the side keep a clean sheet four times between 14 September 2013 and 5 October 2013. His performance attracted attention from Bundesliga side Wolfsburg but stayed at the club throughout the January transfer window. It wasn't until on 18 February 2014 when he scored his first goal for the club, in a 5–2 win over OH Leuven. He then scored twice on 16 March 2014, in a 2–0 win over Cercle Brugge. In a 1–0 loss against Anderlecht on 4 May 2014, Meunier scored an own goal, which saw them lose and costing the club their title chances. Despite being sidelined later in the 2013–14 season, Meunier made 33 appearances and scored three times in all competitions. He also received a Blue Shoe two months later.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: In the 2014–15 season, Meunier started the season well when he set up one of the goals, in a 2–0 win over Waasland-Beveren. From the start of the season, Meunier appeared in every match in the right–back position until he suffered an injury in early–December. On 22 November 2014, Meunier scored his first goal of the season, in a 4–2 win over Waasland-Beveren. After returning from injury, he scored again on 14 December 2014, in a 3–1 win over Standard Liège. In January 2015, Meunier signed a new contract with the club, keeping him until 2019. Shortly after, on 20 January 2015, he produced a hat–trick of assists, in a 3–2 win over KV Mechelen to send them through to the semi final of Beker van België. Meunier suffered two injuries towards the end of the season. Nevertheless, he played every minute of the 2015 Belgian Cup Final against rivals RSC Anderlecht, which ended in a 2–1 win for Club Brugge which enabled the club to win its first Belgian Cup since 2007. At the end of the 2014–15 season, Meunier made 46 appearances and scored two times in all competitions. For his performance, Meunier was awarded Footballer of the Year.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: Ahead of the 2015–16 season, Meunier was linked with a move away from Club Brugge and was expected to leave the club in the summer. However, he suffered a knee injury whilst on international duty and was out for two months. It wasn't until on 30 August 2015 when he returned to the first team from injury, coming on as a late substitute, in a 7–1 win over Standard Liège. He then scored his first goal of the season on 23 September 2015, as well as, setting up a goal, in a 4–0 win over Patro Eisden. A week later, on 1 October 2015, Meunier scored again in a UEFA Europa League match, in a 3–1 loss against Midtjylland. Then, on 5 November 2015, he scored in the UEFA Europa League campaign once again, in a 1–0 win over Legia Warsaw. He captained Club Brugge for the first time when he led a 4–1 win over KV Mechelen on 30 November 2015. He then set up two goals in a 6–0 win over Westerlo, followed up by scoring again, in a 3–2 loss against Genk. He went on to score two more goals against Genk and Gent towards the end of the season and helped the club win the league. Despite being sidelined on two occasions later in the 2015–16 season, Meunier went on to make 42 appearances and scored six times.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: Over the 2016 summer transfer window, Meunier was a transfer target for several clubs, with Paris Saint-Germain leading the chase to sign him. But in early June, he made it clear that he was going to stay at the club. Despite his claim that he intended to stay at Club Brugge, he continued to be a transfer target.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: When Meunier joined Club Brugge in 2011, he initially played as a striker or right winger before he was transformed into a right back by head coaches Juan Carlos Garrido, Georges Leekens and Michel Preud'homme due to the lack of players playing in that position because of injuries sustained by his teammates Davy De Fauw and Tom Høgli, and the departure of Carl Hoefkens.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: On 3 July 2016, Paris Saint-Germain announced that Meunier had just joined PSG on a four-year deal that would tie him to the club until 30 June 2020. The transfer fee was reported to be 7 million euros. Prior to the move, Meunier admitted to having doubts about moving to PSG, citing a possible lack of playing time there.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: In the 2016 International Champions Cup friendly match against Real Madrid in Ohio, Meunier scored twice to help PSG to a 3–1 win.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: On 6 August 2016, Meunier made his first competitive appearance for PSG by coming on as a substitute for David Luiz in the 76th minute of the 2016 Trophée des Champions. After being an unused substitute for PSG's first two league matches of the 2016–17 season, he made his league debut for the club and played 28 minutes in a 3–1 loss against AS Monaco on 28 August 2016. Meunier found himself competing with Serge Aurier throughout the season and due to good performances by Aurier, Meunier often appeared on the substitute's bench.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: After suffering a knee injury in late September, Meunier returned to the first team, starting in the right back position and scoring a goal, in a 2–0 league home win over Bordeaux on 1 October 2016. On 1 November 2016, Meunier assisted Blaise Matuidi's opening goal and scored the winning goal with a stunning 90th-minute side-footed curling volley in PSG's 2–1 away win over Basel in a 2016–17 UEFA Champions League Group A match; it was Meunier's first competitive goal for PSG. As a result of his good performance, he was named a member of the UEFA Team of the Week.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: On 21 December 2016, Meunier scored his first league goal for the club, in a 5–0 win over Lorient. However, the next two months saw him sidelined with injuries on two occasions. Despite this, Meunier received more playing time throughout January 2017 as a right–back because Aurier had to play for his national team in the finals of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. The following month, he played the whole 90 minutes and set up a goal for Edinson Cavani, in a 4–0 win over Barcelona in the last 16 first leg of the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League. "We played the perfect match. Everyone was really looking forward to it, I have not seen that this season," he said right after that match. However, Meunier conceded a penalty and PSG lost 6–1 to Barcelona in the second leg; PSG were thus eliminated from the competition 6–5 on aggregate. "This is unacceptable. We had to start the game in a calmer way. That is what PSG lacks a bit. Finding an explanation is difficult," Meunier said.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: Towards the end of the 2016–17 season, Meunier continued to compete for a first team place with Aurier. He suffered further injuries. Although he featured in both the Coupe de la Ligue and Coupe de France campaigns, Meunier did not play in both of the finals; he was on the substitute bench for the former and missed the latter because of an injury sustained. During the 2016–17 season, he made 36 appearances and scored twice in all competitions.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: During the summer transfer window of 2017, Meunier was the subject of a transfer request when Premier League side Chelsea tried to sign him on the transfer window deadline day but had their bid rejected by PSG. At the start of the 2017–18 season, Meunier played his first competitive match of the season by starting as the right–back, in the 2–1 win over AS Monaco in the 2017 Trophée des Champions. After Aurier's departure to Tottenham Hostpur, he still had to compete for the right–back position due to the arrival of Dani Alves.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: Having been an unused substitute for PSG's previous two league matches (against Guingamp and Toulouse), Meunier finally made his first league appearance of the season, replacing Dani Alves and then setting up a goal for Edinson Cavani, in a 3–0 home win over Saint-Étienne on 25 August 2017. It was not until 30 September 2017 when he scored his first goal of the season for the club, in a 6–2 league home win over Bordeaux. On 14 October 2017, Meunier scored both of PSG's goals in another league match, in a 2–1 win at Dijon. Between late–October and mid–December, he played twice in the league despite picking up an injury while playing for the national side.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: On 13 December 2017, Meunier started in the right–back position and assisted two goals, in a 4–2 win over RC Strasbourg. A month later, on 30 January 2018, Meunier scored again in the semi-finals of Coupe de la Ligue, in a 3–2 win over Stade Rennais. He then scored his fourth goal of the season, in a 5–0 win over FC Metz on 10 March 2018. Towards the end of the 2017–18 season, he regained his right–back position in number of matches when Alves was absent from the first team, due to injury and suspension. On 8 May 2018, he came off the bench as PSG won 2–0 against Les Herbiers VF to clinch the Coupe de France. Meunier also won his first league title at PSG after beating Monaco on 15 April 2018. At the end of the 2017–18 season, he went on to make 34 appearances and scoring 5 times in all competitions.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: On 18 September 2018, Meunier scored a goal in a 2–3 loss to Liverpool in 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage. On 6 March 2019, he came on as a substitute in a 1–3 loss to Manchester United, in which Paris Saint-Germain were eliminated from the Champions League round of 16 on away goals.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: In the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League group stage, he scored a goal in a 3–0 win over Real Madrid on 18 September 2019. On 4 March 2020, he played his last match with Paris Saint-Germain in a 5–1 win over Lyon in the 2019–20 Coupe de France semi-final.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: On 25 June 2020, it was announced that Meunier would be joining Borussia Dortmund from PSG on a four-year deal as a free agent.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: After appearing for the Belgium U15 team, Meunier was called up for the Belgium U21 team for the first time in February 2011, but did not play.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: Meunier was called up for the second time in August 2011 and finally made his Belgium U21 debut on 9 August 2011, in a 3–2 friendly loss against Turkey U21. On 6 September 2011, he then scored his first U21 goal, in the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification 4–1 home win over Azerbaijan U21. He made seven appearances (five of those were in 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification matches) and scored once for the Belgium U21 team.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: After being called up to the senior side for the first time on 14 November 2013, Meunier made his debut for the Belgian national team in a home friendly match against Colombia, which was preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. He also appeared as a substitute in two further friendlies, against Japan (2–3 loss) and Iceland (3–1 win), but was not included in coach Marc Wilmots' final 23-man squad for the tournament.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: After missing out in the World Cup, Meunier was called up in November 2014 and made his first appearance in almost a year, in a 3–1 win over Iceland on 12 November 2014.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: After being called up to the squad for the Euro 2016, Meunier played the whole 90 minutes at right back in the UEFA Euro 2016 group stage and then set up a goal for Axel Witsel, in a 3–0 win over Republic of Ireland. He also aided his team in keeping another clean sheet in 90 minutes at right back in another victory over Sweden four days later. He also started in Belgium's 4–0 round of 16 win against Hungary. Meunier finished the UEFA Euro 2016 campaign with five appearances for the side.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: On 13 November 2016, Meunier scored in the 8th minute in Belgium's 8–1 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualification win over Estonia at the King Baudouin Stadium to register his first ever senior international goal. On 31 August 2017, Meunier recorded his first career senior international hat-trick in Belgium's 9–0 defeat of Gibraltar, a match in which he also recorded four assists. On 7 October 2017, he scored the opening goal of Belgium's 4–3 defeat of Bosnia and Herzegovina to end the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign with five goals and seven assists from eight matches.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: Meunier was selected in Belgium's final 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He was Belgium's first-choice right midfielder and played his first World Cup match, in a 3–0 win over Panama in their opening group game at the 2018 FIFA World Cup. In a next match against Tunisia on 23 June 2018, Meunier set up Romelu Lukaku's second goal of the game, in a 5–2 win to qualify for the Round of 16. He also set up Nacer Chadli to score in injury time in a 3–2 victory over Japan in the round of 16 of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. However, after a 2–1 win over Brazil on 6 July 2018, he received another booking, which caused him to miss the semi–finals. On 14 July 2018, Meunier returned from suspension, scoring the opening goal of the match for Belgium in a 2–0 victory against England in their third-place play-off, his nation's best-ever World Cup finish.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: On 12 June 2021, Meunier came on as a substitute for the injured Timothy Castagne after just 27 minutes and scored Belgium's second goal in the 34th minute during a 3–0 win in their first Euro 2020 group stage match against Russia. In doing so, Meunier became the first ever player to score a first half goal after coming on as a substitute in the UEFA European Championship.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: Growing up, Meunier idolised Brazil World Cup winner Ronaldo, saying: "He evolves, like me, at the center forward position. I liked his style of play and his dribbling". He was quoted in an interview saying that he supported Anderlecht growing up, but this turned out to be incorrect. He revealed that he didn't have an easy childhood: his parents divorced when he was a teenager and started a new life with his mother and sister. While at Virton, Meunier worked part time at a car factory and as a postman, receiving a diploma for finishing school. Outside of football, he's also a fan of art. He opened a catering business in his hometown of Bastogne and has thought about becoming a baker once his football career is over.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: Meunier speaks fluent French, Flemish, English, and German. In November 2012, Meunier was fined €120 and given a 13-day driving ban after being convicted of speeding. After his conviction, Meunier began taking driving lessons again.


title: Thomas Meunier

text: Meunier is in a relationship with Deborah Panzokou, having known her since high school. In May 2015, it was announced that the couple were expecting their first child. Deborah gave birth to a baby boy, Landrys, (born in December 2015). In October 2017, it was announced that the couple were expecting their second child, who was born in April 2018.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Taslima Nasrin (born 25 August 1962) is a Bangladeshi-Swedish writer, physician, feminist, secular humanist, and activist. She is known for her writing on women's oppression and criticism of religion. Some of her books are banned in Bangladesh. She has also been blacklisted and banished from the Bengal region (both from Bangladesh and West Bengal state of India).


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: She gained global attention by the beginning of 1990s owing to her essays and novels with feminist views and criticism of what she characterizes as all "misogynistic" religions. Nasrin has been living in exile since 1994. After living more than a decade in Europe and the United States, she moved to India in 2004, but was banished from the country in 2008, although she has been staying in India on a resident permit long-term, multiple-entry or 'X' visa since 2004. She now lives in New Delhi, India.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Nasrin was born to Dr. Rajab Ali and Edul Ara in Mymensingh into a Bengali Muslim family. Her father was a physician, and a professor of Medical Jurisprudence in Mymensingh Medical College, also at Sir Salimullah Medical College, Dhaka and Dhaka Medical College. After high school in 1976 (SSC) and higher secondary studies in college (HSC) in 1978, she studied medicine at the Mymensingh Medical College, an affiliated medical college of the University of Dhaka and graduated in 1984 with an MBBS degree. In college, she wrote and edited a poetry journal called "Shenjuti". After graduation, she worked at a family planning clinic in Mymensingh, then practised at the gynaecology department of Mitford hospital and at the anaesthesia department of Dhaka Medical College hospital. While she studied and practised medicine, she saw girls who had been raped; she also heard women cry out in despair in the delivery room if their baby was a girl. She was born into a Muslim family; however, she became an atheist over time. In the course of writing she took a feminist approach.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Early in her literary career, Nasrin wrote mainly poetry, and published half a dozen collections of poetry between 1982 and 1993, often with female oppression as a theme, and often containing very graphic language. She started publishing prose in the late 1980s, and produced three collections of essays and four novels before the publication of her documentary novel "Lajja" () in which a Hindu family was being attacked by Muslim fanatics and decided to leave the country. Nasrin suffered a number of physical and other attacks for her critical scrutiny of Islam and her demand for women's equality. Many of her opposers took to the streets demanding her execution by hanging. In October 1993, a radical fundamentalist group called the Council of Islamic Soldiers offered a bounty for her death. In May 1994 she was interviewed by the Kolkata edition of "The Statesman", which quoted her as calling for a revision of the Quran; she claims she only called for abolition of the Sharia, the Islamic religious law. In August 1994 she was brought up on "charges of making inflammatory statements," and faced criticism from Islamic fundamentalists. A few hundred thousand demonstrators called her "an apostate appointed by imperial forces to vilify Islam"; a member of a "militant faction threatened to set loose thousands of poisonous snakes in the capital unless she was executed." After spending two months in hiding, at the end of 1994 she escaped to Sweden, consequently ceasing her medical practice and becoming a full-time writer and activist.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: After fleeing Bangladesh in 1994, Nasrin spent the next ten years in exile in Sweden, Germany, France and the US. She returned to the East and relocated to Kolkata, India, in 2004, where she lived until 2007. After she was physically attacked by opposers in Hyderabad, she was forced to live under house arrest in Kolkata, and finally, she was made to leave West Bengal on 22 November 2007. She was then forced to live under house arrest in Delhi for 3 months. She had no other alternative but to leave India in 2008. She was not allowed to live in India for a while, but ultimately Nasrin, determined to live in the subcontinent, moved to India from the US.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Leaving Bangladesh towards the end of 1994, Nasrin lived in exile in Western Europe and North America for ten years. Her Bangladeshi passport had been revoked; she was granted citizenship by the Swedish government and took refuge in Germany. She allegedly had to wait for six years (1994–1999) to get a visa to visit India. In 1998 she wrote "Meyebela, My Bengali Girlhood", her biographical account from birth to adolescence. She never got a Bangladeshi passport to return to the country when her mother, and later her father, were on their death beds.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: In 2004, she was granted a renewable temporary residential permit by India and moved to Kolkata in the state of West Bengal, which shares a common heritage and language with Bangladesh; in an interview in 2007, after she had been forced to flee, she called Kolkata her home. The government of India extended her visa to stay in the country on a periodic basis, though it refused to grant her Indian citizenship. While living in Kolkata, Nasrin regularly contributed to Indian newspapers and magazines, including "Anandabazar Patrika" and "Desh", and, for some time, wrote a weekly column in the Bengali version of "The Statesman".


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Again her criticism of Islam was met with opposition from religious fundamentalists: in June 2006, Syed Noorur Rehaman Barkati, the imam of Kolkata's Tipu Sultan Mosque, admitted offering money to anyone who "blackened [that is, publicly humiliated] Ms Nasreen's face." Even abroad she caused controversy: in 2005, she tried to read an anti-war poem titled "America" to a large Bengali crowd at the North American Bengali Conference at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and was booed off the stage. Back in India, the "All India Muslim Personal Board (Jadeed)" offered 500,000 rupees for her beheading in March 2007. The group's president, Tauqeer Raza Khan, said the only way the bounty would be lifted was if Nasrin "apologises, burns her books and leaves."


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: In 2007, elected and serving members of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen made threats against Tasleema Nasreen, pledging that the "fatwa" against her and Salman Rushdie were to be abided by. While she was in Hyderabad releasing Telugu translations of her work, she was attacked by party members led by 3 MLAs- Mohammed Muqtada Khan, Mohammed Moazzam Khan and Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri - were then charged and arrested.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: On 9 August 2007, Nasrin was in Hyderabad to present the Telugu translation of one of her novels, "Shodh", when she was allegedly attacked by a mob, led by legislators from the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, an Indian political party. A week later, on 17 August, Muslim leaders in Kolkata revived an old fatwa against her, urging her to leave the country and offering an unlimited amount of money to anybody who would kill her. On 21 November, Kolkata witnessed a protest against Nasrin. A protest organised by the "All India Minority Forum" caused chaos in the city and forced the army's deployment to restore order. After the riots, Nasrin was forced to move from Kolkata, her "adopted city," to Jaipur, and to New Delhi the following day.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: The government of India kept Nasrin in an undisclosed location in New Delhi, effectively under house arrest, for more than seven months. In January 2008, she was selected for the Simone de Beauvoir award in recognition of her writing on women's rights, but declined to go to Paris to receive the award. She explained that "I don't want to leave India at this stage and would rather fight for my freedom here," but she had to be hospitalised for three days with several complaints. The house arrest quickly acquired an international dimension: in a letter to London-based human rights organisation Amnesty International, India's former foreign secretary Muchkund Dubey urged the organisation to pressure the Indian government so Nasrin could safely return to Kolkata.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: From New Delhi, Nasrin commented: "I'm writing a lot, but not about Islam, It's not my subject now. This is about politics. In the last three months I have been put under severe pressure to leave [West] Bengal by the police." In an email interview from the undisclosed safehouse, Nasrin talked about the stress caused by "this unendurable loneliness, this uncertainty and this deathly silence." She cancelled the publication of the sixth part of her autobiography "Nei Kichu Nei" ("No Entity"), and—under pressure—deleted some passages from "Dwikhandito", the controversial book that was the boost for the riots in Kolkata. She was forced to leave India on 19 March 2008.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Nasrin moved to Sweden in 2008 and later worked as a research scholar at New York University. Since, as she claims, "her soul lived in India," she also pledged her body to the country, by awarding it for posthumous medical use to Gana Darpan, a Kolkata-based NGO, in 2005. She eventually returned to India, but was forced to stay in New Delhi as the West Bengal government refused to permit her entry.. Currently her visa received a one-year extension in 2016 and Nasreen is also seeking permanent residency in India but no decision has been taken on it by the Home Ministry


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: In 2015 Nasrin was supposedly threatened with death by Al Qaeda-linked extremists, and so the Center for Inquiry assisted her in traveling to the United States, where she now lives. The Center for Inquiry (CFI) that helped evacuate her to the U.S. on 27 May gave an official statement in June 2015 stating that her safety "is only temporary if she cannot remain in the U.S., however, which is why CFI has established an emergency fund to help with food, housing, and the means for her to be safely settled".


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Nasrin started writing poetry when she was thirteen. While still at college in Mymensingh, she published and edited a literary magazine, "SeNjuti" ("Light in the dark"), from 1978 to 1983. She published her first collection of poems in 1986. Her second collection, "Nirbashito Bahire Ontore" ("Banished within and without") was published in 1989. She succeeded in attracting a wider readership when she started writing columns in late 1980s, and, in the early 1990s, she began writing novels, for which she has won significant acclaim. In all, she has written more than thirty books of poetry, essays, novels, short stories, and memoirs, and her books have been translated into 20 different languages.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Her own experience of sexual abuse during adolescence and her work as a gynaecologist influenced her a great deal in writing about the alleged treatment of women in Islam and against religion in general. Her writing is characterised by two connected elements: her struggle with the Islam of her native culture, and her feminist philosophy. She cites Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir as influences, and, when pushed to think of one closer to home, Begum Rokeya, who lived during the time of undivided Bengal. Her later poetry also evidences a connection to place, to Bangladesh and India.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: In 1989 Nasrin began to contribute to the weekly political magazine "Khaborer Kagoj", edited by Nayeemul Islam Khan, and published from Dhaka. Her feminist views and anti-religion remarks articles succeeded in drawing broad attention, and she shocked the religious and conservative society of Bangladesh by her radical comments and suggestions. Later she collected these columns in a volume titled "Nirbachita Column", which in 1992 won her first Ananda Purashkar award, a prestigious award for Bengali writers. During her life in Kolkata, she contributed a weekly essay to the Bengali version of "The Statesman", called "Dainik Statesman". Taslima has always advocated for an Indian Uniform civil code, and said that criticism of Islam is the only way to establish secularism in Islamic countries. Taslima said that Triple talaq is despicable and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board should be abolished. Taslima used to write articles for online media venture The Print in India.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Her breakthrough novel "Lajja" ("Shame") was published in 1993, and attracted wide attention because of its controversial subject matter. It contained the struggle of a patriotic Bangladeshi Hindu family in a Muslim environment. Initially written as a thin documentary, "Lajja" grew into a full-length novel as the author later revised it substantially. In six months' time, it sold 50,000 copies in Bangladesh before being banned by the government that same year.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: "Amar Meyebela" ("My Girlhood", 2002), the first volume of her memoir, was banned by the Bangladeshi government in 1999 for "reckless comments" against Islam and the prophet Mohammad. "Utal Hawa" ("Wild Wind"), the second part of her memoir, was banned by the Bangladesh government in 2002. "Ka" ("Speak up"), the third part of her memoir, was banned by the Bangladeshi High Court in 2003. Under pressure from Indian Muslim activists, the book, which was published in West Bengal as "Dwikhandita", was banned there also; some 3,000 copies were seized immediately. The decision to ban the book was criticized by "a host of authors" in West Bengal, but the ban was not lifted until 2005. "Sei Sob Ondhokar" ("Those Dark Days"), the fourth part of her memoir, was banned by the Bangladesh government in 2004.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: To date, a total of seven parts of her autobiography have been published. "Ami bhalo nei tumi bhalo theko priyo desh", " Nei kichu nei" and "Nirbashito". All seven parts have been published by Peoples's Book Society, Kolkata.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: She received her second "Ananda Purashkar" award in 2000, for her memoir "Amar Meyebela" ("My Girlhood", published in English in 2002).


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Nasrin's life is the subject of a number of plays and songs, in the east and the west. The Swedish singer Magoria sang "Goddess in you, Taslima," and the French band Zebda composed "Don't worry, Taslima" as an homage.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Her work has been adapted for TV and even turned into music. "Jhumur" was a 2006 TV serial based on a story written especially for the show. Bengali singers like Fakir Alamgir, Samina Nabi, Rakhi Sen sang her songs. Steve Lacy, the jazz soprano saxophonist, met Nasrin in 1996 and collaborated with her on an adaptation of her poetry to music. The result, a "controversial" and "compelling" work called "The Cry", was performed in Europe and North America. Initially, Nasrin was to recite during the performance, but these recitations were dropped after the 1996 Berlin world premiere because of security concerns.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Nasrin has been criticized by writers and intellectuals in both Bangladesh and West Bengal for targeted scandalisation. Because of "obnoxious, false and ludicrous" comments in "Ka", "written with the 'intention to injure the reputation of the plaintiff'", Syed Shamsul Haq, Bangladeshi poet and novelist, filed a defamation suit against Nasrin in 2003. In the book, she mentions that Haq confessed to her that he had a relationship with his sister-in-law. A West Bengali poet, Hasmat Jalal, did the same; his suit led to the High Court banning the book, which was published in India as "Dwikhondito". Nearly 4 million dollars were claimed in defamation lawsuits against her after the book was published. The West Bengal Government, supposedly pressured by 24 literary intellectuals, decided to ban Nasrin's book in 2003. Nasrin replied that she wrote about known people without their permission when some commented that she did it to earn fame. She defended herself against all the allegations. She wrote why she dared to reveal her sexual activities, saying that she wrote her life's story, not others'. Yet Nasrin enjoyed support from Bengali writers and intellectuals like Annada Shankar Ray, Sibnarayan Ray and Amlan Dutta.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Recently she was supported and defended by personalities such as author Mahasweta Devi, theatre director Bibhas Chakrabarty, poet Joy Goswami, artist Prakash Karmakar and Paritosh Sen. In India, noted writers Arundhati Roy, Girish Karnad, and others defended her when she was under house arrest in Delhi in 2007, and co-signed a statement calling on the Indian government to grant her permanent residency in India or, should she ask for it, citizenship. In Bangladesh writer and philosopher Kabir Chowdhury also supported her strongly.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: When Sri Lanka banned the burqa in 2019, Nasrin took to Twitter to show her support for the decision. She termed burqa as a 'mobile prison'.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: She also stated that those with "bad genes" (for which she lists diabetes, hypertension, and cancer) should not reproduce.


title: Taslima Nasrin

text: Taslima Nasrin has received international awards in recognition of her contribution towards the cause of freedom of expression. Awards and honors conferred on her include the following:


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (15 April 1721 – 31 October 1765) was the third and youngest son of King George II of Great Britain and Ireland and his wife,


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: Caroline of Ansbach. He was Duke of Cumberland from 1726. He is best remembered for his role in putting down the Jacobite Rising at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, which made him immensely popular throughout parts of Britain. He is often referred to by the nickname given to him by his Tory opponents: 'Butcher' Cumberland.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: For much of the War of the Austrian Succession, with the assistance of John Ligonier, Cumberland commanded the main allied field army in Flanders acting in defence of the Austrian Netherlands and the Dutch Republic. At the head of the largest deployment of British troops on the continent since the days of Marlborough and opposed to the experienced French Marshal Maurice de Saxe, Cumberland's campaigning could not prevent the fall of the Dutch Barrier Forts. Between 1748 and 1755 he attempted to enact a series of army reforms that were resisted by the opposition and by the army itself. Following the Convention of Klosterzeven in 1757, he never again held active military command and switched his attentions to politics and horse racing.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: William was born in Leicester House, in Leicester Fields (now Leicester Square), Westminster, London, where his parents had moved after his grandfather, George I, accepted the invitation to ascend the British throne. His godparents included the King and Queen in Prussia (his paternal aunt), but they apparently did not take part in person and were presumably represented by proxy. On 27 July 1726, at only five years old, he was created Duke of Cumberland, Marquess of Berkhamstead in the County of Hertford, Earl of Kennington in the County of Surrey, Viscount of Trematon in the County of Cornwall, and Baron of the Isle of Alderney.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: The young prince was educated well; his mother appointed Edmond Halley as a tutor. Another of his tutors (and occasional proxy for him) was his mother's favourite Andrew Fountaine. At Hampton Court Palace, apartments were designed specially for him by William Kent.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: William's elder brother Frederick, Prince of Wales, proposed dividing the king's dominions. Frederick would get Britain, while William would get Hanover. This proposal came to nothing.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: From childhood, he showed physical courage and ability, and became his parents' favourite. He was enrolled in the 2nd Foot Guards and made a Knight of the Bath aged four. He was intended, by the King and Queen, for the office of Lord High Admiral, and, in 1740, he sailed, as a volunteer, in the fleet under the command of Sir John Norris, but he quickly became dissatisfied with the Navy, and, instead secured the post of colonel of the First Regiment of Foot Guards on 20 February 1741.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: In December 1742, he became a major-general, and, the following year, he first saw active service in Germany. George II and the "martial boy" shared in the glory of the Battle of Dettingen (27 June 1743), where Cumberland was wounded in his right leg by a musket ball. After the battle he was made a lieutenant general.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: In 1745, Cumberland was given the honorary title of Captain-General of the British land forces and in Flanders became Commander-in-Chief of the allied British, Hanoverian, Austrian and Dutch (known as the Pragmatic Army) troops despite his inexperience. He initially planned to take the offensive against the French, in a move he hoped would lead to the capture of Paris, but was persuaded by his advisors that this was impossible given the vast numerical superiority of the enemy.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: As it became clear that the French intention was to take Tournai, Cumberland advanced to the relief of the town, which was besieged by Marshal Saxe. In the resulting Battle of Fontenoy on 11 May 1745, the Allies were defeated by the French. Saxe had picked the battleground on which to confront the British, and filled the nearby woods with French marksmen. Cumberland ignored the threat of the woods when drawing up his battle plans, and instead concentrated on seizing the town of Fontenoy and attacking the main French army nearby.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: Despite a concerted Anglo-Hanoverian attack on the French centre, which led many to believe the Allies had won, the failure to clear the woods and of the Dutch forces to capture Fontenoy forced Cumberland to retreat to Brussels, where he was unable to prevent the fall of Ghent, Bruges and Ostend. Cumberland was frequently criticised for his tactics in the battle, particularly his failure to occupy the woods.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: As the leading British general of the day, he was chosen to put a decisive stop to Prince Charles Edward Stuart, a direct descendant of James VII of Scotland and II of England (James VII/II was the last Stuart king on the male line), in the Jacobite rising of 1745. His appointment was popular, and caused morale to soar amongst the public and troops loyal to King George.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: Recalled from Flanders, Cumberland proceeded with preparations for quelling the Stuart (Jacobite) uprising. The Jacobite army had advanced southwards into England, hoping that English Jacobites would rise and join them. However, after receiving only limited support such as the Manchester Regiment, the followers of Charles decided to withdraw to Scotland.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: Cumberland joined the Midland army under Ligonier, and began pursuit of the enemy, as the Stuarts retreated northwards from Derby. On reaching Penrith, the advanced portion of his army was repulsed on Clifton Moor in December 1745, and Cumberland became aware that an attempt to overtake the retreating Highlanders would be hopeless. Carlisle was retaken, and he was recalled to London, where preparations were in hand to meet an expected French invasion. The defeat of his replacement as commander, Henry Hawley, roused the fears of the English people in January 1746, when, under a hail of pistol fire, "eighty dragoons fell dead upon the spot" at Falkirk Muir.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: Arriving in Edinburgh on 30 January 1746, he at once proceeded in search of Charles. He made a detour to Aberdeen, where he spent some time training the well-equipped forces now under his command for the next stage of the conflict in which they were about to engage.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: On 8 April 1746, he set out from Aberdeen for Inverness, and, on 16 April, he fought the decisive Battle of Culloden, in which the Stuart forces were completely destroyed. Cumberland ordered his troops to show no quarter against any remaining Jacobite rebels (French Army personnel, including those who were British-or Irish-born, were treated as legitimate combatants). His troops traversed the battlefield and stabbed any of the rebel soldiers who were still alive. When Cumberland learned that a wounded soldier lying at his feet belonged to the opposing cause, he instructed a major to shoot him; when the major (James Wolfe) refused to do so, Cumberland commanded a private to complete the required duty.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: The British Army then embarked upon the so-called 'pacification' of Jacobite areas of the Highlands. All those of the troops believed to be 'rebels' were killed, as were non-combatants; 'rebellious' settlements were burned and livestock was confiscated on a large scale. Over a hundred Jacobites were hanged. Women were imprisoned, and droves of people were sent by ship to London for trial; as the journey took up to 8 months, many of them died on the way.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: Following Culloden, Cumberland was nicknamed "Sweet William" by his Whig supporters and "The Butcher" by his Tory opponents the latter being a taunt first recorded in the City of London and used for political purposes in England. Cumberland's own brother, the Prince of Wales (who had been refused permission to take a military role on his father's behalf), seems to have encouraged the virulent attacks upon the Duke. Cumberland preserved the strictest discipline in his camp. He was inflexible in the execution of what he deemed to be his duty, without favour to any man. In only a few cases he exercised his influence in favour of clemency. The Duke's victorious efforts were acknowledged by his being voted an income of £25,000 "per annum" over and above his money from the civil list. A thanksgiving service was held at St Paul's Cathedral, that included the first performance of Handel's oratorio "Judas Maccabaeus", composed especially for Cumberland, which contains the anthem "See the Conquering Hero Comes".


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: The Duke took no part in the Flanders campaign of 1746, during which the French made huge advances capturing Brussels and defeating the Allies at Rocoux. In 1747, Cumberland returned to the Continent and he again opposed the still-victorious Marshal Saxe and received a heavy defeat at the Battle of Lauffeld, or Val, near Maastricht, on 2 July 1747. This and the fall of Bergen-op-Zoom compelled the two sides to the negotiating table and in 1748 the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was concluded and Cumberland returned home.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: Cumberland's unpopularity, which had steadily increased since Culloden, interfered greatly with his success in politics, and when the death of the Prince of Wales brought the latter's son, a minor, next in succession to the throne, the Duke was not able to secure for himself the contingent regency. As a compromise, the regency was vested in the Dowager Princess of Wales, who considered him an enemy, but her powers were curtailed and she was to be advised by a committee of twelve men, headed by Cumberland.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: Whilst in the office of Commander-in-Chief Cumberland attempted to reform the peacetime army with the support of his father. He wished to wrest control over promotions from the government to the army itself and to limit or curtail the practise of purchase. Cumberland further wished to create a special standing force which could be quickly deployed overseas in time of crisis. The Whigs who only tolerated the army's existence in peacetime and only had confidence in their control over the militia, saw the expansion and further professionalisation of the army as absolutist. Critics such as Horace Walpole argued the institution of purchase was one of the safeguards of parliamentary sovereignty against Royalist insurrection. Cumberland's opponent in government Charles Townshend wished to instead further reduce the peacetime army and reform the militia by creating a volunteer force for home defence, a precursor to the volunteers of the 19th century which would be under the direct control of civil authorities.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: In 1754, the simmering colonial rivalry between Britain and France over competing territorial claims in North America developed into war. France asserted its claim to Ohio Valley by building a network of powerful fortifications. The government ministry led by Newcastle initially proposed a limited military response in which a Highland regiment supported by colonial forces would drive the French from the Ohio Valley. Cumberland believed the plan was not decisive enough to protect British interests in North America and expanded the plan to include a four pronged assault against New France, with forces striking simultaneously at Duquesne, Crown Point, Niagara, and Beauséjour. Cumberland proposed that only overwhelming force would defeat France in America, which was contradictory to Newcastle's own proposals and previous government strategies which advocated limited offensive operations. Further he proposed a role of commander in chief for forces in America, who would have the power to levy local troops and direct local strategy. A 3,500 strong mixed force of regulars, militia, and allied natives would be assembled and would cross the Virginia mountains and strike Duquesne, two regiments drawn from Ireland were given this task. An officer who had impressed Cumberland on previous campaigns, Edward Braddock, was given command of all crown forces in America, to the surprise of many in the army as Braddock was relatively unknown. Newcastle approved the bolder plan, which met with limited success. In his role as army Commander-in-Chief, Cumberland advised on the conduct of the war in North America. He believed the war should be principally conducted by the colonies themselves and that regular troops should only play a supporting role. He was influential in the appointment of Loudoun, another favorite and an officer who had served in Cumberland's army during the Jacobite rebellion. Cumberland advised Loudoun to expose his officers and soldiers to scouting expeditions, so that they might "learn to beat the woods". Cumberland approved the plan to develop light infantry in the British army.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: In 1757, the war having spread to the continent, Cumberland was placed at the head of the Hanoverian Army of Observation, intended to defend Hanover (of which George II was Elector) from a French invasion. At the Battle of Hastenbeck, near Hamelin, on 26 July 1757, Cumberland's army was defeated by the superior forces of d'Estrées. Despite seemingly having the advantage towards the end of the battle, Cumberland's forces began to retreat. Within a short time discipline had collapsed, and Cumberland's army headed northwards in total disorder. Cumberland hoped that the Royal Navy might bring him reinforcements and supplies which would allow him to regroup and counterattack, but the British mounted an expedition to Rochefort instead, despite suggestions that it should be sent to aid Cumberland.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: By September 1757 Cumberland and his forces had retreated to the fortified town of Stade on the North Sea coast. The King gave him discretionary powers to negotiate a separate peace. Hemmed in by French forces led by the Duc de Richelieu, Cumberland agreed to the Convention of Klosterzeven, under which his army was to be disbanded and much of Hanover occupied by French forces, at the "Zeven" Convent on 8 September 1757.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: On Cumberland's return to London, he was treated badly by his father, despite the fact that he had previously been given permission to negotiate such an agreement. When they met, George II remarked "Here is my son who has ruined me and disgraced himself". In response, Cumberland resigned all the military and public offices he held and retired into private life.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: Cumberland's final years were lived out during the first five years of the reign of his nephew, George III, who acceded to the throne on the death of William's father on 25 October 1760. Cumberland became a very influential advisor to the King and was instrumental in establishing the First Rockingham Ministry. Cabinet meetings were held either at Cumberland Lodge, his home in Windsor, or at Upper Grosvenor Street, his house in London. Cumberland never fully recovered from his wound at Dettingen, and was obese. In August 1760, he suffered a stroke and, on 31 October 1765, he died at his home on Upper Grosvenor Street in London at age 44. He was buried beneath the floor of the nave of the Henry VII Lady Chapel in Westminster Abbey. He died unmarried.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: The Duke's full style as proclaimed at his funeral by Garter King-of-Arms was: "the [...] most High, most Mighty, and most Illustrious Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, and Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburgh, Marquess of Berkhamstead, Earl of Kennington, Viscount Trematon, Baron of the Isle of Alderney, Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter, and First and Principal Companion of the most Honourable Order of the Bath, third Son of His late most Excellent Majesty King George the Second".


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: On 20 July 1725, as a grandchild of the sovereign, William was granted use of the arms of the realm, differenced by a "label argent of five points, the centre point bearing a cross gules, the first, second, fourth and fifth each bearing a canton gules". On 30 August 1727, as a child of the sovereign, William's difference changed to a "label argent of three points, the centre point bearing a cross gules".


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: Prince William County, Virginia is named for him, as well as Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County, New Jersey, Cumberland County, North Carolina, and Cumberland County, Virginia. Various other places in the American colonies were named after him, including the Cumberland River, the Cumberland Gap and the Cumberland Mountains. In Britain, Cumberland Road in Kew and the Grade II listed Cumberland Gate into Kew Gardens are named after him.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: A memorial obelisk was erected to the Duke's military services in Windsor Great Park. It is inscribed "THIS OBELISK RAISED BY COMMAND OF KING GEORGE THE SECOND COMMEMORATES THE SERVICES OF HIS SON WILLIAM DUKE OF CUMBERLAND THE SUCCESS OF HIS ARMS AND THE GRATITUDE OF HIS FATHER THIS TABLET WAS INSCRIBED BY HIS MAJESTY KING WILLIAM THE FOURTH". According to a local park guide, the obelisk was originally inscribed "Culloden" but Queen Victoria had "Culloden" removed.


title: Prince William, Duke of Cumberland

text: An equestrian statue of the Duke was erected in London's Cavendish Square in 1770, but was removed in 1868 since by that time the 'butcher of Culloden' was generally reviled. The original plinth remained.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The population at the 2011 Census was 11,619.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: <includeonly>Henley does not appear in Domesday Book of 1086; often it is mistaken for "Henlei" in the book which is in Surrey.</includeonly>


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: There is archaeological evidence of people residing in Henley since the second century as part of the Romano-British period. The first record of Henley as a substantial settlement is from 1179, when it is recorded that King Henry II "had bought land for the making of buildings". King John granted the manor of Benson and the town and manor of Henley to Robert Harcourt in 1199. A church at Henley is first mentioned in 1204. In 1205 the town received a tax for street paving, and in 1234 the bridge is first mentioned. In 1278 Henley is described as a hamlet of Benson with a chapel. The street plan was probably established by the end of the 13th century. As a demesne of the crown it was granted in 1337 to John de Molyns, whose family held it for about 250 years.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: The existing Thursday market, it is believed, was granted by a charter of King John. A market was certainly in existence by 1269; however, the jurors of the assize of 1284 said that they did not know by what warrant the Earl of Cornwall held a market and fair in the town of Henley. The existing Corpus Christi fair was granted by a charter of Henry VI. During the Black Death pandemic that swept through England in the 14th century, Henley lost 60% of its population. A variation on its name can be seen as "Henley up a Tamys" in 1485.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: By the beginning of the 16th century, the town extended along the west bank of the Thames from Friday Street in the south to the Manor, now Phyllis Court, in the north and took in Hart Street and New Street. To the west, it included Bell Street and the Market Place. Henry VIII granted the use of the titles "mayor" and "burgess", and the town was incorporated in 1568 in the name of the warden, portreeves, burgesses and commonalty. The original charter was issued by Elizabeth I but replaced by one from George I in 1722.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: Henley suffered at the hands of both parties in the Civil War. Later, William III rested here on his march to London in 1688, at the nearby recently rebuilt Fawley Court, and received a deputation from the Lords. The town's period of prosperity in the 17th and 18th centuries was due to manufactures of glass and malt, and trade in corn and wool. Henley-on-Thames supplied London with timber and grain. A workhouse to accommodate 150 people was built at West Hill in Henley in 1790, and was later enlarged to accommodate 250 as the Henley Poor Law Union workhouse.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: Prior to 1974 Henley was a municipal borough with a Borough Council comprising twelve Councillors and four Aldermen, headed by a Mayor. The Local Government Act 1972 resulted in the re-organisation of local government in that year. Henley became part of Wallingford District Council, subsequently renamed South Oxfordshire District Council. The borough council was replaced by a town council but the role of mayor was retained.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: Henley Bridge is a five arched bridge across the river built in 1786. It is a Grade I listed historic structure. During 2011 the bridge underwent a £200,000 repair programme after being hit by the boat "Crazy Love" in August 2010. About upstream of the bridge is Marsh Lock. Henley Town Hall, which maintains a prominent position in the Market Place, was designed by Henry Hare and completed in 1900. Chantry House is the second Grade I listed building in the town. It is unusual in having more storeys on one side than on the other. The Church of England parish church of St Mary the Virgin is nearby and has a 16th-century tower. The Old Bell is a pub in the centre of Henley on Bell Street. The building has been dated from 1325: the oldest-dated building in the town. To celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, 60 oak trees were planted in the shape of a Victoria Cross near Fairmile, the long straight road to the northwest of the town. Two notable buildings just outside Henley, in Buckinghamshire, are:


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: Lloyds Bank's analysis of house price growth in 125 market towns in England over the year to June 2016 (using Land Registry data), found that Henley was the second-most expensive market town in the country with an average property price of £748,001.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: The town's railway station is the terminus of the Henley Branch Line from Twyford. In the past there have been direct services to London Paddington. There are express mainline rail services from Reading () to Paddington. Trains from High Wycombe () go to London Marylebone. The M4 motorway (junction 8/9) and the M40 motorway (junction 4) are both about () away. There are two bus services that runs from Reading through to High Wycombe via Henley. They are the 800 and the 850 bus service.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: The River and Rowing Museum, located in Mill Meadows, is the town's one museum. It was established in 1998, and officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II. The museum, designed by the architect David Chipperfield, features information on the River Thames, the sport of rowing, and the town of Henley itself. The University of Reading's Henley Business School is near Henley, as is Henley College. Rupert House School is a preparatory school located in Bell Street.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: Henley is a world-renowned centre for rowing. Each summer the Henley Royal Regatta is held on Henley Reach, a naturally straight stretch of the river just north of the town. It was extended artificially. The event became "Royal" in 1851, when Prince Albert became patron of the regatta. Other regattas and rowing races are held on the same reach, including Henley Women's Regatta, the Henley Boat Races for women's and lightweight teams between Oxford University and Cambridge University, Henley Town and Visitors Regatta, Henley Veteran Regatta, Upper Thames Small Boats Head, Henley Fours and Eights Head, and Henley Sculls. These "Heads" often attract strong crews that have won medals at National Championships. Local rowing clubs include:


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: The regatta depicted throughout "Dead in the Water", an episode of the British detective television series Midsomer Murders, was filmed at Henley.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: Henley has the oldest football team Henley Town F.C. recognised by the Oxfordshire Football Association, they play at The Triangle ground. Henley also has a rugby union club Henley Hawks which play at the Dry Leas ground, a hockey club Henley Hockey Club which play at Jubilee Park, and Henley Cricket Club which has played at Brakspear Ground since 1886. a new club in Henley was started in September 2016 called Henley Lions FC.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: Henley's local newspaper is the "Henley Standard". BBC Radio Berkshire ("94.6,95.4,104.1,104.4"), Heart Berkshire ("97.0, 102.9, 103.4"), Reading 107 ("107.0"), all broadcast from Reading, serve an area including Henley, as does Time 106.6 broadcast from Slough. London's radio stations such as Capital FM and Magic 105.4 along with a few others can also be received. Regatta Radio ("87.7") was broadcast during Henley Royal Regatta for a number of years up to 2014. As Henley is on an overlap of TV regions, it is possible to receive signals from both BBC London and BBC South transmitters, as well as ITV London and ITV Meridian. However, the local relay transmitter for Henley only broadcasts programmes from ITV and BBC London, making Henley the only part of Oxfordshire included within the London television region.


title: Henley-on-Thames

text: Henley-on-Thames was represented in the 2010 American drama film "The Social Network" as the site of a rowing competition between the US and the Netherlands.


title: South African Defence Force

text: The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: "Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag") comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Force was officially succeeded by the SADF, which was established by the Defence Act (No. 44) of 1957. The SADF, in turn, was superseded by the South African National Defence Force in 1994.


title: South African Defence Force

text: The SADF was organised to perform a dual mission: to counter possible insurgency in all forms, and to maintain a conventional military arm which could defend the republic's borders, making retaliatory strikes as necessary. As the military expanded during the 1970s, the SADF general staff was organised into six sections—finance, intelligence, logistics, operations, personnel, and planning; uniquely, the South African Medical Service (SAMS) was made co-equal with the South African Army, the South African Navy and the South African Air Force.


title: South African Defence Force

text: During apartheid, armed SADF troops were used in quelling opposition to minority rule, often directly supporting the South African Police. South African military units were involved in the long-running Mozambican and Angolan civil wars, frequently supporting Pretoria's allies, the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). SADF personnel were also deployed during the related South African Border War.


title: South African Defence Force

text: The military was mostly composed of white South Africans, who alone were subject to conscription. The permanent force of the Army was 85% Afrikaans speaking. However, black South Africans were the second largest group, and Asians and Coloured citizens with mixed ancestry were eligible to serve as volunteers, several attaining commissioned rank. From 1971 onwards, several black battalions were raised in the Infantry and Service Corps on a tribal basis, most black soldiers serving in these exclusive tribal battalions, which had black NCOs but white commissioned officers. The first black personnel were accepted into commissioned ranks only from 1986, and then only for serving black soldiers and NCOs. The regular Commission would not be open for Bantus until 1991, and then again they would serve only in black units or Support/Service Support units, to avoid having position of authority over white combat arms personnel. The first black officer to be promoted to lieutenant colonel rank and have command over a battalion sized unit was only appointed in February 1994, by which time the old SADF was already on its deathbed. However, black officer candidates from the various Homeland Forces and from South West Africa/SWATF had been accepted since 1981. Units such as the 32 Battalion incorporated many black volunteers, as did the 101 Battalion. Conscription was opposed by organisations such as the End Conscription Campaign, but overall, white morale remained high—as indicated by the few recruits tried for serious disciplinary offences.


title: South African Defence Force

text: Before 1957, the Union of South Africa had relied on small standing cadres for defence, expanding during wartime through the use of white conscripts. During the Second World War the Union Defence Force initially fielded only 3,353 full-time soldiers, with another 14,631 active in reserve roles. These troops were not prepared to fight in Europe proper, as they had hitherto been trained only in basic light infantry tactics and bush warfare. However, Jan Christiaan Smuts proved remarkably resourceful in raising 345,049 men for overseas operations; South African soldiers went on to distinguish themselves as far abroad as Italy and Egypt.


title: South African Defence Force

text: After 1957, the new South African Defence Force was faced with a post-war upsurge in African nationalism, and forced to expand its resources accordingly. In 1963 its total strength stood at around 25,000 men. By 1977, the United Nations was imposing arms sanctions on the republic due to its controversial policy of racial apartheid. South Africa responded by developing a powerful domestic arms industry, capable of producing quality hardware, including jet fighters, drones, guided missiles, armoured cars, multiple rocket launchers, and small arms. SADF units fought in the Angolan Civil War during Operation Savannah and were also active alongside Rhodesian Security Forces during the Rhodesian Bush War. Although both campaigns were strategically unsuccessful, it was clearly proven that South Africa's military was immeasurably superior in strength and sophistication than all her African neighbours combined. Further enlargement and modernisation of the armed forces continued under former defence minister Pieter Willem Botha, who became state president in 1984. Shortly after Botha took office, the SADF numbered some 83,400 men (including 53,100 conscripts and 5,400 non-whites): one armoured brigade, one mechanised infantry brigade, four motorised brigades, one parachute brigade, a special reconnaissance regiment, one Marine brigade, twenty artillery regiments, supporting specialist units, a balanced air force, and a navy adequate for coastal protection in all. In addition, numerous auxiliary formations were trained as support units capable of occupying strategic border areas, including the predominantly Angolan 32 Battalion, Namibia's South West African Territorial Force, and several Bantustan militias.


title: South African Defence Force

text: During Botha's term, the SADF began focusing on taking a more aggressive stance to the ongoing war against communist-supported nationalist guerrillas in South Africa and Namibia (then South West Africa) and targeting neighboring countries that offered them support. This was partially justified as a new structure intended to turn back a "total onslaught" on the republic from abroad. The post-colonial rise of newly independent black governments on the apartheid administration's doorstep created a perceived menace to the existing structure, and Pretoria's occupation of Namibia threatened to bring it into direct confrontation with the world community. On the ground, militant guerrilla movements such as the African National Congress (ANC), South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) challenged white supremacy with force of arms. In 1984, at least 6,000 such insurgents were being trained and armed by Tanzania, Ethiopia, the Soviet Union, and Warsaw Pact member states.


title: South African Defence Force

text: In general the struggle went badly for South Africa's opponents. Mozambique provided support and shelter to ANC operatives; in retaliation South African units launched massive counterstrikes which the local security forces were in no position to block. Military aircraft and special forces units deployed across Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, and Zambia to attack suspected insurgent bases. 30,000 South African military personnel were posted on the Namibian border by late 1985, frequently crossing the frontier to battle SWAPO groups operating from southern Angola. SWAPO's MPLA allies, with the backing of the Cuban military, were often unable to protect them. These raids demonstrated the SADF's efficiency in combating rural insurgency. Major guerrilla camps were always chief targets, whether on foreign or domestic soil. Consequently, establishing good intelligence and effective assault strategy were commonly reflected in tactical priorities.


title: South African Defence Force

text: The SADF's success eventually compelled SWAPO to withdraw over 200 miles from the Namibian border, forcing their insurgents to travel great distances across arid bush in order to reach their targets. Many could no longer carry heavy weapons on these treks, occasionally abandoning them as they marched south. Moreover, serious SWAPO losses were already having a negative effect on morale. ANC operations fared little better. Most high-profile terrorist attacks were foiled or offered negative publicity from a normally sympathetic international stage. While it was clear that popular support was growing and guerrilla skills were being improved upon, affrays on South Africa itself did not seriously disrupt the economy or impact the country's superior military and industrial status.


title: South African Defence Force

text: By the fall of apartheid in 1991, the SADF was an uneven reflection of both the strengths and weaknesses of South Africa's white society at large. It employed many personnel with developed technical skills; thus, the military could more easily maintain and operate sophisticated hardware than black African forces drawn from underdeveloped regions. In an unusual contrast with Southern Africa's other white armies, the SADF had a stern sense of bureaucratic hierarchy. Commanders deferred to civilian supervisors and normally could not aspire to political power. The SADF's technical performance had also improved greatly, owing largely to realistic and efficient training procedures. The army in particular was skilled in both counterinsurgency warfare and conventional mechanised operations. In 1984, 11,000 infantrymen were even trained to execute blitzkrieg tactics. White soldiers were for the most part reasonably motivated; conscripts had a sense of defending their own country rather than some far-off foreign venture. Commissioned officers generally accepted in principle recruits of all colours, placed an emphasis on technical efficiency, and preferred to fight a foreign rather than domestic enemy despite extensive preparation for both.


title: South African Defence Force

text: As non-racial democracy was introduced to the republic in 1994, the SADF was amalgamated with the formerly independent Bantustan security forces, the ANC's uMkhonto we Sizwe, PAC's Azanian People's Liberation Army and the 'self-protection units' of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) to form the South African National Defence Force.


title: South African Defence Force

text: South Africa at one time possessed nuclear weapons, but its stockpile was dismantled during the political transition of the early 1990s.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard (; 4 February 1897 – 5 May 1977) was a German politician affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966. He is known for leading the West German postwar economic reforms and economic recovery ("Wirtschaftswunder", German for "economic miracle") in his role as Minister of Economic Affairs under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer from 1949 to 1963. During that period he promoted the concept of the social market economy ("soziale Marktwirtschaft"), on which Germany's economic policy in the 21st century continues to be based. In his tenure as Chancellor, however, Erhard lacked support from Adenauer, who remained chairman of the party until 1966, and failed to win the public's confidence in his handling of a budget deficit and his direction of foreign policy. His popularity waned, and he resigned his chancellorship on 30 November 1966.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: Ludwig Erhard was born in Fürth, Kingdom of Bavaria on 4 February 1897. His father Wilhelm Erhard (b. 1859) was a Catholic clothing store proprietor, while his mother Augusta was a Protestant. Ludwig had two brothers and a sister, Rose, all of whom were raised as Protestants. Ludwig suffered from infantile paralysis in his third year, resulting in a deformed right foot and forcing him to wear orthopedic shoes for the remainder of his life.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: Erhard entered primary school in Fürth at the age of six in 1903 and performed poorly. In 1907, he entered Fürth's Royal Bavarian Vocational High School, where his grades were average. He received his secondary school certificate in 1913. He was a commercial apprentice at the Georg Eisenbach textile company in Nuremberg from 1913 to 1916. After his apprenticeship he worked as a retail salesman in his father's draper's shop.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: In 1916, during World War I, Erhard volunteered for the German military. He was referred to the 22nd Royal Bavarian Artillery Regiment and trained as a gun aimer. He first served in the quiet Vosges sector on the Western Front. The regiment was then deployed to Romania on the Eastern Front, where he also saw little combat. Erhard contracted typhus and was sent back to Germany. He recovered and returned to his unit. He was badly wounded on his left shoulder, side and leg by an Allied artillery shell on 28 September 1918 during the Fifth Battle of Ypres. He was committed to a military hospital in Recklinghausen, where he underwent seven operations until June 1919. His left arm became permanently shorter than his right one.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: Because of his injury he could no longer work as a draper and started learning economics in late 1919 at a business college in Nuremberg. He passed the school's exit examination on 22 March 1922 and received a degree in business administration. During his time at school, he developed a friendship with the economist and professor Wilhelm Rieger, to whom Erhard owed much of his liberal convictions. Thanks to Rieger's intervention, Erhard was able to enroll at the University of Frankfurt in the autumn of 1922. He received his Ph.D. from the university on 12 December 1925, for a dissertation finished in the summer of 1924 under Franz Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer's liberal socialist ideology had a heavy influence on Erhard, especially Oppenheimer's opposition to monopolies. During his time in Frankfurt he married Luise Schuster (1893–1975), a fellow economist, on 11 December 1923. They had known each other since childhood.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: After his graduation they moved to Fürth and he became an executive in his father's company in 1925. Erhard spent the next three years as a mostly unemployed academic. His father retired in 1928. The same year, thanks to the help of Rieger and Oppenheimer, Erhard became a part-time research assistant at the "Institut für Wirtschaftsbeobachtung der deutschen Fertigware" (Economic Observation of the German Finished Goods Industry), a marketing research institute founded by Wilhelm Rudolf Mann and . Later, he became deputy director of the institute.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: During World War II he worked on concepts for a postwar peace; however, officially such studies were forbidden by the Nazis, who had declared 'total war'. As a result, Erhard lost his job in 1942, but continued to work on the subject by order of the Reichsgruppe Industrie. He wrote "War Finances and Debt Consolidation" (orig: "Kriegsfinanzierung und Schuldenkonsolidierung") in 1944; in this study he assumed that Germany had already lost the war. He sent his thoughts to Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, a central figure in the German resistance to Nazism, who recommended Erhard to his comrades. Erhard also discussed his concept with Otto Ohlendorf, deputy secretary of state in the Reichsministerium für Wirtschaft. Ohlendorf himself spoke out for "active and courageous entrepreneurship ("aktives und wagemutiges Unternehmertum")", which was intended to replace bureaucratic state planning of the economy after the war. Erhard was an outsider who completely rejected Nazism, supported resistance, and endorsed efforts to produce an economic revival during the postwar period.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: After the war Erhard became an economic consultant. Under the Bizone established by the American and British administration in 1947, he led the "Sonderstelle Geld und Kredit" ("Special Office for Money and Credit"), an expert commission preparing the currency reform in Germany's western zones of occupation. The commission began its deliberations in October 1947, and the following April produced the so-called Homburg plan, elements of which were adopted by the Allies in the currency reform that set the stage for the recovery of the economy.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: In April 1948, Erhard was elected director of economics by the Bizonal Economic Council. On 20 June 1948, the Deutsche Mark was introduced. Erhard abolished the price-fixing and production controls that had been enacted by the military administration. This exceeded his authority, but he succeeded with this step.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: In the first free elections following the Nazi era, Erhard stood for election in a Baden-Württemberg district and was elected. He was appointed Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, a position he would hold for the next 14 years; from 1957 to 1963 he was also the vice-chancellor of Germany.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: A staunch believer in economic liberalism, Erhard joined the Mont Pelerin Society in 1950, and used this influential body of liberal economic and political thinkers to test his ideas for the reorganization of the West German economy. Some of the society's members were members of the Allied High Commission and Erhard was able to make his case directly to them. The Mont Pélerin Society welcomed Erhard because this gave its members a welcome opportunity to have their ideas tested in real life. Alfred Müller-Armack, the secretary of state of Erhard's ministry, helped him guide German economy with theories until the beginning of 1960s.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: Late in the 1950s, Erhard's ministry became involved in the struggle within the society between the European and the Anglo-American factions, and sided with the former. Erhard viewed the market itself as social and supported only a minimum of welfare legislation. However, Erhard suffered a series of decisive defeats in his effort to create a free, competitive economy in 1957; he had to compromise on such key issues as the anti-cartel legislation. Thereafter, the West German economy evolved into a conventional welfare state from the basis that had been already laid in the 1880s by Bismarck. According to Alfred Mierzejewski the generally accepted view is that Germany has a social market economy, that the post-war German economy has evolved since 1948, but the fundamental characteristics of that economic system have not changed, while in his opinion the social market economy had begun to fade in 1957, disappearing entirely by the late 1960s.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: In July 1948, a group of southwest German businessmen attacked the restrictive credit policy of Erhard as Economic Director. While Erhard had designed this policy to assure currency stability and stimulate the economy via consumption, business feared the scarcity of investment capital would retard economic recovery. Erhard was also deeply critical of a bureaucratic-institutional integration of Europe on the model of the European Coal and Steel Community.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: Erhard decided, as economic director for the British and American occupation zones, to lift many price controls in 1948, despite opposition from both the social democratic opposition and Allied authorities. Erhard's financial and economic policies soon proved widely popular as the German economy made a miracle recovery to rapid growth and widespread prosperity in the 1950s, overcoming wartime destruction and successfully integrating millions of refugees from the east.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: After the resignation of Adenauer in 1963, Erhard was elected chancellor with 279 against 180 votes in the Bundestag on 16 October. In 1965, he was re-elected. From 1966 to 1967, he also headed the Christian Democratic Union as "de facto" chairman, despite the fact that he was never a member of that party (which made his election to the chairmanship irregular and void "de jure"), as he never formally filed a membership application despite pressure from Chancellor Adenauer. The reasons for Erhard's reluctance are unknown, but it is probable that they stemmed from Erhard's general scepticism about party politics. However, Erhard was regarded and treated as a long-time CDU member and as the party chairman by almost everyone in Germany at the time, including the vast majority of the CDU itself. The fact that he was not a member was known only to a very small circle of party leaders at the time, and it did not become known to the public until 2007, when the silence was finally broken by Erhard's close advisor Horst Wünsche.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: Domestically, a number of progressive reforms were carried out during Erhard's time as chancellor. In the field of social security, Housing Benefit was introduced in 1965.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: Erhard considered using money to bring about the reunification of Germany. Despite Washington's reluctance, Erhard envisaged offering Nikita Khrushchev, the leader in Moscow, massive economic aid in exchange for more political liberty in East Germany and eventually for reunification. Erhard believed that if West Germany were to offer a "loan" worth $25 billion US to the Soviet Union (which Erhard did not expect to be repaid), then the Soviet Union would permit German reunification. The acting American Secretary of State George Wildman Ball described Erhard's plan to essentially buy East Germany from the Soviet Union as "half-baked and unrealistic." Erhard's objective coincided with Khrushchev rethinking his relations with West Germany. The Soviet leader secretly encouraged Erhard to present a realistic proposal for a "modus vivendi" and officially accepted the Chancellor's invitation to visit Bonn. However, Khrushchev fell from power in October 1964, and nothing developed. Perhaps more importantly, the Soviet Union had received a vast series of loans from the international money markets by late 1964, and no longer felt the need for Erhard's money.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: Support for the American role in the Vietnam War proved fatal for Erhard's coalition. Through his endorsement of the American goal of military victory in Vietnam, Erhard sought closer collaboration with Washington and less with Paris. Erhard's policy complicated Allied initiatives toward German unification, a dilemma that the United States placed on the back burner as it focused on Southeast Asia. Erhard failed to understand that American global interests—not Europe's needs—dictated policy in Washington, D.C., and he rejected Adenauer's policy of fostering good relations with both the United States and France in the pursuit of West German national interest. Faced with a dangerous budget deficit in the 1966–1967 recession, Erhard fell from office in part because of concessions that he made during a visit to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: In 1961, while vice president, Johnson had hosted Konrad Adenauer some two years before the German statesman vacated the chancellorship of the German Federal Republic. In December 1963, less than a month after he had assumed the American presidency upon the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Johnson staged the first ever presidential barbecue in Erhard's honor. The event was held in and about the Stonewall Elementary School gymnasium in Stonewall in the Texas Hill Country. As a member of the Texas House of Representatives, Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr., Johnson's father, had been sensitive to his German-American constituency and had opposed the Creel Committee's attempt to disparage German culture and isolate German-Americans during World War I. Adenauer and Erhard had also stayed at Johnson's ranch in Gillespie County.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: Erhard's fall suggested that progress on German unification required a broader approach and a more active foreign policy. Chancellor Willy Brandt in the late 1960s abandoned the Hallstein Doctrine of previous chancellors and employed a new "Ostpolitik", seeking improved relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and thereby laying the groundwork for détente and coexistence between East and West. In the 1980s Chancellor Helmut Kohl, however, reverted to Erhard's approach in collaborating with the Reagan administration in its hard-line anti-Soviet policy.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: On 26 October 1966, Minister Walter Scheel (FDP) resigned, protesting against the budget released the day before. The other ministers who were members of the FDP followed his example — the coalition was broken. On 30 November 1966, Erhard resigned. His successor was Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU), who formed a grand coalition with the SPD.


title: Ludwig Erhard

text: Erhard continued his political work by remaining a member of the West German parliament until his death in Bonn from heart failure on 5 May 1977. He was buried in Gmund, near the Tegernsee. The Ludwig Erhard-Berufsschule (professional college) in Paderborn, Fürth and Münster are named in his honour.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Ahmednagar (), is a city located in the Ahmednagar district in the state of Maharashtra, India, about 120 km northeast of Pune and 114 km from Aurangabad. Ahmednagar takes its name from Ahmad Nizam Shah I, who founded the town in 1494 on the site of a battlefield where he won a battle against superior Bahamani forces. It was close to the site of the village of Bhingar. With the breakup of the Bahmani Sultanate, Ahmad established a new sultanate in Ahmednagar, also known as Nizam Shahi dynasty.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Ahmednagar has several dozen buildings and sites from the Nizam Shahi period. Ahmednagar Fort, once considered almost impregnable, was used by the British to house Jawaharlal Nehru (the first prime minister of India) and other Indian Nationalists before Indian independence. A few rooms there have been converted to a museum. During his confinement by the British at Ahmednagar Fort in 1944, Nehru wrote the famous book "The Discovery of India". Ahmednagar is home to the Indian Armoured Corps Centre & School (ACC&S), the Mechanised Infantry Regimental Centre (MIRC), the Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (VRDE) and the Controllerate of Quality Assurance Vehicles (CQAV). Training and recruitment for the Indian Army Armoured Corps takes place at the ACC&S.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Ahmednagar is a relatively small town and shows less development than the nearby western Maharashtra cities of Mumbai and Pune. Ahmednagar is home to 19 sugar factories and is also the birthplace of the cooperative movement. Due to scarce rainfall, Ahmednagar often suffers from drought. Marathi is the primary language for daily-life communication. Ahmednagar has recently published a plan of developing the city by year 2031.


title: Ahmednagar

text: The town Ahmednagar was founded in 1490 by Ahmad Nizam Shah I on the site of a more ancient city, Bhingar. With the breakup of the Bahmani Sultanate, Ahmad established a new sultanate in Ahmednagar, also known as Nizam Shahi dynasty.


title: Ahmednagar

text: It was one of the Deccan sultanates, which lasted until its conquest by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in 1636. Aurangzeb, the last Mughal emperor, who spent the latter years of his reign, 1681–1707, in the Deccan, died in Ahmednagar and is buried at Khuldabad, near Aurangabad in 1707, with a small monument marking the site.


title: Ahmednagar

text: In 1759, the Peshwa of the Marathas obtained possession of the place from Nizam of Hyderabad and in 1795 it was ceded by the Peshwa to the Maratha chief Daulat Rao Sindhia. Ahmednagar was besieged by a British force under Richard Wellesley and captured. It was afterward restored to the Marathas, but again came into the possession of the British in 1817, according to the terms of the Treaty of Poona, and was known as Ahmednuggur.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Ahmednagar is home to the Indian Armoured Corps Centre & School (ACC&S), the Mechanised Infantry Regimental Centre (MIRC), the Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (VRDE) and the Controllerate of Quality Assurance Vehicles (CQAV). Training and recruitment for the Indian Army Armoured Corps take place at the ACC&S. Formerly, the city was the Indian base of the British Army's Royal Tank Corps / Indian Armoured Corps, amongst other units. The town-houses the second-largest display of military tanks in the world and largest in Asia.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Situated in the rain shadow region of the Western Ghats, Ahmednagar has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSh"). The climate is hot throughout the year and sweltering during the pre-monsoon months from March to mid-June, whilst monsoon rainfall averages less than a third of that received in Mumbai and about a tenth what is received in Mahabaleshwar on the crest of the mountains.


title: Ahmednagar

text: As of 2011 Indian census, Ahmednagar had a population of 347,549. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Ahmednagar has an average literacy rate of 84%, higher than the national urban average of 79.9%. 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Ahmednagar city has air connectivity by Seaplane service. The port for Seaplane is located at the Mula Dam water reservoir, 30 min away from Ahmednagar City. The service offered by Maritime Energy Heli Air Services Pvt. Ltd. (MEHAIR) from 22 September 2014. Ongoing Flight is available from Juhu, Mumbai to Mula Dam.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Ahmednagar railway station (station code:ANG) belongs to Solapur Division of Central Railway zone of the Indian Railways. Ahmednagar has rail connectivity with Pune, Manmad, Kopargaon, Shirdi, Daund, Goa, Nasik and other metro-cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad. 41 express trains stop at this station. There is still a demand for direct rail connectivity to other major cities of India.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Ahmednagar station will now be a part of the Pune railway division. 24 stations of the Daund-Ankai section will be merged with Pune railway division. The Daund-Ankai section is currently under the management of the Solapur railway division. The change to the Pune division will increase the chances of starting demu services between Ahmednagar and Pune stations.


title: Ahmednagar

text: One of the oldest and important railway project of Ahmednagar railway station was kalyan-Ahmednagar railway project which was in planning stage since British regime. It was referred as 3rd ghat project. The survey of this project was carried out in 1973,2000, 2006, 2014 etc. This project was in pink book in 2010. unfortunately this project could not be completed. The alignment length of this project was 184 km and it could have been shortest route for marathwada, andhra and Telangana. The major challenge for this project was proposed 18.96 km tunnel in malshej ghat section.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Malshej Kriti samiti is following for kalyan ahmednagar railway project. Kalyan-murbad section which is first phase of this project is already under survey stage.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Survey of Ahmednagar-Aurangabad Railway line with 120 km length was also carried out in March 2021. The DPR Report of this project is under preparation.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Ahmednagar-Karmala railway option is also getting explored. Ahmednagar railway station will become an important railway junction in future to the level similar to daund railway junction. Kalyan-Murbad-Ahmednagar line is also possible in future.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Ahmednagar is well connected by roads with major cities of Maharashtra and other states. Ahmednagar has 4 lane road connectivity to Aurangabad, Parbhani, Nanded, Pune, Nashik, Beed, Solapur, Osmanabad. National Highway 222 from Kalyan to Nirmal near Adilabad in Telangana passes through the city. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) and different private transport operators provide bus service connecting the city to all parts of the state.


title: Ahmednagar

text: Several ways to have a commute in the city. Autorickshaws, which can be trusted as a private commute in the city. Sharing rikshaws also been part of the daily life of the citizen. Newly bus service has been established by Municipal corporation in the month of July 2019 which can turn a safer and cheaper commute to the citizens in the future. Main routes in the city are:


title: Ahmednagar

text: Ahmednagar Municipal Council was upgraded to Municipal Corporation status in 2003. As of Dec 2018, Babasaheb Wakale of BJP was the incumbent mayor. Ahmednagar city is represented in the central and state legislatures by the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha and Ahmednagar City Vidhan Sabha seats respectively. The Sitting MP is Dr.Sujay Vikhe Patil and while seating MLA is Sangram Jagtap.


title: The Soloist

text: The Soloist is a 2009 drama film directed by Joe Wright, and starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. The plot is based on the true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a musician who developed schizophrenia and became homeless. The film was released in theaters on April 24, 2009. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed just $38 million against its $60 million budget.


title: The Soloist

text: In 2005, Steve Lopez is a journalist working for the "Los Angeles Times". He is divorced and now works for his ex-wife, Mary, an editor. A biking accident lands Lopez in a hospital.


title: The Soloist

text: One day, he hears a violin being played beautifully. Investigating, he encounters Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless man with schizophrenia, who is playing a violin when Lopez introduces himself. During the conversation that follows, Lopez learns that Ayers once attended Juilliard.


title: The Soloist

text: Curious as to how a former student of such a prestigious school ended up on the streets, Lopez contacts Juilliard but learns that no record of Ayers graduating from it exists. Though at first figuring a man with schizophrenia who's talented with a cello isn't worth his time, Lopez soon realizes that he has no better story to write about. Luckily, he soon learns that Ayers "did" attend Juilliard, but dropped out after two years.


title: The Soloist

text: Finding Ayers the next day, Lopez says he wants to write about him. Ayers doesn't appear to be paying attention. Getting nowhere, Lopez finds and contacts Ayers' sister, who gives the columnist the information he needs: Ayers was once a child prodigy with the cello, until he began displaying symptoms of schizophrenia at Juilliard. Unable to handle the voices, Ayers dropped out and ended up on the streets due to the delusion that his sister wanted to kill him. Without a cello, he has resorted to playing a two-string violin.


title: The Soloist

text: Lopez writes his article. One reader is so touched that she sends a cello for Ayers. Lopez brings it to him and Ayers shows he is just as proficient as with a violin. Unfortunately, his tendency to wander puts both Ayers and the cello in danger, so Lopez talks him into leaving it at a shelter, located in a neighborhood of homeless people. Ayers is later seen playing for the homeless.


title: The Soloist

text: A concerned Lopez tries to get a doctor he knows to help. He also tries to talk Ayers into getting an apartment, but Ayers refuses. After seeing a reaction to music played at an opera house, Lopez persuades another friend, Graham, a cellist, to rehabilitate Ayers through music. The lessons go well, though Ayers is shown to be getting a little too attached to Lopez, much to the latter's annoyance. Lopez eventually talks Ayers into moving into an apartment by threatening to abandon him.


title: The Soloist

text: Through Lopez's article, Ayers gains so much fame that he is given the chance to perform a recital. Sadly, he loses his temper, attacks Graham, and leaves. This convinces Lopez's doctor friend to get Ayers help. But when Ayers learns what Lopez is up to, he throws Lopez out of his apartment and threatens to kill him.


title: The Soloist

text: While speaking with Mary, Lopez realizes that not only has he changed Ayers' life, but Ayers has changed his. Determined to make amends, Lopez brings Ayers' sister to L.A. for a visit. Ayers and Lopez make up. Later, while they all watch an orchestra, Lopez ponders how beneficial their friendship has been. Ayers still hears voices, but at least he no longer lives on the streets. In addition, Ayers has helped improve Lopez's relationship with his own family.


title: The Soloist

text: It is revealed at the end that Ayers is still a member of the LAMP Community – a Los Angeles nonprofit organization that seeks to help people living with severe mental illness – and that Lopez is learning how to play the guitar.


title: The Soloist

text: The film is based on the true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a musician who developed schizophrenia and became homeless. Directed by Joe Wright, was written by Susannah Grant, based on a series of columns written by "Los Angeles Times" columnist Steve Lopez, who chronicled the plight of Nathaniel Ayers, Jr., a musician with schizophrenia, and eventually was chronicled in Lopez's book, "The Soloist", which was published in the spring of 2008. The film was budgeted at $60 million, twice the budget amount of Wright's previous film, "Atonement". Production began in January 2008 and was filmed mostly in Los Angeles, with some scenes shot in Cleveland.