Rajkot, with a population of 1.3 million, is the fourth largest city of Gujarat after Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara and the 27th largest city of India. It is located centrally in the Saurashtra region and in the centre of the Kathiawar Peninsula at an altitude of 420 feet on the banks of the Aji & Nyari Rivers. The city serves as the administrative headquarter of the Rajkot district. Gujarati is the native and main spoken language here, although Rajkot is a multicultural city where one can find other language speakers such as Hindi, Urdu, English, Sindhi, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi. As per the 2011 census, the total population of the district is 3.9 million out of which 39 percent are in the working age. 38 percent of the workers are in the agriculture sector, 2 percent in the household industry and 60 percent in industry and services. Groundnut, cotton, wheat, bajra, sesame, pulses, castor and sorghum are the major field crops grown here. The major horticultural crops are guavas, citrus fruits, pomegranate, ber, jambu. Vegetable produce includes brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, chilly, radish, fenugreek, onion, garlic coriander and cumin. The city is famous for silk embroidery and jewellery markets. There are many small and medium scale industries to support these activities. Some of the industrial products for which Rajkot is known include bearings, diesel engines, kitchen knives and other cutting appliances, watch parts (cases & bracelets), automotive parts, forging industry, casting industry, machine tools and software development. Rajkot has its own native music genre, called dayro and Garba Dance is popular during the festival of Navratri. Gandhijis father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi (Kaba Gandhi) resided at Rajkot, serving as the Diwan or Prime Minister to the King. Gandhiji himself spent a few years of his early life here from 1881 to 1887. Rajkot was the capital of the state of Saurashtra between 1948 and 1956 before merging into the state of Bombay in1956 and thereafter becoming a part of Gujarat on 1 May 1960.
