Culture
Vadodara is also known as ‘Sanskari Nagari’, i.e. Cultured City. It is the most sought after location for Garba in the entire Gujarat. Vadodara is one of India’s most cosmopolitan cities. Thanks to the vision and broadmindedness of the Gaekwads, the subsequent industrialisation, the proliferation of academic activities and a strategically important geographical location, Baroda has welcomed a wide variety of people from all over India and also from all over the world. In all of this, the sprawling and cosmopolitan MS University campus and the large number of local, national and foreign industries act as a catalysing and unifying force.
There was also a small Jewish community mainly made of the Bene Israel of India but also some other Jewish groups including European Jews, all of whom left during the 1940s and '50s, mainly to the state of Israel. The Jewish cemetery still exists even if abandoned, there there are Hebrew, English, Marathi letters visible on the tombstones.
The great museums on the palace grounds such as the Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum and art gallery are unique and carry artifacts from around the nation and the world. There are Gujarati film studios in the city as well as a large number of large old-style movie theatres in addition to the newer multiplexes that have sprung up in the past few years.
Diwali, Uttarayana, Holi, Eid, Gudi Padwa and Ganesh Chaturthi are celebrated with great fervour. Classical music and dance have their patrons, and so does the modern stage and pop culture. The culture and the traditions are both alive and being forever experimented with.
Navratri or Garba is the city's largest festival, with song, dance and lights during every October. Many of the residents spend their evenings at their local Garba grounds where local musicians play traditional music while people dance the Raas and Garba dances which often goes on past midnight. This is also a time when the youth are more visible outdoors and until later than other times of the year. The people of Vadodara have preserved the original and the traditional part of the Navarātrī. Garba in baroda attracts a fairly large number of international tourists.
The most followed religion in the city is Hinduism, practised by 90% of the population. The second most followed religion is Islam, followed by 6% of the population. All other religious groups make up the remaining 4% of the city's population.
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