India's Orange City — the geographic center of the subcontinent, Buddhist heritage, and winter oranges
Nagpur sits at the precise geographic center of India — a brass zero-mile marker at its railway station commemorates the point. The city is synonymous with Nagpur oranges, prized for their thin skin and sweetness, harvested across the Vidarbha plateau each winter. The Deekshabhoomi monument marks the site where B.R. Ambedkar — architect of the Indian Constitution — converted to Buddhism with 600,000 followers in 1956, making it one of the most significant sites in modern Indian history. Ramtek, 45 km north, has Kalidasa connections and a lakeside complex of ancient temples.
Nagpur was the capital of the Bhosale branch of the Maratha Confederacy in the 18th century before the British made it the capital of the Central Provinces in 1861. The city became a major center for the Indian independence movement and the site of B.R. Ambedkar's mass Buddhist conversion on October 14, 1956 — an act that brought social dignity and religious identity to millions of Dalits across India and launched a conversion movement that continues today. Nagpur has the largest concentration of Ambedkarite Buddhists in any Indian city.