Meerut is a large, fast-growing city in western Uttar Pradesh about 70 km northeast of Delhi, and it sits heavy in Indian history: the Indian Rebellion of 1857 — the Sepoy Mutiny in British accounts, the First War of Independence in Indian ones — began here when soldiers of the Bengal Army refused to use the new Enfield rifle cartridges. The city has memorials, colonial churches, and Mughal-era mosques that reflect this layered past.
Meerut is also, unexpectedly, the sports manufacturing capital of India. Cricket bats, boxing gloves, footballs, and hockey sticks are made here in workshops concentrated along Hapur Road, supplying much of the subcontinent's demand. The combination of revolutionary history and industrial craft gives the city a character distinct from other UP towns of similar size.