| Deolali देवळाली |
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| Coordinates | |
| Country | India |
| State | Maharashtra |
| District(s) | Nashik |
| Population | 50,617 (2001[update]) |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+05:30) |
| Area |
• 515 metres (1,690 ft) |
Deolali (Marathi: देवळाली [d̪eːwɭaːli]) is a small hill station and a census town in Nashik district, Maharashtra. It has several army establishments including the School of Artillery of Indian Army and nearby Airforce station.[1] and the residential Barnes School.
It is also a town with various health sanatoriums around, including the Muktidham temple at Nashik Road and the Pandava caves at Pandavleni.
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As of 2001[update] India census,[2] Deolali had a population of 50,617. Males constitute 55% of the population and females 45%. Deolali has an average literacy rate of 77%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 83% and, female literacy is 70%. In Deolali, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Deolali was a British Army camp 100 miles north-east of Mumbai. It was the original location of the Army Staff College. (Now the Defence Services Staff College of India and the Command and Staff College of Pakistan). Deolali is home to the School of Artillery, the premier institution for imparting training to all ranks of the regiment. In pre-independence India, the school was located in Quetta (now in Pakistan). After partition, the school was shifted to the peaceful environs of the Shivaliks. It is the Mecca of gunners where doing a course is akin to a pilgrimage. The other ranks of the regiment are trained at the Artillery Centre, Nashik and the Artillery Centre, Golconda in Hyderabad.
It is also the source of the British slang noun doolally tap, loosely meaning "camp fever", and referring to the apparent madness of men waiting for ships back to Britain after finishing their tour of duty. By the 1940s this had been widely shortened to just "doolally", an adjective meaning "mad (insane)" or "eccentric". The town was the setting for the first four series of the British sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum, set in 1945.