Kingdom of Mysore. The Peshwa regained Belgaum, after Tipu Sultan was defeated by the British forces. In 1818, the British annexed Belgaum and the region in the control of the Peshwa. Kitturu Chennamma (1778–1829) was the queen of the princely state of Kittur in Karnataka and in 1824 she led an unsuccessful armed rebellion against the British in response to the Doctrine of lapse. Belgaum was chosen as the venue of the 39th session of the Indian National Congress in December 1924 under the presidency of Mahatma Gandhi. The city served as a major military installation for the British Raj, primarily due to its proximity to Goa, which was then a Portuguese territory. Once the British left India, the Indian government continued and still continues to have armed forces installations in Belgaum. In 1961, the Indian government, under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, used forces from Belgaum to end Portuguese rule of Goa. When India became independent in 1947, Belgaum and its district were part of Bombay State. In 1956, the Indian states were reorganised along linguistic lines by the States Reorganisation Act and Belgaum including 10 taluks of Bombay State were transferred to Mysore State, which was renamed Karnataka in 1973. In 2006, the Government of Karnataka announced that Belgaum would be made the state's second capital, and that the city would be a permanent venue for the annual 15-day winter session of the state legislature. City names On 1 November 2014, the city's name was changed from Belgaum to Belagavi by the Karnataka government, with approval of the central government of India along with 12 other cities. Belgaum is known as Belgaon (IPA: [beːɭɡaːʋ]) in Maharashtra and amongst Marathi people. Geography Topography Belgaum is located at . It has an average elevation of . The city is in the northwestern parts of Karnataka and lies at the border of two states, Maharashtra and Goa on the western ghats ( from the Goa state border). It is one of the oldest towns in the state, lying from Bangalore, from Mumbai, from Hyderabad, and from Mysore. The district comprises 1278 villages with an area of and a population of around 4.8 million according to the census of 2011. Belgaum district is the biggest district of Karnataka. Situated near the foothills of the Sahyadri mountain range (Western Ghats) at an altitude of about , from the Arabian Sea with the Markandeya river