| ?Uttar Pradesh India |
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| Coordinates: | |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+5:30) |
| Area | 238,566 km² (92,111 sq mi) |
| Capital | Lucknow |
| Largest city | Kanpur |
| District(s) | 701 |
| Population • Density |
166,197,921 (1st) • 783 /km² (2,028 /sq mi) |
| Language(s) | Hindi, Urdu |
| Governor | T. V. Rajeswar |
| Chief Minister | Mayawati Kumari |
| Established | 18352 |
| Legislature (seats) | Bicameral (404 + 108=512) |
| ISO abbreviation | IN-UP |
| Website: www.upgov.nic.in | |
| 1 The decision to possibly create an additional six districts is pending. 2As North-Western Provinces in 1835, |
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| Seal of Uttar Pradesh | |
Uttar Pradesh (Hindi: उत्तर प्रदेश, Urdu: اتر پردیش, pronounced [ʊt̪ːər prəd̪eːʃ] , translation: Northern Province), [often referred to as U.P.] is a state located in the northern part of India. With over 180 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity.
Uttar Pradesh covers a large part of the highly fertile and densely populated upper Gangetic plain. It shares an international border with Nepal and is bounded by the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar. The administrative and legislative capital of Uttar Pradesh is Lucknow and the financial and industrial capital is Kanpur. The state's high court is based at Allahabad. It is home to many historical cities, including the tourism capital of India, Agra.
Uttar Pradesh has an important place in the history of ancient India; in those times, it was sometimes divided between petty kingdoms and at other times formed important part of larger empires that arose on its east or west, including the Mauryan, Gupta and Kushan empires.
The Indo-Gangetic plain, that spans most of the state, has been the ancient seat of Hindu religion, learning and culture, the birth place of the Indo-Islamic syncretic culture of medieval period, a center of nationalism during the colonial period and has continued to play a prominent role in Indian political and cultural movements. The state has a rich heritage of traditional crafts and cottage industries of various types that require highly skilled craftsmen and artisans.
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The known history of Uttar Pradesh goes back to 4000 years, when the Aryans first made it their home in 2000 BC. This heralded the Vedic age of the Indian civilization and Uttar Pradesh was its home. The Aryans first inhabited the Doab region and the Ghagra plains and called it the Madhya Desha (midland) or Aryavarta (the Aryan land) or Bharatvarsha (the kingdom of Bharat, an important Aryan king). In the ages to come, Aryans spread to other parts of the Indian subcontinent, reaching as far south as Kerala and Sri Lanka.
The ancient kingdom of Kosala in Ayodhya - where, according to Hindu legend, the divine king Rama of the Ramayana epic reigned - was located here. Krishna - another divine king of Hindu legend, who plays a key role in the Mahabharata epic and is revered as the eighth reincarnation (Avatara) of Hindu god Vishnu - was born in the city of Mathura. The aftermath of Mahabharata war is believed to have taken place in the area between Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, during the reign of the Pandava king Yudhishtira.
Control over this region was of vital importance to the power and stability of all of India's major empires, including the Mauryan (320-200 BC), Kushan (100-250 AD) and Gupta (350-600 AD) empires. After the Guptas, the Ganga-Yamuna Doab saw the rise of Kannauj. During the reign of Harshavardhana, Kannauj empire was at its zenith: it covered an area extending from Afghanistan and Kashmir in the west to Bengal in the east and up to the Vindhyas in the south, with its capital at Kannauj. Even today many communities in various parts of India - from Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Bihar to Bengal - boast of being descendants of migrants from Kannauj, reflecting its glory in the past.[citation needed].
The state is also important to Buddhism since its early days. The Chaukhandi Stupa marks the spot where Buddha met his first disciples. The Dhamek Stupa in Sarnath commemorates Buddha's first sermon.
Causing the fall of post-Harshavardhana Rajput kings of north India came the Turko-Afghan Muslim rulers and what we call Uttar Pradesh today once again became the catalyst for things to come; much of the state formed part of the various Indo-Islamic empires (Sultanates) after 1000 AD and was ruled from their capital, Delhi. Later, in Mughal times, U.P. became the heart-land of their vast empire; they called the place 'Hindustan'. Hindustan is also often considered another synonym for India.
Agra and Fatehpur Sikri were the capital cities of Akbar, the great Mughal Emperor of India. At their zenith, the Mughal empire covered almost the entire Indian subcontinent (including present day Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh), which was ruled at different times from Delhi, Agra and Allahabad. But, when the empire disintegrated, their last territory remained confined to the Doab region of Hindustan and Delhi.
Other areas of Hindustan (U.P.) were now ruled by different rulers: Oudh was ruled by the Nawabs of Oudh, Rohilkhand by Afghans, Bundelkhand by the Marathas and Benaras by its own king, while Nepal controlled Kumaon-Garhwal. The state's capital city of Lucknow was established by the Muslim Nawabs of Oudh in the 18th century.
Starting from Bengal in the later half of the 18th century, a series of battles for North Indian lands finally gave the British East India Company accession over this state's territories, including the last Mughal territory of Doab and Delhi as also Bundelkhand, Kumaon and Benaras divisions. Ajmer and Jaipur were also included in this northern territory and they called it the North Western Provinces (of Agra). To day, the area may seem big compared to several of the Republic of India's present 'mini-states' - no more than the size of earlier 'divisions' of the British era - but at the time it was one of the smallest British provinces. Its capital shifted twice between Agra and Allahabad.
After the failed first freedom war or the Indian Rebellion of 1857, when the turmoil settled, the British made a major revamp, in desperation: they truncated the Delhi region from NWFP of Agra and merged it with Punjab, while the Ajmer-Merwar region was merged with Rajputana. At the same time, they included Oudh into the state. The new state was called the 'North Western Provinces of Agra and Oudh', which in 1902 was renamed as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. It was commonly referred to as the United Provinces or its acronym UP.
In 1920, the capital of the province was shifted from Allahabad to Lucknow. The high court continued to be at Allahabad, but a bench was established at Lucknow. Allahabad continues to be an important administrative base of today's Uttar Pradesh and has several administrative headquarters.
Uttar Pradesh continued to be central to Indian culture and politics and was especially important in modern Indian history as a hotbed of both the Indian Independence Movement and the Pakistan Movement.
After independence, the state was renamed Uttar Pradesh ("northern province") by its first chief minister, Govind Ballabh Pant. Pant was well-known to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and was also popular in the Congress party; he established such a good reputation in Lucknow that Nehru called him to Delhi, the seat of Central Government of the country, to make him Home Minister of India in December 27, 1954. He was succeeded by Dr. Sampoornanand, a university professor and classicist Sanskrit scholar, who was chief minister till 1957, before becoming governor of Rajasthan.
Sucheta Kripalani was sworn in in October 1963, and became India's first woman chief minister, until a two-month long strike by state employees in March 1967 caused her to step down. The confusion and chaos ended only with the defection of Charan Singh from the Congress with a small set of legislators; he set up a party called the Jana Congress, which formed the first non-Congress government in U.P. and ruled for over a year.
Fellow socialist Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna of the Bharatiya Lok Dal was chief minister for part of the 1970s. He was dismissed by the Central Government headed by Indira Gandhi, along with several other non-Congress chief ministers, shortly after the imposition of the Emergency, when Narain Dutt Tewari - later chief minister of Uttarakhand - became chief minister. The Congress Party lost heavily in 1977 elections, following the lifting of the Emergency, but romped back to power in 1980, when Mrs. Gandhi handpicked the man who would later become her son's principal opposition, V.P. Singh, to become Chief Minister.
In 2000, the Himalyan portion of the state, comprising the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions and Haridwar district, was formed into a new state called Uttarakhand, meaning the 'Northern Segment' state.
Uttar Pradesh can be divided into two distinct hypsographical regions: -
The state's climate is generally humid-subtropical, but variations exist due to difference in altitudes.
The state comprises the Doab region - the upper Doab and the lower doab with the Braj-bhumi in its centre - which runs along its western border from north to south; the Rohilkhand in the north; Awadh (Oudh, the historic country of Koshala) in the centre; the northern parts of Bagelkhand and Bundelkhand in the south; and the south-western part of the Bhojpur country, commonly called Purvanchal ("Eastern Province"), in the east.
The state of Uttar Pradesh consists of seventy districts, which are grouped into seventeen divisions: Agra, Allahabad, Azamgarh, Bahraich, Bareilly, Basti, Chitrakoot, Devipatan, Faizabad, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Mirzapur, Moradabad, Saharanpur andVaranasi.
The largest district in terms of area is Lakhimpur Kheri. The largest district in terms of population is Allahabad followed by Kanpur Nagar (Census 2001).
Agra • Allahabad • Bareilly • Ghaziabad • Gorakhpur • Jhansi • Kanpur • Lucknow • Mathura • Meerut • Moradabad . Noida (NOIDA (New Okhla Industrial Development Authority)) • Varanasi (Banaras).
Kanpur • Aligarh • Azamgarh • Bahraich • Ballia • Banda • Barabanki • Bijnor • Bulandshahr • Deoband • Etawah • Faizabad • Farrukhabad • Fatehgarh • Firozabad • Ghazipur• Gola • Gonda • Gorakhpur . Hameerpur • Kannauj • Khurja • Kushinagar • Lalitpur • Mainpuri • Mirzapur • Moradabad • Muzaffarnagar • Noida • Orai • Pilibhit • Raebareli • Rampur • Saharanpur • Shahjahanpur • Sultanpur.
The two common state-languages of Uttar Pradesh are standard Hindi and Urdu. While standard Hindi (Khari boli) is the official language, several important regional Hindi 'dialects' are spoken in the state and among these are: Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj, Bagheli and Bundeli, besides several local dialects that do not have a formal name. Bhojpuri is the second most-spoken language in the state, according to the language data in the 1991 Census of India. Urdu is prominent in Uttar Pradesh as Lucknow was once the centre of Indo-Persianate culture in north India. The language of Lucknow ("Lakhnavi Urdu") is a form of high literary Urdu.
The State Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) has 403 electoral constituencies. In the Uttar Pradesh Elections, 2007, Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party achieved unexpected majority status leading to her emergence as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. This is the first time, since 1991 victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party with a majority, that a single party has gained absolute majority; the last two decades having been mostly dominated by various coalitions among the Samajwadi Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Bahujan Samaj Party. One characteristic of the BSP win in 2007 was the amalgamation of Brahmin votes into this Dalit dominated party,[1] as opposed to the decades-old trend of deep-rooted electoral divisions in the state between Dalits, Upper Castes, Muslims and different OBC groups, which tend to vote in blocks.
Mayawati, having won 206 seats, took the oath of secrecy for the post of UP's next CM on 13 May 2007. She became Chief Minister for the fourth time. Along with her 19 cabinet rank ministers, 21 State Ministers Independent Charge were also sworn in by T. V. Rajeswar the Governor. Some of the prominent names are: Awadhpal Singh, Babu Singh Kushwaha, Badshah Singh, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, Rakesh Dhar Tripathi, Ratanlal Ahirwar and Sudhir Goyal. Former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party stood second in State with 97 seats.
The image of politics in Uttar Pradesh has been tarnished in recent times by the extensive infiltration of people who are alleged to carry a questionable reputation or are prone to incite violence. But, in the last election, the Election Commission of India was perceived as having effectively managed to prevent booth-capturing and other abuse, by deployment of extremely strict security.
The state has a glorious record of providing national leadership; eight of India's fourteen Prime Minister's were from Uttar Pradesh. They are: Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Choudhary Charan Singh, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Chandra Shekhar and Atal Behari Vajpayee, who represents a UP constituency, though he was born in Gwalior.
Contemporary political scene is also interesting in the national context. Heirs-apparent to the Nehru-Gandhi family have adopted U.P. as their home state. Congress President Sonia Gandhi represents Rae Bareli and her son Rahul Gandhi Amethi, Sultanpur. Indira Gandhi's estranged daughter-in-law Maneka Gandhi is a BJP Parliamentarian from Pilibhit, while her son Varun Gandhi is expected to make his debut soon. Other prominent politicians include BJP leader and past Human Resources Development minister Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, SP leader and ex-Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, BSP leader and now fourth time Chief Minister Mayawati, BJP President and ex-Chief Minister Rajnath Singh, former BJP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh and ex-Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and later of Uttarakhand, Narayan Dutt Tiwari.
At the lowest tier of political pyramid, the state has a large number of village councils known as Panchayats just like the other states of India. One of the most developed Panchayats is Shahabad in Maharajganj District.
The State of U.P. has made investment over the years in all sectors of education and has achieved significant success in overcoming its wide spread educational backwardness and illiteracy. The increase in overall literacy rate is due to persistent efforts made by the state government to enroll and retain children in schools and to effectively implement the adult education programmes. The following is indicative of the gradual progress.
In 1981, the literacy rate in UP was 28 percent and increased to 42 percent in 1991. In 1991, the adult literacy rate (percent literate among those aged 15 and above) was 38 percent and increased to 49 percent in 1998, an increase of 11 percentage points in the seven-year period. But, the differential between female and male literacy remained high: while in 1991, male literacy was 56 percent and female literacy 25 percent, eight years later in 1999, as per survey estimates, the male literacy became 73 percent and female literacy 43 percent (NFHS II).
One more notable feature in the state has been the persistence of higher levels of illiteracy in the younger age group, more so in females, especially in the rural areas. In the late 1980s, the incidence of illiteracy in the 10-14 age group was as high as 32% for rural males and 61% for rural females, and more than two-thirds of all rural girls in the 12-14 age group never went to school. Only 25% of the girls in 7+ age group were able to read and write in 1991 and this figure went down to 19% for rural areas: it was 11% for the scheduled castes, 8% for scheduled castes in rural areas and 8% for the entire rural population in the most educationally backward districts. In terms of basic or essential educational attainment (the completion of primary or secondary education), in 1992-1993, only 50% of literate males and 40% of literate females could complete the cycle of eight years of schooling (the primary and middle stages). Possibly, Bihar is the only state in India which lags behind U.P. in education.
The problems of state's education system are complex. Due to public apathy the public schools are run inefficiently. Privately run schools (including those run by Christian missionaries) are functional, but expensive and so beyond the reach of ordinary people.
In order to make the population totally literate, steps are being taken by the government to raise public participation, e.g. with the help of NGOs and other organizations. There are also special programmes, like the World Bank aided DPEP. As a result, progress in adult education has been made and the census of 2001 indicates a male literacy rate of 70.23% and a female literacy rate of 42.98%.
At the level of higher education and technical education, Uttar Pradesh has several universities and other institutions, among which are: Bundelkhand University, Lucknow University, Allahabad University, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Aligarh Muslim University, Kanpur University, Agra University, Purvanchal UniversityJaunpur , Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Uttar Pradesh Technical University, the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, Banaras Hindu University, Indian Institute of Information Technology Allahabad, National Institute of Technology Allahabad the world famous Asian Academy Of Film & Television and several other polytechnics, engineering institutes and industrial training centres.
Darul Uloom Deoband, one of the world's most prestigious and influential Islamic seminaries, is located in the otherwise small town of Deoband
The major economic activity in the state is agriculture and in 1991, 73 percent of the population in the state was engaged in agriculture and 46 percent of the state income was accounted for by agriculture. UP has retained its pre-eminent position in the country as a food-surplus state. The following chart shows growth trend of gross state domestic product of Uttar Pradesh at market prices estimated by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation with figures in millions of Indian Rupees.
| Year | Gross State Domestic Product |
|---|---|
| 1980 | 155,540 |
| 1985 | 277,480 |
| 1990 | 555,060 |
| 1995 | 1,062,490 |
| 2000 | 1,730,680 |
^ includes Uttarakhand
The production of foodgrains has increased from 14.5 million metric tons in 1960-61 to 42.5 million tons in 1995-96, showing an average annual growth rate of 3.1 percent, which is much higher than the population growth rate. At present, the new Uttar Pradesh state produces about 92% of the output of the old Uttar Pradesh state of prior to 1947 partition.
UP has also witnessed rapid industrialization in the recent past, particularly after the launch of policies of economic liberalization in the country. As of March 1996, there were 1,661 medium and large industrial undertakings and 296,338 small industrial units employing 1.83 million persons. The per capita state domestic product was estimated at Rs 7,263 in 1997-98 and there has been visible decline in poverty in the state. Yet, nearly 40 percent of the total population lives below the poverty line. Uttar Pradesh's gross state domestic product for 2004 was $339.5 billion by PPP and $80.9 billion by Nominal, making it the second largest economy in India after Maharashtra and a bigger economy than many of the world's big economic players like Israel, Switzerland and Hong Kong.[2]
| This section does not cite any references or sources. (July 2006) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Uttar Pradesh is a major contributor to the national foodgrain stock. Partly this is due to the fertile regions of the Indo-Gangetic plain and partly owing to irrigation measures such as the Ganga Canal and tubewells. Lakhimpur Kheri is the largest sugar producing district in the country. It is also home to 78% of national livestock population. It has been the largest producer of food grains in India since the late 1960s when high-yielding varieties of seed, greater availability of fertilizers and increased use of irrigation were introduced[4]. This chart shows the national share of major food commodities from Uttar Pradesh.
| Commodity | National Share |
|---|---|
| Potato | 47% |
| Sugarcane | 45% |
| Wheat | 38% |
| Rice | 32% |
| Groundnut | 34% |
| Molasses | 34% |
| Sugar | 30% |
| Tobacco | 20% |
Over 3% of the S&P CNX 500 conglomerates have corporate offices in Uttar Pradesh.
Uttar Pradesh is the 'IT-Hub' of North India, with a share of software exports next to that of Karanataka[citation needed]. But, unlike South Indian states, IT enterprises are limited to particular areas only, like NOIDA, Greater NOIDA, Ghaziabad etc., which lie in National Capital Region (NCR).
Uttar Pradesh has booming electronics industries, especially in UP-Delhi-NCR and Lucknow-Kanpur Corridor. It produces almost all types of durables.
Uttar Pradesh has ample reserves of coal, dolomite and gems.
Uttar Pradesh attracts a large number of visitors both national and international. There are two regions in the state where a majority of the tourists go:
In Agra itself, Dayal Bagh is a temple built in modern times that many visit. It is still under construction and would take an estimated one century for completion. Its life-like carvings in marble are unique in India.
Also world famous is a 16th century capital city known as Fatehpur Sikri, built by the Mughal emperor Akbar near Agra.
Millions of tourists and pilgrims visit the cities of Allahabad, Varanasi and Ayodhya, as those are considered to be the holiest cities in India. Every year, thousands gather at Allahabad to take part in the festival held on the banks of the Ganges, the Magh Mela. The same festival is organised on a larger scale every 12th year and is called the Kumbha Mela, where over 10 million Hindu pilgrims congregate — the largest gathering of human beings in the world.
Varanasi is widely considered to be the second oldest city in the world after Jerusalem. It is famous for its ghats (bathing steps along the river), that remain bustling year round with devotees from all over India and beyond, who want to take a holy dip in the sacred Ganges River.
About 13 km from Varanasi is the historically important town of Sarnath. Gautama Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath after his enlightenment and hence it is an important pilgrimage site for the Buddhists. Also at Sarnath are the Ashoka Pillar and the Lion Capital, both important archaeological artifacts with national significance.
Dudhwa National Park is one of the best Tiger reserves in the country. Lakhimpur Kheri is a must see location, and home to the Tiger reserve.
Some areas require a special permit for non-Indians to visit.
Uttar Pradesh is famous for its rich heritage of art and craft. Most famous centres are the following: -
The state is home to a very ancient tradition in dance and music. During the eras of Guptas and Harsh Vardhan, Uttar Pradesh was a major centre for musical innovation. Swami Haridas was a great saint-musician who championed Hindustani Classical Music. Tansen, the great musician in Mughal Emperor Akbar's court, was a disciple of Swami Haridas. The ragas sung by Tansen were believed to be so powerful that they could bring rain, or light a fire, when recited.
Kathak, a classical dance form, involving gracefully coordinated movements of feet along with entire body, grew and flourished in Uttar Pradesh. Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, was a great patron and a passionate champion of Kathak. Today, the state is home to two prominent schools of this dance form, namely, Lucknow Gharana and Banaras Gharana.
In modern times, Uttar Pradesh has given to the world music legends like Naushad Ali, Talat Mehmood, Anup Jalota, Baba Sehgal, Shubha Mudgal, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Kishan Maharaj, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Gopal Shankar Misra, Siddheshwari Devi, Girija Devi etc. The legendary Ghazal singer Begum Akhtar belonged to Uttar Pradesh; she took this aspect of music to amazing heights. "Ae Mohabbat Tere anjaam pe rona aaya" is one of her best musical renditions of all times. It is also, incidentally, the birthplace of British pop legend Sir Cliff Richard.
The region's folk heritage includes songs called rasiya (known and especially popular in Braj), which celebrate the divine love of Radha and Shri Krishna. These songs are accompanied by large drums known as bumb and are performed at many festivals. Other folk dances or folk theater forms include:
The Bhatkande Music University at Lucknow is named after the great musician Pandit Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande.
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