State on the western coast of India :GUJARAT

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                                         GUJARAT(INDIA)

Gujarat  (Gujarati):  is a state on the western coast of India with a coastline of 1,600 km (990 mi) – most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula – and a population of 60.4 million. It is the fifth-largest Indian state by area and the ninth-largest state by population. Gujarat is bordered by Rajasthan to the northeast, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu to the south, Maharashtra to the southeast, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea and the Pakistani province of Sindh to the west. Its capital city is Gandhinagar, while its largest city is Ahmedabad.[9] The Gujarati-speaking people of India are indigenous to the state. The economy of Gujarat is the third-largest in India, with a gross state domestic product (GSDP) of ₹15.02 lakh crore (US$210 billion) and has the country's 11th-highest GSDP per capita of ₹197,000 (US$2,800). Gujarat ranks 21st among Indian states in human development index. The state traditionally has low unemployment and is widely considered one of the most industrially developed states of India and a manufacturing hub.

The state encompasses some sites of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, such as Lothal, Dholavira and Gola Dhoro. Lothal is believed to be one of the world's first seaports. Gujarat's coastal cities, chiefly Bharuch and Khambhat, served as ports and trading centres in the Maurya and Gupta empires, and during the succession of royal Saka dynasties from the Western Satraps era. Along with Bihar and Nagaland, Gujarat is one of the four Indian states to prohibit the sale of alcohol. Gir Forest National Park in Gujarat is home of the only wild population of the Asiatic lion in the world.



Etymology

Gujarat is derived from the Sanskrit term Gurjaradesa, meaning "The Land of the Gurjaras (also called Gujjars)", who ruled Gujarat in the 8th and 9th centuries CE. Parts of modern Rajasthan and Gujarat have been known as Gurjaratra or Gurjarabhumi (land of the Gujjars) for centuries before the Mughal period.

History


Ancient history

Gujarat was one of the main central areas of the Indus Valley Civilisation. It contains ancient metropolitan cities from the Indus Valley such as Lothal, Dholavira and Gola Dhoro. The ancient city of Lothal was where India's first port was established. The ancient city of Dholavira is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites in India, belonging to the Indus Valley Civilisation. The most recent discovery was Gola Dhoro. Altogether, about 50 Indus Valley settlement ruins have been discovered in Gujarat.[19]

The ancient history of Gujarat was enriched by the commercial activities of its inhabitants. There is clear historical evidence of trade and commerce ties with Egypt, Bahrain and Sumer in the Persian Gulf during the time period of 1000 to 750 BC. There was a succession of Hindu and Buddhist states such as the Mauryan Dynasty, Western Satraps, Satavahana dynasty, Gupta Empire, Chalukya dynasty, Rashtrakuta Empire, Pala Empire and Gurjara-Pratihara Empire, as well as local dynasties such as the Maitrakas and then the Chaulukyas.

The early history of Gujarat reflects the imperial grandeur of Chandragupta Maurya who conquered a number of earlier states in what is now Gujarat. Pushyagupta, a Vaishya, was appointed the governor of Saurashtra by the Mauryan regime. He ruled Girinagar (modern-day Junagadh) (322 BC to 294 BC) and built a dam on the Sudarshan lake. Emperor Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, not only ordered engraving of his edicts on the rock at Junagadh but asked Governor Tusherpha to cut canals from the lake where an earlier Mauryan governor had built a dam. Between the decline of Mauryan power and Saurashtra coming under the sway of the Samprati Mauryas of Ujjain, there was an Indo-Greek defeat in Gujarat of Demetrius. In 16th century manuscripts, there is an apocryphal story of a merchant of King Gondaphares landing in Gujarat with Apostle Thomas. The incident of the cup-bearer torn apart by a lion might indicate that the port city described is in Gujarat.

For nearly 300 years from the start of the 1st century AD, Saka rulers played a prominent part in Gujarat's history. The weather-beaten rock at Junagadh gives a glimpse of the ruler Rudradaman I (AD 100) of the Saka satraps known as Western Satraps, or Kshatraps. Mahakshatrap Rudradaman I founded the Kardamaka dynasty which ruled from Anupa on the banks of the Narmada up to the Aparanta region which bordered Punjab. In Gujarat, several battles were fought between the south Indian Satavahana dynasty and the Western Satraps. The greatest and the mightiest ruler of the Satavahana Dynasty was Gautamiputra Satakarni who defeated the Western Satraps and conquered some parts of Gujarat in the 2nd century AD.

The Kshatrapa dynasty was replaced by the Gupta Empire with the conquest of Gujarat by Chandragupta Vikramaditya. Vikramaditya's successor Skandagupta left an inscription (AD 450) on a rock at Junagadh which gives details of the governor's repairs to the embankment surrounding Sudarshan lake after it was damaged by floods. The Anarta and Saurashtra regions were both parts of the Gupta empire. Towards the middle of the 5th century, the Gupta empire went into decline. Senapati Bhatarka, the Maitraka general of the Guptas, took advantage of the situation and in 470 he set up what came to be known as the Maitraka state. He shifted his capital from Giringer to Valabhipur, near Bhavnagar, on Saurashtra's east coast. The Maitrakas of Vallabhi became very powerful with their rule prevailing over large parts of Gujarat and adjoining Malwa. A university was set up by the Maitrakas, which came to be known far and wide for its scholastic pursuits and was compared with the noted Nalanda University. It was during the rule of Dhruvasena Maitrak that Chinese philosopher-traveler Xuanzang/ I Tsing visited in 640 along the Silk Road.

Gujarat was known to the ancient Greeks and was familiar with other Western centers of civilisation through the end of the European Middle Ages. The oldest written record of Gujarat's 2,000-year maritime history is documented in a Greek book titled The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century.

Medieval history

In the early 8th century, the Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate established an empire in the name of the rising religion of Islam, which stretched from Spain in the west to Afghanistan and modern-day Pakistan in the east. Al-Junaid, the successor of Qasim, finally subdued the Hindu resistance within Sindh and established a secure base. The Arab rulers tried to expand their empire southeast, which culminated in the Caliphate campaigns in India fought in 730; they were defeated and expelled west of the Indus river, probably by a coalition of the Hindu rulers Nagabhata I of the Pratihara Dynasty, Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty and Bappa Rawal of Guhila dynasty. After this victory, the Arab invaders were driven out of Gujarat. General Pulakeshin, a Chalukya prince of Lata, received the title Avanijanashraya (refuge of the people of the earth) and honorific of "Repeller of the unrepellable" by the Chalukya emperor Vikramaditya II for his victory at the battle at Navsari, where the Arab troops suffered a crushing defeat.

In the late 8th century, the Kannauj Triangle period started. The three major Indian dynasties – the northwest Indian Gurjara-Pratihara Dynasty, the south Indian Rashtrakuta Dynasty and the east Indian Pala Empire – dominated India from the 8th to 10th centuries. During this period the northern part of Gujarat was ruled by the north Indian Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty and the southern part of Gujarat was ruled by the south Indian Rashtrakuta Dynasty.[29] However, the earliest epigraphical records of the Gurjars of Broach attest that the royal bloodline of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty of Dadda I-II-III (650–750) ruled south Gujarat. Southern Gujarat was ruled by the south Indian Rashtrakuta dynasty until it was captured by the south Indian ruler Tailapa II of the Western Chalukya Empire.

Zoroastrians from Greater Iran migrated to the western borders of South Asia (Gujarat and Sindh) during the 8th or 10th century, to avoid persecution by Muslim invaders who were in the process of conquering Iran. The descendants of those Zoroastrian refugees came to be known as the Parsi.

Subsequently, Lāṭa in southern Gujarat was ruled by the Rashtrakuta dynasty until it was captured by the Western Chalukya ruler Tailapa II.

The Chaulukya dynasty ruled Gujarat from c. 960 to 1243. Gujarat was a major center of Indian Ocean trade, and their capital at Anhilwara (Patan) was one of the largest cities in India, with population estimated at 100,000 in the year 1000. After 1243, the Solankis lost control of Gujarat to their feudatories, of whom the Vaghela chiefs of Dholka came to dominate Gujarat. In 1292 the Vaghelas became tributaries of the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri in the Deccan. Karandev of the Vaghela dynasty was the last Hindu ruler of Gujarat. He was defeated and overthrown by the superior forces of Alauddin Khalji from Delhi in 1297. With his defeat, Gujarat became part of the Muslim empire, and the Rajput hold over Gujarat would never be restored.

According to Barnes (2017), fragments of printed kinds of cotton made in Gujarat, India were discovered in Egypt, which provides evidence for medieval trade in the western Indian Ocean. These fragments represent the Indian cotton traded to Egypt during the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods from tenth to sixteenth centuries. Similar Gujarati kinds of cotton were traded as far east as Indonesia, and this is contextualised under the medieval trades of the wider Indian Ocean.


Language[edit]


Languages of Gujarat (2011)[100][101]

  Gujarati (85.93%)
  Hindi (6.07%)
  Marathi (1.52%)
  Kutchi (1.43%)
  Others (5.05%)

Gujarati is the official language of the state. It is spoken natively by 86% of the state's population, or 52 million people (as of 2011).[2]

Other major languages, according to the 2001 census, are Bhili (4.8%), Hindi (4.7%, includes speakers of the Rajasthani varieties), Sindhi (1.9%, includes figures for Kutchi), Marathi (1.5%) and Urdu (1.1%).[102]

People from the Kutch region of Gujarat also speak in the Kutchi mother tongue, and to a great extent appreciate Sindhi as well. Memoni is the mother tongue of Kathiawar and Sindhi Memons, most of them who are exclusively Muslims.

Almost 88% of the Gujarati Muslims speak Gujarati as their mother tongue, whilst the other 12% speak Urdu. A sizeable proportion of Gujarati Muslims are bilingual in both languages; Islamic academic institutions (Darul Uloom) place a high prestige on learning Urdu and Arabic, with students' memorising the Quran and ahadith, and emphasising the oral and literary importance of mastering these languages as a compulsory rite of religion. Other native languages spoken in low proportions are Bhili and Gamit.

Apart from this, English, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marwari, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and others are spoken by a considerable number of economic migrants from other states of India seeking employment.

The languages taught in schools under the three-language formula are

First Language: Gujarati/Hindi/English

Second Language: Gujarati/English

Third Language: Hindi


Economy


During the British Raj, Gujarati businesses served to play a major role to enrich the economy of Karachi and Mumbai. Major agricultural produce of the state includes cotton, groundnuts (peanuts), dates, sugar cane, milk and milk products. Industrial products include cement and petrol.[109] According to a 2009 report on economic freedom by the Cato Institute, Gujarat is the most free state in India (the second one being Tamil Nadu). Reliance Industries operates the oil refinery at Jamnagar, which is the world's largest grass-roots refinery at a single location. The world's largest shipbreaking yard is in Gujarat near Bhavnagar at Alang. India's only Liquid Chemical Port Terminal at Dahej, developed by Gujarat Chemical Port Terminal Co Ltd. Gujarat has two of the three liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in the country (Dahej and Hazira). Two more LNG terminals are proposed, at Pipavav and Mundra.


Gujarat has 85% village connectivity with all‐weather roads. Nearly 100% of Gujarat's 18,000 villages have been connected to the electrical grid for 24-hour power to households and eight hours of power to farms, through the Jyotigram Yojana. As of 2015, Gujarat ranks first nationwide in gas-based thermal electricity generation with a national market share of over 8%, and second nationwide in nuclear electricity generation with national market share of over 1%.

The state registered 12.8% agricultural growth in the last five years against the national average of 2%.

Gujarat records highest decadal agricultural growth rate of 10.97%. Over 20% of the S&P CNX 500 conglomerates have corporate offices in Gujarat. As per RBI report, in year 2006–07, 26% out of total bank finance in India was in Gujarat.

As per a recent survey report of the Chandigarh Labour Bureau, Gujarat has the lowest unemployment rate of 1% against the national average of 3.8%.

Legatum Institute's Global Prosperity Index 2012 has recognised Gujarat as one of the two highest-scoring among all states of India on matters of social capital.The state ranks 15th alongside Germany in a list of 142 nations worldwide: higher than several developed nations.

Infrastructure

Tallest Building in Gujarat: GIFT One.

Tallest tower in Gujarat, GIFT One was inaugurated on 10 January 2013. One other tower called GIFT Two has been finished and more towers are planned.[119]

Industrial growth

Shown here is the Tata Nano, the world's least expensive car Sanand, Gujarat, is home to Tata Nano.
Surat is one of the fastest growing cities in the world.
Alang Ship Breaking

Gujarat's major cities include Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar. In 2010, Forbes list of the world's fastest growing cities included Ahmedabad at number 3 after Chengdu and Chongqing from China. The state is rich in calcite, gypsum, manganese, lignite, bauxite, limestone, agate, feldspar, and quartz sand, and successful mining of these minerals is done in their specified areas. Jamnagar is the hub for manufacturing brass parts. Gujarat produces about 98% of India's required amount of soda ash, and gives the country about 78% of the national requirement of salt. It is one of India's most prosperous states, having a per-capita GDP significantly above India's average. Kalol, Khambhat, and Ankleshwar are today known for their oil and natural gas production. Dhuvaran has a thermal power station, which uses coal, oil, and gas. Also, on the Gulf of Khambhat, 50 kilometres (31 mi) southeast of Bhavnagar, is the Alang Ship Recycling Yard (the world's largest). MG Motor India manufactures its cars at Halol near Vadodara, Tata Motors manufactures the Tata Nano from Sanand near Ahmedabad, and AMW trucks are made near Bhuj. Surat, a city by the Gulf of Khambhat, is a hub of the global diamond trade. In 2003, 92% of the world's diamonds were cut and polished in Surat. The diamond industry employs 500,000 people in Gujarat

At an investor's summit entitled "Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor Summit", arranged between 11 and 13 January 2015, at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar, the state government signed 21000 Memoranda of Understanding for Special Economic Zones worth a total of ₹ 2.5 million crores (short scale).] However, most of the investment was from domestic industryIn the fourth Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit held at Science City, Ahmedabad, in January 2009, there were 600 foreign delegates. In all, 8668 MOUs worth ₹ 12500 billion were signed, estimated to create 2.5 million new job opportunities in the state In 2011, Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit MOUs worth ₹ 21 trillion (US$ 463 billion) were signed.

Gujarat is a state with surplus electricityThe Kakrapar Atomic Power Station(KAPS) is a nuclear power station run by NPCIL that lies in the proximity of the city of Surat. According to the official sources, against demand of 40,793 million units during the nine months since April 2010, Gujarat produced 43,848 million units. Gujarat sold surplus power to 12 states: Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal.


Festivals

  • Garba during Navaratri in Ahmedabad

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  • Navratri Garba at Ambaji temple

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  • Tourists playing Dandiya Raas

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  • International Kite Festival, Ahmedabad

The folk traditions of Gujarat include bhavai and raas-garba. Bhavai is a folk theatre; it is partly entertainment and partly ritual, and is dedicated to Amba. The raas-garba is a folk dance done as a celebration of Navratri by Gujarati people. The folk costume of this dance is chaniya choli for women and kedia for men. Different styles and steps of garba include dodhiyu, simple five, simple seven, popatiyu, trikoniya (hand movement which forms an imagery triangle), lehree, tran taali, butterfly, hudo, two claps and many more Sheri garba is one of the oldest form of garba where all the ladies wear red patola sari and sing along while dancing. It is a very graceful form of garba.Makar Sankranti is a festival where people of Gujarat fly kites. In Gujarat, from December through to Makar Sankranti, people start enjoying kite flying. Undhiyu, a special dish made of various vegetables, is a must-have of Gujarati people on Makar Sankranti. Surat is especially well known for the strong string which is made by applying glass powder on the row thread to provide it a cutting edge.

Apart from Navratri and Uttarayana, Diwali, Holi, Tazia and others are also celebrated.


Plant and animal life

Forests cover only a small portion of Gujarat, reflecting human activity as well as meagre rainfall. Scrub forest occurs in the northwestern region and across the Kathiawar Peninsula, the main species being babul acacias, capers, Indian jujubes, and toothbrush bushes (Salvadora persica). In some parts of the peninsula and northeastern Gujarat, deciduous species such as teak, catechu (cutch), axlewood, and Bengal kino (butea gum) are found. Deciduous forests are concentrated in the wetter southern and eastern hills. They produce valuable timbers, such as Vengai padauk (genus Pterocarpus; resembling mahogany), Malabar simal, and haldu (Adina cordifolia). The west coast of the peninsula is known for its algae, and the east coast produces papyrus, or paper plant (Cyperus papyrus).

Gir National Park, in the southwestern region of the Kathiawar Peninsula, contains rare Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica), and endangered Indian wild asses (Equus hemionus khur) are protected in a sanctuary near the Little Rann of Kachchh. The Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary, near Ahmadabad, attracts many species of birds migrating from the Siberian plains and elsewhere in winter. Saras cranes, Brahmini ducks, bustards, pelicans, cormorants, ibises, storks, herons, and egrets are among the most-notable species. The Rann of Kachchh is India’s only nesting ground of the greater flamingo. There is excellent offshore and inland fishing in Gujarat. Catches include pomfret, salmon, hilsa (a type of shad), jewfish (scianid fish), prawn, Bombay duck (a food fish), and tuna.


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