Uttar Pradesh

Capital : Lucknow
Largest city : Kanpur
District(s) : 701
Population : 186,755,000 (1st)
Density : 783/km² (2,028/sq mi)
Language(s) : Hindi, Urdu
Established : 1835

The decision to possibly create an additional six districts is pending.
As North-Western_Provinces in 1835,
Renamed to United Provinces of Agra and Oudh in 1902,
Renamed to Uttar Pradesh in 1947

Uttar Pradesh , translation: Northern Province, often referred to as U.P., located in central-south Asia and northern India, is the most populous and fifth largest state in the Republic of India. With a population exceeding that of France, Germany, and the Netherlands combined, it is the most populous sub-national division in the world. U.P. is also possibly the state with the largest number of million-plus cities (at least eight).

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 is also home to the tourism capital of India, Agra. The state's high court is based at Allahabad. Other notable cities in Uttar Pradesh include Bijnor, Jhansi, Lakhimpur Kheri, Varanasi (Banaras), Allahabad, Faizabad, Azamgarh, Bareilly, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad, Ghaziabad, Aligarh, Gorakhpur, Saharanpur, Mathura and NOIDA (New Okhla Industrial Development Authority).

Uttar Pradesh (UP) is the most populous state in India, even after losing Uttarkhand, with an estimated population of 186.7 million [1] as of 2007 and a land area of 238,566 km². One-sixth of the world’s population lives in India and one-sixth of India’s population lives in UP. Only five countries of the world, China, the United States, Indonesia, Brazil and India itself have populations larger than that of UP, and UP and Uttarkhand have more than Brazil. The population density of the state at 783 persons per km². is the fourth highest among major states in the country. The Indo-Gangetic plain spans most of the state, has been the seat of ancient Hindu culture, religion and learning and has always played a prominent role in Indian political and cultural movements.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the population of UP was only 49 million and increased very slowly until 1951 (0.52 percent per annum) to reach 63 million. This was the period marked by high birth and death rates. The population increased rapidly in the next five decades due to a faster decline in the death rate compared to the birth rate. The population of the state increased from 63 million in 1951 to about 170 million in 2000, an addition of 117 million in the last five decades compared to an addition of only 15 million in the previous five decades. The population of the state is increasing at 2.19 percent per year (SRS, 1998). This implies that the state at present is adding a population of 3.8 million every year and more than 10 million every three years.

History

Medieval
Beyond 1000 AD, Uttar Pradesh became part of several Muslim Sultanates who ruled from Delhi. In Mughal times, U.P. became the heart land of what was called 'Hindustan' (a name referring to India), even today UP-ites often refer to themselves as 'Hindustani'(Bhartiya/ Indian) rather than Uttar Pradeshi.

Agra and Fatehpur Sikri were important as the capital city of Akbar, the great Mughal Emperor of India. After the decline of the Moghuls, a number of kingdoms arose: Oudh of the Nawabs, Rohilkhand by Afghans, Bundelkhand by the Marathas and Benaras by its own king, while Kumaon-Garhwal were independent kingdoms in their own right (these two regions formed the new state of uttarakhand). The city of Lucknow was established by the Muslim Nawabs of Oudh in the 17th century.

Starting from the latter half of the 18th century, a series of battles finally gave British accession to the last Mughal territory -- the Doab, as also Bundelkhand, Kumaon and Banaras divisions. Delhi, Ajmer and Jaipur were also included in this territory. They called it the North western provinces (of Agra). Its capital shifted twice between Agra and Allahabad. The area may seem big compared to today's mini states the size of earlier divisions, but at the time it was one of the smallest British province.

After the failed freedom war of 1857, when things settled, the British made a major revamp and truncated the Delhi region and gave it to Punjab, and the Ajmer-Merwar region to Rajputana

Modern
At the same time it 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 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. The First Freedom fighter Mangal Pandey was from Uttar Pradesh. The sense of 'Bhartiyata' came from every people.

The city of Allahabad was home to prominent nationalists such as Motilal Nehru, Purushottam Das Tandon, Madan Mohan Malaviya. Allahabad was also home to a record four Prime Ministers of India: Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Vishwanath Pratap Singh and Rajiv Gandhi.

The city of Varanasi (Benaras) has been epi-centre of ancient scholaristic traditions. It is revered as one of the most sacred cities of the world by Hindus, Buddhist and Sufis. Varanasi particularly its Banaras Hindu University and Ghats symbolises the "Rebirth of Hindu Social and Scholaristic Traditions" (80% of Indians are Hindus).

U.P. is also known as 'punya bhoomi' in Hindu scriptures. The state was the main arena of the freedom movement of India. Regional leaders of the freedom movement inspired this struggle under Gandhian principles.

Baba Raghavdas was aka 'Poorvanchal Gandhi' he inspired the freedom movement in all of eastern UP. He is so reverred that there are still temples where they pray to him as saakar brahma in eastern UP. Gorakhpur Medical College is named after him.

Uttar Pradesh's Bundelkhand region is the home of two great Indian freedom fighters and the father of the freedom movement in the whole of bundelkhand, Dewan Shatrughan Singh [aka 'Bundelkhand Gandhi & Bundelkhand Gandhi'] & his wife Rani Rajendra Kumari. These were the two fountain heads of the freedom movement in all of Bundelkhand. They also were the main patrons of revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad who frequented their Castle in their native village of Maungrauth. The Rani defeated the sitting UP Chief Minister C.B. Gupta as an independent candidate. They were also the main inspiration behind the Bhoodaan movement in Bundelkhand and Maungraut changed the history of the movement by becoming the first complete Gramdaan.

Numerous scholars have done PhDs on the life of these 2 great Indian patriots. There is an annual mela on the birthday of these two stalwarts held annually in Maungrauth in December and is attended by over 40,000 people.

Despite being from one of the most affluent families in Central India this couple sacrificed everything for the nation and donated their lands to the poor. They were in British jails for the freedom struggle for over 9 years each. They are now the subject of folk tales and songs highlighting their bravery and hailing them as symbols of Bundelkhandi valor.

Gobind Vallabh Pant was the inspiration of the freedom movement in the hill areas of U.P.. He was also a close personal friend of Nehru and was also well educated.

These "Regional Gandhis" made the freedom movement a success in such huge areas of this state. A state which is half the population of United States.

After independence, the state was renamed Uttar Pradesh ("northern province") by its first chief minister, Govind Ballabh Pant.Pant, who was well known to Jawaharlal Nehru, was popular in the local party and left his mark in Lucknow before December 27, 1954, when Nehru called him to Delhi to make him Home Minister. He was succeeded by Dr. Sampoornanand, a university professor and classicist. A Sanskrit scholar, he was in office 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, and was dismissed, 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 following the lifting of the Emergency, but roared back to power in 1980, when Mrs. Gandhi handpicked the man who would become her son's principal opposition, V.P. Singh, to become Chief Minister.

In 2000 the Himalyan portion of the state — the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions — were formed into a new state called Uttarakhand (meaning the northern part of the state).

Major cities
Agra • Allahabad • Ghaziabad • Gorakhpur • Jhansi •Kanpur • Lucknow • Mathura • Meerut • Noida • Varanasi • Saharanpur•

Other towns
Aligarh • Bahraich • Ballia • Banda • Barabanki • Bareilly • Bijnor • Bulandshahr • Etawah • Faizabad • Firozabad • Ghazipur • Gonda • Kannauj • Mathura • Mainpuri • Mirzapur • Moradabad • Noida • Raebareli • Rampur • Azamgarh• Sultanpur • Greater Noida • Muzaffarnagar• Khurja •

Languages
The state languages of Uttar Pradesh are standard Hindi and Urdu. While standard Hindi (Khari boli) is the official language, several regional Hindi 'dialects' are spoken throughout the state. Among these are, Awadhi, Bagheli, Bhojpuri, Braj, Bundeli. 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 center of Persianate culture in north India. The language of Lucknow ("Lakhnavi Urdu") is a form of high literary Urdu.

Tourism

The Triveni SangamUttar Pradesh attracts a large number of both national and international visitors. There are two regions in the state where a majority of the tourists go. These are the city of Agra which houses three world heritage sites Taj Mahal, Agra Fort & Fatehpur Sikriand the holy cities: the cities of Varanasi, Ayodhya, Mathura, and Allahabad, by the sacred rivers — the Ganga and the Yamuna are all located in the state. The state hosts a Kumbha Mela every 12 years, where over 10 million Hindus congregate — the largest gathering of human beings in the world.

The Taj Mahal A vast number of tourists visit the Taj Mahal in Agra. Another important tourist attraction in Agra is the Agra Fort. Also famous is a 16th century capital city built by the Mughal emperor Akbar known as Fatehpur Sikri near Agra. 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. The life-like carving in marble is not seen anywhere else in India.

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.

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 on the banks of the Ganges, the Magh Mela. The same festival is organised in a larger scale every 12th year and attracts millions of people and is called the Kumbha Mela.

Varanasi is widely considered to be the second oldest city in the world after Jerusalem. It is famous for its ghats (steps along the river) which are populated year round with people who want to take a dip in the holy Ganges River.

Desaswamedh Ghat in Varanasi, crowded with pilgrims at sunrise. Photographed in November 1996 by Andy Carvin.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 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.

Some areas require a special permit for non-Indians to visit.

Arts and crafts
Uttar Pradesh is famous for its arts and crafts. Specific regions such as Varanasi for its saris and silk, Mirzapur and Bhadohi for its carpets, Agra and Kanpur for their leather craft, Moradabad for its metal ware, Lucknow for its cloth work and embroidery 'chicken work on silk, and the entire state for its pottery are not only famous in India but around the world.