History
Evolution of the State
The area has undergone several name changes and territorial demarcations since the early 19th century, i.e., after the British East India Company had established its supremacy in the Gangetic plains. In 1833 the then Bengal Presidency of the Company was divided into two parts, one of which became Presidency of Agra; in 1836 the Agra area was named North-Western Provinces and placed under a Lieutenant Governor by the Company. In 1877, the two provinces of Agra and Oudh (Oudh was occupied by the Company, in 1858), were placed under one Colonial administrator of the British Crown; he was called Lieutenant Governor of the North-Western Provinces and Chief Commissioner of Oudh. In 1902 the name was changed to United Provinces of Agra and Oudh with Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh as administrator; in 1921 Lieutenant Governorship was elevated to Governorship and the name of the province was changed to United Provinces of British India. In 1935, the name was shortened to United Provinces. On independence from the British colonial rule in 1947, theprincely states of Rampur, Banares and Tehri-Garwal were merged into the United Provinces. In 1950, the name of United Provinces was changed to Uttar Pradesh. In 1999 a separate Himalayan state, Uttaranchal, (now named Uttarakhand), was carved out of Uttar Pradesh.
Prehistory, legends and ancient period
Archeological finds in Uttar Pradesh confirm presence of Stone Age homo sapiens hunter-gatherers in Chhatarpalia, Mahugarh, Parisdhia,Lalitpur, Nihi and Gopipur,[5][6][7][8] between 85±11 and 72±8 kyr (thousand years ago) before present (BP); Middle Paleolithic and later the Upper Paleolithic artifacts dated at 21–31 kyr BP;[9] Mesolithic/Microlithic hunter-gatherer's settlement, near Pratapgarh, around 10550–9550 CE;[10] villages, domesticated cattle, sheep or goats and evidence of plants and agriculture as early as 6000 CE – although, most dates range between c. 4000 and 1500 CE – thus initiating a sequence which extends into the Iron Age,[11][12][13] beginning from Indus Valley Civilization and Harappa Culture finds in the Saharanpur division through the Vedic period.
The known history of Uttar Pradesh goes back 4000 years, when the Aryans first made it their home in 2000 BCE; this heralded the Vedic age of the Indian civilization. The Aryans, infiltrating from their home-base in the present day Punjab region, had settled in the Doabregion and the Ghagra plains, and called it with various names: Madhya Desha (Midland),Aryavarta (the Aryan land) and Bharatvarsha (the kingdom of Bharat, an important Aryan king). Early Indo-Aryan presence probably corresponds, in part, to the presence of Ochre Coloured Pottery in archaeological findings.[14]
The Aryans spread to other parts of the Indian subcontinent, reaching as far south as Keralaand Sri Lanka and, in due course, ancient kingdoms (Mahajanapadas) arose at several large population centres.
The ancient Mahajanapada era 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 the Doab region of Western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, (in what was KuruMahajanapada), during the reign of the Pandava king Yudhishtira. The kingdom of the Kurus[15] corresponds to the Black and Red Ware and Painted Gray Ware culture and the beginning of the Iron Age in Northwestern India, around 1000 BCE. The revered Swaminarayan – mentioned in the Brahma Purana and Vishwaksena Samhita as the manifestation of God – was born in the village of Chhapaiya.
Most of the empire building invasions of North India, from the east as well as the west, passed through the vast swathe of Gangetic plains of what today is Uttar Pradesh. 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 BCE), Kushan (100–250 CE) and Gupta (350–600 CE) Rajput (650–1036 CE) empires.
Following the Hun invasions that broke Guptas' empire, the Ganga-Yamuna Doab saw the rise of Kannauj. During the reign of Harshavardhana (590–647 CE), the Kannauj empire was at its zenith; spanning from Punjab and Gujarat to Bengal and Orissa – and parts of central India, north of the Narmada River – it encompassed the entire Indo-Gangetic plain. A patron of Buddhism and the University at Nalanda, Harsha organized theological debates and also patronised art and literature. A noted author on his own merit, he wrote three Sanskrit plays. Many communities in various parts of India boast of being descendants of migrants from Kannauj, reflecting its glory in the past.[16] Soon after Harshavardhana's death, his empire disintegrated into many kingdoms, to be invaded and ruled mostly by Rajputs, who also challenged Bengal's mighty Pala Empire's control of the region.
Medieval
The fall of the post-Harshavardhana Rajputkings of north India came when the Turko-Afghan Muslim rulers moved into present day Uttar Pradesh. Much of the state formed part of the various Indo-Islamic empires (Sultanates) after 1000 CE and was ruled from their capital, Delhi.
Later, in Mughal times, U.P. became the heartland of their vast empire; they called the place 'Hindustan', which is used to this day as the name for India in several languages. Agra and Fatehpur Sikri were the capital cities ofAkbar, the great Mughal Emperor of India. At their zenith, during the rule of Aurangzeb, 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.
When the Mughal 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 theMarathas and Benaras by its own king, while Nepal controlled Kumaon-Garhwal as a part of Greater Nepal. The state's capital city of Lucknow was established by the Muslim Nawabs of Oudh in the 18th century.
Modern-colonial
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 Companyaccession over this state's territories – including the territories of Bundelkhand, Kumaon and Benaras rulers – and the last Mughal territories of Doab and Delhi. When the Company included Ajmer and Jaipur kingdoms in this northern territory, they named it the "North-Western Provinces" (of Agra). Today, the area may seem large 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.
ue to dissatisfaction with British rule, a serious rebellion erupted in various parts of North India; Meerutcantonment's sepoy, Mangal Pandey, is widely credited as its starting point. It came to be known as theIndian Rebellion of 1857. After the revolt failed the British, in an attempt to divide the most rebellious regions, split the Delhi region from ‘NWFP of Agra’ and merged it with Punjab, while the Ajmer- Marwar region was merged with Rajputana and Oudh was incorporated 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 politics and was especially important in modern Indian history as a hotbed of both the Indian Independence Movement and the Pakistan Movement. Nationally known figures such as Jawaharlal Nehru were among the leaders of the movement in UP. The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) was formed at the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress on 11 April 1936 with the legendary nationalist Swami Sahajanand Saraswati elected as its first President,[17] in order to address the long standing grievances of the peasantry and mobilise them against the zamindari landlords' attacks on their occupancy rights, thus sparking the Farmers' movement in India.[18][19]
Post-independence
After independence, the state was renamed Uttar Pradesh ("northern province") by its first chief minister, Govind Ballabh Pant. Pant was well acquainted with and close to Jawaharlal Nehru (the first Prime Minister of free India) and was also popular in the Congress Party. He established such a good reputation in Lucknow that Nehru called him to Delhi, the capital and seat of Central Government of the country, to make him Home Minister of India in 27 December 1954. He was succeeded by Dr. Sampoornanand, a classicist Sanskrit scholar. Following a political crisis in Uttar Pradesh, initiated by Kamlapati Tripathi and C.B.Gupta, Sampurnanand was asked to resign as CM in 1960 and sent to Rajasthan as the Governor of Rajasthan, paving the way for Gupta and Tripathi to become Chief Ministers.
Sucheta Kripalani served as India's first woman chief minister from October 1963 until March 1967, when a two-month long strike by state employees caused her to step down. After her, Chandra Bhanu Gupta assumed the office of Chief Minister with Laxmi Raman Acharya as Finance Minister, but the government lasted for only two years due to the confusion and chaos which 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.
Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna was chief minister for Congress Party government 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 widely unpopular 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. On 9 November 2000, the Himalayan portion of the state, comprising the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions and Haridwar district, was formed into a new state, now called Uttarakhand, meaning the 'Northern Segment' state.
Climate
The climate of Uttar Pradesh is predominantly subtropical, but weather conditions change significantly with location and seasons:
Temperature: Depending on the elevation, the average temperatures vary from 12.5–17.5 °C (55–64 °F) in January to 27.5–32.5 °C (82–91 °F) in May and June. The highest temperature recorded in the State was 49.9 °C (121.8 °F) at Gonda on 8 May 1958.
Rainfall: Rainfall in the State ranges from 1,000–2,000 mm (39–79 in) in the east to 600–1,000 mm (24–39 in) in the west. About 90% of the rainfall occurs during the southwest Monsoon, lasting from about June to September. With most of the rainfall concentrated during this four-month period, floods are a recurring problem and cause heavy damage to crops, life, and property, particularly in the eastern part of the state, where the Himalayan-origin rivers flow with a very low north-south gradient.
Snowfall: In the Himalayan region of the State, annual snowfall averaging 3 to 5 metres (10 to 15 feet) is common between December and March.
Economy
Uttar Pradesh is the second largest state-economy in India[citation needed]contributing 8.17% to India's total GDP. Between 2004 and 2009, Uttar Pradesh grew at 6.29% and is now quite close to the miracle growth norm (which is 7% by international norm).[33] Most of the part of this growth was contributed in period of 2007-09 after Mayawati took the charge of Uttar Pradesh.[citation needed] She decided to promote the Lucknow as another IT destination after Noida. Some IT giants like TCS have already started their campus in Lucknow since 2008-09.
The major economic activity in the state is agriculture; in 1991, 73% of the population in the state was engaged in agriculture and 46% of the state income was accounted for by agriculture. UP has retained its preeminent position in the country as a food-surplus state.[citation needed]
Uttar Pradesh is home to largest number of Small Scale industrial units in the country, with 12% of over 2.3 million units.[34] But, industrial output has been adversely affected by erratic power supply from the UP State Electricity Board and remains far below its full production capacity. Unavailability of adequate raw materials at competitive prices is another negative factor. Also, like in most parts of India, traders and middlemen make most of the profits while the labour class lives at subsistence level.
Nevertheless, labour efficiency is higher in UP at 26 than the national average of 25.[34] Following are some of the important industrial hubs in the state:
Meerut, a manufacturing centre of sports goods, sharp tools like scissors and also of gold ornaments, is regularly listed among the top tax-paying cities in the country.[35]
Mirzapur and Bhadohi are manufacturing centres and worldwide exporters of carpets and cotton durries.
Moradabad, a famous production centre of traditional 'Moradabadi' metalware, has emerged now as a major producer and exporter of stainless steel utensils also.
Aligarh is a manufacturing hub of brass, zinc, aluminium, iron door fittings and is also famous for its padlocks. These items are exported all over the world.
Agra was visited by more than 8 million domestic and 825,000 foreign tourists in 2006, followed by Varanasi, Lucknow, Allahabad, Vrindabanand Mathura.
Agra also has Uttar Pradesh first biotech company Harihar Biotech that is located in the vicinity of Taj. And is Presently one of the largest Plant Tissue Culture lab in North India with production capacity of 2 millions plants annually.
Economy is gearing itself to cater to contemporary Western tastes and life style in upper class Uttar Pradeshis; elegant shopping malls are coming up in big cities to satisfy their needs. The economy also benefits from the State's thriving tourism industry.
Tourism
Uttar Pradesh attracts a large number of visitors, both national and international; with more than 71 million domestic tourists (in 2003) and almost 25% of the All-India foreign tourists visiting Uttar Pradesh, it is one of the top tourist destinations in India.[34] There are two regions in the state where a majority of the tourists go, viz. the Agra circuit and the Hindu pilgrimage circuit.
The city of Agra, gives access to three World Heritage Sites: Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and the nearby Fatehpur Sikri. Taj Mahal is a mausoleum built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It is cited as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage". Agra Fort is about 2.5 km northwest of its much more famous sister monument, the Taj Mahal. The fort can be more accurately described as a walled palatial city. Fatehpur Sikri was the world famous 16th century capital city near Agra, built by the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great, whose mausoleum in Agra is also worth a visit. Dayal Bagh in Agra is a modern day temple and popular tourist sight. Its lifelike sculptures in marble are unique in India. Agra's dubious modern attractions include Asia's largest Spa as well as Asia's first and only 6D theatre.
The pilgrimage circuit includes the holiest of the Hindu holy cities on the banks of sacred rivers Ganga and the Yamuna: Varanasi (also considered world's oldest city), Ayodhya (birth place of Lord Rama), Mathura (birth place of Lord Krishna) and Allahabad (the confluence or 'holy-sangam' of the sacred Ganga-Yamuna rivers).
Varanasi is widely considered to be one of the oldest cities in the world. It is famous for its ghats (bathing steps along the river), full of pilgrims year round who come to bathe in the sacred Ganges River.
Mathura is world-famous for its colourful celebrations of the Holi festival, which attracts many tourists also – thanks partly to the hype, which the Indian film industry has given to this highly entertaining socio-religious festival.
Thousands gather at Allahabad to take part in the Magh Mela festival, which is held on the banks of the Ganges. This festival is organised on a larger scale every 12th year and is called the Kumbha Mela, where over 10 million Hindu pilgrims congregate — One of proclaimed the largest gathering of human beings in the world.
The historically important towns of Sarnath and Kushinagar are located not far from Varanasi. Gautama Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath after his enlightenment and died at Kushinagar; both are important pilgrimage sites for Buddhists. Also at Sarnath are the Pillars of Ashoka and the Lion Capital of Ashoka, both important archaeological artifacts with national significance. At a distance of 80 km from Varanasi, Ghazipur is famous not only for its Ganga Ghats but also for the Tomb of British potentate Lord Cornwallis, maintained by theArcheological Survey of India.
Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, has several beautiful historical monuments such as Bara Imambara and Chhota Imambara. It has also preserved the damaged complex of the Oudh-period British Resident's quarters, which are being restored.
Some of the main natuaral protected areas in Uttar Prdesh are:-
§ Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary – the most concentrated sanctuary in India with a large population of tigers as well as leopards – situated in Bahraich and bordering Nepal is also worth a visit.
Airports in Uttar Pradesh
- Agra Airport or Kheria Airport or Air Force Station Agra
Domestic Airport. Operational.
- Allahabad Airport or Bamrauli Airport
Domestic Airport. Operational.
Domestic Airport. Operational.
Domestic Airport. Operational.
- Lucknow Airport or Amausi Airport or Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport
International Airport. Operational.
- Varanasi Airport or Babatpur Airport or Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport
International Airport. Operational.
Amausi Airport
Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport or Amausi airport, named after former Prime Minister of India, Chaudhary Charan Singh (IATA: LKO, ICAO: VILK), is situated near Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The airport serves as the primary civilian aviation hub for the metropolitan area of the cities of Lucknow and Kanpur. The airport is served by four international carriers and various domestic carriers
Varanasi Airport
