Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populous state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was created on 1 April 1937 as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh during British rule, and was renamed Uttar Pradesh in 1950, giving it the acronym UP. The state is divided into 18 divisions and 75 districts, with the state capital being Lucknow, and Allahabad serving as the judicial capital. On 9 November 2000, a new state, Uttaranchal (now Uttarakhand), was carved from the state’s Himalayan hill region. The two major rivers of the state, the Ganges and Yamuna, join at Triveni Sangam in Allahabad and flow further east as Ganges. Other prominent rivers are Gomti and Saryu. The forest cover in the state is 6.09% of the state’s geographical area. The cultivable area is 82% of total geographical area and net area sown is 68.5% of cultivable area.

The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the west, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi to the northwest, Uttarakhand and an international border with Nepal to the north, Bihar to the east, Madhya Pradesh to the south, and touches the states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to the southeast. It covers 240,928 km2 (93,023 sq mi), equal to 7.34% of the total area of India, and is the fourth-largest Indian state by area. Though long known for sugar production, the state’s economy is now dominated by the services industry. The service sector comprises travel and tourism, hotel industry, real estate, insurance and financial consultancies. The economy of Uttar Pradesh is the second-largest state economy in India with ₹21.73 lakh crore (US$300 billion) in gross domestic product and a per capita GSDP of ₹95,000 (US$1,300). President’s rule has been imposed in Uttar Pradesh ten times since 1968, for different reasons and for a total of 1,700 days.[13] The state has currently two international airports, Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport (Lucknow) and Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport (Varanasi). Allahabad Junction is the headquarters of the North Central Railway and Gorakhpur Railway Station serves as the headquarters of the North Eastern Railway. The High Court of the state is located in Allahabad. The state contributes 80 seats and 31 seats to the lower house Lok Sabha and to the upper house Rajya Sabha respectively.

Inhabitants of the state are called either Awadhi, Bagheli, Bhojpuri, Braji, Bundeli, Kannauji, or Rohilkhandi depending upon their region of origin. Hinduism is practised by more than three-fourths of the population, with Islam being the next largest religious group. Hindi is the most widely spoken language and is also the official language of the state, along with Urdu. Uttar Pradesh was home to most of the mainstream political entities that have existed in ancient and medieval India including Maurya Empire, Harsha Empire, Gupta Empire, Pala Empire, Delhi Sultanate, Mughal Empire as well as many other empires. At the time of Indian independence movement in the early 20th century, there were three major princely states in Uttar Pradesh – Ramgadi, Rampur and Benares. The state houses several holy Hindu temples and pilgrimage centres. Uttar Pradesh has three World Heritage sites and ranks first tourist destinations in India. Uttar Pradesh has several historical, natural, and religious tourist destinations, such as Agra, Allahabad, Aligarh, Ayodhya, Kushinagar, Varanasi and Vrindavan.