Gujarat

For other uses, see Gujrat (disambiguation).

Gujarat ગુજરાત गुजरात State of India Clockwise from top: High Court of Gujarat, Dwarka Beach, Laxmi Vilas Palace, Kankaria Lakefront, Gandhi Ashram, Salt Desert of Kutch. Seal Location of Gujarat (marked in red) in India Map of Gujarat Coordinates (Gandhinagar): 23°13′N 72°41′E Country India Established 1 May 1960 Capital City Gandhinagar Districts 33 Government  • Governor Om Prakash Kohli  • Chief Minister Anandiben Patel  • Legislature Unicameral (182 seats)  • Parliamentary constituency 26 (SC-2,ST-4)  • High Court Gujarat High Court Area  • Total 196,024 km2 (75,685 sq mi) Area rank 6th Population (2011)  • Total 60,439,692  • Rank 9th  • Density 310/km2 (800/sq mi) Demonym Gujarati Languages  • Official Gujarati & Sindhi  • Spoken languages (Organised alphabetically) English Hindi Kutchi Lambani Marathi Marwari Sindhi Urdu Time zone IST (UTC+05:30) ISO 3166 code IN-GJ HDI 0.527 (medium) HDI rank 11th (2011) Literacy 80.18% Website gujaratindia.com

Gujarat /ˌɡʊdʒəˈrɑːt/ (Gujǎrāt  Gujarati: [ગુજરાત] ( )) is a state in the western part of India known locally as Jewel of the West. It has an area of 196,204 km² (75,755 sq mi) with a coastline of 1,600 km (990 mi), most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula, and a population in excess of 60 million. The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the north, Maharashtra to the south, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea as well as the Pakistani province of Sindh to the west. Its capital city is Gandhinagar, while its largest city is Ahmedabad. Gujarat is home to the Gujarati-speaking people of India.

The state encompasses major sites of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, such as Lothal and Dholavira. 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 advent of the Western Satraps era, whose geographic territories included Saurashtra and Malwa: modern Gujarat, South Sindh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh states.

Gujarat was known to the Ancient Greeks, the various Persian Empires, the Roman Republic, and familiar in other Western centers of civilization 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'.

Gujarat has played an important role in the economic history of India.

Etymology

Modern-day Gujarat is derived from Sanskrit (Gurjar-Rashtra), the Gurjar nation. Parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat have been known as Gurjaratra (country ruled or protected by the Gurjars) or Gurjarabhumi (land of the Gurjars) for centuries prior to the Mughal period. Historically, the Gurjars were Sun-worshipers and are described as devoted to the feet of the Sun-god (God Surya). Their copper-plate grants bear an emblem of the Sun and on their seals too, this symbol is depicted. Many Gurjars claim descent from Suryavanshi Kshatriyas (Sun Dynasty) and connect themselves with the Hindu deity Rama. The Gujjar clan appeared during the 7th to 8th century in Northern India about the time of the Huna invasions. The origins of the Gujjars are uncertain. The name of the tribe was Sanskritised to "Gurjara".

History

Main article: History of Gujarat

Ancient history

The docks of ancient Lothal as they are today.

Ancient sophisticated water reservoir at Dholavira

Historically, the state of Gujarat has been one of the main centres of the Indus Valley Civilization. It contains major 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. Also, Dholavira, the ancient city, is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites in India, belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization. The most recent discovery was Gola Dhoro. All together, about 50 Indus Valley settlement ruins have been discovered in Gujarat. The ancient history of Gujarat was enriched by their commercial activities. There is a 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 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 Solankis.

The early history of Gujarat is full of imperial grandeur of Chandragupta Maurya who conquered a number of earlier states of Gujarat. Pushyagupta, a Vaishya, was appointed Governor of Saurashtra by the Mauryan regime. He ruled (322 BC to 294 BC) Giringer (present Junagadh) and built a dam on the Sudarshan lake. Emperor Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, not only ordered engraving of his famous edicts on the rock at Junagadh, but asked his Governor Tusherpha to take out canals from the lake where an earlier Mauryan Governor had built a dam. Between the decline of the Mauryan power and Saurashtra coming under the sway of Samprati Mauryas of Ujjain, there was a Greek incursion into Gujarat led by Demetrius.

For nearly 300 years from the start of the 1st century AD, Saka rulers played prominent part in Gujarat's history. Weather beaten rock at Junagadh gives a glimpse of the Ruler Rudradaman I (100 AD) 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 Aparanta region which bordered Punjab. In Gujarat several battles were fought between the south Indian Satavahana dynasty and the Western Satraps. The greatest ruler of the Satavahana Dynasty was Gautamiputra Satakarni who defeated the Western Satraps and conquered some parts of Gujarat in the 2nd century CE

The Kshatrapa dynasty was replaced by the Gupta reign with the conquest of Gujarat by Chandragupta Vikramaditya. Vikramaditya's successor Skandagupta has left an inscription (450 AD) on a rock at Junagadh which gives details of the repairs of the embankment, damaged by floods, of Sudarshan lake by his Governor. Anarta and Saurashtra regions were both part of the Gupta empire. Towards the middle of the 5th century, the Gupta empire started to decline. Senapati Bhatarka, the Maitraka general of the Guptas, took advantage of the situation and in 470 AD 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. Maitrakas of Vallabhi became very powerful and their rule prevailed over large parts of Gujarat and even over adjoining Malwa. Maitrakas set up a university which came to be known far and wide for its scholastic pursuits and was compared with the famous Nalanda university. It was during the rule of Dhruvasena Maitrak that Chinese philosopher-traveler Xuanzang visited in 640 AD.

In the early 8th century, the Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate established an Empire which stretched from Spain in the west to Afghanistan and Iran in the east. Al-Junaid, the successor of Qasim, had finally subdued the Hindu resistance within Sindh and had established a secure base. The Arab rulers tried to expand their Empire southeast which culminated in the Battle of Rajasthan fought in 730 CE, but the Arab invaders were defeated and repelled out of the areas east of the Indus river by a Hindu co-alliance between the north Indian Gurjar Emperor Nagabhata I of the Pratihara Dynasty, the south Indian Emperor Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty and many other local small Hindu kingdoms. After this victory, the Arab invaders were driven out of Gujarat. General Pulakesi, 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 south Indian Emperor Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty for the protection of Gujarat during the famous battle at Navsari where Syrian troops suffered a crushing defeat. In the late 8th century the Kannauj Triangle period started. The 3 major Indian Dynasties such as the northwest Indian Gurjara-Pratihara Dynasty, the south Indian Rashtrakuta Dynasty and the east Indian Pala Empire dominated India from the 8th to 10th century. 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. However, the earliest epigraphical records of the Gurjars of Broach, attests 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.

Destruction of Somnath Temple

The Somnath temple, known as "the Shrine Eternal", having been destroyed six times and rebuilt six times.

The Somnath Temple located in the Prabhas Patan near Veraval in Saurashtra, on the western coast of Gujarat, India, is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of the God Shiva. Somnath means "The Protector of (the) Moon God". The Somnath Temple is known as "the Shrine Eternal", having been destroyed six times by Muslim invaders.

Mahmud of Ghazni conquered and destroyed thousands of Hindu temples during his raids including the famous Somnath Temple, which he destroyed in 1025 AD, killing over 50,000 people who tried to defend it. The defenders included the 90-year-old clan leader Ghogha Rana. Mahmud had the gilded lingam broken into pieces and had then made into steps for his mosque and palace.

The following extract is from "Wonders of Things Created, and marvels of Things Existing" by Zakariya al-Qazwini, a 13th-century Persian Arab geographer. It contains the description of Somnath temple and its destruction:

"Somnath: celebrated city of India, situated on the shore of the sea, and washed by its waves. Amongst the wonders of that place was the temple in which was placed the idol called Somnath. This idol was in the middle of the temple without anything to support it from below, or to suspend it from above. It was held in the highest honour amongst the Hindus, and whoever beheld it floating in the air was struck with amazement, whether he was a Musulman or an infidel. The Hindus used to go on pilgrimage to it whenever there was an eclipse of the moon, and would then assemble there to the number of more than a hundred thousand.

When the Sultan Yaminu-d Daula Mahmud Bin Subuktigin (Mahmud of Ghazni) went to wage religious war against India, he made great efforts to capture and destroy Somnath, in the hope that the Hindus would then become Muhammadans. As a result thousands of Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam. He arrived there in the middle of Zi-l k’ada, 416 A.H. (December 1025 A.D.). "The king looked upon the idol with wonder, and gave orders for the seizing of the spoil, and dinars ok."

1297–1614 CE

The Mughal Emperor Akbar triumphantly enters Surat.

From 1297 to 1300, Allauddin Khilji, the Turkic Sultan of Delhi, destroyed the Hindu metropolis of Anhilwara and incorporated Gujarat into the Delhi Sultanate. After Timur's sacking of Delhi at the end of the fourteenth century weakened the Sultanate, Gujarat's Muslim Rajput governor Zafar Khan Muzaffar (Muzaffar Shah I) asserted his independence, and his son, Sultan Ishaan Shah (ruled 1411 to 1442), restructured Ahmedabad as the capital. Khambhat eclipsed Bharuch as Gujarat's most important trade port. Humayun had also briefly occupied the province in 1536, but fled due to the threat Bahadur Shah, the Gujarat King imposed. The Sultanate of Gujarat remained independent until 1576, when the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great conquered it and annexed it to the Mughal Empire.

The port of Surat (the only Indian port facing westwards) then became the prominent and principal port of India during Mughal rule to gain international repute. The eminent city of Surat, famous for its cargo export of silk and diamonds, earned the title Bab-al-Makkah (Gateway to Makkah). Muslim pilgrims, both local and foreign, from as far as Egypt, Syria, Hejaz, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, China, and Russia assembled, under the royal patronage of the Mughals, to come and go for the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca from the ports of Surat, Veraval and Mandvi.

Early 14th-century Maghrebi adventurer, Ibn Batuta, who famously visited India with his entourage, recalls in his memoirs about Cambay, one of the great emporia of the Indian Ocean that indeed:

“ Cambay is one of the most beautiful cities as regards the artistic architecture of its houses and the construction of its mosques. The reason is that the majority of its inhabitants are foreign merchants, who continually build their beautiful houses and wonderful mosques - an achievement in which they endeavor to surpass each other. ”

Many of these "foreign merchants" were transient visitors, men of South Arabian and Persian Gulf ports, who migrated in and out of Cambay with the rhythm of the monsoons. But others were men with Arab or Persian patronyms whose families had settled in the town generations, even centuries earlier, intermarrying with Gujarati women, and assimilating everyday customs of the Hindu hinterland.

The Age of Discovery prompted pioneer Portuguese and Spanish long-distance maritime travels in search of alternative trade routes to "the East Indies", moved by the trade of gold, silver and spices. In 1497, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama is said to have discovered the Europe-to-India sea route which changed the course of history, thanks to Kutchi merchant and navigator Kanji Kalam, whose ship he is reported to have followed from the East African coasts of Mozambique sailing onwards to Calicut off the Malabar coast in India. Later, the Gujarat Sultanate allied with the Ottomans and Egyptian Mamluks naval fleets led by governor-generals Malik Ayyaz and Amir Husain Al-Kurdi, vanquished the Portuguese in the 1508 Battle of Chaul resulting in the first Portuguese defeat at sea in the Indian Ocean.

To 16th-century European observers, Gujarat was a fabulously wealthy country. The customs revenue of Gujarat alone in the early 1570s was nearly three times the total revenue of the whole Portuguese empire in Asia in 1586-87, when it was at its height. Indeed, when the British arrived on the coast of Gujarat, houses in Surat already had windows of Venetian glass imported from Constantinople through the Ottoman empire. In 1514, the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa wrote about the cosmopolitan Rander otherwise known as City of Mosques in Surat province, which gained the fame and reputation of illustrious Islamic scholars, saints, merchants and intellectuals from all over the world:

“ Ranel (Rander) is a good town of the Moors, built of very pretty houses and squares. It is a rich and agreeable place... the Moors of the town trade with Malacca, Bengal, Tawasery (Tannasserim), Pegu, Martaban, and Sumatra in all sort of spices, drugs, silks, musk, benzoin and porcelain. They possess very large and fine ships and those who wish Chinese articles will find them there very completely. The Moors of this place are white and well dressed and very rich they have pretty wives, and in the furniture of these houses have china vases of many kinds, kept in glass cupboards well arranged. Their women are not secluded like other Moors, but go about the city in the day time, attending to their business with their faces uncovered as in other parts. ”

The conquest of the Kingdom of Gujarat marked a significant event of Akbar's reign. Being the major trade gateway and departure harbour of pilgrim ships to Mecca, it gave the Mughal Empire free access to the Arabian sea and control over the rich commerce that passed through its ports. The territory and income of the empire were vastly increased

The Sultanate of Gujarat and the merchants

A modern Zoroastrian Agiary in Western India

For the best part of two centuries, the independent Sultanate of Gujarat was the cynosure of its neighbours on account of its wealth and prosperity, which had long made the Gujarati merchant a familiar figure in the ports of the Indian Ocean. The merchants of Gujarat, both Hindu and Muslim, as well as the enterprising Parsi class, had been specialising in the organization of overseas trade for many centuries. By the 17th century, Baghdadi Jews and Chavuse had assimilated into the social world of the Surat province, later on their descendants would give rise to the Sassoons of Bombay and the Ezras of Calcutta. At its zenith, Gujarati merchants with the aid of Khoja and Bohra shipowners, nakhudas, and lascars, had created the legacy of an international transoceanic empire which had a vast commercial network of agents stationed at all the great port cities across the Indian Ocean. These networks extended to the Philippines in the east, East Africa in the west, and via maritime and the inland caravan route to Russia in the north.

As Tome Pires, a Portuguese official at Malacca, writing of conditions during the reigns of Mahmud I and Mozaffar II, expressed it: “Cambay stretches out two arms; with her right arm she reaches toward Aden and with the other towards Malacca” (Pires, I, p. 41). His contemporary, Duarte Barbosa, describing Gujarat’s maritime trade, recorded the import of horses from the Middle East and elephants from Malabar, and lists exports which included muslins, chintzes and silks, carnelian, ginger, and other spices, aromatics, opium, indigo, and other substances for dyeing, cereals, and legumes (Barbosa, I, pp. 108–58). Persia was the destination for many of these commodities, and they were partly paid for in horses and pearls taken from Hormuz (Barbosa, I, p. 82). It was the latter item, in particular, which led Sultan Sikandar Lodi of Delhi, according to ʿAli-Moḥammad Khan, author of the Merʾāt-e aḥmadi, to complain that the “support of the throne of Delhi is wheat and barley but the foundation of the realm of Gujarat is coral and pearls” (apud Bayley, p. 20). Hence, the sultans of Gujarat possessed ample means to sustain lavish patronage of religion and the arts, and to build madrasas, and ḵānaqāhs, and to provide douceurs for the literati, mainly poets and historians, whose presence and praise enhanced the fame of the dynasty.

Even at the time of Tom Pires' travel to the East Indies in the early 16th-century, Gujarati merchants had a formidable reputation for their commercial acumen. Pires noted:

“ These [people] are [like] Italians in their knowledge of and dealings in merchandise...they are men who understand merchandise; they are so properly steeped in the sound and harmony of it, that the Gujaratees say that any offence connected with merchandise is pardonable. There are Gujaratees settled everywhere. They work some for some and others for others. They are diligent, quick men in trade. They do their accounts with fingers like ours and with our very writings. ”

Gujarat and the Mughal Empire

portrait of Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb, who was better known by his imperial title Alamgir ("world-tamer"), was born at Dahod, Gujarat, and was the sixth Mughal Emperor ruling with an iron fist over most of the Indian subcontinent. He was the third son and sixth child of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. At the time of his birth, His father, Shah Jahan, was then the Subedar (governor) of Gujarat whilst his (Shah Jahan's) father, Jehangir, was the Mughal Emperor. Before he became emperor, Aurangzeb was made Subedar of Gujarat as part of his training and was stationed at Ahmedabad. Aurangzeb was a notable expansionist and was amongst the wealthiest of the Mughal rulers with an annual yearly tribute of £38,624,680 (in 1690). During his lifetime, victories in the south expanded the Mughal Empire to more than 3.2 million square kilometres and he ruled over a population estimated as being in the range of 100–150 million subjects.

Aurangzeb had great love for his place of birth. In 1704, he wrote a letter to his eldest son, Muhammad Azam Shah, asking him to be kind and considerate to the people of Dahod as it was his birthplace. Muhammad Azam was then the Subedar (governor) of Gujarat.

In his letter, Aurangzeb wrote:

“ My son of exalted rank, the town of Dohad, one of the dependencies of Gujarat, is the birthplace of this sinner. Please consider a regard for the inhabitants of that town as incumbent on you. ”

Maratha Empire

When the cracks had started to develop in the edifice of the Mughal empire in the mid-17th century, the Marathas were consolidating their power in the west, Chatrapati Shivaji, the great Maratha ruler, attacked Surat twice first in 1664 and again in 1672. These attacks marked the entry of the Marathas into Gujarat. However, before the Maratha inroads into Gujarat, the Europeans had made their presence felt, with the Portuguese leading them, followed by the Dutch and the English.

The Peshwas had established their sovereignty over Gujarat including Saurashtra, and collected taxes and tributes through their representatives. Damaji Gaekwad and Kadam Bande divided the Peshwa's territory between them, with Damaji establishing the sway of Gaekwad over Gujarat and made Baroda (present day Vadodara) his capital. The ensuing internecine war among the Marathas were fully exploited by the British, who interfered in the affairs of both Gaekwads and the Peshwas.

1614–1947 CE

Princely states of Gujarat in 1924

Mahatma Gandhi picking salt at Dandi beach, South Gujarat ending the Salt satyagraha on 5 April 1930

In the 1600s, the Dutch, French, English and Portuguese all established bases along the western coast of the region. Portugal was the first European power to arrive in Gujarat, and aftermath the Battle of Diu and Treaty of Bassein, acquired several enclaves along the Gujarati coast, including Daman and Diu as well as Dadra and Nagar Haveli. These enclaves were administered by Portuguese India under a single union territory for over 450 years, only to be later incorporated into the Republic of India on 19 December 1961 by military conquest.

The British East India Company established a factory in Surat in 1614 following the commercial treaty made with Mughal Emperor Nuruddin Salim Jahangir, which formed their first base in India, but it was eclipsed by Bombay after the English received it from Portugal in 1668 as part of the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal. The state was an early point of contact with the west, and the first British commercial outpost in India was in Gujarat.

17th-century French explorer François Pyrard de Laval who is remembered for his 10-year sojourn in South Asia et al, records witness accounts that the Gujaratis were always prepared to learn workmanship from the Portuguese, also in turn imparting skills to the Portuguese:

“ I have never seen men of wit so fine and polished as are these Indians: they have nothing barbarous or savage about them, as we are apt to suppose. They are unwilling indeed to adopt the manners and customs of the Portuguese; yet do they regularly learn their manufactures and workmanship, being all very curious and desirous of learning. In fact the Portuguese take and learn more from them than they from the Portuguese. ”

Later in the 17th century, Gujarat came under control of the Maratha Empire who dominated the politics of India. Most notably, from 1705–1716, Senapati Khanderao Dabhade led the Maratha Empire forces in Baroda. Pilaji Gaekwad, first ruler of Gaekwad dynasty, established the control over Baroda and parts of Gujarat. The British East India Company wrested control of much of Gujarat from the Marathas during the Second Anglo-Maratha War in 1802–1803. Many local rulers, notably the Maratha Gaekwads of Baroda (Vadodara), made a separate peace with the British and acknowledged British sovereignty in return for retaining local self-rule.

Gujarat was placed under the political authority of the Bombay Presidency, with the exception of Baroda state, which had a direct relationship with the Governor-General of India. From 1818 to 1947, most of present-day Gujarat, including Kathiawar, Kutch, and northern and eastern Gujarat were divided into hundreds of princely states, but several districts in central and southern Gujarat, namely Ahmedabad, Broach (Bharuch), Kaira (Kheda), Panchmahal, and Surat, were ruled directly by British officials.

Post independence

Bombay Presidency in 1909, northern portion

After Indian independence and the partition of India in 1947, the new Indian government grouped the former princely states of Gujarat into three larger units; Saurashtra, which included the former princely states on the Kathiawad peninsula, Kutch, and Bombay state, which included the former British districts of Bombay Presidency together with most of Baroda state and the other former princely states of eastern Gujarat. Bombay state was enlarged to include Kutch, Saurashtra, and parts of Hyderabad state and Madhya Pradesh in central India. The new state had a mostly Gujarati-speaking north and a Marathi-speaking south. Agitation by Gujarati nationalists, the Mahagujarat Movement, and Marathi nationalists, the Samyukta Maharashtra, for their own states led to the split of Bombay state on linguistic lines; on 1 May 1960, it became the new states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. In 1969 riots, at least 660 died and properties worth millions destroyed.

The first capital of Gujarat was Ahmedabad; the capital was moved to Gandhinagar in 1970. Nav Nirman Andolan was a socio-political movement of 1974. It was students and middle-class people's movement against economic crisis and corruption in public life. This was the first and last successful agitation after Independence of India that ousted an elected government.

Morvi dam failure in 1979 resulted in death of thousands of people and large economic loss. In the 1980s, a reservation policy was introduced in the country, which led to anti-reservation protests in 1981 and 1985. The protests witnessed violent clashes between people belonging to various castes. F

In 2001 Gujarat faced a Magnitude 7.7 earthquake whose epicentre was about 9 km south-southwest of the village of Chobari in Bhachau Taluka of Kutch District. The earthquake killed around 20,000 people (including at least 18 in South-eastern Pakistan, injured another 167,000 and destroyed nearly 400,000 homes).

In February 2002, Godhra Train Attack lead to state-wide riots, resulting in deaths of 1044 people – 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus, and hundreds missing still unaccounted for. Akshardham Temple was attacked by two terrorists in September 2002, killing 32 persons and injuring more than 80 others. National Security Guards intervented to end siege killing both terrorists. On 26 July 2008 a series of seventeen bomb blasts rocked the city, killing and injuring several people.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Gujarat

See also: Climate of Gujarat and List of rivers of Gujarat

Physical map of Gujarat

Sardar Sarovar Project, Gujarat, partially completed (up to E.L.121.92 m)

Gujarat borders with Pakistan's province of Sindh to the northwest, bounded by the Arabian Sea to the southwest, the state of Rajasthan to the northeast, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and by Maharashtra, Union territories of Diu, Daman, Dadra and Nagar Haveli to the south. Historically, the north was known as Anarta, the Kathiawar peninsula, "Saurastra", and the south as "Lata". Gujarat was also known as Pratichya and Varuna. The Arabian Sea makes up the state's western coast. The capital, Gandhinagar is a planned city. Gujarat has an area of 75,686 sq mi (196,030 km²) with the longest coast line 1600 km, dotted with 41 ports: one major, 11 intermediate and 29 minor ports.

Sabarmati is the biggest river of Gujarat followed by Tapi, although Narmada covers the longest area in the state. The Sardar Sarovar Project is built on the Narmada River. Narmada is one of the major rivers of peninsular India with a length of around 1312 km. It is one of only three rivers in peninsular India that run from east to west – the others being the Tapi River and the Mahi River. A riverfront project has been built on Sabarmati River.

Rann of Kutch

Main article: Rann of Kutch

The Rann of Kutch is a seasonally marshy saline clay desert located in the Thar Desert biogeographic region in between the province of Sindh and the state of Gujarat. Situated 8 km away from village Kharaghoda located in the Surendranagar District of northwestern India and the Sindh province of Pakistan. The name "Rann" comes from the Hindi word ran (रण) meaning "salt marsh".

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  Mount Karo

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  Cracked earth in the Rann of Kutch

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  Salt worker

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  Sand dunes

Demographics

Main article: Gujarati people

Population Growth
Census	Pop.		%±
1951	16,263,000		—
1961	20,633,000		26.9%
1971	26,697,000		29.4%
1981	34,086,000		27.7%
1991	41,310,000		21.2%
2001	50,671,000		22.7%
2011	60,383,628		19.2%
Source:Census of India

Modhera Sun Temple built by Bhimdev I.

The population of Gujarat State was 60,383,628 according to the 2011 census data. The population density is 308 km⁻² (797.6/sq mi), lower than other Indian states. As per the census of 2011, the state has a sex ratio of 918 girls for every 1000 boys, one of the lowest (ranked 24) amongst the 29 states in India.

Gujarati people form the majority of Ahmedabadi population: Marwaris and Biharis compose large minorities. In Ahmedabad state, smaller communities are Nepalese, Portuguese, South Koreans, Tamils, Oriyas, Telugus, Assamese, Bengali, Anglo-Indians, Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Tibetans, Maharashtrians, Konkanis, Malayalees, Punjabis, and Parsis. The South Korean community traditionally worked in the local tanning industry and ran restaurants. Sindhi presence is important here.

Religion

Religion in Gujarat (2001)
			Percent
Hinduism			89.09%
Islam			9.06%
Christianity			0.5%
Jainism			1.03%
Sikhism			0.19%
Buddhism			0.07%
Others			0.05%

Gujarat consists of people following Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism, making it a religiously diverse state. Hinduism is major religion of the state, as 89.09% population of the state is Hindu. Major part of Hindu population follows Swaminarayan Hinduism and Vaishnavism. Muslims are the biggest minority in the state with 9.89%. Gujarat is where Jains have the largest population outside Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

The Zoroastrians, also known in India as Parsi and Irani, are believed to have migrated to Gujarat to maintain their traditions. They have also played an instrumental role in economic development with several of the best-known business conglomerates of India run by Parsi-Zoroastrians, including the Tata, Godrej, and Wadia families.

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  Hathisingh Jain Temple, Ahmedabad

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  Gurudwara Govinddham, Ahmedabad

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  Magen Abraham Jewish Synagogue

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  Jama Masjid (Friday Mosque, 15th century), Ahmedabad

Language

Main article: Gujarati language

Gujarati (ગુજરાતી Gujǎrātī^?) is an Indo-Aryan language evolved from Sanskrit and local Prakrits, and is part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is native to the Indian state of Gujarat, and is its main language, as well as of the adjacent union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

About 59 million people speak Gujarati, making it the 26th most-spoken native language in the world. Along with Romani, Kutchi and Sindhi, it is amongst the most western of Indo-Aryan languages.

The majority of the population in the state can speak Gujarati and Hindi, whilst 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 good proportion of Gujarati Muslims are bi-lingual in both languages owed to Islamic academic institutions (Darul Uloom) traditionally placing a high prestige on learning Urdu, Arabic and Persian, memorising the Quran and ahadith, and emphasising the oral and literary importance of mastering these rich languages as a compulsory rite of religion. Other native languages spoken in low proportions are Bhili and Gamit, which are spoken exclusively amongst the tribals.

Marathi is spoken by a large number of people in Vadodara and Surat. Apart from this, English, Marwari, Sindhi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Oriya, Malayalam, and others are spoken by a considerable number of economic migrants that have flocked to the state seeking jobs.

Governance and administration

Main articles: Politics of Gujarat, Government of Gujarat, Gujarat Legislative Assembly and Districts of Gujarat

See also: Chief Ministers of Gujarat

Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat State. The picture shown above is of the Legislative Assembly and seat of Gujarat government.

Gujarat is governed by a Legislative Assembly of 182 members. Members of the Legislative Assembly are elected on the basis of adult suffrage from one of 182 constituencies, of which 13 are reserved for scheduled castes and 27 for scheduled tribes. The term of office for a member of the Legislative Assembly is five years. The Legislative Assembly elects a speaker who presides over the meetings of the legislature. A governor is appointed by the President of India, and is to address the state legislature after every general election and the commencement of each year's first session of the Legislative Assembly. The leader of the majority party or coalition in the legislature (Chief Minister) or his or her designee acts as the Leader of the Legislative Assembly. The administration of the state is led by the Chief Minister. The current Chief Minister of the state is Anandiben Patel, who recently took office after Narendra Modi was elected as Prime Minister of India.

Swarnim Sankul 2, a Government of Gujarat Office

After gaining independence in 1947, the Indian National Congress party (INC) ruled the Bombay State (which included present-day Gujarat and Maharashtra). Congress continued to govern Gujarat after the state's creation in 1960.

During and after India's State of Emergency of 1975–1977, public support for the Congress Party eroded, but it continued to hold government until 1995. In the 1995 Assembly elections, the Congress lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party and Keshubhai Patel came to power. His government lasted only two years. The fall of that government was provoked by a split in the BJP led by Shankersinh Vaghela, who won most of the subsequent polls. In 2001, following the loss of two assembly seats in by-elections, Keshubhai Patel resigned and yielded power to Narendra Modi. BJP retained a majority in the 2002 election, and Narendra Modi has since served as Chief Minister of the state. On 1 June 2007, Narendra Modi became the longest serving Chief Minister of Gujarat. On 23 December 2007, the BJP won the state elections in Gujarat and Narendra Modi became the chief minister for the third time in a row and has completed 11 years of governance on 7 October 2012. On 20 December 2012, the BJP retained power in the state by winning the state assembly elections for the fifth time in a row and Narendra Modi again returned to power for the third time.

The Government of Gujarat has banned alcohol since 1960. Gujarat government bagged the Best State Award for 'Citizen Security' by IBN7 Diamond States on 24 December 2012.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Gujarat

Jamnagar Refinery owned by Reliance Industries in Jamnagar is the largest refinery in the world.

Gujarat has some of the largest business corporations in India. It is one of the major industrial hubs of India. 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. According to the report on economic freedom by the Cato Institute, Gujarat is the second most free state in India Reliance Industries operates the oil refinery at Jamnagar, which is the world's largest grass-roots refineries. 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 is the only state in India to have a statewide gas grid of 2,200 km. About 87.9% of the total roads in the state are asphalt surfaced. Its 85% village connectivity with all‐weather roads is one of the highest in India. } Nearly 100% of Gujarat's 18,000 villages have been claimed to have electricity connection for 24-hr power through the Jyotigram Yojana. Gujarat ranks first nationwide in gas-based thermal electricity generation with national market share of over 8% and second nationwide in nuclear electricity generation with national market share of over 1%.

The state owned Wide Area Network is the largest IP-based ICT network in Asia Pacific Region and second largest in the world, connecting 26 districts and 225 talukas through 12,000 nodes. More than 900,000 internet users and all villages are connected with broadband internet. 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.

In a July 2011 report, The Economist referred to Gujarat as India's Guangdong. With double-digit growth rates, Gujarat continues to outpace growth in other Indian states. This has led to a booming entrepreneurial economy in Gujarat.

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.

Industrial growth

Surat is one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

Shown here is the Tata Nano, the world's least expensive car. Sanand, Gujarat is home to Tata Nano.

Inside view of Crystal Mall, Rajkot

Gujarat's major cities include Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar Vapi and Junagadh . In 2010, Forbes list of the world's fastest growing cities included Ahmedabad at number 3 after Chengdu and Chongqing from China. Junagadh lacks major industries or plants. However main earning sectors for Junagadh are mineral-based cement industry, agriculture-based industry and power sector. Presence of huge reserves of Limestone makes the cement industry a thriving industrial sector. Major crops produced in the district are wheat, oil seeds, cotton, mango, banana, onion and brinjal. Total production of oilseeds in Junagadh in 2006–07 was 464,400 MT[19] which was the highest in the state. Junagadh is the largest producer of Groundnut and Garlic in the State contributing 26% and 34% to total production respectively. Junagadh has Asia's largest Ground nut research laboratory. Mango and onions are produced in large quantities in the district. Some of the large scale industry present in Junagadh are Agro Marine Exports, Creative Castings Ltd., Gujarat Dairy Development Corporation, Austin Engineering. With an investment of INR 40 billion (USD 975.6million), JSW Power Co. propose to set up coal based power plant at Simar in Junagadh.[20]. With the new Government policy of biotechnology, Junagadh has been identified as one of the agriculture biotechnology zone. This will boost setting up of agro-biotech industries in the district. Junagadh boasts of some of the best tourist destinations in the state so tourism is considered to be a progressing sector. The State Government has sanctioned the project for development of Circuit Tourism project at Junagadh. 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 its 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). General Motors 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.

Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Region (PCPIR) spread across 453,000 square hectares—in Bharuch.

Gujarat is one of the first few states in India to have encouraged private-sector investment, some of which are already in operation. In addition, the liquid cargo (chemicals) handling port at Dahej is also set up in joint sector and made operational. At an investor's summit entitled "Vibrant Gujarat", arranged between 10 and 13 January 2007, at Science City, Ahmedabad, the state government signed 104 Memoranda of Understanding for Special Economic Zones worth a total of 2.5 trillion (short scale). However, most of the investment was from domestic industry. In 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 state with surplus electricity. The Kakrapar Atomic Power Station(KAPS) is a nuclear power station run by NPCIL that lies in the proximity of the city of Surat. Recently, the Gujarat Government has upgraded its installed capacity of 13,258 megawatts (MW) by adding another 3,488 MW. 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.

Power Plants

Gujarat invests in development of solar energy in the state and has had India's largest solar power plant as of January 2012. It has allotted 716 MW of solar power capacity to 34 national and international solar project developers in 2009, against the planned 500 MW capacity under its solar power policy. This is expected to bring in investments of INR 120 billion and generate employment for 5,000 people. By 2014, Gujarat plans on producing 1000MW of energy by solar power. When taking all renewable energy sources into account, Gujarat has the highest share of renewable energy sources in India, about 14% (12,489 MW )

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%.

It also has the biggest industrial area for ceramic business in Morbi, Himatanagar, which produces around 80% of the country's gross ceramic production and around 80% of compact fluorescent lamp (CFL).

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

Agriculture

The total geographical area of Gujarat is 19,602,400 hectares, of which crops take up 10,630,700 hectares. The three main sources of growth in Gujarat's agriculture are from cotton production, the rapid growth of high-value foods such as livestock, fruits and vegetables, and from wheat production, which saw an annual average growth rate of 28% between 2000 and 2008 (According to the International Food Policy Research Institute). Other major produce includes Bajra, Groundnut, Cotton, Rice, Maize, Wheat, Mustard, Sesame, Pigeon pea, Green gram, Sugarcane, Mango, Banana, Sapota, Lime, Guava, Tomato, Potato, Onion, Cumin, Garlic, Isabgul and Fennel. Whilst, in recent times, Gujarat has seen a high average annual growth of 9% in the agricultural sector, the rest of India has an annual growth rate of around 3%. This success was lauded by Former President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

The strengths of Gujarat's agricultural success have been attributed to diversified crops and cropping patters; climatic diversity (8 climatic zones for agriculture); the existence of 4 agricultural universities in the state, which promote research in agricultural efficiency and sustainability; co-operatives; adoption of hi-tech agriculture such as tissue culture, green houses and shed-net houses; agriculture export zones; strong marketing infrastructure, which includes cold storages, processing units, logistic hubs and consultancy facilities.

The adoption of cooperatives in Gujarat is widely attributed to much of the success in the agricultural sector, particularly sugar and dairy cooperatives. Cooperative farming has been a component of India’s strategy for agricultural development since 1951. Whilst the success of these was mixed throughout the country, their positive impact on the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat have been the most significant. In 1995 alone, the two states had more registered co-operatives than any other region in the country. Out of these, the agricultural cooperatives have received much attention. Many have focused on subsidies and credit to farmers and rather than collective gathering, they have focused on facilitating collective processing and marketing of produce. However, whilst they have led to increased productivity, their effect on equity in the region has been questioned, because membership in agricultural co-operatives has tended to favour landowners whilst limiting the entry of landless agricultural labourers. An example of co-operative success in Gujarat can be illustrated through dairy co-operatives, with the particular example of Amul (Anand Milk Union Limited). Amul Was formed as a dairy cooperative in 1946, in the city of Anand, Gujarat. The cooperative, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), is jointly owned by around 2.6 million milk producers in Gujarat. Amul has been seen as one of the best examples of cooperative achievement and success in a developing economy and The Amul pattern of growth has been taken as a model for rural development, particularly in the agricultural sector of developing economies. The company stirred the White Revolution of India (also known as Operation Flood), the world's biggest dairy development program, and made the milk-deficient nation of India the largest milk producer in the world, in 2010. The "Amul Model" aims to stop the exploitation by middlemen and encourage freedom of movement since the farmers are in control of procurement, processing and packaging of the milk and milk products. The company is worth 2.5 billion US dollars (as of 2012).

70% of Gujarat's area is classified as semi-arid to arid climatically, thus the demand on water from various economic activities puts a strain on the supply. Of the total gross irrigated area, 16–17% is irrigated by government-owned canals and 83–84% by privately owned tube wells and other wells extracting groundwater, which is the predominant source of irrigation and water supply to the agricultural areas. As a result, Gujarat has faced problems with groundwater depletion, especially after demand for water went up in the 1960s. As access to electricity in rural areas increased, subermersible electric pumps became more popular in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the Gujarat Electricity Board switched to flat tariff rates linked to the horsepower of pumps, which increased tubewell irrigation again and decreased the use of electric pumps. By the 1990s, groundwater abstraction rates exceeded groundwater recharge rate in many districts, whilst only 37.5% of all districts has "safe" recharge rates. Groundwater maintenance and preventing unnecessary loss of the available water supplies is now an issue faced by the state. The Sardar Sarovar Project, a debated dam project in the Narmada valley consisting of a network of canals, has significantly increased irrigation in the region. However, its impact on communities who were displaced is still a contested issue. Recently, in 2012, Gujarat began an experiment to reduce water loss due to evaporation in canals and to increase sustainability in the area by constructing solar panels over the canals. A one megawatt (MW) solar power project set up at Chandrasan, Gujarat uses solar panels fixed over a 750 metre stretch of an irrigation canal. Unlike many solar power projects, this one does not take up large amounts of land since the panels are constructed over the canals, and not on additional land. This results in lower upfront costs since land does not to be acquired, cleared or modified to set up the panels. The Chandrasan project is projected to save 9 million litres of water per year.

The Government of Gujarat, to improve soil management and introduce farmers to new technology, started on a project which involved giving every farmer a Soil Health Card. This acts like a ration card, providing permanent identification for the status of cultivated land, as well as farmers' names, account numbers, survey numbers, soil fertility status and general fertiliser dose. Samples of land from each village are taken and analysed by the Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertiliser Corporation, State Fertiliser Corporation and Indian Farmers Fertilisers Co-operative. 1,200,000 soil test data from the villages was collected as of 2008, from farmer’s field villages have gone into a database. Assistance and advice for this project was given by local agricultural universities and crop and soil-specific data was added to the database. This allows the soil test data to be interpreted and recommendations or adjustments made in terms of fertiliser requirements, which are also added to the database.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Gujarat

Gujarat is home to the Gujarati people. It was also the home of Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel, who preached unity between all religions and became a worldwide figure for peaceful struggle against tyranny.

Kutch district

Abhala Bharat or Shisha embroidery from Gujarat

Caravan on Mundra road

A pair of shoes in the Sindhi tradition from North East Kutch District

Bhuj is a popular shopping destination for handicrafts and shares a common culture with Sindh province in Pakistan. Artisans in nearby villages bring their art work for sale in Bhuj. Important landmarks for people wishing to study and know more about Kutchi embroidery are Shrujan, Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS), Kalaraksha and Women Artisans' Marketing Agency (WAMA, Bandhini).

Literature

Main article: Gujarati literature

Gujarati literature's history may be traced to 1000 AD. Since then literature has flourished till date. Well known laureates of Gujarati literature are Hemchandracharya, Narsinh Mehta, Mirabai, Akho, Premanand Bhatt, Shamal Bhatt, Dayaram, Dalpatram, Narmad, Govardhanram Tripathi, Mahatma Gandhi, K. M. Munshi, Umashankar Joshi, Suresh Joshi, Pannalal Patel and Rajendra Shah.

Kavi Kant, Zaverchand Meghani and Kalapi are famous Gujarati poets.

Gujarat Vidhya Sabha, Gujarat Sahitya Sabha, and Gujarati Sahitya Parishad are Ahmedabad based literary institutions promoting the spread of Gujarati literature. Saraswatichandra is a landmark novel by Govardhanram Tripathi. Writers like Kavi Nanalal, Sundaram, Aanand Shankar Dhruv, Khabardar, Balwantray Thakore, Suresh Dalal, Harindra Dave, Jyotindra Dave, Tarak Mehta, Harkisan Mehta, Chandrakant Bakshi, Ashvini Bhatt, Vinod Bhatt, Kanti Bhatt, Jay Vasavada, Makarand Dave, Gunvant Shah and Varsha Adalja have influenced Gujarati thinkers.

A huge contribution to Gujarati language literature came from the Swaminarayan paramhanso, like Bramhanand, Premanand, with prose like Vachanamrut and poetry in the form of bhajans.

Gujarati theatre owes a lot to Bhavai. Bhavai is a folk musical performance of stage plays. Ketan Mehta and Sanjay Leela Bhansali explored artistic use of bhavai in films such as Bhavni Bhavai, Oh Darling! Yeh Hai India and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Dayro (gathering) involves singing and conversation reflecting on human nature.

Famous Mumbai theatre veteran, Alyque Padamsee, best known in the English-speaking world for playing Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Sir Richard Attenborough's Gandhi, was from a traditional Gujarati-Kutchi family from Kathiawar.

Cuisine

Main article: Gujarati cuisine

Khaman Dhokla is a popular Gujarati farsan.

Gujarati food is primarily vegetarian. It is believed to be one of the healthiest cuisines in India. It has been portrayed in eminent Bollywood films, including the 2009 feature film 3 Idiots. The typical Gujarati thali consists of roti or bhakri, dal or kadhi, rice and sabzi. Indian pickle and chhundo are used as condiments. The four major regions of Gujarat all bring their own styles to Gujarati food. Many Gujarati dishes are distinctively sweet, salty, and spicy at the same time. In Saurashtra region, chass (buttermilk) is believed to be a must-have in their daily food.

Cinema

Main article: Gujarati cinema

The Gujarati film industry is one of the largest regional film industries in India. The first ever Gujarati film, Narsinh Mehta, was produced in 1932. Bhavni Bhavai is one of most acclaimed Gujarati films, having won National Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration and National Film Award for Best Art Direction. Many famous actors have worked in Gujarati film industry, such as Sanjeev Kumar, Bindu, Asha Parekh, Kiran Kumar, Arvind Trivedi, Aruna Irani, Mallika Sarabhai, Asrani, Naresh Kanodia, Paresh Rawal, Neeraj Vora, Dilip Joshi, Ayesha Jhulka, Himesh Reshammiya,Prachi Desai and one of the actors of Bollywood movie 3 idiots Sharman Joshi.

Music

Gujarati folk music, known as Sugam Sangeet, is a hereditary profession of the Gadhvi(Charan) communities. The omnipresent instruments in Gujarati folk music include wind instruments, such as turi, bungal, and pava, string instruments, such as the ravan hattho, rktaro, and jantar and percussion instruments, such as the manjira and zanz pot drum.

Festivals

Garba during Navaratri in Ahmedabad

Kites

The folk traditions of Gujarat include bhavai and rass-garba. Bhavai is a folk theatre; it is partly entertainment and partly ritual, and is dedicated to Amba. The rass-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. 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.

Diffusion of culture

Tourists playing Dandiya Raas

Gujarat has developed a mercantile ethos which maintained a tradition of long-distance trade, seafaring and overseas contacts since ancient times, and the diffusion of culture through Gujarati diaspora was a logical outcome of such a tradition. During the pre-modern period, merchants formed diaspora communities outside of Gujarat, and in many parts of the world, such as the Persian Gulf, Middle East, Horn of Africa, Hong Kong and Indonesia long before the internal rise of the Maratha Dynasty, and the British Raj colonial occupation.

Early 1st-century Western historians such as Strabo and Dio Cassius are testament to Gujarati people's role in the spread of Buddhism in the Mediterranean, when it was recorded that the sramana monk Zarmanochegas (Ζαρμανοχηγὰς) of Barygaza met Nicholas of Damascus in Antioch while Augustus was ruling the Roman Empire, and shortly thereafter proceeded to Athens where he burnt himself to death in an act to demonstrate his faith. A tomb was made to the sramana, still visible in the time of Plutarch, which bore the mention "ΖΑΡΜΑΝΟΧΗΓΑΣ ΙΝΔΟΣ ΑΠΟ ΒΑΡΓΟΣΗΣ" ("The sramana master from Barygaza in India").

The progenitor of the Sinhala language is believed to be Prince Vijaya, son of King Simhabahu who ruled Simhapura (modern-day Sihor near Bhavnagar). Prince Vijaya was banished by his father for his lawlessness and set forth with a band of adventurers. This tradition was followed by other Gujaratis. For example, in the Ajanta Frescoes, a Gujarati prince is shown entering Sri Lanka.

Many Indians had migrated to Indonesia, most of them being Gujaratis. King Aji Saka, who is said to have come to Java in Indonesia in year 1 of the Saka calendar, is believed by some to be a king of Gujarat. The first Indian settlements in Java Island of Indonesia are believed to have been established with the coming of Prince Dhruvavijaya of Gujarat, with 5000 traders. Some stories propose a Brahmin named Tritresta was the first to bring Gujarati migrants with him to Java, so some scholars equate him with Aji Saka. A Gujarati ship has been depicted in a sculpture at Borabudur, Java.

Fauna

Main article: List of national parks and wildlife sanctuaries of Gujarat, India

Gir National Park

According to the India State of Forest Report 2011, Gujarat has 9.7% of its total geographical area under forest cover. As per the districts, The Dangs has the largest area under forest cover. Gujarat has four national parks and 21 sanctuaries.

A young male Asiatic lion

Male Asiatic lion

Gujarat is the only home of Asiatic lions and outside Africa, Gujarat is the only present natural habitat of lions. Gir Forest National Park in the southwest part of the state covers part of the lions' habitat. Apart from lions, leopards are also found in state. They are spread across the large plains of Saurashtra and the mountains of South Gujarat. Other National parks include Vansda National Park, Blackbuck National Park, Velavadar and Narara Marine National Park, Gulf of Kutchh, Jamnagar. Wildlife sanctuaries include: Wild Ass Wildlife Sanctuary, Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary, Porbandar Bird Sanctuary, Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary, Kutch Bustard Sanctuary, Narayan Sarovar Sanctuary, Jessore Sloth Bear Sanctuary, Anjal, Balaram-Ambaji, Barda, Jambughoda Wildlife Sanctuary, Khavda, Paniya, Purna, Rampura, Ratanmahal, and Surpaneshwar.

Gujarat has some of major mountain ranges of India, including Aravalli, Sahyadri (Western Ghats), Vindhya and Saputara. Apart from this Gir hills, Barda, Jessore, Chotila, etc. are situated in different parts of Gujarat. Girnar is the tallest peak and Saputara is the only hill-station in the state.

Gujarat is the main producer of tobacco, cotton, and groundnuts in India. Other major food crops produced are rice, wheat, jowar, bajra, maize, tur, and gram. The state has an agricultural economy; the total crop area amounts to more than one-half of the total land area.

Animal husbandry and dairying have played vital roles in the rural economy of Gujarat. Dairy farming, primarily concerned with milk production, functions on a co-operative basis and has more than a million members. Gujarat is the largest producer of milk in India. The Amul milk co-operative federation is well known all over India, and it is Asia's biggest dairy. Amongst livestock raised are buffalo and other cattle, sheep, and goats. As per the results of livestock census 1997, there were 20.97 million head of livestock in Gujarat State. In the estimates of the survey of major livestock products, during the year 2002–03, the Gujarat produced 6.09 million tonnes of milk, 385 million eggs and 2.71 million kg of wool. Gujarat also contributes inputs to the textiles, oil, and soap industries, amongst others.

As in much of India, since the 1960s farmers in Gujarat have increasingly relied on extensive groundwater irrigation to maintain production. In recent years, however, experts have become increasingly alarmed at the rate of water depletion in the state. The water table in Gujarat has been falling steadily for the last 15–20 years, leading to a risk of catastrophic, irreversible saltwater intrusion into the groundwater. The problem is exacerbated because electricity for farmers is subsidised, leaving little incentive to conserve water. To address this issue, the government of Gujarat has begun working with NGOs and universities to create new incentives for water conservation and to promote the adoption of water-saving technologies.

Dinosaur Park Balasinor

In the early 1980s, palaeontologists stumbled upon dinosaur bones and fossils during a regular geological survey of Balasinor in Kheda District. The find sent ripples of excitement through neighbouring villages and many residents picked up fossilized eggs. Since then excavations have thrown up a veritable trove of dinosaur remains – eggs, bones, a skeleton which is now kept in a Calcutta (Kolkata) museum – bringing hordes of scientists and tourists to the place.

Piecing together the evidence in Balasinor, researchers now believe that Gujarat is home to one of the largest clutch of dinosaur hatcheries in the world. At least 13 species of dinosaurs lived here, possibly for more than 100 million years until their extinction some 66 million years ago. The soft soil made hatching and protecting eggs easier for the animals. So well-protected are the fossilised eggs found here that many researchers call them the best-preserved eggs in the world after the ones found in Aix-en-Provence in France.

These fossilised dinosaur remains have begun triggering off what tourism officials of the Gujarat state call "Dinosaur Tourism".

Tourism

Gujarat is one of the most popular states in India for tourism with an annual footfall of 19.81 million tourists in 2010–11. It offers scenic beauty from the Great Rann of Kutch to the hills of Saputara and is the sole home of pure Asiatic Lions in the world. During the historic reigns of the sultans, Hindu craftsmanship blended with Islamic architecture, giving rise to the Indo-Saracenic style. Many structures in the state are built in this fashion. It is also the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, great iconic figures of India's Independence movement. Amitabh Bachchan is currently the brand ambassador of Gujarat Tourism. The 'Khushboo Gujarat Ki' campaign by Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has enhanced tourism in Gujarat by 14 per cent, twice that of national growth rate.

Museums

Gujarat has a variety of museums on different genres that are run by the state's Department of Museums located at the principal state museum, Baroda Museum & Picture Gallery in Vadodara, which is also the location of the Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum. The Kirti Mandir, Porbandar, Sabarmati Ashram, and Kaba Gandhi No Delo are museums related to Mahatma Gandhi, the former being the place of his birth and the latter two where he lived in his lifetime. Kaba Gandhi No Delo in Rajkot exhibits part of a rare collection of photographs relating to the life of Mahatma Gandhi. Sabarmati Ashram is the place where Gandhi initiated the Dandi March. On 12 March 1930 he vowed that he would not return to the Ashram until India won independence.

The Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum is housed within Lakshmi Vilas Palace, the former residence of the Maharaja. Located in Vadodara, the Calico Museum of Textiles is managed by the Sarabhai Foundation and is one of the most popular tourist spots in Ahmedabad.

The Lakhota Museum at Jamnagar is a palace transformed into museum, which was residence of the Jadeja Rajputs. The collection of the museum includes artefacts spanning from 9th to 18th century, pottery from medieval villages nearby and the skeleton of a whale.

Other well known museums in the state include the Kutch Museum in Bhuj, which is the oldest museum in Gujarat founded in 1877, the Watson Museum of human history and culture in Rajkot, Gujarat Science City and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial in Ahmedabad.

Religious sites

Religious sites play a major part in the tourism of Gujarat. Somnath is the first amongst twelve Jyotirlingas, and is mentioned in the Rigveda. The Palitana temples of Jainism on Mount Shatrunjaya, Palitana are considered the holiest of all pilgrimage places by the Svetambara and Digambara Jain community. The Sidi Saiyyed Mosque and Jama Masjid are holymosques for Gujarati Muslims. The Sun Temple, Modhera is a ticketed monument, handled by the Archaeological Survey of India. Dwarakadheesh Temple and Dakor holy pilgrimage sites are for devotees of Lord Krishna. Other religious sites in state include Mahudi, Shankheshwar, Ambaji, Dakor, Shamlaji, Chotila etc.

Fairs

A five-day festival is held during Maha Shivaratri at the fort of Girnar, Junagadh, known as the Bhavanth Mahadev Fair (Gujarati: ભવનાથ નો મેળો). The Kutch Festival or Rann Festival (Gujarati: કચ્છ or રણ ઉત્સવ) is a festival celebrated at Kutch during Mahashivratri. The Modhra Dance Festival is a festival for classical dance, arranged by the Government of Gujarat's Cultural Department, to promote tourism in state and to keep traditions and culture alive.

The Ambaji Fair is held in the Hindu month of Bhadrapad (around August–September) at Ambaji, during a time which is particularly suitable for farmers, when the busy monsoon season is about to end. The Bhadrapad fair is held at Ambaji which is in the Danta Taluka of Banaskantha district, near the Gujarat-Rajasthan border. The walk from the bus station to the temple is less than one kilometre, under a roofed walkway. Direct buses are available from many places, including Mount Abu (45 km away), Palanpur (65 km away), Ahmedabad and Idar. The Bhadrapad fair is held in the centre of the Ambaji village just outside the temple premises. The village is visited by the largest number of sanghas (pilgrim groups) during the fair. Many of them go there on foot, which is particularly enriching as it happens immediately after the monsoon, when the landscape is rich with greenery, streams are full of sparkling water and the air is fresh. About 1.5 million devotees are known to attend this fair each year from all over the world. Not only Hindus, but some devout Jains and Parsis also attend the functions, whilst some Muslims attend the fair for trade.

The Tarnetar Fair is held during the first week of Bhadrapad, (September–October according to Gregorian calendar), and mostly serves as a place to find a suitable bride for tribal people from Gujarat. The region is believed to be the place where Arjuna took up the difficult task of piercing the eye of a fish, rotating at the end of a pole, by looking at its reflection in the pond water, to marry Draupadi. Other fairs in Gujarat include Dang Durbar, Shamlaji Fair,Chitra Vichitra Fair,Dhrang Fair and Vautha Fair.

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  Sabarmati Ashram also known as Gandhi Ashram

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  Gandhi's Room at Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad

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  Mandvi Beach

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  Lakhota Museum in Jamnagar

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  Bhavnath Mahadev, Girnar, Junagadh

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  Sun Down at Tithal beach, Valsad

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  Tarnetar Fair

Transport

Air

Gujarat has seventeen airports. The Gujarat Civil Aviation Board (GUJCAB) has been formed to foster development of aviation infrastructure in Gujarat. The Board is headed by the Chief Minister.

Ahmedabad Airport

International airports

• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport at Ahmedabad

Domestic airports under AAI

• Surat Airport — Located on Magdalla Road.
• Bhavnagar Airport — 9 km from the city of Bhavnagar.
• Deesa airport – 5 km from Deesa.
• Kandla Airport (Gandhidham) — situated at Kandla, near Gandhidham, in Kutch district.
• Keshod Airport (Junagadh) — Keshod Airport is found 3 km from Keshod city in Junagadh District.
• Porbandar Airport — is situated 5 km from the city of Porbandar.
• Rajkot Airport — 4 km from the city of Rajkot.
• Vadodara Airport – Integrated Terminal Airport (Vadodara).

Airports under State Government

• Mehsana Airport — Meshana Airport is about 2 km from Mehsana city.
• Mandvi airport

Rail

Ahmedabad Railway Station

Main page: Railway stations in Gujarat

Further information: Pune – Mumbai – Ahmedabad High-Speed Passenger Corridor

Gujarat comes under the Western Railway Zone of the Indian Railways. Vadodara Railway Station is the busiest railway station in Gujarat and the fourth busiest railway station in India. It is situated on the Mumbai – Delhi Western Railway Mainline. Other important railway stations are Surat railway station, Ahmedabad Railway Station and Rajkot Railway Station. Indian Railways is planning Delhi–Mumbai dedicated rail freight route passing through the state.

Work on Rs 1,100 crore (Rs 11 billion) first phase of the metro rail project in Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar will start by 2011 and the line is expected to be operational within 2–3 years. The first phase of the metro rail project will cover a distance of 32.65 kilometre in the north-south direction between Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad and 10.90 kilometre east-west corridor between Kalupur and Thaltej.

Sea

Gujarat State has the longest sea coast of 1600 km in India. Kandla Port is one of the largest ports serving Western India. Other important ports in Gujarat are the Port of Navlakhi, Port of Magdalla, Port Pipavav, Port of Porbandar,Port of Veraval and the privately owned Mundra Port.

Road

Main articles: List of National Highways in Gujarat and List of state highways in Gujarat

A city bus in Ahmedabad

Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) is the primary body responsible for providing the bus services within the state of Gujarat and also with the neighbouring states. It is a public transport corporation providing bus services and public transit within Gujarat and to the other states in India. Apart from this, there are a number of services provided by GSRTC.

• Mofussil Services — It connects major cities, smaller towns and villages within Gujarat.
• Intercity Bus Services — It also connects major cities — Ahmedabad, Vapi, Vadodara (Baroda) and Rajkot.
• Interstate Bus Services — It connects various cities of Gujarat with the neighbouring states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
• City Services — GSRTC also provides city bus services at Surat, Baroda, Vapi, Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad, within the state of Gujarat.
• Parcel Services — This service is used for transporting goods.

Apart from this, the GSRTC provides special bus services for festivals, industrial zones, schools, colleges and pilgrim places.

• There are also city buses in cities like Ahmedabad (AMTS & Ahmedabad BRTS), Bhavnagar (VTCOS) Vadodara (VTCOS), Gandhinagar (VTCOS), Rajkot (VTCOS), Anand (VTCOS) etc.

Auto rickshaws are common mode of transport in Gujarat. The Government of Gujarat is promoting bicycles to reduce pollution.

Education and Research

Main article: Education in Gujarat

See also: List of institutions of higher education in Gujarat

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

The Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar

Campus at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar

The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) are in charge of the schools run by the Government of Gujarat. However, most of the private schools in Gujarat are affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) board. Gujarat has 13 state universities and four agricultural universities.

The clock tower in Gujarat University, Ahmedabad

The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, is a premier university of Gujarat and has been ranked amongst the top ten universities by India Today and Hindustan Times in their surveys. It is one of the oldest universities of Guajrat and is known worldwide for its Faculty of Fine Arts, Engineering, Arts, Journalism, Education, Law, Social Work, Medicine, Science and Performing Arts. It is Gujarat's only fully English Medium State University. Originally known as the Baroda College of Science (established 1881), it became a university in 1949 after the independence of the country and later renamed after its benefactor Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, the former ruler of Baroda State. Gujarat University, Sardar Patel University, Ahmedabad University, Saurashtra University, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Nirma University, Dharmsinh Desai University and Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University are also amongst reputed universities, affiliating many reputed colleges.

Research

The Space Applications Centre (SAC) is an institution for space research and satellite communication in Ahmedabad, India, under the aegis of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, a renowned scientist, industrialist, and visionary Gujarati, played an important role in it. He also founded Physical Research Laboratory, a research institute encompasses Astrophysics, Solar System, and cosmic radiation. He also envisioned Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, one of the internationally reputed management research institute that is located in Gujarat's commercial capital Ahmedabad and is the top ranked management institutes in the country.

Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute has been established under Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Government of India at Bhavnagar. It was inaugurated by Late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India on 10 April 1954, with a view to carry out research on marine salt, and salt from inland lakes and sub-soil brine. It is working on reverse osmosis, electro membrane process, salt and marine chemicals, analytical science, marine biotechnology, and other related fields. The Gujarat National Law University situated at Gandhinagar is the 5th Best Law School currently in India.

Gujarat also has some of the best engineering institutes in India like Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT), Lalbhai Dalpatbhai College of Engineering (LDCE) which is the top engineering college of the state and has the best placement record among the other colleges of the state, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) which is one of the best and premier institutes in Gujarat providing courses in Petroleum Technology, Mechanical, Civil, Electrical as well as Liberal Studeis, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT), IIT Gandhinagar and Institute of Technology under Nirma University. Gujarat Science City, is a government initiative to draw more students towards education in science, which hosts India's first IMAX 3D theatre, an energy park, a hall of science, an amphitheatre, and dancing musical fountains amongst others. Institute of Management under Nirma University is constantly ranked amongst the top MBA colleges in India. International Institute of Management and Technical Studies affiliated with Gujarat Knowledge Society, European Association for Distance Learning, Association of Indian Management Schools and Ahmedabad Textiles Industry's Research Association has performed globally for its Higher Education Certification courses for working professionals. IIMT STUDIES also launched GET SET GO programme in 2013 in Affiliation with Gujarat Technological University and Gujarat Knowledge Society, Department of Technical Education- Government of Gujarat. B.K. School of Business Management is ranked 6th in terms of financial Management. K. S. School of Business Management is also an MBA College in Gujarat University providing a unique five-year's integrated MBA Cource. Shanti Business School, Ahmedabadis one of the emerging business school offering Post Graduate Diploma in Management through corporate citizenship initiative. The National Institute of Design (NID) in Gandhinagar is internationally acclaimed as one of the foremost multi-disciplinary institutions in the field of design education and research. Centre for Environmental Planning & Technology University, popularly known as (CEPT) is one of the best planning and architectural school not in India, but across the world; providing various technical and professional courses.

In addition, Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) is one of the leading sectoral institution in rural management. IRMA is a unique institution in the sense that it provides professional education to train managers for rural management. It is the only one of its kind in all Asia.

Kala Bhavan, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda

Apart from that, Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA) is one of the most famous institutes for mass communication and is well-renowned across India. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) was established at Gandhinagar in the year 2008. IIT Gandhinagar is mentored by IIT Bombay. IIT'S first batch started on 1 August 2008, at a temporary building of government college, Chandkheda, Gandhinagar. The Institute of Seismological Research (ISR) has been established by the Science and Technology Department, Government of Gujarat in 2003 and is registered as a Society.ISR campus is at Raisan, Gandhinagar in a sprawling and picturesque area on the banks of Sabarmati river. Aims and objectives include assigning optimum seismic factors for buildings in different regions and long-term assessment of earthquake potential. The ISR is the only institute in India fully dedicated to seismological research and is planned to be developed into a premier International institute in few years time.

International Institute of Management and Technical Studies [www.iimtstudies.edu.in]

Notable individuals

See also: List of people from Gujarat

Mahatma Gandhi, who spearheaded the Indian independence movement against British colonial rule, was a Gujarati. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, revered in Pakistan as Quaid-i-Azam (Great Leader), Baba-i-Qaum (Father of the Nation) and first Governor general of Pakistan was from a Gujarati Muslim family in Rajkot."Iron Man of India", Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Independent India's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, was from Karamsad, Gujarat. It is also the home state of two Indian prime ministers - Morarji Desai (1977-1979) and current incumbent, Narendra Modi. Vikram Sarabhai, considered "Father of the Indian Space Programme" originated from a family of Jain industrialists from Ahmedabad. Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of Reliance industries was from Chorvad, Gujarat. Azim Premji, software magnate and chairman of Wipro Limited is ethnically Gujarati, whilst pioneer industrialist Jamsetji Tata, who founded the Tata Group, India's biggest and best-known multinational conglomerate, hailed from a Parsi Zoroastrian family in Navsari, and is widely regarded as the legendary "Father of Indian Industry".

See also

• Outline of India
• 2002 Gujarat Riots
• Index of India-related articles
• Bibliography of India
• List of people from Gujarat
• Portuguese India
• Gujarati Muslims
• Indians in Uganda
• Persian inscriptions on Indian monuments

External links

Government

• Gujarat Government Website

Development

• Commentary on development in Gujarat

Other

• Gujarat at DMOZ
• Map of Gujarat by MapsofIndia.com