UTTAR PRADESH

constituent state of India, lying for the most part in the upper valley of the Ganges River in the northern part of the country. It is bounded on the north by Nepal and Tibet and, in India, by Himachal Pradesh state on the northwest, Haryana state and the union territory of Delhi on the west, Rajasthan state on the southwest, Madhya Pradesh state on the south, and Bihar state on the east. The capital is Lucknow. In the Vedic period (c. 1500600 BC), the area of Uttar Pradesh formed part of the ancient country known as Madhyadesa. Later such great Hindu kings as Asoka and Samudra Gupta ruled the area. In the 16th century it came under the rule of the Mughal emperors, who remained until the close of the 18th century. The British gradually extended their power west from Bengal in the 19th century, and Uttar Pradesh became the main scene of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 against British rule. The area was in the forefront of the Indian independence movement, and it became a state on Jan. 26, 1950, when India became a republic. Six of the first nine prime ministers of independent India (including Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter, Indira Gandhi) came from Uttar Pradesh. Physiographically, Uttar Pradesh can be divided into four regions: (1) the Himalayan region in the north, where some peaks rise to more than 23,000 feet (7,000 m), (2) the submontane region composed of a forested piedmont zone and a damp and marshy tract of thick jungle and tall grass, (3) the Gangetic Plain, almost level and featureless, which makes up the largest part of the state, and (4) the southern uplands, a part of the central Indian plateau. A land of many rivers, Uttar Pradesh is drained by the Ganges (and its tributaries the Yamuna, Ramganga, Gomti, and Ghaghara), as well as by the Chambal, the Betwa, and the Ken (all tributaries of the Yamuna) and the Son. The entire state, except for the northern region, has a tropical monsoon climate. In the plains, January temperatures range from 54.5 to 63.5 F (12.5 to 17.5 C) and May temperatures from 81.5 to 90.5 F (27.5 to 32.5 C), with a maximum of 113 F (45 C). From 85 to 90 percent of the annual rainfall comes during the rainy season from the Bay of Bengal summer monsoon. Rainfall varies from 40 to 80 inches (1,000 to 2,000 mm) in the east to 24 to 40 inches (600 to 1,000 mm) in the west. In the Himalaya region, rainfall ranges between 40 and 80 inches, in some places exceeding that upper figure. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in India, containing more than 16 percent of India's total population. Two ethnographic groups inhabit the stateMongoloid peoples in the far north near the Tibetan border and Aryan-Dravidian people in the plains and the hill and plateau region of the central and southern part of the state. Hindus constitute more than 80 percent of the total population; Muslims, more than 15 percent; and other religious communities, including Sikhs, Christians, Jains, and Buddhists together, less than 1 percent. Hindi is the mother tongue of most, with about 15 percent speaking Urdu. A large majority of the state's population lives in villages of fewer than 500 inhabitants. The western plain is the most urbanized region. Agriculture is by far the most important sector of the state's economy, employing about three-fourths of the work force and accounting for nearly 60 percent of the state's total income. Much land is under irrigation, and food cropsrice, wheat, corn (maize), and edible oil seedsare dominant. Sugarcane is the most important commercial crop, and potatoes, cotton, tobacco, and jute are also grown. The per-acre yield of rice and wheat has increased substantially as a result of the high-yielding variety of seeds and improved agricultural inputs (e.g., fertilizers and sufficient water). Uttar Pradesh is rich neither in forest resources nor in minerals. It has some deposits of gypsum, magnesite, phosphorite, and bauxite; it is the largest silica-producing and the second largest limestone-producing state in the country. Uttar Pradesh does, however, have vast hydroelectric potential in the northern and southern hilly regions. Thermal generation supplies the majority of the electric-power plant capacity. A nuclear-power plant at Naraura (Naroda) also contributes a small amount of the state's power supply. Comparatively, Uttar Pradesh is one of India's industrially backward states. Only a tiny fraction of the population is engaged in industry, most in such cottage industries as handloom weaving. Large-scale operations include paper, sugar, and textile mills, leatherworks, and engineering-equipment factories. The union government, though, has established a number of large industrial facilities in the state, which manufacture heavy electrical equipment, diesel locomotives, structural steel, aircraft, telephone equipment, electronic apparatus, antibiotics, and fertilizers. An oil refinery at Mathura and the development of coalfields in Mirzapur are also among the major projects of the central government in the state. Lack of adequate road transport hinders the exploitation of the rich Himalayan forests. Most of the state's roads are in poor condition, and the railway system suffers from the presence of two different gauges of track. Air service is provided between several large Uttar Pradesh towns and Delhi, and the state's transportation system also includes the three major inland waterways of the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the Ghaghara. Uttar Pradesh has contributed much to the composite culture of India. From time immemorial, various arts have flourished in towns and cities as well as in the countryside. Handicrafts were developed at various centres, notably in Bhadohi and Mirzapur, famous for carpet weaving; in Lucknow, famous for its chikan (a type of embroidery); in Moradabad, noted for its metal enameling; in Varanasi, known for its brocades and brass ware; and in Nagina, known for its ebony work. The kathak dance style, nurtured in Uttar Pradesh, is the most popular form of classical dance in India. The songs and dances of the countryside are significant features of local culture. They include the kajari of Mirzapur and Varanasi; the Alha Udal, a folk epic; and various village dances. The state's most famous tourist meccas are Agra (with the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort) and Varanasi (with its miles of riverfront ghats, or steps, for religious bathing). Uttar Pradesh has some 20 universities and more than 400 colleges, but the literacy rate is far lower than in many other Indian states. The Lucknow College of Arts, the Bhatkhande college of Hindustani music (in Lucknow), and the Bharat Kala Bhavan (in Varanasi) are doing much to encourage the growth of the fine arts in the state. Area 113,673 square miles (294,411 square km). Pop. (1991 prelim.) 139,031,130. state of India. It is located in the north-central part of the country. It is bordered by Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north; the states of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan and the union territory of Delhi in the west; the state of Madhya Pradesh in the south; and the state of Bihar in the east. Uttar Pradesh extends over 113,673 square miles (294,411 square kilometres), about 9 percent of the total area of the country. It is India's most populous state. On Jan. 26, 1950, when India became a republic, the state was given its present name, Uttar Pradesh (literally, Northern State). Lucknow is the capital. Additional reading M.B. Mathur, Uttar Pradesh, rev. ed. (1981), is a comprehensive account of the state, covering its land and the people. Y.D. Vaishnava "Ashoka" (Yamunadatta Vaishnav), Himalayan Districts of Uttar Pradesh (1983), provides general coverage of history and places of interest in this region. A good description of the state government is found in Pushpa Sharma, Working of Parliamentary Democracy in India: With Special Reference to Uttar Pradesh, 196785 (1986). Dhirendra K. Vajpeyi, Modernization and Social Change in India (1979), provides an understanding of political and social conditions in postindependence Uttar Pradesh. Raj B. Mathur History The history of Uttar Pradesh can be divided into five periods: (1) prehistory and mythology (up to c. 600 BC), (2) the Buddhist-Hindu (Brahmanic) period (c. 600 BC to c. AD 1200), (3) the Muslim period (c. 1200 to c. 1775), (4) the British period (c. 1775 to 1947), and (5) the postindependence period (1947 to the present). Because of its position in the heart of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, it has often been the focal point in the history of all of northern India. Prehistory and mythology Archaeology is beginning to shed new light on the early civilization of Uttar Pradesh. The remains of several human skeletons, found in the southern district of Pratapgarh, have been dated to about 10,000 BC. Knowledge of the area prior to the 7th century BC has largely been gained through Vedic literature and the two great Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which describe the Gangetic Plain within Uttar Pradesh. The scene of the Mahabharata is the area around Hastinapur in the western part of the state, while the Ramayana is set in eastern Uttar Pradesh in and around Ayodhya, the birthplace of Rama (an incarnation of the god Vishnu and the hero of the story). Two other fountainheads of mythology in the state are the area around Vrindavan and Mathura, where Krishna (another incarnation of Vishnu) was born; and the Himalayan region, known to Hindus as the home of the god Siva.