The Territories and States of India

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The Territories and States of India

The Territories and States of India FIRST EDITION

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First Edition 2002 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © Europa Publications Limited 2002 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE, United Kingdom (A member of the Taylor & Francis Group) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be photocopied, recorded, or otherwise reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN 0-203-40290-1 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-40953-1 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 1-85743-148-0 (Print Edition) Editors: Tara Boland-Crewe, David Lea Surveys: Gareth Wyn Jones for Globeworm Ltd Cartographer: Eugene Fleury Chronology data manipulation and database design: Bibliocraft Ltd

Foreword It has been said that cricket is an Indian sport invented, by pure coincidence, in England. Similarly, it has been argued that federation, as a concept of government, found its most necessary and effective expression in the modern Republic of India. A country so physically vast, with such stark internal contrasts in terms of geography, climate, language, ethnicity, culture, history, religion and economy, but with a definite sense of overall unity, would indeed appear to be suited to the form. This first edition of The Territories and States of India aims to provide the reader with an insight into India as a federation, an aspect that cannot be underestimated in importance. The numerous reorganizations of the constituent parts of the Union (the most recent in November 2000, when three new states were established), combined with the changing balance of power between the central government and the administrations in those units, have meant that the federation remains in a process of evolution. It is this process that is specifically addressed in an essay by Dr David Taylor, in Part One of this book. Also in Part One are a Chronology, a table of statistical indicators, and a description and directory of the federal administration. Part Two contains a survey of each of the 35 states and territories within India, covering the unit’s geography, history and economy, together with a map and information on the legislature and principal government officials. Part three is an Index of the states and territories, and their alternative and historic names. It is hoped that this book, the second in the Territories series (following the established title on the Russian Federation) will furnish the reader with an understanding of each constituent part of contemporary India, of the relationship between them, and of the relationship with the centre: without this understanding any appreciation of the affairs of this vast country must be considered incomplete. August 2002

Acknowledgements The editors gratefully acknowledge the interest, co-operation and advice of all who have contributed to this volume. We are indebted to a number of organizations and individuals within and outwith India. In particular we would like to thank Eugene Fleury for the maps used in this volume, and Gareth Wyn Jones for the surveys. Dr David Taylor, who wrote the introductory article, taught for a number of years at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, specializing in South Asian politics. In 2002 he took up a post in Karachi, Pakistan. Note: The maps used in this book are not officially approved by the Survey of India.

Contents

PART ONE

Introduction The Centre and the States: Evolution of a Union DAVID TAYLOR

PART TWO

2

Chronology of India

13

Statistics

32

The Government of the Republic of India

35

Surveys States Andhra Pradesh

46

Arunachal Pradesh

54

Assam

59

Bihar

67

Chhattisgarh

76

Goa

83

Gujarat

91

Haryana

101

Himachal Pradesh

108

Jammu and Kashmir

115

Jharkhand

123

Karnataka

129

Kerala

139

Madhya Pradesh

151

Maharashtra

158

Manipur

171

vii

Meghalaya

177

Mizoram

181

Nagaland

186

Orissa

191

Punjab

199

Rajasthan

208

Sikkim

215

Tamil Nadu

224

Tripura

236

Uttar Pradesh

242

Uttaranchal

248

West Bengal

253

Territories

PART THREE

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

263

Chandigarh

269

Dadra and Nagar Haveli

274

Daman and Diu

278

Delhi (National Capital Territory)

284

Lakshadweep

293

Pondicherry

300

Indexes Alphabetic List

308

List of Alternative Names

310

Abbreviations

AD AH BC C c. cu Dr EC EEC EU etc. F Gen. ha kg km kWh m m. mm MW n. a. NDP Prof. tel. UN US USA USSR

Anno Domini Anno Hejira (Islamic year) before Christ Centigrade circa cubic Doctor European Communities European Economic Community European Union et cetera Fahrenheit General hectare(s) kilogram(s) kilometre(s) Kilowatt hours metre(s) million millimetre(s) Megawatt(s) not available Net Domestic Product Professor telephone United Nations United States United States of America Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

PART ONE Introduction

The Centre and the States: Evolution of a Union DAVID TAYLOR

India today can claim to be the world’s largest federation, in terms of population. Since shortly after independence in 1947 it has been divided into a number of states (currently numbering 28), each with its own legislative assembly and ministry. Each state is proud of its language and traditions, and competes with its neighbours in economic development and social welfare. Yet in no other federal system does the central Government have as much reserve power as in India, where the President of the Union, acting on the advice of the Prime Minister, can dismiss an elected state government and where state boundaries can be changed by parliamentary decision. Tensions and struggles between central (‘the Centre’) and state governments have been a recurrent feature of Indian politics. Especially in the regions away from the Hindi-speaking north, they can be translated into demands for greater freedom from central control in the name of language and historical tradition. In some cases, these have been dynamic tensions, with beneficial results for economic and social change, but in other cases they have had the opposite effect, with important development schemes delayed, or with damaging hostility to people from other parts of the country. As India moves steadily towards becoming the world’s most populous country, its future prospects will depend critically on its ability to resolve the tensions of federalism, to utilize its resources to the full, and to find ways to bring all its regions into the mainstream of development. The ambiguities that characterize the current situation have a long history. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister after its freedom from colonial rule, often spoke eloquently (most notably in The Discovery of India, which he wrote while in prison during the Second World War) on the country’s fundamental unity, which he considered to be grounded, despite all the barriers created by caste and religion, in cultural practices of diversity and tolerance. Even so, there were always other voices within the broad nationalist movement that either placed greater stress on local identities or, conversely, saw India in more monolithic terms. Since 1947 the gradual assertion of Indian power in the world, together with the impact of nationally orientated educational and cultural institutions (popular cinema, for example), have generally led to a growing sense of Indian unity. Yet these same factors have often led India’s citizens to become just as aware of their identities as members of regional cultural traditions. There is no necessary conflict between these layers or levels of identity, but they make the task of political control and leadership more complex.

THE CENTRE AND THE STATES 3

The present-day territory of the Republic of India was never under unified political control before the colonial period, although there had been periods when strong dynasties had ruled over extended areas, notably in the classical period, when the Mauryan emperors had dominated the whole of north and central India in the third and fourth centuries BC, and again in the 16th and 17th centuries AD, when the Mughal emperors had done the same. Both had penetrated the southern and eastern parts of the subcontinent as well, but never brought the whole under central control. The Mauryan Ashoka and the Mughal Akbar fitted Nehru’s paradigm of Indian rulers, recognizing and respecting diversity as the basis of their imperial rule. At other times political order was provided on a regional basis, sometimes on a large scale, sometimes not. Day-to-day social life was regulated by the complex hierarchies of caste and religion. Throughout India the imperatives of dharma, or the observance of duty, provided a common framework, yet each region, each district, even each village, had its own understanding of these issues. A constant interplay between the different levels of the system provided opportunities for change and movement. Caste, for example, was not as immutable a category as some commentators used to imagine. Language was an important element of unity in diversity. While Sanskrit had been the language of the major religious texts of Hinduism, by the medieval period spoken languages in north India, while retaining their Sanskrit origins, had diverged markedly. In south India, Tamil and other Dravidian languages had always been separate from Sanskrit, although there were many cultural and religious connections with other parts of India. THE COLONIAL ORIGINS OF INDIAN FEDERALISM The British originally dominated India through the East India Company, a commercial entity the servants of which, such as Robert (later Lord) Clive, could simultaneously be soldiers, civil servants and traders. Political strategy was driven by economic considerations, so that by the mid-19th century the company controlled some areas directly, but ignored others. After the defeat in 1857–58 of the so-called Indian Mutiny (more accurately a large-scale rebellion involving not just Indian troops but many others alienated by the intrusion of European power), the British Government in London (United Kingdom) took over direct control through a Viceroy. However, the political patchwork created by the East India Company remained broadly intact. The three large provinces or presidencies of Bengal (based in Calcutta—now Kolkata, West Bengal), Madras (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu) and Bombay (now Mumbai, Maharashtra) each included a number of quite distinct linguistic and cultural groupings. In Bombay, for example, Gujarati and Marathi speakers formed the two largest groups, but the presidency also included Sindhi and Kannada speakers. Linguistic differences were reinforced by other cultural markers, and further complicated by others, religious affiliations in particular. Apart from the presidencies, which dated back to the early days of Company rule, there were other provinces created in response to specific needs—for example, Punjab, which was seen as a defensive bulwark in the north-west. Interspersed with British territories were the so-called princely states, covering in total approximately one-third of the land area. For administrative purposes each province was divided into several divisions and then into districts, which were the basic units of local administration.

4 THE TERRITORIES AND STATES OF INDIA

British administrative policy was driven first and foremost by security concerns. How was a population of nearly 300m. (in 1901) to be controlled and a recurrence of the 1857 revolt avoided? How was an empire to be defended against rival imperialist powers, originally the French and then, from the mid-19th century, tsarist Russia? Whatever measures were adopted had to be reasonably inexpensive, as India was expected to cover its own administrative costs as well as to provide an economic benefit to British trading and industrial interests. British policy depended upon a core of British soldiers and administrators who, in turn, led Indian troops and junior officials. A carefully created ideology of empire provided a framework in which the loyal subjects of the QueenEmpress (or King-Emperor) could be accommodated, while ‘disloyal’ elements could be isolated and controlled. Much recent research has shown both how fabricated and artificial it all was and how much passive resistance there was, even from those who apparently benefited most. Nevertheless, the British Raj survived for nearly 90 years after 1858. The Raj was thus characterized on the one hand by a high degree of centralization and on the other by a willingness to leave many things well alone. Centralization was summed up above all in the creation of the Indian Civil Service, an elite body never more than 1, 500 strong, which held almost all the crucial positions in the Government of India and in the provinces, and filled most of the district officer posts as well. Although some Indians were able to gain entry through the rigorous competitive system of entry, it was only in the last few years before independence that they entered in any numbers. This was even more the case for the officer corps in the army. However, the typical Indian village could go for years without seeing a single representative of the Raj, and most Indians’ experience of government was restricted to the local tax collectors or the local police, whose sometimes oppressive practices the district officer, perforce, had to ignore. Integral to British rule was a series of assumptions about the nature of Indian civilization. India was seen as a set of cultural practices based on religious identity, rather than as a potential nation state along European lines. Government policy was, therefore, designed to go with the grain of differences, such as those between Hindu and Muslim or between Brahmin and so-called Untouchable. Whatever opportunities existed during the colonial period for government employment or representation were handed out on the basis of these perceived differences. The United Kingdom’s final statement on India came with the 1935 Government of India Act, which, if it had come into full effect, would have created a federation, but with final authority firmly in the hands of the Viceroy. Although the 1935 Act was based on colonial boundaries, new provinces were created for Sindh (now part of Pakistan) and Orissa, to meet strong local demands. As Indian nationalism emerged in the late 19th century, it was precisely this understanding of difference that was challenged and analysed as a deliberate policy of ‘divide and rule’. Looking back to a golden age before imperial incursions, a new generation of writers identified an Indian tradition of statehood that was just as valid as the European model. Prominent figures within the Indian National Congress, such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak, extolled the virtues of rulers like Shivaji (a Hindu prince and founder of the Maratha kingdom), who had confronted the Mughals in the 17th century. Mahatma Gandhi, whose ideas dominated the Congress in the years immediately before independence, disowned the glorification of violence, but, nevertheless, argued as


strongly as anyone for Indians’ right to freedom. He also recognized regional traditions and in 1920 reorganized the Congress largely on the basis of language, thus rejecting the patchwork of administrations created by the British. Gandhi linked his hopes for a free India to a reconstruction of society and economy based on the village. INDEPENDENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION Indian independence in 1947 was achieved by negotiation, on the one hand with the British and on the other with the Muslim League. The latter, under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had rejected the Congress view of Indian nationhood, arguing that secular ideals were simply cloaks for Hindu majoritarianism, and forced the partition of the country amid much bloodshed and forced migration. The British provinces of Punjab and Bengal were both divided along religio-communal lines as part of the partition process, and the two new nation states immediately came into conflict over the fate of the principality of Jammu and Kashmir, in the far north of the subcontinent, a region that mirrored the whole subcontinent in the complexity of its society, but where, in simple terms, a Hindu dynasty ruled over a Muslim majority. Nehru became Prime Minister of independent India, while Gandhi, after valiant efforts to stop the violence, was assassinated by a Hindu who believed in a monolithic India and blamed him for ‘appeasing’ the Muslim minority. The new state of Pakistan had to endure its own internal contradictions that led, in 1971, to a further partition, into Pakistan and Bangladesh (the eastern part of old Bengal, which had been known as East Pakistan since independence), thus appearing to confirm the belief that the subcontinent was best ruled as a federal unit. Nevertheless, India had to decide what form a federation should take, and how much to keep of the centralized structure created during the colonial period. From 1947 to 1949 the Indian Constituent Assembly deliberated on the shape of the constitution. It was agreed at an early stage that it would be federal in character, and the document that came into effect on 26 January 1950 begins with the words ‘India…shall be a Union of States’. However, the British had handed over a single political entity and the idea that units within it might want to go their own way was deeply worrying for the writers of the Constitution. Many safeguards were, therefore, built in to maintain the integrity and strength of the central Government in New Delhi, the national capital. Drawing on colonial practice, the Government appointed its own governors in the states. Although these were expected to play a figurehead role, they could, if necessary, following the precedent of the 1935 Act, be used to rule a state directly for periods of six months at a time, under Article 356 of the Constitution. This is popularly known as President’s Rule. The financial levers of power were kept firmly at the Centre, and the division of revenue sources ensured that the states would always be in deficit and dependent on recurrent grants from the Union authorities. Again drawing on the 1935 Act, the powers of government were allocated to three ‘lists’, central (Union), state and concurrent. Defence and foreign affairs were allocated to the Centre, while local government, primary education and many other matters of daily concern for citizens were allocated to the states. Important areas of economic policy were either allocated to the Centre or were placed on the Concurrent List. States and the Centre could both legislate in these areas, but central legislation overrode local. The appointments of senior judges


and civil servants were to be made centrally, so that people from one area might serve in others, again helping to hold the country together and resist centrifugal forces. Since the introduction of the 1950 Constitution recruitment to the Army has been broadened, and the officer corps broadly reflects an all-India perspective. A vital moment in the early history of Indian federalism was the report of a committee established in 1949 to look at the possibility of redrawing the map of the states in line with linguistic distribution, a commitment that was derived from the way in which Mahatma Gandhi had drawn up the Constitution of Congress in 1920. The so-called JVP (Jawaharlal, Vallabhbhai, Pattabhi) committee, made up of the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, his deputy, Vallabhbhai Patel, and the President of the Congress, Pattabhi Sitaramayya, concluded that, although the general principle was sound, the time was not right, and that reorganization into linguistic provinces or states would in fact encourage centrifugal forces and disintegrate the country. While the recent partition experience undoubtedly played its part, there was a more general concern among the elite that only by maintaining the power of the Centre and treating the states as primarily administrative units could India achieve its national goals. The first 20 years after independence, therefore, saw a growth of central power. The most important driving force was the pattern of economic development policy that was adopted at Nehru’s instigation. Scarce resources needed to be husbanded and invested wisely on a planned basis. Furthermore, economic progress required the development of a modern industrial base, which was best left to the public sector. The all-India Government, in this view, was best suited to achieving these goals and, in 1950, the Government established the Planning Commission, which at its most powerful had a massive influence on all significant investment decisions and also on the general approach to rural and agricultural development. However, while the planning model adopted owed a great deal to earlier Soviet experience (and the USSR became India’s leading technology supplier), India retained its competitive democratic system, and held elections on a regular basis both at state and at national level. In fact, the resources that were available through the public sector, new factories, for example, or subsidies for the agricultural sector, became the object of strenuous political bargaining between Centre and state. The ability of Congress to win each national election and the great majority of state elections in the period up to the mid-1960s was, in part, a result of its skill in managing this process. From one point of view, therefore, a benign balance developed between central and local power, which allowed political and economic development to proceed together. From the beginning, however, there were challenges to the paternalist approach of central government. The first such moment was the reassertion of the demand for linguistically based states that had been rebuffed in 1949. A successful mass movement in the Telugu-speaking part of south India led in 1953 to the creation of a new state in the area. This created irresistible expectations and in the following year the States Reorganization Commission was established, effectively to overturn the approach of the JVP committee and redraw India’s political geography on linguistic lines. At the same time the opportunity was taken to dispose of the residual differences between British Indian and princely states. The results of the Commission’s work were brought into effect on 1 November 1956. Where clear and administratively manageable linguistic communities existed, these were recognized by the creation of the states of Tamil


Nadu (Tamil), Karnataka (Kannada), Kerala (Malayalam), Andhra Pradesh (Telugu), West Bengal (Bengali) and Assam (Assamese). The large area of north India where Hindi is spoken and which forms over 40% of the total population was too vast to form a single state and the largest state of all, Uttar Pradesh, was left essentially untouched, along with neighbouring Bihar. At this stage two major problems remained unresolved. In the north-west the bilingual state of Punjab, which had already been divided between India and Pakistan in 1947, witnessed a demand for a separation into Punjabi- and Hindi-speaking sections. This was effectively a demand for a division into Sikh and Hindu-dominated states, and was resisted for this reason. In 1956 a system of regional committees was put in place as an attempted solution, although the problem did not disappear. A rather different set of issues existed in western India, where Bombay, the country’s commercial capital, formed a multilingual island surrounded by a sea of Marathi speakers. Although Marathi speakers formed a substantial portion of the Bombay population, the wealth of the city was not in their hands. The interim solution adopted in 1956 was to maintain the status quo. However, the inexorable logic of linguistic reorganization meant that in 1960 Bombay was given to a newly created Maharashtra, with the remainder of the state becoming Gujarat; and in 1966 Punjab was trifurcated into Punjabi and Hindi-speaking areas (Punjab and Haryana, respectively) and into the hill areas of Himachal Pradesh. Another region where local pressures burst the bounds of the inherited boundaries was the north-eastern region, which the British had encompassed within the single province of Assam. Tribal insurgencies along the borders led to the creation of separate states, first for Nagaland in 1963 and then for other similar areas. In the end six new states, some of them extremely small in size, existed alongside the ‘rump’ of Assam. A second challenge to the system was, unsurprisingly, pressure from the states for more resources from the Centre. Collectively, the states argued for more resources, especially by changing the distribution of revenue, while individual states made pleas to have their special needs met. The position of Congress, as the party in power at the Centre and in most of the states, had initially enabled it to deal with these problems. Nehru’s unique position, in particular, had enabled him to appeal to state chief ministers not to make excessive demands, while the Constitution itself provided for periodic finance commissions to review the distribution of revenue. With Nehru’s death in 1964 and a deterioration in the economic situation at the same time, dissatisfaction with the role of Congress was mostly expressed by support given to regional parties. Even parties like the two Communist groupings that attempted a national appeal found that much of their support had a regional tinge to it. The moment of truth came in the 1967 general election and concurrent state elections and their immediate aftermath, when Congress lost control of many of the most important states and only narrowly held on to its majority in at the Centre. In Uttar Pradesh, for example, the Congress Government formed immediately after the elections was replaced very shortly by a newly formed alliance of farming interests, headed by a dissident Congress member. A somewhat different and particularly striking example of a regional party displacing Congress was in Tamil Nadu, where the former ruling party was swept aside by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). The DMK was the inheritor of a strain of regional nationalism that dated back to the 19th century. During the 1950s it had argued to its followers that the


Government in Delhi and the local Congress party were failing both to respect the autonomy of Tamil culture and to give it a fair share of national resources, and had even advocated an independent state at one point. The DMK had gained much support for its efforts to resist the declaration of Hindi as India’s sole official language, an issue that provoked major riots in Madras in 1965. CENTRE-STATE RELATIONS SINCE 1967 Indira Gandhi, Nehru’s daughter (but no relation to Mahatma Gandhi), was India’s Prime Minister, with one short break (1977–80), from 1966 until her assassination in 1984. She had begun her period in power by recognizing that the election reverses in 1967 had also opened the possibility of a new approach to politics, based on promises of rapid social change and the abolition of poverty. This enabled her to win a striking victory in national elections in 1971, which, for the first time, were not necessarily held at the same time as state elections, so that she was able to break free of the Congress leaders, mostly party heads at the state-level, who had expected to control her. Her whole approach to politics thereafter was based upon an assertion of her personal authority. The consequences of this for centre-state relations were direct. Although the states’ constitutional position remained unchanged, Gandhi frequently used Article 356 to remove other parties from power. She also denied her own party any role in decision-making and, unlike her father, insisted on nominating state chief ministers herself. Congress legislative parties simply ‘rubber-stamped’ the choices she had already made. On the economic side, Gandhi nationalized the banks and imposed even tighter controls on foreign investment. The growing gulf between Gandhi and the opposition led her, in June 1975, to use the reserve powers in the Constitution to declare a state of emergency, which lasted until March 1977. During this time state governments opposed to Congress were dismissed and their leaders, in many cases, imprisoned. Policy-making was centralized and implemented as much through loyal officials as through political leaders. During the ‘Emergency’ there is clear evidence that Gandhi and her advisers, her younger son, Sanjay, in particular, were considering moving from a parliamentary to a presidential system. Had such a change taken place, there would have been few checks and balances; instead there would have been an unparalleled concentration of power in the hands of the leader at the Centre. Before introducing any such radical changes, Gandhi decided to seek a fresh electoral mandate. Partly because of defections from her own party and partly through the resentment evoked by clumsy imposition of centrally mandated policies, such as the coercive approach to family planning, she and her party were comprehensively defeated. Congress was replaced by a coalition of parties, some representing social groups that had suffered during the Emergency and others representing regional concerns. However, the coalition itself rapidly fell apart and in 1980 Gandhi returned to power for a second time. Her style, if anything, was more centralist than before, and chief ministers continued to hold office at the discretion of the Union Government. The sudden emergence in the early 1980s in Andhra Pradesh of the Telugu Desam, a party devoted to the protection of Andhra interests, and its victory in state elections in 1983, was a striking example of how this policy could be counterproductive.


In two states in particular, Gandhi’s policies led to more than mere resentment. In Punjab, a feeling that had existed to some extent since independence that the state’s economic importance and distinctive cultural traditions based on Sikhism were not given sufficient recognition by the central Government was transformed into militant resistance by a small group led by Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Mishandling of the situation at the Centre, especially the Government’s refusal to make significant concessions to the Akali Dal, the main representative of Sikh political demands, led to an escalation of violence, with many individual murders orchestrated by Bhindranwale, who had ensconced himself in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the centre of the Sikh faith. In June 1984 the Indian Army stormed the Temple, killing Bhindranwale and many of his followers. This led directly to Gandhi’s own death four months later, at the hands of two Sikh members of her personal bodyguard. The situation in Jammu and Kashmir, always highly sensitive owing to Pakistan’s claim on its territory, also began to polarize following Gandhi’s ousting in 1983 of Farooq Abdullah as Chief Minister. Yet in some respects these two states, along with the north-east corner of the country, were the exceptions. Elsewhere, despite the dissatisfaction with Gandhi’s style, there was a growing acceptance of the pattern put in place by the Constitution and by the 1956 states’ reorganization. After Indira Gandhi’s death her place was taken by her son, Rajiv Gandhi. His election victory at the end of 1984 enabled him to make initial efforts to conciliate state interests and to introduce a programme of economic reform, but these achieved only limited success. As the next general election approached in 1989 he found himself under pressure not only from regional parties, grouped together with some dissident Congress members in the National Front, but also from the growing power of so-called Hindu nationalism, the political representative of which was the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP came from a tradition stretching back to the late 19th century, which stressed the cultural and political unity of a Hindu India and which regarded non-Hindu sections of the population with considerable suspicion. The Muslim minority (more Muslims live in India today than in Pakistan) was a special object of concern, and in the 1980s an organization called the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), with support from BJP leaders, began a campaign to demolish a mosque at Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh, and to reclaim the site to build a temple. Rather than opposing the campaign directly, Rajiv Gandhi chose to try to outflank it by granting some concessions to the campaigners. In the 1989 general election the victor was the National Front, but the BJP had identified a theme that clearly appealed to a certain section of the electorate. Thus, in 1990 it launched an all-India campaign in support of a temple at Ayodhya. Congress returned to power in 1991 and implemented a new, and this time more successful, programme of economic reform. Rajiv Gandhi, however, had been assassinated at the beginning of the election and, under the leadership of P.V.Narasimha Rao, a political leader of the old school, the party looked increasingly dated: it lost in 1996 to a reconstituted National Front, now called the Janata Party. The BJP had, in fact, emerged as the largest single party in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, and in 1998 it succeeded, in partnership with a number of smaller, mostly regional, parties, in forming a majority and taking control of the national Government. The BJP celebrated its victory by testing a number of nuclear devices and declaring India to be a nuclear power. It also took a strong interest in promoting its own view of Indian identity as rooted in its Hindu value system. However, although the BJP and its


allies had always emphasized the principle of the priority of the Centre over the states, the Government, under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, made no significant changes to the existing arrangements. This was partly because the Government depended for its survival on the support of a number of regional parties, such as the Akali Dal and Telugu Desam, the links of which to the BJP were pragmatic and based on their shared antagonism to Congress, and partly because the BJP was as committed as Congress to economic liberalization, which, by definition, requires less direct involvement by government, whether at the Centre or in the states. The BJP-led coalition created three new states in 2000, to meet the long-held ambitions of regions within existing states: Uttaranchal was created out of Uttar Pradesh, to represent the interests of the hill areas in the north-western parts of the state; Vananchal, an area of southern Bihar inhabited by many tribal groups and also a mineralrich area that had felt exploited by successive state governments, became a state under its alternative name of Jharkhand; and Chhattisgarh, another tribal area, which, as a large eastern part of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, was far from the seat of government. The territory of Delhi, previously administered centrally, had also been given some of the attributes of statehood in 1991, becoming known as the National Capital Territory. THE FUTURE OF CENTRE-STATE RELATIONS IN INDIA Indian politics since the 1980s have been pulled in several different directions, as it has become clear that no one party is likely to win an absolute majority in the foreseeable future, and must instead put together a coalition. With the exceptions of the BJP and Congress, all other parties are to a greater or lesser extent regionally based, although the extent to which they exploit specifically regional issues varies considerably. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which aspires to national power, is, in practice, confined to West Bengal, where it has ruled continuously since 1977, and to Kerala, where it has some presence. A range of local parties in north India make their main appeal to the electorate on the basis of caste, in particular on the basis of the need for positive action to benefit lower or ‘backward’ castes, although local issues can also be important. In Maharashtra the strongest ally of the BJP is the Shiv Sena, which appeals in equal measure to anti-Muslim feeling in Mumbai and other cities and to local Maharashtran pride. Some of the overtly regional parties appeal explicitly to claims that the region in question has been discriminated against by the Centre or, in the case of certain subregional parties, by the state government, while others, such as the Telugu Desam, argue that they can run the local economy better if left to themselves. In Tamil Nadu the various regional parties, which have emerged over the past 50 years and which have formed successive governments for 35 of them, argue both that they can run efficient governments and that they protect the cultural identity of the Tamil people against challenges from the north. These political developments mean that no national party can ignore the needs and concerns of the states and regions (and vice versa, to a lesser extent). For the next few years India will be governed by coalition and, whether the dominant party within such a coalition is the BJP or Congress or a left-of-centre grouping such as the Janata Party, the


dynamics of coalition formation will ensure that, in broad terms, the present federal structure will remain in place. Regional interests will seek to create space for themselves within the existing system rather than seek to overthrow it. However, the system has, nevertheless, evolved since the 1950s, and lessons have been learnt from the centralizing tendencies of the 1970s and 1980s. In the early 1980s, as the Punjab crisis deepened, the central Government appointed a commission under a retired judge, R.S.Sarkaria, to investigate if reforms were needed to enhance the powers of the states. The broad conclusion of the commission was that the existing structure was sound, but that some small changes were needed to protect state governments from arbitrary dismissal. This included, particularly, the vexed question of how to define the circumstances under which the Centre could dismiss state governments under Article 356 of the Constitution. While no formal measures have in fact been taken, political practice has recognized the new realities of politics. An equally important question is whether the present units of the federation will retain their present size and status. Although states have assumed their present form largely in response to an assumed fit between language, culture and political identity, there are, as the examples of Uttaranchal and the other states created in 2000 demonstrate, other claims to statehood, which may well be recognized in future. The argument is also made that, for purely administrative reasons, the larger states, such as Uttar Pradesh, should be divided. An India with double or treble the present number of states would probably be a more centralized system. Below the level of the state the districts, towns and villages are also potentially units that can be given enhanced administrative and political responsibility. The system of local self-government put in place in the 1950s was reshaped and made more democratic in the early 1990s. If these local councils (collectively referred to as the Panchayati Raj system) can demonstrate sustained vitality, then they may acquire increased powers at the expense of the state governments, although this is likely to be some distance in the future. The introduction of major reforms to economic decision-making in the 1990s has had major implications for centre-state relations, with the effective power of the states increasing, even though the federal authorities continue to have the final say. States have begun to market themselves more aggressively, for example, as attractive destinations for foreign investment, and the southern states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have in the past 10 years developed major information-technology industries. Foreign donors of development assistance have, accordingly, targeted particular states, and have tailored their programmes to suit. The central Government, in turn, has been less willing than in the past to give assistance to states when they encounter financial difficulties, although not to the extent of allowing them to go bankrupt. The more dynamic states have seen this as a cue to raise more resources of their own, breaking from the passive stance of the past, although others remain as before, expecting the central Government to provide for their needs. While the development of information technology in Bangalore (Karnataka) and Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) has benefited both states and Centre (as the beneficiary of additional tax revenue), there are other areas in which the new freedom for the states can be more ambiguous in its results. The highly contested case of the Dabhol power-station south of Mumbai illustrates this point. In the early 1990s Enron Corporation of the USA


negotiated an agreement to establish India’s first foreign-owned power-station. The prime partner on the Indian side was the state Government of Maharashtra, through the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, although the central Government was also involved, through the provision of a guarantee of payment in case the local Government defaulted. The agreement was opposed by many different groups, on environmental, economic and political grounds, and when the Congress state Government was defeated in 1996 the new Shiv Sena-BJP administration announced the cancellation of the project. Further negotiations then took place, involving central and state Governments, and after some time a compromise was agreed. In addition, relations between individual states can sometimes be problematic. One particular area of difficulty is sharing of river waters, vital for irrigation. The south Indian states were at odds for many years over the construction of a dam on the Kaveri (Cauvery) river, and even intervention by the Supreme Court was not able to resolve the issue in the face of determined resistance by one of the states concerned. Punjab and Haryana were in dispute over the status of their shared capital city, Chandigarh, as well as over water. Since independence the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest states has increased substantially, and this trend is likely to accelerate with states having more responsibility for their own affairs. Some states, if they were individual countries, might almost be on the edge of middle-income status—Punjab and Gujarat, for example—while others, especially the Hindi-speaking states of north India, such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, languish far behind. This is a matter not merely of income per head but of quality of life, measured in terms of literacy, health care and housing. The central Government can use its budgetary powers to remedy the imbalances to some extent, but any attempt at major redistribution of income between states would encounter strong political resistance. At the same time the poorer states find it equally difficult to take the steps that would be needed to raise more resources locally and have become increasingly dependent on central subsidies to pay their regular bills, let alone increase development spending. Imbalances of wealth within a country can also lead to significant internal migration, and this has been the case in India. Professionals move freely to the economic growth centres of Mumbai, Bangalore, etc., while unskilled labour is just as mobile. Some migration, particularly of agricultural workers, is seasonal, while many families decide to move permanently to the overcrowded areas of big cities in search of employment. From time to time these different types of migration lead to violent social conflict. In Punjab in the 1980s agricultural labourers from Bihar were the target of attack, in Assam Bengalis have often been resented, while nativist movements, demanding reservation of jobs for ‘sons of the soil’, have been a feature in several places. However, the economic successes of Gujarat, Punjab and a few other states are not necessarily correlated with political and social stability. Gujarat in 2002, for example, saw a resurgence of the crudest forms of political violence directed against its Muslim minority. Nevertheless, they demonstrate that the Indian states can be viable units of economic progress and development. How to engender similar dynamism based on local pride and initiative will be the task for the next few years.

Chronology of India

3102 BC: Seminal date derived from Hindu cosmology. c. 2500 BC-1500 BC: The Indus valley (or Harappan) civilization appeared; it spread throughout north-western India and included Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, the ruins of which are now in Pakistan. c. 1300 BC: The Aryans became established in north-western India, arriving from modern-day Afghanistan, bringing horses, cattle wealth and the developing Sanskrit language, in which they composed the Vedic hymns and rituals, which lie at the root of brahminical Hinduism. c. 1100 BC: The Aryans began to spread eastward from their original Punjab territories into the Yamuna-Ganga Doab, later penetrating eastwards down the jungle-choked Gangetic plain or south-westwards into peninsular India. c. 950 BC: Possible date for the great war described in the Mahabharata, the events of which are based in the Doab; the later Ramayana epic is centred on Ayodhya (now in Uttar Pradesh), indicating the eastward-shifting focus of Aryanization. c. 599 BC-527 BC: Lifetime of Vardhamana Mahavira, the apparent founder of Jainism, an ascetic religion related to Buddhism. c. 566 BC: Traditional date for the birth of Gautama Siddhartha, known as the Buddha upon achieving enlightenment (recent scholarship tends to favour birth dates within 20 years of 450 BC); the lifetime and story of the Buddha reveals early evidence of the rise of the kingdom of Magadha. 520 BC: Darius I of Persia (Iran) added to his empire a province called ‘Hind’, the root of the modern word ‘India’ (it was probably an area confined to what is now Pakistani Punjab, but very much part of the Aryan heartland at the time). 326 BC: Alexander III (‘the Great’) of Macedon, conqueror of Persia, crossed the Indus and campaigned in the region of Gandhara (now in Pakistan). c. 320 BC: Chandragupta Maurya usurped the throne of Magadha from the short-lived Nanda dynasty, building on their administrative and military machine to extend the empire into Gujarat and central India. c. 303 BC: Seleucus Nicator, heir of Alexander the Great in the east, ceded all Greek colonies and territories east of Qandahar (now in Afghanistan) to Chandragupta, leaving a legacy of Hellenic dynasties (known as Yavanas) to contest for power in the north-west after the decline of the Mauryan empire. c. 268 BC-233 BC: The reign of Ashoka Piyadassi, the greatest of the Mauryans, who ruled a pan-Indian empire not equalled until the Great Mughals; he is famed for his


sponsorship of Buddhism and the tolerance that informed his rule following his remorse at the savage conquest of Kalinga (Orissa) in about 262 BC. c. 180 BC: Deposition of the last Maurya, although the empire had been in decline since the death of Ashoka. c. 70 BC: Rise of an Andhran dynasty, the Satavahanas, in the north-western part of the peninsula, establishing a realm that held sway over much of the west coast and the northern and central Deccan for about 200 years, benefiting from the growth of trade across the Arabian Sea. AD 78: Start of a dating system, the so-called Shaka era, which is more probably associated with the accession of Kanishka, the greatest of the Kushana emperors of north India (the Kushana or Yueh-chi were invaders from the north-west, out of central Asia). c. 319: Chandra Gupta I gained the throne of a resurgent Magadha (he died in 335). 376–415: Reign of Chandra Gupta II, under whom the north Indian empire, which was also distinguished by its artistic, scientific and legal achievements, reached its apogee of power. 454–67: Reign of Skanda Gupta, the last of the imperial Guptas, although the family continued to rule Magadha until 540, when their power had long since been broken by the depredations of the Ephthalites (‘White’ Huns or Hiung-nu); the western, originally subsidiary, Gupta kingdom of Malwa (based around Ujjain, in modern Madhya Pradesh), founded in 527, survived for longer. 612: Harsha of Thanesar (now in Haryana) crowned himself ‘Emperor of the Five Indies’ (the Punjab, Kanauj—Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Orissa and Darbbhanga—Bihar); he failed to establish his power in the Deccan, against Chalukya opposition, and the empire disintegrated upon his death in 647. 697–738: Reign of Lalitditya, the rajah of Kashmir to extend his rule the furthest—to Bengal in the east, the Konkan Coast in the south and into central Asia in the north. 712: A Muslim state was established in Sindh (now in Pakistan), but the further expansion of Islam into India was confined to trading communities and occasional raids by Muslim warlords. 757: The Rashtrakutas displaced the Chalukyas of Badami (Karnataka) as the preeminent power of the Deccan. 897: Aparajita, the last of the Pallavas, a dynasty dominant in the Tamil-speaking southeast since the seventh century, surrendered to Aditya, the successor of Vijayalaya, who had seized Tanjore (Tamil Nadu) to be the Chola capital in 950. c. 926: Abdication of the last Chera paramount ruler and the emergence of numerous, competing successor states in modern Kerala. 985–1018: The reign of Rajaraja I (‘the Great’), who secured Chola dominance in south India by defeating a number of rivals in south India, including the Pandyas of Madurai (Tamil Nadu), and who built a number of famous monuments. 1008: The Turkish-Afghan general, Mahmud of Ghazni (acceded 988) defeated an alliance of northern and central Indian princes, marking the start of a new Muslim interest in the wealth of northern India. 1018–48: The reign of Rajendra I, son of Rajaraja the Great, who extended Chola power as far as Bengal and claimed the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; after his reign the Chola kingdom declined.

CHRONOLOGY 15

1193: Another Turkish-Afghan general, Muhammad of Ghor, having broken the power of the Rajput alliance, captured Delhi from the forces of the prince of Ajmer, Prithviraj III, and established a base here in the Hindu heartland, the arya varta. 1206: Muhammad of Ghor died and Qutb-ud-din Aibak became the first Sultan of Delhi, founding the so-called Slave Dynasty; various Turkish and Afghan dynasties followed: the Khiljis (1290–1320), the Tughluqs (1320–1412), the Saiyyids (1412–45) and the Lodis (1445–1526). 1228: The Ahoms moved into Assam, to found a kingdom there. 1336: Foundation of the ‘City of Victory’, Vijayanagar (near Hampi, Karnataka), which built a Hindu empire that soon dominated most of south India. 1347: The Muslim warlords of the Deccan rejected the authority of the Tughluks of Delhi and established an independent sultanate (initially based in Gulbarga, later in Bidar, both cities in Karnataka), a regime named for the first of the dynasty, Hassan Bahman Shah. 1398: A Turkmen emir from Transoxania (modern-day Uzbekistan), Timur (‘the Lame’—Tamerlane), the founder of the second Mongol Empire, invaded north India, and savagely sacked Delhi. 1469: Birth of Nanak, first guru (religious teacher) of the Sikh religion (he died in 1538). 1482: The death of Muhammad Shah III signalled the disintegration of the Bahmani realm into a number of sultanates (notably Ahmadabad—now in Gujarat, Bijapur— Karnataka and Golconda—Andhra Pradesh), competing for control of the Deccan and Gujarat. 1498: Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese navigator, became the first representative of a modern European power to reach India—landing near Calicut (Kozhikode, Kerala)— marking the start of an epoch of the first sea-based foreign interventions in India. 1509–30: Reign of Krishna Deva Raya, when the empire of Vijayanagar had reached its height. 1510: The Portuguese took Goa from the Bijapur sultanate, to make it the capital of their territories in the East Indies. 1526: Zahir ud-din Muhammad, known as Babur (‘the Tiger’), the Muslim ruler of Kabul and a descendant of Timur, conquered the Punjab and captured Delhi, finally ending the remnants of the sultanate and founding the Mughal (Mogul) Empire on a victory at the battle of Panipat (Haryana). 1530–56: The reign of Humayun, the son of Babur; much of his reign was spent in exile (1540–55), mainly in Persia, after Sher Khan (Sher Shah), an Afghan rebel from Bihar, usurped the empire. 1556: Akbar (‘the Great’), Humayun’s son and a minor, became the next Great Mughal after his regent successfully defended his inheritance at the battle of Panipat; the emperor was soon campaigning himself, eventually expanding his power as far south as the River Krishna, into Orissa and Kashmir and Afghanistan, and strengthening Mughal rule through religious toleration. 1564: Battle of Talikota (Karnataka), in which the united forces of the usually bickering Deccan sultanates defeated the last emperor of Vijayanagar, before moving on to loot the abandoned capital.


1570: The English established their first trading post or factory at Masulipatnam (Machchlipatnam, Andhra Pradesh); the Dutch would soon challenge Portuguese control of the sea trade with India more aggressively. 1600: The East India Company of London (now in the United Kingdom) was formed. 1605: Upon the death of Akbar the Great, his son, Salim, succeeded as Jahangir. 1608: The East India Company established a base for British trading activities in India at the wealthy city of Surat (Gujarat). 1627: Jahangir died and was succeeded by his son, Shah Jahan. 1636: The Deccan sultans were forced to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Great Mughal. 1653: Fort St George, which became Madras (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu), was established by the East India Company. 1658: Aurangzeb (Alamgir I) seized the Mughal throne from his ailing father, Shah Jahan, who was imprisoned in the imperial city of Agra (Uttar Pradesh). 1672: The East India Company moved its headquarters from Surat to the recently acquired and developed Bombay (now Mumbai, Maharashtra). 1674: Coronaton of Shivaji (born in 1646), who had successfully extended his territory at the expense of the Mughals and their Muslim feudatories and made himself the undisputed ruler of the Marathas (Marathi-speaking princely and warrior castes originating in the north-west of the peninsula). 1680: Death of Shivaji—after 1714 his ‘great kingdom’ was to become more of a confederacy, with a hereditary chancellor (the Peshwa; from 1750 based at Pune, Maharashtra) and four main, subsidiary dynasties: the Bhonslas of Nagpur (Maharashtra), that of the Gaekwad of Vadodara (Baroda, Gujarat), the Holkars of Indore and the Scindias of Gwalior (the latter two both based in Madhya Pradesh). 1681: Aurangzeb began his henceforth annual campaigns against the Marathas, initially in pursuit of a rebellious son, but also in an attempt to maintain Mughal power in the peninsula. 1690: Official date for the foundation of the East India Company settlement of Calcutta (now Kolkata, West Bengal), a base for the British in Bengal and their capital from 1773. 1691: The greatest extent of the Mughal Empire in the subcontinent, although the end of religious toleration under Aurangzeb, a fervent Muslim, was already contributing to the long-term decline of the empire. 1699: Gobind Singh, the 10th and last guru of the Sikh faith, founded the Khalsa, the community of initiated members of the faith, contributing to the group’s cohesion and militarization against Muslim rule. 1707: The death of Aurangzeb, the last of the Great Mughals; the empire now not only faced the revolts of the Marathas and Rajputs and the secession of the Sikhs, but the assertion of virtual independence by local governors or nawabs (such as Bengal in 1703, Arcot, in Tamil Nadu, in 1707 and Hyderabad, in Andhra Pradesh, in 1724). 1716: The East India Company formalized its involvement in the Mughal order by securing a firman, or imperial decree, guaranteeing its rights throughout India. 1719: The year of five Mughal emperors, with dynastic struggles complicated by Maratha involvement.

CHRONOLOGY 17

1739: The Shah of Persia, Nadir Shah Afshar, seized and sacked the Mughal capital of Delhi. 1751: Arcot was captured by Robert Clive, an official of the East India Company, marking British ascendancy over the French in India. 1757: The Nawab of Bengal was defeated at Plassey (West Bengal) by Robert Clive, an official of the East India Company. 1761: The Marathas were defeated at Panipat by Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan (who had sacked Delhi in 1756), halting their expansion to the west. 1761: Haidar Ali Khan usurped the throne of Mysore (southern Karnataka), proceeding to fashion a powerful army and state capable of challenging the European powers. 1765: The Mughal emperor, Shah Alam II, having been defeated by the British the previous year, granted the East India Company the diwan (effectively sovereignty) of Bengal, formally inducting the Company into the imperial hierarchy. 1772: Death of the young Peshwa, Madhao Rao I, signalled the increasing independence of the five Maratha principalities from each other, at a time when they needed their united strength to resist the growth of British power in India (the First Maratha War was to be in 1775–82). 1773: The British Regulating Act responded to the East India Company’s new authority in Bengal and transformed the Company into a British adminstration agency, headed by a Governor-General; the first appointment to the post, which also had authority over the other two presidencies (Bombay and Madras) was Warren Hastings (to 1785), who consolidated British pre-eminence in India, notably by following the earlier, direct defeats of the French by besting their allies, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the rulers of Mysore and the Marathas. 1782: Tipu Sultan succeeded his father, Haidar Ali, in Mysore, while at war with the British. 1786: Foundation of the Indian Civil Service (now the Indian Administrative Service), which was opened to Indians in 1833. 1798–1805: Richard Wellesley, Baron (from 1799, Marquis) Wellesley and Earl of Mornington, was Governor-General and ensured British pre-eminence in south India, with the disarming of Hyderabad (1798), the final subjugation of Mysore (1799) and the annexation of the Carnatic (1801). 1803: During the Second Maratha War, the British occupied Delhi (making it part of the North-West Provinces in 1832). 1818: The conclusion of the Third Maratha War saw the final defeat of the Maratha and Rajput princes by the British. 1826: By the Treaty of Yandaboo the Burmese ceded their recent conquests in Assam to the British, beginning the process of the north-east being integrated into the rest of India. 1835: English replaced Persian as the official language of imperial administration in India. 1839: Death of Ranjit Singh, who had forged the Sikh state of the Punjab (based in Lahore, now in Pakistan) into a powerful military kingdom extending into Kashmir. 1849: The British annexed the Punjab, and the Sikhs soon became important and loyal recruits for the armed forces of British India.


1856: The annexation by the Company of the powerful state of Awadh (Oudh—now part of Uttar Pradesh) provoked considerable local resentment, as had previous acquisitions under the ‘Principle of Lapse’ of the outgoing Governor-General (since 1848), Sir James Ramsay, Earl (from 1849, Marquis) of Dalhousie (1848–56). May 1857: The Indian Mutiny or Sepoy Rebellion, which spread throughout north India in what is sometimes called the First War of Independence, began at Meerut (Mirat, Uttar Pradesh) as Hindu and Muslim soldiers united against the British authorities; the British recaptured Delhi in September, but the revolt was not suppressed until the following year. 29 March 1858: The depositon by the British of Bahadur Shah II Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, following his involvement in the rebellion of the previous year. November 1858: The decision to dissolve the East India Company was effected and the government of India became the direct responsibility of the British Crown, the Governor-General thereby becoming a Viceroy. 1877: Queen Victoria, the British monarch (1837–1901), was proclaimed Empress of India (following a royal proclamation in the United Kingdom on 28 April 1876). 1885: The Indian National Congress (often simply known as Congress) held its inaugural meeting. 1888: The Legislative Council of Travancore (now part of Kerala) met, inaugurating the first legislature of any Indian state. 1891: Burma (now Myanmar) was formally incorporated into British India. 1892: The British developed the local government reforms of the previous decade by granting a conditional suffrage and extended Indian participation. 1899–1905: George Curzon, Baron Kedleston, was Viceroy of India. 1905: The Partition of Bengal dictated by Lord Curzon provoked communal tensions and dissatisfaction with British rule (the province was reunited, without Bihar and Orissa, in 1912). 1906: The foundation of the Muslim League undermined attempts by Congress to represent all sections of Indian society. 1909: The Indian Councils Act introduced separate electorates for Muslims. December 1911: The King-Emperor, George V, announced at a Delhi durbar that the capital of India would be moved from Calcutta to Delhi, where a new city would be built. 1916: Congress and the Muslim League signed the Lucknow Pact, in what is now the capital of Uttar Pradesh, advocating national independence—the League also endorsed the democratization of representation, the ‘indianization’ of the administration and racial equality throughout India, in exchange for the acceptance by Congress of separate communal electorates. 1919: The Government of India Act began what the British had conceded was an inevitable move towards responsible government, by introducing shared control at the provincial level (diarchy), but this did not prevent the steady mobilization of the population by Congress and Mahatma Gandhi against British rule (initially in the Non-Cooperation Movement until 1922). 1930–32: The Civil Disobedience Movement was mobilized against the British. 1931: New Delhi was formally inaugurated. 1934: Muhammad Ali Jinnah became leader of the Muslim League.

CHRONOLOGY 19

1935: A new Government of India Act permitted full responsible government in the provinces, under normal circumtances, and extended diarchy to the central Government (this new constitutional settlement took effect in 1937 after overwhelming Congress election victories); Orissa was made a separate province; Burma was separated from British India. March 1940: At a convention held in Lahore the Muslim League rejected Indian federation and resolved that areas of Muslim majority in north-west and north-east India should be grouped into autonomous states. 1942: Confronted by the pacifist resistance advocated by Gandhi since 1939, the British offered India dominion status at the end of the Second World War, but Gandhi and Congress responded with the Quit India Movement (which Jinnah condemned); the British arrested some 60,000 people and outlawed Congress. 18 October 1943: The ‘Provisional Government of Free India’, under Subhas Chandra Bose, was proclaimed in Japanese-occupied Singapore and recognized by the Axis powers (ended on 18 August 1945); its flag was raised in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and, the next year, in Manipur, when Japanese forces, accompanied by the ‘Indian National Army’, attempted to invade British India. August 1946: Having conceded a move to independence, the British asked Jawaharlal Nehru (known as Pandit Nehru), the leader of Congress, to form an interim administration, although Jinnah objected to the League’s exclusion and urged public demonstrations, which often degenerated into communal rioting (particularly in Bengal and Bihar). 21 February 1947: Viscount Louis Mountbatten of Burma, a cousin of the KingEmperor, became Viceroy, charged with expediting independence for India. 3 June 1947: The so-called Mountbatten or Partition Plan (legislated into effect by the Indian Independence Act) resolved that the British would grant independence on the basis of partitioning the Empire into Hindu-and Muslim-dominated successor states, although the process was to provoke mass migrations and considerable violence. 15 August 1947: India became an independent dominion (Lord Mountbatten was Governor-General and Nehru Prime Minister), without the five provinces of Pakistan (which had achieved independence the previous day), but intent on integrating the princely states, previously vassals of the British Crown, into the federation. October 1947: Pathan tribesmen from Pakistan invaded Jammu and Kashmir, in support of an internal uprising against the Hindu prince, prompting him finally to opt for union with India, despite the Muslim majority among his subjects—Indian troops helped retain control of Jammu (with a Hindu-Sikh majority), Ladakh and the Vale of Kashmir. January 1948: The UN established a commission to help arbitrate the question of Kashmir and its borders, an area disputed not only by India and Pakistan (their armed conflict was settled by a cease-fire line, renamed the Line of Control in 1972, which essentially still demarcates the zones controlled by the two nations), but also by China. 30 January 1948: Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist, who considered him too conciliatory towards the Muslims. 21 June 1948: Chakravarti Rajagopalachari was appointed Governor-General. September 1948: Indian troops occupied Hyderabad (now in Andhra Pradesh) and the Dominions of the Nizam, ensuring the incorporation of the Hindu-majority but


Muslim-ruled state into the Union. Elsewhere, other princely states were organizing into more coherent units: the Matsya Union of Rajput states expanded into a United State of Greater Rajasthan in the following year, for instance; earlier in the year 30 princely states united into Himachal Pradesh (territory was added from Punjab in 1966); in 1949 the princely states of Orissa merged into a single state; and eight princely states of East Punjab formed a Union, based in Patiala. 1949: A committee of Congress leaders concluded that, while reorganization of India’s federal units on the basis of language (according to a commitment enshrined in the party organization by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920) was achievable in principle, the time was not right. 26 January 1950: The new Constitution took effect, making India a republic and creating a federation of 27 (‘Part A’ and ‘B’) states and six territories (known as ‘Part C’ and ‘D’ states), with the protectorate of Sikkim; Rajendra Prasad became the first President of India. May 1950: France effectively ceded Chandernagore (now part of West Bengal) to India, in accordance with the result of a 1949 referendum, and this was formalized by treaty in February 1951. December 1951-January 1952: India’s first general election as an independent state and under its new Constitution was a conclusive victory for Congress at national and state levels. 1 October 1953: Andhra was formed as a separate state out of the Telugu-speaking parts of Madras (to be united with much of Hyderabad in the 1956 reorganization to form Andhra Pradesh). 1954: The Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, having rejected hereditary rule in 1952, opted for integration into India (which had rescinded its early offer of a deciding plebiscite in the territory), a decision formalized over the following years, despite continuing international controversy. In August Indian nationalists and local activists declared Dadra and Nagar Haveli free from Portuguese rule, and the central Government refused permission for the colonial authorities to traverse Indian territory in order to reach the inland enclaves. 1 November 1954: India assumed the administration of the remaining French enclaves in India (Karaikal, Mahe, Pondicherry. the capital, and Yanam), although the treaty of cession was only ratified in August 1961, after which Pondicherry and its dependencies could formally become part of India in 1963 (as a Union Territory). 1 November 1956: The States Reorganization Act, the Bihar and West Bengal (Transfer of Territories) Act and the Constitution (Seventh Amendment) Act came into force, transforming the federation into a Union of 14 linguistic states (Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Mysore, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan. Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal) and six Union Territories (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, the Laccadive and Amindivi Islands, Manipur and Tripura). 1957: The Naga Hills Tuensang Area, hitherto part of Assam (except for Tuensang, which was part of what is now Arunachal Pradesh) and disturbed by local insurrection, was made a centrally administered territory (renamed Nagaland in 1961).

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March 1957: The general election renewed the Congress mandate in national and most state governments, although elections in Kerala produced the world’s first elected Communist government. March 1959: Upon the Chinese decision to administer Tibet (Xizang) directly, the Dalai Lama fled to India, where his continued presence has compounded Indian-Chinese tension over the delineation of mutual borders (there were armed clashes in Ladakh the previous year, and around this time the Aksai Chin plateau was taken under Chinese administration, despite India’s claim to it as part of Jammu and Kashmir). 1 May 1960: The bilingual state of Bombay, which in 1956 had gained old British Gujarat, together with the territory of Kachchh or Kutch and the Union of States of Saurashtra, as well as the eastern districts around Nagpur (previously the capital of the Central Provinces—Madhya Pradesh), was divided into Gujarat and Marathi-speaking Maharashtra (the latter retained Bombay—now Mumbai—as its capital). 19 September 1960: India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty, which resolved a long-standing dispute regarding use of the Indus system of rivers. August 1961: Dadra and Nagar Haveli were declared part of India, as a Union Territory, by parliamentary resolution. 20 December 1961: Negotiations with the Portuguese Government for the cession of their remaining Indian territories having failed, Goa, Daman and Diu were occupied by Indian troops and a military governor installed—this became the date, retrospectively declared, for the formal incorporation of the new Union Territory into India (Portugal abandoned its claims in 1974). April 1962: The results of the third general election confirmed Congress in power, although its majority was slightly reduced in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the national Parliament) and the party was being challenged in the states. 13 May 1962: Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan was sworn in as President. October-November 1962: China made numerous incursions, often in considerable strength, the length of its disputed border with India, sending troops into Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh (the North-East Frontier Agency of Assam until it was renamed and became a Union Territory in 1972). 1 December 1963: Nagaland became a state of the Union. 26 May 1964: Jawaharlal Nehru died; Lal Bahadur Shastri formed a new Government in early June. April 1965: Indian and Pakistani troops clashed in the Rann of Kachchh, on the borders of Gujarat; fighting reoccured in August, but a tribunal concluded a peaceful settlement of the dispute in 1968 (90% was awarded to India). January 1966: The Tashkent Declaration on the renunciation of force was signed by India and Pakistan in Uzbekistan (then part of the USSR), just before the death of the Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri. Nehru’s daughter, Indira Gandhi, formed a new Government later in the month. 1 November 1966: The reorganization of Punjab took effect, the Punjabi mainly spoken by the Sikhs having been recognized as a language distinct from Hindi: Hindidominated Haryana in the south-east; a now Sikh-dominated Punjab in the north-west; some north-eastern hill territories being added to Himachal Pradesh; and the capital of


Chandigarh becoming the joint capital of Haryana and Punjab, but itself under central administration as a Union Territory. March 1967: The results of the general election confirmed Congress and Gandhi in office, but the party suffered at the state level. 6 May 1967: Dr Zakir Husain was appointed President of India (he died in office on 4 May 1969). July 1969: Morarji Desai resigned from the cabinet following Prime Minister Gandhi’s proposal to nationalize banking (subsequently instituted by ordinance—further nationalizations took place thereafter, such as the major iron-and-steel works and 46 textile mills in 1972). 20 August 1969: V.V.Giri, previously Vice-President and then Acting President, won the presidential election as an independent candidate (but supported by Gandhi and the left-wing of Congress), defeating the official Congress nominee, N.S.Reddy. October 1969: A faction of Congress, formally split from the ruling party and later elected Dr K.S.Singh as leader of Congress Party (Opposition). 25 January 1971: Himachal Pradesh was proclaimed the 18th state of the Indian Union. March 1971: The results of the general election were a notable success for Gandhi and her wing of Congress, which was confirmed in office; for the first time the state elections were separated from the national contest. December 1971: Over 10m. refugees from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) had fled to India since April, following military repression in what was eastern Bengal, provoking another short Indian-Pakistani war, as well as Indian recognition of an independent Government of Bangladesh. 20 January 1972: Meghalaya (an autonomous state within Assam since April 1970) became a full state of the Union, the 19th, while Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram (formerly the Lushai or Mizo Hills District) were also separated from Assam, but as centrally administered territories. 21 January 1972: Manipur and Tripura, hitherto both territories and former princely states, became states of the Indian federation. April 1972: General elections were held in 16 of the 21 states, which reinforced the position of the Congress (R) party of Indira Gandhi. July 1972: The Simla (Shimla) Agreement, negotiated between India and Pakistan in Himachal Pradesh, promoted peaceful relations between the countries, decided that communications should be resumed and settled the withdrawal of forces to respective sides of the Line of Control in Kashmir. 1973: The State of Mysore was renamed Karnataka, and Lakshadweep was adopted as the name of the territory including Minicoy and the Laccadive and Amindivi Islands (Madras state had been renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969). April 1973: India took over the administration of Sikkim, at the request of the ruling Chogyal (Palden Thondup Namgyal since December 1963), following popular unrest— greater Indian control, more democracy and, eventually, the reduction of the Chogyal to a titular head of state ensued. May 1974: India conducted its first nuclear test, in the Rajasthan desert, provoking an angry reaction from Pakistan, despite Indian assurances of peaceful use.

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24 August 1974: Dr Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed became President of India. 19 April 1975: India’s first space satellite, Aryabhata, was launched by a Soviet rocket from Kazakhstan (then part of the USSR), although the satellite subsequently developed a technical fault. 26 April 1975: Sikkim, which had acquired associated status on 7 September 1974, became the 22nd (and the smallest) state of the Indian Union. 12 June 1975: The Allahabad High Court, in Uttar Pradesh, found Prime Minister Gandhi guilty of corrupt practices during the 1971 general election and debarred her from seeking any elective post for six years. 24 June 1975: The Supreme Court permitted Indira Gandhi to retain office pending the outcome of her appeal against the decision of the Allahabad High Court, although the opposition parties then began a nation-wide campaign to demand her resignation. 26–27 June 1975: Indira Gandhi ordered the arrest of over 900 of her political opponents and proclaimed a state of emergency; the fundamental constitutional rights of all citizens were suspended. 23 July 1975: Parliament, boycotted by opposition members, endorsed a declaration of internal emergency. 19 December 1975: The Congress annual conference agreed to postpone elections to the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Parliament), originally scheduled for early 1976, for one year. 9 January 1976: Freedom of speech and six other fundamental rights were suspended. March 1976: President’s Rule was imposed in Gujarat, the only remaining state not controlled by Congress. April-May 1976: India agreed to restore diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China (suspended since 1962) and with Pakistan (suspended since 1971). 1 September 1976: Opposition deputies walked out of the Lok Sabha in protest at the introduction of legislative proposals to alter the country’s Constitution (agreed by Congress in May). January 1977: It was announced that a general election would be held in March and some of the restrictions of the ‘Emergency’ were lifted. The Socialist Party, the official Congress, Jana Sangh and Bharatiya Lok Dal agreed to oppose the ruling Congress (R) as the single Janata (People’s) Party—they only formally merged in May. February 1977: The resignation of a Congress minister, Jagjivan Ram, and his formation of a new group, Congress for Democracy, indicated that Gandhi did not enjoy complete support even within the ruling party. President Ahmed died of a heart attack and the Vice-President, Basappa Danappa Jatti, became Acting President. March 1977: Congress was crushed at the general election, with Gandhi losing her seat and the party gaining only 153 of the 540 being contested; Janata won 270 seats and Congress for Democracy (which merged into Janata in May) 28, and Morarji Desai became Janata leader and Prime Minister. The state of emergency was revoked. Yeshwantrao Chevan was elected leader of Congress. June 1977: The central Government ensured that new elections were held in 10 states and two territories, most of them being won by Janata (a notable exception being West Bengal, where the Communists came to power and still hold it).


25 July 1977: Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, the thwarted candidate in 1969, was sworn in as President. 3 October 1977: The former Prime Minister, Gandhi, was arrested on corruption charges, together with four of her former cabinet colleagues; she was later released. January 1978: Gandhi finally broke with the official Congress, forming her own Indian National Congress (Indira), provoking the disintegration of the old party and the recognition of her Congress (I) as the parliamentary opposition by April. August 1978: Parliament completed the dismantling of the regime in force under the ‘Emergency’, although Congress (I) members claimed continuing harassment. November 1978: Gandhi won a parliamentary seat in a by-election in Karnataka, although she was expelled from the Lok Sabha in December. February 1979: Indira Gandhi was charged with election fraud, while her son, Sanjay, and V.C.Shukla, the former information minister, were later convicted of corruption during the ‘Emergency’. June 1979: Indira Gandhi made her first appearance before a special court, accused of misuse of power. Meanwhile, she had fallen out with Devaraj Urs. the Chief Minister of Karnataka, who was expelled from Congress (I) and formed his own Karnataka Congress Party (and later became the leader of the ‘rump’ official Congress, or Congress—O). July 1979: Following many defections from the Government and from the Janata Party, Desai resigned as leader of both—he was succeeded as Prime Minister by Charan Singh. August 1979: Singh resigned as premier, but remained in office pending the general election in December, after the President dissolved Parliament. Meanwhile, Indira Gandhi had been charged with electoral malpractice in 1977. January 1980: After the conclusion of the general election, against a background of Janata unpopularity and disintegration. Indira Gandhi and her Congress (I) were restored to power at the Centre. February 1980: Prime Minister Gandhi dissolved nine state assemblies (Congress—I won eight of them in the June elections, noted for their levels of violence). Jagjivan Ram resigned as leader of Janata in protest at the party’s links with the militant Hindu nationalist organization, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). April 1980: Sanjay Gandhi was acquited in the Supreme Court of charges of criminal conspiracy during the ‘Emergency’, although he was to die in a flying accident (at the age of 33 years) in June. Indira Gandhi escaped an assassination attempt. 18 July 1980: India put a 35-kg satellite into orbit, becoming the sixth nation with a satellite-launching capability. August 1980: With continuing unrest in Assam and other north-eastern states, the Government acquired powers to declare emergency powers in ‘disturbed areas’ (subject to presidential approval) and, in the next month, reintroduced detention without trial. March 1981: Following a national census, it was announced that the population had doubled to 683m. in the previous 30 years. June 1981: Rajiv Gandhi, the elder son of the Prime Minister, was elected to the Lok Sabha as the member for his late brother Sanjay’s constituency, against a background of improving international relations with the People’s Republic of China and continuing domestic unrest in Assam.

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January 1982: Helped by legislation against the withdrawal of labour in certain areas enacted in the previous year, over 8,000 union officials and organizers of a general strike were arrested pre-emptively. 16 July 1982: The home affairs minister, Giani Zail Singh, was elected to succeed as President of India, the first Sikh to hold the office. 1983: Unrest in the regions brought violence to Assam and, later, central rule to Punjab, as well as electoral defeats for Congress (I) in Andhra Pradesh and in Jammu and Kashmir, owing to the unpopularity of a Centre perceived as over-controlling. 5 June 1984: Government troops were ordered into the Golden Temple (the Sikhs’ holiest shrine), at Amritsar (Punjab), in pursuit of an extremist Sikh leader, who had allegedly established a terrorist stronghold there; hundreds were killed, sacred buildings were damaged and a curfew was imposed throughout Punjab. 31 October 1984: Indira Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh members of her personal guard. Her son, Rajiv, was sworn in as Prime Minister. There was widespread communal violence throughout India. December 1984-January 1985: Elections to the Lok Sabha were held, in which Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress (I) received 49.2% of the total votes cast and won 403 of the 513 contested seats. July 1985: Prime Minister Gandhi and the main Sikh party, Akali Dal, agreed that some concessions should be made to Sikh demands and that elections should be held in Punjab (held in September and won by Akali Dal). August 1985: The central Government and two Hindu activist groups in Assam agreed that voting rights for immigrants to the state (i.e. mainly Muslim Bangladeshis) should be limited—this calmed a long-standing problem in Assam, but caused some tension in the normally good relations with Bangladesh. June 1986: Gandhi and the main insurgent Mizo group signed an agreement giving greater autonomy to the territory of Mizoram and a general amnesty to rebels, many of whom had been in revolt for some 25 years. October 1986: Prime Minister Gandhi survived an assassination attempt, carried out by three Sikhs, despite the inclusion of two Sikhs in the cabinet reorganized in April and the earlier concessions in Punjab (part of his policy of placating the regions). 20 February 1987: Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh became the 23rd and 24th states of India, respectively. 30 May 1987: Goa became the 25th state (and replaced Sikkim as the smallest state), the ‘rump’ of former Portuguese India retaining territorial status as the separate Union Territory of Daman and Diu. June 1987: Prime Minister Gandhi and the Gurkha National Liberation Front (which had been campaigning, often violently, for an autonomous homeland for Gurkhas in the farnorthern Darjiling district of West Bengal) agreed to the establishment of a semiautonomous council there. July 1987: An accord was signed by the Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, and the President of Sri Lanka, J.R.Jayewardene, under which Indian troops were sent to monitor a cease-fire in the insurgent Tamil areas of Sri Lanka. October 1987: Vishwanath Pratap Singh, a former defence minister and the leader of a group of Congress dissidents expelled from the ruling party in July, formed a new


political group, the Jan Morcha (People’s Front). The Government also suffered from the allegation of a number of scandals, including the ‘Bofors affair’ (which involved the bribery of senior figures by a Swedish munitions manufacturer). December 1987: Following the death of the venerable M.G.Ramachandran, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Congress attempted to re-establish itself as a political force in the state, exploiting recent co-operation over the peace process in Sri Lanka and the struggle for succession in the premier’s party; the following month central rule was imposed in Tamil Nadu. September 1988: The Jan Morcha, the Janata Party, the Lok Dal, a Congress offshoot and three major regional parties formed a coalition National Front (Rashtriya Morcha) to oppose the ruling Congress (I) at the next general election. October 1988: The Jan Morcha, the Janata Party and the Lok Dal formed the Janata Dal (People’s Party), with V.P.Singh (who had won a parliamentary by-election in July) as leader. December 1988: During Gandhi’s visit to the People’s Republic of China (the first such visit by an Indian Prime Minister for 34 years), the two countries agreed to begin negotiations on the issue of their long-standing Himalayan border disputes. January 1989: Despite an extended period of President’s Rule, Congress was defeated by the regional parties at the state elections in Tamil Nadu. June 1989: At negotiations about the Siachen glacier in disputed Kashmir, India and Pakistan agreed, in principle, to the eventual withdrawal of all their troops from the area. 18 September 1989: India ageed to make ‘all efforts’ to withdraw its 45,000 troops from Sri Lanka by the end of the year and promised an immediate, unilateral cease-fire, while the Sri Lankan Government pledged to establish a peace committee for the northeastern province of the island, in order to reconcile the disaffected and insurgent Tamil groups. 22–26 November 1989: In the general election to the Lok Sabha, Congress (I) lost its working majority and the National Front, with support from the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the left was able to displace the Gandhi Government— V. P.Singh became Prime Minister on 2 December. February 1990: Following the resignation of the state premier and amid growing unrest, the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir dissolved the legislature (elected in 1987 amid allegations of electoral manipulation on the part of the main pro-Indian party). In other states there were elections, which resulted in further gains for the BJP. July 1990: Trouble both in Punjab and in Jammu and Kashmir continued: in the former two Akali Dal leaders were murdered, despite continuing central administration and the replacement of the Governor in June; and in the latter President’s Rule was introduced, after the murder of a leading Muslim cleric in May, the replacement of the Governor and increasing unrest provoking meetings on the issue with Pakistan. August 1990: The Government announced the implementation of measures to reserve 27% of government and public-sector jobs for members of the lower castes. November 1990: Singh resigned as Prime Minister, following the Janata Dal’s splitting into two factions and the withdrawal of BJP support in the previous month; Chandra Sekhar, leader of the dissident faction, replaced Singh as premier. March 1991: The Sekhar Government collapsed and the Lok Sabha was dissolved.

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21 May 1991: Rajiv Gandhi, the leader of Congress (I) and former Prime Minister, was assassinated by a suspected Tamil terrorist in Tamil Nadu, the day after the first stage of the general election—the remaining two rounds were postponed to June, when sympathy tipped opinion more in favour of Congess. 15 June 1991: The third and final stage of the general election confirmed the return to power of Congress (I), now led by P.V.Narasimha Rao, who became Prime Minister six days later and formed a Government intent on economic reform and liberalization to improve the economy and public finances. December 1991: A visit by Li Peng was the first to India by a Chinese premier in 31 years. January 1992: The leader of Sri Lankan insurgent group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was charged with the murder of Rajiv Gandhi; the Governments of India and Sri Lanka also continued co-operation on refugee questions. 1 February 1992: The Union Territory of Delhi became the National Capital Territory, entitled to a legislative assembly and representative government, under a law enacted in the previous year. 25 July 1992: Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma was sworn in as the country’s President. 6 December 1992: An ongoing controversy, which the BJP had hitherto successfully employed for political advantage (almost doubling its share of the vote in 1991), culminated in the destruction of an old mosque in Ayodhya (Uttar Pradesh) by Hindu militants, who wanted to build a temple to Rama; severe communal violence took place across India, with the loss of more than 1,200 lives, but the Government occupied the disputed site and arrrested a number of militant leaders, including BJP politicians. September 1993: India and the People’s Republic of China agreed to reduce the number of troops along their mutual border and to resolve territorial disputes by peaceful means. December 1993: The BJP clearly won the elections to the new Delhi territorial assembly, beginning a long succession of Congress defeats in state elections. December 1994: Problems within Congress (I) were illustrated by the resignation of Arjun Singh from the Government—he later became leader of a separate faction, Congress (T). Relations between India and Pakistan deteriorated further as continuing unrest and military reprisal in Jammu and Kashmir was compounded by accusations of Indian involvement in civil violence in the Pakistani city of Karachi. August 1995: The Chief Minister of Punjab, Beant Singh, was killed by a car-bomb in Chandigarh. April 1996: By the time of the first round of the general election at the end of the month, 10 government ministers and a number of leading politicians from several parties, including the BJP and the Janata Dal, had been forced to resign by the ‘Hawala’ financial scandal (involving illegal money transfers). May 1996: The BJP emerged as the largest party after the final two rounds of the general election, but, owing to the reluctance of the secular parties to co-operate in a coalition, Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the BJP barely lasted two weeks as premier before resigning. June 1996: H.D.Deve Gowda, a former Chief Minister of Karnataka, was appointed Prime Minister in a Government headed by the United Front, a coalition of the National


Front and the Left Front, including a number of regional parties. The former premier, Narasimha Rao, was charged with corruption (he resigned as Congress leader in September, having been summoned to stand trial for fraud). September 1996: For the first time since 1987 state elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir, despite the protests of Pakistan and a boycott by most of the separatist groups; victory went to the pro-Indian, dynastic leader of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC), Dr Farooq Abdullah. November 1996: President Jiang Zemin of the People’s Republic of China began the first official visit by a Chinese head of state to India. April 1997: Withdrawal of Congress support provoked the resignation of the Deve Gowda Government; the United Front nominated Inder Kumar Gujral, hitherto foreign minister, as its leader and the new Prime Minister. May 1997: Rajiv Gandhi’s Italian-born widow, Sonia, became a ‘primary member’ of Congress (I), marking the dynasty’s return to politics. 25 July 1997: Kocheril Raman Narayanan was sworn in as the national President. Laloo Prasad Yadav resigned as Chief Minister of Bihar, only to be replaced by his wife, after involvement in an animal-fodder scandal that had also led to a split in the Janata Dal. August 1997: Indian and Pakistani forces exchanged heavy artillery fire across the Line of Control dividing Kashmir. October 1997: The Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act, a government response to rising levels of violence in the state, gave the security forces extensive powers for one year. December 1997: Following the collapse of the minority Government at the end of the previous month, the Lok Sabha was dissolved; Sonia Gandhi later announced that she would formally campaign on behalf of Congress (I) for the general election. January 1998: A court in Chennai (formerly Madras) condemned 10 Indian and 16 Sri Lankan Tamil militants for conspiring in the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi—the Supreme Court acquitted 19 defendants and commuted the sentences of three others in May 1999. February-March 1998: A general election that established the advantage of the BJP and its regional allies (grouped in the National Democratic Alliance) was followed by Vajpayee more successfully forming a coalition Government. Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi replaced Sitaram Kesari as President of Congress (I). May 1998: The Government, which had replaced 11 state governors and two territorial lieutenant-governors the month before, courted domestic opinion and provoked international alarm by conducting a series of underground nuclear tests, although it later offered to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty against nuclearweapons testing. July 1998: The Government was obliged to defer the Women’s Reservation Bill (reserving one-third of the seats in the Lok Sabha for women). At a regional summit in Sri Lanka the Indian and Pakistani premiers met, at the first bilateral contact since the two countries’ nuclear tests in May. November 1998: The Government announced the formation of a National Security Council, under the Prime Minister. Later in the month Congress (I) made some gains in a number of state elections.

CHRONOLOGY 29

21 February 1999: The Lahore Declaration (pledging the mutual quest for peace and nuclear security) was made in the Pakistani city, following Prime Minister Vajpayee’s much-publicized bus journey from Delhi. April 1999: The Lok Sabha was dissolved after the Government lost the support of its main Tamil ally and Congress was unable to form an alternative coalition—owing to an ‘unprecedented heatwave’, the general election was later postponed until SeptemberOctober. August 1999: India had made air strikes against Islamic infiltrators (usually supported by the Pakistani military) over the Line of Control in May, but the shooting down of a Pakistani naval reconnaissance aircraft near the Gujarat border provoked a response from Pakistan, which, in turn, fired on Indian military aircraft. 3 October 1999: The fifth round of the general election confirmed the outright victory of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (clearly dominated by the BJP) and the poor performance of Congress (I). 13 October 1999: Vajpayee was reappointed Prime Minister, at the head of a new coalition Government. 6 January 2000: The 14th Karmapa Lama, the first Buddhist prelate whose legitimate reincarnation was recognized by both the Chinese authorities and the Dalai Lama, arrived in Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh), having defected from Tibet some days previously (India granted him refugee status in February 2001, despite the objections of the Chinese). March 2000: The federal Government and Bodo separatists in Assam agreed a ceasefire (later extended), pending peace negotiations. April 2000: The federal Government convened a conference on dealing with increasing Naxalite violence in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. In Jammu and Kashmir negotiations with moderate separatists led to the release of captured leaders by the Indian authorities. Militants in Nagaland announced a cease-fire. 15 May 2000: In Jammu and Kashmir, in the first assassination of a state minister since the start of separatist violence in 1990, the Minister of State for Power, Ghulam Hassan Bhat, was murdered. 9 June 2000: The Chief Minister of Bihar, Rabri Devi, and her husband, a previous premier, were charged with corruption. 24 June 2000: The state legislature of Jammu and Kashmir approved a resolution of the JKNC Government on implementing state autonomy, but the resolution was subsequently rejected by the central Government. July 2000: A cease-fire offer by a militant group in Jammu and Kashmir earned a rapid response from the Indian Government, which ordered the cessation of all offensive operations by the Army against the separatists for the first time in 11 years; however, negotiations collapsed. October 2000: The former Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao, convicted of corruption the previous month, and his former home minister were fined and sentenced to prison for three years. In a separate case, the former premier of Tamil Nadu, Jayaram Jayalalitha, was also convicted of corruption and given a similar prison term. 1 November 2000: Chhattisgarh was separated from Madhya Pradesh as a new state of the Union.


9 November 2000: Uttaranchal, hitherto the mountainous north-west of Uttar Pradesh, became a separate state. 15 November 2000: Southern Bihar, a strongly tribal upland, was separated from the original state as Jharkhand, the 28th state of India. Sonia Gandhi was overwhelmingly confirmed as President of Congress in the first party leadership election a member of her dynasty had had to contest. 26 January 2001: An earthquake in Gujarat killed at least 15,000 people and made some 700,000 homeless; the Government was criticized for its slow response and the disruption affected the local count for the national census on 1 March. February 2001: Continuing trouble in Jammu and Kashmir, including a deadly attack on Srinagar airport in the previous month and an incident involving the Pakistani airforce, did not prevent India extending its cease-fire until May (the third extension since November 2000, when it had been introduced out of respect for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan) nor anti-Indian protests taking place throughout the state. March 2001: Accusations of corruption, following allegations of bribery in arms trading, forced the resignations of a number of senior bureaucrats, military officials and politicians, including the defence minister, George Fernandes, and the presidents of both the BJP and the Samata Party. April 2001: India’s offer of peace negotiations with Kashmir separatists met with limited success owing to the exclusion of Pakistan. Elsewhere, Bhutan deployed some 3, 000 troops along its border with India, because of the presence of rebels from Assam. Bangladesh reported occupying a strip of land in Meghalaya it claimed India had seized in 1971, provoking a number of incidents along the international frontier. In Parliament the opposition protested insufficient examination of the bribery scandal. May 2001: Elections to five local legislatures were held, with Congress winning Assam, Kerala and Pondicherry, while the BJP and its allies made no gains. June 2001: Federal attempts to extend the cease-fire with Nagaland insurgents to neighbouring areas provoked considerable protest in a number of the other north-eastern states, particularly in Manipur (the offer was retracted in July). July 2001: An Indian-Pakistani summit in Agra (Uttar Pradesh) failed to resolve any outstanding issues. A political crisis in Tamil Nadu, where Jayaram Jayalalitha returned as Chief Minister only to order the arrest of her predecessor in revenge for her own treatment, resulted in the federal authorities forcing the resignation of the Governor, whose appointment of the Jayalalitha had been constitutionally controversial. September 2001: Serious terrorist attacks in the USA and the subsequent international operations in Afghanistan against Muslim groups put pressure on Pakistan to limit the activities of infiltrators across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. 13 December 2001: A terrorist attack on Parliament House in New Delhi resulted in 14 deaths and reignited Indian condemnation of Pakistan’s sponsorship of insurgent groups in Jammu and Kashmir, which were believed to be behind the attack. 21 December 2001: India recalled its High Commissioner to Pakistan (last done in 1971), amid demands for military action in Kashmir. 25 January 2002: India conducted a test of its medium-range, nuclear-capable missile in the Bay of Bengal, despite international pleas for restraint during the tension with Pakistan.

CHRONOLOGY 31

13–21 February 2002: Elections in four states did not produce good results for the BJP, undermining the stability of the always fractious ruling coalition—a resurgent Congress now controlled 14 state governments, while the largest state, Uttar Pradesh, was left without a clear party majority. 27 February 2002: The continuing controversy over the mosque/temple site in Ayodhya showed its continued potential for trouble when a train carrying Hindu activists from the city was attacked in Gujarat, provoking retaliatory violence against Muslims throughout the state and bringing accusations of official connivance by the BJP state Government in a pogrom. 15 March 2002: A Hindu activists’ deadline on the Ayodhya situation was passed by determined government action to protect the disputed site from incursions—the BJP, however, continued to risk the balance between alienating its supporters or its largely secular coalition allies. May 2002: Amid increasing tensions in Jammu and Kashmir, troops were amassed near the Line of Control by both countries. Fears that skirmishes could escalate into war between two nuclear powers precipitated visits by numerous international political figures —tensions eased somewhat thereafter. 30 May 2002: The BJP emerged from legislative elections in Goa as the largest party in the state Assembly—a BJP-led coalition Government was formed. 1 July 2002: The Union Government was reorganized, the principal change being the exchange of portfolios between the finance and foreign affairs ministers. 17 July 2002: Amid increasing criticism of his role in the communal violence in Gujarat, the state premier, Narendra Modi, resigned; he maintained his role, in a temporary capacity, until elections scheduled for early 2003. 18 July 2002: The result of the presidential election held three days earlier was announced; Dr A.P.J.Abdul Kalam was the victor, and was inaugurated the following week. 2 August 2002: It was announced that state elections would be held in Jammu and Kashmir in September—October.

Statistics

MAJOR DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC INDICATORS

STATISTICS 33

‡ Net domestic product (NDP) per head has been calculated using population estimates extrapolated from the 1991 census (the all-India figure has been calculated using an estimated total population of 926.5m. at 30 Sept. 1995). Later figures for NDP and NDP per head are available for many states, in the chapters, but they are not necessarily from a comparable series.


CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE RATES Monetary units

100 paise (singular: paisa)=1 Indian rupee Sterling, Dollar and Euro equivalents (31 May 2002)

£1 sterling=71.91 rupees US $1=49.03 rupees €1=46.02 rupees 1,000 Indian rupees=£13.91=$20.40=€21.73 Average Exchange Rate (rupees per US $)

1999 43.055 2000 44.942 2001 47.186

The Government of the Republic of India (July 2002)

The Constitution of 26 January 1950 (as adopted by the Constituent Assembly two months before) declares that the People of India have constituted a Sovereign, Democratic Republic, which secures justice, liberty, equality and fraternity for its citizens in 397 articles and seven schedules (and as amended by 83 legislative acts, the last two of which received assent in September 2000). Federal government (‘the Centre’) is carried out under the authority of the President, a constitutional head of state, who is elected for a five-year term (and is eligible for re-election) by an electoral college comprising elected members of both houses of the national Parliament and of the state legislatures. Executive authority is exercised on the advice of the Council of Ministers, which is responsible to Parliament and must command sufficient support there in order to conduct government effectively. The Prime Minister, appointed by the President, recommends the other ministers for presidential appointment. The Vice-President of India is elected by a joint sitting of both houses of Parliament and is, ex officio, Chairman of the upper house, the Rajya Sabha (see on Parliament below). There is an independent judiciary. Fundamental rights are guaranteed by the Constitution, Hindi is declared the official language of the Union (although other languages, including English, are also recognized for official purposes) and there are sufficient other details to give India one of the longest written fundamental laws in the world. Amendment of the Constitution is by parliamentary legislation, except in certain cases (e.g. some judicial matters, distribution of powers between the Union and the states), where ratification by not less than one-half of the state legislatures is required. The Union consists of states and territories. Under the original 1950 Constitution the organization of the federal republic was more complex, with four types of state. In 1956, when the creation of linguistic territorial units was conceded, the former so-called ‘part A’ and ‘part B’ states (the latter distinguished from the former by having a rajpramukh rather than a governor) were made States, while the old ‘part C’ states and the single ‘part D’ state became Union Territories. The territories (there are six Union Territories and Delhi, which was given special status as the National Capital Territory in 1991) are directly administered by the President, who appoints a chief executive—Delhi and Pondicherry also have legislatures and popular ministries, like the states. The states, of which there are now 28, enjoy a similar institutional structure to the Centre, with a Governor, appointed by the President for five years, exercising executive authority through a Chief Minister and cabinet answerable to a Legislative Assembly. These state legislatures (unicameral in all but five states) enjoy law-making authority in all subjects listed in the State List contained in the seventh schedule of the Constitution. There are 65 areas on the


List, including local government, the police, public health and education, while the Concurrent List of over 40 joint responsibilities includes criminal law, marriage and divorce, and labour law. The Union List, however, contains nearly 100 subjects, including areas such as external affairs, defence and communications, and is the default repository of any items not specified on the other two lists. Also, if Union and state law are in conflict, the former prevails, while in a time of emergency Parliament may invade the competencies normally vested in the states. Considerable reserve powers, therefore, have accrued to the Centre. Meanwhile, another constitutional advantage for the Centre over the states is the device known as President’s Rule, whereby the national executive has the authority to revoke the powers of the state institutions (except the judiciary) and impose direct rule. Head of State

President: Dr A.P.J ABDUL KALAM (sworn in on 25 July 2002). Vice-President: (vacant—the incumbent, Krishan Kant, died on 27 July 2002, less than one month before the expiry of his term of office; the election of his successor was expected to proceed as previously scheduled on 12 August). PRESIDENTIAL ADMINISTRATION Office of the President: Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi 110 004; tel. (11) 3015321; fax (11) 3017290; internet presidentofindia.nic.in. Office of the Vice-President: 6 Maulana Azad Rd, New Delhi 110011; tel. (11) 3016344; fax (11) 3018124. Council of Ministers

The Government was formed by a coalition of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the Shiv Sena (SS), the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), the Janata Dal—United (JD—U), the Samata Party (SP), the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), the All-India Trinamool Congress, the Pattali Makkal Katchi, the Lok Jan Shakti (LJS) and Independents (Ind.). Prime Minister: ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE (BJP). Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs and of Coal: LAL KRISHNA ADVANI (BJP). Minister of External Affairs: YASHWANT SINHA (BJP). Minister of Finance and Company Affairs: JASWANT SINGH (BJP). Minister of Defence: GEORGE FERNANDES (SP). Minister of Health and Family Welfare: SHATRUGHAN SINHA (BJP). Minister of Tourism and Culture: JAGMOHAN (BJP). Minister of Agriculture: AJIT SINGH (RLD). Minister of Environment and Forests: T.R.BAALU (DMK). Minister of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation: ANANTH KUMAR (BJP). Minister of Labour: SAHIB SINGH VERMA (BJP).

GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION 37

Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises: BALASAHEB VIKHE PATIL (SS). Minister of Human Resource Development, of Ocean Development and of Science and Technology: Dr MURLI MANOHAR JOSHI (BJP). Minister of Disinvestment and of Development of the North-Eastern Region: ARUN SHOURIE (BJP). Minister of Law and Justice: K.JANA KRISHNAMURTHY (BJP). Minister of Power: SURESH PRABHAKAR PRABHU (SS). Minister of Communications and Information Technology and of Parliamentary Affairs: PRAMOD MAHAJAN (BJP). Minister of Commerce and Industry: MURASOLI MARAN (DMK). Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas: RAM NAIK (BJP). Minister of Tribal Affairs: JUEL ORAM (BJP). Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment: Dr SATYA NARAYAN JATIYA (BJP). Minister of Information and Broadcasting: SUSHMA SWARAJ (BJP). Minister of Rural Development: SHANTA KUMAR (BJP). Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers: SUKHDEV SINGH DHINDSA (SAD). Minister of Textiles: KASHIRAM RANA (BJP). Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution: SHARAD YADAV (JD-U). Minister of Civil Aviation: SYED SHAHNAWAZ HUSSAIN (BJP). Minister of Water Resources: ARJUN CHARAN SETHI (BJP). Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports: UMA BHARATI (BJP). Minister of Railways: NITISH KUMAR (SP). Minister of Coal and Mines: RAM VILAS PASWAN (LJS). Minister of Agro and Rural Industries: KARIYA MUNDA (BJP). Minister of Shipping: VED PRAKASH GOYAL (BJP). Ministers of State with Independent Charge

Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways: Maj.-Gen. B.C.KHANDURI (BJP). Minister of State for Non-Conventional Energy Sources: M.KANNAPAN (MDMK). Minister of State for Steel: BRAJ KISHORE TRIPATHY (BJD). Minister of State for Small-scale Industries, of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, and of Atomic Energy and Space: VASUNDARA RAJE (BJP). Minister of State for Food-Processing Industries: N.T.SHANMUGHAM (PMK) There are, in addition, 40 Ministers of State without independent charge. The Prime Minister is in charge of ministries and departments not allotted to others.


MINISTRIES Prime Minister’s Office: South Block, New Delhi 110011; tel. (11) 3013040; fax (11) 3016857; internet www.pmindia.nic.in. Ministry of Agriculture: Krishi Bhavan, Dr Rajendra Prasad Rd, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3382651; fax (11) 3386004. Ministry of Atomic Energy: South Block, New Delhi 110 011; tel. (11) 3011773; fax (11) 3013843. Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers: Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3383695; fax (11) 3386222. Ministry of Civil Aviation: Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, Safdarjung Airport, New Delhi 110 023; tel. (11) 4610358; fax (11) 4610354; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.civilaviation.nic.in. Ministry of Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution: Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3384882; fax (11) 3388302. Ministry of Coal and Mines: Shram Shakti, Rafi Marg, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3384884; fax (11) 3387738; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.coal.nic.in. Ministry of Commerce and Industry: Udyog Bhavan, New Delhi 110 011 ; tel. (11) 3012107; fax (11) 3014335; internet www.commin.nic.in. Ministry of Communications: Sanchar Bhavan, 20 Asoka Rd, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3719898; fax (11) 3782344. Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution: Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi 110 011; internet www.fcamin.nic.in. Ministry of Defence: South Block, New Delhi 110011; tel. (11) 3012380; internet www.mod.nic.in. Ministry of Disinvestment: 132 Yojana Bhavan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3711094; fax (11) 3710492. Ministry of Electronics: Electronics Niketan, 6 CGO Complex, New Delhi 110 003; tel. (11) 4364041; fax (11) 4363134. Ministry of Environment and Forests: Paryavaran Bhavan, CGO Complex Phase II, Lodi Rd, New Delhi 110 003; tel. (11) 4360721; fax (11) 4360678; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.envfor.nic.in. Ministry of External Affairs: South Block, New Delhi 110 011; tel. (11) 3012318; fax (11) 3010700; internet www.meadev.gov.in. Ministry of Finance and Company Affairs: North Block, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3012611; fax (11) 3012477; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.finmin.nic.in. Ministry of Food-Processing Industries: Panchsheel Bhavan, Khelgaon Marg, New Delhi 110 049; tel. (11) 6493225; fax (11) 6493228. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare: Nirman Bhavan, New Delhi 110 011; tel. (11) 3018863; fax (11) 3014252; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.mohfw.nic.in. Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises: Udyog Bhavan, New Delhi 110 011; tel. (11) 3012433; fax (11) 3011770. Ministry of Home Affairs: North Block, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3011989; fax (11) 3015750; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.mha.nic.in.

GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION 39

Ministry of Human Resource Development: Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3386995; fax (11) 3384093. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting: Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3382639; fax (11) 3383513; internet www.mib.nic.in. Ministry of Information Technology: Electronics Niketan, 6, CGO Complex, Lodi Rd, New Delhi 110 003; tel. (11) 4364041; internet www.mit.gov.in. Ministry of Labour: Shram Shakti Bhavan, Rafi Marg, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3710265; fax (11) 3711708; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.labour.nic.in. Ministry of Law and Justice: Shastri Bhavan, Dr Rajendra Prasad Rd, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3384777; fax (11) 3387259; e-mail [email protected]; internet lawmin.nic.in. Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources: Block 14, CGO Complex, New Delhi 110 003; tel. (11) 4361481; fax (11) 4361298; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.mnes.nic.in. Ministry of Ocean Development: Block 12, CGO Complex, Lodi Rd, New Delhi 110 003; tel. (11) 4360874; fax (11) 4360779. Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs: Parliament House, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3017663; fax (11) 3017726; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.mpa.nic.in. Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions: North Block, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3014848; fax (11) 3012432; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.persmin.nic.in. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas: Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3383501; fax (11) 3384787; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.petroleum.nic.in. Ministry of Planning and Programme Implementation: Sardar Patel Bhavan, Patel Chowk, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3732150; fax (11) 3732067. Ministry of Power: Shram Shakti Bhavan, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3710271; fax (11) 3717519; internet www.powermin.nic.in. Ministry of Railways: Rail Bhavan, Raisina Rd, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3384010; fax (11) 3384481; internet www.indianrailway.com. Ministry of Rural Development: Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3384467; fax (11) 3782502; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.rural.nic.in. Ministry of Science and Technology: Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Rd, New Delhi 110016; tel. (11) 6511439; fax (11) 6863847; internet www.mst.nic.in. Ministry of Small-scale Industries and Agro and Rural Industries: Udyog Bhavan, New Delhi, 110 011; tel. (11) 3013045; internet www.ssi.nic.in. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment: Shastri Bhavan, Dr Rajendra Prasad Rd, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3382683; fax (11) 3384918; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.socialjustice.nic.in. Ministry of Steel: Udyog Bhavan, New Delhi 110011; tel. (11) 3015489; fax (11) 3013236; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.nic.in/steel. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways: Parivahan Bhavan, 1 Sansad Marg, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3714938; fax (11) 3714324; internet www.nic.in/most.


Ministry of Textiles: Udyog Bhavan, New Delhi 110011; tel. (11) 3011769; fax (11) 3013711; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.texmin.nic.in. Ministry of Tourism: Transport Bhavan, Parliament St, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3711792; fax (11) 3710518. Ministry of Tribal Affairs: Rm 212.D, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi; tel. (11) 3381652; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.tribal.nic.in. Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation: Nirman Bhavan, New Delhi 110 011; tel. (11) 3018495; fax (11) 3014459; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.urbanindia.nic.in. Ministry of Water Resources: Shram Shakti Bhavan, Rafi Marg, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3710305; fax (11) 3710253; internet www.wrmin.nic.in. Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports: Shastri Bhavan, Dr Rajendra Prasad Rd, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3382897; fax (11) 3387418; internet www.yas.nic.in. Parliament

The Parliament of the Union is a bicameral national legislature. Its upper chamber, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States), comprises 245 members, of whom 11 are appointed by the President of India and most of the rest indirectly elected by the respective state’s legislative assembly. The National Capital Territory of Delhi also sends three indirectly elected members to the Rajya Sabha and the Union Territory of Pondicherry one. Each member is appointed for a six-year term, with one-third of the house membership becoming available for re-election every two years. The lower chamber of Parliament, the Lok Sabha (Council of the People), currently consists of 545 members, two of whom are nominated by the President to represent the Anglo-Indian community. The rest are elected by adult franchise, including one from each of the Union Territories and seven from the National Capital Territory. The maximum term of the Lok Sabha is five years (i.e. subject to dissolution). The last general election was in September-October 1999). Chairman of the Rajya Sabha: (vacant—see Vice-President of India, above). Speaker of the Lok Sabha: MANOHAR JOSHI; 17 Parliament House, New Delhi; tel. (11) 3017795; fax (11) 3792927; e-mail [email protected]; internet speakerloksabha.nic.in.

PART TWO Territorial Surveys


TERRITORIAL SURVEYS 43


Notes The maps used in this book are not officially approved by the Survey of India.

STATES

Andhra Pradesh

The State of Andhra Pradesh lies in southern India, on the eastern shores of the peninsula, and occupies much of the central plateau region known as the Deccan. To the south lies the state of Tamil Nadu, to the west, Karnataka, and to the north-west and north, Maharashtra. In the north-east there is a short border with the new state of Chhattisgarh (part of Madhya Pradesh state until 2000) and a longer border with Orissa, where Andhra Pradesh stretches an arm north-eastwards along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. In the Godavari delta Andhra Pradesh surrounds an enclave of the Union Territory of Pondicherry (Puduchcheri), the small port of Yanam. The state, the ‘land of the Andhras’, was formed on 1 November 1956, by uniting Andhra (the northern, Teluguspeaking part of the old Madras Presidency—territories which themselves can be divided into Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema) and the bulk of the former princely state of Hyderabad (the Dominions of the Nizam, which had only entered the Indian Union in 1948—this area is known as Telangana). It is the fourth-largest state in India, with an area of some 275,069 sq km (106,245 sq miles).

STATES (ANDHRA PRADESH) 47

The Eastern Ghats form a series of hill ranges inland from the coast, and the highest point is the peak of Mahendragiri (1,501 m—4,116 ft), on the border with Orissa. The western and north-western parts of the state rise into the central Indian plateau of the Deccan. Much of the state, therefore, is dry and rocky, although woodland and forest cover over one-fifth of the land area. The coastal plains are fertile, particularly in the deltas, watered by Andhra Pradesh’s major rivers, the Godavari (which flows from the northern borderlands) and the Krishna (which bisects the state), both of which debouch in the north-central part of the 974-km (605-mile) coastline. The third major river basin is that of the Penner, in the south. The climate varies with altitude, but is generally hot and humid. The average annual rainfall is 925 mm (36 inches), most of it falling between June and October and on the coast. Andhra Pradesh is the fifth-most populous state of the Union, with 75,727,541, according to the provisional results of the census of 1 March 2001. This compared to 66, 508,008 in 1991, when it was the fourth-most populous state, but the decade saw the population growth rate fall significantly below the national average. In 2001, therefore, Andhra Pradesh had a population density of 275.3 per sq km. The state was formed as a linguistic unit and over 85% of the population of Andhra Pradesh speak Telugu, the most widely spoken Dravidian tongue, which became the official language in 1966. A vestige of Muslim rule can be seen in the 7% of the population who speak Urdu, particularly in Hyderabad, the state capital. There are also speakers of Tamil in the south and of Kanarese or Kannada in the west. Most of the population are Hindu, but the Muslim community remains numerous and other faiths are represented. Historically, the area was an important Buddhist centre. According to the 2001 census, 27.08% of the residents of Andhra Pradesh were defined as urban. The largest city, as well as the seat of state government, is Hyderabad, the seventh-largest city in India—the city proper of Hyderabad had a population of 3,449, 878 in 2001, according to provisional census results. Other important cities are the northern port of Visakhapatnam (Vizag, 969,608), Vijayawada (Vijayavada, 825,436), on the Krishna delta, and Warangal (528,570), to the north-east of Hyderabad. The main city of the south is Tirupati. The state is divided into 23 administrative districts. History Vedic tradition has the original Andhras as an Aryan people who migrated into peninsular India and mixed with the local Dravidian population. Certainly a proto-Dravidian culture had appeared throughout southern India by the middle of the first millennium BC and a distinct ‘Andhra’ language, Telugu, emerged thereafter. The first recorded mention of the Andhras dates from the end of the reign of Ashoka (third century BC), when much of the territory of the modern state seems to have fallen under Mauryan sway. The original centre for the Andhra kings was probably on the Krishna delta, but their conquests were into the northern Deccan, and the early capital was in modern Maharashtra, at Prathinistapura (Paithan). The first Andhra power was the realm of the Satavahanas, a dynasty that was based in the north-western Deccan, in Maharashtra and southern Madhya Pradesh, from the beginning of the Christian era. Over four centuries of stability allowed the development


of flourishing trade relations with South-East Asia, China and even Japan and the Roman Empire. It also witnessed the emergence of the Mahayana form of Buddhism. For much of this period rule of the Telugu-speaking peoples was divided between a number of polities, and this was to be a consistent feature of the political geography of the area, with the fates of the north, the south and the coast of modern Andhra Pradesh diverging. Thus, there were a number of other dynasties contemporaneous with the Satavahanas worth noting. The Ikshvakus, from around AD 300, were prominent in the south and their capital was known as Vijayapuri, near modern Nagarjunakonda, famed as a centre of Buddhist learning. The Salankayanas were based at Vinukonda, in the Guntur district, and two Andhra kingdoms north of the Godavari were subdued by Samudra Gupta in the fourth century. In the second half of the first millennium AD most of modern Andhra Pradesh fell under the Chalukyas, a Karnatakan dynasty. An offshoot of this dynasty, known as the Eastern Chalukyas, ruled Vengi from their capital at Rajamahendrapuri (now Rajahmundry, near the coast between the Godavari and Krishna rivers) until they succumbed to dependence on the Rastrakutas in the eighth century. This last dynasty had itself seceded from the main Chalukya realm, which was weakened by its struggles with Pallavas, who originated in the Tamil lands and frequently held sway over the southern Telugu lands. However, by the end of the millennium Vengi had become a dependency of the Cholas, who had displaced the Pallavas as the main power in southern India, and were, briefly, to challenge the normal play of power in the subcontinent by intervening in the north. Meanwhile, in the Andhran Deccan, in around 1000 a Telugu dynasty, the Kakatiyas of Warangal, established a realm known as Telangana. In 1326 they finally succumbed to the Hindu south’s new enemy, Muslim invaders from the northern sultanate. The 14th century was a crucial period for the modem history of Andhra Pradesh. The advent of Muslim influence was confirmed by the foundation of the Bahamani kingdom by Hassan Gangu in 1347, to the north and west of the Telugu heartlands. The governors of the Delhi sultanate on the coast had been driven from other Andhra lands by an alliance of nayaks or military potentates, who founded independent realms in the east in 1325, under the Reddys of Kondaivu (to 1425) and the Velamas of Nalgonda (to 1474). Later another nayak territory, under the Reddys of Rajahmundry, was established in 1403, but only lasted to 1448. Most importantly, however, in 1336 two Hindu brothers founded a city near modern Hampi in Karnataka—Vijayanagar. This became a prosperous and vibrant empire, which led southern resistance to the Muslim advance, and was a power in the region for over two centuries, under four successive dynasties, the Sangama, the Saluva, the Tuluva and the Aravidu. They were great patrons of Telugu language and literature, and built many temples and works of civic engineering. The empire reached its apogee under the Tuluva monarch, Krishna Deva Raya (1509–30), who was also known as Andhra Bhoja. The empire was defeated and the capital abandoned in January 1565, after the battle of Tallikota, in which the combined forces of the successor states of the Bahamanis secured political hegemony for Islam. The Sultanate of Golconda was the main Muslim principality to emerge in the Andhra lands of the Bahamani kingdom, which disintegrated at the end of the 15th century. The sultanate, one of five Bahamani successors, was founded in 1518 by a Turkic officer, Quli


Qutub Shah, and maintained its independence until 1686, when the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, annexed it. Golconda was famed for its diamond mines and held the fertile territory between the Krishna and Godavari rivers, as well as the north-west and territory clear down to the Bay of Bengal. Although Golconda had joined the confederacy against Vijayanagar, the sultanate was generally tolerant and many Hindus were employed in the administration. Also, in 1591 Mohammed Quli Qutub Shah had founded a new city, Bhagyanagar, which was to become the capital of Muslim rule in the region—modern Hyderabad. Effective Mughal power in southern India did not long persist following the death of Aurangzeb. In 1724 the Subedar of the Deccan, Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah, declared his independence. His capital was in Hyderabad. His successors, known as the Nizams, established their Dominions in the Deccan and the Andhra lands. However, meanwhile, European traders had begun to establish posts in India, mainly the Portuguese in the 16th century, but then followed by the Dutch, the French and English (the English Crown granted a charter to the East India Company in 1600—this was to become the British instrument for the acquisition of an empire in the subcontinent). By the time an independent Hyderabad was established, the European powers were increasingly becoming involved in local Indian politics, as well as their own domestic rivalries. Thus, French help in a succession struggle in the early 1750s meant that a grateful Nizam granted them the Northern Circars, the coastal districts from the Krishna delta north-eastwards into modern Orissa. However, the French lost this territory to the British in 1766. Further British gains in the region during the rest of the century were at the expense of Mysore (which, under Haider Ali from 1761, had acquired a considerable amount of territory in Rayalseema from the Marathas) and with the help of the Nizam. Although Hyderabad added to its own extent, many of these gains were sacrificed in return for a favourable financial settlement with the British. On 12 October 1800 the Nizam entered into subsidiary alliance with the British, but avoided the usual arrangement of having to pay for the presence of British troops (gaining imperial protection and saving considerable wealth for 150 years) by the concession of territory. Thus, over less than four decades the British had acquired the coastal and southern Andhra lands, and these Ceded Districts formed part of the Madras Presidency. There were several revolts by local landed magnates, the zamindars, in the early years of the 19th century, but even in 1846 there was a significant rebellion led by Koilkuntla Narasimha Reddy. During the so-called Indian Mutiny or Great Revolt of 1857 southern India was relatively quiet, however, although there was some trouble in the Ceded Districts and in Hyderabad. With the dissolution of the East India Company and the assumption of direct sovereignty of British possessions in the subcontinent by the Crown in 1858, the formal establishment of an empire helped provoke a climate ready to ripen into a political awakening in the Andhra region. The social reform movement and the rise of Telugu journalism prepared for the fillip given to the independence movement by the foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885. It was the rise of the Vandemataram and Swadeshi movements that really stimulated political awareness in the Andhra lands of the Madras Presidency, with students particularly impressed by the 1907 tour of Bipin Chandra Pal. From 1913 an annual Andhra Mahasabha Conference pressed for the creation of a separate Andhra state and, in 1918, an Andhra Congress Circle was formed.


Despite some British concessions to reform after the First World War, popular sentiments remained dissatisfied and the non-co-operation movement continued to gain support. Notable figures in the national-independence struggle from the Andhra region were Duggirala Gopalakrishnayya, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Tanguturi Prakasam (who was later a state premier). The civil disobedience movement led by the Mahatma Gandhi enjoyed rising support in the Andhra territories, but, upon the achievement of Indian independence in 1947, local demands for an Andhra state were not met. In the Dominions of the Nizam, meanwhile, Andhran consciousness only really began with the foundation of the Andhra Jana Sangh in 1921, which encouraged the formation of Telugu-language schools, publications and libraries. In 1931 the Andhra Jana Sangh became the Andhra Mahasabha, led by Suruvaram Prathapa Reddy, but real expression of Andhran aspirations in Telangana, the Telugu-speaking districts of Hyderabad, only became effective with the creation of the Hyderabad State Congress in 1938 (inspired by Swamy Ramananda Tirtha). In the same year students at Osmania University agitated against the ban on the Vandemataram in the nizamate, although the Muslim authorities therefore became increasingly suspicious of the Andhran movement. Moreover, the authorities of the principality were automatically opposed to the leftist orientation of the Andhra Mahasabha from 1941. Indeed, in 1946, under its leader, Ravi Narayana Reddy, it launched anti-feudal armed struggle usually known as the Telangana Movement, which, in turn, provoked activity by the ‘Razakars’, the paramilitary wing of the Ittehad-ulMuslimeen Party. It was against this disturbed background that the surrounding territories of British India became independent in 1947. International pressure meant that the Nizam had been given time to consider the future of his Dominions, a decision which was complicated by the distance of Hyderabad from other Muslim territories and the fact that the majority of his subjects were Hindu. The national Government of India resolved the dilemma forcibly in the following year and sent troops into Hyderabad. The Nizam’s forces surrendered on 17 September 1948 and Gen. J.N.Chaudhary, in command of the ‘police action’ in the former principality, became the military governor for the new state of the Union. An eminent Telugu leader, Burgula Ramakrishna Rao, became the Chief Minister of Hyderabad state after elections in 1952. The movement for language-based states was still gathering momentum, however. Potti Sreeramulu, an Andhran living in Madras, had died while fasting (‘hunger strike’) in support of a distinct state for Telugu-speakers. Finally, the central authorities conceded the separation of what was essentially the old Ceded Territories and Northern Circars from the Madras Presidency—Andhra state came into existence on 1 October 1953, with its capital at Kurnool and Prakasam as Chief Minister. Soon after, however, a commission investigating the reorganization of the states of the Union recommended the three-way division of Hyderabad on the basis of language. Thus, Telangana, the Telugu-speaking districts of the old nizamate, was added to a greater Andhra (Visalandhra) and the State of Andhra Pradesh came into existence on 1 November 1956, with N.Sanjeeva Reddy of the Congress Party as Chief Minister. The old political class of the original Andhra dominated the new state, although its capital was Hyderabad, and the integration of the two main Telugu-speaking regions into one entity was not effortless. There were two serious political agitations. The first was in 1969, when it was felt in Telangana that the Andhran leaders had betrayed the


understanding that had formed the state. This separatist movement was led by Dr Marri Chenna Reddy of the Praja Samithi. The Jai Andhra movement, provoked by the issue of Mulki rules, was the second serious disturbance, in 1972. However, many political forces were committed to the unity of the new state and the Communist Party of India organized rallies against separatism in both Andhra and Telangana. More importantly, the election of Chenna Reddy as the state Congress leader and his becoming Chief Minister in 1978 calmed the political debate. Indeed, later developments revealed the strength of Telugulanguage identity, as opposed to regional loyalties—in 1983 a new party, Telugu Desam, founded by N.T.Rama Rao less than one year previously, ended Congress rule in Andhra Pradesh. A change in the leadership of the Telugu Desam in 1995, meant a former Congress minister in the state government, the son-in-law of Rama Rao and General-Secretary of the Telugu Desam since 1985, N.Chandrababu Naidu, became Chief Minister. His faction of Telugu Desam received an overwhelming popular mandate in the state elections of 5 October 1999, winning almost two-thirds of the seats in the state legislature. The Naidu administration has reformist credentials and is widely credited with encouraging bureaucratic, economic and fiscal modernization. The Chief Minister is personally connected with the state Government’s encouragement of the new-technology sector, particularly focused in Hyderabad. However, even for an efficient and reformist administration, poverty remains a considerable challenge, particularly in the countryside, and this contributes to the continuation of some extremist violence, mainly in the northeast, by the Naxalite movement (which attacked an Andhra Pradesh plant of the US CocaCola drinks company in October 2001) and the People’s War Group. In national politics the ruling Telugu Desam of Andhra Pradesh are coalition partners of the Government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), although, as a secular party, Telugu Desam was noticeable in maintaining some detachment from some of the policies and statements of the national Government. In the formal, electoral National Democratic Alliance formed for the 1999 general election, the Telugu Desam had been the secondlargest party after the BJP, winning 28 Lok Sabha seats (Telugu Desam were also the largest regional party represented in the Rajya Sabha, with 13 seats). Andhra Pradesh sends 42 members in total to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the national parliament, and 18 to the Rajya Sabha. Economy Andhra Pradesh is a relatively prosperous state, with a productive agricultural sector and one of the leading information-technology and software centres of India clustered in and around Hyderabad (earning itself the name of ‘Cyberabad’). Estimates of state income (net domestic product), in current prices, for the 1997/98 financial year amounted to 787, 050m. rupees, of which the primary sector contributed 32.5%, industry 22.3% and services 45.3%. Per-head income was put at 10,590 rupees. Hyderabad and Vishakahpatnam are the principal industrial centres, with the latter being one of India’s main ports. Transport infrastructure is well developed in the state, which has some 5,055 km of railway routes and almost 153,000 km of road (1999 figures—2% of which are national highways, 29% state highways and 69% district roads). The 2001 census recorded


a significant increase in the literacy rate since the previous census (61.1%, compared to 44.1 % in 1991), which could have been the result of the fall in the population’s rate of growth, enabling investment in education to have some effect. Agriculture remained the principal economic activity of almost 70% of the population into the beginning of the 21st century. Government plans to reduce this proportion to 40% by 2020, by encouraging large-scale farming and the use of genetically modified crops, were the cause of some controversy in 2000–01. The activity was supported by good rainfall on the fertile coast and extensive irrigation further inland, as well as good educational and research facilities. Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh remained India’s principal producer of rice, which usually accounted for about one-half of the state’s total foodgrain production (13.7m. metric tons in 1999/2000 and an estimated 15.0m. tons in the following year). Other important cash crops included sugar cane (18.5m. metric tons in 1999/2000), ground nuts (1.1m. metric tons), cotton (157,900 bales), tobacco (193,000 metric tons) and chillies (496,000 metric tons—the presence of this crop has famously encouraged its use in Andhran cooking). Except for the last two, production of all these crops was estimated to have risen in 2000/01. In 1997/98 23.2% of Andhra Pradesh was covered in forest and woodland. The other primary-sector activity of economic significance was mining. The state possesses the largest deposits of chrysolite asbestos in India and accounts for 93% of barytes production in the country. The Government reckons Andhra Pradesh to be the second-most mineral-rich state in India, and is encouraging exploration and exploitation. Forty-two industrial minerals are currently mined, including barytes, copper ore, manganese, mica, coal, bauxite, limestone, quartz and beach sands. Major industrial sectors in Andhra Pradesh include machine tools, synthetic drugs and pharmaceuticals, heavy electrical machinery, shipbuilding, fertilizers and chemicals, electronic equipment, construction materials, glass and watches. Manufacturing is encouraged by the availability of power (the third-largest installed capacity in the country) and good transport connections to the rest of India and to the outside world. Government incentives and the rise of high-technology industries, particularly in Hyderabad, fuelled the sector from the 1990s. In 2000 it was estimated that between one-fifth and onequarter of India’s software professionals were from Andhra Pradesh. In 1999 there were 2,539 large and medium-sized industries in the state, providing employment for 0.74m. people and 132,504 small enterprises employing 1.16m. people. The services sector has also benefited from Hyderabad’s leading position in the information-technology sector, but, traditionally, the leading activity is tourism. The state has a rich and varied cultural legacy, as well as a diverse landscape. Hyderabad and nearby Golconda are rich in tourist sites, while other ancient capitals such as Warangal and Rajahamundry also attract visitors. Andhra Pradesh is rich in temples, which attract pilgrims as well as tourists, notably Ramappa, Vemulavada, Bhadrachalam, Amaravati, Srisailam, Tirupati and Tirumala, and Simhachalam. Directory Governor: Dr CHAKRAVARTY RANGARAJAN; Office of the Governor, Raj Bhavan Rd, Hyderabad; tel. (040) 3310521; fax (040) 3311260; e-mail [email protected].


Chief Minister: N.CHANDRABABU NAIDU (Telugu Desam); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Andhra Pradesh, C-Block, 4th Floor, AP Secretariat, Hyderabad; tel (040) 3455205; fax (040) 3451805 (Public Relations); e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: K.PRATIBHA BHARATI; Vidhan Sabha, c/ o Secretary to Government (Legislature Department), Hyderabad; tel. (040) 3232072; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 294 mems): Telugu Desam 179; Congress—I 91; Bharatiya Janata Party 12; Communist—CPI—M 2; independents and others 10. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: R.BHATTACHARYA; Andhra Pradesh Bhavan, 1 Ashoka Rd, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3387089; fax (11) 3388175.

Arunachal Pradesh

The State of Arunachal Pradesh is the easternmost part of India—hence its name, the ‘land of the rising sun’. A mountainous territory, only properly brought under formal administration since independence, its former name was also descriptive—the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA). It, thus, has international borders with Bhutan in the west, the People’s Republic of China in the north (the Autonomous Region of Tibet or Xizang) and Myanmar (formerly Burma) in the east and south-east. The bulk of the state’s territory lies to the north of Assam, of which it formed a part until 1972, but it curves around the upper, western arm of that state, which stretches up the valley of the Brahmaputra, to include some territory extending south of Assam and ending in a short western border with Nagaland. The NEFA became a Union Territory in 1972 and was renamed Arunachal Pradesh, becoming the 24th state of the Union on 20 February 1987. It has an area of 83,743 sq km (32,346 sq miles), making it the largest state in the north-eastern region of India, but it is the least densely populated in the country (see below). Lying on the south-eastern flank of the Himalayas, most of Arunachal Pradesh is mountainous, consisting of high ridges, variously aligned, separating deep valleys. It rises to the north, culminating in the crests of the Great Himalaya (this so-called ‘McMahon Line’, originally proposed in the 1910s, is recognized by the Indian Government as the

STATES (ARUNACHAL PRADESH) 55

northern international border, but has long been disputed by China). The highest point is the peak of Kangto (7,102 m—23,301 feet), in the west of that Chinese border. The state’s main rivers are the Brahmaputra, known as the Siang in Arunachal Pradesh (or the Tsangpo higher up its course, in Tibet), and its tributaries, such as the Tirap, the Lohit (Zayü Qu), the Subansiri, the Kameng and the Bhareli. Although the heights are barren and snow-bound, there is extensive forest cover and the valleys are fertile. The climate of the foothills is subtropical, but temperatures fall rapidly with rising altitude, and this contributes to a great variety in types of fauna. Rainfall, although year-round, is varied: valleys opening out to the Assam plain can receive 4,000 mm (157 inches) per year; but more sheltered valleys might only receive 2,000 mm. According to the census of March 2001, the total population of Arunachal Pradesh was 1,091,117 (provisional figure), compared to 864,558 in the 1991 census. The population density in 2001, therefore, was 13.0 per sq km, the lowest of any state or territory in India. Most of the population of Arunachal Pradesh are tribal peoples, related to the Tibetans and the peoples of Myanmar. There are 82 tribes and sub-tribes, of which the main ones in the west are the Nissi (Nishi or Dafla), the Sulung, the Sherdukpen, the Aka, the Monpa, the Apa Tani and the Hill Miri. The largest tribal group is that of the Adi, who occupy the central part of Arunachal Pradesh, while the Mishmi dominate the northeastern hill country and the Wancho, the Nocte and the Tangsa are centred in the southeast of the state, around the district of Tirap (which neighbours Nagaland). Between them, the tribal peoples speak over 50 distinct languages and dialects (mostly of the Tibeto-Burmese branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family), making English (the official language of the state), Hindi, Bengali and Assamese the main means of intercommunication. Although influenced by Buddhism, most of the tribal peoples are animists, venerating natural and elemental deities or spirits and often practising ritual animal sacrifices (notably of the mithun, a semi-domesticated gaur or wild ox). Near the Chinese border some adhere to Tibetan Buddhism, while in the south-east Hinayana Buddhism, as practised in much of South-East Asia, is more common (in 1991 some 13% of the state population avowed Buddhism). Hindu beliefs have been adopted by about the same proportion as practise traditional beliefs (37%, according to the 1991 census), especially near the Assam lowlands, while Christianity (10%) is a more recent arrival. Most of the population are rural and towns of any size are few (only 12.8% of the population were described by the 1991 census as urban). The state capital is Itanagar (Yupia), in the west, near the southern border with Assam. Some of the administrative offices and the legislature are based in Naharlagun, some 10 km (6 miles) from the capital. The main town in the east is Tezu. The state is divided into 13 districts. History The earliest Sanskrit writings make mention of the area now known as Arunachal Pradesh, but otherwise its early history and the origins of the various native tribes exist only as oral tradition and myth. The extent and nature of a number of archaeological remains, most dating from around the beginning of the Christian era, indicate that Arunachal Pradesh was not completely isolated and the inhabitants had close relations with the rest of the subcontinent and other neighbouring peoples. The society was politically and culturally


developed, but much of the terrain is inhospitable and, while the larger powers in India, Burma (Myanmar) and China have long disputed the region, none had seriously considered enforcing these claims. Historical references and archaeological investigations have pieced together isolated fragments about the region—thus, the ruins near the modern capital of Itanagar have been identified with Mayapur, the seat of the 11thcentury Jiti dynasty. Reliable records about the area appear only from the 16th century, when the Ahom kings of Assam annexed part of the territory. They exercised a tentative sovereignty until dissension among the royalty of the kingdom made them vulnerable to Burmese occupations by the beginning of the 19th century. The British then intervened, however, and by the Treaty of Yandaboo of February 1826 Assam (at least nominally including Arunachal Pradesh) was ceded to the British in India. The British, now administering India as a direct possession of the Crown, did not try to bring this north-eastern fringe of their empire properly under their authority until the 1880s, although free movement in the region had been stopped (it remains a restricted area). The first attempts to establish a firm claim to the northern part of the territory, essentially the southern flanks of the Great Himalaya, led to a border dispute with the Chinese Empire. This was exacerbated when the authorities in British India included the disputed area in the North-Eastern Frontier Tract (NEFT—the area of modern Arunachal Pradesh), which they made into an administrative district of the province of Assam. Although later that same year Tibet declared its independence, in 1913 the Chinese rejected the proposed ‘McMahon Line’ (settling the boundary along the crests of the Great Himalayas). Nevertheless, it became the de facto international frontier, even when the Chinese restated their claims to much of the northern NEFT after Indian independence in 1947—the claim only became a dangerous issue when Chinese rule was re-established in Tibet during the 1950s (China also had disputes over other parts of the Indian border, notably in Kashmir). Meanwhile, in 1954 the NEFT became the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA), still constitutionally part of Assam state, but, because of its strategic significance, administered by the national Ministry of External Affairs. In 1957 the Tuensang Frontier Division was separated from the NEFA and joined in administrative union with the Naga Hills District of Assam (together they now form Nagaland). On 26 August 1959 troops of the People’s Republic of China crossed the McMahon Line and captured a nearby Indian outpost at Longju, which remained occupied until 1961. In October 1962 the Chinese military again crossed the line, but this time in force. Their first move was into the west of the NEFA, near the border with Bhutan, with a strike towards the Tanghla ridge and Tawang, but they widened the conflict along the length of the northern border. The dispute demonstrated the weakness of the Indian army. Only in 1963 did China agree to withdraw its forces to the environs of the McMahon Line and to return Indian prisoners of war, but the six border crossings remained closed. The Indian Government was prompted to reinforce its symbolic claims to the NEFA and, in 1965, transferred responsibility for its administration to the Ministry of Home Affairs, through the Governor of Assam. In 1972 the NEFA was separated from Assam and became a Union Territory under the name Arunachal Pradesh. Finally, in 1981 relations between India and the People’s Republic of China improved sufficiently for them to agree to find an early solution to their border disputes. However, the accession of Arunachal Pradesh to full statehood in the Indian Union in 1987 provoked formal Chinese

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protests, and both sides accused the other of troop movements along the border. Joint working groups on border disputes and on trade were established in 1989, and in 1991 progress was made in improving relations, with the official visit to India by the Chinese premier and agreement on reopening some border posts. Military liaison also improved the situation in the region. The following year, in July, bilateral border trade resumed and Sino-Indian contacts increased thereafter. By 1995 tensions had eased sufficiently for the state to be opened to tourists—however, foreigners are still only able to travel there with a Restricted Areas Permit from the federal Ministry of Home Affairs. Congress (I) remained the dominant party in the state legislature following the elections held in October 1999, controlling 53 of the 60 seats (compared to 43 in the previous assembly). Arunachal Pradesh sends one member to the upper house of the national parliament and two members to the Lok Sabha or lower house. Economy Arunachal Pradesh is not a prosperous state, although its natural resources give it some potential, and central government traditionally provides a significant subsidy. In 1999/ 2000 the net domestic product was put at 15,330m. rupees, giving a per-head income of 14,338 rupees, at current prices. Industry is sufficiently small-scale to deny any settlement to a claim to be an industrial centre, but there is a concentration of activity around Itanagar and industrial training institutes in Roing and Daporijo. The lack of developed infrastructure limits the economic efficiency of the state, which could claim only 330 km of national highway in 1999. There are no railways. Although Arunachal Pradesh has an installed electricity capacity of only 26 MW (1999), this is a 260% increase on 1981 and there is a vast potential for the further development of hydroelectric power sources—meanwhile, 70% of the 3,649 villages in the state have been electrified. The census of 2001 recorded an increase in the literacy rate over the 10 years since the previous such survey, from 41.6% to 54.7%. Most of the population are engaged in agriculture, often on a subsistence basis, but increasingly commercially. Many depended on jhum (shifting, ‘slash-and-burn’ cultivation) agriculture, in which trees and undergrowth are burned and cleared for planting for a few seasons, before the farmer moves to a new area. However, this has accounted for much of the deforestation in the state and other methods are becoming more prevalent. The authorities have taken steps to diversify agriculture and to introduce some cash crops, such as potatoes, tea and fruits. Thus, by 1997/98 fruit production had increased to 89,528 metric tons, having almost doubled in about 20 years. Likewise, foodgrain production had increased from 131,026 metric tons in 1980 to 203,287 tons in 1997/98. Rice is the principal crop. The state also has considerable forest resources. The primary economic activity with the most lucrative future for the state, however, is extractive. The Arunachal Pradesh Mineral Development and Trading Corporation Limited was established in 1991 to develop mineral reserves, notably in the south-east, at the Namchik-Namphuk coal mine (which has estimated reserves of almost 90m. metric tons). The state is also reckoned to have petroleum resources of some 1.5m. metric tons and significant reserves of natural gas in addition to deposits including dolomite, limestone, graphite, marble, mica, iron, copper, lead and zinc. In effect, the water


resources combined with the mountainous landscape provide a potential reserve of hydroelectric power, although this very terrain and its lack of development make transport from Arunachal Pradesh difficult. The rise of the mining sector and more commercial farming has encouraged the development of industry. By the end of the 1990s there were 18 medium-sized industries and 3,368 small industrial enterprises registered in Arunachal Pradesh, apart from a cement plant, a fruit-processing plant and citronella-oil distillery. Activities include agroprocessing such as timber, rice and oil milling, manufacturing soap and candles, sericulture and handicrafts (there were 88 craft and weaving training centres in the state). The main contribution of the tertiary sector to the state, apart from government expenditure, is from tourism. It is not highly developed, as the state has only been open to tourists since 1995, but the scenery, flora and fauna, and historical, cultural and religious sites provide many attractions. Walking or trekking holidays are popular in places such as Arunachal Pradesh, but the first foreigners were permitted to do this in the state only in 1998. The main places to visit are Along, Bomdila, Itanagar, Malinithan (an archaeological site), the Namdapha Wildlife Sanctuary (home to the rare Hoolock gibbon and unique in being home to four particular members of the cat family—tiger, leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard), Parashuram Kund (a lake near Tezu famous as a place of pilgrimage), Pasighat and Tawang (near which is the largest Buddhist monastery in India, the second-oldest in the world—after Llasa in Tibet—and the only Buddhist Lady Lamasery or nunnery in Asia). Directory Governor: ARVIND DAVE; Governor’s Residence, Itanagar; tel. (360) 212394; fax (360) 212508. Chief Minister: MUKUT MITHI (Congress—I); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Arunachal Pradesh, Itanagar; tel. (360) 212456. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: CHOWNA MEIN; Assembly House, Lower Subansiri District, Naharlagun 791110; tel. (360) 244381; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 60 mems: Congress (I) 53; Nationalist Congress Party 4; Arunachal Congress 1; independents 2. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: T.BAGRA; Arunachal Bhavan, Kautilya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021; tel. (11) 3013844; fax (11) 3013786.

Assam

The State of Assam is in the lowlands of north-eastern India, most of which region once formed part of the state (as it had of the pre-independence province and the old realm of the Ahom kings—who probably gave their name to the area, although it is also claimed that Assam derives its name from asom, the Sanskrit for ‘peerless’ or for ‘undulating’). The state stretches nearly 800 km (500 miles) up the valley of the great Brahmaputra river, from the west to the north-east, with, midway, the Barak valley giving it a southern extension. This gives Assam international borders only in the west, with Bhutan to the north and Bangladesh to the south-west. The state touches Bangladesh in two places, in the south, with that country’s north-eastern border, and in the west, with its northern border, where the Brahmaputra leaves the state and begins to turn south towards the sea. Between lies another Indian state, Meghalaya, on the Shillong plateau, which rears to the south of the Brahmaputra and to the west of the Cachar hill country. The rest of Assam’s western border is an inter-state one with West Bengal, giving the north-eastern region access to the narrow corridor of national territory connecting it to the rest of India. The remaining north-eastern states also border Assam, with Tripura to the south-west and then, separating the state from China and Myanmar (Burma), Arunachal Pradesh (mainly


to the north, but wrapping itself around the end of Assam’s north-eastern arm), Nagaland (to the south-east), Manipur (east of Assam’s southern arm) and Mizoram (to the south). These states, together with Assam itself and Meghalaya, are sometimes referred to as the ‘Seven Sisters’ of the north-east. The formation of these ‘sisters’ meant that the territory of Assam was steadily truncated during the 20th century—from 1972, however, its area remained constant at 78,438 sq km (30,297 sq miles). The fertile alluvial plain, seldom more than 80 km wide, of the River Brahmaputra (known upstream, in Arunachal Pradesh, as the Siang) dominates the geography of Assam. This flat landscape (with a slope of only 12 cm per kilometre—less than three inches per mile) is alleviated by numerous low, isolated hills and ridges dotted over the plain from which they can rise so abruptly. Southwards, up the course of the Kapili and over the saddle of the hills, the state extends an arm to include the Cachar plain, where the Barak flows out of the highlands of Manipur, through some swampy country, to form its own broad, fertile valley, from which the river then flows into Bangladesh. The dividing hill country, much of it to the east of the Kapili, constitutes the third geographical area of the state, averaging between 1,000 m (3,280 feet) and 1,200 m above sea level, and much dissected by tributaries of the two main rivers, such as the Jamuna and the Kapili. Mountains surround Assam, except to the west, but now lie outside the territory of the state: the Himalayas to the north, curving around the eastern end of the Brahmaputra valley and thrusting ranges southwards through the states of Nagaland and Manipur, and on to the Rongklang in Myanmar; the Shillong plateau (Meghalaya) in the south-east causes some rain shadow for the central Brahmaputra valley, but generally Assam lies in one of the wettest monsoon belts in the world. The valleys, though fertile, are, therefore, prone to flooding, often destructive flooding (another natural hazard of the area is earthquakes). The wettest period lies during the monsoon, in the summer months between June and September. Although the central Brahmaputra valley receives over 1,600 mm (63 inches) of rainfall per year, further east the average is more like 3,200 mm. Thus, the vegetation is lush, with the extensive forestland characterized by dense stands of bamboo in the lowlands and evergreens in the hills. The difference in flora is accounted for by the climate at different elevations, it being tropical in the valleys and sub-alpine in the hills. Temperatures in the valleys range from 6°–38°C (43°–100°F), averaging 29°C (84°F) in the hottest month of August and 16°C (61°F) in the coolest month, January. The total population of Assam, according to the provisional results of the March 2001 census, was 26,638,407, giving a population density of 339.6 per sq km. Growth over the 10 years since the previous census (when the population was 22,414,322) was lower than the national average. The ethnic origins of the peoples of Assam is varied, with the original Australoid stock being submerged by successive waves of migration by Caucasoids from the west and Mongoloids out of the mountainous north or from South-East Asia. Now the ethnic division is mainly between the tribal populations, who mainly live in the hills, and the non-tribal plains people of Assam. The Bodo of the northern Brahmaputra are the largest minority group, while the remaining hill tribes of Assam include the Mikir of the Mikir Hills and North Cachar (Kachari) Hills’ Dimasa-Kachari, as well as some Kuki and Naga peoples. However, as in India generally, language and religion are more potent symbols of difference than ethnicity. The official and main language of the state is Assamese (which has a distinct literary history dating from the 14th century), which is

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closely related to Bengali, the second-most widely spoken. Most of the population are Hindus (67.1%, according to the 1991 census), but there is significant Muslim adherence (28.4%), reinforced by immigration from Bangladesh. The majority of Hindus follow the pacific Vaishnava tradition, which focuses on the deity, Vishnu—a major centre is Majuli, on the upper Brahmaputra, which also enjoys the distinction of being the largest river island in the world (although currently reduced to an area of some 700 sq km). Of other religions represented in India, Christianity claims the next largest community, but this accounts for only 3.3% of the total population. The Assamese are largely rural (an urban population of only 11.1% in 1991), but there are towns of some size. The largest is Guwahati (anciently, Pragjyotishpur), on the southern banks of the central Brahmaputra, with 808,796 inhabitants according to the provisional results of the 2001 census. Dispur, effectively a south-eastern suburb of Guwahati, is known as the ‘Capital Area’, and has served as the state capital since 1972. Other major towns are: Bongaigong, nearer the western border; Silchar, in the south, in the centre of the Barak valley; and, at the eastern end of the state, to the north-east of the old Ahom capital of Sibsagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia. The state is divided into 23 districts. History In contrast to the rest of India, Assam was a region in which the pre-Dravidian inhabitants succumbed to invasion from the east before Aryan influence worked its way down the Ganges. However, lower Assam was certainly known to Vedic literature as the land of the Kirats (who warred against the Pandavas in the Mahabharata), with their capital at Pragjyotishpur. This ‘city of astrology’ was located near Guwahati (the Navagrah or ‘nine planets’ temple there still reveals this history). Another town of the region famous in legend was Sonitpur (‘city of blood’), now Tezpur, further up the Brahmaputra. Such associations are probably connected to the region’s strong association with Tantric Hinduism, which was prevalent until the dawn of the modern era. More historical sources —Chinese, and even Greek and Roman, records from the period immediately before the beginning of the Christian era—attest to the existence of an Assam in which the Lords of Pragjyotishpur presided over the great kingdom of Kamrupa (variously rendered as Kamarupa, Kumara-rupa or, as in the modern-day district around Guwahati, Kamrup). The earliest epigraphic reference to the realm dates from reign of Samudra Gupta (AD 330–75), in which it is described as a satellite state of the North Indian empire. Assam again figures in the history of imperial pretensions in northern India in the seventh century. According to the account of a visiting Chinese scholar, Kamrupa’s great king, Kumar Bhaskara Varman, allied with Harsha Vardhana against his traditional enemies in Bengal, the kings of Gauda. Thereafter, although still known as a place of learning and of pilgrimmage, Kamrupa suffered a decline, even briefly succumbing to the sovereignty of one of the ruling houses of ‘Imperial Kanauj’, the Bengali Palas, the last major Buddhist dynasty in India, in the eighth-ninth centuries. The main problem for medieval Kamrupa, the native dynasties of which included the Salastamba, the Brahmapala or Palas (an offshoot of the Bengali dynasty) and, finally, the Bhuyan, was, however, the mutual hostility of the local tribes and dynasties, which left the region divided and weakened.


The lower Brahmaputra valley experienced its first Muslim incursions at the end of the 12th century, when the Koch Bihar (Cooch Behar—now Bangladesh) kingdom of Kamata successfully resisted invasion and, indeed, displaced the last Palas to form a united realm in northern Bengal and lower Assam. However, although the Kamata kings were eventually defeated by the Muslim rulers of Bengal during the 13th century, the region of modern Assam was again not to succumb to the advancing power from the west. Instead, a prince of the Shan people from upper Burma (modern Myanmar), Sukapha, who had led his followers across the north-eastern hills, descended into the upper Brahmaputra valley in 1228. He soon prevailed against the strongest local tribes, the Chutias and the Kacharis (Cachars). The Ahoms founded a new kingdom, soon known as Assam, with its heart further up the Brahmaputra valley than old Kamrupa, in and around Sibsagar. The first capital of the new kingdom was established in 1253 at Charaideo (28 km east of Sibsagar), and 28 Ahom kings were to reign after Sukapha, soon extending their power throughout Assam and the north-eastern region of modern India. Originally Buddhists in the Thai tradition, the Ahom soon adopted Hinduism and the Assamese language of their subjects. Indeed, it is under the Ahoms that the distinct Assamese language, culture and architecture still in evidence today flourished. The Assamese language was also used to record events in a series of buraji or chronicles, a tradition unusual in the rest of India, while a more literary application of the language was encouraged by the spread of a Hindu ‘Reformation’ from the end of the 15th century. The distinct Vaishnava tradition of Assam was introduced by the great Hindu saint, Sankardeva (a descendent of a Bhuyan chieftain), who was born near Guwahati in 1449 (this date marks the start of the Assamese lunar calendar, the Sankarabda). He and his disciple, Madhavdeva (born in 1522), inspired a flourishing of Assamese literature and the establishment of many satras (monasteries), notably on Majuli, largely displacing the older Tantric tradition of Shakti worship. The kingdom of Assam resisted 17 Mughal invasions, the most serious being in the 17th century, which Ahom incursions into northern Bengal provoked Aurungzeb’s governor there, Mir Jumla. He secured Bengal and then occupied much of lower Assam. Sailing up the Brahmaputra, his forces seized and sacked the Ahom capital, Gargaon, and the king, Sutamla (more usually known by his Hindu name, Jayadwaj Singha; reigned in 1648–63), was forced to flee to the hills. However, Mir Jumla’s army was defeated by the monsoon and disease, and the Ahoms had regained control of Assam within four years, although Jayadwaj was forced to concede a tribute to the Mughals. His successor, Suphungmung or Chakradwaj Singha (1663–70), denied the tribute and he appointed Lasit, the son of a barphukan (governor), to lead his armies. This hero of Assam (who died in 1671) defeated the Muslim forces at a famous battle near Saraighat (near Guwahati and the modern bridge of that name over the Brahmaputra). The final Mughal attempt to invade Assam was defeated in 1683. Ahom power then revived, to reach its zenith under Sukhrungpha, Rudra Singha (1695–1714), who overcome the Kachari and Jaintia kings, annexing their realms, and even plotted to invade the Muslim states to the west, but died prematurely. He established the new capital at Rangpur, 5 km from modern Sibsagar. Although an adherent of Tantric Hinduism himself, Rudra Singha ended the persecution of the Vaishnava movement. After Rudra Singha, the power of the kingdom then stagnated and the Ahom royalty themselves earned some unpopularity by reasserting Shakti worship and persecuting

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followers of the popular Vaishnava sect. This provoked powerful religious leaders to lead the bloody and destructive Moamaria rebellion, started in 1769 under Ragha Maran. Even the Ahom palaces around Sibsagar were threatened or damaged and, unable to reassert his authority or contain the famine, Gaurinath Singha (1780–95) appealed to the British in Bengal for assistance. In 1793 British troops re-established royal authority, but civil strife resumed following their departure. Assamese problems were compounded by court intrigue and noble dissension, with a barphukan, Badan Chandra, fatally asking for Burmese help against the king in 1817. The five-year invasion saw Assam crumble before a savage occupation still demonized in local folklore and reputedly killing about one-third of the population. However, the Burmese were now on the borders of British India and their moves into Cachar (Kachari) territory provoked a British response. The British defeated Burma and forced it to cede Assam by the February 1826 Treaty of Yandaboo. The Ahoms clung to power in Jorhat, as feudatory chiefs, but their realm and that of other tribal kingdoms was at the complete disposal of the British, who gradually annexed and variously organized the north-eastern region of modern India over the succeeding decade. The last Ahom prince, Purandar Singha (who had first assumed the throne in 1817, only to be displaced by events), was granted an independence of sorts in upper Assam from 1833–38, but then the dynasty’s time was finally over and Assam was brought into mainstream India by the British. In 1874 an Assam province was separated from the Bengal Presidency, and its capital sited at Shillong (now in Meghalaya). Lord Curzon’s 1905–12 partition of Bengal saw Assam united with a predominantly Muslim East Bengal until 1919, when it again attained provincial status (including the district of Syllhet, which voted to become part of East Pakistan—now Bangladesh—upon independence in 1947). At the same time, however, Assam experienced a considerable influx of Muslim migrants, which increased local resentment of Bengalis, adding to the anti-immigrant feelings first provoked by the workers imported for the tea plantations. This sentiment remained a dominating feature of Assamese politics into the second half of the 20th century, and was compounded by tribal protests that led to the dismemberment of the original Assam state. Thus, in 1957 Nagaland became a separate unit, followed by Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh in January 1972 (less significantly, in 1951 the border town of Dewangiri had been ceded to Bhutan). The sensitivity of Assam for the federal authorities, lying as it does at the heart of the strategic and isolated north-eastern region of India, was increased by political unrest in the state. The carving out of separate states from the original territory of Assam from the 1960s had placated many of the tribal insurgencies, although the ‘rump’ state was left with militant Bodo dissatisfaction. During the latter half of the 1980s the Bodo were appeased by negotiations with the federal Government, and, indeed, in 1993 an agreement provided for the establishment of a local council. However, Bodo militant activity resumed later in the decade, although a cease-fire in 2000 ended most terrorist incidents (the cease-fire was subsequently extended). It was hoped that the creation of a Bodoland Autonomous Council, finally agreed to by all the parties in Assam in 2002, would resolve this remaining tribal problem. Aware of the threat of secessionist sentiment in Assam itself, there was a limit on the extent to which government could go in satisfying tribal opinion (as witnessed by Assamese fears of a ‘greater Nagaland’ in 2000–01, when Naga


groups in Assam and other states were included in cease-fire arrangements and in other negotiations). In fact, a Maoist secessionist organization, the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), which emerged in the 1980s, also used armed attacks on government figures and installations. This, in turn, provoked a military response from the Government. The ULFA was outlawed in 1990, but continued its armed activity against the state, with incidents increasing significantly from 2000. There also remained a fear of violence between the main Assamese population and Bangladeshi immigrants. The influx of Bengali, Muslim workers into Assam had been a source of tension throughout the 20th century, but provoked violence in the 1970s and 1980s. In August 1985 Rajiv Gandhi, reversing the centralist tendencies of his mother, his predecessor as federal Prime Minister, negotiated an accord with the All Assam Students’ Union, providing for a limit on the voting rights of immigrants. This removed some of the tension from the situation in Assam and allowed for state elections that saw the opposition party, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP—Assam People’s Council), which had emerged during the anti-immigrant struggle, to win a term in government. Congress (I) returned to power in 1991, with Haiteswar Saikia as Chief Minister, but was once more ousted by the AGP under Prafulla Mohanta in May 1996. State elections in May 2001 again restored the mandate to Congress (I), which won 71 of the 126 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Tarun Gogoi (Congress—I leader since 1996) subsequently became Assam’s 16th Chief Minister. The AGP gained only 20 seats, but alleged that it and its allies in the Bharatiya Janata Party had been disadvantaged by high levels of prepoll violence. Assam also sends 21 members to the national Parliament (of whom only three were from the AGP by 2001), seven to the upper house and 14 to the lower house. Economy Assam has an agrarian economy, most famous for producing tea, but actually dominated by rice. The state authorities have severe financial problems (the 1999/2000 state budget deficit was some 12,548m. rupees), as well as having to deal with political unrest. In 1992/93 Assam’s net domestic product, at current prices, was put at 117,360m. rupees and income per head at 5,056 rupees. In 1999/2000 real annual growth was put at 8.2%, giving a net domestic product of 250,510m. rupees, in current prices, and 9,612 rupees per head—only Orissa and Bihar had lower per-head figures (the other north-eastern states have lower population densities and receive relatively greater central subsidies). Traditional, cottage industries remain important in the state, but the exploitation of hydrocarbons located the main industrial centres in upper Assam. The terrain permits a well developed infrastructure network, although the famous link over the mountains with Myanmar and China is closed beyond Arunachal Pradesh; the first stretch (470 km) of the ‘Road to Mandalay’ began at Ledo and was named for Gen. Joseph Stillwell—the road was the costliest and most ambitious engineering project of the Second World War. In 1995/96 the state had 33,110 km of road, of which 2,070 km was national highway and 2, 177 km state highway. The railway centre of the north-east, Assam has a total track length of over 3,722 km, including both broad gauge (64%) and metre gauge. There are six civil, domestic airports. Installed electricity capacity in 2000 was 574.4 MW and over 77% of Assam’s villages were in receipt of an electricity supply, but the sector remains

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identified as a priority for development by state government. Official policy to improve literacy levels saw the rate increase from 52.9% in 1991 to 64.3% in 2001. Agriculture accounts for the livelihood of about four-fifths of Assam’s population. In 1991 agriculture accounted for 73.5% of main-worker activity, with cultivation alone providing over one-half of employment. The main food crop is rice, with paddy fields dominating the landscape of the valleys, and the major expansion in rice production from the late 1990s led the resurgence of agricultural production generally. However, the main cash crop is tea, which is grown in hillier country, especially in upper Assam. The state provides some 15% of the world’s tea production and Guwahati hosts the biggest auction centre for the CTC (crush, tear and curl) variety of tea. Although an indigenous Assam tea plant was finally recognized by the imperial authorities in the first half of the 1830s, the first tea plantation (tea garden) in the province was actually established using plants grown from Chinese seed, in 1836, near Tezpur. Over 160 years later there were reckoned to be 848 tea gardens in Assam, as well as a number of smaller producers, covering about 5% of the cultivated land and employing some 0.5m. people. Most of the tea grown is processed for black tea (oxidized by fermentation). Other cash crops include jute, sugar cane, cotton, citrus fruits and potatoes. Sericulture is also an important activity, with Assam producing a number of varieties of silk, including a non-mulberry one known as Muga, which is unique to the state (the other non-mulberry variety is known as Eri, while the silk of worms fed on mulberry leaves is Pat). Timber is a plentiful resource, with some 27% of the total area of Assam under forest (March 1998), and over four-fifths of that being reserved forest—forest revenue for 1998/99 reached 9,590m. rupees. The state’s other main natural resources are the domain of the mining industries, with coal, petroleum, natural gas and, to a lesser extent, limestone, being of increasing importance. The oilfields of upper Assam were first exploited in 1879, with a refinery built at Digboi in 1900. Almost 100 years later the state’s fourth refinery opened at Numaligarh, and the extraction and refining of petroleum is Assam’s predominant heavy industry. Assam accounts for about 15% of the petroleum produced in India; in 1999 production of crude petroleum totalled some 5m. metric tons and of natural gas some 1, 333m. cu m. Coal is also mainly found in this north-eastern end of the state, with the regional headquarters of Coal India Ltd located in Margherita, on the border with Nagaland. In 1999 some 0.9m. metric tons of coal were produced. Hydrocarbons are considered to have considerable potential still, although development of the sector was delayed by political troubles in the north-east during the 1990s and into the 2000s. Cement production is another activity driven by the extractive industries. Limestone production in 1999 was 379,000 metric tons. Other industrial activity, apart from that provided by tea processing and mining, is limited and largely home-based (household industries provided almost one-quarter of manufacturing employment in 1991). Traditionally, weaving is an important activity for Assamese women, and textile manufacturing is an important industry. Government initiatives encourage such cottage industries, but also seek to develop projects such as an ethylene factory at Tengakhat or a software technology park near Guwahati. Services (including trade and commerce, and transport, etc.) provided 20.1% of employment in 1991. Trade, tourism and government accounted for most of this. Tourism is the sector long considered to have the most potential, as Assam is rich in


natural, historical and cultural advantages. The state had five national parks and 14 wildlife sanctuaries in 2000, with the Kaziranga National Park alone covering 474 sq km— the latter is home to the unique greater one-horned rhinoceros and the rare Bengali florican. The Manas National Park, on the border with Bhutan, enjoys scenic beauty and a leading role in the preservation of the royal Bengal tiger. There is also a zoological garden in Guwahati, which also boasts a number of other historical and religious sites, notably the ancient Shakti temple of Kamakhya (a Tantric shrine). Not far north of the city lies Hajo, which is sacred to three religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Other popular tourist destinations lie further up the Brahmaputra, such as Jorhat, the nearby island of Majuli and, in the heart of upper Assam, the old royal capital of Sibsagar. Directory Governor: Lt-Gen. (retd) S.K.SINHA; Governor’s Residence, Dispur. Chief Minister: TARUN GOGOI (Congress—I); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Assam, Dispur; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: PRITHIBI MAJHI; Assembly House, Dispur; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 126 mems: Congress (I) 71; Asom Gana Parishad 20; Bharatiya Janata Party 8; Nationalist Congress Party 3; All-India Trinamool Congress 1; independents and others 23. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: S.MANOHARAN; Assam House, Sardar Patel Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021; tel. (11) 6116444; fax (11) 6117059.

Bihar

The State of Bihar lies in northern India, at the eastern end of the Gangetic plain, between the mighty Himalayas and the Chotanagpur plateau to the south (part of the state until 2000). The state, the name of which is derived from the word vihara (monastery), has an international frontier with Nepal to the north. To the west of Bihar is Uttar Pradesh, further up the plains, and to the east is West Bengal, where the Ganga (Ganges) enters its delta. On higher ground to the south and south-east is Jharkhand, formerly the Vananchal or ‘forest region’ of Bihar—it was separated from the original state in November 2000, ending an administrative association dating back before independence (Bihar and Orissa was made a province separate from the Bengal presidency in 1911 and Orissa was separated in 1936; Bihar state lost some border districts to West Bengal upon the linguistic reorganization of the states in 1956). Bihar now has an area of 94,163 sq km (36, 370 sq miles). The Bihar plains along the Ganga average about 53 m (173 feet) above sea level, although south of the holy river of the Hindus the land is hillier and the state extends to include the first foothills rising towards the Chotanagpur. The southern plains narrow in


the east, while the northern plains generally are broader. The flat lands, watered by many rivers, are prone to flooding, particularly during the height of the monsoon (JuneSeptember) and if there is torrential rain in the Himalayas. There is a confluence of great rivers in the west, the border being indented where the Ganga and Ghaghara meet, then the Son flows in from the south-west corner of state, followed by the Gandak, flowing from the north-west. Another tributary joining the Ganga from the Himalayas is the Kosi, noted for its flooding and for the steady migration of its course westwards (at least 110 km in 130 years), part of the dynamic process of fertilizing the Gangetic plain with rich alluvial soils, but which also leaves the northern plains dotted with strings of lakes along old river courses. The climate is tropical to subtropical, with a monsoon season that confines the hottest months to March-May. The usual rainfall is 1,204.6 mm (47 inches), falling, on average, over 52.5 days. According to the provisional results of the national census taken at 1 March 2001, the total population of Bihar was 82,878,796. This was an increase of 28.4% on the total at the previous census, in 1991, and rather a high rate for an already poor state. Bihar is the third-most populous state in the Union, after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, and its most densely populated after West Bengal (880 per sq km in 2001). In 1991, when Bihar included what is now Jharkhand, the state was the second-most populous in India. Upon the bifurcation of the state in 2000 Bihar retained 54% of the land area and 72% of the population, losing many of its natural resources and most of its tribal population. The state is overwhelmingly both Hindi-speaking and Hindu by religion, although exact figures for today’s Bihar are not available—the 1991 census had the old Bihar state (i.e. including Jharkhand) with 81% of the population using Hindi (and its local dialects) as their main language and 10% Urdu. Apart from Bengali, the other significant minority languages spoken in the state were mainly tribal ones, most of which are now confined to the territory of Jharkhand. Likewise, many of the smaller religious communities held their own better in the mountainous south, but the numbers, if removed from consideration in the ‘rump’ state, remain insignificant compared to the teeming population of the plains—the Bihar of 1991 consisted of 82.4% Hindus, long settled in this eastern end of the Aryan heartland, and 14.8% professing Islam, owing to long years of more recent Muslim rule. Christians were the largest single minority group, but barely accounted for 1.0% of the total population, most belonging to the southern tribes and, therefore, not in the state as constituted today. Only 10.5% of the population of Bihar were defined as urban in the 2001 census and the state contained only one of India’s 35 most-populous cities. Patna, the state capital (the 17th-largest city in the country, with 1.38m. people), is located on the south bank of the Ganga, near the confluence with the Gandak, in the west of the state. There are, in all, nine urban agglomerations counted within the borders of Bihar, of which two are Gaya, to the south of Patna, and Muzaffarpur, to the north. The state is divided into 38 districts. History Bihar is part of the historic arya varta, the Aryan heartland, settled by the Aryans as they moved out of the Punjab and the Ganga-Yamuna Doab and hacked their way down the

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then jungle-choked Gangetic plains towards Bengal. This route became known as the Uttarapatha or Northern Route (as opposed to the Southern Route, Daksinapatha, whence comes the term for the Deccan), which not only served as the main conduit of Aryanization in the north, but also of Buddhism and the early north Indian empires. By the sixth-fifth centuries BC Bihar consisted notably of the territories of the Licchavi and the Videha clans (the former hailed as the first republic—both now described as being ganasangha, having ‘government by discussion’, be this oligarchical or democratic), north of the Ganga, and the nascent kingdom of Magadha to the south. Both Nataputta (known as Mahavira or ‘Great Hero’), who formulated the Jain code of conduct, and Gautama Siddhartha (known as the Buddha), who preached the Middle Way, expounded their philosophies in the rising power of Magadha. This kingdom had its capital in Rajagriha (Rajgir) and held sway from the area around modern Gaya to the Ganga. The presence of the Jains and Buddhists in Magadha was to ensure that some records and stories survived to shed light on the history of the period, although there have been problems of exact dating, matching the Buddhist chronologies with the now commonly used Christian era. The problem is that the actual date of Jesus Christ’s birth may be debated, but the year as used for the calendar has long been generally accepted, whereas the actual date of the parinirvana (achievement of nirvana) of the Buddha, the starting point of the calendar, varies from tradition to tradition, giving dates ranging from 544 BC to as late as 350 BC. Hitherto scholars have favoured the 480s BC, owing to the coincidence of an Indian and of a Chinese tradition, but more recently have tended rather towards a later date, some time in 400–350 BC. At this time the great Aryan clans, be they ‘republics’ or monarchies, were beginning to succumb to the power of Magadha. Its rajah, Bimbisara (his name is known from the accounts of the Buddha’s life), reigned for some 50 years. He had access to the rich mineral resources of Jharkhand (southern Bihar until 2000) and also to the sea (through his conquest of Anga, modern Bengal), establishing the foundations of Magadhan power, as well as conditions conducive to the spread of Buddhism. As Christianity spread with Rome, so Buddhism and Jainism, which soon displaced the myriad other heterodox sects, if not the orthodox ‘Great Tradition’ of the Brahmins, spread under the shield of the Magadhan peace. The son of Bimbisara, Ajatashatru, also met the Buddha, around the time the king was building a fort at a place called Pataligrama, on the south bank of the Ganga. This became Pataliputra, the capital of Magadha from the time of Ajatashatru’s successor, on the site of the modern city of Patna. Meanwhile, the first Buddhist council was held at Rajgir. The succession following Ajatashatru is uncertain, and the domestic politics of Magadha opaque, until the 320s BC. Certainly the kingdom dominated the lower reaches of the Ganga and competed for power with Vatsya, based near Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh), and with Avanti or Malwa, based on Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh). Equating dates becomes easier from the last decades of the fourth century BC, owing to the incursion by the Hellenic emperor, Alexander III (‘the Great’) of Macedon, into the north-west of the subcontinent in 326 BC. His soldiers, having already conquered one empire to come so far out of the west, were loath to continue any further into India, particularly given the tales of the mighty realm that was before them. This empire was that of Magadha, which now not only controlled the entire extent of the Gangetic plains, but also reached into central India and held sway over Kalinga (modern Orissa). Its ruler


was the son of Mahapadma Nanda, himself the son of a barber and of low caste. Mahapadma had created a formidable military machine and was famous for his wealth, seemingly expanding his influence by exploiting caste rivalries and attacking the status quo. However, the Nandas reputedly lasted only two generations, to be usurped, in turn, by Chandragupta Maurya in c. 320 BC, aided by his brahminical chancellor, Chanakya or Kautilya (purported to be the author of a book on statecraft, the Arthasastra). Building on the achievements of the Nandas, Chandragupta consolidated the power of Magadha and was the first Indian emperor to hold sway from shore to shore (there is archaeological evidence that he conquered Gujarat), as well as the first to rule in both north and south. The extent to which the empire reached into southern India is indicated by a story of his retirement, in about 297 BC, to a place in southern Karnataka. His son, Bindusara, reigned until around 271 BC, to be followed by a three-year succession struggle won by the man who became the greatest of the Mauryans and an inspiration for Buddhist chroniclers and modern nationalists alike, Ashoka Piyadassi. Ashoka (who died in about 233 BC) ruled an empire that reached from Bengal to Gujarat, and from southern Karnataka up through the Punjab and into modern Afghanistan. As a young prince his first post in the administration of the Mauryan emperor seems to have been in Taxila (Takashila, not far from modern Islamabad, Pakistan), an ancient centre of learning and Sanskrit orthodoxy, where he served sufficiently well then to be appointed governor in Ujjain. Upon the death of his father Ashoka must have demonstrated sufficient ruthlessness to emerge victorious from the succession struggle, which was reportedly a bloody one for the imperial family. Equal vigour must have been shown in the maintenance of his empire, such as in the reconquest of Kalinga, where thousands died, in the fighting and afterwards, and thousands more were deported. These details are reported in the famous rock inscriptions dotted all over India, indicating the extent of his domains and the variety of languages used within them—there are 14 Major Rock Edicts, eight Minor Rock Edicts and Inscriptions and seven Major Pillar Edicts. The campaign in Kalinga is the only campaign of the Mauryas to be recorded, despite the hugeness of their achievement, and it is known only for provoking the horror of the emperor and his proclamation of concord and good governance through his concept of dharma (loosely translated as good conduct or duty or toleration, all useful commandments in a realm of such variety in people, language, religion and social standing). He also sponsored Buddhism (the third Buddhist council is supposed to have been held under his patronage at Pataliputra), as his father had favoured the Ajivikas and his grandfather the Jains, although the various proclamations make it clear that encouragement was given to all the heterodox and orthodox groups of the time. His own state philosophy seems intent on finding a middle ground, a non-religious creed with which to govern, although maybe it was this policy that rejected violence that caused the decline of his empire. Although his descendants ruled from Pataliputra for another 50 years or so, and were displaced by other dynasts claiming imperial hegemony, Ashoka’s pan-Indian empire disintegrated, not to be matched in extent until the Mughals approached it and British India exceeded it. The Shunga, who usurped the last, sad relict of the Mauryas in what may have been a brahminical reaction to official sponsorship of the heterodox sects, and then the Kanva, reigned from Pataliputra for about another 160 years. Magadha then disappears from the

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scantly known history of the era, although tradition claims that it was conquered by the Kushana dynasty out of the north-west. The Kushana, the greatest king of which was Kanishka, were among a number of foreign invaders who established themselves in north India at this time, although their process of naturalization and conciliation of their subjects may have contributed to the flourishing of culture and the arts (Sanskrit was becoming the standard court language even before the advent of the Guptas). Certainly the triumphal progress of Buddhism, and of Jainism, began to falter in its Indian homeland as the ‘Great Tradition’ of the brahmins reasserted itself and the modern contours of what is called Hinduism began to appear (although co-existence continued to be usual for some time yet). The revival of a kingdom of Magadha took place under the Guptas. North of the Ganga, in modern Bihar, the illustrious Licchavi still ruled much territory and may have occupied Pataliputra. The original patrimony of the Guptas probably neighboured them, under a Sri-Gupta and a Ghatotkacha, but the founder of the dynasty is considered to be the latter’s son, Chandra-Gupta I, who married a princess of the Licchavi and reestablished Magadha as an imperial power. He laid the foundations for an empire that dominated the north and centre of India and reached far down the eastern coast into Tamil country. However, this was not a bureaucratic empire like that of the Mauryas, but more a feudal sovereignty over a number of lesser kingdoms, maintained and expanded by the longevity and ability of a succession of five great monarchs. Chandra-Gupta I acceded to the throne in about AD 320, to be succeeded by his own son, the great SamudraGupta, in 335. Samudra-Gupta brought most of the ancient arya varta under his rule and spread his authority across the tangled wilds of the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta and exposing modern Assam to direct Aryanizing influences for the first time. He conquered the Pallava king of northern Tamil Nadu and was paid tribute by the princes of modern Rajasthan and the ancient Punjab. Only the Kshatrapas or ‘Western Satraps’, based in Gujarat, resisted Gupta authority in the north. The first, unlucky and short-lived successor of SamudraGupta (who died around 375), his son, Rama-Gupta, was severely defeated by this originally Scythian dynasty and was soon displaced as emperor by his younger brother, Chandra-Gupta II. This monarch continued the campaigns against the Kshatrapas and seems to have incorporated their territories by the first decade of the fourth century, enriching both the commerce and the culture of the Gupta realm. Kumara-Gupta (circa 415–55), like his two great predecessors, also reigned for some four decades. He, fortunately, did not have to engage in a rivalry with the main power of the western Deccan, as he benefited from the marriage of his half-sister, Prabhavati, to the Vakataka king. He died in around 390, leaving his Gupta queen, in a 20-year regency, to ensure that the two polities became allies. Kumara-Gupta’s main problem was, first, a major revolt in Malwa by a Pushyamitra, who shook the stability of the empire. The revolt was eventually contained by one of the emperor’s sons, Skanda-Gupta, who was then able to succeed his father in around 455 (until 467) and lead his troops to repulse the ‘White’ Huns (Ephthalites). However, the continuing depredations of the Huns, the debasing of the coinage and the rising powers of the regions undermined the credibility of the claims of Skanda-Gupta’s descendents to imperial authority in north India. By 510, when Toramana of the Huns routed a Gupta army near Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh), the central authority of the king in Pataliputra was often ignored by his cousins and other governors in the regions, although


the dynasty limped on in Magadha until around 540. Bihar’s days as the imperial centre of India were over. Bihar’s loss of imperial prestige was confirmed in the seventh century, when Harsha established an imperial capital at Kannauj (now in Uttar Pradesh). This was to eclipse Pataliputra as the rightful centre of power in north India, although its own rulers were not always the emperors. Control of Kannauj was contested by three great dynasties and the fate of Bihar came to be increasingly associated with neighbouring powers in Bengal or from further up the Ganga. In the eighth and ninth centuries the Palas of Bengal were the eastern contestant for suzerainty over Kannauj. Their kingdom was based in Bengal and Bihar, and they were the last great native Buddhist dynasty of India, reviving the famous ‘university’ at Nalanda and building another on the Ganga in Bihar at somewhere called Vikramashila. By the 10th century Pala power had declined and Bihar was subjected to different overlords or local princes independent to some degree. A fundamental change came in the 13th century, however, as Muslim armies penetrated into the arya varta and raided as far as the eastern plains, sacking the great Buddhist monuments as well as the Hindu temples. The late medieval and early modern landscape of a Hindu populace ruled by Muslims was being formed. The first Muslim dynasty to control Bihar was that of the Khiljis (originally based in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh), who seized the throne of the Delhi sultanate itself in 1290. Bihar then fell variously under the influence of Delhi or, increasingly, Bengal, which, by the 15th century, held it fairly securely. When the Mughals seized power in Delhi in the 16th century Bihar came under central rule, until the regions had again massed sufficient weight to assert their independence under nominal Mughal sovereignty. However, in the early years of the dynasty, under the second Great Mughal, Humayun, Bihar came to be dominated by a member of the Afghan Sur clan, Sher Khan, who went on to defeat Humayun at Chausa in 1540 and himself reign from Delhi for 15 years (he is buried at Sasaran). In 1555 Humayun regained Delhi and Mughal authority was soon restored in Bihar. It lasted until the 18th century, when Bihar fell under the rulers of Bengal, who acquired steadily more autonomy from the declining centre in Delhi. The power of the nawabs of Bengal was, at first, maintained with British help, the East India Company being established in Calcutta (now Kolkata, West Bengal) and Patna (where Gobind Singh, the 10th and last Sikh Guru, was born in 1723 and spent his early life), among other places. In 1756, however, a new nawab, Siraj-ud-daula, assumed office and he soon alienated all the European communities, not least the British, and the escalating conflict resulted in a ‘battle’ at Plassey (West Bengal), when Mir Jafar betrayed Siraj to the British under Robert Clive and was himself made Nawab of Bengal. Mir Jafar was duly acknowledged by the Mughal court. The British soon acquired a variety of trading rights in Bengal and Bihar, while the Nawab was required to pay for their assistance in any struggle to defend his domain against incursions by the Mughal or Awadh (Oudh—in modern Uttar Pradesh) forces. Unwilling to concede the cost of such help, in 1760 Mir Jafar was replaced by his son-in-law, Mir Qasim, who ceded lower Bengal to the East India Company, but then proceeded to introduce reforms that again threatened British interests. The aging Mir Jafar was restored in 1763, only for Mir Qasim to seek the help of the Mughal emperor and his powerful ally of Awadh, invading Bihar in 1764. At Baksar (Buxar) the outnumbered, but disciplined, Company forces, mainly Indian sepoys,

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triumphed against the varied and competing armies of the invaders. An independent nawabate and the last vestiges of Mughal power were destroyed at the battle, while the road to British supremacy in the subcontinent was begun. The following year the Mughal emperor, Shah Alam II, incorporated the Company into imperial government by granting it the diwani of Bengal, including effective sovereignty in Bihar, which was henceforth ruled from Calcutta. As part of the presidency of Bengal, Bihar was at the heart of British India. During the Great Rebellion of 1857–58, started by the Indian Mutiny of elements of the Bengal army, the prompt arrival of British reinforcements ensured the quietude of Bihar, but in the more peaceful independence struggle of the 20th century the area was to be more active. Bihar, part of the West Bengal of 1905–12 and then a separate province (still with Orissa), had an indigo trade with severely exploited workers. It was among these indigo farmers that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), newly arrived from working in London (United Kingdom), first utilized his policy of satyagraha (literally, ‘truth-force’, a form of passive resistance) against injustice in India, in 1917. Among Gandhi’s followers in Bihar was Rajendra Prasad, later the first President of India, and Jay Prakash Narayan, later one of Indira Gandhi’s leading opponents and a luminary of the Janata Party (from the Janata Party sprung the Janata Dal, which itself produced the current ruling party of Bihar—see below). Meanwhile, in 1935 Orissa was separated from Bihar, its borders only to be adjusted once more in the 1900s, when some adjustment of the south-eastern border with West Bengal took place in 1956, to accord with the linguistic reorganization of the states. Bihar was, therefore, one of the original states of the Indian Union, although it has added a reputation for corruption and lawlessness to widespread poverty. Inter-caste violence and communal strife frequently occur in Bihar, while many state governments, of varying political persuasions, have been charged with maladministration or misuse of office. Most recently, Bihar has been dominated by Laloo Prasad Yadav, who has also had considerable influence at the Centre—he first became the state premier in 1989. Although he was forced to resign in 1997, while being charged with corruption, he was replaced as Chief Minister, by his wife, Rabri Devi, who remains in office. She and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), despite continuing corruption investigations into her and her husband, won the February 2000 state elections by an appeal to the disadvantaged, low-caste dalits (‘untouchables’) and Muslims, winning 124 seats to the 123 of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Rabri Devi Government was supported (among others) by the five members of the Bahujan Samaj Party, four of whom joined the RJD itself in mid-2002. Of course, by this stage the balance of power in the legislature had altered, owing to the bifurcation of the state in November 2000. An earlier cost of Congress support for the Rabri Devi administration, as well as the advocacy of the BJP, had resulted in the RJP conceding the separation of the southern region of Jharkhand into a state in its own right. This left the BJP, which dominated Jharkhand, the old southern Bihar, with considerably fewer seats in the truncated Assembly of the reduced Bihar state, but also left the RJD dependent upon coalition support. With unexpected gains for the BJP and its Congress allies at the elections to the Legislative Council (the upper house of the Bihar legislature) in 2002, however, the Government looked less secure. Also in 2002 Yadav finally resigned his state Assembly seat in order to assume a place in the national


Parliament’s upper house, the Rajya Sabha. In total, Bihar sends 16 members to the Rajya Sabha and 40 members to the lower house, the Lok Sabha. Economy Bihar is the poorest state in the Union, its division from Jharkhand in November 2000 depriving it of rich mineral reserves and important industrial assets, further leaving the state authorities without sufficient resources to alleviate the situation of its huge rural population. Moreover, Bihar is widely considered to be the state most prone to official corruption, lawlessness and communal and inter-caste violence. When Bihar’s southern districts became a separate state, the north was left with 72% of the population, but only 36% of the established power capacity, 45% of state tax receipts (and 52% of the state share of centrally collected taxes) and 34% of the excise duty collected. Income per person in Bihar was reduced to 80% of the average for the original state (i.e. including what is now Jharkhand). Most general figures readily available, however, remain from the undivided state—thus, unless specifically stated, data from before 2000 refers to the old, larger Bihar. The total size of the state economy, as measured by net domestic product at current prices in 1997/98 (provisional figures), was 462,200m. rupees. This was already not a large economy relative to many of the other major states, but, given the size of Bihar’s population, in per-head terms this became the lowest state income in India, at 4, 654 rupees per head. After division of the state this figure will be lower still, even in real terms. Infrastructure is relatively well developed, although the profusion of easily flooded rivers provide obstacles, most notably at the broad Ganga. In 2001 the state had national highways amounting to 2,907.05 km, with state highways at 4,354.2 km. There are effectively parallel railway systems north and south of the Ganga, with connections between the two limited. The better-developed network is south of the great river and, at Dehri-on-Son, includes India’s longest railway bridge. There are airports at Patna and Gaya, as well as landing strips throughout the state. Energy infrastructure was particularly badly affected by the division of the state—in 2001 Bihar was left with only three powerstations, two thermal and one hydro-electric, with a total installed capacity of only 559.2 MW. Human resources are also undeveloped, with the lowest literacy rate in the Union in 2001–47.5%, although this was a respectable improvement on the 37.5% of 1991. Agriculture is the main occupation of the vast majority of the population and there is a relatively large area under irrigation. The main food grains are paddy, wheat, maize and pulses, while the main cash crop is sugarcane (the sector has its own government department). Other cash crops include potatoes, onions and other vegetables, and oilseeds, tobacco, chilli and jute. Forestry, since the division of the state, is a negligible sector in the economy of Bihar, with the total forest area only amounting to 7.1% of the total land area (2001), about one-half of which is protected. Fisheries, however, are an important primary activity, with the state being India’s primary producer of freshwater fish, which flourish in the lakes and rivers the north Gangetic plain particularly. Over onehalf the produce is destined for Kolkata, in neighbouring West Bengal. Most of the mineral resources of the pre-2001 Bihar, as well as many of the dependent industries, were in the southern uplands, leaving the ‘rump’ state with some reserves of glass sand and dolomite in the south-west, salt, some bauxite and, fairly widely spread,

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mica. In terms of heavy industry, Bihar is now left with railway-wagon plants at Muzaffarpur and Mokama, some fertilizer factories and a number of agro-processing operations. There are five large spinning mills for cotton, almost 30 sugar mills (almost one-half of which are private), with a total crushing capacity of 46,000 metric tons per day, three large jute mills, as well as a number of other distilleries, tanneries and other textile and leather industries. The tertiary sector is not a strong part of the economy of Bihar. Even tourism, which should benefit from the state’s history and rich legacy of religious associations, is limited by the deterrence of extreme poverty and a turbulent civil society. Nevertheless, long being part of the arya varta, and the base for the ancient imperial kingdom of Magadha, as well as fundamental to the development of three religions—Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism —the plains of Bihar hold interest to pilgrims and tourists: the ancient capitals of Rajgir and Patna (Pataliputra), the place where the Buddha gained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, the old Buddhist university of Nalanda and the location of arguably the world’s oldest republic in Vaishali. There are also several bird and wildlife sanctuaries, notably the tiger project, which, like the one national park in the state, is located in West Champaran, in the north-west. Directory Governor: VINOD CHANDRA PANDE; Office of the Governor, Raj Bhavan, Patna. Chief Minister: RABRI DEVI (Rashtriya Janata Dal); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Bihar, Secretariat, Patna; tel. (612) 223886; fax (612) 222698; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: SADANAND SINGH; Assembly Secretariat, Patna; tel. (612) 223709; the lower house of the bicameral legislature, the Legislative Assembly, has had 243 mems since the creation of Jharkhand: Rashtriya Janata Dal 114; Bharatiya Janata Party 35; Samata Party 29; Janata Dal (United) 18; Congress—I 12; Communist (CPI) 6; Communist—Marxist-Leninist (Liberation) 6; Bahujan Samaj Party 5; Communist (CPI—M) 2; independents and others 16. Presiding Official of the Legislative Council: YASHODANAND SINGH; Legislative Council Secretariat, Patna; tel. (612) 226616 (Parliamentary Affairs Sec.); the upper house of the state legislature has had 54 nominated or indirectly elected mems since the division of Jharkhand from the rest of the state. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: A.B.PRASAD; Bihar Bhavan, 5 Kautilya Marg, New Delhi 100 021; tel. (11) 3014945; fax (11) 3015035.

Chhattisgarh

The State of Chhattisgarh, part of Madhya Pradesh until 1 November 2000, lies in central India, in the north-east of the peninsula, stretched between north and south. The state with which Chhattisgarh was until so recently united, Madhya Pradesh, lies to the west and north-west of the northern part of Chhattisgarh. West of southern Chhattisgarh is Maharashtra, while Andhra Pradesh is in the south-west and south. Orissa, to the southeast and east, separates the state from the eastern seaboard, while another new state, Jharkhand (part of Bihar until 2000), lies to the north-east and there is also a short northern border with Uttar Pradesh. Chhattisgarh, which is commonly taken to mean ‘36 forts’, is a long, relatively thin, state, which lies along an axis that is more north-east to

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south-west than north-south. Slightly larger than Tamil Nadu, but smaller than neighbouring Orissa, the state covers 135,191 sq km (52,217 sq miles). The north of the state lies on the Chotanagpur plateau, dominated by the western end of the Hazaribagh Range jutting into Chhattisgarh from the north-east. The central region, beneath the Maikala Range, which separates it from Madhya Pradesh, consists of the lowlands of the Korba basin, the ‘rice bowl’ of central India. In the south the land rises again, in the Bastar district, before falling away to the fringes of the Andhra Pradesh plainlands to the south. The highlands tend to be thickly forested. The climate is tropical monsoon, with annual average rainfall at about 2,000 mm (78 inches), although poor management of water resources has meant that the region has suffered from drought a number of times recently. According to the provisional census results for 2001, Chhattisgarh had a population of 20,795,956, which was only 18.1% greater than at the 1991 census. The population density is also relatively low, at 154 per sq km in 2001, the lowest for any state outside the north-east or the Himalayas. Chhattisgarh has the highest proportion of Scheduled Tribes in India, at 32.5% (1991 figure), which has helped shape the modern state’s distinct identity. Hindi is the most widely spoken of the official languages of India, although Oriya and Marathi are also used, but the main native language is Chhattisgarhi, which, like Hindi, is an Indo-Aryan tongue written in the Devangiri script. It is spoken in its purer form in the central districts, but there are also dialects (Laria, Khaltahi, Surgujia, Binjhwari) spoken throughout the state and as far afield as Jharkhand, Bihar and, possibly, Tripura. Numerous tribal tongues are spoken, from a variety of language groups. Tribes include the Gond (Koytoria), the most numerous (the main subdivisions include Marias, and their subgroups, the Abuhjmarias, Murias and Dorlas), the agriculturalist Halbaa, the Bhatra, highest in the tribal hierarchy of the south, the Dhruvaa (Parjaa), the Baiga peoples, the Kanwar and, in the north, the Pando and the Korwa (both of which, owing to the association of the region with Hindu myth, claim to be descended from the clans of the Mahabharata, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, respectively). Although most belief systems among them are orientated on the Hindu traditions, the anomalous position of tribals in the caste system, as well as an additional 12.7% (1991) of the population coming from the historically disadvantaged Scheduled Castes, has encouraged the spread of a number of sects and socio-religious reform movements. Officially, Hinduism is overwhelmingly the main religion, but Chhattisgarh has given rise to a number of unique sects or panths. In the 19th century a farm worker, Ghasidas, founded a hereditary line of gurus to lead the Satnam Panth, which preached a casteless society and the rejection of the Hindu pantheon. Low-caste leather workers formed the strength of the movement, which is centred on Bhandar and Girod. Satnamis also abstain from meat, alcohol, tobacco, certain vegetables and red pulses. The Kabir Panth, named for a 16th-century poet, saint and reformer), also rejects the pantheon and embraces equality; the sect was established in Chhattisgarh by a disciple of Kabir, Dharmadasa, and so it is sometimes called for him. The adherents of the Ramnani Panth especially revere the god Rama and reject the mediation of brahmins, so, again, have a following mainly among the lower castes or dalits. Another group consists of followers of Ramananda or Rae Das, a social religious reformer. (There is an association with dalits in one theory about the origin of the state’s


name—that the region was named for the 36 families of leather workers who settled here.) There are also small communities of Muslims, Christians and Buddhists. In 2001 only one-fifth (20.1%) of the population were classed as urbanized, although the state does possess some fairly large cities and industrial centres. The state capital is Raipur (605,131 inhabitants, according to the provisional results of the 2001 census), in the central region of the state, near where the border abuts south-eastwards into Orissa. There are proposals to move the capital to Nandghat, midway between Raipur and Bilaspur. The main city of Bastar and the south (Bastar was originally one of the largest districts in India, but was split into three by the new state authorities—Dantewada in the far south, Bastar itself and, to the north, the smaller Kanker) is Jagdalpur. West of Raipur are the cities of Durg, Bhilai and Raj Nandgaon. North-east of Raipur is the second city of the state and one of the main industrial centres, Bilaspur, and beyond that Korba, the socalled ‘power capital’. The main city of the north (again, three districts formed from the old Surguja) is Ambikapur. There are now 16 districts in the State of Chhattisgarh. History Chhattisgarh was known from the time of the great epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana as Dakshin Kosala (South Kosala) and, later, as Dandakaranya, after an Itsavaku Aryan king who ruled from near Raipur. More certain history begins around 1,000 years ago, when Kalingraja settled to the north of Korba. This prince was of the Kalchuri dynasty, which was based near Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh). Their territory was known as the Chedi kingdom, giving yet another derivation of the name Chhattisgarh, a corruption of ‘Chedisgarh’. Kalingraja’s grandson, Ratanraja, founded Ratanpur, which became the capital of the Chhattisgarh basin. Its ruling Rajput dynasty became known as the Haihayas. One of the Haihaya kings, Ramachandra or his son, founded the city of Raipur, which became the seat of an autonomous, junior branch of the family in about the 14th century. Mughal overlordship was acknowledged in the 16th century, but this predominantly Hindu area continued to be ruled by Hindu princes. Meanwhile, in 1320 Annmdev established the Chalukyas in Bastar, claiming sovereignty over the settled area and the wild, tribal lands of the region, and becoming a separate kingdom in the 15th century. Various Gond polities also claimed authority in different areas. In the 18th century the Haihayas came under assault from the Marathas out of the west, the local dynasty’s power being broken in 1741 and the last member of the Ratanpur branch, Raghunathsinghji, was deposed in 1745. The Marathas formally annexed Chhattisgarh in 1758, and it came under the rule of the Bhonslas of Nagpur (now in Maharashtra), with only Gond resistance continuing. For most of Chhattisgarh, however, Maratha rule was an experience of lawlessness and constant plundering by Maratha forces, followed by the introduction of more organized systems of economic exploitation as the British gained influence (particularly after 1818). These new systems were particularly resented in Bastar, the princely state that occupied the south of modern Chhattisgarh, where the people frequently vocalized the particular disadvantages suffered by the tribes, notably over land rights. Even the Halbaa rebellion of 1774–79, which started off as a revolt by the governor of Chhota Dongar, but was supported by the famine-stricken Halbaa, was fuelled by resentment of outside influence in Bastar state. Ironically, it was this


very rebellion that further compromised the independence of the Chalukyas, as Bastar needed expensive British and Maratha support to regain control. There was a disturbance at Bhopalpatnam in 1795, a rebellion at Paralkot in 1825 (Abuhjmarias protesting Maratha taxes) and a longer struggle at Tarapur in 1842–54 (although about taxation, this was mainly directed against the local diwan or premier). The tribes were not used to the new administrative or revenue-raising systems and this undoubtedly contributed to the great Maria revolt of 1842–63, although the principal reason was religion. The British and the wider Indian context that Bastar now existed in found the Maria practice of human sacrifice unacceptable, while the tribe was least prepared to accept outside interference in matters of faith. The region was, therefore, already restless at the time of the Mutiny in Uttar Pradesh in 1857, which was supported in the south by Dorlaon tribesmen under Dhruvarao, while the Gonds engaged in several battles with the British during 1858 and there was a further rising in 1859 against tree felling by outside contractors. In central Chhattisgarh, which had lapsed to the British as a domain of Nagpur in 1854, support for the mutineers of 1857 was led by the zamindar of Sonakhan, Vir Narain Singh. He had been imprisoned by the British authorities in 1856 for seizing a grain trader’s stocks—his defence was that it was for famine relief—but was released by sympathetic Indian soldiers. However, his revolt was crushed by the British and he was hanged in December 1857—at the end of the 1970s the anniversary was adopted by Chhattisgarhi regionalists as the celebration of a local martyr. Generally, however, discontent in central and northern Chhattisgarh tended to focus on social and economic inequities, which were not necessarily attributable to the British authorities, although the policies of imperial rule tended to favour support for local magnates and, therefore, often conflate the issues. Thus, the profusion of sects among the dalits usually favoured social justice, as did the Satnam Panth first established in the 1810s. By the 1890s Satnami solidarity was expressing itself in a precursor of the independence struggle, using equality and nonviolence as principles to oppose British (and Maratha) injustice. The so-called malgujari settlement of property rights and revenue collection had given the high-caste Malgujars an advantage over the predominant population of small farmers, sharecroppers and farm labourers (the last constituted just under one-sixth of the population of the region in the 19th century), but provoked a resistance movement organized by the Satnamis. Meanwhile, Bastar too had succumbed to direct British rule after the imperial authorities had lost confidence in the Chalukya rajah. In 1867 he had appointed Gopinath Kapardas as diwan of Bastar, but had not listened to the appeals of the tribal population to remove him from office. This provoked a severe Muria revolt in 1876, and by March Jagdalpur was under siege. The king was barely saved by British forces from Orissa, but was removed from power in the 1880s, when allegations that he had tolerated human sacrifice were used as justification. By the time of the largest rebellion, therefore, most of Chhattisgarh was part of the Central Provinces under British administration. When these authorities made the forests reserves and granted timber rights to outside contractors, they put the tribes under threat of dispossession, while the introduction of education seemed to be an assault on local cultures, combining into the Bhumkal rebellion of 1910, Bastar’s last major insurgency, before all of Chhattisgarh became involved in the wider struggle for independence and social justice (this association of the two was particularly significant in Chhattisgarh and contributed to the evolution of the regional identity). Later in the 20th


century violent expressions of poverty and social injustice were confined to Naxalite activity, arriving in the coal-producing areas from West Bengal in the 1970s and in the south (old Bastar) from Andhra Pradesh in the 1980s. The first demand for a separate Chhattisgarh was made in 1924, by Congress in the Raipur District. Likewise, at the time of the States Reorganization Committee in 1954– 55, there were appeals for a distinct state, but the Committee favoured Chhattisgarh continuing to remain associated with the poorer areas of Madhya Bharat and the Central Provinces. Chhattisgarh, therefore, became part of the Madhya Pradesh state formed in November 1956, although separatist pressure continued into the following decades. A non-party political movement, Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha, was active from the 1970s, but by the 1990s both the major parties (Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party—BJP) had accepted the distinctness of the regional identity and the justice of separation, reinforced by the state-wide, multi-party political forum led by Chadulal Chakrakar, the Chhattisgarh Rajya Nirman Manch. The Congress-led Madhya Pradesh Assembly passed a unanimous resolution in favour of statehood for Chhattisgarh in 1994, and in 1998 the BJP-led Union Government (also wanting Congress support for the creation of another two states) initiated legislation to effect this. The legislation, foiled by the early dissolution of Parliament, was reintroduced and received presidential assent in August 2000. Raipur, once a contender to be the capital of Madhya Pradesh, was settled upon as the new capital, while the other contender, Bilaspur, became the seat of the high court. Despite the weight of the tribes and lower castes in the new state, all the contenders for the premiership were high caste. Finally, Ajit Jogi was chosen to be Chief Minister by 41 of the 48 Congress deputies in the 90-seat provisional legislature. The Government gained additional support in the first year of statehood (including being joined by a splinter group from the BJP) and, by December 2001, Congress commanded 62 seats. State elections were not due until after November 2003. Chhattisgarh is also represented in Parliament by seven members of the upper Rajya Sabha and 11 members of the Lok Sabha. Economy Chhattisgarh was divided from Madhya Pradesh (one of the poorer states of the Union, with per-head net state domestic product slightly falling between that of Tripura and Manipur) on 1 November 2000, so figures for the separate states are often not yet available. Net state domestic product in the undivided Madhya Pradesh in 1999/2000 was 10,907 rupees per head. Official figures for 2001/02 put net state domestic product in Chhattisgarh at 265,120m. (which gives an approximate per-head figure of around 12,500 rupees). Chhattisgarh has only one-fifth of its roads metalled, 68% of its houses without an electricity connection, 49% without drinking water and poor rates of literacy among the large tribal and lower-caste population. However, it has considerable potential mineral wealth, aspirations to become a major exporter of energy and some major industrial centres. There are only 33,182 km of roads, although they are fairly extensive in the central lowlands. There are railway links from Jagdalpur and Dantewada with Andhra Pradesh in the south, otherwise the main network is in the central region, through Raipur and Bilaspur, though Mahendragarh in the north-west is connected through Madhya Pradesh. The Bilaspur division of Indian Railways is the most profitable rail operation in


the country. There are airports at Raipur and Bilaspur. Chhattisgarh is endowed with growing electricity-generating capacity, accounting for 35.7% of the power in the old Madhya Pradesh. Korba, with easy access to large coal reserves, is touted as the ‘power capital’ of central India, with local generators joined by federal and other state facilities. The literacy rate, according to the census of 2001, was 65.2%, which was a strong improvement on 42.9% in 1991, although female and tribal literacy remain low—in the south, for instance, it is reckoned that about four-fifths of the population over 18 years of age are illiterate. Health indicators are also. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy to over 80% of the population. The 1991 census found that 82% of all workers and 90% of rural workers were in farm-related activities, notably cultivation. However, irrigation is limited and drought a recurring problem, while only one crop per year is grown on over threequarters of the cultivated land, which encourages seasonal labour migration out of the state. The rich plains of the central region were known as Madhya Pradesh’s ‘rice bowl’, producing over 70% of the old state’s paddy and over one-half of the food grains in the relevant season (in general, Chhattisgarh accounted for about one-quarter of agricultural production). Maize, millets and pulses are other common food crops, but very few cash crops are grown. Owing to this and to falling paddy yields (claimed by some to be the result of neglecting the myriad local varieties of rice) the new state Government plans to encourage horticulture and make the state rather a ‘fruit bowl’. Containing about 12% of all the forestland of India (44.9% of the total state area was forest in 1999), forest industries are important, with timber (accounting for about two-fifths of forest revenue) being augmented by over 200 minor products such as medicinal plants. One-half of the mining revenue of the old Madhya Pradesh was accounted for by Chhattisgarh. The region earned 3,761.9m. rupees in 1999. Reserves of coal are reckoned to amount to some 35,000m. metric tons, those of iron ore (including some of the highest grade ore in the world) to up to 2,350m. metric tons and those of gold to some 3, 805,000 kg. The state is also India’s only source of tin and has rich fields of bauxite, limestone, dolomite and corundum. There have been finds of diamonds and evidence to suggest that the state might contain one of the world’s richest kimberlite fields, while industries based on other commonly found gemstones are also being encouraged. Only 7% of workers at the time of the 1991 census worked in the secondary sector of the economy. Official policy is to maintain good governance, to develop infrastructure and, in industry specifically, to encourage very large (‘mega’) projects, such as those in the power industries, and small-scale activities, particularly in poorer areas. In terms of heavy industry, there is a huge steel works at Bhilai, as well as some 75 other iron-andsteel enterprises throughout the state, and a number of thermal electricity generators and an aluminium plant at Korba, for example. Textiles, wood-working and agro-processing provide the basis for other activities. Services remain a small sector, although the tertiary sector provided employment for 11 % of all workers (and 52% of urban workers) in Chhattisgarh in 1991. Transport and government services are important. Tourism is being developed, concentrating on the attractions of the state’s religious and historical sites and, above all, its natural environment. The state has three national parks and 11 wildlife and bird sanctuaries.


Directory Governor: DINESH NANDAN SAHAYA; Office of the Governor, Raj Bhavan, Raipur. Chief Minister: AJIT PRAMOD KUMAR JOGI (Congress—I); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Chhattisgarh, Mantralaya, Raipur 492 001; tel. (771) 680300; fax (771) 221206 (Chief Sec.); e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha): RAJENDRA PRASAD SHUKLA; Assembly Secretariat, Raipur; the unicameral Legislative Assembly (provisional until state elections scheduled for 2003) has 90 mems from the old Madhya Pradesh legislature: Congress—148; Bharatiya Janata Party 38; Bahujan Samaj Party 2; others 2. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: R.D.MEENA; Chhattisgarh Bhavan, 7 Sardar Patel Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021; tel. (11) 6873651.

Goa

The State of Goa, until 1961 the heart of the Portuguese ‘State of India’, lies midway along the western shore of the Indian peninsula, jutting down from its northern neighbour, Maharashtra, into Karnataka, which lies to the south and to the east. In 1987 Goa, hitherto a union territory with Daman and Diu, became the 25th state of the Union. It also became the smallest state, with an area of only 3,702 sq km (1,430 sq miles), which is only a little smaller than Rhode Island, the smallest state of the USA, and larger than Luxembourg, the smallest member nation of the European Union.


Goa lies on the coastal plains below the Western Ghats, giving it some high ground (reaching a highest point of 1,022 m—3,354 feet—in the south-east), steeply rising in the east of the state with some more hill country in the south, where a spur of the Ghats stretches towards the Arabian Sea. The state consists of upland areas of poor red laterite soils broken up by fertile alluvial plains and rich deltas. Central plains stretch northwards to the Zuari (a river which divides the south from the north of Goa) and Mandovi estuaries, which once used to join at high tide, defining the original ‘island of Goa’. The Terekhel (Tiracol) defines the northern border, except at its mouth, where the old Fort Tiracol gave Goa a foothold on the northern bank of the river. Some of the deltas still contain tracts of the old mangrove forests, while there is still some dense woodland in the highlands, but most of the landscape is dominated by coconut trees and rice cultivation in the valleys and thin, scrubby vegetation on the low, plateau uplands. The climate is tropical, tempered by the sea and, in the hills, by altitude. Heat and humidity increase from April and into June, when the torrential rains of the monsoon begin, the main season lasting to the end of July. The tropical winter is dry, but warm, lasting from October to March. Average annual rainfall in the state is 3,149 mm (124 inches). Goa is the smallest state in area, but only the third smallest in population, which reached 1,343,998 at 1 March 2001 (according to the provisional results of the national census). The population density was 363 per sq km. There is a large Goan diaspora, both internationally and in other Indian cities, notably Mumbai (formerly Bombay), to the north in Maharashtra. Although there are many Goans of mixed-race descent, with Portuguese surnames, most of the population are still strongly connected to the neighbouring Indian cultures. Just over one-half speak Konkani (51.5%, according to the 1991 census), as in the coastal districts of Karnataka to the south, and it was declared Goa’s official language in 2000. It is, however, more prevalent in the countryside and Marathi is more widely taught in government primary schools—in 1991 Marathi was the first language of 33.4% of the population. Marathi is also used for official purposes. Some people also speak Kannada (4.6%), while Portuguese survives among the older generations, and English and Hindi are increasingly used. Despite the profusion of churches, most of the population are Hindu (64.7% in 1991), although there is a significant Christian minority (29.9%) and a Muslim one (5.3%). Goa is the most urbanized state in India (49.8% of the population in 2001) and, of the territories, only Delhi, Chandigarh and Pondicherry have higher urbanization rates. The largest town and the state’s industrial centre is Vasco da Gama, on the promontory marking the south of the Zuari delta, and its port of Mormugao (Marmagao) is one of the busiest in the region. The next largest town is the capital, Panaji (Panjim), while the commercial capital of the south is Margao (Madgaon), headquarters of the rich taluk of Salcete, part of the original ‘Old Conquest’ region, which also includes Bardez (a taluk headquartered in Mapusa), to the north of Panaji. The main town of the Hindu interior is Ponda. The state is divided into two districts. History Today’s State of Goa is very much defined by its experience of Portuguese rule, but its history, as part of the Konkan Coast, predates the arrival of Vasco da Gama and his fellow

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countrymen at the end of the 15th century. According to legend, Goa, if identified with Gomant in the Mahabharata, like Kerala, was another territory wrested from the sea by Parasurama, the sixth incarnation of Vishnu. Shiva and Rama and Sita are also supposed to have stayed in the area. In other Vedic sources the low-lying land beneath the Western Ghats is also called Gomant, but also Govapuri or Gove. The ancient Hindu city (Goa Velha—distinct from Velha Goa, the Old Goa of the Portuguese) of Govapuri or Gopakapattana lies in the south of the ‘island of Goa’ and once dominated trade along the Zuari, until silting inhibited traffic and the Bahmanis sacked the city in the 15th century, some decades before the arrival of the Portuguese. There is some mention of Goa in the famous rock edicts of the great Mauryan emperor, Ashoka (who sent the Buddhist monk, Dharmarakshita, to the region), where the local people are described as Peitinikas, Rashtrikas and Bhojas. Certainly, shortly after the Mauryan era, when the Satavahanas annexed the Konkan Coast, the Bhojas were the name of the related house to administer the region on their behalf. A dynasty of this name seems to have survived into the Christian era, as archaeological evidence from the fourth to the seventh centuries reveal a Bhoja dynasty still in Chandrapura (now Chandor, just to the south-east of Margao). However, the Konkan region was under the Abhiras and their vassals, the Traikutakas, from the fourth century, then, briefly, under the Kalachuris and their vassals, another dynasty by the name of Maurya, in the middle of the sixth century. From 578–750 the overlords of the region were the Western Chalukyas, a dynasty of northern Karnataka, who were replaced by the Rashtrakutas until 1020. The Later Western Chalukyas (see History of Karnataka below) then became the dominant power on the Konkan Coast until the mid-12th century, installing the Kadambas as feudatories who were to outlast them (from 1163 to the beginning of the 14th century the Kadambas owed allegiance to the Yadavas or Sevunas, based in modern Maharashtra). Gopakapattana was developed as the capital city of the region by the Kadamba rajah, Jayakeshi I. One of his successors, Kavadeva, was ruling Goa and its environs when Yadava authority on the Konkan Coast collapsed at the end of the 13th century, because the Muslim armies of the Delhi Sultans had begun incursions into peninsular India. Kavadeva defended against the opportunistic advances from the south of the Hoysalas, defeating Balalla III early in 1301, but did not prevent further Yadava-Hoysala rivalries. However, the great Hoysala king soon had to deal with invasions by Muslim generals himself, while the Yadavas were gradually eliminated completely. Kavadeva’s city of Gopakapattana was itself probably sacked in 1312—certainly the capital was moved to the fortifications of Chandrapura in 1318, only later to fall to the forces of Muhammad bin Tughluq (Sultan of Delhi in 1325– 51). The Kadambas seem to have retained some territory in Goa, but they were now minor players in the emerging contest for the Konkan Coast between Vijayanagar and the initially dominant Bahmani sultans from the mid-14th century. After a short period of peace between the two empires, problems within the Bahmani realm meant that the forces of Vijayanagar under Madhav Mantri re-established Hindu suzerainty along the Konkan Coast. By 1380 he had conquered the Kadamba capital of Chandrapura and occupied the Konkan capital at Gopakapattana or Govapuri. Madhav made Govapuri the seat of the viceroy of Konkan and dominated the western defences of Vijayanagar for the rest of the century. Goa flourished as a trading centre specializing in the import of horses, essential to the military of both the Deccan powers. There is a


recorded succession of viceroys right up to about 1454, when a Baichanna Wodeyar held the post. The power of Vijayanagar in the region seems to have waned thereafter, perhaps a symptom of weakening central authority against powerful local nayaks, because formal Muslim conquest seems not to have taken place until 1470–72 (although Portuguese chroniclers believed it to have been as early as 1440), when ancient Govapuri was sacked and abandoned, and a new city built at what is now Old Goa. The nayaks of Konkan had included two Maratha brothers, Kanoji and Appaji, who ruled Bankapur, which took in Goa. After them it was their uncle, Sabaji (whose brother, Timoja, was an admiral of Vijayanagar), who ruled Goa itself for the Muslim governor of Konkan. The third governor attempted to make his fief the basis for a successor state of the disintegrating Bahmani kingdom in 1490, but was defeated and killed only three years later and the Konkan Coast fell to the Adil Shahis in Bijapur (now Karnataka), with Goa being developed as a second capital of the sultans. The Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama, arrived off the coast of Kerala on 17 May 1498 and direct contact between Christian Europe and India was made for the first time. Pedro Alvares Cabral led the second voyage in 1500 and established a Portuguese base or factory in Kochi (Cochin, in Kerala) in 1503. By this time da Gama had set sail on his second voyage, in 1502, charged by the royal Government with replacing the Arabs as controllers of the sea trade with India, which ambition had been achieved by the Portuguese within two decades. At the foundations of this power, of which the first opponents were the naval powers of Kozhikode (Calicut, in Kerala), Egypt and Gujarat, was the first Viceroy of a ‘State of India’ (Estado da India) appointed in 1505, Francisco de Almeida, who first developed friendly relations with another nominally anti-Muslim power, Vijayanagar (which had, so far, failed to retake Goa). In 1509 he was succeeded by Afonso de Albuquerque, who seized the ‘island of Goa’ (Tiswadi) in 1510 and made it the capital of a burgeoning Portuguese empire in the East Indies, with Malacca (Melaka, now in Malaysia) being taken in 1511 and Ormuz (Hormuz), the strait controlling the entrance to the Persian (Arabian) Gulf (now lying between Oman and Iran), in 1515, although an attempt to take Aden (now in Yemen), at the mouth of the Red Sea, failed. Later in 1515, on 15 December, Albuquerque died, although he had already consolidated Portuguese authority on the ‘island of Goa’ and mapped out the development of the administration and policy in the new territory—the population was militarized and the intermarriage of the Portuguese men with local women was permitted, in order to create a loyal population, who came to be known as Casados, with preferential entry to the lower orders of the administration and military. Although the Muslims of Goa were massacred when Albuquerque finally secured the city in 1510, a Hindu governor was initially appointed and most local customs were not interfered with until Christian proselytizing by Roman Catholic orders began in earnest. This was felt in force after the introduction of the Inquisition in 1540—the most famous missionary, Francis Xavier, a Jesuit, arrived in 1542 (he was recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 1622)—and in 1543 Goa became the seat of an archbishop. At the same time, in 1543, the period of the socalled Old Conquest ended in Goa, leaving its name for the central territories of modern Goa—the island of Tiswadi, Bardez to the north and Salcete to the south. Bijapur had tried to retake Goa in 1516, but had failed, and then lost Bardez, Salcete and Ponda to the Portuguese in 1520, when distracted by war with Vijayanagar. Bijapur had recovered the

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territories, only to lose Bardez and Salcete again in 1532, when a local governor, Asad Khan, gave them to the Portuguese in return for help against the sultan. However, a change in monarch restored Asad Khan to loyalty and he seized the two territories back for Bijapur in 1536. In a subsequent dispute between Asad Khan and the sultan, the Portuguese sided with the latter and were rewarded with the final settlement of Bardez and Salcete in 1543, concluding the Old Conquest in Goa (Diu and Daman—now the two parts of a separate union territory, consisting of enclaves in Gujarat—were also added, in 1541 and 1559, respectively). Their position was confirmed by defeating a grand alliance under Bijapur in 1570, at which time the economic welfare of the territory required a relaxation of religious persecution of Hindus, in order not to drive them all away. By this time Goa was the seat of an archbishopric and a city with the same civic privileges as Lisbon (the capital of Portugal), and it was at its most prosperous and powerful between this time and the end of the century. It was to be broken not by a local threat, but by another European power, the Dutch, who were fighting for freedom from the rule of Spain (with which Portugal was in personal union with between 1580 and 1640). The Dutch blockaded Goa in 1603 and 1639, the latter time only four years after disease had ravaged the colony to such an extent that the defences had relied on criminals deported from Lisbon. By 1668 the Dutch had driven the Portuguese from most of their Indian possessions, as well as from Malacca and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Pressure from the Dutch and anti-Portuguese Indian rulers did not stop, with Goa saved from a sustained Maratha attack in 1683 only because they, in turn, were under assault from the Mughals. By this time it had been decided to move the capital to a more secure location, and one less prone to the ravages of disease. A fort was built at Mormugao in 1685, and the Viceroy actually moved to the new town in 1701, although Margao was soon settled upon as the new headquarters instead. In 1759 the capital finally moved to Panaji (Panjim— soon after this the viceroy was redesignated a governor, only for the title to reappear in the early 19th century and then, finally, to become a governor-general from 1837). During these moves Old Goa had rapidly dwindled in size, having had a population of 20, 000 in 1695, but only 1,600 by the mid-19th century. Meanwhile, Dutch power was waning and the Portuguese were no threat to the new European rivalry in India between the French and the British. Thus, the period of the New Conquest began, from 1741, territory being expanded by force or by negotiation with disputatious local rulers. In 1776 the occupation of Fort Tiracol on the north bank of the river now known as the Terekhel extended Goa to its furthest north, while in the south the lands around Canacona and Karwar marked the southern limit, reached in 1791. During this time the Ranes, a Rajput tribe, which had migrated south to settle near Sanquelim and serve as mercenaries to the Portuguese, proceeded to lead a number of serious rebellions against the authorities when their privileges were compromised or their liberties threatened. The most serious were ended in 1855 by a peace treaty with Dipaji Rane, who was awarded the title of Captain, and in 1895, when troops were brought from Portugal and peace was again concluded with the leader, Dada Rane Advalikar. The last Rane revolt was in 1917 and was brutally suppressed. Within the first quarter of the 20th century there emerged the first stirrings of nationalist unrest in British India. In 1930 the National Congress (Goa) was formed to campaign for freedom in Portuguese India, and it demanded the withdrawal of the colonial


power in 1942, gaining official support from the all-India movement in 1946. Civil disobedience in Goa, Daman and Diu began, but was treated harshly by the authorities, particularly as the old Indian Empire around it began to move towards independence in 1947. This militarization of the situation in the colony elicited the formation of movement in favour of armed struggle, Azad Gomantak Dal, in April. Meanwhile, newly independent India attempted to negotiate the incorporation of Goa with Portugal, which was ruled by a nationalist dictator. These attempts failed and India suspended diplomatic relations in 1953. All the Goan nationalist parties started satyagraha (non-violent demonstrations or passive resistance) in August 1954. Activists from India attempted to occupy Tiracol Fort in the same month, while others had already entered Dadra and Nagar Haveli (inland enclaves near the northern territory of Daman) to ‘liberate’ them from Portuguese rule. The Indian Government refused to permit Portuguese forces to reinforce the enclaves and, in 1955, organized an economic blockade of Goa, which heightened tensions but solved nothing. Eventually the National Congress (Goa) urged a dialogue with Portugal, but tensions continued. Finally, in the early hours of 18 December 1961 the Indian Army moved into the remnants of the Estado da India. ‘Operation Vijay’ (Victory) ended successfully one day later and a new administration under a military governor was introduced on 20 December, a date that the Indian Parliament was retrospectively to declare, in 1962, the date of Goa, Daman and Diu’s incorporation (as a Union Territory) into the Union. The first Legislative Assembly was elected in December 1962, with the winners, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MPG), forming the first popular ministry. This party organized a referendum in 1967 on whether Goa should merge into Maharashtra (and Daman and Diu into Gujarat), but the people of the different parts of the territory opted to retain their existing status. The MPG continued to control territorial government until 1979, when Congress displaced them, although the issue of relations with Maharashtra and the status of Marathi continued to dominate politics. On 30 May 1987 Goa parted from Daman and Diu and became a full state of the Union. Meanwhile, regional issues were being displaced by the environment in local politics and the Hindu vote was increasingly contested with the MPG by the rising Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 1999 Congress only won 10 of the 40 seats in the Assembly, but formed a Government under Luizhnio Faleiro until a BJP-led coalition displaced them in November under Manohar Parrikar (not long after the BJP had won both the state’s Lok Sabha seats in the national general election). The coalition proved unable to last the full term of the third state Assembly, and the legislature was dissolved in February 2002, pending new elections, which took place at the end of May. The results were inconclusive, despite Congress hopes of a reaction to the communal violence in Gujarat. The BJP gained 17 seats and Congress 16, and it was the incumbent premier, Parrikar, who was able to form a new coalition, leaving Congress in opposition. Economy Goa is one of the country’s premier tourist destinations and India’s wealthiest state, in terms of per-head wealth (exceeded only by the territories of Chandigarh, Delhi and Pondicherry). The net state domestic product in 1997/ 98, the last year for which figures

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are available, totalled 35,810m. rupees (provisional figures) or 24,309 rupees per head. A compact, small (India’s smallest) state, Goa has relatively well developed infrastructure and 100% electrification of its rural areas, generating a surplus on its energy requirements. In 1998 there were 224 km of national highway in the state, 232 km of state highway and 815 km of district roads, contributing towards one of the highest roadnetwork densities in India. The coastal Konkan Railway connects Goa to Mumbai (Maharashtra) in the north and Mangalore (Karnataka) and as far as Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) in the south. Vasco da Gama also has a freight-rail connection into Karnataka (the two railway lines intersect at Margao), as well as the state’s international airport of Dabolim. The city’s port of Mormugao is by far the largest in the state and a significant sea link on India’s western coast. Educational infrastructure is good, and the state recorded a high literacy rate of 82.3% at the census of 2001. Goa has always had trouble finding enough good agricultural land to feed itself; its main food crop is paddy (56,439 ha, or 139,461 acres, in 1998/99), but also pulses, millets, sugarcane and fruits. The main plantation crops are cashew nuts (52,875 ha) and coconuts (26,858 ha). In 1998/99 Goa produced 227,029 metric tons of paddy, 64,000 metric tons of sugarcane and 121m. coconuts. Livestock included 99,598 head of cattle and 44, 674 of buffaloes in 1998, as well as 89,852 head of pigs and 928,985 poultry. The total area under forest in 1999 was 142,438 ha (38.5% of the total area of the state), almost all of it government owned, and this can produce important revenues from timber, bamboo and barks. With about 105 km of coastline and extensive inland waterways, fishing is an important activity, engaging 30,225 people in 1998/99, according to official statistics, with a catch of 65,841 metric tons, earning some 902.9m. rupees. Traditionally, mining was the only industrial activity of any size in the state up to the 1960s, but others have been developed since, notably the electronics and software industries since the late 1990s. Given the state’s success with tourism, the authorities have been eager to develop more environmentally friendly industries. Iron, manganese and bauxite ores are the most valuable minerals present in Goa, but iron ore, overwhelmingly, is the most important (of 13.7m. metric tons of mineral ores produced in 1996/97, 13.6m. tons were iron ore). In 1997/98 exports (from Mormugao) of iron ore totalled 18.4m. tons and earned 9,060.9m. rupees. The industry employs about 11, 000 people directly and 10,000 indirectly. In addition, there are up to 6,000 industrial units and 18 industrial estates in Goa. In 1998/99 there were 550 factories operating, employing almost 37,000 people. The number of small-scale registered units was 5,765, employing over 39,000 people, while 140 medium and large-scale units employed almost 19,000. A famous beach destination, imbued with a distinctive Portuguese inheritance, as well as a Hindu and even Muslim past, the state has attracted increasing numbers of visitors, reaching some 1.2m. annually by the end of the 1990s. This includes 12% of all India’s foreign tourists and 75% of all direct charter flights. In turn, this has helped to encourage the development of other service-sector activities, such as banking and finance, commerce, transportation and communications.


Directory Governor: MOHAMMAD FAZAL; Office of the Governor, Raj Bhavan, Cabo Raj Nivas, Panaji; tel. (832) 221333; e-mail [email protected]. Chief Minister: MANOHAR PARRIKAR (BJP); Office of the Chief Minister, Secretariat, Idalcao Palace, Panaji 403 001; tel. (832) 223970; fax (832) 223648; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: VISHVAS SATARKAR; Office of the Speaker, Legislative Assembly Complex, Porvorim, Bardez; tel. (832) 410915; fax (832) 411054; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 40 mems: Bharatiya Janata Party 17; Congress—I 16; United Goans Democratic Party 3; Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party 2; Nationalist Congress Party 1; independents 1. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: ASHOK KUMAR; Goa Sadan, 18 Amrita Shergil Marg, New Delhi 110 003; tel. (11) 4629964; fax (11) 4629956.

Gujarat

The State of Gujarat lies in western India, where the peninsula forming much of India joins the Asian mainland. Further along the coast are the mouths of the Indus, in Pakistan, which lies north beyond a broad marshland, the Rann of Kachchh (Kutch). Another Indian state, Rajasthan, is to the north and north-east, and there is a short eastern border with Madhya Pradesh. Maharashtra, with which Gujarat was united as Bombay state until 1960, lies to the south-east and south. The southern border with Maharashtra, as it nears the sea, is broken by Nagar Haveli, part of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Dadra is just to the north of the larger enclave and is entirely surrounded by Gujarat. The territory was once Portuguese, administered from the nearby coastal district of Daman, which (except along the sea) is also enclosed by Gujarat. Daman forms part of another Union Territory, Daman and Diu, the second part of which is an island lying off the Kathiawar peninsula. The total area of Gujarat state is 196,022 sq km (75,713 sq miles). The highly indented coastline of Gujarat is some 1,600 km (almost 1,000 miles) long. In the north-west of Gujarat the Great Rann of Kachchh (a 20,700-sq-km salt marsh) stretches eastwards from the coast, then extends an arm south to join with the Little Rann, which lies at the head of the Gulf of Kachchh. These seasonal swamps and the sea surround the higher ground of the peninsula. South of the Gulf of Kachchh is the fanlike Kathiawar


peninsula, defined in the west by the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay). This region, known as Saurashtra, is centred on the Mandav hills, with the higher Girnar hills to the south and the low Barda hills to the west. Inland (although no part of the state is more than 160 km —99 miles—from the sea), the north-east of Gujarat is an extension of the central ridge of Kachchh, consisting of small plains and low hills. These plains extend into the southeast, beyond the Gulf of Khambhat and over the mighty River Narmada, where they become coastal plains beneath the Western Ghats, running south to the Konkan Coast. The entire eastern border of the state is defined by a crescent of rising land, be it the Western Ghats and the edge of the Deccan or Mount Abu and the arid beginnings of Rajasthan. Rainfall in the state itself is highly variable, decreasing to the north, as Gujarat is not in the direct path of the main rain-bearing winds. Southern Saurashtra and the plains beneath the Ghats can sometimes receive annual rainfall in excess of 1,500 mm (59 inches), but for Ahmedabad on the plains north of the Gulf of Khambhat it is more like 900 mm, while Kachchh, on the edge of the deserts to the north, has often recorded less than 25 mm per year. Most rainfall is during the monsoon, between June and October, when the climate is humid but the extreme heat of the summer is moderated. In the north winter nights can be cold, occasionally even freezing, but in the south temperatures generally are more moderate. According to the provisional results of the March 2001 census, the total population of Gujarat was 50,596,992—although this includes estimates for those districts in the west of the state most severely affected by the earthquake of January of that year. The average population density at the time was 258 per sq km. The state is home to 4.9% of India’s total population, according to the census of 2001, but it includes a higher than average proportion from the Scheduled Tribes (in 1991 tribal people accounted for 14.9% of Gujarat’s population) and lower than average Scheduled Castes (7.4% in 1991). Most of the population are of Indo-Aryan extraction, their language, Gujarati, being of that language family—it is derived from Sanskrit, but influenced by the Apabrahmsa spoken in north-west India in the 10th–14th centuries. Gujarati includes much vocabulary adopted from other languages, notably Persian, but also Arabic, Portuguese and, most recently, English, a feature indicative of its maritime history. English is widely spoken in the urban centres, but the main official minority tongue after Gujarati (which was the first language of an overwhelming 91.5% of the population in 1991) is Hindi (2.9%), followed by Sindhi (1.7%—the language of the neighbouring region of Pakistan), Marathi (1.4%) and Urdu (1.3%). Tribes represented in the state include the Bhil, the Bhangi, the Koli, the Dhubla, the Naikda and the Macchi-Kharwa. Most Gujaratis follow Hinduism (89.5%, according to the 1991 census), but there is also a significant Muslim community (8.7%) and the state is one of the main redoubts of the Jains. Although the Jains (mostly of the Svetembara sect) only constituted 1.2% of the population in 1991, they are influential in business (only banking and commerce were considered truly non-violent activities) and the cultural history of Gujarat. Mahatma Gandhi, who was born in the state, was greatly influenced by Jain concepts such as ahimsa (non-harm or non-violence). There are a small number of Christians and some Sikhs. There are still some Zoroastrian Parsis in Surat, which was their main settlement in India from the 12th century until the rise of Bombay. Gujarat is one of the more urbanized of the major states, with 37.4% of the population living in urban areas in 2001, and has some of India’s largest cities. The old capital,

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Ahmedabad, is the state’s largest city (it was also the country’s sixth-largest city, with a population of 3.52m. in 2001), followed by Surat (10th-largest in India, with 2.43m.) and Vadodara (Baroda—18th, 1.31m.), both in the south-east, and Rajkot (32nd, 966,642) in Saurashtra. The city named for Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhinagar, is located 23 km north of Ahmedabad and was built specifically as the capital in the 1960s, after Gujarat became a separate state. The main city of the west, and the major city most affected by the 2001 earthquake, is Bhuj. The state is divided into 25 districts. History Gujarat has an ancient history, with evidence of some of India’s earliest stoneage settlements and numerous Harappan sites from about 4,000 years ago. The Mauryas incorporated Gujarat into their empire, but as their power declined the region was exposed to invasions from the north-west. A pattern of foreign invaders establishing themselves in India and becoming naturalized can be seen clearly in Gujarat with the Scythian or Shaka people, who arrived in the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era. The originally Zoroastrian Shakas had a Persic empire based in Bactria (northern Afghanistan) and the Punjab. The satraps or governors of the south-western provinces survived the Shaka being displaced by the Kushana, and ruled in Gujarat, Sindh and Baluchistan (the latter two regions in modern Pakistan). These Shakas, known as the Western Satraps or Kshatrapas, adopted the Hindu pantheon and used Sanskrit as the language of government long before the Guptas ensured its revival in royal courts throughout the subcontinent. In fact, their kingdom made strong by wealth, they resisted Gupta domination into the fourth century. In the late first century AD the Kshatrapas had extended their lands into Rajasthan and established a subsidiary satrapy to the north of the Narmada, in Malwa. The latter did not long survive the counter-attack of the Satavahanas, who ruled the western Deccan and had grown rich by encouraging trade with the ports on the Arabian Sea. Chashtana, the general commanded to restore Shaka prestige, founded his own satrapal dynasty and started the fight to reclaim for the Kshatrapas territory beyond Gujarat. His grandson, Rudradaman, who claimed to have completed this mission in around 150, was the greatest of the Kshatrapas. He not only reconquered Malwa, but also defeated the Satavahanas twice and gained extensive new territories in Sindh and Rajasthan, the latter mainly at the expense of the warrior-republic of the Yaudheyas. Rudradaman was also acclaimed for his personal attributes, which, apart from the standard boasts of martial and sporting prowess, seemed intent on promoting him as an ideal of Indian kingship—maybe a conscious policy for a naturalizing dynasty. Significantly, the inscription from which much of this information is taken is the earliest one of any substance to be found in classical Sanskrit. The Mauryas and Satavahanas tended to use variants of Prakrit, the devolved offshoot of Sanskrit from which many of the modern languages of common use were to spring: Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi and Punjabi, for instance. This early use of Sanskrit for official purposes, heralding its regularization under the Guptas, may be an early indication of brahminical revival after long years of Buddhist ascendancy. Almost two centuries later the Kshatrapas came into contact with the expanding empire of the Guptas, as Samudra-Gupta forced his sovereignty into modern Rajasthan


and to the borders of Malwa. Although the Shaka dynasty initially held its own against the Magadhan forces, this merely earned them the determined enmity of the great ChandraGupta II (who reigned c. 375–415), who soon conquered eastern Malwa and was often based there to direct the continuing struggle against the rulers of Gujarat. By 409 numis made evidence suggests that Kshatrapa territory had succumbed in its entirety to Gupta rule. However, it has been suggested that the Guptas not only gained new lands and great wealth from the acquisition of the western ports, but also the rich influence of Gujarati culture and architecture to add to their own achievements. In the sixth century, as the Gupta empire declined and the Huns raided into northern India, devastating Buddhism in the Indus basin and sundering the overland trade route to China, Gujarat’s ports gained in importance. In Saurashtra a local dynasty, the Maitrakas, established itself as independent of the ailing Guptas, although in the mid-seventh century they submitted briefly to the short-lived empire of Harsha Vardhana and, a little later, the Chalukyas claimed to have established a viceroyalty in Gujarat. Meanwhile, the Arabs had entered maritime commerce, controlling the vital horse trade, and Muslim communities were present in a number of ports on India’s western coast. The Maitraka capital of Vallabhi, misheard as ‘Balhara’, was the first Indian place name mentioned by Muslim chroniclers, and the neighbouring territory of Sindh was the first to suffer determined assault by the forces of Islam. Indeed, at the beginning of the eighth century Sindh had succumbed to Muslim rule and, although no further advance into India was to take place for some centuries, some military activity by the Arab princes finished the Maitrakas and left the Chalukyas and the Gurjaras to hold the front in Gujarat. Probably in the wake of the Hun invasions of the sixth century, a nomadic people, the Gurjaras (whence the name Gujarat) had become established in southern Rajasthan. Generally, the Gurjaras share a similarly as obscure origin as the Rajputs, although they certainly spread their influence into the Punjab and made Saurashtra and much of the rest of modern Gujarat their own. One of their royal clans, the Pratiharas, gained the ascendancy in the late eighth century and led the Gurjaras to an empire based on Kannauj (Uttar Pradesh), contesting for supremacy with the Palas of Bengal and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan. Central Gurjara-Pratihara power waned, but in Gujarat the Gurjaras resisted the incursions of Mahmud of Ghazni (Afghanistan) in the 11th century, although they did not prevent the bloody sack and desecration of the temple-city of Somnath, in southern Saurashtra, in 1025. However, it was not until the end of the 12th century that a serious Muslim advance from the Punjab into the rest of India took place, the first example in Gujarat being the sack of its capital Anhilwara (Patan). The ruling dynasty was a Gurjara-Rajput one, an offshoot of the Chalukyas, the Solankis. They maintained an independent Hindu kingdom for a further century, only finally succumbing to the Sultanate of Delhi in the last years of the 13th century. When Gujarat regained its independence, it was under Muslim rulers, be they native or based in Sindh (the latter ruled much of the west of the modern state in the first half of the 15th century). Mongol invasions and the sack of Delhi at the end of the 14th century enabled the governor of Gujarat, a Rajput convert to Islam, to assume independence in the early years of the 15th century. However, it was Ahmad Shah, who became sultan in 1411, who began the consolidation of the kingdom. He also founded Ahmedabad as the new capital of the sultanate, which thrived governmentally and culturally on the co-operation

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between Muslims, Rajputs and even Jains. Thus, although the rulers were always Muslim, they frequently married Rajput princesses and their revenue departments were invariably operated by Jains. After some problem with Malwa aggression in the mid-15th century, Gujarat benefited from the long rule of an exceptional sultan, Mahmud Shah (1459– 1511), who is usually known as Mahmud ‘Bergarha’ (‘Two Forts’ or ‘the Beard’). It was he who conquered Saurashtra, thus gaining control of all the important west-coast ports serving northern India, and ensuring that by the end of the 16th century Ahmedabad was considered one of the richest cities in the world. By 1518 the Gujarat army was strong enough to take Mandu (now in Madhya Pradesh), the capital of Malwa, after the MuslimHindu co-operation that also underpinned that kingdom, disintegrated and the sultan appealed for help to Gujarat. Mandu fell to Gujarati forces again in 1531, although this struggle left Malwa ill-equipped to withstand the Mughals, who had recently become established to the north. Gujarat, meanwhile, was also assailed by a new threat, this one challenging its control of the sea trade upon which its wealth depended: the Portuguese. Portugal, with a secure base in Goa, sent forces against Gujarat several times from 1518, having already bested its navy, and eventually gained Diu and then Daman from the sultanate, which itself fell to the Mughals, under Humayun, in his 1534–36 campaign. However, Humayun’s treacherous sibling, Askari, who had been installed over the incumbent Ahmad Shah, failed to retain Gujarat for the new empire and the sultanate survived for a few more decades, until finally conquered by Humayun’s son, Akbar, in 1573. Under the peace of the Great Mughals Gujarat prospered. This prosperity attracted other Europeans apart from the Portuguese, who soon lost their monopoly on the maritime trade across the Arabian Sea. At the beginning of the 17th century the Dutch and the British both established bases in Surat, which had replaced the more northerly Khambhat (Cambay) as the main port of north-west India. However, the British were eventually to displace the ports of Gujarat altogether by the foundation of Bombay (now Mumbai, Maharashtra), to where the East India Company moved its headquarters from Surat in 1673, and to where many of Gujarat’s merchant classes also followed. Meanwhile, however, the later power of the Europeans was not a major concern in Gujarat, at least, and the future extent of the presidency of Bombay an undreamed of possibility. Instead, the province was a secure part of the Mughal Empire, experiencing upheaval only during succession crises. Thus, in the struggle to succeed Shah Jahan (1627–58), Gujarat provided a base and Surat the wealth for Murad Baksh, the youngest of the aspirant princes. He allied himself to the eventually successful Aurangzeb, the third son, only to be eliminated as a possible threat once victory seemed assured. Gujarat then became the base for another contender, the eldest brother, Dara Shikoh, to make another bid for the throne, only to be defeated and killed. Aurangzeb was secure in his imperial title of Alamgir I and was the last of the Great Mughals, extending the empire into the largest India had seen since that of the Mauryas. One of the impulses for the almost continuous Mughal campaigning in the Deccan from the 1680s until the end of Aurangzeb’s reign was the threat of the Marathas, who established an independent state in the Western Ghats with their great leader, Shivaji, as king. One of his exploits to provoke the Great Mughal had been the 1664 raid on and systematic pillage of Surat, which suffered again in 1670, as Shivaji forged his kingdom.


In 1705 Aurangzeb died and the imperial edifice began to crumble, although there were Mughal emperors in Delhi for another 150 years. Until the end, in 1857, the fundamental legitimacy of Mughal sovereignty was not challenged, even by the British, much of whose early success could be attributed to their operation within the imperial hierarchy. Even the Marathas joined the powerful regional governors in seeking both independence and Mughal legitimacy, motivating the former to join in an intervention in Delhi court politics in 1719. By this time the Marathas were in control of Gujarat, having moved up the Konkan Coast and westwards from Malwa to conquer the north-eastern plains of the modern state. However, the Maratha kingdom, although fairly centralized by the first peshwas (hereditary chancellors), was already devolving into the confederacy of later in the century. Gujarat was held by Maratha clans initially opposed to the peshwas, only acknowledging the primacy of the house of Pune (the Maratha capital, in Maharashtra) at the end of the 1720s, after the defeat of their Muslim ally in the Deccan, Nizam-ul-Mulk. By then the Maratha prince who founded the dynasty of Baroda (Vadodara), Damaji Gaekwad, was pre-eminent in Gujarat, although much territory was also possessed by the Scindias of Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh). Moreover, the Maratha navy was preying on British shipping, as they were seen as allies of the Mughals, helping the revival of the port of Surat (at the expense of Bombay) for a time and enriching the new rajah. Maratha fortunes, generally, were high, but the increasing lack of cohesion under the peshwa was exposed by a succession dispute at the end of the century, at a time when the Maratha princes needed their strength most against the British, who already dominated in Bengal and Bihar and in southern India. The Company administrators in Bombay disrupted British policy in India of not provoking the Marathas by joining the intrigue surrounding the succession to the peshwaship. Since the north-western presidency lacked the territory, resources or manpower of Bengal or Madras (named for the city now known as Chennai, in Tamil Nadu), intervention turned out to be damaging to the British reputation. As the British now had an all-India governor-general based in Calcutta (now Kolkata, West Bengal), however, the authorities felt obliged to support Bombay, while reprimanding its initiative. The crucial decision was to send troops overland from Bengal, shocking the Maratha princes in central and western India by their unexpected appearance in 1778. With the Gaekwad capital of Vadodara most under threat from the Company troops in north Gujarat, it became the first of the major Maratha principalities to acknowledge the suzerainty of the British. Although the Marathas resisted British advances on Pune, despite a defeat near Ahmedabad, this First Maratha War extended British influence into Gujarat. The Second Maratha War (1803–04), in which the Scindia ruler of Gwalior, in northern Madhya Pradesh, was the main opponent of the British, broke Maratha power, and Scindia was obliged to cede territory directly to the Company in northern Gujarat. The final conquest of the Marathas in 1818 formalized the settlement already effectively achieved in Gujarat. Some of the territories of the modern state were ruled directly from Bombay (a separate Gujarat province was created after the suppression of the Great Rebellion, the Mutiny, of 1857), others remained in the possession of the Gaekwads or the myriad princes of Saurashtra. The Kathiawar peninsula possessed one of the most varied political landscapes in India, consisting of 86 distinct units until independence. Meanwhile, the great cities and ports of the region flourished along with imperial trade, exporting not only the produce

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but the people of India. It was in the service of one of Gujarat’s great mercantile houses, for instance, that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), who was born in Porbandar in 1869, went to Natal (South Africa) as a young man. Gujarat provided other leaders of the independence struggle, as well as India’s first nonCongress premier (Morarji Desai, 1977–79), and was the scene of Gandhi’s ‘salt march’, which started the Civil Disobedience Movement of 1930–32. Given that its business community and urban classes enjoyed strong links with Bombay, India’s commercial and financial capital, Gujarat was incorporated into Bombay at independence. The princely states of Kathiawar formed a Union of States of Saurashtra and duly acceded to the new nation of India, although the largest, Junagadh, provoked some controversy before its inclusion. Junagadh, in the south-central Kathiawar, was founded by the Mauryas and served as the Kshatrapa capital, but later acquired Muslim rulers. At the time of the partition of the Empire into Hindu- and Muslim-dominated entities, the local nawab favoured incorporation into Muslim Pakistan. As with the more significant nizamate of Hyderabad (now the capital of Andhra Pradesh), the majority Hindu population objected, while the national Government of the new country could not accept the practicality of a Pakistani enclave deep within Indian territory. Forceful intervention by the Centre secured a different decision and the exile of the prince, who was noted for reserving 11 % of state revenue for maintaining the royal kennels and an obsessive devotion to his dogs. Pakistan continues to claim that Junagadh is rightfully a part of its territory. In 1956, with the linguistic reorganization of the states of India, the strong presence of Gujaratis in Bombay and the historical association (not shared by the city) of Maratha princes ruling the hinterlands of Gujarat and modern Maharashtra encouraged the creation of a bilingual State of Bombay. The Gujarati-speaking element was completed by the addition of Saurashtra and the Union Territory of Kachchh (Kutch). However, a distinct Gujarat state was separated from Marathi-speaking Maharashtra on 1 May 1960. Other territorial changes, or potential changes, to the state have come about only as a result of federal action in the international arena. Thus, in 1961 the Portuguese enclaves on the shores of the Gulf of Khambhat, Daman and Diu, were forcibly annexed to the Republic of India, although they rejected incorporation into Gujarat state in 1967. In 1965 a dispute with Pakistan over the Rann of Kachchh resulted in military confrontation, although a ceasefire on 1 July was accompanied by a decision to resolve the matter through international arbitration, which awarded some 90% of the territory in question to India (Gujarat) in 1968. Meanwhile, a new capital near the chief city, Ahmedabad, was decided upon—it was to be named for Gujarat’s most famous son, Mahatma Gandhi, and, like Chandigarh, was designed by the Swiss Le Corbusier (Charles Edouard Jeanneret). Construction of Gandhinagar began in 1965 and the main government buildings were completed by 1970. Throughout this period the state institutions based here were dominated by Congress. Apart from around the time of the ‘Emergency’ of 1977, Gujarat remained a Congress stronghold until the end of the 1980s. Thereafter, Hindu nationalism disrupted the eclectic traditions of the state (although caste and communal tensions have always been present) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) steadily increased its support, winning power in 1995. National elections that kept the BJP in power at the Centre in 1999 were unusual in Gujarat, in that there was a definite deterioration in Congress support in the state. The BJP achieved office despite the dissensions within the state party and the


frequent clashes with the national leadership (notably in 1996–97), but its popularity suffered after the earthquake of January 2001 (in which the city of Bhuj and many smaller towns in the west of the state were devastated), as well as a cyclone disaster. When this translated into electoral reverses, in October 2001 the national leadership insisted on the resignation of Keshubhai Patel, Chief Minister since 1998, who was succeeded by Narendra Modi. Gujarat, which had hitherto attracted negative international interest mainly over the project to heighten a dam on the Narmada (thus threatening tribal and other homes with flooding), became the focus of much criticism in 2002 and a problem for the national Government, which is also led by the BJP. On 27 February the Sabarmati Express, a train returning Hindu pilgrims and activists from Ayodhya (the controversial site in Uttar Pradesh), was attacked at Godhra railway station. Some carriages were set alight, and 58 people were reported killed. A Muslim mob was blamed, provoking tension throughout India and riots in Gujarat that soon claimed almost 1,000 lives (reports vary) and made about 100,000 homeless. Communal violence continued sporadically for some months. Moreover, ministers in the state Government were accused of inciting the violence and public officials of not only of failing to prevent but even of organizing actions against the Muslim community. Critics included the National Human Rights Commission and a number of foreign countries and international organizations, but the national BJP refused to disown Modi, rejected foreign interference and was forced to acknowledge some pressure from its staunchly militant-Hindu wing. The opposition and some of the BJP’s secular allies in the ruling national coalition continued to demand action against the state authorities and condemned granting permission for state elections within the following year. Modi eventually resigned in July 2002 (although he remained Chief Minister in an interim capacity), with the declared aim of seeking a renewed mandate at the legislative elections scheduled for early 2003 (the Legislative Assembly was dissolved upon Modi’s resignation). Controversy over Gujarat disrupted proceedings in both houses of the national Parliament, where the state is represented by 11 members in the upper chamber and 26 in the lower. Economy At the beginning of the 21st century Gujarat, normally a relatively prosperous state, had problems with continuing drought and a devastating earthquake in January 2001 (153, 080m.-rupees worth of damage was estimated to have been done to infrastructure), contributing to the contraction of the primary sector. Estimates for net state domestic product in 2000/01 put the total at 936,010m. rupees and the per-head figure at 19,228 (the corresponding all-Indian average for income per head was 16,487). The total road length at 31 March 2001 was 73,619 km, of which 2,382 km were national highway and 19,761 km state highway. The total railway length at the same time was 5,312 km. The main port is Kandla, at the head of the Gulf of Kachchh, and there are 39 other ports. The state has 11 airports, the main international airport being at Ahmedabad. Electricity capacity in Gujarat was 8,582 MW in 1999/2000, and all possible villages were electrified. The number of telephone connections at end of November 2001 was 2.6m. In 2001 the literacy rate was 70.0% (61.6% in 1991).

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The primary sector contributed only 16% of gross state domestic product in 2000/01 (compared to about one-quarter in the first half of the 1990s). Agriculture remains an important economic activity for the largest part of the population, although cash crops constitute a more significant part of production than in many other states. In 1999/2000 Gujarat still produced 33% of India’s tobacco, 14% of its groundnuts, 18% of its cotton and 15% of its bajra or bajara (pearl millet). In the same year the state produced 1.02m. metric tons of wheat, 985,000 metric tons of rice, 851,000 metric tons of bajra, 260,000 metric tons of jowar (white sorghum or great millet), together with over 0.5m. tons of other cereals and 406,000 metric tons of pulses. Non-foodgrain production included 718, 000 metric tons of groundnuts, 200,000 metric tons of tobacco and 2.09m. bales of cotton. Rainfall in 2000/01 was less than 40% of the average, resulting in smaller harvests: total foodgrains produced amounted to 2.54m. tons (a little more than threefifths of the previous year’s total) and 1.16m. bales of cotton, for example. The state also produces fruits, vegetables and spices. The 1997 agricultural census counted 6.75m. head of cattle, 6.29m. buffaloes, 6.54m. sheep and goats, and 7.24m. poultry. Gujarat has a long maritime tradition and fish production in 2000/01 amounted to 661,000 metric tons, worth 13,741m. rupees. Forests cover only 9.61% of the total area; teak and bamboo are the principal woods produced. The value of mineral output in 1999/2000 was 31,240m. rupees (7% of the all-Indian total), rising to 47,030m. rupees in 2000/01. Reserves being exploited include limestone (14.03m. metric tons in the latter year), lignite (5.85m. metric tons), bauxite (1.40m. metric tons), dolomite (244,000 metric tons), crude petroleum (5.82m. metric tons) and natural gas (2,827m. cu m). The value of the secondary sector was worth 41% of the total economy in 2000/01. Gujarat is the second state in country in terms of net added value by manufacture and attracts a lot of migrant workers. In 2000 there were 20,050 working factories (provisional figure), with higher than average employment in the sector. Many industrial activities are based directly on primary-sector production, such as sugar refining, dairy products, the processing of oilseeds, and textiles, or the production of salt and cement, and petroleum refining. The state also possesses chemical and pharmaceutical industries, electronics and engineering. One unusual specialization is the largest scrap yard for old ships, at Alang in Saurashtra, where the beach is reputed to have the second-highest tides in the world. Handicrafts are an important village industry, particularly in an area such as Kachchh, where there remains a living tradition. In 2000/01 the tertiary sector contributed 43% of Gujarat’s gross domestic product, maintaining its position as the largest sector of the economy. Transport and communications, trade and business services are all important activities. Tourism has considerable potential, owing to Gujarat’s rich history and culture, ranging from Jain temples and princely palaces, to blended Muslim-Hindu architectural styles and the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. A number of important religious sites in the state include two on the Kathiawar peninsula, the temple at Somnath and Dwarka, which is distinguished by being both one of Hinduism’s four holy abodes and one of its seven holy places. The state is also rich in wildlife, containing the only remaining home of the Asiatic lion (a symbol of the Mauryas adopted by modern India) and of the wild ass in India. There are also reserves for the blackbuck (which, as the second largest of the antelopes


and the fastest long-distance runner of any animal, is favoured by hunters and is now an endangered species). There is a profusion of bird life (parrots and peacocks are common), native species augmented seasonally by migratory birds, and the Rann of Kachchh is the only nesting ground in India of the large flamingo. Directory Governor: SUNDAR SINGH BHANDARl; Office of the Governor, Gandhinagar; tel. (79) 322094. Chief Minister: NARENDRABHAI DAMODARDAS MODI (Bharatiya Janata Party —having resigned his position in July 2002 Modi remained in office in an interim capacity pending legislative elections scheduled for early 2003); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Gujarat, Secretariat, Gandhinagar; tel. (79) 3232611; fax (79) 3222101. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: DHIRUBHAI SHAH; Assembly Secretariat, Gandhinagar; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 182 mems—it was dissolved, pending elections scheduled for early 2003, upon the resignation of Modi as Chief Minister in July 2002; prior to dissolution the status of the parties was as follows: Bharatiya Janata Party 116; Congress—I 55; Rashtriya Janata Party 4; Janata Dal 3; independents and others 4. State Principal Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: Dr K.S.SUGADHAN; A-6 State Emporia Bldg, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3732413; fax (11) 3742482.

Haryana

The State of Haryana lies in northern India, consisting of the eastern end of the historic Punjab region. The state capital, Chandigarh, constitutes a separate territory under the administration of the Union authorities and lies on the western border of Haryana’s northern arm. Here also, but to the north-east, there is a short border with Himachal Pradesh, while the north-eastern tip of this arm of Haryana also touches a tip of Uttaranchal. The eastern border lies along the Yamuna, an inward-curving crescent interrupted only where Delhi has carved out the National Capital Territory in the southeast of the state. Uttar Pradesh lies beyond the Yamuna. The blunt end of Haryana’s southern arm is just to the south of Delhi, and the border then heads north-westwards, separating the state from Rajasthan, until, at the tip of the third arm, it meets the border of Punjab state. Punjab, of which Haryana was a part until 1 November 1966 (the two states still share Chandigarh as a capital), essentially lies to the north-west of Haryana; from the western tip of Haryana the border heads east, and a little south for a time, before gradually curving north-eastwards towards where the Union Territory of Chandigarh


dissects the final stretch of Punjab frontier. These borders enclose an area of 44,212 sq km (17,077 sq miles), making it one of the smaller states of the Union. Physically, Haryana (the ‘heavenly abode’ or ‘green land’) and Punjab form part of the undulating, sometimes sandy (in the south-west), plains stretching between the GangaYamuna Doab and the Indus basin, from the near-desert of Rajasthan to the edge of the Himalayan foothills. Although over 1,000 km (620 miles) from the sea, the plains are less than 275 m (903 feet) above sea level, sloping gently southwards to about 215m. The highest area in the state is in the south, where it skirts the Rewari uplands, a north-eastern thrust of which forms the Delhi Ridge. In the south-east the land drops with the Yamuna to nearer the level of the Doab plains. There are no perennial rivers running through Haryana, the only significant natural waterway being the Ghaggar in the north. The landscape is generally agricultural. Mountains rear up beyond Chandigarh, the Shivaliks, the Outer Ranges of the Himalayas, just to the north-east of Haryana. It is mainly on these great mountains that Haryana depends for its water, a source of irrigation water and because they cause the south-westerly monsoons to divert north-westwards and rain the length of the Gangetic plains and on towards Pakistan. Most rainfall is, therefore, between May and August, with Chandigarh receiving an average of over 400 mm (16 inches) in July alone. There is less average rainfall in the west of the state. Temperatures can reach over 40°C (104°F) just before the summer monsoon, in May, while winters can be cold. The total population of Haryana, according to the provisional results of the census of March 2001, was 21,082,989, giving an average population density of 477 per sq km. The growth in the population since the previous census was higher than the national average, mainly owing to immigration (people seeking work in Delhi and its environs) offsetting the decline in the natural growth rate. In 1991 the Scheduled Castes accounted for 19.8% of the total population, Hindi speakers for 91.0% (Punjabi 7.1% and Urdu 1.6%) and adherents of Hinduism for 89.2% (Sikhs 5.8% and Muslims 4.6%). The latter two facts can be no surprise in a state designed mainly to accommodate a (non-Sikh) Hindi-speaking population in the heartland of Vedic legend. The historic chief cities of Haryana, the national capital of Delhi and its own capital of Chandigarh, have both had separate territories carved out of the state, leaving it with a relatively low rate of urbanization (29.0% in 2001). The largest city in the state is Faridabad, which had a population of 1.05m. in 2001. Other major centres include Gurgaon (like Faridabad, to the south of Delhi), Hisar and Sirsa in the west and, on the Great Trunk Road that crosses northern India, cities such as Panipat (as famed now for weaving as for ancient battles) and Ambala. There are 19 districts. History Haryana lies at the heart of Indian history, at the eastern end of the ancient Punjab and neighbouring the Ganga (Ganges)-Yamuna Doab, central to the arya varta and the gateway for the traditional invasion route from the north-west. The first ascertainable invasion, therefore, was that of the Aryans and Haryana forms much of the landscape for the early legends of Hinduism. Before that the Harappan civilization may have found a conduit into the area up the now ‘lost’ Sarasvati river (of which the Ghaggar may be a remnant), and there is certainly archaeological evidence for settlement even before that time. Haryana

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forms part of a Hindu creation myth, and is certainly the site of Kurukshetra, where the great battle of the Mahabharata was fought and Krishna divulged his divine revelation to Arjuna. The Kuru kingdom of the battling Pandavas and Kauravas was succeeded by Vatsya and thereafter the region succumbed to imperial Magadha. As the empire of the Mauryas declined, the north of India suffered from incursions by the Yavanas (Hellenic dynasties settled in Bactria, modern-day Afghanistan), the Pahlavas (Parthians) and the Shakas (Scythians), Finally, around the first century AD the Yueh-chi or Kushana extended their empire into northern India for a time, with an imperial capital in what is now Pakistani Punjab and a secondary capital to the east of modern Haryana. By the time of the rise of the Gupta empire in the fourth century, Haryana formed part of the territory of the ‘republic’ of the Yaudheyas, who were defeated by Samudra-Gupta and forced to cede land and pay tribute. As the Gupta empire declined and north India suffered the savage incursions of the Ephthalites or ‘White’ Huns (Hiung-nu), the powerful local feudatories began to reassert their independence. The two main ‘frontline’ states, in the eastern Punjab and the Doab and in what is now central Uttar Pradesh, were ruled by the allied families of the Vardhanas and the Maukharis. They probably co-operated to repel the Hun invasions of the early sixth century, while later their conjoined realms would form the core of the last preIslamic pan-Indian empire. The Vardhanas had their capital at Thanesar in Haryana, not far from Kurukshetra, and in the third generation of the dynasty Prabhakhara Vardhana adopted an imperial title. His eldest son, Rajya, seemed to have been a successful warrior, but immediately upon his succession seems to have had to respond to an invasion by Malwa (Malava). The Malwan forces had already defeated and killed the Maukhari king, widowing Rajya’s own sister. However, although Rajya defeated Malwa, its Bengalese ally, Sasanka of Gauda, killed Rajya, allegedly by treachery. The younger son of Prabhakhara, Harsha Vardhana, therefore assumed the throne in around 606, at the age of some 16 years. Through his sister Harsha was able to unite the Maukhari realm with his own, and later removed his court to the more central Maukhari capital at Kannauj (Uttar Pradesh). He also ruled Malwa, but his main enemy was in Bengal, which meant a number of other kings and princes had to submit to Vardhana rule before Harsha could challenge the king of Gauda. Harsha had the alliance of the king of Kamrupa (roughly modern Assam), but, although he extended his empire the length of the arya varta (as well as into Gujarat), it was only in the 620s, after Sasanka’s death, that Bengal was fully incorporated into the Vardhana domain. He received tribute from princes as far apart as Orissa, Kashmir and Sindh (now in Pakistan) and reigned until about 647. Harsha Vardhana, like his brother, was Buddhist (although there is evidence of a resurgent and radicalized brahmanism by the time of his reign), and famed for his generosity and fairness, but he left no dynast to consolidate his empire, which, judging by the speed of its disintegration upon his death, was highly personal in nature. The legacy of Harsha Vardhana was enough to make Kannauj the imperial city of the following centuries, displacing Pataliputra (now Patna, in Bihar), while Thanesar became a noted place for Hindu pilgrimage (it was sacked by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1011). The beginning of serious Muslim incursions in the 11th century put Haryana, now ruled by the Tomara Rajputs, in the direct route of invasion. They had founded a city at Delhi in the eighth century, adding a fort in the 11th century, but the city and its hinterland of


Haryana had been finally conquered by the forces of Islam by the end of the following century, with the defeat of the Rajput leader, Prithviraj III Chahamana in 1193. Haryana’s history then becomes an adjunct of the varied fortunes of Delhi, India’s new imperial city. Haryana remained the preserve of the Sultans of Delhi for longer than the rest of the empire, but the area remained exposed to the traditional invasion route from the northwest. Thus, Delhi was sacked by Timur ‘the Lame’ (Tamerlane or Tamburlaine), a Mongol (or, in India, Mogul or Mughal) leader at the end of the 14th century. By the time a descendent of Timur, Babur, invaded, the Sultanate was weak and had long since lost its wider suzerainty. The last ruler of the last dynasty, Ibrahim Lodi, was killed along with 20,000 others by Babur’s army in a battle to the north of Delhi, at Panipat, on 21 April 1526. Panipat was also the scene of two other battles fundamental to the fortunes of the new Mughal Empire. After the interruption of Sher Shah (leader of the Afghan Sur clan, who displaced Humayun, Babur’s son) and the restoration of the Mughals, Humayun’s son and successor, Akbar, was forced to secure his reign against the threat of a pretender. Hemu (‘Rajah Vikramaditya’) was the chief minister of one of the Sur clan leaders and commander of the Afghan armies. However, Akbar’s regent, Bayram Khan, met the insurgent forces at Panipat on 5 November 1556 and defeated them, securing Delhi for the Mughals. The third battle at Panipat was in the 18th century, during the decline of Mughal power, when Rajput princes contested for control of the Punjab and the now militant Sikhs were establishing their own principalities. The Marathas had also intervened in the politics of the Mughal court, reaching Delhi itself in 1737. The Mughal existed under the their protection thereafter, until 1761, when, at the height of Maratha power, the combined forces of the Peshwa and the principal clans were conclusively defeated by an invading army under Ahmad Shah Abdali, another Afghan ruler. The battle was at Panipat, on 13 January 1761, and was, ultimately, to leave the imperial city exposed to British occupation in 1803. In the early years of the 19th century, therefore, the frontier of British was the Yamuna, although Delhi and parts of southern Haryana were also occupied. In effect, however, British influence extended as far as the Sutlej, with many of the princes in this intermediate region acknowledging the supremacy of the East India Company. Much of the eastern Punjab was known as the region of the ‘Cis-Sutlej States’, and that this was a region of British influence was conceded by the ruler of the Sikh kingdom of Punjab, Ranjit Singh, the ‘Maharajah of Lahore’, in 1809. However, the incorporation of the Sikh kingdom into British India by the mid-century meant Haryana was no longer a border territory. In the Great Rebellion consequent upon the Mutiny of 1857, some of the local princes rose against the British when the rebellious soldiers took the Mughal at their figurehead. However, most of the Punjab remained loyal, as did the Sikhs (such as the rajah of Jind), and when the British regained control of Haryana by November, the nawabs of Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh, the rajah of Ballabgarh and Rao Tula Ram of Rewari were deprived of their estates. These territories were either taken under direct British administration or distributed to the loyal Sikh princes, not only Jind, but also Nabha and Patiala (the latter two based in modern Punjab state). Many of these principalities survived until independence, by which time Haryana was again the hinterland of an imperial capital, as Delhi had been made the chief city of British India in 1912. However, Delhi was to serve as the capital of a truncated nation upon independence, as the Muslim


provinces opted to become the separate country of Pakistan. In 1947, therefore, the Punjab was partitioned between Pakistan and India, resulting in extreme levels of communal violence, mass migrations of Hindus and Sikhs into Indian territory and of Muslims in the other direction, and human tragedy on a horrific scale. After independence Indian Punjab was organized as: a (from 1950) ‘Part A’ state called Punjab; the former-princely (‘Part B’) Patiala and the East Punjab States Union (PEPSU); and the Punjab hill states, most of which were grouped in the Tart C Himachal Pradesh territories. This complicated arrangement was bound to be reorganized under any reexamination of the federal structure of the Union, but the secular Centre was determined it could not grant the continuing separatist aspirations of the Sikhs as such. With the linguistic reorganization of the states in 1956, PEPSU was merged into Punjab, but Sikh agitation continued and, ultimately, the federal principles were preserved only by distinguishing Punjabi from other Hindi dialects and declaring it a separate language entitled to a separate state. Most Punjabi speakers were Sikhs, so on 1 November 1966 ‘rump’ Punjab remained as the Sikh state, while the predominantly Hindu (or, rather, Hindi-speaking) areas were either grouped into a new Haryana state, in the south-east, or added to the territory of Himachal Pradesh. Chandigarh remained the capital of both states, but became a centrally administered Union Territory, pending a decision on whether it would be ceded to Haryana or Punjab. There was a decision in favour of Punjab, but it has remained the joint capital and a separate territory ever since. Political Hindu chauvinism is strongly supported in the state, although any extremism present in other parts of India is blunted by relative wealth, and the local party attracting such support is the Indian National Lok Dal (a Haryana party despite its name) rather than the national Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Congress remains the other main party, but is currently in opposition. The Indian National Lok Dal returned to power after the latest state elections, in March 2000, with 47 of the 90 Assembly seats. Its leader, Om Prakash Chautala, became Chief Minister for his fifth term (his first was in 1989). The state also sends 10 representatives to the all-India Lok Sabha and five to the Rajya Sabha. Economy Haryana is the second-most prosperous state in the Union, after neighbouring Punjab, with good physical infrastructure and the advantages of being near to Delhi. The total net domestic product of the state in 1999/2000 was 416,270m. rupees, with per-head income, at current prices, 21,114 rupees. Quick estimates by the state authorities put income per head at 23,742 rupees in 2000/01. The total length of roadways in Haryana in 1999 was 23,684 km, of which 656 km was national highway and 3,135 km state highway. There is an extensive railway network, as the state lies so near to the Delhi hub of so many routes, and five civil airports. At December 2001 installed electrical capacity was 3,124.5 MW, of which 28% came from the state’s own stations (mainly thermal), 29% from jointly owned projects (such as major hydroelectric schemes in Himachal Pradesh) and the rest from central projects or otherwise imported. Haryana was the first state to achieve 100% rural electrification, in 1970. There were almost 355,314 live telephone connections at the end of 1996/97. Literacy was reckoned at 65.4% of the


population over seven years of age, according to the 2001 census, up from 52.2% in 1991, indicating the predominance of a rural population. Some 80% of the population worked in agriculture. The primary sector of the economy, which constituted 42.5% of the total in 1993/94, accounted for 33.0% by 2000/01 (constant prices), with agriculture and allied activities being the main contributor. Haryana is one of the main grain-producing areas of India, providing a large surplus for sale outside the state, and is particularly noted for its basmati rice. The net area sown has amounted to just over four-fifths of the total area since the mid-1980s, so any improvement in yields depends on fertilizers, better irrigation or more productive crop varieties. Moreover, the dominant paddy-wheat rotation has not been good for the soil or the water table, while the overall increase in land cultivated since separate statehood has not stopped the two-crop dominance rising from 28% of the land sown in the early 1970s to 56% by the beginning of the 2000s. Total food grain production rose from 11.3m. metric tons in 1997/98 to a record 13.3m. tons in 2000/01 (compared with only 4.8m. tons in 1970/71). Provisional figures for 2000/01 put wheat production at 9.65m. metric tons, sugarcane (gur) at 8.22m. metric tons, rice at 2.68m. metric tons, oilseeds at 0.57m. metric tons and cotton at 1.38m. bales. Horticulture is now being encouraged, exploiting the nearness of the vast metropolis of Delhi, such that between 1990/91 and 2000/01 fruit production rose from 99,800 metric tons (planted on 12,640 ha) to 232, 000 tons (on 30,715 ha) and vegetable production has reached 2.1m. metric tons (on 133, 000 ha). Flowers have witnessed particularly rapid growth, accounting for only 50 ha at the beginning of the 1990s to 3,200 ha at the beginning of the 2000s, while the weight of mushroom produced went from 850 metric tons to an estimated 4,500 tons by 2001/02. Animal husbandry is another important agricultural sector, Haryana possessing a total of some 9.9m. head of livestock; 45% are buffaloes, which provide over 80% of milk production (4.85m. metric tons in 2000/01, making the state one of the leading producers in India). The state is famed for its Murrah buffaloes and Harriana breed of cows. Other livestock products include 80.1m. eggs and 2.4m. metric tons of wool. Fisheries were encouraged in the last decades of the 20th century and Haryana now has one of the most productive industries in the country—in 2000/01 the state landed 33,040 metric tons of fish. Forestry is negligible, as only 3.5% of the total area is classified as forest, although the state authorities are trying to increase woodland cover and tree plantings. The secondary sector’s share of net state domestic product rose from 26.2% in 1993/ 94 to 28.1% in 2000/01. Manufacturing alone, which was still performing well into the beginning of the 2000s, saw its share of net domestic product rise from 18.7% to 21.0%. In 1999 there were 7,813 registered factories, while in 2001 Haryana had the highest number of large and medium-sized enterprises of any state in the northern region of India (1,097—compared with only 162 in 1966), as well as 74,682 small industrial units. The state produces the largest number of motor cars in the country, and also leads in tractors, motor cycles, bicycles, gas stoves, scientific equipment, sanitary wear, etc. Other activities include food processing, textiles, television manufacture, handicrafts and loom work, and the production of machine tools and computer technology. The Panipat petroleum refinery is increasing its capacity and a petro-chemicals company is being located nearby. Finally, the state is a leader in the ‘bio-tech’ sector.


The tertiary sector (transport, trade, banking, public administration, education and health) increased its share of the state economy from 31.3% in 1993/94 to 38.9% by 2000/01. The most valuable contributor was trade (third in importance after agriculture and manufacturing), performing strongly in 2000/01, taking its own share to 16.1%, from 11.6%. Exports have increased dramatically. When Haryana came into existence in 1966 its export trade was worth only 45m. rupees, but by 2001 the corresponding value had reached about 70,000m. rupees, of which 30,000m. rupees came from Gurgaon software exports alone (making Haryana the third-largest exporter of software technology after Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh). Traders, and business in general, have been helped by government reforms and economic liberalization during the 1990s. In tourism the state has advanced what it calls ‘highway tourism’, developing facilities along the great roads that traverse Haryana, while also developing conference centres, golf courses and other sporting centres. Directory Governor: BABU PARMANAND; Office of the Governor of Haryana, Raj Bhavan, Chandigarh; tel. (172) 740654; e-mail [email protected]. Chief Minister: OM PRAKASH CHAUTALA (Indian National Lok Dal); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Haryana, Civil Secretariat, Chandigarh; tel. (172) 740356; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly): SATBIR SINGH KADIAN (Indian National Lok Dal); Assembly Secretariat, Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Chandigarh; tel. (172) 740030; e-mail [email protected]; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 90 mems: Indian National Lok Dal 48; Congress—I 19; Bharatiya Janata Party 6; Haryana Vikas Party 2; National Congress Party 1; Republican Party of India 1; Bahujan Samaj Party 1; independents and others 12. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: MADHUSUDAN PRASAD; Haryana Bhavan, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3384354; fax (11) 3384913.

Himachal Pradesh

The State of Himachal Pradesh (Himalayan Land) lies in north-western India, in the mountains above the ancient Punjab. In the east there is an international border with the People’s Republic of China (Xizang—Tibet), while to the south-east is another mountain state, Uttaranchal, formed from Uttar Pradesh in 2000. On the plains, west of the border that runs roughly from the south-east to the north-west, is the historic region of the Punjab, of which, part of Himachal Pradesh once formed the hill country—there is a short border with Haryana in the south-west, while a Punjab state lies to the west. In the north the state border curves into Jammu and Kashmir. Himachal Pradesh was formed on 15 April 1948, as a union of 30 former princely states, which was joined by Bilaspur on 1 July 1954. In 1966 more territory was added in the west of Himachal Pradesh, when the old Punjab state was reorganized into Haryana and Punjab (and Chandigarh). It was a centrally administered territory until 25 January 1971, when it became the 18th state of the Union. Sometimes known as Devbhumi, the ‘home of the gods’, the mountainous state covers an area of 55,673 sq km (21,504 sq miles).

STATES (HIMACHAL PRADESH) 109

Himachal Pradesh is orientated along the ranges rising towards the Great Himalayas, here running roughly from the north-west to the south-east. The innermost range is the Pir Panjal, while the outermost fence of the Lesser Himalayas, thrust further into the plains in the south, is the Shivalik Hills, while in between are ranges like the Parvati (Parbati). In the north and east are the bleak, arid plateau uplands of Lahul and Spiti, while the western parts of the state encroach onto the edge of the Punjab plains, the north consisting of the old region of Kangra and the centre Bilaspur. The highlands are complicated by the thrust of the great river valleys, with the Sutlej traversing the south of the state, exiting into the lowlands north of the Shimla Hills, while, further north, the upper Beas flows south through the Kullu valley before turning west into the Indus basin proper. In the north-west the valley of the Dhaola Dhar (Ravi), with the town of Chamba at the entrance, provided the natural setting for another of the old mountain kingdoms, while further in is the valley of the Chenab, which heads north and a little west out of the mountainous centre of Himachal Pradesh. In the south-west the Yamuna, which drains into the Ganga (Ganges) and hence into the Bay of Bengal, forms part of the state border with Uttaranchal. The highest peak in the state is Shilla, at 7,026 m (23,051 feet), while the lowest land is around 300 m. The immense altitude differences, as well as the varied effects of rain shadow, give the state a range of climatic conditions, from temperate to subtropical, and its thickly wooded terrain a range of vegetation types. The north and east tends to be very dry, but most of the state benefits from the monsoon. Average annual rainfall is 1,520 mm (59 inches), about one-half of which falls in the monsoon. Kangra, then Shimla, are the wettest places. According to the provisional results of the 2001 census—which in Himachal Pradesh had to be based on estimates for Kinnaur District, owing to disruptions from ‘natural calamity’ (the state is prone to flooding and landfalls, the latter sometimes occasioned by earthquakes)—the total population of the state was 6,077,248. This gave an average population density of 109 per sq km. The main language is an obscure Hindi dialect known as Pahari, with 88.9% claiming Hindi as their main language at the 1991 census. Punjabi accounted for a further 6.3%, with the main Nepali language, Kinnauri, at only 1. 2%. Kashmiri followed, with some Urdu speakers. Religious adherence follows linguistic affiliation, with Himachal Pradesh known as the most Hindu state in the Union, 95.9% of the population adhering to that religion in 1991 (1.7% Muslims and 1.2% Buddhists). These figures obscure the strong influence of Buddhism on the region, however, with a particularly blended form of Hinduism among the Kinnauris, for instance, although most of the tribes have assimilated into a more mainstream Hindu culture, with less rigid caste systems—for example, the Gaddis, Gujars and Pangwalas. The Patians of Lahul and Spiti observe a more direct form of Buddhism, but the main reason for continuing Buddhist adherence in the region is that Dharamshala is the home of the Dalai Lama (the spiritual leader of the Tibetans). With an urban population of only 9.8% of the total in 2001, Himachal Pradesh is the most rural state or territory in India. The state capital since 1966 has been Shimla (Simla), in the south-west of the state. The other main towns are, just to the south of Shimla, Solan, and over the hills to the north-west, Bilaspur. North-east of Bilaspur lie Mandi and Kullu, and north-west of it Hamirpur and Kangra, then Chamba in the far north-west. The state is divided into 12 districts.


History The Kols or Mundas are believed to be the first settlers in the hill country, followed by Mongoloid Bhotas or Khiratas, before the Aryans moved in here from the Punjab, even as they were spreading down into the Doab and onto the Gangetic plains. The early roots of Hinduism are here, with some in the Sangla valley still claiming direct descent from the Pandavas of the Mahabharata. The Kullu valley, particularly, is steeped in Hindu myth, lying as it does at the start of the great trans-Himalayan trade routes and the edge of the ‘known world’. Himachal Pradesh, once the hill country of the historic Punjab, was soon very much dominated by Aryan clans, with some of the most prominent of the old ‘republics’ or limited monarchies being those of the Audumbras (the main tribe, with their own state in the second century BC), the Trigartas, the Kulutas and the Kulindas. The Mauryan empire subdued the tribal realms and, under Ashoka, introduced Buddhism. The precarious independence of the hill peoples regularly succumbed to the empires of the Punjab or the north-west, as well as to the imperial Guptas of Magadha, but in between the local chiefs, the thakurs and the ranas, ruled as they wished. By the end of the first millennium AD, the Rajputs were beginning to establish their domains in the hill country (notably the kingdom of Kangra or Nagerkot), although from the 10th century the states in the foothills were be prone to Muslim incursions. The great Hindu dynasty of the Shahis, based in Kabul (now Afghanistan), were the main bulwark India had against serious Muslim invasion, their power stretching into the Punjab and its hill country. However, they steadily lost land to the hosts of Islam, Kabul falling in 870, and although they consolidated their southern realms, with new capitals in the Punjab (latterly Lahore, now in Pakistan), Muslim kingdoms became established in the north and west. In the latter part of the 10th century the Shahis came under increasing pressure from the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty, under pressure from whom they moved their capital to Kangra. However, the greatest of the Ghaznavids, Mahmud (who had succeeded to the throne in 997), regularly defeated Anandapala Shahi (who had succeeded his defeated and humiliated father in around 1001). The most serious Shahi defeat came in 1008, when the whole of the western and northern Punjab fell, including the great treasure house of Kangra. Shahi wealth and power was fatally compromised, and Muslim raids soon reached as far as the temple cities of the eastern Punjab and the Gangetic plains. The last Shahi to offer resistance, Trilochanapala, was finally forced to seek haven in Kashmir, where a Hindu dynasty survived, probably because it had failed to support the refugee from the Punjab. Kangra itself recovered some independence and power, probably ranking second after Kashmir among the Himalayan realms, with the ‘Middle Kingdom’ of Chamba between the two. Deeper into the mountains, in the 10th century Ladakh ruled Lahul, Spiti and Zanskar (the last now in Jammu and Kashmir), with the emergent principality of Kullu as a tributary. In the 15th century Kullu expanded out of the upper Beas valley as far as Mandi, and Kullu actually became the capital in the 17th century. It also acquired Lahul and Spiti, Ladakh having been defeated by a combined Mongol-Tibetan force, and ruled eastwards as far as the Sutlej. Kullu benefited from its control of an important trade route, which, however, could attract unwelcome attention, such as that of the Sikh kingdom in the 19th century. The Sikhs had become established in the hill country mainly in the 18th century, seeking refuge from the Mughals, the first arriving to help Sirmaur in


1695. Meanwhile, Kangra had been captured by the future Shah Jahan, for his father, Jahangir, in 1620, reducing the territory to a Mughal province, but enriching the culture of its neighbours as many fled to Kullu and Chamba (the latter acknowledged Mughal suzerainty, but remained autonomous until the first half of the 19th century). Kangra reasserted its independence as Mughal power faded in the 18th century and, under Sansar Chand Khatok II (1775–1823), it conquered a number of other hill states, while its commerce and arts flourished. Continuing success was limited by the Ghurkha threat; the aggressive Ghurkha kingdom of Nepal had taken an interest in the hill states from about 1768, and the Ghurkha armies had already taken Sirmour and Shimla in the foothills before defeating Kangra in 1806 (aided by many of the hill peoples Sansar Chand had made into his enemies). The Sikh kingdom of Ranjit Singh (Rajah of Lahore since 1799) was also rapidly expanding in the area and, by an 1809 treaty of non-aggression with another rising power, the British, was free to intervene in what is now Himachal Pradesh. He held Kangra fort against the Ghurkhas (as sanctioned by the Treaty of Amritsar—Punjab), who had also earned British opposition once they began to head south, rather than west against the kingdom of Ranjit Singh. The Punjab became split between the kingdom based in Lahore and the British sphere of influence east of the Sutlej. However, the death of Ranjit Singh (1839) freed the British to intervene in the politics of the court of Lahore, and when they crossed the Sutlej in 1845 they were supported by many of the hill princes. South-eastern Himachal Pradesh had already fallen under British influence, the region’s attraction as a refuge from the summer heat of the plains leading to the rise of ‘hill stations’ or resorts such as Shimla (1819). The British headquarters in the north-west of the modern state was to be Dharamshala (which became the seat-in-exile of the Dalai Lama after his flight from Tibet—now part of the People’s Republic of China—in 1959), which became the administrative centre of Kangra, and extended its rule over Kullu in 1847. Generally, the hill rajahs were loyal to the British, their prestige enhanced by their proximity to the Empire of India’s summer capital (between 1865 and 1939) at Shimla. The hill station therefore acquired buildings to house the Central Legislative Assembly for British India in the 1920s, furnishing it to be the temporary capital of the Indian Punjab after Partition (until Chandigarh was ready). Much of the freedom movement that engulfed India in the years leading up to independence was directed against the princes—some (Chamba, Mandi and Bilaspur, for instance) had progressive reputations, but reformism tended to be the focus of activity in this area, rather than anti-British sentiment, although this was another expression of the independence struggle and Congress was active in Kangra especially. After independence 30 of the princely states were united into a single province, known as Himachal Pradesh, which became a ‘Part C’ (centrally administered) state under the 1950 Constitution. On 1 July 1954 Bilaspur joined the state. Himachal Pradesh had elected its first Assembly in 1952, only to lose it in 1956, upon being redesignated a Union Territory. Himachal Pradesh regained an Assembly in 1963 and extra territory in 1966 (notably Kangra and Shimla, which became the capital), upon the reorganization of Punjab. The territory achieved full statehood in January 1971. The most recent state elections were in March 1998, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) displaced the Congress Government of Virbhadra Singh (who had been premier in 1983–90 and in


1993–98). The BJP leader, Prof. Prem Dhumal, became Chief Minister. The main opposition group is still Congress, which shares the state’s four Lok Sabha seats with the BJP. The state also fills three seats in the Rajya Sabha. Economy Himachal Pradesh is not a particularly prosperous state, but it is the wealthiest of the mountain states, helped by remittances from workers migrating to the nearby wealth of Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. In 1999/2000, according to centrally submitted figures, the net domestic product of the state was 99,710m. rupees or 15,012 rupees per head. However, figures from an annual economic survey put state income that year at 119,831. 3m. rupees or 17,786 rupees per head, rising to 129,419.6m. rupees and 18,920 rupees, respectively, in 2000/01. These figures are boosted by capital expenditure in Himachal Pradesh, with the Centre and other states investing in major infrastructure projects (power and irrigation), as well as the local Government, although the latter concentrates on developing roads and bridges. The mountainous terrain limits transport options, but, from a low base, Himachal Pradesh had achieved a total 27,217 km of motorable roads (including tracks negotiable by four-wheel-drive vehicles) by the end of March 2001. The three stretches of national highway amount to 1,235 km. There are only two lengths of narrow-gauge railway track (209 km in all) and one broad-gauge track (16 km), three airstrips and 54 helipads. Waterways are unsuitable for transport, but are essential to the infrastructural development of the state, given their potential for power generation and the profusion of resource necessary for irrigation. By the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, between India and Pakistan, the exploitation of the shared great rivers (for Himachal Pradesh, the Beas, the Sutlej and the Ravi) of the Punjab and the Indus basin was settled. Thus, the way was open for projects such as the Bhakra-Nangal Dam, one of the highest in the world at 225 m (738 feet), which provides electricity for Delhi, Haryana and Punjab and water for the great Rajasthan (Indira Gandhi) Canal. The total hydroelectric potential of Himachal Pradesh has been put at 21,000–25,000 MW, although only 3,942.07 MW had been harnessed by 2001 (of that only 326.80 MW was directly under the state Government, the rest being for the Centre and other agencies). All villages had been electrified by 1988. The literacy rate at the time of the 2001 census was put at 77.1%, up from 63.9% in 1991. The contribution of the primary sector overall to the economy in 2000/01 was 27.4%. Agriculture and allied activities (which directly employed 71% of the working population in 2001) alone contributed 22.5%, although this share had fallen from 57.9% in 1950/51 and 26.5% in 1990/91. Most of the available land has now been brought into use, so productivity is now the focus of agricultural policy. Total foodgrain production has risen from some 200,000 metric tons in 1951/52 to 1.4m. tons in 1999/2000. Provisional figures for 2000/01 put total foodgrain production at only 1.2m. tons (maize 683,640 tons, rice only 124,890 tons and wheat only 350,000 tons, compared to over 640,000 three years previously). Vegetables production rose from 25,000 metric tons in 1951/52 to 580,000 tons in 2000/01, while ginger (dry) reached 370,000 metric tons by the latter year. However, the sector is obviously very weather dependent, particularly for crops such as fruit, which are not very robust but very important to the Himachal Pradesh


economy. Thus, fruit production of 447,680 metric tons in 1998/99 fell to only 89,410 tons in 1999/2000, before recovering to 428,030 tons the following year. Apples are the main fruit, usually accounting for almost 80% of total production, but the varied climatic conditions can suit both temperate and sub-tropical fruits. Pulses and oilseeds are also grown, and the state is attempting to replicate the success of a high-value crop like ginger by attempting to introduce tea. Livestock products in 2000/01 included 775,000 metric tons of milk, 60.56m. eggs and 1,650 metric tons of wool. The state also processes milk for paneer, butter and ghee. Fisheries have been developed, with some 12,000 families now dependent, to some extent, on the industry. Expected fish production in 2001/02 was a record 1,600 metric tons, while the 1,208 tons already caught from April 2001 to January 2002 was worth 31, 490 rupees. Forests form some 66.5% of the state’s area and are exploited in a controlled fashion. Mineral reserves include glass sand, dolomite, sulphur, coal, limestone, gypsum and some gold near Bilaspur. The secondary sector in total contributed 32.5% of the value of the economy in 2000/ 01, industry alone 12.4% (from only 1.1% in 1950/51). In 2002 there were 191 large and medium-sized industrial enterprises and 29,200 small-scale units. The total turnover of industry has been put at some 48,000m. rupees annually, and the sector employs some 155,000 people. The state now concentrates on developing the processing of agricultural products, and associated activities such as packaging. Cottage industries, such as sericulture and handicrafts, are important in a largely rural environment. The total contribution of the tertiary sector in 2000/01 was 40.1%, although almost one-half of this was accounted for by public administration and other community and personal services. In 2000/01 community and personal services contributed about onefifth of the value of the economy (20.5%—from 5.9% in 1950/51), trade, communications and transport 11.9%, and finance and real estate 7.7%. Tourism attracts interest through historical and religious sites (for example, the Tabo Buddhist monastery in Spiti was founded in 996), adventure holidays and the natural endowments of the state (mountainous scenery and wildlife such as the ibex and the snow leopard). However, highspending foreign tourists do not come in great numbers as yet; of the 4.68m. tourist arrivals in 2000, only 110,000 were foreign visitors, with many discouraged by the tales of missing travellers in the Parvati (Parbati) valley—famous for the sacred sulphur springs, reputed to be the hottest in the world. Directory Governor: Dr SURAJ BHAN; Governor’s Secretariat, Raj Bhavan, Shimla 2; tel. (177) 224840. Chief Minister: Prof. PREM KUMAR DHUMAL (Bharatiya Janata Party); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Himachal Pradesh, Secretariat, Shimla; tel. (177) 225400; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha): THAKUR GULAB SINGH; Vidhan Sabha Secretariat, Council Chamber, Shimla 4; fax (177) 211151; the


unicameral Legislative Assembly has 68 mems: Bharatiya Janata Party 35; Congress—I 28; Himachal Vikas Congress 2; independents and others 3. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: RENU SAHNI DHAR; Himachal Bhavan, 27 Sikandra Rd, New Delhi; tel. (11) 3716574; fax (11) 3715087.

Jammu and Kashmir

The State of Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost part of India, in the north-west, at the apex of the country. Its southern border is with the rest of India: at the western end a short border with Punjab, while for the rest of its length Himachal Pradesh gently abuts into it. All the other frontiers are international ones, most of which are disputed, and, indeed, great swathes of territory have been occupied. India still claims an area coterminous with what the former Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir ruled (except in the south where the princely state and Kangra—now part of Himachal Pradesh—exchanged some territories). In the north of what India claims is the de jure state, there is a relatively short border with a north-eastward extending tendril of Afghanistan, the bulk of which lies to the west, beyond Pakistan. The People’s Republic of China lies to the north-east (Xinjiang Uygur) and east (Xizang—Tibet), but also administers the Aksai Chin plateau (the eastwardextended ‘thumb’ of the clenched fist of Jammu and Kashmir, part of Ladakh), as well as a length of territory to the west of there, beyond the Karakoram Pass, and another pocket to the south. Pakistan is in possession of a strip of territory in the south-west of the state, up the western border, which widens in the north to include much of the northern part of the state. The border dividing the state between the Pakistani zone and Indian-held territory


is known as the Line of Control—it starts just north of the Chenab, heading up through Punch (Poonch) to curve eastward round the mountains surrounding the Vale of Kashmir, continuing in an easterly direction just to the north of Kargil and then north-easterly, petering out at the Chulung Pass and the massive Siachen Glacier. The total area of the state is 222,236 sq km (85,839 sq miles—which would make it the sixth-largest state in India), but, of this, 78,114 sq km is occupied by Pakistan and 42,685 sq km (including 5, 130 sq km ceded by Pakistan) by the People’s Republic of China. The figure given for the area of Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir (for statistical purposes) is 101,387 sq km, which would make it the 10th-largest state of the Union. Jammu and Kashmir is a mountainous territory, aligned along the ranges rising towards the great arc of the Himalayas, which here follow a roughly north-west to south-east direction. Ladakh, the ‘land of passes’, which occupies much of the central and southwestern part of the state (Leh District and the smaller district of Kargil to its west— almost 44% of the total official area), is a high plateau lifting even loftier mountain ranges and scored by deep, sometimes fertile river valleys, which alleviate the Arctic-desert conditions of most of the highlands. Aksai Chin lies to the north-east of the Ladakh Range, beyond the valley of the Shyok, a tributary of the Indus. South-west of the Ladakh Range is the valley of the Indus itself and, in a side valley, the town of Leh. The next range is that of Zaskar, a region that looms above the foothills. The south-west of the state consists of the Hindu foothills, skirting the edge of the Punjab plains, and the cleft containing the Vale of Kashmir. In the far south-west are the Shivaliks, the outer fence of the Himalayas, the land then rising towards the heights of the Pir Panjal, between which and the Great Himalaya, is the fruitful bowl of the Vale of Kashmir. The north of the state, most of which is now under the control of Pakistan, continues the pattern of ranges running northwest to south-east, rising towards the Ghujerab Range of the Great Karakoram along the official north-eastern frontier. However, this harsh mountain land is alleviated by the mighty valley of the Indus, which, like many of the great rivers originating in Jammu and Kashmir, heads north-westwards, deep between the hills, before curving round and heading south, usually in Pakistan proper, to descend towards the distant Arabian Sea. This pattern is the same for the Jhelum and the Chenab (though the latter actually has its source in Himachal Pradesh). The Gilgit, which joins the Indus from the north, has carved out another valley to soften the highlands. The highest peaks are K2 (Qogir Feng—8,611 m or 28,261 feet), which is in an area disputed with the People’s Republic of China, and Nanga Parbat (8,126 m), which rises just to the north of the Line of Control, while in the south-western lowlands the city of Jammu is at an elevation of 305 m above sea level. This varied topography gives a range of climates, from the cold aridity of Ladakh, which is snowbound between November and June, to the temperate conditions of the Vale of Kashmir and the northern valleys, and the sub-tropical areas around Jammu. Rainfall, likewise, varies, the average annual amount in Leh (Ladakh) being 92.6 mm (3.6 inches— much of it falling as snow), in Srinagar (Vale of Kashmir) 650.5 mm and in Jammu 1,115. 9 mm. Srinagar receives over one-half of its precipitation in November-April, from westerly depressions, rather than from the monsoons which water Jammu, and most of the rest of India, earlier in the year. The total population of Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir at the time of the 2001 census was 10,069,917, less than the population of the National Capital Territory of Delhi and

STATES (JAMMU AND KASHMIR) 117

17 of the 28 states. The corresponding population density was 99 per sq km. The 1991 census could not be conducted properly in the state, owing to the troubles of the time, making comparisons and other figures unreliable. There are, therefore, no recent data on the numbers of people speaking particular languages or adhering to particular religions, although even in Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir Muslims remain a majority. The area around Jammu remains a Hindu-dominated territory, while the Vale of Kashmir is a bastion of Islam and the thinly populated uplands of Ladakh are Buddhist. The region is one of great linguistic diversity, containing two main Indo-Aryan language groups (Indic and Dardic), Sino-Tibetan languages and the unclassified Burushaski. Most people, overall, speak Kashmiri, followed by Punjabi, but this conceals considerable local variation. According to the most recent figures (1981), just over one-half of the population speak Kashmiri (Dardic), with Dogri (the language of Jammu, which is now merely classified as Hindi) the second tongue. However, most Kashmiri speakers are confined to the Vale of Kashmir, and they account for 90% of the population of Kashmir, while Dogri is the first language of 53% of the population of Jammu, and Tibetan dialects (mainly Ladakhi and Zanskari) 90% of Ladakh. Other variants of Hindi (such as Pahari, Gujjari and Punjabi) and Urdu are also spoken. The bulk of the Punjabi-speaking population resides in Pakistani-held ‘Azad Kashmir’ (Free Kashmir), a strip of south-western territory wrapped around the northern end of the Vale of Kashmir, where they constitute 85% of the population. The main languages of the far north, also held by Pakistan, are assumed still to be the Dardic tongue, Shina, and then the Sino-Tibetan Balti (census requirements have not distinguished ‘other’ languages for some years). The ethnic origins of the peoples of Jammu and Kashmir are equally diverse and vary from south-west to south-east and in the north. The urban population of Jammu and Kashmir, according to where the Indian national census could be held, constituted 24.9% of the total. The largest city is Srinagar (894,940 inhabitants, according to the provisional results of the 2001 census), the summer (MayOctober) capital of the state, followed by Jammu, the winter (November-April) capital. The only other towns of any size are in Pakistani-held territory—Muzaffarabad, on the original border with Pakistan, to the west and a little north of Srinagar, and Gilgit in the far north. For administrative purposes Jammu and Kashmir is divided into 14 districts (territory held by Pakistan is generally divided into Azad Kashmir, and the broad Northern Areas, including Gilgit, Hunzu and northern Ladakh or Baltistan). History Historically, the territory of Jammu and Kashmir is at the confluence of competing cultural influences, be it the Indic influences from the south and south-east, Tibetan and even Chinese from the east, Afghan and Central Asian from the north, and Persic and, at one time, Hellenic from the west. The region has been more strongly influenced by one or the other at different times and has sometimes served as a conduit for more reaching penetrations (not that most of Kashmir is on the direct invasion routes), such as the spread of Buddhism out of India. This complicated position, which continues into the modern day with the dispute over the status of such a strategic area at the apex of India, is reflected in the three clear constituents of the state. Jammu shared most of its history with


the rest of the old Punjab, on the edge of which it stands, while Kashmir (itself consisting of the Vale of Kashmir and the rougher, loftier and less integrated territories further to the north) was a hill state or states of a kind familiar to the Afghans or in the Indian Himalayas, while Ladakh is a Buddhist kingdom, similar to Tibet (now part of the People’s Republic of China) or Sikkim. Outside control of territory such as that in northern Kashmir (for example, Gilgit and Hunzu in the Pakistan-controlled area) or Ladakh is relatively recent; the desire for exact borders is a modern phenomenon and has contributed to long stretches of Indo-Chinese territorial disputes. The more settled centres have been the targets of conquest, however, and, whatever their control of the wilder hinterlands, the region of Jammu and the Vale of Kashmir certainly have experienced the usual succession of imperial Indian hegemonies—the Mauryas, the Kushana, the Guptas, Harsha Vardhana, the Shahis, the Mughals and the British—as well as rule from Bactria/Afghanistan and the incursions of invading Scythians, Huns or Muslims, for instance. In the wake of the invasions of the ‘White’ Huns or Ephthalites (Hiung-nu) and various other claimants to the territory, Kashmir settled under the primacy of a native Hindu dynasty, the Karkotas, from the 620s (the first rajah was Prajhaditya, from about 627). The most eminent of the Karkota kings was probably Lalitditya (c. 695–732), who campaigned as far a field as Bengal and Tibet in the east, the Konkan Coast to the south and Turkestan in the north. From 1816, however, the succession becomes uncertain and the reign of the last Karkota, Utpalapida, ended in about 857, when he was supplanted by the first of the Utpalas, Avantivarman. The Utpala succession became increasingly disputed in the first part of the 10th century and the dynasty was eventually supplanted by that of Yadjaskara in 940. He died in 948 and, within two years and as many successors, his house was replaced by that of Parvagupta, who had five successors before a female ruler, Didda, survived for a reasonable length of reign (981–1004). There was then a more settled dynastic history in Kashmir, with one group of Loharas ruling for almost one century before being replaced by the Later Loharas from 1102, and their Hindu successors, the Vopyadeva (1171–1286) and then Simhadeva and his heir, Sahadeva, until 1320, when Muslim rule began. The first ruler of the Muslim Rinchana clan was Sadr udDin, but it was Shams ud-Din I (1339–43) who took the Vale and introduced Islam to the heart of Kashmir. The Rinchanas, under monarchs such as Shihab ud-Din (1354–73), Sikander the Iconoclast (1389–1413) and Zain ud-Abidin (1420–70), lasted until 1561, although the last 80 years were plagued by a rotation of deposed and restored monarchs and other disputes. The Chaks, relations of the last Rinchana rajah, lasted until 1588 and the Mughal conquest, having eight monarchs in that time, two of whom each managed two terms on the throne. The Mughal emperors favoured the beauty of the Vale of Kashmir and their patronage helped establish Muslim settlement here. Their rule lasted until 1747, when the imperial forces were unable to defend Kashmir from annexation to the new kingdom of Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan, and the Pathans remained in control until conquered by the Sikh-led Punjab of Ranjit Singh in 1819. Jammu, meanwhile, a medieval kingdom of the northern Punjab, consisted of 22 hill principalities that were consolidated into a larger realm by a Dogra Rajput, Maldev. The Dogra (or Durgah) dynasty established in the late 17th century produced a number of strong rulers, culminating in Ranjit Deva (1725–82),


was followed by weak successors and Jammu succumbed to the Punjab Raj of Ranjit Singh (based in Lahore—now in Pakistan) in 1816. The kingdom was restored in 1822, when Ranjit Singh installed a member of the Dogra clan who had served him loyally as a feudatory rajah. This Ghulab Singh, a Hindu prince, began to assert his independence after the death of Ranjit Singh in 1839, as the Sikh empire crumbled before British pressure. He arranged the 1846 peace between the British and the Government in Lahore, involving the cession of Kashmir to the East India Company, which retained nominal sovereignty but promptly sold the vast, strategic area on to the Rajah of Jammu for some £750,000. Thus, in 1846 Ghulab Singh became the Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir, a loyal client of British India. By the time Jammu and Kashmir was formed, the Dogra domain also included Ladakh. This kingdom had been invaded by a Dogra general, on the orders of Ranjit Singh, in 1836, and essentially fell under the overlordship of Punjab for a few years. Despite the disastrous attempt of Zorawar Singh, the Dogra commander, to then move against Tibet itself in 1840, Ladakh did not have a chance to fully recover its independence and it was formally annexed by Ghulab Singh, the top Dogra, in 1842, at the expense of the last Chosgyal-chenpos (kings) of the house of Namrgyal. This had been the second dynasty of Ladakh, a line founded in about 1460, in succession to a first dynasty that had led the break from Tibet in the 10th century and ruled a kingdom that fluctuated in power over the years, suffering a period of Mongol suzerainty in the mid-12th to mid-13th centuries. Maharajah Ghulab Singh’s successor, Ranbir Singh (1856–86), in 1859 ordered the subjugation of the north, Gilgit. However, before independence, owing to British fears of a Communist threat from the north, Gilgit was taken on by the British as a directly administered frontier agency—it was signed back to Jammu and Kashmir on 1 August 1947, but was one of the areas taken over by Pakistan in the following months. In summary, under the arrangements for division of the Empire and the independence of the successor states into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-dominated India, the strategic state of Jammu and Kashmir found itself with a largely Muslim population (certainly in Kashmir), but a Hindu ruler who had the power to make the choice between which country to join. Jammu was predominantly Hindu and Ladakh traditionally Buddhist, but the Vale of Kashmir and the vast mountain terrain to the north gave the principality a Muslim majority. There might have been a case for Partition, but the Vale of Kashmir was personally important to the Nehru family, who originally came from there, and politically important to a pro-secularist Congress. Moreover, Congress had links with the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC), led by Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah (‘the Lion of Kashmir'), who himself tended to secularism and leftist rhetoric, which was popular with the people of Kashmir, but not so welcomed by the Maharajah, Hari Singh, from whom the JKNC had been demanding greater popular representation since the 1930s. At the time of independence, however, Sheik Abdullah was in prison, the JKNC was being challenged by an ally of the Muslim League and Hari Singh, Maharajah since 1925, was fearful of factionalism, communalism and the consequences of any decision. On 22 October 1947, two months after Indian independence, armed Pakistani tribesmen crossed the frontier, prompting the fearful Dogra monarch to declare the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the state of India on 26 October. The arrival of Indian troops provoked further Pakistani irregulars into action, and the two countries effectively


went to war, with Pakistan securing most of the north (‘the Northern Areas’) and some of the west (‘Azad Kashmir’) beyond a cease-fire line negotiated by the UN in 1948. India retained Jammu, most of Ladakh and the Vale of Kashmir, and promptly built new roadways into Ladakh and the Vale (previously entrance had been through what was now Pakistani-controlled territory). Since then, although the two countries have gone to war, in 1965 (concluded by the Tashkent Declaration of January 1966) and in 1971 (mainly over independence for Bangladesh—followed by the Shimla Agreement of 1972), and the cease-fire ‘frontier’ is now known as the Line of Control (since 1972), the international situation has not really changed. India continues to claim the whole state because the sovereign signed the instruments of accession in a decision endorsed by Sheik Muhammad, a popular representative (although he subsequently spent most of the time in gaol for advocating independence). The Pakistani Government insists that the Muslim majority should have been able to place the state with Pakistan, and this could have been confirmed by the plebiscite that the UN required in 1948. The situation is further complicated by Chinese disputes about the border. Indian complaints at finding a Chinese road crossing the Aksai Chin plateau of Ladakh soon after the flight of the Dalai Lama from Tibet (Xizang) in 1959 seemed to help provoke a massive Chinese military advance across the length of the Indo-Chinese border in 1962. Chinese troops later withdrew to their previous positions. By the end of the 20th century, however, the main problem was from the rise in Islamist fundamentalism, which had sent fanatical fighters crossing into Kashmir in order to fight Indian troops or help organize terrorist attacks in Indian-held territories. Pakistan has helped organize such units, to the outrage of India, although US pressure after September 2001 and the West’s anti-terrorist action in Afghanistan thereafter did force Pakistan to make concessions. Tension and even shootings across the Line of Control continue to be a regular event. In December 2001 a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament buildings in Delhi provoked Indian outrage and made the federal Government declare that Pakistan was not acting firmly enough. Tension between the two nuclear powers gradually increased in the first half of 2002, reaching its height in May when, with troops massed close to the Line of Control following a number of skirmishes, the prospect of war was uppermost on the international political agenda. Both countries received visits from high-profile foreign statesmen in an attempt to avert such a conflict. Tensions declined thereafter, although communal violence remained high within India and bilateral relations remained fragile. It was unclear what degree of control Pakistan actually had over the guerrilla groups. Internally, the politics of Jammu and Kashmir followed a not unfamiliar pattern, only distorted by the special status forced on it by circumstance. Agitation for reform by the JKNC began to be achieved after the accession of the princely state to India, with the Maharajah conceding a Constituent Assembly, Sheikh Muhammad to be Prime Minister from 1948 (until 1953) and a regency (of Karan Singh) from 1949. In 1952 the Assembly rejected a hereditary monarch and the regent, Karan Singh, became Sadr-e Riyasat (‘head of state’—a title he held until 1965). The Assembly secured some guarantees from the Centre under the Delhi Agreement of the same year, eventually permitting it, in 1954, to resolve on full accession to the Union, although the process took over one decade and was accompanied by the granting of several special concessions. It wasn’t until 30 March 1965 that Karan Singh adopted the title of Governor and the Prime Minister, Ghulam Muhammad


Sadiqh, became known as the Chief Minister. Thereafter, Sheikh Muhammad, who had been imprisoned as a separatist for much of the time, accepted Jammu and Kashmir’s status within India. He became Chief Minister himself from 1975 (that year concluding the so-called Sheikh-Indira Accord with the federal Prime Minister) until his death in 1982. He was succeeded by his son, Dr Farooq Abdullah, who held office until 1984, to return in 1986, with Congress support. However, the state elections did not satisfy popular sentiments and there was increasing militancy, some of it sponsored from outside, with demands for incorporation into Pakistan or independence. The increasing militarization of the area and the continuing allegations of atrocities by both sides have served to escalate the situation through the 1990s and into the 2000s, without any real progress on a political solution. Abdullah had resigned as premier in 1990 and President’s Rule was imposed, but state elections in 1996 were again won by the JKNC, which sought a solution within the Indian Union. However, the various rounds of cease-fires and concessions to and by militant leaders have led nowhere substantive. Pakistan continues to protest the holding of further state elections (scheduled for September-October 2002), which seem likely to be won by the JKNC again. Yet there seems little chance that the more moderate separatist leaders will have the chance to be elected to oppose them in a democratic forum, either owing to Indian suspicions or to violence and intimidation by the militants. Proposals to separate the state into Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir might have more chance of success, but the political future is uncertain. Meanwhile, the ‘rump’ of Jammu and Kashmir held by India is represented in the national Parliament by six seats in the lower house and four in the upper house. Economy The potential of Jammu and Kashmir is stunted by the political trouble, which deters investment as well as costing physical damage, although military expenditure contributes to the size of the economy. In 1999/2000 net state domestic product was estimated at 121,480m. rupees or 12,338 rupees per head (the latter figure was still almost twice that for Bihar, the poorest state of the Union—unless otherwise specified, any such economic data applies only to that part of Jammu and Kashmir held by India). At March 1998 there was only a total road length of 13,540 km. Jammu is connected to the main Indian rail network, but there are plans to extend the line as far as Srinagar (it has, hitherto, only reached Udhampur). There airports at Jammu, Srinagar and Leh. Although the mountainous terrain limits the options for transport, it is an advantage for hydro-electric development, which has contributed to the installed capacity of 396.63 MW (March 1997), and most rural villages have now been connected to the electricity supply. The literacy rate in 2001 was 54.5%. About four-fifths of the population depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The main crops are paddy, wheat and maize, although barley and the hardier millets are also grown in places. Total foodgrain production reached 1.61m. metric tons in 1996/97, while fruit production reached 965,000 metric tons (of which 78% was exported). Horticulture has been encouraged and there are now almost 0.5m. families engaged directly or indirectly in this field. Some sugarcane and oilseeds are also grown. Livestock


numbers in 1992 totalled 8.71m. Of livestock products, the state is most widely known for its cashmere (Kashmir) wool. Mineral reserves of the state include coal and lignite, limestone, glass sand, graphite, gypsum and natural gas. Bauxite, chromium, manganese, copper, zinc, gold and sapphires are also found within the borders of Jammu and Kashmir. Extraction of these resources and their processing, where necessary, provide the basis for some heavy industry. Traditionally, however, the main industrial activity is based on small enterprises and consists of handicrafts and handloom products. These sectors also receive government encouragement, owing to the employment potential, and accounted for most of the 38, 029 small-scale industrial units in the state in 1996/97. Handlooms produce woollen (especially cashmere) items such as blankets, shawls and fabrics, with the number of weavers at almost 50,000 by the mid-1990s. Handloom products worth 230m. rupees were woven in 1995/96. The handlooms often produce the raw material for handicraft workers, who produce shawls and embroidery, as well as wood carving and, most importantly, carpets. In 1996/97 handicrafts turnover was worth 2,600m. rupees, while exports were put at 2,930m. rupees in value. Carpets alone earned 132m. rupees in foreign exchange in 1994/95. The tertiary sector is mainly accounted for by public administration, although there are still a wide network of banks, post offices and other community services. Trade and transport are the next most important contributors to the sector. Tourism was once an important industry, the Vale of Kashmir a particularly famous resort since Mughal times, but the frequency of violent incidents and the restrictions of the military have confined tourist activity to trekking and the Buddhist sites of Ladakh. Directory Governor: GIRISH CHANDRA SAXENA; Office of the Governor, Raj Bhavan, Jammu/ Srinagar; In Jammu: tel. (191) 544989; In Srinagar: tel. (194) 452208. Chief Minister: Dr FAROOQ ABDULLAH (Jammu and Kashmir National Conference); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Jammu and Kashmir, Civil Secretariat, Jammu/Srinagar; In Jammu: tel. (191) 546466, fax (191) 545529; In Srinagar: tel. (194) 452221 (office), fax (194) 452356 (Chief Sec.); e-mail (via website) www.jammukashmir.nic.in/govt/welcome.html. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: ABDUAL AHAD VAKI; Assembly Secretariat, Jammu/Srinagar; In Jammu: tel. (191) 546531; In Srinagar: tel. (194) 478927; the Legislative Assembly is the lower chamber of the state legislature and has 87 elected mems: Jammu and Kashmir National Conference 55; Bharatiya Janata Party 8; Congress— I 7; Janata Dal 5; Bahujan Samaj 4; All-India Indira Congress (Tewari) 1; Communist (CPI —M) 1; Awami League 1; independents 2; others 3. Chairman of the Legislative Council: ADUAL RASHID DAR; Legislative Council Secretariat, Jammu/Srinagar; In Jammu: tel. (191) 542031; In Kashmir: tel. (194) 472402; the upper chamber of the bicameral legislature has 36 indirectly elected mems. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: KHURSHID AHMAD; Jammu and Kashmir House, 5 Prithviraj Rd, New Delhi 110 003; tel. (11) 4611506; fax (11) 4627047.

Jharkhand

The State of Jharkhand, the southern part of Bihar until 15 November 2000, lies in northern India, south of the Gangetic plain. Bihar lies to the north, West Bengal to the east, Orissa to the south and Chhattisgarh (itself a part of Madhya Pradesh until 2000) to the southwest. In the north-west there is a short western border with Uttar Pradesh. This hilly upland, the ‘land of jungle and jhari (forest)’, was also known as Vananchal (forest region) or, historically, Kukara. The state covers some 46% of the old territory of Bihar, amounting to some 79,714 sq km (30,789 sq miles). Jharkhand occupies the east of the Chotanagpur plateau, the northern part of the state consisting of a rough crescent of territory above the plains of Bihar, extending into the plains where it reaches up to a short north-eastern border along the River Ganga (Ganges). The central waist of the state is dominated by hills in the west, the end of the Hazaribagh Range, while the lower lands around Ranchi, the state capital, provide a link between north and south. The rest of the state spills south in three bulges of territory, the south-eastern extension again reaching into the plains, those divided between West


Bengal and Orissa. The climate is tropical, but tempered by altitude, with the average annual rainfall across the state being some 1,400 mm (56 inches). The population of Jharkhand in 1991, when it was still part of Bihar, was 21,843,911, of which Scheduled Tribes accounted for 28% and Scheduled Castes 12%. In 2001 the population had risen to 26,909,428 (provisional census results), a decadal growth rate still slightly higher than the national average, but lower than the plains of Bihar. In some districts the aboriginal tribal peoples account for over one-half of the population. The dominant group remains the Santhals, the third-largest tribe in India, who speak an Austro-Asiatic tongue (which can be written in its own Olchiki script). Modern Jharkhand emerged from an administrative association of Chotanagpur, populated by a variety of tribes, and the south-eastern Santhal country (pargana). Other tribes include the Dravidian Oraon and Munda peoples and the Hos. Hindi is the main language of most people in Jharkhand, and Hinduism the main religion. There is a relatively large community of Christians, with adherents mainly among the tribal people (over one-half of the Kharia people and about one-quarter of the Munda and the Ho). There is some residual animism, but the process of ‘Aryanization’ or ‘Hindu-ization’ is noticeable. The old summer capital of Bihar, Ranchi, is the state capital, but the largest cities and the main industrial centres are Jamshedpur, in the south-east (570,349 in habitants in the city proper in 2001, although the urban agglomeration is inhabited by nearly double that number), and Dhanbad (1.06m. in the urban agglomeration), the latter being at the heart of the state’s rich minerals region. Deogarh (Baidyanath Dham) is also an important centre. The urban population formed 22.2% of the total in 2001. Including the four created since division of the state, Jharkhand consists of 22 districts for administrative purposes. History The early history of the heavily wooded high country that now constitutes Jharkhand is uncertain, as no major power was ever based here, although the kings of Magadha and other territories benefited from the exploitation of the region’s mineral resources even then. Generally, the myriad tribes enjoyed their isolation, often slowly adopting cultural imports but usually resenting actual settlement by outsiders. The Nagvanshi dynasty exercised a tenuous sovereignty over much of the area, and its kings would sometimes submit to Mughal or other overlords. Such Muslim immigration as there was (the first mosque was not built until 1661) tended to be urban and did not much disturb the local economic and political structures. In the 18th century the north of Jharkhand came under the Patna Division (i.e. Bihar) of British Bengal and, in 1765, with the granting of a Mughal diwan to the East India Company, there was a determined military effort to bring the territory firmly under British sovereignty, including the subjugation of the Santhals. However, this incorporation into the nascent British India involved the imposition of alien property and revenue concepts over traditional land rights, a tightening of administrative control (usually by outsiders, be they British or Indian) and the immigration of settlers (diku) from more crowded parts of British territory. This resulted in the turbulent history of revolt experienced by the Empire in this region, a history that probably helped forge the regional identity.

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The frequent uprisings in Jharkhand did not always have a common cause, such as a rejection of British authority per se, but more usually arose from a resentment of outsider control or settlement, or from grievances over land or government and landlord levies. The Paharia revolt of the 1770s was promptly followed by another tribal revolt under Tilka Manjhi in the first half of the 1780s, while the decade around the turn of the century was occupied by two Munda uprisings and the Chaur and Bhoomij revolts. The 19th century enjoyed some periods of peace, but agitation particularly accumulated in the years up to the Great Rebellion or ‘First War of Independence’ (occasioned by the Mutiny of 1857) and again in the last quarter of the century. Specific land grievances tended to be replaced by more general social and economic objections by the end of the 19th century. Another Munda revolt in 1819–20 was followed by the Kewar and Bhumij revolts of the 1830s, before some major upheavals from the mid-1850s. The most serious, a general uprising by the Santhal in 1855, was occasioned by the new land settlement of the British administration, and resulted in a war that undermined the myth of Company invincibility. The Santhal leader, Sidhu, set up a parallel government, passing his own laws and raising his own taxes in a move reminiscent of Maratha tactics against the Mughals. The conflict helped prompt the creation of a police brigade in the region, but the suppression of the revolt was complicated by the turbulence following the 1857 Mutiny. Although northern Bihar was promptly pacified by the presence of British troops diverted from elsewhere in Asia, in Jharkhand local uprisings of Hindus, Muslims and some of the tribes were led by Sahid Lal, Vishwanath Shahdeo, Sheik Bikhari, Ganptrai and Budhu Veer. It was 1860 before civil obedience was regained throughout the region, with the final extinction of the Santhal resistance. Towards the end of the century tribal unrest was made more powerful by wider protests, such as the Birsa and Kherwar movements. In around 1900 Bhagwan Birsa Munda led a futile rebellion against the Empire in favour of independence, but, thereafter, the tribal populations joined others in India in organizing more peaceful and more widespread opposition to British rule, without abandoning the struggle for social and economic justice. This was helped by the lessening of isolation from the rest of India and the growth of industry, particularly in the south-east, where in 1908 a Parsi industrialist, Jamshedji Tata, founded the first planned town in modern India, Jamshedpur, which produced its first steel ingots wrought from local resources in 1912. Also in 1912 Bihar (including Jharkhand) was made a province separate from Bengal, although still in union with Orissa. At the time there was mention of a separate province in the Jharkhand region, but, instead, some of the old Chotanagpur area was retained by Bengal. Partly in response to this administrative severing of traditional links, a first attempt at pan-tribal organization was made by the Chotanagpur Developed Society in 1915, while the Tana Bhajgat movement (which commanded the support of more than 26, 000 tribesmen) had started a rent-refusal campaign in the previous year. Pressure for a political solution, the creation of a Jharkhand province, followed much later, however, despite such a proposal to an official commission in 1929. Instead, Orissa alone was separated from Bihar, under the Government of India Act of 1935, and it was only in the 1940s that demands for administrative autonomy (statehood) achieved political organization. In 1940 a tribal leader, Jaipal Singh, formed an assembly of autochthonous peoples, the Adibasi Mahasabha, which became the Jharkhand Party soon after independence. In the


general elections of 1952 and 1957 this party became the main opposition grouping in southern Bihar, and unsuccessfully urged the creation of Jharkhand on the States Reorganization Commission in 1955. However, Singh undermined his party as a political voice in favour of statehood by accepting a Congress ministerial appointment in 1963 and it was not until the 1970s that momentum was recovered. In March 1973 N.E.Horo of the Jharkhand Party appealed to the Prime Minister for statehood in southern Bihar, but it was really in 1978 that the movement returned to prominence. Now led by Shibu Soren, the Jharkhand Party had extended its influence into the tribal areas of neighbouring states and was demanding a ‘Greater Jharkhand’, including not only Bihar’s Chotanagpur and Santhal Pargana, but also adjacent areas in West Bengal. It was sometimes suggested that parts of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh (the part that now constitutes Chhattisgarh) should be included in such a state. In 1978 it was resolved by the Jharkhand Party that a commemorative ‘Birsa Day’ should be held on 9 June every year—by the late 1980s the separatist movement was also urging a boycott of the national Independence Day, to emphasize the strong feelings in favour of a Jharkhand state. By then the Jharkhand Party had undergone a number of splits and suffered a considerable degree of factionalization, although the leading political force, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), was still led by Soren. The movement had also been joined by other organizations, such as the Jharkhand Co-ordinating Committee, the Jharkhand Kranti Dal, and the All-Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU). It was the AJSU that first organized a one-day strike in support of statehood in September 1986, and AJSU and the JMM both organized longer economic blockades in 1989. Such radicalization of the movement, demonstrating its popular support, attracted the investigations of the Centre as well as a concession by the Government of Bihar in 1990 that a Jharkhand Area Autonomous Council should be formed, which was duly achieved in 1995. It covered the 18 districts that were to form the current state of Jharkhand, the traditional Chotanagpur and Santhal Pargana area of southern Bihar, and Soren became its Chairman. However, the premier of Bihar, Laloo Prasad Yadav, was vociferous in his opposition to the bifurcation of the state. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which now forms the largest single group in the state legislature, was in favour of a separate state of Jharkhand, and also achieved the leadership of national government in 1998. The local Congress groups favoured statehood, while the national leadership was prepared to sanction it if Chhattisgarh was also made a separate state. There was also support from the Samata Party, the Janata Dal (United) and the Communist Party of India. However, Chief Minister Yadav, who had split from the national Janata Dal to form his own Rashtriya Janata Dal, was strongly against the loss of the mineral-rich southern region to the rest of Bihar. However, in 1997 his political position weakened following revelations of his involvement in the abstraction of government funds, and he was forced to resign as state premier, to be replaced by his wife, Rabri Devi (Yadav subsequently served a number of brief prison sentences in connection with the affair). The support required for their party to continue in government was forthcoming from Soren and from Congress, and the appropriate measures to create a separate Jharkhand (originally Vananchal) state duly passed through the Bihar and national legislatures. Presidential assent on 25 August 2000 duly enshrined the Bihar Reorganization Act in law and in October it was gazetted that separation would occur at midnight on the night of 14–15 November. Meanwhile, Soren was anxious to

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become the first Chief Minister of Jharkhand, but the BJP was determined to consolidate its own position, with its own nominee as premier. Thus, Babulal Marandi headed the Government of Jharkhand that came into existence on 15 November. By 2002, however, the BJP-led coalition, which had 45 of the 81 seats in the Legislative Assembly, was under strain. In May the five Samata ministers (their representation had increased since statehood) resigned from the cabinet and threatened to withdraw from the coalition, after the BJP put up its own candidate for the by-election to the Rajya Sabha seat hitherto held by a Samata member (Jharkhand has six seats in the Rajya Sabha and 14, again mainly held by the BJP, in the Lok Sabha). Samata also declared its support for Soren in his candidacy for a Lok Sabha seat. Economy Jharkhand, although long wealthier than the rest of Bihar and with considerable potential in natural resources and industrial development, remains one of the poorer states in India. In 2001 its per-head income measured some 4,827 rupees, just over one-half as much again as the average level in the old, undivided Bihar state. Jharkhand also gained the best part of the energy infrastructure of the old state (64% of established power capacity—by 2001 installed capacity totalled 2,590 MW), as well as much of the taxable wealth (55% of state tax collection and 66% of excise-duty collection). The length of national highway in Jharkhand in 2001 totalled 1,660 km and state highways some 4,200 km. There are fairly good railway connections and airports in Ranchi and Jamshedpur, but only 45% of villages are electrified. The literacy rate improved from 41.4% in 1991 to 54.1% in 2001. Most of the population is rural and agriculture remains the most important sector of the economy for the vast majority. About one-half of the land area is cultivable and about one-quarter is currently sown. The main food crops are rice and millet, while chillies, groundnuts and vegetables are also grown. In horticulture, fruit is grown widely in the north-eastern hills, while the cultivation of flowers is also being encouraged. The dairy and meat industries are significant developments of primary production. For the ‘land of jungle’, forest industries are still important and the total forest area in Jharkhand at the beginning of the 2000s was 2,304,751 ha, or 28.9% of the total area, over four-fifths of which is protected and much of the rest reserved. Bamboo is the main forest product, although minor ones include edible, aromatic and medicinal plants, such as mahua and sal seeds, lac, kendu leaf, harre and bahera. Denuded forest areas are sometimes planted with mulberry and other trees suitable for sericulture (the state produces some 60% of the country’s non-mulberry tasar—tussore or tusser—silk). Extractive industry, as well as being the basis of the state’s industrial potential and existing strength, is the most lucrative primary activity. Jharkhand is the leading producer of mineral wealth in the country, claiming to produce up to two-fifths of the country’s minerals. Within India it is usually first in production of iron and copper ores, mica, kyanite and asbestos. It is also India’s only producer of uranium (apart from a small mine which was due to begin production in Meghalaya in 2001), of cooking coal and of pyrite (the commonest sulphide, sometimes known as iron pyrites or fool’s gold). In 2000 Jharkhand was second in India in the volume produced of chromite and of isemenite, and third in coal, bauxite and thorium. The state also produces gold (sixth in India) and


graphite (eighth), clays, limestone, manganese and silver. Production volumes in 2000 included 59.92m. metric tons of coal, 8.66m. tons of iron ore, 1.24m. tons of limestone, 1.19m. tons of copper ore, 1.03m. tons of bauxite, 23,256 tons of china clay and 49,970 tons of fire clay, 18,718 tons of manganese, 7,267 tons of graphite, 4,922 tons of kyanite, 1,082 tons of mica, 13,648 kg of silver and 254 kg of gold. The total value of mineral production amounted to 30,000m. rupees. Apart from the processing and exploitation of mineral resources, industry includes agro-processing (animal feed, tea, jute, sisal, hemp and other textiles, paper) and food processing, but, considering Jharkhand has an overwhelmingly rural population, the secondary sector is lacking in small-scale industrial activity. The Government is encouraging village-based handicrafts and other local manufacturing enterprises. Heavy industry includes iron-and-steel activities, engineering and automobile parts, chemicals, power generation and associated activities, electronic, computer and informationtechnology businesses, textiles and leather, pharmaceuticals, ceramics and metallurgical industries. Steel manufacturers in the state had a total established annual capacity of some 7.2m. metric tons in 1998, while at Chandi is India’s largest coal-based sponge iron plant. Tata Industries, which founded Jamshedpur, the first planned town in modern India, remains dominant in the steel industry and other heavy industries, such as India’s largest heavy-vehicles plant or largest diesel-engine plant. A truly unique installation is the uranium-processing complex at Jadugora. The presence of important industries has helped the development of the tertiary sector in Jharkhand, although many activities were based to the north, in the ‘rump’ Bihar. Business services and transport services are strong, although attracting investment in tourism has proved difficult. Attractions include natural features, such as the myriad waterfalls and scenic hill country around Ranchi. There is the forested Netarhat plateau, a national park in the Hazaribagh mountains, where some tigers, panthers, nilgai and sloth bears can be found. There are a number of temples, such as the pilgrimage centre of Deoghar, and the state has associations with the famous Bengali Tagore family, which can attract visitors. Directory Governor: PRABHAT KUMAR; Office of the Governor, Ranchi; tel. (651) 301594. Chief Minister: BABULAL LAL MARANDI (Bharatiya Janata Party); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Jharkhand, Secretariat, Ranchi; tel. (651) 403233. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: INDER SINGH NAMDHARI; Legislative Assembly Secretariat, Vidhan Sabha, Ranchi; tel. (651) 440075; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 81 mems: Bharatiya Janata Party 32; Jharkhand Mukti Morcha 12; Congress—I 11; Rashtriya Janata Dal 9; Samata Party 4; Janata Dal (United) 4; others 9. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: V.V.CHAWHAN; Room Nos 15– 17, Hotel Janpath, New Delhi; tel. (11) 3360161.

Karnataka

The State of Karnataka lies in southern India, a rough crescent resting on the shores of the Arabian Sea, on the west coast, extending its arms inland. At the northern end of Karnataka’s seashore lies the small state of Goa. From there the border extends northeastwards, with Maharashtra beyond it, until it reaches Andhra Pradesh, which lies to the east, and turns south. Tamil Nadu lies to the south-east and Kerala to the south-west. An expanded State of Mysore was created in 1956, as a union of the Kannada-speaking districts, and was renamed Karnataka in 1973. It occupies 191,791 sq km (74,079 sq miles), making it the seventh-largest state in India.


The bulk of Karnataka spreads behind the coastal plains and the Western Ghats. The coast itself extends for about 330 km (205 miles), defining the western edge of a narrow strip of estuarine and marine plains varying between 50 km and 80 km wide (wider in the south than in the north). The land rises abruptly to the crest of the Western Ghats and into the heights known as the Malnad—some 650 km from north to south, with elevations normally between 450 m (1,477 feet) and 600 m in the north and between 900 m and 1,500 m in the south. Inland in the south the Malnad swells into the Bababudangiri Hills, with the highest point in the state being at Mullayana Giri (1,925 m). East and south of these highlands extend the plateau lands of the Mysore plains, drained by the Kaveri (often still known as the Cauvery in Karnataka) river system. To the north and east the state stretches down into the central Deccan, that part of the Karnataka plateau (Maidan) directly behind the coastal region being drained by the Tungabhadra, and the even lower, more northern plateau (which is largely constituted by the Deccan Trap) being drained by the Krishna and other rivers. Flat land below 300 m above sea level is only to be found in the coastal belt, so most of the state lies on the Deccan plateau, an undulating landscape traversed by deep ravines and scattered hill country, but which generally slopes towards the east. Thus, most of the great rivers spring in the Western Ghats and empty into the sea on the other side of the peninsula. Rainfall varies dramatically in the two main parts of the state, the coast and seafacing mountain flanks being extremely wet between June and September (about 1,500 mm—59 inches—in June and July alone), but precipitation dropping rapidly beyond the Malnad. The monsoon rains moderate the temperatures, but humidity is extreme on the coast and noticeable inland. Altitude helps give the southern plateau, notably around Bangalore (the state capital) and Mysore, a pleasant climate all year round, but in the north, before the monsoon, temperatures in April and May can often exceed 40°C (104°F) for sustained periods. Bangalore, at 920 m above sea level, records a mean temperature of 27.1°C (80.8°F) in the warmest month, April, and 20.5°C (68.8°F) in the coolest month, January. The city receives both the south-west and the north-east monsoons, albeit tempered by the surrounding heights; it has an annual average rainfall of 870 mm, much of which falls in October and November. The population of Karnataka was 52,733,958 at 1 March 2001, according to the provisional census results, giving an average density of 275.0 persons per sq km. The state is the linguistic home for the Dravidian Kannada tongue (Kannarese), which was spoken by 66.2% of the population (1991 census figures). The next most widely spoken is Urdu (10.0%), an Indo-European language related to Hindi (essentially, the language of India’s Muslims), and another Dravidian tongue, Telugu (7.4%). Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam and English are also spoken, and there are still tribal areas with their own speech—such as the nomadic Lambani of the north-west or the ‘honey gatherers’, the Kurmuba, on the border with Kerala. In terms of caste, the dominant group (jati) in the north is the Lingayats, who have a reputation as reformers, while in the south it is the Vokkaligas, with a conservative, agriculturalist tradition. The overwhelming majority of the population are Hindu (85.5% in 1991), but there are some substantial minority groups. Muslims still accounted for 11.6% of the population (1991 figure), and Christians 1.9%. Historically, Jains were important in the history and culture of Karnataka, and a fundamental influence on the development of Kannada literature, but they now only constitute 0.7% of the population. Another native religion to have declined is Buddhism,

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which is now represented in the state mainly as a result of the settlement of Tibetan refugees in the second half of the 20th century. The urban population had reached 34.0% of the total by 2001. The main centres are Bangalore (India’s fourth-largest city with 4,292,223 inhabitants in 2001), in south-east Karnataka, Mysore (742,261), which gave the state its old name and is also in the south of the state, the joined cities of Hubli and Dharwad (combined population of 786,018) in the north of the Western Ghats, Belgaum just to the north-west of them, and Mangalore, on the southernmost part of the Karnataka coast. The state is divided into 27 districts, which are grouped into four divisions, centred on Bangalore, Mysore, Belgaum and, in the northeast, Gulbarga. History Karnataka provides archaeological evidence for some of the earliest settlements in peninsular India, as well as the oldest agricultural communities (in northern Karnataka) from about 3000 BC. The discovery of iron seems to pre-date its use in the north, weapons from about 1200BC having been discovered in the northern Malnad. A protoDravidian culture had appeared throughout southern India by the middle of the first millennium BC and a distinct Kannada language emerged within about 1,000 years of that —there are Kannada inscriptions dating from the fifth and sixth centuries AD and the earliest known classic of an already established literary tradition is attributed to the ninth century. Early writings in Kannada, as in Telugu (the tongue of the Andhras to the east), owed much to the Jains. Meanwhile, it is a Jain connection that gives the region its first recorded contact with the rest of India. Although it was probably on the fringes of Mauryan power, it was not far from Bangalore, at Sravanabelogala in the south of modern Karnataka, that the first emperor of the dynasty, Chandragupta, is said to have retired at the beginning of the third century BC, to end his life in contemplation. A Jain settlement has been here ever since. Thereafter, a feature of the Karnataka region was its position on the fluctuating border between north and south, which has added richness to its culture and architecture, as well as complexity to its political fortunes. Thus, after the Mauryan hegemony had decayed and disappeared, the Andhra kingdom of the Satavahanas (based at Prathinistapura, Paithan, in modern Maharashtra) dominated much of northern Karnataka (as well as over one-quarter of modern India), while from the south and east there was increasing pressure from the Tamil kingdom of the Pallavas. It was the local struggle against the Pallavas that brought about the rise of the first two powerful dynasties native to Karnataka, the Kadambas in the north and the Gangas in the south, both of which established themselves in the mid-fourth century AD and resisted the direct encroachment of the Guptas into south-west India. In the mid-sixth century Pulakesin I overthrew the authority of his overlords, the Kadambas, and laid the foundation for his dynasty’s Deccan empire, for the first time bringing the area of modern Karnataka into a single realm. The Chalukyas (sometimes known as the Western Chalukyas) were based at Badami, in central Karnataka, and first extended their authority beyond the River Narmada in the north and to the shores of the Bay of Bengal in the east under Pulakesin II (c. 609–42). He was eventually defeated by the resurgent Pallava kingdom based in Tamil Nadu, and this rivalry between the two


powers, with fluctuating results, was to weaken both fatally. However, a succession of powerful Chalukya rajahs, such as Vikramaditya I (c. 654–68), Vijayaditya (c. 696–733) and Vikramaditya II (c. 733–44), dominated the west-central Deccan and regularly made incursions as far as the Pallava capital. A more visible legacy is the wealth of temples concentrated around Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal, which blend the architectural traditions of north and south India. However, the continual struggles with the empire to their south meant that the Chalukya kings neglected the north and permitted local feudatories to consolidate their own power. Eventually, in the mid-eighth century, Dantidurga, a dynastic rashtrakuta (head of a region, or governor) from what is now Maharashtra, displaced the Chalukyas. The Rashtrakuta dynasty, based in Ellora, soon occupied Badami and forced the submission of the Gangas of the Mysore region, as well as extending its authority over the surviving Chalukya dynasty in Vengi (in modern Andhra Pradesh). It was then to turn its attention north and to be the first southern dynasty to enter the power play of the arya varta and contend for the imperial city of Kanauj (now in Uttar Pradesh). In 973 the Rashtrakutas were overthrown by a revived Chalukya dynasty, known as the Later Western Chalukyas or the Kalyana Chalukyas, the latter after their new capital in the far north-east of modern Karnataka. The return of this dynasty also saw a return of the rivalry between the Karnatakan plateau and the Tamil lowlands to the south-east. The dominant power here, and the preeminent kingdom of southern India for two centuries, was that of the Cholas (who, in 999, finally ended the Ganga dynasty of southern Karnataka). The two dynasties fought to varying conclusions, captured the other’s capital and also took on alternative enemies, as the occasion suited. The Chalukya rival to the north was the kingdom of the Paramaras. The greatest kings among the Later Chalukyas were: Someshwara I (1043–68), who built the capital at Kalyana; Vikramaditya VI (1076– 1127), celebrated in verse, successful in battle and under whom the standard work on Hindu law, Mitakshara, was written by the great Vijnaneshwara; and his son, Someshwara III (1127–39), himself a scholar and poet. It was under the Later Chalukyas that a mixed poetry and prose form for Kannada literature was developed by the great writers, Pampa, Ponna and Ranna. By the reign of Someshwara III, Chalukya power was in decline and challenged (and, eventually, to be displaced) by two former vassals, both claiming to be of Yadava descent. In the north, mainly in Maharashtra, but capturing Kalyana in 1186, the Sevunas (sometimes simply known as the Yadavas) under Bhillama V (1173–92) established a powerful kingdom, which, under Singhana II (1199–1247), was to reach as far south as the Tungabhadra. The main Karnatakan dynasty to succeed the Chalukyas, however, was based in the south around Belur and Dorasamudra (now Halebid—midway between Bangalore and Mangalore). There the Hoysalas continued a great temple-building tradition, freed the old Ganga domain from the Cholas (under Vishnuvardhana, who reigned from 1108 to 1141) and then successfully renounced Chalukyan overlordship under Ballala II (1173–1220). Ballala II defeated Someshwara IV Chalukya in 1187, as well as Bhillama V Sevuna at Soraturu in 1190. He went on to protect the erstwhile threat to the kingdoms of Karnataka, the Cholas, from Pandya attack (for a time), while his son, Narasimha II (1220–35) actually extended Hoysala territory into modern Tamil Nadu. This hegemony over most of the Kannada-speaking regions of the central peninsula was


mainly achieved by the canny exploitation of the rivalries of others. At the same time, a feature of even modern politics was being established with the rise of the Lingayats, reformist followers of a Hindu saint, Basavanna, who founded Virosivism at the end of the 12th century. Both the ‘Yadava’ kingdoms were soon to succumb to a new threat from the north, however, with the arrival in peninsular India of armed Islam. The forces of the Delhi Sultanate repeatedly defeated the Sevuna, in 1296,1307 and, terminally, in 1318, and were barely held at bay by the last great Hoysala rajah, Ballala III (1291–1343), who both resisted and, if necessary, co-operated with them, only eventually to succumb to the Pandyas of Madurai (Tamil Nadu). Meanwhile, two of his commanders, Harihara and Raghavanka, brothers of the house of Sangama, had founded the basis of a Hindu empire that was to hold southern India against the Muslims for over two hundred years. At the end of the 13th century and beginning of the 14th century the Delhi Sultanate effectively disrupted the four powers of peninsular India (the Sevunas, the Hoysala, the Pandyas and the Kakatiyas of Andhra Pradesh) without providing an alternative sovereignty. Muslim raiders, initially motivated by the traditional quest for plunder, made the Deccan a battleground of opportunity, in an environment where religion was not imposed by bloodshed nor even discouraged by punitive taxation. However, the battle lines between an advancing Islam and a resistant Hinduism were, seemingly, to be drawn up by two new monarchies, both of which employed adherents of either religion, whether to wage their wars, to build their monuments and places of worship, or to decorate the arts of their courts. In about 1336 the Sangama brothers established their ‘city of victory’, Vijayanagar (Hampi), in central Karnataka, in a naturally defended position on the south bank of the Tungabhadra (acquiring the rest of the Hoysala lands to the south in 1346, upon the death of Virupaksha Ballala). In the following decade an Afghan adventurer by the name of Hasan founded the Bahmani Sultanate, based in the very north-east of modern Karnataka, first at Gulbarga, then, from 1424, at Bidar. Both these empires were to extend their authority across the peninsula, but the main issue at contention was not religion but the rich land between the Tungabhadra and the Krishna rivers, the so-called Raichur Doab. This territorial dispute was settled by treaty in the 1440s, only for the time of peace to be riven by dynastic upheaval in Vijayanagar. The last effective ruler of the Sangama dynasty, Deva Raya II, died in 1446 and the eastern and south-eastern parts of the empire broke away, eventually to be reclaimed by Narasimha, a general who became the only king of the Saluva dynasty. Moreover, between 1466 and 1481 the Bahmani sultans were able to hold much of Karnataka to the west of Vijayanagar, and also seize Goa. After Narasimha Saluva’s death in 1491 the struggle for the succession secured the monarchy for the Taluva dynasty, initially under another Narasimha, then under his brother, Krishna Deva Raya (1509–29). Meanwhile, from the 1490s, the Bahmanid imperium had begun to disintegrate and Krishna Deva Raya was able to occupy the Raichur Doab, threaten the new Deccan sultanates (occupying Bidar in 1512 and Bijapur in 1523), acquire new territory on the Andhran coast and even win victories against the kings of Orissa (1518). Vijayanagar flourished on the booty, the city was considered one of the greatest in India and the arts blossomed (although the kings favoured Telugu rather more than Kannada). However, although the semi-feudal organization of Vijayanagar lent the empire military success, it also contained the seeds of its destruction, as the military governors or nayaks gained more entrenched local


authority of their own. In addition, the Portuguese added a new ingredient to Indian politics (and possibly interfered with the commercial wealth of the empire), while in the northern Deccan Vijayanagar no longer faced a single complacent sultanate, but a number of fractious, ambitious ones. Moreover, dynastic feuding among the Taluva royalty weakened the monarchy, but also involved the northern sultans in the succession. Intrigue by Aravidu Rama Raya continued after he finally gained the throne in 1542, eventually provoking the northern sultanates (Bijapur and the small Bidar on Karnatakan soil, Golconda in Andhra Pradesh to the east) into finally allying against Vijayanagar in 1564. Rama Raya summoned his nayaks, most of who responded, but the imperial forces were routed at the battle of Talikota (Rallasathangadi) in January 1565 and the last king of Vijayanagar beheaded. The great capital was simply abandoned by the nayaks, who preferred to defend their own domains, and emptied of its wealth by the departing feudatories and then by the victorious sultans. The empire in the territory of modern Karnataka was to be divided between Bijapur (which was to annexe the sultanate of Bidar in 1619) and the southern nayaks, but, ultimately, it was the Mughals who would benefit most in southern India. By the beginning of the 18th century northern Karnataka had existed under Muslim rule for over one century and, during the reign of Aurangzeb (1666–1707), the entire Kannada-speaking region had acknowledged the suzerainty of the Great Mughal. In practical terms, the conflict with Aurangzeb meant that the Marathas ruled much of northern Karnataka, while the nayak families of the south still held their traditional territories. One of the latter, the Hindu Wodeyars of Mysore had extended their authority east to the region of Bangalore (the city was taken by the Mughals from the Sultan of Bijapur in 1687, and leased, then sold, to the Wodeyars), only to be displaced by their Muslim general, Haidar Ali Khan in 1761. He and his son, Tipu Sultan (who succeeded in 1782), were to doom their experiment in a proto-national state capable of challenging the European powers increasingly involved in India by siding with the French rather than the British. The failure of aid against the Marathas (who held most of northern and coastal Karnataka), promised by the British in 1769, ensured Haidar Ali’s enmity against the East India Company and he had the British on the defensive when war resumed in 1780, notably with the great victory at Polilur (near Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu). In 1786 Tipu Sultan proclaimed Khuda-Dad a state independent of the Mughals and himself emperor. Mysore, however, although wealthy and rapidly modernizing under Tipu Sultan, was, in turn, failed by France (which was about to experience the turbulence of revolution) and was the object of local rivalry and British personal ambitions. Finally, the kingdom was overwhelmed in an assault on Tipu Sultan’s summer palace in the island fortress of Shrirangapattana (Srirangapattnam), the king dying in the fighting. The Company restored the Wodeyars to a Mysore they could at least recognize in its original extent, retaining the Karnataka coast and receiving more territory once belonging to Tipu Sultan from the Nizam of Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) in 1800 (the administration of this ceded territory was headquartered in Penukonda). By 1818 the Marathas had been defeated and Company influence extended into northern Karnataka too (where local rulers, such as the rajah of Shorapur, in the north-east, had supervising political agents appointed—Venkatappa Nayak of Shorapur was one of the few southern princes to join the revolt against the British in 1857). The new order in southern India was British.


The Wodeyars (who moved their capital to Bangalore in 1804) were supervised by a Resident until 1881 (except when a Commissioner held authority between 1831 and 1843), when the Rendition restored power to only the second maharajah since the restoration. Another branch of the Wodeyar dynasty fared less well; although their realm of Kodagu (Coorg) had been restored to them in 1788, after eight years of occupation by Mysore, their increasingly erratic and often bloody sovereigns were finally deposed by the British in 1834 and the territory (in the south-west, between Mysore and Mangalore) put under a chief commissioner answerable to the authorities in Madras (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu). Kodagu became a part ‘C’ state under the 1950 Constitution, but was merged into the larger Mysore in 1956. The 1956 changes came about as the result of the decision to establish language-based federal units, and Mysore (in the south-east of the modern state) was to be the core of the Kannada creation. Princely Mysore had conditionally acceded to the Union upon independence in 1947, fully on 28 June 1949, with its last maharajah, Jayachamaraja Wodeyar, becoming the first rajpramukh (a governor of what in 1950 was designated a part ‘B’ state). When the new, extended Mysore was created on 1 November 1956 (by the addition of coastal, central and northern territories), Wodeyar became governor of the whole state, which was renamed Karnataka in 1973. The state experienced central President’s Rule twice in the 1970s, once in 1989 and, for one week, in October 1990. Generally it is caste rivalries that complicate party politics in Karnataka, and even the current Congress administration, with a strong majority represented in the state legislature, has been in danger of succumbing to such factionalism. Congress displaced the Janata Dal in 1999, and its leader, Somanahalli Malliam Krishna, became the 17th person to be chief minister since Independence. At April 2002 Congress also had 17 of the state’s 28 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the national Parliament, and seven of the 12 in the upper house. Economy Karnataka is an agricultural state as far as most people’s livelihoods are concerned, but it is also rich in minerals, has a strong and long-established industrial sector and, in Bangalore, has India’s premier centre for computer software and information technology. The net state domestic product in current prices (according to recent revised figures) reached 1,178,250m. rupees in 1999/ 2000, or 19,141 rupees per head. Since 1993/94, in real terms, therefore, the state income had increased by almost one-half (49%—or 36% per head). This was despite 1999/2000 recording only a slight increase on the previous year, owing to the poor performance of the primary sector—in fact, in per-head terms, the state recorded a slight decrease in net income, in real terms. Further advance estimates for 2000/01 put net domestic product at 1,317,310m. rupees or 21,229 rupees per head. Infrastructure in Karnataka is well developed, with road length almost doubling in under 30 years, to reach 163,000 km in 1998/99 and only 103 of 27,066 inhabited villages unconnected by road by March 1999. There is almost 2,000 km of national highway and over 65% of the road length is surfaced. At the same time there were 2,639 km of broadgauge railway, as well as some metre-gauge (631 km) and narrow-gauge (102 km) railway length. There are major domestic airports, with some international links, at Bangalore, Belgaum, Mangalore and Hubli, and a number of other, smaller fields throughout the


state. At Mangalore Karnataka has India’s ninth-largest cargo-handling port, shipping three-quarters of the country’s coffee exports and most of its cashewnut exports (owing to the city’s proximity to Kerala), and importing materials such as wood for furniture manufacturing (owing to restrictions on the harvesting of native teak). The state authorities have invested considerable resources into irrigation projects, particularly in the Krishna basin, and power development. By 2000 installed electrical capacity was 4,216.54 MW (67.0% hydroelectric and 32.9% thermal and diesel, as well as a negligible 2.03 MW of wind power). The state was the site of India’s first major hydroelectric project (which opened in 1902, on the Kaveri) and the total hydroelectric potential is put at 7,750 MW. Karnataka also has a respected educational infrastructure, the state’s historical strengths in engineering and the sciences contributing to Bangalore’s pre-eminence in the software market, and general literacy in the state rose considerably between the national censuses of 1991 and 2001, from 56.0% to 67.0%. Agriculture, forestry and fishing account for nearly 65% of the working population’s economic activities; the primary sector contributed an estimated 30.7% of state income in 1999/2000. Of the total land area of Karnataka, 54.7% is cultivable land, used to grow rice, maize, ragi and other millets, cotton (mainly on the northern plateau, especially around Raichur, in the historic Doab), ground nuts, spices, fruit (especially around Bangalore), coconuts, coffee (mainly in the south-west), tea and tobacco. In 1999/2000 agricultural production was affected by poor weather conditions, but production, for example, still reached 7.95m. metric tons of cereals, 1.2m. metric tons of oilseed, 29.2m. metric tons of sugarcane, 658,000 metric tons of pulses and 838,000 bales of cotton. Karnataka usually produces almost two-thirds of India’s coffee, most of it on and to the south of the Bababudangiri Hills, where it was first grown in the subcontinent in 1670. By 2000 horticulture covered 1.85m. ha (compared to 1.45m. ha in 1990), growing over 13. 4m. metric tons of produce. Mulberry covered some 140,000 ha (see below for details of sericulture). The total livestock and poultry population at the 1997 agricultural census was 47m., and the state provides free veterinary services (in an attempt to combat diseases such as rinderpest, from which Karnataka has been free since the mid-1990s, and foot and mouth) and breeding centres for cattle, sheep, pigs and rabbits. Livestock products were not at record levels by the end of the 1990s, but were recovering in 1999/ 2000 (53,090 metric tons of milk, 94.63m. eggs). The area around Virarajendrapet (Virajpet), in Kodagu, is one of the largest producers of honey in Asia. In 1999 just over 20% of Karnataka was classed as forest, but only just over one-half of that (11 % of the total land area) is actually well wooded. There is a planting programme, which attempts to offset shortages of fuelwood and timber (brought about by the pressure of growing human and animal populations), as well as developing the state’s famous sandalwood reserves, its teak and eucalyptus plantations, and urban tree areas. Most of the world’s sandalwood is produced in Karnataka, Mysore being famous for sandalwood oil and soap. The state also possesses rich fisheries, with 1999/2000 production expected to reach a total of 320,000 metric tons (of which 95,000 tons came from inland fishing). Marine fishing is based at ports such as Mangalore and Malpe. The secondary sector (mining, manufacturing and power) provided 25.4% of state income in 1999/2000, three-fifths of that from manufacturing. Mining was an expanding sector at the end of the 1990s. Karnataka is the only source in India of felsite, produces


most of the country’s gold and also possesses important reserves of iron ore (especially in the coffee-growing Bababudangiri), chromite, magnesite, copper, mica and china clay. In 1998/99 production had reached 14.8m. metric tons of iron ore (for 157,700 metric tons of iron and steel), 21,700 metric tons of aluminium, 1,958.4 kg of gold and 165.7 kg (down on the previous year) of silver. Manufacturing was also responsible for 1.7m. metric tons of sugar, 356,800 metric tons of fertilizer, 7.9 metric tons of sandal wood oil (down by one-quarter on the previous year) and 372,700 metric tons of silk fabric. Karnataka has a major silk industry, first developed by Tipu Sultan in Mysore in the late 18th century. Although silk-fabric production was down by almost one-third in 1999/ 2000, sericulture remains an important activity. In the previous year the industry produced 74,600 metric tons of cocoons, of which 51,000 were marketed, earning foreign exchange worth 2,705.9m. rupees (26.1 % of the value of total Indian cocoon exports). Karnataka also manufactures other textiles (an expanding sector), a variety of rail, road and air vehicles and parts, electronic equipment, machine tools, glass, ceramics, cement and cigarettes (including the cheap, local alternative, ganesh bidis, especially at Mangalore). The state has one of the most impressive industrial growth rates in India during the second half of the 20th century, a record which the Government seeks to perpetuate—it began encouraging information technologies in the state from the mid-1990s, and has policies favouring agro-processing and automobile-parts manufacturing. In 1998/99 there were 1,436 joint-stock companies registered in the state, and 13,422 registered small-scale industrial units (giving employment to 69,579 people, with investment of 5,975.2m. rupees). The services sector contributed 43.9% to the net domestic product of Karnataka in 1999/2000 (compared to 37.3% in 1993/94). Much of this is owing to the strong showing of the state, particularly Bangalore, in what is sometimes described as India’s only globally competitive industry, the software and information-technology sector. In 2001 over 60 such companies were based in Bangalore, and the sector in India survived the global contraction from the last quarter of the year strongly. The state was the first to develop a co-ordinated government policy towards the sector. The banking sector is also strong, relative to many other states, and Karnataka has a flourishing tourist industry. The state has varied scenery and wildlife, the latter especially in the western Mysore plateau (arguably the richest concentration in southern India) and the Malnad (including elephants, spotted deer, gaur, samba, wild pig, sloth bear, and occasionally tigers and other big cats). Other natural phenomena include Jog Falls, one of the highest in the world, where, in the north-west, the Sharavati hurls itself out of the Ghats towards the coast. Pilgrimage sites include the great 10th-century Gommateshwara statue, sacred to Jains, at Sravanabeloga, and a number of sites associated with great Hindu, and Muslim, saints. There are also the Hoysala ruins in the south or, especially, the remains of great Vijayanagar at Hampi, in central Karnataka. Further north are the Chalukya temples or the medieval Muslim capitals, the latter including Bijapur, which contains the world’s second-largest dome unsupported by pillars, on the Gol Gumbaz. Back in the south is the ‘Garden City’ of Bangalore or the old capitals of Mysore, at the city of Mysore or the ancient island-fortress of Shrirangapattana, adorned by Tipu Sultan’s palaces.


Directory Governor: V.S.RAMA DEVI; Office of the Governor, Raj Bhavan, Raj Bhavan Road, Bangalore 560 001; tel. (80) 2254102; fax (80) 2258150; e-mail [email protected]. Chief Minister: SOMANAHALLI MALLIAM KRISHNA (Congress—I); Office of the Chief Minister, Vidhana Soudha, 3rd Floor (Room 323), Bangalore 560 001; tel. (80) 2253414; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: M.V.VENKATAPPA (Congress—I); Office of the Karnataka Legislative Council, Vidhana Soudha, Bangalore 560 001; tel. (80) 2251009; the lower house of the bicameral legislature, the Legislative Assembly, has 224 elected mems (1 vacant at July 2002) and one nominated mem.: Congress—I 135; Bharatiya Janata Party 44; Janata Dal (Secular) 19; Janata Dal (United) 4; independents and others 22. Chairman of the Legislative Council: B.L.SHANKAR (Congress—I); Office of the Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, Vidhana Soudha, 1st Floor, Bangalore 560 001; tel. (80) 2251009; the upper chamber of the Karnataka legislature, the Legislative Council, has 75 indirectly elected mems (3 seats vacant at July 2002): Congress—I 32; Bharatiya Janata Party 12; Janata Dal (Secular) 11; Janata Dal (United) 10; Janata Dal 4; independents and others 3. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: SUDHAKARRAO; Karnataka Bhavan, Kautilya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021; tel. (11) 6889814; fax (11) 6889030.

Kerala

The State of Kerala lies in southern India, on the western shores of the tip of the peninsula. Karnataka lies to the north-east and Tamil Nadu to the east; just south of Kannur (Cannanore) is a small enclave of the Union Territory of Pondicherry, around the small port of Mahe, while another territory, Lakshadweep, is offshore. Kerala, the ‘land of the Cheras’, was formed as the home of the Malayalam language on 1 November 1956, by uniting most of Travancore-Kochin with the Malabar Coast District and the Kasaragod Taluk of South Cannara District. The state has an area of 38,863 sq km (15,010 sq miles).


Kerala has an historic unity and identity as the coastal lands rising up to the protective heights of the Western Ghats—the ‘mountain coast’ of Malabar. Physically, the state consists of three regions: the coastal belt, some 590 km (366 miles) in length; the undulating plains of red laterite; and, between 35 km and 120 km inland, the bordering hills and valleys of the Western Ghats, which rise to the highest peak in south India at Anai Mudi (2,695 m or 8,842 feet). The network of rivers, lagoons and manmade waterways that occupies the alluvial hinterland of the coast between Kochi (Cochin) and Kollam (the northern part, near Kochi, is known as the Kuttanad) is referred to as the backwaters. It supports a unique ecology dependent upon the alternating floods of sea water and cleansing, perennial rivers. In the mountains, at the restricted Silent Valley National Park, is India’s only remaining significant area of tropical evergreen rainforest. The mountains march south from the Karnatakan highlands, the coastal plains widening below, until they rise into the heights of the Nilgiri Hills, inland from Kozhikode (Calicut). The Western Ghats then fall into the Palakkad Gap, the main pass into the interior of the peninsula, before rising up to the Anaimalai and Palni Hills. From the Gap empties the River Ponnani, while further south is the flood-prone Perivar. The climate is tropical and wet, without a distinct dry season, only higher average rainfall between June and September. Where and when it rains can be erratic, but the normal annual level of precipitation is 3, 107 mm (122 inches). Kerala is exposed to both the south-west and the north-east monsoons, which can make it humid, but average temperatures rarely exceed 32°C (90°F) and never fall below 20°C (68°F) on the coast. Although Kerala covers 1.2% of the total area of India, it is home to 3.1% of the national population. Growth rates fell considerably in the last decades of the 20th century and, according to the provisional results of the national census of 1 March 2001, Kerala had reached a total population of 31,838,619 (growth of only 9.4% since 1991—the lowest rate of any state or territory). This gave the state a population density of 819 per sq km. Kerala is an ideal fulfilment of a linguistic state, with 96.6% of the population speaking Malayalam in 1991, the highest proportion speaking one language in any state or territory of India. Malayalam emerged as a distinct language before the ninth century, the Sanskrit of Aryanizing Brahmins replacing Tamil as the main influence on the local Dravidian tongue. The population enjoys the best educational, health and social advantages in India, having achieved 100% literacy in many areas and a culture that traditionally encourages the high social status of women, but there are also extremely primitive tribes in the mountains and a large, regular exodus of workers seeking economic opportunity elsewhere in India or abroad (remittances are an important contributor to the state economy). A 1,000-year-old matrilineal system of inheritance was accompanied by an oppressive and rigid caste structure, reaction to which spurred the evolution of modern education and social reform, in the benefits of which women shared. Keralan society was particularly open to the education-enhancing influence of 19th- and 20th-century missionaries, owing to the long, native presence of different religions on this trading coast. Christianity is meant to have arrived within decades of Jesus Christ’s death, and certainly enjoys an ancient tradition, while Islam too was brought fairly promptly by Arab traders in the seventh century. The Jewish community, mainly in Kochi, although now depleted by emigration to Israel, claimed even more venerable representation in Kerala (see below). According to the 1991 census, Hindus constituted 57.3% of the population,

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Muslims 23.3% and Christians 19.3%. There is no tradition of communal violence in Kerala and both the imported religions have deep local traditions and adaptations. At the 2001 census 26.0% of the population was urbanized. The largest cities are the three ancient ports of: Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum—744,739 inhabitants according to provisional census results), the state capital, in the very south; Kochi (596,473), about one-third of the way up the coast; and Kozhikode (436,527), roughly as far north again. Other important towns on the coast include Badagara and Kannur (Cannanore), going north of Kozhikode, Ernakulam, the twin city of Kochi, and south of there, Alappuzha (Allepey) and Kollam (Quilon). The state is divided into 14 districts. History The legendary origins of Kerala involve it being reclaimed from the sea by the axe throw of Parasurama, the sixth incarnation of Vishnu. The tale goes on to explain the origins of the country’s caste system and unique matrilineal inheritance regime. However, the evidence for the origin of the matriarchy seems to place it in the 10th century, when the wars with the Cholas resulted in a shortage of menfolk and a threat to familial inheritance. By then the great dynasty of Kerala, the Cheras, had ceased to use Tamil as their court language (probably in the seventh century) and had become a Malayalam-speaking native house that had established a second Chera empire. The first Chera dynasty, first established in the Kuttanad, near Alappuzha, had ancient roots and has long provided the most probable origin for the name of the state—a decree of Ashoka Maurya mentions Keralaputra, the ‘land of the sons of Cheras’, and the Tamils referred to the region as Sera Nadu, which also means ‘land of the Cheras’. This early Chera period shares its history as part of the Tamil world and enjoyed rich trading relations with the Roman world. The Chera capital was at Vanchi, inland, while one of their main ports was at Muziri (Muciri), now Kodungallur. The wealthy coastal principalities of the ‘Pepper Coast’ attracted settlers and evangelists of several religions—Jews, Christians and Muslims, as well as Aryanizing Brahmins who were to transform native ‘Hinduism’ and provide the basis for the second Chera era. These often-powerful groups remained fundamental to the society and history of Kerala. The original ‘black’ Jewish community of Kochi (Cochin) claimed to have arrived in Kerala in 587 BC, although some pushed this back to the reign of the biblical king, Solomon, just before the start of the first millennium. The earliest physical evidence dates from the fourth century of the Christian era, but that a small trading community might have been established much earlier is not unlikely. Certainly the local community enjoyed traditional links with the Babylonian Jews (in what is now Iraq), while it also had strong connections with the trade to China. The Jewish community flourished and gained influence and privileges from the local rulers, as when the Joseph Rabban was the Jewish leader around AD 1000. Under the Dutch and British, the ‘white’ Jews increased their number, but both groups have declined considerably since the 1940s, owing to emigration to the State of Israel. Christianity may well have followed the route of Jewish trading links to the entrepôt coast of south-west India. St Thomas (‘Doubting’ Thomas), one of the disciples of the Christian messiah, is said to have landed in Kerala, at Kottapuram, near Kodungallur (Cranagore), in AD 52 and evangelized along the coast and in China before being


martyred (in Tamil Nadu) upon his return to India in 72. The strong presence of the ‘Thomas Christians’ in Kerala probably owes more to the sixth-century missionary work of the Syrian Church (a Nestorian denomination, believing in the dual nature of Christ). The arrival of the Portuguese in the early modern era heralded an overlay of European ecclesiastical tradition on an ancient native tradition, so Kerala now has a Christian community consisting of an independent Syrian denomination, a Roman Catholic presence including both users of the ‘Latin’ and of the Syrian rites, and Protestant churches (some of which also inherited the traditions of the Thomas Christians). By the time of the arrival of the Portuguese, the local Christians had adapted to the caste system and local politics, and their merchant princes, such as Mar Sapir Iso of Kollam (Quilon), being unlikely challengers for power in their own right, were often co-opted into the princely struggles. Meanwhile, another religious community had become established in Kerala, and adapted to local conditions. The Arabs had long dominated the trade routes to Kerala, so it is no surprise that Islam soon arrived among their communities in the major ports of the Malabar Coast, possibly as early as the seventh century, although large-scale evangelization probably only began under an Arab Muslim, Sulaiman, who is meant to have arrived in Kerala in 852, and his colleague, Bavar. Islam also first reached India at Kodungallur, near which Malik-ibn-Dinar built what is meant to be the first mosque in the country. The Muslims of Kerala, both local people and those of mixed-race descent, came to be known as Moplahs. Their integration into society is attested by the apparent conversion of the last Peruman to Islam, the presence of a Muslim branch of the royal family of North Kolathiri at Kannur (Cannanore), although this was the only Muslim ruling house in Kerala, and even the widespread presence of Moplahs among the rural poor. If an explanation of the presence of the religious minorities is important in the history of Kerala, so too is the ‘Aryanization’ of the local religion into what became a more recognizable form of Hinduism. The process was well underway by the eighth century, when the great saint, Shankaracharya, was born at Kalady (45 km from Kochi)—he is the best known exponent of the Advaita Vedanta school of philosophy, and is still highly revered. The rigidity of the caste system as it was to evolve in Kerala, however, was a much later development—despite the social progressiveness evident in the relatively high status of women, the inherent inequity of the whole system was fundamental in provoking a popular reaction that led to the course of modern politics in the state. The settlement of Brahmins in the northern and central parts of Kerala evolved into a local government of hereditary notables, all members of a brahminical caste known as the Nambudiri (who only spread into the far south later, as it came more into the orbit of the other Malayalam realms rather than the Tamil world). The devastation of the ruling and traditional warrior castes from the time of the 10th-century Chola wars helped the rise in status of the Nairs. By the 16th century the Nairs had established themselves as the executors of Nambudiri authority throughout the principalities of Kerala. The consequent disparities between the ruling and the lower castes steadily widened, fuelling an increasing stratification and subdivision of groupings, and leading to an oppressive system, which, at times, virtually institutionalized forms of social and economic slavery. A number of later reform movements, especially in the 19th century, under the influence of Christian missionaries and Western education, helped radicalize the population and enlighten local rulers (in religious terms, culminating in the Temple Entry Proclamation of 1936, admitting the

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lower castes to equal worshipping rights). This led to the dispossession of the Nairs from dominance and laid the foundations for the 20th-century, left-wing political movements in Kerala. However, an early consequence of the socio-political dominance of the Brahmins was that they provided a foundation for the second Chera dynasty to rule Kerala. The old capital of Vanchi had been sacked by the Pandyas and the apparatus of the kingdom had found refuge in the port of Muziri. Here a new capital was built, called Makotai or Mahodayapura, and its lord was the Chera high king, the Cheraman Perumal, or overlord of Kerala (Keraladhinatha), who presided over a realm divided into great districts (nadu), each ruled by a governor, who usually gained office by inheritance. The highest nobles, therefore, were the princely governors of the main hereditary fiefs, Kolathunad (in the far north—brought under Chera rule by conquest towards the end of the ninth century), Purakizhanad, Kurumpanad, Eranad, Valluvanad, Kizhamalanad, Vempalanad and, in the very south and created from forcibly seized territories of the ancient Vels and the Ay kings, Venad (it long remained a border territory, without the original Nambudiri settlements and looking as much to the Tamil lands of the Pandyas as to the north, although it soon gained immensely in wealth). The second ruling Chera dynasty was known as the Kulasekhara, and the first known lord of Makotai, Varman, was crowned in about 800. He is also known as Kulasekhara Alwar, a famous Vaishnavite saint. His successor, Rajasekhara Varman (820–44), was a Saivite saint, under whose reign the Malayalam or Kollam era (Kollavarsham) was introduced in 825. The council convened to determine this era was summoned to the site of a city founded that same year under the authority of the lord of Venad, Udaya Marthanda Varma. Kollam was soon to attract great wealth to Venad, notably under its Christian merchants. The successors to the overlordship and to Venad are both famous—the next Perumal was Sthanu Ravi Kulasekhara (844–85), and the next lord of Venad was Ayyan Adigal Thuruvatikal (the later deified Ayyan, the Muslim evangelist, Bavan, and another contemporary, the Christian priest and hero, Kadamattathu Kathanar, are still commemorated at a multi-faith shrine at Sabarimala). Chera power persisted through the devastating Chola wars that began towards the end of the 10th century. The legendary end of the Chera hegemony, and the basis for any legitimacy claimed in the future by the principalities of Kerala, is attributed to the last high king, Cheraman Perumal Nayana, who is reported to have divided his kingdom, converted to Islam and left India for Arabia. The author of what is known as the partition of Kerala is sometimes conflated with the great, early Kulasekhara monarchs, Rajasekhara Varman or Sthanu Ravi, but the historical ‘last emperor’ is Rama Varma Kulasekhara, who ascended the throne in 1089. The exigencies of the Chola wars had by now brought about the rise of the warrior Nairs (and their chaver suicide squads) and the matrilineal system of inheritance, symptoms of social and economic stress in the country. Rama Varma faced the enmity of the Chola king, Kulothunga I, who sacked Makotai and captured Kollam in 1096. With the help of the chavers, the Chera forces drove back the Chola and regained Kollam in 1102—the city thereafter became the last Kulasekhara capital (Ten Vanchi, the Vanchi of the South), giving Venad a claim to be the most important of the Chera successor principalities, although the later rajahs of Kochi also claimed preeminence. Claims of Kulasekhara descent and grants of land came to be a necessity with the disappearance of Rama Varma in 1124. In the succeeding centuries three of some 30


local principalities were to rise to prominence: Venad (Travancore), Kochi and Kozhikode. Venad, later known as Thiruvidamkodu or Tiruvankur (Travancore), although it was to be the institutional core of the modern state of Kerala, was peripheral to much of the postChera history of the Malabar Coast. Thus, in 1125 Rajah Kodai Kerala Varman conquered the district around mainland India’s southernmost point, Kanniyakumari (Cape Comorin), which is now in Tamil Nadu (as it had a Tamil-speaking majority in 1956 and despite including the palace of Padmanabhapuram, the capital of Travancore between 1590 and 1750. Also, another conquering ruler, Ravi Varna Kulasekhara (1299–1314), triumphed mainly against the Pandyas; however, the kingdom was very much an inheritor of the Cheras and the culture of Kerala (in 1678–84 the kingdom had its first woman ruler, Umayamma Rani). In the 18th century it had another two gifted rulers, the first of which (Marthanda Varma ‘the Conqueror’, 1729–58) expanded the territory of Travancore and moved the capital to Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum—when the kingdom was dedicated to Vishnu), while the second (Kartika Tirunal Rama Varma or the Dharma Rajah, 1758–98) consolidated his territories, held out against Mysore (now part of Karnataka) and preserved the princely state as an entity in the transition to a new order of British supremacy. The history of Kochi languishes in relative obscurity until the advent of the Europeans. Its branch of the royal house, the Perumpadappu Swarupam, provided one of the most senior Keralan ruling princes and held power in the heartland of Nambudiri orthodoxy. Originally, they were in possession of the rich and ancient port of Kodungallur, but this was destroyed by a catastrophic flood of the Perivar in 1340, to be replaced by nearby Kochi, which, meanwhile, lost place to its new, northern rival at Kozhikode—moreover, Kochi did not favour the dominant Arab traders in the same way. The hereditary governors of Eranad had conquered coastal Polonad at the end of the 12th century and then built a port at Kozhikode, moving their capital from inland Nediyiruppu. By the 14th century, Kozhikode had become a wealthy trading centre— here, the Eradis soon adopted the title of Zamorin (Samutiri—Lord of the Sea), by which they are best known to history, a title earned by the wealth of their port, which commanded the favour of the Arab merchants. Policies of religious toleration no doubt encouraged this alliance, which favoured the Zamorin of Kozhikode against the rajahs of Kochi in their rivalry throughout the 13th–15th centuries. Open conflict had begun when the domain of Kozhikode had expanded far enough south to come into contact with the domains of Kochi and to claim preeminence among the heirs of the Chera; the struggle involved all of Kerala in the machinations of the various princes and the split in the brahminical caste (the Panniyur faction supported the Zamorin, while the Cokiram supported Kochi). In the latter part of this period Kozhikode and much of Kerala acknowledged the suzerainty of Vijayanagar (now Hampi, Karnataka). On 21 May 1498 the Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama, reached Kozhikode and Europeans began to enter the power intrigues of the Malabar Coast, a development that was eventually to bring Kerala within a pan-Indian empire for the first time. The Portuguese would not tolerate the rivalry of the Arab merchants, despite the Zamorin insisting that Kozhikode (or Calicut, as it was known to the Europeans) had always been a free port. In 1503 the first Portuguese forts were established at Kannur, to the north, and, significantly, at Kochi, to the south, as the Rajah of Kochi sought to exploit the enmity of

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the new players against his traditional rivals in Kozhikode. However, the Zamorin, possibly the wealthiest of Indian princes, invested in improving his navy, which was effectively reorganized under the hereditary admiral, the Kunhali Marakkar. Attacks on Kochi failed, although the loss of 19,000 men in a fruitless land attack on the Portuguese in 1504 was partly counterbalanced by the victory at sea, at Chaul, by the combined forces of the Zamorin, Gujarat and the Arabs of Egypt in 1508. Kunhali II was the greatest of the admirals and Kunhali III, who enjoyed all the privileges of Nair rank, although he was a Muslim, was permitted to build a fortress at modern Kottakkal, some 45 km north of Kozhikode, but the most successful period of struggle against the Portuguese was over, with serious defeats in 1528 and 1538. In 1540 the Zamorin was forced to make peace with the Portuguese (entrenched in a base to the north, Goa, since 1510) and grant them a monopoly on trade with Kozhikode, although conflict resumed in 1571–88. The resulting peace was opposed by many, including Kunhali IV, who also proclaimed himself the prince of the local Muslims, earning the enmity of the threatened Zamorin, who allied with the Portuguese to occupy Kottakkal and execute the Kunhali Marakkar in 1600. However, the imminent arrival of the Dutch in the region was soon to disrupt Portuguese ascendancy. Both the rajahs of Malabar (the Zamorin) and of Kochi used Dutch support against the Portuguese, while the Dutch themselves increasingly interfered in local politics to further their fight against the Portuguese. In 1663 the Dutch seized the Kochi station from the Portuguese and their ascendancy on the Malabar Coast was complete. Although their treaties with the local princes were less acquisitive than those of the Portuguese, the Dutch ‘Commanders of the Malabar Coast’ earned enmity in Kochi by dominating the rajahs to such an extent that they could even interfere in the succession (as in 1663), and they soon became the object of opposition among many of the rulers. Meanwhile, the arrival of the English (British) East India Company, first at Tellicherry (Thalassery) in 1682, provided another partner in intrigue. Eventually, the Company was persuaded to lend aid to local allies, particularly against the Dutch, helping the Zamorin in 1715–17 and, later, Travancore, which defeated the Dutch at Kulachel in August 1741, breaking their influence. Later, owing to war in Europe, the British occupied the Dutch base in Kochi in October 1795, and the final Indian possessions of the Netherlands were formally ceded in 1818. There had been some local threat to the British Company from the French during the 18th century, when they seized Mahe (still today part of the separate Union Territory of Pondicherry) in 1725, but the French impact in Kerala was indirect, through their allies in Mysore. The attention of Haidar Ali of Mysore was attracted to the coast of Kerala by the rajah of Palghat, who had lost territory to Kozhikode in the 1750s, during the Zamorin’s renewed attacks on Kochi (which merely brought Travancore into the war on the side of Kochi, helping to recover its lost territories in 1761–62 and forcing the Zamorin to conclude peace). Kozhikode could not withstand the threats of Mysore, but was unable to pay a war indemnity, prompting the invasion of Haidar Ali in 1766. He was assisted by the forces of Kannur and local Moplahs, and Mysore had one of the best armies in the subcontinent—the then Zamorin could not face the defeat and blew up himself, as well as the last of Kozhikode’s pre-eminence, in his palace. Haidar Ali initially installed a governor in the city, but, in an attempt to defuse the Nair revolts, in 1776 restored the new Zamorin to power in return for an annual tribute. In 1778 the forces of Mysore again invaded, demanding the tribute,


Kozhikode was occupied and the Zamorin fled to Travancore. Haidar Ali’s son, Tipu Sultan, was in command of the troops fighting the Nair resistance until 1782, when he returned to his home territories to secure his succession upon the death of his father. However, in 1788 Tipu Sultan returned to Kerala, the rajahs of which were being supported by his arch-enemy, the British, and again occupied Kozhikode. An attack on Travancore in the following year was thwarted by the flooding of the Perivar, while the continued pressure of local opposition and British arms drove Mysore from northern Malabar by 1790. Two years later Tipu Sultan was forced to conclude a peace with the British and ceded control of central Malabar, the territories once dominated by the Zamorin, to the East India Company. The final defeat of Mysore in 1799 brought the rest of what is now northern Kerala formally under the Company, while the following year, on 21 May, the Zamorin conceded direct administration in Malabar, in return for a pension (the new territories were soon transferred from the jurisdiction of the British Presidency in Bombay—now Mumbai, in Maharashtra—to that of Madras—now Chennai, in Tamil Nadu). Meanwhile, the rajah of Kochi (Rama Varma IX, Saktan Tampuran, 1790–1805) had concluded a subsidiary alliance with the British in 1791, while Travancore was steadily reduced to dependence by being forced to pay for the war against Mysore—the costs of the 1795 treaty provoked popular unrest and consequent Company concerns, pressing Travancore further from independence. In January 1805 a new treaty with the Rajah (Bala Rama Varma I, 1798–1810) sealed the southern kingdom’s status as a princely state of what was fast becoming British India. This process could not be reversed by the revolt of the Dalava of Travancore, Velu Thampi, who vainly raised the banner of revolt with his Kundara Declaration of 1807, just as it could not by the Pazhassi Rajah in the north earlier in the decade. The British eventually imposed about one century of peace (except for the various episodes of agrarian unrest by the Moplahs, 1836–56), during which time the Malayalam-speaking peoples were variously exposed to social and economic reform, education programmes and sustained engagement with the rest of India. Some of the major social changes started under the British have been mentioned above, but there are a few other political landmarks in the decades before independence. The Malabar Coast District was under direct British administration, so it experienced the upheavals of the national freedom struggle, from which Travancore and Kochi were partly insulated. In 1888 the first legislature of any Indian state had been formed when the Legislative Council of Travancore first met, but the campaign for responsible government did not really get under way in the two princely states until the 1930s. In Kochi (or Cochin, as it was generally known in this period) the regime steadily made concessions, including a diarchical form of government (including some democratically answerable ministers) in 1938, but, on the eve of national independence, a popular ministry took power under Panampally Govinda Menon and the 16th rajah since British overlordship, Keralavarma VII (who only acceded in 1946), formally lost his kingdom. Meanwhile, the premier (dewan) of Travancore, C.P.Ramaswamy lyer, was more determined to retain power, agitation against him being led by the Travancore State Congress (it was this campaign, and the more left-wing sympathies prevalent throughout Kerala, that resulted in the split in the local Congress and the formation of the Communist Party, confirmed by national developments during the Second World War). Unrest culminated in the 1946

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Punnapra-Vayalar Communist uprising, which was harshly suppressed. However, the Dewan’s suggestion that his rule would be maintained by Travancore obtaining separate independence from the rest of India united opposition and he eventually conceded reform and accepted exile. In August 1947 Travancore entered an independent Indian Union under the popular ministry of Pattom A.Thanu Pillai, but with the role of rajpramukh or governor filled by the fourth and last reigning Maharajah (the rajahs had been granted the title in 1866), Sir Bala Rama Varma III (1924–47). The campaign for a single Malayalam state, the reunion of the land of the Cheras, had already begun. The campaign for a united (aikya) Kerala gained formal expression in the 1920s, but only gained momentum after independence. On 1 July 1949 the two former princely states united into Travancore-Cochin (designated a part ‘B’ state under the 1950 Constitution), with Sir Bala Rama Varma as rajpramukh and T.K.Narayana Pillai as the first elected premier. The reorganization of the states on a linguistic basis took on a certain logic in southern India following pro-Tamil disturbances in the southernmost part of old Travancore. Thus, on 1 November 1956 (with the original Travancore-Cochin state under President’s Rule) the southern tip of India, four taluks of the Kanniyakumari District, was transferred to Madras, while the Malabar Coast District and one taluk of South Cannara District in the north were merged into the new State of Kerala. The princely rajpramukh was replaced with a civilian governor. The first state elections in Kerala, in March 1957, produced the first elected Communist Government in the world. However, the administration was dissolved in 1959, after a widespread opposition movement sometimes called the Liberation. Party politics was to continue this turbulent course, governments more usually dominated by Congress, but showing the influence of the left. The Legislative Assembly elected in 1970 was the first to live out its full term (and, indeed, had that term extended to 1977). In 1980 a leftist victory was marred by infighting, which resulted in President’s Rule being imposed in Kerala for the eighth time, although the 1982–87 ministry went to its full term. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) coalition lost the 1991 election, but in 1995 the United Democratic Front (UDF) lost its veteran Congress premier, K.Karunakaran. A.K.Anthony, who had briefly served as Chief Minister before, in 1977–78, and who supported Prohibition (of the sale of alcohol) in the 1996 state elections, was defeated by the LDF. Kerala’s 10th ministry was formed under E.K.Nayanar and lasted its full term. On 10 May 2001, however, the UDF conclusively returned to power, with Anthony forming a Government supported by 99 of the 140 deputies. The state also has nine seats in the upper house of the all-Indian legislature and 20 in the lower house. Economy Although Kerala is a state rich in natural resources and in human resources (Kerala leads India in literacy and mortality rates, its well educated population enjoying the best health indicators in the country), its economy has stagnated for some years. Nevertheless, according to a new series of figures for net domestic product, it was estimated that Kerala’s state income at current prices had reached 682,280m. rupees in 2000/01, or 21, 046 rupees per head. In 1999 there were 219,805 km of roads, of which 1,011 km were national highway. Railways totalled 1,050 km in length, most of it broad gauge, except


for 117 km of narrow gauge. There are three major airports, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode, the international links of the last being confined mainly to being with the countries of the Arabian peninsula, where many of Kerala’s work-force seek employment. An airport is also to be built at Kannur. One of the country’s 16 major international seaports is in Kochi, which handled 12.8m. metric tons of cargo and 121,649 standard containers in 1999/2000, but the state also has three medium-sized ports and 13 minor ones. Kerala is expected to reach self-sufficiency in energy by 2002, having achieved an installed electricity capacity of over 1,797 MW by the end of 1998—the state is rich in hydroelectric potential, some of which has been developed, but recent efforts have concentrated on installing thermal generation, in order to satisfy demand sooner. Communications infrastructure is also well developed, although a lack of an entrepreneurial climate means that the state has not yet taken advantage of its potential in exploiting new technologies and the internet economy. The educational and social achievements of Kerala are without equal in India, with the literacy rate at 90.9% in 2001 (it was already 89.8% in 1991), although this has not yet translated into comparable success with economic indicators. About one-half of the population are dependent upon agriculture economically, although the state is unusual in the predominance of cash crops. With plantation crops being grown by smallholders, the sector is particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in international commodity prices (it has also been affected by the lifting of trade barriers against imports), but the state still leads India in the production of many items. Over the last two decades of the 20th century there was a shift from high-volume, low-value crops (like the staple food crop, rice, production of which has fallen from a peak of 1.4m. metric tons in the 1970s to 0.8m. tons in 1999/2000) to low-volume, high-value crops (such as pepper, of which Kerala accounted for some 97% of total Indian production, with 56.4m. metric tons in 1999/2000). Thus, while the coconut remains one of Kerala’s major cash crops, the state is no longer India’s leading producer, accounting for 40% of the national total and providing a turn-of-the-century annual harvest of 5,167m. nuts— the state continues to lead in the provision of milling copra (dried husks). Also in 1999/ 2000 Kerala provided 11% of India’s total cashew-nut production (cashews, introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century, are produced both as a food crop and for industry —used in paints and varnishes or for caulking), 94% of rubber production (85% of the area under rubber trees), 21% of coffee production, 11% of tea production and, in a dramatic increase, 70% of cardamom production. Other important crops include areca nut, ginger, cacao, tapioca (introduced in the 1920s and popular because it flourishes rather better than rice on the state’s red, laterite soils) and tree spices, such as cinnamon, cloves and some nutmeg. Major fruit crops include banana, pineapple, mango and jackfruit, although horticulture is not developed in the state. It has been reckoned that 58% of Kerala’s households keep livestock to supplement their incomes. According to the 1997 agricultural census, Kerala was home to 3.4m. head of cattle, 1.7m. buffaloes, 1.9m. goats, 143,000 pigs, 25.6m. poultry (9.0% of India’s total) and 1.2m. ducks. As with food crops, Kerala does not satisfy its own demand, except in milk (2.4m. metric tons in 2000). The state produced just over 171m. dozen eggs (41 % of requirement) and 155, 080 metric tons of meat (51%) in 2000. Kerala, as the home of traditional, ayurvedic

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medicine, also has considerable potential to develop markets for medicinal plants, as well as expertise. Fisheries are also an important source of export revenue—marine products earned 8, 165.5m. rupees in foreign exchange in 1998/99, compared to 7,478.5m. rupees for coffee, 7,449.5m. rupees for cashew kernels, 6,230.9m. rupees for tea and 3,116.7m. rupees for pepper. Kerala possesses both a rich continental shelf (for which the state authorities have had to introduce conservation measures) and an extensive network of inland waterways, supporting 222 marine fishing villages and 113 inland fishing villages. In 1999/2000 there were an estimated 1.1m. people engaged in fishing (77% marine) in Kerala and total fish production was 668,000 metric tons (89% marine). The catch had risen steadily since the 569,000 tons of 1997/98 and has only been exceeded by production of over 710,000 tons in 1990/91 and in 1996/97. Forestry is not a major economic sector, although Kerala has extensive woodland in the Western Ghats, rich in biodiversity—mainly tropical forest (44% moist deciduous, 37% wet evergreen and 1% dry deciduous), but also, in places, some mountain sub-tropical forest (2%) and a significant amount of farmed plantation (16%). The official figure of some 29% of the total land area as recorded forested territory in Kerala obscures the fact that only about 84% of that total (9,400 sq km of 11,126 sq km) is effectively wooded forest area. Extractive industries exist in the state, but many of Kerala’s mineral resources are not yet being fully exploited. It is reputed to have the finest china clay (kaolin) in the country, while the beach sands of Kollam are rich in heavy minerals (monozite, ilmenite, rutile, ziricon and silimanite). Estimated reserves include some 80m. metric tons of china clay and 12m. tons of inferior fire clay, 79m. tons of iron ore, 35m. tons of ilmenite, 11m. tons of bauxite, 3m. tons of rutile and about 1m. tons each of monozite and borophite. Traditional industries dominate the secondary sector of the economy, led by the coir industry (based in Alappuzha), processing coconut production, and employing 383,000 people (85% women) alone. The whole sector provides employment for over 1m. people, the major activities, apart from coir, being handlooms (200,000 people, directly and indirectly) and handicrafts, and other agro-processing such as of cashews, rubber (based in Kottayam) and tea. Other manufactures include ceramics, electronic goods, telephone cable, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, cigarettes, etc., oils (e.g. lemongrass oil), paints, papers, engineering and precision instruments, glass and petroleum products. The state has begun to encourage information-technology and computer-software companies. At 31 March 1998 there were 180,000 small-scale industrial units in Kerala, employing 909,859 people. At the same point of the following year there were 511 medium and large-scale manufacturing industrial enterprises, of which 19 were central-government concerns and 62 state-government concerns, 29 joint ventures, 16 co-operative endeavours and 385 in the private sector. Services are not traditionally a major contributor to the state economy, government expenditure being by far the most important feature of the tertiary sector. Tourism has recently been developed extensively, as Kerala is blessed with lush scenery, beautiful beaches, an ancient and varied historical legacy, and a rich, cosmopolitan blend of cultures. Nature provides mountain wildlife reserves or the ‘backwaters’ inland waterways, while three great religions and a myriad of local dynasties and foreign powers have left a profusion of temples, churches and mosques, and of palaces and fortresses.


Directory Governor: SIKANDER BAKHT; Office of the Governor, Thiruvananthapuram; tel. (471) 321100; fax (471) 330226. Chief Minister: A.K.ANTHONY (Congress—I); Cliff House, Nanthencode, Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Kerala, Secretariat, Thiruvananthapuram 695 003; tel. (471) 333812; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly (Niyamasabha): VAKKOM PURUSHOTHAMAN; Neethi, Vikas Bhavan PO, Thiruvananthapuram 695 033; tel. (471) 513001; fax (471) 305891 (Legislature Secretariat); e-mail [email protected]; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 140 mems: Congress —I 63*; Communist (CPI—M) 23†; Muslim League 16*; Kerala Congress (M) 9*; Communist (CPI) 7†; Janata Dal (Secular) 3†; Nationalist Congress Party 2; Kerala Congress 2; Kerala Congress (Joseph) 2; Revolutionary Socialist Party 2; independents and others 11 (electoral coalitions: * United Democratic Front; † Left Democratic Front). State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: C.CHANDRA; Kerala House, 3 Jantar Mantar Rd, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3368806; fax (11) 3368934.

Madhya Pradesh

The State of Madhya Pradesh lies in central India, as its name suggests, a land linking the Gangetic plains and the peninsula. Essentially formed from the former princely states of Madhya Bharat (Central India) and the old British Central Provinces and Berar in 1956 (without Berar, which was included in Maharashtra), the state was the largest in India until November 2000, when the eastern region of Chhattisgarh became a separate state. Chhattisgarh lies to the south-east of the ‘rump’ Madhya Pradesh. The heavily indented northern border is marked by a roughly mushroom-shaped extension of the state to include Gwalior and its environs, with Uttar Pradesh to the east and north-east of this and Rajasthan to the west and north-west. There is a short western border with Gujarat and Maharashtra lies to the south. Since the bifurcation of its old territories Madhya Pradesh has had an area of 308,245 sq km (119,059 sq miles), making it the second-largest state (after Rajasthan) and only slightly larger than Maharashtra. Madhya Pradesh consists largely of dry plateau lands, alleviated by lowlands and low mountain ranges. The Narmada valley, which heads out of the state in the south-west, has the Vindhyan Range to the north, bisecting the state the reaching up along the northwestern border, and the higher land of the Mahadeo Hills in the south-west. The Maikala Range defines the eastern border with the new state of Chhattisgarh. North of Gwalior


the state reaches into the great northern plains of India, a border along the Chambal stopping Madhya Pradesh territory short of the Yamuna. Apart from the Narmada (Reva), one of India’s holy rivers, and the Chambal, the Tapi and the Son are important rivers flowing through the state. Although there are black volcanic soils in places, elsewhere the land is stony and arid. Most rainfall is between June and September, with an annual average of about 1,000 mm (39 inches) in the east, increasing towards the east. The hottest months are before the monsoon, while the winter after it is dry and with a relatively mild heat. At the census of 2001 Madhya Pradesh had a population of 60,385,118, an increase of almost one-quarter on 1991 and making it the seventh-most populous state in India, with a population density of 196 per sq km. Much of the region was dominated by two Maratha principalities before the ascendancy of the British, but the state’s population overwhelmingly uses Hindi dialects (western variants such as Malvi and Bundelkhandi, and eastern variants such as Bagheli), although there are some Marathi speakers. Otherwise the main minority languages are tribal, notably Gondi or Bhili, which have origins distinct from the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian tongues. Other tribes, such as the Baiga, the Bharia or the Saharia, are less integrated and receive special development assistance. About one-fifth of the population in the post-2000 state are included among the Scheduled Tribes and a further 15% among the Scheduled Castes. However, most of the population practice some form of Hinduism (in 1991, in the undivided state, 92.8% were Hindu and 5.0% Muslim, and there were small communities of Jains, Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs). Just over one-quarter (26.7%) of the population were classified as urban in the 2001 census, also according to which Madhya Pradesh had three cities among India’s largest: Indore (the 14th-largest city in the country), with 1.60m., in the south-west; Bhopal, the capital and 15th-largest city, with 1.43m., more towards the centre of the state; and Jabalpur, with 951,469 inhabitants, in the east. Gwalior, in the north, is also an important city (826,919). For administrative purposes Madhya Pradesh is divided into 45 districts. History Madhya Pradesh has not hosted the seat of any of the great pan-Indian empires, but it has featured prominently in the history of the subcontinent. Its highlands rise above the northern heartland of the arya varta, and enclose the Narmada, the traditional boundary between north India and the peninsula. The ancient Daksinapatha or Southern Route of early Aryanization and trade lies through western Madhya Pradesh, where the ancient realm of Avanti or Malwa flourished in the country around the headwaters of the Betwa (which descends to the Gangetic plains), across the watershed and down to the valley of the Narmada (which flows westwards to the sea). The great city of Ujjain was the traditional capital of Malwa and first famed as the gubernatorial city of Ashoka, who was entrusted with the administration of this, one of the five great provinces of the Mauryan empire. Although the future emperor’s time here, according to Buddhist legend, was spent in idle dalliance, emphasizing his change of character upon ‘conversion’, it was certainly around this time that Sanchi, near the second city of Malwa, Vidisha, first developed as a great Buddhist pilgrimage and temple site, which it was from the third century BC until its abandonment in the 14th century AD. Ujjain itself, a place of mythic

STATES (MADHYA PRADESH) 153

significance, remains one of Hinduism’s seven holy places, and shares with three other cities the rotating honour of holding the Kumbh Mela festival. After the fall of the Mauryas Malwa was strongly contested by the surrounding successor states, with Ujjain later becoming a major entrepôt at the time the Satavahanas developed trade from the north and centre of India to the west coast. The territory was, therefore, the coveted objective of the Kshatrapas, who eventually secured Malwa, only to lose it to ChandraGupta II by the beginning of the fifth century. The decay of Gupta power was resisted for longer in Malwa, which became a junior Gupta kingdom, outlasting imperial Magadha. Yashodharman of Malwa ensured this by defeating the scourge of the Guptas, the ‘White’ Huns, in around 528. Thereafter, it again became the subject of rivalry between northern and Deccan powers, such as Harsha of Thanesar (Haryana) or the Chalukyas of Badami (Karnataka). The rivalry between the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan and a Gurjara royal clan, the Pratiharas, from the eighth century involved more of western Madhya Pradesh than merely Malwa. The Gurjaras, relatives or precursors of the Rajputs, were powerful throughout the north-west of modern India, the Pratiharas under Vatsaraja having gained sufficient strength from territories in Rajasthan and Malwa to contest the rulers of Bengal for control of the imperial city of Kannauj (Uttar Pradesh). Although the GurjaraPratiharas lost Malwa to the Rashtrakutas, who turned their attention northwards in 786, the great fortress of Gwalior, looming above the hills separating the plains and the highlands of Madhya Pradesh, remained their great stronghold at the centre of their fluctuating domains. The final decline of the Gurjara-Pratihara realm can be dated to around 950, when they lost Gwalior to their erstwhile feudatories, the Chandelas. Indeed, throughout northern and western Madhya Pradesh Rajput clans once subject to the Pratiharas came to local prominence from this time. The Chandelas were based in old Jajhauti, Bundelkhand, from about the 10th to the 12th centuries, building the great temples of Khajurajo, which were only abandoned as the centre of Chandela power was forced eastwards. Neighbours to the Chandelas, in eastern Madhya Pradesh, were the Kalachuris, who fought the Later Western Chalukyas so ferociously and who seized Jabalpur (Jubbulpore) as their capital from the Gonds about the end of the 12th century, keeping it as their own seat until their defeat by the Marathas. (Another Gond kingdom, based on Mandla, retained its independence until conquest by the Mughals in the 16th century.) The Rajput clan to gain Malwa, however, was that of the Paramaras. They took Dhar, an upland centre more easily defended than ancient Ujjain, as their capital. The most famous Paramara king was the literary Bhoj, who reigned from about 1010 until the 1050s, making Dhar a centre of learning and poetry. His dynasty held Malwa into the 13th century, although in 1261 Jayavaram, the rajah, was forced to move the capital from Dhar to a still-more defensible site at Mandu. This did not prevent the fall of most of Malwa to the Muslims in 1293, though Mandu itself remained Hindu until 1305. As one of the main routes into the Deccan, Malwa and other parts of Madhya Pradesh acquired Muslim as well as Rajput and other Hindu rulers, although generally acknowledged rule from Delhi came with the Mughals rather than the earlier sultans. Mandu, renamed Shadiabad (City of Joy), became the seat of an independent sultanate, until it fell under Mughal rule (when the city was slowly abandoned). Aurangzeb gained the allegiance of most of the princes of central India, although his Afghan supporters


sometimes supplanted less willing lords, as they had in Gwalior and did in Bhopal (which allegedly gained its name from Bhoj Paramara). With the decline of Mughal power after Aurangzeb, Bhopal became a distinct Muslim-ruled state in 1723, noted for its consistent loyalty to the British. Further to the south, originally based on Aurangabad (Maharashtra), later in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Nizam-ul-Mulk was turning his Deccan province into the basis of another independent domain. The main feature of the period, however, was the rise of the Marathas, who rapidly gained land rights throughout the region and made it a bastion of their power. Although the pre-eminent Maratha princes were based in Maharashtra, two powerful dynasties became established in Madhya Pradesh. Of the five great houses of the emerging Maratha confederation, the Peshwas were based in Pune (Maharashtra), the Gaekwads in Vadodara (Gujarat) and the Bhonslas in Berar (now Maharashtra, but until 1956 part of Madhya Pradesh). In Malwa the main leaders were Malhar Rao Holkar (who, in the late 1720s, was awarded territory there, including the new city of Indore in 1733, which became the royal city of the Holkars) and Ranoji Scindia (who was awarded ancient Ujjain—his house gained extensive power throughout north-western Madhya Pradesh, in Rajasthan and Gujarat, but made its eventual capital at Gwalior in 1766). Although increasingly independent and intent on expanding their own territories and revenue rights, the Holkars and the Scindias dutifully supported the Peshwa’s expedition against the Afghan forces threatening Delhi in 1760. These forces were defeated conclusively in the January of the following year, undermining central Maratha authority and, indeed, exposing the office of peshwa to the same dynastic manipulations to which the Marathas had subjected the Mughal emperors. The main Maratha power in northern and central India became Mahadji Scindia, who was the ruling prince of Gwalior for some 30 years, until his death in 1794. He gained huge territories with his (expensive) professional army, and resumed Maratha ‘protection’ of the Mughal emperor, although he and the Holkars moved to support the court of the peshwas at the end of the 1770s, when the British intervened in the Maratha succession. However, reinforcements from Bengal aborted the nascent concert of princes, even if they did not deliver a victory to the British. In 1780 the maharajah of Scindia was surprised in his own great fortress of Gwalior and moved to become the peacemaker between the British and the Marathas, securing over two decades of peace in central India. The territories of Indore flourished under the benevolent and enlightened rule of Rani Ahalyabhai Holkar, the daughter-in-law of Malhar Rao Holkar, who himself had long depended on her guidance before his death in 1766. This sustained experience of female rule was to be repeated in the next century in the small, nearby princely state of Bhopal, where two Muslim women, Qudsia Begum and her daughter, Sikander Begum, were in power from 1857 until 1926. Meanwhile, however, the death of Ahalyabhai in 1795 left her Holkar successor to intrigue against the new Scindia prince for supremacy among the Marathas, descending to open conflict after the death of the Pune regent, Nana Phadnavis, in 1800. This merely sent the Peshwa to seek the help of the British, who, in 1803–04, marched against the Marathas, forcing them into subsidiary alliance with the East India Company, although not without a considerable military challenge. Despite the final British-Maratha conflict in 1817–18, most of the 19th century saw co-operation between the British and their princely clients, whose lands were interspersed by directly administered territories of the Company. The British title for the


area was the Central Provinces (Berar was added later in the century) and the headquarters of the Central India Agency was based in Indore. At the time of the 1857 Mutiny and the ensuing Great Rebellion, both the Scindia and Holkar maharajahs remained loyal to the British, although the former’s capital of Gwalior was seized by rebellious troops and provided a last stand for them and another of Madhya Pradesh’s famous women, Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi (now part of Uttar Pradesh). Both Indore and Gwalior benefited from enlightened princely rule at various periods. The Holkars, for instance, were among the first to open temples and public wells, etc., to ‘untouchables’ in support of Mahatma Gandhi’s campaign for harijan rights. At independence, the Maharajah of Gwalior, George Jivaji Rao Scindia, was instrumental in the formation of the Madhya Bharat Union of princely states from the region, which acceded to the Indian Union in 1948, with Scindia as Raj Pramukh (i.e. a ‘Part B’ state under the 1950 Constitution). The original Madhya Pradesh (‘central land’ or ‘central province’) was the old British region of the Central Provinces and Berar, with its capital at Nagpur. In 1956, as part of the linguistic reorganization of the states, predominantly Marathi-speaking Berar (including Nagpur) was attached to what became Maharashtra, while the rest of the Central Provinces, the 17 districts of Mahakoshal, were joined with the 16 districts of Madhya Bharat (excluding a small enclave that was included with Rajasthan), the eight districts of Vindhya Pradesh (a ‘Part C’ state—administered from the Centre), the two districts of the ‘Part C’ and former princely state of Bhopal and, finally, the Sironj sub-division (hitherto part of Kotah District in Rajasthan). The resulting State of Madhya Pradesh settled upon Bhopal as its capital, a city that gained international notoriety in December 1984, when the gas disaster at the Union Carbide plant caused the loss and blighting of so many lives (a state Government report in 1990 attributed some 3, 800 deaths and many thousands of disabilities to the incident). Congress has remained the predominant party of the state, helped by the support of many of the still-respected royal families. Thus, the late Madhavrao Scindia was a Congress politician, and in 2002 his son was a candidate to continue the tradition, while the current Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh, is also the scion of a princely house. Singh, who first became premier in December 1993, is now the longest serving Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. He has helped bolster the position of his party in the state legislature by restoring responsibility to government finances, maintaining a record for good governance even through the upheavals (and reduced income) consequent upon the separation of Chhattisgarh into a separate state in 2000. Congress has, nevertheless, always been strongly challenged by the Hindunationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), under Uma Bharti, which performed well in the state at the general election to the lower house of the Indian Parliament (to which Madhya Pradesh furnishes 29 members; the state also sends 11 members to the Rajya Sabha). The BJP currently leads the national Government, of which the current Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was born in Madhya Pradesh. Economy Madhya Pradesh is a relatively poor state, although some mineral wealth and a developed urban population have contributed to the creation of a modest industrial base. The state Government is noted as the first in India to restore discipline, and a fiscal surplus, to state


finances. The division of the state in 2000 lost Madhya Pradesh some rich mineral and forestry reserves in Chhattisgarh, as well as a disproportionate share of the power capacity (unless otherwise stated, figures given in this survey apply to the truncated Madhya Pradesh). In real terms, the net state domestic product increased by about one-third between 1994/95 and 1999/2000, but, even over a slightly longer timeframe (1993/ 94– 1999/2000), per-head wealth only increased by about one-fifth. In 1999/ 2000, according to state estimates for the diminished Madhya Pradesh, net domestic product was 655,549.5m. rupees in total, or 11,244 rupees per head (these figures are not necessarily comparable with those produced for other states—the per-head figure for the undivided state should be slightly higher). Particularly given that the rail network of Madhya Pradesh is considered insufficient (although the main route connecting north and south India passes through the state), roads are vital infrastructure. However, in terms of length relative to area, the state possesses only some 30% of the national average. Roads maintained by the state public works department totalled 67,740 km in 1999/2000. There are airports at Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur and Khajuraho. Although the divided Madhya Pradesh was left with about 70% of the land area and 73% of the population, it retained only 64% of the generating capacity for electricity and a greater proportion of consumption. In 1999/2000 the area that the divided state was to consist of consumed more electricity than it produced (the latter being 14,023.7m. units, of which 15% was produced from hydroelectric sources). Electrification of rural villages, however, had reached 97% of the total at March 2000. In the census of the following year the literacy rate showed a great improvement on that in 1991, rising to 64.1% from 44.7%. The contribution of the primary sector to net domestic product in 1999/2000 was 39. 9%. Agriculture is the occupation of most people in Madhya Pradesh—of the main workers (36% of the total population), one-half are classed as cultivators and a further 27% as agricultural labour. The state does not produce sufficient to feed itself, not helped by the loss of the fertile Chhattisgarh plains (which produced some 70% of the rice in the undivided state). Rice is mainly grown in the east, and some in the south-west, along with millets, while in the north it is mainly wheat and pulses, as well as some sugarcane. Other crops include fruit, tobacco, betel leaf, cotton, chilli, vegetables, and oilseeds and groundnut. The main production figures for the divided state in 1999/2000 were: 15. 5m. metric tons of foodgrains (half-polished rice at 1.7m. tons, wheat at 8.4m. tons and jowar or white sorghum at 0.6m. tons, with other grains and millets, and pulses making up the balance); 203,000 metric tons of sugarcane (gur); 456,000 bales of cotton; 5.5m. tons of oilseeds; and 4.4m. tons of soybeans. Agriculture is mainly rainfall-fed, which has been a problem in the recent years of persistent drought, but the sector also suffers from low productivity and lowvalue crops. In 1999/2000 some 49% of the total area was sown and 31% forested. About two-fifths of the woodland grows economically important species such as teak, sal and bamboo. Madhya Pradesh still possesses productive mineral reserves, although it only retained about one-half of the mining revenue of the undivided state. Until the development of new finds in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh (Panna District) remains India’s only source of diamonds—in 1999/2000 production increased by 18% on the previous year, to reach 40, 666 carats, worth 179.3m. rupees. The same year produced 43.0m. metric tons of coal (worth 27,905.5m. rupees), 22.3m. tons of limestone (2,191.5m. rupees), 326,000 tons


of manganese ore (536.2m. rupees), 248,000 tons of bauxite (73.5m. rupees), 155,000 tons of rock phosphate (118.6m. rupees), 103,000 tons of dolomite (8.9m. rupees), 92, 000 tons of iron ore (5.3m. rupees), 74,000 tons of copper ore (1,037.8m. rupees), as well as fire clay and china clay, laterite and ochre. The contribution of mining and quarrying to the economy rose from 2.8% in 1993/94 to 3.5% in 1999/2000. The secondary sector contributed 19.9% to net domestic product in 1999/ 2000, a share that had declined slightly over the previous several years as a result of problems in industrial growth. By August 2000 the number of registered factories had reached 8,420. In 1999/2000 cement (production of 11.2m. metric tons) and newsprint (58,400 metric tons) had performed well, but textiles had languished. Other industries include those based on agricultural and mineral processing, automobile industries near Indore, the manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment, optical cables and the famous handicraft activities and handloom cloths produced at Chanderi and Maheswar. The tertiary sector accounted for 40.2% of net domestic product in 1999/2000, edging past the primary sector as the principal contributor to the economy in the late 1990s. Manufacturing for the electronics and telecommunications industries has helped the development of an information-technology sector, but the main services in Madhya Pradesh are government, transport and trade. Tourism is also an important activity, with the state boasting nine national parks and 25 wildlife sanctuaries, including the last known habitat of the swamp deer and the home of the albinotic (white) tigers of Rewa. History has provided a rich monumental, cultural and religious legacy, which attracts visitors. Directory Governor: Dr BHAI MAHAVIR; Office of the Governor, Raj Bhavan, Bhopal; tel. (755) 551300; e-mail [email protected]. Chief Minister: DIGVIJAY SINGH (Congress—I); Office of the Chief Minister, Room 118, New Vidhan Sabha, Bhopal; tel. (755) 576237; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: SHRINIWAS TIWARI; Assembly Secretariat, New Vidhan Sabha, Bhopal; tel. (755) 440568; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 230 mems: Congress—I 126; Bharatiya Janata Party 80; Bahujan Samaj Party 9; Samajwadi Party of India 4; independents and others 11. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: LOVELEEN KAKKER; Madhya Pradesh Bhavan, 2 Gopinath Bardoloi Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021; tel. (11) 3019899; fax (11) 3019461; e-mail [email protected].

Maharashtra

The State of Maharashtra lies in the north-west of peninsular India, tapering in towards the centre, where it widens slightly. It has borders with seven other constituent parts of the Union. To the south, also on the Arabian Sea coast, is Goa, from where the Maharashtra border reaches into the heart of India in a north-easterly direction; south of this border lie Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Maharashtra is hooked over the northern tip of Andhra Pradesh and ends with an eastern border with Chhattisgarh. To the north lies Madhya Pradesh and, in the north-west, Gujarat. As it nears the coast again, the border with Gujarat is complicated by the presence of Nagar Haveli, an enclave of the inland Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. On 1 May 1960 the State of Bombay (organized into a bilingual state for Marathi and Gujarati speakers in 1956, having some Marathi-speaking districts added to the old province from what is now Madhya Pradesh and from Hyderabad—now part of Andhra Pradesh) was divided into Maharashtra and

STATES (MAHARASHTRA) 159

Gujarat states. Maharashtra, which retained multilingual Bombay (renamed Mumbai in 1996) as its capital, has an area of 307,713 sq km (118,854 sq miles), making it the thirdlargest state in India (Rajasthan is the largest, while Madhya Pradesh is now only a little bigger than Maharashtra). The Konkan Coast, which includes the littoral of Maharashtra, is here a broken lowland of low plateaux and narrow, steep-sided river valleys, seldom even 50 km (31 miles) wide. Inland the Western Ghats rise steeply as the flat-topped Sahyadri Range, which, eastwards, falls in steps (ghats) through the Mawal hill country to the dominating plateau land of the interior. There are natural mountain limits to the state in the north (Satpuda Range) and in the rolling granite hills of the east, while the great Maharashtra Desh (plateau) generally falls towards the south-east and east. Much of the Desh, except in the far eastern Vidarbha region and in a small part of the south-west, is largely coterminous with the Deccan Traps, giving it its distinctive black soils. This volcanic geology and weathering has given the interior of Maharashtra its flattened skyline of mesas, further broken by river action. The interior plateau, therefore, actually consists of flat and generally dry interfluves, alternating with open river valleys, the broadest of which result from the systems of the Godavari and its tributaries, the Wardha and the Wainganga, of the Bhima, a tributary of the Krishna, which also rises in the southern parts of the state, and of the westward flowing Tapi-Purna. In the northernmost part of the state, a short border lies along a stretch of the Narmada. Many of these rivers are prone to flooding, owing to the monsoon climate, but Maharashtra suffers more from a scarcity of water resources. Although the Konkan Coast enjoys plentiful precipitation (an annual average of about 2, 000 mm—78 inches—more in the south and less in the north), reaching over 4,000 mm per year on the crests of the Sahyadri, the interior is semi-arid. The western plateau can receive only 500 mm in one year, although the eastern regions receive about double that average, later in the season than those areas nearer the coast (where the monsoon from early June brings heavy rains, lasting until September). Temperatures are tropical, summer heat building up from March usually to reach their height in May, and the coast is humid. Although Maharashtra is a large state, stretching 900 km into the interior from a 500km coastline, it is the most populous state in India after Uttar Pradesh, with 96,752,247 people at the 2001 census, giving it an average population density of 314 per sq km. The natural population growth rate is now lower than the all-India average, but inward migration remains high (accounting for some 23% of the increase in population between 1991 and 2001, based on official estimates). Maharashtra is home to a variety of indigenous tribal peoples, and to different ethnic and religious groups, most famously in Mumbai, but the lingua franca tends to be Marathi (the tongue of 73.3% of the population in 1991, and spoken by many more). The Marathi-speaking peoples are supposed to have originated in a migration from the north, but they also manifestly included Dravidian and aboriginal tribal elements. The language is a descendent of Maharastri, a Prakrit corruption of Sanskrit, in use in around the third century BC, since modified by other local languages and, most recently, by the Persian in use as the official language of many Muslim courts. The name of the state, therefore, has numerous possible derivations, possibly meaning the land of the Mahars and Rattas, or derived from the word for chariot driver (rathi) and, hence, a fighting force, or from a corruption of maha kantara (great


forest), which is a synonym for Dandakaranya, a name once used for the region. Although most of the outlying areas of the old Bombay presidency where Telugu or Kannada were mostly spoken were awarded to Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka when the states were reorganized, these languages are still spoken by significant minorities. History has also left English widely spoken, in urban areas particularly. However, the other main languages after Marathi are Hindi (7.8% of the population at the 1991 census), Urdu (7.3%) and Gujarati (2.6%). Konkani is an important regional language on the coast and Gondi in the north. Ethnically, the Bhil, Warli, Gond, Korku and Gowari tribal groups of the western and northern hill country, are Australoid aboriginals (Scheduled Tribes accounted for 9. 3% of the total population of the state in 1991), but the Marathi-speaking Kunbi Marathas are the predominant clans of the state. The Parsis, most of the remainder of whom now live in Mumbai, arrived on the west coast of India from Persia (now Iran) in the eighth century AD, are mainly distinguished from the rest of the population by their observance of the ancient Zoroastrian faith. However, the overwhelming majority in the state are adherents of the ‘Great Tradition’ of Hinduism (81.1% in 1991). There is still a relatively large Muslim population (9.7%). The next largest religious affiliation is to Buddhism (6. 4%), but this is not a long-enduring local tradition, as the originally native faith had lost adherence throughout most of India by the 12th century, rather the acquisition of recent converts from among the lower castes. There are also communities of Jains (1.2%), Christians (1.1%) and Sikhs (0.2%). According to the provisional results of the 2001 census, 42.4% of the population were urban, the highest percentage among the all the states after Goa, Mizoram and Tamil Nadu. There are a number of populous cities in the state, but Mumbai is the largest city in India—the urban agglomeration of Greater Mumbai had a population of 16,368,084 (1. 6% of the total population of India and 16.9% of the population of Maharashtra), some 11. 9m. of these in the city proper. Pune, an old Maratha capital, east beyond the Ghats from Mumbai, is India’s eighth-largest city (2.5m. in 2001) and Nagpur, in the east of the state and once the capital of Madhya Bharat (most of which is now part of Madhya Pradesh), the 13th-largest city (2.1m.). Other important cities are Nashik in the north-west (1.08m.), on the inland slopes of the Western Ghats, Aurangabad (872,667) further east and, in the south-west, Kolhapur (485,183). Maharashtra is divided into 35 districts. History Mauryan hegemony followed the so-called Southern Route of Aryanization from the north, through Malwa (based on Ujjain, in modern Madhya Pradesh) to the Deccan (itself a term derived from the Southern Route, Daksinapatha). The heartland of modern Maharashtra is where this great north-south conduit is crossed by the ways leading to the narrow passes down to the western coast. The first great realm to be based in the region was that of the Satavahanas, an Andhran dynasty founded by Simukha (271–8BC), who moved the capital to Prathinistapura (Paithan). The sixth ruler of the dynasty, Satarkani II (184–28 BC), extended Satavahana rule into Malwa and beyond, onto the Gangetic plains. Satavahana success mainly depended on the wealth of the trade they encouraged, with commerce from the north and from the Deccan heading down to the great ports of the Konkan Coast, from Broach (Bharuch, Gujarat) in the north to Sopara and Chaul, nearer


modern Mumbai. Trade across the Arabian Sea, notably with the Roman Empire, flourished until around AD 170, when recession had a noticeable archaeological effect on Satavahana society. Satavahana policy had favoured settlement along the trade routes and at their termini, so, while the dynasty itself faithfully observed the Vedic sacrifices and sponsored brahminical settlement, it also supported Buddhism, a philosophy then more favourable to the development of trade. Thus, the great trading and artisanal guilds are prominent in the dedications of the Buddhist monuments and cave temples of the era. Politically, the Satavahanas are noted for ending the residual authority of the last of the Kanvas of Magadha in 28 BC, under Pulumavi I. Towards the end of the first century AD, however, the Deccan had to suffer Shaka (Scythian) incursions and it took the great Gautamiputra Satarkani (AD 62–86) to drive them out of Malwa, although it was not long before the Kshatrapas challenged them again, particularly along the Konkan Coast and by regaining Malwa. The last years of Pulumavi II (86–114) witnessed the beginning of the Satavahanas’ final decline, military defeats and loss of territory confirmed by a contraction in the basis of their wealth. The Satavahana-Kshatrapa rivalry was not just political but also a struggle to control the lucrative Arabian Sea trade. However, this trade was not only divided in the late second century, but in decline. The last monarch of an extensive domain was Yajnasri Satarkani (128–57), who was regularly defeated by the ‘Great Satrap’, Rudradaman Kshatrapa, and the Satavahanas were soon lost to history thereafter. In the next century the Satavahana hegemony in Maharashtra was gradually replaced by the kingdom of the Vakatakas, whose capital was in Ajanta, and it was this dynasty that obstructed Gupta supremacy in the Deccan. However, the Guptas were engaged in conflict with the Kshatrapas, the enemy of both regimes, so the Vakatakas entered into a matrimonial alliance, with Rudrasena II Vakataka marrying Prabhavati Gupta, a daughter of Chandra-Gupta II. Rudrasena II died in 390 and his queen became regent for 20 years, by which time the Vakatakas were firmly entrenched as allies of the Guptas. Control of the western Deccan after the Gupta era was contested by a number of dynasties. By the seventh century the Chalukyas of Badami (Karnataka), otherwise known as the Western Chalukyas, had extended their authority not only into Maharashtra but north of the Narmada, as well as east to the Bay of Bengal, but they were too concerned with the rivalry with the Tamil south. The Chalukyas were, therefore, supplanted by the Rashtrakutas, who, under Dantidurga (a rashtrakuta or governor of a Chalukya district in Maharashtra from about 733) had been permitted to accumulate considerable territory in Berar, around modern Nagpur. After the death of Vikramaditya II Chalukya in 747, Dantidurga had campaigned as far afield as Madhya Pradesh and southern Gujarat, adopting Ellora as his capital and assuming the title of Consort of the Earth (Prithvi Vallabha—hence, the later Rashtrakutas were known to the Muslims as ‘the Balhara’). He successfully held off the Chalukyas once they became aware of his ambitions, but it was left to his uncle and successor, Krishna I (who reigned about 756–773), to destroy their armies and to conquer Badami in about 760. The Rashtrakutas then added most of Karnataka to their domains, later securing control of the Konkan Coast, the submission of the Gangas of south-eastern Karnataka, and the defeat of and subsequent matrimonial alliance with the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi (in Andhra Pradesh). Krishna I was succeeded by his son, Govinda II, whose uncertain reign did not threaten Rashtrakuta control of the Deccan only because the kingdom’s only rivals were in the far south of India


or north in the Gangetic plains. In about 780 he was usurped by his brother, Dhruva. The new king first disciplined his southern and eastern neighbours, before crossing the Narmada some six years after his accession to conquer Malwa and then descending to the Gangetic plains. Although he defeated the two competing powers of the north, which had made of Kannauj (Uttar Pradesh) an imperial city to be fought over, Dhruva himself did not take the capital. Instead he headed back south of the Vindhya hills laden with booty, in the traditional manner of a Deccan raider, although this foray was actually to mark the start of an imperial adventure for the Rashtrakutas, the first Deccan dynasty to make a serious bid for power in the north. Malwa and Rajasthan were the realm of Vatsaraja Pratihara, the leader of a Gurjara (possibly related to, or were themselves, early Rajputs) clan, who had amassed sufficient power to threaten Pala control of Kannauj. The Palas themselves were new to power, having become the rulers of Bengal under Gopala in c. 750. Gopala’s son, Dharmapala (770–810), extended Pala conquests up the course of the Ganga (Ganges), only to join Vatsaraja in defeat by Dhruva. However, the Rashtrakutan incursion had mainly come through Gurjara-Pratihara territory, and, in the aftermath, the Palas were able to seize Kannauj and install their own candidate as king. The Palas clung to supremacy under Dharmapala and his equally long-reigning son, Devapala (810–50), before giving way to about one century of Gurjara-Pratihara dominance. The Rashtrakutas, however, made repeated interventions in northern affairs, first seizing Kannauj itself under Govinda III (793–814), Dhruva’s son and successor, but also later under Indra III (914–28), the greatgrandson of Govinda III. They were also constantly re-establishing their power vis-à-vis their neighbours in Vengi, southern Karnataka or the Tamil lands. The Rashtrakutas relied on the personal dominance of a king, and so relied upon the qualities of the reigning individual and, indeed, of his contemporary monarchs. It has been argued that the Rashtrakutan interventions in the arya varta were not so much about conquest as about staking a claim to ‘relocate’ the sacred geography to the Deccan, and many of their magnificent monuments echo such ambitions. Certainly, the Rashtrakutas were a recognizably Hindu dynasty, and their lands a major conduit of bhakti Hindu revivalism from the south to the north—Buddhism effectively seems to have been extinct in the main body of India by the 12th century, and in the peninsula long before. The reign of Krishna III, between about 939 and 967, was the last chapter in the history of a still-great, but ailing, empire, assailed on many sides. Krishna III died without issue, and the domains of the Rashtrakutas were rent by succession struggles and the competing armies of the Ganga and revived Chalukya (Later Western Chalukya) dynasties of Karnataka. The latter, with their capital at Kalyana (Karnataka), eventually prevailed and the last, hapless Rashtrakuta was displaced in about 973. The Later Western Chalukyas dominated the western Deccan for almost two centuries, although they suffered from Paramara and Kalachuri pressure in the north and the Chola rivalry in the south. By the 12th century two increasingly powerful Chalukya feudatories had gained sufficient weight to threaten the rulers of Kalyana, whose weakness was apparent from the middle decades of the century. Both dynasties claimed to be descended from the Yadavas, although the name is applied mainly to the northern dynasty, which was the first to use Marathi as a court language. In the south the Hoysalas


gained control of Karnataka, but in the north the Sevunas (or Yadavas) ruled much of Maharashtra. Bhillama V Sevuna, who came to the throne in about 1173, confirmed Yadava rule in the north by taking the Chalukyan capital of Kalyana in about 1186, although his advance southwards was halted by the Hoysala king two years before his death in 1192. Under Singhana II (1199–1247), however, the Yadava realm extended as far as the Tungabhadra in southern Karnataka. Generally, their territory roughly corresponded to modern Maharasthra, and they had to fight to maintain their borders against a number of aggressive neighbours, not least the Delhi Sultanate, which became established in northern India in the 13th century. In such warlike times, it is no surprise to find that the Yadava capital was at Deogiri or Devagiri (later Daulatabad, now Deogarh), guarded by one of the most impregnable fortresses in western India. It was here that Ramachandra Sevuna was surprised in a daring raid by a young Muslim prince, Ala-ud-din Khalji, whose family had recently seized the throne of Delhi. Ramachandra’s son and army were campaigning in the south, while the great fortress was low on provisions, so the Yadava king arranged a matrimonial alliance and paid a ransom to Ala-ud-din, who was soon to become sultan, aided by his new wealth and reputation. The Sevuna heir, Sangama, however, was less keen on the new alliance, the tribute was heavy and soon fell into arrears, and the Muslim threat to Hindu kingdoms made more real after 1299, when Devagiri provided a refuge for the exiled rajah of conquered Gujarat. In 1307 the Sultan ordered a military enforcement of his alliance with King Ramachandra—the Muslim forces defeated the Yadava army, forced Sangama to flee and again sacked the capital. Ramachandra was taken to Delhi, but reinstated by Ala-ud-din, who thereby gained a helpful ally in transporting his armies south against the peninsular kingdoms. In 1318, during the turbulent years before the Tughluqs seized the throne of Delhi, the Sevunas were finally dispossessed and Devagiri taken as a fortress of the Sultanate (briefly to serve as the new capital of Muhammad bin Tughluq in c. 1330). Despite the pressure from and ultimate conquest by the Muslims, however, this period is noted for the activity of a number of saintly poets, including Jnanesvara (whose short life was in the last years of Sevuna sovereignty, from about 1271 to 1296), who wrote in Marathi. Possibly the most famous of his contemporaries was Namdev, a tailor as well as a writer, who was born in about 1270 and died in 1350. Such men established a tradition that continued despite Muslim rule, culminating with the 17th-century works of a poet such as Tukaram (1598–1650) or the ascetic and politically active Ramdas (1608–81), who provided Shivaji with a philosophical inspiration. Muslim rule by the tolerant Bahmanids, who succeeded to power in the western Deccan with the decline of Delhi’s authority in the 14th century, was not onerous, and this continued in the successor sultanates that emerged at the end of the 15th century. The main one on Maharashtran territory was based on the city of Ahmadnagar and ruled by the Nizamshahis. By this time, however, the Mughals had established an empire in northern India and were extending their control into Malwa and Berar. Against them the Deccan sultanates not only deployed their Muslim subjects, but their Hindu ones—Ahmadnagar increasingly depended on the mobile cavalry units supplied by the Maratha warrior aristocracy. Thus, one such nobleman, Maloji Bhonsla, was in 1595 awarded for his service to Bahadur Nizam II with a princely title, a fort and the estate of Pune (Poona).


The sultanate was though weakened by its rivalry with Bijapur (Karnataka) and its capital fell to the Mughals in 1600. Nevertheless, the Ahmadnagar kingdom continued and was, indeed, restored under the leadership of Malik Ambar, who harassed the Mughals and the forces of Bijapur, often using guerrilla tactics, but defeating them conclusively in open battle in 1624. Malik Ambar, a great administrator and general, died in 1626 and the sultanate he had sought to defend was finally incorporated into the Mughal dominions in the 1630s, but he had set an example for the Maratha lords he had so ably employed. Maloji Bhonsla of Pune was succeeded by his son, Shahji, whose own son (and that of a princess claiming descent from the Sevunas), Shivaji, was born in 1627. From the age of 16 years Shivaji seems to have been intent on power and on freedom from Muslim rule, extending his tiny kingdom in the 1640s and attacking the powerful state of Bijapur 1657. Soon he had captured some 40 forty forts in the Western Ghats and along the coast, defeating Bijapur’s best general, Afzal Khan, in 1659, by the stratagem of killing him during negotiations. He then seized more of the Konkan Coast and began to build a navy. However, Bijapur had ceded extensive territories to the Great Mughal in 1657, including the Maratha homeland Shivaji had created, and in 1660 Aurangzeb sent an army south to secure his new domains. Pune and many of the Maratha forts fell, but Shivaji maintained his freedom and his prestige (which attracted Hindu and Muslim followers alike—Shivaji distinguished between Swarajya or homeland and foreign-ruled Mughlai, but was not oppressive of Muslims) with a number of daring exploits, combining generalship and cunning. By 1665 overwhelming Mughal arms forced Shivaji into negotiations. He conceded Mughal sovereignty, but was left in possession of about one-half of his forts and still commanded a wide-ranging and proficient light cavalry force, which the Mughals were keen to use in their struggle against Bijapur. In 1666 Shivaji was summoned to the presence of the emperor in Delhi, but took offence and made his escape in another muchacclaimed escapade, which eventually led to war in 1670. Shivaji’s offensive included a second sack of Surat (Gujarat), the recapture of Pune and the coast, and raids throughout the Mughal Deccan. In 1674 Shivaji began the organization of his personal fiefs and alliances into a Maratha state, now including most of western Maharashtra, by formally assuming kingship. His last campaign established the nucleus of more Maratha territory deep into the south, in the Tamil south-east, but he died of dysentery in 1680. The ‘great kingdom’ was then sorely pressed as the Great Mughal brought his court and his armies south and the Marathas were weakened by succession disputes. However, the roving cavalry bands were not defeated by the loss of forts and cities, a parallel Maratha ‘administration’ was being introduced throughout the Deccan, exacting ‘taxes’ for protection, great Mughal cities such as Hyderabad or the lands north of the Narmada were not free from raids, and the Mughals were to lose the initiative with the death of Aurangzeb in 1707. Centralization over the great Maratha warlords, meanwhile, benefited from the rise of Balaji Vishvanath. In 1714 he gained the title of Peshwa, chancellor or first minister of the realm, for securing the support of Kanhoji Angria, the admiral of the Maratha navy. He led the Marathas to intervene in the complicated and bloody politics of the Mughal court in 1718, thus extending Maratha influence into north India. Upon his death in 1721 the office of peshwa became hereditary in his family, with the accession of the talented Baji Rao I. He held together what his father had essentially ensured would be a sort of confederacy by the distribution of revenue rights among the great captains of the


Maratha armies. The descendents of Shivaji were not among these new great houses, being confined to the minor principalities of Kolhapur and Satara, while the peshwas reigned from Pune. The Marathas reached Delhi by 1737 and Bengal and Orissa three years later, the mobile and unorthodox nature of their rule proving wide-ranging and difficult to counter. However, although the territory and prestige of the Maratha princes were unmatched in the mid-century, the auguries of their decline had been read. In 1757 the Maratha navy was destroyed, removing the main threat to the rising power of the British in India, and in 1761 the confederate army was defeated by Ahmad Shah Abdali of Afghanistan at Panipat (Haryana). Panipat shattered the credibility of the chancellorship, particularly when compounded by the death of the incumbent peshwa, Balaji Baji Rao, in the immediate aftermath. Succession disputes also compromised the office and allowed the intervention of the British, who had bested the French at around the same time. The British had long been neighbours of the Marathas, but remained on the coast, founding the city of Bombay (now Mumbai) and moving the East India Company headquarters there in 1672. From there they would join the intrigues of the Maratha court in the late 18th century, provoking assistance from other parts of British India and leading to a series of wars that would end the Maratha challenge to the rise of a new empire. The only other part of modern Maharashtra not to be under Maratha rule by then was in the vestiges of the Mughal province of the Deccan. This was originally based in Aurangabad, but Nizam-ul-Mulk moved his capital to Hyderabad (now in Andhra Pradesh) to escape the constant Maratha threat. In eastern Maharashtra, grants to a branch of the Bhonslas in Berar provided the foundation for the great Maratha principality based at Nagpur. The administration in Bombay, wishing to consolidate its possessions, unwisely joined the disputes over the Maratha succession in the 1770s, despite the opposition of the new paramount British authority in Calcutta (now Kolkata, West Bengal). Although the Peshwa from 1774 was a child, Madhavrao Narayan, the Regency Council in Pune was led by the able Nana Phadnavis (Farnavis). His authority was helped by the conclusive defeat of a British expedition against Pune in 1779, and again in 1781, enabling him to command the support of the great houses of Holkar (based in Indore, now Madhya Pradesh) and Scindia (based in Gwalior, also in modern Madhya Pradesh). After this first war with the British the Maratha kingdoms enjoyed a period of peace and stability, although many of the great leaders died in the 1790s. In 1796 the enforced minority of Peshwa Madhavrao ended in suicide, but Nana Phadnavis maintained his stabilizing power and supervised the succession of the young son of the previous pretender as Baji Rao II. With the death of the Phadnavis in 1800 disaster happened to the central Maratha kingdom, the forces of Holkar and Scindia battling for control of Pune and the young Peshwa fleeing to the British. They duly installed him on his throne, but the price of his independence from Maratha rivals was a subsidiary alliance with the Company, according to the terms of the Treaty of Bassein of 1803. Baji Rao II was restored to Pune, but over the following year the British took vast territories from the other Maratha princes, as well as assuming the ‘protection’ of the Mughal emperor. Moreover, British reluctance to commit to the administration of central India and Rajasthan and the weakening of the Marathas, who often now resorted to plundering, left a spreading unrest of lawlessness, fuelled by the growth of bandit, or Pindari, bands. By 1817 action had become necessary and the British began preparations


for a massive military operation against the Pindaris, obliging the Maratha rajahs to give support. Suspicious of British preparedness to distinguish between Pindari raiders and Maratha forces, the princes were further alarmed at the terms of a new treaty forced on the Peshwa, whereby he renounced any claim to pre-eminence amongst the Maratha leaders. This was resented by many, but most of all by Baji Rao II, who marshalled his forces only to turn them on the British at Pune. He was, however, defeated and, in 1818, captured, deposed and exiled to Kanpur (Cawnpore, now in Uttar Pradesh). His lands were annexed to the Bombay presidency, while the Bhonsla ruler of Nagpur, who had risen in the Peshwa’s support, was replaced by a minor and the truncated realm placed in subsidiary alliance with the British, who now dominated India. The story of the peshwas has one footnote to add: Baji Rao died in 1851, but his adopted son, known as Nana Sahib, was caught up in the revolt of 1857–58, to become a final focus of resistance. Bombay was, by this time, already the largest port in western India, helped by easy access to Europe through the Suez Canal (Egypt) and the presence of a strong, local commercial tradition. Although in the midst of Maratha lands, the city was a cosmopolitan centre for both Marathi- and Gujarati-speaking people, augmented by Goans and many other Indians seeking work in its harbours and industries. Muslims, Parsis and, of course, the immigrant British were prominent in its business and administrative circles. The city soon became the commercial capital of India. A thriving urban middle class, educated according to British norms and at the centre of an imperial web connected to other, differently treated, parts of the Empire, was able to argue the wrongs of the system on the same terms as the rulers. Bombay, although its territories had largely remained loyal in the 1850s, was a source of strength and support to the Indian National Congress, which was founded here in 1885, and was destined to lead the struggle for independence. The emergence of this struggle also witnessed some precursors of modern Maharashtran politics, with the Bombay intelligentsia adopting a more accommodating tone than the radicals, who favoured more widely based, confrontational tactics and wooed the Marathispeaking population. Thus, Bal Gangadhar Tilak popularized mass actions through his editorship of a Marathi-language newspaper, based in Pune. Indeed, he was one of the earliest proponents of the linguistic state as the basic unit of a future Indian federation. To this argument, ‘regionalists’ would add the search for historical and cultural identities, which speakers of Marathi easily saw in the struggles of the Maratha princes against Muslim or British rule. Moreover, particularly among a huge population easily incited to a resentment of minorities dominating the wealth and government of Bombay, this could easily take on the trappings of a militant, and nationalist, Hinduism (a form of which had certainly inspired Shivaji). Thus, as predominant Congress control ebbed after independence, a social pressure group in Bombay known as the Army of Shiv (referring either to the deity, Shiva, or to Shivaji), Shiv Sena, transformed itself into a political movement. Shiv Sena soon gained control of the metropolis and, later, of the state. The influence of this movement has certainly consolidated the solid identity of a Maharashtra state, which has finally sought to include the great metropolis of Bombay in a common Maratha heritage—notably by changing the name of the state capital to Mumbai in the 1990s. The formation of the modern state, the integrity of which may yet be threatened by future bifurcations of a huge territory (notably to create a Vidharba state in the east), was


begun by the States Reorganization Commission. In 1956 a single state was formed as the home for the speakers of two languages, Marathi and Gujarati, with its multilingual capital of Bombay also providing it with a name. The old Bombay Presidency in western Maharashtra (essentially, the Konkan Coast and its hinterland between Daman and Goa), had the territories that now constitute Gujarat added, together with five districts of the former domains of the Nizam of Hyderabad, eight districts of the old Central Provinces (Berar, the lands around Nagpur) and some former princely states. Some southern districts were ceded to the new Mysore (later Karnataka) state. The logic of linguistic reorganization was completed on 1 May 1960, when Bombay state was split into Gujarat and Maharashtra, the latter retaining Bombay as its capital. Maharashtra has a directly elected Legislative Assembly, currently with 288 members, an indirectly elected or appointed upper chamber with limited powers, and sends 67 members to the national Parliament (48 to the Lok Sabha). In 1995 the state gained an anti-secular, nationalist administration, formed from a coalition between the national Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Hindu-Maratha chauvinist party, Shiv Sena, under the latter’s leader, the former political cartoonist and controversial Bal Thackeray. By the late 1990s, however, Congress was in the ascendant again, and it regained power after the 1999 state elections. The balance of power between the two principal blocs (Congress and the National Congress Party—NCP—in opposition to the BJP and Shiv Sena) was held by a number of other parties, most of which are secular and more inclined to oppose the avowedly Hindu parties. The ruling Congress coalition, under Vilasrao Deshmukh, was constantly considered to be under threat from the slightest fracture to its support in the Assembly. In June 2002 the Government narrowly survived the sudden withdrawal of support by the small Peasants’ and Workers’ Party (PWP), which had a dispute with the NCP. However, the five PWP legislators did not vote against the administration, when the Governor required a confidence vote to test the coalition’s support in the legislature. In addition, the Speaker disqualified seven rebel deputies (the nominated member, one Janata Dal—Secular member and five NCP members) from the Assembly. This left the Democratic Front ruling coalition with support from 144 members, against the opposition’s 133. Economy Maharashtra, despite being the second-most populous state in India, is one of its wealthiest —Maharashtra has the largest economy of any state in the country, while state income per head is the highest after Goa, Delhi and Punjab—with the dynamic financial and film capital of India, Mumbai, as its own capital, a diverse industrial sector and a rich agricultural sector. State income at current prices in 1999/2000 was put at 2,122,160m. rupees, or 23,398 rupees per head. However, although this was maintaining the state’s relative wealth, by being in line with national economic growth (Maharashtra’s net income grew by an annual average of 5.6% between 1993/94 and 2000/01), government policy favoured higher rates. The Government has prepared for future expansion by investment in infrastructure, notably for information technology and in roads. In 1998 the total road length in Maharashtra was 191,053 km, including 2,972 km of national highway, 32,380 km of state highway and 82,967 km of district road. By March 2001 total


road length was reported to have reached some 260,000 km. At the same date there were 5,459 km of railway length, about three-quarters of it broad gauge (9% metre gauge and 16% narrow gauge). Mumbai (then called Bombay) port gained an advantage over Kolkata (Calcutta) after the opening of the Suez Canal (Egypt) in 1870 and became the commercial centre of the Arabian Sea; it remains India’s main seaport. There are also 54 minor ports on the Maharashtra coast. The main international airport is at Mumbai, which also has two domestic terminals, and there are 21 other airfields throughout the state, although three are restricted to military use and the 17 state-government facilities are not used for commercial passenger flights. In 1998 Maharashtra had an installed electrical capacity of 12,238 MW, while in 2000/01 total generation amounted to 62,317m. kWh— consumption totalled 47,289m. kWh, of which industry typically consumes some 40% and agricultural and domestic consumption split the rest. In the second half of the 1990s Maharashtra accounted for about 17% of India’s total electricity consumption, but for only about 13% of generation. The literacy rate in the state improved from 64.9% in 1991 to 74.9% in 2001, giving it the highest rate of all the major states after Kerala. The primary sector accounted for 17.2% of state income in 1999/2000 (34.4% in 1960/61), although about three-fifths of workers depend on agriculture and allied activities. The state is a major producer of oilseeds (still mainly groundnut, but increasingly soybean and sunflower) and important cash crops include cotton, sugarcane, turmeric and vegetables. The main cereal crops are rice, wheat and millet (especially jowar, otherwise known as great millet or white sorghum, of which Maharashtra habitually produces almost one-half of India’s total). In 1999/2000 the jowar crop was 4. 6m. metric tons (less than the normal levels during the 1990s), rice 2.6m. tons, bajra (pearl millet) 1.7m. tons and wheat 1.4m. tons (together with 2.2m. tons of pulses, total foodgrains were 12.7m. tons—but only 10.1m. tons in 2000/01). The same year the state produced 51.3m. tons of sugarcane and 527,000 tons of cotton (lint), but in 2000/ 01 49.5m. tons and only 305,000 tons, respectively. Maharashtra is one of the leading cotton-producing regions of India. In 2001/02 total foodgrain production was expected to be 11.9m. tons, 36.5m. tons of sugarcane, 476,000 tons of cotton (lint) and a total of 1. 9m. tons of oilseeds. Adverse climatic conditions restrained crop yields at the end of the 1990s and into 2000, while considerable investment in irrigation has not significantly increased the relatively low proportion of irrigated land. There is also a large horticultural sector, producing fruits and vegetables. Livestock products all increased production slightly in 2001/02—milk, eggs and meat—while the total livestock population in 1997 was 36.4m. head and poultry 47.3m. Of the other primary sectors, forest industries are not an important part of the state economy—in 1999 the total forestry area was 61,916 sq km, about one-fifth of the state’s area. Fishing has more potential in Maharashtra, although inland fishing declined at the beginning of the 2000s. The total catch in 2000/01 was 526,000 metric tons (with a gross value of about 10,500m. rupees), of which the marine catch constituted some 77%. The most important extractive industry is coal mining, with coal accounting for about 94% of the value of all minerals extracted in the state in 2000/01 (20,180m. rupees of a total of 21,430m. rupees). That year 28.8m. metric tons of coal were extracted, in addition to 360,000 tons of manganese ore.


The secondary sector of the economy accounted for 30.2% of state income in 1999/ 2000 (25.7% in 1960/61). Industrial growth was not a strong feature of the state economy in 1999 and the early 2000s, and the sector has a number of poorly performing stateowned enterprises, but, traditionally, industry is an important activity in Mumbai and many other parts of Maharashtra. As the chief city of British India’s north-west, and the entrepreneurial and commercial capital of the Empire in the subcontinent, Mumbai developed a strong industrial base (30,000 were employed in the cotton and engineering industries alone in the 1880s), originally concentrated around the ports and railways. The sector is now more diversified, in activity and in location, with the number of registered working factories by 1999 standing at 28,678. Major areas of manufacturing activity include textiles, food products, breweries and beverages, cigarettes and tobacco, paper, printing and publishing, chemicals, petro-chemicals and pharmaceuticals, machinery and electrical machinery, and light engineering generally, transport equipment, and jewellery and gems. The tertiary sector accounted for 52.7% of state income in 1999/2000 (39.9% in 1960/61). Mumbai has been India’s commercial and financial capital since the 19th century, driven by British merchants (notably after the abolition of the East India Company’s monopoly on trade in 1813), local Parsis and Sephardic Jews, as well as the Hindu Bania business caste. Both the national stock exchange and the central bank are based in Mumbai, which is also the headquarters of many major companies. More glamorously, the city is also the capital of the country’s film industry, the ‘Hollywood of India’ (or ‘Bollywood’), and makes some 200 films per year, making it the world’s second-largest producer after Hong Kong (a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China). Services, such as among the newer industries involved with the rise of the internet, are also important elsewhere in the state. One of the most widespread growth sectors of service activities is tourism. Apart from Mumbai, the state is rich in historical, scenic and religious sites. Generally, the tertiary sector contributes powerfully to one of India’s more prosperous states. Although Maharashtra has a number of structural problems in its economy, a testament to its dynamism and strength is that the state still accounted for 17% of foreign direct investment in India in the 10 years since liberalization (August 1991), it sends about 35% of the country’s total exports abroad, receives some 60% of its customs duties and one-third of total national income tax. Directory Governor: Dr P.C.ALEXANDER; Office of the Governor, Raj Bhavan, Malabar Hills, Mumbai 400 039; tel. (22) 3630635. Chief Minister: VILASRAO DAGADOJIRAO DESHMUKH (Congress—I); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Maharashtra, Varsha, Mumbai; tel. (22) 2025151, ext. 3503. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha): ARUN GUJARATHI; Legislature Secretariat, Mumbai; the lower house of the bicameral legislature is the Legislative Assembly, which has 288 elected mems (and one nominated mem.): Congress —I 75; Shiv Sena 68; Nationalist Congress Party 59; Bharatiya Janata Party 56; Peasants’


and Workers’ Party 5; Bharatiya Bahujan Mahasangh 3; Janata Dal (Secular) 2; Communist (CPI—M) 2; Samajwadi Party 2; independents and others 16. Chairman of the Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad): (not available); Legislature Secretariat, Mumbai; the upper house of the bicameral legislature is the Legislative Council, which has 78 appointed mems. State Special Commissioner and Principal Secretary in New Delhi: Dr AJAY DUA; Maharashtra Sadan, Nr Mandi House, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi 100 001; tel. (11) 3387285; fax (11) 3389757; e-mail [email protected]; internet www.maharashtrasadan.com.

Manipur

The State of Manipur, the ‘jewelled land’, is part of India’s north-eastern region. It lies astride a mountainous extension of the Himalayas, with the Naga hills curving in from the north-east and the Letha range in upper Myanmar (formerly Burma) continuing south. The international frontier with Myanmar lies to the east and to the south of the state, while the neighbouring Indian states are Mizoram to the south-west, Assam to the west and Nagaland in the north-west and north. A princely state until its incorporation into India on 15 October 1949, Manipur was designated a territory before becoming a full state of the Union on 21 January 1972. It has an area of 22,327 sq km (13,865 sq miles). The broad, alluvial, low-lying basin of central Manipur is cupped by surrounding highlands, which are higher in the north and east. In the south-west, the land falls away to the Cachar plain of Assam, while beyond the eastern hills of the Manipur plateau are the lowlands of Myanmar’s Chindwin valley. A Chindwin tributary, the Manipur, drains the Logtak lake (one of the largest freshwater lakes in India) southwards. Apart from the Barak, which rises in the state and skirts its north-western and western borders, the other main rivers are the Imphal, the Iril, the Thoubal, the Irnag and the Nambol. The state


capital, Imphal, lies in the Manipur valley at an altitude of 785 m (2,576 feet), while the surrounding hills average about 2,000 m, but can rise to over 2,590 m in the Siroi hills. The terrain is less rugged than in many of the mountain states of the north-east, which is why Manipur was a favoured route for invasions from South-East Asia into India (most recently, in the Second World War), but it is clad in often thick jungle. The rich and varied flora includes the unique ‘paradise flower’, the terrestrial Siroi lily (lilium Macklinae). Rainfall averages between 2,600 mm (98 inches) and 3,350 mm, and the climate is mild. A provisional figure from the national census of 1 March 2001 put the total population of Manipur at 2,388,634, giving a population density of 107.0 per sq km. For 1991 the total figure was 1,837,149, which gives the state a rate of population growth over the decade rather higher than the national average. The population of Manipur is primarily of southern Mongoloid stock, but is divided between the 10 clans (together known as the salai) of the majority Meitei tribe, who generally live in the Manipur valley, and the main hill tribes of Naga (about 25% of the population) and Kuki (some 15%) peoples. The official language of the state is Manipuri (evolved from Meitei Lon, which has its own script), which was also recognized as one of the official languages of India in 1992, the only Tibeto-Burmese tongue spoken in the country to achieve such a distinction. The Meitei are a Hindu people, and in 1991, of the total population of the state, 57.7% so declared their adherence. However, many among the hill tribes were converted to Christianity from the 19th century, meaning that that was the second-largest religion in Manipur (34.1%). There is also a Muslim community (7.3%) and small numbers of Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists, among others. The population is mainly rural, but 27.5% were classed as urban in 1991. Moreover, although the valley area constitutes only about 12% of the total land area, some 75% of the population are reckoned to live here in the heart of Manipur. Imphal, the capital and main town, is situated in the centre of the state, in the Manipur valley. Other major towns are Bishnupur, Moirang, Thoubal, Nambol, Ukhrul and the border-trading town of Moreh. The state is divided into nine districts, four in the valley and five, larger, hill districts. Manipur also has six autonomous district councils. History Manipur is sometimes identified with the land of the Gandharvas, the Mekholy of Vedic literature, but its history is clearer from AD 33, when a freebooting Indian prince, Pakhangba, ascended the throne of one of the seven realms and united the Metei under the Ningthouja clan. The venerable tale of the Manipuri dynasty is recorded in the oral histories, the Cheitharol Kumbaba, of the royal house. The kingdom was frequently independent and stable, and sometimes powerful, over nearly 2,000 years, but tended to be prone to incursions from Burma (now Myanmar) rather than India, despite the Aryanization of its religion. Indeed, it was to counter a threat from Burma that Manipur first invoked the aid of the British in India, in 1762. With Assam falling increasingly under the sway of the Bengal presidency from its cession in 1826, Manipur’s independence was fatally compromised. British intervention in a succession dispute and the crushing of the Meitei resistance, led by Maj.-Gen. Paona Brajabashi, at the battle of Khongjam in 1891,

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meant that Manipur was declared a protectorate of the Indian empire in that year. A social upheaval led by women occurred in 1939, while the Japanese, invading from Burma during the Second World War, largely occupied the princely state in 1944. Indeed, it was at Moriang that the anti-British Indian National Army raised its standard in the same year, only for the last great land battle between the Japanese and the Allied forces shortly thereafter, also in Manipur, to end hopes of such an adventure achieving independence. When Indian independence did come, in August 1947, the sovereignty of princely states such as Manipur was doomed. The Maharajah, Bodh Chandra Singh, signed the Instruments of Accession to India at that time, only then to sign away his throne in the Merger Agreement of 21 September 1949. Manipur became a dependent territory of the Indian Union (a so-called ‘Part C’ state under the 1950 Constitution) on 15 October, with an administration responsible to the Governor of Assam. An advisory form of government was introduced in 1950–51. In 1957 Manipur became the direct responsibility of the centre—it was now styled a Union Territory, with a largely elected Territorial Council. In 1963 a Legislative Assembly was established. The administrator, the Chief Commissioner, was styled a Lieutenant-Governor in 1969, and Manipur gained statehood and full membership of the federation on 21 January 1972. This was achieved against a background of considerable unrest and in a bid to placate separatist sentiments. However, often-violent ambitions for independence continued to be demonstrated, and the state also experienced a rising degree of inter-communal disturbance. Manipur was also the victim of a fractured and fractious party political system. Shifting personal allegiances among the state’s politicians, punctuated by periods of central President’s Rule, meant that there were 24 chief ministerships and seven Legislative Assemblies between 1972 and 2001. The dissolution of the system after the state elections of January 1998 was a case in point. E.Nipamacha Singh headed a Manipur State Congress Party (MSCP) administration from then until three years later. The desertion of 10 deputies under Thounaojam Chaoba to join the Samata party (itself in a national coalition supporting the federal ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party—BJP), followed by further defections, forced Nipamacha to resign in February 2001. He initially formed a coalition with Radhabinod Koijam of Samata as Chief Minister, only for the new premier to abandon Nipamacha’s Congress faction (which later formed the Manipur People’s Conference, upon Chaoba’s faction gaining recognition as the MSCP) in favour of the support of a People’s Front of six parties. The new administration prioritized corruption, law and order, the economy and the state’s crumbling finances, with a Government of 33 ministers. By March the People’s Front was disintegrating, with the state BJP defying the federal party’s instruction to keep supporting the Government, and there was even a dispute over the most suitable candidate to be the next premier. On 2 June President’s Rule was imposed. The Assembly was finally dissolved in September and new elections announced for the following February. Many of the established politicians were then defeated at the polls and no party won an overall majority. The state branch of the national Congress became the largest single party, electing as its leader in the legislature Okram Ibobi Singh, who became Chief Minister at the beginning of March 2002. He led a coalition Government of the Secular Progressive Front, which not only included his Congress (I), but also the MSCP, the Communist Party of India and the Nationalist


Congress Party, with support from the Manipur National Conference member (the latter was treated as an independent, because his party had not yet been officially recognized). That such manoeuvres had been unpopular, as well as irrelevant to the main concern of the Meitei majority, was dramatically demonstrated in the civil strife shortly thereafter. At a meeting in March 2001 in Bangkok (Thailand) between representatives of the central Government and a faction of Nagaland’s ‘underground’ armed-resistance group, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), it had been agreed to extend a cease-fire in force in Nagaland since 1997 to Naga areas in other states. People in Manipur and Assam, particularly, perceived this as a threat to the territorial integrity of their own states, despite assurances to the contrary by the federal Government. As local politicians argued about the spoils of office, popular opposition to the so-called Bangkok Agreement gathered strength, culminating in riots in Imphal on 18 June. The Assembly buildings, the Chief Minister’s offices and the Speaker’s house were all set alight, and other politicians’ homes were attacked. The state deputies threatened the national Government with a mass resignation and, amid continuing unrest throughout the north-eastern region, the proposal of a cease-fire extension was retracted. Trouble continued after the state elections and further into 2002. The widespread opposition to the Bangkok Agreement marked a new deterioration in Meitei-Naga relations within Manipur. The closely concentrated majority population of the valley feared the territorial claims of the low-density populations of the hill districts. The Nagas claimed to be in a local majority in almost 70% of Manipur and that they had never acknowledged the maharajahs, let alone the sovereignty of India. The rejection of the cease-fire extension, therefore, provoked unrest among the Nagas, especially in their stronghold in the northern Senapati District, and condemnation both by the NSCN and by Manipur’s own Naga umbrella group, the United Naga Council. Moreover, it complicated the sympathies of the Meitei insurgency groups (which had united in a Manipur People’s Liberation Front in 1999), who had been engaged in armed action in favour of independence for many years. The earliest militant separatist group had been the United National Liberation Front, founded in 1964. This had been followed by a People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak and the People’s Liberation Army in the late 1970s, for instance. In 1980 a Kangleipak Communist Party took up arms, while the formation of the Kuki National Front in 1988 and the Kuki National Army in 1991 witnessed the late arrival of armed militancy to the third-largest ethnic group in the state. Indeed, this last factor contributed to the peak of Naga-Kuki inter-communal violence in 1993. The various terrorist groups seemed to be as fractured as the democratic politicians. The state Legislative Assembly has 60 seats in total, 19 reserved for the Scheduled Tribes and one for the Scheduled Castes. At the national level Manipur is represented by two members elected to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, and one member in the Rajya Sabha. Economy Manipur is not a wealthy state, and in a poor fiscal position, but, despite political and tribal unrest, made some progress in developing irrigation projects and industrialization in the last two decades of the 20th century. Between 1981 and 1997 the net domestic

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product grew at an annual compound rate of 4.7%, in real terms, although these figures conceal a deterioration relative to the rest of India from about 1990. By 2000/01, in current prices, net domestic product had reached an estimated total of 28,080m. rupees or 12,228 rupees per head. What industry Manipur has developed is largely based in the valley, particularly in and around Imphal. Infrastructure is relatively poorly developed, but the road system includes an important link with Myanmar (at Moreh), which leads back to the transport hub of Dimapur (Nagaland). At March 1999 there were 7,367 km of roads, including only 434 km of national highway, and 1,232 km of state highway and 1,946 km of district roads. Since 1990 Manipur has been linked to the national railway network, through the railhead at Jiribam, near the Assam border. The only airport is a domestic one near Imphal. In 1996 the installed electricity capacity totalled 12,447 MW and the programme of rural electrification had achieved a connection rate of over 80% of villages. The state possessed important hydroelectric potential, some of which had been developed. The literacy rate in Manipur improved from 59.9% in 1991 to 68.9% in 2001. With agriculture providing the livelihood of most of the rural population, as well as the underpinnings of the state economy, the progress achieved in the implementation of irrigation projects since the mid-1980s and the ongoing training of skilled personnel was significant. Wet cultivation had long been usual in the valley area, but the hill peoples still tend to rely on traditional, shifting cultivation methods that involved clearing jungle for planting every few years (jhum). The main crops were rice and other foods, while cash crops being encouraged were tea, coffee, rubber, fruits, tree nuts and spices. Sericulture also received state support. The state also has large forested areas (78.6% in 1996), which are important not only for timber but also for the profusion of orchids and a number of rare lilies. Agriculture contributed 32.5% of the total value of the net domestic product in 1996/97, with forestry at 3.1% and fishing at 2.6%. The growth of industry has been helped by a basis in agricultural processing and the development of hydroelectric power. The state has a relatively high proportion of the working population in industry (8.1% in 1991), with the greater number based at home. Crafts and handicrafts (notably weaving) are an important manufacturing activity, although government initiatives have also encouraged the growth of small-scale electronics enterprises, to complement a larger, state-owned business. In addition, the federal authorities have based the Centre for Electronics Design and Technology and the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology in Imphal to help the development of these fields in the state. There are spinning mills, a cement plant, pharmaceuticals, agro-processing and forest-related industries, bricks and bicycle manufacturing, and steel re-rolling active in Manipur. The total contribution of industry (notably construction, which accounts for the variability in the size of the secondary sector) to net domestic product was 10.2% in 1996/97, but would have been greater but for the deficit in utilities. In 1991 over 21% of the working population were engaged in services. In 1996/97 tertiary activities contributed 51.6% of the net domestic product of the state. Transport, storage and trading activities were important, particularly owing to the easy access to Myanmar—transport, storage, communications, and trade, restaurants and hotels provided 8.0% of the overall total. However, both property and business services, and


government services provided just over 14% each of net domestic product, which was not a particularly healthy indicator. Tourism has some potential, although civil unrest has been unhelpful and visitors still need permits. The arts and culture of this formerly princely state are rich, with Manipur famed for its textiles, its dances, and its martial arts and games (the state claims that modern polo was derived from its own horseback game of sagol kangjei, which uses a goat carcass instead of a ball). The natural environment provides a number of attractions to visitors, particularly the world’s only ‘floating’ national park, at Keibul Lamjao on Loktak, where floating ‘islands’ of vegetation (phumdi) feed the sangai, the ‘dancing’, browantlered Elds’ deer (the most endangered cervid in the world). Directory Governor: VED PRAKASH MARWAH; Raj Bhavan, Imphal; tel. (385) 221444; fax (385) 220278; e-mail [email protected]. Chief Minister: OKRAM IBOBI SINGH (Congress); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Manipur, Civil Secretariat, Imphal; tel. (385) 220137; fax (385) 221817; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: TELSIN NGAMJANG HAOKIP (Manipur State Congress); Assembly Secretariat, Imphal; tel. (385) 220239; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 60 mems: Congress (I) 20*; Federal Party of Manipur 13; Manipur State Congress Party 7*; Communist Party of India 5*; Bharatiya Janata Party 4; Nationalist Congress Party 3*; Samata Party 3; Manipur Peoples’ Party 2; Democratic Revolutionary People’s Front 2; Manipur National Conference 1; independent (Manipur National Conference—MNC) 1. * Members of the ruling Secular Progressive Front, also supported by the MNC. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: P.SHARAT CHANDRA; Manipur Bhavan, 2 Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi 110 021; tel. (11) 6114151; fax (11) 6111803.

Meghalaya

The State of Meghalaya occupies the Shillong plateau in the north-eastern region of India. The ‘abode of the clouds’ rises steeply from the international border with Bangladesh, which runs along the state’s southern length. Bangladesh also lies to the west, but there begins the long border with Assam, above the Brahmaputra lowlands to the north and the Barak valley and Cachar (Kachari) hills to the east. Meghalaya was formed as an autonomous state within Assam on 2 April 1970, but became a separate state of the Union on 21 January 1972. It has an area of 22,429 sq km (8,660 sq miles). Lofty Meghalaya comprises the Garo hills in the west, the central Khasi hills and the Jaintia hills, which bulge the state out towards the south-east. The compact, isolated plateau, which defines Meghalaya, is formed of the same ancient granites found in peninsular India. The rolling hills rise to their highest point at Shillong Peak (1,963 m—6, 443 feet), although the town itself is at some 1,500 m above sea level. The elevation gives the state a cool and wet climate, while the landscape, with its pine-clad hills, its caverns, waterfalls and lakes has given Meghalaya the sobriquet of the ‘Scotland of the East’. However, it is prone to severe earthquakes and is actually one of the wettest places on the planet, as the warm monsoon winds between May and September are forced over the plateau. The southern towns of Mawsynram and Cherrapunji (Sohra), in the Khasi hills,


vie for the title of the wettest place in the world: the latter once recorded rainfall of 23, 000 mm (906 inches) in one year (a record recently exceeded in Mawsynram), while its average annual rainfall over a 74-year period is 11,430 mm. The average annual rainfall in Shillong, only some 80 km from Cherrapunji, is modest by comparison, at some 2,340 mm. This volume of precipitation, drained into the surrounding lowlands by rivers such as the Umiam, the Jadukata, the Khri, the Simsang, the Kynshi and the Kupli, falls onto a still well forested countryside, rich in wildlife (according to the elephant census of 1993, the state boasts the highest population density of pachyderms per square kilometre in India, counting 2,872 elephants in that year). In general, the climate is mild, with mean temperatures in Shillong in August at 21.1°C (70.0°F) and in January at 9.5°C (49.1°F). At the census of 1 March 2001 the total population of Meghalaya was 2,306,069 (provisional results), giving a population density of 102.8 per sq km. The state had experienced a growth rate noticeably higher than the national average since the previous census in 1991, when the total population was 1,774,778. Most of the people belong to the three tribes for whom the hill state was created: the Mongoloid Garo (Achiks), an animist, Bodo people originally from Tibet; the supposedly Austro-Asiatic Khasi; and the Mongoloid Jaintia, who are related to the Shan of Myanmar (Burma). All have distinct cultures and histories, though they share some customs, such as matrilineal succession. The main languages are Khasi and Garo, which are joined by Jaintia and English as official languages of the state. Christianity has been widespread among the hill peoples since the advent of missionaries in the 19th century (indeed, the 1991 census records 65% of the population as Christian), but, traditionally, they are animists worshipping elemental deities. There are some Hindus and a small Muslim community. Most of the population live in rural villages. The urban population was put at 18.6% of the total in 1991, with Shillong, the state capital, as the only town of any size. The main town in the west, in the Garo hills, is Tura, while the Jaintia headquarters is in Jowai. Near the border with Bangladesh is the old Khasi capital of Cherrapunji. Meghalaya is now divided into seven districts. History The Garo, Jaintia and Khasi peoples have been largely undisturbed from their hill-top fastnesses for many centuries. Although variously influenced or nominally subject to surrounding powers in Bengal and Assam, the lack of penetration by Hinduism or Islam attests to the hill tribes’ usual independence. The relatively widespread adoption of Christianity from the 19th century coincides with formal annexation by the British in India. Until the imperial authorities moved to consolidate their hold on Assam and the north-east region generally, the independence of the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia kings had been tolerated. The Ahoms had brought the Jaintia into the kingdom of Assam at the beginning of the 18th century, but the decay of royal power meant this sovereignty was shortlived. In 1824 the threat of Burmese invasion prompted the king of the Jaintia to seek British protection and other chiefs permitted the passage of British troops through the Khasi hills. During the establishment of British authority in Assam between 1826 and 1838, a permanent road (completed in 1829) was considered necessary through Khasi lands, while the Jaintia hills were also annexed as part of Assam in 1835 (formally to the

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Bengal presidency). The Garo kingdom became a district of Assam in 1869, while in 1874, when Assam was formally separated from the jurisdiction of Bengal, Shillong, in the Khasi hills, actually became the provincial capital (it remained the capital of Assam until the division of the state in 1972). In 1905 Assam was merged into East Bengal. That experiment ended in 1912, but Assam (then the entire modern north-eastern region of India) remained part of a reunited Bengal until 1919, when it again received provincial status. Eastern Bengal and neighbouring Muslim enclaves became part of Pakistan (East Pakistan—renamed Bangladesh upon its own subsequent achievement of independence) in 1947, while the hill districts of the Garo, Khazi and Jaintia became part of the new India. This final process of partition left some border questions unresolved, although friendly relations between Bangladesh and India did not normally mean this was a problem for Meghalaya (on the southern fringe of which was a debatable 6.5-km stretch of frontier). However, in April 2001 Bangladeshi troops occupied a border post and some of the disputed territory in a clash that left 19 soldiers dead. By June the two national Governments were meeting to resolve the dispute and to discuss the exchange of a number of anomalous enclaves. After independence, the hill districts of modern Meghalaya received some autonomy within the state of Assam, but the people remained dissatisfied. Discontent was particularly provoked by the introduction of Assamese as the state language, and the Garo, Jaintia and Khasi were united in their demands upon the federal authorities. In 1970 the hill districts were combined into an autonomous state, Meghalaya, within Assam, and this entity achieved full statehood in January 1972. Government of the state usually depends on a coalition of parties in the Legislative Assembly, with no single party ever having a majority. There are 29 members elected from the Khasi hills districts, 24 from the Garo hills and seven from the Jaintia hills. In November-December 2001 F.A.Khonglam displaced E.K.Mawlong as Chief Minister, making him the sixth person to hold the post since the legislative elections in 1997. Khonglam also earned the distinction of becoming the first independent member of a state legislature in the country to become a chief minister. Moreover, it was claimed that 59 of the 60 members of the Legislative Assembly were now former ministers. The fragmented nature of the state legislature is in marked contrast to Meghalaya’s consistent (since 1980) election of Congress representatives to the national Parliament, one to the upper house and two to the lower house. Economy Meghalaya is an agricultural state, with its forestry resources providing most state revenues and other potential natural resources as yet largely unexploited. The net domestic product of Meghalaya, in current prices, was 10,710m. rupees in 1992/93, or 5, 769 per head. In 1999/2000 the corresponding figures, again in current prices, were estimated at 33,883m. rupees and 12,466 rupees, respectively. There are no real industrial centres and infrastructure is limited. There is only 456.6 km of national highway in the state, running from western Assam into Bangladesh through the Garo hills, and from Guwahati (Assam) through the eastern Khasi hills to Shillong, then south to Sylhet in Bangladesh and south-east to Karminganj (Assam). State highways stretch for


953 km and other roads for 5,618 km. There are no railways and only one airport, at Umroi, near Shillong, which provides domestic air links. In 1999 there was an installed generational electricity capacity of 185.2 MW in the state and 46% of villages were electrified. The literacy rate increased from 49.1% in 1991 to 63.3% in 2001. About four-fifths of the population depend on agriculture and the terrain does not permit much expansion of cultivable land, although production was increasing owing to a shift from traditional, jhum methods of rotating ‘slash and burn’. The climate offered potential for the development of horticultural cash crops. Meghalaya is already famed for its citrus fruits (Khasi mandarins), but was encouraging the cultivation of non-traditional crops such as medicinal plants, commercial flowers, orchids, mushrooms and oilseeds. Fruits, spices, jute and betelvine are more usually grown, as well as the main food crops, rice and maize. The limit on agricultural land is compensated for by extensive woodland, with some 70% of the land area being covered by forest. Timber production is essential to the economic health of the state. There are also important mineral resources, mostly unexploited, although the silimanite (a source of high-grade ceramic clay) deposits are considered the best in the world and Meghalaya accounts for almost all of India’s output. There are reserves of coal (estimated at 562m. metric tons) and limestone (4,500m. tons) yet to be tapped, and other minerals include dolomite, feldspar, kaolin, mica and quartz. There are no heavy industries, but the processing of natural resources provides some medium-scale activity, notably some cement production (mainly at the Cherrapunji plant, which reached production of 165,000 metric tons per year by the end of the 1990s) and a plywood factory. There is also some manufacturing of beverages and electronic components. Tertiary activity is limited, although tourism has potential—the scenery is beautiful, the flora and fauna rich and the cultures unique. Directory Governor: M.M.JACOB; Raj Bhavan, Shillong 793 001; tel. (364) 222502; fax (364) 223338; e-mail (Principal Sec.) [email protected]. Chief Minister: Dr F.A.KHONGLAM; Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Meghalaya, Shillong; tel. (364) 224282; fax (364) 227913; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: E.D.MARAK; Assembly House, Shillong; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 60 mems: United Democratic Party 20; Congress (I) 16; Nationalist Congress Party 9; Bharatiya Janata Party 3; People’s Democratic Movement 3; Hills State People’s Democratic Party 3; independents and others 6. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: A.K.SRIVASTAVA; Meghalaya House, 9 Aurungzeb Rd, New Delhi; tel. (11) 3015503; fax (11) 3014417; e-mail [email protected].

Mizoram

The State of Mizoram, formerly the Lushai Hills District at the tip of the southern extension of Assam, is in the north-eastern region of India. It juts southwards, out of India, into an angle between the countries of Bangladesh (to the west) and Myanmar (formerly Burma, to the east). In the north, this ‘land of the highlanders’, has inter-state boundaries with the former princely states of Tripura to the west and Manipur to the north-east. Directly to the north lies Assam (of which Mizoram formed a part until 1972, when it became a Union Territory under its present name, achieving full statehood on 20 February 1987). Mizoram has an area of 21,081 sq km (8,139 sq miles). The Mizo (formerly Lushai) hills from which the state takes its name probably have the most variegated topography of any highlands in the region. A simplified description would


be of some a half-dozen parallel ranges of hills, running from the north to the south and tending to taper at the ends. The eastern ridges, as they rise towards the Rongklang range in Myanmar, tend to be higher, with the highest point in the state being near the southeastern border at Blue Mountain (Phawngpui), which reaches 2,164 m (7,102 feet). An average height for Mizoram is some 900 m, with the capital, Aizawl, itself situated at over 1,000 m above sea level. The steep hills are densely forested with bamboo and wild banana, and flank deep gorges hiding rapid rivers like the Dhaleswari or Katakhal (locally known as the Tlawang), the Sonai (Tuirial) and the Tuivawl, draining north, and, in the south, the Kaladan or Kolodine (Chhimtuipui), and the Karnaphuli (Khawthlang tuipui) and its tributaries, such as the Tuilianpui. Mizoram is bisected by the Tropic of Cancer, giving the hill state a mild climate, with an average maximum temperature of 29°C (84° F) in August and an average minimum temperature of 11°C (52°F) in January. The rainy season is in May-September, with Aizawl receiving average annual rainfall of 2,080 mm (8 inches). The total population grew at a higher than average rate of growth between national censuses, rising from 689,756 in 1991 to 891,058 by March 2001. The population density remained relatively low, however, at 42.3 per sq km in 1991. The Mizo tribes are of Mongoloid stock and include the Lushai (after whom all the Mizo peoples were named for much of the past two centuries), the Pawi, the Ralte, the Pang, the Himar and the Kukis. They are united not only by kinship, but by common traditions and history—thus, ethically, for instance, they share the Christianity to which many of them converted in the 19th century, as well as more traditional concepts such as tlawmngaihna, which is a sort of imperative of welfare, kindness and hospitality. The missionaries also gave the Mizo tongue the Roman script, as well as English, which is the state’s other official language. Originally animists, according to the 1991 census 85.7% of the population were Christian (mainly Protestant); the next largest religious affiliations recorded were Buddhists and Hindus. However, as so often in the borderlands of conflicting faiths or when traditional beliefs have relatively recently been displaced, exact creeds are often vague or even bizarre. The largely nomadic Chakmas of the western borders combine Hinduism, Buddhism and animism, while the surprising presence of Judaism (the small Bne Menashe sect, sometimes called the ‘Manipur Jews’) dates from 1951. That year a local chieftain, Tchalah, claimed that by divine revelation he had been instructed to lead the people of Mizoram and Manipur (whose identity as descendents of one the lost tribes of Israel, Manesseh, had been suppressed by the Christian missionaries) back to their Jewish roots and, indeed, to Israel. Although primarily agriculturalists, the 1991 census records that 46.1 % of the population of Mizoram were ‘urbanized’, the highest proportion of any state or territory in India. By far the biggest town was the capital, Aizawl, in the north, but other important towns were Lunglei and, even further south, Saiha, and Champhai on the Myanmar border. The state is divided into eight districts. History The Mizo peoples probably originated in north-west China some time in the first millennium of the Christian era, gradually migrating southwards and through Burma (now

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Myanmar) and into India by the 17th century. They conquered and assimilated other Mongoloid tribes in the Lushai hills during the 18th century. The first Mizo people to move into the highlands were called the Kuki, and the final group were the Lushai themselves. The Mizo developed an autocratic political system based on 300 hereditary chieftainships. With Assam increasingly falling under the East India Company’s rule from 1826, Mizo raids on the plantations to the north, particularly from late 1830s, became a problem for the British authorities. Punitive military expeditions and increasing contact with imperial officials had brought the area under control by the 1870s. More importantly, visiting restrictions not applying to missionaries, the conversion of many Mizo to Christianity helped the process and spread education. In the 1890s the Lushai kingdom was formally annexed to the British Empire, the northern hills falling under the jurisdiction of Assam and the southern hills Bengal. The district was united as the Lushai Hills, and awarded to Assam, in 1898. The consolidation of administration in the district meant that in 1919 Lushai Hills was declared a ‘backward area’ (it remains a notified backward area in Indian government parlance) and it became an excluded area in 1935. After the Second World War a political organization that became the Mizo Union began to campaign for a single administration for all Mizo areas with Lushai Hills, although other activists wanted to join Burma upon independence. Autonomy for the Lushai Hills was granted in 1952, although that did not satisfy local aspirations, but the introduction of new institutions allowed for the beginning of the abolition of chieftainships. The district suffered the ravages of the socalled Mautam famine in 1959 (caused by the flowering of bamboo encouraging an explosion in a depredatory rat population, which proceeded to eat all available foodstuffs). A local famine committee formed from a cultural society founded by Laldenga evolved into a nationalist movement, the Mizo National Front (MNF). The MNF moved on to support armed action and was proscribed in 1967. However, demands for a separate hill state continued even after Mizoram was separated from Assam, when it gained territorial status in January 1972. Activists continued to campaign, sometimes violently, but the MNF entered negotiations with the federal Government in 1976, although agreement was not reached until the new Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, added fresh impetus to the process, securing an historic compact with the MNF and the state authorities in June 1986. As a result the MNF disarmed and, on 20 February 1987, Mizoram entered the Union as the 23rd state. Nationalist demands now focus on bringing contiguous Mizo areas in other states into Mizoram. Since statehood three parties have dominated local politics: Congress (I); the MNF; and the Mizo People’s Conference (MPC). Into the 21st century, Congress is still led by Lal Thanhawla, who has been Chief Minister for three terms, in 1984–86 and 1989–98 (the latter period extended by victory in the 1993 state elections). In the last election the Mizoram Pradesh Congress Committee only gained six seats and lost power. Thanhawla was succeeded in the state premiership by Zoramthanga, whose MNF had won 21 of the 40 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Zoramthanga had become leader of the MNF in 1991, upon the death of Laldenga. Laldenga had been Chief Minister in a coalition with Congress during the period leading up to statehood, but the MNF had won 24 seats in the first state elections in 1987 and so ruled alone thereafter. Laldenga lost power to a brief period of President’s Rule (federal direct administration), which was followed by a


significant loss of seats for the MNF in ensuing electoral contests, despite its continuing to win a large proportion of the votes, in 1998 state election. The MPC, which was founded by Brig. T.Sailo in 1978 (and won the elections of that year—Sailo headed the territorial Government in 1978 and again in 1979–84), entered an electoral alliance with the MNF for the 1998 state legislative poll, winning 12 seats. The MPC’s new leader, Lalmingthangwa, became the Deputy Chief Minister in a coalition administration, until the alliance ended in December 1999. Mizoram also sends one member to each of the houses of the national Parliament. Economy Mizoram is a poor state, although central subsidy enhances wealth indicators, such as figures for net state domestic product. In 1998/99 official estimates put the net domestic product of Mizoram at 11,390m. rupees or 12,535 rupees per head. There is little industry and infrastructure is limited. One main road heads south from Silchar in Assam, linking Aizawl with Lunglei and now reaching as far as the southernmost town of Tuipang. In 1999 there were 4,787 km of road in the state. There were no railways in Mizoram until 1990, when a railhead at Bairabi opened in north, linking the state to the main line at Silchar. There is an air strip at Aizawl and another one opened at Lunglei in 1998. The state generated 14.07m. units of power in 1999, with the development of electricity resources receiving central government assistance, notably for a hydroelectric project at Tuirual). Mizoram’s educational tradition, however, means that the literacy rate is the second highest for any state or territory in India, at 88.5% in 2001 (rising from 82.3% in 1991). About three-quarters of the population depend upon agriculture, with the 1991 census recording over 60% of workers in cultivation. They jhum system is seeing declining yields, as a shorter cycle of rotation was the result of growing population, although the Government is encouraging more terracing and other irrigation projects. Mizoram is famous for fibreless ginger, but rice, mustard, sugarcane, sesame and potatoes are the main crops. Medicinal plants and tea are increasingly encouraged, while traditional horticulture includes citrus, especially kagzi limes, and other fruit. Attempts to develop woodland resources have led to an increase in forest cover. There is some scope for the extraction of mineral resources, with small reserves of lignite (a brown coal), sandstone and pyrites. Officially, Mizoram is a non-industrial area, but a new industrial policy announced in 1989 sought to encourage the development of agricultural and forestry processing, handicrafts and other cottage industries such as weaving, and the manufacture of electronic components. Small-scale sericulture, saw-mills, furniture manufacture, grain milling, ginger processing (notably at Sairang), fruit-juice concentration and even some oil refining were the main economic concerns in this sector at the beginning of the 2000s. Services, meanwhile, are dominated by government activity. There has also been an effort to expand the tourist industry, based on the state’s scenery and culture.

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Directory Governor: AMOLAK RATTAN KOHLI; Governor’s Residence, Aizawl; tel. (389) 322262. Chief Minister: ZORAMTHANGA (Mizo National Front); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Mizoram, Aizawl; tel. (389) 322150; fax (389) 322745. President of the Legislative Assembly: R.LALAWIA (Mizo National Front); Assembly House, Aizawl; tel. (389) 326250; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 40 mems: Mizo National Front 21; Mizo People’s Conference 12; Congress (I) 6; others 1. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: K.LALNGHINGLOVA; Mizoram House, Circular Rd (Pt. Uma Shankar Dixit Marg), Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021; tel. (11) 3016408; fax (11) 3012331; e-mail [email protected].

Nagaland

The State of Nagaland is in north-eastern India, on the mountainous border with Myanmar (formerly Burma), which lies to the east. The land of the Naga tribes (the name is said to be derived from a Burmese word, naka, meaning those with pierced ears) is one of India’s smaller states, until 1957 part of Assam, which lies along the state’s long northwestern border. There is a short border in the north-east with another Indian state, Arunachal Pradesh, and beyond the ragged southern border lies Manipur state. Nagaland, which became India’s 16th state in December 1963, covers an area of 16,579 sq km (6, 399 sq miles). The state lies on the western flanks of the mountain ranges curving south-westwards from the Himalayas, before heading south into the Rongklangs of Myanmar. The crest of the Naga Hills generally serve as the international frontier, so the highest point is on the border, at Saramati, which is 3,826 m (12,557 feet) in height. The thickly wooded highlands include valleys and gorges cut deeply by rivers such as the Dhansiri, the Dayang, the Dikho and the Zungki or Tuzu. Nagaland has a moist, monsoon climate, with average annual rainfall of between 2,000 mm (79 inches) and 2,500 mm. Altitude also affects the

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temperatures, but the mean summer (June-September) maximum is 31°C (88°F) and the mean winter (October-February) minimum 4°C (39°F). Nagaland’s population was provisionally put at 1,988,636 in the census of March 2001, meaning the state had the highest rate of growth of any state or territory in India since the previous decennial census, when it totalled 1,209,546. The population density in 2001 was 119.9 per sq km. Most of the population of the state are Nagas, who are usually divided into 16 tribes or groups. An Indo-Mongoloid people, the largest tribe is the Konyak, followed by the Ao, the Tangkhul, the Sema and the Angami. The others are the Chakhesang (Chokri), the Chang, the Khiamngan, the Lotha, the Phom, the Pochury, the Rengma, the Sangtam, the Yimchunger and the Zeliang (actually a group of sub-tribes). Another tribe, the Kuki, are often considered not to be a Naga people. There are other Naga tribes outside the borders of the state, in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur, and in Myanmar (Kachin state and Sagaing administrative division), with nationalists claiming that the areas they inhabit should be united in a ‘Greater’ Nagaland (Nagalim). The Naga languages are all of the Tibeto-Burman type, but inter-communication is mainly in English, an official language of the state, and a pidgin known as Nagalese. Traditionally, the Naga were animists, but with a conception of a supreme being, which meant they adapted easily to Christianity, which was adhered to by 87.5% of the population in 1991. Hindus are the next largest group represented in the state and there are small communities of Muslims, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists. Most of the population live in rural villages (the rate of urbanization in 1991 was 17. 2%) and there are only two towns of any size. Kohima, famed as where the Japanese advance was stopped during the Second World War, is the capital, and is located in the far southern highlands of Nagaland, at an altitude of almost 1,500 m. The original Angami settlement of Kohima (Bara basti) claims to be the largest village in Asia. Some 70 km (44 miles) to the north-west is the main town, Dimapur, on the border with Assam, down on the fringes of the plains, and only 195 m above sea level. The only other towns of any size are Mokokchung, Tuensang and Wokha. The state is now divided into eight districts, Dimapur having been made a separate unit. History The origins of the Naga people are obscure, but they seem to have settled in the Naga hills (on either side of the India-Myanmar border) by about the 10th century. Legend sometimes ascribes a seafaring origin on Sumatra (Indonesia), but it seems more likely that they followed the traditional migration routes out of China and Mongolia. Tribes of similar stock had been in the area from Vedic times. From the beginning of the 13th century AD the original Kachari (Cachar) realm was based at Dimapur (Hidimbapur), and it successfully resisted rising Ahom power in the area until the capital was sacked in 1536 and the king soon moved to the Cachar hills. The Ahoms had clashed with the Nagas during their migration from Burma (now Myanmar) in the 13th century, but otherwise the new rulers of what was coming to be called Assam seldom even claimed more than a tentative sovereignty over the Nagas. It was only when the British added Assam to their Indian empire, from 1826, that the Nagas began to be drawn into surrounding affairs. The British sent a military expedition into the Naga hills in 1832 and annexed the Angami


kingdom (around modern Kohima) in 1866, but did not formally annexe the rest of the territory until 1881, as part of continuing efforts to halt Naga raids. The Naga Hills was the name of two districts under the Viceroy of India, one in Assam and one in Burma. The Kuki kingdom was formally annexed and added to the Assamese district in 1917. The outlawry of traditional practices such as headhunting in the 1890s and the arrival of Christian missionaries (especially Baptists) soon made an impact on the previously isolated Naga tribes. During the Second World War, this isolation was further interrupted by Japanese invasion through Manipur from Burma; Kohima became well known as the place where that advance was halted, in April 1944. The Nagas had petitioned the imperial authorities to unite their tribes under one administrative unit even before the War, an effort led by the Naga Club. This organization evolved into the Naga National Council (NNC) in 1947, not long before India became independent, without any change of borders in the Naga region. The NNC formed a ‘Federal Republic of Nagaland’ in 1956, led by A.Z.Phiz, which led both political campaigning and armed action against the federal and local authorities. In 1957 Dr Imkongliba Ao founded a Naga People’s Convention, in favour of Nagaland’s future within India. That year the central Government also conceded that the Naga Hills District of Assam should be united with a frontier division of what became Arunachal Pradesh. Thus, the territory of the modern state was formed as the Naga Hills and Tuensang Area (NHTA); although no longer part of Assam, that state’s governor administered the NHTA for the federal authorities. Agitation continued, however, until the central Government announced in 1960 that the NHTA (renamed Nagaland in 1961) would be granted statehood, which status was achieved on 1 December 1963. The Governor of Assam, initially based in Shillong (now in Meghalaya), was also Governor of Nagaland, until a dedicated post in 1989. Part of the ‘16-Point Agreement’ between the authorities and the Naga People’s Convention that led to statehood was an amendment to the Indian Constitution, protecting the primacy of customary law within tribal communities. Negotiations between the federal and state authorities, and the armed opposition (usually known as the ‘underground’) represented by the NNC, finally resulted in the signing of the so-called Shillong Accord, which effected a ceasefire. However, there were those in the NNC who demanded that Phiz reject the Accord and, when he did not do so, in 1980 formed a National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), which resumed armed activism. Incidents included several attacks on the prominent Congress (I) politician and five-times Chief Minister, S.C.Jamir, who barely survived two such, in 1990 and 1992. However, the majority faction of the NSCN also entered negotiations with the authorities and, in August 1997, a cease-fire was declared, which was renewed into 2001, although not all anti-government militancy ended. Such activism has been complicated by splits and rivalries within the underground, as well as by inter-tribal conflicts (as between the Kuki and the Zeliang in 1992–94). A 2001 proposal to extend the cease-fire into other Naga areas, in India, but outside the state, was abandoned by the federal Government after other states in the north-eastern region objected to what they saw as the threat of the practical realization of a Greater Nagaland. Nevertheless, Centre-NSCN contacts continued into 2002. Unrest in the state has punctuated democratic government with periods of centrally administered President’s Rule (1975–77, 1988–89 and 1992–93). Congress (I), led by

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Jamir (formally a member of the Naga People’s Convention until he founded a state committee for Congress in 1979), has held power since the legislative elections of January 1989, retaining state government at two further polls thereafter (1993 and 1998). Jamir was first Chief Minister in an interim capacity in 1980, then resumed office in 1982–86. He won the state premiership back in 1989, only to be seriously wounded in an assassination attempt in May 1990—K.L.Chishi acted as Chief Minister until June, then Vamuzo until April 1992, when direct rule was instituted for the interim period until the state elections of the following February. Jamir was returned to office after that election, and again in 1998. Nagaland also sends two representatives to the Indian legislature, one to the lower house and one to the upper. Economy Unrest in Nagaland has hindered development and consumed significant resources without economic benefit. However, although still primarily agricultural, the state possesses some potential in natural resources. In the 1998/99 financial year the net domestic product of Nagaland was 21,840m. rupees, in current prices. Per-head income worked out at 12,408 rupees. The only industrial centre is Dimapur, on the Assam plain, which also gives Nagaland access to the North-Eastern Frontier Railway mainline as it passes through, the national highway network and air links with Guwahati (Assam), Kolkata (Calcutta, West Bengal) and Delhi. A national highway also connects Dimapur to Kohima (and then goes south to Imphal in Manipur). Another road link with Assam is to Amguri, further north, from Mokokchung. The state’s main form of transportation, therefore, is by means of the road network, which totalled 9,351 km (5,807 miles) at the end of the 1990s. More than one-half of Nagaland’s electrical energy is generated in Assam, the balance being provided by diesel generators and, increasingly, hydroelectric power (a 24-MW plant is under construction at Likimro). However, nearly all of the state’s villages have been connected to the electricity supply. The education system has had to struggle to keep pace with the burgeoning population, but the literacy rate did rise between 1991 and 2001, from 62% to 67%. Most of the population remains in rural villages, traditionally stockaded and perched on the ridges. Agriculture is the principal economic activity for 84% of the population (1991 figure), who still mainly practise shifting jhum ‘slash-and-burn’ methods. The jhum yield fell severely at the end of the 20th century and into the 2000s, as soil fertility deteriorated and erosion increased, because the normal cycle of land lying fallow for 10–15 years declined to two or three years under the pressure of population growth. Terraced cultivation is encouraged as an alternative, but in the late 1990s it still only matched two-fifths of the acreage under jhum. The main foodgrain is rice, but maize is also grown. There is no commercial animal husbandry, with 90% of livestock for meat imported into the state. Forestry is the most important source of income, mainly the timber industry, and cover is put at about 17% of the state’s land area. A low-grade coal is the only resource mined at present, although Nagaland is considered likely to have some important mineral reserves (chromium, nickel, cobalt, iron ore and limestone have been identified). Moreover, boreholes west of Wokha and natural seepage in the Dikho valley, also near Assam, have suggested the potential for exploitable petroleum reserves. Developing infrastructure to


support such exploitation remains the main impediment, while the lack of natural resources to process has blighted the growth of industry. Although industrialization has been a priority since the 1970s, there is no heavy industry and few enterprises of any size. Again, transport and power infrastructure, as well as a lack of natural resources and investment income, has hindered progress. Dimapur has a sugar mill (with an installed capacity of 1,000 metric tons per day), a distillery, a brick factory and a television-assembly plant. Elsewhere in Nagaland, there is a pulp-and-paper plant at Tuli, a plywood factory at Tizit, a mini-cement plant at Wazeho, some cabinet and furniture manufacturers, rice mills and fruit-canning plants, and a khandsari (molasses) mill. Cottage industries and handicrafts, notably traditional handloom weaving (particularly shawls in tribal patterns and colours), have been encouraged with the establishment of co-operatives. Services, even government services, make little contribution to the local economy. Dimapur is the only trading and commercial centre of any significance, while Kohima is the centre of government activity and also on the main route to Imphal. Dimapur and Kohima are the only centres to have much attraction for tourists, although the scenery and tribal culture can be marketed. Directory Governor: SHYAMAL DATTA; Raj Bhavan (Governor’s Residence), Kohima. Chief Minister: S.C.JAMIR (Congress—I); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Nagaland, Civil Secretariat, Kohima; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: Z.LOHE (Congress—I); Assembly House, Kohima; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 60 mems: Congress (I) 53; independents and others 7. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: V.N.GAUR; Nagaland House, 29 Aurangzeb Rd, New Delhi 110 021; tel. (11) 3012296; fax (11) 3794240.

Orissa

The State of Orissa lies on the north-eastern shores of peninsular India, on the Bay of Bengal, with West Bengal to the north-east, Jharkhand (part of Bihar until November 2000) to the north and Chhattisgarh (part of Madhya Pradesh until November 2000) to the north-west and west. Andhra Pradesh lies to the south or, rather, to the south-east, where it stretches up the coast beneath an inland tail of Orissa that extends southwestwards along the highlands. Orissa, the ‘land of the Oriyas’, has enjoyed a distinct identity, if a varying extent, for many centuries, a fertile, coastal territory dominating its wooded, hilly hinterland that otherwise bears more resemblance to the predominantly tribal areas of Jharkhand and, to a lesser degree, Chhattisgarh. Long ruled from Bengal, like Bihar, Orissa became a separate province on 1 April 1936, was merged with its princely states in 1949 and became a ‘Part A’ state under the 1950 Constitution. It was unaffected by the federal reorganization of 1956, as it already constituted a linguistic state. Orissa has an area of 155,707 sq km (60,103 sq miles), making it the seventhlargest state of India. Orissa consists of fertile, coastal, alluvial plains, stretching south-westwards from the mighty Ganga-Brahmaputra delta of old Bengal, and ending where coastal Andhra begins, beyond the narrowing of the plains caused by a seaward thrust of the Eastern Ghats. These


heights rise to the peak of Mahendragiri (1,501 m—4,926 feet), to the south of the Mahanadi delta. Beyond Mahendragiri the border includes some of the Kondhan Hills, before crossing the Ghats and reaching further south-westwards, along a tributary of the Godavari. The highlands, the second main geographical area of Orissa, occupy the west of the state. The north consists of plateau land, rising above the Hingir Basin, in the northwest, to the loftiness of Garhjat, before falling towards the border with the delta lands of Bengal. Sundering the highlands and dissecting the state is the Mahanadi, dammed into the Hirakud Reservoir from the western border to the head of the central river valley, which forms the fourth geographical area of Orissa and eventually loses itself in a delta on the plains. North of the Mahanadi, but flowing out of Jharkhand, is the second river of Orissa, the Brahmani. The flat plains are mostly planted with paddy and the hilly interior tends to be heavily forested and sparsely populated, although rich mineral reserves have created a north-western industrial belt. There is a coastline of 482 km (299 miles), distinguished by the gentle bulge of the deltas and, to the south, the near-inlet of Lake Chilika, which is actually separated from the sea by a line of sand dunes. Chilika, at 64 km in length and 16– 20 km in width, with an area of some 1,100 sq km, is, therefore, a brackish water and the largest inland lake in India. Inland the mighty Hirakud Reservoir is a manmade lake behind one of the largest mainstream dams in the world (completed in 1957) and provides both hydroelectricity and water for irrigation. The dam successfully contained the previously regular flooding for many years—that it is not an absolute guarantee was demonstrated by the devastating floods of 2001, occasioned by extremely heavy rains, which hit a state still recovering from the catastrophic cyclone of 1999. The state is exposed to cyclones in October and November, after the main monsoon, which falls heavily on this part of the coast. The average annual rainfall in Orissa is some 1,500 mm (59 inches), but the winter (December-February) is dry—temperatures rarely fall below 11°C (52°F), although they are more often near this in the highlands. In the hottest months, normally May, temperatures in Bhubaneswar, the state capital in the Mahanadi delta, can exceed a very hot 42°C (108°F). At 1 March 2001 the total population of Orissa was officially enumerated at 36,706, 920 (provisional census result), an average of 236 people per sq km. The main language is Oriya, which was the first language of 82.8% of the population at the time of the 1991 census, with Hindi at 2.4% and Telugu at 1.6%. Of the other official languages of India, Urdu and Bengali were the next most widely spoken (English is also in use), but this does not take account of the tribal languages. At that time Scheduled Tribes, of which there were 62 in Orissa, accounted for 22.2% of the population. The most numerous were the Khond, but there are also a lot of Santal (who are among the largest tribal groups in India and the dominant one in Jharkhand). The Gond and the Oraon are among the other major tribal peoples of the state, while exclusive to the state are the Koya, the Bathudi, the Bonda, the Gbhuyan or Bhuyan, the Juang and Saora. There are three main language families represented among the tribes: Dravidian; Austric or Munda; and Indo-Aryan. Gondi and Kuvi (the language of the Khond) are Dravidian and examples of Austric tongues include Santali (one of the oldest languages of India), Bondari (despite the TibetoBurmese ethnic origins of the ‘naked people’) and, of course, Mundari, while the Bathudi and the Gbhuyan speak Indo-Aryan languages. In addition to the Scheduled Tribes, 16.2% of the 1991 population were from the Scheduled Castes and scheduled areas covered 45%

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of the state. Despite the continuation of some animist beliefs and practices among the tribes, most have been ‘Aryanized’ and follow some form of Hinduism, which is the dominating faith of the state—94.7% professed it in 1991. The missionary activity of Christians, who formed 2.1% of the 1991 population, particularly among the lower castes and tribal communities, has attracted sometimes violent reactions in Orissa recently. Muslims, never a significant community in Orissa numerically, constituted a further 1.8% of the population, and there were also small groups of Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains (the latter two groups were both once dominant in Orissa in historical times). The urban population constituted only 15.0% of the total in 2001, and there are none of India’s 50 largest cities in Orissa. The largest cities of the central plains are: Cuttack (535,139 inhabitants in 2001), the old capital on the main course of the Mahanadi; Bhubaneswar (647,302), the current capital just to the south and further into the delta; and, even further south, on the coast, Puri, one of the four holy abodes of the Hindus and one of the main pilgrimage sites in the country. In the north-west the main city is the industrial centre of Raurkela, while to its south-west, below the Hirakud Reservoir, is Sambalpur. The only other city of comparable size to these centres is Brahmapur, on the plains near the border with Andhra Pradesh. Orissa is divided into 30 districts. History The ancient kingdom of Kalinga was based on the Orissan coast, its capital in the Mahanadi delta near modern Bhubaneswar, at Dhaulagiri. Kalinga had fallen under the suzerainty of the northern power of Magadha, led by the Nandas and then by the Mauryas, but its control was tenuous. In an age of personal monarchy much of the power of the state depended on the personal prestige, longevity and ability of the individual ruler, much of an empire having to be reasserted upon each succession. The third of the Mauryan emperors, Ashoka Piyadassi (reigned c. 271–33 BC), had to proceed against Kalinga about 10 years after his accession, crushing Kalinga bloodily at Dhaulagiri. It is the only specific campaign of any Mauryan emperor that is known, and that it is because it provoked a change of heart in Ashoka, who regretted the bloodshed and determined to build an empire grown and maintained on good conduct or dhamma rather than force of arms (although he nowhere on his famous rock inscriptions specifically abjures warfare, just as he does not formally ‘convert’ to Buddhism). By the end of the century Magadhan power was in decline and Orissa drifted into independence under the Chedi kings, the most famous of whom was the third, Kharavela, who probably came to the throne in the middle of the first century BC, but dating him is uncertain. Kharavela, who favoured Jainism rather than the Buddhism of Ashoka, was a military king, whose conquests (mainly known from his own inscriptions) extended widely into north India and on the peninsula. Although Kalinga and the other kingdoms of Orissa mainly feature in historical accounts as the alleged victims of another rajah’s glory, the area was not an automatic fief of ambitious ‘world rulers’, with various native dynasties flourishing and waxing and waning even when under an imperial suzerain. Thus, there were kingdoms such as Utkal in the north and Toshali in the centre of the modern state, as well as realms that clung to the name of Kalinga, myriad dynasties, such as the Mathars of Parlakhemundi, the Sailodbhava and the Eastern Gangas, and overlords from the Satavahanas, to Nagas, the


Kushana, the Guptas of a reborn Magadha and Harsha Vardhana. Gautamiputra Satakarni (AD 62–86) conquered Orissa, which remained under the Satavahanas for about one century, before their power decayed. Another period of stability was experienced after the conquest by Samudra-Gupta (335–75), allowing the rise of the Mathars, who helped re-establish brahmanism and prospered with the trade across the Bay of Bengal (the ‘Sea of Kalinga’). The fall of the Guptas in the early sixth century coincided with the rise of the coastal dynasty of the Sailodbhava, as well as with the establishment of the Eastern Gangas (although the latter’s pre-eminence in Orissa would await the 11th century). The Sailodbhavas, whose greatest king was Sailendra, were a maritime power and spread the name of Kalinga by trading throughout South-East Asia (there are parts of Indonesia where the word for ‘Indians’ is still ‘Klings’) and had military adventures in Myanmar. In 736 the Sailodbhava kingdom was occupied by the Bhaumas under Unmattasimha (Sivakar Deva). The Bhaumas, who were Buddhists, had several notable female monarchs (such as Tribhuvana Mahadevi and Dandi Mahadevi) and favoured the name of Utkal for their kingdom. Their sovereignty in Orissa was not absolute and permitted other principalities of varying degrees of independence known as mandalas. In this period the great Orissan tradition of temple building began, notably under the orthodox Kesaris, who, for instance, founded a city at Cuttack under Nrupat Kesari (920–35). The next paramount dynasty of Orissa was from South Kosala (Chhattisgarh), the Soma or Somavamsi. The Soma kings reigned from the region of Bhubaneswar from about the 930s, increasing their power under Mahasivagupta I Yayati (c. 970–1000) and reaching their height in the reign of Chandihara Mahasivagupta III Yayati (1025–55), who ruled over Kalinga, Utkal, Kangoda and Kosala. Both main local rival of the Soma was the house of Ganga, based to the south. The Gangas increased their power in the 11th century, seizing the advantage in the turmoil throughout south India that was brought about by the great Chola expedition up the east coast to Bengal in the first half of the century. By the end of the century the Soma forces were being regularly bested by the Gangas and, eventually, their great rajah, Anantavarman Chodaganga (who had acceded as a minor in 1078), invaded Utkal in 1112, supplanting the last Soma within six years. Chodaganga died in 1147, to be followed by 14 more Ganga rajahs of Orissa. They presided over a prosperous trading kingdom from which Buddhism had largely disappeared and that could afford to build further remarkable temple monuments, in defiance of the encroaching threat of Islam in the north and west. Among the more noteworthy monarchs are: Anangabhima II (1216–38), who established Cuttack as the Ganga capital; his successor, Narasimha I (died c. 1264), who invaded the now Muslim-ruled Bengal in 1264; and Langula Narasimha II (1279–1306), who ordered the construction of the great Sun Temple at Konark (Konarak), which provided both a testament of the Hindu faith of the Orissans and a beacon for their sailors. In 1361, however, the Delhi Sultanate finally moved against the usually peaceful Gangas and seized Cuttack. The Gangas, although not dispossessed, were required to send tribute to Delhi and, in their weakness, they were soon displaced by the Gajapati dynasty, the Suryas or Suryavamshas. The first Gajapati ruler was Kapilendra, who held the throne in about 1434–67 and vigorously fought both Muslim invaders and the Hindu empire of Vijayanagar (based in Karnataka): in 1444 Kapilendra defeated the Sharqui sultan of Jaunpur (now in Uttar Pradesh), invading from the north; in 1456 he fought the encroachments of Vijayanagar to

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the south; and in 1459 won against the forces of the Deccan sultanate of Bijapur (Karnataka) to the west. The rivalry with Vijayanagar continued on the borders, but the general security of the realm encouraged a religious and literary blooming in the land of the Oriyas. This is particularly noticeable under Kapilendra’s grandson, Prataprudra, who succeeded his father in 1497 and reigned for some 40 years. He also concluded the war with Vijayanagar in 1519, determining on the River Krishna as the boundary between the two powers and marrying his daughter to the great emperor, Krishna Deva Raya Taluva. However, the succession was disputed after the death of Pratapruda and the Gajapatis were displaced, briefly, by the Chalukyas of the Andhran coast in the late 1550s, only themselves to lose Orissa to conquest by a Muslim out of Bengal, Bayazid Karrani, in 1568. However, the region was now caught up in the final Mughal effort to break the power of the Afghan dynasts, such as those in Bengal (and Orissa). In 1592 the Afghans were routed by a Rajput general of the Great Mughal, Rajah Manasingh, who incorporated the region into the empire, dividing it into five districts or sarkars, subject to Bengal until 1607, when Orissa was united into a separate province (with Cuttack as capital). The Mughal peace, although it brought some occasional damage to the great temple legacy, benefited the trade of the Oriya-speaking merchants, attracting the attention of the new European presence in India (British posts were established in Orissa in 1633, for instance). Although some Orissan dynasties survived with a precarious and intermittent independence, the history of the region was now to be one of dependence. Even when Mughal power decayed, the coast at least remained dominated by ‘governors’ in Bengal or the Deccan. In 1728 the Nizam of Hyderabad (now in Andhra Pradesh) occupied the southern Orissan lands, while in 1751 the Marathas (mainly to the benefit of Raghuji Bhonsla of Nagpur—now in Maharashtra) were ceded the rest by Bengal. Under the Marathas, as elsewhere, the administration was widely considered avaricious and lawless, but religion was patronized and Oriya literature flourished. However, it was under British rule that the Oriya language would benefit most, with the introduction of printing and also of the influence of (and reaction to) Christian missionary activity. The East India Company first acquired territory in Orissa in 1765, but dominated the whole region by 1803—again it was ruled from Bengal. Ill-advised land policies provoked the Paik Revolt of 1817, and in the 1830s there were efforts to subdue the Khonds (in two wars) and the local rajah in southern Orissa, but generally the touch of British rule was initially light in Orissa. Nevertheless, missionaries arrived from the 1820s, Oriya replaced Persian as the official language in 1839 (Persian was the language of the Mughal court, of which the East India Company was still a nominal functionary) and disturbances at the time of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny were limited. However, this virtual administrative neglect, compounded by poor communications and, maybe, indifference, transformed the failure of the rains in 1866 into the great famine of 1867, in which perhaps one-third of the population, about 1m. people, perished. This disaster pushed the rising middle class, fostered by both English-language education and the growth of printed Oriya literature, towards regional consciousness and, eventually, the independence struggle. A mass meeting in 1903 resolved to press for a separate Orissa province, although the 1905 reforms (in which the district of Sambalpur was added to the Orissa division, from the Central Provinces) merely left the region attached to West Bengal. When the controversial partition of


Bengal was reversed in 1912, Bihar and Orissa became a separate province. Finally, under legislation of 1935, Orissa became a province in its own right on 1 April 1936. It elected a Congress ministry in 1937, but independence agitation increased (marred by the so-called Elam massacre) and, upon its achievement, reform was extended by the incorporation of the local princely states into Orissa (almost doubling it in size), effected on 19 August 1949. The great temple city of Bhubaneswar replaced the medieval and British capital of Cuttack as the headquarters of the state, and it was from here that the local Congress ruled Orissa. However, by the 1970s Congress was fracturing, its standing not helped by the ‘Emergency’ of Indira Gandhi, the national Prime Minister. Thus, in 1977 a former Congress premier, Bijayananda (‘Biju’) Patnaik, led the Janata Party to victory in the state elections, although he himself did not head the ministry that held office until 1980. Congress was returned to power in the elections to the eighth Assembly since independence, forming the 14th ministry under Janaki Ballav Patnaik, who did not leave office until 1989. Congress was again undermined by in-fighting, the state premier until the 1990 elections, Henananda Biswal, losing to the popular Biju Patnaik and what had become the Janata Dal. Biju Patnaik was Chief Minister until 1995, when Congress could again form a ministry under Janaki Ballav Patnaik. Congress again succumbed to factionalism, with three chief ministers between 1999 and the 2000 state elections, Patnaik being replaced by Giridhar Gomango (who gained an international reputation in the field of tribal music after his humiliating ousting) and Biswal, who returned to the premiership for a few months. The state elections were won by Naveen Patnaik, the son of Biju Patnaik, who had entered the national Parliament for the first time in March 1997, after the death of his father. In December he founded the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), a regional party, although he is noted for being unfamiliar with Oriya, the state’s official language. Allied to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP—in office at the Centre), the BJD won an overwhelming victory in the state elections of 2000 and Naveen Patnaik duly became Chief Minister in March. He has a reputation for integrity, but suffered accusations of indecisiveness managing the relief work after the great 1999 cyclone. Later in his term of office the state premier came into conflict with an elder statesman of the party, Dilip Ray, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha as an independent, but with the support of some BJD deputies, provoking further disputes with the ruling party’s uneasy BJP allies. Moreover, the BJP at the Centre were not sympathetic to the Orissan Government’s representations about the reincorporation of the former princely states of Sareikela and Kharasuan, although the BJP also suffered from a riot by Hindu militants in March 2002, in which the Assembly building was attacked. Although the next state elections are not due until 2005, it appears unlikely that Naveen Patnaik will be able to preserve his premiership by preventing a fatal split in his own party or in his coalition with the BJP. Orissa also sends 21 deputies to sit in the lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, and has 10 representatives in the upper house, the Rajya Sabha. Economy Orissa is a relatively poor state, although the exploitation of its water and mineral resources and the declining rate of growth of its population is allowing a slow

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improvement. Between 1993/94 and 1998/99 the state’s gross domestic product grew, in real terms, by 4.7% per year. In 1999/2000 net state domestic product (new series) had reached 327,290m. rupees or 9,162 rupees per head, still lower even than Assam and the then-undivided Uttar Pradesh and higher only than undivided Bihar. The rail network is inadequate, so roads are important, totalling 232,970 km in length at March 2000, including 2,782 km of national and express highway and 4,816 km of state highway. At the same time the length of railway was only 2,173 km (all broad gauge but for 144 km of narrow gauge); only 14.2% was electrified. Paradwip is one of the 16 major ports of the country, in 1999/2000 exporting 8.9m. metric tons of goods and importing 4.8m. tons; the next most important ports are Gopalpur and Bahabalpur. There are 17 airstrips and 16 helipads, but not all are all-weather fields; the main airport, providing links to cities throughout India, is at Bhubaneswar. The great Mahanadi dam in western Orissa, begun soon after independence, is another example of important infrastructure. The dam stopped the regular occurrence of the devastating delta floods and provided power and irrigation water, from the Hirakud Reservoir, which drains an area twice the size of Sri Lanka. However, there were record floods in 2001, after heavy rains left the rivers swollen and the lake too full to retain all the water. The total installed electrical capacity available to the state in 1998/99 was 2,879.83 MW (44% of which was hydroelectric). Although the population growth rate has slowed, the education system is still struggling to catch up—the literacy rate rose from 49.1% in 1991 to 63.6% in 2001. Agriculture and animal husbandry contributed 28.68% of the net domestic product of Orissa in 1997/98, about a similar amount in 1998/99. In 1991 some 64% of all employment directly or indirectly depended on the sector. Cultivation is, however, mainly rain-fed, not irrigated, resulting in low productivity and a dependence on the weather; the state is exposed to cyclones, suffering from a particularly strong one in 1999. Even before that disaster, the harvests of 1998/ 99 were low; total foodgrain production was less than normal, at 5.79m. metric tons (owing to population growth and to productivity not keeping pace, foodgrain production per head in the 1990s was less than in 1950s). Also in 1998/99 the state grew 250,000 tons of pulses and 170,000 tons of oilseeds. The main cereal crop is rice, which covers 74% of the gross cropped area under principal crops, with pulses on 12% and oilseeds on 6%. Paddy provides about four-fifths of foodgrains. The livestock sector, according to the 1995 agricultural census, was responsible for 14.8m. cattle, 1.7m. buffaloes, 5.4m. goats, 1.9m. sheep and 0.6m. pigs. In 1998/99 milk production rose to 833,000 metric tons and egg production to 940m., while meat production fell to 35,000 tons (from 48,000 tons the year before). Sericulture is another traditional activity. The fishing industry has potential in Orissa, particularly marine fishing, and the total catch in 1998/99 was 284,000 metric tons (representing a substantial increase from 159,000 tons at the beginning of the decade). Of this, 51.0% came from inland fisheries, 43.7% from the sea and 5.2% from brackish fisheries (i.e. Lake Chilika—this last sector was in decline, with the loss of an estimated 40% of fish species from Chilika since the beginning of the 1950s). Forests covered 37.3% of the total area of Orissa in 1998/99 (accounting for about 8% of national woodland). Tree cover is not increasing, although forest produce is bringing in increased revenue (868.1m. rupees in 1998/99).


In terms of natural resources, Orissa has plentiful supplies of water, while mineral reserves are good. The most important reserves are of coal, iron (some 24% of all-India resources) and manganese ores, bauxite (26%) and chromite (70%). Limestone, nickel, quartz, china clay, copper, vanadium and precious and semi-precious stones are also exploited, but the sector has not yet developed its full potential. In 1998/99 total mineral production was 6.34m. metric tons, valued at 23,655.6m. rupees—barely 2% of production was exported abroad, earning 2,585.8m. rupees. Minerals provide the basis for much of the heavy industry in the state, such as the chrome works, an aluminium plant and steel works, as well as coal-powered thermal powerstations. The nearby presence of both iron ore and coal mines led to the 1955 foundation of the steel plant at Raurkela (started production in 1958), for instance, beginning the transformation of the previously undeveloped, tribal north-west. Processing of agricultural produce and foods is also an important activity. By March 1999 Orissa had 334 large and medium-sized enterprises (with an employment potential of 81,188 people) and 58,079 smallscale industrial units (with an employment potential of 399,000 people). In addition, 50,607 cottage industries (e.g. textile weaving, silver filigree, carving, brass items, terracotta, horn carving and patta painting) provided employment for 92,822 people. Manufacturing contributed 12.09% of net domestic product in 1997/98. The tertiary sector is important, but over-dependent on government expenditure. The strength of transport activities is an indication of the weak infrastructure in the state. Tourism has considerable potential but is relatively undeveloped, although there is a longestablished religious tourist sector catering for the pilgrims to the great sanctuary of Jagannath at holy Puri. Orissa’s temple patrimony is second to none in India, notably at Puri, Bhubaneswar and Konark, but as yet attracts few of the profitable foreign tourists. Between 1990 and 1998 tourist numbers grow by over 20%, but foreign tourists by barely 3%. By 1998 1.50m. tourists had visited Orissa in that year, of which only 2.2% were foreign; the industry earned 5,289m. rupees, of which 7.4% came from foreigners. There is also the attraction of the beaches and the natural and tribal environment of the interior—for instance, the Simlipal National Park is rich in wildlife, containing one of the earliest tiger reserves, and also sheltering elephants, wolves, chital, deer, gaur, flying squirrels and peacocks. Directory Governor: M.M.RAJENDRAN; Office of the Governor, Raj Bhavan, Bhubaneswar. Chief Minister: NAVEEN PATNAIK (Biju Janata Dal); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Orissa, Secretariat, Bhubaneswar. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: SARAT KUMAR KAR; Assembly Secretariat, Bhubaneswar; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 147 mems: Biju Janata Dal 68; Bharatiya Janata Party 38; Congress—I 26; Jharkhand Mukti Morcha 3; Communist (CPI) 1; Communist (CPI—M) 1; Janata Dal (Secular) 1; All-India Trinamool Congress 1; independents and others 8. State Principal Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: U.S.BHATIA; 4 Gopinath Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021; tel. (11) 3019771; fax (11) 3010839.

Punjab

The State of Punjab lies in north-western India, a fragment of the historic Punjab, ‘the land of five rivers’, which is now partitioned between India (Punjab itself, Haryana and parts of Himachal Pradesh) and Pakistan. The state forms a rough triangle, set on a southern base, the international frontier on the west, rising towards an apex truncated by a short northern border with Jammu and Kashmir. Himachal Pradesh lies to the northeast. In the south-west is Rajasthan, the rest of the southern border being with Haryana (a part of the greater Punjab state until 1966), a border which undulates in a rough crescent, ultimately curving into a border running northward to meet Himachal Pradesh. Here the separate Union Territory of Chandigarh abuts into Punjab from the east. A single Punjab state had been formed in 1956—on 1 November 1966 the south-eastern end was made into Haryana, while some hill territories in the north-west were added to Himachal Pradesh and the new state capital of Chandigarh was also constituted as a separate unit, administered by the Centre, but continuing to serve as the headquarters of both Punjab


and Haryana. Since that date the territory of the State of Punjab has remained unchanged, with an area of 50,362 sq km (19,440 sq miles). Punjab consists of fertile plains, gently sloping southwards from a line of undulating hills, the Katar Dhar or Shivaliks, which help define the north-eastern border and beyond which rise the Himalayas. The plains are less than 275 m (903 feet) above sea level, falling to below 200 m in the south-west around Abohar, while the Shivaliks reach above 800 m. Apart from a semi-arid area which edges the Rajasthan desert in the south-east, the state is well watered by a number of the principal tributaries of the Indus system, notably the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej, as well as by the Ghaggar, a river that dries up before reaching the sea. There is also an extensive canal system, contributing to the maintenance of the largely agricultural landscape. Most rainfall is in the monsoon season (July-September), with the rest of the year divided between cold (October-March) and hot (April-June) seasons, when temperatures vary from as low as 4°C (40°F) up to 43°C (110°F). The average annual rainfall is 794.2 mm (31.0 inches), ranging from 960 mm in the sub-mountainous region to 580 mm in the central plains. According to the census of March 2001, the total population of Punjab was 24,289,296, giving an average population density of 482 per sq km. The overwhelming majority use Punjabi, with 92.2% claiming it as their first tongue in the 1991 census (the highest proportion for a single language after Malayalam in Kerala), with most of the rest speaking Hindi (Urdu was spoken by 0.1 % of the population). Punjabi is a western Hindi dialect, largely recognized as a separate language for political expedience in the 1960s, so Sikh separatism could be satisfied without breaking the constitutional ban on a religion-based state. Punjabi in India is mainly spoken by Sikhs, who made up 63.0% of the state population in 1991, with Hindus comprising 34.5% and Muslims 1.2% (most having departed or died in the chaos of Partition in 1947), followed by Buddhists, Christians and Jains. In 2001, as one of the more urbanized states of India, 33.9% of the population lived in cities and towns. The state capital, Chandigarh, is not part of Punjab, and its population is less than that of the largest city, Ludhiana, in central Punjab (which had a population of 1. 40m. in 2001, making it the 16th-largest city in India). The Sikh holy city of Amritsar, in the north and near the border with Pakistan, is the next largest city (975,695 in 2001), followed by Jalandhar (701,223) and Hoshiarpur, to the north of Ludhiana. There are 17 districts. History The ancient Punjab, of which the modern state is but a fragment, lies at the heart of Indian history. The Harappans flourished here, and then the Aryans, the latter making of it a heartland from which they extended the arya varta eastwards into the Ganga-Yamuna Doab and the length of the Gangetic plains. The literary and geographical roots of Hinduism are in the Punjab, with the Vedas, the world’s oldest scriptures, composed here and many of the events of the Mahabharata set here. Even the Ramayana, while it describes later events centred much further to the east, was probably composed in the Punjab. It was the land of the ancient Kura and Madra clans, but also, habitually, the territory first to experience later incursions from the west and north-west. The Persian (Iranian) emperor,

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Darius I, first added parts of the Punjab to his realm, under the antecedent of the name of India, in time to be followed by the adventurous conqueror of the Persian Empire, Alexander III (‘the Great’) of Macedon, who famously contested a Punjabi rajah, Porus (Paurava). Mainly under the peaceful rule of the great Maurya dynasty Buddhism had extended its influence into the Punjab, from the east, to last until the fatal devastations of the Huns (Hiung-nu) at the beginning of the sixth century. For the more destructive invasions of the region came from the north and west, although usually the kingdoms established there were often soon adopting Indian norms and, indeed, pantheons. A more significant arrival, in retrospect, was the arrival of Muslim Arabs, who established kingdoms in Sindh and the Punjabi city of Multan (both now in Pakistan) at the beginning of the eighth century, although most of these early Muslim rulers were more interested in the neighbouring parts of India for raiding rather than conquest. Furthermore, as so often on the borderlands between such separate cultural worlds, healthy hybrids could grow and Punjab saw the flourishing of Sufism, a more mystical Islam than the orthodox faith prescribed, and of Punjabi, a Hindi-Multani dialect. For instance, Khwaja Moinuddin Chist, a great Sufi saint, arrived in Lahore (not far from Amritsar and the former capital of Punjab, now in the Pakistani province which shares the name) in 1190, while at about the same time a Sufi poet, Farid-ud-Din Ganj-i-Shakar (who lived from 1173–1265), was the first to write extensively in Punjabi. By this time more aggressive Muslim invaders were attempting to penetrate to the riches of India through the Punjab. The last Hindu dynasty to rule the region was that of the Shahis, who were originally based in Kabul (now in Afghanistan), but were gradually driven back to the Punjab, their last capital in Kangra (now in Himachal Pradesh). This redoubtable dynasty were a staunch bastion against the incursions of men such as Mahmud of Ghazni (Afghanistan), three generations vainly struggling to stem the Muslim advance, the last, Trilochanapala Shahi, eventually seeking refuge in Kashmir in the 1010s. Punjab then fell under a variety of Muslim rulers for the next seven centuries, what is now Indian Punjab (including Haryana and parts of Himachal Pradesh) being most regularly ruled from Delhi, depending on the varying strength of the Sultans or the Mughals, although Hindu princes also continued to retain power locally. Again, a cultural blending was to bring about another strong religious movement. By the 15th century the Delhi Sultanate was in decay and the Punjab was war torn and troubled. On what is now the Pakistani side of the border, in the village of Sheikhupura, Nanak Dev was born in 1469. He travelled extensively in the Punjab, as well as to Mecca (Saudi Arabia) and, reputedly, to Rome (Italy), and by the time of his death in 1539 had founded a powerful socio-religious movement that sought to purge Hindus and Muslims alike of subjection to caste, dogma, superstition and ritualism. Nanak Dev, the first Guru (master or leader) of the Sikhs (derived from a Sanskrit word for disciples), had founded a panth (brotherhood) that, under persecution by its more orthodox neighbours, evolved from essentially Hindu roots into a humanistic and monotheistic faith, which could properly be called a religion upon the foundation of the Khalsa (the community of the ‘pure’) on 15 April 1699 by the 10th and last Guru. Of the intervening masters, the first in significance is Guru Arjan (who in 1581 had succeeded Ram Das, who himself had followed his fatherin-law, Amar Das, seven years previously, while Guru Amar Das was the heir, in 1552, of Guru Nanak’s own successor, Guru Angad). Guru Arjan compiled his own compositions,


and those of his predecessors and other, non-Sikh writers, into a scripture known as the Adi (Original) Granth. However, the Sikhs fell foul of a Mughal succession crisis and Guru Arjan was executed and succeeded by his young son, Hargobind, in 1606 (he died in 1644). A similar circumstance arose in 1658, when the Sikhs showed hospitality to the pretender to the throne of Aurangzeb, and Guru Har Rai and his young son, Har Krishnan (who is considered to be the eighth guru), were summoned to the imperial court and inducted into the Mughal hierarchy (the father died in 1661, the son in 1664). The Sikhs did not find this acceptable and took another son of Hargobind, Har Rai’s brother, Tegh Bahadur, as their ninth guru. Already suspicious of Sikh ‘unorthodoxy’, the pious Aurangzeb was further angered by Tegh Bahadur’s widespread preaching and conversion of Muslims as well as Hindus. By executing Tegh Bahadur, however, Aurangzeb transformed the myriad and hitherto largely pacific Sikh communities into enemies and himself laid the foundations for the Khalsa of warrior-saints founded by Tegh Bahadur’s son, Gobind Rai (Gobind Singh from 1699). Under Guru Gobind Singh the Sikhs armed themselves in the foothills of the Himalayas, the hill country of the Punjab (now largely in Himachal Pradesh), and began to change from a force for religious and social reform into a military and political movement. When Gobind Singh was assassinated in 1708, the succession of masters was replaced by the authority of scripture, the Adi Granth (with the addition of Tegh Bahadur’s hymns and one couplet by Gobind Singh, the compiler, himself) becoming the Guru Granth. Politically, Sikh claims, and their militancy against Mughal oppression or opposition, were given precedent by the movement of Banda Bahadur between 1709 and his defeat in 1715. Helped by rural discontent in a normally prosperous Punjab, he led the Sikhs and lower-caste Hindus against the Muslim towns of the eastern Punjab, assuming a royal title and minting the first Sikh coinage. Although Banda Bahadur was defeated, gradually the Sikhs, in a confederation of misals or autonomous ‘republics’, prevailed in the Punjab. Particularly with the loss of Maratha pre-eminence from 1756, these misals could eventually be welded into the Punjab Raj of Ranjit Singh. Ranjit Singh earned his reputation against the Afghan raiders of the late 18th century, but in 1799 he forcibly became rajah of Lahore. With the conquest of the holy city of Amritsar in 1805 he could begin transforming his dominance of the Punjab into a Sikh empire. However, he was aware of the variegated nature of his subjects, as well as of the rising power of the British (who were by now in occupation of Delhi), and the state he founded, although dominated by Sikhs, was secular in aim and cosmopolitan in nature. Not only did he emulate some of the successful features of the British organization in India, but also he was determined to avoid a confrontation. This feeling was mutual and Ranjit Singh and the East India Company settled on non-aggression and peaceful relations by the 1809 Treaty of Amritsar. To secure this peace Ranjit Singh sacrificed much of the eastern Punjab, settling on the Sutlej rather than the Yamuna as the frontier of his influence (the so-called ‘Cis-Sutlej’ states in the east of modern Punjab state, and in Haryana, therefore, were left to become princely clients of the British, surviving to independence—some, like Nabha and Patiala, were ruled by Sikh dynasties). Ranjit Singh was left free to consolidate his rule as the Maharajah of the Punjab and to extend his empire as far as Peshawar (Pakistan) and into Kashmir and Ladakh. Towards the end of his reign he even contemplated a joint action with the British against Afghanistan, although the disaster that befell this ‘Army of the

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Indus’ (and the contemporary defeat of his Dogra general who had invaded Tibet—now part of the People’s Republic of China—in 1840) occurred after his death in 1839. The Sikh state proved unable to survive the death of its great founder. In 1843 the second maharajah since Ranjit Singh was assassinated and the court intrigues in Lahore descended into bloodshed. Whether the British were already implicated in the succession struggles or not was rendered irrelevant by the massing of troops along the Sutlej frontier, and the approach of yet another British army provoked the Sikh-based armed forces of the Punjab into moving across the Sutlej themselves in late 1845. The army of the Punjab almost prevailed, but were greatly hindered by the treachery of courtier-commanders aiding the British. Two fierce battles near Firozpur (Ferozepore) were followed by bloody contests at Aliwal and Sobraon in early 1846, in the latter of which the British lost only some 2,500 to about 10,000 of their opponents. Nevertheless, the British realized it would be risking too much to try and take Lahore itself and began the traditional methods of reducing the state in size and independence. The frontier shifted from the Sutlej to the Beas, Kashmir was ceded (and promptly sold to the Rajah of Jammu, hitherto a feudatory of the ruler of the Punjab) and a British Resident installed in Lahore to supervise the Regency Council of the young Maharajah, Dhalip Singh. The new regime was given little chance to establish itself, however, falling victim not to court intrigue but to imperial ambition. In 1848 a mutiny in Multan involved the death of two visiting Englishmen, but the British authorities in India resolved to ignore the escalation of the revolt in order to have time to prepare for outright annexation. East India Company forces duly crossed the Sutlej at Firozpur, and then proceeded across the Ravi and the Chenab too. On the Jhelum, at Chillianwala (now in Pakistan), early in 1849 the predominantly Sikh army inflicted on the British one of their worst defeats in the subcontinent, but this did not prevent the victory of the British at Gujrat. On 29 March 1849, in the Treaty of Lahore, Maharajah Dhalip Singh was obliged to sign the instruments of annexation, surrendering his sovereignty—and the great Koh-i-noor diamond (which still remains a possession of the British monarchy). Under British rule the Sikhs continued their martial traditions in the service of the Indian army and remained loyal even during the uprisings following the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Although a powerful military and commercial class, however, the Sikhs were greatly involved in the struggle for independence, initially in a pro-reformist capacity (such as with the Namdhari sect). Generally, the Punjab was pro-British, which meant that any sign of trouble was heavily policed by the British authorities, and this was the case during the civil disobedience actions of 1919. On 13 April Brig.-Gen. Reginald Dyer, who had recently arrived in Amritsar with troop reinforcements after some disturbances and forbidden all public meetings (although martial law had not yet been declared), encountered a large gathering in a city square, the Jallianwala Bagh. Many were probably Sikh villagers visiting the holy city for the feast day of Baisakhi; there was certainly no demonstration under way. Dyer sought out no such explanations, initiated no consultations nor issued any warnings, but ordered his troops to fire on the crowd, penned in by buildings. The official inquiry later concluded that over 1,200 men, women and children had been seriously wounded and that 379 died (unofficial reports put the number of fatalities at 530). Dyer was relieved of his command, but never punished, while apart from the act itself, which undermined the moral pretensions of British rule in


India, his unrepentant attitude and, indeed, support from some sectors of the British public, alienated moderate opinion in Punjab and throughout India. The movement for independence began to acquire irresistible momentum (Punjabi émigrés lent important support and a prominent local leader was Lala Lajpat Rai) and by the end of the Second World War the British had conceded the principle. Tragedy was not over for the Punjab, however, its cultural mix on the borders between the solidly Muslim north-west of the Empire and the arya varta leaving it a case of contention between the proposed successor states of Pakistan and the Dominion of India. The Sikhs even demanded a third state, although they were eventually reassured sufficiently by Congress to side with the Hindu-dominated creation. With Congress determined to achieve independence as early as possible, despite the vicious outbreaks of communal violence throughout the Empire, and the Muslim League determined on a separate Pakistan, the British authorities finally conceded Partition (basically of Bengal and the Punjab) in June 1947. Even then the final border was not settled until after the independence celebrations, when a Congress-League commission headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a judge, handed over its report on the ‘Line of Partition’. Most of West Punjab had a Muslim majority and most of East Punjab a Hindu-Sikh one, but there was a middle stretch of territory (including Lahore and Amritsar, both of which the Sikhs claimed should be included in India for cultural and historical reasons) where no group had a majority. Nevertheless, demography was the main deciding factor for the Line of Partition and Lahore was included in Muslim Pakistan, although the holy city of Amritsar became part of India. By the time the new boundary was announced communal tensions had already led to forcible expulsions of Hindus and Sikhs from the western Punjab and, by Sikhs anticipating the arrival of refugee co-religionists, of Muslims from the east. The Radcliffe announcement merely escalated the pace, which became increasingly violent as tales of massacres, rapes and other atrocities bred more of the same. The great railway junction at Amritsar was a particular scene of bloodshed, as some 13m. people moved from west to east or east to west in one of the most intense migrations in world history. This was accompanied, between August and October, by anywhere between a conservative 200,000 and a despairing 1m. deaths. East Punjab became part of the new India, but the territory was not organized in a single unit and still included the hill country that now forms part of Himachal Pradesh. The traditional capital of Lahore was lost to Pakistan, so a new centre was determined to be built at Chandigarh (Shimla, the old imperial summer capital and now the state capital of Himachal Pradesh, served as an interim headquarters and it was here that the new bicameral Punjab legislature met in April 1952). Meanwhile, the eight princely states of the plains merged into Patiala and the East Punjab States Union (PEPSU), based in Patiala. On the eve of the linguistic reorganization of the states of India, PEPSU (a ‘Part B’ state) merged into the original, ‘Part A’ Punjab state, creating a single state with its capital at Chandigarh. Sikh agitation for a separate state could not be satisfied under the country’s secular Constitution, nor did it interest the Hindu communities, so Punjabi (mainly spoken by Sikhs) was distinguished from the related Hindi dialects to become an official language upon which a final division of the Punjab could be effected. On 1 November 1966 the south-eastern part of the state became Haryana (a separate, Hindu-dominated member of the Union), the state capital of Chandigarh became a centrally administered

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Union Territory and a shared capital, while the hill territories of the north-east were added to Himachal Pradesh. Apart from the abolition of the upper house of the legislature, the Vidhan Parishad (Legislative Council), in January 1970 the institutional and territorial establishment of the modern Punjab state was now complete. Political stability, however, was far from achieved and Punjab has experienced a number of periods of President’s Rule by the Centre. Particularly during the 1980s, when many Sikhs were agitating for outright independence (‘Khalistan’), the state was disturbed by trouble. In June 1984, Indian troops were ordered to storm the sacred Golden Temple of Amritsar, Sikhism’s holiest shrine, in order to dispossess the militant Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale (who died in the fighting). Only months later the Prime Minister responsible for the order, Indira Gandhi, was murdered by two of her Sikh bodyguards, provoking bloody anti-Sikh violence (notably in Delhi). However, maybe shocked by the escalation, since then there has eventually been a calmer atmosphere in the politics of Punjab, which has experienced a typical pattern of alternating Congress and regional-party rule, complicated by the tendency of the Sikh nationalist Akali Dal, particularly, to factionalize and their alliance with another religious-chauvinist group, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP—not otherwise a major party in Punjab). The Akali Dal and the BJP overwhelmingly won the February 1997 state elections, but were defeated in those held in March 2002. The victory was achieved by Congress because Amerinder Singh, the current Chief Minister (a former army captain and the son of the last Maharajah of Patiala), had led his Shiromani Akali Dal (Panthik) faction into Congress in September 1997, to become the state Congress leader in the following year. This union was able to displace the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal under Parkash Singh Badal in 2002, when the BJP also performed very poorly (the latter probably a local comment on the conduct of national politics). At the Centre, Punjab is represented by 13 seats in the Lok Sabha of Parliament and seven in the Rajya Sabha. Economy Punjab is known as the ‘grain basket’ of India, and is the single largest contributor of wheat and rice to central reserves, but also has flourishing secondary and tertiary sectors. Historically, Punjab has long been the richest state in India, relative to its population, although recently Maharashtra has challenged this position—in 1999/2000 the state’s net domestic product was put at 23,040 rupees per head, or 549,600m. rupees overall. Punjab claims to have the best infrastructure in the country, with all villages electrified and virtually all connected by metalled roads. The total length of the road network in 1998 was 42,757 km, of which 1,198 km were national highway. In addition there are over 3,725 km of railway, including the rail link with Pakistan through Amritsar, and eight civilian aviation landing sites, including the airport at Chandigarh and the international airport at Ludhiana. Installed electrical capacity directly owned by the state at end of March 1997 was 2,256.45 MW (of which 26% was hydroelectric), to which can be added a further 1,266.97 MW, provided by Punjab’s share of common pool projects, and 1,014. 13 MW from central projects (4,537.55 MW in all). The state, however, has the highest per-head electricity consumption in the country, with seasonal deficits met by imports at


times of peak agricultural activity. The literacy rate rose from 58.5% in 1991 to 70.0% in 2001. In 1996/97 the primary sector (almost entirely agriculture and animal husbandry) accounted for 42.0% of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP). The sector is dominated by the production of foodgrains, with Punjab (1.6% of the total land area of the country, 2.4% of the population) harvesting 20% of India’s wheat and 9% of its rice, as well as 14% of the cotton (1999 figures—2%, 1% and 2% of world harvests, respectively). At the time of independence, however, the state was a foodgrain-deficit area and the current prosperity is a product of the ‘Green Revolution’ of the late 1960s. In 1951 agriculture contributed 54.4% of GDP and total foodgrain production was 1.99m. metric tons, over one-half of which was wheat, the rest rice, coarse grains and pulses. Although the figures look similar for the beginning of the 1960s, by then the foundations of future development were being laid—the construction of the Bhakra-Nangal dam project was proceeding (following the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 with Pakistan), bringing Punjab plentiful irrigation water (and hydroelectricity), the utilization of which demanded the mandatory consolidation of agricultural holdings. Total foodgrain production had reached 3.16m. tons by 1960/61, but it was in the second half of the decade that new crop varieties (especially wheat), and the increased use of fertilizers, tractors and tubewells, truly revolutionized the sector. In 1970/71 total foodgrain production was 7.30m. tons, just over 70% of which was wheat (although the area under wheat was only just over 40% of the total). The rice ‘revolution’ of the 1970s further reinforced the sector, although by now equally flourishing secondary and tertiary sectors were forcing down the share of GDP. By the early 1990s the total primary sector accounted for 46.8% of GDP, with foodgrains covering 76.9% of the total cropped area (wheat alone 43.7%, rice 28.6%—coarse grains and pulses had declined, with oilseeds and cotton retaining a fluctuating share over the years) and reaching total production of 21.58m. tons (wheat 13.34m. tons, rice 7.65m. tons—all 1993/94 figures). The intensity of farmland use had probably reached the highest it could, with some 84% of the land area of Punjab given over to cultivation, while the levels of mechanization and of the use of fertilizers and pesticides were unmatched in India. By the end of 1998, for instance, Punjab had some 365,000 tractors, about one-third of the total in all India. In 1997/98 total foodgrain production was 21.16m. metric tons, of which wheat accounted for 12.75m. tons and rice 7.89m. tons. In the same year Punjab produced 1. 49m. bales of cotton (lint), although this was the worst harvest of the decade. Continuing high levels of government assistance (technical, financial and educational) aim to diversify the sector, and horticulture is being encouraged. The state is already the largest grower of mushrooms in India and of oranges (kinnows)—production of the latter, Punjab’s main fruit crop, was 260,000 metric tons in 1997/98. Pears, mangoes, grapes, peaches, lychees and lemons are also grown, while the main vegetable is potato (Punjab achieves the best yields of potatoes, and of grapes, in India). Livestock numbers in 1996 (prior to the last agricultural census) were estimated at a total of 9.7m. head, with 15.3m. poultry. Milk production was encouraged from the late 1960s (obviously leading to what could be called a ‘white revolution’ in the 1970s), and Punjab now produces the highest per-head amounts of milk and of eggs in the country. In 1997/98 the state produced 7.16m. metric tons of milk and 2,850m. eggs. Extensive inland waterways enable Punjab to have an

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efficient, if relatively small, fishing industry, but the intensity of agricultural land use means that woodland is limited (only 5.8% of the area was designated as forested in 1996). In 1996/97 the secondary sector contributed 24.6% of GDP, and industry has remained the fastest growing economic activity since then. The main industries include leather goods, hosiery and textiles generally, metal working, light engineering, electronics, the manufacture of hand tools, bicycles and sports goods, pharmaceuticals and the processing of food and other agricultural products. Most producers are small-scale, the number of such units for 1995/ 96 being put at 191,100 (employing 799,000 people, with production worth 95,000m. rupees), compared to 526 medium-sized and large enterprises (206,000 people, 180,000m. rupees). Exports from the sector were worth 42, 000m. rupees in 1998, while the number of industrial concerns in 1998/99 had reached 197,000 small units and 653 medium-sized and large ones. Industrial activity is spread throughout the state, although some cities have infrastructural advantages (such as the transport node of Amritsar) and others are noted for specializations (such as the steel city of Gobindgarh or the hosiery and textiles centre of Ludhiana, the ‘Manchester of India’). In 1996/97 services accounted for 33.4% of GDP. The tertiary sector is not as dominated by the expenditure on public administration as in some parts of India, with trade and transport well established economic activities. Although the Partition of the Punjab in 1947 and the recurring tensions with Pakistan ever since have disrupted much of the traditional east-west activity, the state retains a strong transport sector—many ‘truckers’, drivers of large freight-transport road vehicles, are, anecdotally, from Punjab. Tourism relies on Punjab’s wealth of historical and religious sites, perhaps the most famous being the Sikhs’ Golden Temple in Amritsar. Directory Governor: Lt-Gen. (retd) J.F.R.JACOB (Administrator of Chandigarh ex officio); Office of the Governor of Punjab, Raj Bhavan, Vigyan Path, Chandigarh; tel. (172) 743860. Chief Minister: Capt. AMERINDER SINGH (Congress—I); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Punjab, 45, Sector 2, Chandigarh; tel. (172) 740325. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha): Dr KEWAL KRISHAN (pro tempore); Assembly Secretariat, Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Chandigarh; tel. (172) 740739; fax (172) 740474; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 117 mems: Congress—I 62; Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) 41; Bharatiya Janata Party 3; Communist (CPI) 2; independents 9. State Principal Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: J.S.MANI; Punjab House, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3383804; fax (11) 3782448.

Rajasthan

The State of Rajasthan lies in north-western India, a landlocked, rough-hewn square of territory along the international border with Pakistan, which lies to the north-west. Southwards, Pakistan abuts slightly into India, so that it also lies, for a lesser distance, beyond the south-western border. The rest of the south-western border is with another Indian state, Gujarat, while Madhya Pradesh is to the south-east and the north-eastern border is shared with Uttar Pradesh (beyond the eastern corner of the state), Haryana and Punjab (a very short border in the north of Rajasthan). Rajasthan, the ‘land of kings’, was once known as Rajputana, or the land of the Rajputs, the ‘sons of kings’, and the modern state was formed from 19 princely states and three chieftainships between 1948 and 1956. Since eastern Madhya Pradesh was made into the separate state of Chhattisgarh in 2000 Rajasthan has been the largest state in India, at 342,239 sq km (132,190 sq miles) almost the size of Germany.

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Rajasthan is a largely arid state, its north-west consisting of India’s only true desert, the Great Indian or Thar Desert, stretching the length of the 1,070-km India-Pakistan border. The land rises slowly from the Indus valley to the north-west, falling in the south-west towards Sindh (Pakistan) and the Rann of Kachchh (Gujarat). In the north-east the plateau lands give way to the Yamuna drainage basin, but the main topographical feature of the state is the spine formed by the Aravalli Range, which bisects the state. The Aravalli Range runs roughly parallel to the general line of the south-east border, from Mount Abu (potent in the myths of Rajput origins and presided over by the state’s highest peak, Guru Shikhar, at 1,720 m—5,645 feet) in the south-west to head north-eastwards and end in the Rewari Hills of southern Haryana. Lying on the Tropic of Cancer, the climate is hot, and the monsoon rains do not always reach Rajasthan. The Aravalli hills and the southwest receive more rain, the former area also being cooler while the latter can be humid, but the rest of the state has average temperatures of 38°C (100°F) in May-August, with summer maximums sometimes reaching 46°C (115°F). In winter maximum daily temperatures in most areas are between 22°C and 28°C (72°–82°F), with minimums sometimes dipping to 8°C (46°F). More than three-quarters of what rainfall there is tends to fall between July and September. At the time of the 2001 census there were 56,473,122 people in Rajasthan, making it the eighth most populous state, and giving it a population of only several million less than that of the United Kingdom. The population density was only 165 per sq km. A higher than average growth rate was recorded since the previous census, although this had not prevented a remarkable growth in the literacy of the population. Most people speak Rajasthani, a Hindi language (89.6% in 1991—the main dialects are Marwari in the west, Jaipuri in the east, Malwi in the south-east and Mewati in the north-east), with the tribal Bhil tongue being the next most widely used (5.0%), followed by Urdu (2.2%), and some Punjabi and Sindhi. The old castes remain an important birthright in Rajasthan, preeminent among them, obviously, the Rajputs, the princely and warrior Ksatriya caste (the head of all the Rajput clans is acknowledged to be the Maharana of Udaipur), also the priestly Brahmins, the merchant Vaishyas and several agricultural castes, such as Jats, Gurjars, Malis and Kalvis. In 1981 17% of the population were counted among the Scheduled Castes and 12% among the Scheduled Tribes. The most populous tribes are those of the Bhils, who account for about two-fifths of the tribal population, and the Minas, the most widely spread, but there are other important ones, such as the Garasia, the Sansi, the Kanja, the jungle-dwelling Sahariya, the nomadic blacksmith people, the Gaduliya Lohar, and the Sidhi, a people believed to be descended from Africans arriving in India in the 13th century. Most people are Hindus (accounting for 89.1% of the 1991 population), but there are relatively large Muslim (8.0%), Sikh (1.5%) and Jain (1.3%) communities, as well as some Christians and a few Buddhists. The proportion of the population living in urban centres was 23.4% in 2001. The state capital is Jaipur (2.32m. inhabitants in 2001, making it the 11th most-populous city in India and by far the largest in Rajasthan). Jaipur is located in the north-east of central of Rajasthan. The west is dominated by Jodhpur (846,408), the second city of the state, and the desert centre of Bikaner to its north. The beautiful city of Udaipur is in the south and Kota (695,899) in the south-east. Ajmer (485,197), to the south-west of the capital and


on the way to Jodhpur, is famed as a Muslim holy city. Rajasthan is divided into 32 districts. History The region has long been inhabited, particularly as it has not always been such a dry area. Harappan and post-Harappan cultures flourished here and it experienced the hegemony of the Mauryas (third century BC) and the Guptas (fourth-sixth centuries AD). Between such imperial eras the region was obviously open to the many invaders that would sweep down into the subcontinent from the north-west, out of Persia (Iran) or Bactria (Afghanistan) and Central Asia. Thus, the Bactrian Greeks (Yavanas) were dominant in the second century BC, the Sakas (Scythians) in the second-fourth centuries AD and the Huns (Hiungnu) in the sixth century. Subsequently, although they were probably largely descended from the Scythian and Hun tribes, the people of what became Rajasthan served as a bulwark against further invasion and consciously thought of themselves as defenders of the Hindu homeland. The emergence of Rajput dynasties took place between the seventh and 11th centuries, by which time (and for a further century) they controlled much of north India. Given the Hindu loyalties and the martial strength of the Rajputs, it is perhaps no surprise to find the Brahmins anxious to discover royal lineages for these warrior princes, who liked to emphasize their Ksatriya status, born of the great fire sacrifice of the gods on Mount Abu. Such origins link them to the Gurjaras, and that they share an equally uncertain but probably similar past is indicated by the fact that most of the great Rajput clans of the 10th century onwards had emerged from the disintegration of the imperial order of the Gurjara-Pratiharas of Kannauj (now in Uttar Pradesh). Whatever the origins of the Rajputs, as they naturalized and ‘Aryanized’, they focused on the martial virtues of their caste status, as well as operating the sort of feudal system that reinforced both the clan and the military structures. The system of land tenure encouraged the surplus wealth of the self-sufficient villages into the hands of the clan prince, who could build palaces and forts, while the geography of their heartland of ‘Rajputana’ also encouraged the smaller urban settlements that could survive in a dry land, huddled in or around fortified high places that kept them independent. Rajput dynasties were spread throughout north India, but their greatest geographical concentration, and the increasing refinement of the definition of ‘Rajput’ (not least under the generally admiring British), steadily contracted their territory to modern Rajasthan. The history of the state, therefore, is a mixed one of many principalities, and it is possible only to give a general overview and seize on a few important examples. The Gurjara clan of the Pratiharas ruled a large part of Rajasthan in the eighth century, when they moved into the imperial politics of Kannauj, and they held sway until the 10th century. The main Rajput clan of the region, which gradually supplanted GurjaraPratihara overlordship, however, was that of the Chahamanas (Chauhans) of Ajmer. They extended their rule as far as Delhi in the mid-12th century and it was their ‘fort of king Prithviraj’ that was transformed into the site of a new imperial capital by the Delhi Sultans. Prithviraj III, who ascended the throne of Ajmer in 1177, himself ruled an empire that included western Rajasthan, the eastern Punjab as far as the foothills of the Himalayas


and part of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab, and led a Rajput confederacy, which together effectively blocked the Muslim advance into the rest of India. The Rajput forces successfully drove off the invading army of Muhammad of Ghor (now in Afghanistan) at the first battle at Tarain (Haryana) in 1191. The Muslim forces returned in greater numbers the following year, however, and, in perhaps one of the most decisive battles of Indian history, again fought at Tarain, the Rajput army was routed, Prithviraj III captured and later executed, and the road to Delhi and the arya varta opened. Ajmer itself was occupied, but Ghorid control of Rajasthan remained tenuous, as cities were taken and lost regularly before final possession was decided, and many Muslim commanders were more interested in plundering raids and the extortion of tribute rather than the settlement of an empire. For Ajmer itself, its future was largely determined by the arrival in 1192, in the wake of the second battle at Tarain, of Khwaja Moinuddin Chist, a Muslim Sufi saint, who died here in 1235. Although it was ruled, in turn, by the Rajput houses of Mewar (later based in Udaipur), Malwa (a Rajput dynasty of the ancient kingdom in Madhya Pradesh) and Jodhpur, it was an object of Muslim ambition and was conquered by Akbar, the Mughal emperor, in 1556, who made it a place of pilgrimage. In the palace he built here, Jahangir, Akbar’s successor, received the first embassy of the British (from King James I of England and VI of Scotland), and this was to be the only part of modern Rajasthan under the direct administration of British India after 1818 (after the Mughal decline Jodhpur had regained control until losing the area to the Marathas). The foremost Rajput state, at least in honour, was that of Mewar, which from the 12th century was based on the fort at Chittaurgarh (Chittor), one of the oldest cities in the state (officially founded in the eighth century, but with evidence of much longer habitation). The dynasty of the Ranas of Mewar ruled from here from the 14th century, but moved to the new capital of Udaipur, founded by Maharana Udai Singh, in 1568. Mewar prided itself on its long history of independence, but this entailed constant warfare, resulting in constant poverty, and it was the determined opposition of the house of Sesodia to the Mughals that had caused Akbar to besiege and, eventually, bloodily win Chittaurgarh fort and force the rajah (who had taken refuge in the hills) to found a new city. Mewar was only forced into accommodation of the Mughals by Shah Jahan (emperor in 1627–58)—although the Rana, Amar Singh, avoided making personal submission to the Great Mughal. In fact, the boast of Mewar was that no reigning prince ever made such submission, even in 1680, when Udaipur was sacked by a Mughal army of Aurangzeb, after the Sesodias had backed the insurgency provoked by the emperor’s intervention in the succession of Marwar. Marwar, the dominant state of western Rajasthan, became the realm of the Rathore Rajputs in 1211, after they moved west from a defeat at Kannauj by the invading Muslims. Their capital was at Mandore until 1459, when they were forced to move a little south to Jodhpur, a strategic site on the edge of the desert, from where they could rule vast tracts of Rajasthan and regularly threaten the wealth of Gujarat to the south. The ruler was honoured with a royal title by Akbar, as part of his successful policy of co-opting the great Rajput warrior princes, and the second rajah, Sawai Rajah Sur Singh (who reigned in 1581–95), conquered Gujarat and part of the Deccan for the Great Mughal. Relations with the Mughals were not always happy, however, notably when Aurangzeb undermined the system of incorporating Hindu nobles into the Mughal hierarchy. In


Marwar a not unreasonable imperial intervention during a hiatus in the succession was exacerbated into insurrection by the iconoclasm of the occupying forces—the guardians of the young heir, Ajit Singh, sought the help of other Rajput houses after fleeing Delhi in 1678 and so began a struggle that would resume after the death of Aurangzeb and proceed, with varying success, during the decay of Mughal power. Thus, Marwar drove the Mughals from Ajmer and captured Ahmedabad (Gujarat) in the first half of the 18th century. Like most of the other Rajput princes, the house of Jodhpur then experienced the threat of Maratha expansionism and relatively happily entered treaty relations with the British at the time of their victory over the Marathas in 1818. The Rajput princes were greatly honoured in the hierarchy of the new Empire, and more recently a reward for their loyalty during the Great Rebellion of 1857–58 (following the Sepoy Mutiny). The principality of Bikaner was founded in 1488 by a scion of the house of Jodhpur, and its rulers came to have a progressive reputation while under British rule. The Kachhawaha Rajputs were based in Amer (Amber) from 1037 until Sawai Maharajah Jai Singh II (1699–1744) founded a new capital at Jaipur (now the state capital of Rajasthan) in 1727. The Kachhawahas were among the first Rajputs to lend their services to the Mughals and their reward laid the foundations for a lasting pan-Indian empire that accommodated Hindus as well as the co-religionists of the ruling dynasty. In 1562 Akbar married a daughter of the Kachhawaha house and inducted its nobles into the Mughal hierarchy. This proved to be a successful and continuing way of tying the Rajputs into the imperial order. The Kachhawahas can also be noted for their contribution to the Taj Mahal, the famous monument in Uttar Pradesh, providing the site and much of the marble used in its construction. Like the other rajahs and rulers of the region, the Kachhawahas submitted to British suzerainty in 1818. The history of British rule in Rajasthan, Rajputana, starts badly, as the defeat of the Marathas at the beginning of the 19th century and the East India Company’s subsequent refusal to fill the power vacuum made the region notorious for lawlessness and unrest. Most of the Rajput princes and the few Muslim rulers of the region (such as Tonk) were, therefore, brought into the nascent, new imperial system when the situation began to be rectified in 1818, with the final defeat of the Marathas. Thereafter, political developments largely continued as the responsibility of the princes, although wider developments in British India influenced the states, such as reforming campaigns and the struggle for independence. In terms of representative democracy (seldom involving popular participation in government), for instance, the Maharajah of Bikaner introduced a House of Representatives in 1913, while Jaipur gained a disappointing Vidhan Samiti in 1923 and the Maharana of Udaipur was being forced towards constitutional concessions by the 1940s. Most developments came about as a result of the move towards independence for India (the democratic successor state to the Empire in which the princes of Rajputana would find themselves) and as a result of the formation of the modern state over the following eight years. On 18 March 1948 Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karauli formed the Matsya Union, the first step towards a single state in Rajputana. One week later Banswara, Bundi, Dungerpur, Jhalawar, Kishangarh, Kota, Pratapgarh, Shahpura and Tonk formed another group, known as the Rajasthan Union (Kota, which had become a separate state from Bundi in 1681, became the capital). Only three days later these arrangements were disrupted


by the decision of Udaipur to join the latter Union, and the United State of Rajasthan was effected on 18 April 1948. The inclusion of the Sesodia principality encouraged the larger states to join the process of unification, and the United State became Greater Rajasthan on 30 March 1949, with the accession of Bikaner, Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur. Six weeks later, on 15 May, the Matsya Union and Greater Rajasthan merged into the United State of Greater Rajasthan (USGR). The rest of the process of creating the modern state was effected under national legislation. Under the Constitution of 26 January 1950 a United Rajasthan added most of the Sirohi principality to the 18 former states in the USGR, creating a single ‘Part B’ state, while the old Ajmer-Merwara province directly administered by the Centre became a ‘Part C’ state known simply as Ajmer. Finally, under the State Reorganization Act that took effect on 1 November 1956, modern Rajasthan was formed by the merging of United Rajasthan and Ajmer. The only other territorial adjustments were the additional inclusion in the new state of the Abu Road taluka (formerly part of Sirohi, but then included in Bombay—now Gujarat and Maharashtra—for a time) and Sunel Tappa (hitherto an enclave of Madhya Bharat—now part of Madhya Pradesh), while the Sirohi subdivision of the district of Kota went to Madhya Pradesh. The princes were steadily bereft of power but retain great respect. Rajasthan currently sends 25 deputies to the national Lok Sabha and contributes 10 members of the Rajya Sabha in the Parliament of India. National representation is split between Congress, which dominated the state until the end of the 1980s, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 1989 Congress lost the state elections and the BJP retained power until January 1999, when the Assembly elected at the end of the previous year convened with an overwhelming Congress majority. Ashok Gehlot, therefore, succeeded Bhairon Singh Shekhawat as Chief Minister. Economy Rajasthan is a poor state, its dominant agricultural and pastoral economy, precarious on the edge of the desert, unable to enrich a growing population despite good mineral resources and a thriving tourist industry. The net state domestic product in 2000/01 was 698,770m. rupees, or 12,914 rupees per head. There were 85,008 km of roads in 1998/ 99, of which some 3,000 km were national highway, and there are relatively good rail connections between the main centres. Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur enjoy good aviation links with the rest of India, and there are a number of other airstrips. In 1998/99 the state generated 10,038.7m. units of electrical power, but was obliged to purchase a further 10, 940.0m. units from outside the state. In terms of social infrastructure, the state achieved a dramatic improvement in its literacy rate between the 1991 and 2001 censuses, increasing it from only 38.6% to 61.0%. Agriculture and animal husbandry is the dominant economic sector, although only 75. 1% of the state’s area was cultivable in 1998/99 (about one-third dependent on irrigation). Most of the population, therefore, find their fortunes prone to the vagaries of the weather, the failure of the monsoons soon reducing them to being in peril of famine, as happened at the end of the 1990s and into 2000 famine. Foodgrain production in 1997/ 98 amounted, nevertheless, to 14.03m. metric tons (17.3m. estimated for the following year), oilseeds to 3.30m. tons, sugarcane to 1.16m. tons and cotton to 867,000 tons. The


main crops are rice, barley, millets, maize and other foodgrains, cotton and tobacco, with the cultivation of vegetables and citrus fruits expanding in the 1990s. Spices such as red chillies, mustard and cumin are also grown. In 1997 total livestock numbers were put at 54.35m. Forestry accounted for only 9.5% of the land area in 2001. The most important metallic mineral reserves are copper, lead, zinc and silver, tungsten, manganese and iron ore, while other resources include limestone and dolomite, lignite (‘brown’ coal), barites, clays, calcite, gypsum, feldspar, fluorite, potash, rock phosphate, silica sand, emeralds and other precious and semi-precious stones, soapstone, marble and granite. The total sale value of minerals in 1996/97 amounted to 3,996m. rupees. The extractive sector has also provided a basis for some heavy industry, such as a zinc smelter and a copper plant. Other major industrial activities, apart from the processing of metallic and non-metallic minerals, include textiles and woollens, sugar, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, railway wagons, precision instruments, television sets, etc. There were 10,244 registered factories in 1997. In 1998/99 small-scale industrial units numbered some 199,000, with an employment potential of 778,000 people. Trade, transport and public administration obviously make important contributions to the tertiary sector, but the state also possesses a strong tourist industry. The many ancient cities and forts of the region, its princely heritage and religious sites are a valuable asset, and the unique desert environment also provides an attraction. Directory Governor: ANSHUMAN SINGH; Office of the Governor, Raj Bhawan, Civil Lines, Jaipur; tel. (141) 382016; fax (141) 382737. Chief Minister: ASHOK GEHLOT (Congress—I); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Rajahstan, 8 Civil Lines, Jaipur; tel. (141) 380351; fax (141) 381687. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: PARASRAM MADERNA; 11 Civil Lines, Jaipur; tel. (141) 744321; fax (141) 744333; e-mail [email protected]; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 200 mems (1 vacant): Congress—I 152; Bharatiya Janata Party 32; Janata Dal 3; Bahujan Samaj Party 2; Communist (CPI—M) 1; Rashtriya Janata Dal 1; independents and others 8. State Principal Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: J.P.SINGH; Bikaner House, Pandara Rd, New Delhi 110 003; tel. (11) 3073747; fax (11) 3381723.

Sikkim

The State of Sikkim is in northern India, in the mountains above the Bengal plains. It juts northwards into Tibet, part of the People’s Republic of China (with which there are international borders to the north and east), and separates Nepal (to the west) from Bhutan (with which there is a short border in the south-east of the state). Sikkim’s only border with the rest of India is in the south, with West Bengal. The former principality’s name probably derives from a Tsong word (sukhim) meaning ‘new home’ or ‘happy home’. Once a much larger realm, Sikkim’s decline forced it into dependence on British protection from the 19th century; India, as a successor state to the Empire, formalized Sikkim’s status as its own protectorate by treaty in 1950. Democratic politics and Indian intervention in the administration in 1974 led, the following year, to a referendum, the


abolition of the monarchy and the accession of Sikkim as the 22nd state of the Indian Union on 15 May 1975. Sikkim became the smallest state in India (until Goa achieved statehood 12 years later), with an area of 7,096 sq km (2,739 sq miles). The state lies in the eastern Himalayas, traversed by the Great Himalaya and some of its southern spurs. The topography is dominated by the deep valley of the River Tista (Teesta) and, to its west, the rising mass of Kangchenjunga (Kanchendzonga—‘House of Five Treasures’), which, at 8,586 m (28,179 feet), is the highest mountain in India, the third highest in the world and the presiding deity of the surrounding country. Only 40 km (25 miles) from the peak of Kangchenjunga, however, is Sikkim’s lowest point, at 221 m, in the southern foothills. This indicates the variety and extremity of the altitudinal changes in the landscape, affecting the climate and the flora. About one-third of Sikkim is covered with dense, often inaccessible, forests of sal, sambal and bamboo. The mountainous terrain is slashed by deep ravines and green valleys watered by rivers fed with both snow and rain. The main river, the perennial Tista, flows from north to south, steeply down the east and centre of the state, ultimately flowing into the Brahmaputra (until the great floods of 1787 altered its course, the Tista had been a tributary of the Ganges). It has sources in the Tista Zhangse and the great Zemu glaciers, in the bleaker, colder north-east of Sikkim, where the more desert-like terrain is barely softened by the two main tributary river valleys, of Lachen and Lachung. The main river system flowing through the southwest of the state is that of the Rangit (Ranjit). The climate can range from tropical in the southern foothills, through temperate, to arctic in the very north and north-east or on the mountain heights. Sikkim generally experiences a considerable amount of rainfall, ranging from 1,260 mm (50 inches) to 5,100 mm per year, varying considerably according to altitude or how far north the place is. Gangtok, the hill-top capital, receives the maximum annual average of rainfall (3,494 mm), while Thanggu, high in the north-west, has the minimum (82 mm). Most rain falls between June and September, when the monsoons penetrate deep into the Himalayas up the valleys of the Tista and the Rangit. Fog is also common throughout the state at this time of year. Average January temperatures in Gangtok range from 4°C to 14°C (39°F–57°F), while by May the lowest average equals the winter month’s highest, ranging up to 22°C (72°F). In terms of population, Sikkim is still the smallest state in India (three territories also have higher populations), with 540,493, according to the provisional results of the 2001 census. The rate of increase in population since 1991 was considerably higher than the national average, the total having increased by almost one-third from 406,457. The population density in 2001 was 76.2 per sq km, although this is misleading, as, owing to the mountainous nature of Sikkim, only about 20% of its territory is habitable. The most populous area is the south-east, while the north is sparsely populated. The latter is also the region reserved to the indigenous Lepchas, who barely account for 10% of the population. An Indo-Mongoloid people, who may be related to the Nagas of north-east India and probably entered Sikkim from Assam or Tibet before the eighth century, they are also known as the Rongpa or Kongpa, ‘people of the ravines’. The Bhutia or Bhotia (‘of Bhot’ or ‘of Tibet’) arrived in Sikkim from the 14th century, particularly in the 16th century as aristocratic refugees from strife in Tibet, and are now traders and farmers, noted as hardy pastoralists of the high mountains. There is also a small community of the Magar, who have been present for not much less time. Officially registered Scheduled

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Tribes, of whom the Lepcha and Bhutia are the largest groups, constitute 22.4% of the total population (1991 figures). By far the largest ethnic group, however, is Nepali; these people began to arrive with the Ghurkha invasions from the 18th century, mainly the Newar and other clans such as the Chettri or Sherpa. They now form the majority population of Sikkim. As a result, Nepali is the most widely spoken language, in one form or another, although Lepcha and Bhutia are also spoken, while Hindi is the official language and English the working language of government. The Nepali majority also means that Hinduism is the major religion (68.4% of the population in 1991). Mahayana Buddhism, heavily influenced by the animist Bon religion native to the Lepcha (and, indeed, to the Tibetans), claimed the adherence of 27.2% of the population, according to the 1991 census. Historically, Sikkim is a stronghold of the Nyingma pa, the ‘old’ sect or ‘Red Hats’ of Tibetan Lamaism, although in 1959 it gave refuge to the 16th reincarnation of the Gyalwa Karmapa (who died in 1981) when he fled the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Rumtek monastery, 24 km (15 miles) south-west of Gangtok, is now, therefore, the headquarters of the Kagyu or ‘Black Hat’ sect. There are 70 monasteries in Sikkim. There were only small communities of Christians (3.3% in 1991), Muslims (1.0%) and other religions. According to the census of 1991, only 9.1 % of the population was urbanized, the largest town, the state capital, Gangtok, in the south-east, having a population of barely 30,000. The next largest towns, both also in southern Sikkim and on the main road from Gangtok into West Bengal, are Singtam and Rongphu. Southern Sikkim is split into three of the state’s four districts, the south-west being the West District, the south-east the East District and the narrow strip of land between South District, with its chief town (Namchi) also near the border and transport links of West Bengal. Mangan is the main town of the North, which district covers almost 60% of the state’s territory but contains only 7.7% of the population (1991 figure). The official headquarters of West District is Gyalshing (Gezing), with the ancient capital and religious centre of Yuksam not far to the north. The East District around Gangtok is the most populous, with 43.9% of the total in 1991. History Sikkim, once known as Basyul, the ‘hidden land’, was originally inhabited by Naong, Chang and Mon tribes, but these were subsumed into the Lepcha people who had moved onto the southern flanks of the Himalayas from Assam or eastern Tibet in about the eighth century. They were only united under a king or punu in about 1400, when Tur Ve Pa No, was crowned. Three more kings succeeded him, until the Lepcha resorted to a looser association of the clans. Meanwhile, Tibetan exiles (the first ancestors of the Bhutia) had began to arrive in the region of Sikkim from the 13th century, although the major influx was not until several hundred years later, during the religious strife between the ‘Red Hat’ Buddhists and the reformist ‘Yellow Hats’. Although Buddhism was probably already present in Sikkim (the great eighth-century Guru Rimpoche, Padmasambhava, is said to have passed through the country on his way to the first conversion of Tibet), the arrival of these ‘Red Hat’ or Nyingma pa Bhutia certainly ensured that it would become a Buddhist state under the Namgyal dynasty.


The Bhutia family that was to rule Sikkim for over 330 years, until its incorporation into India, first arrived in the region in the 13th century. They were descendants of the legendary prince who had founded the eastern Tibetan kingdom of Minyang in the ninth century. A Guru Tashi led his people south from the Kham region, his eldest son helping a Sakya king and winning himself both the name of Khye Bumsa and a princess in marriage. They settled in the Chumbi valley (where the People’s Republic of China now juts down between Bhutan and north-east Sikkim) and established friendly relations with the Lepcha prince of Gangtok, Thekong Tek—not only a chieftain, but also a religious leader. He and Khye Bumsa established a blood-brotherhood treaty at Kabi Lungstok, and the Bhutia dynasty came to hold increasing sway in both the Chumbi and Tista valleys thereafter, particularly after the demise of Thekong Tek and the Lepcha chieftainship. Khye Bumsa was succeeded by this third son, Mipon Rab, who had four sons (from whom the four principal clans of Sikkim are said to be descended), the youngest of whom, another Guru Tashi, succeeded his father. He moved his capital to Gangtok and ruled over both Lepcha and Bhutia, becoming the first ruler of Sikkim as such. His great grandson, Phuntsok or Penchu, a son of the third ruler to follow Guru Tashi, was to become the first consecrated chogyal (‘heavenly king’—both the ruler or gyalpo and the religious head of Sikkim) and first adopted the name of Namgyal for his dynasty. In 1641, during the time when Lamaist Buddhism was being consolidated in Sikkim, three sages entered the country from different directions and met at Yuksam, in the west. During their debate on establishing a united temporal and spiritual leadership for Sikkim (Tibet had been bestowed upon the Dalai Lama by the Mongol rulers in the previous year), one of these lamas, the evangelizing Lhatsun Chenpo, cited a prophecy of Padmasambhava to silence the competing claims of the clerics. Thus, it was a 38-year-old scion of the ruling house, Phuntsok, who was found to satisfy the prophecy; he was consecrated as the first Chogyal at Yuksam (which became his capital) in 1642, taking one of Lhatsun Chenpo’s names as the name of the ruling family. Legitimacy was sought, and gained, through recognition by the Dalai Lama, and Sikkim (then extending much further in all directions from its present borders—including the Chumbi valley, now in Tibet, and Darjiling, West Bengal) thereafter enjoyed Tibetan support. In 1670 Tensung Namgyal succeeded his father and moved the capital to Rabdentse. Dynastic rivalries after his death in about 1700 then involved an invasion by Bhutan, while the infant king, Chador Namgyal, was taken to refuge in Lhasa, the seat of the Dalai Lama. Tibetan help eventually enabled the recapture of Rabdentse and most of the kingdom. However, Sikkim continued to lose territory to Bhutan, while the dynastic uncertainty of the next two reigns exacerbated ethnic pretensions and saw the loss of much of the Limbu and the Magar territories. Chador (who in 1716 had fallen victim to the same half-sister, Pedi, who had fomented the earlier invasion by Bhutan) was succeeded by his infant son, Gyurmed. He then died at the age of 26 years, in 1734, without legitimate issue, but claiming a nun was pregnant by him. The male child was named Phuntsok, in a bid to add lustre to his claim, but, not surprisingly, many disputed the authenticity of the succession, particularly among the Bhutia aristocracy. Chandzod Tarwang, a minister and friend of Gyurmed, declared himself the ruler or rajah of Sikkim. However, as the then majority Lepcha population favoured a continuation of Namgyal

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rule, Tarwang was driven from power in 1737 and the reign of Phuntsok II was then assured by Tibetan support. Although invasions from Bhutan eventually subsided under the new Chogyal, Sikkim was increasingly under threat from the Ghurkhas of Nepal. Seventeen Ghurkha incursions were repulsed, until a peace treaty in 1775. Trouble with Nepal continued, however, exacerbated by the accession of another junior to the throne in 1780. Phuntsok II’s son, Tenzing, was also to die young, in 1793, but in exile in Lhasa, owing to further Nepalese invasion. However, that the Ghurkhas then pressed on into Tibetan territory provoked the anger of China, which also obliged Nepal to vacate some of its conquered territories and permit the restoration of the monarchy in Sikkim. Tenzing’s infant son, Tsudphud, was despatched from Lhasa in 1793 to assume his throne. With the loss of territory in the west, Rabdentse was demonstrably too vulnerable and the Chogyal moved the capital to Tumlong. During the long reign of Tsudphud, Sikkim’s need for support against the Ghurkhas was to reduce it progressively to dependence upon the British. Nepal, denied its expansionist ambitions in Tibet by China, continued to harry Sikkim and the Indian empire of the British. In 1814 war broke out between the British and Nepal, resulting in the 1816 Treaty of Sugauli, after the defeat of the Ghurkhas. This led to the 1817 Treaty of Titalia between Sikkim and its new protector, whereby the kingdom regained some of its lost territories. However, with the threat from Nepal settled, Sikkim came to be dominated by relations with its southern neighbour. In 1835 Chogyal Tsudphud was pressured into ceding the district of Darjiling (Darjeeling) to the British, who favoured it as a hill resort and were meant to pay a subsidy to Sikkim for the concession. Disputes over this subsidy caused a deterioration in relations and even resulted in the temporary imprisonment of the Superintendent of Darjeeling by the Sikkimese in 1849. This, in turn, provoked the British expedition of February 1850, which provided for the annexation of Darjiling to India’s Bengal Presidency, but left the Sikkimese dissatisfied and willing to raid British lands. An imperial expeditionary force was defeated in 1860, but a larger one occupied Tumlong in 1861 and imposed a new treaty. The chogyals were meant to be placated with the title of maharajah, which indicated their subjection to the Indian empire, and, later, an enhanced subsidy. Tsudphud, the seventh Chogyal but first Maharajah, died in 1863, to be succeeded by two of his sons, Sidekeong I and then, in 1874, Thutob (Thobden—later Sir Thutob). The latter became more pro-Tibetan after the British favoured the influx of Nepalis into Sikkim, but Tibet itself was beginning to feel the pressure of British expansionism as the Empire sought to build roads into Sikkim and establish trade links through the Himalayas. There were skirmishes with Tibetan forces in the 1880s, but British pressure continued to mount, with a political officer installed in Sikkim in 1889 and a military force being sent into Tibet in 1904. Meanwhile, China had recognized the British protectorate of Sikkim in 1890 and the now largely powerless Chogyal moved the capital to its present site of Gangtok. Sidekeong II succeeded his father in 1914, but did not survive the year and was himself succeeded by his half-brother, Tashi (later Sir Tashi), who, following the restoration of full powers of government to the monarchy in 1918, instituted many reforms. However, he was unwilling to concede many democratic institutions or accession to an independent India. The Chogyal negotiated for the new Indian successor state to assume the protection of Sikkim from the old Empire, and this arrangement was


ratified by treaty on 5 December 1950. India assumed responsibility for defence, foreign affairs and strategic communications, and the position of the monarchy was confirmed, although the treaty also provided for increased popular participation in government. India’s responsibilities and tensions along the Chinese border meant that by 1961 access to Sikkim was greatly restricted, and this was maintained after the 1962 incidents along the length of the Indian frontier with the People’s Republic of China. The main political parties, notably those with their support among the majority Hindu (Nepali) population, had opposed protectorate status and favoured closer association with India. The royal court had increasing difficulty in ignoring their views given the results of successive general elections, the first in 1952 and the fifth (and the last for independent Sikkim) in 1974. About 20 years after the signing of the Sikkim-India treaty there were beginning to be explicit demonstrations of discontent by the populace, not helped by the opposition to reform and the flamboyant lifestyle of the new Chogyal. Gyalsay Palden Thondup Namgyal had succeeded his father in December 1963, becoming the 12th Chogyal and the sixth and last Maharajah of Sikkim (in the same year the leader of the Chogyal’s administration was restyled the Chief Administrative Officer, instead of Chief Minister). Kazi Lhendup Dorji and Krishna Chandra Pradhan, who were eventually to unite their rival parties in the Sikkim Congress, led opposition to the monarchy. Protests against royal government escalated to such an extent in 1973 that the administration of the country collapsed and the Chogyal was forced to appeal to India for assistance. On 9 April the Indian Government appointed B.S.Das as Chief Administrative Officer of Sikkim. He supervised the introduction of a new constitutional document for the country, which retained a limited monarchy, but exchanged the status of a protectorate for that of an associate state of India. The National Assembly approved the new Constitution in 1974, and Das yielded his position to Kazi Lhendup Dorji, the leader of the Sikkim Congress, who became Prime Minister on 23 July. The Sikkim Congress overwhelmingly won the September general election, giving it the authority to arrange a referendum on the future of the state. The Chogyal continued to oppose the introduction of greater political liberties and the persistent interventions of India. Nevertheless, on 10 April 1975 a reported 97% of the electorate supported the accession of Sikkim to the Indian Union. The Chogyal was effectively deposed as a ruling monarch (he died in 1982, his son, Wangchuk Namgyal, becoming the 13th Chogyal, a post now shorn of executive power or official privileges) and, upon the announcement of the official results on 14 April, was replaced as Chief Executive (later Governor) by Bipen Bihari Lal. The Indian Parliament duly passed the 38th amendment to its basic law on 26 April and Sikkim became the 22nd state of the Union on 16 May. In 1979 Nar Bahadur Bhandari, of the Sikkim Samgram Parishad, become the new Chief Minister, which post he was to hold until June 1994 (apart from the brief ‘caretaker’ premiership of B.B.Gurung in the mid-1980s), conclusively winning the state elections of 1984 and 1989. Bhandari was subsequently charged with corruption while in office. Another caretaker Government, under S.Limboo, held power until the elections of 12 December, when Pawan Kumar Chamling of the Sikkim Democratic Front won power. At the next election Chamling, a poet as well as a politician, retained power, as the Front won 24 of the 32 seats on 3 October 1999. The state also sends one member to each of

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the houses of the national legislature, both of which are held by the Sikkim Democratic Front in support of the ruling national coalition. Economy The economy of Sikkim is primarily agricultural, but in a countryside that yields so little suitable land for farmers, it is no surprise to find it not a wealthy state. Moreover, not only is Sikkim the smallest state in area, it also has the smallest economy—the net domestic product for the state, in current prices, was some 7,360m. rupees in 1999/ 2000, according to official estimates. This gave an income per head (current prices) of 13, 356 rupees (advance estimate). Infrastructure is patchily developed, but, with roads being the main arteries of communication in the state, there was a dramatic expansion of the network during the 1990s. At March 1997 there were 2,376 km of road in the state, of which 40 km were national highway and 678 km state highway; of the total, about 61% of roads were surfaced. Access to remoter locations is also augmented by ropeways. Other forms of transport are only accessible from neighbouring West Bengal, the nearest railhead being at Shiliguri (114 km—71 miles—from Gangtok) and the nearest airport at Bagdogra (124 km from Gangtok). At the end of March 1997 installed electrical capacity was 35.6 MW, but the state has considerable hydroelectric potential, with some important projects ongoing in northern Sikkim, such as those at Kalez and Lachung. Literacy levels in the state improved over the 1990s, between the two censuses, rising from a rate of 56. 9% in 1991 to 69.7% in 2001. Agriculture is the principal economic sector of the economy of Sikkim. As the absolute amount of land available to farmers is limited by topography (even so the amount of land available to agriculture increased dramatically in the 1980s and, to a lesser extent, in the 1990s), attempts at development have focused on productivity or selecting more valuable crops. The latter policy is not without precedent in Sikkim, as the state has long enjoyed a reputation for its large cardamoms. The area planted with cardamom, most of it in the North District, is the largest of any state in India (24,020 ha, or 59,353 acres, at the end of March 1997) and production is also the largest (3,600 metric tons in 1997). Harvests of this important cash crop have remained at a similar level for many years, whereas other major crops all nearly doubled their yields over the 1980s (remaining stable during the 1990s). The principal staple crop is maize (39,900 ha planted in 1997), followed by rice (15,950 ha), mostly grown in southern Sikkim, as are all the main crops except cardamom. In 1995/96 maize production totalled 56,561 metric tons, rice production 21,876 tons and wheat 15,304 tons. Potatoes, ginger, oranges and off-season vegetables are other important cash crops, while the local tea (from the Temi estate) is highly valued, if not a large earner by volume (116,000 kg of tea were harvested in 1997/98). Animal husbandry is an important activity, particularly in the less hospitable parts of the state. According to the 1998 agricultural census, there were 183,385 head of cattle (mainly in subtropical, humid belt of southern Sikkim), 31,207 pigs, 256,840 poultry and, mainly in the North District, 109,143 sheep and goats. There were smaller numbers of yak (again, mainly in the North), buffalo and equines. The rest of the primary sector of the economy has more potential than it is realized. Indeed, much of the potential is not even easily realizable, owing to the terrain. In 1997


Sikkim possessed 545,239 ha (5,452 sq km—more than three-quarters of the total land area of the state) of reserved forestland. These reserves include peaks, etc., under permanent snow, however, so the tree-covered area was more like 265,000 ha (37% of Sikkim’s land area), while the total extent of sanctuary areas, including village forests, was 652,076 ha. Extractive activity is not very developed, although the state possesses resources of copper, lead, zinc, coal, graphite and limestone. Sikkim has been officially declared industrially backward. Government development plans from 1996 have especially emphasized the encouragement of entrepreneurs and of small industry and handicraft training. In 1997 the state authorities recorded 1,778 industries registered in Sikkim, over one-half of them in East District and almost onequarter in South District. Handicrafts for which the state is known include knotted woollen carpets (bearing the dragon emblem), woodcarvings, religious scroll paintings (thanka) and jewellery. Larger scale activities mainly involve the processing of the state’s predominant agricultural sector, such as the manufacture of jams and juices, and production from bakeries and the local brewery. There are also concerns manufacturing or assembling plastic goods, leather goods, wristwatches and precision jewel bearings for watches, etc. An industrial development corporation seeks to execute government policy, but attempts to parallel the policy of other Indian states in encouraging ‘new technologies’, call centres or internet industries are limited by the available infrastructure (there were only 6,102 telephones in use in 1997, mainly in East District). The tertiary sector is underpinned by government services, but tourism remains a growth industry in Sikkim, despite some continuing travel restrictions. The number of domestic visitors has risen steadily, the number of foreign visitors more dramatically, the former reaching 107,169 in 1996 and the latter 8,639. In first six months alone of 1997 there were 67,225 domestic and 5,601 foreign visitors. Sikkim, as a stronghold of the ancient ‘red-hatted’ Nyingma sect (headquartered at the monastery of Pemayangtse, West District), has long been a centre of pilgrimage for Lamaist Buddhists and of Tibetology, but also now hosts the head of the Kagyu order at Rumtek. Handicrafts and dances illustrate the richness and age of local cultures, while there are more static sites of historical interest at Gangtok and Yuksam. Moreover, the country has a varied climate supporting a wealth of vegetation and a selection of what to visitors are unusual fauna, such as yak, musk and ‘barking’ (muntjac) deer, the red panda and blue sheep, and even, maybe, the yeti or ‘abominable snowman’ of legend. On and around Kangchenjunga Sikkim boasts one of the highest national parks in the world. Sikkim, which enjoys some special tax and other privileges, not least because of its sensitivity so close to the border with the People’s Republic of China, receives central government support. In the 1996/97 financial year the state had a total budgeted expenditure of 12,779m. lakhs. Directory Governor: KEDAR NATH SAHANI; Governor’s Residence, Gangtok; tel. (3592) 22756; fax (3592) 22742.

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Chief Minister: PAWAN KUMAR CHAMLING (Sikkim Democratic Front); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Sikkim, Secretariat, Tashiling, Gangtok; tel. (3592) 22346. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: KALAWATI SUBBA; Assembly House, Gangtok; tel. (3592) 31908; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 32 mems: Sikkim Democratic Front 25; Sikkim Sangram Parishad 7. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: ALOK SRIVASTAVA; Sikkim House, 12 Panchsheel Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021; tel. (11) 6113747; fax (11) 6110679.

Tamil Nadu

The State of Tamil Nadu extends up the eastern coast of India from the southernmost point of the peninsula, its southernmost parts facing Sri Lanka across the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. The other three Dravidian-language states provide Tamil Nadu’s external land borders—Kerala lies to the west (stretching north of the southern Kanniyakumari District), Karnataka to the north-west and Andhra Pradesh to the north. Midway up the eastern coast are enclaves of the Union Territory of Pondicherry, the compact coastal region of Karaikal on the Kaveri (Cauvery) delta and the mosaic of enclaves constituting the region of Pondicherry itself further north, just beyond the

STATES (TAMIL NADU) 225

Ponnaivar. In the north, also on the coast, is the capital city of Chennai, which, under its previous name of Madras, was the capital of a much larger entity (originally one of the three presidencies of British India) until the reorganization of the states along linguistic lines in 1956. In that year the state was dismembered, losing a number of districts and, to a lesser extent, gaining others, re-forming Madras as a state for Tamil-speakers. It was this ‘rump’ Madras state that was renamed the ‘Tamil land’ on 14 January 1969. Tamil Nadu has an area of 130,058 sq km (50,202 sq miles). The Western and Eastern Ghats meet in Tamil Nadu, the former reaching their height in the state in the Nilgiri Hills, where Dodabetta (2,638 m or 8,658 feet), the secondhighest peak in south India, presides over Tamil Nadu’s western extension. South of the Palakkad Gap, leading to the Malabar Coast, in the broad eastern entrance to which stands the city of Coimbatore, the Ghats continue the border with Kerala as the Anaimalai and Palni Hills, eventually petering out towards the tip of the peninsula, where lies the other point of contact between the Tamil-speaking heartland and the Malayalam lands of the Chera (Kerala). Tamil Kanniyakumari was part of Travancore (the core of today’s Kerala) until 1956, and now gives Tamil Nadu a short south-westward facing coastline onto the Arabian Sea. Rounding mainland India’s southernmost point at Cape Comorin (Kanniyakumari), the eastern coastline is facing the great island of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon). As far north as Point Calimere, the easternmost part of Tamil Nadu, which is hooked over the north end of Sri Lanka, is known as the Fisheries Coast. It is dissected near Ramanathapuram by an eastward-extending finger of land, continued by Pamban Island and a sunken land bridge to Sri Lanka, dividing the Gulf of Mannar to the south from Palk Bay. North of Point Calimere, as far as the mouth of the Krishna in Andhra Pradesh, is the Coromandel Coast, bordering the Bay of Bengal (Lake Pulicat marks the northern end of Tamil Nadu). Behind these shores are broad, fertile plains, reaching back to the hills supporting peninsular India’s dominating, central plateau. The main thrust of the lower, dryer Eastern Ghats is north-eastwards from the Nilgiri Hills, dividing the Tamil lowlands from the Deccan proper. The traditional division of Tamil Nadu distinguishes between the highlands (the Kurinji or mountainous region and the forested or Mullai region) and the lowlands (the Marudham or fertile plains and the coastal Neidhal), and a small, fifth region of arid, desert-like Palai, north of Kanniyakumari. The Kaveri is the perennial river of the state; it waters the rich and ancient farmlands of the delta, split mainly between Thanjavur and Nagapattinam districts. The climate is tropical, rainfall being brought by the north-east monsoons between October and December, contributing most of the normal annual average of precipitation (977.5 mm or 38 inches). The hottest months are April and May, when it is also humid on the coast, but the hills generally have a more equable climate and winter (November-February) nights there can be distinctly cool. The average maximum temperature on the plains is 44.4°C (111.9°F), while the hill stations record an average maximum of 25.5°C (77.9°F) and an average minimum of 4.4°C (39.9°F). Tamil Nadu’s total population was 62,110,839 at 1 March 2001, recording the lowest growth rate (11.2% in 1991–2001) of any state or territory in India except Kerala. This gave the state an average population density of 478 per sq km. According to the 1991 census, 86.7% of the population spoke Tamil, India’s oldest living language, with a rich literary tradition dating back over 2,000 years. There are a number of Telugu speakers (7.


1% in 1991), mainly in the north, as well as speakers of Kannada (2.2%), Urdu (1.9%) and Malayalam (1.2%). English is widely spoken. There are a number of tribal groups in the state, as many as 18 in the Nilgiri Hills, their main redoubt, the largest being the agriculturalist Badaga of the upper plateau, who are rapidly being assimilated into mainstream society, followed by the Irulas of the lower slopes. Other groups include the Kota, an artisan tribe of the upper plateau, the Kurumba, noted for burying their dead in a sitting position and, previously, for ‘black magic’, and the few remaining Toda, whose lifestyle and religion are centred on long-horned buffalo. However, officially Scheduled Tribes only accounted for some 1.0% of the total population at the time of the 1991 census. The overwhelming majority of people in Tamil Nadu admit an affiliation to the Hindu faith (88.7% of the population in 1991), but there are significant minorities of Christians (5.7%) and Muslims (5.5%), and communities of Sikhs, Jains and Parsis. In the provisional results of the 2001 census 43.9% of the population of Tamil Nadu were classed as urban (apart from the rather smaller Goa and Mizoram, the highest percentage of any state), and in its capital, Chennai (Madras until 1996), the state houses India’s fourth-largest urban agglomeration. In 2001 the metropolitan area, which covers 174 sq km, had a population of 6,424,624 (slightly over one-half of the population of Delhi, the third-largest such agglomeration). The population of the city proper at the census was 4,216,268 (fifth-largest). Chennai is on the coast, in the far north of the state, with the main city of the west being Coimbatore (India’s 34th-largest city in 2001–923, 085) and of the south Madurai (35th—922,913). Like Chennai, both these cities have considerable connected populations outside the city boundaries, the urban agglomerations rising to the 18th- and 24th-largest in India, respectively). There are 29 districts. History The Dravidians seem to be the original inhabitants of India, at least since about the fourth millennium before the Christian era, even before the rise of the Harappan culture of the Indus basin. Recent discoveries off the coast of Tamil Nadu may hint at an older civilization, evidence of which is claimed to have drowned in the rising waters at the end of the Ice Age, but the history of the Tamil people begins in the last half of the first millennium BC. A distinct and recognizable Tamil language emerged long before the other Dravidian tongues (Telugu and Kannada were clearly recognizable before the end of the first millennium AD, while Malayalam only escaped the shadow of its Tamil parent by the 13th century), encouraged by the literary flourishing of the three poetic sangam (assembly or academy) eras. One of the earliest great figures of Tamil literature, writing at some time between the first century BC and the second century AD, was Thiruvalluvar, who wrote the Thirukkural. After this period Tamil writers and religious thinkers were instrumental in the transformation of the worship of Krishna into a more passionate devotion (bhakti). By the end of the first millennium AD a ‘Tamil Veda’ had accumulated, a collection of hymns of praise, while the ninth-century Bhagavata Purana includes some of Vaishnavite Hinduism’s greatest works. Much of the patronage for these literary and religious accomplishments came from the enduring Tamil dynasties of south India: the Cholas, the Pandyas and the Cheras (all three of which were known to the great northern emperor, Ashoka), and also, from about the


fourth century, the Pallavas. The Cholas were based around Thanjavur, on the southernmost part of what would become known as the Coromandel Coast and inland to the head of the Kaveri (Cauvery) delta. The Pandyas lay to the south, around Madurai and into what is now southern Kerala, while the Cheras, still a Tamil dynasty and originally ruling from west of Tiruchchirappalli, ruled most of the rest of that south-western coast beyond the mountains, a region to which they were to give their name. The exact extent of their domains varied as the relative influences of the dynasties waxed and waned and historical record is scant. The sangam collections make reference to the warring kings of south India, while the Buddhist histories of Sri Lanka provide some cross reference, gleaning some facts, such as the conquest of Sri Lanka by a Chola prince, Elara, in the second century BC. Also, archaeological evidence of flourishing trading ports reinforces the credibility of reports on south India from ancient Europe and China. Thus, the spread of Buddhism and the Jains, or even of Christianity (St Thomas the Apostle, ‘Doubting Thomas’, is reputed to have died near modern Chennai in AD 72, having evangelized in south India and China), is more understandable in a region reliant on the wealth of busy international commerce. However, a clearer record only emerges with the Pallavas, a dynasty with dubious claims to a northern, Parthian ancestry. Moreover, from this time the remarkably consistent patterns of Tamil history have been established: the long-lasting dynasties; the settled centres of power (Madurai in the south, Thanjavur in the central, Kaveri-delta region and, in the north, Kanchipuram, then Arcot and, finally, Madras— now Chennai); and the recurrent power struggles between the dominant power of the lowlands with a Deccan, often Karnatakan, rival. Kanchipuram, south-west of Chennai, is one of Hinduism’s seven holy places (in the Kaveri, Tamil Nadu is also home to one of the seven holy rivers), but initially thrived under Buddhism, which reached the area in the third century BC. By the fourth century AD it was home to the Pallava dynasty, as the recorded exploits of another northern emperor, the great Samudra-Gupta, include the defeat and capture of Vishnugopa, the Pallava rajah of Kanchipuram. The Gupta empire of Magadha had reached down the Andhran coast and towards the Kaveri, subjugating the Pallava heartland—it maybe that this experience reinforced the local dynasty sufficiently to assert their supremacy in the south as Gupta power declined. Even before their rise to dominance in the Tamil lands after about 550, the Pallava kings were already enriching Kanchipuram, their literary and administrative capital for over 150 years, with temples and monuments. However, their artistic achievement and political power were to reach their heights only in the seventh and eighth centuries. At this time the port of Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram) was at the centre of numerous long-distance trading routes to the east and the origin of diplomatic missions to as far away as China or raids on Sri Lanka or the South-East Asian mainland and islands. While not monopolizing the trade routes or by any means the only Indic influence on the latter region, the Pallavas were a fundamental inspiration in many fields— very obvious, for instance, in the emerging Khmer kingdom of Cambodia (e.g. in temple architecture or the ending of royal names with ‘Varman’). Pallava strength waxed with the accession of Simha-Vishnu in the early 550s. He was followed by the successful Mahendra-Varman I in about 590, but it was the next monarch, Narasimha-Varman I (‘the Great Wrestler’, for whom Mamallapuram is named, and who reigned in c. 630–88), who really established the reputation of the Pallavas. Although


initially bested by the great Chalukyan king, Pulakesin II, Narasimha-Varman I routed him at Polilur and then captured Badami itself in 642. The Chalukyas recovered in the second half of the century, however, and Kanchipuram was, in turn, taken. The Pallavas had also to contend with a junior (though longer lasting) branch of the Chalukyas established by Pulakesin II in what became Vengi (based on the Krishna delta, in modern Andhra Pradesh). This dynasty, known as the Eastern Chalukyas, became the natural ally of the Pandyas (and, later, of the Cholas), enemies of the Pallavas. Likewise, the Pallavas usually received the support of the Pandyas’ traditional enemy, the Cheras. Nevertheless, the seventh century was not yet over before the Pallava resurgence under Parameshvara-Varman I (c. 670–700), who took the fight back into Chalukyan territory. He left his anointed successor, Narasimha-Varman II (also known as Rajasimha, who acquired over 250 titles during his reign, c. 695–728), to deal with the reactions of the Chalukyas under Vijayaditya—although it can be questioned quite how ruinous these dynastic rivalries were when both monarchs were reaching a peak of monumental temple building, the Chalukya most famously at Pattadakal (Karnataka) and the Pallava at Mamallapuram and, with the Kailasanatha temple, at Kanchipuram. Thereafter, Pallava power declined, with the next Chalukya, Vikramaditya II (c. 733–44), despite his short reign, claiming to have sacked Kanchipuram three times. The Pallava succession struggled on under Parameshvara-Varman II and Nanda-Varman (c. 731–96), but the kingdom was no match for the new Deccan power, the Rashtrakutas, who were mainly concerned with their imperial pretensions in the north, but sometimes had occasion to secure their southern flank by intimidating their neighbours, as the Pallavas experienced in the 780s. By 869 the kingdom had virtually collapsed and before the end of the ninth century, using the opportunity presented by a Pallavan succession crisis, the resilient Cholas had wiped out the dynasty and occupied the heartland of the Pallavas. The Cholas had begun to restore their sovereignty under Vijayalaya (c. 846–71), famous for the conquest of Thanjavur (Tanjore), which was to replace Uraiyur as the dynasty’s main capital. His successor, Aditya I, extended his rule into the old Pallava territory to the north and, in about 897, fought a great battle, which established Chola pre-eminence; he also fought off a Pandyan invasion. However, the south Indian dynasty could not yet resist the intervention of a Deccan great power, and Aditya I’s son, Parantaka I (c. 907–953), was defeated by the last great Rashtrakuta, Krishna III, in 949, leaving the kingdom vulnerable for some decades. The great conqueror and builder, Rajaraja I, who came to the throne in 985, conclusively established Chola power. He reduced the Pandyas and Cheras to subjugation, invaded and plundered Sri Lanka, and acquired island territories in what are now Lakshadweep and the Maldives. The classic struggle between the Tamil south-east and the Deccan north-west resumed as Rajaraja I encountered more resistance in the north-east, from the dynasty that had replaced the Rashtrakutas in Karnataka, a line that claimed descent from the Chalukyas (known as the Later Western Chalukyas or the Chalukyas of Kalyana). The Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi, by contrast, whom Rajaraja I had championed against their arriviste cousins, were loyal feudatories and, eventually, very much the same family. The Chola kingdom seems to have been a more centralized structure than was usual in the history of south India, a temple economy helping to bind disparate areas together in support of particular institutions, and maybe further reinforced by a policy of brahminical


settlement (a loyal ruling class, in possession of useful knowledge of irrigation techniques, etc.). The habits of war seemed largely unchanged, with many of the campaigns seeming to be about the acquisition of booty rather than for political, economic or even religious reasons. There may have been a greater degree of brutality involved in some campaigns, enough to account for the implacability of the new Chalukya-Chola rivalry. Early responsibility for this seems to rest with Rajaraja I’s son and general, the man who became king as Rajendra I in about 1013. As king, he not only repeated the sack of Sri Lanka and the intimidation of the south, but also sent naval expeditions to the Nicobar Islands and beyond, to raid the Malay Peninsula. This secured Chola supremacy on the trade routes to modern Indonesia and to China, as well as obtaining wealth to finance the traditional temple-building programme. Most famously, Rajendra I’s armies went further up the east coast from Andhra, penetrating as far as the mouths of the Ganges in Bengal. Certainly he was aware of the historic reversal of the normal geography of Indian power politics, and to commemorate the event built a new capital—Gangakondaicholapuram, the ‘city of the Chola who conquered the Ganga’, although it never really replaced Thanjavur and Chidambaram (the former at the head of the Kaveri delta, the latter just to the north, near the coast) as the main centres of Chola power. The first of Rajendra I’s sons to hold power after his death in 1044, Rajadhiraja I, continued successful campaigns against the Chalukyas, even taking their capital of Kalyani, but by the time the next generation gained the throne, in around 1070 (in the person of Rajendra III, also known as Kulotungga I, who reigned until 1122), Chola territorial sway was in decline. In the latter year, or thereabouts, the Cholas lost Sri Lanka, while the Pandyans to the south began to reassert themselves, and there was the constant struggle with the Chalukyas. Nevertheless, the prestige and international standing of the Cholas was unaffected for some time. The last king of note, who went down in defeat before the resurgent Pandyas, was Kulotungga III (1178–1216), but the dynasty struggled on into the century, until it was crushed in the 1250s by the great Sundara Pandya, who ensured the rule of Madurai over the Tamil lands. Others put the final date of Chola power at 1267, but certainly by the time the old Chola capitals and so many other temple cities in the south-east were sacked by Muslim invaders in 1310, the three main dynasties of south India were the Hoysalas of Karnataka, the Kakatiyas of Warangal (near modern Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh—replacing Vengi as the dominant power to the north of the Tamils) and the Pandyas of Madurai. The Pandyas, who were the last of the great Tamil dynasties, had an ancient history. Madurai was supposedly founded by the first Pandyan king, Kulasekara, in the sixth century BC and later was the site of the last of the three great sangams, sponsored by the Pandyan court. Located in the far south of the Indian peninsula, the Pandyas had resisted the Pallava rise to pre-eminence and held out against the Rashtrakutas, although they were defeated by Govinda III, who had also sacked Kanchipuram and humiliated the Pallavas in about 805, before turning his attentions to the north again. Later in the ninth century, however, they had to contend with the rise of the Cholas, just to their north, and eventually acknowledged their suzerainty in the 10th century. Some two centuries later, however, the Pandyas could lay claim to being the most powerful Tamil dynasty, although this was to last for little more than another century. By the beginning of the 14th century south India was exposed to the depredations of Muslim raiders from the north, and even


Madurai was destroyed in 1310, by Malik Kafur, briefly becoming the seat of a sultanate thereafter. The era of the great Tamil dynasties was over, and the Hindu defence of south India fell to the empire of Vijayanagar (Hampi, Karnataka), which assumed control of the old Pandyan capital of Madurai in 1364. For the next 200 years local nayaks or governors under the emperors of Vijayanagar ruled the Tamil lands, gradually consolidating their authority from ancient capitals such as Madurai and Thanjavur, until the 1565 disintegration of central authority exposed them to the sultanates of the Deccan and, later, the incursions of the Mughals. By the 17th century southern Tamil Nadu remained largely under the authority of the ruling nayaks, while the north was the domain of the nawabs (again, former governors) of Arcot—their realm came to be known as the Carnatic, a corruption of Karnataka, a term the Deccan sultans had applied to all the lands of south India acquired from Vijayanagar. By this time the Europeans, as well as the Mughals, were making their influence felt in the region. The Portuguese had added Tuticorin to their establishments on the western coast of India, gaining a presence there in 1540, at the same time as they went into Sri Lanka. The Dutch, who had a governor for their posts on the Coromandel Coast from 1608, acquired Tuticorin in 1658, but were to lose all their Indian possessions to the British owing to war in Europe (occupied by the British in 1780–84 and 1795–1818, then ceded to them permanently in 1825). The Danish too had a presence on the Bay of Bengal, gaining permission from Raghunath, Nayak of Thanjavur, in 1620 to build a fort at Tharangampadi, so creating their base of Tranquebar (administered by a Danish East India Company until 1779). From here, like the Cholas, the Danes made an attempt to move into the Nicobar Islands, but can be better noted for setting up the first printing press for Tamil script (which they adjusted for the purpose of printing). Tranquebar was occupied by the British in 1808–15 and annexed in 1845. The only European presence to present a significant challenge to the British in south India, though late to arrive, was the French. The old French bases in the Tamil country, headquartered in Pondicherry, still persist as separate enclaves of a union territory within the modern state. The French began to accumulate territory around Pondicherry in 1674, eventually establishing particularly good relations with the nawabs of Arcot, in whose lands lay the main British base. In 1639 a British trader, Francis Day, was granted land at Madraspatnam (later contracted to Madras) for a factory. The building was completed on St George’s Day 1640 and the fortifications of Fort St George completed in 1654. The expanding settlement soon included the village of Chennaipatnam, named for the father of the local nayak who made the original grant and from which the modern name of the current city is derived. Although it was to lose out in the competition for primacy between the great cities of British India, Madras was the capital of one of three presidencies and among the most settled parts of the Indian empire—it contains the oldest Anglican church in India (1680), it was the first municipality to receive a royal charter (1688) and sired the Madras Regiment, the oldest in the Indian Army (1758). It was some time before it became apparent that it was centre of a growing territorial domain, however, and it was global rivalry of the British and the French that spurred an accumulation of territory and an increase in the sponsorship of local rulers. Madras itself was blockaded by a general of Aurangzeb in 1702 and attacked by Marathas (who had acquired holdings in what is now Tamil Nadu as part of their campaign against the Muslim nawabs of the region) in 1741. The


French themselves occupied the city twice, and the soldiers of Mysore flouted British authority on the very outskirts of Madras, but it was to remain permanently under British control from 1758 until independence. By the beginning of this period the British had established their supremacy over the French in India, with Robert Clive occupying Arcot in 1751 and these victories confirmed by general triumph of British imperialism recognized by the 1763 Peace of Paris (concluded in the French capital). French intrigues continued, notably with help to the expanding state of Mysore, which was harassing the nayaks of Madurai from the 1740s, for instance, and coming into increasing conflict with the British thereafter. Mysore’s success under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan throughout south India brought about a response on a similar scale from the increasingly openly expansionist forces of the East India Company. The final defeat of Mysore, as well as the earlier taming of Hyderabad, removed any rivals to British power in the region, and a reorganization of recent conquests in 1801 therefore brought most of south India under the authority of Madras, which gave its name successively to the presidency, a province and a state, before the linguistic reorganization of states in 1956 confined it to the Tamil heartland. The state was renamed Tamil Nadu in 1969 and the city Chennai in 1996. Tamil revivalism emerged in the last stages of the national campaign for independence, partly as a response to what was perceived as the high-caste and northern domination of Congress. In 1944 E.V.Ramasami Naicker founded a secular, anti-brahminical and almost socialist popular movement called the Dravida Kazhagam. However, the atheism and the advocacy of secession alienated many, as well as the scandal of late marriage to a much younger woman, and it was C.N.Annadurai (‘Anna’) who split the movement in 1949 and transformed the greater part, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), into a mainstream, reformist political party, committed to the primacy of Tamil regional culture. Annadurai’s decision to take the movement into politics came with the 1956 reorganization of Madras as a Tamil state (a move much criticized by Ramasami, who thought this would distract from the mission of radical social reform), but it was another language issue that propelled the DMK into power. When Hindi replaced English as the official language of India in 1965, there were riots in Madras, where a neutral tongue was preferred to the linguistic domination of the north. Although English remained in use, de facto, in the 1967 state elections Congress was evicted from office and the DMK (which had not advocated an independent state since 1962) installed. Since then, government in Tamil Nadu has been dominated by the DMK and the party that split from it after Annadurai’s death, the All-India Anna DMK (AIADMK)—at times both have made political accommodations with Congress and their ideological enemies from the brahminical Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP—in power at the Centre since 1989), whether locally or nationally. Upon Annadurai’s death in 1969, Muthuvel Karunanadhi became Chief Minister and led the DMK Government until 1976. Allegations of corruption and the opposition of AIADMK, under the charismatic film actor, M.G.Ramachandran (‘MGR’), removed Karunanadhi from power and, at one point, he was imprisoned, although it was claimed that the charges were politically motivated. Ramachandran died in 1987, to be succeeded by a bitter succession battle within the AIADMK, eventually won by the controversial Selvi J.Jayalalithaa—she too was a film actor, emphasizing the importance of cinema in the reassertion of Tamil language and culture (Annadurai and Karunanadhi were both


screenwriters). The publicity surrounding the accession of Jayalalithaa was exploited by both Congress (I), which attempted an ultimately unsuccessful revival in the state, and the DMK, which returned to power with the state elections in 1989. The AIADMK again formed a Government in 1991, after the Centre ousted Karunanadhi (he had been prominent in support of the national coalition that displaced Congress at the end of 1989). Jayalalithaa was Chief Minister until Karunanadhi and the DMK returned to power in 1996—the DMK was also involved in the coalition politics at the national level, complicated by the enmity of Congress, which accused the party of complicity in the Tamil separatist movement in Sri Lanka. The new state Government ordered the arrest of Jayalalithaa, on charges of abusing her office—after having been confined to prison, she dramatically protested her innocence and promised revenge. She fulfilled this pledge after her party won the May 2001 state elections—Karunanadhi was duly gaoled. This election victory had been presaged in 1998, when the AIADMK had formed a short-lived alliance ‘of convenience’ with the BJP, sufficient for the secular Tamil party to win 30 of the 39 state seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the national Parliament (the state also has 18 seats in the upper house, the Rajya Sabha). In 2001 Jayalalithaa, again amid some controversy and despite legal moves against her, regained the premiership of Tamil Nadu and formed an AIADMK Government. She remained in power into 2002 and claimed to have made her peace with Karunanadhi. In the middle of 2002 there were reports that the Tamil Maanila Congress was to rejoin Congress (I). An ongoing complication in state politics, and in relations with the federal authorities, is the civil war in Sri Lanka. The ruling parties of the state tend to sympathize with the Tamil separatists on the island. Ramachandran was born on Sri Lanka and had links with the leader of the main insurgent group, while the DMK was also suspected of such links. While the Indian Government was reluctant to condone the achievement of a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka, mainly for domestic reasons, the influence of politicians in Tamil Nadu made the country a useful arbiter and Indian troops helped supervise a cease-fire in 1987–90. However, on 21 May 1991, between the rounds of a general election that would return Congress to power, Rajiv Gandhi, the party leader and former Prime Minister (responsible for sending the troops into Sri Lanka) was assassinated by a Sri Lankan Tamil faction at Sriperumbudur. The civil war on the island continues to send refugees into Tamil Nadu, where local politicians remain more ambivalent about their secessionist cousins than the centralist national Government. Economy Tamil Nadu is the wealthiest of the four southern states of India, in per-head terms, and is one of the leading destinations for investment in the whole country. Although accounting for only 4.1 % of the area of the country and 6.2% of the estimated population (1997/98 figures), Tamil Nadu contributed 7.4% of national net domestic product and, in the industrial sector, accounted for 10.1% of the value of output. In 2000/01, according to advance estimates, net domestic product, in current prices, had reached 1,317,310m. rupees, or 21,229 rupees per head. There is long established and developed infrastructure in the state, with Tamil Nadu accounting for 8.8% of the total national road length in 1996. Of the state total of public roads in 1999, 151,244 km, 3,773 km were national


highway and 56,391 km state highway. At the same time there were 6,330 km of railwaytrack length, of which 59.9% was broad gauge and the rest metre gauge, serving 563 railway stations. The two major seaports are Chennai (formerly Madras) and Tuticorin, although there are also 10 lesser ports, while the international airport at Chennai is augmented by four domestic terminals throughout the state. Communications infrastructure is well developed, particularly around Chennai, with some 2.8m. telephones in use by 2000. The state electricity board provided an installed capacity of 6, 916.1 MW in 1997/98, although demand is expected to rise sharply into the first decade of the 2000s and the state needs further expansion of the sector. The Government was encouraging private investment and alternative power sources, such as wind and solar energy, particularly as most hydroelectric potential had been used (almost 12% of generation came from hydroelectric sources in 2000). As to the population, health indicators are among the best in the country (although exceeded by neighbouring Kerala), while the literacy rate at the time of the 2001 census (73.5%) showed a remarkable improvement on the previous census (62.7%, in 1991). Agriculture is still the main activity of most of the population of Tamil Nadu, but the sector’s contribution to the economy is no longer dominant. In 1960/61 the share of primary activities in the state economy was 43.5%, but by 1997/98 was only 20.2%. Official advance estimates for 1999/2000 put the contribution of the primary sector (including mining and quarrying) to the net domestic product of the state at 21.3%, of which agriculture alone provided 18.3% (forestry and logging 0.9% and fishing 1.8%). The principal food crop is rice, with paddy accounting for 34% of the total area under cultivation (1999 figures), followed by millets and other cereals (28%). The Kaveri delta, farmed and irrigated for thousands of years, is one of the most important ‘rice bowls’ in India. Other important crops include groundnut (13% of cultivated land), pulses (10%), sugarcane (gur—5%) and cotton (3%). In 1997/98 Tamil Nadu provided 18% of allIndian groundnut production, 11% of sugarcane and 8% of cotton. Yields, as well as production, increased significantly during the late 1990s, after desilting projects in the Kaveri delta, some reclamation of waste land and the introduction of new crop varieties. There are large numbers of livestock in Tamil Nadu, with productivity increased by artificialinsemination programmes, but, owing to population increases, milk production, for instance, continues to fall short of local demand. According to the provisional results of the 1997 agricultural census, there were 9.05m. head of cattle and 2.74m. buffaloes, 6. 41m. head of goats and 5.26m. sheep, and 18.55m. poultry in the state. Forestry is limited, mainly owing to the lack of woodland cover in the state—at 22,748 sq km under forest in 1997/98, or 17.5% of the total geographical area, which is lower than the national average of 22.8% and considerably less than the recommended onethird. However, locally forest products are still important (e.g. sandalwood in Kanniyakumari). By contrast, with 1,076 km of coastline, stretching along a variety of marine environments, the opportunity for fishing is extensive—marine fish production in 1999/2000 (provisional figures) totalled 363,000 metric tons. Moreover, although there are few perennial rivers in the state, lakes, tanks and other inland waters furnished a further 112,000 tons. The shallow waters and islands off the south-east coast of Tamil Nadu are a good environment for pearl-bearing oysters, and a pearl-fishing industry is centred on Tuticorin, awaiting official declaration of a fishing season (every five-nine


years usually). There are important mineral reserves of iron ore, lignite (brown coal), limestone, graphite, clay, gypsum, granite and feldspar, and smaller amounts of gold, copper, magnesite, kaolin and bauxite. Industry was originally based on the processing of primary products, particularly developed in a thriving textile industry, which remains important, along with agricultural and fisheries processing. Tamil Nadu provides about two-fifths of India’s leather exports (the industry is centred in the northern Palar valley) and accounts for about one-quarter of the country’s cotton textiles, for instance. Engineering, petrochemicals and the manufacture of motor vehicles, railway rolling stock and precision tools are other examples of heavy industry. Chennai is the main industrial centre and the centre for three major international automobile manufacturers, Hyundai of the Republic of Korea, Mitsubishi of Japan and Ford Motors of the USA, earning it the sobriquet of the ‘Detroit of India’. There are numerous light industries and information technology has also been encouraged since the late 1990s. Tiruchchirappalli is the largest centre for the production of artificial diamonds in the country, India having superseded Switzerland and Myanmar in this field since the Second World War. There were 354,939 small-scale industrial units in 1999/2000 and 21,860 working factories registered in 1998. The secondary sector expanded from 20.3% of the gross domestic product of Tamil Nadu (then called Madras) in 1960/61 to 34.5% in 1990/91, only to be overtaken by the expansion of services, to settle at 30.1% in 1997/98. In 1999/2000 the sector contributed 27.4% of the net domestic product (manufacturing 19.1%, utilities 1.9%, construction 6.4%). At the beginning of the 1960s services already provided well over one-third of the state gross domestic product (36.2%), and this contribution reached 43.4% at the beginning of the 1990s. By the end of the 20th century the tertiary sector accounted for over one-half of the state economy (49.8% of gross domestic product in 1997/98 and 51.3% of net domestic product in 1999/2000). Finance, insurance, property and business services (overwhelmingly accounted for by banking and insurance—9.9% of the total net domestic product) was the most important sector by the beginning of the 2000s (15.4% in total), closely followed by community, social and personal services (15.1%—especially public administration at 5.0%) and then trade, hotels and restaurants (14.4%). Chennai is the main financial and business centre, at the node of an extensive transport network for much of the southern and central peninsula—just over 13% of all trade in India goes through the air and sea ports of Tamil Nadu (exports worth 187,712.8m. rupees and imports worth 234,829.0m. rupees in 1998/99). Transport, storage and communications provided 6.5% of net domestic product in 1999/2000. The financial services of Chennai remain fundamental to this sector, but the state is also an important visitor destination, for pilgrims and tourists. Destinations range from the urban expanse of the state capital to the cool resorts of the hill stations, or from the beaches of the coast to the templerich legacy of an ancient and varied history. Wildlife still shelters in the high hills, while the nature sanctuary around Point Calimere (most of it the tidal Great Vedaranayam Salt Swamp) hosts, among other bird life, one of the largest flamingo colonies in Asia.


Directory Governor: P.S.RAMAMOHAN RAO; Governor’s Secretariat, Raj Bhavan, Chennai 600 022; tel. (44) 5360099; fax (44) 2350570. Chief Minister: SELVI J.JAYALALITHAA (All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Tamil Nadu, Secretariat, Fort St George, Chennai; tel. (44) 5362345; fax (44) 5361441; e-mail [email protected] (Chief Sec.). Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: Dr K.KALIMUTHU; Legislative Assembly Secretariat, Fort St George, Chennai 600 009; tel. (44) 5362611 (Prin. Sec.); fax (44) 5368956 (Prin. Sec.); e-mail [email protected] (Secretariat); the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 234 elected mems and one nominated (Anglo-Indian) mem.: All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 132; Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 27; Tamil Maanila Congress 23; Pattali Makkal Katchi 20; Congress—I 7; Communist (CPI—M) 6; Communist (CPI) 5; Bharatiya Janata Party 4; independents and others 20. State Special Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: LALITA KUMAR; Tamil Nadu House, 6 Kautilya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021; tel. (11) 3011087; fax (11) 3016822.

Tripura

The State of Tripura is one of the ‘Seven Sisters’, the states of the north-eastern region of India. Formerly a Hindu princely state, Tripura abuts into the predominantly Muslim country of Bangladesh, which surrounds it, except in the north-east, where a neck of territory has short eastern borders (totalling 160 km—99 miles, or 16% of Tripura’s total frontier length) with the other Indian states of Assam and Mizoram. Southern Tripura is separated from the bulk of Mizoram to the west by an up-thrusting spur of Bangladesh. Tripura’s name is variously ascribed to a locally prominent deity or to an original name of Tuipra (‘land adjoining water’—the kings of Tripura sometimes held sway over more territory than that constituting the modern state, which, as it is, lies only

STATES (TRIPURA) 237

some 50 km from the open sea). A protectorate of British India, its last ruler opted to accede to independent India upon the partition of the old empire in the subcontinent. Tripura officially became part of the Indian Union on 15 October 1949, and a full state in the federation on 21 September 1972. It was the smallest state of India until the accession of Sikkim in 1975, and became the third smallest when Goa became a state in 1987— Tripura has an area of 10,486 sq km (4,048 sq miles). Tripura fronts the eastern banks of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, rising onto the hilly fringe of the great flood plain of eastern Bengal (Bangladesh). The more open, and still extensively forested, plains land of the west and south of Tripura rises from just 15 m (50 feet) above sea level to rolling hill country that dominates the state and reaches a maximum height of 938 m. These hills separate the four northern valleys. The fertile countryside is drained by a number of rivers draining into the delta, notably the Bibiyana and the Fenny, while the landscape is also dotted by lakes (sometimes man-made) such as those at Dumboor, Kamalasagar and Neermahal. The climate is tropical and humid, with the monsoon bringing much of the rainfall, which averages some 2,100 mm (83 inches) per year, although some parts of the state can get over 4,000 mm. Temperatures range from an average minimum of 10°C (50°F) in January to an average maximum of 35°C (95°F) in August. The state had a total population of 3,191,168 in 2001, according to the provisional results of the March census. With a relatively low rate of population growth over the previous 10 years (the population in 1991 was 2,757,205), the population density had only increased slightly, to 304.3 per sq km. The most densely populated areas are the lowlying south and west, exposed to the plains of Bangladesh, which helps explains the predominant Bengali population, although there are also 19 Scheduled Tribes in Tripura (accounting for 31% of the population in 1991), mainly living in the hills. The largest tribal group in the state is that of the Tripuri, originally a Mongoloid people related to the Bodo, who constitute about one-half of the registered tribal population. Most of them now live in the plains and have long enjoyed the cultural influence of neighbouring Bengal (notably because of royal patronage from the late 19th century and, most famously, because of the close association of the great poet, Rabindrath Tagore, with Tripura). The related Reang tribe (noted for traditionally wearing black and red, apparently as a sign of incurring royal displeasure) are the next largest. Others include the Chakma, the Halum (Kuki peoples who accepted the authority of the Tripuri rajahs, originally grouped into 12 dafas, now 16), the Garo, a few Lushai (Mizo) in the high hills and the Mog. Most of the population speak Bengali, while the other official language of the state is Kakborak or Tripuri (using the royal Debbara dialect), a Tibeto-Burmese language. Manipuri, Hindi and English are also spoken. At the 1991 census 86.5% of the population confessed the Hindu religion, the traditional adherence of this former princely state, while the largest minority faith was that of Islam (7.1%), followed by Buddhism (4.7%) and Christianity (1. 7%). Most Hindus are of the Vaishnavu tradition, although there is some Shakti worship— for instance, among the Malsum, a dafa of the Halum. The Chakma and the Mog are Buddhist. Of the total population in 1991, 15.3% were urban, with Agartala both the state capital and the largest town. Other important towns include Kumarghat, Dharmanagar,


Khowai and Udaipur. The state is divided into four districts; there is also one autonomous council for the hill areas. History There are references to kings in Tripura in Vedic literature and there are claims that the kingdom has existed for some 1,300 years. However, historical evidence of Tripura and its long-lasting Manikya dynasty starts in the 14th century, mainly through the Rajmala, the chronicle of the Manikya kings. There is other evidence of the rulers of Bengal extending assistance to Tripura’s rajah at this time. The early Manikyas achieved considerable military success, extending their realm at times into Bengal, Assam and Burma (now Myanmar), and from the Garo Hills in the north to the shores of the Bay of Bengal in the south. A Hindu kingdom, Tripura’s rivalry with the rulers of Bengal brought it into conflict with Muslim princes, governors and nawabs, and, at times, the power of the Manikyas was eclipsed. Mughal sovereignty became a fact at the beginning of the 17th century, but declining central power soon restored the primacy of regional rivalry. Indeed, it was this contest with Bengal that first prompted Tripura to seek aid from the British, established on the coast in Calcutta (now Kolkata, West Bengal). In 1761 Tripura succumbed to British power, with the princely protectorate separated from its more tenuous claims over outlying hill tribes of the region. However, no political agent was installed until 1871, and the Manikyas continued to rule in Tripura before and after that date, Maharajah Krishna Manikya moving the capital to Agartala in the 19th century. In 1870 Birchandra Kishore Manikya Bahadur ascended the throne of Tripura. Politically, he brought in a number of reforms and modelled his administration after the British system, but he was also an admirer of Bengali culture. Bengali became the language of the court, while the rajah himself developed a friendship with the great Bengali poet, Rabindrath Tagore, who was to base some of his works on the legends of the Manikyas. Between 1905 and 1912 the princely state, known as Hill Tippura, became attached to the short-lived province of East Bengal and Assam. The last ruling maharajah, Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya, assumed the throne in 1923. Before his death in May 1947 he decided to opt for coming under the jurisdiction of the new, predominantly Hindu, Dominion of India, which was being formed from the partition of the British Empire in the subcontinent. The neighbouring part of Bengal, East Bengal, became part of Muslim Pakistan (later seceding as Bangladesh), rupturing the princely state’s traditional links. Thus, it was the Regent Maharani (for the minor, Kirit Bikram Kishore Dev Karma) who signed the final Merger Agreement on 9 September 1949, and the Manikya dynasty finally lost power with the accession of Tripura to the Indian Union on 15 October. As a so-called part ‘C’ state, Tripura was initially the responsibility of the Governor of Assam, but it became a centrally administered territory in the latter part of 1956. The Union Territory initially had no legislature, but a popular ministry first took office in July 1963. Tripura became a constituent state of the Union on 21 January 1972, although tribal and separatist aspirations were not completely satisfied, Bengali immigration continued to provoke discontent, and unrest increased. Another feature of state politics was the influence of the Communists and, indeed, the first Left Front administration took office in 1978, the same year as the separatist insurgency group, the Tripura National Volunteers, were


formed. Placatory moves by the central authorities in the mid-1980s secured the disarmament of the Volunteers in 1988, upon agreement to restore alienated tribal lands. However, in 1989 the National Liberation Front of Tripura was formed, by Dhanjoy Reang, and it became prominent in the politically motivated murders and kidnappings that beleaguered the democratic process in the state. Most of the state exists under the provisions of the Disturbed Areas Act and also has to deal with Reang refugees from Mizoram. In 2001 the National Liberation Front was responsible for the killing of a great number of politicians of the state’s ruling Communist Party of India—Marxist (CPI —M), which was also facing a more conventional challenge from the Indigenous Peoples’ Front of Tripura (the latter having defeated the Left Front in elections to the autonomous council for the hill areas in May 2000). The CPI—M had become the ‘establishment’ party for many of the dissident elements within Tripura, having formed a third Left Front Government in 1993 and been re-elected with an absolute majority in 1998. At that last election Manik Sarkar had become Chief Minister. Economy Tripura possesses potentially important resources of natural gas, but is in any case among the better-off of the north-eastern states of India, despite the 20th-century disruption to its historic infrastructural links with what is now Bangladesh and the more recent insurgency problems. The state’s net domestic product (current prices) was 17,031m. rupees in 1996/97, having increased from 10,817m. rupees in 1992/93, giving per-head income of 5,432 rupees and 3,783 rupees, respectively. The latter figures, also being in current prices, hint at how income per head stagnated during the 1990s. Agartala was the main industrial centre, such as it was, but other major plains towns accounted for some significant activity, while the original railhead being at Dharmanagar encouraged industry in the north-east. While the length of railway track in Tripura amounted to only 44 km in 1998 (entering from Assam), a link was being extended to Agartala and it was hoped that the state might eventually regain its links with Bangladesh’s rail network. This last hope also applied to the roads, which totalled 12,547 km in 1998 (of which, 454 km were major district roads and 1,463 km other district roads) and remained relatively undeveloped within the state. By contrast with the railway, air links, while only domestic, are long established in the state, the airport at Agartala having been established by the king in the 1930s. There are three other airfields in Tripura, although they are not in regular use at present. Power generated in the state reached 343.3m. units in 1997/98, by which time Tripura had achieved a power surplus, mainly owing to the use of its natural-gas reserves. In 1999 power and infrastructure development projects were overwhelmingly the most important in the state, often fuelled by central government aid. Population growth lower than the national average between 1991 and 2001 meant that educational facilities could keep pace and improve Tripura’s literacy rate, from 60.4% to 73.7%, one of the highest in India (there are 17 daily newspapers in the state, all in Bengali except for two in English). In 1996/97 agriculture contributed 43.3% of net domestic product, while in 1991, according to the census, 63.8% of workers were engaged in the sector (three-fifths of the total in cultivation, over one-third in agricultural labour). Rice, sugar cane and jute are


the main crops. With a drive to exceed 40,000 ha (98,840 acres) under rubber by the end of 2002, Tripura is already second to Kerala for this crop in India. Another plantation crop, tea, produced some 6,000 metric tons per year in the late 1990s, from 57 tea gardens. Horticulture is also an important economic motor, particularly as the lack of use of chemicals means that the sector can market itself with an ‘organic’ price premium. Fruit production in 1999/2000 reached 36,460 metric tons of pineapples, 26,620 tons of lychees, 25,240 tons of oranges and 22,000 tons of jackfruit. In the same year 4,190 tons of areca nuts and 1,900 tons of cashew nuts were harvested. Forest (57.8% of the total land area in 1995/96) resources are also being developed for exploitation, but the main other primary economic activity of importance to Tripura is the extraction of natural gas. Although most gas was just used for power projects into the early 2000s, the large reserves of high-quality natural gas should soon prove lucrative for the state, particularly if transport links into and across Bangladesh can be established. Tripura also possesses fire clay, quartz and silica sand. Industry only provided 6.6% of net domestic product in 1996/97, and 6.4% of employment (including construction), but this was relatively significant compared with the other poorer states of the north-east. Power (including natural gas) and infrastructure provide the basis of much recent activity in the industrial sector, which the state authorities have been trying to encourage since the 1980s. However, small-scale enterprises and agricultural processing remain the dominant feature, with notable establishments including tea, sugar, tinned-fruit and fruit-juice producers. The larger enterprises in the state are a jute mill, a spinning mill, a steel mill, a plywood factory and a pharmaceuticals plant. Most manufacturing activity is home-based, with handicrafts (especially handloom weaving) traditionally the main sub-sector. Thus, the state is famous throughout India for its cane and bamboo furniture, etc., and its basketwork. Newer initiatives include the encouraging of the assembly of electronic components. The tertiary sector contributed 50.1% of net domestic product in 1996/97, although public administration accounted for the single largest sub-sector (at 13.8% of the total). Transport was also important, but the strengthening of this sector probably depended on increased cross-border trade with Bangladesh and the development of transit trade. The traditional links of Tripura with Bengal were disrupted by partition and independence, war and civil war, and cross-border trade with Bangladesh only officially resumed from 1994. Since then Tripura has sought to gain access to that country’s rail network and to Chittagong port, nearby to the south, but also to develop a link with the rest of India across Bangladesh and to the Indian state of West Bengal. Tourism also has greater potential if the international frontiers become more permeable, although internal strife in the state makes such more problematic. Attractions include two wildlife reserves (featuring bison and spectacled monkeys), Buddhist pilgrimage sites, Hindu temples (notably the famous Mata Tripureswara of Tripura Sundari, in Udaipur, the ancient capital), tribal cultures and royal palaces. Directory Governor: Lt-Gen. (retd) K.M.SETH; Raj Bhavan (Governor’s Residence), Pushpavant Palace, Agartala; tel. (381) 224091; fax (381) 224350; e-mail [email protected].


Chief Minister: MANIK SARKAR (Communist—CPI—M); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Tripura, Agartala; tel. (381) 324318; fax (381) 223201; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: JITENDRA SARKAR; Assembly Secretariat, Ujjayanta Palace, Agartala; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 60 mems: Communist (CPI—M) 38; Congress (I) 13; Tripura Upajati Juba Samity 4; independents and others 5. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: R.K.MATHUR; Tripura Bhavan, Kautilya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi; tel. (11) 3015157.

Uttar Pradesh

The State of Uttar Pradesh lies in northern India, on the Gangetic plain (its mountainous north-west became the separate state of Uttaranchal on 9 November 2000). Formerly known as the United Provinces, it acquired its current name, meaning ‘northern land’ or ‘northern province’, in 1950. Most of its northern border is an international frontier with Nepal; the rest is with Uttaranchal, which lies to the north of its eastern end. In the northwest the Ganga-Yamuna Doab stretches up an extension the tip of which touches a corner of Himachal Pradesh. To the west is Haryana, except where the National Capital Territory of Delhi has been carved out on both banks of the River Yamuna. Rajasthan also lies to the west, before a southern border continues with Madhya Pradesh, distorted by a

STATES (UTTAR PRADESH) 243

tentacle of land that extends a corridor southwards around the town of Jhansi to include Lalitpur, as well as other, minor convolutions. In the south-east there are short borders with Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand (the two other states created in November 2000, from Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, respectively), while Bihar lies to the east. Until the bifurcation of the state, Uttar Pradesh was the fourth-largest state of the Union, but is now fifth in ranking by size, having an area of 240,928 sq km (93,058 sq miles—some official sources prefer to give the area as 236,286 sq km), although it remains by far the most populous. It retains 82% of the territory of the undivided state. The north-western tip has the highest ground, reaching over 600 m (1,960 feet), a patch of sub-Himalayan hill country. Otherwise the landscape is dominated by the flat, fertile plains, sloping slightly some 600 km (373 miles) towards the east, and watered by the mighty Ganga (Ganges) and its tributaries, notably the Yamuna, which helps define the western border, and, further downstream, the Ghaghara. The land between the Yamuna and the Ganga is known as the Doab. The plains are largely agricultural, with few forests remaining. The southern borders are defined by the straggling edges of the peninsular plateau lands, the southern tendril of territory around Lalitpur encompassing higher ground and then, eastwards, the Bundelkhand uplands merging into the lower flanks of the Vindhyan Range. The plains receive monsoon rains between June and September, which alleviates the temperature, but increases humidity. In April-June temperatures can reach as high as 50°C (122°F), untempered by a drying wind that can blow from the west known as the loo. Winter nights are cold, but the days remain warm. Uttar Pradesh has the largest population of any state in India, some 70m. more than Maharashtra. At 1 March 2001 the ‘rump’ Uttar Pradesh had a total population of 166, 052,859 (provisional census results) or 689 per sq km, making it the fourth-most densely populated state. More detailed demographic figures for the post-2000 Uttar Pradesh are not yet available, but the main thrust of the 1991 figures remains unaltered by the division of the state, particularly as it barely lost 5% of its population to Uttaranchal. In 1991 the most widely spoken language in the undivided Uttar Pradesh was Hindi (90.1%), followed by the related Urdu (9.0%), while the next language was Punjabi (only 0.5%). Likewise, the predominant religion, here in the heart of the arya varta, crossed by the sacred Ganga and Yamuna and dotted with holy cities (Varanasi or Kasi, Ayodhya, Mathura, Allahabad or Prayag), remains Hinduism. In 1991 81.7% of the population were Hindus, 17.3% Muslim and only 0.5% Sikh, although it should be noted that Uttaranchal was more solidly Hindu and also included the Sikh enclave of Udhamsingh Nagar. Most Muslims reside in the so-called ‘Muslim belt’ between Aligarh (just north of Agra) to Faizabad (just east of Lucknow). The rate of urbanization was only 20.8% in 2001, the vast numbers of rural millions surrounding a number of great cities. The largest city is Kanpur (Cawnpore), India’s ninth largest, with a population of 2.53m. in 2001. Kanpur is in central Uttar Pradesh, on the Ganga just to the south-west of the state capital, Lucknow, which is the 12th-largest city in India, with a population of 2.21m. Western Uttar Pradesh is dominated by Agra (1. 26m.), downstream on the Yamuna from Delhi, and Meerut (Mirat—1.07m.), just to the north-east of the National Capital Territory. Allahabad (990,298), at the confluence of the Yamuna and the Ganga, is towards the south-east of the state, with Varanasi (Benares, 1. 10m.) further down the Ganga, as it approaches the borders of Bihar. The other main city


of eastern Uttar Pradesh is Gorakhpur (624,570), to the north of the Ghaghara. The state is divided into 70 districts. History The history of Uttar Pradesh is an ancient one and intimately connected with the very progress of India itself. The ancient tales of the Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, and other Vedic legends are based here. Uttar Pradesh lies at the heart of the arya varta, the land of the Aryans, and was a necessary possession of any empire with panIndian aspirations. However, this means that much of its history has been imposed from without, be it Maurya or Gupta hegemony from Magadha (now Bihar), the alien empire of the Kushana (who established a second capital at Mathura), Harsha Vardhana of Thanesar (Haryana) in the seventh century or the much later Sultans and Mughals of Delhi (whose tale is better dealt with in the chapter on the National Capital Territory). Even after Harsha, when his capital of Kannauj (upstream the Ganga from Kanpur) became an object for imperial contention from the ninth century, the struggling powers were a Gurjara clan (Pratiharas) from the west, the Rashtrakutas from the south or the Palas from Bengal. Moreover, the history of Kannauj ends ignominiously with its rajah, Jai Chand, being the Rajput prince who first invited Muhammad of Ghor, a Muslim Afghan dynast, to invade India in the 12th century—ultimately forcing the flight of the Rathore Rajputs to Rajasthan. Once the Rajput hosts were broken in 1192 and Delhi taken, the sacred lands of the Doab and further down the Gangetic plains were exposed to Muslim raids and, later, settlement. The Buddhist remnants in the east were crushed, finally ending the long tradition of a Buddhist (and Jain) presence in the lands of its foundation, and the Hindu temples of the entire region suffered. Generally, however, the raiders were usually more interested in plunder than merely the desecration of pagan shrines. With the Sultans of Delhi just across the Yamuna, much of Uttar Pradesh remained dominated by Muslim rulers from the 13th century onwards, although their loyalty to the court varied. Western Uttar Pradesh generally remained subject to the sultans, who first established another seat at Agra at the beginning of the 16th century, but Jaunpur in the east, for instance, could become the capital of the Sharqui sultanate, independent between 1398 and 1479. This pattern repeated itself under the Mughals, although their grip was firmer and lasted longer, but they also patronized the capital at Agra (Akbar built another city at Fatehpur Sikri as well) and incorporated the Hindu rajahs into the imperial order. It was only with the decay of Mughal power from the early 18th century that the local princes and governors could assert their independence. Late Mughal Uttar Pradesh essentially consisted of the imperial domain of Agra, Rohilkhand, Awadh (Oudh), Bundelkhand in the south, Allahabad and Varanasi. There were also some foreign concessions, such as the British post in Agra from 1618. The most important of these territories in the history of the region is probably Awadh. In 1720 a Persian courtier, Nawab Muhammad Sadat Khan Burhan ul-Mulk, established a dynasty here. One of his successors, Asaf ud-Daulah (1775–97), who was obliged formally to cede suzerainty over Varanasi and Allahabad to the British at the beginning of his reign, moved the capital from Faizabad to Lucknow at the same time. By this time the power of the Nawabs had been broken. The erstwhile protectors and allies of the Mughal emperors had been broken by the forces


of the East India Company in 1765, leaving the imperial court to become dependent on the Marathas who were encroaching from the south and west. The British encroached from the east, advancing up the Ganga and the Yamuna as they dealt with the Marathas, reaching Delhi in 1803 and occupying all of Uttar Pradesh by 1805. Meanwhile, the nawabs of Awadh became loyal servants of the British, and their lands were a valuable recruiting ground for the Company armies. Thus, in 1856 when the Governor-General, Sir James Ramsay, Lord Dalhousie, decided to annex Awadh, dispossessing Wajid Ali in the cause of ‘better administration’, he provoked a sense of betrayal and outrage throughout what the British called Oudh and prepared the way for the Great Rebellion begun by the Sepoy Mutiny at Meerut (Mirat) the following year. It did not take long for most of Uttar Pradesh to rise in support of the insurgents, soon legitimized by the hapless last Mughal and, later, Nana Sahib, the heir of the last Maratha Peshwa. The various sieges, reliefs and massacres attributed to both sides during the war did not alter the incorporation of Awadh into the United Provinces of Oudh and Agra thereafter, although the Mutiny won other concessions, as well as the replacement of the Company with the British Crown. Delhi had been included in the North-Western Province in 1832 (at the time of a proposal to make Agra the seat of a fourth British presidency), but as political reform developed and direct rule from Calcutta (now Kolkata, in West Bengal) became less practical, modern Uttar Pradesh began to take shape as the North-Western Province was increasingly grouped with the United Provinces (as the name was officially changed to in 1935) and the headquarters of British administration moved from Allahabad to Lucknow. The province was active in the struggle for independence, and since has produced eight of India’s Prime Ministers, including the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, and a number of Presidents. Uttar Pradesh remains crucial in modern Indian politics, not least because it sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha and 31 to the Rajya Sabha. The results of the 2002 state elections were seen as important to the survival of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in government at the Centre, for instance, but although its performance was poor the consequences were obscured by the fractious nature of state politics. Until the 1970s Congress dominated the institutions of Uttar Pradesh, but the political emergence of lower-caste groups favoured alternative parties such as the Janata Party or the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The rise of the BJP completed the disarray of Congress, as the revivalist-nationalist party exploited the dispute over the site of a mosque in Ayodhya (eventually, on 6 December 1992, demolished by Hindu extremists who claimed it to have been built over a temple commemorating the place of Rama’s birth), an ongoing dispute with national repercussions that provoked massive communal violence at the time —and continues to do so a decade on, as witnessed in the 2002 troubles in Gujarat, for instance. The late 1990s saw the BJP in power in Uttar Pradesh, but they added internal dissension to an already fractured political scene, which was only complicated by the decision to form a separate hill state of Uttaranchal. Indecisive state elections in March 2002 left Uttar Pradesh under President’s Rule until a new coalition was finally agreed, and Mayawati of the BSP, supported by the BJP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal, on 3 May became Chief Minister, a post she had held twice before. Disputes continued, but the state elections in Uttar Pradesh certainly seemed to harden the policies of the BJP-led federal Government.


Economy Uttar Pradesh is one of the poorest states of the Union, the sheer size of its population overwhelming what wealth it has. Overall, the undivided state had the largest net domestic product in total after Maharashtra, at 1,646,300m. rupees in 1999/2000, but this was only 9,765 rupees per head. Figures for infrastructure all apply to the undivided state, but, except for hydroelectric installations, only relatively small proportions were located in Uttaranchal. In March 1999 the road network totalled 121,761 km, of which 4, 036 km was national highway and 9,637 km was state highway. Lucknow is the centre of an extensive rail network, while most of the major cities have airports. There is also considerable traffic on the rivers. In 1997/98 the total installed capacity of electricity was 6,158.75 MW. The literacy rate in the divided state, at the time of the 2001 census, was only 57.4%, although this had risen from 40.7% one decade earlier. Agriculture is the main occupation of almost four-fifths of the population, but exact figures for the post-2000 state are few, although most production takes place on the plains. The undivided Uttar Pradesh grew 41.8m. metric tons of foodgrains in 1997/98, of which 55% was wheat, 29% rice and 6% pulses. Sugarcane production was 121.7m. tons. Oilseeds and some horticultural crops are grown, the main fruits being mango and guava. Livestock is widely kept and fishing is done in the numerous inland waters, but forestry is limited. Limestone, magnesite and silica-sand are among the mineral resources of the state. There are cement works and glass factories in Uttar Pradesh, but most processing of primary products is sourced from the agricultural sector. Industrial activities, therefore, include sugar production, cotton yarn, jute, vegetable oils, textiles and carpets, as well as automobiles, small manufactures and light engineering, brassware and bangles. At the end of March 1998, in the undivided state, however, there were 2,281 large and mediumsized industrial enterprises, with employment potential for 723,000 people. There were also 342,000 small-scale units, with employment potential of 1.42m. people. Kanpur is the state’s main industrial centre, based on cotton from 1869, but now including aviation, textiles and chemicals. The tertiary sector obviously had activity created by the number of businesses and of people, with trade and transport prominent. Tourism is also a lucrative source of revenue, the state being a centre for religious pilgrimage (most dramatically, the 12m. or so who congregate for the Maha Kumbh Mela festival at Allahabad every 12 years) and endowed with a wealth of monuments. Directory Governor: VISHNU KANT SHASTRI; Office of the Governor, Secretariat, Raj Bhavan, Lucknow; tel. (522) 220494; fax (522) 223892; e-mail [email protected]. Chief Minister: MAYAWATI (Bahujan Samaj Party); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Uttar Pradesh, Secretariat, Lucknow; tel. (522) 239296; fax (522) 239234; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha): KISHARI NATH TRIPATHI (Bharatiya Janata Party); Assembly Secretariat, Vidhan Bhavan, Lucknow; email [email protected] (Secretariat); the bicameral legislature has a directly elected lower


chamber, the Legislative Assembly, with 404 mems: Samajwadi Party (incl. allies) 145; Bharatiya Janata Party (incl. Rashtriya Lok Dal and other allies) 107; Bahujan Samaj Party 98; Congress—I 25; independents and others 29. Chairman of the Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad): MANVENDRA SINGH (acting); Council Secretariat, Vidhan Bhavan, Lucknow; the Legislative Council has 100 mems. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: RAVI MATHUR; 409 Amandeep, 14 K.G.Marg, New Delhi 110 001; tel. (11) 3310408; fax (11) 3715604.

Uttaranchal

The State of Uttaranchal, the mountainous part of Uttar Pradesh until 9 November 2000, lies in northern India, in the Himalayan Mountains. The ‘north country’ has international frontiers with Nepal to the south-east and, with the border lying beyond the crest of the Great Himalayas, Tibet (Xizang—as it is known in the People’s Republic of China, of which it forms a part) to the north-east. Another Indian hill state, Himachal Pradesh, is to the north-west, rising above the Punjab plains as Uttaranchal rises above the plains of Uttar Pradesh, which is to the west and south. The new state acquired 18% of the territory of the undivided Uttar Pradesh and, therefore, has an area of 53,483 sq km (20, 658 sq miles), making it only slightly smaller than Himachal Pradesh, with which it shares many similarities. Uttaranchal lies along the Himalayas and its subsidiary ranges that lower themselves towards the Gangetic plains. Here the mountains run roughly from the north-west to the south-east, descending from the Great Himalayas (rising to peaks such as those of holy Badrinath in the north or the heights of Nanda Devi further south—the highest point on the latter, at 7,816 m or 25,643 feet, is the second-highest point in territory under the

STATES (UTTARANCHAL) 249

control of the Republic of India) to the Shivaliks and the foothills. The ranges are complicated by south-westward thrusting spurs separated by deeply carved valleys guiding rivers towards the plains. The region is the source of both the Ganga (Ganges) and the Yamuna, the sacred rivers of the Hindus. The upper reaches of the Ganga are here known as the Bhagirathi, and one of its principal tributaries (which originates further south in the mountains from where the great river exits onto the plains) is the Alaknanda. The terrain is rugged and wooded, flora varying hugely with altitude. The climate is influenced by the monsoon, when most of the annual average rainfall of over 1,500 mm (59 inches) falls— less in the high mountains—and it is generally mild year-round in the foothills. At the census of March 2001 the provisional population total for Uttaranchal was 8, 479,562 (i.e. about 5% of the combined populations of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal, which had been one state just short of four months previously). This gave a population density of 159 per sq km. Few more detailed figures for the census are as yet available, limiting exact data for the new federal unit. However, its difference from other hill states, indicating its long integration into the Aryan and Hindu mainstream, is revealed by 1991 figures for the Scheduled Tribes population, putting them at only 3.0% of the total, while Scheduled Castes constitute 17.5%. The region is also known as Uttarakhand and traditionally consists of the old area of Garhwal and Kumaon in the south. Other names, such as Devbhumi (home of the gods) or Kedarkhand (abode of Siva), hint at the importance of the sacred geography of the area. There are holy sites all along the course of the Ganga as it rises up towards the mountains, starting on the edge of the foothills with Haridwar, one of the seven holy places of Hinduism, and culminating with Badrinath, one of the four holy abodes. Legends and heroic myths abound. Hinduism is the main religion of a huge majority of the population, just as Hindi (usually Pahari hill dialects) is the main language. Only a few speak any tribal languages, Urdu is confined to some small, urban, Muslim communities, and the second tongue of the state could well be Punjabi, owing to a pocket of Sikh settlement (from the Punjab in 1947) just to the south-west of Nainital, in Udhamsingh Nagar. There are also some Buddhists in the state. The urban population constituted 25.6% of the total in 2001, the main centres being at the provisional state capital of Dehradun, in the north-west, and Haridwar to its south. Further into the mountains from these cities are the old royal capitals of Garhwal, Srinagar and Tehri. In the south the main town is Nainital, a proposed capital and currently the seat of the High Court, with the industrial town of Haldwani to the south and the old centre of Kumaon, Almora, to the north. In the centre of the state, where the Alaknanda valley clefts the mountains upstream from Srinagar, are the towns of Joshimath and, approaching the Chinese border, Badrinath. The state is divided into 13 districts. History The history of Uttaranchal emerges from the myth smoke of the Vedic era, an uncertain tale of various tribes and peoples, such as the Khasars displaced by Rajputs and Brahmins from the plains. Many, of course, were attracted by the pilgrimage centres and the importance of the area in Hindu legend, although Buddhism was more important for almost 1,000 years, until the brahminical revival from the ninth century. The usual political pattern, irrelevant of religious adherence, was of several principalities competing for pre-


eminence or submitting to plains powers. Thus, one of the earliest hill states was based at Joshimath (Jyotirdham), while the Katyuris dominated between the sixth and 12th centuries. In the 12th century the long-established Chand clan gained the ascendancy in the southern and south-western parts of the modern state, an area known as Kumaon, while in Garhwal to the north the Pals (later known as the Sahs) united the chiefs in the 14th century. The various rajahs fought petty wars with each other or neighbouring plains principalities, but peace and growing prosperity in the 17th and 18th centuries again attracted more determined attention from the hegemonic plains powers, this time the Muslim rulers of Delhi or central Uttar Pradesh. The most serious threat, however, came in the 18th century, with Ghurkha incursions at the beginning and at the end. Kumaon was particularly overrun, but in reaching towards Kangra (Himachal Pradesh) and in descending towards the plains from Kumaon in the latter invasion, the Nepalese attracted the ire of the British, who were now in control of the Gangetic plains. Moreover, the hill princes sought British help in the early 19th century and, in 1815, an expedition was sent to drive out the Ghurkhas. By a treaty of 1816 Nepal ceded the hill territories to the East India Company, which restored the Maharajah of Tehri Garhwal, but retained a directly administered British Garhwal. This combination of direct and princely rule only ended after independence (Tehri acceded to Uttar Pradesh on 18 May 1949), when the hill territories were consolidated into Uttar Pradesh. The hill peoples, however, although they had remained loyal to the British during the disturbances of 1857–58, had been stirred by the struggle for independence and continued the tradition of peaceful protest afterwards in their own, local Chipko movement against logging. The tradition reemerged in the 1990s with popular campaigning for a separate state. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with a majority of the deputies representing the area, were the first to support the campaign for a separate Uttaranchal (Uttarakhand) state. The argument for a state was based on the variation of Pahari dialects from the Hindi spoken on the plains, although otherwise the region was considered so integrated that it had not maintained a particularly distinct identity. However, there was a widespread perception that the hill territories were, inevitably, neglected by the plains. Eventually, with a BJP federal Government in office and the opposition Congress co-operating to achieve another new state, the Uttar Pradesh Reorganization Act 2000 was passed and, on 9 November, Uttaranchal came into being. Its birth was accompanied by some controversy—for instance, over the site of the capital or in its having three premiers within 18 months of its existence. Nityanand Swamy of the BJP managed to survive as the first Chief Minister for almost one year, until the end of October 2001, when he was replaced (at the insistence of the national party) by the local party president, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari. However, unexpectedly, and ironically for BJP hopes of having created a ‘safe’ state, Congress won the 2002 state elections to a new, 70-member, unicameral Assembly (replacing the provisional legislature of 30 members originally elected to the old Uttar Pradesh house). Congress itself caused some controversy, when the national leadership appointed Narain Dutt Tiwari (a former premier of undivided Uttar Pradesh, but who had opposed the creation of a separate Uttaranchal) to head Congress in the new Vidhan Sabha. Nevertheless, he was duly asked to form a Government, and he became Chief Minister in March.

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Uttaranchal also sends five members to the Lok Sabha and three to the Rajya Sabha, which are based in the National Capital Territory. Economy Uttaranchal is rich in natural resources, but they are difficult to exploit and, as a result, some 70% of the population lives below the officially determined level of measuring poverty (the all-India average is 46%). More accurate comparable data must await the production of statistics specific to the new state, as most of what is available applies to the undivided Uttar Pradesh (see above), which was already one of the poorer states of the Union. For a mountain state, owing to its long integration into Uttar Pradesh and its importance as a pilgrimage site, Uttaranchal has some fairly well developed infrastructure, including a relatively good road and bridge network, some rail links and two domestic airports, near Dehradun and below Nainital at Pantnagar. There is limited installed power capacity in the state, despite the potential for hydroelectricity generation —it has been estimated that Uttaranchal could generate some 40,000 MW of power. Fulfilling such potential would make the state a net exporter of power, but the terrain is difficult and attracting investment to power projects in India, despite the country’s need, is considered difficult. Human potential is also being developed, with the literacy rate increasing to 72.3% in 2001, from 57.8% in 1991. Agriculture is the main economic sector for most of the population, but this is of limited help to the state economy, as subsistence agriculture is what occupies about threequarters of the population. Some 71 % of land holdings are less than one hectare (about 2. 47 acres) in size, making the sector inefficient. The main foodgrains are wheat and, in the north-west, rice, while sugarcane is grown nearer the plains. Horticulture and floriculture is being encouraged, although the state already has a modest reputation for fruits such as apples and mangoes or the famous strawberries of Udhamsingh Nagar. One primary activity that is hoped to be of increasing importance is forestry and forestry products— Uttaranchal acquired 96% of the forests of the old Uttar Pradesh, and this potential is as yet unexplored, with hopes for products such as medicinal plants. Mineral resources include limestone, graphite, gypsum, iron ore and copper. It is hoped that the extractive industry, like agriculture, might provide the basis for more value-added endeavours, such as the small cement plant at Nainital or sugar mills. Any major hydroelectric projects should help any industrial development. Small-scale units are already important, particularly for textiles, weaving, handicrafts and some light manufactures. Services are relatively well developed, with transport and trade encouraged by a longestablished tourist industry (which suffered from the access restrictions imposed on the area for the first time between 1960 and 1975, when there was tension along the Chinese border). Religious attractions are numerous, while there are also some historical remains, the hill resorts of Nainital and Mussoorie, for instance, and large areas of national park, rich in scenery and wildlife. Trekking is recovering, skiing and adventure sports are being encouraged, and pilgrims remain numerous. Another important source of income in such a poor state is from central government, visible not so much in the subsidy of public


administration as in the high recruitment to the armed forces, as young men seek to escape the poverty of the Uttaranchal valleys. Directory Governor: SURJIT SINGH BARNALA; Office of the Governor, Raj Bhavan, Dehradun. Chief Minister: NARAIN DUTT TlWARl (Congress—I); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of Uttaranchal, Civil Secretariat, Dehradun. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha): YASHPAL ARYA; Assembly Secretariat, Vidhan Sabha, Dehradun; tel. (135) 677444; fax (135) 678880; email [email protected]; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 70 mems: Congress—I 36; Bharatiya Janata Party 19; Bahujan Samaj Party 7; Uttarakhand Kranti Dal 4; independents and others 4. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: P.JYOTI RAO; 104 Indra Prakash Bldg, 21 Barakhamba Rd, New Delhi; tel. (11) 3738498; fax (11) 3327713.

West Bengal

The State of West Bengal lies in north-eastern India, at the head of the Bay of Bengal. Ancient Bengal (Bangla) consisted of the flat, fertile plains of the mighty GangaBrahmaputra delta and it developed a distinct regional identity, strengthened under foreign rule, when Calcutta (now Kolkata) was the capital of all of British India between 1773 and 1911. However, the legacy of Muslim rule and a still numerous Hindu population led to the final Partition of Bengal at independence, when the last Empire of India gave way to modern India, which retained West Bengal, and Pakistan, in which East


Bengal became East Pakistan (later, upon achieving its own independence in 1971, Bangladesh). West Bengal consists of a large block of territory on the coast, connected by a corridor of varying narrowness to a northern block of territory beneath the Himalayas. The international frontier with Bangladesh therefore runs the length of West Bengal’s eastern border, which curls over the northern end of that country. This northernmost part of West Bengal has the kingdom of Bhutan to the north-east and that of Nepal to the west, but it also connects the bulk of the Republic of India to its north-eastern states, the ‘Seven Sisters’, through Assam to the east, and Sikkim, to the north. To the west of the north-south corridor is Bihar (upstream on the Ganga—Ganges), and, further south, Jharkhand (which formed a part of Bihar until 2000), into which a horn of the main block of West Bengal abuts. Orissa lies down the coast to the south-west. The total area of the state is 88,752 sq km (34,258 sq miles), making it slightly larger than the island of Ireland. West Bengal, which occupies the western delta of the Ganga and stretches up to the foothills of the Himalayas, is a very flat state, dominated by the cultivation of rice, with villages clinging to any piece of higher ground that might lend protection from not infrequent flooding. The main river of Bengal, the Ganga, is highly mobile over such a flat terrain, easily carving out new courses for itself through the alluvial mud and marshland, and its main course has moved steadily eastwards over recent centuries, leaving the old principal channel to the sea, the Hugli, as a relatively minor waterway. Thus, the main channel of the Ganga crosses the state only at the narrow north point of the main block of West Bengal, before heading into Bangladesh; the southern part of the state is also watered by numerous streams flowing from the Jharkhand hills, such as the Damodar. In the south-east the mangrove swamps of the Sunderbans, which continue into Bangladesh, are the only remnants of the dense woodland that once covered the delta. North-east of the Ganga the state widens into a small block of territory dominated by the cities of Ingraz Bazar (English Bazaar) and Raiganj, then the narrow corridor continues to the north of the state, into Darjiling (Darjeeling—acquired from Sikkim in the mid-19th century) and eastwards and a little south onto the northern side of the Brahmaputra valley and Koch Bihar (Cooch Behar). The northern highlands, consisting of the Eastern Shivaliks and the Darjiling Hills, rise to the highest point at Sandakphu (3,630 m or 11,914 feet), which is on the border with Nepal, and the main river here is the Tista, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, which flows to the south-east of the state. The alpine or, rather, Himalayan landscape and the more temperate climate is in marked contrast to the plains, and different too to the only other hilly territory, in the southern part of the state. The Puruliya highlands in the far west, and the more northerly Rajmahal Hills, are an extension of the ancient rocks of peninsular India, the gently rising edges of the Chotanagpur plateau, decreasingly clad with ancient forest. Such elevations moderate the climate, particularly in the sub-Himalayan north, which can be cold in the mountains and where the average annual rainfall can be anywhere between 3,800 mm and 5,300 mm (148–207 inches), while on the plains it is more usually between 1,140 mm and 1,900 mm. Most rainfall is during the south-west monsoons of June-September, although heavy rain can also accompany fierce electrical storms in late March and April. Between October and February the weather is cooler, clearer and dryer.

STATES (WEST BENGAL) 255

The total population of West Bengal in 2001 was put at 80,221,171, making it the fourthmost populous state in India. It was, however, the most densely populated state (904 per sq km), having a population approaching that of Germany in less than one-quarter of that country’s area. The majority of the people speak Bengali (86.0% in 1991), an eastern Indo-Aryan language most closely related to Assamese, but having common roots with Hindi (6.6%) and Urdu (2.1 %). The next most widely spoken languages are Nepali (1. 3%) and the tribal tongues—there are also some Oriya speakers in the south-west— but English remains the main language of business and government, and is widely spoken. Tribal peoples account for about one-10th of the population, mainly Santal, Oraon and Munda in the western plains and hill country, with Bhutia, Lepcha and some Bodo in the north. Religion was the basis for the partition of Bengal, and in 1991 74.7% of the population of West Bengal were Hindu, but there remains a substantial Muslim minority of 23.6%. As for the lesser represented religions, only 0.6% were Christian and 0.3% Buddhist, to name the more numerous. In 2001 the provisional census results put the urban population of West Bengal at 28. 0% of the total, including the 13.22m. people of the urban agglomeration surrounding state capital, Kolkata (renamed from Calcutta on 24 August 1999, the 309th anniversary of its foundation—the city proper is home to some 4.58m.). Kolkata is the second-largest urban concentration in India, while to its north-west is the second-largest city of West Bengal, Asansol, with 1.09m. people in its urban agglomeration. The main cities of the far north are Shiliguri and Koch Bihar. The state is divided into 18 districts, fewer than some smaller and less populous states. History The history of Bengal is late in starting compared to many parts of the rest of India, but rich and cohesive thereafter. The region’s slow development at the eastern end of the arya varta was because it was a heavily forested swamp for many centuries, although a Vedic kingdom of Anga (Vanga) was based in the western regions and its conquest by Magadha (based in modern Bihar to the west) opened the Gangetic interior to the sea. It was only after the second conquest of Bengal by Magadha, under Samudra-Gupta in the mid-fourth century of the Christian era, that the marshy, forested wilderness began to be tamed during the Gupta peace. Moreover, the maritime trade, reaching even as far as the Roman Empire, had flourished until the second century and recovered steadily under the Guptas. Hitherto, the main area of Aryanization had been in the west (Vanga) and along the coast (Samatata). Hindu and Buddhist principalities began to appear in Bengal, with permanent settlement gradually penetrating the delta from the north. Thus, by the end of the Gupta era Gauda (Gaur—not far from modern Ingraz Bazar) at the head of the delta had become a major capital, most famously for Sasanka, the great enemy of Harsha Vardhana (of Thanesar, in Haryana, and imperial Kannauj, in Uttar Pradesh) in the seventh century. (Gaur was to be a capital of the succeeding Buddhist Palas, then the Hindu Senas, before succumbing to Muslim sacking and, finally, a catastrophic plague in 1575.) Sasanka, despite his unheroic depiction in tales idolizing Harsha, seems to have been a talented enough ruler to hold off the massed might of the Vardhana Gangetic empire and its ally in Kamrupa (modern Assam), and it was only after his death in the 620s that the rajahs of


Bengal submitted to Harsha’s domain. Harsha’s empire disintegrated rapidly upon his death, although he left Kannauj a legacy of imperial pretensions, and by the end of the eighth century a Bengali dynasty was competing for its possession and rule of north India. The Palas seem to have been a dynasty from north Bengal, with a minor king, Gopala I, being elected to lead all of Vanga (most of which lay in modern Bangladesh) in about 750. He soon extended his control over the rest of Bengal and into Bihar, this united region becoming the heartland of the Palas—and of the religion they espoused, Buddhism. The Palas were the last major Indian dynasty to sponsor Buddhism, which survived longer in Bengal and Bihar against brahminical reaction as a result. Gopala I’s son and heir, Dharmapala, ascended the throne in about 770 (or soon after) and continued to expand his power. In the 780s he challenged Vatsaraja Pratihara, the Gurjara high king, for control of Kannauj, but only for both to be defeated in 786 by a Rashtrakutan sally from the south. However, the Gurjaras had suffered a greater threat to their territory and Dharmapala was able to seize Kannauj in the aftermath of the three-way conflict, installing his own candidate as a client rajah in the imperial city. Dharmapala was succeeded in about 810 by an equally long-reigning son, Devapala, retaining Pala supremacy and gaining the homage of kings in Kamrupa, Orissa and elsewhere, although they constantly endured challenges from the Gurjara-Pratiharas and the Rashtrakutas. Eventually, a succession of weak kings (maybe enervated by pacificism and religiosity) led to the decay of Pala power and, for most of the 10th century certainly, they suffered from the attacks of their rivals. Mahipala I (998–1038) reasserted Pala strength at the beginning of the 11th century, despite a defeat by the unexpected arrival of a Chola raiding army in about 1020, but the dynasty (and the religion it sponsored) suffered a further decline and was eventually supplanted as the paramount house of Bengal by the Hindu Senas. Madanapala, the last Pala, was succeeded in around 1161 by Ballalasena. The Senas did not long enjoy their power, as in the far north-west the Rajput armies were defeated at Tarain (Haryana) in 1192 by invading Muslims. The gates of India were open, an imperial Sultanate was established in Delhi and freebooting Afghan clans extended Muslim rule into the east and centre of India (although not always in complete loyalty to Delhi). Indeed, the Sena rajah, Lakhsmanasena, was taken at lunch in a daring raid on Nadia by Muhammad Bakhtiyar, the leader of the Khiljis, and 18 other men. The Khiljis had already ransacked several Buddhist universities and desecrated a number of Hindu temples, and proceeded to the conquest of the other Sena capital at Lakhnauti (Gauda), which became their base for assaults on Bhutan and Assam. A Sena succession continued up to the middle of the 13th century, but their power was gone. The Khiljis had a contested succession after Bakhtiyar’s death in 1205, which occasionally prompted one candidate or another to seek the support of the Sultanate, but it was only the invasions of Sultan Iltumish in 1225 and 1229 that compelled obedience. After his death the Khiljis regained their independence and actually installed themselves as the ruling dynasty in Delhi towards the end of the century. This did not mean that the authority of Delhi was better recognized in Bengal, although an attempt to restore control was made in the 1320s, but, effectively, from about 1338 until 1538 the region was to enjoy independence, much of the time under its own sultans. The fractious Ilya dynasty (1282–1486), interrupted by the three Ganesas (1415–36), was succeeded by the four Habshis (1486–94) and then by the Husainis until the Mughal conquest. During this time


Bengali trade and culture prospered, and, although ruled by Muslims, it was with the cooperation of many of the Hindu nobility. Indeed, in 1415 a Hindu actually became sultan, although this proved unacceptable even for Bengal and his son, who had adopted Islam, replaced him. Bengali literature and scholarship were encouraged, even under an orthodox, Arab sultan, such as Ala-ud-Din Husain Shah (1493–1519), who is also respected for honouring Hindu spiritual leaders. However, the independence of Bengal was eventually ended by the arrival of a newer and more powerful imperial Muslim dynasty in Delhi, the Mughals. By the end of the 16th century the Great Mughal, Akbar, had finally reduced Bengal to proper obedience, after the imperial challenge of the Afghan Surs and the more local Kararanis. It was only with the decay of Mughal power, despite the occasional intervention of revolt or struggle over the succession, that the rulers of Bengal could again choose whether to exercise their independence. In 1701 a Deccan-born Brahmin, who had been converted to Islam, taken into imperial service and eventually exercised the diwani or chancellorship of Hyderabad (now in Andhra Pradesh), arrived in Bengal as the new Mughal chancellor. His reform of the revenues of the province, including making most of the richer parts of Bengal (i.e. West Bengal and Bangladesh) pay their tax directly to the emperor (through the diwan), earned him a new name from the grateful Aurangzeb—Murshid Quli Khan (or Murshid Quli Jafar Khan), the name by which he is usually known to history. Murshid Quli Khan effectively supplanted the governor, with the emperor’s backing, and became the first nawab in all but name, with a new capital at Murshidabad, although he continued loyally to remit the accumulated revenues (some 10m. rupees per year) of Bengal to the Mughal court until his death in 1727. His son-in-law, Shoja ud-Din, was confirmed in succession and died in 1739. The following year Safaraz Khan was usurped in the nawabate by Alivardi Khan, who held power until his death in 1756, to be succeeded by his grandson, the lamentable Siraj-ud-Daula. By this time, the dominant feature of Bengali politics was not the Mughals (by the 1740s revenues were no longer regularly sent to Delhi), but the British, who had first established permanent factories (fortified warehouse bases) in Bengal in 1634. This had followed the efforts of a British surgeon, Gabriel Boughton, to save the life of the daughter of the then Great Mughal, Shah Jahan. Initially an outpost of the East India Company Presidency based in Madras (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu), but intermittently forming an independent agency in the 1680s and 1690s, Bengal became the seat of a separate British Presidency in 1700 owing to the success of the settlement of Calcutta (now Kolkata). This was founded in 1690 around the villages of Kalikata, Sutanuti and Govindpur by Job Charnock, with the first Fort St William completed in 1707, and a defensive moat against possible Maratha incursions, the ‘Maratha ditch’, dug in 1742 (the Nawab, meanwhile, secured his own domains in Bengal and Bihar by ceding Orissa in 1751). By this time Calcutta was the busiest port-city in Bengal and the East India Company, which since 1716 had been in possession of an imperial firman or licence to operate commercially within the Mughal Empire, was coveted by the nawabate and feared as a potential rival in the imperial order. Unfortunately for an independent Bengal, however, the Nawab to move against the British was Siraj-ud-Daula, who had already also alienated his own ministers and nobility, as well as the other representatives of the other European trading nations established in Bengal.


The new, 20-year-old Nawab took Calcutta from the British in 1756 and imprisoned some 70 or more British residents overnight in a small detention cell, the so-called ‘Black Hole’, from which only 23 emerged alive. What seems to have been an accident nevertheless impaired what feeble attempts Siraj might have made to restore relations with the British and justified the East India Company’s military commander, Robert Clive, in his retaliation. Clive retook the city in 1757 and then proceeded against the French in Chandernagore (the Seven Years’ War had just begun and was to secure the final British ascendancy over the other Europeans in India), before insisting on continuing the war against the Nawab. He advanced on Murshidabad, and his 3,000 troops met an army of some 50,000 at Plashi (Plassey), where the treachery of the Nawab’s commander-inchief and relative, Mir Jafar, and other courtiers gave the victory to Clive. Mir Jafar was installed as the new Nawab (and recognized by the emperor in Delhi) and obliged to make crippling financial concessions to the British, becoming particularly indebted when Company help was needed to repel Mughal incursions in 1759 and 1760. His failure to honour his new debts resulted in his deposition, in favour of his son-in-law, Mir Qasim, who rewarded the East India Company with lower Bengal, but also instituted reforms designed to strengthen him against further British threats. The British had no compunction, therefore, in restoring the ageing Mir Jafar in 1763 (he died in 1765, to be succeeded by Najm-ud-Daulah and then, in 1766, Saif-ud-Daulah). Mir Qasim enlisted the help of the Mughal emperor, Shah Alam II, and his powerful ally and protector, the autonomous Nawab of Awadh (Oudh), and they invaded Bihar in 1764. Perhaps the most decisive battle of British imperial history in India was fought here at Baksar (Buxar), between the 7,500 disciplined, largely sepoy troops under Maj. Hector Munro and the combined but disorganized Mughal forces of some 40,000. The East India Company triumphed and, the following year, the Mughal granted it the diwan of Bengal. Within five years the nawabate was defunct, its treasury removed from Murshidabad to Calcutta and, under the 1773 Regulating Act, on 20 October 1774 the Governor of Bengal, one Warren Hastings, became Governor-General of all three British presidencies in India. Calcutta became an imperial capital after the Great Rebellion (the Bengal army remained loyal to the British), when, in November 1758, the British Crown assumed direct control over the Company’s holdings and the Governor-General, therefore, became a Viceroy (the British Queen was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877). Bengal prospered under the long peace of British rule, while both Hinduism and Islam enjoyed revivals and Bengali culture flourished. This informed later political activity, with figures such as the great Bengali poet, Rabindranath Tagore, adding a moral authority to the growing clamour for political independence for India, as well as movements for social and religious reform. It was probably the first Partition of Bengal that catalysed political activism in the presidency—in 1905 West Bengal, with Bihar and Orissa (Hindu), was separated from East Bengal (Muslim) with Assam. The British sought to regularize the administration of the largest province in India, as well as one of the more troublesome sources of criticism, but failed to consult local sentiment and provoked rather than preempted communal Hindu-Muslim tensions. Protests in Calcutta and throughout the two provinces eventually prompted the British to reunite Bengal from 1912 (although Bihar and Orissa, and Assam, became two separate provinces), but Bengali Muslims were not entirely happy with this decision and few on any side were pleased with the simultaneous


relocation of the imperial capital to Delhi. Despite official hopes, the activists of Calcutta remained influential—the city was, after all, still the largest in British India—and Bengal produced many prominent figures in the campaign in favour of independence, such as Tagore, Aurobindo Ghose, the social and religious reformer, the radical politician and journalist, Bipin Chandra Pal, or Subhas Chandra Bose, the leftist Bengali nationalist and Congress leader in the late 1930s, who was obliged to flee British jurisdiction and, under Japanese protection during the Second World War, formed an ‘Indian National Army’ and proclaimed ‘Azad Hind’ (Free India) in 1943. Meanwhile, political reforms under legislation of 1935 provided for electoral participation in provincial government, and in 1937 Congress won every assembly except those of Punjab (also later partitioned) and Bengal, where a narrow Muslim majority was returned. It seemed that the hitherto-dominant, English-speaking Hindus of Calcutta, the bhadralok, might regret the Partition they had opposed so strongly after all. Certainly it contributed towards the final decision to end the Empire with two successor states, one Hindu dominated and one Muslim, and to partition Bengal, although this would leave East Bengal without the rich metropolis of Calcutta. Before this, in 1943, the privations of wartime and the incompetence of government contributed to the devastations of a severe famine in lower Bengal—a catastrophic 2m.–4m. people are estimated to have died— which also exacerbated communal tensions. With the imminence of independence and the issue of a Muslim state and partition as yet unresolved, an outbreak of communal violence in Calcutta, in which some 4,000 Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs died in August 1946, soon spread to other parts of the province and beyond in October. Mahatma Gandhi rushed to the region and his efforts probably eased the eventual Partition of Bengal (which had been prefigured anyway in 1905–12), but did not prevent a massive demographic and economic dislocation involving the migration of 5m. people. After independence West Bengal became a ‘Part A’ state under the 1950 Constitution, and at various points incorporated the local princely states and the French enclave of Chandernagore (formalized by treaty in 1951) into its territory, finally acquiring its current status and boundaries in 1956, when a transfer of some territory from Bihar ensured that all parts of the state were linked. The only threats to the integrity of West Bengal have been suggestions of a ‘Greater Jharkhand’ to include some of the tribal areas in the western hills and demands for a Ghurkha homeland in the north. Domestic politics have been dominated by the rivalry between Congress and the Communists since the 1960s. In June 1977 Congress was finally ousted by a Left Front coalition headed by the Communist Party of India—Marxist (CPI—M), which has also formed five successive Governments since, the sixth and most recent in May 2001. Although Congress has not returned to power in the state, it has generally performed better at the level of national elections—West Bengal has 42 seats in the lower house of the national Parliament and 16 in the upper house. The CPI (M) lost urban votes, particularly in Calcutta, at the 1996 state elections, although it made an unexpected revival in 2001. Much of the credit for this went to Buddhadev Bhattarcharya, who succeeded the veteran Jyoti Basu as Chief Minister in November 2000, upon the latter’s retirement, and began to win back the support of the urban middle classes. The main Congress faction in opposition is the Trinamool Congress, led by Mamata Banerjee.


Economy West Bengal is the most prosperous state in eastern India, although the relative poverty of its teeming rural millions somewhat counteracts the wealth of its industry and trade, much of which is based in and around Kolkata (Calcutta). The total net domestic product of the state is the highest after Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, reaching 1,434,110m. rupees in 2000/01, or 18,021 rupees per head. Infrastructure is well developed, with roads and railways augmented by inland waterways. The total length of roads at March 1996 was 74,459 km, including 1,710 km of national highway and 3,388 km of state highway. Just over one-half of the road length is unsurfaced. There is an extensive rail network, totalling 3,785 km at March 1998. Kolkata is the most important port, historically the main port of eastern India, and is also the site of an international airport. The second seaport is Haldia and there are numerous other air ports throughout the state. Total electricity generation in the state amounted to 14,746m. units of power in 1997/ 98, although demand is high and extra capacity is needed. Extensive irrigation projects improve agricultural productivity, but also serve towards taming the floods that the plains can easily become victim to, and other infrastructure projects aim to improve the urban environment of the ‘mega-city’ of Kolkata. The literacy rate reached 69.2% in 2001 (from 57.7% in 1991). About one-half of the population is engaged in agriculture, or up to three-quarters if indirectly employed people are included. West Bengal is the largest producer in India of jute (usually two-thirds of national production) and rice (almost one-seventh), and grows about one-fifth of tea production, mainly in the Darjiling Hills. In 1997/98 total foodgrain production was 14.4m. metric tons, of which rice accounted for 13.2m. tons (wheat 0. 8m. tons and pulses 0.2m. tons). In the same year 7.6m. bales of jute were produced, 386,000 metric tons of oilseeds and 5.6m. metric tons of potatoes. Betelvine and tobacco are among other crops grown. Agriculture and mineral resources have provided the basis for industry in the state. Originally, jute was fundamental to the textiles industry of Kolkata and other towns, but food processing and beverages are also important, while local coal and lignite provided the fuel for other manufactures. Mineral fuels are found throughout the state, as is limestone, while the north also has dolomite, copper, iron, lead, silver and zinc reserves, and the south quartz, fire clay, kaolin, silica, some gold and manganese. Steel plants, ore-processing units, automobile manufacture, machine building, light engineering and chemicals are among the principal activities, mainly centred in Kolkata and its environs, on the coast, to the west in Kharagpur, to the north-west in Asansol, especially, and in Durgapur, and in the north at Siliguri. West Bengal has a thriving tertiary sector, built on the long-established commercial strength of Kolkata (although Mumbai—Bombay—surpassed it about one century ago) and the network of transport services across the state connecting Assam and the northeast with the rest of India and the Gangetic plains with the coast. There is a large local market for retail trade, and the state is a centre for trade generally. Business services and finance are also important, and tourism is strong. Tourists, apart from those on business, in transit or visiting family, are attracted by the historical sites, such as the landmarks of British Calcutta, the temple city of Bishnupur, Buddhist remains and the old medieval


Muslim capitals, as well as the tribal lands of the west or the tea plantations and hill resorts of Darjiling. Directory Governor: VIREN J.SHAH; Office of the Governor, Raj Bhavan, Kolkata; tel. (33) 2201641. Chief Minister: BUDDHADEV BHATTACHARYA (Communist—CPI—M); Office of the Chief Minister, Government of West Bengal, Secretariat, Kolkata; tel. (33) 2152345. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: HASIM ABDUL HALIM AMDANGAR; Writers’ Buildings, Kolkata; tel. (33) 2482911; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 294 mems: Communist (CPI—M) 143; All-India Trinamool Congress 60; Congress—I 26; All-India Forward Bloc 25; Revolutionary Socialist Party 17; Communist (CPI) 7; independents and others 16. State Resident Commissioner in New Delhi: SHIVRAJ SINGH; A-2 State Emporia Bldg, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, New Delhi 110 001; tel. and fax (11) 3747203.

NATIONAL CAPITAL AND UNION TERRITORIES

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands lies in the Bay of Bengal, along an arc stretching from the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) delta in the north-east to the island of Sumatra in the south-east. The territory’s nearest international neighbours, therefore, are, respectively, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Indonesia. Eastwards, across the Andaman Sea, is the Malay Peninsula, here divided between Myanmar and Thailand. While the northernmost Andaman Islands lie only 193 km (120 miles) from Cape Negrais, the tip of mainland Myanmar, and Great Nicobar is about two-thirds of that distance from Achin Head (Cape Pedro) on the Sumatran coast of Indonesia, the island chain is more significantly separated from the rest of India. Chennai (Madras) in Tamil Nadu is 1,190 km by sea to the west of Port Blair, the territorial capital, in the Andaman Islands, while the coast of West Bengal is some 30 km further, to the north-west (a little inland, Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, is 2,255 km away). The islands were grouped as a single administrative territory by the imperial Government of India in 1869, restored to British sovereignty in 1945 (after a Japanese occupation since 1942), and transferred to the jurisdiction of independent India in 1947. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands formally became an integral part of India, as the only ‘Part D’ state, in 1950, to be redesignated (like the former ‘Part C’ states) a Union Territory in 1956. The islands together cover a land area of 8,249 sq km (3,185 sq miles), of which the Andamans constitute 77.7%, making the Andaman and Nicobar Islands the largest of India’s union territories and, indeed, larger than two of its states.


The island chain is grouped into the northern, and more numerous, Andaman Islands and the southern, and slightly more easterly, Nicobar Islands, separated by a deep strait, the Ten Degree Channel (which runs along latitude 10°N). A submerged mountain range has formed almost 300 islands (if islets and reef outcroppings are included, a debatably exact figure of 572 can be arrived at), extending for some 730 km from Landfall Island in the north to Indira Point (Pygmalion Point) on Great Nicobar in the south-east. The Andaman Islands run north-south, consisting of up to 204 distinct islands (26 of which are inhabited) stretched over 467 km, of which the largest is Middle Andaman (1,536 sq km) and the smallest Ross Island (0.8 sq km). Middle Andaman is closely flanked by North Andaman and South Andaman, all surrounded by a scattering of smaller islands (notably Ritchie’s Archipelago), with a tail of them pointing southwards to the more separated Little Andaman. To the east lie Narcondam and Barren Islands. Continuing the crescent chain more towards the south-east are the Nicobars, which thus lie slightly off a northsouth alignment. This group consists of 19 proper islands, of which 12 are inhabited, with the largest being Great Nicobar (1,045 sq km) and the smallest Pilomillow Island (1.3 sq km). The northernmost is isolated Car Nicobar, then a scattered group of smaller islands, such as Camorta and Nancoury, and finally, beyond the Sombrero Channel the broken bulk of Little Nicobar and Great Nicobar. Largely covered in heavy rainforest, the islands reach their height at Saddle Peak (North Andaman), which rises to 732 m (267 feet), and in the Nicobar Islands (Great Nicobar), at Mt Thullier (642 m). The climate is tropical, with no extremes, except for the variety offered by the arrival of the monsoons (a season which usually falls in May-September and in November-December) and the possibility of tropical storms at the end of the first monsoon season. The mean annual rainfall for Port Blair is 3,180 mm (125 inches), although actual rainfall in 1999 was 2,975 mm. The mean minimum temperature in Port Blair during 1999 was 22.8°C (73.0°F), the mean maximum temperature 29.8°C (85.6°F). The total population of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, according to the census of March 2001, was 356,265. This was an increase of over one-quarter on the 1991 census result (280,661) and was more than three times the 1971 figure (115,133). The rate of natural growth remains slightly above the national average, but showed some decline in the late 1990s. The population density of the territory in 2001, therefore, was 43.2 per sq mile, the lowest of any union territory; in all India, only the state of Mizoram had a lower population density. Most of the population are now of Indian, Burmese or Malay descent, more recently supplemented by refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar, Indian émigrés from Guyana and Tamils from Sri Lanka. As a result, most of the population are Hindu (67.5% at the 1991 census), with a fairly large Christian community (24.0%) and some Muslims (7.6%). English is used, particularly in government, but the most-widely spoken languages are Bengali (23.1% in 1991), then Tamil (19.1%), Hindi (17.6%), Telugu and Malayalam. One of the indigenous peoples of the Nicobar Islands, the Nicobarese, a Mongoloid race, is completely assimilated into modern society, but there are five other autochthonous tribal groups, protected by the authorities (together accounting for some 15% of the total population, most of them in the Nicobar Islands). The Great Andamanese, like the other tribal Andaman islanders, a Negrito people, are now living on Strait Island, but were originally the most numerous of the tribes, with some 10,000 in 1789. They have suffered

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most from contact with the rest of the world. By 1901 there were only 625 and numbers continued to decline, reaching a nadir of 19 in 1969, but rising again to 41 by 1999. Their primitive society was noted, among other things, for not having the use of fire and a unique language with only two number concepts (‘one’ and ‘greater than one’). The Onges of Little Andaman, traditionally foragers, are now dependent on government assistance and confined to two small reservations. The Jarawas of South Andaman and Little Andaman were first contacted by government anthropologists in 1974 and have been considered friendly only since 1998. The people of North Sentinel Island, probably numbering about 400, on 60 sq km, continue to refuse communication, among the few Palaeolithic survivors in the modern world to do so. They are related to the Onges and Jarawas, but have long been isolated. The remaining tribe of the Nicobar Islands, the Shompens, are a Mongoloid people, like their neighbours, the Nicobarese. They are struggling against disease brought by recent contacts and are divided into two groups. The less numerous Mawa Shompens live along the coasts and river valleys of Great Nicobar, while the more hostile majority are found in the Alexandra and Galathia river valleys and on the east coast of the same island. In 1991 26.7% of the population was classed as urban, by far the largest town being the territorial capital, Port Blair, on South Andaman, with some 75,000 inhabitants. The other main towns include the district capital of the Nicobars on Car Nicobar, Rangat and Mayabunder on Middle Andaman and Diglipur on North Andaman. The territory is divided into two districts. History Although the indigenous populations have long been isolated from the rest of the world, the two groups of islands lie on the main trade routes between Burma (now Myanmar) and India, and are recorded by the Greek cartographer, Ptolemy, of the second century BC and by the Chinese traveller, Hsuan Tsang, of the seventh century AD. Arab merchants from the ninth century also reported the existence of the islands, particularly the Nicobars, which lay on the route to Sumatra (now in Indonesia). Thus, in the 11th century there was an attempt by the Cholas of modern Tamil Nadu, under Rajendra I, to annexe the islands. Then, as now, many of the myriad islands were devoid of the savage, native ‘head hunters’ (as reported by the first recorded Western visitor, in the 13th century, the Venetian, Marco Polo) and proved a tempting base for piratical ventures on the nearby, lucrative trading routes. Indeed, Malay pirates may have partly earned the reputation of ferocity attributed to the locals. In this tradition, the Marathas established a privateer base in the islands in the late 17th century. The famous Maratha admiral, Kanhoji Angre, led this operation in the early 18th century, plaguing European shipping and eluding the British-Portuguese naval task force sent deal with him. He died, undefeated, in 1729. Dutch pirates and Jesuit missionaries also frequented the islands, while the Danish East India Company claimed the Nicobar Islands (Frederik Oerne Islands), which it also attempted to evangelize, between 1756 and 1848. Modern India’s claim to the island chain began in 1788, when the British Governor-General dispatched an army lieutenant (for whom Port Blair is named) to occupy part of the Andaman Islands. Some convicts were sent there in 1794, but the settlement was soon abandoned. It was only


after the mainland disturbances of 1857 that the British persevered with their original effort to establish a penal colony in the Andamans. In 1858 the first Chief Commissioner of the Andaman Islands, Dr James Petition Walker, founded a prison at Port Blair, starting a tradition that earned the colony the name Kalapani (‘black blood’, referring to the blood shed by the nationalists) in India. It was only after the completion of the Cellular Gaol in 1906 that large numbers of prisoners were sent here, and only thereafter did it become notorious as the destination for those who revolted against the United Kingdom’s presence in South and South-East Asia. It was, therefore, an irony that it was the Andaman and Nicobar Islands that formed the ‘Azad Hind’ (Free India) proclaimed in 1943 by a nationalist who had escaped imprisonment here—Subhas Chandra Bose was its head of state, and the commander-inchief of the ‘Indian National Army’, in the only piece of Indian territory then occupied by the Japanese. The Nicobar Islands (the name is derived from a Tamil word, nakkavaram, which means ‘land of the naked’) were annexed by the Indian authorities on 16 October 1868, and in 1872, during the commission of Maj. (later Gen. Sir) Donald Martin Stewart, were united as an administrative unit with the Andamans. The islands were favoured as a penal colony by the British, particularly in the first half of the 20th century, apart from during the Japanese occupation of 1942–45, when the Chief Commissioner, C.E.Waterfall, was himself a prisoner. However, the Japanese were expelled in 1945 and a new Chief Commissioner, N.K.Patterson, assumed office in Port Blair. In 1947 the first Indian Chief Commissioner, I.Majid, became head of the administration, on behalf of an independent Indian Government, which no longer sought to imprison its political opponents here. The last Chief Commissioner was S.L.Sharma, who, on 12 November 1982, was replaced by a Lieutenant Governor, M.L. Kampani, who held office until 1985. In May 2001 a new Lt Governor, Nagendra Nath Jha, assumed power in the territory. Jha is a lawyer by profession and a supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the national Government. The BJP were also elected in September-October 1999 to the single seat to represent the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Parliament (in the Lok Sabha, the lower house). Economy The islands have considerable economic potential, notably in forestry and tourism, but development has not kept pace with a rapidly rising population. Net domestic product totalled 8,400m. rupees in 1997/98, or 22,880 rupees per head (a figure subsidized by government spending). Some infrastructural development has created the 272-km (169 miles) Andaman Trunk Road, which connects Port Blair, in the south of South Andaman, with Rangat, on Middle Andaman, by means of highway and ferry services. There are also regular ferry services connecting 11 of the islands in the Union Territory and regular shipping and air links with the mainland, almost entirely through Port Blair (an international airport is scheduled to open in 2003). Car Nicobar too has an airfield. Power generation depends mainly on imported fuels. The literacy rate is quite high, at least outside the scheduled population, at 81.2% in 2001 (compared with 73.0% at the previous census in 1991).

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The primary sector is the most important part of the economy for most of the population, be it the hunting and foraging of many of the tribal population, the subsistence or small-scale agriculture common throughout India, or the forestry activities that hold great potential for the territory. The main food and cash crop of the Andaman Islands is paddy rice, while the main cash crops of the Nicobars are coconut and areca nut. Tropical fruits are easily grown in the hills, while other field crops include pulses, vegetables, oilseeds and spices. Rubber, red oil, palm oil and some cashews are also increasingly important agricultural products. With forest covering 86.9% (1998) of the Union Territory’s land area, much of it luxuriant rainforest rich in tropical hardwoods, logging and timber processing is fundamental to economic advancement of the islands. The topography creates a variety of available forest, including evergreen and deciduous or hilltop and swamp—the two most valuable timbers, padauk and gurjan, are found only on the Andamans, not on the Nicobar Islands. The Government has divided the forestlands into Primitive Tribal Reserves (40% of the total), accessible only by Indian citizens with permits, with the rest designated Protected Areas, available for the exploitation of their timber resources. A Swedish company owns extensive logging rights. Teak and rosewood have been the most commercially in demand for some years, although small rubber and mahogany plantations have also been justified. Plywood, hardwood and matchwood are exported. Fishing is also a rich resource, which is being developed. Timber processing is an important part of the industrial sector in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This includes the Chatham Saw Mill, one of the oldest and largest in Asia. There are, however, few other even medium-sized industrial units in the islands, the main products being plastic bags and conduit pipes and fittings, paints and varnishes, and fibreglass. There are manufacturers of steel furniture, aluminium doors and windows, and beverages, as well as agricultural processing, such as rice milling, seed crushing or even small flour-mills and bakeries. Most other activities are small scale, such as fish processing and handicrafts, but an increasing number are export-orientated. Tourism is the growth area of the services sector, although public administration remains the principal contributor. There are tourist developments in various locations, although Ritchie’s Archipelago is the main centre. The beaches, coral reefs and watersport facilities are the main attractions of the ‘Emerald Isles’, augmented by jungle interiors, tribal cultures and the old penal colony historical sites. In 1998 there were 79, 647 tourist visitors, of which 4,915 were foreigners. Directory Lieutenant Governor: NAGENDRA NATH JHA; Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Administration of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Port Blair; tel. (3192) 33333; fax (3192) 30372; e-mail [email protected]. Chief Secretary: Dr R.PADMANABHAN; Office of the Chief Secretary, Administration of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Secretariat, Port Blair; tel. (3192) 34087; e-mail [email protected]. Chair of the Municipal Council of Port Blair: MARSELA DUNG DUNG; Town Hall, Port Blair; tel. (3192) 32375.


Member of Parliament (in New Delhi) for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands: BISHNU PADA RAY (Bharatiya Janata Party); Constituency Office in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Port Blair; tel. (3192) 316835; fax (3192) 42916; e-mail [email protected].

Chandigarh

The Union Territory of Chandigarh lies in northern India, on the Punjab plains, beneath the foothills of the Himalayas. Built as the capital of Indian Punjab, after the Partition at independence in 1947, Chandigarh (‘fortress of the Goddess of Power’, Chandi being a manifestation of Shakti) was constituted as a distinct territory under the authority of the President of India in 1966, to serve as the capital of both the present-day states of Haryana and Punjab, into which the original state was split in the same year. It is, therefore, enclosed by these two states, Punjab to the west and north, and Haryana to the east. Chandigarh’s hinterland extends too into Himachal Pradesh, which also received territory from the old Punjab state in 1966, and the borders of which lie only a few kilometres beyond the city, to the north. Chandigarh covers a total area of 114 sq km (44 sq miles), making it the third smallest of all the union territories of India. In March 1948 the Governments of the State of Punjab and of India approved a plot of land covering 114.59 sq km at the foot of the Shivalik Hills, in Ropar District, as the site of the new state capital. The flat, gently sloping, fertile agricultural land varied in height only between 305 m and 366 m (111–133 feet) above sea level. Three seasonal rivers crossed the chosen tract, with the Patiali Rao now marking the west of the planned city and the Sukhna Choe the east. The mountains to the north of the territory provide a


deliberate backdrop to the city and its monumental buildings, the strict grid plan of which is alleviated by linear parkland. The mountains also influence the climate, which is tropical and monsoonal. Most rainfall is in May-August, the wettest month generally being July (which in 2000 received 433 mm—17.0 inches—of rain), the hottest May and the coolest January. In 2000 the mean maximum temperature in May was 37.9°C (100.2° F) and the mean minimum temperature in January was 7.3°C (45.1°F), although extremes ranged from 3°C to 43°C (37°–109°F). Chandigarh has experienced considerable population growth since its foundation. This has barely been alleviated by the development of satellite towns within the 10 km (just over six miles) forbidden to urbanization by the original planners—thus, Panchkula in Haryana and Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar (known as ‘S.A.S.Nagar’ or by its original name of Mohali) in Punjab have also grown dramatically, but thereby taken some of the pressure off Chandigarh itself. According to the national census of March 2001, the total population of the Union Territory was 900,914, meaning an increase of 40.3% over 10 years. With most of the area occupied by city, this results in a population density of 7,903 per sq km, a figure only exceeded by that for the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The residents overwhelmingly speak Hindi or Punjabi. According to the 1991 census, 61.1% spoke Hindi and 34.7% Punjabi. However, it is worth noting that at the same time Hindus accounted for 75.8% of the population. Indian Punjab was divided in 1966 because of Sikh pressure for a separate state—the Sikhs used the creation of linguistic states to press their cause by arguing the distinctness of Punjabi (mainly spoken by Sikhs) from Hindi, but the census figures indicate that, although it served a purpose at the time, equating language and religion generally is unreliable. Although a greater proportion of the population spoke Punjabi in 1991, in terms of religious adherence Sikhs accounted for 20.3% of the total, while there were also small Muslim (2.7%), Christian (0.8%), Jain (0. 2%) and Buddhist (0.1%) communities. The city proper is surrounded by an agricultural ‘green belt’, but urban areas account for 68% of Chandigarh’s total territory, meaning that 89.8% of the population were classed as urbanized in the 2001 census (barely higher than in 1991, when only Delhi achieved a slightly higher rate). The Union Territory consists of the municipal corporation of Chandigarh itself, and 17 panchayat villages. History The historic Punjab region is the heart of the Aryan homeland, although it was the location of city-based civilizations long before. Chandigarh, at the centre of the Indian Punjab, lies on the plains marking the divide between the Indus and Ganges river systems, which have proved a crucial area over India’s long history. The original village of Chandigarh, however, does not figure in this tale until its name was adopted for the city built here during the 1950s. The Partition of the old British-era province of Punjab upon the dissolution of the Indian Empire in 1947 had deprived independent India of the old capital of Lahore (now in Pakistan). A new city was decided upon and the site marked out in 1948. The first planners chosen were from the USA, Albert Mayer and Matthew Nowicki, but the death of Nowicki in February 1950 caused this team to withdraw from the project. The next person chosen to head the project was the noted Swiss architect and

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city planner, Charles Edouard Jeanneret, more usually known by his professional pseudonym, Le Corbusier. Le Corbusier retained some features of the original concept, drawn up by Mayer, such as the ‘neighbourhood’ unit as the main module, the basic framework of the city, including the linear parkland, and many of the chief components (the Capitol complex, the City Centre, etc.). However, he imposed a more severe grid pattern on the layout and incorporated his own ideals and philosophies into what he saw as a single, cohesive monumental composition. His vision is expounded in the so-called Statute of the Land, the Edict of Chandigarh, which includes a commitment to the ‘human scale’ of the city, an exhaustive classification of roads and a ban on personal statues. Some of these dictates have since been set aside (such as the ban on other urban developments around the city— a ‘green belt’ originally established by the Periphery Control Act of 1952), sometimes as a result of the divided administrations and sometimes as that of adaptation—one of the main incentives for this adaptation was the growth in population, as Le Corbusier envisaged a city containing no more than 500,000 (a total exceeded in the late 1980s). The foundation stone was laid in 1951 and the main buildings soon built, incorporating art as well as architecture (the Open Hand sculpture, for instance, now serves as the city’s symbol). The city was a special district of Punjab, administered by a Chief Commissioner. The most important political development for Chandigarh came in 1966 as the result of the reorganization of the State of Punjab. In an attempt to placate Sikh aspirations, the state was divided into a ‘rump’ Punjab in the north-west and Haryana in the south-east. Some territory was incorporated into the northern, mountain territory (now a state) of Himachal Pradesh. The city of Chandigarh was to continue as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana. The Secretariat, the High Court and the Assembly building (the bicameral legislature of the old state was replaced by two unicameral legislatures, to occupy the two chambers available) are now shared by the new states. To avoid conflict, and pending a final settlement of the city’s status, Chandigarh was made a Union Territory, the responsibility of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, on 1 November 1966. The Chief Commissioner was redesignated the Administrator until 1984. Then, on 1 June of that year the Governor of Punjab was made the nominal head of the territorial executive—ex officio, the Administrator of Chandigarh. The actual head of the Administration, the chief commissioner, continued functioning under the title of Adviser to the Administrator. This arrangement was introduced for a transitional period of two months, but a final decision on the status of Chandigarh was avoided, and the situation has continued indefinitely. The Adviser (currently, Neeru Nanda, the ninth to hold the post since 1984) exercises delegated powers, including all financial powers, and supervises an Administration headed by six secretaries. The Union Territory has no legislature, but elects one member of the Indian Parliament, to the Lok Sabha or lower house. That seat is currently held by P.K.Bansal, a member of the main national opposition party, Congress. Economy Chandigarh is a prosperous city, the capital of two of the country’s wealthier states, although its economy is not merely dependent on the government services for which it was built. In 1999/2000, in real terms, the net domestic product of the Union Territory


grew by 10.7% on the previous financial year, to reach 40,600.0m. rupees at current prices (compared to 13,887.9m. in 1993/94, also at current prices). Growth rates had been sufficient to offset and, indeed, exceed the massive rate of population growth (see above) so, although income per head had reached 46,347 rupees, in current prices, by 1999/2000, in real terms this was one-half as much again as in 1993/94. This figure for net domestic product per head was the highest for any state or territory in India, being over seven times that for Bihar, the poorest state in the Union. Chandigarh being a small area, and planned from the start, infrastructure is very well developed, and the city also enjoys good links with Delhi and the neighbouring states (there is a railway station and an airport). At March 2001 there were 64 km (40 miles) of national highway in the Union Territory, 139 km of city roads and 73 km of rural or link roads. The total road length, all highways and byways, was given as 1,489 km. The city and all the villages not only have access to an electricity supply, but also have public lighting, although power is almost entirely imported (Chandigarh possesses a 3.5% share of the total generation of the Bhakra hydroelectric project on the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border). There is also a well developed communications infrastructure, with telephone connections doubling in 10 years, to 181,814 by 2000/01. Together with the high literacy rate (81.8% in 2001, compared to 77.8% in 1991), this puts Chandigarh in a good position to exploit the ‘new’ or internet economy. About one-fifth of Chandigarh’s land area is cultivable, and most of that is irrigated, so agriculture is able to make a small economic contribution to the territory, as well as providing a protective ‘green belt’ around the city. The main crop is wheat (3,375 metric tons in 2000/01, rather less than in previous years), followed by maize (500 metric tons) and paddy rice (350 metric tons). Sugarcane is also grown, as well as fruits and vegetables. According to official estimates, livestock numbers in the territory have fallen (to 33,000 head by 2000/01, from some 46,000 one decade earlier), although milk production has increased. About 28% of the territory was woodland (none of it very dense) in 2001, all of it reserved or otherwise publicly owned. Chandigarh was never designed to be an industrial city, although the planners did eventually include an Industrial Area of 597 ha (1,475 acres), realizing that it could contribute and add variety to the local economy. At the end of 2000 there were 528 factories registered in the city, slightly down on the previous year, all but 15 (for example, hosiery and knitting-machine needles, electric meters, antibiotics) of which were smallscale. In 1998/99 this sector had produced net income worth 1,428.7m. rupees, from 531 factories, but this was compared to 1,500.7m. rupees in the previous year. That year the factories had employed 25,340 people. Food products are an important component of industrial activity in Chandigarh, but the city is also strong in light engineering, and produces electronic equipment, machine tools, pharmaceuticals, plastic goods and leather goods, among other things. However, the small-scale industrial units are dominated by the tractor industry of the surrounding regions, some 40% of them being ancillary to this activity. Services dominate the economy of Chandigarh, government activity (the original purpose of the city) still being important. According to a census of government employees by the Administration of Chandigarh in 2001, the city employed 21,816 (which included information such as that, of the total, 64% were Hindus and 34% Sikhs), which was a considerable saving on the 28,834 employed at the peak in 1993. However,

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as the capital city of two states, and an important centre for a third, it is also a commercial and financial hub, serving as the headquarters of a number of companies, banks and other organizations, as well as a transport node. Tourism is encouraged by the local Administration, its efforts to market the city as a useful centre for foreign tourists witnessed by the significant increase in the average length of stay for such visitors in 2000. However, the number of tourists remains relatively small, with most domestic visitors present for business purposes (42% in 1993) and foreign tourists to sightsee (55%). In 2000 the steadily rising number of visitors reached 486,355 from within India and 14,612 from abroad, having risen from 251,932 and 6,147, respectively, over 10 years. The city is a unique example of the urban vision of the Swiss architect, Le Corbusier, but is also readily accessible to the other sites in the historic region of Punjab. Directory Administrator: Lt Gen. (retd) J.F.R.JACOB (Governor of Punjab ex officio); Office of the Governor of Punjab (Administrator of Chandigarh), Raj Bhavan, Vigyan Path, Chandigarh; tel. (172) 743860. Adviser to the Administrator: NEERU NANDA; Office of the Adviser, Administration of Chandigarh, Chandigarh; tel. (172) 742001. Member of Parliament (in New Delhi) for Chandigarh: PAWAN KUMAR BANSAL (Indian National Congress); 64, Sector 28A, Chandigarh 160 002; tel. (172) 657565; fax (172) 641418; e-mail [email protected]. Note: The administrations of Haryana and Punjab are also based in the city.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli

The Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli consists of two enclaves near the west coast, in the north of the great Indian peninsula. Formerly part of Portuguese India and administered from the nearby coastal town of Daman (Daman and Diu), the much smaller enclave of Dadra is entirely surrounded by Gujarat state, while Nagar Haveli, just south of Dadra, straddles the border between Gujarat and Maharashtra to the south. Nagar Haveli, in turn, houses a small enclave of Gujarat, in the north-west, just south of Silvassa, the territorial capital. Acquired by India in 1954 and formally annexed as a Union Territory in 1961, in advance of the occupation of the rest of Portuguese India, Dadra and Nagar Haveli occupies an area of 491 sq km (190 sq miles), making it the third-largest of India’s territories—much smaller than the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Delhi, slightly larger than Pondicherry. Dadra and Nagar Haveli lies on the edge of the coastal plain, where the land rises towards the lower slopes of the Western Ghats, a lush, forested and well watered land. The territory lies about 30 km (19 miles) inland from the coast, where the main river through Nagar Haveli, the Daman Ganga, debouches into the sea at Daman. Dadra and Nagar Haveli is subject to the influence of the south-west monsoons, so annual rainfall can

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often exceed 1,500 mm (60 inches), though most of it falls between June and October. The climate generally is tropical, but moderated by the proximity of the sea. Between the national censuses of 1991 and 2001, Dadra and Nagar Haveli recorded the second-largest rate of increase in population of any state or territory in India, the total rising from 138,477 to 220,451. The population density in 2001 was 449.0. Most of the population is registered as tribal (89% in 1991, although, when the results of the more recent census are published, immigration is likely to have reduced this proportion). The largest groups are the Konkani peoples (who speak languages of an Indo-Aryan— Southern classification), notably the Kokna, but also Konkan and Katkar, and the Bhil peoples (Bhils and an offshoot, the Dhodia or Dubli, who speak an Indo-Aryan—Central tongue). A smaller tribe represented in the territory is the Warli or Varli, who speak another Indo-Aryan (Southern) language. Bhili or Bhilodi was spoken by 55.0% of the population in 1991, according to the census, Gujarati by 21.9% and Konkani by 12.3%. Hindi and English are also spoken. The overwhelming majority of the population are Hindus (95.5% in 1991—only slightly less than the most Hindu state in India, Himachal Pradesh), but there are small Muslim, Christian and other communities Dadra and Nagar Haveli is the least urbanized (8.5% in 1991) of any state or territory in India. Silvassa (taken from the Portuguese for forest, selva), which has a population over 14,000, is the largest town and the capital of the territory. It is located in the north-west of Nagar Haveli. A few kilometres to the north, through a short stretch of Gujarat, lies the town of Dadra, which, with its immediate environs, constitutes about 2% of the territory’s area. Traditionally, the territory consists of 72 villages, but one, Kothar, is submerged, and four others are partly submerged, owing to the construction of the irrigation project on the Daman Ganga. History The region in which Dadra and Nagar Haveli lies, being south of the Narmada, has a history more connected to that of central and southern India, particularly Maharashtra, although it has long been exposed to influences from Gujarat. However, the territory itself has figured little in the ebb and flow of events when under the influence of the Mauryas, the Satavahanas, the Vakatakas and Guptas, or the Chalukyas of Gujarat. Its fate has long been linked to that of nearby Daman (now the capital of the Union Territory of Daman and Diu) and it enters modern history as a possession of the Marathas from the 18th century. However, European influences were already being felt in Mughal India, with the English and Dutch in Surat (now Gujarat) to the north and the English soon to be established in Bombay (now Mumbai, Maharashtra) to the south. Meanwhile, the Portuguese had added Daman to their Indian possessions in 1559. By the middle of the 18th century the Portuguese were coming into occasional conflict with the Marathas, but the latter resolved to try to secure their friendship (as the Marathas preferred to concentrate their efforts against the British) by settling the aggregated revenue of 12,000 rupees from a group of villages (now Dadra and Nagar Haveli) onto the Portuguese. This award was made on 17 December 1779, when Federico Guilherme de Souza was Governor of Portuguese India. Although the Portuguese enclaves were soon to be surrounded by British territory, the authorities in Daman continued to administer the


inland pockets of Dadra and of Nagar Haveli into the 20th century and past the independence of the rest of India in 1947. The incorporation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli into independent India preceded that of the rest of the Portuguese domain. Nationalist volunteers, both from within the territory and from without, combined to ‘liberate’ the villages in 1954. The authority of the Portuguese Governor-General, Paulo Bénard-Guedes, was rejected in Dadra on 24 July, while a similar insurrection in the larger part of the territory saw a pro-Indian administration installed in Nagar Haveli on 2 August. The Indian Parliament regularized this de facto occupation by the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which incorporated Dadra and Nagar Haveli into the country as a Union Territory on 11 August 1961. The Portuguese Governor-General, Manuel António Vassalo e Silva, in Goa, as well as the metropolitan Government, protested this action, but soon had to deal with the Indian occupation of the rest of Portuguese India later that very year. Goa, Daman and Diu were themselves formally annexed in March 1962. but Dadra and Nagar Haveli remained a distinct territory, although practical considerations meant that its administration was again linked to that of the others (particularly Daman). Portugal’s objections to the annexation were maintained by the International Court of Justice (which is based in the Hague, Netherlands), but it recognized the loss of its former possessions in 1974. The first Administrator of the new Union Territory, Tumkur Sivasankar, was appointed to his post in 1962. The 13th incumbent of the post, O.P.Kelkar, has held office since 1999; he, like his predecessors, is also the Administrator of Daman and Diu (which became a separate territory upon Goa gaining statehood in 1987), and is based in Daman. The territory is represented in the national Parliament by its elected member of the Lok Sabha, currently an independent, Mohanbhai Delkar. In August 1989 it was announced that a Pradesh Council would replace the advisory Varishtha Panchayat; there is also elected local government. Economy Dadra and Nagar Haveli remains largely undeveloped, its population predominantly tribal and its economy agricultural. The Administration does not prepare estimates of domestic product and no recent figures are available. Development projects often take place in conjunction with other administrations, such as industrial development and housing schemes together with Daman and Diu or the Daman Ganga irrigation project with Daman and Diu and with Gujarat. The total road length in the territory is only about 534 km (332 miles), although 87% of that is surfaced (1998 figures)—68 villages are connected by all-weather roads. The nearest railhead is at Vapi (Gujarat), 17 km northwest of the territorial capital, on the line from Mumbai (formerly Bombay, in Maharashtra) to Ahmedabad (Gujarat). While there is an airstrip at Daman (Daman and Diu), almost 30 km to the north-west, the nearest domestic airport of any size is at Surat (Gujarat), about 120 km from Silvassa, and the nearest international airport at Mumbai, 180 km away. All the villages in Dadra and Nagar Haveli are electrified, but all power is imported (purchased from the Gujarat State Electricity Board). The literacy rate had risen to 60.0% in 2001 (from only 40.7% in 1991), although this also reflects the level of

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immigration from more developed parts of India, rather than just a dramatic improvement in the education of the local tribal population. Agriculture is the principal economic activity of most of the population. About 230 sq km of land is under cultivation and production has been aided by the introduction of irrigation schemes since the 1960s (the most recent being the major project on the Daman Ganga river, involving the Madhuban Dam near Dudhni). The main food crop is paddy (kharif), and pulses, ragi, nagli and other hill-millets are grown as well, as are wheat, sugarcane and vegetables. Fruit production includes mango, chiku, lychees and bananas. With forests covering almost another 200 sq km, there is potential for further primary economic activity, and the tribes that depend heavily on this resource have been granted exclusive rights to collecting minor forest products free of charge. There is little industry in the Union Territory, although there is some smallscale development of it, helped by government support and tax concessions. Only traditional craftsmen operated in the territory up to 1965, until a small co-operative industrial estate was then established. Since then, the authorities have developed three small estates, at Silvassa, Masat and Khadoli. At March 1998 industry employed 18,414 people. There were 285 medium-sized industrial enterprises, in, for example, textiles, automobile parts, plastics, electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and soaps and detergents. Cottage, village and other small industries numbered 716, mainly of handicrafts, increasingly aimed at the tourist trade. Although long dependent on government aid, the territory, with its climate and extensive forest reserves, has been growing its tourist industry. The natural environment is enhanced by a number of garden attractions, such as the Island Garden on Lake Vanganga, the Hirwa Van on the road from Silvassa to Dadra or the riverside park in Silvassa itself. The capital also has a tribal museum and a small zoological garden, while other places usually visited include Khanvel (Van Vihar) and Dudhni. The overall number of tourists still remains low, but the industry is an important contributor to the tertiary sector, as even government activity is limited, transportation small and services such as banking very undeveloped, particularly outside Silvassa. A few major projects occasionally contribute to construction activity. Directory Administrator: O.P.KELKAR (Administrator of Daman and Diu ex officio); Office of the Administration of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Paryatan Bhavan, Moti Daman, Daman 396 210; tel. (260) 254700; fax (260) 254775. Collector of Dadra and Nagar Haveli: PUNIYA S.SRIVASTHAVA; Office of the Collector of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, c/o Daman Secretariat, Daman 396 210. Member of Parliament (in New Delhi) for Dadra and Nagar Haveli: MOHANBHAI DELKAR (Independent); Constituency Office, opposite Cottage Hospital, Sanjibhai Delkar Road, Silvassa; tel. (2638) 42796.

Daman and Diu

The Union Territory of Daman and Diu consists of two enclaves on the north-western coast of India, flanking the mouth of Gujarat’s Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay). Both districts of the territory are bordered by Gujarat state and lie on the Arabian Sea. Daman and Diu, together with Goa, together constituted a Union Territory formed after the annexation of Portuguese India in 1961. Goa became a separate state of the Indian Union on 30 May 1987, when Daman and Diu remained as a territory administered by the central authorities. Daman (formerly Damão), on the east side of the Gulf of Khambhat, is the larger district, having an area of 72 sq km (28 sq miles). Some 786 km (488 miles) to the west, and a little north, is the island district of Diu, covering 40 sq km. The total

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territorial area of 112 sq km, therefore, is slightly smaller than that of urban Chandigarh, with only Lakshadweep, of all India’s territories, smaller than Daman and Diu. Daman lies on peninsular India’s western coast, in the north, not far inside Gujarat’s border with Maharashtra. Inland, where the coastal plains begin to rise towards the Western Ghats, is the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which was administered from Daman as part of Portuguese India until 1954—the territories again share many links. Both the district and the town of Daman are severed by the Damanganga river, which flows from the south-east and the direction of Nagar Haveli. Thus, the smaller part of Daman district lies to the south and west of the river (its southern border defined by the River Kalai), although the old fortified town of Moti, or Greater, Daman is also on the southern bank. It is connected across the river by a bridge with Lesser or Nani Daman. The northern border is along the Kolak river. Daman lies on fertile plains and rises to only about 12 m (39 feet) above sea level. The island of Diu and its two tiny mainland enclaves around Ghoghla and Simbor (the latter just over 20 km eastwards down the coast), lie on the south-facing coast of Gujarat, in Saurashtra, the island lying off the southern tip of the Kathiawad peninsula, at the mouth of the River Chasi. The channel separating Diu from the mainland gives way to the tidal marshes and saltpans of the northern part of the island, which is about 13 km long (west-east) and 3 km wide, rising to 29 m, with a southern coastline of limestone cliffs, rocky coves and a number of beaches. The island is pitted with old quarries and is barren and arid, although there is some wooded land, featuring the branching hoka palms (introduced from Africa) and coconut trees. The island is connected to the mainland by two bridges, the main one at the eastern end, just outside Diu Town, which ends in a foothold of the territory mainly occupied by Ghoghla village (known as Ahmedpur Mandvi on the other side of the Gujarat border). Both Daman and Diu have tropical climates, tempered by their coastal locations, with minimum temperatures at any time of year averaging about 20°C (68°F) and average maximums ranging between 26°C (79°F) and 36°C (97°F). Both districts are subject to the south-west monsoons, and annual rainfall can often exceed 1,500 mm (60 inches). Most of it falls between June and October, with Daman receiving rather more (up to 1,900 mm) than the more northerly Diu. In 2001, according to the provisional results of the 2001 census, the population of Daman and Diu was 158,059. This was an increase of more than one-half compared with 1991 (when the total was 101,586), the third-highest rate of growth in India, pushing the average population density up significantly, to 1,411.2 per sq km by 2001. Daman and Diu had the lowest sex ratio (females per 1,000 males) of any state or territory in India in 2001, at 709 (compared to a national average of 933). About three-fifths of the territorial population live in and around Daman (61% in 1991), the rest in Diu. The people essentially share the language, culture and religion of the neighbouring parts of Gujarat, although there is still some sign of the long association with Portugal. In 1991 91.1% of the population of the two enclaves spoke Gujarati, but Portuguese, English, Hindi and Marathi are also used. Likewise, 87.8% confessed the Hindu faith, although long periods of rule by other faith groups have left a legacy of Muslims (8.9%) and Christians (2.9%— almost entirely Roman Catholics). Other religious communities are also represented, and Diu enjoys the distinction of being where the Parsis first arrived in India.


The population of Daman and Diu was defined as 36.3% urban at the March 2001 census (down from 46.8% in 1991), Diu being more urbanized than Daman. The territorial capital is Daman, in the larger and more populous district of the same name, but the larger town in the territory is Diu. There are only the two districts. History The advent of Portuguese rule in the 16th century was increasingly to insulate Daman and Diu from the historical developments shared by the rest of India for some 450 years. Prior to that, the two towns shared the fates of those areas of Gujarat in which they lay, with Diu claiming the more venerable history. Daman, now the capital of the territory, was a name that appeared in the first century of the Christian era, as applied to the Damanganga river. The area around Daman originally formed the heartland of the county of Lata, variously falling under the influence of dynasties based to the north, in modern Gujarat, or to the south, in Maharashtra. In 1262 a Rajput prince, Ramsingh, established his dynasty in the locality, his successors siting their capital at Ramnagar, inland, at the foot of the Western Ghats in the next century. By the 16th century the area was tributary to Gujarat, which was to cede the town that had grown up at the mouth of the Damanganga and its hinterland to the Portuguese. Diu had fallen under the Portuguese earlier in the century, but had been the object of local power struggles long before that. There is mention of the island in the Mahabharata, where it is called Mani Nagar, a Yadava territory, and it served briefly to shelter the exiled Pandavas. In Hindu mythology Diu was known as Jallandharkshetra, after its demon-king, Jallandhar, who harassed and was killed by Lord Vishnu. There is still a famous temple of Jallandhar in the south of the island. In more historical terms, Diu was an important trading post in the time of the Mauryas and a valued possession of the Kshatrapas (Shaka, or Scythian, dynasts known as the ‘Western Satraps’), who also held, more tenuously, Daman in the early first millennium of the common or Christian era. Later regional dynasties to hold Diu were to include the Chavdas and their later overlords, the Chalukyas. Still later, Diu was coveted by the Sultanate of Delhi and, as a cause of conflict, was certainly fortified by this time, and the Rajput princes of Gujarat did not succumb until the beginning of the 14th century. The island was then only to leave Muslim rule to lie under a Roman Catholic sovereignty, in the 16th century. The decay of the Sultanate allowed the ascendancy of powerful marcher lords, who maintained the vigour of Islam’s expansion in the subcontinent, and Gujarat was among a number of independent sultanates established at the beginning of the 15th century. Another such proto-state was Kandesh, a narrow strip of land to the south of Gujarat, which briefly encompassed Daman, but soon succumbed to its more powerful northern neighbour. One of the most illustrious sultans of Gujarat, Mahmud Shah or Mahmud ‘Bergarha’ (‘Two Forts’ or ‘the Beard’, 1459–1511) secured the union of Saurashtra, wherein lies Diu, with his mainland patrimony. Ascendancy over another sultanate, Malwa, to the east, was secured soon after Mahmud Berghara’s reign, when religious dissension involved the forces of Gujarat, which seized Malwa’s capital, Mandu, in 1518 and 1531. However, this rivalry permitted the Government of Gujarat to yield to


Portuguese distractions, although this was more so from later in the 1530s, when it faced the threat of new hegemony based in Delhi, the recently installed Mughals. The Portuguese established their first base at Cochin (Kochi in Kerala) in 1503 and acquired Goa in 1510, the core of their ‘State of India’. The European advent to the Indian Ocean trade, hitherto dominated by Arab and other Muslim traders, was to signal a fundamental threat to the traditional, land-based kingdoms. Having started in southern India, at the expense of the Deccan sultanates and Vijayanagar, the Portuguese then began eyeing the lucrative trade of Gujarat, which enjoyed strong links with Mameluke Egypt. Gujarat sustained several Portuguese attacks from 1518. Diu and Daman, at the mouth of the prosperous Gulf of Cambay (Khambhat), soon became particular objects of covetousness. Daman attracted Portuguese interest in 1523, and then Diu was attacked in 1529, and ravaged. The island’s defenders abandoned it in advance of another attack in 1531, although another assault in 1533 was repulsed. Their appetite whetted, the Portuguese began to have ambitions to establish Diu as their northern station. Gujarat, under Ahmed Shah, was beginning to feel the threat of the Mughals and, on 5 October 1535, entered into a treaty with the Governor of the ‘State of India’, who by 1541 had built on Diu what was to become one of the Portuguese empire’s most important forts in India. On 10 November 1546 the Portuguese finally seized Diu for their own. Although also now established at Bassein, near what is now Mumbai (Maharashtra), the Portuguese felt the need for another base to face Diu across the Gulf of Cambay. By the 1550s they had determined on Daman, a prosperous trading town. Eventually, a regency council agreed to cede the territory to the Portuguese, in return for a share of the receipts from Diu, but the Government lacked the authority to enforce much against the wishes of the powerful local commanders of the decaying Gujarati sultanate. Daman, with a garrison of 3,000, was captained by an Abyssinian (Ethiopian) Muslim, contemptuous of the concessions made for a king in his minority, and the Portuguese were given leave to help themselves. Early in 1559 the Governor in Goa, Constantino de Braganza, assembled a fleet and sailed into Daman, claiming it easily for the Portuguese Crown against disheartened and factionridden opposition. Simbor, a fort down the coast from Diu, in 1722, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli in 1779. The latter was settled on the Portuguese by the Marathas, who wished to concentrate their contentions against the rising power of the British. However, the amount of territory and influence falling to the East India Company was steadily curtailing the commerce of Daman and Diu. Finally, the British moved against the lucrative opium trade to Africa that went through Portugal’s Indian territories. Although the wealth of Daman and Diu was long gone by the mid-20th century and the partition and independence of the surrounding territories of British India, Portugal was reluctant to negotiate away its own Indian possessions. In 1954 local agitators and nationalists from India itself wrested control of Dadra and Nagar Haveli from the Portuguese—these enclaves still remain a distinct territory within India, although once again connected with Daman in the practical terms of administration. Finally, the central Government having lost patience with the negotiations, Indian troops moved into Daman and Diu, and Goa, on 18–19 December 1961. A military Governor, Kenneth Candeth, was installed, holding office until June 1962 (Goa, Daman and Diu became a Union Territory a few months earlier, in March, under legislation that formalized the status retroactively to 20 December 1961). The Portuguese ‘State of India’, one of the longest


lasting of the polities incorporated into modern, independent India, thus came to an end (the annexation was recognized by Portugal in 1974). When Goa became a full state of the Union on 30 May 1987, the ‘rump’ of the old territory became a separate entity as the current Union Territory of Daman and Diu. The present Administrator of Daman and Diu (the sixth since 1987), O.P. Kelkar, has held office since 1999. He is also the Administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, but resides in Daman. The Union Territory’s chief elected representative is its Congress member of the national Parliament, Dhaya Bhai Vallabhbhai Patel, although there is also a Pradesh Council as well as elected local government. Patel was first elected in 1999, winning almost one-half of the votes cast, and defeating the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member, Devji Bhai J.Tandel. He had opposed Tandel as an independent in the previous general election, being adopted by the Indian National Congress for the 1999 ballot (Congress had only managed to displace the BJP member in the 1996–97 Parliament, hitherto the only interruption to Tandel’s tenure since he was first elected in 1989). Economy Particularly compared to past centuries of trading pre-eminence, Daman and Diu is not a prosperous territory, being dependent on fishing and, increasingly, tourism. Its centrally administered status does mean that it has access to government development funds and that it is an attractive place to visit for those from ‘dry’ Gujarat wishing an alcoholic drink (i.e. it has not banned the sale of alcohol). Although neither part of the territory is on the main rail and road networks, both Daman and Diu are easily accessible from them. The main road up the western coast from Mumbai (formerly Bombay, in Maharashtra) to Ahmedabad (Gujarat) lies only 14 km (just under nine miles) from Daman, and the nearest railhead is at Vapi (Gujarat), 13 km to the east. Diu lies just 8 km from the highway system, inland at Una (Gujarat) and a similar distance from the nearest railhead, at the port of Delwada (Gujarat) to the east (metre gauge). The total length of surfaced road in Daman is 191 km and in Diu is 70 km. Both Daman (just north-east of Nani Daman) and Diu (near Nagoa) have small airports. All the villages of the Union Territory have access to an electricity supply, mainly from central-government power stations, with Daman having three sub-stations and Diu one. The literacy rate in 2001 was 81.1% (up from 71.2% in 1991). Agriculture is not a major activity of the territory, with only 1,121 ha (2,770 acres) under cultivation, almost three-quarters of that in the district around Daman. Field and garden crops are grown, including rice and other grains, coconut, sugarcane, vegetables and fruits. There are no forests of any significance in Daman and Diu, but, as established ports, both towns support fishing industries. Industrial development is limited. In 1998 there were 1,334 small-scale industrial enterprises based in Daman and Diu, most of them in Daman. The Omnibus Industrial Development Corporation, established by the Government for the benefit of Daman and Diu and of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, has set up two industrial areas in Daman, in addition to the units based at Dabhel, Bhimpore and Kadaiya. Handicrafts and some processing of agricultural and fisheries products are the main activities, although there are attempts to generate businesses based on new technologies.


Traditionally, both Daman and Diu had economies based on trade, although the last days of significant wealth and power were in the first part of the 19th century. Although neither town is now a major port, services are still an important sector of the economy. There is some tourist trade generated by visitors interested in the Portuguese heritage (the great forts of Moti Daman or Diu and Panikot, the churches and older buildings generally), the beaches or, for instance, the Jallandhar temple on Diu. However, the main generator of visitor numbers is the state law in Gujarat forbidding the sale of alcoholic beverages—Daman and Diu do not fall under this regulation and both are attractive to those in neighbouring areas wishing to evade the restrictions. Restaurants and bars are, therefore, numerous and flourishing. In 1997/98 tourist arrivals in Daman numbered 438, 340 and in Diu 150,000. Directory Administrator: O.P.KELKAR (also Administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli); Office of the Administration of Daman and Diu, Paryatan Bhavan, Moti Daman, Daman 396 210; tel. (260) 254700; fax (260) 254775. Collector of Daman: VIJAY KUMAR; Office of the Collector of Daman, c/o Daman Secretariat, Daman 396 210; tel. (260) 254698. Collector of Diu: (vacant); Office of the Collector of Diu, c/o Daman Secretariat, Daman 396 210; tel. (2875) 52111 (Diu office); fax (2875) 52333. Member of Parliament (in New Delhi) for Daman and Diu: DAHYA BHAI V.PATEL (Indian National Congress); Constituency Office, 40A Ghalwad Falia, Dabhel, Nani Daman, Daman 396 210; tel. (236) 257777; fax (236) 253355; e-mail [email protected].

Delhi (National Capital Territory)

The National Capital Territory of Delhi is located in northern India, at the western end of the great Gangetic plain, where the land rises towards the watershed of the Ganges and the Indus and the historic province of the ancient Punjab. The National Capital Territory (NCT) is almost entirely surrounded by Haryana state, except on the east, where it faces across, or edges over, the River Yamuna towards Uttar Pradesh. The NCT was constituted by law in 1991, when the old Union Territory of Delhi (styled a ‘Part C state between 1950 and 1956) received enhanced status and a legislature. However, the city has been the capital of India since soon after the British announced it as such in 1911, actually inaugurating the ‘New’ Delhi in 1931. The NCT has an area of 1,483 sq km (572 sq miles). Delhi lies on the west bank of the Yamuna, although the NCT includes territory on the other side of the river. The city’s historic importance stems from its strategic location on the main route from the north-west into the Gangetic heartland of northern India, at the narrowest point between the Aravalli Hills (which reach up from the south-west, in Rajahstan) and the wall of the Himalayas to the north. The Delhi Ridge and the Yamuna

TERRITORIES (DELHI) 285

both descend from the north. The main city-building area lying between them, where the river swings east (and the Ridge slightly south-westwards) and then south again, before South Delhi spreads into the broadening area caused by a south-eastward course of the Yamuna. The capital area of New Delhi is centred on Vijay Chowk (Raisina Hill), dissected by the east-west Rajpath (King’s Way), which descends from the Rashtrapati Bhavan, lying on the flanks of the South Ridge, eastwards to the great memorial of India Gate. North of the Rajpath is Rajiv Chowk (Connaught Place), the commercial heart of Delhi, mid-way between the Rashtrapi Bhavan the Lal Qila (Red Fort) to the north-east. Between India Gate and the Yamuna are the old settlements of ancient Indraprasta and the Purana Qila (Old Fort). Southwards, beyond the railway lines, extend the burgeoning, newer suburbs dotted (from west to east) with the remnants of Lal Kot (the so-called first city, confusingly also meaning ‘red fort’), Qutb Minar (which marked the 12th-century Muslim conquest of Delhi), Jahanpanah and Siri (the fourth and second cities), and, a lowering citadel on a rocky outcrop of the Ridge, Tughlaqabad (third city). To the north and east of New Delhi lies Shah Jahanabad (‘Old’ Delhi, the seventh city), dominated by the Lal Qila, and the mighty Jama Masjid (Friday Mosque). Across the river, the barren flood plain of the Yamuna now houses newer suburbs and industrial estates stretching eastwards towards the Hindan river and Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh). The city proper, therefore, is located in the south-eastern third of the NCT, while in the south-east the territory extends towards Gurgaon (Haryana) and the north consists of farmland and dormitory settlements. The NCT has an average altitude of 239 m (784 feet) above sea level and, lying in the centre of the landmass of northern India, an extreme climate. Tropical conditions are moderate in the winter months (November-February), while the summer is hot, humid and, in August-September, deluged by monsoon rains. The mean minimum temperature is 4°C (39°F), but daytime temperatures in winter tend to range between 21°C and 30°C (70°–86°F), while the mean maximum temperature reaches 46° C (115°F) in May. Rainfall is heaviest in July (over 200 mm or 8 inches) and, slightly less, in August and then September. The population of the NCT in 2001 was provisionally put at 13,782,976, a considerable increase on the 9,420,644 of 1991. This decadal rate of growth was over twice the national average and greater than that of any of the states except Nagaland. Among the territories, only Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu exceeded this rate of growth, while Chandigarh almost matched it. The population density, the highest in India, was 9,294 per sq km in 2001. Originally a Muslim, Urdu-speaking city, upon Partition Delhi became a predominantly Hindu city full of refugees from the old Punjab. However, Hindi is the main language of the overwhelming majority (81.6%, according to the 1991 census), although Punjabi (7.9%) and Urdu (5.4%) are still relatively important. English, as a language of government and of commerce, is obviously still very widely spoken in the national capital. Hinduism is acknowledged as the religion of 83.7% of the population (1991), Islam 9.4% and Sikhs 4.8%. There are also small communities of Jains, Christians, Buddhists and Bahá’is (the Lotus Temple of the last looms dramatically over South Delhi). Delhi is the most urbanized of all the states and territories of India (93.0% of the 2001 population were classed as urban), although this special municipality includes a fairly wide rural hinterland of just over one-half of the NCT’s area. The capital of the territory, as of


the nation, is New Delhi, but is not a densely populated city centre. Delhi (whose city proper, with 9,817,439 inhabitants in 2001, is the second-largest in India) is a major commercial and industrial centre and draws many of its workers from towns and cities in the surrounding areas of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. History Delhi is an ancient city, the seat of many empires, and now the national capital of the Republic of India. Long before it became the capital of Muslim emperors or of British India, it was a site powerful in Hindu legend. By the beginning of the first millennium BC the Aryans had moved eastwards from the Punjab and into the Yamuna-Ganges Doab, on the brink of spreading their arya varta heartland the length of the Ganges. There is archaeological evidence for the Aryan advance into this area, but no detail to substantiate Vedic tradition. The Doab formed the base of the Kura kingdom, the theatre for the great war described in the epic Mahabharata, and it was on the edge of this territory that the Pandavas were to found their new capital of Indraprasta, on the right bank of the Yamuna. Whatever the historicity of this tale, the site has proved attractive ever since. The ascertainable history of Delhi begins in AD 736, when a Rajput clan of modern Haryana, the Tomaras, founded a city here. This ‘first city’ was later named for the ‘red fort’ of Lal Kot, originally built in 1052 by Anangpal Tomara, in what was still a relatively unimportant town in northern India. In the mid-12th century another Rajput dynasty, the Chahamanas (Chauhans) of Ajmer, under Vigraha-raja, conquered Delhi and the land north to the Himalayas. Thus, when Prithviraj III ascended the throne of Ajmer in about 1177 he commanded the only significant Hindu bulwark against Muslim advance from the west. The potentate facing him across a partitioned Punjab was Mohammed of Ghor, who realized that only the Prithviraj’s Rajput confederacy stood between armies of Islam and their advance into the rich lands of the Gangetic plain and beyond. Refortified Delhi, its citadel now known as Qila Rai Pithaura (after the king), was the gateway to the rest of India. In 1191 it was Prithviraj III’s vassal in Delhi, Govinda-raja, who was reputedly most prominent in the first battle of Tarain (near Thanesar, in Haryana, about 150 km—93 miles—north of Delhi), when the Ghorid advance was halted. However, the second battle of Tarain in the following year witnessed the rout of the Rajputs and secured the fall of Delhi to Ghor’s Turkish general, Qutb-ud-din Aibak. By the end of the century Muslim armies were about to move into Bihar and Bengal. Meanwhile, Aibak renamed the ‘fort of king Prithviraj’ Lal Kot and, just to the south, began the construction of the Qutb Minar complex, notably the great minaret itself and also India’s oldest surviving mosque. With the death of his master of Ghor in 1206, Aibak founded what was to be known as the Slave Dynasty (to 1290) and an independent sultanate, based in Delhi. Under the second dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, the Khaljis, a new capital was founded by Ala-ud-din (1296–1313), to the north-west of Lal Kot, at Siri (near Hauz Khas). Under the longest lasting of the Sultanate’s dynasties, the Tughluqs (1320–1414), three more centres would be built: Tughluqabad, a mighty citadel well to the east of the other settlements, but which only served as the capital in the 1320s; Jahanpanah, sited between Lal Kot and Siri; and the ‘fifth city’, the first to move back towards Indraprasta and the Yamuna in the north-east, Ferozabad (the citadel, Feroz Shah Kotla, is just south of Old


Delhi). Tughluqabad was built by the first of the dynasty, Ghiyas ud-din Tughluq, whose murder was allegedly arranged by his son and successor, Jauna Muhammad bin Tughluq, a controversial monarch sometimes known as Muhammad Khuni or Bloody Muhammad, almost took the Delhi Sultanate to a pan-Indian empire and was also known for his education, erudition and patronage of the arts. However, the consequences of his expensive policies brought ruin to the state. One of these enterprises, in the early years of the reign, was the attempted removal of the capital to the craggy fort of Deogiri, now some 13 km to the north-west of Aurangabad (Maharashtra). This new centre, Daulatabad, was more strategically placed to subdue the more fractious parts of the empire, but such a move may also have been designed to disrupt the influence of the civil and religious establishment of Delhi (dominated by Turks, Persians and Afghans, and already alienated by Muhammad’s promotion of Indians and even non-Muslims). However, despite generous compensation and relocation incentives, in the end the Sultan had to resort to force to move the capital’s population. Indeed, he seems to have succeeded in emptying Delhi, obliging its population at least to begin the 1,400-km trek southwards. This seems to have happened around 1330, although the city was soon repopulated by settlement from other provinces and by returning natives. Thus, Tughluqabad and the settlement of Adilabad (built just to the south by Muhammad) lost their status and, when the court returned to Delhi, it was to the ‘fourth city’, Jahanpanah, also built by Muhammad. In 1351 he was succeeded by his cousin, Feroz Shah, whose capital was largely reused for the building of later cities. Meanwhile, just 10 years after the death of Feroz Shah, the Mongols under Timur ‘the Lame’ (Tamerlane or Tamburlaine) sacked Delhi, in 1398, slaughtering its Hindu inhabitants and looting it of its riches. The Delhi Sultanate limped on, the Saiyyids barely exercising their authority beyond the town of Palam (now the site of the city’s domestic airport), and the final, Lodi, dynasty (from 1445) achieving only a little more. Although the Sultanate failed to establish a lasting empire, it was succeeded by a number of powerful, Muslim-ruled but better-integrated polities throughout northern India and the Deccan, and it was also to provide an imperial capital to their more successful successors, the Mughals. Sikander, the second and most successful of the three Lodi Sultans of Delhi, restored some of his state’s power to the south, his main rival being the rajah of Gwalior (now in northern Madhya Pradesh). To celebrate his successes, in 1501 he founded a new seat at Agra (Uttar Pradesh), hitherto a small town just over 200 km downriver from Delhi, but which was to rival the old capital for over 150 years. His neglect of the north-west frontier, however, meant that India attracted the attention of the new Mongol ruler of Kabul (now in Afghanistan), Zahir-ud-din Muhammad or Babur (‘the Tiger’), whose territories neighboured the nominally Lodi province of the Punjab. Six exploratory incursions from 1505 and increasing dissension among the Lodi themselves resulted in a full-scale invasion by Babur in 1526. At the first of the great battles of Panipat (a town now in Uttar Pradesh which lies some 80 km due north of Delhi and just to the east of the Yamuna), Babur’s army, crucially in possession of firearms and artillery, routed the numerically superior Lodi forces and killed Sultan Ibrahim. Babur occupied Delhi, while his son and heir, Humayun, took possession of the capital, Agra, and the Lodi treasury. Babur laid the foundations for a Muslim, Mongol (Mughal) empire in India, and was the first of


the so-called Great Mughals. Humayun succeeded him in 1530, with Agra still as his main capital, but in 1534 he began the ‘sixth city’ of Delhi, Dinpanah, with the massive walls of what is now called the Purana Qila (Old Fort). The 15-year displacement of the Mughals by the Afghan Suri clan, led by Sher Khan (subsequently Sher Shah), who drove Humayun into exile in 1540, meant that Dinpanah was razed and replaced with a city named for the new ruler. Shergarh too was destroyed, when Humayun regained the throne in 1555. Humayun died in Delhi in the following year and the city was seized by remnants of the Suri, led by a Hindu, Hemu (‘Raja Vikramaditya’), reinforced by a massive force of elephants. This army met the Mughal regent at the fateful field of Panipat and, eventually, was routed, allowing the new emperor (Padshah) to enter a Delhi that would then remain firmly Mughal for almost two centuries. Although Humayun’s successor, Akbar, buried his father in Delhi, he did not return the capital here, but soon moved from Agra to his new city of Fatehpur Sikri (some 40 km west of Agra, also in Uttar Pradesh, but near the border with Rajahstan), to Lahore (now in Pakistan) and then back to Agra. The next Great Mughal, Jahangir (1605–27), remained in Agra until 1618, when the court moved to Kashmir, and his son, Shah Jahan, was the last emperor to be primarily based in Agra. In 1638 he founded a new city to the north of the others, Shahjahanabad, now called Old Delhi, which is dominated by his great mosque and the Red Fort enclosing a lavish palace and durbar halls. Although he built the famed Taj Mahal in Agra, and returned to that city in 1650 for the remainder of his life (which ended in 1666—initially confined there by illness and then by his son), it was Shah Jahan who ensured that from the reign of his successor, Aurangzeb (Alamgir I), onwards, Delhi would be identified as the imperial capital of the Mughals. The great days of the Mughals, however, were already ending. Particularly after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the Mughal empire was to experience decline and humiliation. The most spectacular sign of this was in 1739, when Delhi was sacked by the invading forces of Nadir Shah of Persia (now Iran), who took away enough booty (including the lavish Peacock Throne) to relieve his own subjects of taxation for three years. The city had already been raided by the Marathas in 1737 (who had first become actively involved in Mughal dynastic struggles in 1719, a year of five emperors), and suffered from the depredations of Ahmad Shah Abdali, an Afghan, from 1748 (the end of the surprisingly long reign of Muhammad Shah) onwards. Earlier, in what was to have a more sinister and more long-term impact, at the very end of 1716 the British had been granted a firman or imperial directive of privilege and standing within the Mughal empire. This was secured by the East India Company, which had sent a lavish embassy to Delhi, and the firman later justified its interventions and participation in imperial politics. In 1765, after being defeated by the British in the previous year, Shah Alam II (1759–1806) granted the Company the diwan or chancellorship of Bengal, effectively a grant of sovereignty under the Mughal order. The Marathas had again intervened in the imperial succession in Delhi in 1751–52 and their continued presence on that political stage was inevitable after they moved into the Punjab in the wake of Shah Abdali’s 1756 sack of Delhi. However, the Maratha confederacy again retook Delhi at the beginning of 1761 and moved to confront the Afghan forces at Panipat, only to be disastrously defeated. The emperor was left a dependent of the Nawab of Awadh (Oudh), both of them soon to be humbled by the


British. Delhi and its Mughal court (still presided over by Shah Alam, despite an attempted usurpation in 1788) then fell to the ‘protection’ of the great Maratha prince, Mahadji Scindia, who died in 1794. Maratha might began to disintegrate and finally succumbed to the British in the Second Maratha War of 1803–04. In 1803 a British commander, Gen. Gerard Lake, occupied Delhi, with its ageing occupant, Shah Alam II. Under the next two successors to the imperial titles, Shah Akbar II (1806–37) and Bahadur Shah II (1837–58), however, the Mughals were acknowledged merely as ‘Kings of Delhi’, English replaced Persian as the official language of empire in 1835 and, under Sir James Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie (Governor-General in 1848–56), it was suggested that the Mughal be recognized only as a prince and that his seat in the Red Fort be handed over to the British (the city was included in the North-Western Provinces from 1832). Such insecurities for even the most eminent of ruling houses under British patronage, as well as religious fears and a resentment of recent administrative and military reforms, provoked the Great Mutiny of 1857 and the ensuing ‘First War of Independence’. The Mutiny started at Meerut (Mirat, Uttar Pradesh), about 62 km north of Delhi, and the character of this civil war in northern India was to be transformed by the mutineers hastening to the old capital and placing the ineffectual Bahadur Shah Zafar at their head. British forces soon occupied the Ridge to the north of Delhi and exchanged fire with those holding the city itself, which finally fell to bloodshed and violence in September. Several of the Mughal royal family were murdered and the 82-year-old imperial figurehead was deposed, tried and exiled to the Burmese city of Rangoon (now Yangon, Myanmar), to die in obscurity in 1862. In 1858, as part of the settlement to pacify India, a royal proclamation declared a decision of the British Parliament whereby all rights and privileges previously enjoyed by the Honourable East India Company were to be resumed by the Crown. Queen Victoria, therefore, became Queen of India and her governor-general a viceroy (this took effect on 1 November). A new order incorporating directly administered territories (now including Delhi, part of the Punjab since 1858) and princely vassals was confirmed in 1876, when Victoria announced that British India was to be an Empire and she an Empress (Kaiser-iHind). In January of the following year this was solemnized at a durbar or assemblage to the north of the city, reportedly attended by 84,000, including 63 ruling princes and 300 titular rulers and local nobility. Another two such grand durbars were held here, in 1903, in honour of the coronation of a new King-Emperor, Edward VII (1901–10), and in 1911, for George V (1910–36), who attended in person. At the last, on 12 December, in an attempt to institutionalize the durbar tradition linking the Mughal to the British imperial successions, George V announced that the capital of India would be moved from Calcutta (now Kolkata, West Bengal) back to Delhi. A New Delhi was to be built and, once the transfer was formalized in the following year (when Delhi became a separate province), the apparatus of government began to move up the Ganges. To mark the relocation, the Viceroy, Charles Hardinge, Baron of Penshurst, made a ceremonial entry to Delhi on 23 December 1912, only to have a bomb thrown into his howdah by a nationalist protester. Lord and Lady Hardinge survived, as did the elephant bearing them. Otherwise, there was little drama to accompany the transfer (although rather less satisfaction in Bengal) and the duly constructed New Delhi was inaugurated on 9 February 1931. Until


then, the administration functioned largely from the Delhi Cantonment, the Civil Lines, just to the north of Shah Jahan’s ‘Old’ Delhi. The original site proposed for New Delhi, where George V laid the foundation stone in 1911, was also to the north of the old city, but this was soon deemed unsuitable. In 1913 the foundation stone was removed to Raisina Hill (now Vijay Chowk), where the new capital could fill the space between Old Delhi and the older Delhis to the south with widely spaced streets and the panoply of empire. The leading architect was Edwin Lutyens, who was to plan the city and to design the great, domed Viceroy’s House (now the Rashtrapati Bhavan), assisted by his friend, Herbert Baker, who was to be responsible for the Secretariat buildings and, after a representative assembly was introduced in 1919, a hastily incorporated chamber for the legislature (now known as Sansad Bhavan or Parliament House). Although both men favoured Western classical forms, there was considerable popular, political and even royal pressure to incorporate at least some Indian architectural features, and the results have variously been described as a ‘synthesis’ of styles or basically classical structures decorated with Indian motifs. As British rule approached its end, government had been firmly entrenched again in Delhi, in a city they effectively built for a successor state, although it was from the Red Fort in Old Delhi that Jawaharlal Nehru was to hail independence in 1947. The accompanying Partition of the old empire, however, was to transform Delhi from a predominantly Muslim city into a larger, mainly Hindu one, amid the exchanges of populations and the bloody inter-communal violence sweeping the neighbouring Punjab. The city was to experience an echo of such violence again, in 1984, following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, but this time directed against Sikhs. It was also, particularly in the 1990s, to experience another dramatic growth in population. Initially a province, then a ‘Part C’ state from 1950 (with a chief minister from 1952), upon the reorganization of India’s federal system in 1956, Delhi and its environs became a Union Territory (without a representative government) on 1 November. There has been some pressure within Delhi for the territory to achieve full statehood, but this is not popular in the rest of India. As a concession, in 1991 Parliament passed the National Capital Territory Act (took effect on 1 Feb 1992), the 69th Amendment to the Constitution of India, which gave Delhi special status and a Legislative Assembly. Under the new order, territorial elections were held and in 1993 Madan Lal Khurana of the rightist, Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became the first Chief Minister of the newly named National Capital Territory. In early 1996 he was succeeded by his party colleague, Sahib Singh Verma, who was displaced in October 1998, just weeks before the elections, by the first woman premier, Sushma Swaraj. However, she was not able to salvage the territorial elections for the BJP and, on 3 November, the Indian National Congress gained control of the city’s administration, when another woman, Sheila Dixit, became Chief Minister. This reverse has not prevented the Delhi BJP steadily increasing its representation in the lower house of the national Parliament, the Lok Sabha. In the 1999 general election all seven seats fell to the BJP, although the three Delhi seats in the upper house, the Rajya Sabha (members of which are indirectly elected, by the local assemblies), are from Congress. Delhi and Pondicherry are the only two territories to send representation to the upper house or to elect legislatures and a government.


Economy The National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi is the richest of the territories and states of India, with a varied economy still obviously strong in government services, but leavened by financial, commercial and industrial activities. In 1999/ 2000 the advance estimate of net domestic product was 490,400m. rupees, at current prices, a figure reached after reported real growth of 21.2% between 1991 and 1998 alone. With perhead income of 35,705 rupees in 1999/2000, the NCT was the richest of all India’s territorial units after Chandigarh. Always strategically located, the NCT enjoys a central location on the country’s road and rail networks, and has three airports, three railway stations and three bus stations. With a massive growth in population, traffic and pollution were increasing problems in the city, however, throughout the 1990s. Problems remain into the 2000s, but, since 1998, after judicial and government intervention, falls in levels of pollution have been recorded, although Delhi remains the most polluted city in the world (in terms of suspended particulate matter). One contributory factor has been the enforced conversion of buses, taxis and autorickshaws to consume compressed natural gas rather than diesel, although there have been problems in supply. The NCT generates less than one-half of the electricity it needs (all from thermal plants), but although demand is increasing the city can afford to import the rest from central-government plants and neighbouring states. The literacy rate in Delhi rose from 75.3% of the population in 1991 to 81.8% in 2001. Agriculture is not an important contributor to the economy of the NCT. Although wheat is still the major food crop, vegetables and fruits, and dairy and poultry farming are now encouraged as more commercial, given the nearness of a major urban centre to supply. Delhi is the largest centre in India for small industries, but also has larger concerns. In 1996 there were over 126,000 industrial units registered in the NCT, manufacturing goods worth 63,100m. rupees and employing 1.14m. people. By the end of the decade, however, the city authorities were favouring ‘high technology’ industries in electronics, computer software and the communications sectors. These depended on skilled workforces and were less polluting. Moreover, in the post-1998 drive against pollution, many thousands of small, but illegal, industrial units were closed down by government order. Products currently made in the NCT include audiovisual equipment, razor blades, lightengineering manufactures and automobile parts, sports goods, textiles and leather working, and chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The city is the largest commercial centre in northern India, its status as the national capital not only attracting government expenditure on the central administration but activity from companies and financial institutions siting headquarters or main offices there. Delhi is also a major transport node, both of goods and of people. Many visitors are tourists, often high-spending foreign tourists, who start trips to India in the city or wish to visit local or nearby sights from its imperial legacies.


Directory Lieutenant-Governor: VIJAY KUMAR KAPOOR; c/o Office of the Government of Delhi, Delhi Secretariat, I.P.Estate, New Delhi 110 002; tel. (11) 2525022; fax (11) 2937099. Chief Minister: SHEILA DIXIT (Indian National Congress); AB-17, Mathura Road, New Delhi; tel. (11) 2933161; e-mail [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: CH.PREM SINGH; F-301, Lado Sarai, Mehrauli, New Delhi; tel. (11) 3890420; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 70 mems: Congress (I) 51; Bharatiya Janata Party 15; Janata Dal 2; independents 2.

Lakshadweep

The Union Territory of Lakshadweep, until 1973 known as the Laccadive, Minicoy and Aminidivi Islands, lies in the Arabian Sea off the west coast of southern India, stretched across similar latitudes to the State of Kerala. Closer still, south of a maritime international border and the Eight Degrees Channel, is the Maldive Islands. The territory consists not of the ‘100, 000 islands’ suggested by the name (and, historically, probably also referred to the Maldives), but of 12 atolls, three reefs and five submerged banks. Another suggested origin of the name is that the islands were a landmark target (laksh) for ancient navigators across the Arabian Sea. Lakshadweep achieved its present, centrally


administered status in 1956, when it was separated from the State of Madras (now Tamil Nadu). It is the smallest of all India’s territories or states, with a land area of only 32 sq km (12.4 sq miles), although this somehow manages to enclose 4,200 sq km of lagoon waters (including open reefs, etc.) and to be strewn across 20,000 sq km of territorial waters. The largest of the 10 permanently inhabited islands is Minicoy (Maliku—4.4 sq km), followed by Kavaratti (3.6 sq km) and Kadmat (3.1 sq km). Androth, at 2.8 sq km, is the next largest inhabited island, although when bracketed with surrounding atolls into one of the nine units in Lakshadweep used, for instance, in the provisional census results of 2001, the Androth group had the largest land area, at 4.84 sq km. As single islands, Agatti (2.7 sq km) and Amini (2.6 sq km) follow in the size ranking among the inhabited islands, while the smallest one is Bitra (0.1 sq km), which can often disappear from separate enumeration (usually included with its neighbour to the east, the next smallest inhabited island, Chetlat). The territory contains India’s only coral atolls and consists of Minicoy, one of the largest islands, but isolated south of the Nine Degree Channel, roughly on the latitude of the Keralan capital of Thiruvananthapuram, and of the Laccadive Islands. The Laccadives are themselves grouped into: the southern, Cannanore Islands, which are roughly on a latitude with Kochi (Cochin), a port of Kerala; a central group around the island of Kavaratti (containing the capital); and the northern Amindivi Islands, facing Kozhikode or Calicut (Kerala). A few more reefs and banks straggle northwards. Minicoy is 183 km south (and slightly west) of Kalpeni, in the Cannanores and its nearest neighbour, and 259 km south (and slightly east) of Kavaratti. Minicoy and Kavaratti are each just over 400 km from Cochin, while Kavaratti is only 346 km from Calicut. Coral atolls emerging above the sea from their reef platforms and fertilized by guano (bird droppings) do not rise to a great height above sea level—nowhere above 4 m (13 feet)—and the territory is, therefore, vulnerable to the ongoing climatic changes produced by ‘global warming’. The interiors of most of the atolls are thickly forested with coconut trees. The climate is tropical and usually humid, with rainfall usually over 1,600 mm (63 inches) per year, mainly falling during the south-west monsoons and slightly heavier in the south. MarchMay are the hottest months of the year, until the monsoons get under way; the average temperatures on Amini in 1997 ranged between a minimum of 23.5°C (74.3°F) and a maximum of 34.5°C (94.1°F), with Minicoy, as usual, recording a slightly lower average maximum. The smallest territory of India in terms of population, as well as area, Lakshadweep had 60,595 people at the time of the March 2001 national census. According to these provisional results, the most populous island groupings were those of Androth (10,720), Kavaratti (10,113) and Minicoy (9,495), and the least populated, Chetlat (2,553). At the previous census, in terms of population, Bitra was the smallest single island, with 225 people; separate figures from the most recent count are not yet available. Bangaram has been developed for tourist use and, so, has a seasonal population working there (61 in 1991). The rate of population growth in Lakshadweep over the decade up to 2001 had fallen to below the national average, to 17.2% (compared to 28.5% in 1981–91). The population density was 1,893.6 per sq km (2001), owing to the scarcity of land. The most densely populated island in 2001 was Amini (2,834 per sq km), followed by Kavaratti (2, 396 per sq km), while the least so was Kalpeni (1,548 per sq km). Ethnically, the people

TERRITORIES (LAKSHADWEEP) 295

are related to the people of Kerala, and most speak a Malayalam dialect (84.5% in 1991). The exception is Minicoy, which is more closely influenced by the Maldives and where the people speak a Maldivean dialect sometimes called Mahl (written in the Divehi script of the Maldives), which shares common roots with Sinhalese. All the indigenous inhabitants are classed in the Scheduled Tribes (they constituted 93.2% of the total population in 1991). There are no Scheduled Castes on the islands, although three Hindu castes survive (landowners, farmers and sailors) despite the population’s long adherence to Islam. According to the 1991 census, 94.3% of the population were Muslim (mostly of the Sunnite Shafi school, although there are also some Wahhabis, in Bada, on Minicoy), and only 4.5% Hindu and 1.2% Christian. Another long-standing cultural trait of Lakshadweep is the high social status of women, a result of the matrilineal, Marumakkathayam system of inheritance (as in much of Kerala) and the economic independence bestowed by an inalienable share in the family’s ancestral property (tharwad). In most of the Laccadives this property is managed by the eldest male member of the family, known as the karanavan, but in Minicoy the pre-eminence of women goes a stage further, preserved, maybe, as a result of the long tradition of seafaring on the island, with the men often away for long periods. On Minicoy, a man marries into the woman’s family and adopts her name, while the village (ava or athiri) administrations have an important role for women, including a distinct chief (boduthatha). According to the 2001 census, of the total population 44.5% were classified as urban (compared to 56.3% in 1991). The main settlements are on Kavaratti, the territorial capital, and on Androth, Amini and Minicoy. Lakshadweep constitutes only one district, but each of the 10 inhabited islands is meant to be seat to a panchayat village assembly. For administrative purposes the territory is divided into four tahsils (each under a tahsildar, except Minicoy, which has had a Deputy Collector since 1978). History Local tradition and archaeological and anthropological evidence sometimes seem to conflict, but both are useful in looking at the early history of Lakshadweep. Certainly the islands receive their first written historical mention in records from the first century AD, after storms enabled a Greek sailor to find a direct route from the Arabian coast to southern India—he mentions the islands as a source for tortoiseshell. By the time of Chola claims to have subjected numerous islands (presumed to be the Maldives and at least part of Lakshadweep) early in the 11th century, the islands had probably become Muslim and were already under the influence of the nearby kingdoms of Kerala. Buddhist remains in Minicoy confirm links with the Maldives (Buddhist until the 12th century), while the people of the Laccadives bear many similarities to the Moplahs (Keralan Muslims). Early Muslim remains on the islands would seem to indicate some substance to the local legend purporting an early conversion to Islam, although some claim that this only happened around the 13th or 14th centuries. Other legends attribute settlement to the time of the last Chera high king, Cheraman Perumal Nayana (early 12th century), who abdicated his throne and set out for the Muslim holy city of Mecca (now in Saudi Arabia). Searchers for him were wrecked on Bangaram, thence making their way to Agatti, and they saw other islands on their way back to the mainland. Soldiers and sailors from the mainland were


sent to settle the islands—initially, Androth, Kalpeni and Kavaratti, while another group settled on Amini. These people, in turn, later settled Agatti, Chetlat, Kadmat and Kiltan. They were Hindus and the modern society of Lakshadweep still consists of three castes, but it seems likely that their arrival in the islands predates the time of the great Keralan king. Certainly, in the tale of the Muslim saint and evangelizer, Hazrat Ubaidullah, there was an existing population, and that was in the seventh century (41 AH). Ubaidullah was also shipwrecked, on Amini, but then proceeded to preach the revelation of his Prophet, marrying a local girl and, despite at first being driven from Amini, going on to convert Androth and then the rest of the islands. These local traditions and cultural remains at least confirm the existence of an island society exposed to outside influences, located, as it was, on the flourishing trade routes of the Indian Ocean. Thus, the seafaring traditions of the menfolk of Minicoy might already have become established by the 13th century, when the Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, described its society as the ‘female island’. It would not be unreasonable to assume an early exposure to Islam, from the Arab traders who dominated the sea-lanes. Cheras, Pandyas and Cholas all claimed the islands at some point, but by the time of Polo the Laccadives were administered in the name of mainland rulers. This also applied to Mincoy, which the records of the sultans of the Maldives indicate had fallen from their dominion by about 1500. In the 16th century it was to the Hindu rajahs of North Kolathiri, in their palace of Chirakkal near Kannur (Cannanore), in Kerala, that the islanders appealed for help against the depredations of the Portuguese. Europeans valued the coir fibre and the Portuguese raided the islanders for it, even occupying Amini for a time (the invaders were, apparently, defeated by poisoning). Responsibility for the Muslim islands was soon transferred to the head of the Moplah community in Kannur, the Ali Rajah, whose dynastic inheritance was received matrilineally through the Beebi (queen) of the Arrakal line (this branch of the ruling family was Kerala’s only Muslim royal house). Arrakal rule, which was unpopular in Lakshadweep, survived longer on the so-called Malabar Coast of modern Kerala than that of the senior, Chirakkal kings, whose independence succumbed to the overlordship of Mysore (southern Karnataka) in the mid-18th century. In 1743 the Dutch first made mention of ‘Lekker-Diva’, a name they used thereafter for Lakshadweep, and from which the English ‘Laccadives’ is derived. Meanwhile, the islanders were still looking to the native rulers on the mainland for help, with the people of Amini sending to the court of Mysore in 1783 for relief from Arrakal rule. In 1787 Tipu Sultan of Mysore, who was a friend of the Beebi of Arrakal, as well as a fellow Muslim, was able to grant the request of the northern islanders. The five Amindivi Islands (Amini, Kadmat, Kiltan, Chetlat and Bitra) were duly attached to his fief of Chirakkal and he appointed what few administrative officers the territory obtained. However, Tipu Sultan was the object of determined hostility from the British, and in 1791 they occupied Kannur and the possessions of the Beebi, so the southern islands fell under the nominal sovereignty of the East India Company first. Then, in 1799 Tipu Sultan’s final defeat at Shrirangapattana (Srirangapattnam—now in Karnataka) meant that Chirakkal and the Aminidivis were also awarded to the East India Company. In 1800 the new territories were transferred from the jurisdiction of the Bombay (now Mumbai, in Maharashtra) presidency to that of Madras (now Chennai, in Tamil Nadu), and grouped with other


former territories of Mysore ceded to the British by the Nizam of Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh). In effect, the northern islands also continued to be administered from Kannur. An extremely severe cyclone in 1847 caused such damage in Lakshadweep that the East India Company, represented by Sir William Robinson, offered the rajah a loan to help cover the cost of restoration work in the islands. This was not an unusual arrangement and often served to expand the direct domains of the British in India—when loan payments fell behind, the rest of Lakshadweep fell to the East India Company in 1854, although they continued to be administered through the estate of the Beebi until 1875, when they were attached to the Malabar District. It was only in 1905 that the Laccadive Islands (including the Amindivi Islands) and Minicoy were formally annexed to British India. Some regularization of the administration and legal system was begun, notably under the 1912 Laccadives and Minicoy Regulation, when the first measures of a protective restriction on travel to the islands were also introduced. After independence, in 1956, the archipelago was transferred from the jurisdiction of Madras, when Malabar became part of the new state of Kerala. There was some civil unrest on the islands thereafter, particularly in Minicoy, although a referendum had favoured the solution of 1956, owing to the restriction of links with the Maldives (traditional visits and exchanges could be viewed as smuggling or illegal immigration). Moreover, legal reforms, such as those dealing with property (‘land’ ownership had been determined by a number of coconut trees rather than territorial area until 1959), provoked some disquiet among traditionalists. The Union Territory of the Laccadive, Minicoy and Aminidivi Islands was the responsibility of the federal authorities, although its administrative headquarters remained on the mainland, in the Keralan city of Calicut (Kozhikode), until March 1964, when it was localized on Kavaratti. This accelerated the process of incorporating the territory into the framework of the Indian state. One year later what is now called the Lakshadweep (Laws) Regulation was introduced to govern the territory, which formally adopted its current name in 1973. The territory’s elected representatives sit in local government, but also include one member of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the national Parliament. Since 1967 the national representative of Lakshadweep has been P.M.Sayeed, a member of the Indian National Congress and currently a Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Economy The Union Territory of Lakshadweep has an economy based on commercial as well as subsistence agriculture and fishing, although remittances from locals working abroad (e.g. sailors serving on international shipping lines) and, increasingly, tourism are important contributors to the money economy. This remains relatively small and many financial statistics, such as net domestic product, are not regularly produced for the territory. Other statistics reveal small, but significant, numbers. Thus, although in 1998/99 there were roads totalling 253 km (124 km surfaced or concreted) in length, the more important shipping figures reveal a thorough network of inter-island and mainland links. An airport on Agatti also provides links to the mainland and a centre for inter-island helicopter services. There were 10 telephone exchanges, giving 7,214 connections (120 telephones per 1,000 of estimated population in 1998). There was an installed electrical capacity of 9,965 kW in 1999 (most of it thermally generated, but there are also solar and


wave-power schemes), while all the inhabited islands, including the seasonally occupied resort island of Bangaram, were electrified. The literacy rate is good, at 87.5% in 2001, one of the highest rates in India. On Minicoy the rate was just over 93.0%, while even in Kiltan, which had the lowest literacy rate in Lakshadweep, it was 83.7%. Coral atolls are not favourable places for extensive agriculture, but the thin, guanofertilized soil layer supports sufficient vegetables and fruit trees to supplement an islander’s fish diet. In 1998/99 the total cropped area on the islands was 2,754 ha, although this includes the parts forested by coconut trees. The main agricultural commodity of Lakshadweep is coconut, with 2.8m. harvested in 1998/99. The main products are coir (fibre from the husks) and copra (the dried kernel, from which coconut oil can be extracted). The agricultural census of 1997 also revealed livestock to be of increasing importance to the local population, with numbers having reached 78,579 poultry, 31,857 goats and 3,339 cattle by then. Egg production was just over 6m. and milk from the government dairy herds, while not the 50,000 litres of the early part of the decade, was still almost 30,000 litres in 1998 (mainly from Minicoy). Lakshadweep’s environment and extensive waters are rich in marine life and fishing has long been important to the islanders’ welfare. The development of a fishing fleet and more mechanized exploitation of the deeps has swelled the importance of the catch in a modern economy. From a catch of just some 600 metric tons in 1960, by 1998/99 the amount of fish landed totalled 14,626 tons (worth 248.6m. rupees). This was a record catch, up from the around 10,000 tons landed per year for much of the previous decade (that mark was exceeded for the first time in 1996). There were also record numbers of fishermen (6,200) and of mechanized boats (470) engaged in the industry by 1999; Agatti and Kavaratti are the main centres, then Androth, then Minicoy. Overwhelming the most important part of the catch was tuna (tunny fish), the ‘chicken of the sea’, although shark was also widely fished. Industry is limited and of recent origin on the islands, what there is being largely based on the processing of agricultural (coconut) and fishing products. Government figures for 1998/99 recorded 17 working factories, employing an average of 287 workers daily. There were 442 small-scale private industries, four industrial co-operative societies and an industrial training institute. By the end of the 1990s the two boat-building yards on Kavaratti and Chetlat were the only remnants of a proud boat-building tradition in the islands, although the importance of the sea in the local economy is still attested by the flourishing tuna-canning factory on Minicoy. Otherwise, the main manufacturing activity is confined to handicraft centres (especially on Kavaratti), and the textile and coir plants that operate on several islands. Government investment and activity remain important to the territory’s economy. The most important development in the tertiary sector, however, has been the tourist industry. Its growth is limited by a need to conserve the environment, which is its appeal, and was initially slow because of transport problems. Tourist numbers are erratic, and can vary widely, but have shown a general increase since the mid-1980s and particularly from the end of that decade. The highest number of domestic tourists was in 1991/92, when the figure reached 3,841, and it usually remained above or near the 3,000 mark thereafter, although it fell from 3,502 in 1996/97 to 2,900 in 1997/98 and 1,999 initially reported for 1998/99. Foreign tourist numbers peaked the year before domestic tourist


numbers, at 2,764 in 1990/91. The number of foreign visitors remained above 1,000 throughout the 1990s, except for the 408 of 1993/94. By 1996/97 numbers had climbed to 1,359, but then fell slightly to 1,223 in the following year and only 736 in 1998/99. The beauty of the islands is augmented by water-sports facilities and interesting local cultures, as well as a few sights, such as some of the 52 mosques of Kavaratti or the lighthouse on Minicoy. Directory Administrator: K.S.MEHRA; Central Secretariat, Kavaratti; tel. (4896) 62255; fax (4896) 62184; e-mail [email protected]. Member of Parliament (in New Delhi) for Lakshadweep: P.M.SAYEED (Indian National Congress); Room No. 1, Parliament House, New Delhi 110001; tel. (11) 3012832; fax (11) 3017455.

Pondicherry

The Union Territory of Pondicherry consists of four groups of enclaves dotted around the coast of southern India. The enclaves comprised French India, headquartered in Pondicherry (Puduchcheri), until 1954, when they were transferred to Indian administration, formally becoming integral parts of the country in 1963, when Pondicherry adopted its current status. Pondicherry, itself a patchwork of enclaves, and Karaikal are on the eastern coast, surrounded by Tamil Nadu, while much further north Yanam is strung along a riverbank in the Godavari delta of Andhra Pradesh and, on the west coast of India, surrounded by Kerala, is Mahe. The total area of the territory is 480 sq km

TERRITORIES (PONDICHERRY) 301

(185 sq miles), of which Karaikal contributes 160 sq km, Mahe only 9 sq km and Yanam 30 sq km. All of the Union Territory’s regions are on flat, coastal land, although Mahe town is sited on a low hill. Pondicherry, the territorial capital, is on the Coromandel Coast, north of the Ponnaivar river, presiding over a collection of blocks and pockets of territory mingled with enclaves of surrounding Tamil Nadu state. The town of Pondicherry is 162 km (101 miles) south of Chennai (formerly Madras), the capital of Tamil Nadu, and 22 km north of another Tamil Nadu city, Cuddalore. Further south, also on the Bay of Bengal, 132 km from the territorial capital, is the more compact region of Karaikal, on the Kaveri delta. To the north and east, 870 km from Pondicherry, lies its enclave of Yanam, surrounded by Andhra Pradesh. The town and a few attached villages lie some 14 km inland from the mouths of the mighty Godavari, where the Koringa (Atreya) branch separates from the Gauthami. On the other side of the Indian peninsula (westwards, 653 km overland from Pondicherry), on the Malabar Coast, is the smallest enclave of the territory, Mahe (formerly Mahé). It comprises Mahe town on the south bank of the eponymous river, which flows into the Arabian Sea from the south-east, Kallayi on the north bank and, beyond the main coastal road, stretching further north to the Ponniyar (Moolakadavu) river, Naluthara. The climate of the territory is tropical, the east coast settlements getting most of their rain between October and December and temperatures usually ranging between 21°C (70°F) and 42°C (108°F). Mahe shares the more tempered climate of Kerala, which does not have a totally dry season (its highest rainfall is between June and September) and where maximum temperatures seldom exceed 32°C (90°F). The provisional results of the 2001 census put the total population of the Union Territory of Pondicherry at 973,829, giving an average population density of 2,029 per sq km. In 1991 the total had been 807,785, including 145,703 people in Karaikal, 33,447 in Mahe and 20,297 in Yanam. The people are characteristic of the areas their enclaves neighbour, with Tamil being the main language (89.2% of the population in 1991), but Malayalam being spoken more widely in Mahe (by 4.8% of the territorial population in 1991) and Telugu particularly in Yanam (4.3%). Hindi, French and English are also spoken. Most people are Hindu (86.2% in 1991), but there are significant Christian (7. 2%) and Muslim (6.5%) minorities, as well as a few Jains and Buddhists. Pondicherry has a very urban population, with 66.6% of the total classed as such in 2001. The main towns are Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam, which also provide the headquarters for the four main regions into which the territory is divided. History The Union Territory of Pondicherry is a legacy of the remnants of the French empire in India, what was left to them of their trading stations after their defeat by the British in the 18th century. However, there is also evidence of older links with Europe—6 km from Pondicherry town, at the site of Arikamedu, a port which hosted a thriving first-century trade with the Roman Empire (the site of another such port, Kaveripatnam, is not far from Karaikal). Before that, Pondicherry has been identified as Vedapuri, a centre of Vedic learning and as Podhigai, the home of a famous savant, Agastya Muni, around 1500 BC. Some 3000 years later, having continued to flourish under the Cholas and Vijayanagar


(from the beginning of the 16th century AD under the nayaks of Thanjavur), Pondicherry itself finally fell under Muslim rule from Bijapur. This was succeeded by nominal Mughal overlordship in the 17th century and, later, Pondicherry attracted the attention of the French, late come among Europeans to the sub-continent. In 1673 the French established their oldest station at Chandernagore (now in West Bengal) and, one year later, what was to be their capital at Pondicherry (Puducherry), acquired from local rulers nominally subordinate to the Mughals. Although the British were to be their main rivals, initially the French and British East India Companies tended to avoid following their countries into war and it was the Dutch who proved most troublesome on the Coromandel Coast in the 17th century. The Dutch seized Pondicherry in 1693, but returned the fort, augmented by its immediate surroundings, under the Treaty of Ryswick in 1699. The first of three great governors, François Martin, then resumed office (until December 1706—in all, he was administrator for 33 years) and consolidated French rule in the area, adding the village of Kalapet (originally in order to gain access to timber needed for building work) from the local Mughal nawab, Dawood Khan, in 1703. This piecemeal addition of neighbouring villages and estates continued in the 18th century, contributing to the fragmented nature of Pondicherry. The Pondicherry region acquired more villages from the nawab in 1706, while Sardar Ali of Arcot (Tamil Nadu), gifted another group in September 1740, when Pierre-Benoît Dumas was Governor (1734–41) and gave refuge from Maratha assailants to the court of Arcot. French India was to be more ambitious, however, under Dumas’ successor, Joseph François Dupleix (1742–54), and his able general, Charles de Bussy, when the simmering rivalry with the British broke out into open conflict. Indeed, in 1746 the French seized Madras (now Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu), although it was restored to the British two years later, after peace had been concluded in Europe. Henceforth, however, the two powers would continue their conflicts through the medium of local magnates, notably during the wars of succession for Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) and its subsidiary nawab of Arcot (whose lands, known as the Carnatic, surrounded Pondicherry and Madras). Although the British candidate gained Arcot, it was the French protégé, Muzaffar Jang, who became Nizam of Hyderabad and, in 1750, he granted to Pondicherry the inland enclave of Villianur and a number of other villages which took the borders up to the Ponnaivar. Meanwhile, the other enclaves had also been added to French jurisdiction. In the north, on the Andhran coast ruled from Hyderabad, the French had a ‘factory’ at Machilipatnam, and in 1723 this operation established a warehouse in what they called Yanam. It was abandoned in 1727, seized back in 1731 and properly re-established in 1742. Various grants and concessions were made by local rulers, but the 1750 grant of Muzaffar Jang, with sovereignty two years later, was probably definitive and the town then acquired importance during French rule of the Andhran coast of the so-called North Circars (and, thereafter, remained a centre of intrigue for local rajahs disaffected with the British). Certainly the French ultimately retained Yanam alone on this stretch of coast. In 1725 Mahé de Labourdonnais captured a town on the Malabar Coast of modern Kerala for France, and it and the river that emptied into the sea there were named for him. Finally, Karaikal was acquired in 1739, although Governor Martin had previously tried to establish a post in Thanjavur not long after the whole area had gained a Maratha ruler in 1675.


Then, in 1738 the Subha of Thanjavur agreed to sell Karaikal, the fortress of Karakalachcheri and five villages to the French, only to renege on the deal before they could take possession. The French candidate for the throne of Arcot thereupon occupied the region and it was formally handed over to the French governor on St Valentine’s Day, 1739. Intrigues and negotiations continued into the following year, adding to the villages dependent upon Karaikal, and a Mughal grant confirmed French possession in 1741. In 1750, despite often strained relations with the Thanjavur court, a final settlement of territory in Karaikal was made, and it was this territory that was surrendered to the British in 1761. This is not insignificant, as it was what the French had possessed after the settlement of 1763 that was restored to them when a final peace in Europe was concluded after the series of Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The British had occupied all the territories that now constitute Pondicherry in 1761 (restored in 1763), 1778 (restored in 1785) and 1793. The peace agreement of 1814 agreed to restore Pondicherry and its dependencies to France, and this was effected in 1816. In the 19th century trade was no longer as lucrative for Pondicherry, but the territory integrated into the local economies and, from 1826, the French authorities successfully encouraged the development of industry (textiles). An echo of the days of imperial struggle ‘by proxy’ and of Indians utilizing the Franco-British rivalry was later heard when nationalists could find sanctuary in Pondicherry from the Raj authorities. Most famously, the Bengali social and religious reformer, Aurobindo Ghose, was to take refuge here in 1910 (after a 1908 conviction for condoning terrorism). A pacifist, with a concept of ‘Mother India’ that united religion and nationalism, Ghose founded an ashram in Pondicherry that became a centre for his Indian and internationalist ideals. His companion and chief disciple from 1920 until his death in 1950 (before French India was reunited with the rest of the country) was a Frenchwoman, Mirra Alfassa (‘the Mother’), who was a prominent figure in Pondicherry until her own death in 1973. She organized the foundation of nearby Auroville (actually in Tamil Nadu), a city that seeks to further Aurobindo’s community ethics and hopes, in 1968. Other nationalist refugees in Pondicherry included the poet, Subramania Bharathi, and V.V.C.Iyer. In 1918 the French authorities refused a request from British India to extradite Ghose and other nationalists. The Mahatma Gandhi visited Pondicherry in 1934, Jawaharlal Nehru in 1939. French imperial rule in India was to outlast that of the British, although not by long. The Bengali settlement of Chandernagore, virtually a northern suburb of Calcutta (now Kolkata, West Bengal), was to join the Indian Union separately. Almost two years after independence, in June 1949 a referendum in Chandernagore favoured merging with India, and France agreed two months later. Effectively this happened in May 1950, although the treaty formalizing the transfer was only signed on 2 February 1951. Generally, the French authorities seem to have accepted the inevitability of the union with India (in 1948 France and India had agreed to present a popular choice to the people of the territories, while the governor was redesignated a commissioner). Certainly, there was no great popular agitation after a number of civil disturbances by nationalists in the late 1940s, although in 1950 a French naval vessel was obliged to intervene in Mahé—now Mahe—after local crowds replaced the French with the Indian tricolour on the government building. Pressure increased in 1954, as the date for a democratic decision by the people of French India approached. In March two enclaves of the Pondicherry region


were ‘liberated’ and in May a ‘French India Liberation Government’ was proclaimed. However, on 18 October 170 out of 178 elected representatives voted in a secret ballot for merger with India. On 1 November an Indian High Commissioner, Kewal Singh, took over the administration of the territory from the last French governor (Commissioner), André Ménard. France formally ceded sovereignty on 16 August 1962, when the Instruments of Ratification were finally exchanged. The de jure incorporation of Pondicherry and its dependencies formalized, India could proceed with integrating the territory and enacting its treaty obligations to the people of former French India. In 1963 the Union Territory of Pondicherry legally became an integral part of the Republic of India, while the national Parliament had passed the Government of Union Territories Act, providing for representative territorial legislatures and democratic government. Until the implementation of the National Capital Territory Act of 1991, Pondicherry was the only territory to have a Legislative Assembly and a Chief Minister (the first, Edouard Goubert, took office on 1 July 1963) and to send a representative to the upper house of Parliament, as well as to the lower house. A member of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has occupied the Rajya Sabhya seat since 1997, when the DMK dominated the Legislative Assembly (which elects the upper house member), while the party allegiance of the Lok Sabha member reflects the more recent electoral successes of Congress in Pondicherry. Displaced from power in May 1996 by the DMK (a Tamil party favouring less power for the centre), under R.V.Janakaviraman, Congress returned to power in 2000, even before the next territorial election. The Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) left the DMK-led coalition in March 2000, so Congress formed an administration under a compromise candidate, who was not a member of the Legislative Assembly at the time, P.Shanmugam (his cabinet included the first Mahe representative in the cabinet in 38 years). In the territorial elections of 10 May 2001 Congress emerged as the largest single party (11 seats) and, with its TMC electoral allies, commanded 13 seats to the DMK-led alliance’s 12 seats (the DMK with seven, the Puducherry Makkal Congress with four and the Bharatiya Janata Party with its first seat in the territory). There were subsequently some alterations in the balance of party allegiances among the deputies. Congress was able to continue in government. However, Shanmugam had not contested the election and no Congress deputy could be persuaded to resign a seat in favour of the premier, so, under the Constitution, he could not hold office for more than six months. In October he resigned and N.Rangaswamy was elected to replace Shanmugam as Congress leader; he duly became the ninth Chief Minister of Pondicherry later in the month. Economy The Union Territory of Pondicherry enjoys a similar level of prosperity to its neighbours, the states of southern India (higher than Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, but slightly lower than Tamil Nadu). Owing to the extent of government support for a small territory, however, official figures for net domestic product can distort the picture of economic realities—thus, the new-series figures, with estimates up to 1999/2000, make Pondicherry the richest territorial unit in India after Chandigarh and Delhi. The overall size of the economy was measured at 29,180m. rupees in 1999/2000, while the relevant figure of net domestic product per head was 30,768 rupees. Infrastructure, at least in the


Pondicherry and Karaikal regions, is relatively good, with good road connections and a total territorial network of 2,251 km (1,398 miles). In 1998 there were 24.7 km of national highway, 68.8 km of state highways, 225.4 km of district and other roads and 257.7 km of rural roads. Since 1869 Pondicherry town and Villianur have been connected by a metre-gauge railway line to Villupuram (Tamil Nadu), 40 km from Pondicherry, from where there is a broad-gauge connection to Chennai (formerly Madras, Tamil Nadu). The Karaikal branch line, opened in 1898, has an unreliable service, frequently cancelled, while Mahe and Yanam do not have their own stations (the nearest station to Mahe is some 10 km to the north, at Thalassery in Kerala, and the nearest to Yanam is 26 km, also to the north, at Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh). The main international airport serving Pondicherry is in Chennai, although Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) is also accessible for Yanam, while Kozhikode (Kerala) is 64 km from Mahe. There is a domestic airport at Pondicherry, but the other regions do not have their own, although each is near to a facility in a neighbouring state. Literacy in the territory increased from 74.7% of the total population in 1991 to 81.5% in 2001. Agriculture is an important activity in the territory, but particularly in Karaikal, in terms of both employment and output. All the regions benefit from rich, coastal alluvial soil (except for Mahe, where the red laterite soil is unsuitable for growing the paddy rice staple) and good water supplies (Karaikal used to depend on the flooding of the Kaveri, but now on canals; however, Yanam has limited irrigation, being dependent on the old French Kalva, a canal—its available land area makes significant investment in irrigation unlikely). Rice is the main crop of the regions on the east coast, but the soil is also suitable for pulses and groundnuts, with chillies, spices, sunflowers, cotton, coconuts and vegetables also being grown. Rice and fish are the main exports of Yanam, rice of Karaikal and fish of Mahe. All three regions benefit from rich estuarine fishing grounds, the industry in Mahe being helped by a fish-curing plant built in 1961. There is little forestry. The Pondicherry region also has an important primary sector, but its economy is more varied and its population more urbanized, so it does not carry the same weight here. Crops from this region not only include paddy rice and groundnuts, but also sugarcane and cotton. About 45% of the territorial population is engaged in agriculture and allied pursuits (1997 figure). The French developed some industrial activity in Pondicherry, mainly textiles, but he sector only employed some 8,000 by the time the administration was assumed by India. Total investment of some 12,560m. rupees over the rest of the century meant that this figure had risen to 71,955 as of the end of March 1999. Most of this activity, which had broadened beyond textiles, was concentrated in the Pondicherry region, although there was some based in Karaikal and Yanam produces cement pipes. There is agro-processing and the production of alcoholic beverages, while other products include automobile parts, chemicals, washing machines, computer components and plastic items. The sector suffered from the introduction of the uniform sales tax and, potentially more so, from the entry tax included in the March 2002 Tamil Nadu state budget, which was considered likely to be most serious in its consequences for the manufacturers of paper and of ceramics and tiles. Tourism is an important activity in Pondicherry, which receives a large proportion of the country’s foreign visitors. Again, most of the tourist industry is based in the


Pondicherry region, although it is also important for Mahe, with people attracted by the French cultural and historical legacy, the beaches and the presence of nearby Auroville. Directory Lieutenant-Governor: Dr RAJANI RAI; Raj Nivas (Government House), Pondicherry 605 001; tel. (413) 334051; fax (413) 334025. Chief Minister: N.RANGASAMY (Indian National Congress); Chief Secretariat, Goubert Salai (Beach Rd), Pondicherry 605 001; tel. (413) 333399; fax (413) 333135; email [email protected]. Speaker of the Legislative Assembly: M.D.R.RAMACHANDHARAN; Legislative Assembly Building, Pondicherry 605 001; tel. (413) 334461; fax (413) 332397; the unicameral Legislative Assembly has 30 mems: Congress (I) 12; Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 7; Puducherry Makkal Congress 4; All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 2; Tamil Maanila Congress 2; Bharatiya Janata Party 1; and 2 independents. Regional Executive Office (Karaikal): Regional Executive Office (UT Government), Karaikal 609 602; tel. (4368) 2444; e-mail [email protected]. Regional Executive Office (Mahe): Regional Executive Office (UT Government), Mahe (Pondicherry UT); tel. (490) 33222; e-mail [email protected]. Regional Executive Office (Yanam): Mini-Civil Station, Yanam (Pondicherry UT); e-mail [email protected]; Regional Executive Officer A.S.P.S.RAVI PRAKASH.

PART THREE INDEXES

Alphabetic List

262 49 57 62 70 268 79 273 277 283 86 94 104 111 117 125 131 141 291 153 160 173 179 183 187 192 298 200 209 216 224

Andaman and Nicobar Islands ..................... Andhra Pradesh .................. Arunachal Pradesh .................. Assam ................... Bihar ..................... Chandigarh ................ Chhattisgarh ..................... Dadra and Nagar Haveli ................ Daman and Diu .................. Delhi .................... Goa .................... Gujarat ................... Haryana ................... Himachal Pradesh ................. Jammu and Kashmir .................... Jharkhand .................. Karnataka ..................... Kerala .................... Lakshadweep ................... Madhya Pradesh ................. Maharashtra ..................... Manipur .................. Meghalaya ................. Mizoram ............... Nagaland ................... National Capital Territory ............... Orissa ............ Pondicherry ............. Punjab ............ Rajasthan ............... Sikkim .................. Tamil Nadu ................

Union Territory State State State State Union Territory State Union Territory Union Territory National Capital Territory State State State State State State State State Union Territory State State State State State State see Delhi State Union Territory State State State State

INDEXES 309

236 242 248 253

Tripura .................. Uttar Pradesh .................... Uttaranchal ................... West Bengal ..................

State State State State

List of Alternative Names

262 49 57 62

70

268 79 273 277 283

86 94 104 111

117 125 131 141

Andaman and Nicobar Islands ............ Andhra Pradesh ............. Arunachal Pradesh ............... Asom ............... Assam ................. Bangla .............. Bharat ............... Bihar ................. Bombay (city) ................... Bombay (state) ................. Calcutta ................. Central Provinces and Berar .............. Chandigarh ................ Chhattisgarh ............. Dadra and Nagar Haveli ............... Daman and Diu ............. Delhi ............ Dominions of the Nizam .............. Estado da India (State of India) ............ French India ................. Goa ............... Gujarat .............. Haryana ............... Himachal Pradesh ............... Hind ............ Hyderabad ................ Jammu and Kashmir ............... Jharkhand ................. Karnataka ................. Kerala ................. Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands

see Assam see West Bengal India Mumbai (Maharashtra) see Maharashtra and Gujarat Kolkata (West Bengal) see Madhya Pradesh

see Daman and Diu see Andhra Pradesh see Portuguese India (Goa, etc.) see Pondicherry

India see Andhra Pradesh

see Lakshadweep

INDEXES 311

291 Lakshadweep ................... Lushai Hills ................. 153 Madhya Pradesh .............. Madras (city) ............... Madras (state) ............. 160 Maharashtra ................. 173 Manipur .................. 179 Meghalaya ................ 183 Mizoram ............... Mysore ........... Naga Hills and Tuensang Area (NHTA) . 187 Nagaland ................. National Capital Territory ................ North-East Frontier Tract/Agency (NEFT/NEFA) ................ 192 Orissa ................ 298 Pondicherry ................. Portuguese India ...................... Puduchcheri ....................... 200 Punjab .................. 209 Rajasthan ................ Rajputana ..................... 216 Sikkim ................ 224 Tamil Nadu 236 Tripura ................ United Provinces ............................ .. 242 Uttar Pradesh .................. Uttarakhand ......................... 248 Uttaranchal Vananchal .................... 253 West Bengal

see Mizoram Chennai (Tamil Nadu) see Tamil Nadu

see Karnataka see Nagaland see Delhi see Arunachal Pradesh

see Goa, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli see Pondicherry

see Rajasthan

see Uttar Pradesh

see Uttaranchal see Jharkhand

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