Concept

Uttar Pradesh

Overview

Uttar Pradesh (UTT-ər prə-DESH, abbr. UP; Hindi: Uttar Pradēś, pronounced [ˈʊt̪ːəɾ pɾə.ˈdeːɕ] , lit. 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is India's most populated state. The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the west, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi to the northwest, Uttarakhand and Nepal to the north, Bihar to the east, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand to the south. It is the fourth-largest Indian state by area covering 243,286 km2 (93,933 sq mi), accounting for 7.3 per cent of the total area of India. Lucknow serves as the state capital, with Prayagraj being the judicial capital. It is divided into 18 divisions and 75 districts. Uttar Pradesh is the Indian state with the highest number of bordering states, sharing its boundaries with nine other states and one union territory.

Uttar Pradesh was established in 1950 after India had become a republic. It is a successor to the United Provinces, established in 1935 by renaming the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, in turn established in 1902 from the North-Western Provinces and the Oudh Province. The two major rivers of the state, the Ganges and its tributary Yamuna, meet at the Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj, a Hindu pilgrimage site. Other notable rivers are Gomti and Sarayu. Most of the state is covered by the Indo Gangetic plain which is intensely farmed. The forest cover in the state is 6.1 per cent of the state's geographical area, mainly in the northern Terai. The cultivable area is 82 per cent of the total geographical area, and the net area sown is 68.5 per cent of the cultivable area.

Uttar Pradesh encompasses several distinct cultural regions, forming a continuum from Braj and Rohilkhand in the west to Bundelkhand and Awadh in the centre and Purvanchal in the east. Hindi is the official and most widely-spoken language, with Urdu as an additional official language. The region has been a major centre of political and cultural development throughout Indian history. It was the core area of several dominant Indian dynasties, including the Maurya, Gupta, Vardhana, Pala, Delhi Sultanate, and Mughal empires. During the British colonial period, the area contained several princely states, notably Rampur, Benares, and Ramgadi, and played a central role in the Indian independence movement, including the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Though long known for sugar production, the state's economy is now dominated by the services industry. The service sector comprises travel and tourism, hotel industry, real estate, insurance and financial consultancies. The economy of Uttar Pradesh is just the third-largest state economy in India, with ₹39.8 trillion (US$410 billion) in gross domestic product and a per capita GSDP of ₹152,366 The High Court of the state is located in Prayagraj. The state plays an important role in national politics, sending 80 seats to the lower house Lok Sabha and 31 seats to the upper house Rajya Sabha. Uttar Pradesh is significant for several major world religions. It is home to many of Hinduism's most important pilgrimage sites, including Varanasi, Mathura, Ayodhya, and Prayagraj. The state is also important to Buddhism; Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon at Sarnath near Varanasi. Several sites in the state are associated with Jainism, and Uttar Pradesh has been an important centre of Islamic culture, architecture, and learning since the medieval period. The state contains three UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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These Indians wear a garment made of rushes cut from the river, beaten flat, platted like a mat, and worn as a corselet. Other Indians, living to the east of these, are nomads, and eat raw flesh; they are called Padæans. When any one of this community is sick, if it be a man, the men who are his nearest connections put him to death, alleging that if he wasted by disease his flesh would be spoiled; and no matter if…
Herodotus, The Boys' and Girls' Herodotus
States what Uttar Pradesh is.
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White and silk-like cloth of hair is wrapped all round it, which is then painted in various colors. They make figures of devas, with gold, silver, and lapis lazuli grandly blended and having silken streamers and canopies hung out over them. On the four sides are niches, with a Buddha seated in each, and a Bodhisattva standing in attendance on him. There may be twenty cars, all grand and imposing, but each one…
Confucius, Chinese literature
Close in meaning to Uttar Pradesh; the term itself is not named.
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The immediate environment of the temple was the meeting-place of those who inhabited the territory protected by the castle and its temple. Here they assembled, partly for trade and partly for deliberative or popular gatherings. The economic and political intercourse which centred about the castle fostered the growth of a larger city, inasmuch as numbers of the rural inhabitants gradually settled down under the close…
Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
Close in meaning to Uttar Pradesh; the term itself is not named.
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Philosophers who discussed Uttar Pradesh

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Urdu

Place in the tradition

Part of Surendranath Dasgupta.

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