The word Punjab is a compound of two Persian words, panj (“5”) and āb (“water”), as a consequence signifying the land of five waters, or rivers (the Beas, Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi, and Sutlej). The word’s origin can perhaps be traced to panca nada, Sanskrit for “5 rivers” and the name of a vicinity cited within the ancient epic the Mahabharata. As applied to the present Indian nation of Punjab, but, it is a misnomer: for the reason that partition of India in 1947, simplest of those rivers, the Sutlej and the Beas, lie inside Punjab’s territory, while the Ravi flows simplest alongside part of its western border. Area 19,445 rectangular miles (50,362 rectangular km). Pop. (2011) 27,704,236.
Land
Relief, drainage, and soils
Punjab spans 3 physiographic regions, the smallest being the Siwalik Range within the northeast, where elevations attain about three,000 ft (900 metres). Farther south, the slim, undulating foothill region is dissected by closely spaced seasonal torrents, domestically known as chos, numerous of which terminate in the obvious below without becoming a member of any circulation. To the south and west of the foothills lies the extensive flat tract, with low-mendacity floodplains separated by using slightly accelerated uplands. This location, with its fertile alluvial soils, slopes gently from an elevation of approximately 900 toes (275 metres) within the northeast to approximately 550 feet (one hundred seventy metres) inside the southwest. The southwestern part of the plains, formerly strewn with sand dunes, has in general been levelled off with the enlargement of irrigation initiatives.
Climate
Punjab has an inland subtropical region, and its climate is continental, being semiarid to subhumid. Summers are very hot. In June, the warmest month, day by day temperatures in Ludhiana normally reach about a hundred °F (upper 30s C) from a low in the higher 70s F (mid-20s C). In January, the coolest month, day by day temperatures usually upward push from the mid-40s (about 7 °C) into the mid-60s F (upper 10s C). Annual rainfall is highest inside the Siwalik Range, which can also get hold of more than 45 inches (1,one hundred fifty mm), and lowest inside the southwest, which can also get hold of less than 12 inches (300 mm); statewide common annual precipitation is roughly sixteen inches (four hundred mm). Most of the yearly rainfall happens from July to September, the months of the southwest monsoon. Winter rains from the western cyclones, occurring from December to March, account for much less than one-fourth of the entire rainfall.
Plant and animal life
With the increase of human agreement over the centuries, Punjab has been cleared of maximum of its woodland cover. Over huge components of the Siwalik Range, bush vegetation has succeeded timber as a result of enormous deforestation. There have been tries at reforestation at the hillsides, and eucalyptus trees were planted alongside most important roads.
Natural habitats for wildlife are seriously restrained due to extreme opposition from agriculture. Even so, many kinds of rodents (which include mice, rats, squirrels, and gerbils), bats, birds, and snakes, in addition to some species of monkeys, have adapted to the farming surroundings. Larger mammals, such as jackals, leopards, wild boar, diverse forms of deer, civets, and pangolins (scaly anteaters), among others, are discovered inside the Siwaliks.
People
Population composition
The human beings of Punjab are particularly descendants of the so-known as Aryan tribes that entered India from the northwest during the 2nd millennium BCE, as well as the pre-Aryan populace, in all likelihood Dravidians (audio system of Dravidian languages), who had a incredibly developed civilization. Relics of this civilization had been unearthed at Rupnagar (Ropar). Successive waves of invaders—Greeks, Parthians, Kushans, and Hephthalites (Hunas)—introduced to the variety of earlier social, or caste, companies (jatis). Later, invaders under the banner of Islam compelled numerous vanquished companies (which include the Jat peasant caste and the Rajput magnificence of landowners) to convert to the Muslim faith, although many conversions had been voluntary under the influence of Sufi saints.
Today, but, most of the people faith of Punjab is Sikhism, which originated from the lessons of Nanak, the primary Sikh Guru. Hindus make up the biggest minority, but there also is a considerable population of Muslims. There are small groups of Christians and Jains in a few regions. Some -fifths of Punjab’s populace consists of Hindus and Sikhs who formally belong to the Scheduled Castes (previously called “untouchables”), which occupy a noticeably low function within the conventional Indian caste system.
Punjabi is the professional state language. Along with Hindi, it is the most extensively spoken. However, many people also speak English and Urdu.
Settlement styles
About one-1/3 of Punjab’s populace lives in cities and cities. Its predominant towns are Ludhiana in the crucial location, Amritsar within the northwest, Jalandhar in north-vital Punjab, Patiala within the southeast, and Bathinda within the south-crucial a part of the country. Muslims live commonly in and across the southwest-central metropolis of Maler Kotla, which became once the centre of a princely country dominated by using a Muslim nawab (provincial governor).
Economy
Agriculture
Some two-fifths of Punjab’s population is engaged in the agricultural region, which bills for a great section of the country’s gross product. Punjab produces an vital portion of India’s food grain and contributes a prime share of the wheat and rice inventory held by means of the Central Pool (a countrywide repository gadget of surplus meals grain). Much of the state’s agricultural progress and productivity is attributable to the so-called Green Revolution, an international motion released within the 1960s that added now not most effective new agricultural technology however also high-yielding styles of wheat and rice.
Aside from wheat and rice, corn (maize), barley, and pearl millet are important cereal products of Punjab. Although the yield of pulses (legumes) has declined since the overdue twentieth century, there was a speedy increase inside the commercial production of fruit, particularly citrus, mangoes, and guavas. Other important crops consist of cotton, sugarcane, oilseeds, chickpeas, peanuts (groundnuts), and veggies.
With nearly the entire cultivated vicinity receiving irrigation, Punjab is among India’s most extensively irrigated states. Government-owned canals and wells are the main resources of irrigation; canals are most not unusual in southern and southwestern Punjab, at the same time as wells are more normal of the north and the northeast. The Bhakra Dam venture in neighbouring Himachal Pradesh provides a lot of Punjab’s deliver of irrigation water.
Resources and energy
Lacking fossil fuels, Punjab draws its power often from thermal plants fired with imported coal. However, a large quantity of electricity is supplied with the aid of hydroelectric flowers and, to a lesser quantity, through solar electricity stations. In the early twenty first century the call for for energy in Punjab persisted to exceed the deliver.
Manufacturing
The manufacturing area (including creation) has multiplied notably for the reason that overdue twentieth century. Industries with the largest quantity of workers consist of the ones producing silk, wool, and different textiles; processed meals and liquids; metallic merchandise and machinery; transport equipment; and furniture. Other essential manufactures encompass leather items, chemicals, rubber and plastics, and hosiery.
Services
Punjab’s offerings region includes trade, transportation and garage, financial offerings, real property, public management, and different services. The sector has grown hastily since the late 20th century. By the early 21st century it had grow to be the largest component of Punjab’s economy.
Transportation
Punjab has one of the excellent-developed avenue networks within the u . S .. All-climate paved roads expand to maximum villages, and the kingdom is crossed via some of country wide highways. Punjab is also well served via the Northern Railway—part of the countrywide railway device. There is an global airport in Amritsar, and regular home service is to be had in Chandigarh and Ludhiana. Several different airports offer cargo service.
Government And Society
Constitutional framework
The shape of Punjab’s government, like that of maximum other states of India, is decided through the national charter of 1950. The country is led with the aid of a governor, who's appointed by means of the president of India. The governor is aided and suggested by using a Council of Ministers, that's led by means of a chief minister and responsible to the unicameral Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha).
At the head of the judiciary is the High Court, which is located in Chandigarh and is shared with the nation of Haryana. Appeals from the High Court are directed to the Supreme Court of India. Below the High Court are district-degree courts.
The country is split into extra than a dozen districts, which can be grouped into numerous sales divisions. Each district is headed by way of a deputy commissioner. The districts are parceled in addition into some of tehsils, or subdivisions. Lower administrative and revenue gadgets encompass circles, blocks, and villages, in addition to police districts and police stations.
Health and welfare
Punjab enjoys higher health situations than most states in India. Hospitals attached to scientific schools, district- and tehsil-degree clinical facilities, fitness care centres in rural regions, and severa dispensaries represent a significant health care network.
Numerous social offerings are furnished via government and voluntary organizations. The authorities provides pensions for the elderly and operates a community of employment exchanges to help the unemployed. The country additionally has schemes to useful resource the ones from traditionally deprived social businesses through scholarships, employment services, and diverse loans and grants for enterprise sports.
Education
In addition to the authorities, non-public companies have played a extensive function inside the extension of training at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels all through the nation. Education is compulsory and unfastened for pupils aged 6 to eleven. Secondary schooling is also free in state faculties. Broadcasting has been in particular vital within the dissemination of vocational and cultural training in the course of the nation.
Punjab has numerous kingdom universities, which includes Punjabi University (1962) in Patiala, Guru Nanak Dev University (1969) in Amritsar, Panjab University (1956) in Chandigarh, Punjab Agricultural University (1962) in Ludhiana, Punjab Technical University (1997) in Jalandhar, and Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (1998) in Faridkot. In addition, there are more than 2 hundred specialized colleges and technical institutions.
Cultural Life
Ballads of love and conflict, festivals and fairs, dancing, tune, and Punjabi literature are the various function expressions of the state’s cultural life. The origins of Punjabi literature hint to the paranormal and spiritual verse of the thirteenth-century Sufi (mystic) Shaikh Farīd and to the fifteenth–16th-century founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak; the ones figures were the first to use Punjabi significantly as a medium of poetic expression. The works of Sufi poet Waris Shah greatly enriched Punjabi literature in the 2nd 1/2 of the 18th century. Contemporary within the 20th and early 21st centuries Punjabi literature discovered some of its greatest exponents in poet and creator Bhai Vir Singh and the poets Puran Singh, Dhani Ram Chatrik, Mohan Singh “Mahir,” and Shiv Kumar Batalvi; famend novelists blanketed Jaswant Singh Kanwal, Gurdial Singh, Giani Gurdit Singh, and Sohan Singh Shital, amongst others. Kulwant Singh Virk is one of the exceptional-regarded writers of brief memories in Punjabi.
Punjab holds numerous non secular and seasonal fairs, consisting of Dussehra, a Hindu competition celebrating the victory of Prince Rama over the demon king Ravana, as acknowledged in the epic Ramayana; Diwali, a competition of lighting celebrated with the aid of each Hindus and Sikhs; and Baisakhi, which for Hindus is a brand new yr’s festival and for Sikhs is both an agricultural pageant and a party of the birth of the community’s Khalsa order. There also are severa anniversary celebrations in honour of the Gurus (the 10 historical leaders of Sikhism) and diverse saints. Dancing is an average function of such festivities, with bhangra, jhumar, and sammi a number of the maximum famous genres. Giddha, a local Punjabi subculture, is a funny tune-and-dance genre performed by using women. In addition to Sikh religious track, semiclassical Mughal bureaucracy, along with the khyal dance and the ṭhumrī, ghazal, and qawwālī vocal performance genres, continue to be popular.
The state’s great architectural monument is the Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) at Amritsar, which blends Indian and Muslim patterns. Its leader motifs, which includes the dome and the geometric layout, are repeated in maximum of the Sikh locations of worship. The Harmandir Sahib is rich in gold filigree paintings, panels with floral designs, and marble facings inlaid with colored stones. Other critical buildings consist of the Martyr’s Memorial at Jallianwalla Bagh (a park in Amritsar), the Hindu Temple of Durgiana (also in Amritsar), the so-referred to as Moorish Mosque in Kapurthala (patterned after a Moroccan version), and the old forts of Bathinda and Bahadurgarh.
History
The foundations of the present Punjab were laid by using Banda Singh Bahadur, a hermit who became a military chief and, along with his combating band of Sikhs, quickly liberated the jap a part of the province from Mughal rule in 1709–10. Banda Singh’s defeat and execution in 1716 have been followed by a prolonged battle between the Sikhs on one side and the Mughals and Afghans on the other. By 1764–sixty five the Sikhs had mounted their dominance in the vicinity. Ranjit Singh (1780–1839) sooner or later built up the Punjab place right into a powerful Sikh country and attached to it the adjacent provinces of Multan, Kashmir, and Peshawar (all of that are now absolutely or in part administered with the aid of Pakistan).
In 1849 the Punjab kingdom fell to the troops of the British East India Company and ultimately have become a province under British rule. By the past due nineteenth century, but, the Indian nationalist motion took keep in the province. One of the most big occasions associated with the movement was the 1919 Massacre of Amritsar, which resulted from an order given with the aid of the British preferred Reginald Edward Harry Dyer to fire on a collection of a few 10,000 Indians who had convened to protest new antisubversion rules enacted by using the British management; in keeping with one report, almost four hundred died and approximately 1,two hundred have been injured in the warfare. When India received its independence in 1947, the British province of Punjab became break up between the brand new sovereign states of India and Pakistan, and the smaller, eastern element became a part of India.
After independence, the history of the Indian Punjab become ruled via Sikh agitation for a separate Punjabi-speakme kingdom, led through Tara Singh and later via his political successor, Sant Fateh Singh. In November 1956, but, in preference to being divided along linguistic traces, the Indian nation of Punjab turned into enlarged via incorporation of the Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU), an amalgamation of the preindependence princely territories of Patiala, Jind, Nabha, Faridkot, Kapurthala, Kalsia, Malerkotla (Maler Kotla), and Nalagarh. Political and administrative management for the enlarged Punjab was furnished by way of Sardar Partap Singh Kairon, leader minister of the nation from 1956 to 1964. The name for a separate Indian nation containing the predominantly Punjabi-speakme regions intensified inside the wake of Punjab’s enlargement. Eventually, the government of India met the call for. On November 1, 1966, Punjab changed into divided on the premise of language into the typically Hindi-talking country of Haryana and the brand new, broadly speaking Punjabi-speakme state of Punjab; meanwhile, the northernmost districts were transferred to Himachal Pradesh, and the newly built town of Chandigarh and its immediately environment became a separate union territory. Though no longer a part of either state, the town of Chandigarh was retained as the joint administrative headquarters, or capital, of both Haryana and Punjab.
Although Sikhs had received the use of Punjabi within the state, by means of the Nineteen Eighties militant factions of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Supreme Akali Party) and the All India Sikh Students’ Federation had been demanding the status quo of an self sustaining Sikh place of origin, or Khalistan (“Land of the Pure,” a term introduced as early as 1946 by means of Tara Singh). In order to gain their aim, the ones agencies began to apply terrorism, inclusive of the indiscriminate killing of Punjabi Hindus or even the ones Sikhs who adversarial the introduction of Khalistan. In June 1984, in an effort to dislodge Sikh militants fortified within the Harmandir Sahib, or Golden Temple (the Sikhs’ holiest shrine), the Indian army performed an assault. The Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and most of his armed followers have been killed, as were as a minimum 100 Indian infantrymen. In retaliation, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated at her Delhi domestic by using two of her Sikh bodyguards, which in flip caused violence against Sikhs in Delhi and someplace else. A climate of violence and ailment persisted in Punjab thru the Nineteen Eighties, but by way of the early Nineteen Nineties the kingdom had back to relative balance. The trendy peace there endured into the early 21st century, helped by using the naming of Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, because the high minister of India in 2004.
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