Gujarat

Gujarat - ગુજરાત

status	State
Capital	Gandhinagar
founding	May 1, 1960
surface	196,024 km²
Residents	60,383,628 (2011)
Population density	308 inhabitants per km²
languages	Gujarati
governor	Acharya Devvrat
Chief Minister	Vijay Rupani ( BJP )
Website	www.gujaratindia.com
ISO code	IN-FY

Gujarat ( Gujarati ગુજરાત Gujarāt ;  [ guʤəˈrɑːt ] ) is an Indian state with an area of ​​196,024 km² and a population of 60.4 million (2011 census). The capital of the state is Gandhinagar , the economically most important city is Ahmedabad .

geography

location

Gujarat borders the Indian states of Rajasthan (north), Madhya Pradesh (east) and Maharashtra (southeast) as well as the Pakistani province of Sindh in the northwest and the Arabian Sea in the south. Three of the four areas of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu are completely enclosed by Gujarat. The fourth of these areas is between Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Coasts, mountains and rivers

Gujarat has a coastline of approximately 1,600 kilometers, more than any other Indian state. The coast includes the Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Khambhat , which border the Kathiawar peninsula . The Rann von Kachchh on the Pakistani border forms a remarkable salt marsh landscape . Although other well-known mountain ranges of northern India ( Aravalli , Vindhya and Satpura Mountains ) are still with a tip in Gujarat, the highest mountain range in Gujarat is Mount Girnar (1117 meters). Gujarat's most important river is the springing in the southern Aravalli mountains and through the megacity Ahmedabad flowing Sabarmati , but also coming from central India rivers Mahi , Narmada and Tapti flow into the Gulf of Khambhat.

Flora and fauna

Gujarat is the last natural habitat for lions outside of Africa. 2005 censuses showed that the small population of lions that are native to Gujarat in Gir National Park has grown again, as a result of government efforts to protect against poachers.

Biggest cities

(Status: 2011 census)

Ahmedabad and Sabarmati River

	city	Residents		city	Residents
1	Ahmedabad	5,570,585	8th	Gandhidham	248,705
2	Surat	4,462,002	9	Nadiad	218.150
3	Vadodara	1,666,703	10	Gandhinagar	208.299
4th	Rajkot	1,286,995	11	Anand	197.351
5	Bhavnagar	593,768	12	Morbi	188.278
6th	Jamnagar	529.308	13	Mehsana	184.133
7th	Junagadh	320,250	14th	Surendranagar Dudhrej	177,827

population

Demographics

Men playing a board game on a sidewalk in Ahmedabad

According to the 2011 Indian census, Gujarat has 60,383,628 inhabitants. This makes Gujarat the ninth largest state in India in terms of population. The population density is 308 people per square kilometer, which is lower than the average in India (382 people per square kilometer). The population of Gujarat is growing rapidly: between 2001 and 2011 it increased by 19.2 percent. The growth rate is thus above the national average of 17.6 percent in the same period. 42.6 percent of Gujarat's population live in cities. The degree of urbanization is thus significantly higher than the national average of 31.2 percent.

79.3 percent of the population of Gujarat can read and write (men 87.2 percent, women 70.7 percent). The literacy rate is thus above the national average of 74.0 percent (as of the 2011 census).

Minorities

The inhabitants of Gujarat call themselves Gujarati . The Adivasi (members of the indigenous tribal population) make up a minority of the state's population. The 2001 Indian census classified 14.8 percent of the population of Gujarat as members of the tribal population ( scheduled tribes ). The largest group are the Bhils , who make up almost half of Gujarat's Adivasi population. The rest is spread over a number of smaller tribes. The Adivasi mainly concentrate on the mountainous areas in eastern Gujarat. In the districts of Dang , Narmada , Dahod and Valsad they make up the majority of the population.

Girl killings

Gujarat was and is, next to the Indian and Pakistani Punjab, a stronghold of the killing of girls (female infanticides ) and selective abortions . As early as 1817 it was reported by the British colonial administration that in the ramified clan of the maharajas of the Jadega- Rajputs often only male descendants survived. The reasons for this were purely economic: the main concern of rich landowners was to prevent the splintering of their land holdings. The killings mainly affected legitimate children, not those of concubines, as they were not entitled to inherit. Today, deaths of girls in the first year of life are increasing in the cities. They are roughly 3: 2 to the deaths of boys; This means that today the unequal ratio in the cities is even more pronounced than in the country, which shows that the infanticides are not stopping despite the relative wealth of the province and the ongoing modernization process.

Population development

Gujarat census population since the first Indian census in 1951.

Census year	population
1951	16,263,700
1961	20.633.305
1971	26,697,488
1981	34,085,800
1991	41,309,580
2001	50.597.200
2011	60,383,628

languages

Languages ​​in Gujarat
language			percent
Gujarati			84.5%
Bhili			4.8%
Hindi			4.7%
Sindhi			1.9%
Marathi			1.5%
Urdu			1.2%
Other			1.4%
Distribution of languages ​​(2001 census)

The main language of Gujarat is Gujarati , after whose language borders the state was formed in 1960. It belongs to the group of Indo-Aryan languages and is written in its own script, the Gujarati script . According to the 2001 census, Gujarati is spoken by 84.5 percent of Gujarat's population as their mother tongue. 4.8 percent of the population speak Bhili , the language of the Bhil Adivasi people. Hindi , the most widely spoken language in India, is particularly widespread among immigrants from other parts of the country ; its speakers make up 4.7 percent of the population. 1.9 percent of Gujarat's residents are recorded as Sindhi native speakers, including speakers of the Kachchhi dialect, which is widespread in the Kachchh region . Marathi , the language of the neighboring state of Maharashtra, is spoken by 1.5 percent of the population. Urdu is partly widespread among the Muslims of Gujarat , whose speakers make up 1.2 percent of the population.

Gujarati is the only official language of Gujarat. As in all of India, English is present as a communication and educational language.

Religions

Religions in Gujarat
religion			percent
Hinduism			88.6%
Islam			9.7%
Jainism			1.0%
Other			0.6%
Distribution of religions (2011 census)

The vast majority of Gujarat's residents are Hindus . According to the 2001 census, they make up 89 percent of the population. The largest minority are Muslims with just under 10 percent of the population. Smaller minorities are Jainas with 1.0 percent and Christians with 0.5 percent. A numerically very small, but historically significant minority are the parses .

history

From the 8th to the 13th centuries, the country was ruled successively by three related Hindu dynasties: Chavda, Solanki , Vaghela . It was conquered by the Muslims around 1300 , and the Sultanate of Gujarat existed there in the 15th and 16th centuries . In 1576 the sultanate was conquered by Akbar I and incorporated into the Mughal Empire .

After the state of Bombay expanded in 1956 to include the entire area of ​​today's Maharashtra , Bombay was divided into the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra along the language border on May 1, 1960.

Gujarat after the 2001 earthquake

On January 26, 2001, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the region. About 20,000 people died and 200,000 were injured. The economic development of the area was set back by a decade.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat riots 2002

On February 27, 2002, at least 57 people were killed, including 25 women and 15 children , in an attack on a train carrying Hindu pilgrims . As a result, there were violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims , in which, according to official estimates, 254 Hindus and 790 Muslims were killed. The riots are among the worst and most brutal since Indian independence, and women in particular were victims of mutilation, torture and mass rape.

politics

Political system

The Gujarat Legislature consists of a unicameral parliament , the Gujarat Legislative Assembly or Gujarat Vidhan Sabha . The 182 members of parliament are elected by direct election every five years . The parliament has had its seat in the capital Gandhinagar since 1970 , which was laid out as a planned city after the founding of the state of Gujarat . Previously, Ahmedabad been 1960-1970 interim capital.

The Chief Minister (Head of Government) of Gujarats, is elected by Parliament. But is appointed by the President of India Governor (at the head of the State Governor ). Its main tasks are to appoint the Chief Minister and to entrust him with the formation of the government. Acharya Devvrat has held this office since July 2019 . The highest court in Gujarat is the Gujarat High Court , located in Ahmedabad.

Gujarat has 26 members in the Lok Sabha , the lower house of the Indian parliament, and eleven in the Rajya Sabha , the Indian upper house.

See also : List of Gujarat Governors

See also : List of Chief Ministers of Gujarat

Parties

Distribution of seats after the 2012 parliamentary elections
BJP	115
INC	61
GPP	2
NCP	2
JD (U)	1
Independent	1
total	182

Gujarat is already since 1997 all the way from the nationalist Hindu party Bharatiya Janata Party ruled (BJP). From 2001 to 2014, the BJP politician Narendra Modi held the office of Chief Minister. Modi is controversial for its role during the serious riot between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat that claimed more than 1,000 lives during his reign in 2002, but it became very popular because of Gujarat's economic success under his reign. He was able to lead his party to three consecutive election victories in the state and was elected Prime Minister of India after the election victory of the BJP in 2014 . After Modi's rise to prime minister, his party colleague Anandiben Patel took over the post of Chief Minister of Gujarat. However, she resigned from her position in early August 2016 (officially for reasons of age). Afterwards her party colleague Vijay Rupani became Chief Minister.

In the last general election in Gujarat in December 2012, the BJP won 115 out of 182 constituencies. The Indian National Congress (INC) followed as the most important opposition force with 61 seats. The regional Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP), which the former BJP politician and Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel founded shortly before the elections, won two seats. Furthermore, the two national parties Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Janata Dal (United) (JD (U)) are represented in parliament with two or one MPs and an independent candidate.

In the all- Indian parliamentary elections in 2014 , the BJP was able to build on its previous successes in Gujarat: it won all 26 constituencies in the state.

Administrative division

Districts of Gujarat

The state of Gujarat is divided into the following 33 districts (population, area and population density according to the 2011 census):

District	Administrative headquarters	surface	Population (2011)	Population density
Ahmedabad	Ahmedabad	8,099 km²	7.208.200	890 inhabitants / km²
Amreli	Amreli	7,383 km²	1,513,614	205 inhabitants / km²
Anand	Anand	2,940 km²	2,090,276	711 inhabitants / km²
Aravalli *	Modasa	km²		Ew./km²
Banaskantha	Palanpur	10,745 km²	3,116,045	290 inhabitants / km²
Bharuch	Bharuch	6,516 km²	1,550,822	238 inhabitants / km²
Bhavnagar	Bhavnagar	9,993 km²	2,877,961	288 inhabitants / km²
Botad *	Botad	km²		Ew./km²
Chhota Udaipur *	Chhota Udaipur	km²		Ew./km²
Dahod	Dahod	3,654 km²	2,126,558	582 inhabitants / km²
Dang	Ahwa	1,758 km²	226,769	129 inhabitants / km²
Devbhumi Dwarka *	Khambhalia	km²		Ew./km²
Gandhinagar	Gandhinagar	2,102 km²	1,387,478	660 inhabitants / km²
Gir Somnath *	Veraval	km²		Ew./km²
Jamnagar	Jamnagar	14,112 km²	2,159,130	153 inhabitants / km²
Junagadh	Junagadh	8,846 km²	2,742,291	310 people / km²
Kachchh	Bhuj	45,442 km²	2,090,313	46 inhabitants / km²
Kheda	Nadiad	4,249 km²	2,298,934	541 inhabitants / km²
Mahisagar *	Lunawada	km²		Ew./km²
Mehsana	Mehsana	4,389 km²	2,027,727	462 inhabitants / km²
Morbi *	Morbi	km²		Ew./km²
Narmada	Rajpipla	2,759 km²	590.379	214 inhabitants / km²
Navsari	Navsari	2,210 km²	1,330,711	602 inhabitants / km²
Panchmahal	Godhra	5,215 km²	2,388,267	458 inhabitants / km²
Patan	Patan	5,738 km²	1,342,746	234 inhabitants / km²
Porbandar	Porbandar	2,298 km²	586.062	255 people / km²
Rajkot	Rajkot	11,209 km²	3,799,770	339 inhabitants / km²
Sabarkantha	Himatnagar	7,400 km²	2,427,346	328 inhabitants / km²
Surat	Surat	4,418 km²	6,079,231	1,376 inhabitants / km²
Surendran agar	Surendranagar Dudhrej	10,514 km²	1,755,873	167 inhabitants / km²
Tapi	Vyara	3,239 km²	806.489	249 inhabitants / km²
Vadodara	Vadodara	7,546 km²	4,157,568	551 inhabitants / km²
Valsad	Valsad	3,036 km²	1,703,068	561 inhabitants / km²

^* : Districts established after 2011

Development of the district division

During the existence of Gujarat, the number of districts increased from 17 to 33.

• 1964: Gandhinagar district is formed from parts of Ahmedabad and Mehsana districts
• 1966: Formation of the Valsad district from parts of the Surat district
• October 2, 1997:
  • Formation of the Anand district from parts of the Kheda district
  • Formation of Dahod District from parts of Panchmahal District
  • Formation of the Narmada district from parts of the Bharuch and Vadodara districts
  • Formation of the Navsari District from parts of the Valsad District
  • Formation of the Porbandar district from parts of the Junagadh district
• 2000: Formation of the Patan district from parts of the Banaskantha and Mehsana districts
• October 2, 2007: Formation of the Tapi District from parts of the Surat District
• August 15, 2013:
  • Formation of the Aravalli district from parts of the Sabarkantha district
  • Formation of the Botad district from parts of the Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar districts
  • Formation of the Chhota Udaipur district from parts of the Vadodara district
  • Formation of Devbhumi Dwarka District from parts of Jamnagar District
  • Formation of the Mahisagar district from parts of the Kheda and Panchmahal districts
  • Formation of the Morbi district from parts of the Rajkot , Surendranagar and Jamnagar districts
  • Formation of the Gir Somnath district from parts of the Junagadh district

economy

With a per capita gross domestic product of 106,831 rupees (2,337 US dollars ) in 2015, Gujarat was ranked 6th out of 29 Indian states. The state's development indicators are generally in the Indian average or above. During the reign of Narendra Modi , who was Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and then Prime Minister of India, the state was considered one of the most economically dynamic in the country.

With a score of 0.651, Gujarat ranks 16th among the 29 states of India in the Human Development Index in 2015 . The Indian average is 0.624.

Renewable energy

Canal solar power project with a canal in Kadi, which is covered with photovoltaic modules

There are approximately 458 km of open main canals in Gujarat. Including all side arms, the canal length is currently 19,000 km. After completion of the SSNNL sewer network, it will cover approx. 85,000 km. Some open channels for the drinking water supply were covered with solar modules in a pilot project.

The Indian Federal Minister for Renewable Energies, Farooq Abdullah, supported the innovative project in the press.

Web links

Commons : Gujarat  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Gujarat  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Official website of the government of Gujarat
• 2002 Gujarat violence in the English language Wikipedia; about riots in Gujarat
• Arundhati Roy: Essay on the Background of the Gujarat Riots (May 2002, English)
• Country and people in Gujarat by Eric Töpfer at suedasien.info

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Source: Census of India 2011. (PDF; 154 kB)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Census of India 2011: Provisional Population Tables and Annexures.
3. ^ Census of India 2011: Provisional Population Totals - India - Rural-Urban Distribution. (PDF; 8.1 MB)
4. ^ Census of India 2001: Gujarat Data Highlights: The Scheduled Tribes. (PDF; 39 kB)
5. ↑ LS Vishvanath: Female Infanticide, Property and the Colonial State. In: Tulsi Patel (Ed.): Sex-Selective Abortion in India: Gender, Society and New Reproductive Technologies. SAGE 2007, p. 270.
6. ↑ Nirmala Carvalho: Gujarat: 12,000 baby girls killed in the state's cities. In: www.asianews.it, 2013.
7. ^ Population of Indian States | Indian states population 1901-2011 - StatisticsTimes.com. Retrieved March 19, 2018 . 
8. ^ Census of India 2001: Distribution of 10,000 Persons by Language - India, States and Union Territories.
9. ↑ Census of India 2011: Population by religious community.
10. ↑ At least 57 people burned in a train robbery. FAZ from Feb. 27, 2002
11. ↑ Akeel Bilgrami: Democratic Culture: Historical and Philosophical Essays . Routledge, 2013, ISBN 978-1-136-19777-2 , pp. 143 ff . (English, google.com ).
12. ^ Ward Berenschot: A Micro-Sociology of Violence: Deciphering Patterns and Dynamics of Collective Violence . Ed .: Jutta Bakonyi, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara. Routledge, 2014, ISBN 978-1-317-97796-4 , Rioting as Maintaining Relations: Hindu-Muslim Violence and Political Mediation in Gujarat, India, p. 18–37 (English, google.com ).
13. ^ Indian Social Institute: The Gujarat pogrom: compilation of various reports . 2002 (English, google.co.uk ).
14. ↑ Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi: Pogrom in Gujarat: Hindu Nationalism and Anti-Muslim Violence in India , Portland Press, 2012.
15. ^ Census of India 2011: Provisional Population Totals. Paper 1 of 2011: Gujarat. (PDF; 16.7 MB)
16. ^ Comparing Indian States and Countries by GDP per capita - StatisticsTimes.com. Retrieved March 18, 2018 . 
17. ↑ Mayank Mishra: Did Narendra Modi make Gujarat Vibrant? In: Business Standard India . July 20, 2013 ( business-standard.com [accessed March 18, 2018]).
18. ^ Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab. Retrieved August 12, 2018 . 
19. ^ State pulls off rare feat in reaping Sun, saving water . ExpressIndia. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
20. ^ Damodar Valley to replicate Gujarat's canal-top solar plant . Business standard. Retrieved May 22, 2012.

Coordinates: 23 ° 12 '  N , 72 ° 42'  E