Punjab, India

This article is about a state of India. For the geographical region, see Punjab. For the province of Pakistan, see Punjab, Pakistan. For other uses of the name, see Punjab (disambiguation).

Punjab
State
State of Punjab
Official emblem of Punjab
Emblem of Punjab
Etymology: Land of five rivers
Motto: 
"Satyameva Jayate"
The map of India showing Punjab
Location of Punjab in India
Coordinates: 30°47′N 75°50′E / 30.79°N 75.84°E / 30.79; 75.84
CountryIndia
RegionNorth India
Before wasEast Punjab
PEPSU
Formation26 January 1950
CapitalChandigarh
Largest cityLudhiana
Districts23
Government
 • BodyGovernment of Punjab
 • GovernorGulab Chand Kataria
 • Chief ministerBhagwant Mann (AAP)
State LegislatureUnicameral
 • AssemblyPunjab Legislative Assembly (117 seats)
National ParliamentParliament of India
 • Rajya Sabha7 seats
 • Lok Sabha13 seats
High CourtPunjab and Haryana High Court
Area
 • Total
50,362 km2 (19,445 sq mi)
 • Rank20th
Elevation
[1]
300 m (1,000 ft)
Highest elevation
(Naina Devi Range)
1,000 m (3,000 ft)
Lowest elevation
(South Western side)
105 m (344 ft)
Population
 (2011)[2]
 • Total
Neutral increase 27,743,338
 • Rank16th
 • Density550/km2 (1,400/sq mi)
 • Urban
37.48%
 • Rural
62.52%
DemonymPunjabis
Language
 • OfficialPunjabi[3]
 • Official scriptGurmukhi script
GDP
[4]
 • Total (2021–22)Increase₹6.85 trillion (US$82 billion)
 • Rank16th
 • Per capitaNeutral increase₹182,500 (US$2,200) (19th)
Time zoneUTC+05:30 (IST)
ISO 3166 codeIN-PB
Vehicle registrationPB
HDI (2017–18)Neutral increase 0.740 High[5] (11th)
Literacy (2011)Increase 75.84% (21st)
Sex ratio (2021)938♀/1000 ♂[6] (25th)
Websitepunjab.gov.in
Symbols of Punjab
Emblem of Punjab
BirdGoshawk[7]
FishIndus river dolphin
FlowerGladiolus
FruitMandarin
MammalBlackbuck
TreeShisham
State highway mark
State highway of Punjab
PB SH1 - PB SH41
List of Indian state symbols

Punjab (/pʌnˈdʒɑːb/ ⓘ;[8] Punjabi: [pənˈdʒɑːb] ⓘ) is a state in northwestern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the north and northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast, and Rajasthan to the southwest; by the Indian union territories of Chandigarh to the east and Jammu and Kashmir to the north. It shares an international border with Punjab, a province of Pakistan to the west.[9] The state covers an area of 50,362 square kilometres (19,445 square miles), which is 1.53% of India's total geographical area,[10] making it the 19th-largest Indian state by area out of 28 Indian states (20th largest, if Union Territories are considered). With over 27 million inhabitants, Punjab is the 16th-largest Indian state by population, comprising 23 districts.[2] Punjabi, written in the Gurmukhi script, is the most widely spoken and the official language of the state.[11] The main ethnic group are the Punjabis, with Sikhs (57.7%) and Hindus (38.5%) forming the dominant religious groups.[12] The state capital, Chandigarh, is a union territory and also the capital of the neighbouring state of Haryana. Three tributaries of the Indus River — the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi — flow through Punjab.[13]

The history of Punjab has witnessed the migration and settlement of different tribes of people with different cultures and ideas, forming a civilisational melting pot. The ancient Indus Valley Civilisation flourished in the region until its decline around 1900 BCE.[14] Punjab was enriched during the height of the Vedic period, but declined in predominance with the rise of the Mahajanapadas.[15] The region formed the frontier of initial empires during antiquity including Alexander's and the Maurya empires.[16][17] It was subsequently conquered by the Kushan Empire, Gupta Empire,[18] and then Harsha's Empire.[19] Punjab continued to be settled by nomadic people; including the Huna, Turkic and the Mongols. Punjab came under Muslim rule c. 1000 CE,[20] and was part of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire.[21] Sikhism, based on the teachings of Sikh Gurus, emerged between the 15th and 17th centuries. Conflicts between the Mughals and the later Sikh Gurus precipitated a militarisation of the Sikhs, resulting in the formation of a confederacy after the weakening of the Mughal Empire, which competed for control with the larger Durrani Empire.[22] This confederacy was united in 1801 by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, forming the Sikh Empire.[23]

The larger Punjab region was annexed by the British East India Company from the Sikh Empire in 1849.[24] At the time of the independence of India from British rule in 1947, the Punjab province was partitioned along religious lines amidst widespread violence, with the Muslim-majority western portion becoming part of Pakistan and the Hindu- and Sikh-majority east remaining in India, causing a large-scale migration between the two.[25] After the Punjabi Suba movement, Indian Punjab was reorganised on the basis of language in 1966,[26] when its Haryanvi- and Hindi-speaking areas were carved out as Haryana, Pahari-speaking regions attached to Himachal Pradesh and the remaining, mostly Punjabi-speaking areas became the current state of Punjab. A separatist insurgency occurred in the state during the 1980s.[27] At present, the economy of Punjab is the 15th-largest state economy in India with ₹8.02 trillion (equivalent to ₹8.0 trillion or US$96 billion in 2023) in gross domestic product and a per capita GDP of ₹264,000 (equivalent to ₹260,000 or US$3,200 in 2023), ranking 17th among Indian states.[4] Since independence, Punjab is predominantly an agrarian society. It is the ninth-highest ranking among Indian states in human development index.[5] Punjab has bustling tourism, music, culinary, and film industries.[28]

  1. ^ "Know Punjab – Government of Punjab, India". Archived from the original on 13 July 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Area, population, decennial growth rate and density for 2001 and 2011 at a glance for Punjab and the districts: provisional population totals paper 1 of 2011: Punjab". Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  3. ^ "Report of the Commissioner for linguistic minorities: 50th report (July 2012 to June 2013)" (PDF). Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Handbook of Statistics of Indian States" (PDF). Reserve Bank of India. pp. 37–42. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  5. ^ a b "Sub-national HDI – Area Database". Global Data Lab. Institute for Management Research, Radboud University. Archived from the original on 23 September 2018. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  6. ^ "Sex ratio of State and Union Territories of India as per National Health survey (2019–2021)". Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India. Archived from the original on 8 January 2023. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  7. ^ "State Bird is BAAZ". Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
  8. ^ Also /ˈpʌndʒæb/ and other variants
  9. ^ "Border Area Development Programmes in Punjab" (PDF). Department of Planning Punjab. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 September 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  10. ^ "Official site of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, India". Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  11. ^ —"Report of the Commissioner for linguistic minorities: 50th report (July 2012 to June 2013)" (PDF). Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
    —"Language – India, States and Union Territories" (PDF). Census of India 2011. Office of the Registrar General. pp. 13–14. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 19 October 2018.
    —"C-16 Population By Mother Tongue – Punjab". censusindia.gov.in. Archived from the original on 3 October 2021. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
  12. ^ "Population by religion community – 2011". The Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015.
  13. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, ninth ed., vol. 20, Punjab, p.107
  14. ^ Singh, Mohinder (1988). History and Culture of Panjab. Atlantic Publishers. pp. 1, 12.
  15. ^ Chattopadhyaya, Brajadulal (2003). Studying Early India: Archaeology, Texts, and Historical Issues. Permanent Black Publishers. ISBN 81-7824-143-9.
  16. ^ Romm, James S. (2012). The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander. Anchor Books. ISBN 978-1-4000-7967-4.
  17. ^ Thorpe, Showick; Thorpe, Edgar (2009). The Pearson General Studies Manual 2009. Pearson. ISBN 978-81-317-2133-9.
  18. ^ Daniélou, Alain (2003). A Brief History of India. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-89281-923-2.
  19. ^ Majumdar, R. C. (1977). Ancient India. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-0436-4.
  20. ^ Mohan, R. T. (2010). Afghanistan Revisited: The Brahmana Hindu Shahis of Afghanistan and the Punjab ( C.840.-1026 CE). MLBD.
  21. ^ —Lapidus, I. M. (2014). A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-99150-6. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
    —Jayapalan, N. (2001). History of India. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Limited. ISBN 978-81-7156-928-1. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
    —The Islamic World to 1600: Rise of the Great Islamic Empires (The Mughal Empire) Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
    —"Mughal Dynasty". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Britannica. Archived from the original on 24 February 2021. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
    —Potdar, Datto Vaman (1938). All India Modern History Congress.
  22. ^ —Melton, J. G. (2014). Faiths Across Time: 5,000 Years of Religious History. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-61069-026-3.[full citation needed]
    —Jestice, Phyllis (2004). Holy people of the world : a cross-cultural encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-355-1. OCLC 57407318.
    —Latif, Syad Muhammad (1964). The History of Punjab from the Remotest Antiquity to the Present Time. Eurasia Publishing House (Pvt.) Ltd. p. 283.
    —Bhatia, Sardar Singh (1998). The Encyclopedia of Sikhism, Volume IV. Punjabi University. p. 396.
  23. ^ Grewal, J. S.; Johnson, Gordon (1990). The Sikhs of the Punjab. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-26884-4. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  24. ^ Cunningham, Joseph (1853). Cunningham's history of the Sikhs. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
  25. ^ —Talbot, Ian (2009). "Partition of India: The Human Dimension". Cultural and Social History. 6 (4): 403–410. doi:10.2752/147800409X466254. S2CID 147110854. The number of casualties remains a matter of dispute, with figures being claimed that range from 200,000 to 2 million victims.
    —D'Costa, Bina (2011). Nationbuilding, Gender and War Crimes in South Asia. Routledge. p. 53. ISBN 978-0415565660.
    —Butalia, Urvashi (2000). The Other Side of Silence: Voices From the Partition of India. Duke University Press. Archived from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
    —Sikand, Yoginder (2004). Muslims in India Since 1947: Islamic Perspectives on Inter-Faith Relations. Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 978-1134378258.
    —"A heritage all but erased". The Friday Times. 25 December 2015. Archived from the original on 24 April 2022. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
  26. ^ Brass, Paul R. (2005). Language, Religion and Politics in North India. iUniverse. p. 326. ISBN 978-0-595-34394-2.
  27. ^ Mahmood, Cynthia Keppley (1996). Fighting for Faith and Nation: Dialogues with Sikh Militants. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 77. ISBN 9780812215922. Archived from the original on 9 April 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  28. ^ —"How Punjab became home to India's largest non-film music industry". The Economic Times. 8 July 2018. Archived from the original on 11 August 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
    —"Why Punjabi music is so euphonic". Business Standard. 3 May 2020. Archived from the original on 2 July 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
    —"Everyone's a rockstar in Mohali, the city at the heart of a Punjabi music boom". Hindustan Times. 8 January 2019. Archived from the original on 2 July 2020. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
    —"Indian Films by Language" (PDF). Film Federation of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
    —"Kirron Kher tries to get film city for Chandigarh". Archived from the original on 13 November 2014.
    —"Kirron Kher is trying to bring a film city to Chandigarh". Archived from the original on 31 October 2015.
    —"The Globalisation of Bhangra Music". Archived from the original on 10 September 2015.
    —"The Bhangra Breakdown – June 2014 Edition". June 2014. Archived from the original on 28 January 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2017.