Uttar Pradesh GK: History, Geography and Static Facts

Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state of India and the one whose towns appear most often in a general knowledge paper, because so much of the country's history happened on the plain between the Ganga and the Yamuna. A candidate sitting a state examination, or an SSC or railway paper, is asked the same handful of things about it: when it got its present name, what its symbols are, which river runs past which city, which monument stands where and what each district is famous for making. This note sets those out in that order.

Formation, capital and administration

The state grew out of the British province called the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, which was shortened to the United Provinces in 1937. After independence the name was changed to Uttar Pradesh on 24 January 1950, two days before the Constitution came into force, and the initials of the old name were kept. Lucknow is the capital. The High Court sits at Prayagraj, formerly Allahabad, with a bench at Lucknow, which is unusual because most states keep the High Court and the capital in one city. Uttar Pradesh is one of the few states with a legislature of two houses, the Vidhan Sabha and the Vidhan Parishad. Sarojini Naidu became its first Governor in 1947 and was the first woman to be Governor of any Indian state, and Govind Ballabh Pant was its first Chief Minister. In the year 2000 the hill districts of the state were separated to form Uttarakhand.

Geography and symbols

Most of the state lies in the flat Gangetic plain, with the Terai and the Shivalik foothills in the north and a small stretch of the Vindhyan and Bundelkhand plateau in the south. The Ganga and the Yamuna are the main rivers, joined by the Ghaghara, the Gomti, the Ramganga, the Betwa, the Ken and the Son; the Sarayu flows past Ayodhya. At Prayagraj the Ganga meets the Yamuna at the Triveni Sangam, where the Kumbh Mela is held. The state touches Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, and it has an international boundary with Nepal.

Places in history

The oldest layer is the age of the mahajanapadas, when Kosala, Kashi, Vatsa, Panchala and Surasena all lay in what is now Uttar Pradesh. The Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath near Varanasi, where the Dhamek Stupa stands, and attained mahaparinirvana at Kushinagar. Mathura is linked with Krishna and was a centre of an early school of sculpture. In the medieval centuries the Sharqi rulers made Jaunpur a seat of learning, and the Mughals built at Agra and Fatehpur Sikri, which Akbar founded as his capital and where the Buland Darwaza stands. The Taj Mahal was raised by Shah Jahan in memory of Mumtaz Mahal, and the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri are all inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. At Lucknow the Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula built the Bara Imambara in 1784 as a famine relief work, along with the Rumi Darwaza. The revolt of 1857 began at Meerut on 10 May and drew in Kanpur under Nana Saheb, Lucknow under Begum Hazrat Mahal and Jhansi under Rani Lakshmibai.

Economy, crafts and culture

Uttar Pradesh is the largest producer of sugarcane in India and one of the largest producers of wheat and potato, and the canal network of the western districts is among the oldest in the country. Its crafts are district by district: leather at Kanpur, brassware at Moradabad, glass bangles at Firozabad, carpets at Bhadohi, silk weaving at Varanasi, chikankari embroidery at Lucknow, locks at Aligarh, pottery at Khurja, wood carving at Saharanpur and sports goods at Meerut. Kathak, one of the eight classical dance forms of India, grew up in the courts and temples of this region, and the folk traditions include Nautanki, Raslila and the Charkula dance of Braj. Banaras Hindu University was founded at Varanasi in 1916 by Madan Mohan Malaviya, Aligarh Muslim University grew out of the college started by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, and the University of Allahabad is among the oldest in the country. Dudhwa, the only national park of the state, protects swamp deer and tigers in the Terai, and Pilibhit is a well known tiger reserve.