Punjab

Area :50,362 square kilometers.

Capital :Chandigarh is the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana.

Population :2,02,81,969

Language :Punjabi

People :More than 60 per cent of the people follow Sikhism,and they are called Punjabi.

Economy :Highly commercial agriculture and a diversity of small and medium-scale industries. With less than 2% of India's total area,Punjab produces more than 10% of India's food grain and more wheat than all other states combined.

Climate :The three well defined seasons in the Punjab are Summer (mid-April to June-end),Rainy Season ( early-July to September-end) and winter (early-December to February-end). The highest day time temperature is recorded during the months of May and June. It is 40.4 C at Patiala,40.4 C at Amristar and 41.2 C at Ludhiana. The fall in temperature is minimum in January,when the mean temperature falls to 12oC during day time and to 5oC during the night.

History :In the 6th century BC,during the reign of Cyrus the Great,Punjab was a part of the Persian empire. In the 4th century BC,Punjab became a part of Chandragupta Maurya's empire. Followed were Indo-Greeks,the Kushans,Sakas and the Parthians.

In the 11th century a ruler of Central Asia called Mahmud of Ghazni invaded Punjab . However,his successors were overcome by Prithviraj who regained Punjab. In 1192,Muhammad Ghori's won the battle and ruled this region. Thereafter Punjab was ruled by whoever was ruling in Delhi.

In the 15th Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak that became was widely accepted by the people living around there. Later Guru Arjan Dev,and Guru Gobind Singh played important roles in the evolution of Sikhism.

Banda Singh Bahadur,a hermit turned military leader temporarily liberated the eastern part of the province from Mughal rule in 1709-10. By the late 18th century,Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) had built up the Punjab into a powerful kingdom. But in 1849 Punjab came under British empire. By the late 19th century,the Indian nationalist movement took hold in this province. The country saw the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amitsar in the year 1919. In 1947 after the independence,during the partition Punjab was split between India and Pakistan,and the smaller,eastern portion became part of India.

Modern Punjab was established on 1st November 1966 when most of the Hindi speaking areas were separated from it and constituted into the state of Haryana. Punjab's capital,Chandigarh,became a separate union territory but still remains the capital of Haryana and Punjab.