Context of Gujarat


Gujarat ( GUUJ-ə-RAHT, Gujarati: [ˈɡudʒəɾat̪] (listen)) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about 1,600 km (990 mi) is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some 196,024 km2 (75,685 sq mi); and the ninth-most populous state, with a population of 60.4 million. It is bordered by Rajasthan to the northeast, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu to the south, Maharashtra to the southeast, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea and the Pakistani province of Sindh to the west. Gujarat's capital city is Gandhinagar, while its largest city is Ahmedabad. ...Read more


Gujarat ( GUUJ-ə-RAHT, Gujarati: [ˈɡudʒəɾat̪] (listen)) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about 1,600 km (990 mi) is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some 196,024 km2 (75,685 sq mi); and the ninth-most populous state, with a population of 60.4 million. It is bordered by Rajasthan to the northeast, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu to the south, Maharashtra to the southeast, Madhya Pradesh to the east, and the Arabian Sea and the Pakistani province of Sindh to the west. Gujarat's capital city is Gandhinagar, while its largest city is Ahmedabad. The Gujaratis are indigenous to the state and their language, Gujarati, is the state's official language.

The state encompasses 23 sites of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation (more than any other state). The most important sites are Lothal (the world's first dry dock), Dholavira (the fifth largest site), and Gola Dhoro (where 5 uncommon seals were found). Lothal is believed to have been one of the world's first seaports. Gujarat's coastal cities, chiefly Bharuch and Khambhat, served as ports and trading centres in the Maurya and Gupta empires, and during the succession of royal Saka dynasties in the Western Satraps era. Along with Bihar, Mizoram and Nagaland, Gujarat is one of four Indian states to prohibit the sale of alcohol. The Gir Forest National Park in Gujarat is home to the only wild population of the Asiatic lion in the world.

The economy of Gujarat is the fourth-largest in India, with a gross state domestic product (GSDP) of 16.55 trillion (US$210 billion) and has the country's 10th-highest GSDP per capita of 215,000 (US$2,700). Gujarat ranks 21st among Indian states and union territories in human development index. Gujarat is regarded as one of the most industrialised states and has a low unemployment rate, but the state ranks poorly on some social indicators and is at times affected by religious violence.

More about Gujarat

Population, Area & Driving side
  • Population 60383628
  • Area 196024
History
  • Ancient history
    Read more
    Ancient history
    Indus Valley civilisation
     
    Dholavira, one of the largest cities of Indus Valley civilisation, with stepwell steps to reach the water level in artificially constructed reservoirs[1]
     
    Archaeological remains of washroom drainage system at Lothal

    Gujarat was one of the main central areas of the Indus Valley civilisation, which is centred primarily in modern Pakistan.[2] It contains ancient metropolitan cities from the Indus Valley such as Lothal, Dholavira and Gola Dhoro.[3] The ancient city of Lothal was where India's first port was established.[4] The ancient city of Dholavira is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites in India, belonging to the Indus Valley civilisation. The most recent discovery was Gola Dhoro. Altogether, about fifty Indus Valley settlement ruins have been discovered in Gujarat.[5]

    The ancient history of Gujarat was enriched by the commercial activities of its inhabitants. There is clear historical evidence of trade and commerce ties with Egypt, Bahrain and Sumer in the Persian Gulf during the time period of 1000 to 750 BCE.[5][6] There was a succession of various Indian empires such as the Mauryan dynasty, Western Satraps, Satavahana dynasty, Gupta Empire, Chalukya dynasty, Rashtrakuta Empire, Pala Empire and Gurjara-Pratihara Empire, as well as the Maitrakas and then the Chaulukyas.

    The early history of Gujarat includes the imperial grandeur of Chandragupta Maurya who conquered a number of earlier states in what is now Gujarat. Pushyagupta, a Vaishya, was appointed the governor of Saurashtra by the Mauryan regime. He ruled Girinagar (modern-day Junagadh) (322 BCE to 294 BCE) and built a dam on the Sudarshan lake. Emperor Ashoka the Great, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, not only ordered his edicts engraved in the rock at Junagadh, but also asked Governor Tusherpha to cut canals from the lake where an earlier Indian governor had built a dam. Between the decline of Mauryan power and Saurashtra coming under the sway of the Samprati Mauryas of Ujjain, there was an Indo-Greek defeat in Gujarat of Demetrius. In 16th century manuscripts, there is an apocryphal story of a merchant of King Gondophares landing in Gujarat with Apostle Thomas. The incident of the cup-bearer torn apart by a lion might indicate that the port city described is in Gujarat.[7][8]

    For nearly 300 years from the start of the 1st century CE, Saka rulers played a prominent part in Gujarat's history. The weather-beaten rock at Junagadh gives a glimpse of the ruler Rudradaman I (100 CE) of the Saka satraps known as Western Satraps, or Kshatraps. Mahakshatrap Rudradaman I founded the Kardamaka dynasty which ruled from Anupa on the banks of the Narmada up to the Aparanta region bordering Punjab. In Gujarat, several battles were fought between the Indian dynasties such as the Satavahana dynasty and the Western Satraps. The greatest and the mightiest ruler of the Satavahana dynasty was Gautamiputra Satakarni who defeated the Western Satraps and conquered some parts of Gujarat in the 2nd century CE.[9]

     
    Coin of the Gujuras of Sindh, Chavda dynasty, c. 570–712 CE. Crowned Sasanian-style bust right / Fire altar with ribbons and attendants; star and crescent flanking flames.[10]

    The Kshatrapa dynasty was replaced by the Gupta Empire with the conquest of Gujarat by Chandragupta Vikramaditya. Vikramaditya's successor Skandagupta left an inscription (450 CE) on a rock at Junagadh which gives details of the governor's repairs to the embankment surrounding Sudarshan lake after it was damaged by floods. The Anarta and Saurashtra regions were both parts of the Gupta empire. Towards the middle of the 5th century, the Gupta empire went into decline. Senapati Bhatarka, the general of the Guptas, took advantage of the situation and in 470 set up what came to be known as the Maitraka state. He shifted his capital from Giringer to Valabhi, near Bhavnagar, on Saurashtra's east coast. The Maitrakas of Vallabhi became very powerful with their rule prevailing over large parts of Gujarat and adjoining Malwa. A university was set up by the Maitrakas, which came to be known far and wide for its scholastic pursuits and was compared with the noted Nalanda University. It was during the rule of Dhruvasena Maitrak that Chinese philosopher-traveler Xuanzang/ I Tsing visited in 640 along the Silk Road.[11]

    Gujarat was known to the ancient Greeks and was familiar with other Western centers of civilisation through the end of the European Middle Ages. The oldest written record of Gujarat's 2,000-year maritime history is documented in a Greek book titled The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century.[12][13]

    Medieval history
     
    Sun Temple of Modhera, with stepwell surrounding the ‘’kunda’’ (tank), was built by Bhima I of Chaulukya dynasty in 1026. It is one of the finest examples of stepwell architecture of Gujarat.
     
    Rani ki vav, 11th century
     
    Taranga Jain temple constructed by Kumarapala (1143–1172)

    In the early 8th century, the Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate established an empire in the name of the rising religion of Islam, which stretched from Spain in the west to Afghanistan and modern-day Pakistan in the east. Al-Junaid, the successor of Qasim, finally subdued the Hindu resistance within Sindh and established a secure base. The Arab rulers tried to expand their empire southeast, which culminated in the Caliphate campaigns in India fought in 730; they were defeated and expelled west of the Indus river, probably by a coalition of the Indian rulers Nagabhata I of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, Vikramaditya II of the Chalukya dynasty and Bappa Rawal of the Guhila dynasty. After this victory, the Arab invaders were driven out of Gujarat. General Pulakeshin, a Chalukya prince of Lata, received the title Avanijanashraya (refuge of the people of the earth) and honorific of "Repeller of the unrepellable" by the Chalukya emperor Vikramaditya II for his victory at the battle at Navsari, where the Arab troops suffered a crushing defeat.[14]

    In the late 8th century, the Kannauj Triangle period started. The three major Indian dynasties – the northwestern Indian Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, the southern Indian Rashtrakuta dynasty and the eastern Indian Pala Empire – dominated India from the 8th to 10th centuries. During this period the northern part of Gujarat was ruled by the northern Indian Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty and the southern part of Gujarat was ruled by the southern Indian Rashtrakuta dynasty.[15] However, the earliest epigraphical records of the Gurjars of Broach attest that the royal bloodline of the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty of Dadda I, II and III (650–750) ruled south Gujarat.[16] Southern Gujarat was ruled by the Indian Rashtrakuta dynasty until it was captured by the Indian ruler Tailapa II of the Western Chalukya Empire.[17]

    Zoroastrians from Greater Iran migrated to the western borders of India (Gujarat and Sindh) during the 8th or 10th century,[18] to avoid persecution by Muslim invaders who were in the process of conquering Iran. The descendants of those Zoroastrian refugees came to be known as the Parsi.[19][20][21][22]

    Subsequently, Lāṭa in southern Gujarat was ruled by the Rashtrakuta dynasty until it was captured by the Western Chalukya ruler Tailapa II.[17][23]

    The Chaulukya dynasty[24] ruled Gujarat from c. 960 to 1243. Gujarat was a major center of Indian Ocean trade, and their capital at Anhilwara (Patan) was one of the largest cities in India, with a population estimated at 100,000 in the year 1000. After 1243, the Solankis lost control of Gujarat to their feudatories, of whom the Vaghela chiefs of Dholka came to dominate Gujarat. In 1292 the Vaghelas became tributaries of the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri in the Deccan. Karandev of the Vaghela dynasty was the last Hindu ruler of Gujarat. He was defeated and overthrown by the superior forces of Alauddin Khalji from Delhi in 1297. With his defeat, Gujarat became part of the Delhi Sultanate, and the Rajput hold over Gujarat would never be restored.

    Fragments of printed cotton from Gujarat have been discovered in Egypt, providing evidence for medieval trade in the western Indian Ocean.[25] These fragments represent the Indian cotton traded in Egypt during the Fatimid, Ayyubid and Mamluk periods, from the tenth to sixteenth centuries. Similar cotton was also traded as far east as Indonesia.[25]

    Muslim rule
     
    Muhammad ibn Qasim's conquest of Sindh (711-715 CE).
      Desert areas (Registan Desert and Thar Desert)
      Zunbils
      Kingdom of Sindh (c. 632– 712 CE)
      Maitraka Kingdom (c.475–c.776 CE)
    Islamic conquests, 1197–1614
     
    The Mughal Emperor Akbar triumphantly enters Surat.

    After the Ghoris had assumed a position of Muslim supremacy over North India, Qutbuddin Aibak attempted to conquer Gujarat and annex it to his empire in 1197, but failed in his ambitions.[26] An independent Muslim community continued to flourish in Gujarat for the next hundred years, championed by Arab merchants settling along the western coast. From 1297 to 1300, Alauddin Khalji, the Turko-Afghan Sultan of Delhi, destroyed the Hindu metropolis of Anhilwara and incorporated Gujarat into the Delhi Sultanate. After Timur sacked Delhi at the end of the 14th century, weakening the Sultanate, Gujarat's Muslim Khatri governor Zafar Khan Muzaffar (Muzaffar Shah I) asserted his independence, and his son, Sultan Ahmed Shah (ruled 1411–1442), established Ahmedabad as the capital. Khambhat eclipsed Bharuch as Gujarat's most important trade port. Gujarat's relations with Egypt, which was then the premier Arab power in the Middle East, remained friendly over the next century and the Egyptian scholar, Badruddin-ad-Damamimi, spent several years in Gujarat in the shade of the Sultan before proceeding to the Bahmani Sultanate on the Deccan Plateau.[27][28]

    Shah e Alam, a famous Sufi saint of the Chishti order who was the descendant of Makhdoom Jahaniyan Jahangasht from Bukhara, soon arrived in a group that included Arab theologian Ibn Suwaid, several Sayyid Sufi members of the Aydarus family of Tarim in Yemen,[29] Iberian court interpreter Ali al-Andalusi from Granada,[30] and the Arab jurist Bahraq from Hadramaut who was appointed a tutor of the prince.[31] Among the illustrious names who arrived during the reign of Mahmud Begada was the philosopher Haibatullah Shah Mir from Shiraz, and the scholar intellectual Abu Fazl Ghazaruni from Persia[32][33] who tutored and adopted Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, author of the Akbarnama.[34] Later, a close alliance between the Ottoman Turks and Gujarati sultans to effectively safeguard Jeddah and the Red Sea trade from Portuguese imperialism, encouraged the existence of powerful Rumi elites within the kingdom who took the post of viziers in Gujarat keen to maintain ties with the Ottoman state.[35][36][37][38][39]

    Humayun also briefly occupied the province in 1536, but fled due to the threat Bahadur Shah, the Gujarat king, imposed.[40] The Sultanate of Gujarat remained independent until 1572, when the Mughal emperor Akbar conquered it and annexed it to the Mughal Empire.[41]

    The Surat port (the only Indian port facing west) then became the principal port of India during Mughal rule, gaining widespread international repute. The city of Surat, famous for its exports of silk and diamonds, had reached a par with contemporary Venice and Beijing, great mercantile cities of Europe and Asia,[42] and earned the distinguished title, Bab al-Makkah (Gate of Mecca).[43][44]

    Drawn by the religious renaissance taking place under Akbar, Mohammed Ghaus moved to Gujarat and established spiritual centers for the Shattari Sufi order from Iran, founding the Ek Toda Mosque and producing such devotees as Wajihuddin Alvi of Ahmedabad whose many successors moved to Bijapur during the height of the Adil Shahi dynasty.[45] At the same time, Zoroastrian high priest Azar Kayvan who was a native of Fars, immigrated to Gujarat founding the Zoroastrian school of illuminationists which attracted key Shi'ite Muslim admirers of the Safavid philosophical revival from Isfahan.

    Early 14th-century Maghrebi adventurer, Ibn Batuta, who famously visited India with his entourage, recalls in his memoirs about Cambay, one of the great emporia of the Indian Ocean that indeed:

    Cambay is one of the most beautiful cities as regards the artistic architecture of its houses and the construction of its mosques. The reason is that the majority of its inhabitants are foreign merchants, who continually build their beautiful houses and wonderful mosques – an achievement in which they endeavor to surpass each other.

     
    16th-century Portuguese illustration from the Códice Casanatense, depicting inhabitants of Gujarat

    Many of these "foreign merchants" were transient visitors, men of South Arabian and Persian Gulf ports, who migrated in and out of Cambay with the rhythm of the monsoons. But others were men with Arab or Persian patronyms whose families had settled in the town generations, even centuries earlier, intermarrying with Gujarati women, and assimilating everyday customs of the Hindu hinterland.[46]

    The Age of Discovery heralded the dawn of pioneer Portuguese and Spanish long-distance travel in search of alternative trade routes to "the East Indies", moved by the trade of gold, silver and spices. In 1497, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama is said to have discovered the Europe-to-India sea route which changed the course of history, thanks to Kutchi sailor Kanji Malam, who showed him the route from the East African coasts of Mozambique sailing onwards to Calicut off the Malabar coast in India.[47][48][49] Later, the Gujarat Sultanate allied with the Ottomans and Egyptian Mamluks naval fleets led by governor-generals Malik Ayyaz and Amir Husain Al-Kurdi, vanquished the Portuguese in the 1508 Battle of Chaul resulting in the first Portuguese defeat at sea in the Indian Ocean.[50]

    To 16th-century European observers, Gujarat was a fabulously wealthy country. The customs revenue of Gujarat alone in the early 1570s was nearly three times the total revenue of the whole Portuguese empire in Asia in 1586–87, when it was at its height.[51] Indeed, when the British arrived on the coast of Gujarat, houses in Surat already had windows of Venetian glass imported from Constantinople through the Ottoman empire.[52] In 1514, the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa described the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Rander known otherwise as City of Mosques in Surat province, which gained the fame and reputation of illustrious Islamic scholars, Sufi-saints, merchants and intellectuals from all over the world:[53]

    Ranel (Rander) is a good town of the Moors, built of very pretty houses and squares. It is a rich and agreeable place ... the Moors of the town trade with Malacca, Bengal, Tawasery (Tannasserim), Pegu, Martaban, and Sumatra in all sort of spices, drugs, silks, musk, benzoin and porcelain. They possess very large and fine ships and those who wish Chinese articles will find them there very completely. The Moors of this place are white and well dressed and very rich they have pretty wives, and in the furniture of these houses have china vases of many kinds, kept in glass cupboards well arranged. Their women are not secluded like other Moors, but go about the city in the day time, attending to their business with their faces uncovered as in other parts.

    The conquest of the Kingdom of Gujarat marked a significant event of Akbar's reign. Being the major trade gateway and departure harbour of pilgrim ships to Mecca, it gave the Mughal Empire free access to the Arabian sea and control over the rich commerce that passed through its ports. The territory and income of the empire were vastly increased.[54]

    The Sultanate of Gujarat and the merchants
     
    A modern Zoroastrian Agiary in Western India

    For the best part of two centuries, the independent Khatri Sultanate of Gujarat was the cynosure of its neighbours on account of its wealth and prosperity, which had long made the Gujarati merchant a familiar figure in the ports of the Indian Ocean.[27][55] Gujaratis, including Hindus and Muslims as well as the enterprising Parsi class of Zoroastrians, had been specialising in the organisation of overseas trade for many centuries, and had moved into various branches of commerce such as commodity trade, brokerage, money-changing, money-lending and banking.[56]

    By the 17th century, Chavuse and Baghdadi Jews had assimilated into the social world of the Surat province, later on their descendants would give rise to the Sassoons of Bombay and the Ezras of Calcutta, and other influential Indian-Jewish figures who went on to play a philanthropical role in the commercial development of 19th-century British Crown Colony of Shanghai.[57] Spearheaded by Khoja, Bohra, Bhatiya shahbandars and Moorish nakhudas who dominated sea navigation and shipping, Gujarat's transactions with the outside world had created the legacy of an international transoceanic empire which had a vast commercial network of permanent agents stationed at all the great port cities across the Indian Ocean. These networks extended to the Philippines in the east, East Africa in the west, and via maritime and the inland caravan route to Russia in the north.[58]

    Tomé Pires, a Portuguese official at Malacca, wrote of conditions during the reigns of Mahmud I and Mozaffar II:

    "Cambay stretches out two arms; with her right arm she reaches toward Aden and with the other towards Malacca"[59]

    He also described Gujarat's active trade with Goa, the Deccan Plateau and the Malabar. His contemporary, Duarte Barbosa, describing Gujarat's maritime trade, recorded the import of horses from the Middle East and elephants from Malabar, and lists exports which included muslins, chintzes and silks, carnelian, ginger and other spices, aromatics, opium, indigo and other substances for dyeing, cereals and legumes.[60] Persia was the destination for many of these commodities, and they were partly paid for in horses and pearls taken from Hormuz.[61] The latter item, in particular, led Sultan Sikandar Lodi of Delhi, according to Ali-Muhammad Khan, author of the Mirat-i-Ahmadi, to complain that the

    "support of the throne of Delhi is wheat and barley but the foundation of the realm of Gujarat is coral and pearls.[62]

    Hence, the sultans of Gujarat possessed ample means to sustain lavish patronage of religion and the arts, to build madrasas and ḵānaqāhs, and to provide douceurs for the literati, mainly poets and historians, whose presence and praise enhanced the fame of the dynasty.[63]

     
    Jama Masjid, Ahmedabad

    Even at the time of Tomé Pires' travel to the East Indies in the early 16th century, Gujarati merchants had earned an international reputation for their commercial acumen and this encouraged the visit of merchants from Cairo, Armenia, Abyssinia, Khorasan, Shiraz, Turkestan and Guilans from Aden and Hormuz.[64] Pires noted in his Suma Orientale:[65]

    These [people] are [like] Italians in their knowledge of and dealings in merchandise ... they are men who understand merchandise; they are so properly steeped in the sound and harmony of it, that the Gujaratees say that any offence connected with merchandise is pardonable. There are Gujaratees settled everywhere. They work some for some and others for others. They are diligent, quick men in trade. They do their accounts with fingers like ours and with our very writings.

    Gujarat in the Mughal Empire
     
    Portrait of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb

    Gujarat was one of the twelve original subahs (imperial top-level provinces) established by Mughal Emperor (Badshah) Akbar, with seat at Ahmedabad, bordering on Thatta (Sindh), Ajmer, Malwa and later Ahmadnagar subahs.

    Aurangzeb, who was better known by his imperial title Alamgir ("Conqueror of the World"), was born at Dahod, Gujarat, and was the sixth Mughal Emperor ruling with an iron fist over most of the Indian subcontinent. He was the third son and sixth child of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. At the time of his birth, his father, Shah Jahan, was then the Subahdar (governor) of Gujarat, and his grandfather, Jehangir, was the Mughal Emperor. Before he became emperor, Aurangzeb was made Subahdar of Gujarat subah as part of his training and was stationed at Ahmedabad. Aurangzeb was a notable expansionist and was among the wealthiest of the Mughal rulers, with an annual yearly tribute of £38,624,680 (in 1690). During his lifetime, victories in the south expanded the Mughal Empire to more than 3.2 million square kilometres and he ruled over a population estimated as being in the range of 100–150 million subjects.

    Aurangzeb had great love for his place of birth. In 1704, he wrote a letter to his eldest son, Muhammad Azam Shah, asking him to be kind and considerate to the people of Dahod as it was his birthplace. Muhammad Azam was then the Subedar (governor) of Gujarat.

    In his letter, Aurangzeb wrote:[66]

    My son of exalted rank, the town of Dahod, one of the dependencies of Gujarat, is the birthplace of this sinner. Please consider a regard for the inhabitants of that town as incumbent on you.

    Maratha Empire
     
    Peshwa Baji Rao I riding a horse

    When the cracks had started to develop in the edifice of the Mughal Empire in the mid-17th century, the Marathas were consolidating their power in the west, Chatrapati Shivaji, the great Maratha ruler, attacked Surat in southern Gujarat twice first in 1664 and again in 1672.[67] These attacks marked the entry of the Marathas into Gujarat. However, before the Maratha had made inroads into Gujarat, the Europeans had made their presence felt, led by the Portuguese, and followed by the Dutch and the English.

    The Peshwas had established sovereignty over parts of Gujarat and collected taxes and tributes through their representatives. Damaji Rao Gaekwad and Kadam Bande divided the Peshwa territory between them,[68] with Damaji establishing the sway of Gaekwad over Gujarat and making Baroda (present day Vadodara in southern Gujarat) his capital. The ensuing internecine war among the Marathas was fully exploited by the British, who interfered in the affairs of both Gaekwads and the Peshwas.

    In Saurashtra, as elsewhere, the Marathas were met with resistance.[69] The decline of the Mughal Empire helped form larger peripheral states in Saurashtra, including Junagadh, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and a few others, which largely resisted the Maratha incursions.[69]

    European colonialism, 1614–1947
     
    Princely states of Gujarat in 1924

    In the 1600s, the Dutch, French, English and Portuguese all established bases along the western coast of the region. Portugal was the first European power to arrive in Gujarat, and after the Battle of Diu, acquired several enclaves along the Gujarati coast, including Daman and Diu as well as Dadra and Nagar Haveli. These enclaves were administered by Portuguese India under a single union territory for over 450 years, only to be later incorporated into the Republic of India on 19 December 1961 by military conquest.

    The British East India Company established a factory in Surat in 1614 following the commercial treaty made with Mughal Emperor Nuruddin Salim Jahangir, which formed their first base in India, but it was eclipsed by Bombay after the English received it from Portugal in 1668 as part of the marriage treaty of Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza, daughter of King John IV of Portugal. The state was an early point of contact with the west, and the first British commercial outpost in India was in Gujarat.[70]

    17th-century French explorer François Pyrard de Laval, who is remembered for his 10-year sojourn in South Asia, bears witness in his account that the Gujaratis were always prepared to learn workmanship from the Portuguese, and in turn imparted skills to the Portuguese:[71]

    I have never seen men of wit so fine and polished as are these Indians: they have nothing barbarous or savage about them, as we are apt to suppose. They are unwilling indeed to adopt the manners and customs of the Portuguese; yet do they regularly learn their manufactures and workmanship, being all very curious and desirous of learning. In fact, the Portuguese take and learn more from them than they from the Portuguese.

     
    Bombay Presidency in 1909, northern portion

    Later in the 17th century, Gujarat came under control of the Hindu Maratha Empire that arose, defeating the Muslim Mughals who had dominated the politics of India. Most notably, from 1705 to 1716, Senapati Khanderao Dabhade led the Maratha Empire forces in Baroda. Pilaji Gaekwad, first ruler of Gaekwad dynasty, established the control over Baroda and other parts of Gujarat.

    The British East India Company wrested control of much of Gujarat from the Marathas during the Second Anglo-Maratha War in 1802–1803. Many local rulers, notably the Maratha Gaekwad Maharajas of Baroda (Vadodara), made a separate peace with the British and acknowledged British sovereignty in return for retaining local self-rule.

    An epidemic outbreak in 1812 killed half the population of Gujarat.[72]

     
    Mahatma Gandhi picking salt at Dandi beach, South Gujarat ending the Salt satyagraha on 5 April 1930
     
    Foundational Swaminarayan Mandir - Est. 1819

    Gujarat was placed under the political authority of the Bombay Presidency, with the exception of Baroda State, which had a direct relationship with the Governor-General of India. From 1818 to 1947, most of present-day Gujarat, including Kathiawar, Kutch and northern and eastern Gujarat were divided into hundreds of princely states, but several districts in central and southern Gujarat, namely Ahmedabad, Broach (Bharuch), Kaira (Kheda), Panchmahal and Surat, were governed directly by British officials. In 1819, Sahajanand Swami established the World's First Swaminarayan Mandir in Kalupur, Ahmedabad.

    Post-independence
     
    Gujarat in Bombay state

    Initially there was confusion over whether Junagadh would join India or Pakistan. This was resolved in 1947 with a plebiscite for full union with India following the next year.[73]

    After Indian independence and the partition of India in 1947, the new Indian government grouped the former princely states of Gujarat into three larger units; Saurashtra, which included the former princely states on the Kathiawad peninsula, Kutch, and Bombay state, which included the former British districts of Bombay Presidency together with most of Baroda State and the other former princely states of eastern Gujarat. Bombay state was enlarged to include Kutch, Saurashtra (Kathiawar) and parts of Hyderabad state and Madhya Pradesh in central India. The new state had a mostly Gujarati-speaking north and a Marathi-speaking south. Agitation by Gujarati nationalists, the Mahagujarat Movement, and Marathi nationalists, the Samyukta Maharashtra, for their own states led to the split of Bombay state on linguistic lines; on 1 May 1960, it became the new states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. In 1969 riots, at least 660 died and properties worth millions were destroyed.[74][75]

    The first capital of Gujarat was Ahmedabad; the capital was moved to Gandhinagar in 1970. Nav Nirman Andolan was a socio-political movement of 1974. It was a students' and middle-class people's movement against economic crisis and corruption in public life. This was the first and last successful agitation after the Independence of India that ousted an elected government.[76][77][78]

    The Morvi dam failure, in 1979, resulted in the death of thousands of people and large economic loss.[79] In the 1980s, a reservation policy was introduced in the country, which led to anti-reservation protests in 1981 and 1985. The protests witnessed violent clashes between people belonging to various castes.[80]

    The 2001 Gujarat earthquake was located about 9 km south-southwest of the village of Chobari in the Bhachau taluka of Kutch District. This magnitude 7.7 shock killed around 20,000 people (including at least 18 in South-eastern Pakistan), injured another 167,000 and destroyed nearly 400,000 homes.[81]

    In February 2002, the Godhra train burning led to statewide riots, resulting in the deaths of 1044 people – 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus, and hundreds missing still unaccounted for.[82] Akshardham Temple was attacked by two terrorists in September 2002, killing 32 people and injuring more than 80 others. National Security Guards intervened to end the siege killing both terrorists.[83] On 26 July 2008 a series of seventeen bomb blasts rocked Ahmedabad, killing and injuring several people.[84]

    ^ Shuichi Takezawa (August 2002). "Stepwells – Cosmology of Subterranean Architecture as seen in Adalaj" (PDF). Journal of Architecture and Building Science. 117 (1492): 24. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 18 November 2009. ^ "Devdutt Pattanaik explores Gujarat through the ages and finds, in its archaeology, its myths and legends, its cultures and histories, a microcosm of the multilayered country he loves". 18 October 2017. Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2017. ^ "Where does history begin?". 18 October 2017. Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2017. ^ Cite error: The named reference kulke was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ a b "History of Gujarat". Mapsofindia.com. Archived from the original on 26 May 2010. Retrieved 16 July 2010. ^ S. R. Rao (1985). Lothal. Archaeological Survey of India. p. 11. ^ The Acts of Judas Thomas, M.R. James, Tr. by M.R. James, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924. ^ Medlycott, A. E. India and the Apostle Thomas Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine ^ Trade And Trade Routes In Ancient India, von Moti Chandra, page: 99 ^ "CNG: eAuction 343. INDIA, Post-Gupta (Gujura Confederacy). Gujuras of Sindh. Circa AD 570-712. AR Drachm (25 mm, 3.84 g, 9h)". cngcoins.com. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017. Retrieved 15 July 2017. ^ Mote, Sally Hovey Wriggins; with a foreword by Frederick W. (1996). Xuanzang : a Buddhist pilgrim on the Silk Road. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-2801-0. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2016. ^ Vashi, Ashish (21 October 2010), "Saga of Barygaza", The Times of India, archived from the original on 21 January 2012, retrieved 19 August 2014, The book describes an episode of a foreigner bringing costly gifts for kings, saying, "And for the King there are very costly vessels of silver, singing boys, beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin clothing of the finest weaves, and the choicest ointments. ^ William H. Schoff (1912), The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century (digitalized), New York, archived from the original on 24 February 2011, retrieved 1 October 2013, As a sign of these places to those approaching from the sea there are serpents, very large and black; for at the other places on this coast and around Barygaza, they are smaller, and in color bright green, running into gold ... Now the whole country of India has very many rivers, and very great ebb and flow of the tides; increasing at the new moon, and at the full moon for three days, and falling off during the intervening days of the moon. But about Barygaza it is much greater, so that the bottom is suddenly seen, and now parts of the dry land are sea, and now it is dry where ships were sailing just before; and the rivers, under the inrush of the flood tide, when the whole force of the sea is directed against them, are driven upwards more strongly against their natural current, for many stadia. ^ Blankinship, Khalid Yahya (1994). The end of the jihād state : the reign of Hishām ibn ʻAbd al-Malik and the collapse of the Umayyads. Albany: State University of New York Press. p. 189. ISBN 978-0-7914-1828-4. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2015. The Syrian troops became increasingly reluctant to serve on the ill-omened Indian front, which seemed, after so many failures, to be well on its way to becoming the worst front. ^ Ancient India by Ramesh Chandra Majumdar p. 366 ^ Manjulal Ranchholdlal Majmudar (1960). Historical and cultural chronology of Gujarat, Volume 1. Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. p. 147. ^ a b History, Religion and Culture of India, by S. Gajrani p.32 ^ Hodivala 1920, p. 88 ^ Boyce 2001, p. 148 ^ Khanbaghi 2006, p. 17 ^ Jackson 1906, p. 27 ^ Bleeker & Widengren 1971, p. 212 ^ André Wink (1991). Al- Hind: The slave kings and the Islamic conquest. 2. BRILL. p. 283. ISBN 978-90-04-09509-0. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2018. ^ Rose, Horace Arthur; Ibbetson (1990). Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North West Frontier Province. Asian Educational Services. p. 300. ISBN 978-81-206-0505-3. ^ a b Barnes, Ruth (2017). "Indian Cotton for Cairo: The Royal Ontario Museum's Gujarati Textiles and the Early Western Indian Ocean Trade". Textile History. 48 (1): 15–30. doi:10.1080/00404969.2017.1294814. ISSN 0040-4969. S2CID 194752057. ^ Schimmel, Annemarie (1980). Handbuch der Orientalistik. Leiden: Brill. p. 65. ISBN 978-90-04-06117-0. ^ a b Wink, André (1990). Indo-Islamic society: 14th - 15th centuries. BRILL. p. 143. ISBN 978-90-04-13561-1. Archived from the original on 18 November 2021. Retrieved 18 November 2021. Zafar Khan Muzaffar, the first independent ruler of Gujarat was not a foreign muslim but a Khatri convert, of a low subdivision called Tank, originally from Southern Punjab. ^ Muhammed Ibrahim Dar (1952). Literary and Cultural Activities in Gujarat Under the Khaljis and Sultanate. Bazm-i-Ishaʻat, Ismail Yusuf College. p. 51. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2016. ^ J. Spencer Trimingham, John O. Voll, The Sufi Orders in Islam, pg 73 ^ Subrahmanyam, Muzaffar Alam, Sanjay (2012). Writing the Mughal world : studies on culture and politics. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-231-15811-4. ^ Richard Maxwell Eaton (8 March 2015). The Sufis of Bijapur, 1300–1700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India. Princeton University Press, 2015. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-4008-6815-5. ^ Achyut Yagnik (2 February 2011). Ahmedabad: From Royal city to Megacity. Penguin UK, 2011. ISBN 9788184754735. Retrieved 18 February 2015. ^ Mansooruddin Quraishi (1972). Muslim education and learning in Gujarat, 1297–1758. Faculty of Education and Psychology, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. p. 47. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2016. ^ Alvi Azra (1985). Socio Religious Outlook of Abul Fazl. Lahore Pakistan: Vanguard Books. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-210-40543-7. ^ Giancarlo Casale (2010). The Ottoman Age of Exploration. Oxford University Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-19-979879-7. ^ Ali Anooshahr (2008). The Ghazi Sultans and the Frontiers of Islam: A Comparative Study of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods. Routledge. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-134-04134-3. Nevertheless, there were indeed people in India, specifically in Gujarat, who by about 1486 knew the Ottomans as the primary Ghazi sultans of western domains of the abode of Islam, and had tried to elevate their own standing by posing as comrade ghazis fighting irreligion in the east. ^ Kurup, K.K.N., ed. (1997). India's naval traditions : the role of Kunhali Marakkars. New Delhi: Northern Book Centre. p. 7. ISBN 978-81-7211-083-3. Gujarati merchants had very long-standing relations with the Persian Gulf and Red Sea regions. Aden, Ormuz, and Mecca were frequently visited by them. They took gold, quicksilver, vermilion, copper, rose-water, camlets, scarlet-in-grain, coloured woollen cloth, glass beads and weapons which were brought by merchants from Cairo to Aden. The above mentioned items were collected by merchants from Italy, Greece, and Damascus. Horses from various parts of Arabia and Persia, especially from Ormuz, were brought by the Gujarati merchants to India. ^ Arthur Percival Newton (1936). The Cambridge History of the British Empire. CUP Archive. p. 23. Retrieved 24 February 2015. The annual pilgrimages of Indian Muslim to Mecca, whose route lay through Gujarat (which was called the Gate of Mecca) had been for some years interrupted by the domination of the Arabian Sea by the Portuguese and also by the disorder prevailing in Gujarat. ^ Ho, Engseng (2006). The graves of Tarim genealogy and mobility across the Indian Ocean. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-520-93869-4. From the other direction, the enhanced security of the Hejaz provided not only profits for Gujarati merchants but succor for Gujarat's Muslim sultans. In times of insecurity, Gujarati sultans would send their families and treasures to the Hejaz for safekeeping ... the sultanate indeed fell, in 1573, and the triumphant emperor Akbar, retained his services giving him charge of pious endowments in Gujarat dedicated to Mecca and Medina. ^ A.V. Williams. Chapter 9 – The Ebb of the Tide – Humayun – 1530–1556 A.D. p. 228. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2013. ^ Sen, Sailendra (2013). A Textbook of Medieval Indian History. Primus Books. pp. 115–116. ISBN 978-93-80607-34-4. ^ Poros, Maritsa V. (2011). Modern migrations : Gujarati Indian networks in New York and London. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-7222-8. Indeed, Fernand Braudel likened Surat to some of the great mercantile cities of Europe and Asia, such as Venice and Beijing ... Godinho estimated that Surat's population was more than 100, 000, with people from all over the world residing in the city or frequenting it for business. He even claimed that it surpasses our "Evora in grandeur" ^ Cite error: The named reference Hinduism and modernity was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ Cite error: The named reference books.google.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ Richard Maxwell Eaton (2015). The Sufis of Bijapur, 1300–1700: Social Roles of Sufis in Medieval India. Princeton University Press. p. 60. ISBN 9781400868155. ^ Dunn, Ross E. (1986). The adventures of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim traveler of the fourteenth century. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-520-05771-5. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2015. ^ "Gujarati showed Vasco 'da' way". The Times of India. 3 October 2010. Archived from the original on 1 October 2013. Retrieved 1 October 2013. Historians have differed over the identity of the sailor, calling him a Christian, a Muslim and a Gujarati. According to another account, he was the famous Arab navigator Ibn Majid. Some historians suggest Majid could not have been near the vicinity at the time. German author Justus says it was Malam who accompanied Vasco ... Italian researcher Sinthia Salvadori too has concluded that it was Malam who showed Gama the way to India. Salvadori has made this observation in her 'We Came In Dhows', an account written after interacting with people in Gujarat. ^ N. Subrahmanian; Tamil̲an̲pan̲; S. Jeyapragasam (1976). Homage to a Historian: A Festschrift. Dr. N. Subrahmanian 60th Birthday Celebration Committee. p. 62. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2015. ^ Darwis Khudori (2007). Rethinking solidarity in global society : the challenge of globalisation for social and solidarity movements: 50 years after Bandung Asian-African Conference 1955. Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia: Strategic Information and Research Development Centre. p. 35. ISBN 978-983-3782-13-0. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 1 October 2013. ^ Peter Padfield (1979). Tide of Empires: 1481–1654. Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 62. ISBN 978-0-7100-0150-4. Archived from the original on 2 January 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2015. ^ Pearson, M. N. (1976). Merchants and rulers in Gujarat: the response to the Portuguese in the sixteenth century (illustrated ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 109. ISBN 978-0-520-02809-8. Archived from the original on 12 July 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2015. ^ Goody, Jack (1996). The East in the West (1998 Repr. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-521-55673-6. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2015. ^ Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency: Gujarát Surat and Broach Volume 2, Part 1 of Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Bombay (India : State) (Digitized). Printed at the Government Central Press. 30 April 2007. p. 299. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2015. ^ Tsukasa Mizushima; George Bryan Souza; Dennis O. Flynn (2014). Hinterlands and Commodities: Place, Space, Time and the Political Economic Development of Asia over the Long Eighteenth Century European Expansion and Indigenous Response. BRILL. p. 88. ISBN 9789004283909. Archived from the original on 12 July 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2016. ^ Mehta, Makrand (11 January 1991). Indian Merchants and Entrepreneurs in Historical Perspective. Academic Foundation. p. 1. ISBN 978-81-7188-017-1. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2020. ^ Haider, Irfan Habib with contributions from Najaf; Khan, Iqtidar Alam; Moosvi, Shireen; Prasad, Pushpa (2011). Economic history of medieval India, 1200–1500. New Delhi: Pearson Education. p. 171. ISBN 978-81-317-2791-1. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2016. ^ Lentin, Sifra Samuel (2002). "The Jewish presence in Bombay". In Weil, Shelve (ed.). India's Jewish heritage: ritual, art, & life-cycle. Mumbai. pp. 22–35. ^ Rajesh Rai; Peter Reeves, eds. (2008). The South Asian Diaspora: Transnational Networks and Changing Identities. Routledge. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-134-10595-3. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2015. ^ Pires, I, p. 41 ^ Barbosa, I, pp. 108–58 ^ Barbosa, I, p. 82 ^ apud Bayley, p. 20 ^ GUJARAT – Encyclopædia Iranica Archived 17 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 28 July 2013. ^ Freeman-Grenville, G.S.P.; Munro-Hay, Stuart Christopher (2002). Historical atlas of Islam (Rev. and expanded ed.). New York [u.a.]: Continuum. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-8264-1417-5. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2016. ^ Rajesh Rai; Peter Reeves, eds. (2008). The South Asian Diaspora: Transnational Networks and Changing Identities. Routledge. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-134-10595-3. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2015. ^ Ashish Vashi (1 May 2012). "Aurangzeb loved Dahod till the end". Daily News and Analysis. Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2013. Eminent historian Manekshah Commissariat has quoted from this letter in his book 'A History of Gujarat: Mughal period, from 1573 to 1758'. ^ Patel, Aakar (6 April 2012). "Blame the British Raj on bankers – Livemint". livemint.com. Livemint. Archived from the original on 7 August 2017. Retrieved 7 August 2017. ^ MULTIPLE AUTHORITIES – DISPUTED SOVEREIGNTY (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 August 2017. Retrieved 7 August 2017. ^ a b Behera, Deepak Kumar; Pfeffer, Georg (2002). The concept of tribal society. Concept Publishing Company. p. 198. ISBN 9788170229834. ^ WINGS Birding Tours to India: the West – Gujarat and the Rann of Kutch – Itinerary Archived 30 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Wingsbirds.com (14 December 2011). Retrieved 28 July 2013. ^ Rai, Rajesh; Reeves, Peter (2009). The South Asian diaspora transnational networks and changing identities. London: Routledge. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-203-89235-0. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 19 October 2015. ^ Petersen, Eskild; Chen, Lin Hwei; Schlagenhauf-Lawlor, Patricia (14 February 2017). Infectious Diseases: A Geographic Guide. p. 8. ISBN 9781119085737. Archived from the original on 3 September 2017. Retrieved 2 September 2017. ^ "Five states that refused to join India after Independence". August 2017. Archived from the original on 13 January 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2022. ^ Peer, Yasmeen (2007). Communal Violence in Gujarat: Rethinking the Role of Communalism and Institutionalised Injustices in India. pp. 103–104. ISBN 978-0-549-51753-5. Archived from the original on 28 May 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013. ^ Gayer, Lauren; Jaffrelot, Christophe (30 May 2012). Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Marginalisation. Columbia University Press. pp. 53–60. ISBN 978-0-231-70308-6. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2013. ^ Shah, Ghanshyam (20 December 2007). "Pulse of the people". India Today. Archived from the original on 17 September 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2012. ^ Krishna, Ananth V. (2011). India Since Independence: Making Sense Of Indian Politics. Pearson Education India. p. 117. ISBN 978-81-317-3465-0. Archived from the original on 12 July 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2015. ^ Dhar, P. N. (2000). "Excerpted from 'Indira Gandhi, the "emergency", and Indian democracy' published in Business Standard". Business Standard India. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-564899-7. Archived from the original on 9 August 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2012. ^ "Book on 1979 Morbi dam disaster rubbishes 'Act of God' theory". The Indian Express. 25 July 2012. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 18 February 2013. ^ Yagnik, Achyut (May 2002). "The pathology of Gujarat". New Delhi: Seminar Publications. Archived from the original on 22 March 2006. Retrieved 10 May 2006. ^ "Historic Earthquakes". Earthquake.usgs.gov. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2014. ^ BBC News. 11 May 2005 Archived 26 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine, These figures were reported to the Rajya Sabha by the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal in May 2005 ^ Dasgupta, Manas (1 June 2010). "Death sentence for Akshardham temple attack convicts upheld". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 16 May 2013. ^ "17 bomb blasts rock Ahmedabad, 15 dead". CNN-IBN. 26 July 2008. Archived from the original on 28 June 2008. Retrieved 26 July 2008.
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  • Stay safe

    Gujarat is a relatively safe state compared to the rest of India. It has a low crime-rate compared to the Plains, although pickpockets are not uncommon. For emergencies, you can dial 100 for police assistance.

    Being drunk in public is not permitted and it is highly frowned upon by the locals. Despite grumblings from lawyers that the penalties are severe, anyone caught being drunk in public for the first time will be sentenced to six months' imprisonment, a fine of Rs. 1000, or both. A second offence will result in two years' imprisonment, a fine of Rs. 2000, or both.


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