Himachal Pradesh Tourism
Introducation
Himachal Pradesh is a state in the north-west of
India. Himachal Pradesh is spread over 55,780
square kilometres (21,537
mi²)
and is bordered by the Indian states of
Jammu and Kashmir on north,
Punjab on west and south-west,
Haryana and
Uttar Pradesh on south,
Uttarakhand on south-east and by
Tibet area of
China on the east. The literal meaning of Himachal Pradesh is
Land of snowy mountains.
Himachal Pradesh was also known as
Deva Bhoomi (the land of the gods). The Aryan influence in the region dates back to the period before the
Rigveda. After the Anglo Gorkha war, the
British colonial government came into power. It was initially in Punjab under the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh till 1857.
In 1950 Himachal was declared as the union territory but after State of Himachal Pradesh Act 1971 Himchal emerged as the 18th state of
Indian Union.
The state is located in altitudes ranging from 450
metres (1,476
ft) to 6,500
metres (21,325
ft) above sea level. The state capital is
Shimla (formerly British India's summer capital under the name Simla); other major towns include
Solan,
Dharamsala,
Kangra,
Mandi,
Kullu,
Chamba,
Hamirpur,
Dalhousie and
Manali.
Himachal Pradesh has one of the highest per capita incomes of any state in India. Due to the abundance of perennial rivers, Himachal also sells hydro electricity to other states such as
Delhi,
Punjab &
Rajasthan.
The economy of the state is highly dependent upon three sources i.e. Hydel power, tourism and agriculture.
90% of the state population constitutes of
Hindus. The major communities are of Brahmins, Rajputs, Kannets, Rathis and Kolis.
As per the survey conducted in 2005 by
Transparency International Himachal Pradesh is ranked second least corrupt state in the country after
Kerala.
Some evidences have been found that nearly 2 million years ago man lived in the foothills of Himachal Pradesh.
Bangana valley of
Kangra,
Sirsa valley of
Nalagarh and
Markanda valley of
Sirmour are found to be the places where prehistoric man used to live. Tribes that inhabited region include the
Koilis,
Halis,
Dagis,
Dhaugris,
Dasa,
Khasas,
Kinnars and
Kirats. The foothills of the state were inhabited by people from
Indus valley civilization which flourished between the time period of 2250 and 1750 B.C.
The small
kingdom enjoyed a large degree of
independence till the eve of the
Muslim invasions in northern
India.
The states of the foothills were devastated by Muslim invaders a number of times.
Mahmud Ghaznavi conquered
Kangra at the beginning of the 10th century.
Timur and
Sikander Lodi also marched through the lower hills of the state and captured a number of
forts and fought many
battles.
The Gorkhas, a
martial tribe came to power in
Nepal in the year 1768.
They consolidated their
military power and began to expand their
territory.
Gradually the Gorkhas annexed
Sirmour and
Shimla. With the leadership of
Amar Singh Thapa,
Gorkhas laid siege to Kangra. They managed to defeat
Sansar Chand, the ruler of
kangra, in 1806 with the help of many
provincial chiefs. However
Gorkhas could not capture
Kangra fort which came under
Maharaja Ranjeet Singh in 1809. After the defeat the
Gorkhas began to expand towards the south of the state.
This led in the
Anglo-Gorkha war. They came into direct conflict with the
British along the
tarai belt after which the British expelled them from the provinces of the
Satluj. Thus British gradually emerged as the paramount powers.
The revolt of 1857 or first
Indian war of independence resulted due to the building up of political, social, economic, religious and military grievances against the British government. People of the hill states were not politically alive as the people in other parts of the country. They remained more or less inactive and so did their rulers with the exception of
Bushahr. Some of them even rendered help to the British government during the revolt. Among them were the rulers of
Chamba,
Bilaspur, Bhagal and Dhami. The rulers of Bushars rather acted in a manner hostile to the interests of British.
The British territories in the hill came under British Crown after Queen Victoria's proclamation of 1858. The states of
Chamba,
Mandi and
Bilaspur made good progress in many fields during the British rule. During the
first world war, virtually all rulers of the hill states remained loyal and contributed to the British war effort both in the form of men and materials. Amongst these were the states of
Kangra, Siba, Nurpur,
Chamba, Suket,
Mandi and
Bilaspur.
After independence the
Chief Commissioner's province of H.P. came into being on
15 April 1948. Himachal became a part C state on 26 January
1950 with the implementation of the
Constitution of India. Himachal Pradesh became
Union Territory on
1 November 1956.
On
18 December 1970 the State of Himachal Pradesh Act was passed by Parliament and the new state came into being on
25 January 1971. Thus Himachal emerged as the eighteenth state of Indian Union.
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