North India
Large region of India / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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North India in a broader geographic context, refers to the northern part of India or, historically of the Indian subcontinent, occupying 72.6% of India's total land area and 75% of India's population wherein Indo-Aryans form a prominent majority population. The region has a varied geography ranging from the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, to the Thar Desert, the Central Highlands and the north-western portion of the Deccan plateau. Multiple rivers flow through this region including the Ganges, the Yamuna, the Indus and the Narmada rivers. In a more specific and sometimes administrative sense, North India can also be used to denote the Indo-Gangetic Plain within this broader expanse, stretching from the Ganga-Yamuna Doab to the Thar Desert.[17]
North India
Northern India / The North | |
---|---|
Country | India |
States[lower-alpha 1] | |
Union territories | |
Most populous cities (2011) | |
Area | |
• Total | 2,389,300 km2 (922,500 sq mi) |
Population (2011) | |
• Total | 912,030,836 |
• Density | 380/km2 (990/sq mi) |
Demonyms | North Indian |
Time zone | IST (UTC+05:30) |
Common languages | |
Official languages |
North India extends across the majority of India, covering the states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.[lower-alpha 2] In its narrower sense, the term has different implications. The Ministry of Home Affairs in its Northern Zonal Council Administrative division included the states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan and Union Territories of Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.[1][18] The Ministry of Culture in its North Culture Zone includes the state of Uttarakhand but excludes Delhi[2] whereas the Geological Survey of India includes Uttar Pradesh and Delhi but excludes Rajasthan and Chandigarh.[3]
Indo-Aryans, who today form a majority in North India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, migrated from Central Asia into this region between 2000 BC and 1500 BC after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which is believed to have been indigenous Dravidian. There was a slow migration of Indo-Iranian peoples through the northwest leading to the development of the Indo-Aryan languages from Proto-Indo-Iranian and minor vocal synthesis with the Dravidian languages. North India was the historical centre of the ancient Vedic culture, the Mahajanapadas, and Magadha Empire, the medieval Delhi Sultanate and the modern Mughal India and the Indian Empire, among many others.
It has a diverse culture, and includes the Hindu pilgrimage centres of Char Dham, Haridwar, Varanasi, Ayodhya, Mathura, Prayagraj, Vaishno Devi and Pushkar, the Buddhist pilgrimage centres of Sarnath and Kushinagar, the Sikh Golden Temple as well as world heritage sites such as the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, Khajuraho temples, Hill Forts of Rajasthan, Jantar Mantar (Jaipur), Qutb Minar, Red Fort, Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri and the Taj Mahal. North India's culture developed as a result of interaction between these Hindu and Muslim religious traditions.[19]