North India
Region of India / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
North India, also called Northern India, is a geographical and broad cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans form the prominent majority population. It extends from the Himalayan mountain range in the north to the Indo-Gangetic plains, the Thar Desert, the Central Highlands and the northwestern part of the Deccan plateau. It occupies nearly three-quarters of the area and population of India and includes all of the three mega cities of India: Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. In a more specific and 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.[2]
North India
Northern India | |
---|---|
Country | India |
Subregions | |
States[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 |
Several major rivers flow through the region including the Indus, the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Narmada rivers. North India includes the states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal and union territories of Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.[1] In its narrower administrative sense, the term has varying implications (see below) with different states included being Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and union territories of Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.[16][17][18]
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. 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]