Uttar Pradesh, << OO tur pruh DAYSH >> (pop. 199,812,341), is a state in northern India. Its name means northern province. The state covers an area of 93,023 square miles (240,928 square kilometers). Uttar Pradesh is India’s largest state in population. Lucknow is the state capital.
Uttar Pradesh is one of the great historical and religious centers of India. The sacred Ganges (Ganga) River is the physical and spiritual life source of the state. Millions of Hindu pilgrims visit the holy cities of Allahabad and Varanasi to bathe in the waters of the Ganges River.
Much of the state has fertile soil and good rainfall. But despite these natural advantages, Uttar Pradesh is one of the poorest states in India, with low rates of literacy and relatively little economic development.
People and government
People.
About 80 percent of the people are Hindu, and nearly 20 percent are Muslim. Followers of Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, and Sikhism together constitute about 1 percent of the total population of Uttar Pradesh. 
The main language spoken is Hindi. Most Muslims speak Urdu, a language closely related to Hindi. There are also numerous local dialects spoken in Uttar Pradesh.
Government.
Uttar Pradesh has 80 elected members in the Lok Sabha (lower house) and 31 nominated representatives in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) of the Indian national Parliament. The regional head of state is the governor, whom the president of India appoints for a five-year term. The chief minister is responsible for the administration of the government. The chief minister selects a cabinet of ministers from the legislative assembly, which must then approve the minister’s selections.
Uttar Pradesh has a bicameral (two-chambered) state legislature, which meets in Lucknow, the state capital. The members of the 403-seat Vidhan Sabha (lower house) are elected. The 100-seat Vidhan Parishad (upper house) is made up of members nominated by the governor and Vidhan Sabha, as well as members elected by university graduates, teachers, and local governing bodies.
At the district level, the chief administrative officer is called the collector. At the local level, there are gram panchayats, or village councils, most of which are made up of elected members. Some panchayat seats are reserved for women.
Economy
Agriculture.
Farming is the main occupation of about two-thirds of the working population. The soil is fertile and there is good rainfall over nearly all the region, but there is not enough land for all of the farmers. Many peasants have farms that are too small for productive agriculture.
Wheat, rice, corn, millet, and pulses, such as beans, peas and lentils, are the major food crops. Uttar Pradesh is one of the country’s major producers of sugar cane. Cotton, oilseed, jute, potatoes, and tobacco are other important cash crops. As part of national and state projects for sericulture (the production of silk fiber), many acres of mulberry trees were planted across the state. Mulberry trees provide food for the caterpillars of the silkworm moth.
Manufacturing.
Less than 10 percent of the working population of Uttar Pradesh is involved in manufacturing. Major products of the state include textiles, leather and leather goods, chemicals, fertilizer, cars and electronic equipment. Many mills in the state process the cotton, sugar cane, and rice grown in the state.
The major industrial areas of Uttar Pradesh are the districts bordering Haryana state in the west and in the center of the state near Lucknow. Kanpur is the largest industrial area in Uttar Pradesh, and one of the oldest industrial cities in India.
Mining.
Uttar Pradesh does not have rich mineral resources. Mines and quarries produce limestone, silica, magnesite, and phosphatic shale. Soapstone, copper, lead, zinc, marble, and bauxite are also found in the state. There are coalfields in Mirzapur district. Electric power produced by coal-burning stations is the most important source of energy.
Transportation.
There is an extensive road and rail network throughout the state. The population is so large that this network is constantly overcrowded. The rail system in Uttar Pradesh has two different gauges (widths of track), so some trains cannot go to all cities. Air routes link several large towns with Delhi and with one another.
Tourism.
Uttar Pradesh contains many famous tourist sites. They include ancient monuments, such as the Taj Mahal at Agra and the Mughal city of Fatehpur Sikri. Varanasi, also called Benares, is an ancient holy city for Hindus and an important pilgrimage site. Mathura is regarded as the birthplace of the Hindu god Krishna. There is a Buddhist shrine at Sarnath, near Varanasi, where Buddha first preached his message. Uttar Pradesh hosts the Kumbh Mela, a Hindu religious festival which is one of the largest religious gatherings of people anywhere in the world. The festival is held every three years, rotating among four holy places in northern and central India, including Allahabad (also known as Prayag), in Uttar Pradesh.
Land
Location and description.
Uttar Pradesh shares two-thirds of its northern boundary with Nepal. Within India, Uttar Pradesh borders on Uttarakhand to the northeast and Haryana, Delhi, and Rajasthan to the west. Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh lie to the south, and Bihar and Jharkhand lie to the east.
Land features.
Most of Uttar Pradesh consists of plains, but the Vindhya Hills and central plateau occupy the southern part of the state. The Terai, which was once a dense forest belt of sal trees and tall grasses along the border with Nepal, has been largely converted to farmland, though some forested areas remain.
Uttar Pradesh is a land of many rivers and the alluvial soils found over two-thirds of the state are extremely fertile. There are a few areas where the salt content in the soil is too high for successful cropping.
The Indo-Gangetic Plain is flat and mostly featureless. The Ganges and its tributaries have washed down silt and soils. These have formed rich beds of fertile soil up to 1,970 feet (600 meters) deep.
Climate.
The state has a tropical monsoon climate (see Monsoon). In January the average high temperature is from 54 °F (12 °C) to 64 °F (18 °C). In May and June, before the monsoon, the average high temperature is between 81 °F and 91 °F (27 and 33 °C), with occasional extremes of 113 °F (45 °C).
The monsoon lasts from mid-June to mid-September, during which time the state receives more than 80 percent of its annual rain fall. Although temperatures are slightly lower than in the period from April to mid-June, humidity increases during the monsoon season. The eastern parts of the state receive between 39 and 79 inches (100 and 200 centimeters) of rain per year. Rainfall in the west is less—from 24 to 39 inches (60 to 100 centimeters) per year.
Animals and plants.
Most of the plains area is intensively cultivated. Mango trees are common. The southern part of the state has open scrub and thorn forest.
The state has a large population of deer, but larger animals, such as leopards and tigers, are rare. Uttar Pradesh has thousands of square kilometers of protected wildlife land, including over 20 wildlife sanctuaries. Dudhwa National Park, on the border with Nepal, has a tiger reserve and a small population of the endangered one-horned Indian rhinoceros.
Rivers and lakes.
The major river of Uttar Pradesh and northern India is the Ganges. It is not only sacred to the Hindu population, but also extremely valuable for irrigating large areas. Nearly all the other rivers in the region are part of the Ganges system. The second most important river is the Yamuna, which joins the Ganges at Allahabad. The Ghaghra, the Gomati, and the Rapti are other major rivers.
History
Hindus believe that Uttar Pradesh is the birthplace of Rama and Krishna, the heroes of India’s two great epic poems—the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The region is associated with all the religions of India, and it contains important places of worship for Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Muslims. Buddha preached his first sermon at Sarnath, near Varanasi. He died at Kasia, which was then called Kusinagara. Varanasi was one of Uttar Pradesh’s most ancient centers. As a great centre of culture, education, commerce, and craftwork, the city was already about 1,000 years old when Buddha arrived there in 500 B.C.
From the 200’s B.C., the area of Uttar Pradesh was part of the Mauryan Empire. After the fall of the Mauryan Empire around 185 B.C., the area came under the control of several principalities (small states ruled by princes). One of the most successful tribes of this period was the Kushanas, a nomadic group originally from northwestern China who established a powerful empire known for its political and cultural strength. The Kushana Empire broke down in the A.D. 200’s.
During the period from A.D. 320 to A.D. 500, the Gupta Empire controlled the region of Uttar Pradesh. Hindu music, dance, and art flourished in this period. Attacks by the Huns, a warlike people from Central Asia, began after A.D. 450 and eventually brought an end to the Gupta period. Various Hindu dynasties then controlled the region. In the late A.D. 1100’s, invading Turks established a Muslim empire called the Delhi Sultanate. It extended its influence over Uttar Pradesh.
From the mid-1500’s, the Uttar Pradesh area became the political and cultural heart of the Mughal Empire. Varanasi, which had declined during Muslim rule from Delhi, underwent a cultural and religious revival under the emperor Akbar. Agra was for some time an imperial capital. In the 1600’s, the emperor Shah Jahan ordered the building of the Taj Mahal there.
In the 1700’s, with the decline of Mughal power, several independent kingdoms arose in the area. Among the most important were Oudh and Varanasi. Lucknow, the capital of Oudh, became an important cultural center.
From 1765, British rule was extended into both Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. In 1836, a British trading company called the East India Company combined its possessions in Uttar Pradesh with Delhi and renamed the resulting area the Northwestern Province. In 1856, the British annexed the province of Oudh, completing their takeover of the area now known as Uttar Pradesh. The area was called the United Provinces until the new state of Uttar Pradesh was formed in 1950.
Resentment of British rule flared into violence in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Uttar Pradesh was the centre of this rebellion, which began in Meerut and quickly spread to Agra, Allahabad, Jhansi, Kanpur, and Lucknow, but did not go far beyond the borders of the state. The British put down this uprising. After the rebellion, control of East India Company territories passed to the British government. In 1877, the British combined the northwestern provinces and Oudh to form what eventually became known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.
During the 1900’s, the area of Uttar Pradesh was at the front of the national movement for independence. All the nationalist movements—the Non-Cooperation movement, the Civil Disobedience campaign, and the Quit India Movement—found enthusiastic support in the region. However, the burning of a police station by a mob in the village of Chauri Chaura, in which several policemen died, led to the suspension of the Non-Cooperation movement. Prominent nationalist leaders who were active in Uttar Pradesh included Mohandas Gandhi, Motilal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malaviya, and Purushottamdas Tandon.
Following Indian independence in 1947, Uttar Pradesh emerged in 1950 as the most populous and politically influential state of India. Several of India’s prime ministers were born in Uttar Pradesh, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and Indira Gandhi.
In December 1992, tens of thousands of Hindu extremists, mobilized by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Bajrang Dal, and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), demolished the Babri mosque (Islamic house of worship) at Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh. Hindus believe Ayodhya is the birthplace of the god Rama. The demolition led to rioting and violence between Muslims and Hindus in many urban centers. To restore calm, Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao pledged to rebuild the mosque and discuss the construction of a temple to Rama nearby.
In 1996, the Indian government announced its commitment to create the state of Uttaranchal from the northwestern districts of Uttar Pradesh. The people of the area, which lies mainly in the Himalayan mountains, had long felt that the state government was indifferent to their interests. In 2000, supporters introduced the Uttar Pradesh Reorganization Bill, calling for the establishment of Uttaranchal, to the Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha passed the bill, and Uttaranchal was created on Nov. 9, 2000. In 2006, its name was changed to Uttarakhand.
In 2019, India’s Supreme Court recognized the right of Hindus to build a temple to Rama at the disputed site in Ayodhya, but also called the destruction of the Muslim mosque a crime against the rule of law. The court ordered that the Muslims be given land elsewhere to build a new mosque. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister and the leader of the BJP, laid the foundation for the new Hindu temple in 2020. The temple opened in 2024.
