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North India

North India
Northern India
From top, left to right: Kinnaur Kailash, Victoria Memorial, India Gate, Golden Temple, Thar Desert, Indian elephants at the Jim Corbett National Park, Gateway of India, Taj Mahal.
Extent of North India in its broader sense
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
 • Density380/km2 (990/sq mi)
DemonymsNorth Indian
See all demonyms
Time zoneIST (UTC+05:30)
Common languages
Official languages

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]

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, are descendents of the Indo-Iranians who migrated from Central Asia via the Bactria-Margiana Culture into this region between 2000 BC and 1500 BC after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation.[19][20] 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.[21]

  1. ^ a b [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
  2. ^ Frykenberg, Robert Eric (27 June 2008). Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-154419-4. The central feature of Norh India is the gigantic Indo-Gangetic plain, together with all of the sacred rivers that flow into it.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference TheHindu-Apr2017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference TNN-marriages was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference FP-overtake was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Hindu, July 27, 2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Hindu, May 22, 2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Daily Bhaskar, May 12, 2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Hindu, January 26, 2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Jharkhand was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ "Marketing Division activities". FACT. FACT is also expanding its market to North Indian states like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha and Gujarat
  12. ^ "Gowri Habba Celebrations, Rituals and Practices". servdharm. The festival is also celebrated in some North Indian states like Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh as Hartalika Teej
  13. ^ "How South Indian cinema lured viewers across India". Broadcast &Cablesat. 3 September 2021. Mansi Shrivastava, senior vice-president and head- content acquisitions and partnerships at MX Player, said the southern film category, including dubbed versions, was huge for the platform, drawing 75% of its overall viewing minutes from north Indian states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi NCR, Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
  14. ^ "Secret Sign Language: Silent Trade Thrives in Thenkasi's Dried Chilli Market". News18. 5 June 2023. Dried chillies from South Tamil Nadu have a huge demand in many countries, and hence they are exported to countries like Malaysia, U.A.E., and also sent to North Indian states like Maharashtra and Gujarat.
  15. ^ "Teaching of English" (PDF). Bharathidasan University. In non-Hindi north Indian states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odiya, their regional language is the first language, Hindi is the second language and English is the third language.
  16. ^ "Genesis | ISCS". Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  17. ^ "The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (Act No.37 of 1956)" (PDF). interstatecouncil.nic.in. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference MoM-GSI was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ George Erdosy (1995). The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity. Walter de Gruyter. p. 279. ISBN 978-3-11-014447-5.
  20. ^ Beckwith, Christopher I. (16 March 2009). Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton University Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-4008-2994-1.
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference Dhulipala2000 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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