The state is well-watered, except for the arid Kachchh area in the north; rice, wheat, and cotton are grown. Salt, limestone, manganese, calcite, and bauxite are mined. Hydroelectric power is generated. Heavily industrialized, Gujarat produces textiles, electrical goods, automobiles, chemicals, and building materials; it is the center of the Indian cotton-textile industry. The coastal city of Alang has an immense yard for dismantling and scrapping old ships. Gir National Park, located in the state, is home to the last surviving Asiatic lions.
Archaeological discoveries have linked Gujarat with the Indus valley civilization (c.3,000–1,500 B.C.) and have suggested that it was a part of the Mauryan empire (c.320–185 B.C.). The Gujarat region was the center of Jainism under the Rajput Caulukya dynasty (11th-12th cent.), which fell (1298) to the Delhi Sultanate. In 1390, Gujarat became an independent sultanate. Its immense wealth invited attack, and in 1509 the Portuguese wrested from it the colony of Diu (see Daman and Diu). In 1572 the sultanate was annexed to the Mughal empire. The Marathas were powerful in the area in the first half of the 18th cent. The British East India Company took over control of the region in 1818. Under the British much of the region retained its local princely rulers. In 1947 the region was organized into the state of Bombay. Bombay state was divided into the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra in 1956. W Gujarat was devastated by a strong earthquake in 2001, and the state was the scene of brutal anti-Muslim riots, in which perhaps as many as 2,000 died, in 2002.
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- Junagadh
Junagadh or Junagarh, former principality, Kathiawar peninsula, W India, on the Arabian Sea. The region of Junagadh became a district of Gujarat state in 1960. Grains, cotton, sugarcane, and o...
- Khambat
Khambat or Cambay, town (1991 pop. 76,724), Gujarat state, W India, on the Mahi River estuary. Khambat is a trading center whose industries include textile weaving, carpet-making, petroleum, a...
- Ahmadabad
Ahmadabad or Ahmedabad, city (1991 pop. 3,312,216), Gujarat state, NW India, on the Sabarmati River. India's largest inland industrial center, Ahmadabad is noted for its cotton mills. It is al...
- Bhavnagar
Bhavnagar, city (1991 pop. 405,225), Gujarat state, W India, on the Gulf of Khambat; the chief port on the Kathiawar peninsula. Its manufactures include chemicals, textiles, wood products, bri...
- Narmada
Narmada, river, c.775 mi (1,250 km) long, rising in Madhya Pradesh state, central India, and flowing W between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges through Gujarat state to the Gulf of Khambat. Beca...
- Surat
Surat, city (1991 pop. 1,518,950), Gujarat state, W central India, on the Gulf of Khambat. British and Dutch trading posts were established there in the early 17th cent. Surat became one of In...
- Baroda
Baroda, former native state, now incorporated in Gujarat state, W central India. It is a prosperous area on a fertile alluvial plain. Its chief city, Vadodara (1991 pop. 1,126,824), formerly B...
- Bharuch
Bharuch, city (1991 pop. 139,029), Gujarat state, W India, on the Gulf of Khambat. A port at the mouth of the Narmada River, Bharuch ships cotton, wheat, and timber and manufactures textiles, ...
- Bhils
Bhils, people, numbering about 3 million, who inhabit portions of Pakistan and of W central India, especially S Rajasthan and Gujarat states. They speak an Indo-European language, Bhili, and r...
- Girnar
Girnar, sacred mountain, 3,666 ft (1,117 m) high, Gujarat state, W India, on the Kathiawar Peninsula; a pilgrimage place for adherents of Jainism. It has five peaks, the sides of which are dot...
