Uttar Pradesh travel guide

Background

The land

Geography

The landscape of Uttar Pradesh (Northern Province) is dominated by the flat alluvial plains of the Ganga and its tributaries. The north of the state runs along the southern margins of the Shiwalik Hills, which parallel the Himalaya. These are succeeded on their south by the often marshy tropical Terai, which, until they were cleared for cultivation in the 1950s, formed a belt of jungle 65 km wide from the Ganga gorge at Haridwar to Bihar. The Gangetic Plain occupies most of the state; flat and almost featureless, it is stiflingly hot, dry and dusty in summer. Further south are the northern margins of the peninsula, including the outer slopes of the Vindhyan Mountains in the southeast, which in places rise to more than 600 m.

Climate

Although winter nights are cold everywhere in Uttar Pradesh, daytime temperatures can reach 25°C on the plains even in December and January. Between April and June temperatures soar and can reach 50°C. A desiccating hot wind, known as the Loo, often blows from the west. Despite a drop of temperature between June and September humidity increases, making it a very uncomfortable season.

Culture

The majority of the population are Hindu but nearly one fifth are Muslim, concentrated between Aligarh and Faizabad in what is called ‘The Muslim Belt’. Today, adherents of Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity and Sikhism together constitute less than 3% of the state’s population. Ethnically, the great majority of people on the plains are of Indo-Aryan stock. Most people speak Hindi, but Urdu is still quite widely used among Muslims. There are numerous local dialects.

Modern Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh has produced eight of India’s 14 prime ministers since Independence, including Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi and grandson Rajiv Gandhi. However, after three decades of Congress dominance, politics in Uttar Pradesh have become like a frequently shaken kaleidoscope. Lower caste groups have become more effectively mobilized, and in the 1990s transferred their votes from the Congress to alternatives, mainly the Janata Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The rout of the Congress was seemingly completed by the emergence in the state of the BJP, but in the 2007 State Assembly elections the BSP, under the leadership of the ‘Dalit Queen’ Ms Mayawati, gained an overall majority. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, however, the BSP won only 20 of the 80 seats, one fewer than the newly resurgent Congress, reducing her influence at the centre.

The state legislative assembly meets at Lucknow, the capital. Uttar Pradesh has 80 seats in the Lok Sabha (Lower House) and 32 seats in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House), more than any other state. Both Rajiv Gandhi’s widow, Sonia, who has proved a highly effective Congress president, and their son Rahul, an increasingly important figure in the Congress, hold UP seats.