Northern India contains the state of Punjab. The state, which is a part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, is bordered by the Indian union territories of Chandigarh to the east and Jammu and Kashmir to the north, as well as by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the north and northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast, and Rajasthan to the southwest. With Punjab, a Pakistani province to the west, it shares a common international boundary. The state is the 19th-largest by area among the 28 Indian states, with a total area of 50,362 square kilometers (19,445 square miles), or 1.53% of all of India's geographical area (20th largest, if UTs are considered). Punjab, which consists of 23 districts, is the 16th-largest Indian state by population with about 27 million residents. The most extensively used language in the state and its official language is Punjabi, which is written in the Gurmukhi script. Sikhs and Hindus are the two most common religious groups, and Punjabis make up the majority of the ethnic groups. Chandigarh, a union territory and the capital of the neighboring state of Haryana, serves as the state capital. The Sutlej, the Beas, the Ravi, the Chenab, and the Jhelum are the five rivers that flow into the Indus River and give the area its name. The first three of them pass through Pakistani Punjab, whereas the last two totally pass through Indian Punjab. Different tribes of people with various traditions and ideologies have migrated to Punjab throughout its history, settling there, and creating the melting pot that is Punjabi civilization. Prior to the beginning of recorded history, the Indus Valley civilization was at its height until it began to fall around 1900 BCE. When the Vedic era was at its most prosperous, Punjab experienced a drop in prominence as the Mahajanapadas rose to power. During antiquity, the region served as the boundary for early empires including the Mauryan and Alexanderian empires. Then the Kushan Empire, Gupta Empire,[16] and finally Harsha's Empire took control of it. Huna, Turkic, and Mongol nomads, among others, continued to colonize Punjab. The Punjab was ruled by Muslims beginning around 1000 CE and was a part of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal Empire, and the Durrani Empire. After the fall of the Mughal Empire and the accompanying struggle with the Durrani Empire, Sikhism, which was formed by the Sikh Gurus in the Punjab during the 15th and 17th centuries, led to the creation of the Sikh Confederacy. Maharaja Ranjit Singh merged this alliance into the Sikh Empire in 1801. In 1849, the British East India Company seized the wider Punjab territory from the Sikh Empire. The British Indian province of Punjab was split into West Punjab and East Punjab along religious lines in 1947 as a result of extensive religious violence. While the East Punjab joined Hindu-dominated India, the West Punjab became a country with a Muslim majority, Pakistan. On 1 November 1966, the Indian Punjab and PEPSU were split into three regions based on linguistic following the Punjabi Suba movement. While the hilly regions and Pahari-speaking areas formed Himachal Pradesh alongside the current state of Punjab, the Haryanvi and Hindi-speaking regions (including various dialects) were divided into Haryana. Punjab experienced an insurgency in the 1980s. With a gross domestic product (GDP) of 5.29 trillion (US$66 billion) and a per capita GDP of 151,367 (US$1,900), Punjab has the 15th-largest state economy in India as of the present. Since its independence, Punjab has largely been an agricultural society. In terms of the human development index, it holds the ninth-highest position among Indian states. The tourism, music, food, and film sectors are all thriving in Punjab.
