Punjab is a state in northern India.  It is the home of more than 80 per cent of India's 14 million Sikhs. Punjab is the most prosperous state in India.  Incomes are 78 per cent above the national average, and nearly every village has electricity.  The soil is fertile and well watered.  At the time of India's independence in 1947, the Punjab region was divided between India and Pakistan. Punjab is the leading wheat-growing region of India.  Crop yields are consistently much higher than anywhere else in the country, giving India a regular surplus of wheat.  Punjab is also a major rice-growing state.  
 

People:  Most of the inhabitants of Punjab are descendants of tribes that invaded northwest India from around 1500 B.C. onward. The descendants include the Jats,Rajputs,& punjabis. 
Almost all of the population speak Punjabi (also spelled Panjabi), which is an Indo-European language. The remainder speak Hindi.  Punjab is the homeland of the Sikhs and the only state where they form the majority.  Sikhism, called Gurmat (the Guru's doctrine) by orthodox Sikhs, is the most recent of India's religions.  It was founded by the first Guru (religious teacher), Guru Nanak, who lived between 1469 and 1539.   Receiving God's message, Guru Nanak was believed to have absorbed the divine spirit and become one with God.  The divine spirit was believed to have been handed on through nine further gurus.  The tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, decreed that in future the holy scripture (granth) and the Sikh community (panth) would take the place of the guru.    

Guru Nanak composed nearly 1,000 hymns in a mixture of Old Panjabi and Old Hindi.  Sikh music is immensely popular, and singing and playing religious music is part of many Sikh religious services.  Guru Nanak believed that meditation should be a central part of worship.  It is a path of the life of every devout Sikh today.  Many Sikh homes have a room where the Guru Granth Sahib (The Revered Book) is kept.  Some members of the house start each day with private meditation.  They also recite the verses of Guru Nanak, called the Japji.  From the time of the third Guru, Sikhs have also worshipped as congregations in temples.  These are known as gurdwara (gateway to the Guru).  The Golden Temple in Amritsar, built by Guru Arjan at the end of the 1500's, is the holiest shrine of Sikhism.   Hindus make up nearly a third of the population of Punjab.  They celebrate many festivals, including Dussehra and Diwali.  Islam in the region is strongly influenced by Punjabi culture and displays a distinctive character of its own.  Its literature has strong connections with Sufism (Islamic mysticism).  There are small numbers of Buddhists, Christians, and Jains.    
Both men and women wear the traditional Punjabi salwar kamiz, which consists of a long kurta (shirt) and baggy trousers drawn in at the ankle.  Women usually wear an accompanying dupatta (shawl or long scarf). 
 
Sikh men's dress is often associated with the "five k's": kesh (uncut hair), kangha (comb), kirpan (dagger or short sword), kara (steel bangle) and kachh (boxer shorts).  The most important of the five is the uncut hair.  It is sometimes claimed that the comb must be wooden.  The dagger and the shorts reflect military influence.  The bangle may be a form of charm-like thread that Hindu girls may tie on their brothers' arms.  

Government:  The governor of the state is the constitutional head of government, and is appointed by the president of India. The chief minister and his cabinet advise the governor. The state legislative assembly has 117 members.  Punjab has 13 elected members in the Lok Sabha (lower house) & 7 nominated representatives in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) of the national parliament.  The collector is the chief executive of government at the district level.  There are 14 districts, which are grouped into two divisions, Patiala and Jallandher, each under the control of a divisional commissioner.  The gram panchayat (village council) system operates at the village level.   The state capital is Chandigarh, which is also the capital of Haryana. The High Court is at Chandigarh and is shared with Haryana.

About 85 % of the total area of Punjab is under cultivation, &   55 per cent of the population works in agriculture. The state grows a surplus of grain, especially wheat and rice. Other important grains are barley, maize, millet, and pulses, such as beans, peas, and gram (lentils).  Major cash crops are cotton, oilseeds, potatoes, and sugar cane.  The great productivity of Punjab is due to the combination of rich alluvial soils (built up  by river silt), a good water supply, & a favourable climate.  Farmers have also benefited from new technology, more fertile varieties of plant, and fertilizers.  More than 90 per cent of Punjab's agricultural land is irrigated.  Over three-quarters of a million electric & diesel pumps are used to pump water from underground.  Canals irrigate about a third of the sown area.  Wells and pumps serve most of the remainder.  Important irrigation works developed since 1947 include the Bhakra River Valley Project, the largest of its kind in Asia.    

Punjabi farmers have shown great skill in adopting new varieties of seed.  Punjab's high production of wheat has made it the breadbasket of India.  Landholdings are small by European standards-only 15 to 20 hectares.  However, Punjabi farmers have formed cooperative societies and taken part in community development programmes which have made them the richest in India.    
Manufacturing.  Much of the state's industry is concerned with agriculture and the production of consumer goods.  These goods include bicycles, electronic equipment, flour, hand tools, leather goods, machine tools, sewing machines, sugar, surgical goods, textiles, vegetables oils, and vehicle parts.  Ludhiana has about 90 per cent of the country's woollen hosiery industry.  Jallandher produces sports goods, and Batala is noted for its manufacture of agricultural implements. 

The state has a full system of roads and railways.The remotest parts of the state are linked to the road network, making easier the collection and distribution of agricultural produce. Amritsar has connections with Delhi and other north Indian centres.  There are airports at Amritsar, Bhatinda, and Ludhiana.   Tourism. There is only a little tourism in the state.  Punjab has comparatively few historical sites and its scenery is not spectacular. Political troubles in the state also deter visitors.  However, tourists do visit Chandigarh, Jallianwalla Bagh, the Bhakra Dam, and the Golden Temple at Amritsar. 

Location & Description:  Punjab shares an international border with Pakistan to the west.  Rajasthan and Haryana lie to the south, and Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir are to the north.    

Land Features.  Almost the whole of the Punjab is a gently sloping plain, falling from 275 metres in the northeast to about 165 metres in the southwest.  Its flat, alluvial soils are well watered and very fertile.  There are sand dunes in the northwest, near the border with Rajasthan.  To the northeast of the plain, a narrow belt of gently undulating foothills leads to the Siwalik Hills.  The Siwaliks rise to about 900 metres. 

Punjab has a continental climate. Between November & February daytime minimum temperatures range between 5 °C and 9 °C. Nighttime temperatures occasionally drop to freezing point.  Daily maximum winter temperatures range between 19 °C and 27 °C. Humidity in winter is very low.The summers are very hot, with  with an average daily temperature in May and June of 40 °C. Temperatures occasionally reach 45 °C.   

Annual rainfall ranges from about 125 centimetres in the Siwalik Hills to about 35 centimetres in the southwest of the Punjab.  Amritsar receives about 65 centimetres of rain per year, of which 70 per cent falls during the monsoons of July to September.   About 15 per cent of annual rainfall is brought by cyclones  between December and March. 
Large areas of the Punjab were deforested as land was needed for cultivation.  Much of the Siwaliks, which once supported tropical deciduous forests of jujube, kikar (gum arabic), pipal, and shisham (a valuable building timber), now have a covering of bush.    

Wild animal life is limited.  Local animals include various species of deer, and foxes, jackals, nilgai (blue bull), rabbits, and wild boar.  The bird life is richer, and includes coel, cranes, geese, herons, and peacocks.  Cobras, kraits, and vipers are all poisonous snakes and are relatively common in summer.
Rivers and lakes.  The two major rivers of Punjab, the Sutlej and the Beas, rise in the Himalaya.  Bhakra Dam and lake in Himachal Pradesh lie on the Sutlej River.