Orientation Guide to India's Gujarat Region and the Gujarati Culture: Religion, Traditions, Family Life, Urban and Rural Populations, Geography, History, Economy, Society and Security

Gujarati is one of 22 official languages in India, a South Asian country that possesses remarkable ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity among its population of over one billion people. The majority of the country’s Gujarati speakers reside in Gujarat, one of 28 states in the nation. Gujarat has a population of over 50.6 million people, with the majority of them speaking Gujarati as either a first or second language. The state took its present form in 1960, when the former state of Bombay was divided along linguistic lines. The resulting states of Gujarat and Maharashtra correspond, respectively, with their Gujarati- and Marathi-speaking majorities. However, a large population of Gujarati speakers remains in Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra and one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world.
Gujarat is home to an extremely diverse human population, the result of thousands of years of intercultural contact, conflict, and exchange. The state’s complex character also reflects the unique local geography, which has played a major role in shaping the region’s development over the centuries. Today, Gujarat is a highly industrialized and economically developed state—one of the wealthiest in a nation marked by extreme disparities in socioeconomic standing. In the Western world, Gujarat is most often known as the birthplace and home of Mohandas Gandhi, a pioneer in the use of non-violent protest to advance a political agenda, in this case Indian independence. More recently, the state was the site of both a devastating earthquake (in 2001) and a series of Hindu-Muslim riots (in 2002).
This book, produced by Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC), provides comprehensive information about India’s Gujarat Region and the Gujarati Culture. Chapter topics include religion, traditions, family life and differences in the lifestyles of urban and rural populations as well as detailed discussion of geography, history and their economy, form of government, society and security and much more.
84 pages; dozens of photos, illustration and charts in full color.
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