ABSTRACT
The State of Himachal Pradesh, the ‘Himalayan land’, lies in north-western India, in the mountains above the ancient Punjab. In the east there is an international border with the People’s Republic of China (Xizang—Tibet), while to the south-east is another mountain state of the Union, Uttarakhand (formerly Uttaranchal), formed from Uttar Pradesh in 2000. On the plains, west of the border that runs roughly from the south-east to the north-west, is the historic region of the Punjab (Himachal Pradesh once formed the hill country of the Punjab): there is a short border with Haryana in the south-west, while a Punjab state lies to the west. In the north the state border is the with the former state of Jammu and Kashmir, which was split into two union territories on 31 October 2019: a ‘rump’ Jammu and Kashmir to the north-west and Ladakh to the north. Himachal Pradesh was formed on 15 April 1948, as a union of 30 former princely states, which was joined by Bilaspur on 1 July 1954. In 1966 more territory was added in the west of Himachal Pradesh, when the old Punjab state was reorganized into Haryana and the Punjab (and Chandigarh). It was a centrally administered territory until 25 January 1971, when it became the 18th state of the Union. Sometimes known as Devbhumi, the ‘home of the gods’, the mountainous state covers an area of 55,673 sq km (21,504 sq miles).
