Gujarat (Gujarati)

The trading coast, facing west, and the most commercially oriented region in India for four thousand years. Lothal on this coastline was a Harappan port with what may be the world's oldest known dock, and the pattern held: Gujarati merchants traded with Rome, the Persian Gulf, East Africa and Southeast Asia continuously, and Gujarati communities settled across the Indian Ocean long before European empires organised it. The region's religious history follows its trade. Jainism, with its merchant constituency and prohibition on agriculture's incidental violence, is stronger here than anywhere; Zoroastrians fleeing Persia landed at Sanjan and became the Parsis, who later built Bombay's industry; and Ismaili and Bohra Muslim communities are concentrated in the same ports. The Gujarat Sultanate ruled independently from 1407 until Akbar annexed it in 1573, and Surat was the Mughal empire's principal port and the point where both the English and Dutch companies first established factories. Gandhi was born at Porbandar and chose Gujarat for both the Sabarmati ashram and the Salt March of 1930, which walked from there to Dandi on this coast. So was Vallabhbhai Patel, who integrated the princely states after 1947, and Jinnah, who founded Pakistan. The state was created on linguistic lines in 1960. Its 2002 communal violence killed over a thousand people. Diamonds cut in Surat account for most of the world's supply. Ahmedabad is the largest city and Gandhinagar the capital. The Rann of Kutch is a vast seasonal salt marsh. The Asiatic lion survives only in the Gir forest. The state has prohibited alcohol since 1960.

• Existed: 1100 CE – present
• Type: Entity