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🇮🇳 Jharkhand 🇮🇳

Jharkhand
By- riyaguha95

One of the latest states to be created in the vast and diverse country of India, Jharkhand’s culture is just as diverse. Surrounded by Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and sharing a small boundary with Uttar Pradesh, this state is a landlocked one, borrowing elements of culture and food from all these states while also bringing something unique to the table, which is solely from Jharkhand.

Coming into existence in November of the year 2000, Jharkhand’s capital is the quaint city of Ranchi, which shot to fame as the hometown of the former captain of the men’s cricket team of India, M.S. Dhoni.

The current Chief Minister of the state who rose to power in 2019 is Hemant Soren, belonging to the local party of the state, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). The governor’s post is held by Draupadi Murmu, who is the first woman as well as a tribal leader from Odisha to be appointed as the governor of a state.

Although the official language here is Hindi, there is no dearth of languages spoken, ranging from Bhojpuri to Nagpuri and Santhali. Even the dialects of the same language keep changing with every town and village you come across.

The staple food of the people in Jharkhand is rice. We love our vegetables too. As this is a very fertile region, many kinds of vegetables and crops are grown, which serves as the primary occupation for a vast population. Also, people of this state love their street food too. Ranging from the breakfast favorite Dhuska to Til Ki Barfi as a dessert, they have it all. The food has influences from neighboring states of Bihar and West Bengal as well, and the desserts we get in Ranchi are to die for.

A vast portion of the population belongs to the tribal communities whose history can be traced back through multiple millennia. They are nature worshippers as our ancestors were. Hence, the local festivals include the likes of Sarhul and Karma, wherein the former is celebrated during the spring season to mark the arrival of flowers on the Saal trees, while the latter is an example of celebrating youthfulness by worshipping the god of power, Karam. Festivals are celebrated with much pomp and show with the people singing their folk songs and performing dances on the local folk dance.

There is not one folk dance this state can boast of. Ranging from Jhumair to Chhau dance, there is no dearth of traditions to be followed in Jharkhand, where people dance to the beats of Dhol and Nagara. The Seraikella Chhau, as it is popularly known in the state, combines traditional Indian classical dance with martial arts and is performed predominantly in the tribal belt.

There are many places to visit in this state as natural beauty is abundant here. You can come across multiple waterfalls like the Dassam Falls, Jonha Falls, and Hundru Falls. We also have so many national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. As the people of the state have a lot of reverence towards nature and animals, you can find vast tracts of forestlands, where coming across a tiger or an elephant is a common occurrence.

We also have multiple valleys and hill stations in the state from where the hills and surroundings are admirable. It seems like one is literally sitting in the lap of nature in places like Patratu Valley and Netarhat.

Talking about famous personalities of the state, we have the former captain of the men’s cricket team, M.S. Dhoni, belonging to the state, particularly to the capital city of Ranchi. He has been termed as one of the most successful test match captains of our country, and the people of the state cannot be prouder of him.

Also, R. Madhavan, an actor appearing in Hindi and Tamil movies, was born and brought up in the industrial city of Jamshedpur.

The state, though being predominantly agriculture-based, also boasts of a variety of industries and power plants. Electricity generation is one of the leading sectors with thermal and hydel power plants abundant in number. However, what takes the cake are the steel plants the state possesses, the more famous ones being the Tata Steels and Bokaro Steel Plant.

The state has a lot of coal hidden underneath us. So, occupation also entails employment by the coal mines as directed by the central and state governments.

In the year 2020, Jharkhand was titled the best-performing state according to the ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan's’ survey results. So yes, this is a very clean state, and the cities maintain cleanliness in every nook and corner, along with the city of Jamshedpur being an extensively planned one.

We boast of world-class universities like IIM Ranchi, ISM (IIT) Dhanbad, and Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.

Coming to the history of the state, archaeologists have discovered cave paintings in these regions, which are as old as 5000 years. With the advent of the Vedic period, people came and settled in the Gangetic fertile lands of Jharkhand and brought iron tools along with them.

Jharkhand, which literally translates to the land of bushes, has been praised in Akbarnama- chronicles of the Mughal Emperor, Akbar. They had found diamonds in the region, and it’s true that the state has untapped energy sources as well as a lot of carbon in different forms, which, when extracted, can contribute to the country’s GDP tremendously.

Here’s to hoping that the political turmoil rife in the state would settle down, which would lead to more progress for the people of the state.

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We hope you learned something about this beautiful State of Jharkhand and will definitely spread a word about it to others.

Swagatam!
#ind_legion