Upper Doab

The Upper Doab is a geographical and cultural region in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located between the rivers Ganga and Yamuna, in the northernmost part of the Yamuna Ganga doab.Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2023, November 3). Upper Doab. Encyclopedia Britannica.

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Geography The Upper Doab contains the districts of Haridwar, Saharanpur, Muzzafarnagar, Shamli, Meerut, Bagpat, Ghaziabad, Hapur, Gautam Budh Nagar, Bulandshahr and Aligarh.

The geography of this region is flat,Trivedi, K. K. (1981). HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF GANGA-YAMUNA DOAB (I3th-17th CENTURIES). Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 42, 303–309. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44141143 marked by irrigation canals. The region has heavy rainfallChand, M., Puri, V. K. (1983).  Regional Planning in India. India: Allied Publishers. p.14 The total area of the region is 9173 sq miles.Mukerji, Anath Bandhu, "Cultural Geography of the Jats of the Upper Doab, India." (1960). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. p.37

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Agriculture The Upper Doab region and Western Uttar Pradesh as a whole benefited significantly from the Green Revolution in the 1960sPathak, H, Panda (Ed.), B.B (Ed.) & Nayak, A.(Ed.).(2019). Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India:Experiences and Expectations. Indian Council of Agricultural Research National Rice Research Institute. p. v The main crop grown in the Upper Doab is sugarcane.Parashar, B. K. (2020, September 18). Why western UP farmers are silent on Centre’s new farm bills. Hindustan Times. Unlike in much of the rest of India, sugarcane is sold direct to Sugarcane mill, rather than through the mandi system.ibid, Hindustan Times Sept 18, 2020

Among the problems faced by the industry is the shrinkage of farm sizes due to growing populations and division of farmland, and conversion of land to non-agricultural use.Singh, R. P., & Islam, Z. (2010). Land use planning in Western Uttar Pradesh: Issues and challenges. Recent Research in Science and Technology, 2(9), 11–17.

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Demography The majority of the population of the region is Hindu. Muslims are a sizeable minority, especially in SaharanpurGhose, D. (2022, January 30). UP polls: Consolidation of Muslim, Hindu votes in focus in Saharanpur. Hindustan Times.

The dominant castes in the region are the Jats and Gurjars"The unambiguous assertion that the rural landscape in western UP is solely dominated by either Jats or Gujars. Jats and Gujars own most of the land and other castes are either landless or very marginal landholding castes" quoted in Sahay, G. R. (2015). Dominance of Jats is unabated: Caste and dominance in the villages of western Uttar Pradesh. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 49(2), 216-249. Kumar, S. (2022).  Popular Democracy and the Politics of Caste: Rise of the Other Backward Classes in India. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. The Jat dominated part of the Doab was called "Herat" while the Gurjar dominated area was called "Goojerat". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. (1865). India: Bishop's College Press. p.403 The Rajputs are present in eastern parts of Hapur and Bulandshahr, where the Bargurjar clan is prominent, and in regions adjacent to the Braj region, where some of them were Zamindars. Statistical, Descriptive and Historical Account of the North-Western Provinces of India: 3.: Meerut division part 2. (1876).: North-Western Provinces Government. p.140 These Rajputs rose in revolt in along with the Gurjars in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.Tewari, J. P. (1966). THE REVOLT OF 1857 IN BULANDSHAHR DISTRICT. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 28, 365–376.

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Language The languages spoken in the region are Hindi, Urdu and Gujari. The Khadiboli dialect is prominent.(Trivedi, 1981)

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Economy The economy of the Upper Doab has largely been agrarian in nature.(Bandhu, 1960. p.186) In recent years service sector jobs have boomed in Noida.Vaibhav, V., Das, V. K., & Vaibhav, V. (2021, March 30). The old Bimaru states have new boom towns. But only in pockets. ThePrint. Ghaziabad is the largest industrial city in Uttar Pradesh,Jha, A. (2024, October 28). Maintenance of Ghaziabad's industrial clusters to go into hands of UPSIDA with the most factories in the stateJha, A. (2020, October 4). 27,000 factories in Ghaziabad are operating with 80% workforce, say officials . The Times of India. The Times of India. employing around five hundred forty thousand workers.Ravinder. (2024, August 24). Industrial area of ghaziabad. Ghaziabad Portal. Real estate has also become a lucrative business in the region.

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