Gujarat is the westernmost state of India. It is bounded by the Arabian Sea to the west, by the state of Rajasthan to the north and northeast, by Madhya Pradesh to the east,and by Maharashtra to the south and southeast.The relief is low in the most part of the state. The climate is mostly dry, and even desertic in the north-west.Gujarat has about 1600 km of coastline, which is about a third of India's total coast line and the longest coastline of all Indian states. This coastline includes the Gulf of Kutch and Gulf of Cambay.The major cities in Gujarat are Ahmedabad, Vadodara Barod), Surat, and Rajkot. Ahmedabad is the largest city in the state and the sixth largest in India. Other important cities in the south of Gujarat are Nadiad,Anand Ankleshwar, Bharuch, Navsari, Vapi, and Valsad; in the north are Jamnagar,Bhuj and Dwarka.Gujarat is home to several National Parks, including Gir Forest National Park Girnar, near Junagadh, Velavadar National Park in Bhavnagar District, Vandsa National Park in Bulser District, and Marine National Park on the Gulf of Kutch in Jamnagar District. The last remaining Asian lions, famous for their dark black manes, live in Girnar.There are also a number of wildlife sanctuaries and nature preserves, including Anjal, Balaram-Ambaji, Barda, Jambughoda, Jessore, Kachchh Desert, Khavda, Nal Sarovar, Narayan Sarovar, Paniya, Purna, Rampura, Ratanmahal, and Surpaneshwar.

History
Situated on the western coast of India, the name of the state is derived from Gujjaratta, which means the land of the Gujjars. It is believed that a tribe of Gujjars migrated to India around the 5th century. The history of Gujarat, however, began much earlier. Settlements of the Indus Valley Civilisation, also known as the Harappan Civilisation, have been found in the area now known as Gujarat. Gujarat's coastal cities, chiefly Bharuch, served as ports and trading centres in the Maurya and Gupta empires.After the fall of the Gupta empire in the 6th century, Gujarat flourished as an independent Hindu kingdom. The Maitraka dynasty, descended from a Gupta general, ruled from the 6th to the 8th centuries from their capital at Vallabhi, although they were ruled briefly by Harsha during the 7th century. The Arab rulers of Sind sacked Vallabhi in bringing the Maitraka dynasty to an end. A branch of the Pratihara clan ruled Gujarat after the eighth century. In the first Parsi Zoroastrian refugees arrived in Gujarat from Iran.The Solanki clan of Rajputs ruled Gujarat from Gujarat was a major center of Indian Ocean trade, and their capital at Anhilwara Patan was one of the largest cities in India, with population estimated in the year the famous Somnath temple in Gujarat was destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni. After 1243, the Solkanis lost control of Gujarat to their feudatories, of whom the Vaghela chiefs of Dholka came to dominate Gujarat. the Vaghelas became tributaries of the Yadava dynasty of Devagiri in the Deccan.

Ala ud din Khilji, Sultan of Delhi, destroyed Anhilwara and incorporated Gujarat into the Delhi Sultanate. After Timur's sacking of Delhi at the end of the 14th century weakened the Sultanate, Gujarat's Muslim governor Zafar Khan Muzaffar asserted his independence, and his son, Sultan Ahmed Shah established Ahmedabad as the capital. Cambay eclipsed Bharuch as Gujarat's most important trade port. The Sultanate of Gujarat remained independent until , when the Mughal emperor Akbar conquered it and annexed it to the Mughal empire. It remained a province of the Mughal empire until the Marathas conquered eastern and central Gujarat in the 18th century; Western Gujarat (Kathiawar and Kutch were divided among numerous local rulers.

Bombay Presidency in 1909, northern portion
Bombay Presidency in 1909, southern portionPortugal was the first European power to arrive in Gujarat, acquiring several enclaves along the Gujarati coast, including Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The British East India Company established a factory in Surat in 1614, which formed their first base in India, but it was eclipsed by Mumbai after the British acquired it from Portugal in The Company wrested control of much of Gujarat from the Marathas during the Second Anglo-Maratha War. Many local rulers, notably the Maratha Gaekwads of Baroda(Vadodara, made a separate peace with the British, and acknowledged British sovereignty in return for retaining local self-rule.Gujarat was placed under the political authority of Bombay Presidency, with the exception of Baroda state, which had a direct relationship with the Governor-General of India. From most of present-day Gujarat, including Kathiawar, Kutch, and northern and eastern Gujarat were divided into dozens of princely states, but several districts in central and southern Gujarat, namely Ahmedabad, Broach Bharuch) Kaira, Panch Mahals, and Surat, were ruled directly by British officials.

After Indian independence and the partition of India in 1947, the new Indian government grouped the former princely states of Gujarat into three larger units; Saurashtra, which included the former princely states on the Kathiawar peninsula, Kutch, and Bombay state, which included the former British districts of Bombay Presidency together with most of Baroda state and the other former princely states of eastern Gujarat. In 1956, Bombay state was enlarged to include Kutch, Saurashtra, and parts of Hyderabad state and Madhya Pradesh in central India. The new state had a mostly Gujarati-speaking north and a Marathi-speaking south. Agitation by Marathi nationalists for their own state led to the split of Bombay state on linguistic lines; on 1 May it became the new states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. The first capital of Gujarat was Ahmedabad; the capital was moved to Gandhinagar in

In Gujarat a few new towns have been established since Indian independence in . Most of these are more like settlements established near existing urban centres. Gandhidham, Sardarnagar and Kubernagar are three rehabilitation towns more of refugee settlements than self-sufficient towns. The last two now form part of the city of Ahmedabad. Ankaleswar and Mithapur were two of the earlier industrial towns established in Gujarat. A complex of three small townships for the oil refinery, the Fertilizer Factory and Petro-chemicals plant also came up near Baroda. Kandla is the only new port town established in the State.Gujarat was hit with a devastating earthquake on January 26, 2001 at 9:00am claiming a staggering lives, injuring another people and severely affecting the lives of 40 million Gujaratis. The economic and financial loss to Gujarat and India was deeply felt for years to come.

Politics
Gujarat is governed by a Legislative Assembly of 182 members. Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) are elected on the basis of adult suffrage from one of 182 constituencies, of which 13 are reserved for scheduled castes and 26 for scheduled tribes. The term of office for a member of the Legislative Assembly is five years.The Legislative Assembly elects a speaker, who presides over the meetings of the legislature. A governor is appointed by the President of India, and is empowered to summon, prorogue, and dissolve the Legislative Assembly, and to address the House after every general election and the commencement of each year's first session of the Legislative Assembly. The Leader of the Legislative Assembly is the leader of the majority party or coalition in the legislature (Chief Minister), or his or her designee. The Leader sets the dates of the legislative sessions, and decides what business is to be transacted in the legislature and what order it is taken up.

The administration of the state is led by the Chief Minister.After independence in the Indian National Congress party ( ruled the Bombay state (which included present-day Gujarat and Maharashtra). Congress continued to govern Gujarat after the state's creation in During and after India's State of Emergency of 1975-1977, public support for the Congress Party eroded, but it continued to hold government until In the 1 Assembly Polls, the Congress lost to the BJP and Keshubhai Patel came to power. His Government lasted only 2 years. The fall of that government was provoked by a split in the BJP led by Shankersinh Vaghela. BJP returned to power in 1998 state assembly polls and has won most of the subsequent polls. In , following the loss of 2 assembly seats in by-elections, Keshubhai Patel resigned and handed over power to Narendra Modi. The BJP retained a majority in the election, and Narendra Modi has since served as Chief Minister of the state.

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