| capital | Gandhinagar |
| Area | 196,024 sq. km. Divided into 19 districts. The Tropic of Cancer passes through the north of Gujarat. The State has an extreme climate. Sabarmati, Mahi Narmada, Tapti, Narmada are the Majorrivers Peninsular Surashtra is a hilly tract. |
| Towns | Surat, Ahmedabad, Rajkot Jamnagar, Kandla, Vadodara. |
| Population | 4, 13, 09,582 |
| Density | 210 per sq. km |
| Literacy | 61.30% (Men 72.5%, Women 48.5%) |
| Languages | Gujarati |
| Growth rate | 20.8% |
| Legislative Council | 182 |
| Agriculture | 19.6 m ha. Principal crops are rice, cotton, pulses, groundnut and tabacoo |
| Minerals | Limestone, Bauxsite, Agate, Quartz, Silicay dolomite and Lignite. Coal is found under the Kalol and Mehsana oil and gas fields. |
| Industry | Textiles general and Electrical Engineering, Oil refining, Petrochemicals, Machine tools, Dyes, Soda ash, Cement, Salt, Sulphuric acid, Paper and fertilizers. |
| Roads | 67,065 Km. |
| Airport | Ahmedabad, Baroda, Bhavnagar, Bhuj, Jamnagar, Kandla, Keshod, Porbandar, Rajkot. |
| Tourism | The shaking Minarets of Ahmedabad has towers, one of which when shaken, Shakes the others. National Parks include Gir forest, the last refuge of the Asiatic lion and Nal Sarover, the bird sanctuary. Swarak and Somnath are known for the temples. |
| Festivals | Navaratri (September/October), Dussera (September/October) Dewali (November). |
The most convenient entry point into Gujarat is through the metropolis of Ahmedabad. The city contains some very fine museums, the Calico Museum of Textiles being considered among the world’s finest. Ahmedabad’s walled city is a living testimony to its heritage of crafts as women walk by in dazzling embroidered garments and flashing ethnic silver jewellery. Traditional Ahmedabad combines mosques of inspired workmanship, wooden Jain temples, unique stone stepwells and houses with ornately carved wooden balconies and window screens.
Modern Ahmedabad, just across the River Sabarmati spanned by four bridges, is a showpiece of contemporary architecture with designs by Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn and the best known Indian architects. Ahmedabad is a convenient base for a number of excursions, Modhera being the best known. 106 km away, this is one of the very few sun temples in the country.
Gujarat’s loveliest beach – and the state is well endowed with them – is Ahmedpur Mandvi whose chief attraction is the ethnic beach resort. Cottages modelled on rural Gujarati architecture look out onto a secluded beach, one of the state’s chief centres for water sports: