India (Frommer's, 4th Edition) - Keith Bain [28]
■ 1984–89 Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv is prime minister.
■ 1991 Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi by a Tamil separatist. Liberalization of the economy by reducing government controls, privatizing, and drastically reducing import tariffs and taxes.
■ 1992 BJP-led attack on mosque at Ayodhya.
■ 1996 BJP Hindu fundamentalist party wins electoral majority and forms coalition government.
■ 2002 Threat of nuclear war with Pakistan over Kashmir averted by international mediation. Gujarat sees tensions between Hindu and Muslim nationalists inflamed.
■ 2004 National elections held; in an unforeseen victory, the Congress-led alliance wins and forms the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government. Manmohan Singh becomes the new prime minister of India.
■ 2005 India’s $575-billion economy grows by a whopping 8.2%.
■ 2008 Mumbai is rocked by a multi-pronged terrorist attack which focuses on high-profile tourist locations. Terrorists, who have trained in Pakistan under Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives, kill 166 innocent people from India, the U.K., U.S., Israel, and other countries, and cause extensive damage to the landmark Taj Mahal Palace and Oberoi hotels.
■ 2009 In the largest election turnout in human history, the Congress Party is given the go-ahead to continue its program of reforms and governance along nonpartisan lines. Manmohan Singh is retained as prime minister and in the days after election results are announced, India’s stock exchange becomes the best performing in the world.
3 The Lay of the Land
Note About Maps
This guide contains dozens of maps of varying sizes and complexity. If you find it hard to read a map on your device, use the zoom function to enlarge. You can also download and/or printout PDFs of all of the maps in this guide. Go to www.frommers.com/go/ebookmaps and click on the title of your guide.
India
India is a vast country, roughly divided—for the purposes of this book—into North, East, and |South.
The south (again, for the purposes of this book), accessed most conveniently via Mumbai (state capital of Maharashtra), refers to Goa, Karnataka (with an excursion to Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh), Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.
The north refers to Rajasthan, its southern neighbor Gujarat, and to the west of these states, the nation’s capital, Delhi, and the sprawling states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, which lies in the very heart of the country. Northeast of Delhi lie the largely unvisited states of Haryana and Punjab (the big exception being the Golden Temple at Amritsar, one of India’s most wonderful attractions), and—moving directly north of Delhi—Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh (one province in the state of otherwise-unsafe Jammu and Kashmir) in the Himalayas.
The east refers to Jharkhand (not a tourist destination), West Bengal (centered around Kolkata, or Calcutta), Orissa (with top attraction Konark), and, moving north into the Himalayas again, the mountain state of Sikkim and the tea-growing hill station of Darjeeling. Seven more states lie farther east (north and east of Bangladesh); their infrastructure is virtually nonexistent. Because travel in these areas is considered less than safe, they are not covered here, with the exception of two outstanding wildlife reserves in Assam.
The largest differences lie between the northern and southern regions. The former offers predominantly a plethora of medieval Mughal and Rajput architecture, ancient cities, deserts, camel safaris, heritage accommodations, tiger parks, Buddhism, and the snowcapped peaks of the Himalayas. The latter is rich with beautiful beaches, Ayurvedic spas, ancient Dravidian/Hindu temples, cosmopolitan colonial coastal towns, and a generally more laid-back atmosphere. We suggest that rather than try to cover both the north and the south, concentrate your energies on one. If you do decide to combine the two, stick to two states, or you’ll find yourself exhausted at the end of your vacation.
MUMBAI (BOMBAY) & MAHARASHTRA Teetering on the edge of the Arabian