Bay Area Gujarati Samaj Northern California

Gujarat state came into existence as a separate State on 1st May 1960.

The State is situated on the west coast of India between 20-6′ N to 24-42′ N north latitude and 68-10’E to 74-28’E east longitude. It is bounded by the Arabian Sea in the West, by the States of Rajasthan in the North and North-East, by Madhya Pradesh in the East and by Maharashtra in the South and South East.
The State has an international boundary and has a common border with the Pakistan at the north-western fringe. The two deserts, one north of Kachchh and the other between Kachchh and the mainland Gujarat are saline wastes.

The State has a long coast-line of about 1600 kms. and is the longest among all States of country. For the purpose of administration, Gujarat State at present comprises of 25 districts, sub-divided into 226 talukas, having 18618 villages and 242 towns. Gujarat has geographical area of 1.96 lakh sq.kms. and accounts for 6.19 percent of the total area of the country.

From Gujarat came many great personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Morarji Desai, K.M. Munshi, Narhari Parikh, Mahadev Desai, Mohanlal Pandya, Bhulabhia Deasi, and Ravi Shankar Vyas. Gujarati is home to number of groups that settled from outside including Hindus, Sakas, Muslims, and Parsis. In Gujarat there a cast like Koli, Koli Patel, Patidat Patel, Adivasi, Rajput, Vaniya, Anavil, Harijan, Lohana, and number of other small sub-casts. Gujarat has many rivers and dams to help in its irrigation needs to keep the land fertile. The northern and central Gujarat has major rivers like Narmada, Sabarmati, and Mahi. In the sourther part of the state there is Mithi, Khari, Bhadar, Shetrunji, Bhogavo, Narmada, Tapi, Purna, Ambika, Auranga, and Damanganga. All the major dams in Gujarat includes projects on the reivers like Narmada, Tapi, Damanganaga, Dantiwada-Sipu Dams, Sabarmati, Indrasee Hatmati, and Wanakbori. Over many years the larger dams that have been built in Gujarat were paritally funded by the World Bank.

Gujarat just like California in the United States has many national parks, plus they also have twenty-one wildlife sanctuaries. The national parks are locate through out the Gujarat State and locations are as follows, Gir Forest National Park near Junagadh, Blackbuck National Park in Bhavnagar District, Vansda National Park in Navsari District, Marine National Park in Gulf of Kutch, and the Asiatic lion surrounding Girnar.

Gujarat Districts:
Ahmedabad District
Amreli District
Anand District
Banaskantha District
Bharuch District
Bhavnagar District
Dahod District
Dang District
Gandhinagar District
Jamnagar District
Junagadh District
Kheda District
Kutch District
Mehsana District
Narmada District
Navsari District
Panchmahal District
Patan District
Porbandar District
Rajkot District
Sabarkantha District
Surat District
Surendranagar District
Vadodara District
Valsad District

Universities In Gujarat
Gujarat University Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar
Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University, Ahmedabad
Dharamsinh Desai University, Nadiad
Gujarat Ayurveda University, Jamnagar
Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar
Gujarat University, Ahmedabad
Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad
Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University, Patan
Kachchh University, Bhuj Kachchh
Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara
Nirma University of Science & Technology, Ahmedabad
Saurashtra University, Rajkot
Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar
Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat