Jharkhand

Jharkhand is a state in eastern India carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. The state shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Chhattisgarh to the west, Odisha to the south, and West Bengal to the east. It has an area of 30778sqmi.The city of Ranchi is its capital and Dumka its sub capital.Jharkhand accounts for 40% of the mineral resources of India,but it suffers widespread poverty as 39.1 per cent of the population is below the poverty line and 19.6 per cent of the children under five years of age are malnourished. The State is primarily a rural state as only 24 percent of the population resides in cities.HistoryAccording to writers including Gautam Kumar Bera, there was already a distinct geo-political, cultural entity called Jharkhand even before the Magadha Empire. Bera's book (page 33) also refers to the Hindu epic Bhavishya Purana. The tribal rulers, some of whom continue to thrive till today were known as the Munda Rajas, who basically had ownership rights to large farmlands. During the age of Mahajanpadas around 500 BC, India saw the emergence of 16 large states that controlled the entire Indian subcontinent. In those days the Jharkhand state was a part of Magadha, Anga, Banga, Kalinga, Kashi and Vajji.