North India

North India is a geographic and linguistic-cultural region of India. In traditional Indian geography, India is divided into five major zones: North India, North-East India, East India , West India and South India. The Vindhya mountains, in particular the line marked by the Narmada River and the Mahanadi River marks the southern boundary of north India. The line made by the Son river and the Kosi river marks its eastern border. The dominant geographic feature of northern India is the Indo-Gangetic Plain.

However, the social cultural boundaries of north India have actually surpassed these traditional boundaries. As a linguistic-cultural and political region, North India consists of twelve Indian states: Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan . The National Capital Territory of Delhi is also a part of northern India. It shares most of its cultural, historical, musical, and linguistic heritage with neighboring Pakistan, which was part of the region prior to Partition.

North India remains primarily rural, but its vast population has ensured that it has always supported very large cities: apart from the great metropolis of Delhi, the cities of Lucknow, Patna, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Meerut, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Srinagar, Jammu, Bhopal and Indore would rank with the most populous cities of Europe.
 

North Indians are primarily defined to be of the Indo-Aryan race, although there has been a significant diffusion of all Indian populations since independence. The languages spoken in North India, namely, Hindi (around 300 million), Punjabi (37 million), Bhojpuri (23 million) and others are classified by linguists as being Indo-Aryan languages. They differ from South Indian languages which are classified Dravidian languages but share great similarities with West and East Indian languages. The key historical differences between Northern and other regions of India is the influence of Islam and the interaction with Middle Eastern civilization through the ages. These influences can be understood by reviewing articles on Indian History and the Mughal Empire.
 

Delhi pronunciation  is the second-largest metropolis in India after Mumbai with a population of 13 million. Located in northern India on the banks of the River Yamuna, Delhi has the political status of a federally administered union territory known as the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Under a Constitutional amendment in 1991, Delhi was given its own legislative assembly with limited powers. The metropolis consists of three coterminous census towns – Delhi, Delhi Cantonment, New Delhi – along with 214 villages.
Buildinds and landmarks of Delhi
Rashtrapati Bhavan, Teen Murti Bhavan, Baha'i House of Worship, Qutub Minar, Jama Masjid, India Gate, Vijay Chowk, Raj Ghat, Rajpath, Humayun's Tomb, Jantar Mantar, Purana Qila, List of parks in Delhi
 

Allahabad  is a city in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The name was given to the city by the Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1583.The ancient name of the city is Prayag  and is considered to be the spot where Brahma offered his first sacrifice after creating the world. It is one of  four sites of the Kumbh Mela, the others being Haridwar, Ujjain and Nasik. It has a position of importance in the Hindu religion and mythology since it is situated at the confluence of the holy rivers Ganga and Yamuna, and Hindu belief says that the invisible Sarasvati River joins here also.
 

Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, historically sometimes rendered as Jeypore, is the capital of Rajasthan state, India. Jaipur is also the capital of Jaipur District. Jaipur is the former capital of the princely state of Jaipur. Founded in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, Jaipur was the first planned city in India and in 2003, after only 276 years, the population reached approximately 2.7 million.
 

Varanasi, also known as Benares, Banaras, or Benaras, or Kashi or Kasi , is a famous Hindu holy city situated on the banks of the river Ganges (Ganga) in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, dating back thousands of years and contemporaneous with the Sumer civilisation. The culture of Varanasi is deeply associated with the river Ganga and the river's religious importance. The city has been a cultural and religious center in northern India for thousands of years. Varanasi has its own style of classical Hindustani music, and has produced prominent musicians, philosophers, poets, and writers in Indian history, including Kabir, Munshi Premchand, Jaishankar Prasad, Pandit Ravi Shankar, and Ustad Bismillah Khan. The language spoken in the city is Bhojpuri, a dialect of Hindi. Varanasi is the home of Banaras Hindu University.
 

Chandigarh also called The City Beautiful, is a city in India that serves as the capital of two states: Punjab and Haryana. However, administratively, the city is not under the jurisdiction of either state, it is administered by the Centre government and hence classified as a union territory. The Governor of the Punjab is the Administrator of  Chandigarh. The city derives its name from a temple of goddess Chandi  located in nearby Panchkula District of Haryana. The word Chandigarh literally means "the fort of Chandi". Chandigarh is known for its high standard of living and tops the list of Indian States and Union Territories with a Human Development Index of 0.674.Chandigarh has two satellite cities : Panchkula and Mohali. Sometimes, the triangle of these three cities is collectively called as the Chandigarh Tricity.
 

Amritsar  is the administrative headquarter of the Amritsar District in Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city of Amritsar to be over 1,000,000 and that of the entire district to number just over 3,096,077. Amritsar is located in the northwest part of India in the State of Punjab, 32 miles east of Lahore, Pakistan. Amritsar derives from Sanskrit Amŗta-sarovar = "Lake of Nectar". It is home to the Harimandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, and is the spiritual and cultural centre of the Sikh Religion. In Maharaja Ranjit Singh's time, Amritsar had superseded Lahore as the pre-eminent city of Punjab. It is also known for the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (1919). The main commercial activities include tourism, carpets and fabrics, farm produce, handicrafts, service trades and light engineering. Amritsar is also a seat of major educational institutions like Guru Nanak Dev University, Khalsa College, Amritsar , DAV College Amritsar , and Government Medical College, Amritsar . Amritsar is also home to Pingalwara, the home for destitutes founded by Bhagat Puran Singh.