Saurashtra (region)

Saurashtra (, ; also Soruth and Sorath) is a region of western India, located on the Arabian Sea coast of Gujarat state. It is a peninsula also called Kathiawar after the Kathi Darbar who ruled part of the region once. The Peninsula is shared with the Kachchh region which occupies the north, Saurashtra or Sorath forming the southern portion.

History

Surastrene, or Saraostus is mentioned in the 1st century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Sorath was the former name of the Muslim-ruled Princely State of Junagadh ("Junagarh" or the "Old City"). During British rule, Junagadh and its neighboring princely states were supervised by the Western India States Agency (WISA). In 1947, Junagadh's Muslim ruler desired to accede his territory to Pakistan, but the predominantly Hindu population rebelled, and while he fled to Pakistan, a plebiscite was conducted as a result of which the kingdom was merged into the Indian Union.

Saurashtra state

After India's independence in 1947, 217 princely states of Kathiawar, including the former kingdom of Junagadh, were merged together to form the state of Saurashtra on 15 February 1948. Initially, it was named United States of Kathiawar which was renamed to Saurashtra in November 1948. The exercise took up a lot of Shri Vallabhbhai Patel's time to convince the local princes and petty subas(totalling 222 in Saurashtra alone). The capital of Saurashtra was Rajkot. Uchharangray Navalshankar Dhebar (1905-1977), who later went...
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