PHYSICAL FEATURES, HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS OF ORISSA, GK 2012,

 PHYSICAL FEATURES, HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS  OF ORISSA, GK 2012, 

Governor:Murlidhar Chandrakant
 Chief Minister:Naveen Patnaik
 Capital: Bhubaneswar
 Legislature: Unicameral
 Lok Sabha seats: 21
 Judicature: Cuttack High Court
 Languages: Oriya
 Population density: 236/sq km
 No. of districts: 30
 Main crops: Rice, pulses, oilseeds, sugarcane,
 turmeric, mesta, coconut, silk, rosewood
 Rivers: Mahanadi, Brahmani, Baitarani (all enter the bay of Bengal)
 Minerals: Iron, bauxite, chromite, coal
 Industries: Agro-based industries, iron, bauxite, chromite and coal
 mining, Steel plant (Rourkela), Heavy Water Project (Talcher), Fertiliser
 plant (Paradeep)
 Airport: Bhubaneswar
PHYSICAL FEATURES
Orissa has a coastline of about 450 km. It is divided into five major physiographic regions: the central plateaus, the coastal plain in the east, the western rolling uplands, the middle mountainous and highland regions, and the flood plains. The middle mountainous and highland region covers about threefourths of the entire state and is a part of the Eastern Ghats.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The modern Orissa was known as Utkala, Kalinga, and Odra Desa. These names were initially associated with people and tribes, later identified with territories. For many centuries, Kalinga was a very strong political power, with its territories extended from the Ganga to the Godavari. In 261 BC, Asoka fought the famed Kalinga War and this is now considered the turning point in Asoka’s own life. The bloodshed and loss of life in this war led him to renounce warfare and violence. It was after this that he took up Buddhism and preached the gospel of peace and harmony. In the 1590s, the Mughal emperor Akbar conquered Orissa from the Afghans. With the decline and fall of the Mughal Empire in the 1760s, a part of Orissa remained under the Bengal nawabs and the rest went to the Marathas. The Bengal region passed into British rule in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey. After 1803, the British controlled the entire Oriya-speaking area and it was administered as two separate units, the N o r t h e r n Division and the Southern Division. It was only in April 1936 that the British constituted Orissa as a separate province on a linguistic basis, with the exception of 26 princely states that stayed outside provincial administration. After independence in 1947, all these princely states (except Saraikela and Kharsawan that merged with Bihar) became parts of Orissa.
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS
Third century BC (261 BC) - Ashoka the Mauryan Emperor, conquered Kalinga
 795 AD - Mahasivagupta Yajati II ruled, and Orissa flourished brilliantly. He united Kalinga, Kangoda, Utkal and Koshala in the imperial tradition of Kharavela.
 1592 – Akbar annexed it into the Mughal Empire.
 1 April 1936 – made separate province
January 1949 – Princely states of Orissa were completely merged