Punjab, India
"Punjab" means "land of five rivers" and derives from the Persian words 'panj,' meaning five, and 'aab,' meaning water. The rivers, tributaries of the Indus River, are the Beas, Chenab, Jhelum, Ravi, and Sutlej. Before the British left India, they divided the country into India and Pakistan, driving the Muslim population north and using the rivers as a natural border.
Area: 50,362 square kilometres (19,445 square miles)
Population: around 24,000,000 in 2000
Exploring the Rural Side of India
www.exploreruralindia.org has very good information for travellers who want to backpack into India's rural areas- which in my opinion, are a lot better than its congested urban areas.
Take time to go through the site if you've never been to India because the country is huge after all and there is a lot to take in. Don't make the mistake of choosing to go to too many places because transportation is tough and the roads are not smooth, in any way, whether by train or by taxi.
A Different City: Auroville, India
Auroville has a rural ambience and consists of nearly 100 different settlements, spread out over 25 km2 (of which a little over 10 km2 so far is owned by the community). It's claim to fame is that it is using commercialization to realize its dreams of a communist-like state:
Auroville Charter
- Auroville belongs to nobody in particular.
Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole.
But to live in Auroville, one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness. - Auroville will be the place of an unending education,
of constant progress, and a youth that never ages. - Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
- Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual
Human Unity.