what is Garhwal : 52 Garh: The Land Of Fort

There are two divisions of Uttarakhand state, One is Garhwal division and other is Kumaon division. These divisions were two independent kingdoms in past. These two kingdoms were always independent. Only Local Hindu rulers ruled these kingdoms. In this article we will talk about Garhwal division. We will discuss about Kumaon division in future articles.

Garhwal means the Land of Garh or Forts. There were 52 forts in Garhwal and due to these forts this place was named as Garhwal. And the people who belongs to Garhwal are called Garhwali people.There is a separate regiment of The Great Indian Army which is named as Garhwal rifle. The soldiers in this regiment come from the Garhwal Himalaya.

Garhwal was always a sovereign state before the invasion of Gurkhas. Gurkhas ruled Garhwal for 12 years. After that Britishers came and with help of local people they ended the rule of Gurkhas over Garhwal. After that 40 % of the area of Garhwal came under the rulers of Garhwal and the 60% Area was ruled by Britishers untill Bharat got independace. The area rule by britishers was called British garhwal and the area ruled by king of Garhwal was called Tehri Garhwal. After the independence the King of Garhwal decided to become the part of Republic of Bharat.

Garhwal became the part of United Proviniance which later became Uttar Pradesh.