Gujaratis

one of the major and most economically and culturally advanced peoples of India. The Gujaratis, who number approximately 26 million people (1970, estimate), live mainly in the state of Gujarat. They speak the Gujarati language and have their own writing system and a well-developed literature. Most Gujaratis are Hindus, although there are many who profess Islam, Jainism, Parsiism, and Christianity. The chief occupation (approximately 70 percent) is the farming of rice, wheat, millet, sugarcane, and cotton. (Cotton accounts for approximately 40 percent of the cultivated land area.) Handicrafts, including handweaving, metalworking, and jewelry making, are well developed. The Gujarati industrial proletariat constitutes one of the largest sections of India’s working class, and the financial and industrial bourgeoisie occupies a leading position in the country’s economy. The Gurjara people, known in India since the early Middle Ages, provided the ethnic basis of the Gujaratis.