Formerly a princely state created in the 1840’s, Jammu & Kashmir became an Indian state in 1947, and has since served as the state’s boundary with the Pakistan administered area. Tension has remained high in the region, and there have been periodic outbreaks of border fighting.

Chandigarh, The City Beautiful derived it's name from temple of goddess Chandi (the Chandi Mandir) located in nearby Panchkula District of Haryana. The word Chandigarh literally means "the fort of Chandi".

Kapurthala, the capital of the former Princely State of the same name, was in its day, known as a city of Palaces, Mosques, Temples, Gurudwara and gardens. The extent of the French influence in the architecture of the main Palace, and some of the other buildings, its wide streets, the Indo-Saracenic influence in the other prominent buildings and the well co-ordinated aesthetic layout of most dwellings, being set amidst a front of an acre of lawn and gardens, earned this small Principality the sobriquet of the "Paris of the Punjab".