The reports gives a historical profile of Himachal Pradesh, India and shows its chequered history. The state witnessed different waves of migration; for a long period had a feudal set?up until the state was re-organized. The changes in size and the administrative structure that the state has gone through between 1948 and 1971 have influenced the level and pace of its development. Himachal inherited a primitive economic system from its feudal structure and an inadequate institutional framework, which constituted a weak base for socio-economic development. At the initial stages, the state was at a disadvantage in relation to the rest of the country in pursuing the process of development. The institutional task of setting up an integrated administration, transforming a feudal system into a modern democratic one, necessitating the abolition of all feudal practices and laws, was difficult.
The state has been formed by a combination of different regions and different ways of life: from tribal areas like Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti to areas integrated after the reorganization of the state way back in 1966, from the state of Punjab with mixture of the Pahari and Punjabi culture. ?The state has three well-defined eco-cultural zones which are intrinsic to the understanding of various ethnic identities. The upper areas of the Himalayas are dominated by the communities following the Mahayan tradition of Buddhism or Lamaism, speaking languages belonging to the Tibeto-Burman family and practicing pastoralism, horticulture and animal husbandry. The middle belt is dominated by the communities following terrace cultivation and horticulture and some elements of pastoralism, following Hinduism and folk religions. The lower belt consists of sub-mountainous ranges and plains peopled by the communities such as immigrants with an exposure to the larger world practicing settled cultivation, business and trade, speaking Pahari languages.
Any investigation in the status of single women in Himachal Pradesh and the determinants of the status needs to be considered in the light of process of socio-eco, political, historical, geographical developments over time. Cultural transformation, different waves of migration, natural calamities, and changes in political structure that accompany socio-economic development tend to bring a shift in the existing patterns governing human behavior and lifestyles. These changes tend to produce new patterns of consumption, new conditions of morbidity, variation in access to resources, utilization pattern of resources.
