India





The Republic of India, located in the south of Asia and comprising most of
the Indian subcontinent, is the second most populous country in the world
and is the world's largest democracy with over one billion people and more
than one hundred distinct languages. The Indian economy is the
fourth-largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity.

The name India is derived from Sindhu, the local name for the river Indus.
The country is called Bharat (pronounced as bhaarat; after the wise and
pious King Bharata of ancient times) among Indians. India borders
Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan on land, with Sri
Lanka and the Maldives just across the Indian mainland in the Indian Ocean.

                                       National motto: "Satyameva Jayate"
                                       (Sanskrit: Truth Alone Triumphs)
                                       Official         Hindi (+17 other
                                       language         nat. lang.)
History                                Capital          New Delhi
                                       Largest City     Mumbai
                                       President        APJ Abdul Kalam
The Indus Valley civilization (also
called the Sindhu-Sarasvati Tradition) Prime minister   Atal Behari
is one of the oldest cultural                           Vajpayee
traditions in the world, that goes     Area             Ranked 7th
back to at least 3000 BC. The rock art Ê- Total         3,287,590 km2
tradition of India has been traced to  Ê- % water       9.5%
40000 BC in the art in Bhimbetaka in
Central India and other sites.         Population       Ranked 2nd
                                       Ê- Total (2003)  1,049,700,118
According to the Aryan Invasion        Ê- Density       319.3/km²

Theory, Aryan tribes from the          Independence     From the British
northwest of India invaded about 1500  Ê- Date          Empire
BC, and their merger with the earlier                   August 15, 1947
inhabitants created the classical      Currency         Indian Rupee (INR)
Vedic culture. Arab incursions
starting in the 8th century and Turkic Time zone        UTC +5.30
in the 12th were followed by           National anthem  Jana-Gana-Mana
incursions by European traders         National song    Vande Mataram
beginning in the late 15th century.
                                       National game    Hockey
It is noteworthy that the              Internet TLD     .IN
above-mentioned Aryan Invasion Theory
is now being widely challenged with    Calling Code     91
the use of modern & scientific tools such as satellite imagery from NASA.
Events mentioned in the Vedic texts have been astronomically calculated to
date back to the 5th millennium BC

By subjugating the Mughal empire in the 19th century, the British Empire had
assumed political control of virtually all Indian lands. Mostly nonviolent
resistance to British colonialism under Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and
Jawaharlal Nehru led to independence in 1947. The subcontinent was divided
into the secular state of India and the smaller Muslim state of Pakistan.
Pakistan occupied two noncontiguous areas, and a civil war between West and
East Pakistan in 1971, in which India eventually intervened, resulted in the
sedition of East Pakistan to form the separate nation of Bangladesh.

Fundamental concerns in India include the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over
Kashmir, massive overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive
poverty, and ethnic and religious strife, all this despite impressive gains
in economic investment and output.

Politics

India is a Union of states with an increasingly federal structure.
Officially it is declared as The Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic
Republic of India. India has as head of state a president, whose duties are
largely ceremonial. The president and vice president are elected indirectly
for 5-year terms by a special electoral college. Their terms are staggered,
and the vice president does not automatically become president following the
death or removal from office of the president.

Executive power is centred in the Council of Ministers (cabinet), led by the
prime minister. The president appoints the prime minister, who is designated
by legislators of the political party or coalition commanding a
parliamentary majority. The president then appoints subordinate ministers on
the advice of the prime minister.

India's bicameral parliament consists of the upper house called 'The Council
of States' (Rajya Sabha) and the lower House called 'The House of the
People' (Lok Sabha), both of which were established by the Consitution of
India. The Council of Ministers is responsible to the Lok Sabha. The
legislatures of the states and union territories elect 233 members to the
Rajya Sabha, and the president appoints another 12. The elected members of
the Rajya Sabha serve 6-year terms, with one-third up for election every 2
years. The Lok Sabha consists of 545 members; 543 are directly elected to
5-year terms. The other two are appointed by the president.

States and territories

India is subdivided into 28 states, 6 union territories (marked by a *) and
the national capital territory of Delhi:

   * Andaman and Nicobar Islands
   * Andhra Pradesh
   * Arunachal Pradesh
   * Assam
   * Bihar
   * Chandigarh *
   * Chattisgarh
   * Dadra and Nagar Haveli *
   * Daman and Diu *
   * Delhi
   * Goa
   * Gujarat
   * Haryana
   * Himachal Pradesh
   * Jammu and Kashmir
   * Jharkhand
   * Karnataka
   * Kerala
   * Lakshadweep *
   * Madhya Pradesh
   * Maharashtra
   * Manipur
   * Meghalaya
   * Mizoram
   * Nagaland
   * Orissa
   * Pondicherry *
   * Punjab
   * Rajasthan
   * Sikkim
   * Tamil Nadu
   * Tripura
   * Uttaranchal
   * Uttar Pradesh
   * West Bengal

Geography

Located on the Indian subcontinent, India consists roughly of three major
parts; in the north the massive Himalayas mountain range (with the highest
point being the Kanchenjunga at 8,598 m) and the Indo-Gangetic plain (with
deserts in the western end), and in the south the extensive Deccan plateau.
The latter is part of a large peninsula in between the Bay of Bengal to the
east and the Arabian Sea to the west, with both being part of the greater
Indian Ocean.

India is home to several major rivers such as the Ganges, the Brahmaputra,
the Yamuna, the Godavari and the Krishna. A small part of the upper course
of the name-giving Indus lies within Indian territory. The Indian climate
varies from tropical monsoons in the south to more temperate climate in the north.

Economy

India's economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture,
handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of support
services, including software. In fact, India's software exports alone are
around $10 billion(2003). However, a quarter of the population is still too
poor to be able to afford an adequate diet. India's international payments
position remained strong in 2001 with adequate foreign exchange reserves,
and moderately depreciating nominal exchange rates. As measured by GDP in US
Dollars, India's 2002 output of $481 billion ranked it 12th in the world. As
measured by GDP on Purchasing Power Parity basis, India's 2002 figure of
$2.66 trillion makes it the fourth largest in the world.

Growth in manufacturing output has slowed, and electricity shortages
continue in many regions. India has large numbers of well-educated people
skilled in the English language; India is a major exporter of software
services and software workers. Also see List of software companies, List of
Indian companies.

Demographics

India is the second-most populous country in the world, with only China
having a larger population. Language, religion, and caste are major
determinants of social and political organisation within the highly diverse
Indian population today.

Hindi, in the Devanagari script, is the only official federal language and
individual states and territories have adopted 17 other co-official
languages. These are the Dravidian languages of Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil,
and Telugu, and the Indo-Aryan languages of Bengali, Marathi, Urdu,
Gujarati, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Nepali, Konkani and
the classical language of Sanskrit. Many other languages belonging to both
groups are spoken as well. English, though only an associate or 'link'
language, is still widely in use in law and government, particularly in the
higher echelons.

Although 83% of the people are Hindus, India is home to the world's second
largest Muslim population. Other smaller religious minorities include
Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, jews and Parsis. See also Religions of India.

The caste system once reflected Indian occupational and religiously defined
hierarchies. Traditionally, there were four broad categories of castes
(varnas), though they consisted of thousands of castes and subcastes, whose
relative status varied from region to region. The caste system was an
important social factor for most Indians till the early 1900's. The
embracement of the lower castes into the mainstream community was brought
about by Mahatma Gandhi who called them "Harijans" (people of God).
Presently, India has tough laws against discrimination on the basis of
caste. There is a policy for the socio-economic upliftment of the erstwhile
lower castes, by the provision of free education till graduation,
reservation of admission seats in institutions for higher education, a 50%
quota in government jobs and faster promotions. However, caste remains a
significant factor in the political life of the country as well as in some
social customs such as marriage.

Culture

Indian culture is an expression of the numerous and successive waves of
influences in the sub-continent with the Northern part of India being
subjected to this more than the South. What follows constitutes just a small
sample of a vast tradition.

In music, two important forms are the Carnatic and the Hindustani, the
former from South India, a much purer form and the latter from North India
deriving a lot from Muslim infuences.

In literature, oral and written forms prevail. Apart from the Vedas which
are a sacred form of knowledge, there are other works such as the epics of
Ramayana and Mahabharatha, treatises such as Vaastu Shastra in Architecture
and Town planning and Artha Shastra in political science. Urdu poetry is an
example of a linguistic synthesis. The literature of the Sangam period in
Tamil is renowned.

Many dance forms exist in India - Bharata Natyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Kathak,
Kathakali, etc., mostly they have a narrative form, telling stories. Other
forms such as street theatre and puppetry are also found.

Festivals can also be included as part of Indian culture because they are a
way of life in India. There are many of them -Diwali, Vijayadasami, Pongal,
etc., they are not only religion-based but also include those glorifying
important stages in a person's life, seasonal cycles, etc.

Indian science was advanced in ancient times - Aryabhatta and Bhaskara were
important scientists who studied planetary motion. The Arabic numerals are
actually an Indian contribution.

Traditional dresses in India include the Sari (Saree), Salwar Kameez, Dhoti
and Kurta.

In cuisine, rice and wheat form the staple diet. Some popular dishes include
Thali- a full fledged meal, Dosa, Idli and Chapati. See also Indian cuisine,
Indian food.

Movies are an integral part of everyday life in India, most notably the
Hindi, Tamil and Telugu for their commercial bases, and Bengali and
Malayalam for its artistic leanings.

Though each region has a specific culture, in recent times there is a
growing tendency to merge boundaries and imbibe aspects from other regions.
Also, with increasing globalization, and due to the liberalization of the
Indian economy in the early 90's, there has been influence of Western
culture. So there is Indi-pop in music , Hinglish or Tanglish- English
flavoured with terms from local language used most prominently in fields
such as advertising, pizzas with indigenous spices, experimental dance and
theatre forms, and so on. The invasion of cable TV has spawned an entirely
new popular culture.

Apart from these historical and context specific forms, what an Indian sees
as important in Indian culture are abstract qualities such as hospitality,
family values, acceptance and toleration of differences, resilience and
co-existence.

Sports

As far as sports are concerned, though not India's national sport, cricket
is a very popular game today and India's size has made it the game's
financial powerhouse.

   * Some other popular sports - hockey, tennis, chess. (Chess is supposed
     to have originated in India).
   * Some traditional indigenous games -kabaddi, gilli-danda