Edition : 2018............................14,968 Copies Raminderjit Singh Wasu Subject Expert (Geography & Media Studies) 82.00 M/s Holyfaith International Pvt. Ltd. C-57-58 Focal Point Extension, CHAPTER I INDIA – An Introduction On examining the globe carefully, we could locate a huge landmass of triangular shape, in the Indian Ocean. This landmass is none other than your own country, India, which gave its name to this Indian Ocean also. Surrounded from three sides by the Indian Ocean and in the north by the high mountains of Himalaya, India is a vast country of great capabilities. It ranks second after China in terms of population and seventh in terms of area in the world. This huge landmass and populated country of south Asia, which is known for its old tradition is gradually entering into the changing world. Its size is so huge from east to west that when there is sunrise in the east i.e. Arunachal Pradesh, then in the west i.e. Saurashtra region of Gujarat, there is still night. Due to the variability of temperature, a wide variety of crops can be grown here. This country of hundred crore population is comprised of almost 6 lakh villages and 5 thousand towns and cities. Making republic, secularism and socialism as a basis of its national policy after its independence, it attracted the attention of the world community. Today India is the largest Republic country of the world. In the middle of the 1960’s, it again, stunted the whole world by the tremendous increase in foodgrain production through “Green Revolution”. Now it has strong agricultural and industrial base. Today the foreign capital investors are very much eager to invest their capital in the Indian economy. It had made a tremendous progress in the space technology. But, besides these achievements, there exist many black spots. In India, highest number of world’s illiterates reside. More than one third of the country’s population is living below the poverty line. It has great social, political and economic inequalities. On the one hand in Kerala, 9 out of 10 females are literate. But in Bihar on the other extreme, this average is just 3 out of 10. Situation of economic inequalities is indicated by the fact, that 20 percent people of high class share 50 percent share of national income, whereas, 70 percent people belonging to lower strata poor state have just 20 percent share in the national income. Would you like to know more about your country which is full of diversities and inequalities? How the people of India have used or misused its land, water and air resources and what are their regional patterns, is not only an important thing to know but also a subject of intensive discussion. 1 2 To search for the answers of these questions would not only be interesting for the student of geography but is also compulsory from the geographical point of view. A systematic detailed description of various elements of geography of India has been given in the proceeding pages. But before that, the general introduction of India has been given, in which a brief description about name, situation, regional or locational extent and socio-economic setup has been dealt with. Many concepts related to the name of India are found in the ancient literature. According to that, its first name was ‘Himalaya – Shet – Prayatani’, which means a country between Himachal and Rameshvaram. Secondly, due to its occupance by the Aryan people, this region was also known as the ‘Aryavarta’. Thirdly, after the name of ‘Bharat’ a strong king, who was the son of king Dushyant and Shakuntala, this country was named as ‘Bharat’. Fourthly, its recent name ‘India’ has been taken from the north-west flowing river ‘Sindhu’ by the Aryan people of vedic age. The people of its neighbouring country Iran pronounced this ‘Sindhu’ as ‘Hindu’. The people living around this river became the residents of ‘Hindustan’. The Greeks converted this word ‘Hindu’ into ‘Indos’. After reforming this word, the Romans named it as ‘Indus’. In this way our country is called by different names as ‘India’, 'Hindustan’ and ‘Bharat’. Situation India is a giant country which extends into the south of the continent of Asia. It has a triangular shape due to the great mountainous wall of Himalayas in the north and Indian Ocean in south. It also has Arabian Sea on its one side and Bay of Bengal on the other side. Due to its location in the eastern hemisphere, it is counted among the eastern countries. The inter-national sea routes passing through the Indian Ocean connect India to the developed countries (European and American) of west on one hand and on the other with east and far-east countries of China, Japan, Indonesia and Australia. Except these, trade relations through sea route are also emerging with Africa and middle-east countries. Its trading importance also increased after the opening of the suez canal. This canal has reduced the distance by 4800 kilometres between India and parts of western Europe. In this way India has central location in the Indian Ocean. Only due to its central location, it could on the one hand oppress the militancy, which is operating in Sri Lanka and Maldives and on the other protect ocean highway men/robbers in the last decade to the other hand by utilizing its powerful navy and ultimately helped to restore peace. That is why India has important place in the group of ‘SAARC’ countries. Table 1.1 represents some important data about SAARC nations. This clearly reflects the importance of India in terms of area and population. 3 Table 1.1 SAARC COUNTRIES : A COMPARISON S. Country Area Polulation Currency Per Capita Capital No. Sq.Km. In Lakhs Income (In City (2011) American Dollars) 1. India x,w}|,w{x vwvÆv Rupee y{Æ Delhi w. Pakistan }Æx,~x{ v|vy Rupee (Pak) y|Æ Islamabad x. Nepal vyv,Æz~ w~x Rupee (Nepal) wwÆ Kathmandu y. Bangladesh vyx,~~} v{ÆÆ Taka x}Æ Dhaka z. Bhutan y|,ÆÆÆ v| Ngultrum zzÆ Thimphu {. SriLanka {z,{vÆ wÆw Rupee (Srilanka) }|Æ Colombo |. Maldives w~} vv Rupee (Maldives) vy{Æ Male }. Afghanistan {y|zÆÆ w}x Afghani – Kabul Locational Extent India extends between 804’and 3706' north latitude and 6707' and 97025' east longitude. The Tropic of Cancer divides the country into two parts the northern and the southern. According to area, north India is twice as big as south India. If we draw a straight line from Kashmir in the northern end to Kanyakumari, in its southern edge, its length would be 3214 kilometres. This distance would represent the latitudinal difference of 292' on land, which would be nearly 1/3 of the northern hemisphere. Similarly, from the east situated Arunachal Pradesh to the western frontier, the Rann of Kuchchh, there exists 29012' longitudinal difference which is equal to 2933 kilometres distance. Due to this difference only, there is sunrise in Arunachal Pradesh, and Gujarat has still two hour left of the night. Due to the great longitudinal and latitudinal extent it is also called as a sub-continent. Sub-continent is a big and independent region, whose land frontiers are formed by different physical features, which differentiate it from its surrounding regions. India is separated from Tibet in the north by the Agill, Muztgh, Kunlun, Karakoram, Hindukush and Zaskar mountain ranges beyond Himalayas; in the south by Sri Lanka through Palk strait, and the Gulf of Mannar; in the east by Arakanyoma which separates it from Myanmar (Burma) and in the west by Pakistan through the great Thar desert. Because of its huge area different cultural, economic and social diversities are found in India. But, 4 irrespective of this, there exist unity in the country, in terms of climate and culture etc. Size and Area The shape of India is a triangle whose base is in north and top towards the south above Kanyakumari. It is not too big and not too small in terms of area. Total area of our country is about 3287263 sq. km, which is 2.2 per cent of the world total area. In this way, according to area, India is seventh largest country of the world. The other six nations are Russia, Canada, China, United States of America, Brazil and Australia respectively. In comparison to big countries, it is just equal to the about one-seventh part of Russia and one-third part of Canada. Whereas it is twelve times bigger than from England and eight times bigger than Japan in comparison to small countries. Neighbouring Countries Seven nations are having common land frontiers with India. To its north- west and north, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and Nepal are its neighbouring countries and Bhutan, Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh are frontier countries in the north-east. Political Setup Prior to Independence, India was divided into 562 small princely states and 9 British Provinces. After getting Independence on 15th August 1947, an effort was made to merge small states in the adjoining states. A State’s Reorganisation Commission was constituted in 1953 to reorganize boundaries of the states on linguistic basis. In this way, whole country was divided into 14 state and 6 union territories. Afterward, these divisions lead to the formation of many states, which were given new names and many union territories were provided with the state status. Today’s, Punjab also came into being after the recommendation of Shah Commission, as a Punjabi speaking state on 1st November 1966. Present day India comprises 28 states and 7 centrally administered territories. States and their capitals are shown in the following table and map.