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Introduction to India

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Introduction to India INTRODUCTION TO INDIA 1 GEOGRAPHY India, which is known as Bharat to the East Indians, is located in southern Asia. The lower half of the country is surrounded by the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal. The upper part lies between Burma and Pakistan. India has a total area of 1,269,346 square miles, which is slightly more than one-third the size of the U.S. The countries bordering India are Myanmar and Bangladesh to its east, China, Nepal and Bhutan to the north, and Afghanistan and Pakistan to the northwest. The country of Sri Lanka is an island that lies to the south, and it is separated from India by the Palk Straits. China and much of the rest of Asia are separated from India by the great Himalayan Mountains. This is where the tallest mountain in the world can be found, Mount Everest, or Kanchenjunga. At 29,028 feet, it is the ultimate climb for the most adventurous. Mt. Kanchenjunga Just south of the Himalayas is the Indo-Gangetic Plain, which contains the deepest and most fertile soils on earth. It stretches from the Indus River to the delta of the Ganges Rivers. This fertile plain supports half of the population of South Asia. The other geographical areas provide India with diverse landscapes. On the northwestern end of India is the Thar Desert, which contains areas of sand, rolling hills, and sandy- gravel plains. Most of southern India is the Deccan Plateau, which is made up of dry deciduous forest, rolling hills, and many rivers. The plateau is separated from the northern plains by the Vindhya Mountains and bounded by the coastal mountains, which are known as the Eastern and Western Ghats. 2 The capital of India is Delhi (above). It has a population of about 14 million, including its surrounding districts. Other important cities in India include Kolkatta (formally Calcutta), Mumbai (formally Bombay), Channai (formally Madras), and Bangalore. 3 CLIMATE India’s climate varies from the tropical monsoons of the south to the temperate areas of the north. Most of India is tropical or sub-tropical, and temperatures do not vary much throughout the year. However, in the temperate northern regions, the winters are cooler and the summers are hotter. And, in the higher elevations, the frigid temperatures provide a polar climate. There are three major seasons – winter, summer, and the monsoon. The winter months occur from November through March. The weather during these months is sunny and pleasant, with snowfall in the northern hills. The summers occur from April through June, and it is hot in most parts of India. Cooler temperatures can be found in the hills and mountains. During the monsoon season, rainfall is heavy along the west coast between June and September and along the east coast between mid- October and December. India remains cool in the hills and Southern India frequently reaches temperatures mountains all year long. greater than 100º F in the summer. 4 POPULATION India's current population is 3.6 times that of the United States, which is slightly more than one billion people. It is second only in population to China's 1.3 billion. The growth of the population can be seen in the following data: Total Population: 1,129,866,154 (July 2007 est.),[11] 1,027,000,000 (2001 Census) The population of present day India includes a number of ethnic groups, such as the Aryans, Dravidians, Mongols, Central Asians, Nepalese, Tibetans, Burmese, Anglo Indians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Jats, Rajputs, and other ethnicities, like the Assamese, Bengalis, Oriyans, Kashmiris, Ladhakis, Mahahrashtrians, Gurjratis, and Punjabis. HISTORY The geographical location of India has resulted in it being the meeting ground for the East and the West throughout history. Through the centuries, it has endured invasion after invasion, but because of its large size, no one empire has dominated it for long. India is the home to one of the world’s oldest civilizations, the Indus. This civilization goes back at least 5,000 years. They were a sophisticated people with a written language and mathematically-planned cities. Roughly around 1500, B.C., the Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded India, and their merger with the earlier inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. The Arabs invaded during the eighth century, and then the Turkish invasions occurred in the twelfth century. The European traders began to arrive in the late fifteenth century, and by the nineteenth century, Britain had assumed political control of virtually all of the Indian lands. Nonviolent resistance to British colonialism led to independence in 1947. However, independence came with a price. When the British left, they created the separate Muslim and Hindu states of Pakistan and East Pakistan (which became Bangladesh in 1971). As a result of this separation, the stranded minorities in each area fled in the opposite direction, which created the largest migration in human history. In a matter of weeks, a half a million people died in the violence that had erupted. To get the violence to stop, Gandhi vowed to fast until it ended. In addition to Gandhi’s pressure, the British returned to help restore order. However, even as of today, Kasmir is still a disputed area between India and Paskistan, and tourists are advised to not visit there. Basic concerns in India today include not only the dispute with Pakistan over Kasmir but also massive overpopulation, the caste system transitions, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and ethnic and religious strife. However, there have been impressive gains in economic investment and output. 5 RELIGION Religion is a way of life in India. It is reflected in their traditions, educational system, and politics. Hinduism and Buddhism, which are both ancient religions, originated in India. The most dominant religion in India today is Hinduism. About 81.3 percent of the Indians are Hindus. The Muslims make up 12 percent of the population, the Christians are 2.3 percent, and the Sikhs make up 1.9 percent. There is also another 2.5 percent of the population that belong to other groups, including Buddhists, Jain, and Parsi. Each religion has its own pilgrimage sites, legends, and culinary specialties, but this diversity is enjoyed by all the Indians at the many festivals with music, feasts, and dancing. Hinduism developed 5,000 years ago. It is the third largest religion in the world, following Christianity and Islam. It has no specific philosophy, no founder, and no specific holy book. It is a way of life based on ancient teachings. Hindus are devoted to one God, but they also accept the existence of other gods. They believe in Dharma (duties), Karma (every action has a reaction), Samsara (cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth) and yoga (paths). Islam is the largest minority religion in India. With over 138,000,000 Muslims, it has the second largest Muslim population in the world, following Indonesia, which has the largest population of Muslims. And, just like Muslims all over the world, they are divided into two sects, the Shias and the Sunnis, and there is tension between these two groups. In addition, many Hindus feel that since the British had carved out Pakistan for the Muslims, then that is where they should be. Because of this attitude, Muslims face discrimination when it comes to finding employment, and many live in poverty, although there are some famous Muslims in Indian sports and in Bollywood. LANGUAGES Hindi is the national language of India and is the primary language of 30 percent of the people. English enjoys an associate status and is the language for national, political, and commercial communication. Many Indians use English to show that they are highly educated. Often, they will mingle English words in with their Indian language when conversing with others. There are 14 additional languages spoken in India: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit. Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi. Urdu, which is nearly the same as Hindi, is spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language. WRITING SYSTEM Hindi is written in the standardized Devavagiri script, which is written from left to right. The script represents the sounds of spoken Hindi very closely; therefore, a person who knows the Devanagari letters can sound out a written Hindi text, even without knowing what the words mean or having heard them before. 6 Standard Hindi derives much of its formal and technical vocabulary from Sanskrit, and it is used only in public addresses and radio or TV news. Hindustani is used for everyday spoken language. Its vocabulary contains words from Persian and Arabic, as well as words from English and other languages. Vernacular Urdu and Hindi share the same grammar and core vocabulary and so are practically indistinguishable. However, the literary registers differ substantially in borrowed vocabulary. Hindi tends to borrow words from Sanskrit, and Urdu has taken words from Persian and Arabic. Also, Hindi has been associated with the Hindu community and Urdu with the Muslim community. FAMOUS INDIANS Indian’s national hero and “father” of modern day India is Mohandas “Mahatma” (great soul) Gandhi (left). Along with Jawaharlal Nehru (right), he led India to its independence from Britain in 1947. Mother Teresa (left), an ethnic Albanian, became an Indian citizen in 1950. She founded a religious order in Calcutta called the Missions of Charity. This organization provided food for the needy and operated hospitals, schools, orphanages, youth centers, and shelters for lepers and the dying poor. CULTURE AND CUSTOMS Indians celebrate three national holidays: Independence Day, Republic Day, and Gandhi Jayanti.
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