More people live in India than in any other country in the world except China. In area India is the world's seventh-largest country. It is also the site of one of the world's oldest urban civilizations, dating back about 4,500 years. The capital is New Delhi (see Delhi). GeographyIndia covers an area of 1,222,243 square miles (3,165,596 square kilometers) in South Asia. This figure does not include territory that is claimed by India but occupied by Pakistan or China. Much of India's territory is a peninsula that extends into the Indian Ocean. To the west of the peninsula is the Arabian Sea, and to the east is the Bay of Bengal. India shares land borders with Pakistan in the northwest; China, Nepal, and Bhutan on the northeast; and Myanmar on the east. Indian territory in the northeast surrounds Bangladesh on three sides. Offshore to the southeast lies the island republic of Sri Lanka. India has three major land regions: the northern mountains, the northern plain, and a southern region of both highlands and plains. The northern mountains are dominated by the Himalayas. They form a great arc from the northwest to the northeast. Some of the highest mountains in the world are found there, with many rising more than 25,000 feet (7,600 meters). South of the mountains is the northern plain. This flat region was formed by soil left behind by three great rivers: the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra. The Great Indian, or Thar, Desert, is an extension of the plain on the India-Pakistan border. Most of the southern region is fairly flat, though it does have numerous ranges of hills. The Western and Eastern Ghats are low mountains running along the coasts. - People bathe at a ghat (stairway) on the Yamuna (or Jumna) River. The river's meeting place with …
The most important river in India is the Ganges. It begins in the Himalayas and flows to the Bay of Bengal. The Ganges is sacred to followers of Hinduism. Its main tributary is the Yamuna, or Jumna, which flows past New Delhi. The Indus River is the source of the country's name. India's climate is controlled by monsoons, or winds that change direction according to the season. Most of the country has three seasons: hot and dry (March to May), hot and wet (June to September), and cool and dry (October to February). Plants and animalsPlant life in India varies according to rainfall amounts. Tropical evergreen forests grow in areas that receive much rain. In less rainy areas, evergreens give way to trees that lose their leaves during the cool, dry season. Still drier regions have thorny shrubs and grasses. Some 100 types of palm trees grow in the country. India's wildlife includes tigers, lions, leopards, elephants, rhinoceroses, bears, and deer. Some rare species live only in wildlife parks, which are located throughout the country. Monkeys and cows are common even in cities. India is home to about 1,200 kinds of birds, including herons, storks, flamingos, cranes, vultures, and parrots. The peacock is the national bird. The best-known reptile is the cobra. People and cultureIndia is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. This diversity is a result of the mixing of many peoples who have lived in the area since ancient times. These different ethnic groups together have come to be known as Indians. The national language of India is Hindi, but many other languages are also spoken. English is often used for communication between people who speak different native languages. Among the other languages are Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sindhi, and Urdu. All of these languages developed from an ancient language called Sanskrit. Nearly one-fourth of all Indians speak languages that developed from another ancient language called Dravidian. These are Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu. About four fifths of the people in India are Hindu. Muslims, or followers of Islam, are the next-largest religious group. They make up about 12 percent of the population. In addition, millions of people follow Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, or other religions. Hinduism is not only a religion. It also includes the system by which people are divided into social groups known as castes. People are born into these groups, each of which has its own traditional occupations, diet, and customs. The caste system has organized Indian society for many thousands of years. The majority of India's people live in villages. These settlements may contain a thousand or more households, but most have several hundred families. Indian cities are generally very crowded. The largest cities are Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi, and Kolkata (Calcutta). New Delhi, the capital, is part of the Delhi urban area. The culture of India is one of the oldest and richest in the world. The country's traditional music, dance, and drama have roots that go back nearly 2,000 years. Indian literature covers many topics, particularly religion and philosophy. India is probably best known for its architectural masterpieces, which date from many different ages. The Taj Mahal, in the city of Agra, is possibly the most beautiful building in the world. It was built in the 17th century by a Mughal emperor as a tomb for his wife. EconomyIndia has made great economic progress since becoming an independent country in 1947. Good economic planning and foreign aid have helped its development. Nevertheless, India remains among the poorest countries in the world. - Farmers plow a field near the town of Mysore in southern India.
India is largely an agricultural country. About two thirds of the people work in farming. The chief crops include sugarcane, rice, wheat, pulses, corn (maize), oilseeds, cotton, coconut, spices, jute, tea, coffee, and rubber. Although Indians eat little meat, livestock raising is an important agricultural activity. India has more cattle, water buffalo, and goats than any other country in the world. Sheep, pigs, and camels are also numerous. - Steel is cast at the Tata truck factory in the town of Jamshedpur in northeastern India.
Industry is becoming increasingly important to the Indian economy. Indian handicraft industries such as spinning, weaving, and pottery making have been renowned for centuries. Today, however, factories produce most of the country's goods. Among the most valuable are textiles, fertilizers and other chemicals, processed foods, iron and steel, electronics, automobiles, and cement. India has some of the largest coal reserves in the world. The country's other mining products include petroleum, iron ore, and limestone. HistoryIndia's history goes back to ancient times. Agriculture in India dates back to at least the 7th millennium BC. By about 2500 BC an urban civilization, that of the Indus Valley, had extended from what is now Pakistan into northwestern India. Between 1500 and 1200 BC various tribes of people known as Aryans invaded northwestern India. They spread eastward over hundreds of years. The first rulers to unite most of what is now India were those of the Mauryan Empire, which lasted from about 321 to 185 BC. Ancient Indian civilization reached its height under the Gupta Dynasty. The Gupta kings ruled from about AD 320 to 540. Literature, music, drama, painting, and sculpture flourished during this period. By this time the Hindu tradition was well established in India. Muslim ruleMuslims began invading the area in the 8th century. In 1206 they set up a sultanate, or kingdom, centered on Delhi. It was at its most powerful in the early 14th century. The greatest of all the Muslim states in India was the Mughal Empire, which replaced the Delhi sultanate in 1526. By the late 17th century it had spread over virtually all of India. European influenceMeanwhile, European powers had begun to compete for dominance in Indian affairs. In 1498 the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sailed to India. By the early 17th century the Dutch, British, and French were challenging the Portuguese for trade with India. In 1600 the British East India Company was founded, and within a century it had trading posts at Madras (now Chennai), Bombay (Mumbai), and Calcutta (Kolkata). The French gained control of much of the south. British conquests in the 18th and 19th centuries extended the control of the British East India Company. By 1849 the company ruled almost all of India. Indian soldiers rebelled against the British in 1857 but were defeated a year later. The uprising led the British government to end the rule of the East India Company and take direct control of India. Indian independence movementBritish rule brought peace and some economic development to India. Many Indians, however, came to believe that India should run its own government. In 1885 some of these people formed a political party called the Indian National Congress. Indian troops served the British loyally in World War I (1914–18), but afterward the desire for independence grew. In 1920 Mahatma Gandhi, a leader of the Congress party, began urging people to resist British rule by refusing to cooperate with British laws and rules. This process is called civil disobedience. Britain finally agreed to give India full independence in 1947. The Muslim minority in India demanded a separate state, however. They believed that they would be mistreated by the Hindu-dominated Congress party. In response, Britain and the Congress party agreed to create the nation of Pakistan from the northwestern and northeastern parts of India. The two new nations came into being on August 15, 1947. The president of the Congress party, Jawaharlal Nehru, became India's first prime minister. India since independenceIndia made economic progress in the decades after independence. It also faced a number of conflicts, however. India and Pakistan fought a series of wars for control of the territory known as Kashmir. At the end of the third war in 1971, the land known as East Pakistan became the new country of Bangladesh. The conflict over Kashmir continued into the 21st century. India experienced ethnic and religious conflicts in other parts of the country as well. These conflicts led to the assassinations of two prime ministers, Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi in 1984 and her son Rajiv in 1991. In the late 20th century India developed nuclear and space technology. It also became the site of a strong computer industry. Population (2001 estimate), 1,029,991,000. |