India

Republic of India भारत गणराज्य Bhārat Gaṇarājya
Flag Emblem
Motto:  "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit) सत्यमेव जयते (Devanāgarī)    "Truth Alone Triumphs"
Anthem:  Jana Gana Mana    "Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People"
National song: File:Vande Mataram.ogg Vande Mataram      "I Bow to Thee, Mother"
Area controlled by India is in dark red. Claimed but uncontrolled regions are in light green.
Capital	New Delhi
Largest city	Mumbai
Official languages	Hindi, English Hindi in the Devanagari script is the official language of the Union and English an additional language for official work.
Recognised regional languages	8th Schedule: Assamese Bengali Bodo Dogri Gujarati Hindi Kannada Kashmiri Konkani Maithili Malayalam Manipuri Marathi Nepali Oriya Punjabi Sanskrit Santali Sindhi Tamil Telugu Urdu
National languages	None defined by the Constitution
Demonym(s)	Indian
Government	Federal parliamentary constitutional republic
• President	Pratibha Patil
• Prime Minister	Manmohan Singh (INC)
• Speaker of the House	Meira Kumar (INC)
• Chief Justice	S. H. Kapadia
Legislature	Parliament of India
• Upper house	Rajya Sabha
• Lower house	Lok Sabha
Independence  from the United Kingdom
• Declared	15 August 1947
• Republic	26 January 1950
Area
• Total	3,287,263 km2 (1,269,219 sq mi) (7th)
• Water (%)	9.56
Population
• 2011 census	1,210,193,422 (2nd)
• Density	(31st)
GDP (PPP)	2011 estimate
• Total	$4.469 trillion (3rd)
• Per capita	$3,703
GDP (nominal)	2011 estimate
• Total	$1.843 trillion (10th)
• Per capita	$1,527
Gini (2004)	36.8  · 79th
HDI (2011)	0.547  · 134th
Currency	Indian rupee (₹) (INR)
Time zone	UTC+05:30 (IST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+05:30 (not observed)
Date format	dd/mm/yyyy (AD)
Driving side	left
Calling code	91
ISO 3166 code	IN
Internet TLD	.in Other TLDs .भारत ‎بھارت. .భారత్ .ભારત .ਭਾਰਤ .இந்தியா .ଭାରତ‌ .ভারত
Footnotes

The Republic of India (Hindi: भारत गणराज्य) is a country in Asia. It is at the center of South Asia. India has more than 1.12 billion (1,120,000,000) people, which is the second largest population in the world. It is the seventh largest country in the world by area. India has seven neighbours, Pakistan in the north-west, China and Nepal in the north, Bhutan and Bangladesh in the north-east, Myanmar in the east and Sri Lanka in the south. India is the largest democracy in the world by population. The capital of India is New Delhi. India is a peninsula, bound by the Indian Ocean in the south, the Arabian Sea on the west and Bay of Bengal in the east. The coastline of India is of about Template:Km to mi long. India has the third largest army in the world and nuclear weapons.

India is a growing economy and has very low levels of poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition.It has one of the best education systems in the world.India is also among the G-16 countries.

India is a founding member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and has signed the Kyoto Protocol.

History

The Taj Mahal in Agra was built by Shah Jahan as a memorial to his wife Mumtaz Mahal. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is thought to be of "outstanding universal value".

Two of the main Classical languages of the world— Sanskrit and Tamil, were born in India. Both of these languages are more than 3000 years old. The country founded a religion called Hinduism, which most Indians still follow. Later, a king called Ashoka built an empire called the Maurya dynasty in 300 BC. It made most of South Asia into one whole country. From 180 BC, many other countries invaded India. Even later (100 BC  — AD 1100), other Indian dynasties (empires) came, including the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas, and Pandyas. South India at that time was famous for its very good science, art, and writing.

Many dynasties ruled India around the year 1000. Some of these were the Mughal, Vijayanagara, and the Maratha empires. In the 1600s, European countries invaded India, and the British controlled most of India by 1856.

In the early 1900s, millions of people peacefully started to protest. One of the people who were leading the freedom movement was Mahatma Gandhi, who only used peaceful tactics, including a way called "ahimsa", which means "non-violence". On 15 August 1947, India peacefully became free and independent from the British Empire. India's constitution was founded on 26 January 1950. The first official leader (Prime Minister) of India was Jawaharlal Nehru.

After 1947, India has become a powerful country. It is one of the nations that founded the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations (when it was being ruled by Britain). It has fought many wars since independence from Britain, including the ones in 1947, 1962, 1965, 1971, 1984 and 1999 with Pakistan. It also fought a war to capture Goa, a Portuguese-built port and city which was not a part of India until 1962. India fought a famous battle with the Portuguese who were ruling over a small part of Indian region and were not ready to hand over that part to India. India first told Portugal, which was ruled by a dictator that time, to peacefully hand over the Indian region that it was holding. But the Portuguese refused and so India had to use force and the Portuguese were defeated. India has also done nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998, and it is one of the few countries that has nuclear bombs. Since 1991, India has been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

Government

Parliament of India.

India is the largest democracy in the world. Its government is divided into three branches: the Legislative (the one that makes the laws, the Parliament), the Executive (the government), and the Judiciary (the one that makes sure that the laws are obeyed, the supreme court).

The Legislative branch is made up of the Parliament of India, which is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. The Parliament of India is divided into two groups: the upper house, Rajya Sabha (Council of States); and the lower house, Lok Sabha (House of People). The Rajya Sabha has 250 members, and the Lok Sabha has 545 members.

The Executive branch is made up of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, and the Council of Ministers. The President of India is elected for five years. The President can choose the Prime Minister, who has most of the power. The Council of Ministers, such as the Minister of Defence, help the Prime Minister.

The Judicial branch is made up of the courts of India, including the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of India is the head of the Supreme Court. Supreme Court members have the power to stop a law being passed by Parliament if they think that the law is illegal and contradicts (opposes) the Constitution of India. In India, there are also 21 High Courts.

Geography and climate

Rivers of India

India is the seventh largest country in the world. It is the main part of the Indian subcontinent. The countries next to India are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Bhutan, and Nepal. It is also near Sri Lanka, an island country.

India is a peninsula, which means that it is surrounded on three sides by water. In the west is the Arabian Sea, in the south is the Indian Ocean, and in the east is the Bay of Bengal. The northern part of India has many mountains. The most famous mountain range in India is the Himalayas, which have some of the tallest mountains in the world. There are many rivers in India. The main rivers are the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Yamuna, the Godavari, the Kaveri, the Narmada, and the Krishna.

India has different climates. In the South, the climate is mainly tropical, which means it can get very hot in summer and cool in winter. The northern part, though, has a cooler climate, called sub-tropical, and even alpine in mountainous regions. The Himalayas, in the alpine climate region, can get extremely cold. There is very heavy rainfall along the west coast and in the Eastern Himalayan foothills. The west, though, is drier. Because of some of the deserts of India, all of India gets rain for four months of the year. That time is called the monsoon. That is so because the deserts attract water-filled winds from the Indian Ocean, which give rain when they come into India. When the monsoon rains come late or not so heavily, droughts (when the land wears out because there is less rain) are possible.

Indian states

For administration purposes, India has been divided into smaller pieces. Most of these pieces are called states, some are called union territories. States and union territories are different in the way they are represented. Most union territories are ruled by administrators sent by the central government. All the states, and the territories of Dehli, and Puducherry elect their local government themselves. In total, there are twenty-eight states, and seven union territories.

These are the states and territories of India, including 28 states and 7 union territories.

States:

Andhra Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Assam Bihar Chhattisgarh Goa Gujarat Haryana Himachal Pradesh Jammu and Kashmir Jharkhand Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh

Maharashtra Manipur Meghalaya Mizoram Nagaland Orissa Punjab Rajasthan Sikkim Tamil Nadu Tripura Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal

Union territories:

1. Andaman and Nicobar Islands
2. Chandigarh
3. Dadra and Nagar Haveli
4. Daman and Diu
5. Lakshadweep
6. National Capital Territory of Delhi
7. Puducherry

Trouble with the borders

There are disputes about certain parts of the Indian borders. Countries do not agree on where the borders are. Pakistan and China do not recognise the disputed territory of Occupied Kashmir. The Indian government calls it Jammu and Kashmir and believes it is an Indian state. Similarly, the Republic of India does not recognise the Pakistani and Chinese parts of Kashmir.

In 1914, British India and Tibet agreed on the McMahon Line, as part of the Simla Accord. Indians and Tibetans see this line as the official border. China does not agree, and both mainland China and Taiwan do not recognize that Arunachal Pradesh belongs to India. According to them, it is a part of South Tibet, which belongs to China.

Economy

See the main article: Economy of India

The economy of the country is growing. The economy of India is the 11th largest in the world with a GDP of $568 billion. In terms of PPP (how much that money can buy in India compared to other countries), the economy is fourth largest (worth $3.319 trillion U.S.). The growth rate is 8.25% for fiscal 2010. However, that is still only $3100 (considering PPP) per person per year.

India's economy is diverse. Major industries include automobiles, cement, chemicals, consumer electronics, food processing, machinery, mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, steel, transportation equipment, and textiles.

However despite economic growth, India suffers from poverty. 27.5% of the population was living in poverty in 2004–2005. In addition, 80.4% of the population live on less than USD$2 a day.

People

This is a map of the population density of India.

There are 1.12 billion people living in India. India is the second largest country by the number of people living in it, with China being the first. Experts think that by the year 2030, India will be the first. About 70% of Indians live on farms. The largest cities in India are Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad. India has 23 official languages. Altogether, 1,625 languages are spoken in India.

Languages

There are many different languages and cultures in India. The only geographical place with more different languages and cultures is the African continent. There are two main language families in India, the Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages. About 69% of Indians speak an Indo-Arayan language, about 26% speak a Dravidian language. Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic group. Around 5% of the people speak a Tibeto-Burman language.

Hindi is the official language in India with the largest number of speakers. It is the official language of the union. Native speakers of Hindi represent about 41% of the Indian population (2001 Indian census). English is also used, mostly for business and in the administration. It has the status of a 'subsidiary official language'. The constitution also recognises 21 other languages. Either many people speak those languages, or they have been recognised to be very important for Indian culture. The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.

In the south of India, many people speak Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. In the north, many people speak Chhattisgarhi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Marathi, Oriya, and Bihari.

India has 23 official languages. Its constitution lists the name of the country in each of the languages.. Hindi and English (listed in boldface) are the "official languages of the union" (Union meaning the Federal Government located in Delhi); Tamil and Sanskrit kannadaare officially the "classical languages of India."

Language	Long form	English Pronunciation	Short form
Assamese	ভাৰত গণৰাজ্য	Bhārôt Gôṇôrājÿô	ভাৰত Bharot
Bengali	ভারত গণরাজ্য	Bʰārôt Gôṇôrājÿô	ভারত Bharot
Bodo
Dogri
English	Republic of India		India
Gujarati	ભારતીય પ્રજાસત્તાક	Bhartiya Prajasattak	ભારત
Rajasthani	भारत गणराज्य	Bhārata Gaṇarājya	भारत Bhārat
Hindi	भारत गणराज्य	Bhārata Gaṇarājya	भारत Bhārat
Kannada	ಭಾರತ ಗಣರಾಜ್ಯ	Bhārata Gaṇarājya	ಭಾರತ Bhārata
Kashmiri	ہِندوستان	Hindustān
Konkani	भारोत गोणराज		भारोत
Maithili
Malayalam	ഭാരതം	Bhāratam	ഭാരതം Bhāratam
Manipuri (also Meitei or Meithei)	ভারত গণরাজ্য		ভারত
Marathi	भारतीय प्रजासत्ताक	Bhartiya Prajasattak	भारत Bhārat
Nepali	भारत गणराज्य	Bʰārat Gaṇarādzya	भारत Bʰārat
Oriya	ଭାରତ	Bharata	Bharata
Punjabi	ਭਾਰਤ ਗਣਤੰਤਰ	Bhārat Gantantar	ਭਾਰਤ Bhārat
Sanskrit	भारत गणराज्य	Bhārata Gaṇarājya	भारत Bhārata
Santhali
Sindhi	ڀارت، هندستانڀارت،		ڀارت،
Tamil	இந்தியக் குடியரசு	Indiyak-Kudiyarasu	இந்தியா India/Bharadham
Telugu	భారత గణరాజ్యము	Bʰārata Gaṇa Rājyamu	భారత్ Bhārath
Urdu	جمہوریہ بھارت	Jumhūrīyat-e Bhārat	بھارت Bhārat

Culture

Religion in India
Religion			Percent
Hinduism			81.0%
Islam			12.8%
Christianity			2.9%
Sikhism			1.9%
Buddhism			0.8%
Jainism			0.4%
Others			0.7%

Cave paintings from the Stone Age are found across India. They show dances and rituals and suggest there was a prehistoric religion. During the Epic and Puranic periods, the earliest versions of the epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata were written from about 500–100 BCE, although these were orally transmitted for centuries before this period. Other South Asian Stone Age sites apart from Pakistan are in modern India, such as the Bhimbetka rock shelters in central Madhya Pradesh and the Kupgal petroglyphs of eastern Karnataka, contain rock art showing religious rites and evidence of possible ritualised music.

The Harmandir Sahib or The Golden Temple of the Sikhs.

Several modern religions are linked to India, namely modern Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Ayyavazhi and Sikhism. All of these religions have different schools (ways of thinking) and traditions that are related. As a group they are called the Eastern religions. The Indian religions are similar to one another in many ways: The basic beliefs, the way worship is done and several religious practices are very similar. These similarities mainly come from the fact that these religions have a common history and common origins. They also influenced each other.

The religion of Hinduism is the main faith followed by 81.0% of people in the Republic of India; Islam – 12.8%; Christianity – 2.9%; Sikhism – 1.9%; Buddhism – 0.8% and Jainism – 0.4%.

Sports

A 2008 Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket match being played between the Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders

India's official national sport is field hockey which is controlled by the Indian Hockey Federation. The Indian field hockey team won the 1975 Men's Hockey World Cup. They have also won eight gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the Olympic games. However, cricket is the most popular sport in India. The India cricket team won the 1983 and 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. They shared the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka. Cricket in India is controlled by the Board of Control for Cricket in India or BCCI. Domestic tournaments are the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy, the Irani Trophy and the Challenger Series. There is also the Indian cricket league and Indian premier league Twenty20 competitions.

Tennis has become popular due to the victories of the India Davis Cup team. Association football is also a popular sport in northeast India, West Bengal, Goa and Kerala. The Indian national football team has won the South Asian Football Federation Cup many times. Chess, which comes from India, is also becoming popular. This is with the increase in the number of Indian Grandmasters. Traditional sports include kabaddi, kho kho, and gilli-danda, which are played throughout India.

Notes

Other pages

• India at the Olympics
• India national football team
• List of rivers of India

References

Other websites

Government

• Official entry portal of the Government of India
• Official directory of Indian Government websites

Official

• "India". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency.
• Encyclopædia Britannica entry on India
• BBC country profile of India
• Library of Congress Country Studies entry on India