India

LanguagesTwenty-two officially recognized languages and many minor tongues are spoken in India. The official language is Hindi (spoken by 40 percent of the population). English is a subsidiary official language. The SIL Ethnologue lists 438 living languages.

Economic LifeTraditionally an agricultural economy with slightly more than half of the work force, due to market-economy policies adopted in 1991 India has rapidly become more financially diverse. The increase in the middle class has replaced the rapid growth of the rich. Yet, the rural poor and impoverished urban slum dwellers still number in the hundreds of millions. For them, India’s economic boom is meaningless.

Every child between the ages of 6 to 14 years has the right to a free, compulsory education, and about 31 percent of Indians are younger than 15 years old. Yet in 2011, India had the largest illiter-ate population of any nation on earth at 74 per-cent. In secondary education, more emphasis is being placed on vocational and technical training.

FoodIndian cooking emphasizes rice, vegetable, lentils, and seasonings (hot, sweet, and sour). In Pun-jab, unleavened pancakes of wheat flour (called chappaties) replace rice. Indian curry sauces are seasoned with an elaborate mixture of freshly ground spices, seeds, and herbs; the strength of the seasoning varies from region to region. Spe-cialties include a great variety of Indian breads and fancy Indian candies called “sweets’.

Orthodox Hindus and Jains generally refrain from eating meat, since their religions forbid the taking of animal life. Fish, chicken, and eggs sometimes are also avoided under this religious taboo. Even the most Westernized Indians tend to shun beef, for the cow is Hinduism’s most sacred

animal. Orthodox Hindus customarily abstain from alcholic drinks.

DressMost married Indian women wear the gracefully draped sari. Ladies also wear the popular long blouse over pants (kurta sarwal). Men frequently wear a lungi (sarong type skirt) and long shirt. Indian males of the Sikh religious faith tradition-ally are bearded and wear the turban. For formal occasions, Indian officials sometimes wear the type of dress with a high-necked, tunic-like coat and tight-legged trousers.

HolidaysThere are three main national holidays in India. January 26th, Republic Day, is India’s major politi-cal holiday, marking the date in 1950 when the constitution of the Indian Union entered into force. August 15th, Independence Day, also is a national holiday. October 2nd, Gandhi Jayanti, is celebrated to mark the occasion of the birthday of Mohandas Gandhi, the “Father of the Nation”. In addition, there are many colorful festivals associ-ated with religious observances.

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India

LocationIndia shares with Pakistan the great “subcon-tinent” of South Asia, jutting down from the Himalaya Mountains into the Indian Ocean. In the north, India has long rugged frontiers with Red China and Tibet; with the mountain states of Ne-pal, Sikkim, and Bhutan; and with the hill country of Burma.

Size and PopulationOver 1.27 million square miles in area, India is about one-third the size of the United States. The second most populous country in the world, India has approximately 1.22 billion people.

Geographical FeaturesBelow the Himalayas, the land of India divides into two major regions. Across the north is the fertile plain of the Ganges River and its many tributaries, stretching from the dry wheat lands northwest of Delhi to the teeming rice paddies of Bengal and the great delta city of Calcutta. The Gangetic plain is the “heartland” of India, home of half the nation’s people. The area around Calcutta contains most of India’s heavy industry with hundreds of jute, chemical, steel, and engineering works.

South of the Gangetic plain is the triangular Indian Peninsula, with narrow, heavily-populated coastal plains fringing the central Deccan pla-teau-- a rocky formation cut by several rich river valleys. Along the west coast of peninsular India is the big commercial and industrial city of Mumbai: on the southeast coast is the large modernized city of Chennai.

The climate varies from tropical in the south to temperate in the north, with three well-defined seasons throughout most of the country-- the cool season from November to March; a dry, hot season from March to June; and a hot rainy season during the remainder of the year. In Delhi, temperatures run as high as 113 degrees during the hottest months (April-June).

CapitalNew Delhi, a city located near the upper Ganges, was designed and built as India’s capital city by the British early in the 20th century; it has European-style buildings, tree-lined avenues, and spacious parks. The adjoining city of Old Delhi is the site of several old Indian capitals and today ranks as an important railroad, trade, and handi-crafts center.

Historical InfluencesIndia is the home of a very old and complex civilization. Ancient Aryan invaders, merging with earlier Dravidian inhabitants, gave India its Hindu religion and sacred Vedic literature. Beginning in the 8th century A.D., Muslim Arabs brought their religion to parts of India. Turkish Moguls, who ruled much of the Indian subcontinent from the 13th to the 18th centuries, brought a rich Cen-tral Asian style of architecture, expressed in the Taj Mahal and other masterpieces of the north. The subsequent British rulers brought modern unifying influence of law and political liberalism, and drew India within the orbit of the industrial revolution.

India nationalism began to emerge in the late 19th century, becoming increasingly strong in the 1930’s and 1940’s under the leadership of Ma-hatma Gandhi. Spurning violence, Gandhi led the Indian people in a campaign of passive resistance and non-cooperation with British rule. In 1947 freedom finally was won at the price of partition. The predominantly Muslim border areas seceded from India and became the seperate nations of Pakistan (1947) and Bangladesh (1971).

GovernmentIndia now is a federal republic of 28 states and 7 centrally administered territories. According to its January 25, 1950, constitution, India is a “sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.” Like the United States, India has a federal repub-

lic form of government. However, the central government in India has greater power in relation to its states, and government is patterned after the British parliamentary system. The national government has an indirectly elected President as chief of state, a Prime Minister as head of govern-ment, and a two-house parliament- the Council of States and the more powerful popularly elected House of the People. Real national executive power is centered in the Council of Ministers (cabinet), led by the prime minister.

People, Religion, SocietyHistorically, India is the most ethnically diverse nation on earth, with over 2,500 distinct people groups. Community and identity are based on caste as much as on race and language. Skin tones range from light to dark (lighter in the north, darker in the south).

In religion, nearly 74 percent (902 million) of India’s people are Hindus. The country still has a large Muslim minority numbering about 14 percent (172 million). Other religious minorities include: Christians about 5.8 percent (71 million); Sikhs about 1.9 percent (22 million), Ethno reli-gionist about 1.4 percent (16 million), Buddhists about 0.82 percent (10 million).

Constitutionally, India is a secular state and provides full religious freedom of worship and witness for all relgions.

Associated with Hinduism is an age-old caste system, which divides individuals into four groups: Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (traders), and Sudras (workers, untouch-ables). The caste to which a Hindu belongs affects not only his social position, but his marriage, the food he eats, and the occupation he follows. Caste regulations are enforced by sanctions, which are religious in character. Despite economic modern-ization and laws countering discrimination against the lower end of the class structure, the caste sys-tem remains an important factor in Indian society.