Incredeble India

music in india

2009-12-24T12:49:00.001-08:00

Classical music

The two main traditions of classical music which have been Carnatic music, found predominantly in the peninsular regions and Hindustani music, found in the northern and central parts. While both traditions claim Vedic origin, history indicates that the two traditions diverged from a common musical root since c. 13th century.

Hindustani music

Hindustani music is an Indian classical music tradition that goes back to Vedic times (around 1000 BC), and further developed circa the 13th and 14th centuries AD with Persian influences and from existing religious and folk music. The practice of singing based on notes was popular even from the Vedic times where the hymns in Sama Veda, a sacred text, was sung as Samagana and not chanted. Developing a strong and diverse tradition over several centuries, it has contemporary traditions established primarily in India but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh. In contrast to Carnatic music, the other main Indian classical music tradition (originating from the South), Hindustani music was not only influenced by ancient Hindu musical traditions, Vedic philosophy and native Indian sounds but also enriched by the Persian performance practices of the Mughals. Besides pure classical, there are also several semi-classical forms such as thumri and tappa.

Carnatic music

The present form of Carnatic music is based on historical developments that can be traced to the 15th - 16th centuries AD and thereafter. From the ancient Sanskrit works available, and the epigraphical evidence, the history of classical musical traditions can be traced back about 2500 years. Carnatic music is completely melodic, with improvised variations. The main emphasis is on vocal music; most compositions are written to be sung, and even when played on instruments, they are meant to be performed in a singing style (known as gāyaki). Like Hindustani music, Carnatic music rests on two main elements: rāga, the modes or melodic formulæ, the rhythmic cycles.

Purandara Dasa is credited with having founded today's Carnatic Music. He systematized the teaching method by framing a series of graded lessons such as swaravalis, janta swaras, alankaras, lakshana geetas, prabandhas, ugabhogas, thattu varase, geetha, sooladis and kritis. He introduced the Mayamalavagaula as the basic scale for music instruction. These are followed by teachers and students of Carnatic music even today. Another of his important contributions was the fusion of bhava, raga and laya in his compositions.

Purandara Dasa was the first composer that started commenting on the daily life of the people in compositions. He incorporated in his songs popular folk language and introduced folk ragas in the mainstream. The most important contribution he made was the fusion of bhava, raga and laya into organic units.

He also composed a large number of lakshya and lakshana geetas, many of which are sung to this day. His sooladis exhibit his mastery of the techniques of music, and are considered an authority for raga lakshana. Scholars attribute the standardization of varna mettus entirely to Purandaradasa.

Purandaradasa's era was probably the beginning of Carnatic music's movement towards krithi based classical music (one of its distinguishing characteristics compared to Hindustani). The peripatetic dasas who followed him are believed to have followed the systems he devised, as well as orally passing down his compositions.

Purandaradasa was a performer, a musicologist and the father of Carnatic musical pedagogy. He is credited with having elevated Carnatic music from religious and devotional music into the realm of a performing art. For all these reasons and the enormous influence that he had on Carnatic music, musicologists call him the "Sangeeta Pitamaha" or the grandfather of Carnatic music.

Bauls

The Bauls of Bengal were an order of musicians in 18th, 19th and early 20th century India who played a form of music using a khamak, ektara and dotara. The word Baul comes from Sanskrit batul meaning divinely inspired insanity. They are a group of mystic minstrels. They are thought to have been influenced greatly by the Hindu tantric sect of the Kartabhajas as well as by Sufi sects. Bauls travel in search of the internal ideal, Maner Manush (Man of the Heart).

Bhangra

Bhangra is a lively form of music and dance that originated in the Punjab region to celebrate Vaisakhi the festival of the Sikhs. As many Bhangra lyrics reflect the long and often tumultuous history of the Punjab, knowledge of Punjabi history offers important insights into the meaning of the music. While Bhangra began as a part of harvest festival celebrations, it eventually became a part of such diverse occasions as weddings and New Year celebrations. Moreover, during the last thirty years, Bhangra has enjoyed a surge in popularity worldwide, both in traditional form and as a fusion with genres such as hip-hop, house, and reggae, and in such forms it has become a pop sensation in the United Kingdom and North America. Rabbi Shergill is not a Bhangra artist, but is a Punjabi singer, and is a great example.

By Sanja Ivanovska 08318

History of hindu

2009-12-24T12:31:00.000-08:00

History

The first issue of The Hindu was published on September 20, 1878, by a group of six young men, led by G. Subramania Aiyer, a radical social reformer and school teacher from Thiruvaiyyar near Thanjavur. Aiyer, then 23, along with his 21-year-old fellow-tutor and friend at Pachaiyappa's College, M. Veeraraghavachariar of Chingleput, and four law students, T.T. Rangachariar, P.V. Rangachariar, D. Kesava Rao Pant and N. Subba Rao Pantulu were members of the Triplicane Literary Society. The British-controlled English language local newspapers had been campaigning against the appointment of the first Indian, T. Muthuswami Iyer, to the Bench of the Madras High Court in 1878. "The Triplicane Six," in an attempt to counter the dominant attitudes in the English language press started The Hindu on one British rupee and twelve annas of borrowed money. Aiyer was the editor and Veeraraghavachariar the Managing Director. The first editorial declared, "[the] Press does not only give expression to public opinion, but also modifies and moulds it."

Three of the students soon left the paper and took up careers in law, while Pantulu continued to write for The Hindu. The founders of the newspaper maintained a neutral stance regarding British rule, and occasionally, as in an editorial of 1894, held that British rule had been beneficial to Indian people. "However, it was equally convinced that the Anglo-Indian Press should be challenged, despotic bureaucrats condemned, and the abuse of power exposed," writes historian S. Muthiah

Initially printing 80 copies a week at the Srinidhi Press in Mint Street, Black Town, The Hindu was published every Wednesday evening as an eight-page paper, each a quarter of today's page size and sold for four annas (1/4 Rupee). After a month of printing from the Srinidhi Press, the newspaper switched to the Scottish Press, also in Black Town. The earliest available issue of the paper is dated June 21, 1881. In 1881, it moved to Ragoonada Row's 'The Hindu Press' of Mylapore, with the intention of making it tri-weekly. This plan did not materialize until it moved to the Empress of India Press, where, starting on October 1, 1883, is was published on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening; it continued maintaining the same size as before.

The offices moved to rented premises at 100 Mount Road on December 3, 1883. The newspaper started printing at its own press there, christened "The National Press," which was established on borrowed capital as public subscriptions were not forthcoming. The building itself became The Hindu's in 1892, after the Maharaja of Vizianagaram, Ananda Gajapathi Raju, gave The National Press a loan both for the building and to carry out needed expansion.

Its assertive editorials earned The Hindu the nickname, the Maha Vishnu of Mount Road. "From the new address, 100 Mount Road, which to remain The Hindu's home till 1939, there issued a quarto-size paper with a front-page full of advertisements - a practice that came to an end only in 1958 when it followed the lead of its idol, the pre-Thomson Times - and three back pages also at the service of the advertiser. In between, there were more views than news." After 1887, when the annual session of Indian National Congress was held in Madras, the paper's coverage of national news increased significantly, and led to the paper becoming an evening daily starting April 1, 1889.

The partnership between Veeraraghavachariar and Subramania Aiyer was dissolved in October 1898. Aiyer quit the paper and Veeraraghavachariar became the sole owner and appointed C. Karunakara Menon as editor. However, The Hindu's adventurousness began to decline in the 1900s and so did its circulation, which was down to 800 copies when the sole proprietor decided to sell out. The purchaser was The Hindu's Legal Adviser from 1895, S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar, a politically ambitious lawyer who had migrated from a Kumbakonam village to practise in Coimbatore and from thence to Madras. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar's ancestors had served the courts of Vijayanagar and Mahratta Tanjore. He traded law, in which his success was middling but his interest minimal, for journalism, pursuing his penchant for politics honed in Coimbatore and by his association with the `Egmore Group' led by C. Sankaran Nair and Dr T.M. Nair.

In late 1980s when its ownership passed into the hands of the family's younger members, a change in political leaning was observed. Worldpress.org lists The Hindu as a left-leaning independent newspaper. This political polarization is supposed to have taken place since N. Ram took over as editor-in-chief. Joint Managing Director N. Murali said in July 2003, "It is true that our readers have been complaining that some of our reports are partial and lack objectivity. But it also depends on reader beliefs." However it is considered that as long Ram heads the newspaper,it will be predominantly leftist and even adopting a pro-China standpoint." N. Ram was appointed on June 27, 2003 as its editor-in-chief with a mandate to "improve the structures and other mechanisms to uphold and strengthen quality and objectivity in news reports and opinion pieces", authorised to "restructure the editorial framework and functions in line with the competitive environment". On September 3 and 23, 2003, the reader's letters column carried responses from readers saying the editorial was biased. An editorial in August 2003 observed that the newspaper was affected by the 'editorialising as news reporting' virus, and expressed a determination to buck the trend, restore the professionally sound lines of demarcation, and strengthen objectivity and factuality in its coverage.

In 1987-'88 The Hindu's coverage of the Bofors arms deal scandal, a series of document-backed exclusives set the terms of the national political discourse on this subject. The Bofors scandal broke in April 1987 with Swedish Radio alleging that bribes had been paid to top Indian political leaders, officials and Army officers in return for the Swedish arms manufacturing company winning a hefty contract with the Government of India for the purchase of 155 mm howitzers. During a six-month period the newspaper published scores of copies of original papers that documented the secret payments, amounting to $50 million, into Swiss bank accounts, the agreements behind the payments, communications relating to the payments and the crisis response, and other material. The investigation was led by part-time correspondent of The Hindu, Chitra Subramaniam reporting from Geneva, and was supported by Ram in Chennai. The scandal was a major embarrassment to the party in power at the centre, the Indian National Congress, and its leader Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The paper's editorial accused the Prime Minister of being party to massive fraud and cover up.

In 1991, Deputy Editor N. Ravi, Ram's younger brother replaced G. Kasturi as Editor. Nirmala Lakshman, Kasturi Srinivasan's granddaughter, became Joint Editor of The Hindu and her sister, Malini Parthasarathy, Executive Editor.

By Frosina Soltirovska 08288

Popular culture

2009-12-24T12:29:00.000-08:00

Popular culture

The Hare Krishna mantra appears in a number of famous songs, notably those sung by The Beatles (and solo works of John Lennonn, George Harrisonn [notably on his hit "My Sweet Lord"] and Ringo Starr). There is a reference to singing kirtan of Hare Krishna mantra in The Beatles' "I Am The Walrus" (the line "Elementary penguins singing Hare Krishna"). Ringo Starr's song "It Don't Come Easy" contains the words "Hare Krishna!" and was written with the help of George Harrison. Later Paul McCartney produced a single with a picture of Krishna riding on a swan on the cover, although there wasn't any chanting of Krishna's names inside. Of the four Beatles members, only Harrison was actually Hindu, and after he posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009, his son Dhani Harrison uttered out the phrase "Hare Krishna" during the ceremony.

The mantra also appears in The Pretenders' Boots of Chinese Plastic.One song from 1969 by the Radha Krsna Temple, simply entitled Hare Krsna Mantra reached no. 17 in the UK music chart and appeared on the music show Top of the Pots. It also made the no.1 slot in both German and Czechoslovakian music charts. Less well-known but equally relevant to fans of pop music culture are recordings of the Hare Krishna mantra by The Fugs on their 1968 album Tenderness Junction (featuring poet Allen Ginsberg) and by Nina Hagen. Also, certain members of the hardcore bands The Cro-Mags, Shelter and 108 were vocal Hare Krishna supporters in the 1980s and 1990s.

Placebo produced a Hare Krishna mantra track on their 1996 36 Degrees single, featuring traditional Eastern instruments.

George Harrison put a Hare Krishna sticker on the back of the headstock of Eric Clapton's 1964 Gibson ES-335. The sticker also appeared on Gibson's 2005 reproduction of the guitar.

Kula Shaker, Boy George, Members of the Rubetts have done music tracks about Krishna Consciousness.

At the 2008 VMA Awards, the host, English Comedian Russell Brand ended the ceremony by saying Hare Krishna.

The Washington D.C. Production duo Thievery Corporation Releases a track on the 2008 album entitled, "Hare Krishna".

In the Seinfeld episode The Subway, a patron in Monk's restaurant yells, "Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!" when he sees George walk in wearing bedsheets, to which George replies "How would you like a Hare Krishna fist down your throat you little punk!?"

In the Russian army-themed grotesque satire DMB, several young men about to be conscripted arrive at the draft office wearing monastic garb and chanting "Hare Krishna, hare Rama", striving for conscientious objector status to dodge the draft. The draft officer replies that these must be some hardy lads, for few could manage to chant "Hare Rama" for three hours straight, and that while their 'Krishna stuff' sounds rather fake, they came with shaved heads already and are a perfect fit for an Anti-Chemical Warfare unit. Note that the film depicts the drafting of people feigning religious objections, not the authentic faithful.

By Majkl Vancevski 08321

The Guptas

2009-12-24T12:11:00.000-08:00

Before the Guptas

When the last of the Mauryan kings was assassinated in 184 BC, India once again became a collection of unfederated kingdoms. During this period, the most powerful kingdoms were not in the north, but in the Deccan to the south, particularly in the west. The north, however, remained culturally the most active, where Buddhism was spreading and where Hinduism was being gradually remade by the Upanishadic movements, which are discussed in more detail in the section on religious history. The dream, however, of a universal empire had not disappeared. It would be realized by a northern kingdom and would usher in one of the most creative periods in Indian history.

The Gupta Dynasty (320-550)

Under Chandragupta I (320-335), empire was revived in the north. Like Chandragupta Maurya, he first conquered Magadha, set up his capital where the Mauryan capital had stood (Patna), and from this base consolidated a kingdom over the eastern portion of northern India. In addition, Chandragupta revived many of Asoka's principles of government. It was his son, however, Samudragupta (335-376), and later his grandson, Chandragupta II (376-415), who extended the kingdom into an empire over the whole of the north and the western Deccan. Chandragupta II was the greatest of the Gupta kings; called Vikramaditya ("The Sun of Power"), he presided over the greatest cultural age in India.

This period is regarded as the golden age of Indian culture. The high points of this cultural creativity are magnificent and creative architecture, sculpture, and painting. The wall-paintings of Ajanta Cave in the central Deccan are considered among the greatest and most powerful works of Indian art. The paintings in the cave represent the various lives of the Buddha, but also are the best source we have of the daily life in India at the time. There are forty-eight caves making up Ajanta, most of which were carved out of the rock between 460 and 480, and they are filled with Buddhist sculptures. The rock temple at Elephanta (near Bombay) contains a powerful, eighteen foot statue of the three-headed Shiva, one of the principal Hindu gods. Each head represents one of Shiva's roles: that of creating, that of preserving, and that of destroying. The period also saw dynamic building of Hindu temples. All of these temples contain a hall and a tower.

The greatest writer of the time was Kalidasa. Poetry in the Gupta age tended towards a few genres: religious and meditative poetry, lyric poetry, narrative histories (the most popular of the secular literatures), and drama. Kalidasa excelled at lyric poetry, but he is best known for his dramas. We have three of his plays; all of them are suffused with epic heroism, with comedy, and with erotics. The plays all involve misunderstanding and conflict, but they all end with unity, order, and resolution.

The Guptas tended to allow kings to remain as vassal kings; unlike the Mauryas, they did not consolidate every kingdom into a single administrative unit. This would be the model for later Mughal rule and British rule built on the Mughal paradigm.

The Guptas soon faced a wave of migrations by the Huns, a people who originally lived north of China. The Hun migrations would push all the way to the doors of Rome. Beginning in the 400's, the Huns began to put pressure on the Guptas. They were initially defeated by Skandagupta. However, by 480 they conquered large parts of Northwestern India. Western India was overrun by 500, and the last of the Gupta kings, presiding over a vastly dimished kingdom, perished in 550. However, the Huns were soon defeated by Yasovarman and later Baladitya, scion of the Guptas. A strange thing happened to the Huns in India as well as in Europe. Over the decades they gradually assimilated into the indigenous population and their state weakened.

Harsha, who was a descendant of the Guptas, quickly moved to reestablish an Indian empire. From 606-647, he ruled over an empire in northern India. Harsha was perhaps one of the greatest conquerors of Indian history, and unlike all of his conquering predecessors, he was a brilliant administrator. He was also a great patron of culture. His capital city, Kanauj, extended for four or five miles along the Ganges River and was filled with magnificent buildings. Only one fourth of the taxes he collected went to administration of the government. The remainder went to charity, rewards, and especially to culture: art, literature, music, and religion.

Because of extensive trade, the culture of India became the dominant culture around the Bay of Bengal, profoundly and deeply influencing the cultures of Burma, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. In many ways, the period during and following the Gupta dynasty was the period of "Greater India," a period of cultural activity in India and surrounding countries building on the base of Indian culture. This medieval flowering of Indian culture would radically change course in the Indian Middle Ages. From the north came Muslim conquerors out of Afghanistan, and the age of Muslim rule began in 1100.

List by number of native speakers

2009-12-24T12:10:00.000-08:00

Ordered by number of speakers as first language. Indian population in 1991 exhibited 19.4% of bilingualism and 7.2% of trilingualism, so that the total percentage of "native languages" is at about 127%.

[edit] More than one million speakers

The 2001 census recorded 29 individual languages as having more than 1 million native speakers (0.1% of total population).

**Table: Ordered by number of native speakers**
Rank	Language	2001 census [1] (total population 1,004.59 million)		1991 census Indian Census [2] (total population 838.14 million)		Encarta estimate of total number of speakers worldwide (2007) ^[2]
		Speakers	Percentage	Speakers	Percentage	Speakers
1	Hindi^[3]	422,048,642	41.03%▲	337,272,114^[4]	40.0%	336 M
2	Bengali	83,369,769	8.11%▼	69,595,738	8.30%	207 M
3	Telugu	74,002,856	7.37%▼	66,017,615	7.87%	69.7 M
4	Marathi	71,936,894	6.99% ▼	62,481,681	7.45%	68.0 M
5	Tamil	60,793,814	5.91%▼	53,006,368	6.32%	66.0 M
6	Urdu	51,536,111	5.01%▼	43,406,932	5.18%	60.3 M
7	Gujarati	46,091,617	4.48%▼	40,673,814	4.85%	46.1 M
8	Kannada	37,924,011	3.69%▼	32,753,676	3.91%	40.3 M
9	Malayalam	33,066,392	3.21%▼	30,377,176	3.62%	35.7 M
10	Oriya	33,017,446	3.21%▼	28,061,313	3.35%	32.3 M
11	Punjabi	29,102,477	2.83%▲	23,378,744	2.79%	57.1 M
12	Assamese	13,168,484	1.28%▲	13,079,696	1.56%	15.4 M
14	Maithili^[5]	12,179,122	1.18%
15	Bhili/Bhilodi	9,582,957	0.95%▲	5,572,308	0.665%
16	Santali	6,469,600	0.64%▲	5,216,325	0.622%
17	Kashmiri	5,527,698
18	Gondi	2,713,790	0.27%▲	2,124,852	0.253%
19	Sindhi	2,535,485	0.25%▬	2,122,848	0.248%
20	Konkani	2,489,015	0.24%▲	1,760,607	0.210%
21	Dogri	2,282,589^{[dubious – discuss]}^[6]	0.22%
22	Khandeshi	2,075,258	0.21%
23	Kurukh	1,751,489	0.17%	1,426,618	0.170%
24	Tulu	1,722,768	0.17%	1,552,259	0.185%
25	Meitei/Manipuri	1,466,705^*	0.14%	1,270,216	0.151%
26	Bodo	1,350,478	0.13%	1,221,881	0.146%
27	Khasi	1,128,575	0.112%
28	Mundari	1,061,352	0.105%
29	Ho	1,042,724	0.103%

* Excludes figures of Paomata, Mao-Maram and Purul sub-divisions of Senapati district of Manipur for 2001.
** The percentage of speakers of each language for 2001 has been worked out on the total population of India excluding the population of Mao-Maram, Paomata and Purul subdivisions of Senapati district of Manipur due to cancellation of census results.

[edit] 100,000 to one million speakers

30	Kui	916,222
31	Garo	889,479
32	Kokborok	854,023
33	Mizo	674,756
34	Halabi	593,43
35	Korku	574,481
36	Munda	469,357
37	Mishing	390,583	0.047%
38	Karbi/Mikir	366,229	0.044%
39	Saurashtra	310,000	0.037%
40	Savara	273,168	0.033%
41	Koya	270,994	0.032%
42	Kharia	225,556	0.027%
43	Khond/Kondh	220,783	0.026%
44	English	178,598	0.021%
45	Nishi	173,791	0.021%
46	Ao	172,449	0.021%
47	Sema	166,157	0.020%
48	Kisan	162,088	0.019%
49	Adi	158,409	0.019%
50	Rabha	139,365	0.017%
51	Konyak	137,722	0.016%
52	Malto	108,148	0.013%
53	Thado	107,992	0.013%
54	Tangkhul	101,841	0.012%

[edit] 10,000 to 100,000 speakers

		1991 census	SIL estimate
55	Kolami	98,281 (0.012%)	115,000 (1997) Northwestern: 50,000; Southeastern: 10,000
56	Angami	97,631 (0.012%)	109,000 (1997)
57	Kodagu	97,011 (0.012%)	122,000
58	Dogri	89,681 (0.011%)	(Pakistan+India: 2.1 million)
59	Dimasa	88,543 (0.011%)	106,000
60	Lotha	85,802 (0.010%)	80,000
61	Mao	77,810 (0.009%)	81,000
62	Tibetan	69,146 (0.008%)	124,280 (1994)
63	Kabui (Rongmei)	68,925 (0.008%)	59,000 (1997)
64	Phom	65,350 (0.008%)	34,000 (1997)

The following are SIL Ethnologue estimates:

	estimated native speakers
Gaddi	120,000
Pardhi	119,700
Pardhan	116,919
Churahi	110,552
Sauria Paharia	110,000
Kullu	109,000
Dhanwar	104,195
Bhattiyali	102,252
Ladakhi	102,000
Dungra Bhil	100,000
Adiwasi Garasia	100,000
Rajput Garasia	100,000
Noiri	100,000
Jaunsari	97,000
Pnar	84,000
Andh	80,000
Mara	79,000 (India: 47,000 Myanmar:32,000)
Mawchi	76,000
Bishnupriya	75,000
Duruwa	75,000
Lodhi:	75,000
Bhadrawahi	69,000
Eastern Magar	67,691
Balti	67,000
Korwa	66,000
Mahali	66,000
Rana Tharu	64,000
Paniya	63,827
Rathwi Bareli	63,700
Rawang	60,536
Sansi	60,000
Kachari	59,000
Bazigar	58,236
Agariya	55,757
Kanjari	55,386
Mal Paharia	51,000
Poumei Naga	51,000
Bodo Parja	50,000
Hmar	50,000
Juang	50,000
Desiya Oriya	50,000
Kinnauri	48,778
Moinba	46,000
Paite Chin	45,000
Tase Naga	45,000
Wancho Naga	45,000
Braj Bhasha	44,000
Buksa	43,000
Sangtam Naga	39,000
Lepcha	38,000
Kudmali	37,000
Yimchungru Naga	37,000
Gowli	35,000
Jennu Kurumba	35,000
Nocte Naga	35,000
Khirwar	34,251
Betta Kurumba	32,000
Chang Naga	31,000
Dangaura Tharu	31,000
Gadaba	31,000 (Pottangi Ollar: 15,000; Bodo: 8,000; Mudhili: 8,000)
Zeme Naga	30,800
Naga Pidgin	30,000
Car Nicobarese	30,000
Kurichiya	29,375
Mzieme Naga	29,000
Chenchu	28,754
Sikkimese	28,600
Limbu	28,000
Majhwar	27,958
Vaiphei	27,791
Ravula	27,413
Western Panjabi	27,386
Deori	26,900
Khoibu Naga	25,600
Falam Chin	25,367
Kanikkaran	25,000
Khiamniungan Naga	25,000
Maram Naga	25,000
Tutsa Naga	25,000
Sirmauri	25,000
Arakanese	24,000
Chokri Naga	24,000
Sholaga	24,000
Thangal Naga	23,600
Kamar	23,456
Apatani	23,000
Koch	23,000
Khezha Naga	23,000
Tiwa	23,000
Southern Rengma Naga	21,000
Shina	21,000
Gowlan	20,179
Kumarbhag Paharia	20,179
Savara	20,179
Matu Chin	20,000
Liangmai Naga	20,000
Ooty, Nilgiris	20,000
Sakechep	20,000
Seraiki	20,000
Sherpa	20,000
Toto	20,000
Khowar	19,200
Biete	19,000
Hajong	19,000
Reli	19,000
Manna-Dora	18,964
Hrangkhol	18,665
Bhunjia	18,601
Persian	18,000
Mukha-Dora	17,456
Maring Naga	17,361
Pangwali	17,000
Asuri	16,596
Dhatki	16,400
Malaryan	16,068
Malavedan	15,241
Gangte	15,100
Konda-Dora	15,000
Korra Koraga	15,000
Mudu Koraga	15,000
Kalto (Nahali)	15,000
Northern Pashto	15,000
Ullatan	14,846
Eastern Tamang	14,000
Anal	13,853
Northern Rengma Naga	13,000
Pochuri Naga	13,000
Western Muria	12,898
Muthuvan	12,219
Zangskari	12,006
Mirgan	12,000
War	12,000
Kaikadi	11,846
Idu-Mishmi	11,041
Pattani	11,000
Changthang	10,089
Degaru	10,089
Eastern Muria	10,089
Far Western Muria	10,089
Andaman Creole Hindi	10,000
Palya Bareli	10,000
Birhor	10,000
Lamkang	10,000
Inpui Naga	10,000
Spiti Bhoti	10,000
Vaagri Booli	10,000

Inventories

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Linguists generally distinguish the terms "language" and "dialects" on the basis of 'mutual comprehension'. The Indian census uses two specific classifications in its own unique way: (1)'language' and (2) 'mother tongue'. The 'mother tongues' are grouped within each 'language'. Many 'mother tongues' so defined would be considered a language rather than a dialect by linguistic standards. This is especially so for many 'mother tongues' with tens of millions of speakers that is officially grouped under the 'language' Hindi.

The Indian census of 1961 recognised 1,652 different languages in India (including languages not native to the subcontinent). The 1991 census recognizes 1,576 classified "mother tongues"^[9] SIL Ethnologue lists 415 living "Languages of India" (out of 6,912 worldwide).

According to the 1991 census, 22 'languages' had more than a million native speakers, 50 had more than 100,000 and 114 had more than 10,000 native speakers. The remaining accounted for a total of 566,000 native speakers (out of a total of 838 million Indians in 1991).^[9]

According to the most recent census of 2001, 29 'languages' have more than a million native speakers, 60 have more than 100,000 and 122 have more than 10,000 native speakers.

The government of India has given 22 "languages of the 8th Schedule" the status of official language. The number of languages given this status has increased through the political process. Some languages with a large number of speakers still do not have this status, the largest of these being Bhili/Bhiladi with some 9.6 million native speakers (ranked 14th), followed by Gondi with 2.7 million speakers (ranked 18th) and Khandeshi with 2.1 million speakers (ranked 22nd). On the other hand, 2 languages with fewer than 2 million native speakers have recently been included in the 8th Schedule for mostly political reasons: Manipuri/Maithei with 1.5 million speakers (ranked 25th) and Bodo with 1.4 million speakers (ranked 26th). For cultural/historical reasons Sanskrit is on the official schedule, though only 14 thousand people claim it to be their language, but many more study it in school as the classical language of India.

Languages of India

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Language families

The languages of India may be grouped by major language families. The largest of these in terms of speakers is the Indo-European family, predominantly represented in its Indo-Aryan branch (accounting for some 700 million speakers), but also including minority languages such as Persian, Portuguese or French, and English as lingua franca. The second largest is the Dravidian family, accounting for some 200 million speakers. Minor linguistic families include the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman families (with some 10 and 6 million speakers, respectively). Kashmiri, considered a Dardic language, has some 4.6 million speakers in India. There is also a language isolate, the Nihali language. Today the Republic of India has about 69% of languages spoken in the country are Indo-Iranian (sub-branch: Indo-Aryan), 26% are Dravidian, and 5% are Sino-Tibetan and Austro-Asiatic, all unrelated/distinct family of languages. Most languages in the Indian republic are written in Brahmi-derived scripts such as Devangari, Gurmukhi, Tamil, etc. Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Tulu, Tamil, Malayalam, Assamese, Punjabi, Naga, and many others are the mother-tongue languages spoken in each of India's diverse states, alien to each other.

[edit] Official languages

Main article: Official languages of India

The official languages of the Republic of India are Hindi and English. Article 343(1)states "The Official Language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script and English could be also used for official purposes."However, attempts would be made increase the scope of Hindi in official matters on a gradual basis. .^[10]

The individual states can legislate their own official languages, depending on their linguistic demographics. For example, the state of TamilNadu has Tamil as its sole official language and the state of Karnataka has Kannada as its sole official language, while the state of Jammu and Kashmir has Kashmiri, Urdu and Dogri as its official languages.

Article 345 of the Indian constitution provides recognition to "official languages" of the union to include any one or more of the languages in use in the state or Hindi language adopted by a state legislature as the official language but, . Until the Twenty-First Amendment of the Constitution in 1967, the country recognised 14 official regional languages. The Eighth Schedule and the Seventy-First Amendment provided for the inclusion of Sindhi, Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali, thereby increasing the number of official regional languages of India to 18^[11]. Individual states, whose borders are mostly drawn on socio-linguistic lines, are free to decide their own language for internal administration and education.

The following table lists the official languages set out in the eighth schedule as of May 2008:^[12]

Puducherry and Punjab

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Puducherry

Main article: Tourism in Puducherry

The Matrimandir, a golden metallic sphere in auroville, Puducherry

The Union Territory of Puducherry comprises four coastal regions viz- Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam. Puducherry is the Capital of this Union Territory and one of the most popular tourist destinations in South India. Puducherry has been described by National Geographic as "a glowing highlight of subcontinental sojourn". The city has many beautiful colonial buildings, churches, temples, and statues, which, combined with the systematic town planning and the well planned French style avenues, still preserve much of the colonial ambience.

Punjab

Main article: Tourism in Punjab (India)

Harimandir Sahib or "The Golden Temple"

Punjab is one of India's most beautiful states. The state of Punjab is renowned for its cuisine, culture and history. Punjab has a vast public transportation and communication network. Some of the main cities in Punjab are Amritsar, Chandigarh, and Ludhiana. Punjab also has a rich religious history incorporating Sikhism and Hinduism. Tourism in Punjab is principally suited for the tourists interested in culture, ancient civilization, spirituality and epic history. Some of the villages in Punjab are also a must see for the person who wants to see the true Punjab, with their beautiful traditional Indian homes, farms and temples, this is a must see for any visitor that goes to Punjab.

Maharashtra and Orissa

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Maharashtra

Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan city in India, famous for its architecture, shopping, gastronomy, and Bollywood. Mumbai accounts for more than 40% of all foreign tourists arrivals in India.^[11]

Main article: Tourism in Maharashtra

Maharashtra is the most visited state by foreign tourists,^[11] with more than 2 million foreign tourists arrivals annually. Maharashtra boasts of a large number of popular and revered religious venues that are heavily frequented by locals as well as out-of-state visitors.

Mumbai is the most cosmopolitan city in India, and a great place to experience modern India. Mumbai famous for Bollywood, the world's largest film industry. In addition, Mumbai is famous for its clubs, shopping, and upscale gastronomy. The city is known for its architecture, from the ancient Ajanta Caves, to the Islamic Haji Ali Mosque, to the colonial architecture of Bombay High Court and Victoria Terminus.

Maharashtra also has numerous adventure tourism destinations, including paragliding, rock climbing, canoeing, kayaking, snorkeling, and scuba diving. Maharashtra also has several pristine national parks and reserves. The Bibi Ka Maqbara at Aurangabad, the Mahalakshmi temple in Kolhapur, the city of Pune the seat of the Maratha Empire, the fantastic Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations.

Orissa

Konark Sun Temple built by the Eastern Ganga dynasty is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Orissa has been a preferred destination from ancient days for people who have an interest in spirituality, religion, culture, art and natural beauty. Ancient and medieval architecture, pristine sea beaches, the classical and ethnic dance forms and a variety of festivals. Orissa has kept the religion of Buddhism alive. Rock-edicts that have challenged time stand huge and over-powering by the banks of the river Daya. The torch of Buddhism is still ablaze in the sublime triangle at Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves, on the banks of river Birupa. Precious fragments of a glorious past come alive in the shape of stupas, rock-cut caves, rock-edicts, excavated monasteries, viharas, chaityas and sacred relics in caskets and the Rock-edicts of Ashoka. Orissa is also famous for its well-preserved Hindu Temples, especially the Konark Sun Temple.^[12]

Orissa is the home for various tribal communities who have contributed uniquely to the multicultural and multilingual character of the state. Their handicrafts, different dance forms, jungle products and their unique life style blended with their healing practices have got world wide attention.

Himachal Pradesh

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Himachal Pradesh is famous for its Himalayan landscapes and popular hill-stations. Many outdoor activities such as rock climbing, mountain biking, paragliding, ice-skating, and heli-skiing are popular tourist attractions in Himachal Pradesh.^[8]

Shimla, the state capital, is very popular among tourists. The Kalka-Shimla Railway is a Mountain railway which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Shimla is also a famous skiing attraction in India. Other popular hill stations include Manali and Kasauli.

Dharamshala, home of the Dalai Lama, is known for its Tibetan monasteries and Buddhist temples. Many trekking expeditions also begin here.

Jammu and Kashmir

Main article: Tourism in Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu & Kashmir is known for its scenic landscape

Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. Jammu is noted for its scenic landscape, ancient temples, Hindu shrines, castles, gardens, and forts. The Hindu holy shrines of Amarnath and Vaishno Devi attract tens of thousands of Hindu devotees every year. Jammu's natural landscape has made it one of the popular destinations for adventure tourism in South Asia. Jammu's historic monuments feature a unique blend of Islamic and Hindu architecture styles.

Tourism forms an integral part of the Kashmiri economy. Often dubbed "Paradise on Earth", Kashmir's mountainous landscape has attracted tourists for centuries. Notable places are Dal Lake, Srinagar Phalagam, Gulmarg, Yeusmarg and Mughal Gardens etc. However, the tourism industry is severely affected by the insurgency.

In recent years, Ladakh has emerged as a major hub for adventure tourism. This part of Greater Himalaya called "moon on earth" comprising of naked peaks and deep gorges was once known for the silk route to High Asia from the subcontinent. Leh is also a growing tourist spot.

Karnataka

Main article: Tourism in Karnataka

Gol Gumbaz at Bijapur, has the second largest pre-modern dome in the world after the Byzantine Hagia Sophia.

Karnataka has been ranked as fourth most popular destination for tourism among states of India. It has the second highest number of protected monuments in India, at 507.

Kannada dynasties like Kadambas, Western Gangas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas and Vijayanagaras, ruled Karnataka particularly North Karnataka^[9]^[10]. They built great monuments to Buddhism, Jainism, Shaivism. The monuments are still present at Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal, Hampi, Lakshmeshwar, Sudi, Hooli, Mahadeva Temple (Itagi), Dambal, Lakkundi, Gadag, Hangal, Halasi, Galaganatha, Chaudayyadanapura, Banavasi, Belur, Halebidu, Shravanabelagola, Sannati and many more. Notable Islamic monuments are present at Bijapur, Bidar, Gulbarga, Raichur and other part of the state. Gol Gumbaz at Bijapur, has the second largest pre-modern dome in the world after the Byzantine Hagia Sophia. Karnataka has two World heritage sites, at Hampi and Pattadakal, both are in North Karnataka.

Karnataka is famous for its waterfalls. Jog falls of Shimoga District is one of the highest waterfalls in Asia. This state has 21 wildlife sanctuaries and five National parks and is home to more than 500 species of birds. Karnataka has many beaches at Karwar, Gokarna, Murdeshwara, Surathkal. Karnataka is a rock climbers paradise. Yana in Uttara Kannada, Fort in Chitradurga, Ramnagara near Bangalore district, Shivagange in Tumkur district and tekal in Kolar district are a rock climbers heaven.^{[citation needed]}

Kerala

Kerala, nicknamed as "God's own country," is famous for its houseboats.

Main article: Tourism in Kerala

Kerala is a state on the tropical Malabar Coast of southwestern India. Nicknamed as one of the "10 paradises of the world" by National Geographic, Kerala is famous especially for its ecotourism initiatives. Its unique culture and traditions, coupled with its varied demography, has made it one of the most popular tourist destinations in India. Growing at a rate of 13.31%, the tourism industry significantly contributes to the state's economy.

Kerala is known for its tropical backwaters and pristine beaches such as Kovalam.

Madhya Pradesh

Main article: Tourism in Madhya Pradesh

The temples of Khajuraho are famous for their erotic sculptures. The Khajuraho group of monuments are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Madhya Pradesh is called the "Heart of India" because of its location in the centre of the country. It has been home to the cultural heritage of Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism. Innumerable monuments, exquisitely carved temples, stupas, forts and palaces are dotted all over the State.

The temples of Khajuraho are world-famous for their erotic sculptures, and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Gwalior is famous for its forts, the Tomb of Rani Lakshmibai, and the Palace of Tansen.

Madhya Pradesh is also known as Tiger State because of the tiger population. Famous national parks like Kanha, Bandhavgadh, Shivpuri, Sanjay, Pench are located in MP. Spectacular mountain ranges, meandering rivers and miles and miles of dense forests offering a unique and exciting panorama of wildlife in sylvan surroundings.

Assam and Bihar

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Assam

Main article: Tourism in Assam

Great Indian One-Horned Rhinoceros in Kaziranga National Park.

Assam is the central state in the North-East Region of India and serves as the gateway to the rest of the Seven Sister States. Assam boasts of famous wildlife preserves – the Kaziranga National Park (pictured) and the Manas National Park, the largest river island Majuli, and tea-estates dating back to time of British Raj. The weather is mostly sub-tropical. Assam experiences the Indian monsoon and has one of the highest forest densities in India. The winter months (October to April) are the best time to visit.

Assam has a rich cultural heritage going back to the Ahom Kingdom which governed the region for many centuries before the British occupation. Other notable features include the Brahmaputra River, the mystery of the bird suicides in Jatinga, numerous temples including Kamakhya of Tantric sect, ruins of palaces, etc. Guwahati, the capital city of Assam, boasts many bazaars, temples, and wildlife sanctuaries.

Bihar

Main article: Tourism in Bihar

Mahabodhi Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Bihar is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world with history of 3000 years. The rich culture and heritage of Bihar is evident from the innumerable ancient monuments that are dotted all over this state in eastern India. This is the Place of Aryabhatta, Great Ashoka, Chanakya and many more.

Bihar is one of the most sacred places of various religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism & Islam. Famous Attraction includes Mahabodhi Temple, a Buddhist shrine and UNESCO World Heritage Site is also situated in Bihar, Barabar Caves the oldest rockcut caves in India, Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library the Oldest Library of India.

Andhra Pradesh

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Andhra Pradesh has a rich cultural heritage and a variety of tourist attractions. The state of Andhra Pradesh comprises scenic hills, forests, beaches and temples.

Also known as The City of Nizams and The City of Pearls, Hyderabad is today one of the most developed cities in the country and a modern hub of information technology, ITES, and biotechnology. Hyderabad is known for its rich history, culture and architecture representing its unique character as a meeting point for North and South India, and also its multilingual culture, both geographically and culturally.

Andhra Pradesh is the home of many religious pilgrim centres. Tirupati, the abode of Lord Venkateswara, is the richest and most visited religious center (of any faith) in the world. Srisailam, the abode of Sri Mallikarjuna, is one of twelve Jyothirlingalu in India, Amaravati's Siva temple is one of the Pancharamams, and Yadagirigutta, the abode of an avatara of Vishnu, Sri Lakshmi Narasimha. The Ramappa temple and Thousand Pillars temple in Warangal are famous for some fine temple carvings. The state has numerous Buddhist centres at Amaravati, Nagarjuna Konda, Bhattiprolu, Ghantasala, Nelakondapalli, Dhulikatta, Bavikonda, Thotlakonda, Shalihundam, Pavuralakonda, Sankaram, Phanigiri and Kolanpaka.

The golden beaches at Visakhapatnam, the one-million-year old limestone caves at Borra, picturesque Araku Valley, hill resorts of Horsley Hills, river Godavari racing through a narrow gorge at Papi Kondalu, waterfalls at Ettipotala, Kuntala and rich bio-diversity at Talakona, are some of the natural attractions of the state. Visakhapatnam is home to many tourist attactions such as the INS Karasura Submarine museum (The only one of its kind in India), Yarada Beach, Araku Valley, VUDA Park, Indira Gandhi Zoological Gardens.

The weather in Andhra Pradesh is mostly tropical and the best time to visit is in November through to January. The monsoon season commences in June and ends in September, so travel would not be advisable during this period.

Conflicts

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Communal conflicts have periodically plagued India since it became independent in 1947. The roots of such strife lie largely in the underlying tensions between sections of its majority Hindu and minority Muslim communities, which emerged under the Raj and during the bloody Partition of India. Such conflict also stems from the competing ideologies of Hindu nationalism versus Islamic fundamentalism and Islamism; both are prevalent in parts of the Hindu and Muslim populations. Alongside other major Indian independence leaders, Mahatma Gandhi and his shanti sainiks ("peace soldiers") worked to quell early outbreaks of religious conflict in Bengal, including riots in Calcutta (now in West Bengal) and Noakhali District (in modern-day Bangladesh) that accompanied Muhammad Ali Jinnah's Direct Action Day, which was launched on 16 August 1946. These conflicts, waged largely with rocks and knives and accompanied by widespread looting and arson, were crude affairs. Explosives and firearms, which are rarely found in India, were far less likely to be used.^[69]

Many of Ahmedabad's buildings were set on fire by Hindu and Muslim mobs during the 2002 Gujarat violence.

Major post-independence communal conflicts include the 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots, which followed the storming of the Harimandir Sahib by the Indian Army; heavy artillery, tanks, and helicopters were employed against the radical Sikh separatists hiding inside, causing heavy damage to Sikhism's holiest shrine. Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who sought independence for the proposed Sikh theocracy of Khalistan, was killed by Indian troops during the assault; in total, the assault caused the deaths of up to 3,000 soldiers, militants, and civilians.^[70] This triggered Indira Gandhi's assassination by her outraged Sikh bodyguards on 31 October 1984, which set off a four-day period during which Sikhs were massacred; some estimates state that more than 4,000 were killed.^[70] Other incidents include the 1992 Bombay Riots that followed the demolition of the Babri Mosque as a result of the Ayodhya debate, and the 2002 Gujarat violence that followed the Godhra Train Burning—in the latter, more than 2,000 Muslims were killed.^[71] Terrorist activities such as the 2005 Ram Janmabhoomi attack in Ayodhya, the 2006 Varanasi bombings, the 2006 Jama Masjid explosions, and the 11 July 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings are often blamed on communalism. Lesser incidents plague many towns and villages; representative was the killing of five people in Mau, Uttar Pradesh during Hindu-Muslim rioting, which was triggered by the proposed celebration of a Hindu festival.^[71]

Major religious riots, since Independence

Year	Riot	State / Region	Cause	Aftermath
1984	Anti Sikh massacre	Delhi	Assassination of Indira Gandhi	2,700 Sikhs killed^[72]
1992-1993	Bombay Riots	Mumbai	Demolition of Babri Masjid	900 people dead
2002	Gujarat Riots	Gujarat	Godhra train burning	1,044 people killed; 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus (including those killed in the Godhra train fire)
2008	Kandhamal riots	Kandhamal district, Orissa	Murder of Swami Lakshmanananda	Over 20 killed and over 12,000 displaced

Religion and politics

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Politics

Religious ideology, particularly that expressed by the Hindutva movement, has strongly influenced Indian politics in the last quarter of the 20th century. Many of the elements underlying India's casteism and communalism originated during the rule of the British Raj, particularly after the late 19th century; the authorities and others often politicised religion.^[55] The Indian Councils Act of 1909 (widely known as the Morley-Minto Reforms Act), which established separate Hindu and Muslim electorates for the Imperial Legislature and provincial councils, was particularly divisive. It was blamed for increasing tensions between the two communities.^[56] Due to the high degree of oppression faced by the lower castes, the Constitution of India included provisions for affirmative action for certain sections of Indian society. Growing disenchantment with the Hindu caste system has led thousands of Dalits (also referred to as "Untouchables") to embrace Buddhism and Christianity in recent decades.^[57] In response, many states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) introduced laws that made them more difficult; they assert that such conversions are often forced or allured.^[58] The BJP, a Hindu nationalist party, also gained widespread media attention after its leaders associated themselves with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and other prominent religious issues.^[59]

A well known accusation that Indian political parties make for their rivals is that they play vote bank politics, meaning give political support to issues for the sole purpose of gaining the votes of members of a particular community. Both the Congress Party and the BJP have been accused of exploiting the people by indulging in vote bank politics. The Shah Bano case, a divorce lawsuit, generated much controversy when the Congress was accused of appeasing the Muslim orthodoxy by bringing in a parliamentary amendment to negate the Supreme Court's decision. After the 2002 Gujarat violence, there were allegations of political parties indulging in vote bank politics.^[60] During an election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP released an inflammatory CD targeting Muslims.^[61] This was condemned by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) as playing the worst kind of vote bank politics.^[62] Caste-based politics is also important in India; caste-based discrimination and the reservation system continue to be major issues that are hotly debated.^[63]^[64]

Education

Several political parties have been accused of using their political power to manipulate educational content in a revisionist manner. During the Janata Party government (1977–1979), the government was accused of being too sympathetic to the Muslim viewpoint. In 2002, the BJP-led NDA government tried to change the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) school textbooks through a new National Curriculum Framework.^[65] Some media referred to it as the "saffronisation" of textbooks, saffron being the colour of BJP flag.^[65] The next government, formed by the UPA and led by the Congress Party, pledged to de-saffronise textbooks.^[66] Hindu groups alleged that the UPA promoted Marxist and pro-Muslim biases in school curricula.^[67]^[68]

Ceremonies and Pilgrimages

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Ceremonies

A Hindu marriage.

Occasions like birth, marriage, and death involve what are often elaborate sets of religious customs. In Hinduism, major life-cycle rituals include annaprashan (a baby's first intake of solid food), upanayanam ("sacred thread ceremony" undergone by upper-caste youths), and shraadh (paying homage to a deceased individual).^[51]^[52] For most people in India, the betrothal of the young couple and the exact date and time of the wedding are matters decided by the parents in consultation with astrologers.^[51]

Muslims practice a series of life-cycle rituals that differ from those of Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists.^[53] Several rituals mark the first days of life—including whispering call to prayer, first bath, and shaving of the head. Religious instruction begins early. Male circumcision usually takes place after birth; in some families, it may be delayed until after the onset of puberty.^[53] Marriage requires a payment by the husband to the wife and the solemnisation of a marital contract in a social gathering.^[53] On the third day after burial of the dead, friends and relatives gather to console the bereaved, read and recite the Quran, and pray for the soul of the deceased.^[53] Indian Islam is distinguished by the emphasis it places on shrines commemorating great Sufi saints.^[53]

Pilgrimages

The largest religious gathering ever held on Earth, the 2001 Maha Kumbh Mela held in Prayag attracted around 70 million Hindus from around the world.

Muslim pilgrims undertake ziyarat to Moinuddin Chishti's dargah in Ajmer, Rajasthan.

India hosts numerous pilgrimage sites belonging to many religions. Hindus worldwide recognise several Indian holy cities, including Allahabad, Haridwar, Varanasi, and Vrindavan. Notable temple cities include Puri, which hosts a major Vaishnava Jagannath temple and Rath Yatra celebration; Tirumala - Tirupati, home to the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple; and Katra, home to the Vaishno Devi temple. The Himalayan towns of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri compose the Char Dham (four abodes) pilgrimage circuit. The Kumbh Mela (the "pitcher festival") is one of the holiest of Hindu pilgrimages that is held every four years; the location is rotated among Allahabad, Haridwar, Nashik, and Ujjain.

Among the Eight Great Places of Buddhism, seven are in India. Bodh Gaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar are the places where important events in the life of Gautama Buddha took place. Sanchi hosts a Buddhist stupa erected by the emperor Ashoka. Several Tibetan Buddhist sites in the Himalayan foothills of India have been built, such as Rumtek Monastery and Dharamsala. For Muslims, the Dargah Shareef of Khwaza Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer is a major pilgrimage site. Other Islamic pilgrimages include those to the Tomb of Sheikh Salim Chishti in Fatehpur Sikri, Jama Masjid in Delhi, and to Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai. Dilwara Temples in Mount Abu, Palitana, Pavapuri, Girnar and Shravanabelagola are notable pilgrimage sites (tirtha) in Jainism.

The Golden Temple in Amritsar is the most sacred shrine of Sikhism, while the Thalaimaippathi at Swamithope is the leading pilgrim center for Ayyavazhi sect members. Lotus Temple in Delhi is a prominent house of worship of the Bahá'í faith.

Rituals

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The vast majority of Indians engage in religious rituals on a daily basis.^[45] Most Hindus observe religious rituals at home.^[46] However, observation of rituals greatly vary among regions, villages, and individuals. Devout Hindus perform daily chores such as worshiping at the dawn after bathing (usually at a family shrine, and typically includes lighting a lamp and offering foodstuffs before the images of deities), recitation from religious scripts, singing hymns in praise of gods etc.^[46] A notable feature in religious ritual is the division between purity and pollution. Religious acts presuppose some degree of impurity or defilement for the practitioner, which must be overcome or neutralised before or during ritual procedures. Purification, usually with water, is thus a typical feature of most religious action.^[46] Other characteristics include a belief in the efficacy of sacrifice and concept of merit, gained through the performance of charity or good works, that will accumulate over time and reduce sufferings in the next world.^[46] Devout Muslims offer five daily prayers at specific times of the day, indicated by adhan (call to prayer) from the local mosques. Before offering prayers, they must ritually clean themselves by performing wudu, which involves washing parts of the body that are generally exposed to dirt or dust. A recent study by the Sachar Committee found that 3-4% of Muslim children study in madrasas (Islamic schools).^[47]

Dietary habits are significantly influenced by religion. Almost one-third of Indians practise vegetarianism; it came to prominence during the rule of Ashoka, a promoter of Buddhism.^[48]^[49] Vegetarianism is much less common among Muslim and Christians.^[50] Jainism requires monks and laity, from all its sects and traditions, to be vegetarian. Hinduism bars beef consumption, while Islam bars pork.

Law

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The preamble to the Constitution of India proclaimed India a "sovereign socialist secular democratic republic". The word secular was inserted into the Preamble by the Forty-second Amendment Act of 1976. It mandates equal treatment and tolerance of all religions. India does not have an official state religion; it enshrines the right to practice, preach, and propagate any religion. No religious instruction is imparted in government-supported schools. In S. R. Bommai vs. Union of India, the Supreme Court of India held that secularism was an integral tenet of the Constitution.^[40]

The right to freedom of religion is a fundamental right according to the Indian Constitution. The Constitution also suggests a uniform civil code for its citizens as a Directive Principle.^[41] However this has not been implemented until now as Directive Principles are Constitutionally unenforceable. The Supreme Court has further held that the enactment of a uniform civil code all at once may be counterproductive to the unity of the nation, and only a gradual progressive change should be brought about (Pannalal Bansilal v State of Andhra Pradesh, 1996).^[42] In Maharishi Avadesh v Union of India (1994) the Supreme Court dismissed a petition seeking a writ of mandamus against the government to introduce a common civil code, and thus laid the responsibility of its introduction on the legislature.^[43]

Major religious communities continue to be governed by their own personal laws. Personal laws exist for Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians, and Jews. The only Indian religion exclusively covered under the secular ("civil") law of India is Brahmoism starting from Act III of 1872. For legal purposes, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs are classified as Hindus and are subject to Hindu personal law.(see. Indian religion, Status in India)

Statistics

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The following is a breakdown of India's religious communities (2001 census):

Religions of India^[31]^α[›]^β[›]

Religion	Population	Percent
All religions	1,028,610,328	100.00%
Hindus	827,578,868	80.5%
Muslims	138,188,240	13.4%
Christians	24,080,016	2.3%
Sikhs	19,215,730	1.9%
Buddhists	7,955,207	0.8%
Jains	4,225,053	0.4%
Others	6,639,626	0.6%
Religion not stated	727,588	0.1%

Characteristics of religious groups

Religious group	Population %	Growth (1991–2001)	Sex ratio (total)	Literacy (%)	Work participation (%)	Sex ratio (rural)	Sex ratio (urban)	Sex ratio (child)^ε[›]
Hindu	80.46%	20.3%	931	65.1%	40.4%	944	894	925
Muslim	13.43%	36.0%	936	59.1%	31.3%	953	907	950
Christian	2.34%	22.6%	1009	80.3%	39.7%	1001	1026	964
Sikh	1.87%	18.2%	893	69.4%	37.7%	895	886	786
Buddhist	0.77%	18.2%	953	72.7%	40.6%	958	944	942
Jain	0.41%	26.0%	940	94.1%	32.9%	937	941	870
Animist, others	0.65%	103.1%	992	47.0%	48.4%	995	966	976

Demographics

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Hinduism is a henotheistic religion and the largest in India; its 828 million adherents (2001) compose 80.5% of the population. The term Hindu, originally a geographical description, derives from the Sanskrit, Sindhu, (the historical appellation for the Indus River), and refers to a person from the land of the river Sindhu.

Islam is a monotheistic religion centred around the belief in one God and following the example of Muhammad. It is the largest minority religion in India. According to the 2001 census, India is home to 138 million Muslims^[27], the world's third-largest Muslim population after those in Indonesia (210 million)^[28] and Pakistan (166 million); they compose 13.4% of the population.^[29] Muslims represent the majority in Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep,^[30] and high concentrations in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, and Kerala.^[30]^[31] The largest denomination is Sunni Islam, which is practised by nearly 80% of Indian Muslims.^[32]

A set of 15th- or 16th-century palm-leaf manuscripts containing Tamil-language Christian prayers.

Christianity is a monotheistic religion centred on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in the New Testament; it is the third largest religion of India, making up 2.3% of the population. St. Thomas is credited with introduction of Christianity in India. He arrived in Malabar in AD 52^[33]^[34]^[35]. Christians comprise a majority in Nagaland and have significant populations in North-East India, Goa and Kerala.

Buddhism is a dharmic, nontheistic religion and philosophy. Buddhists form majority populations in the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, and the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir and a large minority (40%) in Sikkim. Around 8 million Buddhists live in India, about 0.8% of the population.^[27]

Jainism is a nontheistic dharmic religion and philosophical system originating in Iron Age India. Jains compose 0.4% (around 4.2 million) of India's population, and are concentrated in the states of Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan.^[30] Jainism, although usually believed to be atheistic/non-theistic, Paul Dundas writes, "While Jainism is, as we have seen. atheist in the limited sense of rejection of a creator god and the possibility of the intervention of such a being in human affairs, it nonetheless must be regarded as a theist religion in the more profound sense that it accepts the existence of a divine principle, the parmatman, often in fact referred to as 'God' (e.g. ParPr 114-16), existing in potential state within all beings".^[36]

Sikhism began in sixteenth century North India with the teachings of Nanak and nine successive human gurus. As of 2001, there were 19.2 million Sikhs in India. Punjab is the spiritual home of Sikhs, and is the only state in India where Sikhs form a majority. There are also significant populations of Sikhs in neighbouring New Delhi and Haryana.

The Sé Cathedral of Santa Catarina

Paul Dundas writes, "However, the earliest censuses of India suggest that many Jains and members of other religious groups saw themselves as in fact constituting varieties of Hinduism and, according to the Census Report for the Punjab of 1921, 'in view of the unwillingness of large number of Jains and Sikhs to be classed separately from Hindus, permission was given to record such persons as Jain-Hindus and Sikh-Hindus".^[37]

The interior of the Paradesi Synagogue in Cochin.

As of the census of 2001, Parsis (followers of Zoroastrianism in India) represent approximately 0.006% of the total population of India,^[38] with relatively high concentrations in and around the city of Mumbai. There are several tribal religions in India, such as Donyi-Polo and Mahima. About 2.2 million people in India follow the Bahá'í Faith, thus forming the largest community of Bahá'ís in the world.^[39] Ayyavazhi, prevalent in South India, is officially considered a Hindu sect, and its followers are counted as Hindus in the census.

There is today a very small community of Indian Jews. There were more Jews in India historically, including the Cochin Jews of Kerala, the Bene Israel of Maharashtra, and the Baghdadi Jews near Mumbai. In addition, since independence two primarily proselyte Indian Jewish communities in India: the Bnei Menashe of Mizoram and Manipur, and the Bene Ephraim, also called Tegulu Jews. Of the approximately 95,000 Jews of Indian origin, fewer than 20,000 remain in India. Some parts of India are especially popular with Israelis, however, swelling local Jewish populations seasonally.

Around 0.07% of the people did not state their religion in the 2001 census

History

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Evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in the Indian subcontinent derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings depicting dances and rituals. Neolithic pastoralists inhabiting the Indus River Valley buried their dead in a manner suggestive of spiritual practices that incorporated notions of an afterlife and belief in magic.^[6] Other South Asian Stone Age sites, such as the Bhimbetka rock shelters in central Madhya Pradesh and the Kupgal petroglyphs of eastern Karnataka, contain rock art portraying religious rites and evidence of possible ritualised music.^[7]

The Harappan people of the Indus Valley Civilization, which lasted from 3300–1700 BCE and was centered around the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys, may have worshiped an important mother goddess symbolising fertility.^[8] Excavations of Indus Valley Civilization sites show seals with animals and "fire‑altars", indicating rituals associated with fire. A linga-yoni of a type similar to that which is now worshiped by Hindus has also been found.

Buddhist Mahabodhi Temple

Hinduism's origins include cultural elements of the Indus Valley Civilization, the Vedic religion of the Indo-Aryans, and other Indian civilizations. The oldest surviving text of Hinduism is the Rigveda, produced during the Vedic period and dated to 1700–1100 BCE.^γ[›]^[9] During the Epic and Puranic periods, the earliest versions of the epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata were written roughly from 500–100 BCE,^[10] although these were orally transmitted for centuries prior to this period.^[11]

Akshardham largest Hindu temple in the world.

Hinduism is often regarded as the oldest religion in the world,^[12] with roots tracing back to prehistoric times,^[13] or 5000 years.^[14] After 200 CE, several schools of thought were formally codified in Indian philosophy, including Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva-Mimamsa and Vedanta.^[15] Hinduism, otherwise a highly theistic religion, hosted atheistic schools; the thoroughly materialistic and anti-religious philosophical Cārvāka school that originated in India around the 6th century BCE is probably the most explicitly atheistic school of Indian philosophy. Cārvāka is classified as a nastika ("heterodox") system; it is not included among the six schools of Hinduism generally regarded as orthodox. It is noteworthy as evidence of a materialistic movement within Hinduism.^[16] Our understanding of Cārvāka philosophy is fragmentary, based largely on criticism of the ideas by other schools, and it is no longer a living tradition.^[17] Other Indian philosophies generally regarded as atheistic include Classical Samkhya and Purva Mimamsa.

The Harmandir Sahib or The Golden Temple of the Sikhs.

Mahavira the 24th Jain Tirthankara (599–527 BC, though possibly 549–477 BC), stressed five vows, including ahimsa (non-violence) and asteya (non-stealing). Gautama Buddha, who founded Buddhism, was born to the Shakya clan just before Magadha (which lasted from 546–324 BCE) rose to power. His family was native to the plains of Lumbini, in what is now southern Nepal. Indian Buddhism peaked during the reign of Asoka the Great of the Mauryan Empire, who patronized Buddhism following his conversion and unified the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BCE. He sent missionaries abroad, allowing Buddhism to spread across Asia.^[18] Indian Buddhism declined following the loss of royal patronage offered by the Kushan Empire and such kingdoms as Magadha and Kosala.

The Jama Masjid in Delhi is one of the world's largest mosque.

Some scholars think between 400 BCE and 1000 CE, Hinduism expanded as the decline of Buddhism in India continued.^[19] Buddhism subsequently became effectively extinct in India. Though Islam came to India in the early 7th century with the advent of Arab traders, it started to become a major religion during the Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent. Islam's spread in India mostly took place under the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526) and the Mughal Empire, greatly aided by the mystic Sufi tradition^[20]. Although historical evidence suggests the presence of Christianity in India since the first century^[21]^[22]^[23], it became popular following European colonisation and Protestant missionary efforts.^[24]

Palitana Jain Temples

Communalism has played a key role in shaping the religious history of modern India. British India was partitioned along religious lines into two states—the Muslim-majority Dominion of Pakistan (comprising what is now the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the People's Republic of Bangladesh) and the Hindu-majority Union of India (later the Republic of India). The 1947 Partition of India instigated rioting among Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs in Punjab, Bengal, Delhi, and other parts of India; 500,000 died as a result of the violence. The twelve million refugees that moved between the newly founded nations of India and Pakistan composed one of the largest mass migrations in modern history.^Δ[›]^[25] Since its independence, India has periodically witnessed large-scale violence sparked by underlying tensions between sections of its majority Hindu and minority Muslim communities. The Republic of India is secular, its government recognises no official religion. In recent decades, communal tensions and religion-based politics have become more prominent.^[26]

Sports

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India's official national sport is field hockey, administered by the Indian Hockey Federation. The Indian field hockey team won the 1975 Men's Hockey World Cup and 8 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals at the Olympic games. However, cricket is the most popular sport; the India national cricket team won the 1983 Cricket World Cup and the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, and shared the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka. Cricket in India is administered by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, and domestic competitions include the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy, the Irani Trophy and the Challenger Series. In addition Indian cricket league and Indian premier league organise Twenty20 competitions.

Tennis has become increasingly popular, owing to the victories of the India Davis Cup team. Association football is also a popular sport in northeast India, West Bengal, Goa and Kerala.^[158] The Indian national football team has won the South Asian Football Federation Cup several times. Chess, commonly held to have originated in India, is also gaining popularity with the rise in the number of Indian Grandmasters.^[159] Traditional sports include kabaddi, kho kho, and gilli-danda, which are played nationwide. India is also home to the ancient martial arts, Kalarippayattu and Varma Kalai.

The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Arjuna Award are India's highest awards for achievements in sports, while the Dronacharya Award is awarded for excellence in coaching. India hosted or co-hosted the 1951 and the 1982 Asian Games, the 1987 and 1996 Cricket World Cup. It is also scheduled to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Culture

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India's culture is marked by a high degree of syncretism^[136] and cultural pluralism.^[137] It has managed to preserve established traditions while absorbing new customs, traditions, and ideas from invaders and immigrants and spreading its cultural influence to other parts of Asia, mainly South East and East Asia. Traditional Indian society is defined by relatively strict social hierarchy. The Indian caste system describes the social stratification and social restrictions in the Indian subcontinent, in which social classes are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups, often termed as jātis or castes.^[138]

Traditional Indian family values are highly respected, and multi-generational patriarchal joint families have been the norm, although nuclear family are becoming common in urban areas.^[103] An overwhelming majority of Indians have their marriages arranged by their parents and other respected family members, with the consent of the bride and groom.^[139] Marriage is thought to be for life,^[139] and the divorce rate is extremely low.^[140] Child marriage is still a common practice, with half of women in India marrying before the legal age of 18.^[141]^[142]

Indian cuisine is characterised by a wide variety of regional styles and sophisticated use of herbs and spices. The staple foods in the region are rice (especially in the south and the east) and wheat (predominantly in the north).^[143] Spices like black pepper that are now consumed world wide are originally native to the Indian subcontinent. Chili pepper, which was introduced by the Portuguese is also very much used within Indian Cuisine.^[144]

Rabindranath Tagore - Asia's first^[145] Nobel laureate^[146] and composer of India's national anthem, played a major role in reviving several art forms such as the Manipuri.^[147]

Traditional Indian dress varies across the regions in its colours and styles and depends on various factors, including climate. Popular styles of dress include draped garments such as sari for women and dhoti or lungi for men; in addition, stitched clothes such as salwar kameez for women and kurta–pyjama and European-style trousers and shirts for men, are also popular.

Many Indian festivals are religious in origin, although several are celebrated irrespective of caste and creed. Some popular festivals are Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Ugadi, Thai Pongal, Holi, Onam, Vijayadasami, Durga Puja, Eid ul-Fitr, Bakr-Id, Christmas, Buddha Jayanti and Vaisakhi.^[148] India has three national holidays. Other sets of holidays, varying between nine and twelve, are officially observed in individual states. Religious practices are an integral part of everyday life and are a very public affair.

Indian architecture is one area that represents the diversity of Indian culture. Much of it, including notable monuments such as the Taj Mahal and other examples of Mughal architecture and South Indian architecture, comprises a blend of ancient and varied local traditions from several parts of the country and abroad. Vernacular architecture also displays notable regional variation.

Indian music covers a wide range of traditions and regional styles. Classical music largely encompasses the two genres – North Indian Hindustani, South Indian Carnatic traditions and their various offshoots in the form of regional folk music. Regionalised forms of popular music include filmi and folk music; the syncretic tradition of the bauls is a well-known form of the latter.

Indian dance too has diverse folk and classical forms. Among the well-known folk dances are the bhangra of the Punjab, the bihu of Assam, the chhau of West Bengal, Jharkhand and sambalpuri of Orissa and the ghoomar of Rajasthan. Eight dance forms, many with narrative forms and mythological elements, have been accorded classical dance status by India's National Academy of Music, Dance, and Drama. These are: bharatanatyam of the state of Tamil Nadu, kathak of Uttar Pradesh, kathakali and mohiniyattam of Kerala, kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh, manipuri of Manipur, odissi of Orissa and the sattriya of Assam.^[149]

Theatre in India often incorporates music, dance, and improvised or written dialogue.^[150] Often based on Hindu mythology, but also borrowing from medieval romances, and news of social and political events, Indian theatre includes the bhavai of state of Gujarat, the jatra of West Bengal, the nautanki and ramlila of North India, the tamasha of Maharashtra, the burrakatha of Andhra Pradesh, the terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu, and the yakshagana of Karnataka.^[151]

The Indian film industry is the largest in the world.^[152] Bollywood, based in Mumbai, makes commercial Hindi films and is the most prolific film industry in the world.^[153] Established traditions also exist in Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu language cinemas.^[154]

The earliest works of Indian literature were transmitted orally and only later written down.^[155] These included works of Sanskrit literature – such as the early Vedas, the epics Mahābhārata and Ramayana, the drama Abhijñānaśākuntalam (The Recognition of Śakuntalā), and poetry such as the Mahākāvya^[156] – and the Tamil language Sangam literature.^[157] Among Indian writers of the modern era active in Indian languages or English, Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize in 1913.

Demographics

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With an estimated population of 1.2 billion,^[9] India is the world's second most populous country. The last 50 years have seen a rapid increase in population due to medical advances and massive increase in agricultural productivity made by the green revolution.^[118]^[119] India's urban population increased 11-fold during the twentieth century and is increasingly concentrated in large cities. By 2001 there were 35 million-plus population cities in India, with the largest cities, with a population of over 10 million each, being Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. However, as of 2001, more than 70% of India's population continues to reside in rural areas.^[120]^[121]

India is the world's most culturally, linguistically and genetically diverse geographical entity after the African continent.^[57] India is home to two major linguistic families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (spoken by about 24%). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman linguistic families. Hindi, with the largest number of speakers,^[122] is the official language of the union.^[123] English is used extensively in business and administration and has the status of a 'subsidiary official language;'^[124] it is also important in education, especially as a medium of higher education. In addition, every state and union territory has its own official languages, and the constitution also recognises in particular 21 other languages that are either abundantly spoken or have classical status. While Sanskrit and Tamil have been studied as classical languages for many years,^[125] the Government of India has also accorded classical language status to Kannada and Telugu using its own criteria.^[126] The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.^[127]

As per the 2001 census, over 800 million Indians (80.5%) were Hindu. Other religious groups include Muslims (13.4%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jains (0.4%), Jews, Zoroastrians and Bahá'ís.^[128] Tribals constitute 8.1% of the population.^[129] India has the third-highest Muslim population in the world and has the highest population of Muslims for a non-Muslim majority country.

India's literacy rate is 64.8% (53.7% for females and 75.3% for males).^[36] The state of Kerala has the highest literacy rate at 91% while Bihar has the lowest at 47%.^[130]^[131] The national human sex ratio is 944 females per 1,000 males. India's median age is 24.9, and the population growth rate of 1.38% per annum; there are 22.01 births per 1,000 people per year.^[36] According to the World Health Organization 900,000 Indians die each year from drinking contaminated water and breathing in polluted air. ^[132] Malaria is endemic in India.^[133] Half of children in India are underweight, one of the highest rates in the world and nearly same as Sub-Saharan Africa.^[115] Many women are malnourished, too. There are about 60 physicians per 100,000 people in India. ^[134]

Economy

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From the 1950s to the 1980s, India followed socialist-inspired policies. The economy was shackled by extensive regulation, protectionism, and public ownership, leading to pervasive corruption and slow growth.^[103]^[104]^[105]^[106] Since 1991, the nation has moved towards a market-based system.^[104]^[105] The policy change in 1991 came after an acute balance of payments crisis, and the emphasis since then has been to use foreign trade and foreign investment as integral parts of India's economy.^[107]

With an average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% for the past two decades, the economy is among the fastest growing in the world.^[108] It has the world's second largest labour force, with 516.3 million people. In terms of output, the agricultural sector accounts for 28% of GDP; the service and industrial sectors make up 54% and 18% respectively. Major agricultural products include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes; cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry; fish.^[57] Major industries include textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transport equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software.^[57] India's trade has reached a relatively moderate share 24% of GDP in 2006, up from 6% in 1985.^[104] India's share of world trade has reached 1%. Major exports include petroleum products, textile goods, gems and jewelry, software, engineering goods, chemicals, leather manufactures.^[57] Major imports include crude oil, machinery, gems, fertilizer, chemicals.^[57]

Tata Nano, the world's least expensive car.^[109] India's annual small-car exports have surged fivefold in the past five years.^[110]

India's GDP is US$1.237 trillion, which makes it the twelfth-largest economy in the world^[111] or fourth largest by purchasing power adjusted exchange rates. India's nominal per capita income US$1,068 is ranked 128th in the world. In the late 2000s, India's economic growth has averaged 7½% a year, which will double the average income in a decade.^[104]

Despite India's impressive economic growth over recent decades, it still contains the largest concentration of poor people in the world, and has a higher rate of malnutrition among children under the age of three (46% in year 2007) than any other country in the world^[112]^[113]. The percentage of people living below the World Bank's international poverty line of $1.25 a day (PPP, in nominal terms Rs. 21.6 a day in urban areas and Rs 14.3 in rural areas in 2005) decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005^[114] Even though India has avoided famines in recent decades, half of children are underweight, one of the highest rates in the world and nearly double the rate of Sub-Saharan Africa.^[115]

A 2007 Goldman Sachs report projected that "from 2007 to 2020, India’s GDP per capita will quadruple," and that the Indian GDP will surpass that of the United States' before 2050, but India "will remain a low-income country for several decades, with per capita incomes well below its other BRIC peers."^[106] Although the Indian economy has grown steadily over the last two decades; its growth has been uneven when comparing different social groups, economic groups, geographic regions, and rural and urban areas.^[116] The World Bank suggests that the most important priorities should be public sector reform, infrastructure, agricultural and rural development, removal of labor regulations, reforms in lagging states, and combating HIV/AIDS.^[117]

Flora and fauna

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India, which lies within the Indomalaya ecozone, displays significant biodiversity. One of eighteen megadiverse countries, it is home to 7.6% of all mammalian, 12.6% of all avian, 6.2% of all reptilian, 4.4% of all amphibian, 11.7% of all fish, and 6.0% of all flowering plant species.^[92] Many ecoregions, such as the shola forests, exhibit extremely high rates of endemism; overall, 33% of Indian plant species are endemic.^[93]^[94]

India's forest cover ranges from the tropical rainforest of the Andaman Islands, Western Ghats, and North-East India to the coniferous forest of the Himalaya. Between these extremes lie the sal-dominated moist deciduous forest of eastern India; the teak-dominated dry deciduous forest of central and southern India; and the babul-dominated thorn forest of the central Deccan and western Gangetic plain.^[95] Important Indian trees include the medicinal neem, widely used in rural Indian herbal remedies. The pipal fig tree, shown on the seals of Mohenjo-daro, shaded Gautama Buddha as he sought enlightenment. According to latest report, less than 12% of India's landmass is covered by dense forests.^[96]

Many Indian species are descendants of taxa originating in Gondwana, from which the Indian plate separated. Peninsular India's subsequent movement towards, and collision with, the Laurasian landmass set off a mass exchange of species. However, volcanism and climatic changes 20 million years ago caused the extinction of many endemic Indian forms.^[97] Soon thereafter, mammals entered India from Asia through two zoogeographical passes on either side of the emerging Himalaya.^[95] Consequently, among Indian species, only 12.6% of mammals and 4.5% of birds are endemic, contrasting with 45.8% of reptiles and 55.8% of amphibians.^[92] Notable endemics are the Nilgiri leaf monkey and the brown and carmine Beddome's toad of the Western Ghats. India contains 172, or 2.9%, of IUCN-designated threatened species.^[98] These include the Asiatic Lion, the Bengal Tiger, and the Indian white-rumped vulture, which suffered a near-extinction from ingesting the carrion of diclofenac-treated cattle.

In recent decades, human encroachment has posed a threat to India's wildlife; in response, the system of national parks and protected areas, first established in 1935, was substantially expanded. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act^[99] and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial habitat; in addition, the Forest Conservation Act^[100] was enacted in 1980. Along with more than five hundred wildlife sanctuaries, India hosts thirteen biosphere reserves,^[101] four of which are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; twenty-five wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention.^[102]

Geography

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India, the major portion of the Indian subcontinent, sits atop the Indian tectonic plate, a minor plate within the Indo-Australian Plate.^[75]

India's defining geological processes commenced seventy-five million years ago, when the Indian subcontinent, then part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a northeastwards drift—lasting fifty million years—across the then unformed Indian Ocean.^[75] The subcontinent's subsequent collision with the Eurasian Plate and subduction under it, gave rise to the Himalayas, the planet's highest mountains, which now abut India in the north and the north-east.^[75] In the former seabed immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast trough, which, having gradually been filled with river-borne sediment,^[76] now forms the Indo-Gangetic Plain.^[77] To the west of this plain, and cut off from it by the Aravalli Range, lies the Thar Desert.^[78]

The original Indian plate now survives as peninsular India, the oldest and geologically most stable part of India, and extending as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel ranges run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east.^[79] To their south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau, is flanked on the left and right by the coastal ranges, Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats respectively;^[80] the plateau contains the oldest rock formations in India, some over one billion years old. Constituted in such fashion, India lies to the north of the equator between 6°44' and 35°30' north latitude^[81] and 68°7' and 97°25' east longitude.^[82]

India's coast is 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi) long; of this distance, 5,423 kilometres (3,400 mi) belong to peninsular India, and 2,094 kilometres (1,300 mi) to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep Islands.^[15] According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland coast consists of the following: 43% sandy beaches, 11% rocky coast including cliffs, and 46% mudflats or marshy coast.^[15]

The Himalayas form the mountainous landscape of Northern India. Seen here is Ladakh in Jammu & Kashmir

Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganga (Ganges) and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal.^[83] Important tributaries of the Ganga(Ganges) include the Yamuna and the Kosi, whose extremely low gradient causes disastrous floods every year. Major peninsular rivers whose steeper gradients prevent their waters from flooding include the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Kaveri, and the Krishna, which also drain into the Bay of Bengal;^[84] and the Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea.^[85] Among notable coastal features of India are the marshy Rann of Kutch in western India, and the alluvial Sundarbans delta, which India shares with Bangladesh.^[86] India has two archipelagos: the Lakshadweep, coral atolls off India's south-western coast; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a volcanic chain in the Andaman Sea.^[87]

India's climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of which drive the monsoons.^[88] The Himalayas prevent cold Central Asian Katabatic wind from blowing in, keeping the bulk of the Indian subcontinent warmer than most locations at similar latitudes.^[89]^[90] The Thar Desert plays a crucial role in attracting the moisture-laden southwest summer monsoon winds that, between June and October, provide the majority of India's rainfall.^[88] Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane.^[91]

Foreign relations and military

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Since its independence in 1947, India has maintained cordial relationships with most nations. It took a leading role in the 1950s by advocating the independence of European colonies in Africa and Asia.^[68] India was involved in two brief military interventions in neighbouring countries – Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka and Operation Cactus in Maldives. India is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement.^[69] After the Sino-Indian War and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, India's relationship with the Soviet Union warmed and continued to remain so until the end of the Cold War. India has fought two wars with Pakistan over the Kashmir dispute. A third war between India and Pakistan in 1971 resulted in the creation of Bangladesh (then East Pakistan).^[70] Additional skirmishes have taken place between the two nations over the Siachen Glacier. In 1999, India and Pakistan fought an undeclared war over Kargil.

In recent years, India has played an influential role in the SAARC, and the WTO.^[72] India has provided as many as 55,000 Indian military and Indian police personnel to serve in thirty-five UN peace keeping operations across four continents.^[13] Despite criticism and military sanctions, India has consistently refused to sign the CTBT and the NPT, although Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently stated that India would be willing to join the NPT as a recognized nuclear weapons state (NWS). Recent overtures by the Indian government have strengthened relations with the United States, China and Pakistan. In the economic sphere, India has close relationships with other developing nations in South America, Asia and Africa.

India maintains the third-largest military force in the world, which consists of the Indian Army, Navy, Air Force^[36] and auxiliary forces such as the Paramilitary Forces, the Coast Guard, and the Strategic Forces Command. The President of India is the supreme commander of the Indian Armed Forces. India maintains close defence cooperation with Russia, Israel and France, who are the chief suppliers of arms. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) oversees indigenous development of sophisticated arms and military equipment, including ballistic missiles, fighter aircraft and main battle tanks, to reduce India's dependence on foreign imports. India became a nuclear power in 1974 after conducting an initial nuclear test, Operation Smiling Buddha and further underground testing in 1998. India maintains a "no first use" nuclear policy.^[73] On 10 October, 2008 Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement was signed, prior to which India received IAEA and NSG waivers, ending restrictions on nuclear technology commerce with which India became de facto sixth nuclear power in world.^[74]

Politics

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India is the most populous democracy in the world.^[60]^[61] For most of the years since independence, the federal government has been led by the Indian National Congress (INC).^[57] Politics in the states have been dominated by several national parties including the INC, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) and various regional parties. From 1950 to 1990, barring two brief periods, the INC enjoyed a parliamentary majority. The INC was out of power between 1977 and 1980, when the Janata Party won the election owing to public discontent with the state of emergency declared by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In 1989, a Janata Dal-led National Front coalition in alliance with the Left Front coalition won the elections but managed to stay in power for only two years.^[62] As the 1991 elections gave no political party a majority, the INC formed a minority government under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and was able to complete its five-year term.^[63]

The years 1996–1998 were a period of turmoil in the federal government with several short-lived alliances holding sway. The BJP formed a government briefly in 1996, followed by the United Front coalition that excluded both the BJP and the INC. In 1998, the BJP formed the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with several other parties and became the first non-Congress government to complete a full five-year term.^[64] In the 2004 Indian elections, the INC won the largest number of Lok Sabha seats and formed a government with a coalition called the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), supported by various Left-leaning parties and members opposed to the BJP. The UPA again came into power in the 2009 general election; however, the representation of the Left leaning parties within the coalition has significantly reduced.^[65] Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962 to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term.^[66]

Government

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The Constitution of India, the longest and the most exhaustive constitution of any independent nation in the world, came into force on 26 January, 1950.^[41] The preamble of the constitution defines India as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.^[42] India has a bicameral parliament operating under a Westminster-style parliamentary system. Its form of government was traditionally described as being 'quasi-federal' with a strong centre and weaker states,^[43] but it has grown increasingly federal since the late 1990s as a result of political, economic and social changes.^[44]

The President of India is the head of state^[45] elected indirectly by an electoral college^[46] for a five-year term.^[47]^[48] The Prime Minister is the head of government and exercises most executive powers.^[45] Appointed by the President,^[49] the Prime Minister is by convention supported by the party or political alliance holding the majority of seats in the lower house of Parliament.^[45] The executive branch consists of the President, Vice-President, and the Council of Ministers (the Cabinet being its executive committee) headed by the Prime Minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of either house of parliament. In the Indian parliamentary system, the executive is subordinate to the legislature, with the Prime Minister and his Council being directly responsible to the lower house of the Parliament.^[50]

The Legislature of India is the bicameral Parliament, which consists of the upper house called the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the lower house called the Lok Sabha (House of People).^[51] The Rajya Sabha, a permanent body, has 245 members serving staggered six year terms.^[52] Most are elected indirectly by the state and territorial legislatures in proportion to the state's population.^[52] 543 of the Lok Sabha's 545 members are directly elected by popular vote to represent individual constituencies for five year terms.^[52] The other two members are nominated by the President from the Anglo-Indian community if the President is of the opinion that the community is not adequately represented.^[52]

India has a unitary three-tier judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, twenty-one High Courts, and a large number of trial courts.^[53] The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over cases involving fundamental rights and over disputes between states and the Centre, and appellate jurisdiction over the High Courts.^[54] It is judicially independent,^[53] and has the power to declare the law and to strike down Union or State laws which contravene the Constitution.^[55] The role as the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution is one of the most important functions of the Supreme Court.^[56]

History

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Stone Age rock shelters with paintings at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh are the earliest known traces of human life in India. The first known permanent settlements appeared over 9,000 years ago and gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation,^[25] dating back to 3300 BCE in western India. It was followed by the Vedic period, which laid the foundations of Hinduism and other cultural aspects of early Indian society, and ended in the 500s BCE. From around 550 BCE, many independent kingdoms and republics known as the Mahajanapadas were established across the country.

In the third century BCE, most of South Asia was united into the Maurya Empire by Chandragupta Maurya and flourished under Ashoka the Great.^[27] From the third century CE, the Gupta dynasty oversaw the period referred to as ancient "India's Golden Age."^[28]^[29] Empires in Southern India included those of the Chalukyas, the Cholas and the Vijayanagara Empire. Science, technology, engineering, art, logic, language, literature, mathematics, astronomy, religion and philosophy flourished under the patronage of these kings.

Following invasions from Central Asia between the 10th and 12th centuries, much of North India came under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate and later the Mughal Empire. Under the rule of Akbar the Great, India enjoyed much cultural and economic progress as well as religious harmony.^[30]^[31] Mughal emperors gradually expanded their empires to cover large parts of the subcontinent. However, in North-Eastern India, the dominant power was the Ahom kingdom of Assam, among the few kingdoms to have resisted Mughal subjugation. The first major threat to Mughal imperial power came from a Hindu Rajput king Maha Rana Pratap of Mewar in the 14th century and later from a Hindu state known as the Maratha confederacy, that dominated much of India in the mid-18th century.^[32]

From the 16th century, European powers such as Portugal, the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom established trading posts and later took advantage of internal conflicts to establish colonies in the country. By 1856, most of India was under the control of the British East India Company.^[33] A year later, a nationwide insurrection of rebelling military units and kingdoms, known as India's First War of Independence or the Sepoy Mutiny, seriously challenged the Company's control but eventually failed. As a result of the instability, India was brought under the direct rule of the British Crown.

In the 20th century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the Indian National Congress and other political organisations.^[34] Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi led millions of people in several national campaigns of non-violent civil disobedience.^[18]

On 15 August 1947, India gained independence from British rule, but at the same time the Muslim-majority areas were partitioned to form a separate state of Pakistan.^[35] On 26 January 1950, India became a republic and a new constitution came into effect.^[36]

Since independence, India has faced challenges from religious violence, casteism, naxalism, terrorism and regional separatist insurgencies, especially in Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast India. Since the 1990s terrorist attacks have affected many Indian cities. India has unresolved territorial disputes with P. R. China, which in 1962 escalated into the Sino-Indian War; and with Pakistan, which resulted in wars in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999. India is a founding member of the United Nations (as British India) and the Non-Aligned Movement. In 1974, India conducted an underground nuclear test^[37] and five more tests in 1998, making India a nuclear state.^[37] Beginning in 1991, significant economic reforms^[38] have transformed India into one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, increasing its global clout.^[19]