India, officially known as Republic of India can aptly be described by the starting words of Charles Dickens in 'The Tale of Two Cities':
India is a country full of such paradoxes. Be it economic stratas in the society, culture, climate or the terrain. Yes Sir, a nation of contradictions, that is India. People don't realize how vast, varied and complicated India is and their expectations and views are based on visiting one part of India. What people don't realize is that because the place is so vast, each state in India is like a different country with it's own culture, language and history. I have been traveling all over India over the past few years and each place I visit shows us how varied the culture of India is and that is the best part. We are stronger because of this amazing, varied cultural history as it gives us a standing few other countries have.
The name 'India' is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers called "The Aryans". They called it the Sindhu river. The Persian invaders started calling it the "Hindu river". The combination of these two words gives the India another name of "Hindustan". (This account is now disputed as there are findings that suggest that Aryans were not invaders from outside but were rather indigenous people of the region itself).
India is the Seventh largest country in the world and is part of the continent of Asia. The Indian subcontinent is separated from the mainland Asia by the Himalayas and is surrounded by water on three sides: the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Arabian Sea in the west, and the Indian Ocean to the south.
India covers an area of about 3.28 million sq. km and lies between 8°4' and 37°6' N latitude and 68°7' and 97°25' E longitude. It has a coastline of 7,517 kilometers (4,671 mi). On the basis of its relief features, tectonic history and stratigraphy, India can be divided into several distinct physical divisions.
Each of these have their own unique geography and climate giving India a variety of climates, varying from Arid Desert in the West, Alpine climate in the Himalayan North to the humid tropical regions which support the island territories along with the rainforests in the southwest.
More information about Indian Geography can be found at: Mapsofindia.com: Geography and Wikipedia: Geography of India
India consists of 28 states and 8 Union territories, listed below along with their capitals.
India is one of the oldest civilizations in the world, and over the years it witnessed the rise and fall of various empires, cultures and civilizations, which resulted in the fusion of several customs and traditions that are now reflected in the rich culture and heritage of the Country.
Experts believe that the Hominin expansion from Africa reached the Indian subcontinent approximately two million years ago and archeologists have found fossils of Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis in the Narmada Valley which have been dated to about half a million years. By 7000BC, the formerly nomadic tribes had discovered agriculture and slowly evolved into urban settlements. By 3000BC, these cultures united into an integrated environment in what is now the Indus Valley Region. The Indus Valley Civilization lasted for a long time but started declining around 1800BC. The exact reason for the decline is not known but there are multiple theories about why that might have been the case. After the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization, the Aryan age began which then evolved over the years into multiple kingdoms and civilizations.
Indian History is long enough that I have created a separate section of the site that tries to give a brief overview of the vast number of years and content. You can access it using the link below.
Learn more about the Indian History.
According to the 2001 census, out of the total population of 1,028 million in the Country, Hindus constituted the majority with 80.5%, Muslims came second at 13.4%, followed by Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and others. (Source: India at a Glance)
I don't claim to be an expert but have writen a few articles where I talk about my understanding of various religions. I will welcome feedback to help me improve my understanding of Religion. However, please note that nonsense preaching is going to be ignored at best or made fun of at the worst.
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Culture is what makes people into a nation and culture in India although diverse and varied, still binds the country together into a common identification. The Indian culture, particularly drama and the arts, in spite of having passed through many changes, is characterized by an unmistakable unity and continuity. Though there are diverse languages, religions, traditions, festivals and attire, the rich heritage of the culture survives!
Read more about Indian Art and culture and how it has evolved over the ages.
India is a nation of diverse cultural background with each culture having its own language both written and spoken. Because of this India has 22 official languages and over 1000 spoken languages. Unlike other countries, India has a somewhat unique challenge where folks from one state in India have a completely different language from another state. I see this in my own family where my wife who is from Tamil Nadu speaks Tamil as her mother tongue and I speak Hindi. The same was the case with one of my friend's parents who spoke English at home because neither of them could speak the other person's mother tongue. In fact, this is why me and Jani mostly speak in English at home.
As you can imagine this makes the topic of a national language a very sensitive and controversial topic. There have been attempts to make Hindi the National language but that was disputed strongly by speakers of other languages such as Tamil and Bengali. I doubt we will ever have a single National language which is why we have 22 official languages with English being the common language across all India. (Although nowadays, Hindi is becoming more popular as well).
Click through for more information on Indian Languages.
The Indian flag is a tricolour with deep saffron on the top, white in the middle and green at the bottom in equal proportion. Ratio of the width of the flag to its length is two to three. In the centre of the white band is a navy blue wheel which represents the "Charkha". Its design is that of the wheel which appears on the abacus of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka. Its diameter approximates to the width of the white band and has 24 spokes. The colors of the flag do not represent any community or religion but rather represent the following:
Saffron/(kesaria) - Piety and Patriotism
White - Purity and Peace
Green - Prosperity
Chakra - Progress (24 hours - for 24 spokes)
The Indian Flag was created by the Constituent Assembly on 23 June 1947. Click through to get more information on the Indian Flag.
The song 'Jana Gana Mana' composed by Rabindranath Tagore is the national anthem of India. It was first sung on 27 December 1911 at the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress and was adopted as the Indian national anthem on 24 January 1950.
More Information on the Indian National Anthem is available here.
A national emblem symbolically represents a nation. National emblems may appear on many things such as the national flag, coat of arms, or other patriotic materials.
The emblem of India is an adaptation from the Sarnath Lion on an Ashoka pillar erected by Emperor Ashoka to mark the spot where Gautama Buddha first taught and where the Buddhist religion was born.
Learn more about the Indian National Emblem