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India is the world's largest democracy, and one of the oldest and most successful in Asia. It is also the world's second most populous country, with a great variety of peoples, several major religious groupings, and 700 languages. In the 50 years since independence, in 1947, it has on the whole managed humanely and responsibly where other countries in the region have become totalitarian, or succumbed to military rule. However, there are major conflicts-there have been three wars with Pakistan alone. The dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir remains unresolved. The caste system also produces endemic injustice. Millions live in desperate poverty. But Indians can change their government democratically by going to the polls, and the lot of most people has slowly but steadily improved. After a long period of state regulation of industry, barriers to outside investment, and a maze of protectionist controls, the country has begun to open its economy to the outside world. Population growth, however, with a figure of 2% on a base of almost a billion, tends to cancel out the nation's gains.
Physical features and land use North to south, India can be divided into three regions: the Himalayas and their foothills; the Indo-Gangetic Plain; and the Deccan Plateau. From the northern most border, the heavily glaciated terrain of the Himalayas-the world's highest mountains cover 15% of the total surface area. The name Himalaya comes from the Nepalese him (snows) and alya (home of), the mountains being revered as the home of the gods. The peaks rise to elevations of over 7,000 m (23,000 ft) in the Ladakh and Karakoram ranges. The western highlands towards the Karakoram mountains are harsh, dry, and inhabited only by small communities of herds people. At lower altitudes alpine meadows are grazed by the sheep of migratory pastoralists who arrive in the summer with their flocks. Lower still, rice terraces and orchards are found in the Vale of Kashmir.
The eastern highlands of northern Assam are markedly different. They are much wetter-this is where rhododendrons and magnolias grow wild and where terraced hills support rice, buckwheat, and barley. The climate of the high plateau of Meghalaya, separated from the Himalayas by the valley of the Brahmaputra, is damp and cool. On its southern flanks, Cherrapunji has one of the world's highest rainfalls, averaging 10,798 mm (421.1 in) per year.
South of the northern mountains lie the terai or foothill plains; still further south the main plains region of India stretches from the western coastal lowlands, in a northern arc past the Thar Desert and down the Gangetic Plain to the mouth of the Hooghly on the Bay of Bengal. In the northwest the Punjab and Halyana farmers grow winter wheat, summer rice, cotton, and sugarcane, with sorghum in the drier areas. On the lowlands of the central part of Uttar Pradesh millet and sorghum are preferred to wheat and rice. Jute is cultivated where the Ganges enters the distributary system of the delta, while mangrove swamps line the marine margins of the delta itself.
The Thar Desert in the northwest contains a broad area of dunes in Rajasthan; southwest of this lie the cotton-growing lands of Gujarat, which includes the low peninsular plateau of Kathiawar between the Gulf of Khambhat and the Gulf of Khachchh, not far from the Pakistan border. The Vindya Range east of the Gulf of Khamhhat separates the Indo-Gangetic Plain from peninsular India and the Deccan Plateau. This plateau contains some of the world's oldest rocks, large tracts being covered with later basalt flows. The Western edge of the plateau is defined by the mountain chain of the Western Ghats. At the foot of these mountains lies a coastal plain with coconut groves, fishing villages, rice fields, and tapioca plantations. On the plateau itself the main crops are millet and pulses.
History Of India's various civilizations, the earliest developed in the Indus Valley (c,2600 BC) and in the Ganges Valley (c.1500 BC). At this time, the subcontinent was mainly peopled by ethnic Dravidians. It is thought that the Indus civilization succumbed to an invasion of Sanskrit speaking Aryan peoples who introduced the caste system, a scheme of social division that is fundamental in Indian life. Another important early civilization was the Maurya, which under Ashoka, who reigned from 273 to 232 BC, came to dominate the subcontinent. Later, a succession of Arab, Turkish, and Mongol influences led to the founding in 1526 of the Mogul Empire, which under Akbar (1542-1605) was extended throughout most of northern India and part of the Deccan. It was during the time of Mogul rule that the Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan, The British effectively controlled India from 1805, during the nineteenth century introducing a civil service and a code of law which have profoundly shaped the nation since that time. With the coming of independence in 1947, the division between Hindus and Muslims resulted in the violent and tumultuous partition of the country into India and Pakistan. This first major division to split the country indicates that the most serious rifts within Indian society tend to be religious. In recent years the Sikhs of the Punjah have also been agitating for independence.
Economy Once essentially rural, India's economy is now a mix of village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a variety of modern industries, and innumerable support services. During the 1980s economic growth allowed a marked increase in real per capita private consumption. Since 1991 production, trade, and investment reforms have provided new, opportunities for Indian business and some 200 million middle class consumers.
Among the nation's strengths is a home market of some 900 million, along with a workforce that includes many who are highly skilled, including those trained in high-tech areas such as computer programming. The textile sector is highly efficient. There has been a massive rise in foreign investment as the country has opened up to foreign competition. The downside of this situation is a sizeable budget deficit along with high defense spending, (including that for nuclear weapons) because of the long running and continuing conflict with Pakistan. Other negative features include an absence of even elementary social services, poor roads, inadequate port facilities, and an antiquated telecommunications system.
STATES AND CAPITALS Andhra Pradesh: Hyderabad Arunachal Pradesh: Ita nagar Assam: Dispur Bihar: Patna Goa: Panaji Gujarat: Gandhinagar Haryana: Chandigarh Himachal Pradesh: Simla Jammu and Kashmir: Srinagar (summer) Jammu (winter) Karnataka: Bangalore Kerala: Trivandrum Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal Maharashtra: Mumbai (Bombay) Manipur: Imphal Meghalaya: Shillong Mizoram: Aizawi Nagaland: Kohima Orissa: Bhubaneswar Punjab: Chandigarh Rajastan: ]aipur Sikkim: Gangtok Tamil Nadu: Madras Tripura: Agartala Uttar Pradesh: Lucknow West Bengal: Calcutta UNION TERRITORIES Andaman and Nicobar Islands: Port Blair Chandigarh: Chandigarh Dadra and Nagar Haveli: Silvassa Daman and Diu: Daman Delhi: Delhi Lakshadweep: Kavaratti Pondicherry: Pondicherry
Fact File
OFFICIAL NAME Republic of India FORM OF GOVERNMENT Federal republic with two legislative bodies (Council of States and People's Assembly)
CAPITAL New Delhi
AREA 3,287,590 sq km (1,269,338 sq miles) TIME ZONE GMT + 5.5 hours POPULATION 999,826,804 PROJECTED POPULATION 2005 1,096,929,474 POPULATION DENSITY 304.1 per sq km (787.7 per sq mile) LIFE EXPECTANCY 63.4
INFANT MORTALITY (PER 1,000) 60.8 OFFICIAL LANGUAGES Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sind hi, Sanskrit, English
OTHER LANGUAGES Hindustani, about 700 indigenous languages LITERACY RATE 51.2%
RELIGIONS Hindu 80%, Muslim 14%, Christian 2.4%, Sikh 2%, Buddhist 0.7%, Jain 0.5%, other 0.4% ETHNIC GROUPS Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% CURRENCY Indian rupee ECONOMY Agriculture 63%, services 26%, industry 11% GNP PER CAPITA US$340
CLIMATE Tropical in south, temperate in north; monsoons June to September HIGHEST POINT Kanchenjunga 8,598 m (28,208 ft)
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