Full country name: Republic of India
Area: 3,287,590 sq km (1,229,737 sq mi)
Population: 1,014,003,817
Capital city: New Delhi
People: 72% Indo-Aryan, 25% Dravidian, 3% other
Language: Hindi
Religion: 80% Hindu, 14% Muslim, 2.4% Christian, 2% Sikh, 0.7% Buddhist,
0.5% Jains, 0.4% other
Government: Federal Republic
President: Kocheril Raman NarayananGDP: US$2.2 trillion
GDP per head: US$2200
Annual growth: 5.4%
Inflation: 5.4%
Major industries: Textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation
equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton,
jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes; cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry,
fish
Major trading partners: US, Hong Kong, UK, Japan, Germany, Belgium, Saudi
Arabia
The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, goes back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier inhabitants created classical Indian culture. Arab incursions starting in the 8th century and Turkish in 12th were followed by European traders beginning in the late 15th century. By the 19th century, Britain had assumed political control of virtually all Indian lands. Nonviolent resistance to British colonialism under Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru led to independence in 1947. The subcontinent was divided into the secular state of India and the smaller Muslim state of Pakistan. A third war between the two countries in 1971 resulted in East Pakistan becoming the separate nation of Bangladesh. Fundamental concerns in India include the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, massive overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and ethnic strife, all this despite impressive gains in economic investment and output.
India's economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of support services. More than a third of the population is too poor to be able to afford an adequate diet. India's international payments position remained strong in 2000 with adequate foreign exchange reserves, moderately depreciating nominal exchange rates, and booming exports of software services. Growth in manufacturing output slowed, and electricity shortages continue in many regions.
Religions
Religion seeps into every facet of Indian life. Despite being a secular democracy, India is one of the few countries on earth in which the social and religious structures that define the nation's identity remain intact, and have continued to do so for at least 4000 years despite invasions, persecution, European colonialism and political upheaval. Change is inevitably taking place as modern technology reaches further and further into the fabric of society but essentially rural India remains much the same as it has for thousands of years. So resilient are its social and religious institutions that it has absorbed, ignored or thrown off all attempts to radically change or destroy them.
India's major religion, Hinduism, is practised by approximately 80% of the population. In terms of the number of adherents, it's the largest religion in Asia and one of the world's oldest extant faiths. Hinduism has a vast pantheon of gods, a number of holy books and postulates that everyone goes through a series of births or reincarnations that eventually lead to spiritual salvation. With each birth, you can move closer to or further from eventual enlightenment; the deciding factor is your karma. The Hindu religion has three basic practices. They are puja or worship, the cremation of the dead, and the rules and regulations of the caste system. Hinduism is not a proselytising religion since you cannot be converted: you're either born a Hindu or you're not.
Buddhism was founded in northern India in about 500 BC, spread rapidly when emperor Ashoka embraced it but was gradually reabsorbed into Hinduism. Today Hindus regard the Buddha as another incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. There are now only 6.6 million Buddhists in India, but important Buddhist sites in northern India, such as Bodhgaya, Sarnath (near Varanasi) and Kushinagar (near Gorakhpur) remain important sites of pilgrimage.The Jain religion also began life as an attempt to reform Brahminical Hinduism. It emerged at the same time as Buddhism, and for many of the same reasons. The Jains now number only about 4.5 million and are found predominantly in the west and south-west of India. The religion has never found adherents outside India. Jains believe that the universe is infinite and was not created by a deity. They also believe in reincarnation and eventual spiritual salvation by following the path of the Jain prophets.
There are more than 100 million Muslims in India, making it one of the largest Muslim nations on earth. Islam is the dominant religion in the neighbouring countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh, and there is a Muslim majority in Jammu & Kashmir. Muslim influence in India is particularly strong in the fields of architecture, art and food. The Sikhs in India number 18 million and are predominantly located in the Punjab. The religion was originally intended to bring together the best of Hinduism and Islam. Its basic tenets are similar to those of Hinduism with the important modification that the Sikhs are opposed to caste distinctions. The holiest shrine of the Sikh religion is the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Languages
India is as close as the world comes to Babel. There's no 'Indian' language per se, which is partly why English is still widely spoken almost half a century after the British left India. Eighteen languages are officially recognised by the constitution, but over 1600 minor languages and dialects were listed in the 1991 census. Language is a heavily politicised issue, not least because many state boundaries have been drawn on linguistic lines. Major efforts have been made to promote Hindi as the national language and to gradually phase out English. A stumbling block to this plan is that while Hindi is the predominant language in the north, it bears little relation to the Dravidian languages of the south. In the south, very few people speak Hindi. The Indian upper class clings to English as the shared language of the educated elite, championing it as both a badge of their status and as a passport to the world of international business. In truth, only about 3% of Indians have a firm grasp of the language.
Art
Indian art is basically religious in its themes and developments, and its appreciation requires at least some background knowledge of the country's faiths. The highlights include classical Indian dance, Hindu temple architecture and sculpture (where one begins and the other ends is often hard to define), the military and urban architecture of the Mughals, miniature painting, and mesmeric Indian music. The latter is difficult for visitors to appreciate since there is no sense of harmony in the Western sense, but don't be put off by this.
Born June 20, 1952, Calcutta, India.
Editor of the Stanford University Press ('85-6).
Works:
Poetry - Mappings (1981), The Humble Administrator's Garden (1985),
All You Who Sleep Tonight (translation,1990), Beastly Tales From Here
And There (1992); Travel - From Heaven Lake (1983);
Novels - The Golden Gate (1986), A Suitable Boy (1993), An
Equal Music (1999).
R. K. Narayan
Renowned English novelist of international fame, R. K. Narayan was born in Madras in 1906. He had his initial education in Madras (Chennai) and later at the Maharaja's College in Mysore. He was living in Mysore, the place which had maximum influence on him and reflected in his novels, till recently. Presently, he is living in Madras. Dr. Narayan has travelled extensively. Most of his works, starting from his first novel, 'Swami and His Friends' (1935) is set in the fictional town of Malgudi. His novels reflect the Indian conditions and life and have a unique identity of their own. Malgudi comes to life in his novel, leaving a feeling that the reader is a part of Dr Narayan's fictional place.
Works:
Swami and His Friends (1935)
Waiting for the Mahatma (1955)
A Horse and two Goats, stories (1970)
The Ramayana; a shortened modern prose version (1972)
A Tiger for Malgudi (1983)
Salt & Sawdust : stories and table talk (1993)
Salman Rushdie
Born in Bombay, India, June 19, 1947, is best known for his novel The Satanic Verses (1989), a fantasy whose publication aroused the wrath of many Muslims and persuaded Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini to offer a multimillion-dollar reward for the author's assassination. Rushdie was forced to go into hiding.
Works:
Rushdie's work hinges on his many identities--an Indian Muslim who writes in English, whose family left India for Pakistan, and who now lives in England. Midnight's Children (1981), which first brought Rushdie a wide audience and won Britain's Booker Prize, is an allegory about the birth of independent India. Shame (1983) focuses on Pakistan's recent rulers. The Satanic Verses is a complex work whose two protagonists, like Rushdie, are expatriate Indians. The passage describing the birth of a religion resembling Islam are seen as blasphemous by Muslims, and the book has been banned in most Islamic countries. Despite Rushdie's denial of any intentional blasphemy, and his pubic decision in 1990 "to enter into the body of Islam after a lifetime spent outside it," his death sentence remained in force. He has continued to write, however, publishing both the children's tales in Haroun and the Sea of Stories and the essays in Imaginary Homelands in 1991
Visas: Six month multiple-entry visas are now issued to most nationals
regardless of whether you intend staying that long or re-entering the country.
Only six-month tourist visas are extendable. Be careful to check whether your
visa is valid from the date of entry or the date of issue.
Health risks: Cholera, dengue fever, dysentery, hepatitis, malaria, meningitis (trekking areas only) and typhoid. Many of India's larger cities are highly polluted and travellers with respiratory ailments may wish to take precautionary measures.
The Indian Railways system is deservedly legendary and Indian rail travel is unlike any other sort of travel on earth. At times rail travel can be uncomfortable and frustrating, but it's also an integral part of the Indian travel experience. You should try to pick up the key points of Indian train etiquette as quickly as possible, otherwise you'll find yourself hopelessly attempting to defend your own private space. There are a number of different classes and a number of different trains: you want express or mail trains, but try all the different classes just for the hell of it. The Indian reservation system is labyrinthine and worthy of anthropological study, but be patient because it's one of the few bureaucracies in the country that actually works. When booking tickets, take advantage of the tourist quota allotment if one exists. You'll find it easier to reserve a seat this way.
Buses vary widely from state to state, but there is often a choice of buses on the main routes. Private buses tend to be faster, more expensive and more comfortable and can make a lot of sense on longer jaunts. Bus travel is generally crowded, cramped, slow and uncomfortable. This is the good news. The bad news is the rugby scrum you often need to negotiate in order to board, and the howling Hindi pop music which blares from the tinny speakers. Buses are the only way to get to Kashmir and the best way to get to Nepal from Uttar Pradesh.
You can hire a car and driver very easily, but you need nerves of steel and excellent karma to consider driving yourself. Cars are usually rented on a daily basis and come with a limited number of kilometres per day.Local transportalso includes buses, taxis, auto-rickshaws, cycle-rickshaws and tongas (horse-drawn carriages).
boundary with China in dispute; status of Kashmir with Pakistan; water-sharing problems with Pakistan over the Indus River (Wular Barrage); a portion of the boundary with Bangladesh is indefinite; exchange of 151 enclaves along border with Bangladesh subject to ratification by Indian parliament; dispute with Bangladesh over New Moore/South Talpatty Island.
In light of the escalating dispute over Kashmir and the possibility of war between India and Pakistan, many governments are urging against travel to both countries and advising their citizens who are already there to leave as soon as possible. The US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Japan and Iran are all warning their nationals to depart from India immediately, including family members of government workers and non-essential embassy staff. Even the United Nations is evacuating the families of its personnel in the region. The warning applies to all of India, not just the Kashmir region. Those who choose to stay despite the warnings are urged to register with their embassy.
The prospect of nuclear war raises the stakes of the long-running border dispute, which has been an issue between the countries for more than 50 years. During the 1947 partition that led to the creation of Pakistan, Kashmir was free to choose which country it wanted to join. The local leader allied with India, and the region has been contested ever since, leading to two wars between the neighbors. Islamic guerrillas have led a violent campaign since 1989 to make Kashmir break away and remain either independent or join Pakistan. Neither India nor Pakistan are willing to consider the so-called 'third option' of an independent Kashmiri state.
The conflict in Kashmir is only the latest of India's woes. Religious violence between Hindus and Muslims in the state of Gujarat has claimed more than 900 lives since February 2002. And in Andhra Pradesh, a heat wave in mid-May killed over 1000 people.