INDIA | INDIA | INDIA | INDIA |
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF INDIA
India is a South Asian country. It is the seventh-largest
country by area around 3,287,263 km2 , the second-most populous country with 1,352,642,280 ( 2018
estimation) , and the most populous democracy in the world. It is bounded by
the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of
Bengal on the southeast. It is a mega diverse (high biological diversity)
country. It’s forest cover is 701,673 km2 which is around twenty-one
percentage of the country’s total land area. It is home of 172 IUCN designated
threatened animal species, some of those are Bengal Tiger, Ganga river dolphin,
gharial ( a crocodile) etc. It hosts more than five hundred wildlife
sanctuaries and thirteen biosphere, four of which are part of the World Network
of Biosphere Reserves, five wetlands are registered under the Ramsar
Convention.
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| India map |
It is a secular federal republic governed in a democratic
parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multi-lingual, multi-religious,
multi-cultural diversity and multi-ethnic society. It is the birthplace of four
of the world’s major religions namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.
It is notable for its religious diversity with Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism,
Islam,Jainism and Christianity. The 2011
census reported the religion in India with the largest number of followers was
Hinduism followed by Islam, and Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism,Parsis and
others. It has the world’s largest Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Zoroastrian ( Parsis and Irani), and has the third-largest Muslim population (the largest for a
non-Muslim majority country). Throughout India’s history, religion has been an
important part of the country’s culture. Religious diversity and Religious
tolerance are both established in the country by law and customs. The
Constitutions of India has declared the right to freedom of religious to be a
fundamental right.
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| Religious Diversity |
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| Indian Religion |
India has the world’s second highest number of languages
after Papua New Guinea. The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists 22
languages, which have been referred to as scheduled languages and given
recognition status. According to the census of India of 2001, India has 122
major languages and 159 other languages. However, figures from other source
vary, primarily due to differences in definition of the terms “language” and
“dialect”. The 2001 census also reported that 30 languages were spoken by more
than a million native speakers and 122 were spoken by more ten thousand people.
English and Hindi are important languages, English is used in higher education
and Hindi is most commonly spoken language across much of North and Central
India.
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| Indian languages' pie chart |
It is a federal union comprising 28 states and 9 union territories,
for a total of 37 entities. The states and union territories are further
subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. India has been
ruled by many different ethnic groups throughout its history.
During British Raj it was divided into provinces, and princely
states which were directly or indirectly governed by the British. In addition
there were several other colonial enclaves controlled by France and Portugal.
At the time of independence,
the provinces which were directly governed by the British were come under the
control of Independent India and the
political integration of those territories which were indirectly governed by
the British i.e princely states, into India was a declared objective of the government
of India over the next decade. Through a combination of factors (diplomatic and
military), leaders convinced the rulers of the princely states to accede to India.
This accession process was proceeded to secure and extent the central government’s
authority over these states. The remaining
colonial enclaves were also integrated into India though diplomatic and military
means. These diplomatic means has given some special powers and provisions for
states and union territories, which are stated in the Constitution of India. and presently India has 28 states and 9 union territories after bifurcation of state Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories , one is Jammu and Kashmir and other one is Ladakh on 31 October, 2019.
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