Introduction

The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. Arab incursions starting in the 8th century and Turkish in the 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. Indian armed forces in the British army played a vital role in both World Wars. Nonviolent resistance to British colonialism under Gandhi and 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. India's nuclear weapons testing in 1998 caused Pakistan to conduct its own tests that same year. In November 2008, terrorists allegedly originating from Pakistan conducted a series of coordinated attacks in Mumbai, India's financial capital. Despite pressing problems such as significant overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty, and widespread corruption, rapid economic development is fueling India's rise on the world stage.

Geographical Location

India is located in Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan. It dominates the South Asian subcontinent because it is near important Indian Ocean trade routes. India is slightly more than one third the size of the US, with a total area of 3,287,590 sq. km., of which 2,973,190 sq. km. is land, and 314,400 sq. km. is water. India has 7,000 km. of coastline. The terrain is upland plain (Deccan Plateau in the south, flat to rolling plain along the Ganges, deserts in the west, and the Himalayas are in the north. Natural resources include coal (fourth- largest reserves in the world), iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas, diamonds, petroleum, limestone, and arable land.

Climate

The climate varies from tropical monsoon in the south to temperate in the north. India's natural hazards include droughts, flash floods, as well as widespread and destructive flooding from monsoonal rains; severe thunderstorms and earthquakes.

Population

The estimated population of India is 1,156,897,766 (July 2009 est.). The population growth rate is 1.407% with a birth rate of 21.72 per 1000 and the death rate of 7.6 per thousand. Life expectancy at birth is 66.09 years. The ethnic groups in India are Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000).

Languages

English enjoys the status of subsidiary official language, and is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication. Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 41% of the people. Other languages include Bengali 8.1%, Telugu 7.2%, Marathi 7%, Tamil 5.9%, Urdu 5%, Gujarati 4.5%, Kannada 3.7%, Malayalam 3.2%, Oriya 3.2%, Punjabi 2.8%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.2%, other 5.9%. 61% of the population age 15 and over can read and write.

Religion

The religions of India are Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other groups including Buddhist, Jain, Parsi 2.8% (2001).