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| Alternate titles: Bhārat, Bhāratavarsha, Republic of India |
India, the country that occupies most of South Asia. Its capital, New Delhi, was built in the 20th century just south of the historic center of Old Delhi to serve as the administrative center of India. Its government is a constitutional republic representing a very diverse population of thousands of ethnic groups and perhaps hundreds of languages. With about one-sixth of the world's population, India is the second most populous country after China.
India
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It is known from archaeological evidence that a highly developed urban culture-the Indus civilization-dominated the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent between 2600 and 2000 B.C. From this period India functioned as an almost self-sufficient political and cultural arena, which gave rise to a distinctive tradition associated chiefly with Hinduism, which has its roots largely in the Indus civilization. Other religions, notably Buddhism and Jainism, originated in India - although their presence is now very rare - and over the centuries the people of the Indian subcontinent have developed a rich intellectual life in such fields as mathematics, astronomy, architecture, literature, music and fine arts.
Throughout its history, India has been intermittently disturbed by raids beyond its northern mountain wall. Of particular importance was the arrival of Islam, brought by Arab, Turkish, Persian and other attackers from the northwest in the early eighth century. Some of them eventually stayed; by the thirteenth century, most of the Indian subcontinent was under Muslim rule and the number of Muslims was steadily increasing. It was not until the arrival of the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama in 1498 and the subsequent establishment of European naval supremacy in the region that India experienced significant external influences arriving by sea, a process that culminated in the decline of the ruling Muslim elite and the British Empire. takeover of the Indian subcontinent.
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal in Agra, India, was designated a World Heritage Site in 1983.
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Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India: fort
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India: fort
The Rajput fort overlooking (foreground) Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India, was designated a World Heritage Site in 2013.
Jean Isaac
Direct British rule, which began in 1858, brought about the political and economic unification of the Indian subcontinent.When British rule ended in 1947, the Indian subcontinent was divided along religious lines into two different nations: mostly Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan.Later, the eastern part of Pakistan split off to form Bangladesh. Many British institutions remained in place (such as the parliamentary system of government), English remained a widely used lingua franca, and India remained part of the Commonwealth. Hindi became the official language (and a number of other local languages gained official status), while the English-speaking educated class flourished.
India remains one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. In addition to its many religions and castes, India is home to countless castes and tribes, as well as more than a dozen major language groups and hundreds of minor language groups belonging to several independent language families. Religious minorities, including Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains, still make up a large portion of the population; collectively, their numbers exceed those of any country except China. Sincere attempts have been made to instill a sense of nationhood in such a diverse population, but tensions between neighboring groups have persisted and have sometimes led to outbreaks of violence. However, social legislation has done much to alleviate the disadvantages previously suffered by the "untouchable" classes, tribal populations, women and other traditionally disadvantaged segments of society. At the time of independence, India was fortunate to have many world leaders, including Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, who successfully motivated the masses at home and gave India a place abroad. The country has a role in world affairs.
The growing material prosperity and cultural dynamism of contemporary India - despite domestic difficulties and persistent economic disparities - is reflected in its well-developed infrastructure and highly diversified industrial base, its pool of scientific and technical personnel (one of the world's largest), the pace of its agricultural expansion, and its rich and vibrant cultural exports.For music, literature, and cinema. Although the country's population is still largely rural, India has three of the most populous and cosmopolitan cities in the world: Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi. Three other Indian cities - Bengaluru (Bangalore), Chennai (Madras) and Hyderabad - are among the world's fastest-growing high-tech centers, and most of the world's major computer and software companies now have offices in India.
The Land
India, which is about one-third of the coastline, is bordered by six countries. It is bordered to the northwest by Pakistan, to the north by Nepal, China and Bhutan, and to the east by Myanmar (Burma). Bangladesh to the east is surrounded by India to the north, east and west. The island nation of Sri Lanka is located about 65 km from the southeast coast of India, across the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar.
Himachal Pradesh, India: Kullu Valley
This is a settlement in the Kullu Valley in central Himachal Pradesh, India.
Holton Group / Super Stock
The territory of India-along with Bangladesh and most of Pakistan-is a well-defined subcontinent, separated from the rest of Asia by the towering mountain wall of the Himalayas to the north and by mountain ranges bordering the west and east. In terms of area, India is the seventh largest country in the world.
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Most of India is located on a large peninsula, surrounded by the Arabian Sea to the west and the Bay of Bengal to the east. Cape Comorin, the southernmost point of the Indian continent, marks the dividing line between these two bodies of water.
India has two federations and two territories consisting of the islands: Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located between the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea.
satisfaction
It is now generally accepted that India's geographical location, continental layout and basic geological structure are the result of the process of plate tectonics - the movement of massive plates of hard crust over the lower layer, the Earth's magma. The Indian landmass, constituting the northwestern part of the Indo-Australian plate, began to drift slowly northward toward the much larger Eurasian plate several hundred million years ago (after the first continent separated from the giant ancient southern hemisphere continent known as Gondwana). When the two plates finally collided (about 50 million years ago), the northern edge of the Indo-Australian plate was pushed under the Eurasian plate at a reduced angle. The collision reduced the velocity of the incoming plate, but the downward trend, or subduction, of the plate has continued into the modern era.
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The features of the present-day terrain of India are superimposed on three basic structural units: the Himalayas to the north, the Deccan (the peninsular plateau region) to the south, and the Indo-Gangetic plain (located on the sloping region) between them. More information on the geology of India can be found in the article on Asia.
The Himalayas in India
The Himalayas (from the Sanskrit words hema, "snow" and Aliya, "habitation"), the highest mountain system in the world, form the northern boundary of India. This large, geologically young mountain arc stretches about 2,500 km from the peak of Nanga Parbat (8,126 meters) in the Pakistan-administered part of the Kashmir region to the peak of Namcha Barwa in the In China region. Between these two extremes, the mountains cross India, southern Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. The width of the system varies between 125 and 250 miles (200 and 400 kilometers).
Himalaya
Himalaya
Part of the Himalayas in the Union Territory of Ladakh, India.
jayk67 / Fotolia
In India, the Himalayas are divided into three longitudinal ranges called the Outer Himalayas, the Lesser Himalayas and the Greater Himalayas. At each end there is a large curve aligned with the system, from which a number of low mountain ranges and hills extend. The ranges to the west lie entirely in Pakistan and Afghanistan, while those to the east extend to India's border with Myanmar (Burma). North of the Himalayas are the Tibetan Plateau and various Himalayan mountain ranges, only a small part of which is located in the Federal Territory of Ladakh (in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir) in the territory of India.
Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India: Nagin Lake
Barges along the shore of Nagin Lake, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
Gérald Kibet
Due to the continued immersion of the Indian peninsula against the Eurasian plate, the Himalayas and associated eastern ranges remain tectonically active. As a result, the mountains continue to rise and earthquakes, often accompanied by landslides, are frequent. In 2001, another earthquake (the Bhuj earthquake), far from the mountains of Gujarat, was less powerful but caused significant damage, killing more than 20,000 people and leaving more than 500,000 homeless. Other earthquakes-including the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the 2015 earthquake in Nepal-have primarily affected these regions, but have also caused severe damage and hundreds of deaths in neighboring India. The relatively high frequency and wide distribution of earthquakes has also led to controversy over the safety and timing of many hydropower and irrigation projects.
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