Description (Page 1)

The ancient diamond shaped country of India, the largest region

of the Indian Subcontinent, extends from the Himalayan Mountains in the north and
south into the tropical reaches of theIndian Ocean. It's the second most populous country
in the world, and certainly one of the most intriguing.
This diverse and fertile country, which once included the lands of
today's Bangladesh and Pakistan, was plundered over eons of time.
Its history begins some 500,000 years ago as early hominids graced the land, and from
3300 to 1300 BC the Indus River Valley Civilization flourished.
The sophisticated and technologically advanced Mature Harappan period followed, lasting
around 700 years before collapsing and giving rise to the Iron Age Vedic Civilization during
the second millennium BC.
India and much of Asia were conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia in 530 BC and
Alexander the Great in 326 BC. Together the Persian and Greek invasions left a lasting
impression on Indian civilization, with the Persian's influencing future forms of government.

The Mauryan dynasty rose to power in 322 BC, and flourished

under the leadership of Ashoka the Great - becoming one of the most powerful political and
military empires in ancient India.

A succession of weaker kings followed, which contributed to the rapid downfall of the
Mauryan dynasty, and by 185 BC the Mauryan dynasty had completely dissolved.
India's "Classical Age" began around the 7th century AD with the Gupta Empire. It was
during this time frame that development of India's main spiritual and philosophical systems
in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism continued.

The Gurjara Pratiharas of Malwa, Eastern Ganga dynasty of Orissa,

Rashtrakutas of the Deccan, and the Palas of Bengal all fought for control of northern India
between the 7th and 9th centuries. But it was the Sena dynasty who prevailed, and
assumed control of the Pala Empire, dividing the Gurjara Pratiharas into various states.
These states were the first of the Rajput, who became an array of kingdoms managing to
exist in some form or another for nearly a millennium.
Description (Page 2)

Babur, a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan, swept through the

region in 1526, establishing the Mughal Empire - one of the richest single dynasties ever to
have existed.
Often employing brutal tactics to overpower their empire, the Mughals ruled a vast amount
of the Indian subcontinent, and prospered under Akbar the Great.

The Mughals slowly began to disintegrate throughout the 1700s, with the Indian Rebellion of
1857 that caused their eventual collapse - marking an immense social change over India.
Lines began to blur between commercial and political dominance in the early 18th century,
and a number ofEuropean trading companies set up coastal outposts for their trading
companies, including the East India Company.

In the aftermath of the rebellion a power shift within

the British Crown came to light, and subsequently India was colonized and ruled
by Britainthroughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries.
During the BritishRaj (the age of ruling over India) the large province of Bengal was split
into two halves, with the western half primarily Hindu, and the eastern largely Muslim.
Persistent famines were common during this period, with the worst ever recorded being the
Great Famine of 1876-78 in which nearly 10 million perished, followed by one of almost
equal proportions in 1899. Despite the widescale loss, the population continued to boom,
reaching 389 million people by 1941 - up from 125 million in 1750.
Although the number of British forces in India were small, they managed to control twothirds of the subcontinent directly.

A push for independence grew steadily in the early 1900s, along with

tensions between the Hindus and Muslims. As a minority, the Muslims were cautious, due to
the prospect of an almost exclusive Hindu-based government, and tensions between the two
flared.
Mohandas Gandhi took the leadership role of the Indian National Congress in 1920, and
called for unity between the Hindus and Muslims. Gandhi's approach was that of nonviolence, and he was well-known for his restraint and moderation, as well as inspiring
movements for civil rights and freedom across the entire world.
Description (Page 3)
A civil disobedience movement was launched in the late summer of 1942, as a response to
Gandhi's call for Indian independence. Following the Second World War,
weakened British forces retreated from India, and, in 1947, India declared independence
and formed its own country.
Riots broke out between Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims, following a controversial division of
Punjab and Bengal territories, and spread to several regions within India.

In addition to the riots, one of the largest mass migrations ever

recorded in modern history occurred, with over 12 million Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims
migrating through the newly created nations of India and Pakistan.
Throughout the next several decades, India's economy saw a mixture of successes and
failures, but continued to remain a democracy with civil liberties. However, the country
continues to play host to both rural and urban poverty, and unresolved territorial disputes
with China and Pakistan.
During the 1990s economic liberalization began, establishing an extensive urban middle
class, and revolutionizing India into one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

Home to some of the most significant natural and man-made wonders

on the planet, and thus, a powerful exotic tourism magnet, the modern open-door policies
of India have put the tourist industry here on the fast-track, as luxury hotels and beach
resorts are constantly under construction.
With numerous major languages and hundreds of dialects, dozens and dozens of large cities
and over 700,000 villages, India offers both the classic, traditional rituals of its many
cultures, and the fast-moving world of the 21st century.

Name: India
(long form) Republic of India

Capital City: New Delhi (249,998 mun. corp. pop.)

(21,753,386 metro)

India Population: 1,220,800,359 (2013 est.)

World Populations (all countries)

Currency: Indian Rupee (INR)

(conversion rates)

20 Indian Rupees

Ethnicity: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3%

GDP total: $4.784 trillion (2012 est.)

GDP per capita: $3,900 (2012 est.)

Land Sizes
Language: Hindi 41%, 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%
Note: English is the subsidiary official language, but is the most important language for
national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the most widely spoken
language and primary tongue of 41% of the people; there are 14 other official languages:
Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi,
Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu
spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language

Largest Cities: (by population) Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore,

Chennai (Madras)

Name: From the Old Persian word Hindu, the local name for the Indus River

National Day: January 26

Religion: Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%,
unspecified 0.1%

Coastline: 4,349 miles (7,000 km)

Land Area:
(land) 1,147,950 sq miles (2,973,193 sq km)
(water) 121,262 sq miles (314,070 sq km)
(TOTAL) 1,269,212 sq miles (3,287,263 sq km)
To convert sq km (kilometers) to sq mi (miles)
use our converter

Land Area: (all countries)

Land Divisions: 28 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam,
Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir,
Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya,
Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab and Rajasthan.
In addition, there are 7 union territories; including Andaman and Nicobar Islands,
Chandigarh, Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Daman, Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Pondicherry.

Horizontal Width: 1,010.32 miles (1,625.95 km)from Ahmadabad east to Kolkata

(Calcutta)

Vertical Length: 1,522.7 miles (2,450.55 km) fromAmritsar south to Kochi

Note: Lengths and widths are point-to-point, straight-line measurements from a Mercator
map projection, and will vary some using other map projections

Bordering Countries: (6) Bangladesh, Bhutan,Burma

(Myanmar), China, Nepal, Pakistan

Geographic Center: About 33.64 miles (54.13 km) east of Bhopal

Highest Point:

Kanchenjunga 28,208 ft (8,598 m)

Lowest Point:

Indian Ocean 0m

The Himalayas form the highest mountain range in the world, and slope southward into a
large fertile plain that covers much of India.
Three mountain ranges extend from the Indus River in the northwest, to the Brahmaputra
River in the east, including the Himadri, Himachal and Shivaliks - all with deep canyons
gorged by the fast-flowing water.
India's highest point is Kanchenjunga which rises 28,208 ft. (8,598 m).
The land rises slightly into two plateaus, bordered in the central and south by lower
mountains (Ghats), that gently slope into narrow coastal plains.
Numerous rivers drain the land, and without question, the Ganges is the heartbeat of India
and one of the most significant rivers on the planet