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Unit 1 - Lesson 1, activity 1 Video n. 1. A general introduction

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Unit 1 - Lesson 1, activity 1 Video n. 1. A general introduction

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India | Basic Information | Everyone Must read

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Unit 1 - Lesson 2, activity 1          Video n. 2. India Location and Physical Features

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Unit 1 - Lesson 2, activity 1          Video n. 2. India Location and Physical Features

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India - Location and Physical Features | Marvel Semester Series Social Studies Grade 3 | Periwinkle

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The climate, in general

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About one-sixth of all the human beings on Earth live in India, the world's most populous democracy. It is the second most populous country in the world, after China. India's borders encompass a vast variety of peoples, practicing most of the world's major religions and speaking scores of different languages. A civilized, urban society has existed in India for well over 4,000 years, and there have been periods when its culture has been as brilliant and creative as any in history. The country is also known by its ancient Hindi name, Bharat. Area 1,222,550 square miles (3,166,391 square kilometers). Population (2019 est.) 1,387,037,000.

India's leaders have played a prominent role in world affairs since the country became independent in 1947. Nevertheless, the standard of living of many of its citizens is low. The huge population strains the country's resources. Many millions of Indians are inadequately nourished and poorly housed and lack access to clean drinking water year-round. Since independence, however, the country has made impressive progress in increasing the well-being of its people. The economy has been greatly diversified and expanded, and a large middle class has emerged. Substantial improvements to the country's medical and public-health services have led to greatly increased life expectancies. Literacy rates have also been raised dramatically. Today, India's workforce includes one of the world's largest groups of people trained in science, engineering, and technology.

Although the modern country of India encompasses the greater part of South Asia, it is smaller than the Indian Empire formerly ruled by Britain. Burma (now Myanmar), a mainly Buddhist country lying to the east, was administratively detached from India in 1937. Ten years later, when Britain granted independence to the peoples of the area, two regions with Muslim majorities-a large one in the northwest (West Pakistan) and a smaller one in the northeast (East Pakistan)-were partitioned from the predominantly Hindu areas and became the separate country of Pakistan. East Pakistan broke away from Pakistan in 1971 to form the independent country of Bangladesh. Also bordering India on its long northern frontier are the People's Republic of China and the relatively small countries of Nepal and Bhutan. The island republic of Sri Lanka lies just off India's southern tip. India's capital is New Delhi, which is part of the greater Delhi metropolitan area.

India is a constitutional republic. It includes 29 states, which have a significant degree of control over their own affairs. The country also has 6 union territories, with more limited powers than states, and one national capital territory, Delhi. The states of India are 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, Odisha (Orissa), Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal. The union territories are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry.

With an area of more than 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million square kilometers), India is the seventh largest country in the world. Much of this area is a peninsula jutting into the Indian Ocean between the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bengal on the east.

There are three distinct physiographic regions. In the north the high peaks of the Himalayas lie partly in India but mostly just beyond its borders in Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet. South of the mountains, the low-lying Indo-Gangetic Plain, shared with Pakistan and Bangladesh, extends more than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. Finally, to the south of the plain lies an area consisting largely of tableland that makes up more than half of the country's area. It is called peninsular India or the Deccan.

India also includes groups of islands in the Indian Ocean. Two of the country's union territories consist entirely of islands: Lakshadweep is located in the Arabian Sea, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands lie between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

The northern mountain wall consists of three parallel ranges. The highest of these ranges is the Great Himalayas, which include several peaks that rise above 23,000 feet (7,000 meters). Even the passes through these mountains are farther above sea level than the highest summits of the Alps. The Himalayas in India and neighboring countries have the world's largest area under snow and glaciers outside the polar regions.

Indo-Gangetic Plain
The Indo-Gangetic Plain has an area of about 270,000 square miles (700,000 square kilometers). It is the world's most extensive tract of uninterrupted alluvium, or river-deposited sediments. These sediments give rise to fertile soils and are rich in groundwater for well irrigation. The flat terrain also makes the area ideal for canal irrigation.

Toward the west the plain becomes progressively drier. It includes the arid Thar, or Great Indian, Desert, which extends across the India-Pakistan border.

The so-called tableland of India is actually a more complex landform region than that word suggests. Most of the 735,000 square miles (1.9 million square kilometers) of the Deccan consists of relatively flat plateaus, with elevations ranging from 1,000 to 2,500 feet (300 to 750 meters) above sea level. However, the terrain also includes two chains of hills and mountains, called the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, which extend along the edges of the plateau region and meet at the peninsula's tip. Anai Peak (Anai Mudi), in the Western Ghats, is the highest peak in the Deccan, with an elevation of 8,842 feet (2,695 meters).

The Deccan region also includes the coastal plains flanking the Ghats. These plains are relatively narrow, ranging from 6 to 80 miles (10 to 130 kilometers) wide. The eastern plain is drained by several large deltas, including, from north to south, those of the Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri rivers.

In general, India's climate is governed by the monsoon, or seasonal, rain-bearing wind. Most of the country has three seasons: hot and dry, hot and wet (monsoon), and cool and dry. During the hot and dry season, which usually lasts from early March to mid-June, very high temperatures are accompanied by intermittent winds and occasional dust storms. The "burst of the monsoon," or the start of the hot and wet season, often begins in mid-June but may start as early as May in the south. Strong, humid winds from the southwest and south bring very heavy rains that fall almost daily in the middle or late afternoon. Usually about three-quarters of India's yearly precipitation falls during this season. Eventually, the rains taper off, and by late October cool, dry, northerly air has replaced the humid marine air over all of India except the southeastern third of the peninsula. This "retreat of the monsoon" marks the start of the cool and dry season, which lasts to February.

Average annual precipitation varies widely. Cherrapunji in the Shillong Plateau just north of Bangladesh receives 450 inches (1,143 centimeters), making it one of the rainiest places on Earth. At the other extreme, the western Thar Desert averages only 4 inches (10 centimeters) annually. In the driest parts of India, however, the rainfall is highly variable from year to year.

Temperature also varies in different parts of India. Resort towns in the Himalayan region, such as Darjiling (Darjeeling) and Shimla (Simla), record the lowest temperatures, with annual averages of about 54 to 57 °F (12 to 14 °C). In the Indo-Gangetic Plain, Delhi and Allahabad register an average of 79 °F (26 ° C).

The plant and animal life of India are both very diverse. The natural vegetation largely reflects the distribution of rainfall. Much of the northeast, the Western Ghats, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands get more than 80 inches (200 centimeters) of rainfall annually. This is usually enough to keep the soil moist throughout the year. The natural vegetation associated with these regions is an exceedingly varied broad-leaved, evergreen rainforest, typically tall and dense.

Areas with 40 to 80 inches (100 to 200 centimeters) of rainfall (enough to grow at least one crop of rice) include much of central and eastern India, a narrow belt just south of the Himalayas, another belt just east of the crest of the Western Ghats, and the southeastern coast. In these areas, as average rainfall declines, the forests become progressively shorter, less dense, and less varied. Also, as rainfall declines from 80 to 60 inches (200 to 150 centimeters), evergreens gradually give way to deciduous species, which in these regions lose their leaves during the cool, dry season. Where government protection has kept forests intact, they include good stands of teak, sal, and other excellent timber species.

Most of the rest of India averages from 20 to 40 inches (50 to 100 centimeters) of rainfall, enough to grow one crop of grain other than rice. The natural vegetation consists of low, open forests, intermixed with thorny shrubs and grasses. Little of the original vegetative cover remains.

A wide variety of distinctive vegetation types occurs as a result of special ecological conditions. Tall-grass savannas, with scattered acacias, grow on the moist soils of the Tarai, the fringe of plains bordering the northern mountains. Coniferous forests are found in the Himalayas. Mangrove forests are found in the brackish deltas of the east coast, and many types of palms grow in sandy or salty soils. Often impenetrable stands of bamboo sprout up in fields formerly given over to slash-and-burn cultivation.

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The alterations in India's vegetation over the centuries have brought about many changes in the animal life. In the forests and the high, rugged areas where wild species are still dominant, the array of animals remains rich. Among the large mammals are the Asian elephant, the Indian rhinoceros (living almost exclusively in game sanctuaries), more than a dozen species of deer and antelope, and wild cattle, sheep, goats, and boars. The carnivores include foxes, mongooses, jackals, bears, leopards, and the Bengal tiger. The Asiatic lion was once wide-ranging but is now found only in India, in the Gir Forest in the state of Gujarat. Monkeys, especially langurs and rhesus monkeys, are common even in cities. The cobra is the best-known reptile. Crocodiles and the related gavial live in the rivers. Among the more than 1,200 species of birds are vultures, hawks, peacocks, cranes, flamingos, parrots, mynas, quail, and bustards.

The conservation movement to protect India's forests and wildlife is strong. Virtually no forests are owned by individuals. Forests have been depleted over the centuries as the population has grown, and today roughly a quarter of the country's area is officially considered forested. However, forest areas began to be cleared at a much faster rate in the late 20th century to make room for agriculture and urban and industrial development. Legislation, nature reserves, and other initiatives protect many key natural areas and endangered species, including tigers, lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, and vultures.

The long history of migrations of different groups of people to India has resulted in the thousands of ethnic and tribal groups that make up the population today. Humans have lived in the Indian subcontinent for hundreds of thousands of years, but the time and place of the arrival of the first inhabitants is uncertain. Agriculturists settled in the area as early as the 8th millennium bc. Among the early arrivals were people who spoke languages of the Dravidian family. Between 2000 and 1500 bc, Dravidian speakers moved from the northwest to the southeast of India. At about the same time, a wave of migrants of inner Eurasian origin began to filter into India through passes on the northwestern frontier of the country. These people, known as the Vedic people or the Aryans, spoke languages related to those spoken by peoples in Iran and Europe.

Throughout history new groups continued to come to India, mainly from the northwest. Among them were Persians, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and Afghans. All of these peoples contributed significantly to India's ethnic mix. In the 16th century small numbers of western Europeans began arriving in India. Although they greatly influenced Indian culture, they had relatively little impact on India's ethnic composition.

Probably many hundreds of different languages and dialects are spoken in India. However, two linguistic groups, the Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian, account for the languages spoken by all but a tiny proportion of the population. Indo-Aryan is a subgroup of the Indo-European language family. Speakers of the various Indo-Aryan languages live mainly in northern India, and speakers of Dravidian tongues are concentrated in the south. Of the Indo-Aryan languages, Hindi is the most important. In its standard form and its many dialects, it is spoken as a first language by nearly two-fifths of the population. It is predominant in the northern and central regions. In addition, a large number of Indians use Hindi as a lingua franca, or a common language among people who speak different first languages.

Hindi and English are the official languages of India's central government. As a result of the many years of British colonial rule, most educated persons understand some English. It is often used as a lingua franca-for example, in correspondence between Hindi-speaking and non-Hindi-speaking states.

The Indian constitution also recognizes 22 official "scheduled languages"-local languages that the states can use in official correspondence. Of these, 15 are Indo-Aryan languages: Assamese, Bengali, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Marathi, Nepali, Odia (Oriya), Punjabi, Sanskrit (the classical literary language of the country's Hindus), Sindhi, and Urdu. Urdu is spoken by most Indian Muslims (except in the far south and east) and is also the official language of Pakistan. It is closely related to Hindi. Also among the scheduled languages are four Dravidian languages: Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu. The remaining three are Bodo and Manipuri, which are Sino-Tibetan languages, and Santhali, an Austroasiatic language. Many of the scheduled languages are also the official languages of one or more states. Of the scores of languages not officially recognized, many are spoken almost exclusively by various tribal communities.

Although a number of religions flourish in India's tolerant social climate, more than three-fourths of the people are Hindus. Hinduism evolved from Vedism, the religion of the ancient Vedic people. While Hinduism recognizes innumerable gods, they are widely regarded as diverse manifestations of one great universal spirit. Hinduism has no standard orthodox form. It is, in effect, what people who call themselves Hindus do in carrying out their dharma, or religious obligations. This varies considerably from one region and social group to another.

Muslims, who constitute about a seventh of the population, are the largest religious minority. There are more Muslims in India than in any country in the Middle East. Many of them are descendants of Muslims from the Middle East and Central Asia who began entering the subcontinent in the 8th century. Most, however, are descendants of converts from Hinduism and other faiths. The majority belong to the Sunni branch of Islam, though the Shiʿite sect is well represented among Muslim trading groups of Gujarat state. Muslims form a majority of the population in the state of Jammu and Kashmir and the union territory of Lakshadweep and substantial minorities in the states of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, and Kerala.

Christians form the next largest religious minority. It is claimed that Christianity in India dates back to ad 52, when St. Thomas, one of the 12 Apostles, is said to have landed on the west coast. Christians are most heavily concentrated in the northeast, in the far south, and in Mumbai (Bombay). Most of them belong to independent sects, Protestant denominations, or Roman Catholicism. During the last two centuries, Protestant missionaries have been successful in converting many people of the lower social classes and tribal groups.

The country's many millions of Sikhs make up a small portion of the total population but form a majority in the state of Punjab. Their faith, Sikhism, originated in the Punjab region in the late 15th century. Sikhs form a prominent part of India's army and are influential in many professions and in government.

In addition, India's many millions of tribal peoples practice various forms of animism, which is perhaps India's oldest religious tradition. Their traditional beliefs are blended in varying degrees with forms borrowed from Hinduism.

For thousands of years a dominating aspect of social organization in South Asia has been the caste system, especially among Hindus. In Hindu society a caste, or jati, is a strictly regulated social group into which one is born. Each has its own origin myth and rules relating to kinship, occupation, diet, and various other forms of behavior. In general, a person is expected to marry someone from the same caste. Within a village, all the members of the same caste recognize strong ties with each other and a sense of mutual obligation. Castes are graded in a social and ritual hierarchy in which each expects respect from inferior groups and gives respect to superior ones.

There are thousands of jatis, but most may be grouped into four great social classes called varna s. The highest are the Brahmans, the priestly class that traditionally dominated the learned professions and still wields great influence. Next are the Kshatriyas, traditionally warriors, rulers, and large landowners. Third are the Vaishyas, once mainly farmers but now chiefly associated with commerce. Lowest are the Shudras, who constitute the mass of India's artisans and laborers.

Below the Shudras are a number of castes with no varna designation. Traditionally these groups were regarded as "untouchables," because their touch was to be avoided. They were considered to be ritually impure and able to convey pollution to others because of their association with unclean occupations, such as leatherworking and street sweeping. These groups have always been subject to considerable prejudice. The nationalist leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, who tried to ensure that they were treated humanely, bestowed on them the name Harijan, meaning "children of God." More recently, members of these groups have begun to call themselves Dalit, meaning "oppressed," and have worked to end caste discrimination. Many Dalit have renounced the caste system completely and converted from Hinduism to other religions, especially Buddhism.

Officially, the government calls these groups the Scheduled Castes. The Indian constitution, which outlaws discrimination based on "untouchability," requires that a "schedule," or list, of such groups be prepared in every state. The aim is to help them overcome their disadvantaged position. Thus, they are guaranteed a certain portion of the seats in the national and state parliaments, as well as a minimum number of places in universities and jobs in government. Similarly, the tribal peoples are designated as "Scheduled Tribes" and given corresponding benefits. These groups include many millions of people, with the Scheduled Castes making up more than 15 percent of India's population, and the Scheduled Tribes more than 8 percent.

Although caste is most prominent in Hindu society, it is also found in India among people of other religions, even those that stress the equality of all people. Indian Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, and Jews often identify with their own castes or castelike social groups. They usually marry within their castes but place less emphasis on food taboos and inherited rank and status than do Hindus.

For almost all Indians, the family is the most important social unit. Households often consist of more than one related married couple. These extended families are usually headed by a senior male, whose wife, mother, or another related senior female assigns domestic chores to the women and girls. Generally, the household may include his unmarried children, his younger brothers and their wives and unmarried children, his unmarried sisters, and his married sons and grandsons and their wives and unmarried children. In practice, however, brothers commonly separate and form new households soon after the death of their father.

Nearly all marriages are arranged by family elders, who choose spouses for their children on the basis of caste, economic status, education, and astrology. However, nonarranged "love marriages" have become increasingly common in urban areas. The bride typically moves to the husband's household. Traditionally, women were expected to treat their husbands as if they were gods. The obedience of wives to husbands has remained a strong social norm in India. This expectation of devotion may follow a husband to the grave. In some caste groups, widows are not allowed to remarry even if they are still young.

Within families, there is a clear order of social ranking and influence based on gender and age. Males have higher status than females, and older people have higher status than younger ones. Women who have had many sons enjoy greater prestige than those who have had few or none (even if they have had many daughters). Gender inequality is a social problem in India.

Many married couples display a marked preference for male children. Boys are desired in part for economic reasons. Parents expect that when sons grow up they will contribute to the family income and support them in old age. In Hindu families, sons are traditionally needed to perform certain rites at a parent's cremation. A son remains within the family and carries on the family name-unlike a daughter, who joins her husband's family upon marriage. Boys are considered an asset.

Girls, on the other hand, are widely seen as a liability or burden because they require dowries when they are married. A dowry is money, goods, or land that the bride's family gives the groom or his family. It often consists of items to help start a young couple in married life. However, some grooms and their families demand enormous dowries. This is especially the case if the groom has traits that make him more desirable as a husband, such as having a superior education, career, or income. Some families of grooms regard dowries as a means of enrichment, demanding such things as expensive appliances, electronic equipment, cars, jewelry, and large amounts of cash. In some cases, the husband's family tries to get additional payments after the wedding. Young brides have been abused-even tortured and murdered-in an effort to force the bride's father to pay an even greater dowry. The "dowry deaths" of such young women have contributed to a reaction against the dowry in some modern urban families in India.

In 1961 the central government of India passed an act banning dowries. The social custom of demanding dowries is strong, however, and the law has not been fully enforced. Dowries are still common in India. Various state governments have tried to discourage the practice as well. Often, however, families still go into debt to provide dowries; a family with several daughters and no sons may face financial disaster.

Dowries are generally common in societies in which family property is passed on from fathers to sons, not daughters. Until the 21st century, in many states of India women did not have equal rights with men to inherit family property such as farmland. In 2005 the central government of India passed a Hindu Succession Amendment Act that gave daughters an equal share with sons in joint family land and property. (This law applies to Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists as well as to Hindus.) Nevertheless, cultural traditions about inheritance persist. In practice, many Indian women still do not inherit any of their parents' land.

In 1994 India's central government outlawed prenatal testing to determine the sex of a fetus. However, such testing and sex-selective abortion are still commonly performed. Indian states also have established various programs to address the problem. Some programs use financial incentives to try to get families to keep, educate, and value their daughters. They may, for example, pay money to the families of girls, provided that certain conditions are met, such as that the girl remains in school and unmarried until age 18.

Child marriage persists in India. Under Indian law, females must be at least 18 years old to get married, and males must be 21. Nevertheless, child marriage is widespread in India, particularly in rural areas among poorer families. Often, an underage female is married to an adult male. Some girls are married at very young ages. Child brides are more likely to be victims of domestic violence and abuse; they may also lack educational opportunities and may suffer the health consequences of early pregnancies.

Ways of Life
India's population is mostly rural. However, population densities are high, especially in areas with good conditions for farming, such as the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the western coast, and the delta regions of the eastern coast, as well as in urban areas. India has some of the world's largest cities, and they are among the most densely populated places on Earth.

The tempo of life in India varies greatly from region to region and community to community. By the early 21st century, the lifestyle of middle class and wealthy families in urban areas generally differed little from that of their counterparts in Europe, East Asia, and the Americas. In rural areas, however, age-old traditional ways of life continued. Most of the people farmed the land, with most of the work done by hand or with animal power. Many small villages remained isolated from most forms of media and communications.

About two-thirds of India's people live in villages. These settlements may contain only a few to a thousand or more households, but one hundred to several hundred families is typical. In northwestern India villages tend to have an almost urban appearance, with tightly clustered dwellings that often form parts of high-walled compounds with few windows facing the street. In the eastern and southern regions the villages are less cramped. The various castes within a village are residentially segregated. The higher and more powerful castes generally have their homes near the center of the village, while the lower castes and Muslims, if any, usually live farther out. In southern India separate Dalit hamlets half a mile or more from the main village are not uncommon.

In much of India the typical village dwelling is a modest one-story mud hut of one or several rooms. Roofs are generally flat in the dry regions and peaked in areas of heavier rainfall. Most houses have no windows, but many have a shaded veranda where social activities take place. A cubicle or a corner of the yard is set aside for the kitchen hearth, normally containing an earth stove fueled by cow dung or firewood. Furniture is scarce. More affluent families typically have larger homes, built of more durable materials such as brick and stone, with windows and more furnishings.

In the typical village dwelling, indoor plumbing is quite uncommon. Water, brought home from wells, is stored in large clay jars, which are also used to keep perishable foods. The access to electricity in rural areas has increased rapidly; however, in the early 21st century, only about half of all village households had electricity.

Each village usually has a few open spaces where people gather: next to a temple or mosque, at the main village well, at a shady grove of mango trees, in areas where grain is threshed or milled, and in front of the homes of the leading families. Depending on the size of the village, there might be a few shops, a tea stall, a public radio hooked up to a loudspeaker, a small post office, the panchayat (village council) hall, and a school. Traveling storytellers, musicians, and acrobats add excitement to rural life, as do weddings, religious celebrations, trips to local fairs, and occasional religious pilgrimages.

Indian cities are much more crowded than those of Europe or North America. Streets are narrow, and the number of people in residential dwellings is high. In the crowded centers of the older cities, such as Delhi and Agra, retail trade is mainly carried out in small shops in specialized bazaar streets. Many shops combine a handicraft activity, often in a back room, and a sales outlet. The shopkeeper and his family normally live just behind or above the shop. Cities that grew mainly during British rule, such as Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai, also have crowded cores. However, the street patterns usually show some degree of regularity, and there are a few broad thoroughfares, a central business district, and some parks.

Open spaces within larger cities and on their outskirts are likely to contain makeshift squatter settlements, occupied by recent immigrants from the countryside who have come to the city in search of employment. Many people lack any shelter at all and simply resort to sleeping in the streets, especially near railway stations where temporary day laborers are recruited each morning.

Many cities have spawned satellites located a considerable distance away from the densely settled cores. Some of these housed members of the civil administration during the period of British rule and are still known as civil lines. Others, designated as cantonments, included residences and special areas such as parade grounds set aside for the army. Since India achieved independence, many planned modern suburbs have sprung up. Modern factories, sometimes grouped in industrial estates, have increasingly been located outside the cities.

Like cities everywhere, those of India are centers of education, cultural activities, political ferment, and social change. In the urban setting, the caste and religious barriers that loom so large in the villages are considerably relaxed. Thus, there is somewhat more opportunity for talented individuals to rise in government, modern business, factories, and universities. ( See also Ahmadabad; Ajmer; Amritsar; Bangalore; Chandigarh; Chennai; Delhi; Hyderabad; Kolkata; Lucknow; Mumbai; Surat; Varanasi.)

Arts and Literature
The artistic and literary heritage of India is exceptionally rich. Probably most renowned are the country's architectural masterpieces. These date from many different ages. The ancient Buddhist domed stupa, or shrine, at Sanchi was probably begun by the emperor Ashoka in the mid-3rd century bc. The Kailasa temple at Ellora was carved out of solid rock in the 8th century ad. The enormous, elaborately sculptured Sun Temple at Konark (Konarak) dates from the 13th century, and the Minakshi Temple in Madurai, with its striking outer towers and inner Hall of 1,000 Pillars, from the 16th century. The sublime Taj Mahal at Agra was built in the 17th century by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his favorite wife. Every major region and religious group of India has produced works of extraordinary merit. Hindu and Jain temples are usually richly embellished by sculpture. Because of the Islamic opposition to representative art, mosques rely for adornment largely on inlaid stonework, decorative tiles, geometric designs in stone, plaster, or wood, and ornate calligraphy. ( See also Indian architecture.)

Painting is relatively less developed, and much of the work of the past has fallen victim to weather. However, the well-preserved, sensuous cave paintings at Ajanta, dating from the 1st century bc to the 7th century ad, demonstrate great technical proficiency at an early date. Altogether different is the lyric and romantic style of the various schools of miniature painting that flourished in the courts of the Mughals and the Rajput princes in the 16th and subsequent centuries. Modern painting, inspired by both European and East Asian models, has had several internationally recognized exponents.

Classical Indian music, dance, and drama are closely linked. Their roots go back nearly 2,000 years. Their mastery calls for great discipline and intensive practice. Each has a conventionalized "language" that demands considerable sophistication on the part of the audience. A number of regional styles have developed. Folk music and dance also show wide regional variations. Interest in Indian popular music has grown rapidly since the late 20th century, partly because of the great success of the country's film musicals.

The literature of India covers many fields of knowledge, but religious and philosophical texts are particularly numerous. The oldest are the Vedas ("Knowledge"), collections of religious hymns in the Sanskrit language. They were transmitted only by word of mouth for many centuries before being committed to writing, beginning with the Rigveda ("Knowledge of the Verses") about 1500 bc. For most Hindus the best-known texts are the two great Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana ("Romance of Rama") and the Mahabharata ("Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty"), composed roughly 2,000 years ago. The former recounts the adventures of the god-king Rama and provides models of proper conduct for men and women. The latter, the longest poem ever written, relates a great mythical war involving all the peoples of ancient India. The part of that epic called the Bhagavadgita ("Song of the Lord") is the principal Hindu tract on morality and ethics.

Indian Muslim literature covers a wide range of scholarly subjects. Poetry, written mainly in Persian and later in Urdu, has been particularly admired. ( See also Islamic literature.)

British literary traditions became influential in India starting in the 19th century. The Bengali writer Bankim Chandra Chatterjee established the novel as a literary genre in India. Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel Prize-winning writer of poems, songs, plays, and stories, introduced new verse and prose forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature. Many Indian authors, including the Hindi novelist Prem Chand, chose to write in Indian languages, while many others, including Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, Bharati Mukherjee, Salman Rushdie, and Anita Desai, have written mainly in English.

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Although India boasts one of the world's largest pools of scientifically and technically trained persons, about a third of its people are still illiterate. The literacy rate for females is much lower than for males, but the gap between the sexes is being reduced steadily. The literacy rate is also considerably lower in rural areas than in urban areas. The central and state governments are attempting to eradicate illiteracy, and great strides have been made since the late 20th century. Thanks to a rapid increase in the number of schools following independence, especially in the villages, most of the children age 6-11 are now enrolled. Enrollment drops sharply thereafter, however, even though education is free in most states through at least the lower secondary level (about age 15-16).

In general, the level of health among the Indian population is far from good. Because of impure drinking water and lack of public sanitation, diseases such as dysentery and typhoid are fairly common. Cholera, malaria, filariasis, and other illnesses associated with wet, tropical climates are serious problems. Although few people now starve to death in times of scarcity, many millions are improperly nourished and afflicted by various deficiency diseases.

The government is making considerable efforts to meet the health needs of the people. Thus, the average life expectancy at birth rose from about 32 years in 1951 to 53 years in 1981 and to 68 years in 2011. Immunization programs have greatly reduced the incidence of certain diseases, and smallpox, once a major killer, has been eradicated. Vigorous antimosquito and other public health campaigns have also significantly decreased the incidence of malaria.

The number of government-paid doctors in the countryside has increased substantially, and a network of rural primary-health-care centers has been established. These centers are staffed mainly by "multipurpose health workers" who have taken a short medical course, enabling them to treat many common health problems that do not really need a doctor's attention. Throughout India there are also practitioners of traditional Indian systems of medicine, such as Ayurveda, that can be reasonably effective for a number of ailments.

Apart from preventing and treating illnesses, the medical profession has been called on to play a major role in implementing India's family planning program, to reduce population growth. This involves giving advice about birth control and performing sterilization operations on willing men and women. However, a controversial effort to enforce compulsory sterilization in the mid-1970s failed, and the Indian public has been slow to accept the desirability of limiting family size. While the birth rate has fallen significantly in recent decades, it is still quite high. A concurrent drop in the death rate has kept India's rate of population growth at a level that exceeds the world average.

India has one of the world's largest and most highly diversified economies. Because of its huge and growing population, however, its average incomes are among the lowest in the world. Many millions of the country's people live in poverty.

Nevertheless, by a combination of careful economic planning and foreign economic aid, India has made remarkable progress since independence in 1947. At that time, the economy was overwhelmingly based on farming, but the country needed to import food for its people. Since then, the growth rate of agricultural production has substantially exceeded that of the population. India now exports food, and acute famine no longer appears to be a serious threat. The country also broadened its economic base. For many years, the government played a major role in planning, developing, and running the country's industries. Growth in manufacturing was impressive, and India is now a significant component of the economy.

In the late 20th century the government began to make free-market economic reforms, such as relaxing regulations and allowing more private industries to develop. India became one of the global centers of the high-technology boom. The tremendous expansion in computer and other services in India helped fuel high annual rates of economic growth, and a large middle class developed.

Agriculture, Fishing, and Forestry
About half of India's workforce makes a living directly from agriculture, which contributes about a fifth of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Most villagers own small parcels of land, which they farm using traditional methods to produce food for their families. A substantial number, however, must rent all or part of the land they farm, either for cash or a certain share of the harvest. Nearly a third of all farming families, especially among the Dalit, have no land at all, and both adults and children must sell their labor to the large landholders.

A very high proportion of the land-more than half overall-is used for farming. Beginning in the late 1800s, Indian agriculture became much more intensive as efforts were made to obtain the best yield from every piece of land. Irrigation programs have included giant canal projects, multipurpose river basin development, and the use of groundwater obtained by deep, cement-lined, power-driven tube wells.

Another major change has been the so-called Green Revolution, a program under which high-yielding varieties of hybrid seeds have been adopted along with new agricultural technologies. In some areas the use of these seeds has multiplied wheat yields several-fold. There have also been impressive gains in rice production. However, these varieties require large inputs of fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation water. States such as Punjab and Haryana, where the new methods have been practiced on a large scale, have prospered greatly.

The increased use of irrigation and chemical fertilizers and pesticides thus has led to intensive farming in much of India. This is the case on many subsistence farms (which mainly grow food on small plots to feed the farmer's family) and especially on commercial farms (which grow crops for sale). Nevertheless, a traditional style of subsistence farming called slash-and-burn agriculture is still practiced in some remote areas of India. Within India, this method of growing crops is also called primitive subsistence farming. In parts of the northeast, where it is most common, it is known as jhumming. In this method, the farmers burn and clear areas of forest for planting. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are not used, but the ash from the burning provides some fertilization. After a few years of cultivation, the land becomes much less fertile. The farmers then move to a new plot of land, where they begin the process anew.

The pattern of Indian agriculture varies greatly from one region to another. Almost everywhere, grains are the principal crop: rice in the wetter portions of the east and south, wheat in the north and northwest, sorghum (jowar), millet, and corn (maize) over much of the peninsular interior. Legumes such as chickpeas (gram), often grown with grain, are also widely cultivated, as are various oilseeds. Certain fruits, especially mangoes, are exceedingly abundant in season. Nevertheless, the total area given over to fruits and vegetables is insufficient to provide most Indians with a balanced diet.

From the 19th century onward there has been a great increase in commercial farming. India has become one of the world's top producers of sugar. Sugarcane is widely grown, especially in areas near processing plants. Cotton, another major cash crop, is grown mainly on the black lava soils of the Deccan and in Punjab. Jute, grown for fiber, is important in West Bengal and Assam. Some commercial crops are grown on plantations, where a single type of crop is grown on a large area of land. Plantation crops in India include tea, grown in the highlands of the far south and northeast; coffee, grown in the southern highlands; and coconuts, produced mainly along the southwestern coast. Important specialty crops include tobacco, chilies, various spices, cashew nuts, and betel leaf (pan). Rice and wheat are also grown for export.

There are two main growing seasons for crops in India: kharif and rabi. Kharif crops are grown during the hot and wet season, when the monsoon brings heavy rains. This season generally starts about June. Kharif crops are harvested in September and October. Paddy rice, which requires ample water to grow, is a kharif crop. Other crops grown in India during the rainy season include corn (maize), sorghum (jowar), pearl millet ( bajra), soybeans, peanuts (groundnuts), cotton, and jute.

Rabi crops are grown during the winter. They are generally sown from October to December and harvested from April to June. Wheat, which thrives with moderate warmth and rainfall, is an important rabi crop. Other crops grown during this cool, dry season include barley, chickpeas (gram), peas, mustard, and linseed.

A short summer growing season called zaid occurs between the rabi and kharif seasons, generally from about March to June. Among the zaid crops are melons, cucumbers and other vegetables, and fodder crops (crops grown to feed livestock).

Commercial forestry is not well developed. The principal timber species include sal and teak. However, much of the legal cutting and considerable poaching of timber is for firewood and the manufacture of charcoal. Other forest products include wood for pulp, paneling, and matches; aromatic sandalwood; bamboo canes; medicinal plants; lac, which is used in shellac; resins; and tanning and dyeing materials.

India has a wide range of nonenergy mineral resources, is well endowed with coal, and also has several petroleum reserves. Although mining is a relatively small sector of the economy, it provides critical supplies to the country's manufacturing industries, which account for about a 10th of India's workers and a seventh of its GDP. A diverse array of products are manufactured in India, using technology ranging from the most traditional to the most advanced.

Mining and energy
A great variety of minerals are mined and quarried. India is a major producer and exporter of iron ore. It also produces several minerals used in ferroalloys, such as manganese and chromite, as well as barite, copper, gold, zinc, lead, bauxite, and silver. Limestone, phosphorite, dolomite, and gypsum are used in the manufacture of cement, fertilizers, and other products. High-quality building stones, gems, mica, and kaolin, or china clay, are also produced in significant quantities.

In terms of the value of production, fuel minerals far exceed all other minerals combined. Among the fuels, petroleum ranks first in value, followed by coal. India has more than 5.5 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Oil is produced offshore in the Arabian Sea on an undersea structure known as the Bombay High and onshore from small fields in several states, especially Assam and Gujarat. Several other onshore and offshore petroleum reserves have been discovered, including sites in the states of Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Arunachal Pradesh. India's production of petroleum has expanded fairly rapidly, but not as rapidly as the country's growing demand for it. Thus, India imports large amounts of oil. The country has a number of petroleum refineries, and exports of petroleum products are important to the Indian economy.

The country's utilities have had difficulty in keeping up with the dramatic rise in energy consumption. Electricity consumption, for example, increased 16-fold from 1951 to 1980 and more than quadrupled again in the next quarter century. Power outages and rationing are frequently necessary in periods of peak demand and have been problematic for the country's industries.

Manufacturing
Indian handicrafts, especially textiles, have been renowned for centuries and were long avidly sought for European markets. After the Industrial Revolution and during British rule, however, millions of artisans in India found it virtually impossible to compete with the cheap products of British factories and lost their traditional forms of livelihood. Before independence attempts were made to boycott British imports, as advocated by Mohandas K. Gandhi. This, together with official support for small-scale industry after 1947, led to some resurgence of handicrafts. Today the majority of industrial workers in India still work in small-scale handicraft enterprises such as spinning, weaving, pottery making, metalworking, and woodworking, which mostly make products for use in local villages.

Mechanized factories produce the country's greatest total output and value of manufactured goods. The oldest factory industry-and the most important as a source of employment-is the manufacture of textiles, especially of cotton. India ranks among the world's principal manufacturers and exporters of cottons. Cotton mills are found all over the country. Among the many important cotton-textile centers are Ahmadabad ( Gujarat state); Mumbai, Solapur, and Nagpur ( Maharashtra state); Chennai and Coimbatore ( Tamil Nadu state); Ludhiana ( Punjab state); Panipat ( Haryana state); and Indore ( Madhya Pradesh state). Factories that process jute-for burlap bags, twine, and other uses-are concentrated in "Hugliside," the cities on the Hugli (Hooghly) River north of Kolkata ( West Bengal state). Other textile industries manufacture wool, silk, and synthetic fibers and fabrics.

Also widespread are industries that process leather and foods, such as sugar, vegetable oils, grains, dairy products, and beverages. The Indian government has sought to further develop the country's growing food processing and food packaging industries.

India's modern metallurgical industry got its start in 1911, when production began at the Tata Iron and Steel Company (now Tata Steel) at Jamshedpur, in Jharkhand state, on the Chota Nagpur plateau. Metal-processing plants, such as iron and steel mills, typically are located close either to raw materials or to coal, depending on the relative mix of materials needed and transportation costs. India is fortunate in having several sites, especially in the Chota Nagpur plateau, where abundant coal supplies are in close proximity to high-grade iron ore. Major iron and steel centers in India are found especially in the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Gujarat.

In addition to making steel, India produces metals such as aluminum and copper and refines petroleum. Other major products include machinery, automobiles and other motor vehicles, cement, chemicals, computer software, and electronics.

In the worst industrial accident in history, a highly toxic gas escaped from a plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh state, in December 1984. Ultimately, some 15,000 to 20,000 people were killed, and many others suffered serious health problems. In 1989 the plant's owner, Union Carbide Corporation, paid $470 million in relief to the victims, under the order of the Indian Supreme Court.

India's service sector started to grow remarkably in the 1990s. By the early 21st century, computer services, trade, communications, banking, engineering, tourism, and other service industries employed more than a quarter of the country's workers and contributed more than half of the GDP.

Most of the world's major information technology and software companies have offices in India. North American and European countries that outsource their software requirements to India benefit from the 10 to 12-hour time difference, which ensures round-the clock productivity. The cost of labor in India is comparatively low, and the quality of its software capabilities is high. The country also has a large number of English speakers. This has made it an attractive place for U.S. and British companies to open telephone call centers, which can be run at a lower cost (with lower wages paid to workers) in India. In addition, India has remained a major destination for tourists from Europe and the Americas.

India trades with countries all around the world. Its largest trading partners include the United States, China, the United Arab Emirates, and countries of the European Union. The volume of India's foreign trade is low, however, given the diversity of its economic base.

Transportation and Communications
India has an extensive network of roads and railways. The railway system, begun in the mid-19th century, is an important inheritance from the period of British rule. With a route length of nearly 40,000 miles (65,000 kilometers), the government-owned network is one of the largest in the world. It is also one of the world's most heavily used systems, especially for transporting passengers but also for carrying freight. Trains on main lines offer frequent and efficient service. In many Indian cities electrified lines have become important for commuters.

Since independence there has been a great spurt of road building, and the use of trucks, automobiles, motorcycles, and motor scooters has risen dramatically. By the early 21st century the road network was the second largest in the world, after that of the United States. India had more than 2 million miles (3 million kilometers) of roads, about half of which were paved. A national network of highways connects virtually all cities. Most villages also can now be reached by automobile, at least in the dry season, and are near or within a few hours' walk of a bus line. In the countryside, transportation of goods by cart and pack animals is still common. Rickshaws are sometimes used in towns and in cities, where every conceivable mode of ground transport exists on the crowded streets.

India has one of the largest merchant shipping fleets among the world's developing countries. In the early 2000s it operated out of 12 major and more than 175 minor ports. Companies engaged in overseas and coastal trade are both publicly and privately owned. Inland water traffic on the several thousand miles of navigable rivers and canals is no longer very important.

Air India, the government-owned international airline, flies to many parts of the world from several Indian cities, especially Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Indian Airlines, also owned by the government, serves virtually all the cities in India and several in neighboring countries. Several private carriers also operate in India.

The government has traditionally dominated the telecommunications system. In the late 20th century, it began to allow private companies to provide some services. The number of people with access to telephones, radios, computers, and Internet service has greatly increased since the 1990s. Telephone and cellular telephone service is concentrated in the urban areas, however, and some rural villages have no service at all. There are many millions of personal computers, but the number remains relatively small given the population size. Cybercafes, located in most major cities, provide service to many of the country's Internet users.

The main radio and television services are government operated and noncommercial, though private channels have become increasingly available. In the early 2000s roughly two-thirds of all households in urban areas owned a television, compared to only roughly a fifth in rural areas. Radio remains an important source for news.

The vigorous Indian press provides several thousand different daily newspapers and tens of thousands of nondaily ones. The English-language press is still the most prestigious and influential, but newspapers in Indian languages have been gaining rapidly in readership and importance.

India is a multiparty democracy. Like the United Kingdom, it has a parliamentary system of government. Like the United States, India has a federal structure of government, in which the constitution divides power between the central government and the state governments. India's present constitution went into effect on January 26, 1950. It has been amended numerous times.

The federal constitution includes a lengthy list of fundamental rights, including freedom of speech and religion and the right to equality before the law. It also specifies goals the state must promote, called directive principles of state policy, designed to guide the government in the interests of the people. In periods of national emergency, which only the president can declare, the government may legally suspend certain rights for a limited period. Such an emergency was in force in India from June 1975 to March 1977.

All Indian citizens 18 years of age and older are eligible to vote in elections. Each part of the country is divided into electoral areas called constituencies, which are roughly equal in population. The members of each constituency vote for a politician to represent them in parliament. National and state elections are overseen by the Election Commission of India.

Central Government
India's central government has three branches-executive, legislative, and judicial. These branches have different responsibilities. However, the constitution also provides for them to be dependent on each other in some ways.

Executive branch
The executive branch is responsible for running the government and for implementing, or carrying out, the laws. This branch consists of the president, the vice president, and the Council of Ministers, which is led by the prime minister. The president is chief of state, but the office is largely ceremonial. The president normally acts on the advice of the prime minister. The president is chosen by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of both houses of parliament and the elected members of the legislative assemblies of all the states. He or she serves a five-year term and can be reelected.

The vice president is chosen by an electoral college made up of only the two houses of parliament. The vice president presides over the upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha. If the president dies or otherwise leaves office, the vice president acts as president until an election for a new president can be held.

The head of government is the prime minister. The prime minister is chosen by the majority party-the political party that wins the majority of the seats-in the lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha. Executive power is exercised by the Council of Ministers, headed by the prime minister. The prime minster selects the ministers for this council. The president formally appoints all the ministers, including the prime minister.

The Council of Ministers makes decisions about government policies. The most important group within the Council of Ministers is the cabinet. The members of the cabinet serve as heads of government departments, such as those responsible for home affairs, external affairs, defense, finance, various industries, health and family welfare, and minority affairs. The Council of Ministers also includes other ministers of state and deputy ministers. The prime minster and the Council of Ministers are all members of parliament.

Judicial branch
The Supreme Court is widely regarded as the most powerful government institution in India. In addition to its powers of judicial review, it is entrusted with enforcing the "fundamental rights" of the Indian constitution. The court has used these powers to assert its authority to make policy on virtually any matter that invokes the "public interest" or requires "social action." It has asserted its right to declare even properly adopted constitutional amendments to be unconstitutional when such amendments violate the "basic structure" of the constitution.

The president of India appoints the judges of the Supreme Court, which comprises the chief justice and no more than 30 other judges. The chief justice and the other judges may serve until the age of 65.

State Government
India consists of 29 states, six union territories, and one national capital territory ( Delhi). The federal constitution gives the states control over certain areas, such as public health, taxation on agriculture, and local government, while the central government retains control over others, such as foreign affairs, defense, and communications. There is a third list of areas, such as criminal law, marriage, and education, on which both the central and state governments may pass laws. The union territories and the national capital territory are controlled directly by the central government.

Each state's legislative branch includes a Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly). The members of the Vidhan Sabha are directly elected by the state's citizens to terms of up to five years. Each state is divided into a number of electoral areas, or constituencies. The people of each constituency elect one member to represent them in the Vidhan Sabha. The state governor is also regarded as a member of the assembly. The governor may suspend or dissolve the Vidhan Sabha when no party is able to establish a working majority.

In most of India's states, the legislature is unicameral, or composed of only one house, the Vidhan Sabha. A small number of the states have bicameral legislatures. These states also have an upper house called the Vidhan Parishad (Legislative Council). This council is broadly similar to the central government's Rajya Sabha. In a state's Vidhan Parishad, one-sixth of the members are nominated by the governor. The rest of the members are elected by various categories of specially qualified voters. A state's Vidhan Parishad may not be more than one-third the size of its Vidhan Sabha.

The state legislatures make state laws, following procedures that are generally similar to those of the central government's parliament. The state legislatures meet to propose, discuss, and vote on bills. In order to become a law, a bill must be passed by the state legislature and then receive the assent of the governor. In states with two-house legislatures, the bill must pass in both houses, and revenue bills must originate in the Vidhan Sabha. In all states, the Vidhan Sabha has the power to pass a measure of no confidence in the chief minister's government, forcing the chief minister and the rest of the council of ministers to step down. In addition, at regular question periods, the members question state ministers on the government's performance.

Each state government also has a judicial branch, which comprises a high court and a number of lower courts, including district courts. The state's high court rules on the constitutionality of state laws and can issue a variety of court orders. The high court also handles appeals from the state's lower courts. The state courts are subordinate to India's Supreme Court ( see above Judicial branch).

The financial accounts of both the state governments and the union (central) government are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India. He or she issues reports that are presented to the state legislatures and to the national parliament. The Comptroller and Auditor-General is appointed by the president of India.

Local Government
Each Indian state is organized into a number of districts. The districts are divided for certain administrative purposes into units variously known as tahsils (or tehsils), taluq s, or subdivisions. These are further divided into community development blocks, each typically consisting of about 100 villages.

There is local self-government. In rural areas, government is in the hands of a system of democratically elected councils known as panchayats. This council system, called panchayati raj, allows the people to participate in their local government. The panchayats administer various community development projects and may also levy and collect local taxes. Panchayat s may, for example, build or maintain schools, libraries, hospitals, roads, and bridges. They may carry out projects related to such areas as land improvement, minor irrigation, drinking water, housing, dairying and poultry, fisheries, small-scale industries, the education of women, and child development.

The panchayat system has three levels. At the lowest level, each village elects its own council, the gram panchayat. Its members are directly elected to serve a five-year term. Each member of the gram panchayat is called a panch. The council is led by a chairperson, known in most states as the sarpanch or pradhan. The gram panchayat is accountable to the gram sabha, a body composed of all the people of the village who are registered to vote. The gram sabha is thus open to all adults age 18 or older. The gram sabha meets at least twice a year to review and approve the gram panchayat 's budget and plans.

At the middle level of the panchayat system are councils representing the community development blocks. Such a council is known as a panchayat samiti. The chairperson of each gram panchayat represents the village at the panchayat samiti. Each panchayat samiti in turn selects a representative to the district-level council, which is known as the zila parishad.

Women have been important participants in the panchayats. To empower women in their communities, the 73rd amendment to the constitution of India requires that at least one-third of the members of the panchayat s-and one-third of the chairpersons-be women. Some states require that women make up at least half of the council members. The 73rd amendment also provides for the reservation of a number of council seats and offices of chairperson for members of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The municipalities in India are not part of this panchayat system. Instead, they are generally governed by their own elected councils.

From the state down to the village, government appointees administer the government departments and agencies. Among the various officers of rural administration, for example, is a village registrar or accountant who maintains records of land ownership. In many areas this officer is called a patwari. At the tahsil (or tehsil) level, revenue officers called tahsildars (or tehsildar s) oversee the work of the patwaris and resolve land disputes. Typically, each district is administered by a deputy commissioner, who also functions as the district magistrate and collector.

Party politics are energetically pursued at both the national and state levels. There are many parties, and their orientations are diverse. The Indian National Congress, or its dominant faction, formed most of India's governments after independence. It is commonly known as the Congress Party. The party was long committed to a form of democratic socialism, with a mixture of private and state enterprise, but from the 1990s it has favored economic privatization. India has several socialist and communist parties that are ideologically to the left of Congress. The parties to the right of Congress have largely appealed either to Hindu interests-as has the Bharatiya Janata (Indian People's) Party (BJP)-or to those of other religious, linguistic, or regional groups. With so many parties contesting parliamentary elections, independent candidates have a fairly good chance of being elected. Despite the high level of illiteracy, voter turnouts in Indian elections are normally large.

Security and Foreign Affairs
Most police functions in India are handled through the states. There are, however, a number of centrally controlled police forces. These include the Central Bureau of Investigation (to deal with certain breaches of union laws), the Border Security Force, the volunteer auxiliary force of Home Guards (to help in times of emergency, such as during riots or natural disasters), the Central Reserve Police Force, and the Central Industrial Security Force. There are also several paramilitary forces deployed to provide internal security and border defense.

Generally, each state police force is headed by a director general, who may be assisted by inspectors general and deputy inspectors general. Each district has its own police superintendent. At the lowest level are police officers known as constables who are assigned to local police stations. Local criminal investigations are initiated with a First Information Report (FIR), a written document prepared and registered by the police. An FIR is usually based on a complaint by a victim or witness of a crime. To prevent police abuses, a number of protections for people who are arrested, detained, or interrogated by the police are provided by the section of the Indian constitution dealing with fundamental rights and by directives of the Supreme Court.

The combined Indian armed forces-comprising the army, navy, coast guard, and air force-are among the largest in the world. The army is the largest of these, with more than four-fifths of military personnel. Each of the services consists solely of volunteers. They are led by a well-trained, professional corps of officers.

Ancient Period
Humans began inhabiting the Indian subcontinent very long ago in prehistory. People began farming the land and raising animals in the area before 7000 bc. Archaeological excavations at many sites, especially Mohenjo-daro and Harappa (both in Pakistan), reveal that an extensive urban and literate civilization existed in the valley of the Indus River from about 2500 to 1700 bc. This society is known as the Indus valley civilization or the Harappan civilization. It was centered in what is now Pakistan's Sindh province. However, the civilization stretched from near the present-day Iran-Pakistan border on the Arabian Sea in the west to near Delhi in the east, and 500 miles (800 kilometers) to the south and 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) to the northeast. The Indus valley civilization was thus the most extensive of the world's three earliest civilizations; the other two are those of Mesopotamia and Egypt, both of which began somewhat before the Indus valley civilization.

The Indus valley civilization developed a highly sophisticated manner of living. The people had wells, bathrooms, drainage systems, handsome jewelry, and well-made household utensils and copper weapons. They built houses, granaries, workshops, and defensive walls of brick. The best-known artifacts left by the civilization are stone seals depicting real and imaginary animals. Some sculpture has also been found. The Indus valley civilization left samples of writing, which have been partly deciphered. The language has been tentatively identified as Dravidian.

Agriculture was the main economic activity of the Indus valley civilization, though the people also engaged in commerce. Among their crops were wheat, barley, sesame, field peas, and dates. Cotton was grown to make textiles. Many animals, including cattle, goats, sheep, fowl, and cats and dogs were domesticated. Minerals were sometimes brought in from far afield. Gold was imported from southern India or Afghanistan, silver and copper from Afghanistan or northwestern India ( Rajasthan), lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, turquoise from Iran ( Persia), and jade from Central Asia. The Indus valley civilization also traded with Mesopotamia.

In the 2nd millennium bc the Indo-European speaking Vedic people (Aryans) began migrating into the area. Hinduism later developed out of Vedism, their religion. The Vedas, their sacred hymn collections, are revered by Hindus today. The four great social classes known as varnas are mentioned in the Rigveda, indicating that a social system with ranked hereditary groupings dates back thousands of years in India. ( See caste.)

Chiefdoms, kingdoms, and republics
The Vedic people spread from the northwest to north-central India and the Ganges valley. They were organized into numerous clans. Each clan was led by a raja, or chief. The chief was primarily a war leader who was responsible for protecting the clan. The clans gathered frequently at assemblies of various kinds as well as for the Vedic sacrifice known as the yajna.

The Vedic people were originally nomads. Over time, they began living in settled village communities, rather than wandering. Some of these settlements evolved into towns and later cities. During the later Vedic period, from about 800 to 500 bc, a change took place in how the people were led. The rajas came to rule over territories rather than clans. These territories were called janapadas. The loyalties of the people were now mainly to their janapada. In some cases, the territories changed from chiefdoms to kingdoms. Assemblies such as the sabha and the parishad continued as political institutions into later periods. However, the larger assemblies declined.

A major transformation occurred in the idea of what a king was-he was no longer merely a war leader. Now, as the leader of a territory, the raja enjoyed more power and status, which were symbolized by a series of lengthy and elaborate ceremonies. In a famous horse sacrifice known as the ashvamedha, a fine stallion was allowed to wander freely, tracked by a body of soldiers. If the horse entered other kingdoms or territories, their rulers had to either fight or submit. In this way, the raja conducting the sacrifice claimed new lands. The rulers of these lands then attended the sacrifice of the horse at a great public ceremony carried out by priests in the capital. At least theoretically, only rajas with considerable power could carry out an ashvamedha.

By about 500 bc, 16 separate major chiefdoms and kingdoms had been established south of the Himalayas. These large states were known as mahajanapada s. They dominated the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. There were also many smaller states.

The mahajanapadas were either led by kings or had a form of representative government, the gana-sangha system. In the kingdoms-such as Magadha in the northeast, in what is now Bihar-the king held great central authority. He was thought to have a sacred right to rule. Kingship was hereditary; in other words, the king was succeeded by a member of his family, generally his eldest son. The king was assisted by various advisers. Regular taxes were collected to support the state, which maintained armies year-round. Many of the kingdoms also had fortified capital cities. In addition to Magadha, the mahajanapada s of Koshala, Kashi, Avanti, and Vatsa are examples of kingdoms.

By contrast, the states known as ganas and sangha s were led not by one ruler but by many people. These states were made up of a clan or a confederacy of clans. They were led by representatives who met at an assembly to discuss and vote on how to govern the state. An elected chief or president, who presided over the assembly, was assisted by a council of elders. However, only the heads of the ruling families could participate in the assembly. Most of the people were unrepresented in the government. These states may thus be called aristocratic republics, or oligarchies.

A notable sangha was that of the Vrijji (or Vajji) confederacy, in what is now Bihar. This confederacy included the powerful Licchavi (Lichchhavi) clan and neighboring peoples. The Vrijji confederacy is often said to have been the world's first republic. Gautama Buddha is thought to have modeled the organizational structure of the Buddhist monastic order, the sangha, on the government of the Vrijji.

Political activity in northern India in the 6th-5th century bc centered on the control of the Ganges River valley. The states of Kashi, Koshala, Magadha, and the Vrijjis battled for this control for a century until Magadha emerged victorious. Magadha's success was partly due to the political ambitions of two of its kings, Bimbisara and Ajatashatru. In addition, the kingdom lay in a strategic location in the Ganges valley, enabling it to control communication and trade on the river. Magadha had fertile land. It also had access to nearby iron-ore deposits for making tools and weapons. Nearby forests were a source of timber and elephants (which were used in the army). It was in Magadha, in the 6th century bc, that Gautama Buddha developed Buddhism and that Mahavira spread and reformed the religion of Jainism. Between the 6th century bc and the 8th century ad, Magadha formed the core of several larger kingdoms or empires, including those of the Nanda, Mauryan, and Gupta dynasties.

Mauryan empire
About 321 bc Chandragupta Maurya founded the large, highly centralized Mauryan empire, which lasted until 185 bc. It was the first empire to unify most of India under one administration. Under Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka, the empire extended over the entire Indian subcontinent except the extreme south. The empire included substantial parts of what is now Afghanistan. The Mauryan empire was an efficient and well-organized state with a standing army and a civil service. It was centered at Pataliputra (now Patna, Bihar state).

To establish his dynasty, Chandragupta gathered soldiers, secured public support, and overthrew the Nanda dynasty. On the death of Alexander the Great, who had invaded northwestern India, Chandragupta won control of the Punjab about 322 bc. Chandragupta expanded the Mauryan empire east to the borders of Persia, south to India's tip, and north to the Himalayas and the Kabul River valley. His administration was patterned on that of the Persian Achaemenian dynasty. About 297 bc Chandragupta died and was succeeded by his son, Bindusara. Bindusara continued to expand the empire to the south, to the vicinity of Karnataka.

The third Mauryan emperor was Bindusara's son Ashoka. Much is known about Ashoka's rule from the decrees he had carved onto stone pillars throughout the empire. The first major event in Ashoka's reign was a military campaign against the Kalinga country in north-central India in 260 bc. The suffering that resulted from this campaign led him to renounce the idea of conquest by violence. Ashoka adopted Buddhism, then a relatively small religious sect, and energetically promoted its values, including nonviolence, compassion, and tolerance. He sought to spread these values through his inscriptions on stone pillars. He also built a number of Buddhist monasteries and shrines.

Ashoka ruled for 37 years. After his death, a political decline set in, and half a century later the Mauryan empire was reduced to the Ganges valley alone. The disintegration of the empire gave rise to a number of smaller kingdoms.

Gupta period
After the Mauryan empire declined, another large empire did not develop in India for hundreds of years, until the imperial dynasty of the Guptas was established about ad 320. The Gupta dynasty ruled northern and central India until the mid-6th century. The dynasty was founded by Chandra Gupta I of Magadha. He increased his power and territory by marrying a princess of the Licchavi clan.

About ad 330 Chandra Gupta I was succeeded by his son Samudra Gupta, who ruled until about 380. Samudra Gupta is generally considered an "ideal king" of the "golden age of Hindu history." He expanded the empire through many military conquests. Among the places he added to the empire was Pataliputra (now Patna, Bihar state), which was to become the Gupta capital.

The emperor Chandra Gupta II ruled from about 380 to 415. His system of government and his charity were admired by the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Faxian. Chandra Gupta II extended the empire's control over neighboring territories through battle and marriage alliances. However, his reign is associated more with cultural and intellectual achievements than with military campaigns.

The Gupta period saw a great flowering of Sanskrit literature, notably Kalidasa's plays and poems. Sculpture and mural painting flourished. Metal workers gained great skill. Gold and silver coins of the Gupta period show a refinement that was not surpassed for many centuries. Advances in metallurgy can also be seen in such famous objects as a bronze statue known as the Sultanganj Buddha and a large iron pillar at Qutb Minar complex in Delhi. The iron pillar, which dates to about ad 400, is more than 23 feet (7 meters) tall and weighs more than 6 tons. Not until the latter part of the 19th century could anything similar have been made in Europe.

The golden age of Indian medicine lasted from about 800 bc until about ad 1000. Indian physicians used a variety of medicinal plants and probably inoculated people against smallpox. Their greatest achievements came in surgery. Among the surgical procedures performed were the removal of stones from the bladder; the removal of tumors; amputations; and cesarean sections. Ancient Indian physicians also introduced plastic surgery, repairing noses with tissue from the cheek.

Medieval Period
The medieval period in India lasted some 1,000 years. Historians often divide this long era into the early medieval period, from about ad 700 to 1200, and the late medieval period, from about 1200 to the mid-1700s.

The early medieval period began after the fall of the Guptas. The Gupta dynasty came to an end in the mid-6th century as a result of invasions by a people from Central Asia known as the Hephthalites. A number of smaller regional kingdoms then arose in India to take the place of the Guptas. These kingdoms fought with each other frequently as they tried to expand their areas of control and to gain new sources of wealth. Rulers plundered the riches of the neighboring kingdoms they conquered and secured access to new land and trade routes. They used the riches to maintain their armies and to build forts and large temples, which attested to their power.

Feudal relationships
The rise and fall of dynasties in India in the early medieval period was largely the result of a pattern of political relationships. Some historians compare this pattern to the feudalism of Europe during the Middle Ages. In India, large landlords held authority over their own territories but were subordinate to the ruler. In return for their local authority, they had specific financial and military obligations to the ruler. These landlords were often called samantas. Some of the samantas were conquered rulers. Others were officials who had been given a grant of land instead of a salary. These officials gradually began assuming the rights of ruling their land. The peasants farmed the land and owed revenue to the samanta. Although a samanta was virtually in sole control over the land granted to him, he had to pay a small percentage of the revenue to the ruler. The samanta also had to maintain a set number of troops for the ruler. Samanta s sometimes overthrew their rulers to become independent.

Major dynasties
Among the numerous ruling families of the early medieval period were the Chalukyas, who controlled large parts of the Deccan for some 200 years, starting in the mid-6th century. The western branch of this dynasty was defeated in the mid-8th century by the Rashtrakutas, who had been subordinates of the Chalukyas. The Rashtrakuta dynasty developed into an important power in control of a vast territory. Its empire stretched from Malwa in western India to Kanchi (Kanchipuram) in the southeast. Later, after the fall of the Rashtrakutas, the Chalukyas came to power again in the Deccan in the late 10th century. The Pala dynasty, which began in the mid-8th century, came to dominate northeastern India.

In what is now Rajasthan and central India, there arose a number of small kingdoms ruled by dynasties that came to be called Rajputs. After Rajput clans took power, their royal families claimed the status of belonging to the Kshatriyas, the social class of warrior-rulers ( see caste). One of the major Rajput dynasties was the Chauhans (Chahamanas). They ruled from a capital at Ajmer and later from Delhi. By the 11th century, the Chauhans had become the major power in eastern Rajasthan. The Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty was a Rajput power in western India, in what are now Gujarat and Rajasthan.

A long struggle began in the 8th century between three dynasties-the Gurjara-Pratiharas, the Rashtrakutas, and the Palas-for control over the central Ganges valley. This area had fertile farmland and included the city of Kannauj (now in central Uttar Pradesh state). Kannauj had earlier been prominent as the capital of the powerful ruler Harsha, and the city was central to trade routes. The three dynasties each wanted to possess this city, which was a symbol of political power. The fight among these three dynasties to control Kannauj is known as the tripartite struggle, or one involving three parties. Each of the dynasties possessed the city for a time.

The empire of the Gurjara-Pratiharas reached its peak of prosperity and power in the 9th and early 10th centuries under the rulers Bhoja I (Mihira Bhoja) and Mahendrapala. Their territory stretched from Gujarat to northern Bengal, though much of it was loosely held under subordinate kings. Kannauj was the capital. In 1018, however, the Gurjara-Pratiharas were driven from the city by Mahmud of Ghazna (now Ghazni, Afghanistan). ( See below Muslim rule.)

The Cholas (Colas), a Tamil dynasty of southern India, were by far the most important power in the subcontinent at this time. Chola history can be reconstructed in considerable detail because of the vast number of lengthy inscriptions the dynasty had carved on stone walls and copper plates. The inscriptions were issued not only by the royal family but also by temple authorities, village councils, and trade guilds.

Under the Cholas, village self-government was highly organized. Villages were grouped into districts called nadus, which were in turn organized into provinces. There are long inscriptions on temple walls referring to the organization and functioning of the village councils. Villages on land that had been granted to Brahmans (the priestly caste) had councils called sabhas; in the non-Brahman villages the council was called the ur. The village council was divided into various committees in charge of the different aspects of village life and administration. Among the responsibilities of the council was the collection of revenue and the supervision of irrigation in the village. References to village bodies and local councils also occur in inscriptions from other regions.

The Cholas built a number of architecturally important temples. Especially notable are the splendid Brihadishvara temple at Thanjavur and the great temple at Gangaikondacolapuram (Tamil Nadu state), a town that served as a later Chola capital. The Cholas excelled at bronzework; their bronze sculptures display elegance, sensitive modelling, and balanced tension.

Urban and economic development
Many rulers built large and elaborate Hindu temple complexes during India's medieval period. The rulers and other patrons provided the temples with great wealth, land, and cattle. Pilgrims visited the temples in great numbers and donated money to them. The temples thus grew as pilgrimage centers. Temple towns developed as priests, traders, artisans, and laborers settled around the temples to serve the needs of the temple communities and pilgrims. The pilgrims needed to be fed, for example, and housed in inns. Large temple complexes might include not only numerous shrines but also administrative offices, homes of temple employees, crafts workshops, markets, and public buildings of many kinds.

Thriving trade and the growth of towns resulted in an increase in the number of artisans and merchants. Artisans created a great variety of products. Among these craftspeople were metalworkers, potters, stonemasons, brick makers, sculptors, wood carvers, jewelry makers, oil pressers, sugar millers, and textile weavers, spinners, and dyers. Bengal and Gujarat became production centers for both coarse cloths and fine fabrics. Metalworkers in India crafted goods in gold, silver, bronze, copper, and iron. Craftspeople also constructed and furnished the palaces, temples, and other buildings. Some of the craftspeople and merchants, especially in southern India, were members of associations called guilds ( shreni s).

Muslim rule
Turkish Muslims of the Ghurid sultanate, a kingdom centered in Ghur (now Ghowr, Afghanistan), later conquered much of northern India. Ghurid military campaigns ended the rule of the Ghaznavid dynasty in the late 1100s. The Ghurid ruler Muʿizz al-Din Muhammad ibn Sam (commonly called Muhammad of Ghur) then conquered the northern Indian Rajput powers. The Chauhans (Chahamanas) under Prithviraja III defeated Muhammad of Ghur in 1191 in the first battle at Taraori, northwest of Delhi. However, Muhammad returned to Taraori the following year with an army of mounted archers. He won a great victory over the Rajputs. This victory opened the region to Muslim control. The Ghurids occupied Delhi in 1192-93, and the whole of northern India fell to them within 20 years.

Caste system and tribes
By the medieval period, much of Indian society was structured under the caste system. The castes, or jatis, were ranked, with higher-status castes commanding the respect of lower-status ones. It appears that changes in status were possible, however, within the general framework. Migrations of peoples both within the Indian subcontinent and from outside encouraged social mobility and change. The core of the social structure was the family, with the pattern of kinship relations varying from region to region. In the more complex society of the urban areas, crafts guilds occasionally took on jati functions. New social and professional groups continually emerged.

A number of new castes-such as the Kayasthas (scribes) and Khatris (traders)-appeared during India's medieval period, as new skills and crafts became important to the economy. Many of these new castes played a major role in society. Each caste was associated with one of the four great social classes, or varna s.

The Brahmans, members of the priestly and intellectual class, were supreme. Regarded as being of the greatest ritual purity, they alone could perform religious ceremonies. Brahmans often owned land and founded dynasties. They also controlled education, because the schools attached to the temples were essentially the only places of formal learning.

The second-highest social class was the Kshatriyas, the class of rulers, nobles, and warriors. In the medieval period most of the groups claiming Kshatriya status, such as the Rajput rulers, had only recently obtained it. The fact that many of these dynasties were of obscure origin suggests some social mobility. A person of any caste who gained political power could establish a family history connecting him with Kshatriya lineages. ( See above caste.)

Although the caste system was dominant in much of India, many different peoples on the subcontinent lived in societies that did not follow the system's social rules and rituals. Their societies were not divided into unequal castes, and they did not recognize the superiority of the Brahmans. The peoples that lived outside of the caste system are often called tribes. Over time, as various tribes interacted with caste-based society, some of the tribes were incorporated into this dominant society. Such tribes then became jati s. However, many tribal peoples who do not participate in caste-based society are still found in India.

Tribal peoples in medieval India followed different ways of life. Some of them were hunters and gatherers, while others grew crops or raised animals. Many of the tribal peoples who practiced agriculture also supplemented their diet with foods from hunting and gathering.

Almost every region of medieval India was home to tribal peoples. They tended to live in the subcontinent's more inaccessible places, such as the hills, forests, and deserts. Among the numerous tribal peoples of the period were the Naga, the Bodo (including the Kachari and the Koch), the Ahom, the Santhal (or Santal), the Munda, and the Khond-all of whom lived in the northeast. The Gaddi, the Gujjar, and others lived in the mountainous north. The northwestern part of the subcontinent was home to such tribal peoples as the Baloch, the Khokhar, the Gakkhar, and the Langah. In western and central India were the Koli and the Bhil, who were widely distributed throughout the area. The Gond were numerous in the central region. In the Deccan region in medieval India lived such tribes as the Korku, the Koraga, the Badaga, and the Maravar.

Modern Period
Arrival of the Europeans
Meanwhile, the struggle between European powers for dominance in Indian affairs had begun. In 1498 Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese navigator, discovered the ocean route around the Cape of Good Hope. The Portuguese soon captured Goa, on India's west coast, and established a spice-trading base there. By the early 17th century the Dutch, British, and French began to challenge the Portuguese for the Indian trade. In 1600 the British East India Company was chartered, and within a century it had trading posts at what are now Chennai, Mumbai, and Kolkata. Kolkata was the capital of British India from 1772 to 1911. In the 1740s the French and British began struggling against each other for control of trade, by forming alliances with the numerous different Indian rulers as well as by military might. The French organized local troops, and their role in the quarrels of Indian rulers brought much of the Deccan under French influence by 1751.

The genius of British soldier Robert Clive turned the tables. His storming and subsequent defense of Arcot in 1751 and his victory at Plassey in 1757 marked the beginning of the end of French power in India and laid the foundations of the rule of the British East India Company. Later, trading rights gradually grew into political rule. It was a strange conquest, in which a private trading company conquered an empire chiefly through the use of soldiers (sepoys) raised in the land itself. Warren Hastings, who became governor-general for the East India Company in 1774, built upon the foundation Clive had laid. By 1849 the rule of the company had been extended over virtually the whole of the subcontinent by conquest or treaties.

Certain high-handed methods used by the British company-as well British missionaries trying to convert Hindus to Christianity and the introduction of European customs at the expense of traditional Indian ones-stirred a great wave of unrest. In 1857 a rumor circulated among the company's Indian soldiers that the cartridge papers they had to tear with their teeth were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. The cow is sacred to Hindus, and the pig is abhorred by Muslims. This set off the Indian Mutiny, or Sepoy Revolt, of 1857-58, a widespread armed Indian rebellion against the British. The bloody revolt, though ultimately crushed, ended the powers of the East India Company. In 1858 the administration of India was transferred to the British Crown.

A number of peasant uprisings broke out in India in the late 19th century. Among them were the Indigo Revolt, or the Blue Mutiny, a rebellion of the indigo farmers of Bengal in 1859-60, and the Deccan Riots against moneylenders in 1875.

In 1876 the British Parliament ruled that India should be designated an empire. The next year Britain's Queen Victoria was crowned empress of India.

The Indian Empire
The viceroy of India, appointed by the British crown, ruled directly only in the provinces of British India. Hindu and Muslim princes continued to govern almost 600 princely states. These were nominally autonomous, but they were forbidden to make war on one another. The viceroy kept an agent at the court of each princely state to advise the ruler.

British rule brought internal peace and some economic development. The British modernized cities and built roads and railways, canals, irrigation works, mills and factories, and schools. They also introduced Western law and police systems. Very few Indians were accepted into government posts. Most British civil service personnel were able, though their aloofness-and often disdain of Indian culture-aroused resentment.

The Struggle for Independence
Indian intellectuals, many of them educated in England, began to dream of a free India. In 1885 they founded a political party known as the Indian National Congress. Initially, it was a moderate reform party aiming to further the participation of Indians in their own government; it later called for outright independence from Britain. The Muslim League was formed in 1906 to protect the political rights of India's Muslim minority. A few years later it joined the Congress Party in calling for Indian independence. For several decades the league promoted Hindu-Muslim unity, though the two groups often had major differences.

During World War I, Indian troops served the British loyally, but nationalist agitation increased afterward. In 1919 the British Parliament passed a reform act providing for provincial councils of Indians with some control over agriculture, education, and public health; appointed British officials retained control over other areas. That year the British also gave the government repressive powers to combat resistance to its rule, such as to imprison political activists without trial.

Mohandas K. Gandhi of the Congress Party led a movement against British rule through "noncooperation," which included boycotting British-made products and British institutions. He launched a program of nonviolent resistance that he called satyagraha ("holding onto truth"), which included protest actions such as the Salt March and the Quit India campaign. Hundreds of thousands of Indians joined his nonviolent civil disobedience campaigns. Many thousands of them, including at times Gandhi, were imprisoned. The Congress Party quickly gained a mass following. In 1929 Jawaharlal Nehru was elected its president. Like Gandhi, Nehru was passionately devoted to the cause of freedom.

After years of roundtable meetings about how to reform India's constitution, the British Parliament passed an act in 1935 that provided for elected legislatures in the provinces. However, property and educational requirements greatly restricted the number of eligible voters. To protect the interests of minorities, voting was by communal groups, so that Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and others voted for candidates from within their own groups. The system perpetuated religious strife.

The already strained relations between India's Hindus and Muslims deteriorated after the 1937 elections, in which the predominantly Hindu Congress Party was very successful. The Congress Party did not include any Muslim League members in its provincial governments, and the league came to view the party as biased toward Hindus.

When World War II broke out in 1939, the Congress Party demanded postwar freedom for India as the price for India's active participation. The British were not prepared to promise this, and the Congress Party opposed the war effort. In 1942 the British offered a plan for granting India dominion status after the war, but Indian leaders did not agree to its terms. The Congress Party insisted on a unified India. Since 1940, however, the Muslim League had been demanding the separation of the mainly Muslim provinces from India to create an independent country. The country would be called Pakistan, which means "country of the pure." Moreover, the hundreds of princes were determined to preserve their own states.

The Japanese invaded northeast India from Burma (now Myanmar) with a small force in the spring of 1944. It was quickly driven out. In spite of opposition to British rule, India raised a volunteer army of nearly 2.5 million. Its industries expanded greatly to supply arms and other goods for the war effort.

Birth of the New Nations
In 1946 the British proposed another plan for dominion status. However, Hindu and Muslim conflict over the plan sparked riots and killings. The British plan was put forth by a three-person Cabinet Mission. It proposed a federal structure for India with a weak central government. The subcontinent was to be divided into three major groups of provinces. Group A was to include the provinces with a majority of Hindus, Group B was to contain those with a majority of Muslims, and Group C was to include Assam (which had a Hindu majority) and Bengal (which had a Muslim majority). The Cabinet Mission Plan also provided for a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution for India.

In February 1947 the British government announced that it would leave India not later than June 1948. With the violence still raging, Hindu leaders agreed to the partitioning of the subcontinent into two separate countries. The British Parliament rushed through the Indian Independence Act in July. On August 15, 1947, the Indian Empire came to an end.

The boundaries between the countries were drawn so that the majority of Hindus were in India and the majority of Muslims were in Pakistan. Yet some 38 million Muslims remained in India, and about 19 million Hindus were left in Pakistan. The Punjab, Bengal, and Assam were split in two. Communal riots broke out. Millions poured across the borders to the country of their own faith. The Sikhs had wanted their own separate country, but when that was not granted, most of those who were left in Pakistan fled to India. As many as a million people of all faiths were massacred or died of other causes while migrating. Hundreds of villages were burned in communal strife. The partition riots made all previous conflicts of the sort known to recent history pale by comparison.

On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated by a fanatical member of a militant Hindu group that disapproved of his efforts toward Hindu-Muslim reconciliation. Hindus and Muslims alike mourned his death. The Indian government immediately acted against the extremist group, and violence subsided. In 1950 the two countries agreed to protect their religious minorities. By 1951 about 7.2 million Hindus and Sikhs had fled from Pakistan into India and 7.4 million Indian Muslims had entered Pakistan. Additional millions crossed later. Religious strife and sporadic outbreaks of violence persisted for decades, however, in spite of these migrations.

Status of Princely States and Foreign Areas
The Indian Independence Act applied only to the provinces of British India. The 562 princely states were left outside both dominions. A few joined Pakistan. The rest were brought into India. Hyderabad, the largest princely state, insisted on remaining independent. India sent in troops, and in November 1948 it became a part of India.

Both India and Pakistan coveted Kashmir, a large princely state in the far north. When troops entered the state from Pakistan, the ruler of Kashmir joined his state to India and asked for India's help. For 14 months the two countries waged an undeclared war in Kashmir. The fighting ended on January 1, 1949, when both agreed to permit the United Nations to hold a vote in Kashmir to decide which country it would join. It was never held. India and Kashmir announced in 1957 that Kashmir's accession to India was permanent, but it was not recognized by the United Nations. Part of it remains occupied by Pakistan. The portion held by India makes up the Indian state named Jammu and Kashmir. China has also claimed part of Kashmir. In 1962 Chinese troops penetrated into the Ladakh region of Indian-held Kashmir and India's North East Frontier Agency (now the state of Arunachal Pradesh). Subsequently, the Chinese withdrew, though they maintained possession of the northeastern part of Ladakh. Legislation passed by India's parliament in August 2019 established a framework for downgrading the state of Jammu and Kashmir to a union territory and splitting off the Ladakh region into a second union territory.

When Britain withdrew from India, Portugal still ruled Goa and several other territories on India's west coast with a total area of 1,472 square miles (3,813 square kilometers). France held Pondicherry (now Puducherry) and a number of other small areas totaling 196 square miles (508 square kilometers). Between 1950 and 1954 France's colonies were merged with India. India seized the Portuguese possessions in 1961. ( See also Dadra and Nagar Haveli; Daman and Diu.)

India Under Nehru
As the vehicle of independence, the Congress Party enjoyed great prestige. Throughout this period it maintained a firm grasp on the national government. As the state boundaries were redrawn to accommodate various language groups, however, parties emphasizing local and regional issues assumed increasing importance in state governments.

Rule of Indira Gandhi
Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded Nehru as prime minister in 1964. In 1965 the quarrel with Pakistan over Kashmir flared into heavy fighting. After three weeks United Nations intervention brought about a cease-fire. On January 10, 1966, the heads of the two countries signed a pact aimed at a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute. The following day Shastri died. He was succeeded as prime minister by Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter.

In 1967 and 1969 the Congress Party suffered serious election losses, and in 1969 it split. The branch of the party led by Indira Gandhi captured two-thirds of the seats in the Lok Sabha in 1971. Gandhi's popularity reached a peak in December 1971 when India won a brief war with Pakistan, fought in support of East Pakistan's struggle for independence ( see Bangladesh).

In 1975 the courts voided Gandhi's 1971 election to the Lok Sabha because of improper procedures in her campaign. She was barred from holding elective office for six years. Gandhi responded by declaring a national state of emergency. The harsh measures carried out under it-including a controversial mass sterilization program and the jailing of her political opponents-contributed to her defeat at the polls when the postponed general elections were finally held in 1977. In late 1978 she was expelled from Parliament and was briefly imprisoned.

The victorious Janata (People's) Party, actually a coalition of four smaller parties, had difficulty governing. Prime Minister Morarji Desai resigned in July 1979. A month later his successor, Charan Singh, also resigned, and the president called for new elections. In January 1980 Gandhi, leading a new faction called the Congress (I)-the "I" for Indira-won a remarkable victory and returned to power.

A continuing domestic problem was the resistance of the tribal peoples to central government rule. Resentment in Assam against Bengali refugees who had settled there led to a massacre in 1983 in which more than 1,000 people were killed. Subsequently, a group of Bodo tribespeople in Assam began waging a guerrilla campaign for that state to secede from India.

Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's son, was chosen as prime minister the day of her assassination. He went on to lead the Congress Party to a landslide victory in elections in December 1984. His government focused on liberalizing the economy. He also sent peacekeeping troops into Sri Lanka in 1987-90 to help disarm the Tamil Tigers, a militant separatist group.

General elections in November 1989 brought the defeat of Rajiv Gandhi. Officials in his government were accused of taking kickbacks from the Bofors Company of Sweden in a purchase of guns for the army. Vishwanath Pratap Singh, leader of the Janata Dal Party, was sworn in as prime minister in December 1989. Chandra Shekhar replaced Singh in November 1990 but resigned four months later. On May 21, 1991, while campaigning to return to office, Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a bomb detonated by a woman associated with the Tamil Tigers.

India Since the 1990s
P.V. Narasimha Rao became prime minister after the Congress Party triumphed in India's 1991 elections. Rao's government continued programs to restructure the economy, allowing greater private ownership of industries and eliminating subsidies and fixed prices. The reforms spurred economic growth. India's high-technology industries expanded dramatically.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other Hindu nationalist parties began to gain a wider following. While the Congress Party supported secular policies, the Hindu nationalist parties sought to promote India as a Hindu state. Heightened Hindu fundamentalist rhetoric and political action led to intense and often violent conflict between Hindu and Muslim extremists. In December 1992 a mob of Hindu nationalists tore down a centuries-old Muslim mosque built on a Hindu sacred site in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh state. The destruction of the mosque set off deadly communal riots in cities across India. At least 2,000 people, most of them Muslim, were killed in the ensuing riots in cities across India. In Bombay (now Mumbai), riots in December 1992 and January 1993 resulted in the deaths of several hundred people, mostly Muslims. In retaliation, a series of bombs were exploded in the city in March 1993, killing more than 200 people. The bombings were linked to a Muslim criminal element. The communal violence throughout the country set the stage for further Hindu-Muslim clashes in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

In 1998 the BJP won the largest share of seats in the Lok Sabha, and. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP leader, became prime minister of a coalition government. Under the BJP, Indian products were favored over imports, and the party openly opposed what it considered non-Hindu values. The names of several Indian cities were changed, either to drop a name associated with the colonial government (such as changing Madras to Chennai) or to bring the English name more in line with the name's pronunciation in the local language (such as changing Calcutta to Kolkata).

In 2002 Gujarat was the site of widespread communal violence between Hindus and Muslims. In February a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was attacked and set on fire by a Muslim mob in Godhra, resulting in 58 deaths. This ignited a widespread counterattack on Muslims in towns and villages throughout the state. Hundreds were stabbed to death or burned alive. Muslim-owned shops and properties were looted, and houses were destroyed. More than 100,000 Muslims were forced to take shelter in relief camps. There were many complaints that the Gujarat state government-led by Narendra Modi of the BJP-did not exert itself to enforce order and provide relief to the sufferers. Some 1,000 to 2,000 people were killed in the Godhra riots.

In May 2004 the BJP-led ruling coalition suffered a surprise defeat at the hands of the Congress Party in India's parliamentary elections. The Congress Party formed a coalition government. Sonia Gandhi, president of the Congress Party and widow of Rajiv Gandhi, declined the prime minister's post and. She instead supported former finance minister and economist Manmohan Singh for the position. A member of the Sikh faith, he became India's first non-Hindu prime minister. Pratibha Patil of the Congress Party became the first woman president of India in 2007, and the party's Meira Kumar, a Dalit, became the first woman speaker of the Lok Sabha in 2009. Singh began his second term as prime minster after leading the Congress Party to an impressive victory in the parliamentary elections of 2009. He thus became only the second prime minster, after Nehru, to be returned for a second term after having served a full five-year first term.

During Singh's second term as prime minister, his popularity and that of the Congress Party declined. A major factor in their decreasing popularity was the Indian economy, which was faltering. Economic growth slowed, and inflation rates rose. Prices for food and energy supplies increased greatly. In addition, a string of corruption scandals implicated a number of government officials-including, in 2013, Singh himself.

Although the BJP was not free from scandal, it was able to take advantage of the Congress Party's declining fortunes. The BJP's candidate for prime minister of India in 2014 was Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat. He successfully portrayed himself as a strong opponent of government corruption and as a man of the people. Modi presented himself as a contrast to the elite members of the Congress Party-especially the Nehru-Gandhi family-that had ruled India for so much of the time since 1947. The 2014 elections to the Lok Sabha drew a record turnout, with more than two-thirds of eligible voters casting ballots. The Congress Party suffered a humiliating defeat to the BJP, which won a clear majority of the seats. Modi was thus given a mandate to form a government without having to seek coalition partners, a circumstance that had not occurred in India in three decades.

As prime minister, Modi promoted Hindu identity and culture. For example, his government tried to ban the sale of cows for slaughter (because cows are considered sacred in Hinduism). However, the ban was later overturned by the Supreme Court. Modi and the BJP also mobilized and encouraged Hindus of lower castes. Modi himself belonged to a lower caste, and his very leadership had a democratizing effect on Hindu nationalists.

In the early years of Modi's first term, the Indian economy improved. Beginning in 2016, however, sweeping reforms meant to formalize the economy slowed growth. One of the most far-reaching of the administration's economic measures involved reforming the money system. In November 2016 the government removed the current 500- and 1,000-rupee banknotes from circulation with only a few hours' notice. The economy was disrupted, and banks were overrun by large crowds seeking to replace their bills in time. The main purpose of the sudden move was to stop "black money"-cash used for illegal activities-by making it easy to exchange small amounts of cash but difficult to exchange large sums.

In 2019 a suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir set off tensions with Pakistan. The bomber killed 40 members of India's Central Reserve Police Force, making it the deadliest attack on security personnel in the region in three decades. A militant group believed to be operating underground in Pakistan claimed credit for the attack. In response, India conducted an aerial mission in Pakistani airspace for the first time in five decades. India claimed to have launched air strikes against the militant group's largest training camp. Pakistan denied the existence of any such camps and claimed that the strikes had been conducted in an empty field. Skirmishes between the countries occurred the following day. Pakistan captured an Indian Air Force pilot but soon returned him to India. Both countries appeared to be trying to avoid escalating the situation, and Pakistan announced a crackdown on militants operating within its borders.

The Indian government's response to the suicide bombing helped boost support for Modi and the BJP. As the 2019 elections to the Lok Sobha approached, the BJP dominated the campaign. Through a combination of a spending blitz, greater access to government resources, and grassroots efforts, the BJP maintained more visibility than its main competitor, the Congress Party. In the spring election, the BJP was returned to power with a landslide victory. Modi became India's first prime minister outside the Congress Party to be reelected after a full term.

In August 2019 the Indian government effectively suspended the constitution of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Legislation passed that month set the stage for splitting the state into the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the union territory of Ladakh. The move, which would allow the central government full control over Jammu and Kashmir's governance, was met with a number of protests, including a large demonstration in the state's main city of Srinagar.

Joseph E. Schwartzberg

Ed.

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About one-sixth of all the human beings on Earth live in India, the world's most populous democracy. It is the second most populous country in the world, after China. India's borders encompass a vast variety of peoples, practicing most of the world's major religions and speaking scores of different languages.

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Unit 1 - Lesson 2, activity 2     Video n.3. The climate: the monsoons

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Unit 1 - Lesson 2, activity 2     Video n.3. The climate: the monsoons

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Monster Monsoon | Science | Nature | Little Fox | Bedtime Stories