# data[].attributes.body
Main facts about the country.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
1,428,627,663 ()

1,210,854,977 ()

()

$10,123 ()

()

$2,731 ()

32.8

0.644 ·

India ( Hindi: Bhārat), officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area. It is also the largest country by number of people. It is the world's largest democracy by number of people since 1947.

India is a peninsula. It has has the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, and the Himalayas on the north. It has six neighbours: Pakistan in the northwest; China, Nepal and Bhutan in the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. Sri Lanka and the Maldives are nearby to the south. Its Andaman and Nicobar Islands are near Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand.

Modern humans came to the Indian subcontinent from Africa more than 55,000 years ago. They have lived there for long time. At first, they had lived in the subcontinent as hunter-gatherers. The Indian subcontinent is the second most diverse region after Africa. Humans began to create settlements in the subcontinent 9,000 years ago, on the western banks of the Indus River. The settlements became parts of the Indus Valley Civilisation in the third millennium BCE. By 1200 BCE, Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, spread to India from the northwest. The first presence of Sanskrit is found in the hymns (songs of worship) of the . The hymns were spread from one person to another orally, not by any book. They show the early forms of Hinduism. The Indo-Aryan languages replaced the Dravidian languages in the northern and western regions of India. By 400 BCE, the caste system was developed within Hinduism. Buddhism and Jainism were also developed in India at the same time.

India has been a federal republic since 1950. Its government is a democratic parliamentary system. It is a multilingual (multiple languages) and multicultural (multiple cultures) society. The capital city of India is New Delhi. India has the second largest military force in the world and is also a nuclear weapon state. India's economy became the world's fastest growing in the G20 developing nations during 2014, replacing the People's Republic of China. India's literacy and wealth are also rising.

India has the fifth largest economy by nominal GDP, the third largest by GDP (PPP) and is one of the fastest growing major economy. According to New World Wealth, India is the fifth richest country in the world with a total individual wealth of $12.6 trillion. However, it still has many social and economic issues, for example poverty, pollution, social equality, religious extremism, terrorism and corruption. India has reduced its rate of poverty. But its economic inequality has increased.

India is a founding member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and has signed the Kyoto Protocol. It is also a member of the G20 developing nations. India has its own space agency (ISRO). It has done many research throughout the Solar System. It has sent spacecraft to the Moon and Mars. Indian movies, music and spiritual teachings are becoming more important in global culture. Sources describe it as a potential superpower, because of its rising economy and increase in global influence. India is a country with nuclear weapons. It also has a high rank in military expenditure. It has disputes over Kashmir with its neighbours, Pakistan and China, since the middle of the 20th century.

India has the fourth largest number of spoken languages per country in the world, only behind Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Nigeria. Most of Indians follow Hinduism at 80%, but people of different religions such as Buddhism, Sikhism and Islam also live there.

The Oxford English Dictionary (third edition 2009) says that the name "India" comes from the Classical Latin name India. It was originally used for the Indus Valley (modern- Pakistan) and later as a term for all of the subcontinent. Latin took the name from ancient Greek Indos ( Ἰνδός) and then from Old Persian Hinduš both which means the Indus river basin. The Old Persian name was used for the eastern province Sindh of the Achaemenid Empire. The name has a relation with the Sanskrit word sindhu. It means "river", especially the Indus River. The ancient Greeks called Indians as Indoi (), which means "the people of the Indus".

The name ( Bhārat (भारत ; pronounced [ˈbʱaːɾət] listen )) is found in both Indian epic poetry and the Constitution of India.[52] It is used in different Indian languages in different forms. Bhārat is a modern form of the older name Bharātavarṣa. It original meaning was the northern part of India.[53] It has become a very popular name for India since the middle of the 19th century.

( Hindustān ([ɦɪndʊˈstaːn] listen )) is a Middle Persian name for India. It became popular by the 13th century.[56] It is used widely since the Mughal Empire.[57]

The Taj Mahal in Agra was built by Shah Jahan as a memorial to his wife Mumtaz Mahal. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is thought to be of "outstanding universal value".[58]

One of the oldest language of the world, Tamil, was born in today's India. Which is more than 3000 years old. Later, a king named Chandragupt Maurya built an empire called the Maurya Empire in 300 BC. It made most of South Asia into one whole country. From 180 BC, many other countries invaded India. Even later (100 BC AD 1100), other Indian dynasties (empires) came, including the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas, and Pandyas. Southern India at that time was famous for its science, art, and writing. The Cholas of Thanjavur were pioneers at war in the seas and influenced Malaya, Borneo, Cambodia. The influence of Cholas are still noticeable in Southeast Asia.

In the early 1900s, millions of people peacefully started to protest against British control. One of the people who led the freedom movement was Mahatma Gandhi, who only used peaceful tactics, including a way called " ahimsa", which means "non-violence". On 15 August 1947, India peacefully became free and independent from the British Empire. India's constitution was founded on 26 January 1950. Every year, on this day, Indians celebrate Republic Day. The first official leader (Prime Minister) of India was Jawaharlal Nehru.

After 1947, India had a socialist planned economy. It is one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations. It has fought many wars since independence from Britain, including the wars in 1947-48, 1965, 1971, and 1999 with Pakistan and in 1962 with China. It also fought a war to capture Goa, a Portuguese-built port and a city that was not a part of India until 1961. The Portuguese refused to give it to the country, and so India had to use force and the Portuguese were defeated. India has also done nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998. It is one of the few countries that have nuclear bombs. Since 1991, India has been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

India has the most people of any democracy in the world. India's government is divided into three parts: the Legislative (the one that makes the laws, the Parliament), the Executive (the government), and the Judiciary (the one that makes sure that the laws are obeyed, the supreme court).

The legislative branch is made up of the Parliament of India, which is in New Delhi, the capital of India. The Parliament of India is divided into two houses: the upper house, Rajya Sabha (Council of States); and the lower house, Lok Sabha (House of People). The Rajya Sabha has 250 members, and the Lok Sabha has 552 members.

The executive branch is made up of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, and the Council of Ministers. The President of India is elected for a period of five years. The President can choose the Prime Minister, who has most of the power. The Council of Ministers, such as the Minister of Defence, helps the Prime Minister. Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India on 16 May 2014. He is the 19th Prime Minister of India. The president has less power than the prime minister.

The judicial branch is made up of the courts of India, including the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of India is the head of the Supreme Court. Supreme Court members have the power to stop a law being passed by Parliament if they think that the law is illegal and contradicts (opposes) the Constitution of India. In India, there are also 24 High Courts.

India is the seventh biggest country in the world. It is the main part of the Indian subcontinent. The countries next to India are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Bhutan, and Nepal. It is also near Sri Lanka, an island country. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India, is near Thailand, Indonesia, and Myanmar.

India is a peninsula, which means that it is surrounded on three sides by water. In the west is the Arabian Sea, in the south is the Indian Ocean, and in the east is the Bay of Bengal. The coastline of India is of about 7,517 km (4,671 mi) long. The northern part of India has many mountains. The most famous mountain range in India is the Himalayas, which have some of the tallest mountains in the world. There are many rivers in India. The main rivers are the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Yamuna, the Godavari, the Kaveri, the Narmada, and the Krishna.

India has different climates. In the South, the climate is mainly tropical, which means it can get very hot in summer and cool in winter. The northern part, though, has a cooler climate, called sub-tropical, and even alpine in mountainous regions. The Himalayas, in the alpine climate region, can get extremely cold. There is very heavy rainfall along the west coast and in the Eastern Himalayan foothills. The west, though, is drier. Because of some of the deserts of India, all of India gets rain for four months of the year. That time is called the monsoon. That is because the deserts attract water-filled winds from the Indian Ocean, which give rain when they come into India. When the monsoon rains come late or not so heavily, droughts (when the land dries out because there is less rain) are possible. Monsoons normally come around July-August.

The Indian Armed Forces is the military of India. It is made up of an Army, Navy and Air Force. There are other parts like Paramilitary and Strategic Nuclear Command.

The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief. However, it is managed by the Ministry of Defence. In 2010, the Indian Armed Forces had 1.32 million active personnel. This makes it one of the largest militaries in the world.

The Indian Army is becoming more modern by buying and making new weapons. It is also building defenses against missiles of other countries. In the years 2018-2022, India imported more arms than any other nation in the world. Since its independence in 1947, India fought four wars with Pakistan and a war with China.

The national emblem of India shows four lions standing back-to-back. The lions symbolize power, pride, confidence, and courage. Only the government can use this emblem, according to the State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act, 2005.

The name India comes from the Greek word, '. This came from the word sindhu, which, over time, turned into Hind, Hindi, or Hindu. The preferred endonym (the name given to the country by its own people) is "Bhārat" in Hindi and other Indian languages as contrasted with names from outsiders. Some of the national symbols are:

States:

Union territories:

There are disputes about certain parts of the Indian borders. Countries do not agree on where the borders are. Pakistan and China do not recognise the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian government claims it as an Indian state. Similarly, the Republic of India does not recognise the Pakistani and Chinese parts of Kashmir.

In 1914, British India and Tibet agreed on the McMahon Line, as part of the Simla Accord. In July 1914, China withdrew from the agreement. Indians and Tibetans see this line as the official border. China does not agree, and both mainland China and Taiwan do not recognize that Arunachal Pradesh belongs to India. According to them, it is a part of South Tibet, which belongs to China.

The economy of the country is among the world's fastest growing. It is the 7th largest in the world with a nominal GDP of $2,250 billion ( USD), and in terms of PPP, the economy is 3rd largest (worth US$8.720 trillion). The growth rate is 8.25% for fiscal 2010. However, that is still $3678 (considering PPP) per person per year. India's economy is based mainly on:

India's economy is diverse. Major industries include automobiles, cement, chemicals, consumer electronics, food processing, machinery, mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, steel, transportation equipment, and textiles.

However, despite economic growth, India continues to suffer from poverty. 27.5% of the population was living in poverty in 2004-2005. In addition, 80.4% of the population live on less than US$2 a day, which was lowered to 68% by 2009.

There are 1.4 billion people living in India. In 2023, India passed China to become the world's most populous country. About 65% of Indians live in rural areas, or land set aside for farming. The largest cities in India are Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad. Hindi and English are Official languages of India. India has 23 officially recognised languages. Altogether, 1,625 languages are spoken in India.

There are many different languages and cultures in India. There are two main language families in India, the Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages. About 69% of Indians speak an Indo-Arayan language, and about 26% speak a Dravidian language. Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic group. Around 5% of the people speak a Tibeto-Burman language.

Hindi is the official language in India with the largest number of speakers. It is the official language of the union. Native speakers of Hindi represent about 41% of the Indian population (2001 Indian census). English is also used, mostly for business and in administration. It has the status of a 'subsidiary official language'. The constitution also recognises 21 other languages. Either many people speak those languages, or they have been recognized to be very important for Indian culture. The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.

India has 23 official languages. Its constitution lists the name of the country in each of the languages. Hindi and English (listed in boldface) are the "official languages of the union" (Union meaning the Federal Government in Delhi); Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia are officially the " classical languages of India."

Cave paintings from the Stone Age are found across India. They show dances and rituals and suggest there was a prehistoric religion. During the Epic and Puranic periods, the earliest versions of the epic poems and Mahabharata were written from about 500-100 BCE, although these were orally transmitted for centuries before this period. Other South Asian Stone Age sites apart from Pakistan are in modern India, such as the Bhimbetka rock shelters in central Madhya Pradesh and the Kupgal petroglyphs of eastern Karnataka, contain rock art showing religious rites and evidence of possible ritualised music.

The Harmandir Sahib or The Golden Temple of the Sikhs

Several modern religions are linked to India, namely modern Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. All of these religions have different schools (ways of thinking) and traditions that are related. As a group they are called the Eastern religions. The Indian religions are similar to one another in many ways: The basic beliefs, the way worship is done and several religious practices are very similar. These similarities mainly come from the fact that these religions have a common history and common origins. They also influenced each other.

India sent a spacecraft to Mars for the first time in 2014. That made it the fourth country and first Asian country to do so, successfully. It was called the Mars Orbiter Mission.

ISRO launched 104 satellites in a single mission to create a world record. India became the first nation in the world to have launched over a hundred satellites in one mission. That was more than the 2014 Russian record of 37 satellites in a single launch.

Indians have excelled in hockey. They have also won eight gold, one silver, and two bronze medals at the Olympic games. However, cricket is the most popular sport in India. The Indian cricket team won the 1983 and 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. They shared the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka and won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. Cricket in India is controlled by the Board of Control for Cricket in India or BCCI. Domestic tournaments are the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy, the Irani Trophy, and the Challenger Series. There is also the Indian cricket league and Indian premier league Twenty20 competitions.

Tennis has become popular due to the victories of the India Davis Cup team. Association football is also a popular sport in northeast India, West Bengal, Goa and Kerala. The Indian national football team has won the South Asian Football Federation Cup many times. Chess, which comes from India, is also becoming popular. This is with the increase in the number of Indian Grandmasters. Traditional sports include kabaddi, kho kho, and gilli-danda, which are played throughout India.

1. "National Symbols | National Portal of India". India.gov.in. Archived from the original on 4 February 2017. The National Anthem of India Jana Gana Mana, composed originally in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore, was adopted in its Hindi version by the Constituent Assembly as the National Anthem of India on 24 January 1950.

2. "National anthem of India: a brief on 'Jana Gana Mana'". News18. 14 August 2012. Archived from the original on 17 April 2019.

3. "Profile | National Portal of India". India.gov.in. Archived from the original on 30 August 2013.

4. "Constitutional Provisions - Official Language Related Part-17 of the Constitution of India". Department of Official Language via Government of India. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021.

5. "50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India (July 2012 to June 2013)" (PDF). Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2016.

6. "Ethnologue : Languages of the World (Seventeenth edition) : Statistical Summaries". Ethnologue by SIL International. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014.

7. Cite error: The named reference Census2011religion was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).

8. "Population Enumeration Data (Final Population)". 2011 Census Data. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 22 May 2016.

9. "A - 2 Decadal Variation in Population Since 1901" (PDF). 2011 Census Data. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 April 2016.

10. "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024.

11. - "Official name: Republic of India.";
- "Official name: Republic of India; Bharat Ganarajya (Hindi)";
- "Official name: Republic of India; Bharat.";
- "Official name: English: Republic of India; Hindi:Bharat Ganarajya";
- "Official name: Republic of India";
- "Officially, Republic of India";
- "Official name: Republic of India";
- "India (Republic of India; Bharat Ganarajya)"

12. Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (24 April 2023). "India overtakes China to become world's most populous country". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.

13. Stein, Burton (2012), Arnold, David (ed.), A History of India, The Blackwell History of the World Series (2 ed.), Wiley-Blackwell, One of these is the idea of India as 'the world's largest democracy', but a democracy forged less by the creation of representative institutions and expanding electorate under British rule than by the endeavours of India's founding fathers - Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and Ambedkar - and the labours of the Constituent Assembly between 1946 and 1949, embodied in the Indian constitution of 1950. This democratic order, reinforced by the regular holding of nationwide elections and polling for the state assemblies, has, it can be argued, consistently underpinned a fundamentally democratic state structure - despite the anomaly of the Emergency and the apparent durability of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty.

14. Dyson 2018, p. 1, "Modern human beings-Homo sapiens-originated in Africa. Then, intermittently, sometime between 60,000 and 80,000 years ago, tiny groups of them began to enter the north-west of the Indian subcontinent. It seems likely that initially they came by way of the coast. ... it is virtually certain that there were Homo sapiens in the subcontinent 55,000 years ago, even though the earliest fossils that have been found of them date to only about 30,000 years before the present."

15. Fisher 2018, p. 23, "Scholars estimate that the first successful expansion of the Homo sapiens range beyond Africa and across the Arabian Peninsula occurred from as early as 80,000 years ago to as late as 40,000 years ago, although there may have been prior unsuccessful emigrations. Some of their descendants extended the human range ever further in each generation, spreading into each habitable land they encountered. One human channel was along the warm and productive coastal lands of the Persian Gulf and northern Indian Ocean. Eventually, various bands entered India between 75,000 years ago and 35,000 years ago."

16. Lowe, John J. (2015). Participles in Rigvedic Sanskrit: The syntax and semantics of adjectival verb forms. Oxford University Press. pp. 1-2. ISBN 978-0-19-100505-3. (The Rigveda) consists of 1,028 hymns (suktas), highly crafted poetic compositions originally intended for recital during rituals and for the invocation of and communication with the Indo-Aryan gods. Modern scholarly opinion largely agrees that these hymns were composed between around 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE, during the eastward migration of the Indo-Aryan tribes from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across the Punjab into north India.

17. (a) Witzel, Michael (2008). "Vedas and Upanisads". In Gavin Flood (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 68-70. ISBN 978-0-470-99868-7. It is known from internal evidence that the Vedic texts were orally composed in northern India, at first in the Greater Punjab and later on also in more eastern areas, including northern Bihar, between ca. 1500 BCE and ca. 500-400 BCE. The oldest text, the Rgveda, must have been more or less contemporary with the Mitanni texts of northern Syria/Iraq (1450-1350 BCE); ... The Vedic texts were orally composed and transmitted, without the use of script, in an unbroken line of transmission from teacher to student that was formalised early on. This ensured an impeccable textual transmission superior to the classical texts of other cultures; it is in fact something of a tape-recording of ca. 1500-500 BCE. Not just the actual words, but even the long-lost musical (tonal) accent (as in old Greek or in Japanese) has been preserved up to the present. (pp. 68-69) ... The RV text was composed before the introduction and massive use of iron, that is before ca. 1200-1000 BCE. (p. 70)
(b) Doniger, Wendy (2014), On Hinduism, Oxford University Press, pp. xviii, 10, ISBN 978-0-19-936009-3, A Chronology of Hinduism: ca. 1500-1000 BCE Rig Veda; ca. 1200-900 BCE Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda (p. xviii); Hindu texts began with the Rig Veda ('Knowledge of Verses'), composed in northwest India around 1500 BCE (p. 10)
(c) Ludden 2014, p. 19, "In Punjab, a dry region with grasslands watered by five rivers (hence 'panch' and 'ab') draining the western Himalayas, one prehistoric culture left no material remains, but some of its ritual texts were preserved orally over the millennia. The culture is called Aryan, and evidence in its texts indicates that it spread slowly south-east, following the course of the Yamuna and Ganga Rivers. Its elite called itself Arya (pure) and distinguished themselves sharply from others. Aryans led kin groups organized as nomadic horse-herding tribes. Their ritual texts are called Vedas, composed in Sanskrit. Vedic Sanskrit is recorded only in hymns that were part of Vedic rituals to Aryan gods. To be Aryan apparently meant to belong to the elite among pastoral tribes. Texts that record Aryan culture are not precisely datable, but they seem to begin around 1200 BCE with four collections of Vedic hymns (Rg, Sama, Yajur, and Artharva)."
(d) Dyson 2018, pp. 14-15, "Although the collapse of the Indus valley civilization is no longer believed to have been due to an 'Aryan invasion' it is widely thought that, at roughly the same time, or perhaps a few centuries later, new Indo-Aryan-speaking people and influences began to enter the subcontinent from the north-west. Detailed evidence is lacking. Nevertheless, a predecessor of the language that would eventually be called Sanskrit was probably introduced into the north-west sometime between 3,900 and 3,000 years ago. This language was related to one then spoken in eastern Iran; and both of these languages belonged to the Indo-European language family. ... It seems likely that various small-scale migrations were involved in the gradual introduction of the predecessor language and associated cultural characteristics. However, there may not have been a tight relationship between movements of people on the one hand, and changes in language and culture on the other. Moreover, the process whereby a dynamic new force gradually arose-a people with a distinct ideology who eventually seem to have referred to themselves as 'Arya'-was certainly two-way. That is, it involved a blending of new features which came from outside with other features-probably including some surviving Harappan influences-that were already present. Anyhow, it would be quite a few centuries before Sanskrit was written down. And the hymns and stories of the Arya people-especially the Vedas and the later Mahabharata and Ramayana epics-are poor guides as to historical events. Of course, the emerging Arya were to have a huge impact on the history of the subcontinent. Nevertheless, little is known about their early presence.";
(e) Robb 2011, pp. 46-, "The expansion of Aryan culture is supposed to have begun around 1500 BCE. It should not be thought that this Aryan emergence (though it implies some migration) necessarily meant either a sudden invasion of new peoples, or a complete break with earlier traditions. It comprises a set of cultural ideas and practices, upheld by a Sanskrit-speaking elite, or Aryans. The features of this society are recorded in the Vedas."

18. (a) Jamison, Stephanie; Brereton, Joel (2020), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, pp. 2, 4, ISBN 978-0-19-063339-4, The RgVeda is one of the four Vedas, which together constitute the oldest texts in Sanskrit and the earliest evidence for what will become Hinduism. (p. 2) Although Vedic religion is very different in many regards from what is known as Classical Hinduism, the seeds are there. Gods like Visnu and Siva (under the name Rudra), who will become so dominant later, are already present in the Rgveda, though in roles both lesser than and different from those they will later play, and the principal Rgvedic gods like Indra remain in later Hinduism, though in diminished capacity (p. 4).;
(b) Flood, Gavin (2020), "Introduction", in Gavin Flood (ed.), The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Practice: Hindu Practice, Oxford University Press, pp. 4-, ISBN 978-0-19-105322-1, I take the term 'Hinduism to meaningfully denote a range and history of practice characterised by a number of features, particularly reference to Vedic textual and sacrificial origins, belonging to endogamous social units (jati/varna), participating in practices that involve making an offering to a deity and receiving a blessing (puja), and a first-level cultural polytheism (although many Hindus adhere to a second-level monotheism in which many gods are regarded as emanations or manifestations of the one, supreme being).;
(c) Michaels, Axel (2017). Patrick Olivelle, Donald R. Davis (ed.). The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Law: A New History of Dharmaśāstra. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 86-97. ISBN 978-0-19-100709-5. Almost all traditional Hindu families observe until today at least three samskaras (initiation, marriage, and death ritual). Most other rituals have lost their popularity, are combined with other rites of passage, or are drastically shortened. Although samskaras vary from region to region, from class (varna) to class, and from caste to caste, their core elements remain the same owing to the common source, the Veda, and a common priestly tradition preserved by the Brahmin priests. (p 86)
(d) Flood, Gavin D. (1996). An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge University Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-521-43878-0. It is this Sansrit, vedic, tradition which has maintained a continuity into modern times and which has provided the most important resource and inspiration for Hindu traditions and individuals. The Veda is the foundation for most later developments in what is known as Hinduism.

19. (a) "Kashmir, region Indian subcontinent", Encyclopaedia Britannica, archived from the original on 13 August 2019, Kashmir, region of the northwestern Indian subcontinent... has been the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan since the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.;
(b) Pletcher, Kenneth, "Aksai Chin, Plateau Region, Asia", Encyclopaedia Britannica, archived from the original on 2 April 2019, Aksai Chin, Chinese (Pinyin) Aksayqin, portion of the Kashmir region, ... constitutes nearly all the territory of the Chinese-administered sector of Kashmir that is claimed by India;
(c) Bosworth, C. E (2006). "Kashmir". Encyclopedia Americana: Jefferson to Latin. Scholastic Library Publishing. p. 328. ISBN 978-0-7172-0139-6. KASHMIR, kash'mer, the northernmost region of the Indian subcontinent, administered partly by India, partly by Pakistan, and partly by China. The region has been the subject of a bitter dispute between India and Pakistan since they became independent in 1947

20. The Constitution of India (PDF), Ministry of Law and Justice, 1 December 2007, archived from the original (PDF) on 9 September 2014, Article 1(1): India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.

21. Paturi, Joseph; Patterson, Roger (2016). "Hinduism (with Hare Krishna)". In Hodge, Bodie; Patterson, Roger (eds.). World Religions & Cults Volume 2: Moralistic, Mythical and Mysticism Religions. United States: New Leaf Publishing Group. pp. 59-60. ISBN 978-0-89051-922-6. The actual term Hindu first occurs as a Persian geographical term for the people who lived beyond the Indus River. The term Hindu originated as a geographical term and did not refer to a religion. Later, Hindu was taken by European languages from the Arabic term al-Hind, which referred to the people who lived across the Indus River. This Arabic term was itself taken from the Persian term Hindū, which refers to all Indians. By the 13th century, Hindustan emerged as a popular alternative name for India, meaning the "land of Hindus."

22. "Taj Mahal". World Heritage List. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The World Heritage List includes 851 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.

23. Montek S. Ahluwalia (2002). "Economic Reforms in India since 1991: Has Gradualism Worked?". Journal of Economic Perspectives. Archived from the original (MS Word) on 4 March 2010.

24. Matthew, K.M. (2006). Manorama Yearbook 2003. Malayala Manorama. ISBN 81-89004-07-7.

25. Kumar, V. Sanil; Pathak, K. C.; Pednekar, P.; Raju, N. S. N. (2006). "Coastal processes along the Indian coastline" (PDF). Current Science. 91 (4): 530-536.

26. Concise Encyclopedia. Dorling Kindersley Limited. 1997. p. 333. ISBN 0-7513-5911-4.

27. India's army seeks military space program San Francisco Chronicle.

28. "Country Profile: India" (PDF). Library of Congress - Federal Research Division. December 2004.

29. Cite error: The named reference CIA was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).

30. "Poverty estimates for 2004-05" (PDF). Planning Commission, Government of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 September 2008.

31. Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook. FIELD LISTING: POPULATION BELOW POVERTY LINE Archived 21 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine

32. Mallikarjun, B. (Nov. 2004), Fifty Years of Language Planning for Modern Hindi-The Official Language of India, Language in India, Volume 4, Number 11. ISSN 1930-2940.

33. Prabodh Bechardas Pandit, "Language in a Plural Society", Dev Raj Chanana Memorial Committee, 1977.

34. Robert McHenry, "The New Encyclopaedia Britannica", Encyclopædia Britannica, 1993.

35. "Eighth Schedule". National Informatics Centre (NIC). 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 December 2018.

36. Adams, C. J., Classification of religions: Geographical, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007. Retrieved 5 September 2007

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
India - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
1,428,627,663 () 1,210,854,977 () () $10,123 () () $2,731 () 32.8 0.644 · India ( Hindi: Bhārat), officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area. It is also the largest country by number of people.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hidden Figures | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Billy Elliot Soundtrack. Lizz Coatsworth. 14 videosLast updated on Sep 2, 2021. Play all · Shuffle · 7:32. Billy Elliot - Stars Look Down.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Let's do English ESL deep listening: focus on meaning. The space raceThe space raceThe space raceThe space raceThe space raceThe space race

# data[].attributes.body
Explain India's caste system using your own words.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
India's caste system is among the world's oldest forms of surviving social stratification. The BBC explains its complexities.

The system which divides Hindus into rigid hierarchical groups based on their karma (work) and dharma (the Hindi word for religion, but here it means duty) is generally accepted to be more than 3,000 years old.

How did caste come about?

Manusmriti, widely regarded to be the most important and authoritative book on Hindu law and dating back to at least 1,000 years before Christ was born, "acknowledges and justifies the caste system as the basis of order and regularity of society".

The caste system divides Hindus into four main categories - Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Shudras. Many believe that the groups originated from Brahma, the Hindu God of creation.

At the top of the hierarchy were the Brahmins who were mainly teachers and intellectuals and are believed to have come from Brahma's head. Then came the Kshatriyas, or the warriors and rulers, supposedly from his arms. The third slot went to the Vaishyas, or the traders, who were created from his thighs. At the bottom of the heap were the Shudras, who came from Brahma's feet and did all the menial jobs.

The main castes were further divided into about 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes, each based on their specific occupation.

Outside of this Hindu caste system were the achhoots - the Dalits or the untouchables.

How does caste work?

For centuries, caste has dictated almost every aspect of Hindu religious and social life, with each group occupying a specific place in this complex hierarchy.

Rural communities have long been arranged on the basis of castes - the upper and lower castes almost always lived in segregated colonies, the water wells were not shared, Brahmins would not accept food or drink from the Shudras, and one could marry only within one's caste.

The system bestowed many privileges on the upper castes while sanctioning repression of the lower castes by privileged groups.

Often criticised for being unjust and regressive, it remained virtually unchanged for centuries, trapping people into fixed social orders from which it was impossible to escape.

Despite the obstacles, however, some Dalits and other low-caste Indians, such as BR Ambedkar who authored the Indian constitution, and KR Narayanan who became the nation's first Dalit president, have risen to hold prestigious positions in the country.

Historians, though, say that until the 18th Century, the formal distinctions of caste were of limited importance to Indians, social identities were much more flexible and people could move easily from one caste to another.

New research shows that hard boundaries were set by British colonial rulers who made caste India's defining social feature when they used censuses to simplify the system, primarily to create a single society with a common law that could be easily governed.

Is the system legal?

Independent India's constitution banned discrimination on the basis of caste, and, in an attempt to correct historical injustices and provide a level playing field to the traditionally disadvantaged, the authorities announced quotas in government jobs and educational institutions for scheduled castes and tribes, the lowest in the caste hierarchy, in 1950.

In 1989, quotas were extended to include a grouping called the OBCs (Other Backward Classes) which fall between the traditional upper castes and the lowest.

In recent decades, with the spread of secular education and growing urbanisation, the influence of caste has somewhat declined, especially in cities where different castes live side-by-side and inter-caste marriages are becoming more common.

In certain southern states and in the northern state of Bihar, many people began using just one name after social reform movements. Despite the changes though, caste identities remain strong, and last names are almost always indications of what caste a person belongs to.

What about job quotas?

In recent years, there have been demands from several communities to be recognised as OBCs - in 2016 there were violent protests by the Jat community in Haryana and the Patel community led huge protests in Gujarat in 2015 demanding access to caste quotas.

Both are prosperous and politically dominant communities, but they support their demand for caste quotas by saying large numbers in their communities are poor and suffering.

Some say the caste system would have disappeared by now if the fires were not regularly fanned by politicians.

At elections, many caste groups still vote as a block and are wooed by politicians looking for electoral gains.

As a result, what was originally meant to be a temporary affirmative action plan to improve the lot of the unprivileged groups has now become a vote-grabbing exercise for many politicians.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
India's complex caste system is among the world's oldest forms of surviving social stratification.

# data[].attributes.body
What is a slum? Explain using your own words. Try to explain the title of the movie "Slumdog Millionaire".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
From Mumbai to "Slumbai"

When you fly into Mumbai and the plane is landing, the first thing that meets your eyes is a cramped sprawl of corrugated iron-roofed huts. They are right next to the airport runway, quietly yet powerfully reminding you that you are entering a city where nearly half of the population lives in slums. As India's economic capital and most populous city, Mumbai has a total population of 12.44 million - 42 percent of whom live in slums. The percentage of slum dwellers in the city is so high that locals joke that Mumbai should be renamed "Slumbai."

The definition of a slum has two dimensions. From a legal perspective, slums are unauthorized and illegal structures, where inhabitants do not have legal title to the land that they occupy. In terms of living conditions, slums are areas that are short of basic amenities and characterized by the prevalence of insanitary, squalid, overcrowded conditions, and hence become a source of danger to their inhabitants' health, safety, or convenience.

Image Credit

Slum housing alongside the railway in Mumbai. (Photo by Yue Zhang, January 2016.)" data-embed-button="media" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.embed" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="b4ad73fa-5a28-457e-878e-49783cb9f7a3">

In the first official survey that Mumbai conducted in 1956, 8 percent of the total population lived in slums. Over the years, the population of the city grew at a high speed and so did the number of slum dwellers. Today, nearly 5.2 million people live in slums, and the number is still increasing.

Nearly one million people live in Dharavi, the largest slum in Mumbai as well as in Asia, where the film Slumdog Millionaire was shot. It is home to a large number of microindustries, including pottery, tanning and leatherworking, and plastic recycling. A walk through Dharavi or any other slum would completely change your mind about what slums mean in Mumbai: they are not clusters of temporary shelters, but complex ecological and economic systems, "a city within a city." Many slum dwellers in Mumbai are not the official poor who live below the poverty line, but are well-educated, middle-class people who are deprived of adequate housing.

Understanding the Prevalence and Persistence of Slums

Large-scale slum proliferation is a complicated issue relevant to a variety of factors. The scarcity of land, dictated by Mumbai's peculiar geography and heightened by the competition from other economic activities, is one factor that has made formal housing unaffordable for most Mumbaikars. However, the expansion and persistence of slums in Mumbai is primarily a function of failed housing policies combined with other political factors.

In the past 60 years, a series of policies have restricted the land and housing supply in Mumbai, rather than creating a favorable environment for the construction of large housing stock needed for the growing population.

The percentage of slum dwellers in the city is so high that locals joke that Mumbai should be renamed "Slumbai."

The Rent Control Act, passed in 1947, led to the freezing of rents, which disincentivized private capital from creating housing stock for rental purposes. In 1973, the Rent Control Act was amended to provide all the tenants' rights to the licensees, making the rental business even more difficult for the private sector. Further, the passage of the 1976 Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act put several tracts of land under litigation and restricted the supply of large tracts of land for the purpose of housing construction.

Even as the rental market has been dismantled and private sector has been disincentivized to create more housing stock, the government has made little effort to increase the supply of affordable housing.

In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the vision of "Housing for All," in the hope of providing more affordable housing to the poor. This is the first time that the Indian government has brought up housing as a major issue on its agenda, but it is up to each state to formulate its own plans on how to achieve the goal. The Government of Maharashtra (which administers Mumbai) formulated a comprehensive and ambitious New Housing Policy and Action Plan that aims to provide 1.9 million houses, of which 0.8 million will be in Mumbai, for low-and middle-income groups in the state. But whether and how the plan will be implemented is still unknown.

Over the years, slums have become "vote banks."

Politicians periodically provide services to slum dwellers in exchange for votes. The exchange through electoral politics brings about incremental improvement of the living conditions of slums, but does not solve the long-term problem of housing shortage. On the contrary, the exchange stabilizes existing slums and even provides incentives for the creation of new slums.

Government Responses: The History

The Indian government's responses to slums have gone through several changes. In the 1950s and 1960s, the initial government reaction was to clear slums and rehouse slum dwellers in subsidized rental housing. This approach did not succeed owing to the shortage of resources to build and maintain housing stocks and the lack of political will to do so. Meanwhile, it was realized that slum dwellers contribute significantly to the local economy, so the government began to have a more tolerant attitude toward slums.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the government adopted a different approach to improve and upgrade the living conditions in slums. Through various acts and programs, specifically aid from the World Bank, the government provided basic services such as water, toilets, electricity, pathways, street lights, conservancy, and primary health care and education to slum dwellers. At the same time, leasehold tenure of land was transferred to cooperative housing societies of slum dwellers. However, the scale of the programs remained limited and did not prevent slum proliferation.

Current Model of Slum Redevelopment

After the previous two phases of slum clearance and slum upgrading, in 1995 the government started a new scheme of slum redevelopment. Under the current scheme, private developers can purchase slum land from the government at a relatively low price - 25 percent of the fair market value of the land - and redevelop the land through the incentive floor space index. (Floor space index, a ratio of built-up area to appurtenant land, is a planning and development control tool used to control population density and building design from the point of view of health and safety.)

Specifically, after purchasing the slum land and obtaining the consent of 70 percent of the slum dwellers in the community, the developer will clear the land and rehouse the eligible slum dwellers free of cost in multistory-building tenements of 269 square feet (upgraded from 225 square feet) carpet area per household. Only slum dwellers who have documents to prove that they have been living in the slum prior to the cut-off date of January 1, 2000, are eligible for the free housing. The rehabilitation buildings are on a part of the land occupied by the slum (in situ).

In return, the developer can construct buildings on the rest of the slum land and sell them on the market as a free-sale component. Through this model, some of Mumbai's most prominent real estate development projects have been built on former slum land. For instance, Imperial Towers, a twin-tower luxury residential skyscraper complex in South Mumbai, are the tallest buildings and one of the most expensive real estate projects in India. Inaugurated in 2010, they were built on former slum land where the current model of slum redevelopment was first put into large-scale practice.

To ensure the implementation of the slum redevelopment model, the Government of Maharashtra created the Slum Redevelopment Authority (SRA) in 1997. The authority would be the agency responsible for evaluating and approving slum redevelopment proposals submitted by developers. The chief minister of Maharashtra is the SRA chairperson. In the past two decades, 0.15 million tenements have been rehabilitated in this model, against the target of 1 million in the first decade. Another 0.12 million tenements have been approved for rehabilitation, but construction is yet to begin.

In a recent conversation with Aseem Gupta, chief executive officer of SRA, he reveals that SRA will expedite the process by giving slum dwellers an ultimatum to select a developer to work with. If they fail to do so before the required date, SRA would designate a developer for the community in order to speed up redevelopment.

Problems of the Model

Mumbai is among the first cities in the world that have adopted a market-dominant model to redevelop slums. Given the limited resources of local authorities, the model provides an alternative approach to handling informal settlements, an issue that many developing countries are facing. As innovative as it is, the model demonstrates several problems.

The operation of the model starts from the direct negotiation between slum dwellers and developers. Although it gives slum dwellers the freedom to choose which developer to work with, it often leads to fights between developers, as they all have the desire to redevelop profitable areas. The unregulated and even vicious competition between developers also creates opportunities for rent-seeking.

The current model does not provide specific standards on the quality of rehabilitation buildings. Much discretion is left to developers. Some of the rehabilitation buildings are designed and constructed in a way that compromises the living standards of inhabitants. Some rehabilitation plots do not have sufficient amenities or open space. There is the danger that the rehabilitation buildings will become "vertical slums."

Because of the cut-off date for eligibility of rehabilitation, the ineligible population is left with no option but to stay in unauthorized manner in slums. Many of them have to settle in a new slum after their previous slum is demolished by the government.

The current model provides free housing to slum dwellers, and developers have to load the cost of rehabilitation on the saleable component. Therefore, the model does not encourage the construction of housing at various price levels and ultimately leads to the increase of housing prices on the formal market.

Many slum dwellers in Mumbai are not the official poor who live below the poverty line, but are well-educated, middle-class people who are deprived of adequate housing.

Policy Recommendations

Based on the problems identified above, the following policy recommendations can be made in order to improve the process and outcomes of slum redevelopment in Mumbai.

Reform the SRA model. The SRA has been functioning merely as an approving authority that scrutinizes the developers' proposals on behalf of slum dwellers and approves or reject them. To streamline the process and guarantee the quality of rehabilitation buildings, SRA should act as a planner, facilitator, and anchor, not merely as an approving authority. It is important to mobilize the private sector in the slum redevelopment process, but the public sector should play a more active role rather than completely taking a backseat.

Increase the provision of affordable housing. The housing stock being created in the market outside of the rehabilitation component of slum redevelopment is mostly in the luxury or high-cost segment, and is not catering to the demand for affordable houses of the low- and middle-income groups of the population. The government should more systematically create housing stock for low- and middle-income groups.

Promote rental housing. Under the current regressive rent control law, 0.318 million (16%) of the total 1.935 million houses in Mumbai are unoccupied. The government must create an enabling environment to revitalize the Mumbai rental market, both private and public.

The Government of Maharashtra has set a goal to make Mumbai slum-free by 2022. This is an ambitious goal, considering the current pace of slum redevelopment. But perhaps what is more important than the pace of redevelopment is the approach of redevelopment - namely, whether the approach can efficiently provide quality housing to slum dwellers, increase the provision of affordable housing in the city at large, and ultimately contribute to the creation of more livable and inclusive cities.

Yue Zhang is an associate professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a 2015-16 Wilson Center fellow. She received her master's and doctoral degrees from Princeton University and her undergraduate degree from Peking University. Her principal research interest is comparative urban politics and policy with a focus on urban governance, urbanization in developing countries, historic preservation, and globalization. She is currently working on a book project about informal housing and urban governance in China, India, and Brazil.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The expansion and persistence of slums in Mumbai is primarily a function of failed housing policies combined with other political factors, writes Fellow Yue Zhang.

# data[].attributes.body
Explain the expression "Bollywood" using your own words.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
India's movie industry is thriving

Bollywood is bigger today than ever before, but how did it rise to such incredible heights? Before we look at some key films, let's define what Bollywood is!

BOLLYWOOD DEFINITION

What is Bollywood?

Bollywood is the Hindi-language sector of the Indian film industry. There are several other film sectors within India, such as those of South India and Tollywood, but none are as big as Bollywood.

Where is Bollywood actually located? The epicenter of Bollywood is in Mumbai (formerly Bombay).

Why is it called Bollywood? The term Bollywood is a riff on Hollywood + Bombay, much like other global film markets such as Nollywood and Chinawood.

Bollywood style is defined by expressive visuals and elaborate song and dance routines. But over the years, Bollywood has become an industry with diverse stories with global appeal.

Notable Bollywood Movies

DEFINE BOLLYWOOD

What is Hindi-Cinema?

So is Hindi-cinema and Bollywood the same thing? That's tricky to actually say. In strict technical terms, yes, but it's hard to ignore other subjective factors, such as Bollywood's pervading association with star power, Masala films and musical numbers.

Nowadays, most film scholars refer to Hindi-cinema and Bollywood as separate entities. But if there's one thing we know for sure, it's that the sheer quantity of films in India, whether it be in the Hindi-language or otherwise, are enough to satiate even the most ardent of movie fans.

Bollywood Beginnings

Bollywood vs. Hollywood

We've defined Bollywood as the Hindi-language sector of India's movie industry, and shown a few examples of some of its most popular films, but there's a lot more to Bollywood than just language.

Most Bollywood movies share themes, narrative structures and visual motifs. In many ways, Bollywood and Hollywood are alike, but there are some key differences that set them apart at a structural level.

Here's an excellent video on the differences between Bollywood vs Hollywood and how they work.

Bollywood vs. Hollywood

To fully understand where Bollywood is today, we have to look back at where it started. From 1858 to 1947, India was under British rule, as such, Bollywood was heavily influenced by Western culture.

That isn't to say that Indian film was explicitly westernized prior to 1947, because it wasn't. In fact, there have been Indian films about the ancient sanskrit epics, The Mahabharata and the Ramayana since 1920. But it wasn't until 1947 when Great Britain partitioned the country into India and Pakistan that the landscape of Indian cinema solidified as a whole.

India's Movie Industry History

Indian Cinema as Culture

The partition of India gave independence back to the people, consequently liberating the creativity of an entire culture. In response to the partition, Indian cinema exploded into a scatterplot of different directions. The Bengali film industry veered into a perspective on realism, which was made famous by writer/director Satyajit Ray.

On the other hand, Hindi-language films became popular in the mainstream, with stars such as Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar becoming major celebrities. This next video shows the lasting impact Dilip Kumar has had on India's movie industry.

Dilip Kumar Bio * With English Subtitles

Kapoor and Kumar, among other stars of the time, were so famous that their association with a film could cause it to "sink or swim" at the box office. Just like Hollywood, Bollywood thrives on star power.

The importance of star power for Hindi-language films only continued to grow in the years following Kapoor's and Kumar's works. Today, many would argue that movie stars in Bollywood are more important to their film's financial success than anywhere else, including Hollywood.

Expanding Markets

Bollywood and Tollywood

Hindi-language films and Bengali films continued to grow apart from one another until the 1970's when they split altogether, and solidified as Bollywood and Tollywood, respectively.

In addition, smaller film sectors began to take shape, such as the Telugu and Tamil markets in South India. Films across India started to re-release in different regions with dubbed vocals to widen their appeal.

Behind the Scenes

Screenwriting in Bollywood

We've talked about how stars of Indian cinema have long been major selling points for audiences. It started with actors like Kumar and Kapoor, then continued with new generations of actors, including mega-star Amitabh Bachchan who debuted in 1969.

But Bachchan's generation of Bollywood set a precedent that movies were more than just their stars, a point proven by the considerable fanfare behind the works of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, two screenwriters who revolutionized Bollywood in the 1970s.

The screenwriting duo, widely referred to as Salim-Javed, shifted the traditional story structure of Bollywood cinema from the sensational musicals of yore into more gritty crime-focused stories. Their most famous film is perhaps , a tale of two brothers caught on opposite sides of the law. Deewar stars Amitabh Bachchan and is directed by Yash Chopra, a legend of Bollywood cinema.

A New Genre Emerges

Masala Films

When asked "What is Bollywood?" many Westerners have a preconceived notion of Bollywood movies as bombastic, musical and romantic. This is due to the widespread popularization of Masala, a film movement in Bollywood that mixes genres for sensational effect.

The first Masala film Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973) was written by Salim-Javed and directed by Nasir Hussain. Audiences flocked to theaters to see the film and the fervor for the genre-mix hasn't stopped in the near-fifty years since its release.

Recent Bollywood Movies

India's movie industry today

Now that we've broken down the history of Bollywood, let's look at where the industry is today. This infographic from Forbes (2014) does a great job of showing the industry in visual terms.

Bollywood Movie Industry Infographic

According to business data platform Statista, India's movie industry has been on a "consistent growth curve in terms of the number of feature films produced and distributed" per year. In 2018, Statista reports that there were over 1,800 films distributed throughout India.

What is Bollywood? According to these statistics, Bollywood is a powerhouse industry showing no signs of slowing. In the debate between Bollywood vs. Hollywood...there's just not much debate.

Here's a video of some Indian film industry insiders and filmmakers discussing the state of the business today.

India's movie industry in 2019

Bollywood is still very much dominated by stars: actors first, then writers and directors. The biggest actors in Bollywood today are the three Khans: Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan.

Although they are known collectively as the three Khans, they aren't biologically related. However, it is worth noting that Salman Khan is no stranger to Bollywood fame as his father was the great screenwriter Salim Khan.

Amitabh Bachchan is still one of the biggest stars in Bollywood, similarly to how Robert De Niro is still one of the biggest names in Hollywood. One of the most renowned directors in Hindi-cinema today is Anurag Kashyap, whose films have helped India's movie industry transition away from Masala.

A Tour Inside Anurag Kashyap's Film Library

It's clear that Kashyap is a scholar of film history, which is evident in his work. Moreso, Kashyap is a sort of symbol for a modern renaissance of Hindi-cinema. Bollywood is still dominated by Masala films and epic stories of Indian culture, but the 21st century has also made room for more intimate stories in the Hindi-language as well.

Bengali cinema, or Tollywood, has long been associated with art films. In the 20th century, the move towards stories of realism was termed The "Parallel Cinema Movement," because it paralleled the realism movements of cinema in Italy and France.

However, Tollywood Parallel Cinema, although largely critically acclaimed, struggled to find financial success. Whether Bollywood will have more success with a shift to realism remains to be seen.

Bollywood is clearly in the midst of an industry change. More films are addressing social themes, such as feminism and wealth inequality. Zoya Akhtar, daughter of the great screenwriter Javed Akhtar, is one of several prominent female directors working today in Bollywood.

The 2016 Bollywood film became internationally famous for its depiction of women's rights.

Pink (2016) * Trailer

Pink is just one film that is changing the landscape of Hindi-cinema though, others include:, Well Done Abba and Antardwand, all of which won the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues.

UP NEXT

What is Nollywood?

We've covered "What is Bollywood?" but there's entirely different "wood" that is equally prolific. The Nigerian film market ("Nollywood") is the third highest producing cinema industry in the world, per year. But how did Nollywood become such a movie juggernaut? We look at its history and how its most iconic films inspired generations of Nigerian artists.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bollywood - The Largest Film Industry in the World

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What is Bollywood? Bollywood is #1 in the world for film production. Let's explore this reigning industry, why it's different, and how it all works.

# data[].attributes.body
Quick presentation of the movie: date, director, box office, awards, main actors,...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup, telling the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik from the Juhu slums of Mumbai. Starring Dev Patel as Jamal, and filmed in India, the film was directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and produced by Christian Colson, with Loveleen Tandan credited as co-director. As a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, an Indian- Hindi version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Jamal surprises everyone by being able to answer every question correctly, winning ₹ 20 million. Accused of cheating, Jamal recounts his life story to the police, illustrating how he is able to answer each question correctly.

After its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and later screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival, Slumdog Millionaire had a nationwide release in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009, in India on 23 January 2009, and in the United States on 25 December 2008. Regarded as a sleeper hit, Slumdog Millionaire was widely acclaimed, being praised for its plot, soundtrack, cinematography, editing, direction, and performances (especially Patel's). It was nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight-the most for any 2008 film-including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It won seven BAFTA Awards including Best Film, five Critics' Choice Awards and four Golden Globes.

Eighteen-year-old Jamal Malik, an Indian Muslim from the Juhu slum of Mumbai, is a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, and is one question away from the grand prize. However, before the ₹20 million question, he is detained and tortured by the police, who suspect him of cheating. Through a series of flashbacks, Jamal recounts the incidents in his life that provided him with each answer.

At five years old, Jamal manages to obtain the autograph of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan after jumping into a cesspit. Jamal's older brother Salim later sells the autograph. Their mother dies during the Bombay riots, and as the brothers flee the riot, they meet Latika, a girl from their slum. Salim is reluctant to take her in, but Jamal suggests that she could be their "third musketeer", a reference to the Alexandre Dumas novel The Three Musketeers. The brothers refer to themselves as Athos and Porthos but do not know the third musketeer's name.

The three are found by Maman-a gangster who trains street children to become beggars. When Salim learns that Maman is blinding the children to make them more effective beggars, he escapes with Jamal and Latika to a train. The brothers successfully board the moving train but Latika is unable to keep up. Salim grabs her hand but purposefully lets go, leaving her to be recaptured by Maman. For the next few years, Salim and Jamal travel around on top of trains, making a living by selling goods, picking pockets, washing dishes, and pretending to be tour guides at the Taj Mahal. At Jamal's insistence, they return to Mumbai to find Latika, where they discover that she is being raised by Maman to be a prostitute. The brothers rescue her, shooting Maman dead. Salim gets a job with Javed-a rival crime lord. In their room, Salim orders Jamal to leave him alone with Latika, presumably to sleep with her. When Jamal refuses, Salim draws a gun on him and Latika persuades Jamal to leave.

Years later, Jamal, now a Chaiwala in an Indian call centre, searches the centre's database for Salim and Latika. He learns that Salim is a high-ranking lieutenant in Javed's crime organisation and confronts him, Salim pleads for forgiveness and Jamal lies his way into Javed's residence to reunite with Latika. Although he professes his love for her, she tells him to forget about her. Despite the refusal, Jamal promises that he will wait for her every day at five o'clock at the Victoria Terminus (referred to in the film as VT station). Latika attempts to meet him there but she is captured by Javed's men, led by Salim. Jamal loses contact with Latika and in a final attempt to reach her, he decides to become a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, because he knows she watches the show.

Jamal is extremely successful on the show and becomes popular across India, much to the dismay of the show's host, Prem Kumar. Kumar attempts to trick Jamal by feeding him the wrong answer to the penultimate question. However, Jamal uses his 50/50 lifeline and answers correctly, raising suspicion that he is cheating.

When the episode ends, Jamal is arrested. After an initial beating, the police inspector listens to his explanation of how he knew each answer. Finding his stories "bizarrely plausible," the officer allows him to return to the show. Latika sees Jamal on the news. In an effort to make amends for his past behaviour, Salim gives Latika his phone and car keys. He asks her to forgive him and to find Jamal. After Latika leaves, Salim fills a bathtub with money and sits in it, waiting for Javed to realise Latika is free.

For the final question, Jamal is asked the name of the third musketeer. He laughs at the irony and admits he does not know but chooses to try to answer the question anyway. He uses his "Phone-A-Friend" lifeline to call Salim, because it is the only phone number he knows. Latika answers and tells Jamal that she is safe, although she does not know the answer. Javed hears Latika on the show and realises that Salim betrayed him. He and his men break down the bathroom door but Salim kills Javed before he is shot and killed by the gang. Relieved about Latika, Jamal guesses and picks the first answer, Aramis. He is correct and wins the grand prize. Jamal and Latika meet on the platform at the train station and kiss. The movie ends with a Bollywood-style musical number, " Jai Ho".

Dev Patel as Jamal Malik, a boy born and raised in the poverty of Bombay/Mumbai. Boyle considered hundreds of young male actors, and he found that Bollywood leads were generally "strong, handsome hero-types". Boyle's daughter pointed Dev Patel out from his role in the British television ensemble drama .

Freida Pinto as Latika, a girl from the streets who joins Jamal and Salim, then disappears; Jamal spends years hunting for her. Pinto was an Indian model who had not starred in a feature film before. Regarding the "one of a kind" scarf she wears, designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb says, "I wanted to bookend the journey-to tie her childhood yellow dress to her final look."

Madhur Mittal as Salim Malik, Jamal's elder brother

Anil Kapoor as Prem Kumar, the game show host. Boyle initially wanted Indian actor Shahrukh Khan to play the role. Khan had hosted the 2007 series of Kaun Banega Crorepati. Kapoor has also starred as a guest on the show with Amitabh Bachchan and won Rs 5,000,000.

Irrfan Khan as Police Inspector

Saurabh Shukla as Police Constable Srinivas

Mahesh Manjrekar as Javed Khan, the crime boss

Ankur Vikal as Maman, the rival crime boss and child kidnapper

Rajendranath Zutshi as Millionaire show producer

Sanchita Choudhary as Jamal's and Salim's mother

Mia Drake Inderbitzin as Adele, an American tourist

Siddhesh Patil as Arvind, blind beggar

Shruti Seth as Call center instructor

Arfi Lamba as Bardi

Anjum Sharma as one of the Call center operators

Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy wrote Slumdog Millionaire based on the Boeke Prize-winning and Commonwealth Writers' Prize-nominated novel by Vikas Swarup. To hone the script, Beaufoy made three research trips to India and interviewed street children, finding himself impressed with their attitudes. The screenwriter said of his goal for the script: "I wanted to get (across) the sense of this huge amount of fun, laughter, chat, and sense of community that is in these slums. What you pick up on is this mass of energy."

By the summer of 2006, British production companies Celador Films and Film4 Productions invited director Danny Boyle to read the script of Slumdog Millionaire. Boyle hesitated, since he was not interested in making a film about Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which was produced by Celador. Then Boyle learned that the screenwriter was Beaufoy, who had written The Full Monty (1997), one of the director's favourite British films, and decided to revisit the script. Boyle was impressed by how Beaufoy wove the multiple storylines from Swarup's book into one narrative, and the director decided to commit to the project. The film was projected to cost $15 million, so Celador sought a US film distributor to share costs. Warner Independent Pictures gave $5 million and got the rights to the film.

Gail Stevens came on board to oversee casting globally. Stevens had worked with Boyle throughout his career and was well known for discovering new talent. Meredith Tucker was appointed to cast out of the US. The film-makers then travelled to Mumbai in September 2007 with a partial crew and began hiring local cast and crew for production in Karjat. Originally appointed as one of the five casting directors in India, Loveleen Tandan has stated, "I suggested to Danny and Simon Beaufoy, the writer of Slumdog, that it was important to do some of it in Hindi to bring the film alive [...] They asked me to pen the Hindi dialogues which I, of course, instantly agreed to do. And as we drew closer to the shoot date, Danny asked me to step in as the co-director." Boyle then decided to translate nearly a third of the film's English dialogue into Hindi. The director fibbed to Warner Independent's president that he wanted 10% of the dialogue in Hindi, and she approved the change. Filming locations included shooting in Mumbai's megaslum and in shantytown parts of Juhu, so film-makers controlled the crowds by befriending onlookers. Filming began on 5 November 2007.

In addition to Swarup's original novel Q & A, the film was also inspired by Indian cinema. Tandan has referred to Slumdog Millionaire as a homage to Hindi cinema, noting that "Simon Beaufoy studied Salim-Javed's kind of cinema minutely." Boyle has cited the influence of several Bollywood films set in Mumbai. (1975), which Boyle described as being "absolutely key to Indian cinema", is a crime film written by Salim-Javed based on the Bombay gangster Haji Mastan, portrayed by Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, whose autograph Jamal seeks at the beginning of Slumdog Millionaire. Anil Kapoor noted that some scenes of the film "are like Deewaar, the story of two brothers of whom one is completely after money while the younger one is honest and not interested in money." Slumdog Millionaire has a similar narrative structure to Deewaar. (1998), written by Saurabh Shukla (who plays Constable Srinivas in Slumdog Millionaire), and (2002), based on the D-Company, both offered "slick, often mesmerising portrayals of the Mumbai underworld" and displayed realistic "brutality and urban violence." Boyle has also stated that the chase in one of the opening scenes of Slumdog Millionaire was based on a "12-minute police chase through the crowded Dharavi slum" in Black Friday (2007), adapted from Hussein Zaidi's book of the same name about the 1993 Bombay bombings.

Boyle has cited other Indian films as influences in later interviews. The rags-to-riches, underdog theme was also a recurring theme in classic Bollywood movies from the 1950s through to the 1980s, when "India worked to lift itself from hunger and poverty." Other classic Bollywood tropes in the film include "the fantasy sequences" and the montage sequence where "the brothers jump off a train and suddenly they are seven years older".

The producer's first choice for the role of Prem Kumar was Shahrukh Khan, an established Bollywood star and host of the 2007 series of Kaun Banega Crorepati (the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?). However, Khan turned down the role, concerned that he did not want to give his audience the impression that the real show was a fraud by playing a fraudulent host in the movie. Despite the subsequent success of the film, Khan has stated that he does not regret turning the role down, and has been a vociferous supporter of the film to its critics. Paul Smith, the executive producer of Slumdog Millionaire and the chairman of Celador Films, previously owned the international rights to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

The cinematography was handled by Anthony Dod Mantle, using mainly digital cinematography rather than traditional film cinematography. It was shot on a digital camera, the Silicon Imaging SI-2K video camera, in 2K resolution digital video. It was the first film to take full advantage of the SI-2K digital camera.

In August 2007, Warner Independent Pictures acquired the North American rights and Pathé the international rights to distribute Slumdog Millionaire theatrically. However, in May 2008, Warner Independent Pictures was shut down, with all of its projects being transferred to Warner Bros., its parent studio. Warner Bros. doubted the commercial prospects of Slumdog Millionaire and suggested that it would go straight to DVD without a US theatrical release. In August 2008, the studio began searching for buyers for various productions, to relieve its overload of end-of-the-year films. Halfway through the month, Warner Bros. entered into a pact with Fox Searchlight Pictures to share distribution of the film, with Fox Searchlight buying 50% of Warner Bros.'s interest in the movie and handling US distribution.

Following its success at the 81st Academy Awards, the film topped the worldwide box office (barring North America), grossing $16 million from 34 markets in the week following the Academy Awards. Worldwide, the film has currently grossed over $377.9 million, becoming Fox Searchlight Pictures's highest-grossing film ever (surpassing ). It was the year's second highest-grossing British film worldwide (below Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) and the most successful British independent film of all time.

Slumdog Millionaire was first shown at the Telluride Film Festival on 30 August 2008, where it was positively received by audiences, generating "strong buzz". The film also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2008, where it was "the first widely acknowledged popular success" of the festival, winning the People's Choice Award. Slumdog Millionaire debuted with a limited North American release on 12 November 2008, followed by a nationwide release in the United States on 23 January 2009.

After debuting on a Wednesday, the film grossed $360,018 in 10 theatres in its first weekend, a strong average of $36,002 per theatre. In its second weekend, it expanded to 32 theatres and made $947,795, or an average of $29,619 per theatre, representing a drop of only 18%. In the 10 original theatres of its release, viewership went up 16%, and this is attributed to strong word-of-mouth. The film expanded into wide release on 25 December 2008 at 614 theatres and earned $5,647,007 over the extended Christmas weekend. Following its success at the 81st Academy Awards, the film's takings increased by 43%, the most for any film since . In the weekend of 27 February to 1 March, the film reached its widest release at 2,943 theatres. The film has grossed over $140 million at the North American box office.

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on 31 March 2009. The film opened at No. 2 in the DVD sales chart, making $14.16m off 842,000 DVD units. As of 12 November 2009, an estimated 1,964,962 DVD units have been sold, translating to $31.32m in revenue. This figure does not include Blu-ray sales/DVD rentals. It had previously been announced that 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment would be starting a new marketing program with two versions of each release: a stripped-down minimal version for the rental market, and a traditional full version with "bonus extra" features, such as commentary and "making of" material for the retail market. The release production was mixed up; some full versions were shipped in rental cases, and some retail versions were missing the extras despite their being listed on the outside of the box. Public apologies were issued by Fox and Amazon.

The film was released in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009, and opened at No. 2 at the UK box office. The film reached No. 1 in its second weekend and set a UK box office record, as the film's takings increased by 47%. This is the "biggest ever increase for a UK saturation release," breaking "the record previously held by Billy Elliot's 13%." This record-breaking "ticket surge" in the second weekend came after Slumdog Millionaire won four Golden Globes and received eleven BAFTA nominations. The film grossed £6.1 million in its first eleven days of release in the UK. The takings increased by another 7% the following weekend, bringing the film's gross up to £10.24 million for its first seventeen days in the UK, and up to £14.2 million in its third week.

As of 20 February 2009, the film's UK box office gross was £22,973,110, making it "the eighth biggest hit at UK cinemas of the past 12 months." In the week ending 1 March 2009, following its success at the 81st Academy Awards where it won eight Oscars, the film returned to No. 1 at the UK box office, grossing £26 million as of 2 March 2009. As of 17 May 2009, the total UK gross was over £31.6 million. It topped the UK box office for four weeks, more than any other film in 2009 (longer than Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which spent three weeks at the top). It was the year's highest-grossing drama film in the UK, and the year's highest-grossing film rated 15 by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). The film's UK audience demographic breakdown was 50% male and 50% female, with 80% under 55 and 20% over 55, and 32% in London. It became the highest-grossing British independent film ever at the UK box office, surpassing Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), as well as the 20th highest-grossing British film ever at the UK box office and the highest-grossing domestic British film ever without US studio investment.

The film's success at the Academy Awards led to it seeing large increases in takings elsewhere in Europe the following week. Its biggest single country increase was in Italy, where it was up 556% from the previous week. The takings in France and Spain also increased by 61% and 73% respectively. During the same week, the film debuted in other European countries with successful openings: in Croatia it grossed $170,419 from 10 screens, making it the biggest opening there in the last four months; and in Poland it opened in second place with a gross of $715,677. The film was released in Sweden on 6 March 2009 and in Germany on 19 March 2009. The film has sold a total of 17,807,302 box office tickets in Europe, as of 2020.

In the United Kingdom, the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 1 June 2009. It was 2009's fifth best-selling film on home video retail in the United Kingdom, third best-selling British film, and overall best-selling British independent film in the UK. It was also the year's top online video rental in the UK. On UK television, it was watched by 5.2 million viewers on Channel 4 in 2010, making it the year's fifth most-watched film on UK television, the fourth most-watched British film, and the year's most-watched Channel 4 film.

In India, the premiere of Slumdog Millionaire took place in Mumbai on 22 January 2009 and was attended by major personalities of the Indian film industry, with more than a hundred attending this event. A dubbed Hindi version, Slumdog Crorepati (स्लमडॉग करोड़पति), was also released in India in addition to the original version of the film. The name was changed as Indians are more familiar with Indian numbering, including the crore, than the Western numbering with the million. Originally titled Slumdog Millionaire: Kaun Banega Crorepati, the name was shortened for legal reasons. Loveleen Tandan, who supervised the dubbing, stated, "All the actors from the original English including Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan and Ankur Vikal dubbed the film. We got a boy from Chembur, Pratik Motwani to dub for the male lead Dev Patel. I didn't want any exaggerated dubbing. I wanted a young unspoilt voice." The film was also dubbed in Tamil as Naanum Kodeeswaran, with Silambarasan dubbing for Patel, while S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and Radha Ravi dubbed for Kapoor and Khan respectively.

Fox Searchlight, with Fox Star Studios, released 351 prints of the film across India for its full release there on 23 January 2009. It earned (equivalent to ₹50 million or US$660,000 in 2020) in its first week at the Indian box office, or $2.2 million according to Fox Searchlight. Though not as successful as major Bollywood releases in India during its first week, this was the highest weekend gross for any Fox film and the third highest for any Western release in the country, trailing only Spider-Man 3 and Casino Royale. In its second week, the film's gross rose to (equivalent to ₹65 million or US$850,000 in 2020) at the Indian box office.

A few analysts have offered their opinions about the film's performance at the Indian box office. Trade analyst Komal Nahta commented, "There was a problem with the title itself. Slumdog is not a familiar word for majority Indians." In addition, trade analyst Amod Mehr has stated that with the exception of Anil Kapoor, the film lacks recognisable stars and that "the film... is not ideally suited for Indian sentiment." A cinema owner commented that "to hear slum boys speaking perfect English doesn't seem right but when they are speaking in Hindi, the film seems much more believable." The dubbed Hindi version, Slumdog Crorepati, did better at the box office, and additional copies of that version were released. Following the film's success at the 81st Academy Awards, the film's takings in India increased by 470% the following week, bringing its total up to $6.3 million that week. As of 15 March 2009, Slumdog Crorepati had grossed ₹158,613,802 (equivalent to ₹340 million or US$4.4 million in 2020) at the Indian box office.[citation needed ]

The film's success at the Academy Awards led to it seeing large increases in takings in the Asia-Pacific region. In Australia, the takings increased by 53%, bringing the film up to second place there. In Hong Kong, the film debuted taking $1 million in its opening weekend, making it the second biggest opening of the year there. The film was released in Japan on 18 April 2009, South Korea on 19 March 2009, China on 26 March 2009, Vietnam on 10 April 2009, and 11 April 2009 in the Philippines.

In particular, the film was a major success in East Asia. In the People's Republic of China, the film grossed $2.2 million in its opening weekend (27-29 March). In Japan, the film grossed $12 million, the most the film has grossed in any Asian country.

Slumdog Millionaire was critically acclaimed and named in the top ten lists of various newspapers. On 22 February 2009, the film won eight out of ten Academy Awards for which it was nominated, including the Best Picture and Best Director. It is the fifteenth film ever to win at least eight Academy Awards and the eleventh Best Picture Oscar winner without a single acting nomination and was the last film to do so until in 2019. At the same time, Taare Zameen Par (Like Stars on Earth), India's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, failed to make the short list of nominations and was frequently compared with Slumdog Millionaire in the Indian media.

It was also the first film shot using digital cinematography to win the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, which was given to Anthony Dod Mantle. The film also won seven of the eleven BAFTA Awards for which it was nominated, including Best Film; all four of the Golden Globe Awards for which it was nominated, including Best Drama Film; and five of the six Critics' Choice Awards for which it was nominated. The title sequence was nominated at the 2009 Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival in the Broadcast Design Award category in competition with the Match of the Day Euro 2008 titles by Aardman and two projects by Agenda Collective.

In 2010, the Independent Film & Television Alliance selected the film as one of the 30 Most Significant Independent Films of the last 30 years.

Outside of India, Slumdog Millionaire was met with critical acclaim. The film holds a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 289 reviews, with an average score of 8.40/10. The consensus reads, "Visually dazzling and emotionally resonant, Slumdog Millionaire is a film that's both entertaining and powerful." On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 86 out of 100, based on 36 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Movie City News shows that the film appeared in 123 different top ten lists, out of 286 different critics lists surveyed, the 4th most mentions on a top ten list of any film released in 2008.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film four out of four stars, calling it "a breathless, exciting story, heartbreaking and exhilarating." Wall Street Journal critic Joe Morgenstern refers to Slumdog Millionaire as, "the film world's first globalised masterpiece." Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post argues that, "this modern-day 'rags-to-rajah' fable won the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year, and it's easy to see why. With its timely setting of a swiftly globalising India and, more specifically, the country's own version of the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire TV show, combined with timeless melodrama and a hardworking orphan who withstands all manner of setbacks, Slumdog Millionaire plays like Charles Dickens for the 21st century." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times describes the film as "a Hollywood-style romantic melodrama that delivers major studio satisfactions in an ultra-modern way" and "a story of star-crossed romance that the original Warner brothers would have embraced, shamelessly pulling out stops that you wouldn't think anyone would have the nerve to attempt any more."

Anthony Lane of the stated, "There is a mismatch here. Boyle and his team, headed by the director of photography, Anthony Dod Mantle, clearly believe that a city like Mumbai, with its shifting skyline and a population of more than fifteen million, is as ripe for storytelling as Dickens's London [...] At the same time, the story they chose is sheer fantasy, not in its glancing details but in its emotional momentum. How else could Boyle get away with assembling his cast for a Bollywood dance number, at a railroad station, over the closing credits? You can either chide the film, at this point, for relinquishing any claim to realism or you can go with the flow-surely the wiser choice." Colm Andrew of the Manx Independent was also full of praise, saying the film "successfully mixes hard-hitting drama with uplifting action and the Who Wants To Be a Millionaire show is an ideal device to revolve events around". Several other reviewers have described Slumdog Millionaire as a Bollywood-style " masala" movie, due to the way the film combines "familiar raw ingredients into a feverish masala" and culminates in "the romantic leads finding each other."

Other critics offered more mixed reviews. For example, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film three out of five stars, stating that "despite the extravagant drama and some demonstrations of the savagery meted out to India's street children, this is a cheerfully undemanding and unreflective film with a vision of India that, if not touristy exactly, is certainly an outsider's view; it depends for its full enjoyment on not being taken too seriously." He also pointed out that the film is co-produced by Celador, who own the rights to the original Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and claimed that "it functions as a feature-length product placement for the programme."

A few critics outright panned it. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle states that, " Slumdog Millionaire has a problem in its storytelling. The movie unfolds in a start-and-stop way that kills suspense, leans heavily on flashbacks and robs the movie of most of its velocity. ... [T]he whole construction is tied to a gimmicky narrative strategy that keeps Slumdog Millionaire from really hitting its stride until the last 30 minutes. By then, it's just a little too late." Eric Hynes of IndieWire called it "bombastic", "a noisy, sub- Dickens update on the romantic tramp's tale" and "a goofy picaresque to rival Forrest Gump in its morality and romanticism."

Slumdog Millionaire has been a subject of discussion among a variety of people in India and the Indian diaspora. Some film critics have responded positively to the film, others objected to issues such as Jamal's use of British English or the fact that similar films by Indian filmmakers have not received equal recognition. A few notable filmmakers such as Aamir Khan and Priyadarshan have been critical of the film. Author and critic Salman Rushdie argues that it has "a patently ridiculous conceit."

Adoor Gopalakrishnan, one of the most acclaimed film makers in India during the 1980s and 1990s and a five time Best Director winner of the Indian National Film Awards lambasted Slumdog Millionaire, calling it in an interview to NDTV: "A very anti-Indian film. All the bad elements of Bombay's commercial cinema are put together and in a very slick way. And it underlines and endorses what the West thinks about us. It is falsehood built upon falsehood. And at every turn is fabricated. At every turn it is built on falsehood. I was ashamed to see it was being appreciated widely in the west... Fortunately Indians are turning it down."

The film has been subject to serious academic criticism. Mitu Sengupta (2009 and 2010) raises substantial doubts about both the realism of the film's portrayal of urban poverty in India and whether the film will assist those arguing for the poor. Rather, Sengupta argues the film's "reductive view" of such slums is likely to reinforce negative attitudes to those who live there. The film is therefore likely to support policies that have tended to further dispossess the slum dwellers in terms of material goods, power and dignity. The film, it is also suggested, celebrates characters and places that might be seen as symbolic of Western culture and models of development. Ana Cristina Mendes (2010) places Boyle's film in the context of the aestheticising and showcasing of poverty in India for artistic (and commercial) purposes, and proceeds to examine "the modes of circulation of these representations in the field of cultural production, as well as their role in enhancing the processes of ever-increasing consumption of India-related images."

However, there are others who point to the changing urban aspirations and prospects for mobility that can be seen in Indian cities such as Mumbai in which the film is set. The film is seen by D. Parthasarathy (2009) as reflecting a larger context of global cultural flows, which implicates issues of labour, status, ascription-achievement, and poverty in urban India. Parthasarathy (2009) argues for a better understanding of issues of dignity of labour and that the film should be interpreted in a more nuanced way as reflecting the role of market forces and India's new service economy in transforming the caste and status determined opportunity structure in urban India.

Academic criticism has also been extended to the underlying philosophy of the film, with its apparent ends-justify-means message. Many elements of the film, including the apparent redemption of Salim at the end of his life and the film's subjugation of the suffering of peripheral characters to the romantic aspirations of Jamal, are characteristic, say such critics, of a naïve, Providence-based vision of reality.

The Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman, who planned the score for over two months and completed it in two weeks. Danny Boyle has said that he chose Rahman because "not only does he draw on Indian classical music, but he's got R&B and hip hop coming in from America, house music coming in from Europe and this incredible fusion is created." Rahman won the 2009 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and won two Academy Awards, one for Best Original Score and one for Best Original Song for " Jai Ho". Rahman had two songs nominated for Best Original Song - the nomination for " O... Saya" was shared with M.I.A., while the win for "Jai Ho" was shared with lyricist Gulzar. The soundtrack was released on M.I.A.'s record label N.E.E.T.. On Radio Sargam, film critic Goher Iqbal Punn termed the soundtrack Rahman's "magnum opus" which will acquaint "the entire world" with his artistry.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup, telling the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik from the Juhu slums of Mumbai.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
India has had rapid growth despite the Great Recession. It grew 6.7 percent in 2017, 7.1 percent in 2016 and 8 percent in 2015. From 2008 through 2014, it grew between 5 percent and 11 percent. That phenomenal growth rate has reduced poverty by 10 percent in the last decade.

On June 26, 2017, President Trump met with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. They discussed increasing the number of H-1B visas for Indian immigrants and the number of U.S. arms. American business leaders want India to reduce protectionist policies that give domestic companies an unfair advantage. This would help U.S. companies compete in pharmaceuticals, entertainment, and consumer electronics. The Trump Organization wants to double its real estate holdings in India.

On May 16, 2014, India elected Modi as prime minister. By doing so, it rejected 60 years of leadership by the party led by Mahatma Gandhi. Mr. Modi, a successful businessman, promised to reduce bureaucracy and regulation, greenlight infrastructure projects and simplify the tax code.

Modi must streamline the government bureaucracy that has so far raised the cost of foreign direct investment. For example, he has talked about ending "tax terrorism." He promised to rationalize India's complicated tax regimes and support the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax. This would bring greater predictability to India's business climate.

In 2014, Modi promised to boost trade with the United States. Modi said he would level the playing field for U.S. companies by reducing policies that favor Indian manufacturing and intellectual property. This could help U.S. pharmaceutical companies, Hollywood, and consumer electronics.

India has a mixed economy. Half of India's workers rely on agriculture, the signature of a traditional economy. One-third of its workers are employed by the services industry, which contributes two-thirds of India's output. The productivity of this segment is made possible by India's shift toward a market economy. Since the 1990s, India has deregulated several industries. It's privatized many state-owned enterprises, and opened doors to foreign direct investment.

1. The cost of living is lower than in the United States. Its gross domestic product per capita is $7,200, half that of China or Brazil. This is an advantage because Indian workers don't need as much income since everything costs less.

2. India has many well-educated technology workers.

3. English is one of India's official languages. Many Indians speak it. This, combined with the high level of education, attracts U.S. technology and call centers to India. For example, an Indian call center employee only costs $12 per hour. That's almost half the American counterpart of $20 an hour. According to the Technology Manufacturing Corporation, more than 250,000 call center jobs, as a result, were outsourced to India and the Philippines between 2001 and 2003.

1. India's 1.3 billion people come from a wide range of economic and cultural backgrounds. This diversity can be a strength or a challenge. Socioeconomic status is largely determined by geography. India's three main regions each have distinct class and education divisions. Annually, 11 million people leave the rural areas to live in the cities. Most of them are young and educated. They seek a higher quality of life.

2. The profitable Indian film industry is called "Bollywood." It's a portmanteau of Bombay, now called Mumbai, and Hollywood. Bollywood makes twice the number of movies Hollywood makes. The most popular actor in the world is India's Shah Rukh Khan. In 2016, Bollywood contributed $4.5 billion to India's GDP. It generates less revenue than Hollywood's $51 billion only because its ticket prices are much lower. On the plus side, Bollywood films cost less to make: $1.5 million on average versus $47.7 million in Hollywood.

These comparative advantages mean great opportunities for American business. Foreign direct investment in Indian companies has the potential to be very profitable. The Indian middle class is almost 250 million people. That's bigger than the U.S. middle class. It will continue to drive India's consumer spending and economic growth.

In addition to FDI, India has seen more than 100 initial public offerings in the last 18 months. Private equity funding grew in 2012 and 2013, a trend that is expected to continue. Energy, health care, industry, and materials have been the top four sectors. While inbound mergers and acquisitions deals have declined in the last year, outbound deals have increased substantially in the emerging markets in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America. These deals are driven by depressed valuations due to the recent recession.

Prime Minister Modi is a Hindu nationalist leader. Many blame him for the violence against Muslims while he was governor of India's Western region of Gujarat.

Modi is up against India's bloated government bureaucracy. That makes the execution of any fiscal or monetary policy difficult. In August 2015, he was blocked from passing a bill to acquire land to promote infrastructure. He has also not been able to produce a bill to create a uniform goods and services tax.

U.S. monetary policy has hurt India's economy. When the Federal Reserve began its quantitative easing program, the lower interest rates strengthened the value of the dollar. This caused the value of India's rupee to fall. The resulting 9.6 percent inflation forced India's central bank to raise its interest rates. This action slowed India's economic growth, resulting in mild stagflation in 2013. In the second quarter, it had 9.6 percent inflation and 0 percent GDP growth. Inflation was caused by a declining rupee.

Investors backed off from India and other emerging markets when the U.S. Federal Reserve began tapering its quantitative easing program. When the dollar rose 15 percent in 2014, it forced the value of the rupee and other emerging market currencies down.

Raghuram Rajan was the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, the nation's central bank. He raised interest rates to keep the currency strong and head off inflation.

The United States is one of India's biggest military allies, and China is one of its biggest economic partners. In 2006, the United States agreed to defy the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by allowing full civil nuclear cooperation with India. This is despite India's violations of the treaty. They exploded nuclear devices and did not put its program under the International Atomic Energy Agency's safeguards.

India wants to be treated like the official five nuclear powers: United States, Russia, Britain, France and China. The United States wants India to cap its production of fissile material, which consists of highly enriched uranium and plutonium. But India has refused. India plans to increase its warheads from 50 to 300 by 2010.

This bending-the-rules for India looks bad to U.S. allies that agreed to refrain from building nuclear capacity: South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Japan. The agreement was part of an overall increase in the business relationship between American companies and India. ​The United States and India should place greater importance on military cooperation, including joint defense exercises and counterterrorism efforts.

China and India are two of the world's largest and fastest growing economies. Because of their tight economic partnership, the countries are often called Chindia. China and India have complementary economies. India has raw materials; China has manufacturing. India has high-tech; China has the businesses and consumers to use them.

They also have long-standing trade disputes stemming from their common borders and China's friendliness with India's enemy, Pakistan. There are few airline routes and many visa delays. These disputes will not be solved by one friendly trade agreement. Fortunately, both realize the potential advantages of a partnership. A trade agreement is a good first step toward a "Chindia" of some sort.

With one-third of the world's people, Chindia could be a tremendous economic powerhouse in the global economy. It could also be a threat to the balance of power in that region. It is in the United States' best interest to maintain its alliance with India. That will offset the growing power of China in the region.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bollywood Is More Popular Than Hollywood: India's Opportunities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
India has had rapid growth despite the Great Recession. It grew 6.7 percent in 2017, 7.1 percent in 2016 and 8 percent in 2015. From 2008 through 2014, it grew between 5 percent and 11 percent. That phenomenal growth rate has reduced poverty by 10 percent in the last decade.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
One of the oldest civilisations in the world, India is a mosaic of multicultural experiences. With a rich heritage and myriad attractions, the country is among the most popular tourist destinations in the world. It covers an area of 32, 87,263 sq. km, extending from the snow-covered Himalayan heights to the tropical rain forests of the south. As the 7th largest country in the world, India stands apart from the rest of Asia, marked off as it is by mountains and the sea, which give the country a distinct geographical entity.

Fringed by the Great Himalayas in the north, it stretches southwards and at the Tropic of Cancer, tapers off into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west. As you travel the expanse of the country, you are greeted by diverse nuances of cuisines, faiths, arts, crafts, music, nature, lands, tribes, history and adventure sports. India has a mesmeric conflation of the old and the new. As the bustling old bazaars rub shoulders with swanky shopping malls, and majestic monuments accompany luxurious heritage hotels, the quintessential traveller can get the best of both worlds. Head to the mountains, enjoy a beach retreat or cruise through the golden Thar, India has options galore for all.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
India has a myriad of landscapes, great heritage and culture, varied flora and fauna. The country is the most preferred tourist destinations for tourists from all across the world for its picturesque landscapes, spectacular waterfalls, habitat of the country's largest tiger reserve and home to the warmest people on earth.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Slumdog Millionaire (Bande annonce Vostfr)