India
12 35 'N 75 48' E / 12.59, 75.8
| (hi) | |||||
| Bharat Ganarjya (hi) | |||||
| Republic of India (in) | |||||
| Republic of India (en) | |||||
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| National motto : (Satyameva Jayate) (From Sanskrit : truth alone triumphs) | |||||
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| Official Languages | Hindi , English and than 21 other languages 1 | ||||
| Capital | New Delhi 28 34 'N, 77 07' E | ||||
| Largest city | Bombay | ||||
| Form of State | Republic Federal | ||||
| - President of India - Prime Minister | Pratibha Patil Manmohan Singh | ||||
| Area - Total - Water (%) | Ranked 7 th 3,287,263 km 2 9.5% | ||||
| Population - Total ( 2010 ) - Density | Ranked 2 nd 1185680883 ( 4 th ) | ||||
| GDP (nominal) ( 2009 ) | Of 1.237 trillion ( 11th ) | ||||
| GDP (PPP) per capita. ( 2009 ) | 3 105 ( 123rd ) | ||||
| HDI ( 2010 ) |  0.519 (medium) ( 119th ) | ||||
| Currency | Indian Rupee ( INR ) | ||||
| Time Zone | UTC + 5.30 | ||||
| National anthem | Jana-Gana-Mana | ||||
| Internet domain | . In | ||||
| Indicative Telephone | +91 | ||||
1 The Hindi is the official language of the federal government and the English language is associated. At the state level of the federation, 22 official languages are recognized with the Hindi . | |||||
India, long shaped the Republic of India in Hindi and in British and is a country in southern Asia that occupies most of the sub Indian subcontinent.
The name of the country "India" is derived from the Old Persian version of the word "Sindhu", the name of the river Indus in Sanskrit (see the detailed article on the origin of the name of India ). The official texts also use the word "Bharat" (word Hindi name derived from the Sanskrit of ancient Hindu king, whose history can be found in the Ramayana ). A third name, "Hindustan," or "Hindustan" listen , that is to say "land of Hindus" in Persian , is used since the time of the Mughal Empire and is the most widely used today by Most Indians in everyday language. In French the plural (India) was commonly used to refer to both the geographic area that the state at the time of British rule (Indian Empire), this turn is completely fallen into disuse since the country's independence.
India is the second most populous country in the world after China. Twenty-three official languages are recognized, the two official languages at the central government being the Hindi and English.
The Indian coastline stretches over seven thousand kilometers. The country shares borders with Pakistan to the west, China on Nepal , and Bhutan to the north and north-east, Bangladesh and Burma to the east. On the Indian Ocean , India is near the islands of the Republic of Maldives to the southwest of Sri Lanka and south of Indonesia to the southeast. India also claims a border with Afghanistan to the northwest.
India is home to one of the oldest civilizations and an important historical crossroads of major trade routes. Four major religions were born in this sub-continent: the Hindu , the Buddhist , the Jainism and Sikhism.
For nearly two centuries, India was an important part of the British Empire before gaining its independence in 1947. At the same time, the counters French and Portuguese are present in the Indian Territory, which will be reassigned a few years after independence. However, even during the colonial period, one third of the territory consisted of kingdoms and principalities vassals of the " British Raj "but autonomous.
After several decades during which economic development could hardly keep a very high population growth, the country has grown significantly over the past fifteen years, particularly through the beginning of the demographic transition and reforms launched in 1991. On 22 January 2007, a deserted Indian space capsule returns to earth after a 12-day mission in space, which posed a significant technical and scientific milestone for the country. Today India is one of the major emerging powers alongside China, Russia and Brazil. She is currently the eleventh largest economy in nominal terms and the fourth in parity purchasing power.
Summary |
During nearly 100 centuries , a multitude of peoples and civilizations will cross the subcontinent.
Pre-and Proto-history
The rock shelters painted in the Stone Age to Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh are the earliest known traces of human settlement in India. The first permanent settlement discovered to date appear 9000 years ago, and anthropologists believe they belong to type populations veddode. Then a brilliant civilization, one of the oldest known to date, is developed in the Indus valley and reached its zenith between the nineteenth century BC. BC and the sixteenth century BC. BC : Historians believe that it is due to people Dravidian North, whose current Brahui are the last descendants.
To the sixteenth century BC. BC , tribes Aryan came from Central Asia have migrated to northern India and developed the Vedic culture , but this hypothesis is rejected by some scholars who note the many continuities between the civilization of the Indus civilization and Vedic. Recent genetic studies have failed to answer until now (some confirmed, others refute the Aryan invasion theory ): it is likely that, as in many other examples of this type ( Etruscans , Mesopotamia , China ...) the invaders have imposed their language in part (here the Sanskrit ), their social organization and beliefs, but by adopting the largely indigenous civilization, the two populations assimilating each other.
Era of Reforms
In the sixth century BC a wave of religious reform rises, Buddhism and Jainism flourished, adding to the richness of Indian culture in all areas. The Hindu classical develops from the Vedic culture. The first millennium sees many independent kingdoms grow strongly, gaining some imperial stature. The Hindu dynasty of the Gupta period dominates that historians regard as a "golden age" of India and Maurya , especially the Buddhist emperor Ashoka , contribute to the cultural influence of India. The arts , the mathematics , the technology , the astrology , the religion and philosophy flourish through sponsorship Royal.
The Muslim conquest
The Sultan is right here, shaking hands with the Sheikh, with Ayaz standing behind him. The figure at right is Shah Abbas I , who reigned about 600 years later. Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran , Iran.
From the seventh century AD, small kingdoms multiply and compete until the long series of Muslim conquests began in the eighth century by the conquest of Sind , and continued in the twelfth century by Muhammad Ghori and troops came from Central Asia. Thus, over a period spanning nearly a millennium, most parts of India are gradually subjected to a power Muslim , the Sultanate of Delhi , then to the Mughal empire. We think it was during this long period that whole groups of nomadic Indians, the ancestors of the Roma , fleeing unrest have left the country to move vest the northwest, crossing the Iran and the Turkey until Europe.
Nevertheless, some Hindu kingdoms, as the kingdom of Vijayanagar , remain and prosper. At the same time as the arrival in power of the Mughal dynasty started by Babur , a descendant of Tamerlane , who had defeated his main rival during the battle of Panipat in 1526, the kingdom of Vijayanagar in the reign of Krishna Deva Raya , s extends over much of southern India, which corresponds to the current states of Kerala , Tamil Nadu , Karnataka , Andhra Pradesh and part of Maharastri , and then experienced a flourishing economic and cultural significance.
During the reign of the Mughal emperors, particularly under the leadership of Akbar (1542-1605), major reforms are undertaken. In the political field, the beginnings of a modern state appears: the administration is organized in a decentralized system of provinces governed by princes appointed by the emperor and that the tax is lifted, and a judicial institution is on foot. Akbar is still putting in place a policy of religious tolerance towards Hindus, which led inter alia to the development of a specific culture including the Urdu , Persian language after Hindi and is one of the results. In art and architecture, the Mughal emperors reveal themselves great patrons and promoters enlightened, and it was during this period that built what remains as the most beautiful architectural achievement of the period, the Taj Mahal.
The European conquest
Begun with the creation of Goa by the Portuguese in 1508, the arrival of traders French , Dutch , English (and British ) precipitated the decline of the Empire, as they take advantage of the political division of the subcontinent by installing counters, before colonization. The British triumph in succession from their European rivals and local princely powers through military force and economy counters thriving British East India Company , and succeed in establishing their rule over India in the first half of the nineteenth century. They then make a powerful colonial administration, which still nominally under the sovereignty of the Mughal emperor, the East India Company is just one Nawwab (vassals), the most powerful of the latter. Many states remain under Muslim domination.
In 1857, the Indian Mutiny , Indian soldiers serving the British , turns into a general uprising against the power of the British East India Company. Some Indians regard this revolt as the first war - unsuccessful - of independence, although it may be-is a retrospective reading of history. Following the revolt, India are under the direct responsibility of the British Crown, and the Mughal emperor finally tabled. A movement of consolidation has begun legal to renovate the Indian law , then fragmented and chaotic.
Towards independence
After the revolt, the Indian nationalist movement formed and organized at the inception of the Congress Party in 1885. This was the scene of several battles, particularly between Hindus and Muslims. On 15 August 1947 , India finally won its independence through many strikes and sacrifices, thanks to the tenacious efforts of leaders of the Congress Party, leader of the nationalist movement, and particularly of Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. Meanwhile, she underwent a partition that gives birth to another state, Pakistan for Muslims.
The following period was dedicated to nation building. Nehru was the first leader of independent India. It sets up a planned economy model inspired by the socialist countries and tends to self-sufficiency, particularly focusing on agricultural reform. In foreign policy, it promotes the movement of non-aligned during the Cold War.
A partition painful
After 1947, India is also involved in four wars against its neighbor Pakistan including the status of Kashmir is the main motivation. From 1975 to 1977, the First Minister Indira Gandhi declares state of emergency, restricting civil rights and causing the detention of many people without trial. If democracy is restored in the early 1990s, the destruction of the mosque Babri Masjid of Ayodhya in 1992 has a number of communal conflicts in India West. In 1999, India mobilized its troops in the district of Kargil in Kashmir to repel the infiltration of Islamist terrorists and Kashmiri separatist rebels came from Pakistan. Since 1947, the separatist rebels and sectarian violence in the states of north-east have killed some 50,000 people .
Politics
India is a parliamentary democracy and a republic government. With its billion people, India is often touted as "the greatest democracy in the world .
Since its independence in 1947, the Government of the Republic of India has been directed mainly by the National Congress Party (Indian National Congress or Congress (I) party of Gandhi and Nehru. The politics of states has been dominated in turn by several national parties, Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party (Indian Communist Party and CPI-M), Janata Dal and particularly many regional parties such as Davida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK ) in Tamil Nadu.
From 1950 to 1990, the Congress Party has enjoyed a parliamentary majority except for two brief periods: between 1977 and 1980, the Janata Dal won elections because of popular discontent with the declaration of a state of emergency by Indira Gandhi , then Prime Minister. In 1989, a national coalition led by the Janata Dal alliance with leftist parties ascended to power once again and held out there for two years.
The years 1996 to 1998 saw a succession of parties in the country's leader, came to power by forming alliances heterogeneous and that proved ephemeral. The BJP, the Nationalist Party, formed a government in 1996, followed immediately by a coalition called United Front (United Front). In 1998, the BJP has formed again with several regional parties a National Democratic Alliance (NDA or National Democratic Alliance) and became the first non-party congressman to stay in power until his term of office is five years. For the 2004 elections , Congress won a majority of seats in the Lok Sabha and formed a government with a coalition of leftist parties opposed to the BJP in the United Progressive Alliance (United Progressive Alliance or UPA). The current President of the Republic of India Pratibha Patil since 2007, but most of the power is held by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh since 2004. This easily won the general elections of 2009 by improving the representation of parliamentarians from the UPA about the Congress party that registers itself a significant step forward positioning, with 198 seats, as the largest party in India .
Politics in India reflects the magnitude of the changes that have taken place in society, despite very strong resistance: thus untouchable , KR Narayanan , had access to the presidency in 1997 and was Jagjivan Ram Department in various departments: defense, agriculture, railways, ... and Deputy Prime Minister of India from 1977 to 1979.
Institutions
Promulgated January 26, 1950, the Constitution gives rise to the "sovereign and democratic Republic" of India, which affirms the secular and social vocation.
This text provides the Indian Union institutions inspired by British and American models. Thus, the plan is a type of federation dyarchial as the United States, and parliamentary bicameral parliament modeled on the Westminster. Power is divided between the legislative, executive and judicial branches.
The president is the head of state, but its powers are largely symbolic. The president and vice president are elected by indirect suffrage every five years by a special panel. The vice president does not necessarily become president if the president resigns or dies. The Prime Minister is, however, the head of de facto government. He is appointed by the president with the approval of the party or coalition holding a majority of seats in the House of Parliament. The Parliament is composed of two chambers: the upper house, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the lower house, the Lok Sabha (House of People). The Rajya Sabha has up to 250 members elected for six years, and renewed by thirds every two years. Most are elected indirectly by the assemblies of each state in proportion to the population of the latter. The 545 members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct universal suffrage to represent various constituencies to serve five years.
Parliament appoints a prime minister from the majority party or coalition. It holds the executive powers and heads the Council of Ministers. He is directly responsible to Parliament.
The executive branch comprises the President, the Vice-President and Council of Ministers (the Cabinet being its executive committee) headed by the Prime Minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of one or other of the assemblies.
The judiciary in India is also organized in diarchy as the United States. The highest court in the pay s is the Supreme Court, headed by the chief magistrate of the country, the President of the Supreme Court of India. Supreme Court settles disputes between states and the Centre. She is also the last court of appeal over the twenty one high courts (High Courts) states. Finally, it has the power to decide the constitutionality of laws and decrees of governments (and to cancel them) if it considers that they are in conflict with the fundamental principles of the constitution. At the lower level, there are high courts, which sit in the states and territories of India. These are mainly courts of appeal and review cases from the subordinate courts (lower courts) as the district courts or settlement.
Land Management
India has been formed over centuries of princely states, more or less interdependent locally. The British, by unifying the territory under their authority, create India as a territorial entity. The British government will retain the underlying principle by cutting the territory into principalities, states and territories. She will not hesitate over time to consolidate and cut, as it sees fit, these areas entities do not correspond entirely to historical realities. For example, she created the Eastern Bengal and Assam which will be split into Assam and West Bengal ... At independence, India has kept this structure states and territories. The process of creating reports and continues Purvanchal in central-north, is a candidate to become a new full-fledged state. These states and territories are divided into districts. Some urban areas may cover several districts, while rural districts are divided into sub-divisions that are themselves divided into groups of villages. Local names may differ, such village groups that are referred Tehsil in the north taluk in the south. Cities have a different status according to their population.
More recently, regional groupings, at the state level, were born. From local initiatives, these groups have the economic development objective. This applies, for example the North-East India.
External relations
India sees itself as a great power yet unrecognized Geography India occupies most of the Indian subcontinent, which is placed between the tectonic plate of India and the northwestern part of the Indo-Australian plate. Part of the territory of the northern and north-east India is located in the mountains of the Himalayas. The rest of northern India, central and eastern zone occupied by the fertile Indo-Gangetic plain. In the western part, bordered by Pakistan's south-east is the desert of Thar. Southern India is almost entirely composed of the peninsular Deccan plateau, flanked by two massive coastal terrain in the Ghats and Western Ghats Eastern. Large rivers such as the Ganges , the Brahmaputra , the Yamuna , the Godavari , the Narmada , the Kaveri across the country. India has also three archipelagos: the Lakshadweep Islands , which lie off the coast of south-west, the volcanic islands of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the southeast, and the Sunderbans in the Ganges delta West Bengal. The climate in India varies from tropical in the south to more temperate in the north of the Himalayas where the mountains receive continuous snowfall in winter. India's climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert. The Himalayas and mountains of the Hindu Kush in Pakistan, impede wind katabatic came from Central Asia and thus prevent from entering the continent, which preserves the heat in much of the latter, unlike the Most regions at the same latitude. The Thar desert, meanwhile, draws the moist winds of the summer monsoon between June and September, is responsible for most rainfall in India. India is a federation of states, each with a parliament and a government. There are twenty-eight states, six territories, and the capital territory of Delhi (New Delhi Capital Territory). The area of India is 3,287,590 km 2. Bounded by Pakistan , the Chinese , the Nepal , the Bhutan , the Bangladesh , the Burmese , the Indian borders are extended to 15,168 km. From the late nineteenth century , seeing the natural resources diminish the British put in place laws and agencies to manage the vast territory that represent India. The Indian Forest Service was created in 1866, the Indian Forest Act was enacted in 1878. The British then sought above all to preserve the forest cover on these areas so as to ensure continuity for the exploitation of timber. The main lever is the collection of customs duties. Incidentally its provisions also allowed to maintain big game which gradually disappeared. Thus, several protected areas have emerged as Reserved Forest in Kaziranga in 1905. Protective measures have been strengthened with the Indian Forest Act of 1927. Faced with the continuing degradation of protected areas, the Indian government has enacted legislation Wildlife Protection Act in 1972 on the protection of fauna and flora. The act relating to the conservation of forests, the Forest Protection Act of 1980 states that no forest land will be subject to non-forest uses without prior approval of the Government of India. This act, taken quickly with little coordination, was used very effectively to prohibit the conversion of forest areas, however it locally poses problems for small rural communities. Following the Forest Survey of India , an organization designed to evaluate the results of the protection of forest cover, was created in 1981. The Act concerning the protection of the environment, the Environment Protection Act of 1986, played a crucial role in conservation and ecosystem management including water treatment and waste. In 2008, the Forest Rights Act is expected at some conservationists a loss of authority of the state on protected areas. Protecting the environment is controlled by the Ministry of Environment and Forests who run many government agencies like the Indian Forest Service , training centers and other institutions. There are several levels of protection, the highest being the national parks and the smaller the village forests. In addition, some areas may be protected by private individuals. 4% of the country's surface is, according to a government decision, to be protected. In these protected areas, overlapping areas where additional resources are available to protect a particular species or biome important. This applies, for example, Tiger Reserves and Elephant reserves, which may occasionally overlap. These reserves are controlled under the plan are the Project Tiger , the Elephant Project , the Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project ... The Yamuna Action Plan seeks to rehabilitate the river Yamuna. Located in the Indomalesia ecozone , India hosts a large biodiversity : 7.6% of mammals , 12.6% of birds , 6.2% of reptiles , and 6.0% of flowering plants living on Earth there. Economy India has made tremendous economic progress since independence. It is true that at one time, Indian civilization radiated throughout Asia. This is the time when India, on par with China, was at the forefront worldwide, with 22.6% of income on the planet. That was in 1700. Today, India, a giant of over one billion people, is beginning to take its place in the global economy. In 2007, India is the 12th largest economy with a GDP of 1,171 billion or 2.15% of world GDP (World Bank, GDP 2007). The objective of the Indian government is to accelerate economic development by reducing poverty, building more infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, and facilitating access to education and to care for the population. It seeks to deepen its relations with the Association of Southeast Asian ( ASEAN ) to strengthen its ties with China and increase its interaction with the countries of Central Asia , the States U.S. and Europe. The Indian middle class has more than 70 million people and is constantly changing . The sectors that benefit from the circumstances are, above all, services and manufacturing. In the space sector, the country has successfully launched in January 2007, a rocket carrying a capsule that was then recovered on Earth in preparation for a manned space flight. The Indian rocket PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) has four satellites into orbit, a first for India, two Indian satellites, one Indonesian and one Argentine. Today, with nine satellites in geostationary operational, the country has successfully used its technology to create space for tele-education networks and tele-medicine to serve the population. The country has over 3 million new mobile subscribers every month. Youth from around the world come to study in India and undertake internships in the country. India is also the largest producer and exporter of generic medicines in the world. The capital of the pharmaceutical industry is Hyderabad. The first company is Ranbaxy , with over 10,000 employees and 1.5 billion in sales. Indian exports amounted to over 2 billion. According to a study by Jean-Joseph Boillot , former financial adviser to the Economic Mission of New Delhi , India's growth will outpace China in 2010-2015. And in his book "The Indian economy," he predicts that India will be the biggest rival of China around 2020. Another clue is the equipment of households in televisions. The number of households with was 88 million in 2000 against 105 million in 2007 (50% of households). India is the second most populous country in the world after China and approximately 1 billion 100 million. It is a young country which has 560 million people under 25 years . In 2004, an Indian two were under 25 years and 70% of the population lives in the countryside. Five years after independence in 1947, India was the first country to implement a policy of population control. Since then the government has set ambitious goals he has also regularly missed. Adopted in 2000, a national policy called the country before 2010 to achieve the replacement level of 2.1. There is probably not succeed at least a decade before. However, having almost reached the control of its population if we speak in Western terms . The abuse of ultrasound , which allows the early determination of sex of unborn child, has led to increased recourse to abortion selective. This phenomenon is relatively frequent in families living in urban and middle class. Also, the family model to a boy and a girl tends to spread in this segment of the population. The reason often advanced to explain the elimination of female fetuses is a socio-cultural: the fate of a girl in India is to leave his family to live in her marriage that her husband and help the economy home of her parents. In addition, the bride's family must pay a dowry to the in-laws, a practice once confined to families of Brahmin caste but tends to spread to the entire population, sometimes resulting to abuse. Its payment can lead to serious financial difficulties and even ruin, the family of the bride. The cases of murders of young married perpetrated by their husband's family are often reported in the Indian press and are presented as the consequence of a failure to pay dowry for their family of origin. In 2006, an estimated officially a case of dowry death was reported to police every 77 minutes . Over 70% of India's population still lives in rural areas with difficult access and where, suddenly, unemployment is the norm. To remedy this, some experts are calling for a massive urbanization. Others suggest, however, that labor supply adjusts to rural areas. This is what the Rural-Shores. This business of Bangalore has invested heavily to install in rural centers outsourcing (she plans to open five cents in 2015 and hired a hundred young in 2009). According to the New York Times , everyone wins. For the employer, the charges are much lower: the monthly wage for work of this type is about a hundred euros in town to campaign against forty. And for thousands of families, it is the hope of a fixed income. If the Indian fertility collapsed in 50 years, the declining rate of population growth is relatively slow and irregular. This is attributed to a population policy incoherent Defense India has one of the largest armies in the world. The Indian Air Force is the fourth largest in the world, behind only the United States, Russia and China. Indian armed forces had in 2006 with a staff of 1.325 million soldiers and 535,000 reservists . The Indian culture is marked by a high degree of syncretism. Many practices, languages, customs, and monuments in India are examples of architectural buildings inspired by the architecture of Islam, such as the Taj Mahal are the legacy of the Mughal dynasty. Indian culture is the result of traditions that combined elements of heterogeneous civilizations present in the territory as a result of invasion, migration and colonization that marked the country at one time or another in its history. Indian music is highly diversified. Classical music is mainly split between the Indian traditions of Hindustani Carnatic north and south. Highly regionalised forms of popular music include music film (eg AR Rahman author and composer of music for film internationally recognized.) and folk music like Bhangra. Folk dances are varied according to regions and communities. Many classical dance dance exist: Bharata Natyam (see Rukmini Devi Arundale ), the Kathakali , the Kathak , which shares its roots with the Spanish flamenco , the Kuchipudi , the Manipuri , the Odissi and Yakshagana. They often have a narrative form and are usually imbued with religious elements and devotion. The earliest literary traditions borrowed mainly orally, in writing by a later onset. Hindu religious literature written in Sanskrit, such as the Vedas, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata , has an important place in Indian culture, and gives rise to echoes and adaptations into contemporary works of fiction, drama or film. Another important literature of the period is the " Literature of Sangam "in Tamil language produced in Tamil Nadu , also very old. The Sanskrit as the Tamil classical languages are learned which are then accessible only to a very small group of individuals grown. Literatures in the vernacular (such as Hindi, Bengali or Urdu , for example) grow on them from the tenth century. The texts are in verse or prose, gasoline religious and often inspired by ancient legends and epics. Under the influence of British colonization, the Indian writers of modern times, including Bengali Rabindranath Tagore , wrote in English as their mother tongue. From the twentieth century and contemporary times, many writers, some of which enjoy an international audience ( Salman Rushdie , Anita Desai , Amitav Ghosh , Vikram Seth , Arundhati Roy , Vijay Singh , a href = "Tarun_Tejpal" class = "new" title = "Tarun Tejpal (non-existent page)"> Tarun Tejpal, Rohinton Mistry , etc..) contributed to the development of Indian English fiction in the narrative break with classical characteristics of their predecessors (including RK Narayan , considered one of the fathers of Indian novel written in English). Their works bear the imprint of the current post-colonialism, where the themes of national identity, history, reflection on colonial oppression combine to a question on what constitutes the identity of the individual, the difficulty to live the rupture between tradition and modernity, the conflict of cultures and influences that played in the consciousness of man of independent India. This search for identity through the use of English, the language of the colonizer reinvented and reappropriated, which also reflects the desire to create a language and a clean aesthetic, and thus to speak beyond the difficulty of say with words "from elsewhere", in the words of RK Narayan also occupies a significant place in the young generation of Anglo-Indian literature. In an intimate record, it focuses on the description of changes in family and a reflection on the conjugal home in the emerging middle class. Similarly, Hari Kunzru recently published a comic epic on the theme of finding identity, illustrating the emergence of individualistic tendencies that seem to work in the same middle class living in Indian cities. We can finally include Kiran Desai who won the Man Booker Prize in 2006 with a story illustrating the tension experienced by the current generation between individual aspirations and family inheritance . The post-colonialism , literary movement of great magnitude that has affected both the South and West, by initiating a detachment of elite forms, has also contributed to India's literary expression of minority groups who traditionally were denied the ability produce cultural works. So writers, playwrights and poets Dalits (or "broken men" in Marathi , the name will be given to individuals from the untouchable castes to contest their status from their hierarchical position in Hindu society) have also shaken the traditional literary forms by the use of a language unusually specific, even thought, to describe their condition as oppressed, thus contributing to the renewal of themes and forms of national literature. The Indian film industry is the most prolific in the world. His jewel consists of the production of Bollywood (name derived from Bombay , the former name of Mumbai ), whose studios are located in the state capital of Maharastri and which engage primarily in commercial Hindi films. The industry is also important in the area of Calcutta , of Madras , and Kerala. There is thus a significant production of films in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Bengali or Marathi. Cinema is an art and a distraction especially popular in India irrespective of age, sex, caste, social background or geographical Indians, they attend the massive halls of cinema. The best-known actors and enjoy a prestige unmatched in our societies, and links between the film industry and politics are sometimes very narrow. Thus, some actors have occupied important government posts, such as MG Ramachandran , Tamil actor became popular Prime Minister of the State of Tamil Nadu . Alongside this mass production can be very stereotypical, there is also an auteur, whose most famous member outside the borders of India is Bengali Satyajit Ray. It may also be mentioned among the classic film Guru Dutt , Raj Kapoor (also actor), Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Yash Chopra for his hits. Among the emerging contemporary directors Mira Nair , figurehead of independent Indian cinema, which has won several international awards including a Golden Lion at Venice in 2001. His films are worked by the theme of exile and the divide between generations, or of female sexuality and its censorship. Shyam Benegal , Deepa Mehta , Sudhir Mishra is one of several contemporary directors who have experienced success their films, like Vijay Singh , Indian filmmaker based in France, known for his films that touch on both India and France. On a lighter mode, Karan Johar , from a family of filmmakers of Bollywood , has his own production company and tries to renew the codes of the genre by introducing topics for discussion at the mores changing family intrigues in his otherwise very representative of commercial cinema produced in Bombay. There are many religions in India. The main religions in India are the Hindu (79.8%) and Islam (13.7%). There are also Jains (0.5%), the Sikhs (2.1%), the Zoroastrian ( Parsi ), of Buddhists (0.8%), the Jews and Christians (2.5%) - these This from a evangelism is very old, from the first century ( Thomas Christians in Kerala and Karnataka ), or after the arrival of Europeans from the sixteenth century : Portuguese, French, English. While Buddhism originated in northern India, it is currently practiced by a minority of the population, including Tibetans refugees since the intervention in Tibet by China , and former untouchables who are converted by following the example of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar , an untouchable great leader of independence. But in recent years, the urban elite and middle class Indian slowly starting to look more and more with the arrival of Buddhism Buddhist schools in Japan. Natural religions, ranked as leaders, are still very much alive among the tribal groups in central Canada. India has many religions in the various statutes. More "major" religions originating in India, whose Hinduism and Buddhism , and some are almost exclusive to India. The Hinduism is by far the largest religion in India and includes 878 million faithful is 79.8% of the Indian population. The Islam , with about 150 million followers (about 13.7% of Indian population), making India the third Muslim country in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan. India has about 25 million Christians (Orthodox, Protestants and Catholics together constitute approx. 2.5% of total population). The Christian community of Kerala is one of the oldest in the world (Christians of St. Thomas ). Christian churches are renowned for their quality educational institutions, and open to all. The Sikhism is a religion unique to India which has 18 million followers (approx. 2.1% of Indian population). The majority of Sikhs live in Punjab. Sikhs are very much in the army. The Buddhism , which had disappeared by the tenth century, was revived in India in several ways, notably in the form of the practice of Vipassana , and through the movement of mass conversion of Dalits or untouchables, initiated in 1954 by Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and that continues today: the neo-Buddhists. The number of Buddhists in India is currently estimated at 7.5 million people or about 0.8% of the Indian population. In recent years, the elite and the Indian middle class are beginning to look increasingly to Buddhism and Buddhist schools from Japan slowly gaining in popularity. The Jainism is a religion unique to India which includes 3 to 4 million followers (approx. 0.5% of Indian population) and the majority of practitioners living in Maharastri and Gujarat. Jainism is characterized by an absolute respect for all life. Community Parsi decreases rapidly. Indian religions have emerged in the Indian Territory to vanish like jvika. Among the many institutions and spiritual well-known schools are the Brahma Kumaris , Art of Living Foundation, the Center Shivanada, Divine Life Society, the Center Chinmayanada, the Theosophical Society, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Ramakrishna Mission, Sri Chinmayananda Mission, Vedanta Society, Sadhu Vaswani Mission, etc.. Interreligious tensions may be acute in India. After independence in 1947, forced displacement of populations between India and Pakistan were extremely violent riots between Hindu and Muslim communities, which were, by some estimates, one million deaths . In 1984, after the assassination of Indira Gandhi , the pogroms affecting the Sikh community. In 1992, the destruction of the historic mosque of Ayodhya by Hindus had led to violence between Muslims and Hindus, particularly in Bombay, killing more than 2,000 deaths in the country. In October 2001, a suicide bomber struck the Parliament of Jammu and Kashmir in Srinagar (38 deaths) . On 13 December 2001 the Federal Parliament undergoes a suicide attack that kills 14 people . In 2002, clashes between Hindus and Muslims are more than 250 dead in three days in Ahmedabad. The riots following the fire by Muslims , February 27, bringing a train of Hindu extremists, tensions related to the destruction of the Ayodhya mosque in 1992. In October 2005, three explosions attributed to the Islamist cause the death of 66 people in the capital, New Delhi . On March 7, 2006, the city of Benares is experiencing a triple bombing claimed by the Lashkar-e-Qadar . On 8 September 2006, three bombs exploded near the mosque of Malegaon in Maharashtra state, with 37 fatalities . On 25 August 2007, two bomb attacks hit the city of Hyderabad , killing at least 43 people . On November 23, 2007, the cities of Varanasi , Lucknow and Faizabad , are affected by the attacks against the courts, killing at least thirteen people dead and fifty wounded . These attacks come at a time when the lawyers of Uttar Pradesh announced not to defend Islamic militants in their region. On 13 May 2008 , several attacks in the city of Jaipur are at least 80 dead and 200 wounded . A bomb exploded in a Hindu temple. 25 and July 26, 2008, attacks claimed by Islamists in Bangalore and Ahmedabad are killing 51 people . At the end of August 2008, Hindus attack Christians in the state of Orissa , east of the country: violence leaves at least a dozen dead and 25 churches were burned . On 13 September 2008 , several explosions affect New Delhi . These attacks are claimed by Indian Mujahideen , a group Islamist. On 26 November 2008 , is Mumbai which is affected by a series of attacks killing at least 100 dead and 300 wounded . The attacks were claimed by the Islamist Mujahedin Deccan. The Indian cuisine (or rather 'the Indian cuisines') is highly diversified across regions, communities, religions or families, and includes many spices often ground and mixed into sets called masalas (or 'curry' in English or in French): tandorri masala cooking Mughal, rasam masala cooking of southern India, garam masala cooking of northern India, etc.. Spices and methods vary from region to region. The rice and wheat are the main food of the nation. The country is known for its wide variety of cuisines vegetarian (India has the highest percentage of vegetarians in the world) and non-vegetarians. The spicy food and sweets are popular. There are also a variety of sweet dishes and drinks that vary from region to region. The chefs are often in families with income that pass from generation to generation within communities. Thus it can be continuously exploring the dishes in all their richness and variety of regional, family or community. In the traditional cuisines of Yoga or Ayurveda , the use of certain spices is limited or excluded. Indian traditional values of family are highly respected, although in urban and even rural areas, the family model changed for various reasons: migration, globalization, changing morals, ... However, the joint-familly "is still very present in rural areas, small towns and sometimes in wealthy industrial families in big cities. We can find and sometimes more than twenty people living under one roof. According to tradition in most communities, son, their marriage remained live near their parents, taking over gradually to meet the needs of the house. The relationship between brothers was coded using the most up among siblings. Wives who were under the orders of their stepmother in the first years after the marriage took place and exercised their authority in the household. Tradition is not static, all models are possible: separate kitchens or communal kitchen, terraced house, etc.. In the household, caring was obligatory: the burden of elderly parents was shared by all. They were integrated into daily life to perform minor work or services within the domestic economy: for example, telling stories to children, or peeling vegetables for cooking. If the national sport is field hockey , is the cricket which, in India, is elevated to a national passion. The Indian team is playing at the highest international level, and some players such as Sachin Tendulkar , are extremely popular throughout the country and beyond. Some matches are followed with fervor throughout the country, including meetings between India and neighboring Pakistan , or confrontations with the national team England. In some states, particularly in the northeast and the coastal states of West Bengal, Goa and Kerala, football, whose birthplace was the city of Calcutta , is widespread. The Indian Football Championship since 1996. Recently, tennis has gained popularity, especially with the young professional player Sania Mirza. India is also present in the world of motor racing with F1 drivers such as Karun Chandhok and Narain Karthikeyan behind the wheel of the former Jordan which today is called " Force India "manufacturer owned by Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya. Finally, we can cite the wrestler Great Khali. The game of chess , known from India, is also growing because of the increasing number of large Indian masters, starting with Viswanathan Anand , ranked world number one by the World Chess Federation world champion and the September 29, 2007 in Mexico City. Other traditional sports include Kabaddi , the Kho-Kho , and Gilli-Danda , which are played across the country. India is the source of historical and religious discipline of yoga, and also the ancient martial art, the Kalarippayatt. Indian festivals are very varied, mostly religious. Celebrated irrespective of caste, as they are either national Divali in the fall or the Holi in the spring, regional as Pongal in Tamil Nadu , or the Feast of the Sun - Chatt Puja Surya also called Shasta - in the State of Bihar and the Uttar Pradesh. They vary according to regions and communities, but also according to different religions in India: Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, etc.. However, the Indian communities participate in both their own festivals as those of their neighbors. The most popular holidays are Diwali , Holi , Onam , Sankranti / Pongal , Buddha Jayanti Gudi Padwa / Ugadi , the two Eids , Christmas , and Vaisakhi. Raksha Bandhan , the day to solidify the family bond between brothers and sisters, is celebrated in several communities in northern India. The date of Hindu festivals vary from year to year according to the Hindu calendar. India has three national holiday periods. We observe other official holiday periods (nine to twelve) in different states. Religious practices are an integral part of everyday life and are a public matter. The Indian constitution recognizes 23 official languages. There are also many other regional languages and a large number of dialects , nearly 4,000 different languages. Indian languages do not use the Latin alphabet but different alphasyllabaires , derived from Brahmi. The English has long been the common language spoken by the elite and upper middle class Indian (which there are several great writers of international renown), is now used as a lingua franca for most of population, with a wide variety of accents by region or social class. Hindi, the native populations in the state of Uttar Pradesh , however, is the language spoken or understood more or less by a large majority of the Indian population, particularly in northern India. In April 2010, the first level schooling became compulsory for children aged 6-14 years. The costs are borne by the state for poor families . Players and a public street game Island of the archipelago of Lakshadweep Arambol Beach in Goa The Nilgiri in Tamil Nadu The India Gate in Delhi The Gateway of India in Mumbai Sukhoi Aviation Military Indian Indian army tank Parade Indian Air Ship of Indian Navy Nuclear missile Kangchenjunga mountain India has the code: Category India directory dmoz 
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Date French name Local Name Notes January 14 Solstice of Capricorn Makar Sankranti in the North, Pongal in the South Inaugurates the bright half of the year 5 days after new moon (dark moon) from January Fifth Spring Basant Panchami Schoolchildren worship Saraswati , the goddess of knowledge January 26 Republic Day Republic Day Adoption of the Indian constitution Full Moon in March Festival of colors Holi Victory of good over evil August 15 Independence Day Independence Day Proclamation of Independence August full moon Day Brothers Raksh Bandan Update of attachment sisters brothers New moon in November Festival of Lights Divali 5 days of festivities and commemoration October 2 Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi Gandhi Jayanti Birth of MK Gandhi , the father of the country Languages
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