India

India (official name: the République of India ) is a country of the south of the Asia which occupies the major part of the Indian Sous-continent.

The name of the country “India” is derived from the old version Persian of the word Sindhu , the name of the river Indus in Sanscrit (see the article detailed on the Origine of the name of India ). The official texts also use the word Bharat (word Hindi derived from the name Sanskrit of an ancient king Hindu whose history can be found in the Mahâbhârata). A third name, Hindustan, i.e. “ground of the Hindus” in Persan, is employed since the period of the Empire moghol and is most used today still by the majority of the Indians in the current language.

India is the country more populated world after the China. Twenty-three official languages are recognized there of which the Hindi (spoken in north, the language of the central administration), the Tamoul (spoken in the south) and the English.

The Indian littoral extends on more than seven thousand kilometers. The country has borders common with the Pakistan to the west, the Tibet (Popular republic of China), the Nepal, and the Bhutan in the North-East, the Bangladesh and the Burma in the east. On the Indian Ocean, India is near the islands of the Republic of the Maldives in south-west, the Sri Lanka in the south, and of the Indonesia in south-east. India also claims a border with the Afghanistan in the North-West.

India is the hearth of civilizations among oldest, and an important historical crossroads of the commercial main roads. Four great religions were born in this only sub-continent: the Hindouisme, the Buddhism, the Jaïnisme and the Sikhisme.

Formerly, India constituted an important part of the British Empire (the Raj ) before obtaining its independence in 1947. At the same time, French counters and Portuguese are present on the Indian territory, which to him will be reassigned a few years after independence.

After several decades of economic stagnation, the country developed much since about fifteen years, in particular thanks to the reforms launched in 1991. India, already giant demographic and regional power, without any doubt have to become one of the great powers of the 21e century, following the example China and at the sides of the the United States. January 22nd, 2007, an Indian capsule space uninhabited returns on ground after a 12 days mission in space, which marks a scientific and technical stake important for the country.

History

The shelters - under - rock painted with the Stone Age with Bhimbetka in the Madhya Pradesh constitute the known traces oldest of human establishment in India. The first permanent installations to date discovered appear there is 9 000 years. Then a brilliant civilization, one of oldest known to date, develops in the valley of Indus and reached its apogee between -2600 and -1900. Towards -1500, Aryan tribes come from Central Asia would have emigrated in India, but this assumption is rejected by certain researchers who observe rather a continuity of the vedic Culture. Recent genetic studies did not make it possible to take a decision up to now (some confirming, others refuting the Théorie of the Aryan invasion). At sixth century BC, a wind of religious reform rises, the Bouddhisme and the Jainisme flowers, adding to the richness of the Indian culture in all the fields. The traditional Hindouisme develops starting from the vedic culture. The first millenium sees many independent kingdoms developing strongly, some acquiring an imperial stature. The Hindu dynasty of the Gupta dominates the period that the historians regard as a “golden age” of India and the Maurya, and in particular the Buddhist emperor Ashoka, contributes to the Indian cultural radiation. The Mathematical Arts, , the Technology, the Astrology, the Religion and the Philosophie open out thanks to the royal Mécénat.

From VIIème century of our era, the small kingdoms multiply and clash, until the Moslem conquest started in XIIème century by Muhammad Ghori and its troops come from Central Asia. Thus, during the second millenium, the majority of the areas of India are subjugated with a capacity Musulman, the Sultanat of Delhi then to the Empire moghol. The phase of conquest is long and bloody: (out of 1000 with 1525, 80 million Hindus were killed). Nevertheless some Hindu kingdoms, like the Kingdom of Vijayanâgara, remain and thrive. With the come to power of the dynasty moghole initiated by Babur, descendant of Tamerlan, which overcame its principal rival at the time the battle of Panipat in 1526, India is transformed into a vast empire, stable and thrives, which extends from the Turkestan to Bengal and whose political and intellectual radiation impresses its contemporary counterparts. During the reign of the emperors moghols, and more particularly under the impulse of Akbar, of major reforms are undertaken. In the political arena, the premises of a modern state appear: the administration is organized in a decentralized system of provinces controlled by princes named by the emperor and where the tax is raised, and an legal institution is setting-up. It is still Akbar which sets up a policy of religious tolerance towards the Hindus, which leads inter alia to the development of a specific culture of which the Ourdou, language resulting from Persan and Hindustani is one of the results. Art architecture, the emperors moghols appear large patrons and lit promoters, and it is during this period that is built what remains like the most beautiful architectural realization of the period, the Taj Mahal. However, the empire is surbedded gradually starting from the death of the emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, under the effect of interminable fights for the throne between rival branches of the dynasty.

Started with the creation of Goa by the Portuguese in 1510, the arrival of the tradesmen French, Dutch, English (then British) precipitates the decline of the empire, so much the latter benefit from the political division of the sub-continent by installing counters, before colonizing them. The British successively triumph over their European rivals then local princely capacities thanks to the military force and the flourishing saving in counters of the Compagnie of the Eastern Indies, and manage to sit their domination on India as of half of the XIXème century. They then establish a powerful colonial administration placed under the direct responsablity of the British Crown.

Into 1857, the Revolt of Cipayes, Indian soldiers with the service of the British, transforms into general popular rising against the power of the English Compagnie of the Eastern Indies. The Indians regard this revolt as the first war - unfruitful - of independence.

After the revolt, the nationalist Indian movements are formed and organized as of the creation of the Indian National congress in 1885 and start to require a complete independence. The influence of the movement does not cease increasing during first half of the XXème century, but is not free from dissensions, in particular between Hindous and Moslems. The August 15th 1947, India reaches finally its independence, the price of many sacrifices, thanks to the tough efforts of the leaders of the nationalist movement, and in particular of Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. In parallel, it undergoes a Partition which gives rise to another State, the Pakistan for the Moslems.

The period which follows is dedicated to the construction of the nation. Nehru is the first leading one of independent India. It sets up a planned economy and which tends to the self-sufficiency, in particular by stressing the reform of agriculture. In foreign policy, it promotes the movement of the " non-alignés" during the cold war. After 1947, India in addition takes part in four wars against its neighbor the Pakistan whose statute of the Cachemire constitutes the main motivation. Of 1975 with 1977, the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declares the state of emergency , limiting the civic rights and involving the setting in detention of many people without lawsuit. If the democracy is restored with beginning of the year 90, the destruction of the Babri Masjid of Ayodhya in 1992 involves several intercommunity Conflits in Western India. In 1999, India mobilizes its troops in the district of Kargil to the Cashmere to push back infiltrations of islamist terrorists and rebels independence kashmiris come from Pakistan.

Institutions

Promulgated on January 26th, 1950, the Constitution gives rise to the “sovereign and democratic republic” of India, from which she affirms the laic character and the social vocation.

This text equips the Indian Union with institutions inspired by the models British and American. Thus, the mode is federation of a dyarchic type as to the United States, and bicameral member of Parliament copied on the Parliament of Westminster. The capacity is divided between the legislature, the executive, and the legal one.

The President is the Head of the State, but its capacities are especially symbolic systems. The president and the vice-president are elected by the indirect suffrage every five years by a special college. The vice-president does not become necessarily president if the president resigns or has suddenly died. The Prime Minister is, however, the head of government in fact. He is named by the president, with the downstream of the party or the coalition which holds the majority of the seats to the Room of the Parliament.

The Parlement is composed of two rooms: the Upper House, the Rajya Sabha (the Council of the States) and the Lower House, the Lok Sabha (Room of the people). Rajya Sabha can count to 250 members elected for one six years duration, and renewed per third every two years. The majority are indirectly elected by the assemblies of each State proportionally to the population of this last. The 545 members of Lok Sabha are elected by the universal direct suffrage to represent various electoral colleges for some five years mandates.

The Parliament indicates a Prime Minister resulting from the majority party or a coalition. This one holds the executive powers and directs the Council of Ministers. It is directly responsible before the Parliament.

The executive branch includes/understands the president, the vice-president, and the Council of Ministers (the Cabinet being its steering committee) directed by the Prime Minister. Any minister holding a wallet must be a member of one or the other of the assemblies.

The judicial power in India is also organized in dyarchie, as in the United States. More the high jurisdiction of the country is the Supreme court, directed by the first magistrate of the country, the Chief Justice off India . The Supreme court referee conflicts between the States and the Center. It constitutes moreover the last appelate jurisdiction above the twenty and one high course ( High Courts ) of the States. Lastly, it has the capacity to pronounce the unconstitutionality of the laws and the decrees of the governments (and thus to cancel them) if it estimates that the latter are in conflict with the basic principles of the constitution. At the lower level, one finds high the courses, which sit in the States and territories of India. These last are mainly appelate jurisdictions and examine the litigations resulting from the courts subordinates ( lower short ) such as the courts of district or locality.

Policy

Foreign relations

India regards itself as a great power still badly recognized. The Charte of the United Nations does not give him the statute of permanent member of the Safety advice the Traité nuclear non-proliferation does not recognize it like State equipped with the Nuclear weapon. Also, India seeks it to make recognize the statute of great power to which she judges capacity to claim.

This is why it has advanced its candidature at G4 (Germany, Brésil, India, Japan) in order to obtain a permanent headquarter with the Safety advice of UNO. It is also one of the reasons which pushed it to develop a nuclear arsenal after the “peaceful” explosion of 1974 and to assume of it the official character with the tests of May 1998.

Today, India is recognized like an emergent power. It wove strategic partnerships with all the great powers: the the United States within the framework of the program Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) ; the China with which it progresses on the way of a payment of the frontier dispute which opposes the two countries; the Russia, the France, the Japan, and the the United Kingdom.

India breaks with the approach Nehru comes, third-mondiste and not aligned (see Mouvement of non-aligned the) International relations to enter the club of “large”. For this reason, it militates for obtaining a seat of permanent member to the Safety advice of the United Nations.

Geography

India occupies the major part of the Indian sub-continent, which is placed between the tectonic plate of India and the part north-western of the indo-Australian plate. Part of the territory of the States of north and the North-East of India are located in the solid mass of the Himalayas. The remainder of septentrional, central, and Eastern India is occupied by the fertile zone of the indo-gangetic plain. In the Western part, bordered by Pakistan of south-east, the desert of the Thar is. Southernmost India is composed almost entirely of the peninsular plate of Deccan, flanked of two coastal solid masses to the broken relief, the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats.

Large rivers and rivers, the such Gange, the Brahmapoutra, the Yamunâ, the Godâvarî, the Narmadâ, the Kaveri cross the country. India has three archipelagoes in addition: Laquedives, which is at broad coast of south-west; the volcanic chain of the islands of Andaman and Nicobar in south-east, and Sunderbans in the delta of Gange in Western Bengal. The climate in India varies the tropical one in the south with more moderate in the north of the Himalayas, where the mountainous regions receive the continuous snowfalls in winter. The climate of India is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the desert of Thar. The Himalayas and the mountains of the Hindu Kouch in Pakistan, make obstacle with the winds Catabatique S come from Central Asia and thus prevent them from penetrating in the continent, which preserves heat in the major part of this last, contrary with the majority of the areas located at the same latitude. The desert of Thar, as for him, attracts the wet winds of the monsoon of summer which, between June and September, is responsible for most of precipitations of India.

India is a federation of States which have each one a Parliament and a government. There are twenty-eight States, six territories, and the territory of the capital New Delhi ( New Delhi Capital Territory ).

Surface of India east of 3 287 590 km ². Delimited by the Pakistan, the Afghanistan, the China, the Nepal, the Bhutan, the Bangladesh, the Burma, the Indian borders are long of 15 000 km.

Economy

GNP of India was of 793 billion dollar S in 2005.
GNP per capita was of 720 dollar S in 2005.
In 2005, agriculture represented 22 % of GDP, industries 27 % and the services 51 %. The GNP of India is 10th world in value.
Distribution of employment (2004): agriculture 50%, industry 21%, services 29%.
Incidence of poverty (2004): 25%
Unemployment rate (2005): 10%
Foreign debt (are. 2005): 95 billion dollars
Inflation (2005): 4.2%

India made enormous economic progresses since the accession with independence. It is true that it was a time, Indian civilization radiated in the whole of Asia. It is the time when India, at equality with China, was located at the very first world rank, with 22.6% of the income of planet. It was in 1700.

Today, India, a giant of more than one billion inhabitants, starts to take again his place in the worldwide economy. The Indian total GDP rises to 785.5 billion dollars (either the 4th world rank in term of purchasing power parity). The objective of the Indian government consists in accelerating economic development by reducing poverty, by developing the infrastructures more, in particular in rural area, and facilitating the access to education like with the care for the population.

She endeavors to look further into her relations with the Association of the nations of the South-East Asia (ASEAN), to reinforce her links with the China and to increase her interactions with the countries of Central Asia, the the United States and the Europe.

The country crosses an euphoric phase of economic growth today (more than 8% in 2006). the Indian middle-class counts more than 350 million people in constant evolution. the sectors which benefit from the economic situation are, above all, the services and manufacturing industry.

The country made large progress in the field of microprocessing, the data processing of high efficiency, the telematics and the development of the software.

India developed supers computers (Param 9000), of a design very last thing. With it only, the town of Bangalore, hyper center of the high-tech and Indian scientific research counts 150.000 engineers, at the moment when Sillicon Valley American has only 120.000 engineers. India is today the first world exporter of computer software and programming department.

The growth rate annual of the Indian computing activities amounts to 50% and annual exports in software exceed the 10 billion dollars. The essential reason of this effervescence has lain in the fact that India launched out since the years 1980, in the formation with large scales of researchers and technicians data processing specialists and it “puts on the market”, for more than ten years: 500000 engineers highly qualified per annum.

In the space field, the country succeeded in launching in January 2007, a rocket transporting a capsule which was then recovered on Earth, within the framework of the preparation of a manned space flight. Indian rocket PSLV (Satellite Whodunnit Launch Conveys) placed on orbit four satellites, a first for India, including two Indian satellites, a indonésien and Argentinian.

Today with nine operational geostationary satellites, the country made profitable its space technological success to create TV-education as well as networks of TV-medicine to the service of the population. The country counts more than 3 million new subscribers to the mobile phone each month. Young people of the whole world come to study in India and to carry out training courses in the country.

India is also the first producer and exporter of generic medicines of the world. The capital of the drug company is Hyderâbâd. The first company of the sector is Ranbaxy, with more: 10000 paid and 1,5 billion dollar of turnover. Indian exports amount with more than 2 billion dollars.

According to a study of Jean-Joseph Boillot, former financial adviser with the Economic mission of New Delhi, the growth of India will exceed that of China by 2010-2015.

* Growth forecast in 2007: 10%

Growth in 2006:9.2%

Population in million in 2005: 1.095

GDP of billion dollars: 785,5

Richness created of billion dollars in 2006: 62,8

Another index is the equipment of the hearths televise some. The number of hearths equipped was of 88 million in 2000 compared with 105 million in 2007 (50% of the hearths. A number comparable with US but over there this figure accounts for 98% of the population)

Religions

Demography

The family

The traditional Indian values of the family are strongly respected, although in urban environments the model of the nuclear family is prevail. However, it “joint-familly” is still very present in the campaigns and small towns (70% of the population). One finds thus sometimes more than twenty people living under the same roof.

With their marriage, the wire remain food close to their parents, taking gradually the changing to provide for the needs for the house. The relation between brothers is coded according to the place in the phratry. The wives who are under the orders of their mother-in-law in the first years following the marriage take their place and exert their authority in the household. The tradition is not fixed, all the models are possible: separate kitchens or common kitchen, joint house, etc

Within the hearth, the mutual aid is of rigor: the load of the old parents is shared between all. They are integrated into the daily life to achieve small work or services depending from the domestic economy, which in our contemporary Western companies are frequently mechanized or entrusted to thirds: for example, to tell stories with the children, or to peel vegetables for the preparation of the meals.

Defense

India with the more large army of reserve in the world. The Air force of India is the larger fourth in the world, behind those of the United States, Russia and China.

The Indian armed forces laid out in 2006 of a manpower of 1 325 000 soldiers and 535 000 reservists.

Its budget for defense rises to 19,1 billion dollars (that is to say 15,80 billion euros), 3,11% of the rough national product (PNB)

Its forces are distributed like as follows:

Army: 1 110 000 men;
Air force: 170 000 men;
Navy: 55 000 men.

They have 3 000 tanks, 1 900 other armoured tanks, 650 fighters (as well as forces Naval Aviation), 16 submarines, 1 Aircraft carrier and 8 destroyers. India has just begun the replacement of 126 Mig-21 with other Russian planes for 2012.

India has nuclear weapons since 1974 distributed in aviation or missiles IRBM.

Culture

See also: Indian Culture, Art of the Indian world, Art of India of the sultanates, Art moghol, Indian Literature, Indian Philosophy, Indian Cinema, Indian Music, Indian Theater, Indian Kitchen, Ballet dancings of India, Indian Architecture

The culture of India is marked by a degree of high syncretism. She managed to preserve traditions established while absorbing new habits, designs and practices imported by the foreign populations coming from invasion or waves of successive migrations. Many practices, languages, habits, and Indian cultural monuments are examples: monuments inspired of the architecture of Islam, such as the Taj Mahal are the heritage of the dynasty moghole. The Indian culture is thus the result of traditions which combined heterogeneous elements of civilizations present on the territory and which marked the country at one time or another of its history.

Music

The Indian music is strongly diversified. The classical music is mainly duplicated between the Indian hindoustanies of the north and carnatic traditions of the south. The strongly regionalized forms of popular music include the music filmi and folk music like Bhangra. Many traditional forms of dance exist: Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Manipuri, Odissi and Yakshagana. They often have a narrative form and are usually impregnated by religious elements and with devotion.

Literatures

The literary traditions oldest borrowed mainly the oral form, the written form making a later appearance.

The Hindu religious literature written in Sanskrit, such as Veda, the Râmâyana and the Mahâbhârata, holds a great place in the Indian culture, and gives place to reminiscences and adaptations until in contemporary works of fiction, theater or cinema. Another important literature of the period is the “Littérature of Sangam” of language tamoule produced in the Tamil Nadu, also very old. The Sanskrit as the traditional Tamoul are erudite languages which are then accessible only to one very restricted group cultivated individuals. The literatures in vernacular language (such as Bengali Hindustani, or Urdu for example) develop as for them as from the 10th century. The texts are in worms or prose, of religious gasoline and very often inspired by old legends or epopees.

Under the influence of British colonization, Indian authors of the modern era, whose Bengali Rabîndranâth Tagore, write in English as in their native tongue.

As from the 20th century and at the time contemporary, much of writers, which some enjoy an international audience (Salman Rushdie, Anita Desai, Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth or Arundhati Roy) contributed to the development of an Indian fiction of English language in rupture with the traditional narration characterizing their predecessors (and in particular R.K. Narayan, regarded as one of the fathers of the Indian novel written in English). Their works carry the print of the current postcolonialist, where the topics of the national identity, the history, the reflection on colonial oppression are combined with an interrogation on what bases the identity of the individual, on the difficulty of living the rupture between the tradition and modernity, on the conflict of the cultures and of the influences which is played in the conscience of the man of independent India. Consequently this search for identity passes by the recourse to the English language, language of the colonizer reinvented and réappropriée, who testifies in addition to the will to create a language and an own esthetics, and to be expressed by exceeding the difficulty of being said with words “come besides”, according to the expression of R.K. Narayan. Attached to the Postmodernisme as much as with the postcolonialism, author of fiction, poems and literary tests, of which several obtained prices abroad, Amit Chaudhuri also occupies a notable row in the any young generation of the literature anglo-Indian. In a register intimist, it sticks to the description of the changes of the family and a reflection on the conjugality in the hearths of the emergent middle-class. In the same way, Hari Kunzru recently published a comic epopee on the research topic of the identity, illustrating the sudden appearance of individualistic tendencies which seems with work in this same middle-class lying in the Indian metropolises. One can finally quote Kiran Desai which gained the Man Booker Price in 2006 with an account illustrating the tension lived by the present generation, between family heritage and individual aspirations.

The Postcolonialisme, movement literary of great width which touched at the same time the countries of the south and Occident, by amorçant a detachment of the élitistes forms, also supported in India the literary expression of minority groups which traditionally saw themselves denying the capacity to produce cultural works. Thus writers, playwrights and poets Dalit S (or “men broken” in marathi, name that were given the individuals originating in the untouchable castes to dispute their social status resulting from their hierarchical position in the Hindu company) also shook traditional literary forms, by the use of a language unusually concrete, even believed, to describe their condition of oppressed, thus contributing to the renewal of the topics and the forms of the national literature.

Cinema

Indian cinema industry is most prolific of the world. Its floret is consisted the production of Bollywood (name derived from Bombay, old denomination of Mumbai), whose studios are located in the capital of the State of Maharashtra, and who carry out mainly commercial films in Hindi. Industry is also important in the area of Kolkata (Calcutta), Chennai (Madras), and with Kerala. There exists thus a considerable production of films in telugu, kannada, malayalam, tamoul, Bengali or marathi. The cinema is an art and a particularly popular distraction in India: whatever the age, the sex, the caste, the social or geographical origin of the Indians, the latter attend the cinemas massively. The most known actors enjoy thus an unequalled prestige in our companies, and the links between the industry of film and the policy are sometimes very close. Thus, certain actors occupied of the important governmental stations, like Mr. G. Ramachandran, popular actor tamoul become Prime Minister for the State of the Tamil Nadu.

In margin of this very stereotyped mass production sometimes, there exists also a cinema of author, whose most known representative out of the borders of India is the Bengali Satyajit Ray. One can also quote among the traditional realizers Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor (also actor) and Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

Among the contemporary realizers emergent Reflected Nair, figurehead of the independent Indian cinema, which obtained several international rewards of which a Gold Lion in Venice in 2001. Its films are worked by the topic of the exile and the fracture between the generations, or female sexuality and its censure. On a lighter mode, Karan Johar, resulting from a family of realizers of Bollywood, has his own production company and tries to renew the codes of the kind by introducing topics of reflection on family manners in change into its intrigues in addition very representative of the produced commercial cinema with Mumbai.

Cook

The kitchen of India is extremely diversified, and includes many spices often ground and mixed in sets called masalas (tandoori masala, rasam masala, garam masala, etc). The methods change area into area. Rice and the corn are the principal food of the nation. The country is known for its large variety of kitchens vegetarians and not-vegetarians. The spiced food and candies are popular in India.

Sport

If the national sport is the field hockey, it is the Cricket which, in India, is high with the row of true national passion. The Indian team plays more international high level, and certain players, such Sachin Tendulkar, are extremely popular in all the country and beyond. Some matches are followed with enthusiasm by all the country, in particular the meetings between India and its neighbor Pakistan, or confrontations of the national selection with England.

In some States, in particular in the North-East and the Coastal states of Western Bengal, Goa and Kerala, the football, whose cradle is the town of Kolkatta, is largely widespread. However, the Championnat of India of football exists only since 1996. Recently, tennis gained in popularity, in particular thanks to the young professional player Sania Mirza.

The play of failures, considered originating in India, also progresses because of increase in the number of large Indian Masters, to start with Viswanathan Anand, classified world number one by FIDE and crowned world champion on September 29th, 2007 in Mexico City. The other traditional sports include/understand the Kabaddi, the Kho-Kho, and the Gilli-Danda, which are played in all the country. India is the source of the historical and religious discipline of yoga, and also of ancient martial art, the Kalari Payattu.

India starts to be present in the world of the race autombile with F1 pilots like Karun Chandhok or then Narain Karthikeyan.Il is necessary to specify that this fabulous country now has to 50% thanks to the Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya the stable " Force india" who will take seat for 2008.Que suprises!

The Indian all-in wrestler Greath Khali represents also new India.

Festivals

The Indian festivals are very varied, monk for the majority. Celebrated independently of the caste, they are either national like Diwali with the autumn or the Holi spring, or regional like the Pongal in the Tamil Nadu, or the Festival of the sun - Chatt Puja also called Surya Shasti - in the state of the Bihar and the Uttar Pradesh. They vary according to the areas, but also according to the various religions present in India: hindouism, Islam, Christianity, etc However, the Indian communities take part as well in their own festivals as with those their neighbors. All that is added and done of India one of the country having the greatest number of bank holidays to the world.

The days of holidays observed in the schools, the administrations, the companies is rather impressive. The most popular holidays are Diwali, Holi, Onam, Sankranti/Pongal, Gudi Padwa/Ugadi, both Eids, Christmas, and Vaisakhi.

India has three national holiday periods. One observes officially other holiday periods (between nine and twelve) in the various states. The religious practices form integral part of the daily life and are a public affair.

Languages

See also: Languages of India, List of the official languages of India

The Indian constitution recognizes twenty-two languages (formerly fifteen). There exists also much of other regional languages and a great number of Dialecte S, is close to 3 000 different languages. The Indian languages do not use the Latin alphabet, but different Alphasyllabaire S, derived from the Brāhmī.

Flora and fauna

Located in the écozone indomalaise, India shelters large a Biodiversité: mammalian 7.6% of the S, 12.6% of the Bird X, 6.2% of the Reptile S, and the 6.0% of the plants to flowers alive on the Earth are there. It has many écorégion S, like the forests of Shola, which have extremely high rates of Endémisme: on the whole, 33% of the species of Indian plants are endemic species. The cover of the Indian forest extends from the Tropical forest Western islands Andaman, Ghâts, and of India of the North-East until the moderate Forêts of conifers of the the Himalayas. Between these ends are located the wet tropical forest of Eastern India, dominated by the sal; the tropophilous Forest of central and southernmost India, dominated by the Teak; as well as the thorny forest of central Deccan and Western plain of Gange, dominated by the Acacia mimosa. One counts among the important trees the Neem with the medicinal properties, largely used for remedies in rural Phytothérapie. The Fig tree of the pagodas, visible on the seals of Mohenjo-daro, has shaded the Gautama Bouddha while it reached the Nirvāna. Many Indian species go down directly from the Taxon S coming from supercontinent Gondwana, in which India is originating. Supercontinent Laurasia allowed a broad exchange of species at the time of its movement in direction of the Indian Plaque, and of their collision. However, the Volcanicity and the climate changes which have occurred 20 million years ago caused with the extinction of many endemic forms in India. A little later the mammals entered to India from Asia during two zoogeographical passages on each side of the incipient Himalayas. Consequently of that, one counts among the Indian species only 12,6% of mammals and 4,5% of birds which are endemic species, contrasting with the 45,8% from reptiles and 55,8% of the endemic Amphibien S. notable ones are the monkey Semnopithèque of Nilgiri and the brown or carmine clamping plate of the species Bufo beddomii of the Western ghâts. India contains 172 is 2.9% of species threatened according to the UICN, among which one finds the Asian Lion, the Bengal tiger, and the Indian Vautour chaugoun, which was very close to the extinction because of ingestion of carrions of Bétail treated with the Diclofénac.

Since the last decades, the fauna of India was seriously threatened by the strong human demographic increase. To counter that, the government considerably extended its list of the protected sectors and the national parks (list initially drawn up in 1935). In 1972, India set up a protection plan of fauna, and a project especially dedicated to the safeguarding of the tiger and its natural habitat. This protection plan was extended by the other federal protections promulgated in the years 1980. In addition to the 500 save fields of fauna, India now accommodates 14 Réserves of biosphere, of which 4 belong to the World network of the reserves of biosphere. 25 Wetlands are protected by the Convention from Ramsar.

Gallery

Random links: