Geography
Area: 3.29 million sq. km. (1.27 million sq. mi.); about one-third the
size of the U.S.
Cities: Capital--New Delhi (pop. 12.8 million, 2001 census). Other
major cities--Mumbai, formerly Bombay (16.4 million); Kolkata,
formerly Calcutta (13.2 million); Chennai, formerly Madras (6.4
million); Bangalore (5.7 million); Hyderabad (5.5 million); Ahmedabad
(5 million); Pune (4 million).
Terrain: Varies from Himalayas to flat river valleys.
Climate: Alpine to temperate to subtropical monsoon.
People
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Indian(s).
Population (2003 est.): 1.05 billion; urban 27.8%.
Annual growth rate: 1.6%.
Density: 319/sq. km.
Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid 2%, others.
Christian singles note-Religions: Hindu 81.3%, Muslim 12%, Christian
2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other groups including Buddhist, Jain, Parsi 2.5%.
Languages: Hindi, English, and 16 other official languages.
Education: Years compulsory--9 (to age 14). Literacy--55.2%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--61/1,000. Life expectancy--63
years.
Work force (est.): 416 million. Agriculture--63%; industry
and commerce--22%; services and government--11%; transport
and communications--4%.
Government
Type: Federal republic.
Independence: August 15, 1947.
Constitution: January 26, 1950.
Branches: Executive--president (chief of state), prime minister
(head of government), Council of Ministers (cabinet). Legislative--bicameral
parliament (Rajya Sabha or Council of States, and Lok Sabha or House
of the People). Judicial--Supreme Court.
Political parties: Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress (I), Janata Dal
(United), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist,
and numerous regional and small national parties.
Political subdivisions: 28 states,* 7 union territories.
Suffrage: Universal over 18.
Economy
GDP: $576 billion (2003); $648 billion (2004 est.).
Real growth rate: 8.2% (2003).
Per capita GDP: $543 (2003); $602 (2004 est.).
Natural resources: Coal, iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, chromite,
thorium, limestone, barite, titanium ore, diamonds, crude oil.
Agriculture: 22.7% of GDP. Products--wheat, rice, coarse
grains, oilseeds, sugar, cotton, jute, tea
Industry: 26.6% of GDP. Products--textiles, jute, processed
food, steel, machinery, transport equipment, cement, aluminum,
fertilizers, mining, petroleum, chemicals, computer software.
Services and transportation: 50.7% of GDP.
Trade: Exports--$62 billion; agricultural products, engineering
goods, precious stones, cotton apparel and fabrics, gems and jewelry,
handicrafts, tea. Software exports--$12.5 billion. Imports--$76
billion; petroleum, machinery and transport equipment, electronic
goods, edible oils, fertilizers, chemicals, gold, textiles, iron and
steel. Major trade partners--U.S., EU, Russia, Japan, Iraq.
PEOPLE
Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it
supports over 15% of the world's population. Only China has a larger
population. Almost 33% of Indians are younger than 15 years of age.
About 70% of the people live in more than 550,000 villages, and the
remainder in more than 200 towns and cities. Over thousands of years
of its history, India has been invaded from the Iranian plateau,
Central Asia, Arabia, Afghanistan, and the West; Indian people and
culture have absorbed and changed these influences to produce a
remarkable racial and cultural synthesis.
Christian singles note-Religion, caste, and language are major
determinants of social and political organization in India today. The
government has recognized 18 languages as official; Hindi is the most
widely spoken.
Although 81% of the people are Hindu, India also is the home of more
than 126 million Muslims--one of the world's largest Muslim
populations. The population also includes Christians, Sikhs, Jains,
Buddhists, and Parsis.
The caste system reflects Indian occupational and socially defined
hierarchies. Sanskrit sources refer to four social categories, priests
(Brahmin), warriors (kshatriya), traders (vayisha) and farmers (shudra).
Although these categories are understood throughout India, they
describe reality only in the most general terms. They omit, for
example, the tribes and low castes once known as ‘untouchables.’ In
reality, society in India is divided into thousands of jatis, local,
endogamous groups, organized hierarchically according to complex ideas
of purity and pollution. Despite economic modernization and laws
countering discrimination against the lower end of the class
structure, the caste system remains an important source of social
identification for most Hindus and a potent factor in the political
life of the country.
