More About India

History
It is known from archaeological evidence that a highly sophisticated, urbanized culture "the Indus Civilization" dominated the north-western part of the subcontinent from about 2600 to 2000 BC. From that period on, India functioned as a virtually self-contained political and cultural arena, which gave rise to a distinctive tradition that was associated primarily with Hinduism, the roots of which can largely be traced to the Indus Civilization. Other religions, notably Buddhism and Jainism, also originated in ancient India, but their presence in India is now quite small.

Throughout its history India was intermittently disturbed by incursions from beyond its northern mountain wall. Especially important was the coming of Islam, brought from the northwest by Arab, Turkish, Persian, and other invaders beginning early in the 8th century AD. By the 13th century much of the subcontinent had fallen under Muslim domination, and it largely remained so until the middle of the 18th century. In the intervening period the number of Muslims steadily increased, and by the early 20th century they formed almost one-fourth of India's population. Only after the arrival of the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama in 1498 and the subsequent establishment of European maritime supremacy did India become exposed to major external influences arriving by sea, a process that culminated in the absorption of the subcontinent within the British Empire.

The foundation of the Mughal Empire was laid in 1526 by Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad Babur, an exiled Chagatai Turk from Central Asia and a direct descendant of Ghengis Khan. Babur's knowledge of western and Central Asian war tactics and his brilliant leadership proved decisive in his victory over India. The Mughal Empire at its zenith commanded resources unprecedented in Indian history and covered almost the entire subcontinent. From 1556 to 1707, during the heyday of its fabulous wealth and glory, the Mughal Empire was a fairly efficient and centralized organization, with a vast complex of personnel, money, and information dedicated to the service of the emperor and his nobility. During the reign of Muhammad Shah (1719-48), the empire began to break up, a process hastened by dynastic warfare and factional rivalries. After his death the Marathas overran almost all of northern India. Mughal rule was reduced to only a small area around Delhi, which passed under Maratha and then to British control in 1803.

Direct administration by the British, which began in 1858, effected a political and economic unification of the subcontinent, the legacy of which is found in many aspects of the current Indian state, including its parliamentary system of government. When British rule came to an end in 1947, the subcontinent was partitioned along religious lines into two separate countries - India, with a majority of Hindus, and Pakistan, with a majority of Muslims. (The eastern portion of Pakistan gained independence as Bangladesh in 1971.) Although Hindi was declared India's official language, English continued to be a widely used lingua franca, especially by educated Indians in business and government.

Geography
Together with Bangladesh and most of Pakistan, India forms a well-defined subcontinent, set off from the rest of Asia by the imposing northern mountain rampart of the Himalayas and by lesser adjoining mountain ranges to the west and east. In area, India ranks as the seventh largest country in the world, covering 3,166,414 square kilometres, just slightly more than 2 percent of the Earth's total land surface.

India shares its borders with six countries. Both Pakistan to the northwest and China to the north have intractable border disputes with India. Bangladesh in the north east is surrounded on three sides by Indian territory. The other nations on India's frontier are Nepal and Bhutan to the north, and Myanmar (Burma) to the northeast. Much of India's territory lies within a large peninsula, surrounded by the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bengal on the east. Off the extreme south-eastern coast, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait separate India from the island nation of Sri Lanka. India has two union territories composed entirely of islands: Lakshadweep, in the Arabian Sea, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which lie between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

People
India remains one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. Apart from its many religions and sects, India is home to innumerable castes and tribes, as well as to more than a dozen major and hundreds of minor linguistic groups from several totally different language families. Religious minorities still account for one-sixth of the population, and Muslims alone form more than one-ninth.

Social legislation in India has done much to alleviate the disabilities previously suffered by formerly "untouchable" castes, tribal populations, women, and other disadvantaged segments of society. At independence, India was blessed with several leaders of world stature, most notably Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Not only were these leaders able to galvanize the masses in their own country but, because of their prestige and enduring legacy, they also helped enable India to play an important role in global affairs, often as a champion of the causes of the world's colonially exploited and less developed nations.

Economy
India has a well-developed infrastructure and a highly diversified industrial base, its pool of scientific and engineering personnel is reputedly the third largest in the world, and the pace of its agricultural expansion has more than kept up with the growth in its population. Since independence, India has promoted a mixed economic system in which the government plays a major role as central planner, regulator, investor, manager, and producer. Many of its decisions are highly political, especially in its attempts to invest equitably among the various states of the union. Despite the government's pervasive economic role, large corporate undertakings dominate many spheres of modern economic activity, while tens of millions of generally small agricultural holdings and petty commercial, service, and craft enterprises account for the great bulk of employment. The range of technology runs the gamut from the most primitive to the most sophisticated.

There are few things that India cannot produce, though much of what it does manufacture would not be economically competitive without the protection offered by high tariffs on imported goods. The highly regulated economic system has acted as a major deterrent to foreign trade, which, in absolute terms and in relation to total gross domestic product, is remarkably low. Foreign aid, derived mainly from the United States and the former Soviet Union, as well as from many international agencies, was quite important in the first few decades after independence, but it no longer plays a key role. Formerly, a significant portion of foreign aid was in the form of food and other commodities, but it subsequently has tended to be in technological assistance and the provision of credit.

Because most Indians are not well educated, it is not surprising that levels of productivity are generally low and rates of economic growth have at best been modest, although reasonably steady. While India's highly planned economy has made remarkable economic strides since the nation freed itself from the exploitative economic system imposed by British colonial rule, it remains among the world's poorer nations in per capita gross national product. A large fraction of the population continues to live below the poverty line, fixed according to the amount of income required to maintain a minimally adequate diet.

Although India possesses a wide range of minerals and other natural resources, its per capita endowment of such critical resources as cultivable land, water, timber, and known petroleum reserves is relatively low. Nevertheless, the diversity of resources, especially of minerals, exceeds that of all but a few countries and gives India a distinct advantage in its industrial development.