ABOUT INDIA

INDIA

We live in a time of great change and an increasing need for a celebration of diversity. Each month Earthy Family will explore a new culture in our World Travels section and will provide information for families to share the world together. It is our goal to create a greater understanding of the wonderful diversity in our world in a fun and family-centered manner. So take a peek and then invite your family to travel the world with you. Perhaps you want to have a "travel night" once a month where you immerse yourselves in a country and cook traditional foods, listen to traditional music, celebrate with a festival and talk about the issues facing the people of the chosen culture. Or perhaps you want to learn about the culture more slowly, helping each other learn a few new words, a few new facts and a few new recipes throughout the entire month. Adapt our ideas so it works for your family and have fun!

Facts & figures:

India is a relatively newly independent nation with great diversity within its borders. It is an extremely populous and quite large country. The following are some basic facts about India as a nation

Total area: 3,287,590 sq km (this makes India the 7th largest country in world)

Border countries:

Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, China, Nepal and Pakistan.

Population: 1,045,845,226 (estimated as of July 2002) This makes India the 2nd most populous country in the world (only China has more).

Religion: There are several religious groups found in India and religion plays an important factor in many Indians' daily lives. Most people in India are Hindu, but other groups include: Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Parsis and Jews.

Language: Hindi is the national language, but there are 14 other official languages including: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit.

Hindustani is a variation of Hindi and Urdu and is used widely in Northern India but it is not considered an official language. English is commonly used for political and commercial communication, but is not an official language either.

States & Territories: There are 28 states and 7 union territories that make up the country of India: The states include: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal.

The union territories include:
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Chandigarh
Dadra and Nagar Haveli
Daman and Diu
Delhi
Lakshadweep
Pondicherry

Independence: August 15, 1947 (from Britain). India was ruled by Britain for almost 90 years.

Flag: Three equal horizontal bands of orange (or saffron), white and green with a blue chakra (24-spoked wheel) centered in the white band make up the Indian flag. The saffron band represents courage and sacrifice, the white band represents purity and truth and the green band is indicative of faith and fertility. The blue chakra represents the wheel of law used by the first emperor of India, Emperor Ashoka, whose Buddhist beliefs encouraged people of different religions to live together in peace. Some say that the saffron band represents Hinduism and Buddhism, the white represents Jainism and the green symbolizes Islam.

Industry & Agriculture:

The major industries of India include: textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software and film-making (check your local movie store for the "Bollywood" films featuring romances set amid music and dance for a taste of Indian popular culture)

The major agricultural products include: rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, and potatoes

Currency: Indian rupee.