History

India is the largest country in SouthEast Asia, the second largest in Asia and the seventh largest in the world. India is 1/3 the size of the United States. It is in the shape of rhombus and covers an area of 1,266,595 square miles (including the islands: Andaman and Nicober and Lakshadweep). The two coasts make up a distance of 3, 972 miles. On the northern side, it has borders with Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Burma.

The Indian history dates back over 15,000 years to the time of the Indus civilization. This civilization collapsed around 1500 B.C., and people called Aryans invaded the northern part of India from the west. This was followed by a series of powerful empires and kingdoms until the eighth century A.D. Then Muslims from middle east invaded India and began to establish themselves. The first great Muslim emperor was Babar who came to the throne in 1526. In 18th century, when Mogul empire started to collapse, the European traders seized their chance to establish their power in the country. The British East India Company started gaining control and in 1868, India fell into the British Monarchy. The British ruled India till 1947. On August 15, 1947 India got its full independence from the British empire.

Because of its size and the number of invaders, India has become a land of immense diversity. People in different parts of India not only look different, they also wear different types of clothes, eat different food, and speak different languages. India is a country of great contrasts. There are big cities and tiny villages. There are penniless beggars to wealthy superstars, poverty striken people living in slums and wealthy people living in huge estates. Despite all these differences in language, dress, food, and the class of people, India has remained one of the most industrialized nations in the world. It also plays a key role in Asian and International affairs.

There are 27 states and six union territories in India. The national language is Hindi which is spoken in 5 of the northern states. Delhi is the capital of India. It is divided into two parts: the ancient Old Delhi and the modern New Delhi. Delhi is the third largest city in India, the first two being Calcutta and Bombay respectively.

India is a republic and one of the world's largest democratic countries. The government, elected by the people, has a president who is the head of the state, and a prime minister who is the head of the government. The federal government offices are in New Delhi.

The Indian flag has three horizontal stripes. The top one in orange, the second one in white and the bottom stripe is in green. There is a blue wheel in the middle of the white stripe. Each part of the flag has its own special meaning. The orange stripe represents Hindus who make up the majority population in India. The green stripe is for Muslims, and the white stripe is for the hope that the people who belong to these two religion can live in peace. The blue wheel is an ancient Buddhist symbol and stands for peaceful change. This flag was adopted in 1947 after India gained its independence from the British rule.

The national bird of India is the Peacock. The national animal is the well known Indian Tiger. The national emblem is the four lion capital sculpture of King Ashoka and dates back to the third century B.C. This was originally built on a tall pillar in the honor of the Buddha. Each part of the emblem symbolizes the teachings of the Buddha. Below the emblem is the motto in Sanskrit, which is the ancient language of India, that says, Truth alone triumphs.

There are 15 official languages in India, including English, and hundreds of local dialects. Different languages use different alphabets and scripts. The national language Hindi is based on the Devanagari script. Each letter in a word is linked by a horizontal line running on the top of that word. The other main languages are: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

India has a varied landscape from snow covered mountain ranges in north, desert in the west, to tropical rain forests and beaches in the south.

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