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Background Note: India
PROFILE
OFFICIAL NAME:
Republic of India
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 (2004): 1.1 billion; urban 27.8%.
Annual growth rate: 1.3%
Density: 324/sq. km.
Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid 2%,
others.
Religions: Hindu 82.41%, 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-- None. Literacy--65.42%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--54.6/1,000. Life
expectancy--64.7 years.
Work force (est.): 450 million. Agriculture--62%;
industry and commerce--22%; services and government--12%;
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, Indian National
Congress (INC), 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 (FY2005-06): $797 billion.
Real growth rate (FY2005-06): 8.4%.
Per capita GDP (FY2005-06): $761.
Natural resources: Coal, iron ore, manganese, mica, bauxite,
chromite, thorium, limestone, barite, titanium ore, diamonds,
crude oil.
Agriculture: 21% of GDP. Products--wheat, rice, coarse
grains, oilseeds, sugar, cotton, jute, tea
Industry: 28% of GDP. Products--textiles, jute, processed
food, steel, machinery, transport equipment, cement, aluminum,
fertilizers, mining, petroleum, chemicals, and computer
software.
Services and transportation: 51% of GDP.
Trade: Exports (FY2005-06)--$105 billion; agricultural
products, engineering goods, precious stones, cotton apparel and
fabrics, gems and jewelry, handicrafts, tea. Software exports--$22
billion. Imports (FY2005-06) 156 billion; petroleum,
machinery and transport equipment, electronic goods, edible
oils, fertilizers, chemicals, gold, textiles, iron and steel.
Major trade partners--U.S., China, EU, Russia, Japan.
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% live in more than 550,000 villages,
and the remainder in more than 200 towns and cities. Over the
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 modified these
influences to produce a remarkable racial and cultural
synthesis.
Religion, caste, and language are major
determinants of social and political organization in India
today. The government has recognized 18 official languages;
Hindi, the national language, is the most widely spoken,
although English is a national lingua franca. Although 82% of
its people are Hindu, India also is the home of more than 138
million Muslims--one of the world's largest Muslim populations.
The population also includes Christians, Sikhs, Jains,
Buddhists, and Parsis.
The Hindu caste system reflects Indian
occupational and socially defined hierarchies. Ancient Sanskrit
sources divide society into four major categories, priests (Brahmin),
warriors (Kshatriya), traders (Vaishya) and
farmers/laborers (Shudra). Although these categories are
understood throughout India, they describe reality only in the
most general terms. They omit, for example, the tribes and those
once known as "untouchables." In reality, Indian society is
divided into thousands of jatis--local, endogamous groups
based on occupation--and organized hierarchically according to
complex ideas of purity and pollution. Despite economic
modernization and laws countering discrimination against the
lower end of the caste structure and outlawing "untouchability,"
the caste system remains an important source of social
identification and a potent factor in the political life of the
country. Nevertheless, the government has made strong efforts to
minimize the importance of caste through active affirmative
action and social policies. Moreover, caste has been diluted if
not subsumed in the economically prosperous and heterogeneous
cities, where an increasing percentage of India's population
lives. In the countryside, expanding education, land reform and
economic opportunity through access to information,
communication, transport, and credit have lessened the harshest
elements of the caste system. |