- published: 25 Jun 2012
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596 (nuclear test)
596 is the codename of the People's Republic of China's first nuclear weapons test, detonated on October 16, 1964 at the Lop Nur test site. It was a uranium-235 implosion fission device and had a yield of 22 kilotons. With the test, China became the fifth nuclear power.
Project 596 was named after the month of June 1959 in which it was initiated, immediately after Nikita Khrushchev decided to stop helping the Chinese with their nuclear program 20 June 1959.
The People's Republic of China began developing nuclear weapons in the late 1950s with substantial Soviet assistance. The order for the Chinese nuclear weapons program, designated by the codename of "02", was given by Chairman Mao Zedong himself, who believed that without a nuclear weapon China would not be taken seriously as a world power. The events of the First Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1954-55 cemented Mao's belief that unless China had nuclear weapons of its own, it would constantly be under the threat of nuclear blackmail from the United States.
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Afghanistan
Afghanistan
i/æfˈɡænɨstæn/ (Persian/Pashto: افغانستان, Afġānistān), officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming part of South Asia, Central Asia, and Greater Middle East, it is also considered to be part of a broader West Asia. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of 647,500 km2 (250,001 sq mi), making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and the east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast.
Afghanistan has been an ancient focal point of the Silk Road and human migration. Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation from as far back as 50,000 BC. Urban civilization may have begun in the area as early as 3,000 to 2,000 BC. Sitting at an important geostrategic location that connects the Middle East with Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, the land has been home to various peoples through the ages and witnessed many military campaigns, notably by Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and in modern era Western forces. The land also served as a source from which the Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Timurids, Mughals and many others have risen to form major empires.
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Agra
Agra (i/ˈɑːɡrə/; Hindi: आगरा, Urdu: آ گرہ), the erstwhile capital of Hindustan, is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, 363 kilometres (226 mi) west of state capital, Lucknow and 200 kilometres (124 mi) south of the national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 (2010 est.), it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most populous in India. Because 80 percent of the city's sewage flows into Yamuna River, it is 20th most polluted city in India. Agra can also refer to the administrative district that has its headquarters in Agra city.
The city finds mention in the epic Mahābhārata where it was called Agrevaṇa, or 'the border of the forest'. Legend ascribes the founding of the city to Rājā Badal Singh, a Sikarwar Rajput king (circa 1475), whose fort, Badalgarh, stood on or near the site of the present Fort. However, the 11th century Persian poet Mas'ūd Sa'd Salmān writes of a desperate assault on the fortress of Agra, then held by the Shāhī King Jayapala, by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. Sultan Sikandar Lodī was the first to move his capital from Delhi to Agra in the year 1506; he died in 1517 and his son Ibrāhīm Lodī remained in power there for nine more years, finally being defeated at the Battle of Panipat in 1526. It achieved fame as the capital of the Mughal emperors from 1526 to 1658 and remains a major tourist destination because of its many splendid Mughal-era buildings, most notably the Tāj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpūr Sikrī, all three of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
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Andaman Sea
The Andaman Sea or Burma Sea (Burmese: မြန်မာပင်လယ်, IPA: [mjəmà pìɴlɛ̀]; Hindi: अंडमान सागर; Thai: ทะเลอันดามัน, IPA: [tʰa.leː ʔan.daː.man]) is a body of water to the southeast of the Bay of Bengal, south of Burma (Myanmar), west of Thailand and east of the Andaman Islands, India; it is part of the Indian Ocean.
The sea has been traditionally used for fishery and transportation of goods between the coastal countries and its coral reefs and islands are popular tourist destinations. The fishery and tourist infrastructure was severely damaged by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.
At its southeastern reaches, the Andaman Sea narrows to form the Straits of Malacca, which separate the Malay Peninsula from the island of Sumatra.
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the "Andaman or Burma Sea" as follows:
On the Southwest. A line running from Oedjong Raja (5°32′N 95°12′E / 5.533°N 95.2°E / 5.533; 95.2) in Sumatra to Poeloe Bras (Breuëh) and on through the Western Islands of the Nicobar Group to Sandy Point in Little Andaman Island, in such a way that all the narrow waters appertain to the Burma Sea.
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Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh /ˌɑːndrə prəˈdɛʃ/ is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the country's southeastern coast. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh lies between 12°41' and 22°N latitude and 77° and 84°40'E longitude, and is bordered by Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa in the north, the Bay of Bengal in the east, Tamil Nadu to the south and Karnataka to the west.
Andhra Pradesh has the second-longest coastline of 972 km (604 mi) among the states of India. Two major rivers, the Godavari and the Krishna, run across the state. The small enclave (30 square kilometres (12 sq mi)) of Yanam, a district of Pondicherry, lies in the Godavari delta in the northeast of the state. The state is separated into three regions: Telangana, Andhra, and Rayalaseema.
The primary official language of Andhra Pradesh is Telugu and the co-official language is Urdu. Other languages often spoken in the state include Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, and Oriya.
wn.com/Andhra_Pradesh -
Anguilla
Anguilla (
/æŋˈɡwɪlə/ ang-GWIL-ə) is a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin. The territory consists of the main island of Anguilla itself, approximately 26 km (16 mi) long by 5 km (3.1 mi) wide at its widest point, together with a number of much smaller islands and cays with no permanent population. The island's capital is The Valley. The total land area of the territory is 91 km2 (35 sq mi), with a population of approximately 13,500 (2006 estimate).
Anguilla has become a popular tax haven, having no capital gains, estate, profit or other forms of direct taxation on either individuals or corporations.
Anguilla was first settled by Amerindian tribes who migrated from South America. The earliest Amerindian artifacts found on Anguilla have been dated to around 1300 BC, and remains of settlements date from 600 AD. The date of European discovery is uncertain: some sources claim that Columbus sighted the island in 1493, while others state that the island was first discovered by the French in 1564 or 1565. The name Anguilla derives from the word for "eel" in any of various Romance languages (modern Spanish: anguila; French: anguille; Italian: anguilla; Portuguese: enguia), probably chosen because of the island's eel-like shape.
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Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda (i/ænˈtiːɡə ænd bɑrˈbjuːdə/; Spanish for "ancient" and "bearded") is a twin-island nation lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands (including Great Bird, Green, Guinea, Long, Maiden and York Islands and further south, the island of Redonda). The permanent population number approximately 81,800 (at the 2011 Census) and the capital and largest port and city is St. John's, on Antigua.
Separated by a few nautical miles, Antigua and Barbuda are in the middle of the Leeward Islands, part of the Lesser Antilles, roughly at 17 degrees north of the Equator. The country is nicknamed "Land of 365 Beaches" due to the many beaches surrounding the islands. Its governance, language, and culture have all been strongly influenced by the British Empire, of which the country was formerly a part.
Antigua was first settled by Archaic Age hunter-gatherer Amerindians, erroneously referred to as Siboney or Ciboney.Carbon-dating has established that the earliest settlements started around 3100 BC. They were succeeded by the Ceramic Age pre-Columbian Arawak-speaking Saladoid people who migrated from the lower Orinoco River.
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Aravalli Range
The Aravalli Range literally meaning 'line of peaks', is a range of mountains in western India and eastern Pakistan running approximately 800 km from northeast to southwest across Indian states of Rajasthan, Haryana, and Gujarat and Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh. It is also called Mewat hills locally.
The northern end of the range continues as isolated hills and rocky ridges into Haryana state, ending in Delhi. The famous Delhi Ridge is the last leg of the Aravalli Range, which traverses through South Delhi and terminates into Central Delhi where raisina hill is its last extension . It is one of the world's oldest maountain ranges. It's dates back to pre-Indian subcontinental collision with the mainland Asiatic Plate. The southern end is at Palanpur near Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The highest peak is Guru Shikhar in Mount Abu. Rising to 5650 feet (1722 meters), it lies near the southwestern extremity of the range, close to the border with the Gujrat District. The city of Udaipur with its lakes lies on the south slope of the range in Rajasthan. Numerous rivers arises amidst the ranges including, Banas River, Luni River, Sakhi, Sabarmati River.
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Assam
Assam /əˈsæm/ (Assamese: অসম) also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province (British India), is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country[citation needed]. Assam was one of the original provinces of the British ruled Indian sub-continent and among the original provinces of present day India, having a legislature that dates back to 1937. However, present day Assam has undergone numerous territory alignment changes, with its state map being altered more than any other province's. Known for exquisite natural resources, geography and its important role in India's freedom struggle; Assam has its capital as Dispur, an especialized city circuit region located on the outskirts of its largest metropolis, Guwahati.
Assam is particularly famous for its natural beauty. The landscape includes tea gardens, the river Brahmaputra, and many historical monuments and temples. Swami Vivekananda once said that, "next only to Kashmir, Assam is the most beautiful place in India" A state with an abundance of forest, Assam also has five national parks, around half a dozen other wildlife sanctuaries, and is home to two-thirds of the population of the unique one-horned rhino. When it comes to wildlife, Assam too has successfully conserved the one-horned Indian rhinoceros from near extinction, along with the tiger and numerous species of birds, and it provides one of the last wild habitats for the Asian elephant. It is becoming an increasingly popular destination for wildlife tourism, and Kaziranga and Manas are both World Heritage Sites.
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Australia
Australia ( /əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.
For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.
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Bangalore
Bangalore /ˈbæŋɡəlɔər/, also rendered Bengaluru,[needs IPA] is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City for its gardens and parks and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and fifth-most populous urban agglomeration. Bangalore is well known as a hub for India's information technology sector. It is among the top 10 preferred entrepreneurial locations in the world.
A succession of South Indian dynasties ruled the region of Bangalore until in 1537 AD Kempe Gowda—a feudatory ruler under the Vijayanagara Empire—established a mud fort considered to be the foundation of modern Bangalore. Following transitory occupation by Maratha and Mughal, the city remained under the Mysore kingdom. Bangalore continued to be a cantonment of the British and a major city of the Princely State of Mysore which existed as a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj. Following the independence of India in 1947, Bangalore became the capital of Mysore state, and later Karnataka.
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Bangladesh
Coordinates: 23°N 90°E / 23°N 90°E / 23; 90
Bangladesh (i/ˈbɑːŋɡlədɛʃ/ or i/bæŋɡləˈdɛʃ/ (Anglicized pronunciation); Bengali: বাংলাদেশ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh (Bengali: গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ Gônoprojatontri Bangladesh) is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India and Burma and by the Bay of Bengal to the south. The capital (and largest city) is Dhaka, located in central Bangladesh. The official state language is Bengali. The name Bangladesh means "Land of Bengal" or "Country of Bengal" the in the Bengali language, from Bangla "Bengal" and desh holding a dual meaning of "land" and "country" as English "country," German land, French pays, etc.
The borders of present-day Bangladesh were established with the partition of Bengal during the reign and demise of the British India. Its map was chartered by Sir Cyril Radcliffe during the creation of Pakistan and India in 1947, when the region became East Pakistan, part of the newly formed nation of Pakistan. Due to political exclusion and economic exploitation by the politically dominant West Pakistan, popular agitation grew against West Pakistan and led to the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, after the Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence on 26 March 1971. With the intervention of the Indian Army, the war came to an end on 16 December 1971 with the surrender of the Pakistan Army at Ramna Race Course.
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Barbados
Coordinates: 13°10′N 59°33′W / 13.167°N 59.55°W / 13.167; -59.55
Barbados (i/bɑrˈbeɪdɒs/ or /bɑrˈbeɪdoʊs/) is a sovereign island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is 34 kilometres (21 mi) in length and up to 23 kilometres (14 mi) in width, covering an area of 431 square kilometres (166 sq mi). It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres (62 mi) east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about 168 kilometres (104 mi) east of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and 400 kilometres (250 mi) north-east of Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados is outside of the principal Atlantic hurricane belt.
Barbados was initially visited by the Spanish around the late 1400s to early 1500s and first appears on a Spanish map from 1511. The Spanish explorers may have plundered the island of whatever native peoples resided therein to become slaves. The Portuguese visited in 1536, but they too left it unclaimed, with their only remnants being an introduction of wild hogs for a good supply of meat whenever the island was visited. The first English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados in 1624. They took possession of it in the name of the British king James I. Two years later in 1627 the first permanent settlers arrived from England and it became an English and later British colony.
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Battle of Plassey
Coordinates: 23°48′N 88°15′E / 23.80°N 88.25°E / 23.80; 88.25
The Battle of Plassey (Bengali: পলাশীর যুদ্ধ, Pôlashir Juddho), 23 June 1757, was a decisive British East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing Company rule in South Asia which expanded over much of the Indies for the next hundred years. The battle took place at Palashi, Bengal (Plassey is the anglicised version of Palashi), on the river banks of the Bhagirathi River, about 150 km north of Calcutta, near Murshidabad, then capital of undivided Bengal. The belligerents were Siraj-ud-daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, and the British East India Company.
The battle was preceded by the attack on British controlled Calcutta by Siraj-ud-daulah and the Black Hole incident. The British sent reinforcements under Colonel Robert Clive and Admiral Charles Watson from Madras to Bengal, and recaptured Calcutta. Clive then seized the initiative to capture the French fort of Chandernagar. Tensions and suspicions between Siraj-ud-daulah and the British culminated in the Battle of Plassey. The battle was waged during the Seven Years' War (1756–63) and, in a mirror of their European rivalry, the French East India Company sent a small contingent to fight against the British. Siraj-ud-Daulah had a numerically superior force and made his stand at Plassey. The British, worried about being outnumbered, formed a conspiracy with Siraj-ud-Daulah's demoted army chief Mir Jafar, along with others such as Yar Lutuf Khan, Jagat Seths (Mahtab Chand and Swarup Chand), Omichund and Rai Durlabh. Mir Jafar, Rai Durlabh and Yar Lutuf Khan thus assembled their troops near the battlefield but made no move to actually join the battle. Siraj-ud-Daulah's army was defeated by roughly 3,000 soldiers of Col. Robert Clive, owing to the flight of Siraj-ud-daulah from the battlefield and the inactivity of the conspirators.
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Bay of Bengal
The Bay of Bengal, the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Roughly triangular in shape, it is bordered mostly by India and Sri Lanka to the west, Bangladesh to the north, and Burma (Myanmar) and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the east.
The Bay of Bengal occupies an area of 2,172,000 km². A number of large rivers – the Padma (a distributary of the Ganges), Meghna (a distributary of the Brahmaputra), Jamuna (a branch of the Brahmaputra), Ayeyarwady, Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna and Kaveri – flow into the Bay of Bengal. Among the important ports are Cuddalore, Ennore, Chennai, Karaikal, Pondicherry, Tuticorin, Kakinada, Machilipatnam, Vishakhapatnam, Gangavaram, Krishnapatnam, Paradip, Kolkata, Mongla, Chittagong and Yangon.
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bay of Bengal as follows:
On the East. A line running from Cape Negrais (16°03'N) in Burma through the larger islands of the Andaman group, in such a way that all the narrow waters between the islands lie to the Eastward of the line and are excluded from the Bay of Bengal, as far as a point in Little Andaman Island in latitude 10°48'N, longitude 92°24'E and thence along the Southwest limit of the Burma Sea [A line running from Oedjong Raja (5°32′N 95°12′E / 5.533°N 95.2°E / 5.533; 95.2) in Sumatra to Poeloe Bras (Breuëh) and on through the Western Islands of the Nicobar Group to Sandy Point in Little Andaman Island, in such a way that all the narrow waters appertain to the Burma Sea].
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Belize
Belizei/bəˈliːz/ (formerly British Honduras) is a country located on the north eastern coast of Central America and it is the only country in the area where English is the official language, although Kriol and Spanish are more commonly spoken. Belize is bordered to the north by Mexico, south and west by Guatemala, and to the east by the Caribbean Sea. Its mainland is about 290 kilometres (180 mi) long and 110 kilometres (68 mi) wide.
With 22,960 square kilometres (8,860 sq mi) of land and a population of only 333,200 inhabitants (2010 est.), Belize possesses the lowest population density in Central America. The country's population growth rate of 2.21% (2008 est.), however, is the highest in the region and one of the highest in the western hemisphere. Belize's abundance of terrestrial and marine species, and its diversity of ecosystems give it a key place within the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.
Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages and it is the only nation in the region with a British colonial heritage but as a part of the Western Caribbean Zone, it also shares a common heritage with the Caribbean portions of other Central American countries. In general, Belize is considered to be a Central American nation with strong ties to both the Caribbean and Latin America. Belize is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA).
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Bengal
Bengal (Bengali: বাংলা Bangla (help·info), Bengali: বঙ্গ Bôngo, Bengali: বঙ্গদেশ Bôngodesh, or Bengali: বাংলাদেশ Bangladesh) is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh (previously East Bengal / East Pakistan) and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous kingdoms of Bengal (during local monarchical regimes and British rule) are now part of the neighboring Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Tripura and Orissa. The majority of Bengal is inhabited by Bengali people (বাঙালি Bangali) who speak the Bengali language (বাংলা Bangla).
The region of Bengal is one of the most densely populated regions on earth, with a population density exceeding 900/km². Most of the Bengal region lies in the low-lying Ganges–Brahmaputra River Delta or Ganges Delta, the world's largest delta. In the southern part of the delta lies the Sundarbans—the world's largest mangrove forest and home of the Bengal tiger. Though the population of the region is mostly rural and agrarian, two megacities, Kolkata (previously Calcutta) and Dhaka (previously Dacca), are located in Bengal. The Bengal region is renowned for its rich literary and cultural heritage as well as its immense contribution to the socio-cultural uplift of Indian society in the form of the Bengal Renaissance, and revolutionary activities during the Indian independence movement.
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Bermuda
Bermuda ( /bɜrˈmjuːdə/), officially the Bermudas or Somers Islands, is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about 1,030 kilometres (640 mi) to the west-northwest. It is about 1,373 kilometres (853 mi) south of Halifax, Nova Scotia and 1,770 kilometres (1,100 mi) northeast of Miami, Florida, USA. Its capital city is Hamilton.
Bermuda was discovered in 1505 by Spanish sea captain Juan de Bermúdez, after whom the islands are named. Apparently uninhabited, he claimed them for the Spanish Empire. Although he paid two visits to the archipelago, Bermúdez was persuaded never to set foot on any of the islands by the dangerous reef surrounding them. Subsequent Spanish or other visitors are believed to have released the feral pigs that were abundant on the island when settlement began. In 1609, the Virginia Company, which had established Virginia and Jamestown on the American continent two years earlier, established a settlement on behalf of the English colonial empire. Initially, it was administered as an extension of Virginia by the Company until 1614, before its successor, the Somers Isles Company, took over until 1684. Bermuda then became a British colony following the 1707 unification of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to create the unified Kingdom of Great Britain. After Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949, Bermuda became the oldest (and, since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the most populous) remaining British overseas territory. Its first capital, St George's, was established in 1612 and is the oldest continuously-inhabited English town in the Americas.
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Bhutan
Coordinates: 27°25′01″N 90°26′06″E / 27.417°N 90.435°E / 27.417; 90.435
Bhutan (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, tr ʼbrug-yul, "Druk Yul"; Devanagari भूटान, Bhūṭān), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China. Bhutan is separated from the nearby country of Nepal to the west by the Indian state of Sikkim, and from Bangladesh to the south by the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal.
Bhutan existed as a patchwork of minor warring fiefdoms until the early 17th century, when the area was unified by Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, who fled religious persecution in Tibet and cultivated a separate Bhutanese identity. In the early 20th century, Bhutan came into contact with the British Empire, after which Bhutan continued strong bilateral relations with India upon its independence. In 2006, Business Week rated Bhutan the happiest country in Asia and the eighth-happiest in the world, based on a global survey.
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Bihar
Bihar (/bɨˈhɑr/, pronounced [bɪˈɦaːr] (
listen)) is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi (98,940 km2) and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India.
Bihar lies mid-way between West Bengal in the east and Uttar Pradesh in the west. It is bounded by the country of Nepal to the north and by Jharkhand to the south. The Bihar plain is divided into two parts by the river Ganges which flows through the middle from west to east. Bihar has notified forest area of 6,764.14 km2, which is 6.8% of its geographical area. Hindi and Urdu are the official languages of the state, while the majority of the people speak Angika, Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Maithili and Bajjika. In 2000, Bihar was divided into 2 parts, the Southern part known as Jharkhand.
Ancient Bihar (which consisted of Anga, Videha/Mithila, Magadha and Vajji/Vrijji) was a centre of power, learning and culture in ancient and classical India. Out of five "The Greats" from India, four greats belonged to this region of India, Magadh: Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka, Samudragupta and Vikramaditya. From Magadha arose India's first and greatest empire, the Maurya empire as well as one of the world's most widely adhered-to religions, Buddhism. Magadha empires, notably under the Maurya and Gupta dynasties, unified large parts of South Asia under a central rule. Its capital Patna, earlier known as Pataliputra, was an important centre of Indian civilization.Nalanda and Vikramshila were centres of learning established in the 5th and 8th century respectively in Bihar, and are counted amongst the oldest and truly international universities, where people all over the world came to study. Bihar has distinction of giving the world its first democracy through Lichchivi (modern days Vaishali) during ancient era.
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Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana (Tswana: Lefatshe la Botswana), is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are properly referred to as "Batswana" (singular: Motswana), but many English-language sources use "Botswanan". Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966. It has held free and fair democratic elections since independence.
Botswana is flat, and up to 70% is covered by the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. Its border with Zambia to the north near Kazungula, Zambia is poorly defined but at most is a few hundred meters long.
A mid-sized country of just over two million people, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. Botswana was one of the poorest countries in Africa when it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1966, with a GDP per capita of about US$70. Botswana has since transformed itself, becoming one of the fastest-growing economies in the world to a GDP (purchasing power parity) per capita of about $14,000. The country also has a strong tradition as a representative democracy.
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Brunei
Bruneii/bruːˈnaɪ/, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace (Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: نڬارا بروني دارالسلام), is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the state of Sarawak, Malaysia, and it is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang. It is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo, with the remainder of the island belonging to Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei's population was 401,890 in July 2011.
The official national history claims that Brunei can trace its beginnings to the 7th century, when it was a subject state of the Srivijayan empire under the name P'o-li. It later became a vassal state of Majapahit empire before converting to Islam in the 15th century. At the peak of its empire, the sultanate had control that extended over the coastal regions of modern-day Sarawak and Sabah, the Sulu archipelago, and the islands off the northwest tip of Borneo. The thalassocracy was visited by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and fought the Castille War in 1578 against Spain. Its empire began to decline with the forced ceding of Sarawak to James Brooke and the ceding of Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. After the loss of Limbang, Brunei finally became a British protectorate in 1888, receiving a resident in 1906. In the years after the Japanese wartime occupation during World War II, it formalised a constitution and fought an armed rebellion. Brunei regained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984. Economic growth during the 1970s and 1990s, averaging 56% from 1999 to 2008, has transformed Brunei Darussalam into a newly industrialised country.
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Burma
Burma
i/ˈbɜrmə/ BUR-mə, also known as Myanmar i/ˌmjɑːnˈmɑr/ MYAHN--MAR, is a country in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand. One-third of Burma's total perimeter of 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. At 676,578 km2 (261,227 sq mi), it is the 40th largest country in the world and the second largest country in Southeast Asia. Burma is also the 24th most populous country in the world with over 60.28 million people.
Burma is home to some of the early civilizations of Southeast Asia including the Pyu and the Mon. In the 9th century, the Burmans of the Kingdom of Nanzhao, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Empire in the 1050s, the Burmese language and culture slowly became dominant in the country. During this period, Theravada Buddhism gradually became the predominant religion of the country. The Pagan Empire fell due to the Mongol invasions (1277–1301), and several warring states emerged. In the second half of the 16th century, the country was reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty which for a brief period was the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia. The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Burma as well as Manipur and Assam. The country was colonized by Britain following three Anglo-Burmese Wars (1824–1885).
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Cambodia
Cambodia (i/kæmˈboʊdiə/;Khmer: ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា, Kampuchea, IPA: [kɑmˈpuˈciə]), officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With a total landmass of 181,035 square kilometres (69,898 sq mi), it is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest.
With a population of over 14.8 million, Cambodia is the 68th most populous country in the world. The official religion is Theravada Buddhism, which is practiced by around 95% of the Cambodian population. The country minority groups include Vietnamese, Chinese, Chams and 30 various hill tribes. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh; the political, economic, and cultural center of Cambodia. The kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with Norodom Sihamoni, a monarch chosen by the Royal Throne Council, as head of state. The head of government is Hun Sen, who is currently the longest serving leader in South East Asia and has ruled Cambodia for over 25 years.
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Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon (French: République du Cameroun), is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of Bonny, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. The country is called "Africa in miniature" for its geological and cultural diversity. Natural features include beaches, deserts, mountains, rainforests, and savannas. The highest point is Mount Cameroon in the southwest, and the largest cities are Douala, Yaoundé, and Garoua. Cameroon is home to over 200 different linguistic groups. The country is well known for its native styles of music, particularly makossa and bikutsi, and for its successful national football team. French and English are the official languages.
Early inhabitants of the territory included the Sao civilisation around Lake Chad and the Baka hunter-gatherers in the southeastern rainforest. Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area Rio dos Camarões ("River of Prawns"), the name from which Cameroon derives. Fulani soldiers founded the Adamawa Emirate in the north in the 19th century, and various ethnic groups of the west and northwest established powerful chiefdoms and fondoms. Cameroon became a German colony in 1884.
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Canada
Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km2 (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
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Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands ( /ˈkeɪmən/ or /keɪˈmæn/) is a British Overseas Territory located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica. The Cayman Islands are considered to be part of the geographic Western Caribbean Zone as well as the Greater Antilles. The territory is a major world offshore financial centre.
The Cayman Islands were first logged as sighted by Christopher Columbus on 10 May 1503 during his fourth and final voyage to the New World. He named the islands Las Tortugas after the large number of sea turtles observed there. The first recorded English visitor to the islands was Sir Francis Drake in 1586. He subsequently named the islands "Cayman" after caiman, a Neo-Taino word for "alligator".
The Cayman Islands remained largely uninhabited until the 17th century. While there is no archaeological evidence for an indigenous people on the islands, a variety of settlers from various backgrounds made their home on the islands, including pirates, refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, shipwrecked sailors, and deserters from Oliver Cromwell's army in Jamaica.
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Chandigarh
Chandigarh /ˈtʃɑːndɨɡər/ is a city and union territory in India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is derived from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city. It is also referred to as The City Beautiful due to its beautiful surroundings, central grid of gardens, each dedicated to different species of flora.
The city of Chandigarh was the first planned city in India and is known internationally for its architecture and urban design. The city has projects designed by architects such as Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Jane Drew, and Maxwell Fry. The city tops the list of Indian States and Union Territories with the highest per capita income in the country at Rs.99,262 at current prices and Rs.70,361 at constant prices (2006–2007). The city was reported in 2010 to be the "cleanest" in India, based on a national government study, and the territory also headed the list of Indian states and territories according to research conducted using 2005 data by Human Development Index.
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Chennai
Chennai /ˈtʃɛnaɪ/, formerly Madras /məˈdræs/, is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal, it is a major commercial, cultural, and educational centre in South India, while the port of Chennai is the second largest port in India. As of the 2011 census, the city had 4.68 million residents making it the sixth most populous city in India; the urban agglomeration, which comprises the city and its suburbs, was home to approximately 8.9 million, making it the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the country.
Although the area has been part of successive South Indian kingdoms through centuries, the recorded history of the city began in the colonial times, specifically with the arrival of British East India Company and the establishment in 1644 of Fort St George, an English settlement. The British defended several attacks from the French colonial forces, and from the kingdom of Mysore, on Chennai's way to become a major naval port and presidency city by late eighteenth century. Following the independence of India, Chennai became the capital of Tamil Nadu and a hotbed of regional politics that tended to bank on Dravidian identity of the populace. Chennai had become a bustling metropolis with beautiful classical and colonial European styled buildings, lining the city’s thoroughfares.
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Chhattisgarh
Chhattisgarh /ˈtʃætɨsɡər/[citation needed] (Chhattisgarhi/Hindi: छत्तीसगढ़, pronounced [tʃʰət̪ˈt̪iːsɡəɽʱ] ( listen)) is a state in Central India. The state was formed on November 1, 2000 by partitioning 16 Chhattisgarhi-speaking southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh.
Raipur is the capital of the state of Chhattisgarh, which is the 10th-largest state in India, with an area of 135,190 km2 (52,200 sq mi). By population, it ranks as the 16th-largest state of the nation. It is an important electrical power and steel-producing state of India. Chhattisgarh produces 15% of the steel made in the country.
Chhattisgarh borders the states of Madhya Pradesh on the northwest, Maharashtra on the west, Andhra Pradesh on the south, Orissa on the east, Jharkhand on the northeast, and Uttar Pradesh on the north.
There are a wide array of opinions on the origin of the word Chhattisgarh. The name is not a very old one and has come into popular usage in the last few centuries. In ancient times, the region was called Dakshin Kosala (South Kosala). The name Chhattisgarh was popularized during the Maratha period and was first used in an official document in 1795.
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China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Christmas Island
Coordinates: 10°29′S 105°38′E / 10.483°S 105.633°E / -10.483; 105.633 The Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, 360 km (220 mi) south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, 975 km (606 mi) ENE of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and 2,748 km (1,708 mi) west of the Territorian city of Darwin.
Christmas Island has a population of 1,403 residents who live in a number of "settlement areas" on the northern tip of the island: Flying Fish Cove (also known as Kampong), Silver City, Poon Saan, and Drumsite.
The island’s geographic isolation and history of minimal human disturbance has led to a high level of endemism among its flora and fauna, which is of significant interest to scientists and naturalists. 63% of its 135 square kilometres (52 sq mi) is an Australian national park. There exist large areas of primary monsoonal forest.
Phosphate, deposited originally as dead marine organisms (not guano as often thought), has been mined on the island for many years.
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Cook Islands
The Cook Islands (i/ˈkʊk ˈaɪləndz/; Cook Islands Māori: Kūki 'Āirani) is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand. The 15 small islands have a total land area of 240 square kilometres (92.7 sq mi), but the Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers 1,800,000 square kilometres (690,000 sq mi) of ocean.
The main population centres are on the island of Rarotonga (14,153 in 2006), where there is an international airport. There is a much larger population of Cook Islanders in New Zealand, particularly the North Island. In the 2006 census, 58,008 self-identified as being of ethnic Cook Island Māori descent.
With about 100,000 visitors travelling to the islands in the 2010-11 financial year,tourism is the country's main industry, and the leading element of the economy, far ahead of offshore banking, pearls, and marine and fruit exports.
Defence and foreign affairs are the responsibility of New Zealand, in consultation with the Cook Islands. In recent times, the Cook Islands have adopted an increasingly independent foreign policy. Although Cook Islanders are citizens of New Zealand, they have the status of Cook Islands nationals, which is not given to other New Zealand citizens.
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Coral Sea Islands
The Coral Sea Islands Territory includes a group of small and mostly uninhabited tropical islands and reefs in the Coral Sea, northeast of Queensland, Australia. The only inhabited island is Willis Island. The territory covers 780,000 km2, extending east and south from the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef, and including Heralds Beacon Island, Osprey Reef, the Willis Group, and fifteen other reef/island groups.
The Coral Sea Islands were first charted in 1803; in the 1870 and 1880s the islands were mined for guano but the absence of a permanent supply of fresh water prevented long-term habitation. The territory was created in 1969 by the Coral Sea Islands Act (before, the area was considered part of Queensland) and extended in 1997 to include Elizabeth and Middleton Reefs nearly 800 km further South, already in the Tasman Sea.
The two latter reefs are much closer to Lord Howe Island, New South Wales (about 150 km) than to the southernmost island of the rest of the territory, Cato Island. The islands, cays and reefs of the Great Barrier Reef are not part of the territory, belonging to Queensland instead. The outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef is the boundary between Queensland and the Coral Sea Islands Territory.
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Cyprus
Cyprusi/ˈsaɪprəs/ (Greek: Κύπρος, Kýpros, IPA: [ˈcipɾos]; Turkish: Kıbrıs, IPA: [ˈkɯbɾɯs]), officially the Republic of Cyprus (Greek: Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία, Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía, IPA: [cipɾiaˈci ðimokɾaˈtia]; Turkish: Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti, IPA: [ˈkɯbɾɯs dʒumhuɾijeˈti]), is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria, Lebanon, northwest of Israel and north of Egypt. Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and the Republic of Cyprus is a member state of the European Union.
The earliest known human activity on the island dates back to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, which has been declared a World Heritage Site with an "enhanced protection" status in the event of armed conflict by UNESCO, along with the archaeological sites of Paphos and the Painted Churches of the Troodos Region. Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world.
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Daman and Diu
Daman and Diu /dəˈmɑːn/ & /ˈdiːuː/ ( locally (help·info); Hindi: दमन और दीव, Gujarati: દમણ અને દીવ, Marathi: दमण आणि दीव, Portuguese: Damão e Diu) is a union territory in India.
For over 450 years, the coastal enclaves of Daman and Diu on the Arabian Sea coast were part of Portuguese India, along with Goa and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Goa, Daman, and Diu were incorporated into the Republic of India on 19 December 1961, by military conquest; Portugal did not recognize the Indian annexation of these territories until 1974. Goa, Daman, and Diu were administered as part of a single union territory until 1987, when Goa was granted statehood, leaving Daman and Diu as a separate union territory; each enclave constitutes one of the union territory's two districts.
English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi are the official and main languages. The use of Portuguese goes on declining because it is no longer official nor taught at school, though a number of elderly people can still understand it, some even preferring it for discourse at home. In addition to standard Portuguese, there are two also shrinking Portuguese-based creole languages in Daman (known as Língua da Casa, "Home Language") and Diu (Língua dos Velhos, "Elders' Language"). English is increasingly accepted for official purposes.
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Deccan Plateau
The Deccan Plateau is a large plateau in India, making up most of the southern part of the country. It rises a hundred meters high in the north, and more than a kilometer high in the south, forming a raised triangle within the familiar downward-pointing triangle of the Indian subcontinent's coastline.
It extends over eight Indian states and encompasses a wide range of habitats, covering most of central and southern India.
It is located between two mountain ranges: the Western Ghats form its western boundary, and the Eastern Ghats its eastern boundary. Each rises from their respective nearby coastal plains and nearly meet at the southern tip of India. It is separated from the Gangetic plain to the north by the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges, which form its northern boundary.
The name Deccan is an anglicised form of the Prakrit word dakkhin, itself derived from the Sanskrit word dákṣiṇa, meaning "south".
The Deccan Plateau lies south of the Indo-Gangetic plain. The Western Ghats Mountain Range is tall and blocks the moisture from the southwest monsoon from reaching the Deccan Plateau, so the region receives very little rainfall. The eastern Deccan Plateau is at a lower elevation spanning the southeastern coast of India. Its forests are also relatively dry but serve to retain the rain to form streams that feed into rivers that flow into basins and then into the Bay of Bengal.
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Deccan Traps
The Deccan Traps are a large igneous province located on the Deccan Plateau of west-central India (between 17°–24°N, 73°–74°E) and one of the largest volcanic features on Earth. They consist of multiple layers of solidified flood basalt that together are more than 2,000 m (6,562 ft) thick and cover an area of 500,000 km2 (193,051 sq mi) and a volume of 512,000 km3 (123,000 cu mi). The term "trap", used in geology for such rock formations, is derived from the Swedish word for stairs and refers to the step-like hills forming the landscape of the region.
The Deccan Traps formed between 60 and 68 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period. The bulk of the volcanic eruption occurred at the Western Ghats (near Mumbai) some 65 million years ago. This series of eruptions may have lasted less than 30,000 years in total.
The original area covered by the lava flows is estimated to have been as large as 1.5 million km², approximately half the size of modern India. The Deccan Traps region was reduced to its current size by erosion and plate tectonics; the present area of directly observable lava flows is around 512,000 km2 (197,684 sq mi).
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Delhi
Delhi (/ˈdɛli/; locally pronounced Dillee or Dehli), officially the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT), is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16.7 million inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census. The region has been given special status of National Capital Region under The Constitution (69th Amendment) Act, 1991. There are nearly 22.2 million residents in the greater National Capital Region urban area (which also includes the cities Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon,Sonepat and Faridabad along with other smaller nearby towns).
Delhi is known to have been continuously inhabited since at least the 6th century BCE, though human habitation is believed to have existed since the second millennium BCE. Delhi is also widely believed to have been the site of Indraprastha, the legendary capital of the Pandavas during the times of the Mahabharata. Delhi re-emerged as a major political, cultural and commercial city along the trade routes between northwest India and the Gangetic plain after the rise of the Delhi sultanates. It is the site of many ancient and medieval monuments, archaeological sites and remains.
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Dholavira
Dholavira (Gujarati: ધોળાવીરા) is an archaeological site in Khadirbet in Bhachau Taluka of Kachchh district of Gujarat state in western India, which has taken its name from a modern village 1 km south of it. The site of Dholavira, locally known as Kotada timba contains ruins of an ancient Harappan city. It is one of the largest and most prominent archaeological sites in India belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization. It is located on the Khadir bet island in the Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary in Great Rann of Kutch. The site is surrounded by water in the monsoon season. The site was occupied from c.2650 BCE, declining slowly after about 2100 BCE. It was briefly abandoned and reoccupied until c.1450 BCE.
The site was discovered in 1967-8 by J. P. Joshi and is the fifth largest Harappan site in the Indian subcontinent, and has been under excavation almost continuously since 1990 by the Archaeological Survey of India. Eight large urban centers have been discovered: Harappa, Mohenjo Daro, Ganeriwala, Rakhigarhi, Kalibangan, Rupar, Dholavira, and Lothal.
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Dominica
Dominica ( /ˌdɒmɪˈniːkə/ DOM-i-NEE-kə;French: Dominique; Kali‘na (Carib): Wai‘tu kubuli), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of 1,447 metres (4,747 ft). The Commonwealth of Dominica had a population of 71,293 at the 2011 Census. The capital is Roseau.
Dominica has been nicknamed the "Nature Isle of the Caribbean" for its unspoiled natural beauty. It is the youngest island in the Lesser Antilles, still being formed by geothermal-volcanic activity, as evidenced by the world's second-largest hot spring, Boiling Lake. The island features lush mountainous rainforests, home of many rare plant, animal, and bird species. There are xeric areas in some of the western coastal regions, but heavy rainfall can be expected inland. The Sisserou Parrot (also known as the Imperial Amazon), the island's national bird, is featured on the national flag. Dominica's economy is heavily dependent on tourism, agriculture and heavy taxation.
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Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands (English pronunciation: /ˈfɒlklənd/ or English pronunciation: /ˈfɔːlklənd/; Spanish: Islas Malvinas) are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located more than 250 nautical miles (460 km; 290 mi) east of the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago comprises East Falkland, West Falkland, and 776 lesser islands. Stanley, the capital and only city, is on East Falkland. The islands are a self-governing British Overseas Territory, with the United Kingdom responsible for their defence and foreign affairs.
Controversy exists over the Falklands' original discovery and subsequent colonisation by Europeans. At various times there have been French, British, Spanish, and Argentine settlements. Britain re-established its rule in 1833, yet the islands continue to be claimed by Argentina. In 1982, following Argentina's invasion of the islands, the two-month-long undeclared Falklands War between both countries resulted in the withdrawal of all Argentine forces. Despite its defeat, Argentina still pursues its claim; however, UK policy supports the islanders' self-determination to remain British citizens.
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Fiji
Fijii/ˈfiːdʒiː/ (Fijian: Viti; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी), officially the Republic of Fiji (Fijian: Matanitu ko Viti; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी गणराज्यFijī Gaṇarājya), is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles (2,000 km; 1,300 mi) northeast of New Zealand's North Island. Its closest neighbours are Vanuatu to the west, France's New Caledonia to the southwest, New Zealand's Kermadec to the southeast, Tonga to the east, the Samoas, France's Wallis and Futuna to the northeast and Tuvalu to the north.
The majority of Fiji's islands were formed through volcanic activity started around 150 million years ago. Today, some geothermal activity still occurs on the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni. Fiji has been inhabited since the second millennium BC. The country comprises an archipelago of more than 332 islands, of which 110 are permanently inhabited, and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of circa 18,300 square kilometres (7,100 sq mi). The two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for 87% of the population of almost 850,000. The former contains Suva, the capital and largest city. Most of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts, either in Suva or in smaller urban centres. Viti Levu's interior is sparsely inhabited due to its terrain.
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Ghana
Ghanai/ˈɡɑːnə/ is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. The word Ghana means "Warrior King" and is derived from the ancient Ghana Empire.
Ghana was inhabited in pre-colonial times by a number of ancient predominantly Akan kingdoms, including the inland Ashanti Empire, the Akwamu, the Akyem, the Bonoman, the Denkyira, and the Fante among others. Non-Akan states created by the Ga also existed as did states by the Dagomba. Prior to contact with Europeans trade between the Akan and various African states flourished due to Akan's gold wealth. Trade with European states began after contact with the Portuguese in the 15th century, and the British established the Gold Coast Crown colony in 1874 over parts but not all of the country.
The Gold Coast achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1957, becoming the First sub-Saharan African nation to do so from European Colonialism. The name Ghana was chosen for the new nation to reflect the ancient Empire of Ghana, which once extended throughout much of west Africa.
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Gibraltar
Gibraltar ( /dʒɨˈbrɒltər/) is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. It has an area of 6.8 square kilometres (2.6 sq mi) and a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region. At its foot is the densely populated city area, home to almost 30,000 Gibraltarians and other nationalities.
An Anglo-Dutch force captured Gibraltar from Spain in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The territory was subsequently ceded to Britain "in perpetuity" under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It was an important base for the Royal Navy; today its economy is based largely on tourism, financial services, and shipping.
The sovereignty of Gibraltar is a major point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations as Spain asserts a claim to the territory. Gibraltarians rejected proposals for Spanish sovereignty in a 1967 referendum and again in 2002. Under the Gibraltar constitution of 2006, Gibraltar governs its own affairs, though some powers, such as defence and foreign relations, remain the responsibility of the UK Government.
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Goa
Goai/ˈɡoʊ.ə/ is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its western coast. Goa is India's richest state with a GDP per capita two and a half times that of the country as a whole. It was ranked the best placed state by the Eleventh Finance Commission for its infrastructure and ranked on top for the best quality of life in India by the National Commission on Population based on the 12 Indicators.
Panaji is the state's capital, while Vasco da Gama is the largest city. The historic city of Margao still exhibits the cultural influence of the Portuguese, who first landed in the early 16th century as merchants and conquered it soon thereafter. Goa is a former Portuguese colony, the Portuguese overseas territory of Portuguese India existed for about 450 years until it was annexed by India in 1961.
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Grenada
Grenada (i/ɡrɨˈneɪdə/) is an island country and Commonwealth realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Grenada is also known as the "Island of Spice" because of the production of nutmeg and mace crops of which Grenada is one of the world's largest exporters. Its size is 344 square kilometres (133 sq mi), with an estimated population of 110,000. Its capital is St. George's. The national bird of Grenada is the critically endangered Grenada Dove.
Grenada was first sighted by Europeans in 1498 during the third voyage of Christopher Columbus to the new world. At the time the indigenous Island Caribs (Kalinago) who lived there called it Camahogne. The Spaniards did not permanently settle on Camahogne. The English failed in their attempt at settlement in 1609.
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Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey ( /ˈɡɜrnzi/ GURN-zee; French: Bailliage de Guernesey, IPA: [bajaʒ də ɡɛʁnəzɛ]), is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.
The Bailiwick of Guernsey embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, and Lihou. Furthermore, the Bailiwick includes Alderney and Sark, which each has its own parliament.
Although its defence is the responsibility of the United Kingdom, the Bailiwick of Guernsey is not part of the UK; and while it participates in the Common Travel Area, it is not part of the European Union.
The Bailiwick of Guernsey is included (along with the Bailiwick of Jersey) in the grouping known as the Channel Islands.
The name of Guernsey, as well as that of neighbouring Jersey, is of Old Norse origin. The second element of Guernsey (-ey) is the Old Norse for "island". Guern similar to Spanish "Cuerno", French "Coi(r)n", Dutch "Hoorn", Frisian "Hoarn", Swedish "Hörn", Swiss "Gorn" means "Corner". - Corner Island.
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Gujarat
Gujarat /ˌɡʊdʒəˈrɑːt/ (Gujarati: ગુજરાત Gujǎrāt [ɡudʒ(ə)ɾat] ( listen)) is a state in western India. It has an area of 75,686 sq mi (196,030 km2) with a coastline of 1,600 km, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula, and a population in excess of 60 million. The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the north, Maharashtra to the south, Madhya Pradesh to the east and the Arabian Sea as well as the Pakistani province of Sindh on the west. Its capital is Gandhinagar, while its largest city is Ahmedabad. Gujarat is home to the Gujarati-speaking people of India.
The state encompasses major sites of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, such as Lothal and Dholavira. Lothal is believed to be one of the world's first ports. Gujarat's coastal cities, chiefly Bharuch and Khambhat, served as ports and trading centers in the Maurya and Gupta empires. Mahatma Gandhi, India's "father of the nation", who led the Indian Independence Movement against the British colonial rule was a Gujarati.Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, independent India's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister was also from Gujarat.
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Guyana
Coordinates: 5°00′N 58°45′W / 5°N 58.75°W / 5; -58.75
Guyana (i/ɡaɪˈænə/ gy-AN-ə), officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and (for over 200 years) the British. It is the only state of the Commonwealth of Nations on mainland South America, and the only one on that continent where English is an official language.It is one of the few Caribbean countries that is not an island. It is also a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which has its secretariat headquarters in Guyana's capital, Georgetown. Guyana achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 26 May 1966, and became a republic on 23 February 1970. In 2008 the country joined the Union of South American Nations as a founding member.
Historically, the region known as "Guiana" or "Guyana" comprised the large shield landmass north of the Amazon River and east of the Orinoco River known as the "Land of many waters". Historical Guyana is made up of three Dutch colonies: Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice. Modern Guyana is bordered to the east by Suriname, to the south and southwest by Brazil, to the west by Venezuela, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean.
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Guṇa
Guṇa (Sanskrit: गुण) means 'string' or 'a single thread or strand of a cord or twine'. In more abstract uses, it may mean 'a subdivision, species, kind, quality', or an operational principle or tendency.
In Samkhya philosophy, there are three major guṇas that serve as the fundamental operating principles or 'tendencies' of prakṛti (universal nature) which are called: sattva guṇa, rajas guṇa, and tamas guṇa. The three primary gunas are generally accepted to be associated with creation (rajas), preservation (sattva), and destruction (tamas) (see also Aum and Trimurti). The entire creation and its process of evolution is carried out by these three major gunas.
In classical literature (for example, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana and the Bhagavad Gita), the guṇas are also associated with the five elements (mahabhutas),five senses, and five associated body parts:
The Triguna appear prominently in the discourse of Krishna to Arjuna upon the battlefield of Kurukshetra that is the backdrop for the Bhagavad Gita. All three gunas are held to delude the World:
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Harappa
Harappa (Urdu/Punjabi: ہڑپہ, pronounced [ɦəɽəppaː]) is an archaeological site in Punjab, northeast Pakistan, about 35 km (22 mi) west of Sahiwal. The site takes its name from a modern village located near the former course of the Ravi River. The current village of Harappa is 6 km (4 mi) from the ancient site. Although modern Harappa has a train station left from the British times, it is today just a small (pop. 15,000) crossroads town.
The site of the ancient city contains the ruins of a Bronze Age fortified city, which was part of the Cemetery H culture and the Indus Valley Civilization, centered in Sindh and the Punjab. The city is believed to have had as many as 23,500 residents—considered large for its time.
The ancient city of Harappa was greatly destroyed under the British Raj, when bricks from the ruins were used as track ballast in the making of the Lahore-Multan Railroad.
In 2005, a controversial amusement park scheme at the site was abandoned when builders unearthed many archaeological artifacts during the early stages of construction work. A plea from the prominent Pakistani archaeologist Ahmed Hasan Dani to the Ministry of Culture resulted in a restoration of the site.
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Haryana
Haryana /ˌhɑriˈɑːnə/ is a state in India. Constituted in 1966, it is one of two newly created states carved out of the greater Punjab province as a means of creating a stronger national identity. It has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar (VS 1189-1230). It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south. The river Yamuna defines its eastern border with Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Haryana also surrounds Delhi on three sides, forming the northern, western and southern borders of Delhi. Consequently, a large area of Haryana is included in the National Capital Region. The capital of the state is Chandigarh which is administered as a union territory and is also the capital of Punjab.
Sites in Haryana were part of the Indus Valley and Vedic Civilizations. Several decisive battles were fought in the area, which shaped much of the history of India. These include the epic battle of Mahabharata at Kurukshetra mentioned in the Hindu mythology (including the recital of the Bhagavad Gita by Krishna), and the three battles of Panipat. Haryana was administered as part of the Punjab province of British India, and was carved out on linguistic lines as India's 17th state in 1966. Haryana is now a leading contributor to the country's production of foodgrain and milk. Agriculture is the leading occupation for the residents of the state, the flat arable land irrigated by submersible pumps and an extensive canal system. Haryana contributed heavily to the Green Revolution that made India self-sufficient in food production in the 1960s.
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Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh /hɨˈmɑːtʃəl prəˈdɛʃ/ (Hindi: हिमाचल प्रदेश [ɦɪmaːtʃəl prəd̪eːʃ] ( listen)) is a state in Northern India. It is spread over 21,495 sq mi (55,670 km2), and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east.
Himachal Pradesh is known to be abundant in natural beauty After the Anglo Gorkha War, the British colonial government came into power. In 1950 Himachal was declared as a union territory but after the State of Himachal Pradesh Act 1971, Himachal emerged as the 18th state of the Republic of India. Himachal has many prestigious boarding schools. Hima means snow in Sanskrit, and the literal meaning of the state's name is In the lap of Himalayas. It was named by one of the great Sanskrit scholars of Himachal Pradesh, Acharya Diwakar Datt Sharma. Its name means "Abode of Snow".[citation needed]
The Economy of the Himachal Pradesh is currently the third fastest growing economy in India. Himachal Pradesh has been ranked fourth in the list of the highest per capita incomes of Indian states. Due to the abundance of perennial rivers, Himachal also sells hydro electricity to other states such as Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan. The economy of the state is highly dependent on three sources: hydroelectric power, tourism and agriculture.
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Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains ( /ˌhɪməˈleɪ.ə/ or /hɪˈmɑːləjə/;Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya, is a mountain range immediately to the north of the Indian subcontinent. By extension, it can also refer to the massive mountain system that additionally includes the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush, and other lesser ranges that extend out from the Pamir Knot. Some of the world's major river systems arise in the Himalayas, and their combined drainage basins are home to some 3 billion people (almost half of the Earth's population) in 18 countries. The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia; many Himalayan peaks are sacred in Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.
Geologically, the Himalayas originate from the northward movement of the Indian tectonic plate at 15 cm[citation needed] per year to impact the Eurasian continent, with first contact about 70 million years ago, and with movement continuing today. This caused the formation of the Himalayan arc peaks: the lighter rocks of the seabeds of that time were easily uplifted into mountains. An often-cited fact used to illustrate this process is that the summit of Mount Everest is made of marine limestone.
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Hindustan
Hindustan (Hindi: हिन्दुस्तान, Urdu: ہندوستان, both Hindustān [ɦɪnd̪ʊˈst̪aːn]) or Indostan, literally "land of Indians" or "land of the Indus", is a popular name for the Indian subcontinent. Delhi and Agra have been the traditional capitals of Hindustan. Though the meaning of Hindustan has evolved over the years, since the partition of India it primarily refers to the Republic of India.
Hindustan is conventionally believed to be derived from the Old Persian word Hindu, which in turn is derived from Sindhu, the Sanskrit name for the Indus River. Old Persian refers to the people living beyond the Indus as Hinduš. This combined with the Avestan suffix -stān (cognate to Sanskrit "sthān", both meaning "place") results in Hindustan, as the land on the other side (from Persia) of the Indus. The term came into common use under the rule of the Mughals who referred to their dominion, centred on Delhi, as 'Hindustan'. A similar term, Indostan, was in common use during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to denote the countries of South Asia. Today "Indostan" is regarded as an archaism.
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India
India (i/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
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Indian Grand Prix
The Indian Grand Prix (Hindi: भारतीय ग्राँ प्री; sometimes referred to as the Grand Prix of India) is a race in the calendar of the FIA Formula One World Championship. It is currently held at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. The first event took place on 30 October 2011 as the 17th race of the 2011 Formula One season, The new race track was officially homologated on 1 September 2011 by Charlie Whiting, and the inaugural race was won by Germany's Sebastian Vettel.
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Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula (or, more generally, by southern and western Asia); on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, by Antarctica). The ocean is named after the geographic location of India.
As one component of the interconnected global ocean, the Indian Ocean is delineated from the Atlantic Ocean by the 20° east meridian running south from Cape Agulhas, and from the Pacific by the meridian of 146°55' east. The northernmost extent of the Indian Ocean is approximately 30° north in the Persian Gulf. This ocean is nearly 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) wide at the southern tips of Africa and Australia; its area is 73,556,000 square kilometres (28,350,000 sq mi), including the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
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Indomalaya ecozone
The Indomalaya ecozone is one of the eight ecozones that cover the planet's land surface. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia.
Also called the Oriental Realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya extends from Afghanistan through the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia to lowland southern China, and through Indonesia as far as Java, Bali, and Borneo, east of which lies the Wallace line, the ecozone boundary named after Alfred Russel Wallace which separates Indomalaya from Australasia. Indomalaya also includes the Philippines, lowland Taiwan, and Japan's Ryukyu Islands.
Most of Indomalaya was originally covered by forest, mostly tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, with tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests predominant in much of India and parts of Southeast Asia. The tropical moist forests of Indomalaya are dominated by trees of the dipterocarp family (Dipterocarpaceae).
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) divides Indomalaya into three bioregions, which it defines as "geographic clusters of ecoregions that may span several habitat types, but have strong biogeographic affinities, particularly at taxonomic levels higher than the species level (genus, family)."
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Indonesia
Indonesia (i/ˌɪndəˈniːʒə/ IN-də-NEE-zhə or /ˌɪndoʊˈniːziə/ IN-doh-NEE-zee-ə), officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia Indonesian pronunciation: [rɛpʊblɪk ɪndɔnɛsɪa]), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 17,508 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an elected legislature and president. The nation's capital city is Jakarta. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Other neighboring countries include Singapore, Philippines, Australia, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia is a founding member of ASEAN and a member of the G-20 major economies. The Indonesian economy is the world's 17th largest economy by nominal GDP.
The Indonesian archipelago has been an important trade region since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished. Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Muslim traders brought Islam, and European powers brought Christianity and fought one another to monopolize trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Following three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism, Indonesia secured its independence after World War II. Indonesia's history has since been turbulent, with challenges posed by natural disasters, corruption, separatism, a democratization process, and periods of rapid economic change.
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Indus River
The Indus River (Sanskrit: सिन्धु Sindhu; Urdu: دریائے سندھ Daryā-e Sindh; Hindi: सिन्धु नदी Sindhu; Sindhi: سنڌو Sindhu; Punjabi: سندھ Sindh; Gujarati: સિંધુ નદી Sindhu; Pashto: اباسين Abāsin "Father of Rivers"; Persian: رود سند Rūd-e Sind; Arabic: السند Al-Sind; Tibetan: སེང་གེ།་གཙང་པོ Sênggê Zangbo "Lion River"; Greek: Ινδός Indós; Turki: Nilab) is a major river which flows through Pakistan. It has courses through western Tibet (in China) and Northern India.
Originating in the Tibetan plateau in the vicinity of Lake Mansarovar, the river runs a course through the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit, Baltistan and flows through Pakistan in a southerly direction along the entire length of Pakistan to merge into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi in Sindh. The total length of the river is 3,180 km (1,980 mi). It is Pakistan's longest river.
The river has a total drainage area exceeding 1,165,000 km2 (450,000 sq mi). Its estimated annual flow stands at around 207 km3 (50 cu mi), making it the twenty-first largest river in the world in terms of annual flow. Zanskar is its left bank tributary in Ladakh. In the plains, its left bank tributary is Chenab which itself has four major tributaries, namely, Jhelum, Ravi, Beas and Satluj. Its principal right bank tributaries are Shyok, Gilgit, Kabul, Gomal and Kurram. Beginning at the heights of the world in a spring and fed with glaciers and rivers in the Himalayas, the river supports ecosystems of temperate forests, plains and arid countryside.
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Iran
Coordinates: 32°N 53°E / 32°N 53°E / 32; 53
Iran (i/ɪˈrɑːn/ or /aɪˈræn/;Persian: ایران [ʔiˈɾɒn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān), is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran", which in Persian means "Land of the Aryans", has been in use natively since the Sassanian era. It came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia ( /ˈpɜrʒə/ or /ˈpɜrʃə/). Both "Persia" and "Iran" are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, "Iran" is the name used officially in political contexts.
The 18th-largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), Iran has a population of around 79 million. It is a country of particular geopolitical significance owing to its location in the Middle East and central Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. Iran is bordered on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by Iraq and on the northwest by Turkey. Tehran is the capital, the country's largest city and the political, cultural, commercial and industrial center of the nation. Iran is a regional power, and holds an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Iran has the second largest proven natural gas reserves in the world and the fourth largest proven petroleum reserves.
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Isle of Man
The Isle of Man ( /ˈmæn/; Manx: Ellan Vannin, pronounced [ˈɛlʲən ˈvanɪn]), otherwise known simply as Mann (Manx: Mannin, IPA: [ˈmanɪn]), is a self-governing Crown Dependency of the United Kingdom, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The island is not part of the United Kingdom, but its foreign relations and defence are the responsibility of the UK Government. Although the United Kingdom does not usually interfere in the island's domestic matters, its "good government" is ultimately the responsibility of the Crown (that is, in practice, the Government of the United Kingdom).
The island has been inhabited since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century AD, and the Manx language, a branch of the Gaelic languages, gradually emerged. In the 9th century, the Norse began to settle there. A Norse-Gaelic culture arose and the island came under Norse control. In 1266, the island became part of Scotland as formalised by the Treaty of Perth. After a period of alternating rule by the kings of Scotland and England, the island came under the feudal overlordship of the English Crown in 1399. The lordship revested into the British Crown in 1764 but the island never became part of Great Britain or its successor the United Kingdom and retained its status as an internally self-governing Crown dependency.
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Jamaica
Coordinates: 18°10′57″N 77°19′18″W / 18.1823878°N 77.3217773°W / 18.1823878; -77.3217773
Jamaica (i/dʒəˈmeɪkə/), officially the Commonwealth of Jamaica, is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, 234 kilometres (145 mi) in length, up to 80 kilometres (50 mi) in width, and 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno name for the island was Xaymaca, meaning the "Land of Wood and Water" or the "Land of Springs".
Once a Spanish possession known as Santiago, it became an English colony in 1655 under the name "Jamaica". It achieved full independence from Britain on August 6, 1962. With 2.8 million people, it is the third most populous anglophone country in the Americas, after the United States and Canada. It remains a Commonwealth realm in concert with the Monarchy of Jamaica holding ultimate executive power, where Queen Elizabeth II is the current head of state and Queen of Jamaica.Kingston is the country's largest city and the capital.
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Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmiri/ˌdʒɑːmuː/ & /ˈkæʃmɪər/ is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the Pakistan-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit–Baltistan, to the west and northwest respectively.
Formerly a part of the erstwhile Princely State of Kashmir and Jammu, which governed the larger historic region of Kashmir, this territory is disputed among China, India and Pakistan. Pakistan, which claims the territory as disputed, refers to it alternatively as Indian-occupied Kashmir or Indian-held Kashmir, while some international agencies such as the United Nations, call it Indian-administered Kashmir. The regions under the control of Pakistan are referred to as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir or PoK within India.
Jammu and Kashmir consists of three regions: Jammu, the Kashmir valley and Ladakh. Srinagar is the summer capital, and Jammu is the winter capital. While the Kashmir valley is famous for its beautiful mountainous landscape, Jammu's numerous shrines attract tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims every year. Ladakh, also known as "Little Tibet", is renowned for its remote mountain beauty and Buddhist culture.
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Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, French: Bailliage de Jersey ( /ˈdʒɜrzi/, French: [ʒɛʁzɛ]; Jèrriais: Jèrri), is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and other rocks and reefs.
Jersey is a self-governing parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy, with its own financial, legal and judicial systems.
The island of Jersey is the largest of the Channel Islands. Although the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey are often referred to collectively as 'the Channel Islands', they are not a constitutional or political unit. Jersey has a separate relationship to the British Crown from the other Crown Dependencies of Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It is not part of the United Kingdom, and has an international identity separate from that of the UK but the United Kingdom is constitutionally responsible for the defence of Jersey. Jersey is not a part of the European Union but has a special relationship with it, being treated as part of the European Community for the purposes of free trade in goods.
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Jharkhand
Jharkhand /dʒɑrˈkɑːnd/[citation needed] (Hindi: झारखण्ड; Bengali: ঝাড়খন্ড; Urdu: جھاڑکھنڈ; Jhārkhaṇḍ, pronounced [ˈdʒʱaːrkʰəɳɖ] ( listen)) is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east. It has an area of 79,714 km2 49,821 sq mi (129,040 km2). The industrial city of Ranchi is its capital and Dumka is sub capital while Jamshedpur is the largest and the biggest industrial city of the state. Some of the other major cities and industrial centres are Dhanbad, Bokaro and Hazaribagh.
The name "Jharkhand" means "The Land of Forests".
According to some writers like Gautam Kumar Bera, there was already a distinct geo-political, cultural entity called Jharkhand even before the period of Magadha Empire. Bera's book (page 33) also refers to the Hindu Mythological book Bhavishya Purana. The tribal rulers, some of whom continue to thrive till today were known as the Munda Rajas, who basically had ownership rights to large farmlands. During the Mughal period, the Jharkhand area was known as Kukara.
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Kalibangan
Kalibangān (Hindi: काली बंगा) is a town located at 29°28′N 74°08′E / 29.47°N 74.13°E / 29.47; 74.13 on the left or southern banks of the Ghaggar (Ghaggar-Hakra River), identified by some scholars with Sarasvati River in Tehsil Pilibangān, between Suratgarh and Hanumāngarh in Hanumangarh district, Rajasthan, India 205 km. from Bikaner. The prehistoric and pre-Mauryan character of Indus Valley Civilization was first identified by Luigi Tessitori at this site. Kalibangan's excavation report was published in its entirety in 2003 by the Archaeological Survey of India, 34 years after the completion of excavations. The report concluded that Kalibangan was a major provincial capital of the Indus Valley Civilization. Kalibangan is distinguished by its unique fire altars and "world's earliest attested ploughed field".
The identity of Kalibangan as a pre-historic site was discovered by Luigi Pio Tessitori, an Italian Indologist (1887–1919) . He was doing some research in ancient Indian texts. He was surprised by the character of ruins in that area, and he sought help from Sir John Marshall of the Archaeological Survey of India. At that time ASI had some excavations done on Harappa, but they never had any idea about the character of the ruins. In fact, Tessitori is the first person to recognize that the ruins are 'Prehistoric' and pre-Mauryan. Luigi Pio Tessitori also pointed out the nature of the culture, but at that time it was not possible to guess that Indus Valley Civilisation lay in the ruins of Kalibangan, and he died five years before Harappan culture was duly recognized.
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Kannauj
Kannauj (Hindi: क़न्नौज, Urdu: قنوج), also spelt Kanauj, is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is traditionally derived from the term Kanyakubja (The city of the hunchbacked maidens). Kannauj is an ancient city, in earlier times the capital of Emperor Harshavardhan. It is said that Kanyakubja Brahmin's are originally from Kannauj. Kannauj is known for the distilling of scents and is a market center for tobacco, perfume, and rose water. It has given its name to a distinct dialect of the Hindi language known as Kanauji. It was called Calinipaxa during reign of Alexander the Great.
Kannuaj remained a focal point for the three powerful dynasties, namely the Gurjara Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas, between the 8th and 10th centuries. The conflict between the three dynasties has been referred to as the Tripartite struggle by many historians.
There were initial struggles but ultimately the Gurjar Pratihars succeeded in retaining the city. The Gurjar Pratihars ruled Malwa, which was bounded to the South by the Rashtrakuta Empire, and the Pala dynasty to the East. The Tripartite Struggle began with the defeat of Indrayudh at the hands of Gurjar Pratihar ruler Vatsaraja. The Pala ruler Dharampala was also keen to establish his authority at Kannauj, giving rise to a struggle between Vatsaraja and Dharampala. Dharampala was however defeated. Taking advantage of the chaos, the Rastrakuta ruler Dhruva surged northwards, defeated Vatsaraja, and took Kannauj for himself, completing the furthest northern expansion by a South Indian ruler.
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Karnataka
Karnataka /kɑrˈnɑːtəkə/ is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava (Formation Day). Originally known as the State of Mysore /maɪˈsɔər/, it was renamed Karnataka in 1973. It is the land of the Kannadigas, Tuluvas, Konkanis and Kodavas. The capital and largest city is Bangalore.
Karnataka is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, Goa to the northwest, Maharashtra to the north, Andhra Pradesh to the east, Tamil Nadu to the southeast, and Kerala to the southwest. The state covers an area of 191,976 square kilometres (74,122 sq mi), or 5.83% of the total geographical area of India. It is the eighth largest Indian state by area. With over 61 million inhabitants (2011), Karnataka is the ninth largest state by population, comprising 30 districts. Kannada is the most widely spoken and official language of the state.
The two main river systems of the state are Krishna and its tributaries (Bhima, Ghataprabha, Vedavati, Malaprabha, and Tungabhadra) in the north, and the Cauvery and its tributaries (Hemavati, Shimsha, Arkavathi, Lakshmana Thirtha and Kabini) in the south. Both these rivers flow eastward and fall into the Bay of Bengal.
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Kashmir
Kashmir (Balti, Gojri, Poonchi/Chibhali, Dogri: कश्मीर; Kashmiri: कॅशीर, کٔشِیر; Ladakhi: ཀཤམིར; Uyghur: كەشمىر; Shina: کشمیر) is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range. Today Kashmir denotes a larger area that includes the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir (the Kashmir valley, Jammu and Ladakh), the Pakistani-administered Gilgit–Baltistan and the Azad Kashmir provinces, and the Chinese-administered regions of Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract.
In the first half of the first millennium, the Kashmir region became an important center of Hinduism and later of Buddhism; later still, in the ninth century, Kashmir Shaivism arose. In 1349, Shah Mir became the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir and inaugurated the Salatin-i-Kashmir or Swati dynasty. For the next five centuries, Muslim monarchs ruled Kashmir, including the Mughals, who ruled from 1526 until 1751, then the Afghan Durrani Empire that ruled from 1747 until 1820. That year, the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh, annexed Kashmir. In 1846, upon the purchase of the region from the British under the Treaty of Amritsar, the Dogras—under Gulab Singh—became the new rulers. Dogra Rule, under the paramountcy (or tutelage) of the British Crown, lasted until 1947, when the former princely state became a disputed territory, now administered by three countries: India, Pakistan, and the People's Republic of China.
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Kedarnath Temple
Kedarnath Mandir (Tamil: திருக்கேதாரம், Thiruk Kedaram,Hindi: केदारनाथ मंदिर, Kēdārnāth Maṃdir ) is one of the holiest Hindu temples dedicated to Lord Shiva and is located atop the Garhwal Himalayan range near the Mandakini river in Kedarnath, Uttarakhand in India. Due to extreme weather conditions, the temple is open only between the end of April to Kartik Purnima (the autumn full moon). During the winters, the murtis (idols) from Kedarnath temple are brought to Ukhimath and worshipped there for six months. In this region Lord Shiva is worshipped as Kedarnath, the 'Lord of Kedar Khand', the historical name of the region. This temple is a Paadal Petra Sthalam (the 275 Holy Abodes of Shiva on the continent), praised by the Tamil Nayanars saints in the 6th-9th century CE.
The temple is not directly accessible by road and has to be reached by a 14 km uphill trek from Gaurikund . The temple is believed to have been built by Adi Sankaracharya and is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, the holiest Hindu shrines of Shiva. The older temple existed from the times of Mahabharata, when the Pandavas are supposed to have pleased Shiva by doing penance in Kedarnath. The temple is also one of the four major sites in India's Chota Char Dham pilgrimage of Northern Himalayas.
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Kenya
Kenya ( /ˈkɛnjə/ or /ˈkiːnjə/), officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator. With the Indian Ocean to its south-east, it is bordered by Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east. Kenya has a land area of 580,000 km2 and a population of nearly 41 million, representing 42 different peoples and cultures. The country is named after Mount Kenya, a significant landmark and second among Africa's highest mountain peaks. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi.
Kenya has a warm and humid climate along its coastline on the Indian Ocean which changes to wildlife-rich savannah grasslands moving inland towards the capital Nairobi. Nairobi has a cool climate that gets colder approaching Mount Kenya, which has three permanently snow-capped peaks. The warm and humid tropical climate reappears further inland towards lake Victoria, before giving way to temperate forested and hilly areas in the western region. The North Eastern regions along the border with Somalia and Ethiopia are arid and semi-arid areas with near-desert landscapes. Lake Victoria, the world's second largest fresh-water lake (after Lake Superior in the US and Canada) and the world's largest tropical lake, is situated to the southwest and is shared with Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya is famous for its safaris and diverse world-famous wildlife reserves such as Tsavo National Park, the Maasai Mara, Nakuru National Park, and Aberdares National Park.
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Kerala
Kerala or Keralam /ˈkɛrələ/ is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was formed on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions.
The state has an area of 38,863 km2 (15,005 sq mi) and is bordered by Karnataka to the north and northeast, Tamil Nadu to the east and south, and the Arabian Sea on the west. Thiruvananthapuram is the state capital. Kochi and Kozhikode are other major cities. According to a survey by The Economic Times, five out of ten best cities to live in India are located in Kerala.
Kerala has the highest Human Development Index in India, higher than that of most developed countries The state has the highest literacy rate in India with 93.91 percent. It hopes to be the first e-literate state in India through the state run Akshaya project. The state recently became and is currently the only one to have banking facilities in every village. A survey conducted in 2005 by Transparency International ranked Kerala as the least corrupt state in the country. Kerala is also ranked as India's cleanest state. Kerala has witnessed significant migration of its people, especially to the Persian Gulf countries during the Kerala Gulf boom and is heavily dependent on remittances from its large Malayali expatriate community.
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Kiribati
Kiribati ([kɪribas] KIRR-i-bas or ˌkɪrəˈbɑdi;Gilbertese: [ˈkiɾibas]), officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population is just over 100,000 (2011), and the island nation is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, (1,351,000 square miles) straddling the equator, and bordering the International Date Line at its easternmost point.
The name Kiribati is the local pronunciation of "Gilberts", derived from the main island chain, the Gilbert Islands. The capital of South Tarawa consists of a number of islets connected through a series of causeways, located in the Tarawa archipelago. Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the IMF and the World Bank, and became a full member of the United Nations in 1999.
Kiribati was named in French by captains Krusenstern and Louis Isidore Duperrey "îles Gilbert", Gilbert Islands, after the British Captain Thomas Gilbert, who sighted the islands in 1788. The current name, Kiribati, is an adaptation of "Gilberts", from the former European name the "Gilbert Islands". Although the indigenous Gilbertese language name for the Gilbert Islands proper is Tungaru, the new state chose the name "Kiribati", the Gilbertese rendition of "Gilberts", as an equivalent of the former colony to acknowledge the inclusion of islands which were never considered part of the Gilberts chain.
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Kolkata
Kolkata /kɒlˈkætə/, or Calcutta /kælˈkʌtə/, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it is the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre of East India, while the Port of Kolkata is India's oldest port as well as its sole major riverine port. As of 2011, the city had 4.5 million residents; the urban agglomeration, which comprises the city and its suburbs, was home to approximately 14.1 million, making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in India. As of 2008, its economic output as measured by gross domestic product ranked third among South Asian cities, behind Mumbai and Delhi. As a growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Kolkata confronts substantial urban pollution, traffic congestion, poverty, overpopulation, and other logistic and socioeconomic problems.
In the late 17th century, the three villages that predated Kolkata were ruled by the Nawab of Bengal under Mughal suzerainty. After the Nawab granted the East India Company a trading license in 1690, the area was developed by the Company into an increasingly fortified mercantile base. Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah occupied Kolkata in 1756, and the East India Company retook it in the following year and by 1772 assumed full sovereignty. Under East India Company and later under the British Raj, Kolkata served as the capital of India until 1911, when its perceived geographical disadvantages, combined with growing nationalism in Bengal, led to a shift of the capital to New Delhi. The city was a centre of the Indian independence movement; it remains a hotbed of contemporary state politics. Following Indian independence in 1947, Kolkata—which was once the centre of modern Indian education, science, culture, and politics—witnessed several decades of relative economic stagnation. Since the early 2000s, an economic rejuvenation has led to accelerated growth.
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Kudremukh
Kudremukh (Kannada: ಕುದುರೆಮುಖ) also spelled Kuduremukha is a mountain range in Chikkamagaluru district, in Karnataka, India. It is also the name of a small hill station town situated near the mountain, about 48 kilometers from Karkala and about 20 kilometers from Kalasa. The name Kuduremukha (as it is known by the natives) literally means 'horse-face' (in the local language Kannada) and refers to a particular picturesque view of a side of the mountain that resembles the same. It was also referred to as 'Samseparvata', historically since it was approached from Samse village.
The town of Kudremukh is primarily an iron ore mining town where the government run Public Sector Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd. (KIOCL) operated till the last decade. It is noted for its scenic beauty. Owing to the dense forests, sighting wildlife can be challenging, though the area is rich in wildlife. Nonetheless the drive through the forest ranges can be enchanting and exhilarating. Three important rivers, the Tunga, the Bhadra and the Nethravathi are said to have their origin here. A shrine of goddess Bhagavathi and a Varaha image, 1.8 m within a cave are the main attractions.
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Lakshadweep
Lakshadweep /ləkˈʃɑːdwiːp/ (Malayalam: ലക്ഷദ്വീപ് Lakṣadvīp (help·info), Mahl: ލަކްޝަދީބު Lakshadīb), formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands /ˌlækədaɪv ˌmɪnɨkɔɪ/ & /ˌæmɨnˈdiːvi/, is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea, 200 to 440 km off the coast of the South West Indian state of Kerala. They were also known as Laccadive Islands, although geographically this is only the name of the central subgroup of the group.
The islands form the smallest Union Territory of India. The total surface area of the islands is just 11 sq mi or 32 km2. However, the lagoon area is about 4,200 square kilometres (1,600 sq mi), the territorial waters area is 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) and the exclusive economic zone area is 400,000 square kilometres (150,000 sq mi).
Lakshadweep is the northern part of the erstwhile Lakshadweepa.[clarification needed] The islands are the northernmost among the Lakshadweep-Maldives-Chagos group of islands, which are actually the tops of a vast undersea mountain range, in the Indian Ocean, the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge.
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Laos
Laos ((i/ˈlaʊs/, /ˈlɑː.ɒs/, /ˈlɑː.oʊs/, or /ˈleɪ.ɒs/) Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, pronounced [sǎː.tʰáː.laʔ.naʔ.lat páʔ.sáː.tʰiʔ.páʔ.tàj páʔ.sáː.són.láːw] Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west. Its population was estimated to be 6.5 million in 2012.
Laos traces its history to the Kingdom which existed from the 14th to the 18th century when it split into three separate kingdoms. In 1893, it became a French protectorate, with the three kingdoms, Luang Phrabang, Vientiane and Champasak, uniting to form what is now known as Laos. It briefly gained independence in 1945 after Japanese occupation, but returned to French rule until it was granted autonomy in 1949. Laos became independent in 1953, with a constitutional monarchy under Sisavang Vong. Shortly after independence, a long civil war ended the monarchy, when the Communist Pathet Lao movement came to power in 1975.
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Lesotho
Lesotho (i/lɨˈsuːtuː/ li-SOO-too), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, completely surrounded by its only neighboring country, the Republic of South Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name Lesotho translates roughly into the land of the people who speak Sesotho. About 40% of the population live below the international poverty line of US $1.25 a day.
The earliest known inhabitants of the area were Khoisan hunter-gatherers. They were largely replaced by Wasja-speaking tribes during Bantu migrations. The Sotho-Tswana people colonized the general region of South Africa between the 3rd and 11th centuries.
The present Lesotho (then called Basutoland) emerged as a single polity under king Moshoeshoe I in 1822. Moshoeshoe, a son of Mokhachane, a minor chief of the Bakoteli lineage, formed his own clan and became a chief around 1804. Between 1821 and 1823, he and his followers settled at the Butha-Buthe Mountain, joining with former adversaries in resistance against the Lifaqane associated with the reign of Shaka Zulu from 1818 to 1828.[citation needed]
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Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States of America, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in four buildings in Washington, D.C., as well as the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and number of books. The head of the Library is the Librarian of Congress, currently James H. Billington.
The Library of Congress was instituted for Congress in 1800, and was housed in the United States Capitol for most of the 19th century. After much of the original collection had been destroyed during the War of 1812, Thomas Jefferson sold 6,487 books, his entire personal collection, to the library in 1815. After a period of decline during the mid-19th century the Library of Congress began to grow rapidly in both size and importance after the American Civil War, culminating in the construction of a separate library building and the transference of all copyright deposit holdings to the Library. During the rapid expansion of the 20th century the Library of Congress assumed a preeminent public role, becoming a "library of last resort" and expanding its mission for the benefit of scholars and the American people.
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Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh /ˈmɑːdjə prəˈdɛʃ/, abbreviated MP, often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city.
Madhya Pradesh is the second largest state by area and with over 75 million inhabitants the sixth largest state in India by population. It borders the states of Uttar Pradesh to the northeast, Chhattisgarh to the southeast, Maharashtra to the south, Gujarat to the west, and Rajasthan to the northwest.
The city of Ujjain (also known as Avanti) arose as a major center in the second wave of Indian urbanization in the sixth century BC, and served as the chief city of the kingdom of Malwa or Avanti. Further east, the kingdom of Chedi lie in Bundelkhand. Chandragupta Maurya united northern India c. 320 BC, establishing the Maurya empire (321 to 185 BC), which included all of modern-day Madhya Pradesh. King Ashoka's wife was said to come from Vidisha- a town north of today's Bhopal. The Maurya empire went into decline after the death of Asoka the Great, and Central India was contested among the Sakas, Kushanas, and local dynasties during the 3rd to 1st centuries BCE. Ujjain emerged as the predominant commercial center of western India from the first century BCE, located on the trade routes between the Ganges plain and India's Arabian Sea ports. It was also an important Hindu and Buddhist center.
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Maharashtra
Maharashtra /mɑːhəˈrɑːʃtrə/ (Marathi: महाराष्ट् mahārāṣṭra [məharaːʂʈrə] ( listen)) is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India. Maharashtra is the richest state in India, contributing 15% of the country's industrial output and 13.3% of its GDP (2006–2007 figures).
Maharashtra is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, Gujarat and the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli to the northwest, Madhya Pradesh to the northeast, Chhattisgarh to the east, Karnataka to the south, Andhra Pradesh to the southeast, and Goa to the southwest. The state covers an area of 307,731 km2 (118,816 sq mi) or 9.84% of the total geographical area of India. Mumbai, the capital city of the state, is India's largest city and the financial capital of the nation. Nagpur is the second capital of the state. Marathi is the official language.
Maharashtra is the world's second most populous first-level administrative country sub-division. Were it a nation in its own right, Maharashtra would be the world's tenth most populous country ahead of Mexico.
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Malawi
Malawi (
/məˈlɑːwi/; Chichewa [malaβi][need tone]), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Malawi is over 118,000 km2 (45,560 sq mi) with an estimated population of more than 13,900,000. Its capital is Lilongwe, which is also Malawi's largest city; the second largest is Blantyre and the third is Mzuzu. The name Malawi comes from the Maravi, an old name of the Nyanja people that inhabit the area. The country is also nicknamed "The Warm Heart of Africa".
The area of Africa now known as Malawi was colonized by migrating tribes of Bantu around the 10th century. In 1891 the area was colonized again, this time by the British. In 1953 Malawi, then known as Nyasaland, became part of the semi-independent Central African Federation (CAF). The Federation was dissolved in 1963 and in 1964, Nyasaland gained full independence and was renamed Malawi. Upon gaining independence it became a single-party state under the presidency of Hastings Banda, who remained president until 1994, when he was ousted from power. Joyce Banda (no relation) is the current president, raised to that position after president Bingu Mutharika died in 2012. She is the first female leader in Malawi. Malawi has a democratic, multi-party government. Malawi has a small military force that includes an army, a navy and an air wing. Malawi's foreign policy is pro-Western and includes positive diplomatic relations with most countries and participation in several international organizations.
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Malaysia
Malaysia (i/məˈleɪʒə/ mə-LAY-zhə or i/məˈleɪsiə/ mə-LAY-see-ə) is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres (127,350 sq mi) separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. Land borders are shared with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei, and maritime borders exist with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. In 2010 the population exceeded 27.5 million, with over 20 million living on the Peninsula.
Malaysia has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963, with si being added to give the new country the name Malaysia. However, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.
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Maldives
Maldives (i/ˈmɒldaɪvz/ or /ˈmɒldiːvz/), (Dhivehi: ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, Dhivehi Raa'je), officially Republic of Maldives (Dhivehi: ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, Dhivehi Raa'jeyge Jumhooriyya), also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep Islands, between Minicoy Island and Chagos Archipelago. It stands in the Laccadive Sea, about 700 kilometres (430 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka and 400 kilometres (250 mi) south-west of India. During the colonial era, the Dutch referred to the country as "Maldivische Eilanden" in their documentation, while "Maldive Islands" is the anglicised version of the local name used by the British, which later came to be written "Maldives".
The archipelago is located on top of the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, a vast submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean. Maldives also form a terrestrial ecoregion together with the Chagos and the Lakshadweep. The atolls of Maldives encompass a territory spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometres (35,000 sq mi), making it one of the world's most geographically dispersed countries. Its population of 328,536 (2012) inhabits 200 of its 1,192 islands. Maldives' capital and largest city Malé had a population of 103,693 in 2006. It is located at the southern edge of North Malé Atoll, in the Kaafu Atoll. It is also one of the Administrative divisions of the Maldives. Traditionally it was the King's Island where the ancient Maldive Royal dynasties were enthroned.
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Malta
Maltai/ˈmɒltə/, officially known as the Republic of Malta (Maltese: Repubblika ta' Malta), is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, 80 km (50 mi) south of Sicily, 284 km (176 mi) east of Tunisia and 333 km (207 mi) north of Libya, with Gibraltar 1,755 km (1,091 mi) to the west and Alexandria 1,508 km (937 mi) to the east. Malta covers just over 316 km2 (122 sq mi) in land area, making it one of the world's smallest states. It is also one of the most densely populated countries worldwide. The de facto capital city of Malta is Valletta; the largest town, Birkirkara. The main island comprises many towns, which together form one Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) with a population of 368,250 according to Eurostat. The country has two official languages, Maltese (constitutionally the national language) and English.
Throughout history, Malta's location has given it great strategic importance, and a succession of powers including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Aragonese, Habsburg Spain, Knights of St John, French and the British ruled the islands. Malta gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1964 and became a republic in 1974, whilst retaining membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004. Malta is also party to the Schengen Agreement and in 2008 it became part of the eurozone.
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Manipur
Manipur /mænɨˈpʊər/ (Pronunciation manipur (help·info)), literally meaning "a jeweled land", is a state in northeastern India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. Manipur is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west; it also borders Burma to the east. It covers an area of 22,347 square kilometres (8,628 sq mi).
The Meiteis (Meeteis), who live primarily in the state's valley region, form the primary ethnic group (60% of the total population) but occupy only 10% of the total land area. Their language, Meiteilon (Meeteilon), (also known as Manipuri), is also the lingua franca in the state, and was recognized as one of the national languages of India in 1992. The Muslims (Meitei-Pangal) also live in the valley; the Kukis, Nagas, Paites and other smaller groups form about 40% of the population but occupy the remaining 90% of the total land area of Manipur State. Manipur is considered a sensitive border state.[citation needed]
Manipur state has taken Bengali script of writing but now-a-days started in their original scripts "Meetei/Meitei Mayek(Script)" at schools as well as in Newspapers.
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Mauritius
Coordinates: 20°12′S 57°30′E / 20.2°S 57.5°E / -20.2; 57.5
Mauritiusi/məˈrɪʃəs/ (Mauritian Creole: Moris; French: Maurice, pronounced: [mɔˈʁis]), officially the Republic of Mauritius (Mauritian Creole: Republik Moris; French: République de Maurice) is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 870 kilometres (540 mi) east of Madagascar. In addition to the island of Mauritius, the Republic includes the islands of Cargados Carajos, Rodrigues, Tromelin and the Agalega Islands. Mauritius Island is part of the Mascarene Islands, with the French island of Réunion 170 km (110 mi) to the southwest and the island of Rodrigues 570 km (350 mi) to the east. The area of Mauritius is 2040 km2; its capital city is Port Louis.
The United Kingdom took control of the islands in 1810, from France during the Napoleonic Wars, and Mauritius became independent from the UK in 1968. It is a parliamentary republic and is a member of the Southern African Development Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the African Union, La Francophonie and the Commonwealth of Nations.
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Meghalaya
Meghalaya /ˌmɛɡəˈleɪə/ (Hindi: मेघालय; pronounced [meːˈɡʱaːləjə]) is a state in north-eastern India. The word "Meghalaya" literally means the Abode of Clouds in Sanskrit and other Indic languages. Meghalaya is a hilly strip in the eastern part of the country about 300 km long (east-west) and 100 km wide, with a total area of about 8,700 sq mi (22,720 km²). The population numbered 2,175,000 in 2000. The state is bounded on the north by Assam and by Bangladesh on the south. The capital is Shillong also known as the Scotland of the East, which has a population of 260,000.
About one third of the state is forested. The Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion encompasses the state; its mountain forests are distinct from the lowland tropical forests to the north and south. The forests of Meghalaya are notable for their biodiversity of mammals, birds, and plants. It was previously part of Assam, but on January 21, 1972, the districts of Khasi, Garo and Jaintia hills became the new state of Meghalaya.
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Mehrgarh
Mehrgarh (Brahui: Mehrgaŕh, Urdu: مہرگڑھ), one of the most important Neolithic (7000 BCE to c. 2500 BCE) sites in archaeology, lies on the "Kachi plain" of now Balochistan, Pakistan. It is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming (wheat and barley) and herding (cattle, sheep and goats) in South Asia."
Mehrgarh is located near the Bolan Pass, to the west of the Indus River valley and between the now Pakistani cities of Quetta, Kalat and Sibi. The site was discovered in 1974 by an archaeological team directed by French archaeologist Jean-François Jarrige, and was excavated continuously between 1974 and 1986, and again from 1997 to 2000. The earliest settlement at Mehrgarh—in the northeast corner of the 495-acre (2.00 km2) site—was a small farming village dated between 7000 BCE to 5500 BCE and the whole area covers a number of successive settlements. Archaeological material has been found in six mounds, and about 32,000 artifacts have been collected.
Early Mehrgarh residents lived in mud brick houses, stored their grain in granaries, fashioned tools with local copper ore, and lined their large basket containers with bitumen. They cultivated six-row barley, einkorn and emmer wheat, jujubes and dates, and herded sheep, goats and cattle. Residents of the later period (5500 BCE to 2600 BCE) put much effort into crafts, including flint knapping, tanning, bead production, and metal working. The site was occupied continuously until about 2600 BCE. Mehrgarh is probably the earliest known center of agriculture in South Asia.
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Mizoram
Mizoram /mɨˈzɔrəm/ (Mizo pronunciation: /mɪ.'zoʊ.'rʌm/) (from mi 'people', zo 'hill', ram 'country', Land of the Hill People / Mizo people") is one of the Seven Sister States listed as in North Eastern India, sharing borders with the states of Tripura, Assam, Manipur and with the neighboring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar Burma. Mizoram became the 23rd state of India on 20 February 1987. Its capital is Aizawl. Mizoram is located in the northeast of India.
Mizoram has a mild climate, comfortable in summer 20 °C to 29 °C (68 °F to 84 °F) and never freezing during winter, with temperatures from 7 °C to 21 °C (44 °F to 70 °F). The region is influenced by monsoons, raining heavily from May to September with little rain in the dry (cold) season. The average state rainfall is 254 cm (100 in.), per annum. In the capital, Aizawl rainfall is about 208 centimetres (82 in.) and in Lunglei, another major center, about 350 centimetres (138 in.)
Mizoram is a land of rolling hills, valleys, rivers and lakes. As many as 21 major hills ranges or peaks of different heights run through the length and breadth of the state, with plains scattered here and there. The average height of the hills to the west of the state are about 1,000 metres (3,281 feet). These gradually rise up to 1,300 metres (4,265 feet) to the east. Some areas, however, have higher ranges which go up to a height of over 2,000 metres (6,562 feet). Phawngpui Tlang also known as the Blue Mountain, situated in the south-eastern part of the state, is the highest peak in Mizoram at 2,210 metres (7,251 feet).
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Montserrat
Coordinates: 16°45′N 62°12′W / 16.75°N 62.2°W / 16.75; -62.2
Montserrat ( /mɒntsəˈræt/) is an island that is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately 16 km (9.9 mi) long and 11 km (6.8 mi) wide, giving 40 kilometres (25 mi) of coastline. Montserrat is nicknamed the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean both for its resemblance to coastal Ireland and for the Irish ancestry of some of its inhabitants.
Montserrat's Georgian era historic capital city of Plymouth was destroyed and two-thirds of the island's population was forced to flee because of an eruption of the previously dormant Soufriere Hills volcano that began on July 18, 1995. The eruption continues today on a much reduced scale, the damage being confined to the area around Plymouth, including its docking facilities, and also the area around the former W. H. Bramble Airport on the eastern side of the island, the remnants of which were buried by flows from volcanic activity on February 11, 2010.
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Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique (Portuguese: Moçambique or República de Moçambique, pronounced: [ʁɛˈpublikɐ di musɐ̃ˈbiki]), is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest. The capital city is Maputo, formerly known as Lourenço Marques.
Between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from farther north and west. Swahili, and later also Arab, commercial ports existed along the coasts until the arrival of Europeans. The area was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and colonized by Portugal in 1505. Mozambique became independent in 1975, and became the People's Republic of Mozambique shortly thereafter. It was the scene of an intense civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992.
Mozambique is endowed with rich and extensive natural resources. The country's economy is based largely on agriculture, but with industry, mainly food and beverages, chemical manufacturing, aluminium and petroleum production, is growing fast. The country's tourism sector is also growing. South Africa is Mozambique's main trading partner and source of foreign direct investment. Portugal, Spain, and Belgium are also among the country's most important partners. Since 2001 Mozambique is one of the world's top ten for annual average GDP growth. However, Mozambique still has one of the lowest GDP per capita, one of the worst human development index and one of the highest inequality in the world, as well as having the world's lowest life expectancy.
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Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire, Shahan-e-Gurkhani, Shahan-e-Mughal, Sultanate-e-Mughliya, Daulat-e-Mughliya (Persian: شاهان گورکانی Shāhān-e Gūrkānī; Urdu: مغلیہ سلطنت; self-designation: گوركانى Gūrkānī ), or Mogul (also Moghul) Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were direct descendants of Genghis Khan through Chagatai Khan and Timur. The Mughal Empire began in 1526; at the height of their power in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, they controlled most of the Indian Subcontinent—extending from Bengal in the east to Balochistan in the west, Kashmir in the north to the Kaveri basin in the south. According to "Babur-Nama", Kazakh tribal aristocracy along with number of other Turkic soldiers participated actively in the campaign of Babur, which made great influence over the development of Mughal Empire. Its population at that time has been estimated as between 110 and 150 million, over a territory of more than 3.2 million square kilometres (1.2 million square miles).
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Mumbai
Mumbai /mʊmˈbaɪ/, also known as Bombay /bɒmˈbeɪ/, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million. Along with the neighbouring urban areas, including the cities of Navi Mumbai and Thane, it is one of the most populous urban regions in the world. Mumbai lies on the west coast of India and has a deep natural harbour. In 2009, Mumbai was named an Alpha world city. Mumbai is also the richest city in India, and has the highest GDP of any city in South, West or Central Asia.
The seven islands that came to constitute Mumbai were home to communities of fishing colonies. For centuries, the islands were under the control of successive indigenous empires before being ceded to the Portuguese and subsequently to the British East India Company. During the mid-18th century, Mumbai was reshaped by the Hornby Vellard project, which undertook the reclamation of the area between the seven constituent islands from the sea. Completed by 1845, the project along with construction of major roads and railways transformed Bombay into a major seaport on the Arabian Sea. Economic and educational development characterised the city during the 19th century. It became a strong base for the Indian independence movement during the early 20th century. When India became independent in 1947, the city was incorporated into Bombay State. In 1960, following the Samyukta Maharashtra movement, a new state of Maharashtra was created with Bombay as capital. The city was renamed Mumbai in 1996.
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Nagaland
Nagaland /ˈnɑːɡəlænd/ is a state in the far north-eastern part of India. It borders the state of Assam to the west, Arunachal Pradesh and part of Assam to the north, Burma to the east and Manipur to the south. The state capital is Kohima, and the largest city is Dimapur. The state of Nagaland has an area of 16,579 km2 with a population of 1,980,602 (nineteen lakhs eighty thousand six hundred two) as per the 2011 census making it one of the smallest states of India. The state is mostly mountainous except those areas bordering Assam valley. Mount Saramati is the highest peak in Nagaland with a height of 3,840 metres and its range forms a natural barrier between Nagaland and Burma. It lies between the parallels of 98 degree and 96 degree East Longitude and 26.6 degree and 27.4 degree latitude North of the Equator.
Nagaland, the 16th state of the Indian Union, was established on December 1, 1963. It is divided into eleven districts: Kohima, Phek, Mokokchung, Wokha, Zunheboto, Tuensang, Mon, Dimapur, Kiphire, Longleng and Peren. It is a largely mountainous state. Agriculture is the most important economic activity in Nagaland. Principal crops include rice, corn, millets, pulses, tobacco, oilseeds, sugarcane, potatoes and fibres. Other economy boosters are forestry, cottage industries, insurance, real estate and tourism.
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Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia (Afrikaans: Republiek van Namibië, German: Republik Namibia (help·info)), is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), and the Commonwealth of Nations.
The dry lands of Namibia were inhabited since early times by Bushmen, Damara, and Namaqua, and since about the 14th century AD by immigrating Bantu who came with the Bantu expansion. It became a German Imperial protectorate in 1884 and remained a German colony until the end of World War I. In 1920, the League of Nations mandated the country to South Africa, which imposed its laws and, from 1948, its apartheid policy.
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Nauru
Coordinates: 0°31′38″S 166°56′12″E / 0.527288°S 166.936724°E / -0.527288; 166.936724
Nauru (Englishi/nɑːˈuːruː/ nah-OO-roo), officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, 300 kilometres (186 mi) to the east. Nauru is the world's smallest republic, covering just 21 square kilometres (8.1 sq mi). With just over 9,322 residents, it is the second least-populated country after Vatican City.
Settled by Micronesian and Polynesian people, Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century. After World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. During World War II, Nauru was occupied by Japanese troops, who were bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific. After the war ended, it entered into trusteeship again. Nauru gained its independence in 1968.
Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Nauru was a "rentier state". Nauru is a phosphate rock island, with rich deposits close to the surface, which allow for simple strip mining operations; moreover, it has some phosphate reserves which are presently (as of 2011) not economically viable for extraction. Nevertheless, this island was a major exporter of phosphate starting in 1907, when the Pacific Phosphate Company began mining there, through the formation of the British Phosphate Commission in 1919, and continuing after independence. This returned to Nauru full control of its minerals under the Nauru Phosphate Corporation, until the deposits ran out during the 1980s. For this reason, Nauru briefly boasted the highest per-capita income enjoyed by any sovereign state in the world during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
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New Delhi
New Delhii/ˈnjuː dɛli/ is the capital city of India. As the national capital, New Delhi is the seat of executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of the Government of India. It also serves as the centre of the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi and is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory.
The definition of New Delhi is unclear and the differentiation between Delhi and New Delhi is blurry. Even administratively, the demarcation between Delhi and New Delhi is not clear. Government of India and Government of Delhi have not clearly defined the area and boundaries of New Delhi. The boundaries of areas of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and New Delhi district of Delhi do not completely overlap. In 1920s, when British constructed New Delhi, there were only two Delhis' – the old walled city called Old Delhi and the new city designed by Edwin Lutyens to serve as capital of British India, which was called 'New Delhi'. The rest of Delhi was rural. But after independence as more and more areas around New Delhi urbanized they also became a part of New Delhi as they were also a part of Delhi which was 'new'. Now, almost all of National Capital Territory of Delhi, with exceptions of the old city called Old Delhi, Civil Lines area, Trans-Yamuna region, some rural areas and some underdeveloped parts of Delhi (e.g. Ashok Vihar, Timarpur, Nangloi, Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri, Badarpur etc.), is designated as 'New Delhi' in postal addresses. Especially, almost all the places in South, South-west, Central and West districts of Delhi are designated as New Delhi. Most of the time, the terms Delhi and New Delhi are used interchangeably.
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New Zealand
New Zealand (Māori: Aotearoa) is an island country located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses ‒ that of the North and South Islands ‒ as well as numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans.
During its long isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of both animal and plant life. Most notable are the large number of unique bird species, many of which became extinct after the arrival of humans and introduced mammals. With a mild maritime climate, the land was mostly covered in forest. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions caused by the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates clashing beneath the earth's surface.
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Nigeria
Nigeriai/naɪˈdʒɪəriə/, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean. The three largest and most influential ethnic groups in Nigeria are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.
In terms of religion Nigeria is roughly split half and half between Muslims in the North and Christians in the South; a very small minority practice traditional religion. Since 2002 there have been a spate of clashes, particularly in the North of the country, between government forces and the Islamists Boko Haram, militant jihadists who seek to establish sharia law.
The people of Nigeria have an extensive history. Archaeological evidence shows that human habitation of the area dates back to at least 9000 BCE. The area around the Benue and Cross River is thought to be the original homeland of the Bantu migrants who spread across most of central and southern Africa in waves between the 1st millennium BC and the 2nd millennium.
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Niue
Niue ( /ˈnjuːeɪ/ NEW-ay; Niuean: Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean. It is commonly known as the "Rock of Polynesia", and inhabitants of the island call it "the Rock" for short. Niue is 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mi) northeast of New Zealand in a triangle between Tonga to the southwest, the Samoas to the northwest, and the Cook Islands to the southeast. The land area is 260 square kilometres (100 sq mi) with about 1,400 people who are predominantly Polynesian.
Though self-governing, Niue is in free association with New Zealand, and lacks full sovereignty. All Niueans are New Zealand citizens and Queen Elizabeth II is Niue's head of state in her capacity as Queen of New Zealand. Most diplomatic relations are conducted by New Zealand on Niue's behalf. 90-95% of Niuean people live in New Zealand, along with about 70% of the speakers of the Niuean language.[citation needed]
In 2003, Niue became the world's first "WiFi nation", in which free wireless Internet access is provided throughout the country by The Internet Users Society-Niue.
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Norfolk Island
Norfolk Island (i/ˈnɔrfək ˈaɪlənd/; Norfuk: Norfuk Ailen) is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia, 1,412 kilometres (877 mi) directly east of mainland Evans Head, and about 600 kilometres (370 mi) from Lord Howe Island. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance. Together with two neighbouring islands, it forms one of Australia's external territories.
Originally colonised by East Polynesians, Norfolk Island was colonised by Britain as part of its settlement in Australia in 1788. It then served as a convict penal settlement until 1794, when it was abandoned until 1856, when permanent residence on the island for civilians began. In 1901, the island became a part of the Commonwealth of Australia which it has remained until this day.
The evergreen Norfolk Island pine is a symbol of the island and thus pictured on its flag (see illustration). Native to the island, the pine is a key export industry for Norfolk Island, being a popular ornamental tree on mainland Australia, where two related species grow, and also in Europe.
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Orissa
Orissa /ɔːˈrɪsə/ (Oriya: ଓଡ଼ିଶା [oˑɽisaˑ], Hindi: ओड़िशा – Oṛiśā), officially spelled Odisha, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BCE. The modern state of Orissa was established on April 1, 1936, as a province in India, and consists predominantly of Oriya speakers. April 1st is therefore celebrated as Utkala Dibasa (formation day of Orissa). Cuttack remained the capital of the state for over eight centuries until April 13, 1948 when Bhubaneswar was officially declared as the new capital of Orissa, and is the present capital of this state.
Orissa is the ninth largest state by area in India, and the eleventh largest by population. Oriya (officially spelled Odia) is the official and most widely spoken language, spoken by three quarters of the population. Orissa has a relatively unindented coastline (about 480 km long) and lacked good ports, except for the deepwater facility at Paradip, until the recent launch of the Dhamara Port (The Dhamra Port Company Limited (DPCL) is a 50:50 joint venture of L&T and Tata Steel. DPCL has been awarded a concession by Government of Orissa to build and operate a port north of the mouth of river Dhamra in Bhadrak district). The narrow, level coastal strip, including the Mahanadi River delta supports the bulk of the population. The interior of the state is mountainous and sparsely populated.Deomali at 1672 m is the highest point of the state. Orissa is subject to intense cyclones. The most intense one, in October 1999, Tropical Cyclone 05B caused severe damage and nearly 15,000 deaths.
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Pakistan
Pakistan (i/ˈpækɨstæn/ or i/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاکستان) (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪˈst̪aːn] (
listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It sits at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and it shares a marine border with Oman.
The territory of modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and has undergone invasions or settlements by Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh cultures. Thus the area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of India where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.
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Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (PNG; Tok Pisin: Papua Niugini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands (the western portion of the island is a part of the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua). It is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, in a region defined since the early 19th century as Melanesia. The capital is Port Moresby.
Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse countries on Earth. According to recent data, 841 different languages are listed for the country, although 11 of these have no known living speakers. . (A detailed series of language maps of Papua New Guinea may be found at Ethnologue) There may be at least as many traditional societies,out of a population of about 6.2 million. It is also one of the most rural, as only 18% of its people live in urban centres. The country is one of the world's least explored, culturally and geographically, and many undiscovered species of plants and animals are thought to exist in the interior of Papua New Guinea.
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Pitcairn Islands
The Pitcairn Islands ( /ˈpɪtkɛərn/;Pitkern: Pitkern Ailen), officially named the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, form a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The islands are a British Overseas Territory. The four islands—named Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno—are spread over several hundred miles of ocean and have a total land area of about 18 square miles (47 km2). Only Pitcairn, the second largest and measuring about 2 miles (3.2 km) across, is inhabited.
The islands are best known as home of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians (or Polynesians) who accompanied them, an event retold in numerous books and films. This history is still apparent in the surnames of many of the islanders. With only about 48 inhabitants (currently from four main families: Christian, Warren, Young, and Brown), Pitcairn is the least populous jurisdiction in the world. The United Nations Committee on Decolonisation includes the Pitcairn Islands on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
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Pokhran-II
Pokharan-II refers to test explosions of five nuclear devices, three on 11 May and two on 13 May 1998, conducted by India at the Pokhran test range. These nuclear tests resulted in a variety of sanctions against India by a number of major states.
On 18 May 1974, India exploded its first nuclear device code named Operation Smiling Buddha. After about a quarter century, on 11 May 1998, Operation Shakti was carried out. Shakti was the codename of a thermonuclear device that was exploded in Pokhran as part of Pokhran-II.
The Indian nuclear programme dated back to 1944 when Homi Bhabha established the Institute of Fundamental Research in 1945. Under the long premiership of Nehru, the nuclear programme's infrastructure was carefully established, and much of the weapon related facilities given commissioned in 1950s, most notably Bhabha Atomic Research Centre that operates the CIRUS which was commissioned in 1960.
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Pondicherry
Puducherry /ˌpɒndɨˈtʃɛri/ is a Union Territory of India formed out four enclaves of former French India and named for the largest, Pondicherry.
In September 2006, the territory changed its official name from Pondicherry to Puducherry, which means "New village" in the Tamil language. The territory is called புதுச்சேரி (Putuccēri) or பாண்டிச்சேரி (Pāṇṭiccēri) in Tamil, or Pondichéry in French. It is also known as "The French Riviera of the East" (La Côte d'Azur de l'Est).
Pondicherry consists of four small unconnected districts: Pondicherry, Karaikal and Yanam on the Bay of Bengal and Mahé on the Arabian Sea. Pondicherry and Karaikal are by far the larger ones and are both enclaves of Tamil Nadu. Yanam and Mahé are enclaves of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala respectively. The territory has a total area of 492 km²: Pondicherry (city) 293 km², Karaikal 160 km², Mahé 9 km² and Yanam 30 km². It has 900,000 inhabitants (2001).
Some of those enclaves are themselves amalgamations of non-contiguous enclaves, often called pockets in India. Thus, Pondicherry district is made of 12 pockets, some of whom are very small (see map) and entirely surrounded by the territory of Tamil Nadu. For its part, Mahe district is made of 3 pockets. This unusual geography is a legacy of the colonial period since the U.T. of Puducherry has retained the borders of former French India.
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Portuguese India
The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India (Portuguese: Vice-Reino da Índia Portuguesa), later the Portuguese State of India (Portuguese: Estado Português da Índia), was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.
The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de Almeida, then settled at Cochin. Until 1752, the "State of India" included all Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean, from southern Africa to Southeast Asia, governed by either a Viceroy or a Governor from headquarters established in Goa since 1510. In 1752 Mozambique got its own government and in 1844 the Portuguese Government of India stopped administering the territory of Macau, Solor and Timor, being then confined to Malabar.
At the time of British India's independence in 1947, Portuguese India included a number of enclaves on India's western coast, including Goa proper, as well as the coastal enclaves of Daman (Port: Damão) and Diu, and the enclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which lie inland from Daman. The territories of Portuguese India were sometimes referred to collectively as Goa. Portugal lost the last two enclaves in 1954, and finally the remaining three in December 1961, when they were taken back by India after military action (although Portugal only recognized Indian control in 1975, after the Carnation Revolution and the fall of the Estado Novo regime).
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Rajasthan
Rājasthān /ˈrɑːdʒəstæn/ (Hindustani pronunciation: [raːdʒəsˈt̪ʰaːn] ( listen)) the land of Rajasthanis, ("the land of kings"), is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert (Thar Desert), which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with Pakistan. The state is bordered by Pakistan to the west, Gujarat to the southwest, Madhya Pradesh to the southeast, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to the northeast and Punjab to the north. Rajasthan covers 10.4% of India, an area of 342,269 square kilometres (132,151 sq mi).
Jaipur is the capital and the largest city of the state. Geographical features include the Thar Desert along north-western Rajasthan and the termination of the Ghaggar River near the archaeological ruins at Kalibanga of the Indus Valley Civilization, which are the oldest in the Indian subcontinent discovered so far.
One of the world's oldest mountain ranges, the Aravalli Range, cradles the only hill station of Rajasthan, Mount Abu, famous for Dilwara Temples, a sacred pilgrimage for Jains. Eastern Rajasthan has the world famous Keoladeo National Park near Bharatpur, a World Heritage Site known for its bird life. It also has two national tiger reserves, Ranthambore and Sariska Tiger Reserve, and a famous temple in Khatu, Sikar district, dedicated to Khatu Shyam Ji. Rajasthan was formed on 30 March 1949, when the region known until then as Rajputana, consisting of erstwhile princely states ruled mainly by Rajputs.
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Rashtrapati Bhavan
The Rashtrapati Bhavan (Sanskrit for Presidential House) or The Official Residence of the Head of the State is the official residence of the President of India, located at Raisina Hill in New Delhi, India. Until 1950 it was known as "Viceroy's House" and served as the residence of the Viceroy and Governor-General of India. It is amidst an area known as Lutyens' Delhi.
The construction of the building was planned for 4 years, but World War I intervened and construction required 19 years to complete. Its first occupant, Lord Irwin, moved into the premises on January 23, 1931.
During the Delhi Durbar year of 1911, it was decided that the capital of India would be relocated from Calcutta to Delhi. This was announced on December 12 by King George V. As the plan for New Delhi was developed, the Governor-General's residence was given an enormous scale and prominent position. The British architect Edwin Landseer Lutyens, a major member of the city-planning process, was given the primary architectural responsibility. The palace developed very similarly to the original sketches which Lutyens sent Herbert Baker from Simla on June 14, 1912. Lutyens' design is grandly classical overall, with colours and details inspired by Indian architecture.
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Rwanda
Rwanda /ruːˈɑːndə/ or /ruːˈændə/, officially the Republic of Rwanda (Kinyarwanda: Repubulika y'u Rwanda; French: République du Rwanda), is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.7 million (2012). Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. All of Rwanda is at high elevation, with a geography dominated by mountains in the west, savanna in the east, and numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate is temperate, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons every year.
The population is young and predominantly rural, with a density among the highest in Africa. Rwandans form three groups: the Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa. The Twa are a pygmy people who descend from Rwanda's earliest inhabitants, but scholars disagree on the origins of and differences between the Hutu and Tutsi; some believe that they are derived from former social castes, while others view them as being races or tribes. Christianity is the largest religion in the country, and the principal language is Kinyarwanda, which is spoken by most Rwandans. Rwanda has a presidential system of government. The President is Paul Kagame of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Rwanda has low corruption compared with neighbouring countries, but human rights organisations allege suppression of opposition groups, intimidation, and restrictions on freedom of speech. The country has been governed by a strict administrative hierarchy since precolonial times; there are currently five provinces, which are delineated by borders drawn in 2006.
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Saint Lucia
Saint Luciai/seɪnt ˈluːʃə/ (French: Sainte-Lucie) is a sovereign island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 617 km2 (238.23 sq mi) and has a population of 174,000 (2010). Its capital is Castries. Two Nobel laureates, Arthur Lewis, an economist, and Derek Walcott, a poet and playwright, have come from the island. It is the nation with the second most such honorees per capita after the Faroe Islands.
One of the Windward Islands, it was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse by the French, the first European colonizers. They signed a treaty with the native Carib people in 1660. England took control of the island from 1663 to 1667; in ensuing years, it was at war with France 14 times and rule of the island changed frequently (it was seven times each ruled by the French and British). In 1814, the British took definitive control of the island. Because it switched so often between British and French control, Saint Lucia was also known as the "Helen of the West Indies".
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Samoa
Samoa (i/səˈmoʊ.ə/; Samoan: Sāmoa, IPA: [ˌsaːˈmoa]), officially the Independent State of Samoa (Samoan: Malo Sa'oloto Tuto'atasi o Sāmoa), formerly known as Western Samoa, is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in Polynesia, Savai'i. The capital city, Apia, and Faleolo International Airport are situated on the island of Upolu.
Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 15 December 1976. The entire island group, inclusive of American Samoa, was called Navigators Islands by European explorers before the 20th century because of the Samoans' seafaring skills.
The oldest date so far from pre-historic remains in Samoa has been calculated by New Zealand scientists to a likely true age of circa 3,000 years ago from a Lapita site at Mulifanua during the 1970s.
The origins of the Samoans is closely linked to modern research about Polynesia in various scientific disciplines such as genetics, linguistics and anthropology. Scientific research is ongoing although a number of different theories exist; including one proposing that the Samoans originated from Austronesian predecessors during the terminal eastward Lapita expansion period from Southeast Asia and Melanesia between 2,500 and 1,500 BCE. The Samoan origins are currently being reassessed due to new scientific evidence and carbon dating findings from 2003 and onwards.
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Satpura Range
The Satpura Range is a range of hills in central India. The range rises in eastern Gujarat state near the Arabian Sea coast, running east through the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to the east till Chhattisgarh. The range parallels the Vindhya Range to the north, and these two east-west ranges divide Indian Subcontinent into the Indo-Gangetic plain of northern India and the Deccan Plateau of the south. The Narmada River originates from north-eastern end of Satpura & runs in the depression between the Satpura and Vindhya ranges, draining the northern slope of the Satpura range, running west towards the Arabian Sea. The Tapti River originates from eastern-central part of Satpura, crosses the range in the center & further runs at the southern slopes of Satpura towards west meeting the Arabian Sea at Surat, draining central & the southern slopes of the Satpura Range. The Godavari River and its tributaries drain the Deccan plateau, which lies south of the range, and the Mahanadi River drains the easternmost portion of the range. The Godavari and Mahanadi rivers flow into the Bay of Bengal. At its eastern end, the Satpura range meets the hills of the Chota Nagpur Plateau.
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Seychelles
Seychelles (i/seɪˈʃɛlz/ say-SHELZ; French: [sɛʃɛl]), officially the Republic of Seychelles (French: République des Seychelles; Creole: Repiblik Sesel), is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some 1,500 kilometres (932 mi) east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar.
Other nearby island countries and territories include Zanzibar to the west, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Agalega and Réunion to the south, Comoros and Mayotte to the southwest. Seychelles, with an estimated population of 86,525, has the smallest population of any African state. It also has the highest Human Development Index in Africa.
Scholars assume that Austronesian seafarers, and later Maldivian and Arab traders were the first to visit the uninhabited Seychelles. Remains of Maldivian mariner presence from the 12th century were found in Silhouette Island. The earliest recorded sighting by Europeans took place in 1502 by the Portuguese Admiral Vasco da Gama, who passed through the Amirantes and named them after himself (islands of the Admiral).
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Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone (i/siːˌɛrə liːˈoʊn/), officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the northeast, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. Sierra Leone is a constitutional representative democratic republic and covers a total area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi) Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with a diverse environment ranging from savannah to rainforests. As of 2011, Sierra Leone has an estimated population of 6 million[1] (2011 United Nations estimte). Freetown is the capital, largest city as well as its economic, commercial, educational, cultural and political centre. Bo is the country's second largest city and the second major economic and commercial centre.
Sierra Leone is divided into four geographical regions: the Northern Province, Eastern Province, Southern Province and the Western Area; which are subdivided into fourteen districts. The districts have their own directly elected local government known as district council, headed by a council chairman. The country's six municipalities of Freetown, Bo, Kenema, Makeni, Koidu Town and the coastal town of Bonthe have their own directly elected city councils headed by mayors.
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Sikkim
Sikkim (/ˈsɪkɨm/; Devanagari: सिक्किम, i.e. the "Goodly Region", or Shikim, Shikimpati or Sikkim;Lepcha: Mayel Lyang; Limbu: Yuksom, "one of the fortified place";Standard Tibetan: འབྲས་ལྗོངས་, Bras Ljongs, Denzong or Demojongs) is a landlocked Indian state located in the Himalayan mountains. The state borders Nepal to the west, China's Tibet Autonomous Region to the north and east, and Bhutan to the southeast, while the state of West Bengal lies to the south.
With around 607,000 inhabitants as of 2011[update], Sikkim is the least populous state in India and the second-smallest state after Goa in total area, covering approximately 7,096 km2 (2,740 sq mi). Sikkim is nonetheless geographically diverse due to its location in the Himalayas; the climate ranges from subtropical to high alpine, and Kangchenjunga, the world's third-highest peak, is located on Sikkim's border with Nepal. Sikkim is a popular tourist destination, owing to its culture, scenery and biodiversity. It also has the only open land border between India and China. Sikkim's capital and largest city is Gangtok.
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Singapore
Singapore (i/ˈsɪŋəpɔər/ SI-ngə-pohr), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait to its south. Singapore is highly urbanised but almost half of the country is covered by greenery. More land is being created for development through land reclamation.
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Solomon Islands
Solomon Islandsi/ˈsɒləmən ˈaɪləndz/ is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of 28,400 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi). The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal. The nation of the Solomon Islands is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
The Solomon Islands are believed to have been inhabited by Melanesian people for many thousands of years. Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña was the first European to arrive in Solomon Islands in 1568 and named them Islas Salomón. The United Kingdom established a protectorate over the Solomon Islands in 1893. In the Second World War there was fierce fighting between the Americans and the Japanese in the Solomon Islands campaign of 1942–45, including the Battle of Guadalcanal.
Self-government was achieved in 1976 and independence two years later. The Solomon Islands is a constitutional monarchy with the Queen of the Solomon Islands, at present Elizabeth II, as the head of state. Gordon Lilo Darcy is the eleventh and current Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands.
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South Africa
Coordinates: 30°S 25°E / 30°S 25°E / -30; 25
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is divided into nine provinces and has 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline. To the north of the country lie the neighbouring territories of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an enclave surrounded by South African territory.
South Africa is multi-ethnic and has diverse cultures and languages. Eleven official languages are recognised in the constitution. Two of these languages are of European origin: South African English and Afrikaans, a language which originated mainly from Dutch that is spoken by the majority of white and Coloured South Africans. Though English is commonly used in public and commercial life, it is only the fifth most-spoken home language. All ethnic and language groups have political representation in the country's constitutional democracy comprising a parliamentary republic; unlike most parliamentary republics, the positions of head of state and head of government are merged in a parliament-dependent President.
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Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (i/ʃriː ˈlɑːŋkə/, /sriːˈlɑːŋkə/, or /sriːˈlæŋkə/;Sinhala: ශ්රී ලංකාව, Tamil: இலங்கை), is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia. Known until 1972 as Ceylon ( /sɨˈlɒn/, /seɪˈlɒn/, or /siːˈlɒn/), Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar, the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the Maldives.
As a result of its location in the path of major sea routes, Sri Lanka is a strategic naval link between West Asia and South East Asia. It was an important stop on the ancient Silk Road. Sri Lanka has also been a center of the Buddhist religion and culture from ancient times, being the nation where the Buddhist teachings were first written down as well as the oldest continually Buddhist country. Sri Lanka boasts a diverse range of cultures, languages and religions. The Sinhalese people form the majority of the population; Tamils, who are concentrated in the north and east of the island, form the largest ethnic minority. Other communities include Moors, Burghers, Kaffirs, Malays and the aboriginal Vedda people.
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Srinagar
Srinagar /sriˈnɑːɡər/ ( Hindi pronunciation (help·info)) is the summer capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in the Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats. It is also known for traditional Kashmiri handicrafts and dry fruits.
Etymologically Srinagar is composed of two Sanskrit words, śrī (venerable) and nagar, which means "city". One theory of the origin of the name is that a Pandava King Ashoka (not to be confused with the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka) built the city of Srinagari (Srinagar). Another theory is that Mauryan Emperor Ashoka founded the original city of Srinagar, then situated on the site of the present village of Pandrathan, 5 km to the north of the existing capital.
Srinagar has a long history, dating back at least to the 3rd century BC, and has been known by different names. The city was founded by the King Pravarasena II over 2,000 years ago, named it Parvasenpur. The city was then a part of the Maurya Empire, one of the largest empires of the Indian subcontinent. Ashoka introduced Buddhism to the Kashmir valley, and the adjoining regions around the city became a centre of Buddhism. In the 1st century, the region was under the control of Kushans and several rulers of this dynasty strengthened the Buddhist tradition. Vikramaditya (of Ujjain) and his successors probably ruled the regions just before the city fell to the control of the Huns in the 6th century, and Mihirkula was the most dreaded ruler of the city and the valley.
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Sundarbans
The Sundarbans (Bengali: সুন্দরবন, Shundorbôn) is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world. The Sunderbans is a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering parts of India and Bangladesh.
The Sundarbans National Park is a National Park, Tiger Reserve, and a Biosphere Reserve located in the Sundarbans delta in the Indian state of West Bengal. Sundarbans South and Sundarbans West are two protected forests in Bangladesh. This region is densely covered by mangrove forests, and is one of the largest reserves for the Bengal tiger.
The name Sundarban can be literally translated as "beautiful forest" in the Bengali language (Shundor, "beautiful" and bon, "forest"). The name may have been derived from the Sundari trees that are found in Sundarbans in large numbers. Alternatively, it has been proposed that the name is a corruption of Samudraban (Bengali: সমুদ্রবন Shomudrobôn "Sea Forest") or Chandra-bandhe (name of a primitive tribe). However, the generally accepted view is the one associated with Sundari trees.
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Swaziland
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland (Umbuso weSwatini), and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique. The nation, as well as its people, are named after the 19th century king Mswati II.
Swaziland is a small country, no more than 200 kilometres (120 mi) north to south and 130 kilometres (81 mi) east to west. The western half is mountainous, descending to a lowveld region to the east. The eastern border with Mozambique and South Africa is dominated by the escarpment of the Lebombo Mountains. The climate is temperate in the west, but may reach 40 °C (104 °F) in summer in the lowveld. Rainfall occurs mainly in the summer and may reach 2 metres (6.6 ft) in the west.
The area that Swaziland now covers has been continuously inhabited since prehistory. Today, the population is primarily ethnic Swazis whose language is siSwati, though English is spoken as a second language. The Swazi people descend from the southern Bantu who migrated from Central Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Anglo-Boer War saw the United Kingdom make Swaziland a protectorate under its direct control. Swaziland gained independence in 1968. Swaziland is a member of the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, and the Commonwealth of Nations. The head of state is the king, who appoints the prime minister and a small number of representatives for both chambers of parliament. Elections are held every five years to determine the majority of the representatives. A new constitution was adopted in 2005.
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Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal ( /ˈtɑːdʒ/ or /ˈtɑːʒ məˈhɑːl/;Hindi: ताज महल, from Persian/Urdu: تاج محل "crown of palaces", pronounced [ˈt̪aːdʒ mɛˈɦɛl]; also "the Taj") is a white marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage.It coveres area about 221 hectare (552 Acres) which include 38 hectare taj mahal and 183 hectare taj protected forest are."
Taj Mahal is the finest example of Mughal architecture, a style that combines elements from Persian, Turkish and Indian architectural styles.
In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. While the white domed marble mausoleum is the most familiar component of the Taj Mahal, it is actually an integrated complex of structures. The construction began around 1632 and was completed around 1653, employing thousands of artisans and craftsmen. The construction of the Taj Mahal was entrusted to a board of architects under imperial supervision, including Abd ul-Karim Ma'mur Khan, Makramat Khan, and Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. Lahauri is generally considered to be the principal designer.
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Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu /ˈtæmɨl ˈnɑːduː/ (Tamiḻ Nāṭu [t̪amɨɭ naːɖɯ] ( listen)) is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital is Chennai, the largest city. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. It is bound by the Eastern Ghats in the north, the Nilgiri, the Anamalai Hills, and Palakkad on the west, by the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Gulf of Mannar, the Palk Strait in the south east, and by the Indian Ocean in the south.
Tamil Nadu is the eleventh largest state in India by area and the seventh most populous state. It is the fourth largest contributor (as of 2010) to India's GDP and ranks tenth in Human Development Index as of 2006. Tamil Nadu is also the most urbanised state in India. The state has the highest number (10.56%) of business enterprises and stands second in total employment (9.97%) in India, compared to the population share of about 6%.
The region has been the home of the Tamil people since at least 500 BCE. Its official language Tamil has been in use in inscriptions and literature for over 2000 years. Tamil Nadu is home to many natural resources, Hindu temples of Dravidian architecture, hill stations, beach resorts, multi-religious pilgrimage sites and eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
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Tanzania
Coordinates: 6°18′25″S 34°51′14″E / 6.307°S 34.854°E / -6.307; 34.854 Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( /ˌtænzəˈniːə/ Swahili: Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern border lies on the Indian Ocean.
Tanzania is a state composed of 26 regions (mikoa), including those of the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar. The head of state is President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, elected in 2005. Since 1996, the official capital of Tanzania has been Dodoma, where Parliament and some government offices are located. Between independence and 1996, the main coastal city of Dar es Salaam served as the country's political capital. Today, Dar es Salaam remains the principal commercial city of Tanzania and the de facto seat of most government institutions. It is the major seaport for the country and its landlocked neighbours.
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Tapti River
The Tapi River (Hindi ताप्ती, Marathi तापी, Gujarati: તાપ્તી) ancient original name Tapi River (Sanskrit: तापी), is a river in central India. It is one of the major rivers of peninsular India with a length of around 724 kilometres (450 mi). It is one of only three rivers in peninsular India that run from east to west - the others being the Narmada River and the Mahi River. The river rises in the eastern Satpura Range of southern Madhya Pradesh state, and flows westward, draining Madhya Pradesh's Nimar region, Maharashtra's Kandesh and east Vidarbha regions in the northwest corner of the Deccan Plateau and south Gujarat, before emptying into the Gulf of Cambay of the Arabian Sea, in the Surat District of Gujarat. The river, along with the northern parallel Narmada river, form the boundaries between North and South India. The Western Ghats or Sahyadri range starts south of the Tapti River near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra. The Tapti (Tapi) River empties into the Gulf of Khambhat near the city of Surat in Gujarat.
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Thailand
Thailand ( /ˈtaɪlænd/ TY-land or /ˈtaɪlənd/;Thai: ประเทศไทย, RTGS: Prathet Thai), officially the Kingdom of Thailand (Thai: ราชอาณาจักรไทย, RTGS: Ratcha Anachak Thai; IPA: [râːt.tɕʰā ʔāːnāːtɕàk tʰāj] ( listen)), formerly known as Siam (Thai: สยาม; RTGS: Sayam), is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Burma. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India in the Andaman Sea to the southwest.
The country is a constitutional monarchy, headed by King Rama IX, the ninth king of the House of Chakri, who, having reigned since 1946, is the world's longest-serving head of state and the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history. The king of Thailand is titled Head of State, Head of the Armed Forces, the Upholder of the Buddhist religion, and the Defender of all Faiths.
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The Bahamas
The Bahamasi/bəˈhɑːməz/, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is a country consisting of more than 3,000 islands, cays, and islets. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States (nearest to the state of Florida). Its land area is 13,939 km2 (5,382 sq mi), with a population of 353,658. Its capital is Nassau. Geographically, the Bahamas lie in the same island chain as Cuba, Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos Islands; the designation of Bahamas refers normally to the Commonwealth and not the geographic chain.
Originally inhabited by the Lucayans, a branch of the Arawakan-speaking Taino people, the Bahamas were the site of Columbus' first landfall in the New World in 1492. Although the Spanish never colonized the Bahamas, they shipped the native Lucayans to slavery in Hispaniola. The islands were mostly deserted from 1513 to 1648, when English colonists from Bermuda settled on the island of Eleuthera.
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The Gambia
The Republic of The Gambia, commonly referred to as The Gambia, or Gambiai/ˈɡæmbiə/, is a country in West Africa. Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west.
The country is situated around the Gambia River, the nation's namesake, which flows through the country's centre and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. Its area is 11,295 km² with an estimated population of 1.7 million.
On 18 February 1965, Gambia gained independence from the United Kingdom and joined the Commonwealth of Nations. Banjul is Gambia's capital, but the largest cities are Serekunda and Brikama.
Gambia shares historical roots with many other West African nations in the slave trade, which was the key factor in the placing and keeping of a colony on the Gambia River, first by the Portuguese and later by the British. Since gaining independence in 1965, Gambia has enjoyed relative political stability, with the exception of a brief period of military rule in 1994.
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Tokelau
Tokelau ( /ˈtoʊkəlaʊ/) is a territory of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean that consists of three tropical coral atolls with a combined land area of 10 km2 and a population of approximately 1,400. The atolls lie north of the Samoan Islands, east of Tuvalu, south of the Phoenix Islands, southwest of the more distant Line Islands (both island groups belonging to Kiribati) and northwest of the Cook Islands.
The United Nations General Assembly designated Tokelau a Non-Self-Governing Territory. Until 1976 the official name was Tokelau Islands. Tokelau is sometimes referred to by the older, colonial name of The Union Islands.
The name Tokelau is a Polynesian word meaning "North Wind". The islands were named the Union Islands and Union Group by European explorers at an unknown time. Tokelau Islands was adopted as the name in 1946, and was contracted to Tokelau on 9 December 1976.
The change from Tokelau Islands to Tokelau marked a slight shift in emphasis, with consequences in regional diplomacy, in that the term Tokelau Islands clearly and substantially referred to a geographical expression, that is, a range of islands, whatever else it may connote. It is not necessarily controversial to refer by name to a range of islands, even though they may come under two or more political jurisdictions. Tokelau, on the other hand, can be taken to refer more immediately to some concept of nationhood, arguably infusing increased meaning to the draft 2006 independence constitution of Tokelau (which somewhat controversially claims Tokelauan inhabited Olohega (or Swains Island), currently part of American Samoa, as part of its national territory).[citation needed]
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Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga (Tongan: Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a sovereign state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) of ocean in the South Pacific. Fifty-two of the islands are inhabited.
The Kingdom stretches over a distance of about 800 kilometres (500 mi) in a north-south line located at about a third of the distance from New Zealand to Hawaii.
Tonga also became known as the Friendly Islands because of the friendly reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit there in 1773. He happened to arrive at the time of the ʻinasi festival, the yearly donation of the first fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga, the islands' paramount chief, and received an invitation to the festivities. According to the writer William Mariner, in reality the chiefs had wanted to kill Cook during the gathering, but could not agree on a plan.
Tonga is also the only island nation in the region to have avoided formal colonisation. In 2010, Tonga took a decisive step towards becoming a fully functioning constitutional monarchy after legislative reforms paved the way for its first ever fully representative elections which resulted in the election of Noble Sialeʻataongo Tuʻivakanō as its first democratically elected Prime Minister.
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Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago (i/ˌtrɪnɨdæd/ & /tɵˈbeɪɡoʊ/) officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. It shares maritime boundaries with other nations including Barbados to the northeast, Guyana to the southeast, and Venezuela to the south and west.
The country covers an area 5,128 square kilometres (1,980 sq mi) and consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous smaller landforms. Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the main islands, comprising about 94% of the total area and 96% of the total population of the country. The nation lies outside the hurricane belt.
The island of Trinidad was a Spanish colony from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1498 to the capitulation of the Spanish Governor, Don José Maria Chacón, on the arrival of a British fleet of 18 warships on 18 February 1797. During the same period, the island of Tobago changed hands between Spanish, British, French, Dutch and Courlander colonizers. Trinidad and Tobago was ceded to Britain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. The country obtained independence in 1962, becoming a republic in 1976. Unlike most of the English-speaking Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago's economy is primarily industrial, with an emphasis on petroleum and petrochemicals.
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Tripura
Tripura /ˈtrɪpərə/ is a state in North East India, and one of the Seven Sister States. The third smallest state of India, it occupies an area of 4,051 sq mi (10,490 km2). Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on the north, south, and west. The Indian states of Assam and Mizoram lie to its east. The state capital is Agartala. A landlocked state, Tripura's geography is characterized by several north-south laid parallel hill ranges with intervening valleys, and plain in the western part of the state.
The area of the modern Tripura was part of an independent Tripuri kingdom that ruled for several centuries, probably millennia. It was known as "Hill Tippera" during the British rule in India. The kingdom merged with independent India on 15 October 1949 by the Tripura Merger Agreement. Ethnic strife between original tribes and largely migrant Bengali population led to tension and scattered violence since 1970s. Establishment of an autonomous tribal zone soothed such tensions to a great extent, and the state remains peaceful, as of 2012.
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Tuvalu
Tuvalu (i/tuːˈvɑːluː/ too-VAH-loo or /ˈtuːvəluː/ TOO-və-loo), formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls spread out from 6° to 10° south. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. Its population of 10,544 makes it the third-least populous sovereign state in the world, with only Vatican City and Nauru having fewer inhabitants. In terms of physical land size, at just 26 square kilometres (10 sq mi) Tuvalu is the fourth smallest country in the world, larger only than the Vatican City at 0.44 km2 (0.17 sq mi), Monaco at 1.98 km2 (0.76 sq mi) and Nauru at 21 km2 (8.1 sq mi).
The first inhabitants of Tuvalu were Polynesian people. In 1568 Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña sailed through the islands and is understood to have sighted Nui during his expedition in search of Terra Australis. In 1819 the island of Funafuti was named Ellice's Island; the name Ellice was applied to all nine islands after the work of English hydrographer Alexander George Findlay (1812–1876). The islands came under Britain's sphere of influence in the late 19th century, when the Ellice Islands were declared a British protectorate by Captain Gibson, R. N. of HMS Curaçao between 9th and 16 October 1892. The Ellice Islands were administered as British protectorate by a Resident Commissioner from 1892 to 1916 as part of the British Western Pacific Territories (BWPT), and later as part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony from 1916 to 1974.
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Uganda
Coordinates: 1°17′N 32°23′E / 1.28°N 32.39°E / 1.28; 32.39
Uganda ( /juːˈɡændə/ yew-GAN-də or /juːˈɡɑːndə/ yew-GAHN-də), officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, which is also shared by Kenya and Tanzania.
Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompasses a large portion of the south of the country including the capital Kampala.
The people of Uganda were hunter-gatherers until 1,700 to 2,300 years ago, when Bantu-speaking populations migrated to the southern parts of the country. Uganda gained independence from Britain on 9 October 1962.
The official languages are English and Swahili, although multiple other languages are spoken in the country.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
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Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh /ˌʌtər prəˈdɛʃ/, abbreviation U.P. ("Northern Province"; formerly: United Provinces), is a state located in the north western part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity. Were it a nation in its own right, Uttar Pradesh would be the world's fifth most populous country, ahead of Brazil (a country thirty-five times larger in territorial area than Uttar Pradesh). On 9 November 2000, the Himalayan portion of the state, comprising the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions and Haridwar district, was formed into a new state 'Uttaranchal', now called Uttarakhand, meaning the 'Northern Segment' state.
Uttar Pradesh is the second largest state-economy in India, with a GDP of $103.5 billion in 2009. The annual per capita GDP of the state was $1586 in 2009, on purchasing power parity basis. It contributed 8.34% to India's total GDP in the financial year 2010. Agriculture is a significant part of UP's economy. The state was India's sixth largest producer of fruits, and became the largest producer of vegetables in 2010. With an area of 93,933 sq mi (243,290 km2), Uttar Pradesh covers a large part of the highly fertile and densely populated upper Gangetic plain. It shares an international border with Nepal to the north. Other states along Uttar Pradesh's border include Uttarakhand, Haryana and Delhi to the north and northwest; Rajasthan on the west; Madhya Pradesh on the south; Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand on the south east; and Bihar on the east.
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Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand[needs IPA] (Sanskrit: उत्तराखण्डम्, Uttarākhanḍam ?, Hindi: उत्तराखण्ड, Uttarākhanḍ ?), formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods (Hindi: देव भूमि, Dēv bhūmi ?) due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship. Known for its natural beauty and wealth of the Himalayas, the Bhabhar and the Terai, the state was carved out of the Himalayan and adjoining north-western districts of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000, becoming the 27th state of the Republic of India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region on the north, the Mahakali Zone of Far-Western Region, Nepal on the east and the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh to the south and Himachal Pradesh to the north west.
The region is traditionally referred to as Uttarakhand in Hindu scriptures and old literature, a term which derives from Sanskrit uttara (उत्तर) meaning north, and khaṇḍ (खण्ड्) meaning country or part of a country. It has an area of 20,682 sq mi (53,566 km²).
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Vanuatu
Vanuatu (Englishi/ˌvɑːnuːˈɑːtuː/ vah-noo-AH-too or /vænˈwɑːtuː/ van-WAH-too; Bislama IPA: [vanuaˈtu]), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (French: République de Vanuatu, Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some 1,750 kilometres (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 500 kilometres (310 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea.
Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. The first Europeans to visit the islands were the members of a Spanish expedition led by Portuguese navigator Fernandes de Queirós who arrived in Espiritu Santo in 1605. In the 1880s France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the country, and in 1906 they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago as the New Hebrides through a British–French Condominium. An independence movement arose in the 1970s, and the Republic of Vanuatu was created in 1980.
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Vietnam
Vietnam ( listen), formally the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam; listen), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 91.5 million inhabitants as of 2012, it is the world's 13th-most-populous country, and the eighth-most-populous Asian country. The name Vietnam translates as "South Viet", and was officially adopted in 1945. The country is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east.
The Vietnamese became independent from Imperial China in 938 AD, following the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Successive Vietnamese royal dynasties flourished as the nation expanded geographically and politically into Southeast Asia, until the Indochina Peninsula was colonized by the French in the mid-19th century. The First Indochina War eventually led to the expulsion of the French in 1954, leaving Vietnam divided politically into two states, North and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified, with heavy foreign intervention, during the Vietnam War, which ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.
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Vindhya Range
The Vindhya Range (Sanskrit: विन्ध्य) is a range of older rounded mountains and hills in the west-central Indian subcontinent, which geographically separates the Indian subcontinent into northern India (the Indo-Gangetic plain) and Southern India.
The western end of the range is in the state of Gujarat at the eastern side of the Gujarat peninsula, near the border with the modern states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Reaching the sub-continent proper, the range runs east and north nearly to the Ganges River at Mirzapur. The area to the north and west of the range are arid and inhospitable, located in the shadow of both the Vindhya and the higher Aravalli range to the south blocking the prevailing winds.
The southern slopes of the range are drained by the Narmada River, which proceeds westward to the Arabian Sea in the wide valley between the Vindhya Range and the parallel Satpura Range farther to the south. The northern slopes of the range are drained by tributaries of the Ganges, including the Kali Sindh, Parbati, Betwa, & Ken (both are tributary of the yamuna, ), Son & Tamsa or Tons both are tributary of the Ganges, drains the southern slopes of the range at its eastern end.
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West Bengal
West Bengal /bɛŋˈɡɔːl/ (proposed new English name: Paschim Banga) is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. Covering a total area of 34,267 sq mi (88,750 km2), it is bordered by the countries of Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, and the Indian states of Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Sikkim, and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). West Bengal encompasses two broad natural regions: the Gangetic Plain in the south and the sub-Himalayan and Himalayan area in the north.
In the 3rd century BC, the broader region of Bengal was conquered by the emperor Ashoka. In the 4th century AD, it was absorbed into the Gupta Empire. From the 13th century onward, the region was ruled by several sultans, powerful Hindu states and Baro-Bhuyan landlords, until the beginning of British rule in the 18th century. The British East India Company cemented their hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, and the city of Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) served for many years as the capital of British India. The early and prolonged exposure to British administration resulted in expansion of Western education, culminating in development in science, institutional education, and social reforms of the region, including what became known as the Bengal Renaissance. A hotbed of the Indian independence movement through the early 20th century, Bengal was divided in 1947 along religious lines into two separate entities: West Bengal – a state of India – and East Bengal, which initially joined the new nation of Pakistan, before becoming part of modern-day Bangladesh in 1971.
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Zambia
Zambia ( /ˈzæmbiə/), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of the country. The population is concentrated mainly around Lusaka in the south and the Copperbelt Province to the northwest.
Originally inhabited by Khoisan peoples, the region which comprises modern Zambia was colonised during the Bantu expansion of the thirteenth century. After visits by European explorers in the eighteenth century, Zambia became the British colony of Northern Rhodesia towards the end of the nineteenth century. For most of the colonial period, the country was governed by an administration appointed from London with the advice of the British South Africa Company.
On 24 October 1964, the country declared independence from the United Kingdom and then-prime minister Kenneth Kaunda became the inaugural president. Kaunda's socialist United National Independence Party (UNIP) maintained power from the 1964 until 1991. From 1972 to 1991 Zambia was a single-party state with the UNIP as the sole-legal political party, with the goal of uniting the nation under the banner of 'One Zambia, One Nation'. Kaunda was succeeded by Frederick Chiluba of the social-democratic Movement for Multi-Party Democracy in 1991, during which the country saw a rise in social-economic growth and increased decentralisation of government.
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A. K. Ramanujan
Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan (Kannada: ಅತ್ತಿಪೇಟೆ ಕೃಷ್ಣಸ್ವಾಮಿ ರಾಮಾನುಜನ್) (Tamil: அத்திப்பட்டு கிருஷ்ணசுவாமி ராமானுஜன்) (March 16, 1929–July 13, 1993) also known as A. K. Ramanujan was a scholar of Indian literature who wrote in both English and Kannada. Ramanujan was a Indian poet, scholar and author, a philologist, folklorist, translator, poet and playwright. His academic research ranged across five languages: Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Sanskrit, and English. He published works on both classical and modern variants of these literature and also argued strongly for giving local, non-standard dialects their due.
He was born into an Iyengar(Brahmin) family in Mysore City on 16 March 1929. His father, Attipat Asuri Krishnaswami, a professor of mathematics at Mysore University and an astronomer, had a study crammed with books in English, Kannada. and Sanskrit. The house was alive with ideas. On summer nights, the children gathered on the third floor terrace while their father pointed out and explained the constellations. Sometimes at dinner, the children listened intently as their father translated for their mother the stories of Shakespeare and other Western classics into Tamil.
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Adivasi
Adivasi (Sanskrit: Nepali: Hindi: आदिवासी; ādivāsī) is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups claimed to be the aboriginal population of India. They comprise a substantial indigenous minority of the population of India. The word is used in the same sense in Nepal as is another word janajati (Nepali: जनजाति; janajāti), although the political context differed historically under the Shah and Rana dynasties.
Adivasi societies are particularly present in the Indian Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Mizoram, and other northeastern states, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Many smaller tribal groups are quite sensitive to ecological degradation caused by modernization. Both commercial forestry and intensive agriculture have proved destructive to the forests that had endured swidden agriculture for many centuries. Officially recognized by the Indian government as "Scheduled Tribes" in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India, they are often grouped together with scheduled castes in the category "Scheduled Castes and Tribes", which is eligible for certain affirmative action measures.
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Akbar
Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Akbar (Persian: جلال الدین محمد اکبر - Jalāl ud-Dīn Muḥammad Akbar), also known as Shahanshah Akbar-e-Azam or Akbar the Great (14 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), was the third Mughal Emperor. He was of Timurid descent; the son of Emperor Humayun, and the grandson of the Mughal Emperor Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur, the ruler who founded the Mughal dynasty in India. At the end of his reign in 1605 the Mughal empire covered most of northern and central India. He is most appreciated for having a liberal outlook on all faiths and beliefs and during his era, culture and art reached a zenith as compared to his predecessors.
Akbar was 13 years old when he ascended the Mughal throne in Delhi (February 1556), following the death of his father Humayun. During his reign, he eliminated military threats from the powerful Pashtun descendants of Sher Shah Suri, and at the Second Battle of Panipat he decisively defeated the newly self-declared Hindu king Hemu. It took him nearly two more decades to consolidate his power and bring all the parts of northern and central India into his direct realm. He influenced the whole of the Indian Subcontinent as he ruled a greater part of it as an emperor. As an emperor, Akbar solidified his rule by pursuing diplomacy with the powerful Hindu Rajput caste, and by marrying Rajput princesses.
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Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry, or people of British descent born or living in India, Pakistan, or Burma, now mainly historical in the latter sense. British residents in India used the term "Eurasians" for people of mixed European and Indian descent (cf. George Orwell's Burmese Days). The Oxford Dictionary's definition of "Anglo-Indian" is "Of mixed British and Indian parentage, of Indian descent but born or living in Britain, or (chiefly historical) of British descent or birth but living or having lived long in India".
The Anglo-Indian community in its modern sense is a distinct, small minority community originating in India. It consists of people from mixed British and Indian ancestry whose native language is English. An Anglo-Indian's British ancestry was usually bequeathed paternally.
Article 366(2) of the Indian Constitution defines Anglo-Indian as "a person whose father or any of whose other male progenitors in the male line is or was of European descent but who is domiciled within the territory of India and is or was born within such territory of parents habitually resident therein and not established there for temporary purposes only". This definition extends "Anglo-Indian" to include Indians of purely European (male) ancestry.
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Ashoka
Ashoka (Devanāgarī: अशोक, IAST: Aśoka, IPA: [aˈɕoːkə], ca. 304–232 BC), also known as Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from ca. 269 BC to 232 BC. One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over most of present-day India after a number of military conquests. His empire stretched from present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan in the west, to the present-day Bangladesh and the Indian state of Assam in the east, and as far south as northern Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. He conquered the kingdom named Kalinga, which none of his ancestors had conquered starting from Chandragupta Maurya. His reign was headquartered in Magadha (present-day Bihar). He embraced Buddhism after witnessing the mass deaths of the Kalinga War, which he himself had waged out of a desire for conquest. He was later dedicated to the propagation of Buddhism across Asia and established monuments marking several significant sites in the life of Gautama Buddha. Ashoka was a devotee of ahimsa (nonviolence), love, truth, tolerance and vegetarianism. Ashoka is remembered in history as a philanthropic administrator. In the history of India, Ashoka is referred to as Samraat Chakravartin Ashoka – the "Emperor of Emperors Ashoka".
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Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Hindi: अटलबिहारी वाजपेयी, Birth: 25 December 1924 in Gwalior) is a veteran Indian statesman who served as a non congress Prime Minister of India three times, viz. 13 days in 1996, 13 months from 1998 to 1999, and lastly a five year's term from 19 March 1998 until 19 May 2004. A parliamentarian for over four decades, Vajpayee was elected to the Lok Sabha a record nine times, and twice to the Rajya Sabha. He also served as the Member of Parliament for Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, until 2009, when he retired from active politics due to health concerns. Vajpayee was one amongst the founder members of erstwhile Jana Sangh and had been its president also. He was also the Minister of External Affairs in the cabinet of Morarji Desai. When Janata government collapsed Vajpayee merged his entire party into a fresh party and named it as Bharatiya Janata Party in the interest of nation. A poet-politician Vajpayee has been the liberal face of BJP.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was born to Krishna Devi and Krishna Bihari Vajpayee on 25th December, 1924 in a respected middle class Brahmin family. His birthplace was Shinde Ki Chhavani, a small town in Gwalior district of Madhya Pradesh (then known as Central Province). His grandfather, Pandit Shyam Lal Vajpayee, had migrated to Gwalior from his ancestral village of Bateshwar, Uttar Pradesh and his father, Krishna Bihari Vajpayee, was a poet and a schoolmaster in his hometown. Vajpayee attended Gwalior's Victoria College (now Laxmi Bai College), and graduated with distinctions in Hindi, English and Sanskrit. He completed his Post Graduation with a (M.A.) degree in Political Science from DAV College, Kanpur, securing first-class. Later he became a full time worker of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and served the Rashtradharma, Veer Arjun and Panchjanya newspapers as a journalist. Like other full time workers of the Sangh, Vajpayee never married and decided to dedicate his entire life for the service of the nation.
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Ayesha Jalal
Ayesha Jalal (Urdu: عائشہ جلال) is a Pakistani-American sociologist and historian. She is the Mary Richardson Professor of History at Tufts University and a 1998 MacArthur Fellow. The bulk of her work deals with the creation of Muslim identities in modern South Asia.
Ayesha Jalal was born in Lahore in Pakistan to Hamid Jalal, a senior Pakistani civil servant, a niece of the renowned Urdu fiction writer Saadat Hasan Manto . She came to New York at the age of 16 when her father was posted at the United Nations. She is married to Indian historian Sugata Bose who teaches at Harvard.
She obtained her BA, majoring in History and Political Science, from Wellesley College, USA, and her doctorate in history from Trinity College at University of Cambridge, where she wrote her Ph.D. dissertation: 'Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan'.
Ayesha Jalal has been Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1980–84), Leverhulme Fellow at the Center of South Asian Studies, Cambridge (1984–87), Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, DC (1985–86) and Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies(1988–90). She has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Tufts University, Columbia University, Harvard University and Lahore University of Management Sciences.
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Barbara Metcalf
Barbara Daly Metcalf is the Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History at the University of Michigan and Professor Emeritus History at the University of California, Davis. She is a specialist in the history of South Asia, especially the colonial period, and the history of the Muslim population of India and Pakistan. Before coming to Michigan, she served as the Dean, Division of Social Sciences, College of Letters and Science, and Professor of History at the University of California, Davis.
Metcalf received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1974.
Metcalf was called on to write to the Administrative Review Boards held at the Guantanamo Bay detainment camps. The Boards were authorized to recommend whether Guantanamo captives should continue to be held in extrajudicial detention. One of the justifications offered for the continued detention of over three dozen of the Guantanamo captives was that they had participated in the activities of a Pakistani chapter of Islamic missionary group named Tablighi Jamaat.
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Bharata (emperor)
Bharata (Sanskrit: भरत, Bharata, means "the cherished") was a legendary emperor of India, and is referred to in Hindu and Jain theology. He was son of King Dushyanta of Hastinapura and Queen Śakuntalā and thus a descendant of the Lunar Dynasty of the kṣatriya Varna. Bharata is supposed to have conquered all of Greater India, uniting it into a single political entity which was named after him as "Bhāratavarṣa".
According to ancient Indian epic legend of the Mahabharata as well as the numerous puranas and diverse Indian history, Bharat Empire included the whole territory of the Indian subcontinent, including parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, siberia, Turkmenistan, North-west Tibet, Nepal and Bangladesh.
This represented as the ideal sample of great empires, which was dominated by harmony, wealth and prosperity.
There are many references to "Bharata Chakravarti" in the sacred Jain texts.[citation needed] He conquered all of the earth and the worlds above and reached the top of "Meru" or "Sumeru" mountain (the center of the world and tallest mountain) and placed a flag. But upon reaching the top he saw numerous such flags of world conquerors before him. This made him feel very insignificant and he took the diksha and attained nirvana.
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Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy indigenous to the Indian subcontinent and encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs, and practices largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, who is commonly known as the Buddha (meaning "the awakened one" in Sanskrit and Pāli). The Buddha lived and taught in the eastern part of Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by Buddhists as an awakened or enlightened teacher who shared his insights to help sentient beings end ignorance (avidyā), craving (taṇhā), and suffering (dukkha), by recognizing dependent origination and sunyata, and attain Nirvana.
Two major branches of Buddhism are recognized: Theravada ("The School of the Elders") and Mahayana ("The Great Vehicle"). Theravada has a widespread following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana is found throughout East Asia and includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Shingon, Tiantai (Tendai) and Shinnyo-en. In some classifications, Vajrayana—practiced mainly in Tibet and Mongolia, and adjacent parts of China and Russia—is recognized as a third branch, while others classify it as a part of Mahayana. There are other categorisations of these three Vehicles or Yanas.
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Burton Stein
Burton Stein (1926 – April 26, 1996) was a scholar of India.
Stein was born and grew up in Chicago, Illinois and served in the Second World War, before commencing tertiary study at the now disused Navy Pier facility that in 1945 was the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois. Stein was an unusual case in that he never completed a bachelors degree. He was admitted directly into a Master of Arts program at the University of, finishing his masters in 1954 under the supervision of Robert Crane[disambiguation needed
]. Burt then wrote his Ph.D. dissertation in 1957 on the economic functions of South India’s medieval Tirupati temple.
Upon the completion of his PhD, Stein was appointed to a teaching post at the University of Minnesota, where he stayed until the end of 1965. He then moved to the University of Hawaii where he stayed for 17 years until 1983. He held visiting professorships at the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, University of California, Berkeley and the Centre for Historical Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University. In 1983 he married the author Dorothy Stein and moved to London, where he lived within ten minutes of the India Office Library. He was appointed a Professorial Research Associate of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
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China
China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
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Dmitry Medvedev
Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (Russian: Дми́трий Анато́льевич Медве́дев, tr. Dmitriy Anatolyevich Medvedev; IPA: [ˈdmʲitrʲɪj ɐnɐˈtolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪˈdvʲedʲɪf] ( listen); born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician who has been Prime Minister of Russia since 2012. He previously served as President of Russia from 2008 to 2012.
Born to a family of academics, Medvedev graduated from the Law Department of Leningrad State University in 1987. He defended his dissertation in 1990 and worked as a docent at his alma mater, now renamed to Saint Petersburg State University, where he taught civil and Roman law until 1999. Medvedev's political career began as the election campaign manager and later an adviser of St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. During this time, Medvedev befriended Vladimir Putin. In November 1999, Medvedev was hired in the Russian presidential administration, where he worked as deputy chief of staff. In the 2000 Presidential elections, Medvedev was Putin's campaign manager. On 14 November 2005, Medvedev was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister and was tasked with overseeing National Priority Projects. He also worked as the Chairman of Gazprom's board of directors, a post which he held until 2008.
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Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha or Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम बुद्ध; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. The word Buddha is a title for the first awakened being in an era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (P. sammāsambuddha, S. samyaksaṃbuddha) of our age, "Buddha" meaning "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." Gautama Buddha may also be referred to as Śākyamuni (Sanskrit: शाक्यमुनि "Sage of the Śākyas"). The Buddha found a Middle Way that ameliorated the extreme asceticism found in the Sramana religions.
The time of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE, but more recent opinion dates his death to between 486 and 483 BCE or, according to some, between 411 and 400 BCE. UNESCO lists Lumbini, Nepal, as a world heritage site and birthplace of Gautama Buddha. There are also claims about birth place of Gautama Buddha to be Kapileswara, Orissa or Kapilavastu at Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kośala.
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Gregory Possehl
Gregory Louis Possehl (July 21, 1941 – October 8, 2011) was a Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and curator of the Asian Collections at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He has been involved in excavations of the Indus Valley Civilization in India and Pakistan since 1964, and is an author of many books and articles on the Indus Civilization and related topics. He received his BA in Anthropology from the University of Washington in 1964, his MA in Anthropology from the University of Washington in 1967, and his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1974. He has conducted major excavations in Gujarat (Rojdi, Babar Kot and Oriyo Timbo), Rajasthan (Gilund), and in January 2007, began an excavation at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Bat in the Sultanate of Oman.
He is an exponent of the view that the culture of the Vedic period is a direct successor of the Indus Valley Civilization. In his book Ancient Cities of the Indus he writes that "the first point to be emphasized is that the problem seems not to be best stated as the "end" of a civilization, at least in the sense of a tradition, since there are abundant signs of cultural continuity in Sindh, Gujarat, the Punjab and adjacent areas of the North India."
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Guru Nanak
Guru Nanak (Punjabi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; Hindi: गुरु नानक, Urdu: گرونانک [ˈɡʊɾu ˈnɑnək] Gurū Nānak) (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539 at Talwandi (present-day Pakistan)) was the founder of the religion of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus.
The Sikhs believe that all subsequent Gurus possessed Guru Nanak’s divinity and religious authority, and were named "Nanak" in the line of succession.
Guru Nanak was born on 15 April 1469, now celebrated as Prakash Divas of Guru Nanak Dev, into a Hindu Khatri family in the village of Rāi Bhōi dī Talwandī, now called Nankana Sahib, near Lahore, Pakistan. Today, his birthplace is marked by Gurdwara Janam Asthan. Some are of the opinion that 20 October is his enlightenment day rather than his birthday. His father, Kalyan Chand Das Bedi, popularly shortened to Kalu Mehta, was the patwari (accountant) of crop revenue for the village of Talwandi in the employment of a Muslim landlord of that area, Rai Bular Bhatti. Guru Nanak’s mother was Tripta Devi and he had one elder sister, Bibi Nanaki who became a spiritual figure in her own right.
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Hermann Kulke
Hermann Kulke (born 1938 in Berlin) is a German Historian and Indologist, who was Professor of the South and Southeast Asian History at the Department of History, Kiel University (1988-2003). After receiving his Ph.D. in Indology from Freiburg University in 1967, he taught for 21 years at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University (SAI).
He was a founding member of the Orissa Research Project (ORP) of the Southasia Institute (1970–1975), and was coordinator of the second ORP.
Specialization: pre-colonial South and Southeast Asian History; early state formation and historiography; regional cultures of India with emphasis on Orissa; Indianization of Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean Studies.
He was a Visiting Professor at Utkal University, Bhubaneswar (1978–1979), Asiatic Society, Calcutta (1986), and Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi (1992). He was also the Fellow of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, in Singapore (1987) and of the Asia Research Institute of the University of Singapore (2007).
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Indian people
Indian people or Indians are people who are citizens of India, which forms a major part of south of Asia, containing 17.31% of the world's population. The Indian nationality is in essence made up of regional ethno-linguistic groups, reflecting the rich and complex history of India. India, in its current boundaries, was formed out of a number of predecessors.
Substantial populations with Indian ancestry, as a result of emigration, exist in many different parts of the world, most notably in Southeast Asia, South Africa, Australia, England, Middle East and North America. Population estimates vary from a conservative 12 million to 20 million diaspora.
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Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Hindi: इंदिरा प्रियदर्शिनी गांधी Indirā Priyadarśinī Gāndhī listen (help·info), née Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms (1966–77) and a fourth term (1980–84). Gandhi was the second female head of government in the world after Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, and she remains as the world's second longest serving female Prime Minister as of 2012. She was the first woman to become prime minister in India.
Gandhi was the only child of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India. She adhered to the quasi-socialist policies of industrial development that had been begun by her father. Gandhi established closer relations with the Soviet Union, depending on that nation for support in India’s long-standing conflict with Pakistan. She was also the only Indian Prime Minister to have declared a state of emergency in order to 'rule by decree' and the only Indian Prime Minister to have been imprisoned after holding that office. She was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for ordering Operation Blue Star.
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Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru (IPA: [dʒəʋaːɦərˈlaːl ˈneːɦru] ( listen), Hindi: जवाहरलाल नेहरू; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964), often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian lawyer, politician and statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India (1947–64) and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the 1930s and ’40s. Nehru was elected by the Indian National Congress to assume office as independent India's first Prime Minister, and re-elected when the Congress Party won India's first general election in 1951 and 1952. Nehru contributed to the establishment of a parliamentary democracy in India and was one of the founders of the international Non-Aligned Movement.
The son of moderate nationalist leader and Congressman Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru became a leader of the left wing of the Congress when fairly young. Rising to become Congress President under the mentorship of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Nehru was a charismatic leader, advocating complete independence for India from the British Empire. Throughout his life, Nehru advocated Democratic Socialism/Fabian Socialism and a strong public sector as the means by which economic development could be pursued by poorer nations. He was the father of Indira Gandhi and the maternal grandfather of Rajiv Gandhi, who would later serve as the third and sixth Prime Ministers of India respectively.
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Kabir
Kabīr (also Kabīra) (Hindi: कबीर, Punjabi: ਕਬੀਰ, Urdu: کبير) (1440–1518) was a mystic poet and saint of India, whose writings have greatly influenced the Bhakti movement. The name Kabir comes from Arabic al-Kabīr which means 'The Great' - the 37th name of God in Islam.
Apart from having an important influence on Sikhism, Kabir's legacy is today carried forward by the Kabir Panth ("Path of Kabir"), a religious community that recognizes him as its founder and is one of the Sant Mat sects. Its members, known as Kabir panthis, are estimated to be around 9,600,000. They are spread over north and central India, as well as dispersed with the Indian diaspora across the world, up from 843,171 in the 1901 census. His writings include Bijak, Sakhi Granth, Kabir Granthawali and Anurag Sagar.
Not much is known of Kabir's birth parents, but it is known that he was brought up in a family of Muslim weavers. He was found by a Muslim weaver named Niru and his wife, Nima, in Lehartara, situated in Varanasi. They adopted the boy and taught him the weaver's trade.
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Kālidāsa
Kālidāsa (Devanāgarī: कालिदास "servant of Kali") was a renowned Classical Sanskrit writer, widely regarded as the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language. His floruit cannot be dated with precision, but most likely falls within 4th Century AD.
His plays and poetry are primarily based on Hindu Puranas and philosophy.
Nothing apart from his works is known with certainty about the life of Kālidāsa, such as his period or where he lived. Little is known about Kālidāsa's life. According to legend, he was known for his beauty, which brought him to the attention of Princess Vidyottama and she married him.Kālidāsa had grown up without much education, and the princess was ashamed of his ignorance and coarseness. A devoted worshipper of Kali, Kālidāsa is said to have called upon his goddess for help when he was going to commit suicide in a well after he was humiliated by his wife, and was rewarded with a sudden and extraordinary gift of wit.He is then said to have become the most brilliant of the "nine gems" at the court of the king Vikramaditya of Ujjain.
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Lal Bahadur Shastri
Lal Bahadur Shastri (Hindi: लालबहादुर शास्त्री, pronounced [laːl bəˈɦaːd̪ʊr ˈʃaːst̪ri]; 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was the second Prime Minister of the Republic of India and a significant figure in the Indian independence movement.
Lal Bahadur was born in Mughal Sarai, United Provinces, India to Sharada Srivastava Prasad, a school teacher, who later became a clerk in the Revenue Office at Allahabad, and Ramdulari Devi. When he was three months old, he slipped out of his mother's arms into a cowherder's basket at the ghats of the Ganges. The cowherder, who had no children, took the child as a gift from God and took him home. Lal Bahadur's parents lodged a complaint with the police, who traced the child, and returned him to his parents.
His father died when he was only a year and a half old. His mother took him and his two sisters to her father's house and settled down there. Lal Bahadur stayed at his grandfather Hazari Lal's house till he was ten. He studied up to class IV at Railway School Mughalsarai. Since there was no high school in the town, he was sent to Varanasi, where he stayed with his maternal uncle and joined the Harischandra High School. While in Varanasi, Shastri once went with his friends to see a fair on the other bank of the Ganges. On the way back he had no money for the boat fare. Instead of borrowing from his friends, he jumped into the river and swam to the other bank.
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Lord Dalhousie
James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie KT, PC (22 April 1812 – 19 December 1860), styled Lord Ramsay until 1838 and known as The Earl of Dalhousie between 1838 and 1849, was a Scottish statesman, and a colonial administrator in British India. He served as Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856. To his supporters he stands out as the far-sighted Governor-General who consolidated East India Company rule in India, laid the foundations of its later administration, and by his sound policy enabled his successors to stem the tide of rebellion. To his critics, he stands out as the destroyer of both the East India Company's financial and military position through reckless policies. His critics also hold that he laid the foundations of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and led the final transformation of profitable commercial operations in India into a money-losing colonial administration. His period of rule in India directly preceded the transformation into the Victorian Raj period of Indian administration. He was denounced by many in England and India on the eve of his death as having failed to notice the signs of the brewing Indian Rebellion of 1857, having aggravated the crisis by his overbearing self-confidence, centralizing activity, and expansive annexations.
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Mahajanapada
Mahājanapadas (Sanskrit: महाजनपद, Mahājanapadas), literally "great realms", (from maha, "great", and janapada "foothold of a tribe", "country") were ancient Indian kingdoms or countries. Ancient Buddhist texts like Anguttara Nikaya make frequent reference to sixteen great kingdoms and republics (Solas Mahajanapadas) which had evolved and flourished in a belt stretching from Gandhara in the northwest to Anga in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent and included parts of the trans-Vindhyan region, prior to the rise of Buddhism in India. The sixth century BCE is often regarded as a major turning point in early Indian history.
The political structure of the ancient Indians appears to have started with semi-nomadic tribal units called Jana (meaning "people" or by extension "ethnic group" or "tribe"). Early Vedic texts attest several Janas or tribes of the Indo-Aryans, living in a semi-nomadic tribal state and fighting among themselves and with other Non-Aryan tribes for cows, sheep and green pastures. These early Vedic Janas later coalesced into the Janapadas of the Epic Age.
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Mahajanapadas
Mahājanapadas (Sanskrit: महाजनपद, Mahājanapadas), literally "great realms", (from maha, "great", and janapada "foothold of a tribe", "country") were ancient Indian kingdoms or countries. Ancient Buddhist texts like Anguttara Nikaya make frequent reference to sixteen great kingdoms and republics (Solas Mahajanapadas) which had evolved and flourished in a belt stretching from Gandhara in the northwest to Anga in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent and included parts of the trans-Vindhyan region, prior to the rise of Buddhism in India. The sixth century BCE is often regarded as a major turning point in early Indian history.
The political structure of the ancient Indians appears to have started with semi-nomadic tribal units called Jana (meaning "people" or by extension "ethnic group" or "tribe"). Early Vedic texts attest several Janas or tribes of the Indo-Aryans, living in a semi-nomadic tribal state and fighting among themselves and with other Non-Aryan tribes for cows, sheep and green pastures. These early Vedic Janas later coalesced into the Janapadas of the Epic Age.
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Mahavira
Mahāvīra (Sanskrit: महावीर "Great Hero", Kannada: ಮಹಾವೀರ Mahāvīra, Malayalam: മഹാവീരൻ Mahāvīran and Tamil: அருகன் Arukaṉ) is the name most commonly used to refer to the Indian sage Vardhamāna (Sanskrit: वर्धमान; traditionally 599–527 BCE) who established what are today considered to be the central tenets of Jainism. According to Jain tradition, he was the 24th and the last Tirthankara. In Tamil, he is referred to as Arukaṉ or Arukadevan. He is also known in texts as Vira or Viraprabhu, Sanmati, Ativira,and Gnatputra. In the Buddhist Pali Canon, he is referred to as Nigantha Nātaputta and Gyatra Putta.
In a place called Kundalagrama (Vaishali district) situated close to Besadha Patti, 27 miles from Patna in modern day Bihar, India, Mahavira was born in a royal family to King Siddartha and Queen Trishala on the 13th day under the rising moon of Chaitra (12 April according to the Gregorian calendar). While still in his mother's womb it is believed he brought wealth and prosperity to the entire kingdom, which is why he was named Vardhaman. An increase of all good things, like the abundant bloom of beautiful flowers, was noticed in the kingdom after his conception. Trishala had a number of auspicious dreams before giving birth to Vardhaman (14 according to the Svetambaras and 16 according to the Digambaras), signs foretelling the advent of a great soul.He found "Nirvana" at the age of 72 in 527 BC near Rajgir, Bihar .Vardhaman's birthday is celebrated as Mahavir Jayanti, the most important religious holiday of Jains around the world.
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Meira Kumar
Meira Kumar is an Indian politician and a five time Member of Parliament. She was elected unopposed as the first woman Speaker of Lok Sabha on 3 June 2009.She was born on March 31, 1945 in Bihar, India.
She is a lawyer and a former diplomat. Prior to being a member of the 15th Lok Sabha, she has been elected earlier to the 8th, 11th, 12th and 14th Lok Sabha, wherein she remained Cabinet Minister in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (2004–2009).
Meira Kumar was born in the state of Bihar District Patna to the former Deputy Prime Minister and a prominent leader, Babu Jagjivan Ram and freedom fighter, Indrani Devi.
She did her M.A., LL.B, Educated at Indraprastha College and Miranda House, Delhi University.
In 1973, she joined the Indian Foreign Service and served at embassies in Spain, United Kingdom and Mauritius. She also served as a member of the India-Mauritius Joint Commission. While serving for IFS, she also worked in Embassy of India, Madrid from 1976 to 1977. She was at the High Commission of India in London from 1977 to 1979 and at Ministry of External Affairs from 1980 to 1985.
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P. V. Narasimha Rao
Pamulaparti Venkata "Narasimha Rao" (28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004) was an Indian lawyer, politician, and activist who served as the ninth Prime Minister of India (1991–1996). He led an important administration, overseeing a major economic transformation and several home incidents affecting national security of India. Rao who held the Industries portfolio was personally responsible for the dismantling of the Licence Raj as this came under the purview of the Industries Ministry. He is often referred to as the "Father of Indian Economic Reforms". Rao accelerated the dismantling of the license raj, reversing the socialist policies under the government of Rajiv Gandhi. He is best remembered for employing Dr. Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister. Dr. Manmohan Singh launched India's globalization angle of the reforms that implemented the IMF policies to rescue the almost bankrupt nation from economic collapse. Rao was also referred to as Chanakya for his ability to steer tough economic and political legislation through the parliament at a time when he headed a minority government.
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Parsi
Parsi or Parsee ( /ˈpɑrsiː/) refers to a member of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities in South Asia, the other being the Irani community.
According to tradition, the present-day Parsis descend from a group of Zoroastrians of Iran who immigrated to India during the 10th century AD, to avoid persecution by Muslim invaders who were in the process of conquering Iran. At the time of the Arab invasion of Iran, the dominant religion of the region was Zoroastrianism. The Iranians rebelled against the Arab invaders for almost 200 years; in Iran this period is now known as the "Two "Centuries of Silence" or "Period of Silence". After many failed attempts to free the country from Arab domination, the Iranians were forced to either pay heavy taxes (Jizya) or to convert to Islam, the latter being the ultimate goal of the new rulers and thus the easier way. During this time many Iranians who are now called Parsi rejected both options and instead chose to take refuge by fleeing from Iran to India.
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Pratibha Patil
Pratibha Devisingh Patil ( pronunciation (help·info)) (born 19 December 1934) is the 12th President of the Republic of India and first woman to hold the office. She was sworn in as President of India on 25 July 2007, succeeding Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and after defeating her rival Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. She is a member of the Indian National Congress (INC), was nominated for the presidency by the ruling United Progressive Alliance and Indian Left.
Pratibha Devisingh Patil was born in Jalgaon District, Maharashtra. She received her early education from RR Vidyalaya, Jalgaon.[citation needed]. She completed her Masters in Political Science and Economics at the Moolji Jaitha College, Jalgaon. She obtained her Bachelor of Law degree from Government Law College, Mumbai.
Pratibha Patil started her professional career[when?] as a lawyer at the Jalgaon District Court.
She was elected for the Jalgaon Assembly constituency in February 1962 when aged 27. She was elected four times consecutively for Muktainagar (formerly Edlabad), Maharashtra, as a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly between 1967 and 1985. Thereafter, she served as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from 1985 to 1990. In 1991 she was elected as a Member of Parliament in the tenth Lok Sabha, representing the Amravati constituency and stayed in the role until 1996.
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Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali: রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. In translation his poetry was viewed as spiritual and mercurial; his seemingly mesmeric personality, flowing hair, and other-worldly dress earned him a prophet-like reputation in the West. His "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. Tagore introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing the best of Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of modern India.
A Pirali Brahmin from Calcutta, Tagore wrote poetry as an eight-year-old. At age sixteen, he released his first substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhānusiṃha ("Sun Lion"), which were seized upon by literary authorities as long-lost classics. He graduated to his first short stories and dramas—and the aegis of his birth name—by 1877. As a humanist, universalist internationalist, and strident anti-nationalist he denounced the Raj and advocated independence from Britain. As an exponent of the Bengal Renaissance, he advanced a vast canon that comprised paintings, sketches and doodles, hundreds of texts, and some two thousand songs; his legacy endures also in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.
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Raja Raja Chola I
Raja Raja Chola I (Tamil: ராஜ ராஜ சோழன்) born Arunmozhi Thevar (also called as Raja Kesari Varman Raja Raja Devar and respectfully as Peruvudaiyar), popularly known as Raja Raja the Great, is one of the greatest emperors of the Tamil Chola Empire of India who ruled between 985 and 1014 CE. He established the Chola empire by conquering the kingdoms of southern India expanding the Chola Empire as far as Sri Lanka in the south, and Kalinga (Orissa) in the northeast. He fought many battles with the Chalukyas in the north and the Pandyas in the south. By conquering Vengi, Rajaraja laid the foundations for the Later Chola dynasty. He invaded Sri Lanka and started a century-long Chola occupation of the island. He streamlined the administrative system with the division of the country into various districts and by standardising revenue collection through systematic land surveys. Being an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva, he built the magnificent Peruvudaiyar Temple (also known as the Brihadeeswarar Temple) in Thanjavur and through it enabled wealth distribution amongst his subjects. His successes enabled his son Rajendra Chola I to extend the empire even further.
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Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi /ˈrɑːdʒiːv ˈɡɑːndiː/ ( pronunciation (help·info); 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was the sixth Prime Minister of India (1984–1989). He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.
Rajiv Gandhi was the eldest son of Indira and Feroze Gandhi. He went to study at Trinity College, Cambridge, and later at Imperial College London, but did not complete a degree at either. At Cambridge he met the Italian-born Antonia Albina Maino, then a waitress in a restaurant, whom he later married. After dropping out of university, he became a professional pilot for Indian Airlines. He remained aloof from politics, despite his family's political prominence. It was only following the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in 1980 that Rajiv entered politics. Following the assassination of his mother in 1984 after Operation Blue Star, the Indian National Congress party leaders nominated him to be Prime Minister.
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Rajputs
A Rajput (from Sanskrit raja-putra, “son of a king”) is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and some parts of Pakistan. They claim to be descendants of ruling Hindu warrior classes of North India.[dubious – discuss] Rajputs rose to prominence during the 6th to 12th centuries. Until the 20th century Rajputs ruled in the "overwhelming majority" of the princely states of Rajasthan and Surashtra, where the largest number of princely states were found.
The Rajput population and the former Rajput states are found spread through much of the subcontinent, particularly in north, west and central India. Populations are found in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Surashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra.
Rajput is from the Sanskrit word Raja-Putra (son of a king). The word is found in ancient texts, including the Vedas, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata.[citation needed] It was used by the ancient Sanskrit grammarian Pāṇini in the 4th century BCE.[citation needed] The word Kshatriya ("warrior") was used for the Vedic community of warriors and rulers. To differentiate royal warriors from other Kshatriyas the word Rajputra was used.[citation needed] Rajputra eventually was shortened to Rajput; gradually it became a caste.[citation needed] Rajputs claim descent from various mythological patrilineages, being Suryavanshi, Chandravanshi, Agnivanshi and Nagavanshi.[citation needed]
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S. Dillon Ripley
Sidney Dillon Ripley II (September 20, 1913 – March 12, 2001) was an American ornithologist and wildlife conservationist. He served as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution from 1964 to 1984.
Ripley was born in New York City and studied at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. In 1936 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from Yale University. His great-grandfather, Sidney Dillon, was President of the Union Pacific Railroad.
A visit to India at age 13, along with his sister, included a walking tour into Ladakh and western Tibet. This led to his lifelong interest in the birds of India. He decided that birds were more interesting than law, and he began studying zoology at Columbia University. As a part of his study, Ripley participated in the Denison-Crockett Expedition to New Guinea in 1937-1938 and the Vanderbilt Expedition to Sumatra in 1939. He later obtained a Ph.D. in zoology from Harvard University in 1943.
During World War II, he served in the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency, and was in charge of American intelligence services in Southeast Asia. He trained many Indonesian spies, all of whom were killed during the war. An article in the August 26, 1950 New Yorker said that Ripley reversed the usual pattern, where spies posed as ornithologists in order to gain access to sensitive areas, and instead used his position as an intelligence officer to go birding in restricted areas. The government of Thailand gave him a national award for his support of the Thai underground during the war. While serving in the OSS he met his future wife Mary Livingston and her roommate Julia Child.
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S. H. Kapadia
Sarosh Homi Kapadia (Gujarati: સરોશ હોમી કાપડિયા) (Hindi: सरोश होमी कापडिया) (born 29 September 1947) is the thirty-eighth and current Chief Justice of India.
S. H. Kapadia belongs to a gentle lower middle-class Parsi family from the Khetwadi-Girgaum region of Bombay. His father was a clerk in a defence establishment, his mother a homemaker. Kapadia completed his BA and LLB and immediately began working. Higher education would have been a luxury. He acknowledged his humble beginnings in a letter he wrote to Justice V R Krishna Iyer recently. “I come from a poor family. I started my career as a class IV employee and the only asset I possess is integrity...” he said. He joined Gagrat & Co, a law firm as a clerk and later, went to work for highly respected labour lawyer Feroze Damania. Soon after, the family moved to Andheri, Mumbai. He married Shahnaz with whom he to has one son and a daughter.
The young Sarosh may not have been rich but what he did possess was ambition and determination to become a judge. He became counsel for the income tax department in 1974, aged 27. He also appeared for the then Bombay Municipal Corporation in matters concerning rateable value and octroi. He represented the Maharashtra government and several public sector undertakings (PSUs) until he was appointed a high court judge. As a judge of the Bombay High Court, he decided matters ranging from environmental to banking, M&As, industrial disputes, taxation and so on, but developed a reputation for his expertise on commercial and tax law.
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Samanta
Samanta was a title and position used by the Indian nobility. The institution of Samanta finds mention for the first time in epigraphs of northern India dating to the 6th century. The institution is considered to belong properly to the Gupta Empire and is closely associated with the origin and growth of feudalism in India.
However, the institution is known to have existed prior to the Gupta period, though details on them are vague. A Pallava inscription dating to the time of Santivarman (AD 455 - 470) uses the term Samanta-Chudamanayah (best feudatories). The Samanta in South-India was used to mean a vassal to an emperor. In North-India, the earliest use of the term in a similar sense was in Bengal in the Barabar Hill Cave Inscription of the Maukhari Chief, Anantavarman (dating 6th century AD) in which his father is described as the Samanta-Chudamanih (best among feudatories) of the imperial Guptas.
The Samanta vassal provided military support to the Monarch and governed over a portion of a territory. In South-India, the Samantas originated from different clans and took the title Raju.
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Shah Jahan
Shah Jahan(also spelled Shah Jehan, Shahjehan,(Urdu: شاه جہاں, Persian: شاه جهان) (January 5, 1592–January 22, 1666), (full title: Shahanshah Al-Sultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram, Malik-ul-Sultanat, Ala Hazrat Abu'l-Muzaffar Shahab ud-din Muhammad Shah Jahan I, Sahib-i-Qiran-i-Sani, Padshah Ghazi Zillu'llah, Firdaus-Ashiyani, Shahanshah—E--Sultanant Ul Hindiya Wal Mughaliya) was the emperor of the Mughal Empire in South Asia from 1628 until 1658. The name Shah Jahan comes from Persian meaning "Ruler of Everywhere". He was the fifth Mughal emperor after Babur, Humayun, Akbar, and Jahangir. While young, he was favourite of his legendary grandfather, Akbar the Great. Shah Jahan was a direct descendant of Genghis Khan through Timur and was the heir of the Mughal Empire of Babur, he is also alleged to have been a descendant of Charlemagne.
At a young age, he was chosen as successor to the Mughal throne after the death of Emperor Jahangir. He succeeded to the throne upon his father's death in 1627. He is considered to be one of the greatest Mughals, and his reign has been called the Golden Age of the Mughals and one of the most prosperous ages of Indian civilization. Like Akbar, he was eager to expand his vast empire. In 1658, he fell ill and was confined by his son Emperor Aurangzeb in the Agra Fort until his death in 1666.
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Shivarama Karanth
Kota Shivaram Karanth (Kannada: ಕೋಟಾ ಶಿವರಾಮ ಕಾರಂತ) (October 10, 1902 – December 9, 1997) was a major Kannada writer, social activist, environmentalist, Yakshagana artist, film maker and thinker. He was described as the "Rabindranath Tagore of Modern India who has been one of the finest novelists-activists since independence" by Ramachandra Guha. He was the third person among eight recipients of Jnanpith Award for Kannada the highest literary honour conferred by the Govt. of India. He has also been adjudged as one of the ten makers of India in the last 60 years by CNN-IBN. He was conferred Padma Bhushan by Government of India which later he returned in protest against the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi.
Shivaram Karanth was born in Kota near Udupi in the Udupi district of Karnataka to a native Kannada family. Being the fifth child of his parents Shesha Karantha and Lakshmamma, he completed his primary education in Kundapura and Mangalore. Shivaram Karanth was the younger brother of politician K. R. Karanth who served as minister in the Madras Presidency in the 1940s. Shivaram Karanth was influenced by Gandhi's principles and took part in Indian Independence movement while he was in college. He left his degree half way to participate in the Non-cooperation movement. He worked for khadi and swadeshi for five years, till about 1927. By that time Karanth had already started writing fiction-detective novels, to begin with — as well as plays. He married Leela Karanth when he was well past 30.
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Sino-Indian War
The Sino-Indian War (Hindi: भारत-चीन युद्ध Bhārat-Chīn Yuddh), also known as the Sino-Indian Border Conflict (simplified Chinese: 中印边境战争; traditional Chinese: 中印邊境戰爭; pinyin: Zhōng-Yìn Biānjìng Zhànzhēng), was a war between China and India that occurred in 1962. A disputed Himalayan border was the main pretext for war, but other issues played a role. There had been a series of violent border incidents after the 1959 Tibetan uprising, when India had granted asylum to the Dalai Lama. India initiated a Forward Policy in which it placed outposts along the border, including several north of the McMahon Line, the eastern portion of a Line of Actual Control proclaimed by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1959.
Unable to reach political accommodation on disputed territory along the 3,225-kilometer-long Himalayan border, the Chinese launched simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line on 20 October 1962, coinciding with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Chinese troops advanced over Indian forces in both theatres, capturing Rezang la in Chushul in the western theatre, as well as Tawang in the eastern theatre. The war ended when the Chinese declared a ceasefire on 20 November 1962, and simultaneously announced its withdrawal from the disputed area.
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Stanley Wolpert
Stanley Wolpert (born 1927) is an American Indologist, author, and academic. He is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the political and intellectual history of modern India and Pakistan and has written fiction and nonfiction books on the topics. He taught at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1959-2002.
Stanley Albert Wolpert was born on 23 December 1927 in Brooklyn, New York to Russian Jewish parents. While serving as an engineer aboard a U.S. Merchant Marine ship he arrived in Bombay, India for the first time on 12 February 1948. Upon arriving, he was both fascinated and overwhelmed by the extraordinary outpouring of grief over the death of Mahatma Gandhi—who he then knew very little about—just two weeks earlier. Atop a hill, he witnessed numerous mourning Indians who were rushing to touch the ashes of Gandhi as the ship on which the urn was placed weighed anchor to scatter a portion of his ashes into the water below. On returning home, he abandoned his career in marine engineering for the study of Indian history. He received a B.A. from City College in 1953, and an A.M. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955 and 1959. with a dissertation (published as Tilak and Gokhale) on the revolutionary and reform wings of the Indian National Congress.
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Sugata Bose
Sugata Bose is the Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University.
Sugata Bose was born in Calcutta, India. He studied at the Presidency College, Kolkata. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge under Eric Stokes. He is the grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and grandson of Nationalist leader Sarat Chandra Bose and son of Formerly T.M.C. MP Smt. Krishna Bose.
Sugata Bose was a professor of history and diplomacy at Tufts University. He is the author of several books on the economic, social and political history of modern South Asia, and has pioneered work in historical studies emphasizing the centrality of the Indian Ocean. He is heading the mentors' group for revival of Presidency College.
He is married to Ayesha Jalal, a prominent Pakistani historian and professor of South Asian History at Tufts University.[citation needed]
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Tulsidas
Tulsidas (Devanagari: तुलसीदास, Hindi pronunciation: [t̪uls̪iːd̪ɑːs̪], also known as Goswami Tulsidas), (1497/1532–1623) was a Hindu poet-saint, reformer and philosopher renowned for his devotion for the god Rama. A composer of several popular works, he is best known for being the author of the epic Ramcharitmanas, a retelling of the Sanskrit Ramayana in the vernacular Awadhi. Tulsidas was acclaimed in his lifetime to be a reincarnation of Valmiki, the composer of the original Ramayana in Sanskrit. He is also considered to be the composer of the Hanuman Chalisa, a popular devotional hymn dedicated to Hanuman, the divine monkey helper and devotee of Rama. Tulsidas lived permanently and died in the city of Varanasi. The Tulsi Ghat in Varnasi is named after him. He founded the Sankatmochan Temple dedicated to Hanuman in Varanasi, believed to stand at the place where he had the sight of Hanuman. Tulsidas started the Ramlila plays, a folk-theatre adaption of the Ramayana. He has been acclaimed as one of the greatest poets in Hindi, Indian, and world literature. The impact of Tulsidas and his works on the art, culture and society in India is widespread and is seen to date in vernacular language, Ramlila plays, Hindustani classical music, popular music, and television series.
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Upinder Singh
Prof. Upinder Singh (Punjabi: ਉਪਿੰਦਰ ਸਿੰਘ) is an author and professor in the history department at the University of Delhi. She is also the recipient of the inaugural Infosys Prize in the category of Social Sciences (History).
Prof. Upinder Singh has written four books and published in several peer-reviewed journals. Most recently, she has written a book challenging the Marxist view of Indian history by considering not only on economics, and politics, but also religion and philosophy.[citation needed] She has done research on the history of Delhi, and has suggested that it is one of the oldest cities in the world.[citation needed]
Prof. Upinder Singh is an alumna of St. Stephen's College, Delhi and received her PhD from McGill University, Canada. She has Master of Arts in History and an M.Phil. in History, both from the University of Delhi. She has Ph.D. at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, with a thesis titled "Kings, Brahmanas, and Temples in Orissa: an epigraphic study (300-1147 CE)".
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Driving around Model Town Jalandhar, Punjab, India ~ ManuBenz
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:42
- Updated: 29 Aug 2012
Driving around Model Town Jalandhar, Punjab, India ~ ManuBenz
http://wn.com/Driving_around_Model_Town_Jalandhar,_Punjab,_India_~_ManuBenz
Driving around Model Town Jalandhar, Punjab, India ~ ManuBenz
Punjab - India begins here
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:37
- Updated: 13 Dec 2012
Punjab, located in the north west of India, is one of the smallest and the most prosperous states of India. The five rivers Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and Jhelum gave it its name 'punj-ab' or the 'land of five waters'. These five rivers divide the state into three regions: Majha, Doaba and Malwa.Punjab is certainly a primarily agricultural state and enjoys the natural benefits of fertile soils and abundant waters. As a civilization, it is one of the most ancient in the world with a distinguished culture.
http://wn.com/Punjab_India_begins_here
Punjab, located in the north west of India, is one of the smallest and the most prosperous states of India. The five rivers Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab and Jhelum gave it its name 'punj-ab' or the 'land of five waters'. These five rivers divide the state into three regions: Majha, Doaba and Malwa.Punjab is certainly a primarily agricultural state and enjoys the natural benefits of fertile soils and abundant waters. As a civilization, it is one of the most ancient in the world with a distinguished culture.
- published: 07 Aug 2012
- views: 44993
- author: india
Express Punjab - HD Trailer (Uncensored) - no subtitles | www.expresspunjab.org |
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:06
- Updated: 14 Dec 2012
Known, as the 'bread basket of India' Punjab is one of the most prosperous states in the country. But this prosperity has come at a price- a huge price. For it has brought with it an alarming increase in drug addicts made easier by being a stone's throwaway from the Indo-Pak border -this once vibrant countryside now lives in a dazed stupor. The image of the sturdy Punjabi boy with a bright turban on a tractor in the lush fields has become a picture of the distant past. The truth is that Punjab is in a grip of a drug epidemic -- and a main university in the region has claimed that a staggering 70% are estimated to be on drugs such as heroin, smack and pharmaceutical medical drugs. It is a problem that is threatening the future of the next generation. From the ages of 17 -- 87 the Punjabi men are destroying their lives and their families as this problem continues to be brushed under the carpet by a state that is in total denial. Express | Punjab takes a hard-hitting look at this phenomenon asking difficult questions such as why is this happening? How is it happening? What are the legal authorities doing to stem the tide of this ever-increasing crime? And to what extent is the police turning a blind eye and in some cases even colluding with the drug dealers? The documentary looks at the real human suffering that drug users cause and how their actions destroyed their families and relationships. Please visit www.expresspunjab.org for further information regarding the ...
http://wn.com/Express_Punjab_HD_Trailer_Uncensored_no_subtitles_|_wwwexpresspunjaborg_|
Known, as the 'bread basket of India' Punjab is one of the most prosperous states in the country. But this prosperity has come at a price- a huge price. For it has brought with it an alarming increase in drug addicts made easier by being a stone's throwaway from the Indo-Pak border -this once vibrant countryside now lives in a dazed stupor. The image of the sturdy Punjabi boy with a bright turban on a tractor in the lush fields has become a picture of the distant past. The truth is that Punjab is in a grip of a drug epidemic -- and a main university in the region has claimed that a staggering 70% are estimated to be on drugs such as heroin, smack and pharmaceutical medical drugs. It is a problem that is threatening the future of the next generation. From the ages of 17 -- 87 the Punjabi men are destroying their lives and their families as this problem continues to be brushed under the carpet by a state that is in total denial. Express | Punjab takes a hard-hitting look at this phenomenon asking difficult questions such as why is this happening? How is it happening? What are the legal authorities doing to stem the tide of this ever-increasing crime? And to what extent is the police turning a blind eye and in some cases even colluding with the drug dealers? The documentary looks at the real human suffering that drug users cause and how their actions destroyed their families and relationships. Please visit www.expresspunjab.org for further information regarding the ...
- published: 11 Apr 2012
- views: 94641
- author: Gaurav Bavdankar
Ludhiana, Punjab, India
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:54
- Updated: 08 Oct 2012
A day of errands around Ludhiana, Punjab, India. Check out the version with music here: www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/Ludhiana,_Punjab,_India
A day of errands around Ludhiana, Punjab, India. Check out the version with music here: www.youtube.com
- published: 25 May 2009
- views: 44935
- author: amanvirdy
Adampur, Jalandhar PUNJAB - INDIA May 2011
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:14
- Updated: 10 Dec 2012
http://wn.com/Adampur,_Jalandhar_PUNJAB_INDIA_May_2011
AMRITSAR Punjabi Wedding Highlights. India 2011.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:05
- Updated: 17 Dec 2012
PUNJABI WEDDING highlights, Amritsar, Punjab India. 2011. Punjabi Wedding Highlights 2011 by Gregsvideo.Com. This lovely couple flew from England back to a fresh and green city in the northern part of India. This city is the home to the Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, the spiritual and cultural center of the Sikh religion. The city prides of being the main centre of Sikhs' cultural and religious history. Yes, we are talking about Amritsar. When we arrived in this city, we could smell the fresh air and the lovely greetings from the people there made us feel that we were back home. As you watch this video, you will notice that the Sikh religion is filled with colorful traditions. As we continue watching this video, we see the bond of the family, getting together and preparing for the wedding. On the day of the wedding, there is a scene where the boy's family approaches to girl's residence and they are exchanging gifts...and another scene shows the groom and bride are looking at something through a window. We felt this scene was classic because we feel the groom is assuring his bride that everything will go fine today and years to come. Best wishes to this lovely couple! Enjoy viewing it! Best regards, Greg & team Call: +6012 300 6298 For more details: info@gregsvideo.com Call: +6012 300 6298
http://wn.com/AMRITSAR_Punjabi_Wedding_Highlights_India_2011
PUNJABI WEDDING highlights, Amritsar, Punjab India. 2011. Punjabi Wedding Highlights 2011 by Gregsvideo.Com. This lovely couple flew from England back to a fresh and green city in the northern part of India. This city is the home to the Harmandir Sahib, also known as the Golden Temple, the spiritual and cultural center of the Sikh religion. The city prides of being the main centre of Sikhs' cultural and religious history. Yes, we are talking about Amritsar. When we arrived in this city, we could smell the fresh air and the lovely greetings from the people there made us feel that we were back home. As you watch this video, you will notice that the Sikh religion is filled with colorful traditions. As we continue watching this video, we see the bond of the family, getting together and preparing for the wedding. On the day of the wedding, there is a scene where the boy's family approaches to girl's residence and they are exchanging gifts...and another scene shows the groom and bride are looking at something through a window. We felt this scene was classic because we feel the groom is assuring his bride that everything will go fine today and years to come. Best wishes to this lovely couple! Enjoy viewing it! Best regards, Greg & team Call: +6012 300 6298 For more details: info@gregsvideo.com Call: +6012 300 6298
- published: 06 May 2011
- views: 203827
- author: gregsvideodotcom
Incredible India - Punjab Police & Shiv Sena Group Up to attack Sikhs
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:35
- Updated: 07 Dec 2012
Human rights get violated as the Punjab Police go running around looking to brutality attack any innocent Sikhs that they see. Towards the end of the video you can clearly see the Punjab Police re-join with the aggressively violent Shiv Sena (RSS) terrorist group as a force to attack any innocent Sikhs. If the Punjab Police was doing their job properly why aren't they stopping Shiv Sena from provoking the Sikhs from the very start? Donate to the families of the Shaheed Singhs that got shot: www.justgiving.com www.justgiving.com Previous Video : youtu.be
http://wn.com/Incredible_India_Punjab_Police_Shiv_Sena_Group_Up_to_attack_Sikhs
Human rights get violated as the Punjab Police go running around looking to brutality attack any innocent Sikhs that they see. Towards the end of the video you can clearly see the Punjab Police re-join with the aggressively violent Shiv Sena (RSS) terrorist group as a force to attack any innocent Sikhs. If the Punjab Police was doing their job properly why aren't they stopping Shiv Sena from provoking the Sikhs from the very start? Donate to the families of the Shaheed Singhs that got shot: www.justgiving.com www.justgiving.com Previous Video : youtu.be
- published: 29 Mar 2012
- views: 39897
- author: SuperSarbloh
Attari village of Punjab, India
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:14
- Updated: 08 Nov 2012
Attari is a village of Amritsar District in the Punjab state of India. It lies on the rail route connecting Lahore, Pakistan with the Indian capital Delhi. The Samjhauta Express, the train service that actually crosses the international border, only runs from Attari station to Wagah, Pakistan a distance of 3 km. Attari village is the home of Attariwala Jats. Source: Wikipedia Thisfootage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at wfi @ vsnl.com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com
http://wn.com/Attari_village_of_Punjab,_India
Attari is a village of Amritsar District in the Punjab state of India. It lies on the rail route connecting Lahore, Pakistan with the Indian capital Delhi. The Samjhauta Express, the train service that actually crosses the international border, only runs from Attari station to Wagah, Pakistan a distance of 3 km. Attari village is the home of Attariwala Jats. Source: Wikipedia Thisfootage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at wfi @ vsnl.com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com
- published: 27 Aug 2012
- views: 291
- author: WildFilmsIndia
Level a1 test coaching in punjab india
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:20
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
We conduct CEFR Level A1- B2 tests in India. NORTHWEST IMMIGRATIONS is UKBA approved ESOL test centre in Punjab. Northwest Immigrations excels in coaching and administration of partners test for UK also called ESOL Course for Marriage visa UK, introduced by UKBA since 29th November 2010. Every spouse / partner has to clear English basic Level A1 test as per regulation by UK Border Agency, in Punjab India, Jalandhar, amritsar, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Barnala, Moga, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Delhi,Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttrakhand, UP, MP, Chennai, Chandigarh Mumbai, India. Please visit our office for more information. Hundreds of successful visa issued with our help. We will provide the certificate some days and will be giving you coaching to appear for this test. Call NORTHWEST IMMIGRATIONS on 0181-4627-907 and 0-8427233-007. We have 100% success rate so far. It is a fairly easy test made easier by world class coaching and qualified teachers. We can help you to file your case in 1 weeks time. Please visit or call for more information.
http://wn.com/Level_a1_test_coaching_in_punjab_india
We conduct CEFR Level A1- B2 tests in India. NORTHWEST IMMIGRATIONS is UKBA approved ESOL test centre in Punjab. Northwest Immigrations excels in coaching and administration of partners test for UK also called ESOL Course for Marriage visa UK, introduced by UKBA since 29th November 2010. Every spouse / partner has to clear English basic Level A1 test as per regulation by UK Border Agency, in Punjab India, Jalandhar, amritsar, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Barnala, Moga, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Delhi,Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttrakhand, UP, MP, Chennai, Chandigarh Mumbai, India. Please visit our office for more information. Hundreds of successful visa issued with our help. We will provide the certificate some days and will be giving you coaching to appear for this test. Call NORTHWEST IMMIGRATIONS on 0181-4627-907 and 0-8427233-007. We have 100% success rate so far. It is a fairly easy test made easier by world class coaching and qualified teachers. We can help you to file your case in 1 weeks time. Please visit or call for more information.
- published: 18 Dec 2012
- author: ARVIND KUMAR
troy bolton in punjab,india
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:55
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
punjab in india. burrrrrraaaaaaaaahhhh
http://wn.com/troy_bolton_in_punjab,india
India Ton Aaya Phone - Kamal Heer : Punjabi Virsa 2011, Melbourne
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:51
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
'India Ton Aaya Kal Phne Yaar Da' performed by Kamal Heer at Punjabi Virsa 2011, Melbourne, Australia, tells a story of a false hope of love. This light hearted song's lyrics are by Sukhpal Aujla & music is by Sangtar. © 2011-2012 Plasma Records. www.plasmarecords.com or http
http://wn.com/India_Ton_Aaya_Phone_Kamal_Heer_Punjabi_Virsa_2011,_Melbourne
'India Ton Aaya Kal Phne Yaar Da' performed by Kamal Heer at Punjabi Virsa 2011, Melbourne, Australia, tells a story of a false hope of love. This light hearted song's lyrics are by Sukhpal Aujla & music is by Sangtar. © 2011-2012 Plasma Records. www.plasmarecords.com or http
- published: 07 Feb 2012
- views: 323963
- author: plasmarecords
Pujabi cocktail party at 2 in the morning.. CITY OF LUDHIANA,PUNJAB,INDIA
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:49
- Updated: 11 Dec 2012
Pujabi cocktail party at 2 in the morning.. CITY OF LUDHIANA,PUNJAB,INDIA THIS PARTY WAS HELD AT THE WEDDING CEREMONY OF ATUL KHULLAR.....
http://wn.com/Pujabi_cocktail_party_at_2_in_the_morning_CITY_OF_LUDHIANA,PUNJAB,INDIA
Pujabi cocktail party at 2 in the morning.. CITY OF LUDHIANA,PUNJAB,INDIA THIS PARTY WAS HELD AT THE WEDDING CEREMONY OF ATUL KHULLAR.....
- published: 24 Nov 2012
- views: 87
- author: Vasav Chawla
Sound Trippin - Episode 1 - Punjab
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 29:35
- Updated: 16 Dec 2012
Get Sound Trippin on: www.mtvindia.com Join Sneha as she goes to the Qila Raipur Rural Olympics in Punjab for her very 1st journey from Sound to Song! To Download the sound trippin songs at : www.flipkart.com
http://wn.com/Sound_Trippin_Episode_1_Punjab
Get Sound Trippin on: www.mtvindia.com Join Sneha as she goes to the Qila Raipur Rural Olympics in Punjab for her very 1st journey from Sound to Song! To Download the sound trippin songs at : www.flipkart.com
- published: 14 Apr 2012
- views: 134784
- author: mtvindia
Cowpat power for India's Punjab province - 18 Dec 09
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:11
- Updated: 10 Dec 2012
India's Punjab province has the highest per capita energy consumption in the country. Power cuts are an almost daily routine. Now, the state is turning to a new source of energy that's also environmentally friendly - cow dung. Prerna Suri reports from Ludhiana City.
http://wn.com/Cowpat_power_for_India's_Punjab_province_18_Dec_09
India's Punjab province has the highest per capita energy consumption in the country. Power cuts are an almost daily routine. Now, the state is turning to a new source of energy that's also environmentally friendly - cow dung. Prerna Suri reports from Ludhiana City.
- published: 18 Dec 2009
- views: 40348
- author: AlJazeeraEnglish
India, Punjab, Amritsar
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:01
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
Amritsar, Punjab, How to become a Sadar
http://wn.com/India,_Punjab,_Amritsar
Watch full and exclusive coverage on ASI killing!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 21:21
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
Watch India TV exclusive full coverage on ASI killing in Punjab!
http://wn.com/Watch_full_and_exclusive_coverage_on_ASI_killing!
Watch India TV exclusive full coverage on ASI killing in Punjab!
- published: 08 Dec 2012
- views: 6154
- author: IndiaTV
punjab police ASI killed by akali leader in amritsar punjab .wmv
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:08
- Updated: 20 Dec 2012
http://wn.com/punjab_police_ASI_killed_by_akali_leader_in_amritsar_punjab_wmv
Indian Aseel by shergill Punjab .
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:28
- Updated: 11 Dec 2012
We like bandkanda Aseel fight . Because by this way Aseel bird protected from blindness and death .
http://wn.com/Indian_Aseel_by_shergill_Punjab_
We like bandkanda Aseel fight . Because by this way Aseel bird protected from blindness and death .
- published: 12 Jun 2012
- views: 2885
- author: SHER GILL
Prime - Punjab Police Brutality - 10 Nov 2011 - Part 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 14:41
- Updated: 22 Nov 2012
Follow Day & Night News on Facebook www.facebook.com Visit Day & Night News for latest news www.dayandnightnews.com
http://wn.com/Prime_Punjab_Police_Brutality_10_Nov_2011_Part_1
Follow Day & Night News on Facebook www.facebook.com Visit Day & Night News for latest news www.dayandnightnews.com
- published: 18 Oct 2012
- views: 261
- author: DayAndNightNewsChd
Mixed Vegetables (North Indian - Punjabi Style) Recipe in Hindi with Captions in English
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:49
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
Mixed Vegetables is an Easy-to-Cook and Delicious Main Course Dish for Lunch and Dinner. Both Children as well as Adults love it alike. It is served as a Main Course Vegetarian Dish in Parties and Restaurants. This recipe is tried, tested and tasty. It serves 4 persons. Mixed Vegetables taste best when served Hot straight from the Pan. The Preparation Time for this dish is approx. 20 minutes. The Cooking Time for this dish, excluding preparation time is approx. 30 minutes. This dish can be prepared on a Gas Stove/ Electric Hot Plate/ Induction Cooker. Watch this video, try this recipe and please comment.
http://wn.com/Mixed_Vegetables_North_Indian_Punjabi_Style_Recipe_in_Hindi_with_Captions_in_English
Mixed Vegetables is an Easy-to-Cook and Delicious Main Course Dish for Lunch and Dinner. Both Children as well as Adults love it alike. It is served as a Main Course Vegetarian Dish in Parties and Restaurants. This recipe is tried, tested and tasty. It serves 4 persons. Mixed Vegetables taste best when served Hot straight from the Pan. The Preparation Time for this dish is approx. 20 minutes. The Cooking Time for this dish, excluding preparation time is approx. 30 minutes. This dish can be prepared on a Gas Stove/ Electric Hot Plate/ Induction Cooker. Watch this video, try this recipe and please comment.
- published: 16 Jul 2012
- views: 88127
- author: RARERECIPES
REAL ASEEL LOOKS LIKE SHAMOO by SHERGILL71 PUNJAB
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:22
- Updated: 18 Dec 2012
REAL ASEEL,,, THIS ASEEL ROOSTER STANDS LIKE SHAMO ROOSTER,,, BUT THIS IS NOT SHAMOO,,, THIS IS REAL INDIAN PUNJABI ASEEL,,
http://wn.com/REAL_ASEEL_LOOKS_LIKE_SHAMOO_by_SHERGILL71_PUNJAB
REAL ASEEL,,, THIS ASEEL ROOSTER STANDS LIKE SHAMO ROOSTER,,, BUT THIS IS NOT SHAMOO,,, THIS IS REAL INDIAN PUNJABI ASEEL,,
- published: 16 Apr 2012
- views: 15783
- author: SHER GILL
LAKHEWALI DOG BREEDERS AND EMU FARMING, MUKTSAR(PUNJAB)INDIA, SIRSA,HARYANA
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:48
- Updated: 09 Dec 2012
we have well established dog kennel & emu farm in lakhewali muktsar (punjab)india cell no - 09876057076,07355400057
http://wn.com/LAKHEWALI_DOG_BREEDERS_AND_EMU_FARMING,_MUKTSARPUNJABINDIA,_SIRSA,HARYANA
we have well established dog kennel & emu farm in lakhewali muktsar (punjab)india cell no - 09876057076,07355400057
- published: 02 Jul 2012
- views: 4947
- author: Dilbagh Brar
(Rated R) Punjabi Desi girl talkinga bout sexy positions
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:51
- Updated: 19 Dec 2012
(Rated R) Punjabi Desi girl talkinga bout sexy positions
http://wn.com/Rated_R_Punjabi_Desi_girl_talkinga_bout_sexy_positions
(Rated R) Punjabi Desi girl talkinga bout sexy positions
- published: 19 Dec 2012
- views: 338
- author: joshsingh
photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
19 Dec 2012
WASHINGTON. US President Barack Obama backs a new bill to revive an assault weapons ban and other new gun laws, the White House said Tuesday, fleshing out his nascent response to a shocking school massacre. Obama also called an ardently pro-gun senator who has shifted his position on firearms laws since Friday's carnage in Connecticut and has begun meeting top cabinet officials to consider his options, his spokesman Jay Carney said ... ....(size: 4.9Kb)
photo: AP / Charles Krupa
18 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. "Most people reason dramatically, not quantitatively." -Oliver Wendell Holmes. On the same day that a 20-year-old, described as brilliant but remote, walked into an elementary school in Connecticut and massacred 26 children and adults, the school where I teach went on "lock-down." Four students with a handgun were arrested ... That morning before school, he had posted on Twitter and Facebook....(size: 14.0Kb)
photo: Creative Commons / Joachim Huber
18 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. When a Stanford geneticist, Gerald Crabtree, published a provocative and controversial new view on evolutionary change, namely that humans are actually getting dumber, he should have also added that humans are still developing an extermination gene ... Paleontologist Tim Flannery would more than likely agree with Crabtree ... Strange strings of gravel also overlaid some bones ... (1) Kane, Alex ... 195....(size: 9.4Kb)
photo: AP / Narciso Contreras
19 Dec 2012
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed on Wednesday for $1.5 billion (920.1 million pounds) to provide life-saving aid to Syrians suffering from a "dramatically deteriorating" humanitarian situation ... "The magnitude of this humanitarian crisis is indisputable," said Radhouane Nouicer, U.N ... Inside Syria, U.N ... ....(size: 1.5Kb)
photo: AP / Jason DeCrow
18 Dec 2012
An increasing number of US congressmen have called for a national dialogue about measures to curb gun violence following the shooting last week at a primary school in Connecticut that killed 26 people, including 20 children and six adults ... "Everything should be on the table," West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin declared on Monday ... 407 Source. ... Share ... Jaws ... Life, love, food and film as seen through the eyes of one of India's leading ladies ... ....(size: 19.2Kb)
The Times of India
20 Dec 2012
Even before they could sit and deliberate issues pertaining to Indo-Pak border management, sharp differences cropped up between BSF and Pak Rangers after the latter justified smuggling of narcotics from Pakistan claiming its huge demand in India ... Jamil also blamed India for smuggling liquor into Pakistan. "We have arrested 30 persons involved in smuggling of liquor from India to Pakistan in last six months....(size: 2.3Kb)
BBC News
20 Dec 2012
Unknown in their own country, the England women's kabaddi team last week played to crowds of 40,000 people at the world cup in India, where they were mobbed by fans, given a police escort... They're playing in the 2012 kabaddi world cup in Punjab, India ... An ex-kabaddi player born in Punjab, Das introduced the sport to the British Army in 2005 as a way of keeping fit ... England lost in the semi-final to eventual winners India....(size: 5.8Kb)
The Siasat Daily
20 Dec 2012
In a bid to discuss several issues pertaining to border security, the India-Pakistan quarterly co-ordination meeting was held today between Border Security Force (BSF) and Pakistani Rangers at Attari-Wagah border near here. The Indian delegation was headed by Deputy Inspector General, BSF P S Bains and Pakistan Rangers delegation was led by Deputy Director General, Pakistan Rangers, Punjab, Brigadier Muhammad Jamil....(size: 2.8Kb)
Indian Express
20 Dec 2012
Punjab were expected to steamroll the JKCA team in the first session itself but the visiting team's remaining three wickets batted surprisingly well and emerged as a thorn in the host team's flesh as they defied the inevitable till lunch ... Punjab were rewarded for their outstanding performance as they garnered seven points from the outright victory....(size: 1.7Kb)
The Times of India
20 Dec 2012
The Punjab Vidhan Sabha passed a resolution that the Union government should help the state in promoting farm diversification and demanded a technology mission for " Diversification of agriculture" with an allocation of Rs 5,000 crore for ......(size: 1.2Kb)
Deccan Chronicle
20 Dec 2012
CNN
20 Dec 2012
She has now joined New Generation Media to help launch a national English news channel in India ... was shot dead in her car in India's capital, New Delhi ... India's rising rape cases -- one every 22 minutes, according to the National Crime Records Bureau -- betray what is wrong with society ... The truth is, when most women report sexual harassment in India's cities, towns and villages, they are typically met with a shrug....(size: 9.3Kb)
The Siasat Daily
20 Dec 2012
Akhilesh One killed in DhubriUS asks Pakistan to dismantle Lashkar-e-TaibaPakistan, India set for resumption of hockey tiesWoman, 81, jumps to death with porn suspect sonPopular antibiotic could cause harmhAt 82, man advertises for wifeDikshit asks police to instill sense of security among womenProbe on into fire at Hyderabad's old airport Related News....(size: 3.2Kb)
The Times of India
20 Dec 2012
On a day when tempers ran high in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, the leader of the House and leader of Opposition, both known for their measured words, engaged in potshots at each other....(size: 1.0Kb)
The Times of India
20 Dec 2012
CHANDIGARH. There is every reason for girls to feel vulnerable while moving out on their own ... They should offer training in self defense to women regularly," said Shalini Kaba, a student of MSc, Punjab University ... Rajni Kansal, a student at Punjab University said, "I feel more confident after attending self defense classes ... ....(size: 1.6Kb)
Mumbai Mirror
20 Dec 2012
Abhijit Sathe. Tweet Rate me.... " class="fb_share_button" onclick="return fbs_click()" target="_blank" style="text-decoration.none;"> Share Share Share Share. Posted On Thursday, December 20, 2012 at 05.40.06 AM ... In subsequent searches at various places in north India, CBI seized Rs 28 lakh and approximately 25 kilos of gold from various bank lockers operated by Sharma and Ranjan, besides some properties in Punjab ... The catch lies there ... ....(size: 6.0Kb)
The Times of India
20 Dec 2012
The Congress accused the SAD-BJP alliance in Punjab for being "anti-social engineering" and blamed the " parallel criminal economy" that has led to incidents like the shooting of a police officer in full public view, who was trying to save his daughter's honour in Amritsar ... Slamming the role of Punjab police in the abduction of a minor girl, a rape ......(size: 2.5Kb)
Newstrack India
20 Dec 2012
Tweet ... Gurney's "Love Letters" at the Punjabi Theatre Festival Dec 19-22 ... I started off with theatre when I was a teenager and was spotted by directors of the Punjab Kala Manch at a college play. I want to act and will be producing theatre from now on," Om Puri said ... Siddiqui's Indian adaptation uses the religious and political aspects of partition and the multi-layered reality of post-independence India as the locale for the love story....(size: 5.3Kb)
This article is about the Indian state of Punjab. For other uses of the name, see Punjab (disambiguation).
| Punjab ਪੰਜਾਬ पंजाब |
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|---|---|---|---|
| — State — | |||
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| Nickname(s): Land of five Rivers | |||
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| Coordinates (chandigarh): 30°47′N 76°47′E / 30.79°N 76.78°E / 30.79; 76.78Coordinates: 30°47′N 76°47′E / 30.79°N 76.78°E / 30.79; 76.78 | |||
| Country |  India |
||
| Established | 1966-11-01 | ||
| Capital | Chandigarh | ||
| Largest city | Ludhiana | ||
| Districts | 22 | ||
| Government | |||
| • Governor | Shivraj Patil[1] | ||
| • Chief Minister | Parkash Singh Badal (SAD) | ||
| • Legislature | Unicameral (117 seats) | ||
| • Parliamentary constituency | 13 | ||
| • High Court | Punjab and Haryana High Court | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 50,362 km2 (19,445 sq mi) | ||
| Area rank | 19th | ||
| Population (2011)[2] | |||
| • Total | 27,704,236 | ||
| • Density | 550/km2 (1,400/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | IST (UTC+05:30) | ||
| ISO 3166 code | IN-PB | ||
| HDI |  0.679 (medium) |
||
| HDI rank | 9th (2005) | ||
| Literacy | 76.68% | ||
| Official languages | Punjabi, Hindi | ||
| Website | punjabgovt.nic.in | ||
Punjab (i/pʌnˈdʒɑːb/) (Punjabi: ਪੰਜਾਬ Hindi: पंजाब) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the west, it is also bounded to the north by Jammu and Kashmir. The state capital is Chandigarh, which is a Union Territory and also the capital of neighbouring state of Haryana. Major cities of Punjab includes Ludhiana, Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar, Bathinda and Mohali.
After the partition of India in 1947, the Punjab province of British India was divided between India and Pakistan. The Indian Punjab was divided in 1966 with the formation of the new states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh as well as the current state of Punjab. Punjab is the only state in India with a majority Sikh population.[3]
The Greeks referred to Punjab as Pentapotamia, an inland delta of five converging rivers.[4] In Avesta, the sacred text of Zoroastrians, the Punjab region is associated with the ancient hapta həndu or Sapta Sindhu, the Land of Seven Rivers.[5] The British used to call Punjab "Our Prussia."[citation needed] Historically, the Punjab region has been the gateway to the Indian subcontinent for people from Greece, Central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan and Vice-versa.[4]
Agriculture is the largest industry in Punjab; it is the largest single provider of wheat to India.[6] Other major industries include the manufacturing of scientific instruments, agricultural goods, electrical goods, financial services, machine tools, textiles, sewing machines, sports goods, starch, tourism, fertilizers, bicycles, garments, and the processing of pine oil and sugar. Punjab also has the largest number of Steel Rolling Mill Plants in India which are located in Steel Town Mandi Gobindgarh, District Fatehgarh Sahib.
Contents |
Etymology[link]
The word Punjab is a combination of the Persian words Panj (Persian: پنج) and Āb (Persian: آب) that means Five and Water respectively, thus PanjĀb means Five Rivers which roughly means Land of Five Rivers.[7] The five rivers are the Beas, Sutlej, Ravi, Chenab and Jehlum (also spelled Jhelum). Traditionally, in English, there used to be a definite article before the name i.e. The Punjab.[8] The name is also sometimes spelled as Panjab.
Geography[link]
Punjab is located in northwestern India, and has an area of 50,362 km2. It extends from the latitudes 29.30° North to 32.32° North and longitudes 73.55° East to 76.50° East. It is bounded on the west by Pakistan, on the north by Jammu and Kashmir, on the northeast by Himachal Pradesh and on the south by Haryana and Rajasthan.
Most of the Punjab lies in a fertile plain, alluvial plain with many rivers and an extensive irrigation canal system.[9] A belt of undulating hills extends along the northeastern part of the state at the foot of the Himalayas. Its average elevation is 300 meters above sea level, with a range from 180 meters in the southwest to more than 500 meters around the northeast border. The southwest of the state is semi-arid, eventually merging into the Thar Desert. The Shiwalik Hills extends along the northeastern part of the state at the foot of the Himalayas.
The soil characteristics are influenced to a limited extent by the topography, vegetation and parent rock. The variation in soil profile characteristics are much more pronounced because of the regional climatic differences. Punjab is divided into three distinct regions on the basis of soil types; southwestern, central, and eastern.
Punjab falls under seismic zones II, III, and IV. Zone II is considered a low damage risk zone; zone III is considered a moderate damage risk zones; and zone IV is considered a high damage risk zone.[10]
Climate[link]
Punjab's climate is characterized by extreme hot and extreme cold conditions. Annual temperatures in Punjab range from −2 to 40 °C (min/max), but can reach 47 °C (117 °F) in summer and −4 °C in winter. The northeast area lying near the foothills of the Himalayas receives heavy rainfall, whereas the area lying further south and west receives less rainfall and experiences higher temperatures. Average annual rainfall ranges between 960 mm in the sub-mountain region and 460 mm in the plains.
Punjab has three seasons:[9]
- Summer (April to June), when temperature typically rise as high as 110°F.
- Monsoon season (July to September), when a majority of rainfall occurs.
- Winter (December to February), when temperatures typically fall as low as 40°F.
There is a transitional period between winter and summer in March and early April, as well as a transitional season between monsoon season and winter in October and November.
Wildlife[link]
The Shivalik area is the richest area of Punjab in terms of floral and faunal diversity and has been identified as one of the micro-endemic zones of India. Amongst the Angiosperms, about 355 species of herbs, 70 tree species, 70 species of shrubs or under shrubs, 19 of climbers and 21 species of twiners have been recorded from the area. Apart from angiosperms, 31 species of Pteridophytes, 27 of bryophytes and one species of gymnosperms (Pinus roxburghii) have also been recorded. The area is also rich in faunal diversity including 396 species of birds, 214 species of Lepidoptera, 55 species of fish, 20 species of reptiles, and 19 species of mammals.[11]
There are no natural forests in the plains; extensive tracts occur covered only with grass, shrubs and bushes. The mango fruit is largely cultivated in the south-east of the Punjab and attains a high degree of perfection about Multan and Hoshiarpur. Cultivated fruit trees, such as orange, pomegranate, apple, peach, fig, mulberry, quince, apricot, almond, and plum are abundant in the region.[12]
There are a number of wetlands, bird sanctuaries and zoological parks across Punjab. These include the Hari-Ke-Pattan National Wetland and Wildlife Sanctuary at Harike in Tarn Taran Sahib District, the Kanjli Wetland, the Kapurthala Sutlej Water Body Wetland, the Ropar Zoological Park, Chhatbir, Bansar Garden, Sangrur, the Aam Khas Bagh, Sirhind, the Ram Bagh Garden Amritsar, the Shalimar Garden, Kapurthala and the Baradari Garden at Patiala.[13]
Crocodiles are also commonly found in local rivers. The silkworm is reared with great skill and industry, and bees produce abundant wax and honey. Camels thrive in the hot southern plains, and herds of buffaloes on the grazing lands adjoining the rivers. Horses are reared in the north-east part of the Punjab.[12] Among poisonous snakes there are the cobra and the sangehur, the bite of which causes instant death. Other mammals like the smooth-coated otter, hog deer, wild boar, flying fox, wildcat, squirrel, fruitbat, and mongoose can be seen in the wild and in reserves.
The state bird of Punjab is the Baz (Eastern Goshawk)[14] (Melierax poliopterus), the state animal is the Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra), and the state tree is the Shisham (Dalbergia sissoo).[9]
History[link]
Main article: History of the Punjab
Ancient history[link]
Punjab during Mahabharata times was known as Panchanad.[15][16] Indus Valley Civilization spanned much of the Punjab region with cities such as Harrapa (modern-day Punjab, Pakistan). The Vedic Civilization along the length of the Sarasvati River to cover most of Northern India including Punjab. This civilization shaped subsequent cultures in the Indian Subcontinent. Punjab was part of the great ancient empires including the Gandhara, Mahajanapadas, Nandas, Mauryas, Sungas, Kushans, Guptas, Palas, Gurjara-Pratiharas and Hindu Shahis. The furthest eastern extent of Alexander the Great's exploration was along the Indus River. Agriculture flourished and trading cities (such as Jalandhar and Ludhiana) grew in wealth.
Due to its location, the Punjab region came under constant attack and influence from the west and east. Punjab faced invasions by the Persians, Greeks, Scythians, Turks, and Afghans. This resulted in the Punjab witnessing centuries of bitter bloodshed. Its legacy is a unique culture that combines Hindu, Buddhist, Persian/Zorastrian, Central Asian, Islamic, Afghan, Sikh and British elements.
The city of Taxila, founded by son of Taksh the son Bharat who was the brother of Ram. It was reputed to house the oldest university in the world, Takshashila University, one of the teachers was the great Vedic thinker and politician Chanakya. Taxila was a great centre of learning and intellectual discussion during the Maurya Empire. It is a UN World Heritage site.
Of particular importance were the periods of contact between Punjab and various Persian Empires when the parts of it either became integrated with the empire itself, or was an autonomous region which paid taxes to the Persian King. In later centuries, when Persian was the language of the Mughal government, Persian architecture, poetry, art and music was an integral part of the region's culture. The official language of Punjab remained Persian until the arrival of the British in the mid 19th century, where it was finally abolished and the administrative language was changed over to Urdu.
Sikhs in Punjab[link]
The roots of Sikhism began at the time of the Conquest of Northern India by Babur. His grandson, Akbar supported religious freedom and after visiting the langar of Guru Amar Das had a favorable impression of Sikhism. As a result of his visit he donated land to the langar and had a positive relationship with the Sikh Gurus until his death in 1605.[17] His successor, Jahangir, saw the Sikhs as a political threat. He arrested Guru Arjun Dev because of Sikh support for Khusrau Mirza[18] and ordered him to be put to death by torture. Guru Arjan Dev's Martyrdom led to the sixth Guru, Guru Har Gobind, declaring Sikh sovereignty in the creation of the Akal Takht and the establishment of a fort to defend Amritsar.[19]
Jahangir attempted to assert authority over the Sikhs by imprisoningGuru Har Gobind at Gwalior. He felt compelled to release him when he began to suffer premonitions of an early and gruesome death. The Guru refused to be released unless the dozens of Hindu princes imprisoned with him were also granted freedom, to which Jahangir agreed. Sikhism did not have any further issues with the Mughal Empire until the death of Jahangir in 1627. His successor, Shah Jahan "took offense" at Guru Har Gobind's sovereignty and after a series of assaults on Amritsar forced the Sikhs to retreat to the Sivalik Hills.[19] Guru Har Gobind's successor, Guru Har Rai maintained the guruship in the Sivalik Hills by defeating local attempts to seize Sikh land and taking a neutral role in the power struggle between Aurangzeb and Dara Shikoh for control of the Timurid dynasty. The ninth Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, moved the Sikh community to Anandpur and traveled extensively to visit and preach in Sikh communities in defiance of Mughal rule. He aided Kashmiri Pandits in avoiding conversion to Islam and was arrested and confronted by Aurangzeb. When offered a choice between conversion or death, he chose to die rather than compromise his principles and was executed.[20] Guru Gobind Singh, assumed the guruship in 1675 and to avoid battles with Sivalik Hill Rajas moved the guruship to Paunta. He built a large fort to protect the city and garrisoned an army to protect it. The growing power of the Sikh community alarmed Sivalik Hill Rajas who attempted to attack the city but the Guru's forces routed them at the Battle of Bhangani. He moved on to Anandpur and established the Khalsa, a collective army of baptized Sikhs, on March 30, 1699. The establishment of the Khalsa united the Sikh community against various Mughal-backed claimants to the guruship.[21]
In 1701, a combined army composed of the Sivalik Hill Rajas and the Mughal army under Wazir Khan attacked Anandpur and, following a retreat by the Khalsa, were defeated by the Khalsa at the Battle of Mukstar. Banda Singh Bahadur was an ascetic who converted to Sikhism after meeting Guru Gobind Singh at Nanded. A short time before his death, Guru Gobind Singh ordered him to uproot Mugal rule in Punjab and gave him a letter that commanded all Sikhs to join him. After two years of gaining supporters, Banda Singh Bahadur initiated an agrarian uprising by breaking up the large estates of Zamindar families and distributing the land to the poor Sikh, Hindu,and Muslim peasants who farmed the land.[22] Banda Singh Bahadur started his rebellion with the defeat of Mughal armies at Samana and Sadhaura and the rebellion culminated in the defeat of Sirhind. During the rebellion, Banda Singh Bahadur made a point of destroying the cities in which Mughals had been cruel to Sikhs, including executing Wazir Khan in revenge for the deaths of Guru Gobind Singh's sons, Baba Zorawar Singh and Baba Fateh Singh after the Sikh victory at Sirhind.[23] He ruled the territory between the Sutlej river and the Yamuna river established a capital in the Himalayas at Lohgarh and struck coinage in the names of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh.[22]
Cis-Sutlej states[link]
The Cis-Sutlej states were a group of states in modern Punjab and Haryana states lying between the Sutlej River on the north, the Himalayas on the east, the Yamuna River and Delhi District on the south, and Sirsa District on the west. These states were ruled by the Scindhia dynasty of the Maratha Empire, various Sikh sardars and other Rajas of the Cis-Sutlej states paid tributes to the Marathas, until the Second Anglo-Maratha War of 1803-1805, after which the Marathas lost this territory to the British.[24][25][26] The Cis-Sutlej states included Kaithal, Patiala, Jind, Thanesar, Maler Kotla, and Faridkot.
The Sikh Empire[link]
Main article: Sikh Empire
The Sikh Empire (1801–1849) was formed on the foundations of the Punjabi Army by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The empire extended from the Khyber Pass in the west, to Kashmir in the north, to Sindh in the south, and Tibet in the east. The main geographical footprint of the empire was the Punjab region. The religious demography of the Sikh Empire was Muslim (70%), Sikh (17%), Hindu (13%).[27]
The Sikh Empire began with the disbandment of the Punjab Army by the time of coronation of Ranjit Singh in 1801, creating a unified political state. All the misl leaders who were affiliated with the Army were nobility with usually long and prestigious family histories in Punjab's history.[28][29]
After Maharaja Ranjit Singh's death in 1839, the empire was severely weakened by internal divisions and political mismanagement. This opportunity was used by the British Empire to launch the Anglo-Sikh Wars. A series of events of the Sikhs being betrayed by some prominent leaders in the army led to its downfall. Maharaja Gulab Singh and Raja Dhian Singh the top Generals of the army.[30][31]
The Sikh Empire was finally dissolved after a series of wars with the British at the end of the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849 into separate princely states and the British province of Punjab, which were granted statehood. Eventually, a Lieutenant Governorship was formed in Lahore as a direct representative of the British Crown.
Punjab Province (British India)[link]
The Cis-Sutlej states(south of Sutlej) including, Kaithal, Patiala, Jind, Thanesar, Maler Kotla, and Faridkot were under the suzeranity of the Scindhia dynasty of the Maratha Empire, following the Second Anglo-Maratha War of 1803-1805, Marathas lost this territory to the British. During the war, some of the states in the region gave their allegiance to British General Gerard Lake. At the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Maratha War and an 1809 agreement with Ranjit Singh, ruler of the Sikh Empire west of the Sutlej, brought these states under formal British protection. [32][33][34]
Ranjit Singh's death in the summer of 1839, brought political chaos and the subsequent battles of succession and the bloody infighting between the factions at court weakened the state. By 1845 the British had moved 32,000 troops to the Sutlej frontier, to secure their northernmost possessions against the succession struggles in the Punjab. In late 1845, British and Sikh troops engaged near Ferozepur, beginning the First Anglo-Sikh War. The war ended the following year, and the territory between the Sutlej and the Beas was ceded to British Company rule in India, along with Kashmir, which was sold to Gulab Singh of Jammu, who ruled Kashmir as a British vassal.
As a condition of the peace treaty, some British troops, along with a resident political agent and other officials, were left in the Punjab to oversee the regency of Maharaja Dhalip Singh, a minor. The Sikh army was reduced greatly in size. In 1848, out-of-work Sikh troops in Multan revolted, and a British official was killed. Within a few months, the unrest had spread throughout the Punjab, and British troops once again invaded. The British prevailed in the Second Anglo-Sikh War, and under the Treaty of Lahore in 1849, the Punjab was annexed by the British East India Company, and Dhalip Singh was pensioned off. The Punjab became a province of British India, although a number of small states, most notably Patiala, Kapurthala, Faridkot, Nabha, and Jind retained local rulers in subsidiary alliances with the British, the rulers retaining their own internal sovereignty but recognizing British suzerainty.
The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of 1919 occurred in Amritsar. In 1930, the Indian National Congress proclaimed independence from Lahore. In March 1940, the all-India Muslim League passed the Lahore Resolution, demanding the creation of a separate state from Muslim majority areas in India. The ambiguity of the Lahore Resolution sparked off violent protests, in which Punjab became a central stage[35].
In 1946, massive communal tensions and violence erupted between the majority Muslims of Punjab, and the Hindu and Sikh minorities. The Muslim League attacked the government of Unionist Punjabi Muslims, Sikh Akalis and the Congress, and led to its downfall. Unwilling to be cowed down, Sikhs and Hindus counter-attacked and the resulting bloodshed left the province in great disorder. Both Congress and League leaders agreed to partition Punjab upon religious lines, a precursor to the wider partition of the country.
Independence and its aftermath[link]
File:Oxcart-train1947.jpg
Rural Sikhs in a long ox-cart train headed towards India. 1947. Margaret Bourke-White.
In 1947 the Punjab Province of British India was partitioned along religious lines into West Punjab and East Punjab. Huge numbers of people were displaced, and there was much intercommunal violence. Following independence, several small Punjabi princely states, including Patiala, acceded to the Union of India and were united into the PEPSU. In 1956 this was integrated with the state of East Punjab to create a new, enlarged Indian state called simply "Punjab".
The undivided Punjab, of which Punjab (Pakistan) forms a major region today, was home to a large minority population of Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus unto 1947 apart from the Muslim majority.[36]
Immediately following independence in 1947, and due to the ensuing communal vipolence and fear, as part of an exchange of populations most Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus who found themselves in Pakistan migrated to India.[37] Punjabi Muslims were uprooted similarly from their homes in East Punjab, which now forms part of India.[38] Approximately 7 million plus who moved to Pakistan, over 6 million settled in Punjab.
In 1950, two new states were recognized by the Indian constitution: the Indian part of the former British province of Punjab became the state of East Punjab, while the princely states of the region were combined into the Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU). Himachal Pradesh was later created as a union territory from several princely states in the hills.
Formation of current Punjab[link]
The capital city of the undivided Province of Punjab, Lahore, was allocated to the Pakistani West Punjab during the partition of British India in 1947, so a new capital for Indian Punjab was built at Chandigarh.
After years of protest by Akali Dal and other Sikh organizations finally Punjab was divided along linguistic basis in 1966. On 1 November 1966, the Hindi-speaking southern half of Punjab became a separate state, Haryana and Pahari speaking hilly areas in north east was given to Himachal Pradesh . Chandigarh was on the border between the two states, and became a separate union territory but serves as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana. During the 1970s, the Green Revolution brought increased economic prosperity for the Punjab, mainly due to the late Pratap Singh Kairon. However, a growing polarisation between the Indian National Congress led central government and the main Sikh political party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, began to widen during the 1970s. Hostility and bitterness arose from what was widely seen by the Akali Dal as increasing alienation, centralization and discriminatory attitudes towards Punjab by the Government of India. This prompted the Shiromani Akali Dal to pass the Anandpur Sahib Resolution which asked for granting maximum autonomy to the region of Punjab and other states and limited role and powers of the Central Government.
Demographics[link]
Main article: Demographics of Punjab (India)
| Population Growth | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1951 | 9,161,000 |
|
|
| 1961 | 11,135,000 | 21.5% | |
| 1971 | 13,551,000 | 21.7% | |
| 1981 | 16,788,915 | 23.9% | |
| 1991 | 20,281,969 | 20.8% | |
| 2001 | 24,289,296 | 19.8% | |
| 2011 | 27,704,236 | 14.1% | |
| source:Census of India[39][40] | |||
According to the 2011 Indian Census, the population of Indian Punjab is 27,704,236 (Males 14,634,819 & Females 13,069,417)[41] In recent times, there is growing concern in the state about the massive influx of hindu labourers from other Indian states such as Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Around 15-20% of Punjab's population is now made up of migrants from other states. There is a growing concern among the native Sikhs who feel this is deliberately done by the government to turn them into a minority within their own homeland.
The literacy rate in Punjab is 75%, male literacy being 80.23% and female literacy is 68.36%.
Being an agricultural state, a large part of the population lives in the rural area. Roughly 66% of people live in rural areas while the rest of the 34% are urban residents. The state has a skewed sex ratio, according to the 2011 census there are 895 females per 1000 males in Punjab.
Religion[link]
| Religion | No. of people[42] | % of total |
|---|---|---|
| Sikhs | 14,656,345 | 66% |
| Hindus | 8,997,942 | 31% |
| Muslims | 382,045 | 1.57 % |
| Christians | 292,800 | 1.20 % |
| Buddhists | 41,487 | 0.17 % |
| Jains | 39,276 | 0.16 % |
| Others | 8,594 | 0.04 % |
| Total population | 24,358,999[43] | 100% |
Sikhism is the predominant faith in Punjab followed by around 66% of the populace. The holiest of Sikh shrines, the Sri Harmandir Sahib (or Golden Temple), is in the city of Amritsar. The Sri Akal Takht Sahib which resides within the Golden temple complex is the temporal seat of Sikhs. Of the five Takhts (Temporal Seats of religious authority) of Sikhism, three are in Punjab. These are Sri Akal Takht Sahib, Damdama Sahib and Anandpur Sahib. During major holidays on the Sikh calendar (such as Vaisakhi, Hola Mohalla, Gurpurb and Diwali), many Sikhs gather and march in religious processions through virtually every city, town and village. At least one Sikh Gurdwara can be found in almost every village in the state beside towns and cities (in various architectural styles and sizes). Hinduism is the second most practised faith in Punjab. A large segment of Punjabis who are categorized as Punjabi Hindus continue to live out heterogeneous religious practice that includes spiritual kinship with Sikhism. This not only includes veneration of the Sikh Gurus in private practice, but also visits to Sikh Gurdwaras along with Hindu temples. Other religions like Islam (1.5%) and Christianity (1.2%) are also followed alongside Buddhism (0.2%) and Jainism (0.2%).
Language[link]
See also: Punjabi Language and Gurmukhi
The Punjabi language, written in the Gurmukhi script, is the official and most commonly used language in the state.[44] The language is popular across India and the wider world due to large scale migration of Punjabis[45] and the rich Punjabi music. Punjabi has always been an integral part of Indian Bollywood cinema due to large numbers of Punjabis working in Bollywood. In recent years a trend of Bollywood songs written totally in Punjabi can be observed. Punjabi is also the most spoken language in Pakistan and is the provincial language of Punjab (Pakistan), the second largest and the most populous province of Pakistan. It is also the second official language in the Indian states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and the National capital of Delhi.[46]
Punjabi is the most spoken immigrant language in England[47] and fourth most spoken language in Canada according to official census.[48] Among the world languages, Punjabi is the 11th most spoken language in the world and 4th most spoken language in Asia.[49] The major dialects of Punjabi spoken in indian Punjab are Majhi, Malwi, Pwadhi and Doabi.[49]
Other languages common in Punjab are Hindi & English mostly in Urban areas.
Education[link]
File:Niper research block.jpg
The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research
Main article: Education in Punjab (India)
Punjab is served by several institutions of higher education, which provide undergraduate and postgraduate courses in all the major arts, humanities, science, engineering, law, medicine, veterinary science, and business courses. Punjab Agricultural University is a leading institution globally for the study of agriculture, and played a significant role in Punjab's Green Revolution in the 1960s–70s. Among the alumni of the Panjab University, Chandigarh include Manmohan Singh, the current Prime Minister of India, and Dr. Har Gobind Khorana, a biochemistry nobel laureate. One of the oldest institutions of medical education is the Christian Medical College, Ludhiana which has existed since 1894.[50]
- Panjab University, Chandigarh
- Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh
- Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar
- Swami Sarvanand Giri Panjab University Regional Centre, Hoshiarpur
- Thapar University
- Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar
- Punjabi University, Patiala
- Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law
- Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana
- Regional Institute of Management and Technology, Fatehgarh Sahib
- Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar
Economy[link]
Main article: Economy of Punjab (India)
According to India Today, Leading magazine in India, Punjab has been awarded best overall state since 2003, and has been able to retain the top position every year. It affords the best quality of life to its residents.[51] According to the India State Hunger Index 2008, Punjab has the lowest level of hunger in India.[52]
Punjab has the best infrastructure in all of India.[53][54] Although it has a huge shortage of electricity due to high demand, all major cities in Punjab benefit from this and have some of the lowest tariffs in India. All of Punjab's villages have been provided electricity and connected to the state electrical power grid since 1974. Punjab is one of the most fertile regions on earth. The region is ideal for wheat-growing. Rice, sugar cane, fruits and vegetables are also grown. Indian Punjab is called the "Granary of India" or "India's bread-basket".[55] It produces 14% of India's cotton, 20% of India's wheat, and 9% of India's rice. The Fazilka and Ferozpur Districts are the largest producer of wheat and rice in the state. In worldwide terms, Indian Punjab produces 2% of the world's cotton, 2% of its wheat and 1% of the world's rice.[55] The largest grown crop is wheat. Other important crops are rice, cotton, sugarcane, pearl millet, maize, barley and fruit. In Punjab the consumption of fertiliser per hectare is 177 kg as compared to 90 kg at national level. The state has been awarded National Productivity Award for agriculture extension services for consecutively ten years from 1991–92 to 1998–99 and 2001 to 2003–04. In recent years a drop in productivity has been observed mainly due to falling fertility of the soil. This is believed to be due to excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides over the years. Another worry is the rapidly falling water table on which almost 90% of the agriculture depends, which has witnessed alarming drops in recent years. By some estimates, groundwater is falling by a meter or more per year.[56][57]
Government and politics[link]
Main articles: Government of Punjab (India), Politics of Punjab (India), and List of districts of Punjab (India)
Each of the states of India possesses a parliamentary system of government, with a ceremonial state Governor, appointed by the President of India on the advice of the central government. The head of government is an indirectly elected Chief Minister who is vested with most of the executive powers. The state legislature is the unicameral Punjab Legislative Assembly, with 117 members elected from single-seat constituencies. The capital of Punjab is Chandigarh which also serves as the capital of Haryana, and is thus administered separately as a Union Territory of India. The judicial branch of the state government is provided by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh.[58] The state of Punjab is divided into four administrative divisions and twenty two districts:
Regions and districts[link]
The area of Punjab can be divided into:
- Malwa is a region of Punjab south to river satluj. The Malwa area makes up majority of the Punjab region consisting 11 districts. Cities such as Ludhiana, Patiala, Sangrur, Bhatinda and Mohali located in the Malwa region. malwa is also famous for cotton farming.
- Majha is a historical region of the Indian Punjab comprising the modern districts of Amritsar, Pathankot, Gurdaspur and Tarn Taran. It lies between rivers Ravi, Beas and the Sutlej. This region is called heartland of punjab, it is also celebrated as being the 'Cradle of Sikhism'.
- Doaba is the region of Indian Punjab between the rivers Beas and Sutlej. The name "Doaba" literally translates to "land between two rivers" ("Do" two, "Ab" river; Punjabi). It is one of the most fertile regions of the world, and was the centre of the Green Revolution in India. To this day, it remains one of the largest per capita producers of wheat in the world.The biggest cities in Doaba are Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Kapurthala.
Administrative divisions[link]
Main article: Districts of Punjab, India
The state of Punjab has 22 districts which comprise of sub-divisions, tehsils and blocks.
Districts[link]
The state capital of Punjab is Chandigarh. There are 14 cities and 157 towns in Punjab. The major cities in Punjab are Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala, Mohali, Bathinda, Phagwara, Pathankot, Moga.
Tourism[link]
Main article: Tourism in Punjab, India
Tourism in Indian Punjab centres around the historic palaces, battle sites, great Sikh architecture of the state and the surrounding region. Examples include various sites of the Indus Valley Civilization, the ancient fort of Bathinda, the architectural monuments of Kapurthala, Patiala, and Chandigarh, the modern capital designed by Le Corbusier.[59] The Golden Temple in Amritsar is one of the major tourist destination of Punjab and indeed India, attracting more visitors than the Taj Mahal, Lonely Planet Bluelist 2008 has voted the Harmandir Sahib as one of the world’s best spiritual sites.[60] Moreover, there is a rapidly expanding array of international hotels in the holy city that can be booked for overnight stays.
Transportation[link]
Infrastructure of Punjab has been rated the best in India. Public transport in Punjab is provided by buses, auto rickshaws, Indian railways and an international rail connection to Pakistan (Samjhauta Express). The state has a large network of multimodal transportation system:
Air
Punjab has seven major airports. Domestic airports are at Ludhiana, Patiala, Pathankot, Mohali. International airport, Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport in Amritsar is the largest and most important airport in the state and is also the second busiest in North India after Delhi Airport. Prominent Airports in Punjab are:
- Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport
- Sahnewal Airport
- Pathankot Airport
- Patiala Airport
- Chandigarh Airport
Rail
Almost all the major as well as smaller cities of the state are linked through railways. Amritsar is the largest railway station having trains connecting to all major cities. Shatabdi Express connects Amritsar to Delhi. The railway junction in Bhatinda is the largest in Asia.
The Samjhauta Express is a joint venture between Indian Railways and Pakistan Railways and runs from Attari railway station near Amritsar in India to Lahore Railway Station in Punjab, Pakistan.
Road
All the cities and towns of Punjab are connected with four lane roads, National Highway. The Grand Trunk Road also called as NH1 connect Calcutta to Peshawar passing through Jalandhar and Amritsar. Another major National Highway connects Punjab to Jammu passing through Hoshiarpur and Pathankot. The state road conditions are the finest in India. The national Highways passing through the state is ranked the best in the country with road networks widely spread,covering isolated towns as well as border region.
The following National Highways connect major towns, cities and villages:
National Highway 1 (India), National Highway 10 (India), National Highway 15 (India), National Highway 1A (India) National Highway 20 (India), National Highway 21 (India), National Highway 22 (India), National Highway 64 (India), National Highway 70 (India), National Highway 71 (India), National Highway 95 (India)
Digital Library of Punjab[link]
Launched in 2003 under Nanakshahi Trust, the Panjab Digital Library was a result of the early phase of the digital revolution in Panjab. While most saw the Nanakshahi as a small digitization organization, or as an assemblage of some unknown youth working towards capturing some manuscripts on their digital cameras, its founders saw it as a cornerstone of a fundamentally new approach to preserving Panjab’s heritage for future generations. In the shadow of search engines, a Semantic Web approach thought of in the early 2003 reached maturity in 2006. This was when the organization planned to expand its operations from a mere three employee organization to one of the leading NGO’s working in the field of digital preservation all over India.
Digitized collections include manuscripts held by the Punjab Languages Department, items from the Government Museum and Art Gallery Chandigarh, Chief Khalsa Diwan, SGPC, DSGMC and manuscripts in the Jawahr Lal Nehru Library of Kurukshetra University. It also include hundreds of personal collections. With over 5 million pages digitized it is the biggest repository of digital data on Panjab.
Culture[link]
Main article: Punjabi culture
The sup of the Punjab comprises many elements including music such as bhangra, an extensive religious and non-religious dance tradition, a long history of poetry in the Punjabi language, a significant film industry which dates back to before Partition, a vast range of cuisine which has become widely popular abroad, and a number of seasonal and harvest festivals such as Lohri,[61] Basant, Baisakhi and Teej, all of which are celebrated in addition to the religious festivals of India.
A kissa is a Punjabi language oral story-telling tradition that has a mixture of origins ranging from the Arabian peninsula to Iran and Afghanistan.[62]
Punjabi wedding traditions and ceremonies are a strong reflection of Punjabi culture. Marriage ceremonies are known for their rich rituals, songs, dances, food and dresses, which have evolved over many centuries.
Bhangra[link]
Bhangra (Punjabi: ਭੰਗੜਾ (Gurmukhi),; pronounced [pɑ̀ŋɡɾɑ̀ː]) is a form of dance and music that originated in the Punjab region.[63] Bhangra dance began as a folk dance conducted by Punjabi farmers to celebrate the coming of the harvest season. The specific moves of Bhangra reflect the manner in which villagers farmed their land. This hybrid dance became Bhangra. The folk dance has been popularised in the western world by Punjabis in England and the USA where competitions are held.[64] It is seen in the West as an expression of South Asian culture as a whole.[65] Today, Bhangra dance survives in different forms and styles all over the globe – including pop music, film soundtracks, collegiate competitions and cultural shows.
Punjabi folklore[link]
Main article: Punjabi folklore
The folk heritage of the Punjab is the traditional urge of thousands of years of its history. While Malwai is considered the standard dialect of Punjabi language, there are a number of local dialects through which the people communicate. These include Majhi, Malwai, Doabi, and Pwadhi. The songs, ballads, epics and romances are generally written and sung in these dialects.
There are a number of folk tales that are popular in Punjab. These are the folk tales of Mirza Sahiban, Heer Ranjha, Sohni Mahiwal, Sassi Punnun, Dulla Bhatti, Puran Baghat, Jeona Maud etc. The mystic folk songs and religious songs include the Shalooks of Sikh gurus, Baba Farid and others. They also include Kafis, Hamds, Baits, Dohas, Lohris, Sehra, and Jugni.[66]
The most famous of the romantic love songs are Mayhiah, Dhola and Boliyan. Punjabi romantic dances include Dhamaal, Bhangra, Giddha, Dhola, and Sammi.
See also[link]
References[link]
- ^ Narayanan appointed as WB Governor, Patil gets Punjab, Hindustan Times, January 16, 2010
- ^ Census of India, 2011. Census Data Online, Population.
- ^ Sikhs. Adherents.com (2005-09-30). Retrieved on 2012-01-18.
- ^ a b WHKMLA : History of West Punjab
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- ^ a b "Climate And Resources In Punjab". Sadapunjab.com. http://www.sadapunjab.com/cv/Literature_On_Punjab/PUNJAB/Climate_And_Resources_In_Punjab/index0.html. Retrieved 2010-07-18.
- ^ "Indian States : Punjab :: Flora And Fauna". India Travel Information. http://www.india-travel-information.com/india-information/Indian-States/Punjab/333-Flora-And-Fauna.html. Retrieved 2010-07-18.
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- ^ Bombay (India : State) (1896). Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency .... Printed at the Govt. Central Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=0bkMAAAAIAAJ. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
- ^ Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency ..., Volume 1, Part 1-page-11
- ^ Kalsi 2005
- ^ Markovits 2004
- ^ a b Jestice 2004
- ^ Johar 1975
- ^ Jestice 2004
- ^ a b Singh 2008
- ^ Nesbitt 2005
- ^ "A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: From Twelfth to the Mid ... - Farooqui Salma Ahmed, Salma Ahmed Farooqui - Google Books". Books.google.co.in. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=sxhAtCflwOMC&pg=PA334&lpg=PA334&dq=daulatrao+scindia+punjab&source=bl&ots=UHK_WUGdoH&sig=CV3YuivuM4b0R-mR8KQUTa1d_hU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0J3AT6H1H8vqrQeP2LDFCQ&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=daulatrao%20scindia%20punjab&f=false. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "History Of The Marathas - R.S. Chaurasia - Google Books". Books.google.co.in. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=D_v3Y7hns8QC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=mahadji+sindhia+punjab&source=bl&ots=Kdt4ycmwu_&sig=A4SMoH7_sJahnYm5QrdIARtprBQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Cp7AT5CFGpDIrQfppqS5CQ&ved=0CE8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=mahadji%20sindhia%20punjab&f=false. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=Nyk6oA2nOlgC&pg=PA379&lpg=PA379&dq=%22second+anglo+maratha+war%22+sutlej&source=bl&ots=XGHcTeQC7h&sig=tGnkkkS6o63cT5mX-pIv7R9PtsQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DmvDT-HOKcHWrQfj2LjhCQ&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22second%20anglo%20maratha%20war%22%20sutlej&f=false
- ^ "Ranjit Singh: A Secular Sikh Sovereign by K.S. Duggal. ''(Date:1989. ISBN 81-7017-244-6'')". Exoticindiaart.com. 2009-02-01. http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/IDE822/. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, (Edition: Volume V22, Date: 1910-1911), Page 892.
- ^ "MAHARAJAH RANJIT SINGH ... – Online Information article about MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH". Encyclopedia.jrank.org. http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/PYR_RAY/RANJIT_SINGH_MAHARAJA_178o_1839.html. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
- ^ J. S. Grewal (1998). The Sikhs of the Punjab. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the last to lay arms, (Duggal,p.136-138)
- ^ "A Comprehensive History of Medieval India: From Twelfth to the Mid ... - Farooqui Salma Ahmed, Salma Ahmed Farooqui - Google Books". Books.google.co.in. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=sxhAtCflwOMC&pg=PA334&lpg=PA334&dq=daulatrao+scindia+punjab&source=bl&ots=UHK_WUGdoH&sig=CV3YuivuM4b0R-mR8KQUTa1d_hU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=0J3AT6H1H8vqrQeP2LDFCQ&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=daulatrao%20scindia%20punjab&f=false. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ "History Of The Marathas - R.S. Chaurasia - Google Books". Books.google.co.in. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=D_v3Y7hns8QC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=mahadji+sindhia+punjab&source=bl&ots=Kdt4ycmwu_&sig=A4SMoH7_sJahnYm5QrdIARtprBQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Cp7AT5CFGpDIrQfppqS5CQ&ved=0CE8Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=mahadji%20sindhia%20punjab&f=false. Retrieved 2012-05-26.
- ^ http://books.google.co.in/books?id=Nyk6oA2nOlgC&pg=PA379&lpg=PA379&dq=%22second+anglo+maratha+war%22+sutlej&source=bl&ots=XGHcTeQC7h&sig=tGnkkkS6o63cT5mX-pIv7R9PtsQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DmvDT-HOKcHWrQfj2LjhCQ&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22second%20anglo%20maratha%20war%22%20sutlej&f=false
- ^ Tan, Tai Yong; Kudaisya, Gyanesh (2002). The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia. Psychology Press. p. 100. http://books.google.com/books?id=O5zEtBxk72wC&pg=PA100.
- ^ The Punjab in 1920s – A Case study of Muslims, Zarina Salamat, Royal Book Company, Karachi, 1997. table 45, pp. 136. ISBN 969-407-230-1
- ^ Panel 33 European Association for South Asian Studies
- ^ Pakistan: a modern history, Ian Talbot, St. Martin's Press, 1999. ISBN 0-312-21606-8
- ^ "Demographic Trends". Census of India. www.punenvis.nic.in. http://www.punenvis.nic.in/demo_trends.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
- ^ "Census Population" (PDF). Census of India. Ministry of Finance India. http://indiabudget.nic.in/es2006-07/chapt2007/tab97.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- ^ "Punjab Population Data at a Glance-2011". Census India. April 15, 2011. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011-prov-results/data_files/punjab/Provisional%20Populatin%20Result%20Punjab1.pdf. Retrieved June 24, 2011.
- ^ Census of India, 2001: population of Punjab by religion. Censusindia.gov.in. Retrieved on 2012-01-18.
- ^ Census of India, 2001[dead link]
- ^ Punjabi Language, official Language of Punjab, Regional Languages of Punjab. Indiasite.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-18.
- ^ Punjabi in North America. Apnaorg.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-18.
- ^ Punjabi edges out Tamil in Haryana – India – DNA. Dnaindia.com (2010-03-07). Retrieved on 2012-01-18.
- ^ House of Commons Hansard Debates for 7 Mar 2000 (pt 2). Publications.parliament.uk (2000-03-07). Retrieved on 2012-01-18. []
- ^ "Punjabi is 4th most spoken language in Canada – Times Of India". The Times Of India. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Punjabi_is_Canadas_4th_most_top_language/articleshow/2782138.cms.
- ^ a b Punjabi Language, Gurmukhi , Punjabi Literature, History Of Punjabi Language, State Language Of Punjab. Languages.iloveindia.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-18.
- ^ An Indian doctor’s triumph The Telegraph, August 15, 2005
- ^ Arvind Chhabra (2009-09-18). "Punjab: Progressive by nature: India Today". Indiatoday.intoday.in. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/62342/Cover%20Story/Punjab:+Progressive+by+nature.html. Retrieved 2010-07-18.
- ^ "India fares badly on global hunger index". Times of India. 2008-10-15. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/India_fares_badly_on_global_hunger_index/rssarticleshow/3596818.cms.
- ^ Welcome to Official Web site of Punjab, India[dead link]
- ^ Welcome to Official Web site of Punjab, India[dead link]
- ^ a b Welcome to Official Web site of Punjab, India[dead link]
- ^ J. Carl Ganter. "Q&A: Upmanu Lall on India’s Nexus of Energy, Food and Water". Circle of Blue. http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2010/world/qa-upmanu-lall-gives-insight-to-indias-nexus-of-energy-food-and-water/. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
- ^ Upmanu Lall. "Punjab: A tale of prosperity and decline". Columbia Water Center. http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2009/07/28/punjab-a-tale-of-prosperity-and-decline/. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
- ^ "Jurisdiction and Seats of Indian High Courts". Eastern Book Company. http://www.ebc-india.com/lawyer/hcourts.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-12.
- ^ Punjab. Mapsofindia.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-18.
- ^ Lonely Planet tips Mumbai as a must-see destination in 2008. ptinews.com. November 9, 2007
- ^ "Harvest Festival of Punjab,Harvest Festival Lohri,Cultural Festival of India,Harvest Festival in India". Lohrifestival.org. http://www.lohrifestival.org/harvest-festival-of-punjab.html. Retrieved 2010-07-18.
- ^ Mir, Farina. "Representations of Piety and Community in Late-nineteenth-century Punjabi Qisse". Columbia University. http://www.unc.edu/depts/cdeisi/abstracts.html. Retrieved 2008-07-04.
- ^ Pakistan almanac, Volumes 2001–2002. Royal Book Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=rRYZAQAAIAAJ&q=bhangra+pakistan&dq=bhangra+pakistan&lr=&cd=1. Retrieved 2007-11-03. "Bhangra refers to both a traditional dance and a form of music invented in the 1980s. Bhangra, the punjabi folk dance that has become popular all over the world. Panjabi folk songs have been integral part of fertile provinces"
- ^ Bhangra History. Bhangra.org. Retrieved on 2012-01-18.
- ^ Social control and deviance: a South Asian community in Scotland. Ashgate. http://books.google.com/books?id=sMnZAAAAMAAJ&q=bhangra+pakistan&dq=bhangra+pakistan&lr=&cd=12. Retrieved 2007-11-03. "The whole institution of the Bhangra and its related processes are clearly an expression of Indian/Pakistan culture in a Western setting."
- ^ Pakistan Punjab. Punjabilok.com. Retrieved on 2012-01-18.
Further reading[link]
.svg){kind=small}
- Radhika Chopra. Militant and Migrant: The Politics and Social History of Punjab (2011)
- Harnik Deol. Religion and Nationalism in India: The Case of the Punjab (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia) (2000)
- Harjinder Singh Dilgeer, Encyclopedia of Jalandhar, Sikh University Press, Brussels, Belgium (2005)
- Harjinder Singh Dilgeer, SIKH HISTORY in 10 volumes, Sikh University Press, Brussels, Belgium (2010–11)
- J. S. Grewal. The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India) (1998)
- J. S. Grewal. Social and Cultural History of the Punjab: Prehistoric, Ancient and Early Medieval (2004)
- Nazer Singh. Delhi and Punjab: Essays in history and historiography (1995)
- Tai Yong Tan. The Garrison State: Military, Government and Society in Colonial Punjab, 1849–1947 (Sage Series in Modern Indian History) (2005)
Primary sources[link]
- J. C. Aggarwal and S. P. Agrawal, eds. Modern History of Punjab: Relevant Select Documents (1992)
- R. M. Chopra, " The Legacy of The Punjab ", 1997, Punjabee Bradree, Calcutta.
External links[link]
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab,_India
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
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This article is about the Republic of India. For other uses, see India (disambiguation).
| Republic of India
Bhārat Gaṇarājya
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| Motto: "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit) "Truth Alone Triumphs"[1] |
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Anthem:
 Jana Gana Mana "Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People"[2] |
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| National song: Vande Mataram "I Bow to Thee, Mother"[a][1] |
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.svg) Area controlled by India is in dark green.
Claimed but uncontrolled regions are in light green. |
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| Capital | New Delhi 28°36.8′N 77°12.5′E / 28.6133°N 77.2083°E / 28.6133; 77.2083 |
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| Largest city | Mumbai | |||||
| Official language(s) |
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| Recognised regional languages | ||||||
| National language(s) | none[3] | |||||
| Demonym | Indian | |||||
| Government | Federal parliamentary constitutional republic[1] |
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| - | President | Pratibha Patil | ||||
| - | Vice President | Mohammad Hamid Ansari | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Manmohan Singh (INC) | ||||
| - | Speaker of the House | Meira Kumar (INC) | ||||
| - | Chief Justice | S. H. Kapadia | ||||
| Legislature | Parliament of India | |||||
| - | Upper house | Rajya Sabha | ||||
| - | Lower house | Lok Sabha | ||||
| Independence | from the United Kingdom | |||||
| - | Declared | 15 August 1947 | ||||
| - | Republic | 26 January 1950 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 3,287,263 km2 [b](7th) 1,269,219 sq mi |
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| - | Water (%) | 9.56 | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2011 census | 1,210,193,422[4] (2nd) | ||||
| - | Density | 369.1/km2 (31st) 956.1/sq mi |
||||
| GDP (PPP) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $4.457 trillion[5] (3rd) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $3,693[5] (129th) | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $1.676 trillion[5] (11th) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $1,388[5] (140th) | ||||
| Gini (2004) | 36.8[6] (79th) | |||||
| HDI (2011) | 0.547[7] (medium) (134th) |
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| Currency | Indian rupee ( ) (INR) |
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| Time zone | IST (UTC+05:30) | |||||
| - | Summer (DST) | not observed (UTC+05:30) | ||||
| Date formats | dd-mm-yyyy (AD) | |||||
| Drives on the | left | |||||
| ISO 3166 code | IN | |||||
| Internet TLD | .in | |||||
| Calling code | 91 | |||||
India (i/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya),[c] is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;[d] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history.[8] Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
The Indian economy is the world's eleventh-largest by nominal GDP and third-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies; it is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, illiteracy, corruption, and inadequate public healthcare. A nuclear weapons state and a regional power, it has the third-largest standing army in the world and ranks ninth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system consisting of 28 states and 7 union territories. India is a pluralistic, multilingual, and multiethnic society. It is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.
Contents |
Etymology[link]
Main article: Names of India
The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu. The latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River.[9] The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ινδοί), which translates as "the people of the Indus".[10] The geographical term Bharat (pronounced [ˈbʱaːrət̪] ( listen)), which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in various subtle guises.[11] The eponym of Bharat is Bharata, a mythological figure that Hindu scriptures describe as a legendary emperor of ancient India. Hindustan ([ɦɪnd̪ʊˈst̪aːn] ( listen)) was originally a Persian word that meant "Land of the Hindus"; prior to 1947, it referred to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan. It is occasionally used to solely denote India in its entirety.[12][13]
History[link]
Main articles: History of India and History of the Republic of India
Ancient India[link]
The earliest anatomically modern human remains found in South Asia date from approximately 30,000 years ago.[14] Nearly contemporaneous Mesolithic rock art sites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh.[15] Around 7000 BCE, the first known Neolithic settlements appeared on the subcontinent in Mehrgarh and other sites in western Pakistan.[16] These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation,[17] the first urban culture in South Asia;[18] it flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in Pakistan and western India.[19] Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade.[18]
During the period 2000–500 BCE, in terms of culture, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age.[20] The Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism,[21] were composed during this period,[22] and historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain.[20] Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west.[23][21][24] The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose during this period.[25] On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation.[20] In southern India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period,[26] as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions.[26]
In the late Vedic period, around the 5th century BCE, the small chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the mahajanapadas.[27][28] The emerging urbanisation and the orthodoxies of this age also led to the resurgence of ancient Shramanic traditions of Buddhism and Jainism,[29] both of which were independent religions.[30] Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle;[29][31] Jainism came into prominence around the same time during the life of its exemplar, Mahavira.[32] In an age of increasing urban wealth, both religions held up renunciation as an ideal,[33] and both established long-lasting monasteries.[27] Politically, by the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed or reduced other states to emerge as the Mauryan Empire.[27] The empire was once thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent excepting the far south, but its core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas.[34][35] The Mauryan kings are known as much for their empire-building and determined management of public life as for Ashoka's renunciation of militarism and far-flung advocacy of the Buddhist dhamma.[36][37]
The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that, between 200 BCE and 200 CE, the southern peninsula was being ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas, and the Pandyas, dynasties that traded extensively with the Roman Empire and with West and South-East Asia.[38][39] In North India, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family, leading to increased subordination of women.[40][27] By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta Empire had created in the greater Ganges Plain a complex system of administration and taxation that became a model for later Indian kingdoms.[41][42] Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion rather than the management of ritual began to assert itself.[43] The renewal was reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among an urban elite.[42] Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics made significant advances.[42]
Medieval India[link]
The Indian early medieval age, 600 CE to 1200 CE, is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity.[44] When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Indo-Gangetic Plain from 606 to 647 CE, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya ruler of the Deccan.[45] When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal.[45] When the Chalukyas attempted to expand southwards, they were defeated by the Pallavas from farther south, who in turn were opposed by the Pandyas and the Cholas from still farther south.[45] No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond his core region.[44] During this time, pastoral peoples whose land had been cleared to make way for the growing agricultural economy were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-traditional ruling classes.[46] The caste system consequently began to show regional differences.[46]
In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language.[47] They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development of all modern languages of the subcontinent.[47] Indian royalty, big and small, and the temples they patronised, drew citizens in great numbers to the capital cities, which became economic hubs as well.[48] Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another urbanisation.[48] By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in South-East Asia, as South Indian culture and political systems were exported to lands that became part of modern-day Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Java.[49] Indian merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this transmission; South-East Asians took the initiative as well, with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating Buddhist and Hindu texts into their languages.[49]
After the 10th century, Muslim Central Asian nomadic clans, using swift-horse cavalry and raising vast armies united by ethnicity and religion, repeatedly overran South Asia's north-western plains, leading eventually to the establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in 1206.[50] The sultanate was to control much of North India, and to make many forays into South India. Although at first disruptive for the Indian elites, the sultanate largely left its vast non-Muslim subject population to its own laws and customs.[51][52] By repeatedly repulsing Mongol raiders in the 13th century, the sultanate saved India from the devastation visited on West and Central Asia, setting the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, learned men, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from that region into the subcontinent, thereby creating a syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in the north.[53][54] The sultanate's raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire.[55] Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular India,[56] and was to influence South Indian society for long afterwards.[55]
Early modern India[link]
In the early 16th century, northern India, being then under mainly Muslim rulers,[57] fell again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors.[58] The resulting Mughal Empire did not stamp out the local societies it came to rule, but rather balanced and pacified them through new administrative practices[59][60] and diverse and inclusive ruling elites,[61] leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule.[62] Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic identity, especially under Akbar, the Mughals united their far-flung realms through loyalty, expressed through a Persianised culture, to an emperor who had near-divine status.[61] The Mughal state's economic policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture[63] and mandating that taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver currency,[64] caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets.[62] The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's economic expansion,[62] resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture.[65] Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as the Marathas, the Rajputs, and the Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military experience.[66] Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India.[66] As the empire disintegrated, many among these elites were able to seek and control their own affairs.[67]
By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political dominance being increasingly blurred, a number of European trading companies, including the English East India Company, had established coastal outposts.[68][69] The East India Company's control of the seas, greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology led it to increasingly flex its military muscle and caused it to become attractive to a portion of the Indian elite; both these factors were crucial in allowing the Company to gain control over the Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the other European companies.[70][68][71][72] Its further access to the riches of Bengal and the subsequent increased strength and size of its army enabled it to annex or subdue most of India by the 1820s.[73] India was now no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but was instead supplying the British empire with raw materials, and many historians consider this to be the onset of India's colonial period.[68] By this time, with its economic power severely curtailed by the British parliament and itself effectively made an arm of British administration, the Company began to more consciously enter non-economic arenas such as education, social reform, and culture.[74]
Modern India[link]
Historians consider India's modern age to have begun sometime between 1848 and 1885. The appointment in 1848 of Lord Dalhousie as Governor General of the East India Company rule in India set the stage for changes essential to a modern state. These included the consolidation and demarcation of sovereignty, the surveillance of the population, and the education of citizens. Technological changes—among them, railways, canals, and the telegraph—were introduced not long after their introduction in Europe.[75][76][77][78] However, disaffection with the Company also grew during this time, and set off the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Fed by diverse resentments and perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, and summary treatment of some rich landowners and princes, the rebellion rocked many regions of northern and central India and shook the foundations of Company rule.[79][80] Although the rebellion was suppressed by 1858, it led to the dissolution of the East India Company and to the direct administration of India by the British government. Proclaiming a unitary state and a gradual but limited British-style parliamentary system, the new rulers also protected princes and landed gentry as a feudal safeguard against future unrest.[81][82] In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over India, leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885.[83][84][85][86]
The rush of technology and the commercialisation of agriculture in the second half of the 19th century was marked by economic setbacks—many small farmers became dependent on the whims of far-away markets.[87] There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines,[88] and, despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated for Indians.[89] There were also salutary effects: commercial cropping, especially in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal consumption.[90] The railway network provided critical famine relief,[91] notably reduced the cost of moving goods,[91] and helped nascent Indian-owned industry.[90] After World War I, in which some one million Indians served,[92] a new period began. It was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislation, by more strident Indian calls for self-rule, and by the beginnings of a non-violent movement of non-cooperation, of which Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would become the leader and enduring symbol.[93] During the 1930s, slow legislative reform was enacted by the British; the Indian National Congress won victories in the resulting elections.[94] The next decade was beset with crises: Indian participation in World War II, the Congress's final push for non-cooperation, and an upsurge of Muslim nationalism. All were capped by the advent of independence in 1947, but tempered by the bloody partition of the subcontinent into two states: India and Pakistan.[95]
Vital to India's self-image as an independent nation was its constitution, completed in 1950, which put in place a sovereign, secular, and democratic republic.[96] In the 60 years since, India has had a mixed bag of successes and failures.[97] It has remained a democracy with civil liberties, an activist Supreme Court, and a largely independent press.[97] Economic liberalisation, which was begun in the 1990s, has created a large urban middle class, transformed India into one of the world's fastest-growing economies,[98] and increased its geopolitical clout. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture.[97] Yet, India has also been weighed down by seemingly unyielding poverty, both rural and urban;[97] by religious and caste-related violence;[99] by Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgencies;[100] and by separatism in Jammu and Kashmir.[101] It has unresolved territorial disputes with China, which escalated into the Sino-Indian War of 1962;[102] and with Pakistan, which flared into wars fought in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999.[102] The India–Pakistan nuclear rivalry came to a head in 1998.[103] India's sustained democratic freedoms are unique among the world's new nations; however, in spite of its recent economic successes, freedom from want for its disadvantaged population remains a goal yet to be achieved.[104]
Geography[link]
Main article: Geography of India
See also: Geology of India
India comprises the bulk of the Indian subcontinent and lies atop the minor Indian tectonic plate, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Australian Plate.[105] India's defining geological processes commenced 75 million years ago when the Indian subcontinent, then part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a north-eastward drift across the then-unformed Indian Ocean that lasted fifty million years.[105] The subcontinent's subsequent collision with, and subduction under, the Eurasian Plate bore aloft the planet's highest mountains, the Himalayas. They abut India in the north and the north-east.[105] In the former seabed immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast trough that has gradually filled with river-borne sediment;[106] it now forms the Indo-Gangetic Plain.[107] To the west lies the Thar Desert, which is cut off by the Aravalli Range.[108]
The original Indian plate survives as peninsular India, which is the oldest and geologically most stable part of India; it extends as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel chains run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east.[109] To the south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau, is flanked on the west and east by coastal ranges known as the Western and Eastern Ghats;[110] the plateau contains the nation's oldest rock formations, some of them over one billion years old. Constituted in such fashion, India lies to the north of the equator between 6° 44' and 35° 30' north latitude[e] and 68° 7' and 97° 25' east longitude.[111]
India's coastline measures 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi) in length; of this distance, 5,423 kilometres (3,400 mi) belong to peninsular India and 2,094 kilometres (1,300 mi) to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep island chains.[112] According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland coastline consists of the following: 43% sandy beaches; 11% rocky shores, including cliffs; and 46% mudflats or marshy shores.[112]
Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal.[113] Important tributaries of the Ganges include the Yamuna and the Kosi; the latter's extremely low gradient often leads to severe floods and course changes.[114] Major peninsular rivers, whose steeper gradients prevent their waters from flooding, include the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Kaveri, and the Krishna, which also drain into the Bay of Bengal;[115] and the Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea.[116] Coastal features include the marshy Rann of Kutch of western India and the alluvial Sundarbans delta of eastern India; the latter is shared with Bangladesh.[117] India has two archipelagos: the Lakshadweep, coral atolls off India's south-western coast; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a volcanic chain in the Andaman Sea.[118]
The Indian climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of which drive the economically and culturally pivotal summer and winter monsoons.[119] The Himalayas prevent cold Central Asian katabatic winds from blowing in, keeping the bulk of the Indian subcontinent warmer than most locations at similar latitudes.[120][121] The Thar Desert plays a crucial role in attracting the moisture-laden south-west summer monsoon winds that, between June and October, provide the majority of India's rainfall.[119] Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane.[122]
Biodiversity[link]
Main article: Wildlife of India
India lies within the Indomalaya ecozone and contains three biodiversity hotspots.[123] One of 17 megadiverse countries, it hosts 7.6% of all mammalian, 12.6% of all avian, 6.2% of all reptilian, 4.4% of all amphibian, 11.7% of all piscine, and 6.0% of all flowering plant species.[124] Endemism is high among plants, 33%, and among ecoregions such as the shola forests.[125] Habitat ranges from the tropical rainforest of the Andaman Islands, Western Ghats, and North-East India to the coniferous forest of the Himalaya. Between these extremes lie the moist deciduous sal forest of eastern India; the dry deciduous teak forest of central and southern India; and the babul-dominated thorn forest of the central Deccan and western Gangetic plain.[126] Under 12% of India's landmass bears thick jungle.[127] The medicinal neem, widely used in rural Indian herbal remedies, is a key Indian tree. The luxuriant pipal fig tree, shown on the seals of Mohenjo-daro, shaded Gautama Buddha as he sought enlightenment.
Many Indian species descend from taxa originating in Gondwana, from which the Indian plate separated more than 105 million years before present.[128] Peninsular India's subsequent movement towards and collision with the Laurasian landmass set off a mass exchange of species. Epochal volcanism and climatic changes 20 million years ago forced a mass extinction.[129] Mammals then entered India from Asia through two zoogeographical passes flanking the rising Himalaya.[126] Thus, while 45.8% of reptiles and 55.8% of amphibians are endemic, only 12.6% of mammals and 4.5% of birds are.[124] Among them are the Nilgiri leaf monkey and Beddome's toad of the Western Ghats. India contains 172 IUCN-designated threatened species, or 2.9% of endangered forms.[130] These include the Asiatic lion, the Bengal tiger, and the Indian white-rumped vulture, which, by ingesting the carrion of diclofenac-laced cattle, nearly went extinct.
The pervasive and ecologically devastating human encroachment of recent decades has critically endangered Indian wildlife. In response the system of national parks and protected areas, first established in 1935, was substantially expanded. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act[131] and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial wilderness; the Forest Conservation Act was enacted in 1980 and amendments added in 1988.[132] India hosts more than five hundred wildlife sanctuaries and thirteen biosphere reserves,[133] four of which are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; twenty-five wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention.[134]
Politics[link]
Main article: Politics of India
India is the world's most populous democracy.[135] A parliamentary republic with a multi-party system,[136] it has six recognised national parties, including the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and more than 40 regional parties.[137] The Congress is considered centre-left or "liberal" in Indian political culture, and the BJP centre-right or "conservative". For most of the period between 1950—when India first became a republic—and the late 1980s, the Congress held a majority in the parliament. Since then, however, it has increasingly shared the political stage with the BJP,[138] as well as with powerful regional parties which have often forced the creation of multi-party coalitions at the centre.[139]
In the Republic of India's first three general elections, in 1951, 1957, and 1962, the Jawaharlal Nehru-led Congress won easy victories. On Nehru's death in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri briefly became prime minister; he was succeeded, after his own unexpected death in 1966, by Indira Gandhi, who went on to lead the Congress to election victories in 1967 and 1971. Following public discontent with the state of emergency she declared in 1975, the Congress was voted out of power in 1977; the then-new Janata Party, which had opposed the emergency, was voted in. Its government lasted just over three years. Voted back into power in 1980, the Congress saw a change in leadership in 1984, when Indira Gandhi was assassinated; she was succeeded by her son Rajiv Gandhi, who won an easy victory in the general elections later that year. The Congress was voted out again in 1989 when a National Front coalition, led by the newly formed Janata Dal in alliance with the Left Front, won the elections; that government too proved relatively short-lived: it lasted just under two years.[140] Elections were held again in 1991; no party won an absolute majority. But the Congress, as the largest single party, was able to form a minority government led by P. V. Narasimha Rao.[141]
A two-year period of political turmoil followed the general election of 1996. Several short-lived alliances shared power at the centre. The BJP formed a government briefly in 1996; it was followed by two comparatively long-lasting United Front coalitions, which depended on external support. In 1998, the BJP was able to form a successful coalition, the National Democratic Alliance, or NDA. Led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the NDA became the first non-Congress government to complete a five-year term.[142] In the 2004 Indian general elections, again no party won an absolute majority, but the Congress emerged as the largest single party, forming another successful coalition: the United Progressive Alliance, or UPA. It had the support of left-leaning parties and MPs who opposed the BJP. The UPA returned to power in the 2009 general election with increased numbers, and it no longer required external support from India's communist parties.[143] That year, Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957 and 1962 to be re-elected to a consecutive five-year term.[144]
Government[link]
Main article: Government of India
See also: Elections in India
India is a federation with a parliamentary system governed under the Constitution of India, which serves as the country's supreme legal document. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, in which "majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law". Federalism in India defines the power distribution between the federal government and the states. The government abides by constitutional checks and balances. The Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January 1950,[145] states in its preamble that India is a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.[146] India's form of government, traditionally described as "quasi-federal" with a strong centre and weak states,[147] has grown increasingly federal since the late 1990s as a result of political, economic, and social changes.[148][149]
| Flag | Tricolour |
| Emblem | Sarnath Lion Capital |
| Anthem | Jana Gana Mana |
| Song | Vande Mataram |
| Calendar | Saka |
| Game | Hockey |
| Flower | Lotus |
| Fruit | Mango |
| Tree | Banyan |
| Bird | Indian Peafowl |
| Land animal | Royal Bengal Tiger |
| Aquatic animal | River Dolphin |
| River | Ganges |
The federal government comprises three branches:
- Executive: The President of India is the head of state[150] and is elected indirectly by a national electoral college[151] for a five-year term.[152] The Prime Minister of India is the head of government and exercises most executive power.[153] Appointed by the president,[154] the prime minister is by convention supported by the party or political alliance holding the majority of seats in the lower house of parliament.[153] The executive branch of the Indian government consists of the president, the vice-president, and the Council of Ministers—the cabinet being its executive committee—headed by the prime minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of one of the houses of parliament.[150] In the Indian parliamentary system, the executive is subordinate to the legislature; the prime minister and his council directly responsible to the lower house of the parliament.[155]
- Legislative: The legislature of India is the bicameral parliament. It operates under a Westminster-style parliamentary system and comprises the upper house called the Rajya Sabha ("Council of States") and the lower called the Lok Sabha ("House of the People").[156] The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body that has 245 members who serve in staggered six-year terms.[157] Most are elected indirectly by the state and territorial legislatures in numbers proportional to their state's share of the national population.[154] All but two of the Lok Sabha's 545 members are directly elected by popular vote; they represent individual constituencies via five-year terms.[158] The remaining two members are nominated by the president from among the Anglo-Indian community, in case the president decides that they are not adequately represented.[159]
- Judicial: India has a unitary three-tier judiciary that comprises the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, 21 High Courts, and a large number of trial courts.[160] The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over cases involving fundamental rights and over disputes between states and the centre; it has appellate jurisdiction over the High Courts.[161] It is judicially independent[160] and has the power both to declare the law and to strike down union or state laws which contravene the constitution.[162] The Supreme Court is also the ultimate interpreter of the constitution.[163]
Subdivisions[link]
Main article: Administrative divisions of India
See also: Political integration of India
India is a federation composed of 28 states and 7 union territories.[164] All states, as well as the union territories of Pondicherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments, both patterned on the Westminster model. The remaining five union territories are directly ruled by the centre through appointed administrators. In 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, states were reorganised on a linguistic basis.[165] Since then, their structure has remained largely unchanged. Each state or union territory is further divided into administrative districts. The districts in turn are further divided into tehsils and ultimately into villages.
States
Union territories
A clickable map of the 28 states and 7 union territories of India.
Foreign relations and military[link]
Main articles: Foreign relations of India and Indian Armed Forces
Since its independence in 1947, India has maintained cordial relations with most nations. In the 1950s, it strongly supported decolonisation in Africa and Asia and played a lead role in the Non-Aligned Movement.[166] In the late 1980s, the Indian military twice intervened abroad at the invitation of neighbouring countries: a peace-keeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990; and an armed intervention to prevent a coup d'état attempt in Maldives. India has tense relations with neighbouring Pakistan; the two nations have gone to war four times: in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. Three of these wars were fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir, while the fourth, the 1971 war, followed from India's support for the independence of Bangladesh.[167] After waging the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the 1965 war with Pakistan, India pursued close military and economic ties with the Soviet Union; by the late 1960s, the Soviet Union was its largest arms supplier.[168]
Aside from ongoing strategic relations with Russia, India has wide-ranging defence relations with Israel and France. In recent years, it has played key roles in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the World Trade Organisation. The nation has provided 100,000 military and police personnel to serve in 35 UN peacekeeping operations across four continents. It participates in the East Asia Summit, the G8+5, and other multilateral forums.[169] India has close economic ties with South America, Asia, and Africa; it pursues a "Look East" policy that seeks to strengthen partnerships with the ASEAN nations, Japan, and South Korea that revolve around many issues, but especially those involving economic investment and regional security.[170][171]
China's nuclear test of 1964, as well as its repeated threats to intervene in support of Pakistan in the 1965 war, convinced India to develop nuclear weapons.[173] India conducted its first nuclear weapons test in 1974 and carried out further underground testing in 1998. Despite criticism and military sanctions, India has signed neither the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty nor the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, considering both to be flawed and discriminatory.[174] India maintains a "no first use" nuclear policy and is developing a nuclear triad capability as a part of its "minimum credible deterrence" doctrine.[175][176] It is developing a ballistic missile defence shield and, in collaboration with Russia, a fifth-generation fighter jet.[177] Other indigenous military projects involve the design and implementation of Vikrant-class aircraft carriers and Arihant-class nuclear submarines.[177]
Since the end of the Cold War, India has increased its economic, strategic, and military cooperation with the United States and the European Union.[178] In 2008, a civilian nuclear agreement was signed between India and the United States. Although India possessed nuclear weapons at the time and was not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it received waivers from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, ending earlier restrictions on India's nuclear technology and commerce. As a consequence, India became the sixth de facto nuclear weapons state.[179] India subsequently signed cooperation agreements involving civilian nuclear energy with Russia,[180] France,[181] the United Kingdom,[182] and Canada.[183]
The President of India is the supreme commander of the nation's armed forces; with 1.6 million active troops, they compose the world's third-largest military.[184] It comprises the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, and the Indian Air Force; auxiliary organisations include the Strategic Forces Command and three paramilitary groups: the Assam Rifles, the Special Frontier Force, and the Indian Coast Guard.[6] The official Indian defence budget for 2011 was US$36.03 billion, or 1.83% of GDP.[185] For the fiscal year spanning 2012–2013, US$40.44 billion was budgeted.[186] According to a 2008 SIPRI report, India's annual military expenditure in terms of purchasing power stood at US$72.7 billion,[187] In 2011, the annual defence budget increased by 11.6%,[188] although this does not include funds that reach the military through other branches of government.[189] As of 2012, India is the world's largest arms importer; between 2007 and 2011, it accounted for 10% of funds spent on international arms purchases.[190] Much of the military expenditure was focused on defence against Pakistan and countering growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean.[188]
Economy[link]
Main article: Economy of India
According to the International Monetary Fund, as of 2011, the Indian economy is nominally worth US$1.676 trillion; it is the tenth-largest economy by market exchange rates, and is, at US$4.457 trillion, the third-largest by purchasing power parity, or PPP.[192] With its average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% over the past two decades, and reaching 6.1% during 2011-12,[193] India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies.[194] However, the country ranks 140th in the world in nominal GDP per capita and 129th in GDP per capita at PPP.[192] Until 1991, all Indian governments followed protectionist policies that were influenced by socialist economics. Widespread state intervention and regulation largely walled the economy off from the outside world. An acute balance of payments crisis in 1991 forced the nation to liberalise its economy;[195] since then it has slowly moved towards a free-market system[196][197] by emphasizing both foreign trade and direct investment inflows.[198] India's recent economic model is largely capitalist.[197]
The 487.6-million worker Indian labour force is the world's second-largest.[6] The service sector makes up 55.6% of GDP, the industrial sector 26.3% and the agricultural sector 18.1%. Major agricultural products include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, and potatoes.[164] Major industries include textiles, telecommunications, chemicals, food processing, steel, transport equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, and software.[164] In 2006, the share of external trade in India's GDP stood at 24%, up from 6% in 1985.[196] In 2008, India's share of world trade was 1.68%;[199] In 2011, India was the world's tenth-largest importer and the nineteenth-largest exporter.[200] Major exports include petroleum products, textile goods, jewelry, software, engineering goods, chemicals, and leather manufactures.[164] Major imports include crude oil, machinery, gems, fertiliser, and chemicals.[164] Between 2001 and 2011, the contribution of petrochemical and engineering goods to total exports grew from 14% to 42%.[201]
Averaging an economic growth rate of 7.5% during the last few years,[196] India has more than doubled its hourly wage rates during the last decade.[202] Some 431 million Indians have left poverty since 1985; India's middle classes are projected to number around 580 million by 2030.[203] Though ranking 51st in global competitiveness, India ranks 17th in financial market sophistication, 24th in the banking sector, 44th in business sophistication, and 39th in innovation, ahead of several advanced economies.[204] With 7 of the world's top 15 information technology outsourcing companies based in India, the country is viewed as the second-most favourable outsourcing destination after the United States.[205] India's consumer market, currently the world's eleventh-largest, is expected to become fifth-largest by 2030.[203] Its telecommunication industry, the world's fastest-growing, added 227 million subscribers during the period 2010–11.[206] Its automotive industry, the world's second fastest growing, increased domestic sales by 26% during 2009–10,[207] and exports by 36% during 2008–09.[208] Power capacity is 250 gigawatts, of which 8% is renewable.[209]
Despite impressive economic growth during recent decades, India continues to face socio-economic challenges. India contains the largest concentration of people living below the World Bank's international poverty line of US$1.25 per day,[210] the proportion having decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005.[211] Half of the children in India are underweight,[212] and 46% of children under the age of three suffer from malnutrition.[210] The Mid-Day Meal Scheme attempts to lower these rates.[213] Since 1991, economic inequality between India's states has consistently grown: the per-capita net state domestic product of the richest states in 2007 was 3.2 times that of the poorest.[214] Corruption in India is perceived to have increased significantly,[215] with one report estimating the illegal capital flows since independence to be US$462 billion.[216] Driven by growth, India's nominal GDP per capita has steadily increased from US$329 in 1991, when economic liberalisation began, to US$1,265 in 2010, and is estimated to increase to US$2,110 by 2016; however, it has always remained lower than those of other Asian developing countries such as Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and is expected to remain so in the near future.[217]
According to a 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers report, India's GDP at purchasing power parity could overtake that of the United States by 2045.[218] During the next four decades, Indian GDP is expected to grow at an annualised average of 8%, making it potentially the world's fastest-growing major economy until 2050.[218] The report highlights key growth factors: a young and rapidly growing working-age population; growth in the manufacturing sector due to rising education and engineering skill levels; and sustained growth of the consumer market driven by a rapidly growing middle class.[218] The World Bank cautions that, for India to achieve its economic potential, it must continue to focus on public sector reform, transport infrastructure, agricultural and rural development, removal of labour regulations, education, energy security, and public health and nutrition.[219]
Demographics[link]
Main article: Demographics of India
With 1,210,193,422 residents reported in the 2011 provisional census,[4] India is the world's second-most populous country. Its population grew at 1.76% per annum during 2001–2011,[4] down from 2.13% per annum in the previous decade (1991–2001).[220] The human sex ratio, according to the 2011 census, is 940 females per 1,000 males.[4] The median age was 24.9 in the 2001 census.[6] Medical advances made in the last 50 years as well as increased agricultural productivity brought about by the "Green Revolution" have caused India's population to grow rapidly.[221] India continues to face several public health-related challenges.[222][223] According to the World Health Organisation, 900,000 Indians die each year from drinking contaminated water or breathing polluted air.[224] There are around 50 physicians per 100,000 Indians.[225] The number of Indians living in urban areas has grown by 31.2% between 1991 and 2001.[226] Yet, in 2001, over 70% lived in rural areas.[227][228] According to the 2001 census, there are 27 million-plus cities in India,[226] with Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai being the largest. The literacy rate in 2011 was 74.04%: 65.46% among females and 82.14% among males.[4] Kerala is the most literate state;[229] Bihar the least.[230]
India is home to two major language families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (24%). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman language families. India has no national language.[231] Hindi, with the largest number of speakers, is the official language of the government.[232][233] English is used extensively in business and administration and has the status of a "subsidiary official language";[234] it is important in education, especially as a medium of higher education. Each state and union territory has one or more official languages, and the constitution recognises in particular 21 "scheduled languages". The Constitution of India recognises 212 scheduled tribal groups which together constitute about 7.5% of the country's population.[235] The 2001 census reported that Hinduism, with over 800 million adherents (80.5% of the population), was the largest religion in India; it is followed by Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.8%), Jainism (0.4%), Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and the Bahá'í Faith.[236] India has the world's largest Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Zoroastrian, and Bahá'í populations,[citation needed] and has the third-largest Muslim population and the largest Muslim population for a non-Muslim majority country.[237][238]
Culture[link]
Main article: Culture of India
Indian cultural history spans more than 4,500 years.[239] During the Vedic period (c. 1700–500 BCE), the foundations of Hindu philosophy, mythology, and literature were laid, and many beliefs and practices which still exist today, such as dhárma, kárma, yóga, and mokṣa, were established.[10] India is notable for its religious diversity, with Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, and Jainism among the nation's major religions.[240] The predominant religion, Hinduism, has been shaped by various historical schools of thought, including those of the Upanishads,[241] the Yoga Sutras, the Bhakti movement,[240] and by Buddhist philosophy.[242]
Art and architecture[link]
Much of Indian architecture, including the Taj Mahal, other works of Mughal architecture, and South Indian architecture, blends ancient local traditions with imported styles.[243] Vernacular architecture is also highly regional in it flavours. Vastu shastra, literally "science of construction" or "architecture" and ascribed to Mamuni Mayan,[244] explores how the laws of nature affect human dwellings;[245] it employs precise geometry and directional alignments to reflect perceived cosmic constructs.[246] As applied in Hindu temple architecture, it is influenced by the Shilpa Shastras, a series of foundational texts whose basic mythological form is the Vastu-Purusha mandala, a square that embodied the "absolute".[247] The Taj Mahal, built in Agra between 1631 and 1648 by orders of Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, has been described in the UNESCO World Heritage List as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage."[248] Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture, developed by the British in the late 19th century, drew on Indo-Islamic architecture.[249]
Literature[link]
The earliest literary writings in India, composed between 1400 BCE and 1200 CE, were in the Sanskrit language.[250][251] Prominent works of this Sanskrit literature include epics such as the Mahābhārata and the Ramayana, the dramas of Kālidāsa such as the Abhijñānaśākuntalam (The Recognition of Śakuntalā), and poetry such as the Mahākāvya.[252][253][254] Developed between 600 BCE and 300 CE in South India, the Sangam literature, consisting of 2,381 poems, is regarded as a predecessor of Tamil literature.[255][256][257][258] From the 14th to the 18th centuries, India's literary traditions went through a period of drastic change because of the emergence of devotional poets such as Kabīr, Tulsīdās, and Guru Nānak. This period was characterised by a varied and wide spectrum of thought and expression; as a consequence, medieval Indian literary works differed significantly from classical traditions.[259] In the 19th century, Indian writers took a new interest in social questions and psychological descriptions. In the 20th century, Indian literature was influenced by the works of Bengali poet and novelist Rabindranath Tagore.[260]
Performing arts[link]
Indian music ranges over various traditions and regional styles. Classical music encompasses two genres and their various folk offshoots: the northern Hindustani and southern Carnatic schools.[261] Regionalised popular forms include filmi and folk music; the syncretic tradition of the bauls is a well-known form of the latter. Indian dance also features diverse folk and classical forms. Among the better-known folk dances are the bhangra of the Punjab, the bihu of Assam, the chhau of West Bengal and Jharkhand, sambalpuri of Orissa, ghoomar of Rajasthan, and the lavani of Maharashtra. Eight dance forms, many with narrative forms and mythological elements, have been accorded classical dance status by India's National Academy of Music, Dance, and Drama. These are: bharatanatyam of the state of Tamil Nadu, kathak of Uttar Pradesh, kathakali and mohiniyattam of Kerala, kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh, manipuri of Manipur, odissi of Orissa, and the sattriya of Assam.[262]
Theatre in India melds music, dance, and improvised or written dialogue.[263] Often based on Hindu mythology, but also borrowing from medieval romances or social and political events, Indian theatre includes the bhavai of Gujarat, the jatra of West Bengal, the nautanki and ramlila of North India, tamasha of Maharashtra, burrakatha of Andhra Pradesh, terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu, and the yakshagana of Karnataka.[264] The Indian film industry produces the world's most-watched cinema.[265] Established regional cinematic traditions exist in the Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil, and Telugu languages.[266] South Indian cinema attracts more than 75% of national film revenue.[267]
Society[link]
Traditional Indian society is defined by relatively strict social hierarchy. The Indian caste system embodies much of the social stratification and many of the social restrictions found in the Indian subcontinent. Social classes are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups, often termed as jātis, or "castes".[268] Most Dalits ("Untouchables") and members of other lower-caste communities continue to live in segregation and often face persecution and discrimination.[269][270] Traditional Indian family values are highly valued, and multi-generational patriarchal joint families have been the norm in India, though nuclear families are becoming common in urban areas.[271] An overwhelming majority of Indians, with their consent, have their marriages arranged by their parents or other family members.[272] Marriage is thought to be for life,[272] and the divorce rate is extremely low.[273] Child marriages are common, especially in rural areas; more than half of Indian females wed before reaching 18, which is their legal marriageable age.[274]
Many Indian festivals are religious in origin; among them are Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Thai Pongal, Navaratri, Holi, Durga Puja, Eid ul-Fitr, Bakr-Id, Christmas, and Vaisakhi. India has three national holidays which are observed in all states and union territories: Republic Day, Independence Day, and Gandhi Jayanti. Other sets of holidays, varying between nine and twelve, are officially observed in individual states. Traditional Indian dress varies in colour and style across regions and depends on various factors, including climate and faith. Popular styles of dress include draped garments such as the sari for women and the dhoti or lungi for men. Stitched clothes, such as the shalwar kameez for women and kurta–pyjama combinations or European-style trousers and shirts for men, are also popular.[275] Use of delicate jewellery, modelled on real flowers worn in ancient India, is part of a tradition dating back some 5,000 years; gemstones are also worn in India as talismans.[276]
Indian cuisine features an unsurpassed reliance on herbs and spices, with dishes often calling for the nuanced usage of a dozen or more condiments;[277] it is also known for its tandoori preparations. The tandoor, a clay oven used in India for almost 5,000 years, grills meats to an "uncommon succulence" and produces the puffy flatbread known as naan.[278] The staple foods are wheat (predominantly in the north),[279] rice (especially in the south and the east), and lentils.[280] Many spices that have worldwide appeal are native to the Indian subcontinent,[281] while chili pepper, native to the Americas and introduced by the Portuguese, is widely used by Indians.[282] Āyurveda, a system of traditional medicine, used six rasas and three guṇas to help describe comestibles.[283] Over time, as Vedic animal sacrifices were supplanted by the notion of sacred-cow inviolability, vegetarianism became associated with high religious status and grew increasingly popular,[284] a trend aided by the rise of Buddhist, Jain, and bhakti Hindu norms.[285] India has the world's highest concentration of vegetarians: a 2006 survey found that 31% of Indians were non-ovo vegetarian.[285] Common traditional eating customs include meals taken on or near the floor, caste- and gender-segregated dining,[286][287] and a lack of cutlery in favour of the right hand or a piece of roti.
Sport[link]
Main article: Sport in India
In India, several traditional indigenous sports remain fairly popular, among them kabaddi, kho kho, pehlwani and gilli-danda. Some of the earliest forms of Asian martial arts, such as kalarippayattu, musti yuddha, silambam, and marma adi, originated in India. The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Arjuna Award are the highest forms of government recognition for athletic achievement; the Dronacharya Award is awarded for excellence in coaching. Chess, commonly held to have originated in India as chaturaṅga, is regaining widespread popularity with the rise in the number of Indian grandmasters.[288][289] Pachisi, from which parcheesi derives, was played on a giant marble court by Akbar.[290] The improved results garnered by the Indian Davis Cup team and other Indian tennis players in the early 2010s have made tennis increasingly popular in the country.[291] India has a comparatively strong presence in shooting sports, and has won several medals at the Olympics, the World Shooting Championships, and the Commonwealth Games.[292][293] Other sports in which Indians have succeeded internationally include badminton,[294] boxing,[295] and wrestling.[296] Football is popular in West Bengal, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the north-eastern states.[297]
India's official national sport is field hockey; it is administered by Hockey India. The Indian national hockey team won the 1975 Hockey World Cup and have, as of 2012, taken eight gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals, making it the sport's most successful team. Cricket is by far the most popular sport; the Indian national cricket team won the 1983 and 2011 Cricket World Cup events, the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, and shared the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka. Cricket in India is administered by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, or BCCI; the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy, the Irani Trophy, and the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy are domestic competitions. The BCCI conducts a Twenty20 competition known as the Indian Premier League. India has hosted or co-hosted several international sporting events: the 1951 and 1982 Asian Games; the 1987, 1996, and 2011 Cricket World Cup tournaments; the 2003 Afro-Asian Games; the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy; the 2010 Hockey World Cup; and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Major international sporting events held annually in India include the Chennai Open, the Mumbai Marathon, the Delhi Half Marathon, and the Indian Masters. The first Indian Grand Prix featured in late 2011.[298] India has traditionally been the dominant country at the South Asian Games. An example of this dominance is the basketball competition where Team India won three out of four tournaments to date.[299]
Notes[link]
- ^ "[...] Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, subject to such alterations in the words as the Government may authorise as occasion arises; and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it." (Constituent Assembly of India 1950).
- ^ "The country's exact size is subject to debate because some borders are disputed. The Indian government lists the total area as 3,287,260 km2 (1,269,220 sq mi) and the total land area as 3,060,500 km2 (1,181,700 sq mi); the United Nations lists the total area as 3,287,263 km2 (1,269,219 sq mi) and total land area as 2,973,190 km2 (1,147,960 sq mi)." (Library of Congress 2004).
- ^ See also: Official names of India.
- ^ The Government of India regards Afghanistan as a bordering country, as it considers all of Kashmir to be part of India. However, this is disputed, and the region bordering Afghanistan is administered by Pakistan. Source: "Ministry of Home Affairs (Department of Border Management)" (DOC). http://mha.nic.in/docs/BM_Intro(E).doc. Retrieved 1 September 2008. .
- ^ The northernmost point under Indian control is the disputed Siachen Glacier in Jammu and Kashmir; however, the Government of India regards the entire region of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, including the Northern Areas administered by Pakistan, to be its territory. It therefore assigns the longitude 37° 6' to its northernmost point.
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- ^ a b c d Central Intelligence Agency.
- ^ United Nations 2011.
- ^ Stein 1998, pp. 16–17.
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- ^ Kulke & Rothermund 2004, pp. 41–43.
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- ^ a b c d Singh 2009, p. 319.
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- ^ United States Department of Agriculture.
- ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, pp. 266–270.
- ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, p. 253.
- ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, p. 274.
- ^ a b Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, pp. 247–248.
- ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, pp. 293–295.
- ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, p. 304.
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- ^ Dikshit & Schwartzberg, p. 7.
- ^ Prakash et al. 2000.
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Biodiversity
- Ali, S.; Ripley, S. D.; Dick, J. H. (15 August 1996), A Pictorial Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (2nd ed.), Mumbai: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-563732-8
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- Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Ministry of Environments and Forests, Government of India, 9 September 1972, http://envfor.nic.in/legis/wildlife/wildlife1.html, retrieved 25 July 2011
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- (PDF) The List of Wetlands of International Importance, The Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands, 4 June 2007, p. 18, archived from the original on 21 June 2007, http://web.archive.org/web/20070621011113/http://www.ramsar.org/sitelist.pdf, retrieved 20 June 2007
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Politics
- Bhambhri, C. P. (1 May 1992), Politics in India, 1991–1992, Shipra, ISBN 978-81-85402-17-8, http://books.google.com/books?id=pf5HAAAAMAAJ, retrieved 20 July 2011
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- Second UPA Win, A Crowning Glory for Sonia's Ascendancy, Business Standard, 16 May 2009, http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/second-upa-wincrowning-glory-for-sonia%5Cs-ascendancy/61892/on, retrieved 13 June 2009
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- Dunleavy, P.; Diwakar, R.; Dunleavy, C. (2007) (PDF), The Effective Space of Party Competition, London School of Economics and Political Science, http://www2.lse.ac.uk/government/research/resgroups/PSPE/pdf/PSPE_WP5_07.pdf, retrieved 27 September 2011
- Dutt, S. (1998), "Identities and the Indian State: An Overview", Third World Quarterly 19 (3): 411–434, DOI:10.1080/01436599814325
- Echeverri-Gent, J. (January 2002), "Politics in India's Decentred Polity", in Ayres, A.; Oldenburg, P., Quickening the Pace of Change, India Briefing, London: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 19–53, ISBN 978-0-7656-0812-3
- "Current Recognised Parties" (PDF), Election Commission of India, 14 March 2009, http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/ElectoralLaws/OrdersNotifications/Symbols_Sep_2009.pdf, retrieved 5 July 2010
- Gledhill, A. (30 March 1970), The Republic of India: The Development of its Laws and Constitution, Greenwood, ISBN 978-0-8371-2813-9, http://books.google.com/books?id=cHAjPQAACAAJ, retrieved 21 July 2011
- Narasimha Rao Passes Away, The Hindu, 24 December 2004, http://www.hindu.com/2004/12/24/stories/2004122408870100.htm, retrieved 2 November 2008
- Mathew, K. M. (1 January 2003), Manorama Yearbook, Malayala Manorama, ISBN 978-81-900461-8-3, http://books.google.com/books?id=jDaLQwAACAAJ, retrieved 21 July 2011
- "National Symbols of India", Know India (National Informatics Centre, Government of India), http://india.gov.in/knowindia/national_symbols.php, retrieved 27 September 2009
- Neuborne, B. (2003), "The Supreme Court of India", International Journal of Constitutional Law 1 (1): 476–510, DOI:10.1093/icon/1.3.476
- Pylee, M. V. (2003), "The Longest Constitutional Document", Constitutional Government in India (2nd ed.), S. Chand, ISBN 978-81-219-2203-6, http://books.google.com/?id=veDUJCjr5U4C
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- Sharma, R. (1950), "Cabinet Government in India", Parliamentary Affairs 4 (1): 116–126
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- Sinha, A. (2004), "The Changing Political Economy of Federalism in India", India Review 3 (1): 25–63, DOI:10.1080/14736480490443085
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Foreign relations and military
- Alford, P. (7 July 2008), G8 Plus 5 Equals Power Shift, The Australian, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/g8-plus-5-equals-power-shift/story-e6frg6t6-1111116838759, retrieved 21 November 2009
- Behera, L. K. (7 March 2011), Budgeting for India's Defence: An Analysis of Defence Budget 2011–2012, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, http://www.idsa.in/idsacomments/IndiasDefenceBudget2011-12_lkbehera_070311, retrieved 4 April 2011
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- India, Russia Review Defence Ties, The Hindu, 5 October 2009, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2514142.ece, retrieved 8 October 2011
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- Miglani, S. (28 February 2011), With An Eye on China, India Steps Up Defence Spending, Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/28/india-budget-military-idUSSGE71R02Y20110228, retrieved 6 July 2011
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- Pandit, R. (27 July 2009), N-Submarine to Give India Crucial Third Leg of Nuke Triad, The Times of India, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-07-27/india/28212143_1_nuclear-powered-submarine-ins-arihant-nuclear-submarine, retrieved 10 March 2010
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- India, France Agree on Civil Nuclear Cooperation, Rediff, 25 January 2008, http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jan/25france.htm, retrieved 22 August 2010
- UK, India Sign Civil Nuclear Accord, Reuters, 13 February 2010, http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/13/us-india-britain-nuclear-idUSTRE61C21E20100213?type=politicsNews, retrieved 22 August 2010
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- Shukla, A. (5 March 2011), China Matches India's Expansion in Military Spending, Business Standard, http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/china-matches-india%5Cs-expansion-in-military-spending/427365/, retrieved 6 July 2011
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- "SIPRI Yearbook 2008: Armaments, Disarmament, and International Security", Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Oxford University Press), 8 August 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-954895-8, http://books.google.com/books?id=EAyQ9KCJE2gC&pg=PA178, retrieved 22 July 2011
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- India, US Sign 123 Agreement, The Times of India, 11 October 2008, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2008-10-11/india/27905286_1_indian-nuclear-market-sign-landmark-civil-nuclear-field, retrieved 21 July 2011
Economy
- Alamgir, J. (24 December 2008), India's Open-Economy Policy: Globalism, Rivalry, Continuity, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-415-77684-4, http://books.google.com/books?id=JL7QfWJ5Yk0C, retrieved 23 July 2011
- Bonner, B (20 March 2010), Make Way, World. India Is on the Move, Christian Science Monitor, http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Daily-Reckoning/2010/0320/Make-way-world.-India-is-on-the-move, retrieved 23 July 2011
- "India Lost $462bn in Illegal Capital Flows, Says Report", BBC News (British Broadcasting Corporation), 18 November 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11782795, retrieved 23 July 2011
- "India Second Fastest Growing Auto Market After China", Business Line, 9 April 2010, http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/article988689.ece?ref=archive, retrieved 23 July 2011
- India's Economy: Not Just Rubies and Polyester Shirts, The Economist, 8 October 2011, http://www.economist.com/node/21531527, retrieved 9 October 2011
- "Indian Car Exports Surge 36%", Express India, 13 October 2009, http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Indian-car-exports-surge-36/528633/, retrieved 23 July 2011
- Report for Selected Countries and Subjects: India, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, International Monetary Fund, April 2011, http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2011/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?pr.x=20&pr.y=6&sy=1991&ey=2016&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=548%2C566%2C524%2C578%2C534%2C536%2C429&s=NGDPDPC&grp=0&a=, retrieved 23 July 2011
- Farrell, D.; Beinhocker, E. (19 May 2007), Next Big Spenders: India's Middle Class, McKinsey & Company, http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/mginews/bigspenders.asp, retrieved 17 September 2011
- Gargan, E. A. (15 August 1992), India Stumbles in Rush to a Free Market Economy, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/15/world/india-stumbles-in-rush-to-a-free-market-economy.html, retrieved 22 July 2011
- (PDF) World Economic Outlook Update, International Monetary Fund, June 2011, http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2011/update/02/pdf/0611.pdf, retrieved 22 July 2011
- Nayak, P. B.; Goldar, B.; Agrawal, P. (10 November 2010), India's Economy and Growth: Essays in Honour of V. K. R. V. Rao, SAGE Publications, ISBN 978-81-321-0452-0, http://books.google.com/books?id=N1Ho2SGXUHwC
- Olson, R. G. (21 December 2009), "Technology and Science in Ancient Civilizations", Praeger Series on the Ancient World (Praeger), ISBN 978-0-275-98936-1, http://books.google.com/books?id=0vP50ra6SYAC, retrieved 27 September 2011
- (PDF) Economic Survey of India 2007: Policy Brief, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, October 2007, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/17/52/39452196.pdf, retrieved 22 July 2011
- Pal, P.; Ghosh, J. (July 2007), "Inequality in India: A Survey of Recent Trends" (PDF), Economic and Social Affairs: DESA Working Paper No. 45 (United Nations), http://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2007/wp45_2007.pdf, retrieved 23 July 2011
- (PDF) The World in 2050: The Accelerating Shift of Global Economic Power: Challenges and Opportunities, PricewaterhouseCoopers, January2011, http://www.pwc.com/en_GX/gx/world-2050/pdf/world-in-2050-jan-2011.pdf, retrieved 23 July 2011
- Schwab, K. (2010) (PDF), The Global Competitiveness Report 2010–2011, World Economic Forum, http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalCompetitivenessReport_2010-11.pdf, retrieved 10 May 2011
- Sheth, N. (28 May 2009), "Outlook for Outsourcing Spending Brightens", The Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124344190542659025.html#articleTabs_comments%3D%26articleTabs%3Darticle, retrieved 3 October 2010
- (PDF) Information Note to the Press (Press Release No.29 /2011), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 6 April 2011, http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/trai/upload/PressReleases/816/Press_release_feb%20-11.pdf, retrieved 23 July 2011
- Exporters Get Wider Market Reach, The Times of India, 28 August 2009, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-08-28/india-business/28205417_1_strategies-and-policy-measures-foreign-trade-policy-focus-market-scheme, retrieved 23 July 2011
- (PDF) Corruption Perception Index 2010—India Continues to be Corrupt, Transparency International, 26 October 2011, http://transparencyindia.org/resource/press_release/Corruption%20Perception%20Index%20(CPI)%202010.pdf, retrieved 23 July 2011
- New Global Poverty Estimates—What It Means for India, World Bank, http://www.worldbank.org.in/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/INDIAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:21880725~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:295584,00.html, retrieved 23 July 2011
- "India: Undernourished Children—A Call for Reform and Action", World Bank, http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/0,,contentMDK:20916955~pagePK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:223547,00.html, retrieved 23 July 2011
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- India Country Overview September 2010, World Bank, September 2010, http://www.worldbank.org.in/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/INDIAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:20195738~menuPK:295591~pagePK:141137~piPK:141127~theSitePK:295584,00.html, retrieved 23 July 2011
- Trade to Expand by 9.5% in 2010 After a Dismal 2009, WTO Reports, World Trade Organisation, 26 March 2010, http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres10_e/pr598_e.htm, retrieved 23 July 2011
- Yep, E. (27 September 2011), ReNew Wind Power Gets $201 Million Goldman Investment, The Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204422404576595972728958728.html, retrieved 27 September 2011
Demographics
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- (PDF) Healthcare in India: Report Highlights, Boston Analytics, January 2009, http://bostonanalytics.com/india_watch/Healthcare%20in%20India%20Executive%20Summary.pdf, retrieved 23 July 2011
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- Dharwadker, A. (28 October 2010), "Representing India's Pasts: Time, Culture, and Problems of Performance Historiography", in Canning, C. M.; Postlewait, T., Representing the Past: Essays in Performance Historiography, University of Iowa Press, ISBN 978-1-58729-905-6, http://books.google.com/books?id=Rgf0gbml2ocC, retrieved 24 July 2011
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- Dyson, T.; Visaria, P. (7 July 2005), "Migration and Urbanisation: Retrospect and Prospects", in Dyson, T.; Casses, R.; Visaria, L., Twenty-First Century India: Population, Economy, Human Development, and the Environment, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-928382-8, http://books.google.com/books?id=bqU9T5c0wlYC
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- Mallikarjun, B (November 2004), "Fifty Years of Language Planning for Modern Hindi—The Official Language of India", Language in India 4 (11), ISSN 19302940, http://www.languageinindia.com/nov2004/mallikarjunmalaysiapaper1.html, retrieved 24 July 2011
- Notification No. 2/8/60-O.L, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 27 April 1960, http://rajbhasha.nic.in/enpres-1960.htm, retrieved 13 May 2011
- "Religious Composition", Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner (Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India), 2010–2011, http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/religion.aspx, retrieved 23 July 2011
- "Census Data 2001", Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner (Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India), 2010–2011, http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/National_Summary/National_Summary_DataPage.aspx, retrieved 22 July 2011
- Ottenheimer, H. J. (2008), The Anthropology of Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology, Cengage, ISBN 978-0-495-50884-7, http://books.google.com/books?id=d4QHsORbZs4C
- Ratna, U. (2007), "Interface Between Urban and Rural Development in India", in Dutt, A. K.; Thakur, B., City, Society, and Planning, 1, Concept, ISBN 978-81-8069-459-2, http://books.google.com/books?id=QDmZeW1H37IC
- Robinson, S. (1 May 2008), "India's Medical Emergency", Time, http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1736516,00.html, retrieved 23 July 2011
- Rorabacher, J. A. (2010), Hunger and Poverty in South Asia, Gyan, ISBN 978-81-212-1027-0, http://books.google.com/books?id=u6hriMcSsE4C
- Singh, S. (2004), Library and Literacy Movement for National Development, Concept, ISBN 978-81-8069-065-5, http://books.google.com/books?id=JmmeWL_9hqAC
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Culture
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- "Saina Nehwal: India's Badminton Star and "New Woman"", BBC News, 1 August 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10725584, retrieved 5 October 2010
- "Commonwealth Games 2010: India Dominate Shooting Medals", BBC News, 7 October 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/commonwealth_games/delhi_2010/9068886.stm, retrieved 3 June 2011
- "UN Report Slams India for Caste Discrimination", CBC News Network (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), 2 March 2007, http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/03/02/india-dalits.html, retrieved 17 July 2007
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- Das, S. K. (1 January 2005), A History of Indian Literature, 500–1399: From Courtly to the Popular, Sahitya Akademi, ISBN 978-81-260-2171-0
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External links[link]
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- India at the Open Directory Project
- India travel guide from Wikitravel
- India at the UCB Government Information Library
Coordinates: 21°N 78°E / 21°N 78°E / 21; 78
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This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (January 2012) |
| Kamal Heer | |
|---|---|
 Kamal Heer |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Kamaljeet Singh Heer |
| Born | (1974-01-23) January 23, 1974 (age 38) Halluwal, Punjab, India |
| Origin | Surrey, British Columbia, Canada |
| Genres | Punjabi, Bhangra, Pop, Folk, Classical, Sad |
| Occupations | Singer and Music composer |
| Instruments | Chimta, Harmonium and Vocals |
| Years active | Singing: 2000–Present Music Director: 1993–2000 |
| Labels | Plasma Records (India) Kiss Records (UK) |
| Associated acts | Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |
| Website | Official website |
Kamaljeet Singh Heer aka Kamal Heer is a Punjabi musician. Born on 23 January 1973, he is the younger brother of Manmohan Waris (the eldest of the brothers) and Sangtar, two other esteemed musicians. His live performances showcase his virtuosity with taan and his command of the art of traditional Punjabi music. All three of Heer brothers are behind the formulation of Punjabi Virsa shows all over the world. These shows have become internationally famous. Also a talented composer, Kamal Heer has collaborated with his brother Sangtar to write music for their brother Waris. He is married to Gurjit Kaur Birring.
Contents |
Career[link]
Kamal Heer was born in the Village of Halluwal, Punjab, India. He learned music from Ustaad Jaswant Singh Bhanwra. After Kamal's family moved to Canada in 1990, Kamal and older brother Sangtar started composing music. In 1993 they composed music for Manmohan Waris's album, Gaairan Naal Penghan Jhotdiye which became a huge hit. Kamal continued composing till 1999.
Kamal's debut album, Kamli released in 2000, which mostly avoided success. In 2002 Kamal Heer released Masti-Kanthay Vala which became very successful especially the superhit song "Kanthay Vala". Kamal Heer released Masti 2 in 2003 which contained superhit tracks "Nachne Nu Kare Mera Ji", "Kinnu Yaad Kar Kar Hasdi", "Hick Da Taveet" and "Ishq Ne Kamle Karte".
Kamal Heer continued his success with Punjabi Virsa 2004-Toronto Live, a live album recorded in Toronto. The immense success of this live album lead to Punjabi Virsa concerts happening every year all around the world. Punjabi Virsa 2005, Punjabi Virsa 2006 and Punjabi Virsa 2008 have also been recorded live. After moderately successful studio albums, Masti Three (2006) and Chan Jiha Gabhru (2007), Kamal Heer released Jinday Ni Jinday in 2009. This album is considered his biggest hit to date. After the Punjabi Virsa 2009 tour of Australia and New Zealand Kamal is currently touring in Punjabi Virsa 2010.
Discography[link]
Kamli
- Released: January, 2000
- Format: Audio cassette, CD and digital download
- Label: Plasma Records, MagnaSound
- Writer: Malkiat Meet, Sangtar, Davinder Khannewala and Debi Makhsoospuri
- Producer: Sangtar
- Tracks: 8
Masti-Kanthay Vala
- Released: December, 2002
- Format: Audio cassette, CD and digital download
- Label: Plasma Records, Music Waves
- Writer: Malkiat Meet, Davinder Khannewala, Debi Makhsoospuri and Sangtar
- Producer: Sangtar
- Director: Myth & Magic, Baljit Deol
- Tracks: 10
- Singles: Kanthay Vala
Masti 2
- Released: November, 2003
- Format: CD, Audio cassette and digital download
- Label: Plasma Records, Kiss Records
- Writer: Mangal Hathur and Debi Makhsoospuri
- Producer: Sangtar
- Tracks: 10
- Singles: Nachne Nu Kare Mera Jee and Ishq Ne Kamle Karte
- Released: February, 2006
- Format: CD, Audio cassette and digital download
- Label: Plasma Records, Kiss Records
- Writer: Mangal Hathur and SM Sadiq
- Producer: Sangtar
- Director: Sandeep Sharma
- Tracks: 10
Chan Jiha Gabhru
- Released: December, 2007
- Format: CD and digital download
- Label: Plasma Records, Kiss Records
- Writer: Mangal Hathur, Charan Likhari and Sangtar
- Producer: Sangtar
- Director: Sandeep Dhaliwal, Azeem Parker, Rimpy Prince and Sandeep Sharma
- Tracks: 8
- Released: November, 2009
- Format: CD and digital download
- Label: Plasma Records
- Writer: Jasbir Gunachauria, Sukhpal Aujla, Anil Fattegarh Jattan, Charan Likhari, Ninder Sher Khan, Preet Khetla and Sangtar
- Producer: Sangtar
- Director: Robert Holbrook, Sandeep Sharma and Bhupi Syan
- Tracks: 8
Compilations[link]
Shaunki Mela 2003-Surrey Live (Recorded Live at Millenium Park, Surrey, Canada on June 21, 2003. Along with Manmohan Waris, Gurpreet Ghuggi and Sangtar)
- Released: August, 2003
- Format: DVD, VHS, CD and Audio cassette
- Label: Plasma Records
- Writer: Dhadi Amar Singh Shaunki, Shamsher Singh Sandhu, Charan Singh Safari, Kuldip Deep, Debi Makhsoospuri, Davinder Khannewala, Gurpreet Guggi, Jasbir Gunachauria, Mangal Hathur and Sangtar
- Producer: Sangtar
- Tracks: 29
Punjabi Virsa 2004-Wonderland Live (Recorded Live at Canada's Wonderland, Canada. Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar)
- Released: October, 2004
- Format: DVD and CD
- Label: Plasma Records, Kiss Records
- Writer: Dhadi Amar Singh Shaunki, Mangal Hathur, Davinder Khannewala, Debi Makhsoospuri, Malkiat Meet, Jasbir Gunachauria and Kuldip Deep
- Producer: Sangtar
- Tracks: 28
Punjabi Virsa 2005-London Live (Recorded live at London, England. Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar)
- Released: November, 2005
- Format: DVD and CD
- Label: Plasma Records, Kiss Records
- Writer: Dhadi Amar Singh Shaunki, Mangal Hathur, Davinder Khannewala and Sangtar
- Producer: Sangtar
- Tracks: 26
Masti Hits
- Released: August, 2006
- Format: DVD and CD
- Label: Plasma Records
- Writer: Mangal Hathur, Malkiat Meet and Davinder Khannewala
- Producer: Sangtar
- Tracks: 10
Punjabi Virsa 2006-Toronto Live (Recorded Live at the Hershey Center, Mississauga, Canada. Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar.)
- Released: December, 2006
- Format: DVD and CD
- Label: Plasma Records, Kiss Records
- Writer: Baba Bulleh Shah, Mangal Hathur, Davinder Khanewala, Sangtar and Jasbir Gunachauria
- Producer: Sangtar
- Tracks: 37
Moti Chun Ke (Sad Song Collection)
- Released: July, 2008
- Format: CD
- Label: Plasma Records
- Writer: Mangal Hathur, Debi Makhsoospuri, Davinder Khannewala, Malkiat Meet and Charan Likhari
- Producer: Sangtar
- Tracks: 10
Punjabi Reloaded (Along with Manmohan Waris.)
- Released: September, 2008
- Format: CD
- Label: Plasma Records, Kiss Records
- Writer: Mangal Hathur and Davinder Khannewala
- Producer: Joy & Atul
- Tracks: 12
Punjabi Virsa 2008 Vancouver Live (Recorded Live at Orpheum Theater, Vancouver, Canada on August 30, 2008. Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar)
- Released: February, 2009
- Format: DVD and CD
- Label: Plasma Records, Planet Recordz
- Writer: Prof. Mohan Singh, Debi Makhsoospuri, Mushtak Alam Goga, Jasbir Gunachauria, Charan Likhari, Mangal Hathur and Sangtar
- Producer: Sangtar
- Tracks: 27
Music videos[link]
| Year | Song | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Kamli | Kamli |
| Dila Meria | ||
| 2002 | Bhajjan Kurray | Masti-Kanthav Vala |
| Kanthey Vala | ||
| Yaad Aegi | ||
| Dhann Dhann | ||
| 2003 | Nachne Nu Kare Mera Ji | Masti 2 |
| Kinnu Yaad Kar Kar Hassidi | ||
| Ishq Ne Kamle Karthe | ||
| 2006 | Gaaia Na Karne | Masti Three |
| Akh Lar Gaee | ||
| Kaamad Bejeya | ||
| 2007 | Chan Jiha Gabhru | Chan Jiha Gabhru |
| Mar Gae Majajne[1] | ||
| Roz Ladna | ||
| Hathiar Na Chalaiye | ||
| Sharab Chon Disen | ||
| Moti Chunke | ||
| Majhay Diye Kudiye[1] | ||
| 2008 | Huss Ho Gia | Punjabi Reloaded |
| Chajju Da Chubara | ||
| Ik Gerha | ||
| 2009 | Jinday Ni Jinday(Vancouver) | Jinday Ni Jinday |
| Ik Boli | ||
| Jinday Ni Jinday(New Delhi) | ||
| Nashedi Dil | ||
| 2010 | Pendu Jatt | |
| TBA | Chetey Kareen |
Videography[link]
| Release | DVD | Record Label | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 2003 | Shaunki Mela 2003-Surrey Live | Plasma Records | Recorded Live in Surrey. Special Tribute Concert to Dhadi Amar Singh Shaunki. Along with Manmohan Waris, Gurpreet Ghuggi and Sangtar |
| July 2004 | Plasma Framed Vol. 1 | Plasma Records | Videos Along with Manmohan Waris |
| October 2004 | Punjabi Virsa 2004-Wonderland Live | Plasma Records/Kiss Records | Recorded Live In Toronto Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |
| November 2005 | Punjabi Virsa 2005-London Live | Plasma Records/Kiss Records | Recorded Live In London Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |
| 2006 | Punjabi Virsa Behind The Scenes | Plasma Records | Making Of Whole Punjabi Virsa Tour, Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |
| December 2006 | Punjabi Virsa 2006-Toronto Live | Plasma Records/Kiss RecordS | Recorded Live In Toronto Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |
| February 2009 | Punjabi Virsa 2008 Vancouver Live | Plasma Records | Recorded Live in Vancouver Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |
Live performances[link]
Concerts/Tours[link]
| Date | Concert/Tour | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| August 2003 | Shaunki Mela 2003 | Special Tribute Concert to Dhadi Amar Singh Shaunki Along with Manmohan Waris, Sangtar and Gurpreet Ghuggi [2] |
| October 2004 | Punjabi Virsa 2004 | Toured Canada and the USA Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |
| May–June 2005 | Punjabi Virsa 2005 | Toured Europe Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar |
| April–October 2006 | Punjabi Virsa 2006 | Toured Australia, Canada, USA and Europe Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar[3] |
| August/September 2007 | Punjabi Virsa 2007 | Toured Europe Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar[4] |
| August/September 2008 | Punjabi Virsa 2008 | Toured Canada and the USA Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar[5] |
| August 2009 | Punjabi Virsa 2009 | Toured Australia and New Zealand Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar[6] |
| June–September 2010 | Punjabi Virsa 2010 | Is going to tour the UK in June and July 2010, USA in July and August 2010 and Canada in September 2010. Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar[7] |
Other[link]
| Date | Performance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Parbat Ali Vijay Diwas | Special Concert for the Indian Armed Forces Along with Manmohan Waris |
| March 21, 2009 | 2009 Punjabi Music Awards | Performed During the Awards |
Awards and nominations[link]
This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.
| Year | Category | For | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Album of the Year | Punjabi Virsa 2006 | Won[1] |
| 2009 | Best Folk Pop Vocalist | Hathiyar Na Chalaiye | Lost |
| 2009 | Best Folk Pop Album | Moti Chun Ke | Lost |
| 2010 | Best Non Resident Punjabi Vocalist | Jinday Ni Jinday | Won |
| 2010 | Best Non Resident Punjabi Vocalist | Punjabi Virsa Vancouver Live | Lost |
| 2010 | Best Folk Oriented Album | Punjabi Virsa Vancouver Live | Won |
| 2010 | Best Duel Vocalists | Vasde Raho Pardesio (Along with Manmohan Waris and Sangtar) | Lost |
| 2010 | Best Non Resident Punjabi Album | Punjabi Virsa Vancouver Live | Lost[8][9] |
References[link]
- ^ a b c [1][dead link]
- ^ http://www.sangtar.com/kamal/read.htm
- ^ http://www.plasmarecords.com/pv2006_news_left.html
- ^ http://www.plasmarecords.com/punjabivirsa2007.html
- ^ http://punjabivirsa2008.com
- ^ http://punjabivirsa2010.com/index-2.html
- ^ http://www.oneworldproductions.co.uk/Concerts/punjabi-virsa-tour-2010.html
- ^ http://ptcpmusicawards.com/smsvoting.htm
- ^ http://ptcpmusicawards.com/winner.html
External links[link]
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Heer, Kamal |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1974-01-23 |
| Place of birth | Halluwal, Punjab, India |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Kamal_Heer
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamal_Heer
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
