Points of the compass

The points of the compass are points on a compass, specifically on the compass rose, marking divisions of the four cardinal directions: North, South, East, West. The number of points may be only the 4 cardinal points, or the 8 principal points adding the intercardinal (or ordinal) directions northeast (NE), southeast (SE), southwest (SW), and northwest (NW). In meteorological usage further intermediate points are added to give the sixteen points of a wind compass. Finally, at the most complete in European tradition, are found the full thirty-two points of the mariner's compass. In ancient China 24 points of the compass were used.

In the mariner's exercise of boxing the compass, all thirty-two points of the compass are named in clockwise order. The names of intermediate points are formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, and are very handy to refer to a heading (or course or azimuth) in a general or colloquial fashion, without having to resort to computing or recalling degrees. For most applications, the minor points have been superseded by degrees measured clockwise from North.

India

India, officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by 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 Myanmar (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 religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also shaped 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 after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.

East

East is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. East is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of west and is perpendicular to north and south.

Etymology

The word east comes from Middle English est, from Old English ēast, which itself comes from the Proto-Germanic *aus-to- or *austra- "east, toward the sunrise", from Proto-Indo-European *aus- "to shine," or "dawn". This is similar to Old High German *ōstar "to the east", Latin aurora "dawn", and Greek ēōs or heōs.Ēostre, a Germanic goddess of dawn, might have been a personification of both dawn and the cardinal points.

Navigation

By convention, the right hand side of a map is east. This convention has developed from the use of a compass, which places north at the top.

To go east using a compass for navigation, set a bearing or azimuth of 90°.

Cultural

East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise. The practice of praying towards the East is older than Christianity, but has been adopted by this religion as the Orient was thought of as containing mankind's original home. Hence, most Christian churches are oriented towards the east.

East India

East India is a region of India consisting of the Indian states of West Bengal,Bihar,Jharkhand, Odisha and also the union territory Andaman and Nicobar Islands. West Bengal's capital Kolkata is the largest city of this region. The Kolkata Metropolitan Area is the country's third largest. The states of Odisha and West Bengal share some cultural and linguistic characteristics with Bangladesh and with the state of Assam.. Bengali is the most spoken language of this region and it is also the second most spoken language in India after Hindi. Odia is the only language in east India accorded the status of a Classical Language of India. Together with Bangladesh, West Bengal formed the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal before partition in 1947. The historic region of Bengal which was ruled by Nawabs of Bengal comprises the present, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Bangladesh from where the British started their conquest of India. Modern days Odisha in ancient time know as Kalinga, Utkala and ruled by indigenous mighty rulers of Mahameghavahana dynasty, Eastern Ganga dynasty and Gajapati Dynasty.

Northeast India

Northeast India is the eastern-most region of India. It is connected to East India via a narrow corridor squeezed between independent nations of Bhutan and Bangladesh. It comprises the contiguous Seven Sister States (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura), and the Himalayan state of Sikkim, and Jalpaiguri Division. Except for the Goalpara region of Assam, the rest did not become part of political India until the 19th century and later. The Brahmaputra valley area of Assam became a part of British India in 1824, with the hill regions annexed later. Sikkim was annexed to the Indian union through a referendum in 1975; it was recognized as part of Northeast India in the 1990s.

Northeast India is generally considered one of the most challenging regions of the country to govern. It has been the site of separatist movements among the tribal peoples, who speak languages related to Tibeto-Burman.

Northeast India constitutes about 8% of India's size; roughly 3/4th the size of the state of Maharashtra. Its population is approximately 40 million (2011 census), 3.1% of the total Indian population; roughly equal to that of Odisha.