Geography
India, officially known as the Republic of India (also known as Bharat or Hindustan), is a country in southern Asia. It is bounded on the north by Afghanistan, China, Nepal, and Bhutan; on the east by Bangladesh, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), and the Bay of Bengal; on the south by the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar (which separates it from Sri Lanka) and the Indian Ocean; and on the west by the Arabian Sea and Pakistan.
India is the world's seventh largest country in terms of area. It is divided into 28 states and 7 union territories. New Delhi is the country's capital and one of its largest cities.
Area: 3,287,590 sq km (total), 2,973,190 sq km (land), 314,400 sq km
(water)
Coastline: 7000 km (4375 miles)
Climate: Tropical monsoon in South to Temperate in North
Terrain: Upland plain (Deccan Plateau) in south, flat to rolling plain
along the Ganges, deserts in the west, Himalayan Mountain Range in the North
For more information, kindly refer to the Lonely Planet website.
History
People have been living in India for thousands of years. As far as we know, a great civilization developed about 4500 years ago in the valley of the Indus River. The Indus valley civilisation lasted for about a thousand years. The ruins of Harrapa and Mohenjodaro are remanents of some of the towns of that civilization. The people were rich; they were aware of farming, trading, cooking, etc. Around 1500 B.C., Aryans began coming to the Indian peninsula. During the years that followed, most of the Aryans settled in villages. They became farmers or craft workers. Meanwhile, the Hindu religion was beginning to take shape. This religion combined the beliefs of the Aryans with the beliefs of the earlier people who lived in India. About 563 B.C., Siddhartha Gautama was born to a family of nobles who lived in the foothills of the Himalayas. He came to be known as Gautama Buddha and his teachings gave birth to a new religion called Buddhism.
In the fourth century BC, most of the India was united under a single ruler, Chandragupta Maurya. The Maurya family ruled India for approximately 150 years. The greatest of the Maurya rulers was Emperor Ashoka. Pillars with messages preaching love and kindness were setup throughout the empire. India's national emblem, the four lion heads, is taken from top part one of those pillars in Sarnath. After Ashoka's death, the Maurya empire fell apart. Then around 320 AD, the Guptas started building an empire in northern India. During this period, India made great achievements in art, literature and science. For this reason, the Gupta period is often called Golden Age of India. The Gupta empire came to an end around 500 AD.
In the following centuries, India was invaded by people from other lands including the Afgans, the Mughals and the Europeans. While the Mughals stayed to rule over northern India, the rest of India comprised of many small and large kingdoms. Portugal was the first european nation to find a water route to India. After 1498, many european traders sailed to India by the route that Vasco Da Gama had discovered. In the eighteenth century, the British power began to rise. By 1857, the East India Company governed a large portion of India, either directly or through titular kings. In 1877, Queen Victoria of Britain assumed the title of "Empress of India".
The uprising of 1857 is considered to be the first organised effort to revolt against the British rule over India. The revolt was successfully quelled by the British, and what followed was a long drawn stuggle for freedom from British colonialism. Many leaders like Dadabhai Navroji, Lala Lajpatrai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Subhash Chandra Bose, etc. contributed towards the freedom struggle. After 1920, Mahatma Gandhi began leading the Indian people in their fight for the freedom.
In 1947, India got freedom from the British. But India was also divided into two countries India and Pakistan. On January 26, 1950, India became a democratic republic by adopting the constitution written by Dr. Ambedkar.
For a detailed account of Indian history please visit the following websites:
Itihaas
Manas: History and the Politics of India
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