India And 7 4 Million Indian Muslims example essay topic

India is a large country and is located in south east Asia. It was first colonized by the British. Its population has a large variety of cultures. People of many different races, ethnic groups and religions have settled there. Many of them came because of the democratic republic form of government. The country's economy is a mixed one and has been improving.

Geography India is the second most populous country in the world with a population of 952,107,697 and a population density of 779 people per square mile. India is the seventh largest country in the world, and is slightly more than one third of the size of the U.S. It has a total area of 3,287,590 km 2 and a land area of 2,973,190 km 2. India is located in South Asia. Its neighboring countries are Pakistan on the North West, China in the North East, Nepal in the East and Sri Lanka, an island in the south (Almanac 773-774). The neighboring bodies of water are Bay of Bengal on the South East, Arabian Sea on the South West and Indian Ocean on the South.

Two major rivers are the Ganges and Indus rivers. The Ganges river is a sacred river to the Hindus. They drink and bathe in it even though it is very polluted. The Indus river originates in Southern China and flows through mostly Pakistan except for a small section that flows within the states Jammu and Kashi r. The major physical features are the Himalaya Mountains the Deccan Plateau and the Indo-Gangetic Plain.

The Himalayas Mountains cover 15% of the country in a 1,500 mile arc from north to north east. The Deccan Plateau in southern India begins south of Narmada River and comes to a point at Cape Comorin. Its height is between 1,000 through 2,300 feet above sea level. The Indo-Gangetic Plain, named this because it is bordered on the East and West b the Indus and Ganges River, it is a 200 mile long plain land that is flat and well watered.

A big geographical benefit os that India has many rivers, which are good for irrigation. India also has many the natural resources which are good to make money and to provide for the needs of the people in the country. A major geographical problem in India is the climate. In summers it is so hot in some areas that people have go to the mountains where it is much cooler (Chambers 79; Brotvold 9, 8, 11, 12). Indias climate varies greatly throughout the country and has five major seasons winter, spring, summer, fall and monsoon.

The northern one third of India, including the Himalayas, have seasonal summer temperatures and cool winters. The rest of the country has temperatures that change from hot to cold during the year. April through June are the warmest months of the year. The months of April and May are the two hottest months. Temperature can get up to 120 degrees in the inland, 105 degrees on the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and 100 degrees in the southern parts of India. In the months July through October, India receives most of its rainfall, more than 90%.

Malabar Coast and West Bengal are the most humid and get the most rain, up to 100 inches a year. The eastern half of the Indo-Gangetic Plain is also rainy. It gets 40-80 inches of rain a year. The Deccan Plateau has moderate precipitation and gets 20-40 inches a year. November through March are the cooler months. It is sunny and pleasant throughout India (Brotvold 8-12).

India has many important resources. The most important natural resources are iron ore, coal, and manganese. India holds the fourth largest reserves of coal in the world. India has most of the mineral deposits it needs, including iron ore, coal, lignite, silver, copper, gold, zinc and manganese. Coal and lignite account for more than 60% of Indias energy consumption, with wood, oil and natural gas, India is almost a self-sufficient country. India also has a numerous amount of land resources.

Of the total land area, 20.5% is forest, 41.6% is sown with crops, 7.6% is left fallow, 3.9% is pasture and 1.5% contains crops such as tea and fruit trees and 24.9% is used for other purposes (Netscape n. p. ). India has more than 100 cities which make up over 27% of the nations population. The five major cities in India are Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, New Delhi and Madras. Bombay is Indias largest City and is the location of Indias main port. Bombay has a population of over 16 million.

Calcutta is the second largest city with over 9 million people and is where the chief port for trade with South East Asia is located. Delhi was the capital of India between 1912 and 1931. It has over 5 million people living in it. New Delhi, with about half a million people, became Indias capital in 1931.

Madras started out as a small village and now has a population of over 4 million people and is the home of another of Indias major ports on the south east coast. Here there are many industrial plants such as cotton mills, auto assembly facilities and leather tanneries (Brotvold 16; Kaleidoscope 2). Government India, a union of 25 states and 7 territories, is a secular Democratic Republic with a Parliamentary system of Government. India is governed by terms of the Constitution which were adopted on November 26, 1949 and went into effect on November 26, 1950 (Netscape n. p.

). The president is the constitutional head of Executive of the Union. The Executive of the Union consists of the President, currently Shankar Day al Sharma, the Vice President and the Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister, who currently is H.D. Deve Gow do, at the head to help and and advise the President. President is more of a ceremonial position. He acts on the advice from the Council of Ministers. The president is elected by members of an electoral college consisting of elected members from the House of Parliament and the Legislative Assemblies of the states.

The voting requirements in India are that you must be 21 years of age and you can be either male or female. His term in office is five years. The president has power to give himself all or any of the functions of the government of a state if there is a failure in the constitution machinery (Netscape n. p. ). The vice president is elected by an electoral college and is an Ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

He serves a term of five years. In the states, the governor is the head of the Executive, but most of the power is with the Chief Minister who heads the Council of Ministers. The Council of Ministers of a state is responsible for the elected legislative assembly of the states and other problems on the regional level such as education and health (Netscape n. p. ). The Legislative branch of the Union, called the Parliament, includes the President, Rajya Sabha or Council of Ministers and the Lok Sabha or House of People. All legislation requires the advice of both house of the Parliament.

But in the case of money bills, the Lok Sabha is what will dominate. The Rajya Sabha has 245 members, Out of these, 233 represent states and territories. The other 12 members are nominated by the president. Elections to the Rajya Sabha are by the members of the Legislative assemblies of the affected states. One third of its members retire every year.

Lok Sabha consists of 545 members. Of these, two are chosen by the president to represent The Parliament of India (Netscape n. p. ). Indian Judicial System roots from British law. In the Judicial System, the Supreme Court has the most power. The supreme court includes the Chief justice and no more than 25 other judges picked by the president.

They hold office until the age of 65. The president may consult the supreme court on any question of fact or public importance. The next in power are the High Courts. There are 18 High Courts in the country, three of which have jurisdiction over more than one state. Of the territories, Delhi has a High Court of its own. The other six territories are under jurisdiction of different High Courts.

The Chief Justice of a High Court is appointed by the president, with the help of the Chief Justice of India and the Governor of the state. High Court judges retire at the age of 62 (Netscape n. p. ). The local or community government functions belong to the village councils, or panchayats.

A village council is elected by the village members. The local government serves in the middle between villages and state territorial governments (Netscape n. p. ). History During World War I, Indian troops served the British.

In 1919, Britain passed a reform, providing for provincial councils of Indians with some powers of supervision over agriculture, education, and public health. The extreme nationalists, led by Mohandas K. Gandhi, gained control of the Congress (Netscape n. p. ). Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in Por bandar, near Bombay. His family belonged to the Hindu caste, Vaisya which was a merchant caste. Gandhi was married when he was only 13 years old.

When he was 19, his family sent him to study law at university college in London. Gandhi was discriminated against in London because he was an Indian. In his lonely hours he studied philosophy. While reading he discovered nonviolent disobedience in the book Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. He later worked in Southern Africa to improve the rights of the immigrant Indians. While in South Africa, he developed his idea of nonviolent resistance.

He had improved many lives of the Indians living in Southern Africa before he went back to India with his wife and children (Comptons n. p. ). Not long after he returned to India, he started fighting for India's independence from Britain. When Muslims and Hindus committed acts of violence against Britain, he fasted until the fighting stopped. India's independence came in 1947 it was not a military victory but a victory of human will (Netscape n. p. ).

However, the country was broken into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan. He spent the last two months of his life trying to end the violence which continued by fasting until on the edge of death, which finally stopped the riots. The Congress part quickly followed after thousands of people joined Gandhi's civil disobedience campaigns. Rioting broke out when the Parliaments didn't place any Indians on the Simon Commission, which was appointed in 1927 to investigate the government of India.

Gandhi and his followers were imprisoned in 1929, and Jawaharlal Nehru was elected president of the Congress. Like Gandhi, Nehru was devoted to the cause of freedom. But unlike Gandhi, he wanted to bring modern technology and industrialization to India (Comptons n. p. ).

When World War II broke out, the congress demanded freedom for India. The Congress wanted a Unified India but the Muslim league wanted a separate Pakistan (Comptons n. p. ). In February, 1947, the British Government said that it would leave India no later than June, 1948.

Muslim threats of Civil war then forced the Hindu leaders to agree to make a separate state of Pakistan. The British Parliament hurried through the Independence Act in July. On August 15, 1947, British rule in India ended. Two new countries, India and Pakistan, were created.

India took over the Indian Empire's membership in the United Nations. Mohammed Ali Jinnah became the first governor-general of Pakistan. Jawaharlal Nehru became India's first prime minister. The boundaries between India and Pakistan were drawn to separate Muslims from Hindus and Sikhs. Punjab, Bengal, and Assam were split in two, but almost 38 million Muslims were still in India and about 19 million Hindus and over 1.5 million Sikhs were left in Pakistan. Then rioting broke out Millions of people ran across the borders to get to the side with their own religion.

On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated by a member of a militant Hindu group that didn't agree with his ideas of a truce. In 1950, the two countries agreed to protect their own religious minorities. By 1951, about 7.2 million Hindus and Sikhs left Pakistan to go to India and 7.4 million Indian Muslims entered Pakistan. Then in 1971 a war between India and Pakistan Broke out. This war was started when East Pakistan could not agree on a relationship between the central government that would be accepted on both sides. This problem started when the government delayed the National Assembly session.

The last-minute efforts of negotiations failed. Then a huge group of refugees crossed into India and conflict began between India Pakistan in November, 1971 (Comptons n. p. ). Indian and Bengal forces overtook Pakistans small army in the East. By the time Pakistan surrendered to India on December 16, 1971, India already had many prisoners and had taken a lot of land. Pakistans defeat caused Yahya to fall on December 20, 1971.

Zulfiqar Ali Button, replaced Yahya and East Pakistan became a separate state called Bangladesh (Netscape n. p. ). Economy India's economy is a mixture of farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts and modern industries. The gross domestic product of India is 1.25 trillion dollars and per capt a GDP is $1,360 (Almanac 773). The currency in India is the rupee, 37 rupees are equal to one U.S. dollar.

Average incomes in India are some of the lowest in the world 40% of the population is too poor to afford a proper diet. With foreign help India has made progress since its independence. Some major countries that have aided India are the United States and the Soviet Union. Reforms have provided many more opportunities for about 200 million middle class consumers and also the Indian businessmen. Foreign exchange reserves were extremely low three years ago, but now total 19 billion dollars. India's exports total $24.4 billion.

Items that are popular exports are clothing, gems and jewelry, engineering goods, chemicals, leather manufactures, cotton, yarn and other fabric projects. Its four biggest export partners are USA 19.12%, Japan 7.74%, Germany with 6.62%, U.K. with 6.62% and Hong Kong with 5.78%. Imports total $25.5 billion. The popular import items are crude oil and petroleum products, machinery, gems, and chemicals. Indias biggest import partners are the USA with 10.06%, Germany with 7.58%, Japan with 7.08%, Saudi Arabia with 5.56%, and U.K. with 5.45% of the imports from other countries.

Major agricultural products are sugar cane, rice and wheat. Some major industrial products are textiles, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, and petroleum. Indian railroads total 62,211 km, highways total 1.97 million km paved, 960,000 km unpaved and 1.1 million km gravel, crushed stone or dirt. There are 16,180 km of navigable inland waterways and 3,631 km that are navigable by large vessels (Netscape n. p. ).

Culture India is a country with very ancient and diverse cultures. That were made of many waves of migrations to India and parts of cultures from these people were taken into the Indian way of life. It has many varieties of religion and race. Indo-Aryan is the main ethnic group of India with 72% of the population (Netscape n. p. ). Clothing in India is usually light because of the hot temperatures.

Men wrap clothes around them to form loose pants. They sometimes buy pants that are loose at the waist and tight between the ankle and knees. Women wear Saris, long pieces of fabric draped like a dresses. These fabrics are usually brightly dyed (Brotvold 75). Indian Hindus divide themselves by the caste system which are hereditary groups whose members intermarry among themselves. Each of these groups have their own origin myth, traditional occupations, rules relating to kingship, diet and other forms of behavior.

Each cast expects respect from lower groups and gives respect to the higher groups. This system is mostly associated with Hindus. They believe that the caste one is born into depends on a persons Karma or accumulated good and bad deeds in their previous existences. They also believe that if you accept ones station in life and live it accordingly you will achieve a higher status in future incarnations.

There are thousands of castes. Most of them can be grouped into four social classes called varna's. Brahmans is a group that dominated the learned professions. Kshatriyas were traditionally warriors, rulers and large land owners.

Vaisyas were mainly farmers but are now associated with commerce. Shudras were artisans and laborers. Below the Shudras are caste groups with no varna designation. These outcasts were traditionally regarded as untouchables because they were known to have unclean jobs like scavenging and leatherworking. These groups have always been exposed to prejudice. Mohandas K. Gandhi tried to make sure that they were treated right, and gave them the name Harijan, which means Children of God (Srinivasan 52; Comptons n. p.

). The Indian constitution outlaws untouchability and requires that a schedule of such groups be prepared in every state as an aid to provide them with special benefits, to help them overcome their disadvantaged position (Comptons n. p. ). India has 15 national languages recognized by the constitution, which are spoken in over 1,600 different dialects.

The 15 national languages are Hindi, English, Assumes, Bangle, Gujarati, Canned, Cashmere, Conking, Sanskrit, Snide, Tamale, Malayalam, Martha, Ore, and Tillage (Netscape n. p. ). Hindi is the main language spoken by 20%. Assumes is the state language of Assam and is spoken by 60% of the sate and originated in the 13th century. Bengali is the state language of West Bengal and originated in the 13th century.

Gujarati is the state language of Gujarat and is spoken by 70% of the state. It originated from an Indic language. Kannada is the state language of Karnataka and is spoken by 65% of the state. Ash miri is the state language of Jammu and Kashmir.

It is spoken by 55% of the state. Konkani is the state language of Goa and parts of the coastal Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra. Malayalam is the state language of Kerala and is thousands of years old. Marathi is the state language of the western part of Maharashtra and originated in the 13th century. Oriya is the state language of Orissa and is spoken by 87% of the state.

Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages in the world and is the language of classical India. Hindi is spoken in many parts of India in the devnagri script. Tamil is the state language of Tamil Nadu and is spoken by 65 million people. It is over 2000 years old. English is the official working language of India and Telugu is spoken by the people in Andhra Pradesh (Netscape n. p.

; Kaleidoscope 2). The Indian family is headed by a senior male. The senior female assigns chores to the women and girls. The family would include the mans unmarried daughters, his younger brothers, their wives and their unmarried children. It also would include his unmarried sisters, his married sons and grandsons, and their wives and unmarried children. This type of family system is known as an extended family.

The sons of the man would separate and form new a household after the death of their father. In most parts of India, girls marry outside their village, usually while they are still in their teens. She would then move into her husbands household. Couples in India want male children because of their contributions to the family income. Sons are also needed to perform certain rites at a parents cremation. Girls are seen as liability because of their expensive dowries when they are married.

Often families go into debt to provide dowries for their daughters (Comptons n. p.) India is the birth place of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Its constitution guarantees religious freedom to all groups. Hinduism makes up 83% of the population. Hinduism originated From the Aryans who came to India more than 4,000 years ago. It is not just a religion but a way of life for the people of India.

11% of India is Islam which is a religion that was introduced to India in the 7th century by Arab traders. Christians and Sikhs each make up about 2% of the population. Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak in the 15 century. Christianity was brought to India by St. Tomas not long after Christs lifetime. Jains and Buddhists are less than 1%. A man named Mahavira propagated Jainism in the sixth century before Christ.

At about the same time, Buddhism came to India (A & C.H. 52; Kaleidoscope 3). A major cultural event in India are the festivals. Most of them have religious character to them. Some are celebrated by only certain castes, clans, or tribes. Some of the bigger celebrations can last between seven and ten days. A few of the more notable festivals are Pongal, Janmashtami, Onam, Diwali, Dussehra and Durga Puja.

A Pongal is a three day harvest festival and one of the most joyful events in the south. Janmashtami is the anniversary of Lord Krishna. Night long prayers are offered and religious hymns are sung in the temples. Onam is Kerala most popular festival, primarily a harvest festival with a snake boat race held in the palm fringe lagoon. Diwali is a festival of lights. It comes 21 days after Dussehra and celebrates the return of Rama to Ayodhya after his 14 year banishment.

Dussehra and Durga Puja are some of the most popular of all festivals, they symbolize the triumph of good over evil. Every region celebrates this 10 day festival in their own special way (Art & C.H. 50; Srinivasan 107).