It has been said that there are two types of people in the world, those who have been to India and those who have not – what is certain is that no one who visits this nation of jungles, temples and tigers ever forgets it.
India is the world in one nation. Form the dizzy heights of the Himalaya, the landscape plunges down towards the plains, passing lush green hills, jungles, deserts and grassland on its way to the palm-fringed beaches of Goa and Kerala. Indians divide their nation into the Hills and the Plains, which sprawl south towards the tip of the subcontinent. The steamy south of India is almost another country – jungle-covered, beach-fringed and inundated by rivers and streams.
The earliest recorded Indian civilization appeared in the Indus Valley around 3,500 BC, but the native Dravidians were driven south by Aryan tribes form the north in around 1,500 BC. Over the next two millennia, Buddhism and Hinduism became the dominate religions in the subcontinent.
From the 8th century AD onwards, northern India faced wave after wave of Muslim invaders, eventually falling to the Mughals, who ruled until the rise of European colonialism in the 18th century. Although the Portuguese and French established small trading colonies, most of India was incorporated into the British Empire.
Mahatma Gandhi finally marched India to independence in 1947. The nation was immediately torn apart by sectarian conflict – the majority Muslim states were snipped off to create Pakistan and East Pakistan and hundreds of thousands died in the crossfire. India and Pakistan remain locked in an ongoing cat-and-mouse game over the disputed region of Kashmir.
With 800 spoken languages and 2000 regional dialects, India has one of the most diverse populations on the planet, as well as one of the largest. Indians are broadly defined by their religion; around 80 percent are Hindu, 13 percent are Muslim, two percent are Christian and 2 percent are Sikh. Other important communities include the Buddhists, hidden away in the foothills of the Himalaya, and the Adivasis, India’s tribal peoples, found in pockets across the country.
The Indian economy is growing exponentially. Within a few decades, India could rival China as an economic superpower. Although 60 percent of Indians work in agriculture, new industries like information technology and outsourcing are swelling the nation’s coffers. India currently has the 12th largest economy in the world based on GDP, though wealth is unevenly distributed and the average wage is just US$1.60 per day.
The royal Bengal tiger is one of India’s most endangered animals. Just 3000 wild tigers survive, most of them in the national parks of the central plains and the Sunderbans in West Bengal. Elephant-back safaris offer the best chance of seeing these magnificent creatures up close; you may also bump into rhinos, bears, deer wild elephants and monkeys.
With so much scenery to choose from, the only problem is where to start. Perhaps the most striking landscapes are found in the foothills of the Himalaya, soaring above the plains but dwarfed by the snow-covered peaks. In the lowlands are dense and steamy jungles, endless rice fields and desert plucked straight from the Arabian Nights, while the south is famous for its brochure-perfect beaches.
India’s cities are some of the most populated places on the planet. Based on current trends, Mumbai looks set to top 25 million residents by 2011. Despite the crowds, the atmosphere of India’s cities is legendary – rickshaws, ox-carts, bicycles, taxis, trams, buses, trucks, pedestrians and cows compete for space in the streets and the noise and chaos is unrelenting. Some travelers are invigorated by the energy; others find it utterly overpowering.
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