India at the beginning of the 20th century (the rise of the national liberation movement, or the "Awakening of India"). India in the second half of the 19th century India in the 1920s

Chapter 5 The World in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries "If there is ever to be a war in Europe, it will start because of some terribly absurd incident in the Balkans." German politician Otto von Bismarck Union of Russia and France. Illustration from French

A powerful opposition arose against the East India Company in England: merchants, whom the OIC did not let into India, the landed aristocracy. 1784 - The Cabinet of Ministers of England created a control board that oversees the activities of the directors of the OIC. After the OIC there was a Whig party. By 1813, the OIC achieves decisive military success, Mysore was captured, the power of the Marathas was finally broken. 1813 - the Whigs were able to turn the tide: the abolition of the trade monopoly of the OIC, except for the tea trade with China.

1833 - Parliament passes a new act. The OIC retains the right to administer India, but it remains only a military-administrative organization. The trading apparatus of the OIC becomes purely bureaucratic. the basic structures continued to exist. The meeting of shareholders that elected the Board of Directors. Dividends - 10.5% of invested capital. In England, the gold standard has been introduced, so the amounts are fabulous. The votes were distributed according to the amount of funds invested. Board of Directors - 24 people. Of the 2000 shareholders, 407 people determined the policy. The Board of Directors had 4 commissions. Giant bureaucracy. Letters to India took 6-8 months. India was divided into three presidencies: Bengal, Madras and Bombay (Mumbai). There was a governor. Each governor independently corresponded with the Board of Directors. The bourgeoisie insisted on uniform laws for all regions of the GB and Inlia, but failed. In each presidency, an apex court was created, formally independent of the governor, but in reality it was the other way around. Little England was ruled by India with the help of the Indians themselves. The Anglo-Indian army was used for internal use. In the army, the Indians did not mix, they were divided according to religion, ethnicity. Many Indian officers are admitted to England. the concept of SUBEDAR appears - the governor in the region, who mainly performed the functions of an interpreter. The combat capability of the army is low. The British in India relaxed.

The British used different systems of taxes.

The Madras Presidency is the Rayatwari system. 1793 The top of the community, mirazdars, are recognized as landowners. Peasants pay taxes directly to the state. Pastures and wastelands are taken away by the state, cattle can be grazing and fuel can be collected in the forest only for the payment of some money to the state. The purchase and sale of land is prohibited under this system. The world-gift peasants have become perpetual land tenants. The payment of land rent tax is very difficult, high rates, pay it only under favorable circumstances. Throughout the 19th century, the British had to calculate debts.

MAOSAVAR. in the main Bengal Presidency with its capital in Calcutta. The community is the fiscal unit of community land. One did not pay the tax - all the land of the village is being sold. The community itself lays out the tax for all members of the community.

REPLACEMENTS. Introduced in 1793. An English feudal lord, the zamindar, is responsible for collecting taxes.

Economic development of the country.

The British government tried to keep Indian goods out of England. industrial boom. Lots of goods. As a result, the British do not let Indian goods into their market. Introduced a duty on the import of Indian wool into England - 30%. Import of English wool into India - 2%. Silk import to England - 20%, to India - 3.5%. This led to the fact that in 1833 the first metallurgical plant in India went bankrupt. They did not seek to develop the economy by itself. The British are active railway construction. It pursued military-administrative purposes. a powerful electric telegraph network is rapidly emerging in the country. All this is based on military-administrative purposes. Shipbuilding stops in Calcutta. New agricultural crops appeared, for example, opium poppy, indigo (for blue paint). Indians were forced to cultivate indigo, until the end of the 19th century there were indigo riots in the country, then chemical dyes appeared. Sugarcane. The British tried to expand the production of cotton. it did not work, the backward peasantry did not know how to transport it. The country tried to produce silk. but poverty and the primitiveness of the tools of labor, production burst. Indian peasants did not want to grow mulberries. The British tried to grow coffee. Tobacco production also failed. But one culture caught on - tea, especially in the province of Assam. where 90% of tea was produced.

1857 - the suppression of the sepoy uprising is completed. The main result is that the British broke the influence of the Indian feudal lords, now they have no guiding force, and political calm has been ensured in the country for about half a century. Despite the fact that the 90s were hungry. There are no forces that could resist the British - the bourgeoisie - yet.

The second half of the 19th century - political stagnation. An Indian civil service, the state apparatus, is being created. At first, entirely English service, but gradually the Indians penetrate it. But it is difficult to manage, because nobody knows Indian languages. A powerful layer of Indian clerks appears - translators, clerks, who were very needed by entrepreneurs. Some even became lawyers, which is not sickly. The intelligentsia, entrepreneurs, they did not want independence from England, England itself raised them. They were needed as transmitters of English politics to the local population, as well as informers about the life of the Indians. 1885 - these three sections of the population created the Indian National Congress party - the "party of beggars". tried to expand their positions in the Indian civil service.

The development of the Indian economy was contradictory: modern industrialist entrepreneurship, but the caste organization of the craft was preserved in its original purity. As a result of the factory influx of English textiles, some artisans starved to death. Active trade balance. Exports and imports are growing. India's trade balance has steadily increased, but the country remains largely agrarian. 72% are employed in agriculture. The amount of money in circulation is increasing. The situation of agricultural workers and artisans improved, because. after the famine, there were fewer workers, and their prices rose. Increased demand for jute- the plant from which the rope is made. The demand for cotton fabrics and raw materials remains - cotton was used in the preparation of explosives. Reduced production of cereals. The price of labor is rising. The country is slowly falling into the Malthusian trap - the population is growing faster than the production.

The number of people employed in industry is declining. due to the rising cost of labor. Capitalism was almost non-existent in the countryside; it nestled in the cities. The rapid growth of merchant shipping. Tonnage - 6.4 million tons. Giant river fleet. But they have competitors - German firms that are displacing the British, their tonnage is 850 thousand tons. The tonnage of Japanese ships is 300 thousand tons. Non-English banks - German and Japanese - are penetrating into India. Raw materials were exported from the country at low prices, expensive factory products were imported. The British are doing everything to prevent the formation of an internal market in India. The British are trying to develop only those branches of industry that in England will not compete with them. The labor market is very poorly developed. There was a recruiter - SIRDAR - who recruited workers. Workers were forced to pay bribes to get to work. Advances were given at interest. The working day was not regulated or limited in any way. The INC was against the reduction of the working day, otherwise all the factories would close. Indian entrepreneurs most often own small enterprises, the British - large ones. The origin of the Indian bourgeoisie is from merchants. two industrial centers of the country - Bombay and Kolkata. Indian capital is strong in Bombay, English in Calcutta. The Indian bourgeoisie is discriminated against. The colonial authorities sought to acquire goods for the army not from themselves. and in English. Indian fabrics are subject to excise duty.

The political party begins to radicalize. The loss of the Chinese market is especially infuriating. Resolution against the persecution of political figures. Metallurgical plant them. Tatta, the first JSC. Banks lend primarily to small merchants. Clear division between British and Indian banks. The Indians lost the Chinese market, but captured the shipping on the Tigris and Euphrates.

The Indian subcontinent is home to the Indus civilization and other ancient civilizations. Throughout most of its history, India has acted as the center of important trade routes and was famous for its riches and high culture. Religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism originated in India. In the first millennium AD, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam also came to the Indian subcontinent, which had a great influence on the formation of the diverse culture of the region.

Between the beginning of the 18th century and the middle of the 20th century, India was gradually colonized by the British Empire. After gaining independence in 1947, the country achieved great success in economic and military development. By the end of the 20th century, India's economy had become one of the fastest growing in the world. In terms of nominal gross domestic product, India ranks 12th in the world, and in terms of GDP, recalculated at purchasing power parity, it ranks fourth. A pressing problem continues to be the high level of poverty and illiteracy of the population.

History of India

The history of India is usually traced back to the proto-Indian or Harappan civilization that developed by the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. in the river valley Ind. However, there is a lot of evidence that India was inhabited at an earlier period. Traces of the Harappan civilization were discovered as a result of excavations in the 20s of our century. Two ancient cities that represented its highest heyday - Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, now located on the territory of Pakistan, received great fame. The inhabitants of these cities and a number of other settlements, according to their linguistic affiliation, belonged to the Dravidians.

Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa were well planned, their streets intersected at right angles, they had a sewerage system. Quite clear differences in location and types of houses testified to the division of society into upper and lower strata. It is known that representatives of the Harappan culture worshiped male and female deities and, possibly, sacred trees. It is believed that Shiva, God and patron of yoga, was revered already at that time.

By 1700 B.C. the Harappan civilization fell into decay. And around the XV century BC. to North India

the Aryan tribes invaded, pushing the Dravidians to the south (In modern India, the population living in the southern states of Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka belong to the Dravidian language family.). The Aryans belonged to nomadic tribes and were engaged in cattle breeding, however, settling on the conquered lands, they began to adopt farming skills. The arrival of the Indo-Aryan tribes, the ancestral home of which some scientists consider Central Asia, while others consider the southern Russian steppes, opened the so-called Vedic era in the history of India, which was named after the Vedas - the oldest monuments of the spiritual culture of the Indo-Aryans.

The official name of the modern state - Bharata originates from the name of the Aryan tribe Bharat, whose priests created the ancient collection of Vedic hymns "Rigveda". Hinduism as a religion (followers of which 83% of the population of modern India call themselves) has its roots in the era of the Vedas.

In the Vedic era, a gradual division of society into four estates (varnas) began: 1) priests - brahmins, 2) military nobility - kshatriyas, 3) free community members, farmers, merchants - vaishyas, 4) servants occupying the lowest position in the social hierarchy - sudras. There were also numerous castes (jati) - closed groups associated with a hereditarily fixed profession and position in society. In the Vedas, people were given instructions regarding their position in society and division into castes. Over time, four Vedas were formed - Rigveda, Adharvaveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, which for a long time were passed from mouth to mouth. Writing appears among the Aryans around the 4th century BC. BC.

At the end of the 1st millennium BC. - the first centuries AD two immortal epic works, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, were finalized, giving a vivid picture of the social and cultural life of ancient India.

In the VII-VI centuries. BC. in Northern India, mainly in the Ganges valley, the first states with monarchical and republican forms of government appeared. In the IV century. BC. the Mauryan state is gradually being strengthened. Initially, it was localized in the Magadha region (the southern part of the modern state of Bihar), but already in the third century BC. subjugated almost the entire Hindustan peninsula, with the exception of its southern tip.

The state achieved special power under Emperor Ashok, who left a deep mark on Indian history. By adopting Buddhism in 262 BC, Ashoka contributed to its wide spread in India. His son and daughter became missionaries of the Buddhist teachings.

In the south of the subcontinent at that time there was the Chola state, which was actively trading with the Roman Empire, selling pearls, ivory, gold, rice, pepper, peacocks and even monkeys.

In northwestern India, in the 1st century, the Kushan empire occupied vast territories. In the second century, the empire already included Afghanistan, Central Asia, all of Northern India and part of Central. After the disintegration of the Kushan Empire, state fragmentation was observed for several centuries.
In the years 320-540, a state arose - the Gupta Empire, which united almost all of India under its rule. The Gupta period is the formative period of Hinduism, Hindu traditions and culture. At this time, there was significant progress in the development of crafts, science and literature. The official language of the Gupta court was Sanskrit. Poetry and drama have experienced their peak thanks to the work of the great poet and playwright Kalidas, who created his immortal works. A number of discoveries in the field of astronomy were made by the scientist Arya-Bhata, who calculated the number "pi" with great accuracy. The traditional system of Indian medicine - Ayurveda - was finally formed. At this time, the caste division of society intensified, a caste of untouchables arose.

Started in the middle of the 5th c. The invasion of India by the tribes of the Huns-Ephthalites (White Huns) undermined the power and unity of the Gupta empire, predetermined its fall. In North India, a period of fragmentation and instability began, which lasted from the 6th to the 11th centuries. Domestic and foreign trade fell into decline, but progress in agriculture continued. At the same time, the power of the Chola dynasty increased in the south and in Sri Lanka, reaching its zenith in the 11th century.

From the beginning of the 11th century, India began to be subjected to raids by the Turkic Muslim conquerors for the purpose of robbery, and then they were in the nature of a holy war with the "infidels". These campaigns ended with the creation at the beginning of the XIII century. states with a Muslim ruler, called. In the middle of the XIV century. almost all of India, except for the extreme south and Kashmir, was already under his rule. The penetration of Islamic culture begins. At this time, the Sufi poet and writer Kabir preached the idea of ​​rapprochement between Islam and Hinduism.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the religion of Sikhism arose, which was a synthesis of the traditions of Hinduism and Islam.

In the 15th-16th centuries, the Hindu Vijaynagar Empire and the Muslim Bahmanid Empire flourished in southern India.

In the XVI century. in northern India, on the ruins of the Delhi Sultanate, a new mighty Mughal empire was founded, founded by a descendant of Genghis Khan and Timur - Babur. At this time, the centralization of the state apparatus intensified, and a reform of land relations was carried out. The Mughals went down in history as connoisseurs of culture. Several rulers were poets, studied philosophy. The main role during the reign of the Mughals was played by the policy of religious tolerance, carried out by the most far-sighted ruler Akbar (1556-1605). During his reign and under Shah Jahan, the construction of monumental buildings and architectural complexes began, the crown of which was the construction of the Taj Mahal mausoleum in Agra. In contrast to his predecessors, Aurangabez (1658-1707) was a Muslim fanatic and ordered the destruction of Hindu temples and the construction of mosques from their stones. Although during his reign the Mughal empire reached its greatest expansion, but it was this period that marked the beginning of the fall. The empire formally lasted until 1858, but after the reign of Aurangabez, European trade, and later cultural and military intervention began.

The Portuguese were the first to come to India in 1498. However, their territorial possessions were limited to Goa and two other small territories. The English, along with the Dutch and the French, appeared only in the 17th century. The struggle for dominance in India took place between the English and French East India companies. In 1757, the British defeated the French at the Battle of Plassey and from that moment began to spread their influence to the south and west of the country. By the middle of the 19th century, almost all of India was under the control of the British. The cruel and predatory policy of the company provoked mass actions of the Indians in 1857-1859. They were crushed. The British in 1858 abolished the East India Company and proclaimed India a colony of the British Crown. After the establishment of English rule, the land tax levied on the peasantry became the main source of colonial income. From the very first half of the 19th century, as the position of the industrial bourgeoisie strengthened in England, India began to be exploited by new, more subtle and sophisticated methods. This country is gradually turning into a raw material appendage of the mother country and a market for its manufactured goods, and then into an arena for the application of British capital.

Since the 70s of the 19th century, the rise of the national liberation movement began in India. The movement for independence especially intensified by the beginning of the 20s, when it was headed by M.K. Gandhi (popularly nicknamed Mahatma - "great soul"). He developed a method of mass non-violent action - Satyagraha (persistence in truth), directed against the rules and legality established by the colonialists. In 1920-1922, 1930, 1942 there were mass protest campaigns against British rule. Unrest began to arise in the army and navy.
As a result, on August 15, 1947, the law on the independence of India was issued, according to which two dominions were created - India and Pakistan (territories with a predominantly Muslim population). The division of the country and the mass migration of Hindus and Sikhs of Pakistan to India, and of Muslims to Pakistan, gave rise to an aggravation of religious and communal relations on both sides of the border. The division of the country also led to economic difficulties. The government of J. Nehru energetically undertook to overcome the age-old backwardness of the country and create a diversified modern economy.

However, the dream of Gandhi and J. Nehru of the peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Hindus did not come true.

During the period of independence, there were several armed conflicts between India and Pakistan and China. India became one of the organizers of the non-aligned movement. J. Nehru's successor, Indira Gandhi, continued her father's policy of strengthening the role of the state in the economy. A "green revolution" was carried out, which turned tenant farmers into landowners. The "Green Revolution" was accompanied by the modernization of agriculture.

From 1984 (the assassination of I. Gandhi), when Indira's son, Rajiv Gandhi, headed the government of India, until 1992, the situation in India was quite tense. Extremists in Punjab sought state independence from India, and the situation in Kashmir and a number of other states escalated.

In the last decade of the 20th century, decentralization of economic management began in India. The country has achieved great success in the development of nuclear energy and the implementation of space programs, the creation of "high technologies", in the field of programming and computers. Nevertheless, the problem of poverty of about a quarter of the population of the country and the ecological problem still persists.

Geography

India is located in South Asia. The country ranks seventh in the world in terms of area (3,287,590 km², including land: 90.44%, water surface: 9.56%) and second in terms of population (1,192,910,000 people). India has land borders with Pakistan in the west, with China, Nepal and Bhutan in the northeast, with Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. In addition, India has maritime borders with the Maldives in the southwest, with Sri Lanka in the south and with Indonesia in the southeast. The disputed territory of the state of Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with Afghanistan.

Administrative division

India is a federal republic of twenty-eight states, six union territories and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. All states and the two union territories (Puducherry and Delhi National Capital Territory) have their own elected government. The remaining five union territories are administered by an administrator appointed by the central authority and are therefore under the direct control of the President of India. In 1956, the Indian states were reorganized along linguistic lines. Since then, the administrative structure has not changed much.

All states and union territories are divided into administrative and governmental units called districts. There are over 600 districts in India. The districts are in turn divided into smaller administrative units of taluki.

Geology

The slopes of the Ghats facing the sea are steep, while those facing the Deccan are gentle, cut by river valleys. The Deccan Plateau contains India's oldest mountain formations, some more than 1 billion years old. The Dean is rich in deposits of iron, copper, manganese, tungsten ores, bauxites, chromites, mica, gold, diamonds, rare and precious stones, as well as coal, oil and gas.

India is located north of the equator between 6°44" and 35°30" north latitude and 68°7" and 97°25" east longitude.

The length of the coastline is 7.517 km, of which 5.423 km belong to mainland India, and 2.094 km to the Andaman, Nicobar and Laccadive Islands. The coast of mainland India has the following character: 43% sandy beaches, 11% rocky and rocky coast, and 46% Watts or swampy coast. Weakly dissected, low, sandy shores have almost no convenient natural harbors, so large ports are located either at the mouths of rivers (Kolkata) or artificially arranged (Chennai). The south of the western coast of Hindustan is called the Malabar coast, the south of the east coast is called the Coromandel coast.

On the territory of India, the Himalayas stretch in an arc from the north to the northeast of the country, being a natural border with China in three sections, interrupted by Nepal and Bhutan, between which, in the state of Sikkim, is the highest peak of India, Mount Kanchenjunga. Karakorum is located in the far north of India in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, mostly in the part of Kashmir held by Pakistan. In the northeastern appendix of India, the mid-altitude Assam-Burma Mountains and the Shillong Plateau are located.

Hydrology

The internal waters of India are represented by numerous rivers, which, depending on the nature of the food, are divided into "Himalayan", full-flowing throughout the year, with mixed snow-glacier and rain food, and "Dean", mainly with rain, monsoon food, large fluctuations in runoff, flood from June to October. On all large rivers, a sharp rise in the level is observed in summer, often accompanied by floods. The Indus River, which gave the name to the country, after the partition of British India, turned out to be the largest part in Pakistan.

The largest rivers, originating in the Himalayas and for the most part flowing through the territory of India, are the Ganges and the Brahmaputra; both flow into the Bay of Bengal. The main tributaries of the Ganges are the Yamuna and the Koshi. Their low banks cause catastrophic floods every year. Other important rivers of Hindustan are Godavari, Mahanadi, Kaveri and Krishna, also flowing into the Bay of Bengal, and Narmada and Tapti, flowing into the Arabian Sea - the steep bank of these rivers does not allow their waters to overflow. Many of them are important as sources of irrigation. There are no significant lakes in India.

The most remarkable coastal regions of India are the Great Rann of Kutch in Western India and the Sundarbans, the swampy lower reaches of the Ganges and Brahmaputra deltas in India and Bangladesh. Two archipelagos are part of India: the coral atolls of Lakshadweep to the west of the Malabar coast; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the Andaman Sea.

Climate

The climate of India is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar desert, causing monsoons. The Himalayas serve as a barrier to the cold Central Asian winds, thus making the climate in most of India warmer than at the same latitudes in other regions of the planet. The Thar Desert plays a key role in attracting the humid southwesterly winds of the summer monsoon, which provide most of India with rain between June and October. India is dominated by four main climates: humid tropical, dry tropical, subtropical monsoon and highland.

In most of India, there are three seasons: hot and humid with the dominance of the southwest monsoon (June - October); relatively cool and dry with a predominance of the northeast trade wind (November - February); very hot and dry transitional (March-May). During the wet season, more than 80% of the annual precipitation falls. The windward slopes of the Western Ghats and the Himalayas are the most humid (up to 6000 mm per year), and on the slopes of the Shillong Plateau there is the rainiest place on Earth - Cherrapunji (about 12000 mm). The driest regions are the western part of the Indo-Gangetic Plain (less than 100 mm in the Thar Desert, dry period 9-10 months) and the central part of Hindustan (300-500 mm, dry period 8-9 months). The amount of precipitation varies greatly from year to year. On the plains, the average January temperature increases from north to south from 15 to 27 °C, in May it is 28-35 °C everywhere, sometimes reaching 45-48 °C. During the wet period, temperatures in most parts of the country are 28 °C. In the mountains at an altitude of 1500 m in January -1 ° C, in July 23 ° C, at an altitude of 3500 m, respectively -8 ° C and 18 ° C.

The main centers of glaciation are concentrated in the Karakoram and on the southern slopes of the Zaskar range in the Himalayas. The glaciers are fed by snowfalls during the summer monsoons and snow drifts from the slopes. The average height of the snow line decreases from 5300 m in the west to 4500 m in the east. Due to global warming, glaciers are retreating.

Flora and fauna

India is located in the Indo-Malayan zoogeographical region and is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. India is home to 7.6% of all mammal species, 12.6% of all birds, 6.2% of all reptiles, 4.4% of all amphibians, 11.7% of all fish, and 6.0% of all flowering plants. Many ecoregions, such as the Shola forests, the rainforests of the southwestern Ghats, are characterized by unusually high levels of endemism; in total, 33% of India's plant species are endemic. Over the millennia of the economic development of India, the natural vegetation cover in most of its territory has not been preserved much, however, it is very diverse: from the tropical rainforests of the Andaman Islands, the Western Ghats, and Northeast India, to the coniferous forests of the Himalayas. On the plains of the interior regions of Hindustan, secondary savannahs of acacias, spurges, palms, banyan trees, sparse forests and thorny shrubs of anthropogenic origin predominate. Monsoon forests of teak, sandalwood, bamboos, terminalia, and dipterocarps have been preserved in the mountains. In the northeast of the peninsula, deciduous mixed forests with a predominance of lard grow, on the windward slopes of the Western Ghats there are evergreen mixed forests.

The seaside strip of the east coast is swampy in places. The natural vegetation cover of the Indo-Gangetic plain has not been preserved, and its landscapes change from deserts in the west to evergreen mixed forests in the east. Altitudinal zonality is clearly manifested in the Himalayas and the Karakorum. Terai rise up from the foot of the Western Himalayas (up to 1200 m), higher are monsoon forests, mountain pine forests with evergreen undergrowth, dark coniferous forests with evergreen and deciduous species, and at an altitude of 3000 m mountain meadows and steppes begin. In the east of the Himalayas, humid tropical evergreen forests rise up to 1500 m, giving way higher to mountain subtropical forests, dark coniferous forests and mountain meadows.

Among the main trees of India is neem, widely used in Ayurvedic medicines. Under the sacred banyan tree, the image of which was found on seals in Mohenjo-Daro, Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment after many years of meditation in Bodh Gaya.

Many Indian species are descendants of a taxon that originated on the Gondwana supercontinent, of which the Indian subcontinent was once a part. The subsequent movement of the Hindustan peninsula and its collision with Laurasia led to a massive mixing of species. However, volcanic activity and climatic changes that occurred 20 million years ago caused the extinction of many endemic Indian species. Shortly thereafter, mammals arrived in India from Asia through two zoogeographic passages on both sides of the nascent Himalayas. As a consequence, among Indian species, only 12.6% of mammals and 4.5% of birds are endemic, compared to 45.8% of reptiles and 55.8% of amphibians. The most notable endemics are the Nilgiri langur and the brown Kerala toad in the Western Ghats. There are 172 species in India that are on the World Conservation Union's endangered species list, representing 2.9% of the total number of species on the list. These include the Asiatic Lion, the Bengal Tiger, and the Bengal Vulture, which nearly died out by eating decaying cattle flesh, which was treated with diclofenac.

The high population density of India and the transformation of natural landscapes have led to the impoverishment of the country's wildlife. Over the past decades, the expansion of human economic activity has posed a threat to the wild world of the country. In response, a number of national parks and reserves were created, the first of which appeared in 1935. In 1972, the "Wildlife Protection Act" and the "Tiger Project" were passed in India to conserve and protect its habitat; in addition to this, in 1980 the Forest Conservation Act was passed. Currently, there are more than 500 national parks and reserves in India, including 13 biosphere reserves, four of which are part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves; 25 wetlands have been officially registered as sites of protection under the provisions of the Ramsar Convention.

Population

With a population of 1.2 billion, India ranks second in the world after China. Almost 70% of Indians live in rural areas, although in recent decades migration to big cities has led to a sharp increase in the urban population. The largest cities in India are Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Kolkata), Chennai (formerly Madras), Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. In terms of cultural, linguistic and genetic diversity, India ranks second in the world after the African continent. The average literacy rate of the population of India is 64.8% (53.7% for women and 75.3% for men). The highest literacy rate is found in Kerala (91%) and the lowest in Bihar (47%). The gender composition of the population is characterized by the excess of the number of men over the number of women. The male population is 51.5%, and the female population is 48.5%. The national average ratio of male and female population: 944 women to 1000 men. The median age of the population of India is 24.9 years, and the annual population growth is 1.38%; 22.01 children are born per 1000 people per year. According to the 2001 census, children under 14 years of age accounted for 40.2% of the population, persons aged 15-59 years - 54.4%, 60 years and older - 5.4%. The natural population growth was 2.3%.

Languages

India is home to the Indo-Aryan language group (74% of the population) and the Dravidian language family (24% of the population). Other languages ​​spoken in India are descended from the Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burmese linguistic family. Hindi, the most spoken language in India, is the official language of the Government of India. English, which is widely used in business and administration, has the status of an "auxiliary official language"; it also plays a large role in education, especially in secondary and higher education. The Constitution of India defines 21 official languages ​​that are spoken by a significant part of the population or that have classical status. There are 1652 dialects in India.

Religion

More than 900 million Indians (80.5% of the population) practice Hinduism. Other religions with a significant following are Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.8%) and Jainism (0.4%). Religions such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Bahai and others are also represented in India. Among the aboriginal population, which is 8.1%, animism is common.

Almost all people living in India are deeply religious.
Religion for Indians is a way of life, everyday, its special way. Hinduism is considered to be the main religious and ethical system of India. In terms of the number of followers, Hinduism occupies a leading place in Asia. This religion, which does not have any one founder and one fundamental text (there are many of them: the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas and many others), originated so long ago that it is impossible even to determine its age, and has spread both throughout India and in many countries of Southeast Asia, and now, thanks to immigrants from India, who settled everywhere, all over the world.
Each of the numerous Hindu gods carries one of the facets of the omnipresent God, for it is said: "Truth is one, but the sages call it by different names."
For example, the god Brahma is the omnipotent of the world, Vishnu is the keeper of the world, and Shiva is the destroyer and at the same time the creator of the world.
Hindu gods have multiple incarnations, sometimes referred to as avatars. For example, Vishnu has many avatars and is often depicted as King Rama or the shepherd Krishna.
Often the images of the gods have several hands, which is a symbol of their various divine abilities, and Brahma, for example, is endowed with four heads.
Lord Shiva is always with three eyes, the third eye symbolizes his divine wisdom.
Among the main provisions of Hinduism is the doctrine of the many reincarnations through which the soul of each person passes.
All evil and good deeds have good and bad consequences, which do not always manifest themselves immediately, already in this life. This is called karma. Every living being has karma.
The purpose of reincarnations is moksha, the salvation of the soul, its deliverance from painful rebirths. But by strictly following virtue, a person can bring moksha closer.
Many Hindu temples (and there are a great many of them in India) are masterpieces of architecture and sculpture and are usually dedicated to a single deity.
The choice of a profession, as a rule, is not a personal matter of a person: traditionally Hindu society consists of a large number of groups - castes, called jati and combined into several large estates (varnas). And everything, from marriage to profession, is subject to special, strictly defined rules. Inter-caste marriages among Hindus are rare to this day. Married couples are often determined by the parents when the bride and groom are still in infancy.
Divorce and remarriage of widows are also prohibited by Hindu tradition, although there are no rules without exceptions, especially in our time. The bodies of the dead adherents of Hinduism are burned on funeral pyres.
Hinduism is practiced by 83% of the total population of India, i.e. about 850 million people. Muslims in India 11%. The mass distribution of this faith began in the 11th century, and it was introduced by the Arabs earlier, in the 7th century. In most Muslim communities in India, polygamy is prohibited.
One of the oldest religions in the world, Buddhism, originated in India in the 5th century BC. Buddhists believe that enlightenment, that is, liberation from suffering in the endless cycle of rebirths, can be achieved by every living being and especially man, since, according to Buddhism, everyone initially has the nature of Buddha. Unlike Hindus, Buddhists do not recognize castes. Every person who sincerely accepts this teaching can become its follower. Although India is the birthplace of Buddhism, at present Buddhism in India is represented either in the Tibetan or (occasionally) in the Sri Lankan version. Hinduism, having absorbed much of the teachings of the Buddha Gautama, comprehended the latter as one of the avatars of the god Vishnu.
If you meet a man in a colorful turban with a thick, bushy beard on the streets of India, you should know that this is a Sikh, that is, an adherent of Sikhism, a faith that has absorbed and combined Hinduism and Islam. Once in the Sikh temple - gurudwara, do not look for images of the gods. They are not here, but there are images of Sikh gurus - noble bearded men in turbans, sitting in a pose of contemplation. Sikhs worship the holy book Granth Sahib.
If your neighbor on the train is a person whose mouth is tied with a handkerchief, do not rush to change the ticket: he is not sick with any dangerous disease. He just closed his mouth so that, God forbid, he would not accidentally swallow some midge. And know that this man professes Jainism and, most likely, hurries to the pilgrimage. This faith, like Buddhism, originated in India in the sixth century BC.
Jains are opposed to any form of violence. Therefore, Jains eat exclusively vegetable food. This also explains the presence of a scarf on the face. Jains never lie, since they all take a vow of truthfulness, this does not prevent many of them from being big businessmen.

State structure

The Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly at the end of 1949, two years after India's independence, and came into force on January 26, 1950. It is the largest constitution in the world. In the preamble to the constitution, India is defined as a sovereign, socialist, secular liberal democratic republic with a bicameral parliament functioning on the Westministerial parliamentary model. State power is divided into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial.

The head of state is the President of India, who is elected by the electoral college for a term of 5 years by indirect voting. The head of government is the prime minister, who holds the main executive power. The prime minister is appointed by the president and is usually the candidate supported by the political party or political coalition that has the most seats in the lower house of parliament.

The legislature of India is a bicameral parliament, which consists of an upper house called the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and a lower house called the Lok Sabha (House of the People). The Rajya Sabha, which has a permanent membership, consists of 245 members, whose mandate lasts for 6 years. The majority of deputies are elected by indirect suffrage by the legislatures of the Indian states and territories, in proportion to their population. 543 out of 545 Lok Sabha deputies are elected by direct popular vote for a term of 5 years. The remaining two members are appointed by the President from the Anglo-Indian community, in the event that the President considers that the community is not properly represented in Parliament.

The executive branch of government consists of the president, vice president and the Council of Ministers (the cabinet is its executive committee), headed by the prime minister. Each Minister must be a member of one of the Houses of Parliament. In the Indian parliamentary system, the executive branch is subordinate to the legislative: the prime minister and the Council of Ministers are directly responsible to the lower house of parliament.

India has a unitary three-tiered judiciary which consists of the Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice of India, the 21st High Court and a large number of petty courts. The Supreme Court is the court of first instance in cases relating to fundamental human rights, in disputes between the states and the central government, and has appellate jurisdiction over the higher courts. The Supreme Court is legally independent and has the power to promulgate laws or strike down state and territory laws if they are contrary to the Constitution. One of the most important functions of the Supreme Court is the ultimate interpretation of the Constitution.

Domestic politics

India, at the federal level, is the country with the largest population. For most of its democratic history, the federal government was led by the Indian National Congress. At the state level, various national parties dominated, such as the Indian National Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party, BJP), the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and various regional parties. From 1950 to 1990, except for two short periods, the Indian National Congress had a parliamentary majority. The Indian National Congress was not in power between 1977 and 1980, when the Janata Party won the elections due to popular discontent over the imposition of a state of emergency by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In 1989, the National Front coalition, in alliance with the Left Front coalition, won the elections, but was able to stay in power for only two years.

Between 1996 and 1998, a series of short-lived coalitions led the federal government. The Bharatiya Janata Party formed a government for a short period in 1996, followed by a United Front coalition. In 1998, the Bharatiya Janata Party formed the National Democratic Union with a number of regional parties and became the second party in history, after the Indian National Congress, to remain in power for a full five-year period. In the 2004 all-India elections, the Indian National Congress won a majority in the Lok Sabha and created a government together with the United Progressive Union coalition, supported by a number of left-wing parties and MPs who were in opposition to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Foreign policy

Since its independence in 1947, India has maintained friendly relations with most countries. In the 1950s, India played an important role on the international stage, advocating for the independence of European colonies in Africa and Asia. The Indian Army conducted two brief peacekeeping missions in neighboring countries - in Sri Lanka (1987-1990) and Operation Cactus in the Maldives. India is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement. After the Sino-Indian Frontier War and the Second Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, India noticeably drew closer to the Soviet Union at the cost of severing ties with and continued this policy until the end of the Cold War. India has been involved in three military conflicts with Pakistan, mainly over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Other clashes between the two countries took place in 1984 over the Siachen Glacier and the 1999 Kargil War.

In recent years, India has continued to play a prominent role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the World Trade Organization. India is one of the founding members of the United Nations and an active participant in its peacekeeping missions, with over 55,000 Indian soldiers taking part in thirty-five peacekeeping operations on four continents. Despite criticism and military sanctions, India has consistently refused to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, preferring instead to maintain full control over its nuclear programs. Recently, in the foreign policy arena, the Indian government has directed efforts to improve relations with the US, China and Pakistan. In the economic sphere, India has close relationships with other developing countries in South America, Asia, and Africa.

Relations with Russia

The first information about India appeared at a fairly early age. Already in the 15th century, the Tver merchant Afanasy Nikitin visited India, describing his journey in the famous book “Journey Beyond the Three Seas”.

At the state level, interest in India arose in Russia at the very beginning of the 19th century and was far from peaceful: Emperor Paul I, leaving the Second Anti-French Coalition, ordered Vasily Orlov, the military ataman of the Don Cossack army, to lead the Cossacks on a military campaign through Central Asia to India. In this way, Paul hoped to strike at the positions of the British in India and help these opponents of the French, with whom he took a course of political rapprochement. It is unlikely that the Cossacks would have been able to achieve their goals, given that they were sent without proper preparation to extremely little-known lands, they had to pass through independent Khiva and Bukhara. But in March 1801, Pavel was killed, and the new emperor Alexander I returned the Cossacks halfway.

Before the independence of India, Russia could not have direct diplomatic relations with it. When India finally gained independence, the Soviet Union soon began to actively cooperate with it: many Soviet specialists were sent to India, primarily to help create a powerful industrial base. In the 1990s, Russia noticeably moved away from what was happening in South Asia, but in recent years cooperation has been rapidly resuming.

To date, strong ties are maintained between India and Russia in the field of economy and foreign trade, in science and technology, culture, defense, space and nuclear energy. Between the two countries there is a certain unity of approaches to both political and economic problems. Specific examples of successful bilateral energy cooperation include Indian investment in the Sakhalin-1 oil project and Russia's assistance in building a nuclear power plant at Kudankulam in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Also, as an example, we can cite cooperation in the implementation of the space program. The two countries have jointly developed and now produce Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles. Russia, together with India, is developing a promising front-line aviation complex - a fifth-generation fighter, the share of the Indian company Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) in the development will be at least 25%. There are other examples of successful Indian-Russian cooperation.

India is proud to be part of the legacy of Nicholas and Svetoslav Roerich. As a contribution to the strengthening of bilateral cultural ties, in 2002 India allocated significant funds to put in order and preserve the Roerichs' estates in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.

As a political science hypothesis, the possibility of a close strategic partnership between Russia, India and China - the triangle "Moscow-Delhi-Beijing" is often discussed. Many agree that such cooperation would contribute to the creation of a multipolar world. However, plans to create such a “triangle” (led by the United States) also exist in the United States Department of State, where India is seen as a potential counterbalance to the ever-increasing role of China in the modern world.

Armed forces and special services

The Indian Armed Forces are the third largest in the world and consist of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force. The auxiliaries include the Indian Paramilitary Units, the Indian Coastal Defense and the Strategic Military Command. The President of India is the supreme commander of the armed forces. In 2007, the country's military budget amounted to 19.8 billion US dollars, which is 2.4% of GDP.

In 1974, India became a member of the Nuclear Club, carrying out the first nuclear test, codenamed Operation Smiling Buddha. Subsequent underground nuclear weapons testing in 1998 led to international military sanctions against India, which were gradually suspended after September 2001. India adheres to the no-first-use rule in its nuclear policy. On October 10, 2008, the Indo-American Nuclear Cooperation Treaty was signed between India and the United States, which finally ended the country's isolation in the field of nuclear energy.

India's intelligence services include the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and the intelligence units of the Ministry of Defense. , Central Bureau of Investigation of the Ministry of State and Home Affairs and a division of the Department of Homeland Security. Since India's main geopolitical adversary is Pakistan, working against Pakistan and its intelligence agencies is the top priority of India's intelligence agencies.

Economy

For most of its post-independence history, India has pursued a socialist economic policy with government involvement in the private sector, strict controls on foreign trade and investment. However, starting in 1991, India introduced liberal economic reforms, opening up its market and reducing government control over the economy. International reserves rose from $5.8 billion in March 1991 to $308 billion as of July 4, 2008, and federal and state budget deficits have narrowed markedly. Among the political debates continued the privatization of private companies and the opening of certain sectors of the economy to private and foreign participation. The gross domestic product in US dollars at current exchange rates is 1.089 trillion, making India the twelfth largest economy in the world. Measured at purchasing power parity, India has the fourth largest GDP in the world at $4.726 trillion. The nominal per capita income is $977, which puts the country in 128th place in the world in this indicator. The per capita income at purchasing power parity is $2,700 (118th in the world).

Over the past two decades, an average annual GDP growth of 5.5% has made the Indian economy one of the fastest growing in the world. India has the second largest labor force in the world - 516.3 million people, 60% of them work in the field of agriculture; 28% in services; and 12% in industry. The main crops are rice, wheat, cotton, jute, tea, sugar cane and potatoes. The agricultural sector accounts for 28% of GDP; the service sector and industry account for 54% and 18% respectively. Main Industries: Automotive, Chemical, Cement, Consumer Electronics, Food Processing, Mechanical Engineering, Mining, Petroleum, Pharmaceuticals, Metals and Textiles. Along with the rapid economic growth, the need for energy resources has increased dramatically. According to statistics, India ranks sixth in the world in oil consumption and third in hard coal consumption.

Over the past two decades, India's economy has experienced steady growth, however, when comparing different social groups, geographical regions, and rural and urban areas, economic growth has not been uniform. Income inequality in India is relatively small (Gini coefficient: 36.8 in 2004), although it has been growing in recent years. In India, there is a rather large stratification of the population, where 10% of the population with high earnings receive 33% of income. Despite notable economic progress, a quarter of the country's population lives below the state-established living wage, which is 0.40 a day. According to statistics, in 2004-2005, 27.5% of the population was below the poverty line.

Recently, India, thanks to the presence of a large number of English-speaking professionals, has become an outsourcing destination for many multinational corporations and a popular destination for "medical tourism". India has also become a significant exporter of software, as well as financial and technology services. India's main natural resources are arable land, bauxite, chromite, coal, diamonds, iron ore, limestone, manganese, micas, natural gas, oil and titanium ores.

In 2007, exports amounted to 140 billion US dollars, and imports - about 224.9 billion. The main exports are textiles, jewelry, engineering products and software. The main imports are, machinery, fertilizers and chemicals. India's main trading partners are the United States, the European Union and China.

Transport

In India, all types of transport are represented: water (sea and river), road, air, rail, pipeline. Rail transport in India provides mass transportation of goods and people. Up to 6 billion passengers and 350 million tons of cargo are transported annually. The main railway operator in the country, which controls 99% of traffic, is Indian Railways.

In 1950, India had 382,000 km of dirt roads and 136,000 km of highways. Of these roads, only 22 thousand km were suitable for heavy traffic of freight and passenger vehicles.

In India, the lower reaches of the rivers Ganges, Krishna, Godavari, Kaveri are navigable. These rivers are used for the transportation of goods, back in the 1950s, 3/4 of the goods were transported along the rivers on sailing ships. In 1951, India's ocean-going fleet consisted of only 86 steamers with a tonnage of 338,000 tons. In 1950, there were 64 civilian airports operating in India. There are currently 454 airports in India.

culture

The culture of India is very diverse and has a high level of syncretism. Throughout its history, India has managed to preserve ancient cultural traditions, at the same time adopt new customs and ideas from conquerors and immigrants, and spread its cultural influence to other regions of Asia.

In Indian society, traditional family values ​​are highly respected, although contemporary urban families often favor a nuclear family structure, largely due to the socio-economic constraints imposed by the traditional extended family system.

Architecture

Indian architecture is one of the areas where the diversity of Indian culture is most vividly represented. Much of India's architecture, including such remarkable monuments as the Taj Mahal and other examples of Mughal and South Indian architecture, is a mixture of ancient and heterogeneous local traditions from different regions of India and abroad.

music and dancing

Indian music has a wide range of traditions and regional styles. Indian classical music includes two main genres - North Indian Hindustani, South Indian Carnatic traditions and their various variations in the form of regional folk music. Local styles of popular music include filmi and Indian folk music, one of the most influential varieties of which is the syncretic Baul tradition.

Indian dances also have a variety of folk and classical forms. The most famous Indian folk dances are bhangra in Punjab, bihu in Assam, chhau in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa, and ghumar in Rajasthan. Eight forms of dance, with their narrative forms and mythological elements, have been given the status of Indian classical dances by the Indian National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama. These are: bharatanatyam of Tamil Nadu, kathak in Uttar Pradesh, kathakali and mohini attam in Kerala, kuchipudi in Andhra Pradesh, manipuri in Manipur, odissi in Orissa and sattriya in Assam

Theater and cinema

Indian theater often includes music, dance and impromptu dialogue. Plots are often based on motifs borrowed from Hindu texts, as well as medieval literary works, social and political news. Some regional forms of Indian theater are: bhavai in Gujarat, jatra in West Bengal, nautanki and ramlila in northern India, tamasha in Maharashtra, terukuttu in Tamil Nadu, and yakshagana in Karnataka.

The Indian film industry is the largest in the world. Bollywood, headquartered in Mumbai, produces Hindi commercial films and is the most prolific film industry in the world. Established cinematic traditions also exist in other Indian languages ​​such as Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu.

Literature

The earliest works of Indian literature were transmitted orally for many centuries and only later were written down. These include Sanskrit literature - the Vedas, the epics "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana", the drama "Abhigyan-shakuntalam", and the classical Sanskrit poetry of the Mahakavya, and the Tamil literature of the Sangam. One of the modern writers who wrote both in Indian languages ​​and in English is Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.

Education

Education in most universities in India is conducted in English. Higher education in the country is provided at the level of programs of European universities. The cost of the academic year is about 15,000 US dollars.

There are 200 universities in India: 16 of them are central, the rest operate in accordance with state regulations. The total number of colleges in the country is about 11,000. Over the past few decades, the technical field of education has developed significantly. Currently, 185 universities offer postgraduate studies in engineering and technical disciplines.

Kitchen

India is a country with an exotic and mysterious culture for most Europeans. The unforgettable aroma of India is the thick smell of jasmine and rose, the subtle fragrance of spices that occupy an important place in Indian dishes. Indians attach special importance to food, it is consecrated by a tradition that is honored to this day.

Indian cuisine is very diverse. Two religions influenced its development: Hinduism and Islam. In addition, for many centuries, the settlers have made their own adjustments to the traditional Indian cuisine. For instance. The Portuguese brought paprika, which took root perfectly throughout India, the French gave recipes for soufflé and fragrant bread, the British also made their contribution. Indians have learned how to cook puddings and make anchovy sandwiches.

The Great Mongols, who ruled India for several centuries, had a massive influence on Indian cuisine. To this day, such dishes as greasy pilaf, biryan - a traditional rice dish, bread stuffed with almonds, heavy cream and dried fruits have come down to us. The Mongols brought with them a large oven - tondur. In India, bread, meat and poultry are still cooked in the oven.

India is the birthplace of a huge number of spices. Indians use known to us coriander, turmeric, cumin, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and little-known mango powder, asafoetida. Many spices have medicinal properties. The most common condiment is curry. The name of this seasoning comes from the Indian word "kari" (sauce) Curry is a coconut crushed on a basalt stone with the addition of certain spices (turmeric, tamarind, cumin, coriander, chili pepper, garlic). Seafood curry is called "ummon" or "coddy".

Like paints on an artist's palette, an Indian chef keeps about 25 spices on hand, always freshly ground, from which he makes his own unique flavor bouquet. Thanks to various combinations, dishes acquire a delicate taste. Each region has its own favorite spices and their combinations. Rice and curries are usually served with tondak (fish fried in coconut oil), sukem (a dish of shrimp and shellfish), kissmoor (salad of dried fried shrimp and grated coconut), shrimp patties, etc. Vegetables in India are cheap, varied, plentiful and always tasty.
Meat dishes are more common in the north: rogan-josh (lamb curry), gushtaba (spicy meatballs in yogurt) and delicious biryani (chicken or lamb with rice with orange sauce). The taste of the dishes is rich and rich, they are generously seasoned with spices and sprinkled with nuts and saffron. The famous tandoori (chicken, meat or fish marinated with herbs and baked in a clay oven) and lamb kebabs come from the northern regions. In the north, sheep breeding is more developed, hence the addiction to lamb dishes. Bread is a variety of unleavened cakes - puri, chappati, nan and others.

In the south, curry dishes are mostly vegetable and very spicy. Traditional recipes include bhujia (vegetable curry), dosa, idli and samba (rice cakes, dumplings stuffed with pickles and lentil curry) and raita (yoghurt with grated cucumber and mint). Coconut is the main ingredient in South Indian cuisine. it grows all over the place.

There is a wide variety of fish and seafood on the west coast - curried or fried fish bomilo, licorice fish (Indian salmon) Fish are also present in Bengali cuisine, for example: dahi maach (fish curry in ginger-flavored yogurt) and mailai (curry shrimp) with coconut). Desserts are also prepared with the addition of dates and bananas. In this part of the country, rice dishes are more preferred and stews are much spicier than in the north.

Common to all India is dal (something like a soup of different types of legumes with vegetables) and dhai (curdled milk or yogurt served with curry). In addition to being a very tasty dish, in the heat it is more refreshing than sugary carbonated drinks.

From sweets, milk puddings, cookies and pancakes are mainly served. Kulfi (Indian ice cream), rasgulla (cottage cheese balls flavored with rose water), gulab jamun (flour, yogurt and grated almonds) and jalebi (pancakes in syrup) are common throughout India.
To improve digestion, it is customary to finish the meal by chewing pan. Pan is betel leaves wrapped with crushed betel nuts and spices.

Tea is a favorite drink of Indians, and many of its varieties are popular in the world. Often it is served already with sugar and milk, but you can also order “tea on a tray”. The popularity of coffee is growing. Nimbu pani (a drink made from water and lemon juice), lassi (whipped coconut milk) and coconut milk straight from the nut are nicely refreshing. Carbonated water, often with syrup, and Western alcoholic drinks are available everywhere. Indian beers and gins are as good as the best in the world and are inexpensive. But alcohol in India is never drunk during a meal!
Traditional Indian cuisine uses ghee (clarified butter) and dense vegetable fat. Until recently, ghee was generally the only known fat in North India; now, however, Indians are becoming more and more health conscious, and many are choosing to cook with other fats. In most recipes, vegetable oil is used, and in small quantities.
A few words should be noted about vegetarianism and religion. Vegetarianism is especially developed in the southeast of India. Indians in this part of the country do not eat animal and bird meat, fish and eggs. Eggs, by the way, are considered by the Indians to be the beginning of all beginnings. Indians eat large quantities of vegetables, fruits, as well as flour dishes. In India, religion greatly influences the menu of Hindus. There are many religious restrictions. For example, Muslims and Jews are forbidden to eat pork, while Hindus and Sikhs are forbidden to eat beef. The cow is considered a sacred animal.

This densely populated peninsula is home to so many peoples of different religions that it is very difficult to characterize in a few sentences a typical cuisine, or rather cuisines. The common generalization that all Indian dishes are very spicy is also confusing - it is valid for Muslim territories, and moderate cuisine prevails in the north. Arab-Persian influences also make themselves felt in it - for example, the common custom of using yogurt for cooking hot dishes.

Meat dishes, which we will meet especially in the north-west of the country, are prepared by Muslim Indians from lamb or goat meat. In general, we can say that in the north of India, the dishes are thicker, and in the south they are more like soup. But rice is always served separately. From vegetables in the first place are legumes, especially lentils. An important role is played by fresh roots of piquant taste.
Unlike East Asian countries, there are relatively many types of bread in India, mainly in the form of flatbreads or rolls. This explains the relatively high level of wheat consumption in this country. Although India has the richest assortment of fruits and vegetables and often completes the meal, they also serve dessert in the form of a cream or like yogurt with a high sugar content. To a large extent this comes from the tradition of Hindi cuisine, but there is also an Arab-Persian influence.

traditional clothing

Different regions of India use different types of traditional Indian clothing. Its color and style depends on various factors such as climate. Clothing made from unsewn pieces of fabric is popular, such as saris for women and dhoti or lungi for men; tailor-made garments such as punjabi (harem pants and kurta pajamas) for women, and European-style trousers and shirts for men are also popular.

Public holidays

Most Indian holidays are of religious origin, although some are celebrated by all Indians regardless of caste or religion. Some of the most popular holidays are Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Ugadi, Pongal, Holi, Onam, Vijaya Dashami, Durga Puja, Eid al-Fitr, Eid ul-Fitr, Christmas, Vesak and Vaisakhi. There are three national holidays in India. Various states also observe between nine and twelve official local holidays. Religious holidays are an integral part of the daily life of Indians and are held openly and publicly with the participation of a huge number of people.

Major holidays in India
January 1 - Naya Sal (New Year)
January 5 - Birthday of Guru Govind Singh
January 9 - Muharram
January 13 - Lori
January 14 - Pongal
January 26 - Indian Republic Day
February 11 - Vasanta
March 6 - Maha Shivaratri
March 19 - Milad en Nabi
March 21 - Good Friday
March 22 - Holi - the festival of colors
March 23 - Istar
April 14 - Rama Navami
April 18 - Mahavira Jayanti
May 20 - Buddha Jayanti
July 16 - Rath Yatra
July 18 - Guru Purnima
August 15 - Indian Independence Day
August 16 - Rakha - Bandhan
August 24 - Janmashtami
September 3 - Ganesha Chaturhi
September 12 - Onam
October 2 - Gandhi Jayanti
October 9 - Dashahr
October 17 - Karva Chowt in India
October 28 - Diwali - the festival of lights
October 29 - Govardhan Puja
November 13 - Birthday of Guru Nanak
November 14 - Bal Divas (Children's Day) in India
December 8 - Bakri Eid (Eid-ul-Zuha)
December 25 - Bara din (Christmas)

Sport

The national sport of India is field hockey and the most popular sport is cricket. In some states, such as West Bengal, Goa and Kerala, football is also widely played. Recently, tennis has gained considerable popularity. Chess, historically originating from India, is also very popular and the number of Indian grandmasters is constantly increasing. Traditional sports throughout the country include kabaddi, kho kho, and gilli danda. India is also the birthplace of yoga and ancient Indian martial arts - Kalaripayattu and Varma-Kalai.

Attractions

Delhi The five-tiered Qutub Minar (Victory Tower) is one of the most remarkable buildings of the ancient period of Delhi's history, the construction of which dates back to the 12th century AD.
In 1199, Qutb-ad-din built the Qutb-Minar minaret, which served as a monument to victory and supplemented the neighboring mosque built earlier.
The cone-shaped five-tiered tower, 72.5 meters high, was built of red-yellow sandstone and decorated with magnificent ornaments and engraved sayings from the Koran.
On the territory of the Qutub Minar complex stands one of the most mysterious structures in the world: the famous Iron Column, cast in the 4th century AD.
There is an old belief: the one who will stand with his back to the column and bring his hands together behind it will have his most cherished desire come true.
It is no coincidence that the Indians endow this column with miraculous power: it really has a unique property - iron cast 15 centuries ago does not rust. How did the ancient masters manage to create chemically pure iron, which is difficult to obtain even in modern electrolytic furnaces? How did it manage to cast a metal column 7 meters high and girth thick in the 4th century? Science does not know the explanation for this miracle. Some scientists consider the Iron Column to be the rarest evidence of the material culture of a long-vanished ancient civilization, others tend to see it as a “testament of stellar aliens”, an encrypted message from unknown beings who once visited the earth and left this column as a “memory of the future”.

Lakshmi Narayan Temple
One of the attractions of New Delhi is Lakshmi Narayan - a temple of white and pink marble dedicated to the gods Krishna (Narayan) and his sun-faced wife Lakshmi, built by the Birla family of famous industrialists.
Krishna and Lakshmi - the patrons of love and family happiness - are the most popular deities of the Hindu religion. And although connoisseurs of traditional Indian architecture tend to see in elegant towers, arches, galleries and marble sculptural sculptures a mixture of styles from different eras, penetrated by the sun's rays, sparkling with bright colors and gilding, the temple creates a feeling of a real holiday for visitors. The temple was built at the beginning of the 20th century with donations from the richest people in the country and consecrated in the presence of Mahatma Gandhi himself.

Red Fort
If in the middle of the 17th century there was a paradise on earth, then it was right here. The Red Fort, or Lal Qila, owes its name to the red sandstone from which its walls are built. The length of the wall in the perimeter is 2.4 km, and its height varies from 18 meters from the side of the river to 33 meters from the side of the city.
The fort was erected between 1639 and 1648 under the Mongol ruler Shah Jahan and is famous for its wealth: marble, silver and gold, as well as precious decoration.
For various palaces and reception halls, more noble materials were used.
Over the years, many of the treasures have disappeared and some of the original buildings have been destroyed. What remains nevertheless gives a vivid picture of the Mughal Empire at its height. After the death of his wife, for whom he built the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan wanted to move his imperial residence from Agra to Delhi or, more precisely, to the New City, called Shahjahanabad. There he built the Red Fort - as his own imperial city. The layout of each Mongolian courtyard included two halls for audiences: Divani-Am and Divani-Khas. The first was used for official receptions at the ruler, the second - for private ones.
Divani-Am is a large hall built on a plinth, which is open on three sides to the courtyards. Here it was possible to gather a large number of people, and petitions were submitted to the ruler in public. Divani Khas was the place where the emperor privately consulted with his officials or with foreign envoys. Once there was a spacious courtyard with a marble floor and a silver ceiling. Shah Jahan ordered the famous "Peacock Throne" to be made for Divani Khas. It was an object adorned with precious stones with extraordinary pomp. It took seven years to make it.
In 1739 the throne was taken to Persia. The inscription in Divani Khas testifies to what Shah Jahan himself thought about this place: "If there is a paradise on earth, then it is here, here and only here." There were once six royal palaces (mahals) in the Red Fort.
Mumtaz Mahal today houses a museum. The other is called the Rang Mahal (Painted Palace), but only the painting has long since disappeared. Khas Mahal has three parts. The rooms served, respectively, for sleep or prayer, and a long hall with ceiling and wall paintings was used for eating. Shah Jahan's son and successor, Aurangzeb, built the extraordinary Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) inside the fort. The mosque and its courtyards are relatively small, but their spatial design has a special charm. Incredibly spectacular black marble intarsia on a white marble base. The shopping arcade in front of the impressive Lahore Gate leading into the palace is open to the public, as are the imperial baths.
After the uprising in 1857, a large part of the fort was demolished to make way for the barracks.

Agra
The monument of love (Taj Mahal) stands among the cypress parks on the banks of the Yamuna, and its majestic and perfect appearance is reflected in the water surface of the ponds. Marble façades gleam silver under the moon, glow rosy at dawn, and shimmer with the fiery reflections of the setting sun. This fabulously beautiful mausoleum was built under Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife.
In 1629, having given birth to the 14th child, the wife of the Indian Mogul died. She was 36 years old, of which 17 she was married. Sultan Shah Jahan lost not only his beloved wife, but also a wise political adviser.
There is evidence that he wore mourning for her for two years and took an oath to build a tomb monument worthy of the memory of his wife, completely extraordinary, with which nothing in the world can compare. Arjumand Banu, also known as Mumtaz Mahal (“Chosen of the Palace”), rests in just such an extraordinary tomb, named after her in abbreviation: Taj Mahal. Construction was carried out in several stages, from 1631 to 1653. More than 20,000 people worked on the construction of the building, recruited not only throughout India, but even in Central Asia. The main architect was Isa Khan, who arrived from the Iranian city of Shiraz, and wonderful European craftsmen richly decorated the facade of the building. The tomb is built of marble (it had to be delivered to the site from a quarry 300 kilometers away), but the building is not completely white, as many photographs try to show. Its surface is inlaid with thousands of precious and semi-precious stones, and black marble was used for calligraphic ornaments. Skillfully handmade, filigree finished, the marble cladding casts - depending on the incidence of light - bewitching shadows. Once the doors to the Taj Mahal were made of silver. Inside there was a parapet of gold, and a cloth studded with pearls lay on the tomb of the princess, set on the very site of her burning. Thieves stole these precious items and repeatedly tried to knock out the inlay gems. But, despite all this, the mausoleum still shocks every visitor today. The building is located in a garden landscape, you need to enter it through a large, rare beautiful gate, which symbolizes the entrance to paradise. Its huge white marble terrace and perfectly shaped double dome, surrounded by four minarets, rest on a red sandstone base. Inside is the tomb of the queen, encrusted with precious stones, and next to it, slightly to the side, is the richly decorated coffin of the emperor, the only one that violates the absolute symmetry of the structure. They are protected from visitors by an octagonal openwork marble wall. Shah planned to continue construction, dreaming of erecting on the other side of the river a twin of the snow-white Taj Mahal - Mumtaz Mahal made of black marble, which would become his own tombstone. But Shah Jahan was overthrown by his son and spent the rest of his life alone, imprisoned in the fort of Agra, looking longingly at the fast-flowing river. From there, Shah Jahan could see the Taj Mahal.
The immortal beauty of the Taj Mahal serves as a source of inspiration for poets and artists, writers and photographers to this day. And on moonlit nights, as many centuries ago, lovers meet in the shadow of this world-famous monument of love.

Agra Fort
The construction of the fort was begun by Emperor Akbar in 1565 and was completed only during the reign of his grandson Shah Jahan. Used at first only for military purposes, the fortress gradually became a palace: behind the high fortress walls 2.5 km long and 10 m wide, gardens, terraces, halls and colonnades of amazing beauty are hidden. Slender columns of arches, located in the courtyard of the fortress, support a stone canopy. This is a kind of “city within a city”, in the center of which is a beautiful marble mosque, due to its ideal proportions and grace, it is called Moti Masjid (Pearl Muslim). The fort is accessed through two main high portals to the west and south; in the east there are “personal” imperial gates. Three Great Mughals successively settled in it - Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan, and each of them made significant changes to the architectural complex. The most remarkable buildings of the fort include: Jahangiri Mahal Palace; Khas Mahal with adjoining vineyard called Anguri Bagh and ornamented pool called Shish Mahal; the Musamman-Burj fortress, where Shah Jahan was kept as a prisoner of his son, who died here admiring the Taj Mahal (the tomb of his beloved wife) in his last days; Divani Khas (private audience hall); Divani-Am (hall of public audience); Machhi Bhavan (palace with aquariums); Moti Masjid (pearl mosque). Most of these buildings, erected during the reign of Shah Jahan, are built of marble and show a sophistication that contrasts with the architecture of the buildings of Akbar's time - clear and energetic. All the buildings of the fort, performing practical functions, are true works of art, their proportions are so harmonious and perfect, their appearance is so refined and refined. The combination of Muslim and Indo-Mohammedan cultures gives a delightful effect, and the natural Indian taste is manifested in the landscape of the buildings: the palace is surrounded by lush gardens, and side buildings are always in harmony with the main ones. The fabulous splendor of the buildings of the Palace in Agra speaks of sophisticated imagination, originality and truly free art.
Tomb of Itemad-ud-Daula
The tomb of Itemad-ud-Dauly stands in the center of the Persian park, striking with the elegance of lines and the thoroughness of decoration. Norjahan, the brilliant wife of Jahangir, built it for her parents. A small tomb on the outskirts of the Taj Mahal perfectly reflects the taste and mind of the gifted empress. Warm tones of yellow marble contrast with white and black patterns, while openwork marble panels and rich mosaics of gems are feminine and delightful.
Jama Masjid Mosque
Not far from the Red Fort rises the cathedral mosque Jama Masjid - the most grandiose temple building in Asia. On the days of religious holidays, up to 25 thousand believers gather in the spacious courtyard of the mosque.

Mumbai (Bombay)
The history of the emergence of Mumbai, a dynamic modern city, the financial capital of India and the administrative center of the state of Maharashtra, is rather unusual. In 1534, the Sultan of Gujarat ceded a group of seven useless islands to the Portuguese, who in turn gave them to Catherine of Braganza on her wedding day to King Charles II of England in 1661. In 1668, the British government leased the islands to the East India Company for 10 pounds of gold a year. In 1862, a colossal land surveying project turned seven separate islands into a single entity.
Today, the memory of the seven Bombay islands is preserved only in the names of the districts, such as Colaba, Mahim, Mazgaon, Parel, Worli, Girgaum and Dongri. It is believed that the name Bombay (Mumbai in the Marathi language) comes from the name of the local goddess Mumbai Devi.

Gateway of India
Rising gracefully at the water's edge in the Apollo Bander area is the famous India Gate, a triumphal arch designed by George Whittet and built in 1924 to celebrate the visit of King George V and Queen Mary, who arrived in 1911 for the imperial reception of Delhi. The first thing that anyone who went ashore in the port of Bombay in former years saw was precisely this architectural structure. The arch, made of copper-colored basalt, faces the sea, and, reflecting the glare of the rising and setting sun, changes shades from golden to orange and pink. It was through this arch that the British troops, leaving India by sea, proceeded.
Afghan Memorial Church of St. John the Evangelist
The church is located in the southern region of Colaba, "long arm" stretched out into the sea. The church was built in 1847 and consecrated 11 years later as a memorial in memory of those killed in the first Afghan war. It is a beautiful piece of architecture with gothic arches and stained glass windows.

Cathedral of St. Thomas. St. Thomas Cathedral, one of the outstanding Christian temples of Mumbai, was erected in the center of the fortress square in 1796 by Samuel Ezekiel (Samaji Hasanji) in gratitude for his salvation from Tipu Sultan after the Second Mysore War.
Supreme Court House and Old Secretariat The buildings were designed and built by Colonel Eagle Henry St. Clair Wilkins between 1867 and 1874. Their architecture is designed in a strict Victorian neo-Gothic style.
university building
Sir Kowasji Jehangir Redimani financed the construction of the Elphinstone University and College building with a central tower 85 meters high and covered balconies. This complex, together with the library and the clock tower (now called Rajabai), was completed in 1878.
Fountain Flora It is located in a very busy place in the city, on Khutatma Chowk Square (Martyrs' Square), in the heart of the Fort district. The fountain was built in honor of Governor Sir Henry Bartle Edward Freer, who was building a new Bombay in the 60s of the 19th century. The square got its current name - Khututma - in memory of those who gave their lives to the cause of establishing an independent state of Maharashtra as part of the Indian Union.

Prince of Wales Museum
In 1905, King George V (then Prince of Wales) during his visit to India laid the foundation stone for the Museum. George Whittet designed this building with a central marble dome and other trappings of oriental architecture. It was built in 1921 from blue-gray basalt and yellow sandstone. The museum is considered one of the most significant in India. It contains excellent examples of Indian miniatures of the Mughal and Rajasthani schools, collections of jade and porcelain items.

Elfant Island
It is located an hour away by motorboat along the waters of the harbor, literally replete with ancient monuments. Here you can see stunning cave temples with huge sculptures inside. All of them were excavated in VII and
8th century The main attraction is a massive bust of the three-headed Shiva, 5 meters high, which embodies his incarnations as the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer. The Portuguese named this island Elephanta because of the huge sculpture of an elephant that once stood in one of the excavated interior palaces.
The most striking example of Victorian Gothic in Bombay is the Victoria Terminus Station designed by Frederick William Stevens, as well as the building of the Central Railway. The buildings were built between 1878 and 1887 of yellow sandstone and granite, combined with multi-colored stones, with blue-gray basalt used for interior decoration. Among other attractions, we note the classical colonnades of the buildings of the mint and the magistrate, subsidized in 1820.

Calcutta
It is one of the oldest metropolises in India. It was founded over three hundred years ago by Job Charnock, a representative of the British East India Company. He bought three villages from the Nawab of Bengal, and in their place founded what we today call Calcutta.
Like other cities in India such as Madras or Bombay, Calcutta was influenced by the European culture of the seventeenth century and in the past was one of the great colonial centers of the East.
Now Calcutta is one of the centers of world tourism, attracting guests from all over the world not only with its warm climate, but also with numerous sights that reflect the entire centuries-old culture of India.
The National Library of Calcutta, which is one of the best libraries in the world, has more than 8 million books, 2 thousand manuscripts and about 700 types of periodicals in its collections. All books that are printed in India are compulsorily transferred to the collections of the National Library.

zoological garden The Zoological Garden, opened in 1876, spreads over 41 acres. His collection of birds and animals is the best in Asia. Among the rarest animals kept in the zoo are the white tiger, beautiful specimens of king cobras and several types of exotic animals. The zoological garden is a favorite place for recreation and entertainment. Visitors to the zoo can ride ponies and elephants. And the huge lake, located in the center of the zoo, attracts visitors with a huge number of migratory birds that have chosen the lake as a place for wintering.

Museum of India
Built in the late 19th century, this museum is the largest museum in India. The museum is divided into 6 sectors: art, archeology, anthropology, geology, zoology and botany. It consists of 40 main galleries, where collections of sculptures, paintings, coins and other archaeological finds are exhibited. The art sector contains more than 10 thousand exhibitions of paintings, clothing and handicrafts of the peoples of India. The archeology sector is a real treasure trove for lovers of antiquity - visitors can see collections of ancient coins, antique sculptures and even an Egyptian mummy there. The geological sector contains the largest collection of meteorites in Asia.
The Victoria Memorial is a beautiful architectural structure made of white marble, built in the image of the Taj Mahal. It was built in the early twentieth century in memory of Queen Victoria. The atmosphere of unforgettable charm is created by manicured gardens and lawns, old cannons and a bronze statue of Queen Victoria at the entrance to the complex.