[347] Kerala is the most literate state with 93.91% literacy; while Bihar the least with 63.82%.[349]. [371] Painted manuscripts of religious texts survive from Eastern India about the 10th century onwards, most of the earliest being Buddhist and later Jain. A pioneering and influential nationalist movement emerged, which was noted for nonviolent resistance and became the major factor in ending British rule. Meanings Biblical Names Meaning: In Biblical Names the meaning of the name India is: Praise, law. [154], Vital to India's self-image as an independent nation was its constitution, completed in 1950, which put in place a secular and democratic republic. In the 20th century, Indian literature was influenced by the works of the Bengali poet, author and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore,[393] who was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. [g][35] In South India, the Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian-languages scripts and religious cultures to the kingdoms of Southeast Asia. In 1998, the BJP was able to form a successful coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). [178], The Indian climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of which drive the economically and culturally pivotal summer and winter monsoons. [460], The improved results garnered by the Indian Davis Cup team and other Indian tennis players in the early 2010s have made tennis increasingly popular in the country. [259][260], China's nuclear test of 1964, as well as its repeated threats to intervene in support of Pakistan in the 1965 war, convinced India to develop nuclear weapons. Bhārata was selected as the name of the country of India in 1950. [127][128] The East India Company's control of the seas, greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology led it to increasingly flex its military muscle and caused it to become attractive to a portion of the Indian elite; these factors were crucial in allowing the company to gain control over the Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the other European companies. [323] The proportion decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005. A modern rendering of the historical name Bharatavarsha, which applied originally to a region of the Gangetic Valley,[66][67] Bharat gained increased currency from the mid-19th century as a native name for India. [324] Under the World Bank's later revised poverty line, it was 21% in 2011. The number of people living in urban areas grew by 31.2% between 1991 and 2001. [188] It predominates in the tropical moist forest of the Andaman Islands, the Western Ghats, and Northeast India. India meaning: 1. a country in South Asia 2. a country in South Asia. It is expected to grow to US$2,358 by 2020. Meaning of India. It was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislation, by more strident Indian calls for self-rule, and by the beginnings of a nonviolent movement of non-co-operation, of which Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would become the leader and enduring symbol. [160] It has unresolved territorial disputes with China[161] and with Pakistan. Vastu shastra, literally "science of construction" or "architecture" and ascribed to Mamuni Mayan,[378] explores how the laws of nature affect human dwellings;[379] it employs precise geometry and directional alignments to reflect perceived cosmic constructs. [63], The term Bharat (Bhārat; pronounced [ˈbʱaːɾət] (listen)), mentioned in both Indian epic poetry and the Constitution of India,[64][65] is used in its variations by many Indian languages. Indus is also the name of a river. These three influences are reflected, respectively, in the dishes of pilaf and biryani; the vindaloo; and the tiffin and the Railway mutton curry. [92] The empire was once thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent except the far south, but its core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas. India's population grew from 361 million in 1951 to 1.211 billion in 2011. Although India possessed nuclear weapons at the time and was not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it received waivers from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, ending earlier restrictions on India's nuclear technology and commerce. 1995) daughter of singers Corey Hart and Julie Masse India Gillett (b. [104] No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond their core region. [438], A kurta, which traces its roots to Central Asian nomadic tunics, has evolved stylistically in India as a garment for everyday wear as well as for formal occasions. [179] Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane. [95][96], The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that, between 200 BCE and 200 CE, the southern peninsula was ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas, and the Pandyas, dynasties that traded extensively with the Roman Empire and with West and South-East Asia. [423] India had over 900 universities, 40,000 colleges[424] and 1.5 million schools. Hindu and Jain sites appear rather later. [414] Despite a government ban on sex-selective foeticide, the practice remains commonplace in India, the result of a preference for boys in a patriarchal society. 1991) daughter of singer Eric Benét India Rose Olsen (b. [355] During the Vedic period (c. 1700 BCE – c. 500 BCE), the foundations of Hindu philosophy, mythology, theology and literature were laid, and many beliefs and practices which still exist today, such as dhárma, kárma, yóga, and mokṣa, were established. [112][113] The sultanate's raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire. [79] Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade. Family values are important in the Indian tradition, and multi-generational patriarchal joint families have been the norm in India, though nuclear families are becoming common in urban areas. In north India Mauryan art is the first imperial movement. [335] Corruption in India is perceived to have decreased. [186] India also contains four of the world's 34 biodiversity hotspots,[58] or regions that display significant habitat loss in the presence of high endemism. [83] On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation. [140][141] In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over India, leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885. eventually establishing the Delhi Sultanate, and drawing northern India into the cosmopolitan networks of medieval Islam. Names are also influenced by religion and caste and may come from epics. After the 1965 war with Pakistan, India began to pursue close military and economic ties with the Soviet Union; by the late 1960s, the Soviet Union was its largest arms supplier. [114] Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular India,[115] and was to influence South Indian society for long afterwards. It is altered as India later. [114], In the early 16th century, northern India, then under mainly Muslim rulers,[116] fell again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors. [142][143][144][145], The rush of technology and the commercialisation of agriculture in the second half of the 19th century was marked by economic setbacks and many small farmers became dependent on the whims of far-away markets. [375] In the 19th century, cheap Kalighat paintings of gods and everyday life, done on paper, were urban folk art from Calcutta, which later saw the Bengal School of Art, reflecting the art colleges founded by the British, the first movement in modern Indian painting. This period was characterised by a varied and wide spectrum of thought and expression; as a consequence, medieval Indian literary works differed significantly from classical traditions. [210] The Congress is considered centre-left in Indian political culture,[211] and the BJP right-wing. [327] According to a Food and Agriculture Organization report in 2015, 15% of the population is undernourished. It extends as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. Following public discontent with the state of emergency she declared in 1975, the Congress was voted out of power in 1977; the then-new Janata Party, which had opposed the emergency, was voted in. The Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January 1950,[227] originally stated India to be a "sovereign, democratic republic;" this characterisation was amended in 1971 to "a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic". [220] That year, Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957 and 1962 to be re-elected to a consecutive five-year term. ", Dandapani Natarajan, "Extracts from the All India Census Reports on Literacy." [217] Elections were held again in 1991; no party won an absolute majority. The Indian caste system embodies much of the social stratification and many of the social restrictions found in the Indian subcontinent. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, in which "majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law". [404] Today, television is the most penetrative media in India; industry estimates indicate that as of 2012[update] there are over 554 million TV consumers, 462 million with satellite or cable connections compared to other forms of mass media such as the press (350 million), radio (156 million) or internet (37 million).[405]. India (Hindi: Bhārat), officially the Republic of India (Hindi: Bhārat Gaṇarājya),[23] is a country in South Asia. India was the source of four of the world's chief religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism— and was home to an early … In Iran it is only a masculine name. [446] In general, the broad division of cereal zones in India, as determined by their dependence on rain, was firmly in place before the arrival of artificial irrigation. [32] In 2006, India contained the largest number of people living below the World Bank's international poverty line of US$1.25 per day. [125] Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India. Several short-lived alliances shared power at the centre. Indian foodways have been influenced by religion, in particular Hindu cultural choices and traditions. Primary schools taught literacy, so local diversity limited its growth. And then, the West arrives. [163] Immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast trough that rapidly filled with river-borne sediment[164] and now constitutes the Indo-Gangetic Plain. [437] [394] Regionalised popular forms include filmi and folk music; the syncretic tradition of the bauls is a well-known form of the latter. Indian 1. [47] In 1947 the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two independent dominions, a Hindu-majority Dominion of India and a Muslim-majority Dominion of Pakistan, amid large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration.[48][49]. [440] The dhoti, the once universal garment of Hindu India, the wearing of which in the homespun and handwoven form of khadi allowed Gandhi to bring Indian nationalism to the millions,[441] [72][73][74] [399] Established regional cinematic traditions exist in the Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, and Telugu languages. Due to … The Mughal Empire, in 1526, ushered in two centuries of relative peace,[42] and rising levels of air pollution. These included the consolidation and demarcation of sovereignty, the surveillance of the population, and the education of citizens. [359] After this there is a long period with virtually nothing surviving. Meaning of the name India: Taken from the name of the subcontinent, India seems to have originally been bestowed in reference to familial ties with, and affection for, the… [63] India is notable for its religious diversity, with Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, and Jainism among the nation's major religions. It is the second-most populous country, the seventh-largest country by land area, and the most populous democracy in the world. [429] In south India, it is usually wrapped around the lower body, the upper end tucked in the waistband, the lower left free. [450] The appearance of ahimsa, or the avoidance of violence toward all forms of life in many religious orders early in Indian history, especially Upanishadic Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, is thought to have been a notable factor in the prevalence of vegetarianism among a segment of India's Hindu population, especially in southern India, Gujarat, and the Hindi-speaking belt of north-central India, as well as among Jains. Widespread state intervention and regulation largely walled the economy off from the outside world. [146] There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines,[147] and, despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated for Indians. [263] India maintains a "no first use" nuclear policy and is developing a nuclear triad capability as a part of its "Minimum Credible Deterrence" doctrine. [84], In the late Vedic period, around the 6th century BCE, the small states and chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the mahajanapadas. [277] According to a 2008 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report, India's annual military expenditure in terms of purchasing power stood at US$72.7 billion. Among the better-known folk dances are: the bhangra of Punjab, the bihu of Assam, the Jhumair and chhau of Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal, garba and dandiya of Gujarat, ghoomar of Rajasthan, and the lavani of Maharashtra. [163] These dual processes, driven by convection in the Earth's mantle, both created the Indian Ocean and caused the Indian continental crust eventually to under-thrust Eurasia and to uplift the Himalayas. [321], Despite economic growth during recent decades, India continues to face socio-economic challenges. [249] In 2006, the share of external trade in India's GDP stood at 24%, up from 6% in 1985. [282] In October 2018, India signed a US$5.43 billion (over ₹400 billion) agreement with Russia to procure four S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile defence systems, Russia's most advanced long-range missile defence system. [348] The literacy rate in 2011 was 74.04%: 65.46% among females and 82.14% among males. [363] This is often complicated by the need to give figures multiple arms or heads, or represent different genders on the left and right of figures, as with the Ardhanarishvara form of Shiva and Parvati. [249] All states, as well as the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments following the Westminster system of governance. [430] The arrival of the Kushans from Central Asia, c. 48 CE, popularised cut and sewn garments in the style of Central Asian favoured by the elite in northern India. The ancient Greeksreferre… [466] Football is popular in West Bengal, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the north-eastern states. [109] The sultanate was to control much of North India and to make many forays into South India. [401], Television broadcasting began in India in 1959 as a state-run medium of communication and expanded slowly for more than two decades. [428] In its more modern form, it has been used to cover the head, and sometimes the face, as a veil. 1 A native or inhabitant of India, or a person of Indian descent. [169], India's coastline measures 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi) in length; of this distance, 5,423 kilometres (3,400 mi) belong to peninsular India and 2,094 kilometres (1,300 mi) to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep island chains. 1.1. [349] The rural-urban literacy gap, which was 21.2 percentage points in 2001, dropped to 16.1 percentage points in 2011. ‘Native Indians and nationalism, the subjects of these... 2 A member of any of the indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America, especially those of North America. [80] Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west. [406] India declared untouchability to be illegal[407] in 1947 and has since enacted other anti-discriminatory laws and social welfare initiatives. [162], India accounts for the bulk of the Indian subcontinent, lying atop the Indian tectonic plate, a part of the Indo-Australian Plate. [409] Marriage is thought to be for life,[409] and the divorce rate is extremely low,[410] with less than one in a thousand marriages ending in divorce. is seldom seen in the cities,[440] reduced now, with brocaded border, to the liturgical vestments of Hindu priests. India's population speaks a wide variety of languages and nearly every major religion in the world has a following in India. Indian dance also features diverse folk and classical forms. [469] India has traditionally been the dominant country at the South Asian Games. [422], Education system of India is the world's second largest higher education System. [426][427], The most widely worn traditional dress in India, for both women and men, from ancient times until the advent of modern times, was draped. [189], Among the Indian subcontinent's notable indigenous trees are the astringent Azadirachta indica, or neem, which is widely used in rural Indian herbal medicine,[190] and the luxuriant Ficus religiosa, or peepul,[191] which is displayed on the ancient seals of Mohenjo-daro,[192] and under which the Buddha is recorded in the Pali canon to have sought enlightenment.[193]. INDIA: Independent Nation Declared in August: INDIA: Inlet Dynamics Initiative: Algarve: INDIA: International Noble Work Development and Investigation Association (India) INDIA: I Nearly Died in Adoration: INDIA: Integrador Nacional de los Descendientes de Indigenas Americanos (Spanish: National Integrator of the Descendants of American Indians; Uruguay) INDIA An acute balance of payments crisis in 1991 forced the nation to liberalise its economy;[290] since then it has moved slowly towards a free-market system[291][292] by emphasising both foreign trade and direct investment inflows. India is a nuclear-weapon state, which ranks high in military expenditure. Constituted in such fashion, India lies to the north of the equator between 6° 44′ and 35° 30′ north latitude[i] and 68° 7′ and 97° 25′ east longitude. 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