The Republic of India Incredible India! … as the television advert says. Overview This is a land which is rich in culture and tradition, yet not as well known as they fall into the shadow of one of the world’s most culturally rich country, China.
India is one of the oldest civilizations known to man with a variety of rich cultural, heritage. It has achieved all-round social and economic growth during the last 62 years of its Independence from Brittan. This massive country shares its borders with Nepal, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan and has the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal as sea borders. The country is so vast that the climate varies with the snow-covered Himalayan Mountains in the north to tropical rain forests and monsoons in the south.
India has the third highest mountain in the world called Kanchenjunga. The People of India India is the 7th largest country in the world and yet is the world’s largest democracy.. It covers an area roughly 3 times the size of South Africa, yet for every 1 of us there are 26 of them this makes it the 2nd most populated country in the world. Another comparison to South Africa would be that their HIV infection rate is 0.3% compared to South Africa’s 18.1%. This low rate could be attributed to their cultural and religious beliefs, with the main religion being Hindu. They have very strong traditional family values, where parents arrange and chose their children’s partners and families move together on marriage.
Child marriage is still a common practice with half of Indian women marrying before the age of 18. Indians are a generally a peace loving nation and have never invaded any other country in recorded history. Indian dress is very colourful with women wearing draped cloth called a Sari and a Dhoti or Lungi for men Staple foods are rice, wheat and lentils with many Indians being vegetarian. Because the English ruled there for many years i.e. colonised them, their legal system is based on the English common.
