India facts for kids

Republic of India
Quick facts for kids Republic of India ; भारत गणराज्य; Bhārat Gaṇarājya
	Flag State Emblem
	Motto: "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit); "Truth Alone Triumphs"
	Anthem: Jana Gana Mana; "Thou art the rulers of the minds of all people"; ;
	National song; Vande Mataram; "I Bow to Thee, Mother"
	Area controlled by India shown in dark green;; claimed but uncontrolled regions shown in light green.
Capital	New Delhi
Largest city	Mumbai; 18°58′30″N 72°49′33″E / 18.975°N 72.82583°E
Official languages	Hindi; English
Recognised regional languages	8th Schedule; Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu
National language	None
Religion	79.8% Hinduism; 14.2% Islam; 2.3% Christianity; 1.7% Sikhism; 0.7% Buddhism; 0.4% Jainism; 0.9% others
Demonym(s)	Indian
Government	Federal parliamentary constitutional republic
• President	Ram Nath Kovind
• Vice President	Venkaiah Naidu
• Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Legislature	Parliament of India
• Upper house	Rajya Sabha
• Lower house	Lok Sabha
Independence from the United Kingdom
• Dominion	15 August 1947
• Republic	26 January 1950
Area
• Total	3,287,263 km2 (1,269,219 sq mi) (7th)
• Water (%)	9.6
Population
• 2016 estimate	1,293,057,000 (2nd)
• 2011 census	1,210,854,977 (2nd)
• Density	409.4/km2 (1,060.3/sq mi) (31st)
GDP (PPP)	2016 estimate
• Total	$8.727 trillion (3rd)
• Per capita	$6,664 (122nd)
GDP (nominal)	2016 estimate
• Total	$2.384 trillion (7th)
• Per capita	$1,820 (141st)
Gini (2009)	33.9; medium · 79th
HDI (2014)	0.609; medium · 130th
Currency	Indian rupee (₹) (INR)
Time zone	UTC+05:30 (IST)
	DST is not observed
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy
Driving side	left
Calling code	+91
ISO 3166 code	IN
Internet TLD	.in other TLDs .ভাৰত; .ভারত; .ભારત; .भारत; .ਭਾਰਤ; .இந்தியா; .భారత్; بھارت.

This page is about the Republic of India. For other uses, see India (disambiguation).

India is a country of Asia. It has an area of 3,287,263 square kilometres (1,269,219 sq mi). It is at the center of South Asia. India has more than 1.2 billion (1,210,000,000) people, which is the second largest population in the world. It is the seventh largest country in the world by area and the largest country in South Asia. It is also the most populous democracy in the world.

India has seven neighbours: Pakistan in the north-west, China and Nepal in the north, Bhutan and Bangladesh in the north-east, Myanmar in the east and Sri Lanka, an island, in the south.

The capital of India is New Delhi. India is a peninsula, bound by the Indian Ocean in the south, the Arabian Sea on the west and Bay of Bengal in the east. The coastline of India is of about 7,517 km (4,671 mi) long. India has the third largest military force in the world and is also a nuclear weapon state.

India's economy became the world's fastest growing in the G20 developing nations in the last quarter of 2014, replacing the People's Republic of China. India's literacy and wealth are also rising. According to New World Wealth, India is the seventh richest country in the world with a total individual wealth of $5.6 trillion. However, it still has many social and economic issues like poverty and corruption. India is a founding member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and has signed the Kyoto Protocol.

India has the fourth largest number of spoken languages per country in the world, only behind Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Nigeria. People of many different religions live there, including the five most popular world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, and Christianity. The first three religions came from the Indian subcontinent along with Jainism.

National Symbols of India

National emblem of India

The National emblem of India shows four lions standing back-to-back. The lions symbolise power, pride, confidence, and courage (bravery). Only the government can use this emblem, according to the State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act, 2005

The name India comes from the Greek word, Indus. This came from the word sindhu, which in time turned into Hind or Hindi or Hindu. The preferred native name or endonym is "Bharat" in Hindi and other Indian languages as contrasted with names from outsiders. Some of the national symbols are:

National anthem - jana gana mana

National song - vande mataram

National animal - royal bengal tiger

National bird - peacock

National flower - lotus

National tree- banyan

National river - ganges(ganga)

National fruit - mango

National heritage animal - elephant

National heritage bird - Indian Eagle

Panthera tigris tigris
Royal Bengal Tiger
(national animal)
Pavo cristatus
Peacock
(national bird)
Nelumbonucifera
Lotus
(national flower)
Ficus benghalensis
Banyan
(national tree)

History

The Taj Mahal in Agra was built by Shah Jahan as a memorial to his wife Mumtaz Mahal. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is thought to be of "outstanding universal value".

Main page: History of India

Two of the main classical languages of the world Tamil language and Sanskrit language were born in India. Both of these languages are more than 3000 years old. The country founded a religion called Hinduism, which most Indians still follow. Later, a king named Chandragupt Maurya built an empire called the Maurya Empire in 300 BC. It made most of South Asia into one whole country. From 180 BC, many other countries invaded India. Even later (100 BC AD 1100), other Indian dynasties (empires) came, including the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas, and Pandyas. Southern India at that time was famous for its science, art, and writing. The Cholas of Thanjavur were pioneers at war in the seas and invaded Malaya, Borneo, Cambodia. The influence of Cholas are still well noticeable in SE Asia.

Many dynasties ruled India around the year 1000. Some of these were the Mughal, Vijayanagara, and the Maratha empires. In the 1600s, European countries invaded India, and the British controlled most of India by 1856.

In the early 1900s, millions of people peacefully started to protest against British control. One of the people who led the freedom movement was Mahatma Gandhi, who only used peaceful tactics, including a way called "ahimsa", which means "non-violence". On 15 August 1947, India peacefully became free and independent from the British Empire. India's constitution was founded on 26 January 1950. Every year, on this day, Indians celebrate Republic Day. The first official leader (Prime Minister) of India was Jawaharlal Nehru.

After 1947, India had a socialist planned economy. It is one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations. It has fought many wars since independence from Britain, including the wars in 1947-48, 1965, 1971, and 1999 with Pakistan and in 1962 with China. It also fought a war to capture Goa, a Portuguese-built port and a city which was not a part of India until 1961. The Portuguese refused to give it to the country, and so India had to use force and the Portuguese were defeated. India has also done nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998, and it is one of the few countries that has nuclear bombs. Since 1991, India has been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

Government

Parliament of India.

India is the largest democracy in the world.

India's government is divided into three parts: the Legislative (the one that makes the laws, the Parliament), the Executive (the government), and the Judiciary (the one that makes sure that the laws are obeyed, the supreme court).

The legislative branch is made up of the Parliament of India, which is in New Delhi, the capital of India. The Parliament of India is divided into two houses: the upper house, Rajya Sabha (Council of States); and the lower house, Lok Sabha (House of People). The Rajya Sabha has 250 members, and the Lok Sabha has 552 members.

The executive branch is made up of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, and the Council of Ministers. The President of India is elected for a period of five years. The President can choose the Prime Minister, who has most of the power. The Council of Ministers, such as the Minister of Defence, help the Prime Minister. Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India on May 16, 2014. He is the 19th Prime Minister of India. The president has less power than the prime minister.

The judicial branch is made up of the courts of India, including the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of India is the head of the Supreme Court. Supreme Court members have the power to stop a law being passed by Parliament if they think that the law is illegal and contradicts (opposes) the Constitution of India. In India, there are also 24 High Courts.

Geography and climate

Rivers of India

India is the seventh biggest country in the world. It is the main part of the Indian subcontinent. The countries next to India are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Bhutan, and Nepal. It is also near Sri Lanka, an island country.

India is a peninsula, which means that it is surrounded on three sides by water. One of the seven wonders of the world is in Agra: the Taj Mahal. In the west is the Arabian Sea, in the south is the Indian Ocean, and in the east is the Bay of Bengal. The northern part of India has many mountains. The most famous mountain range in India is the Himalayas, which have some of the tallest mountains in the world. There are many rivers in India. The main rivers are the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Yamuna, the Godavari, the Kaveri, the Narmada, and the Krishna.

India has different climates. In the South, the climate is mainly tropical, which means it can get very hot in summer and cool in winter. The northern part, though, has a cooler climate, called sub-tropical, and even alpine in mountainous regions. The Himalayas, in the alpine climate region, can get extremely cold. There is very heavy rainfall along the west coast and in the Eastern Himalayan foothills. The west, though, is drier. Because of some of the deserts of India, all of India gets rain for four months of the year. That time is called the monsoon. That is because the deserts attract water-filled winds from the Indian Ocean, which give rain when they come into India. When the monsoon rains come late or not so heavily, droughts (when the land dries out because there is less rain) are possible. Monsoons normally come around July - August.

Defence

Main page: Indian Armed Forces

The Indian Armed Forces is the military of India. It is made up of an Army, Navy and Air Force. There are other parts like Paramilitary and Strategic Nuclear Command.

The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief. However, it is managed by the Ministry of Defence. In 2010, the Indian Armed Forces had 1.32 million active personnel. This makes it one of the largest militaries in the world.

The Indian Army is becoming more modern by buying and making new weapons. It is also building defenses against missiles of other countries. In 2011, India imported more weapons than any other nation in the world.

From its independence in 1947, India fought four wars with Pakistan and a war with China.

Indian states

For administration purposes, India has been divided into smaller pieces. Most of these pieces are called states, some are called union territories. States and union territories are different in the way they are represented. Most union territories are ruled by administrators sent by the central government. All the states, and the territories of Delhi, and Puducherry elect their local government themselves. In total, there are twenty-eight states, and nine union territories.

States:

States	Capitals	Code
Andhra Pradesh	Amaravati	AP
Arunachal Pradesh	Itanagar	AR
Assam	Dispur	AS
Bihar	Patna	BR
Chhattisgarh	Raipur	CT
Goa	Panaji	GA
Gujarat	Gandhi nagar	GJ
Haryana	Chandigarh	HR
Himachal Pradesh	Shimla	HP
Jharkhand	Ranchi	JH
Karnataka	Bangalore	KA
Kerala	Tiruvanananthapuram	KL
Madhya Pradesh	Bhopal	MP
Maharashtra	Mumbai	MH
Manipur	Imphal	MN
Meghalaya	Shillong	ML
Mizoram	Aizawl	MZ
Nagaland	Kohima	NL
Odisha	Bhubaneswar	OD
Punjab	Chandigarh	PB
Rajasthan	Jaipur	RJ
Sikkim	Gangtok	SK
Tamil Nadu	Chennai	TN
Telangana	Hyderabad	TS
Tripura	Agartala	TR
Uttar Pradesh	Lucknow	UP
Uttarakhand	Dehra Dun	UA/UK
West Bengal	Kolkata	WB

Union territories:

Union territory	Capital
Andaman and Nicobar Islands	Port Blair
Chandigarh	Chandigarh
Dadra and Nagar Haveli	Silvassa
Daman and Diu	Daman
Delhi	Delhi
Ladakh	Leh
Lakshadweep	Kavaratti
Puducherry	Puducherry
Jammu and Kashmir	Srinagar (summer capital) and Jammu (winter capital)

Trouble with the borders

There are disputes about certain parts of the Indian borders. Countries do not agree on where the borders are. Pakistan and China do not recognise the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian government claims it as an Indian state. Similarly, the Republic of India does not recognise the Pakistani and Chinese parts of Kashmir.

In 1914, British India and Tibet agreed on the McMahon Line, as part of the Simla Accord. In July 1914, China withdrew from the agreement. Indians and Tibetans see this line as the official border. China does not agree, and both mainland China and Taiwan do not recognize that Arunachal Pradesh belongs to India. According to them, it is a part of South Tibet, which belongs to China.

Economy

Main page: Economy of India

The economy of the country is among the world's fastest growing. It is the 7th largest in the world with a nominal GDP of $2,250 billion (USD), and in terms of PPP, the economy is 3rd largest (worth $8.720 trillion USD). The growth rate is 8.25% for fiscal 2010. However, that is still $3678 (considering PPP) per person per year. India's economy is based mainly on:

India's economy is diverse. Major industries include automobiles, cement, chemicals, consumer electronics, food processing, machinery, mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, steel, transportation equipment, and textiles.

However, despite economic growth, India continues to suffer from poverty. 27.5% of the population was living in poverty in 2004–2005. In addition, 80.4% of the population live on less than USD $2 a day, which was lowered to 68% by 2009.

People

This is a map of the population density of India.

There are 1.21 billion people living in India. India is the second largest country by the number of people living in it, with China being the first. Experts think that by the year 2030, India will be the first. About 65% of Indians live in rural areas, or land set aside for farming. The largest cities in India are Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad. India has 23 official languages. Altogether, 1,625 languages are spoken in India.

Languages

There are many different languages and cultures in India. The only geographical place with more different languages and cultures is the African continent. There are two main language families in India, the Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages. About 69% of Indians speak an Indo-Arayan language, about 26% speak a Dravidian language. Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic group. Around 5% of the people speak a Tibeto-Burman language.

Hindi is the official language in India with the largest number of speakers. It is the official language of the union. Native speakers of Hindi represent about 41% of the Indian population (2001 Indian census). English is also used, mostly for business and in the administration. It has the status of a 'subsidiary official language'. The constitution also recognises 21 other languages. Either many people speak those languages, or they have been recognised to be very important for Indian culture. The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.

In the south of India, many people speak Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. In the north, many people speak Chhattisgarhi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Marathi, Odia, and Bihari.

India has 23 official languages. Its constitution lists the name of the country in each of the languages. Hindi and English (listed in boldface) are the "official languages of the union" (Union meaning the Federal Government in Delhi); Tamil,Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia are officially the "classical languages of India."

Language	Long form	English Pronunciation	Short form
Assamese	ভাৰত গণৰাজ্য	Bhārôt Gôṇôrājÿô	ভাৰত Bharot
Bengali	ভারত গণরাজ্য	Bʰārôt Gôṇôrājÿô	ভারত Bharot
Bodo
Dogri
English	Republic of India		India
Gujarati	ભારતીય પ્રજાસત્તાક	Bhartiya Prajasattak	ભારત.
Hindi	भारत गणराज्य	Bhārat Gaṇarājya	भारत Bhārat
Kannada	ಭಾರತ ಗಣರಾಜ್ಯ	Bhārata Gaṇarājya	ಭಾರತ Bhārata
Kashmiri	ہِندوستان	Hindustān
Konkani	भारोत गोणराज		भारोत
Maithili
Malayalam	ഭാരതം	Bhāratam	ഭാരതം Bhāratam
Manipuri (also Meitei or Meithei)	ভারত গণরাজ্য		ভারত
Marathi	भारतीय प्रजासत्ताक	Bhartiya Prajasattak	भारत Bhārat
Nepali	भारत गणराज्य	Bʰārat Gaṇarāǳya	भारत Bʰārat
Odia	ଭାରତ	Bharata	Bharata
Punjabi	ਭਾਰਤ ਗਣਤੰਤਰ	Bhārat Gantantar	ਭਾਰਤ Bhārat
Sanskrit	भारत गणराज्यम्	Bhārata Gaṇarājyam	भारत Bhārata
Santhali	ᱥᱤᱧᱚᱛ ᱨᱮᱱᱟᱜ ᱟᱹᱯᱱᱟᱹᱛ		ᱥᱤᱧᱚᱛ
Sindhi	ڀارت، هندستانڀارت،		ڀارت،
Tamil	இந்தியக் குடியரசு	Indiyak-Kudiyarasu	இந்தியா India/Bharadham
Telugu	భారత గణరాజ్యము	Bʰārata Gaṇa Rājyamu	భారత్ Bhārath
Urdu	جمہوریہ بھارت	Jumhūrīyat-e Bhārat	بھارت Bhārat

Culture

Religion in India
Religion			Percent
Hinduism			79.80%
Islam			14.23%
Christianity			2.30%
Sikhism			1.72%
Buddhism			0.70%
Jainism			0.37%
Others			0.9%

Cave paintings from the Stone Age are found across India. They show dances and rituals and suggest there was a prehistoric religion. During the Epic and Puranic periods, the earliest versions of the epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata were written from about 500–100 BCE, although these were orally transmitted for centuries before this period. Other South Asian Stone Age sites apart from Pakistan are in modern India, such as the Bhimbetka rock shelters in central Madhya Pradesh and the Kupgal petroglyphs of eastern Karnataka, contain rock art showing religious rites and evidence of possible ritualised music.

The Harmandir Sahib or The Golden Temple of the Sikhs.

Several modern religions are linked to India, namely modern Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. All of these religions have different schools (ways of thinking) and traditions that are related. As a group they are called the Eastern religions. The Indian religions are similar to one another in many ways: The basic beliefs, the way worship is done and several religious practices are very similar. These similarities mainly come from the fact that these religions have a common history and common origins. They also influenced each other.

The religion of Hinduism is the main faith followed by 79.80% of people in the Republic of India; Islam – 14.23%; Christianity – 2.30%; Sikhism – 1.72%; Buddhism – 0.70% and Jainism – 0.37%.

It's the first time ever since independence that Hindu population percentage fell below 80%.

Technology

India sent a spacecraft to Mars for the first time in 2014. That made it the third country and only Asian country to do so, successfully. India is the only country to be successful in its very first attempt to orbit Mars. It was called the Mars Orbiter Mission.

ISRO launched 104 satellites in a single mission to create world record. India became the first nation in the world to have launched over a hundred satellites in one mission. That was more than the 2014 Russian record of 37 satellites in a single launch.

Pop culture

India has the largest movie industry in the world. Based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), the industry is also known as Bollywood. It makes 1,000 movies a year, about twice as many as Hollywood. It produces movies almost everyday.

Sports

A 2008 Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket match being played between the Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders

Main page: Sports in India

Indians have excelled in Hockey. They have also won eight gold, one silver and two bronze medals at the Olympic games. However, cricket is the most popular sport in India. The Indian cricket team won the 1983 and 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. They shared the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka and won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy.Cricket in India is controlled by the Board of Control for Cricket in India or BCCI. Domestic tournaments are the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy, the Irani Trophy and the Challenger Series. There is also the Indian cricket league and Indian premier league Twenty20 competitions.

Tennis has become popular due to the victories of the India Davis Cup team. Association football is also a popular sport in northeast India, West Bengal, Goa and Kerala. The Indian national football team has won the South Asian Football Federation Cup many times. Chess, which comes from India, is also becoming popular. This is with the increase in the number of Indian Grandmasters. Traditional sports include kabaddi, kho kho, and gilli-danda, which are played throughout India.

Images for kids

The granite tower of Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur was completed in 1010 CE by Raja Raja Chola I.
Writing the will and testament of the Mughal king court in Persian, 1590–1595
The British Indian Empire, from the 1909 edition of The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Areas directly governed by the British are shaded pink; the princely states under British suzerainty are in yellow.
Jawaharlal Nehru (left) became India's first prime minister in 1947. Mahatma Gandhi (right) led the independence movement.
A topographic map of India
The Kedar Range of the Greater Himalayas rises behind Kedarnath Temple (Indian state of Uttarakhand), which is one of the twelve jyotirlinga shrines.
The brahminy kite (Haliastur indus) is identified with Garuda, the mythical mount of Vishnu. It hunts for fish and other prey near the coasts and around inland wetlands.
Shola highlands are found in Kudremukh National Park, Chikmagalur which is part of the Western Ghats.
A parliamentary joint session being held in the Sansad Bhavan.
The Rashtrapati Bhavan is the official residence of the president of India.
Narendra Modi meets Vladimir Putin at the 6th BRICS summit. India and Russia share extensive economic, defence, and technological ties.
INS Vikramaditya, the Indian Navy's biggest warship.
A farmer in Rajasthan milks his cow. Milk is India's largest crop by economic value. Worldwide, as of 2011, India had the largest herds of buffalo and cattle, and was the largest producer of milk.
Agricultural workers involved in Rice planting. Rice production in India reached 102.75 million tons in 2011-12.
Fishermen on the Chinese fishing nets of Cochin. Fisheries in India is a major industry in its coastal states, employing over 14 million people. The annual catch doubled between 1990 and 2010.
A washing plant for mined iron ore in Orissa. India's iron ore reserves of 25 billion tonnes comprise 6% of global reserves. India is the world's 4th largest producer and 3rd largest exporter.
India's GDP has increased more than ten-fold after the economic reforms in 1991.
A daily wage worker in a salt field. The average minimum wage of daily labourers is around Rs.100 per day
The Bombay Stock Exchange is Asia's oldest and India's largest bourse by market capitalisation.
Tidel Park, the then largest IT park in Asia when it was opened in 2000.
The Delhi Metro rapid transit system and the low-floor CNG buses. Infrastructure in India in the next five years is estimated to bring in $1 trillion in investment, half of it by India's private sector.
Power Loom used inside a house in a village near Salem, Tamil Nadu. Power loom accounts for more than 60% of textile production in India.
India has the world's second-largest mobile phone user base of 996.66 million users as of September 2015. Shown here is a roof top mobile phone tower in Bangalore
A vegetable retailer in Tamil Nadu. More than 95% of retail industry in India is unorganised.
A small hydro-electric dam on the Ganges Canal at Nagla Kabir, UP. The electricity sector in India has an installed capacity of 205.34 Gigawatt (GW), the world's fifth largest. Coal-fired plants account for 56% of India's electricity capacity, renewal hydropower for 19%.
A feeder ship in Diamond Harbour, West Bengal. International trade accounted for 14% of India's GDP in 1988, 24% in 1998, and 53% in 2008.
A coal miner in Bachra, Jharkhand
Children prepare for a traditional dance in Tripura.
Women in Kargil, Jammu and Kashmir
A handicraft seller in Hyderabad, Telangana
A Bondo woman walks to a weekly market in Chhattisgarh.
Women attend a literacy programme in Thiruputkuzhi, Tamil Nadu.
A woman in Bundi, Rajasthan
An ascetic in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
A Warli tribal painting by Jivya Soma Mashe from Thane, Maharashtra
A sculpture fashioned in the Gandharan tradition depicting Gautama Buddha, founder of Buddhism, at the Tokyo National Museum
The Awadhi Hindi poet Tulsidas composed the Ramcharitmanas, which is one of the best-known vernacular versions of the Ramayana.
Hampi, seat of the Vijayanagara Empire
The Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar commemorates the enlightenment of Gautama Buddha.
A Chola bronze depicting Nataraja, who is seen as a cosmic "Lord of the Dance" and representative of Shiva
A Toda tribal hut exemplifies Indian vernacular architecture.
Rukmini Devi Arundale, one of the foremost revivalists of bharatnatyam dance in the 20th century, performs at a concert.
A Kuchipudi dance performance is accompanied by Carnatic vocalisations.
Sarod performance at the Musée Guimet, Paris
Muria tribal dancers in Bastar, Chhattisgarh
Folk musicians in Hyderabad
An assortment of Indian spices
Tourists from North-East India, wrapped in sarongs and shawls, visit the Taj Mahal.
A Rajput Hindu marriage ceremony
Four activities of a Hindu priest, clockwise from top left: (1) preparing the deity for public worship; (2) making sandalwood paste for ritual blessing; (3) successively dripping the altar with milk, honey, dry fruit, yoghurt, and bananas to make ambrosia; (4) distributing the prasad, food viewed as blessed by the deity, to the worshipers.
A Christian wedding in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Christianity is believed to have been introduced to India by the late 2nd century by Syriac-speaking Christians.
Top: Roti bread and sabzi (vegetable) stew are cooked outdoors in the Thar Desert using traditional Rajasthani methods. Bottom: The kitchen of a Hindu temple.
Muslims offer namaz at a mosque in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.
Top: A North Indian home-cooked tiffin lunch as delivered to an office by a dabbawala. Bottom: A South Indian thali-style dinner as served in a restaurant.
A Sikh pilgrim at the Harmandir Sahib, or Golden Temple, in Amritsar, Punjab
Girls play hopscotch in Juara, Madhya Pradesh.
Indian hockey team, captained by Dhyan Chand (standing second from left), after winning the finals at the 1936 Summer Olympics—their third of six consecutive Olympic golds.
A street-corner game of pachisi in Pushkar, Rajasthan
A game of kabaddi in Bagepalli, Karnataka
Boys play football in Manipur.
Cricket is the most popular game among India's masses. Shown here is an instance of street cricket.
Kalarippayattu, a martial art native to Kerala
Indian chess grandmaster and former world champion Vishwanathan Anand competes at a chess tournament in 2005. Chess is commonly believed to have originated in India in the 5th century CE.
During a twenty four-year career, Sachin Tendulkar has set many batting records, including most runs in both tests and ODIs and most number of centuries in both tests and ODIs, making him one of the most successful cricketers ever.