India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in Southeast Asia that occupies most of the Indian subcontinent. Its capital is New Delhi. India is the second most populous country and the seventh largest country in the world. The Indian coastline stretches for more than seven thousand kilometers. The country has common borders with Pakistan to the northwest, China to the north and east-northeast, Nepal to the northeast, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Burma to the east-northeast. is. On the Indian Ocean, India is close to the Maldives to the south-south-west, Sri Lanka to the south and Indonesia to the south-east. India also claims a border with Afghanistan in the northwest. India has had nuclear weapons since 1974 after making official tests. India is home to some of the oldest civilizations in the world, the Indus Valley civilization developed there from 3000 BC. The Indian subcontinent was home to vast empires and has been present on trade routes since Antiquity. India is the birthplace of four major religions – Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism – while Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam took root there during the 1st millennium. Hinduism is the majority religion there with around 80% of the faithful. India is today a very diverse country in religious, linguistic and cultural terms.
Indians
India has 1.3 billion people, or 17.5% of the world’s population, half of whom are under 25. It is the second most populous country in the world after China and is expected to become the most populous around 2025. Its population growth rate was 1.2% in 2014. India has more than 2,000 ethnic groups, several hundreds of languages belonging to four different families (Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-Asian and Tibetan-Burmese) and all the great religions of the world are represented there. Ethnic composition: Indo-Aryans 72%, Dravidians 25%, Mongoloids and others 3%.
Madhya Pradesh
These photos were taken during two trips to the state of Madhya Pradesh. The first trip was centered around the November full moon, Kartik Purnima, on the banks of the Narmada, one of India’s seven sacred rivers. This is the time of an important pilgrimage for Hindu worshippers of Shiva who travel to the temple of Jyotirlinga. Purnima (Sanskrit: पूर्णिमा) is the Sanskrit word for full moon. The day of Purnima is the day (Tithi) of each month when the full moon occurs, marking the division of each month into two lunar fortnights (paksha), and the Moon is aligned exactly on a straight line, called syzygy, with the Sun and the Earth. The full moon is considered the third of the four primary phases of the Moon; The other three phases are the new moon, the first quarter moon, and the third quarter moon. A jyotirlinga (lingam of light) is a Hindu temple where the god Shiva is worshipped in the form of a stone phallus. In India, there are 12 traditional jyotirlingas, pilgrimage sites for Shaivites. The names and locations of these sacred places are found in the Shata-rudra-samjita (Record of the One Hundred Rudras) of the Shiva Purana.
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is the second-most populous state in India, the third-most populous country subdivision in South Asia, and the fourth-most populous in the world. The region that encompasses the modern state has a history going back many millennia. In the early 19th century, the region was divided between the Dominions of the Peshwa in the Maratha Confederacy and the Nizamate of Hyderabad. Early in the 19th century, the British East India Company defeated the Marathas and brought most of present-day Maharashtra under its control, both directly and indirectly through many princely states. After 1858, the British crown assumed control of the area from the company. During the periods of Company and British rule, the region was divided between the Bombay Presidency, the Central Provinces, Berar, and many princely states including Hyderabad. After Indian independence in 1947, the Bombay Presidency became Bombay State in the Indian Union. Between 1950 and 1956, Berar, the Deccan states and the Gujarat states were annexed into Bombay State. Aspirations of a separate state for Marathi-speaking peoples were pursued by the United Maharashtra Movement; their advocacy eventually borne fruit on 1 May 1960, when the State of Bombay was bifurcated into the modern states of Maharasthra and Gujarat. The economy of Maharashtra is the largest in India, with a gross state domestic product (GSDP) of ₹42.5 trillion (US$450 billion) and GSDP per capita of ₹335,247 (US$3,500); it is the single-largest contributor to India’s economy, being accountable for 14% of all-India nominal GDP. The service sector dominates the state’s economy, accounting for 69.3% of the value of the output of the country. Although agriculture accounts for 12% of the state GDP, it employs nearly half the population of the state.