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110-667: Fort William College aimed at training British officials in Indian languages and, in the process, fostered the development of languages such as Bengali and Urdu. The period is of historical importance. In 1815, Ram Mohan Roy settled in Calcutta. It is considered by many historians to be the starting point of the Bengali Renaissance . Establishment of The Calcutta Madrassa in 1781, the Asiatic Society in 1784 and

220-642: A "thieves' argot" rather than a legitimate language. The other language isolates found in the rest of South Asia include Burushaski , a language spoken in Gilgit–Baltistan (administered by Pakistan), Kusunda (in western Nepal), and Vedda (in Sri Lanka). The validity of the Great Andamanese language group as a language family has been questioned and it has been considered a language isolate by some authorities. The Hruso language , which

330-451: A common pool, from which resources are drawn to meet the needs of all members, which are regulated by the heads of the family. However, with modernisation and economic development, India has witnessed a break up of traditional joint family into more nuclear families and the traditional joint family in India accounted for a small percent of Indian households. Arranged marriages have been

440-510: A conservative 12 million to 20 million-person diaspora. The British Indian community had grown to number over one million. According to the 2001 UK Census , 1,053,411 Britons had full Indian ancestry (representing 1.8% of the UK's population). An overwhelming majority of 99.3% resided in England (in 2008 the figure is thought to be around 97.0%). In the seven-year period between 2001 and 2009,

550-650: A contingent of Sikh soldiers visited the western coast of Canada, primarily British Columbia which at the time was very sparsely populated and the Canadian government wanted to settle to prevent a takeover of the territory by the United States. More than a million people of South Asian descent live in South Africa, with their ancestors having left colonial India mostly as indentured labourers, and with smaller numbers emigrating later as "Passenger Indians", in

660-478: A figure higher than both the United States and Britain. South Asian Canadians account for 7.1% of Canada's population. According to Statistics Canada, Indo-Canadians are one of the fastest-growing visible minority groups in Canada, making up the second-largest group of non-European descent in the country after Chinese Canadians. The Indo-Canadian community can trace its history in Canada back 120 years to 1897 when

770-775: A long history alongside its music and dance. One of the earliest known theatre play is Mṛcchakatika composed by Śudraka . Followed by Aśvaghoṣa 's Śāriputraprakaraṇa and Bhāsa 's Swapnavāsavadatta and Pancharātra . Most notable works are Kālidāsa's Abhijñānaśākuntala , Vikramorvaśīya and Mālavikāgnimitra . Harsha 's Ratnavali , Priyadarsika , and Naganandam , other notable ancient dramatists include Bhatta Narayana , Bhavabhuti , Vishakhadatta , Thirayattam and Viswanatha Kaviraja . Notable fable story-plays Panchatantra , Baital Pachisi , Kathasaritsagara , Brihatkatha and Jataka tales were performed in folk theatres since ancient period. Jataka tales has become part of Southeast and East Asian folklore with

880-585: A million native speakers, 60 have more than 100,000 and 122 have more than 10,000 native speakers. There are a few languages like Kodava that do not have a script but have a group of native speakers in Coorg (Kodagu). According to the most recent census of 2011, after thorough linguistic scrutiny, edit, and rationalization on 19,569 raw linguistic affiliations, the census recognizes 1369 rationalized mother tongues and 1474 names which were treated as ‘unclassified’ and relegated to ‘other’ mother tongue category. Among,

990-468: A privately owned research institution in India, has recorded over 66 different scripts and more than 780 languages in India during its nationwide survey, which the organisation claims to be the biggest linguistic survey in India. The People of India (POI) project of Anthropological Survey of India reported 325 languages which are used for in-group communication by 5,633 Indian communities. The Census of India records and publishes data with respect to

1100-709: A relationship with Indian spirituality, such as the Baháʼí Faith which recognises Buddha and Krishna as manifestations of the God Almighty. Despite the strong role of religion in Indian life, atheism and agnostics also have visible influence along with a self-ascribed tolerance to other people. According to the 2012 WIN-Gallup Global Index of Religion and Atheism report, 81% of Indians were religious, 13% were not religious, 3% were convinced atheists , and 3% were unsure or did not respond. Traditionally, Indian society

1210-1529: A symbol for zero , interpolation formula , Fibonacci's identity , theorem , the first complete arithmetic solution (including zero and negative solutions) to quadratic equations . Chakravala method , sign convention , madhava series , and the sine and cosine in trigonometric functions can be traced to the jyā and koti-jyā . Notable military inventions include war elephants , crucible steel weapons popularly known as Damascus steel and Mysorean rockets . Other notable inventions during ancient period include chess , cotton , sugar , fired bricks , carbon pigment ink , ruler , lac , lacquer , stepwell , indigo dye , snake and ladder , muslin , ludo , calico , Wootz steel , incense clock , shampoo , palampore , chintz , and prefabricated homes . Indian cultural aspects, religions , philosophy , arts and architecture have developed over several millennia and have spread through much of Asia in peaceful manner. Many architectural structures of India such as Sanchi Stupa , Taj Mahal and Mahabodhi Temple are UNESCO World Heritage Sites today. In modern times, Indian people have continued to contribute to mathematics , sciences and astrophysics . Among them are Satyendra Nath Bose , Srinivasa Ramanujan , Jagadish Chandra Bose , Meghnad Saha , Homi J. Bhabha , Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis , and notable Nobel Prize recipients C. V. Raman , Har Gobind Khorana , Venkatraman Ramakrishnan , and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who

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1320-787: A variety of lentils (dal), whole-wheat flour (aṭṭa), rice and millet (kutki, kodra, bājra), which has been cultivated in Indian subcontinent since 6200 BCE. Over time, segments of the population embraced vegetarianism during Śramaṇa movement while an equitable climate permitted a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains to be grown throughout the year. A food classification system that categorised any item as saatvic , raajsic or taamsic developed in Ayurveda tradition. The Bhagavad Gita prescribed certain dietary practices. During this period, consumption of various types of meat became taboo , due to being considered sacred or impure. Indian cuisines use numerous ingredients, deploy

1430-481: A wide range of food preparation styles, cooking techniques and culinary presentation depending on geographical location. The oldest preserved examples of Indian music are the melodies of the Samaveda (1000 BC) that are still sung in certain Śrauta sacrifices; this is the earliest account of Indian musical hymns. The Samaveda, and other Hindu texts, heavily influenced India's classical music tradition, which

1540-605: Is an extended family arrangement prevalent throughout the Indian subcontinent , particularly in India . The family is headed by a patriarch, the oldest male, who makes decisions on economic and social matters on behalf of the entire family. The patriarch's wife generally exerts control over the household, minor religious practices and often wields considerable influence in domestic matters. A patrilineal joint family consists of an older man and his wife, his sons and unmarried daughters, his sons' wives and children. Family income flows into

1650-567: Is given to languages that have a rich heritage and independent nature. According to the Census of India of 2001 , India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. However, figures from other sources vary, primarily due to differences in the definition of the terms "language" and "dialect". The 2001 Census recorded 30 languages which were spoken by more than a million native speakers and 122 which were spoken by more than 10,000 people. Three contact languages have played an important role in

1760-596: Is grouped according to their caste . It is a system in which social stratification within various social sections defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups are often termed jāti or castes . Within a jāti , there exists exogamous groups known as gotras , the lineage or clan of an individuals. Caste barriers have mostly broken down in cities but still exists in some form in rural areas. Most Indian states are majority Hindu . However, Kashmir and Lakshadweep are majority Muslim ; Nagaland , Mizoram , and Meghalaya are majority Christian and Punjab

1870-499: Is known today in two distinct styles: Hindustani music and Carnatic music . Both the Hindustani and Carnatic music systems are based on the melodic base known as Rāga , sung to a rhythmic cycle known as Tāla . These principles were refined in the nātyaśāstra (200 BC) and the dattilam (300 AD). The nātyaśāstrais an ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts , encompassing theatre , dance and music . It

1980-725: Is long assumed to be a Sino-Tibetan language , it may actually be a language isolate . Roger Blench classifies the Shompen language of the Nicobar Islands as a language isolate. Roger Blench also considers Puroik to be a language isolate . In addition, a Bantu language , Sidi , was spoken until the mid-20th century in Gujarat by the Siddi . After Mughal rule and prior to Independence, in British India , English

2090-438: Is majority Sikh . Although participants in the Indian census may choose to not declare their religion, there is no mechanism for a person to indicate that he/she does not adhere to any religion. Due to this limitation in the Indian census process, the data for persons not affiliated with any religion may not be accurate. India contains the majority of the world's Hindus , Jains , Sikhs , Zoroastrians and Baháʼí . Christianity

2200-468: Is notable for currently accepted theory on the later evolutionary stages of massive stars, including black holes. Bharat Mata ( Hindi , from Sanskrit भारत माता , Bhārata Mātā ), Mother India , or Bhāratāmbā (from अंबा ambā 'mother') is the national personification of India as a mother goddess . The image of Bharat Mata formed with the Indian independence movement of the late 19th century. A play by Kiran Chandra Bandyopadhyay, Bhārat Mātā ,

2310-404: Is one of the earliest form of materialistic and atheistic movement in ancient India. Sramana , Buddhism , Jainism , Ājīvika and some schools of Hinduism like Samkhya consider atheism to be valid and reject the concept of creator deity , ritualism and supernaturalism . India has produced some notable atheist politicians and social reformers . Although approximately 80% of

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2420-583: Is the Meitei or Manipuri language ". In India, Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken across the Himalayas in the regions of Arunachal Pradesh , Assam (hills and autonomous councils), Himachal Pradesh , Ladakh , Manipur , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Sikkim , Tripura and West Bengal . Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in India include two constitutionally recognised official languages, Meitei (officially known as Manipuri ) and Bodo as well as

2530-702: Is the pre-form of the Kamrupi dialect of today). Nowadays, small Tai communities and their languages remain in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh together with Sino-Tibetans, e.g. Tai Phake , Tai Aiton and Tai Khamti , which are similar to the Shan language of Shan State , Myanmar ; the Dai language of Yunnan , China ; the Lao language of Laos ; the Thai language of Thailand ; and

2640-436: Is the second most spoken and understood language in the country with a significant number of speakers in eastern and northeastern regions . Marathi is the third most spoken and understood language in the country with a significant number of speakers in the southwest, followed closely by Telugu, which is most commonly spoken in southeastern areas. Hindi is the fastest growing language of India, followed by Kashmiri in

2750-546: Is the third-largest Asian American community in the United States after Chinese Americans and Filipino Americans . After slavery was abolished in the European colonies, Indians were hired under the Indian indenture system to become indentured laborers to fill the need for cheap labor and for their skills in agriculture. In the English-speaking Caribbean and Suriname , Indians primarily came from

2860-561: Is trending away from traditional arranged marriages, they find that the marriage trends in India are similar to trends observed over last 40 years where arranged marriages were previously common, particularly in China and Japan. India's clothing styles have continuously evolved over the course of history. Cotton was first cultivated in Indian subcontinent around the 5th millennium BC. Dyes used during this period are still in use, particularly indigo , red madder , lac and turmeric . Silk

2970-442: Is well represented in India. However, their interrelationships are not discernible, and the family has been described as "a patch of leaves on the forest floor" rather than with the conventional metaphor of a "family tree". Padma Vibhushan awardee Indian Bengali scholar Suniti Kumar Chatterjee said, "Among the various Tibeto-Burman languages, the most important and in literature certainly of much greater importance than Newari,

3080-526: Is widespread in Northeast India , parts of southern India, particularly in Kerala and among various populations of Central India. Muslims are the largest religious minority. India is also home to the third-largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan . Historically, India had a prevailing tradition of the joint family system or undivided family . Joint family system

3190-648: The Amoghavarsha of the Rashtrakuta Dynasty was described by the Arab traveller Sulaiman as one of the four great kings of the world. The medieval south Indian mathematician Mahāvīra lived in the Rashtrakuta dynasty and was the first Indian mathematician who separated astrology from mathematics and who wrote the earliest Indian text entirely devoted to mathematics. The greatest maritime empire of

3300-631: The Caribbean . This usage is growing rarer, as terms such as indigenous, Amerindian, and specifically First Nations in Canada , and Native American in the United States , are widely used in official discourse and in law. The name Bhārata has been used as a self-ascribed name by people of the Indian subcontinent and the Republic of India since 1949. The designation "Bhārata" appears in

3410-635: The Constitution of India does not give any language the status of national language. The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution lists 22 languages, which have been referred to as scheduled languages and given recognition, status and official encouragement. In addition, the Government of India has awarded the distinction of classical language to Kannada , Malayalam , Odia , Sanskrit , Tamil and Telugu . This status

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3520-690: The Hindi Belt , especially the Awadh region in central and eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Bhojpur region of eastern Uttar Pradesh, western Bihar , and northwestern Jharkhand , along with a significant minority who came from South India , and a smaller minority who came from other parts of India. They arrived from the late 1830s to the early 1920s as indentured laborers to work primarily on sugarcane estates , as well as on cocoa , rice , banana , coconut , and coffee estates after indentureship. After

3630-451: The Indian subcontinent and has been influenced and shaped by a history that is several thousand years old. Throughout the history of India, Indian culture has been heavily influenced by Dharmic religions. They have been credited with shaping much of Indian philosophy , literature , architecture , art and music . Greater India was the historical extent of Indian culture beyond the Indian subcontinent . This particularly concerns

3740-786: The Marathas , the Rajputs , the Pathans , the Jats and the Sikhs , gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military experience. Following the death of Aurangzeb in the early 18th century, the empire saw the emergence of autonomous regional powers such as Marathas , the Rajputs and various de facto independent Mughal governors and other Hindu and Muslim princely states, though they all continued to recognise

3850-621: The Middle Indo-Aryan Prakrit languages and Apabhraṃśa of the Middle Ages . The Indo-Aryan languages developed and emerged in three stages — Old Indo-Aryan (1500 BCE to 600 BCE), Middle Indo-Aryan stage (600 BCE and 1000 CE), and New Indo-Aryan (between 1000 CE and 1300 CE). The modern north Indian Indo-Aryan languages all evolved into distinct, recognisable languages in the New Indo-Aryan Age. In

3960-551: The Mughal emperor as their suzerain . The period also saw the emergence of the British East India Company who took control of large parts of the empire, though they nominally ruled and traded under the authority of the emperor and nominally considered him as their suzerain. The regions under Company rule witnessed a period of rapid development of infrastructure, economic decline and major famines . During

4070-737: The Northeast India , among the Sino-Tibetan languages , Meitei language (officially known as Manipuri language ) was the court language of the Manipur Kingdom ( Meitei : Meeteileipak ). It was honoured before and during the darbar sessions before Manipur was merged into the Dominion of the Indian Republic. Its history of existence spans from 1500 to 2000 years according to most eminent scholars including Padma Vibhushan awardee Suniti Kumar Chatterji . Even according to

4180-661: The Partition of India in 1947. Particularly in North America , the terms "Asian Indian" and "East Indian" are sometimes used to differentiate Indians from the indigenous peoples of the Americas . Although the misidentification of indigenous Americans as Indians occurred during the European colonization of the Americas , the term "Indian" is still used as an identifier for indigenous populations in North America and

4290-617: The People's Linguistic Survey of India , India has the second highest number of languages (780), after Papua New Guinea (840). Ethnologue lists a lower number of 456. Article 343 of the Constitution of India stated that the official language of the Union is Hindi in Devanagari script, with official use of English to continue for 15 years from 1947. Later, a constitutional amendment, The Official Languages Act, 1963 , allowed for

4400-635: The Republic of India belong to several language families , the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians; both families together are sometimes known as Indic languages . Languages spoken by the remaining 2.31% of the population belong to the Austroasiatic , Sino–Tibetan , Tai–Kadai , and a few other minor language families and isolates . According to

4510-522: The Roman Empire and was one of the major exports of ancient India to other parts of the world along with Indian spices and Wootz steel . Traditional Indian clothing greatly varies across different parts of the country and is influenced by local culture, geography and climate. Women traditionally wear Sari , Gagra Choli , Angarkha , Phiran , Shalwar Kameez , Gharara and Bandi with Dupatta or Ghoonghat worn over head or shoulder to complete

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4620-626: The Sanskrit name of the river Indus, but also meaning "river" generically. The history of India includes the prehistoric settlements and societies in the Indian subcontinent ; the blending of the Indus Valley civilization and Indo-Aryan culture into the Vedic Civilization ; the development of Hinduism as a synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions; the rise of sixteen oligarchic republics known as Mahajanapadas ;

4730-604: The Zhuang language in Guangxi , China . The languages of the Andaman Islands form another group: In addition, Sentinelese is thought likely to be related to the above languages. The only language found in the Indian mainland that is considered a language isolate is Nihali . The status of Nihali is ambiguous, having been considered as a distinct Austroasiatic language, as a dialect of Korku and also as being

4840-480: The history of India in chronological order: Sanskrit , Persian and English. Persian was the court language during the Indo-Muslim period in India and reigned as an administrative language for several centuries until the era of British colonisation . English continues to be an important language in India. It is used in higher education and in some areas of the Indian government. Hindi , which has

4950-484: The "Manipur State Constitution Act, 1947" of the once independent Manipur, Manipuri and English were made the court languages of the kingdom (before merging into Indian Republic). Persian , or Farsi , was brought into India by the Ghaznavids and other Turko-Afghan dynasties as the court language. Culturally Persianized, they, in combination with the later Mughal dynasty (of Turco-Mongol origin), influenced

5060-567: The 1369 rationalized mother tongues which are spoken by 10,000 or more speakers, are further grouped into appropriate set that resulted into total 121 languages. In these 121 languages, 22 are already part of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and the other 99 are termed as "Total of other languages" which is one short as of the other languages recognized in 2001 census. Languages in India (2011) Ethnolinguistically,

5170-429: The 1991 census, 22 languages had more than a million native speakers, 50 had more than 100,000 and 114 had more than 10,000 native speakers. The remaining accounted for a total of 566,000 native speakers (out of a total of 838 million Indians in 1991). According to the census of 2001, there are 1635 rationalised mother tongues, 234 identifiable mother tongues and 22 major languages. Of these, 29 languages have more than

5280-654: The Fort William College in 1800, completed the first phase of Kolkata's emergence as an intellectual centre. Teaching of Asian languages dominated: Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit, Bengali. Later, Marathi and even Chinese were added. Each department of the college was staffed by notable scholars. The Persian department was headed by Neil B. Edmonstone , Persian translator to the East India Company's government since 1794. While notable scholars were identified and appointed for different languages, there

5390-590: The Hindi Belt made up the majority of Indians in the Anglo-Caribbean and Suriname. Hence, their dialect of Hindustani, known as Caribbean Hindustani collectively, is based mostly on Bhojpuri and Awadhi, and it became the lingua franca of the early Indians. Also, since they formed the largest group of Indians, the traditions and culture from the Bhojpur and Awadh regions became the dominant culture for

5500-500: The Indian Parliament. Indian people Indian people or Indians are the citizens and nationals of the Republic of India . In 2022, the population of India stood at 1.4 billion people, of various ethnic groups . According to United Nations forecasts, India overtook China as the world's most populous country by the end of April 2023, containing 17.50 percent of the global population. In addition to

5610-468: The Indian people was the Maurya Empire having Patliputra (currently Patna , Bihar ) as its capital, conquered the major part of South Asia in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka alongside their senior advisor, Acharya Chanakya , the world's pioneer of the fields of political science and economics. The next great ancient empire of the Indian people

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5720-570: The Indian population, the Indian overseas diaspora also boasts large numbers, particularly in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf , former British colonies, and the Western world . While the demonym "Indian" applies to people originating from the present-day Republic of India , it was also used as the identifying term for people originating from what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh prior to

5830-464: The Indian subcontinent and within the international borders of the modern country of India had been migrating to Southeast Asia , East Asia , Central Asia , North Africa , and even along Europe's Mediterranean coast, the Indian diaspora generally socio-politically or historically refers to those whose families or themselves migrated to other parts of the world after the British Empire established itself in India. Population estimates from 2016 vary from

5940-422: The Indian subcontinent was carried out by Sir George Abraham Grierson from 1898 to 1928. Titled the Linguistic Survey of India , it reported a total of 179 languages and 544 dialects. However, the results were skewed due to ambiguities in distinguishing between "dialect" and "language", use of untrained personnel and under-reporting of data from South India, as the former provinces of Burma and Madras, as well as

6050-462: The Indian subcontinent. Proto-Dravidian languages were spoken in India in the 4th millennium BCE and started disintegrating into various branches around 3rd millennium BCE. The Dravidian languages are classified in four groups: North, Central (Kolami–Parji), South-Central (Telugu–Kui), and South Dravidian (Tamil-Kannada). The Northern Indian languages from the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family evolved from Old Indo-Aryan by way of

6160-435: The Indians in those countries. France sent southern Indians to its colonies in the Caribbean as indentured laborers, hence there are also many residents of Indian descent in Guadeloupe , Martinique , and French Guiana , mostly of southern Indian descent. Many Indo-Caribbean people have migrated to the United States , United Kingdom , Canada , the Netherlands , and France , and few of them have even seasonally migrated to

6270-521: The Indo-Aryan languages, other Indo-European languages are also spoken in India, the most prominent of which is English, as a lingua franca . The second largest language family is the Dravidian language family , accounting for some 277 million speakers, or approximately 20.5% per 2018 estimate. The Dravidian languages are spoken mainly in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in parts of northeastern Sri Lanka , Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh . The Dravidian languages with

6380-458: The South from their party stance, the resignation of two Union ministers from the South, and the increasing threat to the country's unity forced Shastri to concede. As a result, the proposal was dropped, and the Act itself was amended in 1967 to provide that the use of English would not be ended until a resolution to that effect was passed by the legislature of every state that had not adopted Hindi as its official language, and by each house of

6490-482: The art, history, and literature of the region for more than 500 years, resulting in the Persianisation of many Indian tongues, mainly lexically. In 1837, the British replaced Persian with English and Hindustani in Perso-Arabic script for administrative purposes and the Hindi movement of the 19th Century replaced Persianised vocabulary with Sanskrit derivations and replaced or supplemented the use of Perso-Arabic script for administrative purposes with Devanagari. Each of

6600-431: The assistant pandits. Along with teaching, translations were organized. The college employed more than one hundred local linguists. There were no textbooks available in Bengali. On 23 April 1789, the Calcutta Gazette published the humble request of several natives of Bengal for a Bengali grammar and dictionary. The college was located at the corner of Council House Street and Dalhousie Square (now B. B. D. Bagh). After

6710-636: The centuries, there has been significant integration of Hindus , Jains , and Sikhs with Muslims across India. India is the birthplace of Hinduism , Buddhism , Jainism and Sikhism , collectively known as Indian religions . Indian religions, also known as Dharmic religions, are a major form of world religions along with Abrahamic ones. Today, Hinduism and Buddhism are the world's third- and fourth-largest religions respectively, with over 1 billion followers altogether, and possibly as many as 1.5 or 1.6 billion followers. Throughout India's history, religion has been an important part of

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6820-490: The citizens of India are Hindus , the country has a substantial population of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and adherents of tribal faiths. Zoroastrianism and Judaism each has several thousands of Indian adherents, and also have an ancient history in India. India has the largest population of people adhering to Zoroastrianism and Baháʼí Faith in the world, even though these two religions are not native to India. Many other world religions also have

6930-439: The college closed the building had a series of occupancies. First it was The Exchange of Messrs. Mackenzie Lyall & Co., then offices of the Bengal Nagpur Railway and later the local HSBC Bank office . The College library of Fort William was an important centre of learning and housed a magnificent collection of old manuscripts and many valuable historical books from across South Asia . Multiple MS copies were printed. When

7040-423: The college was dissolved in 1854, the books of the collection listed for preservation were transferred to the newly formed Calcutta Public Library, now the National Library . Some books were transferred to the School of Oriental Languages in Paris and are now held at BULAC . The court of directors of the British East India Company were never in favour of a training college in Calcutta, and for that reason there

7150-404: The concept of zero and the Hindu–Arabic numeral system decimal system during this period. During this period Indian cultural influence spread over many parts of Southeast Asia which led to the establishment of Indianized kingdoms in Southeast Asia . During the early medieval period the great Rashtrakuta dynasty governed most of the Indian subcontinent from the 8th to 10th centuries and

7260-404: The continuation of English alongside Hindi in the Indian government indefinitely until legislation decides to change it. The form of numerals to be used for the official purposes of the Union are "the international form of Indian numerals ", which are referred to as Arabic numerals in most English-speaking countries. Despite some misconceptions, Hindi is not the national language of India;

7370-421: The country's culture. Religious diversity and religious tolerance are both established in the country by the law and by custom ; the Constitution of India has declared the right to freedom of religion to be a fundamental right . Atheism and agnosticism have a long history in India and flourished within Śramaṇa movement . The Cārvāka school originated in India around the 6th century BCE and

7480-454: The date for changeover approached, however, there was much alarm in the non-Hindi-speaking areas of India, especially in Kerala , Gujarat , Maharashtra , Tamil Nadu , Punjab , West Bengal , Karnataka , Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh . Accordingly, Jawaharlal Nehru ensured the enactment of the Official Languages Act, 1963 , which provided that English "may" still be used with Hindi for official purposes, even after 1965. The wording of

7590-546: The declaring individuals often mixed names of languages with those of dialects, subdialects and dialect clusters or even castes, professions, religions, localities, regions, countries and nationalities. The list therefore includes languages with barely a few individual speakers as well as 530 unclassified mother tongues and more than 100 idioms that are non-native to India, including linguistically unspecific demonyms such as "African", "Canadian" or "Belgian". The 1991 census recognises 1,576 classified mother tongues. According to

7700-435: The epithet "national". The Constitution of India does not give any language the status of national language . Members belonging to the northern parts of India insisted that the Constitution be drafted in Hindi with the unofficial translation in English. This was not agreed to by the drafting committee on the grounds that English was much better to craft the nuanced prose on constitutional subjects. The efforts to make Hindi

7810-613: The establishment of British India ; and the subsequent independence movement that led to the Partition of India and the creation of the Republic of India . The Indian people established during the ancient and medieval periods to the early eighteenth century some of the greatest empires and dynasties in South Asian history like the Maurya Empire , Satavahana dynasty , Gupta Empire , Rashtrakuta dynasty , Chalukya Empire , Chola Empire , Karkota Empire , Pala Empire , Vijayanagara Empire , Delhi Sultanate , Mughal Empire , Maratha Confederacy and Sikh Empire . The first great empire of

7920-437: The extent that it is treated as a religion in itself. Sports like hockey, volleyball, football are quite popular while polo, golf and tennis are preferred sports for affluent sections of the society. In recent times with government support Olympic sports like shooting, archery, wrestling, javelin throw, swimming, badminton have gained prominence in the Indian society. Although, population groups originating in different parts of

8030-606: The first half of the 20th century, a nationwide struggle for Indian independence movement was launched, the Indian subcontinent gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, after the British provinces were partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan and the princely states all acceded to one of the new states. India is one of the world's oldest civilisations. The Indian culture, often labelled as an amalgamation of several various cultures, spans across

8140-547: The first wave of migration of indentured laborers, more Indians from Gujarat , Sindh , Kutch , Punjab , Bengal , and South India came to the Caribbean for business and professional occupations from the 1930s till present-day. There are more than a million Indo-Caribbean people . In Trinidad and Tobago , Guyana , and Suriname they are the largest ethnic groups. The Indians from the Bhojpuri and Awadhi-speaking areas of

8250-590: The growing needs of administration and commerce. He clipped the wings of Fort William College, and the Dalhousie administration formally dissolved the institution in 1854. Fort William College was served by a number of eminent scholars. They contributed enormously towards development of Indian languages and literature. Some of them are noted below: Languages of India (total of official languages: 23, including 22 8th Schedule languages and additional official language, English) Languages spoken in

8360-422: The language Hindi. Separate figures for Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi were not issued, due to the fact the returns were intentionally recorded incorrectly in states such as East Punjab , Himachal Pradesh , Delhi , PEPSU , and Bilaspur . The 1961 census recognised 1,652 mother tongues spoken by 438,936,918 people, counting all declarations made by any individual at the time when the census was conducted. However,

8470-716: The language families represented in India, in terms of speakers, is the Indo-Aryan language family , a branch of the Indo-Iranian family , itself the easternmost, extant subfamily of the Indo-European language family . This language family predominates, accounting for some 1035 million speakers, or over 76.5 of the population, per a 2018 estimate. The most widely spoken languages of this group are Hindi , Bengali , Marathi , Gujarati , Bhojpuri , Awadhi , Odia , Maithili , Punjabi , Marwari , Kashmiri , Assamese (Asamiya) , Chhattisgarhi and Sindhi . Aside from

8580-453: The languages of South Asia, echoing the complex history and geography of the region, form a complex patchwork of language families , language phyla and isolates . Languages spoken in India belong to several language families , the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 78.05% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 19.64% of Indians. The most important language families in terms of speakers are: The largest of

8690-562: The largest number of first-language speakers in India today, serves as the lingua franca across much of northern and central India . However, there have been concerns raised with Hindi being imposed in South India , most notably in the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka . Some in Maharashtra , West Bengal , Assam , Punjab and other non-Hindi regions have also started to voice concerns about imposition of Hindi. Bengali

8800-769: The late 19th and early 20th centuries. They are concentrated around the city of Durban . They were classified as members of an "Indian" race under the country's defunct Apartheid system. About 40,000 people of Indian origin live in Tanzania mostly in the urban areas. According to the American Community Survey of the United States Census Bureau , the Indian American population in the United States grew from almost 1.67 million in 2000 to 3.1 million in 2010 which

8910-741: The medieval Indians was the Chola dynasty . Under the great Rajaraja Chola I and his successor Rajendra Chola I the Chola dynasty became a military, economic and cultural power in South Asia and South-East Asia . The power of the Chola empire was proclaimed to the eastern world by the expedition to the Ganges which Rajendra Chola I undertook and by the occupation of cities of the maritime empire of Srivijaya in Southeast Asia , as well as by

9020-709: The most speakers are Telugu , Tamil , Kannada and Malayalam . Besides the mainstream population, Dravidian languages are also spoken by small scheduled tribe communities, such as the Oraon and Gond tribes. Only two Dravidian languages are exclusively spoken outside India, Brahui in Balochistan, Pakistan and Dhangar , a dialect of Kurukh , in Nepal . Families with smaller numbers of speakers are Austroasiatic and numerous small Sino-Tibetan languages , with some 10 and 6 million speakers, respectively, together 3% of

9130-499: The neighboring Latin American and other Caribbean countries as migrant workers. A majority of Indo-Caribbean are Hindus , while there is significant minority of Christians and Muslims , along with smaller numbers of recently arrived Indian Jains , Sikhs , Buddhist , and Baháʼís . Indo-Caribbean people are known as the descendants of the jahajis or girmityas . Recent genome studies appear to show that South Asians are

9240-577: The non-scheduled languages like Karbi , Lepcha , and many varieties of several related Tibetic , West Himalayish , Tani , Brahmaputran , Angami–Pochuri , Tangkhul , Zeme , Kukish sub linguistic branches, amongst many others. The Ahom language , a Southwestern Tai language , had been once the dominant language of the Ahom Kingdom in modern-day Assam , but was later replaced by the Assamese language (known as Kamrupi in ancient era which

9350-491: The northern Indian languages had different influences. For example, Hindustani was strongly influenced by Sanskrit , Arabic and Persian , leading to the emergence of Modern Standard Hindi and Modern Standard Urdu as registers of the Hindustani language. Bangla on the other hand has retained its Sanskritic roots while heavily expanding its vocabulary with words from Persian, English, French and other foreign languages. The first official survey of language diversity in

9460-533: The number of Indian-born people in the UK increased in size by 38% from 467,634 to around 647,000 (an increase of approximately 180,000). There are approximately 1.86 million people of Indian origin or ancestry in Canada, the majority of which live in Greater Toronto and Vancouver , with growing communities in Alberta and Quebec. Roughly 5.1% of the total Canadian population is of Indian ancestry,

9570-425: The number of speakers for languages and dialects, but uses its own unique terminology, distinguishing between language and mother tongue . The mother tongues are grouped within each language. Many of the mother tongues so defined could be considered a language rather than a dialect by linguistic standards. This is especially so for many mother tongues with tens of millions of speakers that are officially grouped under

9680-598: The official Sanskrit name of the country, Bhārata Gaṇarājya . The name is derived from the ancient Vedic and Puranas , which refer to the land that constitutes India as Bhārata varṣam and uses this term to distinguish it from other varṣa s or continents. The Bhāratas were a vedic tribe mentioned in the Rigveda , notably participating in the Battle of the Ten Kings . India is named after legendary Emperor Bharata who

9790-481: The official purposes of the Union for which it was being used immediately before such commencement." Article 343 (1) of the Constitution of India states "The Official Language of the Union government shall be Hindi in Devanagari script." Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use of English for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect, i.e. on 26 January 1965. As

9900-608: The orbitals of planets. The Mughal Empire consolidated much of the Indian sub-continent under a single realm. Under the Mughals, India developed a strong and stable economy, leading to commercial expansion and greater patronage of culture, greatly influencing Indian society. The Mughal Empire balanced and pacified local societies through new administrative practices and had diverse and inclusive ruling elites, leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule. Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as

10010-450: The outfit. Men traditionally wear Angarkha , Achkan , Bagalbandi , Kurta , Kameez , Phiran , Sherwani and Koti for upper garment, lower garment includes Dhoti , Churidar , Shalwar , and Lungi . Pagri is usually worn around head to complete the outfit. In urban centres, people often wear western clothing and variety of other contemporary fashion. Indian food varies from region to region. Staple foods of Indian cuisine include

10120-659: The population. The Austroasiatic language family ( austro meaning South) is the autochthonous language in Southeast Asia, arrived by migration. Austroasiatic languages of mainland India are the Khasi and Munda languages , including Bhumij and Santali . The languages of the Nicobar islands also form part of this language family. With the exceptions of Khasi and Santali, all Austroasiatic languages on Indian territory are endangered. The Tibeto-Burman language family

10230-500: The pre-eminent language were bitterly resisted by the members from those parts of India where Hindi was not spoken natively. Eventually, a compromise was reached not to include any mention of a national language. Instead, Hindi in Devanagari script was declared to be the official language of the union, but for "fifteen years from the commencement of the Constitution, the English Language shall continue to be used for all

10340-716: The princely states of Cochin, Hyderabad, Mysore and Travancore were not included in the survey. Languages of India by language families ( Ethnologue ) Different sources give widely differing figures, primarily based on how the terms "language" and "dialect" are defined and grouped. Ethnologue , produced by the Christian evangelist organisation SIL International , lists 435 tongues for India (out of 6,912 worldwide), 424 of which are living, while 11 are extinct. The 424 living languages are further subclassified in Ethnologue as follows: The People's Linguistic Survey of India,

10450-535: The repeated embassies to China. During the late medieval period the great Vijayanagara Empire ruled most of southern India from the 14th to 16th centuries and reached its peak during the reign of Sri Krishnadevaraya The medieval Kerala School of Astronomy and Mathematics flourished during this period under such well known south Indian mathematicians as Madhava ( c.  1340  – c.  1425 ), who made important contributions to Trigonometry and Calculus, and Nilakhanta (c. 1444–1545), who postulated on

10560-457: The rise of the Śramaṇa movement ; the birth of Jainism and Buddhism in the 6th century BCE, and the onset of a succession of powerful dynasties and empires for more than two millennia throughout various geographic areas of the subcontinent, including the growth of Muslim dynasties during the Medieval period intertwined with Hindu powers; the advent of European traders resulting in

10670-453: The second place, with Meitei (officially called Manipuri ) as well as Gujarati , in the third place, and Bengali in the fourth place, according to the 2011 census of India . According to the Ethnologue , India has 148 Sino-Tibetan , 140 Indo-European , 84 Dravidian , 32 Austro-Asiatic , 14 Andamanese , 5 Kra-Dai languages. The Southern Indian languages are from the Dravidian family . The Dravidian languages are indigenous to

10780-617: The spread of Hinduism , Buddhism , architecture , administration and writing system from India to other parts of Asia through the Silk Road by the travellers and maritime traders during the early centuries of the Common Era . To the west, Greater India overlaps with Greater Persia in the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains . During medieval period, Islam played a significant role in shaping Indian cultural heritage. Over

10890-447: The spread of Buddhism. These literature's were also influential in development of One Thousand and One Nights during medieval period. Indian people have played a major role in the development of the philosophy , sciences , mathematics , arts , architecture and astronomy throughout history . During the ancient period, notable mathematics accomplishment of India included Hindu–Arabic numeral system with decimal place-value and

11000-504: The text proved unfortunate in that while Nehru understood that "may" meant shall, politicians championing the cause of Hindi thought it implied exactly the opposite. In the event, as 1965 approached, India's new Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri prepared to make Hindi paramount with effect from 26 January 1965. This led to widespread agitation, riots, self-immolations, and suicides in Tamil Nadu. The split of Congress politicians from

11110-429: The tradition in Indian society. Marriage is considered a union of the two families rather than just the individuals, the process involved in an arranged marriage can be different depending on the communities and families. Recent survey study found that fewer marriages are purely arranged without consent and that the majority of surveyed Indian marriages are arranged with consent. The study also suggested that Indian culture

11220-509: The word Indian and India is derived from Greek Ἰνδία ( Indía ), via Latin India . Indía in Koine Greek denoted the region beyond the Indus ( Ἰνδός ) river, since Herodotus (5th century BC) ἡ Ἰνδική χώρη , hē Indikē chōrē ; "the Indian land", Ἰνδός , Indos , "an Indian", from Old Persian Hinduš and medieval term Hindustani . The name is derived ultimately from Sindhu ,

11330-769: Was a descendant of the Bhāratas tribe , scion of Kuru Dynasty who unified the Indian Subcontinent under one realm. In early Vedic literature, the term Āryāvarta ( Sanskrit : आर्यावर्त) was in popular use before Bhārata . The Manusmṛti (2.22) gives the name Āryāvarta to "the tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges, from the Eastern (Bay of Bengal) to the Western Sea (Arabian Sea)". While

11440-597: Was always a lack of funds for running the college. Subsequently, a separate college for the purpose, the East India Company College at Haileybury (England), was established in 1807. However, Fort William College continued to be a centre of learning languages. With the British settling down in the seat of power, their requirements changed. Lord William Bentinck announced his educational policy of public instruction in English in 1835, mostly to cater to

11550-408: Was first performed in 1873. She is usually depicted as a woman clad in an orange or saffron sari holding a flag and sometimes accompanied by a lion . Sports in India are mainly in two categories: traditional sports and global sports. Traditional sports like gilli danda , kho kho , kabaddi are quite popular. On the other hand, Indians are highly enthusiastic about the game of cricket, to

11660-601: Was no suitable person in Calcutta who could be appointed to teach Bengali. In those days, the Brahmin scholars learnt only Sanskrit, considered to be the language of the gods, and they did not study Bengali. The authorities decided to appoint Carey, who was with the Baptist Mission in Serampore . He, in turn, appointed Mrityunjoy Vidyalankar as head pandit, Ramnath Bachaspati as second pandit and Ramram Basu as one of

11770-668: Was the Gupta Empire . This period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is known as the classical or " Golden Age of India ". During this period, aspects of Indian civilisation, administration, culture, and Hinduism and Buddhism spread to much of Asia , while the Chola Empire in the south had flourishing maritime trade links with the Roman Empire during this period. The ancient Indian mathematicians Aryabhata , Bhāskara I and Brahmagupta invented

11880-476: Was the sole language used for administrative purposes as well as for higher education purposes. In 1946, the issue of national language was a bitterly contested subject in the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly of India , specifically what should be the language in which the Constitution of India is written and the language spoken during the proceedings of Parliament and thus deserving of

11990-489: Was woven around 2450 BC and 2000 BC. In the 11th century BC Rig-veda mentions dyed and embroidered garments known as paridhan and pesas respectively and thus highlights the development of sophisticated garment manufacturing techniques during this period. In the 5th century BCE, Greek historian Herodotus describes the richness of the quality of Indian textiles. By the 2nd century AD, cotton , muslins and silk textiles manufactured in India were imported by

12100-512: Was written during the period between 200 BCE and 200 CE in classical India and is traditionally attributed to the Sage Bharata . Natya Shastra is incredibly wide in its scope. While it primarily deals with stagecraft, it has come to influence music , classical dance , and literature as well. It covers stage design , music , dance , makeup , and virtually every other aspect of stagecraft . Indian drama and theatre has

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