A Brief History of India

• India is home to one of the oldest civilisations in the world. Traces of hominoid activity suggest that the area now known as India, was inhabited approximately 250,000 years ago.
• The Dutch , England, France, and Denmark-Norway all established trading posts in India in the early seventeenth century. As the Mughal Empire disintegrated in the early 18th century many relatively weak and unstable Indian states which emerged were increasingly open to manipulation by the Europeans, through dependent Indian rulers.
• In the later eighteenth century, Great Britain and France struggled for dominance over India, partly through proxy Indian rulers, but also by direct military intervention. The defeat of the formidable Indian ruler Tipu Sultan in 1799 marginalised the French influence. This was followed by a rapid expansion of British power, through the greater part of the Indian subcontinent, in the early nineteenth century.

• By the middle of the century the British had already gained direct or indirect control over almost all of India. British India, consisting of the directly-ruled British presidencies and provinces, contained the most populous and valuable parts of the British Empire. So, it soon became known as "The Jewel in the British Crown". Russia's aspirations to won this prize led to continued conflict in Afghanistan and a set of political manoeuvres known as The Great Game.
• In 1947, India gained its independence and was partitioned into the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan,. Pakistan was created as a homeland for colonial India's Muslims.

Facts and Factoids

• India is is now the country with the largest population in the world. (Over 1.4 billion).
• India is the world’s largest democracy.
• India has three of the largest cities in the world: Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay) and Kolkata (Calcutta). According to the UN, Delhi is now the second-largest urban agglomeration in the world, with over 22.65 million people; it is only surpassed by Tokyo. Mumbai is ranked seventh and Calcutta tenth.
• India has more linguistic diversity than any other large country. There are over 1,000 languages, but many overlap and are hard to define. Official languages are Hindi and English.
• India has the second (or third) highest population of Muslims in the world. Even though fewer than 15% of Indians are Muslim, the country's enormous population means that it outranks all Muslim-majority countries, except Indonesia and possibly Pakistan. (There are almost exactly the same numbers of Muslims in Pakistan as in India).

• The majority religion in India is Hinduism (79%). Minority religions include Christianity, (2.3%) Sikhism, (1.7% ) Buddhism ().7% ) and to Jainism. (0.4% )
• India was once an island. It broke off from an ancient supercontinent referred to as Gondwanaland by paleogeographers (named after Gondwana, a forested area of central India). Then it moved slowly northwards, from modern day Madagascar, to join Asia.
• Bollywood, the film industry of Mumbai, produces about 200 films a year. However, more than 1,100 movies are produced, on average, each year overall in India - that's slightly ahead of Nigeria, twice as many as the American film industry and ten times as many as Britain produces.
• India was referred to, as Golden Bird, in ancient times, when the country was known for its wealth and prosperity.

Is India a Poor Country?

From being a comparatively poor country at Independence in 1947, India has become a fast-growing major economy. It's a hub for worldwide information technology services, and plenty of call centres. Labour is cheap.India has a space programme which includes several planned or completed extra-terrestrial missions and is a nuclear weapons state, ranking high in military expenditure. It has ongoing and long term disputes over Kashmir with its neighbours, Pakistan and China.

Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture. India has therefore substantially reduced its rate of poverty. However, it still faces the challenges of gender inequality, child malnutrition, and rising levels of air pollution. The extreme poverty rate in India is now down to 3%. but that is still nearly 50 million people.

Is India Safe to Visit?

There are more road deaths in India than any other country in the world. Officially, about 115,000 people die on Indian roads each year - though a recent British Medical Journal study suggests that the true number of fatalities is closer to 200,000.

What to See and Do in India?

I have a love- hate relationship with India. It is an endlessly fascinating assault on the senses: colourful, vibrant, and wonderfully spiritual. The festivals are joyful and amazing. the landscapes temples and architecture are astonishing

The crowds and disregard for personal space are wearing, the poverty is difficult to deal with, (though numbers of people living on the streets appear to have diminished dramatically over recent years). The treatment of women as second class citizens is still a huge challenge in many places.

I have visited ten times and have still only seen a small part of India’s incredible diversity.

• A train journey is a must - Across the Middle, taking in Delhi, Kolkata, Shimla and Amritsar, amongst a host of absorbing architectural sights. Varanasi was the highlight for me. A never to be forgotten enthralling and ethereal experience.
• Magical Mumbai and the Gateway to India
• Tranquil Kashmir – though check safety advice – tensions are often too high to make it safe
• Kerala - The land of lagoons and Ayurveda
•  Goa – Where it Rocks, though Bohemia is rapidly being replaced by rows of beach beds carrying Russians sporting budge smugglers  
• Tiger Safaris
• And the isolated paradise of the Andaman Islands – Beware the Jarwa and the Salties