An overview of India and it's people

Contents

General facts

Languages

Religions

History

Political structure

Reference

General facts

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Languages

In India there are 24 languages spoken, each by more than one million people, and 15 of these are recognized as national languages by the Constitution. In addition to that there are over 1600 other, foreign tongues and dialects.

Hindi is the official language in India, but English remains the official working language. Indian languages have two different origins: First there is the Indo-European group which is to be lead back to the Aryans who invaded India. These are the “Indic“ languages. Then there is the Dravidian section that is native to the South of India, but the different tongues are clearly influenced by Hindi and Sanskrit. The majority of the languages have a seperate script and also a respective state where they are spoken along with English.

The national languages are:

- Hindi (spoken by 20 % of the population as a mother language)
- Assamese (spoken in Assam by 60 % of the Assamese inhabitants)
- Begali (spoken by 200 million people worldwide – and in West Bengal)
- Gujarati (in the state of Gujarat. It branched out from the Indic languages.)
- Kannada (State language of Karnataka where 65 % speak it)
- Kashmiri (written – as Hindi – in Devnagri script, in Jammu and Kashmir)
- Konkani (mainly derived from Sanskrit - spoken at the South-west coast)
- Malayalam (Thousands of years old – Dravidian – spoken in the very South)
- Marathi (official language of Maharashtra, dating back to the 13th century)
- Oriya (spoken by 87 % of Orissa’s population)
- Punjabi (Indic tongue in Punjab)
- Sanskrit (one of the world’s and definitely India’s oldest language - classical literature and Indian epics have been written in S.)
- Sidhi (spoken in India’s North-west and Pakistan, but written in different scripts)
- Tamil (older than 2000 years – spoken by over 65 million people)
- Telugu (Dravidian language that is spoken in Andhra Pradesh)
- Urdu (is adopted by most Muslims and contains many Persian words)

Religions

In India, Religion is very important. It is a way of life, forms huge parts of the Indian tradition and enters into almost every sector of the lives of most Indians. This may range from ordinary habits and education to politics. The Hindus make up the largest part of Indian believers with 82 % of the whole population. The Muslims are the second group with 12 %, followed by the Christians and the Sikhs (c. 2 %) and the Buddhists and J ainists (less than 1 %).

Hinduism

Hinduism is one of the most important religions of southern Asia. It has more than 650 million members all over the world and developed from a large number of religious groups and customs over 4000 years ago. So it is not based on a specific foundation neither is there a “Holy Book“ as a written guide. There are at best the “Rig Veda“, “Upanishads“ and the “Bhagwad Gita“ that can be compared to the Bible or the Koran.

Hinduism represents the theory of karma (destiny) and reincarnation (rebirth) according to which each creature (God, man and animal) travels through the world in different forms of rebirth depending on its good or bad deeds. The aim of this is to break through the endless circulation of rebirth (samsara) and find redemption. Hindus also endeavour their spiritual release by asceticism, i.e. the constant relinquishment of secular goods.

A single god which is believed in doesn’t exist either, rather is it possible to ‘choose‘ a god to worship, e.g. Brama, Vishnu or Shiva who are the most important gods. Brama has four heads that stand for the directions of the compass and created the whole universe and the life in it. Vishnu is the preserver leading the cycle of birth and rebirth and together with Shiva he prevents many reincarnations to protect the world from evil forces. You can also believe in the ‘Indestructible Soul‘ within each individual or follow cults worshippig spirits, animals, trees...

Islam

Islam was brought to India by Arab traders in the 8th century. It took 400 years to be distinctly represented in the sub-continent. Islam is based on the religious theory of the prophet Muhammad who was born in Makkah in 570 AD. He was supposed to have been called by Allah in order to proclaim his revelation and to invite the people to belive in the only and almighty God All]ah. The Koran (or Qur’an) forms the basis of this religion and its conception of right is determined in the sharia. The seven heavens of paradise are promised to the religious Muslim if he or she keeps the laws containing at least five prayers per day, alms, observance of Ramadan, the month of fasting and a pilgrimage to Makkah.

In the beginning Islam was aggressive but the spirit of brotherhood spread by various preachers helped to loosen the strictness of the caste system. After initial conflicts the faiths are now accepted by each other and their interaction even led to a mutual enrichment today.

In the present approximately one billion people declare themselves as Muslims.