PEOPLE
Although
India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports
over 15% of the world's population. Only China has a larger population.
Almost 33% of Indians are younger than 15 years of age. About
70% of the people live in more than 550,000 villages, and the
remainder in more than 200 towns and cities. Over thousands of
years of its history, India has been invaded from the Iranian
plateau, Central Asia, Arabia, Afghanistan, and the West; Indian
people and culture have absorbed and changed these influences
to produce a remarkable racial and cultural synthesis.
Religion,
caste, and language are major determinants of social and political
organization in India today. The government has recognized 18
languages as official; Hindi is the most widely spoken.
Although 81% of the people are Hindu, India also is the home of
more than 126 million Muslims--one of the world's largest Muslim
populations. The population also includes Christians, Sikhs, Jains,
Buddhists, and Parsis.
The Hindu caste system reflects Indian occupational and socially defined hierarchies. Ancient Sanskrit sources divide society into four major categories, priests (Brahmin), warriors (Kshatriya), traders (Vaishya) and farmers/laborers (Shudra). Although these categories are understood throughout India, they describe reality only in the most general terms. They omit, for example, the tribes and those once known as "untouchables." In reality, Indian society is divided into thousands of jatis--local, endogamous groups based on occupation--and organized hierarchically according to complex ideas of purity and pollution. Despite economic modernization and laws countering discrimination against the lower end of the caste structure and outlawing "untouchability," the caste system remains an important source of social identification and a potent factor in the political life of the country. Nevertheless, the government has made strong efforts to minimize the importance of caste through active affirmative action and social policies. Moreover, caste has been diluted if not subsumed in the economically prosperous and heterogeneous cities, where an increasing percentage of India’s population lives. In the countryside, expanding education, land reform and economic opportunity through access to information, communication, transport, and credit have lessened the harshest elements of the caste system.
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Indian(s).
Population (2007): 1.12 billion; urban 27.8%.
Annual growth rate: 1.3%
Density: 324/sq. km.
Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, others 3%. While the national census does not recognize racial or ethnic groups, it is estimated that there are more than 2,000 ethnic groups in India.
Religions: Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other groups including Buddhist, Jain, Parsi.
Languages: Hindi, English, and 16 other official languages.
Education: Years compulsory--none. Literacy--61%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--34.61/1,000. Life expectancy--68.59 years (2007 est.).
Work force (est.): 450 million. Agriculture--60%; industry and commerce--18%; services and government--22%
