India

India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi भारत (Bharat) and भारत गणराज्य (Bharat Gaṇarājya), English India and Republic of India) is a country in South Asia that occupies most the Indian subcontinent.

India is the second most populous country and the seventh largest in the world. The Indian coastline stretches over seven thousand kilometers. The country shares borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north and northeast, Bangladesh and Burma to the east. The Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of the Maldives to the southwest, Sri Lanka and Indonesia to the south-east. India also claims a border with Afghanistan in the northwest.

India is a home to some of the oldest civilizations of the world, the civilization of the Indus Valley developed there as early as 5000 BC. JC. The Indian subcontinent hosted vast empires and is present on trade routes since ancient times. India is the land of birth of four major religions - Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism - whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam have settled there during the first millennium. The country was gradually annexed by the British East India Company before coming under the control of the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century. India became independent in 1947 after a life marked by non-violent resistance of Mahatma Gandhi fight. The country has since 1950 a federal parliamentary republic considered the world's most populous democracy.

Today, the Indian economy is the tenth in the world in nominal GDP and the fourth in GDP at purchasing power parity. India is considered a newly industrialized country, but some problems like poverty, illiteracy, corruption remains very important.

India is a diverse country ethnically, linguistically and religiously.

The early medieval India between 600 and 1200, is characterized by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity. When Harsha of Kannauj, which controls much of the Ganges plain from 606 to 647, trying to extend his kingdom southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya dynasty that controls the Deccan. When his successor began to conquer the East, he was defeated by the Pala Empire of Bengal. When the Chalukyas themselves trying to expand to the south, they were defeated by the Pallavas, which in turn contrast with Chola and Pandya further south. No ruler of this period was not able to create an empire and control territories beyond the heart of his kingdom. At the same time, pastoral peoples whose land is used for growing agricultural economy, are integrated into the caste society, as a result of which the caste system began to emerge of regional differences.

The life and seventh centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language. They were imitated all over India and cause a resurgence of Hinduism and the development of modern languages ​​of the subcontinent. Indian kings and the temples they fund attracts many worshipers. Pilgrimage cities of various sizes appearing everywhere and India is urbanizing again. In the eighth and ninth centuries, the Indian culture and political system spread in Southeast Asia, in what is now Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and Java. Indian merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this expansion while at the same time sent to Southeast Asia stay in India and are the Buddhist and Hindu texts into their languages​​.

After the tenth century, Muslim nomadic clans of Central Asia, with their cavalry, and their vast armies regularly enter the plains of northwest, leading in 1206 to the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate. The Sultanate managed to control most of northern India and into the South. This invasion is initially disruptive to local elites, however the Sultanate adapts to its predominantly non-Muslim population and forbid laws and traditions3,4. Pushing the Mongol raids in the thirteenth century, the Sultanate protects India known devastation in western and central Asia. For centuries, soldiers, scholars, mystics, traders, artists and artisans in these areas find refuge in the sub-continent, contributing to the emergence of a syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in the nord3. The weakening of the kingdoms of the south by the Sultanate allows the emergence of the Empire Vijayanagara3. Adopting a strong Shaivite tradition and learning military tradition of the Sultanate, the empire was able to control the majority of India péninsulaire4 and strongly influences culture in southern India3.

India occupies most of the Indian subcontinent, which is placed between the tectonic plates of India and the north-western part of the Indo-Australian plate. Part of the territory of the states of north and north-east of India is located in the mountains of the Himalayas. The rest of northern India, Central, and Eastern is occupied by the fertile Indo-Gangetic plain. In the western part, bordered by Pakistan in the southeast lies the Thar Desert. The Southern India is almost entirely peninsular Deccan plateau, flanked by two massive coastal rugged, Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats.

Large rivers such as the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Yamuna, Godavari, Narmada, Kaveri across the country. India has also three archipelagos: the Lakshadweep Islands, which lie off the coast of south-west; the volcanic chain of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the southeast, and the Sunderbans in the Ganges delta in West Bengal. Indian climate varies from tropical in the south to more temperate in the north of the Himalayas and the highlands where are the continuous snowfall in winter.