India is a big country, I often like to call it the land of lots, because it has lots of, well everything. It has 1.2 billion people, is the 7th largest country by land area, has the most populous subdivision in the world, and practices nearly every major religion, with their largest major religion having thousands of deities. Fittingly, India is often more formally called the land of diversity, because this landmass isn't entirely made up of Hindi speaking Hindus.
So what are the other major groups on this giant peninsula? India may be one big united country now, but this hasn't always been the case. Before British colonialism, India was made up of numerous different entities, with everything from massive empires to tiny city-states. This can kind of still be seen even today.
With the fact that Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, despite also having been part of British India, are nonetheless not part of modern India, and we all know how different those countries are from each other. India however is not only diverse, but also very widely spread out. India's 29 states and 7 union territories all have varying languages, cultures, and traditions. which are only even more pronounced when jumping from region to region.
The Ganges is incredibly different from Tamil Nadu, as is the Deccan Plateau from Punjab or the Thar Desert from Bengal, as well as Gujarat from Kalgarli. There are numerous different ways we could start this off, so let's start with all the different languages of India. On the national level, there are two main languages spoken in India, Hindi and English. Hindi is the most commonly spoken language in the country by far, and is basically the main language of the Hindi belt, which stretches across northern and eastern India.
Going down the list from a 2011 national census, the 12 most widely spoken languages in India are Hindi, English, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Kannada, Odiya, Punjabi, and Malayalam, all going by the number of people who speak these languages, native or otherwise. As you can see here, Well, first, it's pretty interesting to see that there are more people who speak Kannada than live in Canada, and second, Hindi is by far the most commonly spoken language in India, but this isn't necessarily the case everywhere. In the south, people generally tend to speak languages like Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada, whereas in the west, it's very often Marathi and Gujarati.
Also let's of course not forget the seven sister states of Northeast India, who speak languages like Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, and Nepali. Let's go to religion next. India's 1.2 billion people practice a multitude of different religions.
Just those native to India include Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, as well as numerous others. In addition, foreign religions also have big roles in India, including Christianity, Zoroastrianism, the Bahai faith, and even Judaism. Of course, possibly the biggest outside religion in India is Islam.
with influence from different empires like the Mughal Empire. According to that same 2011 census, around 80% of the country identifies as Hindu, making up a total of 966 million faithful. Islam makes up the next largest minority, with 14% of the population, which at a staggering 195 million, somewhat interestingly makes India the country with the second largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia. Okay, now let's switch a bit over to doing this region by region.
India has 6 different regions we can divide it into. Starting up in the north, we get… North India, which includes Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh. This region mainly covers the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Tar Desert.
With a population of 376 million, this region is the largest in India, and boasts major cities like New Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, and Chandigarh. North India mostly speaks Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi, which is notably similar to the Urdu spoken in nearby Pakistan. North India mostly practices Hinduism, with many other religious minorities in the fold, and also holds numerous different pilgrimage sites for Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists alike.
This region also has many cultural and demographic similarities to the region of Central India, which consists of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. North India is often what Westerners may or may not think of when they think of India, as it is again the most populous region and home to the capital, but has historically also been the base of operations for the Mughal Empire, the Dalit Sultanate, and the British Empire. Next, we have East India, including West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha. The largest city in this region is the city of Kolkata, also the third largest city in the whole country. Though East India also speaks Hindi and English, one of their other more common languages is Bengali, which is also spoken in neighboring Bangladesh.
Also, fun fact, Kolkata-born poet and songwriter Rabindranath Tagore wrote the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh. Now we move on to Northeast India and the aforementioned seven sister states, which include Sikkim, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Meghalaya, and also Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims but is effectively just part of India. This area, with a population of only 38 million, is only connected to India by the narrow Siliguri corridor, also known as the chicken's neck.
These areas have over 200 different ethnic groups that are quite unlike the rest of India, with many taking a lot of influence from nearby Tibet and Southeast Asia. This region was also quite difficult to conquer for pre-colonial empires like the Mughals, meaning that there's even less influence from them in these parts. After that is Western India, made up of Goa, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.
and sometimes also including Rajasthan and Karnataka. The main three states, however, all have quite distinct upbringings from each other. Goa is the smallest of the three, and has history as a Portuguese trading port, and is also famous around the world for its beaches. Gujarat has a lot of strong influence from different cultures from outside India, mainly those who came in through Persia, like the Turks and Mughals. Finally, we have Maharashtra, whose culture is largely entrenched in the ancient Maratha Empire.
Maharashtra also holds the region's largest city, Mumbai, which is also home to the world-famous film industry of Bollywood. Keep in mind though that even the Indian film industry is this diverse, also including Tollywood, Gollywood, Jollywood, Mollywood, Kollywood, and several others. Not Nollywood though, that's Nigeria's thing.
Lastly, we have South India. This place has the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. and is incredibly culturally distinct from the North of India. These states are of a cultural group called the Dravidians, who speak, unsurprisingly, Dravidian languages, speaking languages like the aforementioned Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.
The Dravidian languages, however, are in their own separate category, completely separate from Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri, etc., which are Indo-European languages, like English, or Spanish, or Russian. So yeah, Perhaps it's not too surprising, but India is not one homogenous country, but is a country diverse in everything from culture to language groups to ecosystems. India had actually been quite divided, up until the British came in and successfully united the cultures and nations of India together… against them.
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If you think I should nevertheless continue with this kind of series, let me know which other countries I should do this to. In the meantime of course, do please be sure to like, share, and subscribe so you can learn something new every Sunday.