OF INDIA

MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY

About India in brief

• India is located in a subcontinent which is a part of the Continent of Asia.
• This landmass was populated by many culturally different peoples who migrated or invaded it time to time.
• So, (a Part of ) India had civilizations as early as 3000 B.C.- It is the Harappa Civilization
• The whole landmass including India was named Jambudvipa in Sanskrit text books.
• There have lived hundreds of ethnically linguistically and culturally diverse communities throughout this landmass.
• Different communities formed their own kingdoms time to time - Some of them were power full while some were not (e.g.-The Sixteen Sates in 6th BC)

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Look at this animation, How The map of Kingdoms and empires of ancient India was changing from time to time

About India in brief

• Some of them expanded into Empires capturing a large area of Indian landmass. (Magadha, Mauryan, Nanda, Gupta, Sunga, Kushana, Cholas, Pandya, Vijayanagar, Mughal, Marathi)

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• But none of them could make the whole India a single country

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• East India Company ruled India from 1757 to 1858.

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• British Crown ruled India from 1858 to 1947.

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• Present India was born as a single country under the British.

About India in brief

• India received its interdependence on 15 August 1947 from Britain.

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• India became a republic on 26 January 1950.

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• The Republic of India (භාරත/ඉන්දියානු ජනරජය) is a State (a politically independent country or society)

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• Since its Independence, India has made its Map of Political Divisions.

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• Now it has 28 States and 08 Union territories.

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• India is the Largest Democracy in the world (= the largest democratic country)

Politically - දේශපාලනිකව; ස්වාධීන - independent; country -රට; society- සමාජය

Formation Of States and Union Territories of India

About Indian Society in brief

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• Now India has the second largest population in the world

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• Indian Society has a large number of races or ethnicities, languages, religions.

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• Therefore, India is a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi religious and multilingual State.

Politically - දේශපාලනිකව; ස්වාධීන - independent; country -රට; society- සමාජය

This map shows the main languages spoken in different parts of India.�Match with the map of Political Divisions of India and note down languages by State.

Main Languages of India

Key :

English (33%) and Hindi (66%) are spoken as the Linking languages or lingua francas.

Major Religions and their portions of Indian population

Encyclopedia Britannica (per 2011 census)