India: A ‘nation of nations’
The nation of India is colorful—and crowded!
India's human cultures are the most diverse of any nation on earth.
No other nation can rival India in number of languages, religions, and ethnic groups, not to mention India's diverse geography, climate, and wildlife.
By 2020, India could overtake China as the world's most populous country. It is the world's largest democracy, and its people are heirs to one of the oldest human civilizations.
India's over one billion people are scattered across more than 600,000 villages, 5,500 cities, and hundreds of sprawling slums.
Going from one part of India to another is often like traveling between different countries. Languages, customs, clothing, food, and religion all vary from one region to another.
India's people live in many different settings. There are families living in isolated mountaintop communities, coastal villages, jungle huts, and modern, high-rise apartments. Indian communities are often formed around social position, religion, language, or race.
Most Indians — over 740 million people — live in rural villages.
Many of the modern conveniences we enjoy are not available in Indian villages. Most rural families do not have running water, toilets, refrigerators, or cars. Although many villages have electricity, it is not reliable and sometimes only works a few hours a day. Most rural families must rely on kerosene lanterns to help light their homes.
Most families get their water from a community well. Each day the mother and her children must go and fill containers with water for cooking, cleaning, bathing, and drinking. Some villages do not have a well and women must walk long distances to get water from a river or stream.
A bustling city street.Farming is a main source of income for most rural families. Many different kinds of crops are grown in India, from cotton and rice to tea leaves and bananas. Often children must work alongside their parents in the fields, sowing seeds or helping bring in the harvest. Other rural families earn a living working in rock quarries, making bricks, or collecting firewood to sell at the market. In coastal villages, fishing is an important source of income.
India also has 35 cities with populations of over 1 million people.
Nearly 14 million people live in the capital city of New Delhi. Many Indians leave their villages for the cities in hopes of earning more money. But because most are illiterate, they can only find low-paying jobs and cannot afford a house or apartment. Some can't find any jobs at all.
Over 42 million Indians live in extremely poor, crowded urban neighborhoods called slums. Many of these families live in tents or shacks, while others must sleep on sidewalks along busy streets or in alleys. They don't have toilets or clean drinking water. Most can't afford to go to the doctor if they are sick.
Some children living in the city can't go to school because they must work to help buy food for their families. They might get a job as a servant, do laundry at a hotel, or work in a factory. Child labor is illegal in India, but for many families it is the only way to survive.
Families are very important in India's culture.
These girls are making safety pins to earn extra income for their family.Most children grow up in extended families, living under the same roof with cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandmothers and grandfathers. Sons are valued because they will someday provide for the family. Many boys are trained by their fathers in a family trade that has been passed down from generation to generation.
In many poor families, girls are considered more of a burden than a blessing. They are not always given adequate food to eat or proper medical attention. When money is limited, parents will often choose to send their sons to school while their daughters stay home to help their mothers take care of the household. Sometimes girls are married young because their parents cannot afford to feed so many hungry mouths.
Most Indians marry someone chosen by their parents, called an arranged marriage. Parents look for suitable partners for their children within their own caste or people group. Along with paying for the elaborate wedding ceremony, the bride's parents is expected to pay a costly dowry, or gift of money and/or goods, to the groom's parents. This costly tradition can leave a poor family drowning in debt for years.
