INDIA

India

India is a country of Asia.

ESSENTIAL DATA

One often speaks about Indian sub-continent  to evoke the Indian peninsula. The relief of India is marked by the presence of part of the Himalayas  (the highest assembly line of the world) and of  3 immense rivers: Indus, Gange (a river crowned for the hindouists) and Brahmapoutre. The climate is characterized by  monsoons  (violent rains of summer).

India is the 2 ^E country more populated world  (after China): its population represents nearly 17 % of the world population. More than  1 600 ethniques communities  and more than  3 000 languages and dialects  (18 are official languages) cohabit on the territory of India. The Indian company is characterized by  the system of the castes, i.e. a social organization in which the hierarchical order depends in particular on heredity and the religion.

Agriculture is the principal economic branch of industry of India, which is the 2 ^E producing world of  rice.

India
Name	Indian union
Population	1 095 352 000 inhabitants in 2006
Capital	New Delhi (11 680 000 inhabitants)
Surface	3 165 596 km²
Administrative cutting	28 States, 7 territories of the Union
Principal cities	Calcutta/Kolkata (13 216 546 inhabitants)
	Bombay/Mumbai (11 914 398 inhabitants)
	Delhi (12 791 458 inhabitants)
	New Delhi (11 680 000 inhabitants)
	Madras (6 424 624 inhabitants)
	Bangalore (5 686 844 inhabitants)
	Hyderabad (5 533 640 inhabitants)
	Ahmedabad (4 519 278 inhabitants)
	Kanpur (2 690 486 inhabitants)
	Nagpur (2 122 965 inhabitants)
Currency	Indian rupee
Official languages	hindi
	English
	assamais
	bengali
	gujarati
	kashmiri
	marathe
	oriya
	pandjabi
	sindhi
	ourdou
	Sanskrit
	tamoul
	télougou
	will kannara
	malayalam

A HISTORIC INSIGHT

Age of Indus  east one of the first which knows the Indian peninsula, from 2500 to 1800 before J-C approximately. The history of India is then marked by  the Aryan invasions: these people from Central Asia are at the origin of  the system of the castes. Gradually, the political organization evolves/moves, with the appearance of republics and kingdoms. In the same way, the hindouism  then  Buddhism  become the principal religions. Following the kingdom of Magadha, which is at the origin of  a first unification of India,  the dynasties  follow one another, in particular Maurya and Gupta (which is regarded as the golden age of the traditional culture in India). Of  the xi ^E  to  the xvii ^E centuries, the country is subjected to  the Moslem invasions and mogholes.

European colonization  (Portugal, Holland, France and Great Britain) starts as of  the xvi ^E century. It is finally  the British Empire  which manages to dominate the country.The first revolts against this authority take place in 1849. They are continued by  Mohandas Gandhi  in the years 1920 and 1930. India obtains its  independence in 1947. However, the country knows since many  religious and territorial conflicts.

TO GO FURTHER

? Asia
? the largest town of India:  Bombay

? colonizing Europe to  the xix ^E century
? decolonization
? Mohandas Gandhi

©  2013 " www.amanitheophile.blogspot.com ".  All rights reserved.

INDIA

India

India is a country of Asia.

ESSENTIAL DATA

One often speaks about Indian sub-continent  to evoke the Indian peninsula. The relief of India is marked by the presence of part of the Himalayas  (the highest assembly line of the world) and of  3 immense rivers: Indus, Gange (a river crowned for the hindouists) and Brahmapoutre. The climate is characterized by  monsoons  (violent rains of summer).

India is the 2 ^E country more populated world  (after China): its population represents nearly 17 % of the world population. More than  1 600 ethniques communities  and more than  3 000 languages and dialects  (18 are official languages) cohabit on the territory of India. The Indian company is characterized by  the system of the castes, i.e. a social organization in which the hierarchical order depends in particular on heredity and the religion.

Agriculture is the principal economic branch of industry of India, which is the 2 ^E producing world of  rice.

India
Name	Indian union
Population	1 095 352 000 inhabitants in 2006
Capital	New Delhi (11 680 000 inhabitants)
Surface	3 165 596 km²
Administrative cutting	28 States, 7 territories of the Union
Principal cities	Calcutta/Kolkata (13 216 546 inhabitants)
	Bombay/Mumbai (11 914 398 inhabitants)
	Delhi (12 791 458 inhabitants)
	New Delhi (11 680 000 inhabitants)
	Madras (6 424 624 inhabitants)
	Bangalore (5 686 844 inhabitants)
	Hyderabad (5 533 640 inhabitants)
	Ahmedabad (4 519 278 inhabitants)
	Kanpur (2 690 486 inhabitants)
	Nagpur (2 122 965 inhabitants)
Currency	Indian rupee
Official languages	hindi
	English
	assamais
	bengali
	gujarati
	kashmiri
	marathe
	oriya
	pandjabi
	sindhi
	ourdou
	Sanskrit
	tamoul
	télougou
	will kannara
	malayalam

A HISTORIC INSIGHT

Age of Indus  east one of the first which knows the Indian peninsula, from 2500 to 1800 before J-C approximately. The history of India is then marked by  the Aryan invasions: these people from Central Asia are at the origin of  the system of the castes. Gradually, the political organization evolves/moves, with the appearance of republics and kingdoms. In the same way, the hindouism  then  Buddhism  become the principal religions. Following the kingdom of Magadha, which is at the origin of  a first unification of India,  the dynasties  follow one another, in particular Maurya and Gupta (which is regarded as the golden age of the traditional culture in India). Of  the xi ^E  to  the xvii ^E centuries, the country is subjected to  the Moslem invasions and mogholes.

European colonization  (Portugal, Holland, France and Great Britain) starts as of  the xvi ^E century. It is finally  the British Empire  which manages to dominate the country.The first revolts against this authority take place in 1849. They are continued by  Mohandas Gandhi  in the years 1920 and 1930. India obtains its  independence in 1947. However, the country knows since many  religious and territorial conflicts.

TO GO FURTHER

? Asia
? the largest town of India:  Bombay

? colonizing Europe to  the xix ^E century
? decolonization
? Mohandas Gandhi

©  2013 " www.amanitheophile.blogspot.com ".  All rights reserved.

INUIT

Inuit

Inuit are people of the Arctic. Divided into small communities, they live in Eastern Siberia (Russia), in Alaska (the United States), in Canada and Greenland (Denmark). They are approximately 145 000.

They speak in great majority a language called  inuktitut, which has an alphabet only since 1880. But they speak also most of the time another language, that of the country where they remain (English, Danish, Russian or French).

In inuktitut, the word inuit  (plural of the word  inuk) means "the men". Formerly, Inuit were called  Esquimaux, a pejorative word meaning "raw meat eaters".

PEOPLE LINKED IN THE DEFENSE OF ITS INTERESTS

There are 8 000 to 10 000 years, the ancestors of Inuit, from Siberia, crosses the Bering Strait and settles along the coasts and on the islands of Alaska and Canada, to Greenland. The meetings with the European explorers take place to  the xvi ^E century, but 1850 should be waited until, and the arrival of the first whalers, so that the contacts with the white population multiply. Inuit are colonized thereafter.The political powers of the States where they live push them to give up their habits, and in particular with  sédentariser.

But, as from the years 1960, Inuit create associations  to defend their culture and their territory. Every three years, the Circumpolar Conference Inuit joins together Inuit of the whole world so that they can better protect their economic, political and ecological interests.

A TRADITIONAL WAY OF LIFE CENTERED ON HUNTING AND FISHING

Inuit, which practised formerly a seasonal nomadism, are sedentary today and adopted a Western way of life. A minority preserved a traditional way of life however, even if the motoneiges replaced the sledges with dogs. This way of life is centered around  hunting  and of  fishing. The traditional habitat constitutes igloos, tents in skin of seal or of stone constructions and lumps of earth furnished with skins. 

Inuit live hunting for the birds and the marine or terrestrial mammals (seal, narval, béluga, whale, polar bear, caribou, musk ox), fishing (cod, salmon, halibut) and gathering (algae, shellfish, plants and bays). For that, they use the kayak or a larger boat, called  umiaq,  the harpoon and the sledge with dogs. Fishing and hunting provide them what to be nourished, be dressed (boots, trousers, jackets), to be heated and light (by using the grease of the animals). The mutual aid is essential and the game and fishing are shared.

A SOCIAL ORGANIZATION BASED ON THE FAMILY

In the traditional culture inuit, the family plays a great role. The woman takes care of the children, prepares food, manufactures clothing and the tents, fishes and makes the gathering. The man drives out, deals of the dogs, the weapons, the tools, the sledges, the boats and the dwellings. The marriages are sometimes arranged. The children enjoy a great freedom. If a member of the community enfreint a rule, the old ones meet to discuss it. The payment of a conflict between two men can pass by  a duel of songs, each one having to compose a humorous song making fun the other.

BELIEFS ANIMISTS

If Inuit  were gradually converted with Christianity, they were formerly  animists. According to these traditional beliefs, all the alive objects and beings have a heart. The animals and the men are close and can metamorphose themselves. The world is populated spirits, dwarves, giants.  The Shaman, left wizard, is supposed capacity to enter in communication with the spirits or supernatural forces. It is consulted to cure the diseases and to solve the serious problems.

INVENTIVE PLAYS AND ELABORATE WORKS OF ART

In the past, Inuit practised a kind of football on ice with a balloon in skin of seal (the ajuttaq), the fight, iron the arm, the throw of harpoon, the high jump… Their  songs of throat  are very known. The women practised these duets face-to-face discussion by clutching the arms: one of both carried out and the other was to imitate it instantaneously.

Art inuit is rich in objects used in the religious ceremonies. It is about figurines in bone, out of ivory of Morse or whale, out of wooden of stag or stone, representative of the characters or the animals, the buttons, the elements of tools or the masks of ceremony. Since the years 1950, the artists and craftsmen inuit make the trade of sculptures on steatite, a known tender rock under the name of "stone with soap". They are also devoted to engraving, with basket making (baskets), decorative arts and the music.

TO GO FURTHER

? animism
? shamanism
? history of America

©  2013 " www.amanitheophile.blogspot.com ".  All rights reserved.