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The Republic of India, commonly known as
India (see also other names), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It is
the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second most populous
country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world.[5] Bounded by
the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of
Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of over 7500 kilometres.[6] It
borders Pakistan to the west;[7] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east;
and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the
vicinity of Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Indonesia.
Home to the Indus Valley civilization and a region of historic trade routes
and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial
and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four major world
religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, while
Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism arrived in the first
millennium CE and shaped the region's variegated culture. Gradually annexed
by the British East India Company from the early eighteenth century and
colonized by the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century, India
became a modern nation-state in 1947 after a struggle for independence that
was marked by widespread use of nonviolent resistance as a means of social
protest.
With the world's twelfth largest economy by market exchange rates and the
fourth largest in purchasing power, India has made rapid economic progress
in the last decade. Although the country's standard of living is projected
to rise sharply in the next half-century, it currently battles high levels
of poverty, illiteracy, persistent malnutrition, and environmental
degradation. In addition to being a pluralistic, multi-lingual, and
multi-ethnic society, India is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a
variety of protected habitats and national parks. |