YogiBear your curiosity about India is appreciated. Let me introduce you to my country as briefly as possible.
The geographical landscape of India is vast in its diversity. There are Himalayas, Thar Desert, depleting yet vast forest ranges, plains, plateaus, hills, valleys, back waters, Beaches, numerous rivers, seas and an Indian Ocean. Geographically it is a sub-continent (including Pakistan and Bangladesh). There are places in our north-east which receive highest rainfall in the world, we get our share of snow fall, sandstorms, cyclones and tsunamis. When there are floods in one part, another part of India might be facing near drought conditions. The climatic conditions range from extreme to moderate to pleasant depending on which part of the country you are in.
For the sake of Introducing India to a foreigner like you I recommend, “Lonely Planet:India (Travel Guide)”.
http://www.amazon.com/India-Lonely-Plan ... 614&sr=1-5
India is a multicultural, multilingual and a multi-religious society. Some of the religions include, Hinduism (?), Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, etc.(all these have originated in India, theologically they range from polytheism to atheism) and foreign imports like, Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, etc. In fact India boasts as being the only county which never persecuted the Jews. There are more than 30 local vernacular languages each with its own dialectic diversity. Hindi is our National Language and English our official or administrative language (Thanks to our British colonial past). We also had Portuguese, Dutch and French Colonies and the respective languages are also known in those particular colonies. As a Nation we are still reeling under the Colonial-Hangover. We still belong to the Commonwealth Nations.
Racially we are mixture of European, Central-Asian, Mediterranean, Mongoloid, proto-australasian, negroid, and perhaps more of human races. Over the period of our history we've had both peaceful and belligerent migrations of people into India. In other words you can say we are truly an assimilated cosmopolitan and a contiguous society of the history.
Before the advent of the British in 18th Century, India contributed 24% to the world wealth, while the whole of Europe's contribution was 23%. However, by 1947 (when British Left India) its contribution was reduced to a meagre 2%; you do the remaining math. So when the World economists interested in India's economic growth say that India is reclaiming its lost position/status, you know what they mean.
The modern Indian society can be described as (for lack of a better word) confused; battling between the old historical and or traditional ideals and the modern ideals of democratic equality and fraternity. Religious bigotry, social discrimination and social injustice has assumed center stage in county's social life. Economic inequality is humongous. On one hand we have the longest list of the fastest growing Millionaires and Billionaires, while on the other we have more than 800 million people struggling to survive on less than (USD) 15 cents a day.
This economic divide coupled with social injustice and discrimination and economic exploitation has led to an armed insurgency movement by the poorest of the poor of this country which has affected 1/3 of India if not more. Corruption has assumed cancerous proportions in this country. By corruption I don't just mean the culture of bribery. Apparently Indians are the largest depositors in Swiss Banks, which are notorious for safeguarding foreign black-money.
Since this is a forum for Guns let me add that in India only the Privilege possess and can afford guns. The numbers of gun ownership are miniscule. RKBA is extensively denied to its more common citizens even though the Constitution of India does not.
There are other historical, societal and political aspects to India which I am afraid, cannot be discussed within the limits of this forum.
I would suggest that you should read about India in books and on net. There is also a very interesting documentary by BBC, “The Story of India”, I recommend you to watch it, its available on YouTube. A word of caution, when reading about Indian History please remember that most of the Indian History is written and commented upon by European Historians commissioned by our erstwhile colonial masters and/or by those historians jaundiced by the European Bias. Some of the Indian History that you may come across on the Net is the Right Wing Nationalist propaganda. Never the less this should get you started.
Suggestions:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ ... tory+india
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ ... Ck%3AIndia
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ ... ia+economy
http://www.google.com/search?q=Indian+H ... 37&bih=929
Regards...
It still survives as far as electronic/ cheque/ card transactions are concerned and even then most people will simply round off the figure to the nearest rupee when issuing a cheque.
