Modern India

Country Facts Capital: New Delhi Population: 1,210,193,422 Official Languages: Hindi and English Currency: Rupee

Diversity 5 Major Religions: Languages Religions There are 2 official languages and 20 official regional languages: Bengali Sanskrit Tamil Urdu Punjabi Nepali Kashmiri 5 Major Religions: Hinduism Islam Sikhism Buddhism Jainism

Government Type of Government: Federal Parliament Upper House: Rajya Sabha Lower House: Lok Sabha https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwilrv3LVLA

Holidays Public Holidays: 1/26: Republic Day 8/15: Independence Day 10/2: Gandhi’s Birthday

Holdiays Religious Holidays: Hinduism: Holi; March 6th Holi is the Hindu festival for the arrival of spring. They celebrate by going through the streets and spraying colors on others. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMmbojNqYmY Buddhism: Vesak; May 4th Buddha’s Birthday

Food There are many regional cuisines in India and they are by both region and religion. Most Hindus are vegetarians while most Muslims eat meat except for pork.

Music Traditional Indian classical music as well as newer pop music are popular across the population. Tradition music became popular to Western audiences in the 1960s when rock and psychedelic music utilized an Indian stringed instrument called the sitar. Traditional Sitar Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYwd4xhboRw Punjabi Pop Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTIIMJ9tUc8

Film India has an extremely popular film industry much in the way that Hollywood is popular in the US. Outside of India their film industry is known as Bollywood which combines the name of Bombay (current name: New Delhi) and Hollywood. Most of their films consist of numerous song and dance scenes and last longer than Western films. Many include an intermission in the middle of the film.

Scene from a Bollywood Film Jodhaa Akbar (2008) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffnpi_rBzsQ

Sports Popular sports in India include: Cricket: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uZnWuW8fB8 Field Hockey Soccer Kabaddi

Conflicts Ever since the 1947 there have been numerous incidents between India and Pakistan. Both nations have nuclear weapons and India has received terrorist attacks from Pakistan. In 2008 there was an attack in Mumbai, India in which terrorists shot and bombed twelve locations in the city for a four day period (November 26-29). Tensions between Hindus and Muslims are still strained as well with reports of vandalism to each other’s places of worship and other holy sites. Despite that, there are moments of friendly conflict between the two nations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ0ue-XGl9c