Interesting Facts about India

 This article is meant for information and interesting facts about India with pictures, geographic facts about India, unknown facts about Indian history, amazing facts about Indian festivals, religion, society, culture and tradition. Facts about Indian climate etc. All amazing omg rare, unknown information and facts about India.

Brief History of India

History of India can be divided in three phases: – Ancient India, Medieval India and Modern India. From the earliest known times to the 8th century AD is considered as period of Ancient India.

Ancient India

The period of Ancient India witnessed rise and fall of Indus Valley civilization (2900 BC – 1800 BC) which is one of the oldest civilizations of the world. Post Indus civilization is considered as the inflow of Aryans and the “Vedic Period”. The other historical events of Ancient India are rise of Jainism and Buddhism in Fifth century BC, Persian invasion of 516 BC, Alexander’s Invasion in 326 BC, Mauryan Period (321-185 BC), Gupta period (400-500 AD), Harshvardhan (606-647 AD).  The other important empires of Ancient India are – Chalukya of Badami, Pallava of Kanchipuram, Pandyas of Madurai, Rashtrakutas and Cholas.

Medieval India

The period from 8th Century AD to late 17th century is considered as the Medieval Period of India. The raids of Mahmud of Ghazni, and sometimes the establishment of Delhi Sultnet is also considered as the starting point of Medieval period. Medieval India is dominated by Mughal Empire mainly although this period witnesses many more Muslim attacks and raids from the northwest frontier. The rise of Mughals to power resulted in an integration of the rather scattered regions of India to one common political platform. It also paved a new dimension for the present Social, Cultural and traditional background of the present day India. The mid decades of 18th century witnessed the decline of Mughal empire and rising of British Power which is quite evident from the battle of Plassey.

Modern India

Battle of Plassey of year 1757 marked with the decline of Mughal power is considered as the onset of Modern India. This era also represents the awakening and enlightenment of the elite classes of India. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Dayanand Saraswati, Swami Vivekanand are few examples of this era who created not only social and cultural reforms but the inspired awakening of masses which ultimately lead to freedom struggle and then finally independence.

Unknown Historical Facts about India 

•  The oldest name of India is Jambudweep.
• The other older names of ancient India are –
  • Aryavrat (the place where Arya settled ie typically the North India).
  • Bharatvarsha according to Vishnu Puran.
  • Nabhivarsha according to Bhagwat Puran.
  • Tianzhu meaning “heavenly center” according to Chinese Tang Dynasty.
  • Tenjiku is the Japanese name of Pre Modern India.
  • Hodu is the Bibilical Hebrew name of ancient India. This name is also mentioned in Book of Esther, Jewish Tanakh and Christian old testament.
• The Indus Valley civilization is one of the oldest known civilizations of the world which is contemporary to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egyptian, Mayan, Ancient Greek civilizations.
• Wootz steel originated from southern India in 3rd century BC and was even exported to different south asian countries.
• Three most important empires /eras in Indian history are – i) Era of Ashoka (Maurya Empire, 3rd century BC), ii) Era of Chandragupta II (Gupta Empire, 3rd century CE) and iii) Era of Akbar (Mughal Empire, 16th century CE). These empires / era are considered as classical or golden period of Indian history. During this period, Indian civilisation, culture, religion, society, arts, music, literature, trade prospered.

Geographic Facts about India

India is located in South Asia and is 7th largest country (by area) in world after i) Russia, ii) Canada, iii) China, iv) USA, v) Brazil and vi) Australia. It has total area of 32,87,263 Sq Km which accounts for 2.42 % of total world area. It is second largest country as per population. It has population of over 1.2 billion as per 2011 census. India is also called biggest democracy in world. India falls in northern hemisphere of the globe and its geographical co-ordinates are 21º N Latitude and 78º E Longitude. Its official language is Hindi and English. It is surrounded by Great Himalayas in north, Thar desert in North West, Arabian sea in South West , Indian ocean in South and Bay of Bengal in South East. The name India is derived from the INDUS (which is also called Sindhu as per Sanskrit root). It has a land frontier of 15,200 Km and Costline of 7,516 Km including Laksdweep and Andman islands.

• India shares one of the  longest international boundary line with Bangladesh. The boundary line between India and Bangladesh is 5th longest international boundary of the world.
• Highest point of India is mount K2 (Godwin Austen, 8612 meter) and lowest point of India is Kuttand (-2.2 meter) in Kottayam district of Kerala.
• Southernmost point of India is Indira point which is located on Great Nicobar island. Northernmost point is Indira Col located on northmost part of  Siachen glacier.
• The Tropic of cancer bisects India into two roughly equal parts. This line passes through 8 Indian States – Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram.

Interesting Facts about India : Independence Struggle

Sepoy mutiny of 1857 is regarded as the first struggle of freedom. This mutiny was not very much co-ordinated and lacked central command and thus it lost its fuel soon and British controlled it easily. There were two groups of activists one who supported the violent methods and other who were of view of peaceful and non violent protests. Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, Chandrashekhar Azad, Subhash Chandra Bose were the heroes of violent agitation. Mahatma Gandhi along with other leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Vipin Chandra Pal, Gokhale, Bal Gangadhar Tilak etc  belonged to Truth and Non Violent movements. India got Independence from the tyrannical rule of British on 15 Aug 1947. This independence was derived from a totally new means of non-violence which was totally new experiment in the world.

Constitution, Political and Administrative Facts about India

India became republic on 26th Jan 1950 when its own constitution was created. Constitution of India is the bulkiest constitution in world as it assimilated the noble ideas of most of the best constitutions of world. Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was not only the president of drafting committee but was also instrumental in shaping the constitution of India. India is known as the biggest democratic country of the world. First general elections of India were held in year 1952 in which Jawaharlal Nehru won by huge margins. Jawaharlal Nehru headed the government as first Prime Minister of Democratic India.

• The full constitutional name of India is Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic of India (Samprabhuta  Sampann Samajwadi Loktantrik Gadtantra Dharmnirpeksha Bharat “संप्रभुता संपन्न  समाजवादी लोक्तान्तंत्रिक गड्तंत्र धर्मनिरपेक्ष भारत”)

Interesting Facts about India : The Armed Forces

• The highest battle field of world – “Siachen” is owned by India.
• Strength of Indian Armed Forces is about 13 lakhs. India is world’s third largest Military Force (First being China followed by US ).
• Indian Army is considered as the world’s largest arms importer.
• India is on 5th position among world countries in terms of defense budget. India allocated 2.5% of its GDP to defense budget in year 2017. This equals to 55 billion US dollars. Four countries which are above India in terms of defense budget are USA, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Interesting Facts about India : Indian Religions 

India is home and original birth place of four major religions of the world. The Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Hinduism is the main religion of India (in terms of number of followers) and more than 80 % of Indians are Hindus. Islam which is second most followed religion of India came from middle east during the 10th and 11th century. Buddhism and Jainism evolved in India during Magadh empire and spread to world in 5th century BC. Sikhism evolved in northern planes of India especially in Punjab and Haryana regions during 17th century. Other comparatively smaller religious groups of India include – Christians and Zoroastrians.

Facts about India : official and spoken languages

• Hindi (along with English and other 22 regional languages) holds the rank of official language of India. Hindi is most commonly spoken and most understood language in India and Indian subcontinent. Hindi holds the fourth most spoken language of world (after Mandarin, Spanish and English).
• After Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi and Tamil holds the rank of second, third, fourth and fifth most spoken language of India. Bangla (Bengali) is also the official language of West Bengal and Bangladesh.

Economic Facts about India

• GDP (nominal) of India (year 2015 and 2016) is the third highest in Asia (first and second are China and Japan). GDP PPP (Purchasing power Parity) of India is second just after China among Asian Countries.
• GDP of India is seventh highest (for both year 2015 & 2016 data from IMF, World Bank and UN ) in whole world. GDP (PPP) ranking of India is third in whole world (First being China, second USA).
• Service sector (57%) is the largest contributor to Indian economy. Agriculture sector although being largest employer contributes only 17% to Indian GDP. Industry sector growing at steady rate contributes 26% to Indian economy.
• Available land suitable for agriculture in India is 15,35,063 Sq Km (51.6 % of total area). India stands at second position in total available land for agriculture. First is United States with agriculture land area of 16,69,302 Sq Km.
• In terms of agricultural farm output India holds second rank in world.
• India has the largest number of cattle inventory followed by Brazil and China. India is also the biggest milk producer in the world.
• India is top most producer of Mango, Banana, Guava, Lemons, Dry beans, pulses, gram, chili pepper etc. For details read top agricultural products of India.
• India is the highest producer of Mica in world.

The Glorious Indians

• The only person in world who wrote National Anthems of three countries – Ravindranath Tagore (His poems were selected as National Anthems for India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Anthem was translated from Bengali to Sinhalese by one of his pupil (Ananda Samarkoon). He was also the first Non-European who got Nobel Prize in Literature.
• Aryabhata was the famous mathematician and astronomer who lived in 5th century CE and was contemporary to Gupta rule. He is known for discovering place value system (10 raise to power), approximating value of Pi (π), calculation of area of triangle, works in trigonometry, algebraic equations, calculations related to motions in planetary/solar system, calculation of eclipses etc. First Indian satellite was named on him as a mark of tribute.
• Brahmagupta was the first Indian mathematician and astronomer who discovered the concept of zero.
• Sridharacharya gave formula for calculation of roots of a quadratic equation.
• Swami Vivekananda was the spiritual saint, leader and social reformist known for his early reforms and revival in Indian Hindu society. He was perhaps the first person who put forth and introduced the concept of hindu culture, yoga and vedanta to the western world. He is also known as the first Indian to appear and preach at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1983.
• The 11th President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam had immense knowledge in science and technology and contributed towards missile program of India. Switzerland has declared 26th May as Science day as a mark of honour to the visiting president of India. (on this day Kalam visited Switzerland)