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P E O P L E
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Indian(s).
Population (2000 est.): 1 billion; urban 27%.
Annual growth rate: 1.8%.
Density: 271/sq. km.
Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid 2%, others.
Religions: Hindu 82%, Muslim 12%, Christian 2.5%, Sikh 2%, other groups including Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, etc. 1.5%.
Languages: Hindi, English, and 14 other official languages.
Education: Years compulsory--9 (to age 14). Literacy--48%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--81/1,000. Life expectancy--61 years.
Work Force (est.): 306 million. Agriculture--67%. Industry and commerce--19%. Services and government--8%. Transport and communications--3%.
Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports over 15% of the world's population. Only China has a larger population. Almost 40% of Indians are younger than 15 years of age. About 70% of the people live in more than 550,000 villages, and the remainder in more than 200 towns and cities.
Over thousands of years of its history, India has been invaded from the Iranian plateau, Central Asia, Arabia, Afghanistan, and the West; Indian people and culture have absorbed and changed these influences to produce a remarkable racial and cultural synthesis.
Religion, caste, and language are major determinants of social and political organization in India today. The government has recognized 16 languages as official; Hindi is the most widely spoken.
Although 83% of the people are Hindu, India also is the home of more than 120 million Muslims--one of the world's largest Muslim populations. The population also includes Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Parsis.
The caste system reflects Indian historical occupation and religiously defined hierarchies. Traditionally, there are four castes identified, plus a category of outcastes, earlier called "untouchables" but now commonly referred to as "dalits," the oppressed. In reality, however, there are thousands of subcastes and it is with these subcastes that the majority of Hindus identify. Despite economic modernization and laws countering discrimination against the lower end of the class structure, the caste system remains an important factor in Indian society.
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