INTRODUCTION
What strikes a visitor to India most is its mind-boggling heterogeneity, an awesome plurality that confounds and exasperates and yet evokes a binding interest in the land and its people. Doubtless, the ancient traders and historic marauders who came here from far away lands in search of riches fell in love with the soil and found their destination and place of settlement in the sub-continent rather than a staging post. A staggering variety within its confines in terms of its people, their languages, religions, cults and cultures as also its geographical features and weather which, perhaps, no other country, least of all a democratic nation, can boast of. And yet despite these stunning differences there exists a subtle binding force flowing through one end of the country to the other that underlines its enduringly mysterious unity. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime minister thus characterized the staggering phenomenon as unity in diversity, a mosaic of cultures and people. That gives India a distinct identity unmatched in the world. Indians never miss an opportunity to assert their pride in their land's assimilative variety.
India is a vast country ranking fourth in the world in size, a sixth of Mankind on a fortieth of the earth's land. In population, a little over 1 billion, it stands second only to neighbouring China. Newcomers are always amazed by the variety of colour, physical stature, anthropological features and sociological characteristics they find among the people of the sub-continent. From Nordic-Aryans and Indo-Europeans to Mediterranean Dravidians one finds almost all the hues of human species on the planet. In between there are people betraying Mongoloid origins, proto-Australoids, Negrito and Western Brachycephals. As you go from North to South, the paleness of people's colour seems to gradually yield to a dark hue. But that is only a general pattern. In a single family, whether in the South or the West, one may find members displaying different colours of skin, hair and eyes. To add to the grandeur of variety, India perhaps has the largest cattle population in the world, about 200 million at the last count.
Equally staggering is the variety of languages. India speaks in about 2000 tongues of which over fifty have their own scripts and literature. Nineteen fully developed languages each having a vast body of literature are officially recognised languages of the state. Name a religion in the world and it has adherents in the sub-continent. While Hindus form an overwhelming majority of 85 per cent, there are Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Zoroastrians living in close harmony all over India. There is a plethora of beautiful temples, magnificent churches, grand mosques, Buddhist Viharas old Synagogues and Parsi Fire Temples spread throughout the sub-continent. Mumbai (formerly Bombay), the Western commercial megalopolis, perhaps, represents exquisitely the grand religious, ethnic, cultural and linguistic variety of India in a miniature form. There is in the city an old Armenian Church, a Shinto Temple and a Bahai place of worship, just to mention a few.
In Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, particularly the latter, one may witness several centuries, nay civilizations living cheek by jowl. On the Diamond Harbour Road of Kolkata, emerging out of an air-conditioned cyber cafe, one may stumble on to an aboriginal family living on the footpath, cooking food with firewood, bathing and washing. Across the street, you may have to give way to a hand-cart puller or a bullock cart carrying a mountain of computer packages or vegetables. You might hire a three-wheeler or a two wheeler pulled by a man to rich destination in the neighbourhood. Or jump into a rambling tramcar while city buses careen around and sleek cars whiz past. Far above in the sky, a modern airliner may be zooming away to distant lands and underground the fast metro rumbles away.
Like its people, India's geology, geography and climes present a veritable panorama of the planet's history. Himalaya, world's highest and the youngest mountain system forms a formidable barrier to the north stretching uninterrupted from East to West for about 2,500 km covering an area of 500,000 sq. km. Its snowy glaciers - Siachen, the world's highest - feed India's major perennial rivers creating fertile valleys in the North and the West. Ganga, the sacred river of India, Yamuna, Sindhu and Brahmaputra have spawned civilizations along their fertile banks from the hoary past. Down below in the North-West, there is the oldest mountain systems in the world, the Aravalis, which over millions of years, has lost its glory and substance.
Vindhya and Satpura ranges running east to west in parallel formations traverse almost the entire peninsular India. Parallel across the Western coast are the Sahyadri Mountains. The Eastern coast is also lined with a hill system, irregular though, called Eastern Ghats. Each mountain system is dotted with hundreds of exotic beauty spots made easily accessible and equipped with modern amenities. There are skiing resorts in the Himalayas. Well planned mountaineering treks and river fording sports are also available in Himalayas and elsewhere. Each mountain range has its own peculiar majesty, grandeur and specific geological character. The forests, mostly sub-tropical and some of them perennial, harbour a variety of wild life. There are scores of wild life and bird sanctuaries which provide an exciting glimpse of the jungle world.
Proximity of Sahyadri has created numerous beautiful gorges, fiords, creeks and lagoons shaded by perennial green cover along the Arabian Sea coast particularly in Kerala, Goa and Konkan region of Maharashtra. These provide blissful coves of retreat known for their serene beauty. And the long pristine beaches along the Arabian Sea and also the Bay of Bengal - India has a 7,516 km.-long coastline - provide haven for sun-bathers and lovers of all kinds of water sports. At several places along the backwaters of Kerala traditional rowing tournaments, complete with colourful festivities, fetch rowing buffs and spectators in large numbers.
Down from the snow-topped Himalayas and across the fertile plains of Punjab stretch the undulating sandy deserts of Rajasthan, stark and hot, bereft of greenery and yet known for a riotous celebration of colours. As if to compensate for the nature's chicanery, the people of Rajasthan have created their own world of beautiful colours - the rich textiles, the turbans of men and the flowing ghagaras of women, ornamental embroidery, exquisite jewellery, the huts, the houses and the princely mansions. It is said that every village housewife, every child of Rajasthan is a born artiste endowed with a talent for brush and colour. Miniature paintings of Rajasthan School have admirers across the world. The exotic cities of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bikaner known for their harmonious architecture and a superb blend of colours offer a feast to the discerning eye.
But the vibrancy of folk art, colour, folk dance and music is not confined to Rajasthan. It manifests in the harsh terrain of Ladakh, in the colourful life styles of the north-eastern tribes of Arunachal, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura and in the tribal belts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Maharashtra. The traditional village fairs, whether in tribal habitats or agricultural villages of the plains, express the quintessential spirit of rural India. A fair is a veritable riot of sound and music, fun and games, feast of local delicacies, songs and dances and a market of astoundingly colourful local handicrafts. A heartening glimpse of a robust and vigorous India of indomitable hope. There are over 700,000 villages in India and thousands of fairs are held annually. Some of these have earned a reputation attracting visitors from all corners of the country and abroad.
PEOPLE
Nepal has a population of more than 18 million people made of different races living in different regions, with diverse culture, languages and dialects. The Gurungs and Magars live mainly in the west. The Rais, Limbus and Sunuwars inhabits the slopes and valleys of the Eastern mid hills. The Sherpas live in the Himalayan region. The Newars constitute an important ethnic group of the capital valley Kathmandu.
There are Tharus, Yadavas, Satar, Rajvanshis and Dhimals in the Terai region. The Brahmans, Chhetris and Thakuris are spread generally over all parts of the Kingdom.