Its Land & People

The Geographical magnitude and vastness of India is matched only by the ethno-cultural diversity of the people who inhabit it. India is an old country, an ancient civilization, but also a young nation and an emerging superpower with a formidable technological know-how and knowledge base of its own.

The subcontinent of India lies in south Asia, between Pakistan, China and Nepal. To the north it is bordered by the world’s highest mountain chain, where foothill valleys cover the northernmost of the country’s 25 states. Further south, plateaus, tropical rain forests and sandy deserts are bordered by palm fringed beaches.

India’s mountains provide heli-skiing, river running, trekking, and mountaineering. Its beaches provide lazy sunbathing as well as wind surfing and snorkeling, and its jungles provide shooting wildlife with a camera.

India’s history goes back to 3,200 BC when Hinduism was first founded. Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam all exist within the country today. As a consequence of India’s size, the history of the country has seldom been the same for two adjoining territories, and its great natural wealth has lured a succession of traders and foreign influences to it, each having left their imprint in the country, however faint or localized. Thus Chinese fishing nets in Kerala are throwback to that country’s ancient maritime trade, while in the north, terracotta figurines of the BC centuries bear distinctly Greek traces.

Modern India is home alike to the tribal with its anachronistic lifestyle and to the sophisticated urban jet-setter. It is a land where temple elephants exist amicably with the microchip. Its ancient monuments are the backdrop for the world’s largest democracy. Where atomic energy is generated and industrial development has brought the country within the world’s top ten nations. Today, fishermen along the country’s coastline fashion simple fishing boats in a centuries old tradition while, a few miles away, motor vehicles glide off conveyor belts in state-of-the-art factories and many a blue print for Internet start-up and Information Technology plans come to fruition.