Mysterious India. India is an interesting and exciting holiday, rich in cultural heritage and unique nature. Perhaps you have long thought to visit some unforgettable place. India is the best suited for these purposes. India is chosen by tourists who want to relax on magnificent beaches, buy quality things, as well as see ancient buildings and beautiful places.
Geographic location of India
The Republic of India is located on the territory of the Hindustan peninsula, the shores of which go into the waters of the Indian Ocean. China, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Nepal are located on the northern side of India, Burma and Bangladesh are located on the eastern side, and Pakistan is located on the western side. India occupies almost 3,300,000 sq. km and is inhabited by almost 1 billion local residents. Time in the country is slightly different from Moscow, 2.3 hours ahead, and in the summer by 1.3 hours. The largest populated cities are Delhi, Bombay, Kolkata, Madras.
Places of the most interesting and exciting holidays in India
India has a huge number of beautiful beaches that are famous for their exquisite beauty throughout the world. Tourists mainly choose beach areas in Kerala and Goa. But the beaches of Mumbai are famous for their active nightlife. On these beaches there are places with bright discos where a huge number of travelers spend their time, among which you can meet not only ordinary vacationers, but also some celebrities.
There are also great diving spots here. And lovers of a relaxing holiday will have the opportunity to enjoy the indescribable beauty of the local nature.
Lovers of shopping with all their hearts will be able to please themselves with local strikingly beautiful souvenirs, which are sold here in abundance. It is also worth paying attention to fabrics in local shops where you can find cashmere, Rajasthani cotton and the most delicate silk. Local tea is no less popular. But do not forget about the spicy spices that are here High Quality and at an extremely low price, such as turmeric, saffron, cinnamon, and a huge number of others.
No less tempting are local decorations, which are made of various metals, gold, silver, copper, brass, with the use of stones and other finishes.
Indian cuisine and attractions
Restaurants with local cuisine will please any gourmet, as there are dishes for almost every taste. The main difference indian cuisine It is considered the use of spices that local chefs know how to correctly add even to sweets.
India has a huge number of places worth seeing, because throughout its territory there is a large cluster of ancient buildings and ancient fortresses. This republic has organized regular excursions to the most the best places, which showcase local ancient tombs, majestic temples, and much more, into which a large amount of restoration effort has been invested.
Not less than interesting place for recreation in India, these are walks in local reserves, plantations on which various spices are grown.
After numerous excursions and walks, you should definitely relax and sunbathe on the spacious beaches, which differ high level service.
In the south of Asia there was a huge country - Ancient India. It occupies the Indian subcontinent and the part of the mainland adjacent to it. The shores of India from the west and east are washed by the Indian Ocean. Mountains serve as its border from the north. Almost the entire island is occupied by plateaus. Between the plateau and the Himalayas there is a lowland, in its western part the Indus flows, in the eastern part the Ganges flows. Both rivers originate in the Himalayas, when snow melts in the mountains, the water level rises. The first settlements arose in the valleys of the Indus and Ganges rivers. In ancient times, the Ganges valley was covered with marshy swamps and jungles, impenetrable thickets of trees and shrubs.
The extremely insufficient number of sources, both monuments of material culture, and in particular inscriptions, greatly complicates the study of history. ancient india. Archaeological excavations began in India relatively recently and gave tangible results only in the northwestern regions, where the ruins of cities and settlements dating back to the period from the 25th to the 15th centuries were discovered. BC e. However, the excavations started in these areas have not yet been completed, and the hieroglyphic inscriptions found here have not yet been deciphered.
Of great importance for the study of the history of ancient India are the religious collections of the ancient Hindus, the so-called Vedas. These sacred books of ancient India, dating back to the second millennium BC. e., are divided into four large collections (samhita), bearing the names Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda and the latest, later attached to the first three, the fourth collection Atharvaveda. The oldest of these collections is the Rigveda, which consists mainly of religious hymns dedicated to the gods. In other collections, in particular in the Yajurveda, along with chants and hymns, there are many prayer and sacrificial formulas that were used in the performance of a religious ritual, especially in honor of the god of the intoxicating drink Soma. The Vedas make it possible to establish some data on the economic and social structure of those tribes that invaded Northwestern India in the middle of the second millennium. But the Vedas provide especially rich material for the study of religion, mythology, and partly poetry of this period. However, the Vedas as a source for the history of ancient India can only be used with great
The Vedas, gradually becoming more and more incomprehensible, began to be supplied with interpretations, among which the most famous are the Brahmans, containing explanations of religious rituals, the Aranyakas, containing various religious and philosophical reasoning, and the Upanishads, a kind of theological treatises. These later religious books characterize the development of ancient Indian religion, theology and priesthood during the formation of the great Indian states in the first millennium BC. e.
Essential sources for studying the history and culture of India in the first millennium BC. e. are two large epic poems containing many elements of oral folk art, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.
Valuable sources on the history of ancient India are the ancient collections of customary law, the so-called Dharmashastra, relating for the most part to the end of the first millennium BC. e. These collections of ancient law, closely related to the religious-magical ritual, define the duties rather than the rights of a person.
Particularly widespread was the collection of laws of Manu, the compilation of which is attributed to Manu, the legendary progenitor of people. The Laws of Manu were drawn up around the 3rd century BC. BC e. and finally edited in the III century. n. e.
Of great importance as a valuable source on the history of ancient India is the political and economic treatise Arthashastra, which is attributed to Kautilya, one of the ministers of King Chandragupta of the Maurya dynasty. This treatise, containing a detailed system of government controlled, comprehensively describes the activities of the king and officials, the foundations of statehood, administrative management, court cases, foreign policy states, finally, the military art of that time.
Significantly narrower are the inscriptions relating mainly to the early Buddhist period. Many inscriptions have been preserved from the time of King Ashoka.
In the second half of the first millennium BC. e. the states of North India enter into various relations with Iran, Greece and Macedonia. Therefore, for the study of this period, foreign sources, the testimonies of foreigners about India, are of great importance.
A number of valuable geographical information, as well as information about the natural wealth, customs of the population and cities of ancient India, were preserved in the extensive historical and geographical work of Strabo (1st century BC - 1st century AD). Strabo's work is especially valuable, since it is based on a number of special works of his predecessors: Megasthenes, Nearchus, Eratosthenes, and others.
Of great importance among the works of Greek writers who wrote about ancient India is the book of Arrian "Anabasis", which has survived to our time, dedicated to detailed description campaigns of Alexander the Great, in particular his campaign in India.
Finally, the works of Chinese historians and writers are of undoubted interest in the study of the history of ancient India, in particular the valuable work of Sima Qian, important for establishing chronology, as well as the works of Chinese writers who lived in the 2nd century BC. BC e. Chinese sources provide a great deal of material for the history of ancient India during the period of the spread of Buddhism, when relations between India and China became closer.
The historical tradition was preserved throughout the Middle Ages in Indian chronicles. Many confused and chaotic traditions have been preserved, for example, in the Kashmir Chronicle (XIII century AD). In some chronicles of South India and Ceylon, as, for example, in Dipavamza, dating back to the 4th century. n. e., interesting legends have been preserved dating back to the reign of the Maurya dynasty. However, all these works, strongly saturated with religious and instructive ideology, need a strictly critical study.
During the entire Middle Ages, relatively little information about India penetrated into Europe.
The study of epigraphic monuments of ancient India began in the 30s of the 19th century. Prinsep, who deciphered the inscriptions of King Ashoka. However, the approach to the archaeological study of India began only in the second half of the 19th century.
The development of Indology was used by reactionary historians, philosophers and publicists in the second half of the 19th century. in order to justify and justify the cruel regime of colonial oppression of India. Pseudo-scientific "theories" of the primordial superiority of the fantastic "race" of the Aryan conquerors of Northern India, who possessed some kind of "supernaturally pure" blood and allegedly created a culture and statehood completely different from all others, appeared. According to these "theories", this ancient Indo-Aryan, primarily "spiritual", civilization inexplicably originated on the plateaus of Central Asia or Eastern Iran, among the snowy peaks of the Himalayas and the Pamirs, where, according to the ancient legends of the Aryans, was the cradle of mankind. And in an equally surprising way, this “ancient Aryan culture” described in ancient myths developed over the course of millennia along a completely special path, in complete isolation from the progressive development of socio-economic formations among all other peoples. These tendentious "theories" were supposed to substantiate the policy of imperialist exploitation of India and incitement of national enmity between the various tribes of Hindustan, in particular religious hatred between Muslims and Hindus. The English and American colonialists, using for their own purposes the false "theory" of "India's special spiritual destiny", relied on the aristocratic layer of princely families (rajas) and the high priesthood (brahmins), who considered themselves the true descendants of the Aryan conquerors. The English bourgeois historian Smith argued that the Aryan conquerors in the 7th century. BC e. captured the Punjab region and the Ganges basin, as they were "strong races" who "undoubtedly surpassed the native races of India." In fact, even in the classical literature of ancient India, memories of the high culture of the ancient indigenous peoples of India were preserved even in the pre-Aryan era. Archaeological data have now made it possible to attribute the ruins of the ancient cities of Northwestern India to the third millennium BC. e., to assume the existence of the most ancient states in the Indus and Ganges valleys in the third or second millennium BC. e. and establish the high flowering of this culture, which existed until the so-called Aryan invasion, which apparently took place between the 15th and 10th centuries. BC e. On the other hand, ancient Indian written sources, in particular the Vedas, clearly depict the nomadic life of the culturally backward pastoral tribes of the Aryan conquerors. All these reactionary theories in the history of ancient India were used to strengthen the power of the imperialists in India.
At the beginning of the XX century. the most reactionary and most false imperialist "theory" of the "Aryan principle" of world domination took shape, which was "ideologically" substantiated by X. S. Chamberlain. In 1935, the reactionary historian W. Durant, in his book The Oriental Inheritance, argued that, following the Aryans and Romans, the British entered the arena of history as conquerors of the world. At present, reactionary American historians are trying to use the misanthropic "racial theory" to substantiate the claims of the US imperialists to world domination. From this point of view, American historians describe the history of ancient India in an extremely biased way, without stopping at the obvious falsification of historical facts.
Many Indian historians of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, waging an ideological struggle against foreign oppressors, greatly contributed to the development of the study of the history of ancient India, which was based on the deep use of ancient classical literature, inscriptions and archaeological sites.
Russian scientists from the middle of the XIX century. fruitfully studied the language, literature and religion of ancient India. The works of K. Kossovich, V. P. Vasiliev, and O. Miller contributed much to the study of Sanskrit literature, in particular, ancient poetry, as well as Buddhism. Valuable works on ancient Indian literature, mythology, and pre-Buddhist religion were compiled by I. P. Minaev, D. N. Ovsyanniko-Kulikovskii, and Vs. Miller in the 70-90s of the last century. As early as 1870 IP Minaev raised an interesting question about the connections of ancient India with the West. Of no less interest is Minaev's theory of the northern origin of the Buddhist religion. Having visited India three times in 1879-1888, Minaev, due to his extensive knowledge and original ideas stood out among the learned Indians of his time. Works of Russian scientists of the XIX century. based on a serious study of the ancient Indian language (Sanskrit). Back in 1841, Professor Petrov taught Sanskrit in Kazan, and later in Moscow. The largest Sanskrit dictionary was compiled by Betling and Roth and published in St. Petersburg in 1855-1874. However, despite the large scientific materials collected and studied for the first time by Russian scientists of the 19th century, their works are still typical works of bourgeois historiography.
Soviet historians who study the history of ancient India in the light of Marxist-Leninist methodology have produced a number of valuable works on the history of ancient India.
From a Marxist standpoint, the history of ancient India is also studied by the most progressive historians of modern India, such as, for example, S. A. Dange, who devoted a special work to the question of the emergence and development of a slave-owning society in ancient India.
The history of South Asia can be divided into the following periods:
I. The most ancient civilization (Indian) dates back approximately to the XXIII-XVIII centuries BC. e. (the emergence of the first cities, the formation of early states).
II. By the second half of the II millennium BC. e. refers to the emergence of Indo-European tribes, the so-called Aryans. The period from the end of the II millennium to the VII century. BC e. is called "Vedic" - according to the sacred literature of the Vedas created at that time. Two main stages can be distinguished: the early one (XIII-X centuries BC) is characterized by the settlement of Aryan tribes in North India, the late social and political differentiation that led to the formation of the first states (IX-VII centuries BC) .), mainly in the Ganges valley.
III. "Buddhist period" (VI-III centuries BC) - the time of the emergence and spread of the Buddhist religion. From the point of view of socio-economic and political history, it is marked by the rapid development of the economy, the formation of cities and the emergence of large states, up to the creation of the all-India Mauryan state.
IV. 2nd century BC e.-V century AD e. can be defined as the "classical era" of the flourishing of the economy and culture of the countries of South Asia, the formation of the caste system.
Answer: The Republic of India is located in South Asia on the Hindustan Peninsula. It also includes the Laccadive Islands in the Arabian Sea, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. India borders on Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar. The maximum length of India - from north to south - 3200 km, from west to east - 2700 km. The mineral resources of India are significant and varied. The main deposits are located in the northeast of the country. Here are the largest iron ore, coal basins, deposits of manganese ore; this creates favorable conditions for the development of heavy industries.
6. What are the features of the development of the economy of the countries of South Asia.
Answer: The modern economy of Latin American countries is characterized by some of the most common features that have historically developed and continue to determine the economic face of the region. One of them is the diversity of the economy. In agriculture, this feature is manifested in the preservation of latifundism and various forms of pre-capitalist agrarian relations associated with it. Only in Chile, Panama and Cuba, and partially in Mexico, latifundism has been eliminated. In addition, in the agriculture of many countries capitalist relations of production are actively developing, with wage labor inherent in them, and large monopolies are operating. In some countries, cooperative and state farms have been established. A certain diversity is also observed in industry. Almost half of the region's labor force is made up of artisans, workers in artisanal enterprises or small factories, who together produce less than 8% of the value of industrial output. Along with this, there are large industrial enterprises owned by local capital, the state and foreign monopolies. Another of the common and, in fact, negative features of the modern economies of Latin American countries, which many of them fail to overcome, is the mono-product specialization. The monopoly on land and other natural resources, which is retained by the privileged strata of society, the limited domestic market and the often insufficient development of the modern manufacturing industry are all significant factors that cause the traditional orientation of national economies to the markets of developed countries.
7. Provide evidence that China is a dynamically developing country in the world.
Answer A: China has one of the highest GDP growth rates. China's labor resources are truly unlimited, many of the world's leading corporations have their main production facilities in China, which provides an unprecedented level of employment.
8. The modern transport system of Japan is one of the most highly developed in the world. Prove this thesis.
Answer: A distinctive feature of Japan's transportation system, compared to other countries, is a greater degree of dependence on railways. More than 52% of the total passenger and freight traffic is carried out by rail (at the end of 1992). In addition, today rail transport is at the beginning of a qualitatively new stage of development. The road network is being consistently expanded and modernized, the use of magnetic levitation trains is increasing, the computerization of rolling stock is growing rapidly, it has been possible to reduce the time of transportation (especially for passengers) due to the branching of the superhighway network. Special plans for the development of urban transport also provide for a reduction in the cost of maintaining urban rail transport by creating additional highways and transferring part of the passenger traffic to bus lines and the metro. In addition to Tokyo, subways also exist in 8 other cities in Japan, including Osaka and Nagoya.
India is located in South Asia, and most of it is located on the Hindustan Peninsula. In the northwest, India borders on Pakistan, in the north - on Afghanistan, in the northeast - on China, Nepal and Bhutan, and in the east - on Myanmar and Bangladesh. In the southwest, India is washed by the waters of the Arabian Sea, in the southeast - by the Bay of Bengal, belonging to the Indian Ocean basin. In the south, India is separated from Sri Lanka by the rather narrow Strait of Polk. The advantage of the economic and geographical position is determined, first of all, by the location of India, halfway between the countries of Southwest and Southeast Asia. At the same time, the land borders of India for the most part pass along hard-to-reach frontiers: India is separated from Pakistan by the Thar Desert, from Afghanistan, China, Nepal and Bhutan - by the highest mountains of the world - the Himalayas, Hindu Kush and Karakoram, from Myanmar and Bangladesh - impenetrable jungle. The wealth of Indian nature is in its diversity. 3/4 of the country's territory is occupied by plains and plateaus. India resembles a huge triangle with its apex pointing towards the Indian Ocean. Along the base of the Indian triangle stretched the Karakoram, Gin-dukush and Himalaya mountain ranges. South of the Himalayas lies the vast, fertile Indo-Gangetic plain. To the west of the Indo-Gangetic Plain lies the barren Thar Desert. Further south is the Deccan Plateau, which occupies most of central and southern India. On both sides, the plateau is bordered by the mountains of the Eastern and Western Ghats, their foothills are occupied by tropical forests. The climate of India in most of its territory is subequatorial, monsoonal. In the north and northwest - tropical, where precipitation is about 100 mm / year. On the windward slopes of the Himalayas, 5000-6000 mm of precipitation falls annually, and in the center of the peninsula - 300-500 mm. In summer, up to 80% of all precipitation falls. The largest rivers of India - the Ganges, the Indus, the Brahmaputra, originate in the mountains and are fed by snow-glacier and rain. The rivers of the Deccan plateau are fed by rain. During the winter monsoon, the rivers of the plateau dry up. In the north of the country, brown-red and red-brown savannah soils predominate, in the center - black and gray tropical and red-earth laterinth soils. In the south - yellow earth and red earth, developed on lava covers. Coastal lowlands and river valleys are covered with rich alluvial soils. The natural vegetation of India has been greatly altered by man. Monsoon forests have survived only 10-15% of the original area. Every year, the forest area in India is reduced by 1.5 million hectares. ha. Acacias and palm trees grow in the savannahs. In subtropical forests - sandalwood, teak, bamboo, coconut palms. In the mountains, altitudinal zonality is clearly expressed. In India, the animal world is rich and diverse: deer, antelopes, elephants, tigers, Himalayan bears, rhinos, panthers, monkeys, wild boars, many snakes, birds, fish. The recreational resources of India are of world importance: coastal, historical, cultural, architectural, etc. India has significant mineral reserves. Manganese deposits are concentrated in central and eastern India. The bowels of India are rich in chromites, iron ore, uranium, thorium, copper, bauxites, gold, magnesites, mica, diamonds, precious and semi-precious stones. Coal reserves in the country amount to 120 billion tons (Bihar state and West Bengal). India's oil and gas are concentrated in the Asamu valley and on the plains of Gujaratu, as well as on the shelf of the Arabian Sea near Bombay. Adverse natural phenomena in India are droughts, earthquakes, floods (8 million hectares), fires, avalanches in the mountains, soil erosion (6 billion tons the country loses), desertification in western India, and deforestation.
The population of India as of May 18, 2016 is 1,289,020,000 according to . The population of India as of July 2014 is 1,236,344,631. India's population growth rate is 1.2%, which is 94th among all countries in the world in 2013. The population of India is more than 1.27 billion people in 2014, which is more than one sixth of the world's population (17.5% of the world's population). India is projected to become the most populous country in the world by 2025, surpassing China. India's population reached 1 billion in 1998.
India is located on a peninsula in the form of an isosceles triangle. The favorable physical and geographical position of India and the concentration of important air and sea routes contribute to the unification of the South-Eastern and South-Asian states with Africa and Europe. This is washed by the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. India includes the Nicobar, Amindive, Andaman and other islands. State with with total area 3.287 million km² stretches from south to north for 3214 km and from west to east for about 3000 km. If its land boundary corresponds to 15,200 km, then the sea one is approximately 6,000 km. Most major ports are located either artificially (Chennai) or in (Kolkata). The south of the east coast is called Coromandel, and the south of the west coast of the Hindustan Peninsula is called Malabar. Geographical position markedly different from the location of modern India. In the past, the state corresponded to the territory of some countries taken together (Iran, Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia and Syria).
At present, in the east, India is in contact with Myanmar, Bhutan and Bangladesh; in the north it borders on Afghanistan, Nepal and China; adjoins Pakistan from the western side. Almost three quarters are filled with plateaus. The northern part of India is fenced off from other countries with the help of the Himalayas - the highest mountains in the world, accumulating a huge amount of moisture and heat. This mountain range rises above the Indo-Gangetic lowland and extends near the border of China, Afghanistan and Nepal. It is in the Himalayas that the great and Ganges arise. the most beautiful place in India is Goa, which is located next to the Arabian Sea.
This rapidly developing, agro-industrial state has achieved many recognitions in the economy. The national policy is aimed at the formation of the space program, industrialization and agrarian reforms. Indian industry consists of different types production - from giant new factories to primitive handicrafts.
The main economic and geographical features are:
- the favorable economic and geographical position of India in the south of Asia, where the sea routes from the Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean are located;
- unresolved territorial issues related to China and Pakistan;
- complex economic ties due to the terrain with countries located in the north.
Not only India's favorable geographical position attracts many foreign investors, but also the economy, which is rather controversial. Along with the rapid pace of industrial development Agriculture continues to move rapidly. It involves 520 million people, of which more than half work in the agricultural sector; a quarter - in the service sector; the remaining amount - in the industry, the main areas of which are engineering, automotive, consumer electronics and much more.
Thus, the economic and geographical position of India is favorable to the development of its economy, and the country manages to achieve success in the development of its economy.
