India Profile
History, Economy, and Foreign Relations
Although Indiaoccupies only 2.4 percent of the world’s land area, it supports over 15 percentof the world’s population. Only Chinahas a larger population. Almost 33 percent of Indians are younger than 15 yearsof age. About 70 percent live in more than 550,000 villages, and the remainderin more than 200 towns and cities. Over the thousands of years of its history, India has been invaded from the Iranian plateau,Central Asia, Arabia, Afghanistan, and the West; Indianpeople and culture have absorbed and modified these influences to produce aremarkable racial and cultural synthesis. Religion,caste, and language are major determinants of social and…
