India

Abstract

One of the truly massive countries of the world, with an area of over three and a quarter million square kilometres, India offers a rich mix of contradictions, and a wide range of potential problems. There is a wide spread of technological capability, ranging from that essentially 2000 years old, to futuristic twenty-first century aspirations. Around 70 per cent of the population is engaged in agriculture, often with little mechanisation. In parallel with this, India maintains an active space research programme. The image that captures modern India is that of the sacred cow grazing in the shadow of the satellite dish. The population (687 million at the 1981 census, second only to China) is growing uncomfortably quickly, despite a controversial birth-control programme. Despite an average 3.7 per cent annual growth rate in its economy 1951–86, India is still one of the poorest countries, with one-third of its people living below the poverty line (Bordia, 1988). There are some two dozen separate states with considerable autonomy, not always in total accord with central government. India has at least 14 major languages, with upwards of 200 significant dialects and associated alphabets, with Hindi, spoken by 50 per cent of the population and written in the standardised ‘Devanagari’ script, as the ‘national’ language. English is widely spoken as a consequence of 150 years of colonial rule, which ended in 1947, and in effect acts as a second national language.