Indian people orIndians are thecitizens and nationals of theRepublic of India or people who trace their ancestry to India. While the demonym "Indian" applies to people originating from the present-day India, it was also used as the identifying term for people originating from what is nowBangladesh andPakistan prior to thePartition of India in 1947.[37][38] The term "Indian" does not refer to a single ethnic group, but is used as an umbrella term for the variousethnic groups in India.
The nameBhārata has been used as a self-ascribed name by people of theIndian subcontinent and theRepublic of India since 1949.[42] The designation"Bhārata" appears in the official Sanskrit name of the country,Bhārata Gaṇarājya. The name is derived from the ancientVedic andPuranas, which refer to the land that constitutes India asBhārata varṣam and uses this term to distinguish it from othervarṣas or continents.[43] TheBhāratas were a vedic tribe mentioned in theRigveda, notably participating in theBattle of the Ten Kings.[44] India is named after legendaryEmperor Bharata who was a descendant of theBhāratas tribe, scion ofKuru Dynasty who unified theIndian Subcontinent under one realm.[45]
"The country (varṣam) that lies north of theocean and south of the snowy mountains is calledBhāratam; there dwell the descendants of Bharata." -Vishnu Purana[46][47]
In earlyVedic literature, the termĀryāvarta (Sanskrit: आर्यावर्त) was in popular use beforeBhārata. TheManusmṛti (2.22) gives the nameĀryāvarta to "the tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges, from the Eastern (Bay of Bengal) to the Western Sea (Arabian Sea)".[48][49]
While the word Indian and India is derived fromGreekἸνδία (Indía), via LatinIndia.Indía inKoine Greek denoted the region beyond theIndus (Ἰνδός) river, sinceHerodotus (5th century BC)ἡ Ἰνδική χώρη,hē Indikē chōrē; "the Indian land",Ἰνδός,Indos, "an Indian", fromOld PersianHinduš and medieval termHindustani.[50] The name is derived ultimately fromSindhu, theSanskrit name of the river Indus, but also meaning "river" generically.[51]
During the early medieval period the greatRashtrakuta dynasty governed most of the Indian subcontinent from the 8th to 10th centuries and theAmoghavarsha of the Rashtrakuta Dynasty was described by the Arab traveller Sulaiman as one of the four great kings of the world.[56] The medieval south Indian mathematicianMahāvīra lived in theRashtrakuta dynasty and was the first Indian mathematician who separated astrology from mathematics and who wrote the earliest Indian text entirely devoted to mathematics.[57] The greatest maritime empire of the medieval Indians was theChola dynasty. Under the greatRajaraja Chola I and his successorRajendra Chola I the Chola dynasty became a military, economic and cultural power inSouth Asia andSouth-East Asia.[58][59] The power of theChola empire was proclaimed to the eastern world by the expedition to theGanges whichRajendra Chola I undertook and by the occupation of cities of the maritime empire ofSrivijaya inSoutheast Asia, as well as by the repeated embassies to China.[60]
TheMughal Empire consolidated much of the Indian sub-continent under a single realm. Under the Mughals, India developed a strong and stable economy, leading to commercial expansion and greater patronage of culture, greatly influencing Indian society.[63] TheMughal Empire balanced and pacified local societies through new administrative practices[64][65] and had diverse and inclusive ruling elites,[66] leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule.[67] Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as theMarathas, theRajputs, thePathans, theJats and theSikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military experience.[68][69][70][71]
Following the death of Aurangzeb in the early 18th century, the empire saw the emergence of autonomous regional powers such asMarathas, theRajputs and variousde facto independent Mughal governors and other Hindu and Muslim princely states, though they all continued to recognise theMughal emperor as theirsuzerain.[72] The period also saw the emergence of theBritish East India Company who took control of large parts of the empire, though they nominally ruled and traded under the authority of the emperor and nominally considered him as their suzerain. The regions underCompany rule witnessed a period of rapid development of infrastructure, economic decline andmajor famines.[73][74] During the first half of the 20th century, a nationwide struggle forIndian independence movement was launched, the Indian subcontinent gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, after the British provinces were partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan and theprincely states allacceded to one of the new states.[75][76][77]
Goddess Lakshmi on gold coinage issued underGupta Empire, c. 380 ADDiwali is a major Indian festival, which is known as festival of lights.Holi is a major Indian festival of colors celebrated every spring.
Although approximately 80% of the citizens of India areHindus, the country has a substantial population of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains,Parsis and adherents of tribal faiths.[103]Zoroastrianism andJudaism each has several thousands of Indian adherents, and also have an ancient history in India.[104] India has the largest population of people adhering toZoroastrianism andBaháʼí Faith in the world, even though these two religions are not native to India.[105] Many other world religions also have a relationship with Indian spirituality, such as the Baháʼí Faith which recognisesBuddha andKrishna as manifestations of the God Almighty.[106] Despite the strong role of religion in Indian life,atheism andagnostics also have visible influence along with a self-ascribed tolerance to other people. According to the 2012 WIN-Gallup Global Index of Religion and Atheism report, 81% of Indians were religious, 13% were not religious, 3% were convincedatheists, and 3% were unsure or did not respond.[107]
Traditionally, Indian society is grouped according to theircaste. It is a system in whichsocial stratification within various social sections defined by thousands ofendogamous hereditary groups are often termedjāti orcastes. Within ajāti, there existsexogamous groups known asgotras, the lineage or clan of an individuals.[108] Caste barriers have mostly broken down in cities but still exists in some form in rural areas.[109]
Most Indian states are majorityHindu. However,Jammu and Kashmir andLakshadweep are majority Muslim;Nagaland,Mizoram, andMeghalaya are majority Christian,Punjab is majority Sikh, andLadakh andArunachal Pradesh are majority non-Hindu but do not have a single religious majority group. In most non-Hindu majority Indian states and union territories, Hindus constitute a large minority. Although participants in the Indian census may choose to not declare their religion, there is no mechanism for a person to indicate that he/she does not adhere to any religion. Due to this limitation in the Indian census process, the data for persons not affiliated with any religion may not be accurate. India contains the majority of the world'sHindus,Jains,Sikhs,Zoroastrians andBaháʼí.Christianity is widespread inNortheast India, parts of southern India, particularly inKerala and among various populations of Central India.Muslims are the largest religious minority. India is also home to the third-largestMuslim population in the world afterIndonesia andPakistan.[110][111][112]
Family
Indian bride in traditional wedding attire
Historically, India had a prevailing tradition of thejoint family system orundivided family. Joint family system is anextended family arrangement prevalent throughout theIndian subcontinent, particularly inIndia.[113] The family is headed by a patriarch, the oldest male, who makes decisions on economic and social matters on behalf of the entire family. The patriarch's wife generally exerts control over the household, minor religious practices and often wields considerable influence in domestic matters. A patrilineal joint family consists of an older man and his wife, his sons and unmarried daughters, his sons' wives and children. Family income flows into a common pool, from which resources are drawn to meet the needs of all members, which are regulated by the heads of the family.[114] However, with modernisation and economic development, India has witnessed a break up of traditional joint family into morenuclear families and the traditional joint family in India accounted for a small percent of Indian households.[115][116]
Arranged marriages have been the tradition in Indian society. Marriage is considered a union of the two families rather than just the individuals, the process involved in an arranged marriage can be different depending on the communities and families. Recent survey study found that fewer marriages are purely arranged without consent and that the majority of surveyed Indian marriages are arranged with consent.[117] The study also suggested that Indian culture is trending away from traditional arranged marriages, they find that the marriage trends in India are similar to trends observed over last 40 years where arranged marriages were previously common, particularly in China and Japan.[117]
Dress
India's clothing styles have continuously evolved over the course of history.Cotton was first cultivated inIndian subcontinent around the 5th millennium BC.[118] Dyes used during this period are still in use, particularlyindigo,red madder,lac andturmeric.[119]Silk was woven around 2450 BC and 2000 BC.[120][121] In the 11th century BCRig-veda mentions dyed and embroidered garments known asparidhan andpesas respectively and thus highlights the development of sophisticated garment manufacturing techniques during this period.[122] In the 5th century BCE, Greek historianHerodotus describes the richness of the quality of Indian textiles.[123] By the 2nd century AD,cotton,muslins andsilk textiles manufactured in India were imported by theRoman Empire and was one of the major exports of ancient India to other parts of the world along withIndian spices andWootz steel.[124]Traditional Indian clothing greatly varies across different parts of the country and is influenced by local culture, geography and climate. Women traditionally wearSari,Gagra Choli,Angarkha,Phiran,Shalwar Kameez,Gharara andBandi withDupatta orGhoonghat worn over head or shoulder to complete the outfit.[125] Men traditionally wearAngarkha,Achkan,Bagalbandi,Kurta,Kameez,Phiran,Sherwani andKoti for upper garment, lower garment includesDhoti,Churidar,Shalwar, andLungi.Pagri is usually worn around head to complete the outfit.[126] In urban centres, people often wear western clothing and variety of other contemporary fashion.[127]
Indian food varies from region to region. Staple foods of Indian cuisine include a variety of lentils (dal), whole-wheat flour (aṭṭa), rice and millet (kutki, kodra, bājra), which has been cultivated inIndian subcontinent since 6200 BCE.[128][129] Over time, segments of the population embracedvegetarianism duringŚramaṇa movement[130][131] while an equitable climate permitted a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains to be grown throughout the year. A food classification system that categorised any item assaatvic,raajsic ortaamsic developed inAyurveda tradition.[132][133] TheBhagavad Gita prescribed certain dietary practices. During this period, consumption of various types of meat becametaboo, due to being considered sacred or impure.[134][135]Indian cuisines use numerous ingredients, deploy a wide range of food preparation styles, cooking techniques and culinary presentation depending ongeographical location.[136]
The oldest preserved examples of Indian music are the melodies of theSamaveda (1000 BC) that are still sung in certainŚrauta sacrifices; this is the earliest account of Indian musical hymns.[137] The Samaveda, and otherHindu texts, heavily influencedIndia's classical music tradition, which is known today in two distinct styles:Hindustani music andCarnatic music. Both the Hindustani and Carnatic music systems are based on the melodic base known asRāga, sung to a rhythmic cycle known asTāla. These principles were refined in thenātyaśāstra (200 BC) and thedattilam (300 AD).[138]
The image of Bharat Mata formed with theIndian independence movement of the late 19th century. A play by Kiran Chandra Bandyopadhyay,Bhārat Mātā, was first performed in 1873. She is usually depicted as a woman clad in an orange or saffronsari holding aflag and sometimes accompanied by alion.[149]
Sports in India are mainly in two categories: traditional sports and global sports.Traditional sports likegilli danda,kho kho,kabaddi are quite popular. On the other hand, Indians are highly enthusiastic about the game of cricket, to the extent that it is treated as a religion in itself.[150] Sports like hockey, volleyball, football are quite popular while polo, golf and tennis are preferred sports for affluent sections of the society. In recent times with government support Olympic sports like shooting, archery, wrestling, javelin throw, swimming, badminton have gained prominence in the Indian society.[151]
Indo-Aryan migrations and emigrations have been historically present in theIndian subcontinent for thousands of years and have produced ethnic groups which derive their ancestry from India. One notable example being theRomani people, where most trace their ancestry toRajasthan. However their historically strong presence in Europe, their ethnic and linguistic divide from the Indian subcontinent, and their assimilation withSlavic and other European backgrounds, results in historians constituting them as a separate ethnicity compared toethnicities classified as Indian orDesi.[158][159]
However the current and historically accurate consensus of the Indian diaspora and by extension theSouth Asian diaspora, is generalized as individuals whose families or themselves migrated to other parts of the world during or after theBritish Raj.[160][161]
Article 9 ofIndia's constitution prohibits Indian citizens from holding citizenship from other countries. As a substitution the Indian government created theOverseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status, which gives former Indian citizens and their descendantspermanent residency status in the country. Many members of the Indian diaspora are not OCI holders, with only 4 million people holding OCI status as of 2022. As a result the Indian diaspora statistics posted by the Indian government may not reflect the statistics posted by the respective country of residency, or could lead to discrepancies as to how many members there are within the Indian diaspora in any given country or territory.
The British Indian community had grown to number over one million. According to the2001 UK Census, 1,053,411 Britons had full Indian ancestry (representing 1.8% of the UK's population). An overwhelming majority of 99.3% resided in England (in 2008 the figure is thought to be around 97.0%). In the seven-year period between 2001 and 2009, the number of Indian-born people in the UK increased in size by 38% from 467,634 to around 647,000 (an increase of approximately 180,000).[162]
There are approximately 1.86 million people of Indian origin or ancestry in Canada, the majority of which live in GreaterToronto andVancouver, with growing communities in Alberta and Quebec.[a] Roughly 5.1% of the total Canadian population is of Indian ancestry, a figure higher than both the United States and Britain.[a]South Asian Canadians account for 7.1% of Canada's population. According to Statistics Canada, Indo-Canadians are one of the fastest-growing visible minority groups in Canada, making up the second-largest group of non-European descent in the country after Chinese Canadians.
The Indo-Canadian community can trace its history in Canada back 120 years to 1897 when a contingent ofSikh soldiers visited the western coast of Canada, primarily British Columbia which at the time was very sparsely populated and the Canadian government wanted to settle to prevent a takeover of the territory by the United States.
More than a million people of South Asian descent live in South Africa, with their ancestors having left colonial India mostly as indentured labourers, and with smaller numbers emigrating later as "Passenger Indians", in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They are concentrated around the city ofDurban. Under the now-defunct Apartheid system, they were classified as part of the 'Indian'race.[164] Today, they are perceived as "black people" within South Africa'sbroad-based black economic empowerment policies.[165]
After slavery was abolished in the European colonies, Indians were hired under theIndian indenture system to become indentured laborers to fill the need for cheap labor and for their skills in agriculture. In theEnglish-speaking Caribbean andSuriname, Indians primarily came from theHindi Belt, especially theAwadh region in central and easternUttar Pradesh and theBhojpur region of eastern Uttar Pradesh, westernBihar, and northwesternJharkhand, along with a significant minority who came fromSouth India, and a smaller minority who came from other parts of India. They arrived from the late 1830s to the early 1920s asindentured laborers to work primarily onsugarcaneestates, as well as oncocoa,rice,banana,coconut, andcoffee estates after indentureship. After the first wave of migration of indentured laborers, more Indians fromGujarat,Sindh,Kutch,Punjab,Bengal, andSouth India came to the Caribbean for business and professional occupations from the 1930s till present-day. There are more than a millionIndo-Caribbean people. InTrinidad and Tobago,Guyana, andSuriname they are the largest ethnic groups. The Indians from the Bhojpuri and Awadhi-speaking areas of the Hindi Belt made up the majority of Indians in the Anglo-Caribbean and Suriname. Hence, their dialect of Hindustani, known asCaribbean Hindustani collectively, is based mostly on Bhojpuri and Awadhi, and it became thelingua franca of the early Indians. Also, since they formed the largest group of Indians, the traditions and culture from the Bhojpur and Awadh regions became the dominant culture for the Indians in those countries.France sent southern Indians to its colonies in the Caribbean as indentured laborers, hence there are also many residents of Indian descent inGuadeloupe,Martinique, andFrench Guiana, mostly of southern Indian descent. Many Indo-Caribbean people have migrated to theUnited States,United Kingdom,Canada, theNetherlands, andFrance, and few of them have even seasonally migrated to the neighboringLatin American and other Caribbean countries as migrant workers. A majority of Indo-Caribbean areHindus, while there is significant minority ofChristians andMuslims, along with smaller numbers of recently arrived IndianJains,Sikhs,Buddhist, andBaháʼís. Indo-Caribbean people are known as the descendants of the jahajis orgirmityas.[166][167][168][169][170]
Recentgenome studies appear to show thatSouth Asians are a mixture of two major ancestral components, one component restricted to South Asia and the other component shared withCentral Asia,West Asia, andEurope.[171][172]
^abc2021 census: Statistic includes all persons with ethnic or cultural origin responses with ancestry to the nation of India, including "Anglo-Indian" (3,340), "Bengali" (26,675), "Goan" (9,700), "Gujarati" (36,970), "Indian" (1,347,715), "Jatt" (22,785), "Kashmiri" (6,165), "Maharashtrian" (4,125), "Malayali" (12,490), "Punjabi" (279,950), "Tamil" (102,170), and "Telugu" (6,670).[163]
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