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New India

From Bollywood to a billion

This section looks at the unique characteristics of India’s cities and states. 

Key questions:

  • What are India’s diverse states like?
  • How can different groups represent, use or portray this diversity?

Key concepts:
Cultural understanding and diversity
Place

  • There are 28 states in India: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal
  • And 7 centrally administered Union Territories: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep, Puducherry.
  • India's current population is 1,148,879,000
  • There are many diverse ethnic groups: Indo-Ayran 72% (mainly north and central India), Dravidian 25% (mainly south India), Mongoloid (mainkly north-east India) and other 3% (2000). India’s tribal people are known as the Adivasis. Most of them live in the north-east.
  • Religion: Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, others (including Buddhist) 0.1% (2001 census). Cows are sacred to Hindus. They can be used for work but you can’t eat them.
  • English is the main language of commerce and politics but in addition there are 17 major languages in India and 844 dialects including Hindi (national language), Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gugarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi and Sanskrit.
  • There are also big differences between those who live in rural/urban areas, between people of different castes, between the rich and the poor and between the lives of men and women.
  • India is the largest producer of feature films in the world. More films are made in India (‘Bollywood’) than in the USA (‘Hollywood’).
  • In 2002 2.38 million tourists visited India earning the country $3,041,999,872.
  • In 2006 India’s economic output rose by 8.5%, second only to China (10.5%) India's economic growth has created wealth for many in India's cities. It's given birth to a consuming class. But that wealth has yet to trickle down to Indian villages where over sixty percent of Indians live. Millions of India's farmers still live on less than two dollars a day. This growing income inequality is fuelling resentment, giving rise to a fury that has manifested itself in demonstrations and protests across India

Click on an activity:
Starter
Main activity
Plenary

Downloads:
The State’s they’re in-flight game 

Data bank

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