India Basics

Time for a geography lesson:

1. India is the 7th largest country in the world (1,269,210 square miles).
2. It is 1,200 miles from west to east.
3. It has one time zone, set to UTC+05:30. Yes, the half hour.
   
4. It has 28 states (pradesh) and 7 union territories.
5. 7 of these states comprise the "northeast". They are that small chunk of India wedged between Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, and China.
6. Of those seven, the two states I spent time in were Assam and Arunachal.
   
7. India has 1,198,003,000 people (2nd behind China).
8. There are two official languages, 22 constitutional languages, and countless languages spoken by much smaller groups of people.
9. It is governed by a parliamentary democracy.
10. India is the birthplace of the Dharmic religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.
11. 80% of the population is Hindu.
12. 13.5% of the population is Muslim. The only country with more Muslims than India is Indonesia.
13. Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and the Bahá'í Faith are also present as well.
    

The main point that India is VERY big, VERY diverse, and VERY VERY dynamic.