India

Más allá de la capital, las principales ciudades son Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai — cada una un centro de cultura regional, economía e historia. New Delhi was built by the British as the imperial capital of India between 1911 and 1931 — Edwin Lutyens's grand Raisina Hill complex of ceremonial vistas and colonial pomp now housing the Parliament of the world's largest democracy, a democratic repurposing of imperial architecture that India manages with evident satisfaction.

Los principales idiomas hablados son hindi, English + 21 others, que reflejan el patrimonio cultural del país y abren puertas a una amplia comunidad internacional. Internacionalmente, India se contacta mediante el código +91. India contains more linguistic, religious, ethnic, and ecological diversity within its borders than any other country — 22 constitutionally recognised languages (and hundreds more spoken), six major religions with more adherents than most countries' total populations, and a caste system officially abolished but practically persistent that creates social hierarchies of extraordinary complexity.

India comparte sus fronteras con Nepal, Bangladés, Bután, Myanmar, China, Pakistán. El tráfico rodado circula por la izquierda, en consonancia con la convención de

La vida económica y cotidiana se rige por la zona horaria de UTC+05:30, alineando el país con sus vecinos regionales.

Indian cuisine is not one tradition but dozens — the coconut milk curries of Kerala bear no resemblance to the dry tandoor cooking of Punjab, Gujarati vegetarian thalis share no ingredients with Bengali fish preparations, and the biryani of Lucknow uses techniques so different from Hyderabadi biryani that chefs of both traditions dispute whether they share even the same dish category.

Cricket in India is not merely a sport but a mass religious experience — the Indian Premier League is the world's wealthiest sporting competition, the Board of Control for Cricket in India is the world's richest sporting body, and Sachin Tendulkar's retirement in 2013 generated a level of national mourning more appropriate to a head of state than an athlete.

The Himalayas contain 14 peaks above 8,000 metres — including K2 and Kangchenjunga on India's borders — and Gangotri glacier, which feeds the Ganges River, is retreating at an accelerating rate, threatening the water security of 500 million people who depend on glacial meltwater in the dry season while creating theological urgency around river purification rituals of a sacred river that is simultaneously one of the world's most polluted.