India is a big country. I often like to call it the “land of lots”, because it has
lots of… everything. It has 1.2 billion people, is the 7th largest country by land
area, has the most populous subdivision in the world, and practices nearly every major
religion, with their largest native religion having thousands of deities. Fittingly, India
is often more formally called the “land of diversity”, because this landmass isn’t
entirely made up of Hindi-speaking Hindus, so what are the other major groups on this
giant peninsula?
[Brought to you by The Great Courses Plus]
India may be one big, united country now, but this hasn’t always been the case. Before
British colonialism, India was made up of numerous different entities, everything from
massive empires to tiny city-states. This can kind of still be seen even today, with
the fact that Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, despite also being part of
British India, are nonetheless not part of modern India, and we all know how different
these countries are from each-other. India however is not only diverse, but also very
widely spread out. India’s 29 states and 7 union territories all have varying languages,
cultures and traditions, especially jumping from region-to-region. The Ganges is incredibly
different from Tamil Nadu, as is the Deccan Plateau from Punjab, or the Thar Desert from
Bengal, as well as Gujarat from Kalgoorlie… but that’s because that one’s actually
in Australia. There are numerous different ways we could
start this off, so let’s start with all the different languages of India. On the national
level, there are two main languages spoken in India: Hindi and English. Hindi is the
most commonly spoken language in the country by far, and is basically the main language
of the Hindi belt, which stretches across northern and eastern India. Going down the
list from a 2011 national census, the 12 most widely spoken languages in India are Hindi
(57.1%), English (10.6%), Bengali (8.9%), Marathi (8.2%), Telugu (7.8%), Tamil (6.3%),
Urdu (5.2%), Gujarati (5.0%), Kannada (4.9%), Odia (3.6%), Punjabi (3.0%), and Malayalam
(2.9%), all going by the number of people who speak these languages— native or otherwise.
As you can see here-- well first, it’s interesting to see that there are more people who speak
Kannada than live in Canada-- and second, Hindi is by far the most commonly spoken language
in India, but this isn’t necessarily the case everywhere. In the south, people generally
tend to speak languages like Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, whereas in the west, it’s very
often Marathi and Gujarati. Also, let’s of course not forget the Seven Sister States
of northeast India, who speak languages like Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, and Nepali.
Let’s go to religion next. India’s 1.2 billion people practice a multitude of different
religions, just those native to India include Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, and
numerous others. In addition, foreign religions also have big roles in India, including Christianity,
Zoroastrianism, the Bahá’i Faith, and even Judaism. Of course, possibly the biggest outside
religion in India is Islam, with influence from different empires like the Mughal Empire.
According to that same 2011 census, around 80% of the country identifies as Hindu, making
up a total of 966 million faithful. Islam makes up the next largest minority, with 14%
of the population, which at 195 million somewhat interestingly makes India the country with
the second-largest Muslim population in the world, after Indonesia.
Okay, now let’s switch a bit over to doing this region-by-region. India has six different
regions we can divide it into. Starting in the north, we get… North India, which includes
Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh. This region
mainly covers the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Thar Desert. With a population of 376
million, this region is the largest in India, and boasts cities such as New Delhi, Agra,
Jaipur, and Chandigarh. North India mostly speaks Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi, which
is notably similar to the Urdu spoken in nearby Pakistan. North India mostly practices Hinduism,
with many other religious minorities, and also holds numerous different pilgrimage sites
for Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists. This region also has many cultural and demographic similarities
to the region of Central India, which consists of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. North
India is often what westerners may or may not think of when they think of “India”,
as it is again the most populous region and home to the capital, but has also been the
base of operations for the Mughal Empire, Delhi Sultanate, and British Empire.
Next we have East India, including West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha. The largest
city in this region is the city of Kolkata, the third largest in the whole country. Though
East India largely also speaks Hindi and English, one of their other more common languages is
Bengali, also spoken in neighboring Bangladesh. Also, fun fact: Kolkata-born poet and songwriter
Rabindranath Tagore wrote the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh.
Now we move onto Northeast India, and the aforementioned Seven Sister States, which
include Sikkim, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, and Meghalaya… and also
Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims but is effectively part of India. This area, with
a population of “only” 38 million, is only connected to India by the narrow Siliguri
Corridor, also known as the “chicken’s neck”. These areas have over 200 different
ethnic groups that are quite unlike the rest of India, with many taking a lot of influence
from nearby Tibet and Southeast Asia. This region was also quite difficult to conquer
for pre-colonial empires like the Mughals, meaning there’s less influence from them
in these parts. After that is Western India, made up of Goa,
Gujarat and Maharashtra, and sometimes also including Rajasthan and Karnataka. The main
three states however all have quite distinct upbringings from each-other; Goa is the smallest
of the three and has history as a Portuguese trading port, and is also famous around the
world for its beaches. Gujarat has a lot of strong influence from different cultures from
outside India, mainly those who came in through Persia, like the Turks and Mughals. Finally
we have Maharashtra, whose culture is largely entrenched in the ancient Maratha Empire.
Maharashtra also holds the region’s largest city, Mumbai, which is also home to the world-famous
film industry of Bollywood. Keep in mind though, that even the Indian film industry is this
diverse, also including Tollywood, Gollywood, Jollywood, Mollywood, Kollywood, and several
others (not Nollywood though, that’s Nigeria’s thing).
Lastly, we have South India. This place has the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala,
Tamil Nadu and Telangana, and is incredibly culturally distinct from “the north” of
India. These states are of a cultural group called the Dravidians, who speak (unsurprisingly)
Dravidian languages, speaking languages like the aforementioned Tamil, Telugu, Kannada,
and Malayalam. The Dravidian languages however are their own separate category, completely
separate from Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri, etc., which are Indo-European languages, like
English or Spanish. So yeah, perhaps it’s not too surprising,
but India is not one homogenous country, but is a country diverse in everything from culture
to language groups to ecosystems. India is what’s known as a federal republic, which
means that the national government in New Delhi is not the sole authority behind the
whole country, and for good reason. India had actually been quite divided, up until
the British came in, and successfully united the cultures and nations of India together…
to fight against them. Now, India is a huge country on the world stage, and many argue
that it could one day even see superpower status. Now, a lot would need to be done beforehand,
but we’ll see what happens next, I guess.
This is my first ever sponsored video, and that sponsor is The Great Courses Plus. What
exactly is The Great Courses Plus? Well, their name is pretty self-explanatory. What do they
have? Courses. How good are they? Well, they’re… great! And if you want to learn everything
you want to about the world around us, you should be watching educational YouTube channels
like mine, *plus* courses on The Great Courses Plus. They have over 11,000 different courses
and lectures that you can choose from, in everything from history to philosophy to engineering
to biology. You can even learn another language! Just look at all that information! Chances
are, if it’s a thing to learn about, they’ve got it. These courses are taught by top-notch
ivy league professors, and are available for you to learn at your own pace, whether you’re
using a phone, computer, tablet, really anything that isn’t a literal rock. You can even
download these courses on your phone! If you go into the link below, or to thegreatcoursesplus.com/khanubis,
you can access their courses for a free trial, and after that it’s basically the cost of
going out for dinner every month or so. Basically, it’s university-level learning, but without
the homework or the student loans. So go check out TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/khanubis to support
both this channel and your curiosity!
Thank you as always for watching this video. If you think I should continue this kind of
series, let me know which other countries I should do this to. In the meantime of course,
be sure to like, share and subscribe so you can learn something new every Sunday.