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A Land
of Rare
Natural
Endowments

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A Vast and Rich Land

India is a vast country. From the In terms of area, India today is
northern borders of Kashmir to the eighth largest region in the
the southernmost tip at world, after the Russian
Kanyakumari, our land extends Federation (1708 mn hectares),
over 3,200 kilometres, and from China (960 mn hectares), USA
the eastern boundary of Assam and Territories (936 mn
to the western border of
hectares), Canada (922 mn
Baluchistan, it extends over
hectares), Brazil (851 mn
3,500 kilometres. Total area of
hectares), Australia (768 mn
what has historically constituted
India is 423 million hectares. hectares), and Western Europe
Of this about 94 million (371 mn hectares). But that
hectares today fall under does not mean that the Indian
Pakistan and Bangladesh, and land is eighth in value. On the
329 million hectares in the contrary, India is one of the
Indian Union. richest regions of the world.

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The Largest Cultivable Area

in the World
India is blessed with extra- of cultivable land, of which 160
ordinary fertility within its million hectares are in the
relatively compact landmass. Indian Union. Cultivable area of
In terms of cultivable area, India the USA is 177 million hectares,
is in fact the best-endowed that of the Russian Federation
country of the world. Three- 126, China 124, Western
fifths of our geographical area is Europe 77, Australia 56, and
cultivable. In most other Brazil 53 million hectares.
valuable regions of the world, no
India not only has a larger
more than one-fifth of the lands
cultivable area than all other
are cultivable. And the average
great regions of the world;
for the world is only one-tenth.
Indian lands are also
Measured in terms of cultivable the most fertile. And the
area, India is the richest region compact geography of India has
of the world. The Indian region always been described in
commands 190 million hectares superlative terms.

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Protected and Nurtured

by the Himalayas
The key to India’s peculiar and height of the Himalayas are
geography and extraordinary fertility unparalleled in the world.
lies in the Himalayan Ranges. The
Himalayas are the loftiest mountain The mighty Himalayas, with great
subsidiary ranges curving southward
range in the world. From 250 to
at either end, look on the relief map
400 km wide, this Roof of the
like a grand wizened benefactor
World stretches for 2,400 km across protectively holding the Indian
the north of India. It boasts of the landmass in his outstretched arms.
three highest points on the earth’s The Himalayas indeed protect and
surface: Gowri Shankar also known nurture the Indian land with great
as Mt. Everest at 29,141 feet (8848 generosity. Geographically, the
m), and Kanchenjunga and K2 at Himalayas belong as much to Tibet
28,150 feet (8598 m) each. There as to India, but their bounty is
are fifty Himalayan summits of reserved entirely for India. All the
25,000 feet (8,000 m) or more. rain that falls and all the snow that
The Himalayan range has an melts, whether on the northern or
average elevation of 19,000 feet southern flanks of the Himalayas,
(6,000 m). The length, breadth is poured into India.

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The Sindhu-Ganga Plain

The waters that the Himalayas pour into possible to traverse the entire length of the
India, through the three great Himalayan plain ‘without finding a pebble, however
rivers, Sindhu, Ganga and Brahmaputra, and small.’ The alluvium, in addition to being
their tributaries, bring with them large remarkably uniform over its entire extent of
quantities of life-giving silt. The Sindhu- approximately 80 million hectares, is
Ganga plain, the most fertile area of its size extremely thick. The exact thickness has
in the world, is formed by the silt of the never been ascertained, but borings have
Himalayas. penetrated it to a depth of 1,300 feet
without reaching a rocky bottom. The plain
The Sindhu-Ganga plain is noted for its is also exceptionally flat. It has ‘not a hill,
antiquity, size, fertility, depth and flatness. not even a mound to break the monotony
It extends from the Sindhu delta in the west of the level surface.’ Agra, halfway between
to the Ganga delta in the east. The entire the two deltas and more than 2,000
plain, some 3,000 kilometres long and 250 kilometres by river from the sea, is only 550
to 400 kilometres wide, is alluvial. The plain feet above sea level. ‘This flatness makes the
covers about a fifth of the geographical area rivers flow slowly, thus fertilising the
of India; and the whole of it is cultivable. country thoroughly and affording easy
waterways and irrigation channels.’ This is
An American scholar writing on the eve of one of the world’s greatest expanses of rich,
Indian Independence speaks about this tillable soil, and thus one of the world’s
extraordinary plain in the following terms: greatest agricultural regions.”
“A great part of its soil is renewed every year Today the depth of the alluvium in this
by floods, and the mud brought down from plain, especially in the Ganga region, has
the hills is so fine that it is reputedly been measured up to 5000 metres.

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The Great Coastal Plains

Besides the Sindhu-Ganga plain, together thus encompass one-third
which covers a fifth of the of the geographical area and two-
geographical area of India and two- thirds of the cultivable area of the
fifths of the cultivable lands, there Indian region. All of this area is
are the coastal plains, which are also highly fertile.
alluvial and equally fertile. The plain
in the west, called the Konkan in its Most of the remaining cultivable
upper and Malabar in its lower part, land lies in the Deccan plateau,
is relatively narrow, averaging about which rises from 1000 to 2000 feet
70 kilometres in width. The plain in above sea-level and is broken up into
the east, covering Kalinga, Andhra many river valleys and hills. The
and Cholamandalam regions from black cotton soil of the northwestern
the north to the south, is broader, part of the plateau and the river
and is endowed with the fertile valleys are fertile, though not as rich
deltas of the rivers flowing across the as the alluvial plains.
broad deccan plateau. These two
coastal plains contain almost 40 Such unbroken and abundant
million hectares of land, all of which fertility in such a compact geography
is cultivable. The Sindhu-Ganga is unknown anywhere else in the
plain and the two coastal plains world.

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The Ganga River

The Sindhu, Ganga and Brahmaputra are steadily endowing it with fertilising silt and
amongst the mightiest rivers of the world. life-giving water. This is the secret of the
But the Ganga is special. It is the physical great fertility of the Indian plains. The
and spiritual life force of India. heartland of India is born of the Ganga and
the Ganga has nurtured it for uncounted
From Gangotri to Gangasagar, the Ganga millennia.
flows over a distance of 2,525 kilometres.
The average flow of the Ganga is 38,000 Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, who was not given to
cubic metres per second, making it the emotions about the sacred geography of
third amongst the greatest rivers of the India, was moved to write:
world, after only the Amazon in South
America (100,000 cu. m. per sec.) and the “The Ganga is above all the ‘River of India’,
Congo in Africa (43,000 cu. m. per sec.). which had held India’s heart captive and
The Ganga brings 360 million tons of the drawn uncounted millions to her banks
Himalayan silt every year to the great since the dawn of history. The story of the
Indian plains. Only the Huanghe, Ganga from her source to sea… is the story
which is almost a river of mud, and of India’s civilisation and culture,…”
the Mississippi and Changjiang carry
more silt. Other countries have given the name of
Ganga to their greatest rivers. The Sri
The Ganga is great not merely in statistics. Lankans call their greatest river, the
The river flows slowly and gracefully Mahaveli Ganga, and the Mekong of Indo-
through the entire heartland of India, China is an anglicisation of Maha Ganga.

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Other Great Rivers of India

Great Rivers give rise to great west; the Mahanadi crossing the
civilisations. Most major civilisations plateau from the west to the east and
of the world have sprung around fertilising Madhya Pradesh and
some single great river. Egypt rose northern Orissa; Godavari, passing
on the Nile; Mesopotamia rose on through Maharashtra and Andhra;
Euphrates and Tigris; Europe on the and Krishna and Kaveri in the South
Danube. supporting great fertile valleys of
Andhra, Karnataka and Tamilnadu.
India is an unusual region of the These are the greatest of our rivers.
world that is blessed with not one And, there are many more passing
but several great rivers, each of through almost every part of India.
which is individually capable of There is no geographical region of
giving rise to and supporting a great the world of comparable size that
civilisation on its own. Moving from has such an abundance of rivers.
the north to south, we have the
Sindhu and the five rivers of the The Indians have always been aware
Punjab plains; the Yamuna, Sarayu, of the great blessing bestowed upon
Gandak, Kosi, the Ganga and them in the form of these rivers.
Brahmaputra of the heartland; the Most Indians pay obeisance to the
Narmada and Tapti crossing the great rivers of India during their
deccan plateau from the east to the morning ablutions.

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The Abundant Rains

The rainfall of India, and hence the pour a total of 4500 billion cubic
capacity of our rich lands to produce metres of water over the Indian region.
abundant crops, depend on the The USA with about 2.5 times the
monsoon. Monsoon is Arabic for geographical area of the Indian region
season; Indians call it the varsha kala. receives about the same amount of
In the four months of the varsha kala, water. And, the USA is considered to be
India obtains 90 percent of the total one of the richest regions of the world
rain. Almost every part of India is in natural endowments. China, with a
drenched in the bounty. Only the geographical area somewhat larger than
Sindhu plain—including Sindh, and the USA, receives about 6000 billion
parts of Baluchistan, Rajputana, Punjab cubic metres, with average annual
and North-West Frontier—and extreme rainfall of 63 cm.
southern parts of the eastern coast
receive scanty rain. The Himalayas play Of the rainwaters that India receives
a crucial role in making the rain winds annually, about 450 billion cubic metres
rise and then forcing them to exhaust recharge the groundwater resources, and
their entire moisture over India. Tibet about 2000 billion cu. m. flows through
on the other side of the Himalayas the rivers of India. The rivers of China
receives none of it. carry about 2600 billion cubic metres of
water and those of the USA 1,700
Average annual rainfall in the Indian billion cubic metres. Thus the bounty
region amounts to 105 cm, which is the that India receives from the rains is
largest anywhere in the world for a comparable to the most bounteous and
country of comparable size. The rains much larger regions of the word.

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The Sunshine and

Warmth of India
The Himalayas not only nurture the Indian India throughout the year, allowing us to
lands with silt and water, they also conserve grow crops round the year. Almost
the heat and warmth necessary to harvest everywhere in India, and certainly in the
abundant crops. fertile plains and river valleys of India, it is
possible to grow two crops in a year, and
Geographically India is not a tropical with effort, even three. There is hardly any
region. All of India lies to the north of the other region of the world, where this is
equator, and 60% of India lies north of the possible over such a large area. In China,
tropic of Cancer. This location should just one crop can be grown a year in the
normally make much of India cold, like northern half of the cultivable zone, and
other countries in the so-called temperate only in the tropical zone in the south can
zone. But, the great wall of Himalayas China grow five crops in two years, as is
effectively screens India from the cold possible in almost the whole of India.
northern winds and at the same time
concentrates the monsoon winds blowing The Land, including the Himalayas, the
up from the warm tropical seas. This Sun and the Waters in India seem to have
unusual geographical feature makes India combined together in a rare synthesis to
largely warm and humid, making it almost make it the richest agricultural region of
the ideal place on earth for luxurious the world. It is not lightly said that India is
growth of crops and life in general. called Bharat, because this land is capable
of carrying out bharana of the whole world,
The sun shines over almost the whole of of feeding the entire earth.

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Vegetation and Animals

of India
With such rich soils, climate and terms of geographical area, we are
water, it is not surprising that only one fortieth of earth. India is
India supports an extraordinarily also known to be very rich in the
great variety of flora and fauna. variety of micro-organisms it
There are about 45,000 species of supports.
plants including shrubs in the
Indians are known to have been
country. Of these 35 percent are
proficient in the study of their
endemic to India, and are not
flora and fauna since very early
found anywhere else in the world.
times. The number of herbs and
This makes India one amongst
animals described in the ancient
the countries with highest
texts of Ayurveda, like Charaka
diversity of vegetation in the
Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita
world.
is phenomenal. The ancient
India supports 75,000 species of medical texts of China alone
animals, birds and insects. This come anywhere near those of
forms one-twelfth of the known India in their knowledge of flora
fauna of the earth, though in and fauna.

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Mineral Wealth of India

India’s great mineral wealth makes than one third of the world’s proven
her probably the third most gifted of resources of Illmenite are in India.
the world’s regions with respect to Indian deposits of Rare Earths are
industrial capacity. India has second only to that of China. We
abundant, widespread and excellent have large Thorium reserves
deposits of iron ore; proven reserves amounting to 360,000 tons; these
of Iron ore amount to 12 billion reserves are sufficient to establish a
tons; at our present level of nuclear energy capacity of 1 million
production these reserves suffice for megawatts and sustain it for
300 years. We have 220 billion tons 240 years.
of coal and lignite. Indian coal has
somewhat high ash content, but the India has abundant to medium
reserves are large enough to last us reserves of most of the essential
for 750 years at the present level of metallic and non-metallic minerals.
exploitation. Only serious lack is that of
petroleum, which has not yet been
Amongst the newer metals, India fully explored. The lack of presently
has one of the largest deposits of proven deposits of petroleum is
Bauxite, the ore from which largely made up by the abundant
Aluminium is produced. Indian availability of sunshine, of coal and
reserves of Titanium Ore, Illmenite, of the minerals required for large
are the largest in the world; more scale generation of nuclear power.

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The Most Populous Country

of the World
Having been blessed with such Kautilya’s Arthashastra says that a
extraordinary natural wealth it is grama should have at least a
not surprising that Indian lands hundred households, and according
have always supported vast to many classical texts, India
multitudes. Indians have been the consists of 5 lakh gramas. This
largest civilisational group in the means that Indian population in
world till almost the modern times. normal times in the classical ages
According to currently accepted was at least around 50 million
scholarship in historical households, or about 500 million
demography, Indian population people, if the Indian ideal of eight
remained the highest in the world children per family is taken
till 1700 AD, with Chinese being seriously.
a close second.
Indians today constitute only the
Ferishta in circa 1600 AD estimated fourth largest civilisational group in
the Indian population prior to 1100 the world, after the Europeans, the
AD at 600 million, when the total Chinese and the Islamic people.
population of the European world Throughout history we have been
according to estimates of western the major part of humanity. Today
scholars was merely 100 million. we constitute one-sixth of it.

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Large Arable Land Per Person

By the current standards of the Region People/ People/
world, India is not really Arable Ha Arable Ha
overpopulated. The number of Y. 1950 Y. 1990
people per arable hectare of land in World 1.9 4.0
India today is almost the same as in Asia 3.4 7.5
Europe, and much less than that in Europe 4.4 5.9
China and Japan. Only very Africa 1.4 3.9
sparsely populated regions of the America 3.4 7.3
world like the USA, the former Indian 2.2 5.5
Region
USSR and Australia have
Indian 2.2 5.1
considerably lesser people per Union
arable hectare of land than us. And, China 6.0 12.2
since we are blessed with perennial Japan 20.5 30.2
rivers and perennial sunshine, and UK 7.6 8.6
can grow two crops in a year almost France 2.3 3.2
everywhere in the country, each Italy 5.2 6.4
hectare of arable land in India is USA 0.8 1.3
potentially equal to two hectares USSR 0.8 1.3
almost anywhere else in the world. former

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Indian Prosperity Held

the World in Thrall
Rivers of unimaginable expanse and depth, one of dismissive haughtiness, changes to
vast lands of unheard-of fertility, shining that of awe at the fertility of the lands, the
bright sun, large numbers of animals of greatness of the rivers, the strength and
unusual health and intelligence, and great intelligence of the animals and the bravery
multitudes of healthy people with immense of the multitudinous people.
dignity, everywhere: that is how India has
been seen by others throughout the ages. Megasthenes, Pliny, Strabo and other Greek
The classical Indian texts, of course, and Roman authors, who wrote about India,
recognise these to be the basic attributes of all reflect this sense of awe. Even Herodotus,
prosperity in a civilisation. But, the the renowned Greek historian, refers to
foreigners who came here were also greatly India as “the most populous nation in the
struck by the immensity of the sunshine, known world”. The later accounts of
lands, rivers, animals and people of India. Chinese travelers Fa-Hian and Hiuen
In the Greek accounts of the campaigns of Tsiang, who visited India at the time of the
Alexander, one sees a sudden and Guptas and Harshavardhana respectively, are
remarkable change as Alexander enters the also pervaded by the same sense of awe at
lands on the periphery of India. Alexander, the immensity and affluence of Indian lands
who till then seemed to be passing through and her people. Medieval Arab observers
almost barren expanses, suddenly begins to and the early European travellers also record
encounter one populous kingdom after the large numbers and the great fertility of
another, each one strongly defended by its India. The images of emasculated Indian
brave people. And, the mood of the lands, animals and people are of rather
narrator, which till that point seems to be recent colonial construction.

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The Splendid Isolation

We have not only been blessed with a away from any other major lands and
land of rare fertility and wealth, but have few natural harbours.
also the gods seem to have conspired
to make this land into an The impassable Himalayas and the
impregnable fortress. unapproachable seacoasts have
together endowed India with
The Himalayas have for millennia remarkable isolation from the rest of
protected the Indian lands from the world. That is why the Greeks
external incursions. In the north, the who entered India with Alexander
steep Himalayan Ranges are covered could insist that they had arrived in
with snow and ice. In the northeast, a land that had never been conquered
between Burma and India, an by others, and that had never coveted
extremely heavy rainfall produces on to conquer others.
the sharp mountain slopes and in the
deep valleys a dense forest, with Such splendid isolation has allowed
impassable streams flowing us to live securely within our vast and
southwards. Only in the northwest, fertile lands for millennia and thus
where the elevation is still high but develop an extraordinarily
the rainfall is too scant to produce sophisticated and rich civilisation
much vegetation, could entrance to that in its grandeur and longevity is
India be gained. Here, however, unlike any other in the world. The
barren conditions created a sparse achievements of Indian civilisation
population and difficult travel have indeed been unmatched both in
conditions. The northwestern border spiritual and social depth, and in
was therefore easy to defend. The material abundance.
seacoasts of India in the south are far

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The Uniqueness
of Indian Culture
India’s long geographical isolation explains the uniqueness of
Indian culture. Indian ideas and institutions, taken as a
whole, resemble those of no other people. They have a
peculiar shape and flavour of their own. They have tended to
transform and absorb any foreign element that trickled into
the region; for India, though politically conquered by
outsiders, was never culturally conquered.
This peculiar culture has to some degree penetrated and
pervaded nearly every part of what is geographically India.
It has everywhere been affected by local, indigenous
variations. …But neither the geographical nor the social
barriers inside the subcontinent have been sufficient to
prevent the widespread diffusion of a common, basic culture,
which despite great variation, is peculiarly Indian.
—Kingsley Davis (1951)

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