INDIA [India] officially Republic of India, republic
(2005 est pop. 1,080,264,000), 1,261,810 sq mi (3,268,090 sq km), S
Asia. The second most populous country in the world, it is also
sometimes called Bharat, its ancient name. India's land frontier
(c.9,500 mi/15,290 km long) stretches from the Arabian Sea on the west
to the Bay of Bengal on the east and touches Pakistan (W); China, Nepal,
and Bhutan (N); Bangladesh, which forms an enclave in the northeast; and
Myanmar (E). New Delhi is India's capital and Bombay (Mumbai) its
largest city.
Land
The southern half of India is a largely upland area that thrusts a
triangular peninsula (c.1,300 mi/2,090 km wide at the north) into the
Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Arabian Sea
on the west and has a coastline c.3,500 mi (5,630 km) long; at its
southern tip is Kanniyakumri (Cape Comorin). In the north, towering
above peninsular India, is the Himalayan mountain wall, where rise the
three great rivers of the Indian subcontinentthe Indus, the Ganges, and
the Brahmaputra.
The Gangetic alluvial plain, which has much of India's arable land, lies
between the Himalayas and the dissected plateau occupying most of
peninsular India. The Aravalli range, a ragged hill belt, extends from
the borders of Gujarat in the southwest to the fringes of Delhi in the
northeast. The plain is limited in the west by the Thar (Great Indian)
Desert of Rajasthan, which merges with the swampy Rann of Kachchh to the
south. The southern boundary of the plain lies close to the Yamuna and
Ganges rivers, where the broken hills of the Chambal, Betwa, and Son
rivers rise to the low plateaus of Malwa in the west and Chota Nagpur in
the east.
The Narmada River, south of the Vindhya hills, marks the beginning of
the Deccan. The triangular plateau, scarped by the mountains of the
Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats, is drained by the Godavari, Krishna,
and Kaveri rivers; they break through the Eastern Ghats and, flowing
east into the Bay of Bengal, form broad deltas on the wide Coromandel
Coast. Further north, the Mahanadi River drains India into the Bay of
Bengal. The much narrower western coast of peninsular India, comprising
chiefly the Malabar Coast and the fertile Gujarat plain, bends around
the Gulf of Khambat in the north to the Kathiawar and Kachchh
peninsulas. The coastal plains of peninsular India have a tropical,
humid climate.
The Deccan interior is partly semiarid on the west and wet on the east.
The Indo-Gangetic plain is subtropical, with the western interior areas
experiencing frost in winter and very hot summers. India's rainfall,
which depends upon the monsoon, is variable; it is heavy in Assam and
West Bengal and along the southern coasts, moderate in the inland
peninsular regions, and scanty in the arid northwest, especially in
Rajasthan and Punjab.
Where To Go in India
The best Indian itineraries are the
simplest. It just isn't possible to see everything in a single
expedition, even if you spent a year trying. Far better, then, to
concentrate on one or two specific regions and, above all, to be
flexible. Although it requires a deliberate change of pace to venture
away from the urban centres, rural India has its own very distinct
pleasures. In fact, while Indian cities are undoubtedly
adrenalin-fuelled, upbeat places, it is possible - and certainly less
stressful - to travel for months around the subcontinent and rarely have
to set foot in one
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