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India
is in Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay
of Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan known as the subcontinent.
In the 19th century, Britain had assumed political control
of virtually all Indian lands. Non-violent resistance to
British colonialism led by Mohandas GANDHI and Jawaharlal
NEHRU brought independence in 1947. The subcontinent was
divided into the secular state of India and the smaller
Muslim state of Pakistan. A third war between the two countries
in 1971 resulted in East Pakistan becoming the separate
nation of Bangladesh. With a population of some 1,027 million
people, India is now the second country in the world, after
China, to cross the one billion mark. The United Nations
(UN) estimates that by 2050 India will have overtaken China
as the most populous country in the world. Indians make
up 16.7 per cent of the world’s population with an
annual growth rate of close to two per cent. In 2001, India
had 35 cities / urban areas with a population of more than
one million people. In total, some 108 million Indians,
or 10.5 per cent of the national population, live in the
country’s 35 largest cities. Mumbai (Bombay) with
a population of more than 16 million is now the world’s
fourth-largest urban area followed by Kolkata (Calcutta)
in fifth place.
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