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Travel to India
India
is a mystical land of seductive images. Hinduism and its religious
rites and red-letter days are woven into the fabric of everyday
life. It is also India's vastness that challenges the imagination,
being home to one sixth of the world's population.
Its intoxicatingly rich history can be traced
back to at least 2500BC when the first known civilisation settled
along the Indus River.
There was an influx of Moghuls in the 1520s from Central Asia, who
maintained effective control of the north until the mid 18th
century. At the end of that century, as the Moghul Empire
declined, the British took control of the whole
subcontinent, and the whole of India was administered by a single
alien power.
The Indian National Congress was formed in 1885, but made little
progress on independence until Mahatma Gandhi
began the policy of non-cooperation with the British. But the
congress itself was split on the issue of Hindus and Muslims. The
Muslims, under Muhammad Ali Jinnah, claimed a separate homeland
and in August 1947 the independent states of India and Pakistan
came into being. Since this time, India has been a
democratic republic.
Such a rich history has spawned palaces,
temples and monuments. The most
frequently visited part of India is the Golden Triangle.
The unfairly maligned great cities of Mumbai and
Kolkata have a bustling, colourful charm, while
the holy city of Varanasi or the awe-inspiring temples of Tamil
Nadu are worthy objects of pilgrimage. For those who prefer more
sybaritic pleasures, tackle the palm-fringed beaches of
Goa. And for solitude, India ripples with mountains and
hills, from the towering beauty of the Himalayas
to pine forests, lakes and babbling streams.
One of the fascinations of India is the juxtaposition of
old and new; centuries of history rubbing shoulders with
the computer age; and Bengaluru's (Bangalore's) ‘Silicon Valley'
is as much a part of the world's largest democracy as its remotest
village.
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