General Information

Capital:

New Delhi 301,000 (1991 est.)

Area:

3,165,596 sq km (1,222,243 sq mi)

Form of government

Federal Republic

GDP per capita

Purchasing power parity-$1,800 (1999 est.)

Population

1,014,003,817 (July 2000 est.)

Ethnic composition

Indo-Aryan - 72%

Dravidian - 25%

Mongol, other - 3%

Official Language(s)

English enjoys an associate status as one of 18 official languages and it is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication. Of the 18 languages officially recognized in the Indian Constitution, 13 are Indo-European (Hindi - the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Konkani, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi and Urdu). Another four are Dravidian languages (Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu). The remaining language, Manpuri, is of Sino-Tibetan origin.

Minority Language(s)

There are at least twenty-four living languages, each spoken by a million or more persons; as well as numerous other languages and dialects (for the most part mutually unintelligible). The Indian Constitution uses the term "mother tongue" instead of language or dialect.

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