I is for Incredible India, letter A

Batman (7) is starting to read a lot of books about India, mostly fun mythology books, and epics (the condensed versions) and has lots of questions.It was his idea to come up with an A-Z book about India.

It's mostly aimed at the 7+ crowd (Batman's age).

Every week (or two), I will post about one letter. When the entire series is complete, I will put the whole thing in a pdf file. Till then, feel free to print out the images.


This might be a fun addition to your continent box for Asia. 

India just celebrated it's 65th Republic Day (anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution) on 26th January with President Obama as an honored guest. I thought it was a good time to start the series!!

This week's post is about letter A. 
But first, a quick introduction to India!

 

India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with more than 1.2 billion people, and the the largest democracy in the world, with a civilization that is more than 5000 years old! 

Spanning an area of 3,287,263 square kilometers, it is a vast country and includes dry desert areas, evergreen forests, snowy Himalayas, a long coast, and fertile plains. It also hosts a unique eco-system rich with vegetation, wildlife, rare herbs, and a large variety of birds.

Virtually every major religion of the world like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and Christianity are found here. The Sikhs, the Zoroastrians, the Jews (living in India since 600 B.C.), the people of Bahai faith, all are found in India in substantial numbers.

There is no such thing as the Indian language. There are over 200 languages in India (almost 1600, if you include dialects), with about twenty of them being very prominent ones. The Indian currency is printed in 15 languages.

Then there is diversity in clothing and attire, food habits, culture and customs to name a few.

It is such a complex nation, it is referred to as a sub-continent.

But the main theme of this culture is the unity which absorbs all the diversities. India is a perfect example of Unity in Diversity. Indians are bound by common cultural heritage and share basic human values. The rich and varied heritage happens to be one of the many sources of pride of the nation.

 

 

Print one or all three images for letter A! I had a hard time restricting myself to one, so I posted all three!


All images are from Wikipedia unless specified otherwise.

Leave me a comment if you want to read about something specific for a letter. 
And I would love to read if you have something similar for a country!!

You might also like this post, which talks about a tradition in which we celebrate baby's first taste of rice...