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From New World Encyclopedia
Revision as of 20:55, 11 May 2009 by Hironori Mitsuishi (talk | contribs) (Daily popular article 2009 24)
Popular Article: India
The Republic of India (Hindi: भारत गणराज्य Bhārat Gaṇarājya), commonly known as India, a country in South Asia, is the most populous liberal democracy in the world. The name India is derived from Indus, which is derived from the Old Persian word Hindu, from Sanskrit Sindhu, the historic local name for the Indus River. The Constitution of India and common usage in Hindi also recognize Bharat as an official name of equal status.
India housed a population of 1.1 billion people in 2006, comprising approximately one-sixth of the world's population. This population is remarkably diverse; it has more than two thousand ethnic groups, and every major religion is represented, as are four major families of languages. Further complexity is lent by the great variation of income and education.
