India, also called Bharat or Hindustan is all set to celebrate its 70th Independence day on August 15, 2016. Its been 71 years since the British left leaving behind India and Pakistan. Although there had been many problems that Indians faced after British left, but there have also been many achievements in these past 70 years.
India is one amazing country. It is a sub-continent with a colorful and vibrant personality. Unity in Diversity is seen at every nook and corner of this exotic country which will definitely leave you wanting to see more- and yeah, diversity is not only seen in the way people of different religion, caste, back ground, creed, states interact; but it is also seen in the foods – you constantly get to see the amalgamation of North-South, North-East, North-West, South-East, South-West, South-Central, East-West parts of the country.
India most often than not attracts generalizations and critical stereotyping, but it defies them all strongly. You get to see many exciting, bizarre, scientific, logical, advanced, and sometimes beyond logical things happening at almost every second of everyday. India is a country which will never cease to amaze you with its culinary, genetic, linguistic, and sartorial diversity.
On the occasion of its 70th Independence Day, we bring you 70 most unbelievable facts of India.
1.India was once an island continent, about more than 100 million years ago.
2.The height of the Mt. Everest increases every year. The plate on which the subcontinent rests continues to press slowly northwards, and is the reason why the height of Mount Everest increases slightly.
3.The precise number of languages spoken in India is over 1,652 according to 1961 census.
4.India has three of the world’s top ten megacities- Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
5.India is world’s largest democracy with about 417,037, 606 people casting their vote at 2009 parliamentary election.
6.India has one of the worst road casualties globally.
7.All Indian movies are NOT Bollywood. There are many regional movies, that do as well as Bollywood does- The regional movies hat tops the list are: Tamil, Telugu and Bengali movies.
8.40% of world’s mangoes are produced in India.
9.According to the Guinness Book of World Records, India ranks third behind the USA and the UK in the number of records claimed each year.
10.India has been the largest troop contributor to the United Nations Peacekeeping Missions since its inception.
11. India has the world’s third largest active army, after China and USA.
12.The Tirupati Balaji temple and the Kashi Vishwanath Temple both, receive more visitors than the Vatican City and Mecca combined.
13.Every 12 years, a religious gathering called the Kumbh Mela occurs in India. It is the world’s largest gathering of people which is visible from the space.
14.India has more mosques (300,000 mosques) than any other nation in the world.
15.Takshila is said to be the first every university in the world; it started around 700 BC.
16.Indian Railways employs more than 1.3 million people. That’s more than the population of many nations.
17.India’s first rocket was brought on cycle and a satellite on bullock cart.
18.In 2004, 200 women took law in their own hands and came to the court armed with vegetable knives and chilli powder and murdered on the court floor a serial rapist – Akku Yadav. Then every woman claimed responsibility for the murder.
19.Lonar Lake, a saltwater lake in Maharashtra, was created by a meteor hitting the Earth and is one of its kind in India.
20.In a village called Shani Shingnapur in Maharashtra, people have been living in houses with no doors for generations. This is because they believe that whoever steals anything from this place will incur the wrath of Shani God and will have to pay for his/her sins very dearly. There is no police station in this village either.
21.Magnetic Hill is a gravity hill located near Leh in Ladakh, India. The hill is alleged to have magnetic properties strong enough to pull cars uphill and force passing aircraft to increase their altitude in order to escape magnetic interference.
22.Until 1986, the only place where diamonds had been officially found was in India.
23.India has banned all captive dolphins, stating that dolphins should be viewed of non human persons.
24.India’s tech capital, Bangalore, has increased its office supply by six times since 2006, and now has more Grade-A offices than Singapore.
25.India is the largest milk producer in the world.
26.India leads the world with the most murders (32,719) per year
27.To avoid polluting the elements (fire, earth, water, air), followers of Zoroastrianism in India don’t bury their dead, but instead leave bodies in buildings called “Towers of Silence” for the vultures to pick clean. After the bones dry, they are swept into a central well.
28.Karmanasa River in India is considered to be a cursed river and it is believed that touching its water would ruin one’s plans. There’s hardly any development along this river. People around this river just eat dry fruits because cooking food would require water!
29.Chail in Himachal Pradesh is the highest cricket pitch in the world. It is situated at an elevation of 2444 meters
30.The first Granite Temple of the world, the Brihadeswara Temple is situated in Tamil Nadu. It was built during the 11th century, in only five years.
31.India is one of the only three countries that makes supercomputers
32.The world’s largest road network is in India—over 1.9 million miles of roads cover the country.
33.India has the largest amount of vegetarians in the world, such that Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King and Dominos HAD to introduce a vegetarian menu.
34.Chai is India’s national drink.
35.May 26 is celebrated as the Science Day in Switzerland in honour of former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, because on the day, Kalam visited the country
36.The world’s biggest family lives in India. One man, 39 wives and 94 children.
37.India is the world’s largest importer of arms.
38.Bhagvad Gita, Ramayan and Mahabharata does NOT have even a single text which mentions the word “Hindu”. It was a name which was given by foreigners because our land was on other side of river “Indus” and hence came the name “Hindu”. But eventually, some people made it a religion.
39.A man can be imprisoned for up to 5years for committing adultery i.e. having an intercourse with a married woman without the consent of her husband (section 497 of IPC).The woman on the other hand goes Scott free.
40.That it is illegal for a child in India to neglect their parents after their retirement.
41.Kerala tops the “Highest liquor consuming State” list in India
42.A polling station is set up in a forest for a lone voter, Mahant Bharatdas Darshandas in every election since 2004.
43.Largest Funeral attended: Funeral of CN Annadurai, in 1969
44.India’s Hindu calendar has 6 seasons: spring, summer, monsoon, autumn, winter and prevernal.
45.It’s illegal for foreigners to take Indian currency (rupees) out of India.
46.An Indian man claims he hasn’t eaten or drunk for 70 years. After many tests, doctors still don’t know how it’s possible.
47.India has more mobile phones than toilets. “
48.Children’s Day is celebrated in India on November 14th, 9 months after Valentine’s Day
49.61% of school children in India have disease-causing germs on their hands.
50.One woman dies every hour in India because of dowry-related crimes.
51.70% of all the world’s spices come from India.
52.Sex toys are illegal in India
53.India has the largest slave population in the modern world with over 14 million slaves.
54.To earn enough to buy a Big Mac, the average person in India has to work almost 6 hours.
55.53% of homes in India do not have a lavatory.
56.India has more population than the entire Western Hemisphere of Earth.
57.”Anal” is a language spoken in India and Burma by 23,000 people.
58.In India, there is a vigilante group called the “Love Commandos” that offers protection from harassment to couples from different castes who fall in love
59.Gleevec, a cancer drug that costs US$70,000 in the U.S. per year, cost just US$2,500 in India because it can’t be patented there.
60.A con man in India repeatedly “sold” the Taj Mahal, the Indian parliament and various other heritage sites. He was sentenced to 113 years but managed to escape prison 9 times. The last time, he was 84 years old.
61.India has highest number of female infanticide and abortion rate, with the rate ranging 100,000-500,000 per year.
62.There is a gypsy tribe in India that celebrates death as one of the happiest events in their lives, while treating births with great grief.
63.The Golden Temple in India feeds a vegetarian meal to over 100,000 people a day regardless of race, religion and class.
64.In 1954, archaeologists excavating an 8th-century Viking settlement in Sweden found a Buddha statuette from India.
65.In India, it is not uncommon to consume marijuana in milkshake form.
66.Global warming ‘solved’ a land dispute between India and Bangladesh: the island in dispute disappeared
67.In 2009, a doctor in India removed 172,155 stones from a patient’s left kidney during a three-hour surgery.
68.A man revived 5 rivers and brought water back to 1000 villages in India using native water-preservation techniques.
69.In South India, people roll over food leftovers served to Brahmins in the belief that all troubles and ailments will be cured.
70.74% of young Indians prefer an arranged marriage over a free-choice one, a 2013 survey found.
By:-Archa Dave
