SJ Desk
ncredible India is one of the most exquisite countries in the world. Being one of the oldest civilizations in the world, India is a land of diversity. Diversity not just in terms of religions, languages, cultures, and cuisines. But India also hosts different climatic conditions, assorted wildlife, and resources.
Although no article or even book for that matter can capture the greatness of our motherland and her contribution to the world, we have jotted down just a few points to make you smile and feel proud to be an Indian.
Rich Cultural Heritage
India is one of the oldest civilizations on this planet. It is widely assumed that humans arrived in India around 70,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization in India thrived around 2500 BCE, making it one of the most ancient human colonies ever. Our scriptures, monuments, architecture, and traditions, shows how far ahead we were compared to the rest of the world.
Peace Loving
Though our civilization dates back to thousands of years, the peace-loving India has never plundered or conquered any other nation. In spite of the fact that many non-native invaders like Mahmud Ghajni, Muhammad Ghur, Timur kept plundering this incredible country. Mahatma Gandhi is considered to be the first person who brought a major revolution on the basis of ahimsa or non-violence. Ho Shih said once said, “India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.”
Innovation
India has been a land of creative thinkers, without whom the world would not have been the same as we know it today. Right from the digit 0 to the flashy buttons on your shirt, from the game of chess to the shampoo you use on your hair. India has given the world many positive inventions like Cataract Surgery, Ayurveda and Yoga.
Largest Democracy
India by far is the largest democracy in the world with over 1.2 billion population and over 810 million eligible voters. The constitution of India is the longest constitution in the world which grants the public, the choice to elect and uproot the government. India is a sovereign, secular and socialist nation that preserves the essence of freedom and human right to the core.
Indian Economy
India stands as the third largest economy in the world, in terms of purchase power parity. India is one of the leading exporters of the IT industry and as a result, the service growth rate of India has been just below 10% annually. In agriculture, India is the largest producer of milk, various spices, coconut, ginger, etc. in the whole of the world along with the biggest cattle population. Even the E-commerce sector of India is taking the world by storm.
Diversity and Tolerance
India is a vividly diverse country where people from all around the world live together in consonance. People belonging to every caste, creed, colour and custom flock together happily. Even though there are hundreds of different languages and cultures in India, no one is discriminated on the basis of their ethnicity.
Inspiration
Many great people from the land of India have inspired the entire world in more than one way. Buddha got his enlightenment in India and Buddhism formed by him, taught the whole world, the renowned ‘law of Karma’. Similarly, Mahaveer who worked on the revival of Jainism and Gurunanak who founded Sikhism inspired the world by their teachings on the various dimensions of life. Ashoka the great and Mahatma Gandhi taught the world that not every revolution needs blood; matters can also be resolved by spreading peace and love. The entire world was moved by Swami Vivekanand’s speech on religious tolerance. The list of such great Indians goes on and on.
Scientific Revolutions
The Indian satellite called ‘Mangalyaan’ was launched by ISRO to study and investigate the red planet. The success of Mangalyaan made India the first country, to have successfully accomplished the Mars mission in a single attempt. Another interesting feature of Mangalyaan was, while the US Mars mission ‘Maven’ cost even more than 650 million dollars, India's Mangalyaan fetched only 70 million dollars. India has joined the elite league by inventing its own supercomputer, built completely in the home without any aid from the foreign country. Only 2 countries apart from India were able to do so.
Kabaddi
Till date 3 Kabaddi World Cup has been organized in the year 2004, 2007 and 2016 respectively. Team India emerged victorious in all 3 of them quite comprehensively. Unfortunately, although India has a lot of talent in various sports, almost all the other sporting activities in India get eclipse by cricket.
BCCI
Talking about cricket, the apex regulatory cricket body of India, which is known as ‘Board of control for Cricket in India’ (BCCI) has a net worth of over 14 billion dollars. It makes BCCI the richest Cricket board of the world, even richer than the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Science day (Switzerland)
The Government of Switzerland has declared 26th May as their National Science Day. The reason we Indians should be proud of this is that the decision was taken to felicitate former Honorable President of India, late A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. It is a tribute to Dr. Abdul Kalam by the Confoederatio Helvetica for his contribution in the field of science and missile.