Demographics
India became the world's most populous country in early 2023, ahead of China, with 1.4 billion inhabitants. The latest census data date back to 2011, the 2021 census having been postponed indefinitely due to the Covid pandemic. India passed the billion mark in 2000, and its population doubled between 1975 and 2010. Since then, population growth has slowed. It was 2.3% in the 1970s-1980s and now stands at 0.68%. However, this rate suggests a population of 1.5 billion by 2030. India's population expresses itself through a great diversity of origins and languages, making it the most heterogeneous country in the world. Only the African continent boasts greater linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity than India! India's population is young overall, with a median age of 28.7. Life expectancy is 67.7 years, and only 5.3% of the population is over 65. A 2015 study shows a slight increase in the number of women in relation to the number of men over recent decades. There were 944 women for every 1,000 men in India in 2016. They live longer, but are less numerous at birth. The ban on sex determination during pregnancy has reduced the ratio of boys to girls at birth. Girls, because they leave their families on marriage and because of the dowry to be paid, have long been perceived as burdens.
India is the 28th most densely populated country, with 473 inhabitants per km². Large swathes of the country are sparsely populated, particularly in the Himalayan mountains and the tribal areas of central and north-eastern India. Population density doubles in arable areas. Apart from the major cities, India's population is highly concentrated in the Himalayan foothills, where the land is most fertile. The most densely populated state is Uttar Pradesh, with almost 200 million inhabitants and a population density of 821 inhabitants/km². The most densely populated is neighboring Bihar, with 1,049 inhabitants/km². Delhi, which enjoys special status within the Indian Union, has a population of over 16 million, or 11,290 inhabitants/km².
An ethnic mosaic
India's ethnic diversity is one of its greatest assets. The Indo-Aryan peoples, who make up around 70% of India's population, are in fact a range of different peoples sharing a common linguistic origin. They are thought to have arrived on the Indian subcontinent around 2,000 BC, and formed the great civilization of the Indus Valley, to the north of modern India. Dravidians, who account for 25% of the population, are in the majority in the south of the country. India has 645 scheduled tribes, grouped together in Hindi under the termadivasi. The tribe can be defined as a social group made up of families linked by social, economic or family ties, and sharing a common dialect and culture. Tribes possess unique characteristics that make them singular social, economic and political entities. Their uniqueness is recognized by the Indian Constitution. Adivasis have a number of reserved seats in the Federal Parliament. They receive special attention from a dedicated ministry. This ministry is responsible for their overall development and the preservation of their specific characteristics. They are considered the original peoples of the subcontinent. But they are excluded from the caste system, and consequently are placed at the very bottom of the social ladder. They number around 104 million across the country, representing 8.6% of the population (2011 census). The vast majority of adivasis live in rural areas, and only 2.8% live in urban areas. Madhya Pradesh is the state with the highest absolute number of adivasis. But it is in the north-eastern states and Odisha that the greatest number of tribes are to be found. Only the states of Punjab and Haryana, and the territories of Delhi, Pondicherry and Chandigarh, have no listed tribes. The largest tribe is the Bhil. It is found in several states in northern and southern India, in a wide band stretching from Rajasthan to Andra Pradesh. The smallest tribe is the Toto, who live in an enclave in West Bengal. They numbered just 1,385 at the 2011 census, partly due to their very low life expectancy of just over 40 years. While adivasis are very different from one another, they share the common characteristic of being among the most deprived classes. They live in rural, often remote areas, and derive their livelihood from pastoralism or traditional agriculture, when they are not hunter-gatherers.
In addition to the aborigines, India is home to numerous ethnic groups whose origins are sometimes very distant. While the mythology disseminated by Hindu nationalists suggests that Aryans left India to spread across Central and Minor Asia to Europe, scientific advances in ancient DNA research suggest otherwise. A study published in 2018 by Harvard University geneticist David Reich identified two major migrations in the prehistoric era. The first took place between 7,000 and 3,000 BC. Shepherds from south-western Iran mixed with native Indian populations, who had themselves arrived from Africa over 65,000 years ago. It was this mix that gave rise to the Harappan civilization, whose cradle is in the Indus Valley. Around 2,000 BC, Aryans from the steppes of Asia Minor brought with them a language that may be a primitive version of Sanskrit, and religious rites that are the basis of Hinduism. Between 50% and 65% of the Indian population possesses genes from aboriginal Indians. The incursions that became invasions by the Mughals, then the Portuguese, Dutch, British, French and Danes also left their genetic mark. Today, it is estimated that 78% of the population has Indo-European ancestry. In addition to their genes and language, the Aryans left an immense heritage to the India of today. The Vedas, the founding texts of Hinduism and social organization, play a crucial role in the foundation of this civilization. It is here that we find the source of the caste system.
The caste system
Intriguing to the rest of the world, the caste system was originally a social and political organization put in place by the Aryans to control local populations. The term comes from the Portuguese casta, meaning race, lineage or origin. Transposed to the Indian system of social categorization, the word actually encompasses two distinct notions: varna and jati.
Varna (or color) divides society into four groups: Brahmins (priests), Kshatriya (warriors), Vaishya (merchants) and Shudra (ploughmen). A fifth category is made up of the dalit, who are at the very bottom of the social ladder. They are considered impure by the other communities. Jati (or births) correspond to professional (weavers, potters, etc.) or sometimes ethnic activities. There are 3,000 different jatis, subdivided into 25,000 groups. In other words, for a non-Indian, it's more of a social labyrinth than an organization. This categorization was established by the British during the first census in 1872. The family name often links a member to his varna, or even his jati. The Sharma or Pandit belong to the Brahmin caste, the Chauhan or Singh to the Kshatriya, the Gupta, Modi or Gandhi to the Vaishya, the Ambedkar or Lohar to the Shudra. The Kumhar are potters, while the Prajapat are weavers, etc.
The Constitution of modern India (1950) prohibits all discrimination based on the caste system. But 70 years of secular democracy have not been enough to abolish age-old social rituals. The notion of caste also refers to a notion of purity. The Brahmins are said to have sprung from Brahma's head, the Kshatriyas from his arm, the Vaishya from his thigh and the Shudras from his feet. The higher one's level, the purer. Consequently, Indians marry within their own caste, as marrying a person from a lower caste means social downgrading. Marrying a member of one's jati is also a way of perpetuating know-how. In villages, people live in separate neighborhoods and don't mix. In the past, each district had its own well, and it was forbidden to use the well of a caste other than one's own. Dalits often had to travel miles to find a water source. What was originally intended to ensure a place for everyone in society has become an unjust and regressive system. The urban middle classes, however, seem to attach less importance to purity, relying instead on a socio-economic stratification similar to that of the West. Income level determines where people live, more than birth. Some Brahmins live very poorly, their ritual obligations forbidding them to trade with other groups. On the other hand, some untouchables (sometimes converts to Islam or Christianity) have made a fortune by engaging in activities considered impure by others (e.g. leatherworking).
Languages of North India
The Indian Constitution recognizes the use of two languages, Hindi and English, for official communications. But no national language is specified. It also recognizes the use of 22 languages across the country, which are taught in schools. As a result, Indian children are educated in the vernacular language of their state, to which Hindi and Sanskrit are added. Parents who can afford to do so will favor teaching in English. Depending on their ethnic origin, they may also need to master the dialect spoken at home. The Peoples' Linguistic Survey of India counts 780 languages and dialects, making India the second most language-rich country in the world, behind Papua New Guinea.
In the north of the country, Hindi is the language with the largest number of speakers. Other languages include Assamese (Assam), Bengali (West Bengal and Tripura), Bodo (Assam), Dogri (Jammu and Kashmir), Gujarati (Gujarat), Kashmiri (Kashmir), Maithili (Bihar) and Manipuri (Manipur), nepali (Sikkim), Oriya (Orissa), Punjabi (Punjab), Sanskrit, Santali (West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa), Sindhi (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat) and Urdu (Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh). Most of these languages belong to the Indo-European family. But in northern India, some languages and dialects belong to the Austro-Asiatic, Sino-Tibetan or Tai-Kadai families. The country also boasts two indigenous dialects, spoken by a tiny minority of speakers: Nihali (around 2,000 speakers in southern Madhya Pradesh) and Burushaski (around 100 speakers in Jammu and Kashmir). In the south, the languages are Dravidian, of unknown origin. Like Basque or Hungarian, their structure and grammar cannot be traced to any other known language. There are around thirty Dravidian languages, the most common of which are Kannada (Karnataka), Malayali (Kerala), Tamil (Tamil Nadu) and Telugu (Telengana and Andhra Pradesh). There are around 250 million speakers of one of these languages. Each Indian language has its own alphabet and writing system. Depending on where you are in India, knowledge of English or even Hindi may not be necessary.
The Indian diaspora
The Indian population living outside its borders is the largest in the world. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs lists 32 million Indians living abroad. These emigrants have a special status recognized by the State. There are Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), who are Indian citizens in their own right living abroad. And Overseas Citizens of India (OCI), who are foreign nationals originating from India or whose ancestors originated from India. The latter status entitles the holder to a long-stay visa, but does not confer voting rights, and prohibits access to employment in the Indian administration. This system was put in place to facilitate entry into the country, as India does not recognize dual nationality.
Some 2 million Indians emigrate every year, mostly for economic reasons. The 10 countries with the largest Indian diaspora are: USA (4.4 million), Saudi Arabia (4 million), United Arab Emirates (3.8 million), Malaysia (2.1 million), Canada (1.9 million), South Africa (1.6 million), UK (1 million), Mauritius and Reunion Island (1.1 million), Myanmar (1.2 million) and Sri Lanka (850,000). Metropolitan France lags far behind, with around 65,000 nationals of Indian origin on its territory. And there is 1 Indian in the Federated States of Micronesia.
The history of the Indian diaspora goes back a long way. It is possible that the first wave of migration occurred at the time of the war between Ashoka and the Kalinga kingdom, in the 3rd century BC. Around the same period, the Chola empire of southern India conquered Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. In the 1st century, when the Han conquered Yunnan, they noted the presence of a small Indian community in the region. In Central Asia, the Indian diaspora really emerged in the 16th century. The first Indian colony settled in Astrakhan, in tsarist Russia, in 1610. In the 18th century, Russian chroniclers reported the presence of Indians in St. Petersburg and Moscow. At the same time, the Indian community in Persia was caught up in the war between Afghans and Ottomans, and massacred. In Samarkand and Bukhara, Indians traded in indigo and grew considerably richer. A British traveller reported in 1815 that these merchants owned the highest houses. With the establishment of the British Raj, Indians emigrated to the four corners of the colonial empire. They were merchants, lawyers - Gandhi practiced in South Africa for 21 years - but also a cheap and exploitable workforce. Today, there is still a large population of Indians in Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Malaysia, Kenya... Today, the majority of Indians emigrate to the Gulf States, mostly to work in unskilled jobs. Middle-class and affluent Indians, on the other hand, prefer the USA and Canada to pursue their studies and secure employment locally.
