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Article: A History of Modern India - Part 1 of a Series: The Wonder That Was
- Article from:
- India Abroad
- Article date:
- August 16, 1996
- Author:
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Parvati Menon
India Abroad
08-16-1996
A History of Modern India - Part 1 of a Series: The Wonder That Was India.
How do we begin to understand India? An awed writer once described it as "a great orchestra of different languages, praying to different gods, living in a continental hugeness that not long ago was divided into hundreds of principalities."
But that is only one part of her kaleidoscopic reality. Here is a country of over 900 million people (around 15 percent of the world's population) who speak 22 major languages, each in its turn encapsulating a literature and a particular historical experience. (This is apart from over 1,500 other languages and dialects spoken in the country).
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