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Introduction T he name India evokes the mythical, the exotic, and the tran- quil: images of elephants lumbering through cities, of ancient ruins thousands of years old, of holy men at prayer in shrines, and of endless fields of jade-green rice paddies. The Republic of India features all of these things but much more as well: It is a nation of conflict, of growth and opportunity, and of desperate poverty and tremendous challenges. It is a nation with many friends but no allies, and a nation with many ideas but few chances for change. India is the dominant feature of southern Asia. It is often called the subcontinent , because its geography only recently linked up with Asia itself, colliding with the mainland about 25 million years ago and creating the drastic upthrust of the Himalaya Mountains. India is the seventh-largest nation in the world, coming in at 1.2 million square miles, making it about twice as large as Alaska. The historic range of India has at times been larger or smaller than its current boundaries; some empires like theMughal controlledmuch of Pakistan in addition to India. Its current boundaries, set by the BritishEmpire’s geographers,were an attempt to partition Southern Asia in a fashion that would be favorable to Muslims in Pakistan as well as Hindus in India. Words to Understand Caste: Ethnic social hierarchy of India, dating to ancient times, forming restrictive classes of peoples. Debt bondage: Partial or total servitude for the purposes of paying off debts. Industrialization: The transition from an agricultural economy to a manu- facturing economy. Insurgency: An active revolt or uprising against the authorities. Subcontinent: A geographic area smaller than an individual continent but larger than most nations.

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