India, officially the Republic of India, is the 2nd most populated country in the world. It has 29 States and New Delhi is the capital city. India is known for its culture, history, traditions and languages. A lot of inventions that are now an integral part of the world’s progress and growth originated in India. Appreciation for your amazing nation is often limited to these facts. But it is vital to understand that India is more than just complicated numbers and areas. We have detailed a list of interesting facts about India that will surely amaze you. These facts are sure to fill you with amazing wonder for India’s unique diversity and pride for maintaining the subtle calm in chaos.
India is a complete land of mystery, where you can find something that you lost years ago and the very same time loose on things within a fraction of seconds. So, we are sure that the facts that we are going to mention down here, you may know a few, but we are sure some of them will definitely amaze you.
Here are 51 facts about India that will truly amaze you!
1. 9 out of 10 of the World’s highest peaks are in The Himalayas
A large part of the Himalayas are in India and the might mountain ranges contain 9/10 of the World’s highest peaks. The Mt. Everest stands at 8,848 metres. A number of peaks fall in the territory of Nepal but the majority of these peaks fall in the territory of India.
2. The image of “Kumbh Mela” gathering is visible from space
The Kumbh Mela is an event that is held every 12 years. It is a spiritual and religious event conducted in the northern portion of India. In 2011, this gathering was so populous and huge that it was visible in space through the satellite. That year close to 70 million people attended the event.
3. The Indian National Kabaddi Team has won all the World Cups
The game of Kabaddi originated in India and the Indian team has ensured to bring home all the 5 World Cup Trophies home. The women’s team also stands undefeated and has brought back the trophy every year.
4. World’s largest milk producer
If you love milk and milk products, India is the place to be. This is a world record breaking fact about India that over 155.55 million tonnes of milk was produced in 2015 which made is the largest milk producer in the world.
5. First rocket of India was transported by a bicycle and the first satellite was transported on a bullock cart
ISRO launched its first ever rocket from a church in Thumba, a little village on the outskirts of Trivandrum. In 1963, the said rocket was transported on a bicycle. The launching pad later came to be known as Vikram Sarabhau Space Centre (VSSC). The station had a single launch pad among coconut plantations. The first communication satellite was transported on a bullock cart to the same location.
6. The highest cricket ground in the World
India is a cricket loving nation and the people are massive fans of the sport. People worship cricketers more fervently than idols and gods. The highest cricket ground in the world (as recorded by the Guinness Book) is situated at a level of 2,144 metres above sea level in Chail, Himachal Pradesh.
7. India is the second largest English speaking nation in the World
First is the US, followed by India which has around 10% of the population speaking fluent English. This statistic is expected to quadruple in the coming next decade with more and more of the population getting included in the literate sect.
8. The Hills that defy Gravity- Tulsi Shyam
A car that is left in free gear on a road stretch in Tulsi Shyam in Amreli district, Gujarat will start rolling up the hill against the gravitational pull. This strange freak phenomenon occurs only in this stretch and has made the place a very famous tourist spot. There is a spot marked on the road and that is the spot where vehicles defy gravity! Well, we are sure that after knowing about this, you would definitely want to know more or even plan a small trip to experience it yourself.
9. The Largest Number of Vegetarians in the World
With majority of the population following Hinduism, almost 20%- 40% of the population of India is vegetarian which makes it the country with the largest number of vegetarians in the world. You will fit right in if you are a pure vegetarian! Welcome to India.
10. The village of Madhopatti is called the ‘Officer’s village of India’
A small village in the Jaunpur district of UP, Madhopatti is known worldwide for producing the greatest number of IAS officers. There are about 75 households in the village and 47 IAS officers have joined the Indian Administration Services. Men from the same village have joined ISRO, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the World Bank as well. We all wish that we were born there!
11. The only Country with a Bill of Rights for cows
In India, a person is considered to have two mothers. One is his birth mother and one is Gau mata. Cows are considered to be holy in Hinduism and are also worshipped by majority. The constitution has a set of rules in place that prevents the sale and slaughter of these holy animals making it the only country with a bill of rights for cows.
12. A voting poll booth set up for just ONE voter in Gujarat
India’s most privileged voter, Mahant Bharatdas, resides in a small colony called Banej in the middle of Gir Forest, Gujarat. A voting booth was set up especially for him and this setting up of a particular polling booth for just one voter goes a long way in speaking decibels about the democratic spirit of the country.
13. Shingnapur is village where the houses don’t have doors
This little village in Maharashtra has houses without doors and locks. The 300 year old legend attracts over 40,000 devotees each. The residents of this place worship Lord Shani and they believe him to be the guardian of the town. They believe that he will protect them and hence, they have no locks on their doors.
14. Mawsynram is the wettest place on Earth with 11,873 millimetres of rain annually
This town in Meghalaya gets about 11,873 millimetres of rain owing to its proximity to the Bay of Bengal. it holds the Guinness Record for highest average annual rainfall. The winter months of this region are spent in preparation for the six- month long monsoon.
15. India Invented Snakes & Ladders, Shampooing, Algebra, the number pi and many more things
India is home to numerous innovative inventions starting from the game of snake and ladders to chess which is also called as ‘Chaturanga’. India is home to the first button, the concept of shampooing, the number pi, diamond mining, the number zero, algebra and trigonometry. Indians were also among the first to discover water on the moon. Well now how wouldn’t say that Indians are born prodigies.
16. World’s only floating post office in Dal Lake in Srinagar
India has its very own floating post office on Dal Lake in Srinagar. It is perched on a houseboat and also included a museum within itself. India is also known for the most significant number of post offices in the world.
17. Varanasi is 5000 years old and is one of the oldest inhabited places in the World
According to Hindu mythology, Lord Shiva founded this city almost 5000 years ago. The holy city of Banaras or Varanasi is situated on the banks of river Ganga and is represented in the Parliament by our PM Narendra Modi. It is considered to be amongst one of the holiest cities in the country and thousands of pilgrims visit this city to offer their prayers.
18. A meteor crash formed the breath taking Lonar Lake in Maharashtra
Maharashtra’s best kept secret is just a 4 hour drive from the city of Auranagabad. The Lonar Lake was created by a plummeting meteor that hit the surface of the Earth almost 52,000 years ago. This astronomical marvel is a famous tourist hotspot and has a lot of temples around it as well.
19. India is the largest producer of movies in the world
India is home to Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood, Sandalwood and numerous other film producing houses. India stands in the first position in the number of movies it produces on an average in one year.
20. USB was developed by an Indian-American computer architect
The man behind USBs is Ajay V. Bhatt. He is also the brains behind the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP), PCI Express, Platform Power management and various other chip- set improvements.
21. Actor Ben Kingsley’s birth name is Krishna Pandit Bhanji
His parents are from Gujarat, his birth name is Krishna Pandit Bhanji and he is of Indian descent. In his 40-year career he has won an Oscar, a Grammy, a BAFTA, two Golden Globesand a Screen Actors Guild award as well.
22. Indus Valley civilisation is the World’s oldest civilisation
The Indus Valley Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the north-western regions of South Asia. It flourished in the basins of the Indus River and is recorded to have been in existence from 3300 BC to 1300 BC.
23. India gave the World “Yoga” which existed for more than 5000 years.
Yoga was discovered more than 5000 years in India. There is a town in North India on the banks of the river Ganga called Rishikesh which is often called the “yoga capital of the world”. Yoga is now practised by people all across the world and has transformed their lives in various ways.
24. It took 22 years to build Taj Mahal
This monument was built by Emperor Shah Jahan for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal as a declaration of his love for her. It attracts 2-4 million visitors annually with over 200,000 from overseas.
25. Khari Baoli in New Delhi is Asia’s largest spice market
It has been in existence since the 17th century and dates back to the Mughal era. It is a street in old Delhi and is situated near the Red Fort. It is famous for selling all kinds of spices, nuts, herbs and food products like rice and tea.
26. Over 4700 newspapers in more than 300 languages are produced in India
With India’s literacy rate growing by the day, the demand for newspapers is going up too. India is home to numerous cultures and languages and there are newspapers produced in almost every language. The largest number of newspapers and periodicals registered in any Indian language was in Hindi (32, 793) followed by English with 11, 478 newspapers and periodicals.
27. India is house to the world’s biggest family
Ziona Chana from Mizoram has 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren and they all live happily in one four story building with over 100 rooms. The family of 167 consumes 90 kgs of rice and 60kgs of potatoes in one day. When the family is to have a non- veg meal, they have to buy 30 chickens to be able to feed the entire family!
28. The Human Calculator, Shakuntala Devi is a math prodigy from India
She could calculate 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 and provided the correct answer in mere 28 seconds. She has broken various records across the world, including beating the super computer.
29. The Golden Temple in India feeds a vegetarian meal to over 50,000 people a day
The Golden Temple in Amritsar feeds a meal to over 50,000 people daily regardless of race, religion and class.
30. Indian households are home to 11% of the World’s gold
That is more than the reserves of the U.S., IMF, Switzerland and Germany put together. India housewives and families in general invest a lot in gold.
31. Mangalyaan Mission was the most cost effective Mars mission
India is the first country in the world to have succeeded in putting a probe into Mars’ orbit in the very first attempt. It is the most cost effective Mars mission to have been undertaken. The Mangalyaan Mission cost only 74 million dollars.
32. In 1928, India was so good at Hockey that the British withdrew from Olympics to avoid a possible embarrassing defeat by its own colony.
33. Dr. APL Abdul Kalam is celebrated in Switzerland
In honor of former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, May 26th is celebrated as ‘Science day’ in Switzerland. On the day, Kalam visited the country and awed the country with his knowledge.
34. The oldest marathon runner in the world
Fauja Singh took up running at the age of 89. He was born in 1908, in Beas Pind, Punjab, British India. He completed his last marathon race in Hong Kong in 2013 clocking 1 hour 32 minutes and 28 seconds. He featured alongside Mohammad Ali and David Beckham in an advertising campaign in 2004 by Adidas as well.
35. India is the only country other than US and Japan, to have built a super computer indigenously.
The Indian Government had a difficult time purchasing super computers so they just made one. The Cray XC40 based Pratyush is the fastest super computer in India.
36. Siachin is the World’s highest battlefield
Siachen glacier, located in the eastern Karakoram Range in the Himalayas, situated at an average altitude of 18,000 ft above sea level.Most of Siachen Glacier falls under the LoC (Line of Control), a hotly contested territory between Pakistan and India.
37. The oldest sharp shooter “shooter dadi” from UP
Chandro Tomar, also known as “Shooter Dadi” started her shooting career in her late sixties and has won more than 25 National Championships. She won the gold at the Veteran Shooting Championship in Chennai. She lives with her family in Shamli, Uttar Pradesh.
38. Dras is the World’s second largest coldest inhabited place
Located about 37 miles from Kargil, Dras is also known as ‘The Gateway to Ladakh’ and is the second coldest inhabited place in the world.
39. India has the World’s 3rd largest active army after China and USA
China had the largest active duty military force in the world, with about 2.18 million active military personnel. India, the United States, North Korea, and Russia made it to the top five countries with the largest active duty military forces.
40. Indian Railways and the Indian Army together form the largest employer in the World
Two Indian organisations, Army and Railways are among the world’s biggest employers, together employing a whopping 2.7 million people.
41. India is the largest democracy in the world
India has 1267 million inhabitants out of which 834 million can vote making it the largest democracy in the world. It is also the sixth largest economy in the world.
42. Bouncer village in India
Also, popular as the ‘strongest village’, the twin villages of Asola-Fatehpur Beri in Delhi have the maximum number of bouncers and bodyguards. More than nearly 90% of the men from this village offer the necessary protection at nightclubs and bars in New Delhi and other parts of the nation. The men in the village train regularly for 2 hours every morning and evening to get in the best shape. The trend began unexpectedly when Vijay Tanwar was not selected by the National Wrestling team for the Olympics. He wished to put his muscles to good use and landed a job as a bouncer. And the rest is history.
43. Indians are the top readers in the world
In the year 2017, India was ranked No 1 on the list with its citizens reporting an average of 10 hours and 42 minutes a week spent reading. Attaining the Number 1 position on the list is a huge accomplishment for the nation given that India’s literacy rate is lower than the global average of around 74%.
44. The Chennai Airport ceiling has fallen more than 70 times
The Chennai Airport ceiling has fallen up to 74 times between the years 2012 and 2016. Airport officials have said that nobody got hurt or injured in the last incident. The airport authorities were given a contract amounting to 35 lakhs in Chennai to fix the glass panels and they strongly wished that that would be the last incident.
45. Baby tossing ceremony in Southern India
As the Sri Santeshwar Temple in Indi, Karnataka, parents drop their young babies from the top of the temple where 14 men stand waiting down below holding a bedsheet to catch the baby. This ritual is strongly believed to fetch good luck and health to the babies.
46. Taj Mahal was once sold
Natwarlal was a popular Indian con man well-known for having repeatedly sold the Taj Mahal. He was later sentenced to 133 years of imprisonment and yet managed to escape the prison nearly 9 times. Natwarlal is majorly considered to be the greatest con man in the history of India.
47. Indian temples keep copper plates to easily absorb positive energy from the Earth
Majority of the Indian temples are positioned in magnetic wave lines of the earth, and they believe that it will maximize the available positive energies. A cooper plate is buried under the main idol that easily absorbs the positive energy. Indian believers go to such temples in order to absorb this positive energy.
48. Indian government offers protection to a group of people who are uncontactable by the outside world
The North Sentinel Island is the place where the Sentinelese native reside, a tribe that refuses and rejects any contact and connection with the outside world. They are among the last uncontacted people and stay literally untouched by the modern civilization. The Indian government has prohibited any outsiders to go within 3 miles of the island.
49. During World War II, the Taj Mahal was disguised
During the time of World War II, the Indians positioned bamboo scaffolding over the area of the Taj Mahal. The motive of this act was to make Taj Mahal appear like nothing but a bamboo stockpile from inside of a bomber plane flying above and it ultimately was a successful step. Indians repeated the same strategy when they were at war against Pakistan in the year 1965 and 1971.
Also, with regard to facts related to the Taj Mahal, there are more interesting things happening. Due to the reason of increasing levels of contaminants and pollution, the Taj Mahal’s white marble exterior is gradually turning into the color yellow.
50. An India woman married a Cobra
As a strange story, an Indian woman who fell in love with a cobra married the reptile at a traditional Hindu wedding in Orissa state with more than 2,000 guests. In India, snakes are worshipped as religious symbols worn by Lord Shiva, the God of Destruction.
51. One territorial dispute between Bangladesh and India was resolved by means of global warming.
After nearly 30 years of disagreement between Bangladesh and India with regard to a small island in the Bay of Bengal, the New Moore Island in the Sundarbans submerged down under due to global warming. An oceanographer, Sugata Hazra, on this incident commented that “What these two nations could not achieve from years of discussing has been resolved by global warming.”
India is a country that has a lot to offer, to its own citizens and to visitors. The country is vibrant and full of life, waiting for you to explore it. It is interesting to understand that there is so much in the country that is still not known to many people around. It is the perfect time to turn the clock around and look for some fascinating things and stories about India. People now have a door opening to irresistible fun and weird places of India which will make your way to a better trip and experience.
Given these incredible facts about India, it is not surprising that Indian culture and art with its profound historical relevance and rich cultural roots hold so much fascination and continue to be a source of inspiration for the rest of the world.
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