August 15 – India's Independence Day

nPostednon August 15, 2015

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nFornabout 150 years, Great Britain ruled over India. Many Indians spentntime, exerted effort – and sometimes lost their lives – in anneffort to win India’s freedom and independence. There were violentnstruggles, at times, but there was also an important, and ultimatelynsuccessful, non-violent movement.

nFinally,nin 1947, India became independent of the British Empire.

Todaynbanks, governmental buildings, and most businesses are closed. ThenPrime Minister addresses the nation, and loads of people fly kites asnwell as flags. There are costume parties, and documentaries, andnpatriotic entertainment of all sorts.

nThenday is sometimes billed as the birthday of the world’s largestndemocracy. (The U.S. is slightly larger than India in area – thanksnto Alaska – but India has FAR more people. The U.S. has more thann300 million people, but India has more than a billion people!)

nTonlearn about another important patriotic holiday in India, check outnthis earlier post.

nIndianis a large, diverse, fascinating country. Here are some of the morenmind-blowing things about India:

nWithn so many people in the nation, as you might expect, it has somen enormous institutions. For example, India boasts as having then largest postal network in the world, with more than a million postn offices.

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Including this one

nAlso, the company IndiannRailways has more employees than many nations have population. If thencompany was a country, it would probably be ranked around #155 out ofn258!

nAn village in India, Shani Shingnapur, was famous for having no doorsn in its houses – only door frames. Despite the fact that no doorsn or locks stood in the way of stealing, there were no thefts reportedn for centuries – until 2010! Even a bank that opened in 2011 in then village was a “lockless bank branch.” Actually, the bank hasn doors, but it was promised that they will always remain open. (Butn the bank promised its customers that locks were provided for lockersn and important documents.

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nIndian was the home of either THE oldest civilization in the world orn certainly one of the oldest. There are more than 20 officiallyn recognized languages in India, and at least four of the world’sn major religions arose in India (Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, andn Jainism).

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nAn religious gathering called Kumbh Mela occurs every 12 years inn India; reported to be the world’s largest gathering of people, it’sn so large it’s visible from space.

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Kumbh Mela from space

nLonarn Lake is a saltwater soda lake that was created when a comet or asteroid hit then Earth at high velocity.

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Indiansn claim that they invented chess, buttons, rulers, shampoo, the numbern zero, cataract surgery, and plastic surgery. (Of course, some ofn these things were invented by more than one civilization – andn it’s hard to know “who’s first,” in many cases.) It was ann Indian lunar probe that first detected water on the moon.

nAlsonon this date: