The talented American writer Mark Twain famously said, “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great-grandmother of tradition.”
It has been said that if you wish to know something about India you must empty your mind of all preconceived notions. This is excellent advice. No country inspires more preconceptions or poses more contradictions than India. And, arguably, this is part of her charm.
Take the geography of the Sub-continent. Towards the North, India is broad, encompassing the huge natural plains which have witnessed great historical battles. Towards the South. India gradually narrows to a point at Cape Comorin, like an arrowhead pointing to the great southern oceans. India's natural barriers are created on the one hand by the defensive bastion of the Himalayan range, and on the other by the azure waters of the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. In peaceful times, this means 5,000 miles of golden, sandy beaches lapped by warm, unpolluted seas.
But the subject of greatest fascination must surely be the people of India. It is the world's largest democracy, its huge kaleidoscopic population largest in the world. The State, which by letter of the constitution is a sovereign democratic socialist secular republic, officially acknowledges 15 major languages; in addition there are 1,652 mother tongues - so the description 'multilingual' takes on a new dimension.
Even more striking are the splashes of bright colour which shimmer off saris, turbans, shawls and myriad other garments. Indians are never afraid to use colour, for colour is all around them in the vibrant flora, the deep azure of the heavens, and the blazing yellows of the sun. So colour plays a primary role in decorating bill boards, trucks, bicycles, elephants, and any- thing else that is deemed to merit the unrestrained hand of the ubiquitous decorator.
This sounds like a deafening and dazzling Tower of Babel, and at times it is. But like everything in India, it works. As a shrewd observer of India once remarked, "India has been kept in one piece by the noise and chaos of her democracy". And it is a noise with a distinctly human dimension. You are more likely to hear the whirr of bicycle wheels than the scream of turbo- assisted machinery, the hooting of car horns rather than the deafening roar of jet engines.
Since time immemorial India has stood at the crossroads of the world, the essential fulcrum between East and West. People have visited India and have simply fallen under her spell. Great movements of populations have at times swept through India, making changes, only eventually to subside and permit the old India to rise, like the phoenix, from a temporary state of abeyance.
With the tidal waves of humanity came different religions, architectures, cultures, languages, customs, music and dance, as well as a variety of political, social, medical, and technological ideologies. The effects were not devastating but enriching. None of this variety and complexity has been lost. Many different peoples have had an influence; all have ultimately contributed to the extraordinary mosaic that is India today. And this process of assimilation is far from complete as we find ourselves in the closing decade of the 20th Century. Thanks to satellite communications, television, and rapid air transport, new ideas continue to flood into the Sub-continent.
With new ideas come new industries, and, of these, potentially the most important is tourism. India draws the tourist like a magnet - not only for the clichéd but powerful images of 'typical' India such as the Taj Mahal and the glories of Rajasthan, but for a whole range of activities. For example, the enthusiastic and comparatively well-heeled skier can now contemplate a week's powder-skiing in the snowy vastness of the Western Himalaya, even using helicopter access. The keen river-rafter can follow his/her bent in rushing, snow-fed rivers. And those in pursuit of sun, sea, sand and solitude can hardly do better than choose a deserted stretch of India's 5,000 miles of beach (fronting three different seas), many of which feature discreetly-located luxury hotels a stone's throw away.
It's possible to fit all three activities into one holiday, and still have plenty of time for more conventional sightseeing (if that's possible in India, where the term 'conventional' is rarely applicable). Yet there remains a further area of interest:
Not only is India unique in the range of its fauna - almost 350 mammal species and 1,200 species of birds in nearly 2,100 forms, plus a dizzying array of fish, amphibians, reptiles and insects - but its 'big cats' have drawn hunters for centuries. Even during the height of the slaughter, though, cries were raised in fierce opposition. In 1931 Jim Corbett wrote: 'A Country's fauna is a sacred trust. Today, despite years of frustration, India has no less than 220 wildlife parks and sanctuaries.
Of necessity there has been a complete alteration in the Indian view of conservation, not only of animals, but also of their natural habitats. One of the world's most successful conservation projects is undoubtedly Project Tiger, launched some in 1973 . Over the years its nine reserved zones have expanded to 15, covering a total area of no less than 24,712 square kilometres, and there are now be lived to be some 4,000 tigers inhabiting the reserves. We are all aware that there is still much more to do, especially on the subject of natural habitat, deforestation, and the crucial balance between man and nature, but we nevertheless feel a great sense of optimism that the first footsteps have been taken and that we are now set upon a path that can provide positive results for the future.
VISIT INDIA AND BECOME SPELL BOUND
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