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Two basic components of this heritage, which have at the same time shaped this heritage are the land,
the natural and physical environment of India, and
the people who have inhabited this land. The generations of people who have inhabited India during various periods of her history have interacted with
their physical and natural environment. They have also interacted among themselves. Through these
processes of interaction – between people and their
natural and physical environment and among themselves-the people have created their history, their social, economic, cultural and political life.
These processes of interaction have been going on for thousands of years, bringing in changes in the life of the people.
India is a vast country. It extends for nearly 3000 kilometers from Kashmir in the north to Kanyakumari in the south and for the same distance from
its western-most parts to its eastern-most parts. Nature has made it into a distinct geographical entity. The Himalayan ranges in the north and the sea in the
east, west and south separate it from the rest of the world. The people inhabiting the country from very early times as well as people of other parts of the
world have viewed it as a single integral and distinctive unit.
These geographical features, however, while making this country a well-defined unit separated from the rest of the world, have not become a
barrier to contacts with the rest of the world. Since the time of the Old Stone Age, people from neighboring as well as distant regions have been coming into
India through the mountain passes and the seas and making India their home. The people of India have been formed as a result of these migrations over
thousands of years. They are the descendants of groups of people belonging to almost all the ‘racial Groups’ which have gone into the making of the Indian
population are the Proto-Australoids, the Palaeo-Mediterraneans, the Caucasoids, the Negroid and the Mongoloids in their varying degrees of mixtures. In
historical times, the ethnic groups which have come to India and made India their home include the Indo-European speaking people (the Indo-Aryans), the
Persians, the Greeks, the Kushanas, the Shakas, the Hunas, the Arabs, the Turks, the Africans and the Mongols. During the past few hundred years, many
Europeans have also made India their home. All there ‘racial’ and ethnic groups have intermingled with one another and few of them can be recognized in
their original form. Thus, India has been a crucible of various ‘races’ and ethnic groups. They have all contributed to the making of Indian history and
culture.
The migration of people into India has been a major factor in the development of various aspects of India’s life and culture since pre-historic times. In
historical times, the importance of this factor is conspicuous in almost every period of India’s history. The people from other cultures and civilizations have
brought with them their own traditions, which got intermixed and integrated with the pre-existing traditions. Similarly, people of India have gone to other
parts of the world and various elements of culture carried by them have intermixed and have been integrated with the pre-existing cultures there. During the past 2000 years, the influence of various elements of Indian culture has been noticed in many countries of Asia.
The vastness of the country and the great variations in its geographical features- land forms, natural resourses, climate and others – have pro |
