WBCS

Indian People:
Indian people do not belong to a single racial or linguistic people. The population includes a harmonious blending various racial, linguistic and religious groups. The anthropologists divide Indian people into the following racial groups.

The Negritos: They are the oldest racial group of India. Tribal groups such as Kadars, Poligars, Irulas and some tribals from Rajmahall Hills and Andaman Nicobar Islands.
The Proto-Australoids: They are the 2nd oldest racial group in India. This racial group is represented by Oraons, Mundas, Santhals , Chenchus , Kurumbas , Bhils and Kols.
Mongloids: The mongloid racial stock in India is concentrated in the Himalayan borderlands , Particularly in Ladak, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh.
The Mediterraneans: These are long headed people, who brought high level of civilization and the bearer of earliest form of Hinduism. We can find three distinct groups of these racial stocks

Palaeo Mediterraneans are represented by Tamil and Telugu Brahmins.
Mediterraneans were the builders of Indus valley civilization and are now they constitute the bulk of the population of lower castes in North India and are also represented by the Namboodiri , Allahabad and Bengal Brahmins.
Oriental types are represented by Punjabi Kharties and Rajasthani Banias.

The Western Brachycephals: These groups consists of the three main types.
- Alphinoids represented by Gujarati Banias, Kathis of Kathiawar and Kayasthas of Bengal.
- Dinaric represented by populations of Bengal, Orissa and Coorg.
- Armenoids represented by Parsis,Bengali Vaidyas.
Nordics: They were the last to migrate into India. These people were called the Aryans. They were a predominant type in the North Western Frontier Province of Pakistan, Punjab , Haryana and Rajasthan.

POPULATION:

According to the Census conducted in 2001, India had total population of 1,028,610,328 out of which population of males was 532,156,772 as against 496,453,556 number of females with overall sex ratio of 933 i.e. 933 females per 1000 males, which account for 16.7 per cent of the world’s population. These 1.02 billion people are unevenly distributed over our country’s vast area of 3.28 million square km, which accounts for 2.4 per cent of the world’s area.
The 2001 Census data reveals that Uttar Pradesh with a population size of 166 million people is the most populous state of India. Uttar Pradesh accounts for about 16 per cent of the country’s population. On the other hand, the Himalayan state Sikkim has a population of just about 0.5 million and Lakshadweep has only 60 thousand people.
The population density of India in the year 2001was 324 persons per sq km.
Densities vary from 904 persons per sq km in West Bengal to only 13 persons per sq km in Arunachal Pradesh.
Most Populated Districts: Midnapore (West Bengal), 24 Parganas (West Bengal), Mumbai,Thane, Pune
Least populated Districts: Mahe (Pondicherry), Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), LahulSpiti (HP), Upper Siang (Arunachal Pradesh), Yanam (Pondicherry)
Growth of population refers to the change in the number of inhabitants of a country/territory during a specific period of time, say during the last ten years. Such a change can be expressed in two ways: in terms of absolute numbers and in terms of percentage change per year.
- India's 'Decadal Growth' of population (1991-2001) = 21.34% (Inter census period 1961-1971 marked the maximum decadal growth of population at 24.8%).
- Statewise lowest decadal growth rate of population is shown by Kerala (9.42%) and highest has been registered that of Nagaland (64.41%).
- The percent decadal growth rate has declined during the census decade 1991-2001 as compared to the previous census decade i.e. 1981-1991.
- Among the states/UT's which have not shown any decline in their percentage decadal growth rate during intercensal period of 1991-2001 as compared to previous census decade are: Harayana, U.P. Bihar, Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur, Gujarat, Daman and Diu, Dadar and Nagar Haweli. -Decadal Growth (1991-2001).
According to the Census of 2001, a person aged 7 years. and above who can read and write with understanding in any language, is treated as literate. The literacy rate in the country as per the Census of 2001 is 64.84 per cent; 75.26 per cent for males and 53.67 per cent for females.
- Highest rural literacy is in Kerala.
- Lowest rural literacy is in Rajasthan.
- Highest urban literacy is in Mizoram and lowest in UP
India has 638,588 villages according to the Census 2001 out of which 593,731 (93 per cent) are inhabited villages. Due to unemployment and lack of facilities in rural set up people are immigrating into the cities in search of work and better living conditions. This migration has put a lot of strain on basic infrastructure of cities. The increasing population pressure on cities has resulted in coming up of slums. According to 2001 Census Delhi alone has slum population of 1,851,231, which is 18.7% of total population of Delhi.
Religion:India is a secular democracy almost all the religions of world find representation in this country. If on one hand majority of its population(appx 80%) is Hindu on the other it also boasts of having the third largest Muslim population in the world. As per the last census conducted, out of the total population of 1028,610,328; 8275879 are Hindus, 138188 (13%) Muslims, 24080 (2.34%) Christians, 19216 (1.8%) Sikhs,7955 (.7%) Buddhist, 4225(.4%) Jains and 6640 (.6%) Others.
Language:
- India is home to approximately 1652 languages among them 350 are major ones. There are 22 officially recognized languages, it include Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannad, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Santhali, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Telugu, Tamil, Nepali and Urdu. Hindi is the most widely spoken language closely followed by English, which is the second official language of the nation.
- Among the scheduled languages, the speakers of Hindi have the highest percentage (40.42). The smallest language groups are Kashmiri and Sanskrit speakers (0.01 per cent each).