100 Interesting Facts About India

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1Roopkund lake

Roopkund lake

In 1942, a British forest guard in India made an alarming discovery. Some 16,000 feet above sea level, at the bottom of a small valley, was a frozen lake (Roopkund lake) absolutely full of skeletons.


2. When Alexander the Great was invading India he learned of a Brahmin who lived in the woods visited him and the Brahmin replied, "You will soon be dead, and then you will own just as much of this earth as will suffice to bury you". Alexander approved of this sentiment and left him in peace.


3. The bird Americans call a "turkey" is called an India in Turkey, and a Peru in Portuguese.


4. After his wife was denied access to a village well by upper caste members, an Indian man named Bapurao Tajne spent 40 days digging his own well by hand. It now quenches the thirst of an entire village of Dalit (lower caste).


5. A lack of toilets costs India more than $50 billion a year, mostly through premature deaths and hygiene-related diseases.


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6Saroo Brierley

Saroo Brierley

A 5-year-old boy named Saroo Brierly in India fell asleep on a train and ended up lost and alone in Calcutta. He was adopted by an Australian couple and, 25 years later, reunited with his biological mother using Google Maps.


7. 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in the world are just in India.


8. During World War 2, India produced the largest volunteer Army in world history, over 2.5 million men. Winston Churchill called their bravery "Unsurpassed", with at least 38 Indians awarded the Victoria Cross or the George Cross.


9. In 1986, a 22-year-old Indian air hostess named Neerja Bhanot who helped hide 41 American passports aboard a hijacked plane. She died shielding three children from gunfire and was posthumously awarded bravery medals from India, Pakistan, and the United States.


10. A male tiger in India adopted a litter of orphaned cubs, taking on the role of 'mother'. Wildlife officials say such behavior had never been observed before.


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11Golden Temple

Golden Temple

The world's largest soup kitchen is the Golden Temple, the holiest temple for Sikhs, which is located in Amritsar, Punjab, India. The Golden Temple can serve free food for up to 100,000 - 300,000 people every day, regardless of faith, religion, or background.


12. India bans captive dolphin shows as ‘morally unacceptable’ - They believe they are highly intelligent & should be seen as ‘non-human persons’ with their own specific rights.


13. A Mumbai thief was force-fed 48 bananas to make him excrete a stolen gold chain.


14. The Beatles trip to India ended badly because the Maharishi wanted the band to deposit up to 25% of their next album's profits in his Swiss bank account as a tithe, to which Lennon replied, "Over my dead body".


15. India celebrates Children's Day on November 14th, exactly 9 months after Valentine's Day.


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16Bombay Blood Group

Bombay Blood Group

There is a rare blood group known as ‘h/h’ or ‘Oh’ which was first discovered in 1952 at Bombay, India, hence christening another name ‘Bombay Blood Group’. This blood is so rare that only 4 in a million would have it globally; however, every 1 in 10,000 have it in Bombay.


17. In India, there is a Guardian Angels-style vigilante group (Love Commandos) that protects young couples who fall in love across different castes. They are called the Love Commandos


18. There are 2.5 million of Zero Rupee banknotes in India. They are "paid" in protest by angry citizens to government functionaries who solicit bribes


19. Hallucinatory 'voices' shaped by local culture. In the U.S.A., voices are harsh and threatening while those heard by schizophrenics in Africa and India tend to be more benign and playful.


20. When introducing Golf to India, the British were angered by monkeys running onto the course and playing with their balls. When all attempts to stop the monkeys failed, they decided the game needed to adapt. To do so they introduced a new rule: "Play the ball where the monkey drops it."


21Interlinking Indian rivers

Interlinking Indian rivers

India has proposed to link 67 rivers to prevent floods and droughts. By doing so, an area equivalent to that of Germany will be irrigated.


22. When Sati was prohibited in India. Charles Napier told protesting Hindu priests "Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property..."


23. A poor and illiterate irishman called George Thomas traveled to India, worked as a mercenary for Indian Kings and eventually became a King himself, ruling over his own kingdom for a number of years in the districts of Rohtak and Hisar


24. The 'sand mafia' is a huge problem in India, illegally mining sand and causing permanent environmental damage.


25. In 1947, India and Pakistan still had British Officers in their armies. When the first Indo-Pakistan War broke out, they commanded troops on both sides and regularly corresponded via telephone.

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