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Treating "ASIA" as somehow one large, homogeneous entity is a huge fallacy that should be avoided at all costs.

Categorized by regions, histories and people.

Introduction

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  • Indology - This is the study of India, basically.
  • Greater India - Geologically, this is a continent. Don't treat it all as one country because you'll miss out on a lot.
  • Emperor Bharata - The name of India comes from this demigod of a figure. Legend says he conquered all of India and went up in the Himalayas to put down his flag as the first person ever to conquer all of India. But he was humbled when he looked around and saw the flags of all the rulers who came before him....

Aryans

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The consonant ক (Bengali script) along with the diacritic form of the vowels অ, আ, ই, ঈ, উ, ঊ, ঋ, এ, ঐ, ও and ঔ.
  • Aryan - Don't pay attention to stuff that happened in the 19th century or later. That's when the "Aryan" term started losing its real meaning.
    • Aryan race - This stuff's really controversial, not to mention dangerous.
  • Swastika - It means everything good everywhere in the world except in German-speaking Europe.
  • Proto-Indo-Europeans - They created culture as we know it.
  • Sanskrit - The mother of all languages.
    • Brahmic family of scripts - They look beautiful, don't they? Also, where else in the world are you going to find this much variety of writing systems?
  • Hinduism - Get an overview. I know you can spend years researching this stuff and still not learn very much, but still. That's not your concern at this moment.

Roma

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Notice the similarities between this flag and another one?

Why are the Gypsies treated like they don't belong anywhere in Europe? And why are they so hated?

WHAT!? THE GYPSIES ARE FROM INDIA!?!?!?!?!?!?!?





Indus Valley

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One of the oldest civilizations in the world. While the language hasn't been fully deciphered, there are a lot of clues that it is an ancestor to the Phoenician language. Either that or it's the foundation for the Proto-Dravidian language. After the monsoons moved east and the land dried up, the people took refuge in the Ganges and started a new civilization there.

  • Indus River - This river was the foundation for a lot of civilizations, aside from the most obvious one in this section.
  • Indus Valley Civilization - The civilization that started it all in what we now know as India.
    • Harappa - Continuously inhabited city from the Bronze Age which has a similar population size today in surrounding areas. Don't you just love how that works?
    • Mohenjo-daro - City in Sindh. Basically another Harappa.
    • Lothal - Isn't it ironic that India has so many sanitation problems but the earliest civilizations had some form of sewer system?
    • Kalibangan - Just look at the sheer complexity of the design of this place!

Afghanistan

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File:Pashtun girl.jpg
Somebody tell a white supremacist that THIS is what an Aryan looks like.

The Pashtun people inhabit the land known as "Afghanistan." They're beautiful people, if you've ever seen them face to face. These people are about as close as you will get to pureblood Aryans. They have been living in the same land for more than 50,000 years, and have a long history of being conquered and decimated by every major foreign regime ever to reach their unmanageable terrain. By that standard, it's a wonder that they got the label of the "graveyard of empires." You can't help but admire their ability to survive against all obstacles. If anybody deserves a break from foreign meddling, it's the people of Afghanistan.

  • Pashtun people - The people
  • Hindu Kush - Origin of the term Hindustan
    • Khyber Pass - It doesn't look that special, but strategically it's one of the most important lands in all of India
  • Afghanistan - The land where they live
    • Kabul - Historically important major city of Afghanistan
  • Khyber Pakhtunkhwa - Administrative division of Pakistan
    • Swat Valley - Beautiful landscape
    • Peshawar - You hear about this city in the news all the time. What is it, and why is it important?
  • Federally Administered Tribal Areas - Administrative division of Pakistan
    • Waziristan - You hear about this in the news often. I wish somebody would expand this Wikipedia article. Considering how other India-related articles have grown since my first reading list two years ago, it could happen very soon.

Vedic age

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This is the first era of India where we actually know what happened. It's a shame that information from before then was lost, and the mainstream just assumes everything was super primitive beforehand. That's obviously not true if we just look at the Indus Valley civilization.

  • Vedic period - The time period
  • Vedas - The earliest texts in Hinduism
  • Vedic science - In some ways, these people were a lot smarter and more knowledgeable than we are today. Feel free to click on the links in this article to read more.
  • Veda Vyasa - Blueblood author that wrote two of the most famous epic poems in the world.
  • Mahabharata - The most epic poetry ever!
  • Puranas - Vyasa wrote this one also.
  • Ramayana - No one is quite sure when this is from, but it appears to be early Vedic so I'll put it here.
  • Vedic Brahmanism - This is the original religion that Hinduism originated from.



Balochistan

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A Baloch shepherd, from a 1900 photo

I guess there will be a lot more to read about this place if people decide to write about it.

  • Baloch people - They are a nomadic people living in arid wastelands. They want their freedom, and they want to catch up to the development that is already present in the rest of the world. However, that's pretty much impossible now if you consider that Balochistan is situated on the borders of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. - Somebody needs to expand this article.
  • Balochistan - By all counts is an extremely backwards place. This is rather ironic considering the historical and cultural importance of the land.
    • Balochistan, Pakistan - The United States is giving a lot of weapons to Pakistan. Where are they going, you ask? Well, some of them end up destroying the native population here.
      • Quetta - The only big city in the area, and not very big.







Golden Age of India

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The Ajanta paintings

I don't really understand the whole concept of a "Golden Age" because it usually involves some mythical time period when everything was perfect. Well, we all know that's impossible. However, this time period is commonly referred to at the Golden Age of India, so...

  • Golden Age of India - This is a rather poorly written article. I wish there was more.
  • Gupta Empire - One of the many great empires you will read about as a part of this reading list. Click around and read freely.
  • Iron pillar of Delhi - Major architectural accomplishment
  • History of Chess - In the modern Indian version of Chess, they sometimes use different piece names. The Rook is the Chariot, the Queen is the Prime Minister, and the Bishop is the Elephant.
  • Kama Sutra - What else, from the Golden Age?




Mehran (Sindh)

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A patchwork ralli quilt

At the delta of the Indus River lies one of the oldest civilizations ever to exist. Religion, language, and culture have changed a lot, but the people themselves have changed very little.

  • Sindhi people - Like I said, these are the original people from the Indus Valley civilization. They haven't changed much. And why would they? Click around and read freely.
  • Culture of Sindh - They're fine just the way they are. Read freely.
    • Ralli quilt - Famous quilts from Sindh!
    • Ajrak - Famous clothing design from Sindh!
  • Sindhi cuisine - COLORS!
  • Sindh - Province in Pakistan. The only major change to the landscape in the last 10,000 years or so is that the monsoons moved further east.
    • Hyderabad, Sindh - Fertile city home to a lot of commerce and political tensions.
    • Karachi - One of the most historically important port cities in the world.


Maurya Empire

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Maurya Empire at the age of Ashoka.

This period in Indian history always has a special place in everyone's heart.

  • Magadha - Predecessor to the Maurya Empire
  • Maurya Empire - If you want to learn ANY Indian history, this is one of the most important parts of it all.
  • Chandragupta Maurya - Legendary conqueror who became famous for choosing nonviolence later in his life.
  • Ashoka the Great - Son of the man mentioned above, and another divine king by his own right.
  • Mauryan art - It's an amazing achievement! Art went from things carved on wood to... THINGS CARVED ON STONE!!!
  • Mahajanapada - "Great Realm" where it all happened.
  • Licchavi (clan) - One of the first republics in the world.
    • Vaiśālī - Famous city in the Mauryan Empire and the capital of Licchavi Republic.

If anybody wants to do research on the Maurya Empire and improve this section, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm doing this all by myself and I just don't have the time.

Zoroastrianism

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Faravahar, one of the primary symbols of Zoroastrianism
  • Zoroastrianism - The oldest religion still intact in its original form, IN INDIA!!!
  • Parsi - Major ethnic group of Zoroastrians in India and elsewhere.

If you want a really solid piece of evidence for Ancient astronauts, look at the Faravahar. It's a guy sitting in a rocket or plane. How more blatantly obvious can you get?




Sikhism

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Many spiritual people in the west will resonate strongly to the ideas of Sikhism.

  • Sikhism - While it looks like a fusion of Hinduism and Islam, this religion was started by martial artists trying to fend off Muslim conquerors. They eventually formed the Sikh Empire.
  • Guru Nanak Dev - Essentially a prophet for Sikhs, or an ascended master depending on how you want to look at him.
  • Ik Onkar (Eckankar) - Words to live by...
  • Harmandir Sahib - Golden Temple that combines the best of Indian and Persian architecture.

Punjab

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The Golden Temple in Amritsar

Extremely powerful and influential people and society in all of India. We'll get to how damaging the partition was later.

  • Punjab region - The land of the five waters
  • Punjabi people - Extremely powerful ethnic group that has a lot of influence in India and Pakistan
  • Punjabi culture - Unique dress code adopted by many other cultures in India
  • Punjabi cuisine - MORE COLORS!!!
  • Khalistan movement - Secessionist movement in Punjab
  • Sikh Empire - They are all considered empires and not kingdoms because India is a multinational state. It's as big as western Europe but with more people than China.

Now, the specific places...

  • Punjab, India - This became a separate state after the partition of India, which eventually split up into two states I put into separate categories because they're that much different.
    • Amritsar - Major city in eastern Punjab and historically and culturally extremely important
      • Harmandir Sahib - Holy shrine of Sikhism that combines the best of Indian and Persian architecture
    • Chandigarh - First planned city in India; extremely well-developed capital of eastern Punjab and Haryana
    • Ludhiana - Modern city
    • Jalandhar - Rainy city
  • Punjab, Pakistan - Western Punjab, left mostly intact since partition
    • Islamabad - Capital of Pakistan. It's not part of Punjab, but I had to include it because it's essentially part of the same region.
    • Lahore - City of Lava and the capital of western Punjab
    • Faisalabad - Industrial and agricultural city
    • Sialkot - Industrial, high-tech city

Bahá'í

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Buddhism

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This is meant to be an overview on Buddhism, not a study in itself. Same can be said about other Indian religions.

Haryana

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I don't know why it was originally part of East Punjab because the people here are NOT Punjabi. In fact, this area is just an extremely diverse economic and cultural hotspot, and you can't really categorize it with anything else.

I'm going to now list some unique things associated with the region...

  • Jat people - I think "jat" literally means a defined group of people, like an ethnicity, in most North Indian languages. It definitely is the case in Bengali.
  • Saini - Higher caste merchants...
  • Ror - Probably the only thing notable about them is the fact that no one in their ranks ever converted to Islam.

Stuff I couldn't really put anywhere else...

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This just HAD to get a separate category...

  • Aravalli Range - Here's some more proof that Indian places need more creative names. This one's just a "line of peaks" that runs along the India-Pakistan border.
  • Yadav - People that don't really have a specific native homeland but are scattered throughout the states.

Delhi

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  • Delhi - Overpopulated capital of an overpopulated country.
  • New Delhi - Old Delhi was too crowded...

Gurjar

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Again, they had to get their own category because they're that much different from everyone else. And there's 75 million of them! There's also about 75 million Marathi speakers, but I guess the Marathis are more recognized because they have their own state (Maharashtra) that has too high a population (100 million) for everyone to ignore. But why should I give free publicity to Marathis when this is not their section?

  • Gurjar - One of the many lesser known but still very prominent (and in this case, more numerous than most major ethnic groups) peoples in India.
  • Gurgaon - Like every other group, they had their turn at having a huge conquered area to call their own.

Rajput

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Another very creative name ("Son of Kings")!

  • Rajput - I think they're the Indian equivalent of Samurai.
  • Talwar - This is actually the only word for "sword" in most Indian languages but in English, it's this specific type of sword.

Kashmir

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I could care less about the political boundaries. During British rule, this entire area was a separate, somewhat autonomous kingdom. Why couldn't they have just partitioned it like that, as a separate country? That alone would have solved all territorial disputes. But I guess they all need a reason to go to war.

  • Kashmir - Why can't the most beautiful places in the world just stay unspoiled?
  • History of Kashmir - WHY isn't this a separate country again?
  • K2 - The second highest mountain in the world!
  • Srinagar - Capital city of the Kashmir region. I'd visit it if it weren't for all the crime and violence, and lack of religious diversity.
  • Jammu and Kashmir - Indian state.
  • Dal Lake - You know what Dal is, in Indian cuisine? Yeah, a kind of bean soup.

Kuru

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I don't know where to put this, so it'll just be a small category by itself.

  • Kuru Kingdom - This is not a very well-written article but it does the job. Read whatever you feel like reading.

Ahmadiyya

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India, the land of many religious movements.

Hare Krishna

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This movement started not that far from where I was born. People in Bangladesh know NOTHING about what really goes on in their backyard, let alone the rest of the world.

Uttarakhand

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This state broke away from Uttar Pradesh ("North Province") and became Uttaranchal ("Northern Section?"). Then it got renamed to Uttarakhand ("Northern Portion?"). Or something like that...

Himalayas (Kirata)

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Tibet

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I always thought of this as a separate category, but when I tried to do my first India reading list, I HAD to include Tibet.

As a whole

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Specific places

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  • Tibet Autonomous Region - Province of China and the central part of the Tibet hysteria
  • Aksai Chin - Part of Kashmir that's considered to be part of Tibet
  • Himachal Pradesh - It's more Kashmir than Tibet, but whatever. Just look at the beautiful landscape!
  • Sikkim - It usually gets lumped into that category. While it's not really Tibet, it's worth putting into this section.
  • Arunachal Pradesh - State in India that's also part of Tibet (on the other side)
  • Ladakh - These people are somewhat Tibetan, and they don't really go well with the rest of Kashmir. I thought it would be a good idea to stick them here.

Nepal

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Bhutan

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Rajasthan

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Common cuisine

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Gujarat/Kathiawar

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  • Kathiawar - You can follow any of the links in the "See also" section for general information about this region.
  • Gujarat - Semi-arid state of India with an extremely strong revolutionary background.
  • Gujarati people - Just like how Punjabis are not all named Singh, Gujaratis are not all named Patel. How, then, do Patels colonize the United States better than other family names? I have no idea.
  • History of Gujarat - Going all the way back to Indus Valley...
  • Major cities!!!
    • Ahmedabad - Largest city and former capital. Very modern.
    • Gandhinagar - As with the trend of new capital cities around the world, there is not much to look at or read about.
    • Bharuch - Very important trade city.
  • Gujarati cuisine - This is actually rather different from the other cuisine articles I've had on my reading list so far.

Maratha

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Maratha

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Vidarbha

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Feudalism

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Uttar Pradesh

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  • Uttar Pradesh - A huge monstrosity of a state if there ever was one, with 190 million people jammed into an area the size of Minnesota...

NOTE: There are a lot of cities including some that are very important historically but they don't have detailed articles on Wikipedia. They include (but are not limited to):

Uncategorized

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Rivers!

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Here are some famous rivers.

Madhya Pradesh

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  • Madhya Pradesh - The name literally translates to "Central Province." Some of these places really need new names...

Chhattisgarh

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  • Chhattisgarh - Nothing special compared to what you've been reading already. How many non-Indians out there can pronounce this state's name correctly?
  • Adivasi - Aboriginal people in India

Mughal Empire

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Orissa (Kalinga)

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Bihar

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Jharkhand

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Bengal

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Once you start reading, you'll see why this is the biggest section in my entire list.

General

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  • Bengal - Densely populated fertile region separated by politics. If you want a reason not to divide homogeneous populations into different countries, look no further.
  • History of Bengal - Conquered by anyone and everyone, and doesn't really have much independence now either
  • Bengali people - With heterogeneous origins but a homogeneous population, the Bengalis make up the second largest ethnic group in the world (after Han Chinese, before Germans and Russians)!
  • Bengali cuisine - Mostly stuff borrowed from neighboring regions with a unique twist.
  • Culture of Bengal - Bengal is a cultural powerhouse in India
    • Bengal Renaissance - This is probably the only "Rennaissance" with a similar weight as the one in Europe
      • Brahmoism - A somewhat obscure religious movement in Bengal, which sounds like a lot of New Age philosophies
    • Bengali calendar - Very few cultures have their own calendar, especially one like this

Western

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Eastern

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North Bengal

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Sundarbans

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Other places

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Legacy and contributions

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Men of legend

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Uncategorized

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There is just too much out there.

Pala Empire

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The Bengal category doesn't need to get any bigger than it already is.

Tripura

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Ditto to above. This is a Bengali-speaking region, but the section was too big. And the people are different enough, even if the majority of them now are Bengali-speaking migrants from you know where.

Assam

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Yes, another partially Bengali-speaking region.

Mizoram

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  • Mizoram - Mongoloid people, hill country, Christianity and alcohol prohibition? Only in India...
  • Aizawl - Capital city
  • Mizo people - Regional ethnic group

Nagaland

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Meghalaya

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Manipur

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  • Manipur - State in Northeast India where the people look very similar to Bengalis. This area has been a sanctuary for decades, as no one attacking India or Burma seems to care. That just made it more of a treasure than anything else.
  • Imphal - Capital city
  • Singngat - City with a vision
  • Keibul Lamjao National Park - Little-known wildlife preserve in Manipur
  • Meitei people - Major ethnic group that is very similar to Bengalis, not just by their appearance.
  • Kangla Palace - Historic palace

Communism in India

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  • Left Front - For more than 30 years, this coalition held the longest-running democratically-elected Communist government in the world, in the state of West Bengal. They're still in power in Tripura.
  • Naxalite -
  • Category:Communism in India

Dravidians

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Andhra, Telangana and Rayalaseema

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General

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Telangana

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Rayalaseema

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Coastal Andhra

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Karnataka

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Tulu Nadu

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Keralam

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  • Kerala - If this were a separate country, you could compare human development to most European countries.
  • History of Kerala - A rather unique history.
  • Geography of Kerala -
  • Economy of Kerala -
  • Demographics of Kerala - Unique blend of people
    • Malayali - Malayalam-speaking locals
    • Cochin Jews - This is one of the few places in the world where Jews and Muslims live side by side without ever antagonizing each other.
  • Culture of Kerala -
  • Cities - They're not glamorous or as well-known as cities in other states, but they have their own charm.
    • Thiruvananthapuram - I'm not even going to attempt to pronounce this one. The Malayalam language is known for having place names like this. Just say "Trivandrum."
    • Kozhikode - Calicut is a city that has been conquered by every foreign entity (kinda like Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul) but in India.
    • Kochi - Cochin is the largest city in Kerala.

French India

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Tamil Nadu and Tamil Eelam

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Ceylon/Sri Lanka

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Tamil people are mentioned enough already in the previous section.

Sports and Martial Arts

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Maldives and Lakshadweep

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  • Maldives - Basically the entire country is in serious danger of flooding, because it's all right at sea level.
  • Malé - Not Malè, or Malay.
  • Maldivians - Dhiveli people
  • Maldivian folklore - I feel like the myths are getting at something bigger, but the full story may be lost forever.

Bay of Bengal

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Andaman and Nicobar Islands

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Not every place in India has had ample contact with the outside world.

Oddities

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People

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Individuals

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Places

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Customs

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  • Wagah - Village that was split in half during the partition of India
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