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The Republic of India

The history of India is shrouded in antiquity. The country has been thought of as a nation of philosophers with a well-developed and even idyllic society. Excavations of sites belonging to the Harappan era show that the people lived in brick houses in towns with excellent drainage.

One of the oldest scriptures in the world is the four-volume Vedas that many regard as the repository national thoughts that anticipated some of the modern scientific discoveries.

Despite formidable barriers in the form of the mighty Himalayas and oceans, India also received a succession of foreigners, many of them carrying swords and guns. But nearly all of them stayed on.

Out of these waves of immigration has emerged the composite culture of India and made it a land of unity in diversity. India became a land of assimilation and learning, a land of change and continuity. The Aryans were among the first to arrive in India, which was inhabited by the Dravidians.

Others who came here included Greeks, Persians, Mughal and even British, Portuguese and French. Over the years there have been many major ruling dynasties like the Shakas, the Kushans, the Maurayas and Guptas. Nearly every major religion in the world is represented in India, which is also the land of the Buddha, Lord Mahavira and Guru Nanak Dev, the founders of Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.

India is the seventh largest country by geographical area, the second most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world.

Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of 7,517 kilometres. It borders Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma) to the east.

India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Indonesia in the Indian Ocean.

Home to the Indus Valley Civilization and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history.

Four major world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, while Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam arrived in the first millennium CE and shaped the region’s diverse culture.

Gradually annexed by the British East India Company from the early eighteenth century and colonised by the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century, India became a modern nation state in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by widespread nonviolent resistance.

During the first half of the twentieth century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the Indian National Congress and other political organizations.

In the 1920s and 1930, a movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, and displaying commitment to ahimsa, or non-violence, millions of protesters engaged in mass campaigns of civil disobedience.

Finally, on 15 August 1947, India gained independence from British rule, but was partitioned with independent governments for the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan in accordance to wishes of the Muslim League, along the lines of religion to create the Islamic nation state of Pakistan.

Three years later, on 26 January 1950, India became a republic and a new constitution came into effect.

India has the world’s twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and the fourth largest in purchasing power. Economic reforms have transformed it into the second fastest growing large economy; however, it still suffers from high levels of poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition.

A pluralistic, multilingual, and multiethnic society, India is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.

India is a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations (as part of British India). In 1974, India conducted an underground nuclear test.

This was followed by five more tests in 1998, making India a nuclear state. Beginning in 1991, significant economic reforms have transformed India into one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, adding to its global and regional clout.

The Constitution of India, the longest and the most exhaustive constitution of any independent nation in the world, came into force on January 26, 1950.

The preamble of the Constitution defines India as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. India has a quasi-federal form of government and a bicameral parliament operating under a Westminster-style parliamentary system. It has three branches of governance: the Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary.

The President of India is the official head of state, elected indirectly by an electoral college for a five-year term. The Prime Minister, however, exercises most executive powers.

The Prime Minister is appointed by the President and, by convention, is the candidate supported by the party or political alliance holding the majority of seats in the lower house of Parliament. The current President is Prathibha Patil.

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Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the 17th and current Prime Minister of India. Singh is a member of the Indian National Congress party, and became the first Sikh Prime Minister of India on May 22, 2004.

He is considered one of the most influential figures in India’s recent history, mainly because of the economic reforms he had initiated in 1991 when he was Finance Minister under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.

He was born on 26 September 1932, in Gah, Punjab. He has an Undergraduate (1952) and a Master’s degree (1954) from Panjab University, Chandigarh; an Undergraduate degree (1957) from Cambridge University (St. John’s College) and a Ph.D (1962) from Oxford University (Nuffield College).

In 1997, the University of Alberta presented him with an Honorary Doctor of Laws. The University of Oxford awarded him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in June 2005, and in October 2006, the University of Cambridge followed with the same honour.

St John’s College and the University of Cambridge further honoured him by naming a PhD Scholarship after him, the Dr Manmohan Singh Scholarship.

Singh, an economist by profession, worked for the International Monetary Fund in his younger days. Dr. Singh is known to be an unassuming politician, enjoying a formidable, highly respected and admired image.

Due to his work at the UN, International Monetary Fund and other international bodies, he is highly respected around the world. He was awarded the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 2002.


Republic of Maldives

The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, is an island nation consisting of a group of atolls belonging to the Maldive and Suvadive archipelagoes in the Indian Ocean.

The Maldives is located south of India’s Lakshadweep islands, and about seven hundred kilometres south-west of Sri Lanka. The twenty-six atolls of Maldives’ encompass a territory featuring 1,192 islets, two hundred and fifty islands of which are inhabited.

The inhabitants were Buddhist, probably since Ashoka’s period, in the 3rd century BC. Islam was introduced in 1153. The Maldives came then under the influence of the Portuguese (1558) and the Dutch (1654) seaborne empires. And in 1887 it became a British protectorate.

In 1965, the Maldives obtained independence from Britain (originally under the name “Maldive Islands”), and in 1968 the Sultanate was replaced by a Republic.

The Maldives is the smallest Asian country in terms of population. It is also the smallest predominantly Muslim nation in the world.

Comparative studies of Maldivian oral, linguistic and cultural traditions and customs confirm that the first settlers were Dravidian people from the nearest coasts, most probably fishermen from the southwest coasts of the modern Indian Subcontinent and the western shores of modern Sri Lanka during the early Chera period.

Buddhism came to the Maldives at the time of Emperor Ashoka’s expansion and became the dominant religion of the people of the Maldives until the 12th century AD.

Western interest in the archaeological remains of early cultures on the Maldives began with the work of H.C.P. Bell, a British commissioner of the Ceylon Civil Service.

Bell was shipwrecked on the islands in 1879, and returned several times to investigate ancient Buddhist ruins. He studied the ancient mounds, called havitta or ustubu (these names are derived from chaitiya or stupa) by the Maldivians, which are found on many of the atolls.

The entire archipelago was conquered by the medieval Chola Tamil emperor Raja Raja Chola I in the early 11th century, becoming a part of the Chola empire. The conversion to Islam is mentioned in the ancient edicts written in copper plates from the end of the 12th century AD.

There is also a locally well-known legend about a foreign saint (a Persian from the city of Tabriz or a Moroccan Berber according to the versions) who subdued a demon known as Rannamaari.

Over the centuries, the islands have been visited and their development influenced by sailors and traders from countries on the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.

Although governed as an independent Islamic sultanate from 1153 to 1968, the Maldives was a British protectorate from 1887 until July 25, 1965.

After independence from Britain in 1965, the sultanate continued to operate for another three years under King Muhammad Fareed. On November 11, 1968, the monarchy was abolished and replaced by a republic.

Today Tourism, Maldives’ largest industry, accounts for 28% of GDP and more than 60% of the Maldives’ foreign exchange receipts. Over 90% of government tax revenue comes from import duties and tourism-related taxes. Fishing is the second leading sector.

Politics in the Maldives takes place in the framework of a presidential republic, whereby the President is the head of Government. The President heads the executive branch and appoints the cabinet. The President is nominated to a five-year term by a secret ballot of the Majlis (parliament), a nomination which is confirmed by national referendum.

Nearly thirty-six members of the existing parliament joined the Dhivehi Raiyyathunge Party (the Maldivian People’s Party) and elected President Gayoom as its leader. Since 1996, the Maldives has been the official progress monitor of the Indian Ocean Commission.

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President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom

Born on December 29, 1937, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has been the President of the Republic of Maldives since November 11, 1978, succeeding Ibrahim Nasir.

Much of Gayoom’s early life was spent in Egypt. He was among the 15 students selected at the direction of the then-president Mohamed Amin Didi for special education overseas. At the age of 10, he left for Egypt on September 15, 1947, with a stopover in Ceylon for a few days.

However, his departure from Ceylon was delayed for two and a half years because of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, during which he completed his secondary education at Royal College, Colombo.

When the war ended, he left for Egypt in March 1950 along with other Maldivian students. Gayoom attended Al-Azhar University in Egypt. He spent six months learning Arabic so he could enrol in the Faculty of Sharia and Civil Law to study for a Diploma of Education.

In 1966, he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Islamic Sharia and Civil Law, with honours. Gayoom came out first in the Faculty of Islamic Law and Studies at Al-Azhar University and was awarded his graduation certificate by Gamal Abdel Nasser.On March 12, 1973, Gayoom was placed under house arrest for criticising President Ibrahim Nasir’s policies.

He was tried in court and sentenced to banishment for four years on May 14, 1973. On May 21, he was taken to Makunudhoo Island of Haa Dhaalu Atoll. After serving five months of his sentence, Gayoom was released on October 13, 1973 as a result of Nasir’s amnesty following his re-election for another five-year term.

As Ibrahim Nasir’s second term was coming to an end, he wanted someone else running for the presidency. In June 1978, the Citizen’s Majlis was called upon to nominate a presidential candidate.

Forty five voted for Nasir, while the remaining 3 voted for Gayoom. There was another ballot on June 16, in which four people participated. 27 voted for Gayoom, enough for him to be put forward as a candidate.

Five months later, he was elected with 92.96% of the votes as the new President of the Maldives. The grand reception of his inauguration was held at Majeediyaa School on the night of November 10, 1978.

He escaped an assassination attempt last year, when a schoolboy rescued him from a knife-wielding attacker. He has participated in every SAARC summit held so far.

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