If you wanted to speak to everyone in India, you’d have to know an amazing 19 languages!

More films are made in India ('Bollywood') than in the USA ('Hollywood')!

By 2009 there may be as many as 1.1 million Indians who are millionaires! But while they enjoy the finer things in life, one in every three people living in India have just £1 a day to buy everything they need – from food and shelter to medicine and things for school.

India hosts the largest pilgrimage on earth. Millions of Hindus come to the Kumbh Mela festival which takes place four times every 12 years. They celebrate by bathing in holy water and remembering a fight where their gods beat the demons.
India was ruled by the British until 1947. It became independent after Gandhi and Nehru led a non-violent campaign against the British.

India’s national animal is the tiger. Tigers are very rare because a lot of them were hunted and killed. But India still has more wild tigers than any other country.

Can you imagine trying to remember 29,000 names? That is how many pupils attend the world’s largest school, the City Montessori School in Lucknow, a city in north east India.

In India, 80 per cent of boys and 73 per cent of girls go to primary school. But far fewer go to secondary school. Around 54 per cent of boys and only 46 per cent of girls attend secondary school.

Around 85 in every 1000 Indian children die before they are five years old.

People enjoy living in a close, friendly community. They look after each other if they are very young, very old or ill.

There is very little crime. It's safe for children to play outside and there is plenty of space too.

Families often grow their own food and don't have to spend much money.

Some villages are cut off from other towns and villages. Country roads are not well looked after. Buses and trains don't go to many out-of-the-way villages.

There are hardly any jobs so young people leave to work in towns or cities. Many families living in the countryside are very poor.

Many villages have no running water or electricity.

India isn't all countryside. It's got some very big, noisy cities. More than 14 million people live in the metropolitan region around the capital, New Delhi.