India is a land of contrasts. On the one hand it is home to more slaves than any nation (or even the entire world) has ever had in history. On the other hand it is a land with extremely wealthy Bollywood stars who live lavish lifestyles in Indian resort towns. It is home to the desolate and snowy peaks of the Himalayas while at the same time harboring dry deserts that border Pakistan and the deep jungles that border Burma. India is home to nearly ever conceivable environment and every conceivable lifestyle with a diverse society. But with more cell phones then toilets and some special incentives for mustaches, here are 25 incredible and unbelievable insights into India and its people!
Featured Image: wikipedia
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To start with, India is by far the world's largest democracy with over 1.2 billion people
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia 24
It is illegal to take Indian rupees out of India
Source: lonelyplanet.com, Image: wikipedia 23
Breathing the air in the Indian city of Mumbai for just 1 day is the same as smoking 100 cigarettes.
Source: indiatimes.com, Image: wikipedia 22
The world's biggest recorded nuclear family is in India. Ziona Chana lives with 39 wives, 94 children, and 33 grandchildren in the state of Mizoram
Source: dailymail.co.uk 21
Police in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh are given bonuses for growing mustaches because their commanding officers think it make them command more respect
Source: bbc, Image: wikipedia 20
India has the lowest meat consumption per person in the world
Source: huffingtonpost.com, Image: wikipedia 19
There are more mobile phones in India than there are toilets
Source: telegraph.co.uk, Image: wikipedia 18
In the state of West Bengal cows are required to have photo ID cards
Source: bbc, Image: wikipedia 17
As a result of dowry related crimes 1 woman dies in India every hour
Source: huffintonpost.com, Image: wikipedia 16
Dowry is the price that a woman's family must pay the man's family for her to get married. Like the caste system, it is illegal now but still happens quite often, especially in rural areas
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia 15
70% of all the world's spices come from India
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia 14
India currently has the largest slave population of any country in history with over 14 million.
Source: newsweek, Image: wikipedia 13
The average person in India has to work nearly 6 hours to afford a Big Mac
Source: reddit, Image: wikipedia 12
More people live in India than in the entire Western Hemisphere (North and South America)
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia 11
Love Commandos is a group that provides protection to couples from different castes who fall in love (these couples can often be killed by family members or other villagers for being a disgrace)
Source: lovecommandos.org, Image: pixabay 10
Although Beijing's pollution problem is better known, New Delhi is actually the most polluted city on Earth
Source: nytimes, Image: wikipedia 9
One in three malnourished children on Earth live in India
Source: UNICEF, Image: wikipedia 8
Some drugs that cost tens of thousands of dollars in the US cost only a few thousand in India because they can't be patented there e.g. Gleevec.
Source: theatlantic.com, Image: wikipedia 7
India is one of few countries (along with Canada, Russia, Israel, and Mexico) that have braille on their bank notes for the visually impaired
Source: wikipedia, Image: pixabay If you think that’s interesting, have you seen Braille on a globe?
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Up to half a million girls are aborted every year in India solely because they are female
Source: wikipedia, Image: pixabay 5
There is a tribe in India that celebrates death and grieves birth (the Satiyaa community)
Source: dnaindia.com 4
By 2050 India is expected to be the world's most populous country with more than 1.6 billion people. By some estimates it will have as many people as the US and China combined.
Source: wikipedia, Image: Simply CVR via Flickr 3
Housewives in India own roughly 11% of the gold on Earth. That is more than the reserves of Switzerland, the US, Germany, and the IMF combined!
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia 2
New Moore was a sandbar discovered in the Bay of Bengal by American satellites. Shortly afterwards, India and Bangladesh began to fight over it thinking there might be oil. The fight was resolved by climate change...the sea level rose and swallowed up the sandbar
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia 1
The Kumbh Mela festival in India draws 100 million people annually. This is the largest gathering of people in the world.
Source: bbc, Image: wikipedia 
