India [antikvár]

The Continent^] J^Mwn If you could gain a high enough vantage point to take in all of India at once, you would be astonished to realize that the immense sprawl of languages, customs, religions, and physical and geographical features belong to a single country. Only a continent could house so much variety, so many contradictions. As a single nation India seems downright improbable; but it has been one since it gained independence from the British in 1947. During the 3,500 years before that date India resembled a vast checkerboard of princes and peoples and warring territories. Independence has given all Indians a common destiny, but one can scarcely imagine India ever attaining the uniformity of any European nation or even of the United States. At its northernmost summit India reaches into the arid Tibetan plateau. The tiny hamlet of Leh, 60 miles from the Chinese border in eastern Kashmir, huddles against the hills of a windy tundra 11,000 feet above sea level. Ancient Bud- 9