ABSTRACT
The first thing that comes to mind for many foreigners when they think of India is its immense population of more than one billion people, crowded in a land mass of 3,288,000 square kilometres, which results in a population density of 336 people per square kilometre. It is also well known that India is a country of great religious, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity. Eighty per cent of the people are Hindus, 11 per cent are Muslims, and the remaining 9 per cent is made up of Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians. The Indian population is composed largely of two ethnic groups: Indo-Aryans (72 per cent) and Dravidians (25 per cent), who are found in the southern States of Andhrapradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamilnadu.
