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The culture of India has been shaped by the long history of India, its
unique geography and the absorption of customs, traditions and ideas from both
immigrants and invaders, while preserving its ancient heritage from the Indus
Valley Civilization.
India's great diversity of cultural practices, languages, customs,
and traditions are examples of this unique co-mingling over the past five millinnea. India is also the birth place of several religious systems such as
Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, which have had a great influence not
only over India but also over the rest of the world. From the twelfth century
onwards, following the Islamic conquests and the subsequent European
occupation, the culture of India was influenced by Persian, Arabic, Turkish
and English cultures. The various religions and the multi-hued traditions of
India that was created with those amalgamations have influenced South East
Asia and other different parts of the world.
 Language: The great
number of languages in India have historically created diverse cultures and
traditions at both regional and national levels. 216 languages are spoken by a
group of more than 10,000 people; however there are many others which are
spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. If these languages were to be included,
there are 415 living languages in India. The Constitution of India has
stipulated the usage of Hindi and English to be the two official languages of
communication for the Union Government. Individual states' own internal
communications are usually in the state's language or English. The two major
linguistic families in India are those of the Indo-Aryan languages and those
of the Dravidian languages, the former being largely confined to North India
and the latter to South India. The next largest language family in India is
the Austro-Asiatic language group, which contains the Munda languages of
central and eastern India, the Khasian languages of northeastern India, and
the Nicobarese languages of the Nicobar Islands. The fourth largest language
family in India is the Tibeto-Burman languages, which are themselves a
subgroup of the larger Sino-Tibetan language family.
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