why is india called motherland?
451922
It is the motherland to Indians ... many other countries use/have used similar wording (Germany > Fatherland?).
414051
I don't think if we have nuclear power, space technology, and good IT professionals, we should tell the country is superpowered. Our(Indian) realizations is very poor. We have every powers/means we need to make us super power, but we are not using them correctly. We are more interested in growing individually, rather than growing as a nation. When we all see that everyone of us has enough and sufficient means in life for peaceful life, we would rather say that day that 'India is GREAT', house of all super power! I hope you will agree with me.
988487
India- Home of the Indians\nGreenland- The Vikings named Greenland this so that people would want to go there instead of Iceland.\nEgypt- The Egyptians did not like the name Egyptia.\nGreece- There is a lot of grease there, I think.\nFinland- The people of Finland have an odd obsession with the limbs of fish.\nIceland- The Vikings named Iceland this so that people would not want to go there and then the vikings could have it to themselves.\nRussia- Everyone was in a rush when they named it.\nKenya- That was originally Canyou, I don't know what happened.\nOman- Oh man, I know this one!\n\nP.S. The only ones I'm sure about are Greenland and Iceland.
1094570
India comes from the word Sindhu( a name for the river Indus)>>converted to Indus river by the British and then the place came to be known as India.\n\nWhy the Britishers started calling it this way was because they couldnt pronounce it in any other way.India sounds anglisized and they wanted such a name for their colony.\n\nSindhu came to be known as Hindu and the place was called Hindustan by Moghuls.This was the name convinient for the muslim invaders.\n\nHowever,to put "the meaning of India" in one word, that word is yajna - sacrifice. The true meaning of sacrifice is the renunciation of the ego to the higher, universal Self. And that universal Self, which is to be found in our own deepest nature, is being, consciousness and joy. In total sacrifice lies total freedom. Yajna means giving up greed, taking from the earth only enough to meet our basic needs and returning as sacrifice what earth and nature so freely give. This eternal wisdom of India is so much needed in our time when materialism is dominating our culture.
1006500
your motherland is where you were born\nyour home country is where you live, where you call home
226535
INDIA is the biggest and oldest democratic country because..\nwe are  highly populated than any onther democratic country...\nseveral languages,people with different casts,living style...everything is different but we are still unity in diversity
673566
The first Article of the Constitution of India, which deals with the official name, states that "India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states." Thus, not only in usage but officially India and Bharat are both accorded primary status. The name India is derived from the river Indus.\n\n\nP.S.  You can't give anyone 15 points.
34296
To distinguish them from Indians form India.
858872
India is considered a part of Asia.  It is not a continent by itself.\n\nThe Ural mountains separate Europe and Asia.  With a continuous land mass, you have to designate something as the boundary, and this is the way they did it centuries ago.
1059816
India was once an ally of the Soviet Union and was part of the now non-existent Non Aligned Movement. They also have a long history of non-violence. They can probably be a trade partner, like China is, but not a military ally.\n\nAnd I agree with MC Hummer. Indians, regardless of their state of industrialization, voted out an ultra-conservative, ultra-patriotic government for a more liberal one. A billion people voting to do that is indeed quite a democracy.
599530
Sri Lanka formerly known as Ceylon use to be a British colony.It's main export a t one time wa stea and hemp and so on .Lying SE off InDIA, IT'S A HOT BED OF OF Violence with the Tamils fighting everyone else.tHEY EVEN ASSASSINATED Indira gAHDHI'S SON WHEN HE WA STHE pRIME mINISTER of India back in the late 80's.It's a beautiful place but the civil war tend sto put a crimp on tourism.
255515
They are geologically separated by a tectonic plate boundary. The fact that it runs across land and is on sight one continuous land mass is not an issue.\nIt's the same as India being referred to as the Sub-continent. India is very firmly attached to Asia but again it sits on a separate plate and is not actually part of Asia even if it is moving towards it thereby creating the greatest mountain range in the world.
395100
Dear Friend........!\n\nThough it is something different type of clarification, let me take this opportunity to share my personal view on this.\n\nThere is a State in India by name "Nagaland".  The name itself resembles the "place of snake".  "Naga" in Indian Language (Hindi) is "snake" and "land" is 'place'.\nIn Nagaland, the main business of most of the families (Tribes) is "catching the snake and accomodating them in their own house".  So, this becomes a 'Profession' to them in their heriditory.
761167
Good question, and a tough one to answer, although I'm skeptical of the "all known criteria" piece of it.  I did browse much of the Wikipedia entry, and I also have a globe here to look at.\n\nTo rephrase this question, I guess we could say, (1) why is it not a continent, and (2) why is it a subcontinent?\n\nTraditionally, there are six or seven continents -- North & South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica.  Sometimes Europe & Asia are combined into Eurasia, and some people like to combine the Americas.\n\nSize and geographic separation seem to be important ... the Central America connection is pretty narrow, as is the Suez connection.  On the other hand, the Ural mountains separating Europe from Asia is an ancient plate boundary (similar to the Appalachians, and much older than the Himalayas), and the Ural boundary certainly is not "narrow."  In that case, however, there are huge historical cultural differences between, for example, western Europe and East Asia.\n\nIn terms of size, Australia is the smallest continent, and Greenland is the largest island.  India is much closer in size to Greenland than to Australia.  (Also compare Madagascar, a large island drifting away from Africa.  The tectonic activity there is similar to India.)\n\nSo on the question of "why isn't it a continent," I'd say size matters a lot -- India isn't big enough -- and I'd say the closest boundary comparison is between the Himalaya barrier and the Urals.  West of the Urals is much, much larger than south of the Himalayas.\n\nCultural comparisons matter too, and by this measure, India could be considered a continent in its own right.  The Indian population is significantly different than the neighboring Oriental and Caucasian peoples.\n\nWhen you balance all this stuff, I guess you say Europe is its own continent -- it's big and culturally differentiable; but India is not a continent because it's not big enough.\n\nThe other part of the question is, why is it a subcontinent?  There, the Himalayas and, to a lesser extent, the Indian Plate, make a big difference.  Because of the mountains, India is geograpically separated from the rest of Asia.\n\nIt's also a large peninsula.  In this regard, we must compare with the Arabian Peninsula (which sits on the Arabian Plate), and maybe with Asia Minor, the boundary of which (by looking at a globe) may be said to extend from the Persion Gulf to the eastern end of the Black Sea, thus comprising a large area encompassing Turkey, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.  The other obvious large peninsula is Western Europe itself, bounded on the east by a line extending from the Black Sea to the Baltic.\n\nBut neither of those peninsulas have the Himalaya Mountain barrier.\n\nSo putting that altogether, I guess that's why India is a subcontinent and not a continent.  And since it seems to be the only generally recognized subcontinent in the world, that makes it pretty unique.
719417
India's world image is shaped less by India's political leadership than it is by images of millions of poor people living in shacks, starving, and otherwise meeting the criteria for "third world nation" status.\n\nIt seems to be more related to overpopulation than politics.\n\n(overpopulation = more people than the local economy can support)
86101
well they are indian too. this is called freedom of movement in your motherland. though shail is right.
1125591
I thought Hinduism was the dominant religion there... if you are talking about the sport... back in the day India was a British colony... cricket is a British sport... makes sense to me.