India

The Indian culture is full of stories which have been handed down from generation to gener-ation. The stories are not only entertaining but also teach moral lessons. This is probably the reason why storytelling is still very populal~ in India and is an important part of the country 's traditions.

At the beginning of the 16th century, before the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and the French started trading with the Indian people, India was known as a rich country. In 1760 Britain had become the most important European power in India. During a century, the British spread their control to the whole of the subcontinent. The British East India Company, which ruled India, traded with India until 1813. In 1833 the Company stopped trading. From then on, they only govered India. The end of the British East India Company came after a rebellion, which was started by Indian soldiers in 1857. The rebels were defeated and Britain ruled India again. Britain‘s industries got their raw materials there and they made very much profit.

In 1869 on the 2nd of October there was born a famous and important man in Porbandar: Mahatma Gandhi.

He fought without force and he only wanted freedom. Gandhi studied in London. After that, he sailed to South-Africa, where he fought for freedom with new methods for 21 years. In 1915 he went back to India and he fought for freedom again.

.Mahatma Gandhi was not an enemy of England. In the First World War he made an effort for the British Empire. He thought that the British Company would leave India aftel~ the war. But the Company continued to rule India.

On the 30th of January in 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead. He had improved a lot of things by non-violent means.

Today India is a land with many poor people. Most children had to work very hard in big factories for very little money. The life expectancy of these people lies between 40 and 55 years. In India there live about 800 million people and every year there are about 18 million people more.

There is lots more to tell about India and I think we should help these people more often.

Vocabulary you do not know:

to trade: handeln

to spread: ausbreiten force: Gewalt

to improve: verbessern

life expectancy: Lebenserwartung to entertain: unterhalten to continue: fortsetzen to gover: regieren

to rule: herrschen