India: Size and Location

Before studying anything else about India, you have to know where it sits on the globe and how big it is. Location decides climate, neighbours, trade routes and even the time on the clock. India occupies a commanding position in South Asia. It is large enough to be counted among the giants of the world, yet compact enough to run on a single standard time. The figures in this topic (latitudes, longitudes and the standard meridian) are among the most frequently asked facts in every general-studies examination.

India lies entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and in the eastern half of the world. It sits in the south-central part of the continent of Asia. To its south stretches the Indian Ocean, to its north stand the Himalayas, on its west lies the Arabian Sea and on its east the Bay of Bengal.

The Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees North) passes almost through the middle of the country, dividing it into a tropical south and a subtropical north. It crosses eight Indian states: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram. Among the major cities, Kolkata (about 22.6 degrees North) lies closest to this line. It sits far nearer the Tropic than Nagpur (about 21.1 degrees North), Jodhpur (about 26.3 degrees North) or Delhi (about 28.6 degrees North). Because of this, the southern half of India lies in the tropics and the northern half in the warm temperate belt. This gives the country its great range of climate.

The mainland of India extends:

• in latitude, from about 8 degrees 4 minutes North at the southern tip to 37 degrees 6 minutes North in the far north.
• in longitude, from about 68 degrees 7 minutes East in the west to 97 degrees 25 minutes East in the east.

So the country spans roughly 30 degrees of latitude and 29 degrees of longitude. The southernmost point of the mainland is Kanyakumari (also called Cape Comorin). The southernmost point of Indian territory, Indira Point, lies further south in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

A neat point that examiners like: the latitudinal and longitudinal extent are nearly the same in degrees. Yet the actual distance from north to south (about 3,214 km) is greater than the distance from east to west (about 2,933 km).

Questions often place individual cities on this grid, so a small reference set is worth memorising. For longitude, read the major cities from west to east:

• Pune: about 73.8 degrees East.
• Indore: about 75.9 degrees East.
• Delhi and Bengaluru: both lie near 77 degrees East, almost on the same meridian. Among the commonly paired cities, these two are the closest in longitude.
• Bhopal: about 77.4 degrees East.
• Hyderabad: about 78.5 degrees East.
• Nagpur: about 79 degrees East.
• Jabalpur: about 79.9 degrees East. It lies east of both Indore and Bhopal, not between them.
• Lucknow: about 81 degrees East, the most eastward among Hyderabad, Bhopal, Lucknow and Bengaluru.

A few latitude orderings recur just as often:

• Bengaluru and Chennai: Bengaluru (about 12.9 degrees North) lies slightly south of Chennai (about 13.1 degrees North).
• Aurangabad: at about 19.9 degrees North, it lies between Pune (about 18.5 degrees North) and Vadodara (about 22.3 degrees North).
• Sikkim: spans roughly 27 to 28 degrees North. The same latitudes also cross Rajasthan. Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir lie further north.

Here lies a favourite question. Because India is so wide from east to west, the Sun rises in the far east, in Arunachal Pradesh, almost two hours earlier than in the far west, in Gujarat. If every place kept its own local time there would be chaos.

To avoid this, one meridian is chosen for the whole nation. The 82 degrees 30 minutes East meridian passes through Mirzapur near Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. This line is taken as the Standard Meridian of India. The local time along this line is the time for the entire country and is called Indian Standard Time (IST). IST is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

India is a vast country. Its total area is about 3.28 million square kilometres, which is roughly 2.4 per cent of the total land area of the world. By area, India is the seventh largest country in the world, after Russia, Canada, the United States, China, Brazil and Australia.

India's land boundary measures about 15,200 kilometres, and the total length of the coastline of the mainland together with the islands is about 7,517 kilometres. This long coastline and central oceanic position have made India a natural meeting point for sea trade.

Within the country, the states differ widely in size. Rajasthan is the largest state by area, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Four large peninsular states are often compared, and their order by area runs: Gujarat (about 1.96 lakh square kilometres), Karnataka (about 1.92 lakh), Andhra Pradesh (about 1.6 lakh) and Tamil Nadu (about 1.3 lakh). Tamil Nadu is therefore the smallest of these four.

Nine states touch the sea: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal. Among them, Gujarat has the longest coastline, thanks to the deep indentations of the Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Khambhat. A common trap is to credit Andhra Pradesh with the longest coastline. Andhra Pradesh has a long east-coast shoreline, but Gujarat is clearly first. Gujarat also has one of the highest numbers of airports among the states.

The coastline carries striking landforms. The Rann of Kutch in Gujarat is a vast saline marshland. It was once a shallow arm of the sea. Repeated falls in sea level left the sea floor exposed, creating the extensive salt marsh seen today. It is the standard example of marshland produced by a retreating sea.

Several beaches appear in matching questions, so fix each one to its state:

• Gopnath Beach: Gujarat, on the Gulf of Khambhat.
• Lawsons Bay Beach: Andhra Pradesh, near Visakhapatnam.
• Devbagh Beach: Karnataka, near Karwar.
• Sinquerim Beach: Goa, known for water sports.

India has two major island groups, and they differ in origin and location.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands lie in the Bay of Bengal. They are the raised tops of a submerged mountain range. The Ten Degree Channel, named after the 10 degrees North latitude along which it runs, separates the Andaman Islands in the north from the Nicobar Islands in the south. At the southern end of the chain lies Great Nicobar, which carries Indira Point, the southernmost point of Indian territory. Great Nicobar sits very close to South-East Asia: the Indonesian island of Sumatra is only about 150 kilometres away across the Great Channel. Sumatra, not Sri Lanka, is therefore the landmass geographically closest to Great Nicobar.

The Lakshadweep Islands lie in the Arabian Sea, off the Kerala coast. They are low coral islands. Here too the channels are named after latitudes. The Nine Degree Channel separates Minicoy from the rest of Lakshadweep, and the Eight Degree Channel separates Minicoy from the Maldives.

Examiners love the political map, so the borders of the states deserve careful study. A few patterns cover most questions.

First, the long road journey. Travelling from Kohima in Nagaland to Kottayam in Kerala, the shortest route crosses a minimum of seven states: Nagaland, Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Counting states along a route is a standard exercise, so practise tracing such paths on a map.

Second, how far major physical features spread across states. The Himalayas stretch across far more than five states, from Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh in the west through Uttarakhand and Sikkim to Arunachal Pradesh and the north-eastern hill states. The Western Ghats run through six states: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Pulicat Lake, a large lagoon on the east coast, spreads over exactly two states, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Third, who borders whom:

• Coastal states: nine states share the coastline, as listed in the coastline section above.
• Karnataka: borders six states (Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), the most among the four southern states.
• Uttar Pradesh: borders Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, among others, but not Punjab, because Haryana lies between them.

India shares its borders with several countries, and knowing them in order is essential.

By land, India's neighbours are Pakistan and Afghanistan to the north-west, China, Nepal and Bhutan to the north, and Myanmar and Bangladesh to the east. Bangladesh shares the longest land border with India.

The border runs state by state, and statement questions test which Indian state touches which country. Fix these pairings:

• West Bengal: borders three countries: Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
• Assam: borders Bhutan and Bangladesh, not Nepal.
• Mizoram: borders Bangladesh and Myanmar.
• Sikkim: borders Nepal, Bhutan and China.

By sea, our southern neighbours across the Indian Ocean are the island countries of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Sri Lanka is separated from India by the narrow Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait.

India's central location at the head of the Indian Ocean is of great importance. It lies on the shortest sea route between Europe and Africa to the west and East Asia to the east. The opening of the Suez Canal further reduced the distance between India and Europe.

This position has shaped India's history for thousands of years. Ideas, goods, religions and people have travelled to and from India along these land and sea routes. This has left India deeply connected with the wider world.

India's land is put to use in broadly fixed proportions. The net sown area, the land actually under crops, is about 47 per cent of the country. Forests cover about 23 per cent. The remaining 30 per cent is taken up by fallows, wasteland, pastures and non-agricultural uses such as settlements and roads. Within the physical landscape, plains make up about 43 per cent of the surface area, plateaus about 27 per cent, hills about 19 per cent and true mountains only about 10 to 11 per cent. A claim that mountains cover thirty per cent of India is therefore wrong.

Three more national facts recur in questions. About one third of the country records more than 750 millimetres of annual rainfall. The dominant source of irrigation in India is wells and tube wells, not canals or tanks. And alluvial soil, the fertile silt deposited by rivers, is the predominant soil of the northern plains.

States can also be identified by their agricultural profile. Gujarat is the classic case: its northern part, including Kachchh, is arid and semi-arid, its central belt around Saurashtra is a major cotton producer, and cash crops such as cotton, groundnut and tobacco dominate over food crops. Given those three clues together, the answer is Gujarat.