-
Ten 'big facts' about India
印度“十大特点”，你知道吗？
India often attracts generalisations
and stereotyping, but more often it defies
them. After all, it is an enormous and
varied place with the genetic, linguistic,
culinary
and
sartorial
diversity
which
are
usually
found
in
a
continent.
Sam
Miller, a former BBC Delhi
correspondent who has spent more than half his
adult life in India, has chosen 10
'big' facts about India.
一直以来，
印度给人的感觉都是没有什么特色、
呆板无趣，
但实际上这
些正是这
个国家所排斥的。
毕竟印度是一个幅员辽阔、
风情浓郁的国度，
通常一个大陆才
能拥有的基因
多样性、
语言多样性、
烹饪特色的多样性以及服饰的多样性在印
度
皆能找到。在印度生活了大半辈子的前英国
BBC
电台驻印度德里通讯员山姆·米
勒（
Sam
Miller
）为我们精选了关于印度的十大事实。
Boy looks down on his baby sister
Experts predict that India's population will
peak in the 2060s
1.
人口密集
India's
population will (probably) overtake China's in
2028.
据专家预测，印度人口总数在本世纪
60
年代将达到顶峰，并有望于
2028
年超越
中国。
According to UN
estimates, India will become the most populous
country in
the
world
in
just
14
years'
time,
when
it
will
have
about
1.45
billion
inhabitants.
联合国数据显示，印度人口或将在未来
14
年内赶超中
国，届时人口总数将达到
14.5
亿，成为世界第一人口大国。
For
many
in
India,
becoming
the
most
populous
country
will
be
an
achievement, marking the country's
progress in its rivalry with China.
对于许
多印度人而言，
成为世界第一大人口国将是一项值得骄傲的成就，
意味着
在与中国抗衡过程中取得了巨大的进步。
For
others,
particularly
from
the
older
generations,
it
represents
a
failure
of
the
country's
decades-old
attempts
to
bring
its
population
under
control
-
which
included
a
controversial
and
counter-productive
mass
sterilisation
campaign
during the 1970s.
但对于另外一些人，
尤
其是老一辈人来说，
这种趋势则意味着印度在过去数十年
间控制
人口总数行动的失败（控制人口行动中比较著名且颇具争议的就是
20
< br>世
纪
70
年代印度总统甘地强制
推行节育政策，而这一行动非但未获成功还起到了
反作用，随后数年，印度人口激增。<
/p>
）
In fact, birth
rates have fallen significantly in almost all
parts of India, driven
by
female
education,
rising
household
incomes
and
greater
availability
of
contraception
though
this
has
been
partially
offset
by
increased
life
expectancy.
事实上，
近
些年由于妇女受教育程度提高、
家庭收入不断上涨以及更加有效的避
孕措施的出现，
基本上印度所有地区的生育率都在大幅下降，
但尽管如此，
人口
寿命的延长却未能扭转人口基数大的事实。
India's
population
is
likely
to
reach
about
1.6
billion
in
the
2060s,
before
decreasing to about
1.5 billion by the end of the century.
到本世纪
60
年代，
印度人口总数或将
达到
16
亿，
但到本世纪末可能回落至
15
亿。
By then, according to the UN study,
Nigeria may have overtaken China as the
second most populous country.
联合国调查结果显示，本世纪末尼日利亚或将与中国争夺第二人口大国之位。
INDIA WAS ONCE AN ISLAND
2.
印度曾经是一座岛屿
It
had
broken
off
from
an
ancient
supercontinent
referred
to
as
Gondwanaland by paleogeographers (named
after Gondwana, a forested area
of
central India), and was moving slowly northwards.
Himalayas
印度曾是一座岛屿。约在
< br>1
亿多年以前，恐龙统治着整个地球，而如
今的印度在当
时则大部分是岛屿。
当时的印度岛屿是从古代一块名为冈瓦纳大陆
（由古代的地理学家以印度中部的冈瓦纳森林地带命名）的超级大陆分离开来，
随后又
慢慢地向北移动。
About
50
million
years
ago,
dinosaurs
by
now
extinct,
the
India
continental
plate
collided
with
Asia,
buckling
the
coastal
area
of
both
continents
and
creating the Himalayas -
the world's youngest major mountain range - and,
of
course, the highest.
约在
5000
万年以前，恐龙已经灭绝，印度这个大陆板块与亚洲板块相
互碰撞，
两大陆碰撞时底层受到强烈挤压形成褶皱从而导致了喜马拉雅山的出现，
如今它
是全世界最年轻的主山脉，当然，也是海拔最高的。
Evidence
of
this
ancient
history
is
provided
by
fossilised
sea
shells
that
can
still
be
found
high
in
the
mountains.
The
plate
on
which
the
subcontinent
rests continues to press slowly
northwards, and is the reason why the height of
Mount Everest increases slightly every
year.
能够说明这种古代变迁史的例证就是如今在喜马拉雅山海拔较高处仍能发现
海
洋贝壳化石。
目前，
印度次大陆所处
的板块仍继续慢慢向北移动，
这也就解释了
为什么喜马拉雅山的
主峰珠穆朗玛峰的海拔每年都会有些许的增加。
India
has, arguably, greater linguistic diversity than
any other large country.
3.
语言多样
The precise number of languages spoken
in India is probably over 1,000, but it
is often hard to define when one
language begins and another ends.
印度语言多
样性是世界上任何一个大国都无法与之匹敌的，
虽说这一说法还存在
争议。
The
1961
census
of
India
listed
1,652
languages,
though
some
of
these
may
have effectively been
dialects, and a few languages have died out since
then.
现今印度所使用的语言有
1000
多种，不过很难判断这些语言是何时开始交替使
用的。
The big six languages - Hindi, Bengali,
Telugu, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu - are
each spoken by more than 50 million
people.
印度
1961
年审查
时共列出
1652
种语言，但其中有些只是更多地作为方言使用
，
还有一些语言自那以后就基本退出历史舞台了。
A total of 122 languages are each
spoken by more than one million people.
印度的六大语言分别为北印度语、孟加拉语、泰卢固语、马拉地语、泰米尔语以
及乌尔
都语，每种语言的使用人数都超过了
5000
万人。
India
doesn't
have
a
national
language.
Hindi
and
English
are
both
official
languages,
though
the
writers
of
the
constitution
envisaged
a
transitional
status for
English, but opposition to Hindi hegemony from
speakers of other
languages,
particularly Tamil, mean that English remains an
official language.
使用人数超过
100
万的语言共有
122
种。印度并没有所
谓的民族语言，印度语和
英语都是其官方语言。
尽管宪法的编写
者曾设想英语只是一种过渡性的语言，
但
某些语言使用者，
尤其是说泰米尔语的人对印度语独霸一方的强烈反对意味着英
语仍是
一种官方语言。
Indian
languages
belong
to
four
of
the
world's
major
language
groups:
Indo-European, Dravidian, Austro-
Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman.
印度语言主要属于四大语系
,
即印欧
语系、
达罗毗荼语系、
汉藏语系和澳亚语系。
< br>
Until
the
mid-20th
Century,
the
Bantu
language
group,
which
originates
in
Africa, was also
represented by speakers of the Sidi language used
by migrants
from East Africa living in
western India.
20
世纪中叶，源起非洲的班
图语系使用者同样也说黑人语言（说这种语言的人
常为在印度西部定居的东非移民者
)
。
The
language has now died out, though members of the
Sidi community still
use a few words of
Bantu origin.
如今这种黑人语言已经不再使用，
不过黑人社区的成员们仍使用一些班图语系的
词语。
MEGACITIES
4.
大城市多
woman transporting water bottles on a
bicycle, India Finding water in India's
city slums is a challenge
在印度的城市贫民窟，找水可是一项挑战。
India has three of the world's top ten
megacities - one more than China.
世界十大城市中，仅印度就占三个，中国也才有两个。
According to the UN, Delhi is now the
second-largest urban agglomeration in
the world, with Mumbai ranked seventh
and Calcutta tenth.
据联合国资料显示，
印度德里是现今世界上第二大城市聚集区，
孟买和加尔各答
分
别排名第七和第十。
The population of
Delhi and its immediate urban hinterland is now
over 22.65
million, and is only
surpassed by Tokyo.
如今，德里及其邻近的城市腹地总人口已超
过
2265
万，仅次于东京。
In the 17th century, Delhi was briefly
the most populous city in the world, but
by 1960, Delhi was not even in the top
30.
The growth since then had been
more than 4% per annum.
在
17
世纪时，德里已然成为世界上人口最密集城市，然而到了
1960
年，排名竟
还不在前
< br>30
。
That
growth rate is beginning to fall, but it is still
over 3% annually.
如今人口增长率开始有所下滑，但每年仍保持在
3%
以上。
That
represents
a
yearly
increase
in
population
-
through
childbirth
and
migration - of about
700,000 people, putting a severe strain on the
resources
of India's capital.
这就意味着人口每年都在增长，
或是通过自然生育，
又或是
通过人口迁移，
增长
人数达
70
万，进而导致印度首都各种资源严重紧缺。
Water remains a major problem - with
almost quarter of the city's household
not having a regular water supply.
水资源就是一个主要的问题，
德里几乎有四分之一的家庭都存在水资源供
应短缺
的局面。
Six
other
Indian
cities
-
Chennai,
Bangalore,
Hyderabad,
Ahmedabad,
Pune
and Surat - feature in the UN's top 100
urban agglomerations.
在联合国评选出的全球前
100
个城市聚集区中，印度有六个城市榜上有名，它们
分别是：金奈、班加罗尔、海得拉巴、艾哈迈达巴德、普纳和苏拉特。
417,037, 606 VOTERS
5.
选民
4.17
亿
voter in India Voters' fingers are
marked with a special ink to ensure one man
one vote
每个选民的手指上都有一个的特殊墨水记号以保证一人一票
India prides itself on being the
world's largest democracy (Chinese voters do
not
directly
elect
their
country's
rulers),
and
precisely
417,037,
606
people
voted at the last
parliamentary election in 2009 - a turnout of
slightly under
60%.
印度一直以“世界
上最大的民主国家”自诩
（中国的选民则不能直接选举国家元
首
）
，据统计在
2009
年议会大选中共
有
4.17037606
亿选民参加投票，出席率略
低于
60%
。
There
were
830,866
polling
stations,
including
one,
in
the
western
state
of
Gujarat which had a single voter, a
temple caretaker.
全国共有
83.866
万个投票点，其中在古吉拉特邦的西部有一个投票点只有一名
选
民——某寺庙的管理者。
The
Election
Commission
of
India
advises
that
that
no
voter
should
have
to
travel
more
than
two
kilometres
to
the
nearest
polling
station,
and
that,
if
necessary, a separate polling station
can be set up for the inmates of a leprosy
sanatorium.
印度的选举委员会称，任何投票人都
无需长途跋涉
2000
米才能到达最近的投票
< br>站，如果需要的话将会为麻风病疗养院的患者设立一个单独的投票点。