India Guide

The country of India is in South Asia. About one-sixth of all of the people in the world live in India. Three of the world’s major religions originated in India; Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

India covers most of the Indian Subcontinent. This large area is bounded by the Himalayan mountain range, and the Indian Ocean.

Teach your children about India using our handy topic guide!

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Teaching Ideas

Use this pack from the Royal Geographical Society to explore the complex issues around the partition of India in 1947 with older children.
Ask children to generate some geographical questions about India, such as; Which countries border India? What is the highest mountain in India? Set them the task of finding the answers using Google maps and internet research,
Use this Britannia Kids page to create a poster about one aspect of India, such as animals or geography.
Challenge the children to work out how many lines of symmetry the Taj Mahal has. This page gives a good explanation of the answer.
Research and write a biography of an important person from India, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Sachin Tendulkar, Mother Teresa, Ashoka the Great or the Buddha.
Use this medium-term plan to teach about tea and its importance in trade.
Cook a traditional Indian recipe.
Use this plan from the BBC to introduce your children to the sitar music of Ravi Shankar.

Resources

This pack from the British Council has lots of ideas and resources for teaching about Indian language and culture.
Download our India-themed bunting, part of our huge Bunting Pack.
Our India-themed display letters are available in cursive and non-cursive styles as part our display Letters Packs .
You can find a comprehension about India (and other countries) in our Comprehension Challenges Pack.

The Chembakolli Pack from Actionaid is full of resources that you can use in your lessons.

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India Facts

India is the world’s largest democracy; over 900 million people are registered to vote.
In 2022, the population of India was estimated to be nearly 1.4 billion.
There are 22 officially recognised local languages in India. Nearly half the population speak Hindi. English is used for official business.
Sanskrit, an ancient language of India, is one of the oldest languages in the world.
The game of chess is thought to have originated in India.

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