India 1980 1980: 11 states that a number of languages and dialects are
spoken in India such as Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sinoti, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
Hindi and English are the official language of India. Besides, Hindi is also used for communication between states 1980: 22. Many different languages often
cause a problem. People from different parts of the country cannot understand each other. Differences in writing among the languages also present another problem. The
language most widely spoken has different alphabets, one way is called Hindi and the other way is called Urdu. Hindi is the official language of India. Since 1965, English
is not an official language anymore but English is an associate language. About half of the Indian people speak Hindi. Only about 2 speak English. Usually English
served as a common language among most educated Indians. Generally, other Indo- Aryans languages including Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Marathi, Oriya,
Punjabi, and Urdu are spoken mainly in the northern part of the country. The Dravidian languages, Tamil, Telugu, Malayan, and Kannada are spoken in four
southern states 1971: 98.
2.1.2.1.3.3 Health
Indian has a high mortality rate, partly because of poor diet and living conditions. There are many diseases in India such as cholera, malaria and smallpox
but India has tried many things to control those diseases. Inadequate sanitation and nutrition become major public health problems in India 1971: 103.
In 1960s the incidence of malaria increased from 1.48 lakh to 64.7 lakhs in 1976 1 lakh = one hundred thousand. Smallpox was another great killer before
1947. However, in July 1975 the incidence of smallpox was brought down to zero.
Besides, nearly 90 out of every one lakh people die of tuberculosis every year in the post-independence period after 1947. About 25.40 crore people 1 crore = 10
million had been tuberculin tested and 24.75 crore people vaccinated until September 1979. Other diseases such as leprosy, sexually transmitted diseases,
trachoma, cancer and goiter are also some diseases that infect Indians 1980: 99- 102.
2.1.2.1.3.4 Village life
The major citizens of India are villagers. During 1960s-1970s over 80 of people lived in villages. Most of those people or more than 550,000 villagers were
farmers. Most of the villages had only about 500 people 1971: 99
Ronald Segal in his book The Crisis of India 1965: 17 writes that each village consists of different part based on the caste group. The life of Hindus in a
village is influenced by inflexible caste rules of how, where, when, and with whom to eat, drink, wash, and work. These village divisions are vital because each caste has
its living principle of social behavior.
2.1.2.1.3.5. City Life
India had about 2,700 cities and town. Seven cities had more than a million people. These cities are Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Madras, Ahmadabad,
Hyderabad, and Kanpur. Calcutta had the greatest population among those cities. India’s population grew about several million each year. This population explosion
made overcrowded problem and also increased the country’s low standard of living. Many villagers then leaved the overcrowded rural areas to look for work in the cities.
It resulted in urban population growth at twice as fast as the population of the whole
country 1971: 99. The religion and poverty of India are her two primary materials, out of which the whole structure of her society has been built.
India is vast but crowded country. Segal 1965: 19 mentions that the poverty of city is crueler than the poverty of village. The formal distribution of different caste
rights and obligation gives poverty its place and its support in the village structure. The high castes are served by the lower caste. Traditionally the higher castes repay
them not only in commodities or cash, but also help them when they need. Furthermore, the caste itself has a family character so that one member may properly
call upon others for help. The poor of the Indian village belong to each other and to the village itself while the poor of the Indian cities belong to no one and to nothing.
For the laborers and their families who stream into Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta in the endless search for food, leaving the known caste relationship of the village
behind them, there is seldom more than the terrible isolation of the makeshift and meaningless slum. Even more terrible is the poverty too great for shelter even in the
slums, the hundreds of thousand who eat and sleep, love and die in the street. No one knows how many there are altogether or in only one city. A senior journalist on the
Times of India stated that during 1960s-1970s between 200,000 and 300,000 people lived on the pavements; other opinion said that 550,000 people lived on Calcutta’s
pavements. In this part the writer would also like to explain the social condition of
Calcutta because Calcutta is one of the settings of place in The City of Joy. Calcutta is the capital city of West Bengal and one of the most crowded cities in the world
1993: 22. The city service development does not equivalent to the amount of the population so that it causes many slums arise in Calcutta. Many people are exodus
from villages to Calcutta to find better life, but most of them generally live in pavements or in temporary sheds. In Calcutta hundreds of thousands of those who do
not have shelter for living, eat, sleep, love and die in the street Segal, 1965: 19.
2.1.2.2. Livelihood
India is a very poor nation. The poverty spreads to the whole country. The average income of the Indians was 80 a year. Only a few people in India who were
wealthy. Many Indians only lived with 5 cents a day. Segal 1965: 19 mentions that many people in India especially those who live in the cities do not have shelter in the
slums because they are very poor. Nearly three quarters of the population were directly dependent on
agriculture. The agricultural sector contributes nearly one-half of the national income, provides livelihood about three-fourths of the population, supplies the bulk
of wage goods required by the non-agricultural sector and raw material for a large section of industry 1980: 207.
The average size of Indian farms was only five acres, and Indian farmers only had two acres or less. Some large Indian farms belonged to landlords. However,
these landlords do not cultivate the farms by themselves. About two-thirds of the farmers own their own land. Most of their land become smaller and smaller with
each generation because of Hindu inheritance customs. Usually when an Indian dies, his farm is divided equally among all his sons. The share of each son may be too
small to provide a living 1971: 106f. India was the third largest producer of tobacco and bananas and also
produced cotton vegetables and wheat. However, India still could not fulfill enough food and proper diet for its people. Inefficient farming and poor equipment caused
