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42)The Republic of Inhospitality

India Republic Day -- Seeing that India celebrates Republic Moment and the chests of an incredible number of Indians swell with satisfaction at the thought of our astounding diversity and imagined military prowess it is well for you to reflect on what kind of Republic the country has become. A republican way of government is not merely one out of which the head of express is not a hereditary monarch; rather the modern republic engraves the idea that sovereignty resides within the people and that the will of the people as expressed through their own representatives is supreme. Exactly what has however been crucial to the idea of the republic everywhere is the notion of inclusiveness. In this respect the testimonies that have been coming out of India in recent times tell a tale that is chilling to the bones a tale which leaves behind a stench this no amount of sloganeering concerning Swachh Bharat or even some thing more than a symbolic wielding in the broom can eradicate. If inclus...
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Americas

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Coordinates: 19°N 96°W  /  19°N 96°W  / 19; -96 The Americas (also collectively called America ) is a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with their associated islands, the Americas cover 8% of Earth's total surface area and 28.4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera, a long chain of mountains that runs the length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by large river basins, such as the Amazon, St. Lawrence River–Great Lakes basin, Mississippi, and La Plata. Since the Americas extend 14,000 km (8,700 mi) from north to south, the climate and ecology vary widely, from the arctic tundra of Northern Canada, Greenland, and Alaska, to the tropical rain forests in Central America and South America. Humans first settled the Americas from Asia between 42,000 and 17,000 years ago. A secon...
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Etymology and naming

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The name America was first recorded in 1507. A two-dimensional globe created by Martin Waldseemüller was the earliest recorded use of the term. The name was also used (together with the related term Amerigen ) in the Cosmographiae Introductio , apparently written by Matthias Ringmann, in reference to South America. It was applied to both North and South America by Gerardus Mercator in 1538. America derives from Americus , the Latin version of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci's first name. The feminine form America accorded with the feminine names of Asia, Africa, and Europa. In modern English, North and South America are generally considered separate continents, and taken together are called the Americas , or more rarely America . When conceived as a unitary continent, the form is generally the continent of America in the singular. However, without a clarifying context, singular America in English commonly refers to the United States of America. Historically, in the English-spe...
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