Home to the Indus Valley Civilization and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four major world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, while Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism, arrived in the first millennium CE and shaped India's variegated culture. India became a modern nation-state in 1947 after a struggle for independence marked by widespread use of nonviolent resistance as a means of social protest. With the world's fourth largest economy in purchasing power and the second fastest growing large economy, India has made rapid progress in the last decade, most notably in information technology. A multi-lingual, multi-ethnic society, India is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.