India, officially the Republic of India,[j][20] is a country in South Asia.

It is
the seventh-largest country by area; the most populous country since 2023;[21] and,
since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy.[22][23][24]
Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the
Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;
[k] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east.
In the Indian Ocean, India is near Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and
Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia.

Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000
years ago.[26][27][28] Their long occupation, predominantly in isolation as hunter-
gatherers, has made the region highly diverse.[29] Settled life emerged on the
subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus river basin 9,000 years ago,
evolving gradually into the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE.
[30] By 1200 BCE, an archaic form of Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, had
diffused into India from the northwest.[31][32] Its hymns recorded the early
dawnings of Hinduism in India.[33] India's pre-existing Dravidian languages were
supplanted in the northern regions.[34] By 400 BCE, caste had emerged within
Hinduism,[35] and Buddhism and Jainism had arisen, proclaiming social orders
unlinked to heredity.[36] Early political consolidations gave rise to the loose-
knit Maurya and Gupta Empires.[37] Widespread creativity suffused this era,[38] but
the status of women declined,[39] and untouchability became an organized belief.[l]
[40] In South India, the Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian language scripts and
religious cultures to the kingdoms of Southeast Asia.[41]

In the early medieval era, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism became
established on India's southern and western coasts.[42] Muslim armies from Central
Asia intermittently overran India's northern plains in the second millennium.[43]
The resulting Delhi Sultanate drew northern India into the cosmopolitan networks of
medieval Islam.[44] In south India, the Vijayanagara Empire created a long-lasting
composite Hindu culture.[45] In the Punjab, Sikhism emerged, rejecting
institutionalised religion.[46] The Mughal Empire ushered in two centuries of
economic expansion and relative peace,[47] leaving a rich architectural legacy.[48]
[49] Gradually expanding rule of the British East India Company turned India into a
colonial economy but consolidated its sovereignty.[50] British Crown rule began in
1858. The rights promised to Indians were granted slowly,[51][52] but technological
changes were introduced, and modern ideas of education and the public life took
root.[53] A nationalist movement emerged in India, the first in the non-European
British empire and an influence on other nationalist movements.[54][55] Noted for
nonviolent resistance after 1920,[56] it became the primary factor in ending
British rule.[57] In 1947, the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two
independent dominions,[58][59][60][61] a Hindu-majority dominion of India and a
Muslim-majority dominion of Pakistan. A large-scale loss of life and an
unprecedented migration accompanied the partition.[62]

India has been a federal republic since 1950, governed through a democratic
parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society.
India's population grew from 361 million in 1951 to over 1.4 billion in 2023.[63]
During this time, its nominal per capita income increased from US$64 annually to
US$2,601, and its literacy rate from 16.6% to 74%. A comparatively destitute
country in 1951,[64] India has become a fast-growing major economy and hub for
information technology services; it has an expanding middle class.[65] Indian
movies and music increasingly influence global culture.[66] India has reduced its
poverty rate, though at the cost of increasing economic inequality.[67] It is a
nuclear-weapon state that ranks high in military expenditure. It has disputes over
Kashmir with its neighbours, Pakistan and China, unresolved since the mid-20th
century.[68] Among the socio-economic challenges India faces are gender inequality,
child malnutrition,[69] and rising levels of air pollution.[70] India's land is
megadiverse with four biodiversity hotspots.[71] India's wildlife, which has
traditionally been viewed with tolerance in its culture,[72] is supported in
protected habitats.

Etymology
Main article: Names for India
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (2009), the name "India" is derived from
the Classical Latin India, a reference to South Asia and an uncertain region to its
east. In turn "India" derived successively from Hellenistic Greek India (Ἰνδία),
Ancient Greek Indos (Ἰνδός), Old Persian Hindush (an eastern province of the
Achaemenid Empire), and ultimately its cognate, the Sanskrit Sindhu, or 'river'—
specifically the Indus River, and by extension its well-settled southern basin.[73]
[74] The Ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, 'the people of the
Indus'.[75]

The term Bharat (Bhārat; pronounced [ˈbʱaːɾət] ⓘ), mentioned in both Indian epic
poetry and the Constitution of India,[76][77] is used in its variations by many
Indian languages. A modern rendering of the historical name Bharatavarsha, which
applied originally to North India,[78][79] Bharat gained increased currency from
the mid-19th century as a native name for India.[76][80]

Hindustan ([ɦɪndʊˈstaːn] ⓘ) is a Middle Persian name for India that became popular
by the 13th century,[81] and was used widely since the era of the Mughal Empire.
The meaning of Hindustan has varied, referring to a region encompassing the
northern Indian subcontinent (present-day northern India and Pakistan) or to India
in its near entirety.[76][80][82]

History
Main articles: History of India and History of the Republic of India
Ancient India

Manuscript illustration, c. 1650, of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, composed in story-

telling fashion c. 400 BCE – c. 300 CE[83]
By 55,000 years ago, the first modern humans, or Homo sapiens, had arrived on the
Indian subcontinent from Africa.[26][27][28] The earliest known modern human
remains in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago.[26] After 6500 BCE, evidence
for domestication of food crops and animals, construction of permanent structures,
and storage of agricultural surplus appeared in Mehrgarh and other sites in
Balochistan, Pakistan.[84] These gradually developed into the Indus Valley
Civilisation,[85][84] the first urban culture in South Asia,[86] which flourished
during 2500–1900 BCE in Pakistan and western India.[87] Centred around cities such
as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of
subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-
ranging trade.[86]

During the period 2000–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from
the Chalcolithic cultures to the Iron Age ones.[88] The Vedas, the oldest
scriptures associated with Hinduism,[89] were composed during this period,[90] and
historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and
the upper Gangetic Plain.[88] Most historians also consider this period to have
encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the
north-west.[89] The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors,
and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labelling their
occupations impure, arose during this period.[91] On the Deccan Plateau,
archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage
of political organisation.[88] In South India, a progression to sedentary life is
indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period,[92]
as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions.
[92]
Cave 26 of the rock-cut Ajanta Caves
In the late Vedic period, around the 6th century BCE, the small states and
chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into
16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the mahajanapadas.[93][94]
The emerging urbanisation gave rise to non-Vedic religious movements, two of which
became independent religions. Jainism came into prominence during the life of its
exemplar, Mahavira.[95] Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha,
attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle class; chronicling
the life of the Buddha was central to the beginnings of recorded history in India.
[96][97][98] In an age of increasing urban wealth, both religions held up
renunciation as an ideal,[99] and both established long-lasting monastic
traditions. Politically, by the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed
or reduced other states to emerge as the Maurya Empire.[100] The empire was once
thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent except the far south, but its
core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas.[101]
[102] The Mauryan kings are known as much for their empire-building and determined
management of public life as for Ashoka's renunciation of militarism and far-flung
advocacy of the Buddhist dhamma.[103][104]

The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that, between 200 BCE and 200
CE, the southern peninsula was ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas, and the Pandyas,
dynasties that traded extensively with the Roman Empire and with West and Southeast
Asia.[105][106] In North India, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the
family, leading to increased subordination of women.[107][100] By the 4th and 5th
centuries, the Gupta Empire had created a complex system of administration and
taxation in the greater Ganges Plain; this system became a model for later Indian
kingdoms.[108][109] Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion, rather
than the management of ritual, began to assert itself.[110] This renewal was
reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among
an urban elite.[109] Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian
science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics made significant advances.[109]

Medieval India
Main article: Medieval India

Brihadeshwara temple, Thanjavur, completed in 1010 CE

The Qutub Minar, 73 m (240 ft) tall, completed by the Sultan of Delhi, Iltutmish
The Indian early medieval age, from 600 to 1200 CE, is defined by regional kingdoms
and cultural diversity.[111] When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Indo-
Gangetic Plain from 606 to 647 CE, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated
by the Chalukya ruler of the Deccan.[112] When his successor attempted to expand
eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal.[112] When the Chalukyas
attempted to expand southwards, they were defeated by the Pallavas from farther
south, who in turn were opposed by the Pandyas and the Cholas from still farther
south.[112] No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently
control lands much beyond their core region.[111] During this time, pastoral
peoples, whose land had been cleared to make way for the growing agricultural
economy, were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-traditional ruling
classes.[113] The caste system consequently began to show regional differences.
[113]

In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil
language.[114] They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of
Hinduism and the development of all modern languages of the subcontinent.[114]
Indian royalty, big and small, and the temples they patronised drew citizens in
great numbers to the capital cities, which became economic hubs as well.[115]
Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another
urbanisation.[115] By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in Southeast
Asia, as South Indian culture and political systems were exported to lands that
became part of modern-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Brunei, Cambodia, Vietnam,
Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.[116] Indian merchants, scholars, and
sometimes armies were involved in this transmission; Southeast Asians took the
initiative as well, with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating
Buddhist and Hindu texts into their languages.[116]

After the 10th century, Muslim Central Asian nomadic clans, using swift-horse
cavalry and raising vast armies united by ethnicity and religion, repeatedly
overran South Asia's north-western plains, leading eventually to the establishment
of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in 1206.[117] The sultanate was to control much of
North India and to make many forays into South India. Although at first disruptive
for the Indian elites, the sultanate largely left its vast non-Muslim subject
population to its own laws and customs.[118][119] By repeatedly repulsing Mongol
raiders in the 13th century, the sultanate saved India from the devastation visited
on West and Central Asia, setting the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing
soldiers, learned men, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from that region
into the subcontinent, thereby creating a syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in the
north.[120][121] The sultanate's raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of
South India paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire.[122] Embracing a
strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the
sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular India,[123] and was to
influence South Indian society for long afterwards.[122]

Early modern India

A distant view of the Taj Mahal from the Agra Fort

A two mohur Company gold coin, issued in 1835, the obverse inscribed "William IIII,
King"
In the early 16th century, northern India, then under mainly Muslim rulers,[124]
fell again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central
Asian warriors.[125] The resulting Mughal Empire did not stamp out the local
societies it came to rule. Instead, it balanced and pacified them through new
administrative practices[126][127] and diverse and inclusive ruling elites,[128]
leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule.[129] Eschewing tribal
bonds and Islamic identity, especially under Akbar, the Mughals united their far-
flung realms through loyalty, expressed through a Persianised culture, to an
emperor who had near-divine status.[128] The Mughal state's economic policies,
deriving most revenues from agriculture[130] and mandating that taxes be paid in
the well-regulated silver currency,[131] caused peasants and artisans to enter
larger markets.[129] The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the
17th century was a factor in India's economic expansion,[129] resulting in greater
patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture.[132] Newly
coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as the Marathas, the
Rajputs, and the Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule,
which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military
experience.[133] Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian
commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India.
[133] As the empire disintegrated, many among these elites were able to seek and
control their own affairs.[134]

By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political
dominance being increasingly blurred, a number of European trading companies,
including the English East India Company, had established coastal outposts.[135]
[136] The East India Company's control of the seas, greater resources, and more
advanced military training and technology led it to increasingly assert its
military strength and caused it to become attractive to a portion of the Indian
elite; these factors were crucial in allowing the company to gain control over the
Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the other European companies.[137][135][138]
[139] Its further access to the riches of Bengal and the subsequent increased
strength and size of its army enabled it to annex or subdue most of India by the
1820s.[140] India was then no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had,
but was instead supplying the British Empire with raw materials. Many historians
consider this to be the onset of India's colonial period.[135] By this time, with
its economic power severely curtailed by the British parliament and having
effectively been made an arm of British administration, the East India Company
began more consciously to enter non-economic arenas, including education, social
reform, and culture.[141]

Modern India
Main article: History of India (1947–present)

1909 map of the British Indian Empire

Jawaharlal Nehru sharing a light moment with Mahatma Gandhi, Mumbai, 6 July 1946
Historians consider India's modern age to have begun sometime between 1848 and
1885. The appointment in 1848 of Lord Dalhousie as Governor General of the East
India Company set the stage for changes essential to a modern state. These included
the consolidation and demarcation of sovereignty, the surveillance of the
population, and the education of citizens. Technological changes—among them,
railways, canals, and the telegraph—were introduced not long after their
introduction in Europe.[142][143][144][145] However, disaffection with the company
also grew during this time and set off the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Fed by diverse
resentments and perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh
land taxes, and summary treatment of some rich landowners and princes, the
rebellion rocked many regions of northern and central India and shook the
foundations of Company rule.[146][147] Although the rebellion was suppressed by
1858, it led to the dissolution of the East India Company and the direct
administration of India by the British government. Proclaiming a unitary state and
a gradual but limited British-style parliamentary system, the new rulers also
protected princes and landed gentry as a feudal safeguard against future unrest.
[148][149] In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over India,
leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885.[150]
[151][152][153]

The rush of technology and the commercialisation of agriculture in the second half
of the 19th century was marked by economic setbacks, and many small farmers became
dependent on the whims of far-away markets.[154] There was an increase in the
number of large-scale famines,[155] and, despite the risks of infrastructure
development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated
for Indians.[156] There were also salutary effects: commercial cropping, especially
in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal
consumption.[157] The railway network provided critical famine relief,[158] notably
reduced the cost of moving goods,[158] and helped nascent Indian-owned industry.
[157]

After World War I, in which approximately one million Indians served,[159] a new
period began. It was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislation, by
more strident Indian calls for self-rule, and by the beginnings of a nonviolent
movement of non-co-operation, of which Mahatma Gandhi would become the leader and
enduring symbol.[160] During the 1930s, slow legislative reform was enacted by the
British; the Indian National Congress won victories in the resulting elections.
[161] The next decade was beset with crises: Indian participation in World War II,
the Congress's final push for non-co-operation, and an upsurge of Muslim
nationalism. All were capped by the advent of independence in 1947, but tempered by
the partition of India into two states: India and Pakistan.[162]
Vital to India's self-image as an independent nation was its constitution,
completed in 1950, which put in place a secular and democratic republic.[163]
Economic liberalisation, which began in the 1980s and the collaboration with Soviet
Union for technical know-how,[164] has created a large urban middle class,
transformed India into one of the world's fastest-growing economies,[165] and
increased its geopolitical clout. Yet, India is also shaped by seemingly unyielding
poverty, both rural and urban;[166] by religious and caste-related violence;[167]
by Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgencies;[168] and by separatism in Jammu and
Kashmir and in Northeast India.[169] It has unresolved territorial disputes with
China[170] and with Pakistan.[170] India's sustained democratic freedoms are unique
among the world's newer nations; however, in spite of its recent economic
successes, freedom from want for its disadvantaged population remains a goal yet to
be achieved.[171]

Geography
Main article: Geography of India

The Tungabhadra, with rocky outcrops, flows into the peninsular Krishna River[172]

Fishing boats lashed together in a tidal creek in Anjarle village, Maharashtra

India accounts for the bulk of the Indian subcontinent, lying atop the Indian
tectonic plate, a part of the Indo-Australian Plate.[173] India's defining
geological processes began 75 million years ago when the Indian Plate, then part of
the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a north-eastward drift caused by
seafloor spreading to its south-west, and later, south and south-east.[173]
Simultaneously, the vast Tethyan oceanic crust, to its northeast, began to subduct
under the Eurasian Plate.[173] These dual processes, driven by convection in the
Earth's mantle, both created the Indian Ocean and caused the Indian continental
crust eventually to under-thrust Eurasia and to uplift the Himalayas.[173]
Immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast
crescent-shaped trough that rapidly filled with river-borne sediment[174] and now
constitutes the Indo-Gangetic Plain.[175] The original Indian plate makes its first
appearance above the sediment in the ancient Aravalli range, which extends from the
Delhi Ridge in a southwesterly direction. To the west lies the Thar Desert, the
eastern spread of which is checked by the Aravallis.[176][177][178]

The remaining Indian Plate survives as peninsular India, the oldest and
geologically most stable part of India. It extends as far north as the Satpura and
Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel chains run from the Arabian Sea
coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in
the east.[179] To the south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau,
is flanked on the west and east by coastal ranges known as the Western and Eastern
Ghats;[180] the plateau contains the country's oldest rock formations, some over
one billion years old. Constituted in such fashion, India lies to the north of the
equator between 6° 44′ and 35° 30′ north latitude[m] and 68° 7′ and 97° 25′ east
longitude.[181]

India's coastline measures 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi) in length; of this distance,
5,423 kilometres (3,400 mi) belong to peninsular India and 2,094 kilometres (1,300
mi) to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep island chains.[182] According to the
Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland coastline consists of the following:
43% sandy beaches; 11% rocky shores, including cliffs; and 46% mudflats or marshy
shores.[182] Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India
include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal.
[183] Important tributaries of the Ganges include the Yamuna and the Kosi; the
latter's extremely low gradient, caused by long-term silt deposition, leads to
severe floods and course changes.[184][185] Major peninsular rivers, whose steeper
gradients prevent their waters from flooding, include the Godavari, the Mahanadi,
the Kaveri, and the Krishna, which also drain into the Bay of Bengal;[186] and the
Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea.[187] Coastal features
include the marshy Rann of Kutch of western India and the alluvial Sundarbans delta
of eastern India; the latter is shared with Bangladesh.[188] India has two
archipelagos: the Lakshadweep, coral atolls off India's south-western coast; and
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a volcanic chain in the Andaman Sea.[189]

Indian climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of
which drive the economically and culturally pivotal summer and winter monsoons.
[190] The Himalayas prevent cold Central Asian katabatic winds from blowing in,
keeping the bulk of the Indian subcontinent warmer than most locations at similar
latitudes.[191][192] The Thar Desert plays a crucial role in attracting the
moisture-laden south-west summer monsoon winds that, between June and October,
provide the majority of India's rainfall.[190] Four major climatic groupings
predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane.
[193] Temperatures in India have risen by 0.7 °C (1.3 °F) between 1901 and 2018.
[194] Climate change in India is often thought to be the cause. The retreat of
Himalayan glaciers has adversely affected the flow rate of the major Himalayan
rivers, including the Ganges and the Brahmaputra.[195] According to some current
projections, the number and severity of droughts in India will have markedly
increased by the end of the present century.[196]

Biodiversity
Main articles: Forestry in India and Wildlife of India

India has the majority of the world's wild tigers, approximately 3,170 in 2022.
[197]

A chital (Axis axis) stag in the Nagarhole National Park in a region covered by a
moderately dense[n] forest.

Three of the last Asiatic cheetahs in India were shot dead in 1948 in Surguja
district, Madhya Pradesh, Central India by Maharajah Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo. The
young male cheetahs, all from the same litter, were sitting together when they were
shot at night.
India is a megadiverse country, a term employed for 17 countries that display high
biological diversity and contain many species exclusively indigenous, or endemic,
to them.[198] India is the habitat for 8.6% of all mammals, 13.7% of bird species,
7.9% of reptile species, 6% of amphibian species, 12.2% of fish species, and 6.0%
of all flowering plant species.[199][200] Fully a third of Indian plant species are
endemic.[201] India also contains four of the world's 34 biodiversity hotspots,[71]
or regions that display significant habitat loss in the presence of high endemism.
[o][202]

India's most dense forests, such as the tropical moist forest of the Andaman
Islands, the Western Ghats, and Northeast India, occupy approximately 3% of its
land area.[203][204] Moderately dense forest, whose canopy density is between 40%
and 70%, occupies 9.39% of India's land area.[203][204] It predominates in the
temperate coniferous forest of the Himalayas, the moist deciduous sal forest of
eastern India, and the dry deciduous teak forest of central and southern India.
[205] India has two natural zones of thorn forest, one in the Deccan Plateau,
immediately east of the Western Ghats, and the other in the western part of the
Indo-Gangetic plain, now turned into rich agricultural land by irrigation, its
features no longer visible.[206] Among the Indian subcontinent's notable indigenous
trees are the astringent Azadirachta indica, or neem, which is widely used in rural
Indian herbal medicine,[207] and the luxuriant Ficus religiosa, or peepul,[208]
which is displayed on the ancient seals of Mohenjo-daro,[209] and under which the
Buddha is recorded in the Pali canon to have sought enlightenment.[210]
Many Indian species have descended from those of Gondwana, the southern
supercontinent from which India separated more than 100 million years ago.[211]
India's subsequent collision with Eurasia set off a mass exchange of species.
However, volcanism and climatic changes later caused the extinction of many endemic
Indian forms.[212] Still later, mammals entered India from Asia through two
zoogeographic passes flanking the Himalayas.[213] This had the effect of lowering
endemism among India's mammals, which stands at 12.6%, contrasting with 45.8% among
reptiles and 55.8% among amphibians.[200] Among endemics are the vulnerable[214]
hooded leaf monkey[215] and the threatened Beddome's toad[216][217] of the Western
Ghats.

India contains 172 IUCN-designated threatened animal species, or 2.9% of endangered

forms.[218] These include the endangered Bengal tiger and the Ganges river dolphin.
Critically endangered species include the gharial, a crocodilian; the great Indian
bustard; and the Indian white-rumped vulture, which has become nearly extinct by
having ingested the carrion of diclofenac-treated cattle.[219] Before they were
extensively used for agriculture and cleared for human settlement, the thorn
forests of Punjab were mingled at intervals with open grasslands that were grazed
by large herds of blackbuck preyed on by the Asiatic cheetah; the blackbuck, no
longer extant in Punjab, is now severely endangered in India, and the cheetah is
extinct.[220] The pervasive and ecologically devastating human encroachment of
recent decades has critically endangered Indian wildlife. In response, the system
of national parks and protected areas, first established in 1935, was expanded
substantially. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act[221] and Project
Tiger to safeguard crucial wilderness; the Forest Conservation Act was enacted in
1980 and amendments added in 1988.[222] India hosts more than five hundred wildlife
sanctuaries and eighteen biosphere reserves,[223] four of which are part of the
World Network of Biosphere Reserves; its eighty-nine wetlands are registered under
the Ramsar Convention.[224]

Politics and government

Politics
Main article: Politics of India

As part of Janadesh 2007, 25,000 pro–land reform landless people in Madhya Pradesh
listen to Rajagopal P. V.[225]

US president Barack Obama addresses the members of the Parliament of India in New
Delhi in November 2010.
India is a parliamentary republic with a multi-party system.[226] It has six
recognised national parties, including the Indian National Congress (INC) and the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and over 50 regional parties.[227] Congress is
considered the ideological centre in Indian political culture,[228] whereas the BJP
is right-wing.[229][230][231] From 1950 to the late 1980s, Congress held a majority
in the India's parliament. Afterwards, it increasingly shared power with the BJP,
[232] as well as with powerful regional parties, which forced multi-party coalition
governments at the centre.[233]

In the Republic of India's general elections in 1951, 1957, and 1962, Congress, led
by Jawaharlal Nehru, won easy victories. On Nehru's death in 1964, Lal Bahadur
Shastri briefly became prime minister; he was succeeded in 1966, by Nehru's
daughter Indira Gandhi, who led the Congress to election victories in 1967 and
1971. Following public discontent with the state of emergency Indira Gandhi had
declared in 1975, Congress was voted out of power in 1977; Janata Party, which had
opposed the emergency, was voted in. Its government lasted two years; Morarji Desai
and Charan Singh served as prime ministers. After Congress was returned to power in
1980, Indira Gandhi was assassinated and succeeded by Rajiv Gandhi, who won easily
in the elections later that year. In the 1989 elections a National Front coalition,
led by the Janata Dal in alliance with the Left Front, won, lasting just under two
years, and V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar serving as prime ministers.[234] In the
1991 Indian general election, Congress, as the largest single party, formed a
minority government led by P. V. Narasimha Rao.[235]

After the 1996 Indian general election, the BJP formed a government briefly; it was
followed by United Front coalitions, which depended on external political support.
Two prime ministers served during this period: H.D. Deve Gowda and I.K. Gujral. In
1998, the BJP formed a coalition—the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Led by
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the NDA became the first non-Congress, coalition government
to complete a five-year term.[236] In the 2004 Indian general elections, no party
won an absolute majority. Still, the Congress emerged as the largest single party,
forming another successful coalition: the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). It had
the support of left-leaning parties and MPs who opposed the BJP. The UPA returned
to power in the 2009 general election with increased numbers, and it no longer
required external support from India's communist parties.[237] Manmohan Singh
became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957 and 1962 to be re-
elected to a consecutive five-year term.[238] In the 2014 general election, the BJP
became the first political party since 1984 to win an absolute majority.[239] In
the 2019 general election, the BJP regained an absolute majority. In the 2024
general election, a BJP-led NDA coalition formed the government. Narendra Modi, a
former chief minister of Gujarat, is serving as the prime minister of India in his
third term since May 26, 2014.[240]

Government
Main articles: Government of India and Constitution of India

Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the President of India, was designed
by British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker for the Viceroy of India, and
constructed between 1911 and 1931 during the British Raj.[241]
India is a federation with a parliamentary system governed under the Constitution
of India. Federalism in India defines the power distribution between the union and
the states. India's form of government, traditionally described as "quasi-federal"
with a strong centre and weak states,[242] has grown increasingly federal since the
late 1990s as a result of political, economic, and social changes.[243][244]

The Government of India comprises three branches: the Executive, Legislature, and
Judiciary.[245] The President of India is the ceremonial head of state,[246] who is
elected indirectly for a five-year term by an electoral college comprising members
of national and state legislatures.[247][248] The Prime Minister of India is the
head of government and exercises most executive power.[249] Appointed by the
president,[250] the prime minister is supported by the party or political alliance
with a majority of seats in the lower house of parliament.[249] The executive of
the Indian government consists of the president, the vice-president, and the Union
Council of Ministers—with the cabinet being its executive committee—headed by the
prime minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of one of the
houses of parliament.[246] In the Indian parliamentary system, the executive is
subordinate to the legislature; the prime minister and their council are directly
responsible to the lower house of the parliament. Civil servants act as permanent
executives and all decisions of the executive are implemented by them.[251]

The legislature of India is the bicameral parliament. Operating under a

Westminster-style parliamentary system, it comprises an upper house called the
Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and a lower house called the Lok Sabha (House of
the People).[252] The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body of 245 members who serve
staggered six-year terms with elections every 2 years.[253] Most are elected
indirectly by the state and union territorial legislatures in numbers proportional
to their state's share of the national population.[250] The Lok Sabha's 543 members
are elected directly by popular vote among citizens aged at least 18;[254] they
represent single-member constituencies for five-year terms.[255] Several seats from
each state are reserved for candidates from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
in proportion to their population within that state.[254]

India has a three-tier unitary independent judiciary[256] comprising the supreme

court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, 25 high courts, and a large number of
trial courts.[256] The supreme court has original jurisdiction over cases involving
fundamental rights and over disputes between states and the centre and has
appellate jurisdiction over the high courts.[257] It has the power to both strike
down union or state laws which contravene the constitution[258] and invalidate any
government action it deems unconstitutional.[259]

Administrative divisions
Main article: Administrative divisions of India
See also: Political integration of India

A clickable map of the 28 states and 8 union territories of India

India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories.[12] All
states, as well as the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry and the
National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments
following the Westminster system. The remaining five union territories are directly
ruled by the central government through appointed administrators. In 1956, under
the States Reorganisation Act, states were reorganised on a linguistic basis.[260]
There are over a quarter of a million local government bodies at city, town, block,
district and village levels.[261]

States
Andhra Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh
Assam
Bihar
Chhattisgarh
Goa
Gujarat
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jharkhand
Karnataka
Kerala
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra
Manipur
Meghalaya
Mizoram
Nagaland
Odisha
Punjab
Rajasthan
Sikkim
Tamil Nadu
Telangana
Tripura
Uttar Pradesh
Uttarakhand
West Bengal
Union territories
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Chandigarh
Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu
Jammu and Kashmir
Ladakh
Lakshadweep
National Capital Territory of Delhi
Puducherry
Foreign, economic, and strategic relations
Main articles: Foreign relations of India and Indian Armed Forces

During the 1950s and 60s, India played a pivotal role in the Non-Aligned Movement.
[262] From left to right: Gamal Abdel Nasser of United Arab Republic (now Egypt),
Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia and Jawaharlal Nehru in Belgrade, September 1961.
India became a republic in 1950, remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
[263][264] India strongly supported decolonisation in Africa and Asia in the 1950s;
it played a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement.[265] After cordial relations
initially, India went to war with China in 1962. It was widely thought to have been
humiliated.[266] Another military conflict followed in 1967 in which India
successfully repelled a Chinese attack.[267] India has had uneasy relations with
its western neighbour, Pakistan. The two countries went to war in 1947, 1965, 1971,
and 1999. Three of these wars were fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
In contrast, the 1971 war followed India's support for the independence of
Bangladesh.[268] After the 1965 war with Pakistan, India began to pursue close
military and economic ties with the Soviet Union; by the late 1960s, the Soviet
Union was its largest arms supplier.[269] India has played a key role in the South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the World Trade Organization. The
nation has supplied 100,000 military and police personnel in 35 UN peacekeeping
operations.

The Indian Air Force contingent marching at the 221st Bastille Day military parade
in Paris, on 14 July 2009. The parade at which India was the foreign guest was led
by India's oldest regiment, the Maratha Light Infantry, founded in 1768.[270]
China's nuclear test of 1964 and threats to intervene in support of Pakistan in the
1965 war caused India to produce nuclear weapons.[271] India conducted its first
nuclear weapons test in 1974 and carried out additional underground testing in
1998. India has signed neither the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty nor the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, considering both to be flawed and discriminatory.
[272] India maintains a "no first use" nuclear policy and is developing a nuclear
triad capability as a part of its "Minimum Credible Deterrence" doctrine.[273][274]

Since the end of the Cold War, India has increased its economic, strategic, and
military cooperation with the United States and the European Union.[275] In 2008, a
civilian nuclear agreement was signed between India and the United States. Although
India possessed nuclear weapons at the time and was not a party to the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty, it received waivers from the International Atomic Energy
Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, ending earlier restrictions on India's
nuclear technology and commerce; India subsequently signed co-operation agreements
involving civilian nuclear energy with Russia,[276] France,[277] the United
Kingdom,[278] and Canada.[279]

The President of India is the supreme commander of the nation's armed forces; with
1.45 million active troops, they compose the world's second-largest military. It
comprises the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, the Indian Air Force, and the Indian
Coast Guard.[280] The official Indian defence budget for 2011 was US$36.03 billion,
or 1.83% of GDP.[281] Defence expenditure was pegged at US$70.12 billion for fiscal
year 2022–23 and, increased 9.8% than previous fiscal year.[282][283] India is the
world's second-largest arms importer; between 2016 and 2020, it accounted for 9.5%
of the total global arms imports.[284] Much of the military expenditure was focused
on defence against Pakistan and countering growing Chinese influence in the Indian
Ocean.[285]
Economy
Main article: Economy of India

In 2019, 43% of India's total workforce was employed in agriculture.[286]

India is the world's largest producer of milk, with the largest population of
cattle. In 2018, nearly 80% of India's milk was sourced from small farms with herd
size between one and two, the milk harvested by hand milking.[288]

55% of India's female workforce was employed in agriculture in 2019.[287]

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Indian economy in 2024 was
nominally worth $3.94 trillion; it was the fifth-largest economy by market exchange
rates and is, at around $15.0 trillion, the third-largest by purchasing power
parity (PPP).[16] With its average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% over the past two
decades, and reaching 6.1% during 2011–2012,[289] India is one of the world's
fastest-growing economies.[290] However, due to its low GDP per capita—which ranks
136th in the world in nominal per capita income and 125th in per capita income
adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP)—the vast majority of Indians fall into
the low-income group.[291][292] Until 1991, all Indian governments followed
protectionist policies that were influenced by socialist economics. Widespread
state intervention and regulation largely walled the economy off from the outside
world. An acute balance of payments crisis in 1991 forced the nation to liberalise
its economy;[293] since then, it has moved increasingly towards a free-market
system[294][295] by emphasising both foreign trade and direct investment inflows.
[296] India has been a member of World Trade Organization since 1 January 1995.
[297]

The 522-million-worker Indian labour force is the world's second largest, as of

2017.[280] The service sector makes up 55.6% of GDP, the industrial sector 26.3%
and the agricultural sector 18.1%. India's foreign exchange remittances of US$100
billion in 2022,[298] highest in the world, were contributed to its economy by 32
million Indians working in foreign countries.[299] In 2006, the share of external
trade in India's GDP stood at 24%, up from 6% in 1985.[294] In 2008, India's share
of world trade was 1.7%;[300] In 2021, India was the world's ninth-largest importer
and the sixteenth-largest exporter.[301] Between 2001 and 2011, the contribution of
petrochemical and engineering goods to total exports grew from 14% to 42%.[302]
India was the world's second-largest textile exporter after China in the 2013
calendar year.[303]

Averaging an economic growth rate of 7.5% for several years before 2007,[294] India
has more than doubled its hourly wage rates during the first decade of the 21st
century.[304] Some 431 million Indians have left poverty since 1985; India's middle
classes are projected to number around 580 million by 2030.[305] In 2023, India's
consumer market was the world's fifth largest.[306] India's nominal GDP per capita
increased steadily from US$308 in 1991, when economic liberalisation began, to
US$1,380 in 2010, to an estimated US$2,731 in 2024. It is expected to grow to
US$3,264 by 2026.[16]

Industries

A tea garden in Sikkim. India, the world's second-largest producer of tea, is a

nation of one billion tea drinkers, who consume 70% of India's tea output.
The Indian automotive industry, the world's second-fastest growing, increased
domestic sales by 26% during 2009–2010,[307] and exports by 36% during 2008–2009.
[308] In 2022, India became the world's third-largest vehicle market after China
and the United States, surpassing Japan.[309] At the end of 2011, the Indian IT
industry employed 2.8 million professionals, generated revenues close to US$100
billion equalling 7.5% of Indian GDP, and contributed 26% of India's merchandise
exports.[310]
The pharmaceutical industry in India includes 3,000 pharmaceutical companies and
10,500 manufacturing units; India is the world's third-largest pharmaceutical
producer, largest producer of generic medicines and supply up to 50–60% of global
vaccines demand, these all contribute up to US$24.44 billions in exports and
India's local pharmaceutical market is estimated up to US$42 billion.[311][312]
India is among the top 12 biotech destinations in the world.[313][314] The Indian
biotech industry grew by 15.1% in 2012–2013, increasing its revenues from ₹204.4
billion (Indian rupees) to ₹235.24 billion (US$3.94 billion at June 2013 exchange
rates).[315]

Energy
Main articles: Energy in India and Energy policy of India
India's capacity to generate electrical power is 300 gigawatts, of which 42
gigawatts is renewable.[316] The country's usage of coal is a major cause of
greenhouse gas emissions by India but its renewable energy is competing strongly.
[317] India emits about 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This equates to
about 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year, which is half the world
average.[318][319] Increasing access to electricity and clean cooking with
liquefied petroleum gas have been priorities for energy in India.[320]

Socio-economic challenges

Health workers about to begin another day of immunisation against infectious

diseases in 2006. Eight years later, and three years after India's last case of
polio, the World Health Organization declared India to be polio-free.[321]
Despite economic growth during recent decades, India continues to face socio-
economic challenges. In 2006, India contained the largest number of people living
below the World Bank's international poverty line of US$1.25 per day.[322] The
proportion decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005.[323] Under the World Bank's
later revised poverty line, it was 21% in 2011.[p][325] 30.7% of India's children
under the age of five are underweight.[326] According to a Food and Agriculture
Organization report in 2015, 15% of the population is undernourished.[327][328] The
Midday Meal Scheme attempts to lower these rates.[329]

A 2018 Walk Free Foundation report estimated that nearly 8 million people in India
were living in different forms of modern slavery, such as bonded labour, child
labour, human trafficking, and forced begging.[330] According to the 2011 census,
there were 10.1 million child labourers in the country, a decline of 2.6 million
from 12.6 million in 2001.[331]

Since 1991, economic inequality between India's states has consistently grown: the
per-capita net state domestic product of the richest states in 2007 was 3.2 times
that of the poorest.[332] Corruption in India is perceived to have decreased.
According to the Corruption Perceptions Index, India ranked 78th out of 180
countries in 2018, an improvement from 85th in 2014.[333][334]

Demographics, languages, and religion

Main articles: Demographics of India, Languages of India, and Religion in India
See also: South Asian ethnic groups

A Sikh pilgrim at the Harmandir Sahib, or Golden Temple, in Amritsar, Punjab

The interior of San Thome Basilica, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Christianity is believed
to have been introduced to India by the late 2nd century by Syriac-speaking
Christians.
With an estimated 1,428,627,663 residents in 2023, India is the world's most
populous country.[13] 1,210,193,422 residents were reported in the 2011 provisional
census report.[335] Its population grew by 17.64% from 2001 to 2011,[336] compared
to 21.54% growth in the previous decade (1991–2001).[336] The human sex ratio,
according to the 2011 census, is 940 females per 1,000 males.[335] The median age
was 28.7 in 2020.[280] The first post-colonial census, conducted in 1951, counted
361 million people.[337] Medical advances made in the last 50 years as well as
increased agricultural productivity brought about by the "Green Revolution" have
caused India's population to grow rapidly.[338]

The life expectancy in India is at 70 years—71.5 years for women, 68.7 years for
men.[280] There are around 93 physicians per 100,000 people.[339] Migration from
rural to urban areas has been an important dynamic in India's recent history. The
number of people living in urban areas grew by 31.2% between 1991 and 2001.[340]
Yet, in 2001, over 70% still lived in rural areas.[341][342] The level of
urbanisation increased further from 27.81% in the 2001 Census to 31.16% in the 2011
Census. The slowing down of the overall population growth rate was due to the sharp
decline in the growth rate in rural areas since 1991.[343] According to the 2011
census, there are 53 million-plus urban agglomerations in India; among them Mumbai,
Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, in decreasing order by
population.[344] The literacy rate in 2011 was 74.04%: 65.46% among females and
82.14% among males.[345] The rural-urban literacy gap, which was 21.2 percentage
points in 2001, dropped to 16.1 percentage points in 2011. The improvement in the
rural literacy rate is twice that of urban areas.[343] Kerala is the most literate
state with 93.91% literacy; while Bihar the least with 63.82%.[345]

Among speakers of the Indian languages, 74% speak Indo-Aryan languages, the
easternmost branch of the Indo-European languages; 24% speak Dravidian languages,
indigenous to South Asia and spoken widely before the spread of Indo-Aryan
languages and 2% speak Austroasiatic languages or the Sino-Tibetan languages. India
has no national language.[346] Hindi, with the largest number of speakers, is the
official language of the government.[347][348] English is used extensively in
business and administration and has the status of a "subsidiary official language";
[6] it is important in education, especially as a medium of higher education. Each
state and union territory has one or more official languages, and the constitution
recognises in particular 22 "scheduled languages".

The 2011 census reported the religion in India with the largest number of followers
was Hinduism (79.80% of the population), followed by Islam (14.23%); the remaining
were Christianity (2.30%), Sikhism (1.72%), Buddhism (0.70%), Jainism (0.36%) and
others[q] (0.9%).[11] India has the third-largest Muslim population—the largest for
a non-Muslim majority country.[349][350]