This article is about the country. For other uses, see India (disambiguation).

Republic of India

Bhārat Gaṇarājya

Horizontal tricolour flag bearing, from top to bottom, deep saffron, white, and green horizontal
bands. In the centre of the white band is a navy-blue wheel with 24 spokes.

Flag

State emblem

Motto: Satyameva Jayate (Sanskrit)

"Truth Alone Triumphs"[1]

Anthem: Jana Gana Mana (Hindi)[a][2][3]

"Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People"[4][2]

Duration: 1 minute and 4 seconds.1:04

National song: Vande Mataram (Sanskrit)[c]

"I Bow to Thee, Mother"[b][1][2]

Duration: 2 minutes and 26 seconds.2:26

Image of a globe centred on India, with India highlighted.

Territory controlled by India

Territory claimed but not controlled

Capital New Delhi

28°36′50″N 77°12′30″E

Largest city by city proper population Mumbai

Largest city by metropolitan area population Delhi

Official languages

HindiEnglish[d][8]

Recognised regional languages

State level and Eighth Schedule[9]

Native languages 424 languages[g]

Religion (2011)[11]

79.8% Hinduism

14.2% Islam
2.3% Christianity

1.7% Sikhism

0.7% Buddhism

0.4% Jainism

0.23% unaffiliated

0.65% other

Demonym(s)

Indianothers

Government Federal parliamentary republic

• President

Droupadi Murmu

• Vice-President

C. P. Radhakrishnan

• Prime Minister

Narendra Modi

Legislature Parliament

• Upper house

Rajya Sabha

• Lower house

Lok Sabha

Independence from the United Kingdom

• Dominion

15 August 1947

• Republic

26 January 1950

Area

• Total

3,287,263 km2 (1,269,219 sq mi)[2][h] (7th)

• Water (%)

9.6

Population
• 2023 estimate

Neutral increase 1,428,627,663[13] (1st)

• 2011 census

Neutral increase 1,210,854,977[14][15] (2nd)

• Density

431.1/km2 (1,116.5/sq mi) (30th)

GDP (PPP) 2025 estimate

• Total

Increase $17.647 trillion[16] (3rd)

• Per capita

Increase $12,132[16] (119th)

GDP (nominal) 2025 estimate

• Total

Increase $4.187 trillion[16] (4th)

• Per capita

Increase $2,878[16] (136th)

Gini (2021) Positive decrease 25.5[17]

low inequality

HDI (2023) Increase 0.685[18]

medium (130th)

Currency Indian rupee (₹) (INR)

Time zone UTC+05:30 (IST)

Date format

dd-mm-yyyy[i]

Calling code +91

ISO 3166 code IN

Internet TLD .in (others)

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 Myanmar, Thailand, 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 organised 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 a hub for information technology
services, with 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 article: History 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]

55,000 years ago, the first modern humans, or Homo sapiens, 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

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, th