India
country in South Asia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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India (भारत (Hindi) Bhārat Gaṇarājya) officially the Republic of India,[19] also known as Hindustān,[20] is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area. It is also the most populated country in the world.[21] It has been the world's largest democracy by number of people since 1947.[22][23][24]
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India is a peninsular country. It has the Indian Ocean to the south, the Arabian Sea in the southwest, the Bay of Bengal in the southeast, and the Himalayas up north. It has six neighbours: Pakistan in the northwest;[i] China, Nepal and Bhutan in the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. Sri Lanka and the Maldives are nearby to the south. Its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share water borders with Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand.
Humans came to the Indian subcontinent from Africa more than 55,000 years ago.[25][26][27] They have lived there for long time. At first, they had lived in the subcontinent as hunter-gatherers. The Indian subcontinent is the second most diverse region after Africa.[28] Humans began to create settlements in the subcontinent 9,000 years ago, on the western banks of the Indus River. The settlements became parts of the Indus Valley Civilisation in the third millennium BCE.[29] By 1200 BCE, Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, spread to India from the northwest.[30][31] The first presence of Sanskrit is found in the hymns (songs of worship) of the Rigveda. The hymns were spread from one person to another orally, not by any book. They show the early forms of Hinduism.[32] The Indo-Aryan languages replaced the Dravidian languages in the northern and western regions of India.[33] By 400 BCE, the caste system was developed within Hinduism.[34] Buddhism and Jainism were also developed in India at the same time.[35]
India has been a federal republic since 1950. Its government is a democratic parliamentary system. It is a multilingual (multiple languages) and multicultural (multiple cultures) society.[36] The capital city of India is New Delhi. India has the second largest military force in the world and is also a nuclear weapon state.[37] India's economy became the world's fastest growing in the G20 developing nations during 2014, replacing the People's Republic of China.[38] India's literacy and wealth are also rising.[39]
India has the fourth largest economy by nominal GDP, the third largest by GDP (PPP) and is one of the fastest growing major economy. According to New World Wealth, India is the fifth richest country in the world with a total individual wealth of $12.6 trillion.[40][41] However, it still has many social and economic issues, for example poverty, pollution, social equality, religious extremism, terrorism and corruption.[42] India has reduced its rate of poverty. But its economic inequality has increased.[43]
India is a founding member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and has signed the Kyoto Protocol. It is also a member of the G20 developing nations. India has its own space agency (ISRO). It has done much research throughout the Solar System. It has sent spacecraft to the Moon and Mars. Indian movies, music and spiritual teachings are becoming more important in global culture.[44] Sources describe it as a potential superpower, because of its rising economy and increase in global influence. India is a country with nuclear weapons. It also has a high rank in military expenditure. It has disputes over Kashmir with its neighbours, Pakistan and China, since the middle of the 20th century.[45]
India has the fourth largest number of spoken languages per country in the world, only behind Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Nigeria.[46] Most of Indians follow Hinduism at 80%, but people of different religions such as Buddhism, Sikhism and Islam also live there.[47]
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Origin of the name
The Oxford English Dictionary (third edition - 2009) says that the name "India" comes from the Classical Latin name India. It was originally used for the Indian subcontinent and the areas to its east. Latin took the name from Hellenistic Greek India (Ἰνδία), from ancient Greek Indos (Ἰνδός) and then from Old Persian Hinduš. The Old Persian name was used for the eastern province of the Achaemenid Empire. The name has a relation with the Sanskrit word sindhu. It means "river", especially the Indus River.[48][49] The ancient Greeks called Indians as Indoi (Ἰνδοί), which means "the people of the Indus".[50]
The name Bhārat (भारत; pronounced [ˈbʱaːɾət] (
listen)) is found in both Indian epic poetry and the Constitution of India.[51][52] It is used in different Indian languages in different forms. Bhārat is a modern form of the older name Bharātavarṣa (भारतवर्ष). It original meaning was the northern part of India.[53][54] It has become a very popular name for India since the middle of the 19th century.[51][55]
Hindustān ([ɦɪndʊˈstaːn] (listen)) is a Middle Persian name for India. It became popular by the 13th century.[56] It is used widely since the Mughal Empire.[57]
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History
Ancient India
In 300 BCE, a king named Chandragupt Maurya built the Maurya Empire and under Ashoka united most of the Indian subcontinent under a centralized state.[58]
One of the oldest languages of the world, Tamil, was born in today's India. It is more than 3000 years old.[59]
Indian Empires & dynasties
The Gupta Empire managed to reunite large parts of the Indian subcontinent after the collapse of the Mauryan Empire. The Gupta period is traditionally considered India's Golden age as there were great developments in culture, religion and Mathematics.
There were also many other Indian dynasties (empires) such as the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas, and Pandyas.[60] Southern India at that time was famous for its science, art, and writing.
The Cholas of Thanjavur were pioneers at war in the seas and influenced Malaya, Borneo, Cambodia. The influence of Cholas are still noticeable in Southeast Asia.[61]
The Vijayanagara empire was another significant Indian empire.
In the 16th century India came under Mughal rule. The Taj Mahal was built during the Mughal period.
As Mughal rule weakened other empires like the Maratha empire and Sikh empire replaced it.
British Raj
In the 1600s, India came under European colonization, and by 1856 the British controlled most of India.[62]
British Colonial exploitation resulted in the deaths of millions of Indians due to starvation and famine.[63] The British also introduced railways and banned Widow burning.[64]
In the early 1900s, millions of people peacefully started to protest against British rule. One of the people who led the freedom movement was Mahatma Gandhi, who only used peaceful tactics, including a way called "ahimsa", which means "non-violence".[65]
On 15 August 1947, India peacefully became free and independent from the British Empire. India's constitution was founded on 26 January 1950. Every year, on this day, Indians celebrate Republic Day. The first official leader (Prime Minister) of India was Jawaharlal Nehru.
After independence
After 1947, India had a socialist planned economy. It is one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations. It has fought many wars since independence from Britain, including wars in 1947-48, 1965, 1971, and 1999 with Pakistan and in 1962 with China. India also fought a war to capture Goa, a Portuguese-built port and a city that was not a part of India until 1961. The Portuguese refused to give it to India, so India used force and defeated the Portuguese.
India’s early general elections saw the Congress Party, led by Jawaharlal Nehru, dominate until his death in 1964. Lal Bahadur Shastri briefly took over, followed by Indira Gandhi, who won elections in 1967 and 1971. After declaring a state of emergency in 1975, public dissatisfaction led to the Congress losing power in 1977, with the Janata Party taking over. However, this government lasted only about two years, with Morarji Desai and Charan Singh serving as prime ministers.[66]
Congress returned to power in 1980, and after Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984, her son Rajiv Gandhi won a landslide election. The party lost again in 1989, with a short-lived National Front coalition government under V.P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar. By 1991, no party secured a majority, but Congress formed a minority government led by P.V. Narasimha Rao.
India performed nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998. It is one of the few countries that have nuclear bombs.[67]
Since 1991, India has been one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.[68]
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Geography
India is the seventh biggest country in the world by land. It is the main part of the Indian subcontinent. The countries next to India are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Bhutan and Nepal. It is also near Sri Lanka and the Maldives, two island countries. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India, is near Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar.[69]
Terrain
There are many mountains in the northern part of India. The most famous mountain range there is the Himalayas, which have some of the tallest mountains in the world.
There are many rivers in India. The main rivers are the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Yamuna, the Godavari, the Kaveri, the Narmada, and the Krishna.
Coastline
India is a peninsula, which means that it is surrounded on three sides by water. In the west is the Arabian Sea, in the south is the Indian Ocean, and in the east is the Bay of Bengal.
India's total coastline is 7,517-kilometre (4,700-mile) long.[70] The mainland's coastline is 5,423-kilometre (3,400-mile) long. The Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands have 2,094-kilometre (1,300-mile) long coastlines in total.[71]
Based on Indian naval hydrographic charts, 43% of the mainland coast are sandy beaches, 11% are rocky shores and cliffs, and 46% are mudflats or marshy shores.[71]
Climates
India has different climates.[72] In South India, the climate is mainly tropical, which means it can get very hot in summer and cool in winter.[72] The northern part, though, has a cooler climate, called subtropical. The mountainous regions can be alpine.[72] The Himalayas, in the alpine climate region, can get extremely cold.
The Himalayas block cold Central Asian winds from blowing into the Indian subcontinent. It keeps the most of the subcontinent warmer than most places at same latitudes.[73][74]
There is very heavy rainfall along the west coast and in the Eastern Himalayan foothills. The west, though, is drier.
Monsoon
Because of some of India's deserts, the entire country gets rain for four months of the year. That time (usually around June to September) is called the monsoon. It happens because the deserts attract water-filled winds from the Indian Ocean, which give rain when they come into India.
When the monsoon rains come late or not so heavily, droughts (when the land dries out because there is less rain) are possible.
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Politics
The Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi is the official residence (house where a person lives) of the President of India.
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India is a parliamentary republic with a multi-party system.[75] It is the largest democracy in the world by the number of people.[76] It has six national parties, for example the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It also has more than 50 regional parties.[77] The Congress is known as centre in Indian political culture,[78] while the BJP is known as right-wing.[79][80][81] The Congress was the majority in the Parliament from 1950 to the end of the 1980s. From the end of the 1980s, the BJP[82] and the powerful regional parties are getting more seats in the Parliament over time. This forced the national parties to create coalition governments.[83]
Government
India is ruled under the Constitution of India. It is the country's highest document of law. It came into effect on 26 January 1950.[84] Its original form said that India would be a "sovereign, democratic republic". In 1971, the statement was changed to "sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic".[85]
India has been said to be a "quasi-federal" form of government. That means a strong federal government with weak state governments.[86] The federal government is often called the "union government" or the "central government". But after political, economic and social changes at the end of the 1990s, the government became federal.[87][88]
Branches of government
The union government is divided into three parts: the legislature (the one that make laws), the executive (the one that applies laws), and the judiciary (the one that makes sure that the laws are obeyed).[89] All three parts are in New Delhi, the capital city of India.
The legislature of India is called the Parliament (संसद Sansad). It is divided into two houses: the upper house Rajya Sabha (Council of States); and the lower house Lok Sabha (House of the People).[90] The Rajya Sabha has 245 members. They remain members for six years.[91] Most members are elected indirectly by the legislatures of state and union territories.[92] The Lok Sabha has 545 members. They remain members for five years. They are elected directly by the people's vote.[93]
The executive is made up of the President, the Vice President, the Prime Minister and the Union Council of Ministers. The President is the head of state of India.[94] The presidents are elected by an electoral college for a period of five years. The electoral college is made up of members of central and state legislatures.[95][96] The Prime Minister is the head of government of India. The President can choose the Prime Minister, who has most of the power.[92] The President has less power than the Prime Minister. The Union Council of Ministers helps the Prime Minister. It is similar to a cabinet in many countries.
The judicial branch is made up of three types of courts of law: the Supreme Court, the 24 High Courts and a number of trial courts.[97] The Chief Justice of India is the head of the Supreme Court. The members of the court have the power to stop a law being passed by Parliament if they think that the law contradicts (opposes) the Constitution.[98] They can make any government action invalid if it contradicts the Constitution.[99]
Divisions
For administration purposes, India has been divided into smaller pieces. Most of these pieces are called states; others are called union territories. In total, there are twenty-eight states and eight union territories.[100]
States and union territories differ in the way they are represented. Most union territories are ruled by administrators (called Lieutenant Governors) sent by the central government. All the states (and the territories of Delhi and Puducherry) elect their local government themselves.
States:
Union territories:
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Military
The Indian Armed Forces is the country's military. It is made up of an Army, Navy and Air Force. There are other parts like Paramilitary and Strategic Nuclear Command. Its Commander-in-Chief is the President of India, but the Ministry of Defence manages the military.
In 2010, the Indian Armed Forces had 1.32 million active personnel, making it one of the largest militaries in the world.[101]
The Indian Army is becoming more modern by buying and making new weapons. It is also building defenses against missiles of other countries.[102] In the years 2018-2022, India imported more arms than any other nation in the world.[103] Since its independence in 1947, India fought four wars with Pakistan and a war with China.
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National symbols
Emblem
The national emblem of India shows four lions standing back-to-back. The lions symbolize power, pride, confidence, and courage. Only the government can use this emblem, according to the State Emblem of India (Prohibition of Improper Use) Act, 2005.
Name
The name India comes from the Greek word Indus. This came from the word sindhu, which, over time, turned into Hind, Hindi, or Hindu.
The preferred endonym (the name given to the country by its own people) is "Bhārat" in Hindi and other Indian languages. This differs with names that outsiders use for the country.
Symbols
Some of the national symbols are:
- National anthem: Jana Gana Mana
- National song: Vande Mataram
- National animal: Tiger
- National bird: Peacock
- National flower: Lotus
- National tree: Banyan
- National river: Ganges (Ganga)
- National Aquatic Animal: Ganges River Dolphin
- National fruit: Mango
- National heritage animal: Elephant
- National heritage bird: Indian eagle
Indian eagle
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Border disputes
Different countries disagree about where India's borders lie.[104] For example, India claims Jammu and Kashmir as an Indian state.[105] However, Pakistan and China do not recognise this area as part of India.[105] Similarly, the Republic of India does not recognise the Pakistani and Chinese parts of Kashmir.[105]
In 1914, British India and Tibet agreed on the McMahon Line, as part of the Simla Accord.[106] Indians and Tibetans see this line as the official border. However, in July 1914, China withdrew from the agreement.[106] Neither mainland China nor Taiwan recognize that Arunachal Pradesh belongs to India. According to them, it is a part of South Tibet, which belongs to China.[107][108]
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Economy
Growth
India's economy is among the world's fastest growing. It is the 7th largest in the world with a nominal GDP of $2,250 billion (USD).[109] In terms of PPP, the economy is 3rd largest (worth US$8.720 trillion).[109] The growth rate is 8.25% for fiscal year 2010. However, that is still $3678 (considering PPP) per person per year.
Sectors
India's economy is based on:
- Service sector: 43%
- Industries: 41%
- Information technology: 7%
- Farming: 7%
- Outsourcing: 2%.
India's economy is diverse. Major industries include automobiles, cement, chemicals, consumer electronics, food processing, machinery, mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, steel, transportation equipment, and textiles.[110]
Poverty
Despite its economic growth, India continues to suffer from poverty. Over one quarter of the population (27.5%) was living in poverty in 2004–2005.[111] In 2007-2008, 80.4% of the population lived on less than US $2 a day.[112] By 2009, this number had decreased to 68%.[113]
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People
There are 1.4 billion people living in India.[114] In 2023, India passed China to become the world's most populous country.[115] About 65% of Indians live in rural areas, or land set aside for farming.[116] The largest cities in India are Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad.[100] Hindi and English are Official languages of India. India has 23 officially recognised languages.[117] Altogether, 1,625 languages are spoken in India.[118]
Languages
Language families
There are many different languages and cultures in India.[100] There are two main language families in India, the Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages. About 69% of Indians speak an Indo-Arayan language, and about 26% speak a Dravidian language. Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic group. Around 5% of the people speak a Tibeto-Burman language.
Hindi & English
Hindi is the official language in India with the largest number of speakers.[119] It is the official language of the union.[120] Native speakers of Hindi represented about 41% of the Indian population in the 2001 Indian census.
English is also used, mostly for business and in administration. It has the status of a 'subsidiary official language'.[121]
Other languages
The constitution also recognises 21 other languages - either because many people speak them, or because they are very important for Indian culture. There may be as many as 1,652 different dialects in India.[118]
In the south of India, many people speak Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. In the north, many people speak Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Marathi, Odia, and Maithili.[122][123]
India has 23 official languages. Its constitution lists the name of the country in each of the languages.[124] Hindi and English (listed in boldface) are the "official languages of the union" (Union meaning the Federal Government in Delhi);[125] Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia are officially the "classical languages of India."
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Culture
Cave paintings from the Stone Age are found across India. They show dances and rituals and suggest there was a prehistoric religion. During the Epic and Puranic periods, the earliest versions of the epic poems Ramayana and Mahabharata were written from about 500–100 BCE,[127] although these were orally transmitted for centuries before this period.[128] Other Indian Stone Age sites apart from Pakistan are in modern India, such as the Bhimbetka rock shelters in central Madhya Pradesh and the Kupgal petroglyphs of eastern Karnataka, contain rock art showing religious rites and evidence of possible ritualised music.[129]
Several modern religions are linked to India,[130] namely modern Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. All of these religions have different schools (ways of thinking) and traditions that are related. As a group they are called the Eastern religions. The Indian religions are similar to one another in many ways: The basic beliefs, the way worship is done and several religious practices are very similar. These similarities mainly come from the fact that these religions have a common history and common origins. They also influenced each other.
The religion of Hinduism is the main faith followed by 79.80% of people in the Republic of India; Islam – 14.23%; Christianity – 2.30%; Sikhism – 1.72%; Buddhism – 0.70% and Jainism – 0.37%.[131]
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Technology
India sent a spacecraft to Mars for the first time in 2014. That made it the fourth country and first Asian country to do so, successfully. It was called the Mars Orbiter Mission.[132]
ISRO launched 104 satellites in a single mission to create a world record. India became the first nation in the world to have launched over a hundred satellites in one mission. That was more than the 2014 Russian record of 37 satellites in a single launch.
This historic event of Chandrayaan-III[133] successfully landed on the South Pole of the moon, being the first one to do so.
Pop culture
India has the largest movie industry in the world. The Hindi film industry is known as Bollywood, and is mainly based in Bombay, now known as Mumbai. Other industries include Tollywood, Kollywood, Sandalwood, Mollywood, Jollywood, Dhollywood, etc. It makes 1,000 movies a year, about twice as many as Hollywood.[134]
Sports
Cricket
Cricket is the most popular sport in India. The Indian cricket team won the 1983 and 2011 Cricket World Cup and the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. They shared the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka and won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy and 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
Cricket in India is controlled by the Board of Control for Cricket in India or BCCI. Domestic tournaments are the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy, the Irani Trophy, and the Challenger Series. There is also the Indian cricket league and Indian premier league Twenty20 competitions.
Other sports
Indians have excelled in hockey. They have also won eight gold, one silver, and two bronze medals at the Olympic Games.
Tennis has become popular due to the victories of the India Davis Cup team.
Association football is also a popular sport in northeast India, West Bengal, Goa and Kerala.[135] The Indian national football team has won the South Asian Football Federation Cup many times.
Chess, which originated in India, is also becoming popular. The number of Indian Grandmasters has increased recently.[136]
Traditional sports include kabaddi, kho kho, and gilli-danda, which are played throughout India.
Notes
- The language of "Jana Gana Mana" was originally written in a combination of Sanskrit and Bengali. It was adopted as the national anthem in its Hindi translation.
- The language of "Vande Mātaram" is a combination of Sanskrit and Bengali.
- "[...] Jana Gana Mana is the National Anthem of India, subject to such alterations in the words as the Government may authorise as occasion arises; and the song Vande Mataram, which has played a historic part in the struggle for Indian freedom, shall be honoured equally with Jana Gana Mana and shall have equal status with it." (Constituent Assembly of India 1950).
- Part XVII of the Constitution of India says that Hindi in the Devanagari script (writing system) is the official language of the Union (central government). English is an additional official language.[1][4][5] States and union territories of India can have their own official languages in place of Hindi or English.
- Not all the official languages used by the states are in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. Also, not all the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule are used by the states as official languages. For example, the Sindhi language is listed in the Eighth Schedule. But it is not used by any state.
- Different sources give different figures. Ethnologue lists 461 languages of India (out of 6,912 worldwide). 447 of these languages are living languages and 14 are extinct languages.[8][9]
- The country's exact size is disputed by other countries. The government of India lists the total area as 3,287,260 km2 (1,269,220 sq mi) and the total land area as 3,060,500 km2 (1,181,700 sq mi). The United Nations lists the total area as 3,287,263 km2 (1,269,219 sq mi) and the total land area as 2,973,190 km2 (1,147,960 sq mi).[11]
- The Government of India also gives Afghanistan as a neighbouring country. It claims all of Kashmir as the part of India. But Pakistan disputes this claim. Pakistan controls the region of Kashmir bordering Afghanistan. Source: "Ministry of Home Affairs (Department of Border Management)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 March 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
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