India

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

Republic of India Bhārat Gaṇarājya
Flag State emblem
Motto: "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit) "Truth Alone Triumphs"
Anthem: "Jana Gana Mana" "Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People"
National song "Vande Mataram" (Sanskrit) "I Bow to Thee, Mother"
Area controlled by India shown in dark green; regions claimed but not controlled shown in light green
Capital	New Delhi 28°36′50″N 77°12′30″E
Largest city	Mumbai 18°58′30″N 72°49′33″E
Official languages	Hindi English
Recognised regional languages	State level and Eighth Schedule Assamese Bengali Bodo Dogri Gujarati Kannada Kashmiri Kokborok Konkani Maithili Malayalam Manipuri Marathi Mizo Nepali Odia Punjabi Sanskrit Santali Sindhi Tamil Telugu Urdu
National language	None
Religion	79.8% Hinduism 14.2% Islam 2.3% Christianity 1.7% Sikhism 0.7% Buddhism 0.4% Jainism 0.9% others See Religion in India
Demonym(s)	Indian
Membership	UN, WTO, BRICS, SAARC, SCO, G8+5, G20, Commonwealth of Nations
Government	Federal parliamentary republic
• President	Ram Nath Kovind
• Vice President	Venkaiah Naidu
• Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
• Chief Justice	Ranjan Gogoi
• Speaker of the Lok Sabha	Om Birla
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) (7th)
• Water (%)	9.6
Population
• 2021 estimate	1,407,563,842 (2nd)
• 2011 census	1,210,854,977 (2nd)
• Density	427.2/km2 (1,106.4/sq mi) (31st)
GDP (PPP)	2019 estimate
• Total	$11.468 trillion (3rd)
• Per capita	$8,484 (119th)
GDP (nominal)	2019 estimate
• Total	$2.972 trillion (5th)
• Per capita	$2,199 (142nd)
Gini (2013)	33.9 medium inequality (79th)
HDI (2017)	0.640 medium (130th)
Currency	Indian rupee (₹) (INR)
Time zone	UTC+05:30 (IST)
	DST is not observed
Date format	dd-mm-yyyy
Drives on	left
Calling code	+91
ISO 3166 code	IN
Internet TLD	.in (others)

India (official name: the Republic of India; Hindi: Bhārat Gaṇarājya) is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. 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; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago. Their long occupation, initially in varying forms of isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse, second only to Africa in human genetic diversity. Around 7000 BCE, settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus river basin, evolving gradually into the Indus valley civilisation of the third millennium BCE. During 1400–1200 BCE, an archaic form of Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, diffused into India from the northwest, appearing as the language of the Vedas, and recording the dawning of Hinduism in India. The Dravidian languages of India were supplanted in the northern regions. By 400 BCE, stratification and exclusion by caste had emerged within Hinduism, and Buddhism and Jainism had arisen, in part as a reaction, proclaiming social orders unlinked to heredity. Political consolidations gave rise to the loose-knit Maurya and Gupta empires, their collective era suffused with wide-ranging creativity, but also marked by the declining status of women. In south India, the Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian-languages scripts and religious cultures to the kingdoms of southeast Asia.

In the early medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam put down roots on India's southern and western coasts, further diversifying the local cultures. Somewhat later, Muslim armies from Central Asia intermittently overran India's plains, eventually establishing the Delhi sultanate, and drawing northern India into the cosmopolitan networks of medieval Islam. In the 15th century, the Vijayanagara empire created a long lasting composite Hindu culture in south India. In the Punjab, Sikhism emerged, rejecting institutionalized religion. The Mughal empire, founded in 1525, ushered in two centuries of relative peace, leaving a legacy of luminous architecture. Gradually expanding rule of the British East India Company followed, turning India into a colonial economy, but also consolidating its sovereignty. British Crown rule began in 1858. The rights promised to Indians were granted reluctantly, but technological changes were introduced, and ideas of education, modernity and the public life took root. A pioneering and influential nationalist movement emerged, which was noted for nonviolent resistance and led India to its independence in 1947.

India is a secular federal republic governed in a democratic parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society. India's population grew from 361 million in 1951 to 1 billion 211 million in 2011. During the same time, its nominal per capita income, increased from $64 annually to $2,041, and its literacy rate from 16.6% to 74%. From being a comparatively destitute country in 1951, India has become a fast-growing major economy, a hub for information technology services, with an expanding middle class. India is a nuclear weapons state, which ranks high in military expenditure. It has a space program which includes several planned or completed lunar missions. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture. India has substantially reduced its rate of poverty, though at the same time increasing economic inequality. It also battles gender inequality, child malnutrition, and rising levels of air pollution. India is a megadiverse country with four threatened biodiversity hotspots. Its forest cover comprises 21.4% of its land area. India's wildlife, which has traditionally been viewed with tolerance in India's culture, is supported among these forests, and elsewhere, in protected habitats.

Etymology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (Third Edition 2009), the name India is derived from the Classical Latin India, a reference to South Asia and an uncertain region to its east; and in turn 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," but especially the Indus river and, by implication, its well-settled southern basin. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ἰνδοί), which translates as "The people of the Indus".

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

Hindustan ([ɦɪndʊˈstaːn] ) is a Middle Persian name for India, introduced during the Mughal Empire and used widely since. Its meaning has varied, referring to a region encompassing present-day northern India and Pakistan or to India in its near entirety.

History

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

Ancient India

By 55,000 years ago, the first modern humans, or Homo sapiens., had arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa, where they had earlier evolved. The earliest known modern human remains in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago. Nearly contemporaneous human rock art sites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh. 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 what is now Balochistan. These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation, the first urban culture in South Asia, which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in what is now Pakistan and western India. Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilization engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade.

During the period 2000–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic cultures to the Iron Age ones. The Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism, were composed during this period, and historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain. Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west. The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose during this period. On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation. In South India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period, as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions.

Paintings at the Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, 6th century

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. 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. 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. In an age of increasing urban wealth, both religions held up renunciation as an ideal, 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 Mauryan Empire. The empire was once thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent excepting the far south, but its core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas. 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.

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

Medieval India

The granite tower of Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur was completed in 1010 CE by Raja Raja Chola I.

The Indian early medieval age, 600 CE to 1200 CE, is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity. 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. When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal. 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. No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond his core region. 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. The caste system consequently began to show regional differences.

In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language. They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development of all modern languages of the subcontinent. 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. Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another urbanisation. By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in South-East Asia, as South Indian culture and political systems were exported to lands that became part of modern-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Java. Indian merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this transmission; South-East Asians took the initiative as well, with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating Buddhist and Hindu texts into their languages.

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. 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. 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. The sultanate's raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire. Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular India, and was to influence South Indian society for long afterwards.

Early modern India

Writing the will and testament of the Mughal king in Persian, 1590–1595

In the early 16th century, northern India, being then under mainly Muslim rulers, fell again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors. The resulting Mughal Empire did not stamp out the local societies it came to rule, but rather balanced and pacified them through new administrative practices and diverse and inclusive ruling elites, leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule. 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. The Mughal state's economic policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture and mandating that taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver currency, caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets. The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's economic expansion, resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture. 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. Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India. As the empire disintegrated, many among these elites were able to seek and control their own affairs.

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. The East India Company's control of the seas, greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology led it to increasingly flex its military muscle 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. 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. India was then no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but was instead supplying the British Empire with raw materials, and many historians consider this to be the onset of India's colonial period. By this time, with its economic power severely curtailed by the British parliament and effectively having been made an arm of British administration, the company began to more consciously enter non-economic arenas such as education, social reform, and culture.

Modern India

Main article: History of the Republic of India

The British Indian Empire, from the 1909 edition of The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Areas directly governed by the British are shaded pink; the princely states under British suzerainty are in yellow.

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. 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. 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. In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over India, leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885.

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

Jawaharlal Nehru (left) became India's first prime minister in 1947. Mahatma Gandhi (right) led the independence movement.

After World War I, in which approximately one million Indians served, 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 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would become the leader and enduring symbol. During the 1930s, slow legislative reform was enacted by the British; the Indian National Congress won victories in the resulting elections. 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.

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. It has remained a democracy with civil liberties, an active Supreme Court, and a largely independent press. Economic liberalisation, which was begun in the 1990s, has created a large urban middle class, transformed India into one of the world's fastest-growing economies, and increased its geopolitical clout. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture. Yet, India is also shaped by seemingly unyielding poverty, both rural and urban; by religious and caste-related violence; by Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgencies; and by separatism in Jammu and Kashmir and in Northeast India. It has unresolved territorial disputes with China and with Pakistan. The India–Pakistan nuclear rivalry came to a head in 1998. 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.

Geography

Main article: Geography of India

A topographic map of India

India comprises the bulk of the Indian subcontinent, lying atop the Indian tectonic plate, a part of the Indo-Australian Plate. 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. Simultaneously, the vast Tethyn oceanic crust, to its northeast, began to subduct under the Eurasian plate. 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. Immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast trough that rapidly filled with river-borne sediment and now constitutes the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Cut off from the plain by the ancient Aravalli Range lies the Thar Desert.

The original 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. 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; 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 and 68° 7' and 97° 25' east longitude.

The Kedar range of the Greater Himalayas rises behind the Kedarnath Temple in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Snow melt from the glaciers behind Kedarnath forms the Mandakini river, one of the headstreams of the Ganges river.

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. 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.

Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal. 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. 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; and the Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea. 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. 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.

The 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. 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. 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. Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane.

Biodiversity

Main articles: Forestry in India and Wildlife of India

The endangered Nilgiri tahr is endemic to the Western Ghats

India is a megadiverse country, a term employed for countries, numbering 17, that display high biological diversity and contain many species exclusively indigenous, or endemic, to them. India is a habitat for 8.6% of all mammal species, 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. Fully third of Indian plant species are endemic. India also contains four of the world's 34 biodiversity hotspots, or regions that display significant habitat loss in the presence of high endemism.

India's forest cover is 701,673 km² (270,917 sq mi), which is 21.35% of the country's total land area, can be subdivided further into broad categories of canopy density, or the proportion of the area of a forest covered by its tree canopy. Very dense forest, whose canopy density is greater than 70%, occupies 2.61% of India's land area. It predominates in the tropical moist forest of the Andaman Islands, the Western Ghats, and Northeast India. Moderately dense forest, whose canopy density is between 40% and 70%, occupies 9.59% of India's land area, and 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. Open forest, whose canopy density is between 10% and 40%, occupies 9.14% of India's land area, and predominates in the babul-dominated thorn forest of the central Deccan plateau and the western Gangetic plain.

Among the notable trees that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, are the astringent Azadirachta indica, or neem, which is widely used in rural Indian herbal medicine, and the luxuriant Ficus religiosa, or peepul, which is displayed on the ancient seals of Mohenjo-daro, and under which the Buddha is recorded in the Pali canon to have sought enlightenment,

India has the majority—up to 70%—of the world's wild tigers, numbering nearly 3,000 in 2019, but the Bengal tiger is one of IUCN-designated endangered animals. Shown here is Maya, a Bengal tigress of the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Maharashtra.

Many Indian species have descended from those of Gondwana, the southern supercontinent from which India separated more than 100 million years ago. 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. Still later, mammals entered India from Asia through two zoogeographical passes flanking the Himalaya. 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. Notable endemics are the vulnerable Hooded leaf monkey and the threatened Beddom's toad of the Western Ghats.

India contains 172 IUCN-designated threatened animal species, or 2.9% of endangered forms. These include the endangered Bengal tiger and the Ganges river dolphin and the critically endangered: 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. 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 substantially expanded. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial wilderness; the Forest Conservation Act was enacted in 1980 and amendments added in 1988. India hosts more than five hundred wildlife sanctuaries and thirteen biosphere reserves, four of which are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; twenty-five wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention.

Politics and government

Politics

Main article: Politics of India

Social movements have long been a part of democracy in India. The picture shows a section of 25,000 landless people in the state of Madhya Pradesh listening to Rajagopal P. V. before their 350 km march, Janadesh 2007, from Gwalior to New Delhi to publicize their demand for further land reform in India.

India is the world's most populous democracy. A parliamentary republic with a multi-party system, it has seven recognised national parties, including the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and more than 40 regional parties. The Congress is considered centre-left in Indian political culture, and the BJP right-wing. For most of the period between 1950—when India first became a republic—and the late 1980s, the Congress held a majority in the parliament. Since then, however, it has increasingly shared the political stage with the BJP, as well as with powerful regional parties which have often forced the creation of multi-party coalition governments at the centre.

In the Republic of India's first three general elections, in 1951, 1957, and 1962, the Jawaharlal Nehru-led Congress won easy victories. On Nehru's death in 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri briefly became prime minister; he was succeeded, after his own unexpected death in 1966, by Indira Gandhi, who went on to lead the Congress to election victories in 1967 and 1971. Following public discontent with the state of emergency she declared in 1975, the Congress was voted out of power in 1977; the then-new Janata Party, which had opposed the emergency, was voted in. Its government lasted just over two years. Voted back into power in 1980, the Congress saw a change in leadership in 1984, when Indira Gandhi was assassinated; she was succeeded by her son Rajiv Gandhi, who won an easy victory in the general elections later that year. The Congress was voted out again in 1989 when a National Front coalition, led by the newly formed Janata Dal in alliance with the Left Front, won the elections; that government too proved relatively short-lived, lasting just under two years. Elections were held again in 1991; no party won an absolute majority. The Congress, as the largest single party, was able to form a minority government led by P. V. Narasimha Rao.

US president Barack Obama at the Parliament of India in New Delhi addressing members of parliament of both houses, the lower, Lok Sabha, and the upper, Rajya Sabha, in a joint session, 8 November 2010.

A two-year period of political turmoil followed the general election of 1996. Several short-lived alliances shared power at the centre. The BJP formed a government briefly in 1996; it was followed by two comparatively long-lasting United Front coalitions, which depended on external support. In 1998, the BJP was able to form a successful 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. In the 2004 Indian general elections, again no party won an absolute majority, but 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. That year, Manmohan Singh became the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1957 and 1962 to be re-elected to a consecutive five-year term. In the 2014 general election, the BJP became the first political party since 1984 to win a majority and govern without the support of other parties. The incumbent Indian prime minister is Narendra Modi, a former chief minister of Gujarat. On 20 July 2017, Ram Nath Kovind was elected India's 14th president and took the oath of office on 25 July 2017.

Government

Main articles: Government of India and Constitution of India

The official home of the President of India, the Rashtrapati Bhavan, was designed between 1911 and 1931 by British architects, Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker for the Viceroy of India during the British Raj.

India is a federation with a parliamentary system governed under the Constitution of India, which serves as the country's supreme legal document. It is a constitutional republic and representative democracy, in which "majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law". Federalism in India defines the power distribution between the union, or central, government and the states. The Constitution of India, which came into effect on 26 January 1950, originally stated India to be a "sovereign, democratic republic;" this characterization was amended in 1971 to "a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic. India's form of government, traditionally described as "quasi-federal" with a strong centre and weak states, has grown increasingly federal since the late 1990s as a result of political, economic, and social changes.

National symbols

Emblem	Sarnath Lion Capital
Anthem	Jana Gana Mana
Song	Vande Mataram
Language	None
Currency	₹ (Indian rupee)
Calendar	Saka
Bird	Indian peafowl
Flower	Lotus
Fruit	Mango
Tree	Banyan
Game	Not declared
River	Ganga

The Government of India comprises three branches:

• Executive: The President of India is the ceremonial head of state, who is elected indirectly for a five-year term by an electoral college comprising members of national and state legislatures. The Prime Minister of India is the head of government and exercises most executive power. Appointed by the president, the prime minister is by convention supported by the party or political alliance having a majority of seats in the lower house of parliament. 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. In the Indian parliamentary system, the executive is subordinate to the legislature; the prime minister and his or her council are directly responsible to the lower house of the parliament. The civil servants act as permanent executives and all decisions of the executive are implemented by them.
• Legislature: 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). The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body of 245 members who serve staggered six-year terms. Most are elected indirectly by the state and union territorial legislatures in numbers proportional to their state's share of the national population. All but two of the Lok Sabha's 545 members are directly elected by popular vote; they represent single-member constituencies for five-year terms. The remaining two members are nominated by the president from among the Anglo-Indian community, in case the president decides that they are not adequately represented.
• Judiciary: India has a three-tier unitary independent judiciary comprising the supreme court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, 24 high courts, and a large number of trial courts. 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. It has the power to both strike down union or state laws which contravene the constitution, and invalidate any government action it deems unconstitutional.

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 29 states and 7 union territories. All states, as well in addition to the union territories of Puducherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments following on the Westminster system of governance. The remaining five union territories are directly ruled by the centre through appointed administrators. In 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, states were reorganised on a linguistic basis. Since then, their structure has remained largely unchanged. Each state or union territory is further divided into administrative districts. The districts are further divided into tehsils and ultimately into villages.

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. Shown here are from left to right: Gamal Abdel Nasser of United Arab Republic (now Egypt), Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia and Jawaharlal Nehru of India, at the Conference for Non-Aligned Nations, in Belgrade, September 1961.

Since its independence in 1947, India has maintained cordial relations with most nations. In the 1950s, it strongly supported decolonisation in Africa and Asia and played a lead role in the Non-Aligned Movement. In the late 1980s, the Indian military twice intervened abroad at the invitation of neighbouring countries: a peace-keeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990; and an armed intervention to prevent a 1988 coup d'état attempt in the Maldives. India has tense relations with neighbouring Pakistan; the two nations have gone to war four times: in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. Three of these wars were fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir, while the fourth, the 1971 war, followed from India's support for the independence of Bangladesh. After waging the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the 1965 war with Pakistan, India pursued close military and economic ties with the Soviet Union; by the late 1960s, the Soviet Union was its largest arms supplier.

Aside from ongoing special relationship with Russia, India has wide-ranging defence relations with Israel and France. In recent years, it has played key roles in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the World Trade Organization. The nation has provided 100,000 military and police personnel to serve in 35 UN peacekeeping operations across four continents. It participates in the East Asia Summit, the G8+5, and other multilateral forums. India has close economic ties with South America, Asia, and Africa; it pursues a "Look East" policy that seeks to strengthen partnerships with the ASEAN nations, Japan, and South Korea that revolve around many issues, but especially those involving economic investment and regional security.

The Indian Air Force contingent marching at the 221st Bastille Day military parade in Paris, on July 14, 2009. The parade at which India was the foreign guest was led by the India's oldest regiment, the Maratha Light Infantry, founded in 1768.

China's nuclear test of 1964, as well as its repeated threats to intervene in support of Pakistan in the 1965 war, convinced India to develop nuclear weapons. India conducted its first nuclear weapons test in 1974 and carried out further underground testing in 1998. Despite criticism and military sanctions, India has signed neither the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty nor the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, considering both to be flawed and discriminatory. India maintains a "no first use" nuclear policy and is developing a nuclear triad capability as a part of its "Minimum Credible Deterrence" doctrine. It is developing a ballistic missile defence shield and, in collaboration with Russia, a fifth-generation fighter jet. Other indigenous military projects involve the design and implementation of Vikrant-class aircraft carriers and Arihant-class nuclear submarines.

Since the end of the Cold War, India has increased its economic, strategic, and military co-operation with the United States and the European Union. 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 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. As a consequence, India became the sixth de facto nuclear weapons state. India subsequently signed co-operation agreements involving civilian nuclear energy with Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India (left, background) in talks with President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico during the former's visit to Mexico, June 2016

The President of India is the supreme commander of the nation's armed forces; with 1.395 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. The official Indian defence budget for 2011 was US$36.03 billion, or 1.83% of GDP. For the fiscal year spanning 2012–2013, US$40.44 billion was budgeted. According to a 2008 SIPRI report, India's annual military expenditure in terms of purchasing power stood at US$72.7 billion. In 2011, the annual defence budget increased by 11.6%, although this does not include funds that reach the military through other branches of government. As of 2012, India is the world's largest arms importer; between 2007 and 2011, it accounted for 10% of funds spent on international arms purchases. Much of the military expenditure was focused on defence against Pakistan and countering growing Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean. In May 2017, the Indian Space Research Organisation launched the South Asia Satellite, a gift from India to its neighbouring SAARC countries. In October 2018, India signed a US$5.43 billion (over Rs 400 billion) agreement with Russia to procure four S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile defence systems, Russia's most advanced long-range missile defence system.

Economy

Main article: Economy of India

See also: Economic History of India and Economic development in India

A farmer in Rajasthan milks his cow. Milk is India's largest crop by economic value. Worldwide, as of 2011, India had the largest herds of buffalo and cattle, and was the largest producer of milk.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Indian economy in 2017 was nominally worth US$2.611 trillion; it is the sixth-largest economy by market exchange rates, and is, at US$9.459 trillion, the third-largest by purchasing power parity, or PPP. With its average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% over the past two decades, and reaching 6.1% during 2011–12, India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies. However, the country ranks 140th in the world in nominal GDP per capita and 129th in GDP per capita at PPP. 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; since then it has slowly moved towards a free-market system by emphasising both foreign trade and direct investment inflows. India has been a member of WTO since 1 January 1995.

The 513.7-million-worker Indian labour force is the world's second-largest, as of 2016. 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$70 billion in 2014, the largest in the world, contributed to its economy by 25 million Indians working in foreign countries. Major agricultural products include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, and potatoes. Major industries include textiles, telecommunications, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, food processing, steel, transport equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, and software. In 2006, the share of external trade in India's GDP stood at 24%, up from 6% in 1985. In 2008, India's share of world trade was 1.68%; In 2011, India was the world's tenth-largest importer and the nineteenth-largest exporter. Major exports include petroleum products, textile goods, jewellery, software, engineering goods, chemicals, and leather manufactures. Major imports include crude oil, machinery, gems, fertiliser, and chemicals. Between 2001 and 2011, the contribution of petrochemical and engineering goods to total exports grew from 14% to 42%. India was the second largest textile exporter after China in the world in the calendar year 2013.

Averaging an economic growth rate of 7.5% for several years prior to 2007, India has more than doubled its hourly wage rates during the first decade of the 21st century. Some 431 million Indians have left poverty since 1985; India's middle classes are projected to number around 580 million by 2030. Though ranking 51st in global competitiveness, India ranks 17th in financial market sophistication, 24th in the banking sector, 44th in business sophistication, and 39th in innovation, ahead of several advanced economies, as of 2010. With 7 of the world's top 15 information technology outsourcing companies based in India, the country is viewed as the second-most favourable outsourcing destination after the United States, as of 2009. India's consumer market, the world's eleventh-largest, is expected to become fifth-largest by 2030. However, hardly 2% of Indians pay income taxes.

Driven by growth, India's nominal GDP per capita has steadily increased from US$329 in 1991, when economic liberalisation began, to US$1,265 in 2010, to an estimated US$1,723 in 2016, and is expected to grow to US$2,358 by 2020; however, it has remained lower than those of other Asian developing countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and is expected to remain so in the near future. However, it is higher than Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and others.

A panorama of Bangalore, the center of India's software development economy. In the 1980s, when the first multinational corporations began to set up centers in India, they chose Bangalore because of the large pool of skilled graduates in the area, in turn due to the many science and engineering colleges in the surrounding region.

According to a 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report, India's GDP at purchasing power parity could overtake that of the United States by 2045. During the next four decades, Indian GDP is expected to grow at an annualised average of 8%, making it potentially the world's fastest-growing major economy until 2050. The report highlights key growth factors: a young and rapidly growing working-age population; growth in the manufacturing sector because of rising education and engineering skill levels; and sustained growth of the consumer market driven by a rapidly growing middle-class. The World Bank cautions that, for India to achieve its economic potential, it must continue to focus on public sector reform, transport infrastructure, agricultural and rural development, removal of labour regulations, education, energy security, and public health and nutrition.

According to the Worldwide Cost of Living Report 2017 released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) which was created by comparing more than 400 individual prices across 160 products and services, four of the cheapest cities were in India: Bangalore (3rd), Mumbai (5th), Chennai (5th) and New Delhi (8th).

Industries

The Bombay Stock Exchange is Asia's oldest and India's largest bourse by market capitalisation.

India's telecommunication industry, the world's fastest-growing, added 227 million subscribers during the period 2010–11, and after the third quarter of 2017, India surpassed the US to become the second largest smartphone market in the world after China.

The Indian automotive industry, the world's second-fastest growing, increased domestic sales by 26% during 2009–10, and exports by 36% during 2008–09. India's capacity to generate electrical power is 300 gigawatts, of which 42 gigawatts is renewable. 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.

The pharmaceutical industry in India is among the significant emerging markets for the global pharmaceutical industry. The Indian pharmaceutical market is expected to reach $48.5 billion by 2020. India's R & D spending constitutes 60% of the biopharmaceutical industry. India is among the top 12 biotech destinations in the world. The Indian biotech industry grew by 15.1% in 2012–13, increasing its revenues from 204.4 billion INR (Indian rupees) to 235.24 billion INR (3.94 B US$ – exchange rate June 2013: 1 US$ approx. 60 INR).

Socio-economic challenges

Dharavi is a slum in Mumbai, containing a large proportion of leather workers, which include Dalits, formerly "Untouchables," comprising 20% of the residents, and Muslims comprising 33%.

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, the proportion having decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005; under its later revised poverty line, it was 21% in 2011. 30.7% of India's children under the age of five are underweight. According to a Food and Agriculture Organization report in 2015, 15% of the population is undernourished. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme attempts to lower these rates.

According to a Walk Free Foundation report in 2016, there were an estimated 18.3 million people in India, or 1.4% of the population, living in the forms of modern slavery, such as bonded labour, child labour, human trafficking, and forced begging, among others. 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 child labourers in 2001.

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. Corruption in India is perceived to have decreased. According to the Corruption Perceptions Index, India ranked 78th out of 180 countries in 2018 with a score of 41 out of 100, an improvement from 85th in 2014.

Demographics, languages, and religion

Main articles: Demographics of India, Languages of India, and Religion in India

The population density map of India by states, districts, and people per km² based on the 2011 Census of India.

With 1,210,193,422 residents reported in the 2011 provisional census report, India is the world's second-most populous country. Its population grew by 17.64% during 2001–2011, compared to 21.54% growth in the previous decade (1991–2001). The human sex ratio, according to the 2011 census, is 940 females per 1,000 males. The median age was 27.6 as of 2016. The first post-colonial census, conducted in 1951, counted 361.1 million people. 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. India continues to face several public health-related challenges.

Life expectancy in India is at 68 years, with life expectancy for women being 69.6 years and for men being 67.3. There are around 50 physicians per 100,000 Indians. Migration from rural to urban areas has been an important dynamic in the recent history of India. The number of Indians living in urban areas grew by 31.2% between 1991 and 2001. Yet, in 2001, over 70% still lived in rural areas. 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 growth rate of population was due to the sharp decline in the growth rate in rural areas since 1991. According to the 2011 census, there are 53 million-plus urban agglomerations in India; among them Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, in decreasing order by population. The literacy rate in 2011 was 74.04%: 65.46% among females and 82.14% among males. The rural-urban literacy gap, which was 21.2 percentage points in 2001, dropped to 16.1 percentage points in 2011. The improvement in literacy rate in rural area is two times that in urban areas. Kerala is the most literate state with 93.91% literacy; while Bihar the least with 63.82%.

A coal miner in Bachra colliery township in Jharkhand state. The number of years lost per 100,000 population attributable to particulate matter pollution in Jharkand is 1093, adding to India's public health burden.

India is home to two major language families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (spoken by 24% of the population). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan language families. India has no national language. Hindi, with the largest number of speakers, is the official language of the government. English is used extensively in business and administration and has the status of a "subsidiary official language"; 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 that 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 (0.9%). India has the world's largest Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Zoroastrian, and Bahá'í populations, and has the third-largest Muslim population—the largest for a non-Muslim majority country.

Culture

Main article: Culture of India

A Chola bronze depicting Nataraja, who is seen as a cosmic "Lord of the Dance" and representative of Shiva

Indian cultural history spans more than 4,500 years. During the Vedic period (c. 1700 – c. 500 BCE), the foundations of Hindu philosophy, mythology, theology and literature were laid, and many beliefs and practices which still exist today, such as dhárma, kárma, yóga, and mokṣa, were established. India is notable for its religious diversity, with Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, and Jainism among the nation's major religions. The predominant religion, Hinduism, has been shaped by various historical schools of thought, including those of the Upanishads, the Yoga Sutras, the Bhakti movement, and by Buddhist philosophy.

Art, architecture and literature

Main articles: Architecture of India and Indian literature

Much of Indian architecture, including the Taj Mahal, other works of Mughal architecture, and South Indian architecture, blends ancient local traditions with imported styles. Vernacular architecture is also highly regional in it flavours. Vastu shastra, literally "science of construction" or "architecture" and ascribed to Mamuni Mayan, explores how the laws of nature affect human dwellings; it employs precise geometry and directional alignments to reflect perceived cosmic constructs. As applied in Hindu temple architecture, it is influenced by the Shilpa Shastras, a series of foundational texts whose basic mythological form is the Vastu-Purusha mandala, a square that embodied the "absolute". The Taj Mahal, built in Agra between 1631 and 1648 by orders of Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, has been described in the UNESCO World Heritage List as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage". Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture, developed by the British in the late 19th century, drew on Indo-Islamic architecture.

The earliest literature in India, composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 CE, was in the Sanskrit language. Major works of Sanskrit literature include the Rigveda (c. 1500 BCE–1200 BCE), the epics:Mahābhārata (c. 400 BCE–400 CE) and the Ramayana (c. 300 BCE and later); Abhijñānaśākuntalam (The Recognition of Śakuntalā, and other dramas of Kālidāsa (c. 5th century CE) and Mahākāvya poetry. In Tamil literature, Sangam Literature (c 600 BCE–300 BCE) consisting of 2,381 poems, composed by 473 poets, is the earliest work. From the 14th to the 18th centuries, India's literary traditions went through a period of drastic change because of the emergence of devotional poets such as Kabīr, Tulsīdās, and Guru Nānak. This period was characterised by a varied and wide spectrum of thought and expression; as a consequence, medieval Indian literary works differed significantly from classical traditions. In the 19th century, Indian writers took a new interest in social questions and psychological descriptions. In the 20th century, Indian literature was influenced by the works of Bengali poet and novelist Rabindranath Tagore, who was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Performing arts, and media

Main articles: Music of India, Dance in India, Cinema of India, and Television in India

Three plucked string instruments of Indian music, L to R, Sarod, Sitar, which are used in North Indian classical music and the Iktara, lit. "one string instrument," commonly used in Indian folk music.

Indian music ranges over various traditions and regional styles. Classical music encompasses two genres and their various folk offshoots: the northern Hindustani and southern Carnatic schools. Regionalised popular forms include filmi and folk music; the syncretic tradition of the bauls is a well-known form of the latter. Indian dance also features diverse folk and classical forms. Among the better-known folk dances are the bhangra of Punjab, the bihu of Assam, the Jhumair and chhau of Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal, garba and dandiya of Gujarat, ghoomar of Rajasthan, and the lavani of Maharashtra. Eight dance forms, many with narrative forms and mythological elements, have been accorded classical dance status by India's National Academy of Music, Dance, and Drama. These are: bharatanatyam of the state of Tamil Nadu, kathak of Uttar Pradesh, kathakali and mohiniyattam of Kerala, kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh, manipuri of Manipur, odissi of Odisha, and the sattriya of Assam. Theatre in India melds music, dance, and improvised or written dialogue. Often based on Hindu mythology, but also borrowing from medieval romances or social and political events, Indian theatre includes the bhavai of Gujarat, the jatra of West Bengal, the nautanki and ramlila of North India, tamasha of Maharashtra, burrakatha of Andhra Pradesh, terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu, and the yakshagana of Karnataka. India has a theatre training institute NSD that is situated at New Delhi It is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

The Indian film industry produces the world's most-watched cinema. Established regional cinematic traditions exist in the Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Tamil, and Telugu languages. South Indian cinema attracts more than 75% of national film revenue.

Television broadcasting began in India in 1959 as a state-run medium of communication and had slow expansion for more than two decades. The state monopoly on television broadcast ended in the 1990s and, since then, satellite channels have increasingly shaped the popular culture of Indian society. Today, television is the most penetrative media in India; industry estimates indicate that as of 2012 there are over 554 million TV consumers, 462 million with satellite and/or cable connections, compared to other forms of mass media such as press (350 million), radio (156 million) or internet (37 million).

Society, clothing, and cuisine

Main articles: Culture of India, Clothing in India, and Indian cuisine

Tourists from North-East India, wrapped in sarongs and shawls, visit the Taj Mahal.

Traditional Indian society is sometimes defined by social hierarchy. The Indian caste system embodies much of the social stratification and many of the social restrictions found in the Indian subcontinent. Social classes are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups, often termed as jātis, or "castes". India declared untouchability to be illegal in 1947 and has since enacted other anti-discriminatory laws and social welfare initiatives. At the workplace in urban India and in international or leading Indian companies, the caste related identification has pretty much lost its importance.

Family values are important in the Indian tradition, and multi-generational patriarchal joint families have been the norm in India, though nuclear families are becoming common in urban areas. An overwhelming majority of Indians, with their consent, have their marriages arranged by their parents or other elders in the family. Marriage is thought to be for life, and the divorce rate is extremely low. As of 2001, just 1.6 percent of Indian women were divorced, but this figure was rising due to their education and economic independence. Child marriages are common, especially in rural areas; many women wed before reaching 18, which is their legal marriageable age. Female infanticide and female foeticide in the country have caused a discrepancy in the sex ratio, as of 2005 it was estimated that there were 50 million more males than females in the nation. However, a report from 2011 has shown improvement in the gender ratio. The payment of dowry, although illegal, remains widespread across class lines. Deaths resulting from dowry, mostly from bride burning, are on the rise, despite stringent anti-dowry laws.

An assortment of Indian spices: (from left to right) top row: Clove, mace, cumin seed, chili powder, fenugreek seed; middle row: Anise, black pepper, cardamom (in pod), turmeric powder, nutmeg; bottom row: Chili pepper, coriander seeds, pomegranate seeds, cinnamon, and star anise

Many Indian festivals are religious in origin. The best known include Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Thai Pongal, Holi, Durga Puja, Eid ul-Fitr, Bakr-Id, Christmas, and Vaisakhi.

Cotton was domesticated in India by 4000 BCE. Traditional Indian dress varies in colour and style across regions and depends on various factors, including climate and faith. Popular styles of dress include draped garments such as the sari for women and the dhoti or lungi for men. Stitched clothes, such as the shalwar kameez for women and kurta–pyjama combinations or European-style trousers and shirts for men, are also popular. Use of delicate jewellery, modelled on real flowers worn in ancient India, is part of a tradition dating back some 5,000 years; gemstones are also worn in India as talismans.

Indian cuisine encompasses a wide variety of regional and traditional cuisines, often depending on a particular state (such as Maharashtrian cuisine). Staple foods of Indian cuisine include pearl millet (ISO: bājra), rice, whole-wheat flour (aṭṭa), and a variety of lentils, such as masoor (most often red lentils), toor (pigeon peas), urad (black gram), and mong (mung beans). Lentils may be used whole, dehusked—for example, dhuli moong or dhuli urad—or split. Split lentils, or dal, are used extensively. The spice trade between India and Europe is often cited by historians as the primary catalyst for Europe's Age of Discovery.

Sports and recreation

Main article: Sport in India

Girls play hopscotch in Juara, Madhya Pradesh. Hopscotch has been commonly played by girls in rural India.

In India, several traditional indigenous sports remain fairly popular, such as kabaddi, kho kho, pehlwani and gilli-danda. Some of the earliest forms of Asian martial arts, such as kalarippayattu, musti yuddha, silambam, and marma adi, originated in India. Chess, commonly held to have originated in India as chaturaṅga, is regaining widespread popularity with the rise in the number of Indian grandmasters. Pachisi, from which parcheesi derives, was played on a giant marble court by Akbar.

The improved results garnered by the Indian Davis Cup team and other Indian tennis players in the early 2010s have made tennis increasingly popular in the country. India has a comparatively strong presence in shooting sports, and has won several medals at the Olympics, the World Shooting Championships, and the Commonwealth Games. Other sports in which Indians have succeeded internationally include badminton (Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu are two of the top-ranked female badminton players in the world), boxing, and wrestling. Football is popular in West Bengal, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the north-eastern states.

Cricket is the most popular sport in India. Major domestic competitions include the Indian Premier League, which is the most-watched cricket league in the world and ranks sixth among all sports leagues.

India has hosted or co-hosted several international sporting events: the 1951 and 1982 Asian Games; the 1987, 1996, and 2011 Cricket World Cup tournaments; the 2003 Afro-Asian Games; the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy; the 2010 Hockey World Cup; the 2010 Commonwealth Games; and the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. Major international sporting events held annually in India include the Chennai Open, the Mumbai Marathon, the Delhi Half Marathon, and the Indian Masters. The first Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix featured in late 2011 but has been discontinued from the F1 season calendar since 2014. India has traditionally been the dominant country at the South Asian Games. An example of this dominance is the basketball competition where the Indian team won three out of four tournaments to date.

See also

• Outline of India
• Index of India-related articles

Bibliography

Overview

• "India", The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, retrieved 23 August 2017
• "Country Profile: India" (PDF), Library of Congress Country Studies (5th ed.), Library of Congress Federal Research Division, December 2004, retrieved 30 September 2011
• Heitzman, J.; Worden, R. L. (August 1996), India: A Country Study, Area Handbook Series, Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, ISBN 978-0-8444-0833-0
• India, International Monetary Fund, retrieved 14 October 2011
• Provisional Population Totals Paper 1 of 2011 India, Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |layurl= ignored (help)
• "Constituent Assembly of India – Volume XII", Constituent Assembly of India: Debates, National Informatics Centre, Government of India, 24 January 1950, archived from the original on 21 July 2011, retrieved 17 July 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• There's No National Language in India: Gujarat High Court, The Times of India, 6 January 2007, retrieved 17 July 2011
• "Table 1: Human Development Index and its Components" (PDF), Human Development Report 2011, United Nations, 2011

Etymology

• Serge Gruzinski (13 January 2015), The Eagle and the Dragon: Globalization and European Dreams of Conquest in China and America in the Sixteenth Century, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-7456-8134-4{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Hindustan, Encyclopædia Britannica, retrieved 17 July 2011
• Kaye, A. S. (1 September 1997), Phonologies of Asia and Africa, Eisenbrauns, ISBN 978-1-57506-019-4
• Kuiper, K., ed. (July 2010), Culture of India, Rosen Publishing Group, ISBN 978-1-61530-203-1
• Constitution of India (PDF), Ministry of Law and Justice, 29 July 2008, archived from the original (PDF) on 9 September 2014, retrieved 3 March 2012, Article 1(1): "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States." {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• "India", Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, retrieved 17 July 2011

History

• Asher, C. B.; Talbot, C (1 January 2008), India Before Europe (1st ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-51750-8
• Bose, S.; Jalal, A. (11 March 2011), Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy (3rd ed.), Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-77942-5
• Brown, J. M. (26 May 1994), Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy, The Short Oxford History of the Modern World (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-873113-9
• Coningham, Robin; Young, Ruth (2015), The Archaeology of South Asia: From the Indus to Asoka, c.6500 BCE–200 CE, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-84697-4
• Copland, I. (8 October 2001), India 1885–1947: The Unmaking of an Empire (1st ed.), Longman, ISBN 978-0-582-38173-5
• Kulke, H.; Rothermund, D. (1 August 2004), A History of India, 4th, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-32920-0
• Ludden, D. (13 June 2002), India and South Asia: A Short History, One World, ISBN 978-1-85168-237-9
• Metcalf, B.; Metcalf, T. R. (9 October 2006), A Concise History of Modern India (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-68225-1
• Peers, D. M. (3 August 2006), India under Colonial Rule 1700–1885 (1st ed.), Pearson Longman, ISBN 978-0-582-31738-3
• Petraglia, Michael D.; Allchin, Bridget (2007), "Human evolution and culture change in the Indian subcontinent", in Michael Petraglia; Bridget Allchin (eds.), The Evolution and History of Human Populations in South Asia: Inter-disciplinary Studies in Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, Linguistics and Genetics, Springer, ISBN 978-1-4020-5562-1
• Possehl, G. (January 2003), The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective, Rowman Altamira, ISBN 978-0-7591-0172-2
• Robb, P. (2001), A History of India, London: Palgrave, ISBN 978-0-333-69129-8
• Sarkar, S. (1983), Modern India: 1885–1947, Delhi: Macmillan India, ISBN 978-0-333-90425-1
• Singh, U. (2009), A History of Ancient and Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century, Delhi: Longman, ISBN 978-81-317-1677-9
• Sripati, V. (1998), "Toward Fifty Years of Constitutionalism and Fundamental Rights in India: Looking Back to See Ahead (1950–2000)", American University International Law Review, 14 (2): 413–496
• Stein, B. (16 June 1998), A History of India (1st ed.), Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 978-0-631-20546-3
• Stein, B. (27 April 2010), Arnold, D. (ed.), A History of India (2nd ed.), Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 978-1-4051-9509-6
• "Briefing Rooms: India", Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, 17 December 2009, archived from the original on 20 May 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Thapar, Romila (2003), Penguin history of early India: from the origins to A.D.1300, Penguin Books, retrieved 13 February 2012
• Witzel, Michael (2001), "Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts" (PDF), Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, 7 (3): 1–115
• Witzel, Michael (2003), "Vedas and Upanișads", in Gavin D. Flood (ed.), The Blackwell companion to Hinduism, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-631-21535-6, retrieved 15 March 2012
• Witzel, Michael (2005), "Indocentrism", in Bryant, Edwin; Patton, Laurie L. (eds.), TheE Indo-Aryan Controversy. Evidence and inference in Indian history, Routledge
• Wolpert, S. (25 December 2003), A New History of India (7th ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-516678-1

Geography

• Ali, J. R.; Aitchison, J. C. (2005), "Greater India", Earth-Science Reviews, 72 (3–4): 170–173, Bibcode:2005ESRv...72..169A, doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2005.07.005
• Chang, J. H. (1967), "The Indian Summer Monsoon", Geographical Review, vol. 57, no. 3, [American Geographical Society, Wiley], pp. 373–396, doi:10.2307/212640, JSTOR 212640{{citation}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
• Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 with Amendments Made in 1988 (PDF), Department of Environment and Forests, Government of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 1988, archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2011, retrieved 25 July 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Dikshit, K. R.; Schwartzberg, Joseph E., "India: Land", Encyclopædia Britannica, pp. 1–29
• Duff, D. (29 October 1993), Holmes Principles of Physical Geology (4th ed.), Routledge, ISBN 978-0-7487-4381-0
• Kumar, V. S.; Pathak, K. C.; Pednekar, P.; Raju, N. S. N. (2006), "Coastal processes along the Indian coastline" (PDF), Current Science, vol. 91, no. 4, pp. 530–536, archived from the original (PDF) on 8 September 2009 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• India Yearbook 2007, New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 2007, ISBN 978-81-230-1423-4
• Posey, C. A. (1 November 1994), The Living Earth Book of Wind and Weather, Reader's Digest, ISBN 978-0-89577-625-9
• Prakash, B.; Kumar, S.; Rao, M. S.; Giri, S. C. (2000), "Holocene Tectonic Movements and Stress Field in the Western Gangetic Plains" (PDF), Current Science, 79 (4): 438–449

Biodiversity

• Ali, S.; Ripley, S. D.; Dick, J. H. (15 August 1996), A Pictorial Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (2nd ed.), Mumbai: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-563732-8
• Animal Discoveries 2011: New Species and New Records (PDF), Zoological Survey of India, 2012, archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2013, retrieved 20 July 2012 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Basak, R. K. (1983), Botanical Survey of India: Account of Its Establishment, Development, and Activities, retrieved 20 July 2011
• "Hotspots by Region", Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation International, 2007, archived from the original on 8 July 2007, retrieved 28 February 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Crame, J. A.; Owen, A. W. (1 August 2002), Palaeobiogeography and Biodiversity Change: The Ordovician and Mesozoic–Cenozoic Radiations, Geological Society Special Publication, Geological Society of London, ISBN 978-1-86239-106-2, retrieved 8 December 2011
• "Forest Cover" (PDF). State of Forest Report 2013. Dehradun: Forest Survey of India. 2013.
• Griffiths, M. (6 July 2010), The Lotus Quest: In Search of the Sacred Flower, St. Martin's Press, ISBN 978-0-312-64148-1
• Karanth, K. P. (25 March 2006), "Out-of-India Gondwanan Origin of Some Tropical Asian Biota" (PDF), Current Science, 90 (6): 789–792, retrieved 18 May 2011
• Mace, G. M. (March 1994), "1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals", World Conservation Monitoring Centre, International Union for Conservation of Nature, ISBN 978-2-8317-0194-3
• "Biosphere Reserves of India", C. P. R. Environment Education Centre, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, retrieved 17 July 2011
• Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Ministry of Environments and Forests, Government of India, 9 September 1972, retrieved 25 July 2011
• Puri, S. K., Biodiversity Profile of India, archived from the original on 21 November 2011, retrieved 20 June 2007 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• The List of Wetlands of International Importance (PDF), The Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands, 4 June 2007, p. 18, archived from the original (PDF) on 21 June 2007, retrieved 20 June 2007
• Tritsch, M. F. (3 September 2001), Wildlife of India, London: HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-00-711062-9

Politics

• Banerjee, Sumanta (16–22 July 2005). "Civilising the BJP". Economic & Political Weekly. 40 (29): 3116–3119. JSTOR 4416896. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bhambhri, C. P. (1 May 1992), Politics in India, 1991–1992, Shipra, ISBN 978-81-85402-17-8, retrieved 20 July 2011
• Burnell, P. J.; Calvert, P. (1 May 1999), The Resilience of Democracy: Persistent Practice, Durable Idea (1st ed.), Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-7146-8026-2, retrieved 20 July 2011
• India, Press Trust of (16 May 2009), "Second UPA Win, A Crowning Glory for Sonia's Ascendancy", Business Standard India, Business Standard, retrieved 13 June 2009
• Chander, N. J. (1 January 2004), Coalition Politics: The Indian Experience, Concept Publishing Company, ISBN 978-81-8069-092-1, retrieved 20 July 2011
• Dunleavy, P.; Diwakar, R.; Dunleavy, C. (2007), The Effective Space of Party Competition (PDF), London School of Economics and Political Science, retrieved 27 September 2011
• Dutt, S. (1998), "Identities and the Indian State: An Overview", Third World Quarterly, 19 (3): 411–434, doi:10.1080/01436599814325
• Echeverri-Gent, J. (January 2002), "Politics in India's Decentred Polity", in Ayres, A.; Oldenburg, P. (eds.), Quickening the Pace of Change, India Briefing, London: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 19–53, ISBN 978-0-7656-0812-3
• "Current Recognised Parties" (PDF), Election Commission of India, 14 March 2009, retrieved 5 July 2010
• Gledhill, A. (30 March 1970), The Republic of India: The Development of its Laws and Constitution, Greenwood, ISBN 978-0-8371-2813-9, retrieved 21 July 2011
• Halarnkar, Samar (13 June 2012). "Narendra Modi makes his move". BBC News. The right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India's primary opposition party
• Malik, Yogendra K.; Singh, V.B. (April 1992). "Bharatiya Janata Party: An Alternative to the Congress (I)?". Asian Survey. 32 (4): 318–336. doi:10.2307/2645149. JSTOR 2645149. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mathew, K. M. (1 January 2003), Manorama Yearbook, Malayala Manorama, ISBN 978-81-900461-8-3, retrieved 21 July 2011
• "National Symbols of India", Know India, National Informatics Centre, Government of India, retrieved 27 September 2009
• Neuborne, B. (2003), "The Supreme Court of India", International Journal of Constitutional Law, 1 (3): 476–510, doi:10.1093/icon/1.3.476
• Pylee, M. V. (2003), "The Longest Constitutional Document", Constitutional Government in India (2nd ed.), S. Chand, ISBN 978-81-219-2203-6
• Pylee, M. V. (2003), "The Union Judiciary: The Supreme Court", Constitutional Government in India (2nd ed.), S. Chand, ISBN 978-81-219-2203-6, retrieved 2 November 2007
• Sarkar, N. I. (1 January 2007), Sonia Gandhi: Tryst with India, Atlantic, ISBN 978-81-269-0744-1, retrieved 20 July 2011
• Sharma, R. (1950), "Cabinet Government in India", Parliamentary Affairs, 4 (1): 116–126, doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.pa.a052755
• Sharma, B. K. (August 2007), Introduction to the Constitution of India (4th ed.), Prentice Hall, ISBN 978-81-203-3246-1
• Sinha, A. (2004), "The Changing Political Economy of Federalism in India", India Review, 3 (1): 25–63, doi:10.1080/14736480490443085
• World's Largest Democracy to Reach One Billion Persons on Independence Day, United Nations Population Division, retrieved 5 October 2011
• Wheare, K. C. (June 1980), Federal Government (4th ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-313-22702-8

Foreign relations and military

• Alford, P. (7 July 2008), G8 Plus 5 Equals Power Shift, The Australian, retrieved 21 November 2009{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Behera, L. K. (7 March 2011), Budgeting for India's Defence: An Analysis of Defence Budget 2011–2012, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, retrieved 4 April 2011
• Behera, L. K. (20 March 2012), India's Defence Budget 2012–13, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, archived from the original on 15 December 2012, retrieved 26 March 2012 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• "Russia Agrees India Nuclear Deal", BBC News, British Broadcasting Corporation, 11 February 2009, retrieved 22 August 2010
• Curry, B. (27 June 2010), Canada Signs Nuclear Deal with India, The Globe and Mail, retrieved 13 May 2011
• "India, Europe Strategic Relations", Europa: Summaries of EU Legislation, European Union, 8 April 2008, retrieved 14 January 2011
• Ghosh, A. (1 September 2009), India's Foreign Policy, Pearson, ISBN 978-81-317-1025-8
• Gilbert, M. (17 December 2002), A History of the Twentieth Century, William Morrow, ISBN 978-0-06-050594-3, retrieved 22 July 2011
• Kumar, A. V. (1 May 2010), "Reforming the NPT to Include India", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, retrieved 1 November 2010
• Miglani, S. (28 February 2011), "With An Eye on China, India Steps Up Defence Spending", Reuters, retrieved 6 July 2011
• Nair, V. K. (2007), No More Ambiguity: India's Nuclear Policy (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007, retrieved 7 June 2007
• Pandit, R. (27 July 2009), N-Submarine to Give India Crucial Third Leg of Nuke Triad, The Times of India, retrieved 10 March 2010
• Perkovich, G. (5 November 2001), India's Nuclear Bomb: The Impact on Global Proliferation, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-23210-5, retrieved 22 July 2011
• India, France Agree on Civil Nuclear Cooperation, Rediff, 25 January 2008, retrieved 22 August 2010
• "UK, India Sign Civil Nuclear Accord", Reuters, 13 February 2010, retrieved 22 August 2010
• Ripsman, N. M.; Paul, T. V. (18 March 2010), Globalization and the National Security State, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-539390-3, retrieved 22 July 2011
• Rothermund, D. (17 October 2000), The Routledge Companion to Decolonization, Routledge Companions to History (1st ed.), Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-35632-9
• India Gets Its First Homegrown Fighter Jet, RIA Novosti, 10 January 2011, retrieved 1 April 2009
• Sharma, S. R. (1 January 1999), India–USSR Relations 1947–1971: From Ambivalence to Steadfastness, vol. 1, Discovery, ISBN 978-81-7141-486-4
• Shukla, A. (5 March 2011), "China Matches India's Expansion in Military Spending", Business Standard India, Business Standard, retrieved 6 July 2011
• Sisodia, N. S.; Naidu, G. V. C. (2005), Changing Security Dynamic in Eastern Asia: Focus on Japan, Promilla, ISBN 978-81-86019-52-8
• "SIPRI Yearbook 2008: Armaments, Disarmament, and International Security", Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Oxford University Press, 8 August 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-954895-8, retrieved 22 July 2011
• "Rise in international arms transfers is driven by Asian demand, says SIPRI", Stockholm International Peace Research Initiative, 19 March 2012, retrieved 5 April 2016
• India, US Sign 123 Agreement, The Times of India, 11 October 2008, retrieved 21 July 2011

Economy

• Alamgir, J. (24 December 2008), India's Open-Economy Policy: Globalism, Rivalry, Continuity, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-415-77684-4, retrieved 23 July 2011
• Bonner, B (20 March 2010), "Make Way, World. India Is on the Move", Christian Science Monitor, retrieved 23 July 2011{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Drèze, Jean; Sen, Amartya (2013), An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions, Allen Lane
• Farrell, D.; Beinhocker, E. (19 May 2007), Next Big Spenders: India's Middle Class, McKinsey & Company, retrieved 17 September 2011
• Gargan, E. A. (15 August 1992), "India Stumbles in Rush to a Free Market Economy", The New York Times, retrieved 22 July 2011
• Hawksworth, John; Tiwari, Anmol (January 2011), The World in 2050: The Accelerating Shift of Global Economic Power: Challenges and Opportunities (PDF), PricewaterhouseCoopers, retrieved 23 July 2011
• Nayak, P. B.; Goldar, B.; Agrawal, P. (10 November 2010), India's Economy and Growth: Essays in Honour of V. K. R. V. Rao, SAGE Publications, ISBN 978-81-321-0452-0
• Pal, P.; Ghosh, J (July 2007), "Inequality in India: A Survey of Recent Trends" (PDF), Economic and Social Affairs: DESA Working Paper No. 45, United Nations, retrieved 23 July 2011
• Schwab, K. (2010), The Global Competitiveness Report 2010–2011 (PDF), World Economic Forum, retrieved 10 May 2011
• Sheth, N. (28 May 2009), "Outlook for Outsourcing Spending Brightens", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 3 October 2010
• Srivastava, V.C. (2008), "Introduction", in V.C. Srivastava; Lallanji Gopal (eds.), History of Agriculture in India (up to c.1200 AD), History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, vol. Volume V Part 1, General Editor: D.P. Chattopadhyaya, Concept Publishing Co, ISBN 978-81-8069-521-6 {{citation}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
• Yep, E. (27 September 2011), "ReNew Wind Power Gets $201 Million Goldman Investment", Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 27 September 2011
• "India Lost $462bn in Illegal Capital Flows, Says Report", BBC News, British Broadcasting Corporation, 18 November 2010, retrieved 23 July 2011
• "India Second Fastest Growing Auto Market After China", Business Line, 9 April 2010, retrieved 23 July 2011
• "India's Economy: Not Just Rubies and Polyester Shirts", The Economist, 8 October 2011, retrieved 9 October 2011
• "Indian Car Exports Surge 36%", Express India, 13 October 2009, retrieved 5 April 2016
• Economic Survey of India 2007: Policy Brief (PDF), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, October 2007, archived from the original (PDF) on 6 June 2011, retrieved 22 July 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Report for Selected Countries and Subjects: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, International Monetary Fund, April 2011, retrieved 23 July 2011
• Information Note to the Press (Press Release No.29 /2011) (PDF), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 6 April 2011, archived from the original (PDF) on 16 May 2011, retrieved 23 July 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Corruption Perception Index 2010 – India Continues to be Corrupt (PDF), Transparency International, 26 October 2011, archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011, retrieved 23 July 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• India: Undernourished Children – A Call for Reform and Action, World Bank, archived from the original on 7 May 2012, retrieved 23 July 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Trade to Expand by 9.5% in 2010 After a Dismal 2009, WTO Reports, World Trade Organization, 26 March 2010, retrieved 23 July 2011
• Indian IT-BPO Industry, NASSCOM, 2011–2012, archived from the original on 9 May 2012, retrieved 22 June 2012 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• UNDERSTANDING THE WTO: THE ORGANIZATION Members and Observers, WTO, 1995, archived from the original on 29 December 2009, retrieved 23 June 2012 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• World Economic Outlook Update (PDF), International Monetary Fund, June 2011, retrieved 22 July 2011

Demographics

• Bonner, A. (1990), Averting the Apocalypse: Social Movements in India Today, Duke University Press, ISBN 978-0-8223-1048-8, retrieved 24 July 2011
• Chandramouli, C. (15 July 2011), Rural Urban Distribution of Population (PDF), Ministry of Home Affairs (India), retrieved 24 January 2015
• Dev, S. M.; Rao, N. C. (2009), India: Perspectives on Equitable Development, Academic Foundation, ISBN 978-81-7188-685-2
• Dharwadker, A. (28 October 2010), "Representing India's Pasts: Time, Culture, and Problems of Performance Historiography", in Canning, C. M.; Postlewait, T. (eds.), Representing the Past: Essays in Performance Historiography, University of Iowa Press, ISBN 978-1-58729-905-6, retrieved 24 July 2011
• Drèze, J.; Goyal, A. (9 February 2009), "The Future of Mid-Day Meals", in Baru, R. V. (ed.), School Health Services in India: The Social and Economic Contexts, SAGE Publications, ISBN 978-81-7829-873-3
• Dyson, T.; Visaria, P. (7 July 2005), "Migration and Urbanisation: Retrospect and Prospects", in Dyson, T.; Casses, R.; Visaria, L. (eds.), Twenty-First Century India: Population, Economy, Human Development, and the Environment, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-928382-8
• Garg, S. C. (19 April 2005), Mobilizing Urban Infrastructure Finance in India (PDF), World Bank, archived from the original (PDF) on 24 August 2009, retrieved 27 January 2010 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Mallikarjun, B (November 2004), "Fifty Years of Language Planning for Modern Hindi – The Official Language of India", Language in India, 4 (11), ISSN 1930-2940, retrieved 24 July 2011
• Ottenheimer, H. J. (2008), The Anthropology of Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology, Cengage, ISBN 978-0-495-50884-7
• Ratna, U. (2007), "Interface Between Urban and Rural Development in India", in Dutt, A. K.; Thakur, B (eds.), City, Society, and Planning, vol. 1, Concept, ISBN 978-81-8069-459-2
• Robinson, S. (1 May 2008), "India's Medical Emergency", Time, retrieved 23 July 2011{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Rorabacher, J. A. (2010), Hunger and Poverty in South Asia, Gyan, ISBN 978-81-212-1027-0
• Country Cooperation Strategy: India (PDF), World Health Organization, November 2006, retrieved 23 July 2011
• Healthcare in India: Report Highlights (PDF), Boston Analytics, January 2009, archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011, retrieved 23 July 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Notification No. 2/8/60-O.L, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 27 April 1960, archived from the original on 1 October 2014, retrieved 13 May 2011 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• "Census Data 2001", Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 2010–2011, retrieved 22 July 2011
• "Religious Composition", Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 2010–2011, retrieved 23 July 2011

Culture

• Agnivesh, Swami; Rama Mani; Angelika Köster-Lossack (25 November 2005). "Missing: 50 million Indian girls". New York Times. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
• Bunting, Madeleine (22 July 2011). "India's missing women". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Binmore, K. G. (27 March 2007), Playing for Real: A Text on Game Theory, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-530057-4
• Bladholm, L. (12 August 2000), The Indian Grocery Store Demystified (1st ed.), Macmillan Publishers, ISBN 978-1-58063-143-3
• "Saina Nehwal: India's Badminton Star and "New Woman"", BBC News, 1 August 2010, retrieved 5 October 2010
• "Commonwealth Games 2010: India Dominate Shooting Medals", BBC News, 7 October 2010, retrieved 3 June 2011
• Chopra, P. (18 March 2011), A Joint Enterprise: Indian Elites and the Making of British Bombay, University of Minnesota Press, ISBN 978-0-8166-7037-6
• Cullen-Dupont, K. (July 2009), Human Trafficking (1st ed.), Infobase Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8160-7545-4
• Das, S. K. (1 January 2005), A History of Indian Literature, 500–1399: From Courtly to the Popular, Sahitya Akademi, ISBN 978-81-260-2171-0
• Datta, A. (2006), The Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature, vol. 2, Sahitya Akademi, ISBN 978-81-260-1194-0
• Dehejia, R. S. (7 November 2011), "Indian Grand Prix Vs. Encephalitis?", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 20 December 2011
• Deutsch, E. (30 April 1969), Advaita Vedānta: A Philosophical Reconstruction, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-0271-4
• Dissanayake, W. K.; Gokulsing, M. (May 2004), Indian Popular Cinema: A Narrative of Cultural Change (2nd ed.), Trentham Books, ISBN 978-1-85856-329-9
• Southern Movies Account for over 75% of Film Revenues, The Economic Times, 18 November 2009, retrieved 18 June 2011
• "South Asian Arts: Indian Dance", Encyclopædia Britannica, retrieved 17 July 2011
• "Tamil Literature", Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008, retrieved 24 July 2011
• Eraly, A. (2008), India, Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0-7566-4952-4, retrieved 24 July 2011
• Hart, G. L. (August 1975), Poems of Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and Their Sanskrit Counterparts (1st ed.), University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-02672-8
• Heehs, P., ed. (1 September 2002), Indian Religions: A Historical Reader of Spiritual Expression and Experience, New York University Press, ISBN 978-0-8147-3650-0, retrieved 24 July 2011{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Henderson, C. E. (2002), Culture and Customs of India, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-313-30513-9
• Hoiberg, D.; Ramchandani, I. (2000), Students' Britannica India: Select Essays, Popular Prakashan, ISBN 978-0-85229-762-9
• Johnson, W. J., ed. (1 September 2008), The Sauptikaparvan of the Mahabharata: The Massacre at Night, Oxford World's Classics (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-282361-8{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Jones, G.; Ramdas, K. (2005), (Un)tying the Knot: Ideal and Reality in Asian Marriage, National University of Singapore Press, ISBN 978-981-05-1428-0
• Kālidāsa; Johnson, W. J. (15 November 2001), The Recognition of Śakuntalā: A Play in Seven Acts, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-283911-4
• Kaminsky, Arnold P.; Long, Roger D. (30 September 2011), India Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 978-0-313-37462-3, retrieved 12 September 2012
• Karanth, S. K. (October 2002), Yakṣagāna, Abhinav Publications, ISBN 978-81-7017-357-1
• Kiple, K. F.; Ornelas, K. C., eds. (2000), The Cambridge World History of Food, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-40216-3{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Kuiper, K., ed. (1 July 2010), The Culture of India, Britannica Educational Publishing, ISBN 978-1-61530-203-1, retrieved 24 July 2011{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Kumar, V. (January 2000), Vastushastra, All You Wanted to Know About Series (2nd ed.), Sterling Publishing, ISBN 978-81-207-2199-9
• Lal, A. (2004), The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-564446-3, retrieved 24 July 2011
• Lang, J.; Moleski, W. (1 December 2010), Functionalism Revisited, Ashgate Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4094-0701-0
• MacDonell, A. A. (2004), A History of Sanskrit Literature , Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4179-0619-2
• Majumdar, B.; Bandyopadhyay, K. (2006), A Social History of Indian Football: Striving To Score, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-34835-5
• Makar, E. M. (2007), An American's Guide to Doing Business in India, Adams, ISBN 978-1-59869-211-2
• Massey, R.; Massey, J (1998), The Music of India, Abhinav Publications, ISBN 978-81-7017-332-8
• Medora, N. (2003), "Mate Selection in Contemporary India: Love Marriages Versus Arranged Marriages", in Hamon, R. R.; Ingoldsby, B. B. (eds.), Mate Selection Across Cultures, SAGE Publications, pp. 209–230, ISBN 978-0-7619-2592-7
• Messner, W. (2009), Working with India. The Softer Aspects of a Successful Collaboration with the Indian IT & BPO Industry, Springer, ISBN 978-3-540-89077-5
• Messner, W. (2012), Engaging with India. How to Manage the Softer Aspects of a Global Collaboration, Createspace, ISBN 978-1-4662-4490-0
• "Indian Readership Survey 2012 Q1 : Topline Findings" (PDF). Media Research Users Council. Growth: Literacy & Media Consumption. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 12 September 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• Mehta, Nalin (30 July 2008), Television in India: Satellites, Politics and Cultural Change, Taylor & Francis US, ISBN 978-0-415-44759-1, retrieved 12 September 2012
• Is Boxing the New Cricket?, Mint, 24 September 2010, retrieved 5 October 2010
• Nakamura, H. (1 April 1999), Indian Buddhism: A Survey with Bibliographical Notes, Buddhist Tradition Series (12th ed.), Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-0272-8
• Puskar-Pasewicz, M. (16 September 2010), Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism, Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 978-0-313-37556-9
• Raghavan, S. (23 October 2006), Handbook of Spices, Seasonings, and Flavorings (2nd ed.), CRC Press, ISBN 978-0-8493-2842-8
• Raichlen, S. (10 May 2011), "A Tandoor Oven Brings India's Heat to the Backyard", The New York Times, retrieved 14 June 2011
• Rajadhyaksha, A.; Willemen, P., eds. (22 January 1999), Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (2nd ed.), British Film Institute, ISBN 978-0-85170-669-6{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Ramanujan, A. K. (translator) (15 October 1985), Poems of Love and War: From the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Long Poems of Classical Tamil, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. ix–x, ISBN 978-0-231-05107-1 {{citation}}: |first= has generic name (help)
• Rawat, Ramnarayan S (23 March 2011), Reconsidering Untouchability: Chamars and Dalit History in North India, Indiana University Press, ISBN 978-0-253-22262-6
• Anand Crowned World Champion, Rediff, 29 October 2008, retrieved 29 October 2008
• Roberts, N. W. (12 July 2004), Building Type Basics for Places of Worship (1st ed.), John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-471-22568-3
• Schoenhals, M. (22 November 2003), Intimate Exclusion: Race and Caste Turned Inside Out, University Press of America, ISBN 978-0-7618-2697-2
• Schwartzberg, J. (2011), "India: Caste", Encyclopædia Britannica, retrieved 17 July 2011
• Sen, A. (5 September 2006), The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture, and Identity (1st ed.), Picador, ISBN 978-0-312-42602-6
• Seymour, S.C. (28 January 1999), Women, Family, and Child Care in India: A World in Transition, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-59884-2
• Silverman, S. (10 October 2007), Vastu: Transcendental Home Design in Harmony with Nature, Gibbs Smith, ISBN 978-1-4236-0132-6
• Tarlo, E. (1 September 1996), Clothing Matters: Dress and Identity in India (1st ed.), University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-78976-7, retrieved 24 July 2011
• Sawant Shoots Historic Gold at World Championships, The Times of India, 9 August 2010, retrieved 25 May 2011
• Taj Mahal, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation, retrieved 3 March 2012
• India Aims for Center Court, The Wall Street Journal, 11 September 2009, retrieved 29 September 2010
• Wengell, D. L.; Gabriel, N. (1 September 2008), Educational Opportunities in Integrative Medicine: The A-to-Z Healing Arts Guide and Professional Resource Directory (1st ed.), The Hunter Press, ISBN 978-0-9776552-4-3
• Intergenerational Mobility for Dalits Is Visible, Albeit Limited (PDF). 2011. doi:10.1596/978-0-8213-8689-7. ISBN 978-0-8213-8689-7. Retrieved 6 September 2012. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
• Xavier, L. (12 September 2010), Sushil Kumar Wins Gold in World Wrestling Championship, The Times of India, retrieved 5 October 2010
• Yadav, S. S.; McNeil, D.; Stevenson, P. C. (23 October 2007), Lentil: An Ancient Crop for Modern Times, Springer, ISBN 978-1-4020-6312-1
• Zvelebil, K. V. (1 August 1997), Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature, Brill Publishers, ISBN 978-90-04-09365-2

External links

Government

• Official website of Government of India
• Government of India Web Directory

General information

• "India". The World Factbook (2024 ed.). Central Intelligence Agency.
• Template:Dmoz
• India from UCB Libraries GovPubs
• India from the BBC News
• Indian State district block village website
• Wikimedia Atlas of India
• Geographic data related to India at OpenStreetMap
• Key Development Forecasts for India from International Futures