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India, officially
the Republic of India (Hindi:
भारत गणराज्य
Bhārat
Gaṇarājya; see also
other Indian languages), is a country in
South Asia. It is the
seventh-largest country by geographical area, the
second-most populous country, and the largest
democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean
on the south, the
Arabian Sea on the west, and the
Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of
7,517 kilometers (4,671 mi).[12]
It is bordered by
Pakistan to the west;[13]
China,
Nepal, and
Bhutan to the north-east; and
Bangladesh and
Myanmar to the east. India is in the vicinity of
Sri Lanka, the
Maldives, and
Indonesia in the Indian Ocean. Home to the
Indus Valley Civilization and a region of historic
trade routes and vast empires, the
Indian subcontinent was identified with its
commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long
history.[14]
Four major world religions,
Hinduism,
Buddhism,
Jainism and
Sikhism originated there, while
Zoroastrianism,
Judaism,
Christianity and
Islam arrived in the first millennium CE and shaped
the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by the
British East India Company from the early eighteenth
century and
colonised by the United Kingdom from the
mid-nineteenth century, India became an independent
nation in 1947 after a
struggle for independence that was marked by
widespread
nonviolent resistance. India is a republic consisting of
28 states and seven union territories with a
parliamentary system of democracy. It has the
world's twelfth largest economy at market exchange
rates and the
fourth largest in
purchasing power. Economic reforms have transformed
it into the
second fastest growing large economy;[15]
however, it still suffers from
high levels of
poverty,[16]
illiteracy, and malnutrition. A
pluralistic,
multilingual, and
multiethnic society, India is also home to a
diversity of
wildlife in a variety of
protected habitats.
Etymology
-
Main article:
Names of India
The name India (pronounced
/ˈɪndiə/) is derived from
Indus, which is derived from the
Old Persian word
Hindu, from
Sanskrit Sindhu, the historic local
appellation for the
Indus River.[17]
The ancient
Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi
(Ινδοί), the people of the Indus.[18]
The
Constitution of India and common usage in various
Indian languages also recognise Bharat (pronunciation (help·info),
/bʰɑːrət̪/) as an official name of equal status.[19]
Hindustan (/hin̪d̪ust̪ɑːn/
(info)),
which is the
Persian word for “Land of the Hindus” and
historically referred to
northern India, is also occasionally used as a
synonym for all of India.[20]
History
-
Stone Age rock shelters with paintings at the
Bhimbetka rock shelters in
Madhya Pradesh are the earliest known traces of
human life in India. The first known permanent
settlements appeared over 9,000 years ago and gradually
developed into the
Indus Valley Civilisation,[21]
dating back to 3300 BCE
in western India. It was followed by the
Vedic period, which laid the foundations of
Hinduism and other cultural aspects of early Indian
society, and ended in the 500s BCE. From around 550 BCE,
many independent kingdoms and republics known as the
Mahajanapadas were established across the country.[22]
In the
third century BCE, most of South Asia was united
into the
Maurya Empire by
Chandragupta Maurya and flourished under
Ashoka the Great.[23]
From the third century CE, the
Gupta dynasty oversaw the period referred to as
ancient "India's
Golden Age."[24][25]
Empires in
Southern India included those of the
Chalukyas, the
Cholas and the
Vijayanagara Empire.
Science, engineering,
art,
literature,
astronomy, and
philosophy flourished under the patronage of these
kings.
Following
invasions from Central Asia between the 10th and
12th centuries, much of North India came under the rule
of the
Delhi Sultanate and later the
Mughal Empire. Under the rule of
Akbar the Great, India enjoyed much cultural and
economic progress as well as religious harmony.[26][27]
Mughal emperors gradually expanded their empires to
cover large parts of the subcontinent. However, in
North-Eastern India, the dominant power was the
Ahom kingdom of
Assam, among the few kingdoms to have resisted
Mughal subjugation. The first major threat to Mughal
imperial power came from a
Hindu state known as the
Maratha confederacy, that dominated much of India in
the mid-18th century.[28]
From the
16th century, European powers such as Portugal, the
Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom established
trading posts and later took advantage of internal
conflicts to establish
colonies in the country. By 1856, most of India was
under the control of the
British East India Company.[29]
A year later, a nationwide insurrection of rebelling
military units and kingdoms, known as
India's First War of Independence or the
Sepoy Mutiny, seriously challenged the Company's
control but eventually failed. As a result of the
instability, India was brought under the direct rule of
the
British Crown.
In the 20th century, a nationwide
struggle for independence was launched by the
Indian National Congress and other political
organisations. Indian leader
Mahatma Gandhi led millions of people in national
campaigns of
non-violent
civil disobedience.[30]
On 15 August 1947, India gained independence from
British rule, but at the same time Muslim-majority areas
were
partitioned to form a separate state of Pakistan.[31]
On 26 January 1950, India became a republic and a new
constitution came into effect.[8]
Since independence, India has faced challenges from
religious violence,
casteism,
naxalism,
terrorism and regional separatist insurgencies,
especially in
Jammu and Kashmir and
Northeast India. Since the 1990s
terrorist attacks have affected many Indian cities.
India has unresolved territorial disputes with China,
which in 1962 escalated into the
Sino-Indian War; and with Pakistan, which resulted
in wars in
1947,
1965,
1971 and
1999. India is a founding member of the
United Nations (as British India) and the
Non-Aligned Movement. In 1974, India conducted an
underground
nuclear test[32]
and
five more tests in 1998, making India a
nuclear state.[32]
Beginning in 1991, significant economic reforms[33]
have transformed India into
one of the fastest-growing economies in the world,
increasing its global clout.[15]
Government
-
The
Constitution of India, the longest and the most
exhaustive constitution of any independent nation in the
world, came into force on January 26, 1950.[34]
The
preamble of the constitution defines India as a
sovereign,
socialist,
secular,
democratic
republic.[35]
India has a
bicameral
parliament operating under a
Westminster-style parliamentary system. Its form of
government was traditionally described as being
'quasi-federal' with a strong centre and weaker states,[36]
but it has grown increasingly federal since the late
1990s as a result of political, economic and social
changes.[37]
The
President of India is the
head of state[39]
elected indirectly by an
electoral college[40]
for a five-year term.[41][42]
The
Prime Minister is the
head of government and exercises most executive
powers.[39]
Appointed by the President,[43]
the Prime Minister is by convention supported by the
party or
political alliance holding the majority of seats in
the lower house of Parliament.[39]
The executive branch consists of the President,
Vice-President, and the
Council of Ministers (the
Cabinet being its executive committee) headed by the
Prime Minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be
a member of either house of parliament. In the Indian
parliamentary system, the executive is subordinate to
the legislature, with the Prime Minister and his Council
being directly responsible to the lower house of the
parliament.[44]
The legislature of India is the bicameral
Parliament, which consists of the upper house called
the
Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the lower house
called the
Lok Sabha (House of People).[45]
The Rajya Sabha, a permanent body, has 245 members
serving staggered six year terms.[46]
Most are elected indirectly by the
state and territorial legislatures in proportion to
the state's population.[46]
543 of the Lok Sabha's 545 members are directly elected
by popular vote to represent individual
constituencies for five year terms.[46]
The other two members are nominated by the President
from the
Anglo-Indian community if the President is of the
opinion that community is not adequately represented.[46]
India has a unitary three-tier judiciary, consisting
of the
Supreme Court, headed by the
Chief Justice of India, twenty-one
High Courts, and a large number of trial courts.[47]
The Supreme Court has
original jurisdiction over cases involving
fundamental rights and over disputes between states
and the Centre, and appellate jurisdiction over the High
Courts.[48]
It is
judicially independent,[47]
and has the power to declare the law and to strike down
union or state laws which contravene the Constitution.[49]
The role as the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution
is one of the most important functions of the Supreme
Court.[50]
Politics
-
The
North Block, in New Delhi, houses key
government offices.
At the federal level, India is the most populous
democracy in the world.[51][52]
For most of the years since independence, the federal
government has been led by the Indian National Congress
(INC).[53]
Politics in the states have been dominated by several
national parties including the INC, the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the
Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) and
various regional parties. From 1950 to 1990, barring two
brief periods, the INC enjoyed a parliamentary majority.
The INC was out of power between 1977 and 1980, when the
Janata Party won the election owing to public
discontent with the
state of emergency declared by the then Prime
Minister
Indira Gandhi. In 1989, a
Janata Dal-led
National Front coalition in alliance with the
Left Front coalition won the elections but managed
to stay in power for only two years.[54]
As the 1991 elections gave no political party a
majority, the INC formed a
minority government under Prime Minister
P.V. Narasimha Rao and was able to complete its
five-year term.[55]
The years 1996–1998 were a period of turmoil in the
federal government with several short-lived alliances
holding sway. The BJP formed a government briefly in
1996, followed by the
United Front coalition that excluded both the BJP
and the INC. In 1998, the BJP formed the
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with several
other parties and became the first non-Congress
government to complete a full five-year term.[56]
In the
2004 Indian elections, the INC won the largest
number of Lok Sabha seats and formed a government with a
coalition called the
United Progressive Alliance (UPA), supported by
various left-leaning parties and members opposed to the
BJP.[57]
Foreign relations and
military
-
Since its independence in 1947, India has maintained
cordial relationships with most nations. It took a
leading role in the 1950s by advocating the independence
of
European colonies in Africa and Asia.[58]
India was involved in two brief
military interventions in neighboring countries -
Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka and
Operation Cactus in Maldives. India is a member of
the
Commonwealth of Nations and a founding member of the
Non-Aligned Movement.[59]
After the
Sino-Indian War and the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, India's relationship
with the
Soviet Union warmed at the expense of ties with the
United States and continued to remain so until the end
of the
Cold War. India has fought
three wars with Pakistan, primarily over Kashmir but
it also facilitated the creation of
Bangladesh in 1971.[60]
Additional skirmishes have taken place between the two
nations particularly in 1984 over
Siachen Glacier and in 1999 over
Kargil.
In recent years, India has played an influential role
in the
ASEAN,[61]
SAARC, and the
WTO.[62]
India has provided as many as 55,000
Indian military and police personnel to serve in
thirty-five UN peace keeping operations across four
continents.[63]
Despite criticism and military sanctions, India has
consistently refused to sign the
CTBT and the
NPT, preferring instead to maintain sovereignty over
its nuclear program. Recent overtures by the Indian
government have strengthened relations with the United
States, China and Pakistan. In the economic sphere,
India has close relationships with other developing
nations in South America, Asia and Africa.
India maintains the
third-largest military force in the world, which
consists of the
Indian Army,
Navy and
Air Force.[8]
Auxiliary forces such as the
Paramilitary Forces, the
Coast Guard, and the
Strategic Forces Command also come under the
military's purview. The
President of India is the supreme commander of the
Indian armed forces. India maintains close defence
cooperation with Russia, France and Israel, who are the
chief suppliers of arms. The
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
has overseen the indigenous development of sophisticated
arms and military equipment, including ballistic
missiles, fighter aircrafts and
main battle tanks, to reduce India's dependence on
foreign imports. India became a
nuclear power in 1974 after conducting an initial
nuclear test,
Operation Smiling Buddha and
further underground testing in 1998. India maintains
a "no
first use" nuclear policy.[64]
On 10 October, 2008
Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement was signed, prior
to which India received the
IAEA and
NSG waivers, ending restrictions on nuclear
technology commerce with which India became de facto
sixth nuclear power in world.[65]
Subdivisions
-
India is a
federal republic of twenty-eight
states and seven
Union Territories.[53]
All states, and the two union territories of
Puducherry and the
National Capital Territory of Delhi have elected
governments. The other five union territories have
centrally appointed administrators and hence are under
direct rule of the President. In 1956, under the
States Reorganisation Act, states were formed on a
linguistic basis.[66]
Since then, this structure has remained largely
unchanged. Each state or union territory is further
divided into
610
districts for basic governance and
administration.[67]
The districts in turn are further divided into
tehsils and eventually into
villages.
States:
Union Territories:
Geography
-
- See also:
Geological history of India and
Climate of India
Topographic map of India.
India, the major portion of the Indian subcontinent,
sits atop the
Indian tectonic plate, a minor plate within the
Indo-Australian Plate.[68]
India's defining geological processes commenced
seventy-five million years ago, when the Indian
subcontinent, then part of the southern supercontinent
Gondwana, began a northeastwards
drift—lasting fifty million years—across the then
unformed Indian Ocean.[68]
The subcontinent's subsequent collision with the
Eurasian Plate and
subduction under it, gave rise to the
Himalayas, the planet's highest mountains, which now
abut India in the
north and the
north-east.[68]
In the former seabed immediately south of the emerging
Himalayas, plate movement created a vast
trough, which, having gradually been filled with
river-borne sediment,[69]
now forms the
Indo-Gangetic Plain.[70]
To the west of this plain, and cut off from it by the
Aravalli Range, lies the
Thar Desert.[71]
The original Indian plate now survives as peninsular
India, the oldest and geologically most stable part of
India, and extending as far north as the
Satpura and
Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel
ranges run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the
west to the
coal-rich
Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east.[72]
To their south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the
Deccan Plateau, is flanked on the left and right by
the coastal ranges,
Western Ghats and
Eastern Ghats respectively;[73]
the plateau contains the oldest rock formations in
India, 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[74]
and 68°7' and 97°25' east longitude.[75]
India's coast is 7,517 kilometers (4,671 mi) long; of
this distance, 5,423 kilometers (3,370 mi) belong to
peninsular India, and 2,094 kilometers (1,301 mi) to the
Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep Islands.[12]
According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the
mainland coast consists of the following: 43% sandy
beaches, 11% rocky coast including cliffs, and 46%
mudflats or marshy coast.[12]
Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow
through India include the
Ganges and the
Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the
Bay of Bengal.[76]
Important tributaries of the Ganges include the
Yamuna and the
Kosi, whose extremely low gradient causes disastrous
floods every year. 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;[77]
and the
Narmada and the
Tapti, which drain into the
Arabian Sea.[78]
Among notable coastal features of India are the marshy
Rann of Kutch in western India, and the alluvial
Sundarbans delta, which India shares with
Bangladesh.[79]
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.[80]
India's climate is strongly influenced by the
Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of which drive the
monsoons.[81]
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.[82][83]
The Thar Desert plays a crucial role in attracting the
moisture-laden southwest summer monsoon winds that,
between June and October, provide the majority of
India's rainfall.[81]
Four major climatic groupings predominate in India:
tropical wet,
tropical dry,
subtropical humid, and
montane.[84]
Flora and fauna
-
India, which lies within the
Indomalaya ecozone, displays significant
biodiversity. One of eighteen
megadiverse countries, it is home to 7.6% of all
mammalian, 12.6% of all
avian, 6.2% of all
reptilian, 4.4% of all
amphibian, 11.7% of all
fish, and 6.0% of all
flowering plant species.[85]
Many
ecoregions, such as the
shola
forests, exhibit extremely high rates of
endemism; overall, 33% of Indian plant species are
endemic.[86][87]
India's forest cover ranges from the
tropical rainforest of the
Andaman Islands,
Western Ghats, and
North-East India to the
coniferous forest of the Himalaya. Between these
extremes lie the
sal-dominated moist deciduous forest of eastern
India; the
teak-dominated dry deciduous forest of central and
southern India; and the
babul-dominated
thorn forest of the central Deccan and western
Gangetic plain.[88]
Important Indian trees include the medicinal
neem, widely used in rural Indian
herbal remedies. The
pipal
fig tree, shown on the seals of
Mohenjo-daro, shaded
Gautama Buddha as he sought enlightenment.
Many Indian species are descendants of
taxa originating in Gondwana, to which India
originally belonged.
Peninsular India's subsequent
movement towards, and collision with, the
Laurasian landmass set off a mass exchange of
species. However,
volcanism and climatic changes 20 million years ago
caused the
extinction of many endemic Indian forms.[89]
Soon thereafter, mammals entered India from Asia through
two
zoogeographical passes on either side of the
emerging Himalaya.[88]
Consequently, among Indian species, only 12.6% of
mammals and 4.5% of birds are endemic, contrasting with
45.8% of reptiles and 55.8% of amphibians.[85]
Notable endemics are the
Nilgiri leaf monkey and the brown and carmine
Beddome's toad of the Western Ghats. India contains
172, or 2.9%, of
IUCN-designated
threatened species.[90]
These include the
Asiatic Lion, the
Bengal Tiger, and the
Indian white-rumped vulture, which suffered a
near-extinction from ingesting the carrion of
diclofenac-treated cattle.
In recent decades, human encroachment has posed a
threat to India's 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[91]
and
Project Tiger to safeguard crucial habitat; in
addition, the Forest Conservation Act[92]
was enacted in 1980. Along with
more than five hundred wildlife sanctuaries, India
hosts
thirteen biosphere reserves,[93]
four of which are part of the
World Network of Biosphere Reserves;
twenty-five wetlands are registered under the
Ramsar Convention.[94]
Economy
-
- See also:
Economic development in India
For most of its post-independence history, India
adhered to a quasi-socialist
approach with strict government control over
private sector participation,
foreign trade and
foreign direct investment. However, since 1991,
India has gradually opened up its markets through
economic reforms and reduced government controls on
foreign trade and investment.[33]
Foreign exchange reserves have risen from US$5.8
billion in March 1991 to US$308 billion on 4 July 2008,[95]
while federal and state budget deficits have decreased.[96]
Privatisation of publicly owned companies and the
opening of certain sectors to private and foreign
participation has continued amid political debate.[97][98]
India's GDP in terms of
USD
exchange-rate is US$1.089 trillion. When measured in
terms of
purchasing power parity (PPP), India has the world's
fourth largest GDP at US$4.726 trillion. India's
per capita income (nominal) is US$977, while its per
capita (PPP) is US$2700.
With an average annual
GDP growth rate of 5.7% for the past two decades,
the economy is among the fastest growing in the world.[99]
India has the world's second largest
labour force, with 516.3 million people, 60% of whom
are employed in
agriculture and related industries; 28% in
services and related industries; and 12% in
industry.[8]
Major agricultural crops include rice, wheat, oilseed,
cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, and potatoes. The
agricultural sector accounts for 28% of GDP; the service
and industrial sectors make up 54% and 18% respectively.
Major industries include automobiles, cement, chemicals,
consumer electronics, food processing, machinery,
mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, steel,
transportation equipment, and textiles. Along with
India’s fast economic growth comes its growing demand
for energy. According to the
Energy Information Administration, India is the
sixth largest consumer of oil and third largest consumer
of coal.[100]
Although the Indian economy has grown steadily over
the last two decades; its growth has been uneven when
comparing different social groups, economic groups,
geographic regions, and rural and urban areas.[101]
A quarter of the population lives below the
international poverty line of $1 (PPP) a day.[102]
Some 86% of the population lives below $2.50 a day (PPP)[102],
compared with 81% for Sub-Saharan Africa.[102]
While 40% of the of workforce is illiterate and
another 40% almost illiterate[103],
India has capitalised on trained, English-speaking
professionals to become an important
outsourcing destination for multinational
corporations and a popular destination for
medical tourism.[104]
India has also become a major exporter of software as
well as financial, research, and technological services.
Its natural resources include arable land, bauxite,
chromite, coal, diamonds, iron ore, limestone,
manganese, mica, natural gas, petroleum, and titanium
ore.[53]
In 2007, exports stood at US$145 billion and imports
were around US$217 billion.[105]
Textiles, jewellery, engineering goods and software are
major export commodities while crude oil, machineries,
fertilizers, and chemicals are major imports. India's
most important trading partners are the United States,
the
European Union, and China.
Demographics
-
- See also:
Religion in India,
Languages of India, and
Ethnic groups of South Asia
Population density map of India.
With an estimated population of 1.13 billion,[8]
representing 17% of the
world population,[106]
India is the world's second most populous country. The
last 50 years have seen a rapid increase in population
due to
medical advances and massive increase in
agricultural productivity[107]
made by the
green revolution.[108]
Almost 70% of Indians reside in rural areas, although in
recent decades migration to larger cities has led to a
dramatic increase in the country's urban population.
India's
largest
cities are
Mumbai (formerly Bombay),
Delhi,
Kolkata (formerly Calcutta),
Chennai (formerly Madras),
Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore),
Hyderabad and
Ahmedabad.[53]
India is the most culturally, linguistically and
genetically diverse geographical entity after the
African continent.[53]
India is home to two major
linguistic families:
Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population)
and
Dravidian (spoken by about 24%). Other languages
spoken in India come from the
Austro-Asiatic and
Tibeto-Burman linguistic families.
Hindi, with the largest number of speakers,[109]
is the official language of the
union.[110]
English, which is extensively used in business and
administration, has the status of a 'subsidiary official
language;'[111]
it is also important in education, especially as a
medium of higher education. In addition, every state and
union territory has its own official languages, and the
constitution also recognises in particular 21 other
languages that are either abundantly spoken or have
classical status. While
Sanskrit and
Tamil have been studied as
classical languages for many years,[112]
the
Government of India, using its own criteria, has
also accorded
classical language status to
Kannada and
Telugu.[113]
The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.[114]
Over 800 million Indians (80.5%) are
Hindu. Other religious groups include
Muslims (13.4%),
Christians (2.3%),
Sikhs (1.9%),
Buddhists (0.8%),
Jains (0.4%),
Jews,
Zoroastrians,
Bahá'ís and others.[115]
Tribals constitute 8.1% of the population.[116]
India's literacy rate is 64.8% (53.7% for females and
75.3% for males).[8]
The state of
Kerala has the highest litera
