Back Индиа Abkhazian India ACE Индие ADY Indië Afrikaans Indien ALS ህንድ Amharic India AMI India AN Indea ANG India ANN

India

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

Republic of India
Bhārat Gaṇarājya
Motto: "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit)
"Truth Alone Triumphs"[1]
Anthem: "Jana Gana Mana" (Hindi)[a][2][3]
"Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People"[4][2]
National song: "Vande Mataram" (Sanskrit)[c]
"I Bow to Thee, Mother"[b][1][2]
Image of a globe centred on India, with India highlighted.
Territory controlled by India shown in dark green; territory claimed but not controlled shown in light green
CapitalNew Delhi
28°36′50″N 77°12′30″E / 28.61389°N 77.20833°E / 28.61389; 77.20833
Largest city by city proper populationMumbai
Largest city by metropolitan area populationDelhi
Official languages
Recognised regional languages
Native languages447 languages[g]
Religion
(2011)[12]
Demonym(s)
GovernmentFederal parliamentary republic
• President
Droupadi Murmu
Jagdeep Dhankhar
Narendra Modi
Om Birla
Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud
LegislatureParliament
• Upper house
Rajya Sabha
• Lower house
Lok Sabha
Independence 
from the United Kingdom
• Dominion
15 August 1947
• Republic
26 January 1950
Area
• Total
3,287,263 km2 (1,269,219 sq mi)[2][h] (7th)
• Water (%)
9.6
Population
• 2023 estimate
Neutral increase 1,428,627,663[14] (1st)
• 2011 census
Neutral increase 1,210,854,977[15][16] (2nd)
• Density
427.2/km2 (1,106.4/sq mi) (30th)
GDP (PPP)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $16.019 trillion[17] (3rd)
• Per capita
Increase $11,111[17] (122nd)
GDP (nominal)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $3.889 trillion[17] (5th)
• Per capita
Increase $2,697[17] (141st)
Gini (2021)Positive decrease 32.8[18]
medium inequality
HDI (2022)Increase 0.644[19]
medium (134th)
CurrencyIndian rupee (₹) (INR)
Time zoneUTC+05:30 (IST)
DST is not observed.
Date format
Drives onleft[20]
Calling code+91
ISO 3166 codeIN
Internet TLD.in (others)

India, officially the Republic of India,[j][21] is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country in the world by area and the most populous country. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;[k] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia.

Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago.[23][24][25] 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.[26] Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus river basin 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE.[27] By 1200 BCE, an archaic form of Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, had diffused into India from the northwest.[28][29] Its evidence today is found in the hymns of the Rigveda. Preserved by an oral tradition that was resolutely vigilant, the Rigveda records the dawning of Hinduism in India.[30] The Dravidian languages of India were supplanted in the northern and western regions.[31] By 400 BCE, stratification and exclusion by caste had emerged within Hinduism,[32] and Buddhism and Jainism had arisen, proclaiming social orders unlinked to heredity.[33] Early political consolidations gave rise to the loose-knit Maurya and Gupta Empires based in the Ganges Basin.[34] Their collective era was suffused with wide-ranging creativity,[35] but also marked by the declining status of women,[36] and the incorporation of untouchability into an organised system of belief.[l][37] In South India, the Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian-languages scripts and religious cultures to the kingdoms of Southeast Asia.[38]

In the early mediaeval era, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism became established on India's southern and western coasts.[39] Muslim armies from Central Asia intermittently overran India's northern plains,[40] eventually founding the Delhi Sultanate and drawing northern India into the cosmopolitan networks of mediaeval Islam.[41] In the 15th century, the Vijayanagara Empire created a long-lasting composite Hindu culture in south India.[42] In the Punjab, Sikhism emerged, rejecting institutionalised religion.[43] The Mughal Empire, in 1526, ushered in two centuries of relative peace,[44] leaving a legacy of luminous architecture.[m][45] Gradually expanding rule of the British East India Company followed, turning India into a colonial economy but also consolidating its sovereignty.[46] British Crown rule began in 1858. The rights promised to Indians were granted slowly,[47][48] but technological changes were introduced, and modern ideas of education and public life took root.[49] A pioneering and influential nationalist movement emerged, which was noted for nonviolent resistance and became the major factor in ending British rule.[50][51] In 1947, the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two independent dominions,[52][53][54][55] a Hindu-majority dominion of India and a Muslim-majority dominion of Pakistan, amid large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration.[56]

India has been a federal republic since 1950, governed through a democratic parliamentary system, and has been the world's most populous democracy since the time of its independence in 1947.[57][58][59] It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society. India's nominal per capita income increased from US$64 annually in 1951 to US$2,601 in 2022, and its literacy rate from 16.6% to 74%. During the same time, its population grew from 361 million to almost 1.4 billion,[60] and India became the most populous country in 2023.[61][62] From being a comparatively destitute country in 1951,[63] India has become a fast-growing major economy and a hub for information technology services, with an expanding middle class.[64] India has a space programme with several planned or completed extraterrestrial missions. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture.[65] India has substantially reduced its rate of poverty, though at the cost of increasing economic inequality.[66] India is a nuclear-weapon state, which ranks high in military expenditure. It has disputes over Kashmir with its neighbours, Pakistan and China, unresolved since the mid-20th century.[67] Among the socio-economic challenges India faces are gender inequality, child malnutrition,[68] and rising levels of air pollution.[69] India's land is megadiverse, with four biodiversity hotspots.[70] Its forest cover comprises 21.7% of its area.[71] India's wildlife, which has traditionally been viewed with tolerance in India's culture,[72] is supported among these forests, and elsewhere, in protected habitats.

  1. ^ a b c National Informatics Centre 2005.
  2. ^ a b c d "National Symbols | National Portal of India". India.gov.in. Archived from the original on 4 February 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2017. The National Anthem of India Jana Gana Mana, composed originally in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore, was adopted in its Hindi version by the Constituent Assembly as the National Anthem of India on 24 January 1950.
  3. ^ "National anthem of India: a brief on 'Jana Gana Mana'". News18. 14 August 2012. Archived from the original on 17 April 2019. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  4. ^ Wolpert 2003, p. 1.
  5. ^ Constituent Assembly of India 1950.
  6. ^ Ministry of Home Affairs 1960.
  7. ^ "Profile | National Portal of India". India.gov.in. Archived from the original on 30 August 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  8. ^ "Constitutional Provisions – Official Language Related Part-17 of the Constitution of India". Department of Official Language via Government of India. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  9. ^ "50th Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India (July 2012 to June 2013)" (PDF). Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  10. ^ Lewis, M. Paul; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2014). "Ethnologue: Languages of the World : India" (17th ed.). Dallas, Texas: Ethnologue by SIL International. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
  11. ^ "Ethnologue : Languages of the World (Seventeenth edition) : Statistical Summaries". Ethnologue by SIL International. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Census2011religion was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Library of Congress 2004.
  14. ^ "World Population Prospects". Population Division – United Nations. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  15. ^ "Population Enumeration Data (Final Population)". 2011 Census Data. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original on 22 May 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  16. ^ "A – 2 Decadal Variation in Population Since 1901" (PDF). 2011 Census Data. Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 April 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  17. ^ a b c d "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2024 Edition. (India)". www.imf.org. International Monetary Fund. 22 October 2024. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  18. ^ "Gini index (World Bank estimate) – India". World Bank.
  19. ^ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  20. ^ "List of all left- & right-driving countries around the world". worldstandards.eu. 13 May 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  21. ^ –The Essential Desk Reference, Oxford University Press, 2002, p. 76, ISBN 978-0-19-512873-4 "Official name: Republic of India.";
    –John Da Graça (2017), Heads of State and Government, London: Macmillan, p. 421, ISBN 978-1-349-65771-1 "Official name: Republic of India; Bharat Ganarajya (Hindi)";
    –Graham Rhind (2017), Global Sourcebook of Address Data Management: A Guide to Address Formats and Data in 194 Countries, Taylor & Francis, p. 302, ISBN 978-1-351-93326-1 "Official name: Republic of India; Bharat.";
    –Bradnock, Robert W. (2015), The Routledge Atlas of South Asian Affairs, Routledge, p. 108, ISBN 978-1-317-40511-5 "Official name: English: Republic of India; Hindi:Bharat Ganarajya";
    –Penguin Compact Atlas of the World, Penguin, 2012, p. 140, ISBN 978-0-7566-9859-1 "Official name: Republic of India";
    –Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary (3rd ed.), Merriam-Webster, 1997, pp. 515–516, ISBN 978-0-87779-546-9 "Officially, Republic of India";
    –Complete Atlas of the World: The Definitive View of the Earth (3rd ed.), DK Publishing, 2016, p. 54, ISBN 978-1-4654-5528-4 "Official name: Republic of India";
    –Worldwide Government Directory with Intergovernmental Organizations 2013, CQ Press, 2013, p. 726, ISBN 978-1-4522-9937-2 "India (Republic of India; Bharat Ganarajya)"
  22. ^ "Ministry of Home Affairs (Department of Border Management)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 March 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
  23. ^ Petraglia & Allchin 2007, p. 10, "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by modern humans originating in Africa. ... Coalescence dates for most non-European populations average to between 73 and 55 ka."
  24. ^ Dyson 2018, p. 1, "Modern human beings—Homo sapiens—originated in Africa. Then, intermittently, sometime between 60,000 and 80,000 years ago, tiny groups of them began to enter the north-west of the Indian subcontinent. It seems likely that initially they came by way of the coast. ... it is virtually certain that there were Homo sapiens in the subcontinent 55,000 years ago, even though the earliest fossils that have been found of them date to only about 30,000 years before the present."
  25. ^ Fisher 2018, p. 23, "Scholars estimate that the first successful expansion of the Homo sapiens range beyond Africa and across the Arabian Peninsula occurred from as early as 80,000 years ago to as late as 40,000 years ago, although there may have been prior unsuccessful emigrations. Some of their descendants extended the human range ever further in each generation, spreading into each habitable land they encountered. One human channel was along the warm and productive coastal lands of the Persian Gulf and northern Indian Ocean. Eventually, various bands entered India between 75,000 years ago and 35,000 years ago."
  26. ^ Dyson 2018, p. 28
  27. ^ (a) Dyson 2018, pp. 4–5;
    (b) Fisher 2018, p. 33
  28. ^ Lowe, John J. (2015). Participles in Rigvedic Sanskrit: The syntax and semantics of adjectival verb forms. Oxford University Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0-19-100505-3. (The Rigveda) consists of 1,028 hymns (suktas), highly crafted poetic compositions originally intended for recital during rituals and for the invocation of and communication with the Indo-Aryan gods. Modern scholarly opinion largely agrees that these hymns were composed between around 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE, during the eastward migration of the Indo-Aryan tribes from the mountains of what is today northern Afghanistan across the Punjab into north India.
  29. ^ (a) Witzel, Michael (2008). "Vedas and Upanisads". In Gavin Flood (ed.). The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 68–70. ISBN 978-0-470-99868-7. It is known from internal evidence that the Vedic texts were orally composed in northern India, at first in the Greater Punjab and later on also in more eastern areas, including northern Bihar, between ca. 1500 BCE and ca. 500–400 BCE. The oldest text, the Rgveda, must have been more or less contemporary with the Mitanni texts of northern Syria/Iraq (1450–1350 BCE); ... The Vedic texts were orally composed and transmitted, without the use of script, in an unbroken line of transmission from teacher to student that was formalised early on. This ensured an impeccable textual transmission superior to the classical texts of other cultures; it is in fact something of a tape-recording of ca. 1500–500 BCE. Not just the actual words, but even the long-lost musical (tonal) accent (as in old Greek or in Japanese) has been preserved up to the present. (pp. 68–69) ... The RV text was composed before the introduction and massive use of iron, that is before ca. 1200–1000 BCE. (p. 70)
    (b) Doniger, Wendy (2014), On Hinduism, Oxford University Press, pp. xviii, 10, ISBN 978-0-19-936009-3, A Chronology of Hinduism: ca. 1500–1000 BCE Rig Veda; ca. 1200–900 BCE Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda (p. xviii); Hindu texts began with the Rig Veda ('Knowledge of Verses'), composed in northwest India around 1500 BCE (p. 10)
    (c) Ludden 2014, p. 19, "In Punjab, a dry region with grasslands watered by five rivers (hence 'panch' and 'ab') draining the western Himalayas, one prehistoric culture left no material remains, but some of its ritual texts were preserved orally over the millennia. The culture is called Aryan, and evidence in its texts indicates that it spread slowly south-east, following the course of the Yamuna and Ganga Rivers. Its elite called itself Arya (pure) and distinguished themselves sharply from others. Aryans led kin groups organized as nomadic horse-herding tribes. Their ritual texts are called Vedas, composed in Sanskrit. Vedic Sanskrit is recorded only in hymns that were part of Vedic rituals to Aryan gods. To be Aryan apparently meant to belong to the elite among pastoral tribes. Texts that record Aryan culture are not precisely datable, but they seem to begin around 1200 BCE with four collections of Vedic hymns (Rg, Sama, Yajur, and Artharva)."
    (d) Dyson 2018, pp. 14–15, "Although the collapse of the Indus valley civilization is no longer believed to have been due to an 'Aryan invasion' it is widely thought that, at roughly the same time, or perhaps a few centuries later, new Indo-Aryan-speaking people and influences began to enter the subcontinent from the north-west. Detailed evidence is lacking. Nevertheless, a predecessor of the language that would eventually be called Sanskrit was probably introduced into the north-west sometime between 3,900 and 3,000 years ago. This language was related to one then spoken in eastern Iran; and both of these languages belonged to the Indo-European language family. ... It seems likely that various small-scale migrations were involved in the gradual introduction of the predecessor language and associated cultural characteristics. However, there may not have been a tight relationship between movements of people on the one hand, and changes in language and culture on the other. Moreover, the process whereby a dynamic new force gradually arose—a people with a distinct ideology who eventually seem to have referred to themselves as 'Arya'—was certainly two-way. That is, it involved a blending of new features which came from outside with other features—probably including some surviving Harappan influences—that were already present. Anyhow, it would be quite a few centuries before Sanskrit was written down. And the hymns and stories of the Arya people—especially the Vedas and the later Mahabharata and Ramayana epics—are poor guides as to historical events. Of course, the emerging Arya were to have a huge impact on the history of the subcontinent. Nevertheless, little is known about their early presence.";
    (e) Robb 2011, pp. 46–, "The expansion of Aryan culture is supposed to have begun around 1500 BCE. It should not be thought that this Aryan emergence (though it implies some migration) necessarily meant either a sudden invasion of new peoples, or a complete break with earlier traditions. It comprises a set of cultural ideas and practices, upheld by a Sanskrit-speaking elite, or Aryans. The features of this society are recorded in the Vedas."
  30. ^ (a) Jamison, Stephanie; Brereton, Joel (2020), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, pp. 2, 4, ISBN 978-0-19-063339-4, The RgVeda is one of the four Vedas, which together constitute the oldest texts in Sanskrit and the earliest evidence for what will become Hinduism. (p. 2) Although Vedic religion is very different in many regards from what is known as Classical Hinduism, the seeds are there. Gods like Visnu and Siva (under the name Rudra), who will become so dominant later, are already present in the Rgveda, though in roles both lesser than and different from those they will later play, and the principal Rgvedic gods like Indra remain in later Hinduism, though in diminished capacity (p. 4).;
    (b) Flood, Gavin (2020), "Introduction", in Gavin Flood (ed.), The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Practice: Hindu Practice, Oxford University Press, pp. 4–, ISBN 978-0-19-105322-1, I take the term 'Hinduism to meaningfully denote a range and history of practice characterised by a number of features, particularly reference to Vedic textual and sacrificial origins, belonging to endogamous social units (jati/varna), participating in practices that involve making an offering to a deity and receiving a blessing (puja), and a first-level cultural polytheism (although many Hindus adhere to a second-level monotheism in which many gods are regarded as emanations or manifestations of the one, supreme being).;
    (c) Michaels, Axel (2017). Patrick Olivelle, Donald R. Davis (ed.). The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Law: A New History of Dharmaśāstra. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 86–97. ISBN 978-0-19-100709-5. Almost all traditional Hindu families observe until today at least three samskaras (initiation, marriage, and death ritual). Most other rituals have lost their popularity, are combined with other rites of passage, or are drastically shortened. Although samskaras vary from region to region, from class (varna) to class, and from caste to caste, their core elements remain the same owing to the common source, the Veda, and a common priestly tradition preserved by the Brahmin priests. (p 86)
    (d) Flood, Gavin D. (1996). An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge University Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-521-43878-0. It is this Sansrit, vedic, tradition which has maintained a continuity into modern times and which has provided the most important resource and inspiration for Hindu traditions and individuals. The Veda is the foundation for most later developments in what is known as Hinduism.
  31. ^ Dyson 2018, pp. 16, 25
  32. ^ Dyson 2018, p. 16
  33. ^ Fisher 2018, p. 59
  34. ^ (a) Dyson 2018, pp. 16–17;
    (b) Fisher 2018, p. 67;
    (c) Robb 2011, pp. 56–57;
    (d) Ludden 2014, pp. 29–30.
  35. ^ (a) Ludden 2014, pp. 28–29;
    (b) Glenn Van Brummelen (2014), "Arithmetic", in Thomas F. Glick; Steven Livesey; Faith Wallis (eds.), Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, pp. 46–48, ISBN 978-1-135-45932-1
  36. ^ (a) Dyson 2018, p. 20;
    (b) Stein 2010, p. 90;
    (c) Ramusack, Barbara N. (1999), "Women in South Asia", in Barbara N. Ramusack; Sharon L. Sievers (eds.), Women in Asia: Restoring Women to History, Indiana University Press, pp. 27–29, ISBN 0-253-21267-7
  37. ^ a b Kulke & Rothermund 2004, p. 93.
  38. ^ Asher & Talbot 2006, p. 17
  39. ^ (a) Ludden 2014, p. 54;
    (b) Asher & Talbot 2006, pp. 78–79;
    (c) Fisher 2018, p. 76
  40. ^ (a) Ludden 2014, pp. 68–70;
    (b) Asher & Talbot 2006, pp. 19, 24
  41. ^ (a) Dyson 2018, p. 48;
    (b) Asher & Talbot 2006, p. 52
  42. ^ Asher & Talbot 2006, p. 74
  43. ^ Asher & Talbot 2006, p. 267
  44. ^ Asher & Talbot 2006, p. 152
  45. ^ a b Fisher 2018, p. 106
  46. ^ (a) Asher & Talbot 2006, p. 289
    (b) Fisher 2018, p. 120
  47. ^ Taylor, Miles (2016), "The British royal family and the colonial empire from the Georgians to Prince George", in Aldrish, Robert; McCreery, Cindy (eds.), Crowns and Colonies: European Monarchies and Overseas Empires, Manchester University Press, pp. 38–39, ISBN 978-1-5261-0088-7
  48. ^ Peers 2013, p. 76.
  49. ^ Embree, Ainslie Thomas; Hay, Stephen N.; Bary, William Theodore De (1988), "Nationalism Takes Root: The Moderates", Sources of Indian Tradition: Modern India and Pakistan, Columbia University Press, p. 85, ISBN 978-0-231-06414-9
  50. ^ Marshall, P. J. (2001), The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire, Cambridge University Press, p. 179, ISBN 978-0-521-00254-7, The first modern nationalist movement to arise in the non-European empire, and one that became an inspiration for many others, was the Indian Congress.
  51. ^ Chiriyankandath, James (2016), Parties and Political Change in South Asia, Routledge, p. 2, ISBN 978-1-317-58620-3, South Asian parties include several of the oldest in the post-colonial world, foremost among them the 129-year-old Indian National Congress that led India to independence in 1947
  52. ^ Fisher 2018, pp. 173–174: "The partition of South Asia that produced India and West and East Pakistan resulted from years of bitter negotiations and recriminations ... The departing British also decreed that the hundreds of princes, who ruled one-third of the subcontinent and a quarter of its population, became legally independent, their status to be settled later. Geographical location, personal and popular sentiment, and substantial pressure and incentives from the new governments led almost all princes eventually to merge their domains into either Pakistan or India. ... Each new government asserted its exclusive sovereignty within its borders, realigning all territories, animals, plants, minerals, and all other natural and human-made resources as either Pakistani or Indian property, to be used for its national development... Simultaneously, the central civil and military services and judiciary split roughly along religious 'communal' lines, even as they divided movable government assets according to a negotiated formula: 22.7 percent for Pakistan and 77.3 percent for India."
  53. ^ Chatterji, Joya; Washbrook, David (2013), "Introduction: Concepts and Questions", in Chatterji, Joya; Washbrook, David (eds.), Routledge Handbook of the South Asian Diaspora, London and New York: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-48010-9, Joya Chatterji describes how the partition of the British Indian empire into the new nation states of India and Pakistan produced new diaspora on a vast, and hitherto unprecedented, scale, but hints that the sheer magnitude of refugee movements in South Asia after 1947 must be understood in the context of pre-existing migratory flows within the partitioned regions (see also Chatterji 2013). She also demonstrates that the new national states of India and Pakistan were quickly drawn into trying to stem this migration. As they put into place laws designed to restrict the return of partition emigrants, this produced new dilemmas for both new nations in their treatment of 'overseas Indians'; and many of them lost their right to return to their places of origin in the subcontinent, and also their claims to full citizenship in host countries.
  54. ^ Talbot, Ian; Singh, Gurharpal (2009), The Partition of India, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-85661-4, archived from the original on 13 December 2016, retrieved 15 November 2015, When the British divided and quit India in August 1947, they not only partitioned the subcontinent with the emergence of the two nations of India and Pakistan but also the provinces of Punjab and Bengal. ... Indeed for many the Indian subcontinent's division in August 1947 is seen as a unique event which defies comparative historical and conceptual analysis
  55. ^ Khan, Yasmin (2017) [2007], The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan (2nd ed.), New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 1, ISBN 978-0-300-23032-1, South Asians learned that the British Indian empire would be partitioned on 3 June 1947. They heard about it on the radio, from relations and friends, by reading newspapers and, later, through government pamphlets. Among a population of almost four hundred million, where the vast majority live in the countryside, ploughing the land as landless peasants or sharecroppers, it is hardly surprising that many thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, did not hear the news for many weeks afterwards. For some, the butchery and forced relocation of the summer months of 1947 may have been the first that they knew about the creation of the two new states rising from the fragmentary and terminally weakened British empire in India
  56. ^ (a) Copland 2001, pp. 71–78;
    (b) Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, p. 222.
  57. ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2012, p. 327: "Even though much remains to be done, especially in regard to eradicating poverty and securing effective structures of governance, India's achievements since independence in sustaining freedom and democracy have been singular among the world's new nations."
  58. ^ Stein, Burton (2012), Arnold, David (ed.), A History of India, The Blackwell History of the World Series (2 ed.), Wiley-Blackwell, One of these is the idea of India as 'the world's largest democracy', but a democracy forged less by the creation of representative institutions and expanding electorate under British rule than by the endeavours of India's founding fathers – Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and Ambedkar – and the labours of the Constituent Assembly between 1946 and 1949, embodied in the Indian constitution of 1950. This democratic order, reinforced by the regular holding of nationwide elections and polling for the state assemblies, has, it can be argued, consistently underpinned a fundamentally democratic state structure – despite the anomaly of the Emergency and the apparent durability of the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty.
  59. ^ Fisher 2018, pp. 184–185: "Since 1947, India's internal disputes over its national identity, while periodically bitter and occasionally punctuated by violence, have been largely managed with remarkable and sustained commitment to national unity and democracy."
  60. ^ Dyson 2018, pp. 219, 262
  61. ^ Biswas, Soutik (1 May 2023). "Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic?". BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  62. ^ World Population Prospects 2022: Summary of Results (PDF). New York: United Nations Department of Social and Economic Affairs. 2022. pp. i.
  63. ^ Fisher 2018, p. 8
  64. ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2012, pp. 265–266
  65. ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2012, p. 266
  66. ^ Dyson 2018, p. 216
  67. ^ (a) "Kashmir, region Indian subcontinent", Encyclopaedia Britannica, archived from the original on 13 August 2019, retrieved 15 August 2019, Kashmir, region of the northwestern Indian subcontinent ... has been the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan since the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.;
    (b) Pletcher, Kenneth, "Aksai Chin, Plateau Region, Asia", Encyclopaedia Britannica, archived from the original on 2 April 2019, retrieved 16 August 2019, Aksai Chin, Chinese (Pinyin) Aksayqin, portion of the Kashmir region, ... constitutes nearly all the territory of the Chinese-administered sector of Kashmir that is claimed by India;
    (c) Bosworth, C. E (2006). "Kashmir". Encyclopedia Americana: Jefferson to Latin. Scholastic Library Publishing. p. 328. ISBN 978-0-7172-0139-6. KASHMIR, kash'mer, the northernmost region of the Indian subcontinent, administered partly by India, partly by Pakistan, and partly by China. The region has been the subject of a bitter dispute between India and Pakistan since they became independent in 1947
  68. ^ Narayan, Jitendra; John, Denny; Ramadas, Nirupama (2018). "Malnutrition in India: status and government initiatives". Journal of Public Health Policy. 40 (1): 126–141. doi:10.1057/s41271-018-0149-5. ISSN 0197-5897. PMID 30353132. S2CID 53032234.
  69. ^ Balakrishnan, Kalpana; Dey, Sagnik; et al. (2019). "The impact of air pollution on deaths, disease burden, and life expectancy across the states of India: the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017". The Lancet Planetary Health. 3 (1): e26–e39. doi:10.1016/S2542-5196(18)30261-4. ISSN 2542-5196. PMC 6358127. PMID 30528905.
  70. ^ India, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 2019, archived from the original on 1 November 2020, retrieved 21 May 2019
  71. ^ Cite error: The named reference ISFR was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  72. ^ Karanth & Gopal 2005, p. 374.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Developed by StudentB