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India

Republic of India
Bhārat Gaṇarājya
Motto: "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit)
"Truth Alone Triumphs"[1]
Anthem: "Jana Gana Mana"[a][2][3]
"Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People"[4][2]
National song
"Vande Mātaram" (Sanskrit)[b]
"I Bow to Thee, Mother"[c][1][2]
Image of a globe centred on India, with India highlighted.
Land under the control of India is shown in dark green.
Land claimed but not under the control of India is 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
Official languages
Recognised regional languages

Native languages447 languages[f]
Religion
(2011)
Demonym(s)
GovernmentFederal parliamentary republic
• President
Droupadi Murmu
Jagdeep Dhankhar
Narendra Modi
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[2] km2 (1,269,219 sq mi)[g] (7th)
• Water (%)
9.6
Population
• 2023 estimate
Neutral increase 1,428,627,663[13] (1st)
• 2011 census
Neutral increase 1,210,854,977[14][15] (2nd)
• Density
Error in convert: Value "auto" must be a number (help) (30th)
GDP (PPP)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $14.594 trillion[16] (3rd)
• Per capita
Increase $10,123[16] (125th)
GDP (nominal)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $3.937 trillion[16] (5th)
• Per capita
Increase $2,731[16] (136th)
Gini (2021)Positive decrease 32.8[17]
medium
HDI (2022)Increase 0.644[18]
medium · 134th
CurrencyIndian rupee (₹) (INR)
Time zoneUTC+05:30 (IST)
DST is not observed
Date format
Driving sideleft[19]
Calling code+91
ISO 3166 codeIN
Internet TLD.in (others)

India (Hindi pronunciation: Bhārat), officially the Republic of India (Hindi pronunciation: Bhārat Gaṇarājya),[20] also commonly called as Hindustan,[21] is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area. It is also the largest country by number of people.[22] It is the world's largest democracy by number of people since 1947.[23][24][25]

India is a peninsula. It has the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, and the Himalayas on the north. It has six neighbours: Pakistan in the northwest;[i] China, Nepal and Bhutan in the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. Sri Lanka and the Maldives are nearby to the south. Its Andaman and Nicobar Islands are near Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand.

Modern humans came to the Indian subcontinent from Africa more than 55,000 years ago.[26][27][28] They have lived there for long time. At first, they had lived in the subcontinent as hunter-gatherers. The Indian subcontinent is the second most diverse region after Africa.[29] Humans began to create settlements in the subcontinent 9,000 years ago, on the western banks of the Indus River. The settlements became parts of the Indus Valley Civilisation in the third millennium BCE.[30] By 1200 BCE, Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, spread to India from the northwest.[31][32] The first presence of Sanskrit is found in the hymns (songs of worship) of the Rigveda. The hymns were spread from one person to another orally, not by any book. They show the early forms of Hinduism.[33] The Indo-Aryan languages replaced the Dravidian languages in the northern and western regions of India.[34] By 400 BCE, the caste system was developed within Hinduism.[35] Buddhism and Jainism were also developed in India at the same time.[36]

India has been a federal republic since 1950. Its government is a democratic parliamentary system. It is a multilingual (multiple languages) and multicultural (multiple cultures) society.[37] The capital city of India is New Delhi. India has the second largest military force in the world and is also a nuclear weapon state.[38] India's economy became the world's fastest growing in the G20 developing nations during 2014, replacing the People's Republic of China.[39] India's literacy and wealth are also rising.[40]

India has the fifth largest economy by nominal GDP, the third largest by GDP (PPP) and is one of the fastest growing major economy. According to New World Wealth, India is the fifth richest country in the world with a total individual wealth of $12.6 trillion.[41][42] However, it still has many social and economic issues, for example poverty, pollution, social equality, religious extremism, terrorism and corruption.[43] India has reduced its rate of poverty. But its economic inequality has increased.[44]

India is a founding member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and has signed the Kyoto Protocol. It is also a member of the G20 developing nations. India has its own space agency (ISRO). It has done much research throughout the Solar System. It has sent spacecraft to the Moon and Mars. Indian movies, music and spiritual teachings are becoming more important in global culture.[45] Sources describe it as a potential superpower, because of its rising economy and increase in global influence. India is a country with nuclear weapons. It also has a high rank in military expenditure. It has disputes over Kashmir with its neighbours, Pakistan and China, since the middle of the 20th century.[46]

India has the fouth largest number of spoken languages per country in the world, only behind Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Nigeria.[47] Most of Indians follow Hinduism at 80%, but people of different religions such as Buddhism, Sikhism and Islam also live there.[48]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 National Informatics Centre 2005.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "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. ↑ Ministry of Home Affairs 1960.
  6. ↑ "Profile | National Portal of India". India.gov.in. Archived from the original on 30 August 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
  7. ↑ "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.
  8. ↑ "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.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ "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.
  11. ↑ Cite error: The named reference Census2011religion was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  12. ↑ Library of Congress 2004.
  13. ↑ "World Population Prospects – Population Division – United Nations". population.un.org. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
  14. ↑ "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.
  15. ↑ "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.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 "World Economic Outlook Database, April Edition. (India)". www.imf.org. International Monetary Fund. 16 April 2024. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  17. ↑ "Gini index (World Bank estimate) – India". World Bank.
  18. ↑ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  19. ↑ "List of all left- & right-driving countries around the world". worldstandards.eu. 13 May 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  20. ↑ –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)"
  21. ↑ Barrow, Ian J. (2003). "From Hindustan to India: Naming Change in Changing Names". South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 26 (1): 37–49. doi:10.1080/085640032000063977. ISSN 0085-6401.
  22. ↑ Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (24 April 2023). "India overtakes China to become world's most populous country". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
  23. ↑ 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."
  24. ↑ 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.
  25. ↑ 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."
  26. ↑ 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 73–55 ka."
  27. ↑ 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."
  28. ↑ 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."
  29. ↑ Dyson 2018, p. 28
  30. ↑ (a) Dyson 2018, pp. 4–5;
    (b) Fisher 2018, p. 33
  31. ↑ 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.
  32. ↑ (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."
  33. ↑ (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.
  34. ↑ Dyson 2018, pp. 16, 25
  35. ↑ Dyson 2018, p. 16
  36. ↑ Fisher 2018, p. 59
  37. ↑ Dyson 2018, pp. 219, 262
  38. ↑ "India Nuclear Forces". Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved 11 April 2009.
  39. ↑ "India clocks 7.5% growth in January-March quarter, becomes world's fastest growing economy". DNA India. 29 May 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  40. ↑ Singh, Gyanant (16 January 2013). "Rising economic wealth and literacy behind increase of court cases, claims report". India Today. Retrieved 11 January 2016.
  41. ↑ "India on 10 wealthiest country list, takes 5th spot". The Times of India. 23 August 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  42. ↑ "India's large population helps push it to 5th position in wealthiest nations list". The Economic Times. 23 August 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  43. ↑ "Hindu extremists are 'hunting down' Muslims, with impunity". Le Monde.fr. 25 August 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
  44. ↑ Dyson 2018, p. 216
  45. ↑ Metcalf & Metcalf 2012, p. 266
  46. ↑ (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
  47. ↑ "Which countries have the most languages?". Ethnologue. 8 February 2023.
  48. ↑ Kramer, Stephanie. "Key findings about the religious composition of India". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 21 January 2024.


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