Portal:India

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Introduction

India (IAST: Bhārat), also known as the Republic of India (IAST: Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country (with over 1.2 billion people), and the most populous democracy in the world. It is 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 northeast; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE. In the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, and Buddhism and Jainism arose. Early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires; the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, and Sikhism emerged, all adding to the region's diverse culture. Much of the north fell to the Delhi Sultanate; the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal Empire. In the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance and led to India's independence in 1947.

Selected general articles

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Did you know...

... that Roshanara, who was born and trained in India, taught Bette Davis to dance?
... that Gujarati folk singer Diwaliben Bhil was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India?
... that former Bengal cricketer Prakash Poddar is regarded as the man who "discovered" Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni in 2003?
... that Subhra Guha, a vocal musician in the Indian Hindustani classical tradition, trained in Agra gharana, and has a singing repertoire in khayals, thumri and dadra?
... that Migrant Architects of the NHS recounts how doctors from the Indian subcontinent immigrated to Britain and became general practitioners?
... that Rano M. Shaiza helped further the Naga peace accord by brokering a meeting between her uncle, the founder of the Naga separatist movement, and the Prime Minister of India?

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Selected images

A daily wage worker in a salt field. The average minimum wage of daily labourers is around Rs.100 per day
Rukmini Devi Arundale, one of the foremost revivalists of bharatnatyam dance in the 20th century, performs at a concert.
About 14.5 million people lost their homes as a result of the partition of India in 1947.
Women in Kargil, Jammu and Kashmir
Kalarippayattu, a martial art native to Kerala
The Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar commemorates the enlightenment of Gautama Buddha.
Four activities of a Hindu priest, clockwise from top left: (1) preparing the deity for public worship; (2) making sandalwood paste for ritual blessing; (3) successively dripping the altar with milk, honey, dry fruit, yoghurt, and bananas to make ambrosia; (4) distributing the Prasad, food viewed as blessed by the deity, to the worshipers.
Top: Roti bread and sabzi (vegetable) stew are cooked outdoors in the Thar Desert using traditional Rajasthani methods. Bottom: The kitchen of a Hindu temple.
A sculpture fashioned in the Gandharan tradition depicting Gautama Buddha, founder of Buddhism, at the Tokyo National Museum
Schoolchildren in Chambal, Madhya Pradesh eating a mid-day meal. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme attempts to lower rates of childhood malnutrition in India.
Children prepare for a traditional dance in Tripura.
Taj Mahal, an example of Mughal architecture in India
Muria tribal dancers in Bastar, Chhattisgarh
A Bondo woman walks to a weekly market in Chhattisgarh.
A Sikh pilgrim at the Harmandir Sahib, or Golden Temple, in Amritsar, Punjab
A small hydro-electric dam on the Ganges Canal at Nagla Kabir, UP. The electricity sector in India has an installed capacity of 205.34 Gigawatt (GW), the world's fifth largest. Coal-fired plants account for 56% of India's electricity capacity, renewal hydropower for 19%.
Agricultural workers involved in Rice planting. Rice production in India reached 102.75 million tons in 2011–12.
Top: A North Indian home-cooked tiffin lunch as delivered to an office by a dabbawala. Bottom: A South Indian thali-style dinner as served in a restaurant.
A topographic map of India
The Awadhi Hindi poet Tulsidas composed the Ramcharitmanas, which is one of the best-known vernacular versions of the Ramayana.
An assortment of Indian spices
A Rajput Hindu marriage ceremony
The Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) is the Indian national bird. It roosts in moist and dry-deciduous forests, cultivated areas, and village precincts.
Hampi, seat of the Vijayanagara Empire
A feeder ship in Diamond Harbour, West Bengal. International trade accounted for 14% of India's GDP in 1988, 24% in 1998, and 53% in 2008.
The Kedar Range of the Greater Himalayas rises behind Kedarnath Temple (Indian state of Uttarakhand), which is one of the twelve jyotirlinga shrines.
The brahminy kite (Haliastur indus) hunts for fish and other prey near the coasts and around inland wetlands.
Muslims offer namaz at a mosque in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.
An ascetic in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
A Christian wedding in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Christianity is believed to have been introduced to India by the late 2nd century by Syriac-speaking Christians.
A Chola bronze depicting Nataraja, who is seen as a cosmic "Lord of the Dance" and representative of Shiva
INS Vikramaditya, the Indian Navy's biggest warship.
A parliamentary joint session being held in the Sansad Bhavan.
Paintings at the Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, 6th century
Writing the will and testament of the Mughal king in Persian, 1590–1595
Cricket is the most popular game among India's masses. Shown here is an instance of street cricket.
A Warli tribal painting by Jivya Soma Mashe from Thane, Maharashtra
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.
The granite tower of Brihadeeswarar Temple in Thanjavur was completed in 1010 CE by Raja Raja Chola I.
A coal miner in Bachra, Jharkhand
Area controlled by India shown in dark green;
claimed but uncontrolled regions shown in light green.
A vegetable retailer in Tamil Nadu. More than 95% of retail industry in India is unorganised.
Girls play hopscotch in Juara, Madhya Pradesh.
A street-corner game of pachisi in Pushkar, Rajasthan
A woman in Bundi, Rajasthan
Sarod performance at the Musée Guimet, Paris
Shola highlands are found in Kudremukh National Park, Chikmagalur which is part of the Western Ghats.
Folk musicians in Hyderabad
The Rashtrapati Bhavan is the official residence of the President of India.
Tidel Park, the then largest IT park in Asia when it was opened in 2000.
The lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) is the Indian national flower. Hindus and Buddhists regard it as a sacred symbol of enlightenment.
Jawaharlal Nehru (left) became India's first prime minister in 1947. Mahatma Gandhi (right) led the independence movement.
Indian agriculture dates from the period 7,000–6,000 BCE, employs most of the national workforce, and is second in farm output worldwide. Above, a farmer works an ox-drawn plow in Kadmati, West Bengal.
Women attend a literacy programme in Thiruputkuzhi, Tamil Nadu.
A Kuchipudi dance performance is accompanied by Carnatic vocalisations.
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.
Fishermen on the Chinese fishing nets of Cochin. Fisheries in India is a major industry in its coastal states, employing over 14 million people. The annual catch doubled between 1990 and 2010.
India's GDP has increased more than ten-fold after the economic reforms in 1991.
Agricultural workers in Tamilnadu involved in rice planting
Power Loom used inside a house in a village near Salem, Tamil Nadu. Power loom accounts for more than 60% of textile production in India.
Indian chess grandmaster and former world champion Vishwanathan Anand competes at a chess tournament in 2005. Chess is commonly believed to have originated in India in the 5th century CE.
A handicraft seller in Hyderabad, Telangana
A washing plant for mined iron ore in Orissa. India's iron ore reserves of 25 billion tonnes comprise 6% of global reserves. India is the world's 4th largest producer and 3rd largest exporter.
Boys playing football in Manipur.
Leaders of the BRICS nations
A Toda tribal hut exemplifies Indian vernacular architecture.
Tourists from North-East India, wrapped in sarongs and shawls, visit the Taj Mahal.
The Delhi Metro rapid transit system and the low-floor CNG buses. Infrastructure in India in the next five years is estimated to bring in $1 trillion in investment, half of it by India's private sector.
India has the world's second-largest mobile phone user base of 996.66 million users as of September 2015. Shown here is a rooftop mobile phone tower in Bangalore
During a twenty four-year career, Sachin Tendulkar has set many batting records, including most runs in both tests and ODIs and most number of centuries in both tests and ODIs, making him one of the most successful cricketers ever.
Population pyramid 2016
The Bombay Stock Exchange is Asia's oldest and India's largest bourse by market capitalisation.
Indian hockey team, captained by Dhyan Chand (standing second from left), after winning the finals at the 1936 Summer Olympics—their third of six consecutive Olympic golds.
A game of kabaddi in Bagepalli, Karnataka

In the news

16 September 2018 – British space programme: The first of a series of British satellites, known as NovaSAR, is launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India. The Surrey Satellite Technology satellite is designed to monitor suspicious shipping activity. (BBC)
6 September 2018 – LGBT rights in India: The Supreme Court of India strikes down Article 377, a colonial-era law which criminalized homosexuality, declaring it unconstitutional. (BBC)
4 September 2018 – Table Rock Lake duck boat accident: Tia Coleman, a Indianapolis woman who lost her husband and eight other relatives in the sinking of a duck boat in Branson, Missouri, files a lawsuit against the tour boat operators and manufacturer. (Indy Star)
16 August 2018 – 2018 Kerala floods: Authorities in India say that 350 people are confirmed dead in the heavy floods in Kerala. (Times of India)
15 August 2018 – Indian Space Research Organisation: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says India will launch its first manned space mission by 2022, which would make it the fourth nation to do so after Russia, the United States, and China. (Reuters)