Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation 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.[20] Four major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, 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 non-violent resistance.[21]
India is a federal constitutional republic with a parliamentary democracy consisting of 28 states and seven union territories. A pluralistic, multilingual and multiethnic society, India is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The Indian economy is the world's eleventh largest economy by nominal GDP and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity. Since the introduction of market-based economic reforms in 1991, India has become one of the fastest growing major economies in the world;[22] however, it still suffers from poverty,[23] illiteracy,[24] corruption,[25] disease,[26] and malnutrition.[27] India is classified as a newly industrialised country[28][29] and is one of the four BRIC nations. It is a nuclear weapons state and has the third-largest standing armed force in the world.[30] while its military expenditure ranks tenth in the world. It is a founding member of the United Nations, the East Asia Summit, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and the Non-Aligned Movement and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and the G-20 major economies.
Etymology
Main article: Names of India
The name India is derived from Indus, which is derived from the Old Persian word Hindu, from Sanskrit सिन्धु Sindhu, the historic local appellation for the Indus River.[31] The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ινδοί), the people of the Indus.[32] The Constitution of India and common usage in various Indian languages also recognise Bharat (pronounced [ˈbʱɑːrʌt̪] ( listen)) as an official name of equal status.[33] The name Bharat is derived from the name of the legendary king Bharata in Hindu scriptures. Hindustan ([hɪnd̪ʊˈstɑːn] ( listen)), originally a Persian word for “Land of the Hindus” referring to northern India, is also occasionally used as a synonym for all of India.[34]
History
Main articles: History of India and History of the Republic of India
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 about 8,500 years ago and gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation,[35] dating back to 3400 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.[36]
Damaged brown painting of a reclining man and woman.
Paintings at the Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, sixth century
In the third century BCE, most of South Asia was united into the Maurya Empire by Chandragupta Maurya and flourished under Ashoka the Great.[37] From the third century CE, the Gupta dynasty oversaw the period referred to as ancient "India's Golden Age".[38][39] Empires in Southern India included those of the Chalukyas, the Cholas and the Vijayanagara Empire. Science, technology, engineering, art, logic, language, literature, mathematics, astronomy, religion 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.[40][41] 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 Rajput king Maha Rana Pratap of Mewar in the 16th century and later from a Hindu state known as the Maratha confederacy, that ruled much of India in the mid-18th century.[42]
From the 16th century, European powers such as Portugal, the Netherlands, France, and Great Britain 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.[43] 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.
Two smiling men in robes sitting on the ground, with bodies facing the viewer and with heads turned toward each other. The younger wears a white Nehru cap; the elder is bald and wears glasses. A half dozen other people are in the background.
Mahatma Gandhi (right) with Jawaharlal Nehru, 1937. Nehru would go on to become India's first prime minister in 1947.
In the 20th century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the Indian National Congress and other political organisations.[44] Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi led millions of people in several national campaigns of non-violent civil disobedience.[21]
On 15 August 1947, India gained independence from British rule, but at the same time the Muslim-majority areas were partitioned to form a separate state of Pakistan.[45] On 26 January 1950, India became a republic and a new constitution came into effect.[46]
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 the People's Republic of 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[47] and five more tests in 1998, making India a nuclear state.[47] Beginning in 1991, significant economic reforms[48] have transformed India into one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, increasing its global clout.
Government
India is federation with a parliamentary form of government, governed under the Constitution of India.[51] 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 centre and the states. The government is regulated by a checks and balances defined by Indian Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document.
Constitution
Main article: Constitution of India
The Constitution of India, the longest and the most exhaustive among constitutions of independent nations in the world, came into force on 26 January 1950.[52] The preamble of the constitution defines India as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.[53] 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,[54] but it has grown increasingly federal since the late 1990s as a result of political, economic and social changes.[55]
President and Prime Minister
The President of India is the head of state[56] elected indirectly by an electoral college[57] for a five-year term.[58][59] The Prime Minister is the head of government and exercises most executive power.[56] Appointed by the President,[60] the Prime Minister is by convention supported by the party or political alliance holding the majority of seats in the lower house of Parliament.[56] 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.[61]
Legislature
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).[62] The Rajya Sabha, a permanent body, has 245 members serving staggered six year terms.[63] Most are elected indirectly by the state and territorial legislatures in proportion to the state's population.[63] 543 of the Lok Sabha's 545 members are directly elected by popular vote to represent individual constituencies for five year terms.[63] The other two members are nominated by the President from the Anglo-Indian community if the President is of the opinion that the community is not adequately represented.[63]
Judiciary
India has a unitary three-tier judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, 21 High Courts, and a large number of trial courts.[64] 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.[65] It is judicially independent,[64] and has the power to declare the law and to strike down Union or State laws which contravene the Constitution.[66] The role as the ultimate interpreter of the Constitution is one of the most important functions of the Supreme Court.[67]
Administrative divisions
Main article: Administrative divisions of India
India consists of 28 states and seven Union Territories.[68] All states, and the two union territories of Puducherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments patterned on the Westminster model. The other five union territories are directly ruled by the Centre through appointed administrators. In 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, states were formed on a linguistic basis.[69] Since then, this structure has remained largely unchanged. Each state or union territory is further divided into administrative districts.[70] The districts in turn are further divided into tehsils and eventually into villages.
Economy
Main article: Economy of India
See also: Economic history of India, Economic development in India, and Transport in India
View from ground of a modern 30-story building.
The Bombay Stock Exchange, in Mumbai, is Asia's oldest and India's largest stock exchange by market capitalisation.
In 2009, India's nominal GDP stood at US$1.243 trillion, which makes it the eleventh-largest economy in the world.[119] If PPP is taken into account, India's economy is the fourth largest in the world at US$3.561 trillion,[120] corresponding to a per capita income of US$3,100.[121] The country ranks 139th in nominal GDP per capita and 128th in GDP per capita at PPP.[119] With an average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% for the past two decades, India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world.[122]
India has the world's second largest labour force, with 516.3 million people. In terms of output, the agricultural sector accounts for 28% of GDP; the service and industrial sectors make up 54% and 18% respectively. Major agricultural products include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes; cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry; fish.[68] Major industries include textiles, telecommunications, chemicals, food processing, steel, transport equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software.[68] India's trade has reached a relatively moderate share of 24% of GDP in 2006, up from 6% in 1985.[123] In 2008, India's share of world trade was about 1.68%.[124] Major exports include petroleum products, textile goods, gems and jewelry, software, engineering goods, chemicals, and leather manufactures.[68] Major imports include crude oil, machinery, gems, fertiliser, chemicals.[68]
From the 1950s to the 1980s, India followed socialist-inspired policies. The economy was shackled by extensive regulation, protectionism, and public ownership, leading to pervasive corruption and slow economic growth.[125] In 1991, the nation liberalised its economy and has since moved towards a free-market economy.[123][126] The policy change in 1991 came after an acute balance of payments crisis, and the emphasis since then has been to use foreign trade and foreign investment as integral parts of India's economy.[127] Currently, India's economic system is portrayed as a capitalist model with the influx of private sector enterprise.[126]
The Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car.[128] India's annual car exports have surged fivefold in the past five years.[129]
In the late 2000s, India's economic growth averaged 7.5% a year.[123] Over the past decade, hourly wage rates in India have more than doubled.[130] In 2009, the Global Competitiveness Report ranked India 16th in financial market sophistication, 24th in banking sector, 27th in business sophistication and 30th in innovation; ahead of several advanced economies.[131] Seven of the world's top 15 technology outsourcing companies are based in India and the country is viewed as the second most favourable outsourcing destination after the United States.[132]
Despite India's impressive economic growth over recent decades, it still contains the largest concentration of poor people in the world.[133] The percentage of people living below the World Bank's international poverty line of $1.25 a day (PPP, in nominal terms Indian Rupee symbol.svg 21.6 a day in urban areas and Indian Rupee symbol.svg 14.3 in rural areas in 2005) decreased from 60% in 1981 to 42% in 2005.[134] Since 1991, inter-state economic inequality in India has consistently grown; the per capita net state domestic product of India's richest states is about 3.2 times that of the poorest states.[135] Even though India has avoided famines in recent decades, half of children are underweight[136] and about 46% of Indian children under the age of three suffer from malnutrition.[133][137]
A 2007 Goldman Sachs report projected that "from 2007 to 2020, India’s GDP per capita will quadruple," and that the Indian GDP will surpass that of the United States before 2050, but India "will remain a low-income country for several decades, with per capita incomes well below its other BRIC peers."[138] 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.[133] The World Bank suggests that India must continue to focus on public sector reform, infrastructure, agricultural and rural development, removal of labour regulations, improvement in transport, energy security, and health and nutrition.[139]
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of India
See also: Religion in India, Languages of India, Ethnic groups of South Asia, and List of most populous metropolitan areas in India
Map of India. High population density areas (above 1000 persons per square kilometer) are the Lakshadweep Islands, Kolkata and other parts of the Ganga (Ganges) river basin, Mumbai, Bangalore, and the southwest coast. Low density areas (below 100) include the western desert, east Kashmir, and the eastern frontier.
With an estimated population of 1.2 billion,[10] 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 due to the "green revolution".[140][141] India's urban population increased 11-fold during the twentieth century and is increasingly concentrated in large cities. By 2001 there were 35 million-plus cities in India, with the largest cities, with a population of over 10 million each, being Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. However, as of 2001, more than 70% of India's population continues to reside in rural areas.[142][143]
India is the world's most culturally, linguistically and genetically diverse geographical entity after the African continent.[68] 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. Neither the Constitution of India, nor any Indian law defines any national language.[8] Hindi, with the largest number of speakers,[144] is the official language of the union.[145] English is used extensively in business and administration and has the status of a 'subsidiary official language;'[146] 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 "scheduled languages".
As per the 2001 census, over 800 million Indians (80.5%) were Hindu. Other religious groups include Muslims (13.4%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jains (0.4%), Jews, Zoroastrians and Bahá'ís.[147] Tribals constitute 8.1% of the population.[148] India has the third-highest Muslim population in the world and has the highest population of Muslims for a non-Muslim majority country.
India's literacy rate is 64.8% (53.7% for females and 75.3% for males).[46] The state of Kerala has the highest literacy rate at 91% while Bihar has the lowest at 47%.[149][150] The national human sex ratio is 944 females per 1,000 males. India's median age is 24.9, and the population growth rate of 1.38% per annum; there are 22.01 births per 1,000 people per year.[46] Though India has one of the world's most diverse and modern healthcare systems, the country continues to face several public health-related challenges.[151] According to the World Health Organization, 900,000 Indians die each year from drinking contaminated water and breathing in polluted air.[152] There are about 60 physicians per 100,000 people in India.