India

India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the world's seventh-largest country by area and the largest by population. 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 north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is near Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa by 55,000 years ago. Settled life emerged in the western margins of the Indus river basin 9,000 years ago, evolving into the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE. By 1200 BCE, an archaic form of Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, diffused into India from the northwest, its earliest hymns containing elements of what would become Hinduism. The pre-existing Dravidian and other languages were gradually superseded in India's northern plains. Across the central stretch of these plains, rapid urbanisation took place, and after 500 BCE a caste-based, hereditary, form of social stratification began to solidify within developing Hinduism. During this period, Buddhism and Jainism arose, proclaiming social orders unlinked to heredity. The subsequent emergence of the loose-knit Maurya and Gupta Empires gave rise to wide-ranging cultural and scientific creativity. However, these eras also saw a steady decline in the status of women, culminating by their end in the institutionalisation of untouchability. In South India, across the first millennium CE, the Middle kingdoms transmitted Dravidian language scripts and cultural traditions to Southeast Asia. Well before the millennium's end, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism had become established on India's southern and western coasts. Early in the 2nd millennium, Muslim armies from Central Asia intermittently overran India's northern plains, eventually establishing the Delhi Sultanate, and drawing India into the cosmopolitan networks of medieval Islam. In South India, the Vijayanagara Empire created a long-lasting composite culture. During this era, Sikhism emerged in the Punjab, rejecting established religious institutions. The Mughal Empire ushered in two centuries of economic expansion and relative peace, leaving a rich architectural legacy. Gradually expanding rule of the British East India Company turned India into a colonial economy, but consolidated its territorial sovereignty by the mid-19th century. British Crown rule began in 1858. Although equality before the law promised to Indians was slow to materialise, technological changes were introduced while modern education and the public life took root. A nationalist movement emerged in India, the first in the non-European British Empire. Noted for nonviolent resistance after 1920, it led to the end of British rule. In 1947, the British Indian Empire was partitioned into the independent dominions of a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. A large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration accompanied the partition. The Constitution of India was adopted in 1950 and declared India to be a federal republic governed through a democratic parliamentary system; it guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of press, and religious pluralism. Amendments enacted from 1951 onwards strengthened affirmative action programmes to reduce caste inequality. The reorganization of states in 1956 along linguistic lines, institutionalised regional language pride, and led to the growth of regional literature and cinema. During the 1970s, India reversed agricultural stagnation through the Green Revolution, achieving national food security. The country also altered the regional power balance through support for Bangladesh and enacted constitutional reform to end princely privileges. India's population grew from 361 million in 1951, to approximately 1.464 billion in 2025. Economic reforms of the 1990s integrated India's economy with the world's. By the 2010s, the Indian economy had a stably high rate of growth. A large middle class and a communications boom gained momentum. However, challenges remain, including widening income gaps, gender inequality and environmental degradation. In recent years India has seen a political shift toward majoritarianism. A nuclear-weapon state with high military expenditure, India is among the world's largest economies and a founding member of the United Nations, while its cultural legacy encompasses 45 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. India's megadiverse land features four biodiversity hotspots. Its wildlife is supported in protected habitats and traditionally viewed with cultural tolerance.