India , officially the Republic of India (Hindi: भारत गणराज्य Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also official names of India), is a country located in South Asia. It is the seventh-largestcountry by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. 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; Bhutan, the People's Republic of China and Nepal to the northeast; and Bangladesh and Burma to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islandsshare a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilization 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.Four of the world's major religions--Hinduism, Buddhism,Jainism and Sikhism—originated here, while Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam arrived in the first millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture.Graduallyannexed by the British East India Company from the early 18th century and colonised by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence which was marked by non-violent resistance and led byMahatma Gandhi.
The Indian economy is the world's tenth largest economy by nominal GDP and fourth largest economy by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India has become one of the fastest growing major economies, and is considered a newly industrialized country; however, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, illiteracy,corruption and inadequate public health. A nuclear weapons state and a regional power, it has the third-largest standing army in the world and ranks tenth in military expenditureamong nations.
India is a federal constitutional republic with a parliamentary democracy consisting of 28 states and 7 union territories. It is one of the 5 BRICS nations. India is a pluralistic,multilingual, and multiethnic society. It is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety ofprotected habitats.
Etymology
The name India is derived from Indus, which is derived from the Old Persian word Hindu, fromSanskrit सिन्धु Sindhu, the historic local appellation for the Indus River.The ancientGreeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ινδοί), the people of the Indus.The Constitution of India and usage in many Indian languages also recognises Bharat as an official name of equal status.The name Bharat is derived from the name of the legendary king Bharata in Hindu scriptures. Hindustan , originally a Persian word for “Land of the Hindus” referring to northern Indiaand Pakistan before 1947, is also occasionally used as a synonym for all of India.
Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilization 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.Four of the world's major religions--Hinduism, Buddhism,Jainism and Sikhism—originated here, while Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Islam arrived in the first millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture.Graduallyannexed by the British East India Company from the early 18th century and colonised by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence which was marked by non-violent resistance and led byMahatma Gandhi.
The Indian economy is the world's tenth largest economy by nominal GDP and fourth largest economy by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India has become one of the fastest growing major economies, and is considered a newly industrialized country; however, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, illiteracy,corruption and inadequate public health. A nuclear weapons state and a regional power, it has the third-largest standing army in the world and ranks tenth in military expenditureamong nations.
India is a federal constitutional republic with a parliamentary democracy consisting of 28 states and 7 union territories. It is one of the 5 BRICS nations. India is a pluralistic,multilingual, and multiethnic society. It is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety ofprotected habitats.
Etymology
The name India is derived from Indus, which is derived from the Old Persian word Hindu, fromSanskrit सिन्धु Sindhu, the historic local appellation for the Indus River.The ancientGreeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ινδοί), the people of the Indus.The Constitution of India and usage in many Indian languages also recognises Bharat as an official name of equal status.The name Bharat is derived from the name of the legendary king Bharata in Hindu scriptures. Hindustan , originally a Persian word for “Land of the Hindus” referring to northern Indiaand Pakistan before 1947, is also occasionally used as a synonym for all of India.
Ancient India
The earliest anatomically modern human remains found in South Asia are from approximately 30,000 years ago.Near contemporaneous Mesolithic rock artsites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including at the Bhimbetka rock sheltersin Madhya Pradesh.Around 7000 BCE, the first known neolithic settlements appeared on the subcontinent in Mehrgarh and other sites in western Pakistan.These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation,the first urban culture in South Asia, which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in Pakistan and western India.Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Lothal, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade.
During the period 2000 BCE–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent evolved from copper age toiron age cultures.The Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed during this period, and historians have analyzed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upperGanges Plain. Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the northwest.The caste system, creating a social hierarchy, appeared during this period.In the Deccan, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organization.In South India, the large number of megalithic monuments found from this period,and nearby evidence of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions suggest progression to sedentary life.
By the fifth century BCE, the small chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the northwest regions had consolidated into sixteen major oligarchiesand monarchies called Mahajanapadas.The emerging urbanization as well as the orthodoxies of the late Vedic age created the religious reform movements of Buddhism and Jainism.Buddhism, based on the teachings of India's first historical figure, Gautam Buddha, attracted followers from all social classes; Jainism came into prominence around the same time during the life of its exemplar, Mahavira.In an age of increasing urban wealth, both religions held up renunciation as an ideal,and both established long-lasting monasteries.Politically, by the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed or reduced other states to emerge as the Mauryan Empire.The empire was once thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent excepting the far south, but its core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas.The Maurya kings are known as much for their empire building and determined management of public life as for Ashoka the Great's renunciation of militarism and his far flung advocacy of the Buddhist dhamma.
The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that during the period 200 BCE–200 CE, the southern peninsula was being ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas and the Pandyas, dynasties that traded extensively with the Roman Empire and with west and south-east Asia.In north India during the same time, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family.By the fourth and fifth centuries CE, the Gupta Empire had created a complex administrative and taxation system in the greater Ganges Plain that became a model for later Indian kingdoms.Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion rather than the management of ritual began to assert itself and was reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among an urban elite.Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy,medicine, and mathematics made significant advances,
The earliest anatomically modern human remains found in South Asia are from approximately 30,000 years ago.Near contemporaneous Mesolithic rock artsites have been found in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, including at the Bhimbetka rock sheltersin Madhya Pradesh.Around 7000 BCE, the first known neolithic settlements appeared on the subcontinent in Mehrgarh and other sites in western Pakistan.These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation,the first urban culture in South Asia, which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in Pakistan and western India.Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Lothal, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade.
During the period 2000 BCE–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent evolved from copper age toiron age cultures.The Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed during this period, and historians have analyzed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upperGanges Plain. Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the northwest.The caste system, creating a social hierarchy, appeared during this period.In the Deccan, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organization.In South India, the large number of megalithic monuments found from this period,and nearby evidence of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions suggest progression to sedentary life.
By the fifth century BCE, the small chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the northwest regions had consolidated into sixteen major oligarchiesand monarchies called Mahajanapadas.The emerging urbanization as well as the orthodoxies of the late Vedic age created the religious reform movements of Buddhism and Jainism.Buddhism, based on the teachings of India's first historical figure, Gautam Buddha, attracted followers from all social classes; Jainism came into prominence around the same time during the life of its exemplar, Mahavira.In an age of increasing urban wealth, both religions held up renunciation as an ideal,and both established long-lasting monasteries.Politically, by the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed or reduced other states to emerge as the Mauryan Empire.The empire was once thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent excepting the far south, but its core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas.The Maurya kings are known as much for their empire building and determined management of public life as for Ashoka the Great's renunciation of militarism and his far flung advocacy of the Buddhist dhamma.
The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that during the period 200 BCE–200 CE, the southern peninsula was being ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas and the Pandyas, dynasties that traded extensively with the Roman Empire and with west and south-east Asia.In north India during the same time, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family.By the fourth and fifth centuries CE, the Gupta Empire had created a complex administrative and taxation system in the greater Ganges Plain that became a model for later Indian kingdoms.Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion rather than the management of ritual began to assert itself and was reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among an urban elite.Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy,medicine, and mathematics made significant advances,
Medieval India
The Indian early medieval age (600 CE to 1200 CE) is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity.When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Ganges plain from 606 to 647 CE, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya ruler of the Deccan.When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal.When the Chalukyas attempted to expand southwards, they were defeated by the Pallavas from farther south, who in turn were opposed by the Pandyas and the Cholas from still farther south.No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond his core region.During this time, pastoral peoples whose land had been cleared to make way for the growing agriculture economy were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-traditional ruling classes.The caste system consequently began to show regional differences.
In the sixth and seventh centuries CE, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language.These were imitated all over India and led both to the resurgence of Hinduism and to the development of all the modern languages of the subcontinent.Indian royalty, bigand small, and the temples they patronized drew citizens in great numbers to the capital cities, which became economic hubs as well.Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another urbanisation.By the eight and ninth centuries, the effects were evident elsewhere as well as South Indian culture and political systems were being exported to Southeast Asia, in particular to what today are Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Java.Indian merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this transmission, and south-east Asians took the initiative as well with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating Buddhist and Hindu texts into their languages.
After the tenth century, Muslim Central Asian nomadic clans, using swift horse cavalry and raising vast armies united by ethnicity and religion, repeatedly overran South Asia's north-western plains, and led eventually to the establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in 1206.The Sultanate was to control much of North India, and to make many forays into South India. Although at first disruptive for the Indian elites, the Sultanate largely left its vast non-Muslim subject population to its own laws and customs.By repeatedly repulsing theMongol raiders in the thirteenth century, the Sultanate saved India from the destruction seen in west and central Asia, and set the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, learned men, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from that region into India, thereby creating a syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in the north.The Sultanate's raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India, paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire.Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the Sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular India,and to influence the society and culture of South India for long afterwards.
Early modern IndiaIn the early sixteenth century, northern India, being ruled then mainly by Muslim rulers,fell again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors.The Mughal empire, which resulted, did not stamp out the local societies it came to rule, but rather balanced and pacified them through new administrative practices,and diverse and inclusive ruling elites,leading to more systematic, centralized and uniform rule.Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic identity, especially under Akbar, the Mughals united their far flung realms through loyalty, expressed through a Persianized culture, to an emperor who had near divine status.The Mughal state's economic policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture,and mandating that taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver currency,caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets.The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the seventeenth century was a factor in India's economic expansion,and resulted in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture.Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as the Marathas, the Rajputs, and the Sikhs gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military experience.Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites in the southern and eastern coastal India.As the empire disintegrated, many among these elites were able to seek and control their own affairs.
