India
Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago. Their long occupation, predominantly in isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse. Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus river basin 9,000 years ago. Evidence for the neolithic period at Mehrgarh in Balochistan dates to after 7000 BCE. Domestication of grain-producing plants like barley and animals including humped zebu cattle occurred here. These cultures gradually evolved into the Indus Valley Civilisation which flourished during the third millennium BCE. Cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, Ganweriwala, and Rakhigarhi featured standardised weights, steatite seals, a written script, urban planning, public works, and arts and crafts. Networks of towns and villages grew around these cities in a new agro-pastoral economy. Between 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE an archaic form of Sanskrit diffused into India from the northwest. Its evidence today is found in the Rig Veda, the oldest scripture associated with what later became Hinduism, which was composed by Indo-Aryan-speaking tribes migrating east from northern Afghanistan across the Punjab region.
The Rigveda consists of 1,028 hymns 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. The two major Sanskrit epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana were composed in Epic Sanskrit used in northern India between 400 BCE and 300 CE. By the mid-millennium two new ethical and social systems had arisen: Jainism based on the teachings of Mahavira and Buddhism on those of the Buddha. Both religions stressed non-violence and abjured animal sacrifices conducted in Brahmanism. Birth into a fixed hereditary varna was rejected by these faiths. By living ethically lay people could rise socially and morally in these religions. In the 6th and 7th centuries the first devotional hymns were composed in Tamil. They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development of all modern languages of the subcontinent. Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another urbanisation.
The rise of the Maurya Empire occurred during the rule of Ashoka who reigned from approximately 268 BCE to 232 BCE. During his reign the empire briefly controlled the major urban hubs and arteries of the subcontinent except in the deep south. The Kalinga War saw his troops visit great violence on the region before he embraced Buddhism and promoted its tenets in edicts scattered across South Asia. As the edicts forbade both the killing of wild animals and the destruction of forests Ashoka is seen by some modern environmental historians as an early embodiment of that ethos. The Gupta Empire created a complex system of administration and taxation in the greater Ganges Plain between the 4th and 5th centuries. This system became a model for later Indian kingdoms. Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India. By the early 18th century several European trading companies including the English East India Company had established coastal outposts. Its further access to the riches of Bengal enabled it to annex or subdue most of India by the 1820s. India was no longer exporting manufactured goods but instead supplying the British Empire with raw materials.
India gained independence on the 15th of August 1947 when Jawaharlal Nehru became prime minister of the Dominion of India. He held this office until the 26th of January 1950 when India became a republic. In the general elections of 1951, 1957, and 1962 the Congress led by Nehru won by comfortable margins. After Nehru died in office in May 1964 Lal Bahadur Shastri was chosen as prime minister. The India-Pakistan war of 1965 followed and Shastri died in January 1966 after signing the Tashkent Peace Declaration. Indira Gandhi led the party to election victories in 1967 and 1971. In 1975 she declared a state of emergency suspending many civil liberties. Following public discontent the Congress was voted out of power in 1977. Indira Gandhi was assassinated by a Sikh bodyguard on the 31st of October 1984 after a military operation against Sikh militants occupying the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Her son Rajiv Gandhi succeeded her but was himself assassinated in 1991 by a member of a Sri Lankan Tamil separatist organization. Narendra Modi became the first political party since 1984 to win an absolute majority in the 2014 general election.
India's defining geologic processes began approximately 70 million years ago when the Indian Plate began a north-eastward drift caused by seafloor spreading. Simultaneously the vast Tethyan oceanic crust began to subduct under the Eurasian Plate. This created the orogeny or process of mountain building of the Himalayas. The middle and stiffer layer continued to push into Tibet causing crustal thickening of the Tibetan Plateau. Immediately south of the emerging Himalayas plate movement created a vast crescent-shaped trough that rapidly filled with river-borne sediment and now constitutes the Indo-Gangetic Plain. The Indian climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert both of which drive the economically and culturally pivotal summer and winter monsoons. The Himalayas prevent cold Central Asian katabatic winds from blowing in keeping the bulk of the Indian subcontinent warmer than most locations at similar latitudes. Temperatures in India have risen by between 1901 and 2018. Climate change in India is often thought to be the cause. The retreat of Himalayan glaciers has adversely affected the flow rate of the major Himalayan rivers including the Ganges and the Brahmaputra.
Until 1991 all Indian governments followed protectionist policies that were influenced by socialist economics. Widespread state intervention and regulation largely walled the economy off from the outside world. An acute balance of payments crisis in 1991 forced the nation to liberalise its economy. Since then it has moved increasingly towards a free-market system by emphasising both foreign trade and direct investment inflows. India has been a member of World Trade Organization since the 1st of January 1995. In 2024 the Indian economy was nominally worth $3.94 trillion making it the fifth-largest economy by market exchange rates. With an average annual GDP growth rate of 5.8% over the past two decades India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Some 431 million Indians have left poverty since 1985. India's middle classes are projected to number around 580 million by 2030. In 2024 India's consumer market was the world's third largest. The service sector makes up 55.6% of GDP while the industrial sector accounts for 26.3% and the agricultural sector 18.1%. Between 2001 and 2011 the contribution of petrochemical and engineering goods to total exports grew from 14% to 42%.
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Common questions
When did modern humans arrive on the Indian subcontinent?
Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago. Their long occupation in isolation as hunter-gatherers made the region highly diverse.
What is the oldest scripture associated with Hinduism and when was it composed?
The Rig Veda is the oldest scripture associated with what later became Hinduism and was composed by Indo-Aryan-speaking tribes between around 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE. It consists of 1,028 hymns originally intended for recital during rituals.
Who reigned over the Maurya Empire from approximately 268 BCE to 232 BCE?
Ashoka reigned over the Maurya Empire from approximately 268 BCE to 232 BCE. During his reign the empire briefly controlled the major urban hubs and arteries of the subcontinent except in the deep south.
On which date did India gain independence and who became prime minister?
India gained independence on the 15th of August 1947 when Jawaharlal Nehru became prime minister of the Dominion of India. He held this office until the 26th of January 1950 when India became a republic.
How many residents were estimated to live in India in 2023?
With an estimated 1,428,627,663 residents in 2023 India is the world's most populous country. The first post-colonial census conducted in 1951 counted 361 million people.