Greatness of India

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This article is about the Republic of India. For other uses, see India (disambiguation).

Republic of India

भारत गणराज्य*
Bhārat Ganarājya

Flag National Emblem

Motto: "Satyameva Jayate" (Sanskrit)
सत्यमेव जयते  (Devanāgarī)
"Truth Alone Triumphs"[1]

Anthem: 

Jana Gana Mana

Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people[2]

National Song[4]
Vande Mataram
I bow to thee, Mother[3]
 Area controlled by India in dark green;
Claimed but uncontrolled territories in light green

Capital New Delhi

28°36.8′N 77°12.5′E

Largest city Mumbai

Official language(s) Hindi, English[show]

Recognised regional languages 8th Schedule:[show]

None defined by the

National languages
constitution.[8]

Demonym Indian

Government Federal constitutional
parliamentary democracy[9]

 -  President Pratibha Patil

 -  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (INC)

 -  Chief Justice S. H. Kapadia

Legislature Sansad
 -  Upper House Rajya Sabha

 -  Lower House Lok Sabha

Independence from the United Kingdom 

 -  Declared 15 August 1947 

 -  Republic 26 January 1950 

Area

 -  3,287,240 km2 ‡(7th)
1,269,210 sq mi 

 -  Water (%) 9.56

Population

 -  2010 estimate 1,186,496,000[10] (2nd)

 -  2001 census 1,028,610,328[11] 

 -  Density 360.9/km2 (31st)

934.8/sq mi

GDP (PPP) 2009 estimate

 -  Total $3.526 trillion[12] (4th)

 -  Per capita $2,941[12] (128th)

GDP (nominal) 2009 estimate

 -  Total $1.235 trillion[12] (11th)

 -  Per capita $1,031[12] (139th)

Gini (2004) 36.8[13] 
 HDI (2007) ▲0.612[14] (medium) (134th)

Currency Indian rupee ( ) (INR)

Time zone IST (UTC+5:30)

 -  Summer (DST) not observed (UTC+5:30)

Date formats dd-mm-yyyy (AD)

Drives on the left

ISO 3166 code IN

Internet TLD .in

Calling code 91

Non-numbered Footnotes:[show]

India (  /ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Hindi: भारत गणराज्य Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see

also official names of India), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by

geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.18 billion people, and the most
populous democracy in the world.[16][17] Mainland India is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south,
the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east; and it is bordered by Pakistan to the
west;[note] Bhutan, the People's Republic of China and Nepalto the north; and Bangladesh and Burma to
the east. In the Indian Ocean, mainland India and the Lakshadweep Islands are in the vicinity of Sri
Lanka and the Maldives, while India'sAndaman and Nicobar Islands share maritime border
with Thailand and the Indonesianisland of Sumatra in the Andaman Sea.[18] India has a coastline of
7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi).[19]

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 of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism,Jainism and Sikhism—originated
here, while Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity andIslam arrived in the first millennium CE and
shaped the region's diverse culture. Graduallyannexed by the British East India Company from the
early eighteenth century and colonisedby 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 led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.[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, the country continues to face
several poverty, illiteracy, corruption and public health related challenges. India is classified as a newly
industrialised country[23][24] and is one of the four BRICnations. It is a nuclear weapons state and has
the third-largest standing armed force in the world,[25] while its military expenditure ranks tenth in the
world. It is a founding member of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation, the East Asia Summit and the G20 industrial nations, and a
member of theCommonwealth of Nations and the G8+5.

Contents
 [hide]

1 Etymology

2 History

3 Government
o 3.1 Constitution

o 3.2 President and Prime Minister

o 3.3 Legislature

o 3.4 Judiciary

o 3.5 Administrative divisions

4 Politics

5 Foreign relations and military

6 Geography

7 Flora and fauna

8 Economy

9 Demographics

10 Culture

11 Sport

12 See also
 13 Notes

14 Citations

15 References

16 External links

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.[26] The
ancientGreeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ινδοί), the people of the Indus.[27] The Constitution of
India and common usage in various Indian languages also recognise Bharat (pronounced[ˈbʱɑːrʌt̪ ]  (  
[28]
listen)) as an official name of equal status.  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.[29]

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 Pradeshare 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,[30] 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.[31]
Paintings at the Ajanta Caves inAurangabad, Maharashtra, sixth century

In the third century BCE, most of South Asia was united into the Maurya Empire byChandragupta
Maurya and flourished underAshoka the Great.[32] From the third century CE, the Gupta
dynasty oversaw the period referred to as ancient "India's Golden Age".[33][34] 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 philosop
hy 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. [35][36]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.[37]

From the 16th century, European powers such as Portugal, the Netherlands, France, and Great Britain
established trading posts and later took advantage of internal conflic