India
country
New Delhi
capital city
Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Panjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu
language(s)
INR
currency
3,287,590 km²
area
1,080,264,388
population
328.59 people/km²
population density
India
Regions of India
- Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands
- Bengal
- Bihār State of
- Daman and Diu
- Goa
- Himāchal Pradesh
- Laccadives
- State of Andhra Pradesh
- State of Arunāchal Pradesh
- State of Assam
- State of Chhattīsgarh
- State of Gujarāt
- State of Haryāna
- State of Jammu and Kashmīr
- State of Jharkhand
- State of Karnātaka
- State of Kerala
- State of Madhya Pradesh
- State of Mahārāshtra
- State of Manipur
- State of Meghālaya
- State of Mizoram
- State of Nāgāland
- State of Orissa
- State of Punjab
- State of Rājasthān
- State of Sikkim
- State of Tamil Nādu
- State of Tripura
- State of Uttar Pradesh
- State of Uttarakhand
- Union Territory of Chandīgarh
- Union Territory of Delhi
- Union Territory of Dādra and Nagar Haveli
- Union Territory of Puducherry
Flag of India
National Anthem of India
Neighbours of India
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India description
India (Hindi: भारत Bhārat; see also other Indian languages), officially the Republic of India (Hindi: भारत गणराज्य Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh largest country by geographical area, the second most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of 7,517 kilometers (4,671 mi). It borders Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma) to the east. India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Indonesia in the Indian Ocean. Home to the 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 major world 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 a modern nation state in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by widespread nonviolent resistance. India has the world's twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and the fourth largest in purchasing power. Economic reforms have transformed it into the second fastest growing large economy; however, it still suffers from high levels of poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition. A pluralistic, multilingual, and multiethnic society, India is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India (pronounced /ˈɪndiə/) is derived from Indus, which is derived from the Old Persian word Hindu, from Sanskrit Sindhu, the historic local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi (Ινδοί), the people of the Indus. The Constitution of India and common usage in various Indian languages also recognise Bharat (pronunciation (help·info), /bʰɑːrət̪/) as an official name of equal status. Hindustan (/hin̪d̪ust̪ɑːn/ (info)), which is the Persian word for “Land of the Hindus” and historically referred to northern India, is also occasionally used as a synonym for all of India India, the major portion of the Indian subcontinent, sits atop the Indian tectonic plate, a minor plate within the Indo-Australian Plate
