India

Lore & Background

Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa by 55,000 years ago. Settled life emerged on the western margins of the Indus basin 9,000 years ago, evolving into the Indus Valley Civilisation by the third millennium BCE. By 1200 BCE, an archaic form of Sanskrit had diffused into India from the northwest. By 400 BCE, social differentiation by caste had consolidated within Hinduism. Contemporarily, Buddhism and Jainism had arisen. During the Maurya and Gupta Empires, art, architecture, and writing flourished. In South India in the first millennium CE, the Middle kingdoms transmitted Dravidian language scripts and cultures to Southeast Asia. Early in the 2nd millennium, Central Asian Muslim conquests established the Delhi Sultanate. The Mughal Empire ushered in two centuries of economic expansion and relative peace. British Crown rule began in 1858. A nationalist movement emerged in India. In 1947, the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two independent dominions, a Hindu-majority dominion of India and a Muslim-majority dominion of Pakistan. Since 1950, India has been a federal republic, governed through a democratic parliamentary system.

In Their Own Story

The lights at Wankhede hummed with a low-frequency vibration that rattled the very foundations of the stands. It was the final over, the target was within reach, but the air felt heavy with the weight of decades of expectation. The crowd wasn't just cheering; they were chanting in unison, a rhythmic thunder that echoed off the sea-facing walls. On the pitch, the batsman adjusted his gloves, looking not at the bowler, but at the stands where thousands of blue jerseys merged into a single, breathing entity. In this moment, the boundary ropes seemed to shrink, and the history of five championships hung suspended in the humid Mumbai night, waiting for one swing of the bat to write another chapter.

Reader's Guide

India is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society. Its fast-growing economy is a hub for information technology. It is a nuclear-weapon state. Socio-economic challenges include gender inequality, child malnutrition, and rising air pollution. India's megadiverse land features four biodiversity hotspots.

Did You Know?

• India is the world's largest by population.
• The name 'India' derives from the River Indus.
• India has been a federal republic since 1950.
• The Indian subcontinent is second only to Africa in human genetic diversity.