Description

India also known as the Republic of India is a country in SouthAsia. It is the seventh-largest country by area the second-mostpopulous country and the most populous democracy in the world.Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south the Arabian Sea on thesouthwest and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast it shares landborders with Pakistan to the west China and Bhutan to the northeastand Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, Indiais in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives while its Andamanand Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand andIndonesia. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban IndusValley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE. In the followingmillennium the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began tobe composed. Social stratification based on caste emerged in thefirst millennium BCE and Buddhism and Jainism arose. Earlypolitical consolidations took place under the Maurya and Guptaempires the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures asfar as Southeast Asia. Much of the north fell to the DelhiSultanate the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. Theeconomy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal Empire. In themid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East IndiaCompany rule and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. Anationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century which laterunder Mahatma Gandhi was noted for nonviolent resistance and led toIndia's independence in 1947.