This is an original 8x10-inch black and white press photograph capturing a significant moment from Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s historic 1949 visit to the United States.
The image depicts Nehru meeting with members of the Hindustan Students Association at the International House of the University of Chicago. This visit was a landmark event in early Indo-US relations, occurring just two years after India gained independence.
The reverse of the photo contains several archival markings and a newspaper clipping:
Newspaper Clipping: "Nehru meets fellow Indians at a reception given in his honor by the Hindustan Students Association at International House at University of Chicago. [Daily News photo.] ...our lives because we acted according to our ideals."
Date Stamp: OCT 28 1949
Handwritten Note: "Chicago Visit"
Stamps: "BLUE STREAK"
Subject: Jawaharlal Nehru (Prime Minister of India)
Event: 1949 US Tour / University of Chicago Reception
Size: 8 x 10 inches
Type: Original Silver Gelatin Press Photo
Condition: Good vintage condition with minor edge wear and age-related toning consistent with archival newsroom storage. Please see photos for detailed condition.
India History, Pandit Nehru, Indian Independence, Diplomacy, Vintage Press Photo, Chicago History, South Asian Diaspora, 1940s Journalism.
This is an original 8x10-inch silver gelatin press photograph from October 1949. It captures Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during his landmark "Goodwill Tour" of the United States.
The photo shows Nehru at the International House of the University of Chicago, where he was being honored by the Hindustan Students Association. This visit was a critical diplomatic moment for the newly independent India, as Nehru sought to build intellectual and economic ties with the West.
The back of the photo features authentic newsroom markings that confirm its provenance:
Original Newspaper Clipping: "Nehru meets fellow Indians at a reception given in his honor by the Hindustan Students Association at International House at University of Chicago. [Daily News photo.]"
Date Stamp: OCT 28 1949 (The day after his visit to the International Harvester plant).
Handwritten Archive Note: "Chicago Visit"
Editorial Stamp: "BLUE STREAK"
Research into the University of Chicago archives for this specific event suggests the following identifications for the welcoming committee:
Visvanatha P. Varma: Then-President of the Hindustan Student Association (likely one of the students pictured). Professor Varma, as the President of the Hindustan Students Association, Addressing the Meeting Organized in the Honour of Jawaharlal Nehru’s Maiden Visit to the United States in October 1949.
Sikh Gentleman: Likely a representative of the local Indian community or a graduate student at the University.
Context: Nehru was accompanied on this trip by his daughter, Indira Gandhi, and his sister, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (then Ambassador to the US), though they are not the primary focus of this specific frame.
Dimensions: 8 x 10 inches.
Year: 1949.
Paper: Glossy fiber-based photo paper.
Condition: Excellent vintage condition. High contrast and clarity. Minor handling wear on edges consistent with age. No major creases or tears.
_______________
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, UChi, or U of C) is a private research university in the Hyde Park community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States.
The university is composed of an undergraduate college and four graduate research divisions: the Arts & Humanities Division, the Biological Sciences Division, the Physical Sciences Division, and the Social Sciences Division, all of which include various organized departments and institutes. In addition, the university operates seven professional schools in the fields of business, social work, theology, public policy, law, medicine, and molecular engineering, and a school of continuing studies. The university maintains satellite campuses and centers in London, Hong Kong, Paris, Beijing, Delhi, Luxor, and downtown Chicago.
University of Chicago scholars have played a role in the development of many academic disciplines, including economics, law, literary criticism, mathematics, physics, religion, sociology, and political science, establishing the Chicago schools of thought in various fields. Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory produced the world's first human-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction in Chicago Pile-1 beneath the viewing stands of the university's Stagg Field. Advances in chemistry led to the "radiocarbon revolution" in the carbon-14 dating of ancient life and objects. The university research efforts include administration of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the Argonne National Laboratory, as well as the Marine Biological Laboratory. The university is also home to the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in North America.
As of 2025, the university's students, faculty, and staff have included 101 Nobel laureates. The university's faculty members and alumni also include 10 Fields Medalists, 4 Turing Award winners, 58 MacArthur Fellows, 30 Marshall Scholars, 55 Rhodes Scholars, 27 Pulitzer Prize winners, 20 National Humanities Medalists, and 6 Olympic medalists.
History
Main article: History of the University of Chicago
Old University of Chicago
Further information: Old University of Chicago
A professor addressing a crowd
Albert A. Michelson, professor of physics and the first American Nobel laureate, delivers the second convocation address in front of Goodspeed and Gates-Blake Halls, with President William Rainey Harper, professors, and trustees in attendance, July 1, 1894.[2]
The first University of Chicago was founded by a small group of Baptist educators and incorporated in 1857 after a land endowment from Senator Stephen A. Douglas and a fundraising campaign directed by the first president of the institution, John C. Burroughs.[3]: 8–10 It closed in 1886 after decades of financial struggle, exacerbated by the Great Chicago Fire and the Panic of 1873,[3]: 18 when the university's property was foreclosed on by its creditors.[3]: 8–10 In 1890, its trustees elected to change the university's name to the "Old University of Chicago" so that the new university could go by the name of the city; a year later, the new university voted to recognize the alumni of the old as alumni of the new.[3]: 59
Early years
Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about the founding and early years.
In 1890, the American Baptist Education Society (ABES) incorporated a new University of Chicago as a coeducational institution,[4]: 137 using $400,000 donated to the ABES to supplement a $600,000 donation from Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller[5] and land donated by Marshall Field.[3]: 60–61 The Hyde Park campus’ construction was financed by donations from wealthy Chicagoans such as Silas B. Cobb, donor of the campus's first building, Cobb Lecture Hall;[6] Charles L. Hutchinson, trustee, treasurer and donor of Hutchinson Commons;[7] and Martin A. Ryerson, president of the board of trustees and donor of the Ryerson Physical Laboratory.[3]: 103–105
William Rainey Harper became the university's president on July 1, 1891, and classes first began on October 1, 1892.[8] Harper offered large salaries to attract senior faculty,[3]: 78 and in two years had a faculty of 120, including eight former university or college presidents.[9] The undergraduate program was divided into two parts, with the first two years making up the Academic College, focusing on preparation for higher learning, and the last two years comprising the University College, with more advanced courses. The university operated on a quarter system, with 36 courses required to graduate.[3]: 82–84 Harper brought the Baptist seminary, which had historical ties to the Old University of Chicago, to the university. This became the Divinity School in 1891, the first graduate professional school at the University of Chicago.[10]: 20–22 Harper was a supporter of intercollegiate athletics, recruiting Amos Alonzo Stagg in 1892 to coach the football team and defending athletics from faculty opposition.[3]: 89 In 1894, the university adopted maroon as its official color after initially selecting goldenrod. The Maroons became the university's nickname during the same year.[11] During this period, the university founded the university extension, which offered evening courses for adults and correspondence courses, and the University of Chicago Press.[3]: 74
Rockefeller continued to provide significant contributions to the university after its founding. Harper's efforts to finance faculty research projects, expand the campus, and support university initiatives caused significant deficits covered by Rockefeller donations, with annual deficits between 1894 and 1903 averaging $215,000. In 1898, the board of trustees made a commitment to use new gifts to eliminate the deficit rather than to further expand programs, but structural deficits remained until after Harper's presidency.[3]: 110–112
1906–1929
After Harper's death in 1906, the board of trustees named Harry Pratt Judson, head of the Department of Political Science, acting president; in 1907, the appointment was made permanent.[3]: 149–150 Judson initiated a policy of financial austerity, which renewed Rockefeller's confidence in the university and resulted in a series of large gifts to the endowment between 1906 and 1910, including a final gift of $10 million in 1910 that balanced the university's budget.[3]: 113 In 1911, the university adopted a Latin motto of Crescat scientia; vita excolatur, which translates to "Let knowledge grow from more and more; and so be human life enriched."[12][13] In 1912, Judson successfully encouraged the board to create a faculty pension fund.[3]: 150
During World War I, Judson, as well as faculty members such as Albion Small and Paul Shorey, published works supporting the war. On the other hand, student reaction was mixed, with most not participating in newly formed voluntary military training programs such as the ROTC. In 1918, the Student Army Training Corps program was announced by the War Department, which requisitioned the campus to be run by army officers for military training, but the November armistice soon ended the program.[3]: 154–162 After the war, the Oriental Institute, now the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, was founded by Egyptologist James Henry Breasted to support and interpret archeological work in what was then called the Near East.[14]
In 1923, senior scholar Ernest D. Burton succeeded Judson as president.[3]: 163–164 Burton launched the first major fundraising campaign of the university to improve the research environment of the faculty as well as invest in residential halls for undergraduates, finding initial success despite faculty opposition to the perceived prioritization of undergraduate over graduate interests. Burton's sudden death in 1925 led to his replacement by physicist Max Mason, who ended the citywide fundraising drive early in favor of a quieter outreach among local businessmen.[3]: 167–182 During Burton's term, and later Mason's, the Chicago Schools of thought began to emerge in the social sciences, with new organizations being established such as the Social Science Research Council in 1923.[3]: 190–191
1929–1950
A group of people in suits standing in three rows on the steps in front of a stone building
Some of the University of Chicago team who worked on the production of the world's first human-caused self-sustaining nuclear reaction, including Enrico Fermi in the front row and Leó Szilárd in the second
In 1929, the 30-year-old dean of Yale Law School, Robert Maynard Hutchins, became president.[3]: 167–182 In 1930, Hutchins organized the graduate departments under four independent divisions and united the undergraduate colleges into one college.[3]: 222 In 1931, alongside dean of the college Chauncey Boucher, Hutchins implemented a new two-year general education curriculum called the "New Plan", which formed the basis for the university's core curriculum.[3]: 231–233 Later in the 1930s, Hutchins became unsatisfied with departmental influence on the undergraduate curriculum and pushed for further expansion to the general education curriculum.[3]: 242–252 In 1942, Hutchins transferred jurisdiction of the BA degree from the graduate divisions to the college, thus removing divisional leverage to shape the curriculum. The same year, the college reformed the BA degree with four years of prescribed general education.[3]: 253–255
Budget shortfalls caused by the Great Depression led to significant austerity measures and staffing cuts, though Hutchins protected the salaries of those who remained. In 1933, Hutchins proposed a plan to alleviate the financial situation by merging the university with Northwestern University, though it was ultimately abandoned.[3]: 287–289 Financial woes contributed to the decision to end the university's football program in 1939.[3]: 214 With substantial budget gaps remaining and support from the Rockefeller Foundation having dried up, a second major fundraising campaign was launched between 1939 and 1941 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the university's founding with mixed results.[3]: 290–299 Large deficits persisted after World War II, leaving future presidents to balance the budget.[3]: 316
During the war, the university recruited a number of refugee scientists from Europe, including Enrico Fermi, Rudolf Carnap, and James Franck. The university's Metallurgical Laboratory contributed to the Manhattan Project, with Enrico Fermi engineering the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction under the stands of Stagg Field, the university's football stadium, in 1942.[15][16][3]: 301–305 In 1945, Hutchins announced the formation of the Institute for Nuclear Studies and the Institute for the Study of Metals in order to continue work done during the war. These were later renamed the Enrico Fermi Institute and the James Franck Institute, respectively.[3]: 286 The university came under public scrutiny before and after the war for alleged communist influence, with university leadership called to testify before the Illinois General Assembly on the loyalty of its student body and faculty in 1935 and 1949.[3]: 269–280
1951–1977
In 1951, vice president of development Lawrence Kimpton succeeded Hutchins as chancellor,[3]: 323–324 a position created in 1945 replacing the president as head of the university.[3]: 310 The deficits left from Hutchins necessitated severe annual cuts in the operating budget, which was brought into balance by 1954. A fundraising campaign was launched the same year, which allowed for modest recovery,[3]: 338–343 but the financial situation worsened after a decline in undergraduate enrollments.[3]: 325–327 In 1957, to attract more students, Kimpton reduced the general education curriculum from four years to two years. Furthermore, the graduate divisional faculty with slowly merged with the previously independent college faculty via joint appointments.[3]: 328–330 To address safety concerns driven by increasing crime and poverty in the Hyde Park neighborhood, the university became a major sponsor of a controversial urban renewal project for Hyde Park. Between 1954 and 1960, the university worked with the South East Chicago Commission and Mayor Richard J. Daley to clear approximately 925 acres of land, disproportionately affecting Black, low-income residents.[3]: 343–350
A newspaper whose headline is "UC admits housing segregation"
Front page of Chicago Maroon breaking the news of the university's segregationist off-campus rental policies
In 1961, Caltech professor George Beadle was elected chancellor, resuming the title of president later that year.[17][3]: 355–356 Beadle's tenure saw large investments in faculty and campus expansion to rebuild the university after Kimpton's austerity, funded in large part by a $25 million grant provided by the Ford Foundation and an accompanying fundraising campaign.[3]: 359–365 The university experienced its share of student unrest during this time, beginning in 1962 when then-freshman Bernie Sanders helped lead a 15-day sit-in at the college's administration building in a protest over the university's segregationist off-campus rental policies. After continued turmoil, a university committee in 1967 issued what became known as the Kalven Report. The report, a two-page statement of the university's policy in "social and political action," declared that "To perform its mission in the society, a university must sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry and maintain an independence from political fashions, passions, and pressures."[18]
In 1964, the undergraduate college was reorganized into five collegiate divisions, four paralleling the four graduate divisions and one interdisciplinary New Collegiate Division.[3]: 366
In 1967, provost Edward Levi became president. His tenure saw a number of sit-ins at the administrative building: in 1962, over the university's segregationist off-campus rental policies;[19] in 1966 and 1967, over the university providing the class rank of students who sought deferments to draft boards; and in 1969, over the sociology's department decision not to rehire the openly Marxist assistant professor Marlene Dixon.[20][3]: 371–375 In 1967, a university committee issued the Kalven Report, maintaining the university's duty to uphold academic freedom and remain non-partisan.[3]: 497–499 The report has since been cited in university debates over divesting from South Africa and Sudan,[21] as well as in the Chicago Principles on free speech,[3]: 500 which a number of other universities have since adopted.[22] By the 1970s, facing the end of the Ford Foundation's support, a reduction in enrollment due to insufficient student housing, flagging federal funding, and broader economic stagflation, the university faced more fiscal austerity.[3]: 379–387 In 1975, provost John Wilson was appointed president, balancing the budget once more through cuts.[3]: 391–393
1978–present
In 1978, history scholar and provost of Yale, Hanna Holborn Gray, became president of the university. She was the first woman in the United States to be appointed to a full-term presidency of a major research university.[3]: 393 Still facing budgetary issues, Gray modernized the university's financial systems, increased the size and tuition of the undergraduate college, and paired campus expansion and renovation with administrative austerity. While budgetary equilibrium was reached through the mid-1980s, acute deficits soon re-emerged, exacerbated by the 1990-1992 recession.[3]: 393–398 Gray also oversaw the implementation of a unified 21 course core curriculum across all collegiate divisions in 1985 and invested in student life through new food services, school festivals, and the reintroduction of varsity athletics.[3]: 403–405
A view of neo-Gothic buildings in the background, with a grassy area in front
View from the Midway Plaisance
In 1992, economist Hugo F. Sonnenschein became president, facing projected deficits of $23 million for the 1995-96 budget and poor endowment growth.[3]: 407 The raising of $676 million in a fundraising campaign for the university's centennial throughout the early 1990s helped alleviate these problems.[3]: 418 In 1996, Sonnenschein proposed the expansion of the undergraduate college by 1,000 students to raise tuition revenue, and in 1997, backed a plan to reduce the number of required course in the core curriculum from 21 to 15–18 (depending on how a student met the language requirement). After intense debate, with the university becoming the focal point of a national debate on education, both reforms were approved.[3]: 409–417 In 2000, Cornell University provost Don Michael Randel became the twelfth president of the university. His tenure was marked by increased support for the arts on campus, stronger outreach to local civic and business leaders, investments in major campus facilities, and the launch of a new $2 billion capital campaign.[3]: 421
In 2006, mathematician Robert J. Zimmer was appointed president, receiving board approval to take on large amounts of debt at low interest rates after the 2008 recession in order to finance a number of major projects.[3]: 465–468 These included new buildings and pavilions, such as Mansueto Library in 2011, a reading room and book storage facility;[23] the Logan Center for the Arts in 2012;[3]: 471 the Keller Center in 2019, home of the Harris School of Public Policy;[3]: 471 and Woodlawn Residential Commons in 2020, which houses 1,298 students.[24] Between 2008 and 2022, the university partnered with the city and outside businesses to launch three interventions along 53rd Street in an attempt to improve the neighborhood's economic condition.[3]: 473–477 As part of an effort to invest in its professional schools, the university formed the Becker Friedman Institute in 2011,[25] acquired the Marine Biological Laboratory in 2013,[3]: 491 repurposed the Crerar Library as the headquarters of the Department of Computer Science in 2018,[3]: 472 and established the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering in 2019.[26] The university also expanded its presence abroad, opening campuses in Hong Kong in 2018,[27] in London in 2022,[3]: 507 and in Paris in 2024,[28] alongside centers in Beijing in 2010[29] and in Delhi in 2014.[30] Despite a $5.4 billion fundraising campaign started in 2014,[3]: 468 university debt has exceeded initial planning expectations, reaching $6.3 billion in 2025.[31]
In 2021, Zimmer was succeeded by Paul Alivisatos, then-provost of the University of California, Berkeley. In 2024, university students set up an encampment on the university's main quad[32] as a part of the nationwide movement in support of Palestine at institutions of higher learning across the country. The encampment was later cleared by University of Chicago Police Department officers.[33]
Campus
Main campus
The campus of the University of Chicago
The campus of the University of Chicago, from the top of Rockefeller Chapel. The Main Quadrangles can be seen on the left (west), the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa and the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics can be seen in the center (north) and the Booth School of Business and Laboratory Schools can be seen on the right (east), as the panoramic is bounded on both sides by the Midway Plaisance (south).
The main campus of the University of Chicago consists of 217 acres (87.8 ha) in the Chicago neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Woodlawn, approximately eight miles (13 km) south of downtown Chicago.[34] The northern and southern portions of campus are separated by the Midway Plaisance, a large, linear park created for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. In 2011, Travel+Leisure listed the university as one of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States.[35]
Aerial shots from the University of Chicago campus
A path in the grass leading towards a large, partially ivy-covered building
View of university building from the Harper Quadrangle
The first buildings of the campus, which make up what are now known as the Main Quadrangles, were part of a master plan conceived by two University of Chicago trustees and plotted by Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb.[36] The Main Quadrangles consist of six quadrangles, each surrounded by buildings, bordering one larger quadrangle.[10]: 221 The buildings of the Main Quadrangles were designed by Cobb, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, Holabird & Roche, and other architectural firms in a mixture of the Victorian Gothic and Collegiate Gothic styles, patterned on the colleges of the University of Oxford.[36] Mitchell Tower, for example, is modeled after Oxford's Magdalen Tower,[37] and the university Commons, Hutchinson Hall, replicates Christ Church Hall.[38] In celebration of the 2018 Illinois Bicentennial, the University of Chicago Quadrangles were selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component.[39][40]
A comparison between the similar architectures of Chicago's Mitchell Tower on the left and Oxford's Magdalen Tower on the right.
Many older buildings of the University of Chicago employ Collegiate Gothic architecture like that of the University of Oxford. For example, Chicago's Mitchell Tower (left) was modeled after Oxford's Magdalen Tower (right).
After the 1940s, the campus's Gothic style began to give way to modern styles.[36] In 1955, Eero Saarinen was contracted to develop a second master plan, which led to the construction of buildings both north and south of the Midway, including the Laird Bell Law Quadrangle (a complex designed by Saarinen);[36] a series of arts buildings;[36] Edith Abbott Hall, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe;[41] the Keller Center, which is home of the Harris School of Public Policy and was designed by Edward Durrell Stone;[42] and the Regenstein Library, the largest building on campus, a brutalist structure designed by Walter Netsch.[43] Another master plan, designed in 1999 and updated in 2004,[44] produced the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center (2003),[44] the Max Palevsky Residential Commons (2001),[36] South Campus Residence Hall and dining commons (2009), a new children's hospital,[45] and other construction, expansions, and restorations.[46] In 2011, the university completed the glass dome-shaped Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, which provides a grand reading room for the university library and prevents the need for an off-campus book depository.[47]
The site of Chicago Pile-1 is a National Historic Landmark and is marked by the Henry Moore sculpture Nuclear Energy.[48] Robie House, a Frank Lloyd Wright building acquired by the university in 1963, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site,[49][50] as well as a National Historic Landmark,[51] as is room 405 of the George Herbert Jones Laboratory, where Glenn T. Seaborg and his team were the first to isolate plutonium.[52] Hitchcock Hall, an undergraduate dormitory, is on the National Register of Historic Places.[53]
Adjacent to the campus in Jackson Park is the home of the Obama Presidential Center, the Presidential Library for the 44th president of the United States[54] with expected completion in 2026. The Obamas settled in the university's Hyde Park neighborhood, where they raised their children and where Barack Obama began his political career. Michelle Obama served as an administrator at the university and founded the university's Community Service Center.[55]
Campus of the University of Chicago
Snell-Hitchcock, an undergraduate dormitory constructed in the early 20th century, is part of the Main Quadrangles.
Snell-Hitchcock, an undergraduate dormitory constructed in the early 20th century, is part of the Main Quadrangles.
Rockefeller Chapel, constructed in 1928, was designed by Bertram Goodhue in the neo-Gothic style.
Rockefeller Chapel, constructed in 1928, was designed by Bertram Goodhue in the neo-Gothic style.
The Henry Hinds Laboratory for Geophysical Sciences was built in 1969.[56]
The Henry Hinds Laboratory for Geophysical Sciences was built in 1969.[56]
The Gerald Ratner Athletics Center, opened in 2003 and designed by Cesar Pelli, houses the volleyball, wrestling, swimming, and basketball teams.[57]
The Gerald Ratner Athletics Center, opened in 2003 and designed by Cesar Pelli, houses the volleyball, wrestling, swimming, and basketball teams.[57]
Transportation
The Hyde Park campus is served by the CTA Red Line and Green Line, as well as by the Metra Electric District and South Shore Line commuter trains,[58] all of which provide access to downtown Chicago.[59][60][61][62] The campus is also served by a network of CTA bus routes.[58]
The university shuttle program includes daytime and nighttime routes, most of which operate within Hyde Park.[63] In 2022, the university added a Downtown Campus Connector to its shuttle program, which connects the main Hyde Park campus to the Gleacher Center and downtown UChicago Medicine clinics.[64]
In 2024, the university introduced a Via ride-sharing program ahead of the 2024–2025 school year, which provides unlimited free rides on campus in shared vans.[65]
Safety
In November 2021, a university graduate was robbed and fatally shot on a sidewalk in a residential area in Hyde Park near campus; a total of three University of Chicago students were killed by gunfire incidents in 2021.[66][67] These incidents prompted student protests and an open letter to university leadership signed by more than 300 faculty members.[68][69] In response, the university introduced measures including increased foot and vehicular patrols near campus, expanded coordination between the university police department and the Chicago Police Department, and greater use of security cameras and license plate readers.[70] The university continues to maintain one of the largest private police forces in the country.[71]
Satellite campuses
A curved, glass walkway over a pavilion leading to a building
The University of Chicago Francis and Rose Yuen Campus, located at Mount Davis, Hong Kong
The university also maintains facilities apart from its main campus. The university's Booth School of Business maintains campuses in Hong Kong, London, and downtown Chicago.[72] The Center in Paris, a campus located on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, hosts various undergraduate and graduate study programs.[73] The university also maintains the Chicago House, based in Luxor, which serves as the Egyptian headquarters for the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures.[74] In fall 2010, the university opened a center in Beijing, near Renmin University's campus in Haidian District. The most recent additions are a center in New Delhi, India, which opened in 2014,[75] and a center in Hong Kong which opened in 2018.[76] In 2024, the university opened the John W. Boyer Center in Paris, designed by architectural firm Studio Gang and nearly tripling the size of the Center in Paris which had opened in 2003.[77]
Academics
A large gate, with students walking through
The University of Chicago Main Quadrangles, looking north
The academic bodies of the University of Chicago consist of the college, four divisions of graduate research, seven professional schools, and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies.[78] The university also contains a library system, the University of Chicago Press, and the University of Chicago Medical Center, and oversees several laboratories, including the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the Argonne National Laboratory, and the Marine Biological Laboratory.[79] The university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.[80] It is a member of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Universities Research Association.[81][82]
The university runs on a quarter system in which the academic year is divided into four terms: Summer (June–August), Autumn (September–December), Winter (January–March), and Spring (March–June).[83] Full-time undergraduate students take three to four courses every quarter[84] for approximately ten weeks before their quarterly academic breaks. The school year typically begins in late September and ends in early June.[83]
Undergraduate college
Main article: College of the University of Chicago
The campus in winter, with snow covering the ground
Harper Memorial Library was dedicated in 1912, and its architecture takes inspiration from various colleges in England.
The College of the University of Chicago grants Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 51 undergraduate courses of study[85] (since 2005 known as majors) and 33 secondary courses of study, now known as minors.[86] The college's academics are divided into four divisions: the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division, the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division, the Social Sciences Collegiate Division, and the Humanities Collegiate Division. Each division is affiliated with the corresponding graduate division of the university.[87]
The college introduced a now-widespread model of the liberal arts undergraduate program which featured the Socratic method in undergraduate contexts, the Great Books program, and the core curriculum.[88][89][90] Since the 1999–2000 school year, 15 courses across seven subjects and demonstrated proficiency in a foreign language are required under the core curriculum.[91]
A large building
Eckhart Hall houses the university's math department.
Graduate schools and committees
The university graduate schools and committees are divided into four divisions (biological sciences, humanities, physical sciences, and social sciences), seven professional schools, and the Graham School.[92] In the autumn quarter of 2022, the university enrolled 10,546 graduate students on degree-seeking courses: 569 in the biological sciences division, 612 in the humanities division, 2,103 in the physical sciences division, 972 in the social sciences division, and 6,290 in the professional schools (including the Graham School).[93]
The university is home to several committees for interdisciplinary scholarship, including the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought.[94]
Research
Bird's-eye view of a large circular shape inscribed into a grassy area
Aerial view of Fermilab, a science research laboratory co-managed by the University of Chicago
According to the National Science Foundation, the University of Chicago spent $423.9 million on research and development in 2018, ranking it 60th in the nation.[95] It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".[96] It is a founding member of the Association of American Universities, and was a member of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation between 1946 and 2016, when the group's name was changed to the Big Ten Academic Alliance. The University of Chicago is not a member of the rebranded consortium, but continues to be a collaborator.[97][98]
The university operates more than 140 research centers and institutes on campus. Among these are the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa—a museum and research center for Near Eastern studies owned and operated by the university—and a number of National Resource Centers, including the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.[99] Chicago also operates or is affiliated with several research institutions apart from the university proper. The university manages the Argonne National Laboratory, part of the United States Department of Energy's national laboratory system, and co-manages the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), a nearby particle physics laboratory.[79] It was also part of the Astrophysical Research Consortium that constructed the Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico.[100] Faculty and students at the adjacent Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago collaborate with the university.[101] In 2013, the university formed an affiliation with the formerly independent Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.[102] The National Opinion Research Center maintains an office at the Hyde Park campus and is affiliated with multiple academic centers and institutes.[103][104]
Ivy-colored building with various shades of color
University of Chicago building during fall
The University of Chicago has been the site of various experiments and academic movements. The university has played a role in shaping ideas about the free market[105] and is the namesake of the Chicago school of economics, the school of economic thought supported by Milton Friedman and other economists. The university's sociology department was the first independent sociology department in the United States and gave birth to the Chicago school of sociology.[106] The university was the site of the Chicago Pile-1 (the first controlled, self-sustaining human-made nuclear chain reaction, part of the Manhattan Project), of Robert Millikan's oil-drop experiment that calculated the charge of the electron,[107] and of the development of radiocarbon dating by Willard F. Libby in 1946.[108] The chemical experiment that tested how life originated on early Earth, the Miller–Urey experiment, was also conducted at the university.[109] REM sleep was discovered at the university in 1953 by Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky.[110]
The University of Chicago Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics operated the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin from 1897 until 2018,[111] where the largest operating refracting telescope in the world and other telescopes are located.[112]
Professional schools
The university contains seven professional schools and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies.
The University of Chicago Divinity School was the first professional school at the University of Chicago, chartered in 1865 and incorporated into the university in 1890. It offers four graduate degree programs as well as undergraduate course offerings.[113] It has been accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada since 1938.[114]
The Booth School of Business was founded in 1898 as the College of Commerce and Politics and received business school accreditation in 1916.[115][116] In 2008, the then-called Graduate School of Business was renamed following a $300 million donation from alumnus David Booth.[117] It was ranked fourth out of 133 American business schools by U.S. News in 2025.[118]
The University of Chicago Law School was established in 1902, twelve years after the founding of the university.[119] It has been accredited by the American Bar Association since 1923 and was ranked third out of 195 American law schools by U.S. News in 2025.[114][120]
The Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice was first established in 1908 as the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy and received its first dean, Edith Abbott, who became the first female dean of any graduate school in the United States in 1924. It was renamed in 2021 in recognition of a $75 million donation from James and Paula Crown and the Crown family.[121][122]
The Pritzker School of Medicine matriculated its first class of medical students in 1927 and was renamed to the Pritzker School of Medicine in 1968 in recognition of support from the Pritzker family.[123] It has been accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education since 1942.[114] In 2023, the school declined to continue submitting data to U.S. News to help the publication rank the institution, joining medical schools including those at Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia in doing so.[124]
The Harris School of Public Policy was established in 1988 as the Graduate School of Public Policy Studies. In 1990, it was renamed in recognition of Irving Harris' financial support of the program during its inception.[125] The school offers six graduate degree programs as well as joint degree and non-degree programs.[126]
The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering was founded in 2019 following an expansion of the Institute of Molecular Engineering, which was established in 2011. The Pritzker Foundation provided a $75 million donation to help establish the school, which occupies the William Eckhardt Research Center.[127]
The Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies, originally known as the university-Extension program, was established in 1892.[128] The school offers various non-degree courses and certificates as well as degree programs.[129] In 1997, it was renamed to the William B. and Catherine V. Graham School of General Studies in honor of a $10 million donation from William and Catherine Graham made in the same year.[130]
Until 1989, the University of Chicago Graduate Library School was the graduate-level librarianship school at the University of Chicago. It was established in 1928 to develop a program for the graduate education of librarians with a focus on research.[131] Housed for a time in the Joseph Regenstein Library, the Graduate Library School closed in 1989 when the University of Chicago decided to promote information studies instead of professional education.[132][133]
Associated academic institutions
A large building
The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a private day school run by the university
The university runs a number of academic institutions and programs apart from its undergraduate and postgraduate schools. It operates the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (a private day school for K-12 students and day care),[134] and a public charter school with three campuses on the South Side of Chicago administered by the university's Urban Education Institute.[135] In addition, the Hyde Park Day School, a school for students with learning disabilities,[136] and the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, a residential treatment program for those with behavioral and emotional problems,[137] maintains a location on the University of Chicago campus. Since 1983, the University of Chicago has maintained the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, a mathematics program used in urban primary and secondary schools.[138] The university runs a program called the Council on Advanced Studies, which administers interdisciplinary workshops to provide a forum for graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars to present scholarly work in progress.[139] The university also operates the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in North America.[140][141]
Library system
Main article: University of Chicago Library
The interior of the reading room of the library, with tables and lamps on either side of the hall
University of Chicago, Harper Library
The University of Chicago Library system encompasses six libraries that contain a total of 11 million volumes, the 9th most among library systems in the United States.[142] The university's primary library is the Regenstein Library, which contains over 4.5 million print volumes on a variety of subjects and is the largest on campus.[143][144] The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, built in 2011, houses a large study space and an automated book storage and retrieval system.[145] The John Crerar Library contains more than 1.4 million volumes in the biological, medical and physical sciences and collections in general science and the philosophy and history of science, medicine, and technology.[146] The university also operates a number of special libraries, including the D'Angelo Law Library, the Social Service Administration Library, and the Eckhart Library for mathematics and computer science.[147][148] The Harper Memorial Library, the first library of the university, is now a reading and study room.[149]
Arts
A large building
The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, opened in 2012
The University of Chicago Arts program joins academic departments in the Division of the Arts & Humanities and the undergraduate College, student art programs, and professional organizations including the Court Theatre, the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, the Smart Museum of Art, and the Renaissance Society.[150] The university offers graduate degrees in music, cinema and media studies, visual arts, and the humanities, among other subjects.[151][152] It also offers bachelor's degree programs in visual arts, music, art history, cinema and media studies, and theater and performance studies.[153] Several thousand major and non-major undergraduates enroll annually in creative and performing arts classes.[154]
The university was home to the improvisational Compass Players student comedy troupe, which evolved into The Second City in 1959.[155][156] The university has an artist-in-residence program, which has supported over 32 individual artists as of May 2025.[157] The Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts opened in 2012. It was financed by a $35 million gift from alumnus David Logan and his wife Reva, the single largest cash gift to the arts in the city of Chicago as of 2025. The center includes spaces for exhibitions, performances, classes, and media production.[158]
Reputation and rankings
Academic rankings
National
Forbes[159] 13
U.S. News & World Report[160] 6
Washington Monthly[161] 54
WSJ/College Pulse[162] 75
Global
ARWU[163] 10
QS[164] 13
THE[165] 14 (tie)
U.S. News & World Report[166] 26
The University of Chicago is considered one of the most prestigious research universities in the United States.[167]The Academic Ranking of World Universities has consistently placed the University of Chicago among the top 10 universities in the world.[168] In 2026, the university was ranked 6th by US News & World Report and 13th by Forbes.[169][170] In 2025, QS World University Rankings placed the university in 13th place worldwide, while THE World University Rankings ranked the university in a tie for 14th.[171][172]
The university's law and business schools consistently rank among the top three professional schools in the United States. In 2025, the business school was placed in second out of 77 American schools by Bloomberg,[173] fourth in the US by US News & World Report,[174] and second by Fortune.[175] In the same year, it was placed fifteenth in the world by QS World University Rankings and seventeenth by the Financial Times.[176][177] In 2025, the law school was ranked third in the United States by US News & World Report and second by Above the Law.[178][179] In the same year, it was ranked 11th globally by QS World University Rankings.[180]
Administration and finance
See also: List of presidents of the University of Chicago
A professional photo of Paul Alivisatos smiling at the camera
Paul Alivisatos, University of Chicago president
The university is governed by a board of trustees. The board oversees the long-term development and plans of the university and manages fundraising efforts, and is composed of 55 members including the university president.[181] Directly beneath the president are the provost, fourteen vice presidents, including the chief financial officer and chief investment officer, and twelve deans.[182] The current chair of the board of trustees is David Rubenstein, who has occupied the position since May 2022.[183] The current provost is Katherine Baicker, who was appointed in March 2023.[184][185] The current president of the University of Chicago is chemist Paul Alivisatos, who assumed the role on September 1, 2021.[186]
The university's endowment was the 21st largest among American educational institutions and state university systems in 2024, valued at roughly $10.1 billion.[187] Since 2016, the university's board of trustees has resisted pressure from students and faculty to divest its investments from fossil fuel companies.[188] As of 2024, such investments remain a part of the university's endowment.[189]
In fall 2023, the university employed 3,418 academic staff and 23,217 administrative staff, including those from the medical center.[190] In 2024, the university's combined annual budget, including the university proper, the medical center, and the marine biological laboratory, stood at $5.2 billion, with the university's operations making up an additional $2.6 billion.[191] In the same year, the university's total assets were valued at $20.3 billion.[192]
Part of the financial plan for the university by former university president Robert Zimmer was an increase in accumulation of debt to finance large building projects.[193] This drew both support and criticism from many in the university community.[194] In 2024, the university budget deficit stood at $288 million despite liquidating assets to cover the gap; the administration announced plans in November of that year to close the deficit over the next four years.[195][196] The financial strain has caused the university to increase its student-faculty ratio, reduce the proportion of classes taught by research faculty, and spend an unusually high percentage of undergraduate tuition on servicing debt.[196][197]
In the summer of 2025, the university announced more than $100 million in budget cuts across capital projects, hiring, and graduate admissions in a response to the growing university deficit, less federal funding, and uncertainty about international student admissions.[198]
Student body and admissions
Undergraduate admissions statistics
2023 entering
class[199]Change vs.
2018
Admit rate 4.8%
(Neutral decrease −3.3)
Yield rate 87.9%
(Increase +24.2)
In fall 2024, the university enrolled 7,569 undergraduate students, 10,968 graduate students, and 750 non-degree students.[200] The college class of 2025 is composed of 53% male and 47% female students. Twenty-seven percent of the class identify as Asian, 19% as Hispanic, and 10% as Black. Eighteen percent of the class is international.[201] The university is need-blind for domestic applicants.[202]
Admission to the University of Chicago has become highly selective over the past two decades, reflecting changes in the application process, school popularity, and marketing strategy.[203][204][205] Between 1996 and 2023, the acceptance rate of the college fell from 71% to 4.7%.[206]
The middle 50% band of SAT scores for the undergraduate class of 2025 was 1510–1570 (98th–99th percentiles),[201] the average MCAT score for students entering the Pritzker School of Medicine class of 2024 was 519 (97th percentile),[207] the median GMAT score for students entering the full-time Booth MBA program class of 2023 was 740 (97th percentile),[208] and the median LSAT score for students entering the Law School class of 2021 was 172 (99th percentile).[209]
In 2018, the University of Chicago attracted national headlines by becoming the first major research university to no longer require SAT or ACT scores from college applicants.[210]
Athletics
Logo of the Maroons
Official athletics logo
Main article: Chicago Maroons
The University of Chicago hosts 19 varsity sports teams: 10 men's teams and 9 women's teams, all called the Maroons, with 502 students participating in the 2012–2013 school year.[211] The Maroons compete in the NCAA Division III as members of the University Athletic Association (UAA).[212] Their mascot is Phil the Phoenix.[11]
The university was a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and participated in the NCAA Division I men's basketball and football.[213] In 1935, the University of Chicago reached the Sweet Sixteen.[211] In 1935, Chicago Maroons football player Jay Berwanger became the first winner of the Heisman Trophy.[214] However, the university chose to withdraw from the Big Ten Conference in 1946 after University president Robert Maynard Hutchins de-emphasized varsity athletics in 1939 and dropped football.[215] In 1969, Chicago reinstated football as a Division III team, resuming play at the new Stagg Field.[216]
The University of Chicago is home to the University of Chicago Rugby Football Club (UCRFC).[217] Since 2022, men's rugby competes in the Division II Great Midwest Conference (MWC) under National Collegiate Rugby, having previously competed under USA Rugby. It was ranked 15th in the country at the end of the 2024 fall 15s season, falling to Montana State 19–48 in the Sweet Sixteen NCR DII playoff round. It competes in a Rugby 7s circuit in the spring. It shares its conference with Loyola University Chicago, the University of Illinois Chicago, Northwestern University (for which it competes in a yearly cup, the Hutchins-Scott Cup), DePaul University, and Benedictine University.[218] A women's club also exists at the university.[219]
Founded in 1939, UChicago's Sailing Club is one of the oldest in the country.[220] The team competes in the Midwestern Collegiate Sailing Association conference within the Intercollegiate Sailing Association. From 2022 to 2025, the team won 4 conference championships granting berths to national championship regattas.[221]
The university is also home to the ultimate frisbee team UChicago Fission.[222]
Student life
Student body composition as of May 10, 2025
Race and ethnicity[223] Total
White 31%
Asian 20%
Foreign national 16%
Hispanic 17%
Other[a] 9%
Black 7%
Economic diversity
Low-income[b] 14%
Student organizations
Students at the University of Chicago operate more than 400 clubs and organizations known as Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs).[224] These include cultural and religious groups, academic clubs and teams, and common-interest organizations.[225] Among notable student organizations are the nation's longest continuously running student film society Doc Films,[226][227] the organizing committee for the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt, and the weekly student newspaper The Chicago Maroon.[228]
A large building
The university's Reynolds Club, the student center
Student government
All recognized student organizations are funded by the University of Chicago Student Government. Student Government consists of graduate and undergraduate students elected to represent members from their respective academic units.[229] It is led by an executive committee, chaired by a president with the assistance of two vice presidents (one for administration and the other for student life) who are elected together as a slate by the student body each spring. As of 2025, the Undergraduate Student Government annual budget was greater than $2.5 million.[230]
Fraternities and sororities
As of 2019, there were more than 20 Greek organizations operating on campus.[231] According to a 2016 Maroon article, 19.6% of undergraduates were members of fraternities or sororities.[232]
Student housing
An orange brick building with pink window frames and a blue roof
Max Palevsky Residential Commons is a dormitory completed in 2001 designed by postmodernist Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta.
Main article: Housing at the University of Chicago
On-campus undergraduate students at the University of Chicago participate in a house system in which each student is assigned to one of the university's seven residence hall buildings and to a smaller community within their residence hall called a "house". There are 48 houses, with an average of 80 students in each house.[233] The houses are named after former professors and other historical figures in the university community, such as Eugene Fama.[234]
Students are required to live in on-campus housing for the first six quarters of enrollment.[235] As of the 2024–2025 school year, 58% of undergraduate students live on campus.[236]
The university owns and manages more than 300 residential units near campus for graduate students.[237]
Traditions
A group of students in front of six shopping carts that have been decorated; there is a student wearing a helmet in each one
Qwazy Quad Rally, Scav Hunt 2005
Main articles: Doc Films and University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt
Every May since 1987, the University of Chicago has held the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt, in which teams of students compete to obtain notoriously esoteric items from a list.[238] Every January, the university holds a week-long winter festival, Kuviasungnerk/Kangeiko (Kuvia), which includes early morning exercise routines and fitness workshops.[239] The university also annually holds a carnival and concert called Summer Breeze,[240] which hosts outside musicians. Ida Noyes Hall is home to Doc Films, a student film society founded in 1932 that screens films nightly at the university.[241] Since 1946, the university has organized the Latke-Hamantash Debate, which involves humorous discussions about the relative merits and meanings of latkes and hamantashen.[242] Since 2002, the Ida Noyes Pub has hosted Trivia Nights for university affiliates each Tuesday.[243]
People
For a more comprehensive list, see List of University of Chicago people.
Since the university's establishment in 1890, there have been 101 Nobel laureates across all six categories affiliated with the University of Chicago,[244] 21 of whom were pursuing research or on faculty at the university at the time of their award announcement.[245] Of these 101 Nobel Prizes, 30 were in Physics, 19 in Chemistry, 13 in Physiology/Medicine, 3 in Literature, 1 in Peace, and 31 in Economics. Chicago faculty and alumni also include ten Fields Medalists,[246] seventeen National Medal of Science recipients,[247] four Turing Award winners,[248] fifty-eight MacArthur Fellows,[249] five John Bates Clark Medalists,[250] thirty Marshall Scholars,[251] fifty-five Rhodes Scholars,[252] twenty-seven Pulitzer Prize winners,[253] twenty National Humanities Medalists,[254] and six Olympic medalists.[255]
Notable alumni
Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman
Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders
Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Chicago alumni have gone on to become notable in several fields. In particular, alumni include CEOs of firms such as Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse;[256] six heads of state or government across five continents;[257] eight U.S. Cabinet Secretaries;[258] ten U.S. Senators;[259] four central bank Presidents or Directors, including the World Bank;[260] one U.S. Supreme Court justice;[261] and presidents of Princeton, Northwestern, and MIT.[262]
Notable faculty include three Supreme Court Justices, one central bank governor, and numerous Nobel Prize laureates. Former U.S. president Barack Obama,[263] poet T.S. Eliot,[264] and writer Ralph
American Sikhs form the country's sixth-largest religious group.[1] While the U.S. Census does not ask about religion,[2] 70,697 Americans (or 0.02% of the total population) declared Sikh as their ethnicity in the 2020 census.[3] The U.S. Census Bureau cites the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey's estimate of the adult Sikh American population at 78,000.[4] The Pew Research Center estimated the Sikh American adult population to be 140,000 and the total population at 200,000 in 2012 while the World Religion Database at Boston University estimated the American Sikh population to be at 280,000 in 2012.[4][5] Sikh organizations like the Sikh Coalition and American Sikh Congressional Caucus estimate the Sikh American population to be as high as 1,000,000, but do not provide any sources for these figures;[6][7][5] 500,000 nevertheless remains the most cited Sikh American population size.[8][15] With 1% of Asian Americans being Sikh, and 90.7% of Sikh Americans being Asian American, the American Sikh population can be estimated at around 200,000–300,000 in 2021.[16][17][18] The largest Sikh populations in the U.S. are found in California (52%), New York (11%), and Washington (6%).[19]
Sikhism is a religion, originating from medieval India (predominantly from the Punjab region of modern-day India and Pakistan) which was introduced into the United States during the 19th century. While most American Sikhs are Punjabi, the United States also has a number of non-Punjabi converts to Sikhism.[20] Sikh men are typically identifiable by their unshorn beards and turbans (head coverings), articles of their faith. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and subsequent other terrorism related activities by Islamic groups, Sikhs have often been mistaken as Muslims or Arabs, and have been subject to several hate crimes, including murders.[21][22] Sikh temples have also been targets of violence due to being mistaken for mosques. A 2012 shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin garnered national and international attention, with President Obama ordering flags to be half-staffed at all federal buildings.
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History
First immigrants
The Stockton gurdwara, the oldest in the U.S., opened on October 24, 1912.[23]
Sikhs have lived in the United States for more than 130 years. The first Sikh immigrants to the United States started to arrive in the second half of the 19th century, when poor economic conditions in British India drove many Indians to emigrate elsewhere. Most Sikh immigrants to the United States came from the province of Punjab and came to the U.S. to work on agricultural farms in California, travelling via Hong Kong to Angel Island.[24]
In the years just after 1900, hundreds of Sikhs had arrived to work in the lumber mills of Bellingham, Washington. In 1907, 400–500 white men, predominantly members of the Asiatic Exclusion League, attacked the Sikhs' homes in what is now known as the Bellingham riots. This quickly drove the East Indian immigrants out of the town.[25][26][27]
Some Sikhs worked in lumber mills of Oregon or in railroad construction and for some Sikhs it was on a railway line, which allowed other Sikhs who were working as migrant laborers to come into the town on festival days.[28][unreliable source?]
A big effect on Sikh migration to the western states occurred during World War I and World War II, where Sikhs were recruited by the British Indian Army to serve for them. Sikhs fought bravely during these wars and began to live in England after their serving period. Among the Sikhs who already lived in America prior to the wars, many Sikhs joined them, mainly during World Wars I and II. Among those who served in the US military include Bhagat Singh Thind in World War I.
The first Sikh gurdwara established in the U.S. was the Gurdwara Sahib Stockton, in Stockton, California, which was established in 1912 by Wasakha Singh Dadehar and Jawala Singh.[29]
21st century
Rising hate
Sikhs of America parade float at the 2016 Martin Luther King Day parade in Midtown Houston
Houston Sikh Community at the 2016 Martin Luther King Day parade in Midtown Houston
As a result of the September 11 attacks, some Sikh Americans have become subject to discrimination, often from individuals who mistakenly believe that they are Arab or Muslim.
Balbir Singh Sodhi, a gas station owner, was killed on September 15, 2001, due to being mistaken for a Muslim. In a 2011 report to the United States Senate, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported several assaults and incidents of arson at Sikh temples after September 11. All were labeled as hate crimes that resulted from the perpetrators' misconceptions that their targets were Muslim.[30] In August 2012, a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, was the site of a shooting, leading to six Sikh individuals being killed.[31] On May 7, 2013, an elderly Sikh man was attacked with an iron bar in Fresno, California, in a possible hate crime.[32] On September 21, 2013, Prabhjot Singh, a Sikh professor was attacked in Harlem, New York, by a group of 20-30 men who branded him as "Osama bin Laden" and Terrorist".[33]
A 2007 survey of Sikh students by the Sikh Coalition found that three out of four male students interviewed "had been teased or harassed on account of their religious identity."[34] In 2014, the Sikh Coalition released a national report on the bullying of Sikh children in American schools. The report found that 55.8% of Sikh students surveyed in Indianapolis reported being bullied, while 54.5% of Sikh students surveyed in Fresno, California, reported being bullied.[35] According to the surveys, Sikh students wearing turbans are twice as likely to be bullied as the average American child.
In 2011, two Sikh American grandfathers were killed while out for a morning walk in Elk Grove, California.[36] This led to a national public outcry by the community, raising safety concerns for the city's 3,000 Sikh community members.[37] The city completed the "Singh and Kaur Park" in 2021 to commemorate the lives of the slain men, and to raise awareness about the Sikh faith.[38]
Historic firsts
In 2019, the United States Senate unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the importance of Sikh history, and contributions to American society.[39] In the same year, Snatam Kaur became the first Sikh American nominated for a Grammy Award with her album Beloved.
In 2009, Kash Gill made history as one of the first Indian mayors and the first Sikh to be elected mayor in the United States when he took office in Yuba City.[40] Additionally, the Charlottesville City Council (Virginia) appointed councilmember Satyendra Huja to the position of mayor in 2012, becoming the first turban-wearing Sikh to hold the position.[41] In 2020, Elk Grove elected Bobbie Allen-Singh as its new mayor, making her the first Sikh woman to hold the position of mayor in an American city.[42]
Converts
In the 1960s, due to increased Indian immigration and rising interest in Indian spirituality in the American counterculture, a number of non-Punjabi Americans began to enter 3HO. Prominent in this trend was Yogi Bhajan, leader of the Sikh-related movement 3HO (Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization), whose Los Angeles temple was the first to introduce non-Punjabi Americans to Sikhism.[20]
Demography
Generation status
Most American Sikhs are immigrants.
Sikh American generation status (2020)
Generation status 2020[43]
Pop. %
First generation 163,992 58.5%
Second generation 100,638 35.9%
Third generation or more 15,979 5.7%
Total 280,329 0.08%
Occupations
Bhagat Singh Thind v. United States
A gathering of British veterans who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War; a Sikh is present among them (c. 1917)
A Sikh-American U.S. Army officer (2010)
Main article: Sikhism in the United States military
Sikhs have served in the United States military at least as far back as the early 20th century, when one Bhagat Singh Thind, who though not a citizen joined the United States Army and served in World War I. Thind requested citizenship at the end of the war, being granted and revoked twice, before finally being naturalized in 1936.[44] Far larger numbers of Sikhs served in World War II, and all American wars following.
The ability of observant Sikhs to serve in the American military has, since 1985, been compromised by a discontinuation of exemptions to uniform standards which previously allowed Sikhs to maintain their religiously mandated beards and turbans while in uniform.[45] As of 2010, a Sikh doctor, Kamaljeet S. Kalsi, and dentist, Tejdeep Singh Rattan, are the only Sikh officers to be permitted to serve in uniform with beard and turban.[46] In addition, Simranpreet Lamba was permitted to enlist, with exemption to wear his turban and beard, in 2010 due to his knowledge of Punjabi and Hindi.[47]
Military
In the federal appeals court in Washington, a preliminary injunction allowed two Sikh men to enter the military recruit training wearing a turban as it was considered an article of religion. The military recruits Milaap Singh Chahal and Jaskirat Singh sued the Marine Corps in April 2022 due to violation of the first amendment which allows the freedom of religion. The branch that they were a part of declined full religious exemption.[48]
Policing
In 2016, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) began to allow turbans, subject to standards compatible with unimpeded performance of duty.[49] In 2015, Sandeep Dhaliwal became the first Deputy Sheriff in Texas to wear a turban on duty (Harris County Sherriff’s Office). He was shot and killed from behind in 2019 while conducting a routine traffic stop on the Copperbrook subdivision in Houston Texas.[50]
In 2019, the Houston Police Department changed their rules to allow beards and turbans, joining 25 other law enforcement agencies.[51]
Professionals
Many Sikhs started life in America working in lumber mills, mines, and as farm laborers, with many eventually becoming landowners. Many early Sikh immigrants were restaurant owners. In 1956, Dalip Singh Saund became the first Asian Indian-born person to be elected to the United States House of Representatives.
Today, many Sikhs are well represented in white-collar positions such as lawyers, doctors, engineers, accountants, and businesspeople. They are considered to be a successful ethnic group in line with most of the Indian community. The community has a higher level of education, as over 53% have received a bachelor's degree compared to 40% of the general population. This is also reflected in terms of income as over 75% of the community earns over $50,000 and over two-thirds of the population have incomes over $100,000.[52][17]
Elected officials
Dalip Singh Saund served three terms in the United States House of Representatives between 1957 and 1963. He was the first Asian American and the first person of a non-Abrahamic faith to serve in Congress.
Preet Didbal was elected to the position of mayor of Yuba City, California in 2017. She is the first Sikh woman to serve as a city mayor in United States history.[53]
Balvir Singh was elected to the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders, New Jersey on November 7, 2017. He became the first Asian-American to win a countywide election in Burlington County and the first Sikh-American to win a countywide election in New Jersey.[54]
City planner Satyendra Huja was elected mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia in January 2012.[55]
Amarjit Singh Buttar was elected in December 2001 to the Vernon, Connecticut Board of Education and won re-election in 2011.[56]
Ravinder Bhalla was elected mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey in November 2017. He is also the first Sikh mayor to wear a turban.
Satwinder Kaur became the first Sikh elected to the City Council of Kent, Washington in November 2017.
Manka Dhingra of Washington became the first Sikh woman elected to a state legislature in November 2017.[57]
Pargat S. Sandhu was elected as mayor of Galt, California on Dec 3, 2019. He became the first Sikh to be elected for City Council and Mayor for the city of Galt.
In November 2020, California's Sutter County and Stanislaus County became the first two America to elect turbaned Sikh supervisors (Karm Bains and Mani Grewal, respectively).[58][59]
Geographical distribution
Main article: Punjabi Americans § Geographical distribution
Members of the Sikh community of Somerville, Massachusetts
A gurdwara in Evergreen, San Jose, California
Over half of American Sikhs live in California. Most of California's Sikh population live in NorCal, especially in the Central Valley and the Bay Area. The nation's largest Sikh population is in California's Central Valley, where Punjabi is the third most spoken language after only English and Spanish.[60] Sikhs can be found across the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, but the largest concentrations can be found in the valley's largest cities (Sacramento in the Sacramento Valley and Stockton, Fresno, and Bakersfield in the San Joaquin Valley), and in smaller communities associated with the farming of almonds, peaches, walnuts, and plums. There are also significant concentrations of Sikh Americans in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and in the Bay Area near San Jose, California and Fremont, California.
In the Sacramento Valley, Yuba City and Live Oak have prominent Sikh populations, with the first Sikh arriving in Yuba City in 1906.[61] In 2020, Yuba City was home to around 10,000 Sikhs (~15% of the city's population), while Live Oak was home to around 700 Sikhs (~8% of the city's population), with most of these being Sikhs.[64] Sutter County, California as a whole is home to around 11,000 Sikhs (~11% of the county population); this makes Sutter County the most proportionally Sikh county in America.[64] Down south in the San Joaquin Valley, Livingston is home to around 2,500 Sikhs (~17% of the city's population); Livingston is the most proportionally Sikh municipality in America.[64]
The New York metropolitan area also has a significant Sikh American presence. Around 19,000 Sikhs live in New York City, with around 18,000 in Queens.[64] The Richmond Hill neighborhood of Queens is often referred to as "Little Punjab" due to its large Punjabi population. In 2020, the stretch of 101st Avenue between 111th and 123rd streets in Richmond Hill was renamed Punjab Avenue (ਪੰਜਾਬ ਐਵੇਨਿਊ) and the stretch of 97th Avenue between Lefferts Boulevard and 117th Street was renamed Gurdwara Street.[65][66] Outside of the city, the suburbs of Hicksville in Long Island and Carteret in Central Jersey have significant Punjabi populations. In 2020, Carteret was home to around 3,000 Sikhs (~12% of the borough's population) while Hicksville was home to around 2,000 (~5% of the hamlet's population).[64]
Outside of California and the New York metropolitan area, there are significant populations of Punjabi Sikhs in Washington, Indiana, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts and North Carolina. There is also a concentration of non-Punjabi converts to Sikhism in Española, New Mexico.[67]
States and territories
Sikh Americans by state or territory (2020)[19][62][63]
State or territory Sikh alone Sikh alone or in
any combination Total Sikh population
(derived estimate)[68]
Pop. % Pop. % Pop. %
Alabama Alabama 29 0% 41 0% 163 0%
Alaska Alaska 3 0% 4 0% 16 0%
Arizona Arizona 403 0.01% 549 0.01% 2,177 0.03%
Arkansas Arkansas 22 0% 46 0% 182 0.01%
California California 25,037 0.06% 36,975 0.09% 146,614 0.37%
Colorado Colorado 223 0% 334 0.01% 1,324 0.02%
Connecticut Connecticut 260 0.01% 359 0.01% 1,424 0.04%
Delaware Delaware 69 0.01% 88 0.01% 349 0.04%
Washington, D.C. District of Columbia 7 0% 19 0% 75 0.01%
Florida Florida 421 0% 595 0% 2,359 0.01%
Georgia (U.S. state) Georgia 390 0% 548 0.01% 2,173 0.02%
Hawaii Hawaii N/A N/A 0 0% 0 0%
Idaho Idaho 8 0% 11 0% 44 0%
Illinois Illinois 840 0.01% 1,283 0.01% 5,087 0.04%
Indiana Indiana 1,283 0.02% 1,718 0.03% 6,812 0.1%
Iowa Iowa 33 0% 61 0% 242 0.01%
Kansas Kansas 99 0% 174 0.01% 690 0.02%
Kentucky Kentucky 25 0% 46 0% 182 0%
Louisiana Louisiana 56 0% 86 0% 341 0.01%
Maine Maine N/A N/A 23 0% 91 0.01%
Maryland Maryland 734 0.01% 1,012 0.02% 4,013 0.06%
Massachusetts Massachusetts 452 0.01% 600 0.01% 2,379 0.03%
Michigan Michigan 981 0.01% 1,465 0.01% 5,809 0.06%
Minnesota Minnesota 74 0% 115 0% 456 0.01%
Mississippi Mississippi 77 0% 116 0% 460 0.02%
Missouri Missouri 75 0% 131 0% 519 0.01%
Montana Montana 0 0% 4 0% 16 0%
Nebraska Nebraska 4 0% 7 0% 28 0%
Nevada Nevada 147 0% 282 0.01% 1,118 0.04%
New Hampshire New Hampshire 14 0% 36 0% 143 0.01%
New Jersey New Jersey 2,715 0.03% 3,888 0.04% 15,417 0.17%
New Mexico New Mexico 18 0% 37 0% 147 0.01%
New York (state) New York 5,587 0.03% 7,943 0.04% 31,496 0.16%
North Carolina North Carolina 206 0% 361 0% 1,431 0.01%
North Dakota North Dakota N/A N/A 0 0% 0 0%
Ohio Ohio 569 0% 887 0.01% 3,517 0.03%
Oklahoma Oklahoma 42 0% 48 0% 190 0%
Oregon Oregon 204 0% 285 0.01% 1,130 0.03%
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania 759 0.01% 1,098 0.01% 4,354 0.03%
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico N/A N/A 0 0% 0 0%
Rhode Island Rhode Island N/A N/A 3 0% 12 0%
South Carolina South Carolina 42 0% 97 0% 385 0.01%
South Dakota South Dakota 0 0% 1 0% 4 0%
Tennessee Tennessee 48 0% 73 0% 289 0%
Texas Texas 1,918 0.01% 2,718 0.01% 10,777 0.04%
Utah Utah 62 0% 92 0% 365 0.01%
Vermont Vermont 3 0% 3 0% 12 0%
Virginia Virginia 1,157 0.01% 1,713 0.02% 6,792 0.08%
Washington (state) Washington 3,002 0.04% 4,367 0.06% 17,316 0.22%
West Virginia West Virginia 6 0% 7 0% 28 0%
Wisconsin Wisconsin 185 0% 356 0.01% 1,412 0.02%
Wyoming Wyoming N/A N/A 3 0% 12 0%
United States United States 48,321 0.01% 70,697 0.02% 280,329 0.08%
Counties
Sikh Americans by county (2020)[19][62][63]
County State Sikh alone Sikh alone or in
any combination Total Sikh population
(derived estimate)[69]
Pop. % Pop. % Pop. %
Fresno California California 3,603 0.36% 5,297 0.53% 21,004 2.08%
Queens New York (state) New York 3,110 0.13% 4,456 0.19% 17,669 0.73%
San Joaquin California California 2,758 0.35% 4,026 0.52% 15,964 2.05%
Sacramento California California 2,595 0.16% 4,015 0.25% 15,920 1%
Alameda California California 2,582 0.15% 3,689 0.22% 14,628 0.87%
Santa Clara California California 2,200 0.11% 3,078 0.16% 12,205 0.63%
King Washington (state) Washington 2,003 0.09% 2,900 0.13% 11,499 0.51%
Sutter California California 1,990 2% 2,812 2.82% 11,150 11.19%
Kern California California 1,395 0.15% 2,207 0.24% 8,751 0.96%
Nassau New York (state) New York 1,432 0.1% 2,137 0.15% 8,474 0.61%
Los Angeles California California 1,117 0.01% 1,710 0.02% 6,781 0.07%
Stanislaus California California 1,058 0.19% 1,595 0.29% 6,325 1.14%
Middlesex New Jersey New Jersey 1,122 0.13% 1,553 0.18% 6,158 0.71%
Contra Costa California California 839 0.07% 1,304 0.11% 5,171 0.44%
Merced California California 699 0.25% 1,027 0.37% 4,072 1.45%
Placer California California 536 0.13% 859 0.21% 3,406 0.84%
Harris Texas Texas 606 0.01% 836 0.02% 3,315 0.07%
Orange California California 555 0.02% 781 0.02% 3,097 0.1%
Riverside California California 433 0.02% 671 0.03% 2,661 0.11%
San Bernardino California California 409 0.02% 630 0.03% 2,498 0.11%
Collin Texas Texas 427 0.04% 618 0.06% 2,451 0.23%
Solano California California 452 0.1% 614 0.14% 2,435 0.54%
Fairfax Virginia Virginia 436 0.04% 571 0.05% 2,264 0.2%
Wayne Michigan Michigan 359 0.02% 558 0.03% 2,213 0.12%
Bergen New Jersey New Jersey 417 0.04% 553 0.06% 2,193 0.23%
Maricopa Arizona Arizona 393 0.01% 543 0.01% 2,153 0.05%
Johnson Indiana Indiana 403 0.25% 534 0.33% 2,117 1.31%
Loudoun Virginia Virginia 343 0.08% 524 0.12% 2,078 0.49%
Cook Illinois Illinois 328 0.01% 520 0.01% 2,062 0.04%
Snohomish Washington (state) Washington 313 0.04% 492 0.06% 1,951 0.24%
Total United States United States 48,321 0.01% 70,697 0.02% 280,329 0.08%
Places
Sikh Americans by census-designated place (2020)[19][62][63]
CDP State Sikh alone Total Sikh population
(derived estimate)[70]
Pop. % Pop. %
New York New York (state) New York 3,293 0.04% 19,104 0.22%
Fresno California California 2,369 0.44% 13,743 2.54%
Yuba City California California 1,757 2.51% 10,193 14.54%
San Jose California California 1,467 0.14% 8,511 0.84%
Bakersfield California California 1,352 0.34% 7,843 1.94%
Sacramento California California 966 0.18% 5,604 1.07%
Kent Washington (state) Washington 952 0.7% 5,523 4.04%
Union City California California 803 1.14% 4,659 6.64%
Fremont California California 799 0.35% 4,635 2.01%
Stockton California California 794 0.25% 4,606 1.44%
Manteca California California 681 0.82% 3,951 4.73%
Elk Grove California California 602 0.34% 3,492 1.98%
Carteret New Jersey New Jersey 530 2.09% 3,075 12.14%
Tracy California California 479 0.52% 2,779 2.99%
Los Angeles California California 444 0.01% 2,576 0.07%
Livingston California California 417 2.94% 2,419 17.07%
Turlock California California 379 0.52% 2,199 3.02%
Greenwood Indiana Indiana 370 0.58% 2,147 3.36%
Hicksville New York (state) New York 363 0.83% 2,106 4.8%
Hayward California California 343 0.21% 1,990 1.22%
Ceres California California 321 0.65% 1,862 3.78%
Clovis California California 310 0.26% 1,798 1.5%
Vineyard California California 289 0.66% 1,677 3.82%
Antelope California California 286 0.59% 1,659 3.4%
Lathrop California California 283 0.99% 1,642 5.72%
Indianapolis (balance) Indiana Indiana 264 0.03% 1,532 0.17%
Fairfield California California 251 0.21% 1,456 1.21%
Roseville California California 233 0.16% 1,352 0.91%
Kerman California California 229 1.43% 1,329 8.3%
Modesto California California 206 0.09% 1,195 0.55%
Santa Clara California California 205 0.16% 1,189 0.93%
Auburn Washington (state) Washington 198 0.23% 1,149 1.32%
Milpitas California California 167 0.21% 969 1.21%
Mountain House California California 165 0.67% 957 3.91%
Newark California California 155 0.33% 899 1.89%
Fowler California California 152 2.27% 882 13.16%
Phoenix Arizona Arizona 149 0.01% 864 0.05%
Dublin California California 148 0.2% 859 1.18%
San Diego California California 144 0.01% 835 0.06%
Fontana California California 143 0.07% 830 0.4%
Renton Washington (state) Washington 142 0.13% 824 0.77%
Rocklin California California 136 0.19% 789 1.1%
San Ramon California California 135 0.16% 783 0.93%
Selma California California 131 0.53% 760 3.08%
Folsom California California 126 0.16% 731 0.91%
Live Oak California California 124 1.36% 719 7.9%
Jersey City New Jersey New Jersey 119 0.04% 690 0.24%
Hercules California California 115 0.44% 667 2.56%
SeaTac Washington (state) Washington 115 0.37% 667 2.12%
Total United States United States 48,321 0.01% 280,329 0.08%
Notable Sikh Americans
1900s
Kartar Kaur Dhillon, political activist and supporter of the Ghadar Party
Bhagat Singh Thind, first turbaned soldier in United States Army; plaintiff in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, involving an important legal battle over the rights of Indians to obtain U.S. citizenship
Dalip Singh Saund, First Asian Pacific American member of Congress and politician serving in the United States House of Representatives for California's 29th district, 1957–1963
J.J. Singh, Punjabi-American businessman and political activist
Spoony Singh, Canadian-American Founder of the Hollywood Wax Museum
Narinder Singh Kapany, Indian-American Physicist and Sikh art Collector
2000s
Academics
Naunihal Singh, American political scientist and professor of national security affairs.
Arjun Singh Sethi, Civil rights writer, political rights writer, human rights lawyer, and adjuct professor of law
Activism
Jasmeet Bains, author of California State AJR2 1984 Sikh Genocide Resolution
Valarie Kaur, American activist, documentary filmmaker, lawyer, educator, and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project.
Simran Jeet Singh, American educator, writer, activist and Executive Director for the Aspen Institute’s Religion & Society Program
Business
Ajay Banga, Indian-American business executive and president of the World Bank Group. (1981-present)
Gurbaksh Chahal, Internet Entrepreneur (1998-present)
Sant Singh Chatwal, Indian-American hotelier and businessperson (1975-present)
Vikram Chatwal, American hotelier and actor (2006-present)
Entertainment
Hari Dhillon, American actor (1997-present)
Ryan Hurst, American actor (1997-present)
Arj Barker, American comedian (1990s-present)
Snatam Kaur, American singer, songwriter and author (2000-present)
Parvesh Cheena, American actor (2002-present)
Waris Ahluwalia, Indian-American actor and tastemaker (2004-present)
Guru Singh, American actor (2010-present)
Karan Brar, American actor (2010-present)
Dhar Mann, American YouTuber and entrepreneur (2011-present)
Raaginder, American violinist and songwriter (2011-present)
Raveena Aurora, American singer and songwriter (2012-present)
Law Enforcement
Sandeep Dhaliwal, First turbaned Sikh man to serve on duty as Sheriff's deputy in Harris County, Texas.
Military
G. B. Singh, Indian-American author and officer in the United States Army
Politics
Jasmeet Bains, American Physician who is the first Sikh American and first South Asian Woman elected to the, California State Assembly
Ranjeev Puri, Michigan House of Representatives
Manpreet Kaur, Bakersfield City Council
Sukh Kaur, San Antonio City Council
Harpreet Singh Sandhu, American politician and community activist from Richmond, California (2007–2008)
Harmeet Dhillon, American lawyer and Republican Party Official (2008-present)
Kash Gill, Mayor of Yuba City, California (2009-2010) and (2013-2014)
Preet Bharara, Indian-born American lawyer and former federal prosecutor who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (2009-2017)
Manka Dhingra, American attorney, Democratic politician who is represents the Party 45th legislative district, on Seattle's Eastside in King County (2017-present) and the first Sikh state senator of Washington
Preet Didbal, Mayor of Yuba City, California (2017-2018)
Balvir Singh, American teacher and Democratic politician from Burlington Township, New Jersey, serving on the Burlington County Board of County Commissioners (2018-present)
Gurbir Grewal, American attorney and prosecutor, served the sixty-first attorney general of the State of New Jersey (2018-2021) and serving as the Director of the Division of Enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission (2021-present)
Ravinder Bhalla, American civil rights lawyer, politician, and the 39th mayor of Hoboken, New Jersey (2018-present)
Daleep Singh, American economic advisor serving as the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets (2016-2017) and United States Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics (2021-2022)
Uttam Dhillon, American attorney, serving as the Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (2018-2020)
Sabrina Singh, American political administrator serving as the Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Press Secretary for Vice President Kamala Harris in the Biden administration (2021-2022) and the Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary in the Department of Defense (2022-present)
Mani Grewal, Utah, Sikh Activist, served Utah State Boards including Multicultural Commission, Workforce Services and Investment Board, helped Governor draft Sikh Proclamation, celebrated Vaisakhi at the Utah Capitol Building and design a Sikh Float in the 24th July Parade of the Pioneers.
Religious Services
Thaminder Singh Anand, Indian-American translator of Guru Granth Sahib.
Harbhajan Singh, Indian-American Sikh, founder of the 3HO Sikh tradition
ndia, officially the Republic of India,[j][20] is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area; the most populous country since 2023;[21] and, since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy.[22][23][24] Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;[k] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is near Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Myanmar, Thailand, and Indonesia.
Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago.[26][27][28] Their long occupation, predominantly in isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse.[29] Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus river basin 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE.[30] By 1200 BCE, an archaic form of Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, had diffused into India from the northwest.[31][32] Its hymns recorded the early dawnings of Hinduism in India.[33] India's pre-existing Dravidian languages were supplanted in the northern regions.[34] By 400 BCE, caste had emerged within Hinduism,[35] and Buddhism and Jainism had arisen, proclaiming social orders unlinked to heredity.[36] Early political consolidations gave rise to the loose-knit Maurya and Gupta Empires.[37] During this era, there was a flourishing of creativity in art, architecture, and writing,[38] the status of women declined,[39] and untouchability became an organised belief.[l][40] In South India, the Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian language scripts and religious cultures to the kingdoms of Southeast Asia.[41]
In the 1st millennium Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism became established on India's southern and western coasts.[42] Early in the 2nd millennium Muslim armies from Central Asia intermittently overran India's northern plains.[43] The resulting Delhi Sultanate drew northern India into the cosmopolitan networks of medieval Islam.[44] In south India, the Vijayanagara Empire created a long-lasting composite Hindu culture.[45] In the Punjab, Sikhism emerged, rejecting institutionalised religion.[46] The Mughal Empire ushered in two centuries of economic expansion and relative peace,[47] and left a rich architectural legacy.[48][49] Gradually expanding rule of the British East India Company turned India into a colonial economy but consolidated its sovereignty.[50] British Crown rule began in 1858. The rights promised to Indians were granted slowly,[51][52] but technological changes were introduced, and modern ideas of education and the public life took root.[53] A nationalist movement emerged in India, the first in the non-European British Empire and an influence on other nationalist movements.[54][55] Noted for nonviolent resistance after 1920,[56] it became the primary factor in ending British rule.[57] 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. A large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration accompanied the partition.[58]
India has been a federal republic since 1950, governed through a democratic parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society. India's population grew from 361 million in 1951 to over 1.4 billion in 2023.[59] During this time, its nominal per capita income increased from US$64 annually to US$2,601, and its literacy rate from 16.6% to 74%.[60] The Indian economy has since become a fast-growing major economy and a hub for information technology, with an expanding middle class.[61] India has reduced its poverty rate, though at the cost of increasing economic inequality.[62] It is a nuclear-weapon state that ranks high in military expenditure. It has disputes over Kashmir with its neighbours, Pakistan and China, unresolved since the mid-20th century.[63] Among the socio-economic challenges India faces are gender inequality, child malnutrition,[64] and rising levels of air pollution.[65] India's land is megadiverse with four biodiversity hotspots. India's wildlife, which has traditionally been viewed with tolerance in its culture, is supported in protected habitats.[66]
Etymology
Main article: Names for India
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English proper noun "India" derives most immediately from the Classical Latin India, a reference to a loosely-defined historical region of Asia stretching from South Asia to the borders of China. Further etymons are: Hellenistic Greek India (Ἰνδία); Ancient Greek Indos (Ἰνδός), or the River Indus; Achaemenian Old Persian Hindu (an eastern province of the Achaemenid Empire); and Sanskrit Sindhu, or "river," but specifically the Indus river, and by extension its well-settled basin.[67] The Ancient Greeks referred to South Asians as Indoi, 'the people of the Indus'.[68]
The term Bharat (Bhārat; pronounced [ˈbʱaːɾət] ⓘ), mentioned in both Indian epic poetry and the Constitution of India,[69][70] is used in its variations by many Indian languages. A modern rendering of the historical name Bharatavarsha, which applied originally to North India,[71][72] Bharat gained increased currency from the mid-19th century as a native name for India.[69][73]
Hindustan ([ɦɪndʊˈstaːn] ⓘ) is a Middle Persian name for India that became popular by the 13th century,[74] and was used widely since the era of the Mughal Empire. The meaning of Hindustan has varied, referring to a region encompassing the northern Indian subcontinent (present-day northern India and Pakistan) or to India in its near entirety.[69][73][75]
History
Main article: History of India
Ancient India
Based on coalescence of Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosome data, it is thought that the earliest extant lineages of anatomically modern humans or Homo sapiens on the Indian subcontinent had reached there from Africa between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago, and with high likelihood by 55,000 years ago.[26][27][28][76] Their long occupation, initially in varying forms of isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse, second only to Africa in human genetic diversity.[29] However, the earliest known modern human fossils in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago.[27] Evidence for the neolithic period in the western margins of the Indus river basin, at Mehrgarh in Balochistan, Pakistan, dates to after 7000 BCE. Domestication of grain-producing plants (including barley) and animals (including humped zebu cattle) occurred here. These cultures gradually evolved into the Indus Valley Civilisation, which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in Pakistan and western India.[77][30] Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, Ganweriwala, and Rakhigarhi,[78] its characteristic features included standardised weights, steatite seals, a written script, urban planning, public works, and arts and crafts including pottery styles, terracotta human figures and animal statuettes.[78] Networks of towns and villages grew around the cities in a new agro-pastoral economy.[79]
Between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE, an archaic form of Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, 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 what is today northern Afghanistan and across the Punjab region.[31][32] The settling of the Ganges river plain took place during the next millennium, when large swathes of the river system's adjoining regions were deforested, at times by setting fires, or later by employing iron implements, and prepared for agriculture. The settlement may have involved driving the preexisting people out or enslaving them.[80] The Dravidian languages of India were supplanted in the north, creating a broad language family-divide, with the Indo-Aryan languages being spoken mainly in the north and west, and the Dravidian in some parts of east India and most of the south.[34] Classical Sanskrit, a refined and standardised grammatical form would emerge in the mid-1st millennium BCE and was codified in the Aṣṭādhyāyī ('Eight chapters') of Pāṇini.[m] The two major Sanskrit epics, the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa, however, were composed in a range of oral storytelling registers called Epic Sanskrit which was used in northern India between 400 BCE and 300 CE, and roughly contemporary with classical Sanskrit.[82]
A second urbanisation had taken place in South Asia by 400 BCE, this time on the Ganges plain. In fortified cities, social differentiation by caste, or varna, had emerged.[35] 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,[n] and birth into a fixed hereditary varna. By living ethically, lay people could rise socially and morally in these religions.[36] Chronicling the life of the Buddha was central to the beginnings of recorded history in India.[83] The rise of the two religions was a backdrop to the emergence of the first loose-knit geographically extensive power in South Asia, the Maurya Empire. During the rule of the founder's grandson, Ashoka (ca. 268–232 BCE), the empire briefly controlled the major urban hubs and arteries of the subcontinent, except in the deep south.[84][o][p] The empire's period was notable for creativity in art, architecture, inscriptions, and produced texts,[87] but also for the declining rights of women in the mainstream Indo-Aryan speaking regions.[88] After the Kalinga War in which his troops visited great violence on the region, Ashoka embraced Buddhism and promoted its tenets in edicts scattered across South Asia.[89] 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.[90][91]
By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta Empire had created a complex system of administration and taxation in the greater Ganges Plain;[92] this system became a model for later Indian kingdoms.[93] Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion, rather than the management of ritual, began to assert itself.[94] The renewal was reflected in a flowering of art, literature, and science.[95][40] In South India, the Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that, between 200 BCE and 200 CE, the southern peninsula was ruled by the Cheras and the Cholas, along the western and eastern plains, respectively, of the Kaveri river valley, and the Pandyas farther south along the Vaigai river valley.[96] By the sixth century, the Pallavas had grown into a regional power. Simultaneously, Buddhism and Jainism, which had favoured a conservative transactionalism, were replaced by kingly devotion to the gods of particular places, which became a characteristic of the Bhakti movement.[97] The Pallavas, in particular, traded extensively with the Roman Empire and with West and Southeast Asia.[98]
Manuscript illustration, c. 1650, of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, composed in story-telling fashion c. 400 BCE – c. 300 CE[99]
Manuscript illustration, c. 1650, of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana, composed in story-telling fashion c. 400 BCE – c. 300 CE[99]
Colour lithograph, 1895, British Museum. Draupadi, the wife of all five Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata, is presented at a parcheesi game where Yudhishthira, the king of Hastinapura, had gambled away all material wealth, one of several instigating factors in the Mahabharata war.
Colour lithograph, 1895, British Museum. Draupadi, the wife of all five Pandava brothers in the Mahabharata, is presented at a parcheesi game where Yudhishthira, the king of Hastinapura, had gambled away all material wealth, one of several instigating factors in the Mahabharata war.
Cave 26, a Buddhist shrine, of the rock-cut Ajanta Caves
Cave 26, a Buddhist shrine, of the rock-cut Ajanta Caves
Medieval India
Main article: Medieval India
The Indian early medieval age, from 600 to 1200 CE, was defined by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity.[100] No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond their core region.[q][101] During this time, pastoral peoples, whose land had been cleared to make way for the growing agricultural economy, were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-traditional ruling classes.[102] The caste system consequently began to show regional differences.[102]
In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were composed in Tamil.[103] They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development of all modern languages of the subcontinent.[103] Indian royalty, big and small, and the temples they patronised drew citizens in significant numbers to the capital cities, which became economic hubs as well.[104] Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another urbanisation.[104] By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in Southeast Asia, as South Indian culture and political systems were exported to lands that became part of modern-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Brunei, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.[105] Indian merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this transmission; Southeast Asians took the initiative as well, with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating Buddhist and Hindu texts into their languages.[105]
After the 10th century, Muslim Central Asian nomadic clans, using swift-horse cavalry and raising vast armies united by ethnicity, repeatedly overran South Asia's north-western plains,[r] leading eventually to the establishment of the Islamic Delhi Sultanate in 1206.[107] The sultanate was to control much of North India and to make many forays into South India. Although at first disruptive for the Indian elites, the sultanate largely left its vast non-Muslim subject population to its own laws and customs.[108][109]
By repeatedly repulsing Mongol raiders in the 13th century, the sultanate saved India from the devastation visited on West and Central Asia,[107] setting the scene for centuries of migration of fleeing soldiers, learned men, mystics, traders, artists, and artisans from that region into the subcontinent, thereby creating a syncretic Indo-Islamic culture in the north.[110] The sultanate's raiding and weakening of the regional kingdoms of South India paved the way for the indigenous Vijayanagara Empire.[111] Embracing a strong Shaivite tradition and building upon the military technology of the sultanate, the empire came to control much of peninsular India,[112] and was to influence South Indian society for long afterwards.[111]
Brihadisvara Temple, built by Chola emperor Rajaraja I between 1003 and 1010 CE
Brihadisvara Temple, built by Chola emperor Rajaraja I between 1003 and 1010 CE
Calligraphy on the Qutb Minar, built in the Delhi sultanate from 1199 CE to 1220 CE
Calligraphy on the Qutb Minar, built in the Delhi sultanate from 1199 CE to 1220 CE
Relief on Vijayanagara King's palace throne platform, Hampi, Karnataka, 14th and 15th centuries CE
Relief on Vijayanagara King's palace throne platform, Hampi, Karnataka, 14th and 15th centuries CE
Early modern India
The dargah, or mausoleum of Sufi saint Salim Chisti, built by Mughal emperor, Akbar, in the early 17th century
A two-mohur East India Company rule gold coin, issued in 1835, the obverse inscribed "William IIII, King"
In the early 16th century, northern India, then under mainly Muslim rulers,[113] fell again to the superior mobility and firepower of a new generation of Central Asian warriors.[114] The resulting Mughal Empire did not stamp out the local societies it came to rule. Instead, it balanced and pacified them through new administrative practices[115][116] and diverse and inclusive ruling elites,[117] leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule.[118] Eschewing tribal bonds and Islamic identity, especially under Akbar, the Mughals united their far-flung realms through loyalty—expressed through a Persianised culture—to an emperor who had near-divine status.[119]
The Mughal state's economic policies, deriving most revenues from agriculture[120] and mandating that taxes be paid in the well-regulated silver currency,[121] caused peasants and artisans to enter larger markets.[122] The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's economic expansion,[122] resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture.[123] Newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as the Marathas, the Rajputs, and the Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military experience.[124] Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites along the coasts of southern and eastern India.[124] The empire gradually disintegrated in the late 17th and 18th centuries, enabling many elites to be able to seek control of their own affairs.[125]
By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial enterprise and political sovereignty increasingly blurred, European chartered companies—notably the English East India Company—solidified their presence through fortified coastal outposts.[126][127] The East India Company's control of the seas, greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology led it to assert its military strength increasingly and caused it to become attractive to a portion of the Indian elite; these factors were crucial in allowing the company to gain control over the Bengal region by 1765 and sideline the other European companies.[128][126][129][130] Its further access to the riches of Bengal and the subsequent increased strength and size of its army enabled it to annexe or subdue most of India by the 1820s.[131] India was no longer exporting manufactured goods as it long had, but instead supplying the British Empire with raw materials. Many historians consider this to be the onset of India's colonial period.[126] By this time, with its economic power severely curtailed by the British parliament and having effectively been made an arm of British administration, the East India Company began more consciously to enter non-economic arenas, including education, social reform, and culture.[132]
Modern India
Main article: History of India (1947–present)
Mahatma Gandhi leaves the Presidency Jail in Calcutta in April 1938, after interviewing political prisoners there.
The Capitol Complex in Chandigarh. Commissioned by Jawaharlal Nehru, the city was built in the aftermath of India's 1947 partition and independence.
The appointment in 1848 of Lord Dalhousie as Governor General of the East India Company set the stage for changes essential to a modern state: the consolidation and demarcation of sovereignty, the surveillance of the population, and the education of citizens. Technological changes—among them, railways, canals, and the telegraph—were introduced not long after their introduction in Europe.[133][134][135][136] Disaffection with the company also grew during this time and set off the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Fed by diverse resentments and perceptions, including invasive British-style social reforms, harsh land taxes, and summary treatment of some wealthy landowners and princes, the rebellion rocked many regions of northern and central India and shook the foundations of Company rule.[137][138] After the rebellion was suppressed in 1858, the East India Company was disbanded, and the British government began to directly administer India. Proclaiming a unitary state and a gradual but limited British-style parliamentary system,[139] the new rulers also protected princes and landed gentry as a feudal safeguard against future unrest.[140] In the decades following, public life gradually emerged all over India, leading eventually to the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1885.[141][142][143][144]
The rush of technology and the commercialisation of agriculture in the second half of the 19th century was marked by economic setbacks, and many small farmers became dependent on the whims of faraway markets.[145] There was an increase in the number of large-scale famines,[146] and, despite the risks of infrastructure development borne by Indian taxpayers, little industrial employment was generated for Indians.[147] However, commercial cropping, especially in the newly canalled Punjab, led to increased food production for internal consumption.[148] The railway network provided critical famine relief,[149] notably reduced the cost of moving goods,[149] and helped nascent Indian-owned industry.[148]
After World War I, in which approximately one million Indians served,[150] a new period began. It was marked by British reforms but also repressive legislation, by more strident Indian calls for self-rule, and by the beginnings of a nonviolent movement of non-co-operation led by Mahatma Gandhi.[151] During the 1930s, the British enacted slow legislative reform; the Indian National Congress won victories in the resulting elections.[152] The next decade was beset with crises: Indian participation in World War II, the Congress's final push for non-co-operation, and an upsurge of Muslim nationalism. All were capped by the advent of independence in 1947, but tempered by the partition of India into two states: India and Pakistan.[153]
India's constitution was adopted in 1950 and established a secular, democratic republic.[154] Economic liberalisation has created a large urban middle class and transformed India into a fast growing economy.[155][61] However, India has been hamstrung by persistent poverty, both rural and urban;[156] religious- and caste-related violence;[157] Maoist-inspired Naxalite insurgencies;[158] and separatism in Jammu and Kashmir and in Northeast India.[159] India has unresolved territorial disputes with China and with Pakistan.[160]
Geography
See also: Geography of India
India accounts for the bulk of the Indian subcontinent, lying atop the Indian tectonic plate, and a part of the Indo-Australian Plate.[161] India's defining geologic processes began approximately 70 million years ago, when the Indian Plate, then part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a north-eastward drift caused by seafloor spreading to its south-west, and later, south and south-east.[161] Simultaneously, the vast Tethyan oceanic crust, to its northeast, began to subduct under the Eurasian Plate.[161] The Indian continental crust, however, was obstructed and was sheared horizontally. Its lower crust and mantle slid under, but the upper layer piled up in sheets (or nappes) ahead of the subduction zone.[162] This created the orogeny, or process of mountain building, of the Himalayas.[163] The middle and stiffer layer continued to push into Tibet, causing crustal thickening of the Tibetan Plateau.[164] Immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast crescent-shaped trough that rapidly filled with river-borne sediment[165] and now constitutes the Indo-Gangetic Plain.[166] The original Indian plate makes its first appearance above the sediment in the ancient Aravalli range, which extends from the Delhi Ridge in a southwesterly direction. To the west lies the Thar Desert, the eastern spread of which is checked by the Aravallis.[167][168][169]
The remaining Indian Plate survives as peninsular India, the oldest and geologically most stable part of India. It extends as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel chains run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east.[170] To the south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau, is flanked on the west and east by coastal ranges known as the Western and Eastern Ghats;[171] the plateau contains the country's oldest rock formations, some over one billion years old. Constituted in such fashion, India lies to the north of the equator between 6° 44′ and 35° 30′ north latitude[s] and 68° 7′ and 97° 25′ east longitude.[172]
Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal.[173] Important tributaries of the Ganges include the Yamuna and the Kosi. The Kosi's extremely low gradient, caused by long-term silt deposition, leads to severe floods and course changes.[174][175] Major peninsular rivers, whose steeper gradients prevent their waters from flooding, include the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Kaveri, and the Krishna, which also drain into the Bay of Bengal;[176] and the Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea.[177]
India's coastline measures 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi) in length; of this distance, 5,423 kilometres (3,400 mi) belong to peninsular India and 2,094 kilometres (1,300 mi) to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep island chains.[178] According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland coastline consists of the following: 43% sandy beaches; 11% rocky shores, including cliffs; and 46% mudflats or marshy shores.[178] Coastal features include the marshy Rann of Kutch of western India and the alluvial Sundarbans delta of eastern India; the latter is shared with Bangladesh.[179] India has two archipelagos: the Lakshadweep coral atolls off India's south-western coast; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a volcanic chain in the Andaman Sea.[180]
A panoramic view of the Garhwal and Kumaon Himalayas. Peaks rising above their surroundings in this view are, among others, Trisul, Nanda Devi, the highest peak entirely within India's borders, and Nanda Kot. The Tibetan Plateau lies behind these mountains, as does the part of the Indus-Yarlung suture zone, the contour along which the Indian Plate has welded to the Eurasian plate. Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in the Tibet Trans-Himalaya—sacred in Hindu and Buddhist mythology—lie immediately behind to the right. The Indus and Yarlung Tsangpo (the upper Brahmaputra river), which mark the western and eastern limits of the Himalaya range, rise in the vicinity of the lake.
A panoramic view of the Garhwal and Kumaon Himalayas. Peaks rising above their surroundings in this view are, among others, Trisul, Nanda Devi, the highest peak entirely within India's borders, and Nanda Kot. The Tibetan Plateau lies behind these mountains, as does the part of the Indus-Yarlung suture zone, the contour along which the Indian Plate has welded to the Eurasian plate. Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in the Tibet Trans-Himalaya—sacred in Hindu and Buddhist mythology—lie immediately behind to the right. The Indus and Yarlung Tsangpo (the upper Brahmaputra river), which mark the western and eastern limits of the Himalaya range, rise in the vicinity of the lake.
The Tungabhadra, with rocky outcrops, flows into the peninsular Krishna River.[181]
The Tungabhadra, with rocky outcrops, flows into the peninsular Krishna River.[181]
The Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in a European Sentinel-3B image. The Ganges and the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain lie to the left, the Brahmaputra to the right.
The Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta in a European Sentinel-3B image. The Ganges and the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain lie to the left, the Brahmaputra to the right.
A mangrove tree on a beach on Havelock Island, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
A mangrove tree on a beach on Havelock Island, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Climate
Main article: Climate of India
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.[182] 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.[183][184] The Thar Desert plays a crucial role in attracting the moisture-laden south-west summer monsoon winds that, between June and October, provide the majority of India's rainfall.[182][AI-generated?]
Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane.[185] Temperatures in India have risen by 0.7 °C (1.3 °F) between 1901 and 2018.[186] 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.[187] According to some current projections, the number and severity of droughts in India will have markedly increased by the end of the present century.[188]
Indian coral tree in bloom in the mist of the Southwest Monsoon, Mallalli Falls, Hassan, Karnataka
Indian coral tree in bloom in the mist of the Southwest Monsoon, Mallalli Falls, Hassan, Karnataka
A dromedary in the Thar desert
A dromedary in the Thar desert
New snow in Baspa Valley, Sangla, Himachal Pradesh
New snow in Baspa Valley, Sangla, Himachal Pradesh
Biodiversity
Main articles: Forestry in India and Wildlife of India
India is a megadiverse country, a term employed for 17 countries that host high biological diversity and contain many species indigenous, or endemic, to them.[189] India is the habitat for 8.6% of all mammals, 13.7% of bird species, 7.9% of reptile species, 6% of amphibian species, 12.2% of fish species, and 6.0% of all flowering plant species.[190][191] Fully a third of Indian plant species are endemic.[192] India also overlaps four of the world's 34 biodiversity hotspots,[193] or regions that display significant habitat loss in the presence of high endemism.[t][194]
India's most dense forests, such as the tropical moist forest of the Andaman Islands, the Western Ghats, and Northeast India, occupy approximately 3% of its land area.[195][196] Moderately dense forest, whose canopy density is between 40% and 70%, occupies 9.39% of India's land area.[195][196] It predominates in the temperate coniferous forest of the Himalayas, the moist deciduous sal forest of eastern India, and the dry deciduous teak forest of central and southern India.[197] India has two natural zones of thorn forest, one in the Deccan Plateau, immediately east of the Western Ghats, and the other in the western part of the Indo-Gangetic plain, now turned into rich agricultural land by irrigation, its features no longer visible.[198] Among the Indian subcontinent's notable indigenous trees are the astringent Azadirachta indica, or neem, which is widely used in rural Indian herbal medicine,[199] and the luxuriant Ficus religiosa, or peepul,[200] which is displayed on the ancient seals of Mohenjo-daro,[201] and under which the Buddha is recorded in the Pali canon to have sought enlightenment.[202]
Many Indian species have descended from those of Gondwana, the southern supercontinent from which India separated more than 100 million years ago.[203] India's subsequent collision with Eurasia set off a mass exchange of species. However, volcanism and climatic changes later caused the extinction of many endemic Indian forms.[204] Still later, mammals entered India from Asia through two zoogeographic passes flanking the Himalayas.[205] This lowered endemism among India's mammals, which stands at 12.6%, contrasting with 45.8% among reptiles and 55.8% among amphibians.[191] Among endemics are the vulnerable[206] hooded leaf monkey[207] and the threatened Beddome's toad[208][209] of the Western Ghats.
India contains 172 IUCN-designated threatened animal species, or 2.9% of endangered forms.[210] These include the endangered Bengal tiger and the Ganges river dolphin. Critically endangered species include the gharial, a crocodilian; the great Indian bustard; and the Indian white-rumped vulture, which has become nearly extinct by having ingested the carrion of diclofenac-treated cattle.[211] Before they were extensively used for agriculture and cleared for human settlement, the thorn forests of Punjab were mingled at intervals with open grasslands that were grazed by large herds of blackbuck preyed on by the Asiatic cheetah; the blackbuck, no longer extant in Punjab, is now severely endangered in India, and the cheetah is extinct.[212] The pervasive and ecologically devastating human encroachment of recent decades has critically endangered Indian wildlife. In response, the system of national parks and protected areas, first established in 1935, was expanded substantially. In 1972, India enacted the Wildlife Protection Act[213] and Project Tiger to safeguard crucial wilderness; the Forest Conservation Act was enacted in 1980 and amendments added in 1988.[214] India hosts more than five hundred wildlife sanctuaries and eighteen biosphere reserves,[215] four of which are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; its eighty-nine wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention.[216]
An Attacus taprobanis moth from Kadavoor, Kerala
An Attacus taprobanis moth from Kadavoor, Kerala
India has the majority of the world's wild tigers, approximately 3,170 in 2022.[217]
India has the majority of the world's wild tigers, approximately 3,170 in 2022.[217]
A purple sunbird perched on an Indian coral tree, Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand
A purple sunbird perched on an Indian coral tree, Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand
A Crested hawk-eagle with an Indian garden lizard in Satpura National Park, Madhya Pradesh
A Crested hawk-eagle with an Indian garden lizard in Satpura National Park, Madhya Pradesh
Saltwater crocodile in Sundarbans National Park, West Bengal
Saltwater crocodile in Sundarbans National Park, West Bengal
Government and politics
Politics
Main article: Politics of India
See also: Democracy in India
Indira Gandhi, India's first and only female Prime Minister, is the second-longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Narendra Modi has been India's Prime Minister since 2014.
India is a parliamentary republic with a multi-party system.[218] There are six recognised national parties in the country, including the Indian National Congress (generally, "the Congress") and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); there are over 50 regional parties.[219] The Congress is considered the ideological centre in Indian political culture;[220] the BJP is right-wing to far-right.
After India's independence on August 15, 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru became prime minister of the Dominion of India, an office he held until January 26, 1950, when India became a republic; Nehru remained the caretaker prime minister until the following year.[u] In the general elections in 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 unanimously chosen by the Congress to be parliamentary leader, and thus prime minister. After the India–Pakistan war of 1965, Shastri died in January 1966, soon after signing the Tashkent Peace Declaration. The Congress chose Indira Gandhi to be prime minister. She led the party to election victories in 1967 and 1971, the latter a landslide after Pakistan's defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War. In 1975, Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency, suspending many civil liberties. Following public discontent with the Emergency, the Congress was voted out of power in 1977; Janata Party, which had opposed the Emergency, was voted in. Its government lasted two years; Morarji Desai and Charan Singh served as prime ministers. The Congress returned to power in 1980. After a military operation against Sikh militants occupying the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by a Sikh bodyguard on October 31, 1984. She was succeeded as prime minister by Rajiv Gandhi, who led Congress to a comfortable victory in the elections at the end of the year. In 1989, a National Front coalition, led by the Janata Dal, in alliance with the Left Front, won the general elections. The subsequent government lasted just under two years; V. P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar served as prime ministers.[224] In 1991, soon after the first round of polling in the general election, Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a member of a Sri Lankan Tamil separatist organisation who was seeking to avenge Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war. After the elections, Congress emerged as the largest single party; a new Congress leader, P. V. Narasimha Rao, formed a minority government which served a full five-year term.[225]
In 1996, the BJP briefly formed a government after winning the general election. United Front coalition governments followed, which relied on external political support, H. D. Deve Gowda and I. K. Gujral serving as prime ministers. After the 1998 Indian general election, Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the BJP became prime minister; his government was short-lived due to the lack of a continued mandate. Elections were held again in 1999. The BJP, now a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), formed a coalition government led by Vajpayee, who became the first non-Congress prime minister to complete a five-year term.[226] In the 2004 general election, the NDA was defeated. Congress emerged as the largest single party and formed a coalition, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Manmohan Singh, a Sikh, who was proposed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi to be parliamentary leader, served as prime minister of the UPA government, but with some external support.[v] The UPA returned to power in the 2009 general election with increased numbers, no longer dependent on external support.[227] Singh became the first prime minister to be re-elected after Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962.[228] In the 2014 general election, the BJP under Narendra Modi became the first political party since 1984 to win an absolute majority.[229] The party won a larger majority in the 2019 general election. After losing its majority in the 2024 general election, the BJP formed a coalition government with its NDA partners. Modi is the longest-serving non-Congress prime minister.[230] Democratic backsliding was found by the 2026 V-Dem Democracy Report.[231]
Government
Main articles: Government of India, State governments of India, and Local government in India
See also: Constitution of India
The original preamble of the Constitution of India in 1950. In 1976, during the tenure of Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, the first sentence was changed to "Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic".
The Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the President of India, was designed by British architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker for the Viceroy of India, and constructed between 1911 and 1931 during the British Raj.[232]
The Constitution of India was drafted by the Constituent Assembly of India with uncommon speed and absence of irregularities between 1946 and 1949.[233] The Government of India Act 1935 was used as a model and framework.[233] Long passages from the Act were included. The constitution describes a federal state with a parliamentary system of democracy.[233] The federal structure was conspicuous for the strength of the central government, which exclusively exercised control of defence, foreign affairs, railways, ports, and currency.[233] The President, the constitutional head of state, has reserve powers for taking over the administration of a state.[233] The central legislature has two houses: the Lok Sabha, whose delegates are directly elected by the people in general elections every five years, and the Rajya Sabha, whose members are nominated by the elected representatives in the states.[233] There are also features not to be found in the Act of 1935. The definition of fundamental rights is based on the Constitution of the United States, and the constitutional directives, or goals of endeavor, are based on the Constitution of Ireland.[234] An Indian institution recommended by the constitution is the panchayat or village committees.[234] Untouchability is illegal (Article 17) and caste distinctions are derecognized (Articles 15(2) and 16(2)).[234] The promulgation of the Indian constitution transformed India into a republic within the Commonwealth.[234]
The Prime Minister of India is the head of government and exercises most executive power.[235] Appointed by the president,[236] the prime minister is supported by the party or political alliance with a majority of seats in the lower house of parliament.[235] The executive of the Indian government consists of the president, the vice-president, and the Union Council of Ministers—with the cabinet being its executive committee—headed by the prime minister. Any minister holding a portfolio must be a member of one of the houses of parliament.[237] In the Indian parliamentary system, the executive is subordinate to the legislature; the prime minister and their council are directly responsible to the lower house of the parliament. Civil servants act as permanent executives and all decisions of the executive are implemented by them.[238]
India has a three-tier unitary independent judiciary[239] comprising the supreme court, headed by the Chief Justice of India, 25 high courts, and a large number of trial courts.[239] The supreme court has original jurisdiction over cases involving fundamental rights and over disputes between states and the centre and has appellate jurisdiction over the high courts.[240] It has the power to both strike down union or state laws which contravene the constitution[241] and invalidate any government action it deems unconstitutional.[242]
Administrative divisions
Main article: Administrative divisions of India
See also: Political integration of India
A clickable map of the 28 states and 8 union territories of India
India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories.[12] All states, as well as the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments following the Westminster system. The remaining five union territories are directly ruled by the central government through appointed administrators. In 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, states were reorganised on a linguistic basis.[243] There are over a quarter of a million local government bodies at city, town, district, block and village levels.[244]
States
Andhra Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh
Assam
Bihar
Chhattisgarh
Goa
Gujarat
Haryana
Himachal Pradesh
Jharkhand
Karnataka
Kerala
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra
Manipur
Meghalaya
Mizoram
Nagaland
Odisha
Punjab
Rajasthan
Sikkim
Tamil Nadu
Telangana
Tripura
Uttar Pradesh
Uttarakhand
West Bengal
Union territories
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Chandigarh
Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu
Jammu and Kashmir
Ladakh
Lakshadweep
National Capital Territory of Delhi
Puducherry
Foreign relations
Main article: Foreign relations of India
In the 1950s and 60s, India played a pivotal role in the Non-Aligned Movement.[245] From left to right: Gamal Abdel Nasser of United Arab Republic (now Egypt), Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia and Jawaharlal Nehru in Belgrade, September 1961.
India remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations after becoming a republic in 1950.[246][247] It strongly supported decolonisation in Africa and Asia in the 1950s, and played a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement.[248] After cordial relations with China during the greater part of the 1950s, India and China went to war in 1962; India was widely thought to have been decisively defeated.[249] By 1967, however, India was able to fend off Chinese excursions into Sikkim.[250]
India has had uneasy relations with its western neighbour, Pakistan. The two went to war in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. Three wars were fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir.[251] After the 1965 war, India began to pursue close military and economic ties with the Soviet Union. By the late 1960s, the Soviet Union was India's largest arms supplier.[252]
Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and French president Nicolas Sarkozy review the 221st Bastille Day military parade in Paris, July 2009. India's oldest regiment, the Maratha Light Infantry, founded in 1768, led the parade.[253]
China's nuclear test of 596 and threats to intervene in support of Pakistan in the 1965 war caused India to produce nuclear weapons.[254] India conducted its first nuclear weapons test in 1974 and carried out additional underground testing in 1998. India has signed neither the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty nor the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, considering both to be flawed and discriminatory.[255] India maintains a "no first use" nuclear policy and is developing a nuclear triad capability as a part of its "Minimum Credible Deterrence" doctrine.[256][257]
Since the end of the Cold War, India has increased its economic, strategic, and military cooperation with the United States and the European Union.[258] In 2008, a civilian nuclear agreement was signed between India and the United States. Although India possessed nuclear weapons at the time and was not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it received waivers from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, ending earlier restrictions on India's nuclear technology and commerce; India subsequently signed co-operation agreements involving civilian nuclear energy with Russia,[259] France,[260] the United Kingdom,[261] and Canada.[262]
Economy
Main article: Economy of India
The Indian economy has been among the top ten largest economies in the world since 2010. As of 2026, Indian gross domestic output (GDP) have placed the nation as the 6th largest economy in the world.[263][264] Measured by purchasing power parity (PPP), India is the third-largest economy.[16] It is one of the world's fastest-growing economies with an average annual growth rate exceeding 5% from 1990 to 2010.[265][266] Demographics strain its economy, with the nation historically maintaining low GDP per capita both regionally and as measured by globally.[16] The vast majority of Indians fall into the global low-income group based on average daily income.[267]
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;[268] since then, it has moved increasingly towards a free-market system[269][270] by emphasising both foreign trade and direct investment inflows.[271] India has been a member of World Trade Organization since 1 January 1995.[272]
The 522-million-worker Indian labour force is the world's second largest, as of 2017.[273] The service sector makes up 55.6% of GDP, the industrial sector 26.3% and the agricultural sector 18.1%. India's foreign exchange remittances of US$100 billion in 2022,[274] the highest in the world, were contributed to its economy by 32 million Indians working in foreign countries.[275] In 2006, the share of external trade in India's GDP stood at 24%, up from 6% in 1985.[269] In 2008, India's share of world trade was 1.7%;[276] in 2021, India was the world's ninth-largest importer and the sixteenth-largest exporter.[277] Between 2001 and 2011, the contribution of petrochemical and engineering goods to total exports grew from 14% to 42%.[278] India was the world's second-largest textile exporter after China in the 2013 calendar year.[279]
Averaging an economic growth rate of 7.5% for several years before 2007,[269] India has more than doubled its hourly wage rates during the first decade of the 21st century.[280] Some 431 million Indians have left poverty since 1985; India's middle classes are projected to number around 580 million by 2030.[281] In 2024, India's consumer market was the world's third largest.[282] India's nominal GDP per capita increased steadily from US$308 in 1991, when economic liberalisation began, to US$1,380 in 2010, to an estimated US$2,731 in 2024. It is expected to grow to US$3,264 by 2026.[16]
In 2019, 43% of India's total workforce was employed in agriculture.[283]
In 2019, 43% of India's total workforce was employed in agriculture.[283]
A woman growing radish in the foreground and garlic to the right in a village in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. 55% of India's female workforce was employed in agriculture in 2019.[284]
A woman growing radish in the foreground and garlic to the right in a village in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. 55% of India's female workforce was employed in agriculture in 2019.[284]
India is the world's largest producer of milk, with the largest population of cattle. In 2018, nearly 80% of India's milk was sourced from small farms with herd size between one and two, the milk harvested by hand milking.[285]
India is the world's largest producer of milk, with the largest population of cattle. In 2018, nearly 80% of India's milk was sourced from small farms with herd size between one and two, the milk harvested by hand milking.[285]
Industries
Main articles: Industry in India and Energy in India
See also: Energy policy of India
The Indian automotive industry, the world's second-fastest growing, increased domestic sales by 26% during 2009–2010,[286] and exports by 36% during 2008–2009.[287] In 2022, India became the world's third-largest vehicle market after China and the United States, surpassing Japan.[288] At the end of 2011, the Indian IT industry employed 2.8 million professionals, generated revenues close to US$100 billion equalling 7.5% of Indian GDP, and contributed 26% of India's merchandise exports.[289]
The pharmaceutical industry in India includes 3,000 pharmaceutical companies and 10,500 manufacturing units; India is the world's third-largest pharmaceutical producer, largest producer of generic medicines, and supplies up to 50–60% of global vaccines demand, contributing up to US$24.44 billion in exports. India's local pharmaceutical market is estimated up to US$42 billion.[290][291] India is among the top 12 biotech destinations in the world.[292][293] The Indian biotech industry grew by 15.1% in 2012–2013, increasing its revenues from ₹204.4 billion (Indian rupees) to ₹235.24 billion (US$3.94 billion at June 2013 exchange rates).[294]
India's capacity to generate electrical power is 300 gigawatts, of which 42 gigawatts is renewable.[295] The country's usage of coal is a major cause of India's greenhouse gas emissions, but its renewable energy is growing.[296] India emits about 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This equates to about 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year, which is half the world average.[297][298] Increasing access to electricity and clean cooking with liquefied petroleum gas have been priorities for energy in India.[299]
Mumbai, the centre of India's tertiary sector finance industry, also contributes to tourism. Shown here are the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel to the left and the Gateway of India.
Mumbai, the centre of India's tertiary sector finance industry, also contributes to tourism. Shown here are the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel to the left and the Gateway of India.
A tea garden in Sikkim. India, the world's second-largest producer of tea, is a nation of one billion tea drinkers, who consume 70% of India's tea output.
A tea garden in Sikkim. India, the world's second-largest producer of tea, is a nation of one billion tea drinkers, who consume 70% of India's tea output.
A panorama of Bangalore, the centre of India's software development economy. In the 1980s, when the first multinational corporations began to set up centres in India, they chose Bangalore because of the large pool of skilled graduates in the area, in turn due to the many science and engineering colleges in the surrounding region.[300]
A panorama of Bangalore, the centre of India's software development economy. In the 1980s, when the first multinational corporations began to set up centres in India, they chose Bangalore because of the large pool of skilled graduates in the area, in turn due to the many science and engineering colleges in the surrounding region.[300]
A Chinese fishing net being raised out of the water in Kochi. Fishing, which contributes 1.07% to India's total GDP,[301] supports the livelihood of over 28 million people, especially within marginalized and vulnerable communities.[302] India is the third-largest fish producing country in the world, accounting for 7.96% of global production.[301]
A Chinese fishing net being raised out of the water in Kochi. Fishing, which contributes 1.07% to India's total GDP,[301] supports the livelihood of over 28 million people, especially within marginalized and vulnerable communities.[302] India is the third-largest fish producing country in the world, accounting for 7.96% of global production.[301]
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of India
With an estimated 1,428,627,663 residents in 2023, India is the world's most populous country.[303] 1,210,193,422 residents were reported in the 2011 provisional census report.[304] The median age was 28.7 in 2020.[273] Medical advances made in the last 50 years as well as increased agricultural productivity brought about by the "Green Revolution" have caused India's population to grow rapidly,[305] though India's decennial rates of growth are decreasing: its population grew by 17.64% from 2001 to 2011,[306] compared to 21.54% growth in the previous decade (1991–2001).[306] The first post-colonial census, conducted in 1951, counted 361 million people.[307] The life expectancy at birth has increased from 49.7 years in 1970–1975 to 72.0 years in 2023.[308][309] The under-five mortality rate for the country was 113 per 1,000 live births in 1994 whereas in 2018 it reduced to 41.1 per 1,000 live births.[308]
The human sex ratio, according to the 2011 census, is 940 females per 1,000 males.[304] Female infanticide in India, and lately female foeticide, have created lop-sided gender ratios; the number of missing women in the country quadrupled from 15 million to 63 million during the period 1964–2014, faster than the population growth during the same period.[310] According to an Indian government study, an additional 21 million girls are unwanted and do not receive adequate care.[311] Despite a government ban on sex-selective foeticide, the practice has far from stopped.[312]
Migration from rural to urban areas has been an important dynamic in India's recent history. The number of people living in urban areas grew by 31.2% between 1991 and 2001.[313] In 2001, over 70% lived in rural areas.[314][315] The level of urbanisation increased further from 27.81% in the 2001 census to 31.16% in the 2011 census. The slowing down of the overall population growth rate was due to the sharp decline in the growth rate in rural areas since 1991.[316] In the 2011 census, there were 53 million-plus urban agglomerations in India. Among them Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, in decreasing order by population.[317]
The historical development of life expectancy in India from 1881 to 2023
The historical development of life expectancy in India from 1881 to 2023
The child mortality rate in India from 1960 to 2023
The child mortality rate in India from 1960 to 2023
Languages
Main article: Languages of India
Languages of India belong to several language families. The 2011 Census of India, the last conducted by the Indian government, gives the following breakdown:[318]
Language families and speakers in India[318]
Serial number Language family Sub-family Number of languages Number of speakers Percentage of speakers
1 Indo-European Indo-Aryan 21 945,052,555 78.05%
1 Indo-European Iranian 1 21,677 0%[w]
1 Indo-European Germanic 1 259,678 0.02%
2 Dravidian languages 17 237,840,116 19.64%
3 Austro-Asiatic 14 13,493,080 1.11%
4 Tibeto-Burman 66 12,257,382 1.01%
5 Semito-Hamitic 1 54,947 0%
There are also small numbers of speakers of Tai–Kadai, Andamanese, and minor language families and isolates.[319]: 283
The official language of India's federal government was chosen by the Constituent Assembly of India in September 1949 after three years of debate between two opposing camps. Hindi language protagonists wanted Hindi in the Devanagari script to be the sole "national language" of India whereas delegates from South India preferred English to have a place in the Constitution.[320][321] The compromise reached declared (i) Hindi to be the "official language" of India's federal government; (ii) English to be an associate official language for 15 years during which Hindi's formal lexicon would be developed; and (iii) the international form of Hindu–Arabic numerals to be the official numerals.[320][321] The compromise resolution became articles 343–351 of India's constitution, which came into effect on 26 January 1950.[320][321] In 1965, after bitter opposition from South India to Hindi becoming the sole official language, a compromise was reached to where English would continue to be an "associate official language" indefinitely.[322][323]
The Eighth Schedule of India's Constitution also recognises 22 languages, including Hindi but not English, which the government is obligated to develop. These are sometimes called "scheduled languages". This list includes major regional languages, but also others—such as Sanskrit, which no longer has first language speakers in India, and Urdu, which is not region-specific—because of their value to India's cultural heritage.[324][325][326] In 1950, there were 14 scheduled languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.[318] In the following decades constitutional amendments added others: Sindhi (1967), Nepali, Manipuri, and Konkani (1992), Maithili, Dogri, Santali and Bodo (2004).[318]
The regions of first-language speech of the main languages of India
The regions of first-language speech of the main languages of India
The main languages of India by relative numbers of speakers
The main languages of India by relative numbers of speakers
On the reverse of each of India's paper money notes, the denomination is listed in a panel on the left in 15 languages, in addition to Hindi and English, which appear more prominently elsewhere. These are from top to bottom: 1. Assamese, 2. Bengali, 3. Gujarati, 4. Kannada, 5. Kashmiri, 6. Konkani, 7. Malayalam, 8. Marathi, 9. Nepali, 10. Oriya, 11. Punjabi, 12. Sanskrit, 13. Tamil, 14. Telugu, 15. Urdu.[327]
On the reverse of each of India's paper money notes, the denomination is listed in a panel on the left in 15 languages, in addition to Hindi and English, which appear more prominently elsewhere. These are from top to bottom: 1. Assamese, 2. Bengali, 3. Gujarati, 4. Kannada, 5. Kashmiri, 6. Konkani, 7. Malayalam, 8. Marathi, 9. Nepali, 10. Oriya, 11. Punjabi, 12. Sanskrit, 13. Tamil, 14. Telugu, 15. Urdu.[327]
Religion
Main article: Religion in India
Religion in India is characterised by a diversity of beliefs and practices. Throughout India's history, religion has been an important part of its culture. The Indian subcontinent is the birthplace of four major world religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism. India has the largest population of Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains, the third-largest population of Muslims (after Indonesia and Pakistan) and the ninth largest of Buddhists.[328] India also has the largest population of people adhering to both Zoroastrianism (Parsis and Iranis) and the Bahá'í Faith.[329]
The Preamble to the Constitution of India declares India to be a secular state,[330][331] and freedom of religion to be a fundamental right ("... liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith, and worship.")[332] According to the 2011 census of India, 79.8% of the population of India follows Hinduism, 14.2% Islam, 2.3% Christianity, 1.7% Sikhism, 0.7% Buddhism and 0.4% Jainism. Several tribal religions are also present in India, such as Donyi-Polo, Sanamahism, Sarnaism, and Niamtre.
The Dharmaraya Swamy Temple, a Hindu temple in Bangalore, Karnataka
The Dharmaraya Swamy Temple, a Hindu temple in Bangalore, Karnataka
A Jain woman making an offering at the feet of Bahubali Gomateswara at Shravanabelagola, Karnataka
A Jain woman making an offering at the feet of Bahubali Gomateswara at Shravanabelagola, Karnataka
The exterior of St Judes Church, Chinnathurai, Tamil Nadu. Christianity is believed to have been introduced to India by the late 2nd century by Syriac-speaking Christians.
The exterior of St Judes Church, Chinnathurai, Tamil Nadu. Christianity is believed to have been introduced to India by the late 2nd century by Syriac-speaking Christians.
Maneckji Seth Agiary, the oldest Parsi, or Zoroastrian, fire temple in Mumbai
Maneckji Seth Agiary, the oldest Parsi, or Zoroastrian, fire temple in Mumbai
A Sikh pilgrim after a dip in the sacred pond at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, with a group of pilgrims performing seva, or volunteer work, on the temple's roof
A Sikh pilgrim after a dip in the sacred pond at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, with a group of pilgrims performing seva, or volunteer work, on the temple's roof
Interior of the Magen David Synagogue, Kolkata
Interior of the Magen David Synagogue, Kolkata
Education
Main article: Education in India
See also: Literacy in India and History of education in the Indian subcontinent
The literacy rate in 2011 was 74.04%: 65.46% among females and 82.14% among males.[333] The rural-urban literacy gap, which was 21.2 percentage points in 2001, dropped to 16.1 percentage points in 2011. The improvement in the rural literacy rate is twice that of urban areas.[316] In 2011 Kerala had the highest literary rate, with 93.91% literacy, and Bihar the lowest, with 63.82%.[333] In 1981 the respective literacy rates for total population, men and women were 41%, 53% and 29%. In 1951, the rates were 18%, 27% and 9%. In 1921, the rates 7%, 12% and 2%. In 1891, they were 5%, 9% and 1%.[334][335] According to Latika Chaudhary, in 1911 there were under three primary schools for every ten villages. Statistically, more caste and religious diversity reduced private spending. Primary schools taught literacy, so local diversity limited its growth.[336]
The education system of India is the world's second-largest.[337] India has over 900 universities, 40,000 colleges[338] and 1.5 million schools.[339] In India's higher education system, a significant number of seats are reserved under affirmative action policies for the historically disadvantaged. In recent decades India's improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to its economic development.[340][341]
Children await school lunch in Rayka (also Raika), a village in rural Gujarat. The salutation Jai Bhim written on the blackboard honours the jurist, social reformer, and Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar.
Children await school lunch in Rayka (also Raika), a village in rural Gujarat. The salutation Jai Bhim written on the blackboard honours the jurist, social reformer, and Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar.
The Madrasah of the Masjid-i-Ala mosque in Srirangapatna, Karnataka. The mosque was built in the period 1786–87, during the rule of Tipu Sultan.
The Madrasah of the Masjid-i-Ala mosque in Srirangapatna, Karnataka. The mosque was built in the period 1786–87, during the rule of Tipu Sultan.
The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, formerly the Thomason College of Civil Engineering, is the oldest engineering college in India.[342][343] It was founded as the College of Civil Engineering in 1847 during East India Company rule to train officers and surveyors employed in the construction of the Ganges Canal.[343][342]
The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, formerly the Thomason College of Civil Engineering, is the oldest engineering college in India.[342][343] It was founded as the College of Civil Engineering in 1847 during East India Company rule to train officers and surveyors employed in the construction of the Ganges Canal.[343][342]
Health
Main article: Health in India
Immunisation health workers in 2006. Eight years later, and three years after India's last case of polio, the WHO declared India to be polio-free.[344]
India bears a disproportionately large burden of the world's tuberculosis rates, with World Health Organization (WHO) statistics for 2022 estimating 2.8 million new infections annually, accounting for 26% of the global total.[345] It is estimated that approximately 40% of the population of India carry tuberculosis infection.[346]
In 2018 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was the leading cause of death after heart disease. The 10 most polluted cities in the world are all in India with more than 140 million people breathing air 10 times or more over the WHO safe limit. In 2017, air pollution killed 1.24 million Indians.[347]
Culture
Main article: Culture of India
Society
Main articles: Caste system in India and Gender inequality in India
Although sometimes applied to other cultures and religions, caste is a uniquely Indian, and Hindu, social institution.[x] All Hindus fall broadly into four castes, or varnas: Brahmin, or priests, at the top; below them Kshatriya, or warriors; further below, Vaishya, or merchants and farmers; and at the bottom, Shudra, or the service class. Outside the caste system, and therefore of traditional Hinduism, lie people formerly called "outcastes" or "untouchables," and now scheduled caste (a term used in India's constitution) or Dalit, a later self-description of pride, meaning "broken" or "downtrodden". Each caste is further divided into sub-castes, or jatis, many of which are tied to occupations. The custom of endogamy, or marrying within one's subcaste, however, makes caste a hereditary label, not of one occupational choice, and has caused the caste system, therefore, to become entrenched.[349] The Constituent Assembly of India abolished untouchability in 1947,[350] the Republic of India did more formally in 1950, and India has since enacted other anti-discriminatory laws and social welfare initiatives related to caste. Still, caste-based inequality, discrimination, segregation, and violence persist.[351][352]
Multi-generational patrilineal joint families have been the norm in India, though nuclear families are becoming common in urban areas.[353] A very large majority of Indians have their marriages arranged by their parents or family elders.[354] Marriage is thought to be for life;[354] and the divorce rate is extremely low;[355] less than one in a thousand marriages end in divorce.[356] Many women marry before reaching 18, which is their legal marriageable age; child marriages are not uncommon, especially in rural areas.[357] In large parts of Hindu northern India, moreover, a form of territorial exogamy is observed in which a bride marries out of her natal village and her parents do not visit her in her married home; the annual rite raksha bandhan, during which married women return to their natal homes, has served both to affirm bonds with their natal families and offer a recourse in times of marital stress.[358][359]
A member of the Gond tribe during the Dandari festival in Jainoor, Telangana. Some 8.6% of India's population belong to tribal groups. The supercontinent Gondwana is named after the Gond region of India. Their religion predates the Hindu synthesis of the mid-first-millennium BCE.
A member of the Gond tribe during the Dandari festival in Jainoor, Telangana. Some 8.6% of India's population belong to tribal groups. The supercontinent Gondwana is named after the Gond region of India. Their religion predates the Hindu synthesis of the mid-first-millennium BCE.
A member of the Ramnami Samaj, a movement among Dalits, whose members worship the Hindu deity Rama and tattoo their bodies with his name
A member of the Ramnami Samaj, a movement among Dalits, whose members worship the Hindu deity Rama and tattoo their bodies with his name
A Hindu bride in Ahmedabad, Gujarat
A Hindu bride in Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Visual art
Main article: Indian art
India has a very ancient tradition of art, which has exchanged many influences with the rest of Eurasia, especially in the first millennium. During this period Buddhist art spread with Indian religions to Central, East and Southeast Asia, the last also greatly influenced by Hindu art.[360] Thousands of seals from the Indus Valley civilisation of the third millennium BCE have been found, usually carved with animals, but also some with human figures. The Pashupati seal, excavated in Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan, in 1928–29, is the best known.[361][362] Virtually no art survives from a long period following the Indus Valley Civilisation.[362][363] Almost all surviving ancient Indian art thereafter is in various forms of religious sculpture in durable materials, or coins. There was probably originally far more in wood, which is lost. In north India Mauryan art is the first imperial movement.[364][365][366]
Over the following centuries a distinctly Indian style of sculpting the human figure developed, with less interest in articulating precise anatomy than ancient Greek sculpture but showing smoothly flowing forms expressing prana ("breath" or life-force).[367][368] This is often complicated by the need to give figures multiple arms or heads, or represent different genders on the left and right of figures, as with the Ardhanarishvara form of Shiva and Parvati.[369][370]
Most of the earliest large sculpture is Buddhist, either excavated from Buddhist stupas such as Sanchi, Sarnath and Amaravati,[371] or is rock cut reliefs at sites such as Ajanta, Karla and Ellora. Hindu and Jain sites appear rather later.[372][373] In spite of this complex mixture of religious traditions, generally, the prevailing artistic style at any time and place has been shared by the major religious groups, and sculptors probably usually served all communities.[374] Gupta art, at its peak c. 300 CE – c. 500 CE, is often regarded as a classical period whose influence lingered for many centuries after; it saw a new dominance of Hindu sculpture, as at the Elephanta Caves.[375][376] Across the north, this became rather stiff and formulaic after c. 800 CE, though rich with finely carved detail in the surrounds of statues.[377] But in the South, under the Pallava and Chola dynasties, sculpture in both stone and bronze had a sustained period of great achievement; the large bronzes with Shiva as Nataraja have become an iconic symbol of India.[378][379]
Ancient paintings have only survived at a few sites, of which the crowded scenes of court life in the Ajanta Caves are some of the most important.[380][381] Painted manuscripts of religious texts survive from Eastern India from 10th century onwards, most of the earliest being Buddhist and later Jain. These significantly influenced later artistic styles.[382] The Persian-derived Deccan painting, starting just before the Mughal miniature, between them give the first large body of secular painting, with an emphasis on portraits, and the recording of princely pleasures and wars.[383][384] The style spread to Hindu courts, especially among the Rajputs, and developed a variety of styles, with the smaller courts often the most innovative, with figures such as Nihâl Chand and Nainsukh.[385][386] As a market developed among European residents, it was supplied by Company painting by Indian artists with considerable Western influence.[387][388] In the 19th century, cheap Kalighat paintings of gods and everyday life, done on paper, were urban folk art from Calcutta, which later saw the Bengal School of Art, reflecting the art colleges founded by the British, the first movement in modern Indian painting.[389][390]
Bhutesvara Yakshis, Buddhist reliefs from Mathura, 2nd century CE
Bhutesvara Yakshis, Buddhist reliefs from Mathura, 2nd century CE
Gupta terracotta relief, Krishna Killing the Horse Demon Keshi, 5th century
Gupta terracotta relief, Krishna Killing the Horse Demon Keshi, 5th century
Krishna Fluting to the Milkmaids, Kangra painting, 1775–1785
Krishna Fluting to the Milkmaids, Kangra painting, 1775–1785
Chola bronze of Shiva as Nataraja ("Lord of Dance"), Tamil Nadu, 10th or 11th century
Chola bronze of Shiva as Nataraja ("Lord of Dance"), Tamil Nadu, 10th or 11th century
Mathematics
Main articles: Indian mathematics and Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics
Significant mathematics began in India in the first millennium BCE. The Śulba Sūtras (literally, "Aphorisms of the Chords" in Vedic Sanskrit) (c. 700–400 BCE) contain the earliest extant verbal expression of the Pythagorean theorem (although very likely it had been known to the Old Babylonians.)[391][y] All mathematical works were orally transmitted until approximately 500 BCE; thereafter, they were transmitted both orally and in manuscript form. The oldest extant mathematical document produced on the Indian subcontinent is the birch bark Bakhshali manuscript from the 7th century CE.[394][395]
In the classical period of Indian mathematics (400 CE to 1200 CE), important contributions were made by Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Bhaskara II, Varāhamihira, and Madhava. The decimal number system in use today[396] was first recorded in Indian mathematics.[397] Indian mathematicians made early contributions to the study of the concept of zero as a number,[398] negative numbers,[399] arithmetic, and algebra.[400] Trigonometry[401] was further advanced in India, and the modern definitions of sine and cosine were developed there.[402] These mathematical concepts were transmitted to the Middle East, China, and Europe.[400] A later landmark in Indian mathematics was the development of the series expansions for trigonometric functions (sine, cosine, and arc tangent) by mathematicians of the Kerala school in the 15th century CE. Their work, completed two centuries before the invention of calculus in Europe, provided the first example of a power series.[z][403] In the modern era Srinivasa Ramanujan made fundamental contributions to number theory.[404]
Music
Main article: Music of India
India contains a wide array of musical practices, including many different folk musics from different regions. Indian classical music has Vedic origins, and split in the 13th century into the two main traditions of Hindustani and Carnatic music. Hindustani is associated with North India and is more improvisational, featuring instruments such as the sitar and tabla, and Carnatic is South Indian and more focused on written compositions such as the kriti, while both styles contain common elements such as the raga melodic framework and tala rhythmic meter.[405] Indian music has influenced western genres, notably rock and jazz musicians during the 1960s counterculture.[406]
Filmi is music written for Indian cinema, generally composed by music directors and sung by playback singers. Modern Indian pop takes influences from classical, folk, and western pop music.[407]
M. S. Subbulakshmi, Carnatic music vocalist and the first Indian musician to perform at the United Nations in 1966, began her career singing in Tamil films.
M. S. Subbulakshmi, Carnatic music vocalist and the first Indian musician to perform at the United Nations in 1966, began her career singing in Tamil films.
Carnatic music mridangam player Palghat Mani Iyer (left) at a concert with three violinists, from left to right: L. Vaidyanathan, L. Subramaniam, and L. Shankar.
Carnatic music mridangam player Palghat Mani Iyer (left) at a concert with three violinists, from left to right: L. Vaidyanathan, L. Subramaniam, and L. Shankar.
Allauddin Khan, a Hindustani classical music sarod player was also an influential teacher. Among his students were the sitarist Ravi Shankar, sarod player Ali Akbar Khan, and flutist Pannalal Ghosh.
Allauddin Khan, a Hindustani classical music sarod player was also an influential teacher. Among his students were the sitarist Ravi Shankar, sarod player Ali Akbar Khan, and flutist Pannalal Ghosh.
Ravi Shankar playing the sitar at the Woodstock music festival, 1972
Ravi Shankar playing the sitar at the Woodstock music festival, 1972
Dance
Main article: Dance in India
Dance in India has drawn heavily from Indian classical dance traditions. Many of these in turn arose in temples or other religious contexts. Their sponsorship and promotion, however, has continued in secular, modern India.[408][aa] India also has local and modern dance traditions.[408] Whether a dance is classical is determined by the Sangeet Natak Academi, the Indian government's organisation for performing arts.[ab] Although more dances could perhaps meet the criteria for classical, the Akademi has chosen eight.[ac]
Classical Dances of India[408][409]
Serial number Dance Indigenous to: State Region Type or origin Musical accompaniment
1 Bharatanatyam Tamil Nadu South India Temple dance Cinna Melam, Carnatic music
2 Kathak Uttar Pradesh North India Court dance Hindustani music
3 Kathakali Kerala South India Dance-drama Madhalam drum ensembles; Sopana vocal music
4 Kuchipudi Andhra Pradesh South India Dance-drama Carnatic music ensemble
5 Manipuri Manipur Northeast India Temple/ritual dance Ensemble comprising Pung Cholom, flutes, trumpets, Tambura, Pena, and cymbals
6 Mohiniattam Kerala South India Dance-drama Carnatic ensemble
7 Odissi Odisha East India Temple dance Ensemble of Hindustani music instruments: pakhavaj, sitar, flute, cymbals, harmonium
8 Sattriya Assam Northeast India Dance-drama Borgeet accompanied by khol drums and cymbals.
The best-known classical dance is Bharatnatyam, which began in the temple dances of Tamil devadasis.[408] Identified with "prostitutes and courtesans", their dancing was formally banned in 1947.[ad] Concurrently, the dance was rehabilitated as a "pure" art form, with Rukmini Devi Arundale as a prominent figure. A devdasi who went on to attain national and international prominence was Thanjavur Balasaraswati.[408] Some sources consider the dance-dramas Chhau of Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Odisha and Yakshagana of Karnataka to also belong to the classical tradition.[410]
Local dance traditions vary widely across India. In addition to the dance-dramas Chhau and Yakshagana, they include dance-dramas Raslila of western Uttar Pradesh and Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu; calendrical and festival dances such as the Bhangra of Punjab, especially at Vaisakhi, the onset of spring, and Garba of Gujarat during Navratri; and tribal or Adivasi dances, such as those of the Santal and Toda people, the latter, for example, in honour of the god Ön who brought buffalo to earth.[408]
Among 20th-century directions is the modern dance of Uday Shankar in which classical styles were employed but not adhered to rigidly. Examples are dance-dramas based on the ancient Indian animal fables, Panchatantra, and Nehru's mid-century meditation on Indian history, The Discovery of India.[408] Dance has been an essential aspect of Indian films from the first talkies of the 1930s. The individual and group dances of Bollywood, for example, show a broad range of influences, including classical, local, and Western popular dance.[408] Towards the end of the 20th century, innovations in British South Asian music and dance, such as Post-Bhangra, fed back into dance in India.[408]
The Kathakali dance of Kerala
The Kathakali dance of Kerala
The Bharatanatyam dance of Tamil Nadu
The Bharatanatyam dance of Tamil Nadu
The Kathak dance of northern India absorbed Persian and Central Asian influences during Mughal rule.
The Kathak dance of northern India absorbed Persian and Central Asian influences during Mughal rule.
Clothing
Main article: Clothing in India
From ancient times until the advent of the modern, the most widely worn traditional dress in India was draped.[411] For women it took the form of a sari, a single piece of cloth many yards long.[411] The sari was traditionally wrapped around the lower body and the shoulder.[411] In its modern form, it is combined with an underskirt, or Indian petticoat, and tucked in along the waist band for more secure fastening. It is also commonly worn with an Indian blouse, or choli, which serves as the primary upper-body garment, the sari's end—passing over the shoulder—covering the midriff and obscuring the upper body's contours.[411] For men, a similar but shorter length of cloth, the dhoti, has served as a lower-body garment.[412]
The use of stitched clothes became widespread after Muslim rule was established by the Delhi sultanate (c. 1300 CE) and continued by the Mughal Empire (c. 1525 CE).[413] Among the garments introduced during this time and still commonly worn are: the shalwars and pyjamas, both styles of trousers, and the tunics kurta and kameez.[413] Shalwars are atypically wide at the waist but narrow to a cuffed bottom. They are held up by a drawstring, which causes them to become pleated around the waist.[414] When the pants are cut quite narrow, on the bias, they are called churidars. The kameez is a long shirt or tunic.[415] Its side seams left open below the waistline.[416] The kurta is traditionally collarless and made of cotton or silk; it is worn plain or with embroidered decoration, such as chikankari; and typically falls to either just above or just below the wearer's knees.[417]
In the last 50 years, fashions have changed a great deal in India. Increasingly, in urban northern India, the sari is no longer the apparel of everyday wear, though they remain popular on formal occasions. The traditional shalwar kameez is rarely worn by younger urban women, who favour churidars or jeans. In office settings, ubiquitous air conditioning allows men to wear sports jackets year-round. For weddings and formal occasions, men in the middle and upper classes often wear bandhgala, or short Nehru jackets, with pants, with the groom and his groomsmen sporting sherwanis and churidars.[418]
A man in dhoti and woollen shawl in Varanasi
A man in dhoti and woollen shawl in Varanasi
Women in sari at an adult literacy class in Tamil Nadu
Women in sari at an adult literacy class in Tamil Nadu
Female tourists from Manipur in shawl and phanek—lower-body garment similar to a sarong, and made of a rectangular piece of cloth with one pair of opposite sides stitched together[419]
Female tourists from Manipur in shawl and phanek—lower-body garment similar to a sarong, and made of a rectangular piece of cloth with one pair of opposite sides stitched together[419]
Women in shalwar-kameez in Puducherry
Women in shalwar-kameez in Puducherry
Cuisine
Main article: Indian cuisine
The foundation of a typical Indian meal is a cereal cooked plainly and complemented with savoury dishes.[420] The cooked cereal could be steamed rice; chapati, a thin unleavened bread;[421] idli, a steamed breakfast cake; or dosa, a griddled pancake.[422] The savoury dishes might include lentils, pulses, vegetables, meat, poultry and fish commonly spiced with ginger and garlic, but also coriander, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom and others.[420] In some instances, the ingredients may be mixed during the cooking process.[423] India has distinctive vegetarian cuisines, each a feature of the geographical and cultural histories of its adherents.[424] About 20% to 39% of India's population consists of vegetarians.[425][426] Although meat is eaten widely, the proportional consumption of meat is low.[427]
The most significant import of cooking techniques into India during the last millennium occurred during the Mughal Empire, spreading into northern India from regions to its northwest,[428] along with dishes such as pilaf.[429][430] Onions, garlic, almonds, and spices were added to the simple yogurt marinade of Persia.[428] Rice was partially cooked and layered alternately with sauteed meat, the pot sealed tightly, and slow cooked according to another Persian cooking technique, to produce biryani,[428] a feature of festive dining in many parts of India.[431]
The diversity of Indian food served worldwide has been partially concealed by the dominance of Punjabi cuisine. The popularity of tandoori chicken—cooked in a tandoor oven, which had traditionally been used for baking bread in the rural Punjab and the Delhi region, especially among Muslims, but which is originally from Central Asia—dates to the 1950s, and was caused in large part by an entrepreneurial response among people from the Punjab who had been displaced by the 1947 partition.[424]