Early in the Middle Ages, the southern and western shores of India saw the establishment of Christianity, Islam,

Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. The Delhi Sultanate was eventually established after Muslim armies from Central
Asia periodically conquered the northern plains of India. This integration of northern India into the global
networks of medieval Islam led to the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate. South India developed a robust
composite Hindu culture under the Vijayanagara Empire's rule in the 15th century. Sikhism, which rejected
institutionalized religion, developed in the Punjab. Two centuries of largely tranquility were ushered in by the
Mughal Empire in 1526,[47] leaving behind a legacy of beautiful buildings. [h] [48] The British East India
Company's slowly escalating dominance was followed, which not only transformed India's economy into a
colonial one but also helped to solidify its sovereignty. Beginning in 1858, Britain was under Crown control.
Slowly,[50] but surely, Indians received the privileges given to them. But as technology advanced, new concepts
in education and public life began to take hold [51]. [52] A pioneering and powerful nationalist movement that
was praised for using nonviolent resistance as a strategy evolved, and it played a significant role in eliminating
British rule. [53] [54] The British Indian Empire was divided into two independent dominions in 1947, one with
a Muslim-majority Dominion of Pakistan and the other with a Hindu-majority Dominion of India,[55][56][57]
[58] amid significant human casualties and a hitherto unheard-of emigration. [59]

India, a developing nation that comes in at number 132 on the Human Development Index[60], has been a
federal republic since 1950 and is run under a democratic parliamentary system. It is a bilingual, multiethnic
society that values diversity. In India, there were 361 million people in 1951; in 2022, there would be about 1.4
billion people. At the same time, its nominal per capita income rose from US$64 to US$1,498 annually and its
literacy rate rose from 16.6% to 74%. In 1951,[62] India was a relatively impoverished nation; today, it is a
rapidly rising major economy, a center for information technology services, and has a burgeoning middle class.
Its space program includes a number of extraterrestrial missions that are in the works or have already been
carried out [63]. The worldwide culture is being influenced by Indian films, music, and spiritual teachings.
India's poverty rate has been significantly reduced, but at the expense of rising economic disparity. [65] India,
which ranks highly in terms of military spending, is a nuclear-armed state. Since the middle of the 20th century,
it has had unresolved conflicts with Pakistan and China over Kashmir. [66] Gender inequality, child hunger, and
increased air pollution are just a few of the socioeconomic issues India is dealing with. Four biodiversity
hotspots make up India's land, which is megadiverse. 21.7% of the land is covered in forests [69]. These forests
and other protected ecosystems serve as a support system for India's wildlife, which has historically been
regarded with tolerance in Indian culture[71].

Etymology
According to the Oxford English Dictionary's third edition from 2009, the name "India" is derived from the
Classical Latin India, which refers to South Asia and an unidentified region to its east. It was then successively
derived from Hellenistic Greek India (), ancient Greek Indos (), Old Persian Hindush, an Achaemenid Empire
province in the east, and finally its cognate, the Sanskrit Sindhu, or "river," specifically the Indus River and,
[72]
[73] Indoi (o), which translates to "The people of the Indus," is the name given to the Indians by the ancient
Greeks. [74]

Many Indian languages employ the word Bharat or its variants, which is cited in both Indian epic poetry and the
Indian Constitution[75][76]. In use since the middle of the 19th century as a native term for India, Bharat is a
modern version of the ancient word Bharatavarsha, which was initially applied to North India. [75][79]

It was first used during the Mughal Empire and is still frequently used now to refer to India as Hindustan
([ndstan] (listen)). Its definition has changed over time; it may now be used to refer to a territory that includes
modern-day northern India and Pakistan or to almost all of India. [75] [79][80]

History