History UsefulNotes / India

* UsefulNotes/TheRaj - The Colonial Rule, Popularization of the [[SimSimSalabim "Savage" India]] through British Media, The JWB Massacre, The World Wars, Bhagath Singh, UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi

* SimSimSalabim - What does India looks like? It's full of snake charmers and flying carpets, of course!

A republic in the Asian subcontinent in southern Asia; second most populous country in the world; achieved independence from the UnitedStates/UnitedKingdom in 1947.

A republic in the Asian subcontinent in southern Asia; second most populous country in the world; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1947.

OFFICIAL NAME

CAPITAL
New Delhi
POPULATION ESTIMATE (2015)
1,311·05 million
INTERNET DOMAIN EXTENSION
.in
CURRENCY
The unit of currency is the Indian rupee (INR), which consists of 100 paise.
TERRITORY
India is bounded in the north-west by Pakistan, north by China (Tibet), Nepal and Bhutan, east by Myanmar, and south-east, south and south-west by the Indian Ocean.

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[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flag_of_india.png]]
A republic in the Asian subcontinent in southern Asia; second most populous country in the world; achieved independence from the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom in 1947.

A republic in the Asian subcontinent in southern Asia; second most populous country in the world; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1947.

A republic in the Asian subcontinent in southern Asia; second most populous country in the world; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1947.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: History]]

Arguably, the concept of India, i.e. a geographical entity as a whole begins in the 4th century BCE, when most of the subcontinent came under the Maurya Empire, ruled by King Chandragupta Maurya with his adviser, Chanakya. The empire was formed, uniting the many fragments of the subcontinent, presumably as a defense against the [[UsefulNotes/AncientGreece Greek/Macedonian]] invasion led by UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat. This theory is given credence because Chanakya, the purported architect of Chandragupta's rise to power, viewed the Greek conquest as an attack on Indus culture. Chanakya is today regarded as one of the greatest [[BadassBookworm war strategists]] of all time, and the tale of his cunning [[ThePlan tactics and ploys]] against the Greeks (both Alexander and his successors) have grown into legend, at least in India where the Arthashastra, attributed to him, is regarded as a proto-Machiavellian work of {{Realpolitik}}. Some commentators consider it even more cynical than Literature/ThePrince[[note]]The key reason being that Machiavelli was genuinely a Republican while the author of Arthashastra was advocating for TheEmpire in a Hobbesian fashion[[/note]]. Greek and Roman histories however hold that Chandragupta's imperial ambitions was spurred by the SuccessionCrisis in the wake of Alexander's death, and Greek and Indian scholars often interacted with each other during this period. A key facet is the development of Buddhist and Jain sculpture which was inspired by Greek aristans. The recovery of Mauryan era artifacts likewise shows inscriptions in Pali (the ancient Indian script) alongside Greek, suggesting a level of diplomatic contact and exchange between the Mauryans and the Hellenistic Kingdoms.

The Mauryan Empire lasted a few more generations, reaching the height of its territorial extent, military power, and cultural achievement under Chandragupta's grandson, Ashoka the Great. Ashoka is perhaps most famous for being (we think) a Buddhist and (possibly) a pacifist (after having done a lot of killing and conquering...), but he made more lasting contributions in the form of the usual good-monarch business (lawgiving, fair dispensation of justice, efficient administration, etc.) Of course, no empire can last long, and the Mauryan Empire soon broke up into what would later be termed the Middle Kingdoms of India; most of the kingdoms co-existed in peace, and trade routes started by Maurya flourished over the next 1,500 years. Ashoka also played a major role in proseltyzing Buddhism and in the course of the eventual rise of Hindu (or rather Vedic) kingdoms, Buddhism would decline in India but spread across China and Japan and generally flourish outside its country of origin. Every now and then, a new empire would rise and run most of the subcontinent for a few generations, but nobody really cared other than the nobles doing the ruling and fighting, as these political distinctions did comparatively little to affect the economic activity on the ground, which is good because during the classical to medieval period, India was considered the '''wealthiest''' economy in the world.

India was the center of the spice trade and was linked to the Silk Route. Traders from across the world came to India, including the Arab scholars Al-Beruni (who brought Indian mathematics to the Middle East and managed to spread it westwards), Ibn Batuta and of course UsefulNotes/MarcoPolo who came all the way to South India, to Mylapore (present day Chennai) and wrote about the wealth of the Southern Kingdoms. India also held monopoly on the diamond trade until the discovery of diamonds in Brazil in the 1700s, the crown jewels of virtually every European royal family was adorned with diamonds from the mines of India, especially Kollur in Golconda. This is true of the two most famous diamonds in the world, the Hope Diamond and the Koh-I-Noor.
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[[folder: Medieval India]]

India's wealth did not go unnoticed for long and the northern parts of India were subject to repeated raids from the Arabs and the Mongols. The Arab Sultans started making in-roads into India between 800-1400, starting several small kingdoms often inter-marrying with local rulers and allying with them to carve territory. Some of these rulers were highly notable, including Razia Sultana, the daughter of Alauddin Khilji who became [[SheIsTheKing the only female Sultan of India]] who ruled on her own. There was also Sher Shah Suri, an Afghan warlord who revived the ancient capital of Pataliputra (modern day Bihar) and ruled for five years (between the reigns of Humayun and Akbar) but in that time, extended the Grand Trunk Road, built a Post Office and invented the Rupee, the currency of the Indian subcontinent. Eventually, political unity would come about with the rise of the Mughal Empire, who would at their height grow to unify well over 80% of the subcontinent.

Unlike earlier Arab rulers or other foreign rulers before (and after), the Mughals under Akbar started assimilating into Indian culture and traditions. Akbar famously abolished the tax for non-Muslims and promoted Hindus into high positions in the government and started a much admired policy of religious co-existence that would later be cited by nationalists as an inspiration for a plural society that formed part of secular Indian nationalism. This era of the Mughals brought about an architectural and cultural Renaissance comparable to Florence under the Medici, or France under UsefulNotes/LouisXIV. From this period dates monuments such as Humayun's Tomb, Fatehpur Sikhri, Buland Darwaza and under Akbar's grandson, Shahjahan, the Old Delhi quarter and of course the Taj Mahal, India's [[EiffelTowerEffect most iconic monument]]. The Mughals also promoted infrastructure, relative order and created a system of vassals and alliances. This was not always peaceful of course because the Mughals, however benign and tolerant they were, were still TheEmpire.

Rebellions sprang against their hegemony and within Punjab, regional rebellion also led to the rise of Sikhism (along with Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, the major religion of the Indian subcontinent) whose Gurus often battled against the Mughal armies. Of course, the Mughals had a tendency to be [[HisOwnWorstEnemy their own worst enemies]] what with the DecadentCourt and their fratricidal policy of succession. Much like the Ottomans, princes competed against each other for the right of succession [[CainAndAbel and brothers would often kill their siblings]] and imprison their fathers when they became old. Jahangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb came to power in this manner, and while the first two are still respected, Aurangzeb has a deeply ambivalent reputation across India, since he repudiated his ancestors policy of religious toleration (his brother Dara Shikoh, who he killed, translated the Gita into Persian for instance) and launched a policy of religious persecution and oppression. Under Aurangzeb, the Mughals reached the peak of their military power and territorial expansion.

This sparked [[LaResistance a strong resistance in the South]] that would eventually evict the Mughals from large portions of the Deccan Plateau, forming the Maratha Confederacy, a state on the border between TheEmpire and TheFederation internally. The Mughals would also decline in the North under later rulers. Most humiliatingly of all, they would be sacked by the Persian conqueror Nader Shah who came to Delhi and left with the Peacock Throne and the Koh-I-Noor diamond [[note]]which would later be recovered by the Sikh Empire before coming into possession of the English, whose Crown Jewels outfit it to this day[[/note]]. Numerous petty wars and kingdoms broke out across the North and the South. All of this occurred to a backdrop of warfare well on par with the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar, which thoroughly wrecked the golden age of before and the emergence of other petty states like Mysore in the vacuum. After well over a century of conflict, both sides still warily eyed each other, looking for the chance to finish the other off.
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[[folder: The Raj ]]

The historical period of colonial rule of the Indian subcontinent by the British Empire between 1858 and 1947.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: After British Raj and Independence]]

India's independence struggle caught global attention after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Several Indian freedom fighters had supported calls for Indian soldiers to enlist in the hopes for Dominion Status and autonomy. Despite the great numbers of Indian soldiers who died for the Crown, the British didn't uphold their side of the bargain. Then after the war, the events of the Jalianwalla Bagh massacre happened, where British General Dyer ordered a contingent to fire on protesters in a crowded area. The resulting violence, brutal crackdown, martial law in Amritsar and grotesque acts of torture earned condemnation across India and the world (even by arch-imperialist UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill in Parliament). Around this time, a lawyer returning from South Africa, named UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi (though still called Mohandas Karamchand at the time) was making his voice heard in India. To protest this massacre, he called for the Non-Cooperation Movement, a large scale boycott of Indian goods that electrified public opinion and earned Gandhi worldwide attention. Later events such as the Civil Disobedience movement and the iconic Salt March, and several other agitations exposed the absurdity and arbitrary nature of English rule behind the propaganda of the Empire.

Despite his immense importance however, Britain's withdrawal from India was not solely, or mainly, a result of Gandhi's protests, rather a result of a number of diverse factors. This includes: [=WW2=]'s significant impact on Britain's army and economy, anti-British riots beginning to break out around the country, growing dissent among the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Army_during_World_War_II#Aftermath Indian Army during WW2]], who were becoming increasing antagonistic towards the Allies (unsurprising, since they were now caught in a situation where they were fighting ''against'' an oppressive regime ''for'' an oppressive regime -- nearly 100,000 Indian soldiers eventually defected over to the INA; [[LaResistance the pro-Japanese, anti-British Resistance]] movement, and some [=POWs=] were actually recruited voluntarily by the Japanese; both these forces inevitably went on to fight the Allies in Southeast Asia) plus, having just witnessed the results of a totalitarian government, the world was much less willing to buy the idea of British rule being for "India's own good". Even then, the independence attained in 1947 was as much triumph as it was tragedy.

The policies of UsefulNotes/TheRaj, alongside internal party disputes within the Congress, led to a polarization between the two parties of the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. The leader of the Muslim League, and founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was originally a member of the Congress party. He had once voiced support for Hindu-Muslim unity, and was a committed nationalist. Yet, factional disputes within the Congress, perceived closeness to Hindu religious leaders and fears of a Hindu nationalism rather than a secular one, made him sympathetic to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-nation_theory two-nation theory]], a demand for a separate nation for India's sizable Muslim minority carved out of provinces in the Raj that had sizable Muslim majorities and Hindu-Sikh minorities. This idea of nationalism was inspired by Kemalism, Zionism and Arab nationalism, i.e. it revolved around social identity of Muslims as citizens, rather than building a theocratic state, and Jinnah fully expected a Pakistan that would be democratic and eventually co-exist alongside India. This notion of a separate Muslim nation was opposed by the Congress' leadership who were committed to a secular state and believed that its leadership was representative of all Indians, the majority Hindus and its minorities. It is a fact that despite the purpose of Pakistan as a nation for the Muslim minority, a vast number of Muslims did not wish to live in a separate Muslim nation and identified with Indian nationalism. Indeed, in the 21st Century, India ranks among the top three Muslim populations in the world, with 172 million residing in India and calling it home (greater than the total populations of Russia and Japan). It's only in proportion to the 900+ million Hindu population that Muslims constitute a "minority" in India.

Nonetheless, in consequence of a series of factors in the 1940s, Jinnah and the Muslim League won enough support in a 1945 regional electorate that their demands for a separate nation were taken seriously by the English. The Labour government, who came to power in 1945, promised independence and devolution, and the goal was a "dignified exit" and as such Louis Mountbatten agreed to a two-nation division of the former British Raj. There isn't a great deal of consensus for what follows but historians agree that the most contentious issues invole 1) The case of the Princely States, the areas of India governed [[InNameOnly by nominal Princes]] who had the right to accede to either India and Pakistan or declare neutrality and idependence. 2) The movement of the date of transfer far earlier than intended. In the case of the former, there were issues of Hindu Kings ruling over regions with Muslim minorities (cf, UsefulNotes/TheKashmirQuestion) and vice versa. Whether "neutrality" was the desires of the King over that of their people and if it weren't more democratic to put the issue of national self-determination to a Plebiscite. In the case of the latter, the moving up the date meant that the infrastructure to arrange and police the population exchange had to be erected in haste, and in some cases, not at all. As such people were forced to suddenly leave what they considered their homes, with their belongings and asked to move to an area which they were told was now their country when, in most cases, their true homeland was the world they left behind, whose new residents were... the strangers coming their way to take it. This led to the violence of the Partition, the largest and bloodiest communal violence in South Asia, where more than a million people were killed as Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims clashed in Bengal, Punjab and the Sindh, in addition to leaving millions more displaced. This was the largest population exchange and greatest human migration in history. To say that the parties (India, British, Pakistan) were unprepared and incompetent in handling the crisis is an {{Understatement}}. The trauma of these events had a psychological impact on India and Pakistan, and the memories of these events, the loss of land, lives and dignity, and the overall responsibility is an issue of great contention.

The former British Raj which governed the whole subcontinent was divided into what is now modern India, Pakistan (a non-contiguous land that included West Pakistan and East Pakistan[[note]]Eventually, with Indian military support, East Pakistan, carved out of the Bengal province, became Bangladesh and gained its own independence from Pakistan after a rather bloody revolution.[[/note]]), [[UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}} Portuguese occupied Goa]] [[note]](which was later conquered and integrated into India--not that most Goans had any problem with it), This led to a rather amusing incident in which the Portugese attempted to invoke the [[BindingAncientTreaty Anglo-Portugese Treaty of 1373]] to defend Goa against India; the British basically told them, "You're a puny bunch of quasi-fascist colonialists, India is a powerful and reasonably-friendly and democratic member of UsefulNotes/TheCommonwealth, so...how about no?"[[/note]], Bhutan (which remains independent), and Sikkim (which was an Indian protectorate from independence to 1975, at which point it was admitted as a state). A much-overlooked fact is that because of the structure of the British Raj, India had to fight for considerable swaths of territory. The country at the time was divided into a whopping ''five hundred plus'' now-independent Princely States (which Britain had governed and taxed indirectly through traditional Indian monarchs) and, deciding not to expend the vast resources that would be necessary to make a smooth transition, Britain took an attitude of "you guys sort it out among yourselves" and withdrew without establishing the new government.
On August 15, 1947, India became an independent nation, which despite its partitions, constituted the 7th largest nation in the world. The Herculean task of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_integration_of_India gargantuan task of uniting the 560+ princely states]] fell to Home Minister Vallabhai Patel, his Constitutional Advisor V.P. Menon, and (more controversially) the Britain-appointed Viceroy Louis Mountbatten. While the parts of the subcontinent under direct British rule immediately became part of the Union of India (as it was called before it became a republic in 1950), the Princely States themselves had the option of joining India, Pakistan, or remaining independent. Majority-Muslim states on the border with Pakistan tended to join Pakistan without controversy, while most others chose to join India. However, several princely states refused to follow the obvious patterns, the most notable of which are Kashmir, Junagadh, and Hyderabad, all instances where the ruling elite was a different religion from the majority of the population in the state. Kashmir, where the ruler was Hindu and the people Muslim, is quite possibly one of the biggest political cans of worms in the world today, besides the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict, [[UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar Korea]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}} Afghanistan]], and UsefulNotes/TheTroubles. The other two major instances involved a Muslim ruler over a majority-Hindu state: Junagadh's Muslim prince decided to join Pakistan despite not bordering it at all, leading India to essentially lay siege to the territory, and eventually the prince bailed out to Pakistan. Hyderabad's Muslim ruler decided he didn't much care to be part of either India ''or'' Pakistan, and Hyderabad had to be [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Polo forcefully integrated]].

A lot of the problems that nobody cared to fix before independence are still there now, most notably a high rate of illiteracy in the more rural areas, which both the government and private organizations are fighting to change (and have been improving gradually), ethno-religious tensions, the uneven spread of urbanization and since TheNineties, massive income inequality, UrbanSegregation and the rise of communal violence, and rampant political corruption. On the positive side, sixty years of quick, accelerated development later, India today is the world's largest democracy, maintaining the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Military second largest military in the world]], a nuclear superpower, and the only nation that has U.N permission to trade in nuclear fuel without having signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. For a country that has only had six decades of actual modern development, it says a lot about how fast the nation is moving forward, especially when Americans today are concerned that Indians are surpassing them in the IT sector. Poverty is still an issue, with 22% of the nation falling below the poverty line, and the nation containing a large portion of the world's poor. It is trying to deal with these problems, but it remains a slow and steady climb.
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[[WMG: Places]]
* UsefulNotes/{{Mumbai}}
* UsefulNotes/IndianStatesAndUnionTerritories

[[WMG: The People Of India]]
Do not get confused with UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans.

[[WMG:Popular culture]]

[[AC: Main/IndianMedia]]

[[AC: Movie Industry]]
* UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}

[[AC: Music]]
* Music/RaviShankar
* Main/FilmiMusic
* Main/IndiPop
----
[[AC:The Indian national anthem]]
->जन-गण-मन अधिनायक जय हे,
->भारत भाग्य विधाता!
->पंजाब-सिंधु-गुजरात-मराठा,
->द्राविड़-उत्कल-बङ्ग
->विंध्य हिमाचल यमुना गंगा, उच्छल जलधि तरंग
->तव शुभ नामे जागे,
->तव शुभ आशिष मांगे
->गाहे तब जय गाथा।
->जन-गण-मंगलदायक जय हे,
->भारत भाग्य विधाता!
->जय हे! जय हे! जय हे!
->जय जय जय जय हे!
[[note]]
->Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka jaya he
->Bharata-bhagya-vidhata
->Panjaba-Sindhu-Gujarata-Maratha
->Dravida-Utkala-Banga
->Vindhya-Himachala-Yamuna-Ganga
->uchchala-jaladhi-taranga
->Tava Subha name jage,
->tava subha asisa mage,
->gahe tava jaya-gatha.
->Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka jaya he
->Bharata-bhagya-vidhata.
->Jaya he, Jaya he, Jaya he,
->jaya jaya jaya jaya he.
[[/note]]

--

->Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people,
->Dispenser of India's destiny.
->Thy name rouses the hearts of Punjab, Sindhu,
->Gujarat and Maratha,
->Of the Dravida and Odisha
->and Bengal;
->It echoes in the hills of Vindhya and the
->Himalayas,
->Mingles in the music of Ganga and Yamuna
->and is chanted by
->The waves of the Indian sea.
->They pray for thy blessings and sing thy praise.
->The saving of all people waits in thy hand,
->Thou dispenser of India's destiny.
->Victory, victory, victory to thee.
----
[[AC:Government]]
* Federal parliamentary constitutional republic
** President: Ram Nath Kovind
** Vice President: Venkaiah Naidu
** Prime Minister: Narendra Modi
** Chief Justice: Sharad Arvind Bobde
** Speaker of the Lok Sabha: Om Birla
** Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha: Harivansh Narayan Singh
----
[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
* '''Capital:''' New Delhi
* '''Largest cities:''' Mumbai (city proper), Delhi (metropolitan area)
* '''Population:''' 1,352,642,280
* '''Area:''' 3,287,263 km² (1,269,219 sq mi) (7th)
* '''Currency''': Indian rupee (₹) (INR)
* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' IN
* '''Country calling code:''' 91
* '''Highest point:''' Two candidates.
** India-claimed territory: K2 (8,611 m/28,251 ft), in Kashmir on the border of lands currently administered by China and Pakistan
** Undisputed territory: Kangchenjunga (8,586 m/28,169 ft) in Sikkim on the border with Nepal (3rd)
* '''Lowest point:''' Kuttanad (−2.2 m/−7.2 ft) in the Alapuzzha district of Kerala (36th)

[[WMG:India in popular culture]]

[[AC: Movie Industry]] UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}

* UsefulNotes/FilmiMusic
*

[[AC: Music]] Music/RaviShankar

[[AC:State emblem of India]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/emblem_of_india.png]]
----

[[AC:The Indian flag]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/flag_of_india.png]]
----

->The flag's saffron, white and green stripes symbolize courage and sacrifice, peace and truth, and faith and chivalry, respectively; at the center is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka_Chakra Ashoka Chakra]], the personal symbol of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka Emperor Ashoka]], one of India's greatest rulers, symbolizing the eternal wheel of law and order.

->The emblem was adopted in 26 January 1950 (the same day that India became a republic). It consits of the Lion Capital of Ashoka with the motto, Satyameva Jayate ("Truth Alone Triumphs"; from the "Mundaka Upanishad", a part of Hindu Vedas).

[[AC: Movie Industry]]* UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}

[[AC: Music]]
* Music/RaviShankar

[[AC: Movie Industry]]
* UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}

[[AC: Video Games]]
* ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' represents India with the Yoga-fighting arm-stretching Dhalsim who can breathe fire and teleport at will. His original stage background is something of a temple where there are a lot of elephants and the picture of the elephant-headed Hindu God Ganesha at the center. He's also a very zen and calm monk.
* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' has an Indian representative with Symmetra, an architect using HardLight to construct things and often veers into BollywoodNerd with either her prodigal intelligence or tendency to emote with making mythical Hindu poses. While fundamentally a good person, she's unfortunately working with another MegaCorp representing India, Vishkar corporation... which happens to be evil and oppressive as hell and manipulating her that they're worth cheering for doing things for the eventual greater good, made more plausible by taking her from poverty since childhood and her apparently being autistic.
* Episodes 2 and 3 of ''VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves'' take place in India, and the Klaww Gang have two Indian members: Rajan, a spice-dealer from Kolkata, and [[spoiler:[[DirtyCop Constable]] [[TheDragon Neyla]]]].
* ''VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin'' has three missions set in Punjab, and the other ''VideoGame/Hitman2'' has a mission in Mumbai.
* ''VideoGame/UnchartedTheLostLegacy'' takes place in Kerala State as Chloe Frazier searches for the legendary Tusk of Ganesh, a priceless treasure that her father died trying to find.
* The mission "Persona Non Grata" in ''[[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3]]'' takes place in Himachal Pradesh, where the remnants of Task Force 141 were hiding out with Nikolai and Yuri until the Russians attacked. The first Fire Operations Base mission in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'', FOB Spectre, also takes place in northern India, and there is also the rare appearance of an Indian firearm in media, the MSMC submachine gun.
* ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Blacklist'' has two Briggs missions set in India, the first in and around Kargil in Kashmir, which has been turned into a compound by smugglers who are planning on moving a nuclear weapon, and the second in a missile plant in Bangalore, which is being robbed by [[UsefulNotes/RussiansWithRustingRockets VORON]] in an attempt to steal a nuke.
* Snipe Anteater's stage in ''VideoGame/MegaManX7'' is in India, according to the map of the world.
* The first set of levels in ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'' are in India.
* ''Super Hornet'', an F/A-18E flight simulator by Digital Integration has one of its two campaigns set in South India, as the US Navy defends Sri Lanka from an Indian invasion.
* In the ''Franchise/MassEffect''verse, India is one of the founding members of the Systems Alliance. [[MilitaryMaverick Jacob Taylor]] mentions meeting his fiancée Dr. Brynn Cole at a Cerberus cell operating in Mumbai. Also, Dr. Chakwas the SSV Normandy’s surgeon got her medical degree from the University of Mumbai.

* Music/RaviShankar is the most famous Indian musician in the world. He made traditional sitar music famous in the West.
* Music/TheBeatles were influenced by Indian culture, music and philosophy from 1965 on, when they filmed ''Film/{{Help}}''. On ''Music/RubberSoul'', ''Music/{{Revolver|Beatles Album}}'' and ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' the tracks "Norwegian Wood", "Love You To" and "Within You Without You" have Music/GeorgeHarrison playing a sitar. Harrison's first solo album ''Music/WonderWallMusic'' is predominantly instrumental Indian music.
* Music/TheKinks: "See My Friends" (1965) and "Fancy", from the 1966 album ''Face to Face'', are two of the first Western rock songs to add Indian themes and instrumentation.
* Music/TheYardbirds: The track "White Summer" on ''Music/LittleGames'' has an Eastern music sound, exemplified by an oboe and an Indian-percussion tabla. During "Glimpses" a sitar plays.
* The Paul Butterfield Blues Band has a 13 minute instrumental titled "East-West" (1966), incorporating Indian influences.
* Music/TheRollingStones: Their song "Paint It, Black", from ''Music/{{Aftermath}}'' (1966) and the song "Gomper" features Music/BrianJones on sitar.
* Music/TheByrds: Their singles "Eight Miles High" and "Why" have Indian influences.
* Music/JohnColtrane: Was very much inspired by Arabian and Indian folk music later in his career and used these sounds in his own work.
* Music/{{Cornershop}}: A multi-racial British indie band who assimilated Asian instruments such as the sitar and dholki in their music, including the hit song "Brimful of Asha".
* The track "New Delhi" from ''Music/TheRiseAndFall'' by Music/{{Madness}} is about a character dreaming he is India.
* Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov's "Song Of India" from the opera "Sadko" is a dreamy piece about the mystery of the orient. It has been covered by many big band musicians too.

[[AC: Literature]]
* The most ancient erotica guide ''Literature/KamaSutra'' was written in India.
* The fairy tale ''Literature/TheKingWhoWouldBeStrongerThanFate''.
* Creator/RudyardKipling's ''Literature/TheJungleBook'' and naturally all adaptations of this story, like ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967'' take place in India. Kipling's other stories, like ''Film/TheManWhoWouldBeKing'', ''Literature/{{Kim}}'' and ''Literature/JustSoStories'' are also often set in this country.
* ''Literature/APassageToIndia'' by E.M. Forster is a novel about the relationship between Britain and India in the last days of the British Raj.
* ''Literature/TheGreatGame'' by Peter Hopkirk is about the rivarly between Tsarist Russia and the British Empire to gain power in India.
* Some of the ''Literature/{{Sandokan}}'' books are partially or completely set in India immediately before and during the Raj, with the fourth having the Mutiny of 1857 as its backdrop.
* Creator/RoaldDahl's ''Literature/TheWonderfulStoryOfHenrySugar'' has several stories. The title story is about a man who learns [[spoiler:how to see without using his eyes]] from a man from India.
* Part of ''Literature/EatPrayLove'' is set in India, where the protagonist meets a guru.
* ''Literature/PatherPanchali'' was originally a novel; its film adaptation is a renowned classic of world cinema.
* Creator/SalmanRushdie's ''Literature/MidnightsChildren'' is a book about the history of India.
* Creator/GeorgeOrwell's debut, ''Burmese Days'', is an autobiographical account about the British colonial police in India, where he was once a member. Orwell wrote down his disgust about the way they treated the local people there.

[[AC: Movies]]
* UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} is the common name for the Indian movie industry. BollywoodMovies are famous for their spectacular musical numbers and elaborately choreographed dancing.
* Creator/LaurelAndHardy: The film ''Bonnie Scotland'' sends Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy to India, where they become part of the British colonial army.
* ''Film/GungaDin'' is an 1939 adventure movie with Creator/CaryGrant set in colonial India.
* ''Film/{{Gandhi}}'' a {{Biopic}} about UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi which won the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardforBestPicture.
* Film/JamesBond goes to Udaipur in ''Film/{{Octopussy}}''.
* The second ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' film ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' (1984) has Indiana and his companions crash land in India and get involved in freeing the local population from a local evil cult.