History UsefulNotes / India

** UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} - The Hindi Film Industry, nicknamed after its U.S counterpart.
** UsefulNotes/TheOtherwoods - Because not all Indian movies are Bollywood.
** FilmiMusic: UsefulNotes/{{India}}n music created for UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} productions.

** Vice President: Venkaiah Naidu

** Chief Justice: Sharad Arvind Bobde

* '''Area:''' 3,287,263 km
(1,269,219 sq mi) (7th)

A really long story made short - India, officially known as '''Republic of India''' ('''Hindi:''' ''भारतीय गणराज्य, Bhartiya Gaṇrajya''), is a South UsefulNotes/{{Asia}}n country and the world's largest and most complex democracy.

The country's modern English name is likely derived from its Arabic name ''"Al-Hind"'' (الهند), combined with the Latin suffix ''"-ia"'', which denotes a place name. Alternately, it may have derived from the Greek Ἰνδική / ''Indikē''. These names, in turn, derived ultimately from the Sanskrit ''Sindhu'', for the Indus River--which drains pretty much none of modern India, its basin lying almost entirely in today's UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}. That said, the Indus Valley Civilization that formed in that region over 4,000 years ago is (with Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica) one of the five "Cradles of Civilization" from which the major urban civilizations of world history sprouted, and is directly ancestral to the cultures of all of the Subcontinent (whatever modern political and ethnic divisions may prevail).

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Rakshata Crawla.

* ''Anime/BlackLagoon'': Janet Bhai.
* ''Anime/TheStoryOfPerrine'' has the Panadavoine family.

* Anthy from ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', who was inspired by Lalah. It's never stated, but her dark-skin and bindi implies it.

* The track "New Delhi" from ''Music/TheRiseAndFall'' by Music/{{Madness}} is about a character dreaming he is India.

A really long story made short - India, officially known as '''Republic of India''' ('''Hindi:''' ''भारतीय गणराज्य, Bhartiya Gaṇrajya''), is a South Asian country and the world's largest and most complex democracy.

* ''WesternAnimation/SitaSingsTheBlues'' is a 2008 animated film about Hindu mythology.

* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': {{Goth}} girl Priya Mangal is Indian-Canadian.

* The titular main character of ''WesternAnimation/Velma'' is Indian-American.
* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': Goth girl Priya Mangal is Indian-Canadian.

* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': [[Goth]] girl Priya Mangal is Indian-Canadian.

** FilmiMusic - Ever wonder why Indian movies have so many songs and musical numbers?

* UsefulNotes/IndianLaws - The Police, The Court System, And other organizations.

A really long story made short - India, officially known as '''Republic of India''' ('''Hindi:''' ''भारतीय गणराज्य'', Bhartiya Gaṇrajya), is a South Asian country and the world's largest and most complex democracy.

* Music/TheRollingStones: Their song "Paint It, Black", from ''Music/AftermathAlbum'' (1966) and the song "Gomper" features Music/BrianJones on sitar.

* Music/TheRollingStones: Their song "Paint It, Black", from ''Music/{{Aftermath}}'' (1966) and the song "Gomper" features Music/BrianJones on sitar.

** President: Ram Nath Kovind

A really long story made short - India, officially known as '''Republic of India''' ('''Hindi:''' ''भारतीय गणराज्य'', Bhartiya Gaṇrajya), is a South Asian country and the world's largest and most complex democracy. The country's modern English name is derived from its Arabic name ''"Al-Hind"'' (الهند), combined with the Latin suffix ''"-ia"'', which denotes a place name. It's particularly notable for being the birthplace of Indus, one of the five earliest civilizations in the world which together formed the foundation of human culture, along with Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Egypt and China.

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 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.

Britain created a modern, united, well-developed system of rule, with railways, telegraph and court systems - but the entire infrastructure was specifically designed to exploit the resources of the country, with only a minimal regard as to the consequences for the Indian people (although it also [[PragmaticVillainy a great deal of regard for avoiding doing things that unnecessarily antagonised the people]], e.g. rampant Christian proselytism; also, if doing something nice for the locals would also benefit the British or would cost them nothing, the authorities were often if not usually more than happy to do it). With that, right up until independence, there was also exactly zero interest (actually scratch that, minimal interest with zero ''support'' from the crown) in fixing social problems such as casteism, illiteracy, gender and income inequality, etc that civilizations were attempting to overcome around the world; any progress made on those fronts was either made in spite of the government or because something the government found expedient happened to lead to progress tangentially. Indeed, the British often encouraged these inequalities by establishing ethnic identities by special categories and quotas, which further spread religious divides. While the Raj became increasingly Indianized in terms of bureaucracy, true representative rule was never really put into place; the world's largest population was ruled without any direct way of voicing its wishes in government.