BJP

Politics, Law & Government Politics & Political Systems Rally for the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi Rally for the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi BJP party workers and supporters waving the party flag with its lotus symbol in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. Bharatiya Janata Party political party, India Also known as: BJP, Indian People’s Party Written and fact-checked by Last Updated: Feb 12, 2025 • Article History Quick Facts English: Indian People’s Party Date: 1980 - present Areas Of Involvement: Hindutva Hinduism Related People: Narendra Modi Amit Shah Ram Nath Kovind Yogi Adityanath Droupadi Murmu News • BJP chief issues show-cause notices to 20 ‘rebel’ leaders • Feb. 11, 2025, 8:03 AM ET (The Indian Express) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), pro-Hindu political party of postindependence India. The party has enjoyed broad support among members of the higher castes and in northern India. It has attempted to attract support from lower castes, particularly through the appointment of several lower-caste members to prominent party positions. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured majority in the 2014, 2019, and 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Although the BJP was able to secure a majority on its own in the 2014 and 2019 elections, it fell short of the 272 seats it needed to secure a majority on its own in the 2024 elections. Origin and establishment The BJP traces its roots to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS; Indian People’s Association), which was established in 1951 as the political wing of the pro-Hindu group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS; “National Volunteers Corps”) by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. The BJS advocated the rebuilding of India in accordance with Hindu culture and called for the formation of a strong unified state. In 1967 the BJS gained a substantial foothold in the Hindi-speaking regions of northern India. Ten years later the party, led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, joined three other political parties to form the Janata Party and took over the reins of government. Plagued by factionalism and internal disputes, however, the government collapsed in July 1979. The BJP was formally established in 1980, following a split by dissidents within the Janata coalition, whose leaders wanted to prohibit elected BJS officials from participating in the RSS. (Critics of the RSS have consistently accused it of political and religious extremism, particularly because one of its members had assassinated Mahatma Gandhi.) The BJS subsequently reorganized itself as the BJP under the leadership of Vajpayee, Lal Krishan Advani, and Murali Manohar Joshi. Flag of India More From Britannica India: The first and second BJP governments The BJP advocated Hindutva (“Hindu-ness”), an ideology that sought to define Indian culture in terms of Hindu values, and it was highly critical of the secular policies and practices of the Indian National Congress (Congress Party). The BJP began to have electoral success in 1989, when it capitalized on anti-Muslim feeling by calling for the erection of a Hindu temple in an area in Ayodhya considered sacred by Hindus but at that time occupied by the Babri Masjid (Mosque of Bābur). By 1991 the BJP had considerably increased its political appeal, capturing 117 seats in the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of the Indian parliament) and taking power in four states. The demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992 by organizations seen to be associated with the BJP caused a major backlash against the party. The mosque’s destruction also led to violence throughout the country that left more than 1,000 dead. The party was regarded with skepticism and suspicion by many committed to secularism in contemporary India. To alleviate fear among the public, restore confidence in the party, and expand its base, the BJP’s leaders undertook a series of rath yatras (“journeys on the carriage”), or political marches, in which the Hindu god Rama was symbolically invoked as the symbol of cultural renaissance. Electoral success and the National Democratic Alliance government In elections in 1996 the BJP emerged as the largest single party in the Lok Sabha and was invited by India’s president to form a government. However, its tenure in office was short-lived, as it could not muster the majority required to rule in the 545-member lower house. In 1998 the BJP and its allies were able to form a majority government with Vajpayee as prime minister. In May of that year, nuclear weapons tests ordered by Vajpayee drew widespread international condemnation. After 13 months in office, coalition partner All India Dravidian Progressive Federation (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham) withdrew its support, and Vajpayee was prompted to seek a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha, which he lost by the margin of a single vote. The BJP contested the 1999 parliamentary elections as the organizer of the NDA, a coalition of more than 20 national and regional parties. The alliance secured a governing majority, with the BJP winning 182 of the coalition’s 294 seats. Vajpayee, as leader of the largest party in the alliance, was again elected prime minister. Although Vajpayee sought to resolve the country’s long-standing conflict with Pakistan over the Kashmir region and made India a world leader in information technology, the coalition lost its majority in the 2004 parliamentary elections to the Congress Party’s United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition, and Vajpayee resigned from office. The party’s share of seats in the Lok Sabha was reduced from 137 to 116 in the 2009 parliamentary elections, as the UPA coalition again prevailed. Get Unlimited Access Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more. Return to power Narendra Modi Narendra ModiIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected to the office in 2014. He won a second term in 2019 and was sworn in for a third term on June 9, 2024. As the 2014 Lok Sabha elections grew near, however, the BJP’s fortunes began to rise, largely because of growing discontent with Congress Party rule. Narendra Modi, the longtime chief minister (head of government) of Gujarat state, was chosen to lead the BJP electoral campaign, thus making him the party’s candidate for prime minister. The polling—held in several stages in April and May—produced an overwhelming victory for the BJP. The party won 282 seats outright, a clear majority in the chamber, and its NDA partners added 54 more. Shortly after election results were announced, Modi was named head of the party members in parliament, and he began forming a government that included not only senior BJP officials but also several leaders from parties allied with the coalition. Modi was sworn in as prime minister on May 26, 2014. BJP rule included a mixture of policies relating to the economy and to promoting Hindutva. On November 8, 2016, 500- and 1,000-rupee banknotes were demonetized with just a few hours’ notice with the intent of stopping “black money”—cash used for illicit activities. More than 99 percent of the banknotes were returned and replaced, indicating even “black money” had been successfully exchanged and returned to circulation. But the policy did broaden the income tax base through increased bank activity and stimulated the use of cashless transactions. In 2017 the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced, reforming the collection of consumption taxes nationwide. Meanwhile, the BJP appealed to notions of Hindutva through measures such as banning the sale of cows for slaughter, a move later overturned by the Supreme Court. The party likewise legislated name changes for certain jurisdictions. As both unemployment and the cost of living continued to rise and Modi’s grandiose promises on economic growth remained unfulfilled, the BJP began suffering local election losses. In 2018 the party lost all five state elections held in November and December, including those in its strongholds of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh. On the national level, however, the party was able to pull off a landslide victory in April–May 2019 and even expanded its representation in the Lok Sabha. This was in part due to the support it gained after the government’s handling of a security crisis in Jammu and Kashmir in February 2019. Moreover, Congress, the BJP’s most viable competitor, failed to portray itself as a worthwhile alternative to the BJP-led government. Later that year, though, the BJP lost control of Maharashtra state after losing the support of a prominent regional party. The party’s second term in power was marked by swift and heavy-handed actions. In August 2019 the BJP-led government stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy and in October brought the former state under the direct control of the union government. Communications and movement in the territory were severely restricted during the transition. In March 2020 the spread of the global COVID-19 pandemic prompted the government to implement a strict national lockdown until June. As restrictions were eased, the BJP made efforts to counter the economic impact of the pandemic. Those efforts included Modi’s use of executive action to reduce obstacles to selling produce and to encourage private investment. Critics argued that the changes would make farmers vulnerable to exploitation, but the reforms were nevertheless codified into law without input from those concerned. Protests against the measures escalated in January 2021 (including clashes with police and the storming of the Red Fort on Republic Day), and the government took extraordinary measures to stifle them, implementing Internet blackouts and punishing organizers, participants, and journalists. Nevertheless, opposition to the reforms was sustained into November, and the BJP, wary of losing support in upcoming state elections, announced that they would be repealed. The BJP aimed to secure 370 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections even though it needed just over 272 seats to win the elections. In a surprising turn of events, however, it faced stiff competition from the opposing INDIA alliance and failed to secure a majority on its own even though its alliance, the NDA, won enough seats to form the government at the center. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica. Indian National Congress Table of Contents Introduction & Top Questions History Policy and structure References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics Images Mahatma Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu on the Salt March Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Harry S. Truman Rajiv Gandhi Gandhi, Sonia; Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Singh, Karan; Gandhi, Rahul 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha election results For Students Indian National Congress summary Related Questions What role did the Indian National Congress play in the Indian independence movement? What policies have historically been supported by the Indian National Congress? Is the Indian National Congress’s Gandhi family related to Mahatma Gandhi? What did Mohammed Ali Jinnah study? What is Jawaharlal Nehru known for? 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Indian National Congress political party, India Also known as: All-India Congress Party, Congress (I) Party, Congress Party, Indian National Congress-Indira Written and fact-checked by Article History Quick Facts Byname: Congress Party Date: 1885 - present Areas Of Involvement: national liberation movement Related People: Mahatma Gandhi Jawaharlal Nehru Mohammed Ali Jinnah Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Indira Gandhi Top Questions What is the Indian National Congress? When was the Indian National Congress founded? What role did the Indian National Congress play in the Indian independence movement? News • Opposition lawmakers protest alleged mistreatment of Indian deportees by US • Feb. 6, 2025, 9:36 PM ET (AP) Indian National Congress, broadly based political party of India. Formed in 1885, the Indian National Congress dominated the Indian movement for independence from Great Britain. It subsequently formed most of India’s governments from the time of independence and often had a strong presence in many state governments. Since 2014 it has been out of power at the central government level. (Read Indira Gandhi’s 1975 Britannica essay on global underprivilege.) History The pre-independence period The Indian National Congress first convened in December 1885, though the idea of an Indian nationalist movement opposed to British rule dated from the 1850s. During its first several decades, the Congress Party passed fairly moderate reform resolutions, though many within the organization were becoming radicalized by the increased poverty that accompanied British imperialism. In the early 20th century, elements within the party began to endorse a policy of swadeshi (“of our own country”), which called on Indians to boycott of imported British goods and promoted Indian-made goods. By 1917 the group’s “extremist” Home Rule wing, which was formed by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Annie Besant the previous year, had begun to exert significant influence by appealing to India’s diverse social classes. In the 1920s and ’30s the Congress Party, led by Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi, began advocating nonviolent noncooperation. The new change in tactics was precipitated by the protest over the perceived feebleness of the constitutional reforms enacted in early 1919 (Rowlatt Acts) and Britain’s manner of carrying them out, as well as by the widespread outrage among Indians in response to the massacre of civilians in Amritsar (Punjab) that April. Many of the acts of civil disobedience that followed were implemented through the All India Congress Committee, formed in 1929, which advocated avoiding taxes as a protest against British rule. Notable in that regard was the Salt March in 1930 led by Gandhi. Another wing of the Congress Party, which believed in working within the existing system, contested general elections in 1923 and 1937 as the Swaraj (Home Rule) Party, with particular success in the latter year, winning 7 out of 11 provinces. When World War II began in 1939, Britain made India a belligerent without consulting Indian elected councils. That action angered Indian officials and prompted the Congress Party to declare that India would not support the war effort until it had been granted complete independence. In 1942 the organization sponsored mass civil disobedience, called the Quit India Movement, to support the demand that the British leave India. British authorities responded by imprisoning the entire Congress Party leadership, including Gandhi, and many remained in jail until 1945. After the war the British government of Clement Attlee passed an independence bill in July 1947, and independence was achieved the following month. In January 1950 India’s constitution as an independent state took effect. Postindependence dominance of the Nehru clan Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Harry S. Truman Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Harry S. TrumanThe first Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru (second from right), being greeted by U.S. Pres. Harry S. Truman at the start of Nehru's visit to the United States in October 1949. Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, who later served as prime minister, is on the right. From 1951 until his death in 1964, Jawaharlal Nehru dominated the Congress Party, which won overwhelming victories in the elections of 1951–52, 1957, and 1962. The party united in 1964 to elect Lal Bahadur Shastri and in 1966 Indira Gandhi (Nehru’s daughter) to the posts of party leader and thus prime minister. In 1967, however, Indira Gandhi faced open revolt within the party, and in 1969 she was expelled from the party by a group called the “Syndicate.” Nevertheless, her New Congress Party scored a landslide victory in the 1971 elections, and for a period it was unclear which party was the true rightful heir of the Indian National Congress label. Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv GandhiRajiv Gandhi, 1985. In the mid-1970s the New Congress Party’s popular support began to fracture. From 1975 Gandhi’s government grew increasingly more authoritarian, and unrest among the opposition grew. In the parliamentary elections held in March 1977, the opposition Janata (People’s) Party scored a landslide victory over the Congress Party, winning 295 seats in the Lok Sabha (the lower chamber of India’s parliament) against 153 for the Congress; Gandhi herself lost to her Janata opponent. On January 2, 1978, she and her followers seceded and formed a new opposition party, popularly called Congress (I)—the “I” signifying Indira. Over the next year, her new party attracted enough members of the legislature to become the official opposition, and in 1981 the national election commission declared it the “real” Indian National Congress. In 1996 the “I” designation was dropped. In November 1979 Gandhi regained a parliamentary seat, and the following year she was again elected prime minister. In 1982 her son Rajiv Gandhi became nominal head of the party, and, upon her assassination in October 1984, he became prime minister. In December he led the Congress Party to an overwhelming victory in which it secured 401 seats in the legislature. Get Unlimited Access Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more. Although the Congress Party remained the largest party in parliament in 1989, Rajiv Gandhi was unseated as prime minister by a coalition of opposition parties. While campaigning to regain power in May 1991, he was assassinated by a suicide bomber associated with the Tamil Tigers, a separatist group in Sri Lanka. He was succeeded as party leader by P.V. Narasimha Rao, who was elected prime minister in June 1991. The party since 1991 In contrast to the party’s historical socialist policies, Rao embraced economic liberalization. By 1996 the party’s image was suffering from various reports of corruption, and in elections that year the Congress Party was reduced to 140 seats, its lowest number in the Lok Sabha to that point, becoming parliament’s second largest party. Rao subsequently resigned as prime minister and, in September, as party president. He was succeeded as president by Sitaram Kesri, the party’s first non-Brahman leader. The United Front (UF) government—a coalition of 13 parties—came to power in 1996 as a minority government with the support of the Congress Party. However, as the largest single party in opposition in parliament after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; Indian People’s Party), the Congress Party was vital in both making and defeating the UF. In November 1997 the Congress Party withdrew its support from the UF, prompting elections in February 1998. To boost its popularity among the masses and improve the party’s performance in the forthcoming elections, the Congress Party leaders urged Sonia Gandhi—the Italian-born widow of Rajiv Gandhi—to assume the leadership of the party. She had previously declined overtures to play an active role in party affairs, but at that time she agreed to campaign. Although a BJP-led coalition government came to power, the Congress Party and its partners were able to deny the BJP an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha. The party’s better-than-expected performance in the national elections was attributed by many observers to Sonia Gandhi’s charisma and vigorous campaigning. After the 1998 elections, Kesri resigned as party president, and Sonia Gandhi assumed the leadership of the party. Gandhi, Sonia; Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Singh, Karan; Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia; Clinton, Hillary Rodham; Singh, Karan; Gandhi, RahulSonia Gandhi (second from left) in New Delhi, with (from left to right) Hillary Rodham Clinton, Karan Singh, and Rahul Gandhi, 2009. National parliamentary elections were again held in 1999, when one of the BJP’s major allies, the All India Dravidian Progressive Federation (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam; AIADMK) party, withdrew its support. Despite aggressive campaigning by its leaders, the Congress Party suffered a worse electoral performance than it had in 1996 and 1998, winning only 114 seats. Nevertheless, in the 2004 national elections the party scored a surprising victory and returned to power. Gandhi, however, declined an invitation to become prime minister and instead supported Manmohan Singh, a former finance minister, who in May 2004 became the country’s first Sikh prime minister. The party again surprised pundits in the 2009 parliamentary elections by increasing its number of seats in the Lok Sabha from 153 to 206, its best showing since 1991. By the 2014 Lok Sabha polling, however, the party had lost much of its popular support, mainly because of several years of poor economic conditions in the country and growing discontent over a series of corruption scandals involving government officials. The party touted its record at passing legislation aimed at improving the lot of those living in poverty and rural areas, and it fielded Sonia’s son, Rahul Gandhi, to be its candidate for prime minister. However, the BJP and its leading candidate, Narendra Modi, successfully won over the electorate. The results of the elections, announced in mid-May, were an overwhelming electoral victory for the BJP while the Congress Party suffered a stunning loss, securing only 44 seats in the chamber (in 2015 the party won a by-election in Madhya Pradesh, increasing its seat total to 45). It was the party’s worst-ever performance in a national election. One consequence of its poor performance was that it was not able to assume the position of the official opposition party, since it failed to garner the minimum 55 seats (10 percent of the chamber’s total) required for that role. Singh left office on May 26, the day Modi was sworn in as prime minister. Sonia Gandhi stepped down from leadership in late 2017, and her son Rahul became president of the Congress Party. He faced a number of criticisms, including that he, as the fourth generation of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, was elitist and lackluster. Within his party he was criticized for his outward display of devotion to Shiva, interpreted as an attempt to tap into the BJP’s appeal to Hindu populism. Some observers, however, believed that Gandhi’s display of Hindu devotion and his efforts to unite rival factions within the party helped the Congress Party outperform the BJP in the 2018 state elections held in the Hindu strongholds of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh. Still, the Congress Party performed only marginally better in the 2019 elections for the Lok Sabha than it did in 2014, prompting Rahul Gandhi to step down. Sonia Gandhi was selected to lead the party until a successor could be found, and in 2022 she was succeeded by Mallikarjun Kharge. The Congress and its allies improved their performance in the 2024 general election to the Lok Sabha, winning 234 seats out 543 and reducing the BJP to 240 seats, below the target of 272. The Congress’s individual contribution to the alliance’s total was 99 seats out of 234. The BJP formed the government with the help of its allies. State politics The Congress Party’s presence at the state level has closely mirrored its performance at the national level. It dominated nearly all state governments in the early years after independence and later began alternating power with other national parties (e.g., the BJP) or with local parties (e.g., the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh). By the early 21st century, however, Congress’s influence in state politics had declined to the point where it controlled only a minority of state governments. The party has tended to do better in the northeastern and northern states and poorly in most of the southern states. Policy and structure The Congress Party is a hierarchically structured party. Delegates from state and district parties attend an annual national conference, which elects a president and the All India Congress Committee. However, the 20-member Congress Working Committee, the majority of whose members are appointed by the party president (handpicked by the prime minister when the party is in power), wields enormous influence. The party is also organized into various committees and sections (e.g., youth and women’s groups), and it publishes a daily newspaper, the National Herald. Mirroring the party’s declining fortunes, the party’s membership dropped from nearly 40 million in the mid-1990s to under 20 million at the beginning of the 21st century. The party has traditionally supported socialist economic policies within the framework of a mixed economy. In the 1990s, however, it endorsed market reforms, including privatization and the deregulation of the economy. It also has supported secular policies that encourage equal rights for all citizens, including those in lower castes. Throughout much of the Cold War period, the Congress Party championed a foreign policy of nonalignment, which called for India to form ties with both the West and communist countries but to avoid formal alliances with either. Nonetheless, American support for Pakistan led the party to endorse a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union in 1971. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Gitanjali Roy. Narendra Modi Table of Contents Introduction Early life and political career Political ascent and term as chief minister of Gujarat Premiership References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics Images Narendra Modi Narendra Modi 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha election results Related Questions What are the oldest known civilizations of India? What are the major holidays and festivals of India? Read Next David Cameron. 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Narendra Modi prime minister of India Also known as: Narendra Damodardas Modi Written by Fact-checked by Article History Quick Facts In full: Narendra Damodardas Modi Born: September 17, 1950, Vadnagar, India (age 74) Title / Office: prime minister (2014-), India Political Affiliation: Bharatiya Janata Party Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh News • Modi is meeting with Trump in a visit meant to boost the US-India relationship and avoid tariffs • Feb. 13, 2025, 12:02 AM ET (AP) Narendra Modi (born September 17, 1950, Vadnagar, India) is an Indian politician and government official who rose to become a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 2014 he led his party to victory in elections to the Lok Sabha (lower chamber of the Indian parliament), after which he was sworn in as prime minister of India. Prior to that he had served (2001–14) as chief minister (head of government) of Gujarat state in western India. The Modi-led BJP (and the BJP-led NDA alliance) won the majority again in the 2019 general election. Although the BJP failed to secure a majority on its own in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led NDA alliance won 293 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, paving the way for Modi to become the country’s prime minister for a third consecutive term. Early life and political career Narendra Modi Narendra ModiIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected to the office in 2014. He won a second term in 2019 and was sworn in for a third term on June 9, 2024. Modi was raised in a small town in northern Gujarat, and he completed an M.A. degree in political science from Gujarat University in Ahmedabad. He joined the pro-Hindutva Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organization in the early 1970s and set up a unit of the RSS’s students’ wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, in his area. Modi rose steadily in the RSS hierarchy, and his association with the organization significantly benefited his subsequent political career. Modi joined the BJP in 1987, and a year later he was made the general secretary of the Gujarat branch of the party. He was instrumental in greatly strengthening the party’s presence in the state in succeeding years. In 1990 Modi was one of the BJP members who participated in a coalition government in the state, and he helped the BJP achieve success in the 1995 state legislative assembly elections that in March allowed the party to form the first-ever BJP-controlled government in India. The BJP’s control of the state government was relatively short-lived, however, ending in September 1996. Political ascent and term as chief minister of Gujarat In 1995 Modi was made the secretary of the BJP’s national organization in New Delhi, and three years later he was appointed its general secretary. He remained in that office for another three years, but in October 2001 he replaced the incumbent Gujarat chief minister, fellow BJP member Keshubhai Patel, after Patel had been held responsible for the state government’s poor response in the aftermath of the massive Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat earlier that year that killed more than 20,000 people. Modi entered his first-ever electoral contest in a February 2002 by-election that won him a seat in the Gujarat state assembly. Modi’s political career thereafter has been tinged with controversy. His role as chief minister during communal riots that engulfed Gujarat in 2002 was particularly questioned. He was accused of condoning the violence or, at least, of doing little to stop the killing of more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, that ensued after dozens of Hindu passengers died when their train was set on fire in the city of Godhra. In 2005 the United States declined to issue him a diplomatic visa on the grounds that he was responsible for the 2002 riots, and the United Kingdom also criticized his role in the riots. Although in the succeeding years Modi himself escaped any indictment or censure—either from the judiciary or from investigative agencies—some of his close associates were found guilty of complicity in the 2002 events and received lengthy jail sentences. Modi’s administration was also accused of involvement in extrajudicial killings (variously termed “encounters” or “fake encounters”) by police or other authorities. One such case in 2004 involved the deaths of a woman and three men whom officials said were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (a Pakistan-based terrorist organization that was involved in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks) and were alleged to have been plotting to assassinate Modi. Modi’s repeated political success in Gujarat, however, made him an indispensable leader within the BJP hierarchy and led to his reintegration into the political mainstream. Under his leadership, the BJP secured a significant victory in the December 2002 legislative assembly elections, winning 127 of the 182 seats in the chamber (including a seat for Modi). Projecting a manifesto for growth and development in Gujarat, the BJP was again victorious, this time in the 2007 state assembly elections, with a seat total of 117, and the party prevailed again in the 2012 polls, garnering 115 seats. Both times, Modi won his contests and returned as chief minister. During his time as head of the Gujarat government, Modi established a formidable reputation as an able administrator, and he was given credit for the rapid growth of the state’s economy. In addition, his and the party’s electoral performances helped advance Modi’s position as not only the most influential leader within the party but also a potential candidate for prime minister of India. In June 2013 Modi was chosen the leader of the BJP’s campaign for the 2014 elections to the Lok Sabha. Get Unlimited Access Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more. Shanthie Mariet D'Souza Premiership of Narendra Modi After a vigorous campaign—in which Modi portrayed himself as a pragmatic candidate who could turn around India’s underperforming economy—he and the party were victorious: the BJP won a clear majority of seats in the chamber. Modi was sworn in as prime minister on May 26, 2014. Soon after he took office, his government embarked on several reforms, including campaigns to improve India’s transportation infrastructure and to liberalize rules on direct foreign investment in the country. Modi scored two significant diplomatic achievements early in his term. In mid-September he hosted a visit by Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping, the first time a Chinese leader had been to India in eight years. At the end of that month, having been granted a U.S. visa, Modi made a highly successful visit to New York City, which included a meeting with U.S. Pres. Barack Obama. Modi’s tenure as prime minister saw a surge in Hindu nationalism in parts of India. The government undertook measures that would broadly appeal to Hindus, such as its attempt to ban the sale of cows for slaughter. The economic reforms were sweeping, introducing structural changes—and temporary disruptions—that could be felt nationwide. Among the most far-reaching was the demonetization and replacement of 500- and 1,000-rupee banknotes with only a few hours’ notice. The purpose was to stop “black money”—cash used for illicit activities—by making it difficult to exchange large sums of cash. The following year the government centralized the consumption tax system by introducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which superseded a confusing system of local consumption taxes and eliminated the problem of cascading tax. GDP growth slowed from these changes, though growth had already been high (8.2 percent in 2015), and the reforms succeeded in expanding the government’s tax base. Still, rising costs of living and increasing unemployment disappointed many as grandiose promises of economic growth remained unfulfilled. This disappointment registered with voters during the elections in five states in late 2018. The BJP lost in all five states, including the BJP strongholds of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh. The rival Indian National Congress (Congress Party) won more state assembly seats than the BJP in all five elections. Many observers believed that this portended bad news for Modi and the BJP in the national elections set for the spring of 2019, but others believed that Modi’s charisma would excite the voters. Moreover, a security crisis in Jammu and Kashmir in February 2019, which escalated tensions with Pakistan to the highest point in decades, boosted Modi’s image months before the election. The BJP dominated the airwaves during the campaign—in contrast to the campaign of Rahul Gandhi and Congress—and the BJP was returned to power, which made Modi India’s first prime minister outside the Congress Party to be reelected after a full term. In his second term Modi’s government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, stripping it of autonomy in October 2019 and bringing it under the direct control of the union government. The move came under intense criticism and faced challenges in court, not only for the questionable legality of depriving Jammu and Kashmir’s residents of self-determination but also because the government severely restricted communications and movement within the region. In March 2020, meanwhile, Modi took decisive action to combat the outbreak of COVID-19 in India, swiftly implementing strict nationwide restrictions to mitigate the spread while the country’s biotechnology firms became key players in the race to develop and deliver vaccines worldwide. As part of the effort to counter the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Modi undertook executive action in June to liberalize the agricultural sector, a move that was codified into law in September. Many feared that the reforms would make farmers vulnerable to exploitation, however, and protesters took to the streets in opposition to the new laws. Beginning in November, massive protests were organized and became a regular disruption, particularly in Delhi. Protests escalated in 2021 (culminating in the storming of the Red Fort in January), and extraordinary restrictions and crackdowns by the government failed to suppress them. Meanwhile, despite the remarkably low spread of COVID-19 in January and February, by late April a rapid surge of cases caused by the new Delta variant had overwhelmed the country’s health care system. Modi, who had held massive political rallies ahead of state elections in March and April, was criticized for neglecting the surge. The BJP ultimately lost the election in a key battleground state despite heavy campaigning. In November, as protests continued and another set of state elections approached, Modi announced that the government would repeal the agricultural reforms. Modi fulfilled a longtime BJP promise by announcing the new Ram Mandir—in what is considered by Hindus as the deity Ram’s birthplace—in October 2023 and by presiding over the consecration (prana pratishtha) ceremony on January 22, 2024. Although a party or an alliance needed to win just 272 of the 543 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to form the government at the center, Modi set an ambitious target of 400 seats for the BJP-led NDA alliance and tried to make the Ram Mandir a top electoral issue. The NDA, however, faced steep competition from the Congress-led INDIA alliance, contrary to expectations. The BJP won 240 seats and failed to secure a majority on its own, but the NDA won a total of 293 seats, enough to form the government and secure a third term for Modi as the country’s prime minister. This time, however, the BJP will depend on its allies for support, having failed to secure a majority. Shanthie Mariet D'Souza The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Hindutva Table of Contents Introduction Origins, ideology, and politics Hindutva after Indian independence Hindutva under the BJP References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics Images Hindutva activist rally RSS workers parading migrations of Hindus and Muslims after partition BJP rally for Narendra Modi Narendra Modi students honoring V.D. Savarkar Read Next Indian hijras participate in a religious procession in Gandhinagar, India, some 30 kilometers from Ahmedabad, on March 22, 2017. Hijra is a term used in South Asia which refers to transgender individuals who are born male. (gender identity, gender expression) 6 Cultures That Recognize More than Two Genders Candles Burning On Table In Church What Is the Most Widely Practiced Religion in the World? 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Hindutva political ideology Also known as: Hindu nationalism Written by Fact-checked by Article History Also known as: Hindu nationalism Key People: Rajnath Singh Related Topics: Hinduism ideology News • Rise of Indian-origin extremism in UK risks deepening divisions: analysts • Feb. 5, 2025, 3:53 AM ET (South China Morning Post) Hindutva, right-wing ethno-nationalist political ideology that defines the cultural identity of India in terms of Hinduism and desires to make India an overtly Hindu nation-state. The term Hindutva was first defined in the early 1920s by Indian nationalist activist and politician Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Today it is most closely associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (Hindi/English: Indian People’s Party; BJP), one of the main political parties in India, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (Hindi: National Volunteer Organization; RSS), a nonpolitical Hindu nationalist paramilitary organization. Hindutva supporters, or Hindutvavadis, claim to advocate for India’s significant Hindu-majority population—as of 2011 India was 79.8 percent Hindu, 14.2 percent Muslim, and the rest a mix of Christians, Sikhs, and others—and seek to redefine the idea of secularism enshrined in the Indian constitution in terms of Hindu rights. Hindutva as an ideology must be understood as distinct from Hinduism as a religion—not all adherents of Hinduism subscribe to Hindutva—and Savarkar’s original definition asserts Hindutva as an ethnic category and eschews a specific religious connotation. In current practice the ideology tends to be strongly pro-Hindu and staunchly anti-Muslim. However, supporters often define Hindutva in purely cultural terms as a “way of life.” Origins, ideology, and politics The term Hindutva was first used in a nationalist political context by Savarkar in his 1923 booklet Essentials of Hindutva. Savarkar, a militant voice for Indian independence from British colonial rule, was writing against the backdrop of the Khilafat movement, a pan-Islamic attempt led by Indian Muslims to support the caliphate in Istanbul after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Mahatma Gandhi and others in the Indian National Congress (Congress Party) collaborated with Muslims in that movement, but Savarkar saw the Muslim community’s solid organization and the prospect of a pan-Islamic identity as a threat to Indian Hindus. Savarkar proposed that Indian identity ought to be based on a common ancestry and culture intimately and religiously tied to the land of India. Hindus were thus defined not as followers of Hinduism specifically but as people who share the Indian culture and consider India religiously significant, as opposed to others whose religious history and identity are rooted elsewhere. In this view, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and even Indian atheists are included with Hindus, as their religious identities are tied to geographical locations and historical events situated within the Indian subcontinent. Savarkar opined that Muslims and Christians, whose religious histories took place elsewhere, would necessarily have a divided loyalty to India. Savarkar went on to lead the conservative Hindu Mahasabha (Hindi: Great Assembly of Hindus) political party, and his ideas were propagated by the RSS, which was founded by K.B. Hedgewar in 1925 and from 1940 was led by M.S. Golwalkar, who clearly defined the Hindutva ideology in terms of Hindu religious superiority while maintaining the RSS as an apolitical group. RSS workers parading RSS workers paradingRSS karsevaks (Hindi: “volunteer workers”) attending a path sanchalan (“route march”) during a Dussehra festival in Prayagraj (Allahabad), October 22, 2015. Under the umbrella of the RSS, the Hindutva movement created numerous offshoot groups to mobilize supporters and promote its causes among specific communities. The collection of groups is called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi: Family of the Sangh). Significant bodies include the religious Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council; VHP), the militant Bajrang Dal (Brigade of Bajrangbali, a name for the god Hanuman), the student-centered Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (All India Student’s Association; ABVP), and the education-focused Vidya Bharati (Indian Knowledge). The public service-oriented Rashtra Sevika Samiti (National Women’s Volunteer Committee) operates as a women’s version of the all-male RSS. In line with their Hindu-first ideology, Hindutva advocates have promoted a number of specific policies concerning the treatment of religious minorities. A particular cause célèbre of Hindutva is the cow protection (gau raksha) movement. Cow-protectionist Hindus, who hold cows to be sacred, take responsibility for saving cows from Muslims, Christians, and Dalits who eat beef. The cow protection movement often takes the form of vigilantism against these minorities. Hindutva groups further promote the “homecoming” (ghar wapsi), or (re)conversion, of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism. A major postindependence policy proposal among Hindutva supporters is a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to replace separate sets of “personal laws” regarding matters such as marriage and inheritance, which allow Indians of different religions to follow laws specific to their traditions. For Hindutvavadis the lack of a UCC amounts to special treatment for Muslims and other religious minorities. Supporters also oppose the practice of reservations, or quotas in education and employment, for religious minorities, which they argue creates undue favoritism for minority religions and is an abandonment of religion-neutral secularism. Hindutva after Indian independence migrations of Hindus and Muslims after partition migrations of Hindus and Muslims after partitionIndians crowding onto trains during the partition of India into a predominantly Hindu state (India) and a predominantly Muslim state (Pakistan) in one of the largest population transfers in history, 1947. In the lead-up to independence, Hindu nationalists adopted the ideology of Akhand Bharat (“Undivided India”), which insists upon the Indian subcontinent’s geographical and cultural unity under Hindu majoritarian rule. That ideal was threatened by the 1947 partition of India, which divided the country into a Hindu-majority country (India) and a Muslim-majority country (Pakistan) and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions in the ensuing mass migrations and communal riots. Members of the Hindu right wing blamed leaders of the Indian National Congress, especially Gandhi, for both the carnage and the division of the Indian subcontinent. As Gandhi actively campaigned for peaceful coexistence between Hindus and Muslims in India, frustrations among Hindu nationalists intensified. On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a former RSS member who had switched his allegiance to the Hindu Mahasabha. The Indian government responded by banning the RSS, but subsequent investigations absolved the RSS leadership of any role in the assassination, and the ban was lifted in 1949. Get Unlimited Access Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more. The typically apolitical RSS began a foray into politics in 1951 when they—along with Syama Prasad Mukherjee, former head of the Hindu Mahasabha—formed the political party Bharatiya Jana Sangh (Indian People’s Association; BJS) within the growing Sangh Parivar fold. The Jana Sangh found political success in 1977 when it came into power in the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) as part of a coalition government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. After that coalition collapsed in 1979, Vajpayee and other leaders, such as Lal Krishna Advani, reorganized the BJS to form the BJP in 1980. Hindutva under the BJP In 1984 the VHP launched the Ram Janmabhoomi movement to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya, which Hindus believe to be the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama. It was a disputed site because the Babri Masjid, a Mughal-era mosque, stood at the site. The BJP joined the Ram Temple movement in 1989 and won significant electoral gains in the 1989 parliamentary elections. In an effort to broaden the BJP’s base, Advani launched a political rath yatra (“chariot tour”) across India in 1990 to mobilize support for building a temple dedicated to Rama in Ayodhya. Thousands of kar sevaks (volunteers for a religious cause) joined Advani’s rath yatra in a show of strength. On December 6, 1992, a mob of militant kar sevaks demolished the Babri Masjid, an event that was followed by communal riots across the country. In 1993 the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charged a number of BJP and VHP leaders for inciting the kar sevaks to destroy the mosque. After a number of twists and turns in this and other related cases, on September 30, 2020, a special CBI court acquitted all the accused of criminal charges, saying the demolition happened in the spur of the moment and there was no conspiracy. The ideas of Hindutva and Hindu majoritarianism rose in prominence as communal fault lines hardened in the 1990s. In 1996 the BJP became the largest single party in the Lok Sabha. A BJP-led coalition (the National Democratic Alliance; NDA) came to power in 1998 but lost power in 2004. BJP rally for Narendra Modi 1 of 2 BJP rally for Narendra ModiSeveral thousand Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters lining the streets of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, to greet Narendra Modi in the lead-up to the 2014 elections, April 24, 2014. Narendra Modi 2 of 2 Narendra ModiIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected to the office in 2014. He won a second term in 2019 and was sworn in for a third term on June 9, 2024. Hindu nationalism saw a revival in 2014 as the BJP returned to power in India’s parliament. The BJP, with Narendra Modi as its candidate for prime minister, won a clear majority in the 2014 parliamentary elections and further increased its vote share in 2019. With a clear mandate in parliament, several long-term Hindutva demands were met. In 2019 Jammu and Kashmir—a predominantly Muslim region under India’s de facto control that was given semi-autonomous status after partition—had its semi-autonomous status revoked. This had been a long-term priority for the BJP under the ideology of Akhand Bharat. In January 2024 the newly built Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was consecrated, and the event was celebrated by the BJP. Although many expected the consecration of the Ram Mandir to give the BJP a boost in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party surprisingly failed to secure a majority on its own even though the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) managed to go past the required 272-seat mark and formed the government at the center. What was even more surprising was the fact that the BJP lost in the constituency of Faizabad, where Ayodhya (the site of the Ram temple) is located. Experts opine that issues like price rise and unemployment may have affected which way the votes went, in addition to minority groups possibly favoring the Samajwadi Party. In recent years critics have objected to the BJP government’s renaming of cities and roads bearing Mughal-era names to Hindu names—such as the renaming of Allahabad city to Prayagrajand Mughalsarai Junction railway station to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction railway station—and have pointed out that these changes are motivated by a Hindu nationalist ideology. The ruling BJP government’s use of the name Bharat for India in placards identifying the prime minister and the president in the 2023 G20 summit, which India hosted, also sparked speculation that the country may be renamed to just “Bharat.” The traditional practice was to use “India” in placards and in English communications and “Bharat” in Indian languages. The practice of changing education and place-names to focus on India as a primarily Hindu nation is often called “saffronisation” for the distinctive saffron-orange color associated with the BJP and Hindu nationalism. The BJP, like governments that came before it, has also been accused of influencing the content of texts created by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), an autonomous organization set up by the Government of India to provide advice on school education in state and central education boards. In 2024 the NCERT came under sharp criticism for “saffronising education” from educators as it pruned some details on the Babri Masjid demolition, calling it a “three-domed structure” instead of naming it, and deleting references to the BJP’s rath yatra in the 1990s and details on the communal violence during the period. The NCERT chief defended the changes and said that they focus on the latest Supreme Court verdict on the case instead of dwelling on references to riots to “avoid creating depressed and violent citizens.” Sanat Pai Raikar Indian Lok Sabha elections of 2024 Table of Contents Introduction How are Lok Sabha representatives elected? How is the prime minister appointed? 2024 Lok Sabha election schedule Key political parties and alliances Past Lok Sabha election results 2024 election results References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics Images The New Parliament House in New Delhi A woman casting her vote in the 2019 elections A counting center in New Delhi, May 23, 2019 (from left) Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi 2019 and 2014 Lok Sabha election results Related Questions What are the oldest known civilizations of India? What are the major holidays and festivals of India? Read Next Artwork for themes for Pro-Con articles. Pro and Con: Voting Machines Election - Button that says Vote. Badge pin stars and stripes politics campaign Why Are U.S. Elections Held on Tuesdays? Artwork for themes for Pro-Con articles. Pro and Con: Election Day Holiday Artwork for themes for Pro-Con articles. Pro and Con: Electoral College Discover Calendar showing the month of February Why Are There Only 28 Days in February? The Colosseum, Rome, Italy. Giant amphitheatre built in Rome under the Flavian emperors. (ancient architecture; architectural ruins) New Seven Wonders of the World illustration of the walking titanosaurus, Patagotitan mayorum Titanosaurs: 8 of the World's Biggest Dinosaurs Aerial view of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Mobile, Ala., May 6, 2010. Photo by U.S. Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft. BP spill 9 Modern Corporate Criminals January 21, 2019: Superbowl LIII will be played at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday, February 3, 2019 against the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. What Was the Super Bowl’s First Blockbuster Commercial? Image of Elizabeth Keckley 5 African American Designers Who Changed Fashion Berlin, 1936 - Jesse Owens of the USA in action in the mens 200m at the Summer Olympic Games. Owens won a total of four gold medals. Was Jesse Owens Snubbed by Adolf Hitler at the Berlin Olympics? Politics, Law & Government Politics & Political Systems The New Parliament House in New Delhi The New Parliament House in New Delhi India's New Parliament House, inaugurated in May 2023, houses the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Indian Lok Sabha elections of 2024 Also known as: Indian general election of 2024 Written by Fact-checked by Article History Quick Facts Also called: Indian general election, 2024 Date: 2024 Location: India News • Vande Bharat Express will be extended to Belagavi soon, says Shettar • Feb. 11, 2025, 3:46 AM ET (The Hindu) More than 968 million voters had registered ahead of India’s 2024 general election, for which voting was held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1. A record 642 million people voted in this election, held to determine the majority party in the Lok Sabha (“House of the People”), India’s lower house of parliament, and to constitute the 18th Lok Sabha. At the end of the tabulation on June 4 and June 5, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with 240 seats, fell short of the majority mark of 272 seats needed to win a clear majority even though the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the BJP-led alliance, won enough votes to form the government at the center. The 293 seats won by the NDA is shy of the 400 seats targeted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a wide margin, but it paves the way for Modi to come to power as the prime minister of India for a third consecutive term. The BJP will depend on support from its allies as the Indian National Congress and its INDIA alliance made some unexpected gains in these elections. According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), India has the largest electorate in the world. The number of voters and election officers involved in this election is mind-boggling. The ECI used about 15 million government employees and security personnel—who were turned into election officials temporarily—to conduct the 2024 election. No voter should have to travel more than 1.24 miles (2 km) to vote. This mandate, along with the difficult terrain in some places, poses a challenge for election officials. Polling officers trekked for 24 miles (39 km) in difficult terrain to reach a single voter in Malogam, a remote village in Arunachal Pradesh near the China border, in the first phase of the 2024 elections. In a first, the ECI also facilitated home voting for voters over 85 years and for persons with disabilities in the 2024 elections. Elections also happened in 2024 for some seats in the Rajya Sabha (“Council of States”), the upper house of parliament, as part of the two-year cycle in which roughly one-third of Rajya Sabha members are replaced by newly elected members. The Lok Sabha is considered the more powerful of the two houses of parliament because it has more seats, exerts financial control, and is the house to which India’s Council of Ministers is responsible. Money bills (bills related to government expenditure, taxation, and other financial issues of the Indian government) can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha, and Lok Sabha members can pass a motion of no confidence to challenge the government’s majority. If a no-confidence motion is passed in the Lok Sabha, the government must resign. More than 968 million voters were registered by February 2, 2024. Who are they? About 497 million are men. More than 471 million are women. More than 48,000 are “third gender.” More than 18 million are age 18–19. More than 8.8 million are people living with disabilities. Source: Election Commission of India. How are Lok Sabha representatives elected? The Lok Sabha can have as many as 550 elected members, or representatives, who are elected directly by the people through universal adult suffrage. Of these 550 members, 530 represent the various Indian states, and 20 represent the union territories (UTs). Currently, the Lok Sabha has 543 seats for which elections are conducted by the ECI. One member is elected from each of the 543 constituencies into which the country is divided. The table below lists the number of constituencies in each Indian state and union territory. Some of these seats are reserved for members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Number of constituencies in Indian states and union territories state or union territory total constituencies Source: Election Commission of India. Uttar Pradesh 80 Maharashtra 48 West Bengal 42 Bihar 40 Tamil Nadu 39 Madhya Pradesh 29 Karnataka 28 Gujarat 26 Rajasthan 25 Andhra Pradesh 25 Odisha 21 Kerala 20 Telangana 17 Assam 14 Jharkhand 14 Punjab 13 Chhattisgarh 11 Haryana 10 Delhi (UT) 7 Jammu & Kashmir (UT) 5 Uttarakhand 5 Himachal Pradesh 4 Arunachal Pradesh 2 Goa 2 Manipur 2 Meghalaya 2 Tripura 2 Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (UT) 2 Mizoram 1 Nagaland 1 Puducherry (UT) 1 Sikkim 1 Andaman and Nicobar Islands (UT) 1 Chandigarh (UT) 1 Lakshadweep (UT) 1 Ladakh (UT) 1 A woman casting her vote in the 2019 elections A woman casting her vote in the 2019 electionsSimple majority, or the first-past-the-post system, decides which candidate will win a seat in a constituency. The first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, or simple majority, is used to decide which candidate will win a seat from each constituency. Voters each cast one vote to choose a candidate from their constituency. Of all the candidates contesting from a constituency, the one securing the highest number of votes wins. To be eligible to vote, a person must be an Indian citizen at least 18 years of age. Voters must be “ordinarily resident” of the polling area of the constituency where they would like to be enrolled, and they must be registered to vote: they must have a valid voter ID card. Voters go to a polling booth within their constituency to cast their vote, which is recorded using electronic voting machines. According to the ECI, non-resident Indians (NRIs)—or Indian citizens who live outside India, have not gained the citizenship of any other country, and are “otherwise eligible to be registered as a voter in the address mentioned in [their] passport”—can register to vote by submitting the required documents. Once the verification process has been completed, NRIs can vote in person at a polling station in the constituency where they are registered. There is currently no provision for NRIs to vote remotely. How is the prime minister appointed? Article 75 of the constitution of India does not lay down a specific procedure for appointing a prime minister; it states that the prime minister will be appointed by the president of India and that a minister, if not a member of parliament for any consecutive six months, will cease to be a minister after that period. Get Unlimited Access Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more. Did you know? When H.D. Deve Gowda became the prime minister of India in June 1996, the appointment was alleged to be unconstitutional because he was not a member of either house of parliament when he took office. However, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the Indian constitution allows a person to serve as prime minister (or chief minister of a state) for a period of six months regardless of membership in the parliament. The party or coalition winning majority support in the Lok Sabha elections is asked by the president of India to form the government. The majority party or coalition nominates a leader, and the president of India appoints the leader as the prime minister. If no party or coalition wins an absolute majority, the president appoints a person who is most likely to be able to secure majority support in the Lok Sabha. The prime minister heads the Council of Ministers, which is appointed by the president with the advice of the prime minister. The Council of Ministers advises the president and is collectively responsible to the Lok Sabha. The prime minister does not necessarily need to be a member of the Lok Sabha. The person may be a member of the Rajya Sabha. In fact, a candidate who is not a member of either house of the parliament may be invited by the president to be the prime minister, provided that the individual becomes a member of parliament within six months, in keeping with Article 75. 2024 Lok Sabha election schedule The Lok Sabha is dissolved every five years, unless the term is extended during an emergency. The last Lok Sabha elections were held in 2019, and the term of the house ends on June 16, 2024. A counting center in New Delhi, May 23, 2019 A counting center in New Delhi, May 23, 2019In the 2024 general election, votes will be counted on June 4. On March 16 the ECI declared the dates for the 2024 elections, after it completed checking the election readiness of India’s states and union territories. The ECI declared that polling will be held across the country, in seven phases, between April 19 and June 1, and votes will be tabulated across counting centers on June 4. Poll dates and phases phase date constituencies Source: Election Commission of India. 1 April 19, 2024 102 constituencies in 21 states 2 April 26, 2024 89 constituencies, 13 states 3 May 7, 2024 94 constituencies, 12 states 4 May 13, 2024 96 constituencies, 10 states 5 May 20, 2024 49 constituencies, 8 states 6 May 25, 2024 57 constituencies, 7 states 7 June 1, 2024 57 constituencies, 8 states Tabulation and results June 4, 2024 Key political parties and alliances (from left) Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi (from left) Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi(From left) BJP leader and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives for the Parivartan Sankalp Mahasabha, a state assembly election rally, in Jaipur, Rajasthan, September 25, 2023; Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Varanasi as a part of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, February 17, 2024. The ECI recognizes 58 state political parties and six national parties—the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP); the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP); the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI (M); the Indian National Congress; and the National People’s Party. Other than the BSP, all the national parties are part of one of the following major alliances: National Democratic Alliance (NDA) The BJP-led NDA brings together almost 40 right-leaning political parties across the country, including the National People’s Party and state parties such as the faction of Shiv Sena led by chief minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde, the Janata Dal (United), the Janata Dal (Secular), the Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal, the Asom Gana Parishad, the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party, and the Mizo National Front. BJP’s candidate list and manifesto On March 2, 2024, the BJP announced its first list of 195 candidates. It announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would contest from Varanasi, a constituency he won in the past two Lok Sabha elections. Union Home Minister Amit Shah would contest from Gandhinagar, defense minister Rajnath Singh would contest from Lucknow, and Smriti Irani would contest from Amethi, Uttar Pradesh state, where she won against Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in 2019. Many more candidate lists were released later, and there was some dissent among members of parliament who had been dropped. The BJP’s poll manifesto, titled “Modi ki Guarantee” (Modi’s Guarantee), highlighted measures that had already been implemented by the ruling BJP in its two last terms, including the free food-grain scheme implemented in 2020, the Ayushman Bharat national health protection scheme, vaccination drives for children, loans launched in 2015 for non-farm small and micro enterprises, and an increased agricultural budget over the years. The manifesto also listed the construction of the Ram Mandir and the hosting of the G20 Summit as achievements. It promised continued provision of free grains, free health treatment (with a cap), and free LPG connections to lower economic groups, among other benefits. The BJP’s promises to middle-class voters included job creation, more top-quality educational institutes, and development of sustainable cities. The manifesto also sought to attract women and young voters by listing women’s empowerment measures and ways to create high-quality educational institutes, entrepreneurial opportunities, and world-class sports facilities. Free healthcare for senior citizens was an important promise in the 2024 manifesto. Many measures were listed for farmers, fishing communities, daily wage earners, small traders, and tribal communities. Strengthening the position of India globally, its economy, manufacturing facilities, and infrastructure facilities were some other highlights of the manifesto, as were fighting terrorism and border protection. Cultural development and preservation, good governance, technological innovations, and sustainability were some of the other key themes. According to news reports, the BJP aimed to surpass the 303 seats it won in 2019. The party set a target of winning 370 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, taking the target up to 400 when considering seats it aimed to win with other NDA allies. Leadership India Today’s Mood of the Nation survey, released in early February 2024, predicted that the BJP-led NDA, with Narendra Modi at the helm, is likely to win the Lok Sabha elections for a third time with a clear majority, even though it may fall short of its target of 400 seats. The survey of more than 35,000 people in all the Lok Sabha constituencies revealed that the rise of India’s global stature, the Ram Temple construction in Ayodhya; the Modi government’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the revocation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir (the act gave Jammu and Kashmir a special status and a certain amount of autonomy), and a corruption-free image are perceived to be some defining aspects of Prime Minister Modi’s leadership. The survey also highlighted concerns over unemployment and rising prices during Modi’s tenure. Political strategist Prashant Kishor, who helped the Narendra Modi-led BJP win a majority in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, predicted in an interview with India Today’s Rajdeep Sardesai that events like the Ram Temple consecration will likely help consolidate votes rather than gain new ones. Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) formed in 2023 as an alliance of the Indian National Congress, the AAP, the CPI (M), and state parties such as Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the faction of Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray, former Maharashtra chief minister and son of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, the Samajwadi Party, and the Indian Union Muslim League. It is an opposition front set up to contest the 2024 general election and prevent the BJP from coming to power for a third consecutive term. INDIA formed after the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the former Congress-led alliance, dissolved. Congress’s seat-sharing agreements and manifesto The Congress released its first list of candidates about a month later than the BJP; and it included Rahul Gandhi for Wayanad constituency and Shashi Tharoor, a current member of parliament, for Thiruvananthapuram (both in Kerala state). The Congress selected former student leader Kanhaiya Kumar to contest from North East Delhi, and former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi to contest from Jalandhar. The Congress also managed to make some breakthroughs in seat-sharing agreements with crucial allies, including the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh state and the AAP in Delhi. Of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress contested 17, while the Samajwadi Party contested 63. For the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, the AAP contested four seats, and the Congress contested three. The AAP and Congress also announced seat-sharing deals for Haryana, Gujarat, Goa, Chandigarh, and Gujarat. The two parties, however, did not make any seat-sharing announcements for Punjab, where the ruling AAP was expected to contest all 13 Lok Sabha seats. With some of AAP’s senior leaders, including Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, mostly in judicial custody during the campaigning period over allegations of money laundering in a now-scrapped excise policy, Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal was expected to be one of AAP’s star campaigners, especially in Gujarat, Prime Minister Modi’s home state. The Congress’s election manifesto, titled “Nyay Patra” (Justice Letter), focused on social justice and equity; youth justice; women’s empowerment; and justice for farmers, fishing communities, and workers. Two of its key sections, titled “defending the constitution” and “federalism,” promised to build trust in democratic institutions and to promote a healthy relationship between the union and the states. Protecting India’s art, culture, and heritage; strengthening its economy; job creation; tax reforms; development of industry and infrastructure; rural and urban development; national and internal security; foreign policy; and environment were some of its other focus areas. Interestingly, a small section titled “north eastern states” tried to address some of the issues that have traditionally been a concern in the region, largely due to its remoteness. Leadership It is an expected part of Indian elections for the prime ministerial candidate to be proposed by a party after it has won the elections. However, after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee proposed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as INDIA’s prime ministerial candidate in December 2023, it was unclear whether Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, or someone else would be INDIA’s leader of choice. The alliance did not make any announcements, and Kharge himself brushed off the idea, saying that winning a majority is the first priority. Gandhi launched two road trips to reach out to India’s voters. The first, Bharat Jodo Yatra (“Unite India Tour”), started from Kanyakumari at the southern tip of India in September 2022 and ended in Kashmir in India’s north in January 2023. Many celebrities, army veterans, and even opposition leaders joined Gandhi during the trip. The second, Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (nyay meaning “justice”), which launched in Manipur in northeastern India in January 2024 and was set to conclude in Mumbai in western India in March 2024, has been perceived to be much less effective than the first trip. According to the event’s website, the aim of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is to address injustices “faced by the poor, labourers, farmers, women, youth, backward classes, Dalits, [tribal communities], and minorities.” This second road trip was marred by several allies and senior leaders either parting ways with the Congress or refusing to join the yatra (“tour”). Akhilesh Yadav, a key ally in the Samajwadi Party, refused to join Gandhi’s yatra until a seat-sharing agreement was reached for the 2024 elections. (Following this, the Congress arrived at a seat-sharing agreement with the party in late February 2024.) The Congress also lost a key ally in Bihar when Nitish Kumar, Bihar’s chief minister and leader of the Janata Dal (United), decided to join hands with the BJP in the midst of this yatra, in late January. Past Lok Sabha election results In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured a landslide win with 303 seats, surpassing the 282 seats it won in 2014. The combined seats won by the BJP-led NDA was 353 in 2019. In contrast, the Congress won just 52 seats in the 2019 election, and the number went up to 90 combined seats for the Congress-led UPA. Mahagathbandhan—an alliance between the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD)—and other alliances together won 99 seats in 2019. Although the UPA’s 2019 performance was better than its performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when it won just 60 seats, the improvement was not significant, and the BJP retained power during its second consecutive term in 2019. 2024 election results To win a majority and form the government at the center, a party or alliance needs to win 272 seats out of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha. In a surprising turn of events, the ruling BJP won just 240 seats and failed to secure a majority on its own in the 2024 elections, contrary to what BJP leaders and recent exit polls had predicted. However, the BJP-led NDA secured 293 seats, setting it on the path to form the federal government and to secure a third consecutive term as prime minister for Narendra Modi. The BJP will depend heavily on its allies in this third term. The 240 seats won by the BJP show a sharp decline compared with the 303 seats it won in 2019 and the 282 seats it secured in 2014. Similarly, the BJP-led NDA’s win of 293 seats in 2024 is much lower than the 353 seats it won in 2019 and the 336 seats it secured in 2014. The Congress Party, on the other hand, gained 47 seats compared with its tally in the 2019 elections. INDIA was able to form a strong opposition to the NDA, winning an unexpected 234 seats. Uttar Pradesh showed surprising results in the 2024 elections as the BJP suffered unexpected setbacks. Narendra Modi won the Varanasi seat against Ajay Rai, the Congress Party candidate, and BJP’s Rajnath Singh won from Lucknow. BJP’s Smriti Irani, however, lost the Amethi seat to Kishori Lal Sharma from the Congress. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi won the Rae Bareli seat by more than 300,000 votes. BJP’s Lallu Singh lost the Faizabad seat, which includes Ayodhya, where many thought the BJP will secure a definite victory after Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the long-promised Ram Mandir. Some exit polls predicted a big win for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh as it was a BJP stronghold in the past two elections, but the BJP managed to win just 33 of the 80 seats while the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party won a surprising 37 seats and the Congress won 6 seats. The BJP had struggled to win seats in the state of Kerala in the past but its candidate Suresh Gopi, in a first, won the Thrissur seat by over 74,000 votes. In Maharashtra, however, the BJP and its alliance suffered a setback as the Congress and its alliance secured gains in the 2024 elections. On the evening of June 4 Prime Minister Modi declared that the NDA is going to form the government for the third consecutive term and thanked the people of the country for their faith in the BJP and the NDA. In the Congress’s headquarters people celebrated the gains it made in the 2024 elections. Shabnam Dohutia India Table of Contents Introduction & Quick Facts Land People Economy Government and society Cultural life History Pre-Mughal Indian dynasties Prime ministers of India References & Edit History Facts & Stats Images, Videos & Interactives Flag of India Agra, India: Taj Mahal Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India: fort Timeline of the Indian Independence Movement Mumbai, India: Gateway of India monument Himachal Pradesh, India: Kullu Valley Himalayas Himalayas Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India: Nagin Lake For Students India summary Quizzes Flags of all countries of the world. Flags of the world. National flags. Country flags. Hompepage blog 2009, history and society, geography and travel, explore discovery The Country Quiz 7:023 Geography: Think of Something Big, globe showing Africa, Europe, and Eurasia Which Country Is Larger By Area? Quiz Flags of the world against blue sky. Countries, International. Globalization, global relations, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Poland, Palestine, Japan. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society Which Country Is Larger By Population? Quiz Flags of all nations of the world. Grouping of various country flags on a world map. Which Country Is Larger? Quiz Opened passport with visas, stamps, seals, world map. (travel, tourism) Guess the Country by Its Neighbors Quiz Related Questions What are the oldest known civilizations of India? What are the major holidays and festivals of India? Discover Venus, view of the northern hemisphere based on observations made by the Magellan spacecraft. The Maxwell Montes, Venus' highest mountain range, is the bright spot just below the center of the image. The Montes, and the dark areas above and to its left,a 5 Weird Facts About Venus Data analysis of the Super Bowl's "winningest" teams, game locations, MVP winners by position, teams with the most game losses. football, sports, infographic From Sport to Spectacle: The History of the Super Bowl Flags of the countries of the world (flagpoles). How Many Countries Are There in the World? Figure 13: A Maxim machine gun, belt-fed and water-cooled, operated by German infantrymen, World War I. 7 Deadliest Weapons in History Calendar showing the month of February Why Are There Only 28 Days in February? A mug shot taken by the regional Colombia control agency in Medellin Pablo Escobar: 8 Interesting Facts About the King of Cocaine January 21, 2019: Superbowl LIII will be played at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday, February 3, 2019 against the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. What Was the Super Bowl’s First Blockbuster Commercial? Geography & Travel Countries of the World India Also known as: Bhārat, Bhāratavarsha, Republic of India Written by , •All Fact-checked by Last Updated: Feb 5, 2025 • Article History Top Questions What countries border India? What are the oldest known civilizations of India? What are the major holidays and festivals of India? News • Modi is meeting with Trump in a visit meant to boost the US-India relationship and avoid tariffs • Feb. 13, 2025, 12:02 AM ET (AP) India, country that occupies the greater part of South Asia. It is made up of 28 states and eight union territories, and its national capital is New Delhi, built in the 20th century just south of the historic hub of Old Delhi to serve as India’s administrative center. Its government is a constitutional republic that represents a highly diverse population consisting of thousands of ethnic groups and hundreds of languages. India became the world’s most populous country in 2023, according to estimates by the United Nations. It is known from archaeological evidence that a highly sophisticated urbanized culture—the Indus civilization—dominated the northwestern part of the subcontinent from about 2600 to 2000 bce. From that period on, India functioned as a virtually self-contained political and cultural arena, which gave rise to a distinctive tradition that was associated primarily with Hinduism, the roots of which possibly can be traced to the Indus civilization. Other religions, notably Buddhism and Jainism, originated in India—though their presence there is now quite small—and throughout the centuries residents of the subcontinent developed a rich intellectual life in such fields as mathematics, astronomy, architecture, literature, music, and the fine arts. Quick Facts Flag of India See article: flag of India Audio File: National anthem of India Head Of Government: Prime Minister: Narendra Modi Capital: New Delhi Population: (2025 est.) 1,398,885,000 Currency Exchange Rate: 1 USD equals 83.492 Indian rupee Head Of State: President: Droupadi Murmu Agra, India: Taj Mahal 1 of 2 Agra, India: Taj MahalThe Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh state, India, designated a World Heritage site in 1983. Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India: fort 2 of 2 Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India: fortRajput fort overlooking (foreground) Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India, designated a World Heritage site in 2013. Throughout its history, India was intermittently disturbed by incursions from beyond its northern mountain wall. Especially important was the coming of Islam, brought from the northwest by Arab, Turkish, Persian, and other raiders beginning early in the 8th century ce. Eventually, some of those raiders stayed; by the 13th century much of the subcontinent was under Muslim rule, and the number of Muslims steadily increased. Only after the arrival of the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama in 1498 and the subsequent establishment of European maritime supremacy in the region did India become exposed to major external influences arriving by sea, a process that culminated in the decline of the ruling Muslim elite and absorption of the subcontinent within the British Empire. Direct administration by the British, which began in 1858, effected a political and economic unification of the subcontinent. As a result of the Indian Independence Movement, British rule came to an end on August 14-15, 1947, celebrated annually as Independence Day. The subcontinent was then partitioned along religious lines into two separate countries—India, with a majority of Hindus, and Pakistan, with a majority of Muslims; the eastern portion of Pakistan later split off to form Bangladesh. Many British institutions stayed in place (such as the parliamentary system of government); English continued to be a widely used lingua franca; and India remained within the Commonwealth. Hindi became the official language (and a number of other local languages achieved official status), while a vibrant English-language intelligentsia thrived. India remains one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. Apart from its many religions and sects, India is home to innumerable castes and tribes, as well as to more than a dozen major and hundreds of minor linguistic groups from several language families unrelated to one another. Religious minorities, including Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains, still account for a significant proportion of the population. Earnest attempts have been made to instill a spirit of nationhood in so varied a population, but tensions between neighboring groups have remained and at times have resulted in outbreaks of violence. Yet social legislation has done much to alleviate the disabilities previously suffered by formerly “untouchable” castes, tribal populations, women, and other traditionally disadvantaged segments of society. At independence, India was blessed with several leaders of world stature, most notably Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, who were able to galvanize the masses at home and bring prestige to India abroad. The country has played an increasing role in global affairs. Flags of the world against blue sky. Countries, International. Globalization, global relations, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Poland, Palestine, Japan. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society Britannica Quiz Which Country Is Larger By Population? Quiz Mumbai, India: Gateway of India monument Mumbai, India: Gateway of India monumentGateway of India monument near the entrance to Mumbai (Bombay) Harbour, western India, on the east coast of the Arabian Sea. Contemporary India’s increasing physical prosperity and cultural dynamism—despite continued domestic challenges and economic inequality—are seen in its well-developed infrastructure and a highly diversified industrial base, in its pool of scientific and engineering personnel (one of the largest in the world), in the pace of its agricultural expansion, and in its rich and vibrant cultural exports of music, literature, and cinema. Though the country’s population remains largely rural, India has three of the most populous and cosmopolitan cities in the world—Mumbai (Bombay), Kolkata (Calcutta), and Delhi. Three other Indian cities—Bengaluru (Bangalore), Chennai (Madras), and Hyderabad—are among the world’s fastest-growing high-technology centers, and most of the world’s major information technology and software companies now have offices in India. Get Unlimited Access Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more. The history section of the articles Pakistan and Bangladesh discuss those countries since their creation. Land Himachal Pradesh, India: Kullu Valley Himachal Pradesh, India: Kullu ValleySettlement in the Kullu Valley, central Himachal Pradesh, India. India’s frontier, which is roughly one-third coastline, abuts six countries. It is bounded to the northwest by Pakistan, to the north by Nepal, China, and Bhutan; and to the east by Myanmar (Burma). Bangladesh to the east is surrounded by India to the north, east, and west. The island country of Sri Lanka is situated some 40 miles (65 km) off the southeast coast of India across the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar. Himalayas HimalayasForested slopes of the foothills of the Himalayan mountains near Kalimpong, northern West Bengal, India. The land of India—together with Bangladesh and most of Pakistan—forms a well-defined subcontinent, set off from the rest of Asia by the imposing northern mountain rampart of the Himalayas and by adjoining mountain ranges to the west and east. In area, India ranks as the seventh largest country in the world. Much of India’s territory lies within a large peninsula, surrounded by the Arabian Sea to the west and the Bay of Bengal to the east; Cape Comorin(Kanniyakumari), the southernmost point of the Indian mainland, marks the dividing line between those two bodies of water. India has two union territories composed entirely of islands: Lakshadweep, in the Arabian Sea, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which lie between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Relief It is now generally accepted that India’s geographic position, continental outline, and basic geologic structure resulted from a process of plate tectonics—the shifting of enormous, rigid crustal plates over the Earth’s underlying layer of molten material. India’s landmass, which forms the northwestern portion of the Indian-Australian Plate, began to drift slowly northward toward the much larger Eurasian Plate several hundred million years ago (after the former broke away from the ancient southern-hemispheric supercontinent known as Gondwana, or Gondwanaland). When the two finally collided (approximately 50 million years ago), the northern edge of the Indian-Australian Plate was thrust under the Eurasian Plate at a low angle. The collision reduced the speed of the oncoming plate, but the underthrusting, or subduction, of the plate has continued into contemporary times. The effects of the collision and continued subduction are numerous and extremely complicated. An important consequence, however, was the slicing off of crustal rock from the top of the underthrusting plate. Those slices were thrown back onto the northern edge of the Indian landmass and came to form much of the Himalayan mountain system. The new mountains—together with vast amounts of sediment eroded from them—were so heavy that the Indian-Australian Plate just south of the range was forced downward, creating a zone of crustal subsidence. Continued rapid erosion of the Himalayas added to the sediment accumulation, which was subsequently carried by mountain streams to fill the subsidence zone and cause it to sink more. India’s present-day relief features have been superimposed on three basic structural units: the Himalayas in the north, the Deccan (peninsular plateau region) in the south, and the Indo-Gangetic Plain (lying over the subsidence zone) between the two. Further information on the geology of India is found in the article Asia. The Himalayas of India Himalayas HimalayasPortion of the Himalayas in Ladakh union territory, India. The Himalayas (from the Sanskrit words hima, “snow,” and alaya, “abode”), the loftiest mountain system in the world, form the northern limit of India. That great, geologically young mountain arc is about 1,550 miles (2,500 km) long, stretching from the peak of Nanga Parbat (26,660 feet [8,126 meters]) in the Pakistani-administered portion of the Kashmir region to the Namcha Barwa peak in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Between those extremes the mountains fall across India, southern Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan. The width of the system varies between 125 and 250 miles (200 and 400 km). Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India: Nagin Lake Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India: Nagin LakeHouseboats along the shore of Nagin Lake, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. Within India the Himalayas are divided into three longitudinal belts, called the Outer, Lesser, and Great Himalayas. At each extremity there is a great bend in the system’s alignment, from which a number of lower mountain ranges and hills spread out. Those in the west lie wholly within Pakistan and Afghanistan, while those to the east straddle India’s border with Myanmar (Burma). North of the Himalayas are the Plateau of Tibet and various Trans-Himalayan ranges, only a small part of which, in the Ladakh union territory (in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir), are within the territorial limits of India. Because of the continued subduction of the Indian peninsula against the Eurasian Plate, the Himalayas and the associated eastern ranges remain tectonically active. As a result, the mountains are still rising, and earthquakes—often accompanied by landslides—are common. Several since 1900 have been devastating, including one in 1934 in what is now Bihar state that killed more than 10,000 people. In 2001 another tremor (the Bhuj earthquake), farther from the mountains, in Gujarat state, was less powerful but caused extensive damage, taking the lives of more than 20,000 people and leaving more than 500,000 homeless. Still others—notably the 2005 quake in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and the 2015 temblor in Nepal—principally affected those regions but also caused widespread damage and hundreds of deaths in adjacent parts of India. The relatively high frequency and wide distribution of earthquakes likewise have generated controversies about the safety and advisability of several hydroelectric and irrigation projects. The Outer Himalayas (the Siwalik Range) The southernmost of the three mountain belts are the Outer Himalayas, also called the Siwalik (or Shiwalik) Range. Crests in the Siwaliks, averaging from 3,000 to 5,000 feet (900 to 1,500 meters) in elevation, seldom exceed 6,500 feet (2,000 meters). The range narrows as it moves east and is hardly discernible beyond the Duars, a plains region in West Bengal state. Interspersed in the Siwaliks are heavily cultivated flat valleys (duns) with a high population density. To the south of the range is the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Weakly indurated, largely deforested, and subject to heavy rain and intense erosion, the Siwaliks provide much of the sediment transported onto the plain. The Lesser Himalayas To the north of the Siwaliks and separated from them by a fault zone, the Lesser Himalayas (also called the Lower or Middle Himalayas) rise to heights ranging from 11,900 to 15,100 feet (3,600 to 4,600 meters). Their ancient name is Himachal (Sanskrit: hima, “snow,” and acal, “mountain”). The mountains are composed of both ancient crystalline and geologically young rocks, sometimes in a reversed stratigraphic sequence because of thrust faulting. The Lesser Himalayas are traversed by numerous deep gorges formed by swift-flowing streams (some of them older than the mountains themselves), which are fed by glaciers and snowfields to the north. The Great Himalayas Kanchenjunga KanchenjungaKanchenjunga, the world's third highest mountain, in the Great Himalayas on the border between Nepal and Sikkim state, India. The northernmost Great, or Higher, Himalayas (in ancient times, the Himadri), with crests generally above 16,000 feet (4,900 meters) in elevation, are composed of ancient crystalline rocks and old marine sedimentary formations. Between the Great and Lesser Himalayas are several fertile longitudinal vales; in India the largest is the Vale of Kashmir, an ancient lake basin with an area of about 1,700 square miles (4,400 square km). The Great Himalayas, ranging from 30 to 45 miles (50 to 75 km) wide, include some of the world’s highest peaks. The highest in the range, Mount Everest (at 29,035 feet [8,850 meters]; see Researcher’s Note: Height of Mount Everest), is on the China-Nepal border, but India also has many lofty peaks. Notable among those is Kanchenjunga (28,169 feet [8,586 meters]) on the border of Nepal and the state of Sikkim, which is the world’s third tallest peak and India’s highest point. Other high mountains in India include Nanda Devi (25,646 feet [7,817 meters]), Kamet (25,446 feet [7,755 meters]), and Trisul (23,359 feet [7,120]) in Uttarakhand. The Great Himalayas lie mostly above the line of perpetual snow and thus contain most of the Himalayan glaciers. Associated ranges and hills India: Ladakh mountain range India: Ladakh mountain rangeBarren mountains of Ladakh, India. In general, the various regional ranges and hills run parallel to the Himalayas’ main axis. Those are especially prominent in the northwest, where the Zaskar Range and the Ladakh and Karakoram ranges (all in India-administered Kashmir) run to the northeast of the Great Himalayas. Also in the Kashmir region is the Pir Panjal Range, which, extending along the southwest of the Great Himalayas, forms the western and southern flanks of the Vale of Kashmir. Imphal, Manipur, India: canal near Loktak Lake 1 of 2 Imphal, Manipur, India: canal near Loktak LakeBoatman on a canal south of Loktak Lake, near Imphal, Manipur, India. Shillong, Meghalaya, India: southern hillsides 2 of 2 Shillong, Meghalaya, India: southern hillsidesMorning mist and frosty hillsides south of Shillong, Meghalaya, India. At its eastern extremity, the Himalayas give way to a number of smaller ranges running northeast-southwest—including the heavily forested Patkai Range and the Naga and Mizo hills—which extend along India’s borders with Myanmar and the southeastern panhandle of Bangladesh. Within the Naga Hills, the reedy Loktak Lake, in the Manipur River valley, is an important feature. Branching off from those hills to the northwest are the Mikir Hills, and to the west are the Jaintia, Khasi, and Garo hills, which run just north of India’s border with Bangladesh. Collectively, the latter group is also designated as the Shillong (Meghalaya) Plateau. The Indo-Gangetic Plain Varanasi, India: Ganges river Varanasi, India: Ganges riverBanks of the Ganges river at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh state, India The second great structural component of India, the Indo-Gangetic Plain (also called the North Indian Plain), lies between the Himalayas and the Deccan. The plain occupies the Himalayan foredeep, formerly a seabed but now filled with river-borne alluvium to depths of up to 6,000 feet (1,800 meters). The plain stretches from the Pakistani provinces of Sindh and Punjab in the west, where it is watered by the Indus River and its tributaries, eastward to the Brahmaputra River valley in Assam state. The Ganges (Ganga) River basin (in India, mainly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states) forms the central and principal part of the plain. The eastern portion is made up of the combined delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, which, though mainly in Bangladesh, also occupies a part of the adjacent Indian state of West Bengal. That deltaic area is characterized by annual flooding attributed to intense monsoon rainfall, an exceedingly gentle gradient, and an enormous discharge that the alluvium-choked rivers cannot contain within their channels. The Indus River basin, extending west from Delhi, forms the western part of the plain; the Indian portion is mainly in the states of Haryana and Punjab. The overall gradient of the plain is virtually imperceptible, averaging only about 6 inches per mile (95 mm per km) in the Ganges basin and slightly more along the Indus and Brahmaputra. Even so, to those who till its soils, there is an important distinction between bhangar—the slightly elevated, terraced land of older alluvium—and khadar, the more fertile fresh alluvium on the low-lying floodplain. In general, the ratio of bhangar areas to those of khadar increases upstream along all major rivers. An exception to the largely monotonous relief is encountered in the southwestern portion of the plain, where there are gullied badlands centering on the Chambal River. That area was famous for harboring violent gangs of criminals called dacoits, who found shelter in its many hidden ravines till the early 2000s. Pushkar, Rajasthan, India: Hindu pilgrims Pushkar, Rajasthan, India: Hindu pilgrimsHindu pilgrims gathering at Pushkar in the Great Indian Desert (Thar Desert), Rajasthan, India. The Great Indian, or Thar, Desert forms an important southern extension of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It is mostly in northwestern India but also extends into eastern Pakistan and is mainly an area of gently undulating terrain, and within it are several areas dominated by shifting sand dunes and numerous isolated hills. The latter provide visible evidence of the fact that the thin surface deposits of the region, partially alluvial and partially wind-borne, are underlain by the much older Indian-Australian Plate, of which the hills are structurally a part. The Deccan of India The remainder of India is designated, not altogether accurately, as either the Deccan plateau or peninsular India. It is actually a topographically variegated region that extends well beyond the peninsula—that portion of the country lying between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal—and includes a substantial area to the north of the Vindhya Range, which has popularly been regarded as the divide between Hindustan (northern India) and the Deccan (from Sanskrit dakshina, “south”). Having once constituted a segment of the ancient continent of Gondwana, that land is the oldest and most geologically stable in India. The plateau is mainly between 1,000 and 2,500 feet (300 to 750 meters) above sea level, and its general slope descends toward the east. A number of the hill ranges of the Deccan have been eroded and rejuvenated several times, and only their remaining summits testify to their geologic past. The main peninsular block is composed of gneiss, granite-gneiss, schists, and granites, as well as of more geologically recent basaltic lava flows. The Western Ghats Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India: Anaimalai Hills Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu, India: Anaimalai HillsVillage in the Anaimalai Hills, Western Ghats, Tamil Nadu state, India. The Western Ghats, also called the Sahyadri, are a north-south chain of mountains or hills that mark the western edge of the Deccan plateau region. They rise abruptly from the coastal plain of the Arabian Sea as an escarpment of variable height, but their eastern slopes are much more gentle. The Western Ghats contain a series of residual plateaus and peaks separated by saddles and passes. The hill station (resort) of Mahabaleshwar, located on a laterite plateau, is one of the highest elevations in the northern half, rising to 4,700 feet (1,430 meters). The chain attains greater heights in the south, where the mountains terminate in several uplifted blocks bordered by steep slopes on all sides. Those include the Nilgiri Hills, with their highest peak, Doda Betta (8,652 feet [2,637 metres]); and the Anaimalai, Palni, and Cardamom hills, all three of which radiate from the highest peak in the Western Ghats, Anai Peak (Anai Mudi, 8,842 feet [2,695 meters]). The Western Ghats receive heavy rainfall, and several major rivers—most notably the Krishna (Kistna) and the two holy rivers, the Godavari and the Kaveri (Cauvery)—have their headwaters there. The Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a series of discontinuous low ranges running generally northeast-southwest parallel to the coast of the Bay of Bengal. The largest single sector—the remnant of an ancient mountain range that eroded and subsequently rejuvenated—is found in the Dandakaranya region between the Mahanadi and Godavari rivers. That narrow range has a central ridge, the highest peak of which is Arma Konda (5,512 feet [1,680 meters]) in northeastern Andhra Pradesh state. The hills become subdued farther southwest, where they are traversed by the Godavari River through a gorge 40 miles (65 km) long. Still farther southwest, beyond the Krishna River, the Eastern Ghats appear as a series of low ranges and hills, including the Erramala, Nallamala, Velikonda, and Palkonda. Southwest of the city of Chennai (Madras), the Eastern Ghats continue as the Javadi and Shevaroy hills, beyond which they merge with the Western Ghats. Inland regions Aravalli Range Aravalli RangeAravalli Range, northern India. The northernmost portion of the Deccan may be termed the peninsular foreland. That large ill-defined area lies between the peninsula proper to the south (roughly demarcated by the Vindhya Range) and the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Great Indian Desert (beyond the Aravalli Range) to the north. 7:023 Geography: Think of Something Big, globe showing Africa, Europe, and Eurasia Britannica Quiz Which Country Is Larger By Area? Quiz The Aravalli (or Aravali) Range runs southwest-northeast for more than 450 miles (725 km) from a highland node near Ahmadabad, Gujarat, northeast to Delhi. Those mountains are composed of ancient rocks and are divided into several parts, in one of which lies Sambhar Salt Lake. Their highest summit is Guru Peak (5,650 feet [1,722 meters]), on Mount Abu. The Aravallis form a divide between the west-flowing streams, draining into the desert or the Rann of Kachchh (Kutch), and the Chambal and its tributaries within the Ganges River catchment area. Between the Aravallis and the Vindhya Range lies the fertile, basaltic Malwa Plateau. The plateau gradually rises southward toward the hills of the Vindhya Range, which is actually a south-facing escarpment deeply eroded by short streams flowing into the valley of the Narmada River below. The escarpment appears from the south as an imposing range of mountains. The Narmada valley forms the western and principal portion of the Narmada-Son trough, a continuous depression running southwest-northeast, mostly at the base of the Vindhya Range, for about 750 miles (1,200 km). To the east of the peninsular foreland lies the mineral-rich Chota Nagpur plateau region (mostly within Jharkhand, northwestern Odisha [Orissa], and Chhattisgarh states). It is a region of numerous scarps separating areas of rolling terrain. To the southwest of the Chota Nagpur plateau is the Chhattisgarh Plain, centered in Chhattisgarh on the upper course of the Mahanadi River. Most of the inland area south of the peninsular foreland and the Chota Nagpur plateau is characterized by rolling terrain and generally low relief, within which a number of hill ranges, some of them mesalike formations, run in various directions. Occupying much of the northwestern portion of the peninsula (most of Maharashtra and some bordering areas of Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka) is the Deccan lava plateau. The mesa-like features are especially characteristic of that large fertile area, which is cut across by the Satpura, Ajanta, and Balaghat ranges. Coastal areas Most of the coast of India flanks the Eastern and Western Ghats. In the northwest, however, much of coastal Gujarat lies to the northwest of the Western Ghats, extending around the Gulf of Khambhat (Cambay) and into the salt marshes of the Kathiawar and Kachchh (Kutch) peninsulas. Those tidal marshes include the Great Rann of Kachchh along the border with Pakistan and the Little Rann of Kachchh between the two peninsulas. Because the level of the marshes rises markedly during the rainy season, the Kachchh Peninsula normally becomes an island for several months each year. The area farther south, especially the stretch from Daman to Goa (known as the Konkan coast), is indented with rias (flooded valleys) extending inland into narrow riverine plains. Those plains are dominated by low-level lateritic plateaus and are marked by alternating headlands and bays, the latter often sheltering crescent-shaped beaches. From Goa south to Cape Comorin (the southernmost tip of India) is the Malabar coastal plain, which was formed by the deposition of sediment along the shoreline. The plain, varying between 15 and 60 miles (25 to 100 km) wide, is characterized by lagoons and brackish, navigable backwater channels. The predominantly deltaic eastern coastal plain is an area of deep sedimentation. Over most of its length it is considerably wider than the plain on the western coast. The major deltas, from south to north, are of the Kaveri, the Krishna-Godavari, the Mahanadi, and the Ganges-Brahmaputra rivers. The last of those is some 190 miles (300 km) wide, but only about one-third of it lies within India. Traversed by innumerable distributaries, the Ganges delta is an ill-drained region, and the western part within Indian territory has become moribund because of shifts in the channels of the Ganges. Tidal incursions extend far inland, and any small temporary rise in sea level could submerge Kolkata (Calcutta), located about 95 miles (155 km) from the head of the Bay of Bengal. The eastern coastal plain includes several lagoons, the largest of which, Pulicat and Chilka (Chilika) lakes, have resulted from sediment being deposited along the shoreline. Islands Andaman Islands Andaman IslandsAndaman redwood on the coast of Cinque Island, south of Rutland Island, Andaman Islands. Several archipelagoes in the Indian Ocean are politically a part of India. The union territory of Lakshadweep is a group of small coral atolls in the Arabian Sea to the west of the Malabar Coast. Far off the eastern coast, separating the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, lie the considerably larger and hillier chains of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, also a union territory; the Andamans are closer to Myanmar and the Nicobars closer to Indonesia than to the Indian mainland. Drainage More than 70 percent of India’s territory drains into the Bay of Bengal via the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system and a number of large and small peninsular rivers. Areas draining into the Arabian Sea, accounting for about 20 percent of the total, lie partially within the Indus drainage basin (in northwestern India) and partially within a completely separate set of drainage basins well to the south (in Gujarat, western Madhya Pradesh, northern Maharashtra, and areas west of the Western Ghats). Most of the remaining area, less than 10 percent of the total, lies in regions of interior drainage, notably in the Great Indian Desert of Rajasthan state (another is in the Aksai Chin, a barren plateau in a portion of Kashmir administered by China but claimed by India). Finally, less than 1 percent of India’s area, along the border with Myanmar, drains into the Andaman Sea via tributaries of the Irrawaddy River. Drainage into the Bay of Bengal The Ganges-Brahmaputra river system The Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, together with their tributaries, drain about one-third of India. The Ganges (Ganga), considered sacred by the country’s Hindu population, is 1,560 miles (2,510 km) long. Although its deltaic portion lies mostly in Bangladesh, the course of the Ganges within India is longer than that of any of the country’s other rivers. It has numerous headstreams that are fed by runoff and meltwater from Himalayan glaciers and mountain peaks. The main headwater, the Bhagirathi River, rises at an elevation of about 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) at the foot of the Gangotri Glacier, considered sacred by Hindus. Varanasi, India: Manikarnika Ghat Varanasi, India: Manikarnika GhatManikarnika Ghat, a Hindu cremation site along the Ganges River in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. The Ganges enters the Indo-Gangetic Plain at the city of Haridwar (Hardwar). From Haridwar to Kolkata it is joined by numerous tributaries. Proceeding from west to east, the Ghaghara, Gandak, and Kosi rivers, all of which emerge from the Himalayas, join the Ganges from the north, while the Yamuna and Son are the two most important tributaries from the south. The Yamuna, which also has a Himalayan source (the Yamunotri glacier) and flows roughly parallel to the Ganges throughout its length, receives the flow of several important rivers, including the Chambal, Betwa, and Ken, which originate in India’s peninsular foreland. Of the northern tributaries of the Ganges, the Kosi, India’s most-destructive river (referred to as the “Sorrow of Bihar”), warrants special mention. Because of its large catchment in the Himalayas of Nepal and its gentle gradient once it reaches the plain, the Kosi is unable to discharge the large volume of water it carries at its peak flows, and it frequently floods and changes its course. The seasonal flows of the Ganges and other rivers fed by meltwaters from the Himalayas vary considerably less than those of the exclusively rain-fed peninsular rivers. That consistency of flow enhances their suitability for irrigation and—where the diversion of water for irrigation is not excessive—for navigation as well. Brahmaputra River Brahmaputra RiverThe upper course of the Brahmaputra River flows through Tibet in the Himalayas. Although the total length of the Brahmaputra (about 1,800 miles [2,900 km]) exceeds that of the Ganges, only 450 miles (725 km) of its course lies within India. The Brahmaputra, like the Indus, has its source in a trans-Himalayan area about 60 miles (100 km) southeast of Mapam Lake in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The river runs east across Tibet for more than half its total length before cutting into India at the northern border of Arunachal Pradesh state. It then flows south and west through the state of Assam and south into Bangladesh, where it empties into the vast Ganges-Brahmaputra delta. The narrow Brahmaputra basin in Assam is prone to flooding because of its large catchment areas, parts of which experience exceedingly heavy precipitation. Peninsular rivers The peninsular drainage into the Bay of Bengal includes a number of major rivers, most notably the Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, and Kaveri. Except for the Mahanadi, the headwaters of those rivers are in the high-rainfall zones of the Western Ghats, and they traverse the entire width of the plateau (generally from northwest to southeast) before reaching the Bay of Bengal. The Mahanadi has its source at the southern edge of the Chhattisgarh Plain. India’s peninsular rivers have relatively steep gradients and thus rarely give rise to floods of the type that occur in the plains of northern India, despite considerable variations in flow from the dry to wet seasons. The lower courses of a number of those rivers are marked by rapids and gorges, usually as they cross the Eastern Ghats. Because of their steep gradients, rocky underlying terrain, and variable flow regimes, the peninsular rivers are not navigable. Drainage into the Arabian Sea Indus River Indus RiverIn the upper part of its course the Indus River flows in the Himalayas of northern India. A substantial part of northwestern India is included in the Indus drainage basin, which India shares with China, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The Indus and its longest tributary, the Sutlej, both rise in the trans-Himalayan region of Tibet. The Indus initially flows to the northwest between towering mountain ranges and through Jammu and Kashmir state before entering the Pakistani-administered portion of Kashmir. It then travels generally to the southwest through Pakistan until it reaches the Arabian Sea. The Sutlej also flows northwest from its source but enters India farther south, at the border of Himachal Pradesh state. From there it travels west into the Indian state of Punjab and eventually enters Pakistan, where it flows into the Indus. Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India: Jhelum River Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India: Jhelum RiverThe Jhelum River at Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. Between the Indus and the Sutlej lie several other major Indus tributaries. The Jhelum, the northernmost of those rivers, flows out of the Pir Panjal Range into the Vale of Kashmir and thence via Baramula Gorge into Pakistani-administered Kashmir. The three others—the Chenab, Ravi, and Beas—originate in the Himalayas within Himachal Pradesh. The Chenab travels across Jammu and Kashmir before flowing into Pakistan; the Ravi forms a part of the southern boundary between Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh states and thereafter a short stretch of the India-Pakistan border prior to entering Pakistan; and the Beas flows entirely within India, joining the Sutlej in the Indian state of Punjab. The area through which the five Indus tributaries flow has traditionally been called the Punjab (from Persian panj, “five,” and āb, “water”). That area currently falls in the Indian state of Punjab (containing the Sutlej and the Beas) and the Pakistani province of Punjab. Despite low rainfall in the Punjab plains, the moderately high runoff from the Himalayas ensures a year-round flow in the Indus and its tributaries, which are extensively utilized for canal irrigation. Farther to the south, another notable river flowing into the Arabian Sea is the Luni of southern Rajasthan, which in most years has carried enough water to reach the Great Rann of Kachchh in western Gujarat. Also flowing through Gujarat is the Mahi River, as well as the two most important west-flowing rivers of peninsular India—the Narmada (drainage basin 38,200 square miles [98,900 square km]) and Tapi (Tapti; 25,000 square miles [65,000 square km]). The Narmada and its basin have undergone large-scale multipurpose development. Most of the other peninsular rivers draining into the Arabian Sea have short courses, and those that flow westward from headwaters in the Western Ghats have seasonally torrential flows. Lakes and inland drainage Jammu and Kashmir, India: Wular Lake Jammu and Kashmir, India: Wular LakeResort house on Wular Lake in the Vale of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, India. For such a large country, India has few natural lakes. Most of the lakes in the Himalayas were formed when glaciers either dug out a basin or dammed an area with earth and rocks. Wular Lake in Jammu and Kashmir, by contrast, is the result of a tectonic depression. Although its area fluctuates, Wular Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake in India. Inland drainage in India is mainly ephemeral and almost entirely in the arid and semiarid part of northwestern India, particularly in the Great Indian Desert of Rajasthan, where there are several ephemeral salt lakes—most prominently Sambhar Salt Lake, the largest lake in India. Those lakes are fed by short intermittent streams, which experience flash floods during occasional intense rains and become dry and lose their identity once the rains are over. The water in the lakes also evaporates and subsequently leaves a layer of white saline soils, from which a considerable amount of salt is commercially produced. Many of India’s largest lakes are reservoirs formed by damming rivers. Soils There is a wide range of soil types in India. As products of natural environmental processes, they can be broadly divided into two groups: in situ soils and transported soils. The in situ soils get their distinguishing features from the parent rocks, which are sieved by flowing water, sliding glaciers, and drifting wind and are deposited on landforms such as river valleys and coastal plains. The process of sieving such soils has led to deposition of materials in layers without any marked pedologic horizons, though it has altered the original chemical composition of the in situ soils. Among the in situ soils are the red-to-yellow (including laterite) and black soils known locally as regur. After those the alluvial soil is the third most-common type. Also significant are the desert soils of Rajasthan, the saline soils in Gujarat, southern Rajasthan, and some coastal areas, and the mountain soils of the Himalayas. The type of soil is determined by numerous factors, including climate, relief, elevation, and drainage, as well as by the composition of the underlying rock material. In situ soils Red-to-yellow soils Those soils are encountered over extensive nonalluvial tracts of peninsular India and are made up of such acidic rocks as granite, gneiss, and schist. They develop in areas in which rainfall leaches soluble minerals out of the ground and results in a loss of chemically basic constituents; a corresponding proportional increase in oxidized iron imparts a reddish hue to many such soils. Hence, they are commonly described as ferralitic soils. In extreme cases, the concentration of oxides of iron leads to formation of a hard crust, in which case they are described as lateritic (for later, the Latin term meaning “brick”) soils. The heavily leached red-to-yellow soils are concentrated in the high-rainfall areas of the Western Ghats, the western Kathiawar Peninsula, eastern Rajasthan, the Eastern Ghats, the Chota Nagpur plateau region, and other upland tracts of northeastern India. Less-leached red-to-yellow soils occur in areas of low rainfall immediately east of the Western Ghats in the dry interior of the Deccan. Red-to-yellow soils are usually infertile, but that problem is partly ameliorated in forested tracts, where humus concentration and the recycling of nutrients help restore fertility in the topsoil. Black soils Among the in situ soils of India, the black soils found in the lava-covered areas are the most conspicuous. Those soils are often referred to as regur but are popularly known as “black cotton soils,” since cotton has been the most common traditional crop in areas where they are found. Black soils are derivatives of trap lava and are spread mostly across interior Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh on the Deccan lava plateau and the Malwa Plateau, where there is both moderate rainfall and underlying basaltic rock. Because of their high clay content, black soils develop wide cracks during the dry season, but their iron-rich granular structure makes them resistant to wind and water erosion. They are poor in humus yet highly moisture-retentive, thus responding well to irrigation. Those soils are also found on many peripheral tracts where the underlying basalt has been shifted from its original location by fluvial processes. The sifting has only led to an increased concentration of clastic contents. Alluvial soils Alluvial soils are widespread. They occur throughout the Indo-Gangetic Plain and along the lower courses of virtually all the country’s major rivers (especially the deltas along the east coast). The nondeltaic plains along India’s coasts are also marked by narrow ribbons of alluvium. New alluvium found on much of the Indo-Gangetic floodplain is called khadar and is extremely fertile and uniform in texture; conversely, the old alluvium on the slightly elevated terraces, termed bhangar, carries patches of alkaline efflorescences, called usar, rendering some areas infertile. In the Ganges basin, sandy aquifers holding an enormous reserve of groundwater ensure irrigation and help make the plain the most agriculturally productive region of the country. Climate India provides the world’s most-pronounced example of a monsoon climate. The wet and dry seasons of the Indian monsoon system, along with the annual temperature fluctuations, produce three general climatic periods over much of the country: (1) hot wet weather from about mid-June to the end of September, (2) cool dry weather from early October to February, and (3) hot dry weather (though normally with high atmospheric humidity) from about March to mid-June. The actual duration of those periods may vary by several weeks, not only from one part of India to another but also from year to year. Regional differences, which are often considerable, result from a number of internal factors—including elevation, type of relief, and proximity to bodies of water. The monsoons A monsoon system is characterized by a seasonal reversal of prevailing wind directions and by alternating wet and dry seasons. In India the wet season, called the southwest monsoon, occurs from about mid-June to early October, when winds from the Indian Ocean carry moisture-laden air across the subcontinent, causing heavy rainfall and often considerable flooding. Usually about three-fourths of the country’s total annual precipitation falls during those months. During the driest months (called the retreating monsoon), especially from November through February, that pattern is reversed, as dry air from the Asian interior moves across India toward the ocean. October and March through May, by contrast, are typically periods of desultory breezes with no strong prevailing patterns. The southwest monsoon monsoon monsoonMonsoon clouds over Lucknow, India. Although the winds of the rainy season are called the southwest monsoon, they actually follow two generally distinct branches, one initially flowing eastward from the Arabian Sea and the other northward from the Bay of Bengal. The former begins by lashing the west coast of peninsular India and rising over the adjacent Western Ghats. When crossing those mountains, the air cools (thus losing its moisture-bearing capacity) and deposits rain copiously on the windward side of that highland barrier. Annual precipitation in parts of the region exceeds 100 inches (2,540 mm) and is as high as 245 inches (6,250 mm) at Mahabaleshwar on the crest of the Western Ghats. Conversely, as the winds descend on the leeward side of the Western Ghats, the air’s moisture-bearing capacity increases and the resultant rain shadow makes for a belt of semiarid terrain, much of it with less than 25 inches (635 mm) of precipitation per year. The Bay of Bengal branch of the monsoon sweeps across eastern India and Bangladesh and, in several areas, gives rise to rainfall in much the same way as occurs along the Western Ghats. The effect is particularly pronounced in the Shillong Plateau, where at Cherrapunji the average annual rainfall is 450 inches (11,430 mm), one of the heaviest in the world. The Brahmaputra valley to the north also experiences a rain-shadow effect; the problem is mitigated, however, by the adjacent Himalayas, which cause the winds to rise again, thereby establishing a parallel belt of heavy precipitation. Blocked by the Himalayas, the Bay of Bengal branch of the monsoon is diverted westward up the Gangetic Plain, reaching Punjab only in the first week of July. In the Gangetic Plain the two branches merge into one. By the time they reach the Punjab their moisture is largely spent. The gradual reduction in the amount of rainfall toward the west is evidenced by the decline from 64 inches (1,625 mm) at Kolkata to 26 inches (660 mm) at Delhi and to desert conditions still farther west. Over the northeastern portion of peninsular India, the two branches also intermittently collide, creating weak weather fronts with sufficient rainfall to produce patches of fairly high precipitation (more than 60 inches [1,520 mm]) in the Chota Nagpur plateau. Rainfall during the retreating monsoon Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India: oasis Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India: oasisAn oasis on the sandy plain near Mahabalipuram, southeast of Chingleput, Tamil Nadu, India. Much of India experiences infrequent and relatively feeble precipitation during the retreating monsoon. An exception to that rule occurs along the southeastern coast of India and for some distance inland. When the retreating monsoon blows from the northeast across the Bay of Bengal, it picks up a significant amount of moisture, which is subsequently released after moving back onto the peninsula. Thus, from October to December the coast of Tamil Nadu state receives at least half of its roughly 40 inches (1,000 mm) of annual precipitation. That rainy extension of the generally dry retreating monsoon is called the northeast, or winter, monsoon. Another type of winter precipitation occurs in northern India, which receives weak cyclonic storms originating in the Mediterranean basin. In the Himalayas those storms bring weeks of drizzling rain and cloudiness and are followed by waves of cold temperatures and snowfall. Jammu and Kashmir in particular receives much of its precipitation from the storms. Tropical cyclones Fierce tropical cyclones occur in India during what may be called the premonsoon, early monsoon, or postmonsoon periods. Originating in both the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, tropical cyclones often attain velocities of more than 100 miles (160 km) per hour and are notorious for causing intense rain and storm tides (surges) as they cross the coast of India. The Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal coasts are especially susceptible to such storms. Importance to agriculture Monsoons play a pivotal role in Indian agriculture, and the substantial year-to-year variability of rainfall, in both timing and quantity, introduces much uncertainty in the country’s crop yield. Good years bring bumper crops, but years of poor rain may result in total crop failure over large areas, especially where irrigation is lacking. Large-scale flooding can also cause damage to crops. As a general rule, the higher an area’s average annual precipitation, the more dependable its rainfall, but few areas of India have an average precipitation high enough to be free from the possibility of occasional drought and consequent crop failure. Temperatures Kolkata, India: rickshaw drivers Kolkata, India: rickshaw driversRickshaw drivers in Kolkata, India, resting between fares during the intense heat wave in South Asia in 2015. Temperatures in India generally are the warmest in May or June, just prior to the cooling downpours of the southwest monsoon. A secondary maximum often occurs in September or October when precipitation wanes. The temperature range tends to be significantly less along the coastal plains than in interior locations. The range also tends to increase with latitude. Near India’s southern extremity the seasonal range is no more than a few degrees; for example, at Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), in Kerala, there is an average fluctuation of just 4.3 °F (2.4 °C) around an annual mean temperature of 81 °F (27 °C). In the northwest, however, the range is much greater, as, for example, at Ambala, in Haryana, where the temperature fluctuates from 30 °F (−1 °C) in January to 118 °F (48 °C) in June. Temperatures are also moderated wherever elevations are significant, and many Himalayan resort towns, called hill stations (a legacy of British colonial rule), afford welcome relief from India’s sometimes oppressive heat. Occasionally, heat waves, such as the one that spread over much of the subcontinent in mid-2015, can be highly deadly. Plant and animal life Vegetation The flora of India largely reflect the country’s distribution of rainfall. Tropical broad-leaved evergreen and mixed, partially evergreen forests grow in areas with high precipitation; in successively less rainy areas are found moist and dry deciduous forests, scrub jungle, grassland, and desert vegetation. Coniferous forests are confined to the Himalayas. There are about 17,000 species of flowering plants in the country. The subcontinent’s physical isolation, caused by its relief and climatic barriers, has resulted in a considerable number of endemic flora. Roughly one-fourth of the country is forested. However, beginning in the late 20th century, forest depletion accelerated considerably to make room for more agriculture and urban-industrial development. That activity has taken its toll on many Indian plant species. About 20 species of higher-order plants are believed to have become extinct, and already some 1,300 species are considered to be endangered. Kerala, India: tropical vegetation Kerala, India: tropical vegetationTropical vegetation lining coastal waterways, Kerala state, southwestern India. Tropical evergreen and mixed evergreen-deciduous forests generally occupy areas with more than 80 inches (2,000 mm) of rainfall per year, mainly in upper Assam, the Western Ghats (especially in Kerala), parts of Odisha, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Common trees in those tall multistoried forests include species of Mesua, Toona ciliata, Hopea, and Eugenia, as well as gurjun (Dipterocarpus turbinatus), which grows to heights exceeding 165 feet (50 metres) on the Andaman Islands and in Assam. The mixed evergreen-deciduous forests of Kerala and the Bengal Himalayas have a large variety of commercially valuable hardwood trees, of which Lagerstroemia lanceolata, East Indian, or Malabar, kino (Pterocarpus marsupium), and rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia) are well known. Tropical moist deciduous forests generally occur in areas with 60 to 80 inches (1,500 to 2,000 mm) of rainfall, such as the northern part of the Eastern Ghats, east-central India, and western Karnataka. Dry deciduous forests, which grow in places receiving less than 60 inches (1,500 mm) of precipitation, characterize the subhumid and semiarid regions of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, eastern Rajasthan, central Andhra Pradesh, and western Tamil Nadu. Teak, sal (Shorea robusta), axle-wood (Anogeissus latifolia), tendu, ain, and Adina cardifolia are some of the major deciduous species. Tropical thorn forests occupy areas in various parts of the country, though mainly in the northern Gangetic Plain and southern peninsular India. Those forests generally grow in areas with less than 24 inches (600 mm) of rain but are also found in more humid areas, where deciduous forests have been degraded because of unregulated grazing, felling, and shifting agriculture. In those areas, such xerophytic (drought-tolerant) trees as species of acacia (babul and catechu) and Butea monosperma predominate. The important commercial species include teak and sal. Teak, the foremost timber species, is largely confined to the peninsula. During the period of British rule, it was used extensively in shipbuilding, and certain forests were therefore reserved as teak plantations. Sal is confined to the lower Himalayas, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Assam, and Madhya Pradesh. Other species with commercial uses are sandalwood (Santalum album), the fragrant wood that is perhaps the most precious in the world, and rosewood, an evergreen used for carving and furniture. Betel palm nuts Betel palm nutsCluster of betel nuts, seeds of the betel palm (Areca catechu). Many other species are noteworthy, some because of special ecological niches they occupy. Deltaic areas, for example, are fringed with mangrove forests, in which the dominant species—called sundri or sundari (Heritiera fomes), which is not, properly speaking, a mangrove—is characterized