India, the world's second most populous nation (after China) and the seventh largest in area, is located in South Asia on the Indian subcontinent. It is about 3,000 km (1,875 mi) wide and has, because of its peninsular shape, a shoreline of about 7,000 km (4,400 mi) along the Bay of Bengal on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west. The land frontier of about 5,700 km (3,600 mi) is shared with Pakistan and a small strip of Afghanistan on the west; by China (mostly Tibet), Nepal, and Bhutan on the north; and by Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma) on the east. India's eighth neighbor is the island nation of Sri Lanka, located off the southern tip of the peninsula. Northeast India is virtually isolated from the rest of the nation by Bangladesh. Also part of India are the \TLaccadive Islands\t (Lakshadweep) off the western coast and the \TAndaman\t and \TNicobar\t islands, located in the eastern portion of the Bay of Bengal. India and Bharat are both official names. The early settlers called their land "Bharat Varsha" or "Bharat," and during medieval times it was known as "Hind." The name India, which derives from the Indus River and was used by the ancient Greeks and Persians, came into wide usage during the colonial period. Indian culture is of great antiquity. The earliest Indian civilization grew up in the Indus Valley from 4000 to 2500 BC. Beginning about 1500 BC Aryan invaders entered India from the northwest and intermingled with the local Dravidian population. The foundations of Indian society, including Hinduism and the caste system, were established from these two groups. Buddhism and Jainism also began in ancient India. The culture was subject to strong Islamic influences beginning in the 11th century period and continuing under the Mogul Empire (established 1526). After 1750 the subcontinent was absorbed piecemeal into the British Empire, the local princes and rulers retaining some of their autonomy. India gained its independence from the British on Aug. 15, 1947, at which time two predominantly Muslim regions in the northwestern and northeastern corners of the subcontinent became the separate state of Pakistan. The modern country of India is a union of 22 states--\TAndhra Pradesh\t, \TAssam\t, \TBihar\t, \TGujarat\t, \THaryana\t, \THimachal Pradesh\t, Jammu and Kashmir (see \TKashmir\t), \TKarnataka\t, \TKerala\t, \TMadhya Pradesh\t, \TMaharashtra\t, \TManipur\t, \TMeghalaya\t, \TNagaland\t, \TOrissa\t, \TPunjab\t, \TRajasthan\t, \TSikkim\t, \TTamil Nadu\t, \TTripura\t, \TUttar Pradesh\t, and \TWest Bengal\t--and 9 union territories--\LGoa, Daman and Di\lu, \TPondicherry\t, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Delhi, Lakshadweep (Laccadive Islands), and Mizoram. In 1956 the map of India was largely redrawn as provisions were made for reorganization of the states along linguistic lines, with the goal of preserving regional cultures and aspirations. A policy of "democratic decentralization" provides states with a large measure of self-government. Today India ranks among the top ten industrial nations in the world. Because the huge population is growing as rapidly as the economy, however, the primarily rural population of this huge, developing nation has one of the world's lowest per-capita incomes. Despite the accompanying social and political stresses, and despite a brief period of authoritarian rule (1975-77) under Prime Minister Indira \TGandhi\t, India remains the world's most populous democracy. LAND India can be divided into three main topographic regions; the Himalayan mountain system, on the north; the Northern Plains, drained by the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra rivers in north-central India; and Peninsular India, in the south. The \THimalayas\t form parts of India's borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tibet in the west and with Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet in the east. The region is topographically complex and divided into prominent elongated valleys and mountain ranges. The highest mountains are in the \TKarakoram Range\t, where more than 30 other peaks rise above 7,300 m (24,000 ft). South of the Karakoram are the Great Himalayas, a range with extensive areas over 5,500 m (18,000 ft); sandwiched between the two major ranges is the narrow valley of the Upper Indus River. Southwest of the Great Himalayas and between them and the lower front ranges of the mountain system is the 160-km (100-mi) long Vale of Kashmir, which is located on the upper Jhelum River and focuses on the town of \TSrinagar\t. To the east, the mountains form most of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. The Northern Plains are part of a vast lowland extending across the subcontinent from Pakistan in the west to Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) in the east. The plains are bordered on the north by the foothills of the Himalayas; south of the Bramaputra basin are the Khasi Hills and Shillong Plateau; and south of the Indo-Gangetic Plain rise the uplands of Peninsular India. In India, this lowland has a length of about 1,600 km (1,000 mi) from east to west and a width of about 320 km (200 mi). It is drained in the west by the Beas and Sutlej rivers, which are tributaries of the Indus; in the east by the Brahmaputra; and in the rest of India by the Ganges and its many tributaries and distributaries. The Northern Plains are floored by alluvial deposits derived mainly from the Himalayas and deposited over the lowland by the major rivers. Peninsular India is geologically the oldest part of India. Ancient crystalline and metamorphic rocks underlie most of the region, but basaltic lavas (igneous rocks) cover parts of the \TDeccan Plateau\t. Topographically, the surface of the peninsula is tilted down toward the east and north, forming a belt of prominent uplands along the western edge. These uplands, reaching more than 2,500 m (8,200 ft), include the Western Ghats (see \TGhats\t) and the Nilgiri Hills. The northern edge of the peninsula, although lower, is also prominent and rises south of the Northern Plains to form the Aravalli Range in the west and the jungle-covered Chota Nagpur Plateau in the east. Only a very narrow coastal plain lies between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea; more extensive plains, including the deltas of the Cauveri, Krishna, Mahanadi, and Damodar rivers, line the east coast. Soils The four principal soil types in India are mountain (or immature) soils, alluvial soils, regur soils, and red soils. Mountain soils are found in upland areas too steep for regular soil development; they range in texture from sandy in the drier Aravallis to clays in the wetter Himalayas. Alluvial soils cover the broad floodplains of the Indo-Gangetic valley and the Brahmaputra basin, the smaller river valleys and deltas of the peninsula, and the coastal lowlands; these soils, ranging from sandy loams to clays, are generally fertile, but are sometimes saline when improperly irrigated. The regur soils are rich, fertile black soils found in the sections of the peninsula covered with basaltic lavas and also in some eastern and southern regions. Red soils, which cover most of the peninsula, are less fertile, as are patches of nutrient-deficient lateritic soils. Climate The Rajasthan Desert in northwestern India has a semiarid climate, but the majority of India has a tropical monsoonal climate associated with a wind reversal between summer and winter. In summer low-pressure areas develop over the subcontinent as the land heats up, and summer monsoon winds are drawn onto the land from the surrounding seas. These moisture-laden winds release heavy rainfall when they reach the coast or are forced to rise over mountains; summers (mid-June to mid-September) are accordingly wet and hot, with temperatures between 27 deg and 32 deg C (81 deg and 90 deg F). In winter high pressures build over the land; winds then blow predominantly from the land to the sea, and winter in India (mid-December to mid-March) is predominantly dry and cool, with temperatures averaging 21 deg C (70 deg F). Two transitional seasons occur before and after the summer rains. A hot and dry pre-monsoonal season lasts from mid-March to mid-June and is associated with temperatures between 38 deg and 43 deg C (100 deg and 110 deg F). A transitional post monsoonal season occurs as the monsoons retreat (mid-September to mid-December) and is associated with light and sporadic rainfall and temperatures around 25 deg C (77 deg F). Cooler, more temperate conditions prevail in the Himalayas and decrease with altitude. Precipitation ranges from almost zero in the \TThar\t desert to 10,870 mm (428 in) annually in the Shillong Plateau, which is one of the wettest places in the world. Rainfall is generally heaviest in coastal and highland areas and diminishes inland. Amounts vary widely from year to year, especially in inland areas, and dry years often cause widespread crop failures. Crop damage may also occur on a smaller scale in parts of eastern India when "nor-westers" and Bay of Bengal cyclones strike the land, most often in May and early June, in the form of tornadoes, whirlwinds, hailstorms, and heavy downpours. Drainage The principal river in India is the \TGanges\t (Ganga), which rises in the Himalayas and flows across the Northern Plains in a broad, meandering course to reach the sea at the Bay of Bengal. Most of the Ganges reaches the sea through multiple distributaries in Bangladesh; its principal distributary in India is the Hooghly River, which flows through Calcutta. The major tributaries of the Ganges are the \TBrahmaputra\t, which joins the Ganges near its mouth in Bangladesh, and the \TYamuna\t, Gogra, Gandak, and Kosi rivers. In northern India the major drainage basin is that of the \TIndus\t River; although most of this basin lies in Pakistan, the headwaters of the Indus and two of its major tributaries, the \TSutlej\t and the Beas, are partly in India and are used heavily for irrigation. The principal rivers of Peninsular India are the Chambal, Son, Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Cauveri, Narmada, and Tapi. Principal lakes include the Chilka, Kolleru, Pulicat, Lonar, Pushkar, and Wular. A coastal swamp, the Sundarban, fringes the Ganges delta. The Rann of Kutch is a saline swamp in northwestern India and southern Pakistan, off the Arabian Sea coast. The annual regime of river flow in India is controlled by climatic conditions. Rivers flowing from the Himalayas experience two high-water seasons, one in early summer caused by snow melt in the mountains, and one in late summer caused by runoff from monsoonal rains. Other rivers experience high waters only during the monsoon, followed by periods of diminished flow, when many of the smaller rivers run dry. To counteract this marked periodicity of river flow, groundwater wells and tube wells are widely used for irrigation in the Northern Plains and peninsular delta regions; and many dams have been built on the major rivers to regulate river flow and distribute water for an intricate system of irrigation canals. Vegetation and Animal Life Seven vegetation regions are found in continental India, although the natural cover has been modified by several millennia of human occupation. In the western Himalayas vegetation changes with altitude from temperate deciduous forests at low elevations through coniferous forests to Alpine vegetation above the tree line. The eastern Himalayas have more extensive deciduous forest cover. In northeastern India, east of Bangladesh, vegetation cover ranges from tropical evergreen in the wet lowlands to temperate deciduous forest in drier and cooler areas. The semiarid Punjab-Rajasthan-Gujarat region mainly supports scrub vegetation cover. In the heavily cultivated Ganges Plain, islands of deciduous trees and tuft grasses remain among the agricultural fields. The peninsular uplands support tropical monsoonal deciduous and scrub forest, while the wetter slopes of the Western Ghats support a tropical monsoonal deciduous forest, with an evergreen cover in some areas. India's fauna includes about 500 species of mammals and more than 2,000 species of birds. The elephant, Indian bison, rhinoceros, and tiger live mainly in the wet, forested regions; the Himalayan markhor (ibex) and lion live in the Gir forest. Seven national parks, 135 wild life sanctuaries, and 24 zoological parks are concerned with conservation of wildlife. Resources India has a rich and varied mineral-resource base. Coal and iron ore are abundant and located close to each other in the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the eastern peninsula. Manganese, lignite, copper, bauxite, kyanite, fire clays, mica, and limestone are found in large quantities. Petroleum occurs offshore from Bombay and in Assam and Gujarat, but is not present in large amounts. India also has vast land resources. Of the total land area, 20.5% is under forest; 41.6% is sown with crops; 7.6% is left fallow; 3.9% is in permanent pasture; and 1.5% supports permanent crops such as tea and fruit trees. Irrigation is of great importance to Indian farmers. India has the potential to irrigate 1.07 million sq km (410,000 sq mi), but only 43% of this land is currently irrigated. Canals from the major rivers provide water to 40.9% of the irrigated area; wells provide water for 40.7%; and tanks provide water to 11.4%. PEOPLE India has one of the world's most diverse populations, with most of the major races represented. Over thousands of years, countless groups have migrated into the subcontinent, and many of these groups have maintained distinctive cultures down through the ages. India's tribal peoples and the large number of later migrant groups represent a wide variety of physical types and cultural traditions. The earliest Indians may have migrated from Australia and the South Pacific islands. Most subsequent invading groups, however, entered the subcontinent through the mountain passes in the northwest. A great deal of ethnic, racial, and cultural intermingling occurred during these successive waves of migration, contributing directly to the pluralistic nature of modern Indian society. Except in the case of isolated tribal groups, linguistic and cultural practices have become far more important bases of classification than racial criteria. Languages More than 200 languages are spoken in India, and linguistic diversity provides an important key to understanding Indian civilization. Four major language groups are represented. The most important of these are the Indo-Aryan branch (see INDOIRANIAN \Tlanguages\t) of the Indo-European group (the major linguistic family of Europe) and the \TDravidian language\t group. Hindi the fourth most widely spoken language in the world, is the language of 30% of the population and the official language of India. Hindi and the other Indo-Aryan languages--including Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, and Urdu--are spoken mainly in the northern part of the country and derive their script from ancient Sanskrit, which is no longer a spoken language. The leading Dravidian languages--Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada--are spoken in four southern states. \TSino-Tibetan\t and Austro-Asiatic (see \TSoutheast Asian languages\t) languages generally survive only in small and isolated regions. India's state boundaries are drawn largely along linguistic lines, and the constitution recognizes 14 regional languages in addition to Hindi and English. English, although spoken by only about 3% of the population, remains important in government, education, and science. Religion India is the birthplace of \THinduism\t, \TBuddhism\t, \TJainism\t, and Sikhism (see \TSikhs\t). Today, it is a secular state, and its constitution guarantees religious tolerance to all groups. Hinduism's adherents constitute about 83% of the population. Another 11% are followers \TIslam\t, making India one of the four largest Muslim nations in the world. Christians and Sikhs each make up about 2% of the population, and Jains and Buddhists less than 1%. Aside from the Sikh concentration in the Punjab and \TParsis\t (who practice \TZoroastrianism\t) in the Bombay area, there is no marked regional distribution of religious groups. The Indian \Tcaste\t system, an important facet of Hinduism, is a major social system that groups people according to birth. Although caste should not be confused with class, lower caste groups do perform much of the manual labor and fill most unskilled jobs in the economy. Harijans, formerly known as \TUntouchables\t, have traditionally occupied the lowest rung of the social ladder. The Indian constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of caste and reserves special quotas in schools, the legislature, and employment for Harijans (some 15% of the population) and tribal peoples (7%), but caste consciousness remains important. Demography Preliminary results of a national census released in March 1991 show India with a population of 843,930,861, an increase of about 161 million in the past decade. India, the second most populous nation in the world after China, is expected to have more than a billion inhabitants before the end of the 20th century. Although the birthrate has stabilized, it remains high, and better health care has lowered the death rate and increased life expectancy. Most of India's people live in more than 500,000 villages where the major source of livelihood is agriculture. As a result of a British policy that encouraged migration from urban to rural areas, India is more rural today than it was during the height of the Mogul empire. During the colonial period new cities based on trade became the largest cities in India. These newer cities include, in order of population, \TCalcutta\t, \TBombay\t, \TDelhi\t, (see \TNew Delhi\t), and \TMadras\t. Other cities with populations exceeding one million are \TBangalore\t, \THyderabad\t, \TAhmadabad\t, \TKanpur\t, \TNagpur\t, and \TPoona\t (Pune). Some 2,500 towns and cities have populations exceeding 20,000. Education and Health India's literacy rate more than doubled between 1950 and 1988. As of 1991, it was given as 52.11%, up from 43.56% a decade ago. Literacy is higher among men than among women; it is also much higher in urban areas than in rural ones. Education is the responsibility of both the central and state governments, with the national government setting major policies and the states accountable for their implementation. The education system is free and open to all children through the university level. It provides for eight years of primary education, two years of lower secondary education, and two years of upper secondary education. In all but two states, education is compulsory for children aged 6 to 14, although not all children are able to take advantage of this opportunity. India's universities are generally large, with clusters of affiliated colleges. In general, the state governments provide health-care facilities and the national government sponsors and finances programs dealing with epidemic diseases and diseases resulting from traditional deficiencies. In the past two decades, major epidemic diseases such as smallpox haven been eliminated and cholera is far less widespread. Inadequate sanitation and nutrition remain major public health problems. Western medicine is practiced all over India, but advanced health care is far more available in large cities. Many Indians are still treated by indigenous traditional methods. Family planning, with an emphasis on birth control, has been encouraged by the central government since independence. After widespread public protests over forced sterilizations during 1975-1977, however, the government greatly reduced its commitment to the family-planning program. The Arts Independence has been accompanied by a vigorous promotion of the arts. In the visual arts a revival of Indian folk painting has occurred, along with new interest in the traditions of the Ajanta-Ellora, Rajasthan, Deccani, Mogul, and Kangra schools of painting. Architecture and sculpture, building on their magnificent ancient and medieval traditions in India, are finding new expressions as Western influences are combined with the old. Traditional handicrafts, like the textiles, wood- and ivory-carving, metalware, and pottery sought by 18th-century European traders, are being revived for the export market. For a historic survey of Indian arts, see \TIndian art and architecture\t. In the performing arts a vigorous strengthening of classical Hindustani and Karnatic music has occurred, and many regional dance forms, such as \Tbharata natyam\t and KATHAK, have received new recognition (see \TIndian music\t). Modern Indian theater stresses regional languages and experiments with new themes and forms; it often emphasizes the stress of modern living and the influence of Western traditions. A strong revival of folk music, dance, and drama has paralleled a rise in the popularity of Western music and dance forms, radio, and television. Perhaps the most popular art form today is motion pictures. Today India has the world's largest filmmaking industry, centered at Bombay and Madras. ECONOMIC ACTIVITY Since independence the Indian government has attempted to pursue a mixed economic policy with features of both a free market and socialist planning. Major industries such as railroads, automobile manufacturing, and banking are government run. At the same time, many consumer-goods industries and agriculture are in private hands. The center of the planned economy has been a series of five-year plans fostering state takeover of the former British colonial economic structure. Under India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal \TNehru\t, the plans stressed heavy industry, often at the expense of agriculture. Today India ranks among the top ten industrial nations of the world and has an increasingly powerful middle class (now numbering nearly 100,000,000), most of whose members live in the largest cities. Despite significant economic growth since independence, however, many of India's gains have been absorbed by the increasing population. Manufacturing and Mining Under British rule, industrial growth in India was inhibited. Since independence, however, the country has achieved near industrial self-sufficiency. Today India produces most of its own chemicals, automobiles, steel, textiles, and even computers and television sets. Steel production has more than doubled since 1960. India is self-sufficient in iron and coal but is heavily dependent on foreign oil. Power India's chief energy sources are coal (26%), petroleum (49%), and electricity (25%). Some 156 billion kw of electricity were generated in 1987, which still far short of demand. Only 65% of India's villages are electrified, and electrical outages are a common feature of big-city life. The leading sources of power are thermal and hydroelectric. The government has made a commitment to nuclear energy, which provides a little over 3% of total power production. Agriculture The majority of Indians ear their livelihood from the land, and agriculture accounts for about 35% of national income. About half of the land is arable, and two crops are normal where water and climate permit. The chief summer monsoon (kharif) crops are rice and millet. The major winter (rabi) crops are wheat and pulses. India is the world's second largest rice producer and ranks fourth in wheat production. In addition to food crops, commercial crops such as cotton, jute, sugarcane, tea, coffee, oilseeds, and tobacco are grown. India is the world's leading producer of tea and sugar. The country also has the world's largest cattle population, reflecting the revered status of the cow in Hinduism. Although Indian cattle are poor producers, they still make India the largest Asian producer of milk, butter, and hides. The so-called \Tgreen revolution\t, which introduced new seed varieties and farming techniques (including irrigation and the intensive use of fertilizers and pesticides) to increase yields, has had a major impact on Indian agriculture since 1967. Total food grain production for 1986 was 150 million metric tons (168 million U.S. tons), and India remains self-sufficient in food production despite two recent monsoon failures. Wheat production in Punjab and Haryana is the highest per hectare in the world. The effects of the green revolution in rice production have been less spectacular, partly because Indians still prefer the older rice varieties in their diet. Theoretically, landlordism has been abolished, and there are ceilings on land holdings in most states. Government attempts at land reform, however, have been largely circumvented by the entrenched and politically powerful landlord class created by the British. The traditional hereditary jajmni system, in which landless laborers exchanged their services for food and other benefits, has eroded. In addition, the major gains of he green revolution have accrued to large landowners with the capital to take advantage of the new seeds and techniques. Poorer farmers are often unable to afford costly fertilizers and lack access to irrigation systems. As village agriculture becomes increasingly mechanized, more small farmers will lose their land to join the millions of landless migrants already flocking to such cities as Calcutta, Bombay, and Delhi each year in a largely unsuccessful search for employment. Forestry and Fishing Forestry and fishing account for only about 1.3% and 0.8% of the national income, but are locally important in some states. Forests are not accessible for commercial development, and the government is currently attempting to increase the forested area to 33.3% and improve lumber output. Fishing is locally important in Kerala and in some deltaic areas. Fish production has tripled since 1947 because of mechanization, introduction of deep-sea fishing vessels, and better preservation and marketing techniques. Transportation The volume of railroad passenger and freight traffic has increased greatly since independence. Inland navigable waterways are also important avenues of transportation. Air services now reach most large cities, and government-owned Air India is a regularly scheduled international airline. Trade The government has fostered international trade and moved away from the export of agricultural commodities and raw materials associated with the colonial economy toward the export of manufactured goods. Major exports include cotton goods, iron, raw jute and jute products, coffee, electrical goods, leather, handicrafts, diamonds, and chemicals. India is now the world's largest importer of rough diamonds and exporter of gem diamonds. In recent years India has also exported engineers and technicians (especially to the Middle East) and thousands of medical doctors and nurses serving in hospitals in the United States and Great Britain. The country's major imports are machinery, petroleum, chemicals, cereals, copper, and zinc. The country's major imports include heavy machinery, petroleum, copper, and zinc. As is characteristic of most recently independent nations, India has not yet achieved a favorable balance of trade. GOVERNMENT The constitution of 1950 provides for a federal system with a parliamentary form of government. Sovereignty is shared between the central government and the states, but the national government is given far greater powers. The office of president is largely ceremonial, with real authority vested in a prime minister and council of ministers responsible to Parliament. The president, however, has constitutional authority to impose president's rule should a state government appear unable to maintain order and to declare a national state of emergency and supersede parliamentary rule. President's rule was invoked in a number of states in the 1970s and 1980s, and emergency national rule was imposed in 1975 at the urging of then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Parliament consists of two houses, the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) had the Lok Sabha (House of the People). Real power resides in the Lok Sabha, whose members are elected directly by all eligible voters and sits for 5 years unless dissolved earlier. The \TIndian National Congress\t, the party most identified with the Indian Nationalist movement, has remained in control of the central government for all but three of the years since independence. Despite two major party splits in 1969 and 1978, both led by Indira Gandhi, and many victories by various state and local parties in regional elections, the Congress party has maintained almost unbroken power on the national level. In addition, one family has provided India's prime ministers for all but 5 years between 1947 and 1989. Rising discontent with India's leadership, however, caused the Congress party to lose its parliamentary majority in the November 1989 elections. The National Front, led by V. P. Singh, formed a minority government, but resigned from office in November 1990 following a vote of no confidence in the parliament. Chandra Shekhar became India's eight prime minister on Nov. 10, 1990, but he resigned on Mar. 6, 1991. Following general elections held from May 20 to June 15, 1991, in which a plurality was won by the Congress party, P. V. Narasimha Rao became prime minister. State government resembles the federal system. The governor of each state is appointed by the president. A chief minister and council of the state hold executive authority and are responsible to an elected state legislative assembly. HISTORY SINCE 1947 The history of India as a sovereign state under its own constitutional government began on Aug. 15, 1947, when the subcontinent was partitioned into two states of India and Pakistan. Pakistan became an Islamic state, while India opted to become a secular state. The decision to partition British India and turn over power to the new nations within a period of six months left bloody turmoil in its wake. Following independence some 17 million Hindus and Muslims were uprooted and began the long march to their respective new homelands. There were at least one million casualties in the ensuing sectarian violence despite efforts to restore calm by Mahatma \TGandhi\t, the revered father of modern India. Gandhi himself was assassinated on Jan. 20, 1948, by a militant Hindu who believed him to be too kind to Muslims. Nationalist leader Jawaharlal Nehru assumed the prime ministership in 1947 and held the post until his death in 1964. The new government succeeded in integrating more than 500 princely states into the new nation and finally absorbed the last vestiges of empire in 1962 by taking over Portuguese Goa, Daman, and Diu and the French territories of Pondicherry, Karikal, Mahe, and Yanam. Nehru launched India on the path of economic self-sufficiency and won it an international role far out of proportion to its power by championing a nonaligned foreign policy that was to become the model for many newly independent nations. Territorial disputes with China escalated into a brief border war in 1962, however, and the Nehru government was unable to promote cordial relations with its new neighbor, Pakistan. The struggle for Kashmir, a northern princely state with a Hindu maharaja and a largely Muslim population, led to the first (1947-49) of several armed conflicts between the two countries (see \TIndia-Pakistan Wars\t). In addition, more than 40% of the population remained below the official poverty level. Nehru was succeeded as prime minister by Congress party leader Lal Bahadur SHASTRI. In 1966, shortly after a peace treaty ending a second war with Pakistan over Kashmir was signed, Shastri died suddenly. Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, emerged as a compromise candidate only to surprise the old-guard Congress leaders with her determined leadership. Gandhi, a strong nationalist, was somewhat more realistic than her father about the nature of Indian society and grew in popularity with the working classes and small farmers. She continued to pursue the ideals of nonalignment while moving closer to the \TUSSR\t, partly because of a 1954 U. S. decision to provide significant military assistance to Pakistan as part of cold-war strategy. Relations between India and the United States reached a low point in 1971, when India supported East Pakistan (now the independent nation of Bangladesh) in the Pakistani civil war. During Gandhi's first decade in office, agricultural production increased; India exploded (1974) its first nuclear weapon, and Sikkim became (1975) a state of India. Seemingly intractable economic and social problems contributed to the growth of Marxist-based parties (which gained control of the government of Kerala and West Bengal) and spotty support for the extreme Maoist Naxalite party. After Gandhi's reelection in 1971, opposition leaders such as Jayaprakash \TNarayan\t accused her of corruption and misgovernment, staged protest marches, and threatened civil disobedience. In June 1975, Gandhi persuaded President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to invoke a state of emergency that gave her near dictatorial powers. Opposition leaders were jailed without trial, and the courts and many constitutional freedoms were curtailed. In March 1977, Gandhi suddenly called new elections, perhaps to legitimatize the powers she had taken under the emergency. Surprisingly, a coalition of parties ranging in ideology from socialists to conservative Hindus (the Janata party) won control of the Lok Sabha. Morarji \TDesai\t, a long-time opponent of Gandhi, became prime minister. President Ahmed died that same year, and Neelam Sanjavi Reddy was elected president. The Janata party almost immediately began to break apart, and Desai resigned as prime minister in July 1979. His successor, Charan \TSingh\t, resigned in August but headed a caretaker government until January 1980, when new elections returned Gandhi to power. In 1982, Zail Singh was elected president, the first Sikh to serve in that office. His election occurred at a time when Sikhs were calling for more autonomy in Punjab and radical Sikh youths were resorting to violence in an attempt to win a separate Sikh state (Khalistan). Several years of Sikh violence culminated in the invasion of the Golden Temple at \TAmritsar\t by Indian troops in June 1984 and the assassination of Gandhi by her own Sikh bodyguards on Oct. 31, 1984. As the government tried to respond to the growing political crisis in Punjab, Gandhi's formerly apolitical older son, Rajiv \TGandhi\t, was thrust into the prime ministership. Rajiv Gandhi had an auspicious beginning as his youthful charm and enthusiasm rallied the nation; his party won the December 1984 general elections by a landslide. He also made a favorable impression on the world community and signed (1987) a peace accord with neighboring Sri Lanka in an effort to end communal violence there. Also in 1987, Ramaswami Venkataraman was elected president of India, and the country celebrated the 40th anniversary of independence. Gandhi surrounded himself with young technocrats and promised a greater role for business and industry in an expanded free market. By 1986, however, allegations of corruption involving some of his close associates were growing, and increasing cynicism about government was apparent. The Sikh separatist movement also proved intractable; violence continued even after the central government imposed harsh police measures and dismissed the elected Sikh state government in Punjab in 1987. Ethnic groups in other parts of India also called for greater autonomy. Despite the central government's acquiescence in creating the new ethnic states of Nagaland and Mizoram in the northeast and a 1988 peace accord with rebels in Tripura, demands for greater cultural and ethnic political power persisted in that area. The Gurkhas of the Darjeeling district won local autonomy in 1988. Tribal peoples in northeastern India were agitating for the creation of a new state of "Jharkaland," and their protest was having repercussions in Bihar, Orissa, and West Bengal. Citizens of Tamil Nadu also called for more autonomy, while tribal groups in Assam fought migrants from Bangladesh and an often violent economic struggle between landlords and lower castes has been building for years in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. Political parties based on "Sons of the Soil" principles are increasingly calling for economic advantages for indigenous groups, and in general the nationalistic feeling of the independence movement seemed to be eroding and giving way to communal, religious, and caste divisions. Nevertheless, most Indians continued to support the integrity of the nation and to rely on democratic means to come to grips with the issues confronting them. In the November 1989 elections, Congress lost its parliamentary majority, Gandhi resigned, and the National Front, led by V. P. \TSingh\t, formed a minority government. The coalition government was weakened by internal power struggles, and inflation and poverty persisted, as did violence by Sikh extremists in the Punjab. In regional affairs, the last Indian troops were withdrawn from Sri Lanka in March 1990, although a growing Muslim insurgency in Kashmir raised fears of renewed conflict between India and Pakistan. Singh resigned as prime minister early in November 1990, and was succeeded by Janata Dal dissident Chandra Shekhar. He resigned on Mar. 6, 1991, but was asked by India's president to continue in office until new elections could be held. The assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991, shocked the nation. When the general election results were all compiled, on June 15, the Congress party had won a plurality of votes, and party leader P. V. Narasimha Rao became prime minister on June 21. He faced the daunting tasks of restoring national unity and overhauling the troubled economy. C. H. 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