Claim: India is a democracy.

India , officially the Republic of India -LRB- Bhārat Gaṇarājya '' -RRB- , is a country in South Asia . It is the seventh-largest country by area , the second-most populous country -LRB- with over 1.2 billion people -RRB- , and the most populous democracy in the world . It is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south , the Arabian Sea on the southwest , and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast . It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west ; China , Nepal , and Bhutan to the northeast ; and Myanmar -LRB- Burma -RRB- and Bangladesh to the east . In the Indian Ocean , India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives . India 's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia .   The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE . In the following millennium , the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed . Social stratification , based on caste , emerged in the first millennium BCE , and Buddhism and Jainism arose . Early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires ; the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia . In the medieval era , Judaism , Zoroastrianism , Christianity , and Islam arrived , and Sikhism emerged , all adding to the region 's diverse culture . Much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate ; the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire . The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal Empire . In the mid-18th century , the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule , and in the mid-19th under British crown rule . A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century , which later , under Mahatma Gandhi , was noted for nonviolent resistance and led to India 's independence in 1947 .   In 2015 , the Indian economy was the world 's seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity . Following market-based economic reforms in 1991 , India became one of the fastest-growing major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country . However , it continues to face the challenges of poverty , corruption , malnutrition , and inadequate public healthcare . A nuclear weapons state and regional power , it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks fifth in military expenditure among nations . India is a federal republic governed under a parliamentary system and consists of 29 states and 7 union territories . It is a pluralistic , multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats .