India

India is less a single story than a civilization layered over millennia: ancient religions, empires that rose and fell, trade routes that tied it to Rome and China, and a colonial experience that reshaped the modern world. It is the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, and home to one of history’s most enduring cultural continuities—language, ritual, philosophy, and social structure surviving enormous political change. Modern India emerged from British rule not as a blank slate but as a densely historical society forced to reinvent itself under democracy, mass poverty, and staggering diversity. To understand religion, empire, nationalism, globalization, or the post-colonial world, you inevitably arrive in India—where ancient ideas coexist with nuclear weapons, space missions, and one of the world’s largest digital economies.

1. 1 India is the world’s largest democracy and soon-to-be most populous country, shaping global politics, labor markets, and technology.
2. 2 Its civilizational traditions—Hinduism, Buddhism, and South Asian philosophy—continue to influence global spirituality and ethics.
3. 3 India’s colonial experience remains central to understanding modern nationalism, identity, and post-imperial politics worldwide.
4. 4 As a rising economic and geopolitical power, India plays a pivotal role between the West, China, and the Global South.
5. 5 Internal debates over religion, secularism, caste, and inequality mirror broader global struggles over pluralism and modernity.