- Capital: New Delhi
- Area: 3,287,263 sq km
- Population: 1.46 billion
- Gross domestic product: 3.913 trillion USD (2024)
- Languages: Hindi, English, plus local languages
- Life expectancy: 68 years (men), 71 years (women)
India’s vast landscape is home to some of the world’s most ancient civilizations. Defined by its multitude of cultures, peoples, languages and spiritual traditions, India has a long, diverse history. The country is home to 22 official languages, with at least 121 languages spoken across the country. Geographically, India is the seventh-largest country in the world, a major geopolitical player, and is recognized as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. In terms of population, India surpassed China as the world’s most populous nation in 2023.
The British planted their economic and trading stake in India in 1600, through the British East India Company, a private trading corporation. Economic trade turned into political control and colonization over the following centuries. The period of the British Raj, from 1858 to 1947, when the British Crown controlled all of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, is marked by racism, brutality, and political imbalance. As in other British colonies around the world, the rule of colonial India was fraught with human rights abuses born of racist ideologies.
The independence movement, led by figures like Mahatma Gandhi, emphasized non-violent resistance and culminated in the end of colonial rule in 1947. India became a sovereign nation with a democratic system and a secular constitution. However, the immediate post-colonial period was marked by severe partition violence, resulting in the forceful creation of neighbouring countries Pakistan and Bangladesh, favouring the British empire’s divisionist strategy.
A Pew Research Center report shows that India’s religious composition has been fairly stable since the 1947 post-colonial partition that divided the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. Hindus make up 79.8% of India’s population, and Muslims account for 14.2%; Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains account for most of the remaining 6%.
India is the world’s largest democracy and runs on a parliamentary system. The President is the head of state, while the Prime Minister is the head of government. Within the multi-party system, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the most prominent. Narendra Modi has been Prime Minister since 2014.
As a rising economic powerhouse and nuclear-armed state, India has recently emerged as an important regional player in global geopolitics. In 2009, India became a founding member of BRICS (together with Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa), an intergovernmental organization built to challenge the West’s global financial domination.
The Indian Constitution and other significant laws aim to guarantee essential rights for women, such as equality before the law and protection against domestic violence. An amendment to the Criminal Law Act in 2013 specifically strengthened punishment for perpetrators of rape and sexual violence after the highly publicized 2012 Nirbhaya case of a gang rape and murder in New Delhi. This case demonstrates how gender-based violence continues to hinder women’s social safety and mobility. The LGBTQ+ community in India does have protection of expression under the law, but same-sex couples cannot marry or adopt children. Furthermore, India does not have a comprehensive anti-discrimination law protecting the LGBTQ+ community, while laws continue to shift regarding the rights and recognition of transgender people.
The influence of the caste system still exists in India, in spite of having been officially abolished by the 1950 constitution. While discrimination and “untouchability” are banned, the social hierarchy based on birth still influences marriage, social customs, and occupation, particularly in rural areas. Urbanization and education have increased social and economic mobility for some lower castes, but prejudice and barriers often remain.
India Hate Lab (IHL), a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., found that hate speech against minorities jumped 74% in India in 2024, especially during the country’s national elections. Politicians like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were within the top 6 purveyors of hate speech. Muslims were overwhelmingly targeted, with 98.5% of recorded instances of hate speech directed against them. IHL comments that hate speech “frequently invoked the narrative of Muslims as ‘infiltrators,’ linked to thinly veiled allegations of all Indian Muslims as Bangladeshi migrants or Rohingya refugees.”
Indian immigration to Canada has significantly increased in recent years, with over 139,000 Indians immigrating in 2023 alone. This marks a 326% rise over a decade; in 2024, Indians were the largest group of refugee claimants. The growing Indian diaspora in Canada now represents a substantial portion of new permanent residents in the country, with 59,260 individuals settling in Canada between January and June 2025.
Racism and discrimination against Indians has a long history in Canada. The Komagata Maru ship disaster is an example emblematic of historic racist immigration policies. This ship carrying 376 Indian passengers was turned away from Vancouver in May 1914 due to racist laws preventing Asian people from immigrating to Canada, despite the passengers being British subjects. After a two-month standoff, the passengers were denied entry and the ship returned to India, where a violent confrontation with authorities resulted in multiple deaths.
Despite the positive contributions of Indian immigrants, there has been a rise in anti-Indian sentiment in Canada. Economic anxieties and cultural misconceptions – for example, around the Sikh tradition of wearing a dastar/pagg (turban) – have fueled hostility, leading to increased reports of hate crimes against South Asians. This antagonistic shift can impact South Asian immigrants’ mental health and well being.
Thank you to Melinda Quintero, VCST Project Manager, for her writing on this country profile.