Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
By Yungsea
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (born April 14, 1891, Mhow, India—died December 6, 1956, New Delhi) was a leader of the Dalits (Scheduled Castes; formerly called untouchables) and law minister of the government of India (1947–51).
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar: statue
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar: statue
Born: April 14, 1891, Mhow, India
Died: December 6, 1956, New Delhi (aged 65)
Role In: Poona Pact
Born of a Dalit Mahar family of western India, he was as a boy humiliated by his high-caste schoolfellows. His father was an officer in the Indian army. Awarded a scholarship by the Gaekwar (ruler) of Baroda (now Vadodara), he studied at universities in the United States, Britain, and Germany. He entered the Baroda Public Service at the Gaekwar’s request, but, again ill-treated by his high-caste colleagues, he turned to legal practice and to teaching. He soon established his leadership among Dalits, founded several journals on their behalf, and succeeded in obtaining special representation for them in the legislative councils of the government. Contesting Mahatma Gandhi’s claim to speak for Dalits (or Harijans, as Gandhi called them), he wrote What Congress and Gandhi Have Done to the Untouchables (1945).
In 1947 Ambedkar became the law minister of the government of India. He took a leading part in the framing of the Indian constitution, outlawing discrimination against untouchables, and skillfully helped to steer it through the assembly; the adoption of the constitution on January 26, 1950, is today celebrated as Republic Day, a national holiday. He resigned in 1951, disappointed at his lack of influence in the government. In October 1956, in despair because of the perpetuation of untouchability in Hindu doctrine, he renounced Hinduism and became a Buddhist, together with about 200,000 fellow Dalits, at a ceremony in Nagpur. Ambedkar’s book The Buddha and His Dhamma appeared posthumously in 1957, and it was republished as The Buddha and His Dhamma: A Critical Edition in 2011, edited, introduced, and annotated by Aakash Singh Rathore and Ajay Verma.
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Poona Pact
India [1932]
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Article History
Poona Pact, (September 24, 1932), agreement between Hindu leaders in India granting new rights to Dalits (low-caste Hindu groups then often labeled “untouchables”). The pact, signed at Poona (now Pune, Maharashtra), resulted from the Communal Award of August 4, 1932, a proposal by the British government which would allot seats in the various legislatures of India to the different communities in an effort to resolve the various tensions between communal interests. Dalit leaders, especially Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, supported the proposal, believing it would allow Dalits to advance their interests. Mahatma Gandhi, on the other hand, objected to the provision of an electorate for the Dalits separate from the Hindu electorate, which in his view would weaken India in its bid for independence. Though in prison, Gandhi announced a fast unto death, which he began on September 18.
Date: September 24, 1932
Key People: Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar Mahatma Gandhi Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru
Ambedkar refused to abandon his support for separate electorates until Gandhi was near death. He and the Hindu leaders then agreed to the pact, which declined separate electorates but gave increased representation to the Dalits within the Hindu electorate for a 10-year period. Ambedkar complained of blackmail, but the pact marked the start of the movement against “untouchability” within the Indian nationalist movement.
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Civil rights, guarantees of equal social opportunities and equal protection under the law, regardless of race, religion, or other personal characteristics.
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Related Topics: rights of privacy freedom of information legal rights freedom of religion freedom of expression
On the Web: U.S. Departmaent of Health and Human Services – Civil Rights (June 18, 2024)
Examples of civil rights include the right to vote, the right to a fair trial, the right to government services, the right to a public education, and the right to use public facilities. Civil rights are an essential component of democracy; when individuals are being denied opportunities to participate in political society, they are being denied their civil rights. In contrast to civil liberties, which are freedoms that are secured by placing restraints on government, civil rights are secured by positive government action, often in the form of legislation. Civil rights laws attempt to guarantee full and equal citizenship for people who have traditionally been discriminated against on the basis of some group characteristic. When the enforcement of civil rights is found by many to be inadequate, a civil rights movement may emerge in order to call for equal application of the laws without discrimination. Members of the movement may also engage in identity politics.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (center), with other civil rights supporters lock arms on as they lead the way along Constitution Avenue during the March on Washington, Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.
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Unlike other rights concepts, such as human rights or natural rights, in which people acquire rights inherently, perhaps from God or nature, civil rights must be given and guaranteed by the power of the state. Therefore, they vary greatly over time, culture, and form of government and tend to follow societal trends that condone or abhor particular types of discrimination. For example, the civil rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community have only recently come to the forefront of political debate in some Western democracies.
The American civil rights movement
How Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage in the U.S.
How Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage in the U.S.
On June 12, 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Virginia law banning interracial marriage.
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Civil rights politics in the United States has its roots in the movement to end discrimination against African Americans. Though slavery was abolished and former slaves were officially granted political rights after the Civil War, in most Southern states African Americans continued to be systematically disenfranchised and excluded from public life, leading them to become perpetual second-class citizens. By the 1950s the marginalization of African Americans, often taking an extremely violent form, had spurred a social movement of epic proportions. The American civil rights movement, based mainly in African American churches and colleges of the South, involved marches, boycotts, and extensive efforts of civil disobedience, such as sit-ins, as well as voter education and voting drives. Most of these efforts were local in scope, but the impact was felt at the national level—a model of civil rights organizing that has since spread all over the globe.
Civil rights movements across the globe
In the 1960s the Roman Catholic-led civil rights movement in Northern Ireland was inspired by events in the United States. Its initial focus was fighting discriminatory gerrymandering that had been securing elections for Protestant unionists. Later, internment of Catholic activists by the British government sparked both a civil disobedience campaign and the more radical strategies of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), resulting in the violent sectarian conflict that became known as the Troubles (1968–98).
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Nelson Mandela voting in South Africa’s historic 1994 election, the first time in the country’s history that all citizens, regardless of race or ethnicity, were allowed to vote.
A high-profile civil rights movement led to the end of the South African system of racial segregation known as apartheid. The resistance movement began in the 1940s and intensified in the 1950s and ’60s, when civil rights as a concept was sweeping the globe, but it was forced underground as most of its leaders were imprisoned, and it did not regain strength until the 1980s. International pressure combined with internal upheaval led to the eventual lifting of the ban on the African National Congress, the major Black party in South Africa, and the release from prison of Nelson Mandela in 1990. Mandela later became the first Black president of South Africa, in 1994.
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Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar: statue
Statue of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar.
A more recent movement that has striking parallels to both the American civil rights movement and the South African struggle against apartheid is the civil disobedience and political activism of the Dalits in India. The Dalits—formerly known as “untouchables” and now officially designated Scheduled Castes—constitute some one-sixth of the Indian population. However, for centuries they were forced to live as second-class citizens, and many were not even considered to be a part of India’s varna system of social hierarchy. Dalit activism, including the efforts of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, led to great victories, including the election of Kocheril Raman Narayanan to the presidency. The fact that the president of India is elected by parliament, whose members come principally from the upper castes, underlines how much the mentality has changed.
In addition to these international movements, many groups in the United States have been inspired by the successes of the American civil rights movement to fight for government protections, with varying degrees of success. Most notably, women, having gained the right to vote in 1920 via constitutional amendment, also have made many gains in the area of employment rights. The women’s rights movement has thus far been stopped short of passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have codified equal rights for women in the U.S. Constitution. Since its failure to be ratified in 1982, women have seen many gains in court decisions that ruled against sex discrimination and have seen the passing of legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which established a commission designed to investigate the persistence of the “glass ceiling” that has prevented women from advancing to top management positions in the workplace.
A number of other groups were the focus of civil rights movements since the 1960s. In 1968 the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act. Latinos and Asian Americans fought for increased civil rights based on a history of discrimination over race, religion, language, and immigrant status. There were some successes in the form of provisions for bilingual education and affirmative action programs.
More recently, Arab Americans and the LGBTQ community took centre stage in the struggle to achieve equal protection and equal opportunity in American society. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Arab Americans suffered from heightened levels of discrimination and hate crimes and had to conform to government policies that restricted their liberties, as codified in the controversial USA PATRIOT Act of 2001.
same-sex marriage: U.S. demonstration
Demonstrators in favour of same-sex marriage protesting in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building, Washington, D.C., 2013.
The gay rights movement made some major gains in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some states allowed same-sex marriage, and others granted benefits to same-sex civil partnerships, but at the beginning of the 21st century the majority of the U.S. population opposed same-sex marriage. Moreover, some social conservatives in the U.S. demanded a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. By 2010, however, about half of the U.S. population supported legalization of same-sex marriage, and, in June 2015 in its decision on the Obergefell v. Hodges case, the Supreme Court ruled that state bans on same-sex marriage and on recognizing same-sex marriages duly performed in other jurisdictions were unconstitutional under the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, thereby legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states.
Almost all countries actively deny civil rights to some minority groups. Because civil rights are enforced by countries, it is difficult to establish an international standard for civil rights protection, despite the efforts of international governance bodies such as the United Nations. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948, includes civil rights language but is not binding on member states. Civil rights tend to increase as governments feel pressure, either from national movements or other countries, to enact change.
Rebecca Hamlin
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Dalit
social class, India
Also known as: Depressed Class, Harijan, Scheduled Caste, untouchable
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Who are the Satnamis, the Dalit religious community with a history of protests
Dalit, term used to refer to any member of a wide range of social groups that were historically marginalized in Hindu caste society. The official designation Scheduled Caste is the most common term now used in India for people in these groups, although members of the Scheduled Castes often prefer the term Dalit. Use of the term “untouchable” and the social disabilities associated with it were declared illegal in the constitutions adopted by India in 1949 and by Pakistan in 1953.
Officially: Scheduled Caste
Formerly: Depressed Class, Harijan, or untouchable
Key People: Jagjivan Ram Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar
Related Topics: India Mahar Chamar Sansi Koli
Scheduled Castes include a number of groups that were excluded from the structured social hierarchy imposed by adherents of caste ideology. In the 20th century some members of these groups embraced a common Dalit self-identity that reflected their shared history and experience of exclusion from caste society. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was a leading figure in the movement for Dalit consciousness and empowerment. He often challenged Mahatma Gandhi’s claim to represent Dalits during India’s independence movement (see Poona Pact [1932]). As law minister (1947–51) and chief architect of India’s constitution (promulgated January 26, 1950), he also played a formative role in the structure of India’s government after its independence.
The constitution of India formally recognized the plight of the Dalits by legally establishing their social subgroups as Scheduled Castes (a population of some 170 million in the early 21st century). Besides banning untouchability, the constitution provides these groups with specific educational and vocational privileges and grants them special representation in the Indian parliament. In support of these efforts, the Untouchability (Offenses) Act (1955) provides penalties for preventing anyone from enjoying a wide variety of religious, occupational, and social rights on the grounds that he or she is from a Scheduled Caste. Despite such measures, the traditional divisions between caste groups persist in some levels of Indian society, making full emancipation of these groups slow to come about.
Kocheril Raman Narayanan, who served as president of India from 1997 to 2002, was the first member of a Scheduled Caste to occupy a high office in the country. Ram Nath Kovind was the second president (2017–22) from a Scheduled Caste.
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The Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh state, India, designated a World Heritage site in 1983.
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Rajput fort overlooking (foreground) Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India, designated a World Heritage site in 2013.
Top Questions
What countries border India?
What are the oldest known civilizations of India?
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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.
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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.
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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. When British rule came to an end on August 14-15, 1947, celebrated annually as Independence Day, the subcontinent was 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.
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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.
Mumbai, India: Gateway of India monument
Gateway 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.
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The history section of the articles Pakistan and Bangladesh discuss those countries since their creation.
Land
Himachal Pradesh, India: Kullu Valley
Settlement 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
Forested 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
Physical features of India
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.
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India
Also known as: Bhārat, Bhāratavarsha, Republic of India
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Map of India
Agra, India: Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh state, India, designated a World Heritage site in 1983.
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India: fort
Rajput fort overlooking (foreground) Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India, designated a World Heritage site in 2013.
Top Questions
What countries border India?
What are the oldest known civilizations of India?
What are the major holidays and festivals of India?
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.
Flag of India
Country Facts
Capital, Population, Government…
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.
Recent News
June 20, 2024, 12:36 PM ET (AP)
Indian opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal granted bail after arrest in bribery case
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. When British rule came to an end on August 14-15, 1947, celebrated annually as Independence Day, the subcontinent was 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.
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
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Which Country Is Larger By Population? Quiz
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.
Mumbai, India: Gateway of India monument
Gateway 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.
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The history section of the articles Pakistan and Bangladesh discuss those countries since their creation.
Land
Himachal Pradesh, India: Kullu Valley
Settlement 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
Forested 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
Physical features of India
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.