A nuclear-armed state, it carried out tests in the 1970s and again in the 1990s in defiance of world opinion. However, India is still tackling huge social, economic and environmental problems.
The vast and diverse Indian sub-continent - from the mountainous Afghan frontier to the jungles of Burma - was under foreign rule from the early 1800s until the demise of the British Raj in 1947.
Golden Temple at Amritsar
The subsequent partition of the sub-continent - into present-day India and Pakistan - sowed the seeds for future conflict. There have been three wars between India and its arch-rival Pakistan since 1947, two of them over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
At a glance
Politics: India's is the world's largest democracy, and a multi-lingual federal state. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 2014 elections by a landslide, replacing the long-governing secularist Congress Party.
Economy: India has a fast-growing economy with large, skilled workforce, but corruption and poverty are widespread.
International: India is locked in a longstanding dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir region, and belongs to the club of nuclear weapons states. It has world's most prolific film industry - Bollywood.
Country profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring
Special Report: India Direct
A peace process, which started in 2004, stayed on track despite tension over Kashmir and several high-profile bombings until the Mumbai attacks of November 2008, carried out by Islamist militants overwhelmingly from Pakistan and organised by the Pakistani movement Lashkar-e-Taiba. India announced that the process was on pause the following month.