1. A peninsula and subcontinent of southern Asia south of the Himalaya Mountains, occupied by India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. 2. A country of southern Asia covering most of the Indian subcontinent. Aryans from the northwest invaded c. 1500 b.c., pushing Dravidian and other peoples to the south. Most of India was unified by the emperor Asoka in the 3rd century b.c. It experienced a golden age in the 4th and 5th centuries a.d. before being invaded c. 1000 by Muslims and later by the Mongol conqueror Baber, who established the Mogul empire (1526–1857). Various European powers established trading posts in the 16th and 17th centuries, with the British assuming authority over India in 1857. In the 20th century civil unrest led by Mohandas Gandhi led to the independence of British India and its division (1947) into the separate Hindu and Muslim countries of India and Pakistan. New Delhi is the capital and Calcutta the largest city. Population: 918,570,000.
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