Post-independence India has been a place of considerable change with respect to politics, economics, and social life, much in the way the whole world has been transformed. Politically, India picked up the idea of a democratic system with a structure of parliaments. The Indian Constitution, which was put into action in 1950, identified India as a sovereign state, secular country, and democratic republic, and thus gave the citizens universal suffrage and fundamental rights. It was because of the leadership of prominent leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru that India got its democratic institutions, federalism, and a foreign policy of non-alignment.

From an economic point of view, India took a mixed economy as an ideology in which the first choice was for auto-assistance. Thanks to Nehru’s initiative, the most important companies were built; these were the public sector enterprises, and this was also the beginning of the so-called Green Revolution, in which agriculture productivity rose significantly in the 1960s and 1970s. At the same time, the 1991 economic policy reforms prepared by Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh through the liberalization of the Indian economy were crucial. The exploitation of new markets, the abolishment of some regulations, and the trafficking of foreign assets were among the measures of the reforms that brought about explosive economic development and globalization, which finally connected India with the semi-global economy.

Societally, India began a process of addressing deep-seated problems of caste, gender, and social stratification. Various legal statutes and reservations, like those for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in schools and jobs, were meant to promote the rights of marginalized communities. The educational amendments that increased literacy and access to schooling and the health initiatives that raised life expectancy and decreased mortality rates significantly were some of the achievements. Despite all the hardships, urbanization, the emergence of a middle class, and the development of technology and communication changed the social fabric of India for the better. These changes, in a cumulative way, have formed India as both a country of contrasts and a place of cultural variety.