India
India was a large subcontinent in south Asia within the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres of Earth.
India was once made up of kingdoms called Mahajanapadas. One of the bigger Mahajanapadas was Magadha. (PROSE: Dharmayuddha)
India was later ruled by the Mughal dynasty for three centuries, before the British East India Company took over in 1756. After a major revolt in 1857, the company was abolished and the Indian Civil Service founded. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)
The Torchwood Institute had a branch in India during the British Raj. (AUDIO: Golden Age)
In 1947, the rule of the British ended, and British India was divided into India and Pakistan, for those of Hindu and Muslim faith, respectively. (TV: Demons of the Punjab) India gained dominion status that same year. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)
By 2011, eighty percent of India was Hindu. (TV: Rendition)
Government[[edit] | [edit source]]
Part of India was a monarchy during the Mughal dynasty. The ruler was an emperor. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)
As part of the British Empire, a Viceroy of India was appointed to govern the country. (AUDIO: Storm Warning) Victoria was officially the Empress of India. (TV: Tooth and Claw)
Following their independence, and the Partition of India, (TV: Demons of the Punjab) India was a democracy with a prime minister. (AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion, TV: Rendition)
For several centuries, the Scindias were one of the most influential families in India. (COMIC: The Swords of Kali)
Geography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Ancient India was made up of Mahajanapadas, one of the biggest of which was Magadha. (PROSE: Dharmayuddha) One of the provinces was called Madhya. (COMIC: The Swords of Kali)
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Pre-universe[[edit] | [edit source]]
During the Dvapara Yuga, the Pandavas fought the Kurukshetra war against the Kauravas for control of Hastinapura after Krishna and Bhima killed Jarasandha. This war weakened the Dvapara timeline to the extent that anonymous gods were able to completely reform the universe into the Kaliyuga. (PROSE: Dharmayuddha)
Prehistory[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the Cretaceous, Gondwana, which itself was once part of Pangaea along with the northern continent of Laurasia, split into India, South America, Antarctica, and Australia, whilst Laurasia began to split into what would become North America and Asia. In the Miocene, India slammed into Asia, raising the Himalayas. (PROSE: Prehistory Repeating Itself [+]Loading...["Prehistory Repeating Itself (feature)"])
Ancient times[[edit] | [edit source]]
Pythagoras travelled to India, where he was trained by the Hindu sages. (PROSE: The Pythagoras Problem)
Alexander the Great's army mutinied against him at the borders of Magadha in India. (PROSE: Dharmayuddha)
12th century[[edit] | [edit source]]
Ben Daheer's goods included embroidered fabrics from India. (TV: The Crusade)
13th century[[edit] | [edit source]]
Marco Polo once transported an entire army and its equipment from Cathay to India, all without loss. He brought the sacred tooth of Buddha in the other direction, from India to Cathay, where it became one of Kublai Khan's most valued possessions. (TV: Marco Polo)
17th century[[edit] | [edit source]]
The pirate Captain, Henry Avery, acquired treasure belonging to the Mughal of India. (TV: The Curse of the Black Spot)
18th century[[edit] | [edit source]]
After ruling for three centuries, the last emperor of the Mughal dynasty was overthrown by the British in 1756. The British East India Company ran the country and coordinated its trade. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)
Robert Clive, who committed suicide in 1774, was known as Clive of India. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Crusaders [+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Crusaders (novelisation)"])
19th century[[edit] | [edit source]]
In 1825, roads in the Madhya Province were dangerous because of dacoits and acolytes of Thuggee. (COMIC: The Swords of Kali)
In the late 1830s, the British feared that Russian expansion in Central Asia posed a threat to the Empire's rule in India. In response, British and Indian forces occupied Afghanistan in an attempt to halt Russia's expansion in the region, but this provoked resentment from the Afghans and the First Afghan War began. (PROSE: Mire and Clay)
The First Doctor visited India in 1843, where he met Siger Holmes and learned of a temple that housed a gateway to another world. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)
In 1849, the subcontinent was conquered by the British. The Koh-i-Noor diamond, which had been held by a series of Indian rulers, was presented to Queen Victoria. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac [+]Loading...["The Time Traveller's Almanac (reference book)"])
In 1857, the Indian Mutiny resulted in the abolition of the East India Company and the creation of the Indian Civil Service. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire) The First Doctor and Susan visited India during the Mutiny, at which time their lives were saved by David Warblington's father. (PROSE: The Duke's Folly)
In 1860, Major William "Bill" Chesterton, the paternal great-grandfather of the First Doctor's companion Ian Chesterton, was a member of a Hussar company in Jaipur, India. (PROSE: The Eleventh Tiger)
Some time after she established the Torchwood Institute in 1879, (TV: Tooth and Claw, The New World) Queen Victoria founded Torchwood India to collect all alien artefacts which fell within the British Raj. (AUDIO: Golden Age)
During the Second Afghan War, British troops entered Afghanistan through India. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)
In 1886, Clemency Eddison became pregnant by a Vespiform in India. The Vespiform drowned in a monsoon when the River Jumna overflowed its banks, and she returned to England to give birth to the child in secret. (TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp)
In 1887, Siger's son Sherlock Holmes accompanied the Seventh Doctor, Benny, and Ace to India to prevent Azathoth from leading an invasion through that gateway. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)
Professor George Litefoot visited India on numerous occasions prior to the 1890s. (AUDIO: Voyage to Venus)
James Skinsale served in India during his time in the army. According to him, he was there long enough to "appreciate nature" and so found Leela's appearance pleasing when he met her. Lord Palmerdale found Skinsale's anecdotes about India even more boring than those about the House of Commons, where he worked as an MP after leaving the army. (TV: Horror of Fang Rock)
20th century[[edit] | [edit source]]
As a British colony, India was brought into the First World War against Germany in 1914. (PROSE: The Time Traveller's Almanac)
In 1924, Captain Jack Harkness was sent to shut down Torchwood India and confiscate all of its artefacts. (AUDIO: Golden Age)
The Fifth Doctor materialised his TARDIS in Calcutta on 31 December 1926 with the intention of taking his companions Nyssa, Tegan Jovanka and Turlough to the second Unofficial Test match between All India and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which was played in the city on that day. The MCC won the match by four wickets. The Doctor considered it to be one of the best cricket matches of all time. (AUDIO: The Emerald Tiger)
Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart was born in India in 1930 and lived there until the age of eight. (PROSE: Blood Heat, No Future, Island of Death)
In 1946, the British Raj's failure to respond to a famine in the subcontinent led to widespread rioting. The country was immediately plunged into a religious civil war. (PROSE: Ghosts of India)
India saw the last days of British rule in 1947 when the country was divided, with Pakistan declaring its independence on 17 August. (TV: Demons of the Punjab) Winston Churchill was opposed to India leaving the British Empire. (GAME: "Looking back at Winston Churchill" [+]Part of Amy's History Hunt, Loading...{"namedpart":"Looking back at Winston Churchill","1":"Amy's History Hunt (video game)"}) This time was marked by internal strife and rioting. The Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble accidentally arrived during the unrest, and were involved in stopping a case of Zytron energy poisoning with the help of Mahatma Gandhi. (PROSE: Ghosts of India) The Thirteenth Doctor and her companions, Yaz, Graham and Ryan, were also present in India during this time. They witnessed Yaz's grandmother, Umbreen, marry her first husband, Prem, at the border of what had just become Pakistan. Shortly afterwards, Prem was killed as a result of the political upheaval during the Partition. The last of the Thijarians witnessed his death as well as many others that occurred during the Partition. (TV: Demons of the Punjab) India gained dominion status later that year. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)
People of Asian descent weren't common in 1950s rural Britain, and a time-travelling Rani Chandra confused the inhabitants of Foxgrove on 18 August 1951. Mrs King assumed she was from "the Punjab". (TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)
In the 1960s, Ram Vermas, his wife and Haresh Chandra's parents moved from India to England. They settled in Nottingham. (PROSE: Day of the Clown)
In the 1970s, a cult based around the Skang moved to Bombay; Indian Army official Major Chatterjee was UNIT's liaison officer in this operation. (PROSE: Island of Death)
Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India in 1984. As she told the Egyptian Pharaoh Erimem, Peri Brown considered her to be an effective female leader in contrast to her British counterpart and contemporary Margaret Thatcher. (AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion)
21st century[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Cybermen crossed through the Void from "Pete's World" to India in 2007. A group of Cybermen marched on the Taj Mahal, a famous Indian landmark. (TV: Army of Ghosts) Later in the same year, when the Rift opened, among many other phenomena, Jathaa sungliders appeared over the Taj Mahal. (TV: End of Days)
By 2007, H.C. Clements had an office in India. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
In 2009, former Torchwood India staff enacted a plan to return the whole world to 1924, but were stopped by Torchwood Cardiff. (AUDIO: Golden Age)
In 2009, Colonel Augustus Oduya noted India, among other places across Earth, to have witnessed every human child being compelled to suddenly stop and proclaim their message: "we are coming" at 8:40AM GMT on a Wednesday in September. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One)
By 2010, Ben Jackson and Polly Wright were running an orphanage together in India. (TV: Death of the Doctor)
In the wake of Miracle Day in 2011, the Prime Minister of India called for peace with Pakistan. (TV: Rendition)
In 2014, the Scindia family invested in the Mangalyaan Mars Orbiter Mission. (COMIC: The Swords of Kali)
On 28 May 2071, the Anglo-Indian Salvage 2 rocket was launched to clean up Earth's orbital junk. (AUDIO: Scavenger)
22nd century[[edit] | [edit source]]
In the period where Ganger clones were used in acid mining factories, the population of Gangers in India was 10 million. (TV: The Almost People)
The Daleks conquered India during their invasion of Earth in 2157. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
24th century[[edit] | [edit source]]
By 2314, the country was overpopulated and overrun by poverty and environmental chaos. (COMIC: The Swords of Kali)
In 2367, when the Silurian Ark was thought to be threatening Earth, the Indian Space Agency summoned the Eleventh Doctor to neutralise the threat. With the Doctor still aboard the ship, they ultimately fired missiles at it in an attempt to destroy the vessel before it reached Earth. The Doctor diverted the missiles towards Solomon's ship. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
The Great Catastrophe[[edit] | [edit source]]
At some point prior to the 38th century, Japan and India merged into Indo-Japan due to a tectonic realignment in the wake of the Great Catastrophe. (TV: Sleep No More)
57th Segment of Time[[edit] | [edit source]]
An Indian elephant was one of the creatures on board the Ark in circa 10,000,000. (TV: The Ark)
Parallel universe[[edit] | [edit source]]
In a parallel universe visited by the Third Doctor, India was a member of the Conclave, a super cabinet designed to ensure world peace which was composed of the leaders of Earth's five continents. (PROSE: The Face of the Enemy)
During the 2150 Dalek invasion of Earth in what the Dalek Survival Guide defined as a version of history "B" relative to the 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth of version of history "A" experienced by the First Doctor and the Time Paradox Incident of version of history "C" experienced by the Third Doctor, (PROSE: The Dalek Survival Guide [+]Loading...["[[The Dalek Survival Guide (feature)]]"]) advertisements for Air India survived in London. (TV: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. [+]Loading...["[[Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (theatrical film)]]"])
References[[edit] | [edit source]]
Clara Oswald had a travel guide to India in her collection. (TV: The Bells of Saint John)
India was among the places where Winston Churchill fought while serving in the British Army. (AUDIO: The Oncoming Storm)
Iris Wildthyme once encountered a manticore in the Indian jungle. (PROSE: Minions of the Moon)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Cast and crew that were born in India include David Garth, Barry Justice, Waris Hussein, Joanna Lumley, Zohra Sehgal, Vineeta Rishi and Ayesha Dharker.
- According to The Brilliant Book 2012, a book that contains non-narrative based information, when the world learned that the Gangers were sentient, India made all its Gangers independent.
