India is the second most populous country, bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of 4,671 miles. Four major world religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here. Colonised by the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century, India became a modern nation state in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by widespread nonviolent resistance. Its history can be traced back to at least 2500BC when the first known civilisation settled along the Indus River