1974 in India

Incumbents

• President of India – V. V. Giri, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
• Prime Minister of India – Indira Gandhi
• Chief Justice of India – Ajit Nath Ray

  Governors

• Assam –
• Bihar –
• Gujarat –
• Haryana –
• Himachal Pradesh –
• Jammu and Kashmir –
• Karnataka –
• Kerala –
• Madhya Pradesh –
• Maharashtra –
• Manipur –
• Meghalaya –
• Nagaland –
• Odisha –
• Punjab –
• Rajasthan –
• Tamil Nadu –
• Telangana –
• Tripura –
• Uttar Pradesh –
• West Bengal –

  Events

• December 1973 - March 1974 – Navnirman Andolan was a socio-political movement in 1974 in Gujarat by students and middle-class against economic crisis and corruption in public life. It resulted in dissolution of the elected government of the state at that time.
• January - April - Worli riots refers to the violence that occurred in the chawl in the Worli neighborhood of Mumbai between January and April 1974.
• January - May smallpox epidemic
• March 1974 - June 1975 - Bihar Movement was a movement initiated by students in Bihar in 1974 and led by the veteran Gandhian socialist Jayaprakash Narayan, against misrule and corruption in the Government of Bihar.
• 18 May – Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon in the Thar Desert, and becomes the sixth nation to do so.
• May - 1974 railway strike in India was a major strike by the workers of Indian Railways. The strike lasted from 8 to 27 May 1974. The 20 day strike by 1.7 million workers is the largest recorded industrial action in the world.

  Births

• 1 January – Abha Dawesar, novelist.
• 9 January – Farhan Akhtar, actor.
• 10 January – Hrithik Roshan, actor.
• 7 January – Varun Badola, actor.
• 25 February – Divya Bharti, actress.
• 8 March – Fardeen Khan, actor.
• 22 April – Chetan Bhagat, novelist.
• 23 April – Shwetha Menon, actor.
• 20 May - Shiboprosad Mukherjee, film director, writer and actor.
• 28 May – Mayur Puri, screenwriter, lyricist, actor, filmmaker.
• 7 June – Mahesh Bhupathi, tennis player.
• 22 June – Joseph Vijay, actor and playback singer.
• 25 June – Karisma Kapoor, actress.
• 5 August – Kajol, actress.
• 9 August – Mahesh Babu, actor.
• 23 October – Aravind Adiga, journalist and author, 2008 Man Booker Prize winner.
• 1 November – V. V. S. Laxman, cricketer.
• 19 December – MVP, Writer & Author.

  Deaths

• 4 February – Satyendra Nath Bose, physicist.
• 11 February – Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao, Telugu Play Back Singer.
• 23 September – Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur, last Maharaja of Mysore, philosopher, musicologist, political thinker and philanthropist.
• 6 October – V. K. Krishna Menon, nationalist and politician.
• 16 October – Chembai, Carnatic music singer.
• 16 October – Edasseri Govindan Nair, poet, playwright and essayist.
• J. P. Chandrababu, comedian-actor, singer and dancer.
• Kshetresa Chandra Chattopadhyaya, scholar of Sanskrit.
• Sucheta Kriplani, freedom fighter, politician and in Uttar Pradesh, became first woman to be elected Chief Minister of a state.
• Matthew Pothen Thekaekara, scientist.