The India Office was a British government department created in 1858 to oversee the administration, through a Viceroy and other officials, of the Provinces of British India. These territories comprised most the modern-day nations of Bangladesh, Burma, India, and Pakistan, as well as Aden and other territories around the Indian Ocean. The department was headed by the Secretary of State for India, a member of the British cabinet, who was formally advised by the Council of India.

Upon the partition of British India in 1947 into the two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan, the India Office was closed down. Responsibility for the United Kingdom's relations with the two new countries was transferred to the Commonwealth Relations Office (formerly the Dominions Office).

The East India Company was established in 1600 as a joint-stock company of English merchants who received, by a series of charters, exclusive rights to English trade with the "Indies", defined as the lands lying between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan; the term "India" had been derived from the name of a river, the Indus, long important to commerce and civilization in the region. The Company soon established a network of warehouses or 'factories' throughout the south and east Indies in Asia. Over a period of 250 years the Company underwent several substantial changes in its basic character and functions.

India (ⁱ/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.

India Amanda Caroline Hicks (born 5 September 1967 in London, England) is a former fashion model, 678th in line to the line of succession to the British Throne.

The third child of Lady Pamela Mountbatten and David Nightingale Hicks, a celebrated interior designer of the 1960s and 1970s. Through her maternal grandfather, The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, she is a second cousin to The Prince of Wales, and also in line to succeed to the British throne.

Raised in London and Oxfordshire, she was educated at Gordonstoun until she was expelled for entertaining boys in her room, and spent holidays at the family estate in Ireland and at her father's self-designed and built Bahamian-holiday home. In 1981, she served as bridesmaid to Lady Diana Spencer at her wedding to the Prince.

Aged 17, she drove from England to Italy without having passed her driving test, to meet designer Emilio Pucci. On arrival, he made her model all of his catsuits. Hicks later moved to New York, and developed a career as a model in the 1980s and 1990s, working for Ralph Lauren and J. Crew, and featuring in Tatler magazine.