1974 in India

← 1973 1972 1971 1974 in India → 1975 1976 1977
Centuries:	18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	List of years in India Timeline of Indian history

Events in the year 1974 in the Republic of India.

• President of India – V. V. Giri (until 24 August), Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (after 24 August)
• Prime Minister of India – Indira Gandhi
• Vice President of India – Gopal Swarup Pathak until 30 August; B.D. Jatti
• Chief Justice of India – Ajit Nath Ray

• Andhra Pradesh – Khandubhai Kasanji Desai
• Assam – L. P. Singh
• Bihar – Ramchandra Dhondiba Bhandare
• Gujarat – Kambanthodath Kunhan Vishwanatham
• Haryana – Birendra Narayan Chakraborty
• Himachal Pradesh – S. Chakravarti
• Jammu and Kashmir – L. K. Jha
• Karnataka – Mohanlal Sukhadia
• Kerala – N. N. Wanchoo
• Madhya Pradesh – Satya Narayan Sinha
• Maharashtra – Ali Yavar Jung
• Manipur – L.P. Singh
• Meghalaya – L.P. Singh
• Nagaland – L.P. Singh
• Odisha –
  • until 20 August: Basappa Danappa Jatti
  • 21 August-25 October: Gati Krushna Misra
  • starting 25 October: Akbar Ali Khan
• Punjab – Mahendra Mohan Choudhry
• Rajasthan – Sardar Jogendra Singh
• Tamil Nadu – Kodardas Kalidas Shah
• Tripura – L. P. Singh
• Uttar Pradesh – Akbar Ali Khan (until 25 October), Marri Chenna Reddy (starting 25 October)
• West Bengal – Anthony Lancelot Dias

• National income - ₹793,779 million

• 3 January - A protest against 20% canteen fee hike in Lalbhai Dalpatbhai College of Engineering, Ahmedabad turns into clashes with Police and later transformed to Navnirman Andolan.^[1]
• 5 January – Worli riots occurred in the chawl in the Worli neighborhood of Mumbai. The tensions prevailed till April.
• January – May smallpox epidemic in East India.
• 19 February - Drillship Sagar Samrat struck oil at Bombay High, 160 km off the shore.^[2]
• 16 March – Navnirman Andolan (Re-construction movement) a socio-political movement started in 1973 December in Gujarat by students and middle-class against economic crisis and corruption in public life. The movement ended with the dissolution of the elected government of Chimanbhai Patel.^[3]
• 18 March – Bihar Movement started as a movement by students in Bihar led by the veteran Gandhian socialist Jayaprakash Narayan, against misrule and corruption in the Government of Bihar.
• 25 March – Gaura Devi and 27 women confronted loggers in Chamoli district in connection with Chipko movement.
• 28 March - Minister of Food and Agriculture Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed announced that Government of India has decided to scrap take over of wholesale wheat distribution.^[4]

• 8 May – A railway strike started by 1.7 million workers of Indian Railways. The strike lasted for 20 days till 27 May 1974 and was the largest recorded industrial action in the world.^[5][6]
• 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.^[7]
• 28 June - Sirima–Gandhi Pact signed to solve the statelessness of Sri Lankan Tamils.^[8][9]
• 5 July - Colaba area of Bombay registers intense rainfall of 57.5 cms in 24 hours.^[10]
• 11–17 November - 1974 Indian Open held at Bombay.

• 1 January – Abha Dawesar, novelist.
• 9 January – Farhan Akhtar, actor.
• 7 January – Varun Badola, actor.

• 

  10 January – Hrithik Roshan, actor.
• 25 February – Divya Bharti, actress (died 1993).
• 28 February – Sunil (actor), actor and comedian.
• 8 March – Fardeen Khan, actor.
• 14 March – Rohit Shetty, film director.
• 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.
• 30 May – Mohan Raja, film director.
• 7 June – Mahesh Bhupathi, tennis player.

• 

  22 June – Joseph Vijay, actor and playback singer.
• 22 June – Devayani, actress.

• 

  25 June – Karisma Kapoor, actress.
• 15 July – Neikezhakuo Kengurüse, kargil hero. (died 1999).
• 5 August – Kajol, actress.
• 9 September – Vikram Batra, Indian Army-KARGIL HERO. (died 1999).
• 25 September – AR Murugadoss, film director.
• 4 October- Subeer Sakssena- IT leader
• 23 October – Aravind Adiga, journalist and author, 2008 Man Booker Prize winner.

• 1 November – V. V. S. Laxman, cricketer.
• 9 November – Manav Gohil, television actor^[11]
• 19 December – MVP, Writer & Author.
• 21 December – Sanjiv Chaturvedi, Indian Forest Service officer.
• 25 December – Nagma, actress and politician.

• 4 February – Satyendra Nath Bose, physicist (b. 1894).
• 11 February – Ghantasala, Telugu Play Back Singer (b.1922).
• 23 September – Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur, last Maharaja of Mysore, philosopher, musicologist, political thinker and philanthropist (b. 1919).
• 6 October – V. K. Krishna Menon, nationalist and politician (b. 1897).
• 16 October – Chembai, Carnatic music singer (b. 1895).
• 16 October – Edasseri Govindan Nair, poet, playwright and essayist (b. 1906).
• J. P. Chandrababu, comedian-actor, singer and dancer (b. 1926).
• Kshetresa Chandra Chattopadhyaya, scholar of Sanskrit (b. 1896).
• Sucheta Kriplani, freedom fighter, politician and in Uttar Pradesh, became first woman to be elected Chief Minister of a state (b. 1908).
• Matthew Pothen Thekaekara, scientist (b. 1914).

• List of Bollywood films of 1974