1953 in India

Events in the year 1953 in the Republic of India.

Incumbents

 * President of India – Rajendra Prasad
 * Prime Minister of India – Jawaharlal Nehru
 * Vice President of India - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
 * Chief Justice of India – M. Patanjali Sastri

Governors

 * Andhra Pradesh – Chandulal Madhavlal Trivedi
 * Assam – Jairamdas Daulatram
 * Bihar – R. R. Diwakar
 * Maharashtra – Raja Sir Maharaj Singh
 * Odisha – Fazal Ali
 * Punjab – Chandulal Madhavlal Trivedi (until 11 March), Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh (starting 11 March)
 * Rajasthan – Maharaj Man Singh II
 * Uttar Pradesh – Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi
 * West Bengal – Harendra Coomar Mookerjee

Events

 * National income - ₹116,067 million
 * 15 June – Indian Airlines created.
 * Air India nationalised.
 * 8 August - Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Sheikh Abdullah and his government dismissed by Sadr-e-Riyasat Karan Singh.
 * 15 September - Police firing against labourers at Mattancherry for protesting against the chappa system, an early work-guarantee scheme.
 * 1 October – Andhra State was formed carving Telugu speaking regions out of erstwhile Madras Presidency.

Law

 * Government of India sets up first Backward classes commission headed by Kaka Kalelkar.

Births

 * 7 January – K. Bhagyaraj, director, actor, script-writer and producer
 * 1 April – Hari Chand, long-distance runner
 * 8 May, Devi Prasad Shetty, top India's leading heart surgeon and social entrepreneur
 * 15 May – Varaprasad Rao Velagapalli, politician and former member of parliament from Tirupati.
 * 27 May – Ranjit Sinha, police officer (died 2021)
 * 15 June – Kambhampati Hari Babu, politician and member of parliament from Visakhapatnam.
 * 11 July – Suresh Prabhu, Politician, Railway Minister since 2014.
 * 24 July – Srividya, actress (died 2006).
 * 30 August – Avinash Balkrishna Patwardhan, engineer, author and Indian classical music researcher,
 * 8 December – Manobala, director, actor, producer and comedian.

Deaths

 * 22 November – Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, historian, biographer, littérateur and scholar of Islam (born 1884).
 * 10 December – Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Islamic scholar who translated the Qur'an into English (born 1872).