🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Indians

Indians are the people of India, a South Asian country that produces more milk than any other in the world. Indians are the people of India, a large South Asian country between the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean. The country is highly diverse in languages, faiths and cuisines, but milk unites almost all its regions: India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of milk. Dairy farming provides two thirds of the gross income of rural households, and milk a quarter of the country’s agricultural GDP (2026 review).

Milk here comes mainly from cows and buffaloes. According to FAOSTAT, in 2023 India produced 239 million tonnes of milk, almost a quarter of the world total: 127 million tonnes from cows, 104 million tonnes from buffaloes and 7.8 million tonnes from goats. Local breeds include the Gir and Sahiwal zebu cows and the Murrah, Surti and Mehsana dairy buffaloes (FAO).

India turns about 60% of its milk into traditional products. Dahi is a homemade curd eaten every day; whipping dahi with water gives lassi, thought to come from Punjab. Ghee is clarified butter that keeps for a long time in the heat. Paneer is a fresh cheese curdled with acid. Milk boiled down to a thick mass, khoa, is used for sweets, and kulfi is a frozen dessert made from reduced milk.

In Hinduism the cow is revered as a mother who gives people life-giving food: milk. Ghee, condensed and sour milk and cream are the basis of festive dishes, and a mixture of yoghurt, milk and ghee with honey and sugar is offered to the gods then shared among the faithful. Dairy packaging often shows a sacred cow or the cowherd god Krishna.

Today the dairy tradition sits alongside large-scale production. India also grows grapes, mostly table grapes: 3.2 million tonnes in 2024, second in the world, with vineyards covering 185 thousand hectares (OIV).

India is a great tea country too. Darjeeling tea is grown in 87 registered gardens of the Darjeeling district of West Bengal at 600–2,250 m, and the name is a protected geographical indication in the EU. The Assam form of the tea plant, Camellia assamica, also used for black tea, takes its name from the state of Assam.