1979 in India

• President of India – Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
• Prime Minister of India – Morarji Desai until 28 July, Charan Singh
• Vice President of India – B.D. Jatti until 30 August; Mohammad Hidayatullah
• Chief Justice of India – Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud

• Andhra Pradesh – K.C. Abraham
• Assam – L. P. Singh
• Bihar –
• until 31 January: Jagannath Kaushal
• 31 January-20 September: K.B.N. Singh
• starting 20 September: Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai
• Gujarat – Sharda Mukherjee
• Haryana – Harcharan Singh Brar (until 9 December), Surjit Singh Sandhawalia (starting 10 December)
• Himachal Pradesh – Amin ud-din Ahmad Khan
• Jammu and Kashmir – L. K. Jha
• Karnataka – Govind Narain
• Kerala – Jothi Venkatachalam
• Madhya Pradesh – C. M. Poonacha
• Maharashtra – Sri Sadiq Ali
• Manipur – L.P. Singh
• Meghalaya – L.P. Singh
• Nagaland – L.P. Singh
• Odisha – Bhagwat Dayal Sharma
• Punjab – Jaisukh Lal Hathi
• Rajasthan – Raghukul Tilak
• Sikkim – B. B. Lal
• Tamil Nadu – Prabhudas Patwari
• Tripura – L. P. Singh
• Uttar Pradesh – Ganpatrao Devji Tapase
• West Bengal – Anthony Lancelot Dias (until 6 November), Tribhuvana Narayana Singh (starting 6 November)

• National income - {{INR}}1,235,622 million
• 1 January – President of India makes official the decision to set up the Mandal Commission
• 22 January – 12 Iranian students who claimed to be members of the Iranian Islamic Students Association laid siege to the Iranian consulate at Churchgate.{{Cite web|date=30 November 2008|first=Joeanna|last=Rebello|title=Bombay's Iran hostage crisis of 1979|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/bombays-iran-hostage-crisis-of-1979/articleshow/3774422.cms|access-date=2022-01-12|website=The Times of India|language=en}}
• 31 January – The police under direction of Jyoti Basu, Chief Minister of Communist Party of India (Marxist) -led government of West Bengal, surrounds and opens fire on unarmed refugee settlement of Morichjhapi island in Sunderbans, West Bengal. (Marichjhapi massacre)
• 13 May – a tropical cyclone hits Coastal Andhra and destroys 7 lakh homes and affects 40 lakh people.{{Cite web|date=15 June 1979|first=Amarnath K.|last=Menon|title=Coastal Andhra Pradesh gets battered by cyclone, second time in less than 18 months|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19790615-coastal-andhra-pradesh-gets-battered-by-cyclone-second-time-in-less-than-18-months-822134-2014-02-27|access-date=2022-01-12|website=India Today|language=en}}
• 1 June – Vizianagaram district is formed in Andhra Pradesh.
• 27 June – CISF conflict at Bokaro
• 2 July – Athi Varadhar came out after 40 years in Varadharaja Perumal Temple, Kanchipuram.{{Cite news|last=Narasimhan|first=T.a|date=2019-06-27|title=Retrieval of Kanchi Athivaradar: a deity's tryst with history|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/retrieval-of-kanchi-athivaradar-a-deitys-tryst-with-history/article28182955.ece|access-date=2022-01-12|issn=0971-751X}}
• 3 July – A cargo ship named MV Kairali owned by Kerala Shipping Corporation went missing on its journey carrying iron ore from Mormugao to Rostock.
• 28 July – Charan Singh of Bharatiya Lok Dal, coalition partner of Janata Party became Prime Minister of India with outside support of Congress (I).{{Cite news|date=2019-12-23|title=Chaudhary Charan Singh – prime minister for 23 days and champion of India's farmers|language=en-US|work=ThePrint|url=https://theprint.in/theprint-profile/chaudhary-charan-singh-prime-minister-for-23-days-and-champion-of-indias-farmers/339598/|access-date=2022-01-12}}
• 11 August – Morvi dam burst, the worst flood disaster in independent India, happens in Gujarat, killing 1500-15000 people
• 12 October – C. H. Mohammed Koya sworn in as Chief minister of Kerala. He is the first Muslim League leader to become Chief Minister of an Indian state.{{Cite web|date=2019-11-29|title=Forty Years Ago, November 29, 1979: Kerala drama|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/forty-years-ago-november-29-1979-kerala-drama-6141736/|access-date=2022-01-12|website=The Indian Express|language=en}}
• 10 December – Mother Teresa was awarded Nobel Peace Prize at Oslo.{{Cite web|title=The Nobel Peace Prize 1979|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1979/teresa/acceptance-speech/|access-date=2022-01-12|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US}}

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• 1 January {{ndash}} Vidya Balan, actress.
• 3 January {{ndash}} Gul Panag, actress
• File:Bipasha Basu unveils Health’s latest magazine cover (3).jpg]]7 January – Bipasha Basu, actress and model.
• 16 January – Climax Lawrence, footballer
• 2 February – Shamita Shetty, actress
• 26 February – Premgi Amaren, playback singer, composer, songwriter, actor and comedian.
• 28 February – Srikanth
• 24 March – Emraan Hashmi, actor.
• 8 April – Amit Trivedi, music director, singer, film scorer
• 28 April – Sharman Joshi, actorFile:Emraan Hashmi.jpg]]
• 23 May – Divya Palat, actress.
• 10 June – D. K. Ravi, late IAS officer. (d. 2015)
• 12 June – Tottempudi Gopichand, actor.
• 18 June – A. L. Vijay, film director.
• 20 June – Renedy Singh, footballer.

• 19 July {{ndash}} Malavika, actress.
• 27 July {{ndash}} Vamshi Paidipally, film director.
• 29 July {{ndash}} Hard Kaur, rapper
• 2 August {{ndash}} Devi Sri Prasad, music composer and singer.
• 10 August {{ndash}} Shabir Ahluwalia, television actor
• 31 August – Yuvan Shankar Raja, film composer and singer.
• 1 September – Aamir Ali, actor
• 11 September – Tulip Joshi, model and actress.

File:Kamya Punjabi graces the Indian Television Academy Awards 2017 (12) (cropped).jpg]]

• 14 September – Kamya Panjabi, actress.
• 18 September – Vinay Rai, actor.
• 27 September – B Chandrakala, Indian Administrative Service officer.
• 7 October – Narain, actor.
• 23 October – Prabhas, actor.
• 4 November – Lazarus Barla, field hockey player.
• 7 November – Raima Sen, actress
• 18 November – Neeti Mohan, singer
• 20 November {{ndash}} Shalini, actress and child artist.
• 3 December {{ndash}} Konkona Sen Sharma, actress
• 14 December – Samit Basu, novelist.
• 30 December {{ndash}} Kausalya, actress.

• 9 February – Banaphool, author, playwright and poet (b. 1899).
• 19 May – Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, novelist, literary historian, essayist, critic and scholar (b. 1907).
• 18 August – Vasantrao Phulsing Naik, Politician, Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra (b. 1913)
• 3 December – Dhyan Chand, field hockey player (b. 1905).
• 8 October – Jayaprakash Narayan, political activist (b. 1902)
• 20 October – D.K.Sapru, character actor. (b. 1916).

• List of Bollywood films of 1979

{{reflist}}

{{Years in India}}

{{Year in Asia|1979}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:1979 in India}}

India

Category:Years of the 20th century in India

Category:1970s in India

Category:1979 in Asia