1974 in India

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Incumbents

January to May smallpox epidemic
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.
1974 railway strike in India

1 January – Abha Dawesar, novelist.
9 January – Farhan Akhtar, actor.
10 January – Hrithik Roshan, actor.
7 January – Varun Badola, actor.
25 February – Divya Bharti, actress (died 1993).
8 March – Fardeen Khan, actor.
22 April – Chetan Bhagat, novelist.
23 April – Shwetha Menon, actor.
7 June – Mahesh Bhupathi, tennis player.
22 June – Joseph Vijay, actor and playback singer.
25 June – Karisma Kapoor, actress.
5 August – Kajol, actress.
9 August – Mahesh Babu, actor.
23 October – Aravind Adiga, journalist and author, 2008 Man Booker Prize winner.
1 November – V. V. S. Laxman, cricketer.
19 December – MVP, Writer & Author.

4 February – Satyendra Nath Bose, physicist (b. 1894).
11 February – Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao, 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).