← 1975 1974 1973 1976 in India → 1977 1978 1979
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 1976 in the Republic of India.

Incumbents

• President of India – Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
• Prime Minister of India – Indira Gandhi
• Vice President of India – B.D. Jatti
• Chief Justice of India – Ajit Nath Ray

Governors

• Andhra Pradesh –
  • until 10 January: S. Obul Reddy
  • 10 January-15 June: Mohanlal Sukhadia
  • starting 15 June: Ramchandra Dhondiba Bhandare
• Assam – L. P. Singh
• Bihar – Ramchandra Dhondiba Bhandare
• Gujarat – Kambanthodath Kunhan Vishwanatham
• Haryana –
  • until 26 March: Birendra Narayan Chakraborty
  • 27 March-13 August: Ranjit Singh Narula
  • starting 13 August: Jaisukh Lal Hathi
• Himachal Pradesh – S. Chakravarti
• Jammu and Kashmir – L. K. Jha
• Karnataka – Uma Shankar Dikshit
• Kerala – N. N. Wanchoo
• Madhya Pradesh – Satya Narayan Sinha
• Maharashtra – Ali Yavar Jung (until 11 December), vacant thereafter (starting 11 December)
• Manipur – L.P. Singh
• Meghalaya – L.P. Singh
• Nagaland – L.P. Singh
• Odisha – Akbar Ali Khan (until 17 April), Shiva Narayan Shankar (starting 17 April)
• Punjab – Mahendra Mohan Choudhry
• Rajasthan – Sardar Jogendra Singh
• Sikkim – B. B. Lal
• Tamil Nadu – Kodardas Kalidas Shah (until 15 June), Mohan Lal Sukhadia (starting 15 June)
• Tripura – L. P. Singh
• Uttar Pradesh – Akbar Ali Khan
• West Bengal – Anthony Lancelot Dias

Events

• National income - ₹918,117 million
• 2 March - The Rajan case, a famous case of Police brutality during the Emergency Period. The victim, P. Rajan, a final year Engineering student at Regional Engineering College, Calicut was arrested by police, taken to Kakkayam and allegedly tortured severely which led to his death. It is believed that his body was thrown into the Kakkayam Dam.
• 16 April – A family planning initiative involves the vasectomy of thousands of men and tubal ligation of women, either for payment or under coercive conditions. (The minimum age for marriage is also raised to 21 years for men and 18 years for women.) The son of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, is largely blamed for what turned out to be a failed program.^[1] A strong backlash against any initiative associated with family planning followed the highly controversial program, which continues (in part) into the 21st century.^[2]
• 10 June – George Fernandes arrested from Calcutta during the Emergency.^[3]
• 12 October - Indian Airlines Flight 171 crashed in Bombay killing all 95 on board.
• 15 November – Subramanian Swamy was expelled from Rajya Sabha for his campaign against the Emergency in foreign countries.^[4][5]

Law

The 42nd amendment Act, 1976, was enacted during the Emergency by the Indian National Congress government headed by Indira Gandhi.

Births

January to June

• 

  5 February – Abhishek Bachchan, actor.
• 4 April – Simran Bagga, actress.
• 9 April – Rohit Gupta, writer and inventor.
• 9 April – Nithin Sathya, actor.
• 21 May – Aditi Gowitrikar, model, actress and physician.

• 

  9 June – Amisha Patel, actress.
• 5 June – Rambha, actress.
• 7 June – Pandiraj, film director.
• 29 June – Saurabh Kalia, Military officer-KARGIL HERO. (d. 1998).

July to December

• 20 July – Debashish Mohanty, cricketer.
• 12 August – Baljit Singh Saini, field hockey player.
• 3 September – Vivek Oberoi, actor
• 16 September – Meena, actress.
• 19 September – Ishaa Koppikar, actress and model.
• 27 October – Pooja Batra, actress.
• 29 October – Raghava Lawrence, actor, choreographer, director.
• 14 November – Hemang Badani, cricketer.

• 

  15 December – Baichung Bhutia, soccer player.

Deaths

• 25 January – Swami Anand, Gandhi activist and writer (b. 1887)
• 2 March - P. Rajan, college student and victim of Police brutality (b. 1954)
• 28 July – T. Nagi Reddy, communist politician (b. 1917).

• 

  27 August – Mukesh, playback singer (b. 1923).
• 2 September – Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar, writer (b. 1898).