← 1896 1895 1894 1897 in India → 1898 1899 1900
Centuries:	17th 18th 19th 20th 21st
Decades:	1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s
See also:	List of years in India Timeline of Indian history

Events in the year 1897 in India.

Incumbents

• Empress of India – Queen Victoria
• Viceroy of India – Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin

Events

• National income - ₹5,561 million
• The Indian famine of 1896–97 comes to a close
• Scindia School is established in Gwalior
• Frontier War of 1897–98^[1]
• Battle of Saragarhi
• 12 June – The 8.0 M_w  Assam earthquake shook northeastern India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 1,542.
• Construction of Indian education service

Law

• Epidemic Diseases Act^[2]
• General Clauses Act^[3]
• Indian Fisheries Act

Births

• 23 January – Subhas Chandra Bose, one of the leaders of the Indian independence movement (dies 1945).
• 8 February – Zakir Husain, politician and third president of India (dies 1969).
• 19 April – Peter de Noronha, businessman and civil servant (dies 1970).
• 26 April – Nitin Bose, Indian film director, cinematographer and screenwriter (dies 1986)
• 3 May – V. K. Krishna Menon, nationalist and politician (dies 1974).
• 2 November – Sohrab Modi, Indian Parsi stage and film actor, director and producer (dies 1984)
• Sahana Devi Indian singer and niece of Chittaranjan Das is born (dies 1990)

Deaths

• Abdul Ghani Saheb Saudagar, trader and business person dies (born 1843)