← 1971 1970 1969 1972 in India → 1973 1974 1975
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 1972 in the Republic of India.

Incumbents

• President of India – V. V. Giri
• Prime Minister of India – Indira Gandhi
• Vice President of India – Gopal Swarup Pathak
• Chief Justice of India – Sarv Mittra Sikri

Governors

• Andhra Pradesh – Khandubhai Kasanji Desai
• Assam – Braj Kumar Nehru
• Bihar – Dev Kant Baruah
• Gujarat – Shriman Narayan
• Haryana – Birendra Narayan Chakraborty
• Himachal Pradesh – S. Chakravarti
• Jammu and Kashmir – Bhagwan Sahay
• Karnataka – Dharma Vira (until 1 February), Mohanlal Sukhadia (starting 1 February)
• Kerala – V. Viswanathan
• Madhya Pradesh – Satya Narayan Sinha
• Maharashtra – Ali Yavar Jung
• Manipur – B. K. Nehru (starting 21 January)
• Meghalaya – B.K. Nehru
• Nagaland – B.K. Nehru
• Odisha –
  • until 30 June: Shaukatullah Shah Ansari
  • 1 July-8 November: Sardar Yojendra Singh
  • starting 8 November: Basappa Danappa Jatti
• Punjab – Dadappa Chintappa Pavate
• Rajasthan – Sardar Hukam Singh (until 1 July), Sardar Jogendra Singh (starting 1 July)
• Tamil Nadu – Kodardas Kalidas Shah
• Tripura – B. K. Nehru
• Uttar Pradesh –
  • until 30 June: Bezawada Gopala Reddy
  • 1 July-13 November: Shashi Kant Varma
  • starting 14 November: Akbar Ali Khan
• West Bengal – Anthony Lancelot Dias

Events

• National income - ₹552,453 million

January - June

• 21 January – Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya gets statehood.
• 19 March – India and Bangladesh sign a friendship treaty, after the withdrawal of the Indian troops.
• 14 June - Japan Air Lines Flight 471 crashed at Palam, Delhi killing 82 of the 87 on board.
• 26 June - Reserve Bank of India fixes buying and selling rates of Pound sterling with Indian rupee at £5.2910 and £5.2632 per Rs. 100 following the Government of the United Kingdom decision to float Pound sterling on 23 June. However the central rate remain unchanged at £5.2721 per Rs. 100.^[1]

July - December

• 2 July – Following Pakistan's surrender to India in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, both nations sign the historic bilateral Simla Agreement, agreeing to settle their disputes peacefully.
• 4 July - Reserve Bank of India revises buying and selling rates of Pound sterling with Indian rupee at £5.3333 and £5.3050 per Rs. 100 and kept central rates unchanged.
• 10 July – A stampede of elephants kills 24 people in the Chandaka Forest, Orissa.^[2]
• 17 October - M. G. Ramachandran, forms the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam by splitting from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam starting a new phase in Dravidian movement.^[3]
• 19 October - Indian businessman Jayanti Dharma Teja sentenced to three year imprisonment for falsification of accounts of Jayanti Shipping Company.^[4]
• 15 November - Jharkhand Mukti Morcha was formed for independent statehood of Jharkhand from Bihar on birthday of Birsa Munda

Law

• 5 April - Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers (Amendment) Act amended to include new states and union territories of Northeast India.
• 15 August - Postal Index Number (PIN Code) introduced in India.
• 9 September - Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 enacted.
• 31 October – Supreme Court of India began hearing of Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala case.^[5]

Births

• 

  24 February – Pooja Bhatt, actress, producer and director.
• 28 March – Eby J. Jose, journalist and human rights activist
• 15 April – Mandira Bedi, actress, model and television presenter.
• 20 April – Mamta Kulkarni, actress.
• 17 May – T. Udhayachandran, IAS.
• 25 May - Karan Johar,actor,host,director and producer.

• 

  

  8 July – Sourav Ganguly, cricketer.^[6]
• 28 July – Ayesha Jhulka, actress.
• 17 November – Roja Selvamani, actress and politician.
• 18 November – Zubeen Garg, Indian singer and actor

• 

  17 December – John Abraham, actor.
• 21 December – Jagan Mohan Reddy, politician.
• 26 December – Hari Gopalakrishnan, film director.

Deaths

• 31 March – Meena Kumari, actress (b. 1932).
• 14 April – George Reddy, Student and PDSU leader at OU campus Hyderabad (b. 1947).
• 29 May – Prithviraj Kapoor, actor and director (b. 1906).
• 20 July – Geeta Dutt, playback singer (b. 1930).
• 24 August – Venkatarama Ramalingam Pillai, freedom fighter and Tamil poet (b. 1888).