1896 in India

Incumbents

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

Events

• National income - 5,333 million
• 3 September - Nearly 13,176 members of Ezhava community led by Padmanabhan Palpu submits a petition for rights named Ezhava Memorial before Moolam Thirunal of Travancore.
• Bombay plague epidemic killed thousands
• A famine started in Bundelkhand and continued into 1897

Laws

• Malabar Marriage Act, 1896

Births

• 29 January – Acharya Srimat Swami Pranavanandaji Maharaj, founder - Bharat Sevashram Sangha
• 29 February – Morarji Desai, independence activist and 6th Prime Minister of India.
• 1 September – A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
• 27 October – Kshetresa Chandra Chattopadhyaya, scholar of Sanskrit.

Full date unknown

• Firaq Gorakhpuri, poet.

Deaths

• 9 January – Dinkar Rao, statesman dies