1938 in India

Incumbents

• Emperor of India – George VI
• Viceroy of India – Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow

  Events

• Minor engagements on the North West Frontier throughout the year.
• December – Announcement that the Ottawa trade agreement would not be continued after 31 March 1939.

  Births

• 7 January – B. Saroja Devi, actress.
• 13 January
• *Shivkumar Sharma, musician
• *Nabaneeta Dev Sen, novelist, children's author and poet.
• 18 March – Shashi Kapoor, legendary actor in Bollywood
• 31 March – Sheila Dikshit, politician and Chief Minister of Delhi.
• 19 May – Girish Karnad, writer, playwright, actor and director.
• 1 July – Durai Murugan, lawyer and politician
• 9 July – Sanjeev Kumar, actor.
• 13 July – Thomas Savundaranayagam, Sri Lanka Tamil priest, former Roman Catholic Bishop of Jaffna
• 15 July – Pilot Baba, Indian Air Force fighter pilot, later guru
• 19 July – Dom Moraes, poet, writer and columnist.
• 19 July – Jayant Narlikar, astrophysicist.
• 25 July – Sudhir Kakar, psychoanalyst and writer.
• 8 September – Poornachandra Tejaswi, writer and novelist.
• 11 December – T. S. R. Subramanian, politician

  Full date unknown

• Shashi Deshpande, novelist.
• Manohar Singh, theatre director and actor.

  Deaths

• 16 January – Sharat Chandra Chatterji, novelist.