Great Britain, or, more precisely, a British joint stock company called the East India Trading Company, became the effective ruling body of most of India at the end of the 18th century. Interesting, isn't it, a company ruling a country? It's not just in sci-fi, you know. The so-called Company Raj (approximately "rule of the company", from raj - the Indian equivalent of kingdom) ended in 1947 as Britain was dissolving its colonial empire worldwide. Since then, the states of India and Pakistan exist in that area.