India

Early days (1930s–1940s)

The first foreign tour by the Indian football team was to Ceylon in 1933. India beat Ceylon 1–0 in first match of the tour. Though it was an All-Bengal team, it was an Indian team by all means.

The second known official international tour of the Indian team, which at that time consisted of both Indian and British players, was to South Africa in 1934 when it was led by Indian footballer Gostha Pal.

The football team of the Muhammadan Sporting Club Calcutta visited Ceylon in 1935.

Football teams consisting of entirely Indian players started to tour Australia, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand during the late 1930s.

In the year 1938, India carried out a lengthy tour of Australia at the request of the Australian Football Association. From August to October, they played 17 matches against various state, district, and club teams, and 5 friendly matches against the Australian national team. The first of these, on 3 September in Sydney, is India's first international game to be recognised by FIFA, and ended in a 5–3 defeat. After drawing the second match in Brisbane 4–4, India won the third match at Newcastle 4–1 to claim their first international win.

The national team played their first match as an independent nation in the first round of the 1948 Summer Olympics against France, in a 2–1 defeat. Famously, the Indian team did not wear boots, playing either barefoot or in socks, something that would be banned by FIFA later in the year.

The following year, the national team visited Ceylon once again, winning all six matches, as well as playing two against Ceylon, winning both 1–0 and 6–1 respectively.

Golden years (1950s–1960s)

In 1950, India managed to qualify for the 1950 FIFA World Cup, which was scheduled to take place in Brazil, after all the other teams in their qualifying group withdrew. However, India themselves withdrew from the tournament shortly before it began; officially, this was due to travel costs, but FIFA had offered to pay the team's travel expenses, and the real reason behind their withdrawal has been widely speculated in the decades since. While it was commonly believed that India withdrew due to FIFA's ban on playing barefoot, the team's captain at that time, Sailen Manna, insisted that this was not the case; it is now generally accepted that India withdrew simply because they valued the Olympics more than the World Cup and did not view the latter as being prestigious enough to justify taking part. Since then, India have yet to qualify for another World Cup.

Despite not participating in the World Cup in 1950 and opting not to even play the Asian zone qualifiers until 1985, the following years until 1964 are usually considered to be the "golden era" of the Indian football. India, coached by Hyderabad City Police head coach Syed Abdul Rahim, became one of the best teams in Asia. In March 1951, Rahim led India to their first ever triumph during the 1951 Asian Games, hosted in India. The team defeated Iran 1–0 in the gold medal match to win their first trophy. Sahu Mewalal scored the winning goal for India in that match. The following year, India competed in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, but were unused to the cold conditions and lost 10–1 to Yugoslavia. Following this defeat, the AIFF made it mandatory for footballers to wear boots. After taking the defeat in Helsinki Finland, India participated in various minor tournaments, such as the Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament, which they won four times from 1952 to 1955.

In 1954, India returned to the Asian Games as defending champions in Manila. Despite their achievement three years prior, India was unable to go past the group stage as the team finished second in Group C during the tournament, two points behind Indonesia. Two years later, at the 1956 Summer Olympics, India went on to achieve the team's greatest result in a competitive tournament. The team finished in fourth place during the Summer Olympics football tournament, losing the bronze-medal match to Bulgaria 3–0. The tournament is also known for Neville D'Souza's hat-trick against Australia in the quarterfinals. D'Souza's hat-trick was the first scored by an Asian in Olympic history. India defeated Australia by 4–2 in that match at the Olympic Park Stadium.

After their good performance during the Summer Olympics, India participated in the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo. The team once again finished fourth, losing the bronze-medal match to Indonesia 4–1. The next year the team travelled to Malaysia where they took part in the 1959 Merdeka tournament and finished as the tournament runners-up.

India began the 1960s with the 1960 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. Despite the qualifiers for the West Zone being held in Kochi, India finished last in their qualification group and thus missed out the tournament. Despite the set-back, India went on to win the gold medal during the Asian Games for the second time in 1962. The team defeated South Korea 2–1 to win their second major championship.

Two years later, following their Asian Games triumph, India participated in the 1964 AFC Asian Cup after all the other teams in their qualification group withdrew. Despite their automatic entry into the continental tournament, India team managed to finish as the runners-up during the tournament, losing out to the hosts, Israel, by two points. This remains India's best performance in the AFC Asian Cup.