What would happen if one day India woke up to find that all its Ministers (Prime Minister, President, Vice President, Chief Ministers, MPs, MLAs) have suddenly disappeared?

To start with, I'll throw a big party to celebrate this path breaking moment in the history of India. But these celebrations won't last long. In the middle of all this, some or the other guy, whoever is next in the chain of command, will start appointing ministers, because even if all the state ministers disappear, that state is still bound to be ruled by the political party who won the elections there. So if one set goes, next will be more than happy to take control of the power. One thing a political party in India never runs out of, is the number candidates who want to become a minister or CM or PM. And while the political parties are busy fighting amongst themselves to sort this out, there will also be a section of the society (the gundas) which would try to use this opportunity to start the riots and indulge in thefts and damage to public property all over India, which will be the primary reason to enforce military rule. Long story short, there's a good probability that this situation will lead to the loss of innocent lives in riots, theft and damage of public property, resulting in the enforcement of the military rule, and eventually everything will go back to square one once the political parties appoint the new ministers. Looks like I'll have to throw my party as quickly as possible before the riots and military rule takes over. And, Swiss banks will probably file for bankruptcy after losing their biggest clients over the night.

Lok sabha elections will be held again. CJI (Chief Justice of India) will take over as acting-president (Head of State) in the meanwhile. Each of the states will come under Governor's rule until Legislative Assembly elections are held there as well. Or alternatively, you will wake up from your dream.

Their kids will be immediately given  their positions.

1. No, we won't descend into anarchy. We don't live our every passing moment thinking of politicians you have mentioned and while there will be some unease, we will be too busy getting on with our lives for a chaotic situation to develop. 2. In such a case, Chief Justice of India will take over. As long as new PM, Presidents etc are not elected he can very well run the country with the help of bureaucrats and police. Armed forces can step in if required. 3. You can't get 1.2 billion people to have a consensus on any matter in any situation. So striving for impossible will be a folly. We hardly need to have all our people agree on one thing to prevent a systemic breakdown. 4. No. Even if some of the higher officials are missing, we have sufficiently competent persons who wield required power to keep the country from falling into a systemic breakdown. 5. I don't think that Panchayats will assume more power. To have more power, new laws will be required. And as stated by the question, all the legislature has disappeared. So new laws cannot be made. Moreover I don't think that panchayats will need to assume more power  as we have sufficient distribution of power and sturdy hierarchy to ensure that transition will be relatively smooth. Our constitution has three basic bulwarks- Legislature, Executive and judiciary. What the question does is take away the legislature for the time being which basically is a law making body. Surely we can do without having new laws for sometime. Yes, many of the functionaries mentioned are crucial parts of executive as well but they don't rule all by themselves. At every level, most of the governance is basically done  by the bureaucrats with the help of police. If they function properly and constitutionally, the status quo won't change as much. As far as military rule is concerned, the army in India has never been inclined to rule. Even in the worst of time like during emergency or in late 80's, there was no military intervention. So if the country doesn't descend into chaos which to my mind is a remote possibility, I don't see military rule happening. As for  the possibility of general public going out on streets rioting, fighting and destructing public property in such an eventuality, I don't think that will happen either. Even during the partition of India,apart from communal violence the country was by and large peaceful even in the absence of a functioning bureaucracy and robust police force. There being no reason for communal violence, in all likelihood mass hysteria will also not happen. To conclude, I will like to quote a Game of Thrones line said by Ser Jorah Mormont The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends. It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace.

In a democratic setup like india the executive branch is merely a representative of the legislative and by extension the people of India. So if the ministers were to vanish, there would be others who would replace them. For a while the beuraucracy (babus) would be able to take the newcomers for a ride but once they get the hang of their own ministry, they would continue the work of the previous minister. Now what 'work' constitutes is another matter as any major decision taken by ministers is anyway taken in consultation with and in line with the power holders of whichever political party is at the helm. The political interests of national parties in a country like india are usually best served when no decision is made (policy paralysis as termed by the media). That is not to say regional parties' political interests mandate any fruitful policy decision. (their interests are infact in most cases detrimental to the nation as a whole) So eventually, after a temporary period where political interests are kept aside, (may even be as short as 3-4 days), things would return to the policy paralysis mode of functioning.

NO, it will not be an anarchy. The fathers of Indian Constitution have laid down principles for such a situation. The Indian Parliament has enacted the law ( The President (Discharge Of Functions) Act, 1969) for the discharge of the functions of the President when vacancies occur in the offices of the President and of the Vice President simultaneously, owing to removal, death, resignation of the incumbent or otherwise.  In such an eventuality, the Chief Justice, or in his absence, the senior most Judge of the Supreme Court of India available discharges the functions of the President until a newly elected President enters upon his office or a newly elected Vice President begins to act as President under Article 65 of the Constitution, whichever is the earlier. This has a precedent when President Zakir Hussain died in office, the Vice President VV Giri, acted as the President. However, Mr. Giri resigned as the Vice President then the Chief Justice Hidayatullah became the acting President of India. Once we have a president then he/she can dissolve the Lok Sabha and declare the elections. Similar things will take place at state level with the Chief Justice or the senior most judge of the respective High Court taking up as acting governor of the state and all the states will be under president's rule. All the things will be functioning as they are without much difference for the so-called aam adami as the ministries will be run by the respective IAS officers which won't be much different compared to when an incompetent minister is in charge of it! The only headache will be for the Election Commission of India as the constitution mandates an election within a period of six months from the dissolution of Lok Sabha/Vidhan Sabha. Refer: [1] http://lawmin.nic.in/coi/coiason29july08.pdf           [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Justice_of_India#Acting_President           [3]http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/laws/the-president-discharge-of-functions-act-1969.html

To my knowledge, their is already a chain of command in a scenario such as a wipe out of a city like New Delhi (i.e. all ministers, mp's' etc.), Pune would be the next capital. This chain of command includes elected politicians, government officials and military officials. Please note that this information is heresay and I do not know how credible the information is.

If the history of the subcontinent (or the world indeed) is taken into account-military rule. Fast forward ~50 years and we are Pakistan v2 (complete with more fragmentation based on cultural/linguistic lines)