Populate dropdownlist in Asp.Net MVC

HTML Coding for loading countries in dropdownlist:

   @Html.dropdownlistfor(m=>m.countryname,Model.countrylist)
        

Code behind for loading countries in dropdownlist:

        
     public actionresult index()
     {
        Country objcountry = new Country();
        objcountry.countrylist = PopulateCountries();
        return View(objcountry);
     }
     public static List  populatecountries()
     {
        List items=new List();
        items.add(
                  new selectlistitem
                  {
                      text="India",
                      value="1"
                  });
       items.add(
                  new selectlistitem
                  {
                      text="China",
                      value="2"
                  });
    }