Introduction to the History of India
The civilization of India is very ancient. In the Indus Valley are ruins of a civilization of high order that flourished from about 2300 B.C. to 1750 B.C. The Indus Valley civilization probably was destroyed by the Aryans, people of the Indo-European language family who entered through the northwest mountain passes between 2000 and 1500 B.C. The Aryans settled first in the Punjab and the Indus Valley, and from there spread eastward and southward. They introduced the Sanskrit language and the caste system into Indian culture.
In the sixth century B.C. the Persians made northwest India part of their empire. Alexander the Great of Macedonia conquered the Persian district in 326 B.C. Macedonian control lasted only a few years, but trade was established between India and Mediterranean countries. The Roman world knew India as the exotic land from which came spices, drugs, and cotton fabrics.
After the period of Macedonian rule, northern India was controlled in turn by native dynasties and invading tribes from beyond the mountains. India became known by the Persian name Hindustan (land of the Hindus). The most famous of the native dynasties were the Maurya and the Gupta.
Mauryan Empire. This map shows the location of the Mauryan Empire, the first empire to unite almost all of India under a single government. The empire lasted from about 324 to about 185 B.C. Under the rule of Chandragupta Maurya, which ended about 298 B.C., the empire included much of what is now northern India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Chandragupta’s son Bindusara and Bindusara's son Ashoka expanded the empire far into South India. The empire's capital was Pataliputra (now Patna).A Gupta-ruled empire fell to Hun invaders early in the fifth century A.D., but small states ruled by Gupta princes survived until the end of the century.
Gupta Empire. This map shows the location of the Gupta Empire. The Gupta Empire extended across present-day northern India and portions of present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh from about A.D. 320 to about 500. At this time, India became a center of art, learning, and medicine.The Muslim and Mogul Empires
Invasions by the Turks, who were Muslims, began about 1000. A Muslim empire with Delhi as its capital was established about 1200. The empire flourished until 1398, when it was destroyed by Tamerlane, a Tatar chieftain of Turkestan who sought to revive the Mongol Empire in Western Asia. Tamerlane's empire did not survive his death in 1405, and northern India broke up into small warring Muslim and Hindu states.
In 1526 Babur, ruler of a small kingdom in Turkestan, conquered all northern India. Babur traced his ancestry back to Tamerlane and as a result his domain was called the Mogul (Mongol) Empire. The Mogul rulers helped establish the Muslim religion firmly in the north, although the majority of the people remained Hindu.
Mughal Empire. This map shows the location of the Mughal, or Mogul Empire. Central Asian Muslims established the empire in 1526. By about 1600, the Mughals controlled most of what are now north and central India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The empire lasted until the 1700's.The greatest Mogul emperor was Akbar (ruled 1556–1605), who subdued some of the strongest Hindu states. Akbar's grandson Shah Jahan (ruled 1628–58) was the builder of the Taj Mahal. He was deposed by his son, Aurangzeb (1658–1707), who extended the Mogul domains but aroused fierce resistance by the Maratha Confederacy, a group of Hindu states in central India. Shortly after Aurangzeb's death the Persians invaded India and sacked Delhi. Many Indian states declared their independence, and Mogul power gradually dwindled away, although the empire survived in name until 1858.
Europeans In India
In 1498 the Portuguese reached India by sea and established trading posts. For a century they had no competition from other European nations. Then the Dutch, English, and French East Indian companies began gaining footholds in India.
In the intense commercial rivalry that followed, the English company was eventually victorious. About 1700 it had started what amounted to a conquest of the country, extending control from its three major bases, Madras (now Chennai), Calcutta (now Kolkata), and Bombay (now Mumbai). British East India Company forces, under the leadership of Robert Clive, expelled the French from Bengal in 1757 and put down Indian rebellions during 1756–64. The expansion of company authority was continued under Warren Hastings and Richard (later Marquess) Wellesley.
British East India Company. The British East India Company controlled much of the Indian subcontinent by the early 1800's. The company had direct control over most of the northern part of the subcontinent and most of the coastal areas along the Bay of Bengal. The Indian states of Hyderabad, Mysore, Oudh, and Travancore were not directly held by the company but were allied states. Only the Maratha Confederacy in central India was not allied to the company.Much of India was brought under the direct control of the East India Company. The Mogul emperor and the native princes of independent states retained nominal rule under British supervision. In 1857 a native rebellion (variously called the Indian Mutiny, the Sepoy Mutiny, the Indian Revolt, and the First War of Independence) broke out among Bengal troops, who seized Delhi. When it was put down in 1858, the Mogul emperor was deposed and administration of the country, including the nominally independent states, was transferred from the East India Company to the British government. With the exception of a few remaining French and Portuguese coastal communities, India was, for the first time in its history, politically united. In 1876 Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress of India.
British India. British India was set up in 1858. The United Kingdom took over East India Company lands and also had indirect control of the remaining states of Baluchistan, Hyderabad, Kashmir, Mysore, Rajputana, and Travancore.Struggle For Independence
In 1885 a group calling itself the Indian National Congress, consisting largely of Hindus, was organized to work for Indian participation in government. Britain responded by permitting Indian representation in legislative councils. In 1905 a group of Muslims, fearing Hindu control, formed the Muslim League to represent Muslim interests.
India supported the British cause during World War I. In 1919, however, the Congress party began a campaign for self-government. Party leader Mohandas K. Gandhi led a noncooperation (or civil disobedience) movement, in which British courts and other institutions were boycotted and taxes withheld. Gandhi was jailed in 1922, but the drive for independence continued.
The British reorganized the government under the Government of India Act of 1935, which provided for elective governments for each of the provinces and an elected legislative assembly for the national government. Control of the government, however, remained with the British, and most Indians rejected the changes as inadequate.
Independence and Partition
During World War II Indian troops fought for the Allies, and the country united to repulse a threatened Japanese attack through Burma. Gandhi, however, renewed his noncooperation campaign, and he and the president of the Congress party, Jawaharlal Nehru, were imprisoned for several years. The Muslim League, led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, demanded a separate Muslim state. At the close of the war the British government announced that India would be granted independence.
The Congress party reluctantly agreed to the separate Muslim state of Pakistan, and in August, 1947, the two countries became fully independent British dominions, with Nehru as India's first prime minister. Violence broke out immediately between Muslims and Hindus, and thousands of persons were killed. In 1948 Gandhi, who had worked to bring peace, was assassinated by a Hindu extremist.
Independent India. The independent country of India was founded on Aug. 15, 1947, the day after the northwestern and northeastern parts of the Indian subcontinent became the independent country of Pakistan. Burma (now Myanmar) and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) won independence in 1948. East Pakistan broke away in 1971 and became the independent country of Bangladesh.The Republic of India
Most of the princely states were absorbed by India without conflict. In 1947, however, warfare broke out between Pakistani and Indian forces in Kashmir. A cease-fire in 1949 left the eastern part of that state occupied by India. In 1950 India proclaimed itself a republic. During the next 11 years it absorbed the French and Portuguese enclaves.
Under Nehru India adopted a neutralist policy in world affairs. However, armed conflict with China over disputed border areas developed in 1962 and continued intermittently. Nehru died in 1964 and was succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri. Fighting broke out again in Kashmir between India and Pakistan in 1965; the conflict ended after three weeks.
Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, became prime minister in 1966, at a time of widespread internal conflict. There were demands for new states based on ethnic and linguistic lines. Although several were created, the demands of all groups were not met. Many of the states had unstable governments, and a number of the governments were dissolved, the states being placed directly under the federal government.
India's large, rapidly growing population was a major problem. Although family-planning measures had long received government support, results were disappointing. Agricultural production was unable to keep up with population growth throughout much of the 1960's, and India experienced periodic food shortages.
In 1971 a rebellion in East Pakistan against West Pakistan caused some 10 million Bengalis to flee to India. Partly to relieve this refugee burden, India attacked and destroyed the West Pakistani forces; East Pakistan became the independent nation of Bangladesh. In 1972 India signed a peace treaty with Pakistan (the former West Pakistan). In 1974 India exploded a nuclear device, becoming the sixth nation to rank as a nuclear power.
In the early 1970's, Gandhi sought to consolidate her power, and enacted authoritarian measures to curtail political opposition. In 1977 her Congress party was defeated in the national elections. Gandhi stepped down and the new leadership restored democratic freedoms. The new government proved ineffective, however, and in the elections of 1980 Gandhi was returned to power.
During the 1980's and early 1990's, India was beset with strife among various ethnic groups, especially between the Sikhs and the Hindus and between Muslims and Hindus. In 1984 Sikh extremists assassinated Gandhi. Neither Rajiv Gandhi, Indira's oldest son, who served as prime minister, 1984–89, nor later prime ministers were able to end the ethnic conflict. Rajiv was assassinated in 1991 by Tamil extremists while campaigning. In 1992 hundreds died in rioting between Hindus and Muslims after a radical Hindu group demolished a historic mosque.
After several governments ruled for very short periods in the mid-1990's, the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), a Hindu party, formed a coalition government in 1998. Within months, it fulfilled one of its major campaign promises: it established India as a nuclear weapons state by conducting five underground nuclear tests. In May, 1999, Pakistani forces crossed into Indian-held territory in Kashmir, starting a border conflict that ended with a Pakistani withdrawal several weeks later. In 2004 India's southeastern coast was struck by a major tsunami that killed more than 10,000 people. Several bombs exploded on commuter trains in Mumbai in July 2006, killing more than 180 people and injuring hundreds more. The Indian government accused Pakistan-based militants of involvement in the attack.