History of India - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

History of India

Part of a series on the

History of India

Chronology of Indian historyAncient India

Prehistoric India and Vedic India Religions, Society, Mahajanapadas

Mauryan PeriodEconomy, Spread of Buddhism,Chanakya, Satavahana Empire

The Golden AgeDiscoveries, Aryabhata,Ramayana, Mahabharata

Medieval IndiaThe Classical AgeGurjara-Pratihara

Pala EmpireRashtrakuta Empire

Art, Philosophy, Literature

Islam in IndiaDelhi Sultanate, Vijayanagara Empire,

Music, Guru Nanak

Mughal IndiaArchitecture,

Maratha Confederacy

Modern IndiaCompany Rule

Zamindari system, Warren Hastings,Mangal Pandey, 1857

British Indian EmpireHindu reforms, Bengal Renaissance,

Independence struggle, Mahatma GandhiSubhas Chandra Bose

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Outline of South Asian historyHistory of Indian subcontinent

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the history of the Indian subcontinent prior to the partition of India in 1947. For the modern Republic ofIndia, see History of the Republic of India. For Pakistan and Bangladesh, see History of Pakistan and History ofBangladesh."Indian history" redirects here. For other uses, see Native American history.

The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000years ago.[1] The Indus Valley Civilisation, which spread and flourished in the northwesternpart of the Indian subcontinent from c. 3300 to 1300 BCE in present-day Pakistan andnorthwest India, was the first major civilisation in South Asia.[2] A sophisticated andtechnologically advanced urban culture developed in the Mature Harappan period, from 2600to 1900 BCE.[3] This Bronze Age civilisation collapsed before the end of the secondmillennium BCE and was followed by the Iron Age Vedic Civilisation, which extended overmuch of the Indo-Gangetic plain and which witnessed the rise of major polities known asthe Mahajanapadas. In one of these kingdoms, Magadha, Mahavira and Gautama Buddhawere born in the 6th or 5th century BCE and propagated their Shramanic philosophies.Most of the subcontinent was conquered by the Maurya Empire during the 4th and 3rdcenturies BCE. It became fragmented, with various parts ruled by numerous Middlekingdoms for the next 1,500 years. This is known as the classical period of Indian history,during which time India has sometimes been estimated to have had the largest economy ofthe ancient and mediaeval world, with its huge population generating between one fourthand one third of the world's income up to the 18th century. Much of northern and centralIndia was united in the 4th century CE, and remained so for two centuries, under the GuptaEmpire. This period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is known asthe "Golden Age of India". From this time, and for several centuries afterwards, southernIndia, under the rule of the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas, and Pandyas, experienced its owngolden age. During this period, aspects of Indian civilisation, administration, culture, andreligion (Hinduism and Buddhism) spread to much of Asia.Kingdoms in southern India had maritime business links with the Roman Empire fromaround 77 CE. Muslim rule in the subcontinent began in 8th century CE when the Arabgeneral Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh and Multan in southern Punjab in modernday Pakistan,[4] setting the stage for several successive invasions from Central Asiabetween the 10th and 15th centuries CE, leading to the formation of Muslim empires in theIndian subcontinent such as the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire. Mughal rule camefrom Central Asia to cover most of the northern parts of the subcontinent. Mughal rulersintroduced Central Asian art and architecture to India. In addition to the Mughals andvarious Rajput kingdoms, several independent Hindu states, such as the VijayanagaraEmpire, the Maratha Empire, Eastern Ganga Empire and the Ahom Kingdom, flourishedcontemporaneously in southern, western, eastern and northeastern India respectively. TheMughal Empire suffered a gradual decline in the early 18th century, which providedopportunities for the Afghans, Balochis, Sikhs, and Marathas to exercise control over largeareas in the northwest of the subcontinent until the British East India Company gainedascendancy over South Asia.[5]

Beginning in the mid-18th century and over the next century, large areas of India wereannexed by the British East India Company. Dissatisfaction with Company rule led to theIndian Rebellion of 1857, after which the British provinces of India were directlyadministered by the British Crown and witnessed a period of both rapiddevelopment of infrastructure and economic decline. During the first half of the20th century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the IndianNational Congress and later joined by the Muslim League. The subcontinentgained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, after the British provinceswere partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan and the princely statesall acceded to one of the new states.

Contents [hide] 1 Prehistoric era

1.1 Stone Age1.2 Bronze Age

2 Early historic period2.1 Vedic period (2000500 BC)2.2 Mahajanapadas (600-300 BC)2.3 Persian and Greek conquests

Stone age (70003000 BC) [show]Bronze age (30001300 BC) [show]Iron age (120026 BC) [show]Middle Kingdoms (11279 AD) [show]Late medieval age (12061596 AD) [show]Early modern period (15261858 AD) [show]Other states (11021947 AD) [show]Colonial period (15051961 AD) [show]Kingdoms of Sri Lanka [show]Nation histories [show]Regional histories [show]Specialised histories [show]

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History of India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 08-06-2013

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_India 1 / 16

Bhimbetka rock painting, MadhyaPradesh, India (c. 30,000 years old)

Stone age (5000 BC) writings ofEdakkal Caves in Kerala, India.

2.4 Maurya Empire (322185 BC)3 Early Middle Kingdoms The Golden Age (230 BC-700 AD)

3.1 Northwestern hybrid cultures3.2 Kushan Empire3.3 Roman trade with India3.4 Gupta rule

4 Late Middle Kingdoms The Late-Classical Age (700-1200 AD)4.1 Northern India

5 The Islamic Sultanates5.1 Delhi Sultanate

6 Early modern period6.1 Mughal Empire6.2 Post-Mughal period

6.2.1 Maratha Empire6.2.2 Sikh Empire (North-west)6.2.3 Other kingdoms

7 Colonial era7.1 Company rule in India7.2 The rebellion of 1857 and its consequences

8 British Raj8.1 Reforms8.2 Famines8.3 The Indian independence movement

9 Independence and partition10 Historiography11 See also12 Gallery13 References14 Sources15 Further reading

15.1 Historiography16 Online sources17 External links

Prehistoric era

Stone AgeMain article: South Asian Stone AgeFurther information: Mehrgarh, Bhimbetka rock shelters, and Edakkal Caves

Isolated remains of Homo erectus in Hathnora in the Narmada Valley in central Indiaindicate that India might have been inhabited since at least the Middle Pleistocene era,somewhere between 500,000 and 200,000 years ago.[6][7] Tools crafted by proto-humansthat have been dated back two million years have been discovered in the northwesternpart of the subcontinent.[8][9] The ancient history of the region includes some of SouthAsia's oldest settlements[10] and some of its major civilisations.[11][12] The earliestarchaeological site in the subcontinent is the palaeolithic hominid site in the Soan Rivervalley.[13] Soanian sites are found in the Sivalik region across what are now India,Pakistan, and Nepal.[14]

The Mesolithic period in the Indian subcontinent was followed by the Neolithic period,when more extensive settlement of the subcontinent occurred after the end of the last IceAge approximately 12,000 years ago. The first confirmed semipermanent settlementsappeared 9,000 years ago in the Bhimbetka rock shelters in modern Madhya Pradesh,India. Early Neolithic culture in South Asia is represented by the Bhirrana findings (7500BCE)in Haryana, India & Mehrgarh findings (7000 BCE onwards) in Balochistan,Pakistan.[15][16]

Traces of a Neolithic culture have been alleged to be submerged in the Gulf of Khambatin India, radiocarbon dated to 7500 BCE.[17] However, the one dredged piece of wood inquestion was found in an area of strong ocean currents. Neolithic agriculture culturessprang up in the Indus Valley region around 5000 BCE, in the lower Gangetic valleyaround 3000 BCE, and in later South India, spreading southwards and also northwardsinto Malwa around 1800 BCE. The first urban civilisation of the region began with theIndus Valley Civilisation.[18]

Bronze AgeMain article: Indus Valley Civilisation

The Bronze Age in the Indian subcontinent began around 3300 BCE with the early Indus ValleyCivilisation. It was centred on the Indus River and its tributaries which extended into the Ghaggar-HakraRiver valley,[11] the Ganges-Yamuna Doab,[19] Gujarat,[20] and southeastern Afghanistan.[21]

The civilisation is primarily located in modern-day India (Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan

Simple EnglishSrpskohrvatski /SuomiSvenskaTrkeTing VitWinaray

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"Priest King" ofIndus ValleyCivilisation

A map of North India in the late Vedic period.

The swastika is a majorelement of Hindu iconography.

The Mahajanapadas were the sixteen most powerful kingdoms andrepublics of the era, located mainly across the fertile Indo-Gangeticplains, there were a number of smaller kingdoms stretching the lengthand breadth of Ancient India.

provinces) and Pakistan (Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan provinces). Historically part of Ancient India, it isone of the world's earliest urban civilisations, along with Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt.[22] Inhabitants ofthe ancient Indus river valley, the Harappans, developed new techniques in metallurgy and handicraft(carneol products, seal carving), and produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin.The Mature Indus civilisation flourished from about 2600 to 1900 BCE, marking the beginning of urbancivilisation on the subcontinent. The civilisation included urban centres such as Dholavira, Kalibangan,Rupar, Rakhigarhi, and Lothal in modern-day India, and Harappa, Ganeriwala, and Mohenjo-daro inmodern-day Pakistan. The civilisation is noted for its cities built of brick, roadside drainage system, and multistoried houses.

Early historic period

Vedic period (2000500 BC)Main article: Vedic CivilisationSee also: Vedas and Indo-Aryans

The Vedic period is characterised by Indo-Aryan cultureassociated with the texts of Vedas, sacred to Hindus, whichwere orally composed in Vedic Sanskrit. The Vedas are someof the oldest extant texts in India[23] and next to some writingsin Egypt and Mesopotamia are the oldest in the world. TheVedic period lasted from about 1500 to 500 BCE,[24] laying thefoundations of Hinduism and other cultural aspects of earlyIndian society. In terms of culture, many regions of thesubcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Agein this period.[25]

Historians have analysed the Vedas to posit a Vedic culture inthe Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain.[25] Mosthistorians also consider this period to have encompassedseveral waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinentfrom the north-west.[26][27] Vedic people believed in thetransmigration of the soul, and the peepul tree and cow weresanctified by the time of the Atharva Veda.[28] Many of the concepts of Indian philosophy espoused later like Dharma, Karmaetc. trace their root to the Vedas.[29]

Early Vedic society consisted of largely pastoral groups, with late Harappan urbanisation havingbeen abandoned.[30] After the time of the Rigveda, Aryan society became increasingly agriculturaland was socially organised around the four varnas, or social classes. In addition to the Vedas,the principal texts of Hinduism, the core themes of the Sanskrit epics Ramayana andMahabharata are said to have their ultimate origins during this period.[31] The Mahabharataremains, today, the longest single poem in the world.[32] The events described in the Ramayanaare from a later period of history than the events of the Mahabharata.[33] The early Indo-Aryanpresence probably corresponds, in part, to the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture in archaeologicalcontexts.[34]

The Kuru kingdom[35] corresponds to the Black and Red Ware and Painted Grey Ware culturesand to the beginning of the Iron Age in northwestern India, around 1000 BCE, as well as with thecomposition of the Atharvaveda, the first Indian text to mention iron, as yma ayas, literally"black metal." The Painted Grey Ware culture spanned much of northern India from about 1100 to 600 BCE.[34] The VedicPeriod also established republics such as Vaishali, which existed as early as the 6th century BCE and persisted in some areasuntil the 4th century CE. The later part of this period corresponds with an increasing movement away from the previous tribalsystem towards the establishment of kingdoms, called mahajanapadas.

Mahajanapadas (600-300 BC)Main articles: Mahajanapadas and Haryanka dynastyMain articles: History of Hinduism, History of Buddhism,and History of JainismSee also: Adi Shankara, Gautama Buddha, and MahaviraFurther information: Upanishads, Indian Religions, Indianphilosophy, and Ancient universities of India

In the later Vedic Age, a number of small kingdoms or citystates had covered the subcontinent, many mentioned inVedic, early Buddhist and Jaina literature as far back as 1000BCE. By 500 BCE, sixteen monarchies and "republics" knownas the MahajanapadasKasi, Kosala, Anga, Magadha, Vajji(or Vriji), Malla, Chedi, Vatsa (or Vamsa), Kuru, Panchala,Matsya (or Machcha), Surasena, Assaka, Avanti, Gandhara,and Kambojastretched across the Indo-Gangetic Plain frommodern-day Afghanistan to Bengal and Maharastra. This periodsaw the second major rise of urbanism in India after the IndusValley Civilisation.[36]

Many smaller clans mentioned within early literature seem to



Nalanda is considered one of the firstgreat universities in recorded history. Itwas the centre of Buddhist learning andresearch in the world from 450 to 1193CE.

Asia in 323 BCE, the Nanda Empire and Gangaridai Empire in relationto Alexander's Empire and neighbors.

Many smaller clans mentioned within early literature seem tohave been present across the rest of the subcontinent. Someof these kings were hereditary; other states elected their rulers. The educated speech atthat time was Sanskrit, while the languages of the general population of northern Indiaare referred to as Prakrits. Many of the sixteen kingdoms had coalesced to four majorones by 500/400 BCE, by the time of Gautama Buddha. These four were Vatsa, Avanti,Kosala, and Magadha.[37]

The 9th and 8th centuries BCE witnessed the composition of the earliestUpanishads.[38]:183 Upanishads form the theoretical basis of classical Hinduism and areknown as Vedanta (conclusion of the Vedas).[39] The older Upanishads launched attacksof increasing intensity on the ritual. Anyone who worships a divinity other than the Self iscalled a domestic animal of the gods in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The Mundakalaunches the most scathing attack on the ritual by comparing those who value sacrificewith an unsafe boat that is endlessly overtaken by old age and death.[40]

Increasing urbanisation of India in 7th and 6th centuries BCE led to the rise of newascetic or shramana movements which challenged the orthodoxy of rituals.[41] Mahavira (c. 549477 BCE), proponent ofJainism, and Buddha (c. 563-483), founder of Buddhism were the most prominent icons of this movement. Shramana gave rise tothe concept of the cycle of birth and death, the concept of samsara, and the concept of liberation.[42] Buddha found a MiddleWay that ameliorated the extreme asceticism found in the Sramana religions.[43]

Around the same time, Mahavira (the 24th Tirthankara in Jainism) propagated a theology that was to later become Jainism.[44]However, Jain orthodoxy believes the teachings of the Tirthankaras predates all known time and scholars believe Parshva,accorded status as the 23rd Tirthankara, was a historical figure. The Vedas are believed to have documented a few Tirthankarasand an ascetic order similar to the shramana movement.[45]

Persian and Greek conquestsSee also: Achaemenid Empire, Greco-Buddhism, Indo-Greek Kingdom, Alexander the Great, Nanda Empire, and Gangaridai

In 530 BCE Cyrus, King of the Persian Achaemenid Empirecrossed the Hindu-Kush mountains to seek tribute from thetribes of Kamboja, Gandhara and the trans-India region.[46] By520 BCE, during the reign of Darius I of Persia, much of thenorthwestern subcontinent (present-day eastern Afghanistanand Pakistan) came under the rule of the Persian AchaemenidEmpire. The area remained under Persian control for twocenturies.[47] During this time India supplied mercenaries tothe Persian army then fighting in Greece.[46]

Under Persian rule the famous city of Takshashila became acentre where both Vedic and Iranian learning were mingled.[48]The impact of Persian ideas was felt in many areas of Indianlife. Persian coinage and rock inscriptions were copied byIndia. However, Persian ascendency in northern India endedwith Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia in 327 BCE.[49]

By 326 BCE, Alexander the Great had conquered Asia Minor and the Achaemenid Empire and had reached the northwestfrontiers of the Indian subcontinent. There he defeated King Porus in the Battle of the Hydaspes (near modern-day Jhelum,Pakistan) and conquered much of the Punjab.[50] Alexander's march east put him in confrontation with the Nanda Empire ofMagadha and the Gangaridai Empire of Bengal. His army, exhausted and frightened by the prospect of facing larger Indianarmies at the Ganges River, mutinied at the Hyphasis (modern Beas River) and refused to march further East. Alexander, afterthe meeting with his officer, Coenus, and learning about the might of Nanda Empire, was convinced that it was better to return.The Persian and Greek invasions had important repercussions on Indian civilisation. The political systems of the Persians wereto influence future forms of governance on the subcontinent, including the administration of the Mauryan dynasty. In addition, theregion of Gandhara, or present-day eastern Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan, became a melting pot of Indian, Persian,Central Asian, and Greek cultures and gave rise to a hybrid culture, Greco-Buddhism, which lasted until the 5th century CE andinfluenced the artistic development of Mahayana Buddhism.

Maurya Empire (322185 BC)Main article: Maurya EmpireFurther information: Chandragupta Maurya, Bindusara, and Ashoka the Great

The Maurya Empire (322185 BCE), ruled by the Mauryandynasty, was a geographically extensive and powerful politicaland military empire in ancient India. The empire wasestablished by Chandragupta Maurya in Magadha what is nowBihar.[51] The empire flourished under the reign of Ashoka theGreat.[52]

At its greatest extent, it stretched to the north to the naturalboundaries of the Himalayas and to the east into what is nowAssam. To the west, it reached beyond modern Pakistan,annexing Balochistan and much of what is now Afghanistan,including the modern Herat and Kandahar provinces. Theempire was expanded into India's central and southern regionsby the emperors Chandragupta and Bindusara, but it excluded



The Maurya Empire under Ashoka the Great.

Ashokan pillar at Vaishali, 3rd century BCE.

extensive unexplored tribal and forested regions near Kalingawhich were subsequently taken by Ashoka.[53]

Ashoka ruled the Maurya Empire for 37 years from 268 BCEuntil he died in 232 BCE.[54] During that time, Ashoka pursuedan active foreign policy aimed at setting up a unified state.[55]However, Ashoka became involved in a war with the state of Kalinga which islocated on the western shore of the Bay of Bengal.[56] This war forced Ashoka toabandon his attempt at a foreign policy which would unify the MauryaEmpire.[57]

During the Mauryan Empire slavery developed rapidly and significant amount ofwritten records on slavery are found.[58] The Mauryan Empire was based on amodern and efficient economy and society. However, the sale of merchandisewas closely regulated by the government.[59] Although there was no banking inthe Mauryan society, usury was customary with loans made at the recognizedinterest rate of 15% per annum.Ashoka's reign propagated Buddhism. In this regard Ashoka established manyBuddhist monuments. Indeed, Ashoka put a strain on the economy and thegovernment by his strong support of Buddhism. towards the end of his reign he "bled the state coffers white with his generousgifts to promote the promulation of Buddha's teaching.[60] As might be expected, this policy caused considerable oppositionwithin the government. This opposition rallied around Sampadi, Ashoka's grandson and heir to the throne.[61] Religiousopposition to Ashoka also arose among the orthodox Brahmanists and the adherents of Jainism.[62]

Chandragupta's minister Chanakya wrote the Arthashastra, one of the greatest treatises on economics, politics, foreign affairs,administration, military arts, war, and religion produced in Asia. Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia fallsinto the era of Northern Black Polished Ware (NBPW). The Arthashastra and the Edicts of Ashoka are primary written records ofthe Mauryan times. The Lion Capital of Asoka at Sarnath, is the national emblem of India.

Early Middle Kingdoms The Golden Age (230 BC-700 AD)Main article: Middle Kingdoms of India

Ancient India during therise of theSunga andSatavahana empires.

The Kharavela Empire,now in Odisha.

Kushan Empire andWestern Satraps ofAncient India in the northalong with Pandyans andEarly Cholas in southernIndia.

Gupta Empire

The middle period was a time of cultural development. The Satavahana dynasty, also known as the Andhras, ruled in southernand central India after around 230 BCE. Satakarni, the sixth ruler of the Satvahana dynasty, defeated the Sunga Empire of northIndia. Afterwards, Kharavela, the warrior king of Kalinga,[63] ruled a vast empire and was responsible for the propagation ofJainism in the Indian subcontinent.[63]

The Kharavelan Jain empire included a maritime empire with trading routes linking it to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam,Cambodia, Borneo, Bali, Sumatra, and Java. Colonists from Kalinga settled in Sri Lanka, Burma, as well as the Maldives andMaritime Southeast Asia. The Kuninda Kingdom was a small Himalayan state that survived from around the 2nd century BCE tothe 3rd century CE.The Kushanas migrated from Central Asia into northwestern India in the middle of the 1st century CE and founded an empire thatstretched from Tajikistan to the middle Ganges. The Western Satraps (35-405 CE) were Saka rulers of the western and centralpart of India. They were the successors of the Indo-Scythians and contemporaries of the Kushans who ruled the northern part ofthe Indian subcontinent and the Satavahana (Andhra) who ruled in central and southern India.Different dynasties such as the Pandyans, Cholas, Cheras, Kadambas, Western Gangas, Pallavas, and Chalukyas, dominatedthe southern part of the Indian peninsula at different periods of time. Several southern kingdoms formed overseas empires thatstretched into Southeast Asia. The kingdoms warred with each other and the Deccan states for domination of the south. TheKalabras, a Buddhist dynasty, briefly interrupted the usual domination of the Cholas, Cheras, and Pandyas in the south.

Northwestern hybrid culturesSee also: Indo-Greek kingdom, Indo-Scythians, Indo-Parthian Kingdom, and Indo-Sassanids

The northwestern hybrid cultures of the subcontinent included the Indo-Greeks, the Indo-Scythians, theIndo-Parthians, and the Indo-Sassinids. The first of these, the Indo-Greek Kingdom, was founded whenthe Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius invaded the region in 180 BCE, extending his rule over various partsof present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. Lasting for almost two centuries, the kingdom was ruled by asuccession of more than 30 Greek kings, who were often in conflict with each other.



The founder of theIndo-Greek Kingdom,Demetrius I "theInvincible" (205171BCE).

Coin of the Romanemperor Augustusfound at the Pudukottai,South India.

Queen Kumaradevi and KingChandragupta I, depicted on a coin of theirson Samudragupta, 335380 CE.

The Indo-Scythians were a branch of the Indo-European Sakas (Scythians) who migrated from southernSiberia, first into Bactria, subsequently into Sogdiana, Kashmir, Arachosia, and Gandhara, and finallyinto India. Their kingdom lasted from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century BCE.Yet another kingdom, the Indo-Parthians (also known as the Pahlavas), came to control most ofpresent-day Afghanistan and northern Pakistan, after fighting many local rulers such as the Kushanruler Kujula Kadphises, in the Gandhara region. The Sassanid empire of Persia, who was contemporaneous with the GuptaEmpire, expanded into the region of present-day Balochistan in Pakistan, where the mingling of Indian culture and the culture ofIran gave birth to a hybrid culture under the Indo-Sassanids.

Kushan EmpireMain article: Kushan Empire

The Kushan Empire expanded out of what is now Afghanistan into the northwest of the subcontinent under the leadership of theirfirst emperor, Kujula Kadphises, about the middle of the 1st century CE. By the time of his grandson, Kanishka, (whose era isthought to have begun c. 127 CE), they had conquered most of northern India, at least as far as Saketa and Pataliputra, in themiddle Ganges Valley, and probably as far as the Bay of Bengal.[64]

They played an important role in the establishment of Buddhism in India and its spread to Central Asia and China. By the 3rdcentury, their empire in India was disintegrating; their last known great emperor being Vasudeva I (c. 190-225 CE).

Roman trade with IndiaMain article: Roman trade with India

Roman trade with India started around 1 CE, during the reign of Augustus and following his conquest ofEgypt, which had been India's biggest trade partner in the West.The trade started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE kept increasing, and according to Strabo(II.5.12.[65]), by the time of Augustus, up to 120 ships set sail every year from Myos Hormos on theRed Sea to India. So much gold was used for this trade, and apparently recycled by the Kushans fortheir own coinage, that Pliny the Elder (NH VI.101) complained about the drain of specie to India:

"India, China and the Arabian peninsula take one hundred million sesterces from our empire perannum at a conservative estimate: that is what our luxuries and women cost us. For whatpercentage of these imports is intended for sacrifices to the gods or the spirits of the dead?"

Pliny, Historia Naturae 12.41.84.[66]

The maritime (but not the overland) trade routes, harbours, and trade items are described in detail inthe 1st century CE Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.

Gupta ruleMain article: Gupta EmpireSee also: Chandra Gupta I, Samudragupta, Chandra Gupta II, Kumaragupta I, and SkandaguptaFurther information: Kalidasa, Aryabhata, Varahamihira, Vishnu Sharma, and VatsyayanaFurther information: Meghadta, Abhijnakuntala, Kumrasambhava, Panchatantra, Aryabhatiya, Indiannumerals, and Kama Sutra

The Classical Age refers to the period when much of the Indian subcontinent wasreunited under the Gupta Empire (c. 320550 CE).[67][68] This period has been calledthe Golden Age of India[69] and was marked by extensive achievements in science,technology, engineering, art, dialectic, literature, logic, mathematics, astronomy,religion, and philosophy that crystallized the elements of what is generally known asHindu culture.[70] The decimal numeral system, including the concept of zero, wasinvented in India during this period.[71] The peace and prosperity created underleadership of Guptas enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors in India.[72]

The high points of this cultural creativity are magnificent architecture, sculpture, andpainting.[73] The Gupta period produced scholars such as Kalidasa, Aryabhata,Varahamihira, Vishnu Sharma, and Vatsyayana who made great advancements inmany academic fields.[74] Science and political administration reached new heightsduring the Gupta era. Strong trade ties also made the region an important culturalcentre and established it as a base that would influence nearby kingdoms and regionsin Burma, Sri Lanka, Maritime Southeast Asia, and Indochina.The Gupta period marked a watershed of Indian culture: the Guptas performed Vedicsacrifices to legitimize their rule, but they also patronized Buddhism, which continued to provide an alternative to Brahmanicalorthodoxy. The military exploits of the first three rulersChandragupta I (c. 319335), Samudragupta (c. 335376), andChandragupta II (c. 376415) brought much of India under their leadership.[75] They successfully resisted the northwesternkingdoms until the arrival of the Hunas, who established themselves in Afghanistan by the first half of the 5th century, with theircapital at Bamiyan.[76] However, much of the Deccan and southern India were largely unaffected by these events in thenorth.[77][78]

Late Middle Kingdoms The Late-Classical Age (700-1200 AD)Main articles: Middle Kingdoms of India, Badami Chalukyas, Rashtrakuta, Eastern Ganga dynasty, Western Chalukyas,Rajput kingdoms, and Vijayanagara Empire

The "Late-Classical Age"[79] in India began after the



Pala Empire under Dharmapala Pala Empire under Devapala

Chola Empire under Rajendra Chola c.1030 C.E.

The Kanauj Triangle was the focalpoint of empires - the Rashtrakutas ofDeccan, the Gurjara Pratiharas ofMalwa, and the Palas of Bengal.

end of the Gupta Empire[79] and the collapse HarshaEmpire in the 7th century CE[79], and ended with thefall of the Vijayanagara Empire in the south in the13th century, due to pressure from Islamicinvaders[80] to the north.This period produced some of India's finest art,considered the epitome of classical development,and the development of the main spiritual andphilosophical systems which continued to be inHinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. King Harsha ofKannauj succeeded in reuniting northern India duringhis reign in the 7th century, after the collapse of theGupta dynasty. His kingdom collapsed after hisdeath.Central Asian and North Western Indian Buddhismweakened in the 6th century after the White Hun invasion, who followed their ownreligions such as Tengri, and Manichaeism. Muhammad bin Qasim's invasion of Sindh in711 CE witnessed further decline of Buddhism. The Chach Nama records manyinstances of conversion of stupas to mosques such as at Nerun[81]

In 7th century CE, Kumrila Bhaa formulated his school of Mimamsa philosophy anddefended the position on Vedic rituals against Buddhist attacks. Scholars note Bhaa'scontribution to the decline of Buddhism.[82] His dialectical success against theBuddhists is confirmed by Buddhist historian Tathagata, who reports that Kumriladefeated disciples of Buddhapalkita, Bhavya, Dharmadasa, Dignaga and others.[83]

Ronald Inden writes that by 8th century BCE symbols of Hindu gods "replaced theBuddha at the imperial centre and pinnacle of the cosmo-political system, the image orsymbol of the Hindu god comes to be housed in a monumental temple and givenincreasingly elaborate imperial-style puja worship".[84] Although Buddhism did notdisappear from India for several centuries after the eighth, royal proclivities for the cults ofVishnu and Shiva weakened Buddhism's position within the sociopolitical context andhelped make possible its decline.[85]

Northern IndiaFrom the 7th to the 9th century, three dynasties contested for control of northern India:the Gurjara Pratiharas of Malwa,the Eastern Ganga dynasty of Odisha, the Palas ofBengal, and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan. The Sena dynasty would later assumecontrol of the Pala Empire, and the Gurjara Pratiharas fragmented into various states.These were the first of the Rajput states, a series of kingdoms which managed to survivein some form for almost a millennium, until Indian independence from the British. The firstrecorded Rajput kingdoms emerged in Rajasthan in the 6th century, and small Rajputdynasties later ruled much of northern India. One Gurjar[86][87] Rajput of the Chauhanclan, Prithvi Raj Chauhan, was known for bloody conflicts against the advancing Islamicsultanates. The Shahi dynasty ruled portions of eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan,and Kashmir from the mid-7th century to the early 11th century.The Chalukya dynasty ruled parts of southern and central India from Badami in Karnataka between 550 and 750, and then againfrom Kalyani between 970 and 1190. The Pallavas of Kanchipuram were their contemporaries further to the south. With thedecline of the Chalukya empire, their feudatories, the Hoysalas of Halebidu, Kakatiyas of Warangal, Seuna Yadavas of Devagiri,and a southern branch of the Kalachuri, divided the vast Chalukya empire amongst themselves around the middle of 12thcentury.The Chola Empire at its peak covered much of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Rajaraja Chola I conquered all ofpeninsular south India and parts of Sri Lanka. Rajendra Chola I's navies went even further, occupying coasts from Burma toVietnam,[88] the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Lakshadweep (Laccadive) islands, Sumatra, and the Malay Peninsula inSoutheast Asia and the Pegu islands. Later during the middle period, the Pandyan Empire emerged in Tamil Nadu, as well asthe Chera Kingdom in parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. By 1343, last of these dynasties had ceased to exist, giving rise to theVijayanagar empire.The ports of south India were engaged in the Indian Ocean trade, chiefly involving spices, with the Roman Empire to the westand Southeast Asia to the east.[89][90] Literature in local vernaculars and spectacular architecture flourished until about thebeginning of the 14th century, when southern expeditions of the sultan of Delhi took their toll on these kingdoms. The HinduVijayanagar Empire came into conflict with the Islamic Bahmani Sultanate, and the clashing of the two systems caused amingling of the indigenous and foreign cultures that left lasting cultural influences on each other.

The Islamic SultanatesMain articles: Muslim conquest of India, Islamic Empires in India, Bahmani Sultanate, and Deccan SultanatesSee also: Rajput resistance to Muslim conquests and Growth of Muslim Population in Mediaeval India

After conquering Persia, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate incorporated parts of what is nowPakistan around 720. The Muslim rulers were keen to invade India,[91] a rich region with aflourishing international trade and the only known diamond mines in the world.[92] In 712,Arab Muslim general Muhammad bin Qasim conquered most of the Indus region in



Gol Gumbaz at Bijapur, has thesecond largest pre-modern dome in theworld after the Byzantine Hagia Sophia.

Qutub Minar is the world's tallestbrick minaret, commenced by Qutb-ud-din Aybak of the Slave dynasty.

Extent of the Mughal Empire in 1700.

Taj Mahal, built by the Mughals

modern day Pakistan for the Umayyad empire, incorporating it as the "As-Sindh"province with its capital at Al-Mansurah, 72 km (45 mi) north of modern Hyderabad inSindh, Pakistan. After several wars, the Hindu Rajput clans defeated the Arabs at theBattle of Rajasthan, halting their expansion and containing them at Sindh in Pakistan.[93]Many short-lived Islamic kingdoms (sultanates) under foreign rulers were establishedacross the north western subcontinent over a period of a few centuries. Additionally,Muslim trading communities flourished throughout coastal south India, particularly on thewestern coast where Muslim traders arrived in small numbers, mainly from the Arabianpeninsula. This marked the introduction of a third Abrahamic Middle Eastern religion,following Judaism and Christianity, often in puritanical form. Later, the Bahmani Sultanate and Deccan sultanates, founded byTurkic rulers, flourished in the south.The Vijayanagara Empire rose to prominence by the end of the 13th century as a culmination of attempts by the southernpowers to ward off Islamic invasions. The empire dominated all of Southern India and fought off invasions from the five establishedDeccan Sultanates.[94] The empire reached its peak during the rule of Krishnadevaraya when Vijayanagara armies wereconsistently victorious.[95] The empire annexed areas formerly under the Sultanates in the northern Deccan and the territories inthe eastern Deccan, including Kalinga, while simultaneously maintaining control over all its subordinates in the south.[96] Itlasted until 1646, though its power declined after a major military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates. As a result, much ofthe territory of the former Vijaynagar Empire were captured by Deccan Sultanates, and the remainder was divided into manystates ruled by Hindu rulers.

Delhi SultanateMain article: Delhi SultanateIn the 12th and 13th centuries, Turks and Afghans invaded parts of northern India andestablished the Delhi Sultanate in the former Rajput holdings.[97] The subsequent Slavedynasty of Delhi managed to conquer large areas of northern India, approximately equalin extent to the ancient Gupta Empire, while the Khilji dynasty conquered most of centralIndia but were ultimately unsuccessful in conquering and uniting the subcontinent. TheSultanate ushered in a period of Indian cultural renaissance. The resulting "Indo-Muslim"fusion of cultures left lasting syncretic monuments in architecture, music, literature,religion, and clothing. It is surmised that the language of Urdu (literally meaning "horde"or "camp" in various Turkic dialects) was born during the Delhi Sultanate period as aresult of the intermingling of the local speakers of Sanskritic Prakrits with immigrantsspeaking Persian, Turkic, and Arabic under the Muslim rulers. The Delhi Sultanate is theonly Indo-Islamic empire to enthrone one of the few female rulers in India, Razia Sultana(12361240).A Turco-Mongol conqueror in Central Asia, Timur (Tamerlane), attacked the reigningSultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud of the Tughlaq Dynasty in the north Indian city of Delhi.[98]The Sultan's army was defeated on 17 December 1398. Timur entered Delhi and the citywas sacked, destroyed, and left in ruins, after Timur's army had killed and plundered for

three days and nights. He ordered the whole city to be sacked except for the sayyids, scholars, and the other Muslims; 100,000war prisoners were put to death in one day.[99]

Early modern period

Mughal EmpireMain article: Mughal EmpireIn 1526, Babur, a Timurid descendant ofTimur and Genghis Khan from FerganaValley (modern day Uzbekistan), sweptacross the Khyber Pass and establishedthe Mughal Empire, covering modern dayAfghanistan, Pakistan, India andBangladesh.[100] However, his sonHumayun was defeated by the Afghanwarrior Sher Shah Suri in the year 1540,and Humayun was forced to retreat to

Kabul. After Sher Shah's death, his son Islam Shah Suri and the Hindu king SamratHem Chandra Vikramaditya, who had won 22 battles against Afghan rebels andforces of Akbar, from Punjab to Bengal and had established a secular Hindu rule inNorth India from Delhi till 1556. Akbar's forces defeated and killed Hemu in theSecond Battle of Panipat on 6 November 1556.The Mughal dynasty ruled most of the Indian subcontinent by 1600; it went into aslow decline after 1707. The Mughals suffered sever blow due to invasions fromMarathas and Afghans due to which the Mughal dynasty were reduced to puppet rulers by 1757. The remnants of the Mughaldynasty were finally defeated during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, also called the 1857 War of Independence. This period markedvast social change in the subcontinent as the Hindu majority were ruled over by the Mughal emperors, most of whom showedreligious tolerance, liberally patronising Hindu culture. The famous emperor Akbar, who was the grandson of Babar, tried toestablish a good relationship with the Hindus. However, later emperors such as Aurangazeb tried to establish complete Muslimdominance, and as a result several historical temples were destroyed during this period and taxes imposed on non-Muslims.



Political map of Indian subcontinent in1758. The Maratha Empire (orange)was the last Hindu empire of India.

Harmandir Sahib or The GoldenTemple is culturally the most significantplace of worship for the Sikhs.

During the decline of the Mughal Empire, several smaller states rose to fill the power vacuum and themselves were contributingfactors to the decline. In 1739, Nader Shah, emperor of Iran, defeated the Mughal army at the huge Battle of Karnal. After thisvictory, Nader captured and sacked Delhi, carrying away many treasures, including the Peacock Throne.[101]

The Mughals were perhaps the richest single dynasty to have ever existed. During the Mughal era, the dominant political forcesconsisted of the Mughal Empire and its tributaries and, later on, the rising successor states - including the Maratha Empire -which fought an increasingly weak Mughal dynasty. The Mughals, while often employing brutal tactics to subjugate their empire,had a policy of integration with Indian culture, which is what made them successful where the short-lived Sultanates of Delhi hadfailed. Akbar the Great was particularly famed for this. Akbar declared "Amari" or non-killing of animals in the holy days ofJainism. He rolled back the jizya tax for non-Muslims. The Mughal emperors married local royalty, allied themselves with localmaharajas, and attempted to fuse their Turko-Persian culture with ancient Indian styles, creating a unique Indo-Saracenicarchitecture. It was the erosion of this tradition coupled with increased brutality and centralization that played a large part in thedynasty's downfall after Aurangzeb, who unlike previous emperors, imposed relatively non-pluralistic policies on the generalpopulation, which often inflamed the majority Hindu population.

Post-Mughal periodMain articles: Maratha Empire, Kingdom of Mysore, Hyderabad State, Nawab of Bengal, Sikh Empire, Rajputs, and DurraniEmpireFurther information: Shivaji, Tipu Sultan, Nizam, Nawab of Oudh, Ranjit Singh, and Ahmad Shah Abdali

Maratha EmpireMain article: Maratha Empire

The post-Mughal era was dominated by the rise of the Maratha suzerainty as other smallregional states (mostly late Mughal tributary states) emerged, and also by the increasingactivities of European powers (see colonial era below). There is no doubt that the singlemost important power to emerge in the long twilight of the Mughal dynasty was theMaratha Empire.[102] The Maratha kingdom was founded and consolidated by Shivaji, aMaratha aristocrat of the Bhonsle clan who was determined to establish HindaviSwarajya (self-rule of Hindu people). By the 18th century, it had transformed itself intothe Maratha Empire under the rule of the Peshwas (prime ministers). Gordon explainshow the Maratha systematically took control over the Malwa plateau in 1720-1760. Theystarted with annual raids, collecting ransom from villages and towns while the decliningMughal Empire retained nominal control. However in 1737, the Marathas defeated aMughal army in their capital, Delhi inteslf, and as a result, the Mughal emperor cededMalwa to them. The Marathas continued their military campaigns against Mughals,Nizam, Nawab of Bengal and Durrani Empire to further extend their boundaries. Theybuilt an efficient system of public administration known for its attention to detail. It succeeded in raising revenue in districts thatrecovered from years of raids, up to levels previously enjoyed by the Mughals. The cornerstone of the Maratha rule in Malwarested on the 60 or so local tax collectors (kamavisdars) who advanced the Maratha ruler '(Peshwa)' a portion of their districtrevenues at interest.[103] By 1760, the domain of the Marathas stretched across practically the entire subcontinent.[104] Thedefeat of Marathas by British in three Anglo-Maratha Wars brought end to the empire by 1820. The last peshwa, Baji Rao II, wasdefeated by the British in the Third Anglo-Maratha War.

Sikh Empire (North-west)Main article: Sikh EmpireSee also: History of Sikhism

The Punjabi kingdom, ruled by members of the Sikh religion, was a political entity thatgoverned the region of modern-day Punjab. The empire, based around the Punjab region,existed from 1799 to 1849. It was forged, on the foundations of the Khalsa, under theleadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (17801839) from an array of autonomous PunjabiMisls. He consolidated many parts of northern India into a kingdom. He primarily usedhis highly disciplined Sikh army that he trained and equipped to be the equal of aEuropean force. Ranjit Singh proved himself to be a master strategist and selected wellqualified generals for his army. In stages, he added the central Punjab, the provinces ofMultan and Kashmir, the Peshawar Valley, and the Derajat to his kingdom. His came inthe face of the powerful British East India Company.[105][106] At its peak, in the 19thcentury, the empire extended from the Khyber Pass in the west, to Kashmir in the north, to Sindh in the south, and Himachal inthe east. This was among the last areas of the subcontinent to be conquered by the British. The first and second Anglo-Sikh warmarked the downfall of the Sikh Empire.

Other kingdomsThere were several other kingdoms which ruled over parts of India in the later mediaeval period prior to the British occupation.However, most of them were bound to pay regular tribute to the Marathas.[104] The rule of Wodeyar dynasty which establishedthe Kingdom of Mysore in southern India in around 1400 CE by was interrupted by Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan in the laterhalf of 18th century. Under their rule, Mysore fought a series of wars sometimes against the combined forces of the British andMarathas, but mostly against the British, with Mysore receiving some aid or promise of aid from the French.The Nawabs of Bengal had become the de facto rulers of Bengal following the decline of Mughal Empire. However, their rule wasinterrupted by Marathas who carried six expeditions in Bengal from 1741 to 1748 as a result of which Bengal became a vassalstate of Marathas.Hyderabad was founded by the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda in 1591. Following a brief Mughal rule, Asif Jah, a Mughal



Map of India in 1857 at the end ofCompany rule.

official, seized control of Hyderabad and declared himself Nizam-al-Mulk of Hyderabad in 1724. It was ruled by a hereditaryNizam from 1724 until 1948. Both Mysore and Hyderabad became princely states in British India.Around the 18th century, the modern state of Nepal was formed by Gurkha rulers.

Colonial eraMain article: Colonial India

In 1498, Vasco da Gama successfully discovered a new sea route from Europe to India, which paved the way for direct Indo-European commerce.[107] The Portuguese soon set up trading posts in Goa, Daman, Diu and Bombay. The next to arrive werethe Dutch, the Britishwho set up a trading post in the west coast port of Surat[108] in 1619and the French. The internalconflicts among Indian kingdoms gave opportunities to the European traders to gradually establish political influence andappropriate lands. Although these continental European powers controlled various coastal regions of southern and eastern Indiaduring the ensuing century, they eventually lost all their territories in India to the British islanders, with the exception of theFrench outposts of Pondichry and Chandernagore, the Dutch port of Travancore, and the Portuguese colonies of Goa, Damanand Diu.

Company rule in IndiaMain articles: East India Company and Company rule in India

In 1617 the British East India Company was given permission by Mughal EmperorJahangir to trade in India.[109] Gradually their increasing influence led the de jureMughal emperor Farrukh Siyar to grant them dastaks or permits for duty free trade inBengal in 1717.[110] The Nawab of Bengal Siraj Ud Daulah, the de facto ruler of theBengal province, opposed British attempts to use these permits.The First Carnatic War extended from 1746 until 1748 and was the result of colonialcompetition between France and Britain, two of the countries involved in the War ofAustrian Succession. Following the capture of a few French ships by the British fleetin India, French troops attacked and captured the British city of Madras located onthe east coast of India on 21 September 1746. Among the prisoners captured atMadras was Robert Clive himself. The war was eventually ended by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle which ended the War of Austrian Succession in 1748.In 1749, the Second Carnatic War broke out as the result of a war between a son,Nasir Jung, and a grandson, Muzaffer Jung, of the deceased Nizam-ul-Mulk ofHyderabad to take over Nizam's throne in Hyderabad. The French supported MuzafferJung in this civil war. Consequently, the British supported Nasir Jung in this conflict.Meanwhile, however, the conflict in Hyderabad provided Chanda Sahib with anopportunity to take power as the new Nawab of the territory of Arcot. In this conflict,the French supported Chandra Sahib in his attempt to become the new Nawab ofArcot. The British supported the son of the deposed incumbent Nawab, AnwaruddinMuhammad Khan, against Chanda Sahib. In 1751, Robert Clive led a British armedforce and captured Arcot to reinstate the incumbent Nawab. The Second Carnatic War finally came to an end in 1754 with theTreaty of Pondicherry.In 1756, the Seven Years War broke out between the great powers of Europe, and India became a theatre of action, where it wascalled the Third Carnatic War. Early in this war, armed forces under the French East India Company captured the British base ofCalcutta in north-eastern India. However, armed forces under Robert Clive later recaptured Calcutta and then pressed on tocapture the French settlement of Chandannagar in 1757. This led to the Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757, in which the BengalArmy of the East India Company, led by Robert Clive, defeated the French-supported Nawab's forces. This was the first realpolitical foothold with territorial implications that the British acquired in India. Clive was appointed by the company as its first'Governor of Bengal' in 1757.[111] This was combined with British victories over the French at Madras, Wandiwash andPondichry that, along with wider British successes during the Seven Years War, reduced French influence in India. Thus as aresult of the three Carnatic Wars, the British East India Company gained exclusive control over the entire Carnatic region ofIndia.[112] The British East India Company extended its control over the whole of Bengal. After the Battle of Buxar in 1764, thecompany acquired the rights of administration in Bengal from Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II; this marked the beginning of itsformal rule, which within the next century engulfed most of India and extinguished the Moghul rule and dynasty.[113] The EastIndia Company monopolized the trade of Bengal. They introduced a land taxation system called the Permanent Settlementwhich introduced a feudal-like structure in Bengal, often with zamindars set in place. By the 1850s, the East India Companycontrolled most of the Indian sub-continent, which included present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh. Their policy was sometimessummed up as Divide and Rule, taking advantage of the enmity festering between various princely states and social and religiousgroups.[114]

The Hindu Ahom Kingdom of North-east India first fell to Burmese invasion and then to British after Treaty of Yandabo in 1826.

The rebellion of 1857 and its consequencesMain article: Indian rebellion of 1857

The Indian rebellion of 1857 was a large-scale rebellion by soldiers employed by the British East India in northern and centralIndia against the Company's rule. The rebels were disorganized, had differing goals, and were poorly equipped, led, and trained,and had no outside support or funding. They were brutally suppressed and the British government took control of the Companyand eliminated many of the grievances that caused it. The government also was determined to keep full control so that norebellion of such size would ever happen again. It favoured the princely states (that helped suppress the rebellion), and tended tofavour Muslims (who were less rebellious) against the Hindus who dominated the rebellion.[115]

In the aftermath, all power was transferred from the East India Company to the British Crown, which began to administer most of



The British Indian Empire at its greatestextent (in a map of 1909). The princelystates under British suzerainty are in yellow.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi andMuhammad Ali Jinnah, Bombay, 1944.

In the aftermath, all power was transferred from the East India Company to the British Crown, which began to administer most ofIndia as a number of provinces; the John Company's lands were controlled directly, while it had considerable indirect influenceover the rest of India, which consisted of the Princely states ruled by local royal families. There were officially 565 princely statesin 1947, but only 21 had actual state governments, and only three were large (Mysore, Hyderabad and Kashmir). They wereabsorbed into the independent nation in 1947-48.[116]

British RajMain article: British Raj

ReformsWhen the Lord Curzon (Viceroy 1899-1905) took control of higher education and thensplit the large province of Bengal into a largely Hindu western half and "EasternBengal and Assam," a largely Muslim eastern half. The British goal was efficientadministration but Hindus were outraged at the apparent "divide and rule" strategy."When the Liberal party in Britain came to power in 1906 he was removed. The newViceroy Gilbert Minto and the new Secretary of State for India John Morley consultedwith Congress leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale. The Morley-Minto reforms of 1909provided for Indian membership of the provincial executive councils as well as theViceroy's executive council. The Imperial Legislative Council was enlarged from 25 to60 members and separate communal representation for Muslims was established in adramatic step towards representative and responsible government. Bengal wasreunified in 1911.[117] Meanwhile the Muslims for the first time began to organise,setting up the All India Muslim League in 1906. It was not a mass party but wasdesigned to protect the interests of the aristocratic Muslims, especially in the north west. It was internally divided by conflictingloyalties to Islam, the British, and India, and by distrust of Hindus.[118]

FaminesDuring the British Raj, famines in India, often attributed to failed government policies, were some of the worst ever recorded,including the Great Famine of 187678 in which 6.1 million to 10.3 million people died[119] and the Indian famine of 18991900 inwhich 1.25 to 10 million people died.[119] The Third Plague Pandemic started in China in the middle of the 19th century,spreading plague to all inhabited continents and killing 10 million people in India alone.[120] Despite persistent diseases andfamines, the population of the Indian subcontinent, which stood at about 125 million in 1750, had reached 389 million by1941.[121]

The Indian independence movementMain articles: Indian independence movement and Pakistan MovementSee also: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Indian independence activists

The numbers of British in India were small, yet they were able to rule two-thirds of thesubcontinent directly and exercise considerable leverage over the princely states thataccounted for the remaining one-third of the area. There were 674 of the these statesin 1900, with a population of 73 million, or one person in five. In general, the princelystates were strong supporters of the British regime, and the Raj left them alone. Theywere finally closed down in 1947-48.[122]

The first step toward Indian self-rule was the appointment of councillors to advise theBritish viceroy, in 1861; the first Indian was appointed in 1909. Provincial Councilswith Indian members were also set up. The councillors' participation wassubsequently widened into legislative councils. The British built a large British IndianArmy, with the senior officers all British, and many of the troops from small minoritygroups such as Gurkhas from Nepal and Sikhs. The civil service was increasingly filled with natives at the lower levels, with theBritish holding the more senior positions.[123]

From 1920 leaders such as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi began highly popular mass movements to campaign against theBritish Raj using largely peaceful methods. Some others adopted a militant approach that sought to overthrow British rule byarmed struggle; revolutionary activities against the British rule took place throughout the Indian sub-continent. The Gandhi-ledindependence movement opposed the British rule using non-violent methods like non-cooperation, civil disobedience andeconomic resistance. These movements succeeded in bringing independence to the new dominions of India and Pakistan in1947.

Independence and partitionMain articles: Partition of India, History of the Republic of India, History of Pakistan, and History of Bangladesh

Along with the desire for independence, tensions between Hindus and Muslims had also been developing over the years. TheMuslims had always been a minority within the subcontinent, and the prospect of an exclusively Hindu government made themwary of independence; they were as inclined to mistrust Hindu rule as they were to resist the foreign Raj, although Gandhi calledfor unity between the two groups in an astonishing display of leadership. The British, extremely weakened by the Second WorldWar, promised that they would leave and participated in the formation of an interim government. The British Indian territoriesgained independence in 1947, after being partitioned into the Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. Following the controversialdivision of pre-partition Punjab and Bengal, rioting broke out between Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims in these provinces and spreadto several other parts of India, leaving some 500,000 dead.[124] Also, this period saw one of the largest mass migrations everrecorded in modern history, with a total of 12 million Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims moving between the newly created nations ofIndia and Pakistan (which gained independence on 15 and 14 August 1947 respectively).[124] In 1971, Bangladesh, formerly East



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Pakistan and East Bengal, seceded from Pakistan.

HistoriographyIn recent decades there have been four main schools of historiography regarding India: Cambridge, Nationalist, Marxist, andsubaltern. The once common "Orientalist" approach, with its the image of a sensuous, inscrutable, and wholly spiritual India,has died out in serious scholarship.[125]

The "Cambridge School," led by Anil Seal,[126] Gordon Johnson,[127] Richard Gordon, and David A. Washbrook,[128] downplaysideology.[129]

The Nationalist school has focused on Congress, Gandhi, Nehru and high level politics. It highlighted the Mutiny of 1857 as awar of liberation, and Gandhi's 'Quit India' begun in 1942, as defining historical events. More recently, Hindu nationalists havecreated a version of history for the schools to support their demands for "Hindutva" ("Hinduness") in Indian society.[130]

The Marxists have focused on studies of economic development, landownership, and class conflict in precolonial India and ofdeindustrialization during the colonial period. The Marxists portrayed Gandhi's movement as a device for the bourgeois elite toharness popular, potentially revolutionary forces for its own ends.[131]

The "subaltern school," was begun in the 1980s by Ranajit Guha and Gyan Prakash.[132] It focuses attention away from theelites and politicians to "history from below," looking at the peasants using folklore, poetry, riddles, proverbs, songs, oral historyand methods inspired by anthropology. It focuses on the colonial era before 1947 and typically emphasizes caste anddownplays class, to the annoyance of the Marxist school.[133]

See alsoHistory of the Republic of IndiaPostage stamps and postal history of IndiaEconomic history of IndiaIndian maritime historyMilitary history of IndiaLinguistic history of the Indian subcontinentChronology of Indian historyRajamandala, a concept of friendly and enemy neighbor states mentioned in Arthashastra

Gallery

Chowmahalla Palace inHyderabad

Charminar at Old City inHyderabad

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the first millennium BCE was the period that created many of the ideological and institutional elements that characterize laterIndian religions. The renouncer tradition played a central role during this formative period of Indian religious history....Some of thefundamental values and beliefs that we generally associate with Indian religions in general and Hinduism in particular were inpart the creation of the renouncer tradition. These include the two pillars of Indian theologies: samsara - the belief that life in thisworld is one of suffering and subject to repeated deaths and births (rebirth); moksa/nirvana - the goal of human existence....."

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Issue 2, pp 130-147

SourcesMichaels, Axel (2004), Hinduism. Past and present, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press

Further readingBandyopadhyay, Sekhar. From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India (2010)Basham, A. L., ed. The Illustrated Cultural History of India (Oxford University Press, 2007)Brown, Judith M. Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy (2nd ed. 1994) onlineDanilou, Alain (2003). A Brief History of India ISBN 0-89281-923-5Guha, Ramachandra. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy (2007), 890pp; since 1947James, Lawrence. Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India (2000)Keay, John (2000). India: A History . New York, USA: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3797-0.Kulke, Hermann and Dietmar Rothermund. A History of India. (4th ed 2004) onlineMcleod, John. The History of India] (2002) excerpt and text searchMansingh, Surjit The A to Z of India (2010), a concise historical encyclopediaMetcalf, Barbara D. and Thomas R. Metcalf. A Concise History of Modern India (2006) excerpt and text searchPeers, Douglas M. India under Colonial Rule: 1700-1885 (2006), 192ppRichards, John F. The Mughal Empire (The New Cambridge History of India) (1996) excerpt and text searchRothermund, Dietmar. An Economic History of India: From Pre-Colonial Times to 1991 (1993)Sharma, R.S., India's Ancient Past, (Oxford University Press, 2005)Sarkar, Sumit. Modern India, 1885-1947 (2002)Singhal, D.P. A History of the Indian People. (1983)Smith, Vincent. The Oxford History of India (3rd ed. 1958), old-fashionedSpear, Percival. The History of India (1958 and later editions) online editionStein, Burton. A History of India (1998) excerpt and text searchTapan, Habib, and Irfan Raychaudhuri, eds. The Cambridge Economic History of India; Volume 1: c. 1200 - c. 1750 (1984),essays by scholars

Dharma Kumar and Meghnad Desai, eds. The Cambridge Economic History of India: Volume 2, c.1751-c.1970 (2nd ed.2010), 1114pp of scholarly articles

Thapar, Romila. Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 (2004) excerpt and text searchThompson, Edward, and G.T. Garratt. Rise and Fulfilment of British Rule in India (1934) 690 pages; scholarly survey, 1599-1933 excerpt and text searchTomlinson, B. R. The Economy of Modern India, 1860-1970 (The New Cambridge History of India) (1996) excerpt and textsearchWolpert, Stanley. A New History of India. (6th ed. 1999)

HistoriographyBannerjee, Dr. Gauranganath (1921). India as known to the ancient world . Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press,London.Bayly, C. A. "State and Economy in India over Seven Hundred Years," Economic History Review, (Nov 1985), 38#4 pp 583596, onlineBose, Mihir. "India's Missing Historians: Mihir Bose Discusses the Paradox That India, a Land of History, Has a SurprisinglyWeak Tradition of Historiography," History Today 57#9 (2007) pp 34+. onlineElliot, Henry Miers; John Dowson (186777). The History of India, as told by its own historians. The Muhammadan Period .London: Trbner and Co.

Online sourcesThe Imperial Gazetteer of India (26 vol, 190831), highly detailed description of all of India in 1901. online edition



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