Some Interesting History about India

8/15/2019 Some Interesting History about India

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One of the earliest civilizations, the Indus Valley civilization flourished on theIndian subcontinent from c. 2600 B.C. to c. 2000 B.C. It is generally accepted thatthe Aryans entered India c. 1500 B.C. from the northwest, finding a land that was

already home to an advanced civilization. They introduced Sanskrit and theVedic religion, a forerunner of Hinduism. Buddhism was founded in the 6thcentury B.C. and was spread throughout northern India, most notably by one of

the great ancient kings of the Mauryan dynasty, Asoka (c. 269 -232 B.C.), whoalso unified most of the Indian subcontinent for the first time.

In 1526, Muslim invaders founded the great Mogul Empire, centered on Delhi ,which lasted, at least in name, until 1857. Akbar the Great (1542-1605)strengthened and consolidated this empire. The long reign of his great-grandson,Aurangzeb (1618-1707), represents both the greatest extent of the Mogul Empire

and the beginning of its decay.

Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, landed in India in 1498, and for thenext 100 years the Portuguese had a virtual monopoly on trade with thesubcontinent. Meanwhile, the English founded the East India Company, whichset up its first factory at Surat in 1612 and began expanding its influence,fighting the Indian rulers and the French, Dutch, and Portuguese traderssimultaneously.

Bombay, taken from the Portuguese, became the seat of English rule in 1687. Thedefeat of French and Mogul armies by Lord Clive in 1757 laid the foundation of

the British Empire in India . The East India Company continued to suppressnative uprisings and extend British rule until 1858, when the administration ofIndia was formally transferred to the British Crown following the Sepoy Mutinyof native troops in 1857-1858.

After World War I, in which the Indian states sent more than 6 million troops tofight beside the Allies, Indian nationalist unrest rose to new heights under theleadership of a Hindu lawyer, Mohandas K. Gandhi, called Mahatma Gandhi.His philosophy of civil disobedience called for nonviolent noncooperationagainst British authority. He soon became the leading spirit of the Indian

National Congress Party, which was the spearhead of revolt. In 1919, the Britishgave added responsibility to Indian officials, and in 1935, India was given afederal form of government and a measure of self-rule.

In 1942, with the Japanese pressing hard on the eastern borders of India , theBritish War Cabinet tried and failed to reach a political settlement withnationalist leaders. The Congress Party took the position that the British mustquit India . Fearing mass civil disobedience, the government of India carried outwidespread arrests of Congress Party leaders, including Gandhi.

Gandhi was released in 1944 and negotiations for a settlement were resumed.

Finally, in Aug. 1947, India gained full independence. The victory was soured,


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however, by the partitioning of the predominantly Muslim regions of the northinto the separate nation of Pakistan . The Muslim League, led by Mohammed Ali

Jinnah, demanded a separate nation for the Muslim minority to prevent Hindupolitical and social domination. Indian Hindus, however, had hoped for aunified rather than balkanized Indian subcontinent. Lord Mountbatten as viceroypartitioned India along religious lines and split the provinces of Bengal and thePunjab , which both nations claimed. The partition of Pakistan and India led tothe largest migration in human history, with 17 million people fleeing across theborders in both directions to escape the bloody riots occurring among sectariangroups. Armed conflict also broke out over rival claims to the princely states of

Jammu and Kashmir .

Jawaharlal Nehru, nationalist leader and head of the Congress Party, was madeprime minister. In 1949, a constitution was approved, making India a sovereign

republic. Under a federal structure the states were organized on linguistic lines.The dominance of the Congress Party contributed to stability. In 1956, therepublic absorbed former French settlements. Five years later, the republicforcibly annexed the Portuguese enclaves of Goa, Damao, and Diu .

Nehru died in 1964. His successor, Lal Bahadur Shastri, died on Jan. 10, 1966.Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, became prime minister, and she continued hispolicy of nonalignment.

In 1971, the Pakistani army moved in to quash the independence movement inEast Pakistan that was supported by India , and some 10 million Bengali refugeespoured across the border into India , creating social, economic, and healthproblems. After numerous border incidents, India invaded East Pakistan and intwo weeks forced the surrender of the Pakistani army. East Pakistan wasestablished as an independent state and renamed Bangladesh .

In May 1975, the 300-year-old kingdom of Sikkim became a full-fledged Indianstate. Situated in the Himalayas, Sikkim was a virtual dependency of Tibet untilthe early 19th century. Under an 1890 treaty between China and Great Britain , itbecame a British protectorate and was made an Indian protectorate after Britainquit the subcontinent.

In the summer of 1975, the world's largest democracy veered suddenly towardauthoritarianism when a judge in Allahabad , Indira Gandhi's homeconstituency, found Gandhi's landslide victory in the 1971 elections invalidbecause civil servants had illegally aided her campaign. Amid demands for herresignation, Gandhi decreed a state of emergency on June 26 and ordered massarrests of her critics, including all opposition party leaders except theCommunists.

Despite strong opposition to her repressive measures, particularly resentmentagainst compulsory birth control programs, in 1977 Gandhi announced


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parliamentary elections for March. At the same time, she freed most politicalprisoners. The landslide victory of Morarji R. Desai unseated Gandhi, but shestaged a spectacular comeback in the elections of Jan. 1980.

In 1984, Gandhi ordered the Indian army to root out a band of Sikh holy menand gunmen who were using the most sacred shrine of the Sikh religion, theGolden Temple in Amritsar , as a base for terrorist raids in a violent campaignfor greater political autonomy in the strategic Punjab border state. The perceivedsacrilege to the Golden Temple kindled outrage among many of India 's 14million Sikhs and brought a spasm of mutinies and desertions by Sikh officersand soldiers in the army.

On Oct. 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two men identified bypolice as Sikh members of her bodyguard. The ruling Congress Party chose her

older son, Rajiv Gandhi, to succeed her as prime minister for four years. Whilerunning for reelection, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 22, 1991, by Tamilmilitants who objected to India 's mediation of the civil war in Sri Lanka .

The ruling Congress Party lost the parliamentary elections of May 1996, and itswaning resulted in a period of political instability. The Hindu nationalistBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) then became the dominant force in politics, withAtal Bihari Vajpayee as prime minister.

In May 1998, India set off five nuclear tests, surprising the internationalcommunity, which widely condemned India 's pronuclear stance. Despiteinternational urging for restraint, Pakistan responded by conducting severalnuclear tests of its own two weeks later. India has resisted signing theComprehensive Test Ban Treaty for nuclear weapons and has been slapped withsanctions by the U.S. and other countries. Less than a year later, in April 1999,both India and Pakistan tested nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.

India and Pakistan have held various talks about the disputed territory ofKashmir , which is the issue at the base of their chronic antagonism and theirdisplays of nuclear strength. India controls two-thirds of this Himalayan region,which is the only Indian state that is predominantly Muslim.

The Indian Air Force launched air strikes on May 26, 1999, and later sent inground troops against Islamic guerrilla forces in Kashmir . India blamedPakistan for orchestrating violence in Kashmir by sending soldiers andmercenaries across the so-called Line of Control that divides Kashmir betweenIndia and Pakistan . Pakistan countered that the guerrillas were independentKashmiri freedom fighters struggling for India 's ouster from the region. Mostinternational sources agreed with India 's assumption that Pakistan was armingthe soldiers. In Aug. 1999, Pakistan was forced to withdraw, but fightingcontinued sporadically during the coming year.


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In Oct. 2001, violence again broke out in the region when a suicide bombing by aPakistan-based militant organization killed 38 in India-controlled Kashmir . Indiaretaliated with heavy shelling across the Line of Control. India , angered byWashington 's sudden coziness with Pakistan following the Sept. 11 attacks, tookthe opportunity to point out that, while Pakistan might be helping the U.S. fightterrorism on the Afghan front, it was simultaneously supporting terrorism on itsown borders with India . On Dec. 13, 2001, suicide bombers attacked the Indianparliament, killing 14 people. Indian officials blamed the deadly attack on Islamicmilitants supported by Pakistan .

Violent clashes between Muslims and Hindus rocked the state of Gujarat in lateFebruary and early March 2002 after a Muslim mob fire-bombed a train, killing58 Hindu activists. Hindus retaliated, and more than 500 people died in thebloodshed.

Hope for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Kashmir was raised in Nov. 2002,when a newly elected coalition government in India-controlled Jammu andKashmir vowed to reach out to separatists and to improve conditions in thestate. But hopes were dashed in March 2003, following the slaughter of 24Hindus in Kashmir . Officials blamed the massacre on Islamic militants. Daysafter the violence, both India and Pakistan test-fired short-range missiles capableof carrying nuclear warheads. Two bombs exploded in Mumbai ( Bombay ) inAugust, killing more than 50 people and injuring about 150. Indian officialsblamed Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant Islamic group. But in Nov.

2003, India and Pakistan declared their first formal cease-fire in 14 years. Thecease-fire applied to the entire Line of Control dividing Kashmir . Relationsbetween the two countries have continued to thaw, though no real progress hasbeen made.

In one of the most dramatic political upsets in modern Indian history, the IndianNational Congress Party, led by Sonia Gandhi, prevailed in parliamentaryelections in May 2004, prompting Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to resign.Although the country prospered economically under Vajpayee's rule, asubstantial number of India 's poor felt they had not benefitted from India 'seconomic growth. Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of former prime

minister Rajiv Gandhi, dealt a further shock to the country when she refused tobecome prime minister. The BJP had vociferously protested Gandhi's expectedelevation to prime minister because of her foreign birth. The Congress Partyinstead chose former finance minister Manmohan Singh, who became India 'sfirst Sikh prime minister.

On Dec. 26, 2004, a tremendously powerful tsunami ravaged 12 Asian countries.Nearly 11,000 people perished in India .

President Bush announced in March 2005 that he would allow American

companies to provide India with several types of modern combat weapons,


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including F-16 and F-18 fighter jets. The announcement was seen as an attemptto balance Bush's offer to sell Pakistan about two dozen F-16s.

Monsoon rains in late July and early August 2005 caused devastating landslidesand floods that killed about 900 people in and around Mumbai. An earthquakewith a magnitude of 7.6 struck Pakistani-controlle d Kashmir on October 8, 2005.More than 81,000 people were killed and 2.5 million left homeless. India sufferedabout 1,300 casualties.

In March 2006, President Bush and Prime Minister Singh agreed to acontroversial civil nuclear power deal that permitted the sale of U.S. nucleartechnology to India despite the fact that India has never signed the internationalNuclear Nonproliferation agreement. Since 1998, the U.S. has imposed sanctionson India for undertaking nuclear tests. Critics of the deal, which must be

approved by Congress, contend that allowing India to circumvent theinternational treaty will make it more difficult to negotiate with Iran and NorthKorea and their nuclear ambitions.

On July 11, more than 200 people died and hundreds more were wounded whena series of bombs exploded on commuter trains in Mumbai during the eveningrush hour. Islamic terrorists were suspected.

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Some Interesting History about India