THE HISTORY OF INDIA: EARLY BEGINNINGS TO INDEPENDENCE Social Science... · THE HISTORY OF INDIA: EARLY BEGINNINGS TO INDEPENDENCE ... learn about the early civilizations of the subcontinent

1 Pentathlon Social Science Resource Guide 2015-1016

THE HISTORY OF INDIA:

EARLY BEGINNINGS TO

INDEPENDENCE

2015–2016

PENTATHLON

SOCIAL SCIENCE

RESOURCE GUIDE


Introduction

South Asia is divided into seven nation-states. India is bordered by Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan,

Bhutan, with the island-nations of Sri Lanka and the Maldives to the south and south-west. These

borders were formed during the 20th

century as a result of the withdrawal of the British Empire

after World War II. In 1947, India won its Independence.

“Life on the Campus:” the painting below illustrates the diverse experiences of modern Indian

life during the last years of British rule. The campus was Visva Bharati University, a university

founded by Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore is one of the most revered figures in Indian history for

his literature, non-fiction, poetry, and monumental social and political achievements. In 1913, he

became the first Indian and the first non-European to win the Noble Prize in Literature.

Visva Bharati University sought to provide an alternative to colonial educational institutions

emphasizing Tagore’s beliefs on patriotism and internationalism. Instruction in classes was


Bengali rather than English. Classes were held outdoors; science was emphasized along with

study of the arts and humanities. Additional studies focused on other non-European societies

such as China, Japan, and the Middle East. Many visitors came to Visva Bharati from abroad as

well.1

As we proceed, we will study the lives of great women and men and their influences on the

development of modern India. Though India may sometimes feel far away, many of the people

we will study shared similar ideas on democracy and freedom as the American colonies

experienced in the 18th

century.

This resource guide is divided into five sections. We begin with a definition of modern India. We

have also sought to show that there were many influences on India. India’s history and culture is

complex and is a composed of multiple interwoven influences that are braided together.

In Section I, we will cover the geography and religious influences of India. In Section II we will

learn about the early civilizations of the subcontinent as well as the great south Indian kingdom

Vijayanagara, the Mughal Empire, and European trading powers. In Section III we will consider

how the British emerged from among these European trading powers and gradually begin to shift

their operations from trade to rule over India. Section IV begins with a study of the uprising of

1857 in which Indians almost unseated British rule, examining the founding of Indian

nationalism, and the series of events leading to Indian and Pakistani Independence and Partition

in 1947. Section V considers the foundations of the flourishing of Indian democracy after

Independence.

Note to Students: Throughout the resource guide you will notice that some terms have been boldfaced and others

have been both boldfaced and underlined. Boldface indicates a key term or phrase. Terms that are underlined as

well as boldfaced are included in the glossary of terms at the end of the resource guide.


SECTION I: “INDIA BEFORE EUROPE”2

GEOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF INDIA

India, home to 1.2 billion people, is the world’s largest democracy.2

Today, India shares

borders with four other sovereign nation-states. Pakistan, with a population of 196 million, lies

to India’s northwest. On India’s northern border lies Nepal (population 31 million) and to its east

Bangladesh (166 million) and the mountainous kingdom of Bhutan (734,000). Just south of

India, separated only by a narrow channel, is the island nation of Sri Lanka (22 million).

Finally, off of India’s southwestern coast is the island chain of the Maldives (394,000).3

The Indian subcontinent can be divided into three geographic zones: the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the

Himalayan Mountains, and the Deccan Plateau.

The Deccan Plateau was formed in prehistoric times when the Indian tectonic plate ran into Asia,

forming the Himalayan Mountains.4

The Deccan Plateau is mainly made of granite and is not as

favorable to agriculture as the coastal regions to its east and west. India’s eastern Malabar and

western Coromandel Coasts are divided from the Deccan Plateau by the rocky ghats. Ghats are

long granite mountain ranges running up and down western and eastern India. At the start of the

Western Ghats, on the Arabian Sea, lies Bombay.

Mountains form a natural boundary of the South Asian subcontinent, both to the west and east.

To the northeast lies Tibet. The Kirthar and Sulaiman ranges form a boundary on the northwest.

Though these mountains are daunting, they have historically been passable, linking India into

great trans-Asian trade and intellectual developments.5

The Tibetan Plateau that lies just beyond

the Himalayan Mountains provides many river systems to the north Indian heartland. This rich

agrarian plain is called the Indo-Gangetic Plain after the two river systems between which it

lies, the Indus to the west and the Ganges to the east.6

The land between the Yamuna River and the Ganges is called the doab (“two rivers”) and the

land where five rivers run off the Indus is called the Punjab (“five rivers”).7 Located in the heart

of the doab (the term “doab” refers to a tract of land lying between two rivers) is India’s current

capital, New Delhi. New Delhi is located alongside the Yamuna River. As the Yamuna traces

east, it merges with the Ganges River at Allahabad, or Prayag as it is known in Hinduism. From

there the two rivers flow together across eastern India toward the equally significant port city of

Calcutta (today called Kolkata). Eventually the Ganges gives way to the Brahmaputra, which

also has its origin in the Tibetan Plateau, and they finally combine as the Padma to form the

largest delta in the world, south of Bangladesh’s capital at Dhaka.8


An additional important feature of India’s geography is its rainfall pattern, mostly concentrated

in the two yearly monsoons that bring much-needed rain in vast quantities. The monsoons, wind

patterns carrying rain from the Indian Ocean, have shaped the conditions of agriculture and the

rhythms of long-distance shipping and trade. Beginning in June and July, Indian Ocean air

currents direct moisture in vast sheets to the southeastern Indian coast, where the weather system

http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/india/india-map-annualrainfall.jpg

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/india_crop_1973.jpg


Map of British India, 1860. India’s colonial encounter with Britain was long lasting, deep-seated, and had many effects.

then travels north and west across India. Next, the monsoon “retreats,” providing another dose of

rainfall for an additional growing season. The first monsoon, blowing from west to east,

historically allowed long-distance shipping across the Indian Ocean. The second monsoon,

blowing from east to west, would also allow eastward seafaring from India’s Malabar Coast.

These favorable climactic conditions contributed to the growth of large-scale, settled, agrarian

empires.

THE TERM “INDIA”

Prior to Indian independence in 1947, the territories that are now India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh

formed a vast band of territory, mostly under the control of the British colonial government. In

1947, at the end of a long independence struggle, this territory was divided into two independent

nation-states: India and Pakistan. In 1971, the eastern wing of Pakistan gained independence as

Bangladesh.

Here we will use the term “India” historically. When discussing the period prior to 1947, when

we say India, we shall refer to the entire area of the Indian subcontinent. When we are discussing

the period after 1947, we shall use India to refer to the contemporary nation-state of India.

Today, government agencies and scholars use the phrase “South Asia” to indicate all the nation-


states of the sub-continent: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the

Maldives. Since 2007, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation has also included

Afghanistan in this list.9

A further note is needed regarding Indian place names. Since Independence, many of India’s

cities and states have changed the official spelling of their names to reflect their rejection of

colonial-era spellings. So, for example, Bombay became Mumbai in 1995; Calcutta became

Kolkata in 2001; and Bangalore became Bengaluru in 2014.

APPROACHES TO INDIAN HISTORY

KEYWORDS: COLONIALISM, NATION, MODERNITY

India’s colonial encounter with Britain was long lasting, deep-seated, and had many effects.

Colonialism is the rule of one group of people by another without complete permission.

European colonialism is usually divided into phases: the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century

Iberian (Spanish and Portuguese) expansion in the New World and the Dutch spice trade; the

seventeenth- and eighteenth-century commercial empires exemplified by Holland in Java and

Britain in India; and, perhaps best-known, the nineteenth-century scramble for Africa and Asia,

in which France, Britain, Germany, and Holland divvied up much of the world. By the twentieth

century, nationalist movements around the world successfully challenged colonial governments

with demands for self-rule.10

Colonial powers had different motivations, but they were usually at

first primarily economic.

Today the nation-state is the basic unit of world governance.11

The nation is thought to be a

collection of individuals residing in a more or less neighboring territory, with shared bonds of

culture, homeland, language, history, and ethnic and religious identity. A state exists to govern

that nation. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many European communities had to be

blended together into groupings such as “French” or “Italian.” Helped by communication

technologies, such as newspapers, the telegraph, railways (which speeded up communications

via mail), and radio (in the twentieth century), the diverse communities shared historical

experience.

Likewise, the idea of India as a distinct nation-state developed slowly over the course of the

nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In all cases, it was a gradual process. In many countries,

especially those Asian and African countries whose borders were determined by colonial powers,

the untiring, ethnic minorities supported independence for their own states. For example, in India

separatist groups have demanded their own nation-states on the basis of a shared language,

religion, tribal group, or shared historical and ethnic identity. For the most part, however,

nationalism in general and the idea of the Indian nation have been very successful in drawing

together diverse peoples. In multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic India, in which society is sometimes

divided by caste, gender, religion, and class, nationalism has provided a unifying belief.

Our topic is covers the history of India to its Independence. When did modern India begin? This

question, too, causes multiple arguments. One view might place the date at 1757, the Battle of

Plassey, suggesting that it was the British who brought modernity to India, while others propose

the beginning of modern India was in 1885 when the Indian National Congress was founded.12

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/middle_east_and_asia/india_lang_1973.jpg


Hindu holy men arrive at a religious procession. Most

Indians today (80.5 percent) are Hindus.

Indian modernity was not solely an

import from Britain, but was a product of

also the past. Therefore we will begin our

account with the early civilizations of

India and then visit the two great early

modern empires in India: Vijayanagara

and the Mughal Empire.

INDIAN SOCIETY RELIGIONS

As scholars discuss the impact of

colonialism on economic and political

systems, they also debate its impact on

Indian social structures. Historically, India has been home to a diverse, tolerant, and constantly

changing religious landscape. Yet religious tensions resulted in the Partition of India and

Pakistan and remain fault lines in modern India.

Most Indians today are Hindus (80.5 percent).13

Hinduism is an ancient religion that has many

branches of sacred knowledge, practice, and belief. Hindus most often worship their deities in

temples; in a practice known as darshan (vision), worshippers appease the deity and receive

blessings through their “seeing” of the deity. Hinduism is polytheistic and accepting; deities can

be pan-Indian or local. Hinduism also has a base of religious scriptures that help the

individual’s exploration of religion and moral principles. The most famous of these are the

philosophical Vedas and the two great epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana.

Before British rule, Hindu beliefs varied throughout the regions and often identified themselves

as a follower of a particular deity or saint. Some scholars argue that Hinduism as a unified

religion was invented by the British because the British grouped the diverse and competing

beliefs into large and general groups. Key deities in Hinduism include Brahma, the creator;

Vishnu, the protector; and Shiva, the destroyer. Each of the three god-heads also has many

avatars, which do the work of the gods among humans.

In the sixth century BCE, Buddhism (0.8 percent) and Jainism (0.4 percent) developed.14

Buddhism at first flourished in India. The ancient Indian emperor Ashoka (304–232 BCE)

famously converted to Buddhism and adopted the philosophy of ahimsa (non-violence) as policy

for his empire in penance for his destructive conquest of Orissa. However, in the medieval period

Buddhism died out in India. It was preserved in other parts of Asia. In contrast, Jainism, a similar

religion, remained confined to a small number of followers but has maintained a continuous

existence within India. Both religions criticized the Hindu doctrine of karma and rebirth: the

notion that one’s ethical record in this life would influence his/her position in the next.

These renouncer religions asked followers to detach themselves from desire, including the desire

to be reborn in a better position. Buddhism maintained that the root of suffering was desire; Jains

hold that any action whatsoever results in matter weighing down the soul.15

In its most extreme

form this could include fasting to death, so perhaps it is no surprise that the modern pioneer of


Indian Muslims pray outside a mosque on Eid Al-

Fitr, an important Islamic religious holiday marking the

end of Ramadan. Islam has deep roots on the Indian

subcontinent, and India has been a crucial site of Islamic

knowledge and practice.

Cheraman Masjid, built around 788 ce, claims to

be the first Jama Masjid, or central mosque, in

India.

that tactic, Mohandas K. Gandhi, was from the

Jain heartland of Gujarat. Jain philosophy

requires strict adherence to non-violence in all

things, even forbidding followers from eating root

vegetables because their harvest might kill small

bugs in the soil. Because Jain religious beliefs

have limited occupational choices, many became

merchants and capitalists. The British colonial

state treated Buddhists and Jains as Hindus.

Though Islam (13.4 percent)16

is often associated

with its Arabian birthplace, in fact, the second

largest Muslim population in the world is

concentrated in the Indian subcontinent. Today

India has the second largest Muslim population after Indonesia and Pakistan the third. If India,

Pakistan, and Bangladesh were counted as one unit, it would have the largest Muslim population

in the world.

It is difficult to know whether Islam first arrived in India by land or by sea, for the events were

of the same period. Founded in 632, the rise of Islam was rapid as the Umayyad Caliphate spread

its territory from Spain to Central Asia and on to Sindh in the seventh and eighth centuries.

Arab political control did not extend beyond Sindh further into Gujarat or Punjab. However, in

coastal India, Islam also took root along trade networks. The Mappilas are a community of

Muslims centered near Cochin, Kerala, who claim to have converted to Islam during the lifetime

of the Prophet Muhammad. Arab traders found that India’s caste-system worked against their

intermarriage and inter-dining with upper-caste practices within their communities. However, the

fishing community of the Mappilas did not observe such strict beliefs and intermarried with these

Arabs, becoming some of the first Indian Muslims. Mappilas spoke the local language

(Malayalam, not Arabic), dressed like their

neighbors, and continued their cultural

practices.17

One very early and valuable

artifact of this community is the Cheraman

Masjid, a wooden mosque. The mosque

was probably built in the seventh century

and rebuilt after its destruction in the

sixteenth century.18

This mosque is very

different from Umayyad mosques built in

the Arabian heartland of Islam and claims

to be the first Jama Masjid, or central

mosque, in India.19

In north India in the fourteenth and

fifteenth centuries, Islam spread on a wide

scale during the era of central Asian

dynasties centered at Delhi—first the Delhi


Sultanate and then the Mughal Empire. Muslim holy men brought Islam to local peoples. With

its simple beliefs and radical message of equality, the appeal of Islam to the north Indian peasant

is easy to understand. It was particularly noticeable in Bengal in eastern India. Although the state

did nothing to encourage Islam, the religion flourished through the work of these shrines and

holy men.20

The very earliest Christians in India converted just after Christ’s death by his disciple Thomas,

who is said to have come to India. These Christians belonged to the Syrian Christian tradition.21

The Portuguese tried to bring these Christians and Hindus into the Catholic fold. During the

colonial era, conversions did not occur in the vast numbers missionaries hoped for, though in the

northeast Christianity took deep root as a result of missionary zeal.

Another small minority religion in India is Zoroastrianism, whose adherents are called Parsis.

Parsis fled to India from Iran and quickly became an important merchant-trading community on

India’s western coast. India also has a miniscule population of Jews descended from trading

communities settled in India centuries ago. At the end of this section, we will examine India’s

third-largest religion, Sikhism (1.9 percent),22

in detail.

CASTE

Caste has been identified by many as a

peculiar and unique feature of Indian life.

Caste actually comes from a Portuguese

word, casta. Casta simply means lineage or

breed, but over four centuries of use in

India, the term has taken on a complex life

of its own. Most often, when westerners

refer to caste, they are referring to a system

of social division based on religious-

occupational categories.

Hindu tradition places people to different

classes. Each class has its own

responsibilities, privileges, and limitations.

The class or “caste” defines a person’s

social state. The term “caste” actually

encompasses two categories: varna and

jati. Varna is the term that refers to five

broad categories of religious-occupational

status: Brahmins (priests); Kshatriyas

(warriors); Vaishyas (traders and farmers);

Shudras (laborers); and Dalits. The term

“Dalit” needs a special note: in colonial

India those Indians who fell outside the caste system were referred to with terms such as

“outcastes” and “untouchables.” Today, these offensive terms have been replaced with “Dalit,” a

term meaning “oppressed” that has been reclaimed as an empowering identity marker.

Varna

Jati

Throughout India;

general

Jati categories tend to be

local and specific, though

they can be part of India-

wide/global networks

Five main

groupings

Thousands

Broad descriptive

categories

Highly occupation specific

(i.e., carpenter versus clerk

versus trader)

General descriptive

terms; relevance

primarily in

religious literature

and ritual

Highly influential in

determining appropriate

marriage partners (this is

changing, however),

mobilizing credit, and

gaining and using political

power


Though varna is perhaps simpler to understand, in day-to-day life, the main categories are

divided into hundreds of subcastes called jatis.23

The table on the previous page shows some of

the key differences.

Section I Summary

South Asia consists of three geographic zones (the Deccan Plateau, the Himalayas, and the Indo-

Gangetic plain) and is currently divided into eight countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal,

Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Afghanistan).

About 81.5 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people are Hindu and 13.4 percent are Muslim.

Hinduism is a polytheistic and ancient religion that allows great scope for diverse practices and

beliefs. One basic doctrine is that of reincarnation. India and Pakistan together have the largest

population of Muslims in the world, and Islam has long had an important role in Indian life.

Other religious groups include Sikhs, Parsis, Christians, and Jews.

Caste can refer to both varna and jati, the latter of which is more important in everyday life.

Caste represents a hierarchical division of society along occupational lines.


SECTION II: INDIA BEFORE EUROPEAN COLONIZATION

Indus Valley Civilization, 3300–1300 BCE

On the banks of the Indus River, an early, sophisticated civilization flourished. The Indus

Valley Civilization was the earliest formal society to develop in South Asia.24

It is one of the

three major early urban river-valley cultures, along with Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt.

Although our knowledge of these civilizations is somewhat limited, excavations of two of its

leading cities, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, uncovered evidence of an advanced society. Also

known as the Harappan civilization (after the first major site to be discovered and excavated),

this culture flourished along the Indus river in present-day Pakistan and northern India.

From approximately 3300 to 1300 BCE, the Indus Valley Civilization developed a relatively

uniform culture across a number of locations, including Harappa, Ganweriwala Thar,

Kalibangan, and Mohenjo-daro. Evidence at these sites shows a highly sophisticated level of

urban planning, with carefully line streets, brick houses, a sewage systems as well as major

advancements in technology. Archeological evidence confirms that the inhabitants of the Indus

Valley were among the first to adopt a system of standardized weights and measures, and that

they developed new techniques in metallurgy that allowed them to produce and trade items made

of copper, bronze, lead, and tin.

It is generally believed that many aspects of their religious practices evolved into later religious

systems such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Surprisingly, no structures that can be identified as

temples or other obvious places of worship have been discovered to date. A variety of sculptural

objects believed to relate to religious activities have been unearthed, including figurines

depicting animals such as cows, bears, monkeys, and dogs, as well as statuettes of dancing girls

in gold, terracotta, and stone.

Historians have also found many jewelry pieces—necklaces, bracelets, and other ornaments—

worked in a variety of materials such as shell, ceramics, agate, and glazed soapstone beading.

Most intriguingly, Indus Valley sites have supplied a number of small, soapstone seals with

carved designs of animal and narrative motifs, as well as a script that remains indecipherable.

It is not entirely clear why the Indus Valley Civilization declined. By approximately 1700 BCE

most of the cities had been deserted, probably as a result of sustained drought and climate change

in the area, as well as a decline in the maritime trade activity, which had largely supported the


region’s prosperity. Unfortunately, many details of the Indus Valley Civilization continue to

remain unknown to us. Little of the material culture of this society is left to us, especially when

compared to the cultures in Egypt and the Near East which flourished at the same time the

Harrapan civilization. While this necessarily restricts our historical perspective, further research

and discovery will only expand our understanding. The sites of the Indus Valley, including the

very important remnants of the city at Mohenjo-daro, continue to provide clues to one of the

earliest urban settlements in human history.

The Mohenjo-daro Site

Mohenjo-daro is one of the most important Indus Valley sites. Located in present-day Pakistan, it

is the best preserved of the Indus Valley Civilization cities. It has provided historians with an

excellent overview of the sophisticated urban planning techniques present in the region during

the ancient period.

Historical map of the Indus Valley Civilization.

Image: Encyclopedia Britannica Kids


The excavated ruins of Mohenjo-daro in present-day Sindh, Pakistan.

Mohenjo-daro was very well planned—it was set along a grid pattern of streets oriented to the

points of the compass. Multi-story structures were made of baked brick and included a variety of

building types, both domestic and commercial. The trade economy was supported by structures

such as dockyards, warehouses, and granaries, and the city featured an elevated citadel area

surrounded by a massive protective wall. The function of this wall is not clear, although its

primary use was most likely to divert flood waters rather than being mainly a defensive device.

One of the most sophisticated aspects of Indus Valley Civilization city planning was the

development of the first urban sanitation systems. Individual homes, served by wells, had

specific rooms which appear to have been set aside for bathing and lavatory functions. Waste

water was directed from the home to the street, where covered drains channeled it away. These

systems were very effective and were actually more efficient than some of the sanitation methods

used in India and Pakistan today.

In addition to the general water system, Mohenjo-daro also featured a large complex of

structures known today as the Great Bath. Here, a series of rooms were centered around a water-

tight, sunken brick pool, approximately 39 feet long, 23 feet wide, and 8 feet deep. It is believed

that this area was not used for recreational purposes, but rather for some form of ritualized

bathing.


A Sanskrit manuscript copy of the Heart Sutra at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Today, more than a thousand Indus Valley communities are known, and Mohenjo-daro is one of

the most important of the approximately one hundred which have been examined in depth. In

1980, the city received formal UNESCO World Heritage Site status. [For an animation showing

a reconstruction model of the Mohenjo-daro site and life during the Indus Valley Civilization,

see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZC4Da3LRWo.]

The Aryans and the Vedic Age, 1500-500 BCE

During the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization, a nomadic, warlike people from Central Asia

settled into northern India known as the Aryans. Although the Aryans did not build great cities,

the Aryans established the language of Sanskrit. From written literature, such as the

Mahabharata and the Ramayana. These epic poems described stories of war, brave heroes, and

Aryan kings. Our knowledge of the religion of the Aryans comes from a collection known as the

Vedas, meaning “knowledge.” The Vedas contained religious poems, hymns, and rituals that

became the first scriptures of Hinduism.25

Because of the sacred texts, historians call this

segment of Indian history (between 1500 and 500 BCE) the Vedic Period. It is through their

literature that we learn about the Aryan way of life, which, in turn, is the basis of Indian culture

and tradition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZC4Da3LRWo


Primarily herdsmen, the Aryans lived in small,

independent villages governed by a headman or a

council of village elders. The center of Aryan

life was the family unit; each member had his/her

own duties. After marriage, the sons did not seek

new households but stayed within the family unit

of their father or grandfather.26

India’s caste system was developed by the

Aryans. Dividing its population into distinct

social groups, the Indians were governed by

strict rules in almost every aspect of life. For

example, the caste you were born into dictated

where you lived, your occupation, what clothes

you wore, what food you could eat, and even

who you could marry. As previously mentioned

on page 10 of this Resource Guide, the Indian

caste system consisted of thousands of castes and

subcastes that were under four major groups:

Brahmins (priests); Kshatriyas (warriors);

Vaishyas (traders and farmers); Shudras

(laborers).

The Mauryan Empire, 322–185 BCE

At the end of the Vedic Period, India was divided

into sixteen major states and kingdoms. The

largest and most powerful state, Magadha, was ruled by Bimbisara.27

In 322, BCE, Chandragupta

Maurya, believed to be in the Kshatriya (warrior/prince) caste, conquered the Aryan kingdoms

and united the lands of northern and central India under his rule establishing the Mauryan

Empire.

The most famous ruler of the Mauryan Empire was Chandragupta’s grandson, Asoka. During

Asoka’s rule, the empire controlled all of the land on the Indian peninsula except its southern tip.

The acquisition of the land came a great cost of lives. Sickened by the bloodshed, Asoka

renounced war and converted to Buddhism. He spent the remainder of his life helping the poor

and performing acts of charity. The message of peace and nonviolence was spread throughout

India, Sri Lanka, Central Asia, and Afghanistan. Buddhist principles on morality were inscribed

on rock and pillars. One pillar, the Asoka pillar, is topped with a four-headed lion and a chakra,

or wheel, and the center. Today, Asoka’s pillar is India’s national symbol. It symbolizes

spiritual fearlessness and diligence.28

He is also credited with building thousands of Buddhist

shrines, or stupas, throughout his lands.

The four-headed lion of the Asokachkra is

India’s national symbol.


The Maurya Empire

(332 - 185 BC)

The Gupta Empire, 185 BCE-550 CE

After the death of Asoka in 232 BCE, the Mauryan Empire declined and finally collapsed when

the last of the Mauryan kings was assassinated in 185

BCE.29.

India was divided into smaller kingdoms. For

the next five hundred years, turmoil resulted as the

kingdoms fought against each other. India also

experienced invasions by Greek and Central Asian

peoples. In 320 CE, a ruler from the northern

territories, Chandra Gupta, brought India under his

control. He revived many of the governmental

principles of the Mauryan rulers and he and his

successors expanded the empire’s territories. The

empire prospered greatly during dynastic rule of Gupta

kings from the 4th

to 6th

centuries CE. Trade

flourished and advancements in mathematics,

astronomy, science, religion, literature, and philosophy

developed.

Literature developed during the Gupta Empire spread

into other parts of world because of its imaginative

Indian postage stamp showing scene

from a poem of Kalidas

http://hinduperspective.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/stamp.jpg


fairy tales and stories of adventures.

Narrative histories, religious and

meditative writing, and lyric poetry

emerged to enrich, educate, and

entertain the people.30 The best known

poet and dramatist of this age, Kalidasa,

is considered to be the greatest figure in

classical Sanskrit literature. Because of

his work, he is known as “the Indian

Shakespeare.”31

The Arabic numbers we use today

originated in India. Indian

mathematicians were one of the first

mathematicians to use negative

numbers, the decimal and the zero.

Additionally, Aryabhatta, a

mathematician, proposed that earth was

a rotating sphere centuries before

Columbus made his famous voyage.

Aryabhatta also calculated the length of

the solar year as 365.358 days — only

three hours over the figure calculated by

modern scientists.32

Alongside these

scholarly achievements, magnificent

architecture, sculpture, and painting also

developed. Among the greatest paintings

of this period are those that were found

on the walls of the Ajanta Caves in the

plains of southern India. The paintings

illustrate the various lives of the Buddha. An 18-foot statue of the Hindu god Shiva was also

found within a Gupta-dynasty rock temple near Bombay.33

During the 6th

century, the Gupta Empire experienced invasions by the Huns from western

China. Weakened by war, the Gupta Empire finally collapsed in 550 CE. The former empire

split into independent kingdoms ruled kings called rajas. The disunity of the kingdoms allowed

additional invasions from Arabs, Turks, Afghans, and Mongols. During centuries of invasions,

Buddhist and Hindu temples containing treasures, gold, and jewels were plundered by the

invaders but it was not until 1206 that a Muslim kingdom, the Delhi Sultanate (1205-1526), was

established in northern India. Conflict in Indian society arose between the Muslim and Hindu

inhabitants of India.

Painting of Padmapani (Buddha) from Cave No. 1

at Ajanta Caves.


The Gupta Empire

(185 -550 AD)

THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (MEDIEVAL INDIA)

Vijayanagara, 1346–1565

In southern India on the Deccan Plateau, Hindu kings ruled from the imposing, sophisticated

fort-city of Vijayanagara (literally, city of victory).34

The rulers were strict worshipers of the

Hindu Gods and Goddess, but also tolerant towards the other religions. For over three centuries,

the rulers were great patrons of art and culture. The region influenced a development in the

streams of music, literature and architecture. Many temples built in the territories of the south

represent the style of Vijaynagar kingdom. The economy of the region flourished and several

coins were introduced during the reign of the rulers of the Vijaynagar Empire.35

At its height in

the mid-fifteenth century, Vijayanagara successfully borrowed technology from its rivals,

focusing especially on mounted horse warfare. This knowledge gave the Hindu kingdom a

distinct advantage against the Muslim sultans (rulers).

In the early sixteenth century, under the reign of Krishna Deva Raya (r. 1509–29),

Vijayanagara’s lands were expanded and the government was strengthened. Krishna Deva Raya

used his military strengths, well-timed campaigns, and political marriage alliances to reduce his

major competitors in the Deccan. However, in 1565, an alliance of four Muslim sultanates

attacked Vijayanagara in the Battle of Talikota. Several hundreds of thousands soldiers fought in


The Vijayanagara, 1346–1565

the five month battle but it was the Muslim artillery that gave the advantage to the Sultanates.

This battle famously marked the end of Vijayanagara dominance in south India.

The Rise and Fall of the Timurid Empire,

1370-1507

In the 14th

century, a new Central Asian

conqueror emerged. Timurlane, a member of

a Mongol-Turkish tribe, set out to restore the

fierce Mongol conquer, Genghis Khan. The

Mongols were central Asian, nomadic raiding

groups who fought on horseback. Claiming to

be a descendent of Genghis Khan, Timurlane

raised an army and swiftly attacked and

conquered parts of Southeast Asia while

plundering treasures and massacring peoples

of his conquered lands, including the city of

Delhi. Over one hundred thousand of the city’s

inhabitants were killed. Delhi was reduced to

ruins. His conquests, known as the Timurid

Empire, stretched from the Middle East to

India. In 1405, while planning an invasion of

China, Timurlane died. His empire collapsed

shortly after his death. Five generations later,

it was divided into emirates.

Ruins at Vijayanagara, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


The Mughal Empire, 1526–1857

The Mughal Empire, 1526–1857

The term Mughal can be a confusing one. It comes from the term Mongol and is the basis for the

modern English word “mogul.” The Mughal Empire grew from a central Asian tribal structure

into a great administrative land-based empire over two centuries in India. The Mughal Empire

is known for its imposing and exquisite monuments, built out of red sandstone and marble. They

are not only tourist sites, but in some cases are also still the homes of military and cultural

institutions. The most famous of these, of course, is the Taj Mahal, Shah Jahan’s monument to

his wife Mumtaz Mahal in the north Indian city of Agra. For most of its history, spanning from

about 1526 until 1858, the capital of the Mughal Empire was located in Delhi or nearby Agra.

Babur, “The Tiger”

Babur (1483-1530) known as “The Tiger,” was a descendant of both Genghis Khan and

Timurlane. He was the leader of a Turkish-Mongol tribe located in present-day Afghanistan.

Babur set his sights on Timurlane’s former lands in India. After gathering an army of twelve

thousand men, Babur invaded India and captured the city of Delhi. He was the first ruler of the

Mughal Empire.

The Mughal rulers were Muslim. However, unlike Timurlane, they were tolerant of Indian

culture and Hinduism. The Mughal rulers expanded the empire and established order through

law while bringing governmental reforms. By implementing religious toleration, Babur won the

trust of the Hindu population.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/images/map-1600.jpg


Sketch of Sher Shah Suri by Afghan artist Abdul

Ghafoor Breshna. Sher Shah Suri’s reign was stunning:

In a short seven years, Suri’s genius and vigor

laid the foundation for much

that was to be great and lasting

under the Mughals.

Humayun

Though Babur began conquering land in

India, he ultimately could not hold onto his

gains, and it was left to his son, Humayun

(1508-1556), to regain and expand upon

his father’s holdings and innovations.”36

However, Mughal territories were lost

during Humayun’s rule. In 1540, A

Pashtun noble, Sher Shah Suri seized the

Mughal territories from Humayun and

ruled northern India for the next five years.

Known as a brilliant general and an able administrator, he efficiently administered the army and

tax collections, and built roads, rest houses, and wells for his people.37

After his death in 1545,

his successors were unable to hold on the territories and with help from Persia, Humayun

returned fifteen years later to reestablish Mughal rule. Accompanied by a large group of Persian

noblemen, the culture of the Mughal court became influenced by Persian art, architecture,

language and literature. There are many stone carvings and thousands of Persian manuscripts in

India dating from the time of Humayun.

Akbar

The greatest Mughal ruler was Babur’s grandson, Akbar (1556-1605). Under his rule, the

blending of the art, architecture, music, and dance of both Muslim and Hindu traditions began.

Humayun’s successor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) is especially revered in Indian history because he is

seen as one of the few rulers who successfully united almost all of India. For later Indian

nationalists, Akbar’s successes represented a lost legacy of Indian unity. For example, India’s

first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, described Akbar this way: “Daring and reckless, an able

Mughal Ruler Years of Rule Babur 1526–30

Humayun 1530–56

Akbar 1556–1605

Jahangir 1605–28

Shah Jahan 1628–58

Aurangzeb 1658–1707

[From Trautmann, India: Brief History of a

Civilization, p. 154]


Jesuits at Akbar’s court, c. 1605, Akbarnam. Akbar

is especially revered in Indian history because

he is seen as one of the few rulers who

successfully united almost

all of India.

general, and yet gentle and full of

compassion, an idealist and a dreamer…In

him the old dream of a united India again

took shape, united not only politically in

one state but organically fused into one

people.”38

Akbar’s reign was marked by

experimentation, a commitment to seeking

knowledge, an expansiveness of spirit, and

a concern for the welfare of his subjects.39

When Akbar came to power, the Mughal

Empire extended only over part of the north

Indian doab. By the end of Akbar’s reign,

the empire was considerably greater than

before, with both western India and eastern

India under Mughal rule. Not only did

Akbar incorporate the Persian elite into his

government but he also turned to Indian

elites, both Hindu and Muslim.

Additionally, Akbar used marriage

alliances and the incorporation of defeated

enemies to successfully bring most Rajput

kingdoms into the empire.

Having secured a large and rich territorial

base, Akbar spent the decade of the 1570s

refining the Mughal administrative system

put in place by Sher Shah Suri.41

This was

called the mansabdari system. Mansab

means rank, and a mansabdar was a rank

holder. Each mansabdar was required to

provide men and horses to the Mughal state

set at a certain amount, starting from ten

horsemen ranging up to over thirty-three

ranks to five thousand.

Akbar was interested in various religions and invited holy men of each to his court to give

lectures. One of his explicit polices was sulh-i kul, or universal toleration.41

Akbar’s religious

experiments extended to creating the din-i-ilahi, (“Religion of G-d”) similar to a new religion.

The din-i-ilahi was “a discipleship order intended to bind the highest nobles in complete loyalty

to the emperor.”42

Some scholars have termed Akbar’s religion as a cult or a religion; most say it

was an elite religion with Akbar at the center.


Aurangzeb shown seated on the Peacock Throne.

Aurangzeb’s reign has been viewed by historians as

an apogee of Islamic conservatism, though

recently historians have developed new

interpretations of Aurangzeb’s

religious policy.

Jahangir

Akbar’s son, Jahangir (1569-1627)

encouraged Persian culture in Mughal

India. He possessed a sensitivity to

nature, landscaping Mughal gardens

into replicas of a Persian paradise.

From his love of painting, schools

specialized in miniature paintings were

established.43

Shah Jahan

Shah Jahan (1592-1666) was the fifth

ruler of the Mughal dynasty. During

his reign, from 1628 to 1658, the Mogul

Empire reached its zenith in prosperity

and luxury. He is best remembered for

massive construction projects, such as

forts and mosques. However the

construction of the Taj Mahal remains

his most notable accomplishment.

Although his mother was Hindu, Shah

Jahan did not follow the religious

policy instituted by his grandfather,

Emperor Akbar. In 1632 he ordered all

Hindu temples recently erected or in the

process of erection to be torn down.

Christian churches at Agra and Lahore

were also demolished.44

The splendor of the Mughal court was

at its height during Shah Jahan’s rule.

However, Shah Jahan’s building

projects and military campaigns brought the empire to the verge of bankruptcy; eventually

leading to the decline of the Mughal empire. 45

Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb’s (1618-1707) accession to the throne was considerably less civil and far more

violent than father Shah Jahan’s and grandfather Jahangir’s. In 1657, Aurangzeb imprisoned his

own father in Agra Fort to take the throne.

A devout Muslim, Aurangzeb set out to reform the religious practices of his court and empire. In

Some of the steps Aurangzeb took included banning music at the court, decreasing the sacral

qualities of kingship by stopping his subjects from worshipping as a deity, and reducing the

generous distribution of gold at the court. Aurangzeb also re-instituted a poll tax called the jizya

on non-Muslims in 1679.46

In India, this poll tax had not been enforced by Muslim rulers, who


took advantage of an exemption for members of the two other Abrahamic religions, Judaism and

Christianity. Usually Muslim rulers in India stretched this exception to include the vast majority

of Indians who were Hindus.47

Because of heavy taxes, unrest grew among a Hindu warrior class known as the Marathas.

Under the leadership of Shivaji Bhonsle (r. 1630–80), Aurangzeb committed his army to the

capture of Shivaji. In 1674, Shivaji declared himself an independent ruler and allied himself

with the strongest of the Deccan Sultanates.

On Shivaji’s death in 1680, Aurangzeb moved the capital to his new city of Aurangabad in the

Deccan, in order to subdue the Marathas and incorporate the Deccan sultanates into his empire.48

Within the decade Aurangzeb achieved his goals, first defeating two Deccan kings and then

Shivaji’s son Shambuji (1689).

Aurangzeb treated these conquests and their inhabitants, nobility and peasants alike, as subjects;

instituting heavy taxes. The royal treasury was supported by these taxes and funds generated

from the temples. His subjects, landless laborers and peasants, became bonded servants.49

Aurangzeb was unable to defeat the Marathas. By 1719, the Mughals had to give up control and

revenue from the land in the Deccan to the Marathas.

The Mughal Empire grew from a Central Asian tribal structure into a great administrative land-

based empire over two centuries in India. Like other Indian empires of its time, such as

Vijayanagara, the Mughals collected land revenue and facilitated the great domestic trade. The

mansabdar system effectively organized the revenue and troops needed to build and expand a

great empire. A culture of loyalty to the king was accompanied by the successful mixing of

diverse cultures into the court culture: Persian, Rajput, Central Asian, Muslim, and Hindu. Even

after the Empire began to decline due to overextension, its elite cultures and administrative

systems influenced the governments of Mughal successor states, as in Bengal and Awadh.

Muhammad Shah and the Decline of Mughal Power

After Aurangzeb’s death in 1707, disintegration and instability continued; it was not until over a

decade later that a firm successor, Muhammad Shah (r. 1719–1748), took control of the throne.

By this time, however, the various portions of the Mughal Empire had already broken away and

made strong starts on forming their own kingdoms.

Sikhism

One such kingdoms (successor states) slowly took root in the region of north India known as the

Punjab, which today straddles the India-Pakistan heartland border. There is a close historical

association between this region and the founding of the religion of Sikhism, today the religion of

20 million.50

The founder of the religion, Guru Nanak, lived a remarkably long life in the late

fifteenth and early sixteenth century, from 1469 to 1539. After the death of the tenth guru, it was

declared that there were to be no more living gurus but rather that the head of the Sikh religion

would be its holy text, Adi Granth. The Adi Granth compiled the teachings of the Sikh gurus

and diverse other religious leaders, Hindu and Muslim included, over the course of the sixteenth

century.51

The Adi Granth is accorded the respect due to a king and is treated as a living Guru.


Sikhism has played an important role in

South Asian history and politics, right

up to the present day. Its great success

as a religion is attributable to its simple

message of peace and justice found in

the revelations of Waheguru [the Sikh

term for God]. It is open attitude to all-

comers without distinction of caste,

race, or gender. The warm bonds of

community are fostered by its day-to-

day practice. The langar, in which a

communally prepared meal is enjoyed

in long orderly rows that do not admit

distinctions of caste or class. Indeed,

early followers of Sikhism came from a

variety of communities, including a

high-caste Hindu administrative group

called Khatris, the peasant

agriculturalist Jat community found

across north India, certain merchant

and artisan communities, and lower

caste groups rejected by Hinduism.

The ten Gurus of Sikhism lived lives

during the time of the Mughal Empire.

Their land in Punjab bordered Mughal

land. As Sikh land strengthened,

prospered, and grew in population,

Mughal emperors saw the Sikhs as a

military threat. Shah Jahan imprisoned the sixth guru and Aurangzeb executed his successor. In

1699, the actions of the Mughals led Guru Gobind Singh to found the Khalsa, a militaristic bloc

within Sikhism. Members of the Khalsa were required to have military skill and experience a

process of an initiation. This initiation process created the Five K’s: kesh (uncut hair); kara

(distinctive steel bracelet); kanga (comb); kaccha (cotton undergarments); and kirpan (steel

sword).52

These have become the modern and most distinctive aspects of Sikh identity, though it

should be noted that not all Sikhs at first took on this Khalsa identity and even today they are not

mandatory. In the next section, we shall examine the rise of Mughal successor states such as the

Maratha confederacy and the Sikhs.

For centuries Punjab had been at the crossroads of an overland luxury trade. The road between

the India and Persia was well trodden, with at least 25,000 camel loads moving between through

the region. The Mughal state allowed Indians of all faiths to practice their religions peacefully;

the particular problem in the Punjab was not the faith of Sikhism, but the threatening bases of

regional power it created. Before doing so, let us briefly turn our attention to the complicated and

multicultural Indian Ocean trade found on India’s coasts.

A late nineteenth-century painting depicting Guru

Nanak, the ten Sikh Gurus, and Guru

Nanak’s companions, Bhai Bala

and Bhai Mardana.


Painting of Vasco da Gama landing

at Calicut.

INDIA AND THE WORLD The Arrival of the Portuguese in

India

Beginning in the 15th

century,

European countries, particularly

Portugal and Spain, began a series of

expeditions seeking new trade routes.

The King of Portugal in 1487 sent

Bartholomeu Dias down the coast of

Africa in order to find a new route to

India. A violent storm occurred as he

rounded the tip of Spain blowing his

ship out of the sight of land for

thirteen days. Because of the storm,

Dias named the southern tip of Africa,

“The Cape of Storms.” Dismayed by

the effects of the storm, his frightened

crew refused to go any further. Dias

was forced to return to Portugal.

Though he did not complete his

mission to sail to an Indian port, his

expedition gave the king of Portugal

confidence that an all-water route to

India was indeed possible. The king

changed the name of the tip of Africa

to “The Cape of Good Hope.”

In 1497, Vasco da Gama of Portugal

led an expedition to once again find

an all-water route to India. Not

following Dias’s exact path, da

Gama’s fleet of ships sailed into open

waters for more favorable currents

and winds. One year later, da Gama

arrived in the port city of Calicut. In Calicut, the Portuguese encountered Muslim merchants who

controlled trade in the area.53

Calicut lay at the center of the three crucial circuits of the Indian Ocean trade. These three zones

were: 1) the world of the Arabian Sea, the Mediterranean, and Europe; 2) the eastern half of the

Indian Ocean world, stretching from the Persian Gulf to India’s east coast; and 3) the western

half of the Indian Ocean, stretching from India’s east coast through Southeast Asia to China.


Behind Portuguese strength lay its successful navy and a willingness to use force and violence to

achieve economic ends. By 1515, the Portuguese controlled Colombo (Sri Lanka), Malacca, and

Hormuz, and quickly claimed in 1515, quickly claiming all the important points of the global

spice trade.

The Dutch East India Company

The Portuguese empire declined in the second half of the seventeenth century. In its place rose

the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie; or VOC). The

company was founded by the Dutch in 1602 to protect not only protect their trade but to increase

their profits, but also their spice trade.54

Given broad authority by the Dutch government The

VOC was a monopoly that stretched from the Cape of Good Hope to the waters to the Straits of

Magellan. The VOC had the power to make treaties with the Indian princes, to build forts, and

maintain an army. As the Dutch strengthened their position in East India, the VOC replaced the

Portuguese as the leader in the spice trade.

The East India Company

In 1600, at the end of her reign, Queen Elizabeth chartered the East India Company (EIC) as a

joint stock company. The joint stock company was an early economic form of the modern

corporation. For such a risky, perhaps even foolhardy endeavor, the joint stock company

invested capital in ventures that might not be quickly repaid, if ever. Elizabeth I’s charter gave

the company a monopoly on English trade in the Indies that lasted fifteen years. The backing of

the Crown gave the venture both legal and diplomatic security.

The Indian Ocean Trade Routes


The first two expeditions of the EIC were to Sumatra (Indonesia). In 1603, three short years

after its founding, the EIC was able to ship one million pounds of pepper back to Great Britain

from the area. In 1608, on its third expedition, the EIC instead went to Surat, located in modern

Gujarat. Drawn by the wealth and access the port offered, the English representative arrived

with 25,000 pieces of gold and a letter for Mughal Emperor Jahangir from King James, Elizabeth

I of England’s successor. England offered little to tempt Jahangir since the Portuguese had

already established official relations, but he was not short of pepper, wool, or gold; the

representatives of the company were dismissed. A second English envoy to Jahangir’s court in

1612 was also ignored. Tensions between the trading countries increased and resulted in military

actions. In 1612, the English defeated the Portuguese at the Battle of Swali off the port of Surat.

The victory of the English opened the door to the Mughal court.

AREAS OF TRADE ALONG THE COAST

Gujarat

Surat, “The Blessed Port,” was the Mughal port in Gujarat and controlled by the Mughal Empire.

The trading life of Surat was built on the production of textiles, indigo, and other goods which

View of Masulipatam in 1676. As Vijayanagara declined, the coastal city of Masulipatam became the

Coromandel Coast’s most important port city.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Gujarat_district_location_map_Surat.svg


The Coromandel Coast was known for is fine,

delicate cloth with intricate designs.

(map source: sea-seek.com)

were purchased by a wide variety of Indian and non-Indian merchants and shipped to the western

Indian ocean on primarily Muslim-owned ships. These textiles were bartered with the Dutch and

Portuguese for spices like nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon.

In 1613 Thomas Roe won permission for the EIC to build a factory (a place to store goods

before shipment) at Surat.55

Using Surat as a foothold, the English could control the Persian Gulf

and the Arabian Sea as Portuguese power declined. Textiles produced in the Gujarati region

were in demand in Europe and Southeast Asia. Besides cotton textiles, commodities that moved

through Gujarat in the early modern period included teak and bamboo, spices, silver, carnelian,

and camels.56

The Coromandel Coast

Southern Indian kingdoms encouraged trade on

the western coast by implementing low taxes on

imports. In the southern kingdoms the primary

currency was gold while in north Indian trading

routes the primary currency was silver.57

Bullion was traded for south India’s fine and

highly valued textiles. Distinctive textiles of this

region included fine, delicate muslin and chintz,

a woven cotton either hand- or block-printed

with intricate designs.58

In a single year in the

seventeenth century, the Spice Islands

(Indonesia) imported 400,000 pieces of

Coromandel textiles.59

As Vijayanagara declined, new kingdoms arose

alongside it. In this period, the Portuguese,

Danes, Dutch, and English all had settlements in

Indian kingdoms along the Coromandel Coast.60

Most of this trade was in Indian hands in the

first part of the seventeenth century. Realizing

the rich resource base of calico textiles, saltpeter

City of Surat. From a Dutch engraving in John

Ogilby’s 1673 volume Asia.

British Library.

Gujarat is located on India’s eastern coast. Besides

cotton textiles, commodities that moved through

Gujarat in the early modern period included teak and

bamboo, spices, silver, carnelian, and camels.


Mughal Bengal was known for its incredibly thin and light muslin as well as its silk.

map source: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

(potassium nitrate, required for gunpowder until 1889), and indigo available from the east coast

of India as well as the west, the EIC bought property from a local ruler in 1640.

Bengal

Mughal Bengal was known for its incredibly thin and light muslin as well as its silk. Weavers in

Bengal were centered at the great cities of Dhaka and Murshidabad. As the global trade in

textiles grew in the early modern period, they enjoyed steady demand and rising prices.61

Half a

century later, the East India Company was importing 2.8 million pieces of textiles from India.62

From here we shall turn to the rise of the East India Company in Bengal in the eighteenth

century, studying how an early textile trading concern on the coasts developed into a large

territorial and bureaucratic empire.


Section II Summary

The Indus Valley Civilization was the earliest formal society to develop in South Asia.It is

one of the three major early urban river-valley cultures, along with Mesopotamia and ancient

Egypt. Although our knowledge of these civilizations is somewhat limited, excavations of

two of its leading cities, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, uncovered evidence of an advanced

society. It is generally believed that many aspects of their religious practices evolved into

later religious systems such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Surprisingly, no structures that can

be identified as temples or other obvious places of worship have been discovered to date.

During the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization, a nomadic, warlike people from Central

Asia settled into northern India known as the Aryans. Although the Aryans did not build

great cities, the Aryans established the language of Sanskrit. India’s caste system was

developed by the Aryans. Dividing its population into distinct social groups, the Indians

were governed by strict rules in almost every aspect of life.

In 322, BCE, Chandragupta Maurya, believed to be in the Kshatriya (warrior/prince) caste,

conquered the Aryan kingdoms and united the lands of northern and central India under his

rule establishing the Mauryan Empire.

After the death of Asoka in 232 BCE, the Mauryan Empire declined and finally collapsed

when the last of the Mauryan kings was assassinated in 185 BCE. Chandra Gupta, brought

India under his control. He revived many of the governmental principles of the Mauryan

rulers and he and his successors expanded the empire’s territories. The empire prospered

greatly during dynastic rule of Gupta kings from the 4th

to 6th

centuries CE.

Vijayanagara (1346–1565) was the largest empire in south India. It relied on cavalry warfare

and its efficient and centralized administrative system to collect land revenues. It was linked

into international and many domestic trade circuits and shared key features with the Mughal

political system.

The Mughal Empire lasted from 1526 until 1857. The empire was founded by Babur (r.

1526–30). Akbar (r. 1556–1605) greatly expanded the empire and created an atmosphere of

religious tolerance. The Mughal Empire used the mansabdari system to ensure efficient

collection of revenue and to gain the soldiers and horses it needed for expansion. The Mughal

Empire stretched furthest under Aurangzeb, but quickly became overextended.

In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century India, the Marathas represented a major threat to the

Mughals due to their guerilla tactics and strong base in the Maharashtrian countryside. Led

by Shivaji (r. 1630–80), the Marathas were a persistent thorn in the Mughal side.

The third largest Indian religion is Sikhism, founded in the Punjab by Guru Nanak in the late

fifteenth century. The religion drew together many faith traditions in its holy text the Adi

Granth. On several occasions, Sikhs were persecuted by the Mughal state not due to the zeal

of Mughal religious policy, but rather because of the political threat to Mughal power the

quickly growing community represented.


SECTION III:

THE BRITISH IN INDIA, 1707–1857

The Shift from Trade to Rule, 1707–57

British Trade in India

The East India Company was a joint stock company financed by English merchants. Queen

Elizabeth’s charter of 1600 gave the Company monopoly privileges for any trade with India.

This monopoly would last until 1813. In the seventeenth century, the EIC imported India’s

textiles.63

The Dutch dominance of the spice trade had prompted the English turn to the textile

trade. In the early seventeenth century that either Holland or England would dominate all the

India trade and its vast inland territory was not yet known; rather England, Holland, Portugal,

and France sent opportunistic traders to take their share of the great Indian Ocean trade in luxury

commodities. From then until the mid-eighteenth century, English political and territorial rule in

India developed from a long series of very small steps and decisions. In the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries, European countries had not planned to take over or control India’s

government and people.

The English diplomat Thomas Roe obtained permission to build a factory (a depot to store

goods before shipment) at Surat (in modern Gujarat) from the Mughal Empire in 1616. For a

period of about fifty years, from 1617 until the 1660s, the EIC resided in India as a guest of the

Mughal emperor. Its trade volume funded soldiers, and its increasing demand for textiles gave

weavers across India employment. However, for the Mughal Empire, the EIC was not an

economic or political threat.

Over the course of the seventeenth century, the EIC continued to trade in India. In 1640, it

purchased Madras from an Indian ruler; six decades later, the city had grown to around 100,000

people, drawn by the steadily increasing demand for textiles in Europe and Southeast Asia.64

Madras was an open port, from which Indian ships as well as English could trade, which no

doubt contributed to the rapid growth of the city. The British also obtained the city of Bombay

from the Portuguese in 1668, as part of Princess Catherine’s dowry when she married King

Charles. Maratha attacks prompted the EIC to fortify their factory at Surat; many merchants and

craftspeople left Surat for Bombay.65

Bombay’s seven sandbars provided a rather improbable

base from which would grow one of the world’s most populous and dense cities, the cultural and

financial capital of India.

In Bengal, the Mughals had expelled the Portuguese from their position at Hugli, a port city lying

north of Calcutta on the Hugli River. The EIC and Dutch East India Company were still allowed

to trade there. However, the Dutch spice trade at first far outstripped the EIC’s trade.66

By the

end of the seventeenth century, EIC officials resented what they perceived as Mughal officials’

http://www.mapsofindia.com/india/maps/hugli-location-map.jpg


Portrait of Emperor Farrukhsiyar on horseback

with attendants. Farrukhsiyar granted the EIC

freedom from duties on its exports from Calcutta,

the right to settle inland in Bengal, favorable

terms for customs at Surat and Madras, and the

right to mint its own coins at Bombay.

interference in their trade. In 1686, ten armed

ships came from England and attempted to

blockade the ports at Surat. The Mughal state

responded by blockading Bombay (now Mumbai),

and the EIC had to concede and pay a large

payment to the Mughal emperor in 1690.67

By 1700, the EIC had reached a peaceful

existence with the Mughal Empire: it was self-

governing in Madras and at an uneasy and

expensive peace in Calcutta and Bombay. Over

these several decades, the Bengal textile trade

grew briskly, providing about half of the textiles

the EIC exported in 1710. The Company shifted

the heart of its textile trade from Surat, whose

lands had supplied most of its textiles, to Calcutta

in Bengal.68

From one of Aurangzeb’s successors to the

Mughal throne, Farrukhsiyar (r. 1713–19) in

1717, the EIC obtained freedom from duties on its

exports from Calcutta for a relatively small flat

yearly fee. This gave the EIC an advantage over

the Dutch Company; the VOC was still required

to pay customs duties on a per item basis. With

this concession, the EIC gained the crucial

economic incentive to wholeheartedly develop

trade throughout India. The EIC then could produce as many pieces of cloth they wanted; they

would pay no more in customs. The Company also obtained the right to settle inland in Bengal.

Additionally, the EIC was given favorable terms for customs at Surat and Madras, and the right

to mint its own coins at Bombay—a sign of weakening Mughal authority.69

British-French Rivalries

The French trading company, the Compagnie des Indes Orientales (CIO), founded in 1664,

secured the territory of Pondicherry in 1674. Then, over the next several decades, it acquired

additional outposts near Calcutta and on the Coromandel Coast, and Malabar.70

The EIC and the

CIO operated in similar fashion, but the CIO was primarily controlled by the French crown

rather than men with only commercial interests, as was the EIC.71

When the French entered the Indian stage at the turn of the eighteenth century, no one power

controlled South India. A European war came to Indian shores when the War of Austrian

Succession (1744–8) drew the French and English in India onto opposing sides. For the French,

the high point was the taking of Madras. By 1748, the British sent enough naval power to retake

Madras, though they could not succeed in taking French Pondicherry. When the war concluded


in Europe, the English granted the French

Cape Breton Island in exchange for the

return of Madras.

British-French tensions in South India again

flared with the French-Indian or Seven

Years’ War. Between 1756 and 1761, the

French lost their remaining possessions to

the British at a steady rate.

Summary: Indian Regions on the Eve of

the Battle of Plassey

As the power of the Mughal Empire was

collapsing, India, once again, began to

divide into small rival states. During this

period of turmoil, both the French and the

English took economic advantage through

agreements and alliances with local rulers.

In some cases, the countries claimed Indian

territory.

India consisted of several zones. On many

parts of the map, political boundaries were

by no means clear. In the case of Bengal,

minimal authority rested with the Mughal

Empire in Delhi, except for a yearly tribute to the Emperor in Delhi. Instead, the Nawabs

exercised all the power, but their power was not absolute. The EIC continued to move ever

deeper into the Indian economy by strengthened its holdings and minting its own coins.

In western India, because the Marathas were a steady threat to English interests, cities such as

Bombay, grew due to merchants and traders seeking safer markets. By the eighteenth century,

there were several regional powers in South India and the Deccan. The French and English

displays of military might increased their influence among the rulers in the South Indian courts.

In the Mughal heartland of North India, the Rajput (Hindu) kingdoms continued to enjoy relative

independence and stability. Finally, to the east lay Awadh, a tempting halfway point between the

English capital at Calcutta and the Mughal capital at Delhi. Ruled by another Nawab known for

his commitment to the well-being of his subjects, Awadh’s wealth attracted the elite’s classes

because of it vibrant culture.

THE BATTLE OF PLASSEY (1757)

Siraj-ud-Daula

The British defeat of the French after the Seven Years’ War (1754–1763) made clear British

military superiority. The British believed their victory would grant them more favorable trade

Death of the Nawab Anwaruddin Muhammad

Khan in a battle against the French in 1749

(by Paul Philipoteaux).


terms. Siraj-ud-Daula, the Nawab in

Bengal, resented the British presence in the

region. Siraj accused the EIC of taking land

without permission and causing an

economic crisis by taking advantage of the

privileges given to them by the Mughal

rulers. Siraj also charged the EIC with

protecting some his officers even though

they had broken the law.

Siraj was not interested in continuing to

make more favorable terms to the EIC but

in protecting his kingdom’s interests. In

June 1756, he attacked English Calcutta

particularly because it was so well fortified.

He wanted to make a point about any

challenges to his sovereignty, which he

would and could not accept.72

Siraj’s June 1756 attack on Calcutta resulted

in the imprisoning of the English residents

of Fort St. William. Forty such prisoners, in

Siraj’s soldiers’ care, suffocated in an

underground prison in what later infamously

became known as the “Black Hole of Calcutta.” This incident, because of the charged

atmosphere, provided additional “evidence for the British of Indian cruelty and barbarism.”73

In

the wake of this disaster, Robert Clive (1725–74), a man who “had no doubts and no fears,”

arrived in Bengal with ten ships’ filled with soldiers from Madras. Because of the British forces,

Siraj decided to return Calcutta to the English in January 1757. Hostilities ended for a brief

period of time.

In the peace that followed, Siraj restored the Company’s privileges. However, Clive seized the

opportunity to dethrone Siraj. Backed by powerful Indian financiers who opposed Siraj, a plan

was set in place. The EIC would be granted increased trading privileges and other financial

rewards estimated at £1,250,000.74

In return, the Indian financier, Mir Jafar, would be the new

Nawabat Murshidabad.75

The deal was finalized in June 1757. Clive put his ships and troops to work. Just over two weeks

later, the British troops met Siraj-ud-Daula at the inland town of Plassey in the famous Battle of

Plassey. The Nawab’s troops, already bought off by the financiers, mostly turned coat and fled

the battlefield. With Siraj caught and executed, Mir Jafar, claimed the throne while the EIC won

the right of diwani; the rights to collect taxes from the lands that surrounded the area.

This battle, thought to be nominal at the time, turned out to be one of the most important

conflicts in India’s history. It was motivated by the business ambitions of the EIC: to guarantee

and increase trade profits, not to rule. The EIC simply wanted to return to its commercial

Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daula.


privileges or slightly improve them.76

Along with the privileges the EIC had long held, the

agreement allowed the EIC to mint coins. The Nawab and the EIC would remain independent

allies with diplomatic relations with each other, and the EIC would use its troops to protect the

Nawab if he needed it.77

The Nawab’s affairs repeatedly drew Clive into Bengali politics because

Clive desired to protect the EIC’s interest in the vast trade.

Battle of Buxar

The EIC restored Mir Jafar to the throne, but it was clear that he was a mere puppet of the EIC.

From now on, the court of Bengal would retain only nominal independence. In the 1765 Treaty

of Allahabad, the Mughal Empire gave the EIC the right to the “diwani” of Bengal, Bihar, and

Orissa—in other words, the right to collect revenue and govern the entire former territory of the

Bengal Nawabs.78

As Clive put it, “We must indeed become the Nabobs ourselves.”79

The cost

of this vast territory and revenue was an annual tribute of 2,600,000 rupees to the Mughal

Emperor in Delhi. Clive flipped the terms of the revenue agreement. Previously, the Nawabs had

collected the revenue and assigned the EIC its assigned share. Now, Clive insisted that the EIC

would collect the revenue and out of it issue a stipend to the Nawabs. Of course, the amount

allocated to the Nawab would be determined by the Company.80

Lord Clive meeting with Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, (Francis Hayman, c. 1762). This battle turned out

to be one of the most important in India’s history.


Company or Government?

The right to collect revenue greatly

increased the profits and the prestige of the

EIC. Additionally, governing the entire

former territory of the Bengal Nawabs, the

EIC became, in name at least, a deputy of

the Mughal Emperor.81

At the same time,

the British hold on India was still limited

and heavily contested. A large military

was required to guarantee the privileges,

territory, and revenue the Company held in

the face of very real threats from other

Indian states. Troop payments were the

Company’s greatest expense. By 1782, the

Company army consisted of 115,000 men,

90 percent of whom were Indian.82

Called

sepoys, based on the Persian word siphai,

these troops were used to subdue

rebellions in Bengal’s neighboring

territories. It was through regular and

generous pay that the loyalties of such

soldiers were ensured.

Reluctant to re-employ the former military

elites of the Nawabs, as their loyalties

were suspect, the EIC hired Hindu peasant

groups.83

The EIC was also suspicious of

even its European officers as they had mutinied in 1766 and again in 1795–6.84

The Company army respected caste and religious preferences by allowing soldiers to follow their

own caste’s dietary-norms with separate cooks and kitchens as well as by attending Hindu

religious festivals.85

Regular generous payments and guaranteed pensions were required to

ensure the loyalty of diverse military men in late eighteenth-century India. As the Indian army

grew rapidly, the EIC drew on its strength to expand its territorial rule in India.

The Land Revenue System

Though the EIC had little interest in intervention in Indian social traditions, the effort to gain

revenue from Indian land drew the EIC into Indian society.86

The approach the EIC adopted in

Bengal was called “the Permanent Settlement.” The moving force behind the Permanent

Settlement was Lord Cornwallis who came to India fresh on the heels of his surrender at

Yorktown (1781) in the Revolutionary War.

The rate of land taxation was set at a permanent, fixed rate. In so doing, the EIC hoped to

encourage enterprising landowners to gain the most revenue from their lands by introducing

improvements and innovations.

Painting of a Mughal sepoy, c.1850. The

loyalty of sepoys was ensured through

regular and generous pay.


Since his taxation rate was permanent, the

zamindar (landowner) would gain an incentive to

maximize his productions so that he could keep

the remainder of his increasing profits. The EIC

reasoned that a well-managed estate would

increase the landowner’s profits. Overseeing the

peasant workers was the zamindar’s

responsibility, not the colonial government’s. If

a zamindar failed to meet his revenue burden

under the Permanent Settlement, his estate could

be confiscated and auctioned.

After the new system was set in place, forty-one

percent of estates in Bengal changed hands in the

first fifteen years due to forced land sales.87

Many of the landholding elite, however, left to

Calcutta, leaving their rural estates to the care of

others. The profits allowed them to live very

comfortably in Calcutta.88

Wide-spread

corruption occurred. The peasants not only were

wronged by their landlords, the land revenue

systems led to a famine in 1770 due to low

production. One-quarter of the population of

Bengal died. In 1783, another famine followed.89

Cornwallis decided to go back to the old Mughal system. He granted legal ownership of their

land to the zamindars. In return, they had to pay the government ninety per cent of the rent which

they collected from the farmers. These arrangements were to last forever, hence the title

"permanent settlement."

In Madras and Bombay provinces during the 1820s, a different revenue system took hold,

spurred on by the failures of the Permanent Settlement. The ryotwari system created a direct

relationship between the Company state and individual peasants, rather than a relationship

mediated by zamindars. This system increased the need for new officials. The officials, often

wealthy village landowners, determined revenue rights and rates.

Ideologies of Rule

Orientalism

The British East India Company governed a great deal of India. The colonial state attempted to

learn more about Indian society as it sought to administer Indian law. Sir William Jones (1746–

94) founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784. Jones was a learned man who worked closely

with Indian scholars. Through his work, he discovered that Sanskrit, Greek, Persian, and Latin

all shared common roots. This discovery contributed to a historical vision in which ancient

Hindu India shared a common ancient glory with Greece and Rome.

Portrait of General Cornwallis, who was the

moving force behind the Permanent Settlement,

which lasted right up to Indian independence in

1947.


In part Jones sought to understand Hindu

law himself and to record its code so that

the Company need not trust Hindu and

Muslim legal advisors. The English

believed they, through superior British

laws, would return to India its greatness.

The attitude was both one of deep respect

for India’s past and patronizing pity for

what had been lost. Jones’s ideology can be

described as Orientalistism, in that it

sought to capture and preserve India as it

was at its height. Jones and other

likeminded Orientalists sought to

understand and preserve Indian culture.

Utilitarianism

James Mill (1773–1836), father of John

Stuart Mill, famously never came to India,

but he and his son worked for the Company

all their lives. Mill was a Utilitarian

follower of Jeremy Bentham who had far

less respect for Indian achievements than

did Jones. Utilitarianism believed that the

purpose of government was the greatest

happiness of the greatest number. To Mill,

Indian languages and law were not a

sophisticated system fallen on hard times,

as they were for Jones, but rather a stagnant, superstitious, and irregular system that deserved to

be fully replaced. Mill explained these views in his 1818 History of British India.

Another Utilitarian, Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–59) advocated for educating Indians in

English. He promoted the idea of Anglicism. Macaulay thought that Indians could only

participate in effective governance through a rejecting Indian norms, practices, and languages. At

first the radical Anglicist proposals of men like Mill and Macaulay were not accepted, but, by

the mid-nineteenth century, many of Macaulay’s codes and measures were finally adopted. Many

remain in effect in India today, with adaptations.

Christian Missionaries

While the colonial effort is often thought to be driven by religious zeal, in fact the Company

expressly forbade missionaries from entering its territories. They believed the missionaries

would cause unrest in the Hindu and Muslim populations thereby hurting their trade and profits.

The first American missionary to come to India around 1812 was promptly imprisoned when he

landed at Madras.90

The famous Baptist missionary William Carey (1761–1834) worked not

from English Calcutta but the Danish settlement of Serampore nearby. Though missionaries

sought to make conversions, the numbers were small. However, missionary influence extended

beyond conversions. Missionary schools educated many students, in this area, the colonial state

Thomas Babington Macaulay advocated for

educating Indians in English. Macaulay thought

that Indians could only engage in effective

governance through a wholesale rejection

of Indian norms, practices,

and languages.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/European_settlements_in_India_1501-1739.png


usually fell short. Moreover, Christian critiques of Hinduism prompted spirited debates,

defenses, and self-reflection by a new class of Hindus residing in the colonial cities. By 1813, the

colonial state was secure in its rule and relaxed its ban on missionaries.

COLONIAL EXPANSION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

By the time the third Governor-General Wellesley (r. 1798–1805) arrived in Bengal, the EIC

acted as a state, administering its executive and judicial structures. Moreover, the military,

revenue streams, and trade had drastically expanded. Wellesley’s Governor Generalship

launched the next phase of colonial expansion.

The Next Phase of Colonial Expansion

Putting down rebellions by local and regional rulers, the British expanded their influence from

the coastal regions to the central corridor of India. By 1818, the EIC controlled all but a few

The Last Effort and Fall of Tipu Sultan by Henry Singleton, c. 1800. After Tipu Sultan died fighting off

the English at his capital, the British restored former rulers and created a treaty in which their military

protection was the reward for de facto control of the formerly great state and heavy tribute.


completely independent states in India; these

were surrounded by EIC directly- or indirectly-

controlled territory.

Governor-General Dalhousie arrived in India

in 1848 at age thirty-nine as a “convinced

westernizer.”91

His administration was marked

by further expansion. Dalhousie had two

priorities: first he wanted to combine Britain’s

holdings in India both legally and territorially.

Dalhousie also wanted to dramatically expand

communication and transport infrastructure in

India. By taking advantage of new

technologies, such as the railroad and the

telegraph, the Company’s rule would be better

secured and their expenses could be reduced.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND ECONOMY

A New Export

With the dramatic territorial expansion, the

Indian rural economy changed drastically. In

eastern India, opium took hold as a staple crop.

Opium was used by the Company to pay for

Chinese tea in the place of silver or gold

bullion. By the 1830s, opium provided fifteen percent of the Company’s total revenue.92

The

EIC declared itself the monopolistic holder of the rights to cultivate opium and then smuggled it

into China for great profits. Great opium depots were built in eastern India, and famous fortunes

were made in the China-India trade. As the value of tea on the English domestic market grew,

the Indian revenue and opium base became ever more important to Britain as a crucial guarantor

of tea. One addictive substance was traded for another.

Along with textiles, another important cash crop in the nineteenth century was indigo. Indigo

was used to dye clothing a rich blue and was in great demand in Europe. European planters

provided cash advances to peasants to grow indigo. These peasants became heavily indebted for

a crop that they could not eat. This led to the “Blue Mutiny” in 1859–60 in Bengal.

In India, weavers may never have been emperors or priests, but historically they could build up

great wealth by virtue of their skill and creativity. Yet over the course of the nineteenth century,

the position of weavers steadily declined as the Industrial Revolution took hold in England.

Manufactured textiles could not match the beauty or delicacy of hand-woven Indian textiles, but

their large volume simply swamped what remained of India’s traditionally vibrant and

sophisticated textile industry. Other important commodities in this period included jute, sugar,

rice, grains, and timber.

Painting of a Maratha court, c.1820. Maratha power

was of a more diffuse nature than

Tipu Sultan’s and therefore less

simple to dismember.


The Railway System

The Indian railways are an enduring legacy of

colonial rule. Today Indian Railways runs on

100,000 kilometers of tracks, and with 1.3

million employees. It is one of the largest

employers in the world.93

Often the railways

are seen as a positive outcome of British

colonial rule. While the railways have

certainly made positive contributions to Indian

life, it should be also understood that they were

originally built for two purposes: first, to move

raw materials to ports and manufacturing

centers and thereby increasing revenue; and,

second, to quickly move troops and material in

the event of any uprising against British rule in

India.

To raise capital for this expensive undertaking,

the colonial state turned to private investors.

Backed by the Crown, all investors were

guaranteed at least a five percent return on their

investment, no matter what happened to the

project or its profits. Therefore, all the profits

from the railway were sent back into Britain.

Moreover, the design and layout of the railway

served British commercial interests.

The Ganges Canal

Dalhousie also pushed forward irrigation of

agrarian land, most famously with the Ganges

Canal alongside the Ganges River. There

Dalhousie laid five hundred miles of canal. This improved livelihoods in the short term, but such

efforts had long-term negative environmental consequences, causing the salinization of the soil

over the decades.94

Other Improvements

Dalhousie also completed the telegraph in India. In fact, the very first deep-sea telegraph cable

was laid at Calcutta and crossed the Hooghly River in 1850. This showed that India was not just

a recipient of European innovations, but a crucial site for experimentation.95

Dalhousie

instituted a government postal service with a very cheap postage, which allowed increasing

numbers of politically aware Indian individuals and associations to be in touch with each other

and share their struggles. Steam power also contributed to a reduction in the amount of time it

took to travel or communicate between India and England, beginning in the 1840s.96

Colonial apologists argue these advancements brought needed development to the Indian

countryside and integrated it into global networks of commerce. Colonial critics argue that

Portrait of Governor-General Dalhousie. Dalhousie

wanted to consolidate Britain’s holdings in India

legally and territorially and wanted to dramatically

expand communication and transport infrastructure

in India to better secure and reduce the expense of

the Company’s rule.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1c/India_railways_trunklines_1853.jpg


infrastructure projects were designed around British political and economic interests rather than

the interests of the majority of Indian peasants, tradesmen, small-scale capitalists, and

professionals. It is difficult to know what would have happened to the Indian economy in the

absence of British colonialism. But it is very clear that India’s economy did not develop along

the lines it likely would have if the land revenues and trade profits were invested in India rather

than being extracted for the EIC’s expenses and profit in England.

INDIAN SOCIETY, 1957-1857: DIVERSE RESPONSES TO COLONIAL RULE

Reform, Reaction, and Creativity

In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, Indians of a variety of classes and

regions responded to the EIC state with creativity and vigor. Nowhere was this vibrancy more

visible than in the EIC capital at Calcutta. We have already noted that in the late eighteenth

century colonial officers sought to better understand Indian social life, so they could administer

Indian society along Indian lines. This led to an intense period of language study and translations

among a small group of scholars like Sir William Jones, who worked closely with Indian

scholars at the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Working together, some Indian elites and colonial officers founded the Hindu College in 1818; it

quickly began to educate Indians in English.97

The educational institutions provided a path for

those seeking employment with the colonial state.

As with Hindu College in Calcutta, a group of Indian elites and colonial administrators founded

the Delhi College in 1825. This college aimed to educate “respectable people so that they might

find suitable work” in colonial rather than traditional sectors of the economy.98

The College

embodied the ways in which English and Indian forms of knowledge had come to coexist, as it

had both an English and an Oriental branch. Urdu, a vernacular language that had developed

Photograph (1860) of the head works of the Ganges Canal in Haridwar, by Samuel Bourne. The canal

improved livelihoods in the short term, but had long-term negative environmental consequences, causing

the salinization of the soil over decades.


under the Mughals as a blend of Persian script and vocabulary with Hindi grammar, received

pride of place at Delhi College.

Gender Issues in Colonial India

We have already discussed some opposing ideologies relating to Indian society, religions, and

histories. The Anglicist strand engaged in critique of India, while the Orientalist strand sought to

preserve Indian religions and customs. Indian responses to colonial rule also varied.

In the early nineteenth century, debates about women’s position in Indian society focused on the

Hindu practice of sati, the ritual burning of a widow upon her husband’s funeral pyre. Historians

have shown that in the Romantic eighteenth century, the wife’s devotion to her husband even

unto death was valorized rather than critiqued. By the 1820s, however, sati came to symbolize

Indian men’s barbarity and lack of self-restraint, and the colonial state banned the practice in

1828.99

Though a rare occurrence, many reform-minded members of the educated Bengali

upper-class in Calcutta criticized the practice and urged the colonial state to ban it.

The Press

Such debates took place not just in face-to-face meetings, but also in the growing English and

“native” press. Along with the postage that allowed wide and relatively speedy mailing of

pamphlets, newspapers proved a crucial outlet for public interest. Newspaper culture is so firmly

implanted in India today that it is difficult to find a literate Indian who does not read at least one

In the early nineteenth century, debates about women’s position focused on the Hindu practice of sati, the ritual

burning of a widow upon her husband’s funeral pyre.


newspaper daily, often more and in multiple languages. Indian involvement in the press began

early. The first Indian-owned English newspaper was printed in 1777. The Bombay Samachar,

founded in 1822, is Asia’s longest-running newspaper.100

Such long-distance communications

helped forge bonds between Indians in distant parts of the British Empire, and over the course of

the nineteenth century, the press and the post office would facilitate the development of national

bonds and action.

The Company state had done much in one century. It brought almost all of India under its

control; it extracted great profits; and it handily controlled the Indian Ocean trade and markets

from Europe to China. However, the above description also makes clear that this was a closely

run and expensive enterprise; it held the advantage but never by much or for long, whether chief

rivals were other European powers or the powerful post-Mughal Indian states. They slowly, but

surely, provoked discontent across India. Indian society was at a breaking point, and though

reasons for protests varied, the feeling was no longer temporary or confined to only one region.

Section III Summary

The East India Company was a joint stock company financed by English merchants. In the

seventeenth and eighteenth century, it was heavily involved in the Indian Ocean textile trade. It

got its start at Surat and slowly acquired other territories in India such as at Madras, Bombay,

and Calcutta.

The EIC did not hold ambitions of territorial conquest but rather was focused on commercial

profit. Its rivalries with other European trading companies drew it into local Indian politics.

Through conflict, such as the Battle of Plassey. The EIC took political control of Bengal.

The EIC built a large military to maintain its dominance over Indian and European rivals. Trade

flourished, and the Company’s monopoly on the India trade ended in 1813.

The Permanent Settlement introduced by Lord Cornwallis sought to create a class of zamindar

landlords who would collect revenue from the peasants on their estates and turn over a revenue

tax to the colonial state at a rate fixed in perpetuity. The Settlement created a new class of

landlords, much turnover in land markets, and contributed to peasant impoverishment.

While Orientalist scholar-administrators like William Jones sought to preserve Indian society,

Anglicist officials like James Mill and Thomas Babington Macaulay sought to refashion Indian

society along English lines.

After taking political control of Bengal and defeating the French in south India, the Company

military also took control of many other Indian kingdoms over the period from 1799–1856,

The 1840s and 50s were also marked by major infrastructure projects, such as the railways, the

Ganges Canal, and the telegraph.

Indian responses to colonial rule were varied. Some accepted the colonial critique of Indian

society.


SECTION IV: FROM HIGH COLONIALISM TO INDEPENDENCE

1857–1947

1857: MUTINY OR WAR OF INDEPENDENCE?

The Causes

The crucial turning point in the relationship between India and Britain came in 1857. The storied

events of the “Mutiny” or “First War of Independence” created major changes in the structure of

British rule: the Company lost its political hold on India, and all its power was formally

transferred to the English Crown. The near-success of the 1857 Indian Rebellion, as well as the

often-brutal British retaliations for it, spurred Indian thinking against colonial rule. Indian

nationalists would later claim the rebellion as the first Indian war of Independence. Even if the

movement had not been a truly national movement but rather a collection of local objections that

came together, the post-Mutiny settlement sowed the seeds for future Indian nationalism.

By 1857, the East India Company controlled approximately 1.6 million square miles with its

military force of 238,000, the largest all-volunteer army in the world. The army was divided into

three separate forces, one in each major province, or presidency. Of the 238,000 troops, only

38,000 were European. Many British troops had been withdrawn from India to fight wars in

Persia or Crimea. In particular, in northern India, where the Bengal Army held power, there were

very few European troops, most being positioned in the Punjab (in northwestern India)

instead.101

The Bengal Army, with 151,000 troops was the largest.

The Indians who served in the EIC armies were called sepoys, which simply means soldier. The

name comes from the Persian word, sipahi. Thus, colonial historians called the events of 1857–8

the Sepoy Mutiny. For the EIC, it was far cheaper to rely on Indian sepoys than European

soldiers were. Moreover, Indian sepoys were already accustomed to the environment and terrain

and thus proved hardier than European troops.

By the mid-nineteenth century, many within the Bengal Army were dissatisfied. Sepoys had

initially been paid well, but the EIC failed to adequately increase their payments to keep up with

inflation, and their relative wealth declined. In addition, for high-caste groups who were used to

commanding authority in their societies, it was irritating that they could not be promoted. Rapid

expansion by a foreign power in their native land also added to the sepoys particular grievance.

Traditionally, as more land was added to EIC’s control, sepoys were paid a bonus for serving

“abroad” in these lands. Now that these territories were part of India proper and under the EIC,

they lost the bonus.102

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Indian_revolt_of_1857_states_map.svg


In addition, after 1813 the Company began to allow missionaries into India. Though missionaries

did not often succeed in their attempts to convert Indians, the missionaries’ harsh criticism of

Hinduism contributed to the general feeling that the British were in India to completely change

Indian society.103

The most well-known cause for the Mutiny was the introduction of a new form of gun cartridge.

However, it was not the single cause for the mutiny but should be viewed against all the

resentments that were growing among the sepoys toward the Company. From the sepoys’

perspective, the Company showed a lack of respect for their Indian army by reducing their pay,

expanding its territory ruthlessly, and increasingly being critical of Indian society.

Narrative of Events

In 1857, a new type of rifle cartridge was introduced. The cartridges were greased in order to

keep the gunpowder dry. To be used, the end of the cartridge had to bitten off. A rumor

circulated that the cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat. It offended both Muslim and

Hindu sepoys alike: pork was forbidden to Muslims and the cow was sacred to Hindus. Eighty-

five soldiers stationed at an army post near Delhi refused to bite a new cartridge greased with the

fat. Their British superiors humiliated and arrested them. In reaction to these insults, along with

the other reasons for discontent previously mentioned, other Indian soldiers mutinied. In the

wake of their rampage, sepoys massacred fifty English men, women and children, including their

military superiors.

A steel engraving depicting sepoys attacking the Redan Battery at Lucknow, July 30, 1857.


In what was a terrifying summer, rebel control spread across northern and central India. Not all

Indian soldiers mutinied, but those who did were joined in their effort by others in Indian society

with complaints: dislocated landlords; peasants, some merchants; and the former princes who

had lost everything because of the Company’s expansion into India.

Within a year, the rebellion was suppressed by Indian troops loyal to the British and by fresh

troops from Britain. Approximately 15,000 died as a result of the uprising. Not surprisingly, the

British revised their approach to military policy. Parliament in London appointed a special

commission to recommend changes. The Peel Commission Report recommended that the ratio of

European to Indian soldiers must be increased from 1:6 to 1:2. Moreover, the army would from

now on never again rely on any one social group for its base; it must recruit from as many social

groups as possible. In the end, the army did not completely follow this and instead handpicked

certain groups deemed to be physically and temperamentally suited to military life. At the top of

this list were those groups that had remained loyal during the Mutiny: Punjabis, Pathans, and

Nepali Gurkhas. By 1875, a full half of Indian troops were Punjabi.104

The Mutiny also changed British thinking about India: it intensified British racism. The

explosion of the British popular press in the mid-nineteenth century coincided with the

Rebellion. All national papers featured coverage of the murders of Britons in the Rebellion.

Much of this coverage was sensationalistic.

A depiction of the execution of mutineers following the Rebellion of 1857. The Rebellion intensified British

racism, and rebels were summarily executed in gruesome fashion.


Post-Mutiny Governance

The Mutiny prompted major changes in the

governance of India. Parliament passed the

Government of India Act of 1858. This

transferred all authority previously entrusted in

the East India Company to the crown and

Indian became a colony of the British Empire.

Alongside the Act came Queen Victoria’s

Proclamation of 1858. The Proclamation

responded to many presumed causes of the

revolt. It guaranteed the approximately five

hundred Indian princes their title. The

Proclamation also declared that the Queen,

now the Empress of British India, and her

representatives in India would not interfere

with Indian religious beliefs or religion; they

would respect the customs of India; and they

would promote the social advancement of

Indians.

The people of India were now Queen

Victoria’s subjects and India became the

“Jewel in the Crown” of the British Empire.

After the Rebellion, India was made to pay £50

million to cover the cost of the Rebellion. The

costs became known as the “India debt.” The

British government ruled directly and assumed

the responsibility for the welfare of the Indian

populations. Supervised by Parliament, a British official known as a viceroy carried out the

wishes and laws of Parliament. The viceroy was assisted by workers in a small British civil

service.

Not all aspects of colonial rule were bad. The British government brought order and stability to

the subcontinent after years of civil wars. Railroads and the telegraph were introduced shortly

after they appeared in Britain bringing improvements in transportation and communication. With

new modern technology, Indians received better medical care and sanitation improved within the

cities. Although a new school system was set up, it was only available to India’s elite class.

Indians attending British schools were taught Western culture and language in order to be trained

for jobs in the British government as a soldier, worker, or administrator.

However, in the reorganization of Indian cities, physical distinctions between colonizer and

colonized were strengthened, reflecting an increased British fear of both Indian people and the

environment in the wake of the Rebellion. Thus a common feature of many cities was a strict

division between the “white” and “black” towns.

Photographic portrait of Queen Victoria. Queen

Victoria’s Proclamation of 1858 guaranteed Indian

princes their titles and declared that the Queen,

now the Empress of British India, and her

representatives would not interfere with Indian

beliefs and customs and would promote the social

advancement of Indians.


1858–1900: High Noon of

Colonialism

The 1860s and 1870s

The major changes to the government and

political economy in the “aftermath of the

revolt”105

provided fertile ground for the

growth of Indian nationalism. It was in

the post-Mutiny context that the modern

Indian nation took shape. The colonial

government worked to reach an

agreement with Indian elites, as

demonstrated by the protection of the

Indian princes’ titles, and it sought to

make new allies to strengthen its rule. At

the same time, the failure of the revolt

brought home to Indians of all classes the

reality and violence of the colonial state.

Across India, these developments

prompted debates among Indians, and

between Indians and British, as new

communications technologies create a

vibrant public forum. It was from these

debates that the outlines of the Indian

nation were created.106

The Founding of the Indian National

Congress, 1885

In the late nineteenth century, Indian

political and economic thinkers began to

advance the drain of wealth theory. This theory held that were it not for colonialism, Indian

surpluses would have been invested in India, rather than Britain or its older holdings. Simply put,

the colonial state did not represent Indian interests. The Indian nationalists who advanced this

theory did not call for a complete rejection of colonialism or expulsion of the British; rather, they

called for reforms. They argued that the colonial state should revise its economic policies to

nurture infant Indian industries that might compete with the imported items from Britain.

Such arguments were advanced in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, and, increasingly by Indian

residents in London, like Dadabhai Naoroji (1825–1917). In 1888, Naoroji was the first Indian

elected to the British Parliament a voters in London. Naoroji dedicated himself to advancing the

development of India: his 1901 book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India exemplified the drain

of wealth theory.107

New groups and associations concerned with topics, such as education,

sanitation, public health, economic policy, and social development, formed across India. In 1885,

the leaders of the associations met in Bombay and founded the Indian National Congress

(INC)108

Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Indian elected to the

British Parliament, for a constituency in London in

1888, dedicated himself to advancing the development of

India.


Though it became the premier Indian political party

and a forum for Indian democratic goals, the

Congress, as it is often called, did not start out with

any clear democratic basis. Rather it was a self-

selected group of Indian elites, primarily from the

cities of Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay. Most of them

had traveled to London to study for the Indian Civil

Service (ICS) examination or to study law. They

came back to India’s city centers and formed a

professional class. Additionally, English education

and Western thought brought on the desire freedom

and democracy. The Congress was not a radical

group that promoted rebellion but relied on petitions

to address issues to the British colonial government.

The Congress appointed itself representative of a

larger Indian public to the colonial state.

The Congress argued that the British government

should increase the powers of the legislative councils

and allow more Indians to participate. The Congress

called for the Indianization of the Indian Civil

Service. As it stood, only those Indians who could

make the long journey to London and sit for the

competitive examination could compete for this service. They believed that if the service were

Indianized, Indians could also compete to join the service, and it would increasingly represent

Indian interests. When such Indian officers retired, their pension payments too would remain in

India. They also argued that the British land revenue laws hurt the population by impoverishing

the Indian population and making the land vulnerable to famine. For India to succeed, they

believed, India should also directly benefit from Britain’s economic policies.

Though it was not an exclusive organization, the Congress was a largely Hindu organization.

Opponents thought Congress demands for elected councils would lead to Hindu domination, and

because the rapid Indianization of the ICS (Indian Civil Service), Muslims feared they would

eventually be out-numbered by Hindus. It must be emphasized that though the terms “Hindu”

and “Muslim” seem religious, but here they represent political identities that had been

cultivated by the colonial state as well.

The Congress’s vision of constitutional reform was not the only idea available in Indian cities.

Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856–1920) exemplified a far more radical line and drew on religious

motifs and sensibilities as a way to draw in mass support. Tilak’s famous motto was “Swaraj is

my birthright and I will have it!” Swaraj simply means self (swa)-rule (raj). Tilak took his

radical argument to the streets through a series of religious festivals and processions and the

founding of a Marathi language newspaper. Together, the public display of people power and the

written word formed a stringent challenge to the colonial state. In 1893, Tilak created the

Ganapati Festival, in celebration of the popular Hindu god Ganesh. It involved several days of

processions, food, and a ceremonial launching of small shrines to Ganesh into the Indian Ocean

Bal Gangadhar Tilak advanced the idea of

Indian national pride, particularly Hindu

pride, to oppose colonial rule.


in Bombay. Two years later, Tilak created another similar festival in honor of the great Maratha

warrior Shivaji, casting Shivaji as a symbol of a Hindu who defeated the Mughal Empire, which

Tilak portrayed as a Muslim empire. Tilak also urged people to consume only swadeshi goods,

those goods produced in India. Tilak advanced the idea of Indian national pride, particularly

Hindu pride, to oppose colonial rule.

INDIAN NATIONALISM AND THE RISE OF GANDHI

The Partition of Bengal, 1905–1911

Lord Curzon arrived to take up the Viceroyship in 1899. Curzon wanted to reorganize India’s

bureaucracy and roll back some of the concessions granted to Indians after the Rebellion in areas

of education and the local government. When Curzon decided to divide the entire state in the

Partition of Bengal in 1905, resistance took on a far more militant form. He created a new state

in East Bengal, with a Muslim majority population. In 1905, Curzon created a new state in East

Bengal, with a Muslim majority population. The educated Bengali middle-class resented this

division of their homeland. In Bengal, Hindus and Muslims had historically co-existed

peacefully. To oppose the Partition, they participated in the swadeshi movement. Opposition

groups reacted by petitioning the colonial state and appealing to the press; some advocated the

use of a harsh boycott of British goods. Finally, some small groups famously also engaged in

revolutionary terrorism, such as the assassination of British officials in the service of the cause.

A map depicting the 1905 partition of Bengal. This vivisection of Bengal, wherein Hindus and Muslims

had historically co-existed peacefully, hit the nerves of the educated Bengali middle-class, who launched a

swadeshi campaign from 1905–08 to oppose the partition.


Centered in Calcutta, the movement was very

successful in its first few years: there was

approximately a twenty-five percent decrease

in the quantity of British goods imported.

Educated professionals, some working-class

laborers from factories in Calcutta and

Bombay, and students—especially the

students—provided mass support to the

movement. Together they burned imported

goods, marched in the streets, and toured the

countryside, urging poorer peasants to give

up cheaper imported cloth for handmade

goods produced in India. In response to the

opposition, Curzon was replaced and new

reforms were instituted in 1909. In 1911, the

Partition of 1905 was undone and the capital

of India was moved to Delhi. The Partition

of Bengal was a significant milestone in the

development of a mass swadeshi nationalism.

World War I and India

World War I pressed Indian society further: it

drew over a million Indians into Britain’s

battles across the world. It was during the

war that Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948)

returned to India from South Africa and wove

together the movement that would ultimately

expel the British.

World War I was a war fought for self-

determination; and it was this idea of self-determination that spurred Indian nationalism,

resulting in crucial political reforms.109

When London declared war, Indians, as part of the

extensive British Empire, were drawn into the war around the world, in France, in East Africa

against the Germans, and in the Middle East against the Ottomans. India not only furnished

troops for Britain but India also contributed £150 million to the war effort. Indian nationalists

worked together to ensure that they would be granted self-determination for their sacrifices.

England could not fight without India, and thus it had to negotiate with and make concessions to

its Indian subjects.

A new generation of Indian nationalists, trained in English political thought and law, now called

upon the colonial state to make good on its promise to its Indian subjects. The nationalists

merely asked for the same privileges their counterparts in other British territories like Canada

and Australia had.

Gandhi in 1918. Gandhi thought that those engaged in

political struggles should follow a careful program of

self-reform or management in order to develop the

force of non-violence.


The 1916 meeting of the Indian National

Congress and the Muslim League

exemplified this new spirit. The Congress,

now about thirty-one years old, had

weathered storms and splits between its

moderates and extremists. The newer Muslim

League consisted of elite Muslims, many of

them lawyers. In petitioning for change, the

Muslim league only considered

Constitutional methods and pressure tactics,

not mass politics or violent extremism. In

their view, the Indian Muslim community

required enlightened and moderate

leadership. At this meeting, the future

founder of Pakistan, the charismatic

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948)

became the new, young leader of the Muslim

League.

This whole series of events was to be the last

Constitutional parry between the colonial

state and its largely elite and middle-class

interlocutors in the Congress and the League.

From 1917 onward, colonial repression,

difficult economic conditions, and political

difficulty pushed Constitutional methods of

opposition to the side. When the war ended in 1919, the Rowlatt Acts of 1919 allowed the

colonial state to maintain its wartime powers of detention without trial into peacetime.110

Enter Gandhi

Mohandas K. Gandhi returned to India from a successful political and legal career among the

Indian community in South Africa. To understand Gandhi’s complex philosophy, perhaps most

helpfully explained in his 1909 publication Hind Swaraj, we must understand two key terms. The

first is satyagraha, or truth-struggle; the second is ahimsa, or non-violence. In enjoining his

followers to satyagraha, Gandhi thought that those engaged in political struggles should follow a

careful program of self-reform or management in order to develop the force of non-violence. The

satyagrahi would first carefully describe his political demand and state it publicly, giving his

opponent a chance to agree or negotiate. Only when negotiations failed would the true

satyagrahi require action. The goal was not to win an outright victory but to win the opponent

over to the truth of the cause. In colonial India, this meant that Gandhi set out to convince the

colonial state that it had pursued a wrong course with the repression of Indians. If the colonial

state would only reverse course, Indians and Britons could work together for their mutual

development.

The future founder of Pakistan, the charismatic and cosmopolitan Muhammad Ali Jinnah, came to the fore as a new young leader of the Muslim

League at the 1916 meeting of the Indian National Congress and the

Muslim League in Lucknow.


Non-Cooperation and the Khilafat Movement

When Gandhi returned to India, he was a relative unknown. Because he successfully negotiated a

compromise the mill workers and the owners during the “Blue Mutiny” in 1859–60, he became

known on a national level. Gandhi and two prominent Muslim brothers, Mohammad and

Shaukat Ali, led an alliance of organizations in the Khilafat and non-cooperation movements.

The Khilafat movement sought to preserve the Ottoman Empire in the wake of World War I.

They wanted the Ottoman Emperor to remain the Caliph (or Khilaf) of Islam. Gandhi drew on

his own network of organizations to lend support to this movement, and together Gandhi and the

Ali brothers, along with many others, used the Khilafat issue to draw new groups of Indians into

anti-colonial campaigns which drew more Hindus and Muslims alike into the movement. The

movement was further charged by the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh in the Sikh holy city of

Amritsar. In 1919 wherein a British general ordered open fire on peacefully protesting civilians,

killing over three hundred and injuring over a thousand.

Gandhi easily won the presidency of the Congress in 1920 and introduced his unique brand of

politics to it. The Congress went from a very limited organization to a mass organization. Gandhi

famously reduced the cost membership so that almost anyone could afford to join. He

reorganized the structure of the Congress: a series of committees would link the village to the

District, the District to the province, and the province to the national level. Gandhi pushed

forward a very successful boycott of British goods and services in the years between 1920 and

1922. For example, many students quit their British-backed educational institutions to spread the

Congress message among the peasants. Peasants responded in kind, for the Congress offered

relief from their most pressing local grievance of high revenue demands that squeezed them dry.

The non-cooperation and Khilafat movements provided the forum for Indians of all kinds to

express their discontent.

Just as the movement seemed to be at the height of its success, in 1922, a protest in the small

town of Chauri Chaura, in Uttar Pradesh, turned violent and killed seventeen police officers who

were Indians working for the colonial state. Gandhi felt his message of non-violent resistance

had failed and called off the movement. He retreated for a period of spiritual contemplation,

arguing that if Indians could not control themselves in their efforts to obtain swaraj (self-rule),

then the movement must be called off. He believed that until they could develop unity and

discipline to do so, how could they claim they would rule themselves better than the British?

Gandhi was never ready to compromise or accommodate.

However, in the decade between 1914 and 1924, India had been permanently changed. Gandhi’s

uncompromising attitude, his simple method of living and communicating, and his willingness to

forsake his elite background to become one of the Indian masses provided a powerful symbol of

how what the British saw as India’s weakness—its poverty; its spiritualism; and its military

emasculation—might prove a strength.


MASS NATIONALISM

Interwar Political Debates

In the absence of a national parliament

controlled by Indians, Congress became the de

facto Indian political arena, its big-tent policy

accommodating all comers. Some, though,

remained cautiously outside the Congress

altogether for good reason. Chief among these

was Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar (1891–1956).

Dr. Ambedkar was a Dalit (“untouchable”)

from Maharashtra. Because of his incredible

intellectual ability, and financing from an

Indian prince, Dr. Ambedkar was able to study

in both London and New York. He earned a

Ph.D. in Economics from both Columbia

University and the London School of

Economics, and he also a lawyer in London.

Though one of the most highly educated

Indians of his day, when he returned to India,

caste discrimination prevented him from

establishing what surely would have been a

very successful legal practice. Thus, Ambedkar

turned to politics.

Dr. Ambedkar criticized Gandhi’s emphasis on social harmony and respect for simple, Indian

village life. Ambedkar believed Gandhi’s philosophy would result in the Dalits’ continued

oppression by the upper-castes. Ambedkar promoted a program that would create Dalit villages

that would have the best structure to help this disadvantaged group gain modern educations and

livelihoods.

As the debate grew, the colonial government appointed the Simon Commission in 1927 to

determine what future reforms were needed. Indians were angered that the commission consisted

of only white men and felt their ideas, once again, would go unheard. The Congress, unable to

represent their own interests, made their own recommendations. The great Congress moderate

and lawyer from Allahabad, Motilal Nehru (1861–1931), headed up a commission of Indian

nationalists. Their recommendations, known as the 1928 Nehru Report, made much greater

demands for self-representation.111

Civil Disobedience, 1930–34

These events drew Gandhi out of his retirement. Gandhi sent an eleven-point list of grievances

to the Viceroy: one called for the repeal of the salt tax. The tax on the most basic of natural

Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar, a Dalit (“untouchable”)

from Maharashtra and one of the most highly

educated Indians of his day, called for the founding

of Dalit villages that would have the best

infrastructure to help Dalits gain modern educations

and livelihoods, and he favored weighted political

representation for Dalits.


resources was something that could draw even

the poorest Indians into the movement. The tax

was a burden on the poor and salt could just as

easily be obtained by boiling sea water.

When the Viceroy declined to correct any of

these grievances, Gandhi launched his famous

Salt March along the 241-mile road from his

center at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, to the small

seaside town at Dandi, near Surat. Gandhi would

defy the colonial state and make his own salt

from the Indian Ocean. The march was an

extraordinary event. It was based on a clear-cut

moral issue. Gandhi effectively used salt and

Indian-spun cloth as symbols to inspire devotion.

As Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949), one of India’s

early female nationalist leaders and by all

accounts one of the greatest orators of her

generation, marched alongside Gandhi, women

in the thousands began to leave their homes and enter the world of mass street protests.

Gandhi informed the colonial government of his plans three weeks in advance, which only

further showed the moral weakness of the state’s position. Should it now arrest Gandhi in

advance or allow him to begin his march and then arrest him? Near the completion of the march,

the colonial government arrested and imprisoned Gandhi. This only fueled the civil

disobedience movement for the next year. But, in 1931, when incidents of violence occurred,

Gandhi, again, put on the brakes and called it off.

Gandhi then came to an agreement with the Viceroy, Lord Irwin. They agreed that India would

be a federation, that Indian responsibility would increase, and that safeguards for political

minorities would be put in place. This was the first time the colonial state had treated with a

leader of the Indian National Congress as an equal, and it marked an important turning point.

A series of Round Table Talks were held in London at which Indian leaders from a variety of

groups could hash out the new political settlement. At the second of these, Dr. Ambedkar won

the point to have a separate voting group body of voters for Indian untouchables; the Muslim

population had been previously granted this right. Gandhi was livid, for he saw Indian Dalits as

an important part of the Hindu community. Granting them separate voting bodies in which to

vote would divide Hindus, just when India needed unity most. Gandhi had always included the

Dalits within his program.

In response, Gandhi turned to his famous fast-unto-death, claiming that he could not forebear the

division of India in this way. And so Ambedkar was forced to yield to Gandhi’s demands.

Gandhi did make one concession: certain legislative districts would be reserved so that only

untouchables could run in them. Voters could vote for whomever they chose, but all candidates

Gandhi (left) with Sarojini Naidu (right, with

garland), one of India’s early female

nationalist leaders, during the

Salt March in 1930.

http://www.mapsofindia.com/history/route-map-of-dandi-march.jpg


would be Dalits in these reserved districts. Ambedkar argued this was not a sufficient means to

guarantee Dalit interests. Ambedkar’s hand was forced by his desire to avoid being the one

responsible for Gandhi’s death.

The 1935 Government of India Act and the 1937 Elections

After these prolonged negotiations, the new settlement was formalized in the Government of

India Act of 1935. All government departments (at the provincial level) would now be in the

hands of Indian ministers. However, at any moment the colonial state could withdraw powers

from Indian representatives if it was deemed necessary.

Despite these shortcomings, the Congress and other Indian political parties decided to participate

in the elections in an attempt to make the new settlement work. The elections were held in 1937;

thirty-five million Indians now had the right to vote, mainly voters in the middle-class. Out of

the eleven provinces, Congress won and formed governments in eight. In the others, local parties

won.

WORLD WAR II IN INDIA

The Declaration of War and the Two-Nation Theory

The political settlement lasted only two years. When in 1939, London declared war on Nazi

Germany. Indians, as part of the British Empire were, once again, committed to go to war. The

elected Indian government was not consulted Britain’s decision. As a result, the Congress

resigned all its seats in protest. Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, sensed an opportunity

and took it. In 1940, his Lahore Resolution argued that Indian Muslims were a nation unto

themselves and made a vague demand for independent Muslim states around the Muslim

majority-states of Punjab and Bengal. Though vague, the language of independent states proved

both provocative and enduring. Jinnah never sought to expel Hindus from such states; rather he

supported minority rights within the areas. At this time, Jinnah did not promote an independent

nation-state or use the term of Pakistan. His two-nation theory argued that two nations, Hindu

and Muslim, resided within India and must be treated equally even though Hindus outnumbered

Muslims.112

August 1942: Turning Point

In the face of growing Indian discontent, London again was forced to make allowances to Indian

nationalism in order to retain the support of India for the war. Sir Stafford Cripps came to India

and offered full dominion status to India after the war. Yet this was an uncertain future promise

from an untrustworthy partner, so the Congress did not accept the offer, instead choosing to

intensify its efforts to gain full independence. Thus the third major civil disobedience movement

of Gandhi was born: the Quit India movement. Even social groups who had shied away from

Gandhian street activism now poured into the streets, including a very large number of women.

The colonial state met all the protests and support harshly. The entire leadership of the Congress

was arrested and imprisoned. The Muslim League now had a chance to express its loyalty to the

colonial government. In the post-war years, the colonial government rewarded this loyalty by

giving the Muslim League a greater voice than it might otherwise have had otherwise.113


Indian Summer: The 1943–44 Famine in Bengal

Eastern India was hard hit by the war; as refugees streamed into Calcutta from Burma,

Americans soldiers came to eastern India to help secure the front. In World War I, India had

paid its own war expenses. In World War II, Indian politicians refused to do so, forcing the

British government to bear the expenses of fighting. As is well known, Britain suffered greatly

during the war, and there was no way it could bear the expenses it had undertaken, including

those of the 2.5 million Indian soldiers in its army. It was agreed that the Government of India

would cover the expenses, and Britain would repay the debt after the war. By the end of the war,

London owed Delhi £1.3 billion rupees. Delhi, in turn printed rupees in India that sparked off a

round of massive inflation.

Additionally, at least 3.5 million people in eastern India died as a result of famine. The famine

was not caused by the lack of food production, rather its mal-distribution. Food supplies and

distribution were centered in the cities and then sent to the army. This created a food shortage

which, along with inflated prices, created a food shortage. Peasants living in the countryside had

limited access to food supplies and died of starvation.

During the Quit India movement, the third major civil disobedience movement initiated by Gandhi, even social

groups who had shied away from Gandhian street activism poured

into the streets, including a very large number of women.


Section IV Summary

The Rebellion of 1857 prompted major changes in colonial governance in India, including the

shift from Company to Crown rule.

The Rebellion had many causes but represented a new level of intensity in Indian resistance to

colonial rule. Diverse groups participated. Though not a full-fledged national movement, the

Rebellion posed an effective challenge to British rule.

The colonial state strengthened its hold over Indian society and became increasingly racist. At

the same time, it worked to find ways to accommodate different sectors of Indian society. It

promised to respect Indian religious norms.

Over the second half of the nineteenth century, the colonial state haltingly granted Indians the

right to represent themselves politically, at first in very limited measure on municipal councils

beginning in 1882.

The Indian National Congress was founded as an elite organization in 1885. It used

Constitutional means and saw itself as representing Indian public opinion to the colonial state.

The Partition of Bengal in 1905 drew many more Indians into more radical forms of protest. It

was around the turn of the twentieth century that Indian nationalists began to advance the idea of

boycotting foreign goods in favor of swadeshi goods. The Partition of Bengal was reversed, and

Indians were advanced greater scope for self-representation. These reforms also created separate

electorates for Muslims.

The first truly mass nationalist movement occurred beginning in 1919 when the Khilafat

movement and Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement worked together to resist colonial rule. At

this time, all parties were willing to work together. The movement gained strength as the colonial

state brutally repressed it, such as at the famous Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Gandhi came to the fore during these movements and by 1920 was able to win the presidency of

the Congress. He introduced many reforms so that the Congress became a mass rather than an

elite organization.

Gandhi’s second large movement, the civil disobedience movement of 1930–4 led to the 1935

Government of India Act, which gave Indian elected officials unprecedented powers. The

Congress won handily in the resultant elections but resigned its ministries in 1939 when England

unilaterally declared war, drawing India into World War Two.

Jinnah’s two-nation theory held that Muslims were an essential part of the Indian nation and

should be treated on par with Hindus despite their numerical minority. However, until the very

end, Jinnah never called for an entirely separate nation-state. The Muslim Leagues’ loyalty

during the war ensured that it would have a place at the bargaining table after the war.


SECTION V: “TRYST WITH DESTINY:”

INDEPENDENT INDIA THE INDEPENDENCE SETTLEMENT

The Partition Plan

After World War II, Britain was in difficult financial circumstances and incredible debt,

including to its own government in India. It relied heavily on American aid and imposed

peacetime food rationing on its populace.114

Its Indian subjects had not cooperated loyally but

rather had been a persistent thorn in the empire’s side. Moreover, the tide was turning against

colonial rule. Having just fought for democracy and self-determination, it was difficult for

Britain to deny this to India, especially when its grasp on the colony was slipping.

The negotiations started at the Simla Conference in June 1945. The Viceroy, Lord Wavell, met

with Muslim League and the Indian National Congress to negotiate the Independence settlement.

The Muslim League’s invitation was in part a reward for its loyalty during World War II. It was

there on equal terms with the Congress. Representing the Congress was Jawaharlal Nehru

(1889–1964). Having spent most of his life in England rather than India, Nehru, by virtue of his

careful study of Indian conditions and stunning charisma, became one of the new lights of the

Congress party. Staunchly socialist and secular in his outlook, Nehru was more open to

modernist, socialist building and social engineering projects than was Gandhi, who favored a

utopian vision of the flourishing of simple Indian village life.115

The Simla Conference failed because Jinnah and Nehru could not come to an agreement about its

terms. Under Jinnah’s two-nation theory, the Muslim League was the appropriate representative

of Muslim national interests in India. Nehru was open to this, and both Nehru and Jinnah agreed

that the negotiating committee should be divided equally between Hindus and Muslims. But

Jinnah argued that all the Muslims on the committee should be there as representatives of the

Muslim League and not the Congress. On this issue the talks ended.

Next the British decided to hold an election in 1945; the government that was elected would be

the interim government to which the British would transfer power. As in 1937, the Congress did

extraordinarily well as did the Muslim League. Whereas in 1937 the Muslim League only won

4.4 percent of the Muslim vote, it now won all of the Muslim seats in the central legislature and

75 percent of those in the provincial legislatures. Jinnah’s bargaining moves at the Simla

Conference had drawn in new supporters; so did the fear that Muslims would be oppressed by a

Hindu majority as Independence became closer.116

Since neither party gained a decisive defeat or victory, all were forced back to the negotiating

table. The 1946 Cabinet Mission developed a breakthrough plan that could be a workable

compromise. The provinces were divided into three groups (A, B, and C groups). Group A


included the Hindu majority-states. Group B included the northwestern Muslim majority states

of Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan, and the Northwestern Frontier Provinces. Group C was the eastern

state of Bengal, another Muslim-majority province. India would have a three-tiered government

made up at the first level of individual states; at the mid-level of these A, B, and C groupings;

and at the center, a national government. Each group of states would have an equal say at the

national level. This plan gave Muslims more power over national politics. Important powers

such as taxation and law and order were concentrated at the group level. Socialist Nehru could

not stomach this. He felt only a strong central power in India could knit the nation together in

sufficient strength to keep foreign nations out of India. Nehru believed India required large

public works projects like dams to fuel the industrial development to provide Indian self-

sufficiency. This time it was the Congress that dominated the negotiations.117

Jinnah felt backed into a corner and sought to display the strength of the Muslim League with the

Direct Action Day in November 1946. Meant to be a mass protest against Congress domination,

it spun out of control and resulted in religious violence against Hindus in Bengal. Hindus

retaliated with acts of violence against Muslims in neighboring Bihar. As religious violence

spread, Gandhi toured Bengal and Bihar in a futile effort to stem the brutality.118

Representatives at the Simla Conference in 1945. The Simla Conference failed because Jinnah and Nehru could

not come to an agreement about its terms.


This violence also hastened the British timeline for departure. India was spinning out of control,

and the British wanted no part in restoring order when their own resources were stretched so thin

at home. In February 1947, Prime Minister Attlee announced Britain would withdraw from India

by June 1948. He sent Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900–79) to India to conclude the final

negotiations. When Mountbatten arrived in March 1947, he advanced the timeline by almost a

year, advancing the date for British withdrawal to August 1947. This gave him only six months

to work something out between the League and the Congress.119

Mountbatten and his wife Edwina struck up a famous friendship with Nehru but grew to dislike

Jinnah.120

To Jinnah, Mountbatten offered either an undivided India without any guarantee of

Muslim power at the center, or a sovereign independent nation-state of Pakistan comprised of the

western and eastern Muslim-majority wings of India, Bengal and Punjab. Now, his hand forced

by the loss of any chance at the power for which he and his party had worked so hard, Jinnah

accepted Mountbatten’s fateful offer. Pakistan would be divided into two geographically and

culturally separate regions called East Pakistan (Bengal) and West Pakistan (Punjab, Sind,

Baluchistan, and the Northwest Frontier Provinces).

Though difficult for a nationalist like Nehru to accept, he saw the Pakistan plan as the painful

compromise necessary to bring colonial rule to a close. The Hindu right within the Congress

Party also strongly demanded Partition, seeking a Hindu nation as a counterweight to the

proposed Muslim nation of Pakistan.121

Gandhi, by now more of a spiritual guide to the

Trains carry refugees from Pakistan to India after Partition in 1947.


movement than a day-to-day leader, opposed the plan wholeheartedly. Partition represented the

failure of the Indian nation to come to an acceptable compromise between the peoples of India.

The Trauma of Partition, 1947–55

The post-war conditions were difficult, the heat oppressive, and everyone was anxious.

Moreover, nobody knew exactly where the boundaries of the new country would lie. When

Mountbatten announced Partition and Independence in February 1947, there was no simple way

to determine where the lines between India and Pakistan would be drawn. In this uncertainty,

large numbers of Hindus in what would likely become Pakistan moved eastward to India.

Likewise, large numbers of Muslims moved westward to what would become Pakistan. Neither

group wanted to be caught on the “wrong” side of the border when it was finally determined.121

In the chaos, approximately fifteen million people left their homes to areas where they would

feel safe. Many moved to lands where they had little cultural connection.123

As it turns out, the border was not finally defined until six weeks after Partition, drawn by Sir

Cyril Radcliffe in consultation with representatives of the Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh

communities. Radcliffe was chosen because he had never been to India and was therefore

considered impartial. The Radcliffe Boundary Commission toured India and accepted arguments

from many people, but ultimately some of its decisions were subjective. The process was

immortalized in a famous poem by W. H. Auden called “Partition.”124

Almost as soon as the decision was made to divide India, violence broke out; especially in

Bengal (eastern India) and in Punjab (northwestern India). Law and order suffered a complete

breakdown in this period; calls from British officers in the region for reinforcements were

ignored by Delhi and London; and individual and group violence resulted in retaliations on all

sides. The largest peacetime migration of humans until that time, between six and twelve million

Indians, crossed the borders during what will be later called the Indian Diaspora.

In these ways the victory of Independence was marred by Partition. In both the new India and the

new Pakistan, though, Independence managed to hold out great hope of self-sufficiency, of

development, and of a flourishing of Indian culture on its own terms. This was made most clear

in Nehru’s magical oratory on the night of August 15, 1947. His “Tryst with Destiny” speech

was one of the greatest speeches of the twentieth century, and it painted an optimistic vision of

what Indians committed to their own development could do.125

The Princely States

Not all of the land in India was ruled directly by the British. Forty-five percent of India’s land

was governed by 562 semi-independent princely states. All the princely states were loyal to the

British government and were against the idea of a divided nation for fear that they would be

swallowed up within India or Pakistan.126

For the most part, the princes realized that the days of

aristocratic elitism were over. Although it was originally agreed that the Nawab’s would become

fully independent, Mountbatten refused and told the princes to choice which nation they would

be a part of: India or Pakistan. In return, the princes were given large payments for their lands

and were given certain privileges. A few princes, though, proved more difficult to integrate.

The events, especially in Kashmir, had lasting consequences for the subcontinent.127

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wUcw8Ufx_Y


Roots of the Kashmir Conflict A Muslim-majority state, Kashmir, neighbored the new Pakistan. Kashmir was ruled by a line of

Hindu kings. The Hindu Prince Hari Singh announced he was leaning toward joining Pakistan;

opposed to socialism, the prince sensed that he would not find a space in the new India, and

additionally it made more sense for his Muslim subjects to join Pakistan. He came close to

joining Pakistan, much to Nehru’s dismay. Nehru hoped to incorporate Kashmir as the one

Muslim-majority state in the new India, proof positive of India’s commitment to secularism.

However, when the Pakistani military began to make their way toward his state, the prince

changed his mind and asked India for military reinforcements. India refused its support unless

Hari Singh joined India. He signed the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947.

However, the agreement came with the stipulation that the people of Kashmir would need to

approve it.128

The Indian troops’ entered Kashmir to help the prince on October 27, 1947. This marked the

beginning of the first India-Pakistan war. Fighting soon escalated. By January 1948, the United

Nations was involved, but a ceasefire was not reached until January 1949. Both sides agreed to a

ceasefire until the people could vote on whether they wanted to remain independent, join

Pakistan or join India. To date, a vote has never taken place. The state remains divided, most of

it falling into Indian Kashmir and some of its northwestern area coming under Pakistani control.

This is not an official international boundary because neither side recognizes the right of the

other.

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU’S INDIA

“We the People of India:” Drafting the Indian Constitution

The five years between the end of the war in 1945 and the ratification of the Indian Constitution

in January, 1950 were heady ones in which the post-Independence settlement took shape. We

now turn to the monumental achievement of India’s Constitution, which symbolized the swaraj

that Indians had for so long petitioned. Besides Partition and the recent religious tensions,

Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, and his government faced many other challenges.

One was the persistent underdevelopment of India: most Indians lacked access to modern

education and technologies. India was also extraordinarily diverse, and many splits in society

would have to be overcome to bind the nation together.

The new and progressive Constitution retained many aspects of the British colonial state.

Strongly committed to civil liberties and equality, the Constitution preserved a strong central

government that Nehru thought was necessary to ensure Indian unity. The Constitution also

adopted measures for Dalits and women; untouchability was banned. The Constitution adopted a

British model of parliamentary democracy, with elections every five years. For the first time in

1952, Indians would elect their own independent government on the basis of a universal adult

franchise. Indian voter turnout has remained consistently high, much higher than most Western

democracies with voluntary voting.


The process of drafting the Constitution, however, was marred by the assassination of the great

Mahatma Gandhi. On January 30, 1948, Nathuram Godse, a right-wing Hindu nationalist, killed

the beloved Indian leader. Angered by Gandhi’s tolerance of Muslims, Godse shot Gandhi three

times as he was walking from his evening prayers from Birla House in New Delhi. He and his

co-conspirator were found guilty and executed in November, 1949.129

Language, Religion, and Caste in Independent India

LANGUAGE. The euphoria of independence, a growing Indian economy, and the increasingly

important role of India on the world stage, however, could not mask all divisions in Indian

society. The most important of these in the first decade was not religion but language. There are

fourteen major linguistic groupings in India: what was to be the language of governance? It was

agreed that English would be the national language for a period of fifteen years, but ultimately

Hindi would become India’s official language of governance. This provision was written in the

Constitution. However, after the agreement expired, it was renewed, so that English has all along

remained the language of governance. To many north Indian Hindi speakers, this may seem an

unwanted relic of colonial rule.

Crowds gather to watch the funeral procession of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. Gandhi was assassinated by

Nathuram Godse, a right-wing Hindu nationalist who was angered by Gandhi’s attempts to accommodate Muslim

demands within India.


RELIGION. Though the 1950 Indian Constitution

extended a strong commitment to the rights of

cultural minorities, it did not specifically define

any protections for Muslims. Thus the old

practice of separate Muslim political

representation was abolished. Yet India also

developed a secular policy that assured respect

for each Indian religion. Rather it sought to

equally involve each of India’s religions, granting

each faith the right to practice freely and

establish public institutions like schools, colleges,

and associations in order to preserve its

community and heritage. Thus the state could

help fund religious schools without any qualms,

and the public calendar is checkered with

holidays for each of India’s major religions.130

CASTE. Special concessions were extended to

untouchables/Dalits as well as oppressed tribal

groups. The Constitution guaranteed a legal

obligation to equality and anti-discrimination. It

also created special reserved (elected) seats in its

legislature for oppressed castes and tribes.

Nehru’s Death and Legacy

The first elections in independent India had been

held in 1952, and the Congress party won a resounding victory as well as in 1957 and again in

1962. These three victories secured Nehru’s reign as Prime Minster from 1947 until his death in

1964. Nehru oversaw the development of the Constitution and significant reforms to economic

policy.

Nehru and the Congress party effectively created an enduring democracy in India. Many

Western political scientists had felt democracy would not flourish in an Indian environment

because it was marred by religious zeal and poverty. Yet democracy and a strong sense of

national unity developed and flourished in India. Each transfer of power was peaceful and

reflective of the votes of Indians.

In Nehru’s final years, his successes were tempered by India’s humiliating loss to China in the

Sino-Indian War in 1962. Tensions began to mount between China and India as China annexed

Tibet. In 1959, Nehru extended refuge to the spiritual and political leader of Tibetan Buddhism,

the Dalai Lama. There also remained disputed borders between India and the Tibetan region.

Chinese advances across two places on what India’s perceived as its northeastern border. The

conflict was short-lived but resulted in India’s defeat. Two years later, Nehru, who some

claimed was visibly weakened by this defeat, was dead, and a new era of politics in India was on

the rise.131

Jawaharlal Nehru’s reign as Prime Minster from

1947 until his death in 1964.


Conclusion

Following Jawaharlal Nehru’s death, the leaders of Congress elected his daughter, Indira Gandhi,

as India’s new prime minister. Although she was not related to Mohandas Gandhi, she did share

his and her father’s concern about the welfare of the poor in India and became known simply as

“Mrs. Gandhi.” Under her administration, the poor received low-cost housing, banks were

nationalized, loans were provided to the peasants, and landless poor were given land. However,

other economic and social programs she promoted failed and increased the number of peasants

living in slum dwellings in India’s largest cities.

The Birth of Bangladesh

At the beginning of her reign, Mrs. Gandhi faced difficult international challenges. At home she

had nationalized several key industries as part of her aggressive populist agenda. Moreover, in

1971 she allied with the Soviet Union, forsaking her father’s nonalignment, in part due to her

distrust of the United States, which had developed close ties with Pakistan. And, she had

controversially cut off the special stipends for former Indian princes and their descendants and

abolished the fundamental right to hold property, in an effort to finance her populist agenda. In

this context of rapid change, Mrs. Gandhi won a significant war against Pakistan and in so doing

ensured the birth of an independent Bangladesh.

Photograph of Indira Gandhi, daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, who became the

third prime minister of India.


Recall that West Pakistan (Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan, and the Northwest Frontier Provinces) and

East Pakistan (Bengal) were separated by thousands of miles of Indian territory. In the west the

dominant languages were Punjabi and Urdu; in the east only Bengali. Since the capital was in the

west, Bengali Pakistanis were in many ways disenfranchised, cut off from access to government

jobs and elite institutions and networks. West Pakistan only worsened this tension through its

persistent underfunding of development in Bengal in favor of the western heartland. When after

two decades of such treatment Bengali voters elected leaders to a majority that could form its

own government in the 1971 elections, West Pakistan brutally suppressed all signs of resistance

in its eastern wing and killed approximately 1.5 million Bengali civilians, an atrocious event that

rivaled the Partition for its horror. As refugees flooded from East Bengal into the Indian state of

West Bengal, Mrs. Gandhi faced a refugee crisis of massive proportions. Motivated by anti-

Pakistani nationalism as well as humanitarianism, Mrs. Gandhi invaded East Bengal and helped

free it from Pakistan for India’s decisive victory in the third India-Pakistan war. From then on,

Bangladesh would remain independent and retain positive ties with India.

Pakistan was divided into two geographically and culturally separate regions called East Pakistan and West

Pakistan.


In 1984, tensions in the Punjab region increased. Sikh militants who lived in the area demanded

independence from India. Mrs. Gandhi responded by sending military troops. While the Sikh

rebels sought refuge in their Golden Temple (their most revered shrine), Indian soldiers entered

the shrine and killed over four-hundred Sikh rebels. In retaliation, two of Mrs. Gandhi’s Sikh

body guards assassinated her in her garden that same year.

Indira Gandhi’s son, Rajiv, was elected by an overwhelming majority to lead the government

after her death. Unlike his grandfather and mother, Rajiv Gandhi’s policies encouraged foreign

investment and free enterprise. On May 21, 1991, he, too, was assassinated.

Because of the efforts of the Nehru family and successive prime minister’s India has improved

economically. Thousands of new factories, roads, dams, canals, power plants, and schools were

built. High-tech industries, especially computer-related information technology and software

development, grew in India. During this period, civil rights for women also expanded.132

The guide has provided only a brief introduction to the many successes and challenges facing

contemporary India. India has maintained lofty goals since its Independence. It has aimed to

ensure its own economic self-sufficiency. It has aimed to ensure not just the formal but the

fundamental equality of a variety of oppressed groups including women, scheduled castes,

scheduled tribes, and others. It has maintained a largely peaceful foreign policy. It has a stellar

record of guaranteeing civil liberties and democratic governance. And, perhaps most noteworthy,

despite the many naysayers and problems it has faced, it has retained its ideological commitment

to sustainable and equitable development for all of its citizens.


Glossary

Adibasi/Adivasi – Literally meaning “original inhabitant,” today this is the term used to refer to

India’s tribal populations, many of which are legally considered Scheduled Tribes entitled to

special treatment and reservations from the state.

Ahimsa – This is a term meaning non-violence. It is a fundamental tenet of many religions

including Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Mohandas K. Gandhi drew on this concept as he

developed his non-violent form of Indian nationalism focused on satyagraha (truth force) and

self-cultivation.

Aligarh Movement – This movement was founded by Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan (1817–99), a

Muslim from a genteel Delhi service family. In 1875 Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan established the

Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh. Sir Sayyid sought to prove Muslims’ loyalty

to the British Raj in the wake of the Mutiny. His Aligarh curriculum combined advanced Islamic

and Western learning because he hoped to create a class of Muslims who could work with the

colonial state and uplift their co-religionists.

Ambedkar, Dr. Bhim Rao (1891–1956) – Ambedkar was the most important leader of India’s

untouchables. A brilliant lawyer and economist, Ambedkar surmounted many difficulties to

obtain an education in India, England, and the United States. He led both Dalits and workers in

movements to obtain social and political rights. Ambedkar never had a close or easy relationship

with the Indian National Congress. Ambedkar is also justly revered for his important role in

drafting and enacting the Indian Constitution.

Anglicism – This term refers to an approach to British rule in India that sought to reform Indian

society along English lines. The Anglicist approach critiqued Hindu and Muslim religious beliefs

and other aspects of Indian culture, particularly the treatment of women. An exemplar of this was

Thomas Babington Macaulay’s Minute on Indian Education from 1835 which criticized Indian

literature. Macaulay and other Anglicists and sought to create Indians who were essentially

Englishmen in all regards. While the Orientalist approach sought to preserve Indian cultures, the

Anglicist approach went after wholesale reform.

The Babri Masjid affair – This refers to the destruction of the Babri Masjid, located in

Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. Some Hindu activists claim that this is the site of the birthplace of Lord

Ram and that Babur willfully built the mosque as a sign of Islamic domination. Mainstream

historians in India dispute this claim. Nevertheless, in 1992 the Masjid was dismantled piece by

piece under a Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh. In the aftermath of the

destruction, there were riots across north India and in Bombay in which approximately a

thousand Muslims were killed. In 2010 the state’s High Court decided that one-third of the site


would be granted to devotees of Lord Ram to build a temple to Lord Ram, one-third to a Muslim

organization, and one-third to a second Hindu religious organization. The entire controversy

shows how the mixture of religion and politics can take a violent turn, especially when the state,

as it did in this matter, fails to act to protect secular values and religious minorities.

Bangladesh – Bangladesh is the third largest South Asian country, with a population of about

166 million. It is situated to India’s east. From 1947–71, it was a part of Pakistan. In 1971 it won

its independence from Pakistan. The largely deltaic country’s capital is located at Dhaka. Over

the past three decades, Bangladesh’s textile manufacturing industry has expanded dramatically,

and it forms an important part of Bangladesh’s economy today, providing millions of jobs to

women in particular.

The Battle of Buxar – This battle took place in 1765 between the East India Company and the

then-Bengali Nawab Mir Kasim. Mir Kasim sought to restore Indian control of Bengal and in so

doing provoked the EIC. Mir Kasim lost his struggle, and his predecessor, Mir Jafar, was

restored to the throne by the EIC. Importantly, the 1765 Treaty of Allahabad gave the EIC the

right to collect revenue or “diwani” in eastern India. This was a crucial step in the Company’s

shift from trade to government.

The Battle of Plassey – This battle took place in 1757 between the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-

Daula on the one side and an alliance of the East India Company, the great financier Jagat Seth,

and Mir Jafar on the other side. The alliance easily bested young Siraj-ud-Daula, and Mir Jafar

took the throne with the backing and control of the EIC. This settlement is often said to mark the

formal beginning of Britain’s shift from trade to government in India.

Bharatiya Janata Party – This party is the current dominant partner in India’s governing

coalition, the National Democratic Alliance. The BJP’s national electoral success is a product of

the political fragmentation in 1990s India. It held power from 1998 until 2004 and again won

with 281 seats of 545 seats in the Lok Sabha after ten years of Congress dominance. The party is

ideologically committed to Hindutva, the idea of India as a Hindu nation, though its “big tent”

approach provides space for many different strands of thought. Currently the BJP claims to work

for more efficient and less corrupt governance as well as populist economic policies within the

context of India’s neoliberal economy.

Bhonsle, Shivaji (r. 1630–80) – Bhonsle was a Maratha chieftain who drastically expanded

Maratha territory in western India. He did so using cavalry and his knowledge of and base in the

countryside of Maharashtra. Shivaji was a persistent thorn in the side of the Mughal Empire

especially during the reign of Aurangzeb. In fact, Aurangzeb shifted his capital to Aurangabad in

the Deccan in a failed attempt to more effectively subdue Shivaji and south Indian sultanates.

Bhutan – Bhutan is a tiny kingdom to India’s east, with a population of 734,000. It is a Buddhist

kingdom rated as one of the happiest countries on earth. In 2005 it changed from an absolute to a

constitutional monarchy. Its capital is located at Thimpu.

Buddhism – Buddhism has very few followers today (0.8 percent of the Indian population) in

the land of its birth. It developed as a “renouncer” religion in the sixth century BCE as a critique


of the Hindu doctrines of karma and rebirth and caste. It was founded by Gautama Buddha

(approximately 563 BCE to 483 BCE), a prince of the eastern Indian Shakya tribe who renounced

his position to pursue a life of spiritual pursuit, famously meditating under a pipal tree until he

attained enlightenment. The Buddha realized that the middle path of renouncing desire would

provide permanent escape from the cycle of rebirth.

Caste – This term is used in reference to the hierarchical division of Indian society based on

religious-occupational categories. Caste can refer to varna or jati.

Civil Disobedience Movement (1930–34) and the Salt March – These represent the second of

Gandhi’s successful pan-Indian movements for greater Indian autonomy. Gandhi sent an eleven-

point list of grievances to the Viceroy. When the Viceroy refused his demands, including

refusing to repeal a tax on salt, Gandhi launched a several hundred-mile march to the sea. Based

on a clear-cut moral issue Gandhi effectively used salt and Indian-spun cloth as symbols to

inspire devotion to the national cause. The major outcome of these political movements was to

inspire a new round of negotiations about the shape of political reforms in India, eventually

resulting in the 1935 Government of India Act.

Colonialism – Colonialism is the rule of one group of people by another without complete

permission and on unequal, often exploitative, terms. Colonial powers had diverse motivations,

but they were usually at first primarily economic. By the twentieth century, nationalist

movements around the world successfully challenged colonial governments with demands for

self-rule.

Dalai Lama – The Dalai Lama is the spiritual and political leader of Tibetan Buddhism. When

he was expelled from Tibet by the Chinese in 1959, Jawaharlal Nehru offered refuge to him and

his followers. This led to the creation of two major Tibetan communities in India, in the north at

Dharamshala and McLeodganj in Himachal Pradesh and in the south at Bylakuppe in Karnataka.

Nehru’s decision to grant refuge to the Dalai Lama was one of the catalysts for the war between

India and China in 1962.

Dalit – Literally meaning “oppressed,” this term has been reclaimed by the community of India’s

lowest castes as an empowering term of identity and community that marks their claims for

equality on Indian state and society.

The Deccan Plateau – The Deccan Plateau was formed in prehistoric times when the Indian

tectonic plate ran into Asia, forming the Himalayan Mountains and pushing up this plateau. The

plateau is mainly made of granite and is not well suited for agriculture. The divide between north

and south India is reflected not only in geography, but in the linguistic and cultural differences

created by this natural barrier.

Diwani – The right of diwani referred to the right to collect revenue from a particular territory.

The East India Company gained this right over much of eastern India after the defeat of Mir

Kasim and his allies the Nawab of Awadh and the Mughal Emperor (Shah Alam) at the Battle of

Buxar. The Company pensioned off the former rulers of Bengal and took control of revenue

collection, marking a shift from trade to rule.


Doab – This term refers to the land between the Ganges River to east and the Yamuna River to

the West. The name means “two [do] rivers”

The doctrine of lapse – According to this doctrine, if an Indian ruler failed to produce a male

heir, then his line could be said to have lapsed, and the Company state could take direct control.

This developed under Dalhousie’s viceroyalty from 1848–56. Prior to this doctrine most Indian

rulers would adopt a male son to continue their line if they failed to bear one biologically; this

doctrine disallowed such adoptions and thus allowed many princely states such as Satara, Jhansi,

and Nagpur to come under direct Company control. It was a symbol of declining Indian and

advancing Company sovereignty, and it contributed to the discontent that fueled the Mutiny in

1857–8.

The Emergency – The Emergency was a period of the suspension of democratic governance in

India between 1975 and 1977. Besides this two-year period, India’s record of Constitutional

government has been sterling. During this two-year period Mrs. Gandhi suspended civil liberties,

banned opposition political parties, censored the press, violated Constitutional conventions in the

appointment Justices, rounded up and imprisoned thousands of perceived members of the

opposition. Mrs. Gandhi justified this as necessary to preserve stability so that she could pursue

her garibi hatao or “abolish poverty” campaign.

Factory – This was a depot to store goods before they were shipped from ports like Surat and

Madras in the early days of European trade in India.

Firangi Mahal – A college of Muslim learning at Lucknow—literally “foreigner’s palace”—the

Sunni religious scholars of Firangi Mahal were patronized by Lucknow’s Shia rulers. The

Firangi Mahal developed a curriculum for Muslim students firmly embedded in Islam so that

proper Islamic learning might spread in a manner appropriate to India’s changing political

circumstances. The curriculum combined language, rational sciences, logic, and theology in a

systematic and replicable form.

Gandhi, Indira (1917–84) – Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977

and from 1979 to 1984. After Jawaharlal Nehru’s death, Mrs. Gandhi was able to successfully

take up her father’s mantle and preserve Congress control of Indian politics. Though very

popular and with widespread support, Mrs. Gandhi’s Prime Ministerships were also marred by

failures of integration of dissident and separatist movements. The single greatest black mark on

Mrs. Gandhi’s record was the Emergency of 1975 to 1977 during which democratic guarantees

and civil liberties were suspended. However, shortly after the end of the Emergency in 1977

Mrs. Gandhi was re-elected by the Indian populace.

Gandhi, Mohandas K. (1868–1948) – Gandhi was the most important leader of Indian

nationalism. Gandhi was educated in England, began his political and legal career in South

Africa, and, upon his return to India in 1915, put his revolutionary philosophy of nonviolent self-

cultivation into effect. Gandhi successfully built a mass base for Indian nationalism, relying on

accessible symbols with emotional resonance for many Indians, such as the spinning wheel and

Hindu religious mythology. For example, Gandhi encouraged Indians to spin their own cloth,


khadi, rather than relying on manufactured cloth that would only strengthen the colonial

economic relationship between India and England. Assassinated by a Hindu extremist just after

Indian independence in 1948, Gandhi’s sophisticated and complex political philosophy continues

to animate many aspects of Indian life as well as other political struggles around the world.

Gandhi, Rajiv – Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India from 1984 until 1989. Rajiv was

the son of Mrs. Gandhi and the grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru. He took up the reins of power

when his mother was assassinated in 1984. Rajiv began the process of liberalizing the Indian

economy. However, he also relied on religious rhetoric and symbolism to ensure his party’s

electoral success, as in the controversy over Muslim women’s rights to divorce. Rajiv was

assassinated in 1991 as he campaigned for the Congress. He was assassinated by a suicide

bombing carried out by a female member of the Tamil Tiger separatist movement.

The ghats – The ghats are the hilly granite mountains that divide the Deccan plateau from the

south Indian coastal regions to their east and west. These ghats created natural divides that

tended to produce smaller, more fragmented polities along India’s Coromandel and Malabar

coasts, such as the Zamorin of Calicut.

The 1935 Government of India Act – This act was a response to the demands of the Civil

Disobedience movement. It overhauled the government of India. It ended the system of dyarchy

enacted in 1919 in which provincial powers were divided between Indian and British control.

The major concessions of the 1935 Act were that all government departments at the provincial

level would be held by elected members of the legislative councils; franchise was expanded; and

India’s various provinces as well as the princes would come together in a federal system.

Green Revolution – The Green Revolution was a series of agrarian improvements designed to

improve Indian agricultural outputs. These were attempted across India and were especially

effective in northern India, a wheat-growing region considered the breadbasket of India. Key

aspects of the Green Revolution included high-yield seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation.

While the Green Revolution did not substantially benefit rice outputs, it did benefit wheat

growing, especially in India’s breadbasket in Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh.

Guru Nanak (1469–1539) – Guru Nanak was the first of ten living Sikh gurus. Grounded in the

tradition of religious reform and mysticism in the Punjab, Guru Nanak devoted himself to a

formless god, emphasized congregation and community, and composed a series of poems on the

virtues of his god that formed the kernel of the Adi Granth, the original text that is the holy

scripture of Sikhism and is considered a living Guru of the faith.

Hawala or hundi – These terms refer to the system of money transfer through networks of credit

and trust. In informal language, we might even call hundis “IOUs,” but they carry far more trust

and guarantee than an informal IOU. The hundis were such effective financial instruments that

the British colonial government, rather than trying to abolish these alternative-banking

institutions, instead simply adopted and formalized them. Such networks facilitated long-distance

trade in the early modern period, and they continue to do so, for example, providing a means for

migrant laborers in the Middle East to send remittances to family in South Asia. However, today,


hawala is often used to transfer ill-gotten money for nefarious purposes, since it is outside the

purview of state regulation.

Hazare, Anna – Hazare is the leader of an anti-corruption movement in India. Hazare has

engaged in peaceful protest, civil disobedience, and high-profile fasts to pressure India’s

government to root out corruption. The Aam Admi Party is a political party founded in 2012

that sprang from Anna’s movement. The Aam Admi Party has had some electoral success,

winning control of Delhi, the capital, as well as a few seats in India’s Parliament in the 2014

elections.

Himalayan Mountains – The Himalayan Mountain range is the highest in the world, containing

most of the world’s highest peaks, including Mt. Everest at 23,600 feet. Spread out over India,

Nepal, Bhutan, China, and Pakistan, the Himalayas provide the altitude necessary for the Indus,

Ganges, and Brahmaputra river systems to build into the mightiest in the world in the north

Indian plains. The Himalayas have also been of great strategic and military importance over the

centuries, forming a natural boundary between India and the Tibetan Plateau. Additionally, the

Himalayas block the monsoon rains from departing the subcontinent, thereby ensuring that the

rainfall necessary for India’s agrarian success falls over the subcontinent.

Hinduism – Hinduism is India’s largest religion, with Hindus constituting about 80.5 percent of

the Indian population. It is an ancient religion with many branches of sacred knowledge,

practice, and belief. It is pantheistic, and today it is most often practiced via worship of these

deities in temples. Hinduism also has a base of religious texts that facilitate the individual’s

exploration of religion and ethics, such as the Vedas and the two great epics the Mahabharata

and the Ramayana. Hinduism is a flexible and adaptive religion—local faith traditions blend

with the great pan-Indian Hindu traditions.

Hindu Mahasabha – This is an important Hindu nationalist organization. Founded in 1915, the

Mahasabha promoted cow protection, Sanskritized Hindi, and other aspects Hindu religious

identities to ally Indian national identity with Hinduism. The ideology of this movement is called

Hindutva. Another important Hindutva organization is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh

(RSS), established in 1925 to train militant Hindu volunteers who provide much of the

manpower for the Hindutva movement. It was RSS member Nathuram Godse who assassinated

Gandhi in 1948, for which the organization was banned for one year. The Sangh Pariwar refers

to the larger “family,” or pariwar, of Hindu right organizations.

India – India is the largest South Asian country, with a population of about 1.2 billion. It is the

worlds’ largest democracy. It is situated on a peninsula that extends from the Eurasian continent;

this peninsula is bounded by the Himalayas, the Karaokoram, and Hindu Kush mountain ranges

to the north, and the Indian Ocean to the south, east, and west. India obtained its independence

from Britain in 1947. Its capital is New Delhi.

The Indian National Army – The Indian National Army was the army of Indian prisoners of

wars and other Indians in Southeast Asia founded by Subash Chandra Bose (1897–1945) in

1942. The Army sought to wrest India from British control as the Japanese advanced toward it.

The Army included an important women’s brigade called the Rani of Jhansi brigade. Though the


army was important symbolically, it did not succeed militarily. Bose’s eschewal of Gandhian

nonviolence shows the diversity of the Indian nationalist movement.

Indian National Congress (INC) – The INC was the premier organization of Indian

Independence founded in 1885 in Bombay. The Congress remains an important political party in

India today. It has maintained an official policy of commitment to secularism and democracy.

For the first two and half decades of its life, the Congress was a moderate, Constitutionalist

association of Indian elites. In 1920, Mohandas K. Gandhi won the presidency of the Congress

by lowering the membership fee to a nominal figure, using effective symbolism to draw in the

illiterate and reforming the Congress organization. After the advent of Gandhi, the Congress

became a mass nationalist organization.

The Indian Rebellion – Lasting over thirteen months from May 1857 until June 1858, this

conflict began with a rebellion of Indian soldiers but spread to other sections of society in north

India. After the British subdued the rebellion, they enacted major changes to their approach in

India. Most importantly, with the Government of India Act of 1858, sovereignty was officially

transferred from the East India Company to the British crown. The Rebellion also led to an

intensification in British racism toward Indians.

The Indo-Gangetic Plain – This is the rich agrarian plain lying between the Ganges to the east

and the Indus River system to the west. Watered by the major rivers of the Indus river system in

the Punjab, the Yamuna, the Ganges river system, and the Brahmaputra, this vast plain is the

source of much of India’s agrarian wealth. For this reason, historically and today, it is the site of

India’s capital at Delhi.

Islam – Islam is the second largest religion in the Indian subcontinent, comprising 13.4 percent

of the Indian population. Founded in 632 by the Prophet Muhammad, Islam spread around the

world rapidly due to its simple message of equality and its ability to accommodate a wide variety

of cultures into a global community. This monotheistic, scriptural religion emphasizes five

religious obligations: reciting and committing to the creed (shahhadah), daily prayers (salat),

almsgiving (zakat), fasting in the holy month of Ramadan, and taking hajj or pilgrimage to

Mecca.

Jainism – Jainism is a renouncer religion, like Buddhism, founded by Mahavira Jain. Today

Jains comprise only 0.4 percent of the Indian population. Jainism developed as a critique of

Hinduism and proffers a different idea of karma: any action whatsoever results in matter

weighting the soul. Jainism therefore encourages non-action and ascetism as the path to

liberation (or mokhsa) from the cycle of birth and rebirth the most extreme form taking self-

starvation.

Jati – This term refers to the thousands of highly specific caste-occupational categories that are

often local and highly occupational specific. Jati is primarily relevant in determining appropriate

marriage partners, mobilizing credit and capital, and gaining and using political power.

Jizya – This refers to a religious tax on non-Muslims in Muslim polities. Dhimmis, members of

the two other Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Christianity, were exempted from paying this


tax. From the very earliest days of Islam in India, during Arab rule in Sindh, India’s Hindus were

classed as dhimmis and were therefore usually exempted from paying the jizya. This term

occupies an important place in Indian history because it shows how India’s Muslim rulers

adapted their rule to a largely Hindu population. The history of the practice has been

controversial in recent debates about Hindu nationalist and secular interpretations of Indian

history. It was not a persistent feature of Muslim rule in India; for example, Akbar

controversially suspended the jizya on his Hindu subjects as part of his policy of sulh-i-kul. The

jizya was re-introduced by Aurangzeb in 1679.

Joint stock company – This was a business arrangement designed to facilitate high-risk, long-

distance luxury trade. Private investors could work together to facilitate long-distance luxury

trade and distribute risk with the backing of their government. A precursor to the modern

corporation, this was the form the East India Company took under Queen Elizabeth in 1600. Its

major advantage was the distribution of risk through the concept of limited liability. Moreover,

the backing of the Crown gave the venture diplomatic security.

Karma – This means “moral causation.” In other words, our deeds in this life determine our

position in the next. It is an important doctrine of Hinduism.

Kashmir – Kashmir is a disputed state in India’s north on the border with Pakistan. The

kingdom originally came under British suzerainty in 1845 when after the First Anglo-Sikh war

the Dogra king Maharaja Gulab Singh was awarded control of the valley of Kashmir in return for

his loyalty to the British. Just over a century later, at Independence, the Hindu ruler of the

Muslim majority kingdom at first agreed to join Pakistan but then switched Kashmir’s accession

to India. Since then both countries have claimed the territory, going to war over it in 1947–9,

1965, and 1999.

Khalistan – This refers to the autonomous state demanded by some Sikh politicians in the

Punjab in the 1970s and 1980s. Their demands grew out of a sense that the Punjab was being

underdeveloped in comparison to other states, and that, following the two nation theory, the

Sikhs were a nation unto themselves. The movement coalesced under the leadership of Sant

Jarnail Singh Bhindrawale who was at first encouraged by Mrs. Gandhi. However,

Bhindrawale’s movement took a radical and violent turn, and when the separatists under

Bhindrawale’s leadership holed up in Sikhism’s holiest site, the Golden Temple at Amritsar,

Mrs. Gandhi launched Operation Blue Star, a devastating attack on the temple that succeeded in

ousting Bhindrawale and his followers at great cost. In the resultant anger among Sikhs, Mrs.

Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984. This was followed by retaliatory

attacks on Sikhs in north India, especially in the capital.

Khilafat and non-cooperation movements – These movements of 1919 were two post-World

War I political movements that used mass political methods to demand increased Indian control

of the British government. They worked together to foment civil disobedience, with the hopes of

drawing Indian Muslims into mass nationalist politics. Gandhi’s non-cooperation movement

called on Indians to boycott British goods and institutions. Shaukat and Mohammmad Ali led the

Khilafat Movement, which sought to preserve the Ottoman Empire as the Caliph of Islam.

Together the brothers, Gandhi, and other nationalist leaders toured India to draw diverse groups


into Indian nationalism. The Khilafat movement fizzled out when Turkey abolished the Caliph

itself in 1924. Gandhi called off the non-cooperation movement in 1922 when protestors killed

twenty-two police officers at Chauri Chaura.

Liberalization – This refers to the process by which India’s socialist economy was opened up to

market competition and foreign investment beginning in the late 1980s under Rajiv Gandhi and

taking off beginning in 1991 under then-Finance Minister Manmohan Singh. Liberalizing India’s

economy created a large new middle-class and opened India to foreign ideas and products.

However, neither India’s earlier socialist-leaning mixed economy nor its capitalist liberalized

economy have succeeded in lifting millions out of poverty.

Lok Sabha – The “people’s house,” this term refers to the lower house of India’s Parliament. An

elected body of 545 seats, this is the primary site of national governance in India. The head of the

elected government is known as the Prime Minister, while the Constitutionally appointed

ceremonial head of government is called the President. While the Congress dominated national

electoral politics for several decades after Independence, since 1989 most governments have

been made up of coalitions of parties rather than a single party. The members of India’s upper

house, the Rajya Sabha, are indirectly elected.

Lucknow Pact (1916) – This was a pact between the Muslim League and the Congress. Each

party agreed to a common platform with which they could approach the colonial state,

demanding Indian majorities on all Indian political bodies, an increased franchise, and the

continued guarantee of separate electorates to Muslims. This was an example of the way in

which both religio-political identities and democratic aspirations were accommodated by Indian

nationalism.

The Maldives – The Maldives is a tiny island nation located to India’s southwest with a

population of 394,000. Its capital is located at Malé. It came under British control in 1887 and

attained its independence in 1965. The population of the country is 100 percent Muslim. The

country is made up of 1192 islands across twenty-six atolls, but only about one-tenth of the

islands are populated. It is the lowest country in the world, which led former President Mohamed

Nasheed to advocate for drastic measures to reduce climate change and rising sea levels that are

negatively impacting the country.

Mandal Commission – This commission was appointed after the Emergency to examine India’s

system of political reservations and ameliorative measures for lower castes. Named after

Chaiperson B.P. Mandal, the Commission recommended a drastic increase in the number of seats

for scheduled castes. When V.P. Singh and his Janta Dal government took power in 1989, it

pushed to implement these recommendations in part to shore up the party’s base among lower-

and middle-caste groups. This led to vigorous protests by high-caste groups who viewed these

increases as an unmeritocratic attack that would threaten their own access to education and

power. The Supreme Court then set the limit on seat reservations for any educational institution

or government job at 50 percent. It was over this matter that the Bharatiya Janata Party broke

away from the Janata Dal coalition, causing the fall of the VP Singh’s government and

occasioning Mrs. Gandhi’s return to the Prime Ministership.


Manmohan Singh (b. 1932) – Singh was the Prime Minister of India at the head of a Congress-

led United Progressive Alliance coalition government. Prior to his Prime Ministership from 2004

to 2014, Singh served as the Finance Minister from 1991 until 1996 and spearheaded the

liberalization of India’s economy.

Mansabdari system – This was the Mughal administrative system that allowed the Mughal

Empire to effectively mobilize the military and revenue. The system created a shared, highly

effective Mughal political culture. It was a ranking system in which each rankholder was

required to supply a certain number of men and horses to the Mughal military service. The

mansab holder was also required to collect revenue from the territory assigned to him. Since the

positions were transferrable, the system helped prevent the development of local power bases

that might threaten Mughal authority.

Military fiscalism – This phrase describes a mode of governance developed by many modern

Eurasian states to use credit from major bankers and financiers as well as administrative reforms

to increase revenue to facilitate military expansion. In turn, military expansion created new

sources of revenue for the state in a circular fashion. Military success relied upon

professionalized armies of infantry soldiers. A crucial feature of military fiscalism was the

payment of a professional, standing army in cash. In Indian history we find that many Mughal

successor states such as the Nawabates of Bengal and Awadh employed military fiscalism in

order to expand their territories in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Mixed Economy – This describes India’s economic system after Independence. India’s economy

was neither entirely an open capitalist economy nor a totally closed socialist economy. In the

opinions of many nationalists, India needed to modernize and further industrialize in order to

attain self-sufficiency and avoid political and economic fragmentation. Socialist policies were

important to ensure the welfare and basic subsistence of most of India’s large population. The

Indian economy liberalized in 1991 and since then has retained some socialist elements while

opening itself to foreign investment and partnerships in a variety of industries.

Modernity – This term denotes the complex relationships between the state and individuals that

developed from the sixteenth century onward. A loose constellation of characteristics of

modernity might emphasize individualism, rationality, and economic development along

industrial and capitalist lines. Though long characterized as an entirely European phenomenon

exported to European colonies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, over the past three decades

historians of colonial societies such as India have argued that there are multiple forms of

modernity that cannot be reduced to the European experience.

Modi, Narendra (b. 1950) – Modi is the current Prime Minister of India. Famously the son of a

tea seller, Modi is the head of the Bharatiya Janata Party government and its governing coalition,

the National Democratic Alliance. Prior to becoming Prime Minister in 2014, he was the Chief

Minister of Gujarat state, which he claimed to have molded into the Indian state with the highest

rate of economic growth. He also controversially was in power during widespread and targeted

assaults on Muslims in the state in 2002.


Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms of 1917/Government of India Act of 1919 – These were a

series of reforms to colonial governance designed to shore up Indian nationalist support during

World War I in the face of developing nationalist resistance to colonial rule especially, with the

advent of M.K. Gandhi in India. With these reforms, the British Raj came very close to

promising dominion status to India. The most crucial development was the idea of dyarchy

wherein some provincial powers could be held entirely in the hands of elected Indian political

leaders. However, the most important powers were retained in British hands and the colonial

government, limiting the degree of self-government exercised by Indians.

Morley-Minto reforms – Enacted in 1909, these were limited reforms to the colonial

government in response to the nationalist outcry over the Partition of Bengal and Muslim

demands for greater self-representation. The reforms created Indian majorities in the provincial

legislatures. However, the legislatures held very limited powers. Significantly, the Morley-Minto

reforms also created separate electorates for Muslims.

Mughal Empire – An important early modern Indian empire centered in the north Indian

heartland of Delhi and Agra, the Empire was founded by Babur in 1526 from a lineage of Central

Asian tribal princes descended from both Genghis Khan and Timurlane. Like other early modern

empires, the Mughal Empire refined existing administrative structures to effectively mobilize

resources and men from across the subcontinent. The Mughal Empire holds an important place in

Indian nationalist thought because it was the largest and closest to a pan-Indian empire in the

period before British rule. The persistence of Mughal sovereignty over such a long period is

noteworthy; rather than claiming outright domination, the early colonial state retained the official

symbolism of Mughal sovereignty. This ended only with the transfer of nominal Mughal

sovereignty under East India Company authority to direct British Crown rule in 1858.

The Muslim League – The premier organization of Muslim nationalism, the Muslim League

was founded in 1906 at Dhaka to encourage the colonial state to extend separate electorates to

the Muslim community and to advance the education of the Muslim community. Its primary base

at first consisted of elite Muslim landlords. During the first few decades of its life, the League

was only one of a variety of parties within which Muslims participated. During the 1940s,

Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the League lobbied for the two-nation theory and claimed to be the

sole representative of Muslim political identity in India. After a complex series of negotiations,

Partition was decided upon, and the Muslim League became the founding party of Pakistan and

Jinnah Pakistan’s Quaid-e-Azam, founder of the nation.

Naoroji, Dadabhai (1825–1917) – Naoroji was the first Indian elected to the British Parliament.

A Parsi from Bombay, he dedicated himself to advancing Indian development, maintaining

political careers in both India and England. His 1901 book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India

exemplified the drain of wealth theory: if it were not for colonialism, Indian surpluses would

have been invested in India rather than Britain.

Narayan, Jayaprakash (1902–79) – Narayan was an Indian political leader in the Gandhian

mold. Fiery and idealistic, as a young man Narayan studied at the University of Wisconsin at

Madison. “J.P.,” as he was often referred to, was originally from Bihar and had his strongest base

there. Having spent decades working among the poor and landless in the state, spearheading a


movement that called for land donations to the poor, JP began to advocate total revolution

among his base in Bihar. His revolution would have, like Gandhi’s, retained the village as the

basic unit of Indian democracy, but JP advocated a less gradual line than Gandhi had, determined

to wrest power from rural elites and hand it off to his landless and poor followers. His movement

also criticized corruption and inaction in the government. In the mid-1970s, JP, working with

future Prime Minister Morarji Desai in Gujarat, came close to bringing down Mrs. Gandhi’s

government, and they were the first dissidents to be incarcerated once she instituted the

Emergency.

Nation-state – The nation-state is today the basic unit of world governance. The nation is

imagined to be a collection of individuals residing in a more or less contiguous territory, with

shared bonds of culture, homeland, language, history, and ethnic and religious identity, usually

defined in opposition to an external “other.” A state exists to govern the nation.

Nehru, Jawaharlal (1889–1964) – Nehru was the first Prime Minister of Independent India.

Nehru was also an important leader of the Indian nationalist movement. His father, Motilal

Nehru, was of the same generation of Gandhi and a very important nationalist leader in his own

right. Upon Nehru’s return to India from his education in England, he became a disciple of

Gandhian nationalism though he eventually differed from Gandhi on the importance of the

village in Indian life and the best means to develop India. Nehru was a committed socialist who

successfully ensured the independence of the Indian economy.

Nepal – A country to India’s north situated in the Himalayas with a population of 31 million,

Nepal was not formally colonized by the British but remained in its Hindu kings’ hands until

2008. As part of a settlement in the civil war with a widespread Maoist movement in the country,

the monarchy was abolished in 2007. In 2013, elections to the Constituent Assembly were held

and in 2014 a government under the Nepali Congress was formed.

Orientalism – This term refers to a school of thought that sought to “recover” and preserve the

ancient past of nonwestern cultures, in our case in India. One of the most famous Orientalists

was Sir William Jones, who founded the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 and, through his

linguistic research with Indian scholars, discovered the Indo-European language family. The

Orientalist impulse shaped the EIC’s decision to administer Hindu and Muslim law to Indians.

The Orientalist desire to preserve Indian society also undergirded the many linguistic and

translation projects undertaken by colonial officials working with Indian experts and informants.

Thus Orientalism was both a mode of governance and an ideological project.

Pakistan – Pakistan is the second largest South Asian country, with a population of about 196

million. Founded as a secular republic, in 1973 Islam was declared the official religion of

Pakistan. The capital is Islamabad. Pakistan won its independence from Great Britain in 1947.

Until 1971, the country was divided into five provinces, East Bengal to the east of India and

Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan, and the Northwest Frontier Region to India’s west. In 1971 East

Bengal declared its independence, becoming Bangladesh.


Paramountcy – This term refers to the theory that ultimately the East India Company state was

the paramount power in India. Working from this principle, the EIC justified taking further

control of Indian princely states beginning under Dalhousie’s viceroyalty from 1848–56.

Partition – This term refers to the process by which British India was divided into two

independent nation-states, India and Pakistan, in 1947. This was the culmination of the idea that

Hindus and Muslims each constituted their own nations within India. It is important to note that

after Independence each nation retained a commitment to secularism and inclusion of its

religious minorities on equal terms.

The 1905 Partition of Bengal – This refers to the decision by the colonial government to

partition the eastern Indian province of Bengal under the Viceroyalty of Lord Curzon (1899–

1905). The new eastern state had a Muslim majority population and was an attempt by the

colonial state to shore up the support of Muslim landholding elites and provide new venues for

their socioeconomic advancement with the colonial state. However, the vivisection of a

historically united homeland, along with other Bengali discontents with colonial policies, led to

the development of a vigorous protest movement. Eventually the Partition was reversed in 1911,

but the idea of the division of India’s intermingled population along religious lines foreshadowed

India and Pakistan’s eventual independence settlement and Partition in 1947.

Patel, Sardar Vallabhbhai (1875–1950) – Patel was an Indian nationalist leader from Gujarat

responsible for the integration of the princely states into independent India and Pakistan. This

was a very successful process with a smooth transfer of power from indirect rule to sovereign

Indian or Pakistani rule. It was in this process that India and Pakistan’s dispute over Kashmir

began. In the colonial period, the princely states constituted about a third of Indian territory.

While this territory nominally remained in the hands of Indian princes, British authority was

paramount. The states could serve as laboratories for different forms of governance and social

reform efforts.

Permanent Settlement – This was a system whereby the EIC state set the rate of land revenue

taxation at a fixed rate in perpetuity. By doing so, it hoped to encourage enterprising landowners

to introduce improvements and efficiencies to agriculture, so that they could extract the most

revenue from their lands. The moving force behind this major reform was Lord Cornwallis

(Governor-General, 1785–93). The system hoped to create a class of large landholding

zamindars, or landlords that could act as intermediaries between the colonial state and the

individual peasant. The system sought to guarantee land revenue collection on the cheap. It

changed eastern India’s social structure creating a new class of absentee landlords and failing to

empower small cultivators and peasants on these landlords’ estates.

Permit Raj – This phrase refers to the Indian economic system in the period between

Independence and liberalization in 1991. Also called license raj, it refers to the complex and

labyrinthine system of permits required to do business India. The system created delays and

provided manifold opportunities for corrupt practices as businessmen could use cash to grease

the wheels of the bureaucracy. As Indian economic growth waned in the 1980s, this system came

under criticism, leading to attempts to reform India’s laws and practices to make it more


business-friendly. Though there have been many reforms, many critics still decry what they see

as over-regulation in the Indian economy.

Plebiscite – In general, this term refers to a democratic vote about a political decision. In the

context of Indian history, it usually refers to the guarantee made by Nehru and India to the

Maharaja of Kashmir in 1947 that the state’s people would be allowed to vote directly about

whether their state should join India or Pakistan. However, the plebiscite has not been held, with

the parties unable to agree on the terms of the plebiscite.

Private trade – This was the trade by East India Company officials in their private capacities.

Though the EIC held a monopoly on trade between India and England, Company employees

could trade in textiles, opium, teas, and other commodities in other parts of the Indian Ocean

networks. The profits redounded to them individually rather than to the Company as a corporate

body. The private trade comprised a substantial part of British trade in India but came under

criticism in London.

Punjab – Punjab refers to the region around the five rivers of the Indus River system, the

Chenab, the Jhelum, the Ravi, the Beas, and the Sutlej. Historically cosmopolitan, the region was

the birthplace of Sikhism beginning in the fifteenth century. At Independence in 1947, the region

was divided between India and Pakistan.

Queen Victoria’s Proclamation of 1858 – This proclamation declared that the British

Government in India would respect its subjects’ religious beliefs and customs. This declaration

sought to ameliorate what many British saw as the causes of the Rebellion, the colonial state’s

overzealous intervention in Indian social reform, such as its efforts to ban sati and widow

remarriage. It guaranteed the princes their titles and declared that the colonial government would

not interfere with Indian religious beliefs or customs.

The Quit India Movement 1942 – The Quit India movement of 1942 was Gandhi’s third major

national civil disobedience movement. This movement pulled in new social groups who had not

heretofore participated in Gandhian or other forms of street politics. The entire Congress

leadership was imprisoned, and therefore the movement was far more fragmented and often more

violent than earlier civil disobedience movements, including attacks on government property.

Along with the rise of the Indian National Army in Singapore and British defeats in on the

eastern front, the Quit India movement made clear how tenuous British control over the

subcontinent was. The British would have to either withdraw or allow substantial autonomy to

India if the Allies won World War Two.

Raj – This word simply means rule. In modern Indian history, it often refers to the period of

British colonial rule.

Rowlatt Acts of 1919 – The Rowlatt Acts allowed the colonial state to maintain its wartime

powers of detention without trial into peacetime after the end of WWI. This was an example of

the way in which the colonial state granted Indians democratic reforms and simultaneously

repressed Indian civil liberties when its power was threatened. Alongside the opening of


indiscriminate fire on peacefully protesting Indians at the garden known as Jallianwalla Bagh in

Amritsar in 1919, the Rowlatt Acts gave fuel to Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement.

Roy, Rammohun (1772–1833) – Roy exemplified the Bengali Renaissance, an efflorescence of

cultural exploration, publication, and debate centered in Calcutta. A cosmopolitan and brilliant

multilingual intellectual, Rammohun Roy was in touch with political developments around the

world. Roy sought to create a renewed, unified identity for Hinduism that drew on the structures

of scriptural religions like Christianity and Islam but did not adopt those religions. The

outgrowth of this effort was Roy’s enduring religious group, the Brahmo Samaj, founded 1828;

many other Hindu religious groups began to adopt similar modern organizational and theological

structures as well.

Ryot/ryotwari system – This was a land revenue system developed in the Madras and Bombay

Presidencies. Based in the Romantic notion of a noble smallholding peasant-farmer who would

benefit from independence from a landlord, the system allowed the Company state rather than

the zamindar (landlord) to collect revenues directly from the peasants, or ryots. Learning from

the difficulties of the Permanent Settlement in eastern India, the system sought to empower the

small farmer rather than large landlords (zamindars). This system developed during the 1820s. It

occasioned a major expansion of the Company state through the creation of many positions of

Company employment devoted to recording revenue rights and collecting the revenue.

Satyagraha – This word literally translated means “truth force.” Gandhi used this concept to

encourage Indians to cultivate their own qualities of nonviolence, peace, and service in peaceful

resistance to colonial rule. Gandhi’s idea was that Indians could not legitimately take up self-

governance from the British if they could not show their own total spiritual readiness for

enlightened rule. For Gandhi, the struggle for swaraj, or self-rule, was as much an internal

struggle as a struggle against an external power.

Scheduled castes and tribes – This refers to those castes and tribes listed in “schedules” of the

Constitution. Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are entitled to reservations in state employ

and education and other ameliorative measures.

Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 – This piece of

legislation tried to create special measures to address violent caste- and tribe-based crimes

against Dalits and other marginalized groups. The legislation enacted stiffer penalties for such

crimes against SCs and STs by listing a wide range of abuses that would come within the ambit

of the Act. Akin to hate crimes legislation in the United States, it created special courts for the

fast-track trial of such incidents. However, the need for this kind of targeted legislation also

indicated how India’s Constitutional guarantees of equality had failed to achieve equality or the

elimination of caste in practice.

Separate electorates – These limited the franchise for elected positions to a particular

community (religious or caste) only to vote for its representatives. Thus colonial policy tied

democratic practices to religious and other social identities.


Sepoy – A sepoy was a solder in the EIC army. The term comes from the Persian word for

soldier, sipahi. Some referred to the 1857 Mutiny as the Sepoy Mutiny since the rebellion began

among regiments of the EIC Army. The Army was greatest expense of the colonial government.

The Shah Bano affair – This refers to a major political firestorm set off by a Supreme Court

decision in 1985 that criticized Islam’s position on women’s rights in a case of a divorce between

a Muslim husband and wife. Specifically, the decision criticized a procedure known as triple

talak and the husband’s unilateral rights of divorce in many Indian Muslim communities. The

charged rhetoric and oversimplified criticism of Muslim law by a Hindu bench of Justices caused

an outcry among Muslim religious groups, who felt as if their historic right to separate personal

laws was being attacked. In response Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi enacted the Muslim

Women’s Protections of Rights on Divorce Act in 1986, which stated that Muslim women

could not avail of India’s secular criminal procedure code for maintenance. This was considered

a sop to Muslim religious conservatives designed to ensure the Congress Party’s support among

them. The entire affair was an example of the ways in which Nehruvian secularism gave way to

the politicization of religion in the 1980s.

Shiv Sena – This is a Hindu right party centered in Maharashtra, founded by Bal Thackeray. The

party draws on the legacy of the great Maharashtrian hero Shivaji Bhonsle and is ideologically

committed to Maharashtra for Maharashtrians. It also operates an extensive network of

neighborhood centers (or shakhas) that provide services and assistance to local residents, often

where the state has failed.

Sikhism – Sikhism is India’s third largest religion (1.9 percent of the Indian population).

Sikhism is a world religion with 20 million followers. It was founded by Guru Nanak in the

Punjab. The religion reveres the religious text the Adi Granth as a living guru. The Adi Granth is

a religious text comprised of over three thousand compositions from great men and women of all

faiths, especially those of the ten gurus of Sikhism. Like all religions, Sikhism is internally

diverse but today the majority of Sikhs retain the Five Ks as identity markers: kesh (long, uncut

hair); kahngha (a comb); kara (a steel bangle); kacchera (a special undergarment); and kirpan (a

small dagger).

Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka is an island nation of 22 million, located just to India’s south. Also

colonized by the British, Sri Lanka attained independence in 1948. Historically cosmopolitan and

diverse, a brutal struggle for a separate state by the Tamil separatist group the Tamil Tigers was

finally suppressed by 2009, after three decades of civil war. Sri Lanka’s capital is located at

Colombo, officially called Sri Jayawardenepura Kotta.

Subsidiary alliance – This refers to treaties between the East India Company and Indian kings.

Through such subsidiary alliances, the East India Company brought much of so-called “princely

India” under its indirect rule. The EIC army would protect the state in exchange for an annual

fee, and the placement of a British Resident at the King’s court. Though the ruler retained

sovereignty in name, he was required to disband his army, a potent symbol of the new order

introduced by the Company.


Sulh-i-kul – This term refers to the policy of universal toleration adopted by Akbar. The concept

reinforced Akbar’s ideology of kingship in which he was the Perfect Man and as such was

deeply invested in the welfare of all of his subjects and spiritually enlightened rule.

Swadeshi – This word simply means those items produced in one’s own country: self + country

= swa + desh. In the context of Indian history, it refers to the nationalist impulse to boycott

British goods in favor of those produced from within India. While Gandhi is perhaps the most

famous proponent of this tactic, the swadeshi movement in Bengal used it in opposition to the

1905 Partition of Bengal.

Two-nation theory – This theory held that most of India’s population could be divided up into

blocs of Hindu and Muslim populations and that these religious communities each constituted

their own nation. Until the final independence settlement in 1947, it was not clear that each

nation would have its own state in the form of a partitioned India and Pakistan. For example,

recall that in 1946 the Cabinet Mission Plan had put forward an idea of one state in which the

various nations were “grouped” at a level between the province and the center. The 1940 Lahore

Resolution of the Muslim League, as well, called for independent states with autonomy where

Muslims were in the majority. However, the meaning of Pakistan was still vague and undefined

at this point. It was not until the very final days of British rule in the subcontinent that the Lahore

Resolution came to fruition in the form of a divided India and Pakistan.

Utilitarianism – This political philosophy sought to maximize the greatest good for the greatest

number. The leader of this movement was Jeremy Bentham. To Utilitarians interested in India

like James Mill and Thomas Babington Macaulay, Indian traditions, laws, and religions stood in

the way of a more rational and efficient governance.

Varna – This term refers to the five broad categories of religious-occupational caste groupings

that are pan-Indian and general in character. These five groups are Brahmins (priests); Ksatriyas

(warriors); Vaishyas (traders and farmers); Shudras (laborers); and Dalits (formerly called

“untouchables”). These categories, as opposed to jati categories, are primarily relevant in

religious literature and ritual.

Vijayanagara – This was an important early modern Indian kingdom centered in the Deccan

Plateau, reaching its height from the mid-fourteenth until the mid-sixteenth centuries.

Vijayanagara was characterized by an impressive land revenue collection system centered

around the elite Nayaka warriors who helped bring vast territory under Vijayanagara’s

suzerainty. Vijayanagara developed a highly sophisticated military based on its cavalry, and

horses were an important currency of military might.

Vote bank – This term refers to a religious or community grouping that can be effectively

counted on to support a particular party or politician. The term often suggests that people vote

with caste, religious, or local interests rather than along their individual conscience.

Young Bengal – This reformist group was founded by Henry Derozio in Calcutta in the early

1830s and was associated with Hindu College. The group encouraged the adoption of English


cultural mores, such as the eating of beef; conversion to Christianity; and critique of Indian

society. Young Bengal exemplified a reformist response to the colonial critique of India.

Zoroastrianism or the Parsi religion – This is a very small monotheistic religion whose

adherents originally fled to India from Iran. It is an ancient religion with its roots in the second

millennium BCE. After their migration from Iran, Zoroastrians quickly became an important

merchant-trading community on India’s western coast. Called Parsis in India, many members of

the community accommodated the changes to Indian economy and society early on that were

prompted by British colonial rule, with some Parsis profiting greatly from their early adaptation.


TIMELINE OF EVENTS

Before Common Era

c.3000–c.1750 BCE The Indus Valley Civilization

c.1500–c.1200 BCE Aryan culture in northern India; rise of the Vedas and Vedic

Hinduism

c.900–c.800 BCE Period of the Mahabharata and Ramayana

c.600–500 BCE Development of renouncer religions such as Jainism and Hinduism

c.326 BCE Alexander the Great’s invasion of northwestern India

c.322–c. 200 BCE Mauryan Empire, centered in eastern India in modern-day Bihar

but with pan-Indian reach

Common Era

c.320–550CE The Guptas, a large empire centered in north India

c.600–1000 Late classical civilization: development of a large empire under

Harsha, a king based near Delhi; and the development of many

other regional polities in western, southern, and eastern India

610 Founding of Islam

712 Arab conquest of Sind

997–1030 Raids of Mahmud of Ghazni

1206–1526 The Delhi Sultanate

1336–c. 1565 The Vijayanagara Kingdom; decline marked by Battle of Talikota

in 1565

1440–1518 Life of Kabir, bhakti saint

1469–1539 Life of Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism

1498 Arrival of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, at

Calicut

1526 The First Battle of Panipat and foundation of the Mughal Empire

1526–30 Reign of Babur

1530–56 Reign of Humayun

1538–45 Reign of Sher Shah Suri while Humayun was in exile

1565 Battle of Talikota: Defeat of Vijayanagara, the great Deccan

kingdom, by an alliance of the other Deccan Sultanates of

Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, and Golkonda

1556–1605 Reign of Akbar

1600 East India Company established by the English

1602 Dutch East India Company established

1605–28 Reign of Jahangir

1628–58 Reign of Shah Jahan


1658–1707 Reign of Aurangzeb

1679–80 Reign of Shivaji

1675–1708 Reign of tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh

1730s–40s Period of regional successor states such as Bengal, Awadh,

Hyderabad, Maratha Confederacy

1739 Nadir Shah’s invasion of India and sack of Delhi that highlighted

decline of Mughal authority and strength

1754–63 Seven Years’ War leads to conflicts between France and Britain in

south India

1757 Battle of Plassey, beginning of British conquest of Bengal

1760–99 Sultanate of Msyore under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan

1761 Third Battle of Panipat, loss of Marathas to Afghan ruler Ahmad

Shah Durrani, marking decline of Maratha power in north India

1764 Battle of Buxar

1765 East India Company’s acquisition of the Diwani of Bengal with the

Treaty of Allahabad

1770 Great Bengal Famine

1772–85 Governor-Generalship of Warren Hastings

1790–1839 Reign of Ranjit Singh in Punjab

1793 Permanent Settlement

1798–1805 Governor-Generalship of Wellesley

1799 Fall of Mysore

1813 End of Company’s monopoly of trade

1818 Defeat of the Marathas by the British

1818 Founding of Hindu (Presidency) College of Calcutta

1828 Founding of Brahmo Samaj by Ram Mohan Roy

1828–35 Governor-Generalship of Bentinck and abolition of sati

1835 Macaulay’s “Minute on Education” criticizes Indian literature and

culture

1842 British conquest of Sind

1845–6 First Anglo-Afghan War, part of the Great Game competition

between Britain and Russia over Afghanistan; Britain won a

pyrrhic victory, suffering thousands of casualties

1846 Treaty of Lahore granting Muslim-majority valley of Kashmir to

the Dogra line of Hindu Kings based in Jammu

1848–49 Second Sikh War and conquest of Punjab

1853 Beginning of Railway construction

1856 Annexation of Awadh (Oudh)

1848–56 Governor-Generalship of Dalhousie

1855–56 The Santhal Hool (Uprising)

1857 The Great Mutiny and Revolt

1858 Deposition and deportation to Burma of the last Mughal emperor,

Bahadur Shah Zafar

1872 The first all-India census

1875 Foundation of Anglo-Muhammadan Oriental College at Aligarh by

Sir Sayyid Ahmed Khan


1877 Queen Victoria declared the Empress of India/Imperial

Assemblage at Delhi

1878–80 The Second Anglo-Afghan War

1882 Viceroy Ripon begins self-government in municipalities

1885 The Third Anglo-Burma War; conquest of Burma

1885 Foundation of the Indian National Congress

1893 World Parliament of Religions; Swami Vivekananda travels to

Chicago and publicizes Hinduism

1899–1905 Viceroyalty of Curzon

1905 Partition of Bengal

1905–08 The Swadeshi Movement

1906 Foundation of the All-India Muslim League

1907 Founding of Tata Iron and Steel Company, which was one of the

first Indian-owned large industries and grew to be one of

independent India’s most important companies

1909 Morley-Minto reforms: separate electorates granted to Muslims

1911 Revocation of the partition of Bengal; shift of the capital from

Calcutta to Delhi

1913 Rabindranath Tagore wins Nobel Prize for Literature

1915 Gandhi’s return from South Africa

1916 Lucknow Pact between the Congress and the Muslim League states

that the parties will work together to increase Indian self-rule

1919 Montagu-Chelmsford (“Montford”) reforms

1919 Rowlatt Acts; Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar

1919–22 Khilafat/Non-Cooperation movement—joint effort of Gandhi and

Shaukat and Mohammad Ali; Gandhi calls off non-cooperation

after the killing of police officers by protestors at Chauri Chaura.

1929 Congress passes Purna Swaraj resolution calling for complete

Independence

1930–4 Gandhi’s Civil Disobedience Movement; Gandhi’s Salt March to

the sea in Gujarat

1932 The Communal Award and the Poona Pact between Gandhi and

Ambedkar

1935 Government of India Act

1937 Provincial elections

1940 Lahore Resolution of Muslim League

1939 World War II and resignation of Congress ministries

1942 Quit India movement led by Gandhi

Fall of Singapore in February 1942

1943 The Great Bengal famine

1943 Subash Chandra Bose (“Netaji”) founds Indian National Army in

Singapore

1945 World War II ends in September

1946 Cabinet Mission proposes a three-tiered, grouped Independence

settlement to solve the problem of Hindu and Muslim

representation in independent India


1947 Independence and Partition

1947–64 Prime Ministership of Jawaharlal Nehru

1947–9 First India-Pakistan War over Kashmir

1948 Assassination of Gandhi in New Delhi

January 26, 1950 Republic Day: India’s new Constitution takes effect

1955 Pakistan Constitution takes effect

1962 India-China War

1964–66 Prime Ministership of Lal Bahadur Shastri with an Indian National

Congress government

1965 India-Pakistan War

1966 Death of Lal Bahadur Shastri

1966–77 Prime Ministership of Indira Gandhi

1971 Independence of Bangladesh

1975–77 Emergency

1977–88 Dictatorship of Zia-ul-Haq in Pakistan

1977–1979 Janata Party coalition government

1979 Mrs. Gandhi re-elected to the Prime Ministership

1984 Crisis in Punjab and Mrs. Gandhi’s attack on separatists holed up

at the Golden Temple at Amritsar; Assassination of Mrs. Gandhi

by her Sikh bodyguards

1984–89 Prime Ministership of Rahul Gandhi

1989 Start of insurgency in Kashmir

1991 Economic liberalization in India under Finance Minister

Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao

1992 Demolition of Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh

1998 Prime Ministership of Atul Behari Vajpayee at the head of the

Bharatiya Janata Party and the National Democratic Alliance

1998 Nuclear tests by both Pakistan and India

1999 Kargil War in the highest reaches of Kashmir breaks out over

cross-border raids across the “Line of Control,” the de facto border

2002 Riots in Gujarat against Muslims as retaliation for the death of

Hindu religious activists in a fire on a train at Godhra; the riots

cause the death of approximately a thousand Muslims and take

place with the complicity of the Gujarat government

2004–14 Prime Ministership of Manmohan Singh at the head of the Indian

National Congress and the United Progressive Alliance

2008 Major attack against five-star hotels and a Jewish community

center in Bombay carried out by Pakistan-supported terrorists

2010 A major corruption scandal in which the government was cheated

out of at least $10 billion in revenue through the corrupt auctioning

off of 2G telecom spectrum; top ministers are implicated in the

scandal, the largest scam in India’s history

2012 Founding of the Aam Admi Party, a party allied to anti-corruption

campaigner Anna Hazare

2014–present Prime Ministership of Narendra Modi at the head of the Bharatiya

Janata Party and a National Democratic Alliance government


Notes

1. Catherine B. Asher and Cynthia Talbot, India before Europe (Cambridge:

CambridgeUniversity Press, 2006).

2. Government of India, “Census Provisional Population Totals 2011,” accessed August 18,

2014, http://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/censusinfodashboard/index.html. http://

censusindia.gov.in/%28S%28m3emi255ab0lka55l5vln155%29%29/Census_And_You/

religion.aspx

3. CIA, “The World Factbook,” accessed August 18, 2014, https://www.cia.gov/

library/publications/the-world-factbook/.

4. Thomas R. Trautmann, India: Brief History of a Civilization (New York and Oxford:

Oxford University Press, 2011), 11.

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid., 11–12.

7. Ibid., 11.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid., 9–15.

10. Craig J. Calhoun, Dictionary of the Social Sciences, Social Sciences (Oxford, Press,

2002), 2

11. Trautmann, India: Brief History of a Civilization, 7.

12. Sumit Sarkar, Modern India, 1885-1947 (New Delhi: Macmillan, 1983).

13. Government of India, Census of India: Religion (2001 Census Data) (New Delhi,

November 1, 2014),

http://censusindia.gov.in/%28S%28m3emi255ab0lka55l5vln155%29%29/Census_And_You/

religion.aspx.Ibid.

14. Government of India, Census of India: Religion (2001 Census Data).

http://censusindia.gov.in/%28S%28m3emi255ab0lka55l5vln155%29%29/Census_And_You/religion.aspx.Ibid

http://censusindia.gov.in/%28S%28m3emi255ab0lka55l5vln155%29%29/Census_And_You/religion.aspx.Ibid


15. Trautmann, India: Brief History of aCivilization, 52–3.

16. Government of India, Census of India:Religion (2001 Census Data).

17. Asher and Talbot, India before Europe, 78.

18. Mehrdad Shokoohy, Muslim Architecture of South India: The Sultanate of Ma’bar and

the Traditions of Maritime Settlers on the Malabar and Coromandel Coasts (Tamil Nadu,

Kerala and Goa) (New York: Routledge, 2013), 3.75–77.

19. Ibid., 3.75–77.

20. Richard Maxwell Eaton, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).

21. Trautmann, India: Brief History of a Civilization, 168.

22. Government of India, Census of India: Religion (2001 Census Data).

23. Moreover, in common speech jati can sometimes take on shades beyond caste:

religion, occupation, even gender. See Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, In Amma’s Healing

Room: Gender and Vernacular Islam in SouthIndia (Bloomington: Indiana University

Press, 2006).

24. For detailed information on the Indus Valley Civilization, see Sir Mortimer Wheeler,

The Indus Civilization: Supplementary Volume to the Cambridge History of India, 3rd ed.

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968).

25. Schomp, Virginia. Ancient India. (New York: Franklin Watts Publishing, 2005). p.6

26. Ibid., p.8

27. Ibid., p.13

28. Srinivasaan, Radhika and Jermyn, Leslie. Cultures of the World: India. (Tarrytown,

NY: Marshal Cavendish Corporation, 2002). p.17

29. Ushistory.org. “The Gupta Period of India." Ancient Civilizations Online Textbook.

Independence Hall Association, 2015. http://www.ushistory.org/civ/8e.asp Web. 02 July

2015.

30. Ibid.

31. Srinivasaan, Radhika and Jermyn, Leslie. Cultures of the World: India. p.18


32. Ibid.

33. Ibid., p.19

34. Catherine B. Asher and Cynthia Talbot, India before Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2006).

35. "Vihayanagara Kingdom." History of India. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 July 2015.

<http://kanakaraju.hpage.com/history-of-kshatriyas_52565456.html)>.


37. "Sher Shah of Sur". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 02 July 2015.

<http://www.britannica.com/biography/Sher-Shah-of-Sur>.

38. Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2004), 279.

39. Asher and Talbot, India before Europe, 124

40. Ibid., 127. Citing Jos Gossmans, MughaWarfare: Indian Frontiers and High Roads to

Empire, 1500-1700 (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 120.


42. Ibid., 130.


44. "Sher Shah of Sur". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 02 July 2015.

<http://www.britannica.com/biography/Sher-Shah-of-Sur>.

45. Ibid.

46. Asher and Talbot, India before Europe. 230

47. Asher and Talbot, India before Europe, 230. The full text of Aurangzeb’s ruling on the

matter is available at the Manas website entry on “jizya:” Vinay Lal, “Aurangzeb’s

Fatwa on Jizya [Jizyah, or Poll Tax], trans. Anver Emon, Manas: History and Politics,

November 1, 2014, https://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Mughals/Aurnag_

fatwa.html.

48. Asher and Talbot, India before Europe, 232-3.


http://www.britannica.com/biography/Sher-Shah-of-Sur



50. Gurinder Singh Mann, “Sikhism,” in The Columbia Companion of Eastern Religions,

ed. Robert A.F. Thurman (New York: Columbia, 2007), 1.

51. Ibid., 6-7

52. Ibid., 12

53. Spielvogel, Jackson. World History The Human Odyssey. (Agoura Hills, CA: J. West

Publishing Company, 1999.)

54. “The Dutch East India Company. Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Online.

Encyclopedia Britannica Inc.., 2015. Web. 02 July 2015.

http://www.britannica.com/topic/Dutch-East-India-Company).

55. Asher and Talbot, India before Europe, 161–3.

56. Ibid., 90

57. Ibid., 180

58. Ibid., 173

59. Ibid., 172-3

60. Ibid., 181

61. Metcalf and Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, 48–9.




65. Ibid., 260

66. Ibid.

67. Ibid., 261-3

68. Ibid., 268

69. Spear, The Oxford History of Modern India,1740-1947, 21.

70. Spear, The Oxford History of Modern India,1740-1947, 12-13.

http://www.britannica.com/topic/Dutch-East-India-Company


71. Ibid., 13

72. Marshall, Bengal: The British Bridgehead, 76-7

73. Metcalf and Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, 52.

74. Marshall, Bengal: The British Bridgehead, 77.

75. Ibid., 78.

76. Ibid., 77–78.

77. Ibid., 80–1.

78. Metcalf and Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, 53.Ibid., 67.

79. Metcalf and Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, 53.Ibid., 67.

80. Quoted in Marshall, Bengal: The British Bridgehead, 89.


82. Ibid., 288.

83. Asher and Talbot, India before Europe, 118–119.

84. Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy, 53.

85. Ibid.

86. Marshall, Bengal: The British Bridgehead, 125–6.

87. Ibid., 125.


89. Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy, 49–50.

90. Trautmann, India: Brief History of a Civilization, 176

91. Spear, The Oxford History of Modern India, 1740-1947, 210.



93. Ministry of Railways, Government of India, “About Indian Railways”e

sehttp://www.indianrailways.gov.in/railwayboard/view_section.jsp?lang=0&id=0,1.

94. Ibid., 97-98

95. Ibid., 99

96. Ibid.

97. Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy, 64.

98. Metcalf, Islamic Revival in British India: Deoband, 1860-1900, 72.

99. Ibid., 82

100. “Mumbai Samachar”, see website at http://www.bombaysamachar.com/.

101. Spear, The Oxford History of Modern India, 1740-1947, 222.

102. Ibid., 222–3; Metcalf and Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, 101–4.

103. Trautmann, India: Brief History of a Civilization, 177, 180.


105. Metcalf, The Aftermath of Revolt, 1.


107. Naoroji, Poverty and Un-British Rule in India.


109. Metcalf and Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, 160.

110. Ibid., 168

111. Ibid., 190-1

112. Ibid., 207-8

113. Ibid., 205-7

114. Ibid., 212

115. Ibid., 212-13


116. Ibid., 214-5

117. Ibid., 216

118. Ibid., 216–7; Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy,

150–1.

119. Metcalf and Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, 219–222; Bose and Jalal,

Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy, 150–2.

120. Independence of India and Pakistan. (Chicago: Worldbook, Inc.. 2011.) p.38

121. Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy, 150, 155.

122. Metcalf and Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India, 221–222; Bose and Jalal,

Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy, 154–6.

123. Independence of India and Pakistan. Worldbook. p.42

124. Bose and Jalal, Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy, 154–6.

125. Nehru, “Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964): Speech On the Granting of Indian

Independence, August 14, 1947; Nehru, Tryst With Destiny.



128. Ibid.


130. Metcalf and Metcalf, A Concise History of Modern India,233.

131. Ibid.247

132. Nardo, Don. India, Enchantment of the World. (New York: Scholastic, Inc. 2012.)

58-9


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