INDIAN HISTORY

Presenting authentic Indian history, in a nutshell, is a highly challenging task. Indian history is a
fascinating topic to many, including foreigners, because of its great culture and civilization that
prevails in the sub-continent.

India is a feminine given name which takes its origin from the Indus River.

This article deals with the history of India from the pre-historic period to its independence after
which it is known as the History of the Republic of India.

Indian history can be divided into three periods -

Ancient India (Pre-historic to AD 700)

Medieval India (AD 700 - AD 1857)

Modern India (AD 1857 afterward)

I. Ancient India (Pre-historic to AD 700):

The first inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent were probably tribes such as Nagas (North-
East), Santhals (East-India), Bhils (Central India), Gonds (Central India), Todas (South India)
etc., Most of them are speakers of Austric, pre-Dravidian languages, such as Munda and
Gondvi. The Dravidians and Aryans are believed to be the later settlers of the sub-continent.
Indus Valley Civilization (BC 2700 - 1900 BC):
Along with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Indus Valley Civilization was one of three early
civilizations of the Near East and South Asia and of the three, most widely distributed. It
flourished on the banks of the Indus River and marks the beginning of city life.

It is also known as the Harappan Civilization which lasted

for 800 years. The major cities of Mohenjo-Daro and
Harappa may have grown to between 30,000 and 60,000
people, and civilization itself during its fluorescence may
have contained between one and five million people.
Mohenjo-Daro is an archaeological site built about 2500
BCE, it was one of the largest settlements of the Indus
Valley Civilization, and it was one of the first major cities of
the world, at the same time the ancient Egyptian
communities of Mesopotamia, Minoan Crete, and Norte
Chico. Mohenjo-Daro was abandoned in the 19th century
BCE when the Indus Valley Civilization declined, and the
site was not discovered until the 1920s. Significant
excavations have been made in the city area, designated a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.

Mauryan Empire (321-185 BC):

Most of the Indian subcontinent was conquered by the Maurya Empire, between the 4th and 3rd
centuries BCE. Key rulers of the Mauryan Kingdom include Chandra Gupta Maurya, Bindusara,
and Asoka

Gupta Kingdom (300AD - 800AD): Classical Period.

The Supreme Ruler of the Guptas was Samudra Gupta, who is also
known as “Indian Napoleon” by the British historian A.V. Smith. Even
most of the Indians don't know about this great conqueror. He was also a
great administrator. Samudragupta was the younger son of the founder
of the Gupta kingdom. The small empire established by his father began
to take a gigantic shape under him. His untiring energy and his strong
determination as well as his brilliant strategies and diplomatic skills and
ingenuity made him 'king of kings'. His policy of conquest and liberal
attitude towards the defeated kings earned him a place in the list of the
great emperors of India. His diplomatic triumph opened the way for
further alliances with the foreign rulers in Southeast Asia and the Middle Coin of Samudragupta
East.
with Garuda pillar,
During the Classical period, various parts of India were ruled by several emblem of Gupta Empire.
emperors over the next 1,500 years, among them, the dominant was The name Sa-mu-
Gupta Empire. This period is known as the classical or Golden Age of dra in an early version of
India. It points to those times where the world saw many new things the Gupta Brahmi script
because of the great success of the Indians in the fields of science,
appears vertically under
technology, engineering, art, dialect, literature, theory, mathematics,
astronomy, religion, and philosophy. The system of decimal numbers, the left atm of the king.
including the concept of zero, was introduced in India during this period.
The peace and prosperity achieved under the leadership of the Guptas have made it easier to
make scientific and artistic efforts in India. During this time, many aspects of Indian civilization,
administration, culture, and religion (Hinduism and Buddhism) spread throughout much of Asia,
while the southern states of India began to establish trade links at sea with the Middle East and
the Mediterranean. The influence of Indian culture spread to many parts of Southeast Asia,
leading to the formation of Indian empires in Southeast Asia (Greater India)

II. MEDIEVAL INDIA (AD 700 - AD 1857):

The most important event between the 7th and 11th centuries was the Tripartite struggle
centered on Kannauj that lasted for more than two centuries between the Pala Empire, the
Rashtrakuta Empire, and the Gurjara-Pratihara Empire. Southern India witnessed the rise of
many state powers from the middle of the fifth century, most notably Chalukya, Chola, Pallava,
Chera, Pandyan, and Western Chalukya Empires. The Chola dynasty conquered southern India
and successfully invaded parts of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Bengal in the
11th century. In the early medieval period, Indian figures, including Hindu numbers, contributed
to the development of mathematical and astronomical figures in the Arab world.

MUSLIM RULE IN INDIA:

Prominent Muslim rulers of India include:
Mohammed Ghazni (AD 1000-27)

Mohammed Ghori (AD 1175-1206)

Delhi Sultanate (1206 AD - 1526 AD)

Mughals (AD 1526 - AD 1857)

The attack of Muhammad Bin Qasim (AD 712):

He was the first Muslim to have successfully captured Sindh. He was an Arab military
commander of the Umayyad Caliphate during the reign of Caliph al-Walid I (705–715). The
Muslim rule In the Indian subcontinent began mainly with the conquest of Sindh and
Multan (both in present-day Pakistan) from the third and the last Maharaja of the Brahman
dynasty, Raja Dahir in the battle of Aror.

Following the mandatory law of the Ghaznavids in Punjab, Sultan Muhammad of Ghor
(Mohammed Ghori) is generally known for laying the foundation for Muslim rule in India. From
the late 12th century onwards, the Turko-Mongol Muslim empires began to settle throughout the
subcontinent, including the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire, which adopted local culture
and intermarried with the natives. Other various Muslim empires, which ruled most of South
Asia during the 14th to late 18th centuries, including the Bahmani Sultanate, the Deccan
Sultanates, and the Gujarat Sultanate were native in origin. Sharia was used as the mainstay of
the legal system in the Delhi Sultanate, especially during the reigns of Firuz Shah Tughlaq and
Alauddin Khilji, who attacked the Mongol invasion of India. While rulers like Akbar adopted a
secular legal system based on religious neutrality.

The Mughal Empire:

The Mughals from Babar (1526) to Aurangazeb (1707) were very powerful and were therefore
called the Great Mughals while those who ruled from 1707 to 1857 were known as the Later
Mughals.

The First Battle of Panipat was fought on April 21, 1526,

between Babur and Ibrahim Lodi. It marked the beginning of
the Mughal Empire and the end of the Delhi Sultanate. This
was one of the first wars involving gunpowder firearms and field
artillery in the Indian subcontinent introduced by the Mughals in
this war.Babur's cannons seemed decisive in the battle, firstly
because Ibrahim Lodi did not have any field artillery, but also
because the sound of cannon frightened Lodi’s elephants,
causing them to trample on his own men. Ibrahim Lodi died on
the battlefield along with his 20,000 troops. The battle of
Panipat was militarily a decisive victory. Politically it acquired
Babur new lands and began a new phase of the founding of the
Mughal Empire that lasted a long time in the heart of the Indian
Subcontinent.

The height of Muslim rule was marked during the reign of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, during
which the Fatawa Alamgiri was compiled, which briefly served as the legal system of Mughal
India. The early modern period began in the 16th century, when the Mughal Empire conquered
most of India and became the world's largest economy and productive power, with a nominal
GDP worth a quarter of the world's GDP, higher than the European GDP. The Mughals
gradually declined in the early 18th century, giving the Maratha, Sikhs, Mysoreans, and Nawabs
of Bengal control of the major regions of the Indian subcontinent. The eventual end of the period
of Muslim rule of modern India is mainly marked with the beginning of British rule.
III. Modern India (AD 1857 afterward):

First War of Indian Independence (1857):

From the middle of the 18th century to the mid-19th century,

India's major territories were gradually annexed by the East
India Company, a state-owned enterprise, acting as a
sovereign power on behalf of the British government.
Dissatisfaction with the Company rule in India led to the Indian
Rebellion of 1857, which rocked parts of north and central
India, and led to the dissolution of the company. India was
afterward ruled directly by the British Crown, in the British Raj.

Establishment of the Indian National Congress (1885):

Founded in 1885, it was the first modern national organization

to emerge from the British Empire in Asia and Africa. From the
late 19th century, and especially after 1920, under the
leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Congress became the
prominent leader of the Indian independence movement.
Congress-led India to independence from Great Britain and had
a profound effect on other anti-colonial movements in the
British Empire.

Establishment of the Muslim League (1906):

The All-India Muslim League (popularly known as the Muslim League) was a political party
founded in 1906 in British India. Its strong advocacy for the establishment of a separate Muslim
state, Pakistan, led to the successful partition of India in 1947 by the British Empire. The party
emerged at The Aligarh Muslim University and was founded in Dhaka (now Bangladesh) many
years after the death of Syed Ahmad Khan who was a key figure in the founding of the
University. It remained a noble movement until 1937 when the leadership began to mobilize the
Muslim masses and the league became a popular movement. In the 1930s, the powerful
philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal's vision of uniting the four provinces in North-West British
India further supported the rationale of the two-nation theory aligning with the same ideas
proposed by Syed Ahmad Khan.

Non-Cooperation Movement (1920):

Mahatma Gandhi founded the Non-cooperation movement on

September 5, 1920, with the objective of self-governance and
gaining full independence as the Indian National Congress (INC)
withdrew its support for British reforms following the Rowlatt
Act of 21 March 1919, which suspended the rights of defendants
in sedition trials and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 13 April
1919.

Gandhi's plan for the non-cooperation movement included urging all Indians to withdraw their
labor from any activity that "supporting the British government and its economy in India", In
addition to promoting “self-reliance” by spinning khadi, buying only Indian-made goods, and
eliminating English clothing. As a result, the public meetings and strikes led to the first arrests of
both Jawaharlal Nehru and his father, Motilal Nehru, on 6 December 1921.

Civil Disobedience Movement (1930):

The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi

March, and the Dandi Satyagraha, was a non-violent act of civil
disobedience led by M.K.Gandhi. The 25-day march began on
March 12, 1930, lasted till April 6, 1930, as a direct anti-tax action
campaign and a non-violent protest against Britain's salt
monopoly.

The Salt Satyagraha ("truth-force") campaign was based on Gandhi's principles of non-violence.
In the early 1930s, the Indian National Congress chose satyagraha as their main strategy for
acquiring Indian sovereignty and their independence from the British empire. The march was
the most important challenge for the British authorities since the Non-cooperation movement of
1920-22, and it followed the Purna Swaraj declaration of sovereignty and independence of the
Indian National Congress on January 26, 1930, receiving international attention.

Quit India Movement (1942):

The Quit India Movement, also known as the August Movement, was launched at the Bombay
session of the All-India Congress Committee led by Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel, and Maulana Azad on 9 August 1942, during World War II, refusing to co-operate in any
way with the government until independence. After the failure of the Cripps Mission to gain
Indian support for the British war effort, Gandhi called for a Do or Die in his Quit India
speech delivered in Bombay on 8 August 1942 at the Gowalia Tank Maidan. The All-India
Congress Committee has launched a major mass protest demanding what Gandhi called "An
Orderly British Withdrawal" from India. Despite the war, the British were ready for the action.
Almost the entire leadership of the Indian National Congress was arrested without trial within
hours of Gandhi's speech. The Indian National Congress denounced the Nazis in Germany but
would not fight it or anyone else until India became independent. The British government
refused to grant immediate freedom to India, stating that it could happen only when the war had
ended. However, it realized that it would be difficult to govern India in the long run because of
the costs of World War II, and the question for postwar was how to get out of it gracefully and
peacefully.

Partition of India:

In June 1947, Nehru and Abdul Kalam Azad on behalf of the Indian National Congress, Jinnah
representing The Muslim League, B.R.Ambedkar representing the Untouchable community, and
Master Tara Singh representing the Sikhs, agreed to a partition of the country along religious
lines opposition to Gandhi’s views. The British Indian Empire was partitioned in August 1947
into the Dominion of India (present-day Republic of India) and Dominion of Pakistan (present-
day Islamic Republic of Pakistan and People's Republic of Bangladesh), each gaining its
independence.
Independence of India:

August 15, 1947, India, now Dominion of India, became an independent country, with official
ceremonies taking place in New Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru assuming the office of the prime
minister, and with Viceroy Mountbatten staying on as the country's first Governor-General.
Gandhi remained in Bengal to work with the new refugees from the partitioned subcontinent.