History of India

The History of India covers thousands of years and discusses many diverse languages, cultures, periods, and dynasties. Indian civilization began in the Indus Valley and some literature survives from that time.

Stone age

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

Neolithic (5000 BC) carving of Edakkal Caves in Kerala, India

Paleolithic era

Remains (stone tools and a skull) in central India show presence of an early species of humans, Homo erectus. Archeologists think they lived in India between 200,000 and 500,000 years ago. This period is known as the paleolithic era.

The earliest archaeological site in the subcontinent is the paleolithic hominid site in the Soan River valley. Soanian sites are found in the Sivalik region across India, Pakistan and Nepal.

Mesolithic

Modern humans (Homo sapiens) settled in the Indian subcontinent at least 70,000 years ago. At that time, the last ice age had just ended and the climate became warm and dry. The first settlements are found in Bhimbetka, near Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh, India). Mesolithic people lived by hunting, fishing and food gathering.

Neolithic

Neolithic agriculture started in the Indus Valley region around 7000 years ago, in the lower Gangetic valley around 5000 years ago. Later, in South India, agriculture spread southwards and also into Malwa around 3800 years ago.

Bronze Age

See the main article: Indus Valley Civilisation

The "Priest King" of the Indus Valley Civilisation

The Bronze Age in the Indian subcontinent began around 5300 years ago with the early Indus Valley Civilisation, which included cities such as Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Lothal, and Kalibanga. The civilization was based on the Indus River and its tributaries, extending into the Ghaggar-Hakra River valley, the Ganges-Yamuna Doab, Gujarat, and southeastern Afghanistan. Today, the civilization's old territory is split between India and Pakistan. In Pakistan, the provinces of Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan overlap with ex-Indus Valley territory. In India, the provinces Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan also share territory with the Indus Valley Civilization.

The first cities on the Indian subcontinent were part of the Indus Valley Civilisation. They were similar to early Mesopotamian civilisations and Ancient Egypt. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley, the Harappans, developed new techniques in metallurgy and handicraft (carneol products, seal carving), and produced copper, bronze, lead, and tin.

The mature Indus civilization flourished from about 4600 to 3900 years ago. It included urban centers such as Dholavira, Kalibanga, Ropar, Rakhigarhi, and Lothal in modern-day India, and Harappa, Ganeriwala, and Mohenjo-daro in modern-day Pakistan. The cities were built of brick, with roadside drainage system and multi-storied houses. During the later period of this civilisation, signs of a gradual decline began to emerge. By about 3700 years ago, most of the cities were abandoned. However, the Indus Valley Civilisation did not disappear suddenly. Some parts of the Indus Civilization may have survived in the smaller villages and isolated farms.

Vedic civilization

The Vedas are the oldest teachings of India, though the transmission of these teachings was mainly oral until around the 5th century. There are four Vedas, and the oldest is the Rigveda. As per Rigveda the whole region is SaptaSindhawa, the land of seven rivers. The other three are Samaveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda. The Vedas have verses in praise of gods and others. They also have other information. At that time, the society was pastoral.

After the Rigveda, society became more agricultural. People became divided into four classes depending on the type of the work. Brahmins were priests and teachers. Kshatriyas were the warriors. Vaishyas did agriculture, trading and commerce. The shudras were the general working class. It is not true that the Vaishyas and Shudras were always looked down upon, and treated badly by Brahmins and Kshatriyas, though it was true for the later part of the Vedic age. But it was untrue for the earlier part. This type of social division is called the Varna system in Hinduism.

During the period of the Later Vedic civilization, there were many Aryan clans and tribes. Some of them combined and became bigger like the kingdom of the Kurus.

Persian and Greek invasion

The names "India" and "Hind" came from the Greeks and Persians. It means land of the river Indus in both languages.

Around the 5th century BC, north-western parts of India were invaded by the Achaemenid Empire and by the Greeks of Alexander the Great. A Persian way of thinking, administration and lifestyle came to India. This influence became bigger during the Mauryan dynasty. From around 520 BC, the Achaemenid Empire’s Darius I ruled large part of northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent. Alexander later conquered these areas. Achaemenid rule lasted about 186 years. In modern times, there are still traces of this Greek heritage to be found in parts of northwestern India. Greco-Buddhism is a combination of the cultures of Greece and Buddhism. This mixture of cultures developed for 800 years, from the 4th century BC until the 5th century AD. The area where it happened is modern day’s Afghanistan and Pakistan. This mixture of cultures influenced Mahayana Buddhism and the spread of Buddhism to China, Korea, Japan and Tibet.

The Magadha empire

The Magadha formed one of the sixteen kingdoms in ancient India. The core of the kingdom was the area of Bihar south of the Ganges. Its first capital was Rajagriha (modern Rajgir) then Pataliputra (modern Patna). Magadha expanded to include most of Bihar and Bengal, followed by much of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. The ancient kingdom of Magadha is mentioned in Jain and Buddhist texts. It was also mentioned in the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. The state of Magadha, possibly a tribal kingdom, is recorded in Vedic texts much earlier than 600 BC. Magadha played an important role in the development of Jainism and Buddhism, and two of India's greatest empires, the Maurya Empire and Gupta Empire, originated from Magadha. These empires saw advances in ancient India's science, mathematics, astronomy, religion, and philosophy. This was an Indian "Golden Age."

Early middle kingdoms

Satavahana empire

The Satavahanas came to power from around 230 BC. They are also called Andhras. For about 450 years, Satavahanas kings ruled most parts of the southern and central India.

Western Kshatrapas

For about 350 years, from the years 35-405, Saka kings ruled the western and central parts of India. These areas are in today's states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. There were 27 independent rulers, collectively known as the Kshatrapas.

Saka kings ruled India along aside the Kushan kings and the Satvahana kings. Kushan kings ruled the northern parts of India. Satvahana kings ruled the central and some of the southern parts of India.

Indo-Scythians

Indo-Scythians came to India from Siberia passing through Bactria, Sogdiana, Kashmir and Arachosia. Their coming to India continued from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century BC. They defeated the Indo-Greek rulers of India, and ruled India from Gandhara to Mathura.

Gupta dynasty

The Gupta dynasty reigned from around 320 to 550 AD. The Gupta Empire covered most of North-central India, and what is now western India and Bangladesh. Gupta society was ordered in accordance with Hindu beliefs. The time of the Gupta Empire is seen as a Golden Age of India. Historians place the Gupta dynasty alongside the Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and Roman Empire as a model of a classical civilization.

Hun invasion

The fighting Huns.

By the first half of the fifth century, a group of people known as Huns had settled in Afghanistan. They became powerful. They made Bamiyan their capital city. They started attacking northwestern parts of India. Skandagupta, an emperor of the Gupta dynasty fought back and kept them away for some years. At last the Huns won and could enter most parts of northern India. With this the Gupta dynasty came to an end. Most of north India became badly affected by this invasion. However, Huns could not go up to the Deccan Plateau and the southern parts of India. These parts remained peaceful. No one knows definitely about the fate of Huns after the end of the sixth century. Some historians believe that they mixed up fully with the Indian people of that time.

Late Middle Kingdoms

In the history of India the Middle kingdoms of India cover a period beginning from around the 6th-7th century. In South India, Chola kings ruled Tamil Nadu, and Chera kings ruled Kerala. They also had trading relationships with the Roman Empire to the west and Southeast Asia to the east. In north India, Rajputs ruled in many kingdoms. Some of those kingdoms continued for hundreds of years.

Harsha's empire

After the collapse of the Gupta Empire, it was Harsha of Kanauj (a place now in Uttar Pradesh) who united the northern parts of India in one kingdom. After his death several dynasties tried to control north India and ruled from 7th century till the 9th century as described below. Some of these dynasties were the Pratiharas of Malwa and later Kannauj; the Palas of Bengal, and the Rashtrakutas of the Deccan.

The Pratiharas, Palas, and Rashtrakutas

The Pratihara kings ruled kingdoms in Rajasthan and some other parts of northern India from the 6th century to the 11th century. The Palas ruled the eastern part of India. They ruled over areas which are now parts of the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, west Bengal, and Bangladesh. The Palas ruled from 8th century to the 12th century. In the southern parts of India, Rashtrakutas of Malakheda (Karnataka) ruled the Deccan during the 8th-10th centuries after the end of Chalukya rule. All these three dynasties tried to control the entire north India. During this time lasting for three to four hundred years, the Chola kings were growing in power and influence.

The Rajputs

In the 6th century several Rajput kingdoms came into being in Rajasthan. Many other Rajput kings ruled in different parts of north India. Some of these kingdoms survived for hundreds of years.

Vijayanagar empire

In 1336, two brothers named Harihara and Bukka founded the Vijayanagara Empire in an area which is now in Karnataka. The most famous king of this empire was Krishnadevaraya. In 1565, rulers of this empire were defeated in a battle. But, the empire continued for about the next hundred years.

A number of kingdoms of south India had trading relations with the Arabs in the west, and with Indonesia and other countries of the east.

Islamic sultanates

Islam spread across the Indian subcontinent over a period of 500 years. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Turks invaded India and established sultanates in Delhi. In the early 16th century, descendants of Genghis Khan swept across the Khyber Pass and established the Mughal Empire, which lasted for 200 years. From the 11th to the 15th centuries, southern India was dominated by Hindu Chola and Vijayanagar Dynasties. During this time, the two systems—the prevailing Hindu and Muslim—mingled, left lasting cultural influences on each other.

Delhi sultanate

The Delhi sultanate was a Muslim kingdom based mostly in Delhi. It ruled large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526) Five dynasties ruled over Delhi Sultanate. They are the mamaluk, khilji, tughlaq, sayyid and the lodi dynasties. The mamluk dynasty was started by Qutbuddin Aibak. He was a slave and thus this dynasty is also called Slave Dynasty. Qutubuddin Aibak also made Qutub minar. His son in law, Iltutmish became the ruler after Qutubuddin aibak. He completed the qutub minar.

The Kingdom of Mysore

The Kingdom of Mysore was a kingdom of southern India. People known as Wodeyars founded this kingdom in the year 1400. Later on, Hyder Ali and his son, Tipu Sultan, fought with the Wodeyar rulers. They also fought with the forces of the British Raj, but were defeated. Under the British Raj, Wodeyar kings continued to rule a large part of Karnataka. When India became independent on 15th August 1947, Wodeyars’ kingdom chose to become a part of India.

The Punjab

Guru Nanak founded Sikhism and his followers were called Sikhs. The power of Sikhs increased in the northwestern part of India. The Sikhs became rulers of large part of the northwestern India. This is called the Sikh Kingdom or Empire. Ranjit Singh was the most famous ruler of the Sikh Empire. He expanded the borders of the Sikh Empire and at the time of his death, it covered areas of Punjab, and present day Kashmir and parts of Pakistan. The Sikhs and forces of the British Raj fought many wars. While Maharaja Ranjit Singh was alive, Britishers were not able to cross the Sutlej river. After his death, they took over the entire Punjab after battles with disorganised Sikh troops.

Durrani Empire

For a short period, Ahmed Shah Durrani the founder of Afghanistan ruled some parts of northwestern India. Historians have named his rule the Durrani Empire. In 1748, he crossed the Indus River and attacked Lahore, now a part of Pakistan. He also attacked many parts of Punjab. Then, he attacked Delhi. At that time, Delhi was the capital of the Mughal Empire. He took many valuable things from India. This included the Peacock Throne of Shah Jahan and the famous diamond named Kohinoor.

Colonial era

Colonial period means the time when Western countries ruled India. Western countries also ruled many other countries of Asia, Africa, and South America.

Company Raj

Starting in the 1600s the British East India Company began a very profitable trading empire in India, centered in Bengal. In the mid-1700s Robert Clive (1725-1774) led the company to an expanded influence in India with victories over the French, the Bengalis, and the Mughals. With a victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757 Clive became the first British Governor of Bengal.

In the hundred years after the battle, the East India Company conquered the entire subcontinent of India. They did this by trade, political intrigue, and direct military action. The British were very efficient administrators of their domains. But in 1857 the Indian Mutiny almost destroyed the company's rule of India. Afterward the British government took control away from the company. In 1858, India became a part of the British Empire and Queen Victoria became the empress of India.

The British

For the next 100 years the British ruled most of India and Burma as an informal empire. It was divided into eight provinces each with a governor. These provinces were Burma, Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Uttar Pradesh, Central Provinces, Punjab, and Assam. A Governor-General (Viceroy) in Calcutta was head of the government.

It should be noted that the british did not control the entirirty of modern day India. Goa was under Portugese sovereignity and the 4 cities that comprise modern day Pondicherry were under French revolutionary sovereignity.

However, it was also a time of political stability. India experienced democracy for the first time in millennia. There were no more wars between the fragmented kingdoms and empires.

The British government's biggest failing was the partition of India and Pakistan.They were unable to negotiate with Indian political leaders properly to ensure a smooth transfer of power. During the partition millions of Indians and Pakistanis died.

The British also did good things. They built railroads, telegraphs and telephones, improved trade, standardised laws, and water supplies. Many of these things were done to help improve commerce in India. They created the Indian Civil Service for administering rules and regulations. They also eliminated cruel and unusual practices like burning widows.

The British ruled India primarily for the economic benefit of Britain and for the social and political benefit of India. India produced cheap raw materials for British industry. These were purchased and sent back to the British industries. The finished goods were then imported back to India at reduced tariffs, making them much cheaper. Indians preferred to buy British manufactured goods and profits went back to Britain. This was also India's first introduction to the economic system of Capitalism.

Independence

Several people in India wanted to be free from British rule. The struggle for the supposed freedom was long and difficult. Many people protested against the British, often over the most insignificant things. The most important leader of the Hindu majority was Mohandas K. Gandhi. Gandhi believed in a non-violent opposition towards the British. He also believed that the best possible system of government for India would be to become a Commonwealth realm (Dominion) like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Because Hindus and Muslims fought each other, India was divided into two countries: Pakistan and India. Pakistan was also divided, decades later. India won its independence, along with Muslim Pakistan, and became a socialist republic on August 15, 1947. Pakistan won independence on 14 August, some hours before India.

Republic of India

Emblem of India

On 15 August 1947, the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two countries (dominions), India (Bharat) and Pakistan. With this the British Raj in the Indian subcontinent ended. On 26 January 1950, India adopted a constitution. From that day, India become a republic.

During last 60 years, the Republic of India has seen different stages in its national life.

• It fought three wars against Pakistan, and one war against China. Wars with Pakistan were fought in 1947, 1965, and 1971. The relationship between India and Pakistan was horrendous, and will be for a long time. In 1999, it had a limited skirmish in Kargil. The war with China was fought in 1962. In 1971, the Republic of India also helped Bangladesh in its freedom struggle.
• Under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru (the first Prime Minister of India), India had adopted a socialist economy. Some economists think it was a mixed economy. In a mixed economy, socialism and capitalism continue together. During this period, lasting for several years up to end-1980s, India could rapidly develop its infrastructure, science and technology.
• By the early 1990s, India had changed its economic policies. It started several reforms to attract more capital from other countries. Local businessmen and industrialists also got more freedom to carry out their activities.
• In 1974, India had already detonated its first nuclear bomb. It repeated the same in 1998. With this, it became a nuclear power.

In 2018 India was the fifth largest economy in terms of gross GDP. It was the 4th largest economy of the world when accounting for purchasing power parity. Some economists think that in coming decades, India’s economy will become still larger.

Related pages

• Ancient India
• History of Manipur
• History of Pakistan
• Bangladesh
• India

More reading

• Benedetti, Giacomo. "The idea of India in ancient Indian texts: āryāvarta, jambudvīpa, bhāratavarṣa and the relation with non-āryas."
• Allan, J. T. Wolseley Haig, and H. H. Dodwell, The Cambridge Shorter History of India (1934)
• Majumdar, R. C., H.C. Raychaudhuri, and Kaukinkar Datta. An Advanced History of India London: Macmillan. 1960. ISBN 0-333-90298-X
• Smith, Vincent. The Oxford History of India in(1981)

Other websites

• A Concise History of India
• Indian History Timeline