India History

Indian civilization can be traced back to at least 2500 BC, although the ancient civilizations did not encompass the whole of India as it is known today. The first known civilization settled along the Indus River in what is now Pakistan. This, however, collapsed around 1500 BC. Between 521 and 486 BC, under Darius, the area became part of the Persian Empire. Alexander the Great arrived in India in 326 BC, but did not venture beyond the boundaries of the Persian Empire, which only extended as far as the Indus. India’s two great religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, had already been developed. Various dynasties followed, the last of which was the Gupta Empire (AD 319-606).

The invasion of the White Huns brought all this to an end, and northern India became fragmented, and was only reunified with the arrival of Muslims from the west. During this time, the south had been trading by sea with the Romans and Egyptians. It took some time for Muslim forces to forge a permanent presence in northern India: in the late 12th century, Muhammad of Ghori, who had built a powerbase in what is now the Punjab, rapidly expanded eastwards. His conquests led to the establishment of Delhi as a major center of political power and ultimately its position as the Indian capital. The next major influx after the Muslims was the Moghuls, who swept over the mountain passes from Central Asia in the 1520s and maintained effective control of the north until the mid-18th century.

The peak of Moghul influence came in the late 16th and early 17th centuries; by the time of the British conquest, at the end of the 18th century, the Moghul Empire was already in severe decline. The British, motivated by trade and geopolitics, managed to take effective control of the whole sub-continent using the telegraph and the railways – both of which they built – as their main instruments of control. The many and varied provinces of India were, for the first time, administered by a single, albeit alien, power. The indigenous campaign for independence began with the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885, but it made little progress until after the end of World War I, when Mahatma Gandhi led the Congress and began the policy of non-cooperation with the British.

The colonial authorities were gradually persuaded that reforms were needed, but the Congress itself was split on a key issue – the Muslims, under Muhammad Ali Jinnah, claimed a separate homeland in provinces such as the Punjab and East Bengal, where they formed a majority of the population, but Gandhi wanted India to be a unified and secular state. Jinnah’s view, supported by the last Governor-General, Earl Mountbatten, prevailed and in August 1947, the independent states of India and Pakistan came into being (Pakistan was divided into two parts, East and West. See below and Pakistan section). Since this time India has been a democratic republic, with the first proper elections taking place in 1951, and Hindu law has been modernized to a great extent, eradicating many of the old inequalities. Nonetheless, the caste system, which assigns an individual to a particular stratum in society from birth, has proved resilient to reform.

India has also developed a broadly secular polity which – with a number of significant exceptions – has served fairly well to minimize violent religious strife. Indian politics have been dominated since independence by the Nehru family: Jawaharlal (‘Pandit’) was the first Prime Minister; then came his daughter, Indira Gandhi (one of the modern world’s first woman leaders); and finally her son, Rajiv. Their political power was exercised through the Congress Party, which has governed India for most of the time since independence. The party has been known as Congress (I) following a split in the original Congress during the 1970s. Mrs Gandhi held office in several different parliaments until October 1984, when she was assassinated by Sikh members of her personal bodyguard in retaliation for the storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Rajiv Gandhi took over immediately afterwards. Among the most important decisions that he took was the authorization of the Indian military intervention in the intercommunal conflict in Sri Lanka, where, in 1987, the Indian army became involved in a peace-keeping capacity for two years. This role as regional ‘policeman’ was also exemplified in late 1988 when Indian forces were instrumental in overthrowing an abortive invasion attempt in the Maldives. It is relations with Pakistan, however, that will always tend to dominate India’s foreign policy agenda. Relations between the two have varied between chilly and openly hostile.

The division of East and West Pakistan in 1971 into the contemporary states of Bangladesh and Pakistan followed decisive military and political intervention by the Indian government. Since then, the border dispute between India and Pakistan in the Kashmir region – which dates back to the division between the two countries at independence – has occasionally erupted into armed conflict. The 1990s were a particularly tense period in this region (see below), as opposition movements, whose activities India regularly blames on Pakistan, have waged a sustained campaign of political violence against the security forces. Autonomy movements in several parts of India, including Uttar Pradesh and Assam, have also caused occasional headaches for the Government, but it was the conflict in Sri Lanka which lay behind the assassination of the last of the Nehru dynasty to have held power, Rajiv Ghandi. Although Indian troops had pulled out by 1991, Tamil guerrillas blamed him for undermining their struggle: in an election rally in 1991, he was killed by a suicide bomber.

The last of the Nerhu/Gandhi dynasty to hold office, Rajiv’s death marked a period of decline for Congress (I) from which it has yet to recover. Since the government of ex-foreign minister, PV Narasimha Rao, who took over from Rajiv, its electoral standing has gradually declined. The main beneficiary has been the anti-secular Hindu party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Under the leadership of Atal Bihari (‘AB’) Vajpayee, the BJP steadily improved its position throughout the 1990s to the point where, following the most recent poll in October 1999, it had sufficient strength to put together a stable coalition government. The BJP is broadly divided between radical and moderate wings: Bajpayee, by 2002, was facing an increasingly difficult task holding the two together.

Indian foreign policy is dominated by relations with Pakistan. The main cause of friction is the status of Kashmir, most of which was awarded to India in 1947. Both sides claim the entire region and both insist their claim is ‘non-negotiable’. Separatist guerrillas, backed by Pakistan, have waged a steady campaign against Indian forces which shows no sign of resolution despite regular initiatives. Given the nuclear capabilities of both countries, and their proven delivery systems, this is now viewed as major potential flashpoint and is closely watched by the world’s major powers. In the spring of 2002, following a spurt of guerrilla activity in Kashmir and intercommunal violence between Muslims and Hindus in the western Indian state of Gujarat, the two countries came close to war. Only frantic international diplomacy calmed the situation. Historically, the USA and China had backed Pakistan while India had close relations with the Soviet Union. The demise of the Soviet Union has not, however, damaged India excessively: it still enjoys close links with Moscow and is concerned only by the possibility of instability in central Asia spilling southwards. China has long viewed India as a rival, and the main irritant is the presence of the exiled Tibetan opposition leader, the Dalai Lama, in northwest India. Nevertheless, the two governments have signed a major trade agreement and relations are steadily improving. As for the Americans, India moved quickly to support the Bush administration’s plan for ballistic missile defense in the hope that the remaining sanctions from 1998 will be lifted.

On December 26 2005, the tsunami and its aftermath struck the southeast coast of India and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Controversially, India refused all attempts at assistance from international aid agencies because of a military base on one of the islands and indigenous tribes on some others. However, military help has enabled them to transport some people onto the mainland and initiate reconstruction.