HISTORY

One of the oldest civilizations in the world, India has a long history.

The urban civilization started with the Indus Valley civilization which was settled on the Indus River and its tributaries and flourished from about 2600 BC to 1900 BC. This was followed by the Vedic Age (1500-1000 BC). The Vedic culture is the Indo-Aryan culture associated with the Vedas. This was followed by the second major urbanisation in India from 1000 to 500 BC in which a number of small kingdoms or city states had covered the subcontinent establishing monarchies and republics known as the Mahajanapadas. It was during this period in 537 BC that Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment and became known as the 'Buddha'. Around the same time period, in 510 BC, Mahavira founded Jainism.

Following this period were Persian and Greek invasions which had important repercussions on Indian civilization. The political systems of the Persians was to influence future forms of governance on the subcontinent.

The decline of Alexander the Great's Rule was followed by the Maurya dynasty in about 321 BC. Mauryan empire under Chandragupta Maurya would not only conquer most of the Indian subcontinent, but also push its boundaries into Persia and Central Asia. The Mauryan empire was further expanded by Chandragupta's son, Bindusara and his grandson, Ashoka the Great. In the aftermath of the carnage caused in the invasion of Kalinga, Ashoka renounced bloodshed and pursued a policy of non-violence or ahimsa after converting to Buddhism. The Mauryan dynasty under Ashoka was responsible for the proliferation of Buddhist ideals across the whole of East Asia and South-East Asia, fundamentally altering the history and development of Asia as a whole. Ashoka's grandson Samprati adopted Jainism and helped spread Jainism.

The middle kingdom in India which followed after the decline of the Maurya Empire (about 2nd BC) was a time of notable cultural development in the south as well as north of India. The middle period lasted for some 1,500 years, and ended in the 13th century, with the rise of the Islamic Sultanates (Delhi Sultanate).

After resistance for a few centuries by various north Indian kingdoms, short lived Islamic empires invaded and spread across the northern subcontinent over a period of a few centuries. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Arabs, Turks and Afghans invaded parts of northern India and established the Delhi Sultanate at the beginning of the 13th century, from former Rajput holdings. The Delhi Sultanate which refers to the many Muslim dynasties that ruled in India from 1206 to 1526, ushered in a period of Indian cultural renaissance. The resulting "Indo-Muslim" fusion left lasting monuments in architecture, music, literature, and religion.

The Delhi Sultanate was conquered by the Mughal emperor Babur in 1526. The Mughal Dynasty ruled most of the Indian subcontinent by 1600; it went into a slow decline after 1707 and was finally defeated during the 1857 First War of Independence also called the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The Mughals, while often employing brutal tactics to subjugate their empire, had a policy of integration with Indian culture, which is what made them successful where the short-lived Sultanates of Delhi had failed.

From the sixteenth century Europeans started arriving as traders and later took advantage of the fractious nature of relations between the kingdoms to establish colonies in the country. By 1856, most of India was under the control of the British East India Company. In 1857, India came under the direct control of the British Crown as a colony of the British Empire.

During the first half of the twentieth century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by many political organizations. Led by Mahatma Gandhi, and displaying commitment to ahimsa, or non-violence, millions of protesters engaged in mass campaigns of civil disobedience. Finally, on 15 August 1947, India gained independence from British rule, but was partitioned, in accordance to wishes of the Muslim League, along the lines of religion to create the Islamic nation-state of Pakistan. Three years later, on 26 January 1950, India became a republic and a new constitution came into effect.

Since independence, India has earned the title of "the largest democracy in the world".