History of India | Timeline of Indian history from 1857 to 1947 | Indian History Timeline

 History of India

India has four names Hindustan, Bharat, Aryavart, and India. India acquired its independence from the British on the 15 August 1947. But the British military left India finally in 1950. The Indians celebrated first 26 January 1950 because the Republic Day of India.

India the Republic of India, is a nation in South Asia. It is the seventh largest nation by geographical space, the second most populous nation, and probably the most populous democracy on the planet. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a shoreline of seven,517 kilometers (4,671 mi). It borders Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east,and Bangladesh and Burma to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is within the neighborhood of Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Indonesia.

Indian History at a Glance

One of the earliest civilizations, the Indus Valley civilization flourished on the Indian subcontinent from c. 2600 B.C. to c. 2000 B.C. It is usually accepted that the Aryans entered India c. 1500 B.C. from the northwest, discovering a land that was already dwelling to a complicated civilization. They launched Sanskrit and the Vedic faith, a forerunner of Hinduism. Buddhism was based within the sixth century B.C. and was unfold all through northern India, most notably by one of many nice historic kings of the Mauryan dynasty, Ashoka (c. 269-232 B.C. ), who additionally unified many of the Indian subcontinent for the primary time.

 In 1526, Muslim invaders based the good Mogul Empire, centered on Delhi, which lasted, no less than in identify, till 1857. Akbar the Great (1542-1605) strengthened and consolidated this empire. The lengthy reign of his great-grandson, Aurangzeb (1618-1707), represents each the best extent of the Mogul Empire and the start of its decay.

Tomb Of Akbar

Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, landed in India in 1498, and for the subsequent 100 years the Portuguese had a digital monopoly on commerce with the subcontinent. Meanwhile, the English based the East India Company, which arrange its first manufacturing unit at Surat in 1612 and commenced increasing its affect, preventing the Indian rulers and the French, Dutch, and Portuguese merchants concurrently.

Vasco da Gama

Bombay, taken from the Portuguese, grew to become the seat of English rule in 1687. The defeat of French and Mogul armies by Lord Clive in 1757 laid the muse of the British Empire in India. The East India Company continued to suppress native uprisings and prolong British rule till 1858, when the administration of India was formally transferred to the British Crown following the Sepoy Mutiny of native troops in 1857-1858.

After World War I, wherein the Indian states despatched greater than 6 million troops to struggle beside the Allies, Indian nationalist unrest rose to new heights underneath the management of a Hindu lawyer, Mohandas Okay. Gandhi, known as Mahatma Gandhi. His philosophy of civil disobedience known as for nonviolent noncooperation in opposition to British authority. He quickly grew to become the main spirit of the Indian National Congress Party, which was the spearhead of revolt. In 1919, the British gave added duty to Indian officers, and in 1935, India was given a federal type of authorities and a measure of self-rule.

 In 1942, with the Japanese urgent exhausting on the japanese borders of India, the British War Cabinet tried and failed to achieve a political settlement with nationalist leaders. The Congress Party took the place that the British should give up India. Fearing mass civil disobedience, the federal government of India carried out widespread arrests of Congress Party leaders, together with Gandhi.

 Gandhi was launched in 1944 and negotiations for a settlement have been resumed. Finally, in Aug. 1947, India gained full independence. The victory was soured, nonetheless, by the partitioning of the predominantly Muslim areas of the north into the separate nation of Pakistan. The Muslim League, led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, demanded a separate nation for the Muslim minority to forestall Hindu political and social domination. Indian Hindus, nonetheless, had hoped for a unified slightly than balkanized Indian subcontinent. Lord Mountbatten as viceroy partitioned India alongside spiritual traces and cut up the provinces of Bengal and the Punjab, which each nations claimed. The partition of Pakistan and India led to the biggest migration in human historical past, with 17 million folks fleeing throughout the borders in each instructions to flee the bloody riots occurring amongst sectarian teams. Armed battle additionally broke out over rival claims to the princely states of Jammu and Kashmir.

Mahatma Gandhi(Right) with Jawaharlal Nehru(Left)

Jawaharlal Nehru, nationalist chief and head of the Congress Party, was made prime minister. In 1949, a structure was permitted, making India a sovereign republic. Under a federal construction the states have been organized on linguistic traces. The dominance of the Congress Party contributed to stability. In 1956, the republic absorbed former French settlements. Five years later, the republic forcibly annexed the Portuguese enclaves of Goa, Damao, and Diu.

Nehru died in 1964. His successor, Lal Bahadur Shastri, died on Jan. 10, 1966. Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, grew to become prime minister, and he or she continued his coverage of nonalignment.

 In 1971, the Pakistani military moved in to quash the independence motion in East Pakistan that was supported by India, and a few 10 million Bengali refugees poured throughout the border into India, creating social, financial, and well being issues. After quite a few border incidents, India invaded East Pakistan and in two weeks compelled the give up of the Pakistani military. East Pakistan was established as an impartial state and renamed Bangladesh.

 In May 1975, the 300-year-old kingdom of Sikkim grew to become a full-fledged Indian state. Situated within the Himalayas, Sikkim was a digital dependency of Tibet till the early 19th century. Under an 1890 treaty between China and Great Britain, it grew to become a British protectorate and was made an Indian protectorate after Britain give up the subcontinent.

 In the summer time of 1975, the world's largest democracy veered immediately towards authoritarianism when a decide in Allahabad, Indira Gandhi's dwelling constituency, discovered Gandhi's landslide victory within the 1971 elections invalid as a result of civil servants had illegally aided her marketing campaign. Amid calls for for her resignation, Gandhi decreed a state of emergency on June 26 and ordered mass arrests of her critics, together with all opposition occasion leaders besides the Communists.

 Despite robust opposition to her repressive measures, significantly resentment in opposition to obligatory contraception applications, in 1977 Gandhi introduced parliamentary elections for March. At the identical time, she freed most political prisoners. The landslide victory of Morarji R. Desai unseated Gandhi, however she staged a spectacular comeback within the elections of Jan. 1980.

 In 1984, Gandhi ordered the Indian military to root out a band of Sikh holy males and gunmen who have been utilizing probably the most sacred shrine of the Sikh faith, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, as a base for terrorist raids in a violent marketing campaign for higher political autonomy within the strategic Punjab border state. The perceived sacrilege to the Golden Temple kindled outrage amongst lots of India's 14 million Sikhs and introduced a spasm of mutinies and desertions by Sikh officers and troopers within the military.

 On Oct. 31, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two males recognized by police as Sikh members of her bodyguard. The ruling Congress Party selected her older son, Rajiv Gandhi, to succeed her as prime minister for 4 years. While operating for reelection, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 22, 1991, by Tamil militants who objected to India's mediation of the civil struggle in Sri Lanka.

 The ruling Congress Party misplaced the parliamentary elections of May 1996, and its waning resulted in a interval of political instability. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) then grew to become the dominant pressure in politics, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as prime minister.

In May 1998, India set off 5 nuclear exams, shocking the worldwide group, which broadly condemned India's pronuclear stance. Despite worldwide urging for restraint, Pakistan responded by conducting a number of nuclear exams of its personal two weeks later. India has resisted signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty for nuclear weapons and has been slapped with sanctions by the U.S. and different nations. Less than a yr later, in April 1999, each India and Pakistan examined nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.

 India and Pakistan have held varied talks in regards to the disputed territory of Kashmir, which is the difficulty on the base of their continual antagonism and their shows of nuclear power. India controls two-thirds of this Himalayan area, which is the one Indian state that's predominantly Muslim.

 The Indian Air Force launched air strikes on May 26, 1999, and later despatched in floor troops in opposition to Islamic guerrilla forces in Kashmir. India blamed Pakistan for orchestrating violence in Kashmir by sending troopers and mercenaries throughout the so-called Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Pakistan countered that the guerrillas have been impartial Kashmiri freedom fighters struggling for India's ouster from the area. Most worldwide sources agreed with India's assumption that Pakistan was arming the troopers. In Aug. 1999, Pakistan was compelled to withdraw, however preventing continued sporadically throughout the coming yr.

In Oct. 2001, violence once more broke out within the area when a suicide bombing by a Pakistan-based militant group killed 38 in India-controlled Kashmir. India retaliated with heavy shelling throughout the Line of Control. India, angered by Washington's sudden coziness with Pakistan following the Sept. 11 assaults, took the chance to level out that, whereas Pakistan is perhaps serving to the U.S. struggle terrorism on the Afghan entrance, it was concurrently supporting terrorism by itself borders with India. On Dec. 13, 2001, suicide bombers attacked the Indian parliament, killing 14 folks. Indian officers blamed the lethal assault on Islamic militants supported by Pakistan.

 Violent clashes between Muslims and Hindus rocked the state of Gujarat in late February and early March 2002 after a Muslim mob fire-bombed a prepare, killing 58 Hindu activists. Hindus retaliated, and greater than 500 folks died within the bloodshed.

 Hope for a peaceable resolution to the battle in Kashmir was raised in Nov. 2002, when a newly elected coalition authorities in India-controlled Jammu and Kashmir vowed to achieve out to separatists and to enhance situations within the state. But hopes have been dashed in March 2003, following the slaughter of 24 Hindus in Kashmir. Officials blamed the bloodbath on Islamic militants. Days after the violence, each India and Pakistan test-fired short-range missiles able to carrying nuclear warheads. Two bombs exploded in Mumbai (Bombay) in August, killing greater than 50 folks and injuring about 150. Indian officers blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant Islamic group. But in Nov. 2003, India and Pakistan declared their first formal cease-fire in 14 years. The cease-fire utilized to all the Line of Control dividing Kashmir. Relations between the 2 nations have continued to thaw, although no actual progress has been made.

 In probably the most dramatic political upsets in trendy Indian historical past, the Indian National Congress Party, led by Sonia Gandhi, prevailed in parliamentary elections in May 2004, prompting Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to resign. Although the nation prospered economically underneath Vajpayee's rule, a considerable variety of India's poor felt that they had not benefitted from India's financial development. Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, dealt an extra shock to the nation when she refused to grow to be prime minister. The BJP had vociferously protested Gandhi's anticipated elevation to prime minister due to her overseas start. The Congress Party as a substitute selected former finance minister Manmohan Singh, who grew to become India's first Sikh prime minister.

On Dec. 26, 2004, a tremendously highly effective tsunami ravaged 12 Asian nations. Nearly 11,000 folks perished in India.

 President Bush introduced in March 2005 that he would enable American firms to offer India with a number of sorts of trendy fight weapons, together with F-16 and F-18 fighter jets. The announcement was seen as an try and steadiness Bush's provide to promote Pakistan about two dozen F-16s.

 Monsoon rains in late July and early August 2005 triggered devastating landslides and floods that killed about 900 folks in and round Mumbai. An earthquake with a magnitude of seven.6 struck Pakistani-controlled Kashmir on October 8, 2005. More than 81,000 folks have been killed and a couple of.5 million left homeless. India suffered about 1,300 casualties.

 In March 2006, President Bush and Prime Minister Singh agreed to a controversial civil nuclear energy deal that permitted the sale of U.S. nuclear expertise to India even supposing India has by no means signed the worldwide Nuclear Nonproliferation settlement. Since 1998, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on India for enterprise nuclear exams. Critics of the deal, which have to be permitted by Congress, contend that permitting India to bypass the worldwide treaty will make it harder to barter with Iran and North Korea and their nuclear ambitions.

On July 11, greater than 200 folks died and tons of extra have been wounded when a sequence of bombs exploded on commuter trains in Mumbai throughout the night rush hour. Islamic terrorists have been suspected.

Pratibha Patil, of the governing Congress occasion, was elected president in July 2007, changing into the nation's first woman to carry the put up. She defeated Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.