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The people of India have had a
continuous civilization since 2500 B.C., when the inhabitants of the Indus River
valley developed an urban culture based on commerce and sustained by
agricultural trade. This civilization declined around 1500 B.C., probably due to
ecological changes.
During the second millennium
B.C., pastoral, Aryan-speaking tribes migrated from the northwest into the
subcontinent. As they settled in the middle Ganges River valley, they adapted to
antecedent cultures.
The political map of ancient
and medieval India was made up of myriad kingdoms with fluctuating boundaries.
In the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., northern India was unified under the Gupta
Dynasty. During this period, known as India's Golden Age, Hindu culture and
political administration reached new heights.
Islam spread across the Indian
subcontinent over a period of 500 years. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Turks
and Afghans 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 (Mogul) Dynasty, 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, leaving lasting cultural influences on each other.
The first British outpost in
South Asia was established in 1619 at Surat on the northwestern coast. Later in
the century, the East India Company opened permanent trading stations at Madras,
Bombay, and Calcutta, each under the protection of native rulers.
The British expanded their
influence from these footholds until, by the 1850s, they controlled most of
present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. In 1857, a rebellion in north India
led by mutinous Indian soldiers caused the British Parliament to transfer all
political power from the East India Company to the Crown. Great Britain began
administering most of India directly while controlling the rest through treaties
with local rulers.
In the late 1800s, the first
steps were taken toward self-government in British India with the appointment of
Indian councilors to advise the British viceroy and the establishment of
provincial councils with Indian members; the British subsequently widened
participation in legislative councils. Beginning in 1920, Indian leader Mohandas
K. Gandhi transformed the Indian National Congress political party into a mass
movement to campaign against British colonial rule. The party used both
parliamentary and nonviolent resistance and non-cooperation to achieve
independence.
On August 15, 1947, India
became a dominion within the Commonwealth, with Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime
Minister. Enmity between Hindus and Muslims led the British to partition British
India, creating East and West Pakistan, where there were Muslim majorities.
India became a republic within the Commonwealth after promulgating its
constitution on January 26, 1950.
After independence, the
Congress Party, the party of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, ruled India
under the influence first of Nehru and then his daughter and grandson, with the
exception of two brief periods in the 1970s and 1980s.
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