Indian History

One of the world's earliest civilizations sprang up along the banks of the Indus River in Pakistan some 5000 years ago. The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro were comprised largely of brick buildings and were known to be in contact with the Sumerian civilization of Iraq. The inhabitants were Austroloid, the same race as the aboriginals of Australia (who migrated into Australia from South East Asia during the latter stages of the last Ice Age). The Harappan civilization disappeared midway through the second millenium BC, a time of extensive flooding.

Within a few centuries, the Aryan race began migrating into the Indian subcontinent, probably through Iran, which takes its name from 'Aryan.' Their original homeland was considered to have been the Caucasus region of southern Russia. They were a tall, white-skinned people with their own religion and folklore. They conquered the native tribes they encountered, enslaved them and imposed their language and customs upon them.

The folklore the Aryan brought with them is known as the Vedas. The Vedas comprise extensive epics told by word of mouth in a poetic style comparable to the Homer epics of ancient Greece and the 1001 Nights of Baghdad. The Aryan language was Sanskrit, the forunner of Hindi, Bengali and Farsi. It was the Aryans who named the Indus River ('Sindus,' meaning 'River'), and from this derives such words as 'India' and 'Hindu.' Sanskrit's connection with European languages can be seen by comparing the first ten numbers:

English Spanish Sanskrit Hindi
one uno eka ek
two dos dvi do
three tres tri tiin
four cuatro catur charr
five cinco pancan panch
six seis sas chaii
seven siete sapta sath
eight ocho astan aath
nine nueve navan nau
ten diez dashan das

The Aryans worshipped nature. Their religion blended with Hindu, which can be traced back at least as far as the Harappan civilization.

A new religion emerged in India midway through the first millenium BC, based on the philosophies of Buddha who (ironically) opposed religion, as well as casteism, violence and festivals. Lower caste Hindus, in particular, were drawn to it. Buddhism, and its more fundamental counterpart, Jainism, which emerged about the same time, are considered off-shoots of Hinduism.

Toward the end of the fourth century BC, at the twilight of the Nanda Dynasty founded by King Mahapadma, Alexander the Great invaded India. This culminated in victory over the Hindu King Porus (whose startled elephants turned back and trampled over his own men) in what is today Pakistani Punjab. But Alexander, who befriended Porus after the battle, was then forced to turn back by his own men. He had barely entered what is today India and, in fact, Indian historians make relatively little mention of him. His men were besieged on their retreat down the Indus, during which Alexander fell ill and subsequently died.

With a few years of Alexander, a lower caste barber named Chandrahupta defeated the Nandas, founded the Mauryan Dynasty, and established the first major empire embracing most of the subcontinent. His grandson Ashoka consolidated the empire with further conquests. An exceedingly bloodthirsty ruler in early life (he was credited with killing 99 step-brothers to secure the throne) he later converted to Buddhism and ruled according to the Dharma.

Around the time of Christ, India began to suffer new invasions from the north by the Scythians and Parthians - Central and West Asian peoples of Iranian stock. They were followed by the Kushan Dynasty from Turkestan, who carved out a huge empire across the continent, and ruled until 320AD.

They were followed by the Gupta Dynasty, founded by Shree and made great by his son Chandra I, who fought battles with the foreign tribes. The empire continued until the early 6th century, when it crumbled in the face of Hun invasions from West China. It was replaced by provincial rulers, both Indian and Hun.

The first Muslim invasions occurred early in the 8th century, led by Muhummed Bin Kasim. He conquered the region of Sindh in Pakistan and sent the daughters of the slain king back to the Sultan in Damascus. The legend goes that one of the daughers told the Sultan that Kasim had dishnoured her. After the outraged Sultan had killed Kasim, the daughter admitted she had lied to avenge her father's death. She and her sister were beheaded.

Notwithstanding this, Islam made little headway in the subcontinent until late in the 10th century when Sabuktign Ghazni, an ex-slave from Afghanistan, captured the Punjab. His son and successor Mahumud invaded India no fewer than 13 times during the first 30 years of the 11th century, mostly for looting and plunder.

The Ghaznis ruled the Punjab for two centuries before being deposed by Mohammed Ghori, also out of Afghanistan, in 1186AD. The Ghoris then took Sindh and defeated the Hindu rulers of Ajmer and Delhi. The first Muslim to sit on the throne of Delhi was Qutub-uddin Aibak, another ex-slave from Afghanistan, in 1206. The Ghori Dynasty would be followed by four further Muslim dynasties out of Afghanistan, the Khilji, Tughlaq, Sayyid and Lodhi, over the next three centuries.

In the 1220s Ghengiz Khan's Mongols invaded North West India. They had little impact on the Muslim rulers of India at that time, but in 1291 they returned under Ghengiz's grandson Oghlu and conquered the Punjab. The Muslims continued to rule the rest of India, however.

In 1298 Marco Polo dropped by on his way to Mongol-ruled China.

At the close of the 14th century Temur the Lame, a Turkic Muslim (and descendant of Ghengiz Khan) from Samarkand in what is now Uzbekistan, invaded India and defeated the last Tughlaq emperor. After looting and plundering, his Tatars returned to Samarkand.

Meanwhile, in the 15th century, Sikhism emerged in northern India. Based primarily around the Punjab, it is a fusion of Hindu and Islamic ideology and has grown to become the fifth largest religion in the world today. The Urdu language also evolved around this time in the military. A branch of Hindi, it encompasses substantial Farsi along with elements of Arabic and Turkic.

In 1498 Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese sailor, reached India. The Portuguese would begin to colonise parts of southern India in the early 1500s.

Mughal rule began in 1526 when the Mongol Babar defeated King Ibrahim Lodhi at the Battle of Panipat near Delhi and established his capital at Agra. Hailing from Samarkand, Babar was a descendant of both Timur the Lame and Ghengiz Khan.

Babar's son and successor Humayun was ousted by the Sur tribe of Afghanistan in 1539. They returned the capital to Delhi But Humayun recaptured the empire 15 years later. His son Akbar ascended the throne at age 13 and, a year later, defeated a Hindu army in the second Battle of Panipat.

Akbar the Great, whose mother was Hindu, ruled from Agra for almost half a century. He introduced reforms which would modernize India and treat the Hindu people more fairly.

His grandson Shah Jahan had the Taj Mahal built at Agra in memory of his wife who died in 1630. Jahan was imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb in 1658 and died a decade later. Aurangzeb returned the capital to Delhi and demolished many Hindu temples.

Moghul rule continued unchecked, for good or bad, for another century, before the third Battle of Paniput when the Afghan Ahmad Shah Abdali defeated the Marathas - Hindu warriors who had held out against the Moghuls - before taking Shah Alam II, the King of Delhi, prisoner. Though he would invade India nine times, Abdali was only interested in plunder and Shah Alam II regained his throne.

By this time the Moghul Empire had been severely weakened by Hindu resistance and European intrusion in the south. Shah Alam II signed a treaty with the British and allowed them to take much of East India after their military defeat of Bengal. By the time of his grandson, Bahadur Shah Zafar, the empire had been reduced to a few districts around Delhi.

Bahadur Shah Zafar, confined to the Red Fort, was the last Moghul Emperor. He was arrested after a mutiny in 1857 (see below). The British killed 22 of his 24 sons and exiled him to Myanmar, where he died in 1862.

The British had been in India since 1600 when the East India Company began trading there. Mumbai was given to Charles I as a dowry for Princess Catherine, daughter of the Portuguese King Braganza. The British founded Calcutta in 1690 and it served as the capital of British India from 1772 until 1912.

The Dutch and French had also begun trading in India early in the 17th century. Britian and France fought three wars on Indian soil in the middle of the 18th century. During the wars the Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa asked the British to repair the fortress they were using to fight the French from. When they refused, he put 146 of their countrymen into ill-ventilated rooms for the night. Only 23 would emerge from what became known as 'The Black Hole of Calcutta.'

The British were obliged to fight a series of difficult wars on the other side of the peninsula during the latter half of the century. These were against the native armies of Haidar Ali and his legendary son Tippu in Mysore, and ended with the death of the latter - the 'Tiger of Mysore' - in 1799.

In the middle stages of the 19th century, by which time the British were ruling most of the subcontinent, they were battling Sikhs in the north, building railways and erecting telegraph lines.

In 1857 Indians within the British Empire mutineed after refusing to bite away the new pork and cow fat-lubricated cartridge covers of their rifles, which offended their religion. The mutiny required more than a year to suppress. Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Moghul Emperor, was sent into exile, and Queen Victoria of England became head of the Indian government.

Early in the 20th century, during which Indian soldiers served the Allied Forces heroically in two World Wars, independence movements began to surface. In 1919 British soldiers under Brigadier Dyer slaughtered 379 peaceful protestors in Amritsar and wounded 2000.

In 1929 Jawaharlal Nehru, future prime minister of India, hoisted the national flag in Lahore. A year later Mahatma Ghandi marched 241kms to protest the tax on salt. In 1935 India was made a Federal Government with states and provinces receiving autonomy.

In 1940, with the 'Quit India' cry ringing in their ears, the British promised India independence after the war in exchange for its continued support against the enemy. This was fulfilled in 1947, but only after riots by Hindu and Muslim separatists in the north. Thus, against the wishes of Ghandi and Nehru, the subcontinent was partitioned. India and Pakistan were formed on August 15, the former ironically taking its name from the Indus River which lies in Pakistan.

Bengal and the Punjab were also dissected along Hindu and Muslim lines, while the Prince of Muslim-dominated Kashmir curiously opted to join India. This prompted a Pakistani invasion, and would lead to further conflicts in 1965 and 1999.

Mohammed Ali Jinnah became governer-general of Pakistan, while Nehru became first prime minister of India. In 1948 Ghandi was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist.

Some two million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs are believed to have been killed during the year of partition. Muslim Bengal (Bangladesh) would break away from Pakistan in 1971. Kashmir, under Indian, Pakistani and Chinese rule, remains a disputed territory today.