India History

India History 1610 to post Independence

The Portuguese had traded in Goa as early as 1510 and it was 100 years later that the British made their first serious move into India when the East India Company created its own outpost at Surat. This small outpost marked the beginning of a remarkable presence that would last over 300 years and eventually dominate the entire subcontinent.

India HIstory - The British Raj

India history records that once in India, the British began to compete with the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the French. Through a combination of outright combat and deft alliances with local princes, the East India Company gained control of all European trade in India by 1769.

How a tiny island nation, thousands of miles away, came to administer a huge territory of 300 million people is one of history's great spectacles.

India HIstory - the British Raj

A seemingly impossible task, it was done through a highly effective and organized system called the Raj. Treaties and agreements were signed with native princes, and the Company gradually increased its role in local affairs. The Raj built infrastructure and trained natives for its own military purposes.

India History - The Indian Mutiny

In 1858, a rumour spread among Hindu soldiers that the British were greasing their bullets with the fat of cows and pigs. In India culture the cow is a sacred animal to Hindus and the pig is an unclean animal to Muslims. The soldiers mutinied and even though unsuccessful, it prompted the British government to seize total control of all British interests in India. They steadily expanded their influence until the princes ruled in name only. India had become a profitable venture, and the British were reluctant to allow the Indian population any power in a system that they viewed as their own accomplishment.

The dissatisfaction among the population grew steadily and there was increasing pressure for self-rule. Gandhi through his policy of peaceful non co-operation had a profound impact on the British Government and India history. He led the non-violent mass movement and orchestrated a march to the sea, where demonstrators proceeded to make their own salt in protest against the British monopoly. He led by example, wearing homespun clothes to weaken the British textile industry. Indians gave him the name Mahatma, or Great Soul. India history records him as one of the most remarkable leaders the world has ever known. The British finally gave in and agreed to leave India by 1947.

Independence came at great cost. While Gandhi lead a largely Hindu movement, Mohammed Ali Jinnah fronted a Muslim one through a group called the Muslim League. When the British left, they created the separate states of Pakistan and Bangladesh, and violence erupted when stranded Muslims and Hindu minorities in the areas fled in opposite directions. Half a million people died in the course of the greatest migration of human beings in the world's history. The ageing Gandhi vowed to fast until the violence stopped.

India History - Independence

On the eve of independence, a Hindu fanatic assassinated Gandhi and Jawarhalal Nehru, became India's first Prime Minister. Nehru was a successful leader, steering the young nation through a period of peace. Nehru’s daughter, Indira Gandhi, succeeded him. Indira was a powerful, unchallenged leader, and opposition remained negligible until she was accused of abusing her powers. She was eventually defeated at the polls in 1977, but two years later she won back power only to be assassinated five years later by a Sikh terrorist.

Although India's political climate remains divisive, the country has attained apparent stability in recent years. Today, India seems poised to realize its potential as an international economic power.

India History 2500 BC to 1193>
India History 1193 to 1610