History of India
Stone Age rock shelters with paintings at Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh are the earliest known traces of human life in India. The first known permanent settlements appeared 9,000 years ago and developed into the Indus Valley Civilization, which peaked between 2600 BC and 1900 BC. From around 500 BC onwards, many independent kingdoms came into being. In the north, the Maurya dynasty, which included the Buddhist king Ashoka, contributed greatly to India’s cultural landscape. From 180 BC, a series of invasions from Central Asia followed, with the successive establishment in the northern Indian subcontinent of the Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian kingdoms, and finally the Kushan Empire. From the 3rd century onwards the Gupta dynasty oversaw the period referred to as India’s Golden Age. In the south, several dynasties including the Chalukyas, Cheras, Cholas, Pallavas, and Pandyas prevailed during different periods. Science, art, literature, mathematics, astronomy, engineering, religion, and philosophy flourished under the patronage of these kings. Following the Islamic invasions in the beginning of the second millennium, much of India was ruled by the Delhi Sultanate, and later, much of the entire subcontinent by the Mughal dynasty. Nevertheless, several indigenous kingdoms remained in or rose to power, especially in the relatively sheltered south.
During the middle of the second millennium, several European countries, including the Portuguese, French and English, who were initially interested in trade with India, took advantage of the fractured kingdoms to colonize the country. After a failed insurrection in 1857 against the British East India Company, most of India came under the direct administrative control of the British Empire. The Indian independence movement followed, eventually led by Mahatma Gandhi, who was regarded as the father of modern India. On August 15, 1947 India gained independence, later becoming a republic on January 26, 1950. As a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, India has had its share of sectarian violence and insurgencies. Nonetheless, it has held itself together as a secular democracy. India has unresolved border disputes with China, which escalated into a brief war in 1962, and Pakistan, which resulted in wars in 1947, 1965, and 1971. In 1974, India conducted an underground nuclear test, making it an unofficial member of the Nuclear Club, which was followed up with a series of five more tests in 1998.
posted by Hills @ 5:17 AM
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