One of man’s oldest civilizations was the settlement at the Indus Valley. The quantity of complexity that archaeologists found in their settlements approximately refutes the fact that these people lived almost 4000 years ago. The civilization had painstakingly planned cities; streets met at right angles, the sewage system puts current day India to disgrace, and the tools and large granaries show that they knew more than a thing or two about agriculture. Seals of the Indus Valley have on them the only ancient script that is yet to be deciphered. For the most important part of the Indus Valley cities of Harappa and Mohenjodaro are in present day Pakistan.
’s complex to ascertain that these are what brought the end of the Dravidian civilization in the Indus valley. By 300 BC the formerly nomadic Aryans had developed in the region of north India. They had brought with them Sanskrit, an associate of the Indo-European family of languages akin to Latin and Greek. In addition they brought the spoken text of the Hindu life-philosophy, horse-driven chariots and a social system of caste demarcation.
"golden period" (300-500 AD). The prevailing period had new settlers like the Shakas and Kushanas forming minor kingdoms in the area roughly around the Ganges. The authority of these Aryan kingdoms rarely reached the south. Regional dynasties like the Andhras, Cheras, Pandyas and Cholas ruled kingdoms in the south of the Deccan Plateau and lower down the peninsula. When incapable to withstand the pressures of central Asian invaders the Gupta Empire crumbled, the north got separated into strong regional kingdoms (except for a short period from 606 to 647 under the poet king Harshavardhan). This was the time that the Rajputs grew to importance in the west.
Within 300 years of being found in the 7th century, Islam had reached the western areas. But it wasn’t until the coming of Turkish-Afghan raiders like Mahmud of Ghazni (997 to 1030 AD) and Muhammad Ghauri (in 1192) that Islam made noteworthy inroads to the heart of north India. The initial Muslim empire was set up by a general of Ghauri’s, Qutb-ud-din Aibak, which is when the Delhi Sultanate came into being. The attraction of privileges unlimited to the faithful, and Hinduism’s own brutal caste system made many convert.
The Delhi Sultanate was ridden with inner friction and saw no less than 5 dynasties come to authority between 1206 and 1526. In 1526 a young Central Asian warlord who had already captured Kabul, set his eyes on the immeasurable land that lay to the south. Tales of treasures had reached his ears and Babur, descendent of Genghis Khan and Timurlane made superior his ancestral legacy by defeating the Sultanate’s armies in the Battle of Panipat.
In a land of domineering heat, and such a diversity of people that he could barely make sense of it, Babur founded the Mughal dynasty. Babur began the work of bringing the fragile patterns of Islamic art, the comprehensive craft of diminutive painting, and the rigorous symmetry of formal garden craft to Delhi. Till Aurangzeb, the 6th king of the dynasty, the Mughals had a broadminded policy of religious acceptance and that helped them intertwine together a largely stable and firm knit kingdom that spanned a larger territory than any formerly had. It was a time of profusion and emperors like Jehangir (1605-1627) and Shah Jehan (1628-1657) could focus their attentions on art, architecture and culture. It was the time when the Taj Mahal was built, as was the Red Fort, and the coffers contained the Koh-i-Noor and the ruby and emerald studded Peacock Throne. Aurangzeb’s religious eagerness won him extensive umbrage. The Mughal Empire began unravelling. Powerless to withstand the Maratha chieftain Shivaji’s guerrilla warfare. The last actuall successful Mughal king was Bahadur Shah (1707-1712). After him Mughal power and status declined steadily.
The first British East India Company officials landed in India in 1602. Ultimately their wellbeing ceased to be purely commercial as they assumed more political roles. After the Revolt of 1857, the Crown took over the reigns and India officially came to be a part of the enormous British Empire. The Raj established into ruling this gigantic dominion and did so till in 1947 when the country was handed back to the leaders of the freedom movement. Gandhi and Nehru led the largely non-violent movement from the front with the support of Congress party and the complete Indian nation. Nonetheless, partially because of the British ‘divide-and-rule’ policy and internal contradictions in the national movement itself, a communal split came to be. When India finally achieved freedom, it was shared with the trauma of partition and the formation of Pakistan.
Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India on 15th August 1947 at the head of a Congress government. The Congress supremacy finished in the late 60s, but it came to power sporadically through the 70s and 80s. The Nehru heritage was powerful enough to make both his daughter India (who declared the infamous internal Emergency), and grandson Rajiv, Prime Minister. In the 90s the era of coalition politics had begun and democracy had come of age in India.