Stone Age rock shelters with paintings at the Bhimbetka
rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh are the
earliest known traces of human life in India. The first known permanent
settlements appeared about 8,500 years ago and gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation, dating back to
3400 BCE
in western India.
It was followed by the Vedic period,
which laid the foundations of Hinduism
and other cultural aspects of early Indian society, and ended in the 500s BCE.
From around 550 BCE, many independent kingdoms and republics known as the Mahajanapadas were
established
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Paintings at the Ajanta
Caves in Aurangabad,
Maharashtra,
sixth century
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Following invasions from Central Asia
between the 10th and 12th centuries, much of northern India came
under the rule of the Delhi
Sultanate and later the Mughal Empire. Under the
rule of Akbar the Great, India enjoyed much cultural and
economic progress as well as religious harmony. Mughal emperors gradually
expanded their empires to cover large parts of the subcontinent. However, in northeastern
India, the dominant power was the Ahom kingdom of Assam, among the few
kingdoms to have resisted Mughal subjugation. The first major threat to Mughal
imperial power came from a Hindu
Rajput king Maha Rana
Pratap of Mewar
in the 16th century and later from a Hindu state known as the Maratha confederacy, that ruled much of
India in the mid-18th century.
From the 16th century, European powers such as Portugal, the Netherlands,
France, and Great Britain
established trading posts and later took advantage of internal conflicts to
establish colonies. By 1856, most of India had come under the control of
the British East India
Company. A year later, a nationwide insurrection of rebelling
military units and kingdoms, known as India's First War of Independence or the
Sepoy Mutiny, seriously challenged the Company's control but eventually failed.
As a result of the instability, India
was brought under the direct rule of the British Crown
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Mahatma
Gandhi (right) with Jawaharlal
Nehru, 1937. Nehru would go on to become India's first prime minister in
1947.
In the 20th
century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by
the Indian
National Congress and other political organisations. A large part of
the movement for independence was led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian
National Congress, which led millions of people in several national
campaigns of non-violent
civil
disobedience
On 15 August 1947, India gained independence
from British rule, after a struggle for independence which was marked
by a non-violent resistance led by Mahatma
Gandhi, but at the same time the Muslim-majority areas were partitioned to form
a separate state of Pakistan.
On 30 January 1948 Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu Nationalist.
On 26 January
1950, India
became a republic and a new constitution came into effect. Since
independence, India has faced challenges from religious violence, casteism, naxalism,
terrorism and regional separatist insurgencies,
especially in Jammu and Kashmir and
Northeast India. Since the 1990s terrorist attacks have affected many Indian
cities. India has unresolved territorial disputes with the People's Republic of
China, which, in 1962, escalated into the Sino-Indian War, and with
Pakistan, which resulted in wars in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999.
India is a founding member
of the United Nations (as British India) and
the Non-Aligned
Movement.
India is a state armed with nuclear weapons;
having conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, followed by another five
tests in 1998. Beginning 1991, significant economic reforms
have transformed India
into one of the fastest-growing economies
in the world, increasing its global clout.
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