Worldwide Locations
Worldwide Locations
India: A Historical Overview
The earliest evidence of humans in South Asia dates back two million
years. Beginning about 30,000 years ago, stone age hunters and
gatherers inhabited sites in the area. Between 8000 and 6500 B.C.E.,
there was a gradual shift from dependence on wild resources to domestic
plants and animals.
During the period between 5000 and 2000 B.C.E., highly organized urban
settlements spread throughout northern regions (present-day Pakistan
and north India). Trade and communication networks linked these
settlements to one another and to other distant ancient cultures.
Indus Valley Civilization and the Rise of Indo-Aryan Culture
Around 2600 B.C.E., regional cultures were united into a culturally
integrated network in the Indus Valley region. Settlements in this
civilization extended over a 650,000 square kilometer region. The
peoples of the region shared a number of cultural characteristics,
including planned urban developments, the use of a still undeciphered
script, standardized weights, and craft technologies.
The Indus Valley cultural system declined in the early centuries of the
second millennium B.C.E., probably due to environmental changes in the
region. Around 1500, Indo-Aryan culture began to dominate the region.
Indo-Aryan culture is associated with Sanskrit, a language related to
Greek, Latin, and Avestan (the ancient language of Persia)--all are
derivatives of a common mother language that is no longer extant (named
by linguists as proto-Indo European). The Veda--texts associated with
the complex ritual system of the Indo-Aryans--were composed in this
period. These texts formed one important basis for the religion we now
call "Hinduism."
The Early and Classical Periods
At first largely nomadic, Indo Aryan culture became increasingly
urbanized and settled. New religious orientations arose, and some of
the notions associated with classical Hinduism and the other major
religions of the period--such as samsara, or the notion of
rebirth--developed. Buddhism and Jainism were founded in the middle of
the last millennium B.C.E., sharing some of the basic assumptions of
developing Hindu thought but critical of the hierarchical and ritual
system associated with the Vedic system. Centralized power was first
established on a broad scale under the Nanda dynasty in Magadha, and
then expanded under the Mauryas from ca. 323-184 B.C.E.
In the first century C.E., the Kushans, a group of nomadic warriors
from central Asia, conquered the Gandharan region of northern India,
Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Smaller regional centers across the North,
under Kushana control in the early centuries of the first millennium,
were brought together under Gupta control in the fourth century. The
Gupta period was characterized by great flourishing of art and
literature, and is known as the "classical" period of Indian art and
literature.
The "Medieval" Period
This period was characterized by the growth of strong regional centers
and lack of one overarching political authority in the subcontinent.
Sind in present-day Pakistan was integrated into a Muslim polity to the
west; invasions by Turkic and Central Asian rulers commenced at the
beginning of the second millennium C.E. Centralized powers were
established, based at Delhi; independent regional kingdoms, however,
continued. By the time Turkish invaders had established their power
over the north as sultans, Rajput rulers in present-day Rajasthan and
Punjab had established powerful small kingdoms. Regional kingdoms also
flourished in the south.
The Mughals
In 1526, the Mughal empire was founded by Babur, a Turkish/Central
Asian chieftain whose ancestors included Chingiz Khan an Timur (known
in the West as Tamarlane). His son Humayan was driven from India in
1540 and took refuge in the court of Shah Tahmasp in Iran. Mughal rule
was reestablished, and under Akbar expanded across the north. Akbar
moved against Rajput rulers, who were allowed to retain control over
their land in exchange for their loyalty. The Rajput hill-states of the
Punjab hills (now Himachal Pradesh) were brought under Mughal influence
under the rule of Jahangir, Akbar's son.
British Rule
Although Europeans were present in South Asia as traders from the
beginning of the seventeenth century, it was not until the middle of
the eighteenth century that the British established rule in the region.
As Mughal control waned in the eighteenth century, British power
expanded. After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the British were ceded
control of the province of Bengal. By 1857, the time of the First War
of Indian Independence (or, as it was known to the British at the time,
the "Mutiny"), the British were poised to take control from Mughal
hands permanently. Nearly two-fifths of the area, however, was left in
the hands of quasi-independent rulers, who nonetheless were forced to
contend with British power at the center.
The Modern Nation-States of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal
In 1947, the independent nations of Pakistan (East and West) and India
were formed out of the British empire in India; Nepal was never
integrated into this empire. The partition of the subcontinent into
separate nation-states is accompanied by tremendous violence. In 1971,
East and West Pakistan divided into Pakistan and Bangladesh. Although
relations among these nation-states are often tense, they share many
cultural, as well as historical, ties. South Asians in Europe, the
Americas, Africa, and other parts of Asia form a dynamic Diaspora
community.
Author: Anne Murphy.
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