History of India

 

According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. However, the earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Sedentariness, which involves the transition from foraging to farming and pastoralism, began in South Asia around 7000 BCE. At the site of Mehrgarh, presence can be documented, with evidence of domestication of wheat and barley, rapidly followed by that of goats, sheep, and cattle. By 4500 BCE, such settled life had spread more and began to gradually evolve into the Indus Valley civilisation, which was contemporaneous with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. This civilisation flourished between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE in what today is Pakistan and north-western India, and was noted for its urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage, and water supply.

Early on in the second millennium BCE, persistent drought caused the population of the Indus Valley to scatter from large urban centres to villages. Around the same time, Indo-Aryan tribes moved into the Punjab from Central Asia in several waves of migration. The Vedic Period (1500–500 BCE) was marked by the composition of their large collections of hymns called Vedas. Their varna system, which evolved into the caste system, consisted of a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants. The pastoral and nomadic Indo-Aryans spread from the Punjab into the Gangetic plain, large swaths of which they deforested for agriculture. The composition of Vedic texts ended around 600 BCE, when a new, interregional culture arose. Then, small chieftaincies (janapadas) were consolidated into larger states (mahajanapadas).

Most of the Indian subcontinent was conquered by the Maurya Empire during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. From the 3rd century BCE onwards, Prakrit and Pali literature in the north and Tamil Sangam literature in southern India started to flourish. Wootz steel originated in south India in the 3rd century BCE and was exported. The Maurya Empire would collapse in 185 BCE, on the assassination of the then-Emperor Brihadratha by his General Pushyamitra Shunga. Shunga would go on to form the Shunga Empire in the North and Northeast of the subcontinent, while the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom would claim the Northwest, and found the Indo-Greek Kingdom. Various parts of India were ruled by numerous dynasties, including the Gupta Empire in the 4-6th centuries CE.

This period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence, is known as the Classical or Golden Age of India. During this time, aspects of Indian civilisation, administration, culture, and religion spread to much of Asia. Kingdoms in southern India had maritime business links with the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Indian cultural influence spread over many parts of Southeast Asia, which led to the establishment of Indianised kingdoms in the region, forming the Greater India.

The most significant event between the 7th and 11th century was the Tripartite struggle centred on Kannauj that lasted for more than two centuries between the Pala Empire, Rashtrakuta Empire, and Gurjara-Pratihara Empire. Southern India saw the rise of multiple imperial powers from the middle of the fifth century, most notably the Chalukya, Chola, Pallava, Chera, Pandyan, and Western Chalukya Empires. The Chola dynasty conquered southern India and successfully invaded parts of Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Bengal in the 11th century. In the early medieval period Indian mathematics, including Hindu numerals, influenced the development of mathematics and astronomy in the Arab world.

Islamic conquests made limited inroads into modern Afghanistan and Sindh as early as the 8th century, followed by the invasions of Mahmud Ghazni. The Delhi Sultanate was founded in 1206 CE by Central Asian Turks who ruled a major part of the northern Indian subcontinent in the early 14th century, but declined in the late 14th century, and saw the advent of the Deccan sultanates.The wealthy Bengal Sultanate also emerged as a major power, lasting over three centuries.This period also saw the emergence of several powerful Hindu states, notably Vijayanagara and Rajput states, such as Mewar. The 15th century saw the advent of Sikhism.

The early modern period began in the 16th century, when the Mughal Empire conquered most of the Indian subcontinent,[ signalling the proto-industrialization, becoming the biggest global economy and manufacturing power, with a nominal GDP that valued a quarter of world GDP, superior than the combination of Europe's GDP. The Mughals suffered a gradual decline in the early 18th century, which provided opportunities for the Marathas, Sikhs, Mysoreans, Nizams, and Nawabs of Bengal to exercise control over large regions of the Indian subcontinent.

From the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century, large regions of India were gradually annexed by the East India Company, a chartered company acting as a sovereign power on behalf of the British government. Dissatisfaction with company rule in India led to the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which rocked parts of north and central India, and led to the dissolution of the company. India was afterwards ruled directly by the British Crown, in the British Raj. After World War I, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the Indian National Congress, led by Mahatma Gandhi, notable for nonviolence. Later, the All-India Muslim League would advocate for a separate Muslim-majority nation state. The British Indian Empire was partitioned in August 1947 into the Dominion of India and Dominion of Pakistan, each gaining its independence.