2350 BC-or 1500BC- Indus valley civillisation (urban) | | early 1st millenium BC - Aryans came from European Steppes

and spread to Afganis tan, India. Vedic Age,age of Mahabharatas (rural, small fighting tribes)--People unhappy, so spiritual development through Vedas began | | Aryans spread east towards gandak river, rise of Buddhism and Jainism, (urbanisa tion) (about 500 BC)--(Gautam Buddha was the first historic figure of Indian his tory)-------------------------------In west, a Persian settlement arised under D areios --Panini's book of grammar was first Indian treatise | | about 320BC-Alexander the Great conquered only till North-West India--Chandragup ta Maurya had fought his troops at the Indus | | about 320 BC--Chandragupta Maurya captured Magadha--some yrs later Seleukos Nika tor came to claim Alexander's regions, but Chandragupta Maurya defeated him and won Baluchistan and Kabul--Chandragupta's estate was well organised and happy, c onquered almost all of present India, except tip, succeded by son Bindusara Kautilya's method of ruling by maintaining happiness (written in Kautilya's Arth ashastra). | | 268 BC- Ashoka gained Gupta empire; 261BC-Battle of Kalinga, converted to Buddhi sm,empire almost entire modern India, did not expand kingdom anymore, ruled by K autilya's teachings combined with 'right of conduct', tried to spread happiness and Buddhism also abroad | | Early 2nd century BC, Mauryan empire declines, last ruler Brihadratha, decline o f Buddhism, major was Hinduism and went back to Vedic teachings | | Till end of 1st century BC, rise of many smaller kingdoms that disobeyed earlier Mauryan teachings, eg.Sunga abd Kanva kingdoms, Capture of northwest by Greeks and other foreigners. | | 0-320AD(i.e till start of Gupta period)- Dark period-Greeks driven out from Indi a, Shakas from central asia, Kushanas--ealry stages of Shiva cult---------( Sout hern dynasties started around the end of Mauryan empire) existence of Satavahana s (Andhra), Kharavelas(Orissa),Chola, Pandya and Cheras in Southern tip, inculca tion of Aryanism, Sanskrit, hence fusion of Sanskrit with local language (Sangam period). | [dark period: lack of unity, subjugation of Buddhism, invasion from fore igners from Central Asia (Shakas and Kushanas and Greek at the beginning) ; good because: Greeks eventually driven out; Sangam period and rise of power in South ] | 320AD-550AD, Rise of Gupta Dynasty-important kings were Chandragupta-I, Samudrag upta (son of Chandragupta-I) and the greatest was Chandragupta II (son of Samudr agupta), There was revival of Hindu King culture in contrast to the Buddhism tha t existed in Mauryan empire, however there was religious tolerance and it was a happy empire--distinct structure of empire, with core region in middle, surround ed by border kingdoms,nominally conquered tribes etc.--Vakatakas, marital allies of Guptas made the Ajanta caves based on Buddhism

--Kalidasa was in the Gupta court--Puranas were composed at this time to describ e Gupta empire in form of mythology --Huns and Pushyamitras attacked but were unsuccessful in the beginning --The Gupta rulers after Skandagupta were weak and soon Huns again came and this time displaced them, were cruel and barbaric,destroyed much of Indian culture a nd their decline caused entry of other Central Asian tribes namely Gurjaras and Rajput clans | | | [Gupta period was different from the Mauryan empire because of the s tyle of arrangement of the kingdom and that they were predominantly Hindu (Maury an empire followed Kautilya's arthashastra, with lot of central control and was predominantly Buddhist)] | | about 660 AD to 1200-1300 AD-- Beginning of medieval period--many small kingdoms , rise of power in central and south India-- Harshavardhan was first major ruler with empire almost as large as Guptas,had many rivals and defeated them, only t o restore them as tributaries in his kingdom (structure of empire)introduuced th e Indian feudalism, wherein Brahmins were also given land, but as soon as centra l power became weak, the mahasamantas tried to defeat king, to unify people many temples were made Most important contemporaries were: Rajputs (present Rajasthan-many smaller trib es but united, came from central Asia), Palas (Bihar and Bengal), Chalukyas (cen tral India and Karnataka), Pallavas (Tamil Nadu-pyramid style temples), Cholas ( Tamil Nadu) Shankaracharya preached orthodox monism, Bhakti movement came in and taught impo rtance of the human being and karma much along the lines of Buddhism--due to sam antisation of the kingdom, Gods also were made related to the deeds of the king or various happenings and various forms of the same God were introduced, Vaishni sm and Shiva cults arose --Due to the localisation of various religious cults, the scriptures had to be l ocalised and so the various regional languages arose, such as Marathi, Bengali a nd Assamese and hence predominance of Sanskrit was subdued. --trade relations with southeast Asia arose and was largely contributed to by So uth India [rise of many smaller kingdoms but unified, wonderful architecture and a rt; localisation of religion and language; revival of unorthodox religion like B hakti movement; trade became globalised to a certain extent] --1000-1025 AD-Mahmud of Ghazni plundered India without intention of occupying i t---1178-1192 AD Muhammad of Ghur tried to occupy North-western India and though defeated by Prtihviraj chauhan on first attempt, overcame Rajput power in secon d attempt, soon conquiered almost whole of North India; Muhammud Ghur's viceroy in Delhi, Qutb-ud-din Aibak was one of best warriors---Bengal and Eastern India largely occupied by Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji | | | 1206 AD-Chengis Khan,Mongol chieftain invaded India+ Qutb ud-din Aibak establish ed foundations of Sultanate in Northwestern India (taking up Muhammad of Ghur's kingdom) --Iltutmish, son-in-law of Qutb-ud-din Aibak came on throne in 1210, defeated Mo ngols-kingdom almost as big as Guptas or Mauryas-Indo-Islamic art and architectu re was introduced; Iltutmish's tomb was the first of the great tombs of the Musl im kings --After death of Iltutmish, his daughter Raziya Sultan reigned for 3 years but w as murdered --After Raziiya Sultan, Balban a cruel leader came on the throne and was soon ov erthrown from power,(1286)-succeded by new dynasty,the Khaljis--first ruler Jala l-ud-din Khalji

--1296-Jalal-ud-din Khalji was succeded by nephew and son-in-law Ala-ud-din kha lji, who kept Mongols at bar, introduced administrative reforms to raise money f or military ventures which aimed at conquering the worl like Alexander the great --he conquered the South and his general Malik Kafur brought back the Koh-i-noor with him to Delhi-Mongols were easily defeated and hence forth their campaigns almost vanished; was fair in nature and did not unnecessarily hurt Hindus; --After Ala-ud-din Khalji, there were insignificant leaders till Ghiyas-ud-din T ughlaq (1320), who was murdered by son Muhammad Tughlaq. --Though Muhammad Tughlaq took throne and his initial campaigns were very good, his greed lead to the eventual demise of the Delhi sultanate --After his rule full of blunders, he was succeded in 1351 by Firoz Shah Tughlaq , who was a good king and had a long reign.He was the last ruler of the Sultanat e --1398-Timur plundered India and soon after, the Delhi Sultanate completely got erradicated and independent rulers rose in the different parts of India --Some smaller kingdom, that were derivates of the Sultanate arose in between, n amely the Sayyid dynast (1414), Lodhi dynasty,including Buhlol Khan,Ibrahim Lodh i and Sikander Lodhi(1451)---------------------1526, Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodh i at first battle of Panipat using his new form of small sized artillery and too k up the kingdom, including Delhi and Agra. The Portugese were already in contro l of the Indian ocean (went only in 1961),but the Mughals didn't care since they depended on land revenue---Humayun succeded him in 1530 but was defeated soon b y Sher Shah Suri(Afgan) and only reconcquered the kingdom in 1555 after his deat h, Akbar born in 1542 --Soon enough the Mughals came and overtook India --Since the Sultanate was mostly North India, there were parallel kingdoms in th e South, namely the Bahmanis of the Deccan;Gjapatis of Orissa (built Jagannath P uri Temple, Konark temple),Vijaynagar empire---during this period, regional lang uages greatly flourished, for example the translation of the Ramayana by Krittib as Ojha in Bengali [Mughal Empire-- In 1526 Established by Babur in North-Western India and Afgan istan, 1530-Babur died and Humayun took the throne, 1540- Humayun was defeated b y Sher Shah Suri and only regained his empire in 1555 after death of Sher Shah,1 556-Akbar came to the throne at 13years of age and was brought up among soldiers , thereby deprived of the opportunity to learn to read and write. --Akbar was tolerant to all religions and sought a religion of his own which i ncorporates various tenets of different religions and he opposed orthodox Muslim s, Rajputs were subjugated by him but became faithful friends, through most ofhi s reign he consolidated his empire which stretched from Hemland River in Afganis tan to Orissa in the East and from Kashmir in the north to Gujarat. --The Mughal empire was agrarian in nature. --In 1605, Akbar's son Jahangir came to the throne--he combined Indian with Pe rsian culture due to his Persian wife, Nur Jahan---The Dutch East India Company had been established in 1602 and became leading manufacturers of ships. The Dutc h rule lasted till 1825 when it was taken over by the British.East India Company had been set up in Englan also in 1600 AD but were much smaller than the Dutch company. --Shah Jahan ascended throne in 1627 after the death of Jahangir---took the Mu ghal Empire to the South and built important buildings like the Taj Mahal and th e Red Fort --Aurangzeb imprisoned his father and became the ruler in 1658--under him, the Mughal Empire expanded greatly into the Deccan, but it became too big to contro l properly since while laying attention on the SOuth, he could not at the same t ime concentrate on the North --Aurangzeb's major rivals were the Marathas, especially under the ruleof S hivaji who was an admirable ruler.Even though Aurangzeb defeated Shivaji in Sura t in 1664, Shivaji escaped in a basket and went to Pune to gather troops. Though there was no such enmity between the Hindus and Muslims, Shivaji embittered peo ple's minds against Aurangzeb by taking up the issue of religion, in the mean ti

me Aurangzeb had also started become intolerant towards Hindus. However, Shivaji died without being able to defeat Aurangzeb---In 1664, the French East India Co mpany was set up. The French, under the leadership of Francois Martin first set their foothold in India and established Pondicherry. --Auranzeb was challenged by his son, Akbar who wanted to restore the religiou s tolerance that the great Akbar had done. He went and joined hands with Shivaji 's son, Shambhaji but was defeated by Aurangzeb. --Aurangzeb died in 1707 and had a modest tomb unlike his predecessors. The en d of Aurangzeb's reign ended a period of relative peace and prosperity which had started during Akbar's reign. However, during Aurangzeb's reign itself, the lan d revenue system had started becoming oppressive and the zamindars and peasants had started revolting.---in 1717, British East India Company granted free trade and free coinage in Bengal by the Mughal empire, and the British started appeasi ng them in order to get a key position in the trade of Bengal--Simultaneously, s ince Gujarat was in ruins in the ruinous state of the Mughal empire and so the E uropeans gained monopoly over the trade on the Western coast of India. --Aurangzeb's son Akbar who had wanted to restore the conditions as had been d uring Akbar the Great's rule fled and settled in Persia,so Aurangzeb's eldest so n, Muazzam acceded the throne and though he maintained good relations with the M arathas by incorporating Shahuji(Shivaji's grandson) into the administration, co uld not save the Mughal empire. --Both the Mughal Empire and the Marathas saw declining power. In 1739, Nadir Shah came from Persia and plundered Delhi. A chief minister from the Mughal empi re after being defeated by Baji Rao of the Marathas fled Delhi to go to Hyderaba d and set up his own smaller empire, the Nizams of Hyderabad, who later became s trong allies of the British.---The influence of British trade had extended withi n the land of Bengal and after Alivardi Khan's death in 1756, the British repuls ed his successor's attempts to drive them out of Bengal and started becoming an ominous landpower. In the broad context of India, the British were still small f ish. In the latter half ofthe 18th century, the East India Company of Britain st arted buying Indian soldiers. -- The French and the British were in a globalised war.This had effect in India also since the French and the British took sides of the fighting Indian rulers and pursued an indirect war in India --In 1756, Shiraj-ud-Daula succeded his great-uncle Alivardi Kha n on the throne of Bengal and tried to drive out the British, but was let down b y Mir Jaffar during the battle of Plassey. Mir Jafar became the new Nawab of Ben gal and Robert Clive was made the governor of Bengal. --After the victoryat the Battle of Plassey,the Mughal empire of fered the Diwan, i.e Civil administration of Bengal to the British,so as to furt her reduce the influence of the nawab. This was not straightaway accepted by the British. Even after all the wars fought by the British, they were still only ma rginal influences in Bengal. --1761, Second battle of Panipat was fought between the Marathas and Ahmad Shah Durrani, an Afgan. The Afgans won. In the mean time, Robert Cliv e had left India and his officials plundered the resources of the Indian princes . The British also at this time defeated some kings who tried to repulse them. T hey also came to accept the position of Diwan of Bengal. --1771, Warren Hastings became governor of Bengal. Under Hasting s, the British defeated the various rulers and forced them to hand over their la nd. His policy of interfering with the kings was disapproved by the British back at home but Hastings carried on all the same.Tipu Sultan was one king who fores aw that the British were no mere competitors for the fight for supremity in Indi a and tried till his life's end to defeat them, but was defeated.By the end of t he 1700s, the British occupied all of India, including the Northwest. However, I ndia was still being ruled by the British East India Company and were still offi cially nothing more than the Diwan of Bengal. --in the 18th century, the British parliament preferred not to claim India as a part of the Bristish Royal property. The East India comp any sent back a large annual tribute of hundreds of thousands of pounds, which s

atisfied the British parliament. --In 1773 and 1784 there were legislations in Britain by which a governor general was appointed to India and his functions were controll ed by a body back in Britain. In the law of 1784, autocracy was given to the gov ernor general. Thus, in this context, the monopoly of trade became monopoly of t erritorial rule. Land revenue became the main source of income.At this time, the British were still in awe of Indian culture and the Asiatic Society was founded by Sir William Jones.The British methods of legislation were introduced in Indi a. --Under Lord Cornwallis (1786), successor of Hastings, t he zaminadri system was introduced. --1800s : When Napolean was conquering Africa, he blocke d the export of Indian textiles to Britain. At the same time, the Industrial rev olution allowed cheaper textiles to be manufactured in Britain itself. The East India Company's trading monopoly no longer made sense and was abolished in 1813. It became just one of the other companies. After 1813, Dwarakanath Tagore, gran dfather of Rabindranath Tagore bought the East India Company's property and setu p Carr, Tagore and Co, which was put down in 1846 during the economic crisis. Af ter 1847, the Indian railways was setup and this was very favorable to the Briti sh and unfavorable to the Indian economy --In 1835, Lord Macaulay wassent as governor general and the attitude of the British was already arrogant towards the Indians. He wanted to make Indian 'babus' who were dessed like and thought like the British. At th is stage, the debate between the Anglicists and Orientalists began. The Presiden cy Colleges wereset up in Calcutta and Madras. In Bombay, a parallel to these ca lled the Elphinstone College was made. Scottish Church institutions were also se tup. --In 1857 the first Indian War of Independance took plac e. - The new Indian babus did not participate - The sepoys, the peasants, the princes and the za mindare were the main participants - Though they had a goal, it was not focused enoug h and was idealistic--they wanted to bring back the old situation in India - The British were also not prepared for the attac k and it was especially hard for them, since they had themselves taught the sepo ys their form of warfare - The mutiny began when the British introduced car triges covered in animal fat, which hurt the rekigious sentiments of the sepoys. - Though the mutiny was stopped, the British were no longer as arrogant towards the Indians. The East India company was finally sw ept away due to its bankruptcy following the mutiny. The Crown of Britain took h old over IndiaunderQueen Victoria (since now Britain was itself so rich that add ing India under the supervisionof the crown no longer hurt). THe queen took the title Empress of India and replaced governor general by Viceroy. She took great interest in India. In 1861, high courts were established in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. - By 1900s, the Indian railways were built, with a total span of 25000 miles. Jamshedji Tata came into the scene and found that In dia was rich in coal and iron ore, hence ideal for the steel industry. He also o pened the Indian Institute of Scence (IISC) - Due to the new Indian Babus, there was a rift be tween the people in rural areas and those in the cities. Due to the emerging cla ss distinction between the Hindus and Muslims, some amount of communal rift also grew. The British took advantage of these rifts Contemporary History: 1. Late 1940s:

Last years of World War II- G.D Birla and J.R.D Birla draft a 15 year pl an (the Bombay Plan) for public funding of infrastructure while Private sector w ould concentrate on immediate profit.This foreshadowed the 'mixed economy' that was to be setup in India. 1948: Mahatma Gandhi assasinated 1948: Jinnah dies, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel the Home Minister of India (till 1950, death) Jawaharlal Nehru is Foreign Minister and Prime Minister of India; He cre ates a reformed Hindu Law which especially caters to the Hindu women, by allowin g them to receive inheritance and opt for divorces ( considered this law for wom en as his biggest achievment); He left Muslim Law un-reformed in fear of resentm ent among the minority Muslims. Nehru disliked globalisation, especially since he was convinced that Ind ia could not,at that stage compete with other industries and on the long run, th e lack of competition led to corruption in the Indian industry. Nehru also neglected agriculture, which led to a severe drought 1946-1949-Indian Constituent Assembly creates the Constituent of India Rajendra Prasad first President of India 2. 1950s: 1958: Muslim League breaks up. 1950s- The Southern states were formed based on linguistic majorities 1950: China occupies Tibet and India gives up all its Tibetan posts inhe rited from British. 1959: Dalai Lama escapes to India, Indian border disputes become publicl y known in India 3. 1960s: 1960: The Bombay Presidency was split into Maharashtra and Gujarat. 1961: Goa liberated from Portugese rule. 1962: Sino-Indian War. 1964: Jawaharlal Nehru died; Lal Bahadur Shastri became Prime Minister 1964: Industrial Production more than doubled from 1948; mid 1960s- severe drought 1965-Indo-Pakistan war (territorial war over Kashmir)- Ayub Khan's plan of Grand Slam in India-failed; Ayub Khan lost face and Lal Bahadur Shastri becam e known as a strong leader. 1966- Tashkent declaration (peace treaty after the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965, was success); Death of Lal Bahadur Shastri.Indira Gandhi becomes Prime Min ister 1967: Second severe drought in India; Economic recession and political u nrest among youth; Indira Gandhi imposes 'President's Rule/ Emergency' Till 1967, Congress was the only ruling party of India. Parties like Bha ratiya Jana Sang, Communist Party of India came into being. 1969: Congress split into Left wing and Right wing 4. 1970s: 1971: Indira Gandhi won the central elections, using slogan 'Garibi hata o'; Green Revolution; Liberation of Bangladesh (earlier it was a part of Pakista n separated from the main body of the country by miles of Indian territory) 1972: Indira Gandhi separated Lok Sabha elections from state elections; Opposition party accused Indira Gandhi of misusing funds for election campaign 1974: India's first nuclear device tested underground in Rajasthan. (Ind ia had not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if 1968) 1975-1977: Emergency declared; Sanjay Gandhi introduced mass sterilisati on 1977: Indira Gandhi lost elections; Central government taken by Bharatiy a Jana Sangh 1979: Food shortage, people lost faith in Bharatiya Jana Sangh. 5. 1980s: 1980: Indira Gandhi won elections; Sanjay Gandhi dies after plane manoue vre went wrong.

1983: India joined SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperati on) along with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.T He aim was to maintain bilateral relations between countries when any issue came up.India played a big role by policing the South East Asia. It was then that th ings became complicated between India and Sril Lanka when India tried to interfe re in the atrocities against Tamils. 1984: Operation Blue Star, when Bhindranwaale occupied the Golden Temple to aid his terrorist activities to establish a separate Sikh state. 31st October, 1984: Indira Gandhi assasinated by her Sikh bodyguards. Ra jiv Gandhi became Prime Minister after a huge majority vote for the Congress cap turing 411 seats out of 542 1987: Bofor's scandal erupted; Third severe drought 6. 1990s: 1991: Rajiv Gandhi assassinated by LTTE during election campaign, succed ed by V.P Singh 1992: Babri Masjid demolished by multiple people with everyday objects a s tools. 1996: Congress system removed, replaced by BJP. 1999: Kargil War. India was initially in friendly relations with the US but was always friendly (a nd still is ) with the Soviet Union (no ofcourse the various parts of disintegra ted SU).When the US showed friendliness towards Pakistan, India-US relations det oriorated. President Nixon was especially hostile towards Indira Gandhi.Kennedy and Clinton showed friendliness to India. China had occupied Tibet and other parts of Central Asia. The only way to establ ish control was to build a road connecting all these parts and so it secretly bu ilt a road through the Indian territory of Aksai Chin, which led to war of 1962. India and China also had issues about watershed division between the two countri es. THe Chinese won the war due to their strategy of distracting the attention of th e Indians by coming in through Assam and disappearing almost immediately. At the same time, they took an offensive stance in the North-west. In 1993, after years of avoiding the issue, Indian PM, Narsimha Rao visited Chin a to compel both sides to respect the border, but no clear demarcations of the b order were made. India-Bangladesh relations were good till 1971, but Bangladesh became wary of In dia's intentions, especially since Indian businessmen started moving into Bangla desh. Also, Farakka barrage was constructed to divert water from the Ganges to I ndia. The water of Ganges was a long-reigning issue between the two countries. Pakistan failed to show parity to India at all levels. However to show that it h ad nclear arms, it borrowed nuclear arms from North Korea in 1998 and re-launche d it as 'Ghauri' after Mohammed of Ghur.