I | INTRODUCTION |
India, officially Republic of India (Hindi
Bharat), country in southern Asia, located on the subcontinent of India.
It is bounded on the north by China, Nepal, and Bhutan; on the east by
Bangladesh, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), and the Bay of Bengal; on the
south by the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannār (which separates it from Sri
Lanka) and the Indian Ocean; and on the west by the Arabian Sea and Pakistan.
India is divided into 28 states and 7 union territories (including the National
Capital Territory of Delhi). New Delhi is the country’s capital.
The world’s seventh largest country in area,
India occupies more than 3 million sq km (1 million sq mi), encompassing a
varied landscape rich in natural resources. The Indian Peninsula forms a rough
triangle framed on the north by the world’s highest mountains, the Himalayas,
and on the east, south, and west by oceans. Its topography varies from the
barren dunes of the Thar Desert to the dense tropical forests of rain-drenched
Assam state. Much of India, however, consists of fertile river plains and high
plateaus. Several major rivers, including the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Indus,
flow through India. Arising in the northern mountains and carrying rich alluvial
soil to the plains below, these mighty rivers have supported agriculture-based
civilizations for thousands of years.
With more than 1 billion inhabitants, India
ranks second only to China among the world’s most populous countries. Its people
are culturally diverse, and religion plays an important role in the life of the
country. About 81 percent of the people practice Hinduism, a religion that
originated in India. Another 13 percent are Muslims, and millions of others are
Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains. Eighteen major languages and more than
1,000 minor languages and dialects are spoken in India.
India’s long history stretches back to the
Indus Valley civilization of about 2500-1700 bc. For hundreds of years, India was
home to massive empires and regional kingdoms. British rule in India began in
the ad 1700s. Foreign domination
engendered Indian nationalism, which eventually led to India winning its
independence in 1947. With independence, part of India became the new
predominantly Muslim nation of Pakistan. The two nations subsequently struggled
over border differences and Hindu-Muslim relations. India and Pakistan fought
two wars over the Jammu and Kashmīr region, and the status of the territory
remains in dispute. India’s federal political system, a democracy for more than
50 years, has demonstrated a remarkable resilience in resolving domestic and
international crises. India has grown since independence to have great influence
on Asia and a massive world presence. The country is a member of the
Commonwealth of Nations, an association of political entities that once gave or
currently give allegiance to the British monarchy.
The Indian economy has also evolved since
independence. Once heavily dependent on agriculture, it has expanded in recent
years into the realms of industry and services. Economic reforms in 1991
dramatically altered economic policy to privatize state-owned enterprises and to
promote competition and investment. The economic focus of the country has since
changed from one based on self-sufficiency to one based on trade with other
countries.
II | LAND AND RESOURCES |
India consists geographically of the entire
Indian Peninsula and portions of the Asian mainland. The length of India from
north to south is 3,050 km (1,900 mi); from east to west it is 2,950 km (1,830
mi). India also has two island chains, each forming its own union territory. The
Andaman and Nicobar island chain lies east of the mainland between the Bay of
Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Its southernmost island is only 200 km (120 mi) from
the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Lakshadweep island
group is located off India’s southwest coast. Excluding the portions of Jammu
and Kashmīr claimed by India but occupied by Pakistan or China, India has an
area of 3,165,596 sq km (1,222,243 sq mi). India’s land frontier—the length of
its border with other countries—measures more than 15,200 km (9,400 mi). It also
has 7,000 km (4,300 mi) of coastline, including the island territories, or 5,600
km (3,500 mi) of coastline without the islands.
A | Natural Regions |
India can be divided into three main
regions: the Himalayas, the Gangetic Plain, and peninsular India.
The Himalayan mountain system is 160 to
320 km (100 to 200 mi) wide and extends 2,400 km (1,500 mi) along the northern
and eastern borders of India. It includes the mountains surrounding the Vale of
Kashmīr in the Karakoram Range, and the central and eastern Himalayas. Ancient
geological forces molded the Himalayas as the Indian plate of the Earth’s crust
burrowed under the Eurasian landmass, creating an uplift that continues to push
this northernmost boundary of India ever higher. The Himalayan Range is the
highest mountain system in the world. Among its towering summits, wholly or
partly within India or within territory claimed by India and administered by
Pakistan, are K2 (8,611 m/28,251 ft) and Kānchenjunga (8,598 m/28,209 ft), which
are the second and third highest peaks in the world, after Mount Everest. Other
prominent Indian peaks include Nanga Parbat (8,125 m/26,657 ft), Nanda Devi
(7,817 m/25,646 ft), Rakaposhi (7,788 m/25,551 ft), and Kāmet peak (7,756
m/25,446 ft). The Himalayas region, including the foothills, is sparsely
settled. Agriculture and animal herding are the main economic activities.
South and parallel to the Himalayas lies
the Gangetic Plain, a belt of flat, alluvial lowlands 280 to 400 km (175 to 250
mi) wide. This area includes some of the most agriculturally productive land in
India. The Indian portion of the broad Gangetic Plain encompasses several river
systems, and stretches from Punjab state in the west, through the Gangetic
Plain, to the Assam Valley in the east. Marking the western end of the Gangetic
Plain are the Indus River and its tributaries, including the Sutlej and Chenāb
rivers, which flow through Punjab in India’s northwest corner. The Gangetic
Plain is formed by the Ganges River and its tributaries, which drain the
southern slopes of the Himalayas. Assam Valley is separated from the Gangetic
Plain by a narrow corridor of land near the city of Dārjiling (Darjeeling). The
valley is watered by the Brahmaputra River, which rises in Tibet and crosses
into India at its northeast corner, then flows north of the Khāsi Hills into
Bangladesh. The Thar Desert, a huge, dry, sandy region extending into Pakistan,
lies at the southwestern end of the Gangetic Plain.
South of the plains region lies peninsular
India. The northern peninsula features a series of mountain ranges and plateaus.
The Arāvalli Range runs in a north-south direction on the eastern edge of the
Thar Desert, and low hills cut by valleys lie along the border between the
states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in central India. The Narmada River
flows southwest between the Vindhya Range and an associated plateau on the
north, and the Sātpura Range on the south. The plains of the Chota Nāgpur
Plateau in the eastern states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand also lie within this
region. The rocky and uneven lands of the northern peninsula are sparsely
populated. Herding is a major occupation in the west, and farming of coarse
grains such as millet is common in the central part.
In the southern part of peninsular India
lies the vast Deccan Plateau, a tableland lying within a triangle formed by the
Sātpura Range, the steep mountain slopes of the Western Ghats, and the gentler
slopes of the Eastern Ghats. Elevations in the plateau region average 600 m
(2,000 ft), although outcroppings as high as 1,200 m (4,000 ft) occur. At their
northern end, the Western Ghats vary in height from 900 to 1,200 m (3,000 to
4,000 ft), but the Nīlgiri Hills of the extreme south reach a height of 2,637 m
(8,652 ft) at Doda Betta, their highest peak. The Eastern Ghats lie along the
eastern flank of the Deccan Plateau, interrupted by the Krishna and Godāvari
river basins. Elevations of the Eastern Ghats are much lower, averaging 600 m
(2,000 ft). The plateau itself, even rockier than the northern extension of
peninsular India, supports a sparse agricultural population and is also home to
industrial enterprises.
The Indian Peninsula is bordered by a
mostly fertile seashore. The west coast, including the extensive Gujarāt Plain
in the north, the thin Konkan shore in Mahārāshtra state, and the Malabar Coast
in the south, support substantial populations of farmers and fishermen. Ancient
trade routes to the west helped make the cities and towns of this region into
market centers for textiles and spices. The east coast’s broad alluvial plains,
stretching from the Kāveri River delta in the south to the Mahānadī River delta
in the north, are intensely farmed.
B | Rivers and Lakes |
The rivers of India can be divided into
three groups: the great Himalayan rivers of the north, the westward-flowing
rivers of central India, and the eastward-flowing rivers of the Deccan Plateau
and the rest of peninsular India. Only small portions of India’s rivers are
navigable because of silting and the wide seasonal variation in water flow (due
to the monsoon climate). Water transport is thus of little importance in India.
Barrages, structures that redirect water flow, have been erected on many of the
rivers for irrigation, diverting water into some of the oldest and most
extensive canal systems in the world.
The Indian subcontinent’s three great
northern rivers, the Indus, the Brahmaputra, and the Ganges, flow through India.
The Indus, about 2,900 km (1,800 mi) long, originates in the Himalayas of
western Tibet, flows through the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmīr state, then
enters Pakistan. The waters of three of its tributaries, the Sutlej, Rāvi, and
Chenāb, have been diverted, under the Indus Water Treaty, for use in India. The
Brahmaputra is about 2,900 km (1,800 mi) long and likewise rises in the Tibetan
Himalayas. It flows through Assam state and then south through Bangladesh to the
Bay of Bengal. The 2,510-km (1,560-mi) Ganges, known as Ganga in India,
rises in the Indian Himalayas and enters the Gangetic Plain northeast of Delhi.
At Allahābād it is joined by its major tributary, the Yamuna. The main branch of
the Ganges flows through Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal, while a second branch
meets the bay in India, near Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). Both the Brahmaputra
and Ganges rivers discharge enormous amounts of water, almost all of it during
the monsoon season.
The Narmada, at 1,289 km (801 mi) long, is
India’s major west-flowing river; it flows mainly in the state of Madhya
Pradesh, emptying into the Arabian Sea in Gujarāt state. Its annual runoff is
less than one-tenth that of the Ganges system. Its basin consists of about 5
million cultivable hectares (about 12 million acres). A series of large dams are
being constructed on the river as part of a massive development scheme to
increase irrigation of the basin. One of the largest dams of the project, the
Sardar Sarovar Dam, was designed to divert large amounts of water to an
irrigation canal through the state of Gujarāt.
Three major rivers flow east into the Bay
of Bengal, rising from the western hills of the Deccan Plateau. The northernmost
is the Godāvari, about 1,400 km (900 mi) long. It has a basin (the area drained
by a river) one-third the size of the Ganges, and carries one-tenth of the
amount of water the Ganges carries. Emptying into the sea not far south of the
Godāvari is the Krishna (about 1,300 km/800 mi), with a basin equal to the
Godāvari but carrying only two-thirds of the amount of water. The smallest of
the three rivers is the Kāveri (760 km/470 mi), with a basin less than one-third
the size of the other two rivers.
India has a number of other significant
rivers. Tributaries of the Ganges from the north include the Kosi, Gandak,
Ghāghara, Gumti, and Sarda rivers. Joining the Ganges from the south are the
Betwa, Chambal, and Son rivers. The Mahi, Sābarmatī, and Tāpi flow west into the
Arabian Sea in Gujarāt. Flowing west to join the Indus River in Pakistan are the
Beās, Chenāb, Jhelum, Rāvi, and Sutlej, all rivers of the Punjab (Hindi for
“five rivers”) region of India and Pakistan. The Mahānadī and Brāhmani rivers
rise in Chhattisgarh and Orissa states, respectively, and flow east to empty
into the Bay of Bengal. The waters of all these rivers are used to irrigate
crops, but the amount stored for purposes of irrigation and power generation
varies enormously from river to river depending, among other things, on the
number of dams on the river.
There are only a few natural lakes in India
of any size. Chilika Lake on the coast of Orissa varies seasonally in volume and
is alternately fresh and salty. Other lakes, such as Sāmbhar in Rājasthān state
and Colair in Orissa state, typically dry out completely before the monsoon
begins. Small, artificially created ponds called tanks are a feature of
virtually every village, serving as sources of water for drinking, bathing, and
irrigation.
C | Plant and Animal Life |
India is home to abundant plant and animal
life and has a wide range of climates that accommodate a diversity of species
throughout the country. Broadly classified, there are seven major regions for
plant and animal life in India: the arid Indus Plain, the Gangetic Plain, the
Himalayas, Assam Valley, the Malabar Coast, the peninsular plateau, and the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
India has an estimated 45,000 species of
plants, 33 percent of which are native. There are 15,000 flowering plant
species, 6 percent of the world’s total. About 3,000 to 4,000 of the total
number of plant species are believed to be in danger of extinction.
In the arid areas that adjoin Pakistan,
the eastern part of the Indus Plain, most plant life is sparse and herblike.
Various thorny species, including capers (spiny shrubs with pale flowers) and
jujubes (fruit-producing trees with veined leaves and yellowish flowers), are
common. Bamboo grows in some areas, and among the few varieties of trees is the
palm. The Gangetic Plain, which has more moisture, supports many types of plant
life. Vegetation is especially luxuriant in the southeastern part of the plains
region, where the mangrove and the sal, a hardwood timber tree, flourish.
In the Himalayas many varieties of arctic
flora are found on the higher slopes. The lower levels of the mountain range
support many types of subtropical plant life, notably the orchid. Dense forests
remain in the few areas where agriculture and commercial forestry have had
little effect. Coniferous trees, including cedar and pine, predominate in the
northwestern Himalayan region. On the Himalayas’ eastern slopes, tropical and
subtropical types of vegetation abound. Here rhododendrons grow to tree height.
Among the predominant trees are oak and magnolia.
The Assam Valley features evergreen
forests, bamboo, and areas of tall grasses. The Malabar Coast, which receives a
large amount of rainfall, is thickly wooded. Evergreens, bamboo, and several
varieties of valuable timber trees, including teak, predominate in this region.
Extensive tracts of impenetrable jungle are found in the swampy lowlands and
along the lower elevations of the Western Ghats. The vegetation of the
peninsular plateau is less luxuriant, but thickets of bamboo, palm, and
deciduous trees grow throughout the Deccan Plateau. The Andaman and Nicobar
Islands have tropical forests, both evergreen and semievergreen.
India is inhabited by a wide variety of
animal life, including almost 5,000 species of larger animals. Several species
of the cat family—including the tiger, panther, Asiatic lion, Asiatic cheetah,
snow leopard, jungle cat, and clouded leopard—live in some areas of India. Most
of these species are under threat of extinction. Elephants roam the lower slopes
of the central and eastern Himalayan foothills and the remote forests of the
southern Deccan Plateau. Other large quadrupeds (four-footed animals) native to
India include rhinoceros (under threat of extinction), black bear, wolf, jackal,
dhole (wild Asian dog), wild buffalo, wild hog, antelope, and deer. Several
species of monkeys live throughout the country.
Various species of wild goats and sheep,
including ibexes and serows, are found in the Himalayas and other mountainous
areas. The pygmy hog, bandicoot rat, and tree mouse are typical types of smaller
native quadrupeds; bats are also abundant. Venomous reptiles, including the
cobra, krait, and saltwater snake, are especially numerous in India, and pythons
and crocodiles are also found. Tropical birds of India include the parrot,
peacock, kingfisher, and heron. The rivers and coastal waters of India teem with
fish, including many edible varieties.
D | Natural Resources |
India’s most important natural resources
are land and water. About 54 percent of the land area is arable, and groundwater
resources are considerable. The Gangetic Plain is one of India’s most fertile
regions. The soils of this region were formed by the alluvial deposits of the
Ganges and its tributaries. In this area, as well as in the peninsular deltas,
groundwater is plentiful and close to the surface, making year-round irrigation
possible. These regions may produce two or three harvests a year. Most of
India’s wheat and rice are grown here.
The black and red soils of the Deccan
Plateau, although not as thick as the Gangetic Plain alluvium, are also fertile.
The groundwater resources of the Deccan are significant but more difficult to
reach, so most farmers rely on the monsoons for water. Farmers typically grow a
single crop, including cotton and coarse grains such as sorghum, maize (corn),
and millet.
Forests constitute another natural
resource for India, with woodlands covering 21 percent of its land area. India’s
highly varied climate and land produce diverse forests. The majority are
deciduous forests, which are either tropical-dry, experiencing a significant dry
season, or tropical-moist, receiving relatively uniform rainfall year-round. The
remainder of forests range in type from tropical evergreen to Himalayan
temperate and alpine. Major commercial tree species include teak, rosewood, and
sal. Bamboo is a widely used construction material. Despite significant overuse
of forest resources in the past, government and private efforts have reduced the
rate of deforestation in natural forests and increased new plantations of
trees.
The mineral resources of India include a
vast belt of coal reserves stretching from the eastern part of Mahārāshtra state
through Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand states to West Bengal state. The same
geographical area, with the addition of Orissa state, contains major deposits of
bauxite. Iron ore is also found here, as well as in the Western Ghats in and
around Goa. Other mineral deposits include manganese (found mainly in central
India), copper, and chromite. There are significant oil and natural gas reserves
in Assam and Gujarāt states, and on the continental shelf off Mahārāshtra and
Gujarāt. India also has ample reserves of phosphate rock, apatite, gypsum,
limestone, and mica.
E | Climate |
India’s shape, unusual topography, and
geographical position give it a diverse climate. Most of India has a tropical or
subtropical climate, with little variation in temperature between seasons. The
northern plains, however, have a greater temperature range, with cooler winters
and hotter summers. The mountain areas have cold winters and cool summers. As
elevations increase sharply in the mountains, climate type can change from
subtropical to polar within a few miles.
India’s seasonal cycle includes three main
phases: the cool, dry winter from October to March; the hot, dry summer from
April to June; and the southwest monsoon season of warm, torrential rains from
mid-June to September. India’s winter season brings cold temperatures to the
mountain slopes and northern plains; temperatures in the Thar Desert reach
freezing at night. Farther south, temperatures are mild. Average daily
temperatures in January range from 13° to 27°C (55° to 81°F) in the northeastern
city of Kolkata; from 8° to 21°C (46° to 70°F) in the north central city of New
Delhi; from 19° to 30°C (67° to 85°F) in the west central coast city of Mumbai
(formerly Bombay); and from 19° to 29°C (67° to 85°F) in the vicinity of Chennai
(formerly Madras) on the southeastern coast. Dry weather generally accompanies
the cool winter season, although severe storms sometimes traverse the country,
yielding slight precipitation on the northern plains and heavy snowfall in the
Himalayas.
India’s hot and dry season reaches its
peak during May, when temperatures as high as 49°C (120°F) are commonly recorded
in the northern plains. Temperatures in the southern peninsula are somewhat
lower, averaging 35° to 40°C (95° to 104°F). At higher altitudes, as in the
Western Ghats and the Himalayas, temperatures are considerably cooler.
The intense heat breaks when the summer
monsoon season arrives in June. For most of the year the monsoons, or seasonal
winds, blow from the northeast. In the summer months, however, they begin to
blow from the southwest, absorbing moisture as they cross the Indian Ocean. This
warm, moist air creates heavy rains as it rises over the Indian Peninsula and is
finally forced up the slopes of the Himalayas. The rains start in early June on
a strip of coast lying between the Arabian Sea and the foot of the Western
Ghats. A second “arm” of the monsoon starts from the Bay of Bengal in the
northeast and gradually extends up the Gangetic Plain, where it meets the
Arabian Sea “arm” in the Delhi region around July 1. In July the average daily
temperature range is 26° to 32°C (79° to 89°F) in Kolkata; 27° to 35°C (80° to
94°F) in New Delhi; 25° to 30°C (78° to 86°F) in Mumbai; and 26° to 36°C (79° to
96°F) in Chennai.
The monsoon season is critical to India.
Farming depends heavily on the monsoon, even though artificial sources of
irrigation are also commonly used. The economy prospers when the monsoon season
is normal and plummets when it is not. In the past a failure of the monsoon has
brought abnormally low rains in crucial food-growing regions, leading to famine.
A failed monsoon season in the dryland areas of the Deccan Plateau can mean poor
or nonexistent harvests for that year’s crop. In the Gangetic Plain, the
groundwater needed for irrigating the winter crop depends on the monsoon for
replenishing. However, an excessive monsoon may also spell disaster, especially
in the Gangetic Plain of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihār, where rivers can flood
and wash away homes and fields.
The average annual rainfall for India as a
whole is 1,250 mm (49 in). The heaviest rainfall occurs along the Western Ghats,
often more than 3,175 mm (125 in), and on the slopes of the eastern Himalayas
and the Khāsi Hills (of Meghalaya), where the town of Cherrapunji receives
10,900 mm (430 in) annually. The entire northeast region averages more than
2,000 mm (80 in) annually, with Jharkhand, Orissa, and the Bengal region
receiving nearly as much. Rain and snow fall in abundance on the entire
Himalayan range. New Delhi receives an annual average of 800 to 1,000 mm (32 to
40 in) of rain, and the broad swath of land extending to the south, much of it
in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats, receives about the same or a little
more.
F | Environmental Issues |
India’s main environmental concern is its
growing population, which is expected to increase to 1.8 billion by the year
2050. In order to feed so large a population, more groundwater will be needed to
irrigate crops, increasing the risk of poor soil quality due to salinization
(increased salt levels). More artificial fertilizer will likely be applied to
crop fields, posing threats to drinking water. The demand for meat has increased
with greater levels of prosperity, resulting in overgrazing and increasing
wasteland. The demand for fuelwood has grown with rural populations, leading to
the loss of trees and forests. To decrease reliance on fuelwood, the government
has promoted the use of biogas (a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide
produced by decomposing organic matter) for cooking fuel.
Expanding agrarian population has also
affected wildlife. Farmers and herders have encroached on national park and
other wildlife sanctuary land, and the spread of cultivation has limited the
range of animals such as tigers and elephants outside of parks as well. Poaching
is also a problem. Thousands of India’s plant species are critically endangered,
mainly because of the population-related pressures of deforestation and
agriculture. Wetlands cover about 18 percent of the land, but most of them are
under rice-paddy cultivation. To help combat these problems, the Indian
government has enacted strong laws for forest conservation, wetland
preservation, and wildlife protection. The Ministry of Environment and Forests
was established in 1985.
India has a severe air pollution problem
generated by industrial effluents and vehicle emissions. Water-treatment
facilities have not kept pace with the increase in urban populations, and
pollution of rivers and groundwater is a significant and worsening problem.
Another major problem is toxic waste, generated by industry and deposited in
rivers and oceans and on low-lying land within factory boundaries. The large
number of small industrial workshops makes it difficult to enforce laws against
industrial waste pollution.
A National Wildlife Action Plan provides
a framework for species protection and directs the establishment of a protected
areas network covering all the major habitat types. In 2007 about 5 percent of
India’s land area was under protection, in 539 separate protected areas. India
has a national goal of covering one-third of its land area with existing or
planted forests. India has had tremendous success with species conservation.
World-renowned programs include Project Tiger, which has established nine
special tiger reserves, and the Crocodile Breeding and Management Project. Many
nongovernmental organizations aid India’s conservation efforts.
III | THE PEOPLE OF INDIA |
India’s people inherited a civilization
that began more than 4,500 years ago, one that has proven capable of absorbing
and transforming the peoples and cultures that over the centuries have come to
the subcontinent. India has long supported a large population of great
diversity. The people in India’s intricate network of communities speak
literally thousands of languages, practice all of the world’s great religions,
and participate in a complex social structure that incorporates the caste
system, a rigid system of social hierarchy.
India is one of the world’s most populous
countries. In 2008 it had a population of 1,147,995,898, yielding an average
population density of 386 persons per sq km (1,000 per sq mi). An estimated 71
percent of India’s inhabitants live in rural areas. The population grew by 17.2
percent between 1995 and 2005, down from 24 percent growth between 1981 and
1991. It is estimated that the rate of growth will slow even further in the
coming decades, but India’s population nevertheless is expected to continue to
increase. The annual growth rate in 2008 was 1.6 percent.
A | Principal Cities |
Dozens of Indian cities have metropolitan
area populations of more than 1 million. The largest are Mumbai (2001
metropolitan area population, 16.4 million), India’s premier port; Kolkata (13.2
million), eastern India’s chief commercial, financial, and manufacturing center;
and Delhi (12.8 million), a historical city as well as a major transportation,
commercial, and industrial center. Other important cities are Chennai, one of
India’s principal ports; Bangalore, a center of high-technology industry;
Hyderābād, Nāgpur, Lucknow, and Jaipur, all centers of government and service
industries; and Kānpur, Ahmadābād, Pune, and Surat, which are known for their
industrial economies.
B | Ethnic and Cultural Groups |
India’s population is rich with diverse
ethnic and cultural groups. Ethnic groups are those based on a sense of common
ancestry, while cultural groups can be either made up of people of different
ethnic origins who share a common language, or of ethnic groups with some
customs and beliefs in common, such as castes of a particular locality. The
diverse ethnic and cultural origins of the people of India are shared by the
other peoples of the Indian subcontinent, including the inhabitants of Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka.
The government identifies some groups of
people in India as tribal, meaning they belong to one of the more than 300
officially designated “scheduled tribes.” The tribal people are sometimes called
hill tribes or adivasis (“original inhabitants”) and in 2001 made up
about 8 percent (more than 84 million people) of India’s population. For the
purpose of affirmative action, the Indian government publishes “schedules”
(lists) of the tribes, as well as of some other disadvantaged groups, such as
the former Untouchables (see the Castes section of this article). Members
of India’s various hill tribes are thought to be indigenous and tend to be
ethnically distinct. These groups typically marry within their community and
often live in large, adjoining areas, which are preserved by government policies
restricting the sale of land to tribe members.
Major tribes include the Gond and the
Bhil. Each has millions of members and encompasses a number of subtribes. Most
other tribes are much smaller, with tens of thousands of members. Very few
tribal communities now support themselves with traditional methods of hunting
and gathering or with shifting cultivation (also known as slash-and-burn
agriculture) because of government restrictions aimed at protecting the
environment. Instead, they generally practice settled agriculture. Tribal groups
tend to live in rural areas, mainly in hilly and less fertile regions of the
country. Less than 5 percent practice traditional tribal religious beliefs and
customs exclusively; most now combine traditional religions and customs with
Hinduism or Christianity. A large majority identify themselves as Hindus; a
small percentage, mainly in the northeast, identify themselves as
Christians.
Most tribal groups live in a belt of
communities that stretches across central India, from the eastern part of
Gujarāt (the westernmost state); eastward along the Madhya Pradesh-Mahārāshtra
border; through Chhattisgarh, parts of northern Andhra Pradesh, most of interior
Orissa, and Jharkhand; and to the western part of West Bengal. The western
tribes speak a dialect of Hindi, the central tribes use a form of the Dravidian
language, and the eastern tribes speak Austro-Asiatic languages.
The other major concentration of tribal
people is in the northeastern hills. Tribe members make up the majority of the
population in the states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Arunāchal Pradesh.
These people, many of them Christian, speak languages of the Sino-Tibetan
family. Sino-Tibetan languages are also spoken by the Buddhists who live along
the Himalayan ridge, including the states of Arunāchal Pradesh, Sikkim,
Uttaranchal, and Jammu and Kashmīr (specifically, the region of Ladakh). In the
Himalayas particularly, isolation on the mountain flanks has led to languages so
distinct that ethnic groups living within sight of each other may not understand
each other. Other tribes live in southern India and on India’s island
territories, but their numbers are not large.
C | Religion |
Religion is very important in India, with
deep historical roots; Hinduism and Buddhism both originated here. Most people
in India practice Hinduism with Islam a distant second. Other important
religions include Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
About 80 percent of Indians are Hindus.
Significant differences exist within this Hindu majority, arising not only out
of divisions of caste, but also out of differing religious beliefs. One great
divide is between devotees of the god Vishnu and devotees of the god Shiva.
There are also Hindus who are members of reform movements that began in the 19th
century. The most significant of these is perhaps the Arya Samaj, which rejects
divisions of caste and idol worship. Hindus may come together also as devotees
of a guru. Despite its differences, the Hindu community shares many things in
common. All Hindus who go to Brahman priests for the rituals connected with
birth, marriage, and death will hear the same Sanskrit verses that have been
memorized and repeated for hundreds of generations. Hindus also come from all
parts of the country to visit pilgrimage sites. Four of the most sacred are at
the four corners of India: Badrinath in the Himalayas; Rāmeswaram in Tamil Nādu
state; Dwarka on the Gujarāt coast; and Puri in Orissa. Vārānasi is also a
significant holy city for Hindus.
About 13 percent of the Indian population
practices Islam, which also is divided into several different communities. The
major division in the Muslim population is between Sunni and Shia branches. The
Shia community has a significant presence in several areas, most notably in the
cities of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Hyderābād in Andhra Pradesh.
Muslim communities in India are generally
more urban than rural. In many towns and cities in northern India, Muslims are
one-third or more of the population. In addition to Jammu and Kashmīr and the
Lakshadweep islands, where more than two-thirds of the population is Muslim,
major concentrations of Muslims live in Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and
Kerala states. About one-quarter of all Muslims living in India live in the
state of Uttar Pradesh.
India’s other major religious groups
include Christians (2.3 percent of the population), Sikhs (1.9 percent), and
Buddhists (0.8 percent). Smaller religious groups include Jains, Baha’is, and
Parsis. Christians live primarily in urban areas throughout India, with major
concentrations in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nādu, and Goa. Christians are a
majority in three small states in the northeast: Nagaland, Mizoram, and
Meghalaya. Most Sikhs live in Punjab, generally in rural areas.
Buddhists live in small numbers in the
Himalayas from Ladakh to Arunāchal Pradesh; many converts also live in
Mahārāshtra. The Jains live mainly in the belt of western states, from Rājasthān
through Gujarāt and Mahārāshtra to Karnātaka. This region has many magnificent
Jain temples, supported substantially by prosperous Jain traders. Parsis live
mainly in Mumbai and in cities in Gujarāt, and Jews have small communities in
Mumbai, Kolkata, and Cochin.
Local communities of all these religions
maintain institutions such as places of worship, schools, clubs, and charitable
trusts that bring them together. Larger associations of religious groups also
exist, including political parties. Such groups sometimes lobby the government
in regard to legislation touching religious or social issues, such as the
inheritance rights of women.
D | Castes |
The caste system is pervasive in India.
Although it is entwined in Hindu beliefs, it encompasses non-Hindus as well. A
caste (jati in Sanskrit) is a social class to which a person belongs at
birth and which is ranked against other castes, typically on a continuum of
perceived purity and pollution. People generally marry within their own caste.
In rural areas, caste may also govern where people live or what occupations they
engage in. The particular features of the caste system vary considerably from
community to community and across regions. Small geographical areas have their
own group-specific caste hierarchies. There are thus thousands of castes in
India. In traditional Hindu law texts, all castes are loosely grouped into four
varnas, or classes. In order of hierarchy, these varnas are the Brahmans
(priests and scholars), the Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), the Vaisyas
(merchants, farmers, and traders), and the Sudras (laborers, including artisans,
servants, and serfs). The varnas no longer strictly correspond to traditional
professions. For example, most Brahmans today are not priests, but farmers,
cooks, or other professionals.
Ranked below the lowest caste were the
people of no caste, the Untouchables or Harijans (“People of God,” a term
first used by Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi). Untouchables traditionally
performed tasks considered “polluting,” such as slaughtering animals or
leatherworking. Physical contact with these people was viewed as defiling. The
practice of labeling people Untouchable was outlawed by India’s constitution,
although Harijans continue to face discrimination in getting work and housing.
Today many former Untouchables prefer to be called dalits (Hindi for
“oppressed ones”).
Since independence the importance of
caste has declined somewhat in India. Modern travel has brought people of every
caste in contact with one another, since it is impossible to avoid physical
contact with a former Untouchable in a crowded bus or train. Although caste is
intimately linked with the giving and taking of food, no one can be certain of
the caste of a person who cooks food in the restaurants and food stalls of towns
and cities. There are no particular castes linked to the modern professions of
bank clerk, postal worker, teacher, and lawyer. Many people have also been
influenced by the nationalist movement’s ideological commitment to the equality
of men and women, and lower castes have increasingly used the power of their
numbers and their right to vote to gain social status in their local community.
Yet castes have shown no sign of disappearing altogether, mainly because of the
system of marriage. Almost all Hindu marriages in India are arranged, and almost
all arranged marriages occur between people of the same caste. Only a handful of
young people make “love marriages” across caste lines, and many suffer socially
when they do so.
Muslims are often treated as just another
caste, particularly in India’s villages. There are castelike categories among
the Muslims as well. These are called brotherhoods in northern India, and they
identify Muslims with their traditional occupations, such as butchers or
leatherworkers. As with Hindus, Muslims marry within their brotherhood. Among
Christians as well, in the 19th century and to a much less significant extent
more recently, converts and their descendants continued to be identified by
their Hindu caste of origin.
E | Language |
There are two great Indian language
families: the Indo-Iranian (or Indo-Aryan) branch of the Indo-European language
family, most of which are spoken in the north, and the Dravidian languages, most
of which are spoken in the south. The other major language groups are the
Sino-Tibetan languages along the Himalayan ridge, with many languages spoken by
few people, and the Austro-Asiatic languages of some tribal peoples. All these
language families stretch far back in history and have influenced one another
over centuries.
Indo-European languages stem originally
from Sanskrit. Present-day languages in this family formed in the 14th and 15th
centuries. These include Hindi and Urdu, which are similar as spoken languages.
Hindi, spoken mainly by Hindus, is written in script called Devanagari and draws
on Sanskrit vocabulary. Urdu is spoken mostly by Muslims and uses Persian Arabic
script. Tamil is the oldest of the four main Dravidian languages, with a
literary history that begins in the 1st century ad.
According to the national census of
India, 114 languages and 216 dialects are spoken in the country. Eighteen Indian
languages, plus English, have been given official status by the federal or state
governments. Hindi is the main language of more than 40 percent of the
population. No single language other than Hindi can claim speakers among even 10
percent of the total population. Hindi was therefore made India’s official
language in 1965. English, which was associated with British rule, was retained
as an option for official use because some non-Hindi speakers, particularly in
Tamil Nādu, opposed the official use of Hindi. English is spoken by as many as 5
percent of Indians, and various Dravidian languages are spoken by about 25
percent. Many Indians speak more than one language, especially those who live in
cities or near state borders, which were redrawn in 1956 in part to conform to
linguistic boundaries. Because the languages of both northern and southern
families are internally related, much like the Romance and Germanic languages of
Europe, learning a second language is not difficult.
The many local languages and dialects in
India are politically and socially significant. A politician, for example, may
use the local dialect when campaigning in a village, switch to the official
state language when speaking in a town, and then use Hindi or English to address
parliament. The language one speaks can also limit one’s opportunities. People
who use a local dialect are often identified as rustics or lower class, and they
suffer discrimination. The spread of primary education, cinema, radio, and
television has raised the prominence of the state languages. India’s growing
number of links to the global community are also likely to preserve English as
the preferred language of elite education.
F | Education |
India’s official goal for education since
independence in 1947 has been to ensure free and compulsory education for all
children up to age 14. A lack of money and effort put into primary education,
however, has hampered the achievement of that goal. At independence 25 percent
of males and 8 percent of females were literate. In 2005 those figures had been
raised to 69 percent of males and 43 percent of females—57 percent of the
overall population. The government invests comparatively more in secondary
schools and institutions of higher education. There was no serious political
demand for primary education until the 1990s, when a grassroots movement arose
to organize volunteers and conduct campaigns for universal adult literacy.
Education for the elite has been a
tradition in India since the beginnings of its civilization. Great Buddhist
universities at Nalanda and Taxila were famous far beyond India’s borders.
Withholding education from the nonelite, including women, has also been a
tradition. The lowest caste members, including the Harijans and non-Hindu tribal
groups, were denied the right even to hear the Vedas, sacred Hindu texts,
recited.
State governments control their own
school systems, with some assistance from the central government. The federal
Ministry of Education directs the school systems of centrally administered
areas, provides financial help for the nation’s institutions of higher learning,
and handles tasks such as commissioning textbooks. The Indian education system
is based on 12 years of schooling, which generally begins at age 6 and includes
5 years of primary school, 3 years of middle school, 2 years of secondary
school, and 2 years of higher secondary school. Completion of higher secondary
education is required for entry to institutions of higher education, which
include universities and institutes of technology. While most students enroll in
government schools, the number of private institutions is increasing at all
educational levels. Indians have a right to establish institutions to provide
education in their native language and with a religious or cultural emphasis,
although the schools must conform to state regulation of teaching standards.
Students begin specializing in subjects at the level of higher secondary school.
A university typically has one or more colleges of law, medicine, engineering,
and commerce, and many have colleges of agriculture. Prestigious and highly
selective institutes of management have been established. The educational
establishment also includes a number of high-level scientific and social science
institutes, as well as academies devoted to the arts.
In 1998–1999 elementary and middle-level
schools enrolled about 135 million pupils, and secondary schools, 51 million.
Total yearly enrollment in institutions of higher education was 10.6 million.
The universities of Calcutta, Madras, and Mumbai, founded in 1857, are the
oldest still operating in India, although colleges existed in those cities
before that date. Other major universities in India include Banaras Hindu
University (1935), in Vārānasi; Alīgarh Muslim University (1875), Jawaharlal
Nehru University (1969), and Indira Gandhi Open University (1985) in New Delhi;
Bangalore University (1964); the University of Calicut (1968); Chhatrapati
Shahuji Maharaj University, Kānpur (1966); the University of Delhi (1922);
Gauhati University (1948); Gujarāt University (1949); Kameshwara Singh Darbhanga
Sanskrit University (1961); the University of Kerala (1937), in
Thiruvananthapuram (also known as Trivandrum); the University of Mysore (1916);
the University of Pune (1949); and the University of Rājasthān (1947), in
Jaipur.
G | Way of Life |
The life of Indians is centered in the
family. Extended families often live together, with two or more adult
generations, or brothers, sharing a house. In much of the countryside,
neighboring houses share a wall, so from the street one sees a continuous wall
pierced by doorways. In other areas, in the south for example, the main house
will have a veranda on the street, with an open courtyard behind. As farmers
prosper, they change from adobe construction to brick plastered with cement, and
from a tile or thatch roof to a flat concrete or corrugated metal one. Most home
activity is outside in the compound courtyard or on the verandas of the
house.
Only in a few parts of India, such as
Kerala and Bengal, do people live on their farmland. The village is thus a
settlement area, or a set of settlement areas, surrounded by unbroken fields,
with farms frequently made up of separated plots. A large village will have a
primary school, perhaps a temple or mosque, and a small shop or two. Some
artisans have workshops in their houses. Most villages and settlement areas are
fairly small, with about 100 to 200 families and a land area of about 250
hectares (about 620 acres) in regions where the land is irrigated, or three or
four times that in dry areas. Paved roads and electricity have been extended to
the majority of villages, making them less isolated. Many villagers now work for
part of the day or part of the year in nearby towns or cities, while continuing
to farm or to work as day laborers in agriculture or construction.
Men work mainly in the fields, although
where rice is grown, women transplant the seedlings. The entire family will
pitch in at harvest time because most agricultural work is still done by hand.
Women fetch water, prepare meals, clean, and care for milking animals that are
stabled in or near the house compound. Among Hindus particularly, most worship
is done in the home, where a room or an alcove is devoted to images of a god or
gods. Young girls are expected to help with the women’s work, and girls care for
their younger siblings. Boys have fewer responsibilities, although they often
herd goats and bring cattle to and from the fields.
In most cases a woman who marries moves
to her husband’s village from her home village. Visits to her birth family, who
may live a day’s journey or more away, are generally rare, especially as the
woman grows older. Senior men (and their wives) exercise power in the family.
Disputes within the family, which can be common, may result in partitioning of
land or even of the house compound.
In the cities families still remain the
center of social life. Different families (of the same or similar caste) may
occupy different floors of the same house. Newer housing is in the form of
apartment blocks for the poor and lower middle class, and separate two- and
three-story houses on very small plots for the rich and upper middle class. Most
women in cities work in the home, although some may supplement the family income
through craft work such as embroidery. Poor women may work as house servants,
laborers on construction sites, or street vendors. Increasingly among the
educated, however, women have their own jobs as teachers, clerks or secretaries,
or professionals.
Meals in village India consist mainly of
the staple grain—rice, or wheat in the form of unleavened bread baked on a
griddle—with stir-fried vegetables, cooked lentils, and yogurt. Each part of the
country has its own cuisine, with differences in the kinds and mix of spices, in
the cooking oil used (mustard oil in the north, coconut oil in the south), and
in favored vegetables or meats. In seasons of scarcity, such as the months
before the harvest, the poor may be reduced to having just a chili pepper or
salt to flavor their rice or bread. Vegetables are those in season, and cooked
food is generally not stored. Food at weddings or other celebrations can be very
elaborate.
In urban areas meals are still organized
around a staple grain, but the variety and amount of vegetables and meat are
greater. Food is bought and consumed on the same day, and even those families
with refrigerators typically use them only to keep water, soft drinks, or milk
cool. Social visiting in cities is also mainly with relatives or among students
with their classmates. The upper classes will entertain friends or business
acquaintances at home, but men of other classes will more often meet at
restaurants or tea stalls to socialize.
The basic traditional clothing for most
Indians, men and women, is a simple draped cloth. For women this is the
sari, which is wrapped as an ankle-length skirt and draped over one
shoulder, with a fitted shirt underneath. Styles of tying the sari vary among
regions and communities. Except for widows, who wear plain white, saris are
generally colorful and can be made of cotton or the finest embroidered silks.
Village men and men in some urban areas such as Kerala wear a cloth called a
dhoti in its full-length form. In north India it is typically tied with
one or both ends brought between the legs and tucked in, to form loose “pant”
legs. In the south, the full cloth or a half-sized one is wrapped as a cylinder,
an ankle-length skirt that can be pulled up and tucked in itself to form a short
skirt when work requiring movement is done. Muslims tend to wear the half-cloth
in colored cottons rather than the white with thin colored border favored by
Hindus.
In Punjab, women, especially Sikh women,
wear a baggy pants-and-shirt outfit known as the salwar-kameez. In
Rājasthān and elsewhere long skirts and bodices are worn. This is also a common
dress among young girls throughout the country. Men in northern India may also
wear a pants-and-shirt outfit called the pajama-kurta. The pajama, which
originated in India, is made of white cloth and can be loose or form-fitting.
The tight-fitting style is often worn with a long closed-collar coat (the
sherwani) made famous in the West when India’s first prime minister,
Jawaharlal Nehru, wore it. Also called the Nehru jacket, it is the most formal
dress for men. Turbans are worn by a broad range of men, especially Sikhs and
Hindus. Muslims can often be identified by their embroidered caps.
Western-style clothing has virtually
replaced traditional dress for men, especially in northern India. Most women
continue to wear the sari or other Indian dress. In major urban areas such as
Mumbai, Western-style clothing is increasingly popular among the emerging middle
class. Many Indians are familiar with images of Western popular culture,
including styles of dress, from television, the Internet, magazines, and other
mass media. The younger urban generation tends to emulate Western styles.
Fashionable Indian clothing often incorporates some elements of Western wear
with traditional textiles and forms.
Cricket and soccer have been popular
sports in India since the colonial period. India’s national cricket team
competes at the highest international level. Soccer is popular in eastern India.
In central India men play a traditional Indian team sport, kabaddi, that
requires quickness and strength. The oldest sport, one that goes back to the
time of the Hindu epics, is freestyle wrestling. Wrestling clubs, presided over
by a guru, feature a regimen of Hindu religious ritual and practice.
There are a number of traditional games
played mainly by men. These include chess, which originated in India, and
pachisi, which literally means “twenty-five,” after the number of spaces
moved in one throw of the dice in the original Indian game. Card games also are
common as is gambling.
Indians with leisure time and money, such
as the middle class, go to the cinema, or increasingly watch television. During
school holidays families may visit relatives or go briefly to hill resorts where
it is cooler. In rural areas, slack times in the agricultural cycle allow
families to go on pilgrimage or attend weddings, which include much feasting.
India has many religious festivals, which provide occasions for even more
feasting and conversation, perhaps accompanied by music or a dance or folk
theater performance.
H | Social Issues |
Social problems in India center on the
connected issues of poverty and inequality. Particularly in rural areas lower
castes and marginal social groups, such as tribal people and Muslims, are
generally poor. India’s poor face disease, scarce educational opportunities, and
often physical abuse by those who control their livelihood. It is difficult or
impossible for the poor to escape and enter the modernizing sector of society,
where discrimination on the basis of caste or community is less prevalent. In
all classes and in urban as well as rural areas, discrimination and at times
violence against women is almost taken for granted.
Poverty has been reduced in India since
independence, although in 2000, 28.60 percent of the population still lived
below the poverty line. Industrialization has created jobs in the cities, and
rural workers have been able to diversify their sources of income. Urban workers
at entry level, however, are usually forced to live in appalling conditions in
slums.
Modern water supply and sanitation
arrangements are rare in the poor areas of most towns and cities and are lacking
entirely in most villages. As a result, many Indians suffer and even die from
diarrhea, malaria, typhoid, and dengue fever. India has succeeded in eradicating
smallpox and has brought down the overall death rate, in significant part by
investing in a health-care system that includes hospitals, clinics, and drug
manufacture and distribution. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) emerged
as a serious problem in the 1990s. To combat the disease, the Indian government,
with help from volunteer groups, established a vigorous AIDS-awareness
program.
Part of the problem of disease and
poverty in villages is that poor people cannot afford the money and time it
takes to provide treatment for their children, many of whom are already weakened
by an inadequate diet. Girls of all classes are given less medical care than
their brothers and so die in greater numbers. Many parents prefer sons, who
remain with them and provide security for them in old age. Because daughters
often require a dowry at marriage and are unlikely to earn an income that could
raise a family’s economic position, they are seen as a liability. The spread of
family planning facilities and the increase in confidence that children would
survive to adulthood has helped reduce the preferred family size to just three
children: two sons and a daughter. Second- and third-born daughters, especially
in families without sons, continue to die at rates greater than average.
Discrimination against women does not end
with childhood, nor is it confined to the countryside. Although India has had a
woman as prime minister, the percentage of women serving in political or
administrative office still remains very low. Some women are major leaders of
grassroots movements, and women play an active role in India’s vigorous press.
Yet women are rare in senior business positions and in the legal and medical
professions. Women’s movements to combat violence against women have had
considerable success in raising awareness of the issue and stimulating
government action.
Discrimination against lower caste
members, including the Harijans or former Untouchables, is still a problem in
India. As a result violence between castes sometimes breaks out. Since
independence, many lower caste groups have mobilized politically and have
achieved positions of power or leverage in several states. More than 50 percent
of the positions in the national civil service are reserved for members of lower
castes. Efforts to organize the landless and the homeless, however, have not
enjoyed the same success. In rural areas, men of lower caste traditionally serve
those of higher caste. This situation has aggravated caste conflict and has
helped to keep the poor politically and socially weak.
Relations between Hindus and Muslims have
also been problematic. After the partition of British India into India and
Pakistan, Muslims of the northern provinces who stayed in India—where they were
a minority—became vulnerable. Riots between Hindus and Muslims have occurred on
occasion since the mid-1960s. Muslims in rural areas remain largely untouched by
the conflict. Riots tend not to occur in areas where there are structures of
mutual social or economic advantage—for example, in towns with a large industry
owned by Hindus and employing Muslims. Also, at the personal level, there are
many examples of friendships and mutual respect. Muslim leaders have served as
presidents of India, and Muslims have held positions of great prominence in all
fields, including the military.
IV | ARTS |
The arts in India date back thousands of
years. India’s earliest known civilization, the Indus Valley civilization (about
2500-1700 bc) produced fine
sculpted figures and seals. The basis for Indian music may well be traced to the
chanting of the Vedas, the Hindu sacred texts composed between about 1500 and
1000 bc. Architecture from the
time of the Buddha (563?-483? bc)
includes stone structures called stupas that resemble earlier wooden ones. Much
of Indian literature has its roots in the great Sanskrit epics,
Mahabharata and Ramayana, which date from 400 bc. Secular literature in the form of
story and drama has been important since the classical age of the 4th century
ad. Royal patronage of these art
forms continued throughout history, and the government of independent India also
supports the arts with national academies for music, art, drama, literature, and
other programs. There are yearly prizes for work in all the Indian languages,
and in the several musical, dramatic, and art traditions. The government’s
national radio network is a major employer of musicians.
As India has incorporated different peoples,
so, too, has its culture absorbed outside influences. Sculpture derived from the
Greeks developed a uniquely Indian style over time (the Gandhara school).
Musical instruments brought by the Muslims in the 15th century were incorporated
into existing musical methods in Hindu devotional poetry and song. Similar
patterns are found in painting and architecture in the period of Mughal rule and
patronage. British rule had no influence on classical music, but popular music
was changed, particularly in the 20th century. Prose literature, and to a lesser
extent poetry, was transformed by the model of the English novel, short story,
and romantic poem. The British adapted Indian domestic architecture (the
bungalow) and blended Mughal, Hindu, and European forms into a distinctive
monumental architecture, visible most significantly in New Delhi.
Folk culture varies among regional and
ethnic groups. Street magic shows and episodes from religious texts are
dramatically staged in urban and rural areas. India is known for artistry in
jewelry, textiles, paintings on the walls of mud houses, and images cast in
metal through the lost-wax method (a process using wax to form a mold). Music
and dance are performed in temples, at festivals, and at ceremonial functions at
home.
A | Literature |
Indian literature has a long, rich
history. Major literary influences flow from northern Sanskrit and southern
Tamil origins. India’s classic literature is written in Sanskrit (see
Sanskrit Literature). These literary works—mainly religious poems, epics,
and prose—date to the Vedic period (about 1500 bc to 200 bc). Sanskrit literature entered a
secular period beginning about 200 bc
until about ad 1100. One
great development for Indian literature during this period was drama. Most early
dramas were based on historical epic tales. In south India, during a period
lasting from the 1st to 5th centuries ad, literary works were composed in the
Tamil language. These works were generally secular in nature and based on themes
of love and war. By the 6th and 7th centuries the bhakti (devotional) tradition
began in Tamil Nādu in southern India. This literary tradition greatly
influenced Indian literature, moving north from its origin over the next five
centuries.
Modern literature in north Indian
languages, as they developed from Prakrits (medieval dialects of Sanskrit),
dates from around ad 1200. Themes
and characters of Indian literature from this period are based on Hindu
religious texts, although the texts contain secular content. The work of recent
centuries has brought in more secular subjects, influenced first by Persian and
Urdu literature and then British literature, especially of the 19th century. In
1913 poet Rabindrinath Tagore became the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize for
literature. Some present-day Indian authors write in English. Salman Rushdie, an
Indian-born writer who now lives in Britain, is one of the more famous of a
number of fine poets and novelists. See Indian Literature.
B | Art and Architecture |
Over many centuries, Indian architecture,
sculpture, and painting developed many distinct styles based on religious,
cultural, and regional influences. Some of the earliest examples of all three
come out of Buddhism. For instance, Buddhist traditions gave rise to stupas, or
burial mounds of earth and stone, constructed in the 3rd century bc. Images of the Buddha were carved in
the 2nd century ad, and stories of
the Buddha are depicted in paintings on temple walls carved in stone cliffs at
Ajanta between the 2nd century bc
and the 7th century ad.
After the 5th century ad Buddhism’s influence on art declined
as that of Hinduism and Jainism rose. Hindu and Jain temples developed in many
styles, most characterized by ornate carvings, pyramidal roofs and spires, and
numerous sculptures of divinities housed within. Sculpture frequently portrayed
Hindu and Jain gods in relief on temple walls, and became increasingly
elaborate, linear, and decorative through the 13th century.
Muslim invaders from Central Asia and
Persia brought new artistic styles and techniques, among them the dome, mosaic,
and minaret. Many domed tombs and mosques from the 12th century and later have
been preserved, as have some magnificent fortresses. Because Islam forbids
carved images, sculpture took the form of gloriously elaborate geometric and
floral designs adorning the temples. One of the most famous examples of Islamic
architecture in India is the Taj Mahal in Āgra (started in 1632 and completed in
1648).
It is believed that most early painting
has not survived because the materials, such as wood and cloth, that were used
as surfaces were fragile. The paintings that did survive are of two types: wall
paintings and miniature paintings. In addition to those found in about 30 caves
at Ajanta, wall paintings dating from the 2nd to the 7th century ad have been found in cave temples in
Tamil Nādu and Orissa. Most of these frescoes depict stories from the life of
Buddha. The first surviving examples of miniature paintings are palm leaf
manuscripts from the 11th century illustrating the life of Buddha.
Secular-themed miniatures developed in the courts of Muslim sultans who
controlled northern India after the 13th century. These illustrated manuscripts
reached their height in the 16th through 18th centuries. They were heavily
influenced by Persian art and often showed historical scenes and portraits.
Beginning in the 19th century, European
influence affected all of the arts. Twentieth-century artists of significance
include Amrita Sher Gill and M. F. Hussain. The best-known architect, who works
in the international modern style, is Charles Correa. See Indian Art and
Architecture.
C | Music and Dance |
The basic structure of music and dance in
India has been fundamentally indigenous, laid out in a 2nd century ad Sanskrit treatise on drama and music,
the Natya Shastra. There are two classical traditions of music: the North
Indian Hindustani style and the South Indian Carnatic (Karnatak) style. Although
both styles of music were influenced by bhakti (devotional) traditions,
the Hindustani style was also influenced in its instruments, styles, and schools
of performance by Muslims invading from the north. Modern classical musicians of
note include M. S. Subbalakshmi, a vocalist; Palghat Mani Iyer, a drum
performer; Ravi Shankar, a sitar (stringed instrument) performer; Ali Akbar
Khan, a sarod (plucked string instrument) performer; Bismillah Khan, a
shehnai (reed instrument) performer; Amir Khan, who performs khyal
(a north Indian vocal style); and the Dagar brothers, who perform dhrupad
(another north Indian vocal style).
Dance is a highly developed art form in
India and is important as a pastime, in worship, and as part of Sanskrit dramas.
The major classical dance forms are bharata natyam, kathak, manipuri, and
kathakali. Bharata natyam, which is based on the Natya Shastra, is
probably the most significant of these forms. It incorporates many of the
precise movements, hand gestures, and facial expressions for which Indian dance
is famous. Each movement and gesture the dancer performs has its own meaning.
The kathak dance style originated in north India and emphasizes rhythmic
footwork (under the weight of more than 100 ankle bells) and spectacular spins.
The manipuri dance form, which is named for Manipur, where it originated, is
known for its graceful turning and swaying. The kathakali form is a dance drama,
characterized by mime and facial makeup resembling masks.
Well-known dancers of the postindependence
era include Balasaraswati, who performed the bharata natyam form of dance, and
Pandit Birju Maharaj, who performed the kathak form. In India, European style
has influenced only popular music and dance, not classical. See Indian
Music; Indian Dance.
D | Theater and Film |
India has had a distinguished theatrical
tradition for more than a thousand years. The Gupta Dynasty (ad 320-550?) saw the flowering of
Sanskrit drama. The great plays that survive from that time are generally
secular, such as Shakuntala by Kalidasa, about the court, kings,
and courtesans. Classical plays are rarely revived, although modern playwrights
have experimented with traditional mythic and historical themes. Theater other
than folk theater, which struggles despite government patronage to survive, is
directly from the European tradition and is popular only in larger cities.
Theater has been eclipsed by the cinema and more recently by television.
India produces more films annually than
any other country. The audience, despite the spread of televisions and
videocassette recorders, is still enormous. Popular films are generally written
to a formula and are often embellished with songs and dance routines. Film
themes vary from historical and religious to social: rich boy meets poor girl;
twins separated at birth become policeman and criminal; boy sacrifices his love
for a girl to patriotic duty or to the desires of parents, who wish him to marry
another. Popular cinema rarely has realistic settings or plots, and imitations
of Western films are common. Indian film is a significant cultural export to
Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Even within the popular genre, there have
been films with political and humanistic messages. Perhaps best known in this
genre is Satyajit Ray, whose “Apu trilogy”—Pather Panchali (1955, Song
of the Road), Aparajito (1957, The Unvanquished), and Apur
Sansar (1959, The World of Apu)—established him as one of the world’s
leading filmmakers. Recent alternative cinema, supported largely by government
subsidies, has only gathered a small, elite audience. Television entertainment
in India includes situation comedies (sitcoms), domestic melodramas, and
occasionally multiepisode Hindu epics.
E | Libraries and Museums |
India has more than 60,000 libraries,
including more than 1,000 specialized ones attached to various government
departments, universities, and institutions. The National Library in Kolkata
receives all books and magazines published in India. The National Archives and
the Nehru Memorial Library and Museum are located in New Delhi. The Delhi Public
Library is considered one of the best in India.
India has hundreds of museums. Some of
them contain important historical and archaeological collections, such as the
Indian Museum in Kolkata, the Government Museum and National Art Gallery in
Chennai, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay (formerly called the
Prince of Wales Museum) in Mumbai, and the National Museum of India in New
Delhi. Rich collections of sculptures, miniature paintings, and other historical
and archaeological treasures are housed in museums in Mathura and Vārānasi, and
in several locations associated with archaeological sites. The Calico Museum of
Textiles in Ahmadābād and the Crafts Museum in New Delhi have outstanding
collections of Indian textiles. The Crafts Museum also houses a spectacular
collection of folk art from all over the country. European art of the 19th
century is a special feature of the Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata. The
National Gallery of Modern Art is in New Delhi.
V | ECONOMY |
Since gaining independence in 1947, India
has struggled to modernize and diversify an economy that was left relatively
undeveloped by economic policies under British colonial rule. In the 19th
century India’s cottage industries and thriving trade were virtually destroyed
due to imports of European (primarily British) manufactured goods, which the
colonial government paid for with exports of agricultural products such as
cotton, opium, and tea. Agricultural development was therefore encouraged, while
the industrial sector was neglected. Beginning in the late 19th century there
was some investment in the industrial sector and infrastructure (mainly railways
and irrigation works). Nevertheless, India’s economy stagnated during the last
three decades of British rule.
At independence India was desperately poor,
with an aging textile industry as its only major industrial sector. Since then
the country has been gradually transforming its economic base from agricultural
to industrial and commercial. To fund development, however, India rapidly
accumulated high levels of foreign debt. Policies of economic liberalization
introduced in the late 1970s stimulated the industrial sector, leading to an
acceleration of economic growth in the 1980s. In the 1990s the service sector
emerged as the primary economic stimulus, reflecting a growing business economy
in urban areas as well as a large government bureaucracy. Although the economic
structure of the country began to change, with services contributing more to the
economic bottom line than any other sector, agriculture remained the most
important sector in terms of employment. Economic development was regionally
uneven, with the prosperity of more developed states standing in sharp contrast
to the extreme poverty of relatively undeveloped states.
In 2006 India’s annual gross domestic
product (GDP) was $912 billion. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing made up 18
percent of the GDP, compared with 28 percent for industry (including
manufacturing, mining, and construction) and 55 percent for services.
A | Economic Policy |
Economic policy after independence
emphasized central planning, with the government setting goals for and closely
regulating private industry. Self-sufficiency was promoted in order to foster
domestic industry and reduce dependence on foreign trade. These efforts produced
steady economic growth in the 1950s, but less positive results in the two
succeeding decades.
In the late 1970s the government began to
reduce state control of the economy but made slow progress toward this goal. By
1991 the government still regulated or ran many industries, including mining and
quarrying, banking and insurance, transportation and communications, and
manufacturing and construction. Economic growth improved during this period, at
least partially as a result of development projects funded by foreign
loans.
A financial crisis in 1991 compelled
India to institute major economic reforms. After a rise in oil prices
precipitated by the Persian Gulf War of 1990 to 1991, India faced a serious
balance-of-payments problem. Because petroleum was a major import, India’s
expenditures on imports far exceeded its income from exports. To obtain
emergency loans from international economic organizations, India agreed to adopt
reforms aimed at liberalizing its economy. These reforms removed many government
regulations on investment, including foreign investment, and eliminated a quota
and tariff system that had kept trade at a low level. The reforms also began a
gradual process of deregulating industries and privatizing public enterprises.
In 1999 the government made privatization of the public sector the centerpiece
of its agenda, permitting private investment in all infrastructure industries,
including power, telecommunications, and civil aviation, as well as in the
financial sector. Some industries remain reserved for the public sector,
including defense equipment, railways, and nuclear energy.
With the reforms, India made a dramatic
shift from an economy relatively closed to the global economy to one that is
relatively open. Growth of exports has helped India to increase its share of
world trade, while the inflow of foreign capital has helped India reduce its
external debt. Economic growth has brought an expansion of the middle class,
leading to growing demand for consumer goods from shoes to luxury cars. Despite
the emergence of a consumer-oriented middle class, however, income inequalities
and widespread poverty remain significant issues.
B | Labor |
The Indian economy employs 438 million
people. The majority of this workforce—67 percent—labors in the agricultural
sector. Of the remainder, 20 percent work in services and 13 percent in
industry. Women make up 28 percent of the total labor force.
Significant numbers of children are
employed in India. They not only perform agricultural tasks such as herding and
helping at harvest time, but they also work in cottage industries such as carpet
weaving and match manufacturing, help in small businesses such as tea stalls,
and act as servants in private homes. Estimates of the number of working
children vary widely, due in part to a lack of formal government data on child
labor. Child labor is illegal in India, and efforts have been made to abolish
it, particularly in the most hazardous industries.
Unemployment rates in India are difficult
to estimate because many people work in temporary or part-time jobs. Few workers
are permanently unemployed, but seasonally or marginally employed people such as
agricultural laborers are often underemployed. State and national governments
have established fairly successful rural employment plans that hire labor to
build roads and other public works.
Labor unions are relatively small in India
and operate primarily in public-sector enterprises. India’s labor laws allow
multiple union representation not only within an industry but even within a
factory. Laws also tend to favor workers’ rights over employer prerogatives. As
a result there is an increasing trend in business to hire workers on daily
contracts. Older unions are linked to national trade union federations
controlled by political parties. Since the 1980s, however, there has been an
increase in independent unions unrelated to political parties. Some successful
small-industry entrepreneurs have organized cooperatives. A notable one is the
Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), which has expanded from its base in
Ahmadābād to other Indian cities, as well as other countries.
C | Agriculture |
Agriculture employs (with forestry and
fishing) about two-thirds of India’s workforce. Most farms are small, averaging
about 1.5 hectares (about 3.7 acres). About 40 percent of the land in India is
cultivated by farmers owning more than 4 hectares (10 acres), but few farms are
larger than 20 hectares (50 acres) due to land reforms that imposed ceilings
(maximum limits) on holdings. Most Indian farmers, particularly those who own
smaller farms, cultivate their land by hand or by using oxen.
India’s most important crops include
cotton, tea, rice, wheat, and sugarcane. Other important cash crops include
jute, groundnuts, coffee, oil seeds, and spices. Another central feature of
India’s agricultural economy is the raising of livestock, particularly horned
cattle, buffalo, and goats. In 2006 the country had 181 million cattle,
substantially more than almost any other country. The cattle are used mainly as
draft animals and for leather. As farmers increasingly use machinery, the number
of livestock they raise will probably decrease. Buffalo is the main animal used
for producing milk and dairy products. Milk production and distribution
increased dramatically in the 1990s because of a nationwide,
government-supported cooperative dairy program. Sheep are raised for wool, and
goats are the main meat animal. Many Indians, particularly Hindus, refuse to eat
beef for religious reasons, although they eat other meat, eggs, and fish.
Agricultural production faces occasional
declines as a result of irregular monsoon seasons, resulting in widespread
flooding or drought. Food imports help offset yearly fluctuations in output.
India faces many future challenges in producing enough food to feed its growing
population. Production of food grain has barely kept pace with the rate of
population increase. The government-implemented Green Revolution, which took
hold in the 1970s, encouraged the use of high-yielding crop varieties,
fertilizers, and carefully managed irrigation. It resulted in a steady growth in
production of food grain, allowing India to achieve self-sufficiency by 1984.
However, success has been limited to areas of assured irrigation, such as
northwestern India and the deltaic regions. Output has not significantly
improved in dry and semiarid areas, where poverty and malnourishment remain
prevalent.
D | Forestry and Fishing |
Although relatively undeveloped on a
national scale, large-scale commercial fishing is vital to the economy in
certain regions, such as the Ganges Delta in West Bengal and along the
southwestern coast. Small-scale fishing is widespread, taking place in oceans,
lagoons, rivers, ponds, wells, and even flooded paddy fields; these fish are
typically sold in street markets. In recent years the government has encouraged
deep-sea fishing by building processing plants and giving aid to oceangoing
fleets and vessels. Local, more traditional fishers protest this encouragement
because they see it as a threat to their livelihood. In 2005 the government
recorded an annual fish catch of 6.3 million metric tons, about half of which
was marine species.
Forests cover 21 percent of India’s total
land area. The area of land planted in trees has increased steadily since 1990
due to government and commercial plantation schemes. However, the harvesting of
mature trees for lumber production has tended to outpace the growth rate of
replanted areas. Loss of topsoil in harvested areas as well as forestland lost
to development and agriculture have also contributed to India’s difficulty in
achieving sustainable timber harvests. Industrial timber species include teak,
deodar (a type of cedar), and sal. Products such as charcoal, fruits and nuts,
fibers, oils, gums, and resins are among the most valuable commodities from
India’s forests.
E | Mining |
India ranks among the world leaders in
the production of coal, iron ore, and bauxite. Cut diamonds are also an
important export product. India also produces significant amounts of manganese,
mica, dolomite, copper, petroleum, natural gas, chromite, lignite, limestone,
gold, and zinc.
F | Manufacturing |
The government’s push for
industrialization beginning in the late 1950s gave India a diversified and
substantial manufacturing sector. Industrial production steadily increased,
reducing India’s reliance on imports, and by the 1980s India ranked among the
“newly industrialized countries.” Important industrial products include
processed food, textiles, iron and steel, chemicals, aluminum, and vehicles of
all kinds from bicycles to trucks and railway engines. India also is a
significant producer of electrical machinery, fertilizer, refined petroleum
products, and copper. High-technology items such as computers are manufactured
in collaboration with foreign companies. In the 1990s India’s computer software
industry expanded enormously.
G | Energy |
Energy is the keystone of India’s
agricultural and industrial development. To meet its energy needs, India is
heavily dependent on coal. The next most important energy source is petroleum,
followed by hydroelectricity and natural gas. Thermal plants, principally
burning coal, produce 84 percent of India’s electricity; and hydroelectric
plants generate 12 percent. Although India remains self-sufficient in coal, the
country must import petroleum to meet growing domestic demand. In 2003 imported
fuels (principally petroleum) represented 29 percent of India’s total imports.
H | Services and Tourism |
Service industries in India include
transportation, trade, banking and insurance, real estate, and public
administration and defense. Retail and wholesale trade are among the most
important services. Major cities, such as Mumbai and Kolkata, are centers of
such trade. Government service is also very important. India’s government
provides many social services to its population, particularly in the fields of
education, health, and public administration. India earns an increasing amount
of foreign exchange from data processing and call-center services that are
outsourced from businesses in the United States and other countries.
Tourism is another significant part of
India’s service economy. In 2006, 4.4 million tourists visited the country.
Foreign exchange earnings from tourism were more than $8.9 billion that year.
The bulk of India’s tourists come from Bangladesh and Pakistan. Other major
countries of origin include the United Kingdom, the United States, Sri Lanka,
Germany, France, and Japan. Most foreign tourists visit a few tourist sites,
such as the Taj Mahal and other monuments in Āgra; the “pink city” of Jaipur,
known for its pink-hued architecture; and Delhi, with its magnificent Red Fort
and many museums. Other tourist destinations include the rock-cut caves of
Ajanta and Ellora, the temples at Khajurāho, and the beaches in Kerala, as well
as cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi, Vārānasi, and
Udaipur.
I | Transportation |
India has a network of railroad lines that
covers the entire country. The network is the largest in Asia and one of the
largest in the world. The length of operated track is 63,465 km (39,435 mi). The
network is badly in need of modernization. All railroad lines are publicly
controlled, but some private-sector participation is being encouraged to help
raise revenue. The system carries millions of passengers daily, but passenger
traffic is heavily subsidized.
By 2002 there were 3.4 million km (2.1
million mi) of roads in India, of which 47 percent were paved. Each state
operates a publicly owned bus company. The major Indian ports, including
Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Cochin, and Vishākhapatnam, are served by cargo
carriers and passenger liners operating to all parts of the world. The port
system is operating beyond its intended capacity, although efforts are under way
to modernize and expand port facilities. India has a large merchant shipping
fleet. The shipping industry is dominated by the Shipping Corporation of India,
which is partially government owned. A comprehensive network of air routes
connects the major cities and towns of the country. In the 1990s India opened up
domestic air service to private airlines for competition with publicly owned
Indian airlines, and air service greatly improved as a result.
J | Communications |
The government-controlled postal services
remain the backbone of India’s communication industry, handling billions of
letters and parcels each year. The post office also transmits money orders in
large amounts, mainly serving workers sending home part of their pay, and has a
large number of savings certificate programs that serve the same population.
India’s telecommunications system has been
expanding rapidly, especially since the government began liberalizing the sector
in 1994. The country’s first privately owned telephone network was founded in
1998, and a state-held monopoly on international telecommunications services
ended in 2002. The country had 14 main telephone lines per 1,000 persons in
1994, when the reforms began. By 2005 the number had increased to 46 per 1,000
and was increasing at a rapid rate, although still well below the world average
of 172 per 1,000. Cellular telephone subscriptions are also on the rise, but
exclusively among more affluent Indians. The majority of people in India only
have access to public telephones, especially in rural areas. In the 1990s the
government launched a major program to increase public access to telephone
service in all areas of the country. One goal of the program was to install a
public telephone in each of India’s approximately 600,000 villages; by 2002 this
initiative had reached about 470,000 villages. Another goal was to set up public
call offices (PCOs) in both rural and urban areas. More than 1 million PCOs had
been established by 2002, and a number of these were being upgraded to provide
Internet access. In 2005, 60 million Indians were online.
Thousands of newspapers are published in
India. Most principal dailies publish from multiple cities, including the
English-language Times of India, the Indian Express, the
Hindustan Times, the Hindu, and the Statesman; and the
Hindi-language Navbharat Times and the Punjab Kesari. Newspapers
are privately owned in India.
The Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting controls the country’s major broadcasting networks, All India Radio
(AIR) and Doordarshan India (Television India). AIR broadcasts throughout the
country with a network of more than 200 stations. The Indian government limits
television broadcasting by private companies. Satellite television was
introduced in India in 1991. Since the early 1990s there has been an exponential
growth in television viewing, spurred in part by the spread of private cable
systems and television broadcasts via satellite that bring news, sports, and
entertainment from around the world.
K | Foreign Trade |
The economic reforms introduced in 1991
radically altered India’s trade policies in order to encourage foreign trade. In
1990-1991, before the reforms were implemented, India recorded $27.9 billion in
imports and $18.5 billion in exports. In 2003 India had $77.2 billion in imports
and $63 billion in exports. Principal trading partners for India’s exports
include the United States (by far India’s largest trading partner), the United
Kingdom, China (primarily Hong Kong), Germany, and Japan. India receives the
bulk of its imports from the United States, Singapore, Belgium, the United
Kingdom, and Germany.
India’s principal exports are gems and
jewelry, garments and textiles, engineering products, chemicals, and marine and
agricultural products. Other important exports include ores and minerals,
leather goods, carpets, electronic goods, and computer software. In the 1990s
India emerged as a major supplier of computer software, as well as computer
services such as software programming and data processing. The export of
software services and electronics is growing rapidly, contributing 15 percent of
the country’s total export earnings in 1999-2000. India’s major imports include
petroleum and petroleum products, nonelectrical machinery, precious and
semiprecious stones, electronic goods, chemicals, cooking oil, iron and steel,
fertilizers, and plastics.
L | Currency and Banking |
The rupee, India’s basic monetary
unit, is divided into 100 paise (45.30 rupees equal U.S.$1; 2006
average). The Reserve Bank of India, founded in 1934 and nationalized in 1949,
operates as India’s central banking institution. It is the sole authority for
issuing bank notes and the supervisory body for all banking operations in India.
It supervises and administers exchange-control and banking regulations, the
government’s monetary policy, and licenses for private and foreign-owned banks.
The central government’s Ministry of Finance and statutory bodies such as the
Security and Exchange Board of India also help control the financial sector.
Although government-owned banks dominate India’s banking industry, numerous
private and foreign banks have been licensed to operate in the country since the
1991 economic reforms.
There are a number of stock exchanges in
India. One of the largest is the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai. Founded in
1875, the Bombay Stock Exchange is the oldest in Asia. Another major stock
exchange is the National Stock Exchange, founded in 1994, also in Mumbai.
VI | GOVERNMENT |
The Republic of India is a federal
republic, governed under a constitution and incorporating various features of
the constitutional systems of the United Kingdom, the United States, and other
democracies. The power of the government is separated into three branches:
executive, parliament, and a judiciary headed by a Supreme Court. Like the
United States, India is a union of states, but its federalism is slightly
different. The central government has power over the states, including the power
to redraw state boundaries, but the states, many of which have large populations
sharing a common language, culture, and history, have an identity that is in
some ways more significant than that of the country as a whole.
A | Constitution |
India’s constitution went into effect in
1950, providing civil liberties protected by a set of fundamental rights. These
include not only rights to free speech, assembly, association, and the exercise
of religion—echoing the United States Bill of Rights—but also rights such as
that of citizens to conserve their culture and language and to establish schools
to aid this endeavor. The constitution also lists principles of national policy,
such as the duty of the government to secure equal pay for men and women,
provision of free legal aid, and protection and improvement of the environment.
India has universal voting rights for adults beginning at age 18.
The Indian parliament has amended the
constitution many times since 1950. Most of these amendments were minor, but
others were of major significance: For example, the 7th amendment (1956)
provided for a major reorganization of the boundaries of the states, and the
73rd and 74th amendments (1993) gave constitutional permanence to units of local
self-government (village and city councils).
B | Executive |
The head of state of India is the
president. The role of president, modeled on the British constitutional monarch,
is largely nominal and ceremonial. Most powers assigned to the president are
exercised under direction of the cabinet. The president’s major political
responsibility is to select the prime minister, although that choice is
circumscribed by a constantly evolving set of conventions (for example, that the
leader of the party with the largest number of seats in parliament should be
given the first opportunity to form a government).
The president is elected for a five-year
term by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of the national
and state legislatures. The president is eligible for successive terms. The vice
president is elected in the same manner as the president and assumes the role of
the president if the president is incapacitated or otherwise unable to perform
his or her duties.
A council of ministers, or cabinet, is
headed by a prime minister and wields executive power at the national level. The
council, which is responsible to parliament, is selected by the president upon
the advice of the prime minister. Each council member heads an administrative
department of the central government. In most important respects, the Indian
cabinet system is identical to that of Britain. There is a constitutionally
fixed division of responsibilities between national and state governments, so
that the national government has exclusive powers over areas such as foreign
affairs, while the states are responsible for health-care systems and
agricultural development, among other areas. Some areas are the joint
responsibility of both the national and state governments, such as
education.
The actual administration is carried out
by a many-tiered civil service, almost all of whom are recruited by a
competitive, merit-based examination. At the top is the Indian Administrative
Service (IAS), whose senior members serve as the administrative heads of
departments, responsible only to their minister. All members of this service are
assigned to particular states and spend most of their early career serving in
those states. They typically start as district-level administrators and rapidly
move to head state-level departments. Additional central government civil
services include the Indian Foreign Service, the Indian Police Service, and
services for audits and accounts, posts and telegraphs, customs and excise, and
railroads.
C | Legislature |
The constitution vests national
legislative power in a parliament of two houses: the Lok Sabha (House of
the People), the lower house, and the Rajya Sabha (Council of States),
the upper house. The Lok Sabha consists of 545 members directly elected by
universal adult suffrage, except for two members who are appointed by the
president to represent the Anglo-Indian community. The number of seats allocated
to each state and union territory is proportional to its population. The term of
the Lok Sabha is limited to five years, but the president may dissolve the house
upon the advice of the prime minister, or upon defeat of major legislation
proposed by the government. A provision of the constitution that was intended to
expire after ten years, but which has been consistently extended, allocates
reserved seats to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in proportion to
their share of the population.
Members of the Rajya Sabha are elected by
the members of the state legislative assemblies, except for 12 presidential
appointees who have special knowledge or practical experience in literature, the
arts, science, or social services. The elected members are chosen by a system of
proportional representation for a six-year term; one-third of the Rajya Sabha is
chosen every two years. A two-thirds majority is required for some
constitutional amendments to pass; some amendments also require ratification by
one-half of the states.
D | Judiciary |
Judicial authority in India is exercised
through a system of national courts administering the laws of the republic and
the states. All senior judges are appointees of the executive branch of the
government, with their independence guaranteed by a variety of safeguards.
Noteworthy among these safeguards is a provision requiring a two-thirds vote of
parliament to remove a judge from office. The highest court is the Supreme
Court; all Supreme Court judges serve until a retirement age of 65. The top
court at the state level is called the High Court; members of the Supreme Court
are selected from among justices of the High Courts. Judges of the High Courts
are in turn selected from subordinate courts operating at the district level.
Important judicial posts at the district level are filled by members of the
administrative service.
E | Local Government |
India is a union of 28 states and 7 union
territories. The Indian states are Andhra Pradesh, Arunāchal Pradesh, Assam,
West Bengal, Bihār, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarāt, Haryāna, Himāchal Pradesh, Jammu
and Kashmīr, Jharkhand, Karnātaka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Mahārāshtra, Manipur,
Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rājasthān, Sikkim, Tamil Nādu,
Tripura, Uttaranchal, and Uttar Pradesh. The union territories are the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands, Chandīgarh, Dādra and Nagar Haveli, Damān and Diu, Delhi
(formally called the National Capital Territory of Delhi), Lakshadweep, and
Puducherry. The form of state governments in India is generally modeled after
that of the central government. The states each have a legislature invested with
the governance of state affairs. The union territories of Delhi and Puducherry
also have their own legislatures. Each of these 30 political units is formally
headed by a governor, who is appointed by the president of India to a five-year
term. The governor’s powers resemble those of the president. The governor’s most
important duty is to invite a party leader to form a government after state
legislative elections.
The basic territorial unit of
administration in the states is the district. Within the districts are units
called tehsils or talukas for departments such as revenue and
education, and “blocks,” which are the base units for agrarian development.
Local self-government includes village councils (panchayats) and
municipal councils, which began under British rule. Local governments have been
saddled with major duties, few sources of revenue, and a weak base of political
power. These bodies were frequently superseded for long periods by the state
governments. In the mid-1990s new constitutional provisions, including the
requirement that a percentage of village council seats must go to women, were
implemented to help improve these local governments. A few states, most notably
West Bengal and Karnātaka, had successful village government systems in the
1980s and 1990s.
The central government of India created
three new states in November 2000. The new states were carved out of three
existing states—Uttaranchal from Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh from Madhya
Pradesh, and Jharkhand from Bihār—to create smaller, more manageable
administrative areas. The new states are populated by tribal groups that had
waged decades-long campaigns for the creation of separate states in the interest
of cultural autonomy and regional economic development.
F | Political Parties |
Political parties play an important role
in India’s democracy. For many years a centrist national party known as the
Congress Party was the most powerful political party in India. Established in
1885 as the Indian National Congress, it led India in the struggle for
independence. Its members have included influential figures such as Mohandas
Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. With few exceptions, the Congress Party provided
the country’s prime ministers until the mid-1990s. The Congress, also known
after 1977 as the Congress (I) Party, significantly declined in popular support
in the 1990s due to allegations of corruption.
A Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya
Janata (Indian People’s) Party (BJP), became the largest single party in the Lok
Sabha in 1996 and retained that position in the 1998 and 1999 elections. Unable
to win an outright majority, it led a multiparty coalition called the National
Democratic Alliance. The BJP found its base of support in the growing Hindu
middle class. It continued policies of economic liberalization that had been
initiated by the Congress Party. The reforms led to rapid and sustained economic
growth, but much of India’s population remained in poverty. In the 2004
elections, the BJP lost control of the Lok Sabha to the Congress Party, which
had campaigned on a platform that appealed to India’s rural poor.
Other important parties in India include
the Janata Dal (People’s Party), a secular, socialist party appealing to lower
caste and Muslim voters. The Janata Dal was a key member of the BJP-led National
Democratic Alliance. The Janata Dal and the BJP are the primary successors to
the Janata (People’s) Party, which was a coalition of opposition parties that
formed in 1977 and defeated the Congress Party in that year’s elections. The
coalition’s victory represented the first change in the ruling party of the
national government after India gained independence. However, the coalition
fractured in 1979 and its government collapsed, leading to the return to power
of the Congress Party in 1980.
The far left of the political spectrum is
dominated by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which draws support from
urban and rural laborers, and the more moderate Communist Party of India. Both
parties have been significant participants in coalition politics.
Regional parties are of major importance
in many states, including Tamil Nādu, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, and several
smaller states, particularly in the northeast. These regional parties
deliberately focus on support of particular people of a particular state and
thus have no ambition of extending their reach to other states. They elect a
significant number of members of parliament, and many have been included in
coalition governments by forming alliances with larger parties.
G | Social Services |
India’s central government has focused on
improving the welfare of the Indian people since independence. The focus has
been on transforming the health of the population and providing benefits for the
weakest members of the society, especially scheduled castes and tribes, women,
and children. These efforts have resulted in improvements, although the degree
varies by state.
Health-care facilities have been extended
to all parts of the country, with tens of thousands of health centers in
operation. Still, the number and quality of personnel staffing them are less
than desirable, and spending levels have been low. Although the number of
hospital beds in relation to the population has increased since independence,
there are still too few doctors for the population, particularly in rural areas.
There are 1,674 people per physician, and 1,111 people per hospital bed. The
government also promotes family planning and alternative systems of health care,
particularly those with deep Indian roots such as Ayurvedic medicine.
Life expectancy at birth was 69 years in
2008, compared with 32 years in 1941. The infant mortality rate is still high at
about 32 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2008, down from about 150 per 1,000
live births in the late 1940s. Smallpox was eradicated in the 1970s, and deaths
on a large scale due to cholera, influenza, and other similar diseases have also
been eliminated. Malaria and tuberculosis occur at much reduced rates, but new
drug-resistant varieties are cause for concern. While cases of acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) numbered only a few thousand in the early
1990s, the virus that causes AIDS had infected about 5,600,000 people by 2005.
Efforts to check the spread of the disease have focused on the most at-risk
groups, including prostitutes in major cities and drug users. In some areas,
meanwhile, the disease has made its way into the general population, creating a
potential crisis for India’s already overburdened health-care system.
Malnutrition remains a serious problem, despite the gradually increasing amount
of grain available per capita (rice, wheat, and grains such as millet remain the
major food source of most Indians). Public sanitation facilities are not
adequate, and in most areas, including most towns, smaller cities, and the
countryside, are almost nonexistent.
Welfare programs for the scheduled tribes
and scheduled castes (including the Harijans, or Untouchables) have centered on
“compensatory discrimination,” which is similar to affirmative action: Positions
are reserved for this population in the legislature, civil services, and
educational institutions. Also, education subsidies are provided, including
scholarships and reduced fees. A national commission for scheduled castes and
tribes monitors progress in ending discrimination against these groups and
progress in their social and economic standing. Public discrimination has become
rare, and quite a few individuals have risen to positions of influence and
respect, including India’s first Harijan president, Kocheril Raman Narayanan,
who served from 1997 to 2002. Private discrimination in housing and employment
continues, however, and the desperately poor of the countryside, constituting
the majority of these groups, remain virtually powerless against exploitation
and physical abuse.
There are a wide variety of programs
intended to improve the welfare of women and children, but they have had little
impact in parts of the country (particularly the northern states) where the
problem is most acute. Female children suffer particularly: They are often
neglected in infancy, sometimes resulting in death. Also, they may be kept out
of school or married off early. Programs for children, such as those for
supplemental nutrition, have little effect in situations where child labor is
endemic.
H | Defense |
All branches of the armed services of
India are made up solely of volunteers. Service, however, is considered a
national duty, and competition for entry into the armed forces remains high.
Although defense is considered important in India, the percentage of the GDP
spent on defense has declined. It was 2.6 percent in 2003. Salaries and pensions
account for a major portion of defense spending. In 2004 the strength of the
army was 1.1 million, the navy comprised 55,000 members, and the air force had
170,000 people. About 1 million people serve in India’s paramilitary forces,
many in units that guard the borders and join with police in suppressing
insurgencies. Women have long served in the medical areas of the armed services
but have only recently been allowed in limited numbers to enroll as officers in
other noncombatant sections of the armed services.
Military units of all branches are well
equipped. India has received extensive military aid, especially from the former
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Many of its weapons systems,
including some of the most advanced such as missiles, are manufactured in India.
The country exploded its first nuclear device in 1974, leading to an arms race
with neighboring Pakistan. Exactly 24 years later, India set off five more
nuclear devices and declared itself a “nuclear weapons state.” Pakistan
responded within weeks with its own nuclear tests.
I | International Organizations |
India is a founding member of the United
Nations (UN), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank). India is
also a member of other organizations of the UN system, such as the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Labor Organization (ILO), Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO), World Trade
Organization (WTO), and Universal Postal Union. Since 1961 India has been a
member of the Nonaligned Movement, a group of nations that did not align
themselves with either the United States or the USSR during the Cold War. In
keeping with its policy of nonalignment, India has not joined regional security
arrangements. However, India has contributed troops and observers to
international peacekeeping missions around the world. India is one of seven
member nations of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC),
which was founded in 1985 to provide a forum for regional economic and social
issues.
VII | HISTORY |
India’s history begins not with
independence in 1947, but more than 4,500 years earlier, when the name India
referred to the entire subcontinent, including present-day Pakistan and
Bangladesh. The earliest of India’s known civilizations, the Indus Valley
civilization (about 2500 to 1700 bc), was known for its highly
specialized artifacts and stretched throughout northern India. Another early
culture—the Vedic culture—dates from approximately 1500 bc and is considered one of the sources
for India’s predominantly Hindu culture and for the foundation of several
important philosophical traditions. India has been subject to influxes of
peoples throughout its history, some coming under arms to loot and conquer,
others moving in to trade and settle. India was able to absorb the impact of
these intrusions because it was able to assimilate or tolerate foreign ideas and
people. Outsiders who came to India during the course of its history include the
Greeks under Alexander the Great, the Kushānas from Central Asia, the Mongols
under Genghis Khan, Muslim traders and invaders from the Middle East and Central
Asia, and finally the British and other Europeans. India also disseminated its
civilization outward to Sri Lanka and much of Southeast Asia. Buddhism, which
originated in India, spread even farther.
Central to Indian history are the people
of India who established complex political systems, whether local kingdoms or
mighty empires, in which learning and religion flourished. Until the modern
industrial era, India was a land famed for its economic as well as cultural
wealth. Europeans visited the country to trade for the finest cotton textiles as
well as spices. Eventually, the British colonized the region. Their exploitation
of India’s economic wealth and the subsequent destruction of its indigenous
industry provoked and then fueled a nationalist movement, eventually forcing the
British to grant India (partitioned into India and Pakistan) its independence in
1947. Since that time India has developed into a vibrant democracy, making slow
but steady progress in development.
A | Early Civilizations |
A1 | Indus Valley Civilization |
For almost 1,000 years, from around
2500 bc to around 1700 bc, a civilization flourished on the
valley of the Indus River and its tributaries, extending as far to the northeast
as Delhi and south to Gujarāt. The Indus Valley civilization, India’s oldest
known civilization, is famed for its complex culture and specialized artifacts.
Its cities were carefully planned, with elaborate water-supply systems, sewage
facilities, and centralized granaries. The cities had common settlement patterns
and were built with standard sizes and weights of bricks, evidence that suggests
a coherent civilization existed throughout the region. The people of the Indus
civilization used copper and bronze, and they spun and wove cotton and wool.
They also produced statues and other objects of considerable beauty, including
many seals decorated with images of animals and, in a few cases, what appear to
be priests. The seals are also decorated with a script known as the Indus
script, a pictographic writing system that has not been deciphered. The Indus
civilization is thought to have undergone a swift decline after 1800 bc, although the cause of the decline is
still unknown; theories point to extreme climatic changes or natural
disasters.
A2 | Aryan Settlement and the Vedic Age |
In about 1500 bc the Aryans, a nomadic people from
Central Asia, settled in the upper reaches of the Indus, Yamuna, and Gangetic
plains. They spoke a language from the Indo-European family and worshiped gods
similar to those of later-era Greeks and northern Europeans. The Aryans are
particularly important to Indian history because they originated the earliest
forms of the sacred Vedas (orally transmitted texts of hymns of devotion to the
gods, manuals of sacrifice for their worship, and philosophical speculation). By
800 bc the Aryans ruled in most of
northern India, occasionally fighting among themselves or with the peoples of
the land they were settling. There is no evidence of what happened to the people
displaced by the Aryans. In fact they may not have been displaced at all but
instead may have been incorporated in Aryan culture or left alone in the hills
of northern India.
The Vedas, which are considered the
core of Hinduism, provide much information about the Aryans. The major gods of
the Vedic peoples remain in the pantheon of present-day Hindus; the core rituals
surrounding birth, marriage, and death retain their Vedic form. The Vedas also
contain the seeds of great epic literature and philosophical traditions in
India. One example is the Mahabharata, an epic of the battle
between two noble families that dates from 400 bc but probably draws on tales composed
much earlier. Another example is the Upanishads, philosophical
treatises that were composed between the 8th and the 5th centuries bc.
As the Aryans slowly settled into
agriculture and moved southeast through the Gangetic Plain, they relinquished
their seminomadic style of living and changed their social and political
structures. Instead of a warrior leading a tribe, with a tribal assembly as a
check on his power, an Aryan chieftain ruled over territory, with its society
divided into hereditary groups. This structure became the beginning of the caste
system, which has survived in India until the present day. The four castes that
emerged from this era were the Brahmans (priests), the Kshatriyas (warriors and
rulers), the Vaisyas (merchants, farmers, and traders), and the Sudras
(artisans, laborers, and servants).
B | The Emergence of Kingdoms and Empires |
By about the 7th century bc territories combined and grew, giving
rise to larger kingdoms that stretched from what is now Afghanistan to what is
now the state of Bihār. Cities became important during this time, and, shortly
thereafter, systems of writing developed. Reform schools of Hinduism emerged,
challenging the orthodox practices of the Vedic tradition and presenting
alternative religious world views. Two of those schools developed into separate
religions: Buddhism and Jainism.
B1 | The Mauryan Empire |
By the 6th century bc, Indian civilization was firmly
centered at the eastern end of the Gangetic Plain (in the area of present-day
Bihār), and certain kings became increasingly powerful. In the 6th century bc the Kingdom of Magadha conquered and
absorbed neighboring kingdoms, giving rise to India’s first empire. At the head
of the Magadha state was a hereditary monarch in charge of a centralized
administration. The state regularly collected revenues and was protected by a
standing army. This empire continued to expand, extending in the 4th century
bc into central India and as far
as the eastern coast.
As political power shifted east, the
area of the upper Indus became a frontier where local kings were confronted by
an expanding Persian empire. These invaders had conquered the land up to the
Indus River near the end of the 6th century bc. In 326 bc, after fighting the Persians and the
tribes to the west of the Indus, Alexander the Great traveled to the Beās River,
just east of what is now Lahore, Pakistan. Fearing the powerful and
well-equipped kingdoms that lay farther east, Alexander’s army revolted, forcing
him to turn back from India. What was left after his death in Babylon in 323
bc were the Hellenistic states of
what is now Afghanistan; these states later had a profound influence on the art
of India.
Chandragupta Maurya, the first king
of the Mauryan dynasty, succeeded the throne in Magadha in about 321 bc. In 305 bc Chandragupta defeated the ruler of a
Hellenistic kingdom on the plains of Punjab and extended what became the Mauryan
Empire into Afghanistan and Baluchistan to the southwest. Chandragupta was
assisted by Kautilya, his chief minister. The empire stretched from the Ganges
Delta in the east, south into the Deccan, and west to include Gujarāt. It was
further extended by Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta, to include all of
India (including what is now Pakistan and much of what is now Afghanistan)
except the far southern tip and the lands to the east of the Brahmaputra River.
The Mauryan Empire featured a complex administrative structure, with the emperor
as the head of a developed bureaucracy of central and local government.
After a bloody campaign against
Kalinga in what is now Orissa state in 261 bc, Ashoka became disillusioned with
warfare and eventually embraced Buddhism and nonviolence. Although Buddhism was
not made the state religion, and although Ashoka tolerated all religions within
his realm, he sent missionaries far and wide to spread the Buddhist message of
righteousness and humanitarianism. His son Mahinda and daughter Sanghamitta
converted the people of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and other missionaries were sent
to Southeast Asia and probably into Central Asia as well. He also sent cultural
missions to the west, including Syria, Egypt, and Greece. Ashoka built shrines
and monasteries and had rocks and beautifully carved pillars inscribed with
Buddhist teachings. (The lion capital of one of these pillars is now the state
emblem of India.)
B2 | The Post-Mauryan Kingdoms and Empires |
The Mauryan Empire rapidly
disintegrated after Ashoka’s death in 232 bc. In its aftermath, invaders fought
for outlying territories in the north, while regional monarchies gained power in
the south. The Mauryas’ original territorial core on the Gangetic Plain was
defended by the Sunga dynasty, which had consolidated its power by about 185
bc. The Sungas reigned over
extensive lands and were the most powerful of the north-central kingdoms. Their
dynasty lasted about a century, and was succeeded by the Kanvas, whose shrunken
kingdom was defeated in 28 bc by
the Andhra dynasty, invading from their homeland in the south.
The invasions of northern India came
in several waves from Central Asia. Indo-Greeks conquered the northwestern
portion of the empire in about 180 bc. Shortly thereafter, Menander, an
Indo-Greek king, conquered much of the remainder of northern India. By the 1st
century bc, the Shakas of Central
Asia had brought numerous tribes in western India under their control. In south
and central India, the Andhra dynasty (also known as Satavahana) ruled for
almost four centuries. The Maha-Meghavahanas held territories in the southeast,
while the Chola and the Pandya dynasties controlled the far south.
The first centuries ad saw the rise and triumph of another
major power from Central Asia: the Kushānas. At its height, this empire
stretched from Afghanistan to possibly as far as eastern Uttar Pradesh, and
included Gujarāt and central India. Although it is unclear whether he converted
himself, the Kushāna ruler Kanishka (who ruled in the late 1st century ad) is considered one of the great
patrons of Buddhism. He is credited with convening the fourth council on
Buddhism that marked the development of Mahayana Buddhism.
Between the decline of the Mauryas
and the emergence of the Gupta Empire, India was at the center of a global
economy, with social and religious links to all of Asia. Trade with the Roman
Empire brought an abundance of Roman gold coins to India beginning in the 1st
century ad. These coins were
melted down and reminted by the Kushānas. Buddhism spread through Central Asia
and Southeast Asia toward China. Indian art, particularly sculpture, achieved
greatness in this era.
C | The Classical Age |
C1 | The Gupta Dynasty |
The Kushāna dynasty collapsed in the
3rd century, leaving the Ganges River valley in the hands of several small
kingdoms. In about ad 320,
Chandragupta I, the ruler of the Magadha kingdom, united the many peoples of the
valley and founded the Gupta dynasty. For about the next century his son
Samudragupta and grandson Chandragupta II brought much of India under unified
control for the first time since the Mauryan Empire, controlling the lands from
the eastern hills of Afghanistan to Assam, north of the Narmada River.
Samudragupta conducted a successful military expedition as far south as the city
of Kānchipuram, but probably did not directly rule in those regions. The Guptas
directly ruled a core area that included the east central Gangetic Plain,
located in present-day Uttar Pradesh and Bihār. In addition, they conquered
other areas, reinstating the kings who were then obliged to pay tribute and
attend the imperial court. Both Chandragupta I and Chandragupta II made
strategic marriages that extended the empire, the latter with the successors to
the Andhra dynasty in central India. A policy of religious tolerance and
patronage of all religions also helped consolidate their rule.
The time of the Gupta Empire has been
called the golden age of Indian civilization because of the period’s great
flowering of literature, art, and science. In literature, the dramas and poems
of Kalidasa, who wrote the romantic drama Sakuntala, are especially well
known. The Puranas, a collection of myths and philosophical dialogues,
was begun around ad 400. These remain today the basic source
for the tales of the gods who are now central to Hinduism: Vishnu, Shiva, and
the goddess Shakti. During this era India’s level of science and technology was
probably higher than that of Europe. The use of the zero and the decimal system
of numerals, later transmitted to Europe by the Arabs, was a major contribution
to modern mathematics.
C2 | Regional Kingdoms after ad 500 |
The Gupta Empire faced many
challengers. Until about ad 500 it
was able to defeat internal and external enemies. In the mid-5th century the
White Huns, a nomadic people from Central Asia, moved onto the Indian plains and
were defeated by the Guptas. The Huns invaded India again in ad 510, when Gupta strength was in decline.
This time the invasion was successful, forcing the Guptas into the northeastern
part of their former empire. The Huns established their rule over much of
northwest India, extending to present-day western Uttar Pradesh. However, they
in turn were defeated by enemies to the west a short time later. The Buddhist
monasteries and the cities of this region never recovered from the onslaught of
the Huns. By ad 550 both the Hun
kingdom and the Gupta Empire had fallen.
The absence of these centralizing
powers left India to be ruled by regional kingdoms. These kingdoms often warred
with each other and had fairly short spans of power. They developed a political
system that emphasized the tribute of smaller chieftains. Later, starting in the
11th century and especially in the south, they legitimized this rule by
establishing great royal temples, supported by grants of land and literally
hundreds of Brahmans. Literature and art continued to flourish, particularly in
south and central India. The distinctive style of temple architecture and
sculpture that developed in the 7th and 8th centuries can be seen in the
pyramid-shaped towers and heavily ornamented walls of shrines at Māmallapuram
(sometimes called Mahabalipuram) and Kānchipuram south of Chennai, and in the
cave temples carved from solid rock at Ajanta and Ellora in Mahārāshtra. The
religious tradition of bhakti (passionate devotion to a Hindu god), which
emerged in Tamil Nādu in the 6th century and spread north over the next nine
centuries, was expressed in poetry of great beauty. With the decline of Buddhism
in much of peninsular India (it continued in what is now Bangladesh), Hinduism
developed new and profound traditions associated with the philosophers Shankara
in the early 800s and Ramanuja in about 1100.
The regional kingdoms were not small,
but only Harsha, who ruled from 606 to 647, attempted to create an expansive
empire. From his kingdom north of Delhi, he shifted his base east to present-day
central Uttar Pradesh. After extending his influence as far west as the Punjab
region, he tried to move south and was defeated by the Chalukya king Pulakeshin
II of Vatapi (modern Bādāmi) in about 641. By then the Pallava dynasty had
established a powerful kingdom on the east coast of the southern Indian
peninsula at Kānchipuram. During the course of the next half-century the
Pallavas and the neighboring Chalukyas of the Deccan Plateau struggled for
control of key peninsular rivers, each alternately sacking the other’s capital.
The eventual waning of the Pallavas by the late 8th century allowed the Cholas
and the Pandya dynasty to rule virtually undisturbed for the next four
centuries.
Elsewhere in India, the 8th century
saw continued power struggles among states. Harsha died in 647 bc and his kingdom contracted to the
west, creating a power vacuum in the east that was quickly filled by the Pala
dynasty. (The Palas ruled the Bengal region and present-day southern Bihār state
from the 8th through the 12th centuries.) Harsha’s capital of Kanauj was
conquered by the Gurjara-Pratiharas, who were based in central India, and who
managed to extend their rule west to the borders of Sind (in what is now
Pakistan). The Gurjara-Pratiharas fought with the Rashtrakutas for control of
the trade routes of the Ganges. The Rashtrakutas controlled the Deccan Plateau
from their capital in Ellora, near present-day Aurangābād. Their frequent
military campaigns into north and central India kept the small kingdoms ruled by
Muslims in Sind and southern Punjab confined. The Western Chalukyas also fought
with, and were finally overthrown by, the Rashtrakutas in the 8th century.
The kingdoms persisted despite this
protracted warfare because they were more or less equally matched in resources,
administrative and military capacities, and leadership. Although particular
dynasties did not last long, these kingdoms, which shifted the center of rule in
India to areas south of the Vindhya Range, had a remarkable stability, lasting
in one form or other in particular regions for centuries.
The kingdoms of the south, especially
the Pallavas and Cholas, had links with Southeast Asia. Temples in the style of
the early 8th-century Pallavas were built in Java soon after those in the
Pallava kingdom. In pursuit of trade, the Cholas made successful naval
expeditions at the end of the 10th century to Ceylon, the region of Bengal,
Sumatra, and Malaya. They also established direct trade with China. By the 12th
century the cities of the southwestern coast of India, in what is now Kerala and
southern Karnātaka, housed Jewish and Arab traders who drew on a network
centered in the Persian Gulf and reaching through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea
and Italy.
D | Muslim and Mongol Invaders |
By the 10th century Turkic Muslims
began invading India, bringing the Islamic religion to India. The Ghaznavids, a
dynasty from eastern Afghanistan, began a series of raids into northwestern
India at the end of the 10th century. Mahmud of Ghaznī, the most notable ruler
of this dynasty, raided as far as present-day Uttar Pradesh state. Mahmud did
not attempt to rule Indian territory except for the Punjab area, which he
annexed before his death in 1030.
A little more than a century after
Mahmud’s death, his magnificent capital of Ghaznī was destroyed in warfare among
rivals within Afghanistan. In 1175 one of the successors to Mahmud’s dismembered
empire, the Muslim conqueror Muhammad of Ghur, began his conquest of northern
India. Within 20 years he had conquered all of north India, including the Bengal
region. In 1206 Qutubuddin Aybak, one of Muhammad of Ghur’s generals, founded
the Delhi Sultanate with its capital at Delhi and began the Slave dynasty. Also
in 1206 Genghis Khan united the Mongol tribes and established the Mongol Empire.
He then moved rapidly into China and westward, reaching the Indus Valley about
1221. In the following three centuries the Mongols remained the dominant power
in northwest India, gradually merging with the Turkic Muslim peoples there.
The Delhi Sultanate engaged in constant
warfare during its 300-year reign, subduing intermittent rebellions of the
nobles of the Bengal region, repelling incursions of Mongols to the northwest,
and conquering and looting Hindu kingdoms as far south as Madurai in Tamil Nādu.
Beginning with the Slave dynasty, the sultanate was ruled by a succession of
five dynasties before it was finally overthrown by the Mughal emperor Humayun in
1556. During the reign of the short-lived Khalji dynasty (1290-1320), the
warrior leader Alauddin financed his successful campaigns to south India with an
established system of local revenue. The next dynasty, that of the Tughluqs,
weakened when Muhammad Tughluq moved his capital from Delhi to the more
centrally located Daulatabad in an effort to assert more permanent rule over his
southern lands. He lost control over the Delhi area, and nobles in the south and
in Bengal also established their independence. In 1398 the Mongol conqueror
Tamerlane invaded India, sacking Delhi and massacring its inhabitants. Tamerlane
withdrew from India shortly after the sack of Delhi, leaving the remnants of the
empire to Mahmud, who as last of the Tughluqs ruled from 1399 to 1413. Mahmud
was succeeded by the Sayyid dynasty (1414-1451), under which the Delhi Sultanate
shrank to virtually nothing. The Lodi dynasty (1451-1526), of Afghan origin,
later revived the rule of Delhi over much of north India, although it was unable
to give its rule a firm military and financial foundation. The rest of India
remained under the rule of other kings, some Muslim and some Hindu. The greatest
of these polities was the Hindu empire of Vijayanagar, which existed from 1336
to 1565, centered in what is now Karnātaka.
Many Indians converted to Islam during
this era. One of the areas where a great majority of the population became
Muslim was in the Punjab region, which by the end of the Delhi Sultanate had
been under the continuous rule of Muslim kings for more than 500 years. Muslims
did marry Hindus (the founder of the Khalji dynasty was the offspring of one
such marriage), and Hindus did convert to Islam. In general, Muslim kings were
far from tolerant, even despising their Hindu subjects, but there is no record
of forced mass conversions. The region that is now Bangladesh also became
overwhelmingly Muslim during this period. This area had been mainly Buddhist
before the Muslims arrived. Even in south India, where the Hindu revival
inspired by the works of Shankara and others had its greatest influence, a small
minority of people became Muslim.
E | The Mughal Empire |
E1 | Rise of the Mughals |
The Mughal Empire was founded in 1526
by Babur, a descendant of Tamerlane. It is famous for its extent (it covered
most of the Indian subcontinent) and for the heights that music, literature,
art, and especially architecture reached under its rulers. The Mughal Empire was
born when Babur, with the use of superior artillery, defeated the far larger
army of the Lodis at Pānīpat, near Delhi. Babur’s kingdom stretched from beyond
Afghanistan to the Bengal region along the Gangetic Plain. His son Humayun,
however, lost the kingdom to Bihār-based Sher Khan Sur (later Sher Shah) and
fled to Persia (now Iran). Humayun recaptured Delhi in 1555, shortly before his
death.
Humayun’s son Akbar, whose name
(meaning “great”) reflected the ruler he became, extended the Mughal Empire
until it covered the subcontinent from Afghanistan to the Bay of Bengal and from
the Himalayas to the Godāvari River. The Mughals moved their capitals
frequently: Wherever they made camp became the capital. The cities they built,
and the citadels within those cities, were like army camps, with the nobles
living in tents, rich carpets on the ground, and just the walls, audience halls,
royal residences, and mosques built of stone. In the course of the dynasty those
citadels were located in Lahore, in and around Āgra, in the architecturally
spectacular city of Fatehpur Sikri, and near the city of Shahjahanabad (“city of
Shah Jahan”).
Although illiterate, Akbar matched
the learning of his father and grandfather, both of whose courts were enriched
by Persian arts and letters, and surpassed them in wisdom. He brought under his
control the Hindu Rajput kings who ruled just south and west of Āgra by
defeating them in battle, extending religious tolerance, and offering them
alliances cemented by marriage (Akbar married two Rajput princesses, including
the mother of his son and successor, Jahangir) and positions of power in his
army and administration. As an observant Muslim, Akbar brought to his court
adherents to various sects of Islam, as well as priests of other faiths,
including Christians, to hear them present their beliefs. European visitors to
the Mughal court became even more frequent in the succeeding reigns of Jahangir
and Shah Jahan. Europeans were allowed to establish trading posts at the
periphery of the empire and beyond, but they never became influential at
court.
Paying for the military campaigns and
for the magnificent court required the transformation of traditional patterns of
taxation and administration. Sher Shah initiated the necessary administrative
system, and Akbar improved it. By accurately assessing average yearly harvests
for land in different regions and then standardizing the percentage of the
harvest due in taxes, Akbar secured a reliable source of income from land
revenues. To make it easier to govern his empire, he divided it into provinces
and subdivided it into districts. He established a bureaucracy of ranked
officials to administer the functions of the empire and paid many of its members
in cash rather than in the traditional form of grants of land, allowing for
flexibility in the location and type of assignments the officials were given.
This system was so successful that the British adopted it in large part.
The system came under strain with
Shah Jahan’s costly and unsuccessful campaign to capture the Mughal’s ancestral
homeland of Samarqand in 1646, and his son Aurangzeb’s equally costly efforts to
extend the empire south. In 1686 and 1687 Aurangzeb conquered the Muslim
kingdoms of Bijāpur and Golkonda, which controlled the northern half of the
Deccan Plateau. But his attempt to subdue the Hindu Maratha Confederacy
(centered in what is now Mahārāstra state) was ultimately unsuccessful, and the
Mughal armies suffered numerous defeats. Aurangzeb’s growing religious
intolerance also undermined the stability of the empire. In 1697 he reimposed a
poll tax on non-Muslims, abolished during Akbar’s rule. Disaffection over such
discriminatory policies, along with the now-crushing tax burden, led to
widespread rebellion at the end of Aurangzeb’s reign.
Although it did not formally end
until 1858, the Mughal Empire ceased to exist as an effective state after
Aurangzeb died in 1707. The political chaos of the period was marked by a rapid
decline of centralized authority, by the creation of many small kingdoms and
principalities by Muslim and Hindu adventurers, and by the formation of large
independent states by the governors of the imperial provinces. Among the first
of the large independent states to emerge was Hyderābād, established in 1712.
The tottering Mughal regime suffered a disastrous blow in 1739 when the Persian
king Nadir Shah led an army into India and plundered Delhi. Among the treasures
stolen by invaders were the mammoth Koh-i-noor diamond and the magnificent
Peacock Throne, made of solid gold inlaid with precious stones. Nadir Shah
withdrew from Delhi, but in 1756 the city was again captured—this time by Ahmad
Shah, emir of Afghanistan, who had previously seized Punjab.
E2 | Maratha Confederacy |
Despite these outside sieges upon
Delhi, it was the Marathas who first attempted to appropriate the lands of the
Mughal Empire. Moving from the northwestern Deccan Plateau, they seized lands in
Gujarāt in the 1720s, central India in the 1730s, the provinces up to the Bay of
Bengal in the 1750s, and south India as far as Tanjore (Thanjāvūr) in what is
now Tamil Nādu in the 1760s. They were defeated by the Afghans on the Pānīpat
battlefield in 1761, preventing them from expanding any farther north. The
Marathas held mainly nominal control of much of the land they conquered and did
not collect taxes from many areas. The Sikhs, whose persecution under the later
Mughals provoked them to transform themselves into a community of warriors,
built a kingdom in the Punjab in the late 18th century.
E3 | The Europeans in India |
As early as the 15th century,
Europeans were interested in developing trade opportunities with India and a new
trade route to East Asia. The Portuguese were devoted to this task, and in 1497
Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese royal navigator and explorer, led an expedition
around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean. In May 1498 he sailed
into the harbor of Calicut (now Kozhikode) on the Malabar Coast, opening a new
era of Indian history. Establishing friendly relations with the dominant kingdom
of the Deccan, the Portuguese secured lucrative trade routes on the coast of
India in the early 16th century.
For about the first two centuries
after Europeans arrived in India, their activities were restricted to trade and
evangelism, their presence protected by naval forces. For the entire period of
the Mughal Empire, European traders were confined to trading posts along the
coast. In the 16th century the Portuguese navy controlled the sea lanes of the
Indian Ocean, protecting the traders settled in Goa, Damān, and Diu on the
western coast. Christianity swiftly followed trade. Saint Francis Xavier, a
Spanish Jesuit missionary, came to Goa in 1542, converting tens of thousands of
Indians along the peninsular coast and in southern India and Ceylon before
leaving for Southeast Asia in 1545. In fact, the area of India he and other
missionaries traversed was already home to communities of Christians, some
converted by Saint Thomas in the 1st century ad and some who fled to India many
centuries later to escape persecution for their Nestorian beliefs.
The Dutch displaced the Portuguese as
masters of the seas around India in the 17th century. The Dutch East India
Company was founded in 1602, two years after its main rival, the English East
India Company. Both companies began by trading in spices, gradually shifting to
textiles, particularly India’s characteristic light, patterned cottons. Their
activities in India were centered primarily on the southern and eastern coasts
and in the Bengal region. The economic effect of purchases made at the coastal
depots were felt far inland in the cotton-growing areas, but the Europeans did
not at that time attempt to extend their political sway.
By the 18th century British sea power
matched that of the Dutch, and the European rivalry in India began to take on a
military dimension. During the first half of the 18th century the French, who
had begun to operate in India in about 1675, emerged as a serious threat to the
growing power and prosperity of the English East India Company. By the mid-18th
century the British and French were at war with each other throughout the world.
This rivalry manifested itself in India in a series of conflicts, called the
Carnatic Wars, which stretched over 20 years and established the British as the
primary European power in India.
As the French and British skirmished
over control of India’s foreign trade, the Mughal Empire was experiencing its
rapid decline and regional kingdoms were emerging. The continuously warring
rulers of these kingdoms used well-trained and disciplined French and British
forces to support their military activities. The foreigners, however, had their
own agenda, frequently expanding their own political or territorial power under
the guise of championing a local ruler. Led by innovative and effective Joseph
François Dupleix, the French managed by 1750 to place themselves in a powerful
position in southern India, especially in Hyderābād. In 1751, however, British
troops under Robert Clive captured the French southeastern stronghold of Arcot
in a pivotal battle. With this encounter the balance of power in the south swung
to favor the British, although the struggle for control of India’s trade
continued.
In Bengal, the English East India
Company had begun fortifying Fort William in Calcutta (now Kolkata) to defend
against possible attacks by the French. Nominally a part of the Mughal Empire,
Bengal was at this time virtually independent under the emperor’s nawab
(governor). In response to reports of unauthorized activities of the British,
the nawab Siraj-ud-Dawlah attacked Calcutta in 1756. Some British survivors of
the attack were imprisoned in a small dungeon known as the Black Hole of
Calcutta where a number of them died. After the incident, Robert Clive, then the
British governor of Fort Saint David, moved north from Madras and, conniving
with the commander of his enemy’s army, defeated the nawab in the Battle of
Plassey in 1757. The battle marked the first stage in the British conquest of
India. The French attempted to regain their position in India but were beaten
back by the British in 1761. In 1764 the British again defeated local rulers at
the Battle of Buxar. This victory firmly established British control over the
Bengal region.
F | The British Empire in India |
F1 | British Expansion |
The English East India Company
continued to extend its control over Indian territory throughout the late 18th
and early 19th centuries. Treaties made with Indian princes provided for the
stationing of British troops within these princely states. To pay for the troops
the British were often given revenue-collecting rights in certain parts of the
states; this gave them indirect control over these areas. Many of these states
were annexed when succession to the throne was in doubt or when the ruler acted
in ways that seemed contrary to British interests.
The British made even more
significant gains by military means. In the late 1700s they were drawn into a
three-way conflict when the nizam of Hyderābād asked for British assistance
against his rivals: the Marathas, and Tipu Sahib, the sultan of Mysore. In 1799
the British marched on Seringapatam, Tipu’s capital, and defeated his troops.
Tipu was killed defending the city. The British annexed much of Mysore outright;
they controlled the remainder through a new sultan they installed. After a
series of battles (1775-1782, 1803-1805, 1817-1818) with the Marathas, the
British also succeeded in bringing Maratha lands under their control.
In 1773 the British Parliament passed
the Regulating Act, the first of a series of acts that gave British governors
greater control over the English East India Company. Under the Regulating Act
the company was still permitted to continue handling all trading matters and to
have its own troops, but its activity was now supervised by parliament. The act
also established the post of governor-general of India and made the holder of
the office directly responsible to the British government. Warren Hastings
became the first governor-general of India in 1774.
The British proceeded to make major
changes in the administration of their realm. The three presidencies
(administrative districts)—Bengal, Bombay, and Madras—adopted different systems
of fixing responsibility for the payment of land taxes. In Bengal, the local
landed gentry accepted responsibility for a fixed amount of taxes in return for
ownership of large estates. Under this arrangement the British did not share in
the gains of any potential improvements in agricultural productivity. By
contrast, in Madras and Bombay, peasant cultivators paid annual taxes directly
to the government. The tax rate could be adjusted at fixed intervals, so in this
case the British could reap the benefits of agricultural expansion. A civil
service system was developed that admitted British officers through a merit
examination, trained them in an administrative college, and paid them handsomely
to reduce corruption. Meanwhile, the development of the textile industry in
Britain forced a transformation of India’s economy: India had to produce raw
cotton for export and buy manufactured goods—including cloth—from England, while
the cottage industries that produced textiles in India were ruined.
At the same time British attitudes
about Indian culture changed. Until about 1800 the East India Company traders
adapted themselves to the country, donning Indian dress, learning Sanskrit, and
sometimes taking Indian mistresses. As British rule strengthened, and as an
influential evangelical Christian movement emerged in the early 19th century,
India’s customs were judged more harshly. Missionaries, who had been kept out by
the company for fear they would upset Indians and thus disrupt commerce, were
now brought in. Laws were passed to abolish Indian customs such as suttee (the
immolation of a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre). The 18th-century company
officers, such as Sir William Jones, a scholar of Sanskrit who discovered the
relationship of Indo-European languages, were replaced by British subjects who
felt Indian thought and literature was of virtually no value. In 1835 English
was enforced as the language of government.
Under the leadership of
Governor-General James Andrew Broun Ramsay, 10th earl of Dalhousie, the empire
continued to expand. After two wars with the Sikhs, the Sikh state of Punjab was
added in 1849. Governor-General Dalhousie also annexed Sātāra, Jaipur,
Sambalpur, Jhānsi, and Nāgpur on the death of their native rulers, taking
advantage of a British doctrine that declared Britain’s right to govern any
Indian state where there was no natural heir to the throne. The absorption of
Oudh, long under Britain’s indirect control, was the last major piece added to
the company’s possessions; it was annexed in 1856. Dalhousie’s tenure was also
marked by various improvements and reforms: the construction of railroads,
bridges, roads, and irrigation systems; the establishment of telegraph and
postal services; and restrictions on slave trading and other ancient practices.
These innovations and reforms, however, aroused little enthusiasm among Indian
people, many of whom regarded the modernization of their country with both fear
and mistrust.
F2 | Sepoy Rebellion |
The annexation of Indian territory
and the rigorous taxation on Indian land contributed to a revolt against British
rule that began in 1857 (see Sepoy Rebellion). The revolt started as a
mutiny of Indian sepoys (soldiers) in the service of the English East
India Company in Meerut, a town northeast of Delhi. The mutiny erupted when some
sepoys refused to use their new Lee-Enfield rifles. To load the rifles, the
soldiers had to bite off the ends of greased cartridges. Rumors that the
cartridges were greased with the fat of cows and pigs outraged both Hindus, who
regard cows as sacred, and Muslims, who regard pigs as unclean. After taking
Meerut, the mutineers marched to Delhi and persuaded the nominal sovereign of
India, the Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II, to resume his rule. The revolt spread
rapidly, with local rulers playing an active part in expelling or killing the
British and putting their garrisons under siege, especially at Lucknow. The
revolt extended through Oudh Province (now part of Uttar Pradesh) and
present-day northern Madhya Pradesh. The British were able to crush it, making
particular use of Sikh soldiers recruited in the Punjab. The mutiny ended by
1859, with both sides guilty of atrocities.
The Sepoy Rebellion, with its
unanticipated fury and extent, left the British feeling insecure. In August 1858
the British Parliament abolished the English East India Company and transferred
the company’s responsibilities to the British crown. This launched a period of
direct rule in India, ending the fiction of company rule as an agent of the
Mughal emperor (who was tried for treason and exiled to Burma). In November
1858, in her proclamation to the “Princes, Chiefs, and Peoples of India,” Queen
Victoria pledged to preserve the rule of Indian princes in return for loyalty to
the crown. More than 560 such enclaves, taking in one-fourth of India’s area and
one-fifth of its people, were preserved until Indian independence in 1947. In
1876, at the urging of British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, Queen Victoria
took the title of Empress of India.
Among the reforms introduced after
the adoption of direct rule was a reorganization of the administrative system. A
secretary of state, aided by a council, began to control Indian affairs from
London. A viceroy (a governor who acts in the name of the British crown)
implemented London’s policies from Calcutta. An executive and a legislative
council provided advice and assistance. Provincial governors made up the next
level of authority, and below them were district officials.
The army was also reorganized after
the imposition of direct rule. The ratio of British to Indian soldiers was
reduced, and recruitment policies were reshaped to favor Sikhs and other
“martial races” who had been loyal during the Sepoy Rebellion. Castes and groups
that had been disloyal were carefully screened out.
Although the system of revenue
collection remained largely unchanged, landowners who remained loyal during the
mutiny were rewarded with titles and grants of large amounts of land, much of it
confiscated from those who rebelled. Later, during agitations for Indian
independence, the British were able to rely on many landowners for support.
With the imposition of direct rule,
the economy of India became even more closely linked than before with that of
Britain. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 reduced the sailing time between
Britain and India from about three months to only three weeks, enabling London
to exercise tight control over all aspects of Indian trade. Railroads, roads,
and communications were developed to bring raw materials, especially cotton, to
ports for shipment to England, and manufactured goods from England for sale in
an expanding Indian market. Development schemes, such as massive irrigation
projects in the Punjab, were also intended to serve the purpose of enriching
England. Indian entrepreneurs were not encouraged to develop their own
industries.
Although some industrialization took
place during this period, its benefits did not reach the majority of the Indian
population. During the 1850s, mechanized jute industries were developed in
Bengal and cotton textiles in western India, mainly by British firms. Although
these industries expanded rapidly from 1880 to 1914, and although an Indian
iron-and-steel industry was developed in the early 20th century, India remained
essentially an agrarian economy. By 1914 industry accounted for less than 5
percent of national income, and less than 1 percent of India’s workforce was
employed in factories. A succession of severe famines occurred at this time
despite the general improvement of agricultural production, the expansion of the
railways, and the development of administrative procedures designed to tackle
such crises. With only small advances in public health, death rates remained
high and life expectancy low.
The assumption of direct British rule
in 1858 made Indians British subjects and promised in principle that Indians
could participate in their own governance. Few reforms addressed this issue,
however. Although local government councils had been elected even before 1857,
it wasn’t until the Indian Councils Act of 1861 that Indians were permitted, by
appointment, to participate in the Executive Council, the highest council of the
land. Indian representation on local and provincial bodies gradually expanded
under British rule, although never to the point of complete control. The higher
civil service had theoretically been opened to Indians in 1833, and the Queen’s
Proclamation of 1858 confirmed this point again. Nevertheless, candidates for
the service had to go to England to compete in the examination, which emphasized
classical European subjects. Those few who managed to overcome these initial
obstacles and join the service encountered discrimination that prevented them
from advancing.
G | The Movement for Independence |
G1 | Rise of Indian Nationalism |
The Sepoy Rebellion and its aftermath
increased political awareness among the Indian people of the abuses of British
rule. This growing consciousness found its strongest voice among an
English-educated intelligentsia that grew up in India’s major cities during the
last three decades of the 19th century. These men were journalists, lawyers, and
teachers from India’s elite. Most had attended universities founded in 1857 by
the British in Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Kolkata), and Madras (now
Chennai). Studying the political theorists of Western democracy and capitalism
such as John Stuart Mill convinced many that they were being denied the full
rights and responsibilities of British citizenship.
Dissatisfaction with British rule
took organized political form in 1885, when these men, with the support of
sympathetic Englishmen, formed the Indian National Congress. Resolutions at the
first session called for increased Indian participation on provincial
legislative councils and improved access for Indians to employment in the Indian
Civil Service. Initially the organization adopted a moderate approach to reform.
For its first 20 years, the Congress served as a forum for debate on questions
of British policy toward India, as well as a platform to push for economic and
social changes. Central to a newly developed Indian identity was the argument,
articulated by three-time Congress president Dadabhai Naoroji, that Great
Britain was draining India of its wealth by means of unfair trade regulations.
The Congress also took issue with the restraint on the development of native
Indian industry and the use of Indian taxes to pay the high salaries and
pensions of the British who ruled over India by “right” of conquest.
At the same time, a Hindu social
reform movement that had begun 50 years earlier contributed ideas about the
injustice of caste and gender discrimination. Reformers lobbied for laws to
permit, for example, the remarriage of Hindu women widowed before puberty. In
western India, one reformer, journalist Bal Gangadhar Tilak, impatient with the
slow pace of the nationalist movement, attempted to mobilize a larger audience
by drawing on Hindu religious symbolism and Maratha history to spark patriotic
fervor. A similar thread of nationalism appeared in Bengal. By 1905 extreme
nationalists had arisen to challenge the more moderate members of Congress,
whose petitioning of the British government had had little success.
George Nathaniel Curzon, who was
viceroy of India from 1899 to 1905, presided over the affairs of British India
at its peak, and he worked to weaken nationalist opposition to British rule. In
1905 he partitioned the administratively unwieldy province of Bengal into East
Bengal and Assam (with a Muslim majority) and Bengal, Bihār, and Orissa (with a
Hindu majority). This measure sparked a set of developments in the nationalist
movement that were to transform India’s future. The Hindu elite of Bengal, many
of whom were landlords collecting rent from Muslim peasants of East Bengal, were
roused to protest not just in the press and at public meetings, but with direct
action. Some pushed a boycott and swadeshi (literally “own-country,” but
meaning here “buy Indian”) campaign against British goods, especially textiles.
Others joined small terrorist groups that succeeded in assassinating some
British officials. This movement echoed in other parts of India as well. By 1908
imports had fallen off significantly, and sales of local goods enjoyed a
five-year boom that gave real impetus to the development of native
industries.
The emergence of extremism, led
particularly by Tilak, resulted in a split in the Congress in 1907. The election
of a new Liberal government in Britain in 1906 and the subsequent appointment of
a new Liberal secretary of state, John Morley, gave new heart to the moderates.
Many extremists were imprisoned by the British for lengthy terms.
Finally, the partition of Bengal, the
vehement agitation against it, and the prospect of liberal reform crystallized
the opposition of the Muslim elite to the trend of Indian nationalism. They
worried about the role of a Muslim minority in a fully democratic, independent
India. In October 1906 a delegation of about 35 Muslim leaders called upon Lord
Minto, the viceroy, to ask for separate electorates for Muslims and a weighted
proportion of legislative representation that would reflect their historic role
as rulers and their record of cooperating with the British. (These requests were
later adopted in the reforms incorporated in the Government of India Act of
1909.) In December, this delegation, joined by additional delegates from every
province of India and Burma, formed the All-India Muslim League (later the
Muslim League). Although the Muslim League did not then generate a mass
following, its leaders played an important role in the politics that accompanied
the challenge to British rule and the partition of India in 1947.
Ultimately the opposition to the
partition of Bengal was successful. In 1911 the division was annulled, and the
eastern and western portions of Bengal were reunited as a presidency, with
Calcutta as its capital. Assam became its own province, while Bihār and Orissa
were joined as a province (divided into separate provinces in 1936). Also at
this time, the British authorities announced that the capital of India would be
moved from Calcutta (where it had been formally since 1858) to Delhi. There, a
new adjoining city called New Delhi would be built to house the government
offices; it was inaugurated as the capital in 1931. Although New Delhi was
constructed on a grand imperial scale, the losses from World War I (1914-1918)
dealt what was to become a mortal blow to the British Empire.
G2 | The World Wars and the Emergence of Gandhi |
India was a major source of support
for Britain’s war effort. Some 750,000 Indian troops served in Europe, the
Middle East, and Africa; more than 36,000 were killed. India supplied wheat and
other goods to British forces east of Suez, and with the loss of trade with
Germany and the other Central Powers and the continuance of heavy taxation, the
economic cost of the war was evident. Political resistance to British rule
continued, although mainly at a more moderate level. A small, mostly Sikh
revolutionary movement appeared briefly in Punjab.
Shortly after the war began, Indian
lawyer Mohandas Gandhi returned to India from South Africa, where he had
organized and led an Indian ambulance corps when the war broke out. When he came
to India in 1915 he was already an important political leader because of an
earlier trip to India in 1901 and 1902 and because of his efforts for civil
liberties in South Africa. He met with the viceroy and the leaders of the
Congress, and in 1916 he forged a pact with Mohammed Ali Jinnah, leader of the
Muslim League, for Congress-Muslim League joint action. Gandhi also became
involved in a number of campaigns of nonviolent resistance, in which he honed
the nonviolent techniques he had developed in South Africa.
In 1917 Edwin Montague, the secretary
of state for India, had announced a policy of the “gradual development of
self-governing institutions with a view to the progressive realization of
responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire.” As
the war ended the British introduced a fresh set of reforms, culminating in the
Government of India Act of 1919. This act brought some Indian control over
certain executive departments in the provinces and greater representation of
Indians in the central legislative council. Also, the act made it easier for
Indians to gain admission into the civil service and into the officer corps of
the army, an aspect of the law which encountered resistance from some
British.
In the same year that it passed these
reforms, however, the legislative council also passed the Rowlatt Acts. The
Rowlatt Acts, which detractors called the Black Acts, made permanent some
restrictions on civil liberties that had been imposed during the war.
Specifically, the acts gave the government emergency powers to deal with
so-called revolutionary activities. There was an immediate wave of disapproval
from all Indian leaders, and Gandhi stepped in and organized a series of
nonviolent acts of resistance. Gandhi called these acts satyagraha
(Sanskrit for “truth and firmness”). These included nationwide work stoppages
(hartal) and other activities in which Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs
participated together. One of these protests coincided with a Hindu festival in
Amritsar. Despite a last-minute ban on public meetings, thousands of unarmed
pilgrims and protesters gathered in a public square to celebrate on April 13,
1919. Without warning, British troops opened fire on the peaceful crowd, killing
nearly 400 people. The success of the Rowlatt Satyagraha followed by the
Amritsar incident brought public sympathy to the nationalist movement, and with
it a new level of prestige.
In 1920, when the government failed
to make amends, Gandhi began an organized campaign of noncooperation. Many
Indians returned their British honors, withdrew their children from British
schools, resigned from government service, and began a new boycott of British
goods. Gandhi reorganized the Congress in 1920, transforming it from an annual
gathering of self-selected leaders with a skeleton staff to a mass movement,
with membership fees and requirements set to allow even the poorest Indian to
join. Gandhi ended the noncooperation movement in 1922 after 22 Indian policemen
were burned to death. A lull in nationalist activity followed. Gandhi was jailed
shortly after ending the noncooperation movement and remained in prison until
1924. In 1928, a British committee began to study the next steps of democratic
reform, sparking a revival of the Congress movement. In its 1929 annual session,
the Congress issued a demand for “complete independence.”
Gandhi then led another even more
massive movement of civil disobedience. It climaxed in 1930 with the so-called
Salt Satyagraha, in which thousands of Indians protested taxes, particularly the
tax on salt, by marching to the Arabian Sea and making salt from evaporated
seawater. Tens of thousands, including Gandhi, were sent to jail as a result.
The British government gave in, and Gandhi went to London as the sole
representative of the Congress to negotiate new steps of reform.
In 1935, after these negotiations,
the British Parliament approved legislation known as the Government of India Act
of 1935. The legislation provided for the establishment of autonomous
legislative bodies in the provinces of British India, the creation of a federal
form of central government incorporating the provinces and princely states, and
the protection of Muslim minorities. The act also provided for a bicameral
national legislature and an executive arm under control of the British
government. The federation was never realized, but provincial legislative
autonomy went into effect April 1, 1937, after nationwide elections. In these
elections, the Congress saw victory in much of India, except in areas where
Muslims were a majority. Congress governments, with significant powers, took
office in a number of provinces.
When World War II broke out in 1939
the British declared war on India’s behalf without consulting Indian leaders,
and the Congress provincial ministries resigned in protest. After extended
negotiations with the British, who were searching for a way to grant
independence some time after the war’s end, Gandhi declared a “Quit India”
movement in 1942, urging the British to withdraw from India or face nationwide
civil disobedience. Along with other Congress leaders, he was imprisoned in
August that year, and the country erupted in violent demonstrations. Gandhi was
not released until 1944.
The Muslim League supported Britain
in the war effort but had become convinced that if the Congress Party were to
inherit British rule, Muslims would be unfairly treated. Jinnah campaigned
vigorously against Congress during the war and increased the Muslim League’s
support base. In 1940 the League passed what came to be known as the Pakistan
Resolution, which demanded separate states in the Muslim-majority areas of India
(in the northwest, centered on Punjab, and in the east, centered on Bengal) at
independence. Many Muslims supported the Muslim League in its demand, while
Hindus (and some Muslims) supported the Congress, which opposed partition of
British India. Another round of negotiations over Indian independence began
after the war in 1946, but the Congress and the Muslim League were unable to
settle their differences over partition. Jinnah proclaimed August 16, 1946,
Direct Action Day for the purpose of winning a separate Muslim state. Savage
Hindu-Muslim riots broke out in Calcutta the next day and quickly spread
throughout India. In September, an interim government was installed. Jawaharlal
Nehru, the leader of Congress, became India’s first prime minister. A united
India, however, no longer seemed possible. The new Labor government in Britain
decided that the time to end British rule of India had come, and in early 1947
Britain announced its intention of transferring power no later than June
1948.
G3 | Indian Independence |
As independence approached and Hindus
and Muslims continued to fight and kill each other, Gandhi once again put his
belief in nonviolence into play. He went on his own to a Muslim-majority area of
Bengal, placing himself as a hostage for the safety of Muslims living among
Hindus in western Bengal. With the British army unable to deal with the threat
of mounting violence, the new viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, decided to advance the
schedule of the transfer of power, leaving just months for the parties to agree
on a formula for independence. Finally in June 1947 Congress and Muslim League
leaders, against Gandhi’s wishes, agreed to a partition of the country along
religious lines, with predominantly Hindu areas allocated to India and
predominantly Muslim areas to Pakistan. They agreed to a partition of the
Muslim-majority provinces of Punjab and Bengal as well. Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh
refugees numbering in the millions streamed across the newly drawn borders. In
Punjab, where the Sikh community was cut in half, a period of terrible bloodshed
followed. In Bengal, where Gandhi became what Lord Mountbatten called a “one-man
boundary force,” the violence was insignificant in comparison. On India’s
independence day, August 15, 1947, Gandhi was in Calcutta rather than Delhi,
mourning the division of the country rather than celebrating the self-rule for
which he had fought.
H | India After Independence |
H1 | Territorial Consolidation |
Under the provisions of the Indian
Independence Act, India and Pakistan were established as independent dominions
of the British Commonwealth of Nations, with the right to withdraw from or
remain within the Commonwealth. At independence India received most of the 562
princely states, as well as the majority of the British provinces, and parts of
three of the remaining provinces. Pakistan received the remainder. Pakistan
consisted of a western wing, with the approximate boundaries of modern Pakistan,
and an eastern wing, with the boundaries of present-day Bangladesh. For the
subsequent history of Pakistan (and Bangladesh, from 1947 to 1971), see
Pakistan: History.
Before independence, Mountbatten had
made clear to the Indian princes that they would have to choose to join either
India or Pakistan at partition. In all but three cases, the princes, most of
them ruling over very small territories, were able to work out an agreement with
one country or another, generally a deal that preserved some measure of their
status and a great deal of their revenue. The status of three princely
states—namely, Jammu and Kashmīr, Hyderābād, and the small and fragmented state
of Jūnāgadh (in present-day Gujarāt)—remained unsettled at independence,
however. The Muslim ruler of Hindu-majority Jūnāgadh agreed to join to Pakistan,
but a movement by his people, followed by Indian military action and a
plebiscite (people’s vote of self-determination), brought the state into India.
The nizam of Hyderābād, also a Muslim ruler of a Hindu-majority populace, tried
to maneuver to gain independence for his very large and populous state, which
was, however, surrounded by India. After more than a year of fruitless
negotiations, India sent its army in a police action in September 1948, and
Hyderābād became part of India.
Hari Singh, the Hindu maharaja of
Jammu and Kashmīr, a large state with a majority Muslim population and adjacent
to both India and Pakistan, kept postponing the decision of whether to join
India or Pakistan, hoping to explore the possibilities of independence. After
tribal warriors supported by Pakistan invaded and threatened his capital in
October 1947, Hari Singh finally agreed to join India in exchange for military
support from the Indian army. The situation, however, was complicated by a
nearly 20-year-old movement against the maharaja—a movement that was likely
supported by a large majority of Muslims of the Kashmīr valley. Sheikh Muhammad
Abdullah, the leader of the movement against the maharaja, also explored the
possibility of independence, but his friendship with Nehru prevented him from
pursuing this idea. Sheikh Abdullah and Nehru made an arrangement whereby
Abdullah became Jammu and Kashmīr’s first prime minister in 1948, and the new
state was granted far more autonomy than any other princely state that had
joined India.
The problems with Jammu and Kashmīr,
however, were only beginning. As fighting continued between Indian and Pakistani
forces, India asked the United Nations (UN) for help. A cease-fire was arranged
in 1949, with the cease-fire line creating a de facto partition of the region.
The central and eastern areas of the region came under Indian administration as
Jammu and Kashmīr state, while the northwestern third came under Pakistani
control as Azad (Free) Kashmīr and the Northern Areas. Although a UN
peacekeeping force was sent in to enforce the cease-fire, the territorial
dispute remained unresolved (see Indo-Pakistani Wars).
France and Portugal still held
territories on the Indian coast after India gained independence. The French
territories, the largest of which was Puducherry, had an area of about 500 sq km
(about 200 sq mi); they were ceded to India in 1956. Portugal’s main Indian
possession was Goa, a territory on the western coast of India. Goa had an area
of about 3,400 sq km (about 1,300 sq mi) and a population of about 600,000 in
1959. Portugal refused to cede its territories to India, and in December 1961
the Indian army occupied them. Portugal eventually accepted India’s rule in the
early 1970s. Goa became a state of India in 1987; Puducherry became a union
territory in 1962.
H2 | India Under Nehru |
The constitution of India came into
force on January 26, 1950, a date celebrated annually as Republic Day. The
constitution provided for a federal union of states and a parliamentary system,
and included a list of “fundamental rights” guaranteeing freedom of the press
and association.
Under Nehru’s leadership, the
government attempted to develop India quickly by embarking on agrarian reform
and rapid industrialization. A successful land reform was introduced that
abolished giant landholdings, but efforts to redistribute land by placing limits
on landownership failed. Attempts to introduce large-scale cooperative farming
were frustrated by landowning rural elites, who—as staunch Congress Party
supporters—had considerable political weight. Agricultural production expanded
until the early 1960s, as additional land was brought under cultivation and some
irrigation projects began to have an effect. The establishment of agricultural
universities, modeled after land-grant colleges in the United States, also
helped. These universities worked with high-yielding varieties of wheat and
rice, initially developed in Mexico and the Philippines, that in the 1960s began
the Green Revolution, an effort to diversify and increase crop production. At
the same time a series of failed monsoons brought India to the brink of famine,
prevented only by food grain aid from the United States.
The planning commission of the
central government inaugurated a series of five-year plans in 1952 that
emphasized the building of basic industries such as steel, heavy machine tools,
and heavy electrical machinery (such as power plant turbines) rather than
automobiles and other consumer goods. New investment in those industries, as
well as investment in infrastructure, especially railroads, communications, and
power generation, was reserved for the public sector. Most other economic
activity was in private hands, but entrepreneurs were subject to a complex set
of licenses, regulations, and controls. These were designed to ensure a fair
allotment of scarce resources and protect workers’ rights, but in practice they
hampered investment and management. The central government controlled foreign
trade stringently. Substantial progress was made toward the goal of industrial
self-reliance and growth in manufacturing during the 1950s and early 1960s.
India’s large diversity of languages
contributed to internal political problems during the 1950s and early 1960s.
Although Gandhi had reorganized the Congress movement in 1920 to reflect
linguistic divisions, and although the nationalist movement had always promised
a reorganization of provincial boundaries once independence was achieved, Nehru
resisted a demand to bring together the Telugu-speaking areas of the former
British province of Madras and Hyderābād state. He yielded only when the leader
of the movement fasted to death, and severe riots broke out. A States
Reorganization Commission was appointed, and in 1956 the interior boundaries of
India were redrawn along linguistic lines. In 1960 much of the land making up
Bombay state was divided into Mahārāshtra and Gujarāt states, with the remainder
going to Karnātaka state. In 1966 most of Punjab was split into the states of
Punjab and Haryāna after significant public protest. Aside from some minor
border disputes, and with additional states formed mainly in northeast India,
the reorganization generally strengthened India’s unity.
The thorny problem of a national
language for the country remained. The constitution specified that Hindi, spoken
in many dialects by 40 percent of Indians, would become the official language in
1965, after a transition in which English, spoken by the educated elite of the
country, would serve. Non-Hindi speakers, especially in the south Indian state
of Madras (later renamed Tamil Nādu), mobilized against central government
efforts to impose Hindi. To settle the dispute, the government allowed continued
use of English for states that wished to keep it.
During its first years as a republic
India figured increasingly in international affairs, especially in deliberations
and activities of the UN. Nehru became world famous as the leading spokesman for
nonalignment, the idea that other countries should refuse to take sides in a
mounting ideological and political struggle between the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR) and the United States known as the Cold War. Indian
determination to avoid entanglement with either of these powers became
increasingly apparent after the outbreak of the Korean War (1950-1953). Although
the Indian government approved the UN Security Council resolution invoking
military sanctions against North Korea, no Indian troops were committed to the
cause, and Nehru dispatched notes on the situation to the United States and the
Soviet Union, repeatedly trying to restore peace in Korea. In its initial
attempts at mediation the Indian government suggested that admitting China to
the UN was a prerequisite to a solution of the Korean crisis. Even after China
intervened in the Korean War—and despite India’s differences with China over
Tibet, which China had invaded in 1950—India adhered to this view. However, it
was rejected by a majority of the UN Security Council.
Nehru was unable to resolve the
hostility with Pakistan, rooted in the Indian nationalists’ opposition to the
creation of Pakistan and in the terrible bloodshed that accompanied the
partition of the two countries at independence. The division of Jammu and
Kashmīr along the 1949 cease-fire line left each country claiming important
territory held by the other. Diplomatic efforts at the UN and at bilateral
meetings between Nehru and Liaquat Ali Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan,
proved unsuccessful. Although India had agreed to hold a plebiscite in Jammu and
Kashmīr state, it claimed that the plebiscite was dependent on the withdrawal of
Pakistani forces from the region, and that the vote of the Jammu and Kashmīr
state legislature in the mid-1950s to integrate fully into India made a
plebiscite unnecessary. Pakistan claimed that a mutual withdrawal of forces was
necessary, and that one party to an agreement cannot unilaterally change it.
In the late 1950s India began to
conflict with China over the ownership of some largely uninhabited land along
India’s northeastern border in Arunāchal Pradesh and in the hill areas of
northeastern Jammu and Kashmīr. Until that time India’s relations with China had
been generally amiable, and Nehru believed that the territorial dispute could be
solved through friendly negotiations. The difficulty of mapping the area
accurately, and the conflicts between the security interests of the two
countries, however, proved to be thornier problems than Nehru had anticipated.
By 1959 the dispute had begun heating up, and popular pressure not to yield
territory to China grew. Nehru’s government sent military patrols into the
disputed territory.
China’s answer was to attack in both
disputed areas in October 1962, quickly routing an ill-prepared Indian army, and
threatening to move virtually unopposed to the plains of Assam. In desperation,
India sought Western and military aid, especially from the United States, which
the administration of President John F. Kennedy willingly provided. The fighting
ended when China unilaterally announced a cease-fire in late November,
continuing to occupy some of the territories it had invaded. The crisis
precipitated a drastic overhaul of Indian defenses, including massive arms
procurement and the modernization of its armed forces. Also, Defense Minister V.
K. Krishna Menon, a powerful neutralist, was ousted from the government at the
end of October. This in turn alarmed Pakistan, concerned that its small size and
small economic capacity compared with India would condemn it to a permanent
position of inferiority on the subcontinent.
Nehru died in May 1964. He was
succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri, who was seen both at home and abroad as a weak
successor. Unrest in Kashmīr combined with Pakistan’s belief in India’s
weakness, resulted in a short war between the two countries in September 1965.
The Soviet Union brokered a cease-fire, and literally hours after it was signed
in January 1966, Shastri died in Toshkent, Uzbekistan.
I | The Indira Gandhi Era |
I1 | Indira Gandhi’s Rise to Power |
Prime Minister Shastri died just as
India entered a period of severe economic crisis, brought on by successive
monsoon failures and the failure of the strategy of self-reliant
industrialization to generate resources necessary for investment. Shastri’s
successor was Nehru’s daughter, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi. Gandhi, who was
leader of the Congress Party and an elected member of parliament since 1955, was
chosen by a group of conservative old-guard Congress leaders known as “the
syndicate.” The syndicate regarded her as a pliant figurehead, but also as a
genuinely national leader who was needed to preserve Congress power in the 1967
elections. In those elections the Congress suffered serious reverses and was
soundly defeated in a number of states as well as being reduced to a minority of
seats in the lower house of parliament; a number of syndicate members lost their
seats.
In this atmosphere of political
instability and economic crisis, Indira Gandhi took the bold initiative of
nationalizing the country’s largest banks and abolishing payments of personal
allowances to the Indian princes, which had been part of the agreement that had
brought them peacefully into the Indian union. In the 1971 elections,
campaigning on a platform of abolishing poverty, Gandhi led the Congress Party
to a decisive victory.
In December 1970 the Awami League, an
East Pakistani party advocating a federation under which East Pakistan would be
virtually independent, won a majority of votes in Pakistan’s first legislative
elections since independence. Civil war broke out in the country after
Pakistan’s military leader refused to allow the legislature to convene. Millions
of refugees, mainly Hindus, were forced into India. India supported the East
Pakistani freedom fighters with sanctuary, training, and arms, and when Pakistan
bombed Indian airfields on December 3, 1971, India invaded Pakistan to liberate
East Pakistan. The Pakistani troops were quickly defeated, and East Pakistan
gained recognition as the independent nation of Bangladesh (Bengali for “land of
the Bengalis”). Pakistan’s humiliating defeat, despite the efforts of the United
States on its behalf, restored India’s pride that had been so badly hurt by its
defeat by China.
The success also of the Green
Revolution, an effort to diversify and increase crop yields, brought India to a
position of self-sufficiency in food grain production, and made the sweeping
victory of Gandhi’s Congress in the 1972 state elections almost inevitable.
Gandhi attempted to build on this political advantage by reorganizing the party
so that its state leaders would owe their primary loyalty to her and the
national party, and to push forward further radical measures in the economic
sphere, nationalizing the wholesale trade in wheat in 1973. A worldwide oil
crisis in 1973, coupled with a series of poor harvests, brought about severe
inflation. Gandhi began to lose support after several unpopular moves, such as
rescinding on the nationalization of wholesale wheat trade and the testing of
the country’s first atomic device in 1974.
By the spring of 1975 harsh economic
measures had brought the economy back under control. At the same time, however,
Gandhi was convicted of corrupt practices in the election of 1971. Although she
maintained her innocence, opposition to Gandhi grew, bringing together elite
politicians anxious for power with a grassroots opposition movement that had
been building in the previous year. Gandhi’s response to this mounting pressure
was to declare a state of national emergency in June 1975. Opposition
politicians were jailed, the press was censored, and strong disciplinary
measures were taken against a bureaucracy that had grown slack and corrupt.
Initially the country did well under the so-called Emergency Rule: Hindu-Muslim
riots, which had been increasing in the late 1960s and early 1970s, virtually
ceased, prices stabilized, and government seemed to work with honesty and
vigor.
As stringent measures and corruption
in the government continued, however, the Indian public grew resentful, and open
opposition to Congress leaders and the bureaucracy surfaced. In the fall of 1976
Gandhi pushed through amendments to the constitution that would have entrenched
many of the emergency provisions. At the same time, her younger son, Sanjay, was
associated with a coercive family planning campaign and similar measures, and
government leaders enjoyed a lack of accountability to the public.
I2 | Janata Government |
Rather than postpone elections again,
Gandhi sought a popular mandate in hopes of reenergizing her regime. Although
she did not lift the emergency provisions, she did release most of the
opposition politicians, who were soon joined by a major defector from the
Congress, Jagjivan Ram, a leader among those formerly called Untouchables.
Coming together as the Janata (People’s) Party, these leaders soundly defeated
the Congress in the 1977 elections, thus bringing about the first ruling party
change of the national government since India became independent. The Congress
Party split, and the faction loyal to Gandhi was renamed Congress (I), for
Indira. The Janata government, which was headed by Morarji R. Desai, a survivor
of the Congress old guard, was divided and ineffective, and the government
collapsed after two years in power.
I3 | Indira Gandhi Returns |
Indira Gandhi returned to power in
the 1980 elections with her Congress (I) Party. Shortly thereafter, her son
Sanjay was killed when an airplane he was piloting crashed. Gandhi then
persuaded her other son, Rajiv Gandhi, to enter politics. Elections in 1980
turned the control of many state legislatures from Janata governments to
Congress (I) ones. An exception was in West Bengal, where a Communist Party
government continued in power, winning election after election. Despite a
revival in India’s economic fortunes in the late 1970s, Indira Gandhi soon faced
a political crisis of major proportions. A nationalist movement had emerged
among native inhabitants of Assam state against Bengali immigrants, and an
extremist Sikh leader was conducting a terrorist campaign to establish a Sikh
state in the Punjab region, the historical homeland of the Sikhs.
In June 1984 Gandhi ordered the army
to fight its way into the main shrine of the Sikh religion, the Golden Temple in
Amritsar, where Sikh terrorists had established their headquarters. About 1,000
people, including the main terrorist leaders, died in the battle. All the
buildings of the complex, with the exception of the central shrine, were badly
damaged. Sikhs everywhere were outraged at the desecration. On October 31, 1984,
Indira Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh members of her security guard.
J | The Rajiv Gandhi Government |
With elections looming, the Congress
quickly selected Rajiv Gandhi to succeed his mother as prime minister. In the
days following the assassination, Sikhs in Delhi and other cities in northern
India were killed in the thousands. Gandhi responded to the unrest among the
Sikhs by agreeing to expand the boundaries of Punjab state. In yet another
tragedy that year, a gas leak from a pesticide plant at Bhopāl resulted in the
deaths of at least 3,300 people; more than 20,000 became ill.
Despite this internal turmoil, the 1984
elections, secured by the young, fresh leader Rajiv Gandhi, promised both
continuity and change and brought an enthusiastic turnout; the Congress (I)
party scored its most impressive victory ever. Gandhi quickly moved to negotiate
peace accords in Assam and Punjab and accelerated the economic liberalization
begun by his mother. His political inexperience, however, quickly surfaced. His
uncertainty on how to handle a Supreme Court decision that antagonized orthodox
Muslims cost him Muslim support and at the same time encouraged renewed
stirrings of Hindu nationalism. The Punjab accord unraveled when the moderate
leader with whom he had negotiated it was assassinated. Also, Gandhi sent Indian
troops in 1987 to Sri Lanka to help suppress a rebellion by Tamil guerrillas. A
peace agreement was signed in July, but violent clashes continued, and Indian
troops were left embroiled in that guerrilla war.
Although economic growth accelerated to
record levels, it was fueled by large-scale external borrowing; the government
was also spending a great deal on modernizing its armed forces. A military
exercise to test new weapons and new tactics brought India and Pakistan to the
brink of war in 1987, and a kickback scandal involving the purchase of artillery
from a Swedish firm weakened Gandhi’s government. However, in 1988 relations
between India and Pakistan improved when Gandhi made the first official visit of
an Indian prime minister to Pakistan in nearly 25 years. Despite subsequent
high-level talks aimed at defusing tensions between the two countries, relations
rapidly deteriorated again in late 1989 after India accused Pakistan of
supporting a violent separatist insurgency being waged by militant Muslim groups
in Jammu and Kashmīr.
K | India in the 1990s |
Corruption was the main issue in the
1989 elections. Once again the Congress (I) lost its power, this time to a
coalition led by V. P. Singh, who had served as Rajiv Gandhi’s finance and then
defense minister before being expelled from the Congress (I) Party for
investigating corruption allegations. Singh’s National Front coalition collapsed
when L. K. Advani, the leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP), was arrested for campaigning to replace the 16th-century Babri Masjid
(Mosque of Babur) in Ayodhya with a temple to the god Rama. The BJP withdrew its
support for Singh’s government. The government that replaced it, led by Chandra
Shekhar, was scuttled in 1991 by the Congress (I) Party, which had initially
supported it. In the meantime, India’s finances were badly hit when Iraq invaded
Kuwait in 1990: Remittances from Indian workers in Kuwait and Iraq abruptly
ceased, and the workers had to be brought home at great cost.
In May 1991 Rajiv Gandhi was
assassinated by a Sri Lankan Tamil terrorist during a campaign rally. The
assassination disrupted the May elections, and a second round of voting was
scheduled for June. P. V. Narasimha Rao, who had once served as Gandhi’s foreign
minister, was chosen to replace Gandhi as head of the Congress (I). Rao led the
party to a near majority in the second round of voting, and took office as
India’s new prime minister.
K1 | Economic Reform |
When Rao took office, India was
facing an economic crisis that threatened the country with bankruptcy. Rao made
economic reform the first item on his agenda. Under his reforms, many of the
most burdensome controls on private enterprise, such as licenses to build or
expand factories, were abolished. His government also welcomed foreign
investment, and lowered tariff rates to encourage trade.
India’s economy responded with growth
in the gross domestic product, a rapid expansion of trade, and new vigor in the
private sector, visible in new products from automobiles to breakfast cereals.
Other parts of the reform package were only partially implemented. Subsidies to
farmers were cut barely at all, privatization of public-sector enterprises was
attempted with great caution, and little was done to change laws that made labor
management difficult. The states began to compete vigorously for private
investment, including foreign investment, and also took some small steps to
privatize their own public-sector enterprises.
K2 | Hindu Nationalism |
The economic policies were put in
place with surprisingly little political resistance. This was due perhaps to
other major political issues commanding attention at the time, including Hindu
nationalism. Faced with a militant movement with links to the BJP to demolish
the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya and build a Hindu temple there, the Rao government
decided to accept the assurances of the BJP government of Uttar Pradesh that the
shrine would be protected. But in December 1992 gangs of militant Hindu youths
stormed the mosque and demolished it, sparking serious protests by Muslims,
police firings, and then Hindu-Muslim riots, with a particularly terrible one in
Mumbai; thousands lost their lives.
Militant Hindu nationalism had
apparently peaked, however. In March 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai severely damaged
the Bombay Stock Exchange and killed several hundred people, but the bombing did
not spark riots, even though it was widely assumed that Muslim extremists were
responsible. The BJP, whose governments in several north Indian states had been
dismissed by the central government in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid
demolition, faced united opposition in the elections of November 1993 and fared
poorly.
K3 | Rise of the BJP |
The 1996 elections ushered in a
period of unrest in India and concern on the part of foreign investors. The
Congress (I) lost its majority, forcing Rao to resign as prime minister. The
central political issue had become the corruption of the most senior
politicians. Amid allegations of corruption, Rao retained his parliamentary seat
but resigned as party president. He was indicted for corruption in 1997, as were
a number of his former cabinet colleagues. Members of other political
parties—with the exception of the Communist parties—were also implicated in
bribery and kickback scandals. With the continued investigative vigor of the
press and a newly energized judicial system, the revulsion of most Indians
against corruption became evident.
The BJP, which had toned down its
emphasis on Hindu nationalist demands, won the most seats of any party in the
1996 legislative elections. Having fallen short of a majority in the parliament,
the BJP formed a coalition government with its allies. BJP leader Atal Bihari
Vajpayee became prime minister. After only 13 days in office, however, Vajpayee
resigned when it became clear that he would not pass a confidence vote by the
parliament.
The leftist coalition United Front,
which had the second highest number of parliamentary seats, formed a government
under Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda with the help of the Congress (I) Party
and several smaller regional parties. Gowda’s government, however, had only been
in power for nine months when the Congress (I) withdrew its support, demanding
Gowda’s resignation. In order to avoid new elections, Gowda resigned and Inder
Kumar Gujral, also of the United Front coalition, assumed the position of prime
minister with support from Congress (I). Still, the Indian government remained
shaky. In the fall of 1997, Gujral resigned when the Congress (I) once again
pulled its support of the coalition, this time over differences relating to the
investigation of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.
In the March 1998 elections that
followed, the BJP and its regional party allies won a majority of seats in
parliament with 35 percent of the vote. A coalition government took office, led
by Vajpayee of the BJP as prime minister.
L | Relations with Pakistan |
Two months after the 1998 elections,
the new BJP-led government followed through on its controversial pledge to make
India into a nuclear power. In its first atomic tests since 1974, India
detonated five nuclear devices underground. Pakistan responded with its own
nuclear tests, arousing fears of a regional nuclear arms race. A number of
foreign governments declared sanctions against both countries to express
disapproval of the tests.
Tensions eased somewhat in the months
following the nuclear tests, as India and Pakistan both declared moratoriums on
further testing and entered into negotiations sponsored by the United States.
Some economic sanctions were lifted at these signs of progress. In early 1999,
after months of talks, the leaders of India and Pakistan signed the Lahore
Declaration, which expressed the two countries’ commitment to improve relations
between them. However, fears of an arms race revived in April, when first India
and then Pakistan tested medium-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear
warheads.
Relations between India and Pakistan
were further strained by their longstanding territorial dispute over the region
of Jammu and Kashmîr. A Muslim separatist insurgency that emerged in the region
in 1989 had become increasingly militant and violent, leading to periodic
escalations of violence.
In May 1999, Muslim separatists widely
believed to be backed by Pakistan seized Indian-controlled territory in Jammu
and Kashmīr. Fighting between Indian forces and the separatists raged until
July, when Pakistan agreed to secure the withdrawal of the separatists, and
India suspended its military campaign. However, the territorial dispute
continued to be a major obstacle to the normalization of relations between the
two countries.
M | India into the 21st Century |
M1 | Economic Growth |
In April 1999 the BJP-led government
lost its majority in parliament when a member of the coalition withdrew, and new
elections were held in October. A multiparty coalition led by the BJP won a
clear majority of seats in parliament. BJP leader Vajpayee was sworn in as prime
minister a third time.
Vajpayee’s government continued to
vigorously pursue economic reforms, which had begun in the early 1990s under the
Congress (I) Party. The reforms achieved remarkable economic growth in India
through the 1990s and into the early 21st century. Many state-owned enterprises
were sold to the private sector, and foreign investment poured into the country.
Information technology became a vital sector of the economy, leading to the
development of new high-tech centers. India’s per capita income increased,
helping alleviate poverty. However, the economic growth mostly benefited India’s
middle and upper-middle classes, which formed the BJP’s base of support.
M2 | Kashmīr Conflict |
Fighting between Indian security
forces and Muslim separatists in Jammu and Kashmīr escalated in late 2001. India
blamed Pakistan for supporting Kashmīr-based militants, who staged an attack on
the Indian parliament building in New Delhi in December 2001. Pakistan denied
supporting the militants. Relations between India and Pakistan rapidly
deteriorated, and by mid-2002 the two countries had amassed an estimated 1
million troops along their shared border. The military buildup raised concerns
in the international community that the conflict in Kashmīr could escalate into
full-fledged war between the two nuclear powers.
However, intense international
diplomacy helped defuse the crisis. In May 2003 India and Pakistan agreed to
restore full diplomatic ties and made the first high-level government contacts
in almost two years. In late November, the improved relations resulted in a
cease-fire along the shared border in Jammu and Kashmīr. For the first time in
14 years, artillery fire ceased between the two armies stationed along the
border. The two countries also restored airline service, which had been cut off
in 2001, and made diplomatic moves toward improving other trade and
transportation ties. In January 2004 India and Pakistan agreed to resume
high-level talks on a range of issues, including the status of Kashmīr.
M3 | 2004 Elections |
Riding high on the booming economy
and improved relations with Pakistan, Vajpayee called early parliamentary
elections in 2004. The BJP campaign motto, “India Shining,” emphasized economic
development and prosperity. Although polls indicated the BJP would coast to
victory, the election resulted in a surprise win for the Congress Party
(formerly known as the Congress (I) Party). The Congress Party had campaigned on
a platform that appealed to millions of Indians who continued to live in
poverty. Years of drought had compounded the problems of rural farmers, who felt
their plight was largely ignored by the BJP-led government. India’s strong
tradition of anti-incumbency also played in Congress’s favor.
The Congress Party, which had not won
an outright majority in parliament, relied on its allies to form a coalition
government. Communist parties declined to join the coalition but offered it
crucial support. Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of
former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, was widely expected to be named prime
minister. However, she turned down the post in the face of BJP-led protests
against her nomination due to her foreign-born status.
The upset victory of the Congress
Party led to the biggest one-day plunge in the history of India’s stock market,
fueled by investors’ fears that economic reforms could be slowed or halted
because of pressure from the political left. However, the market soon rallied on
news that a respected architect of India’s economic reforms, former finance
minister Manmohan Singh of the Congress Party, had been chosen to be India’s
next prime minister.
M4 | Tsunami Disaster of 2004 |
On December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.0
earthquake struck under the Indian Ocean off the northwestern coast of the
Indonesian island of Sumatra. The earthquake triggered a tsunami (series
of massive waves), which quickly hit the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, spread
across the Bay of Bengal, and crashed into the east coast of India about two
hours later. Coastal towns and fishing villages in Tamil Nādu, Kerala, Andhra
Pradesh, and Puducherry were devastated by the powerful wave surges. Between
11,000 and 16,000 Indian people died in the tsunami.
M5 | Relations with Pakistan |
In February 2005 in Kashmir the
Indian and Pakistani authorities agreed on a plan for a bus service between the
towns of Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, giving Kashmiris the opportunity to cross
the cease-fire line for the first time in more than 50 years. Symbolically
important to the region, 49 passengers made the inaugural trip across the Line
of Control, arriving safely despite a grenade attack from militant groups.
M6 | Terrorist Attacks on Mumbai |
In a terrorist attack on the railroad
system in Mumbai in July 2006 more than 180 people were killed. The coordinated
bombings occurred aboard seven commuter trains within 15 minutes of each other
during the evening rush hour. No group immediately claimed responsibility for
the attacks.
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