History of india

          India as an emerging super power

        The Republic of India is considered one of the emerging superpowers of the world.This potential is attributed to several indicators, the primary ones being its demographic trends and a rapidly expanding economy. In 2015, India became the world's fastest growing economy with an 7.5% estimated GDP rate (mid year terms).^[5] The country must overcome many economic, social, and political problems before it can be considered a superpower. It is also not yet as influential on the international stage when compared to the United States and former Soviet Union.

                            India

India (Hindi: Bhārat), officially the Republic of India (Hindi: Bhārat Gaṇarājya),^[20] is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;^[e] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago.^[21] Their long occupation, initially in varying forms of isolation as hunter-gatherers, has made the region highly diverse, second only to Africa in human genetic diversity.^[22] Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus river basin 9,000 years ago, evolving gradually into the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE.^[23] By 1200 BCE, an archaic form of Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, had diffused into India from the northwest, unfolding as the language of the Rigveda, and recording the dawning of Hinduism in India.^[24] The Dravidian languages of India were supplanted in the northern regions.^[25] By 400 BCE, stratification and exclusion by caste had emerged within Hinduism,^[26] and Buddhism and Jainism had arisen, proclaiming social orders unlinked to heredity.^[27] Early political consolidations gave rise to the loose-knit Maurya and Gupta Empires based in the Ganges Basin.^[28] Their collective era was suffused with wide-ranging creativity,^[29] but also marked by the declining status of women,^[30] and the incorporation of untouchability into an organised system of belief.^[f][31] In south India, the Middle kingdoms exported Dravidian-languages scripts and religious cultures to the kingdoms of southeast Asia.^[32]

In the early medieval era, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Zoroastrianism put down roots on India's southern and western coasts.^[33] Armies from Central Asia intermittently overran India's plains,^[34] eventually establishing the Delhi sultanate, and drawing northern India into the cosmopolitan networks of medieval Islam.^[35] In the 15th century, the Vijayanagara Empire created a long-lasting composite Hindu culture in south India.^[36] In the Punjab, Sikhism emerged, rejecting institutionalised religion.^[37] The Mughal empire, in 1526, ushered in two centuries of relative peace,^[38] leaving a legacy of luminous architecture.^[g][39] Gradually expanding rule of the British East India Company followed, turning India into a colonial economy, but also consolidating its sovereignty.^[40] British Crown rule began in 1858. The rights promised to Indians were granted slowly,^[41] but technological changes were introduced, and ideas of education, modernity and the public life took root.^[42] A pioneering and influential nationalist movement emerged,^[43] which was noted for nonviolent resistance and led India to its independence in 1947.

India is a secular federal republic governed in a democratic parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society. India's population grew from 361 million in 1951 to 1,211 million in 2011.^[44] During the same time, its nominal per capita income increased from US$64 annually to US$1,498, and its literacy rate from 16.6% to 74%. From being a comparatively destitute country in 1951,^[45] India has become a fast-growing major economy, a hub for information technology services, with an expanding middle class.^[46] It has a space programme which includes several planned or completed extraterrestrial missions. Indian movies, music, and spiritual teachings play an increasing role in global culture.^[47] India has substantially reduced its rate of poverty, though at the cost of increasing economic inequality.^[48] India is a nuclear weapons state, which ranks high in military expenditure. It has disputes over Kashmir with its neighbours, Pakistan and China, unresolved since the mid-20th century.^[49] Among the socio-economic challenges India faces are gender inequality, child malnutrition,^[50] and rising levels of air pollution.^[51] India's land is megadiverse, with four biodiversity hotspots.^[52] Its forest cover comprises 21.4% of its area.^[53] India's wildlife, which has traditionally been viewed with tolerance in India's culture,^[54] is supported among these forests, and elsewhere, in protected habitats.

History of india

A pre-14th century CE manuscript of the Rigveda, which was composed from 1500 BCE to 1200 BCE and subsequently orally transmitted. (Bottom) The "Battle at Lanka," a scene from the Sanskrit epic Ramayana—composed between 700 BCE and 200 CE—was illustrated by Sahibdin, an artist of the 17th century.

By 55,000 years ago, the first modern humans, or Homo sapiens, had arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa, where they had earlier evolved.^[64][65][66] The earliest known modern human remains in South Asia date to about 30,000 years ago.^[67] After 6500 BCE, evidence for domestication of food crops and animals, construction of permanent structures, and storage of agricultural surplus appeared in Mehrgarh and other sites in what is now Balochistan.^[68] These gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation,^[69][68] the first urban culture in South Asia,^[70] which flourished during 2500–1900 BCE in what is now Pakistan and western India.^[71] Centred around cities such as Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Dholavira, and Kalibangan, and relying on varied forms of subsistence, the civilisation engaged robustly in crafts production and wide-ranging trade.^[70]

During the period 2000–500 BCE, many regions of the subcontinent transitioned from the Chalcolithic cultures to the Iron Age ones.^[72] The Vedas, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism,^[73] were composed during this period,^[74] and historians have analysed these to posit a Vedic culture in the Punjab region and the upper Gangetic Plain.^[72] Most historians also consider this period to have encompassed several waves of Indo-Aryan migration into the subcontinent from the north-west.^[73] The caste system, which created a hierarchy of priests, warriors, and free peasants, but which excluded indigenous peoples by labeling their occupations impure, arose during this period.^[75] On the Deccan Plateau, archaeological evidence from this period suggests the existence of a chiefdom stage of political organisation.^[72] In South India, a progression to sedentary life is indicated by the large number of megalithic monuments dating from this period,^[76] as well as by nearby traces of agriculture, irrigation tanks, and craft traditions.^[76]

                         

Clockwise from upper left: (a) A map of the rough extent of the empire of Ashoka, ca 250 BCE; (b) The map of India, ca 350 CE; (c) Cave 26 of the rock-cut Ajanta Caves, fifth century CE

In the late Vedic period, around the 6th century BCE, the small states and chiefdoms of the Ganges Plain and the north-western regions had consolidated into 16 major oligarchies and monarchies that were known as the mahajanapadas.^[77][78] The emerging urbanisation gave rise to non-Vedic religious movements, two of which became independent religions. Jainism came into prominence during the life of its exemplar, Mahavira.^[79] Buddhism, based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, attracted followers from all social classes excepting the middle class; chronicling the life of the Buddha was central to the beginnings of recorded history in India.^[80][81][82] In an age of increasing urban wealth, both religions held up renunciation as an ideal,^[83] and both established long-lasting monastic traditions. Politically, by the 3rd century BCE, the kingdom of Magadha had annexed or reduced other states to emerge as the Mauryan Empire.^[84] The empire was once thought to have controlled most of the subcontinent except the far south, but its core regions are now thought to have been separated by large autonomous areas.^[85][86] The Mauryan kings are known as much for their empire-building and determined management of public life as for Ashoka's renunciation of militarism and far-flung advocacy of the Buddhist dhamma.^[87][88]

The Sangam literature of the Tamil language reveals that, between 200 BCE and 200 CE, the southern peninsula was ruled by the Cheras, the Cholas, and the Pandyas, dynasties that traded extensively with the Roman Empire and with West and South-East Asia.^[89][90] In North India, Hinduism asserted patriarchal control within the family, leading to increased subordination of women.^[91][84] By the 4th and 5th centuries, the Gupta Empire had created a complex system of administration and taxation in the greater Ganges Plain that became a model for later Indian kingdoms.^[92][93] Under the Guptas, a renewed Hinduism based on devotion, rather than the management of ritual, began to assert itself.^[94] This renewal was reflected in a flowering of sculpture and architecture, which found patrons among an urban elite.^[93] Classical Sanskrit literature flowered as well, and Indian science, astronomy, medicine, and mathematics made significant advances.

                           Medieval India

                           

(left) A map of India in 1022 CE; (right) Brihadeshwara temple, Thanjavur, completed in 1010 CE

The Indian early medieval age, 600 CE to 1200 CE, is defined by regional kingdoms and cultural diversity.^[95] When Harsha of Kannauj, who ruled much of the Indo-Gangetic Plain from 606 to 647 CE, attempted to expand southwards, he was defeated by the Chalukya ruler of the Deccan.^[96] When his successor attempted to expand eastwards, he was defeated by the Pala king of Bengal.^[96] When the Chalukyas attempted to expand southwards, they were defeated by the Pallavas from farther south, who in turn were opposed by the Pandyas and the Cholas from still farther south.^[96] No ruler of this period was able to create an empire and consistently control lands much beyond his core region.^[95] During this time, pastoral peoples, whose land had been cleared to make way for the growing agricultural economy, were accommodated within caste society, as were new non-traditional ruling classes.^[97] The caste system consequently began to show regional differences.^[97]

In the 6th and 7th centuries, the first devotional hymns were created in the Tamil language.^[98] They were imitated all over India and led to both the resurgence of Hinduism and the development of all modern languages of the subcontinent.^[98] Indian royalty, big and small, and the temples they patronised drew citizens in great numbers to the capital cities, which became economic hubs as well.^[99] Temple towns of various sizes began to appear everywhere as India underwent another urbanisation.^[99] By the 8th and 9th centuries, the effects were felt in South-East Asia, as South Indian culture and political systems were exported to lands that became part of modern-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Java.^[100] Indian merchants, scholars, and sometimes armies were involved in this transmission; South-East Asians took the initiative as well, with many sojourning in Indian seminaries and translating Buddhist and Hindu texts into their languages.^[100]

(left) India in 1398 CE, during the Delhi Sultanate (marked "Afghan empire" in the map); (b) The Qutub Minar, 73 metres (240 ft) tall, completed by the Sultan of Delhi, Iltutmish