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.
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II
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LAND AND RESOURCES
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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.
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A
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Natural Regions
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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.
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Rivers and Lakes
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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.
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Plant and Animal Life
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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.
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Natural Resources
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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.
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Climate
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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.
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Environmental Issues
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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.
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III
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THE PEOPLE OF INDIA
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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.
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Principal Cities
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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.
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B
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Ethnic and Cultural Groups
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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
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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
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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
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Music and Dance
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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.
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Theater and Film
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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.
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Libraries and Museums
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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.
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ECONOMY
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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.
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Economic Policy
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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.
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Labor
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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.
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Agriculture
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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.
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Forestry and Fishing
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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.
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Mining
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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.
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Manufacturing
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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.
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Energy
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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.
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Services and Tourism
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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.
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Transportation
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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.
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Communications
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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.
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Foreign Trade
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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.
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Currency and Banking
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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.
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GOVERNMENT
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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.
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Constitution
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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).
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Executive
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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.
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Legislature
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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.
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Judiciary
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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.
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Local Government
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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.
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E2
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Maratha Confederacy
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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.
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E3
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The Europeans in India
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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.
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F
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The British Empire in India
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F1
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British Expansion
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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.
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F2
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Sepoy Rebellion
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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.
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G
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The Movement for Independence
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G1
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Rise of Indian Nationalism
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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.
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G2
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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.
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G3
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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.
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H
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India After Independence
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H1
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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.
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H2
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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.
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I
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The Indira Gandhi Era
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I1
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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.
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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.
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I3
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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.
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J
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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M
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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.
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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.
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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.
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M4
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Tsunami Disaster of 2004
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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.
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M5
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Relations with Pakistan
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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.
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M6
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Terrorist Attacks on Mumbai
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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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