India (in Hindi, Bharat), officially Republic of India, federal democracy in southern Asia and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, comprising, with Pakistan and Bangladesh, the subcontinent of India. India is the seventh-largest country in the world and the second most populous, after China. It geographically consists of the entire Indian peninsula and portions of the Asian mainland.India is bordered on the north by Afghanistan, Tibet, Nepal, China, and Bhutan; on the south by the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar, which separate it from Sri Lanka, and the Indian Ocean; on the west by the Arabian Sea and Pakistan; on the east by Myanmar (Burma), the Bay of Bengal and Bangladesh, which almost cuts off north-east India from the rest of the country. With Jammu and Kashmir (the definitive status of which has not been determined), India has an area of 3,165,596 sq km (1,222,243 sq mi). The capital of India is New Delhi, and the country’s largest city is Mumbai (formerly Bombay).
II LAND AND RESOURCES
India may be divided into four main regions: the Himalaya, the northern river-plains, the Deccan Plateau, and the Eastern and Western Ghats.
The Himalaya mountain system is about 160 to 320 km (100 to 200 mi) wide and extends about 2,410 km (1,498 mi) along the northern and eastern margins of the Indian subcontinent, separating it from the rest of Asia. It is the highest, youngest, and one of the most active mountain systems in the world. Notable peaks wholly or partly within India include Kanchenjunga (8,598 m/28,208 ft), the third-highest peak in the world, after Mount Everest and K2 (Mount Godwin-Austen), Nanga Parbat (8,126 m/26,660 ft), Nanda Devi (7,817 m/25,645 ft), Rakaposhi (7,788 m/25,550 ft), and Kamet (7,756 m/25,447 ft).
Lying south of and parallel to the Himalaya is the northern plains region, a vast belt of flat lands about 280 to 400 km (175 to 250 mi) in width. The region is the world’s largest alluvial plain and comprises the major part of the area watered by the Indus, the Ganges, and the Brahmaputra rivers. Because of the abundance of water and the rich alluvial soil, the northern plains are the most fertile and densely populated part of India and were the cradle of its civilization. They extend west-east from the Pakistan border to the Bangladesh border, continuing east into north-east India via the narrow corridor of land near Darjiling.
The central and western portions of the Indian plains region are watered by the River Ganges and its tributaries, which drain the southern slopes of the Himalaya; the region is known consequently as the Gangetic plain. The north-eastern states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh are watered by the River Brahmaputra and its affluents, which rise in the northern ranges of the Himalaya. The Brahmaputra crosses into Bangladesh north of the Khasi Hills. The River Indus rises in Tibet, flows west through Jammu and Kashmir State, and crosses into Pakistan. On the south-western border with Pakistan the plains give way to the Great Indian Desert and the salt marshes known as the Rann of Kachchh.
South of the plains lies the Deccan Plateau, a vast, triangular tableland occupying most of peninsular India. Generally rocky, the Deccan is an uneven plateau divided into natural regions by low mountain ranges and deep valleys. Elevations range from about 305 to 915 m (1,000 to 3,000 ft), although outcroppings as high as 1,220 m (4,000 ft) occur. The Deccan is bordered by the mountain systems known as the Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats.
The Western Ghats, a steep escarpment overlooking the Arabian Sea, have a general elevation of about 915 m (3,000 ft). The fertile Malabar Coast lies between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. The Eastern Ghats average about 460 m (1,500 ft) in height. Between them and the Bay of Bengal is a narrow coastal plain, the Coromandel Coast. The two ranges meet at the southernmost point of the Deccan (near Bangalore) in the Nilgiri Hills.
A Climate
Because of the peninsularity, unusual topography, and geographical position of India, climatic conditions are widely diversified, on both a seasonal and regional basis. The diversity ranges from tropical to temperate zonal extremes; the temperature extremes are confined largely to the slopes of the Himalaya. Except in the more mountainous regions, most of the rest of India has a uniformly tropical climate. Seasonal variations, resulting from the south-western and north-eastern monsoons, profoundly influence temperature, humidity, and precipitation throughout the subcontinent. For general purposes, the seasons of India may be classified as rainy and dry. The rainy season, which generally extends from June to November, is the season of the south-western monsoon, a moisture-laden wind blowing off the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. Beginning early in June on the western coast of the peninsula, the monsoon gradually affects almost the entire country. During this season, rainfall can be very heavy—along the slopes of the Western Ghats it often reaches more than 3,175 mm (125 in). At Cherrapunji in the Khasi Hills of north-eastern India, the yearly rainfall is about 10,920 mm (430 in). Mean annual precipitation along the southern slopes of the Himalaya is about 1,525 mm (60 in). The south-western monsoon fails at times, causing droughts and occasionally famine. However, the rains are a mixed blessing. They lead to the proliferation of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, while the contrast between day- and night-time temperatures encourages respiratory disorders. Normally, the power of the monsoon diminishes in September.
The cool season of the north-eastern monsoon, extending from early December until after the end of February, is usually accompanied by extremely dry weather—although severe storms, attended by slight precipitation on the northern plains and heavy snowfalls in the Himalaya, sometimes cross the country. The hot season, beginning about the middle of March and extending until the onset of the south-western monsoon, is most oppressive during May, when temperatures as high as 51.7° C (125° F) are not uncommon in central India. In the vicinity of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), the mean annual temperature is about 26.1° C (79° F). The mean annual temperature in the west-central coastal region of the peninsula is about 27.8° C (82° F). Around Chennai (formerly Madras) temperatures range between about 24.4° and 33.3° C (76° to 92° F), with an annual mean of about 28.9° C (84° F).
B Natural Resources
India contains more than two thirds of the entire area of the Indian subcontinent, including most of the highly fertile Gangetic plain. In addition to extensive cultivable regions, a comprehensive irrigation network, and valuable stands of timber, India has most of the known mineral deposits of the subcontinent. However, though it has rich resources, in many areas these have not yet been fully exploited.
C Plants and Animals
In the arid areas that adjoin Pakistan, the flora is sparse and largely herbaceous. Thorny species, including representatives of the genera Capparis (caper) and Zizyphus (jujube), are common. Bamboo occurs in some areas, and the palm is among the few varieties of trees. The wetter Gangetic plain supports many plant species. Vegetation is especially luxuriant in the south-eastern plains, where the mangrove and the sal, a hardwood, flourish.
Many varieties of arctic flora are found on the higher slopes of the Himalaya. The densely forested lower ranges of the Himalaya support numerous species of subtropical plants, notably the orchidaceae. Coniferous species, including cedar and pine, predominate in the north-western Himalaya. To the east, the Himalayan slopes abound with tropical and subtropical vegetation, notably the rhododendron. The oak and magnolia are among the predominant trees. The Malabar Coast of the south-western peninsula and the slopes of the Western Ghats, areas of high rainfall, are thickly wooded. Evergreens, bamboo, and valuable timber varieties, including teak, predominate in this region. Extensive tracts of impenetrable jungle occur in the swampy lowlands and along the lower slopes of the Western Ghats. The vegetation of the Deccan is less luxuriant, but thickets of bamboo, palm, and deciduous trees are found throughout the peninsula.
The forests, plains, hills, and mountains of India are inhabited by a wide variety of animal life. The cat family is well represented, with the tiger and panther, snow and clouded leopard, jungle cat, and, in the Deccan, the cheetah. Lions are also found, though now limited to the Gir National Park in Gujarat. Strenuous national and international efforts to protect the tiger, which was once on the verge of extinction, have resulted in a healthy build-up of populations to several thousand, protected in reserves such as that at Ranthambore, in Rajasthan.
The Asian elephant is found along the north-eastern slopes of the Himalaya and in the remote forests of the Deccan. The rhinoceros, guar, black bear, wolf, jackal, dhole, wild buffalo, wild pig, and several species of ape, antelope, and deer are also indigenous to India. Various species of wild goat and sheep as well as the ibex and the serow (related to the chamois) are found in the Himalaya and other mountainous areas. The pygmy pig, bandicoot rat, and tree mouse are typical of the smaller mammals.
India has many different kinds of snake. Venomous species include the cobra, the daboia, and salt-water snakes. Among non-venomous species, pythons usefully consume destructive rodents. Indigenous reptiles also include the crocodile. India’s birdlife includes parrots, peacocks, kingfishers, and herons. The rivers and coastal waters of India teem with fish, including many edible varieties.
D Conservation
India has a strong conservation and environmental protection movement, which has campaigned and lobbied with considerable success against the destruction of habitats through the demands of continuing and rapid industrialization, and population pressures. Examples of campaigns include the “tree huggers” who have fought deforestation in the Himalaya, the prevention of the Silent Valley project in Kerala (a major hydroelectric scheme that would have destroyed the habitat of species unique to the region), and most recently, the long, drawn out, and bitter battle to stop the massive Narmada Dam Project in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. On another front, environmentalist groups have delayed the Tehri project, involving the construction of dams in a highly seismic region of the Himalaya. Among the current environmental concerns in India are deforestation, desertification, lack of access to water, air and water pollution, and the strain placed on natural resources by a huge and growing population.
III POPULATION
The diverse racial and cultural origins of the people of India are bound intricately with those of the other peoples of the Indian subcontinent, including the inhabitants of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, as well as those further afield. The exact origins of most Indian people are impossible to determine because of the large variety of races and cultures that have invaded and been assimiliated into the subcontinent. However, elements of three major racial groups—the Caucasoid, the Australoid, and the Mongoloid—may be found in present-day India. At times, geography and environment have encouraged successive waves of migrants to mingle with the indigenous peoples. However, environmental and historical factors have also favoured the coexistence in India of many different peoples with distinct physical and cultural characteristics. This is reflected in India’s linguistic diversity; the country has 18 major languages and more than 1,000 minor ones (see Indian Languages).
Approximately 8 per cent of the total population belongs to more than 300 so-called scheduled tribes. These tribal or aboriginal groups are racially and culturally distinct from the majority Indian population and also tend to vary considerably among themselves.
Broadly speaking, the majority of non-tribal Indian peoples are predominantly Caucasoid in features, showing considerable variation in skin colour. Mongoloid features are seen in the hill tribes of the very north, such as the Nagas. Australoid features are also seen among the tribal groups, such as the Santal of Bangla.
The majority of people in the north and east speak Indo-Aryan languages such as Assamese, Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali. The influence of close contact with Persia and the Mughal period are apparent in the language as well as the architecture, clothing, and other aspects of life in the north. These languages derive from Sanskrit, now essentially a dead language, but still used in the reading of sacred texts and other religious ceremonies. In contrast, the Dravidian languages of the south, such as Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam, derive primarily from Tamil, although Malayalam contains a considerable number of Sanskrit words. All these languages boast substantial and rich literatures. Of the 18 languages recognized in the constitution, one, Manipuri, the language of the far northern state of Manipur, is Sino-Tibetan in origin.
Among the tribal peoples, often living in relatively isolated hilly regions, a number have maintained their unique cultures and customs, although the encroaching of the mainstream population has caused considerable assimilation and erosion of traditional ways of life.
A Caste
The Indian constitution sets out the resolve to eradicate the age-old system of caste, which has denied for centuries the opportunity of social advancement to the lowest stratum of the system, the Dalits (formerly “Untouchables” or Harijans, “children of God”, as Gandhi named them). Considerable steps were taken after independence actively to promote the education and welfare of these depressed classes, most notably through a system of positive discrimination—by assigning a quota of up to 50 per cent of places in universities and professional institutions to the “scheduled” castes. Old traditions die hard, however, and despite these efforts and those of individuals such as Gandhi, Ambedkar, and others, prejudice, mainly in the social sphere, remains. Nevertheless, individuals from scheduled-caste backgrounds are now found in all walks of life and include eminent scientists, judges, and politicians. In recent years, as a business-led, consumer culture evolves, with status counted more by material wealth than family and tradition, the hold of caste is declining, with many inter-caste marriages, especially among the urban middle classes.
In the political sphere, parties and organizations based on caste lines have often been vociferous in the demanding of rights and the protection of the interests of their communities. Politicians and parties frequently seek to secure the votes of particular jatis (sub-castes). Allegiances, however, tend to be fluid and often based on expediency. The continuation of the system of positive discrimination in university entrance has caused friction with non-scheduled-caste students, who claim it has resulted in intolerably high entrance requirements for other castes and lowered standards.
B Population Characteristics
India has about 16 per cent of the world’s population. Its population was 1,029,991,100 in 2001. The overall population density was about 325 people per sq km (843 per sq mi). Many births and deaths are unregistered, but official data suggest that the birth rate in 2001 was about 24 per 1,000. Life expectancy averaged 63 years. Approximately 72 per cent of India’s population lives in rural areas. Though living conditions in many areas have improved—for example through the provision of clean water—most people are still poor. About one third of the population lives on or below the UN poverty line; less than 3 per cent of Indian households have an income of more than US$2,500 a year.
C Political Divisions
India is divided into 28 states—Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttaranchal, and Uttar Pradesh; 6 Union Territories—Andaman and Nicobar, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep, and Pondicherry; and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The Jammu and Kashmir region is disputed with Pakistan, and India claims Aksai Chin, administered by China since the Sino-Indian War of 1962, as part of Jammu and Kashmir State. The north-eastern border of Arunachal Pradesh is disputed between India and China.
D Principal Cities
India’s largest city is Mumbai (Bombay), with a population of 9,925,891 (1991). Other cities with populations of more than 1 million include: Ahmadabad, and Bangalore, which are major rail junctions; Kolkata; Delhi; Hyderabad, which is famous for its handicrafts; the leather manufacturing city of Kanpur; the port of Chennai (Madras); Pune; Nagpur; Lucknow; and Jaipur.
E Religion
The major religious groups (followed by their approximate portion of the total population; 1991 census) are Hindus (82 per cent), Muslims (12.1 per cent), Christians (2.3 per cent), and Sikhs (1.94 per cent). Other important religious minorities are Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis.
The rise of religious nationalism and fundamentalism in India from the 1980s onwards has increased political and social tensions in some areas, and at times—such as the 1992 and 1993 riots in Punjab and elsewhere—has erupted into violence. The Hindutva movement, demanding a Hindu India, has grown significantly in strength. It is represented by the group of organizations collectively known as the Sangh Parivar, including the staunchly Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the ultra-extremist Shiv Sena. The rise to power of the parliamentary wing of the movement, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in recent years, albeit as leader of fragile and wide-ranging coalitions, has increased the influence of Hindutva ideology. The rise of Hindutva has raised serious concerns regarding the future of the secular India established under Nehru.
F Language
More than 1,600 languages or dialects are spoken in India, comprising 18 officially recognized languages; 16 are considered major languages, including Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, and Gujarati. The constitution provides that Hindi—spoken by about 39 per cent of the population—is the official language of the country, with English an associate language for many official purposes. However, the official dominance of Hindi is unacceptable to states such as Tamil Nadu in the south, and the full implementation of the provision has had to be postponed. See Indian Languages.
G Education
Ancient India was a society of considerable educational development. Its universities attracted many students from elsewhere in Asia—especially Chinese, who came to study the teachings of Buddha in some of the first universities in the world, notably Nalanda, which was established by the 6th century bc. India also extended its educational influence by sending its university graduates to other parts of Asia to teach. From the 13th century onwards, however, first under Muslim control and later under British rule, the original contribution of Indians to education waned, and application of newer educational methods was curtailed.
In the 20th century Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Mohandas Gandhi, and Rabindranath Tagore received international recognition for educational contributions to their country.
Gokhale was one of the early nationalist leaders and in 1911 he introduced a bill in parliament aimed at the provision of free and compulsory primary education. Gandhi, who was influenced by Gokhale, instituted basic literacy and community-improvement programmes. In 1901 Tagore, one of the greatest poets of modern India, founded an experimental school at Santiniketan, 160 km (99 mi) from Kolkata, modelled on the ancient Indian tapovana (“forest hermitage”). Aimed at combining the best of Western and Indian culture, the school in 1921 became the Visva-Bharati University and attracted students from all over the world.
Since gaining its independence from Britain in 1947, India has sought to develop a modern, comprehensive school system; the reports of the All-Indian commissions of 1953 and 1964 advocating educational reform provided impetus for improvement. The education of India’s large and youthful population, with its social and religious complexities, has not been easy, however. Funds that might have been used for education have had to be utilized to combat poverty, food shortages, and overpopulation. The relics of the caste system, inadequate vocational placement, and religious diversity have contributed to the difficulty of educational reform. Nevertheless, sweeping structural changes have been undertaken and largely carried through, and the number of schools and of pupils has risen greatly since independence.
The school systems of the 28 states are under the direct control of the state governments; the federal Ministry of Education assists the state systems, directs education in the seven centrally administered union territories, provides financial help for India’s institutions of higher learning, and discharges various other responsibilities. Primary education is free, but not compulsory. In the 1970s the predominant pattern of available schooling included eight years of primary and middle school education, three years of secondary education including a vocational element (so that pupils’ completion might qualify for entry into a trade or profession), and three years of university education leading to a degree. Then, as now, however, only a minority of pupils went past the primary level. In 1996 there were 581,305 primary schools. Implementation of a slightly modified pattern, consisting of ten years of primary, middle, and secondary school education, two of higher secondary education, and three of university, began in the 1980s. There is also a nationwide adult literacy programme. According to the 1991 census, about 52 per cent of the adult population was literate, compared with just over 43 per cent a decade earlier; in 2001 was 73.3 per cent of adults were literate. Literacy varies considerably from state to state. Kerala, in South India, has achieved a remarkable literacy level of over 90 per cent, possibly related to the importance given to the education of women and their relatively high status in society. In 1996 India spent 3.2 per cent of the gross national product and 2.7 of the total government expenditure on education.
G1 Schools, Universities, and Colleges
In 1996, 110 million pupils were enrolled in primary schools and 68.9 million in secondary schools.
India had 164 universities, 11 institutions of national importance, 38 institutions with university status, and more than 8,600 technical, arts, and science colleges in the mid-1990s. The total enrolment in universities and colleges in 1996 was 6.06 million students. Large institutions included Agra University (founded 1927), the University of Bihar (1952), the University of Mumbai (1857), the University of Calcutta (1857), the University of Delhi (1922), Gauhati University (1948), Gujarat University (1950; in Ahmadabad), the University of Kerala (1937; in Thiruvananthapuram), the University of Madras (1857), the University of Mysore (1916), the University of Pune (1949), and the University of Rajasthan (1947; in Jaipur). Outstanding centres of study and research include the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai.
H Culture
India is a secular country that has traditionally absorbed and given birth to a variety of religions and religious sects. The majority of present-day Indians are Hindu, however, and this is reflected in many aspects of the shared culture across the country. Hinduism itself has, over centuries, absorbed and evolved a number of different philosophies and approaches, from the philosophical Advaita of Shankara to the devotion of the Bhakti movement.
The coexistence of significant minority faiths with the majority faith of Hinduism has by no means always been peaceable; Hindu-Muslim and Hindu-Sikh tensions (often fanned by motives other than religious ones) have, in the past, resulted in many deaths. The Ramajanmabhoomi movement, whose demands to build a Hindu temple on what they claim to be the birthplace of Rama in Ayodhya resulted in the destruction by a mob of the Babri Masjid (a mosque which they declared to have been built after the destruction of a previous temple) in 1992, has clearly been able to generate considerable popular support.
Such developments pose a serious threat to the future of secularism in India. It could be argued that this recent so-called Hindu “fundamentalism” (a contradiction in terms, as Hinduism has no defined fundaments) is an effort to forge a singular national culture on religious lines from rich and diverse traditions. The inculcation of such ideas has been facilitated by the widespread access to television, latterly satellite television, and its powerful cultural messages. The same media have also spread another value-set which to some extent has served to dissipate the call of religion—that of a Western-style consumer society.
Many languages are spoken across India. Eighteen of the major ones are recognized in the constitution, but many other relatively minor ones are also spoken regionally. Sanskrit, the ancient language of the Hindu scriptures, is an Indo-European language related to Greek and Latin. It was the medium for the vast body of religious and secular writing (see Sanskrit Literature) that constitutes the core of classical Indian literature. Tamil is also a very ancient language, with a rich literature and, unlike Sanskrit, it is still thriving today. Tamil is a Dravidian language, with a completely different script to Sanskrit, and forms one of several Dravidian languages spoken in the south of India. Large bodies of literature also exist in all the other major languages of India, notably Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam.
Early classical painting and sculpture was inspired by Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, all influenced by one another. The art of Madhura, Gandhara (with its blending of Hellenistic and Indian elements), the refinement of Gupta art, the frescoes at Ajanta, the rock-cut reliefs at Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram) and the Nataraja at Chidambaram, all form part of the splendid heritage of early India. Perhaps the world’s first extant treatise on the theory of drama, music and dance, the Natya Shastra, by Bharata, written by about ad 300, formed the basis of a sophisticated tradition in the performing arts (see Indian Dance; Indian Theatre).
A relative decline in classical Hindu arts and culture followed the end of the reign of Harsha in the 7th century in northern India as new socio-political forms began to evolve, although the south, under kingdoms such as the Pallava, and later the Chola, was reaching its apex in art and architecture. In this period of uncertainty and change, a major dislocation in cultural development occurred in northern India, with the waves of conquerors from Central Asia in the 11th and 12th century, who brought with them a quite different faith, Islam. Some of the ancient centres of learning, such as the magnificent Buddhist university at Nalanda, were totally destroyed by Turks in the 11th century.
After several centuries of warfare, disruption, and repression under Turkish and Mongol rulers, by the mid-16th century, the Mughal dynasty founded by Babur, a descendant of the Mongol Tamerlane, had conquered all of northern India. Islam, with its linear Western cosmogony, and revulsion against any form of idol-worship, was fundamentally different from Hinduism and other eastern faiths, and some of the early conquerors, in particular, ransacked temples and shrines, such as the Jagannath temple in Puri, and showed scant respect for ancient learning. Others, however, became interested in Sanskrit, and key works, such as the mathematical treatise of Bhaskara, the Lilavati, were translated into Persian and became very popular during the Mughal period.
Under the great Mughal emperors such as Akbar, the country experienced a new period of flourishing of the arts, with fresh impetus arising from Persian influence culminating in a distinct style of art, music, and architecture in northern India. The Mughal period provided India with some of its most impressive architecture, best known through the world-renowned Taj Mahal in Agra. It also brought outstanding work in manuscript illustration, miniature painting, and the decorative arts, as well as the evolution of Hindustani music in the north. The south evolved its own style, known as Carnatic music. Both classical forms have produced composers and musicians of the highest calibre, including Tansen, Tyagaraja, and in recent years, Allauddin Khan, Ravi Shankar, M. S. Subbulakshmi, and many others. A strong, regional folk tradition of all the performing arts has continued throughout.
Under British rule, much of this creative cultural momentum became dissipated, but at the same time, a number of individuals such as William Carey and Max Müller, became interested in ancient and medieval Indian culture and, by their translations and commentaries, provided Western readers with access to key works. Some art forms, such as styles of classical Indian dance, however, declined through lack of patronage or fell into disrepute under Victorian values. A revival in aspects of Indian thought and culture accompanied the rising nationalist feeling, and the 20th century has seen efforts not only to revive dying arts such as Kathakali, but to reconstitute early forms. In dance, for example, Chandralekha has explored the early forms of Bharatanatyam, and the erotic style of Orissi, depicted in many ancient sculptures, has become well known.
H1 Libraries and Museums
India has more than 60,000 libraries, including more than 1,000 specialized ones attached to various government departments. The National Library, in Kolkata, is one of three copyright libraries that receive copies of all books and magazines published in India. Outstanding among several hundred public libraries is that in Delhi.
India’s more than 350 museums include a number containing important historical and archaeological collections, such as the Government Museum and National Art Gallery, Chennai; the National Museum, New Delhi; Sarnath Museum, Varanasi; and the Indian Museum, Kolkata. Vadodra, Chennai, Kozhikode, and New Delhi have museums containing outstanding collections of medieval and modern art.
IV ECONOMY
India has a mixed economy in which both the central and state governments pay a leading role—as regulators, planners, and through ownership of public enterprises. Large-scale government involvement in the economy began in the 1950s as a reflection of nationalism and of the socialism of the first post-independence government led by Jawaharlal Nehru—and with the aim of speeding up economic development and growth to meet the needs of India’s rapidly growing population. The first of India’s five-year economic plans was launched in 1951. During the decades that followed the state took over certain key sectors and invested heavily in others, while the private sector was subject to wide-ranging controls. Tariff, and other, barriers were erected to protect domestic industries, and various agrarian reform programmes were initiated.
The results were generally positive, especially when compared with many other developing countries. Economic growth, except during times of severe drought such as 1979 and 1987, was steady; it averaged 3.6 per cent a year in real terms (that is, after taking into account population growth) between 1965 and 1980, and more than 5 per cent a year during the 1980s. Inflation and the national debt were generally kept low. Agricultural output rose significantly and the spectre of mass famine was eliminated. The basis of a modern industrial state was laid. However, growth levels were still too low to have more than a marginal impact on the income of the majority of Indians. In 1999 India’s gross national product (GNP) was about US$441,834 million, giving an income per head of just US$440. In addition, more than 60 per cent of under-fives were malnourished, while access to clean water and sanitation was still available only to a minority of the population.
In 1991 P. V. Narasimha Rao became Prime Minister and instituted a significant change in economic policy. Many of the controls over the private sector have been abolished and the state monopoly in certain areas, such as air transport, was loosened. The economy generally was opened up by the reduction of tariff controls and by the encouragement of foreign investment. These changes were partly brought about by the need to sustain higher growth rates. However, the government also needed to cut public spending and to reduce inflation, debt repayments, and the balance of payments deficit—which had all risen sharply as a result of problems created by the Gulf War and by government borrowing in the late 1980s. In 1991 and 1992 real economic growth dropped to 1.1 per cent; by 1996 it was above 6.5 per cent.
Changes at national level have also been reflected at state level. The states have significant control over internal policy and interpret national policy in different ways. Some, like West Bengal, have far greater government control of the economy than average; others, like Maharashtra, have traditionally been more market-oriented. Since 1991, however, almost all the states have opened their doors to foreign investment, reduced controls over the private sector, and allowed some privatization of state companies. In 1999 some 2.48 million tourists visited India, and spent an estimated US$1,713 million.
A Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing
In terms of land uses, 54 per cent of India’s land is used for arable agriculture, 3 per cent for crops, and 4 per cent for pasture. About two thirds of India’s population depends on the land to make a living. Agriculture generates an estimated 28 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Most farms are very small—the average size of holdings nationally is 2.63 hectares (6.5 acres), but more than one third of holdings are considered too small for the subsistence needs of a farming family. In terms of area sown the leading crop is rice, the staple food of a large section of the Indian population. Wheat ranks next in importance to rice, and India is also among the leading producers in the world of sugar cane, tea, cotton, and jute. Annual production of these commodities in 2000 was sugar cane, 315 million tonnes; rice, 135 million tonnes; wheat, 70.1 million tonnes; cotton, 6.17 million tonnes; and jute, 2 million tonnes; and tea, 749,400 tonnes. Other important crops are sorghum, millet, maize, barley, chickpeas, bananas, mangoes, rubber, coffee, linseed, peanuts, and various seeds and spices.
The raising of livestock, particularly horned cattle, buffalo, horses, and mules, is a central feature of the agricultural economy. In 2000 India had about 219 million cattle, substantially more than any other country in the world. These animals, like buffaloes, horses, and mules, are utilized primarily as beasts of burden, although the vegetarianism associated with Hindu custom is followed by few, especially in north India. Lack of pasture and water supplies means most Indian cattle are of poor quality. The country’s 93.8 million buffalo are largely raised in the delta regions. In the dry regions of Punjab and Rajasthan camels (1.03 million) are the principal beasts of burden. Sheep (57.9 million) and goats (123 million) are raised mainly for wool.
Although much farming is still by traditional methods, there has been a significant change in the technologies available since independence. The area under canal irrigation systems financed by the government has expanded enormously; there has been an even greater expansion in the area watered by well-based systems. By 1998 about 590,000 sq km (227,800 sq mi) was irrigated. The demand for chemical fertilizers and high-yielding seed varieties has increased markedly, particularly since the much-publicized “Green Revolution” of the 1960s and early 1970s—which particularly benefited richer farmers in wheat-growing areas like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab states.
The forestlands in India cover about 22 per cent of the total land area. Commercial forestry is not highly developed and is largely restricted to the northern highlands, Assam, and the regions bordering on the Himalaya. However, forests are used to provide fuelwood and charcoal, the main energy source for most Indians, as well as valuable fruits and nuts, fibres, oils, gums, and resins. The annual timber harvest was about 298 million cu m (10.5 billion cu ft) in 1999.
Although largely undeveloped commercially, fishing remains vital in certain regions, such as the Ganges delta in Bengal and along the south-western coast. In recent years the government has been encouraging deep-sea fishing by constructing processing plants and underwriting ocean-going fleets and vessels. In 1997 the country’s annual catch totalled more than 5.38 million tonnes, of which 5.38 million tonnes was the marine catch. Kerala, Tamil, Nadu, and Maharashtra are the main fishing states, accounting for about half of the national catch. Overfishing is becoming a problem in some areas.
B Mining
India ranks among the world leaders in the mining of iron ore and coal, and produces significant amounts of bauxite, manganese, mica, ilmenite, copper, petroleum, asbestos, chromium, graphite, phosphate rock, zinc, gold, and silver. This varied mineral base was a key factor in India’s economic development following independence—underpinning the establishment of a diversified manufacturing sector. Nationalization during the 1950s has given the government a dominant role in the sector. Annual production figures in 1999 included coal (298 million tonnes), iron ore (43.5 million tonnes), bauxite (6.20 million tonnes), manganese (570,000 tonnes), aluminium (550,000 tonnes), zinc concentrates (145,000 tonnes), copper ore (32,100 tonnes), silver (54 tonnes), and gold (2,400 kg). Oil production is concentrated in Gujarat and Assam states, and offshore in the Khambhat (Gulf of Khambhat). In 1997 output amounted to about 273 million barrels, or about 60 per cent of India’s needs; output of natural gas was 21.2 billion cu m (750 billion cu ft).
C Manufacturing
India has a very diversified manufacturing sector that contributes about 16 per cent of GDP. The modern sector, which has some very large concerns—particularly in the iron and steel sector—dominates in terms of output. However, small-scale, family-owned craft-based concerns are most important in terms of employment. Textile manufacturing—especially cotton textiles—is one of the longest established and still one of the most important sectors. Most cities have at least one cotton mill; output of cotton cloth in the mid-1990s was more than 17.0 billion m (55.8 billion ft). The iron and steel industry expanded greatly after the 1950s; in the mid-1990s output of finished steel products was more than 17.8 million tonnes. Other important industries include the processing of tea, grains, oil seeds, sugar, tobacco, and other agricultural products, printing and publishing, oil-refining, and the manufacture of electrical and electronic equipment, motor vehicles, paper, footwear, chemicals, tiles and bricks, leather and metal goods, and railway equipment. The computer industry, in particular the development of software, has expanded considerably in recent years. Bangalore, in southern India, has been termed “India’s Silicon Valley”.
D Energy
About 80 per cent of India’s electricity is produced in thermal facilities using coal or oil products. Another 17 per cent is generated by hydroelectric facilities, and 2 per cent is produced in nuclear power plants, including ones at Kota and near Mumbai. In 1999 India generated a total of 454.6 billion kWh. Although capacity is continuously being expanded, output is unable to keep up with demand and power shortages are a problem—particularly to the manufacturing sector.
E Currency and Banking
The basic monetary unit is the Indian rupee, divided into 100 paise (46.780 Indian rupees equal US$1; 2001).
The Reserve Bank of India, founded in 1934 and nationalized in 1949, operates as the central bank and sole bank of issue. A series of nationalizations brought the majority of commercial banking into the public sector. Although there were 300 scheduled commercial banks in the early 1990s, more than 85 per cent of deposits and credits were accounted for by the 27 public-sector banks.
Moneylending practices in rural India have led to problems of widespread indebtedness. Credit societies and cooperative banks have been set up to try to overcome these problems and have become increasingly important—particularly in the provision of credit to farmers to enable them to purchase seeds, fertilizers, and other agricultural inputs.
F Commerce and Trade
Because of the high level, until recently, of protectionism, the volume of foreign trade relative to the size and diversity of the Indian economy has been low. In addition, there has been a persistent trade deficit, caused by imports of oil, raw materials, consumer goods, jewels, chemicals and fertilizers, and aggravated by a high level of smuggling. In 1999 India’s annual imports cost some US$44.6 billion, and its yearly exports earned about US$36.6 billion. The export trade is very varied, and is dominated by textiles, garments, jewellery and gemstones, leather goods, tea, engineering goods, and basic chemicals. The United States, in the mid-1990s, received about 19 per cent of India’s yearly exports and supplied about 10 per cent of its imports. Other leading trading partners are Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, the Commonwealth of Independent States, France, Australia, the Netherlands, and Iran.
G Transport
At independence in 1947, India had one of the best-developed transport networks of any colony—particularly its railway system, which had been established during British rule. Since then it has built on this base, increasing the length of roads and establishing a comprehensive internal air transport network. However, the country’s broad network of state-owned railway lines continues to carry the bulk of goods traffic. The total length of operated railway track was 62,809 km (39,028 mi) in 1998 of which 17 per cent was electrified. Three different gauges (widths) of track are in use. There were more than 3.3 million km (2.1 million mi) of roads of which about half were surfaced. In 1995 there were an estimated 3.8 million cars in India; in 1996 there was a ratio of approximately 5 cars for every 1,000 people. The major Indian ports, including Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, and Vishakhapatnam, are reached by cargo carriers and passenger liners operating to all parts of the world. The civil aviation network was nationalized in 1953, with Air India operating the long-haul international routes and Indian Airlines domestic and regional routes. Since 1991 some domestic routes have been opened to the private sector. The networks and volume of traffic is expanding rapidly and air routes now connect not only the major cities and towns but also remote areas in the Himalaya and north-east India. There are an estimated 290 airports in India.
H Communications
Despite the poverty of much of the population, limiting the development of the communication system, India’s telephone network has expanded significantly in recent years, gaining from the liberalization of the economy. By 2000, there were some 19 million telephone lines registered with the state-owned Telecommunications Department. The state-owned All India Radio broadcasts to about 116 million radio sets. Programmes are broadcast in 24 principal languages and many dialects. Television serves some 63 million receivers, many of them owned communally. Since the late 1980s the state-owned terrestrial service has been augmented by a variety of satellite services, which have exposed many ordinary Indians to television programmes from the West for the first time. The printed media is still very important. In the mid-1990s there were more than 33,612 newspapers and periodicals with a total circulation of more than 67.6 million. The 3,740 daily newspapers had a combined circulation in excess of 18.8 million. The press is free and often very critical of the government and politicians. The Times of India and the Indian Express are among the influential English-language dailies.
I Health and Welfare
Since independence, the government has paid particular attention to India’s endemic health problems. But despite vigorous efforts in areas of preventive medicine, sanitation, and nutrition, health conditions remain marginal among the poor—although epidemics of cholera, dysentery, and elephantiasis are no longer common. Much of the population, however, continues to suffer from malnutrition. Progress has been made in combating malaria and plague and in controlling tuberculosis. Overall life expectancy at birth was about 62.9 years in 2001, compared with 32 years in 1941. The infant mortality rate declined from 151 to 91 per 1,000 live births between 1965 and 1989. In 2001 the infant mortality rate was 63 deaths per 1,000 live births.
In 1993 some 410,875 doctors were practising in government hospitals and private clinics, providing an approximate ratio of one doctor for every 2,459 people. The country was served by over 642,100 hospital beds, in approximately 15,000 hospitals. Much of the rural population lacks ready access to professional services. In 1998, 2 per cent of government expenditure was spent on health care.
Social-welfare programmes have been particularly in evidence in such areas as family-planning, various kinds of emergency relief, and care for the Dalits, who are protected by law but still subject to much harassment. Workers’ compensation is provided by law.
V GOVERNMENT
The Republic of India is governed according to the provisions of a constitution adopted in 1949 and amended frequently since. It incorporates various features of the constitutional systems of the United Kingdom, the United States, and other Western democracies.
By the terms of the constitution, India is a sovereign democratic republic within the Commonwealth of Nations. The government is federal in its structure and India is a union of states and centrally administered union territories. There are 28 states and 7 Union Territories.
A Executive and Legislature
The chief executive and head of state of India is the president. The role of president in government is largely nominal and ceremonial, however, for actual executive power resides in a council of ministers responsible to the parliament, which is composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States or upper house) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People or lower house). The president is elected for a five-year term by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of the national and state legislatures and is eligible for successive terms. Balloting in the electoral college is a highly complicated process. The council of ministers, or Cabinet, is headed by a prime minister, who is formally appointed by the president. Each of its members is the head of an administrative department of the central government. In most important respects, the Indian Cabinet system is identical to that of the United Kingdom.
The constitution vests national legislative power in India in a bicameral parliament consisting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The Lok Sabha consists of up to 550 members directly elected by universal adult suffrage (545 in 1999), and up to two members who may be appointed by the president to represent the Anglo-Indian community. Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are specifically allocated 79 and 41 seats respectively in the Lok Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha normally serve for five years, the statutory limit for the duration of the house. However, the house may be dissolved upon defeat of major legislation proposed by the executive branch of the government. The Rajya Sabha has up to 250 members (245 in 2001). All are elected by the elected members of the state legislative assemblies except for 12 who are appointed by the president. The Rajya Sabha is a permanent body; the terms of one third of the members of the council expire biennially.
B Political Parties
The Indian National Congress, founded in 1885, led India in the struggle for independence and in various incarnations has provided most of the country’s prime ministers. In 1969 a group of Congress members left the party to form the small Indian National Congress-Organization (or O). Another party that has had influence across the nation, but particularly in West Bengal and Kerala, is the Communist Party of India (CPI), formed in 1925, which later split in 1964, the breakaway faction founding the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M). In early 1977 Congress (O) joined with three other parties, Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Bharatiya Lok Dal, and the Socialist Party, to form the Janata Party, which won about half of the seats in the Lok Sabha in elections in March 1977. In May the Janata Party achieved a solid majority by merging with the Congress for Democracy. In 1978 the Congress Party split again, as Indira Gandhi founded the Indian National Congress-Indira (or I), which in 1981 was confirmed by the Supreme Court as the official Congress Party. Congress (I) swept to victory in parliamentary elections in 1980 and 1984, but lost its majority in 1989. In 1988 Janata Dal (People’s Party) was formed by a merger of the Janata Party, Lok Dal, and Jan Morcha. The major competitors for Congress in the 1989 elections included Janata Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a right-wing Hindu nationalist group, formed by breakaway members of the Janata Party in 1980.
C Judiciary
Judicial authority in India is exercised through a system of national courts administering the laws of the republic and the states. All judges are appointees of the executive branch of the government, but their independence is guaranteed by a variety of safeguards. Noteworthy among the latter is a provision requiring a two-thirds vote of the national legislature to effect removal from office. At the apex of the judicial system is the Supreme Court, consisting of up to 17 members. Next in authority are the high courts and subordinate courts in each state.
D State Government
The form of the state governments of India is generally modelled on that of the central government. Each state is headed by a governor who is appointed to a five-year term by the national president. Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh states elect bicameral legislative assemblies and legislative councils; the remainder, unicameral legislative assemblies. Of the 4,072 seats allotted to the legislative assemblies, 557 are reserved for the scheduled castes and 527 for the scheduled tribes.
In India legislative responsibilities are divided into three groups, or lists. List One comprises 97 subjects—including defence, foreign affairs, communications, the currency, banking, and customs—which are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the national, or Union, parliament. List Two comprises 66 subjects over which the states’ parliaments have exclusive legislative powers, including police and public order, education, public health, agriculture, and local government. The 47 subjects on List Three are common to both the Union and state parliaments, and include economic and social planning, and labour and price controls.
E Local Government
Urban areas are the responsibility of a variety of municipal bodies which take care, among other things, of the roads, water supply, drainage and sanitation, vaccination programmes, and education. They are directly elected and raise revenue through property, vehicle, and other taxes.
In rural areas there is the panchayati raj, a three-tier system of councils of ancient origin operating at village, block and district level. Elected directly by and from among villagers, the panchayats are responsible for agricultural production, rural industry, medical relief, mother and child welfare, grazing grounds, local roads, and water tanks and wells.
F Defence
All branches of the armed services of India are made up only of volunteers. In 1999 the strength of the army was 1,100,000. The navy comprised 53,000 personnel and the air force 150,000 personnel, with more than 600 combat aircraft. Combined, they comprise one of the world’s largest armed forces, numbering 1.3 million. The Indian military has a tradition of non-involvement in domestic politics and there has never been a coup d’état.
G International Organizations
India is a member of the UN, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Colombo Plan.
VI HISTORY
The following account of India’s history is necessarily limited in scope; only the highlights and major turning points are stressed. For supplementary information regarding Indian history and civilization, see Buddhism; Caste; Dravidian; East India Company; Hinduism; Indian Art and Architecture; Indian Dance; Indian Languages; Indian Literature; Indian Nationalist Movement; Indian Philosophy; Indus Valley; Islam; Jainism; Parsis; Sanskrit Language; Sanskrit Literature; Sikhism. For additional information on historical figures, see the biographies on the individuals mentioned.
A Prehistory
Because the Indians of remote antiquity left no written records of their social, cultural, and political activities, historians are obliged to rely almost exclusively on archaeological discoveries for an understanding of the earliest civilizations on the subcontinent. Evidence indicates that, possibly during the Neolithic period of the Stone Age, the inhabitants of the subcontinent were dispersed and partially assimilated by invading Dravidian tribes, who probably came from the west. On the basis of archaeological discoveries in the Indus Valley, the civilization subsequently developed by the Dravidians equalled and possibly surpassed in splendour the civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.
About the middle of the 3rd millennium bc, Dravidian India appears to have experienced an influx, perhaps in successive waves, of migrant tribes of the Indo-European linguistic stock. These tribes, probably originating from Central Asia and usually referred to as Indo-Aryans, entered the subcontinent through the mountain passes along the north-western frontier and gradually settled in most of the territory north of the Vindhya Range and west of the River Yamuna. There is no evidence that these population changes were in the form of invasions. The influence of the migrants would seem to have been limited in southern parts of the peninsula, where Dravidian languages continue to dominate, but assimilation, including, in the view of some authorities, absorption of various aspects of existing Dravidian culture, occurred in the north-west.
B Vedic Period
Obscurity surrounds India’s political history for many centuries after the arrival of the waves of migrants from Central Asia, but the Veda, a collection of sacred writings dating from about 1200 bc, contains considerable information on social practices, religious beliefs, and cultural attainments. As depicted in some Vedic hymns, the civilization that emerged during the early centuries after the intermingling of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian cultures on the subcontinent was notable in several respects. Tribal political organs functioned according to democratic principles, the social status of women compared favourably with that of men, and marriage was regarded as sacred. The Indo-Aryans had advanced skills in various arts and sciences, including livestock-raising, metal handicrafts, carpentry, boatbuilding, and military science.
The Vedic hymns composed during this and later periods also depict the emergence and crystallization of key features of the socio-religious system known as Hinduism. Virtually all that is known with certainty of the political situation is that in the course of the 1st millennium bc, 16 autonomous states were established in the region bounded by the Himalaya, the southern reaches of the Ganges, the Vindhya Range, and the Indus Valley. Of these states, comprising both republics and kingdoms, the most important was Kosala, a kingdom situated in the region occupied by modern Oudh. Other important kingdoms were Avanti, Vamsas, and Magadha. The last-named kingdom occupied the territory of modern Bihar, and in about the middle of the 6th century bc it became the dominant state of India. During the reign of its first great King Bimbisara (reigned about 543-491 bc), Buddha and Vardhamana Jnatiputra or Nataputta Mahavira, the respective founders of Buddhism and Jainism, preached and taught in Magadha.
In 326 bc Alexander the Great led an expedition across the Hindu Kush into northern India. He won several victories during his march into India, climaxing in the Battle of Hydaspes which ended in the defeat of King Poros near the River Hydaspes (now the Jhelum). However, Alexander did not stay in India long, and the political and cultural effects of the invasion were insignificant, except in the opportunity provided for the Mauryan King Chandragupta to expand his empire westwards utilizing the political vacuum.
C Maurya Dynasty
In 321 bc Chandragupta, known to the Greeks as Sandrocottos, seized control of Magadha. Within the next decade Chandragupta, founder of the Maurya dynasty of Indian kings, extended his sovereignty over most of the subcontinent. He was assisted by Kautilya (or Chanakya), a Brahmin chief minister who may have been the main contributor to the Arthashastra, a textbook on politics akin to The Prince by the Italian historian Niccolò Machiavelli. The military power of the Indian Empire caused Seleucus I, one of Alexander’s generals and the founder of the Seleucid Empire, to arrange an alliance with the Maurya ruler. Concluded in 305 bc, the treaty was consolidated by a marriage arrangement between Chandragupta and a daughter of the Seleucid ruler.
As one result of the close relations between the two empires, Greek cultural influence was widespread in northern India. The Maurya dynasty endured until about 185 bc. During the reign (c. 273-232 bc) of Ashoka, the greatest Maurya sovereign, Buddhism became the dominant religion of the empire. India was, by now, a great centre of learning with universities such as those at Nalanda, and Takshasila attracting scholars from China and South East Asia. Of the dynasties that appeared in the period immediately following the downfall of the Mauryas, the Sunga endured longest, lasting more than a century. The chief event of this period (c. 184-72 bc) was the persecution and decline of Buddhism in India and the triumph of Brahmanism. In consequence of the victory of the Hindu Brahman (priests), the caste system became deeply ingrained in the Indian social structure, creating great obstacles to national unification.
An extensive section of western India was occupied in about 100 bc by invading Shakas (Scythians), then in retreat before the Yueh-chi of central Asia. Pushing southwards, the Yueh-chi subsequently settled in north-western India, where Kadphises, one of their kings, founded the Kushan dynasty in about ad 40. A large part of northern India shortly fell under the sway of the Kushan kings. One of the early Kushan monarchs established diplomatic and commercial relations with the Roman Empire. Buddhism thrived under the Kushans, and especially under the rule of Emperor Kanishka, who was a patron of learning and the arts. Mathematics and science flourished and the medical texts of Charaka were written at this time.
The rulers of the indigenous Andhra dynasty, which came to control the former Sunga dominions in about 27 bc and endured for about 460 years, made repeated attempts to expel the Shakas. These attempts ended in failure and in about ad 236 the Shakas attained complete sovereignty over western India. A decade earlier, shortly before the fall of the Andhra dynasty, the Kushan realm also disintegrated. The ensuing century was a period of political confusion throughout most of India.
D Gupta Empire
In 320 a Magadha raja named Chandragupta I (reigned 320-330), who had conquered the neighbouring territories, founded a new imperial regime and the Gupta dynasty. His grandson Chandragupta II (reigned 375-413) vastly expanded the realm, subjugating all of the subcontinent north of the River Narmada. Under the Gupta dynasty, which lasted for 160 years, Indian culture reached new heights. The period was one of sustained peace, steady economic advance, and intellectual accomplishment, particularly in art, music, and literature. Equally importantly, Hinduism, which had long been in decline, experienced a robust renaissance through absorption of some features of Buddhism.
Towards the close of the 5th century, Hunnish invaders, often referred to as the White Huns, pushed into India from central Asia. The Gupta Empire broke up under the attacks of these invaders, whose supremacy went unchallenged for nearly a century. Foreign military reverses, notably at the hands of the Turks in about 565, finally undermined the power of the Huns in India. Among the contemporary descendants of the Huns who remained in India are certain tribal groups of Rajasthan state. Another powerful kingdom was founded in northern India in 606 by Harsha, the last Buddhist monarch of consequence in Indian history. Harsha’s reign emulated the Gupta period in its patronage of the arts, and the cultural achievements of this period can be seen in the chronicles of the great Chinese pilgrim, Xuangzang (Hsuan-tsang or Tripitaka). During his reign, Harsha secured control of almost the entire mainland and attempted, without success, to conquer the Deccan. After Harsha’s death, his realm disintegrated into a multiplicity of warring petty states and principalities. This anarchic state of affairs, which was also generally characteristic of the situation on the peninsula, prevailed throughout India until the beginning of the 11th century.
E Muslim and Mongol Invasions
The prolonged period of internal strife drew to a close as a new power, solidly united under Islam, arose in western Asia. This new power was Khurasan, previously a Samanid province which had been transformed into an independent kingdom by Mahmud of Ghazni (reigned 999-1030). A capable warrior whose sovereignty over Khurasan had been recognized by the caliph of Baghdad, Mahmud in 1000 launched the first of 17 consecutive expeditions across the Afghan frontier into India. These incursions were marked by victories over the disunited Indians. By 1025 Mahmud had sacked many western Indian cities, including the fabulously wealthy port of Somnath, and had annexed the region of Punjab to his empire.
The most successful of the Muslim rulers after Mahmud was Muhammad of Ghur, whose reign began in 1173. Regarded by most historians as the real founder of Muslim power in India, he initiated his campaigns of conquest in 1175. In the course of the next three decades, he subjugated all of the Indo-Gangetic plain west of Benares (now Varanasi). On the death of Muhammad of Ghur, Qutb-ud-Din Aybak, his viceroy in Delhi and a former slave, proclaimed himself Sultan. The so-called Slave dynasty founded by Qutb-ud-Din, its only outstanding ruler, endured until 1288.
Another capable Muslim, Ala-ud-Din (reigned 1296-1316), was the second ruler of the succeeding Khalji dynasty. He consolidated the Indian realm by conquering the Deccan. However, before the end of his reign, the Mongols began to infiltrate the northern frontiers of his dominions. Muhammad Tughluq, the last Delhi sultan of importance, completely alienated both Muslims and subject Hindus by his cruelty and religious fanaticism. The empire was torn by revolutionary strife and some provinces, notably Bengal, seceded.
The turmoil increased after Tughluq’s death. In 1398, when the Mongol conqueror Tamerlane led his armies into India, he met little organized resistance. Tamerlane completed his victorious invasion by sacking and destroying Delhi, and massacring its inhabitants. He withdrew from India shortly after the sack of Delhi, leaving the remnants of the empire to Mahmud (reigned 1399-1413), the last of the Tughluqs. Mahmud was succeeded in 1414 by the first of the Sayyids, a dynasty that was later driven from power by Bahlol (reigned 1451-1489), founder of the Lodi line of kings. The Lodi dynasty, generally weak and ineffectual, ended in 1526. In that year Babur, a descendant of Tamerlane and the founder of the great Mughal dynasty, carried out a series of raids into India which ended with the defeat of the Lodi army. Babur occupied Agra, the Lodi capital, and proclaimed himself emperor of the Muslim dominions. Within four years of his initial victory, Babur controlled a large part of the Indian mainland.
F Mughal Empire
Akbar, Babur’s grandson, was the greatest Mughal sovereign. During his reign (1556-1605), he subdued rebellious princes in various regions, including the Punjab, Rajputana (modern Rajasthan State), and Gujarat. He added Bengal to his realm in 1576, conquered Kashmir between 1586 and 1592, and annexed Sind in 1592. Between 1598 and 1601 he subjugated a number of the Deccan Muslim kingdoms. In the administration of his vast dominions, Akbar revealed remarkable organizational abilities. He secured the allegiance of hundreds of feudal rulers, promoted trade, introduced an equitable system of taxation, and encouraged religious tolerance. The Mughal Empire reached its cultural peak under Shah Jahan, Akbar’s grandson. Shah Jahan’s reign (1628-1658) coincided with the golden age of Indian Saracenic architecture, best exemplified by the Taj Mahal.
He was driven from the throne in 1658 by his son, Aurangzeb, who took the title of Alamgir (“Conqueror of the World”). Treacherous and aggressive, Aurangzeb murdered his three brothers and waged a series of wars against the autonomous kingdoms of India, sapping the moral and material strength of the empire. During his campaigns in the Deccan, the Marathas, a Scytho-Dravidian people, inflicted numerous defeats on the imperial armies. The stability of Aurangzeb’s regime was further undermined as a result of popular antagonism to the religious bigotry he fostered. During his reign, which ended in 1707 with his death in exile, the Sikh faith gained a strong foothold in India.
In the half-century following Aurangzeb’s death, the Mughal Empire ceased to exist as an effective state. The political chaos of the period was marked by the rapid decline of centralized authority. Numerous petty kingdoms and principalities were created by Muslim and Hindu adventurers, and large independent states were formed by the governors of the imperial provinces. Among the first of the large independent states to emerge was Hyderabad, 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 loot seized by the invaders, the sixth Muslim force to overrun India, was the mammoth Koh-i-noor diamond and the fabulous Peacock Throne, made of solid gold inlaid with precious stones. The Persian king soon withdrew from India, But in 1756 Delhi was again captured—this time by Ahmad Shah, Emir of Afghanistan, who had previously seized the Punjab. In 1760 the Marathas and the Sikhs joined forces against the armies of Ahmad Shah. The ensuing battle, fought at Panipat on January 7, 1761, resulted in complete victory for the invaders. In 1764, following the withdrawal of the invaders from India, the Mughal Emperor regained his throne. His authority, like that of his successors, was purely nominal, however. With the defeat of the Marathas and the Sikhs, the possibility of the reunification of India into a strong, single state had vanished—and the country, long the arena of bitter colonial rivalry among the maritime powers of Europe, fell increasingly under British domination.
G Portuguese and Dutch Colonialism
Muslim control of the trade arteries between the Mediterranean and India, led various European powers to dream of a new route to the Far East long before Babur founded the Mughal Empire. The Portuguese devoted remarkable zeal and initiative to the search for such a route. In 1497 and 1498 Vasco da Gama, one of the royal navigators, led an expedition around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Indian Ocean. On May 19, 1498, da Gama sailed into the harbour of Kozhikode (Calicut), on the Malabar Coast, opening a new era of Indian history. Establishing friendly relations with the dominant Deccan kingdom, the Portuguese secured a monopoly of Indian maritime trade and maintained it for a century. The Portuguese monopoly was broken early in the 17th century by the Dutch East India Company, an amalgamation of private Dutch merchant traders set up in 1602 under the auspices of the Dutch government. Two years earlier, the English monarch Elizabeth I had granted a charter to a similar merchant organization, the first English East India Company. Company negotiations with the Mughal ruler, Emperor Jahangir, were successful, and in December 1612 the English founded their first trading post at Surat, on the Gulf of Khambhat. On November 29 a Portuguese fleet had attacked a number of English vessels in the Gulf of Khambhat and the English had triumphed in the ensuing battle.
During the next decade the Portuguese were defeated in several more naval engagements with the English, who thereafter encountered little opposition in India from that quarter. The Dutch, already entrenched in the Malay Archipelago, also endeavoured to drive the English out of India, but were themselves eliminated as a serious competitive force before the end of the 17th century. Meanwhile the English East India Company steadily expanded its sphere of influence and operations. It secured a foothold in Orissa in 1633, founded the city of Madras in 1639, obtained trading privileges in Bengal in 1651, acquired Bombay from Portugal in 1661, and arranged a commercial treaty with the Maratha ruler Shivaji Bhonsle in 1674; in 1690 it established Kolkata after forcibly suppressing local opposition to the move.
H Growing French and British Rivalry
During the first half of the 18th century the French, who had begun to operate in India about 1675, emerged as a serious threat to the growing power and prosperity of the English East India Company. The friction between France and the newly formed Great Britain reached an acute stage in 1746, when a French fleet seized Madras. This action, a phase of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), and the subsequent fighting in India ended in a stalemate; in 1748 the French returned Madras to the British. Within three years the smouldering feud between the European rivals again flared into armed conflict. Robert Clive, a British East India Company employee, won distinction and victory in the fight for control of Hyderabad and the Carnatic.
The final stage of the contest between the French and British for dominance in India developed as an extension of the Seven Years’ War in Europe. In the course of the hostilities which lasted from 1756 to 1763, and involved large contingents of Indian partisans, the British won several decisive victories and effectively ended French plans for political control of the subcontinent. The most important event of the war was Clive’s victory at Plassey, which made the British virtual masters of Bengal. By the terms of the general peace settlement following the Seven Years’ War, French territory in India was reduced to a few trading posts. See also Carnatic Wars.
I East India Company
As a result of its victories, the East India Company had acquired strategic political and territorial positions in Bengal, the most populous Indian province, and in important areas of the Deccan. Consolidation and extension of these gains characterized the company’s subsequent policy, which retained its status as a private commercial firm until 1773. In that year the East India Company was made by parliament a semi-official agency of the British government. The application of British policy in India was facilitated by the power vacuum that followed the Battle of Panipat (1761), when neither the Mughal Empire nor the Maratha Confederacy was strong enough to exercise authority.
I1 Armed Resistance
In the pursuit of their objectives, the British relied primarily on superior military power, but bribery, extortion, and the political manipulation of Indian leaders were frequently and successfully employed. Disunity among the various Indian kingdoms and principalities paved the way for eventual British subjugation of the entire subcontinent and contiguous regions, notably Burma. At sporadic intervals, individual Indian states and groups of states fiercely, but vainly, resisted exploitation and territorial seizures by the company. The chief centres of armed resistance to British rule included, at various times, the Maratha Confederacy, Mysore, Sind, and Punjab. In 1845, hostilities broke out between the Sikhs of Punjab and the British, starting a war that proved costly to both sides. The Sikhs were defeated in 1846 but two years later they again engaged the British. In one battle, fought at Chilianwala, the Sikhs inflicted nearly 2,500 casualties on the British. The latter won a decisive victory on February 21, 1849, however, forcing the Sikhs to capitulate.
I2 Dalhousie’s Impact
Annexation of Punjab by the East India Company followed. During the next few years James Andrew Broun Ramsay, 10th Earl of Dalhousie, then governor-general of the company in India, annexed the kingdoms of Satara, Jaipur, Sambalpur, Jhansi, and Nagpur on the death of their rulers. Dalhousie’s policy of annexation engendered profound hostility among the Indian nobility and peoples. India benefited materially, however, from various improvements and reforms introduced by Dalhousie’s administration. Railways, bridges, roads, and irrigation systems were built; telegraph and postal services were established; and restrictions were imposed on suttee (the immolation of wives on the funeral pyres of their husbands), slave trading, and other ancient practices. These innovations and reforms, however, aroused little enthusiasm among the Indian people, many of whom regarded the modernization of their country with fear and distrust. In 1856 Dalhousie annexed Oudh, an act that added immeasurably to popular discontent. Dalhousie’s apparent attitude of contempt for the learning and culture of India caused particular resentment.
I3 Indian Mutiny
As the unrest in India mounted, a large-scale conspiratorial movement spread among the sepoys, the Indian troops employed by the British East India Company. A general uprising, known as the Indian or Sepoy Mutiny, began at Meerut, a town near Delhi, on May 10, 1857. Sparked off by a spontaneous reaction of Hindu and Muslim troops offended at the use of cow and pig fat, respectively, in a new type of cartridge, it became a more general expression of opposition to British rule, rallied around the banner of Bahadur Shah II, titular emperor of the moribund Mughal Empire. The mutineers quickly occupied Delhi and other strategic centres, massacred hundreds of Europeans, and, on June 30, laid siege to the British residency at Lucknow. The city was relieved in November and reinforcements of British troops and loyal sepoys were rushed to the disaffected areas. Fighting continued into 1859, but by June 1858 the chief rebel strongholds had fallen.
A period of brutal reprisals by the British troops followed, especially in Delhi, where thousands were killed, many without trial. In the same year, the judicial authorities of the East India Company convicted Bahadur Shah II on charges of rebellion and sentenced him to life imprisonment, thus closing the final chapter of Mughal history. As one major result of the Indian Mutiny, the British Parliament in 1858 passed the Act for the Better Government of India, which transferred the administration of India from the East India Company to the British Crown.
J British India and Rising Nationalism
Many of the abuses prevalent in India during the rule of the East India Company were eradicated or modified after the British government assumed control of Indian affairs. Important fiscal, governmental, judicial, educational, and social reforms were instituted, and the system of public works inaugurated by Dalhousie was vastly extended. The British government had inherited numerous difficult problems, including the impoverished condition of the majority of Indian people, popular resentment over the country’s colonial status, and a growing spirit of nationalism. Frequent disastrous famines, beginning with the 1866 Orissa famine, which took the lives of 1.5 million people—contributed substantially to political unrest. In 1876 the British government, then headed by Benjamin Disraeli, proclaimed Queen Victoria Empress of India.
J1 Political Ferment
In the closing years of the 19th century and during the first decade of the 20th century, social and political ferment in India spread widely. Aspects of Western and Eastern ideas and cultures were effectively combined by the Indian intellectual elite, some of whom had studied and travelled in the West. Under the stimulus of vigorous propaganda campaigns in the local press, mass meetings, and secret political organizations, Indian nationalism began to seriously threaten Britain’s position in India. A number of associations dedicated to the struggle against British rule had been created in the decades following the Indian Mutiny. Of these, the most influential was the Indian National Congress, founded in 1885. This organization, which enlisted the support of many prominent Hindus and Muslims, gradually heightened the political consciousness of the masses and accelerated the trend towards national unification. On the cultural level, the celebrated poet and educator Rabindranath Tagore made enduring contributions to the cause of Indian unity.
The Indian National Congress drew inspiration and encouragement from the Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 and 1905, a practical demonstration of the latent power of the Asian peoples. Hostile manifestations against British rule became more and more frequent, particularly in Bengal. The more radical nationalists resorted to assassination, bombings, and other acts of terrorism. Retaliatory measures by the colonial authorities were countered by a popular boycott of British goods.
J2 Repressive Measures
Condemning most of the nationalist activities as seditious, the British government adopted a special criminal code to deal with the situation. Among other measures, this code provided for trial without jury for those accused of treason, and for deportation or summary imprisonment for agitators. These repressive steps were followed in 1909 by the India Councils Act, which introduced a limited degree of self-government in India. Dissatisfied with this concession to Indian demands for independence, the nationalist movement continued to gain headway.
A new and disruptive current had, meanwhile, been introduced into the movement for national unification with the formation in 1906 of the Muslim League. It was established with the encouragement of the British government and supported primarily by those Muslims who, for reasons of self-interest, loyalty to Britain, or Muslim nationalism, were hostile to the objectives of the Indian National Congress. The league succeeded in diverting significant numbers of young Indian Muslims and of the intelligentsia from the independence struggle. Many outstanding Muslims, however, including the influential journalist Abul Kalam Azad, registered disapproval of league policy, resigned from the organization, and joined the Indian National Congress.
J3 Joint Campaign
Following the outbreak of World War I, many Indians, both Hindu and Muslim, rallied to the British cause. More than 1.2 million participated in the British war effort, giving valiant and loyal service in all theatres of the conflict. The nationalist movement, generally quiescent during the first two years of the war, resumed the campaign for fundamental political reforms in the autumn of 1916. The campaign was initiated by a joint declaration of minimum demands by the Indian National Congress and by the Muslim League, which had been forced to abandon its pro-British policy after Turkey, a Muslim country, entered the war on the side of the Central Powers. There followed a policy pronouncement from the British government in August 1917, promising an increase of “...the association of Indians in every branch of the administration and the gradual development of self-governing institutions” in India.
K Gandhi’s Protest Movement
Political strife increased after World War I. In reply to the upsurge of nationalist activity, the British parliament passed the Rowlatt Acts, which suspended civil rights and provided for martial law in areas disturbed by riots and uprisings. Passage of the Rowlatt Acts precipitated a wave of violence and disorder in many parts of India. In this period of turmoil, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a Hindu social and religious reformer, called on the Indian people to meet British repression with passive resistance (Satyagraha). The protest movement reached insurrectionary proportions on April 13, 1919, proclaimed by Gandhi as a day of national mourning. In Amritsar, in the Punjab, an unarmed crowd of men, women, and children, staging a peaceful protest in a confined square, were massacred by British troops under the orders of General Dyer.
In consequence of the Amritsar massacre, the anti-British movement in India reached new levels of intensity. The outstanding feature of this stage of the struggle was Gandhi’s policy of non-cooperation, instituted in 1920. Among other things, the policy called for the boycott of British goods, courts, and educational institutions; for non-cooperation in political life; and for the renunciation of British titles held by Indians. The non-cooperation movement was sometimes attended by violence, despite admonitions by Gandhi against the use of force. Combined with parliamentary methods of struggle, the movement proved to be a remarkably effective weapon in the fight for Indian independence. In the view of British officialdom, the activities engaged in by Gandhi constituted sedition, and the Indian leader, along with other outstanding activists such as Sarojini Naidu, was periodically imprisoned or interned during the 1920s and 1930s. Gandhi, known among his admirers as Mahatma (Sanskrit for “great soul”), figured decisively in Indian political history.
L Increasing Internal Dissension
Between 1922, the year of the initial imprisonment of Gandhi for sedition, and 1942, when he was placed in custody for the last time, the fight for Indian independence was marked by serious setbacks, including the renewal of dissension between Muslims and Hindus, and by many victories.
L1 Civil Disobedience
The tide of Indian nationalism, having acquired momentum steadily since Gandhi was first arrested, attained a climactic stage in the spring of 1930. On March 12 of that year, following British rejection of demands for dominion status for India, Gandhi announced that he would lead a mass violation of the government salt monopoly. This was accomplished, after a long march to the Gulf of Khambhat, by boiling sea-water to produce salt. Similar actions occurred throughout India. This simple act, of making salt, proved profoundly symbolic and effective, and on May 5 Gandhi was again jailed by the British authorities. Riots and demonstrations immediately followed in Calcutta, Delhi, and other centres. Trains were stoned, telegraph wires were cut, and several government officials were assassinated. Striving to cope with these and later disorders, the government carried out wholesale arrests; by November about 27,000 Indian nationalists had been sentenced to prison terms.
L2 Hindu-Muslim Schism
Finally, in March 1931, the British government arranged a truce with Gandhi, who had been released in January along with other political prisoners, including Jawaharlal Nehru, his closest associate and the secretary of the Indian National Congress. Meanwhile the Muslim League, professing fears of Hindu domination, had advanced demands for special privileges in the proposed dominion government. In the course of the resulting controversy, bitter Hindu-Muslim rioting ravaged many communities of India. Adding to the misery and suffering occasioned by these outbursts, the world economic crisis, which had begun in 1929, completely disrupted the economy of India during the early 1930s.
L3 Government of India Act
In 1935, following a series of conferences in London between British and Indian leaders, the Government of India Act was approved by the British parliament. The act provided for the establishment of autonomous legislative bodies in the provinces of British India, for the creation of a central government representative of the provinces and princely states, and for the protection of Muslim minorities. In addition, the act provided for a bicameral national legislature and an executive arm under the control of the British government. Largely influenced by Gandhi, the Indian people approved the measures, which became effective on April 1, 1937. Many members of the Indian National Congress, however, continued to insist on full independence for India.
On the provincial level, few difficulties developed in the application of the Government of India Act. However, the plan for federation proved unworkable for a variety of reasons, including mutual suspicion and antagonism between the Indian princes and the radicals of the Indian National Congress, and Muslim claims that the Hindus would have excessive influence in the national legislature. As an alternative, the Muslim League, then headed by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, advocated the creation of an independent Muslim state (Pakistan). This proposal met violent Hindu opposition. Further complicating the Indian political situation, Subhas Chandra Bose, an extreme nationalist, was elected President of the Indian National Congress early in 1939. Within a few months, however, Congress rejected his policies and he resigned.
M Wartime Agitation
On the outbreak of World War II the Viceroy of India, Victor Alexander John Hope, Marquess of Linlithgow, declared war on Germany in the name of India. This step, taken in accordance with the constitution of 1937 but without consulting Indian leaders, alienated Gandhi and important sections of the Indian National Congress. Influential groups within Congress, supporting Gandhi’s position, intensified the campaign for immediate self-government, naming it as their price for cooperation in the war effort. At the end of October 1939 the ministries of eight provinces resigned in protest against the adamant attitude of the British. The civil disobedience campaign was resumed by the Indian National Congress in October 1940. Meanwhile the Muslim League, many of the princely states, and certain members of the Indian National Congress had endorsed the British war effort. The subsequent contributions of India to the struggle against the Axis powers were extensive. About 1.5 million Indian troops were serving at home and on the fronts by the end of the war, while India’s financial contribution totalled approximately US$12 billion.
In December 1941 the British authorities in India released the Congress leaders who had been placed under arrest in 1940. A new wave of anti-British agitation followed, and in March 1942 the British government dispatched Sir Stafford Cripps, then Lord Privy Seal, to India with proposals designed to satisfy nationalist demands. These proposals contained the promise of full independence for India after the end of the war and called for the establishment of an interim Indian government responsible for all matters except national defence and foreign affairs. Because the leaders of both the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League had basic objections to various sections of the proposals, the Cripps mission ended in failure.
The civil disobedience movement was resumed in August 1942. Gandhi, Nehru, and thousands of their supporters were rounded up and imprisoned, and the Indian National Congress was outlawed. Encouraged by Indian disunity and with the help of Bose, who had organized a “provisional Indian government” in Burma, the Japanese promptly intensified military operations along the Burmese-Indian frontier. The Japanese invasion of India began along a 322-km (200-mi) front in March 1944. After initial successes, the Japanese were gradually forced back into Burma by Anglo-Indian troops.
The British government released Gandhi from jail on May 6, 1944. During his internment Gandhi had modified most of his views regarding the nature of the war and the Cripps programme, and in September 1944 he and the Muslim leader Jinnah began discussions on mutual differences. Primarily because of Jinnah’s insistence on the demarcation of the frontiers of Pakistan prior to the formation of an interim government, the discussions ended in failure.
N Interim Government
In June 1945 India became a charter member of the UN. In the same month Nehru was released from jail, and shortly thereafter the British government issued a white paper on the Indian question. The proposals closely resembled those of the Cripps programme. Another deadlock developed and during the second half of 1945 a new wave of anti-British riots and demonstrations swept India. Three representatives of the British government, including Cripps, made another attempt to negotiate an agreement with Indian leaders in the spring of 1946. Although the Muslim League temporarily withdrew its demands for the partition of India along religious lines, insuperable differences developed with respect to the character of an interim government. The negotiations were fruitless, and in June the British viceroy Archibald Wavell announced the formation of an emergency “caretaker” government. An interim executive council, headed by Nehru and including representatives of all major political groups except the Muslim League, replaced this government in September. The following month, the Muslim League agreed to participate in the new government. Nonetheless, communal strife between Muslims and Hindus increased in various parts of India.
By the end of 1946 the Indian political situation verged on anarchy. The British prime minister Clement R. Attlee announced in February 1947 that his government would relinquish power in India not later than June 30, 1948. According to the announcement, the move would be made whether or not the political factions of India had agreed on a constitution. Political tension mounted in India following the announcement, creating grave possibilities of a disastrous Hindu-Muslim civil war. After consultations with Indian leaders, Louis Mountbatten, who succeeded Wavell as Viceroy in March 1947, recommended immediate partition of India to the British government as the only means of averting catastrophe. A bill incorporating Mountbatten’s recommendations was introduced into the British parliament on July 4; it obtained speedy and unanimous approval in both houses of parliament.
O Indian Independence Act
Under the provisions of the Indian Independence Act, which became effective on August 15, 1947, India and Pakistan were established as independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations, with the right to withdraw from or remain within the Commonwealth. The Indian government, by the terms of a declaration issued jointly by the then eight members of the Commonwealth on April 28, 1949, elected to retain its membership. For the subsequent history of Pakistan, see Pakistan: History.
The new states of India and Pakistan were created along religious lines. Areas inhabited predominantly by Hindus were allocated to India, those with a predominantly Muslim population were allocated to Pakistan. Because the overwhelming majority of people on the Indian subcontinent are Hindus, partition resulted in the inclusion within the Union of India, as the country was then named, of most of the 562 princely states in existence prior to August 15, 1947, as well as the majority of the British provinces.
By the terms of the Indian Independence Act, governmental authority in the Union was vested in the Constituent Assembly, originally an all-India body created for the purpose of drafting a constitution for the entire nation. The All-India Constituent Assembly, which held its first session in December 1946, was boycotted by the delegates of the Muslim League. The remaining delegates, who were chiefly representative of the Indian National Congress, formed the Constituent Assembly of the Indian Union.
After the transfer of power from the British government, the Constituent Assembly assigned executive responsibility to a Cabinet, with Nehru as Prime Minister. Mountbatten became governor-general of the new country.
P Continued Hindu-Muslim-Sikh Antagonisms
The termination of British rule in India was greeted enthusiastically by Indians of every religious faith and political persuasion. On August 15, 1947, officially designated Indian independence day, celebration ceremonies were held in all parts of the subcontinent and in Indian communities abroad. These ceremonies took place, however, against an ominous background of Hindu-Muslim and Sikh-Muslim antagonism, which were particularly acute in regions equally or almost equally shared by members of the different faiths.
P1 Population Shifts
In anticipation of border disputes in such regions, notably Bengal and Punjab, a boundary commission with a neutral (British) chair was established prior to partition. The recommendations of this commission occasioned little active disagreement with respect to the division of Bengal. In that region, largely because of Gandhi’s moderating influence, little communal strife developed. In the Punjab, however, the demarcation line brought nearly 2 million Sikhs under the jurisdiction of Pakistan. The boundary commission’s decisions precipitated bitter fighting. A mass exodus of Muslims from Union territory into Pakistan and of Sikhs and Hindus from Pakistan into Union territory took place. In the course of the initial migrations, which involved more than 4 million people in September 1947 alone, refugee convoys were frequently attacked and massacred by fanatical partisans. Co-religionists of the victims resorted to reprisals against minorities in other sections of the Union and Pakistan. The Indian and Pakistani authorities brought the strife under control during October, but the shift of populations in the Punjab and other border areas continued until the end of the year. Relations between the two states grew worse in October, when the Indian armed forces surrounded Junagadh, a princely state on the Kathiawar Peninsula. This action was taken because the nawab (ruler) of the state, which had a large Hindu majority, had previously announced that he would affiliate with Pakistan. The Indian military authorities subsequently assumed control of Junagadh, pending a plebiscite.
P2 War in Kashmir
Kashmir, a princely state inhabited predominantly by Muslims but ruled by a Hindu, became the next major source of friction between India and Pakistan. On October 24, 1947, Muslim insurgents, supported by invading co-religionists from the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, proclaimed the establishment of a “Provisional Government of Kashmir”. Three days later Hari Singh, the Hindu Maharaja of Kashmir, announced the accession of Kashmir to the Union of India. Approving the maharaja’s decision and promising a plebiscite after the restoration of peace, the Indian government immediately dispatched troops to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir and the major objective of the insurgents. Political agitation in Kashmir was led by Sheikh Abdullah, the leader of the region’s largest secular party, who favoured Kashmir’s accession to India. Hostilities quickly attained serious proportions, and at New Year 1948 the Indian government filed a formal complaint with the UN Security Council, accusing Pakistan of giving help to the Muslim insurgents.
Despite repeated attempts by the Security Council to obtain a truce in the troubled area, fighting continued throughout 1948. The peacemaking efforts of the Security Council finally met with success in January 1949, when both India and Pakistan accepted proposals for a plebiscite on the political future of Kashmir, held under the auspices of the UN. Ceasefire orders were issued by the two governments on the same day. Among other things, the UN plan provided for the withdrawal of combat troops from the state, for the return of refugees desirous of participating in the plebiscite, and for a free and impartial vote under the direction of a “personality of high international standing”. In March 1949 UN Secretary-General Trygve Lie appointed the American Admiral Chester W. Nimitz administrator of the Kashmir plebiscite, scheduled for later in the year.
Meanwhile both the Union of India and Pakistan had suffered the loss of outstanding leaders, and the Indian government had become embroiled in a dispute with the nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur. Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic on January 30, 1948, and Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, died the following September. The tension between the Indian government and Hyderabad, inhabited preponderantly by Hindus, resulted from the reluctance of the nizam, a Muslim, to bring his state into the Union. Protracted negotiations for a peaceful solution of the dispute ended in failure; on September 17 Indian forces occupied Hyderabad, the capital city, ending the nizam’s resistance. He subsequently signed instruments of accession making Hyderabad part of the Union of India.
Although India and Pakistan agreed, in July 1949, on a line demarcating their respective zones of occupation in Kashmir, the two nations were unable to reconcile basic differences on the terms of the proposed plebiscite. The deadlock was primarily due to Indian insistence that Pakistani troops be withdrawn from the disputed territory before the plebiscite and to Pakistan’s refusal to withdraw its troops unless the Indians also withdrew theirs.
Q First Years as a Republic
The Indian Constituent Assembly approved a republican constitution for the Union on November 26, 1949. Comprising a preamble, 395 articles, and 8 schedules, the document proved to be more voluminous than any other body of organic law in existence. One of the constitution’s features is a clause outlawing untouchability, the ancient practice of caste that condemned about 40 million Hindus to social and economic degradation. The Gandhi disciple and All-India Congress leader Rajendra Prasad was elected first President of the republic in January 1950. As provided by the constitution, the republic was formally proclaimed on January 26. The Constituent Assembly then reconstituted itself as a provisional parliament and Jawaharlal Nehru was elected Prime Minister.
Q1 Non-Alignment
During its first year as a republic, India figured increasingly in international affairs, especially in UN deliberations and activities. Nehru’s government, adhering to policies developed in the pre-republican period, maintained a generally neutral position with respect to the Cold War between the Soviet bloc and the Western democracies. Indian determination to avoid entanglement with either side became increasingly apparent following the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950. Subsequently the Indian government approved the UN Security Council resolution invoking military sanctions against North Korea; no Indian troops were committed to the UN cause, however. Beginning in July, when Nehru despatched notes on the Korean situation to the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), India sought repeatedly to restore peace in the Far East. In its initial attempts at mediation, the Indian government suggested that admission of the Chinese People’s Republic to the UN was a prerequisite of a solution of the Far Eastern crisis. Even after the Chinese intervention in the Korean War, and despite Indian-Chinese differences over Tibet, India adhered to this view but it was rejected by a majority of the Security Council. In October 1950, after a Chinese army invaded Tibet, the Indian government dispatched a note to China expressing “surprise and regret”.
Q2 Foreign Aid
Outstanding among domestic events during the first year of republican rule was a series of natural disasters, notably an extended drought in southern India and severe earthquakes and floods in Assam. About 6 million tonnes of grain and other foodstuffs were lost, according to an official estimate made in November 1950. During the resulting famine, large sections of the population were forced to subsist on a daily ration of 57 g (2 oz) of rice. India appealed to the United States in December 1950 for US$200 million worth of food. In February 1951 US President Harry S. Truman asked Congress to enact legislation providing 2 million tonnes of grain for Indian relief. Considerable opposition to the request developed in Congress, primarily because of Indian policy on the Korean War. Indian restrictions on the export of certain strategic materials also provoked congressional opposition to the relief measure. Nehru declared that India would refuse to accept relief “with political strings attached”, and in June 1951 Congress finally approved a US$190 million relief loan to be repaid on terms acceptable to the Indian government.
Q3 Domestic Policies
The following month Nehru announced that the government must encourage birth control in order to cope with the problem of a rapid population growth and a food supply rendered inadequate by traditional agricultural methods and frequent natural disasters. Shortly afterwards, the government promulgated a five-year national development plan providing for expenditure of US$3.8 billion, largely on irrigation and hydroelectric projects.
The results of the first general elections in the Indian Republic were announced on March 1, 1952. Based on universal suffrage, the balloting had begun in October 1951 and ended in February 1952. The Indian National Congress, the ruling party, won 364 of 489 contested seats in the national legislature and was victorious in all but two of the constituent states. In May the newly constituted electoral college elected President Rajendra Prasad to the presidency for a full five-year term.
R International Affairs
In June 1952 India, which had boycotted the 1951 Japanese peace conference, signed a bilateral peace treaty with Japan. Among the provisions was a waiver of all reparations claims. During September the Indian government accepted famine-relief food shipments from the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union, but only after both countries agreed to Indian stipulations against possible “political strings”.
R1 Korea and Kashmir
India figured significantly in international developments during 1953. An Indian general was named to chair the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission provided for by the Korean armistice agreement of July 27. In this position, he perpetuated the Indian policy of neutrality, provoking accusations of partiality from both the UN and Communist commands. The issue of Indian participation in the projected Korean peace conference was decided in August when the UN General Assembly voted down a British-backed resolution inviting India to the conference. Subsequently, the US Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, termed Indian exclusion from the proposed peace talks the “price” of neutrality. Indian-Pakistani talks on plebiscite arrangements for Kashmir were terminated in December 1953 over disagreement on the number and composition of troops to be stationed there during the voting. The Kashmir Constituent Assembly unanimously approved accession to the Indian Republic early in February 1954.
R2 Indochina
The prime ministers of India, Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka conferred in Sri Lanka from April 28 to May 2, 1954. Among other actions, the leaders adopted a declaration of support for the Geneva Conference on Far Eastern Affairs, then about to convene. The conference was called, in the face of imminent French defeat, to discuss an end to the war in Indochina. Nehru held a series of meetings late in June with Premier Zhou Enlai of China, who was a delegate to the Geneva Conference; they issued a joint statement urging a political settlement. Under the provisions of the Indochinese ceasefire agreements in July of that year, India chaired the three-power International Commission established to supervise application of the agreements.
R3 Bandung Conference
India participated in the Asian-African Conference, a meeting in April 1955 of 22 Asian and 7 African states, held in Bandung, Indonesia. In June, Nehru spent two weeks in the USSR. At the conclusion of the visit he and Soviet premier Nikolay A. Bulganin issued a joint statement appealing for a ban on nuclear weapons, for disarmament, for “wider application” of the principles of coexistence, and for recognition of the “legitimate rights” of Taiwan by the People’s Republic of China.
Indian-Portuguese relations had worsened steadily in 1954 because of insistent demands by Indian nationalists that Portugal vacate Goa and the rest of Portuguese India. In August 1955 Portuguese security forces fired on a group of Indian demonstrators who crossed the Goan border. India then severed diplomatic ties with Portugal.
R4 Suez and Hungary
In July 1956 Nehru conferred with President Tito of Yugoslavia and President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt. The three leaders later issued a joint communiqué affirming their opposition to colonialism and their belief in a worldwide system of collective security. During the crisis following Egypt’s seizure of the Suez Canal on July 26, and the subsequent invasion of Egypt by Israel, France, and Britain, India made numerous attempts to reconcile the various nations. Throughout the crisis the Indian minister without portfolio V. K. Krishna Menon conferred frequently with representatives of both sides. At the same time India was widely criticized for its failure to support a UN resolution of November 5, 1956, condemning the USSR for its use of force against anti-Soviet rebels in Hungary. Later that month, however, Nehru, who had initially characterized the anti-Soviet uprising as a civil war, denounced the Soviet occupation of Hungary.
S Internal Affairs
On January 26, 1957, India declared the state of Kashmir to be an integral part of the Indian Republic, following decisions to that effect by the Kashmir Constituent Assembly. Protest riots and burnings of effigies of Nehru subsequently took place in Pakistan, which lodged a vigorous complaint in the UN. In national elections held in February and March 1957, the Congress Party won 366 of 494 seats in the lower house of parliament; the Communists won 29 seats to become the largest opposition party and also gained control of the state of Kerala. Prime Minister Nehru and President Prasad retained their positions. In March a decimal system of currency was introduced.
In Kerala efforts to increase government control of private schools aroused mass opposition, manifested by frequent anti-government demonstrations during 1958. To uphold law and order, Prasad took over the functions of the Kerala government in July 1959. Legislative elections in the state in February 1960 resulted in substantial gains for the anti-Communist parties.
In May 1960 the state of Bombay was divided along linguistic lines into the two states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. To placate rebellious Naga tribes, Nehru announced that a new state of Nagaland would be created out of the Assam State. Subsequently, elements of the Sikh population agitated for creation of a separate Sikh state out of part of the Punjab. The matter was settled in 1966 by the formation of the new state of Haryana.
The third Indian five-year economic development plan was inaugurated in April 1961; its cost was estimated at US$24.36 billion and its objective was to increase the average annual per-capita income from US$69.30 to US$80.85. A long-range goal was to make India independent of foreign aid by 1976.
T Clashes with Neighbours
During the Tibetan revolt of March 1959, some 9,000 Tibetan refugees sought political asylum in India. Thereafter several border clashes occurred between Chinese and Indian troops, and in August Indian territory was penetrated by Chinese troops. A conference to settle the dispute, in April 1960, attended by Nehru and Zhou Enlai, ended in a deadlock.
Following charges of Portuguese aggression, Indian forces on December 18, 1961, invaded and annexed the remaining Portuguese enclaves on the subcontinent: Goa, Daman, and Diu. The next day a resolution was brought before the UN Security Council condemning India as an aggressor; it failed to be adopted because of a Soviet veto.
During 1962 the border dispute between China and India grew increasingly tense. Early in the year both countries added outposts along the contested frontier territory in the high Himalaya, and in October the Chinese attacked and overran Indian outposts on both western and eastern parts of the border. The Indians, ill-prepared and particularly ill-equipped for high-elevation fighting, were unable to halt the Chinese advance, which only ended when Beijing announced a unilateral ceasefire in late November. The crisis precipitated a drastic overhaul of Indian defences, and Defence Minister V. K. Krishna Menon, a powerful neutralist, was ousted from the government at the end of October.
On May 27, 1964, Nehru, who had served as prime minister since India attained its independence, died. He was succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri, formerly home affairs minister. Pakistan continued to challenge India’s claim to the predominantly Muslim state of Kashmir, where in August 1965 incidents involving Pakistani guerrillas and Indian troops precipitated an undeclared war between the two states. Hostilities continued despite a UN-arranged ceasefire and the situation remained tense until Soviet-mediated negotiations between Shastri and Pakistani president Muhammad Ayub Khan resulted, on January 10, 1966, in a troop-withdrawal agreement.
U New Leadership
A few hours after signing the agreement in Tashkent, USSR, Shastri died of a heart attack. Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi, a former minister of information, was chosen to be the new prime minister.
In 1969 Prime Minister Gandhi faced a revolt by the conservative wing of the Congress Party but won an impressive victory when, with her support, the former vice-president, Varahagiri Venkata Giri, defeated the official Congress candidate for president. Consolidating her strength, Gandhi and her faction, called the Ruling Congress Party or Congress (R), won a major victory in the elections of March 1971.
Later that month, civil war erupted in Pakistan, as the national government, dominated by West Pakistanis, moved to suppress Bengali efforts to achieve autonomy for East Pakistan. As millions of Bengali refugees streamed across the border into India, relations between India and West Pakistan worsened. In December, India joined the war in support of East Pakistan, compelled the surrender of Pakistani forces there, and was the first to recognize the new nation of Bangladesh. Most Bengali refugees subsequently returned.
Economic conditions in India worsened during the mid-1970s. As unemployment mounted, food riots broke out, and accusations of government corruption intensified. To world surprise, India exploded its first nuclear device on May 18, 1974. A parliamentary effort to topple the Gandhi government was defeated in July; in the following month a candidate backed by Gandhi, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, was elected National President. Early in 1975 India annexed Sikkim, which then became the 22nd state of the republic.
Gandhi was convicted in June 1975 of corrupt practices during the 1971 election campaign. Faced with the loss of her parliamentary seat, she declared a national state of emergency. Centralizing power in her own hands, she implemented strong measures to foster economic development and lower the national birth rate. Increasingly, she relied on her younger son, Sanjay Gandhi. Political opposition was quelled by mass imprisonment and press censorship. Her methods, especially the censorship of the press and the harsh methods introduced in some areas to compel the sterilization of people as part of the drive for population control, caused widespread resentment.
V Janata Government
In early 1977, however, Gandhi called a general election, hoping to be able to demonstrate popular support. Instead, she lost her seat in parliament and the Congress Party failed to win a majority in the legislature for the first time since 1952. The Janata Party, a coalition formed to oppose her regime, won about half the seats in parliament and its head, Morarji R. Desai, was named prime minister. The emergency was ended and the repressive actions of the Gandhi government were reversed. In January 1978 Gandhi formed Congress-Indira (I) as a breakaway party from the Congress Party. Gandhi’s personal charisma remained strong despite the Emergency years, and Congress (I) soon won elections in the south and in Maharashtra; in April Congress (I) was named the main opposition party in the Lok Sabha (lower house).
W Gandhi Returns
In 1979, after more than two years in power, the Janata government lost its parliamentary majority and Desai resigned. Elections in January 1980 resulted in a major victory for Gandhi and her Congress (I) party and she resumed the office of Prime Minister. On June 23 Sanjay, who had emerged from the elections as a major political force, was killed in a plane crash. His seat in parliament was taken by his older brother, Rajiv Gandhi, whom Indira Gandhi appeared to be grooming as her successor.
To appease Sikhs demanding autonomy for Punjab, where they are a majority, Indira Gandhi supported the presidential candidacy of Zail Singh, who in July 1982 became India’s first Sikh chief of state. Autonomist agitation continued with a number of terrorist incidents, however, and in October 1983 Gandhi brought Punjab under president’s rule, giving the police emergency powers.
The centre of Sikh resistance was the religion’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple at Amritsar. On June 2, 1984, the temple was sealed off and occupied by Indian troops in a poorly judged and implemented operation, killing hundreds of Sikhs and seizing caches of ammunition. The troops withdrew by the end of the month, but outrage among Sikh nationalists persisted. On October 31, Indira Gandhi was shot and killed by Sikh members of her personal guard. In the rioting that followed, at least 1,000 Sikhs were killed by mobs. Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as prime minister hours after his mother’s death.
He faced a new crisis on December 3, when a leak of methyl isocyanate gas from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, central India, resulted in the deaths of at least 3,300 people and in the illness of more than 20,000 others. With his leadership reaffirmed in the December 1984 parliamentary elections, Gandhi responded to unrest among the Sikhs by agreeing to expand the boundaries of Punjab.
Early in 1987 Indian troops were sent to Sri Lanka to help suppress a rebellion by Tamil guerrillas. A peace agreement was signed in July, but violent clashes continued. Also in July, the election of Ramaswami Venkataraman as president seemed to consolidate Gandhi’s position. Allegations of corruption and mismanagement weakened the Congress (I), however, as did Gandhi’s inability to deal effectively with demands for autonomy in Punjab and Kashmir. In the November 1989 elections, Congress (I) lost its parliamentary majority, and Vishwanath Pratap Singh, leader of the Janata Dal Party, became prime minister. In 1990, a split within Singh’s own party led to the collapse of his minority government; he was succeeded by his chief rival, Chandra Shekhar, whose government stepped down in March 1991, paving the way for new elections. During the election campaign, Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a Tamil suicide bomber. Outraged voters gave Congress (I) a parliamentary majority, and P. V. Narasimha Rao, former foreign minister and a Gandhi supporter, became prime minister.
X Rao Government
In January 1993 Rao’s authority was undermined by nationwide riots that followed the destruction of the 16th-century Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodhya by Hindu militants, who claimed the site originally belonged to a Hindu temple dedicated to the god Rama, who according to tradition, is believed to have been born in the city. Nearly 3,000 people throughout India died in the ensuing six weeks of sectarian violence. Fearing more riots, Rao prevented Hindu nationalists, who were demanding the resignation of him and his government, from holding a mass rally in the capital. In March, a series of unrelated bombs exploded in Mumbai and Kolkata. The wave of explosions in Mumbai killed more than 300 people in the city’s financial district. The Kolkata explosions were linked to a group of criminals who mishandled explosives when attempting to assemble bombs in an apartment building.
During the early 1990s tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir increased (see Jammu and Kashmir). Since 1989 Jammu and Kashmir State in India has been the site of sporadic fighting between the Indian army and militant Muslim separatists, who either want to form an independent state, or unite with Muslim Pakistan. Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto openly supported the Muslim rebels in Indian Kashmir. In January 1994, India and Pakistan held talks concerning the disputed region, but no real progress was made. Since Pakistan was pursuing a nuclear weapons development programme, many countries feared that the dispute over Kashmir could escalate into a nuclear conflict.
In September 1993 a devastating earthquake shook central India about 320 km (200 mi) west of Hyderabad. It killed an estimated 10,000 people and destroyed dozens of villages. The problems faced by Rao and Congress (I) were underlined towards the end of 1994 when the party was heavily defeated in state elections in the south. Voter rejection of Congress (I) partly reflected the continuing effect of the 1993 riots and continuing inter-religion tension, but it was also a result of popular antipathy to the market-oriented economic reforms introduced by the Rao government after 1991. Although the opening up of the economy had helped to restore growth, it had also led to a sharp increase in inflation, higher prices, and cuts in jobs in certain areas. State elections in some of the northern states, including key Congress (I) strongholds, during early 1995 further underlined Congress (I)’s fall from favour, amid growing support for the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Violence in Jammu and Kashmir continued, with claims of torture and murder made against government forces by respected international bodies like Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists.
In March 1996 the Supreme Court freed the Central Bureau of Investigation from prime ministerial control to investigate political corruption, as widening scandals undermined public faith in established politicians. In lower house elections in April and May, Congress (I) was toppled from power, ending its post-independence domination of Indian politics. Since no party had won a clear majority in the elections, the struggle began to find successors to Congress rule.
Y New Political Order
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which had won 194 seats in the elections, was first to form a government on May 16, 1996, but despite belated attempts to shed its Hindu fundamentalist image and woo other political groups, the BJP-led administration was unable to assemble the 273 members needed for a parliamentary majority, and on May 28 the BJP leader A. B. Vajpayee resigned as prime minister to avoid a vote of no confidence. The centre-left United Front coalition then formed a government under H. D. Deve Gowda, backed by a rump of Congress (I) MPs. The United Front government reflected a broader base of support among castes and interest groups than the Congress (I) and BJP, but also a danger of national fragmentation, as many of its members were purely regional parties. Underlining separatist tensions, violence erupted anew in Jammu and Kashmir on May 30 following polling in the region, with Muslim anti-government rebels pressing for boycott of the poll.
The United Front coalition government, although holding only 128 seats in the 545-member Lok Sabha, gained effective endorsement in June, when it won a vote of confidence. The plethora of corruption allegations that had dogged former Prime Minister Rao culminated in corruption and forgery charges in September. Additional indictments of bribery were brought against Rao in October and the former Communications Minister Sukh Ram was charged with corruption in the same month. The first state visit by a Chinese head of state was made by President Jiang Zemin in November. Rao resigned his position as Congress (I) parliamentary leader in December, and was replaced by the party president Sitaram Kesri in January 1997.
The withdrawal of support for the government by Congress (I) resulted in a vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha in which the government was defeated, leading to the resignation of Deve Gowda as prime minister. A general election was prevented by negotiations between the United Front and Congress (I), resulting in the resumed support of Congress (I) with the appointment of a new leader of the coalition. The former Minister of External Affairs, Inder Kumar Gujral, a respected senior figure known for improving relations with Pakistan, became the new prime minister of India on April 22, 1997. Kesri was re-elected as the leader of Congress.
India celebrated the 50th anniversary of its independence in August, but Prime Minister Gujral spoke of the “plague of corruption”.
Y1 Elections of 1998 and 1999
In November the minority United Front government collapsed after Congress withdrew its support. The action was sparked by a report that implicated a regional party with representatives in the United Front coalition in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. On December 4 President Narayanan dissolved the Lok Sabha and announced general elections for February and March. Twenty-six people were sentenced to death in January 1998 for taking part in the murder of Rajiv Gandhi. His killers were believed to be connected to Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger secessionist movement. The election period was marred by violence, bomb attacks, and voting irregularities. The Hindu nationalist BJP won the elections, but, in an indecisive result, fell short of the 272 seats needed for an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha. They therefore sought support among the smaller parties in order to form a government. The distribution of seats at the 11th Lok Sabha was 193 seats to the BJP and its allies, 177 to the United Front, 144 seats to the Congress and its allies, 28 to independents and others, and 18 seats to the Tamil regionalist Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Atal Vajpayee headed the BJP coalition government. India officially became a nuclear power in May 1998, when it detonated five nuclear devices.
In February, Vajpayee made a historic bus ride from New Delhi to the Pakistani city of Lahore, inaugurating a regular bus service between the two nations and reviving the stalled peace process. Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif met and signed a protocol designed to prevent nuclear war. Nevertheless, both countries continued the development of missiles. In April India tested a new long-range missile, the Agni II, capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Later that month the coalition was dissolved—Vajpayee's government had lasted 13 months and was India's fifth in under three years.
Despite the earlier diplomatic moves, tensions with Pakistan rose to their most serious pitch in over two decades when Islamic guerrilla forces, widely believed to have been backed by Pakistan, encroached into the Indian-controlled Kargil sector of Kashmir in May 1999. India launched air strikes against the insurgents in an eight-week conflict in difficult terrain that resulted in over 1,000 deaths and hundreds of injured. The Indian military campaign was suspended in July, after Pakistan agreed to secure the withdrawal of the Islamic insurgents.
India's billionth citizen was born in August—India has the fastest-growing population in the world with an annual increase of over 15.5 million people.
Vajpayee was returned as prime minister, following the Lok Sabha elections of October 1999, leading a coalition government (the National Democratic Alliance) of over 20 parties, with a majority of more than 50 seats. Sonia Gandhi, the widow of Rajiv Gandhi, was selected leader of the parliamentary opposition.
Tensions surrounding Kashmir were raised again at the end of 1999 when an Indian Airlines plane was hijacked by Islamic militants and diverted to Kandahar in Afghanistan. After eight days the Indian government agreed to the hijackers' demands and released three prisoners held for their involvement in the separatist conflict in Kashmir. The issue of continuing violence in the Kashmir region was high on the agenda during the visit by United States president Bill Clinton to India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in March 2000, but no diplomatic breakthrough was seriously expected or achieved.
The map of India was reworked in November 2000, when three new Indian states, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and Uttaranchal, were established, carved out of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh, respectively. The changes, which had been debated for some time, affect regions of high potential in terms of mineral resources and tourism. Just two months later, on Republic Day, January 26, 2001, the prosperous state of Gujarat was rocked by a devastating earthquake, with its epicentre in Bhuj, that may have left some 30,000 dead. The cost of reconstruction has been estimated at over US$3 billion and recovery is expected to take years. Politically, India was rocked by a new corruption scandal exposed by Indian Web journalists, resulting in the resignation of the long-serving politician George Fernandez from the post of defence minister and of the president of the ruling BJP, Bangaru Laxman, and nearly bringing down the governing coalition.
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