Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2 October, 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat.
After getting his legal education in Britain, he went to South Africa to practice law.
Imbued with a high sense of justice, he was revolted by the racial injustice, discrimination and degradation to which Indians had to submit in the South African colonies.
Indian labourers who had gone to South Africa, and the merchants who followed were denied the right to vote. They had to resister and pay to poll-tax.
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They could not reside except in prescribed locations which were insanitary and congested.
Gandhi soon became the leader of the struggle against these conditions and during 1893- 1914 was engaged in a heroic though unequal struggle against the racist authorities of South Africa.
It was during this long struggle lasting nearly two decades that he evolved the technique of satyagraha based on truth and non-violence.
In January, 1915, Gandhiji returned to his homeland at the age of 46.
As the historian Chandran Devanesan has remarked, South Africa was "the making of the Mahatma".
Gandhiji's acknowledged political mentor was Gopal Krishna Gokhale.
On Gokhale's advice, Gandhiji spent a year travelling around British India, getting to know the land and its peoples.
In 1916, he founded the Sabarmati Ashram at Ahmedabad where his friends and followers were to leam and practise the ideas of truth and non-violence.
His first major public appearance was at the opening of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in February, 1916.
When his turn came to speak, Gandhiji charged the Indian elite with a lack of concern for the labouring poor. The opening of the BHU, he said, was "certainly a most gorgeous show". But he worried about the contrast between the "richly bedecked noblemen" present and "millions of the poof Indians who were absent.
Gandhiji told the privileged invitees that "there is no salvation for India unless you strip yourself of this jewellery and hold it in trust for your countrymen in India". "There can be no spirit of self-government about us," he went on, "if we take away or allow others to take away from the peasants almost the whole of the results of their labour. Our salvation can only come through the farmer. Neither the lawyers, nor the doctors, nor the rich landlords are going to secure it."
Gandhiji's speech at Banaras in February, 1916 was, at one level, merely a statement of fact - namely, that Indian nationalism was an elite phenomenon, a creation of lawyers and doctors and landlords.
The great Mughal Empire declined and disintegrated during the first half of the 18th The Mughal Emperors lost their power and glory and their empire shrank to a few square miles around Delhi.
In the end, in 1803, Delhi itself was occupied by the British army.
The unity and stability of the Empire had been shaken during the long and strong reign of Aurangzeb. On Aurangzeb's death, his three sons fought among themselves for the throne.
The 65-years-old Bahadur Shah emerged victorious. He was learned and dignified.
He adopted a more tolerant attitude towards the Hindu chiefs and rajas.
Unfortunately, his death in 1712 plunged the Empire once again into civil war. A new element entered Mughal politics in this and the succeeding wars of succession,
While previously the contest for power had been between royal princes, and the nobles had merely aided the aspirants to the throne, now ambitious nobles became direct contenders for power and used princes as mere pawns to capture the seats of authority.
In the civil war following Bahadur Shah's death, one of his less able sons, Jahandar Shah, won because he was supported by Zulfiqar Khan, the most powerful noble of the time.
Jahandar Shah's inglorious reign came to an early end in January, 1713 when he was defeated at Agra by Farrukh Siyar his nephew.
Farrukh Siyar owed his victory to the Saiyid brothers, Abdullah Khan and Husain Ali Khan Barahow, who were therefore given the offices ofwazir and mir bakshi respectively
The two brothers soon acquired dominant control over the affairs of the state.
Farrukh Siyar lacked the capacity to rule. He was cowardly, cruel, undependable and faithless.
In 1719, the Saiyid brothers deposed and killed him. In his place they raised to the throne in quick succession two young princes who died of consumption.
The Saiyid brothers now made the 18-years-old Muhammad Shah the Emperor of India. The three successors of Farrukh Siyar were mere puppets in the hands of the Saiyids.
The Saiyid brothers, known in Indian history as the ‘king makers’.
In 1738, Nadir Shah, the ruler of Persia (Iran), descended upon the plains of northern India. He was attracted to India by the fabulous wealth for which it was always famous.
He entered Indian territory towards the end of 1738, without meeting with any opposition. The two armies met at Kamal on 13 February, 1739 and the invader inflicted a crushing defeat on the Mughal army.
The Emperor Muhammad Shah was taken prisoner and Nadir Shah marched on the Delhi. A terrible massacre of the citizen of the imperial capital was ordered by Nadir Shah as a reprisal against the killing of some of his soldiers.
India's trade relations with Europe go back to the ancient days of the Greeks. During the Middle Ages trade between Europe and India and South-East Asia was carried on along several routes.
The Asian part of the trade was carried on mostly by Arab merchants and sailors, while the Mediterranean and European part was the virtual monopoly of the Italians. The trade remain highly profitable.
The old trading routes between the East and the West came under Turkish control after the Ottoman conquest of Asia Minor and capture of Constantinople in 1453.
The West European states and merchants therefore began to search for new and safer sea routes to India and the Spice Islands in Indonesia, then known as the East Indies.
The first steps were taken by Portugal and Spain whose seamen, sponsored and controlled by their governments, began a great era of geographical discoveries.
In 1492 Columbus of Spain set out to reach India and discovered America instead.
In 1498, Vasco da Gama of Portugal discovered a new and all-sea route from Europe to India.
He sailed round Africa via the Cape of Good Hope and reached Calicut. He returned with a cargo which sold for 60 times the cost of his voyage.
These and other navigational discoveries opened a new chapter in history of the world. The 17th and 18th centuries were to witness an enormous increase in world trade. The vast new continent of America was opened to Europe and relations between Europe and Asia were completely transformed.
Portugal had a monopoly of the highly profitable Eastern trade for nearly a century. In India, she established her trading settlements at Cochin, Goa, Diu and Daman.
Under the viceroyalty ofAlfonso d'Albuquerque, who captured Goa in 1510, the Portuguese established their domination over the entire Asian coast from Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to Malacca in Malaya and the Spice Islands in Indonesia.
In the latter half of the 16the century, England and Holland, and later France, all growing commercial and naval powers, waged a fierce struggle against the Spanish and Portuguese monopoly of world trade.
In 1602, the Dutch East India Company was formed.
The main interest of the Dutch lay not in India but in the Indonesian Islands where spices were roduced.
They also established trading depots at Surat, Broach, Cambay and Ahmedabad in Gujarat in West India, Cochin in Kerala, Nagapatam in Madras, Masulipatam in Andhra, Chinsura in Bengal, Patna in Bihar and Agra in Uttar Pradesh.
An English association or company to trade with the East was formed in 1599 under the auspices of a group of merchants known as the Merchant Adventurers.
The company, popularly known as the East India Company, was more...
Having acquired the vast empire of India, the East India Company had to devise suitable methods of government to control and administer it. The administrative policy of the Company underwent frequent changes during the long period between 1757 and 1857.
However, it never lost sight of its main objects which were to increase the Company's profits, to enhance the profitability of its Indian possessions to Britain, and to maintain and strengthen the British hold over India; all other purposes were subordinated to these aims. The administrative machinery of the Government of India was designed and developed to serve these ends.
In 1772 the Company ended the Dual Government and undertook to administer Bengal directly through its own servants.
The East India Company was at this time a commercial body designed to trade with the East. Moreover, its higher authority was situated in England, yet, it had come to wield political power over millions of people. This nomalous state of affairs posed many problem for the British Government.
Merchants kept out of the East by the monopoly of the Company, the growing class of manufacturers and, in general, the rising forces of free enterprise in Britain wanted to share in the profitable Indian trade and the riches of India which the Company and its servants alone were enjoying,
The exclusive privileges of the Company were also attacked by the rising school of economists representing free trade manufacturing capitalism.
In his celebrated work. The Wealth of Nations^ Adam Smith, the founder of classical economics, condemned the exclusive companies,
The first important parliamentary act regarding the Company's affairs was the Regulating Act of 1773.
This Act made changes in the constitution of the Court of Directors of the Company and subjected their actions to the supervision of the British Government.
The defects of the Regulating Act and the exigencies of British politics necessitated the passing in 1784 of another important act known as the Pittas India Act,
It established six Commissioners for the affairs of India, popularly known as the Board of Control, including two Cabinet Ministers.
The Board of Control was to guide and control the work of the Court of Directors and the Government of India.
The Act placed the Government of India in the hands of the Governor-General and a Council of three, so that if the Governor-General could get the support of even one member, he could have his way.
The Act clearly subordinated the Bombay and Madras Presidencies to Bengal in all questions of war, diplomacy, and revenues. With this Act began a new phase of the British conquest of India.
The Company, having saved its monopoly of the Indian and Chinese trade, was satisfied. Its directors retained the profitable right of appointing and more...
The Indus valley civilisation is also called the Harappan culture.
Archaeologists use the term "culture" for a group of objects, distinctive in style, that are usually found together within a specific geographical area and period of time.
In the case of the Harappan culture, these distinctive objects include seals, beads, weights, stone blades and even baked bricks.
These objects were found from areas as far apart as Afghanistan, Jammu, Baluchistan (Pakistan) and Gujarat.
Named after Harappa, the first site where this unique culture was discovered, the civilisation is dated between c. 2600 and 1900 BCE. There were earlier and later cultures, often called Early Harappan and Late Harappan, in the same area.
The Harappan civilisation is sometimes called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from these cultures.
In 1924, John Marshall, Director-General of the ASI, announced the discovery of a new civilisation in the Indus valley to the world.
Geographical Extent
The Harappan culture arose in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent.
It is called Harappan civilization because this civilization was discovered first in 1921 at the modem site of Harappa situated in the province of West Punjab in Pakistan.
Many sites in Sind formed the central zone of the pre-Harappan culture.
This culture developed and matured into an urban civilization which emerged in Sindh and Punjab. The central zone of this mature Harappan culture lay in Sind and Punjab. It is from here that it spread southwards and eastwards.
In this way, the Harappan culture covered parts of Punjab, Haryana, Sindh, Baluchistan, Gujarat, Rajasthan and the fringes of western Uttar Pradesh.
It extended from Jammu in the north to the Narmada estuary in the south, and from the Makran coast of Baluchistan in the west of Meerut in the north-east.t
The area formed a triangle and accounted for about 12,99,600 square kilometres.
Nearly 1500 Harappan sites are known so far in the subcontinent.
Most of them are late Harappan, post-urban sites.
The two most important cities were Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
Situated at a distance of 483 kilometres they were linked together by the Indus.
Mohenjo-daro literally means the mound of the dead.__
A third city lay at Chanhu-daro about 130 km south of Mohenjo-daro in Sindh, and a fourth at Lothal in Gujarat at the head of the Gulf of Cambay.
Kalibangan is situated in northern Rajasthan (Kalibangan means black bangles)
Banawali is situated in Hissar district in Haryana.
This culture is noticeable in its mature and flourishing stage at all these six places.
It is also found in its mature phase in the coastal cities of Sutkagendor and Surkotada.
The later Harappan phase is found in Rangpur and Rojdi in the Kathiawar peninsula.
Dholavira lying in the Kutch area of Gujarat shows more...
It is difficult to say that all the earliest Aryans belonged to one race, but their culture was more or less of the same type. They were distinguished by their common language.
They spoke the Indo-European languages
Originally, the Aryans seem to have lived somewhere in the steppes stretching from southern Russia to Central Asia.
Their earliest life seems to have been mainly pastoral.
Agriculture being a secondary occupation. Their society was male-dominated.
Although the Aryans used several animals, the horse played the most significant role in their life. Its swiftness enabled them and some allied people to make successful inroads on West Asia from about 2000 B.C. onwards.
We know about the Aryans in India from the Rig Veda.
The term Arya occurs 36 times in this text, and generally indicates a cultural community.
The Rig Veda is the earliest text of the Indo-European languages.
It is a collection of prayers offered to Agni, Indra, Mitra, Varuna and other gods by various families of poets or sages.
It consists often mandalas or books, of which Books II to VII form its earliest portions.
Books I and X seem to have been the latest additions.
The Rig Veda has many things in common with the Avesta, which is the oldest text in the Iranian language.
The two texts use the same names tor several gods and even for social classes.
The earliest specimen of the Indo-European language is found in an inscription of about 2200 B.C. from Iraq.
Later such specimens occur in Hittite inscriptions in Anatolia (Turkey) from the nineteenth to the seventeenth centuries B.C.
Aryan names appear in Kassite inscriptions of about 1600 B.C. from Iraq and in Mitanni inscriptions of the fourteenth centuries B.C. from Syria. But so far no such inscriptions have been found in India.
A little earlier than 1500 B.C. the Aryans appeared in India. We do not find clear and definite archaeological traces of their advent.
The earliest Aryans lived in the geographical area covered by eastern Afghanistan, North-West Frontier Province, Punjab and fringes of western Uttar Pradesh.
Some rivers of Afghanistan such as the river Kubha, and the river Indus and its five branches, are mentioned in the Rig Veda.
The Sindhu is the river par excellence of the Aryans, and it is repeatedly mentioned.
Another river, the Saraswati, is called naditama or the best of the rivers in the Rig Veda.
It is identified with the Ghaggar-Hakra channel in Haryana and Rajasthan.
Rig Vedic description shows it to be the Avestan river Harakhwati or the Helmand river in south Afghanistan from where the name Saraswati was transferred to India.
The whole region in which the Aryans first settled in Indian subcontinents called the
Land of the Seven Rivers.
The Aryans migrated to India in several waves. The earliest wave is represented by the Rig Vedic people, who appeared in the subcontinent in about 1500 more...
The History of the later Vedic period is based mainly on the Vedic texts which were compiled after the age of the Rig Veda.
The collections of the Vedic hymns or mantras were known as the Samhitas.
The Rig Veda Samhita is the oldest Vedic text.
For purpose of recitation, the prayers of the Rig Veda were set to tune, and this modified collection was known as the Sama Veda Samhita.
In addition to Ac Sama Veda, in post-Rig Vedic times two other collections were composed. These were - the Yajur Veda Samhita and the Atharva Veda Samhita.
The Yajur Veda contains not only hymns but also rituals which have to accompany their recitation.
The Atharva Veda contains charms and spells to ward off evils and diseases. Its contents throw light on the beliefs and practices of the non-Aryans.
The Vedic Samhitas were followed by the composition of a series of texts known as the The rahmanas texts are full of ritualistic formulae and explain the social and religious meaning of rituals.
All these later Vedic texts were compiled in the upper Gangetic basin in 1000-500 B.C.
Painted Grey Ware (PGW)
In the same period and in the same area, digging and exploration have brought to light nearly 700 sites inhabited for the first time. These are called Painted Grey Ware (PGW)) sites because they were inhabited by people who used earthen bowls and dishes made of painted grey pottery.
The texts show that the Aryans expanded from Punjab over the whole of western Uttar Pradesh covered by the Ganga-Yamuna doab.
The Bharatas and Purus combined and thus formed the Kuru people.
In the beginning they lived between the Sarasvati and the Drishadvati rivers.
The Kurus occupied Delhi and the upper portion of the doab, the area called Kurukshetra or the land of the Kurus.
Gradually they coalesced with a people called the Panchalas who occupied the middle portion of the doab.
They set up their capital at Hastinapur situated in the district of Meerut (Uttar Pradesh).
The Mahahharata war is supposed to have been fought around 950 B.C. between moved to Kaushambi near Allahabad.
The Panchala kingdom, which covered the modem districts of Bareilley, Badaun and Farukhabad of Uttar Pradesh, was famous for its philosopher kings and brahmana and theologians mentioned in later Vedic texts.
In eastern Uttar Pradesh and north Bihar the Vedic people had to contend against a people who used copper implements and the black and red earthem pots.
Numerous religious sects arose in the middle Gangetic plains in the second half of the sixth century B.C. We hear of as many as 62 religious sects.
Of these sects Jainism and Buddhism were the most important, and they emerged as the most potent religious reform movements.
The real cause of the rise of these new religions lay in the spread of a new agricultural economy in north-eastern India.
Vardhamana Mahavira and Jainism
According to the Jainas, the origin of Jainism goes back to very ancient times.
They believe in twenty-four tirthankaras or great teachers or leaders of their religion.
The first tirthankara is believed to be Rishabhadev who was bom in Ayodhya.
Vardhamana Mahavira was a contemporary of Gautama Buddha.
According to the Jaina tradition, most of the early tirthankaras were bom in the middle Ganga basin and attained nirvana in Bihar.
The twenty-third tirthankara was Parshvanath who was bom in Varanasi.
Mahavir is said to be the twenty-fourth.
Vardhamana Mahavira was bom in 540 B.C. in a village called Kundagrama near Vaishali, which is identical with Basarh in the district of Vaishali, in north Bihar.
His father Siddhartha was the head of a famous kshatriya clan called Jnatrika.
Mahavira "s mother was named Trishala, sister of the Lichchhavi chief Chetaka, whose daughter was wedded to Bimbisara.
In the search for truth Vardhamana abandoned the world at the age of 30 and became an ascetic. During next twelve years he meditated, practised austerities of various kinds and endured many hardships.
In the thirteenth year, when he had reached the age of 42, he attained kaivalya (Juan). Through kaivalya he conquered misery and happiness.
Because of this conquest he is known as Mahavira or the great hero or jina, i.e. the conqueror, and his followers are known as Jainas.
He passed away at the age of 72 in 468 B.C. at Pavapuri near modem Rajgir.
Doctrines of Jainism
Jainism taught five doctrines: do not commit violence, do not speak a lie, do not steal, do not acquire property, and observe continence (brahmacharya).
It is said that only the fifth doctrine was added by Mahavira: the other four were taken over by him from previous teachers.
Jainism attached the utmost importance to ahimsa or non-injury to living being.
Jainism was divided into two sects: shvetambaras or those who put on white drees, and digambaras or those who keep themselves naked.
Jainism recognized the existence of the gods but placed them lower than the jina
Jainism mainly aims at the attainment of freedom from worldly bonds.
No ritual is required for acquiring such liberation. It can be obtained through right knowledge, right faith and right more...
From the sixth century B.C. onwards, the widespread use of iron in eastern Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar created conditions for the formation of large territorial states. The new agricultural tools and implements made of iron enable the peasants to produce far more food grains than they required for consumption.
The extra product could be collected by the princes to meet their military and administrative needs. The surplus food grains could also be made available to the towns which had sprung up in the sixth-fifth century B.C.
Janapada means the land where a jana (a people, clan or tribe) sets its foot or settles. It is a word used in both Prakrit and Sanskrit.
The Mahajanapadas
In the age of the Buddha we find 16 large states called Mahajanapadas. Of these, Magadha, Koshala, Vatsa and Avanti seem to have been considerably powerful.
The kingdom of Anga covered the modem districts of Monger and Bhagalpur in Bihar. It had its capital at Champa.
Magadha embraced the former districts of Patna, Gaya and parts of Shahbad, and grew to be the leading state of the time. North of the Ganga in the division of Tirhut was the state of the Vajjis which included eight clans.
But the most powerful were the Lichchhavis with their capital at Vaishali which is identical with the village of Basarh in the district of Vaishali in Bihar
Further west we find the kingdom of Kashi with its capital at Varanasi.
In the beginning Kashi appears to be the most powerful of the states, but eventually it had to submit to the power of Koshala.
Koshala embraced the area occupied by eastern Uttar Pradesh and had its capital at Shravasti which is identical with Sahet-Mahet on the borders of Gonda and Baharaich districts in Uttar pradesh.
Koshala contained an important city called Ayodhya.
Koshala also included the tribal republican territory of the Shakyas of Kapilavastu.
The capital of Kapilavastu has been identified with Piprahwa in Basti district.
Lumbini (Nepal) served as another capital of the Shakyas.
In an Ashokan inscription it is called the birthplace of Gautama Buddha and it was here that he was brought up.
In the neighbourhood of Koshala lay the republican clan of the Mallas, whose territory touched the northern border of the Vajji state.
One of the capitals of the Mallas lay at Kushinara where Gautama Buddha passed away. Kushinara is identical with Kasia in Deoria district of Uttar Pradesh.
Further west lay the kingdom of the Vatsas, along the bank of the Yamuna, with its cap at Kaushambi near Allahabad.
During the first half the sixth century B.C., there were several small principalities in the north-west India such as those of the Kambojas, Gandharas and Madras.
The Iranian ruler Darius penetrated into north-west India in 516 B.C. and annexed Punjab and Sindh. This area constituted the twentieth province or satrapy of Iran.
The Indian satrapy included Sindh, the north-west frontier and the part of Punjab that lay to the west of the Indus. It was most fertile and populous part of the empire.
India continued to be a part of the Iranian empire till Alexander's invasion of India.
Result of the Contact
The Indo-Iranian contact lasted for about 200 years.
The Iranian scribes brought into India a form of writing which came to be known as the Kharosthi script. It was written from right to left like the Arabic.
Iranian influence on the Maurya sculpture is clearly perceptible. The monuments of Ashoka's time especially the bell shaped capital, owed something to the Iranian models.
Iranian influence may also be traced in the preamble of Ashoka's edicts as well as in certain terms used in them. For instance, for the Iranian term dipi, the Ashokan scribe used the term lipi.
It seems that through the Iranians the Greeks came to know about the great wealth of India, which whetted their greed and eventually led to Alexander's invasion.
Alexander's Invasion
The Greeks and the Iranians fought for the supremacy of the world. Under the leadership of Alexander of Macedonia, the Greeks finally destroyed the Iranian empire.
Alexander conquered not only Asia Minor and Iraq but also Iran.
Herodotus, who is called father of history, and other Greek writers had painted India as, a fabulous land, which tempted Alexander to invade it.
Alexander also possessed a strong passion for geographical inquiry and natural history.
He had heard that the Caspian Sea continued on the eastern side of India.
Ambhi was the prince of Taxila.
The kingdom of Porus lay between the Jhelum and the Chenab.
Alexander marched towards India through the Khyber pass in 326 B.C.
Ambhi readily submitted to the invader, augmented his army and replenished his treasure.
Near Jhelum, Alexander met from Porus the first and the strongest resistance.
Alexander defeated Porus, he was impressed by his bravery and courage.
Then he advanced as far as the Beas River. He wanted to move still farther eastward but his army refused to accompany him.
The Greek soldiers had grown war-weary and diseased. The hot climate of India and ten years more...
