Walsh J.E. A Brief History of India

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

A BRIEF HISTORY

OF INDIA

SECOND EDITION

JUDITH E. WALSH

State University of New York

Old Westbury

i-xviii_BH-India.indd i 11/16/10 12:31 PM

A Brief History of India, Second Edition

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by

any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the

publisher. For information contact:

Facts On File, Inc.

An imprint of Infobase Publishing

132 West 31st Street

New York NY 10001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Walsh, Judith E.

A brief history of India / Judith E. Walsh. — 2nd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8160-8143-1 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4381-3392-8 (e-book)

1. India—History. I. Title.

DS436.W34 2010

954—dc22 2010026316

Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk

quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our

Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755.

You can ﬁnd Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonﬁle.com

Excerpts included herewith have been reprinted by permission of the copyright

holders; the author has made every effort to contact copyright holders. The publishers

will be glad to rectify, in future editions, any errors or omissions brought to their notice.

Text design by Joan M. McEvoy

Composition by Mary Susan Ryan-Flynn

Map design by Dale Williams

Cover printed by Art Print, Taylor, Pa.

Book printed and bound by Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group, York, Pa.

Date printed: December 2010

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

For Ainslie Embree

i-xviii_BH-India.indd iii 11/16/10 12:31 PM

i-xviii_BH-India.indd iv 11/16/10 12:31 PM

Contents

List of Illustrations vi

List of Maps vii

List of Tables viii

Acknowledgments ix

Note on Photos xi

Introduction xii

1 Land, Climate, and Prehistory 1

2 Caste, Kings, and the Hindu World Order

(1000

b.c.e.–700 c.e.) 26

3 Turks, Afghans, and Mughals (600–1800) 67

4 The Jewel in the Crown (1757–1885) 100

5 Becoming Modern—the Colonial Way (1800–1900) 137

6 Toward Freedom (1885–1920) 166

7 Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement (1920–1948) 192

8 Constructing the Nation (1950–1996) 223

9 Bollywood and Beyond (1947–2010) 263

10 India in the Twenty-ﬁrst Century (1996–2010) 293

Appendixes

1 Basic Facts about India 335

2 Chronology 340

3 Bibliography 361

4 Suggested Reading 382

Index 399

List of Illustrations

Zebu bull seal from Mohenjo-Daro 10

Front and back of unicorn seal from Mohenjo-Daro 13

“Priest-King” from Mohenjo-Daro 15

Mahabalipuram rock carving, ca. seventh century

c.e.,

Pallava dynasty 27

The Horse Sacriﬁce, 1780s 31

The deer park at Sarnath 39

Ashokan pillar at Sarnath 46

Ajanta cave 49

Jagannatha temple at Puri, Orissa 57

Krishna instructs Arjuna, wall carving at the Birla Mandir,

New Delhi 59

Hindu cosmogeny and gods 73

Portrait of Aged Akbar, 17th century 84

Jama Masjid, New Delhi 92

Taj Mahal, Agra 93

An 18th-century palki 103

Government House, Calcutta, ca. 1819 110

Mahadaji Scindia, ca. 1820 112

Sir Henry Lawrence 121

Two rajas from the Central Provinces 125

Bullock cart in Rajasthan 129

Chalk Farm at Meerut, 1883 131

St. Mary’s Church, Madras 133

Writers’ Building, Calcutta 139

Belvedere House, Calcutta 140

Jorasanko Thakurbari, Calcutta 142

Sadharan Brahmo Samaj temple, Calcutta 148

The Dance of the Emancipated Bengalee Lady,

Gaganendranath Tagore, ca. 1921 153

Annie Wood Besant, 1926 163

Dadabhai Naoroji 169

The “science” of noses 171

Ganesh, Bhubaneswar, Orissa 177

vii

Mohandas K. Gandhi in South Africa, 1903 188

Gandhi spinning cloth, 1931 197

Salt March crowds, 1930 207

Birla Mandir, New Delhi 212

Jinnah and Gandhi, 1944 217

Nehru, 1947 219

Buddhist conversions, New Delhi, 2001 229

Indira Gandhi distributes food, 1966 239

RSS daily rituals, 2000 247

Rajiv Gandhi reelection billboard, 1984 250

Campaign poster for Janata Dal candidate, 1989 254

Demolition of the Babri Masjid, 1992 261

Urban shack, ca. 1978 266

Ice cream parlor, south Delhi 271

Man on bicycle 273

Film posters, Victoria Station, Mumbai 277

Durga Puja pandal, New Delhi 288

Sarasvati Puja pandal, Calcutta 290

BJP campaign poster, 1996 294

Mayawati, 2007 299

Modi’s Pride Yatra, 2002 305

Congress election celebration, 2004 309

Young men ﬁlling water cans, New Delhi 319

Thums Up, New Delhi 321

Election celebration, 2009 328

List of Maps

South Asia 2

Ancient River Valley Civilizations 8

Harappan Civilization Sites 12

Post-Harappan Cultures, 2000

b.c.e. 22

Mauryan Empire at Its Greatest Extent, ca. 269–232

b.c.e. 48

Kingdoms and Dynasties, 300

b.c.e.–550 c.e. 53

Gupta Empire at Its Greatest Extent, ca. 375–415

c.e. 56

Dar al-Islam (The Abode of Islam), ca. 1500 69

viii

Mughal Empire at the Death of Akbar (1605) and

Aurangzeb (1707) 89

British India and the Princely States, ca. 1947 124

Modern India, ca. 2010 226

List of Tables

Food Production Growth, 1950–2000 235

Population Growth 264

India’s Urbanization 265

Urban and Rural Amenities, 2001 270

Assets in Urban and Rural Households, 2001 272

Size of the New Middle Class 273

Economic Class in the Elections of 1999 296

Rise (and Fall) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 303

Urban v. Rural Turnout in National Elections 310

Rich v. Poor Turnout (Delhi State Elections, 2003) 311

India’s GDP Growth Rates 315

Government Debt as a Percentage of GDP (2009) 316

Farmer Suicides, 1997–2007 318

Equipment of Terrorists in Mumbai Attacks 325

Congress and the BJP: Seats Won, Percent of Seats Won,

and Percent of Vote Won, 2004 and 2009 327

Recognized National Parties in 2009 Election 329

National v. Regional Parties, 1991–2009 330

Planning Commission Estimates of Poverty, 1973–2005 332

Tendulkar Committee: Revised Poverty Rates, 1993–1994

and 2004–2005 333

i-xviii_BH-India.indd viii 11/16/10 12:31 PM

Acknowledgments

ook projects, like compulsive borrowers, accumulate many debts,

and this brief history has been no exception to that rule. It is not

possible to thank here by name the many people in my work and home

lives who have been inconvenienced in one way or another by the

demands of both the ﬁ rst and second editions of this project. But I am

grateful to all for their sympathy, support, and generally high level of

restraint. I would, however, especially like to thank my husband, Ned,

and our daughter, Sita. They have been as inconvenienced as anyone

by this project over the years it has gone on and yet have remained

remarkably good humored about it.

A number of people have helped me with speciﬁ c parts of this proj-

ect, and I would especially like to thank them here. Lucy Bulliet read

an early draft of the ﬁ rst chapters and several subsequent versions since

then. I am grateful for her insightful comments and observations and for

the general fun of those discussions. Lucy also provided the ﬁ ne transla-

tion of the Rig-Vedic verse that opens the ﬁ rst chapter, for which I am

also very grateful. I also want to thank Phillip Oldenburg for his gener-

ous loan of election slides for the book and Ron Ellis in Derby, United

Kingdom, for his help in obtaining an old image of the Writers’ Building

in Calcutta. At Facts On File, Claudia Schaab, executive editor, and

Melissa Cullen-DuPont, associate editor, have contributed many insights,

suggestions, and great editorial feedback over the past years. I am grate-

ful for all their help—and for their patience (or at least restraint) when I

missed my deadlines.

At my college, SUNY at Old Westbury, I owe a special debt of grati-

tude to Patrick O’Sullivan, provost and vice president of academic affairs.

Without Patrick’s early support and encouragement, I could never have

thought of undertaking this project. I also very much appreciate the

good humor and support of my colleague, Anthony Barbera in Academic

Affairs, and the chair of my department, Ed Bever, as I repeatedly missed

meetings to ﬁ nish the second edition.

As in the ﬁ rst edition, my special thanks here go to Ainslie Embree.

Over the many years of thanking Ainslie in print and in person for his

help, thoughts, comments, criticisms, and friendship, I have (almost)

i-xviii_BH-India.indd ix 11/16/10 12:31 PM