Walsh J.E. A Brief History of India

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF INDIA

342

ﬁ rst–third centuries C.E. Kushan tribes defeat Scythians (Shakas)

in northern India; Kushan ruler Kanishka

governs ca. 78 or 144

C.E.

Satavahana dynasty rules Deccan region;

Chola, Chera, and Pandya dynasties com-

pete for regional power in southern India

ﬁ rst–ﬁ fth centuries Spread of Hinduism, Buddhism, and

Jainism along with Sanskrit-based culture

into southern and western India

C.E. St. Thomas is martyred on Malabar Coast

according to legend

320–ca. mid-sixth century Gupta dynasty establishes empire across

north India

ca. 500 Composition of the major Puranas

ca. mid-ﬁ fth century– Hunas (tribes) repeatedly attack northern

mid-sixth century and western India

570–632 Muhammad, founder of the Islamic reli-

gion, in Saudi Arabia

606–647 Harsha establishes empire across north

India

Turks, Afghans, and Mughals

sixth–ninth centuries Southern Indian dynasties of Chalukyas

(Karnataka), Pallavas (Kanchipuram),

Pandyas (Madurai), and Cholas (Tanjore)

compete for power

seventh–10th centuries Bhakti religious sects appear in south India;

63 Shaivite saints (the Nayanars) and 12

Vaishnavites (the Alvars) are associated with

these bhakti sects

by 10th century Bhakti has spread to north India

seventh–12th centuries Persecution of Jain and Buddhist communi-

ties in southern India

ca. eighth–ninth centuries Shankara founds Vedanta school of

philosophy

mid-seventh century– Arab traders settle on Malabar Coast and in

ninth century Konkan region

711 Arabs invade Sind

mid-ninth century–1279 Chola dynasty expands and rules in south-

ern India and Sri Lanka

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343

APPENDIX 2

998–1030 Mahmud of Ghazni rules Afghan empire and

raids northwest of subcontinent between 1000

and 1027

1137 Death of Ramanuja, South Indian Brahman

founder of a school of Vedanta emphasizing the

importance of bhakti

1151–1206 Ghurid dynasty rules Afghan region and north-

ern India

12th–18th centuries Bhakti sects spread throughout India; among

the saints associated with these sects in North

India are Kabir (ca. 1440), Chaitanya (ca. 1485),

Surdas and Mirabai (both b. ca. 15th century),

Tulsidas (b. 16th century), and Tukaram (b.

1608)

1206–1526 Dynasties of the Delhi Sultanate rule northern

India; major dynasties are the Slave dynasty

(founded 1206), Khalji dynasty (1290), Tughluq

dynasty (1320), Sayyid dynasty (1414), and

Lodi dynasty (1451)

1258 Mongol armies destroy caliphate at Baghdad

1297–1307 Mongol armies make four successive invasions

of India

1335–42 Famine kills residents in Delhi and surround-

ing regions

1346–1565 Vijayanagar kingdom rules the southern penin-

sula of India

1347–1518 Bahmani Sultanate rules the Deccan

1398–99 Timur (Tamerlane) invades India and sacks

Delhi

1469–1539 Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh religion

1510 Portuguese establish a settlement at Goa

1526–30 Babur founds the Mughal Empire (1526–1857)

by defeating the Lodi sultan in battle at Panipat

1530–56 Humayun rules the Mughal Empire

1542 Jesuit St. Francis Xavier travels to Goa

1556–1605 Akbar rules the Mughal Empire

1600 Founding of the East India Company in England

1605–27 Jahangir rules the Mughal Empire

1612–90 English establish warehouses (“factories”) at

Surat, Bombay (Mumbai), Madras (Chennai),

and Calcutta (Kolkata)

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF INDIA

344

1627–58 Shah Jahan rules the Mughal Empire

1630–80 Shivaji Bhonsle, founder of Maratha power in

Maharashtra

mid-17th century Dutch establish control over the spice trade

from bases in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka

1658–1707 Aurangzeb rules the Mughal Empire

1660s French establish settlements at Surat and

Pondicherry (Puducherry) and in Bengal

The British Raj

1746–63 Three Carnatic Wars are fought between the

French and English in India

ca. 1750s–1818 Maratha Confederacy rules from Pune

1757 East India Company armies defeat the nawab of

Bengal at the Battle of Plassey

1764 English armies defeat a coalition led by the

Mughal emperor at the Battle of Baksar (Buxar);

from 1765 the East India Company is granted

the diwani (right to collect land revenues) in

province of Bengal

1767–99 In the four Anglo-Mysore Wars, East India

Company ﬁ ghts and ultimately defeats the

Mysore rulers Haidar Ali Khan and his son Tipu

Sultan

1769–70 Famine in Bengal kills an estimated one-quarter

of the region’s population

1773 British Regulating Act reorganizes East India

Company operations; Warren Hastings is

first governor-general appointed under this

act

1784 Sir William Jones founds the Asiatic Society

of Bengal; William Pitt’s India Act is passed

in England to bring East India Company

more directly under parliamentary controls;

Governor-General Cornwallis passes wide-

ranging reforms of company operations, col-

lectively called the Cornwallis Code

1793 Cornwallis’s permanent settlement of Bengal

gives landownership to local zamindars in

perpetuity

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345

APPENDIX 2

1802–18 East India Company armies defeat Maratha

Confederacy and annex Maratha lands

1813 Charter of East India Company is renewed by

Parliament; new charter provisions allow pri-

vate traders and missionaries to travel to and

work in company territories

1816 Bengali Gazette, ﬁ rst newspaper published in an

Indian language, is founded in Calcutta

1817 English-language Hindu College is founded in

Calcutta

1820s Sir Thomas Munro develops ryotwari land set-

tlements in Madras Presidency, making revenue

settlements with individual cultivators (ryots)

for ﬁ xed periods of time

1828 Rammohan Roy founds the religious associa-

tion the Brahmo Sabha (later Brahmo Samaj) in

Calcutta

1829 Governor-General William Bentinck makes sati

illegal in company territories

1833 Parliament’s Charter Act ends East India

Company’s commercial functions

1835 Thomas Babington Macaulay writes his “Minute

on Education” arguing that English, not Indian

languages, should be the medium for Indian

education

1836–1921 Muslim Moplah communities along the Malabar

Coast carry out periodic rebellions against

Hindu landlords and British government

1845–49 British armies defeat Sikh forces in two Anglo-

Sikh wars and annex the Punjab

1849–56 Governor-General Dalhousie’s government

annexes princely states in Bengal, Rajasthan,

the Punjab, and Oudh

1853 India’s ﬁ rst passenger railroad opens in

Bombay; major rail lines are laid up through

the 1920s

1854 Wood Dispatch authorizes creation of univer-

sity centers at Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta

for English-language college education in India;

appointments to the Indian Civil Service (ICS)

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF INDIA

346

are made on the basis of competitive examina-

tions held in England

1857–58 Rebellion (known to the British as the Indian

Mutiny) begins with sepoy (soldier) mutiny

near Delhi and develops into a widespread but

not united uprising against British rule; put

down by the British with great difﬁ culty

1858 British government in England passes laws

abolishing East India Company and placing

the Indian empire under direct Crown rule;

by the end of the 19th century two-thirds of

India is ruled directly by the British; princely

(or native) states (totaling almost 500–600

princes) make up almost one-third of Indian

territories and are ruled indirectly

1861 Indian Councils Act allows appointment of

between three and six Indian members to the

governor-general’s council

1866–78 Famines spread across north and south India

1868 Deoband Dar-ul-Ulum, a modernized Muslim

madrassa for the education of ulamas, is

founded at Deoband

1869 Suez Canal opens, shortening trip from Great

Britain to India to just more than three weeks

1870–85 English-educated Indians form regional politi-

cal associations in cities such as Pune (1870),

Calcutta (1875), Madras (1878), and Bombay

(1885)

1871 Start of the decennial (10-year) Indian census

1873 Jyotirao Phule founds the Satyashodhak Samaj

(Truth-Seeking Society) to unify lower-caste

and Untouchable communities

In Pabna district, eastern Bengal, prosperous

peasants organize protest meetings, rent strikes,

and legal challenges to ﬁ ght zamindar rent

increases

1875 Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan founds the Muham-

madan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh to

provide elite Muslim students with English-

language education

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347

APPENDIX 2

Peasants protest falling cotton prices in the

Deccan cotton riots

1875–77 Dayananda Saraswati founds the Arya Samaj, a

reform Hindu society, in western and northern

India

1876 Queen Victoria is proclaimed empress of India

1878 Vernacular Press Act requires Indian-language

presses (but not those published in English)

to post bonds for their conduct with the gov-

ernment; English-educated Indians in major

Indian cities organize to protest the act

1878–80 British ﬁ ght a war against the Afghan regime to

their northwest to gain protection against pos-

sible Russian encroachments into Afghanistan

and India

1880s–90s Cow protection riots between Hindu and Muslim

communities over issues of the slaughter of cat-

tle for meat erupt across northern Indian

1882 Theosophist Society establishes its Indian head-

quarters at Madras

1883–84 British Indian government proposes Ilbert Bill,

an act that would allow Indian judges to try

cases involving Europeans; public protests by

the Anglo-Indian community force the altering

of the bill

Toward Freedom

1885 First meeting of the Indian National Congress

is held in Bombay, attended by 73 delegates

from every British Indian province

1887 M. G. Ranade founds the Indian National Social

Conference, a meeting of social reformers

1891 Government’s Age of Consent bill raises the age

of statutory rape of girls from 10 to 12 and pro-

vokes mass meetings and protests from Hindu

communities in Bengal and Maharashtra

1892 Indian Councils Act provides for indirect elec-

tions of candidates to the central and regional

Legislative Councils in Bengal, Bombay, and

Madras

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF INDIA

348

Maximum age for taking the Indian Civil

Service exams is raised to 23

1893–95 Bal Gangadhar Tilak inaugurates two political

Hindu festivals in Maharashtra: one celebrating

the birthday of the Hindu god Ganesh, the

other celebrating the Marathi hero Shivaji

1896–97 Famine causes 5 million deaths across India

1897 Swami Vivekananda founds the Ramakrishna

Mission in Calcutta

Damodar and Balkrishna Chapedar assas-

sinate Pune’s unpopular plague commissioner,

Walter Rand; Tilak is imprisoned for sedition

1899–1900 A second all-India famine causes another 5 mil-

lion deaths

Birsa Munda leads Munda tribe members

in Bihar in a two-month rebellion against the

British government

1905 Governor-General Curzon’s government parti-

tions the province of Bengal; the partition is

protested through the swadeshi movement, a

widespread boycott of British goods, honors,

and institutions

1906 All-Indian Muslim League is founded

1907 Indian National Congress splits between its

older “moderate” members and its younger

“extremists” during its meeting at Surat

1909 Morley-Minto reforms (ofﬁ cially known as

the Indian Councils Act) enacted in London

to give Indians more members in legislative

councils at the center and in the provinces and

to begin election to the councils from a variety

of constituencies

1911 A Delhi durbar is held to celebrate the corona-

tion of the British king, George V

Partition of Bengal is rescinded

Transfer of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi

is announced

1914 British Indian government declares India at war

against Germany

1915 Hindu Mahasabha is founded

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349

APPENDIX 2

1916 Lucknow Pact is jointly proposed by a reunited

Congress and the Muslim League; the pact is a

plan for constitutional reforms to give elected

Indian representatives additional power at the

provincial and the central levels; the principle

of separate electorates for Muslims is accepted

and detailed in the pact

1916–24 A worldwide pan-Islamic Khilafat movement

forms to preserve the Ottoman sultan’s role as

caliph and Islamic holy places in the Middle

East; it ends in 1924 when Kemal Atatürk, ruler

of Turkey, abolishes the Ottoman caliphate

1919 The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms propose a

new system called “dyarchy,” under which the

British Indian government would turn over

responsibility for some areas of government to

elected Indians

Rowlatt Acts make temporary sedition laws

permanent; Mohandas K. Gandhi calls for a

nationwide hartal (strike) that turns violent

British general Reginald Dyer orders troops to

ﬁ re on a peaceful crowd in Jallianwalla Bagh in

Amritsar

1920 M. N. Roy founds the Communist Party of

India

Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement

ca. 1920s Periyar (E. V. Ramaswami Naicker) founds

the Self-Respect Movement for Dravidians in

Madras

1921–22 Gandhi and Indian Khilafat movement organize

a national noncooperation campaign against

the British; 20,000 Indians are jailed for civil

disobedience; Gandhi abruptly ends the cam-

paign when violence erupts

1923 Indian Civil Service examinations are held simul-

taneously in England and India for the ﬁ rst time

1925 The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), a

paramilitary Hindu nationalist organization, is

founded at Nagpur

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF INDIA

350

1927 The British-appointed Simon Commission tours

India to recommend future political reforms and

is boycotted because it has no Indian members

Indian radio begins under a government

monopoly

1928 At a Congress-sponsored All-Parties Conference,

Mahasabha members block Mohammed Ali

Jinnah’s compromise proposal for minority rep-

resentation; Jinnah joins the All-India Muslim

Conference, which demands separate elector-

ates for Muslims in any future government

1930 Gandhi and the Congress begin a new campaign,

the Salt March, against the British; an estimated

90,000 Indians are jailed for civil disobedience;

during this campaign British government con-

venes the ﬁ rst Round Table Conference, invit-

ing all Indian constituencies to debate future

governmental reforms; Congress boycotts the

ﬁ rst conference

1931 Gandhi and the British viceroy, Baron Irwin,

reach the Gandhi-Irwin pact, which ends civil

disobedience, releases protesters from jail, and

commits Gandhi to attend the Round Table

Conference in London.

First Indian ﬁ lm with sound is produced in

Bombay

1931–32 The second Round Table Conference, with

Gandhi attending, deadlocks over the question

of minority representation in a future central

government

1932 The Indian government awards separate elector-

ates to a number of Indian groups, among them

Untouchables; Gandhi begins a fast-to-the-death

in protest; Poona Pact, between Gandhi and

Untouchable leader B. R. Ambedkar, replaces

separate electorates with reserved seats for

Untouchables

1933 Cambridge University Muslim student coins

a name for the future separate Islamic Indian

state: “Pakistan”

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APPENDIX 2

1935 Government of India Act creates a federated

government in India in which the provinces are

run by elected Indian ofﬁ cials and the center

by the British Indian government; many provi-

sions of this act carry over into the government

of independent India

1937 Congress wins provincial elections and forms

governments in eight Indian provinces; Muslim

League fails to form a single government; as

governors, Congress politicians make few con-

cessions to Muslim politicians

1939 British government declares India at war with

Germany in World War II

1940 Muslim League’s Lahore Resolution demands

an independent Muslim state

1942 Cripps Mission offers Congress only a guaran-

tee of dominion status at the end of the war;

Congress rejects the plan, demanding an imme-

diate share in the central governing of India

Congress launches the Quit India civil disobe-

dience campaign; all Congress leaders are imme-

diately jailed, but widespread protest occurs

nonetheless

1942–45 Subhas Bose joins the Axis powers and leads

his Indian National Army against British

troops in Burma; Bose dies in a plane crash in

1945

1942–46 Famine in Bengal kills between 1 to 3 million

people

1945–46 In central and provincial elections Jinnah and

the Muslim League campaign for an indepen-

dent Muslim state in India; the League wins

most Muslim seats; Congress wins 91 percent

of all non-Muslim seats

1946 British cabinet mission to India fails to ﬁ nd

a formula for granting independence because

Jinnah and Congress cannot agree on the struc-

ture of any future central Indian government

Jinnah calls for “Direct Action Day” to dem-

onstrate Muslims’ commitment to Pakistan;

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