HISTORY OF MODERN INDIA

The Golden History of India begins with the birth of the Indus Valley Civilization
in such sites as Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa, and Lothal, and the coming of the
Aryans. These two phases are usually described as the pre-Vedic and Vedic
periods. It is in the Vedic period that Hinduism first arose: this is the time to
which the Vedas are dated.

In the fifth century, large parts of India were united under

Ashoka. He also converted to Buddhism, and it is in his reign that Buddhism
spread to other parts of Asia. It is in the reign of the Mauryas that Hinduism
took the shape that fundamentally informs the religion down to the present
day. Successor states were more fragmented.

Islam first came to India in the eighth century, and by the

eleventh century had firmly established itself in India as a political force; the
North Indian dynasties of the Lodhis, Tughlaqs, and numerous others, whose
remains are visible in Delhi and scattered elsewhere around North India, were
finally succeeded by the Mughal empire, under which India once again
achieved a large measure of political unity.

Vasco da Gama when landed at Calicut, sailing via the Cape of Good Hope in
1498, marked the beginning of the European era in Indian history. The
Portuguese by the sixteenth Century had already established their colony in
Goa. The European presence in India dates to the seventeenth century, and it
is in the latter part of this century that the Mughal empire began to
disintegrate, paving the way for regional states. In the contest for supremacy,
the English emerged 'victors', their rule marked by the conquests at the
battlefields of Plassey and Buxar.

The six decades between the end of the "mutinous"

war of 1857 - 59 and the conclusion of First World War saw both the peak of
British imperial power in India and the birth of nationalist agitation against it.
With increasing intrusion of aliens in their lives, a group of middle class Indians
formed the Indian National Congress (1885) - a society of English educated
affluent professionals - to seek reforms from the British.
 The anticolonial struggle became truly a mass movement
with the arrival of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 - 1948) in 1915 who
had suffered great humiliation in South Africa due to the policy of racial
discrimination and later commited to rid his motherland of the ills of foreign
rule.

1899 - Lord Curzon becomes Governor-General and Viceroy.

1905 - The First Partition of Bengal.

1906 - Formation of Muslim League.

1911 - Partition of Bengal modified to create the Presidency of Bengal.

1912 - The Imperial capital shifted from Calcutta to Delhi.

1915 - Defence of India Act.

1916 - Home Rule League.

1919 - Rowlatt Act evokes protests; Jalianwalla Bagh massacre.

1920 - The Khilafat Movement started, Non-co-operation Movement.

1921 - Moplah (Muslim) rebellion in Malabar; Census of India.

1922 - Civil Disobedience Movement, Chauri-Chaura violence.

1927 - Indian Navy Act; Simon Commission Appointed.

1928 - Simon Commission comes to India: Boycott by all parties.

1930 - Salt Satyagraha, First Round Table Conference.

1931 - Second Round Table Conference; Irwin-Gandhi Pact.

1932 - Third Round Table Conference, Poona Pact.

1934 - Civil Disobedience Movement called off; Bihar Earthquake.

1939 - Political deadlock in India as Congress ministries resign.

1942 - Cripps Mission, Quit India Movement, Indian National Army.

1944 - Gandhi-Jinnah Talks break down on Pakistan issue.

 1946 - Interim Government formed, Constituent Assembly's first meeting.

In the March of 1947 Lord

Mountbatten came to India and In July Britain's Parliament passed the Indian
Independence Act. According to it August 14 and 15 were set for partition of
India. Thus came into existence two independent entities- Indian and Pakistan.