Indian History

Concise History of India

2500 BC The Dravidian civilization

1500 BC The Aryans invaded India and conquered the Dravidians

1400 BC The Vedas, the Hindu scripture, was written

800-600 BC The sacred scripture, the Upanishads, was written

518 BC Persians conquered Pakistan

500 BC Buddhism was founded in India by Siddhartha Gautama

500 BC Jainism was founded in India by Mahavira Jains

326 BC Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army moved into India

324 BC The Mauryan Empire was established by Chandragupta Maurya which included Afghanistan and parts of central Asia

272 BC Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, became the emperor of India

185 BC The Maurya Empire ended

50 AD The Kushans established an empire in northern India

320 - The Gupta Indian dynasty reunited northern India initiating the "golden Age" of India

700s Muslim armies from Arabia invade India

1206 Qutb ub-din Aybak established the Delhi Sultanate

1398 Timur conquered India causing the decline of the Delhi Sultanate

1498 Vasco da Gama, of Portugal, became the first European explorer to reach India

1500 Christianity was introduced to India by the Europeans

Early 1500s Sikhism was founded by Nana

1526 Babur established the massive Mughal Empire

1600 Queen Elizabeth I, of the United Kingdom, granted a charter to the East India Company established trading posts in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras

1628 Shah Jahan, the ruler of the Mughal Empire, built the Taj Mahal

1658 The Strict Muslim, Aurangzeb, ruled India and tried to force Hindus to convert to Islam

1757 The Battle of Plassey - Robert Clive, an agent of the East India Company, led forces which defeated the Mughal governor of Bengal

1774 Warren Hastings was appointed the first governor general of India by the East India Company

1857 The Sepoy Rebellion

1858 The British government ruled India through an Indian Viceroy- called the British Raj

1876 Queen Victoria was given the title Empress of India by the British Parliament

1885 Burma became an Indian province

1885 The Indian National Congress was formed

1905 The British government divided Bengal into separate Hindu and Muslim sections

1914 - 1918 First World War

13 April 1919 The Amritsar Massacre

1920 Mohandas K. Gandhi became the leader of the Indian independence movement and the Indian National Congress

1935 The Government of India Act created a new constitution

3 September 1939 The United Kingdom declared war on Germany beginning World War II

1940 Muhammad Ali Jinnah demanded that a new country be formed from India for the Muslims, which would be called Pakistan

1939 - 1945 WW11

August 1945 The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

1945 World War II ended

1946 The British government agreed to grant India independence if they could agree on a form of government

16 August 1946 Muslims held nation-wide demonstrations calling for the establishment of Pakistan

1947 British and Indian leaders agreed to divide the country into India and Pakistan

15 August 1947 India became independent

30 January 1948 Gandhi was assassinated

26 January 1950 A new Indian Constitution was ratified and Jawaharlal Nehru became the Indian first prime

1952: India's first general elections are comprehensively won by the Congress Party of India.
1962: Conflict between India and China over boundary disputes.
1965: Kashmir is again the cause of conflict between India and Pakistan before the UN intervenes.
1971: India and Pakistan go to war over the independence of Bangladesh.
1971: India signs a pact with the Soviet Union.
1974: India conducts its first nuclear test.
1984: The Gold Temple in Amritsar, being used as a refuge by Sikh separatists, is raided by the Indian army.
1984: Indira Gandhi, in her second spell as prime minister, is assassinated in New Delhi by her Sikh bodyguards.
1987: Indian troops are sent to Sri Lanka on a peacekeeping mission.
1990: The Indian army withdraws from Sri Lanka.
2001: More than 20,000 people are killed by an earthquake in the Indian province of Gujarat.
2002: War between India and Pakistan looms as Pakistan responds to India's testing of nuclear-capable missiles with tests of its own.
2003: India and Pakistan agree a ceasefire in Kashmir.
2004: The Asian tsunami kills thousands in coastal areas.
2006-2008: Terrorist attacks in various parts of India:
2006: A bomb in Mumbai kills 187 train passengers; police blame Islamic militants based in Pakistan.
2007: A train from New Delhi to Lahore in Pakistan is bombed, killing 68; many were Pakistanis.
2008: over 173 people died in a coordinated shooting and bombing terrorist attack