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The people of India have had a
continuous civilization since 2500 B.C., when the inhabitants of the Indus River
valley developed an urban culture based on commerce and sustained by
agricultural trade. This civilization declined around 1500 B.C., probably due to
ecological changes.
During the second millennium B.C., pastoral, Aryan-speaking tribes migrated
from the northwest into the subcontinent. As they settled in the middle Ganges
River valley, they adapted to antecedent cultures.
The political map of ancient and medieval India was made up of myriad
kingdoms with fluctuating boundaries. In the 4th and 5th centuries A.D.,
northern India was unified under the Gupta Dynasty. During this period, known as
India's Golden Age, Hindu culture and political administration reached new
heights.
Islam spread across the Indian subcontinent over a period of 500 years. In
the 10th and 11th centuries, Turks and Afghans invaded India and established
sultanates in Delhi. In the early 16th century, descendants of Genghis Khan
swept across the Khyber Pass and established the Mughal (Mogul) Dynasty, which
lasted for 200 years. From the 11th to the 15th centuries, southern India was
dominated by Hindu Chola and Vijayanagar Dynasties. During this time, the two
systems--the prevailing Hindu and Muslim--mingled, leaving lasting cultural
influences on each other.
The first British outpost in South Asia was established in 1619 at Surat on
the northwestern coast. Later in the century, the East India Company opened
permanent trading stations at Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, each under the
protection of native rulers.
The British expanded their influence from these footholds until, by the
1850s, they controlled most of present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. In
1857, a rebellion in north India led by mutinous Indian soldiers caused the
British Parliament to transfer all political power from the East India Company
to the Crown. Great Britain began administering most of India directly while
controlling the rest through treaties with local rulers.
In the late 1800s, the first steps were taken toward self-government in
British India with the appointment of Indian councilors to advise the British
viceroy and the establishment of provincial councils with Indian members; the
British subsequently widened participation in legislative councils. Beginning in
1920, Indian leader Mohandas K. Gandhi transformed the Indian National Congress
political party into a mass movement to campaign against British colonial rule.
The party used both parliamentary and nonviolent resistance and non-cooperation
to achieve independence.
On August 15, 1947, India became a dominion within the Commonwealth, with
Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister. Enmity between Hindus and Muslims led the
British to partition British India, creating East and West Pakistan, where there
were Muslim majorities. India became a republic within the Commonwealth after
promulgating its constitution on January 26, 1950.
After independence, the Congress Party, the party of Mahatma Gandhi and
Jawaharlal Nehru, ruled India under the influence first of Nehru and then his
daughter and grandson, with the exception of two brief periods in the 1970s and
1980s.
Prime Minister Nehru governed India until his death in 1964. He was succeeded
by Lal Bahadur Shastri, who also died in office. In 1966, power passed to
Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977. In 1975,
beset with deepening political and economic problems, Mrs. Gandhi declared a
state of emergency and suspended many civil liberties. Seeking a mandate at the
polls for her policies, she called for elections in 1977, only to be defeated by
Moraji Desai, who headed the Janata Party, an amalgam of five opposition
parties.
In 1979, Desai's Government crumbled. Charan Singh formed an interim
government, which was followed by Mrs. Gandhi's return to power in January 1980.
On October 31, 1984, Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated, and her son, Rajiv, was
chosen by the Congress (I)--for "Indira"--Party to take her place. His
government was brought down in 1989 by allegations of corruption and was
followed by V.P. Singh and then Chandra Shekhar.
In the 1989 elections, although Rajiv Gandhi and Congress won more seats in
the 1989 elections than any other single party, he was unable to form a
government with a clear majority. The Janata Dal, a union of opposition parties,
was able to form a government with the help of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) on the right and the communists on the left. This loose
coalition collapsed in November 1990, and the government was controlled for a
short period by a breakaway Janata Dal group supported by Congress (I), with
Chandra Shekhar as Prime Minister. That alliance also collapsed, resulting in
national elections in June 1991.
On May 27, 1991, while campaigning in Tamil Nadu on behalf of Congress (I),
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, apparently by Tamil extremists from Sri Lanka. In
the elections, Congress (I) won 213 parliamentary seats and put together a
coalition, returning to power under the leadership of P.V. Narasimha Rao. This
Congress-led government, which served a full 5-year term, initiated a gradual
process of economic liberalization and reform, which has opened the Indian
economy to global trade and investment. India's domestic politics also took new
shape, as traditional alignments by caste, creed, and ethnicity gave way to a
plethora of small, regionally based political parties.
The final months of the Rao-led government in the spring of 1996 were marred
by several major political corruption scandals, which contributed to the worst
electoral performance by the Congress Party in its history. The
Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged from the May 1996
national elections as the single-largest party in the Lok Sabha but without
enough strength to prove a majority on the floor of that Parliament. Under Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP coalition lasted in power 13 days. With
all political parties wishing to avoid another round of elections, a 14-party
coalition led by the Janata Dal emerged to form a government known as the United
Front, under the former Chief Minister of Karnataka, H.D. Deve Gowda. His
government lasted less than a year, as the leader of the Congress Party withdrew
his support in March 1997. Inder Kumar Gujral replaced Deve Gowda as the
consensus choice for Prime Minister of a 16-party United Front coalition.
In November 1997, the Congress Party in India again withdrew support for the
United Front. New elections in February 1998 brought the BJP the largest number
of seats in Parliament--182--but fell far short of a majority. On March 20,
1998, the President inaugurated a BJP-led coalition government with Vajpayee
again serving as Prime Minister. On May 11 and 13, 1998, this government
conducted a series of underground nuclear tests forcing U.S. President Clinton
to impose economic sanctions on India pursuant to the 1994 Nuclear Proliferation
Prevention Act.
In April 1999, the BJP-led coalition government fell apart, leading to fresh
elections in September. The National Democratic Alliance-a new coalition led by
the BJP-gained a majority to form the government with Vajpayee as Prime Minister
in October 1999.
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