Indian history has always excited me, because it was my homeland and I am Indian. The history tells us that who we are and where we are come from. It’s important for us to know that, now I going to explain you about my homeland.

 

Prehistory: The prehistory of India goes back to the Old Stone Age Palaeolithic (10th millennium BC – 9th millennium BC).

 

Indus Valley Civilisation: The story of Indus valley civilization, also known as Harappa civilization, is a story of a people intricately tied to their environment. The geography of India is one of great extremes, encompassing desert, mountains, forest, and jungle. All of these environments are susceptible to unpredictable periods of flood, drought, and monsoon. The Himalayas provided a great deal of protection from nomadic and military invasions from the north, and other mountain ranges provided similar protection in the west and east.

 

Empires: There have been many different empires in India since from the beginning. Different empires in different areas of country. Here is some examples: Middle kingdoms, Harsha, Rajputs, Pallavas, Chalukya Empire, Chola Empire, The Vijayanagar Empire, Islamic rule, Mughal Dynasty, The Maratha Empire, and etc.

 

All of empires plays different role in society, live different times and century. Let’s have a look on that;

 

Middle kingdoms: After the collapse of Gupta empires in the 6th century, numerous regional kingdoms ruled India.

 

Harsha: Harsha is the name of the king; he was from a place called Kannuj. He succeeded in reuniting northern India during his reign in 7th century, his empire collapse after his death. ‘

 

 

Here are the area with brown colour marked was the Empire of Harsha. It was the one of the biggest empire in India.

 

Rajputs: Rajputs are known for their fierce loyalty to their faith, often choosing death before dishonour and committing great sacrifices for the survival of India and her people. Theirs kingdoms emerged in Rajasthan at the 6th century and later they ruled much of northern India.

 

 

 

Rajasthan is one of the largest states in India. Beyond its western and northwestern frontier, dominated by the great Thar Desert is Pakistan. To its east and northeast are Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh lies to its southeast and Maharastra to its southwest. Asia's oldest mountain range, the Aravalli, runs through Rajasthan. This state is also called "The Land of Princes". It is full of deserts, rocks and lakes. 

 

Pallavas: At its peak the Pallava Empire stretched over most of south India. The Pallava Empire was the largest and most powerful South Asian state in its time, ranking as one of the glorious empires of world history. They ruled south India from 4th century to the 9th century. In this time there have been 14 kings who ruled that empire. And this time they their religion too. They converted from Jainism to Shavism. The people of Pallava was very good with their handwork, there were good architectures and painters. In India there are in some places you can see houses build with stones and rock buildings and etc.

 

 

The yellow marked was the Empire of Pallavas.

 

Chalukya Empire: It was the royal dynasty that ruled the parts of southern India between 550 and 750, and again between 973 and 1190. The Early Chalukyas held power in northern Karnataka. The history of the Kalyani Chalukya kingdom was largely one of war with the Cholas and defence against the incursions of the Turks and Arabs who were plundering in India. The kingdom broke up in 1189.

 

 

The most enduring legacy of the Chalukya Dynasty is the architecture and art that they left.

 

Chola Empire: The Chola emerged as the most powerful empire in the south in the 9th century and retained their pre-eminent position until the 13th century.

 

 

Early Cholas: The early Cholas ruled between the 1st and the 4th centuries A.D. The most famous king of the early Cholas was Karikalan. He marched till the himalayas defeating all the kings on his way and engraved the cholan symbol, the tiger on the hills of the Himalayas.

 

Medieval Cholas: The medieval Chola ruled between the 800-1300. The greatest kings among the Medieval Cholas were Rajaraja Chola and his son Rajendra Chola. Under them, Chola power reached its zenith. By the 13th century, the Chola kingdom had exhausted its resources and was on the decline.

 

The Vijayanagar Empire: The brothers Harihara and Bukka founded the Karnataka Empire, also known as the Vijayanagar Empire, in 1336. It was started in South India on a humble note to resist Muslim invasion of the Hoysala territory by Mallik Kafur's destructive campaign. In fifty years the kingdom came to be known as most powerful empire and reigned Indian southern peninsula for nearly 200 years.’

 

Islamic rule: Here comes the biggest difference in India; it was the changing of religion. Islam began spread across the subcontinent over a period of thousand years. The very first Muslim attack on India had taken place nearly 500 years earlier in Sindh in the year 715 C.E. These Muslims was from arab and lead by Muhammad Bin Qasim, he was a great conqueror. They displayed Raja Dabir who ruled the Sindh from his capital Deval (near modern Karachi).

 

The second surge of the Muslim aggression began in 980 C.E. and lasted till 1020 C.E. By the year 1020 C.E. Muslim rule had been established in Afghanistan, Pakistan (NWFP) and West Punjab. Leader of this surge was Mahmud of Ghazni.

 

The third wave of a successful Muslim invasion led by Mahmud Shabuddin Ghori (or Ghauri) took place between 1191 C.E. and 1255 C.E. That was the time when Muslims extended their occupations to Delhi. The Muslims surge east to Punjab and up to Bihar and Uttar Pardesh.

 

The fourth surge from the Muslims invasion began from Delhi by Allah-ud-din Khilji in the year 1310 and was led by his general Malik Kafur. Muslims surge was spread over the whole India in a period of 600 years.

 

In the early of 16th century, a man Genghis Khan swept across the Khyber Pass and established the mughal dynasty, which lasted for 200 years. Genghis Khan is often considered a military and political genius and one of the most influential leaders in world history. His descendants managed to create the largest contiguous empire in history in just under 200 years. Islam came over the whole country. And the kingdom existed in about 700 years.

 

European countries in India

There have been many difference countries that have tried to take over the India, but they have been failed. Europeans arrived in India because of commercial reasons. The Indian sub-continent was then world famous for its spices. But when the Muslim Ottoman Empire of Turkey ruled the Middle East, they caused lots of problems to European Christian merchants who tried to pass through their land. Therefore the Europeans tried to find other routes to reach India.

 

Portuguese:

From the 15th century the European representatives arrived in India. Among these European powers the Portuguese arrived first in India in 1498 via sea after they had circled the whole of the African continent. These representatives arrived in India after they received from their country rulers charter to do business with India. They set up bases in Goa, Daman, Dui and Bombay, but they arrived soon, they couldn’t stop the attacks from the defenders.

 

French

The first French expedition to India is believed to have taken place in the reign of Francis 1, when two ships were fitted out by some merchants of Rouen (historical city of Normandy) to trade in eastern seas, they sailed from Le Havre (city in Normandy) and were never afterwards heard of. In 1667 French East India sent out an expedition, which reached Surat (port city in Indian edge) in 1668 and established the first French factory in India. After that they have been established many factories. But in the 1720 they lost their factories and arrived back to France.

 

The Dutch:

The Dutch did not have a major presence in India. The Dutch ruled the towns of Travancore. However they were more interested in Ceylon (now Srilanka) and their prize of the Dutch east India (now Indonesia). They were responsible for training the military of the princely state of Kerala.

 

British:

These British at first requested from the local rulers permission to trade in their entities. Later on they requested from the local rulers permission to build factories. After they built factories they requested to build forts around these factories to defend them from pirates and other dangers. Then they requested to recruit local Indians to serve as guards and soldiers in these forts and so on they slowly created their own armies.

 

And so one of the European power's representative, the British East India Company, became the ruler of India. The British East India Company was actually a trading company and it received from the British crown charter to trade with the Indian sub-continent. They arrived in India for spice trade in 1600. Like other European powers that arrived in India, they at first requested from the local rulers permission to trade in their entities.

 

Rise of Sikh power:

After that their have been many wars between The British and Indians, they started at 1756 AD to 1852 AD. But between these years, there was a rise of another new power, Sikh power (1784-1839). They called them self either Hindu or Muslim, they believed another religion. The word 'Sikh' means a 'disciple'. A Sikh is a person who believes in One God and follows physically, spiritually and intellectually the teachings of the Ten Gurus, enshrined in the Guru Granth Sahib Jee, the Sikh Holy Book, and also treats Guru Granth Saaheb Jee as his living Guide. Additionally, he or she must partake in Pahul, the Sikh Baptism. British defeat them in 1849.

 

The Sikh Spirit:

I do not perform Hindu worship services, nor do I offer the Muslim prayers.
I have taken the One Formless Lord into my heart; I humbly worship Him there.
I am either a Hindu, or a Mussalmaan.
My body and breath of life belong to One God, who is both Allah and Raam.
(Bhairao, Guru Arjan Dev Ji, SGGS P1136).

 

Short description about independent of India:

In 1915, Mohandas Gandhi returned from South Africa where he had practiced as a lawyer and devoted himself to fight against the racial discrimination, which the Indians had to face. He emerged as a new leader to fight his way to independence by adopting a policy of passive resistance "satyagraha". 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.

 

In early 1946, India faced a major problem in terms of caste, creed powers. The demand for a separate nation, to be ruled by Mohammed Ali Jinnah became a major hurdle in declaring India as an "Independent Nation" by the British Empire. August 1946 witnessed bloody clashes between the two communities in Calcutta. In February 1947, the newly appointed viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten made an attempt to convince the rival factions for a united independent India. However, he failed in his attempt and finally India was divided in two parts - India and Pakistan. 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.