India is one of the oldest
civilizations in the world with a kaleidoscopic variety and rich
cultural heritage. It has achieved all-round socio-economic
progress during the last 64 years of its Independence. India has
become self-sufficient in agricultural production and is now one of
the top industrialized countries in the world and one of the few
nations to have gone into outer space to conquer nature for the
benefit of the people. It covers an area of 32,87,263 sq. km,
extending from the snow-covered Himalayan heights to the tropical
rain forests of the south. As the 7th largest country in the world,
India stands apart from the rest of Asia, marked off as it is by
mountains and the sea, which give the country a distinct
geographical entity. Bounded by the Great Himalayas in the north,
it stretches southwards and at the Tropic of Cancer, tapers off
into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal on the east and the
Arabian Sea on the west.
Lying entirely in the northern
hemisphere, the mainland extends between latitudes 8° 4' and 37° 6'
north, longitudes 68° 7' and 97° 25' east and measures about 3,214
km from
north to south between the extreme latitudes and about 2,933 km
from east to west between the extreme longitudes. It has a land
frontier of about 15,200 km. The total length of the coastline of
the mainland, Lakshadweep Islands and Andaman & Nicobar Islands
is 7,516.6 km.
Nearly five thousand years
back flourished India's first major civilisation along the Indus
River valley. The twin cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappa now in
Pakistan were ruled by priests and held the rudiments of Hinduism.
These civilisations are known to possess a sophisticated lifestyle,
a highly developed sense of aesthetics, an astonishing knowledge of
town planning and an undecipherable script language. The Indus
civilization at one point of time extended nearly a million square
kilometres across the Indus river valley. It existed at the same
time as the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Sumer but far
outlasted them. Surviving for nearly a thousand years the Indus
valley civilisation fell to tectonic upheavals in about 1700 BC,
which caused a series of floods.
The coming of the
Aryans around 1500 BC, gave the final blow to the collapsing Indus
Valley civilisation. At the dawn of Vedic ages the Aryans came in
from the North and spread through large parts of India bringing
with them their culture and religious beliefs. The Four Vedas or
the important books of Hinduism were compiled in this
period.
In 567 B.C. the
founder of the Buddhist Religion Gautama Buddha was born. During
this time lived Mahavira, who founded the Jain Religion. The Indian
subcontinent is full of caves and monuments devoted to these
religions and are worth a visit.
Two hundred
years later, in the 4th century B.C., Emperor Ashoka, one of the
greatest King of Indian history, led the Mauryan Empire to take
over almost all of what is now modern India. This great leader
embraced Buddhism and built the group of monuments at Sanchi (a
UNESCO world heritage site). The Ashoka pillar at Sarnath has been
adopted by India as its national emblem and the Dharma Chakra on
the Ashoka Pillar adorns the National
Flag.
They
were followed by the Guptas in the north, while in the south part
of India several different Hindu empires, the Cholas, the Pandyas
and the Cheras spread and grew, trading with Europe and other parts
of Asia till the end of the
1100s.
Christianity entered India at
about the same time from Europe. Legend has it that St. Thomas the
Apostle arrived in India in 52 A.D. Even earlier than that people
of the Jewish religion arrived on India's
shores.
In approximately the 7th
century A.D. a group of Zoroastrians, or Parsees, landed in Gujarat
and became a part of the large mix of religions in India today,
each of which adds its important and distinctive
flavour.
In the 15th century Guru
Nanak laid the foundation of the Sikh religion in
Punjab
In 1192,
Mohammed of Ghori, a ruler from Afghanistan, came into India and
captured several places in the north including Delhi. When he went
home he left one of his generals in charge who became the first
Sultan of Delhi. During this time Islam, was introduced into a
major part of Northern India. It may be mentioned that even before
that, just after the period of the prophet, Islam was brought to
the western coast of India by Arab traders and flourished in what
is now
Kerala.
The Dehli
Sultanate gradually took control of more and more of North India
over the next 200 years, till Timur, who was called "Timur the
Lame" or "Tamberlane" came from Turkey in 1398 to attack India. He
and his army stole all the valuables that they could carry and left
again, and after that the Delhi Sultanate was never so strong
again. Soon the Mughals, who were from Iran, came in and took
control of the
north.
In the
meantime south, in 1336, the Hindu Vijayanagar empire was set up
and became very
strong.
The
Europeans - Portuguese, French, Dutch, Danish and British - started
arriving in the early 1600s. All of them held territories in India
and made friends and enemies among India's rulers as they got more
and more involved, with the Indian politics, but it was the British
who eventually controlled most of India and finally made it one of
their
colonies.
India got its independence from Britain in 1947 after a long
struggle led mostly by Mahatma Gandhi. In the process of becoming
independent, India became, two countries instead of one. In the
years since independence India has made huge progress and coped
with great problems, and has developed its industry and its
agriculture, and has maintained a system of government which makes
it the largest democracy in the
world.