India
Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it
supports over 15% of the world's population. Only China has a larger
population. India's median age is 25, one of the youngest among
large economies. About 70% live in more than 550,000 villages, and
the remainder in more than 200 towns and cities. Over the thousands
of years of its history, India has been invaded from the Iranian
plateau, Central Asia, Arabia, Afghanistan, and the West; Indian
people and culture have absorbed and modified these influences to
produce a remarkable racial and cultural synthesis.
Religion, caste, and language are major determinants of social and
political organization in India today. However, with more job
opportunities in the private sector and better chances of upward
social mobility, India has begun a quiet social transformation in
this area. The government has recognized 18 official languages;
Hindi, the national language, is the most widely spoken, although
English is a national lingua franca. Although 81% of its people are
Hindu, India also is the home of more than 138 million Muslims--one
of the world's largest Muslim populations. The population also
includes Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Parsis.
The Hindu caste system reflects Indian occupational and socially
defined hierarchies. Ancient Sanskrit sources divide society into
four major categories, priests (Brahmin), warriors (Kshatriya),
traders/artisans (Vaishya) and farmers/laborers (Shudra). Although
these categories are understood throughout India, they describe
reality only in the most general terms. They omit, for example, the
tribal people and those outside the caste system formerly known as
"untouchables”, or dalits. In reality, Indian society is divided
into thousands of jatis--local, endogamous groups based on
occupation--and organized hierarchically according to complex ideas
of purity and pollution. Discrimination based on caste is officially
illegal, but remains prevalent, especially in rural areas.
Nevertheless, the government has made strong efforts to minimize the
importance of caste through active affirmative action and social
policies. Moreover, caste is often diluted if not subsumed in the
economically prosperous and heterogeneous cities, where an
increasing percentage of India's population lives. In the
countryside, expanding education, land reform and economic
opportunity through access to information, communication, transport,
and credit are helping to lessen the harshest elements of the caste
system. |
|
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, settled in the
middle Ganges River valley, and 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 subcontinent over a period of 700 years. In
the 10th and 11th centuries, Turks and Afghans invaded India and
established sultanates in Delhi. In the early 16th century, Babur, a
Turkish-Mongol adventurer and distant relative of Timurlane,
established the Mughal Dynasty, which lasted for 200 years. South
India followed an independent path, but by the 17th century large
areas of South India came under the direct rule or influence of the
expanding Mughal Empire. While most of Indian society in its
thousands of villages remained untouched by the poltical struggles
going on around them, Indian courtly culture evolved into a unique
blend of Hindu and Muslim traditions.
The first British outpost in South Asia was established by the
English East India Company in 1619 at Surat on the northwestern
coast. Later in the century, the Company opened permanent trading
stations at Madras (now Chennai), Bombay (now Mumbai), and Calcutta
(now Kolkata), 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, Sri
Lanka, and Bangladesh. In 1857, an unsuccessful rebellion in north
India led by Indian soldiers seeking the restoration of the Mughal
Emperor led the British Parliament to transfer political power from
the East India Company to the Crown. Great Britain began
administering most of India directly and maintained both political
and economic control, 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 agitate for independence. During this period,
however, millions of Indians served with honor and distinction in
the British armed forces, including service in both World Wars and
countless other overseas actions in service of the Empire.
With Indians increasingly united in their quest for independence, a
war-weary Britain led by Labor Prime Minister Clement Attlee began
in earnest to plan for the end of its suzerainty in India. On August
15, 1947, India became a dominion within the Commonwealth, with
Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister. Strategic colonial
considerations, as well as political tensions between Hindus and
Muslims, led the British to partition British India into two
separate states: India, with a Hindu majority; and Pakistan, which
consisted of two "wings," East and West Pakistan--currently
Bangladesh and Pakistan--with Muslim majorities. India became a
republic, but chose to continue as a member of the British
Commonwealth, after promulgating its Constitution on January 26,
1950.
After independence, the Indian National Congress, the party of
Mohandas K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, ruled India under the
leadership first of Nehru and then his daughter (Indira Gandhi) and
grandson (Rajiv Gandhi), with the exception of brief periods in the
1970s and 1980s, during a short period in 1996, and the period from
1998-2004, when a coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party
governed.
Prime Minister Nehru governed the nation until his death in May
1964. Nehru was succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri, who also died in
office in January 1966. In one month, power passed to Nehru's
daughter, Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977. In June
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 March 1977, only to be defeated by Morarji
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 by
her Sikh bodyguard, which led to the killings and secret cremations
of hundreds of Sikhs by the government. Her son, Rajiv, was chosen
by the Congress (I)--for "Indira"--Party to take her place. His
Congress government was plagued with allegations of corruption
resulting in an early call for national elections in November 1989.
Although Rajiv Gandhi's Congress Party won more seats than any other
single party in the 1989 elections, he was unable to form a
government with a clear majority. The Janata Dal, a union of
opposition parties, then joined with the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) on the right and the Communists on the left to
form the government. This loose coalition collapsed in November
1990, and the Janata Dal, supported by the Congress (I), came to
power for a short period, with Chandra Shekhar as Prime Minister.
That alliance also collapsed, resulting in national elections in
June 1991.
While campaigning in Tamil Nadu on behalf of his Congress (I) party,
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on May 21, 1991, apparently by Tamil
extremists from Sri Lanka, unhappy with India's armed intervention
to try to stop the civil war there. In the elections, Congress (I)
won 213 parliamentary seats and returned to power at the head of a
coalition, 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
opened the Indian economy to global trade and investment. India's
domestic politics also took new shape, as the nationalist appeal of
the Congress Party gave way to traditional caste, creed, regional,
and ethnic alignments, leading to the founding of 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 corruption scandals, which contributed
to the worst electoral performance by the Congress Party in its
history. The Hindu-nationalist BJP emerged from the May 1996
national elections as the single-largest party in the Lok Sabha but
without a parliamentary majority. Under Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, the subsequent BJP coalition lasted only 13 days. With all
political parties wishing to avoid another round of elections, a
14-party coalition led by the Janata Dal formed a government known
as the United Front, under the former Chief Minister of Karnataka,
H.D. Deve Gowda. His government collapsed after less than a year,
when the Congress Party withdrew its support in March 1997. Inder
Kumar Gujral replaced Deve Gowda as the consensus choice for Prime
Minister at the head of a 16-party United Front coalition.
In November 1997, the Congress Party again withdrew support from the
United Front. In new elections in February 1998, the BJP won the
largest number of seats in Parliament--182--but fell far short of a
majority. On March 20, 1998, the President approved 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, spurring 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-October. The National Democratic
Alliance--a new coalition led by the BJP--won a majority to form the
government with Vajpayee a Prime Minister in October 1999. The NDA
government was the first coalition in many years to serve a full
five year term, providing much-needed political stability.
The Kargil conflict in May-July 1999 and an attack by terrorists on
the Indian Parliament in December 2001 led to increased tensions
with Pakistan.
Hindu nationalists supportive of the BJP agitated to build a temple
on a disputed site in Ayodhya, destroying a 17th century mosque
there in December 1992, and sparking widespread religious riots in
which thousands, mostly Muslims, were killed. In February 2002, 57
Hindu volunteers returning from Ayodhya were burnt alive when their
train caught fire. Alleging that the fire was caused by Muslim
attackers, anti-Muslim rioters throughout the state of Gujarat
killed over 2,000 people and left 100,000 homeless. The Gujarat
state government and the police were criticized for failing to stop
the violence and in some cases for participating in or encouraging
it.
The ruling BJP-led coalition was defeated in a five-stage election
held in April and May of 2004, and a Congress-led coalition, known
as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), took power on May 22 with
Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister. The UPA's victory was attributed
to dissatisfaction among poorer rural voters that the prosperity of
the cities had not filtered down to them, and rejection of the BJP's
Hindu nationalist agenda.
The Congress-led UPA government has continued many of the BJP's
foreign policies, particularly improving relations with the U.S.
Prime Minister Singh and President Bush concluded a landmark
U.S.-India strategic partnership framework agreement on July 18,
2005. In March 2006, President Bush visited India to further the
many initiatives that underlie the new agreement. The strategic
partnership is anchored by a historic civil nuclear cooperation
initiative and includes cooperation in the fields of space,
high-technology commerce, health issues, democracy promotion,
agriculture, and trade and investment. \
In July 2008, the UPA won a confidence motion with 275 votes in its
favor and 256 against.
In late November 2008, terrorists killed at least 164 people in a
series of coordinated attacks around Mumbai. Prime Minister Singh
promised a thorough investigation and Home Minister Chidambaram
pledged significant reforms to improve India’s counterterrorism
agencies. |
|
