Monday, April 18, 2011

Modern India - Indian History

 

Modern India

Vasco da Gama when landed at Calicut, sailing via the Cape of Good Hope in 1498, marked the beginning of the European era in Indian history. The Portuguese by the 16th Century had already established their colony in Goa.

In the next century, India was visited by a large number of European travellers - Italians, Englishmen, Frenchmen and Dutchmen. They were drawn to India for different reasons. Some were traders, others adventurers, and quite a few fired by the missionary zeal to find converts to Christianity. Eventually England, France, the Netherlands and Denmark, floated East India Companies.

During the late 16th and the 17th Centuries, these companies competed with each other fiercely. By the last quarter of the 18th Century the English had vanquished all others and established themselves as the dominant power in India. The British administered India for a period of about two centuries and brought about revolutionary changes in the social, political and the economic life of the country.

Once the British had consolidated their power, commercial exploitation of the natural resources and native labour became ruthless. By the middle of the 19th Century arrogant exploitation of the people had tried the patience of the Indians to the limit.

The six decades between the end of the "mutinous" war of 1857 - 59 and the conclusion of First World War saw both the peak of British imperial power in India and the birth of nationalist agitation against it. With increasing intrusion of aliens in their lives, a group of middle class Indians formed the Indian National Congress (1885) - a society of English educated affluent professionals - to seek reforms from the British.

The anticolonial struggle became truly a mass movement with the arrival of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 - 1948) in 1915 who had suffered great humiliation in South Africa due to the policy of racial discrimination and later commited to rid his motherland of the ills of foreign rule.

Successive campaigns had the effect of driving the British out of India in 1947, but with independence came the independence of the country into Pakistan.

   HISTORY INDIA : India's History : Timeline of India

  1757 - Battle of Plassey: The British defeat Siraj-ud-daulah

  1760 - Battle of Wandiwash: The British defeat the French

  1761 - Third battle of Panipat

  1764 - Battle of Buxar: The British defeat Mir Kasim

  1765 - The British get Diwani Rights in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa

  1767 -1769 - First Mysore War

  1772 - Warren Hastings appointed as Governor of Bengal

  1773 - The Regulating Act passed by the British Parliament

  1775 -1782 - The First Anglo-Maratha war

  1780-1784 - Second Mysore War : The British defeat Hyder Ali

  1784 - Pitt's India Act

  1790-1792 - Third Mysore War between the British and Tipu

  1793 - Permanent Settlement of Bengal

  1799 - Fourth Mysore War: The British defeat Tipu

  1802- Treaty of Bassein

  1803-1805 - The Second Anglo-Maratha war

  1814-1816 - The Anglo-Gurkha war

  1817-1818 - The Pindari war

  1824-1826 - The First Burmese war

  1829 - Prohibition of Sati

  1831 - Mysore administration taken over by East India Company

  1833 - Renewal of Company's Charter

  1833 - Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Empire

  1838 - Tripartite treaty between Shah Shuja, Ranjit Singh and the British

  1839-1842 - First Afghan war

  1843 - Gwalior war

  1845-1846 - First Anglo-Sikh war

  1848 - Lord Dalhousie becomes the Governor-General

  1848-1849 - Second Anglo-Sikh war

  1852 - Second Anglo-Burmese war

  1853 - Railway & Telegraph line introduced

  1857 - First War of Indian Independence: The Sepoy Mutiny

  1857 - Zanshichi Rani Laxmibai - Freedom struggle in 1857

  1858 - British Crown takes over the Indian Government

  1877 - The Queen of England proclaimed Empress of India

  1878 - Vernacular Press Act

  1881 - Factory Act

  1885 - First meeting of the Indian National Congress

  1897 - Plague in Bombay; Famine Commission

  1899 - Lord Curzon becomes Governor-General and Viceroy

  1905 - The First Partition of Bengal

  1906 - Formation of Muslim League

  1911 - Partition of Bengal modified to create the Presidency of Bengal

  1912 - The Imperial capital shifted from Calcutta to Delhi

  1913 - Educational Resolution of the Government of India

  1915 - Defence of India Act

  1916 - Home Rule League, Foundation of Women's University at Poona

  1919 - Rowlatt Act evokes protests; Jalianwalla Bagh massacre;

  1920 - The Khilafat Movement started, Non-co-operation Movement

  1921 - Moplah (Muslim) rebellion in Malabar; Census of India

  1922 - Civil Disobedience Movement, Chauri-Chaura violence

  1925 - Reforms Enquiry committee Report

  1927 - Indian Navy Act; Simon Commission Appointed

  1928 - Simon Commission comes to India: Boycott by all parties

  1929 - Lord Irwin promises Dominion Status for India; Trade Union split

  1930 - Salt Satyagraha, First Round Table Conference

  1931 - Second Round Table Conference; Irwin-Gandhi Pact

  1932 - Third Round Table Conference, Poona Pact

  1934 - Civil Disobedience Movement called off; Bihar Earthquake

  1937 - Inauguration of Provincial Autonomy

  1939 - Political deadlock in India as Congress ministries resign

  1942 - Cripps Mission, Quit India Movement, Indian National Army

  1944 - Gandhi-Jinnah Talks break down on Pakistan issue

  1946 - Interim Government formed, Constituent Assembly's first meeting

  1904 - 1947 - History of Indian Flag

  3 June 1947 - Lord Mountbatten's plan for partition of India

  15 Aug 1947 - Partition of India and Independence

Modern India - Indian History

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