Bhagalpur

Throughout history, India has absorbed and modified to suit its needs, the best from all the civilizations with which it has come into contact. Once again the fledgling nation demonstrated the maturity and wisdom of its ancient traditions, and the truth of its claim that it was opposed, not to the people or the civilization of Britain and the West, only to its imperial domination. India chose to remain within the British Commonwealth of Nations. It also adopted the British system of Parliamentary Democracy, and retained the judicial, administrative, defence and educational structures and institutions set up by the British. India is today the largest and most populous democracy on earth, with universal adult suffrage.

The Indian Constitution, adopted when India became a Republic on January 26, 1950, safeguards all its people from all forms of discrimination on grounds of race, religion, creed or sex. It guarantees freedom of speech, expression an…

The First War of Independence A century of accumulated grievances erupted in the Indian mutiny of sepoys in the British army, in 1857. This was the signal for a spontaneous conflagration, in which the princely rulers, landed aristocracy and peasantry rallied against the British around the person of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah. The uprising, however, was eventually brutally suppressed. By the end of 1859, the "emperor" had been deported to Burma where he died a lonely death, bringing to a formal end the era of Mughal rule in India. The Mutiny, even in its failure, produced many heroes and heroines of epic character. Above all, it produced a sense of unity between the Hindus and the Muslims of India that was to be witnessed in later years. The rebellion also saw the end of the East India Company's rule in India. Power was transferred to the British Crown in 1858 by an Act of British Parliament. The Crown's viceroy in India was to be the chief executive. The Freedom …

The next arrival of overwhelming political importance was that of the Europeans. The great seafarers of north-west Europe, the British, French, Dutch and Portuguese, arrived early in the seventeenth century and established trading outposts along the coasts. The spices of Malabar (in Kerala) had attracted the Portuguese as early as the end of the 15th century when, in 1498, Vasco da Gama had landed at Calicut, sailing via the Cape of Good Hope. Early in the 16th Century, the Portuguese had already established their colony in Goa; but their territorial and commercial hold in India remained rather limited. During the late 16th and 17th century they remained unrivaled as pirates on the high seas; but inland the other European companies were making their presence felt, though entirely in commercial terms. The Years of 'The Raj' The newcomers soon developed rivalries among themselves and allied with local rulers to consolidate their positions against each other militarily. In time …

The Delhi Sultanate An event of immense and lasting impact in Indian history was the advent of the Muslims in the north-west. Lured by tales of the fertile plains of the Punjab and the fabulous wealth of Hindu temples, Mahmud of Ghazni first attacked India in 1000 AD. Other raiders from Central Asia followed him, but these invasions were no more than banditry. It was only in 1192 that Muslim power arrived in India on a permanent basis. In that year, Mohammed of Ghori, who had been expanding his power all across the Punjab broke into India and took Ajmer. The following year his general Qutb-ud-din Aibak took Varanasi and Delhi and after Mohammed Ghori's death in 1206, he became the first of the Sultans of Delhi. Qutb-ud-din Aibak founded the so called Slave Dynasty in India at Delhi, setting up the nucleus of the Delhi Sultanate, or the rule of Turkish and Afghan sultans, the Khiljis, the Tughlaqs and the Lodis. Impact of Islam The impact of Islam on Indian culture has been i…

The greatest empire in the fourth century AD was the Gupta Empire, which ushered in the golden age of Indian history. This empire lasted for more than two centuries. It covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, but its administration was more decentralized than that of the Mauryas. Alternately waging war and entering into matrimonial alliances with the smaller kingdoms in its neighbourhood, the empire's boundaries kept fluctuating with each ruler. The Gupta rulers patronized the Hindu religious tradition and orthodox Hinduism reasserted itself in this era. However, this period also saw the peaceful coexistence of Brahmins and Buddhists and visits by Chinese travellers like Fa Hien. The exquisite Ajanta and Ellora caves were created in this period. This era saw the emergence of the classical art forms and development of various aspects of Indian culture and civilization. Erudite treatises were written on a multiplicity of subjects ranging from grammar, mathematics, as…