Brief History of India

433 Pages·2010·7.87 MB·English

by  Walsh, Judith E.

A B H
RIEF ISTORY
I
OF NDIA
S E
ECOND DITION
J E. W
UDITH ALSH
State University of New York
Old Westbury
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A Brief History of India, Second Edition
Copyright © 2011, 2006 by Judith E. Walsh
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by
any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the
publisher. For information contact:
Facts On File, Inc.
An imprint of Infobase Publishing
132 West 31st Street
New York NY 10001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walsh, Judith E.
A brief history of India / Judith E. Walsh. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8160-8143-1 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4381-3392-8 (e-book)
1. India—History. I. Title.
DS436.W34 2010
954—dc22 2010026316
Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk
quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our
Special Sales Department in New York at [phone] or [phone].
You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com
Excerpts included herewith have been reprinted by permission of the copyright
holders; the author has made every effort to contact copyright holders. The publishers
will be glad to rectify, in future editions, any errors or omissions brought to their notice.
Text design by Joan M. McEvoy
Composition by Mary Susan Ryan-Flynn
Map design by Dale Williams
Cover printed by Art Print, Taylor, Pa.
Book printed and bound by Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group, York, Pa.
Date printed: December 2010
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
For Ainslie Embree
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Contents
List of Illustrations vi
List of Maps vii
List of Tables viii
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Photos xi
Introduction xii
1 Land, Climate, and Prehistory 1
2 Caste, Kings, and the Hindu World Order
(1000 b.c.e.–700 c.e.) 26
3 Turks, Afghans, and Mughals (600–1800) 67
4 The Jewel in the Crown (1757–1885) 100
5 Becoming Modern—the Colonial Way (1800–1900) 137
6 Toward Freedom (1885–1920) 166
7 Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement (1920–1948) 192
8 Constructing the Nation (1950–1996) 223
9 Bollywood and Beyond (1947–2010) 263
10 India in the Twenty-first Century (1996–2010) 293
Appendixes
1 Basic Facts about India 335
2 Chronology 340
3 Bibliography 361
4 Suggested Reading 382
Index 399
List of Illustrations
Zebu bull seal from Mohenjo-Daro 10
Front and back of unicorn seal from Mohenjo-Daro 13
“Priest-King” from Mohenjo-Daro 15
Mahabalipuram rock carving, ca. seventh century c.e.,
Pallava dynasty 27
The Horse Sacrifice, 1780s 31
The deer park at Sarnath 39
Ashokan pillar at Sarnath 46
Ajanta cave 49
Jagannatha temple at Puri, Orissa 57
Krishna instructs Arjuna, wall carving at the Birla Mandir,
New Delhi 59
Hindu cosmogeny and gods 73
Portrait of Aged Akbar, 17th century 84
Jama Masjid, New Delhi 92
Taj Mahal, Agra 93
An 18th-century palki 103
Government House, Calcutta, ca. 1819 110
Mahadaji Scindia, ca. 1820 112
Sir Henry Lawrence 121
Two rajas from the Central Provinces 125
Bullock cart in Rajasthan 129
Chalk Farm at Meerut, 1883 131
St. Mary’s Church, Madras 133
Writers’ Building, Calcutta 139
Belvedere House, Calcutta 140
Jorasanko Thakurbari, Calcutta 142
Sadharan Brahmo Samaj temple, Calcutta 148
The Dance of the Emancipated Bengalee Lady,
Gaganendranath Tagore, ca. 1921 153
Annie Wood Besant, 1926 163
Dadabhai Naoroji 169
The “science” of noses 171
Ganesh, Bhubaneswar, Orissa 177
vi
Mohandas K. Gandhi in South Africa, 1903 188
Gandhi spinning cloth, 1931 197
Salt March crowds, 1930 207
Birla Mandir, New Delhi 212
Jinnah and Gandhi, 1944 217
Nehru, 1947 219
Buddhist conversions, New Delhi, 2001 229
Indira Gandhi distributes food, 1966 239
RSS daily rituals, 2000 247
Rajiv Gandhi reelection billboard, 1984 250
Campaign poster for Janata Dal candidate, 1989 254
Demolition of the Babri Masjid, 1992 261
Urban shack, ca. 1978 266
Ice cream parlor, south Delhi 271
Man on bicycle 273
Film posters, Victoria Station, Mumbai 277
Durga Puja pandal, New Delhi 288
Sarasvati Puja pandal, Calcutta 290
BJP campaign poster, 1996 294
Mayawati, 2007 299
Modi’s Pride Yatra, 2002 305
Congress election celebration, 2004 309
Young men filling water cans, New Delhi 319
Thums Up, New Delhi 321
Election celebration, 2009 328
List of Maps
South Asia 2
Ancient River Valley Civilizations 8
Harappan Civilization Sites 12
Post-Harappan Cultures, 2000 b.c.e. 22
Mauryan Empire at Its Greatest Extent, ca. 269–232 b.c.e. 48
Kingdoms and Dynasties, 300 b.c.e.–550 c.e. 53
Gupta Empire at Its Greatest Extent, ca. 375–415 c.e. 56
Dar al-Islam (The Abode of Islam), ca. 1500 69
vii
Mughal Empire at the Death of Akbar (1605) and
Aurangzeb (1707) 89
British India and the Princely States, ca. 1947 124
Modern India, ca. 2010 226
List of Tables
Food Production Growth, 1950–2000 235
Population Growth 264
India’s Urbanization 265
Urban and Rural Amenities, 2001 270
Assets in Urban and Rural Households, 2001 272
Size of the New Middle Class 273
Economic Class in the Elections of 1999 296
Rise (and Fall) of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 303
Urban v. Rural Turnout in National Elections 310
Rich v. Poor Turnout (Delhi State Elections, 2003) 311
India’s GDP Growth Rates 315
Government Debt as a Percentage of GDP (2009) 316
Farmer Suicides, 1997–2007 318
Equipment of Terrorists in Mumbai Attacks 325
Congress and the BJP: Seats Won, Percent of Seats Won,
and Percent of Vote Won, 2004 and 2009 327
Recognized National Parties in 2009 Election 329
National v. Regional Parties, 1991–2009 330
Planning Commission Estimates of Poverty, 1973–2005 332
Tendulkar Committee: Revised Poverty Rates, 1993–1994
and 2004–2005 333
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Acknowledgments
B
ook projects, like compulsive borrowers, accumulate many debts,
and this brief history has been no exception to that rule. It is not
possible to thank here by name the many people in my work and home
lives who have been inconvenienced in one way or another by the
demands of both the fi rst and second editions of this project. But I am
grateful to all for their sympathy, support, and generally high level of
restraint. I would, however, especially like to thank my husband, Ned,
and our daughter, Sita. They have been as inconvenienced as anyone
by this project over the years it has gone on and yet have remained
remarkably good humored about it.
A number of people have helped me with specifi c parts of this proj-
ect, and I would especially like to thank them here. Lucy Bulliet read
an early draft of the fi rst chapters and several subsequent versions since
then. I am grateful for her insightful comments and observations and for
the general fun of those discussions. Lucy also provided the fi ne transla-
tion of the Rig-Vedic verse that opens the fi rst chapter, for which I am
also very grateful. I also want to thank Phillip Oldenburg for his gener-
ous loan of election slides for the book and Ron Ellis in Derby, United
Kingdom, for his help in obtaining an old image of the Writers’ Building
in Calcutta. At Facts On File, Claudia Schaab, executive editor, and
Melissa Cullen-DuPont, associate editor, have contributed many insights,
suggestions, and great editorial feedback over the past years. I am grate-
ful for all their help—and for their patience (or at least restraint) when I
missed my deadlines.
At my college, SUNY at Old Westbury, I owe a special debt of grati-
tude to Patrick O’Sullivan, provost and vice president of academic affairs.
Without Patrick’s early support and encouragement, I could never have
thought of undertaking this project. I also very much appreciate the
good humor and support of my colleague, Anthony Barbera in Academic
Affairs, and the chair of my department, Ed Bever, as I repeatedly missed
meetings to fi nish the second edition.
As in the fi rst edition, my special thanks here go to Ainslie Embree.
Over the many years of thanking Ainslie in print and in person for his
help, thoughts, comments, criticisms, and friendship, I have (almost)
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