India is the home of worlds 'great civilizations' with a social structure that can be traced back for thousands of years. There was a time when India was known as the land of snake charmers. Then people started identifying it as the land having the majestic Taj, the ferocious Tiger and the great desert Thar. But with each turn that the wheel of time took, Indians have proven to be a lot more. And so has India proved the belief to be wrong. From time immemorial, India has been seen as a mystery and. A land full of paradoxes, it causes travelers to marvel and also to despair during their journey through India. Like an enigmatic lady, India has always attracted the attention of the world for various reasons.

Indus valley Civilization:

Indus valley civilization was India's first major civilization which flourished a thousand years around 2500 BC along the Indus river valley. At it's peak, it stretched across the whole of Sindh, Baluchistan, Punjab, Northern Rajasthan, Kathiawar and Gujarat. The major cities of the Indus valley civilization were Mohenjodaro and Harappa and these cities were far more advanced than the cities in prehistoric Egypt, Mesopotamia or anywhere else in Western Asia.

Great Bath of Mohenjo-Daro

The backbone of the Indus valley Civilization was agriculture. The main food crops were Barley and wheat. Other items in their diet included cereals, vegetables and fruits, fish, fowl, mutton, beef and pork. They domesticated various animals like the cat, dog, goat, sheep and the cow.

Religious leaders instead of kings ruled the Indus valley civilization cities. They also had very highly developed engineering skills and the main cities of their civilization: "Mohenjo-daro and Harrapa" are sufficient proof of this. The cities had sophisticated drainage systems and even organized garbage collections.

Not much is known about this civilization even after extensive excavation because their script has not yet been deciphered. The civilization flourished for thousand years and then due to unknown reasons suddenly vanished from the face of earth around 1500 BC.

The Vedic Age:

In 1500 BC the Aryans invaded India entering the country through the fabled Khyber pass. The word Aryans is derived from the Sanskrit word 'arya' which means noble. They were a race of nomads who migrated from the Northwest to the area called Sapta-Sindhava (the land of the seven rivers) - Eastern Afghanistan, Punjab and the fringes of western Uttar Pradesh. Here they mingled with the local tribes and assimilated themselves into their social framework.

The Aryans soon started cultivating land and turned into an agriculturist race. The warriors in the tribe ruled and they depended on priests perform rituals to protect them from evil. The Aryans worshiped gods inspired by nature. They worshiped them with mantras and performed sacrifices. They had no temples or idols and worshiped the elements of nature themselves.

Text from Veda

It is rather surprising that a tribe this advanced didn't develop a script but they had a rich tradition. They composed the hymns of the four vedas which are the heart of the hindu thought (hinduism). They brought Sanskrit in India which is the basis and the unifying factor of the vast majority of Indian languages. With time, they drifted into the subcontinent and settled around the Gangetic Valley, pushing the early dark-skinned Dravidian settlers deeper into the south of the peninsula.

The Mugal rule :

An event of immense and lasting impact in Indian history was the advent of the Muslims in the northwest. The Muslim power first made itself felt with the invasions of Mohammed Of Ghazni. In 1192 Muslim power arrived on a permanent basis. Mohammed of Ghori took Ajmer. In the following year his general Qutb-Ud-Din took Varanasi and Delhi and founded the slave dynasty.

The most important Islamic Empire was that of the Mughals, a dynasty founded by Babur early in the sixteenth century. They rise to power was very rapid and the empire soon expanded to proportions rivaled only by the British Empire.

Babur	Akar	Shajahan

Akbar was one of the greatest mughals who ruled India. He inherited the throne from his father Humayun (Babur's son) at the tender age of 14. He took the Mughal Empire to a peak and under his rule the Indo-Islamic culture attained a peak of tolerance, harmony and a spirit of inquiry. During this period the outside world had many contacts with India and learned a lot about the Indian mathematics, astronomy and medicine.

During the reign of Shah Jehan many beautiful monuments were built and the best known amongst them is the Taj Mahal which was built in the memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. Tired of his extravagances in architecture, his son Aurangzeb disposed of him and became the king. He was the last major Mughal and during his reign the empire slowly disintrigrated. In 1857 the Britishers imprisoned the last Mughal king, Bahadur Shah Zafar ending the centuries long mughal rule on India.

The British Rule:

After the mughal invasion the next event of great importance was the coming of the Europeans for trade. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to land in India for trade purposes. The first Portuguese ship landed in Calcutta under the command of Vasco da Gama in 1498. The French and the British soon followed them. On 31st Dec 1600 AD Queen Elizabeth I granted the East India company a charter giving them monopoly over the Indian trade.

Soon afterwards the company turned its interest from trading and started conquering the Indian states. Due to the superior firepower and armies the company soon controlled a major portion of India. They used other methods like the Doctrine of Lapse to further gain control of more Indian states. According to this doctrine if a ruler of a state died without an heir the state was annexed to the British Empire, this along with other cruel management policies of the Company lead to the great mutiny of 1857.

After a century of mismanagement by the British the Indians were so restless that only a spark was needed to start a revolt. The greased cartridge episode provided this spark. A rumor spread among the troops that the new cartridge being issued to them was greased with the fat of cow and pigs. As the troops had to bite the bullet before firing there was much protest because eating beef and pork was against the religion of most of the soilders. But the company failed to respond to these and soon the soldiers stationed at Meerut mutinied. They marched to Delhi and proclaimed Bahadur Shah Zafar as the Emperor of India.

The mutiny failed but because of it the Company rule ended in India and the British government took control over India. The queen promised that no more of the Princely states would be annexed to the empire and made several other changes in the method of ruling. Inspite of these changes the spirit of resistance prevailed and many mutinies broke out but these were soon contained.

The devastating famines between 1866 and 1906 and the cruelty shown by the British government during their rule soon shattered the dreams of the national leaders. They formed various national parties and were soon demanding the freedom of India from the British. Initially the leaders demanded freedom using nonviolent methods but when they saw that the government was indifferent to their demands several of them turned towards violence to make themselves heard. This class of freedom fighters was called the extremists and prominent leaders were Lala Lajpat Rai, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal. Together the trio was known as Lal-Bal-Pal and their activities were a source of alarm to the British. Tilak raised the famous slogan "Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it"

After many years of fighting and suffering India finally won her independence from the British. On 15th Aug 1947 India became an Independent country but the British divided India into two countries: India and Pakistan. Inspite of the division India soon started on the path of development and today is one of the worlds major powers with peaceful relations with most of the other countries.