the colonial era
During the colonial era, India, along with several ancient nations in Asia, Africa and South America, was targeted by expansionist European powers, and was eventually attempted to be incorporated as a vassal territory governed largely by the British Crown. This was a turning point in the development of modern world history. The subsequent independence struggle began with the Rebellion of 1857, and was later led by figures such as Mohandas Gandhi.
Trade-Post rule
Vasco da Gama's discovery of a new sea route to India in 1498 paved the way for European commerce with India. The Portuguese set up bases in Goa, Daman, Diu and Bombay. They maintained the longest trade-post for 500 years until 1962.
In 1610, the British chased away a Portuguese naval squadron, and the East India Company created its own outpost at Surat, on the northwestern coast of India. Later in the century, the British East India Company opened permanent trading stations at Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, each under the protection of native rulers.
Once in India, the British began to compete with the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the French. Through a combination of outright combat and deft alliances with local princes, the East India Company gained control of all European trade in India by 1769.
French factories/trade posts
The French set up base along with the British in the 17th century. They tried to occupy large parts of southern India. However, subsequent wars with the British led to the loss of almost all of their commercial posts.
They did, however, retain the trade-posts of Pondicherry - (Pondicherry, Karaikal, Yanam, and Mahé.) and Chandernagore. The French were expelled from Pondicherry in 1950.
The Dutch did not have a major presence in India. They maintained trade-posts in the towns of Travancore; however they were more interested in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).
They were responsible for training the military of the princely state of Kerala. In 1845, the Danish trade-post of Tranquebar was sold to the United Kingdom.
The British Raj
The British established a foothold in Bengal when the British soldiers, funded by the East India Company, and led by Robert Clive, defeated Nawab Siraj Ud Daulah in the Battle of Plessey in 1757 and plundered the Bengali treasure.
Bengal became a protectorate, and then directly went under the rule of East India Company. The British East India Company monopolized the trade of Bengal. The Bengali craftsmen were inevitably fixed at foreign posts of the Company, where they were obliged to render their labor at minimal compensation while their collective tax burden increased harshly.
The result was the famine of 1769 to 1773 in which 10 million Bengalis died, followed almost a century later by the catastrophic Great Calamity period, resulting in part from an extension of similar policies, in which up to 40 million Indians perished from famine amidst the collapse of India's native industries and skilled workforce.
By the 1850s Britain controlled most of the Indian sub-continent, which included present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh. From 1830, the defeat of the Thugs played a part in establishing greater control of diverse Indian provinces for the British.
In 1858, a rumor spread among Hindu soldiers that the British were greasing their bullets with the fat of cows and pigs, the former sacred animals to Hindus and the latter unclean animals to Muslims.
A year-long rebellion against the British ensued. Although the Indian Mutiny was unsuccessful, it prompted the British government to seize total control of all British interests in India in 1858, finally establishing a seamless imperialism. Claiming to be only interested in trade, the Raj steadily expanded its influence until the princes ruled in name only.
The Raj's demise was partially a result of its remarkable success. It had gained control of the country by viewing it as a source of profit. Infrastructure had been developed, administration established, and an entire structure of governance erected.
India had become a profitable venture, and the British were loath to allow the Indian population any power in a system that they viewed as their own accomplishment. The Indians didn't appreciate this much, and as the 20th century dawned there were increasing movements towards self-rule.
The Indian Independence movement
The first step toward Indian independence and western-style democracy was taken with the appointment of Indian councilors to advise the symbolic British viceroy, and the establishment of provincial Councils with Indian members; the councilor’s participation was subsequently widened in legislative councils.
Along with the desire for independence, tensions between Hindus and Muslims had also been developing over the years. The Muslims had always been a minority, and the prospect of an exclusively Hindu government made them wary of independence; they were as inclined to mistrust Hindu rule as they were to resist the Raj.
In 1915, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi came onto the scene, calling for unity between the two groups in an astonishing display of leadership that would eventually lead the country to independence.
The profound impact Gandhi had on India and his ability to gain independence through a totally non-violent mass movement made him one of the most remarkable leaders the world has ever known.
He led by example, wearing homespun clothes to weaken the British textile industry and orchestrating a march to the sea, where demonstrators proceeded to make their own salt in protest against the British monopoly. Indians gave him the name Mahatma, or Great Soul. The British promised that they would leave India by 1947.
Independence came at great cost. While Gandhi was leading a largely Hindu movement, Mohammed Ali Jinnah was fronting a Muslim one through a group called the Muslim League.
Jinnah advocated the division of India into two separate states: Muslim and Hindu, and he was able to achieve his goal. When the British left, they created the separate states of Pakistan and Bangladesh (known at that time as East Pakistan), and violence erupted when stranded Muslims and Hindu minorities in the areas fled in opposite directions.
Within a few weeks, half a million people had died in the course of the greatest migration of human beings in the world's history. The aging Gandhi vowed to fast until the violence stopped, which it did when his health was seriously threatened. At the same time, the British returned and helped restore order. Excepting Kashmir, which is still a disputed area (and currently unsafe for tourists), the division reached stability.*This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "History of India".