A Comprehensive History of India: From Ancient Civilizations to Independence

the history of india is filled with incredible stories of

thriving civilizations religions and cultures dating all the way back to the paleoithic

age india's civilization is one of the oldest that we know and has played a part on the world stage

for centuries and even still today while it is impossible to truly capture

all of india's history in one video it still serves as a worthy topic to delve into evidence

of cave paintings and stone tools have revealed that the first signs of human activity in india can be traced

back to somewhere between 400 000 and 200 000 bc details concerning the civilizations

inhabiting the region back that long ago do not exist but we do know that one of the first

sophisticated societies to walk the lands of india was the harappan people who likely

existed throughout the first few thousand years bc

positioned along the indus river the harappan people had their own writing system

advanced social and economic system and impressive urban cities and architecture it is

unknown why this civilization collapsed around 1500 bc

but some attribute their demise to the common floods and other natural disasters in the

region or potentially invaders from western and central asia the next known civilization to leave a

mark on indian history books was the vedic aryans these people were initially migrants who spoke an early

form of sanskrit and were determined to stay true to their own tribal identity the name

they've been given the vedic people comes from four sacred texts or

vedas that have presented researchers with a glimpse into the civilization's lives and

beliefs these vedas are often considered to be the oldest hindu scripts

and the vedic civilization is believed to have spread their culture across a large

portion of india by roughly 1000 bc with them the vedic aryans brought their philosophical beliefs

these ideas represent a theory that happiness and salvation come from a person's morals and ethics

and one's path should be based upon their place in life but should always

be righteous and good the vedic aryans also shared their societal system as they extended their reach

this system was made up originally of three tears brahman or priest kashtriya or

warrior and vaishia or commoner the aryans continued to spread their tribal settlements across

india throughout the following centuries as their own civilization grew and flourished in both culture and trade a

series of 16 individual settlements or states spanned across northern india

including the gandhara kusala kuru and the magat the latter particularly flourished under the rule of

chandragupta maurya during the 4th century bc as it began to expand and its leader

grew his own authority and worked to form the mauryan empire which is believed

to be the first indian imperial power the mauryan empire established its capital in battali putra

near modern-day patna and constructed extraordinary temples libraries palaces and even a university

the empire's trade success was impressive and it maintained a remarkable governmental system

and strong army by the time of the third emperor the grandson of chandragupta a stance of

non-violence was taken after a bloody struggle against the kingdom of kalinga

due to the emperor's new buddhist beliefs siddhartha gautama the buddha had been

born in 560 bc and by the reign of emperor ashoka the religious system he had founded was

becoming more and more prevalent throughout india potentially due to their unwillingness to participate in

conflict though the mauryan empire eventually dissolved in the 2nd century bc

after the last line of the maurya line brihadratha was murdered by his commander-in-chief

who would later found the shanga dynasty in 185 bc despite the fact that brihadratha's

assassin pushy mitra was rumored to have persecuted buddhists it appeared that buddhism

faced no decline concurrent with his rise to power during pushrumitra's reign his kingdom

maintained authority over a series of provinces as he stood his ground against other powers

attempting to expand their territory towards his own after the monarch's death though his

dynasty seemed to have fallen in terms of importance the dynasty is not known to have done

anything notably relevant and their control was short-lived

a variety of settlements and invading powers controlled india at this time one being the kushana kingdom known for

their significant trade involvement with chinese persian and roman empires along the silk

road one kushana ruler konishka in the 1st century a.d

also converted to buddhism and helps to further the religion throughout the region

in 75 a.d the kushana kingdom marked a new era the shaka era a bit of distance from the kushanas in the south

a handful of other powers rose fell and fought for supremacy amongst each other the kingdoms of satavahana

chera chola and panja were some of the major authorities in the south during this time

and through the classical age the gupta empire became the face of northern india during the classical

age and the majority of the region was united under their authority during what is

often described as northern india's golden age the reign of the gupta empire

is regarded as a time of law and order as well as cultural flourishing the rulers of

the empire were no strangers to military expedition but aims to expand their territory

through peaceful means such as martial alliances no less than through military action

though the gupta empire had extensive success over centuries they eventually

reached a point of decline between the 5th and 6th centuries as invading huns from central asia began

to annex and take over the formerly dominant empire's land

as the religions of buddhism and what later became hinduism thrived local and trespassing authorities

continued to fight for territory and dominion over the following centuries

the next major shakeup of the indian civilization came with the arrival of islam

muslim invaders began to send missions to india the century after the death of the prophet muhammad

a series of muslim sultans began to lead expeditions into india claiming places such as sindh

multan and samnath these incursions brought the defeat of native kingdoms and the destruction of hindu temples

along the way the rajputs stood as one of the most determined defenders against sultan

invaders but they were ultimately defeated in 1192 by muhammad gory and his forces as islam

began to work its way into india other previously principal religions such as buddhism

began to decline by the start of the 13th century the era of the delhi sultanates dominion

arose the first dynasty within the delhi sultanate was founded by ketub

ud din ibak the slave dynasty controlled the sultanate until around and 1290 when the khilji

dynasty took over first by the hand of jahal ud-din khilji his family held the throne for less than

a century as the tug lag dynasty was next to sea's power in 1320 the tuglak dynasty technically retained

power until 1412 but matters were complicated by the incursion led by timur and 1398

into delhi as the tuglak dynasty weakened the saeed dynasty replaced them starting

in 1414 the sayyids lasted for roughly 37 years but the last ruler's reign was stained

by rebellion and discord as the dynasty fell from grace yet another dynastic authority took the open

throne this time being the lodi dynasty the new dynasty lasted

until the death of the then current ruler ibrahim khan lodi who was killed in battle at panipat

by the army of kabul's leader babour in 1526 ibrahim's death brought about the final

end of the delhi sultanate as a whole now free of competition from the lodi dynasty

the board established the mughal dynasty which would end up becoming one of the greatest throughout history

the original turkic mongol imperial power ruled a vast majority of india for over

two centuries and brought about significant cultural growth and architectural achievements

including the great taj mahal despite their immense success the mughal empire began its decline

around the start of the 18th century as revolt after revolt began to shake the foundations of the widespread power

alongside threats from the marathas and the british the british east india company had

actually already been in the region for some time but the situation with the british

started to escalate not long after the mughals fell by 1857 india displayed increasing control by

the east india company and the locals were having none of it what began

as a simple revolt by indian soldiers in merit quickly blew up into a widespread

rebellion and became known as the indian mutiny of 1857. this rebellion later would be

called the first war of indian independence and even though the british were able to quell the revolt

after a matter of months it inevitably had lasting impacts in response to the mutiny

on november 1 1858 britain's queen victoria declared that india would be ruled in the name of the

british crown from that point on locals maintained their disapproval and anger at the

british supremacy over their land and nationalist sentiments and movements were far from extinguished the next

major move towards independence came when mahatma gandhi and the indian national congress

decided to withdraw all cooperation with the british government beginning the non-cooperation movement

following the end of world war one when this strategy did not bring the wanted results

gandhi adopted a new technique in the form of the civil disobedience movement in

december of 1929. essentially the movement was made up of the declaration of an

indian independence day that would be celebrated on january 16th and complete disobedience of any orders

by the british government again gandhi's strategy failed

and this time he was even arrested while many other rebels were murdered still the british were

eventually pushed into the round table conferences beginning in november of 1930 the second

of which gandhi attended the conferences marked another failure

and civil disobedience reignited gandhi's next attempt the quit india movement again made no

drastic progress world war ii brought about new issues as india was forced into war by

the british but at the conflict's conclusion a new labour party came into power in

india and showed sympathy towards the fight for independence finally

as august 14th turned to 15th in 1947 india became an independent nation [Music]

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