| About 2500
bc |
Civilization sprang up in
the Indus River valley. |
| About 1500 BC |
Aryan tribes invaded
India and settled mainly in the Punjab region of India. Their arrival
set off a series of wars. |
| 326 BC |
Alexander the Great began
to conquer India before his own troops forced him to turn back. |
| 321 BC |
Chandragupta founded the
Mauryan Empire. India's first empire, it grew to encompass nearly all of
the Indian subcontinent before disintegrating in the 2nd century BC. |
| About
ad 100-450 |
Sanskrit culture thrived
under the Kushan Empire, and later under the Gupta Empire. Trade with
the Middle East and the Roman Empire greatly enriched India. |
| 510 |
Invading Huns destroyed
Gupta power in India. |
| 1175-about 1200 |
Islamic invaders from
Afghanistan overran much of northern India. They founded the Delhi
Sultanate. |
| 1398 |
The Mongol conqueror
Tamerlane sacked Delhi. The Delhi Sultanate split into small warring
kingdoms. |
| 1498 |
The Portuguese navigator
Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut. Portugal soon dominated Indian Ocean
trade. |
| 1526 |
Babur, a central Asian
Turk, founded the Mughal Empire. Art and architecture flourished,
producing such monuments as Agra's Taj Mahal. |
| 1600 |
The English East India
Company was founded and quickly established trading posts in India. |
| 1739 |
The Persian king Nadir
Shah invaded India and plundered Delhi, critically weakening the Mughal
Empire. |
| 1757 |
English East India
Company forces under Robert Clive won control of Bengal at the Battle of
Plassey. The company soon expanded its control over much of the Indian
Peninsula. |
| 1857-1859 |
The Sepoy Rebellion
erupted. Indian forces massacred British residents at Delhi, Lucknow,
and many other places. British forces crushed the revolt, and the
British government exiled the Mughal emperor and assumed direct control
of India. |
| 1885 |
The Indian National
Congress was founded, marking the beginning of the Indian independence
movement. |
| 1919 |
British forces killed
more than 400 Indians and wounded over 1200 in the Amritsar Massacre. |
| 1920-1921 |
Mohandas Gandhi
introduced nonviolent tactics that transformed the Indian independence
movement into a popular campaign. |
| 1947 |
British India was divided
into the independent states of India and Pakistan. Jawaharlal Nehru
became India's first prime minister. War broke out between India and
Pakistan over the territory of Jammu and Kashmir |
| 1948 |
Mohandas Gandhi was
assassinated. |
| 1949 |
India and Pakistan signed
a cease-fire agreement that divided Jammu and Kashmir into two sectors,
but the status of the region remained unresolved. Fighting broke out
again in 1965 and 1971. |
| 1974 |
India exploded an atomic
bomb, and as the first South Asian nation to do so, altered the balance
of power in South Asia. |
| 1984 |
Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh members of her security guard. |
| 1990s |
Tensions increased
between India and Pakistan over the continuing conflict in Jammu and
Kashmir. |
| 1996 |
Elections swept the
Congress Party, which had dominated India's government since
independence, from power. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
captured the largest number of parliament seats. No party won a
majority, however, and a BJP coalition was quickly replaced by a shaky
left-center coalition involving the Congress Party. |
| 1998 |
The BJP and its allies
won a majority of seats in parliamentary elections and made Hindu
nationalist leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee prime minister. Vajpayee's
government conducted nuclear tests, spurring Pakistan to do the same and
arousing fears of a regional arms race. |
General Knowledge :: HISTORICAL EVENTS BY COUNTRY :: INDIA