This article is about the pre-1947 history of the Indian subcontinent.

For the
post-1947 history of India, see History of India (1947–present). For the post-1947
history of the Indian subcontinent, see South Asia § Contemporary era.
"Ancient India" and "Indian history" redirect here. For outline, see Outline of
South Asian history.

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Indus Valley Civilisation, at peak phase (2600–1900 BCE)

Anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent between 73,000
and 55,000 years ago.[1] The earliest known human remains in South Asia date to
30,000 years ago. Sedentariness began in South Asia around 7000 BCE; by 4500 BCE,
settled life had spread,[2] and gradually evolved into the Indus Valley
Civilisation, one of three early cradles of civilisation in the Old World,[3][4]
which flourished between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE in present-day Pakistan and north-
western India. Early in the second millennium BCE, persistent drought caused the
population of the Indus Valley to scatter from large urban centres to villages.
Indo-Aryan tribes moved into the Punjab from Central Asia in several waves of
migration. The Vedic Period of the Vedic people in northern India (1500–500 BCE)
was marked by the composition of their extensive collections of hymns (Vedas). The
social structure was loosely stratified via the varna system, incorporated into the
highly evolved present-day Jāti system. The pastoral and nomadic Indo-Aryans spread
from the Punjab into the Gangetic plain. Around 600 BCE, a new, interregional
culture arose; then, small chieftaincies (janapadas) were consolidated into larger
states (mahajanapadas). Second urbanization took place, which came with the rise of
new ascetic movements and religious concepts,[5] including the rise of Jainism and
Buddhism. The latter was synthesized with the preexisting religious cultures of the
subcontinent, giving rise to Hinduism.

Indian cultural influence (Greater India)

Timeline of Indian history

Chandragupta Maurya overthrew the Nanda Empire and established the first great
empire in ancient India, the Maurya Empire. India's Mauryan king Ashoka is widely
recognised for the violent kalinga war and his historical acceptance of Buddhism
and his attempts to spread nonviolence and peace across his empire. The Maurya
Empire would collapse in 185 BCE, on the assassination of the then-emperor
Brihadratha by his general Pushyamitra Shunga. Shunga would form the Shunga Empire
in the north and north-east of the subcontinent, while the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
would claim the north-west and found the Indo-Greek Kingdom. Various parts of India
were ruled by numerous dynasties, including the Gupta Empire, in the 4th to 6th
centuries CE. This period, witnessing a Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence
is known as the Classical or Golden Age of India. Aspects of Indian civilisation,
administration, culture, and religion spread to much of Asia, which led to the
establishment of Indianised kingdoms in the region, forming Greater India.[6][5]
The most significant event between the 7th and 11th centuries was the Tripartite
struggle centred on Kannauj. Southern India saw the rise of multiple imperial
powers from the middle of the fifth century. The Chola dynasty conquered southern
India in the 11th century. In the early medieval period, Indian mathematics,
including Hindu numerals, influenced the development of mathematics and astronomy
in the Arab world, including the creation of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system.[7]

Islamic conquests made limited inroads into modern Afghanistan and Sindh as early
as the 8th century,[8] followed by the invasions of Mahmud Ghazni.[9] The Delhi
Sultanate, established in 1206 by Central Asian Turks, ruled much of northern India
in the 14th century. It was governed by various Turkic and Afghan dynasties,
including the Indo-Turkic Tughlaqs.[10][11] The empire declined in the late 14th
century following the invasions of Timur[12] and saw the advent of the Malwa,
Gujarat, and Bahmani sultanates, the last of which split in 1518 into the five
Deccan sultanates. The wealthy Bengal Sultanate also emerged as a major power,
lasting over three centuries.[13] During this period, multiple strong Hindu
kingdoms, notably the Vijayanagara Empire and Rajput states under the Kingdom of
Mewar emerged and played significant roles in shaping the cultural and political
landscape of India.[14][15]

The early modern period began in the 16th century, when the Mughal Empire conquered
most of the Indian subcontinent,[16] signaling the proto-industrialisation,
becoming the biggest global economy and manufacturing power.[17][18][19] The
Mughals suffered a gradual decline in the early 18th century, largely due to the
rising power of the Marathas, who took control of extensive regions of the Indian
subcontinent, and numerous Afghan invasions.[20][21][22] The East India Company,
acting as a sovereign force on behalf of the British government, gradually acquired
control of huge areas of India between the middle of the 18th and the middle of the
19th centuries. Policies of company rule in India led to the Indian Rebellion of
1857. India was afterwards ruled directly by the British Crown, in the British Raj.
After World War I, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the
Indian National Congress, led by Mahatma Gandhi. Later, the All-India Muslim League
would advocate for a separate Muslim-majority nation state. The British Indian
Empire was partitioned in August 1947 into the Dominion of India and Dominion of
Pakistan, each gaining its independence.

Prehistoric era (before c. 3300 BCE)

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Mesolithic rock art at the Bhimbetka rock shelters, Madhya Pradesh, showing a wild
animal, perhaps a mythical one, attacking human hunters. Although the rock art has
not been directly dated,[23] it has been argued on circumstantial grounds that many
paintings were completed by 8000 BCE,[24] and some slightly earlier.[25]

A dolmen erected by Neolithic people in Marayur, Kerala, India.

Stone Age (6,000 BCE) carvings of Edakkal Caves in Kerala, India.

Paleolithic
Main article: South Asian Stone Age
Hominin expansion from Africa is estimated to have reached the Indian subcontinent
approximately two million years ago, and possibly as early as 2.2 million years
ago.[26][27][28] This dating is based on the known presence of Homo erectus in
Indonesia by 1.8 million years ago and in East Asia by 1.36 million years ago, as
well as the discovery of stone tools at Riwat in Pakistan.[27][29] Although some
older discoveries have been claimed, the suggested dates, based on the dating of
fluvial sediments, have not been independently verified.[28][30]

The oldest hominin fossil remains in the Indian subcontinent are those of Homo
erectus or Homo heidelbergensis, from the Narmada Valley in central India, and are
dated to approximately half a million years ago.[27][30] Older fossil finds have
been claimed, but are considered unreliable.[30] Reviews of archaeological evidence
have suggested that occupation of the Indian subcontinent by hominins was sporadic
until approximately 700,000 years ago, and was geographically widespread by
approximately 250,000 years ago.[30][28]

According to a historical demographer of South Asia, Tim Dyson:

Modern human beings—Homo sapiens—originated in Africa. Then, intermittently,

sometime between 60,000 and 80,000 years ago, tiny groups of them began to enter
the north-west of the Indian subcontinent. It seems likely that initially they came
by way of the coast. It is virtually certain that there were Homo sapiens in the
subcontinent 55,000 years ago, even though the earliest fossils that have been
found of them date to only about 30,000 years before the present.[31]

According to Michael D. Petraglia and Bridget Allchin:

Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonisation of South Asia by modern
humans originating in Africa. ... Coalescence dates for most non-European
populations average to between 73–55 ka.[32]

Historian of South Asia, Michael H. Fisher, states:

Scholars estimate that the first successful expansion of the Homo sapiens range
beyond Africa and across the Arabian Peninsula occurred from as early as 80,000
years ago to as late as 40,000 years ago, although there may have been prior
unsuccessful emigrations. Some of their descendants extended the human range ever
further in each generation, spreading into each habitable land they encountered.
One human channel was along the warm and productive coastal lands of the Persian
Gulf and northern Indian Ocean. Eventually, various bands entered India between
75,000 years ago and 35,000 years ago.[33]

In 1844, James K. Polk (1795-1849) won election to the US presidency on a platform

of expansionism; promising to lead the United States toward its 'Manifest Destiny',
Polk declared his intention to wrest the Oregon Territory from the British, seize
all Mexican territory north of 31°, and annex the newly independent Republic of
Texas. Initially, this ambitious policy fell quite short of its goals. Polk was
forced to settle for a treaty that established the Oregon boundary at the 49th
parallel – less than was hoped for – while Mexico declined to sell any territory at
all. But when Texas joined the Union in December 1845 as the 28th state, Polk saw a
new opportunity for conquest; Mexico had not recognized Texas' independence and
viewed its annexation by the US as a hostile act. Polk and his partisans continued
to provoke Mexico, ultimately leading to the Mexican-American War. At the end of
that conflict, Mexico was forced to give up vast amounts of territory, including
Utah, New Mexico, and California. Polk had achieved his goal – by the end of his
single term, the United States had expanded by two-thirds, growing more than it had
under any other president.
Opponents of slavery – often called Free Soilers – believed that the institution
was not only a moral evil but also stood in the way of progress.
Mr. Polk's War, as the conflict had been derisively called, was quite polarizing –
while Polk's own Democratic Party supported the expansion of the United States by
any means necessary, members of the Whig Party viewed the conflict as an unjust war
and believed that its main objective had been to expand the institution of slavery
and increase the political power of the slave-holding South. The Missouri
Compromise of 1820 had fixed the boundary between 'slave states' and 'free states'
by prohibiting slavery north of the 36°30' north latitude parallel. But since most
of the land conquered from Mexico was beneath that boundary, several new 'slave
states' could potentially be carved out from the territory. In 1846, anti-slavery
representatives tried to prevent this with the Wilmot Proviso, which declared that
"neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part" of the
territory acquired from Mexico – the proviso passed in the House, but it was
defeated in the Senate, where the South exerted greater power. Though the Wilmot
Proviso failed, it rejuvenated the national debate over the question of slavery, an
issue that had been festering beneath the country's surface for decades.

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Opponents of slavery – often called Free Soilers – believed that the institution
was not only a moral evil but also stood in the way of progress. As historian James
M. McPherson writes, Free Soilers argued that "free labor was more efficient than
slave labor because it was motivated by the inducement of wages and the ambition
for upward mobility rather than by the coercion of the lash" (55). Slavery must
therefore be kept out of the new territories to encourage free labor and progress
there. But the slave-holding South interpreted these statements as an attack
against its social system. As the global demand for cotton grew, Southern planters
became more reliant on slave labor to cultivate the crop. Additionally, it was
believed that slave labor was necessary to allow the slave-holding gentry time to
cultivate the arts, literature, and to pursue public office. An attack on slavery
was therefore viewed as an attack on the Southern way of life; to preserve this,
Southerners sought to expand slavery wherever they could, to maintain a strong pro-
slavery voting bloc in Congress.

The question of whether slavery would be allowed in the newly acquired territories
threatened to dominate the US presidential election of 1848. Polk had declined to
seek re-election; worn out by his time in office, he would be dead before the end
of the decade. Instead, the Democrats nominated Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan, who
championed the idea of 'popular sovereignty' – this meant that the settlers of the
territories should decide for themselves whether they wanted slavery or not. The
Whigs, needing to carry states where annexation had been popular, decided to avoid
the question of slavery for the time being and nominated General Zachary Taylor
(1784-1850), hero of the Mexican War. Taylor was an odd choice – he had been mostly
unpolitical prior to his run for office, leaving many Americans unsure as to what
his political positions were. However, he was a slaveholder who owned over a
hundred slaves himself, leaving many pro-slavery voters feeling comfortable that he
would support their position. Taylor won the election, carrying 8 of the 15 slave
states, and was inaugurated on 4 March 1849. But little did anyone realize that
Taylor's election heralded a political storm that was just about to break.

Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor
Unknown Photographer (Public Domain)
Taylor Turns on the South
In January 1848, gold was discovered in California. Over the course of the next
year, over 80,000 Americans moved to California in the hopes of striking it rich,
giving the territory a larger population than the states of Florida or Delaware.
Naturally, these new Californians were eager to apply for statehood and, in 1849,
held a state constitutional convention. Most of these settlers considered slavery
to be "an unnecessary moral, social, and political curse," and so, when the
delegates were drafting their state constitution, they unanimously voted to
prohibit slavery within the boundaries of California. New Mexico, another territory
carved out of the Mexican Cession, was also prepared to apply for statehood. Since
slavery had been prohibited there under Mexican law, it was likely that New Mexico
would join the Union as a 'free state' as well. Southerners, of course, were
alarmed – the entry of two new 'free states' at once would tip the balance of power
in the Senate against the 'slave states', maybe for good.

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