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History of India (1947–present)

The history of independent India or history of Republic of India began when the country became an independent sovereign state within the British Commonwealth on 15 August 1947. Direct administration by the British, which began in 1858, affected a political and economic unification of the subcontinent. When British rule came to an end in 1947, the subcontinent was partitioned along religious lines into two separate countries—India, with a majority of Hindus, and Pakistan, with a majority of Muslims.[1] Concurrently the Muslim-majority northwest and east of British India was separated into the Dominion of Pakistan, by the Partition of India. The partition led to a population transfer of more than 10 million people between India and Pakistan and the death of about one million people. Indian National Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India, but the leader most associated with the independence struggle, Mahatma Gandhi, accepted no office. The constitution adopted in 1950 made India a democratic republic with Westminster style parliamentary system of government, both at federal and state level respectively. The democracy has been sustained since then. India's sustained democratic freedoms are unique among the world's newly independent states.[2]

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, often regarded as the architect of modern India, addressing a newly independent India on 15 August 1947

The country has faced religious violence, naxalism, terrorism and regional separatist insurgencies. India has unresolved territorial disputes with China which escalated into a war in 1962 and 1967, and with Pakistan which resulted in wars in 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999. India was neutral in the Cold War, and was a leader in the Non-Aligned Movement. However, it made a loose alliance with the Soviet Union from 1971, when Pakistan was allied with the United States and the People's Republic of China.

India is a nuclear-weapon state, having conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, followed by another five tests in 1998. From the 1950s to the 1980s, India followed socialist-inspired policies. The economy was influenced by extensive regulation, protectionism and public ownership, leading to pervasive corruption and slow economic growth. Since 1991, India has pursued more economic liberalisation. Today, India is the third largest and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

From being a relatively struggling country in its formative years,[3] the Republic of India has emerged as a fast growing G20 major economy.[4][5] India has sometimes been referred to as a great power and a potential superpower given its large and growing economy, military and population.[6][7][8][9]

1947–1950: Dominion of India edit

Independent India's first years were marked with turbulent events—a massive exchange of population with Pakistan, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 and the integration of over 500 princely states to form a united nation.[10] Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi also ensured that the constitution of independent India would be secular.[11]

Partition of India edit

The partition of India was outlined in the Indian Independence Act 1947. It led to the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan.[12][13] The change of political borders notably included the division of two provinces of British India,[a] Bengal and Punjab.[14] The majority Muslim districts in these provinces were awarded to Pakistan and the majority non-Muslim to India. The other assets that were divided included the British Indian Army, the Royal Indian Navy, the Royal Indian Air Force, the Indian Civil Service, the railways, and the central treasury. Self-governing independent Pakistan and India legally came into existence at midnight on 14 and 15 August 1947 respectively.

 
The first Cabinet of independent India[b]

The partition caused large-scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration between the two dominions.[15] Among refugees who survived, it solidified the belief that safety lay among co-religionists. In the instance of Pakistan, it made palpable a hitherto only-imagined refuge for the Muslims of British India.[16] The migrations took place hastily and with little warning. It is thought that between 14 million and 18 million people moved, and perhaps more. Excess mortality during the period of the partition is usually estimated to have been around one million.[17] The violent nature of the partition created an atmosphere of hostility and suspicion between India and Pakistan that affects their relationship to this day.

An estimated 3.5 million[18] Hindus and Sikhs living in West Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Baluchistan, East Bengal and Sind migrated to India in fear of domination and suppression in Muslim Pakistan. Communal violence killed an estimated one million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, and gravely destabilised both dominions along their Punjab and Bengal boundaries, and the cities of Calcutta, Delhi and Lahore. The violence was stopped by early September owing to the co-operative efforts of both Indian and Pakistani leaders, and especially due to the efforts of Mohandas Gandhi, the leader of the Indian freedom struggle, who undertook a fast-unto-death in Calcutta and later in Delhi to calm people and emphasise peace despite the threat to his life. Both governments constructed large relief camps for incoming and leaving refugees, and the Indian Army was mobilised to provide humanitarian assistance on a massive scale.

I find no parallel in history for a body of converts and their descendants claiming to be a nation apart from the parent stock.

— Mahatma Gandhi, opposing the division of India on the basis of religion in 1945.[19]

The assassination of Mohandas Gandhi on 30 January 1948 was carried out by Nathuram Godse, who held him responsible for partition and charged that Mohandas Gandhi was appeasing Muslims. More than one million people flooded the streets of Delhi to follow the procession to cremation grounds and pay their last respects.

In 1949, India recorded almost 1 million Hindu refugees into West Bengal and other states from East Pakistan, owing to communal violence, intimidation, and repression from Muslim authorities. The plight of the refugees outraged Hindus and Indian nationalists, and the refugee population drained the resources of Indian states, who were unable to absorb them. While not ruling out war, Prime Minister Nehru and Sardar Patel invited Liaquat Ali Khan for talks in Delhi. Although many Indians termed this appeasement, Nehru signed a pact with Liaquat Ali Khan that pledged both nations to the protection of minorities and creation of minority commissions. Although opposed to the principle, Patel decided to back this pact for the sake of peace, and played a critical role in garnering support from West Bengal and across India, and enforcing the provisions of the pact. Khan and Nehru also signed a trade agreement, and committed to resolving bilateral disputes through peaceful means. Steadily, hundreds of thousands of Hindus returned to East Pakistan, but the thaw in relations did not last long, primarily owing to the Kashmir dispute.

Political integration of India
 
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as Minister for Home and States Affairs had the responsibility of welding the British Indian provinces and the princely states into a united India.
 
General El Edroos (at right) offers his surrender of the Hyderabad State Forces to Major General (later General and Army Chief) Joyanto Nath Chaudhuri at Secunderabad.
 
Queen Kanchan Prabha Devi of the Kingdom of Tripura signed the instrument of accession to India. She played a pivotal role in rehabilitating refugees and victims of the violence associated with the Partition of India in the state of Tripura.
 
Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah (right), chosen to head the emergency interim government in Kashmir after Maharaja Hari Singh signed Kashmir's Instrument of Accession to India.

Integration of princely states edit

In July 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru pointedly observed that no princely state could prevail militarily against the army of independent India.[20] In January 1947, Nehru said that independent India would not accept the divine right of kings.[21] In May 1947, he declared that any princely state which refused to join the Constituent Assembly would be treated as an enemy state.[22] British India consisted of 17 provinces, which existed alongside 565 princely states. The provinces were given to India or Pakistan, in two particular cases—Punjab and Bengal—after being partitioned. The princes of the princely states, however, were given the right to either remain independent or accede to either dominion. Thus India's leaders were faced with the prospect of inheriting a fragmented country with independent states and kingdoms dispersed across the mainland. Under the leadership of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the new Government of India employed political negotiations backed with the option (and, on several occasions, the use) of military action to ensure the primacy of the central government and of the Constitution then being drafted. Sardar Patel and V. P. Menon convinced the rulers of princely states contiguous to India to accede to India. Many rights and privileges of the rulers of the princely states, especially their personal estates and privy purses, were guaranteed to convince them to accede. Some of them were made Rajpramukh (governor) and Uprajpramukh (deputy governor) of the merged states. Many small princely states were merged to form viable administrative states such as Saurashra, PEPSU, Vindhya Pradesh and Madhya Bharat. Some princely states such as Tripura and Manipur acceded later in 1949.

There were three states that proved more difficult to integrate than others:

  1. Junagadh (Hindu-majority state with a Muslim Nawab)—a December 1947 plebiscite resulted in a 99% vote[23] to merge with India, annulling the controversial accession to Pakistan, which was made by the Nawab against the wishes of the people of the state who were overwhelmingly Hindu and despite Junagadh not being contiguous with Pakistan.
  2. Hyderabad (Hindu-majority state with a Muslim nizam)—Patel ordered the Indian army to depose the government of the Nizam, code-named Operation Polo, after the failure of negotiations, which was done between 13 and 29 September 1948. It was incorporated as a state of India the next year.
  3. The state of Jammu and Kashmir (a Muslim-majority state with a Hindu king) in the far north of the subcontinent quickly became a source of controversy that erupted into the First Indo-Pakistani War which lasted from 1947 to 1949. Eventually, a United Nations-overseen ceasefire was agreed that left India in control of two-thirds of the contested region. Jawaharlal Nehru initially agreed to Mountbatten's proposal that a plebiscite be held in the entire state as soon as hostilities ceased, and a UN-sponsored cease-fire was agreed to by both parties on 1 January 1949. No statewide plebiscite was held, however, for in 1954, after Pakistan began to receive arms from the United States, Nehru withdrew his support. The Indian Constitution came into force in Kashmir on 26 January 1950 with special clauses for the state.

Constitution edit

The Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949 and became effective on 26 January 1950.[24] The constitution replaced the Government of India Act 1935 as the country's fundamental governing document, and the Dominion of India became the Republic of India. To ensure constitutional autochthony, its framers repealed prior acts of the British parliament in Article 395.[25] The constitution declares India a sovereign, socialist, secular,[26] and democratic republic, assures its citizens justice, equality, and liberty, and endeavours to promote fraternity.[27] Key features of the constitution were Universal suffrage for all adults,Westminster style parliamentary system of government at the federal and state level, and independent judiciary.[28] The constitution also required the Union Government and the States and Territories of India to set reserved quotas or seats, at particular percentage in Education Admissions, Employments, Political Bodies, Promotions, etc., for "socially and educationally backward citizens."[29][30][31] The constitution has had more than 100 amendments since it was enacted.[32]

India celebrates its constitution on 26 January as Republic Day.[33]

 
Indian soldiers during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947

Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 edit

The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 was fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu from 1947 to 1948. It was the first of four Indo-Pakistan Wars fought between the two newly independent nations. Pakistan precipitated the war a few weeks after independence by launching tribal lashkar (militia) from Waziristan,[34] in an effort to secure Kashmir, the future of which hung in the balance. A United Nations-mediated ceasefire took place on 5 January 1949.

Indian losses in the war totalled 1,104 killed and 3,154 wounded;[35] Pakistani, about 6,000 killed and 14,000 wounded.[36] Neutral assessments state India emerged victorious as it successfully defended the majority of the contested territory.[37][38][39][40][41]

Governance and politics edit

India held its first national elections under the Constitution in 1952, where a turnout of over 60% was recorded. The Indian National Congress won an overwhelming majority, and Jawaharlal Nehru began a second term as prime minister. President Prasad was also elected to a second term by the electoral college of the first Parliament of India.[42]

 
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. He oversaw India's transition from a colony to a republic, while nurturing a plural, multi-party system. In foreign policy, he took a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement while projecting India as a regional hegemon in South Asia.

Nehru administration (1952–1964) edit

Nehru can be regarded as the founder of the modern Indian state. Parekh attributes this to the national philosophy Nehru formulated for India. For him, modernisation was the national philosophy, with seven goals: national unity, parliamentary democracy, industrialisation, socialism, development of the scientific temper, and non-alignment. In Parekh's opinion, the philosophy and the policies that resulted from this benefited a large section of society such as public sector workers, industrial houses, and middle and upper peasantry. However, it failed to benefit or satisfy the urban and rural poor, the unemployed and the Hindu fundamentalists.[43]

The death of Vallabhbhai Patel in 1950 left Nehru as the sole remaining iconic national leader, and soon the situation became such that Nehru could implement his vision for India without hindrance.[44]

Nehru implemented economic policies based on import substitution industrialisation and advocated a mixed economy where the government-controlled public sector would co-exist with the private sector.[45] He believed the establishment of basic and heavy industry was fundamental to the development and modernisation of the Indian economy. The government, therefore, directed investment primarily into key public sector industries—steel, iron, coal, and power—promoting their development with subsidies and protectionist policies.[46]

Nehru led the Congress to further election victories in 1957 and 1962. During his tenure, the Indian Parliament passed extensive reforms that increased the legal rights of women in Hindu society,[47][48][49][50] and further legislated against caste discrimination and untouchability.[citation needed] Nehru advocated a strong initiative to enroll India's children to complete primary education, and thousands of schools, colleges and institutions of advanced learning, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology, were founded across the nation.[51] Nehru advocated a socialist model for the economy of India.After India achieved independence, a formal model of planning was adopted, and accordingly the Planning Commission, reporting directly to the Prime Minister, was established in 1950, with Nehru as the chairman. The commission was tasked with formulating Five-Year Plans for economic development which were shaped by the Soviet model based on centralised and integrated national economic programs[52]—no taxation for Indian farmers, minimum wage and benefits for blue-collar workers, and the nationalisation of heavy industries such as steel, aviation, shipping, electricity, and mining. Village common lands were seized, and an extensive public works and industrialisation campaign resulted in the construction of major dams, irrigation canals, roads, thermal and hydroelectric power stations, and many more.[citation needed]

 
South Indian states prior to the States Reorganisation Act

States reorganisation edit

Potti Sreeramulu's fast-unto-death, and consequent death for the demand of an Andhra State in 1952 sparked a major re-shaping of the Indian Union. Nehru appointed the States Re-organisation Commission, upon whose recommendations the States Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956. Old states were dissolved and new states created on the lines of shared linguistic and ethnic demographics. The separation of Kerala and the Telugu-speaking regions of Madras State enabled the creation of an exclusively Tamil-speaking state of Tamil Nadu. On 1 May 1960, the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat were created out of the bilingual Bombay State, and on 1 November 1966, the larger Punjab state was divided into the smaller, Punjabi-speaking Punjab and Haryanvi-speaking Haryana states.[53]

Development of a multi-party system edit

In pre-independence India, the main parties were the Congress and the Muslim league.There were also many other parties such as the Hindu mahasabha, Justice party, the Akali dal, the Communist party etc. during this period with limited or regional appeal. With the eclipse of the Muslim league due to partition, the Congress party was able to dominate Indian politics during the 1950s.This started breaking down during the 60s and 70s.This period saw formation of many new parties.These included those founded by former congress leaders such as the Swatantra party, many Socialist leaning parties, and the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the political arm of the Hindu nationalist RSS.[54]

Swatantra Party edit

On 4 June 1959, shortly after the Nagpur session of the Indian National Congress, C. Rajagopalachari,[55] along with Murari Vaidya of the newly established Forum of Free Enterprise (FFE)[56] and Minoo Masani, a classical liberal and critic of socialist leaning Nehru, announced the formation of the new Swatantra Party at a meeting in Madras.[57] Conceived by disgruntled heads of former princely states such as the Raja of Ramgarh, the Maharaja of Kalahandi and the Maharajadhiraja of Darbhanga, the party was conservative in character.[58][59] Later, N. G. Ranga, K. M. Munshi, Field Marshal K. M. Cariappa and the Maharaja of Patiala joined the effort.[59] Rajagopalachari, Masani and Ranga also tried but failed to involve Jayaprakash Narayan in the initiative.[60]

 
Gayatri Devi, the Maharani of Jaipur and princess of Cooch Behar, was a successful politician in the Swatantra Party.

In his short essay "Our Democracy", Rajagopalachari argued the necessity of a right-wing alternative to the Congress: "since ... the Congress Party has swung to the Left, what is wanted is not an ultra or outer-Left [viz. the CPI or the Praja Socialist Party, PSP], but a strong and articulate Right."[58] Rajagopalachari also said the opposition must: "operate not privately and behind the closed doors of the party meeting, but openly and periodically through the electorate."[58] He outlined the goals of the Swatantra Party through twenty-one "fundamental principles" in the foundation document.[61] The party stood for equality and opposed government control over the private sector.[62][63] Rajagopalachari sharply criticised the bureaucracy and coined the term "licence-permit Raj" to describe Nehru's elaborate system of permissions and licences required for an individual to set up a private enterprise. Rajagopalachari's personality became a rallying point for the party.[58]

Rajagopalachari's efforts to build an anti-Congress front led to a patch-up with his former adversary C. N. Annadurai of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.[64] During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Annadurai grew close to Rajagopalachari and sought an alliance with the Swatantra Party for the 1962 Madras Legislative Assembly elections. Although there were occasional electoral pacts between the Swatantra Party and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Rajagopalachari remained non-committal on a formal tie-up with the DMK due to its existing alliance with Communists whom he dreaded.[65] The Swatantra Party contested 94 seats in the Madras state assembly elections and won six[66] as well as won 18 parliamentary seats in the 1962 Lok Sabha elections.[67]

Foreign policy and military conflicts edit

Nehru's foreign policy was the inspiration of the Non-Aligned Movement, of which India was a co-founder. Nehru maintained friendly relations with both the United States and the Soviet Union, and encouraged the People's Republic of China to join the global community of nations. In 1956, when the Suez Canal Company was seized by the Egyptian government, an international conference voted 18–4 to take action against Egypt. India was one of the four backers of Egypt, along with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the USSR. India had opposed the partition of Palestine and the 1956 invasion of the Sinai by Israel, the United Kingdom and France, but did not oppose the Chinese direct control over Tibet,[68] and the suppression of a pro-democracy movement in Hungary by the Soviet Union. Although Nehru disavowed nuclear ambitions for India, Canada and France aided India in the development of nuclear power stations for electricity. India also negotiated an agreement in 1960 with Pakistan on the just use of the waters of seven rivers shared by the countries. Nehru had visited Pakistan in 1953, but owing to political turmoil in Pakistan, no headway was made on the Kashmir dispute.[69]

India has fought a total of four wars/military conflicts with its neighbouring rival state Pakistan, two in this period. In the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir, Pakistan captured one-third of Kashmir (which India claims as its territory), and India captured three-fifths (which Pakistan claims as its territory). In the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, India attacked Pakistan on all fronts by crossing the international border after attempts by Pakistani troops to infiltrate Indian-controlled Kashmir by crossing the de facto border between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.

In 1961, after continual petitions for a peaceful handover, India invaded and annexed the Portuguese colony of Goa on the west coast of India.[70]

In 1962 China and India engaged in the brief Sino-Indian War over the border in the Himalayas. The war was a complete rout for the Indians and led to a refocusing on arms build-up and an improvement in relations with the United States. China withdrew from disputed territory in the contested Chinese South Tibet and Indian North-East Frontier Agency that it crossed during the war. India disputes China's sovereignty over the smaller Aksai Chin territory that it controls on the western part of the Sino-Indian border.[71]

1960s after Nehru edit

 
Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi served as prime minister for three consecutive terms (1966–77) and a fourth term (1980–84).

Jawaharlal Nehru died on 27 May 1964, and Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded him as prime minister. In 1965, India and Pakistan again went to war over Kashmir, but without any definitive outcome or alteration of the Kashmir boundary. The Tashkent Agreement was signed under the mediation of the Soviet government, but Shastri died on the night after the signing ceremony. A leadership election resulted in the elevation of Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter who had been serving as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, as the third prime minister. She defeated right-wing leader Morarji Desai. The Congress Party won a reduced majority in the 1967 elections owing to widespread disenchantment over rising prices of commodities, unemployment, economic stagnation, and food crisis. Indira Gandhi had started on a rocky note after agreeing to a devaluation of the rupee, which created much hardship for Indian businesses and consumers, and the import of wheat from the United States fell through due to political disputes.[72]

In 1967, India and China again engaged with each other in Sino-Indian War of 1967 after the PLA soldiers opened fire on the Indian soldiers who were making a fence on the border in Nathu La. The Indian forces successfully repelled Chinese forces and the outcome saw Chinese defeat with their withdrawal from Sikkim.

Morarji Desai entered Gandhi's government as deputy prime minister and finance minister, and with senior Congress politicians attempted to constrain Gandhi's authority. But following the counsel of her political advisor P. N. Haksar, Gandhi resuscitated her popular appeal by a major shift towards socialist policies. She successfully ended the Privy Purse guarantee for former Indian royalty, and waged a major offensive against party hierarchy over the nationalisation of India's banks. Although resisted by Desai and India's business community, the policy was popular with the masses. When Congress politicians attempted to oust Gandhi by suspending her Congress membership, Gandhi was empowered with a large exodus of members of parliament to her own Congress (R). The bastion of the Indian freedom struggle, the Indian National Congress, had split in 1969. Gandhi continued to govern with a slim majority.[73]

1970s edit

 
Indian aircraft carrier INS Vikrant launches an Alize aircraft during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

In 1971, Indira Gandhi and her Congress (R) were returned to power with a massively increased majority. The nationalisation of banks was carried out, and many other socialist economic and industrial policies enacted. India intervened in the Bangladesh War of Independence, a civil war taking place in Pakistan's Bengali half, after millions of refugees had fled the persecution of the Pakistani army. The clash resulted in the independence of East Pakistan, which became known as Bangladesh, and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's elevation to immense popularity. Relations with the United States grew strained, and India signed a 20-year treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union—breaking explicitly for the first time from non-alignment. In 1974, India tested its first nuclear weapon in the desert of Rajasthan, near Pokhran.

 
Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim. Sikkim became the 22nd state of the Indian Union.

Merger of Sikkim edit

In 1973, anti-royalist riots took place in the Kingdom of Sikkim. In 1975, the Prime Minister of Sikkim appealed to the Indian Parliament for Sikkim to become a state of India. In April of that year, the Indian Army took over the city of Gangtok and disarmed the Chogyal's palace guards. Thereafter, a referendum was held in which 97.5 percent of voters supported abolishing the monarchy, effectively approving union with India.

India is said to have stationed 20,000–40,000 troops in a country of only 200,000 during the referendum.[74] On 16 May 1975, Sikkim became the 22nd state of the Indian Union, and the monarchy was abolished.[75] To enable the incorporation of the new state, the Indian Parliament amended the Indian Constitution. First, the 35th Amendment laid down a set of conditions that made Sikkim an "associate state", a special designation not used by any other state. A month later, the 36th Amendment repealed the 35th Amendment, and made Sikkim a full state, adding its name to the First Schedule of the Constitution.[76]

Formation of Northeastern states edit

In the Northeast India, the state of Assam was divided into several states beginning in 1970 within the borders of what was then Assam. In 1963, the Naga Hills district became the 16th state of India under the name of Nagaland. Part of Tuensang was added to Nagaland. In 1970, in response to the demands of the Khasi, Jaintia and Garo people of the Meghalaya Plateau, the districts embracing the Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills, and Garo Hills were formed into an autonomous state within Assam; in 1972 this became a separate state under the name of Meghalaya. In 1972, Arunachal Pradesh (the North-East Frontier Agency) and Mizoram (from the Mizo Hills in the south) were separated from Assam as union territories; both became states in 1986.[77]

 
The state of Punjab led India's Green Revolution and earned the distinction of being the country's bread basket.[78]
 
Amul Dairy Plant at Anand, Gujarat, was a highly successful co-operative started during Operation Flood in the 1970s.

Green revolution and Operation Flood edit

India's population passed the 500 million mark in the early 1970s, but its long-standing food crisis was resolved with greatly improved agricultural productivity due to the Green Revolution. The government sponsored modern agricultural implements, new varieties of generic seeds, and increased financial assistance to farmers that increased the yield of food crops such as wheat, rice and corn, as well as commercial crops like cotton, tea, tobacco and coffee.[79] Increased agricultural productivity expanded across the states of the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Punjab.

Under Operation Flood, the government encouraged the production of milk, which increased greatly, and improved rearing of livestock across India. This enabled India to become self-sufficient in feeding its own population, ending two decades of food imports.[80]

 
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 concluded with Lieutenant-General A. A. K. Niazi, the commander of Pakistan Eastern Command, signing the instrument of surrender in Dhaka on 16 December 1971, in the presence of India's Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora. Standing immediately behind from left to right: Indian Navy Vice Admiral Krishnan, Indian Air Force Air Marshal Dewan, Indian Army Lt Gen Sagat Singh, Maj Gen JFR Jacob (with Flt Lt Krishnamurthy peering over his shoulder). Veteran newscaster Surojit Sen of All India Radio is seen holding a microphone on the right.

Bangladesh Liberation War edit

The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was the third in four wars fought between the two nations.The war was fought in December 1971 over the issue of Bangladesh. India decisively defeated Pakistan, resulting in the creation of Bangladesh.

The crisis started with Punjabi dominated Pakistani army refusing to surrender power to the newly elected but mainly Bengali Awami League led by Shaikh Mujibur Rehman. Proclamation of Bangladeshi Independence in march of 1971 by Rehman led to widespread atrocities being committed by the Pakistani army against select groups.It is estimated that starting in March 1971, members of the Pakistani military and supporting pro-Pakistani Islamist militias killed between 300,000 and 3,000,000 civilians in Bangladesh.[81][82][83][84][85] During the conflict, members of the Pakistani military and supporting pro-Pakistani Islamist militias called the Razakars raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bangladeshi women and girls in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape.[86][87][88][89] The murders and rapes led to an estimated eight to ten million people to flee East Pakistan to seek refuge in India.[90][91][92][93][94]

Official de-jure war began with Pakistan airforce-affiliated Operation Chengiz Khan, which consisted of preemptive aerial strikes on 11 Indian air stations resulting in minor damages and suspension of counter-air operations for mere few hours.[95] The strikes led to India declaring war on Pakistan, marking their entry into the war for East Pakistan's independence, on the side of Bengali nationalist forces. India's entry expanded the existing conflict with Indian and Pakistani forces engaging on both the eastern and western fronts.[96] Thirteen days into the war, India had achieved total superiority into the East meanwhile it had sufficient superiority in the West, which resulted later in Eastern defence of Pakistan to sign an joint instrument of surrender.[97][98] on 16 December 1971 in Dhaka, ending conflict officially and marking the formation of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh. Approximately 93,000 Pakistani servicemen were taken prisoner by the Indian Army, which included 79,676 to 81,000 uniformed personnel of the Pakistan Armed Forces, including some Bengali soldiers who had remained loyal to Pakistan.[99][100] The remaining 10,324 to 12,500 prisoners were civilians, either family members of the military personnel or collaborators (Razakars).[101][102][103]

Indian Emergency edit

Prelude to the Emergency edit

India in the first half of the 1970s faced high inflation caused by the 1973 oil crisis which resulted in cost of oil imports to rise substantially, the cost of the Bangladesh war and the refugee resettlement, and food shortages caused by droughts in parts of the country.The economic and social problems caused by high inflation, as well as allegations of corruption against Indira Gandhi and her government, caused increasing political unrest across India during 1973–74. This included the Railway Strike in 1974, the Maoist Naxalite movement, the Bihar student agitations, the United Women's Anti- Price Rise Front in Maharashtra and the Nav Nirman movement in Gujarat.[104][105]

Raj Narain was the Samyukta Socialist Party Candidate and Indira's opponent in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections from Rai Bareli. Although he suffered a defeat from her in 1971 elections, he accused Indira Gandhi of corrupt electoral practices and filed an election petition against her. Four years later on 12 June 1975, the Allahabad High Court gave their verdict, and found Indira Gandhi guilty of misusing government machinery for election purposes.[106] Opposition parties conducted nationwide strikes and protests demanding her immediate resignation. Various political parties united under Jaya Prakash Narayan to resist what he termed Gandhi's dictatorship. Leading strikes across India that paralysed its economy and administration, Narayan even called for the Army to oust Gandhi.

Declaration of the emergency edit

On 25 June 1975, Gandhi advised President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare a state of emergency under the constitution, which allowed the central government to assume sweeping powers to defend law and order in the nation. Explaining the breakdown of law and order and threat to national security as her primary reasons, Gandhi suspended many civil liberties and postponed elections at national and state levels.[107][108] Non-Congress governments in Indian states were dismissed, and nearly 1,000 opposition political leaders and activists were imprisoned.[109] Her government also introduced a contentious programme of compulsory birth control.[110][111][112][113][114][115] Strikes and public protests were outlawed in all forms.

Life during the emergency edit

India's economy benefited from an end to paralysing strikes and political disorder. India announced a 20-point programme which enhanced agricultural and industrial production, increasing national growth, productivity, and job growth. But many organs of government and many Congress politicians were accused of corruption and authoritarian conduct. Police officers were accused of arresting and torturing innocent people. Indira's then twentynine year old son, and unofficial political advisor, Sanjay Gandhi, was accused of committing gross excesses—Sanjay was blamed for the Health Ministry carrying out forced vasectomies of men and sterilisation of women as a part of the initiative to control population growth, and for the demolition of slums in Delhi near the Turkmen Gate, which left hundreds of people dead or injured, and many more displaced.[111][112][113][114][115][116][117]

 
Morarji Desai, the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India, signing the "New Delhi" declaration during a visit by US President Jimmy Carter.

Janata interlude edit

Indira Gandhi's Congress Party called for general elections in 1977, only to suffer a humiliating electoral defeat at the hands of the Janata Party, an amalgamation of opposition parties.[118] Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India. The Desai administration established tribunals to investigate Emergency-era abuses, and Indira and Sanjay Gandhi were arrested after a report from the Shah Commission.[119]

In 1979, the coalition crumbled and Charan Singh formed an interim government. The Janata Party had become intensely unpopular due to its internecine warfare, and a perceived lack of leadership on solving India's serious economic and social problems.

1980s edit

Indira Gandhi and her Congress Party splinter group, the Indian National Congress or simply "Congress(I)", were swept back into power with a large majority in January 1980.

 
Akal Takht and Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple), was repaired by the Indian Government after Operation Blue Star.[120]

But the rise of an insurgency in Punjab would jeopardise India's security. In Assam, there were many incidents of communal violence between native villagers and refugees from Bangladesh, as well as settlers from other parts of India. When Indian forces, undertaking Operation Blue Star, raided the hideout of self-rule pressing[110] Khalistan militants in the Golden Temple — Sikhs' most holy shrine – in Amritsar, the inadvertent deaths of civilians and damage to the temple building inflamed tensions in the Sikh community across India. The Government used intensive police operations to crush militant operations, but it resulted in many claims of abuse of civil liberties. North-east India was paralysed owing to the ULFA's clash with Government forces.

On 31 October 1984, the Prime Minister's own Sikh bodyguards assassinated her, and 1984 anti-Sikh riots erupted in Delhi and parts of Punjab, causing the deaths of thousands of Sikhs along with terrible pillage, arson, and rape. Senior members of the Congress Party have been implicated in stirring the violence against Sikhs. Government investigation has failed to date to discover the causes and punish the perpetrators, but public opinion blamed Congress leaders for directing attacks on Sikhs in Delhi.

 
INSAT system is the largest domestic communication system in the Asia Pacific Region. It is a series of multipurpose geo-stationary satellites launched by ISRO to satisfy the telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, and search and rescue operations in India.

Rajiv Gandhi administration edit

The Congress party chose Rajiv Gandhi, Indira's older son, as the next prime minister. Rajiv had been elected to Parliament only in 1982, and at 40, was the youngest national political leader and prime minister ever. But his youth and inexperience were an asset in the eyes of citizens tired of the inefficacy and corruption of career politicians, and looking for newer policies and a fresh start to resolve the country's long-standing problems. The Parliament was dissolved, and Rajiv led the Congress party to its largest majority in history (over 415 seats out of 545 possible), reaping a sympathy vote over his mother's assassination.[121]

Rajiv Gandhi initiated a series of reforms: the Licence Raj was loosened, and government restrictions on foreign currency, travel, foreign investment, and imports decreased considerably. This allowed private businesses to use resources and produce commercial goods without government bureaucracy interfering, and the influx of foreign investment increased India's national reserves. As prime minister, Rajiv broke from his mother's precedent to improve relations with the United States, which increased economic aid and scientific co-operation. Rajiv's encouragement of science and technology resulted in a major expansion of the telecommunications industry and India's space programme, and gave birth to the software industry and information technology sector.[122]

In December 1984, gas leaked out at the Union Carbide pesticides plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal. Thousands were killed immediately, while many more subsequently died or were left disabled.[110]

 
Victims of Bhopal disaster march demanding the extradition of American Warren Anderson from the United States

India in 1987 brokered an agreement with the Government of Sri Lanka and agreed to deploy troops for peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict led by the LTTE. Rajiv sent Indian troops to enforce the agreement and disarm the Tamil rebels, but the Indian Peace Keeping Force, as it was known, became entangled in outbreaks of violence, ultimately ending up fighting the Tamil rebels itself, and becoming a target of attack from Sri Lankan nationalists.[123] V. P. Singh withdrew the IPKF in 1990, but thousands of Indian soldiers had died. Rajiv's departure from socialist policies did not sit well with the masses, who did not benefit from the innovations. Unemployment was a serious problem, and India's burgeoning population added ever-increasing needs for diminishing resources.

Rajiv Gandhi's image as an honest politician (he was nicknamed "Mr. Clean" by the press) was shattered when the Bofors scandal broke, revealing that senior government officials had taken bribes over defence contracts by a Swedish guns producer.[124]

Janata Dal edit

General elections in 1989 gave Rajiv's Congress a plurality, much less than the majority which propelled him to power.[125]

Power came instead to his former finance and defence minister, VP Singh of Janata Dal. Singh had been moved from the Finance ministry to the Defence ministry after he unearthed some scandals which made the Congress leadership uncomfortable. Singh then unearthed the Bofors scandal, and was sacked from the party and office.[126] Becoming a popular crusader for reform and clean government, Singh led the Janata Dal coalition to a majority. He was supported by BJP and the leftist parties from outside. Becoming Prime Minister, Singh made an important visit to the Golden Temple shrine, to heal the wounds of the past. He implemented the Mandal Commission report, to increase the quota in reservation for low-caste Hindus.[127] His government fell after Singh, along with Bihar's Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's government, had Advani arrested in Samastipur and stopped his Ram Rath Yatra, which was going to the Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya on 23 October 1990. The Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew their support to Singh government, causing them to lose parliamentary vote of confidence on 7 November 1990.[128] Chandra Shekhar split to form the Janata Dal (Socialist), supported by Rajiv's Congress. This new government also collapsed in a matter of months, when Congress withdrew its support.

 
The stone mosaic that stands at the exact location where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Sriperumbudur.

1990s edit

The then-Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah (son of former Chief Minister Sheikh Abdullah) announced an alliance with the ruling Congress party for the elections of 1987. But, the elections were allegedly rigged in favour of him. This led to the rise of the armed extremist insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir composed, in part, of those who unfairly lost elections. India has constantly maintained the position of blaming Pakistan for supplying these groups with logistical support, arms, recruits and training.[129]

Militants in Kashmir reportedly tortured and killed local Kashmiri Pandits, forcing them to leave Kashmir in large numbers.[130][better source needed] Around 90% of the Kashmiri Pandits left Kashmir during the 1990s, resulting in the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus.[citation needed]

On 21 May 1991, while former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi campaigned in Tamil Nadu on behalf of Congress (Indira), a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) female suicide bomber assassinated him and many others by setting off the bomb in her belt by leaning forward while garlanding him. In the elections, Congress (Indira) won 244 parliamentary seats and put together a coalition, returning to power under the leadership of P.V. Narasimha Rao. This Congress-led government, which served a full five-year term, initiated a gradual process of economic liberalisation and reform, which has opened the Indian economy to global trade and investment. India's domestic politics also took new shape, as traditional alignments by caste, creed, and ethnicity gave way to a plethora of small, regionally-based political parties.[131]

But India was rocked by communal violence (see Bombay riots) between Hindus and Muslims that killed over 10,000 people, following the Babri Mosque demolition by Hindu extremists in the course of the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute in Ayodhya in December 1992.[132] The final months of the Rao-led government in the spring of 1996 suffered the effects of several major political corruption scandals, which contributed to the worst electoral performance by the Congress Party in its history a that time as the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the largest single party.[133]

Economic liberalisation in India was initiated in 1991 by Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao and his then-Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.[134] Rao was often referred to as Chanakya for his ability to steer tough economic and political legislation through the parliament at a time when he headed a minority government.[135][136]

Economic reforms edit

Under the policies initiated by the then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao and his then-Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, India's economy expanded rapidly. The economic reforms were a reaction to an impending balance of payment crisis. The Rao administration initiated the privatisation of large, inefficient, and loss-inducing government corporations. The UF government had attempted a progressive budget that encouraged reforms, but the 1997 Asian financial crisis and political instability created economic stagnation. The Vajpayee administration continued with privatisation, reduction of taxes, a sound fiscal policy aimed at reducing deficits and debts, and increased initiatives for public works. Cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, and Ahmedabad have risen in prominence and economic importance, becoming centres of rising industries and destinations for foreign investment and firms. Strategies like forming Special Economic Zones—tax amenities, good communications infrastructure, low regulation—to encourage industries has paid off in many parts of the country.[137]

A rising generation of well-educated and skilled professionals in scientific sectors of the industry began propelling the Indian economy, as the information technology industry took hold across India with the proliferation of computers. The new technologies increased the efficiency of activity in almost every type of industry, which also benefitted from the availability of skilled labor. Foreign investment and outsourcing of jobs to India's labor markets further enhanced India's economic growth. A large middle class has arisen across India, which has increased the demand, and thus the production of a wide array of consumer goods. Unemployment is steadily declining, and poverty has fallen to approximately 22%. Gross Domestic Product growth increased to beyond 7%. While serious challenges remain, India is enjoying a period of economic expansion that has propelled it to the forefront of the world economy, and has correspondingly increased its influence in political and diplomatic terms.[2]

 
Nuclear capable Agni-II ballistic missile. Since May 1998, India declared itself to be a full-fledged nuclear state.

Era of coalitions edit

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged from the May 1996 national elections as the single-largest party in the Lok Sabha but without enough strength to prove a majority on the floor of that Parliament. Under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the BJP coalition lasted in power 13 days. With all political parties wishing to avoid another round of elections, a 14-party coalition led by the Janata Dal emerged to form a government known as the United Front. A United Front government under former Chief Minister of Karnataka H. D. Deve Gowda lasted less than a year. The leader of the Congress Party withdrew support in March 1997. Inder Kumar Gujral replaced Deve Gowda as the consensus choice for Prime Minister of a 16-party United Front coalition.[138]

In November 1997, the Congress Party again withdrew support for the United Front. New elections in February 1998 brought the BJP the largest number of seats in Parliament (182), but this fell far short of a majority. On 20 March 1998, the President inaugurated a BJP-led coalition government, with Vajpayee again serving as prime minister. On 11 and 13 May 1998, this government conducted a series of five underground nuclear weapons tests, known collectively as Pokhran-II — which caused Pakistan to conduct its own tests that same year.[139] India's nuclear tests prompted President of the United States Bill Clinton and Japan to impose economic sanctions on India pursuant to the 1994 Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act and led to widespread international condemnation.

In the early months of 1999, Prime Minister Vajpayee made a historic bus trip to Pakistan and met with Pakistan's prime minister Nawaz Sharif, signing the bilateral Lahore peace declaration.[110]

In April 1999, the coalition government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell apart, leading to fresh elections in September. In May and June 1999, India discovered an elaborate campaign of terrorist infiltration that resulted in the Kargil War in Kashmir, derailing a promising peace process that had begun only three months earlier when Prime Minister Vajpayee visited Pakistan, inaugurating the Delhi-Lahore bus service. Indian forces killed Pakistan-backed infiltrators and reclaimed important border posts in high-altitude warfare.[140]

Soaring on popularity earned following the successful conclusion of the Kargil conflict, the National Democratic Alliance—a new coalition led by the BJP—gained a majority to form a government with Vajpayee as prime minister in October 1999. The end of the millennium was devastating to India, as a cyclone hit Orissa, killing at least 10,000.[110]

 
Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the first non-Congress Prime Minister to complete a full term. His tenure saw rapid growth of infrastructure, improved diplomatic relationship with the United States, economic reforms, nuclear tests, several foreign policy and military victories.[141]

2000s edit

Under Bharatiya Janata Party edit

In May 2000, India's population exceeded 1 billion. President of the United States Bill Clinton made a groundbreaking visit to India to improve ties between the two nations. In January, massive earthquakes hit Gujarat state, killing at least 30,000.

Prime Minister Vajpayee met with Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf in the first summit between Pakistan and India in more than two years in the middle of 2001. But the meeting failed without a breakthrough or even a joint statement because of differences over Kashmir region.[110]

Three new states — Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand (originally Uttaranchal) — were formed in November 2000.

The National Democratic Alliance government's credibility was adversely affected by a number of political scandals (such as allegations that the Defence Minister George Fernandes took bribes) as well as reports of intelligence failures that led to the Kargil incursions going undetected, and the apparent failure of his talks with the Pakistani President.[110][142] Following the September 11 attacks, the United States lifted sanctions which it had imposed against India and Pakistan in 1998. The move was seen as a reward for their support for the War on Terror. The tensions of an imminent war between India and Pakistan again rose by the heavy Indian firing on Pakistani military posts along the Line of Control and the subsequent deadly Indian Parliament attack and the 2001–02 India–Pakistan standoff.[110]

In 2002, 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya were killed in a train fire in Godhra, Gujarat. This sparked off the 2002 Gujarat riots, leading to the deaths of 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus and with 223 people reported missing.

 
Section of Golden Quadrilateral highway. The project was launched in 2001 by NDA government led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Throughout 2003, India's speedy economic progress, political stability, and a rejuvenated peace initiative with Pakistan increased the government's popularity. India and Pakistan agreed to resume direct air links and to allow overflights, and a groundbreaking meeting was held between the Indian government and moderate Kashmir separatists.[110] The Golden Quadrilateral project aimed to link India's corners with a network of modern highways.

Congress rule returns edit

In January 2004 Prime Minister Vajpayee recommended early dissolution of the Lok Sabha and general elections. an alliance led by the Congress Party called United Progressive Alliance(UPA) won a surprise victory in elections held in May 2004. Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister, after the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, the widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, declined to take the office, to defuse the controversy about whether her foreign birth should be considered a disqualification for the Prime Minister's post. Apart from the Congress party, other members of UPA included Socialist and regional parties.The alliance had outside support of India's Communist parties. Manmohan Singh became the first Sikh and non-Hindu to hold India's most powerful office. Singh continued economic liberalisation, although the need for support from Indian Socialists and Communists forestalled further privatisation for some time.[143][144]

By the end of 2004, India began to withdraw some of its troops from Kashmir. By the middle of the next year, the Srinagar–Muzaffarabad Bus service was inaugurated, the first in 60 years to operate between Indian-administered and Pakistani-administered Kashmirs. However, in May 2006, suspected Islamic extremist militants killed 35 Hindus in the worst attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir for several months.[110]

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami devastated Indian coastlines and islands, killing an estimated 18,000 and displacing around 650,000. The tsunami was caused by a powerful undersea earthquake off the Indonesian coast. Natural disasters such as the Mumbai floods (killing more than 1,000) and Kashmir earthquake (killing 79,000) hit the subcontinent in the next year. In February 2006, the United Progressive Alliance government launched India's largest-ever rural jobs scheme, aimed at lifting around 60 million families out of poverty.[110]

 
U.S. President George W. Bush and India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh exchange handshakes in New Delhi on 2 March 2006 vis-à-vis the India–United States Civil Nuclear Agreement.

The United States and India signed a major nuclear co-operation agreement during a visit by United States President George W. Bush in March 2006. According to the nuclear deal, the United States was to give India access to civilian nuclear technology while India agreed to greater scrutiny for its nuclear programme. Later, United States approved a controversial law allowing India to buy their nuclear reactors and fuel for the first time in 30 years. In July 2008, the United Progressive Alliance survived a vote of confidence brought after left-wing parties withdrew their support over the nuclear deal. After the vote, several left-wing and regional parties formed a new alliance to oppose the government, saying it had been tainted by corruption. Within three months, following approval by the U.S. Congress, George W. Bush signed into law a nuclear deal with India, which ended a three-decade ban on American nuclear trade with Delhi.[110]

In 2007, India got its first female President as Pratibha Patil was sworn in. Long associated with the Nehru–Gandhi family, Pratibha Patil was a low-profile governor of the state of Rajasthan before emerging as the favoured presidential candidate of Sonia Gandhi.[145] In February, the infamous Samjhauta Express bombings took place, killing Pakistani civilians in Panipat, Haryana. As of 2011, nobody had been charged for the crime, though it has been linked to Abhinav Bharat, a shadowy Hindu fundamentalist group headed by a former Indian army officer.[146]

In 2008 October, India successfully launched its first mission to the Moon, the uncrewed lunar probe called Chandrayaan-1. In the previous year, India had launched its first commercial space rocket, carrying an Italian satellite.[110]

 
A view of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel with smoke during the 2008 Mumbai attacks

In November 2008, Mumbai attacks took place. India blamed militants from Pakistan for the attacks and announced a "pause" in the ongoing peace process.[110]

In July 2009, the Delhi High Court decriminalised consensual homosexual sex, re-interpreting the British Raj-era law, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, as unconstitutional in regard to criminalising consensual sex between two homosexual adults or decriminalising such acts between adult heterosexuals or other consenting adults, that may be deemed unnatural.[147][148]

In the Indian general election in 2009, the United Progressive Alliance won a convincing and resounding 262 seats, with Congress alone winning 206 seats. However, the Congress-led government faced many allegations of corruption. Inflation rose to an all-time high, and the ever-increasing prices of food commodities caused widespread agitation.

 
Tawang Monastery in Arunachal Pradesh, is the largest monastery in India and second largest in the world after the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet. It is one of the few monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism that have remained protected from Mao's Cultural Revolution without any damage.[149]

On 8 November 2009, in spite of strong protests by China, which claims the whole of Arunachal Pradesh as its own,[150] the 14th Dalai Lama visited Tawang Monastery in Arunachal Pradesh, which was a monumental event to the people of the region, and the abbot of the monastery greeted him with much fanfare and adulation.[151]

21st-century India is facing the Naxalite–Maoist rebels, in the words of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, India's "greatest internal security challenge",[152] and other terrorist tensions (such as Islamist terrorist campaigns in and out of Jammu & Kashmir and terrorism in India's Northeast).[152][153] Terrorism has increased in India, with bomb blasts in leading cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.[140] In the new millennium, India improved relations with many countries and foreign unions including the United States, the European Union, Israel, and the People's Republic of China.[110] The economy of India has grown at a very rapid pace. India was now being looked at as a potential superpower.[143][144]

2010s edit

Congress rule continues edit

 
The 2010 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is one of the largest international multi-sport events to be staged in Delhi and India.

The concerns and controversies over the 2010 Commonwealth Games rocked the country in 2010, raising questions about the credibility of the government followed by the 2G spectrum case and Adarsh Housing Society scam. In mid-2011, Anna Hazare, a prominent social activist, staged a 12-day hunger strike in Delhi in protest at state corruption, after government proposals to tighten up anti-graft legislation fell short of his demands.[110]

Despite all this, India showed great promise with a higher growth rate in gross domestic product.[154] In January 2011, India assumed a nonpermanent seat in the United Nations Security Council for the 2011–12 term. In 2004, India had launched an application for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, along with Brazil, Germany and Japan. In March, India overtook China to become the world's largest importer of arms.[110]

The Telangana movement reached its peak in 2011–12, leading to formation of India's 29th state, Telangana, in June 2014.

 
2010 Ladakh floods damaged 71 towns and villages, including the main town in the area, Leh, and nearby town of Thiksey, where Thikse Monastery is located.[155]

In August 2010, cloudbursts and the ensuing flooding in the Ladakh region of North India resulted in the deaths of around 255 people, while affecting 9,000 people directly.[156] In June 2013, a multi-day cloudburst in Uttarakhand and other north Indian states caused devastating floods and landslides, with more than 5,700 people "presumed dead."[157] In September 2014, floods in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, following heavy rains due to monsoon season, killed around 277 people and brought extensive damage to property.[158] A further 280 people died in the neighbouring Pakistani regions, particularly in Pakistani Punjab.[159]

The 2012 Delhi gang rape & murder case and subsequent protests resulted in changes in the laws related to rape and offences against women. In April 2013, the Saradha Group scandal was unearthed, caused by the collapse of a Ponzi scheme run by Saradha Group, a consortium of over 200 private companies in Eastern India, causing an estimated loss of INR 200–300 billion (US$4–6 billion) to over 1.7 million depositors.[160][161][162] In December 2013, the Supreme Court of India overturned the Delhi High Court ruling on Sec 377, criminalising homosexual sex between consenting adults once again in the country.[163][164]

In August – September 2013, clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, resulted in at least 62 deaths,[165] injured 93, and left more than 50,000 displaced.[166][167][168][169]

 
Artist's rendering of the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft

In November 2013, India launched its first interplanetary mission, the Mars Orbiter Mission, popularly known as Mangalyaan, to Mars and, was successful, so ISRO on 24 September 2014, became the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency.[170] ISRO also became the first space agency and India the first country to reach Mars on its maiden attempt.

2014 – Return of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government edit

The Hindutva movement advocating Hindu nationalism originated in the 1920s and has remained a strong political force in India. The major party of the religious right since the 1950s had been the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. The Jana Sangh joined the Janata party in 1977 but when that party fell apart in a short period of three years, the erstwhile members of Jana Sangh in 1980 formed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP grew its support base in the following decades and is now the most dominant political party in India. In September 2013 the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, was named the BJP's candidate for prime minister ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election.[171][172] Several BJP leaders initially expressed opposition to Modi's candidature,[173] including BJP founding member L. K. Advani.[174] Contrary to the strategies used by the party during previous elections, Modi played the dominant role in the BJP's presidential style election campaign.[175][176][171][177][178][173][179][180] The 16th national general election, held in early 2014, saw a huge victory for the BJP led NDA; the alliance gained an absolute majority and formed a government under the premiership of Modi. The Modi government's sweeping mandate and popularity helped the BJP win several state assembly elections in India. The Modi government implemented several initiatives and campaigns to increase manufacturing and infrastructure – notably — Make in India, Digital India and the Swachh Bharat Mission.

The largest tax reform in India's history, the Goods and Services Tax (GST), was introduced in 2017. A vehicle-borne suicide bomber assaulted a convoy of cars carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troops on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in the Pulwama area of Jammu and Kashmir.[181]

India carried out the 2019 Balakot airstrike when its airplanes flew across the de facto border in Kashmir and dropped bombs in the town of Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region.[182] After a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani fighter pilots. Abhinandan Varthaman, an Indian wing commander, was taken prisoner by the Pakistani side. Acting nonetheless under pressure from various world leaders and constrained by the Vienna Convention, Pakistan was compelled to free the Indian pilot.[183]

By repealing Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, the state of Jammu and Kashmir was separated into two separate union territories known as Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.[184] The BJP government introduced the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019, sparking widespread protests.[185]

2020s edit

In February 2020, riots broke out in Delhi.[187] The Citizenship Amendment Act protests have been described as an instigating factor.[188] Tensions escalated on the Indo-China border after aggressive skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops beginning on 5 May 2020.[189] The Rama Janmabhoomi temple construction officially started after a Bhoomi Poojan (Hindu ground breaking) ceremony by Prime Minister Modi on 5 August 2020.[190][191] Farm reform laws which subsequently became quite controversial were passed with less than three hours of debate in either house in September 2020.[192]

After a year long protests by farmers, Prime minister Modi in November 2021 repealed the laws in three minutes in the Lok Sabha and nine minutes in the Rajya Sabha without debate.[193]

 
COVID-19 vaccination queue in Nagpur, 1 May 2021

COVID-19 pandemic edit

The COVID-19 pandemic in India began on 30 January 2020, when the first case was reported in Thrissur.[194] Two months later in March 2020, prime minister Modi imposed a complete lockdown in the country at four hours notice to stop the spread of COVID-19. This led to millions losing their jobs and many lost their lives. The Indian economy also shrunk in percentage terms by double digit numbers. In September 2020, India's health minister Harsh Vardhan stated that the country planned to approve and begin distribution of a vaccine by the first quarter of 2021.[195] Vaccination against COVID-19 started in India on 16 January 2021. By early April 2021, second wave of infections took hold in the country with destructive consequences.[196] According to Christopher Clary, assistant professor of political science at the State University of New York, technocratic competence had been entirely missing from government's response to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India.[197] The second wave placed a major strain on the healthcare system,[198] including shortage of liquid medical oxygen. The number of new cases had begun to steadily drop by late-May and vaccination gained momentum again. India administered 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine on 21 October 2021.[199] Although official number of Covid related deaths in India during the pandemic is less than half a million, excess mortality rates for all causes has been estimated at between 3 and 5 million deaths.[200]

 
Current Vice President (left), President (middle) and Prime Minister of India

Post COVID India edit

On 25 July 2022, Droupadi Murmu was sworn in as India's new president, becoming India's first tribal president. Although largely ceremonial post, Murmu's election as tribal woman was historic.[201] India celebrated 75 years of its independence from the British Empire on 15 August 2022.[202] In April 2023, India surpassed China to become the most populous country on the earth with a population of over 1.425 billion.[203] India was selected as the host for the 2023 G20 New Delhi summit at the International Exhibition Convention Centre, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 9 to 10 September 2023.[204] Chandrayaan-3, a lunar lander developed and launched by ISRO landed on the moon on 23 August 2023, thus making India the 4th country to land on the moon after the Soviet Union, China, and United States.[205]

Economy edit

The economic history of the India since 1947 can be divided into two epochs: 1.1947-91 which saw heavy government involvement in the economy, and a slow growth rate in GDP 2.1991–present which saw deregulation and a rapid growth in GDP, and reduction in poverty.

Pre-liberalisation period (1947–1991) edit

Indian economic policy after independence was influenced by the colonial experience, which was seen as exploitative by Indian leaders exposed to British social democracy and the planned economy of the Soviet Union.[206] Domestic policy tended towards protectionism, with a strong emphasis on import substitution industrialisation, economic interventionism, a large government-run public sector, business regulation, and central planning,[207] while trade and foreign investment policies were relatively liberal.[208] Five-Year Plans of India resembled central planning in the Soviet Union. Steel, mining, machine tools, telecommunications, insurance, and power plants, among other industries, were effectively nationalised in the mid-1950s.[209] The Indian economy of this period is characterised as Dirigism.[100][210]

 
Change in per capita GDP of India, 1820–2015. Figures are inflation-adjusted to 1990 International Geary-Khamis dollars.[211][212]

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, along with the statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, formulated and oversaw economic policy during the initial years of the country's independence. They expected favourable outcomes from their strategy, involving the rapid development of heavy industry by both public and private sectors, and based on direct and indirect state intervention, rather than the more extreme Soviet-style central command system.[213][214][215] The policy of concentrating simultaneously on capital- and technology-intensive heavy industry and subsidising manual, low-skill cottage industries was criticised by economist Milton Friedman, who thought it would waste capital and labour, and retard the development of small manufacturers.[216]

Since 1965, the use of high-yielding varieties of seeds, increased fertilisers and improved irrigation facilities collectively contributed to the Green Revolution in India, which improved the condition of agriculture by increasing crop productivity, improving crop patterns and strengthening forward and backward linkages between agriculture and industry.[217] However, it has also been criticised as an unsustainable effort, resulting in the growth of capitalistic farming, ignoring institutional reforms and widening income disparities.[218]

In 1984, Rajiv Gandhi promised economic liberalization, he made V. P. Singh the finance minister, who tried to reduce tax evasion and tax receipts rose due to this crackdown although taxes were lowered. This process lost its momentum during the later tenure of Mr. Gandhi as his government was marred by scandals.

Economic liberalisation in India was initiated in 1991 by Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao and his then-Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Post-liberalisation period (since 1991) edit

The collapse of the Soviet Union, which was India's major trading partner, and the Gulf War, which caused a spike in oil prices, resulted in a major balance-of-payments crisis for India, which found itself facing the prospect of defaulting on its loans.[219] India asked for a $1.8 billion bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which in return demanded de-regulation.[220]

In response, the Narasimha Rao government, including Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, initiated economic reforms in 1991. The reforms did away with the Licence Raj, reduced tariffs and interest rates and ended many public monopolies, allowing automatic approval of foreign direct investment in many sectors.[221] Since then, the overall thrust of liberalisation has remained unchanged since 1991, although no government had tried taking on powerful lobbies such as trade unions and farmers and on contentious issues such as reforming labour laws and reducing agricultural subsidies.[222] By the turn of the 21st century, India had progressed towards a free-market economy, with a substantial reduction in state control of the economy and increased financial liberalisation.[223] This has been accompanied by increases in life expectancy, literacy rates, and food security, although urban residents have benefited more than rural residents.[224]

 
GDP grows exponentially, almost doubling every five years.

In the second decade of this century, the economy of India rose from the ninth-largest to the fifth-largest economy in the world by nominal GDP, surpassing the UK, France, Italy and Brazil.[225] The economy had started to slow down in the second term of Manmohan Singh's tenure but started a recovery in 2013–14 when the GDP growth rate accelerated to 6.4% from the previous year's 5.5%. The acceleration continued through 2014–15 and 2015–16 with growth rates of 7.5% and 8.0% respectively in the early early years under Narendra Modi's first term. However the growth rate subsequently decelerated, to 7.1% and 6.6% in 2016–17 and 2017–18 respectively,[226] partly because of the disruptive effects of 2016 Indian banknote demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (India).[227]

 
Indian GDP growth rate from 1985 to 2016 in red, compared to that of China in green

COVID-19 pandemic and aftermath (2020–present) edit

During the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous rating agencies downgraded India's GDP predictions for FY21 to negative figures,[228][229] signalling a recession in India, the most severe since 1979.[230][231] The Indian Economy contracted by 6.6 percent which was lower than the estimated 7.3 percent decline.[232] In 2022, the ratings agency Fitch Ratings upgraded India's outlook to stable similar to S&P Global Ratings and Moody's Investors Service's outlooks.[233] In the first quarter of financial year 2022–2023, the Indian economy grew by 13.5%.[234]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ British India consisted of those regions of the British Raj, or the British Indian Empire, which were directly administered by Britain; other regions of nominal sovereignty that were indirectly ruled by Britain were called princely states.
  2. ^ The first Cabinet of independent India (L to R sitting) B. R. Ambedkar, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, Sardar Baldev Singh, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel, John Mathai, Jagjivan Ram, Amrit Kaur and Syama Prasad Mukherjee. (L to R standing) Khurshed Lal, R. R. Diwakar, Mohanlal Saksena, N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar, N.V. Gadgil, K. C. Neogy, Jairamdas Daulatram, K. Santhanam, Satya Narayan Sinha and B. V. Keskar

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Works cited edit

  • Datt, Ruddar; Sundharam, K.P.M. (2009). Indian Economy. New Delhi: S. Chand Group. ISBN 978-81-219-0298-4.
  • Erdman, Howard Loyd (2008) [1967]. The Swatantra Party and Indian Conservatism. Harvard University. ISBN 978-0-521-04980-1.
  • Ghose, Sankar (1993). Jawaharlal Nehru. Allied Publishers. ISBN 978-81-7023-369-5.
  • Kopstein, Jeffrey (2005). Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-44604-4.
  • Kumar, Dharma (2005). The Cambridge Economic History of India, Volume II : c. 1757–2003. New Delhi: Orient Longman. ISBN 978-81-250-2710-2.
  • Metcalf, Barbara D.; Metcalf, Thomas R. (2006). A Concise History of India (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68225-1.
  • Panagariya, Arvind (2008). India: The Emerging Giant. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-531503-5.
  • Richardson, Hugh E. (1984), Tibet and its History (Second ed.), Boulder/London: Shambala, ISBN 9780877737896
  • Sen, Sankar (2002). Tryst with law enforcement and human rights: four decades in Indian police. APH Publishing. ISBN 978-81-7648-340-7.
  • Talbot, Ian; Singh, Gurharpal (2009), The Partition of India, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-85661-4, retrieved 15 November 2015
  • (PDF). University of Chicago. p. 32. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 February 2009.

Further reading edit

  • Bipan Chandra, Mridula Mukherjee and Aditya Mukherjee. "India Since Independence"
  • Bates, Crispin, and Subho Basu. The Politics of Modern India since Independence (Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series) (2011)
  • Brass, Paul R. The Politics of India since Independence (1980)
  • Vasudha Dalmia; Rashmi Sadana, eds. (2012). The Cambridge Companion to Modern Indian Culture. Cambridge University Press.
  • Datt, Ruddar; Sundharam, K.P.M. Indian Economy (2009) New Delhi. 978-81-219-0298-4
  • Dixit, Jyotindra Nath (2004). Makers of India's foreign policy: Raja Ram Mohun Roy to Yashwant Sinha. HarperCollins. ISBN 9788172235925.
  • Frank, Katherine (2002). Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 9780395730973.
  • Ghosh, Anjali (2009). India's Foreign Policy. Pearson Education India. ISBN 9788131710258.
  • Gopal, Sarvepalli. Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography, Volume Two, 1947-1956 (1979); Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography: 1956-64 Vol 3 (1985)
  • Guha, Ramachandra (2011). India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 9780330540209. excerpt and text search
  • Guha, Ramachandra. Makers of Modern India (2011) excerpt and text search
  • Jain, B. M. (2009). Global Power: India's Foreign Policy, 1947–2006. Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739121450.
history, india, 1947, present, this, article, about, history, republic, india, established, after, 1950, establishment, state, history, india, history, independent, india, history, republic, india, began, when, country, became, independent, sovereign, state, w. This article is about the history of the Republic of India established after 1950 For the pre establishment era of the state see History of India The history of independent India or history of Republic of India began when the country became an independent sovereign state within the British Commonwealth on 15 August 1947 Direct administration by the British which began in 1858 affected a political and economic unification of the subcontinent When British rule came to an end in 1947 the subcontinent was partitioned along religious lines into two separate countries India with a majority of Hindus and Pakistan with a majority of Muslims 1 Concurrently the Muslim majority northwest and east of British India was separated into the Dominion of Pakistan by the Partition of India The partition led to a population transfer of more than 10 million people between India and Pakistan and the death of about one million people Indian National Congress leader Jawaharlal Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India but the leader most associated with the independence struggle Mahatma Gandhi accepted no office The constitution adopted in 1950 made India a democratic republic with Westminster style parliamentary system of government both at federal and state level respectively The democracy has been sustained since then India s sustained democratic freedoms are unique among the world s newly independent states 2 Jawaharlal Nehru the first prime minister of India often regarded as the architect of modern India addressing a newly independent India on 15 August 1947 The country has faced religious violence naxalism terrorism and regional separatist insurgencies India has unresolved territorial disputes with China which escalated into a war in 1962 and 1967 and with Pakistan which resulted in wars in 1947 1965 1971 and 1999 India was neutral in the Cold War and was a leader in the Non Aligned Movement However it made a loose alliance with the Soviet Union from 1971 when Pakistan was allied with the United States and the People s Republic of China India is a nuclear weapon state having conducted its first nuclear test in 1974 followed by another five tests in 1998 From the 1950s to the 1980s India followed socialist inspired policies The economy was influenced by extensive regulation protectionism and public ownership leading to pervasive corruption and slow economic growth Since 1991 India has pursued more economic liberalisation Today India is the third largest and one of the fastest growing economies in the world From being a relatively struggling country in its formative years 3 the Republic of India has emerged as a fast growing G20 major economy 4 5 India has sometimes been referred to as a great power and a potential superpower given its large and growing economy military and population 6 7 8 9 Contents 1 1947 1950 Dominion of India 1 1 Partition of India 1 2 Integration of princely states 1 3 Constitution 1 4 Indo Pakistani War of 1947 1948 2 Governance and politics 2 1 Nehru administration 1952 1964 2 2 States reorganisation 2 3 Development of a multi party system 2 3 1 Swatantra Party 2 4 Foreign policy and military conflicts 3 1960s after Nehru 4 1970s 4 1 Merger of Sikkim 4 2 Formation of Northeastern states 4 3 Green revolution and Operation Flood 4 4 Bangladesh Liberation War 4 5 Indian Emergency 4 5 1 Prelude to the Emergency 4 5 2 Declaration of the emergency 4 5 3 Life during the emergency 4 6 Janata interlude 5 1980s 5 1 Rajiv Gandhi administration 5 2 Janata Dal 6 1990s 6 1 Economic reforms 6 2 Era of coalitions 7 2000s 7 1 Under Bharatiya Janata Party 7 2 Congress rule returns 8 2010s 8 1 Congress rule continues 8 2 2014 Return of Bharatiya Janata Party BJP Government 9 2020s 9 1 COVID 19 pandemic 9 2 Post COVID India 10 Economy 10 1 Pre liberalisation period 1947 1991 10 2 Post liberalisation period since 1991 10 2 1 COVID 19 pandemic and aftermath 2020 present 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References 13 1 Works cited 14 Further reading 14 1 Primary sources 15 External links1947 1950 Dominion of India editMain article Dominion of India Independent India s first years were marked with turbulent events a massive exchange of population with Pakistan the Indo Pakistani War of 1947 and the integration of over 500 princely states to form a united nation 10 Vallabhbhai Patel Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi also ensured that the constitution of independent India would be secular 11 Partition of India edit Main article Partition of IndiaThe partition of India was outlined in the Indian Independence Act 1947 It led to the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions India and Pakistan 12 13 The change of political borders notably included the division of two provinces of British India a Bengal and Punjab 14 The majority Muslim districts in these provinces were awarded to Pakistan and the majority non Muslim to India The other assets that were divided included the British Indian Army the Royal Indian Navy the Royal Indian Air Force the Indian Civil Service the railways and the central treasury Self governing independent Pakistan and India legally came into existence at midnight on 14 and 15 August 1947 respectively nbsp The first Cabinet of independent India b The partition caused large scale loss of life and an unprecedented migration between the two dominions 15 Among refugees who survived it solidified the belief that safety lay among co religionists In the instance of Pakistan it made palpable a hitherto only imagined refuge for the Muslims of British India 16 The migrations took place hastily and with little warning It is thought that between 14 million and 18 million people moved and perhaps more Excess mortality during the period of the partition is usually estimated to have been around one million 17 The violent nature of the partition created an atmosphere of hostility and suspicion between India and Pakistan that affects their relationship to this day An estimated 3 5 million 18 Hindus and Sikhs living in West Punjab North West Frontier Province Baluchistan East Bengal and Sind migrated to India in fear of domination and suppression in Muslim Pakistan Communal violence killed an estimated one million Hindus Muslims and Sikhs and gravely destabilised both dominions along their Punjab and Bengal boundaries and the cities of Calcutta Delhi and Lahore The violence was stopped by early September owing to the co operative efforts of both Indian and Pakistani leaders and especially due to the efforts of Mohandas Gandhi the leader of the Indian freedom struggle who undertook a fast unto death in Calcutta and later in Delhi to calm people and emphasise peace despite the threat to his life Both governments constructed large relief camps for incoming and leaving refugees and the Indian Army was mobilised to provide humanitarian assistance on a massive scale I find no parallel in history for a body of converts and their descendants claiming to be a nation apart from the parent stock Mahatma Gandhi opposing the division of India on the basis of religion in 1945 19 The assassination of Mohandas Gandhi on 30 January 1948 was carried out by Nathuram Godse who held him responsible for partition and charged that Mohandas Gandhi was appeasing Muslims More than one million people flooded the streets of Delhi to follow the procession to cremation grounds and pay their last respects In 1949 India recorded almost 1 million Hindu refugees into West Bengal and other states from East Pakistan owing to communal violence intimidation and repression from Muslim authorities The plight of the refugees outraged Hindus and Indian nationalists and the refugee population drained the resources of Indian states who were unable to absorb them While not ruling out war Prime Minister Nehru and Sardar Patel invited Liaquat Ali Khan for talks in Delhi Although many Indians termed this appeasement Nehru signed a pact with Liaquat Ali Khan that pledged both nations to the protection of minorities and creation of minority commissions Although opposed to the principle Patel decided to back this pact for the sake of peace and played a critical role in garnering support from West Bengal and across India and enforcing the provisions of the pact Khan and Nehru also signed a trade agreement and committed to resolving bilateral disputes through peaceful means Steadily hundreds of thousands of Hindus returned to East Pakistan but the thaw in relations did not last long primarily owing to the Kashmir dispute Political integration of India nbsp Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as Minister for Home and States Affairs had the responsibility of welding the British Indian provinces and the princely states into a united India nbsp General El Edroos at right offers his surrender of the Hyderabad State Forces to Major General later General and Army Chief Joyanto Nath Chaudhuri at Secunderabad nbsp Queen Kanchan Prabha Devi of the Kingdom of Tripura signed the instrument of accession to India She played a pivotal role in rehabilitating refugees and victims of the violence associated with the Partition of India in the state of Tripura nbsp Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah right chosen to head the emergency interim government in Kashmir after Maharaja Hari Singh signed Kashmir s Instrument of Accession to India Integration of princely states edit Main article Political integration of India In July 1946 Jawaharlal Nehru pointedly observed that no princely state could prevail militarily against the army of independent India 20 In January 1947 Nehru said that independent India would not accept the divine right of kings 21 In May 1947 he declared that any princely state which refused to join the Constituent Assembly would be treated as an enemy state 22 British India consisted of 17 provinces which existed alongside 565 princely states The provinces were given to India or Pakistan in two particular cases Punjab and Bengal after being partitioned The princes of the princely states however were given the right to either remain independent or accede to either dominion Thus India s leaders were faced with the prospect of inheriting a fragmented country with independent states and kingdoms dispersed across the mainland Under the leadership of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel the new Government of India employed political negotiations backed with the option and on several occasions the use of military action to ensure the primacy of the central government and of the Constitution then being drafted Sardar Patel and V P Menon convinced the rulers of princely states contiguous to India to accede to India Many rights and privileges of the rulers of the princely states especially their personal estates and privy purses were guaranteed to convince them to accede Some of them were made Rajpramukh governor and Uprajpramukh deputy governor of the merged states Many small princely states were merged to form viable administrative states such as Saurashra PEPSU Vindhya Pradesh and Madhya Bharat Some princely states such as Tripura and Manipur acceded later in 1949 There were three states that proved more difficult to integrate than others Junagadh Hindu majority state with a Muslim Nawab a December 1947 plebiscite resulted in a 99 vote 23 to merge with India annulling the controversial accession to Pakistan which was made by the Nawab against the wishes of the people of the state who were overwhelmingly Hindu and despite Junagadh not being contiguous with Pakistan Hyderabad Hindu majority state with a Muslim nizam Patel ordered the Indian army to depose the government of the Nizam code named Operation Polo after the failure of negotiations which was done between 13 and 29 September 1948 It was incorporated as a state of India the next year The state of Jammu and Kashmir a Muslim majority state with a Hindu king in the far north of the subcontinent quickly became a source of controversy that erupted into the First Indo Pakistani War which lasted from 1947 to 1949 Eventually a United Nations overseen ceasefire was agreed that left India in control of two thirds of the contested region Jawaharlal Nehru initially agreed to Mountbatten s proposal that a plebiscite be held in the entire state as soon as hostilities ceased and a UN sponsored cease fire was agreed to by both parties on 1 January 1949 No statewide plebiscite was held however for in 1954 after Pakistan began to receive arms from the United States Nehru withdrew his support The Indian Constitution came into force in Kashmir on 26 January 1950 with special clauses for the state Constitution edit Main article Constitution of India The Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949 and became effective on 26 January 1950 24 The constitution replaced the Government of India Act 1935 as the country s fundamental governing document and the Dominion of India became the Republic of India To ensure constitutional autochthony its framers repealed prior acts of the British parliament in Article 395 25 The constitution declares India a sovereign socialist secular 26 and democratic republic assures its citizens justice equality and liberty and endeavours to promote fraternity 27 Key features of the constitution were Universal suffrage for all adults Westminster style parliamentary system of government at the federal and state level and independent judiciary 28 The constitution also required the Union Government and the States and Territories of India to set reserved quotas or seats at particular percentage in Education Admissions Employments Political Bodies Promotions etc for socially and educationally backward citizens 29 30 31 The constitution has had more than 100 amendments since it was enacted 32 India celebrates its constitution on 26 January as Republic Day 33 nbsp Indian soldiers during the Indo Pakistani War of 1947 Indo Pakistani War of 1947 1948 edit Main article Indo Pakistani War of 1947 1948 The Indo Pakistani War of 1947 1948 was fought between India and Pakistan over the princely state of Kashmir and Jammu from 1947 to 1948 It was the first of four Indo Pakistan Wars fought between the two newly independent nations Pakistan precipitated the war a few weeks after independence by launching tribal lashkar militia from Waziristan 34 in an effort to secure Kashmir the future of which hung in the balance A United Nations mediated ceasefire took place on 5 January 1949 Indian losses in the war totalled 1 104 killed and 3 154 wounded 35 Pakistani about 6 000 killed and 14 000 wounded 36 Neutral assessments state India emerged victorious as it successfully defended the majority of the contested territory 37 38 39 40 41 Governance and politics editIndia held its first national elections under the Constitution in 1952 where a turnout of over 60 was recorded The Indian National Congress won an overwhelming majority and Jawaharlal Nehru began a second term as prime minister President Prasad was also elected to a second term by the electoral college of the first Parliament of India 42 nbsp Jawaharlal Nehru the first Prime Minister of India He oversaw India s transition from a colony to a republic while nurturing a plural multi party system In foreign policy he took a leading role in the Non Aligned Movement while projecting India as a regional hegemon in South Asia Nehru administration 1952 1964 edit Nehru can be regarded as the founder of the modern Indian state Parekh attributes this to the national philosophy Nehru formulated for India For him modernisation was the national philosophy with seven goals national unity parliamentary democracy industrialisation socialism development of the scientific temper and non alignment In Parekh s opinion the philosophy and the policies that resulted from this benefited a large section of society such as public sector workers industrial houses and middle and upper peasantry However it failed to benefit or satisfy the urban and rural poor the unemployed and the Hindu fundamentalists 43 The death of Vallabhbhai Patel in 1950 left Nehru as the sole remaining iconic national leader and soon the situation became such that Nehru could implement his vision for India without hindrance 44 Nehru implemented economic policies based on import substitution industrialisation and advocated a mixed economy where the government controlled public sector would co exist with the private sector 45 He believed the establishment of basic and heavy industry was fundamental to the development and modernisation of the Indian economy The government therefore directed investment primarily into key public sector industries steel iron coal and power promoting their development with subsidies and protectionist policies 46 Nehru led the Congress to further election victories in 1957 and 1962 During his tenure the Indian Parliament passed extensive reforms that increased the legal rights of women in Hindu society 47 48 49 50 and further legislated against caste discrimination and untouchability citation needed Nehru advocated a strong initiative to enroll India s children to complete primary education and thousands of schools colleges and institutions of advanced learning such as the Indian Institutes of Technology were founded across the nation 51 Nehru advocated a socialist model for the economy of India After India achieved independence a formal model of planning was adopted and accordingly the Planning Commission reporting directly to the Prime Minister was established in 1950 with Nehru as the chairman The commission was tasked with formulating Five Year Plans for economic development which were shaped by the Soviet model based on centralised and integrated national economic programs 52 no taxation for Indian farmers minimum wage and benefits for blue collar workers and the nationalisation of heavy industries such as steel aviation shipping electricity and mining Village common lands were seized and an extensive public works and industrialisation campaign resulted in the construction of major dams irrigation canals roads thermal and hydroelectric power stations and many more citation needed nbsp South Indian states prior to the States Reorganisation Act States reorganisation edit Main article States Reorganisation Act 1956 Potti Sreeramulu s fast unto death and consequent death for the demand of an Andhra State in 1952 sparked a major re shaping of the Indian Union Nehru appointed the States Re organisation Commission upon whose recommendations the States Reorganisation Act was passed in 1956 Old states were dissolved and new states created on the lines of shared linguistic and ethnic demographics The separation of Kerala and the Telugu speaking regions of Madras State enabled the creation of an exclusively Tamil speaking state of Tamil Nadu On 1 May 1960 the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat were created out of the bilingual Bombay State and on 1 November 1966 the larger Punjab state was divided into the smaller Punjabi speaking Punjab and Haryanvi speaking Haryana states 53 Development of a multi party system edit In pre independence India the main parties were the Congress and the Muslim league There were also many other parties such as the Hindu mahasabha Justice party the Akali dal the Communist party etc during this period with limited or regional appeal With the eclipse of the Muslim league due to partition the Congress party was able to dominate Indian politics during the 1950s This started breaking down during the 60s and 70s This period saw formation of many new parties These included those founded by former congress leaders such as the Swatantra party many Socialist leaning parties and the Bharatiya Jan Sangh the political arm of the Hindu nationalist RSS 54 Swatantra Party edit Main articles C Rajagopalachari and Swatantra PartyOn 4 June 1959 shortly after the Nagpur session of the Indian National Congress C Rajagopalachari 55 along with Murari Vaidya of the newly established Forum of Free Enterprise FFE 56 and Minoo Masani a classical liberal and critic of socialist leaning Nehru announced the formation of the new Swatantra Party at a meeting in Madras 57 Conceived by disgruntled heads of former princely states such as the Raja of Ramgarh the Maharaja of Kalahandi and the Maharajadhiraja of Darbhanga the party was conservative in character 58 59 Later N G Ranga K M Munshi Field Marshal K M Cariappa and the Maharaja of Patiala joined the effort 59 Rajagopalachari Masani and Ranga also tried but failed to involve Jayaprakash Narayan in the initiative 60 nbsp Gayatri Devi the Maharani of Jaipur and princess of Cooch Behar was a successful politician in the Swatantra Party In his short essay Our Democracy Rajagopalachari argued the necessity of a right wing alternative to the Congress since the Congress Party has swung to the Left what is wanted is not an ultra or outer Left viz the CPI or the Praja Socialist Party PSP but a strong and articulate Right 58 Rajagopalachari also said the opposition must operate not privately and behind the closed doors of the party meeting but openly and periodically through the electorate 58 He outlined the goals of the Swatantra Party through twenty one fundamental principles in the foundation document 61 The party stood for equality and opposed government control over the private sector 62 63 Rajagopalachari sharply criticised the bureaucracy and coined the term licence permit Raj to describe Nehru s elaborate system of permissions and licences required for an individual to set up a private enterprise Rajagopalachari s personality became a rallying point for the party 58 Rajagopalachari s efforts to build an anti Congress front led to a patch up with his former adversary C N Annadurai of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 64 During the late 1950s and early 1960s Annadurai grew close to Rajagopalachari and sought an alliance with the Swatantra Party for the 1962 Madras Legislative Assembly elections Although there were occasional electoral pacts between the Swatantra Party and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam DMK Rajagopalachari remained non committal on a formal tie up with the DMK due to its existing alliance with Communists whom he dreaded 65 The Swatantra Party contested 94 seats in the Madras state assembly elections and won six 66 as well as won 18 parliamentary seats in the 1962 Lok Sabha elections 67 Foreign policy and military conflicts edit See also India and the Non Aligned Movement List of conflicts in Asia Republic of India and Indo Pakistani War of 1965 Nehru s foreign policy was the inspiration of the Non Aligned Movement of which India was a co founder Nehru maintained friendly relations with both the United States and the Soviet Union and encouraged the People s Republic of China to join the global community of nations In 1956 when the Suez Canal Company was seized by the Egyptian government an international conference voted 18 4 to take action against Egypt India was one of the four backers of Egypt along with Indonesia Sri Lanka and the USSR India had opposed the partition of Palestine and the 1956 invasion of the Sinai by Israel the United Kingdom and France but did not oppose the Chinese direct control over Tibet 68 and the suppression of a pro democracy movement in Hungary by the Soviet Union Although Nehru disavowed nuclear ambitions for India Canada and France aided India in the development of nuclear power stations for electricity India also negotiated an agreement in 1960 with Pakistan on the just use of the waters of seven rivers shared by the countries Nehru had visited Pakistan in 1953 but owing to political turmoil in Pakistan no headway was made on the Kashmir dispute 69 India has fought a total of four wars military conflicts with its neighbouring rival state Pakistan two in this period In the Indo Pakistani War of 1947 fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir Pakistan captured one third of Kashmir which India claims as its territory and India captured three fifths which Pakistan claims as its territory In the Indo Pakistani War of 1965 India attacked Pakistan on all fronts by crossing the international border after attempts by Pakistani troops to infiltrate Indian controlled Kashmir by crossing the de facto border between India and Pakistan in Kashmir In 1961 after continual petitions for a peaceful handover India invaded and annexed the Portuguese colony of Goa on the west coast of India 70 In 1962 China and India engaged in the brief Sino Indian War over the border in the Himalayas The war was a complete rout for the Indians and led to a refocusing on arms build up and an improvement in relations with the United States China withdrew from disputed territory in the contested Chinese South Tibet and Indian North East Frontier Agency that it crossed during the war India disputes China s sovereignty over the smaller Aksai Chin territory that it controls on the western part of the Sino Indian border 71 nbsp Indian Army officers of the 4th Sikh Regiment captured a Police Station in Lahore Pakistan after winning the Battle of Burki during the Indo Pakistani War of 1965 nbsp The Indian Air Force used 20 small and lightweight Canberra bombers against the Portuguese forces during Operation Vijay which led to the Annexation of Goa nbsp Disputed areas in the western sector of the Sino Indian border including Aksai Chin 1988 CIA map1960s after Nehru edit nbsp Nehru s daughter Indira Gandhi served as prime minister for three consecutive terms 1966 77 and a fourth term 1980 84 Jawaharlal Nehru died on 27 May 1964 and Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded him as prime minister In 1965 India and Pakistan again went to war over Kashmir but without any definitive outcome or alteration of the Kashmir boundary The Tashkent Agreement was signed under the mediation of the Soviet government but Shastri died on the night after the signing ceremony A leadership election resulted in the elevation of Indira Gandhi Nehru s daughter who had been serving as Minister for Information and Broadcasting as the third prime minister She defeated right wing leader Morarji Desai The Congress Party won a reduced majority in the 1967 elections owing to widespread disenchantment over rising prices of commodities unemployment economic stagnation and food crisis Indira Gandhi had started on a rocky note after agreeing to a devaluation of the rupee which created much hardship for Indian businesses and consumers and the import of wheat from the United States fell through due to political disputes 72 In 1967 India and China again engaged with each other in Sino Indian War of 1967 after the PLA soldiers opened fire on the Indian soldiers who were making a fence on the border in Nathu La The Indian forces successfully repelled Chinese forces and the outcome saw Chinese defeat with their withdrawal from Sikkim Morarji Desai entered Gandhi s government as deputy prime minister and finance minister and with senior Congress politicians attempted to constrain Gandhi s authority But following the counsel of her political advisor P N Haksar Gandhi resuscitated her popular appeal by a major shift towards socialist policies She successfully ended the Privy Purse guarantee for former Indian royalty and waged a major offensive against party hierarchy over the nationalisation of India s banks Although resisted by Desai and India s business community the policy was popular with the masses When Congress politicians attempted to oust Gandhi by suspending her Congress membership Gandhi was empowered with a large exodus of members of parliament to her own Congress R The bastion of the Indian freedom struggle the Indian National Congress had split in 1969 Gandhi continued to govern with a slim majority 73 1970s edit nbsp Indian aircraft carrier INS Vikrant launches an Alize aircraft during the Indo Pakistani War of 1971 In 1971 Indira Gandhi and her Congress R were returned to power with a massively increased majority The nationalisation of banks was carried out and many other socialist economic and industrial policies enacted India intervened in the Bangladesh War of Independence a civil war taking place in Pakistan s Bengali half after millions of refugees had fled the persecution of the Pakistani army The clash resulted in the independence of East Pakistan which became known as Bangladesh and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi s elevation to immense popularity Relations with the United States grew strained and India signed a 20 year treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union breaking explicitly for the first time from non alignment In 1974 India tested its first nuclear weapon in the desert of Rajasthan near Pokhran nbsp Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim Sikkim became the 22nd state of the Indian Union Merger of Sikkim edit In 1973 anti royalist riots took place in the Kingdom of Sikkim In 1975 the Prime Minister of Sikkim appealed to the Indian Parliament for Sikkim to become a state of India In April of that year the Indian Army took over the city of Gangtok and disarmed the Chogyal s palace guards Thereafter a referendum was held in which 97 5 percent of voters supported abolishing the monarchy effectively approving union with India India is said to have stationed 20 000 40 000 troops in a country of only 200 000 during the referendum 74 On 16 May 1975 Sikkim became the 22nd state of the Indian Union and the monarchy was abolished 75 To enable the incorporation of the new state the Indian Parliament amended the Indian Constitution First the 35th Amendment laid down a set of conditions that made Sikkim an associate state a special designation not used by any other state A month later the 36th Amendment repealed the 35th Amendment and made Sikkim a full state adding its name to the First Schedule of the Constitution 76 Formation of Northeastern states editIn the Northeast India the state of Assam was divided into several states beginning in 1970 within the borders of what was then Assam In 1963 the Naga Hills district became the 16th state of India under the name of Nagaland Part of Tuensang was added to Nagaland In 1970 in response to the demands of the Khasi Jaintia and Garo people of the Meghalaya Plateau the districts embracing the Khasi Hills Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills were formed into an autonomous state within Assam in 1972 this became a separate state under the name of Meghalaya In 1972 Arunachal Pradesh the North East Frontier Agency and Mizoram from the Mizo Hills in the south were separated from Assam as union territories both became states in 1986 77 nbsp Assam till the 1950s The new states of Nagaland Meghalaya and Mizoram formed in the 1960 70s From Shillong the capital of Assam was shifted to Dispur now a part of Guwahati After the Sino Indian War in 1962 Arunachal Pradesh was also separated nbsp Hornbill Festival Kohima Nagaland Nagaland became a state on 1 December 1963 nbsp Pakhangba a heraldic dragon of the Meithei tradition and an important emblem among Manipur state symbols Manipur became a state on 21 January 1972 nbsp Meghalaya is mountainous the most rain soaked state of India Meghalaya became a state on 21 January 1972 nbsp Ujjayanta Palace which houses the Tripura State Museum Tripura became a state on 21 January 1972 nbsp Golden Pagoda Namsai Arunachal Pradesh is one of the notable Buddhist temples in India Arunachal Pradesh became a state on 20 February 1987 nbsp A school campus in Mizoram which has one of the highest literacy rates in India Mizoram became a state on 20 February 1987 nbsp The state of Punjab led India s Green Revolution and earned the distinction of being the country s bread basket 78 nbsp Amul Dairy Plant at Anand Gujarat was a highly successful co operative started during Operation Flood in the 1970s Green revolution and Operation Flood edit Main articles Green Revolution in India and Operation Flood India s population passed the 500 million mark in the early 1970s but its long standing food crisis was resolved with greatly improved agricultural productivity due to the Green Revolution The government sponsored modern agricultural implements new varieties of generic seeds and increased financial assistance to farmers that increased the yield of food crops such as wheat rice and corn as well as commercial crops like cotton tea tobacco and coffee 79 Increased agricultural productivity expanded across the states of the Indo Gangetic Plain and the Punjab Under Operation Flood the government encouraged the production of milk which increased greatly and improved rearing of livestock across India This enabled India to become self sufficient in feeding its own population ending two decades of food imports 80 nbsp The Indo Pakistani War of 1971 concluded with Lieutenant General A A K Niazi the commander of Pakistan Eastern Command signing the instrument of surrender in Dhaka on 16 December 1971 in the presence of India s Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora Standing immediately behind from left to right Indian Navy Vice Admiral Krishnan Indian Air Force Air Marshal Dewan Indian Army Lt Gen Sagat Singh Maj Gen JFR Jacob with Flt Lt Krishnamurthy peering over his shoulder Veteran newscaster Surojit Sen of All India Radio is seen holding a microphone on the right Bangladesh Liberation War edit Main article Indo Pakistani War of 1971 The Indo Pakistani War of 1971 was the third in four wars fought between the two nations The war was fought in December 1971 over the issue of Bangladesh India decisively defeated Pakistan resulting in the creation of Bangladesh The crisis started with Punjabi dominated Pakistani army refusing to surrender power to the newly elected but mainly Bengali Awami League led by Shaikh Mujibur Rehman Proclamation of Bangladeshi Independence in march of 1971 by Rehman led to widespread atrocities being committed by the Pakistani army against select groups It is estimated that starting in March 1971 members of the Pakistani military and supporting pro Pakistani Islamist militias killed between 300 000 and 3 000 000 civilians in Bangladesh 81 82 83 84 85 During the conflict members of the Pakistani military and supporting pro Pakistani Islamist militias called the Razakars raped between 200 000 and 400 000 Bangladeshi women and girls in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape 86 87 88 89 The murders and rapes led to an estimated eight to ten million people to flee East Pakistan to seek refuge in India 90 91 92 93 94 Official de jure war began with Pakistan airforce affiliated Operation Chengiz Khan which consisted of preemptive aerial strikes on 11 Indian air stations resulting in minor damages and suspension of counter air operations for mere few hours 95 The strikes led to India declaring war on Pakistan marking their entry into the war for East Pakistan s independence on the side of Bengali nationalist forces India s entry expanded the existing conflict with Indian and Pakistani forces engaging on both the eastern and western fronts 96 Thirteen days into the war India had achieved total superiority into the East meanwhile it had sufficient superiority in the West which resulted later in Eastern defence of Pakistan to sign an joint instrument of surrender 97 98 on 16 December 1971 in Dhaka ending conflict officially and marking the formation of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh Approximately 93 000 Pakistani servicemen were taken prisoner by the Indian Army which included 79 676 to 81 000 uniformed personnel of the Pakistan Armed Forces including some Bengali soldiers who had remained loyal to Pakistan 99 100 The remaining 10 324 to 12 500 prisoners were civilians either family members of the military personnel or collaborators Razakars 101 102 103 Indian Emergency edit Main article Indian Emergency Prelude to the Emergency edit India in the first half of the 1970s faced high inflation caused by the 1973 oil crisis which resulted in cost of oil imports to rise substantially the cost of the Bangladesh war and the refugee resettlement and food shortages caused by droughts in parts of the country The economic and social problems caused by high inflation as well as allegations of corruption against Indira Gandhi and her government caused increasing political unrest across India during 1973 74 This included the Railway Strike in 1974 the Maoist Naxalite movement the Bihar student agitations the United Women s Anti Price Rise Front in Maharashtra and the Nav Nirman movement in Gujarat 104 105 Raj Narain was the Samyukta Socialist Party Candidate and Indira s opponent in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections from Rai Bareli Although he suffered a defeat from her in 1971 elections he accused Indira Gandhi of corrupt electoral practices and filed an election petition against her Four years later on 12 June 1975 the Allahabad High Court gave their verdict and found Indira Gandhi guilty of misusing government machinery for election purposes 106 Opposition parties conducted nationwide strikes and protests demanding her immediate resignation Various political parties united under Jaya Prakash Narayan to resist what he termed Gandhi s dictatorship Leading strikes across India that paralysed its economy and administration Narayan even called for the Army to oust Gandhi Declaration of the emergency edit On 25 June 1975 Gandhi advised President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed to declare a state of emergency under the constitution which allowed the central government to assume sweeping powers to defend law and order in the nation Explaining the breakdown of law and order and threat to national security as her primary reasons Gandhi suspended many civil liberties and postponed elections at national and state levels 107 108 Non Congress governments in Indian states were dismissed and nearly 1 000 opposition political leaders and activists were imprisoned 109 Her government also introduced a contentious programme of compulsory birth control 110 111 112 113 114 115 Strikes and public protests were outlawed in all forms Life during the emergency editIndia s economy benefited from an end to paralysing strikes and political disorder India announced a 20 point programme which enhanced agricultural and industrial production increasing national growth productivity and job growth But many organs of government and many Congress politicians were accused of corruption and authoritarian conduct Police officers were accused of arresting and torturing innocent people Indira s then twentynine year old son and unofficial political advisor Sanjay Gandhi was accused of committing gross excesses Sanjay was blamed for the Health Ministry carrying out forced vasectomies of men and sterilisation of women as a part of the initiative to control population growth and for the demolition of slums in Delhi near the Turkmen Gate which left hundreds of people dead or injured and many more displaced 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 nbsp Morarji Desai the first non Congress Prime Minister of India signing the New Delhi declaration during a visit by US President Jimmy Carter Janata interlude edit Main article Janata Party Indira Gandhi s Congress Party called for general elections in 1977 only to suffer a humiliating electoral defeat at the hands of the Janata Party an amalgamation of opposition parties 118 Morarji Desai became the first non Congress Prime Minister of India The Desai administration established tribunals to investigate Emergency era abuses and Indira and Sanjay Gandhi were arrested after a report from the Shah Commission 119 In 1979 the coalition crumbled and Charan Singh formed an interim government The Janata Party had become intensely unpopular due to its internecine warfare and a perceived lack of leadership on solving India s serious economic and social problems 1980s editMain articles Operation Blue Star Assassination of Indira Gandhi 1984 anti Sikh riots Bhopal disaster Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan Civil War and Siachen conflict This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed January 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Indira Gandhi and her Congress Party splinter group the Indian National Congress or simply Congress I were swept back into power with a large majority in January 1980 nbsp Akal Takht and Harmandir Sahib Golden Temple was repaired by the Indian Government after Operation Blue Star 120 But the rise of an insurgency in Punjab would jeopardise India s security In Assam there were many incidents of communal violence between native villagers and refugees from Bangladesh as well as settlers from other parts of India When Indian forces undertaking Operation Blue Star raided the hideout of self rule pressing 110 Khalistan militants in the Golden Temple Sikhs most holy shrine in Amritsar the inadvertent deaths of civilians and damage to the temple building inflamed tensions in the Sikh community across India The Government used intensive police operations to crush militant operations but it resulted in many claims of abuse of civil liberties North east India was paralysed owing to the ULFA s clash with Government forces On 31 October 1984 the Prime Minister s own Sikh bodyguards assassinated her and 1984 anti Sikh riots erupted in Delhi and parts of Punjab causing the deaths of thousands of Sikhs along with terrible pillage arson and rape Senior members of the Congress Party have been implicated in stirring the violence against Sikhs Government investigation has failed to date to discover the causes and punish the perpetrators but public opinion blamed Congress leaders for directing attacks on Sikhs in Delhi nbsp INSAT system is the largest domestic communication system in the Asia Pacific Region It is a series of multipurpose geo stationary satellites launched by ISRO to satisfy the telecommunications broadcasting meteorology and search and rescue operations in India Rajiv Gandhi administration edit The Congress party chose Rajiv Gandhi Indira s older son as the next prime minister Rajiv had been elected to Parliament only in 1982 and at 40 was the youngest national political leader and prime minister ever But his youth and inexperience were an asset in the eyes of citizens tired of the inefficacy and corruption of career politicians and looking for newer policies and a fresh start to resolve the country s long standing problems The Parliament was dissolved and Rajiv led the Congress party to its largest majority in history over 415 seats out of 545 possible reaping a sympathy vote over his mother s assassination 121 Rajiv Gandhi initiated a series of reforms the Licence Raj was loosened and government restrictions on foreign currency travel foreign investment and imports decreased considerably This allowed private businesses to use resources and produce commercial goods without government bureaucracy interfering and the influx of foreign investment increased India s national reserves As prime minister Rajiv broke from his mother s precedent to improve relations with the United States which increased economic aid and scientific co operation Rajiv s encouragement of science and technology resulted in a major expansion of the telecommunications industry and India s space programme and gave birth to the software industry and information technology sector 122 In December 1984 gas leaked out at the Union Carbide pesticides plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal Thousands were killed immediately while many more subsequently died or were left disabled 110 nbsp Victims of Bhopal disaster march demanding the extradition of American Warren Anderson from the United States India in 1987 brokered an agreement with the Government of Sri Lanka and agreed to deploy troops for peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka s ethnic conflict led by the LTTE Rajiv sent Indian troops to enforce the agreement and disarm the Tamil rebels but the Indian Peace Keeping Force as it was known became entangled in outbreaks of violence ultimately ending up fighting the Tamil rebels itself and becoming a target of attack from Sri Lankan nationalists 123 V P Singh withdrew the IPKF in 1990 but thousands of Indian soldiers had died Rajiv s departure from socialist policies did not sit well with the masses who did not benefit from the innovations Unemployment was a serious problem and India s burgeoning population added ever increasing needs for diminishing resources Rajiv Gandhi s image as an honest politician he was nicknamed Mr Clean by the press was shattered when the Bofors scandal broke revealing that senior government officials had taken bribes over defence contracts by a Swedish guns producer 124 Janata Dal edit General elections in 1989 gave Rajiv s Congress a plurality much less than the majority which propelled him to power 125 Power came instead to his former finance and defence minister VP Singh of Janata Dal Singh had been moved from the Finance ministry to the Defence ministry after he unearthed some scandals which made the Congress leadership uncomfortable Singh then unearthed the Bofors scandal and was sacked from the party and office 126 Becoming a popular crusader for reform and clean government Singh led the Janata Dal coalition to a majority He was supported by BJP and the leftist parties from outside Becoming Prime Minister Singh made an important visit to the Golden Temple shrine to heal the wounds of the past He implemented the Mandal Commission report to increase the quota in reservation for low caste Hindus 127 His government fell after Singh along with Bihar s Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav s government had Advani arrested in Samastipur and stopped his Ram Rath Yatra which was going to the Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya on 23 October 1990 The Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew their support to Singh government causing them to lose parliamentary vote of confidence on 7 November 1990 128 Chandra Shekhar split to form the Janata Dal Socialist supported by Rajiv s Congress This new government also collapsed in a matter of months when Congress withdrew its support nbsp The stone mosaic that stands at the exact location where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Sriperumbudur 1990s editMain articles 1990s in India Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and Bombay riots The then Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah son of former Chief Minister Sheikh Abdullah announced an alliance with the ruling Congress party for the elections of 1987 But the elections were allegedly rigged in favour of him This led to the rise of the armed extremist insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir composed in part of those who unfairly lost elections India has constantly maintained the position of blaming Pakistan for supplying these groups with logistical support arms recruits and training 129 Militants in Kashmir reportedly tortured and killed local Kashmiri Pandits forcing them to leave Kashmir in large numbers 130 better source needed Around 90 of the Kashmiri Pandits left Kashmir during the 1990s resulting in the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus citation needed On 21 May 1991 while former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi campaigned in Tamil Nadu on behalf of Congress Indira a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE female suicide bomber assassinated him and many others by setting off the bomb in her belt by leaning forward while garlanding him In the elections Congress Indira won 244 parliamentary seats and put together a coalition returning to power under the leadership of P V Narasimha Rao This Congress led government which served a full five year term initiated a gradual process of economic liberalisation and reform which has opened the Indian economy to global trade and investment India s domestic politics also took new shape as traditional alignments by caste creed and ethnicity gave way to a plethora of small regionally based political parties 131 But India was rocked by communal violence see Bombay riots between Hindus and Muslims that killed over 10 000 people following the Babri Mosque demolition by Hindu extremists in the course of the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute in Ayodhya in December 1992 132 The final months of the Rao led government in the spring of 1996 suffered the effects of several major political corruption scandals which contributed to the worst electoral performance by the Congress Party in its history a that time as the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the largest single party 133 nbsp P V Narasimha Rao nbsp Manmohan SinghEconomic liberalisation in India was initiated in 1991 by Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and his then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh 134 Rao was often referred to as Chanakya for his ability to steer tough economic and political legislation through the parliament at a time when he headed a minority government 135 136 Economic reforms edit Main article Economic liberalisation in India See also Indian Century Under the policies initiated by the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and his then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh India s economy expanded rapidly The economic reforms were a reaction to an impending balance of payment crisis The Rao administration initiated the privatisation of large inefficient and loss inducing government corporations The UF government had attempted a progressive budget that encouraged reforms but the 1997 Asian financial crisis and political instability created economic stagnation The Vajpayee administration continued with privatisation reduction of taxes a sound fiscal policy aimed at reducing deficits and debts and increased initiatives for public works Cities like Bangalore Hyderabad Pune and Ahmedabad have risen in prominence and economic importance becoming centres of rising industries and destinations for foreign investment and firms Strategies like forming Special Economic Zones tax amenities good communications infrastructure low regulation to encourage industries has paid off in many parts of the country 137 A rising generation of well educated and skilled professionals in scientific sectors of the industry began propelling the Indian economy as the information technology industry took hold across India with the proliferation of computers The new technologies increased the efficiency of activity in almost every type of industry which also benefitted from the availability of skilled labor Foreign investment and outsourcing of jobs to India s labor markets further enhanced India s economic growth A large middle class has arisen across India which has increased the demand and thus the production of a wide array of consumer goods Unemployment is steadily declining and poverty has fallen to approximately 22 Gross Domestic Product growth increased to beyond 7 While serious challenges remain India is enjoying a period of economic expansion that has propelled it to the forefront of the world economy and has correspondingly increased its influence in political and diplomatic terms 2 nbsp Nuclear capable Agni II ballistic missile Since May 1998 India declared itself to be a full fledged nuclear state Era of coalitions edit The Bharatiya Janata Party BJP emerged from the May 1996 national elections as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha but without enough strength to prove a majority on the floor of that Parliament Under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee the BJP coalition lasted in power 13 days With all political parties wishing to avoid another round of elections a 14 party coalition led by the Janata Dal emerged to form a government known as the United Front A United Front government under former Chief Minister of Karnataka H D Deve Gowda lasted less than a year The leader of the Congress Party withdrew support in March 1997 Inder Kumar Gujral replaced Deve Gowda as the consensus choice for Prime Minister of a 16 party United Front coalition 138 In November 1997 the Congress Party again withdrew support for the United Front New elections in February 1998 brought the BJP the largest number of seats in Parliament 182 but this fell far short of a majority On 20 March 1998 the President inaugurated a BJP led coalition government with Vajpayee again serving as prime minister On 11 and 13 May 1998 this government conducted a series of five underground nuclear weapons tests known collectively as Pokhran II which caused Pakistan to conduct its own tests that same year 139 India s nuclear tests prompted President of the United States Bill Clinton and Japan to impose economic sanctions on India pursuant to the 1994 Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act and led to widespread international condemnation In the early months of 1999 Prime Minister Vajpayee made a historic bus trip to Pakistan and met with Pakistan s prime minister Nawaz Sharif signing the bilateral Lahore peace declaration 110 In April 1999 the coalition government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP fell apart leading to fresh elections in September In May and June 1999 India discovered an elaborate campaign of terrorist infiltration that resulted in the Kargil War in Kashmir derailing a promising peace process that had begun only three months earlier when Prime Minister Vajpayee visited Pakistan inaugurating the Delhi Lahore bus service Indian forces killed Pakistan backed infiltrators and reclaimed important border posts in high altitude warfare 140 Soaring on popularity earned following the successful conclusion of the Kargil conflict the National Democratic Alliance a new coalition led by the BJP gained a majority to form a government with Vajpayee as prime minister in October 1999 The end of the millennium was devastating to India as a cyclone hit Orissa killing at least 10 000 110 nbsp Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the first non Congress Prime Minister to complete a full term His tenure saw rapid growth of infrastructure improved diplomatic relationship with the United States economic reforms nuclear tests several foreign policy and military victories 141 2000s editUnder Bharatiya Janata Party edit In May 2000 India s population exceeded 1 billion President of the United States Bill Clinton made a groundbreaking visit to India to improve ties between the two nations In January massive earthquakes hit Gujarat state killing at least 30 000 Prime Minister Vajpayee met with Pakistan s President Pervez Musharraf in the first summit between Pakistan and India in more than two years in the middle of 2001 But the meeting failed without a breakthrough or even a joint statement because of differences over Kashmir region 110 Three new states Chhattisgarh Jharkhand and Uttarakhand originally Uttaranchal were formed in November 2000 The National Democratic Alliance government s credibility was adversely affected by a number of political scandals such as allegations that the Defence Minister George Fernandes took bribes as well as reports of intelligence failures that led to the Kargil incursions going undetected and the apparent failure of his talks with the Pakistani President 110 142 Following the September 11 attacks the United States lifted sanctions which it had imposed against India and Pakistan in 1998 The move was seen as a reward for their support for the War on Terror The tensions of an imminent war between India and Pakistan again rose by the heavy Indian firing on Pakistani military posts along the Line of Control and the subsequent deadly Indian Parliament attack and the 2001 02 India Pakistan standoff 110 In 2002 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya were killed in a train fire in Godhra Gujarat This sparked off the 2002 Gujarat riots leading to the deaths of 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus and with 223 people reported missing nbsp Section of Golden Quadrilateral highway The project was launched in 2001 by NDA government led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Throughout 2003 India s speedy economic progress political stability and a rejuvenated peace initiative with Pakistan increased the government s popularity India and Pakistan agreed to resume direct air links and to allow overflights and a groundbreaking meeting was held between the Indian government and moderate Kashmir separatists 110 The Golden Quadrilateral project aimed to link India s corners with a network of modern highways Congress rule returns edit In January 2004 Prime Minister Vajpayee recommended early dissolution of the Lok Sabha and general elections an alliance led by the Congress Party called United Progressive Alliance UPA won a surprise victory in elections held in May 2004 Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister after the Congress President Sonia Gandhi the widow of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi declined to take the office to defuse the controversy about whether her foreign birth should be considered a disqualification for the Prime Minister s post Apart from the Congress party other members of UPA included Socialist and regional parties The alliance had outside support of India s Communist parties Manmohan Singh became the first Sikh and non Hindu to hold India s most powerful office Singh continued economic liberalisation although the need for support from Indian Socialists and Communists forestalled further privatisation for some time 143 144 By the end of 2004 India began to withdraw some of its troops from Kashmir By the middle of the next year the Srinagar Muzaffarabad Bus service was inaugurated the first in 60 years to operate between Indian administered and Pakistani administered Kashmirs However in May 2006 suspected Islamic extremist militants killed 35 Hindus in the worst attacks in Indian administered Kashmir for several months 110 The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami devastated Indian coastlines and islands killing an estimated 18 000 and displacing around 650 000 The tsunami was caused by a powerful undersea earthquake off the Indonesian coast Natural disasters such as the Mumbai floods killing more than 1 000 and Kashmir earthquake killing 79 000 hit the subcontinent in the next year In February 2006 the United Progressive Alliance government launched India s largest ever rural jobs scheme aimed at lifting around 60 million families out of poverty 110 nbsp U S President George W Bush and India s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh exchange handshakes in New Delhi on 2 March 2006 vis a vis the India United States Civil Nuclear Agreement The United States and India signed a major nuclear co operation agreement during a visit by United States President George W Bush in March 2006 According to the nuclear deal the United States was to give India access to civilian nuclear technology while India agreed to greater scrutiny for its nuclear programme Later United States approved a controversial law allowing India to buy their nuclear reactors and fuel for the first time in 30 years In July 2008 the United Progressive Alliance survived a vote of confidence brought after left wing parties withdrew their support over the nuclear deal After the vote several left wing and regional parties formed a new alliance to oppose the government saying it had been tainted by corruption Within three months following approval by the U S Congress George W Bush signed into law a nuclear deal with India which ended a three decade ban on American nuclear trade with Delhi 110 In 2007 India got its first female President as Pratibha Patil was sworn in Long associated with the Nehru Gandhi family Pratibha Patil was a low profile governor of the state of Rajasthan before emerging as the favoured presidential candidate of Sonia Gandhi 145 In February the infamous Samjhauta Express bombings took place killing Pakistani civilians in Panipat Haryana As of 2011 nobody had been charged for the crime though it has been linked to Abhinav Bharat a shadowy Hindu fundamentalist group headed by a former Indian army officer 146 In 2008 October India successfully launched its first mission to the Moon the uncrewed lunar probe called Chandrayaan 1 In the previous year India had launched its first commercial space rocket carrying an Italian satellite 110 nbsp A view of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel with smoke during the 2008 Mumbai attacks In November 2008 Mumbai attacks took place India blamed militants from Pakistan for the attacks and announced a pause in the ongoing peace process 110 In July 2009 the Delhi High Court decriminalised consensual homosexual sex re interpreting the British Raj era law Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code as unconstitutional in regard to criminalising consensual sex between two homosexual adults or decriminalising such acts between adult heterosexuals or other consenting adults that may be deemed unnatural 147 148 In the Indian general election in 2009 the United Progressive Alliance won a convincing and resounding 262 seats with Congress alone winning 206 seats However the Congress led government faced many allegations of corruption Inflation rose to an all time high and the ever increasing prices of food commodities caused widespread agitation nbsp Tawang Monastery in Arunachal Pradesh is the largest monastery in India and second largest in the world after the Potala Palace in Lhasa Tibet It is one of the few monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism that have remained protected from Mao s Cultural Revolution without any damage 149 On 8 November 2009 in spite of strong protests by China which claims the whole of Arunachal Pradesh as its own 150 the 14th Dalai Lama visited Tawang Monastery in Arunachal Pradesh which was a monumental event to the people of the region and the abbot of the monastery greeted him with much fanfare and adulation 151 21st century India is facing the Naxalite Maoist rebels in the words of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh India s greatest internal security challenge 152 and other terrorist tensions such as Islamist terrorist campaigns in and out of Jammu amp Kashmir and terrorism in India s Northeast 152 153 Terrorism has increased in India with bomb blasts in leading cities like Mumbai New Delhi Jaipur Bangalore and Hyderabad 140 In the new millennium India improved relations with many countries and foreign unions including the United States the European Union Israel and the People s Republic of China 110 The economy of India has grown at a very rapid pace India was now being looked at as a potential superpower 143 144 2010s editCongress rule continues edit nbsp The 2010 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium is one of the largest international multi sport events to be staged in Delhi and India The concerns and controversies over the 2010 Commonwealth Games rocked the country in 2010 raising questions about the credibility of the government followed by the 2G spectrum case and Adarsh Housing Society scam In mid 2011 Anna Hazare a prominent social activist staged a 12 day hunger strike in Delhi in protest at state corruption after government proposals to tighten up anti graft legislation fell short of his demands 110 Despite all this India showed great promise with a higher growth rate in gross domestic product 154 In January 2011 India assumed a nonpermanent seat in the United Nations Security Council for the 2011 12 term In 2004 India had launched an application for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council along with Brazil Germany and Japan In March India overtook China to become the world s largest importer of arms 110 The Telangana movement reached its peak in 2011 12 leading to formation of India s 29th state Telangana in June 2014 nbsp 2010 Ladakh floods damaged 71 towns and villages including the main town in the area Leh and nearby town of Thiksey where Thikse Monastery is located 155 In August 2010 cloudbursts and the ensuing flooding in the Ladakh region of North India resulted in the deaths of around 255 people while affecting 9 000 people directly 156 In June 2013 a multi day cloudburst in Uttarakhand and other north Indian states caused devastating floods and landslides with more than 5 700 people presumed dead 157 In September 2014 floods in the state of Jammu and Kashmir following heavy rains due to monsoon season killed around 277 people and brought extensive damage to property 158 A further 280 people died in the neighbouring Pakistani regions particularly in Pakistani Punjab 159 The 2012 Delhi gang rape amp murder case and subsequent protests resulted in changes in the laws related to rape and offences against women In April 2013 the Saradha Group scandal was unearthed caused by the collapse of a Ponzi scheme run by Saradha Group a consortium of over 200 private companies in Eastern India causing an estimated loss of INR 200 300 billion US 4 6 billion to over 1 7 million depositors 160 161 162 In December 2013 the Supreme Court of India overturned the Delhi High Court ruling on Sec 377 criminalising homosexual sex between consenting adults once again in the country 163 164 In August September 2013 clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Muzaffarnagar Uttar Pradesh resulted in at least 62 deaths 165 injured 93 and left more than 50 000 displaced 166 167 168 169 nbsp Artist s rendering of the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraftIn November 2013 India launched its first interplanetary mission the Mars Orbiter Mission popularly known as Mangalyaan to Mars and was successful so ISRO on 24 September 2014 became the fourth space agency to reach Mars after the Soviet space program NASA and the European Space Agency 170 ISRO also became the first space agency and India the first country to reach Mars on its maiden attempt 2014 Return of Bharatiya Janata Party BJP Government edit The Hindutva movement advocating Hindu nationalism originated in the 1920s and has remained a strong political force in India The major party of the religious right since the 1950s had been the Bharatiya Jana Sangh The Jana Sangh joined the Janata party in 1977 but when that party fell apart in a short period of three years the erstwhile members of Jana Sangh in 1980 formed the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP The BJP grew its support base in the following decades and is now the most dominant political party in India In September 2013 the Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi was named the BJP s candidate for prime minister ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election 171 172 Several BJP leaders initially expressed opposition to Modi s candidature 173 including BJP founding member L K Advani 174 Contrary to the strategies used by the party during previous elections Modi played the dominant role in the BJP s presidential style election campaign 175 176 171 177 178 173 179 180 The 16th national general election held in early 2014 saw a huge victory for the BJP led NDA the alliance gained an absolute majority and formed a government under the premiership of Modi The Modi government s sweeping mandate and popularity helped the BJP win several state assembly elections in India The Modi government implemented several initiatives and campaigns to increase manufacturing and infrastructure notably Make in India Digital India and the Swachh Bharat Mission The largest tax reform in India s history the Goods and Services Tax GST was introduced in 2017 A vehicle borne suicide bomber assaulted a convoy of cars carrying Central Reserve Police Force CRPF troops on the Jammu Srinagar National Highway in the Pulwama area of Jammu and Kashmir 181 India carried out the 2019 Balakot airstrike when its airplanes flew across the de facto border in Kashmir and dropped bombs in the town of Balakot in Pakistan s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region 182 After a dogfight between Indian and Pakistani fighter pilots Abhinandan Varthaman an Indian wing commander was taken prisoner by the Pakistani side Acting nonetheless under pressure from various world leaders and constrained by the Vienna Convention Pakistan was compelled to free the Indian pilot 183 By repealing Article 370 of the Indian Constitution the state of Jammu and Kashmir was separated into two separate union territories known as Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh 184 The BJP government introduced the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019 sparking widespread protests 185 nbsp Prime Minister Modi at the launch of the Make in India programme which was meant to encourage companies to manufacture their products in India and also increase their investment nbsp 10th President of Israel Reuven Rivlin and Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces Gadi Eizenkot with PM Modi the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel nbsp Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III is intended as a launch vehicle for crewed missions under the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme announced in Prime Minister Modi s 2018 Independence Day speech 186 2020s editIn February 2020 riots broke out in Delhi 187 The Citizenship Amendment Act protests have been described as an instigating factor 188 Tensions escalated on the Indo China border after aggressive skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops beginning on 5 May 2020 189 The Rama Janmabhoomi temple construction officially started after a Bhoomi Poojan Hindu ground breaking ceremony by Prime Minister Modi on 5 August 2020 190 191 Farm reform laws which subsequently became quite controversial were passed with less than three hours of debate in either house in September 2020 192 After a year long protests by farmers Prime minister Modi in November 2021 repealed the laws in three minutes in the Lok Sabha and nine minutes in the Rajya Sabha without debate 193 nbsp COVID 19 vaccination queue in Nagpur 1 May 2021 COVID 19 pandemic edit Main article COVID 19 pandemic in IndiaThe COVID 19 pandemic in India began on 30 January 2020 when the first case was reported in Thrissur 194 Two months later in March 2020 prime minister Modi imposed a complete lockdown in the country at four hours notice to stop the spread of COVID 19 This led to millions losing their jobs and many lost their lives The Indian economy also shrunk in percentage terms by double digit numbers In September 2020 India s health minister Harsh Vardhan stated that the country planned to approve and begin distribution of a vaccine by the first quarter of 2021 195 Vaccination against COVID 19 started in India on 16 January 2021 By early April 2021 second wave of infections took hold in the country with destructive consequences 196 According to Christopher Clary assistant professor of political science at the State University of New York technocratic competence had been entirely missing from government s response to the second wave of the COVID 19 pandemic in India 197 The second wave placed a major strain on the healthcare system 198 including shortage of liquid medical oxygen The number of new cases had begun to steadily drop by late May and vaccination gained momentum again India administered 1 billion doses of COVID 19 vaccine on 21 October 2021 199 Although official number of Covid related deaths in India during the pandemic is less than half a million excess mortality rates for all causes has been estimated at between 3 and 5 million deaths 200 nbsp Current Vice President left President middle and Prime Minister of India Post COVID India edit On 25 July 2022 Droupadi Murmu was sworn in as India s new president becoming India s first tribal president Although largely ceremonial post Murmu s election as tribal woman was historic 201 India celebrated 75 years of its independence from the British Empire on 15 August 2022 202 In April 2023 India surpassed China to become the most populous country on the earth with a population of over 1 425 billion 203 India was selected as the host for the 2023 G20 New Delhi summit at the International Exhibition Convention Centre Pragati Maidan New Delhi from 9 to 10 September 2023 204 Chandrayaan 3 a lunar lander developed and launched by ISRO landed on the moon on 23 August 2023 thus making India the 4th country to land on the moon after the Soviet Union China and United States 205 Economy editThe economic history of the India since 1947 can be divided into two epochs 1 1947 91 which saw heavy government involvement in the economy and a slow growth rate in GDP 2 1991 present which saw deregulation and a rapid growth in GDP and reduction in poverty Pre liberalisation period 1947 1991 edit Main article Licence Raj Indian economic policy after independence was influenced by the colonial experience which was seen as exploitative by Indian leaders exposed to British social democracy and the planned economy of the Soviet Union 206 Domestic policy tended towards protectionism with a strong emphasis on import substitution industrialisation economic interventionism a large government run public sector business regulation and central planning 207 while trade and foreign investment policies were relatively liberal 208 Five Year Plans of India resembled central planning in the Soviet Union Steel mining machine tools telecommunications insurance and power plants among other industries were effectively nationalised in the mid 1950s 209 The Indian economy of this period is characterised as Dirigism 100 210 nbsp Change in per capita GDP of India 1820 2015 Figures are inflation adjusted to 1990 International Geary Khamis dollars 211 212 Jawaharlal Nehru the first prime minister of India along with the statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis formulated and oversaw economic policy during the initial years of the country s independence They expected favourable outcomes from their strategy involving the rapid development of heavy industry by both public and private sectors and based on direct and indirect state intervention rather than the more extreme Soviet style central command system 213 214 215 The policy of concentrating simultaneously on capital and technology intensive heavy industry and subsidising manual low skill cottage industries was criticised by economist Milton Friedman who thought it would waste capital and labour and retard the development of small manufacturers 216 Since 1965 the use of high yielding varieties of seeds increased fertilisers and improved irrigation facilities collectively contributed to the Green Revolution in India which improved the condition of agriculture by increasing crop productivity improving crop patterns and strengthening forward and backward linkages between agriculture and industry 217 However it has also been criticised as an unsustainable effort resulting in the growth of capitalistic farming ignoring institutional reforms and widening income disparities 218 In 1984 Rajiv Gandhi promised economic liberalization he made V P Singh the finance minister who tried to reduce tax evasion and tax receipts rose due to this crackdown although taxes were lowered This process lost its momentum during the later tenure of Mr Gandhi as his government was marred by scandals nbsp P V Narasimha Rao nbsp Manmohan SinghEconomic liberalisation in India was initiated in 1991 by Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and his then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh Post liberalisation period since 1991 edit Main articles Economic liberalisation in India and Economic development in India The collapse of the Soviet Union which was India s major trading partner and the Gulf War which caused a spike in oil prices resulted in a major balance of payments crisis for India which found itself facing the prospect of defaulting on its loans 219 India asked for a 1 8 billion bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund IMF which in return demanded de regulation 220 In response the Narasimha Rao government including Finance Minister Manmohan Singh initiated economic reforms in 1991 The reforms did away with the Licence Raj reduced tariffs and interest rates and ended many public monopolies allowing automatic approval of foreign direct investment in many sectors 221 Since then the overall thrust of liberalisation has remained unchanged since 1991 although no government had tried taking on powerful lobbies such as trade unions and farmers and on contentious issues such as reforming labour laws and reducing agricultural subsidies 222 By the turn of the 21st century India had progressed towards a free market economy with a substantial reduction in state control of the economy and increased financial liberalisation 223 This has been accompanied by increases in life expectancy literacy rates and food security although urban residents have benefited more than rural residents 224 nbsp GDP grows exponentially almost doubling every five years In the second decade of this century the economy of India rose from the ninth largest to the fifth largest economy in the world by nominal GDP surpassing the UK France Italy and Brazil 225 The economy had started to slow down in the second term of Manmohan Singh s tenure but started a recovery in 2013 14 when the GDP growth rate accelerated to 6 4 from the previous year s 5 5 The acceleration continued through 2014 15 and 2015 16 with growth rates of 7 5 and 8 0 respectively in the early early years under Narendra Modi s first term However the growth rate subsequently decelerated to 7 1 and 6 6 in 2016 17 and 2017 18 respectively 226 partly because of the disruptive effects of 2016 Indian banknote demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax India 227 nbsp Indian GDP growth rate from 1985 to 2016 in red compared to that of China in green COVID 19 pandemic and aftermath 2020 present edit During the COVID 19 pandemic numerous rating agencies downgraded India s GDP predictions for FY21 to negative figures 228 229 signalling a recession in India the most severe since 1979 230 231 The Indian Economy contracted by 6 6 percent which was lower than the estimated 7 3 percent decline 232 In 2022 the ratings agency Fitch Ratings upgraded India s outlook to stable similar to S amp P Global Ratings and Moody s Investors Service s outlooks 233 In the first quarter of financial year 2022 2023 the Indian economy grew by 13 5 234 See also edit nbsp India portal Economic history of India Economy of India Military history of India Outline of ancient India Politics of India The Emergency India India disambiguation Licence RajNotes edit British India consisted of those regions of the British Raj or the British Indian Empire which were directly administered by Britain other regions of nominal sovereignty that were indirectly ruled by Britain were called princely states The first Cabinet of independent India L to R sitting B R Ambedkar Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Sardar Baldev Singh Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Jawaharlal Nehru Rajendra Prasad Sardar Patel John Mathai Jagjivan Ram Amrit Kaur and Syama Prasad Mukherjee L to R standing Khurshed Lal R R Diwakar Mohanlal Saksena N Gopalaswami Ayyangar N V Gadgil K C Neogy Jairamdas Daulatram K Santhanam Satya Narayan Sinha and B V KeskarReferences edit India History Map Population Economy amp Facts Encyclopaedia Britannica Archived from the original on 12 June 2015 Retrieved 3 April 2020 a b Metcalf amp Metcalf 2006 p 304 Fisher Michael H 2018 An Environmental History of India From Earliest Times to the Twenty First Century Cambridge University Press p 8 ISBN 978 1 107 11162 2 archived from the original on 25 June 2020 retrieved 27 December 2019 Metcalf Barbara D Metcalf Thomas R 2012 A Concise History of Modern India Cambridge University Press pp 265 266 ISBN 978 1 107 02649 0 archived from the original on 14 February 2020 retrieved 27 December 2019 France UK back India s bid for permanent UN Security Council seat India Today NIC Global Trend Archived from the original on 16 June 2012 Retrieved 22 December 2019 Lowy Institute paper The Next Economic Giant PDF Archived from the original PDF on 25 June 2020 Retrieved 22 December 2019 India Asia s Other Superpower Breaks Out Newsweek World News MSNBC com 28 March 2006 Archived from the original on 28 March 2006 Retrieved 22 December 2019 India is quietly laying claim to economic superpower status The Guardian 12 September 2022 Retrieved 25 October 2022 The Indian Journal of Political Science Vol 28 No 4 October December 1967 pp 236 241 Patel vs Gandhi The Hindu Archived from the original on 19 November 2014 Retrieved 15 August 2018 Fisher Michael H 2018 An Environmental History of India From Earliest Times to the Twenty First Century Cambridge and New York Cambridge University Press doi 10 1017 9781316276044 ISBN 978 1 107 11162 2 LCCN 2018021693 S2CID 134229667 The partition of South Asia that produced India and West and East Pakistan resulted from years of bitter negotiations and recriminations The departing British also decreed that the hundreds of princes who ruled one third of the subcontinent and a quarter of its population became legally independent their status to be settled later Geographical location personal and popular sentiment and substantial pressure and incentives from the new governments led almost all princes eventually to merge their domains into either Pakistan or India Each new government asserted its exclusive sovereignty within its borders realigning all territories animals plants minerals and all other natural and human made resources as either Pakistani or Indian property to be used for its national development Simultaneously the central civil and military services and judiciary split roughly along religious communal lines even as they divided movable government assets according to a negotiated formula 22 7 percent for Pakistan and 77 3 percent for India Khan Yasmin 2017 2007 The Great Partition The Making of India and Pakistan 2 ed New Haven and London Yale University Press p 1 ISBN 978 0 300 23032 1 South Asians learned that the British Indian empire would be partitioned on 3 June 1947 They heard about it on the radio from relations and friends by reading newspapers and later through government pamphlets Among a population of almost four hundred million where the vast majority live in the countryside ploughing the land as landless peasants or sharecroppers it is hardly surprising that many thousands perhaps hundreds of thousands did not hear the news for many weeks afterwards For some the butchery and forced relocation of the summer months of 1947 may have been the first that they knew about the creation of the two new states rising from the fragmentary and terminally weakened British empire in India Talbot amp Singh 2009 p page needed When the British divided and quit India in August 1947 they not only partitioned the subcontinent with the emergence of the two nations of India and Pakistan but also the provinces of Punjab and Bengal Indeed for many the Indian subcontinent s division in August 1947 is seen as a unique event which defies comparative historical and conceptual analysis Chatterji Joya Washbrook David 2013 Introduction Concepts and Questions in Chatterji Joya Washbrook David eds Routledge Handbook of the South Asian Diaspora London and New York Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 48010 9 Joya Chatterji describes how the partition of the British Indian empire into the new nation states of India and Pakistan produced new diaspora on a vast and hitherto unprecedented scale but hints that the sheer magnitude of refugee movements in South Asia after 1947 must be understood in the context of pre existing migratory flows within the partitioned regions see also Chatterji 2013 She also demonstrates that the new national states of India and Pakistan were quickly drawn into trying to stem this migration As they put into place laws designed to restrict the return of partition emigrants this produced new dilemmas for both new nations in their treatment of overseas Indians and many of them lost their right to return to their places of origin in the subcontinent and also their claims to full citizenship in host countries Metcalf Barbara D Metcalf Thomas R 2012 A Concise History of Modern India Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 107 02649 0 The loss of life was immense with estimates ranging from several hundred thousand up to a million But even for those who survived fear generated a widespread perception that one could be safe only among the members of one s own community and this in turn helped consolidate loyalties towards the state whether India or Pakistan in which one might find a secure haven This was especially important for Pakistan where the succour it offered to Muslims gave that state for the first time a visible territorial reality Fear too drove forward a mass migration unparalleled in the history of South Asia Within a period of some three or four months in late 1947 a number of Hindus and Sikhs estimated at some 5 million moved from West Punjab into India while 5 5 million Muslims travelled in the opposite direction The outcome akin to what today is called ethnic cleansing produced an Indian Punjab 60 per cent Hindu and 35 per cent Sikh while the Pakistan Punjab became almost wholly Muslim A similar though less extensive migration took place between east and west Bengal though murderous attacks on fleeing refugees with the attendant loss of life were much less extensive in the eastern region Even those who did not move if of the wrong community often found themselves treated as though they were the enemy In Delhi itself the city s Muslims cowering in an old fort were for several months after partition regarded with intense suspicion and hostility Overall partition uprooted some 12 5 million of undivided India s people Dyson Tim 2018 A Population History of India From the First Modern People to the Present Day Oxford University Press p 189 ISBN 978 0 19 882905 8 The sudden refugee flows related to Partition may at the time have been unsurpassed in modern world history It is likely that at least 14 18 million people moved Previous assessments of the mortality associated with Partition have varied between 200 000 and 1 million The first figure attributed to Mountbatten the last Viceroy smacks of a number that conveniently from an official perspective minimises the loss of life However the figure of 1 million may also be too low The data however do not allow for a firmer judgement Pakistan Encarta Archived 31 October 2009 Prof Prasoon 1 January 2010 My Letters M K Gandhi Pustak Mahal p 120 ISBN 978 81 223 1109 9 Archived from the original on 6 December 2019 Retrieved 5 December 2017 Menon Shivshankar 20 April 2021 India and Asian Geopolitics The Past Present Brookings Institution Press p 34 ISBN 978 0 670 09129 4 Lumby E W R 1954 The Transfer of Power in India 1945 1947 London George Allen amp Unwin p 228 Tiwari Aaditya 30 October 2017 Sardar Patel Man who United India pib gov in Gandhi Rajmohan 1919 Patel A Life India Navajivan p 292 ASIN B0006EYQ0A Introduction to Constitution of India Ministry of Law and Justice of India 29 July 2008 Archived from the original on 22 October 2014 Retrieved 14 October 2008 Swaminathan Shivprasad 26 January 2013 India s benign constitutional revolution The Hindu Opinion Archived from the original on 1 March 2013 Retrieved 18 February 2013 Aruna Roy amp Ors v Union of India amp Ors PDF Supreme Court of India 12 September 2002 p 18 30 Archived PDF from the original on 7 May 2016 Retrieved 11 November 2015 Preamble of the Constitution of India PDF Ministry of Law amp Justice Archived from the original PDF on 9 October 2017 Retrieved 29 March 2012 Atul Kohli 6 September 2001 The Success of India s Democracy Cambridge England Cambridge University press p 195 ISBN 0521 80144 3 Reservation Is About Adequate Representation Not Poverty Eradication The Wire Retrieved 19 December 2020 Rajagopal Krishnadas 11 June 2020 Right to reservation is not a fundamental right observes SC judge as parties withdraw plea for quota The Hindu ISSN 0971 751X Retrieved 19 December 2020 reservation in india 3 March 2019 The Constitution Amendment Acts India Code Information System Ministry of Law Government of India Archived from the original on 27 April 2008 Retrieved 9 December 2013 Das Hari 2002 Political System of India Reprint ed New Delhi Anmol Publications p 120 ISBN 978 8174884961 Pakistan Covert Operations PDF Archived from the original PDF on 12 September 2014 Malik V P 2010 Kargil from Surprise to Victory paperback ed HarperCollins Publishers India p 343 ISBN 9789350293133 Singh Maj Gen Jagjit 2000 With Honour amp Glory Wars fought by India 1947 1999 Lancer Publishers pp 18 ISBN 978 81 7062 109 6 Kulke Hermann Rothermund Dietmar 2004 A History of India Fourth ed Routledge p 324 ISBN 978 0 415 32919 4 The Indian army defended Kashmir against Pakistani aggression Wilcox Wayne Ayres 1963 Pakistan The Consolidation of a Nation Columbia University Press p 66 ISBN 978 0 231 02589 8 The war for states had not only ended in Indian military victory but had given its leaders enormous self confidence and satisfaction over a job well done New Zealand Defence Quarterly Issues 24 29 New Zealand Ministry of Defence 1999 India won and gained two thirds of Kashmir which it successfully held against another Pakistani invasion in 1965 Brozek Jason 2008 War bellies the critical relationship between resolve and domestic audiences University of Wisconsin Madison p 142 ISBN 978 1 109 04475 1 the 1947 First Kashmir won by India according to MIDS classification permanent dead link Hoontrakul Pongsak 2014 The Global Rise of Asian Transformation Trends and Developments in Economic Growth Dynamics illustrated ed Palgrave Macmillan p 37 ISBN 978 1 137 41235 5 Victor India Defeated Pakistan Lok Sabha Results 1951 52 Election Commission of India Archived from the original on 17 October 2016 Retrieved 23 December 2016 Parekh Bhiku 1991 Nehru and the National Philosophy of India Economic and Political Weekly 26 5 12 Jan 1991 35 48 JSTOR 4397189 Tan Chung ed 1998 Across The Himalayan Gap Gyan Publishing House p 506 ISBN 81 212 0585 9 Ghose 1993 p 243 Kopstein 2005 p 364 Som Reba February 1994 Jawaharlal Nehru and the Hindu Code A Victory of Symbol over Substance Modern Asian Studies 28 1 165 194 doi 10 1017 S0026749X00011732 JSTOR 312925 S2CID 145393171 Basu Srimati 2005 She Comes to Take Her Rights Indian Women Property and Propriety SUNY Press p 3 ISBN 81 86706 49 6 Archived from the original on 20 October 2021 Retrieved 17 May 2020 The Hindu Code Bill was visualised by Ambedkar and Nehru as the flagship of modernisation and a radical revision of Hindu law it is widely regarded as dramatic benchmark legislation giving Hindu women equitable if not superior entitlements as legal subjects Kulke Hermann Dietmar Rothermund 2004 A History of India Routledge p 328 ISBN 0 415 32919 1 Archived from the original on 2 September 2021 Retrieved 17 May 2020 One subject that particularly interested Nehru was the reform of Hindu law particularly with regard to the rights of Hindu women Forbes Geraldine Geraldine Hancock Forbes Gordon Johnson 1999 Women in Modern India Cambridge University Press p 115 ISBN 0 521 65377 0 Archived from the original on 2 September 2021 Retrieved 17 May 2020 It is our birthright to demand equitable adjustment of Hindu law Institute History Archived from the original on 13 August 2007 Indian Institute of Technology Sony Pellissery and Sam Geall Five Year Plans in Encyclopedia of Sustainability Vol 7 pp 156 160 Seventh Amendment Indiacode nic in Archived from the original on 1 May 2017 Retrieved 19 November 2011 Swain P C 2008 DYNAMICS OF THE INDIAN PARTY SYSTEM THE EMERGENCE OF COMPETITIVE MULTI PARTY COALITIONS The Indian Journal of Political Science 69 1 59 70 http www jstor org stable 41856392 Ramachandra Guha 31 March 2011 Makers of Modern India Harvard University Press ISBN 978 0 674 05246 8 Archived from the original on 4 March 2021 Retrieved 8 February 2020 Erdman 2008 p 66 Erdman 2008 p 65 a b c d Erdman 2008 p 74 a b Erdman 2008 p 72 Erdman 2008 p 78 Erdman 2008 p 188 Erdman 2008 p 189 Erdman 2008 p 190 Guha Ramachandra 22 December 2002 The wisest man in India The Hindu Archived from the original on 8 December 2013 Srinivas Mysore Narasimhachar 1995 Social change in modern India Orient Blackswan p 111 ISBN 978 8125004226 Statistical Report on General Election 1962 to the Legislative Assembly of Madras PDF Election Commission of India Archived PDF from the original on 7 October 2010 Retrieved 15 August 2010 Statistical Report on General Elections 1962 to the Second Lok Sabha PDF Election Commission of India Archived PDF from the original on 8 October 2014 Retrieved 15 August 2010 Anthony James Joes 18 August 2006 Resisting Rebellion The History and Politics of Counterinsurgency University Press of Kentucky pp 82 ISBN 0 8131 9170 X Archived from the original on 2 September 2021 Retrieved 12 July 2017 Robert Sherrod 19 January 1963 Nehru The Great Awakening The Saturday Evening Post 236 2 60 67 Praval Major K C 2009 Indian Army after Independence New Delhi Lancer p 214 ISBN 978 1 935501 10 7 India War with China www globalsecurity org Archived from the original on 13 July 2017 Retrieved 20 October 2021 Kapila Raj Uma Kapila 2004 Understanding India s Economic Reforms Academic Foundation p 126 ISBN 978 8171881055 Archived from the original on 11 May 2016 Retrieved 23 December 2016 Rosser J Barkley Marina V Rosser 2004 Comparative Economics in Transforming the World Economy MIT Press pp 468 470 ISBN 978 0262182348 Archived from the original on 27 May 2016 Retrieved 23 December 2016 G T 1 March 1975 Trouble in Sikkim Index on Censorship 4 Routledge 68 69 doi 10 1080 03064227508532403 S2CID 220927214 About Sikkim Official website of the Government of Sikkim Archived from the original on 25 May 2009 Retrieved 15 June 2009 Constitution has been amended 94 times The Times of India 15 May 2010 Archived from the original on 21 November 2011 Retrieved 16 May 2011 Bhubaneswar Bhattacharyya 1995 The troubled border some facts about boundary disputes between Assam Nagaland Assam Arunachal Pradesh Assam Meghalaya and Assam Mizoram Lawyer s 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The Swatantra Party and Indian Conservatism Harvard University ISBN 978 0 521 04980 1 Ghose Sankar 1993 Jawaharlal Nehru Allied Publishers ISBN 978 81 7023 369 5 Kopstein Jeffrey 2005 Comparative Politics Interests Identities and Institutions in a Changing Global Order Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 1 139 44604 4 Kumar Dharma 2005 The Cambridge Economic History of India Volume II c 1757 2003 New Delhi Orient Longman ISBN 978 81 250 2710 2 Metcalf Barbara D Metcalf Thomas R 2006 A Concise History of India 2nd ed Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 68225 1 Panagariya Arvind 2008 India The Emerging Giant Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 531503 5 Richardson Hugh E 1984 Tibet and its History Second ed Boulder London Shambala ISBN 9780877737896 Sen Sankar 2002 Tryst with law enforcement and human rights four decades in Indian police APH Publishing ISBN 978 81 7648 340 7 Talbot Ian Singh Gurharpal 2009 The Partition of India Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 85661 4 retrieved 15 November 2015 Economic reforms in India Task force report PDF University of Chicago p 32 Archived from the original PDF on 7 February 2009 Further reading editBipan Chandra Mridula Mukherjee and Aditya Mukherjee India Since Independence Bates Crispin and Subho Basu The Politics of Modern India since Independence Routledge Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series 2011 Brass Paul R The Politics of India since Independence 1980 Vasudha Dalmia Rashmi Sadana eds 2012 The Cambridge Companion to Modern Indian Culture Cambridge University Press Datt Ruddar Sundharam K P M Indian Economy 2009 New Delhi 978 81 219 0298 4 Dixit Jyotindra Nath 2004 Makers of India s foreign policy Raja Ram Mohun Roy to Yashwant Sinha HarperCollins ISBN 9788172235925 Frank Katherine 2002 Indira The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi Houghton Mifflin ISBN 9780395730973 Ghosh Anjali 2009 India s Foreign Policy Pearson Education India ISBN 9788131710258 Gopal Sarvepalli Jawaharlal Nehru A Biography Volume Two 1947 1956 1979 Jawaharlal Nehru A Biography 1956 64 Vol 3 1985 Guha Ramachandra 2011 India After Gandhi The History of the World s Largest Democracy Pan Macmillan ISBN 9780330540209 excerpt and text search Guha Ramachandra Makers of Modern India 2011 excerpt and text search Jain B M 2009 Global Power India s Foreign Policy 1947 2006 Lexington Books ISBN 9780739121450 span cla, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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