History of Cambodia

The people of India have had a continuous civilization since 2500 B.C. when the inhabitants of the Indus River Valley developed an urban culture based on commerce and sustained by agricultural trade. This civilization declined around 1500 B.C. probably due to ecological changes. Islam spread across the subcontinent over a period of 500 years. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Turks and Afghans invaded India and established sultanates in Delhi. In the early 16th century, descendants of Genghis Khan swept across the Khyber Pass and established the Mughal (Mogul) Dynasty, which lasted for 200 years. From the 11th to the 15th century southern India was dominated by Hindu Chola and Vijayanagar Dynasties. During this time, the two systems--the prevailing Hindu and Muslim--mingled leaving lasting cultural influences on each other.

The first group to invade India was the Aryans, who came out of the north in about 1500 BC. The Aryans brought with them strong cultural traditions that, miraculously, remain in force today. They spoke and wrote in a language called Sanskrit, which was later used in the first documentation of the Vedas. However, warriors and conquerors, the Aryans lived alongside Indus, introducing them to the caste system and establishing the basis of the Indian religions. The Aryans inhabited the northern regions for about 700 years, then moved further south and east when they developed iron tools and weapons. They eventually settled the Ganges valley and built large kingdoms throughout much of northern India.

The second great invasion into India occurred around 500 BC, when the Persian kings Cyrus and Darius, pushing their empire eastward, conquered the ever-prized Indus Valley. Compared to the Aryans, the Persian influence was marginal, perhaps because they were only able to occupy the region for a relatively brief period of about 150 years. The Greeks under Alexander the Great, who swept through the country as far as the Beas River, where he defeated king Porus and an army of 200 elephants in 326 BC, in turn conquered the Persians. The tireless, charismatic conqueror wanted to extend his empire even further eastward, but his own troops (undoubtedly exhausted) refused to continue. Alexander returned home, leaving behind garrisons to keep the trade routes open.

The first British outpost in South Asia was established in 1619 at Surat on the northwestern coast. Later in the century, the East India Company opened permanent trading stations at Madras Bombay and Calcutta each under the protection of native rulers. The British expanded their influence from these footholds until by the 1850s they controlled most of present-day India Pakistan and Bangladesh. In 1857, a rebellion in north India led by mutinous Indian soldiers caused the British parliament to transfer all political power from the East India Company to the Crown. Great Britain began administering most of India directly while controlling the rest through treaties with local rulers. On August 15 1947, India became a dominion within the Commonwealth with Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister. Enmity between Hindus and Muslims led the British to partition British India creating East and West Pakistan where there were Muslim majorities. India became a republic within the Commonwealth after promulgating its constitution on January 26 1950. After independence, the Congress Party the party of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharla Nehru ruled India under the influence, first of Nehru and then his daughter and grandson with the exception of two brief periods in the 1970s and 1980s. In November 1994 the Congress Party again withdrew support for the United Front and the President called for elections. In the February 1998 elections, the BJP again received the largest number of seats in Parliament 182 but fell far short of a majority. On March 20 1998, the President inaugurated a BJP-led coalition government with Vajpayee again serving as Prime Minister until in 2005 when Dr Manmohan Singh took over.