- published: 04 Oct 2010
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- author: bhuvannn
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Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad (
i/ˈɑːmɨdəbɑːd/ also known as Amdavad 
) is the largest city and former capital of the Indian state of Gujarat. The city is an administrative centre of Ahmedabad district as well as the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court is in Ahmedabad. It was founded on 26 February 1411 by Sultan Ahmed Shah to serve as the capital of the Gujarat Sultanate, and was named after him. With a city population of more than 5.5 million and an extended population of 6.3 million it is the fifth largest city and seventh largest metropolitan area of India. Ahmedabad is located on the banks of the River Sabarmati, 32 km (20 mi) from the state capital Gandhinagar.
Though incorporated into the Bombay Presidency during British rule, Ahmedabad remained one of the most important cities in the Gujarat region. The city established itself as the home of a developing textile industry, which earned it the nickname the Manchester of the East. The city was at the forefront of the Indian independence movement in the first half of the 20th century and centre of many campaigns of civil disobedience to promote workers' rights, civil rights, and political independence.
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Amritsar
Amritsar (
pronunciation (help·info); Punjabi: ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ IPA: [əmːɾɪt̪səɾ], historically also known as ਰਾਮਦਾਸਪੁਰ Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ਅੰਬਰਸਰ, Ambarsar) is a city in the north-western part of India. It is the spiritual center for the Sikh religion and the administrative headquarters of the Amritsar district in the state of Punjab.
It is home to the Harmandir Sahib (referred to as the "Golden Temple" in the western media), the spiritual and cultural center for the Sikh religion. This important Sikh shrine attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 visitors on week days alone and is the most popular destination for Non-resident Indians (NRI) in the whole of India. The city also houses the Sikh temporal and political authority, Akal Takht, as well as the Sikh Parliament.
The 2011 Indian census reported the population of the city to be 1,132,761. Amritsar is situated 217 kilometres (135 mi) northwest of state capital Chandigarh and is 32 kilometres (20 mi) east of Lahore, Pakistan and therefore, very close to India's western border with Pakistan.
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Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh /ˌɑːndrə prəˈdɛʃ/ is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the country's southeastern coast. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh lies between 12°41' and 22°N latitude and 77° and 84°40'E longitude, and is bordered by Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Orissa in the north, the Bay of Bengal in the east, Tamil Nadu to the south and Karnataka to the west.
Andhra Pradesh has the second-longest coastline of 972 km (604 mi) among the states of India. Two major rivers, the Godavari and the Krishna, run across the state. The small enclave (30 square kilometres (12 sq mi)) of Yanam, a district of Pondicherry, lies in the Godavari delta in the northeast of the state. The state is separated into three regions: Telangana, Andhra, and Rayalaseema.
The primary official language of Andhra Pradesh is Telugu and the co-official language is Urdu. Other languages often spoken in the state include Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, and Oriya.
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Assam
Assam /əˈsæm/ (Assamese: অসম) also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province (British India), is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country[citation needed]. Assam was one of the original provinces of the British ruled Indian sub-continent and among the original provinces of present day India, having a legislature that dates back to 1937. However, present day Assam has undergone numerous territory alignment changes, with its state map being altered more than any other province's. Known for exquisite natural resources, geography and its important role in India's freedom struggle; Assam has its capital as Dispur, an especialized city circuit region located on the outskirts of its largest metropolis, Guwahati.
Assam is particularly famous for its natural beauty. The landscape includes tea gardens, the river Brahmaputra, and many historical monuments and temples. Swami Vivekananda once said that, "next only to Kashmir, Assam is the most beautiful place in India" A state with an abundance of forest, Assam also has five national parks, around half a dozen other wildlife sanctuaries, and is home to two-thirds of the population of the unique one-horned rhino. When it comes to wildlife, Assam too has successfully conserved the one-horned Indian rhinoceros from near extinction, along with the tiger and numerous species of birds, and it provides one of the last wild habitats for the Asian elephant. It is becoming an increasingly popular destination for wildlife tourism, and Kaziranga and Manas are both World Heritage Sites.
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Battle of Plassey
Coordinates: 23°48′N 88°15′E / 23.80°N 88.25°E / 23.80; 88.25
The Battle of Plassey (Bengali: পলাশীর যুদ্ধ, Pôlashir Juddho), 23 June 1757, was a decisive British East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing Company rule in South Asia which expanded over much of the Indies for the next hundred years. The battle took place at Palashi, Bengal (Plassey is the anglicised version of Palashi), on the river banks of the Bhagirathi River, about 150 km north of Calcutta, near Murshidabad, then capital of undivided Bengal. The belligerents were Siraj-ud-daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, and the British East India Company.
The battle was preceded by the attack on British controlled Calcutta by Siraj-ud-daulah and the Black Hole incident. The British sent reinforcements under Colonel Robert Clive and Admiral Charles Watson from Madras to Bengal, and recaptured Calcutta. Clive then seized the initiative to capture the French fort of Chandernagar. Tensions and suspicions between Siraj-ud-daulah and the British culminated in the Battle of Plassey. The battle was waged during the Seven Years' War (1756–63) and, in a mirror of their European rivalry, the French East India Company sent a small contingent to fight against the British. Siraj-ud-Daulah had a numerically superior force and made his stand at Plassey. The British, worried about being outnumbered, formed a conspiracy with Siraj-ud-Daulah's demoted army chief Mir Jafar, along with others such as Yar Lutuf Khan, Jagat Seths (Mahtab Chand and Swarup Chand), Omichund and Rai Durlabh. Mir Jafar, Rai Durlabh and Yar Lutuf Khan thus assembled their troops near the battlefield but made no move to actually join the battle. Siraj-ud-Daulah's army was defeated by roughly 3,000 soldiers of Col. Robert Clive, owing to the flight of Siraj-ud-daulah from the battlefield and the inactivity of the conspirators.
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Battle of Singapore
The Battle of Singapore was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of the Second World War when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold of Singapore. Singapore was the major British military base in Southeast Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East". The fighting in Singapore lasted from 8–15 February 1942.
It resulted in the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, and the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history. About 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops became prisoners of war, joining 50,000 taken by the Japanese in the Malayan Campaign. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the ignominious fall of Singapore to the Japanese the "worst disaster" and "largest capitulation" in British history. In just seven days, Singapore, the "Impregnable Fortress", had fallen.
The Allies had imposed a trade embargo on Japan in response to its continued campaigns in China. Seeking alternate sources of necessary materials for its Pacific War against the Allies, Japan invaded Malaya. Singapore—to the south—was connected to Malaya by the Johor–Singapore Causeway. The Japanese saw it as a port which could be used as a launch pad against other Allied interests in the area, and to consolidate the invaded territory.
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Battle of Tanga
The Battle of Tanga, sometimes also known as the Battle of the Bees, was the unsuccessful attack by the British Indian Expeditionary Force “B” under Major General A.E. Aitken to capture German East Africa (the mainland portion of present-day Tanzania) during World War I in concert with the invasion Force “C” near Longido on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. It was the first major event of the war in Africa and saw the British defeated by a significantly smaller force of German Askaris and colonial volunteers.
Tanga, situated only 80 kilometres (50 mi) from the border of British East Africa (modern-day Kenya), was a busy seaport and the ocean terminal of the important Usambara Railway, which ran from Tanga to Neu Moshi at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. Tanga was initially to be bombarded by British warships, but this part of the plan was scrapped. An agreement was in place guaranteeing the neutrality of the capital Dar es Salaam and Tanga, but now the accord was modified and it seemed “only fair to warn the Germans that the deal was off.”
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Bengal
Bengal (Bengali: বাংলা Bangla (help·info), Bengali: বঙ্গ Bôngo, Bengali: বঙ্গদেশ Bôngodesh, or Bengali: বাংলাদেশ Bangladesh) is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh (previously East Bengal / East Pakistan) and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous kingdoms of Bengal (during local monarchical regimes and British rule) are now part of the neighboring Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Tripura and Orissa. The majority of Bengal is inhabited by Bengali people (বাঙালি Bangali) who speak the Bengali language (বাংলা Bangla).
The region of Bengal is one of the most densely populated regions on earth, with a population density exceeding 900/km². Most of the Bengal region lies in the low-lying Ganges–Brahmaputra River Delta or Ganges Delta, the world's largest delta. In the southern part of the delta lies the Sundarbans—the world's largest mangrove forest and home of the Bengal tiger. Though the population of the region is mostly rural and agrarian, two megacities, Kolkata (previously Calcutta) and Dhaka (previously Dacca), are located in Bengal. The Bengal region is renowned for its rich literary and cultural heritage as well as its immense contribution to the socio-cultural uplift of Indian society in the form of the Bengal Renaissance, and revolutionary activities during the Indian independence movement.
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Bihar
Bihar (/bɨˈhɑr/, pronounced [bɪˈɦaːr] (
listen)) is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi (98,940 km2) and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India.
Bihar lies mid-way between West Bengal in the east and Uttar Pradesh in the west. It is bounded by the country of Nepal to the north and by Jharkhand to the south. The Bihar plain is divided into two parts by the river Ganges which flows through the middle from west to east. Bihar has notified forest area of 6,764.14 km2, which is 6.8% of its geographical area. Hindi and Urdu are the official languages of the state, while the majority of the people speak Angika, Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Maithili and Bajjika. In 2000, Bihar was divided into 2 parts, the Southern part known as Jharkhand.
Ancient Bihar (which consisted of Anga, Videha/Mithila, Magadha and Vajji/Vrijji) was a centre of power, learning and culture in ancient and classical India. Out of five "The Greats" from India, four greats belonged to this region of India, Magadh: Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka, Samudragupta and Vikramaditya. From Magadha arose India's first and greatest empire, the Maurya empire as well as one of the world's most widely adhered-to religions, Buddhism. Magadha empires, notably under the Maurya and Gupta dynasties, unified large parts of South Asia under a central rule. Its capital Patna, earlier known as Pataliputra, was an important centre of Indian civilization.Nalanda and Vikramshila were centres of learning established in the 5th and 8th century respectively in Bihar, and are counted amongst the oldest and truly international universities, where people all over the world came to study. Bihar has distinction of giving the world its first democracy through Lichchivi (modern days Vaishali) during ancient era.
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British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1922 the British Empire held sway over about 458 million people, one-fifth of the world's population at the time, and covered more than 33,700,000 km2 (13,012,000 sq mi), almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its political, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, it was often said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire" because its span across the globe ensured that the sun was always shining on at least one of its numerous territories.
During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France and the Netherlands began to establish colonies and trade networks of their own in the Americas and Asia. A series of wars in the 17th and 18th centuries with the Netherlands and France left England (and then, following union between England and Scotland in 1707, Great Britain) the dominant colonial power in North America and India. The loss of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after a war of independence deprived Britain of some of its oldest and most populous colonies.
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Burma
Burma
i/ˈbɜrmə/ BUR-mə, also known as Myanmar i/ˌmjɑːnˈmɑr/ MYAHN--MAR, is a country in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand. One-third of Burma's total perimeter of 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. At 676,578 km2 (261,227 sq mi), it is the 40th largest country in the world and the second largest country in Southeast Asia. Burma is also the 24th most populous country in the world with over 60.28 million people.
Burma is home to some of the early civilizations of Southeast Asia including the Pyu and the Mon. In the 9th century, the Burmans of the Kingdom of Nanzhao, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Empire in the 1050s, the Burmese language and culture slowly became dominant in the country. During this period, Theravada Buddhism gradually became the predominant religion of the country. The Pagan Empire fell due to the Mongol invasions (1277–1301), and several warring states emerged. In the second half of the 16th century, the country was reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty which for a brief period was the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia. The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Burma as well as Manipur and Assam. The country was colonized by Britain following three Anglo-Burmese Wars (1824–1885).
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Ceylon
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (i/ʃriː ˈlɑːŋkə/, /sriːˈlɑːŋkə/, or /sriːˈlæŋkə/;Sinhala: ශ්රී ලංකාව, Tamil: இலங்கை), is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia. Known until 1972 as Ceylon ( /sɨˈlɒn/, /seɪˈlɒn/, or /siːˈlɒn/), Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar, the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the Maldives.
As a result of its location in the path of major sea routes, Sri Lanka is a strategic naval link between West Asia and South East Asia. It was an important stop on the ancient Silk Road. Sri Lanka has also been a center of the Buddhist religion and culture from ancient times, being the nation where the Buddhist teachings were first written down as well as the oldest continually Buddhist country. Sri Lanka boasts a diverse range of cultures, languages and religions. The Sinhalese people form the majority of the population; Tamils, who are concentrated in the north and east of the island, form the largest ethnic minority. Other communities include Moors, Burghers, Kaffirs, Malays and the aboriginal Vedda people.
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Chakwal District
Chakwal (Urdu: ضلع چکوال) is a district in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Chakwal district was created in 1985; until the year 2000 when divisions were abolished, it was part of Rawalpindi Division.
The district of Chakwal, which covers an area of 6,524, is subdivided into 5 tehsils, these tehsils were formerly part of neighbouring districts:
At present district Chakwal consists of 5 subdivisions – Chakwal, Talagang, Choa Saidan Shah,Lawa and Kallar Kahar, 23 qanungois and 198 patwar circles. The police subdivisions correspond with those of the district administration and there are 11 police stations- Chakwal City, Saddar, Kallar Kahar, Dhumman, Nila, Dhudhial, Talagang City, Saddar, Tamman, Lawa and Choa Saidan Shah.
The district is administratively subdivided into four tehsils and 68 Union Councils
Total
There is one district council, two municipal committees- Chakwal and Talagang and two town committees- Choa Saidan Shah and Kallar Kahar.
The district is represented in the National Assembly by two constituencies NA-60 and NA-61. The district is represented in the provincial assembly by four elected MPAs who represent the following constituencies:
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Chandigarh
Chandigarh /ˈtʃɑːndɨɡər/ is a city and union territory in India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is derived from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city. It is also referred to as The City Beautiful due to its beautiful surroundings, central grid of gardens, each dedicated to different species of flora.
The city of Chandigarh was the first planned city in India and is known internationally for its architecture and urban design. The city has projects designed by architects such as Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Jane Drew, and Maxwell Fry. The city tops the list of Indian States and Union Territories with the highest per capita income in the country at Rs.99,262 at current prices and Rs.70,361 at constant prices (2006–2007). The city was reported in 2010 to be the "cleanest" in India, based on a national government study, and the territory also headed the list of Indian states and territories according to research conducted using 2005 data by Human Development Index.
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Gujarat
Gujarat /ˌɡʊdʒəˈrɑːt/ (Gujarati: ગુજરાત Gujǎrāt [ɡudʒ(ə)ɾat] ( listen)) is a state in western India. It has an area of 75,686 sq mi (196,030 km2) with a coastline of 1,600 km, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula, and a population in excess of 60 million. The state is bordered by Rajasthan to the north, Maharashtra to the south, Madhya Pradesh to the east and the Arabian Sea as well as the Pakistani province of Sindh on the west. Its capital is Gandhinagar, while its largest city is Ahmedabad. Gujarat is home to the Gujarati-speaking people of India.
The state encompasses major sites of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, such as Lothal and Dholavira. Lothal is believed to be one of the world's first ports. Gujarat's coastal cities, chiefly Bharuch and Khambhat, served as ports and trading centers in the Maurya and Gupta empires. Mahatma Gandhi, India's "father of the nation", who led the Indian Independence Movement against the British colonial rule was a Gujarati.Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, independent India's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister was also from Gujarat.
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Haryana
Haryana /ˌhɑriˈɑːnə/ is a state in India. Constituted in 1966, it is one of two newly created states carved out of the greater Punjab province as a means of creating a stronger national identity. It has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar (VS 1189-1230). It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south. The river Yamuna defines its eastern border with Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. Haryana also surrounds Delhi on three sides, forming the northern, western and southern borders of Delhi. Consequently, a large area of Haryana is included in the National Capital Region. The capital of the state is Chandigarh which is administered as a union territory and is also the capital of Punjab.
Sites in Haryana were part of the Indus Valley and Vedic Civilizations. Several decisive battles were fought in the area, which shaped much of the history of India. These include the epic battle of Mahabharata at Kurukshetra mentioned in the Hindu mythology (including the recital of the Bhagavad Gita by Krishna), and the three battles of Panipat. Haryana was administered as part of the Punjab province of British India, and was carved out on linguistic lines as India's 17th state in 1966. Haryana is now a leading contributor to the country's production of foodgrain and milk. Agriculture is the leading occupation for the residents of the state, the flat arable land irrigated by submersible pumps and an extensive canal system. Haryana contributed heavily to the Green Revolution that made India self-sufficient in food production in the 1960s.
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Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh /hɨˈmɑːtʃəl prəˈdɛʃ/ (Hindi: हिमाचल प्रदेश [ɦɪmaːtʃəl prəd̪eːʃ] ( listen)) is a state in Northern India. It is spread over 21,495 sq mi (55,670 km2), and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east.
Himachal Pradesh is known to be abundant in natural beauty After the Anglo Gorkha War, the British colonial government came into power. In 1950 Himachal was declared as a union territory but after the State of Himachal Pradesh Act 1971, Himachal emerged as the 18th state of the Republic of India. Himachal has many prestigious boarding schools. Hima means snow in Sanskrit, and the literal meaning of the state's name is In the lap of Himalayas. It was named by one of the great Sanskrit scholars of Himachal Pradesh, Acharya Diwakar Datt Sharma. Its name means "Abode of Snow".[citation needed]
The Economy of the Himachal Pradesh is currently the third fastest growing economy in India. Himachal Pradesh has been ranked fourth in the list of the highest per capita incomes of Indian states. Due to the abundance of perennial rivers, Himachal also sells hydro electricity to other states such as Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan. The economy of the state is highly dependent on three sources: hydroelectric power, tourism and agriculture.
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India Office
The India Office was a British government department created in 1858 to oversee the administration, through a Viceroy and other officials, of the Provinces of British India. These territories comprised most the modern-day nations of Bangladesh, Burma, India, and Pakistan, as well as Aden and other territories around the Indian Ocean. The department was headed by the Secretary of State for India, a member of the British cabinet, who was formally advised by the Council of India.
Upon the partition of British India in 1947 into the two new independent dominions of India and Pakistan, the India Office was closed down. Responsibility for the United Kingdom's relations with the two new countries was transferred to the Commonwealth Relations Office (formerly the Dominions Office).
The East India Company was established in 1600 as a joint-stock company of English merchants who received, by a series of charters, exclusive rights to English trade with the "Indies", defined as the lands lying between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan; the term "India" had been derived from the name of a river, the Indus, long important to commerce and civilization in the region. The Company soon established a network of warehouses or 'factories' throughout the south and east Indies in Asia. Over a period of 250 years the Company underwent several substantial changes in its basic character and functions.
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Jerusalem
Jerusalem ( /dʒəˈruːsələm/; Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם Yerushaláyim ; Arabic: القُدس al-Quds and/or أورشليم Ûrshalîm) is the capital of Israel, though not internationally recognized as such, and one of the oldest cities in the world. It is located in the Judean Mountains, between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern edge of the Dead Sea. If the area and population of East Jerusalem is included, it is Israel's largest city in both population and area, with a population of 801,000 residents over an area of 125.1 km2 (48.3 sq mi). Jerusalem is also a holy city to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent. Today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond its boundaries.
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Karachi
Karachi ( Karācī (help·info), Urdu: کراچی; Sindhi: ڪراچي) is the largest city, main seaport and financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 13 million. Results in April 2012 of Pakistan's latest census initial tabulations show that the district is home to over 21 million people, at a density of nearly 6,000 people per square kilometer (15,500 per square mile). Karachi is the most populous city in the country, one of the world's largest cities in terms of population and also the 10th largest urban agglomeration in the world. It is Pakistan's premier centre of banking, industry, economic activity and trade and is home to Pakistan's largest corporations, including those involved in textiles, shipping, automotive industry, entertainment, the arts, fashion, advertising, publishing, software development and medical research. The city is a major hub of higher education in South Asia and the wider Muslim world.
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Kheda
Kheda is a town and a municipality in Kheda district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Kheda, also known as Kaira, is 35 km from Ahmedabad. The National Highway no. 8 connecting Ahmedabad and Mumbai passes through Kheda. It forms the administrative center of Kheda District.
The town of Kheda passed to the Babi family early in the eighteenth century, with whom it remained until 1763, when it was taken by the Marathas. The Marathas ceded the district to the British in 1803, and it became part of the Bombay Presidency of British India. It was a large military station until 1830, when the cantonment was removed to Deesa. Gujjars established many villages in the Kheda District area, as did Jats and other groups.
Kheda is also where Gandhi launched a Satyagraha struggle against oppressive taxation by the British at a time of famine.
Kheda is on the bank of the river "Vatrak" and "Shedhi".
Kheda is located at 22°45′N 72°41′E / 22.75°N 72.68°E / 22.75; 72.68. It has an average elevation of 21 metres (68 feet).
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Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pashto: خیبر پښتونخوا [xaiˈbər pəxtunˈxwɑ]; Urdu: خیبر پختونخوا [ˈxɛːbər pəxˈtuːnxwaː]), locally called Pukhtunkhwa, and formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province and various other names, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the north-west of the country. It borders Afghanistan to the north-west, Gilgit–Baltistan to the north-east, Azad Kashmir to the east, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) to the west and south, Balochistan to the south and Punjab and the Islamabad Capital Territory to the south-east. The main ethnic group in the province is the Pashtuns; other smaller ethnic groups include most notably the Hindkowanss, Gujjar's and Chitralis. The principal languages are Pashto (locally referred to as Pukhto) The provincial capital is Peshawar.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sits primarily on the Iranian plateau and comprises the junction where the slopes of the Hindu Kush mountains on the Eurasian plate give way to the Indus-watered hills approaching South Asia. This situation has led to seismic activity in the past. The famous Khyber Pass links the province to Afghanistan, while the Kohalla Bridge in Circle Bakote Abbottabad is a major crossing point over the Jhelum River in the east.
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Kolkata
Kolkata /kɒlˈkætə/, or Calcutta /kælˈkʌtə/, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it is the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre of East India, while the Port of Kolkata is India's oldest port as well as its sole major riverine port. As of 2011, the city had 4.5 million residents; the urban agglomeration, which comprises the city and its suburbs, was home to approximately 14.1 million, making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in India. As of 2008, its economic output as measured by gross domestic product ranked third among South Asian cities, behind Mumbai and Delhi. As a growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Kolkata confronts substantial urban pollution, traffic congestion, poverty, overpopulation, and other logistic and socioeconomic problems.
In the late 17th century, the three villages that predated Kolkata were ruled by the Nawab of Bengal under Mughal suzerainty. After the Nawab granted the East India Company a trading license in 1690, the area was developed by the Company into an increasingly fortified mercantile base. Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah occupied Kolkata in 1756, and the East India Company retook it in the following year and by 1772 assumed full sovereignty. Under East India Company and later under the British Raj, Kolkata served as the capital of India until 1911, when its perceived geographical disadvantages, combined with growing nationalism in Bengal, led to a shift of the capital to New Delhi. The city was a centre of the Indian independence movement; it remains a hotbed of contemporary state politics. Following Indian independence in 1947, Kolkata—which was once the centre of modern Indian education, science, culture, and politics—witnessed several decades of relative economic stagnation. Since the early 2000s, an economic rejuvenation has led to accelerated growth.
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Lahore
Lahore (Punjabi: لہور, Urdu: لاہور) is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich history dating back over a millennium, Lahore is a main cultural centre of Pakistan. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains an economic, political, transportation, entertainment, and educational hub.
Lahore successively served as regional capital of the empires of the Shahi kingdoms in the 11th century, the Ghaznavids in the 12th century, the Ghurid State in the 12th and 13th centuries the Mughal Empire in the 16th century, the Sikh expansion in the early 19th century, and it was the capital of the Punjab region under the British Raj in the mid 19th and early 20th century. The traditional capital of Punjab for a thousand years, Lahore was the cultural center of the northern Indian subcontinent which extends from the eastern banks of the Indus River to New Delhi. Mughal structures such as the Badshahi Mosque, the Lahore Fort, Shalimar Gardens, and the mausolea of Jehangir and Nur Jehan are tourist attractions. Lahore is also home to many British colonial structures built in the Indo-Saracenic style, such as the Lahore High Court, the General Post Office, Lahore Museum and many older universities including the University of the Punjab. The Lahore Zoo, thought to be the fourth oldest in the world, is also situated here.
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Madras
Chennai /ˈtʃɛnaɪ/, formerly Madras /məˈdræs/, is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal, it is a major commercial, cultural, and educational centre in South India, while the port of Chennai is the second largest port in India. As of the 2011 census, the city had 4.68 million residents making it the sixth most populous city in India; the urban agglomeration, which comprises the city and its suburbs, was home to approximately 8.9 million, making it the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the country.
Although the area has been part of successive South Indian kingdoms through centuries, the recorded history of the city began in the colonial times, specifically with the arrival of British East India Company and the establishment in 1644 of Fort St George, an English settlement. The British defended several attacks from the French colonial forces, and from the kingdom of Mysore, on Chennai's way to become a major naval port and presidency city by late eighteenth century. Following the independence of India, Chennai became the capital of Tamil Nadu and a hotbed of regional politics that tended to bank on Dravidian identity of the populace. Chennai had become a bustling metropolis with beautiful classical and colonial European styled buildings, lining the city’s thoroughfares.
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Madurai
Madurai is the third largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu with a population of over 1 million (according to the 2001 census). Located on the banks of River Vaigai, Madurai has been a major settlement for two millennia. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The city is the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. The capital of the Pandyan kingdom was initially Korkai, around 600 BCE, and was later moved to Koodal (now Madurai) during the reign of Nedunj Cheliyan I. Madurai is famous for its temples built by Pandyan and Madurai Nayak kings in the Dravidian style of architecture. It is also one of India's most prominent Hindu pilgrimage centres.
Madurai is also called as City of Junction (Koodal nagaram), City of Jasmine (Malligai maanagar), Temple city (Koil maanagar), City that never sleeps (Thoonga nagaram) and City of four junctions (Naanmada koodal).
Madurai's recorded history goes back to the 3rd century BC and the city is mentioned by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to India and Kautilya, the minister of the Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta Maurya. The city was the principal administrative and cultural centre of the Pandyan dynasty which ruled over the southern parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala till the first half of the 14th century AD. In about 1311, the Pandyan dynasty was overthrown by the Delhi Sultanate which established the province of Ma'bar which later became independent as the Ma'bar Sultanate. When the Ma'bar Sultanate began to decline in the latter years of the 14th century, Madurai was absorbed into the Vijayanagar Empire. The viceroys of the Vijayanagar Empire established the Madurai Nayak kingdom and ruled as independent kings from 1559 to 1736. After a brief period of occupation by Chanda Sahib and the Carnatic kingdom, Madurai was annexed by the British East India Company in 1801.
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Maldive Islands
The Maldives Islands is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean comprising today's Republic of Maldives and the island of Minicoy in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep of India.
Historically Minicoy was within the domain of the sultans of the Maldives. In 1790 Minicoy was surrendered to the Court of Directors of the East India Company and thus became part of the territory of the Madras Presidency of British India. In 1858, following the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the control of British India transferred from the East India Company to the British Crown, and a decade later Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress. At the time of the partition of India of 1947, Minicoy transferred automatically to the new Union of India, while the remainder of the Maldives continued as a self-governing sultanate, ultimately achieving full independence in 1965.
Linguistically, Minicoy remains linked to the rest of the island group.
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Manipur
Manipur /mænɨˈpʊər/ (Pronunciation manipur (help·info)), literally meaning "a jeweled land", is a state in northeastern India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. Manipur is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west; it also borders Burma to the east. It covers an area of 22,347 square kilometres (8,628 sq mi).
The Meiteis (Meeteis), who live primarily in the state's valley region, form the primary ethnic group (60% of the total population) but occupy only 10% of the total land area. Their language, Meiteilon (Meeteilon), (also known as Manipuri), is also the lingua franca in the state, and was recognized as one of the national languages of India in 1992. The Muslims (Meitei-Pangal) also live in the valley; the Kukis, Nagas, Paites and other smaller groups form about 40% of the population but occupy the remaining 90% of the total land area of Manipur State. Manipur is considered a sensitive border state.[citation needed]
Manipur state has taken Bengali script of writing but now-a-days started in their original scripts "Meetei/Meitei Mayek(Script)" at schools as well as in Newspapers.
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Mecca
Mecca ( /ˈmɛkə/; Arabic: مكة, Makkah, pronounced [ˈmækːɐ]) is a city in the Hejaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located 70 km (43 mi) inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of 277 m (909 ft) above sea level. Its resident population in 2012 was 2 million, although visitors more than triple this number every year during Hajj period held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of Dhu al-Hijjah.
As the birthplace of Muhammad and a site of the composition of the Quran, Mecca is regarded as the holiest city in the religion of Islam and a pilgrimage to it known as the Hajj is obligatory upon all able Muslims. The Hijaz was long ruled by Muhammad's descendants, the sharifs, either as independent rulers or as vassals to larger empires. It was absorbed into Saudi Arabia in 1925. In its modern period, Mecca has seen tremendous expansion in size and infrastructure. Because of this Mecca has lost many thousand years old buildings and archaeological sites. Today, more than 15 million Muslims visit Mecca annually, including several million during the few days of the Hajj. As a result, Mecca has become one of the most cosmopolitan and diverse cities in the Muslim world, although non-Muslims remain prohibited from entering the city.
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Medina
Medina (/mɛˈdiːnə/; Arabic: اَلْمَدِينَة اَلْمَنَوَّرَة, al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah, “the radiant city” (officially), or اَلْمَدِينَة al-Madīnah; also transliterated as Madinah, or madinat al-nabi "the city of the prophet") is a city in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, and serves as the capital of the Al Madinah Province. It is the second holiest city in Islam, and the burial place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Medina is historically significant for being Muhammad's home after the Hijrah. Before the advent of Islam, the city was known as Yathrib, but was personally renamed by Muhammad.
Medina is home to the three oldest mosques in Islam, namely Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (The Prophet's Mosque), Quba Mosque (the first mosque in Islam's history), and Masjid al-Qiblatain (the mosque where the qibla was switched to Mecca).
Because of the Saudi government's religious policy and concern that historic sites could become the focus for idolatry, much of Medina's Islamic physical heritage has been destroyed since the beginning of Saudi rule.[citation needed]
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New Delhi
New Delhii/ˈnjuː dɛli/ is the capital city of India. As the national capital, New Delhi is the seat of executive, legislative, and judiciary branches of the Government of India. It also serves as the centre of the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi and is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory.
The definition of New Delhi is unclear and the differentiation between Delhi and New Delhi is blurry. Even administratively, the demarcation between Delhi and New Delhi is not clear. Government of India and Government of Delhi have not clearly defined the area and boundaries of New Delhi. The boundaries of areas of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and New Delhi district of Delhi do not completely overlap. In 1920s, when British constructed New Delhi, there were only two Delhis' – the old walled city called Old Delhi and the new city designed by Edwin Lutyens to serve as capital of British India, which was called 'New Delhi'. The rest of Delhi was rural. But after independence as more and more areas around New Delhi urbanized they also became a part of New Delhi as they were also a part of Delhi which was 'new'. Now, almost all of National Capital Territory of Delhi, with exceptions of the old city called Old Delhi, Civil Lines area, Trans-Yamuna region, some rural areas and some underdeveloped parts of Delhi (e.g. Ashok Vihar, Timarpur, Nangloi, Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri, Badarpur etc.), is designated as 'New Delhi' in postal addresses. Especially, almost all the places in South, South-west, Central and West districts of Delhi are designated as New Delhi. Most of the time, the terms Delhi and New Delhi are used interchangeably.
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Orissa
Orissa /ɔːˈrɪsə/ (Oriya: ଓଡ଼ିଶା [oˑɽisaˑ], Hindi: ओड़िशा – Oṛiśā), officially spelled Odisha, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BCE. The modern state of Orissa was established on April 1, 1936, as a province in India, and consists predominantly of Oriya speakers. April 1st is therefore celebrated as Utkala Dibasa (formation day of Orissa). Cuttack remained the capital of the state for over eight centuries until April 13, 1948 when Bhubaneswar was officially declared as the new capital of Orissa, and is the present capital of this state.
Orissa is the ninth largest state by area in India, and the eleventh largest by population. Oriya (officially spelled Odia) is the official and most widely spoken language, spoken by three quarters of the population. Orissa has a relatively unindented coastline (about 480 km long) and lacked good ports, except for the deepwater facility at Paradip, until the recent launch of the Dhamara Port (The Dhamra Port Company Limited (DPCL) is a 50:50 joint venture of L&T and Tata Steel. DPCL has been awarded a concession by Government of Orissa to build and operate a port north of the mouth of river Dhamra in Bhadrak district). The narrow, level coastal strip, including the Mahanadi River delta supports the bulk of the population. The interior of the state is mountainous and sparsely populated.Deomali at 1672 m is the highest point of the state. Orissa is subject to intense cyclones. The most intense one, in October 1999, Tropical Cyclone 05B caused severe damage and nearly 15,000 deaths.
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Portuguese India
The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India (Portuguese: Vice-Reino da Índia Portuguesa), later the Portuguese State of India (Portuguese: Estado Português da Índia), was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.
The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de Almeida, then settled at Cochin. Until 1752, the "State of India" included all Portuguese possessions in the Indian Ocean, from southern Africa to Southeast Asia, governed by either a Viceroy or a Governor from headquarters established in Goa since 1510. In 1752 Mozambique got its own government and in 1844 the Portuguese Government of India stopped administering the territory of Macau, Solor and Timor, being then confined to Malabar.
At the time of British India's independence in 1947, Portuguese India included a number of enclaves on India's western coast, including Goa proper, as well as the coastal enclaves of Daman (Port: Damão) and Diu, and the enclaves of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which lie inland from Daman. The territories of Portuguese India were sometimes referred to collectively as Goa. Portugal lost the last two enclaves in 1954, and finally the remaining three in December 1961, when they were taken back by India after military action (although Portugal only recognized Indian control in 1975, after the Carnation Revolution and the fall of the Estado Novo regime).
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Punjab, India
Punjab (i/pʌnˈdʒɑːb/) (Punjabi: ਪੰਜਾਬ Hindi: पंजाब) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the west, it is also bounded to the north by Jammu and Kashmir. The state capital is Chandigarh, which is a Union Territory and also the capital of neighbouring state of Haryana. Major cities of Punjab includes Ludhiana, Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar, Bathinda and Mohali.
After the partition of India in 1947, the Punjab province of British India was divided between India and Pakistan. The Indian Punjab was divided in 1966 with the formation of the new states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh as well as the current state of Punjab. Punjab is the only state in India with a majority Sikh population.
The Greeks referred to Punjab as Pentapotamia, an inland delta of five converging rivers. In Avesta, the sacred text of Zoroastrians, the Punjab region is associated with the ancient hapta həndu or Sapta Sindhu, the Land of Seven Rivers. The British used to call Punjab "Our Prussia."[citation needed] Historically, the Punjab region has been the gateway to the Indian subcontinent for people from Greece, Central Asia, Iran and Afghanistan and Vice-versa.
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Siam
Tai peoples who originally lived in southwestern China, migrated into mainland Southeast Asia over a period of many centuries. The oldest known mention of their existence in the region by the exonym Siamese is in a 12th century A.D. inscription at the Khmer temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, which refers to syam, or "dark brown" people. It was believed that Siam derived from the Hindi word shyam, or brown race, with a contemptuous signification. During the reign of Rama III (1824–1851,) a Scottish trader had experimental coins struck in England at the king's behest, Though not adopted for use, the name of the country put on these first coins was Muang Thai, not Siam. Also spelled Siem, Syâm or Syâma, it has been identified with the Sanskrit Śyâma (श्याम, meaning "dark" or "brown"). The names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word, and Śyâma is possibly not its origin but a learned and artificial distortion.
The country's designation as Siam by Westerners likely came from Portuguese, the first Europeans to give a coherent account of the country. Portuguese chronicles noted that the king of Sukhothai had sent an expedition to Malacca at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula in 1455. Following their conquest of Malacca in 1511, the Portuguese sent a diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya. A century later, on August 15, 1612, The Globe, an East India Company merchantman bearing a letter from King James I, arrived in "the Road of Syam" . "By the end of the 19th century, Siam had become so enshrined in geographical nomenclature that it was believed that by this name and no other would it continue to be known and styled."
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Sindh
Sindh (pronounced [sɪnd̪ʱ]; Sindhi: سنڌ; Urdu: سندھ Indica in Latin, Indus in Greek) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran" and has been given the title of Bab-ul-Islam (The gateway of Islam). The name of Sindh is derived from the Indus River that separates it from Balochistan and the greater Iranian Plateau. This river was known to the ancient Iranians in Avestan as Indus, in Sanskrit as Sindhu, to Assyrians (as early as the seventh century BC) as Sinda, to the Greeks as Indos, to the Romans as Indus, to the Persians as Ab-e-sind, to the Pashtuns as "Abasind", to the Arabs as Al-Sind, to the Chinese as Sintow, and to the Javanese as the Santri.
Sindh is bounded to the west by the Indus River and Balochistan, to the north by Punjab, the east by the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan and to the south by the Arabian Sea. The capital of the province is Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and financial hub. Most of the population in the province is Muslim, with sizeable Christian, Zoroastrian and Hindu minorities. The main language spoken is Sindhi by about 40 million people, while there exists a significant Urdu-speaking minority.
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University of Delhi
The University of Delhi (or simply DU) is a central university in Delhi, India and is funded by Government of India. Established in 1922, it offers courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Vice-President of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari is the chancellor. It was ranked 371 in the world in 2010 by the THES - QS world universities ranking. The university has two campuses in the northern and southern part of the city. The north campus is well connected with the yellow line of the Delhi Metro. The station is called Vishwavidyalaya, which means "university" in Hindi and Sanskrit. North campus is about 2.5 km from Delhi Vidhan Sabha and 7.0 km from ISBT.
When the University took birth, only three colleges existed in Delhi then: St. Stephen’s College founded in 1881, Hindu College founded in 1899 and Ramjas College founded in 1917, which were subsequently affiliated to it. The University thus had a modest beginning with just three colleges, two faculties (Arts and Science) and about 750 students. In October 1933, the University offices and the Library shifted to the Viceregal Lodge Estate, where Viceroy Lord Hardinge stayed (1912-1931)
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Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh /ˌʌtər prəˈdɛʃ/, abbreviation U.P. ("Northern Province"; formerly: United Provinces), is a state located in the north western part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity. Were it a nation in its own right, Uttar Pradesh would be the world's fifth most populous country, ahead of Brazil (a country thirty-five times larger in territorial area than Uttar Pradesh). On 9 November 2000, the Himalayan portion of the state, comprising the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions and Haridwar district, was formed into a new state 'Uttaranchal', now called Uttarakhand, meaning the 'Northern Segment' state.
Uttar Pradesh is the second largest state-economy in India, with a GDP of $103.5 billion in 2009. The annual per capita GDP of the state was $1586 in 2009, on purchasing power parity basis. It contributed 8.34% to India's total GDP in the financial year 2010. Agriculture is a significant part of UP's economy. The state was India's sixth largest producer of fruits, and became the largest producer of vegetables in 2010. With an area of 93,933 sq mi (243,290 km2), Uttar Pradesh covers a large part of the highly fertile and densely populated upper Gangetic plain. It shares an international border with Nepal to the north. Other states along Uttar Pradesh's border include Uttarakhand, Haryana and Delhi to the north and northwest; Rajasthan on the west; Madhya Pradesh on the south; Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand on the south east; and Bihar on the east.
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Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand[needs IPA] (Sanskrit: उत्तराखण्डम्, Uttarākhanḍam ?, Hindi: उत्तराखण्ड, Uttarākhanḍ ?), formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods (Hindi: देव भूमि, Dēv bhūmi ?) due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship. Known for its natural beauty and wealth of the Himalayas, the Bhabhar and the Terai, the state was carved out of the Himalayan and adjoining north-western districts of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000, becoming the 27th state of the Republic of India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region on the north, the Mahakali Zone of Far-Western Region, Nepal on the east and the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh to the south and Himachal Pradesh to the north west.
The region is traditionally referred to as Uttarakhand in Hindu scriptures and old literature, a term which derives from Sanskrit uttara (उत्तर) meaning north, and khaṇḍ (खण्ड्) meaning country or part of a country. It has an area of 20,682 sq mi (53,566 km²).
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West Bengal
West Bengal /bɛŋˈɡɔːl/ (proposed new English name: Paschim Banga) is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. Covering a total area of 34,267 sq mi (88,750 km2), it is bordered by the countries of Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, and the Indian states of Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Sikkim, and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). West Bengal encompasses two broad natural regions: the Gangetic Plain in the south and the sub-Himalayan and Himalayan area in the north.
In the 3rd century BC, the broader region of Bengal was conquered by the emperor Ashoka. In the 4th century AD, it was absorbed into the Gupta Empire. From the 13th century onward, the region was ruled by several sultans, powerful Hindu states and Baro-Bhuyan landlords, until the beginning of British rule in the 18th century. The British East India Company cemented their hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, and the city of Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) served for many years as the capital of British India. The early and prolonged exposure to British administration resulted in expansion of Western education, culminating in development in science, institutional education, and social reforms of the region, including what became known as the Bengal Renaissance. A hotbed of the Indian independence movement through the early 20th century, Bengal was divided in 1947 along religious lines into two separate entities: West Bengal – a state of India – and East Bengal, which initially joined the new nation of Pakistan, before becoming part of modern-day Bangladesh in 1971.
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Ab'ul Kalam Azad
Maulana Abul Kalam Muhiyuddin Ahmed Azad (Urdu: مولانا ابوالکلام محی الدین احمد آزاد, Bengali: আবুল কালাম মুহিয়ুদ্দিন আহমেদ আজাদ) (11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian Muslim scholar and a senior political leader of the Indian independence movement. He was one of the most prominent Muslim leaders to support Hindu-Muslim unity, opposing the partition of India on communal lines. Following India's independence, he became the first Minister of Education in the Indian government. He is also known for having predicted the future military rule and partition of Pakistan before its independence. He was posthumously awarded India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna in 1992. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as "National Education Day" across India.
As a young man, Azad composed poetry in Urdu as well as treatises on religion and philosophy. He rose to prominence through his work as a journalist, publishing works critical of the British Raj and espousing the causes of Indian nationalism. Azad became the leader of the Khilafat Movement during which he came into close contact with Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Azad became an enthusiastic supporter of Gandhi's ideas of non-violent civil disobedience, and worked actively to organise the Non-cooperation movement in protest at the 1919 Rowlatt Acts. Azad committed himself to Gandhi's ideals, including promoting Swadeshi (Indigenous) products and the cause of Swaraj (Self-rule) for India. He became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress in 1923.
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Abdul Ghaffar Khan
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1890 - 20 January 1988) (Pashto: خان عبدالغفار خان, Hindi: ख़ान अब्दुल ग़फ़्फ़ार ख़ान) was an Afghan, Pashtun political and spiritual leader known for his non-violent opposition to British Rule in India. A lifelong pacifist, a devout Muslim, and a close friend of Mohandas Gandhi, he was also known as Fakhri Afghan ("The Afghan pride"), Badshah Khan (also Bacha Khan, Pashto: lit., "King Khan") and Sarhaddi Gandhi (Urdu, Hindi lit., "Frontier Gandhi").
His family encouraged him to join the British Indian Army, but a British Raj officer's mistreatment of a countryman offended him. A family decision for him to study in England was put off after his mother's intervention.
Having witnessed the repeated failure of revolts against the British Raj, he decided social activism and reform would be more beneficial for Pashtuns. This ultimately led to the formation of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement (Servants of God). The movement's success triggered a harsh crackdown against him and his supporters and he was sent into exile. It was at this stage in the late 1920s that he formed an alliance with Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. This alliance was to last till the 1947 partition of India.
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Abul Kalam Azad
Maulana Abul Kalam Muhiyuddin Ahmed Azad (Urdu: مولانا ابوالکلام محی الدین احمد آزاد, Bengali: আবুল কালাম মুহিয়ুদ্দিন আহমেদ আজাদ) (11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian Muslim scholar and a senior political leader of the Indian independence movement. He was one of the most prominent Muslim leaders to support Hindu-Muslim unity, opposing the partition of India on communal lines. Following India's independence, he became the first Minister of Education in the Indian government. He is also known for having predicted the future military rule and partition of Pakistan before its independence. He was posthumously awarded India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna in 1992. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as "National Education Day" across India.
As a young man, Azad composed poetry in Urdu as well as treatises on religion and philosophy. He rose to prominence through his work as a journalist, publishing works critical of the British Raj and espousing the causes of Indian nationalism. Azad became the leader of the Khilafat Movement during which he came into close contact with Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Azad became an enthusiastic supporter of Gandhi's ideas of non-violent civil disobedience, and worked actively to organise the Non-cooperation movement in protest at the 1919 Rowlatt Acts. Azad committed himself to Gandhi's ideals, including promoting Swadeshi (Indigenous) products and the cause of Swaraj (Self-rule) for India. He became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress in 1923.
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Achyut Patwardhan
Achyut Patwardhan (Devanāgarī: अच्युत पटवर्धन; 5 February 1905 – 5 August 1992.) was an Indian independence activist and political leader and founder of the Socialist Party of India. He was also a philosopher who believed fundamental change in society begins with man himself.
Achyut's father, Hari Keshav Patwardhan, was a prosperous legal practitioner at Ahmednagar. He had six sons of whom Achyut was the second. When Achyut was a boy of four years, Sitaram Patwardhan, a retired Deputy Educational Inspector, adopted him. Sitaram died in 1917, leaving considerable property for Achyut. Patwardhans are amongst the talented Chitpavan Brahmins who migrated from the Konkan region to all parts of Maharashtra and formed mostly the English-educated gentry from the end of the last century till recent times.
After finishing his primary and secondary education at Ahmednagar, Achyut passed the B. A. and M. A. examination from the Central Hindu College of Benares. His subject was Economics and he obtained a first class. Achyut’s own and adoptive fathers were both Theosophists and, therefore, he was sent to the college founded by Dr. Annie Besant. He was in contact with Dr. G. S. Arundale, the Theosophist Principal of the college, Dr. Annie Besant and Professor Telang. Their influence made him studious, meditative and ascetic. It must also be the reason of his life-long bachelorship.
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Allama Mashriqi
Inayatullah Khan Mashriqi, also known as Allama Mashriqi, (25 August 1888 – 27 August 1963) was a South Asian mathematician, logician, political theorist, Islamic scholar and the founder of the Khaksar movement.
Mashriqi was a noted mathematical intellectual who became a college Principal at the age of 25, and then became an Under Secretary, at the age of 29, in the Education Department of the Government of India. He wrote an exegesis of the Qur'an which was nominated for the 1925 Nobel Prize. He was offered an ambassadorship to Afghanistan at age 32 and knighthood at the age of 33 years, but he declined all honours.
He subsequently resigned government service and in 1930 founded the Khaksar Movement, aiming to advance the condition of the masses irrespective of any faith, sect, or religion. As its leader, he was imprisoned several times. Through his philosophical writings, he asserted that the science of religions was essentially the science of collective evolution of mankind.
Mashriqi was born into an eminent Muslim Rajput family in Amritsar on 25 August 1888. His father, Khan Ata Mohammad Khan, had inherited a large property from his father. His ancestors had held prominent positions during the Mughal Empire. Khan Ata was also well-connected with the Muslim luminaries of the time such as Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Jamal Ud Din Afgahani, Shibli Nomani, and Mirza Ghalib.
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Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen, CH (Bengali: অমর্ত্য সেন, translit. Ômorto Shen; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members. Sen is best known for his work on the causes of famine, which led to the development of practical solutions for preventing or limiting the effects of real or perceived shortages of food. He helped to create the United Nations Human Development Index. In 2012, he became the first non-American recipient of the National Humanities Medal.
He is currently the Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. He is also a senior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, distinguished fellow of All Souls College, Oxford and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he previously served as Master from 1998 to 2004. He is the first Indian and the first Asian academic to head an Oxbridge college.
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Anglo-Indians
Anglo-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry, or people of British descent born or living in India, Pakistan, or Burma, now mainly historical in the latter sense. British residents in India used the term "Eurasians" for people of mixed European and Indian descent (cf. George Orwell's Burmese Days). The Oxford Dictionary's definition of "Anglo-Indian" is "Of mixed British and Indian parentage, of Indian descent but born or living in Britain, or (chiefly historical) of British descent or birth but living or having lived long in India".
The Anglo-Indian community in its modern sense is a distinct, small minority community originating in India. It consists of people from mixed British and Indian ancestry whose native language is English. An Anglo-Indian's British ancestry was usually bequeathed paternally.
Article 366(2) of the Indian Constitution defines Anglo-Indian as "a person whose father or any of whose other male progenitors in the male line is or was of European descent but who is domiciled within the territory of India and is or was born within such territory of parents habitually resident therein and not established there for temporary purposes only". This definition extends "Anglo-Indian" to include Indians of purely European (male) ancestry.
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Annie Beasant
Annie Besant (/ˈbɛsənt/; née Wood, 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.
She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society (NCS) and writer and a close friend of Charles Bradlaugh. In 1877 they were prosecuted for publishing a book by birth control campaigner Charles Knowlton. The scandal made them famous and Bradlaugh was elected Member of Parliament for Northampton in 1880.
She became involved with Union organisers including the Bloody Sunday demonstration and the London matchgirls strike of 1888 and was a leading speaker for the Fabian Society and the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF). She was elected to the London School Board for Tower Hamlets, topping the poll even though few women were qualified to vote at that time.
In 1890 Besant met Helena Blavatsky and over the next few years her interest in Theosophy grew while her interest in secular matters waned. She became a member of the Society and a highly successful lecturer in Theosophy. As part of her Theosophy-related work, she travelled to India where in 1898 she helped establish the Central Hindu College, and in 1902 she established the first overseas Lodge of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain in England. Over the next few years she established lodges in many parts of the British Empire. In 1907 she became President of the Theosophical Society.
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Annie Besant
Annie Besant (/ˈbɛsənt/; née Wood, 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.
She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society (NCS) and writer and a close friend of Charles Bradlaugh. In 1877 they were prosecuted for publishing a book by birth control campaigner Charles Knowlton. The scandal made them famous and Bradlaugh was elected Member of Parliament for Northampton in 1880.
She became involved with Union organisers including the Bloody Sunday demonstration and the London matchgirls strike of 1888 and was a leading speaker for the Fabian Society and the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF). She was elected to the London School Board for Tower Hamlets, topping the poll even though few women were qualified to vote at that time.
In 1890 Besant met Helena Blavatsky and over the next few years her interest in Theosophy grew while her interest in secular matters waned. She became a member of the Society and a highly successful lecturer in Theosophy. As part of her Theosophy-related work, she travelled to India where in 1898 she helped establish the Central Hindu College, and in 1902 she established the first overseas Lodge of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain in England. Over the next few years she established lodges in many parts of the British Empire. In 1907 she became President of the Theosophical Society.
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Anthony Low
Anthony Low (also, D. A. Low or Donald Anthony Low) is a historian of modern South Asia, Africa, the British Commonwealth, and, especially, decolonization. He is the Emeritus Smuts Professor of History of the British Commonwealth at the University of Cambridge, former Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University, Canberra, and Honorary Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge University.
The academic positions which Professor Low has held include the following:
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Ashfaqullah Khan
Ashfaqulla Khan (Urdu: اشفاق اُللہ خان, Hindi: अशफ़ाक़ुल्ला ख़ान) (22 October 1900 – 19 December 1927) was a freedom fighter in the Indian independence movement who had given away his life along with Ram Prasad Bismil. Bismil and Ashfaq, both were good friends and Urdu poets (Shayar). Bismil was the pen name or Takhallus of Ram Prasad whereas Ashfaq used to write poetry with the pen name of 'Hasrat'. Both were hanged on the same day, date and time but in different jails.
Ashfaq ullah Khan was born on 22 October 1900 in Shahjahanpur, a historical city of Uttar Pradesh. His father, Shafiq Ullah Khan belonged to a Pathan family who was famous for militancy. His maternal side was more knowledgeable where so many members had served in the police and administrative services of British India. His mother Mazhoor-Un-Nishan Begum was an extremely glamorous lady. Ashfaq ullah was the youngest amongst all his four brothers. His elder brother Riyasat Ullah Khan was a class mate of Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil. When Bismil was declared absconder after the Mainpuri Conspiracy, Riyasat used to tell his younger brother Ashafaq about the bravery and shayari Urdu poetry of Bismil. Since then Ashfaq was very keen to meet Bismil, because of his poetic attitude. In 1920, when Bismil came to Shahjahanpur and engaged himself in business Ashfaq tried so many times to contact him but Bismil paid no attention.
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Ayesha Jalal
Ayesha Jalal (Urdu: عائشہ جلال) is a Pakistani-American sociologist and historian. She is the Mary Richardson Professor of History at Tufts University and a 1998 MacArthur Fellow. The bulk of her work deals with the creation of Muslim identities in modern South Asia.
Ayesha Jalal was born in Lahore in Pakistan to Hamid Jalal, a senior Pakistani civil servant, a niece of the renowned Urdu fiction writer Saadat Hasan Manto . She came to New York at the age of 16 when her father was posted at the United Nations. She is married to Indian historian Sugata Bose who teaches at Harvard.
She obtained her BA, majoring in History and Political Science, from Wellesley College, USA, and her doctorate in history from Trinity College at University of Cambridge, where she wrote her Ph.D. dissertation: 'Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan'.
Ayesha Jalal has been Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1980–84), Leverhulme Fellow at the Center of South Asian Studies, Cambridge (1984–87), Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, DC (1985–86) and Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies(1988–90). She has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Tufts University, Columbia University, Harvard University and Lahore University of Management Sciences.
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B. R. Ambedkar
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar ([bʱiːmraːw raːmdʑiː aːmbeːɽkər]; 14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956), popularly also known as Babasaheb, was an Indian jurist, political leader, philosopher, anthropologist, historian, orator, economist, teacher, and editor. He was also the Chairman of the Drafting Committee of Indian Constitution. Born into a poor Mahar (considered an Untouchable caste) family, Ambedkar campaigned against social discrimination, the system of Chaturvarna – the categorization of Hindu society into four varnas – and the Hindu caste system. He converted to Buddhism and is also credited with providing a spark for the transformation of hundreds of thousands of Dalits or untouchables to Theravada Buddhism. Ambedkar was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award, in 1990.
Overcoming numerous social and financial obstacles, Ambedkar became one of the first outcastes to obtain a college education in India. Eventually earning law degree and doctorates for his study and research in law, economics and political science from Columbia University and the London School of Economics, Ambedkar gained a reputation as a scholar and practiced law for a few years, later campaigning by publishing journals advocating political rights and social freedom for India's untouchables. He is regarded as a Bodhisattva by some Indian Buddhists, though he never claimed himself to be a Bodhisattva.
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Baba Amte
Murlidhar Devidas Amte (December 26, 1914 – February 9, 2008), popularly known as Baba Amte (Marathi: बाबा आमटे), was an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for his work for the rehabilitation and empowerment of poor people suffering from leprosy.
Amte was born to Devidas and Laxmibai Amte in the town of Hinganghat in Wardha District of Maharashtra. The family was a wealthy jagirdar Brahmin family. His father was also a British official with responsibilities for district administration and revenue collection. Amte had acquired his nickname Baba in his childhood.
He came to be known as Baba not because "he is a saint or any such thing, but because his parents addressed him by that name." (as explained by his wife Sadhanatai)
As the eldest son of a wealthy Brahmin landowner, Murlidhar had an idyllic childhood. By the time he was fourteen, Baba owned his own gun and hunted boar and deer. He developed a special interest in cinema, wrote reviews for the film magazine The Picture Goer and even corresponded with Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer. (Norma Shearer would become one of his first foreign donors when he began working with leprosy patients.) When he was old enough to drive, Baba was given a Singer sportscar with cushions covered with panther skin! But even then, Amte did not appreciate the restrictions that prevented him from playing with the 'low-caste' servants' children.
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Bahadur Shah Zafar
Bahadur Shah II (Urdu: بہادر شاہ دوم), born Abu Zafar Sirajuddin Muhammad Bahadur Shah Zafar (Urdu: ابو ظفر سِراجُ الْدین محمد بُہادر شاہ ظفر), on October 1775 – died November 7, 1862) was the last Mughal emperor and a member of the Timurid Dynasty. Zafar was the son of Akbar Shah II and Lalbai, who was a Hindu Rajput, and became Mughal Emperor when his father died on September 28, 1837. He was widely known as Bahadur Shah Zafar. He used Zafar, a part of his name, meaning “victory”, as a nom de plume (takhallus) as an Urdu poet and wrote many Urdu ghazals under it. After his involvement in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 the British tried and then exiled him from Delhi.
Zafar's father, Akbar Shah II, ruled over a rapidly disintegrating empire between 1806 to 1837. It was during his time that the East India Company dispensed with the illusion of ruling in the name of the Mughal monarch and removed his name from the Persian texts that appeared on the coins struck by the company in the areas under their control.
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Bakht Khan
Bakht Khan khan (1797–13 May 1859) was nominal commander-in-chief of Indian rebel forces in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the East India Company.
Bakht Khan was a Pashtun related to the family of Rohilla chief Najib-ul-Daula, from a branch of the Yusufzai tribe. He was born in Bijnor in Rohilkhand and later became a subedar in the army of the East India Company, gaining forty years of experience in the Bengal horse artillery and seeing action in the First Anglo-Afghan War.
By the time Khan arrived at Delhi on July 1, 1857, the city had already been taken by rebel forces and the Mughal ruler Bahadur Shah II had been proclaimed Emperor of India. The emperor's eldest son, Mirza Mughal, also called Mirza Zahiruddin, had been given the title of chief general, but this prince had no military experience. This was the time when Bakht Khan along with his forces arrived in Delhi on Wednesday 1 July 1857. With his arrival the leadership position did improve. Bakht Khan's superior abilities quickly became evident, and the emperor gave him actual authority and the title of Saheb-I-Alam Bhadur, or Lord Governor General. Khan was virtual commander of the sepoy forces, although Mirza Zahiruudin was still the commander in chief.
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Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Lokmanya Tilak (Marathi: लोकमान्य बाळ गंगाधर टिळक pronunciation (help·info)), born as Keshav Bal Gangadhar Tilak ((1856-07-23)23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920(1920-08-01), age 64), was an Indian nationalist, teacher, social reformer, lawyer and independence fighter who was the first popular leader of the Indian Independence Movement. The British colonial authorities derogatorily called him "Father of the Indian unrest". He was also conferred with the honorary title of "Lokmanya", which literally means "Accepted by the people (as their leader)". Tilak was one of the first and strongest advocates of "Swaraj" (self-rule) and a strong radical in Indian consciousness. His famous quote, "Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it!" is well-remembered in India even today.
Lokmanya Tilak was born at Chummakachu Lane (Ranjani Aaleea) in Chikhalgaon, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra to a Chitpavan Brahmin family. His father, Shri Gangadhar Tilak was a famous school teacher and a Sanskrit scholar who died when Tilak was sixteen. His brilliance rubbed off on young Tilak, who graduated from Deccan College, Pune in 1877. Tilak was among one of the first generation of Indians to receive a college education.
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Bhagat Singh
Bhagat Singh (IPA: [pə̀ɡət̪ sɪ́ŋɡ] ( listen); 28 September 1907 – 23 March 1931) was an Indian nationalist considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement. He is often referred to as Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the word Shaheed meaning "martyr" in a number of Indian languages.
Born into a Sikh Jat family which had earlier been involved in revolutionary activities against the British Raj, as a teenager Singh studied European revolutionary movements and was attracted to anarchist and marxist ideologies. He became involved in numerous revolutionary organisations, and quickly rose through the ranks of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) to become one of its main leaders, eventually changing its name to the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) in 1928.
Seeking revenge for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai at the hands of the police, Singh was involved in the assassination of British police officer John Saunders. He eluded efforts by the police to capture him. Together with Batukeshwar Dutt, he undertook a successful effort to throw two bombs and leaflets inside the Central Legislative Assembly while shouting slogans of Inquilab Zindabad. Subsequently they volunteered to surrender and be arrested. Held on this charge, he gained widespread national support when he underwent a 116 day fast in jail, demanding equal rights for British and Indian political prisoners. During this time, sufficient evidence was brought against him for a conviction in the Saunders case, after trial by a Special Tribunal and appeal at the Privy Council in England. He was convicted and subsequently hanged for his participation in the murder, aged 23. His legacy prompted youth in India to begin fighting for Indian independence and he continues to be a youth idol in modern India, as well as the inspiration for several films. He is commemorated with a large bronze statue in the Parliament of India, as well as a range of other memorials.
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Bhikaiji Cama
Bhikaiji Rustom Cama (24 September 1861 – 13 August 1936) was a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement.
Bhikhaiji Rustom Cama was born on 24 September 1861 in Bombay (now Mumbai) into a large, well-off Parsi family. Her parents, Sorabji Framji Patel and Jaijibai Sorabji Patel, were well known in the city, where her father Sorabji—a lawyer by training and a merchant by profession—was an influential member of the Parsi community.
Like many Parsi girls of the time, Bhikhaiji attended Alexandra Native Girl's English Institution. Bhikhaiji was by all accounts a diligent, disciplined child with a flair for languages.
On 3 August 1885, she married Rustom Cama, a wealthy, pro-British lawyer who aspired to enter politics. It was not a happy marriage, and Bhikhaiji spent most of her time and energy in philanthropic activities and social work.
In October 1896, the Bombay Presidency was hit first by famine, and shortly thereafter by bubonic plague. Bhikhaiji joined one of the many teams working out of Grant Medical College (which would subsequently become Haffkine's plague vaccine research centre), in an effort to provide care for the afflicted, and (later) to inoculate the healthy. Cama subsequently contracted the plague herself, but survived. Severely weakened, she was sent to Britain for medical care in 1901.
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Bidhan Chandra Roy
Bidhan Chandra Roy, M.R.C.P., F.R.C.S. (1 July 1882 – 1 July 1962) was the second Chief Minister of West Bengal in India. He remained in his post for 14 years as a Indian National Congress candidate, from 1948 until his death in 1962. He was a highly respected physician and a renowned freedom fighter. Bidhan Roy is often considered the great architect of West Bengal, who founded three eminent cities, Durgapur, Kalyani and Bidhannagar. He was an alumnus of the Medical College Calcutta of the University of Calcutta. He is one of the few people who completed both F.R.C.S. and M.R.C.P. simultaneously within only two years and three months. In India, the National Doctor's Day is celebrated on the date of his birth (and death) July 1 every year. Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy constituted a trust for his properties at Patna for social service and made eminent nationalist Ganga Sharan Singh (Sinha) the trustee. He was awarded Bharat Ratna on 4 February 1961, India's highest civilian honour. He was also a member of the Brahmo Samaj[citation needed].
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Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal (Bengali: বিপিন চন্দ্র পাল; November 7, 1858 - May 20, 1932) was an Indian nationalist. He was among the triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal.
Bipin Chandra Pal was born in Poil Village, Habiganj District, Bangladesh, in a wealthy Hindu Vaishnava family. His father was Ramchandra Pal, a Persian scholar and small landowner. His son was Niranjan Pal, one of the founders of Bombay Talkies. B.C. Pal is known as the 'Father Of Revolutionary Thoughts' in India and was one of the freedom fighters of India. He was a radical.
Bipin Chandra Pal was a teacher, journalist, orator, writer and librarian, he was famous as one of the triumvirate of three militant patriots of the Congresses - the "Pal" of Lal Bal Pal. The trio was responsible for initiating the first popular upsurge against British colonial policy in the 1905 partition of Bengal, before the advent of Gandhi into Indian politics. Pal was also the founder of the journal Bande Mataram.
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Brahmin
Brahmin (also called Brahman; from Sanskrit brāhmaṇa ब्राह्मण) is a name used to designate a member of one of the four varnas (castes) in the traditional Hindu societys of Nepal and India.
Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self. Brahmin or Brahmana refers to an individual, while the word Brahma refers to the creative aspect of the universal consciousness. The English word brahmin is an anglicised form of the Sanskrit word Brāhmana. In the Smriti view there are four "varnas", or classes: the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas, and Shudras. The Atreya smriti 141-142 enjoins that
One is a Shudra by birth
samskarad dvija ucyate
By observing Sanskara one becomes a Dvija
vedapathi bhaved viprah
By studying the Vedas one becomes a Vipra
brahma janati brahmanah
Traditionally Brahmin was the name given to persons who had attained the highest spiritual knowledge (brahmavidya) and who adhered to different branches (shakhas) of Vedas. This was described to be a difficult path of discipline of body, mind, and intellect. Irrespective of their birth or class,[citation needed] people who were dedicated to such an austere life were recognized as Brahmins.[citation needed] An example of this definition of Brahmin, that a person becomes a Brahmin, rather than being born as one, is the story of the sage Vishwamitra, who was a warrior, who became a Brahmin after attaining brahmavidya, and composed the Gayatri mantra. [defunct example from period before dharmashastras So,[citation needed] The belief that people born into the Brahmin caste, automatically become Brahmins, is a concept that emerged later in ancient India.[citation needed]
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Burton Stein
Burton Stein (1926 – April 26, 1996) was a scholar of India.
Stein was born and grew up in Chicago, Illinois and served in the Second World War, before commencing tertiary study at the now disused Navy Pier facility that in 1945 was the Chicago campus of the University of Illinois. Stein was an unusual case in that he never completed a bachelors degree. He was admitted directly into a Master of Arts program at the University of, finishing his masters in 1954 under the supervision of Robert Crane[disambiguation needed
]. Burt then wrote his Ph.D. dissertation in 1957 on the economic functions of South India’s medieval Tirupati temple.
Upon the completion of his PhD, Stein was appointed to a teaching post at the University of Minnesota, where he stayed until the end of 1965. He then moved to the University of Hawaii where he stayed for 17 years until 1983. He held visiting professorships at the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, University of California, Berkeley and the Centre for Historical Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University. In 1983 he married the author Dorothy Stein and moved to London, where he lived within ten minutes of the India Office Library. He was appointed a Professorial Research Associate of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
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Chandrasekhar Azad
Chandra Shekhar Azad (23 July 1906 – 27 February 1931), popularly known as Azad ("The Liberated"), was one of the most important Indian revolutionaries who reorganised the Hindustan Republican Association under the new name of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) after the death of its founder Pandit Ram Prasad Bismil and three other prominent party leaders, Thakur Roshan Singh, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Ashfaqulla Khan. He is considered to be the mentor of Bhagat Singh and chief strategist of the HSRA.
Chandra Shekhar Azad was born on 23 July 1906 in Saryuparin Brahmins family of Pandit Sitaram Tiwari and Jagrani Devi in the Badarka village of Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh. He spent his childhood in the village Bhabhra when his father was serving in the erstwhile estate of Alirajpur.
He learned archery from the tribal Bhils of erstwhile Jhabua district which helped him later on during the arms struggle against the Britishers.
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Chittaranjan Das
Chittaranjan Das (C. R. Das) (Bengali: চিত্তরঞ্জন দাস Chittorônjon Dash) (popularly called Deshbandhu "Friend of the country") (5 November 1870 – 16 June 1925) was an Indian politician and leader of the Swaraj (Independence) Party in Bengal under British rule.
After failing the competitive entrance examination for the British-dominated Indian Civil Service, Das entered the legal profession. He defended many accused of political offenses and took an active part in nationalistic journalism.
Bitterly opposing British rule in India and rejecting all ideas of political or economic development of India along Western lines, he idealized the life of the ancient Indian village and saw a golden age in ancient Indian history. He supported the noncooperation movement launched against British rule by Mahatma Gandhi and in 1921 was imprisoned for six months as a political offender. In 1922 he became president of the Indian National Congress. Under his leadership the Congress abandoned its intentions to boycott colonially sponsored elections for provincial councils. It decided instead to participate in order to seek positions that would permit them to obstruct governmental business from within.
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Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was also the first person to hold the office of Deputy Prime Minister, under Winston Churchill in the wartime coalition government, before leading the Labour Party to a landslide election victory over Churchill's Conservative Party in 1945. He was the first Labour Prime Minister to serve a full Parliamentary term, and the first to command a Labour majority in Parliament.
The government he led put in place the post-war settlement, based upon the assumption that full employment would be maintained by Keynesian policies, and that a greatly enlarged system of social services would be created – aspirations that had been outlined in the wartime Beveridge Report. Within this context, his government undertook the nationalisation of major industries and public utilities as well as the creation of the National Health Service. After initial Conservative opposition to Keynesian fiscal policy, this settlement was broadly accepted by all parties until Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979.
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Dadabhai Naoroji
Dadabhai Naoroji (4 September 1825 – 30 June 1917) (Hindi: दादाभाई नौरोजी), known as the Grand Old Man of India, was a Parsi intellectual, educator, cotton trader, and an early Indian political and social leader. His book Poverty and Un-British Rule in India brought attention to the draining of India's wealth into Britain. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) in the British House of Commons between 1892 and 1895, and the first Asian to be a British MP. He is also credited with the founding of the Indian National Congress, along with A.O. Hume and Dinshaw Edulji Wacha.
At the early age of 25, he was appointed leading Professor at the Elphinstone Institution in 1850, becoming the first Indian to hold such an academic position. Being an Athornan (ordained priest), Naoroji founded the Rahnumae Mazdayasne Sabha (Guides on the Mazdayasne Path) on 1 August 1851 to restore the Zoroastrian religion to its original purity and simplicity. In 1854, he also founded a fortnightly publication, the Rast Goftar (or The Truth Teller), to clarify Zoroastrian concepts. By 1855 he was Professor of Mathematics and Natural philosophy in Bombay. He travelled to London in 1855 to become a partner in Cama & Co, opening a Liverpool location for the first Indian company to be established in Britain. Within three years, he had resigned on ethical grounds. In 1859, he established his own cotton trading company, Naoroji & Co. Later, he became professor of Gujarati at University College London.
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Daniel Thorner
Daniel Thorner (1915–1974) was an American-born economist known for his work on agricultural economics and Indian economic history. He is known for the application of historical and contemporary economic analysis on policy and influenced agricultural policy in India in the 1950s through his association with the Planning Commission. Along with D. D. Kosambi and R.S. Sharma, he brought peasants into the study of Indian history for the first time.
He graduated from Columbia University in the 1930s and served in India during World War II. He completed his thesis on the conditions of the British railway and steam ship enterprise in India in 1950 from the University of Pennsylvania, later published as a book. He subsequently joined the University of Pennsylvania South Asia Regional Studies Program to teach Indian economic history. He married Alice Thorner, who was a collaborator and co-author of many of his works on India.
During the 1950s, under Senator Joseph McCarthy, there was a witchhunt for leftist economists, and Thorner would not divulge the names of his leftist friends. Thus he lost his job and a government-funded fellowship for a project in India. He borrowed money from his parents and left for Bombay in 1952 along with his wife He travelled extensively in Indian villages and continued to work on agricultural economics.
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Dorabji Tata
Sir Dorabji Tata (Gujarati: દોરાબજી તાતા; 27 August 1859 – 3 June 1932), was an Indian industrialist and philanthropist, and a key figure in the history and development of the Tata industrial empire. Dorabji Tata was knighted in 1910 for his contributions to industry in British India. At the time of death, his networth was estimated at $150 million.
Dorab, or Sir Dorabji, as he was later known, was the elder son of Hirabai and Parsi Zoroastrian Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata. He received his primary education at the Proprietary High School in Bombay (now Mumbai) before travelling to England in 1875, where he was privately tutored. He entered Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1877, where he remained for two years before returning to Bombay in 1879. He continued his studies at St. Xavier's College, Bombay, where he obtained a degree in 1882.
Upon graduating, Dorab worked for two years as a journalist at the Bombay Gazette. In 1884, he joined the cotton business division of his father's firm. He was first sent to Pondicherry, then a French colony, in order to determine whether a cotton mill might be profitable there. Thereafter, he was sent to Nagpur, in order to learn the cotton trade at the Empress Mills which had been founded by his father in 1877.
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Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC (12 January [NS] 1729– 9 July 1797) was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party.
He is mainly remembered for his support of the cause of the American Revolutionaries, and for his later opposition to the French Revolution. The latter led to his becoming the leading figure within the conservative faction of the Whig party, which he dubbed the "Old Whigs", in opposition to the pro–French Revolution "New Whigs", led by Charles James Fox.
Burke was praised by both conservatives and liberals in the 19th century.[citation needed] Since the 20th century, he has generally been viewed as the philosophical founder of modern Conservatism, as well as a representative of classical liberalism.
Burke was born in Dublin, Ireland, to a prosperous solicitor father (Richard; d. 1761) of the Church of Ireland. It is unclear if this is the same Richard Burke who converted from Catholicism. His mother Mary (c. 1702–1770), whose maiden name was Nagle, was a Roman Catholic and came from an impoverished but genteel County Cork family. The Burke dynasty descended from an Anglo-Norman surnamed de Burgh (Latinised as de Burgo) who arrived in Ireland in 1185 following the Norman invasion of Ireland by Henry II of England in 1171.)
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Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. He was the first British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, which was renamed the House of Windsor by his son, George V.
Before his accession to the throne, he served as heir apparent and held the title of Prince of Wales for longer than any of his predecessors. During the long reign of his mother, Queen Victoria, he was largely excluded from political power and came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite.
The Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including powered flight and the rise of socialism. Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet, the reform of the Army Medical Services, and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War. Edward fostered good relations between Great Britain and other European countries, especially France, for which he was popularly called "Peacemaker", but his efforts were unable to prevent the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
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Edward VIII
Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; later The Duke of Windsor; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.
Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay. As a young man, he served in the British Armed Forces during the First World War and undertook several foreign tours on behalf of his father, George V. He was associated with a succession of older, married women but remained unmarried until after his abdication as king.
Edward became king when his father died in early 1936. Only months into his reign, he caused a constitutional crisis by proposing marriage to the American socialite Wallis Simpson, who had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. The prime ministers of the United Kingdom and the Dominions opposed the marriage, arguing that the people would never accept a divorced woman with two living ex-husbands as queen. Additionally, such a marriage would have conflicted with Edward's status as head of the Church of England, which opposed the remarriage of divorced people if their former spouses were still alive. Edward knew that the government led by British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin would resign if the marriage went ahead, which could have dragged the king into a general election and would ruin his status as a politically neutral constitutional monarch. Rather than end his relationship with Simpson, Edward abdicated. He was succeeded by his younger brother Albert, who chose the regnal name George VI. With a reign of 326 days, Edward was one of the shortest-reigning monarchs in British and Commonwealth history. He was never crowned.
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Edwin Montagu
Edwin Samuel Montagu PC (6 February 1879 – 15 November 1924) was a British Liberal politician. He notably served as Secretary of State for India between 1917 and 1922.
Montagu was the second son and sixth child of Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling, by his wife Ellen, daughter of Louis Cohen. He was educated at Clifton College, the City of London School, University College London and Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he was the first student President of Cambridge University Liberal Club, from 1902 to 1903, and in 1902 was also President of the Cambridge Union.
Montagu was elected Member of Parliament for Chesterton in 1906, a seat he held until 1918, and then represented Cambridgeshire until 1922. He served under H. H. Asquith as Under-Secretary of State for India from 1910 to 1914, as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1914 to 1915 and again from 1915 to 1916 and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (with a seat in the cabinet) in 1915 and 1916. In 1915 he was sworn of the Privy Council. In 1916 he was promoted to Minister of Munitions. He was initially left out of David Lloyd George's coalition government, but in 1917 he was appointed Secretary of State for India, which he remained until March 1922, when he resigned. He was primarily responsible for the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms which led to the Government of India Act 1919 which committed the British to the eventual evolution of India to dominion status.
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Edwin Samuel Montagu
Edwin Samuel Montagu PC (6 February 1879 – 15 November 1924) was a British Liberal politician. He notably served as Secretary of State for India between 1917 and 1922.
Montagu was the second son and sixth child of Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling, by his wife Ellen, daughter of Louis Cohen. He was educated at Clifton College, the City of London School, University College London and Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he was the first student President of Cambridge University Liberal Club, from 1902 to 1903, and in 1902 was also President of the Cambridge Union.
Montagu was elected Member of Parliament for Chesterton in 1906, a seat he held until 1918, and then represented Cambridgeshire until 1922. He served under H. H. Asquith as Under-Secretary of State for India from 1910 to 1914, as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1914 to 1915 and again from 1915 to 1916 and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (with a seat in the cabinet) in 1915 and 1916. In 1915 he was sworn of the Privy Council. In 1916 he was promoted to Minister of Munitions. He was initially left out of David Lloyd George's coalition government, but in 1917 he was appointed Secretary of State for India, which he remained until March 1922, when he resigned. He was primarily responsible for the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms which led to the Government of India Act 1919 which committed the British to the eventual evolution of India to dominion status.
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George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War (1914–1918) until his death in 1936.
George was a grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and the first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. From 1877 to 1891, he served in the Royal Navy. On the death of Victoria in 1901, George's father became King Edward VII, and George was made Prince of Wales. On his father's death in 1910, he succeeded as King-Emperor of the British Empire. He was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar.
As a result of the First World War, other empires in Europe fell while his expanded to its greatest extent. In 1917, he became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, which he renamed from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment. His reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and the Indian independence movement, all of which radically changed the political landscape. The Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected House of Commons of the United Kingdom over the unelected House of Lords. In 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent kingdoms within the Commonwealth of Nations. He was plagued by illness throughout much of his later reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII.
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George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death. He was the last Emperor of India, and the first Head of the Commonwealth.
As the second son of King George V, he was not expected to inherit the throne and spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Edward. He served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during World War I, and after the war took on the usual round of public engagements. He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret.
George's elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII on the death of their father in 1936. However, later that year Edward revealed his desire to marry the divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin advised Edward that for political and religious reasons he could not marry Mrs Simpson and remain king. Edward abdicated in order to marry, and George ascended the throne as the third monarch of the House of Windsor.
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Gopal Ganesh Agarkar
Gopal Ganesh Agarkar [Marathi: गोपाळ गणेश आगरकर] (14 July 1856 – 17 June 1895) was a social reformer, educationist, thinker from Maharashtra, India during the British Raj. A close associate of Lokamanya Tilak, he was a co-founder of the renowned educational institutes like New English School, the Deccan Education Society and Fergusson College along with Lokamanya Tilak, Vishnushastree Chiplunkar and others. He was the first editor of the weekly Kesari and founder and editor of periodical Sudhaarak. He was the second Principal of Fergusson College and served that post from August-1892 till his death.
Throughout his short life of just about 39 years, he exemplified impeccably high moral character, utter determination to attain one's goals, sacrifice, great courage and a total lack of greediness. He is considered as a model for any one who wants to be in public service with unflinching devotion to his/her principles and a complete dedication to the work undertaken.
In his public life of just about 15 years, Agarkar made gigantic contributions to the field of social reforms and education and left an indellible mark on the social life of Maharashtra.
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Gopal Hari Deshmukh
Gopal Hari Deshmukh (Marathi: गोपाळ हरी देशमुख) (1823–1892) was a social reformer from Maharashtra, India.
Deshmukh started his career as a translator for the government then under British Raj. In 1867, the government appointed him a small cause judge in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He retired as a sessions judge.
At age 25, Deshmukh started writing articles aimed at social reform in Maharashtra in the weekly Prabhakar (प्रभाकर) under the pen name Lokhitwadi (लोकहितवादी). In the first two years, he penned 108 articles on social reform. That group of articles has come to be known in Marathi literature as Lokhitwadinchi Shatapatre (लोकहितवादींची शतपत्रे).
He promoted emancipation (liberation) and education of women, and wrote against arranged child marriages, dowry system, and polygamy, all of which were prevalent in India in his times.
He promoted nationalistic spirit in Maharashtra.
He wrote against the evils of caste system which was strongly prevalent in India in his times, condemned harmful Hindu religious orthodoxy, and attacked the monopoly in religious matters and rituals which Brahmin priests had through a long tradition. (Noteworthily, Deshmukh belonged to the Brahmin class.) He enunciated certain 15 principles for bringing about religious reform in Hindu society.
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Hakim Ajmal Khan
Ajmal Khan (or Hakim Ajmal Khan) (1863–1927) was an Indian physician specialising in the field of South Asian traditional Unani medicine as well as a Muslim nationalist politician and freedom fighter. Through his founding of the Tibbia College in Delhi, he is credited with the revival of Unani medicine in early 20th century India. Khan also recognised the talents of chemist Dr. Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, whose subsequent research into important medicinal plants used in the field gave it a new direction. A close associate of Gandhi, he participated in the Non-cooperation movement (Satyagraha), led the Khilafat Movement, and became the fifth Muslim[citation needed]President of the Indian National Congress during the 1921 session held in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Khan was one of the founders of the Jamia Millia Islamia University, becoming its first chancellor in 1920 and remaining in office until his death in 1927.
Hakim Born in 1863, Khan descended from a distinguished line of physicians who had come to India during the reign of Mughal Emperor Babar. His family were all Unani doctors who had practiced this ancient form of medicine since their arrival in the country. They were then known as the Rais of Delhi. His grandfather, Hakim Sharif Khan, was physician to Mughal Emperor, Shah Alam and built the Sharif Manzil, a hospital-cum-college teaching Unani medicine.
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Har Dayal
Lala Har Dayal (Hindi: लाला हरदयाल, Urdu: لالا ہردیال; October 13, 1884, Delhi, India - March 4, 1939, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a Indian nationalist revolutionary who founded the Ghadar Party in America. He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service. His simple living and intellectual acumen inspired many expatriate Indians living in Canada and the USA to fight against British Imperialism during the First World War.
Lala Har Dayal was a model of bourgeois virtues-order, regularity, precision and industry. There is a happy display of the faculty of higher criticism which depends upon certain refined perceptions and the power of subtle analysis. His analysis was neither rough nor hasty or sweeping; his perception was healthy, robust and sound. His precision is absolute. If we conclude in a single sentence, it is just like a line drawn in one stroke by a Master of Letters. That is why most of his fellows used to call him Lala Har Dayal M.A.
He had a romantic imagination and classic insight; and both of these factors worked together. He was very particular in intonation, rhythm and tonal quality of his words. Even his prose writings gives us a pleasure of poetry. In the plain language of cricket it can be said that he was such a batsman who could very easily bat on any kind of pitch. And so far as his language is concerned it has the capacity to produce the music of sences. Moreover his style of writing has a flair of lovely letters. He had not to think or consult a book for reference as almost others do, but the appropriate word and expression used to dance on the tip of his pen.
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Hemu Kalani
Hemu Kalani (Sindhi: هيمو ڪالاڻي) was a Sindhi revolutionary and freedom fighter.
Hemu Kalani was born at mir-ki-street old Sukkur in Sindh (now in Pakistan) on 23 March 1923. He was the son of Pesumal Kalani and Jethi Bai. As a child and young man he campaigned with his friends for boycotts of foreign goods and tried to persuade people to use Swadeshi goods. He was drawn to revolutionary activities and started participating in acts of terrorism with the aim of driving out the British. He was involved in raids and in the burning of vehicles belonging to the Raj.[citation needed]
Hemu Kalani joined Mahatma Gandhi's Quit India movement when it was started in 1942. Support for the movement in the Sindh province was such that the British rulers had to send special troops consisting of European battalions. Hemu Kalani found out that a railway train of these troops and their supplies would be passing through his local town and decided to derail it by removing the fishplates from the railway track. This despite the fact that neither he nor his colleagues had the necessary tools and so had to use rope as a means to loosen the fixings.
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Jamsetji Tata
Jamsetji Nasarwanji Tata (Gujarati: જમ્શેત્જી નુંસ્સેર્વાનજી ટાટા; 3 March 1839 – 19 May 1904) was an Indian industrialist, who founded the Tata Group, India's biggest conglomerate company. He was born to a Parsi family in Navsari, Gujarat, India. His networth was estimated at $4 million.
He founded what would later become the Tata Group of companies. Jamsetji Tata is regarded as the "father of Indian industry".
Jamsetji Tata was born to Nasarwanji and Jeevanbai Tata on 3 March 1839 in Navsari, a small town in South Gujarat. Nasarwanji Tata was the first businessman in a family of Parsi Zoroastrian priests. He started trading in Bombay.
Jamsetji joined his father in Bombay at the age of 14 and enrolled at the Elphinstone College. He was married to Hirabai Daboo while he was still a student. He graduated from college in 1858 and joined his father's trading firm. It was a turbulent time to step into business as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 had just been suppressed by the British government.
Jamsetji worked in his father's company until the age of 29. In 1868, he started a trading company with a seed capital of Rs. 21,000. In 1869, he acquired a bankrupt oil mill in Chinchpokli, converted it into a cotton mill and renamed the mill Alexandra Mill. He sold the mill two years later for a healthy profit. Thereafter he set up a cotton mill in Nagpur in 1874. He christened it Empress Mill on 1 January 1877 when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.
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Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru (IPA: [dʒəʋaːɦərˈlaːl ˈneːɦru] ( listen), Hindi: जवाहरलाल नेहरू; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964), often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian lawyer, politician and statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India (1947–64) and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the 1930s and ’40s. Nehru was elected by the Indian National Congress to assume office as independent India's first Prime Minister, and re-elected when the Congress Party won India's first general election in 1951 and 1952. Nehru contributed to the establishment of a parliamentary democracy in India and was one of the founders of the international Non-Aligned Movement.
The son of moderate nationalist leader and Congressman Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru became a leader of the left wing of the Congress when fairly young. Rising to become Congress President under the mentorship of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Nehru was a charismatic leader, advocating complete independence for India from the British Empire. Throughout his life, Nehru advocated Democratic Socialism/Fabian Socialism and a strong public sector as the means by which economic development could be pursued by poorer nations. He was the father of Indira Gandhi and the maternal grandfather of Rajiv Gandhi, who would later serve as the third and sixth Prime Ministers of India respectively.
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Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Urdu: محمد علی جناح, Audio (help·info); 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a lawyer, politician and statesman who is known as being the founder of Pakistan. He is popularly and officially known in Pakistan as 'Quaid-e-Azam' (lit. Great Leader) and 'Baba-e-Qaum' (lit. Father of the Nation).
Jinnah served as leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until Pakistan's independence on 14 August 1947, and as Pakistan's first Governor-General from 15 August 1947 until his death on 11 September 1948. Jinnah rose to prominence in the Indian National Congress initially expounding ideas of Hindu-Muslim unity and helping shape the 1916 Lucknow Pact between the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress; he also became a key leader in the All India Home Rule League. He proposed a fourteen-point constitutional reform plan to safeguard the political rights of Muslims in a self-governing India.
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John Morley
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn OM, PC (24 December 1838 – 23 September 1923) was a British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor. Initially a journalist, he was elected a Member of Parliament in 1883. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1886 and between 1892 and 1895, Secretary of State for India between 1905 and 1910 and again in 1911 and Lord President of the Council between 1910 and 1914. Morley was a distinguished political commentator, and biographer of his hero, William Gladstone. Morley is best known for his intensely conservative opposition to state intervention in social and economic matters, for his proposals allowing Indians—especially businessmen and the rich—a slightly greater role in their government, and for his draconian suppression of what he feared was subversive conspiracy in India. He opposed imperialism, the Boer War, and British entry into the World War in 1914.
Morley was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, the son of Jonathan Morley and Priscilla Mary (née Duncan). He was educated at Cheltenham College, University College School and Lincoln College, Oxford. He quarrelled with his father over religion, and had to leave Oxford early without an honours degree; his father had wanted him to become a clergyman. He wrote, in obvious allusion to this rift, On Compromise (1874).
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Khudadad Khan
Khudadad Khan, VC (20 October 1888 – 8 March 1971), was the first South Asian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest military award for gallantry in the face of the enemy given to British and Commonwealth forces. He was the first native-born Indian to win the VC.
On 31 October 1914, at Hollebeke, Belgium, 26-year old Khan performed an act of bravery for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross during the First World War.
A statue of Khudadad Khan graces the entrance of the Pakistan Army Museum in Rawalpindi.
Born on 20 October 1888 in the village of Dab in Chakwal District (then a tehsil of District Jhelum) of the Punjab Province, British India (now Pakistan), Khudadad Khan was a Sepoy in the 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis, British Indian Army (now 11th Battalion The Baloch Regiment of Pakistan Army). The battalion formed part of the Indian Corps, which was sent to France in 1914, to shore up the British forces fighting on the Western Front during the First World War.
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Khwaja Salimullah
Nawab Sir Khwaja Salimullah Bahadur, GCIE, KCSI (1871–1915) was the fourth Nawab of Dhaka and one of the leading Muslim politicians during the British Raj. It was he who, in the wake of partition of Bengal in 1905, corresponded and discussed with Nawab Muhsinul Mulk at Aligarh over the issue of formation of the All India Muslim League. It led to the holding of convention at Ahsan Manzil, the official residence of the Dhaka Nawab Family. The convention was the annual meeting of Muhammadan Educational Conference whose fourth session was the founding convention of All India Muslim League which was presided over by Nawab Wiqar ul Mulk. Sir Salimullah, as he is commonly known, was also a key patron of education for the Muslims of Bengal. He had been one of the founders of the University of Dhaka and the prestigious Ahsanullah School of Engineering (now the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology). Sir Salimullah was a staunch supporter of the Partition of Bengal and was a member of East Bengal and Assam Legislative Council from 1906 to 1907. He was also a member of Bengal Legislative Assembly from 1913 till his death in Calcutta in 1915 at the age of 43. He was the founder President of Bengal Muslim League in 1907.
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Lala Lajpat Rai
Lala Lajpat Rai (28 January 1865 – 17 November 1928) was an Indian author, freedom fighter and politician who is chiefly remembered as a leader in the Indian fight for freedom from the British Raj. He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari (Punjabi:The Lion of Punjab) or Sher-e-Punjab (Urdu:The Lion of Punjab) meaning the same and was part of the Lal Bal Pal trio. He was also associated with activities of Punjab National Bank and Lakshmi Insurance Company in their early stages. He sustained serious injuries by the police when leading a non-violent protest against the Simon Commission and died less than three weeks later. His death anniversary (November 17) is one of several days celebrated as Martyrs' Day in India.
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Liaquat Ali Khan
For other people with the same or similar name, see Liaqat Ali (disambiguation)
Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan (English IPA: Næʍābzādāh Liāqat Alī Khān ( listen (help·info)), Urdu: لیاقت علی خان, Hindi: लियाक़त अली ख़ान; October 1, 1895 – October 16, 1951), often simply referred as Liaquat, was one of the leading Founding Fathers of modern Pakistan, statesman, lawyer, and political theorist who became and served as the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, in addition, was also the first Defence minister and minister of Commonwealth and Kashmir Affairs, from 1947 until his assassination in 1951.
Born and hail from Muzaffarnagar, West UP, Ali Khan was educated at the Aligarh Muslim University in India, and the Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Prior to his return to India, Ali Khan rose to prominence and was also the influential member of the Muslim League led under Mohammad Ali Jinnah, advocating and determining to eradicate the injustices and ill treatment meted out to the Indian Muslims by the British government, and rose as the influential and later was one of the principle Founding Fathers of Pakistan. Ali Khan was invited first to join the Congress Party, but allied himself with the Muslim League, playing a vital role in the independence of India and Pakistan, while served as the Finance minister in the interim government of British Indian Empire, prior to partition. Significantly, Ali Khan and his wife are credited with persuading Jinnah to return to India— an event which marked the beginning of the Muslim League's ascendancy and paved the way for the Pakistan movement— following the passage of the Pakistan Resolution in 1940, Ali Khan assisted Jinnah in campaigning for the creation of a separate state for Indian Muslims. His influential role led the British Indian Empire to disintegrate into modern-day state of India and Pakistan.
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Lord Dalhousie
James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie KT, PC (22 April 1812 – 19 December 1860), styled Lord Ramsay until 1838 and known as The Earl of Dalhousie between 1838 and 1849, was a Scottish statesman, and a colonial administrator in British India. He served as Governor-General of India from 1848 to 1856. To his supporters he stands out as the far-sighted Governor-General who consolidated East India Company rule in India, laid the foundations of its later administration, and by his sound policy enabled his successors to stem the tide of rebellion. To his critics, he stands out as the destroyer of both the East India Company's financial and military position through reckless policies. His critics also hold that he laid the foundations of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and led the final transformation of profitable commercial operations in India into a money-losing colonial administration. His period of rule in India directly preceded the transformation into the Victorian Raj period of Indian administration. He was denounced by many in England and India on the eve of his death as having failed to notice the signs of the brewing Indian Rebellion of 1857, having aggravated the crisis by his overbearing self-confidence, centralizing activity, and expansive annexations.
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Madan Mohan Malaviya
Madan Mohan Malaviya pronunciation (help·info)(Hindi: पंडित मदन मोहन मालवीय) (1861–1946) was an Indian educationist, and freedom fighter notable for his role in the Indian independence movement and his espousal of Hindu nationalism. Later in life, he was also addressed as 'Mahamana'.
He was the President of the Indian National Congress on four occasions and today is most remembered as the founder of the largest residential university in Asia and one of the largest in the world, having over 12,000 students across arts sciences, engineering and technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) at Varanasi in 1916, of which he also remained the Vice Chancellor, 1919–1938 Pandit Malviya was one of the founders of Scouting in India. He also founded a highly influential, English-newspaper, The Leader published from Allahabad in 1909.
On his 150th birth anniversary (i.e. 25th Dec, 2011), Indian PM Dr. Manmohan Singh announced that a Centre for Malaviya Studies will be set up at the Banaras Hindu University apart from establishment of scholarships and education related awards in his memory, and UPA chairperson released a biography of Madan Mohan Malaviya.
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Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (pronounced: [ˈmoːɦənd̪aːs ˈkərəmtʃənd̪ ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi]; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world.
Son of a senior government official, Gandhi was born and raised in a Hindu Bania community in coastal Gujarat, and trained in law in London. Gandhi became famous by fighting for the civil rights of Muslim and Hindu Indians in South Africa, using the new techniques of non-violent civil disobedience that he developed. Returning to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants to protest excessive land-taxes. A lifelong opponent of "communalism" (i.e. basing politics on religion) he reached out widely to all religious groups. He became a leader of Muslims protesting the declining status of the Caliphate. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, and above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from British domination.
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Mangal Pandey
Mangal Pandey (19 July 1827 – 8 April 1857) was a sepoy in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) regiment of the English East India Company. He is known for his involvement in the initial stages of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. While contemporary British reports considered him a traitor and mutineer, he is widely regarded as a freedom fighter in modern India. As such, in 1984 the Indian government issued a postage stamp to commemorate him. His life and actions have also been portrayed in several cinematic productions.
Mangal Pandey was born on 19 July 1827 in the village Nagwa, of Ballia district in Uttar Pradesh of India to Bhumihar Brahmin family.
He joined the East India Company's forces in 1849 at the age of 22. Pandey was part of the 6th Company of the 34th Bengal Native Infantry and is primarily known for his involvement in an attack on several of the regiment's officers. This incident marked an opening stage in what came to be known as the Indian Mutiny of 1857 or, recently, as the First War of Indian Independence. In line with the modern Indian perspective of his historical role, it is now claimed[by whom?] that Pandey was a devout Hindu who practiced his religion diligently.
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Mary of Teck
Mary of Teck (Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; 26 May 1867 – 24 March 1953) was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, as the wife of King-Emperor George V.
Although technically a princess of Teck, in the Kingdom of Württemberg, she was born and brought up in the United Kingdom. Her parents were Francis, Duke of Teck, who was of German extraction, and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, a member of the British Royal Family. To her family, she was informally known as "May", after her birth month. At the age of 24 she was betrothed to Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, the eldest son of the Prince of Wales, but six weeks after the announcement of the engagement he died unexpectedly of pneumonia. The following year she became engaged to Albert Victor's next surviving brother, George, who subsequently became king. Before her husband's accession she was successively Duchess of York, Duchess of Cornwall and Princess of Wales. As his queen consort from 1910, she supported her husband through the First World War, his ill-health and major political changes arising from the aftermath of the war and the rise of socialism and nationalism. After George's death in 1936, her eldest son Edward became King-Emperor, but to her dismay he abdicated the same year in order to marry twice-divorced American socialite Mrs. Wallis Simpson. She supported her second son, Albert, who succeeded to the throne as George VI, until his death in 1952. She died the following year, at the beginning of the reign of her granddaughter, Elizabeth II. Briefly, there were three queens in the country: Mary; her daughter-in-law, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother; and Elizabeth II.
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Masood Ashraf Raja
Originally from Pakistan, Masood Ashraf Raja (Urdu: مسعود اشرف راجہ) is an Assistant Professor of Postcolonial Literature and Theory at the University of North Texas and the editor of Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies, a journal that he founded in 2009. Besides teaching and writing about issues of postcoloniality, globalization, and political Islam, Raja also actively participates in the public debates through his public writing on his two blogs as well as other popular and scholarly websites. Raja moved to the United States in 1996, after ten years of service in the Pakistan Army as an Infantry officer. Raja graduated with a Masters in literature from Belmont University in 2002, and earned his Ph.D. in Postcolonial Studies from Florida State University in 2006, where he studied with Robin Truth Goodman. While at Belmont University, Raja was awarded the Graduate Writing Award and at Florida State he was awarded the Davis Award for Best Graduate Student and Davis Award for best dissertation in 2005 and 2006 respectively. A strong proponent of peace, social justice, and human rights, Raja hopes to foster a better understanding between his primary culture and rest of the world. Raja's last monograph, Constructing Pakistan, (Oxford University Press, 2010), is an interesting explanation of the rise of Muslim national political identity during the British Raj and offers an innovative explanation of the genesis of the idea of Pakistan. Raja has also published extensively in his area of study and on general academic topics in various academic journals and anthologies. Raja is also a member of the Advisory Committee (2009–12) of PMLA, the premier journal of literature and languages and was also recently elected to a five year term on the Executive Committee of the South Asian Studies Group, Modern Language Association. Besides his academic and popular writings, Raja has also actively presented his views at academic conferences as well as through public talks.
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Master Tara Singh
Master Tara Singh (24 June 1885, Rawalpindi, Punjab - 22 November 1967, Chandigarh) was a prominent Sikh political and religious leader in the first half of the 20th century. He was instrumental in organizing the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee, in organizing Sikhs politically, and guided the Sikhs during the Partition of India, and later led their demand for a Sikh-majority state in Punjab, India.
Master Tara Singh was born in a Punjabi Hindu family on 24 June 1885 in the village Harial in Rawalpindi District, now in Pakistan. His childhood name was Nanak Chand and his father’s name was Bakshi Gopi Chand. He had four brothers and a sister. His father was the village patwari by profession as well as by caste, and was held in great esteem by the villagers, and his mother was Mullan Devi, a very pious lady. The entire family, especially their parents believed in Sikh Gurus and Gurbani.
After passing his primary, he joined the mission school at Rawalpindi. During his childhood period there used to be a daily discourse from Sikh religious book Panth-Parkash in the village gurudwara. Nanak Chand daily went to the congregation to listen to the katha (discourse). His daily attendance had a deep-rooted effect and it became one of his foremost ambitions to become a Sikh as he was immensely inclined to the faith.
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Maulana Azad
Maulana Abul Kalam Muhiyuddin Ahmed Azad (Urdu: مولانا ابوالکلام محی الدین احمد آزاد, Bengali: আবুল কালাম মুহিয়ুদ্দিন আহমেদ আজাদ) (11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian Muslim scholar and a senior political leader of the Indian independence movement. He was one of the most prominent Muslim leaders to support Hindu-Muslim unity, opposing the partition of India on communal lines. Following India's independence, he became the first Minister of Education in the Indian government. He is also known for having predicted the future military rule and partition of Pakistan before its independence. He was posthumously awarded India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna in 1992. He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as "National Education Day" across India.
As a young man, Azad composed poetry in Urdu as well as treatises on religion and philosophy. He rose to prominence through his work as a journalist, publishing works critical of the British Raj and espousing the causes of Indian nationalism. Azad became the leader of the Khilafat Movement during which he came into close contact with Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Azad became an enthusiastic supporter of Gandhi's ideas of non-violent civil disobedience, and worked actively to organise the Non-cooperation movement in protest at the 1919 Rowlatt Acts. Azad committed himself to Gandhi's ideals, including promoting Swadeshi (Indigenous) products and the cause of Swaraj (Self-rule) for India. He became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress in 1923.
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Maulana Mohammad Ali
Mohammad Ali Jouhar (Urdu: مَولانا مُحمّد علی جَوہر) was an Indian Muslim leader, activist, scholar, journalist and poet, and was among the leading figures of the Khilafat Movement.
He was the sixth Muslim to become the President of Indian National Congress and it lasted only for few months. He was one of the founders of the All India Muslim League and he was also the former president of the All India Muslim League
Mohammad Ali, (10 December 1878 – 4 January 1931) well-known as Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar (مَولانا مُحمّد علی جَوہر), was born in 1878 in Rampur in India. He belonged to the family of famous Yousaf Zai, a "Rohilla" tribe of Pathans in Rohilkhand, the north west region of Uttarpardesh of India, however, their origin is traced back to the highland of Khyber pukhtoonkhawa, present day Pakistan. His ancestors settled in Rohilkhand, during the 19th century, later they settled in Rampur. However the progeny of Yousuf Zai tribe still found in Afghanistan, the Khyber Pukhtoonkhawa, Pakistan who still maintain Pushto language. He was the brother of Shaukat Ali and Zulfiqar Ali. Despite the early death of his father, the family strived and Ali attended the Darul Uloom Deoband, Aligarh Muslim University and Lincoln College, Oxford University in 1898, studying modern history.
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Maulana Shaukat Ali
Maulana Shaukat Ali was an Indian Muslim nationalist and leader of the Khilafat movement. He was the brother of Maulana Mohammad Ali.
Shaukat Ali was born in 1873 - in Rampur state in what is today Uttar Pradesh or known as Lucknow. He was of Azeri Turkish descent, Turks who had settled in modern day Iran, Afghanistan, and Northern India. He was educated at the Aligarh Muslim University. He was extremely fond of playing cricket, captaining the university team. Mahatma Gandhi brought him into politics.
Ali served in the civil service of United Provinces of Oudh and Agra from 1896 to 1913.
Shaukat Ali helped his brother Mohammed Ali publish the Urdu weekly Hamdard and the English weekly Comrade. In 1919, while jailed for publishing what the British charged as seditious materials and organizing protests, he was elected as the first president of the Khilafat conference. He was re-arrested and imprisoned from 1921 to 1923 for his support to Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress during the Non-Cooperation Movement (1919-1922). His fans accorded him and his brother the title of Maulana. In March 1922, he was in Rajkot jail
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Max Müller
Friedrich Maximillian Müller (December 6, 1823 – October 28, 1900), more regularly known as Max Müller, was a German philologist and Orientalist, one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology, a discipline he introduced to the British reading public, and the Sacred Books of the East, a massive, 50-volume set of English translations prepared under his direction, stands as an enduring monument to Victorian scholarship.
He was born in Dessau, the son of the Romantic poet Wilhelm Müller, whose verse Franz Schubert had set to music in his song-cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise. Max Müller's mother, Adelheide Müller, was the eldest daughter of a chief minister of Anhalt-Dessau. Müller knew Felix Mendelssohn and had Carl Maria von Weber as a godfather.
In 1841 he entered Leipzig University, where he left his early interest in music and poetry in favour of philosophy. Müller received his Ph.D. in 1843 for a dissertation on Spinoza's Ethics. He also displayed an aptitude for languages, learning the Classical languages Greek and Latin, as well as Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit. In 1844 Müller went to Berlin to study with Friedrich Schelling. He began to translate the Upanishads for Schelling, and continued to research Sanskrit under Franz Bopp, the first systematic scholar of the Indo-European languages. Schelling led Müller to relate the history of language to the history of religion. At this time, Müller published his first book, a German translation of the Hitopadesa, a collection of Indian fables.
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Mike Davis (scholar)
Mike Davis (born 1946) is an American Marxist writer, political activist, urban theorist, and historian. He is best known for his investigations of power and social class in his native Southern California.
Born in Fontana, California and raised in El Cajon, California, Davis' education was punctuated by stints as a meat cutter, truck driver, and a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) activist. He briefly studied at Reed College in the mid-1960s but did not begin his academic career in earnest until the early 1970s, when he earned BA and MA degrees but did not complete the Ph.D. program in History from the University of California, Los Angeles. He was a 1996-1997 Getty Scholar at the Getty Research Institute and received a MacArthur Fellowship Award in 1998. He won the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction in 2007.
Davis is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, and an editor of the New Left Review. Davis has taught urban theory at the Southern California Institute of Architecture before he secured a position at University of California, Irvine's history department. He also contributes to the British monthly Socialist Review, the organ of the Socialist Workers Party of Great Britain. As a journalist and essayist, Davis has written frequently for, among others, The Nation and the UK's New Statesman.
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Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Urdu: محمد علی جناح, Audio (help·info); 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a lawyer, politician and statesman who is known as being the founder of Pakistan. He is popularly and officially known in Pakistan as 'Quaid-e-Azam' (lit. Great Leader) and 'Baba-e-Qaum' (lit. Father of the Nation).
Jinnah served as leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until Pakistan's independence on 14 August 1947, and as Pakistan's first Governor-General from 15 August 1947 until his death on 11 September 1948. Jinnah rose to prominence in the Indian National Congress initially expounding ideas of Hindu-Muslim unity and helping shape the 1916 Lucknow Pact between the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress; he also became a key leader in the All India Home Rule League. He proposed a fourteen-point constitutional reform plan to safeguard the political rights of Muslims in a self-governing India.
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Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal (Urdu: محمد اقبال) (November 9, 1877 – April 21, 1938), also known as Allama Iqbal (Urdu: علامہ اقبال), was a philosopher, poet and politician in British India who is widely regarded as having inspired the Pakistan Movement. He is considered one of the most important figures in Urdu literature, with literary work in both the Urdu and Persian languages.
Iqbal is admired as a prominent classical poet by Pakistani, Indian and other international scholars of literature. Though Iqbal is best known as an eminent poet, he is also a highly acclaimed "Muslim philosophical thinker of modern times". His first poetry book, Asrar-e-Khudi, appeared in the Persian language in 1915, and other books of poetry include Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, Payam-i-Mashriq and Zabur-i-Ajam. Amongst these his best known Urdu works are Bang-i-Dara, Bal-i-Jibril, Zarb-i Kalim and a part of Armughan-e-Hijaz. Along with his Urdu and Persian poetry, his various Urdu and English lectures and letters have been very influential in cultural, social, religious and political disputes over the years. In 1922, he was knighted by King George V, giving him the title "Sir".
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Omer Tarin
Omer Tarin (real name Omer Salim Khan), born March 1967, is a well-known Pakistani poet in English, research scholar, and social activist. In some editions of his works, the name is written as Omar Tarin.
Tarin was born in 1967 to the Tarin (or Tareen) family, or clan, of the Hazara region of the North-West Frontier (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), while his father was posted as a senior civil servant and administrator in Peshawar. From his maternal side, he is related to the Hayat family, of the Khattar tribe of Wah, in North Punjab. He was educated at the Burn Hall School (now Army Burn Hall College), Abbottabad and the Aitchison College, Lahore, Pakistan, prior to graduating from the University of the Punjab, Lahore. He later obtained various higher degrees in English and History/Postcolonial Studies from Pakistan and the United Kingdom respectively.
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P. J. Marshall
Peter James Marshall CBE, FBA (born Calcutta, 1933) is a British historian known for his work on the British empire, particularly the activities of British East India Company servants in 18th-century Bengal, and also the history of British involvement in North America during the same period.
He was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire, and, following national service with the 7th (Kenya) Battalion, King's African Rifles, he took a first class honours degree in history at Wadham College, Oxford, from where he received a D.Phil in 1962.
Between 1959 and 1993, he taught in the history department at King's College London and was appointed Rhodes Professor of Imperial History in 1980, in which post he remained until his retirement. Between 1965 and 1978, he served as a Member of the Editorial Committee for The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, and between 1975 and 1981 he was Editor of The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History.[1] He sat on the History Working Group for National Curriculum in England in 1989 and 1990. In 1987 he was appointed Vice President of the Royal Historical Society, serving as President between 1997 and 2001. A Junior Research Fellowship bearing his name, and jointly administered by the Royal Historical Society and the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London, where he is an Honorary Fellow,[2] is awarded annually to a doctoral student in history. In December 2008, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Literature honoris causa by the School of Advanced Study at the University of London. He is an Emeritus Professor of Imperial History at King's College London, where he continues to lecture.
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Pandita Ramabai
Pandita Ramabai (Kannada: ಪಂಡಿತಾ ರಮಾಬಾಯಿ)(Marathi: पंिडता रामाबाई) (23 April 1858 – 5 April 1922) was a social reformer and activist in India. She was born as Brahmin Hindu, started Arya Mahila Samaj, later converted to Christianity, and served widows and helpless women of India.
Ramabai was a poet, a scholar, and a champion of improvement in the plight of Indian women and their emancipation. She visited most parts of India, and even went to Britain (1883) and the United States of America (1886–88). She wrote many books including The High Caste Hindu Woman, which showed the darkest aspects of the life of Hindu women, including child brides and child widows, and their treatment by government and society. She had a strong view of what should be accomplished so that women would be able to have more freedom, including the protection of widows and child brides, many of whom were made destitute by in-laws.
Ramabai was born into an intellectual Hindu Marathi-speaking Chitpavan Brahmin family at Karnataka (Karkala Taluk, Mangalore District). Her father, Anant Shastri Dongre,who stayed at a place in western ghats called Gangamoola,(Mala village,Karkala,Karnataka) was a Sanskrit scholar and believed that women should have education. Against the prevailing traditional Hindu social structure, he taught Puranas and Sanskrit shlokas to Ramabai as well as his second wife, Ramambai’s mother Laxmibai and how to read and write Sanskrit as well as how to interpret vedic texts. She was raised by her father. Her father faced hardships as he was against the tradition and he advocated education to girl children. He proved in front of Hindu scholars at Soday,(Karnataka) that teaching women Sanskrit was not banned in any shastra or purana.
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Pherozeshah Mehta
Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, KCIE (August 4, 1845 - November 5, 1915) was an Parsi Indian political leader, activist, and a leading lawyer, who was knighted by then British Government in India for his service to the law. His political ideology was, as was the case with most of the Indian leaders of his time, moderate and was hence not directly opposed to the crown's sovereignty but only demanded more autonomy for Indians to self-rule.
He became the Municipal commissioner of Bombay Municipality in 1873 and its President four times - 1884, 1885, 1905 and 1911.
He was chosen the president of Indian National Congress in 1890.
Pherozshah Merwanjee Mehta was born on the 4th August 1845 in Bombay, to a Parsi business family.
Graduating from the Elphinstone College in 1864 he passed the M.A. examination, with honors, six months later, being the first Parsi to have obtained a Master's degree from the University of Mumbai. He later went to England to study law at Lincoln's Inn in London.
In 1868 he returned to India and was admitted to the bar, and soon established a practice for himself in a profession which was till then dominated by British lawyers.
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Puli Thevar
Puli Thevar (Tamil: புலித் தேவர்) was a poligar (or palayakarar) who ruled Nerkattumseval situated in the Sankarankoil taluk of Tamil Nadu. Puli Thevar who belongs to the warrior Maravar community was one of the earliest freedom fighters. He is one of the first Indian kings to have fought and defeated the British in India.
He is one of the earliest opponents of the British rule in South India. He was involved in a vendetta with the Nawab of Arcot who was supported by the British. Thevar's prominent exploits were his confrontations with Marudhanayagam, who later rebelled against the British in the late 1750s and early 1760s.
Nelkatumseval was the headquarters of Puli Thevar, the first chieftain in India to resist the British.
The author of the Thirunelveli District Gazetteer, H.R. Pate, observes as follows:
Nelkatumseval is chiefly memorable as having been in the eighteenth Century stronghold of the redoubtable Puli Thevar, who figured for many years as the leader of the Marava Confederacy against the troops of the Nawab and the Company. He had a shrewd insight into the political situation of the time and was a veritable thorn against the side of the Nawab's agents.
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Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India.
Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and the King died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne at the age of 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died without surviving legitimate issue. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the Sovereign held relatively few direct political powers. Privately, she attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments. Publicly, she became a national icon, and was identified with strict standards of personal morality.
She married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children and 26 of their 34 grandchildren who survived childhood married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.
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Rahul Sankrityayan
Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan (Hindi: राहुल सांकृत्यायन) (April 9, 1893 – April 14, 1963), who is called the Father of Hindi Travel literature, was one of the most widely-traveled scholars of India, spending forty-five years of his life on travels away from his home. He became a buddhist monk (Bauddha Bhikkhu) and eventually took up Marxist Socialism. Sankrityayan was also an Indian nationalist, having been arrested and jailed for three years for creating anti-British writings and speeches. He is referred as the Greatest Scholar (Mahapandit) for his scholarship. He was both a polymath as well as a polyglot.
He was born Kedarnath Pandey on 9 April 1893 to a Bhumihar Brahmin family in Azamgarh district, in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. His father, Govardhan Pandey, was a religious-minded farmer, a typical profession of Bhumihars, from the village Kanaila of Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh. His mother, Kulawanti, used to stay with her parents at the village of Kanaila, where Kedar was born. He was the eldest of four brothers. He spent part of his childhood in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states of India. As his mother died at the age of twenty-eight and his father at the age of forty-five, he was brought up by his grandmother. His earliest memories as recorded by him were of the terrible famine in 1897. At age 9, he ran away from home in order to see the world, but later returned.
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Rajaji
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (Tamil: சக்ரவர்த்தி ராஜகோபாலாச்சாரி Cakravartī Rācakōpālācārī) (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), informally called Rajaji or C.R., was an Indian lawyer, independence activist, politician, writer and statesman. Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India. He also served as leader of the Indian National Congress, Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West Bengal, Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union and Chief Minister of Madras state. Rajaji founded the Swatantra Party and was one of the first recipients of India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. He vehemently opposed the use of nuclear weapons and was a proponent of world peace and disarmament. During his lifetime, he also acquired the nickname Mango of Salem.
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Rajendra Prasad
Rajendra Prasad ( pronunciation (help·info); 3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician and educator. He was one of the architects of the Indian Republic, having drafted its first constitution and serving as the first president of independent India (26 January 1950 – 13 May 1962). Rajendra Prasad is the only president in India to have been elected twice for the post.
During the independence movement, he left his law work and joined the Congress Party, playing a prominent role in the Indian Independence Movement. He served as the president of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the first constitution of the Republic, which lasted from 1948 to 1950. He also became the first Minister of Food and Agriculture in the year 1946 in the Interim national Government.
Rajendra Prasad was born and brought up in Siwan, Bihar in East India. He was the youngest son of Mahavira Sahai, and born in a Kayastha family. He was known as "Rajen" to his family and friends. His father was a scholar of both the Persian and Sanskrit languages, while his mother, Kamleshwari Devi, was a religious woman.
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Ram Mohan Roy
Ram Mohun Roy, Ram Mohun also spelled Rammohun, Rammohan, or Ram Mohan (Bengali: রাজা রামমোহন রায়; 22 May 1772 – 27 September 1833) was an Indian religious, social, and educational reformer who challenged traditional Hindu culture and indicated the lines of progress for Indian society under British rule. He is sometimes called the "father of modern India". He, along with Dwarkanath Tagore and other Bengalis, founded the Brahmo Sabha in 1828, which engendered the Brahmo Samaj, an influential Indian socio-religious reform movement during the Bengal Renaissance. His influence was apparent in the fields of politics, public administration, and education, as well as religion. He is known for his efforts to abolish the practice of sati, the Hindu funeral practice in which the widow immolated herself on her husband's funeral pyre.
Roy was born in Radhanagore, Hooghly, Bengal, in August 1772 or 22 May 1774, into the Rarhi Brahmin caste. His family background displayed religious diversity; his father Ramkanto Roy was a Vaishnavite, while his mother Tarinidevi was from a Shivaite family. This was unusual for Vaishanavites did not commonly marry Shaivites at that time. Thus, one parent wanted him to be a scholar, a sastrin, while the other wanted him to have a career dedicated to the laukik, which was secular public administration. He wandered around the Himalayas and went to Tibet.
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Ram Prasad Bismil
Ram Prasad Bismil (11 June 1897 - 19 December 1927) was an Indian revolutionary who participated in Mainpuri Conspiracy of 1918, and the Kakori conspiracy of 1925, both against British Empire. As well as being a freedom fighter, he was also a patriotic poet. Ram, Agyat and Bismil were known as his pen names which he used in Urdu and Hindi poetry. But, he became popular with the last name "Bismil" only. He was associated with Arya Samaj where he got inspiration from Satyarth Prakash, a book written by Swami Dayanand Saraswati. He also had a confidential connection with Lala Har Dayal through his guru Swami Somdev, who was a renowned preacher of Arya Samaj.
Bismil was one of the founder members of the revolutionary organisation Hindustan Republican Association. Bhagat Singh praised him as a great poet-writer of Urdu and Hindi, who had also translated the books Catherine from English and Bolshevikon Ki Kartoot from Bengali. Several inspiring patriotic verses are attributed to him. The famous poem "Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna" is also popularly attributed to him, although some progressive writers have remarked that 'Bismil' Azimabadi actually wrote the poem and Ram Prasad Bismil immortalized it.
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Ram Singh
Ram Singh (known by his followers as Satguru) (February 3, 1816) was a religious leader and social reformer[citation needed] and the first Indian to use non-cooperation and boycotting of British merchandise and services as a political weapon. He was the religious leader of the Namdhari (Kuka) sect of Sikhism. Ram Singh launched his revolt against the British on 12 April 1857 by hoisting a white flag of freedom and announced a programme of far reaching significance.
He called for the people to boycott government services[citation needed], boycott British run educational institutions and law courts, boycott foreign made goods and defy British laws. He was the originator of the nonviolent[citation needed] and civil disobedience movement in Punjab in 1872.
Ram Singh's fight for independence was a turning point in world history for it eventually sounded the death-knell of colonial rule in the British empire. Mahatma Gandhi later used the concepts of non-cooperation and civil disobedience propounded by Ram Singh as political weapons against the British[citation needed]. His ideas played a key part in securing India's Independence from the British.
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Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS (12 October 1866 – 9 November 1937) was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms.
MacDonald entered Parliament at the 1906 General Election and had become chairman of the Labour MPs by 1914. His opposition to the First World War made him unpopular and he was defeated at the 1918 General Election, returning to Parliament at the 1922 General Election, at which Labour replaced the Liberals as the largest left-wing party in the UK. MacDonald was a powerful if woolly orator and by then had earned great public respect for his opposition to the war. His first government - formed with Liberal support - in 1924 lasted nine months, but was defeated at the 1924 General Election amidst allegations, now thought to have been fabricated, that his government was endorsed by the Soviet Foreign Minister Zinoviev.
Labour returned to power - this time as the largest party - in 1929 but was soon overwhelmed by the crisis of the Great Depression, in which the Labour government was split by demands for public spending cuts to preserve the Gold Standard. In 1931, he formed a National Government in which only two of his Labour colleagues agreed to serve and the majority of whose MPs were from the Conservatives. As a result, MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party, which accused him of "betrayal". The Gold Standard soon had to be abandoned after the Invergordon Mutiny and MacDonald's National Government won a huge "doctor's mandate" at the 1931 General Election, at which the Labour Party was reduced to a rump of around 50 seats in the House of Commons.
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Rani Lakshmibai
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Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi (c.19 November 1835 – 17 June 1858) (Marathi- झाशीची राणी लक्ष्मीबाई) was the queen of the Maratha-ruled princely state of Jhansi, situated in the north-central part of India. She was one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and a symbol of resistance to the rule of the British East India Company in the subcontinent.
lakshmi Bai is born in the holy town Kashi. She was named Manikarnika and was nicknamed Manu. Her father was Moropant Tambe and her mother Bhagirathibai Tambe. Her parents hailed from Maharashtra. couple. Her mother expired when she was four. Her father worked at a court Peshwa of Bithoor district;. Peshwa did bring her up like his own daughter. The Peshwa called her as "Chhabili". The meaning of Chabili is light-heartedness. She was given education at home.
She was more independent in her childhood unlike others of her age. She studied archery, horsemanship, self-defence. Tatya Tope, was her mentor.
Lakshmibai was married to the Maharaja of Jhansi Raja Gangadhar Rao, in 1842. After her marriage she was called as Lakshmi Bai. The Raja was very friendly to her. She gave birth to a boy named Damodar Rao in 1851. However, the child died when it was four months old. After the death of their son, the Raja and Rani of Jhansi adopted a child Anand Rao. Anand Rao was the son of Gangadhar Rao's cousin, and was renamed as Damodar Rao. However, it is said that the Raja of Jhansi never recovered from his son's death, and died on 21 November 1853.
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Rash Behari Bose
Rashbehari Bose (Bengali: রাসবিহারী বসু Rashbihari Boshu) (25 May 1886 – 21 January 1945) was a revolutionary leader against the British Raj in India and was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar conspiracy and later, the Indian National Army.
Bose was born in Subaldaha village, Burdwan, in the province of Bengal. He was educated in Chandannagar, where his father, Vinodebehari Bose, was stationed.He later earned degrees in the medical sciences as well as in Engineering from France and Germany.
Though interested in revolutionary activities fro early on in his life, he left Bengal to shun the Alipore bomb casetrails of (1908). At Dehradun he worked as a head clerk at the Forest Research Institute. There, through Amarendra Chatterjee of the Jugantar led by Jatin Mukherjee(Bagha Jatin), he secretly got involved with the revolutionaries of Bengal and, thanks to Jatindra Nath Banerjee alias Niralamba Swami, the earliest political disciple of Sri Aurobindo, he came across eminent revolutionary members of the Arya Samaj in the United Provinces (currently Uttar Pradesh) and the Punjab.
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Reginald Dyer
Colonel Reginald Edward Harry Dyer CB (9 October 1864 – 23 July 1927) was a British Indian Army officer who as a temporary Brigadier-General was responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar (in the British India province of Punjab). Dyer was removed from duty but he became a celebrated hero in Britain among people with connections to the British Raj. Historians consider the episode was a decisive step towards the end of British rule in India.
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Richard Strachey
Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Strachey, GCSI, FRS (1817–1908), British soldier and Indian administrator, third son of Edward Strachey and grandson of Sir Henry Strachey, 1st Baronet was born on 24 July 1817, at Sutton Court, Stowey, Somerset. From Addiscombe Military Academy he passed into the Bengal Engineers in 1836, and was employed for some years on irrigation works in the Northwestern Provinces. Many members of the family were in the Indian government that sarcastic mentions were made of the "Government of the Stracheys".
Strachey served in the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1845–46, and was at the battles of Aliwal and Sobraon, was mentioned in dispatches, and received a brevet-majority. From 1858 to 1865 he was chiefly employed in the public works department, either as acting or permanent secretary to the government of India, and from 1867 to 1871 he filled the post of director-general of irrigation, then specially created.
During this period the entire administration of public works was reorganized to adapt it to the increasing magnitude of the interests with which this department has had to deal since its establishment by Lord Dalhousie in 1854. For this reorganization, under which the accounts were placed on a proper footing and the forest administration greatly developed, Strachey was chiefly responsible. His work in connection with Indian finance was important. In 1867 he prepared a scheme in considerable detail for decentralizing the financial administration of India, which formed the basis of the policy afterwards carried into effect by his brother Sir John Strachey under Lord Mayo and Lord Lytton.
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Robert Grant (MP)
Sir Robert Grant GCH (1779–1838) was a British lawyer and politician.
He was born in India, the son of Charles Grant, chairman of the Directors of the Honourable East India Company, and younger brother of Charles Grant, later Lord Glenelg. Returning home with their father in 1790, the two brothers were entered as students of Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1795. In 1801 Charles was fourth wrangler and senior Chancellor’s medallist; Robert was third wrangler and second Chancellor’s medallist. It was a singular distinction for two brothers to be so closely associated in the honours’ list of the same year. (The senior wrangler was Henry Martyn, afterwards the famous missionary.)
Robert was called to the bar the same day as his brother, 30 January 1807, and entered on practice, becoming King’s Sergeant in the Court of the Duchy of Lancaster, and one of the Commissioners in Bankruptcy. He was elected Member of Parliament for the Elgin Burghs in 1818, and for the Inverness Burghs in 1826. The latter constituency he represented for four years. In 1830 and 1831, he was returned for Norwich, and in 1832 for Finsbury. Robert Grant was a strenuous advocate for the removal of the disabilities of the Jews, and twice carried bills on the subject through the House of Commons. They were, however, rejected in the Upper House, which did not yield on the question until 1858, twenty years after Grant’s death. In 1832 he became Judge Advocate General, and in 1834 was appointed Governor of Bombay and GCH. He died in India in 1838.
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Ronald Ross
Sir Ronald Ross KCB FRS (13 May 1857 – 16 September 1932) was a British doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria. His discovery of the malarial parasite in the gastrointestinal tract of the Anopheles mosquito led to the realization that malaria was transmitted by Anopheles, and laid the foundation for combating the disease.
Ross was born in India, the eldest son of General Sir Campbell Claye Grant Ross of the British Indian Army and Matilda Charlotte Elderton. His grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Ross, had malaria, and the boy resolved to find a cure for the disease. At the age of eight, he was sent to England for his education.
He commenced the study of medicine in London in 1875. He passed his final examination in 1880 and joined the Indian Medical Service in 1881. His first posting was in Madras. He commenced the study of malaria in 1892.
Ross studied malaria between 1882 and 1899. He worked on malaria at the Presidency General Hospital, Calcutta. Ross built a bungalow with a laboratory at Mahanad village, where he used to stay from time to time collecting mosquitoes in Mahanad and adjoining villages and conducting research. In 1883, Ross was posted as the Acting Garrison Surgeon at Bangalore during which time he noticed the possibility of controlling mosquitoes by controlling their access to water.
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Sangolli Rayanna
Sangolli Rayanna (Kannada: ಸಂಗೊಳ್ಳಿ ರಾಯಣ್ಣ) (15 August 1798 – 26 January 1831) was a prominent freedom fighter from Karnataka, India. He fought the British till his death. He was the army chief of the Kingdom of Kittur ruled at the time by Rani Chennamma. Rayanna was born in the small village of Sangolli, he belonged to the Kuruba / Dhangar caste[citation needed] and hence a warrior. A film was made on his life and achievements.
When the British wanted to secede the kingdom to their empire by putting forward the doctrine of lapse as Rani Chennamma’s son was adopted, the queen refused to secede her kingdom after her husband’s death. Aided by Rayanna, she fought British bravely but was defeated and imprisoned.
Sangolli Rayanna continued to fight the British. His land was confiscated, and of what remained of it was heavily taxed. He taxed the landlords and built up an army from the masses. He used guerrilla tactics to attack government property; burnt land records and extracted huge sums of money from notorious landlords and bureaucrats. Rayanna is considered by many historians as the pioneer of guerrilla warfare in India.[citation needed] He continued this warfare till 1829.
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Sardar Patel
Sardar Vallabhbhai Jhaverbhai Patel (Hindi pronunciation: [ʋəlləbˈbʱaːi pəˈʈeːl] ( listen)) (31 October 1875 – 15 December 1950) was an Indian barrister and statesman, one of the leaders of the Indian National Congress and one of the founding fathers of India. He is known to be a social leader of India who played an unparalleled role in the country's struggle for independence and guided its integration into a united, independent nation.Therefore he is also regarded as "Bismarck of India". He was known as the "Iron Man of India". In India and across the world, he was often addressed as Sardar, which means Chief in Hindi, Urdu, and Persian.
He was raised in the countryside of Gujarat in a family of Gurjar Leva-Patidars Vallabhbhai Patel was employed in successful practice as a lawyer when he was first inspired by the work and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. Patel subsequently organised the peasants of Kheda, Borsad, and Bardoli in Gujarat in non-violent civil disobedience against oppressive policies imposed by the British Raj; in this role, he became one of the most influential leaders in Gujarat. He rose to the leadership of the Indian National Congress and was at the forefront of rebellions and political events, organising the party for elections in 1934 and 1937, and promoting the Quit India movement.
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Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu (née Chattopadhyaya; 13 February 1879 – 2 March 1949), also known by the sobriquet The Nightingale of India (Bharatiya Kokila), was a child prodigy, Indian independence activist and poet. Naidu was the second Indian woman to become the President of the Indian National Congress and the first woman to become the Governor of Uttar Pradesh state. Her birthday is celebrated as Women's Day in India.
Sarojini Chattopadhyay, later Naidu, belonged to a Bengali family of Kulin Brahmins. She was born in Hyderabad, India as the eldest daughter of scientist, philosopher, linguist and educator Aghornath Chattopadhyaya, and Barada Sundari Devi, a Bengali poetess. After receiving a doctor of science degree from Edinburgh University, her father settled in Hyderabad State, where he founded and administered the Hyderabad College, which later became the Nizam College in Hyderabad. Her father was a linguist and thinker, and the first member of Indian National Congress in Hyderabad. Her mother, Barada Sundari Devi, was a poetess baji and used to write poetry in Bengali.
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Shahu IV of Kolhapur
Shahaji II(also known as Rajarshi Shahu) (26 June 1874 – 6 May 1922) was the first Maharaja of the Indian princely state of Kolhapur between 1894 and 1922.
Shahu was born on 26 June 1874 as Yeshwantrao Ghatge, eldest son of Appasaheb Ghatge, chief of Kagal (senior) by his wife Radhabai, a daughter of the Raja of Mudhol [Karnataka]. He was adopted by Anandibai, widow of Raja Shivaji IV, in March 1884. Several generations of inter-marriage had ensured that Shahu's family was connected intimately with the ruling dynasty of Kolhapur, which is apparently what rendered him a suitable candidate for adoption, despite his not being a male-line member of the Bhonsle dynasty. A council of regency was appointed by the British government of India to oversee affairs of state during Shahu's minority and during that time he was tutored in administrative affairs by Sir Stuart Fraser. Shahu was invested with ruling powers upon coming of age in 1894. There is one college named Rajaram college built by Shahu Maharaja.
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Shaukat Hayat Khan
Shaukat Hayat Khan (1915–1998) was a prominent Muslim League movement worker and political leader, who worked closely with the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in the Punjab.
Shaukat Hayat Khan (SHK) hailed from the famous Hayat Khattar family of Wah in Attock, and he was the eldest son of Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan (1892-1942), the famous Punjabi statesman and feudal baron, from his first wife Begum Zubaida Khanum, a lady from a prominent Kashmiri family settled in Amritsar, British India. After his mother's early demise in 1919, the young Shaukat and his siblings were taken care of by their step-mother and in due course, he was sent to study at the Aitchison College and the Aligarh University, briefly, before he was sent, in keeping with family tradition, to join the British Indian Army, upon passing the qualifying examinations .
Upon completing his military training or cadetship at the Indian Military Academy, he was formally commissioned as a Lieutenant in the 16th Light Cavalry with effect from 15th July 1937. After some service on the North West Frontier, when World War II broke out, he volunteered to go abroad for active service with any cavalry regiment being sent out to the Front, and was therefore seconded to Skinner's Horse. He thereafter served in Somalia, the Middle East and North Africa from 1941 to 1942, first promoted as a Captain and then a War Substantive Major, until his father's death in December 1942, when he had to quit military service to take up his political role in the Punjab.
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Sikander Hyat Khan
Sardar Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan (also written 'Sikandar Hyat Khan' at times) KBE, KCSI, Doctor of Oriental Lit etc. (5 June 1892 in Multan – 25/26 December 1942) was a renowned Indian politician and statesman from the Punjab.
He was the son of late Nawab Muhammad Hayat Khan, CSI, of Wah, who was a close associate of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, and a prominent scion of the Khattar Jatt tribe of Attock, North Punjab. He was educated at school in Aligarh and later at Aligarh University, and for a short while was sent to England for higher education but was recalled home by his family circa 1915. During the First World War, he initially worked as a War Recruitment Officer in his native Attock district and later served as one of the very first Indian officers to receive the King's Commission, with the 2/67th Punjabis (later the 1/2 Punjab Regiment). As a result of his distinguished services in the Great War and later, the Third Afghan War, he was awarded an MBE by the Government of British India. After 1920, Sir Sikandar turned his talents to business and by dint of his financial acumen and managerial skills, soon became a director or managing director of several companies, including the Wah Tea Estate, The Amritsar-Kasur Railway Company, The People's Bank of Northern India, The Sialkot-Narowal Railway, The ACC Wah Portland Cement Company, the Wah Stone and Lime Company, Messrs. Owen Roberts, the Punjab Sugar Corporation Ltd, Messrs. Walter Locke & Co, The Lahore Electricity Supply Co and many others. He also entered grassroots politics at this time, and remained an honorary magistrate and Chairman of the Attock District Board. Later, for a brief while he also remained the Acting Deputy-Governor of the newly-established Reserve Bank of India in 1935 , prior to returning to take on party leadership in the Punjab in 1936.
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Sir Stafford Cripps
Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour politician of the first half of the 20th century. During World War II he served in a number of positions in the wartime coalition, including Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Minister of Aircraft Production. After the war he served in the Attlee Ministry, firstly as President of the Board of Trade and between 1947 and 1950 as Chancellor of the Exchequer. In the latter position, Cripps was responsible for laying the foundations of Britain’s post-war economic prosperity, and was, according to the historian Eric Shaw, “the real architect of the rapidly improving economic picture and growing affluence from 1952 onwards.”
Cripps was born in London. His father was a Conservative member of the House of Commons who late in life, as Lord Parmoor, joined the Labour Party. His mother, the former Theresa Potter, was the sister of Beatrice Webb. Cripps grew up in a wealthy family and was educated at Winchester College and at University College London, where he studied chemistry. He left science for the law, and in 1912 was called to the bar as a barrister. He served in the First World War as an ambulance driver in France, and managed a factory producing armaments. He remained a barrister during the 1920s, where he specialised in patent cases, and was reported to be the highest paid lawyer in the country.
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Stafford Cripps
Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour politician of the first half of the 20th century. During World War II he served in a number of positions in the wartime coalition, including Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Minister of Aircraft Production. After the war he served in the Attlee Ministry, firstly as President of the Board of Trade and between 1947 and 1950 as Chancellor of the Exchequer. In the latter position, Cripps was responsible for laying the foundations of Britain’s post-war economic prosperity, and was, according to the historian Eric Shaw, “the real architect of the rapidly improving economic picture and growing affluence from 1952 onwards.”
Cripps was born in London. His father was a Conservative member of the House of Commons who late in life, as Lord Parmoor, joined the Labour Party. His mother, the former Theresa Potter, was the sister of Beatrice Webb. Cripps grew up in a wealthy family and was educated at Winchester College and at University College London, where he studied chemistry. He left science for the law, and in 1912 was called to the bar as a barrister. He served in the First World War as an ambulance driver in France, and managed a factory producing armaments. He remained a barrister during the 1920s, where he specialised in patent cases, and was reported to be the highest paid lawyer in the country.
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Stanley Wolpert
Stanley Wolpert (born 1927) is an American Indologist, author, and academic. He is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on the political and intellectual history of modern India and Pakistan and has written fiction and nonfiction books on the topics. He taught at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1959-2002.
Stanley Albert Wolpert was born on 23 December 1927 in Brooklyn, New York to Russian Jewish parents. While serving as an engineer aboard a U.S. Merchant Marine ship he arrived in Bombay, India for the first time on 12 February 1948. Upon arriving, he was both fascinated and overwhelmed by the extraordinary outpouring of grief over the death of Mahatma Gandhi—who he then knew very little about—just two weeks earlier. Atop a hill, he witnessed numerous mourning Indians who were rushing to touch the ashes of Gandhi as the ship on which the urn was placed weighed anchor to scatter a portion of his ashes into the water below. On returning home, he abandoned his career in marine engineering for the study of Indian history. He received a B.A. from City College in 1953, and an A.M. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1955 and 1959. with a dissertation (published as Tilak and Gokhale) on the revolutionary and reform wings of the Indian National Congress.
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Subhas Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose ( listen (help·info); January 1897 – 18 August 1945 [unconfirmed]) byname Netaji (Hindi: “Respected leader”) was an Indian revolutionary who led an Indian national force against the British colonizers (and therefore also against the allied Western powers) during World War II. Bose was one of the most prominent leaders in the Indian independence movement and is a legendary figure in India today.
He is presumed to have died "in absentia" on 18 August 1945 from injuries sustained in an alleged aircraft crash in Taihoku (Taipei). However, no actual evidence of the death of Subhas Chandra Bose on that day has ever been officially authenticated and many committees were set up by the government of India to investigate the mystery of his presumed death.
Bose advocated complete unconditional independence for India, whereas the All-India Congress Committee wanted it in phases, through Dominion status. Finally at the historic Lahore Congress convention, the Congress adopted Purna Swaraj (complete independence) as its motto. Gandhi was given rousing receptions wherever he went after Gandhi-Irwin pact. Subhas Chandra Bose, traveling with Gandhi in these travels, later wrote that the great enthusiasm he saw among the people enthused him tremendously and that he doubted if any other leader anywhere in the world received such a reception as Gandhi did during these travels across the country. He was imprisoned and expelled from India. Defying the ban, he came back to India and was imprisoned again.
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Subhash Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose ( listen (help·info); January 1897 – 18 August 1945 [unconfirmed]) byname Netaji (Hindi: “Respected leader”) was an Indian revolutionary who led an Indian national force against the British colonizers (and therefore also against the allied Western powers) during World War II. Bose was one of the most prominent leaders in the Indian independence movement and is a legendary figure in India today.
He is presumed to have died "in absentia" on 18 August 1945 from injuries sustained in an alleged aircraft crash in Taihoku (Taipei). However, no actual evidence of the death of Subhas Chandra Bose on that day has ever been officially authenticated and many committees were set up by the government of India to investigate the mystery of his presumed death.
Bose advocated complete unconditional independence for India, whereas the All-India Congress Committee wanted it in phases, through Dominion status. Finally at the historic Lahore Congress convention, the Congress adopted Purna Swaraj (complete independence) as its motto. Gandhi was given rousing receptions wherever he went after Gandhi-Irwin pact. Subhas Chandra Bose, traveling with Gandhi in these travels, later wrote that the great enthusiasm he saw among the people enthused him tremendously and that he doubted if any other leader anywhere in the world received such a reception as Gandhi did during these travels across the country. He was imprisoned and expelled from India. Defying the ban, he came back to India and was imprisoned again.
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Subramanya Bharathi
Chinnaswami Subramanya Bharathi (Tamil: சின்னசுவாமி சுப்பிரமணிய பாரதி) (December 11, 1882 – September 11, 1921) was a Tamil writer, poet, journalist, Indian independence activist and social reformer from Tamil Nadu, India. Popularly known as Mahakavi Bharathiyar (Tamil: மகாகவி பாரதியார்), he is a pioneer of modern Tamil poetry.
Born in Ettayapuram in 1882, Subramanya Bharathi studied in Tinnevely and worked as a journalist with many newspapers, notable among them being the Swadesamitran and India. Bharathi was also an active member of the Indian National Congress. In 1908, an arrest warrant was issued against Bharathi by the government of British India for his revolutionary activities forcing him to flee to Pondicherry where he lived till 1918.
Bharathi is considered to be one of the greatest Tamil poets of the modern era. Most of his works were on religious, political and social themes. Songs penned by Bharathi have been widely used in Tamil films and Carnatic Music concert platforms.
Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathiyar was born to Chinnasami Subramanya Iyer and Elakumi Ammaal as "Subbayya" on December 11, 1882 in the Tamil village of Ettayapuram. He was educated at a local high school called "The M.D.T. Hindu College" in Tirunelveli. From a very young age he learnt music and at 11nd songs. It was here that he was conferred the title of "Bharathi" ("one blessed by Saraswati, the goddess of learning).
wn.com/Subramanya_Bharathi -
Sugata Bose
Sugata Bose is the Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University.
Sugata Bose was born in Calcutta, India. He studied at the Presidency College, Kolkata. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge under Eric Stokes. He is the grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and grandson of Nationalist leader Sarat Chandra Bose and son of Formerly T.M.C. MP Smt. Krishna Bose.
Sugata Bose was a professor of history and diplomacy at Tufts University. He is the author of several books on the economic, social and political history of modern South Asia, and has pioneered work in historical studies emphasizing the centrality of the Indian Ocean. He is heading the mentors' group for revival of Presidency College.
He is married to Ayesha Jalal, a prominent Pakistani historian and professor of South Asian History at Tufts University.[citation needed]
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Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda (pronounced: IPA: [ʂāmiː biːbeːkānoːnɗoː] listen (help·info)) (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendra Nath Datta (IPA: [nôreːnd̪roː naːt̪ʰ d̪ôttoː] was the chief disciple of the 19th century saint Ramakrishna and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He is considered a key figure in the introduction of Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the western world, mainly in America and Europe and is also credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the end of the 19th century CE. Vivekananda is considered to be a major force in the revival of Hinduism in modern India. He is perhaps best known for his inspiring speech which began: "Sisters and Brothers of America," through which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.
Swami Vivekananda was born in an aristocratic Bengali Kayastha family of Calcutta on 12 January 1863. Vivekananda's parents influenced his thinking—his father by his rationality and his mother by her religious temperament. From his childhood, he showed an inclination towards spirituality and God realisation. His guru, Ramakrishna, taught him Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism); that all religions are true and that service to man was the most effective worship of God. After the Mahasamadhi of his guru, Vivekananda became a wandering monk, touring the Indian subcontinent and acquiring first-hand knowledge of conditions in India. He later travelled to Chicago and represented India as a delegate in the 1893 Parliament of World Religions. He conducted hundreds of public and private lectures and classes, disseminating Vedanta and Yoga in America, England and Europe. He also established the Vedanta societies in America and England.
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Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan (November 1750, Devanahalli – 4 May 1799, Seringapatam), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He was the son of Hyder Ali, at that time an officer in the Mysorean army, and his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-Nissa. He was given a number of honorific titles, and was referred to as Sultan Fateh Ali Khan Shahab, Tipu Saheb, Bahadur Khan Tipu Sultan or Fatih Ali Khan Tipu Sultan Bahadur.
During Tipu's childhood, his father rose to take power in Mysore, and Tipu took over rule of the kingdom upon his father's death. In addition to his role as ruler, he was a scholar, soldier, and poet. He was a devout Muslim but the majority of his subjects were Hindus. At the request of the French, he built a church, the first in Mysore. He was proficient in many languages. In alliance with the French in their struggle with the British, and in Mysore's struggles with other surrounding powers, both Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali used their French trained army against the Marathas, Sira, rulers of Malabar, Coorg, Bednur, Carnatic, and Travancore. He won important victories against the British in the Second Anglo-Mysore War, and negotiated the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore with them after his father died the previous year.
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V. K. Krishna Menon
Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon (Malayalam: വി. കെ. കൃഷ്ണമേനോന്) (3 May 1896 – 6 October 1974) was an Indian nationalist, diplomat and statesman, described as the second most powerful man in India by Time magazine and others, after his ally and intimate friend, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Described as "vitriolic, intolerant, impatient, and exigent – yes, but generous, sensitive, considerate, a great teacher too, and a great man" by Lord Listowell, the last British secretary of state for India, Menon was an influential and controversial figure on the world scene, and the architect of the Third Bloc foreign policy of non-alignment. He headed India's diplomatic missions to both the United Kingdom and United Nations, and was repeatedly elected to both houses of the Indian Parliament from multiple constituencies, serving as Defence Minister from 1957 to 1962.
Menon cofounded Penguin Books in 1935 with Sir Allen Lane[citation needed], and also created the Sainik Schools. He is the first Malayalee to have won the Padma Vibhushan.
wn.com/V._K._Krishna_Menon -
Vinoba Bhave
Vinoba Bhave (Marathi: विनोबा भावे),Vinayak Narahari Bhave (September 11, 1895 - November 15, 1982) often called Acharya (Sanskrit for teacher), was an Indian advocate of nonviolence and human rights. He is best known for the Bhoodan Andolan. He is considered as a National Teacher of India and the spiritual successor of Mahatma Gandhi.
He was born in Gagode village in Colaba (now Raigad District of Mumbai State, Maharashtra) on September 11, 1895 into a pious family of the Chitpavan Brahmin clan. He was brought-up in Baroda. He was highly inspired after reading the Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharat, Ramayan at a very early age. His father, Naraharishumbhurao Bhave was a devout Hindu and his mother, Rukmini Devi who died in 1918, was a great influence on him. In his memoir, Bhave states that, "there is nothing to equal the part my mother played in shaping my mind". Specifically, her devotion and spirituality.
His two brothers, Balkoba Bhave and Shivaji Bhave, were also bachelors devoted to social work.
wn.com/Vinoba_Bhave -
Vitthal Ramji Shinde
Mahrshi Vitthal Ramji Shinde (April 23, 1873 – January 2, 1944) was one of the most important social and religious reformers in Maharashtra, India. He was prominent among the liberal thinkers and reformists in India, prior to her independence. His greatest contribution was to remove the practice of untouchability and bring about equality to the depressed classes in Indian society.
He was born in 1873 in the princely state of Jamkhandi in Karnataka, India, a member of a Marathi-speaking Maharashtrian family. His early childhood was influenced by a liberal family environment. The family friends and acquaintances came from all religions and castes. He was brought up to think that religion was not just a matter of a blind faith and meaningless rituals or pujas, but meant getting personally and emotionally involved in the service of God.
He was influenced by the writings of many intellectuals such as Mahatma Jotiba Phule, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, and Max Müller.
In 1898 he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Fergusson College at Pune, India. He had also studied and passed the first year law and moved to Mumbai (Bombay) for the LL.B. examination; however, he gave up this course to attend to other compelling callings in his life. This same year he joined the Prarthana Samaj, where he was further inspired and influenced by G.B. Kotkar, Shivrampant Gokhle, Justice Mahadev Govinda Ranade, Sir Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar and K.B. Marathe. He became a missionary for the Prarthana Samaj.
wn.com/Vitthal_Ramji_Shinde -
Waldemar Haffkine
Waldemar Mordecai Wolff Haffkine, CIE (Russian: Мордехай-Вольф Хавкин) (15 March 1860, Odessa,Russian Empire - 26 October 1930, Lausanne, Switzerland) was a Russian Jewish bacteriologist, whose career was blighted in Russia because "he refused to convert to Russian Orthodoxy." He emigrated and worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he developed an anti-cholera vaccine that he tried out successfully in India. He is recognized as the first microbiologist who developed and used vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague. He tested the vaccines on himself. Lord Joseph Lister named him "a saviour of humanity".
Born Vladimir Aaronovich Havkin (Russian: Владимир (Маркус-Вольф) Аaронович Хавкин), the fourth of five children in a family of a Jewish schoolmaster in Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine), he received his education in Odessa, Berdyansk and St. Petersburg.
For a short time, young Haffkine was a member of Narodnaya Volya, but after the group turned to terrorism against public officials, he broke up with the revolutionary movement. He was also a member of the Jewish League for Self-Defense. Haffkine was injured while defending a Jewish home during a pogrom. As a result of this action he was arrested but later released due to the intervention of Ilya Mechnikov.
wn.com/Waldemar_Haffkine -
William Muir
Sir William Muir, KCSI (27 April 1819 – 11 July 1905) was a Scottish Orientalist and colonial administrator.
He was born at Glasgow and educated at Kilmarnock Academy, at Glasgow and Edinburgh Universities, and at Haileybury College. In 1837 he entered the Bengal Civil Service. Muir served as secretary to the governor of the North-West Provinces, and as a member of the Agra revenue board, and during the Mutiny he was in charge of the intelligence department there. In 1865 he was made foreign secretary to the Indian Government. In 1867 Muir was knighted (K.C.S.I.), and in 1868 he became lieutenant-governor of the North Western Provinces.
Having been criticized for the poor relief effort during the Orissa famine of 1866, the British began began to discuss famine policy, and in 1868 Muir issued an order stating that:
In 1874 Muir was appointed financial member of the Viceroy's Council, and retired in 1876, when he became a member of the Council of India in London.James Thomason served as Muir's mentor with respect to Imperial administration; Muir later wrote an influential biography of Thomason.
wn.com/William_Muir -
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, PC, DL, FRS, Hon. RA (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British Conservative politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century, he served as Prime Minister twice (1940–45 and 1951–55). A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. He is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States.
Churchill was born into the aristocratic family of the Dukes of Marlborough. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer; his mother, Jenny Jerome, was an American socialite. As a young army officer, he saw action in British India, the Sudan, and the Second Boer War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns.
wn.com/Winston_Churchill -
World War I
World War I (WWI), which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939 (World War II), and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centred around the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). These alliances both reorganised (Italy fought for the Allies), and expanded as more nations entered the war. Ultimately more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of enormous increases in lethality of weapons, thanks to new technology, without corresponding improvements in protection or mobility. It was the sixth-deadliest conflict in world history, subsequently paving the way for various political changes such as revolutions in the nations involved.
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Yashwantrao Holkar
H. H. Maharajadhiraj Raj Rajeshwar Sawai Shrimant Yashwant Rao Holkar (Marathi: यशवंतराव होळकर) Bahadur, Nusrat Jang, one of Maharaja from Maratha Empire, was born on 3 December 1776. He was a gifted military leader and educated in accountancy as well as literate in Persian and Marathi.
In January 1799, Yashwant Rao Holkar was crowned King, as per Hindu Vedic rites and in May, 1799, he captured Ujjain. He started campaigning towards the north to expand his empire in that region. Yashwant Rao rebelled against the policies of the Peshwa Baji Rao II. On May 1802, he marched towards Pune the seat of the Peshwa. This gave rise to the Battle of Poona in which the Peshwa was defeated. After the defeat the Peshwa he fled from Pune. Conquering Pune resulted in Yashwant Rao Holkar in charge of the administration and made some constructive steps to rebuild the Maratha Empire.
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The British Raj- Part 1: VEDIC TV
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 14:02
- Updated: 08 Dec 2012
www.vedicvision.org History revisited and facts revealed. Watch 'BRITISH RAJ' in two parts on you tube covering events related to struggle of South India, Lord Macaulay controversial address to British Parliament, 1857 revolution, Orientalists stand with regard to Sanskrit and Arabic, Controversial 1881 census methodology which is still continued today in 'FREE' India and Jallianwala Bagh Killings and much much more.
http://wn.com/The_British_Raj_Part_1_VEDIC_TV
www.vedicvision.org History revisited and facts revealed. Watch 'BRITISH RAJ' in two parts on you tube covering events related to struggle of South India, Lord Macaulay controversial address to British Parliament, 1857 revolution, Orientalists stand with regard to Sanskrit and Arabic, Controversial 1881 census methodology which is still continued today in 'FREE' India and Jallianwala Bagh Killings and much much more.
Reality of British Raj
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:05
- Updated: 05 Dec 2012
People who praise British Raj in South Asia must see this . it will open their eyes
http://wn.com/Reality_of_British_Raj
People who praise British Raj in South Asia must see this . it will open their eyes
- published: 13 Jan 2012
- views: 1713
- author: safi164
British colonialism and the distortion of history
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:09
- Updated: 01 Dec 2012
Romila Thapar talks about the manipulation of historical facts by the British Raj to justify their conquest of the Indian subcontinent in this thought-provoking video.
http://wn.com/British_colonialism_and_the_distortion_of_history
Romila Thapar talks about the manipulation of historical facts by the British Raj to justify their conquest of the Indian subcontinent in this thought-provoking video.
- published: 31 Dec 2010
- views: 5539
- author: Gameon1640
Pakistan 1947 - Independence from British Rule
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:03
- Updated: 16 Aug 2012
Clip starts at 0:22 and its from the movie "Jinnah" showing Pakistan when it got independence from British rule and Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's famous speech on that day.
http://wn.com/Pakistan_1947_Independence_from_British_Rule
Clip starts at 0:22 and its from the movie "Jinnah" showing Pakistan when it got independence from British rule and Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's famous speech on that day.
- published: 04 Dec 2008
- views: 66239
- author: wsnyc80
India-The Jewel of the British Raj
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 19:04
- Updated: 29 Oct 2012
There are no second thoughts about India being the Jewel of the British Raj.
http://wn.com/India-The_Jewel_of_the_British_Raj
There are no second thoughts about India being the Jewel of the British Raj.
- published: 20 Jul 2012
- views: 660
- author: The Brar's
Karachi Under British Raj - Rare Video Old Karachi
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:53
- Updated: 12 Nov 2012
http://wn.com/Karachi_Under_British_Raj_Rare_Video_Old_Karachi
The British Raj and the Revolt of 1857.flv
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:51
- Updated: 10 Dec 2012
Channel24x7
http://wn.com/The_British_Raj_and_the_Revolt_of_1857flv
British Raj: Occupied India and the Chinese Opium Wars part 1
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:40
- Updated: 06 Nov 2012
The East India Company was a front company for the British Royal family and the establishment. The company's belief was 'Trade where necessary, plunder where possible'. At its height, the income of the opium trade was around 30% of the British governments total income. Interest Links: Great Hedge of India: en.wikipedia.org Opium Financed British Rule in India: news.bbc.co.uk Read also: 'The Opium Wars - The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another' by W. Travis Hanes III and Frank Sanello. 'The Corporation that Changed the World' by Nick Robins.
http://wn.com/British_Raj_Occupied_India_and_the_Chinese_Opium_Wars_part_1
The East India Company was a front company for the British Royal family and the establishment. The company's belief was 'Trade where necessary, plunder where possible'. At its height, the income of the opium trade was around 30% of the British governments total income. Interest Links: Great Hedge of India: en.wikipedia.org Opium Financed British Rule in India: news.bbc.co.uk Read also: 'The Opium Wars - The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another' by W. Travis Hanes III and Frank Sanello. 'The Corporation that Changed the World' by Nick Robins.
- published: 30 May 2010
- views: 15409
- author: MughalistanSipahi
BRITISH COLONIAL RULE IN BALOCHISTAN
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:32
- Updated: 26 Jul 2012
a brief glimpse of british colonial rule in balochistan in pics
http://wn.com/BRITISH_COLONIAL_RULE_IN_BALOCHISTAN
a brief glimpse of british colonial rule in balochistan in pics
- published: 30 Nov 2008
- views: 21480
- author: quettabalochistan
British thought of india and how they managedd to rule us
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:20
- Updated: 16 Nov 2012
Just read what india was as per LORD MACAULAY on his statement on 2nd Feb' 1835 ,in the last snap . That would really shock us old Photographs from Indian History. please read the last Article Carefully
http://wn.com/British_thought_of_india_and_how_they_managedd_to_rule_us
Just read what india was as per LORD MACAULAY on his statement on 2nd Feb' 1835 ,in the last snap . That would really shock us old Photographs from Indian History. please read the last Article Carefully
- published: 25 Sep 2010
- views: 3878
- author: Akash Pandey
Indigo cultivation in India under the British rule
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:50
- Updated: 17 Sep 2012
This video describes why Indigo was cultivated on a large scale in India by the British and what were the two systems of Indigo cultivation.
http://wn.com/Indigo_cultivation_in_India_under_the_British_rule
This video describes why Indigo was cultivated on a large scale in India by the British and what were the two systems of Indigo cultivation.
- published: 04 Jun 2012
- views: 664
- author: unacademy
MTV Unmasked - Would India be a better country today under the British Raj?
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:17
- Updated: 07 Sep 2012
Is India too big a country to function as a democracy or do we need to be ruled by the British? More @ mtvindia.com
http://wn.com/MTV_Unmasked_Would_India_be_a_better_country_today_under_the_British_Raj?
Is India too big a country to function as a democracy or do we need to be ruled by the British? More @ mtvindia.com
- published: 09 May 2011
- views: 3551
- author: mtvindia
The British Raj- Part 2: VEDIC TV
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:58
- Updated: 21 Sep 2012
www.vedicvision.org History revisited and facts revealed. Watch 'BRITISH RAJ' in two parts on you tube covering events related to struggle of South India, Lord Macaulay controversial address to British Parliament, 1857 revolution, Orientalists stand with regard to Sanskrit and Arabic, Controversial 1881 census methodology which is still continued today in 'FREE' India and Jallianwala Bagh Killings and much much more.
http://wn.com/The_British_Raj_Part_2_VEDIC_TV
www.vedicvision.org History revisited and facts revealed. Watch 'BRITISH RAJ' in two parts on you tube covering events related to struggle of South India, Lord Macaulay controversial address to British Parliament, 1857 revolution, Orientalists stand with regard to Sanskrit and Arabic, Controversial 1881 census methodology which is still continued today in 'FREE' India and Jallianwala Bagh Killings and much much more.
- published: 04 Oct 2010
- views: 2649
- author: bhuvannn
St. Joseph Convent, Panchgani, India during British Raj - (rule)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 11:32
- Updated: 23 Nov 2012
Video is about St. Joseph Convent high school in Panchgani, India. Includes, nuns, priests,teachers,classmates, friends and gorgeous scenery, all during the British Raj years prior to Independence of India.
http://wn.com/St_Joseph_Convent,_Panchgani,_India_during_British_Raj_rule
Video is about St. Joseph Convent high school in Panchgani, India. Includes, nuns, priests,teachers,classmates, friends and gorgeous scenery, all during the British Raj years prior to Independence of India.
- published: 01 May 2012
- views: 429
- author: Karita Sunder
Video of Life in 1930 Indian's under British Rule.flv
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:24
- Updated: 26 Nov 2012
I will like to thank Mr.Steve Mathew Lee(Member of British museum) for sending me this file which i will like to share with all my fellow Indians.This video is very exclusive as you want find it anywhere.Thank you once again. Regards, Khuzema Blue
http://wn.com/Video_of_Life_in_1930_Indian's_under_British_Ruleflv
I will like to thank Mr.Steve Mathew Lee(Member of British museum) for sending me this file which i will like to share with all my fellow Indians.This video is very exclusive as you want find it anywhere.Thank you once again. Regards, Khuzema Blue
- published: 27 Nov 2011
- views: 2577
- author: urkhuzzu
A Talk about British Rule in India and Conditions of Muslims
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 16:29
- Updated: 29 Feb 2012
www.alislam.org A discussion programme related to events in the history of Ahmadiyyat. Todays guest is Professor Francis Robinson, a specialist in south Asian history. Topics of discussion include political, social and religious conditions of Muslims in India under the British rule and what were their relations with British government and was there a need for planting anyone? Presentation of MTA International.
http://wn.com/A_Talk_about_British_Rule_in_India_and_Conditions_of_Muslims
www.alislam.org A discussion programme related to events in the history of Ahmadiyyat. Todays guest is Professor Francis Robinson, a specialist in south Asian history. Topics of discussion include political, social and religious conditions of Muslims in India under the British rule and what were their relations with British government and was there a need for planting anyone? Presentation of MTA International.
- published: 28 Feb 2012
- views: 583
- author: alislammedia
Javed: Pak Govt vs British Raj
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:18
- Updated: 27 Aug 2010
Javed Chaudhry - host of Kal Tak program in Pakistan - compares and contrasts the caliber and effectiveness of Pak Government with the British Raj. Unlike the English, Pak govt has proven itself to be very weak and ineffective by rescinding its own orders. PLEASE READ MY COMMENTS ON THE VIDEO BEFORE WATCHING.
http://wn.com/Javed_Pak_Govt_vs_British_Raj
Javed Chaudhry - host of Kal Tak program in Pakistan - compares and contrasts the caliber and effectiveness of Pak Government with the British Raj. Unlike the English, Pak govt has proven itself to be very weak and ineffective by rescinding its own orders. PLEASE READ MY COMMENTS ON THE VIDEO BEFORE WATCHING.
- published: 17 Apr 2009
- views: 8889
- author: KashifHKhan
British Raj Atrocity Exposed - Ajinkya Deo - Sonali Kulkarni - Vasudev Balwant Phadke
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:22
- Updated: 07 Aug 2012
Superhit Marathi movie featuring Ajinkya Deo and Sonali Kulkarni from the movie Vasudev Balwant Phadke. Ajinkya Deo in the court of British Government and exposes their dirty atrocities. Subscribe now to get regular updates on new marathi movies and stageplays at www.youtube.com . To watch all latest superhit Marathi Movies and Latest Stageplays click here www.youtube.com
http://wn.com/British_Raj_Atrocity_Exposed_Ajinkya_Deo_Sonali_Kulkarni_Vasudev_Balwant_Phadke
Superhit Marathi movie featuring Ajinkya Deo and Sonali Kulkarni from the movie Vasudev Balwant Phadke. Ajinkya Deo in the court of British Government and exposes their dirty atrocities. Subscribe now to get regular updates on new marathi movies and stageplays at www.youtube.com . To watch all latest superhit Marathi Movies and Latest Stageplays click here www.youtube.com
- published: 12 Nov 2011
- views: 122
- author: shemaroomarathi
Sarfarosh (1985) Why Did People Rebel Against British Rule ?Conquest By King or Demons?
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 14:59
- Updated: 25 Feb 2011
timesofindia.indiatimes.com Vasundhara Raje Scindia 22nd Chief Minister of Rajasthan In office 8 December 2003--11 December 2008 Vasundhara Raje was born on 8th March 1953 in Mumbai. Vasundhara Raje was initiated into politics by her mother in 1982. en.wikipedia.org Devyani Rana was the prospective fiancée of the Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal. She is the daughter of Pashupati Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana and Usharaje Scindia, of the Gwalior royal family. Devyani Rana fled to India immediately after the royal massacre to escape media attention. en.wikipedia.org Date June 1, 2001 about 21 hrs (UTC+5:45) The Nepali royal massacre occurred on Friday, June 1, 2001, at a house in the grounds of the Narayanhity Royal Palace, then the residence of the Nepalese monarchy, when the heir to the throne, Prince Dipendra killed nine members of his family and himself. The widely circulated rumors is that Prince Dipendra was angry over a marriage dispute. Dipendra's choice of bride was Devyani Rana, daughter of Pashupati SJB Rana, a member of the Rana clan, against whom the Shah dynasty have a historic animosity. The Rana clan had served as the hereditary prime ministers of Nepal until 1951. www.cairnindia.com As the Indian oil and gas market deregulated in the early 1990s. Cairn turned its focus to South Asia, acquiring Command Petroleum Ltd in 1996, an Australian-quoted company with interests in India. Ravva, in Eastern India, was the first offshore oil and gas field to be developed ...
http://wn.com/Sarfarosh_1985_Why_Did_People_Rebel_Against_British_Rule_?Conquest_By_King_or_Demons?
timesofindia.indiatimes.com Vasundhara Raje Scindia 22nd Chief Minister of Rajasthan In office 8 December 2003--11 December 2008 Vasundhara Raje was born on 8th March 1953 in Mumbai. Vasundhara Raje was initiated into politics by her mother in 1982. en.wikipedia.org Devyani Rana was the prospective fiancée of the Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal. She is the daughter of Pashupati Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana and Usharaje Scindia, of the Gwalior royal family. Devyani Rana fled to India immediately after the royal massacre to escape media attention. en.wikipedia.org Date June 1, 2001 about 21 hrs (UTC+5:45) The Nepali royal massacre occurred on Friday, June 1, 2001, at a house in the grounds of the Narayanhity Royal Palace, then the residence of the Nepalese monarchy, when the heir to the throne, Prince Dipendra killed nine members of his family and himself. The widely circulated rumors is that Prince Dipendra was angry over a marriage dispute. Dipendra's choice of bride was Devyani Rana, daughter of Pashupati SJB Rana, a member of the Rana clan, against whom the Shah dynasty have a historic animosity. The Rana clan had served as the hereditary prime ministers of Nepal until 1951. www.cairnindia.com As the Indian oil and gas market deregulated in the early 1990s. Cairn turned its focus to South Asia, acquiring Command Petroleum Ltd in 1996, an Australian-quoted company with interests in India. Ravva, in Eastern India, was the first offshore oil and gas field to be developed ...
- published: 25 Feb 2011
- views: 5946
- author: RahulAugust9892NEHRU
Lecture- British Rule in India
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 7:57
- Updated: 24 Oct 2012
British rule brought stablity to India but destroyed native industries and degraded Indians.
http://wn.com/Lecture_British_Rule_in_India
British rule brought stablity to India but destroyed native industries and degraded Indians.
- published: 23 Feb 2011
- views: 12168
- author: DrPalmerHistory
Interview with Pakistanis who left the British Raj for Pakistan in 1947 - A Message to the Youth
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:50
- Updated: 24 Oct 2012
Hina Khwaja interviews these great Pakistanis! They also have a message to the youth of Pakistan!
http://wn.com/Interview_with_Pakistanis_who_left_the_British_Raj_for_Pakistan_in_1947_A_Message_to_the_Youth
Hina Khwaja interviews these great Pakistanis! They also have a message to the youth of Pakistan!
- published: 13 Mar 2009
- views: 7434
- author: xtremeownage2
Javed: British Raj on Governance
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:19
- Updated: 28 Jan 2012
Javed Chaudhry - host of Kal Tak program in Pakistan - describes the governance philosophy of Field Marshall Frederick Roberts, the British conqueror of Afghanistan and one of the most successful generals in military history. According to Roberts: (a) government should never win a territory that it cannot occupy; and (b) government should never pass laws that it cannot implement. Inability to maintain an occupation would affect the morale of the troops and the prestige of the occupier while inability to implement laws would reduce the writ of the state and lead to its demise. Both US and Pakistan would be well advised to follow Roberts' dictum: the former is engaged in an impossible occupation of Afghanistan while the latter has a well-formed habit of passing laws that cannot be implemented. PLEASE READ MY COMMENTS ON THE VIDEO BEFORE WATCHING.
http://wn.com/Javed_British_Raj_on_Governance
Javed Chaudhry - host of Kal Tak program in Pakistan - describes the governance philosophy of Field Marshall Frederick Roberts, the British conqueror of Afghanistan and one of the most successful generals in military history. According to Roberts: (a) government should never win a territory that it cannot occupy; and (b) government should never pass laws that it cannot implement. Inability to maintain an occupation would affect the morale of the troops and the prestige of the occupier while inability to implement laws would reduce the writ of the state and lead to its demise. Both US and Pakistan would be well advised to follow Roberts' dictum: the former is engaged in an impossible occupation of Afghanistan while the latter has a well-formed habit of passing laws that cannot be implemented. PLEASE READ MY COMMENTS ON THE VIDEO BEFORE WATCHING.
- published: 21 Jun 2009
- views: 4104
- author: KashifHKhan
Indian Theater during British Raj
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:01
- Updated: 08 Jun 2011
AP World History final exam project about how the British influenced Indian theater during the British Raj.
http://wn.com/Indian_Theater_during_British_Raj
AP World History final exam project about how the British influenced Indian theater during the British Raj.
- published: 08 Jun 2011
- views: 125
- author: daniellemarkowitz
photo: AP / Reed Saxon
10 Dec 2012
The wreckage of a small plane believed to be carrying Mexican-American singing superstar Jenni Rivera has been found in northern Mexico and there are no apparent survivors, authorities said. Transportation and Communications Minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said on Sunday that "everything points toward" it being the US-registered Learjet 25 carrying Rivera and six other people from Monterrey en route to Toluca, Mexico ... 192 Source. ... Share ... ....(size: 17.5Kb)
photo: USAF / Staff Sgt. Jonathan Lovelady
10 Dec 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. In the desert of central Australia still resides a primitive tribe known as the Arunta. This non-technological and stateless group, which mainly depends on hunting and gathering, had suffered several inexplicable deaths ... Therefore, they organized an atinga, or revenge group ... When the guiltless tribe learned of their approach, they sent out a delegation of young women as a token of peace....(size: 5.8Kb)
photo: AP / Todd Williamson
10 Dec 2012
MÉXICO, D.F., diciembre 9 (EL UNIVERSAL).- La Voz México, programa de talentos de Televisa, confirmó la muerte de la cantante Jenni Rivera, a través de su Twitter. "Que toquen fuerte las bandas, suelten por mí mariposas, apláudanme con sus palmas... http.//twitpic.com/bkmhl0 .Descanse en paz Jenni Rivera" ... Además, anunció un homenaje luctuoso dedicado a la cantante ... Descanse en Paz" ... ....(size: 2.1Kb)
photo: AP / Bullit Marquez
11 Dec 2012
The death toll brought about by typhoon “Pablo” continued to rise with 714 persons confirmed dead by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) yesterday while those missing ballooned to 890 as massive search, retrieval and relief operations continue in the typhoon-ravaged areas in Mindanao ... 4 ... They were subsequently brought to Caraga Regional Hospital ... (NHMFC) (P100,000) ... With AFP ....(size: 5.4Kb)
photo: AP / A.M. Ahad
11 Dec 2012
Violence has flared in many parts of Bangladesh as schools and most businesses were shut after opposition groups enforced a dawn-to-dusk strike. They called the strike to protest against attacks on their supporters during a road blockade on Sunday. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies have been demanding a caretaker government be put in place to oversee the next parliamentary polls ... "The situation is under control now ... ....(size: 2.2Kb)
The Times of India
10 Dec 2012
For most Indians, colonial British India exists only in movies or Kipling's novels. But in a 152-year-old shop in this Dharamsala suburb the British Raj continues to live on ... Caretaker Joginder Singh said that the shop once used to take care of the daily requirements of the British officers and their families ... These brands were quite popular among the British at that time ... "The store has still not lost its British colonial charm....(size: 3.2Kb)
Taipei Times
09 Dec 2012
Despite a dramatic economic transformation in the past two decades, the emerging market giant’s 200 years under British domination still evoke painful memories ... The revolt which was savagely repressed made way for the British Raj — direct rule by the British government ... “Indians trusted the British and we know what happened ... “Again, we are inviting the British and other countries to rule us.”....(size: 3.3Kb)
Irish Times
06 Dec 2012
PETER LYNCH. That’s Maths. In two weeks, an international mathematical conference will be held at the Viceregal Lodge in New Delhi, once the nerve-centre of the British Raj. The conference marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Srinivasa Ramanujan, one of the greatest mathematical geniuses to emerge from India. Ramanujan was born in 1887 into a poor Brahmin family and had limited formal education ... ....(size: 3.1Kb)
Digital Spy
06 Dec 2012
Ridley Scott's Scott Free London has acquired The Fishing Fleet movie rights. The UK-based arm of the Prometheus director's production company has optioned Anne de Courcy's bestselling book, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The book is set in late 19th century India at the height of the British Raj. It centres around a young British woman who arrives in the country in search of romance and marriage ... More ... Previous ... 0 comments ... Review ... ....(size: 7.1Kb)
The Guardian
05 Dec 2012
What lies out there? Connections which span the world, to the hills and plains of British India ... They have won a grant of £8,600 for a project called British Raj in the Peak District, with the sub-title ... Dr Esme Cleall, lecturer in the history of the British Empire at Sheffield University, says. ... This is what the grant will do for the British Raj in the Peak District community group as they embark on a real journey of discovery....(size: 5.6Kb)
Independent online (SA)
05 Dec 2012
Darjeeling, India - October is not the hottest part of the year in India, but for most of our time in the country the temperature topped 30ºC nevertheless ... Just getting to Darjeeling, which is in the foothills of the Himalayas, is a bit of an adventure ... Darjeeling, known as the “Queen of the Hills”, is commonly associated with tea, the British Raj and mountaineering ... Away from the shops, there’s plenty to do ... ....(size: 7.6Kb)
Indian Express
04 Dec 2012
China Dream ... The venue was an exhibition at the National Museum in Beijing titled Road to Renewal, and depicting Chinas progress since the First Opium War (1839-42) imposed on it by the British Raj ... Everyone is talking about a China dream ... The speech went viral on Chinese internet sites minutes after Xi spoke ... contd. PAGE. 123 ....(size: 1.6Kb)
Wall Street Journal
04 Dec 2012
By NUPUR ACHARYA. MUMBAI—India's financial capital is built on a peninsula that narrows sharply at its southern tip, a geography not dissimilar to Manhattan ... Close. Many of the city's largest financial institutions and companies are giving up on the chaotic south of the city—home to crumbling buildings from the British Raj and to drab 1960s tower blocks—and moving to an area known as the Bandra Kurla Complex, or BKC ... ....(size: 5.9Kb)
BBC News
29 Nov 2012
... During colonial rule (1858-1947), British used Maharajahs to govern much of India on their behalf Chowmahalla Palace (pictured) owned by Osman Ali Khan, Nizam of Hyderabad (1886-1967) reputed to be world's richest man, worth £20bn Indira Gandhi's government abolished title of Maharajah in 1971 BBC History - The British Raj in India 1858-1947....(size: 5.7Kb)
The Times of India
28 Nov 2012
Role in society. The Indian police system is a vestige of the British Raj that saw police as a tool for suppression. Even after the Independence, we have adhered to the model and have not looked into other aspects of policing apart from the maintenance of law and order ... Common people are afraid of a policeman and are generally hesitant to file an FIR because of the fear that they will be mistreated ... Police-public relations ... Human rights....(size: 7.4Kb)
The Times of India
25 Nov 2012
The penultimate show of Day 5 of Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, Spring/Summer '13 was a miscellany of drama, dreams, sports, colonial India and psychedelia ... Designs, Fabrics and Colours ... Rating ... Recreating the British Raj in India in fusion ensembles carved out of restrained silhouettes of zing and panache in heavy embroideries and zardosi, designer Joy Mitra infused royalty and poise into the cuts and structures in his creations....(size: 5.6Kb)
Deccan Herald
24 Nov 2012
âA Glimpse of an Empireâ is an interesting record of how women, particularly aristocratic women, viewed British India, writes S Nanda kumar ... There are also innumerable and exhaustive accounts of life in India that are available through the gazetteers of British India. These gazetteers were meant to be of use to British District Collectors and officials, and have today become a wonderful source for students of Indian history....(size: 5.7Kb)
DNA India
24 Nov 2012
The around 1,200 tenants living in government-leased 1,000 sqft flats in Churchgate, Nariman Point and Marine Drive and paying a measly rent of Rs5 per annum, have reason to worry ... The governmentexpects to earn at least Rs1,000 crore in the process ... The government has leased out more than 1,200 properties in south Mumbai for a period of 10 to 99 years as per the rates prevailed during the British Raj ... ....(size: 2.3Kb)
"British Empire in India" redirects here. For other uses, see British India (disambiguation).
| India Indian Empire |
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| Anthem None |
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| The British Indian Empire in 1936 | |||||
| Capital | Calcutta (1858–1912) New Delhi (1912–1947) Shimla (Summer) |
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| Language(s) | hindi and Urdu, British English, and many local languages | ||||
| Government | Constitutional Monarchy | ||||
| Emperor (1876–1947) | |||||
| - 1858–1901 | Victoria 1 | ||||
| - 1901–1910 | Edward VII | ||||
| - 1910–1936 | George V | ||||
| - 1936 | Edward VIII | ||||
| - 1936–1947 | George VI | ||||
| Viceroy 2 | |||||
| - 1858–1862 | Charles Canning (first) | ||||
| - 1947 | Louis Mountbatten (last) | ||||
| Legislature | Imperial Legislative Council | ||||
| History | |||||
| - Indian Rebellion of 1857 | 10 May 1857 | ||||
| - Government of India Act 1858 | 2 August 1858 | ||||
| - Indian Independence Act 1947 | 15 August 1947 | ||||
| - Partition of India | 15 August 1947 | ||||
| Currency | British Indian rupee | ||||
| Today part of |  India Pakistan Bangladesh Burma |
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| 1: Reigned as Empress of India from 1 May 1876, before that as Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 2: Viceroy and Governor-General of India |
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 Imperial Entities of India |
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| Colonial India | |
|---|---|
| Dutch India | 1605–1825 |
| Danish India | 1620–1869 |
| French India | 1759–1954 |
| Portuguese India 1510–1961 | |
| Casa da Índia | 1434–1833 |
| Portuguese East India Company | 1628–1633 |
| British India 1613–1947 | |
| East India Company | 1612–1757 |
| Company rule in India | 1757–1857 |
| British Raj | 1858–1947 |
| British rule in Burma | 1824–1942 |
| 1765–1947/48 | |
| Partition of India |
|
British Raj (rāj, lit. "reign" in Hindi[1]) was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947.[2] The term can also refer to the period of dominion.[2][3] The region under British control, commonly called India in contemporary usage, included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom[4] (contemporaneously, "British India") as well as the princely states ruled by individual rulers under the paramountcy of the British Crown. After 1876, the resulting political union was officially called the Indian Empire and issued passports under that name. As India, it was a founding member of the League of Nations, and a member nation of the Summer Olympics in 1900, 1920, 1928, 1932, and 1936.
The system of governance was instituted in 1858, when the rule of the British East India Company was transferred to the Crown in the person of Queen Victoria[5] (and who, in 1876, was proclaimed Empress of India), and lasted until 1947, when British India was partitioned into two sovereign dominion states, the Union of India (later the Republic of India) and the Dominion of Pakistan (later the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the eastern half of which, still later, became the People's Republic of Bangladesh). The eastern-most part of the Indian Empire became the separate colony of Burma in 1937, and this gained independence in 1948.
Geographical extent[link]
The British Raj is considered to have extended (in different forms) over all regions of present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. In addition, at various times, it included the Aden Colony (from 1858 to 1937), Lower Burma (from 1858 to 1937), Upper Burma (from 1886 to 1937), British Somaliland (briefly from 1884 to 1898), and Singapore (briefly from 1858 to 1867). Burma was separated from British India in 1937. The Trucial States of the Persian Gulf were treated as princely states of the Indian Empire until 1946.
Nearby countries with close ties to Britain which were not part of the Indian Empire include Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), administered as a separate Crown colony; and the Maldive Islands, which were a Protectorate with their own Sultans.
British India and the Native States[link]
Main articles: Presidencies and provinces of British India and Princely state
The British Indian Empire was made up of two types of territory: British India, directly administered by the British, and the Native States (or Princely States), administered by their own rulers, subject to subsidiary alliances which gave the British control of their external affairs. In its Interpretation Act 1889, the British Parliament adopted the following definitions:
(4.) The expression "British India" shall mean all territories and places within Her Majesty's dominions which are for the time being governed by Her Majesty through the Governor-General of India or through any governor or other officer subordinate to the Governor-General of India.
(5.) The expression "India" shall mean British India together with any territories of any native prince or chief under the suzerainty of Her Majesty exercised through the Governor-General of India, or through any governor or other officer subordinate to the Governor-General of India.[6]
In general the term "British India" had been used (and is still used) to also refer to the regions under the rule of the British East India Company in India from 1600 to 1858. The term has also been used to refer to the "British in India".[7]
Suzerainty over 175 princely states, some of the largest and most important, was exercised (in the name of the British Crown) by the central government of British India under the Viceroy; the remaining approximately 500 states were dependents of the provincial governments of British India under a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or Chief Commissioner (as the case might have been).[8] A clear distinction between "dominion" and "suzerainty" was supplied by the jurisdiction of the courts of law: the law of British India rested upon the laws passed by the British Parliament and the legislative powers those laws vested in the various governments of British India, both central and local; in contrast, the courts of the Princely States existed under the authority of the respective rulers of those states.[8]
Major provinces[link]
Main article: Presidencies and provinces of British India
At the turn of the 20th century, British India consisted of eight provinces that were administered either by a Governor or a Lieutenant-Governor. The following table lists their areas and populations (but does not include those of the dependent Native States) circa 1907:[9]
| Province of British India[9] | Area | Population in 1901 (in millions) | Chief Administrative Officer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burma | 170,000 square miles (440,000 km2) | 9 | Lieutenant-Governor |
| Bengal (including present-day Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa) in India | 151,000 square miles (390,000 km2) | 75 | Lieutenant-Governor |
| Madras | 142,000 square miles (370,000 km2) | 38 | Governor-in-Council |
| Bombay (including present-day Sindh, Pakistan and parts of the state of Gujarat) in India | 123,000 square miles (320,000 km2) | 19 | Governor-in-Council |
| United Provinces (present-day Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand) | 107,000 square miles (280,000 km2) | 48 | Lieutenant-Governor |
| Central Provinces (including Berar) | 104,000 square miles (270,000 km2) | 13 | Chief Commissioner |
| Punjab (including the present day Punjab province and Islamabad Capital Territory in Pakistan and the state of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh in India.) | 97,000 square miles (250,000 km2) | 20 | Lieutenant-Governor |
| Assam | 49,000 square miles (130,000 km2) | 6 | Chief Commissioner |
During the partition of Bengal (1905–1911), a new province, Assam and East Bengal was created as a Lieutenant-Governorship. In 1911, East Bengal was reunited with Bengal, and the new provinces in the east became: Assam, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.[9]
Minor provinces[link]
In addition, there were a few minor provinces that were administered by a Chief Commissioner:[10]
| Minor Province | Area | Population (in thousands of inhabitants) | Chief Administrative Officer |
|---|---|---|---|
| North West Frontier Province | 16,000 square miles (41,000 km2) | 2,125 | Chief Commissioner |
| British Baluchistan (British and Administered territory) | 46,000 square miles (120,000 km2) | 308 | British Political Agent in Baluchistan served as ex-officio Chief Commissioner |
| Coorg | 1,600 square miles (4,100 km2) | 181 | British Resident in Mysore served as ex-officio Chief Commissioner |
| Ajmer-Merwara | 2,700 square miles (7,000 km2) | 477 | British Political Agent in Rajputana served as ex-officio Chief Commissioner |
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | 3,000 square miles (7,800 km2) | 25 | Chief Commissioner |
Princely states[link]
Main article: Princely state
A Princely State, also called a Native State or an Indian State, was a nominally sovereign entity with an indigenous Indian ruler who administered it internally, subject to a subsidiary alliance which always gave the British control of the state's external affairs and sometimes of other matters. The British Crown had suzerainty, but not sovereignty. There were 565 princely states when the British withdrew from the Indian subcontinent in August 1947.[11] The princely states did not form a part of British India (i.e. the presidencies and provinces), as they were not directly under British rule.
The external affairs of all of the princely states were under British control, and the British also exercised a general influence over the states' internal affairs, varying in degree according to the strength of the state. A factor in this was the ability of the British to grant or withhold the recognition of individual rulers. Some states continued to maintain their own military forces, but most of the 565 princely states in 1947 were very small and relied heavily on the British for most of the business of government. Some two hundred of the states had an area of less than 25 square kilometres.[12]
Organization[link]
Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Government of India Act 1858 made changes in the governance of India at three levels: in the imperial government in London, in the central government in Calcutta, and in the provincial governments in the presidencies (and later in the provinces).[13]
In London, it provided for a cabinet-level Secretary of State for India and a fifteen-member Council of India, whose members were required, as one prerequisite of membership, to have spent at least ten years in India and to have done so no more than ten years before.[14] Although the Secretary of State formulated the policy instructions to be communicated to India, he was required in most instances to consult the Council, but especially so in matters relating to spending of Indian revenues. The Act envisaged a system of "double government" in which the Council ideally served both as a check on excesses in imperial policy-making and as a body of up-to-date expertise on India. However, the Secretary of State also had special emergency powers that allowed him to make unilateral decisions, and, in reality, the Council's expertise was sometimes outdated.[15] From 1858 until 1947, twenty seven individuals served as Secretary of State for India and directed the India Office; these included: Sir Charles Wood (1859–1866), Marquess of Salisbury (1874–1878) (later Prime Minister of Britain), John Morley (1905–1910) (initiator of the Minto-Morley Reforms), E. S. Montagu (1917–1922) (an architect of the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms), and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence (1945–1947) (head of the 1946 Cabinet Mission to India). The size of the advisory Council was reduced over the next half-century, but its powers remained unchanged. In 1907, for the first time, two Indians were appointed to the Council.[16]
In Calcutta, the Governor-General remained head of the Government of India and now was more commonly called the Viceroy on account of his secondary role as the Crown's representative to the nominally sovereign princely states; he was, however, now responsible to the Secretary of State in London and through him to Parliament. A system of "double government" had already been in place during the Company's rule in India from the time of Pitt's India Act of 1784. The Governor-General in the capital, Calcutta, and the Governor in a subordinate presidency (Madras or Bombay) was each required to consult his advisory council; executive orders in Calcutta, for example, were issued in the name of "Governor-General-in-Council" (i.e. the Governor-General with the advice of the Council). The Company's system of "double government" had its critics, since, from the time of the system's inception, there had been intermittent feuding between the Governor-General and his Council; still, the Act of 1858 made no major changes in governance.[17] However, in the years immediately thereafter, which were also the years of post-rebellion reconstruction, the Viceroy Lord Canning found the collective decision-making of the Council to be too time-consuming for the pressing tasks ahead, so he requested the "portfolio system" of an Executive Council in which the business of each government department (the "portfolio") was assigned to and became the responsibility of a single Council member.[16] Routine departmental decisions were made exclusively by the member; however, important decisions required the consent of the Governor-General and, in the absence of such consent, required discussion by the entire Executive Council. This innovation in Indian governance was promulgated in the Indian Councils Act 1861.
If the Government of India needed to enact new laws, the Councils Act allowed for a Legislative Council—an expansion of the Executive Council by up to twelve additional members, each appointed to a two-year term—with half the members consisting of British officials of the government (termed official) and allowed to vote, and the other half, comprising Indians and domiciled Britons in India (termed non-official) and serving only in an advisory capacity.[18] All laws enacted by Legislative Councils in India, whether by the Imperial Legislative Council in Calcutta or by the provincial ones in Madras and Bombay, required the final assent of the Secretary of State in London; this prompted Sir Charles Wood, the second Secretary of State, to describe the Government of India as "a despotism controlled from home".[16] Moreover, although the appointment of Indians to the Legislative Council was a response to calls after the 1857 rebellion, most notably by Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, for more consultation with Indians, the Indians so appointed were from the landed aristocracy, often chosen for their loyalty, and far from representative.[19] Even so, the "... tiny advances in the practise of representative government were intended to provide safety valves for the expression of public opinion which had been so badly misjudged before the rebellion".[20] Indian affairs now also came to be more closely examined in the British Parliament and more widely discussed in the British press.[21]
The Governors-General and Viceroys[link]
| Viceroy | Period of Tenure | Events/Accomplishments |
|---|---|---|
| Charles Canning[22] | 1 Nov 1858 21 Mar 1862 |
1858 reorganisation of British Indian Army (contemporaneously and hereafter Indian Army) Construction begins (1860): University of Bombay, University of Madras, and University of Calcutta Indian Penal Code passed into law in 1860. Upper Doab famine of 1860–1861 Indian Councils Act 1861 Establishment of Archaeological Survey of India in 1861 James Wilson, financial member of Council of India reorganises customs, imposes income tax, creates paper currency. Indian Police Act of 1861, creation of Imperial Police later known as Indian Police Service. |
| Lord Elgin | 21 Mar 1862 20 Nov 1863 |
Dies prematurely in Dharamsala |
| John Lawrence[23] | 12 Jan 1864 12 Jan 1869 |
Anglo-Bhutan Duar War (1864–1865) Orissa famine of 1866 Rajputana famine of 1869 Creation of Department of Irrigation. Creation of Imperial Forestry Service in 1867 (now Indian Forest Service). Possession of Nicobar Islands in 1869. |
| Lord Mayo[24] | 12 Jan 1869 8 Feb 1872 |
Creation of Department of Agriculture (now Ministry of Agriculture) Major extension of railways, roads, and canals Indian Councils Act of 1870 Creation of Andaman and Nicobar Islands as a Chief Commissionership (1872). Assassination of Lord Mayo in the Andamans. |
| Lord Northbrook[24] | 3 May 1872 12 Apr 1876 |
Mortalities in Bihar famine of 1873–74 prevented by importation of rice from Burma. Gaikwad of Baroda dethroned for misgovernment; dominions continued to a child ruler. Indian Councils Act of 1874 Visit of the Prince of Wales, future Edward VII in 1875–76. |
| Lord Lytton | 12 Apr 1876 8 Jun 1880 |
Baluchistan established as a Chief Commissionership Queen Victoria (in absentia) proclaimed Empress of India at Delhi Durbar of 1877. Great Famine of 1876–78: 5.25 million dead; reduced relief offered at expense of Rs. 8 crore. Creation of Famine Commission of 1878–80 under Sir Richard Strachey. Indian Forest Act of 1878 Second Anglo-Afghan War. |
| Lord Ripon[25] | 8 Jun 1880 13 Dec 1884 |
End of Second Anglo-Afghan War. Repeal of Vernacular Press Act of 1878. Compromise on the Ilbert Bill. Local Government Acts extend self-government from towns to country. University of Punjab established in Lahore in 1882 Famine Code promulgated in 1883 by the Government of India. Creation of the Education Commission. Creation of indigenous schools, especially for Muslims. Repeal of import duties on cotton and of most tariffs. Railway extension. |
| Lord Dufferin[26][27] | 13 Dec 1884 10 Dec 1888 |
Passage of Bengal Tenancy Bill Third Anglo-Burmese War. Joint Anglo-Russian Boundary Commission appointed for the Afghan frontier. Russian attack on Afghans at Panjdeh (1885). The Great Game in full play. Report of Public Services Commission of 1886–87, creation of Imperial Civil Service (later Indian Civil Service (ICS), and today Indian Administrative Service) University of Allahabad established in 1887 Queen Victoria's Jubilee, 1887. |
| Lord Lansdowne[28] | 10 Dec 1888 11 Oct 1894 |
Strengthening of NW Frontier defence. Creation of Imperial Service Troops consisting of regiments contributed by the princely states. Gilgit Agency leased in 1899 British Parliament passes Indian Councils Act of 1892 opening the Imperial Legislative Council to Indians. Revolution in princely state of Manipur and subsequent reinstatement of ruler. High point of The Great Game. Establishment of the Durand Line between British India and Afghanistan, Railways, roads, and irrigation works begun in Burma. Border between Burma and Siam finalised in 1893. Fall of the Rupee, resulting from the steady depreciation of silver currency worldwide (1873–93). Indian Prisons Act of 1894 |
| Lord Elgin | 11 Oct 1894 6 Jan 1899 |
Reorganisation of Indian Army (from Presidency System to the four Commands). Pamir agreement Russia, 1895 The Chitral Campaign (1895), the Tirah Campaign (1896–97) Indian famine of 1896–97 beginning in Bundelkhand. Bubonic plague in Bombay (1896), Bubonic plague in Calcutta (1898); riots in wake of plague prevention measures. Establishment of Provincial Legislative Councils in Burma and Punjab; the former a new Lieutenant Governorship. |
| Lord Curzon | 6 Jan 1899 18 Nov 1905 |
Creation of the North West Frontier Province (now Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa) under a Chief Commissioner (1901). Indian famine of 1899–1900. Return of the bubonic plague, 1 million deaths Financial Reform Act of 1899; Gold Reserve Fund created for India. Punjab Land Alienation Act Inauguration of Department (now Ministry) of Commerce and Industry. Death of Queen Victoria (1901); dedication of the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta as a national gallery of Indian antiquities, art, and history. Coronation Durbar in Delhi (1903); Edward VII (in absentia) proclaimed Emperor of India. Francis Younghusband's British expedition to Tibet (1903–04) North-Western Provinces (previously Ceded and Conquered Provinces) and Oudh renamed United Provinces in 1904 Reorganisation of Indian Universities Act (1904). Systemization of preservation and restoration of ancient monuments by Archaeological Survey of India with Indian Ancient Monument Preservation Act. Inauguration of agricultural banking with Cooperative Credit Societies Act of 1904 Partition of Bengal (1905); new province of East Bengal and Assam under a Lieutenant-Governor. Census of 1901 gives the total population at 294 million, including 62 million in the princely states and 232 million in the Raj. About 170,000 are Europeans. 15 million men and 1 million women are literate. Of those school-aged, 25% of the boys and 3% of the girls attend. There are 207 million Hindus, and 63x million Muslims, along with 9 million Buddhists (in Burma), 3 million Christians, 2 million Sikhs, 1 million Jains, and 8.4 million who practise animism.[29] |
| Lord Minto[30] | 18 Nov 1905 23 Nov 1910 |
Creation of the Railway Board Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 Indian Councils Act 1909 (also Minto-Morley Reforms) Appointment of Indian Factories Commission in 1909. Establishment of Department of Education in 1910 (now Ministry of Education) |
| Lord Hardinge | 23 Nov 1910 4 Apr 1916 |
Visit of King George V and Queen Mary in 1911: commemoration as Emperor and Empress of India at last Delhi Durbar King George V announces creation of new city of New Delhi to replace Calcutta as capital of India. Indian High Courts Act of 1911 Indian Factories Act of 1911 Construction of New Delhi, 1912–1929 World War I, Indian Army in: Western Front, Belgium, 1914; German East Africa (Battle of Tanga, 1914); Mesopotamian Campaign (Battle of Ctesiphon, 1915; Siege of Kut, 1915–16); Battle of Galliopoli, 1915–16 Passage of Defence of India Act 1915 |
| Lord Chelmsford | 4 Apr 1916 2 Apr 1921 |
Indian Army in: Mesopotamian Campaign (Fall of Baghdad, 1917); Sinai and Palestine Campaign (Battle of Megiddo, 1918) Passage of Rowlatt Act, 1919 Government of India Act 1919 (also Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms) Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, 1919 Third Anglo-Afghan War, 1919 University of Rangoon established in 1920. |
| Lord Reading | 2 Apr 1921 3 Apr 1926 |
University of Delhi established in 1922. Indian Workers Compensation Act of 1923 |
| Lord Irwin | 3 Apr 1926 18 Apr 1931 |
Indian Trade Unions Act of 1926, Indian Forest Act, 1927 Appointment of Royal Commission of Indian Labour, 1929 Indian Constitutional Round Table Conferences, London, 1930–32, Gandhi-Irwin Pact, 1931. |
| Lord Willingdon | 18 Apr 1931 18 Apr 1936 |
New Delhi inaugurated as capital of India, 1931. Indian Workmen's Compensation Act of 1933 Indian Factories Act of 1934 Royal Indian Air Force created in 1932. Indian Military Academy established in 1932. Government of India Act 1935 Creation of Reserve Bank of India |
| Lord Linlithgow | 18 Apr 1936 1 Oct 1943 |
Indian Payment of Wages Act of 1936 Burma administered independently after 1937 with creation of new cabinet position Secretary of State for India and Burma, and with the Burma Office separated off from the India Office Indian Provincial Elections of 1937 Cripps' mission to India, 1942. Indian Army in Mediterranean, Middle East and African theatres of World War II (North African campaign: (Operation Compass, Operation Crusader, First Battle of El Alamein, Second Battle of El Alamein. East African campaign, 1940, Anglo-Iraqi War, 1941, Syria-Lebanon campaign, 1941, Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, 1941) Indian Army in Battle of Hong Kong, Battle of Malaya, Battle of Singapore Burma Campaign of World War II begins in 1942. |
| Lord Wavell | 1 Oct 1943 21 Feb 1947 |
Indian Army becomes, at 2.5 million men, the largest all-volunteer force in history. World War II: Burma Campaign, 1943–45 (Battle of Kohima, Battle of Imphal) Bengal famine of 1943 Indian Army in Italian campaign (Battle of Monte Cassino) British Labour Party wins UK General Election of 1945 with Clement Attlee as prime minister. 1946 Cabinet Mission to India Indian Elections of 1946. |
| Lord Mountbatten | 21 Feb 1947 15 Aug 1947 |
Indian Independence Act 1947 of the British Parliament enacted on 18 July 1947. Radcliffe Award, August 1947 Partition of India India Office and position of Secretary of State for India abolished; ministerial responsibility within the United Kingdom for British relations with India and Pakistan is transferred to the Commonwealth Relations Office. |
History 1858 to 1914[link]
Main article: History of the British Raj
Aftermath of the Indian rebellion of 1857[link]
Shaken by the events of the Indian rebellion of 1857, Britain dissolved the East India Company and transferred ruling power over India to the Crown. The princely states were mostly kept intact, though they lost their private armies and were more closely watched. The all-British units were doubled in number. After the rebellion, the British became more circumspect regarding rapid modernisation. Much thought was devoted to the causes of the rebellion, and from it three main lessons were drawn. At a more practical level, it was felt that there needed to be more communication and camaraderie between the British and Indians—not just between British army officers and their Indian staff but in civilian life as well. The Indian army was completely reorganised: units composed of the Muslims and Brahmins of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, who had formed the core of the rebellion, were disbanded.[31] New regiments, like the Sikhs and Baluchis, composed of Indians who, in British estimation, had demonstrated steadfastness, were formed. The Indian units lost their artillery. From then on, the Indian army was to remain unchanged in its organisation until 1947.[32] The 1861 Census had revealed that the English population in India was 125,945. Of these only about 41,862 were civilians as compared with about 84,083 European officers and men of the Army.[33] In 1880, the standing Indian Army consisted of 66,000 British soldiers, 130,000 Natives, and 350,000 soldiers in the princely armies.[34]
Administrative control of India came under the prestigious Indian Civil Service which had administrative control over all districts outside the princely states. At first all-British, it included increasing proportions of Indians, and totalled about 1000 men. They were very well organised, well-educated and professional, and avoided the bribes and inside deals that had made for great wealth among the officials of the defunct East India Company.[35]
The British decided that both the princes and the large land-holders, by not joining the rebellion, had proved to be, in Lord Canning's words, "breakwaters in a storm".[31] They too were rewarded in the new British Raj by being officially recognised in the treaties each state now signed with the Crown.[32] At the same time, it was felt that the peasants, for whose benefit the large land-reforms of the United Provinces had been undertaken, had shown disloyalty, by, in many cases, fighting for their former landlords against the British. Consequently, no more land reforms were implemented for the next 90 years: Bengal and Bihar were to remain the realms of large land holdings (unlike the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh).[32]
Legal modernisation[link]
Singha argues that after 1857 the colonial government strengthened and expanded its infrastructure via the court system, legal procedures, and statutes. New legislation merged the Crown and the old John Company courts and introduced a new penal code as well as new codes of civil and criminal procedure, based largely on English law. In the 1860s–1880s the Raj set up compulsory registration of births, deaths, and marriages, as well as adoptions, property deeds, and wills. The goal was to create a stable, usable public record and verifiable identities. However there was opposition from both Muslim and Hindu elements who complained that the new procedures for census-taking and registration threatened to uncover female privacy. Purdah rules prohibited women from saying their husband's name or having their photograph taken. An all-India census was conducted between 1868 and 1871, often using total numbers of females in a household rather than individual names. Select groups which the Raj reformers wanted to monitor statistically included those reputed to practice female infanticide, prostitutes, lepers, and eunuchs.[36]
Increasingly officials discovered that traditions and customs in India were too strong and too rigid to be changed easily. There were few new social interventions, especially not in matters dealing with religion, even when the British felt very strongly about the issue (as in the instance of the remarriage of Hindu child widows).[32] Indeed, Murshid argues that women were in some ways more restricted by the modernisation of the laws. They remained tied to the strictures of their religion, caste, and customs, but now with an overlay of British Victorian. Their inheritance rights to own and manage property were curtailed; the new English laws were somewhat harsher. Court rulings restricted the rights of second wives and their children regarding inheritance. A woman had to belong to either a father or a husband to have any rights.[37]
Education[link]
Thomas Babington Macaulay made schooling a priority for the Raj in his famous minute of February 1835; the language of instruction would be English. Macaulay succeeded in implementing ideas previously put forward by Lord William Bentinck, the governor general since 1829. Bentinck favoured the replacement of Persian by English as the official language, the use of English as the medium of instruction, and the training of English-speaking Indians as teachers. He was inspired by utilitarian ideas and called for "useful learning." However, Bentinck's proposals were rejected by London officials.[38][39] The Raj opened thousands of elementary and secondary schools, using tax money; they usually had an all-male student body.
The Raj established the universities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras in 1857, just before the Rebellion. By 1890 some 60,000 Indians had matriculated, chiefly in the liberal arts or law. About a third entered public administration, and another third became lawyers. The result was a very well educated professional state bureaucracy. By 1887 of 21,000 midlevel civil service appointments, 45% were held by Hindus, 7% by Muslims, 19% by Eurasians (European father and Indian mother), and 29% by Europeans. Of the 1000 top -level positions, almost all were held by Britons, typically with an Oxbridge degree.[40] The Raj, often working with local philanthropists, opened 186 universities and colleges of higher education by 1911; they enrolled 36,000 students (over 90% men). By 1939 the number of institutions had doubled and enrolment reached 145,000. The curriculum followed classical British standards of the sort set by Oxford and Cambridge and stressed English literature and European history. Nevertheless by the 1920s the student bodies had become hotbeds of Indian nationalism.[41]
Economic history[link]
The Indian economy grew at about 1% per year from 1880 to 1920, and the population also grew at 1%.[42] The result was, on average, no long-term change in per capita income levels. Agriculture was still dominant, with most peasants at the subsistence level. Extensive irrigation systems were built, providing an impetus for switching to cash crops for export and for raw materials for Indian industry, especially jute, cotton, sugarcane, coffee and tea.[43] Historians have been bitterly divided on issues of economic history, with the Nationalist school (following Nehru) arguing that India was poorer at the end of British rule than at the beginning and that impoverishment occurred because of the British.[44]
Industry[link]
The entrepreneur Jamsetji Tata (1839–1904) began his industrial career in 1877 with the Central India Spinning, Weaving, and Manufacturing Company in Bombay. While other Indian mills produced cheap coarse yarn (and later cloth) using local short-staple cotton and cheap machinery imported from Britain, Tata did much better by importing expensive longer-stapled cotton from Egypt and buying more complex ring-spindle machinery from the United States to spin finer yarn that could compete with imports from Britain.[45]
In the 1890s, he launched plans to move into heavy industry using Indian funding. The Raj did not provide capital, but aware of Britain's declining position against the U.S. and Germany in the steel industry, it wanted steel mills in India so it is did promise to purchase any surplus steel Tata could not otherwise sell.[46] The Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO), now headed by his son Dorabji Tata (1859–1932), opened its plant at Jamshedpur in Bihar in 1908. It used American technology, not British[47] and became the leading iron and steel producer in India, with 120,000 employees in 1945. TISCO became a India's proud symbol of technical skill, managerial competence, entrepreneurial flair, and high pay for industrial workers.[48] The Tata family, like most of India's big businessmen, were Indian nationalists but did not trust the Congress because it seemed too aggressively hostile to the Raj, too socialist, and too supportive of trade unions.[49]
Railways[link]
Main article: History of rail transport in India
India built a modern railway system in the late 19th century which was the fourth largest in the world. The railways at first were privately owned and operated. It was run by British administrators, engineers and craftsmen. At first, only the unskilled workers were Indians.[50]
The John Company (and later the colonial government) encouraged new railway companies backed by private investors under a scheme that would provide land and guarantee an annual return of up to five percent during the initial years of operation. The companies were to build and operate the lines under a 99 year lease, with the government having the option to buy them earlier.[51]
Two new railway companies, Great Indian Peninsular Railway (GIPR) and East Indian Railway (EIR) began in 1853–54 to construct and operate lines near Bombay and Calcutta. The first passenger railway line in North India between Allahabad and Kanpur opened in 1859.
In 1854 Governor-General Lord Dalhousie formulated a plan to construct a network of trunk lines connecting the principal regions of India. Encouraged by the government guarantees, investment flowed in and a series of new rail companies were established, leading to rapid expansion of the rail system in India.[52] Soon several large princely states built their own rail systems and the network spread to the regions that became the modern-day states of Assam, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. The route mileage of this network increased from 1,349 kilometres (838 mi) in 1860 to 25,495 kilometres (15,842 mi) in 1880 – mostly radiating inland from the three major port cities of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta.[53] Most of the railway construction was done by Indian companies supervised by British engineers. The system was heavily built, using a wide gauge, sturdy tracks and strong bridges. By 1900 India had a full range of rail services with diverse ownership and management, operating on broad, metre and narrow gauge networks. In 1900 the government took over the GIPR network, while the company continued to manage it. In the First World War, the railways were used to transport troops and grains to the ports of Bombay and Karachi en route to Britain, Mesopotamia, and East Africa. With shipments of equipment and parts from Britain curtailed, maintenance became much more difficult; critical workers entered the army; workshops were converted to making artillery; some locomotives and cars were shipped to the Middle East. The railways could barely keep up with the increased demand.[54] By the end of the war, the railways had deteriorated for lack of maintenance and were not profitable. In 1923, both GIPR and EIR were nationalised.
Headrick shows that until the 1930s, both the Raj lines and the private companies hired only European supervisors, civil engineers, and even operating personnel, such as locomotive engineers. The government's Stores Policy required that bids on railway contracts be made to the India Office in London, shutting out most Indian firms. The railway companies purchased most of their hardware and parts in Britain. There were railway maintenance workshops in India, but they were rarely allowed to manufacture or repair locomotives. TISCO steel could not obtain orders for rails until the war emergency.[55]
The Second World War severely crippled the railways as rolling stock was diverted to the Middle East, and the railway workshops were converted into munitions workshops.[56] After independence in 1947, forty-two separate railway systems, including thirty-two lines owned by the former Indian princely states, were amalgamated to form a single nationalised unit named the Indian Railways.
India provides an example of the British Empire pouring its money and expertise into a very well built system designed for military reasons (after the Mutiny of 1857), and with the hope that it would stimulate industry. The system was overbuilt and too expensive for the small amount of freight traffic it carried. However, it did capture the imagination of the Indians, who saw their railways as the symbol of an industrial modernity—but one that was not realised until after Independence. Christensen (1996) looks at of colonial purpose, local needs, capital, service, and private-versus-public interests. He concludes that making the railways a creature of the state hindered success because railway expenses had to go through the same time-consuming and political budgeting process as did all other state expenses. Railway costs could therefore not be tailored to the timely needs of the railways or their passengers.[57]
Policies[link]
In the second half of the 19th century, both the direct administration of India by the British crown and the technological change ushered in by the industrial revolution had the effect of closely intertwining the economies of India and Great Britain.[58] In fact many of the major changes in transport and communications (that are typically associated with Crown Rule of India) had already begun before the Mutiny. Since Dalhousie had embraced the technological revolution underway in Britain, India too saw rapid development of all those technologies. Railways, roads, canals, and bridges were rapidly built in India and telegraph links equally rapidly established in order that raw materials, such as cotton, from India's hinterland could be transported more efficiently to ports, such as Bombay, for subsequent export to England.[59] Likewise, finished goods from England, were transported back, just as efficiently, for sale in the burgeoning Indian markets. Massive railway projects were begun in earnest and government railway jobs and pensions attracted a large number of upper caste Hindus into the civil service for the first time. The Indian Civil Service was prestigious and paid well, but it remained politically neutral.[60] British cotton exports covered 55% of the Indian market by 1875.[61] Industrial production as it developed in European factories was unknown until the 1850s when the first cotton mills were opened in Bombay, posing a challenge to the cottage-based home production system based on family labour.[62]
Taxes in India decreased during the colonial period for most of India's population; with the land tax revenue claiming 15% of India's national income during Mogul times compared with 1% at the end of the colonial period. The percentage of national income for the village economy increased from 44% during Mogul times to 54% by the end of colonial period. India's per capita GDP decreased from $550 in 1700 to $520 by 1857, although it had increased to $618 by 1947[63]
New Middle Class, Indian National Congress, 1860s–1890s[link]
By 1880 a new middle-class had arisen in India and spread thinly across the country.[64] Moreover, there was a growing solidarity among its members, created by the "joint stimuli of encouragement and irritation."[64] The encouragement felt by this class came from its success in education and its ability to avail itself of the benefits of that education such as employment in the Indian Civil Service.[65] It came too from Queen Victoria's proclamation of 1858 in which she had declared, "We hold ourselves bound to the natives of our Indian territories by the same obligation of duty which bind us to all our other subjects."[66] Indians were especially encouraged when Canada was granted dominion status in 1867 and established an autonomous democratic constitution.[66] Lastly, the encouragement came from the work of contemporaneous Oriental scholars like Monier Monier-Williams and Max Müller, who in their works had been presenting ancient India as a great civilisation.[64] The irritation, on the other hand, came not just from incidents of racial discrimination at the hands of the British in India, but also from governmental actions like the use of Indian troops in imperial campaigns (e.g. in the Second Anglo-Afghan War) and the attempts to control the vernacular press (e.g. in the Vernacular Press Act of 1878).[64]
It was, however, Viceroy Lord Ripon's partial reversal of the Ilbert Bill (1883), a legislative measure that had proposed putting Indian judges in the Bengal Presidency on equal footing with British ones, that transformed the discontent into political action.[65] On 28 December 1885, professionals and intellectuals from this middle-class—many educated at the new British-founded universities in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, and familiar with the ideas of British political philosophers, especially the utilitarians assembled in Bombay. The seventy men founded the Indian National Congress; Womesh Chandra Bonerjee was elected the first president. The membership comprised a westernised elite, and no effort was made at this time to broaden the base.
During its first twenty years, the Congress primarily debated British policy toward India; however, its debates created a new Indian outlook that held Great Britain responsible for draining India of its wealth. Britain did this, the nationalists claimed, by unfair trade, by the restraint on indigenous Indian industry, and by the use of Indian taxes to pay the high salaries of the British civil servants in India.[67]
Social Reformers, Moderates vs. the Extremists: 1870s–1907[link]
Social reform was in the air by the 1880s. For example, Pandita Ramabai, poet, Sanskrit scholar, and a champion of the emancipation of Indian women, took up the cause of widow remarriage, especially of Brahamin widows, later converted to Christianity.[68] By 1900 reform movements had taken root within the Indian National Congress. Congress member Gopal Krishna Gokhale founded the Servants of India Society, which lobbied for legislative reform (for example, for a law to permit the remarriage of Hindu child widows), and whose members took vows of poverty, and worked among the untouchable community.[69]
File:Sri aurobindo tilak surat1907.jpg
Congress "extremist" Bal Gangadhar Tilak speaking in 1907 as the party split into the Moderates and the Extremists. Seated at the table is Aurobindo Ghosh and to his right (in the chair) is Lala Lajpat Rai, both allies of Tilak.
By 1905 a deep gulf opened between the moderates, led by Gokhale, who downplayed public agitation, and the new "extremists" who not only advocated agitation, but also regarded the pursuit of social reform as a distraction from nationalism. Prominent among the extremists was Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who attempted to mobilise Indians by appealing to an explicitly Hindu political identity, displayed, for example, in the annual public Ganapati festivals that he inaugurated in western India.[70]
Partition of Bengal: 1905–1911[link]
The viceroy Lord Curzon (1899–1905) was unusually energetic in pursuit of efficiency and reform.,[71] His agenda included the creation of the North-West Frontier Province; small changes in the Civil Service; speeding up the operations of the secretariat; setting up a gold standard to ensure a stable currency; creation of a Railway Board; irrigation reform; reduction of peasant debts; lowering the cost of telegrams; archaeological research and the preservation of antiquities; improvements in the universities; police reforms; upgrading the roles of the Native States; a new Commerce and Industry Department; promotion of industry; revised land revenue policies; lowering taxes; setting up agricultural banks; creating an Agricultural Department; sponsoring agricultural research; establishing an Imperial Library; creating an Imperial Cadet Corps; new famine codes; and, indeed, reducing the smoke nuisance in Calcutta.[72]
Trouble emerged for Curzon when he divided the largest administrative subdivision in British India, the Bengal Presidency, into the Muslim-majority province of East Bengal and Assam and the Hindu-majority province of Weat Bengal (present-day Indian states of West Bengal, Bihār, and Orissa). Curzon's act, the Partition of Bengal—which some considered administratively felicitous, and, which had been contemplated by various colonial administrations since the time of Lord William Bentinck, but never acted upon—was to transform nationalist politics as nothing else before it. The Hindu elite of Bengal, among them many who owned land in East Bengal that was leased out to Muslim peasants, protested fervidly.[73]
File:B 0110A.jpg
Sir Surendranath Banerjee, a Congress moderate, who led the opposition to the partition of Bengal with the Swadeshi movement to buy Indian-made cloth
The large Bengali Hindu middle-class (the Bhadralok), upset at the prospect of Bengalis being outnumbered in the new Bengal province by Biharis and Oriyas, felt that Curzon's act was punishment for their political assertiveness. The pervasive protests against Curzon's decision took the form predominantly of the Swadeshi ("buy Indian") campaign led by two-time Congress president, Surendranath Banerjee, and involved boycott of British goods.[74]
The rallying cry for both types of protest was the slogan Bande Mataram ("Hail to the Mother"), which invoked a mother goddess, who stood variously for Bengal, India, and the Hindu goddess Kali. Sri Aurobindo never went beyond the law when he edited the Bande Mataram magazine; it preached freedom but within the bounds of peace as far as possible. Its goal was Passive Resistance.[75] The unrest spread from Calcutta to the surrounding regions of Bengal when students returned home to their villages and towns. Some engaged in robbery to fund terrorist activities such as bombing public buildings, but the conspiracies generally failed in the face of intense police work.[76]
In 1906 the civil police (completely separate from the Army) comprised 29,000 officers and 138,000 men.[77] Arnold shows that in the Madras presidency the armed police were divided into the district reserves and the striking forces. Armed with seven-foot metal tipped lathis and smoothbore muskets, and tear gas after 1940, they repressed the disturbances of 1930–33. Special striking forces included the Malabar Special Police, armed with Enfield rifles. It was established to handle the Moplah rebellion of 1921 and was used throughout the presidency. The Presidency General Reserve was established in 1931.[78]
The Swadeshi boycott movement cut imports of British textiles by 25%. The swadeshi cloth, although more expensive and somewhat less comfortable than its Lancashire competitor, was worn as a mark of national pride by people all over India.[79]
Muslim League: 1906[link]
Main article: All-India Muslim League
The Hindu protests against the partition of Bengal led the Muslim elite in India to organise in 1906 the All India Muslim League. The League favoured the partition of Bengal, since it gave them a Muslim majority in the eastern half. In 1905, when Tilak and Lajpat Rai attempted to rise to leadership positions in the Congress, and the Congress itself rallied around symbolism of Kali, Muslim fears increased. The Muslim elite, including Dacca Nawab and Khwaja Salimullah, expected that a new province with a Muslim majority would directly benefit Muslims aspiring to political power.[80]
File:1921ajmalkhan.jpg
Hakim Ajmal Khan, a founder of the Muslim League, became the president of the Indian National Congress in 1921.
Minto-Morley Reforms: 1909–1915[link]
The first steps were taken toward self-government in British India in the late 19th century with the appointment of Indian counsellors to advise the British viceroy and the establishment of provincial councils with Indian members; the British subsequently widened participation in legislative councils with the Indian Councils Act of 1892. Municipal Corporations and District Boards were created for local administration; they included elected Indian members.
The Indian Councils Act 1909, known as the Morley-Minto Reforms (John Morley was the secretary of state for India, and Minto was viceroy) — gave Indians limited roles in the central and provincial legislatures. Upper class Indians, rich lanndowners and businessmen were favoured. The Moslem community was made a separate electorate and granted double representation. The goals were quite conservative but they did advance the elective principle.[30]
The partition of Bengal was rescinded in 1911 and announced at the Delhi Durbar at which King George V came in person and was crowned Emperor of India. He announced the capital would be moved from Calcutta to Delhi, a Moslem stronghold. Morley was especially vigilant in crushing revolutionary groups[81]
History 1914–1947[link]
First World War, Lucknow Pact: 1914–1918[link]
The First World War would prove to be a watershed in the imperial relationship between Britain and India. Some 1.4 million Indian and British soldiers of the British Indian Army took part in the war, primarily in Iraq and the Middle East. Their participation had a wider cultural fallout as news spread how bravely soldiers fought and died alongside British soldiers, as well as soldiers from dominions like Canada and Australia.[82] India's international profile rose during the 1920s, as it became a founding member of the League of Nations in 1920 and participated, under the name, "Les Indes Anglaises" (British India), in the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp.[83] Back in India, especially among the leaders of the Indian National Congress, the war led to calls for greater self-government for Indians.[82]
After the 1906 split between the moderates and the extremists, organised political activity by the Congress had remained fragmented until 1914, when Bal Gangadhar Tilak was released from prison and began to sound out other Congress leaders about possible re-unification. That, however, had to wait until the demise of Tilak's principal moderate opponents, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Pherozeshah Mehta, in 1915, whereupon an agreement was reached for Tilak's ousted group to re-enter the Congress.[82] In the 1916 Lucknow session of the Congress, Tilak's supporters were able to push through a more radical resolution which asked for the British to declare that it was their, "aim and intention ... to confer self-government on India at an early date."[82] Soon, other such rumblings began to appear in public pronouncements: in 1917, in the Imperial Legislative Council, Madan Mohan Malaviya spoke of the expectations the war had generated in India, "I venture to say that the war has put the clock ... fifty years forward ... (The) reforms after the war will have to be such, ... as will satisfy the aspirations of her (India's) people to take their legitimate part in the administration of their own country."[82]
The 1916 Lucknow Session of the Congress was also the venue of an unanticipated mutual effort by the Congress and the Muslim League, the occasion for which was provided by the wartime partnership between Germany and Turkey. Since the Turkish Sultan, or Khalifah, had also sporadically claimed guardianship of the Islamic holy sites of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, and since the British and their allies were now in conflict with Turkey, doubts began to increase among some Indian Muslims about the "religious neutrality" of the British, doubts that had already surfaced as a result of the reunification of Bengal in 1911, a decision that was seen as ill-disposed to Muslims.[84] In the Lucknow Pact, the League joined the Congress in the proposal for greater self-government that was campaigned for by Tilak and his supporters; in return, the Congress accepted separate electorates for Muslims in the provincial legislatures as well as the Imperial Legislative Council. In 1916, the Muslim League had anywhere between 500 and 800 members and did not yet have its wider following among Indian Muslims of later years; in the League itself, the pact did not have unanimous backing, having largely been negotiated by a group of "Young Party" Muslims from the United Provinces (UP), most prominently, two brothers Mohammad and Shaukat Ali, who had embraced the Pan-Islamic cause;[84] however, it did have the support of a young lawyer from Bombay, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who was later to rise to leadership roles in both the League and the Indian freedom movement. In later years, as the full ramifications of the pact unfolded, it was seen as benefiting the Muslim minority élites of provinces like UP and Bihar more than the Muslim majorities of Punjab and Bengal, nonetheless, at the time, the "Lucknow Pact," was an important milestone in nationalistic agitation and was seen so by the British.[84]
During 1916, two Home Rule Leagues were founded within the Indian National Congress by Tilak and Annie Besant, respectively, to promote Home Rule among Indians, and also to elevate the stature of the founders within the Congress itself.[85] Mrs. Besant, for her part, was also keen to demonstrate the superiority of this new form of organised agitation, which had achieved some success in the Irish home rule movement, to the political violence that had intermittently plagued the subcontinent during the years 1907–1914.[85] The two Leagues focused their attention on complementary geographical regions: Tilak's in western India, in the southern Bombay presidency, and Mrs. Besant's in the rest of the country, but especially in the Madras Presidency and in regions like Sind and Gujarat that had hitherto been considered politically dormant by the Congress.[85] Both leagues rapidly acquired new members – approximately thirty thousand each in a little over a year – and began to publish inexpensive newspapers. Their propaganda also turned to posters, pamphlets, and political-religious songs, and later to mass meetings, which not only attracted greater numbers than in earlier Congress sessions, but also entirely new social groups such as non-Brahmins, traders, farmers, students, and lower-level government workers.[85] Although they did not achieve the magnitude or character of a nation-wide mass movement, the Home Rule leagues both deepened and widened organised political agitation for self-rule in India. The British authorities reacted by imposing restrictions on the Leagues, including shutting out students from meetings and banning the two leaders from travelling to certain provinces.[85]
The year 1915 also saw the return of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to India. Already known in India as a result of his civil liberties protests on behalf of the Indians in South Africa, Gandhi followed the advice of his mentor Gopal Krishna Gokhale and chose not to make any public pronouncements during the first year of his return, but instead spent the year travelling, observing the country first-hand, and writing.[86] Earlier, during his South Africa sojourn, Gandhi, a lawyer by profession, had represented an Indian community, which, although small, was sufficiently diverse to be a microcosm of India itself. In tackling the challenge of holding this community together and simultaneously confronting the colonial authority, he had created a technique of non-violent resistance, which he labelled Satyagraha (or, Striving for Truth).[87] For Gandhi, Satyagraha was different from "passive resistance," by then a familiar technique of social protest, which he regarded as a practical strategy adopted by the weak in the face of superior force; Satyagraha, on the other hand, was for him the "last resort of those strong enough in their commitment to truth to undergo suffering in its cause."[87] Ahimsa or "non-violence," which formed the underpinning of Satyagraha, came to represent the twin pillar, with Truth, of Gandhi's unorthodox religious outlook on life.[87] During the years 1907–1914, Gandhi tested the technique of Satyagraha in a number of protests on behalf of the Indian community in South Africa against the unjust racial laws.[87]
Also, during his time in South Africa, in his essay, Hind Swaraj, (1909), Gandhi formulated his vision of Swaraj, or "self-rule" for India based on three vital ingredients: solidarity between Indians of different faiths, but most of all between Hindus and Muslims; the removal of untouchability from Indian society; and the exercise of swadeshi – the boycott of manufactured foreign goods and the revival of Indian cottage industry.[86] The first two, he felt, were essential for India to be an egalitarian and tolerant society, one befitting the principles of Truth and Ahimsa, while the last, by making Indians more self-reliant, would break the cycle of dependence that was not only perpetrating the direction and tenor of the British rule in India, but also the British commitment to it.[86] At least until 1920, the British presence itself, was not a stumbling block in Gandhi's conception of swaraj; rather, it was the inability of Indians to create the right society.[86]
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Indian medical orderlies attending to wounded soldiers with the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force in Mesopotamia during World War I.
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Sepoy Khudadad Khan, the first Indian to be awarded the Victoria Cross, the British Empire's highest war-time medal for gallantry. Khan, who hailed from Chakwal District, Punjab, in present-day Pakistan, died in 1971.
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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (seated in carriage, on the right, eyes downcast, with black flat-top hat) receives a big welcome in Karachi in 1916 after his return to India from South Africa.
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Jinnah lucknow pact1916.jpg
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, seated, third from the left, was a supporter of the Lucknow Pact, which, in 1916, ended the three-way rift between the Extremists, the Moderates and the League.
[edit] Satyagraha, Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms: 1917–1919
Gandhi made his political debut in India in 1917 in Champaran district in Bihar, near the Nepal border, where he was invited by a group of disgruntled tenant farmers who, for many years, had been forced into planting indigo (for dyes) on a portion of their land and then selling it at below-market prices to the British planters who had leased them the land.[88] Upon his arrival in the district, Gandhi was joined by other agitators, including a young Congress leader, Rajendra Prasad, from Bihar, who would become a become a loyal supporter of Gandhi and go on to play a prominent role in the Indian freedom movement. When Gandhi was ordered to leave by the local British authorities, he refused on moral grounds, setting up his refusal as a form of individual Satyagraha. Soon, under pressure from the Viceroy in Delhi who was anxious to maintain domestic peace during war-time, the provincial government rescinded Gandhi's expulsion order, and later agreed to an official enquiry into the case. Although, the British planters eventually gave in, they were not won over to the farmers' cause, and thereby did not produce the optimal outcome of a Satyagraha that Gandhi had hoped for; similarly, the farmers themselves, although pleased at the resolution, responded less than enthusiastically to the concurrent projects of rural empowerment and education that Gandhi had inaugurated in keeping with his ideal of swaraj. The following year Gandhi launched two more Satyagrahas – both in his native Gujarat – one in the rural Kaira district where land-owning farmers were protesting increased land-revenue and the other in the city of Ahmedabad, where workers in an Indian-owned textile mill were distressed about their low wages. The satyagraha in Ahmedabad took the form of Gandhi fasting and supporting the workers in a strike, which eventually led to a settlement. In Kaira, in contrast, although the farmers' cause received publicity from Gandhi's presence, the satyagraha itself, which consisted of the farmers' collective decision to withhold payment, was not immediately successful, as the British authorities refused to back down. The agitation in Kaira gained for Gandhi another life-long lieutenant in Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who had organised the farmers, and who too would go on to play a leadership role in the Indian freedom movement.[89] Champaran, Kaira, and Ahmedabad were important milestones in the history of Gandhi's new methods of social protest in India.
In 1916, in the face of new strength demonstrated by the nationalists with the signing of the Lucknow Pact and the founding of the Home Rule leagues, and the realisation, after the disaster in the Mesopotamian campaign, that the war would likely last longer, the new Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, cautioned that the Government of India needed to be more responsive to Indian opinion.[90] Towards the end of the year, after discussions with the government in London, he suggested that the British demonstrate their good faith – in light of the Indian war role – through a number of public actions, including awards of titles and honours to princes, granting of commissions in the army to Indians, and removal of the much-reviled cotton excise duty, but, most importantly, an announcement of Britain's future plans for India and an indication of some concrete steps. After more discussion, in August 1917, the new Liberal Secretary of State for India, Edwin Montagu, announced the British aim of "increasing association of Indians in every branch of the administration, and the gradual development of self-governing institutions, with a view to the progressive realisation of responsible government in India as an integral part of the British Empire."[90] Although the plan envisioned limited self-government at first only in the provinces – with India emphatically within the British Empire – it represented the first British proposal for any form of representative government in a non-white colony.
Earlier, at the onset of World War I, the reassignment of most of the British army in India to Europe and Mesopotamia, had led the previous Viceroy, Lord Harding, to worry about the "risks involved in denuding India of troops."[82] Revolutionary violence had already been a concern in British India; consequently, in 1915, to strengthen its powers during what it saw was a time of increased vulnerability, the Government of India passed the Defence of India Act, which allowed it to intern politically dangerous dissidents without due process, and added to the power it already had – under the 1910 Press Act – both to imprison journalists without trial and to censor the press.[91] It was under the Defence of India act that the Ali brothers were imprisoned in 1916, and Annie Besant, a European woman, and ordinarily more problematic to imprison, in 1917.[91] Now, as constitutional reform began to be discussed in earnest, the British began to consider how new moderate Indians could be brought into the fold of constitutional politics and, simultaneously, how the hand of established constitutionalists could be strengthened. However, since the Government of India wanted to ensure against any sabotage of the reform process by extremists, and since its reform plan was devised during a time when extremist violence had ebbed as a result of increased governmental control, it also began to consider how some of its war-time powers could be extended into peace time.[91]
Consequently, in 1917, even as Edwin Montagu, announced the new constitutional reforms, a committee chaired by a British judge, Mr. S. A. T. Rowlatt, was tasked with investigating "revolutionary conspiracies," with the unstated goal of extending the government's war-time powers.[90] The Rowlatt committee presented its report in July 1918 and identified three regions of conspiratorial insurgency: Bengal, the Bombay presidency, and the Punjab.[90] To combat subversive acts in these regions, the committee recommended that the government use emergency powers akin to its war-time authority, which included the ability to try cases of sedition by a panel of three judges and without juries, exaction of securities from suspects, governmental overseeing of residences of suspects,[90] and the power for provincial governments to arrest and detain suspects in short-term detention facilities and without trial.[92]
With the end of World War I, there was also a change in the economic climate. By year's end 1919, 1.5 million Indians had served in the armed services in either combatant or non-combatant roles, and India had provided £146 million in revenue for the war.[93] The increased taxes coupled with disruptions in both domestic and international trade had the effect of approximately doubling the index of overall prices in India between 1914 and 1920.[93] Returning war veterans, especially in the Punjab, created a growing unemployment crisis,[94] and post-war inflation led to food riots in Bombay, Madras, and Bengal provinces,[94] a situation that was made only worse by the failure of the 1918–19 monsoon and by profiteering and speculation.[93] The global influenza epidemic and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 added to the general jitters; the former among the population already experiencing economic woes,[94] and the latter among government officials, fearing a similar revolution in India.[95]
To combat what it saw as a coming crisis, the government now drafted the Rowlatt committee's recommendations into two Rowlatt Bills.[92] Although the bills were authorised for legislative consideration by Edwin Montagu, they were done so unwillingly, with the accompanying declaration, "I loathe the suggestion at first sight of preserving the Defence of India Act in peace time to such an extent as Rowlatt and his friends think necessary."[90] In the ensuing discussion and vote in the Imperial Legislative Council, all Indian members voiced opposition to the bills. The Government of India was, nevertheless, able to use of its "official majority" to ensure passage of the bills early in 1919.[90] However, what it passed, in deference to the Indian opposition, was a lesser version of the first bill, which now allowed extrajudicial powers, but for a period of exactly three years and for the prosecution solely of "anarchical and revolutionary movements," dropping entirely the second bill involving modification the Indian Penal Code.[90] Even so, when it was passed, the new Rowlatt Act aroused widespread indignation throughout India, and brought Gandhi to the forefront of the nationalist movement.[92]
Meanwhile, Montagu and Chelmsford themselves finally presented their report in July 1918 after a long fact-finding trip through India the previous winter.[96] After more discussion by the government and parliament in Britain, and another tour by the Franchise and Functions Committee for the purpose of identifying who among the Indian population could vote in future elections, the Government of India Act 1919 (also known as the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms) was passed in December 1919.[96] The new Act enlarged both the provincial and Imperial legislative councils and repealed the Government of India's recourse to the "official majority" in unfavourable votes.[96] Although departments like defence, foreign affairs, criminal law, communications, and income-tax were retained by the Viceroy and the central government in New Delhi, other departments like public health, education, land-revenue, local self-government were transferred to the provinces.[96] The provinces themselves were now to be administered under a new dyarchical system, whereby some areas like education, agriculture, infrastructure development, and local self-government became the preserve of Indian ministers and legislatures, and ultimately the Indian electorates, while others like irrigation, land-revenue, police, prisons, and control of media remained within the purview of the British governor and his executive council.[96] The new Act also made it easier for Indians to be admitted into the civil service and the army officer corps.
A greater number of Indians were now enfranchised, although, for voting at the national level, they constituted only 10% of the total adult male population, many of whom were still illiterate.[96] In the provincial legislatures, the British continued to exercise some control by setting aside seats for special interests they considered cooperative or useful. In particular, rural candidates, generally sympathetic to British rule and less confrontational, were assigned more seats than their urban counterparts.[96] Seats were also reserved for non-Brahmins, landowners, businessmen, and college graduates. The principal of "communal representation," an integral part of the Minto-Morley reforms, and more recently of the Congress-Muslim League Lucknow Pact, was reaffirmed, with seats being reserved for Muslims, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians, and domiciled Europeans, in both provincial and Imperial legislative councils.[96] The Montagu-Chelmsford reforms offered Indians the most significant opportunity yet for exercising legislative power, especially at the provincial level; however, that opportunity was also restricted by the still limited number of eligible voters, by the small budgets available to provincial legislatures, and by the presence of rural and special interest seats that were seen as instruments of British control.[96] Its scope was unsatisfactory to the Indian political leadership, famously expressed by Annie Beasant as something "unworthy of England to offer and India to accept".[97][citation not found]
Massacre[link]
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre or "Amritsar massacre", took place in the Jallianwala Bagh public garden in the predominantly Sikh northern city of Amritsar. After days of unrest Brigadier-General Reginald E.H. Dyer forbade public meetings and on Sunday 13 April 1919 fifty British Indian Army soldiers commanded by Dyer began shooting at an unarmed gathering of thousands of men, women, and children without warning. Casualty estimates vary widely, with the Government of India reporting 379 dead, with 1,100 wounded.[98] The Indian National Congress estimated three times the number of dead. Dyer was removed from duty but he became a celebrated hero in Britain among people with connections to the Raj.[99] Historians consider the episode was a decisive step towards the end of British rule in India.[100]
Raghaven argues that the massacre caused a reevaluation the Army's role, to make it more pragmatic and nuanced rather than rely on brute force to overawe or punish the natives. The new policy became minimum force. The army was retrained and developed suitable tactics such as crowd control.[101]
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Gandhi at the time of the Kheda Satyagraha, 1918.
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Edwin Montagu, left, the Secretary of State for India, whose report, led to the Government of India Act 1919, also known as the Montford Reforms or the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms.
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Headlines about the Rowlatt Bills (1919) from a nationalist newspaper in India. Although all non-official Indians on the Legislative Council voted against the Rowlatt Bills, the government was able to force their passage by using its majority.[92]
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The Jallianwalla Bagh in 1919, a few months after the massacre which had occurred on 13 April.
[edit] Noncooperation, Khilafat, Simon Commission, Jinnah's fourteen points: 1920s
In 1920, after the British government refused to back down, Gandhi began his campaign of noncooperation, prompting many Indians to return British awards and honours, to resign from civil service, and to again boycott British goods. In addition, Gandhi reorganised the Congress, transforming it into a mass movement and opening its membership to even the poorest Indians. Although Gandhi halted the noncooperation movement in 1922 after the violent incident at Chauri Chaura, the movement revived again, in the mid-1920s.
The visit, in 1928, of the British Simon Commission, charged with instituting constitutional reform in India, resulted in widespread protests throughout the country.[102] Earlier, in 1925, non-violent protests of the Congress had resumed too, this time in Gujarat, and led by Patel, who organised farmers to refuse payment of increased land taxes; the success of this protest, the Bardoli Satyagraha, brought Gandhi back into the fold of active politics.[102]
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Gandhi besant madras1921.jpg
Mahatma Gandhi with Dr. Annie Besant en route to a meeting in Madras in September, 1921. Earlier, in Madurai, on 21 September 1921, Gandhi had adopted the loin-cloth for the first time as a symbol of his identification with India's poor.
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Noncooperation khilafat1921.gif
An early 1920s poster advertising a Congress non-cooperation "Public Meeting" and a "Bonfire of Foreign Clothes" in Bombay, and expressing support for the "Karachi Khilafat Conference."
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Noncooperation movement1922.jpg
Hindus and Muslims, displaying the flags of both the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, collecting clothes to be later burnt as a part of the non-cooperation movement initiated by Gandhi.
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Bhagat singh noncooperation.jpg
Photograph of the staff and students of the National College, Lahore, founded in 1921 by Lala Lajpat Rai for students preparing for the non-cooperation movement. Standing, fourth from the right, is future revolutionary Bhagat Singh.
Demand for complete independence, Salt March: 1929–1931[link]
At midnight on 31 December 1929, during its annual session in Lahore, the Indian National Congress, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, raised the flag of independent India for the first time, and afterwards issued a demand for Purna Swaraj (Sanskrit: "complete independence"), which Nehru was to later refer to as "a tryst with destiny." The declaration was drafted by the Congress Working Committee, which included Gandhi, Nehru, Patel, and Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari. Gandhi subsequently led an expanded movement of civil disobedience, culminating in 1930 with the Salt Satyagraha, in which thousands of Indians defied the tax on salt, by marching to the sea and making their own salt by evaporating seawater. Although, many, including Gandhi, were arrested, the British government eventually gave in, and in 1931 Gandhi travelled to London to negotiate new reform at the Round Table Conferences.
In local terms British control rested on the Indian Civil Service, but it faced growing difficulties. Fewer and fewer young men in Britain were interested in joining, and the continuing distrust of Indians resulted in a declining base in terms of quality and quantity. By 1945 Indians were numerically dominant in the ICS and at issue was loyal divided between the Empire and independence.[103] The finances of the Raj depended on land taxes, and these became problematic in the 1930s. Epstein argues that after 1919 it became harder and harder to collect the land revenue. The Raj's suppression of civil disobedience after 1934 temporarily increased the power of the revenue agents but after 1937 they were forced by the new Congress-controlled provincial governments to hand back confiscated land. Again the outbreak of war strengthened them, in the face of the Quit India movement the revenue collectors had to rely on military force and by 1946–47 direct British control was rapidly disappearing in much of the countryside.[104]
Government of India Act: 1931–1937[link]
In 1935, after the Round Table Conferences, Parliament passed the Government of India Act 1935, which authorised the establishment of independent legislative assemblies in all provinces of British India, the creation of a central government incorporating both the British provinces and the princely states, and the protection of Muslim minorities. The future Constitution of independent India was based on this act.[105] However, it divided the electorate into 19 religious and social categories, e.g., Moslems, Sikhs, Indian Christians, Depressed Classes, Landholders, Commerce and Industry, Europeans, Anglo-Indians, etc., each of which was given separate representation in the Provincial Legislative Assemblies. A voter could cast a vote only for candidates in his own category.
The 1935 Act provided for more autonomy for Indian provinces, with the goal of cooling off nationalist sentiment. The act provided for a national parliament and an executive branch under the purview of the British government, but the rulers of the princely states managed to block its implementation. These states remained under the full control of their hereditary rulers, with no popular government. \To prepare for elections Congress built up its grass roots membership from 473,000 in 1935 to 4.5 million in 1939.[106]
In the 1937 elections Congress won victories in seven of the eleven provinces of British India.[107] Congress governments, with wide powers, were formed in these provinces. The widespread voter support for the Indian National Congress surprised Raj officials, who previously had seen the Congress as a small elitist body.[108]
World War II, Muslim League's Lahore Resolution: 1938–1941[link]
While the Muslim League was a small elite group in 1927 with only 1300 members, it grew rapidly once it became an organisation that reached out to the masses, reaching 500,000 members in Bengal in 1944, 200,000 in Punjab, and hundreds of thousands elsewhere. Jinnah now was well positioned to negotiate with the British from a position of power.[109] With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, declared war on India's behalf without consulting Indian leaders, leading the Congress provincial ministries to resign in protest. The Muslim League, in contrast, supported Britain in the war effort and maintained its control of the government in three major provinces, Bengal, Sind and the Punjab.
Jinnah repeatedly warned that Muslims would be unfairly treated in an independent India dominated by the Congress. On 24 March 1940 in Lahore, the League passed the "Lahore Resolution," demanding that, "the areas in which the Muslims are numerically in majority as in the North-Western and Eastern zones of India should be grouped to constitute independent states in which the constituent units shall be autonomous and sovereign." Although there were other important national Muslim politicians such as Congress leader Ab'ul Kalam Azad, and influential regional Muslim politicians such as A. K. Fazlul Huq of the leftist Krishak Praja Party in Bengal, Sikander Hyat Khan of the landlord-dominated Punjab Unionist Party, and Abd al-Ghaffar Khan of the pro-Congress Khudai Khidmatgar (popularly, "red shirts") in the North West Frontier Province, the British, over the next six years, were to increasingly see the League as the main representative of Muslim India.[110]
The Congress was secular and strongly opposed having any religious state. It insisted there was a natural unity to India, and repeatedly blamed the British for "divide and rule" tactics based on prompting Muslims to think of themselves as alien from Hindus. Jinnah rejected the notion of a united India, and emphasised that religious communities were more basic than an artificial nationalism. He proclaimed the Two-Nation Theory,[111] stating at Lahore on 22 March 1940:
- "Islam and Hinduism ... are not religions in the strict sense of the word, but are, in fact, different and distinct social orders, and it is a dream that the Hindus and Muslims can ever evolve a common nationality, and this misconception of one Indian nation has troubles and will lead India to destruction if we fail to revise our notions in time. The Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs, litterateurs. They neither intermarry nor interdine together and, indeed, they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions. Their aspect on life and of life are different ... To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority, must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so built for the government of such a state."[112]
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Ncert gandhi tomeet linlithgow1939.jpg
Mahatma Gandhi and Rajendra Prasad (left) on their way to meet the viceroy Lord Linlithgow (13 October 1939) after the outbreak of World War II.
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Chaudhari Khaliquzzaman (left) seconding the 1940 Lahore Resolution of the Muslim League with Jinnah (right) presiding, and Liaquat Ali Khan centre.
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Newly arrived Indian troops on the quayside in Singapore, November 1941
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Indian Army Sikh personnel in action during the successful Operation Crusader in Western Desert Campaign in North Africa in December 1941.
Army expansion[link]
While the regular Indian army in 1939 included about 220,000 native troops, it expanded tenfold during the war,[113] and small naval and air force units were created. Over two million Indians volunteered for military service in the British Army. They played a major role in numerous campaigns, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. Casualties were moderate (in terms of the world war), with were 24,000 killed; 64,000 wounded; 12,000 missing (probably dead), and 60,000 captured at Singapore in 1942.[114]
London paid most of the cost of the Indian Army, which had the effect of erasing India's national debt. It ended the war with a surplus of £1,300 million. In addition, heavy British spending on munitions produced in India (such as uniforms, rifles, machine-guns, field artillery, and ammunition) led to a rapid expansion of industrial output, such as textiles (up. 16%), steel (up. 18%), chemicals (up. 30%). Small warships were built, and an aircraft factory opened in Bangalore. The railway system, with 700,000 employees, was taxed to the limit as demand for transportation soared.[115]
INA[link]
The soldiers captured at Singapore had the option of going to Japanese POW camps or joining the Indian National Army, headed by Subhas Chandra Bose but under Japanese control. Most joined the INA and fought in Burma; about 10,000 survived the war.[116]
Bose had been ousted from the Congress in 1939 and turned to Germany and Japan to liberate India by force.[117] With Japanese sponsorship he organised the Indian National Army. From the onset of the war, the Japanese secret service had promoted unrest in South east Asia to destabilise the British war effort,[118] and set up several puppet governments in the captured regions. For India Japan created the Provisional Government of Azad Hind (Free India), presided by Bose.[119] After early Japanese success in Burma, the reinforced British Indian Army in 1945 first halted and then reversed the Japanese U Go offensive, and launched its Burma Campaign.
File:Strafford cripps gandhi 1942.jpg
Sir Stafford Cripps negotiating with Gandhi March 1942
Cripps Mission, Quit India Resolution: 1942–1945[link]
The British government sent the Cripps' mission in 1942 to secure Indian nationalists' cooperation in the war effort in exchange for a promise of independence as soon as the war ended. Top officials in Britain, most notably Prime Minister Winston Churchill, did not support the Cripps Mission and negotiations with the Congress soon broke down.[120]
File:Womens procession during quit india1942.JPG
Women's procession in Bombay during the "Quit India" movement, 1942
Congress in July 1942 launched the "Quit India" movement in demanding the immediate withdrawal of the British from India or face nationwide civil disobedience. On 8 August the Raj arrested all national, provincial and local Congress leaders, holding tens of thousands of them until 1945. The country erupted in violent demonstrations led by students and later by peasant political groups, especially in Eastern United Provinces, Bihar, and western Bengal. The large war-time British Army presence crushed the movement in a little more than six weeks;[121] nonetheless, a portion of the movement formed for a time an underground provisional government on the border with Nepal.[121] In other parts of India, the movement was less spontaneous and the protest less intensive, however it lasted sporadically into the summer of 1943. It did not slow down the British war effort or recruiting for the army.[122]
Elections, Cabinet Mission, Direct Action Day: 1946[link]
In January 1946, a number of mutinies broke out in the armed services, starting with that of RAF servicemen frustrated with their slow repatriation to Britain.[123] The mutinies came to a head with mutiny of the Royal Indian Navy in Bombay in February 1946, followed by others in Calcutta, Madras, and Karachi. Although the mutinies were rapidly suppressed, they had the effect of spurring the new Labour government in Britain to action, and leading to the Cabinet Mission to India led by the Secretary of State for India, Lord Pethick Lawrence, and including Sir Stafford Cripps, who had visited four years before.[123]
Also in early 1946, new elections were called in India. Earlier, at the end of the war in 1945, the colonial government had announced the public trial of three senior officers of Bose's defeated Indian National Army who stood accused of treason. Now as the trials began, the Congress leadership, although ambivalent towards the INA, chose to defend the accused officers.[124] The subsequent convictions of the officers, the public outcry against the convictions, and the eventual remission of the sentences, created positive propaganda for the Congress, which only helped in the party's subsequent electoral victories in eight of the eleven provinces.[125] The negotiations between the Congress and the Muslim League, however, stumbled over the issue of the partition. Jinnah proclaimed 16 August 1946, Direct Action Day, with the stated goal of highlighting, peacefully, the demand for a Muslim homeland in British India. The following day Hindu-Muslim riots broke out in Calcutta and quickly spread throughout India. Although the Government of India and the Congress were both shaken by the course of events, in September, a Congress-led interim government was installed, with Jawaharlal Nehru as united India's prime minister.[126]
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Members of the 1946 Cabinet Mission to India meeting Muhammad Ali Jinnah. On the extreme left is Lord Pethick Lawrence; on the extreme right, Sir Stafford Cripps.
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ZAFAR4.JPG
Khan Sahib Qazi Zafar Hussain, member of the Muslim rural elite of Punjab, who during the 1946 Punjab Provincial Assembly Election, supported Punjab Muslim League.
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Dead and wounded after the Direct Action Day which developed into pitched battles as Muslim and Hindu mobs attacked and killed each other across Calcutta in 1946.
The Plan for Partition: 1947[link]
Later that year, the Labour government in Britain, its exchequer exhausted by the recently concluded World War II, and conscious that it had neither the mandate at home, the international support, nor the reliability of native forces for continuing to control an increasingly restless India,[127][128] decided to end British rule of India, and in early 1947 Britain announced its intention of transferring power no later than June 1948.
As independence approached, the violence between Hindus and Muslims in the provinces of Punjab and Bengal continued unabated. With the British army unprepared for the potential for increased violence, the new viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, advanced the date for the transfer of power, allowing less than six months for a mutually agreed plan for independence. In June 1947, the nationalist leaders, including Sardar Patel, Nehru and Abul Kalam Azad on behalf of the Congress, Jinnah representing the Muslim League, B. R. Ambedkar representing the Untouchable community, and Master Tara Singh representing the Sikhs, agreed to a partition of the country along religious lines in stark opposition to Gandhi's views. The predominantly Hindu and Sikh areas were assigned to the new India and predominantly Muslim areas to the new nation of Pakistan; the plan included a partition of the Muslim-majority provinces of Punjab and Bengal.
-
Percentage of Hindus by district. Map of British Indian Empire, 1909.
-
Percentage of Muslims by district. Map of British Indian Empire, 1909.
Violence, Partition, Independence: 1947[link]
On 14 August 1947, the new Dominion of Pakistan came into being, with Muhammad Ali Jinnah sworn in as its first Governor General in Karachi. The following day, 15 August 1947, India, now a smaller Union of India, became an independent country with official ceremonies taking place in New Delhi, and with Jawaharlal Nehru assuming the office of the prime minister, and the viceroy, Louis Mountbatten, staying on as its first Governor General.
The great majority of Indians remained in place with independence, but in border areas millions of people (Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu) relocated across the newly drawn borders. In Punjab, where the new border lines divided the Sikh regions in half, there was much bloodshed; in Bengal and Bihar, where Gandhi's presence assuaged communal tempers, the violence was more limited. In all, anywhere between 250,000 and 500,000 people on both sides of the new borders, both among the refugee and resident populations of the three faiths, died in the violence.[129]
Ideological impact[link]
At independence and since India has maintained such central British institutions as parliamentary government, one-person, one-vote and the rule of law through nonpartisan courts. They retained as well the institutional arrangements of the Raj such as district administration, universities and stock exchanges. One major change was the rejection of separate princely states. Metcalf shows that over the course of two centuries, British intellectuals and Indian specialists made the highest priority bringing peace, unity and good government to India. They offered many competing methods to reach the goal. For example, Cornwallis recommended turning Bengali Zamindar into the sort of English landlords that controlled local affairs in England. Munro proposed to deal directly with the peasants. Sir William Jones and the Orientalists promoted Sanskrit, while Macaulay promoted the English language.[130] Zinkin argues that in the long-run, what matters most about the legacy of the Raj were the British political ideologies which the Indians took over after 1947, especially the belief in unity, democracy, the rule of law and a certain equality beyond caste and creed. Zinkin sees this not just in the Congress party but also among Hindu Nationalists in the Bharatya Janata Party, which specifically emphasises Hindu traditions.[131][132]
Economic impact[link]
"A significant fact which stands out is that those parts of India which have been longest under British rule are the poorest today. Indeed some kind of chart might be drawn up to indicate the close connection between length of British rule and progressive growth of poverty."
— Jawaharlal Nehru, on the economic effects of the British rule, in his book The Discovery of India[133]
In 1780 the conservative British politician Edmund Burke raised the issue of India's position: he vehemently attacked the East India Company, claiming that Warren Hastings and other top officials had ruined the Indian economy and society. Indian historian Rajat Kanta Ray (1998) continues this line of attack, saying the new economy brought by the British in the 18th century was a form of "plunder" and a catastrophe for the traditional economy of Mughal India. Ray accuses the British of depleting the food and money stocks and of imposing high taxes that helped cause the terrible famine of 1770, which killed a third of the people of Bengal.[134]
P. J. Marshall shows that recent scholarship has reinterpreted the view that the prosperity of the formerly benign Mughal rule gave way to poverty and anarchy. Marshall argues the British takeover did not make any sharp break with the past. The British largely delegated control to regional Mughal rulers and sustained a generally prosperous economy for the rest of the 18th century. Marshall notes the British went into partnership with Indian bankers and raised revenue through local tax administrators and kept the old Mughal rates of taxation.[135] Instead of the Indian nationalist account of the British as alien aggressors, seizing power by brute force and impoverishing all of India, Marshall presents the interpretation (supported by many scholars in India and the West) that the British were not in full control but instead were players in what was primarily an Indian play and in which their rise to power depended upon excellent cooperation with Indian elites. Marshall admits that much of his interpretation is still rejected by many historians.[136]
Famines, epidemics, and public health[link]
Main articles: Famines, epidemics, and public health in the British Raj and Timeline of major famines in India during British rule (1765 to 1947)
See also: Chalisa famine, Doji bara famine, Agra famine of 1837–38, Orissa Famine of 1866, Rajputana famine of 1869, Bihar famine of 1873–74, Great Famine of 1876–78, Indian famine of 1896–97, and Indian famine of 1899–1900
According to Angus Maddison, "The British contributed to public health by introducing smallpox vaccination, establishing Western medicine and training modern doctors, by killing rats, and establishing quarantine procedures. As a result, the death rate fell and the population of India grew by 1947 to more than two-and-a- half times its size in 1757."[137]
| “ | Population growth worsened the plight of the peasantry. As a result of peace and improved sanitation and health, the Indian population rose from perhaps 100 million in 1700 to 300 million by 1920. While encouraging agricultural productivity, the British also provided economic incentives to have more children to help in the fields. Although a similar population increase occurred in Europe at the same time, the growing numbers could be absorbed by industrialisation or emigration to the Americas and Australia. India enjoyed neither an industrial revolution nor an increase in food growing. Moreover, Indian landlords had a stake in the cash crop system and discouraged innovation. As a result, population numbers far outstripped the amount of available food and land, creating dire poverty and widespread hunger. | ” |
|
—-Craig A. Lockard, Societies, Networks, and Transitions[138] |
||
Famines in India (Estimated deaths in millions)
| Famine | Years | Deaths |
|---|---|---|
| Great Bengal Famine | 1769–1770 |
|
| Madras city famine | 1782–1783 | |
| Chalisa famine | 1791–1792 |
|
| Doji bara or Skull famine | 1789–1795 |
|
| Agra famine of 1837–38 | 1837–1838 |
|
| Eastern Rajputana | 1860–1861 |
|
| Orissa famine of 1866 | 1865–1867 |
|
| Rajputana famine of 1869 | 1868–1870 |
|
| Bihar famine of 1873–74 | 1873–1874 |
|
| Great Famine of 1876–78 | 1876–1878 |
|
| Orissa, Bihar | 1888–1889 |
|
| Indian famine of 1896–97 | 1896–1897 |
|
| Indian famine of 1899–1900 | 1899–1900 |
|
| Bombay Presidency | 1905–1906 |
|
| Bengal famine of 1943 | 1943–1944 |
|
File:India-famine-family-crop-420.jpg
Victims of the Great Famine of 1876–78 in India
During the British Raj, India experienced some of the worst famines ever recorded, including the Great Famine of 1876–78, in which 6.1 million to 10.3 million people died[151] and the Indian famine of 1899–1900, in which 1.25 to 10 million people died.[152] Recent research, including work by Mike Davis and Amartya Sen,[153] attributes most of the effects of these famines to British policy in India. El Niño event caused the Indian famine of 1876–1878.[154]
Having been criticised for the badly bungled relief effort during the Orissa famine of 1866,[155] British authorities began to discuss famine policy soon afterwards, and, in early 1868, Sir William Muir, Lieutenant-Governor of North Western Provinces, issued a famous order stating that:[156]
"... every District officer would be held personally responsible that no deaths occurred from starvation which could have been avoided by any exertion or arrangement on his part or that of his subordinates."
The first cholera pandemic began in Bengal, then spread across India by 1820. 10,000 British troops and countless Indians died during this pandemic.[157] Deaths in India between 1817 and 1860 are estimated to have exceeded 15 million persons. Another 23 million died between 1865 and 1917.[158] The Third Pandemic of plague started in China in the middle of the 19th century, spreading disease to all inhabited continents and killing 10 million people in India alone.[159] Waldemar Haffkine, who mainly worked in India, was the first microbiologist who developed and used vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague. In 1925, the Plague Laboratory in Bombay was renamed the Haffkine Institute.
Fevers had been considered one of the leading causes of death in India in the 19th century.[160] It was Britain's Sir Ronald Ross working in the Presidency General Hospital in Calcutta who finally proved in 1898 that malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes.[161] In 1881, around 120,000 leprosy patients existed in India. The central government passed the Lepers Act of 1898, which provided legal provision for forcible confinement of leprosy sufferers in India.[162] Under the direction of Mountstuart Elphinstone a program was launched to propagate smallpox vaccination.[163] Mass vaccination in India resulted in a major decline in smallpox mortality by the end of the 19th century.[164] In 1849 nearly 13% of all Calcutta deaths were due to smallpox.[165] Between 1868 and 1907, there were approximately 4.7 million deaths from smallpox.[166]
Sir Robert Grant directed his attention to the expediency of establishing a systematic institution in the Bombay for imparting medical knowledge to the natives.[167] In 1860, Grant Medical College became one of the four recognised colleges for teaching courses leading to degrees (others being Elphinstone College, Deccan College and Government Law College, Mumbai).
See also[link]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: British Raj |
Notes[link]
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1989: from Skr. rāj: to reign, rule; cognate with L. rēx, rēg-is, OIr. rī, rīg king (see RICH).
- ^ a b Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition (June 2008), on-line edition (September 2011): "spec. In full British Raj. Direct rule in India by the British (1858–1947); this period of dominion."
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, 1989. Examples: 1955 Times 25 Aug 9/7 It was effective against the British raj in India, and the conclusion drawn here is that the British knew that they were wrong. 1969 R. MILLAR Kut xv. 288 Sir Stanley Maude had taken command in Mesopotamia, displacing the raj of antique Indian Army commanders. 1975 H. R. ISAACS in H. M. Patel et al. Say not the Struggle Nought Availeth 251 The post-independence régime in all its incarnations since the passing of the British Raj.
- ^ First the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland then, after 1927, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- ^ Kaul, Chandrika. "From Empire to Independence: The British Raj in India 1858–1947". http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/independence1947_01.shtml. Retrieved 3 March 2011.
- ^ Interpretation Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 63), s. 18
- ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. II 1908, p. 463,470 Quote1: "Before passing on to the political history of British India, which properly begins with the Anglo-French Wars in the Carnatic, ... (p.463)" Quote2: "The political history of the British in India begins in the eighteenth century with the French Wars in the Carnatic. (p.471)"
- ^ a b Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. IV 1907, p. 60
- ^ a b c Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. IV 1907, p. 46
- ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. IV 1907, p. 56
- ^ Markovits, Claude (2004). "ch 21: "Princely India (1858–1950)". A history of modern India, 1480–1950. Anthem Press. pp. 386–409. ISBN 978-1-84331-152-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=uzOmy2y0Zh4C.
- ^ Markovits (2004), p. 387
- ^ Robin J. Moore, "Imperial India, 1858–1914"
- ^ Moore, "Imperial India, 1858–1914", p. 424
- ^ Brown 1994, p. 96
- ^ a b c Moore, "Imperial India, 1858–1914", p. 426
- ^ Moore 2001a, p. 426
- ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, p. 104
- ^ Peers 2006, p. 76
- ^ Bayly 1990, p. 195
- ^ Peers 2006, p. 72, Bayly 1990, p. 72
- ^ Michael Maclagan (1963). "Clemency" Canning: Charles John, 1st Earl Canning, Governor-General and Viceroy of India, 1856–1862. Macmillan. p. 212. http://books.google.com/books?id=WUg5AQAAIAAJ. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
- ^ William Ford (1887). John Laird Mair Lawrence, a viceroy of India,. http://books.google.com/books?id=GAYPAAAAQAAJ.
- ^ a b Sir William Wilson Hunter (1876). A life of the Earl of Mayo, fourth viceroy of India. pp. 181–310. http://books.google.com/books?id=uW9CAAAAIAAJ.
- ^ Sarvepalli Gopal (1953). The viceroyalty of Lord Ripon, 1880–1884. Oxford University Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=eKE9AAAAIAAJ. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
- ^ Briton Martin, Jr.. "The Viceroyalty of Lord Dufferin," History Today, (Dec 1960) 10#12 pp. 821–830, and (Jan 1961) 11#1 pp. 56–64
- ^ Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall (1905). The life of the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava. 2. pp. 72–207. http://books.google.com/books?id=rq10VOw8380C&pg=PA95.
- ^ Sir George Forrest (1894). The administration of the Marquis of Lansdowne as Viceroy and Governor-general of India, 1888–1894. http://books.google.com/books?id=PH9CAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA40.
- ^ Ernest Hullo, "India," in Catholic Encyclopedia (1910) vol. 7 online
- ^ a b Manmath Nath Das (1964). India under Morley and Minto: politics behind revolution, repression and reforms. G. Allen and Unwin. http://books.google.com/books?id=V3geAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
- ^ a b Spear 1990, p. 147
- ^ a b c d Spear 1990, pp. 147–148
- ^ European Madness and Gender in Nineteenth-century British India. Social History of Medicine 1996 9(3):357–382.
- ^ Ronald E. Robinson and John Gallagher, Africa and the Victorians: The Climax of Imperialism. (1968)
- ^ David Gilmour, The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj (2007) pp. 46, 135
- ^ Radhika Singha, "Colonial Law and Infrastructural Power: Reconstructing Community, Locating the Female Subject," Studies in History, (Feb 2003), 19#1 pp. 87–126 online
- ^ Tazeen M. Murshid, "Law and Female Autonomy in Colonial India," Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh: Humanities, (June 2002), 47#1 pp. 25–42
- ^ Suresh Chandra Ghosh, "Bentinck, Macaulay and the introduction of English education in India," History of Education, (March 1995) 24#1 pp. 17–24
- ^ Percival Spear, "Bentinck and Education," Cambridge Historical Journal (1938) 6#1 pp. 78–101 in JSTOR
- ^ Moore, "Imperial India, 1858–1914," p. 431
- ^ Zareer Masani, Indian Tales of the Raj (1988) p. 89
- ^ B. R. Tomlinson, The Economy of Modern India, 1860–1970 (1996) p. 5
- ^ B. H. Tomlinson, "India and the British Empire, 1880–1935," Indian Economic and Social History Review, (Oct 1975), 12#4 pp. 337–380
- ^ Peter Robb, "British Rule and Indian "Improvement," Economic History Review (Nov 1981), 34#4 pp. 507–523 in JSTOR
- ^ F. H. Brown and B. R. Tomlinson, "Tata, Jamshed Nasarwanji (1839–1904)", in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) Retrieved 28 Jan 2012 doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36421
- ^ Vinay Bahl, "The Emergence of Large-Scale Steel Industry in India Under British Colonial Rule, 1880–1907," Indian Economic and Social History Review, (Oct 1994) 31#4 pp. 413–460
- ^ Daniel R. Headrick, The tentacles of progress: technology transfer in the age of imperialism, 1850–1940, (1988) pp. 291–2
- ^ Vinay Bahl, Making of the Indian Working Class: A Case of the Tata Iron & Steel Company, 1880–1946 (1995)
- ^ Claude Markovits, Indian Business and Nationalist Politics 1931–39: The Indigenous Capitalist Class and the Rise of the Congress Party (Cambridge University Press, 2002) pp. 160–66
- ^ I. D. Derbyshire, "Economic Change and the Railways in North India, 1860–1914," Modern Asian Studies, (1987), 21#3 pp. 521–545 in JSTOR
- ^ R.R. Bhandari (2005). Indian Railways: Glorious 150 years. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. pp. 1–19. ISBN 81-230-1254-3.
- ^ Thorner, Daniel (2005). "The pattern of railway development in India". In Kerr, Ian J.. Railways in Modern India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 80–96. ISBN 0-19-567292-5.
- ^ Hurd, John (2005). "Railways". In Kerr, Ian J.. Railways in Modern India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. pp. 147–172–96. ISBN 0-19-567292-5.
- ^ Daniel R. Headrick, The tentacles of progress: technology transfer in the age of imperialism, 1850–1940, (1988) pp. 78–79
- ^ Headrick, The tentacles of progress: technology transfer in the age of imperialism, 1850–1940, (1988) pp. 81–82, 291
- ^ Wainwright, A. Marin (1994). Inheritance of Empire. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-275-94733-0. http://books.google.com/?id=1wERzXx94c8C&pg=PA48.
- ^ R. O. Christensen, "The State and Indian Railway Performance, 1870–1920: Part I, Financial Efficiency and Standards of Service," Journal of Transport History (Sept. 1981) 2#2, pp. 1–15
- ^ (Stein 2001, p. 259)
- ^ Laura Bear, Lines of the nation: Indian Railway workers, bureaucracy, and the intimate historical self (2007) – pp. 25–28
- ^ Arudra Burra, "The Indian Civil Service and the nationalist movement: neutrality, politics and continuity," Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, (Nov 2010), 48#4 pp. 404–432
- ^ B. R. Tomlinson, The economy of modern India, 1860–1970 (1996)
- ^ Judith Brown, Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy (1994) p. 12
- ^ Angus Maddison, The World Economy, pages 109–112, (2001)
- ^ a b c d (Spear 1990, p. 169)
- ^ a b (Spear 1990, p. 170)
- ^ a b (Majumdar, Raychaudhuri & Datta 1950, p. 888)
- ^ (Bose & Jalal 2003, p. 100)
- ^ Helen S. Dyer, Pandita Ramabai: the story of her life (1900) online
- ^ David Ludden, India and South Asia: a short history (2002) p.197
- ^ Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale: revolution and reform in the making of modern India (1962)
- ^ Michael Edwardes, High Noon of Empire: India under Curzon (1965)
- ^ Moore, "Imperial India, 1858–1914," p. 435
- ^ John R. McLane, "The Decision to Partition Bengal in 1905," Indian Economic and Social History Review, July 1965, 2#3, pp. 221–237
- ^ V. Sankaran Nair, Swadeshi movement: The beginnings of student unrest in South India (1985) excerpt and text search
- ^ Peter Heehs, The lives of Sri Aurobindo (2008) p. 184
- ^ (Bandyopadhyay 2005, p. 260)
- ^ Statistical abstract relating to British India, Issues 40–41 (1906) p. 36
- ^ David Arnold, "The Armed Police and Colonial Rule in South India, 1914–1947," Modern Asian Studies, (Jan 1977) 11#1 pp. 101–125; Arnold, Police Power and Colonial Rule: Madras, 1859–1947 (1986)
- ^ Wolpert, A New History of India, pp. 275–276
- ^ Ludden (2002), pp. 200–201
- ^ (Robb 2004, p. 174)
- ^ a b c d e f Brown 1994, pp. 197–198
- ^ Olympic Games Antwerp. 1920: Official Report.
- ^ a b c Brown 1994, pp. 200–201
- ^ a b c d e Brown 1994, p. 199
- ^ a b c d Brown 1994, pp. 214–215
- ^ a b c d Brown 1994, pp. 210–213
- ^ Brown 1994, pp. 216–217
- ^ Balraj Krishna, India's Bismarck, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (2007) ch. 2
- ^ a b c d e f g h Brown 1994, pp. 203–204
- ^ a b c Brown 1994, pp. 201–202
- ^ a b c d Spear 1990, p. 190
- ^ a b c Brown 1994, pp. 195–196
- ^ a b c Stein 2001, p. 304
- ^ Ludden 2002, p. 208
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Brown 1994, pp. 205–207
- ^ Chhabra 2005, p. 2
- ^ Nick Lloyd, The Amritsar Massacre: The Untold Story of One Fateful Day (2011) p. 180
- ^ Derek Sayer, "British Reaction to the Amritsar Massacre 1919–1920," Past & Present, May 1991, Issue 131, pp. 130–164
- ^ Brain Bond, "Amritsar 1919," History Today, Sept 1963, Vol. 13 Issue 10, pp. 666–676
- ^ Srinath Raghaven, "Protecting the Raj: The Army in India and Internal Security, c . 1919–39," Small Wars and Insurgencies, (Fall 2005), 16#3 pp. 253–279 online
- ^ a b (Markovits 2004, pp. 373–374)
- ^ David C. Potter, "Manpower Shortage and the End of Colonialism: The Case of Indian Civil Service," Modern Asian Studies, (Jan 1973) 7#1 pp. 47–73
- ^ Simon Epstein, "District Officers in Decline: The Erosion of British Authority in the Bombay Countryside, 1919 to 1947," Modern Asian Studies, (May 1982) 16#3 pp. 493–518
- ^ (Low 1993, pp. 40, 156)
- ^ Piers Brendon, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire: 1781–1997 (2008) p. 394
- ^ (Low 1993, p. 154)
- ^ Andrew Muldoon, "Politics, Intelligence and Elections in Late Colonial India: Congress and the Raj in 1937," Journal of the Canadian Historical Association (2009), 20#2 pp. 160–188; Muldoon, Empire, politics and the creation of the 1935 India Act: last act of the Raj (2009)
- ^ Ramachandra Guha, India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy (2007) p. 43
- ^ (Robb 2002, p. 190)
- ^ Stephen P. Cohen, The idea of Pakistan (2004) p. 28
- ^ D. N. Panigrahi, India's partition: the story of imperialism in retreat (2004) pp. 151–2
- ^ Recruitment was especially very active in the Punjab province of British India, under the leadership of the then Premier Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, who believed in cooperating with the British to achieve eventual freedom for the Indian nation. For details of various recrutiment drives by Sir Sikandar between 1939 and 1942, see Omer Tarin and Neal Dando, 'Memoirs of the Second World War: Major Shaukat Hayat Khan' (Critique) in Durbar:Journal of the Indian Military Historical Society, UK, Vol 27, No 3, Autumn 2010, pp. 136–137; and Speech of November 1941, at http://www.harappa.com/mom/may99.htm/ Retrieved 28 April 2012
- ^ Kaushik Roy, "Military Loyalty in the Colonial Context: A Case Study of the Indian Army during World War II," Journal of Military History (2009) 73#2
- ^ John F. Riddick, The history of British India: a chronology (2006) p. 142
- ^ Kaushik Roy, "Axis Satellite Armies of World War II: A Case Study of the Azad Hind Fauj, 1942–45," Indian Historical Review, (Jan 2008) 35#1 pp. 144–172
- ^ (Low 1993, pp. 31–31)
- ^ Lebra 1977, p. 23
- ^ Lebra 1977, p. 31, (Low 1993, pp. 31–31)
- ^ Shyam Ratna Gupta, "New Light On The Cripps Mission," India Quarterly, (Jan 1972), Vol. 28 Issue 1, p. 69–74
- ^ a b (Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, pp. 206–207)
- ^ Bandyopadhyay 2004, pp. 418–420
- ^ a b (Judd 2004, pp. 172–173)
- ^ (Judd 2004, pp. 170–171)
- ^ (Judd 2004, p. 172)
- ^ Sarvepalli Gopal (1976). Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography. Harvard University Press. p. 362. ISBN 978-0-674-47310-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=Jj-4zmBLXq0C. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
- ^ Hyam 2007, p. 106 Quote:By the end of 1945, he and the Commander-in-Chief of India, General Auckinleck were advising that there was a real threat in 1946 of large scale anti-British Disorder amounting to even a well-organised rising aiming to expel the British by paralysing the administration. Quote: ... it was clear to Attlee that everything depended on the spirit and reliability of the Indian Army:"Provided that they do their duty, armed insurrection in India would not be an insolube problem. If, however, the Indian Army was to go the other way, the picture would be very different ... Quote: ... Thus, Wavell concluded, if the army and the police "failed" Britain would be forced to go. In theory, it might be possible to revive and reinvigorate the services, and rule for another fifteent to trwenty years, but:It is a fallacy to suppose that the solution lies in trying to maintain status quo. We have no longer the resources, nor the necessary prestige or confidence in ourselves.
- ^ Brown 1994, p. 330 Quote: "India had always been a minority interest in British public life; no great body of public opinion now emerged to argue that war-weary and impoverished Britain should send troops and money to hold it against its will in an empire of doubtful value. By late 1946 both Prime Minister and Secretary of State for India recognized that neither international opinion no their own voters would stand for any reassertion of the raj, even if there had been the men, money, and administrative machinery with which to do so." Sarkar 1983, p. 418 Quote: "With a war weary army and people and a ravaged economy, Britain would have had to retreat; the Labour victory only quickened the process somewhat." Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, p. 212 Quote: "More importantly, though victorious in war, Britain had suffered immensely in the struggle. It simply did not possess the manpower or economic resources required to coerce a restive India."
- ^ Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh, The Partition of India (2009)
- ^ Thomas R. Metcalf, The New Cambridge History of India: Ideologies of the Raj (1995).
- ^ Maurice Zinkin, "Legacies of the Raj," Asian Affairs, (Oct 1995, 26#3) online
- ^ Y. K. Malik and V. B. Singh, Hindu Nationalists in India: the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (Westview Press, 1994)
- ^ Nehru 1946, p. 295
- ^ Rajat Kanta Ray, "Indian Society and the Establishment of British Supremacy, 1765–1818," in The Oxford History of the British Empire: vol. 2, "The Eighteenth Century" ed. by P. J. Marshall, (1998), pp. 508–29
- ^ Professor Ray agrees that the East India Company inherited an onerous taxation system that took one-third of the produce of Indian cultivators.
- ^ P.J. Marshall, "The British in Asia: Trade to Dominion, 1700–1765," in The Oxford History of the British Empire: vol. 2, The Eighteenth Century" ed. by P. J. Marshall, (1998), pp. 487–507
- ^ Angus Maddison (2006). "Class structure and economic growth: India and Pakistan since the Moghuls". Taylor & Francis. p.53. ISBN 0-415-38259-9
- ^ Craig A. Lockard (2010). "Societies, Networks, and Transitions, Volume 3". Cengage Learning. p.610. ISBN 1-4390-8534-X
- ^ Bose 1918, pp. 79–81.
- ^ Rai 2008, pp. 263–281.
- ^ Koomar 2009, pp. 13–14.
- ^ Desai, Raychaudhuri & Kumar 1983, p. 528.
- ^ Grove 2007, p. 80.
- ^ Grove 2007, p. 83.
- ^ a b c d Fieldhouse 1996, p. 132.
- ^ Desai, Raychaudhuri & Kumar 1983, p. 529.
- ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III 1907, p. 488.
- ^ Davis 2001, p. 7.
- ^ Desai, Raychaudhuri & Kumar 1983, pp. 530.
- ^ a b Desai, Raychaudhuri & Kumar 1983, p. 531.
- ^ Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. 1. Verso, 2000. ISBN 978-1-85984-739-8 pg 7
- ^ Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. 1. Verso, 2000. ISBN 978-1-85984-739-8 pg 173
- ^ Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom. ISBN 978-0-385-72027-4 ch 7
- ^ "Ó Gráda, C.: Famine: A Short History". Princeton University Press.
- ^ Hall-Matthews 2008, p. 1
- ^ Imperial Gazetteer of India vol. III 1907, p. 478
- ^ John Pike (24 July 2011). "Cholera- Biological Weapons". Globalsecurity.org. http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/intro/bio_cholera.htm. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
- ^ The 1832 Cholera Epidemic in New York State, By G. William Beardslee
- ^ INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Plague Through History, sciencemag.org
- ^ Malaria – Medical History of British India, National Library of Scotland
- ^ "Biography of Ronald Ross". The Nobel Foundation. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1902/ross-bio.html. Retrieved 15 Jun 2007.
- ^ Leprosy – Medical History of British India, National Library of Scotland
- ^ "Other histories of smallpox in South Asia". Smallpoxhistory.ucl.ac.uk. 18 July 2006. http://www.smallpoxhistory.ucl.ac.uk/Other%20Asia/ongoingwork.htm. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
- ^ "Feature Story: Smallpox". Vigyanprasar.gov.in. http://www.vigyanprasar.gov.in/comcom/feature57.htm. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
- ^ Smallpox and Vaccination in British India During the Last Seventy Years, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1945 January; 38(3): 135–140.
- ^ Smallpox – some unknown heroes in smallpox eradication, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics
- ^ "Sir JJ Group of Hospitals". Grantmedicalcollege-jjhospital.org. http://www.grantmedicalcollege-jjhospital.org/history.htm. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
Further reading[link]
Surveys[link]
- Bandhu, Deep Chand. History of Indian National Congress (2003) 405pp
- Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (2004), From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India, New Delhi and London: Orient Longmans. Pp. xx, 548., ISBN 978-81-250-2596-2 .
- Bayly, C. A. (1990), Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire (The New Cambridge History of India), Cambridge and London: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 248, ISBN 978-0-521-38650-0 .
- Brown, Judith M. (1994), Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy, Oxford University Press. Pp. xiii, 474, ISBN 978-0-19-873113-9 .
- Bose, Sugata; Jalal, Ayesha (2003), Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-30787-1
- Copland, Ian (2001), India 1885–1947: The Unmaking of an Empire (Seminar Studies in History Series), Harlow and London: Pearson Longmans. Pp. 160, ISBN 978-0-582-38173-5 .
- Coupland, Reginald. India: A Re-Statement (Oxford University Press, 1945), evaluation of the Raj, emphasising government. online edition
- Dodwell H. H., ed. The Cambridge History of India. Volume 6: The Indian Empire 1858–1918. With Chapters on the Development of Administration 1818–1858 (1932) 660pp online edition; also published as vol 5 of the Cambridge History of the British Empire
- James, Lawrence. Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India (2000)
- Judd, Dennis (2004), The Lion and the Tiger: The Rise and Fall of the British Raj, 1600–1947, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. xiii, 280, ISBN 978-0-19-280358-0 .
- Kumar, Dharma, and Meghnad Desai, eds. The Cambridge Economic History of India, Volume 2: c. 1757–2003 (2010), 1114pp; articles by scholars ISBN 978-81-250-2731-7
- Louis, William Roger, and Judith M. Brown, eds. The Oxford History of the British Empire (5 vol 1999–2001), with numerous articles on the Raj
- Ludden, David. India And South Asia: A Short History (2002)
- Metcalf, Barbara (2006), A Concise History of Modern India (Cambridge Concise Histories), Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. xxxiii, 372, ISBN 978-0-521-68225-1 .
- Mansingh, Surjit The A to Z of India (2010), a concise historical encyclopaedia
- Markovits, Claude (ed) (2005), A History of Modern India 1480–1950 (Anthem South Asian Studies), Anthem Press. Pp. 607, ISBN 978-1-84331-152-2, http://www.amazon.com/History-Modern-1480-1950-Anthem-Studies/dp/1843311526/ .
- Moon, Penderel. The British Conquest and Dominion of India (2 vol. 1989) 1235pp; the fullest scholarly history of political and military events from a British top-down perspective;
- Peers, Douglas M. (2006), India under Colonial Rule 1700–1885, Harlow and London: Pearson Longmans. Pp. xvi, 163, ISBN 0-582-31738-X .
- Riddick, John F. The history of British India: a chronology (2006) excerpt and text search, covers 1599–1947
- Riddick, John F. Who Was Who in British India (1998), covers 1599–1947
- Sarkar, Sumit. Modern India, 1885–1947 (2002)
- Smith, Vincent A. (1958) The Oxford History of India (3rd ed.) the Raj section was written by Percival Spear
- Spear, Percival (1990), A History of India, Volume 2, New Delhi and London: Penguin Books. Pp. 298, ISBN 978-0-14-013836-8 . online edition
- Stein, Burton (2001), A History of India, New Delhi and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xiv, 432, ISBN 978-0-19-565446-2 .
- Thompson, Edward, and G.T. Garratt. Rise and Fulfilment of British Rule in India (1934) 690 pages; scholarly survey, 1599–1933 excerpt and text search
- Wolpert, Stanley (2003), A New History of India, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 544, ISBN 978-0-19-516678-1 .
Specialized topics[link]
- Baker, David, Colonialism in an Indian Hinterland: The Central Provinces, 1820–1920, Delhi and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xiii, 374, ISBN 978-0-19-563049-7, JSTOR 2059781
- Bayly, C. A. (2000), Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780–1870 (Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society), Cambridge and London: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 426, ISBN 978-0-521-66360-1
- Brown, Judith M. Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope (1991), scholarly biography
- Brown; Louis, Wm. Roger, eds. (2001), Oxford History of the British Empire: The Twentieth Century, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 800, ISBN 978-0-19-924679-3
- Chandavarkar, Rajnarayan (1998), Imperial Power and Popular Politics: Class, Resistance and the State in India, 1850–1950, (Cambridge Studies in Indian History & Society). Cambridge University Press. Pp. 400, ISBN 978-0-521-59692-3 .
- Chatterji, Joya (1993), Bengal Divided: Hindu Communalism and Partition, 1932–1947, Cambridge University Press. Pp. 323, ISBN 978-0-521-52328-8 .
- Copland, Ian (2002), Princes of India in the Endgame of Empire, 1917–1947, (Cambridge Studies in Indian History & Society). Cambridge University Press. Pp. 316, ISBN 978-0-521-89436-4 .
- Manmath Nath Das (1964). India under Morley and Minto: politics behind revolution, repression and reforms. G. Allen and Unwin. http://books.google.com/books?id=V3geAAAAMAAJ.
- Dewey, Clive. Anglo-Indian Attitudes: The Mind of the Indian Civil Service (2003)
- Ewing, Ann. "Administering India: The Indian Civil Service," History Today, June 1982, 32#6 pp. 43–48, covers 1858–1947
- Gilmartin, David. 1988. Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan. University of California Press. 258 pages. ISBN 978-0-520-06249-8.
- Gilmour, David. The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj (2007)
- Gilmour, David. Curzon: Imperial Statesman (2006) excerpt and text search
- Sarvepalli Gopal (1 January 1976). Jawaharlal Nehru: A Biography. Harvard U. Press. ISBN 978-0-674-47310-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=Jj-4zmBLXq0C. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
- Sarvepalli Gopal (1953). The viceroyalty of Lord Ripon, 1880–1884. Oxford U. Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=eKE9AAAAIAAJ. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
- Gould, William (2004), Hindu Nationalism and the Language of Politics in Late Colonial India, Cambridge U. Press. Pp. 320 .
- Gopal, Sarvepalli. British Policy in India 1858–1905 (2008)
- Gopal, Sarvepalli. Viceroyalty of Lord Irwin 1926–1931 (1957)
- Jalal, Ayesha (1993), The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the Demand for Pakistan, Cambridge U. Press, 334 pages .
- Kaminsky, Arnold P. The India Office, 1880–1910 (1986) excerpt and text search, focus on officials in London
- Khan, Yasmin (2007), The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan, Yale U. Press, 250 pages, ISBN 978-0-300-12078-3
- Klein, Ira (2000), "Materialism, Mutiny and Modernization in British India", Modern Asian Studies 34 (3): 545–580, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-749X%28200007%2934%3A3%3C545%3AMMAMIB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I
- Kumar, Deepak. Science and the Raj: A Study of British India (2006)
- Low, D. A. (2002), Britain and Indian Nationalism: The Imprint of Amibiguity 1929–1942, Cambridge University Press. Pp. 374, ISBN 978-0-521-89261-2 .
- Lipsett, Chaldwell. Lord Curzon in India 1898–1903 (1903) excerpt and text search 128pp
- MacMillan, Margaret. Women of the Raj: The Mothers, Wives, and Daughters of the British Empire in India (2007)
- Metcalf, Thomas R. (1991), The Aftermath of Revolt: India, 1857–1870, Riverdale Co. Pub. Pp. 352, ISBN 978-81-85054-99-5
- Metcalf, Thomas R. (1997), Ideologies of the Raj, Cambridge University Press, Pp. 256, ISBN 978-0-521-58937-6
- Moor-Gilbert, Bart. Writing India, 1757–1990: The Literature of British India (1996) on fiction written in English
- Moore, Robin J. "Imperial India, 1858–1914", in Porter, ed. Oxford History of the British Empire: The Nineteenth Century, (2001a), pp. 422–446
- Moore, Robin J. "India in the 1940s", in Robin Winks, ed. Oxford History of the British Empire: Historiography, (2001b), pp. 231–242
- Porter, Andrew, ed. (2001), Oxford History of the British Empire: Nineteenth Century, Oxford University Press. Pp. 800, ISBN 978-0-19-924678-6
- Masood Ashraf Raja. Constructing Pakistan: Foundational Texts and the Rise of Muslim National Identity, 1857–1947, Oxford 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-547811-2
- Ramusack, Barbara (2004), The Indian Princes and their States (The New Cambridge History of India), Cambridge University Press. Pp. 324, ISBN 978-0-521-03989-5
- Read, Anthony, and David Fisher; The Proudest Day: India's Long Road to Independence (W. W. Norton, 1999) online edition; detailed scholarly history of 1940–47
- Venkataramani, M. S.; Shrivastava, B. K. Quit India: The American Response to the
- Shaikh, Farzana (1989), Community and Consensus in Islam: Muslim Representation in Colonial India, 1860—1947, Cambridge University Press. Pp. 272., ISBN 978-0-521-36328-0 .
- Talbot; Singh, Gurharpal Singh, eds. (1999), Region and Partition: Bengal, Punjab and the Partition of the Subcontinent, Oxford University Press. Pp. 420, ISBN 978-0-19-579051-1 .
- Tinker, Hugh (1968), "India in the First World War and after" Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1918–19: From War to Peace. (Oct., 1968), pp. 89–107, ISSN 0022-0094 .
- Voigt, Johannes. India in The Second World War (1988)
- Wainwright, A. Martin (1993), Inheritance of Empire: Britain, India, and the Balance of Power in Asia, 1938–55, Praeger Publishers. Pp. xvi, 256, ISBN 978-0-275-94733-0 .
- Wolpert, Stanley A. Jinnah of Pakistan (2005)
- Wolpert, Stanley (2007), "India: British Imperial Power 1858–1947 (Indian nationalism and the British response, 1885–1920; Prelude to Independence, 1920–1947)", Encyclopædia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-47042/India .
- Wolpert, Stanley A. Tilak and Gokhale: revolution and reform in the making of modern India (1962) full text online
Economic history[link]
- Anstey, Vera. The economic development of India (4th ed. 1952), 677pp; thorough scholarly coverage; focus on 20th century down to 1939
- Derbyshire, I. D. (1987), "Economic Change and the Railways in North India, 1860–1914", Population Studies 21 (3): 521–545, JSTOR 312641
- Dutt, Romesh C. The Economic History of India under early British Rule, first published 1902, 2001 edition by Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-24493-0
- Roy, Tirthankar (2002), "Economic History and Modern India: Redefining the Link", The Journal of Economic Perspectives 16 (3): 109–130, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0895-3309%28200222%2916%3A3%3C109%3AEHAMIR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F
- Simmons, Colin (1985), "'De-Industrialization', Industrialization and the Indian Economy, c. 1850–1947", Modern Asian Studies 19 (3): 593–622, http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-749X%281985%2919%3A3%3C593%3A%27IATIE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K
- Tomlinson, B. R. The Economy of Modern India, 1860–1970 (The New Cambridge History of India) (1996) excerpt and text search
- Tomlinson, B. H. "India and the British Empire, 1880–1935," Indian Economic and Social History Review, (Oct 1975), 12#4 pp. 337–380
Gazetteers, statistics and primary sources[link]
- Keith, Arthur Berriedale (1912). Responsible government in the dominions. The Clarendon press. http://books.google.com/books?id=mGdDAAAAIAAJ. , major primary sources in 1670pp
- Indian Year-book for 1862: A review of social, intellectual, and religious progress in India and Ceylon (1863), ed. by John Murdoch online edition 250pp; 1861 edition
- The Year-book of the Imperial Institute of the United Kingdom, the colonies and India: a statistical record of the resources and trade of the colonial and Indian possessions of the British Empire (2nd. ed. 1893) 880pp; India = pp. 375–462 online edition
- The Imperial Gazetteer of India (26 vol, 1908–31), highly detailed description of all of India in 1901. online edition
- Statistical abstract relating to British India, from 1895–96 to 1904–05 (London, 1906) full text online, 278pp
- The Cyclopedia of India: biographical, historical, administrative, commercial (1908) complete text online, business history, biographies, illustrations
- The Indian year book: 1914 (1914) snippets
http://wn.com/British_Raj
Related pages:
http://it.wn.com/Impero Anglo-Indiano
http://cs.wn.com/Britská Indie
http://id.wn.com/Kemaharajaan Britania
http://es.wn.com/Raj británico
http://ru.wn.com/Британская Индия
http://nl.wn.com/Brits-Indië
http://pl.wn.com/Indie Brytyjskie
http://fr.wn.com/Raj britannique
http://de.wn.com/Britisch-Indien
http://hi.wn.com/ब्रिटिश राज
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Raj
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
 |
Look up raj in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Raj and Rajya mean "royalty" or "kingdom" in many Sanskrit and Hindu languages. Also, Raj is a Serbian word meaning "Paradise".
Contents |
Indian history[link]
In India, 'Raj' may refer to any of several regimes:
- British Raj, the British Empire in India
- Licence Raj, the former Indian system of elaborate licences, regulations and accompanying red tape
- Mafia Raj, where public property and funds are controlled by a criminalised nexus of politicians and business interests
- Mughal Raj, the Mughal Empire in medieval India
- Raj (Rajputs), Rajputs by Parmaras
Ethnic group[link]
- Raj, a Hindu ethnic group found in North India and Pakistan
- Raj, an ethnic group found in the Philippines known by their mix of Indians and Filipinos
Places[link]
- Raj, Masovian Voivodeship, east-central Poland
- Raj, Pomeranian Voivodeship, north Poland
- Raj, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north Poland
- Ráj, village in the Czech Republic
- Raj, the Hungarian name for Brazii Commune, Arad County, Romania
People[link]
| Raj | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
- Raj Babbar (born 1952), Indian actor and politician
- Raj Ballav Koirala (born 1982), Nepali film actor
- Raj Bhavsar (born 1980), American gymnast
- Raj Chouhan, Canadian politician
- Raj Goyle (born 1975), American politician
- Raj Gupta, American business executive
- Raj Kamal Jha (born 1966), Indian novelist and journalist
- Raj Kapoor (1924-1988), Indian actor, director, and producer
- Raj Kaul, eighteenth century ancestor of Jawahar Lal Nehru
- Raj Kaushal, Indian director, producer and stunt director
- Raj Khosla (1925–1991), Indian director
- Raj Krishna, Indian economist
- Raj Manhas, American educator
- Raj Mohinder Singh Majitha, Indian politician
- Raj Mukherji, New Jersey lobbyist and real estate developer
- Raj Narain (1917–1986), Indian politician
- Raj Pannu (born 1934), Canadian educator and politician
- Raj Patel (born 1972), British-born academic, journalist, activist and writer
- Raj Persaud (born 1963), psychiatrist, broadcaster, and author
- Dabbala Rajagopal Raj Reddy (born 1937), pioneer in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
- Raj Thackeray (born 1968), Indian politician
- Prakash Rai or Raj (born 1965), Indian actor and producer
Rajko,Rajke,Rajo and Rajan are masculine given names of Serbian origin and comes from the Serbian word "raj" meaning "Paradise". Raja, Rajka, Rajana are the female given names.
- Rajko Mitić, Serbian football player and coach
- Rajko Kojić, Serbian guitarist
- Rajko Prodanović, Serbian handball player
- Rajevac, Milovan, Serbian football player and coach. The Serbian surname Rajevac means "inhabitants of Paradise".
Other[link]
- raj, the ISO 639 code for the Rajasthani language
- Raj, a Serbian word meaning "Paradise"
See also[link]
 |
This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
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Related pages:
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raj
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is about the People's Republic of China. For other uses, see China (disambiguation).
"PRC" redirects here. For other uses, see PRC (disambiguation).
| People's Republic of China
中华人民共和国
Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó |
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Anthem:
 "March of the Volunteers" 《义勇军进行曲》 (Pinyin: "Yìyǒngjūn Jìnxíngqǔ") |
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| Capital | Beijing 39°55′N 116°23′E / 39.917°N 116.383°E / 39.917; 116.383 |
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| Largest city | Shanghai[1][2] | |||||
| Official language(s) | Standard Chinese[3] | |||||
| Recognised regional languages | Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur, Zhuang, and various others | |||||
| Official written language | Vernacular Chinese | |||||
| Official script | Simplified Chinese[3] | |||||
| Ethnic groups | 91.51% Han;[4] 55 recognised minorities |
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| Demonym | Chinese | |||||
| Government | Nominally Marxist–Leninist single-party state[5][a] | |||||
| - | President[b] | Hu Jintao | ||||
| - | Congress Chairman | Wu Bangguo | ||||
| - | Premier | Wen Jiabao | ||||
| - | Conference Chairman | Jia Qinglin | ||||
| Legislature | National People's Congress | |||||
| Establishment | ||||||
| - | Unification of China under the Qin Dynasty | 221 BC | ||||
| - | Republic established | 1 January 1912 | ||||
| - | People's Republic proclaimed | 1 October 1949 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 9,640,821 km2 [c] or 9,671,018 km² [c](3rd/4th) 3,704,427 sq mi |
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| - | Water (%) | 2.8[d] | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2010 census | 1,339,724,852[4] (1st) | ||||
| - | Density | 139.6/km2 (53rd) 363.3/sq mi |
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| GDP (PPP) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $11.299 trillion[6] (2nd) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $8,382[6] (91st) | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $7.298 trillion[6] (2nd) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $5,413[6] (90th) | ||||
| Gini (2007) | 41.5[7] | |||||
| HDI (2011) |  0.687[8] (medium) (101st) |
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| Currency | Renminbi (yuan) (¥) (CNY) |
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| Time zone | China Standard Time (UTC+8) | |||||
| Date formats | yyyy-mm-dd or yyyy年m月d日 (CE; CE-1949) |
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| Drives on the | right, except for Hong Kong & Macau | |||||
| ISO 3166 code | CN | |||||
| Internet TLD | .cn[c] .中國[9] .中国 | |||||
| Calling code | +86[c] | |||||
| a. ^ Simple characterizations of the political structure since the 1980s are no longer possible.[10]
b. ^ As paramount leader, Hu Jintao holds four concurrent positions: General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission for both state and party.[11] c. ^ 9,598,086 km2 (3,705,842 sq mi) excludes all disputed territories. |
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China (i/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area,[13] and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.[14]
The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China.[15] It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau).[16] Its capital city is Beijing.[17] The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
China's landscape is vast and diverse, with forest steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts occupying the arid north and northwest near Mongolia and Central Asia, and subtropical forests being prevalent in the wetter south near Southeast Asia. The terrain of western China is rugged and elevated, with the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separating China from South and Central Asia. The world's apex, Mt. Everest (8,848 m), lies on the China–Nepal border, while the world's second-highest point, K2 (8,611 m), is situated on China's border with Pakistan. The country's lowest and the world's third-lowest point, Lake Ayding (−154 m), is located in the Turpan Depression. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third- and sixth-longest in the world, have their sources in the Tibetan Plateau and continue to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometres (9,000 mi) long—the 11th-longest in the world—and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East and South China Seas.
The nation of China has had numerous historical incarnations. The ancient Chinese civilization—one of the world's earliest—flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain.[18] China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies, known as dynasties, beginning with the semi-mythological Xia of the Yellow River basin (approx. 2000 BC) and ending with the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911. Since 221 BC, when the Qin Dynasty first conquered several states to form a Chinese empire, the country has expanded, fractured and been reformed numerous times. The Republic of China, founded in 1911 after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949. In 1945, the ROC acquired Taiwan from Japan following World War II.
In the 1946–1949 phase of the Chinese Civil War, the Chinese Communist Party defeated the nationalist Kuomintang in mainland China and established the People's Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949. The Kuomintang relocated the ROC government to Taiwan, establishing its capital in Taipei. The ROC's jurisdiction is now limited to Taiwan and several outlying islands, including Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. Since 1949, the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (now widely known as "Taiwan") have remained in dispute over the sovereignty of China and the political status of Taiwan, mutually claiming each other's territory and competing for international diplomatic recognition. In 1971, the PRC gained admission to the United Nations and took the Chinese seat as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the BCIM and the G-20. As of September 2011, all but 23 countries have recognized the PRC as the sole legitimate government of China.
Since the introduction of market-based economic reforms in 1978, China has become the world's fastest-growing major economy.[19] As of 2012, it is the world's second-largest economy, after the United States, by both nominal GDP and purchasing power parity (PPP),[20] and is also the world's largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. In per capita terms, China ranked 90th by nominal GDP and 91st by GDP (PPP) in 2011, according to the IMF. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army, with the second-largest defense budget. In 2003, China became the third nation in the world, after the former Soviet Union and the United States, to independently launch a successful manned space mission. China has been characterized as a potential superpower by a number of academics,[21] military analysts,[22] and public policy and economics analysts.[23]
Contents |
Etymology[link]
Main article: Names of China
| China | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese: | 中国 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese: | 中國 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning: | Middle Kingdom[24][25] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| People's Republic of China | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese: | 中华人民共和国 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese: | 中華人民共和國 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Mongolian name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mongolian: |  |
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| Tibetan name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tibetan: | ཀྲུང་ཧྭ་མི་དམངས་སྤྱི མཐུན་རྒྱལ་ཁབ |
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This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. |
The word "China" is derived from Cin (چین), a Persian name for China popularized in medieval Europe by the account of the 13th-century Venetian explorer Marco Polo.[26][27] The first recorded use in English dates from 1555.[28] The Persian word is, in turn, derived from the Sanskrit word Cīna (चीन),[29] which was used as a name for China as early as AD 150.[30] There are various scholarly theories regarding the origin of this word. The traditional theory, proposed in the 17th century by Martino Martini, is that "China" is derived from "Qin" (秦), the westernmost of the Chinese kingdoms during the Zhou Dynasty, or from the succeeding Qin Dynasty (221–206 BC).[31] The word Cīna is used in two Hindu scriptures – the Mahābhārata of the 5th century BC and the Laws of Manu of the 2nd century BC – to refer to a country located in the Tibetan-Burman borderlands east of India.[32][33]
In China, common names for the country include Zhōngguó (Chinese: 中国; literally "the Central State(s)") and Zhōnghuá (Chinese: 中华), although the country's official name has been changed numerous times by successive dynasties and modern governments. The term Zhongguo appeared in various ancient texts, such as the Classic of History of the 6th century BC,[34] and in pre-imperial times it was often used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia from the barbarians. The term, which can be either singular or plural, referred to the group of states in the central plain. It was only in the nineteenth century that the term emerged as the formal name of the country. The Chinese were not unique in regarding their country as "central", since other civilizations had the same view.[35]
History[link]
Main articles: History of China and Timeline of Chinese history
Prehistory[link]
Main article: Chinese prehistory
Archaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China between 250,000 and 2.24 million years ago.[36] A cave in Zhoukoudian (near present-day Beijing) exhibits fossils dated at between 300,000 and 780,000 BC.[37][38][39] The fossils are of Peking Man, an example of Homo erectus who used fire. There are also remains of Homo sapiens dating back to 18,000–11,000 BC found at the Peking Man site.[40]
Early dynastic rule[link]
See also: Dynasties in Chinese history
Chinese tradition names the first dynasty Xia, but it was considered mythical until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou in Henan Province in 1959.[41] Archaeologists have since uncovered urban sites, bronze implements, and tombs in locations cited as Xia's in ancient historical texts, but it is impossible to verify that these remains are of the Xia without written records from the period.
The first Chinese dynasty that left historical records, the loosely feudal Shang (Yin), settled along the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century BC. The oracle bone script of the Shang Dynasty represent the oldest forms of Chinese writing found and the direct ancestor of modern Chinese characters used throughout East Asia. The Shang were invaded from the west by the Zhou, who ruled from the 12th to the 5th century BC, until their centralized authority was slowly eroded by feudal warlords. Many independent states eventually emerged out of the weakened Zhou state, and continually waged war with each other in the Spring and Autumn Period, only occasionally deferring to the Zhou king. By the time of the Warring States Period, there were seven powerful sovereign states, each with its own king, ministry and army.
Imperial China[link]
The first unified Chinese state was established by Qin Shi Huang of the Qin state in 221 BC. Qin Shi Huang proclaimed himself the "First Emperor" (始皇帝), and imposed many reforms throughout China, notably the forced standardization of the Chinese language, measurements, length of cart axles, and currency. The Qin Dynasty lasted only fifteen years, falling soon after Qin Shi Huang's death, as its harsh legalist and authoritarian policies led to widespread rebellion.[42][43]
The subsequent Han Dynasty ruled China between 206 BC and 220 AD, and created a lasting Han cultural identity among its populace that extends to the present day.[42][43] The Han Dynasty expanded the empire's territory considerably with military campaigns reaching Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and Central Asia, and also helped establish the Silk Road in Central Asia. China was for a large part of the last two millennia the world's largest economy.[44] However, in the later part of the Qing Dynasty, China's economic development began to slow and Europe's rapid development during and after the Industrial Revolution enabled it to surpass China.
After the collapse of Han, another period of disunion followed, including the highly chivalric period of the Three Kingdoms.[45] Independent Chinese states of this period such as Wu opened diplomatic relations with Japan,[46] introducing the Chinese writing system there. In 580 AD, China was reunited under the Sui.[47] However, the Sui Dynasty was short-lived after a failure in the Goguryeo-Sui Wars (598–614) weakened it.[48][49]
Under the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese technology and culture reached its zenith.[50] The Tang Empire was at its height of power until the middle of the 8th century, when the An Shi Rebellion destroyed the prosperity of the empire.[51] The Song Dynasty was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy.[52] Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the population of China doubled in size. This growth came about through expanded rice cultivation in central and southern China, and the production of abundant food surpluses.
Within its borders, the Northern Song Dynasty had a population of some 100 million people. The Song Dynasty was a culturally rich period for philosophy and the arts. Landscape art and portrait painting were brought to new levels of maturity and complexity after the Tang Dynasty, and social elites gathered to view art, share their own, and trade precious artworks. Philosophers such as Cheng Yi and Chu Hsi reinvigorated Confucianism with new commentary, infused Buddhist ideals, and emphasized a new organization of classic texts that brought about the core doctrine of Neo-Confucianism.
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In 1271, the Mongol leader and fifth Khagan of the Mongol Empire Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty, with the last remnant of the Song Dynasty falling to the Yuan in 1279. Before the Mongol invasion, Chinese dynasties reportedly had approximately 120 million inhabitants; after the conquest was completed in 1279, the 1300 census reported roughly 60 million people.[53]
Late dynastic rule[link]
A peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Yuan Dynasty in 1368 and founded the Ming Dynasty.[54] Ming Dynasty thinkers such as Wang Yangming would further critique and expand Neo-Confucianism with ideas of individualism and innate morality that would have tremendous impact on later Japanese thought. Chosun Korea also became a nominal vassal state of Ming China and adopted much of its Neo-Confucian bureaucratic structure.
Under the Ming Dynasty, China enjoyed another golden age, developing one of the strongest navies in the world and a rich and prosperous economy amid a flourishing of art and culture. It was during this period that Zheng He led explorations throughout the world, possibly reaching America. During the early Ming Dynasty, China's capital was moved from Nanjing to Beijing. In 1644, Beijing was sacked by a coalition of rebel forces led by Li Zicheng, a minor Ming official turned leader of the peasant revolt. The last Ming Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide when the city fell. The Manchu Qing Dynasty then allied with Ming Dynasty general Wu Sangui and overthrew Li's short-lived Shun Dynasty, and subsequently seized control of Beijing, which became the new capital of the Qing Dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty, which lasted until 1912, was the last imperial dynasty of China. In the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty adopted a defensive posture towards European imperialism, even though it engaged in an imperialistic expansion of its own into Central Asia. At this time, China awoke to the significance of the rest of the world, the West in particular. As China opened up to foreign trade and missionary activity, opium produced by British India was forced onto Qing China. Two Opium Wars with Britain weakened the Emperor's control. European imperialism proved to be disastrous for China:
The Arrow War (1856–1860) [2nd Opium War] saw another disastrous defeat for China. The subsequent passing of the humiliating Treaty of Tianjin in 1856 and the Beijing Conventions of 1860 opened up more of the country to foreign penetrations and more ports for their vessels. Hong Kong was ceded over to the British. Thus, the "unequal treaties system" was established. Heavy indemnities had to be paid by China, and more territory and control were taken over by the foreigners.[55]
The weakening of the Qing regime, and the apparent humiliation of the unequal treaties in the eyes of the Chinese people had several consequences. One consequence[according to whom?] was the Taiping Rebellion, a civil war which lasted from 1851 to 1862. The rebellion was led by Hong Xiuquan, who was partly influenced by an idiosyncratic interpretation of Christianity. Hong believed himself to be the son of God and the younger brother of Jesus. Although the Qing forces were eventually victorious, the civil war was one of the bloodiest in human history, costing at least 20 million lives (more than the total number of fatalities in World War I), with some estimates of up to two hundred million. Other costly rebellions followed the Taiping Rebellion, such as the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars (1855–67), Nien Rebellion (1851–1868), Miao Rebellion (1854–73), Panthay Rebellion (1856–1873) and the Dungan revolt (1862–1877).[56][57]
These rebellions resulted in an estimated loss of several million lives each and led to disastrous results for the economy and the countryside.[58][59][60] The flow of British opium hastened the empire's decline. In the 19th century, the age of colonialism was at its height and the great Chinese Diaspora began; today, about 35 million overseas Chinese live in Southeast Asia.[61] Emigration rates were strengthened by domestic catastrophes such as the famine of 1876–79, which claimed between 9 and 13 million lives in northern China.[62] From 108 BC to 1911 AD, China experienced 1,828 famines,[63] or one per year, somewhere in the empire.[64]
While China was wracked by continuous war, Meiji Japan succeeded in rapidly modernizing its military, and set its sights on the conquest of Korea and Manchuria. At the request of the Korean emperor, the Qing government sent troops to aid in suppressing the Tonghak Rebellion in 1894. However, Japan also sent troops to Korea, leading to the First Sino-Japanese War, which resulted in Qing China's loss of influence in the Korean Peninsula as well as the cession of Taiwan (including the Pescadores) to Japan.
Following this series of defeats, a reform plan for the empire to become a modern Meiji-style constitutional monarchy was drafted by the Guangxu Emperor in 1898, but was opposed and stopped by the Empress Dowager Cixi, who placed Emperor Guangxu under house arrest in a coup d'état. Further destruction followed the ill-fated 1900 Boxer Rebellion against westerners in Beijing.
By the early 20th century, mass civil disorder had begun, and calls for reform and revolution were heard across the country. The 38-year-old Emperor Guangxu died under house arrest on 14 November 1908, suspiciously just a day before Cixi's own death. With the throne empty, he was succeeded by Cixi's handpicked heir, his two year old nephew Puyi, who became the Xuantong Emperor. Guangxu's consort became the Empress Dowager Longyu. In another coup de'tat, Yuan Shikai overthrew the last Qing emperor, and forced empress Dowager Longyu to sign the abdication decree as regent in 1912, ending two thousand years of imperial rule in China. She died, childless, in 1913.
Republic of China (1912–1949)[link]
Main articles: Republic of China (1912–1949) and History of the Republic of China
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On 1 January 1912, the Republic of China was established, heralding the end of Imperial China. Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (the KMT or Nationalist Party) was proclaimed provisional president of the republic. However, the presidency was later given to Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general, who had ensured the defection of the entire Beiyang Army from the Qing Empire to the revolution. In 1915, Yuan proclaimed himself Emperor of China, but was forced to abdicate and reestablish the republic in the face of popular condemnation, not only from the general population but also from among his own Beiyang Army and its commanders.
After Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, China was politically fragmented, with an internationally recognized but virtually powerless national government seated in Beijing. Regional warlords exercised actual control over their respective territories. In the late 1920s, the nationalist Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek, was able to reunify the country under its own control with a series of deft military and political maneuverings, known collectively as the Northern Expedition. The Kuomintang moved the nation's capital to Nanjing and implemented "political tutelage", an intermediate stage of political development outlined in Sun Yat-sen's San-min program for transforming China into a modern democratic state. Effectively, political tutelage meant one-party rule by the Kuomintang, but the party was politically divided into competing cliques. This political division made it difficult for Chiang to battle the Communists, which the Kuomintang had been warring against since 1927 in the Chinese Civil War. This war continued successfully for the Kuomintang, especially after the Communists were forced to retreat in the Long March, until the Xi'an Incident and Japanese aggression forced Chiang to confront Imperial Japan.
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), a part of World War II, forced an uneasy alliance between the Kuomintang and the Communists. The Japanese "three-all policy" in northern China—"kill all, burn all and destroy all"—led to numerous war atrocities being committed against the civilian population; in all, as many as 20 million Chinese civilians were killed.[65][66] An estimated 200,000 Chinese were massacred in the city of Nanjing alone during the Japanese occupation.[67] Japan unconditionally surrendered to China in 1945. Taiwan, including the Pescadores, was retroceded. China emerged victorious but war-ravaged and financially drained. The continued distrust between the Kuomintang and the Communists led to the resumption of the Chinese Civil War. In 1947, constitutional rule was established, but because of the ongoing Civil War many provisions of the ROC constitution were never implemented in mainland China.[citation needed]
People's Republic of China (1949–present)[link]
Main article: History of the People's Republic of China
Major combat in the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the Communist Party in control of mainland China, and the Kuomintang retreating offshore, reducing the ROC's territory to only Taiwan, Hainan, and their surrounding islands. On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China,[68] which was commonly known in the West as "Communist China" or "Red China" during the Cold War.[69] In 1950, the People's Liberation Army succeeded in capturing Hainan from the ROC, occupying Tibet, and defeating the majority of the remaining Kuomintang forces in Yunnan and Xinjiang provinces, though some Kuomintang holdouts survived until much later.
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Mao encouraged population growth, and under his leadership the Chinese population almost doubled from around 550 million to over 900 million.[70] However, Mao's Great Leap Forward, a large-scale economic and social reform project, resulted in an estimated 45 million deaths between 1958 and 1961, mostly from starvation.[71] In 1966, Mao and his allies launched the Cultural Revolution, which would last until Mao's death a decade later. The Cultural Revolution, motivated by power struggles within the Party and a fear of the Soviet Union, led to a major upheaval in Chinese society. In October 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic of China in the United Nations, and took its seat as a permanent member of the Security Council. In that same year, for the first time, the number of countries recognizing the PRC surpassed those recognizing the ROC in Taipei as the government of China.[72] In February 1972, at the peak of the Sino-Soviet split, Mao and Zhou Enlai met Richard Nixon in Beijing. However, the U.S. did not officially recognise the PRC as China's sole legitimate government until 1 January 1979.
After Mao's death in 1976 and the arrest of the Gang of Four, who were blamed for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping quickly wrested power from Mao's anointed successor Hua Guofeng. Although he never became the head of the party or state himself, Deng was in fact the Paramount Leader of China at that time, his influence within the Party led the country to significant economic reforms. The Communist Party subsequently loosened governmental control over citizens' personal lives and the communes were disbanded with many peasants receiving multiple land leases, which greatly increased incentives and agricultural production. This turn of events marked China's transition from a planned economy to a mixed economy with an increasingly open market environment, a system termed by some "market socialism";[73] the Communist Party of China officially describes it as "socialism with Chinese characteristics". China adopted its current constitution on 4 December 1982.
The death of pro-reform official Hu Yaobang helped to spark the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, during which students and others campaigned for several months, speaking out against corruption and in favour of greater political reform, including democratic rights and freedom of speech. However, they were eventually put down on 4 June when PLA troops and vehicles entered and forcibly cleared the square, resulting in numerous casualties. This event was widely reported and brought worldwide condemnation and sanctions against the government.[74][75] The "Tank Man" incident in particular became famous.
President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji, both former mayors of Shanghai, led the nation in the 1990s. Under Jiang and Zhu's ten years of administration, China's economic performance pulled an estimated 150 million peasants out of poverty and sustained an average annual gross domestic product growth rate of 11.2%.[76][77] The country formally joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
Although rapid economic growth has made the Chinese economy the world's second-largest, this growth has also severely impacted the country's resources and environment.[78] Another concern is that the benefits of economic development has not been distributed evenly, resulting in a wide development gap between urban and rural areas. As a result, under President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, the Chinese government initiated policies to address these issues of equitable distribution of resources, though the outcome remains to be seen.[79] More than 40 million farmers have been displaced from their land,[80] usually for economic development, contributing to the 87,000 demonstrations and riots across China in 2005.[81] Living standards have improved significantly but political controls remain tight.[82]
Geography[link]
Main article: Geography of the People's Republic of China
See also: Geography of Taiwan
A composite satellite image showing the topography of China.
Longsheng Rice Terrace in Guangxi.
The Li River in Guangxi.
Political geography[link]
The People's Republic of China is the second-largest country in the world by land area after Russia[13] and is either the third- or fourth-largest by total area, after Russia, Canada and, depending on the definition of total area, the United States.[83] China's total area is generally stated as being approximately 9,600,000 km2 (3,700,000 sq mi).[84] Specific area figures range from 9,572,900 km2 (3,696,100 sq mi) according to the Encyclopædia Britannica,[85] 9,596,961 km2 (3,705,407 sq mi) according to the UN Demographic Yearbook,[86] to 9,596,961 km2 (3,705,407 sq mi) according to the CIA World Factbook,[87] and 9,640,011 km2 (3,722,029 sq mi) including Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract, which are controlled by China and claimed by India.[88] None of these figures include the 1,000 square kilometres (386.1 sq mi) of territory ceded to China by Tajikistan following the ratification of a Sino-Tajik border agreement in January 2011.[89]
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the total area of the United States, at 9,522,055 km2 (3,676,486 sq mi), is slightly smaller than that of China. Meanwhile, the CIA World Factbook states that China's total area was greater than that of the United States until the coastal waters of the Great Lakes was added to the United States' total area in 1996.[90]
China has the longest combined land border in the world, measuring 22,117 km (13,743 mi) from the mouth of the Yalu River to the Gulf of Tonkin. China borders 14 nations, more than any other country except Russia, which also borders 14. China extends across much of East Asia, bordering Vietnam, Laos, and Burma in Southeast Asia; India, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan[91] in South Asia; Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in Central Asia; a small section of Russian Altai and Mongolia in Inner Asia; and the Russian Far East and North Korea in Northeast Asia.
Additionally, China shares maritime boundaries with South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines. The PRC and the Republic of China (Taiwan) make mutual claims over each other's territory and the frontier between areas under their respective control is closest near the islands of Kinmen and Matsu, off the Fujian coast, but otherwise run through the Taiwan Strait. The PRC and ROC assert identical claims over the entirety of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, and the southern-most extent of these claims reach Zengmu Ansha (James Shoal), which would form a maritime frontier with Malaysia.
Landscape and climate[link]
Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, in Tibet.
The South China Sea coast at Hainan.
The territory of China lies between latitudes 18° and 54° N, and longitudes 73° and 135° E. China's landscapes vary significantly across its vast width. In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, there are extensive and densely populated alluvial plains, while on the edges of the Inner Mongolian plateau in the north, broad grasslands predominate. Southern China is dominated by hills and low mountain ranges, while the central-east hosts the deltas of China's two major rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River. Other major rivers include the Xi, Mekong, Brahmaputra and Amur. To the west, major mountain ranges, most notably the Himalayas, and high plateaus feature among the more arid landscapes of the north, such as the Taklamakan and the Gobi Desert. China's highest point, Mt. Everest (8848m), lies on the Sino-Nepalese border. The country's lowest point is the dried lake bed of Ayding Lake (−154m) in the Turpan Depression.
A major environmental issue in China is the continued expansion of its deserts, particularly the Gobi Desert, which is currently the world's fifth-largest desert.[92][93] Although barrier tree lines planted since the 1970s have reduced the frequency of sandstorms, prolonged drought and poor agricultural practices have resulted in dust storms plaguing northern China each spring, which then spread to other parts of East Asia, including Korea and Japan. According to China's environmental watchdog, Sepa, China is losing a million acres (4,000 km²) per year to desertification.[94] Water quality, erosion, and pollution control have become important issues in China's relations with other countries. Melting glaciers in the Himalayas could potentially lead to water shortages for hundreds of millions of people.[95]
China's climate is mainly dominated by dry seasons and wet monsoons, which lead to a pronounced temperature differences between winter and summer. In the winter, northern winds coming from high-latitude areas are cold and dry; in summer, southern winds from coastal areas at lower latitudes are warm and moist. The climate in China differs from region to region because of the country's extensive and complex topography.
Biodiversity[link]
Main article: Wildlife of China
China is one of 17 megadiverse countries,[96] lying in two of the world's major ecozones: the Palearctic and the Indomalaya. In the Palearctic zone, mammals such as the horse, camel, tapir, and jerboa can be found. Among the species found in the Indomalaya region are the Leopard Cat, bamboo rat, treeshrew, and various monkey and ape species. Some overlap exists between the two regions due to natural dispersal and migration; deer, antelope, bears, wolves, pigs, and numerous rodent species can all be found in China's diverse climatic and geological environments. The famous giant panda is found only in a limited area along the Yangtze River. China suffers from a continuing problem with trade in endangered species, although there are now laws to prohibit such activities.
China also hosts a variety of forest types. Cold coniferous forests predominate in the north of the country, supporting animal species such as moose and the Asian black bear, along with over 120 bird species. Moist conifer forests can have thickets of bamboo as an understorey, replaced by rhododendrons in higher montane stands of juniper and yew. Subtropical forests, which dominate central and southern China, support as many as 146,000 species of flora. Tropical and seasonal rainforests, though confined to Yunnan and Hainan Island, contain a quarter of all the plant and animal species found in China.
Environmental issues[link]
Main article: Environment in the People's Republic of China
In recent decades, China has suffered from severe environmental deterioration and pollution.[97] While regulations such as the 1979 Environmental Protection Law are fairly stringent, enforcement of them is poor, as they are frequently disregarded by local communities and government officials in favour of rapid economic development.
Environmental campaigners such as Ma Jun have warned of the danger that water pollution poses to Chinese society.[98] According to the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources, roughly 300 million Chinese do not have access to safe drinking water, and 40% of China’s rivers have been polluted by industrial and agricultural waste as of late 2011.[99] This crisis is compounded by the perennial problem of water shortages, with 400 out of 600 surveyed Chinese cities reportedly short of drinking water.[100][101]
However, China is the world's leading investor in renewable energy technologies, with $34.6 billion invested in 2009 alone.[102][103] China produces more wind turbines and solar panels than any other country,[104] and renewable energy projects, such as solar water heating, are widely pursued at the local level.[105] By 2009, over 17% of China's energy was derived from renewable sources – most notably hydroelectric power plants, of which China has a total installed capacity of 197 GW.[106] In 2011, the Chinese government announced plans to invest four trillion yuan (US$618.55 billion) in water infrastructure projects over a ten-year period, and to complete construction of a flood prevention and anti-drought system by 2020.[107]
Politics[link]
Main article: Politics of the People's Republic of China
See also: Politics of the Republic of China
The People's Republic of China, along with Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, and Cuba, is one of the five remaining official Communist states in the world.[108][109] but simple characterizations of China's political structure since the 1980s are no longer possible.[10] The Chinese government has been variously described as communist and socialist, but also as authoritarian, with heavy restrictions remaining in many areas, most notably on the Internet, the press, freedom of assembly, reproductive rights, and freedom of religion.[110] Its current political/economic system has been termed by its leaders as "Socialism with Chinese characteristics".
Compared to its closed-door policies until the mid-1970s, the liberalization of China has resulted in the administrative climate being less restrictive than before. China is far different from liberal democracy or social democracy that exists in most of Europe or North America, and the National People's Congress (highest state body) has been described as a "rubber stamp" body.[111] China's incumbent President is Hu Jintao, who is also the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, and its Premier is Wen Jiabao, who is also a senior member of the CPC Politburo Standing Committee.
The country is ruled by the Communist Party of China (CPC), whose power is enshrined in China's constitution.[112] The Chinese electoral system is hierarchical, whereby local People's Congresses are directly elected, and all higher levels of People's Congresses up to the National People's Congress (NPC) are indirectly elected by the People's Congress of the level immediately below.[113] The political system is partly decentralized,[114] with limited democratic processes internal to the party and at local village levels, although these experiments have been marred by corruption. There are other political parties in China, referred to in China as democratic parties, which participate in the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
There have been some moves toward political liberalization, in that open contested elections are now held at the village and town levels,[115][116] and that legislatures have shown some assertiveness from time to time. However, the Party retains effective control over government appointments: in the absence of meaningful opposition, the CPC wins by default most of the time. Political concerns in China include lessening the growing gap between rich and poor and fighting corruption within the government leadership.[117]
The level of support to the government action and the management of the nation is among the highest in the world, with 86% of people who express satisfaction with the way things are going in their country and with their nation's economy according to a 2008 Pew Research Center survey.[118]
Administrative divisions[link]
Main articles: Administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China, Districts of Hong Kong, and Municipalities of Macau
The People's Republic of China has administrative control over 22 provinces, and considers Taiwan to be its 23rd province, although Taiwan is currently governed by the Republic of China, which disputes the PRC's claim.[119] China also has five subdivisions officially termed autonomous regions, each with a designated minority group; four municipalities; and two Special Administrative Regions (SARs), which enjoy a degree of political autonomy. These 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, and four municipalities can be collectively referred to as "mainland China", a term which usually excludes the SARs of Hong Kong and Macau.
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Foreign relations[link]
Main article: Foreign relations of the People's Republic of China
China has diplomatic relations with 171 countries and maintains embassies in 162.[120] Its legitimacy is disputed by the Republic of China and a few other countries; it is thus the largest and most populous state with limited recognition. Sweden was the first western country to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic on 9 May 1950.[121] In 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic of China as the sole representative of China in the United Nations and as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.[122] China was also a former member and leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, and still considers itself an advocate for developing countries.[123]
Under its interpretation of the One-China policy, China has made it a precondition to establishing diplomatic relations that the other country acknowledges its claim to Taiwan and severs official ties with the government of the Republic of China. Chinese officials have protested on numerous occasions when foreign countries have made diplomatic overtures to Taiwan,[124] especially in the matter of armament sales.[125] Political meetings between foreign government officials and the 14th Dalai Lama are also opposed by China, as it considers Tibet to be formally part of China.[126]
Much of China's current foreign policy is reportedly based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence of Zhou Enlai—non-interference in other states' affairs, non-aggression, peaceful coexistence, equality and mutual benefits. China's foreign policy is also driven by the concept of "harmony without uniformity", which encourages diplomatic relations between states despite ideological differences. This policy has led China to support states that are regarded as dangerous or repressive by Western nations, such as Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Iran.[127] Conflicts with foreign countries have occurred at times in China's recent history, particularly with the United States; for example, the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo conflict in May 1999 and the US-China spy plane incident in April 2001. China's foreign relations with many Western nations suffered for a time following the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, although in recent years China has improved its diplomatic links with the West.[128][129]
Trade relations[link]
In recent decades, China has played an increasing role in calling for free trade areas and security pacts amongst its Asia-Pacific neighbors. In 2004, China proposed an entirely new East Asia Summit (EAS) framework as a forum for regional security issues, pointedly excluding the United States.[130] The EAS, which includes ASEAN Plus Three, India, Australia and New Zealand, held its inaugural summit in 2005. China is also a founding member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), along with Russia and the Central Asian republics.
In 2000, the U.S. Congress approved "permanent normal trade relations" (PNTR) with China, allowing Chinese exports in at the same low tariffs as goods from most other countries.[131] Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush asserted that free trade would gradually open China to democratic reform.[132] Bush was furthermore an advocate of China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO).[133] China has a significant trade surplus with the United States, its most important export market.[134] In the early 2010s, U.S. politicians argued that the Chinese yuan was significantly undervalued, giving China an unfair trade advantage.[135]
Sinophobic attitudes often target Chinese minorities and nationals living outside of China. Sometimes, such anti-Chinese attitudes turn violent, as occurred during the 13 May Incident in Malaysia in 1969 and the Jakarta riots of May 1998 in Indonesia, in which more than 2,000 people died.[136] In recent years, a number of anti-Chinese riots and incidents have also occurred in Africa and Oceania.[137][138] Anti-Chinese sentiment is often rooted in socio-economics.[139]
Territorial disputes[link]
Main article: Foreign relations of the People's Republic of China#International territorial disputes
China has been involved in a number of international territorial disputes, mostly resulting from the legacy of unequal treaties imposed on China during the historical period of New Imperialism. Since the 1990s, China has been entering negotiations to resolve its disputed land borders, usually by offering concessions and accepting less than half of the disputed territory with each party. China's only remaining land border disputes are a disputed border with India and an undefined border with Bhutan. China is additionally involved in more minor multilateral disputes over the ownership of several small islands in the East and South China Seas.[140][141]
Sino-Japanese relations[link]
Main article: Sino-Japanese relations
The relationship between China and Japan has been strained at times by Japan's refusal to acknowledge its wartime past to the satisfaction of China. Revisionist comments made by prominent Japanese officials and some Japanese history textbooks regarding the 1937 Nanjing Massacre have been a focus of particular controversy. Sino-Japanese relations warmed considerably after Shinzo Abe became the Prime Minister of Japan in September 2006, and a joint historical study conducted by China and Japan released a report in 2010 which pointed toward a new consensus on the issue of World War 2-era atrocities.[142] However, in the early 2010s, relations cooled once more, with Japan accusing China of withholding its reserves of valuable rare earth elements.[143]
China and the developing world[link]
China is heavily engaged, both politically and economically, with numerous nations in the developing world. Most notably, they have followed a policy of engaging with African nations for trade and bilateral co-operation.[144][145] Xinhua, China's official news agency, states that there are no less than 750,000 Chinese nationals working or living in Africa.[146] China has furthermore strengthened its ties with major South American economies, becoming the largest trading partner of Brazil and building strategic links with Argentina.[147][148] Along with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, China is a member of the BRICS group of emerging major economies, and hosted the group's third official summit at Sanya in Hainan Province in April 2011.[149]
Emerging superpower status[link]
China is regularly hailed as a potential new superpower, with certain commentators citing its rapid economic progress, growing military might, very large population, and increasing international influence as signs that it will play a prominent global role in the 21st century. Others, however, warn that economic bubbles and demographic imbalances could slow or even halt China's growth as the century progresses.[150][151][152][153][154]
Sociopolitical issues and reform[link]
See also: Human rights in the People's Republic of China, Hukou system, Social welfare in China, Elections in the People's Republic of China, and Feminism in the People's Republic of China
The Chinese democracy movement, social activists, and some members of the Communist Party of China have all identified the need for social and political reform. While economic and social controls have been greatly relaxed in China since the 1970s, political freedom is still tightly restricted. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China states that the "fundamental rights" of citizens include freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion, universal suffrage, and property rights. However, in practice, these provisions do not afford significant protection against criminal prosecution by the State.[155][156][157]
As the Chinese economy expanded following Deng Xiaoping's 1978 reforms, tens of millions of rural Chinese who have moved to the cities[158] find themselves treated as second-class citizens by China's hukou household registration system, which controls state benefits.[159] Property rights are often poorly protected, and eminent domain land seizures have had a disproportionate effect on poorer peasants.[158] In 2003, the average Chinese farmer paid three times more taxes than the average urban dweller, despite having one-sixth of the annual income.[159] However, a number of rural taxes have since been reduced or abolished, and additional social services provided to rural dwellers.[160][161][162]
Censorship of political speech and information, most notably on the Internet,[163] is openly and routinely used in China to silence criticism of the government and the ruling Communist Party.[164][165] In 2005, Reporters Without Borders ranked China 159th out of 167 states in its Annual World Press Freedom Index, indicating a very low level of perceived press freedom.[166] The government has suppressed demonstrations by organizations that it considers a potential threat to "social stability", as was the case with the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The Communist Party has had mixed success in controlling information: a powerful and pervasive media control system faces equally strong market forces, an increasingly educated citizenry, and technological and cultural changes that are making China more open to the wider world, especially on environmental issues.[167][168] However, attempts are still made by the Chinese government to control public access to outside information, with online searches for politically sensitive material being blocked by the so-called Great Firewall.[169]
A number of foreign governments and NGOs routinely criticize China's human rights record, alleging widespread civil rights violations, including systematic use of lengthy detention without trial, forced confessions, torture, mistreatment of prisoners, and restrictions of freedom of speech, assembly, association, religion, the press, and labor rights.[110] China executes more people than any other country, accounting for 72% of the world's total in 2009, though it is not the largest executioner per capita.[170] This high execution rate is partly due to the fact that numerous white-collar crimes, such as fraud, are punishable by death in China. However, in the early 2010s, China began restricting the application of capital punishment for some such crimes.[171]
The Chinese government has responded to foreign criticism by arguing that the notion of human rights should take into account a country's present level of economic development, and focus more on the people's rights to subsistence and development in poorer countries.[172] The rise in the standard of living, literacy, and life expectancy for the average Chinese since the 1970s is seen by the government as tangible progress made in human rights.[173] Improvements in workplace safety, and efforts to combat natural disasters such as the perennial Yangtze River floods, are also portrayed in China as progress in human rights for a still largely poor country.[172][174]
Some Chinese politicians have spoken out in favor of reforms, while others remain more conservative. In 2010, Premier Wen Jiabao stated that China needs "to gradually improve the democratic election system so that state power will truly belong to the people and state power will be used to serve the people." Despite his status, Wen's comments were later censored by the government.[175]
As the social, cultural and political consequences of economic growth and reform become increasingly manifest, tensions between the conservatives and reformists in the Communist Party are sharpening. Zhou Tianyong, the vice director of research of the Central Party School, argues that gradual political reform as well as repression of those pushing for overly rapid change over the next thirty years will be essential if China is to avoid an overly turbulent transition to a democratic, middle-class-dominated polity.[176][177]
Military[link]
Main article: People's Liberation Army
With 2.3 million active troops, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the largest standing military force in the world, commanded by the Central Military Commission (CMC).[178] The PLA consists of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force (PLAGF), the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), and a strategic nuclear force, the Second Artillery Corps. According to SIPRI, China's military expenditure in 2011 totalled US$129.2 billion (923 billion yuan), constituting the world's second-largest military budget.[179] However, other nations, such as the United States, have claimed that China does not report its real level of military spending, which is allegedly much higher than the official budget.[180]
As a recognised nuclear weapons state, China is considered both a major regional military power and a potential military superpower.[181] As of August 2011, China's Second Artillery Corps is believed to maintain at least 195 nuclear missiles, including 75 ICBMs.[182] Nonetheless, China is the only member of the UN Security Council to have relatively limited power projection capabilities.[183] To offset this, it has begun developing power projection assets, such as aircraft carriers, and has established a network of foreign military relationships that has been compared to a string of pearls.
China has made significant progress in modernizing its military since the early 2000s. It has purchased advanced Russian fighter jets, such as the Sukhoi Su-30, and has also produced its own modern fighters, most notably the Chengdu J-10 and Shenyang J-11.[184] China is furthermore engaged in developing an indigenous stealth aircraft, the Chengdu J-20.[185][186][187] China's ground forces have also undergone significant modernisations, replacing its ageing Soviet-derived tank inventory with numerous variants of the modern Type 99 tank, and upgrading its battlefield C3I systems to enhance its network-centric warfare capabilities.[188] China has furthermore acquired and improved upon the Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile system.[189] Russia later produced the next-generation S-400 Triumf system, with China reportedly having spent $500 million on a downgraded export version of it.[190] A number of indigenous missile technologies have also been developed – in 2007, China conducted a successful test of an anti-satellite missile,[191] and its first indigenous land-attack cruise missile, the CJ-10, entered service in 2009. In 2011, the Pentagon reported that China was believed to be testing the JL-2 missile, a submarine-launched nuclear ICBM with multiple-warhead delivery capabilities.[182]
In recent years, much attention has been focused on enhancing the blue-water capabilities of the People's Liberation Army Navy.[192] In August 2011, China's first aircraft carrier, the refurbished Soviet vessel Varyag, began sea trials.[193] China furthermore maintains a substantial fleet of submarines, including several nuclear-powered attack and ballistic missile submarines.[194] On 13 March 2011, the PLAN missile frigate Xuzhou was spotted off the coast of Libya, marking the first time in history a Chinese warship sailed into the Mediterranean. The ship's entrance into the Mediterranean was officially part of a humanitarian mission to rescue Chinese nationals from the 2011 Libyan civil war, though analysts such as Fareed Zakaria viewed the mission as also being an attempt to increase China's global military presence.[195]
Little information is available regarding the motivations supporting China's military modernization. A 2007 report by the US Secretary of Defense noted that "China's actions in certain areas increasingly appear inconsistent with its declaratory policies".[196] For its part, China claims it maintains an army purely for defensive purposes.[197]
Economy[link]
Main articles: Economy of the People's Republic of China and List of Chinese administrative divisions by GDP
As of 2012, China has the world's second-largest economy in terms of nominal GDP, totalling approximately US$7.298 trillion according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).[6] However, China's 2011 nominal GDP per capita of US$5,184 puts it behind around ninety countries (out of 183 countries on the IMF list) in global GDP per capita rankings.[6] If PPP is taken into account in total GDP figures, China is again second only to the United States—in 2011, its PPP GDP reached $11.316 trillion, corresponding to $8,394 per capita.[6] In 2009, China's primary, secondary, and tertiary industries contributed 10.6%, 46.8%, and 42.6% respectively to its total GDP.
From its founding in 1949 until late 1978, the People's Republic of China was a Soviet-style centrally planned economy, without private businesses or capitalism. To propel the country towards a modern, industrialized communist society, Mao Zedong instituted the Great Leap Forward in the early 1960s, although this had decidedly mixed economic results.[199] Following Mao's death in 1976 and the consequent end of the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping and the new Chinese leadership began to reform the economy and move towards a more market-oriented mixed economy under one-party rule. Collectivization of the agriculture was dismantled and farmlands were privatized to increase productivity. Modern-day China is mainly characterized as having a market economy based on private property ownership,[200][201] and is one of the leading examples of state capitalism.[202][203]
Under the post-Mao market reforms, a wide variety of small-scale private enterprises were encouraged, while the government relaxed price controls and promoted foreign investment. Foreign trade was focused upon as a major vehicle of growth, leading to the creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), first in Shenzhen and then in other Chinese cities. Inefficient state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were restructured by introducing western-style management systems, with unprofitable ones being closed outright, resulting in massive job losses. By the latter part of 2010, China was reversing some of its economic liberalization initiatives, with state-owned companies buying up independent businesses in the steel, auto and energy industries.[204]
Since economic liberalization began in 1978, China's investment- and export-led[205] economy has grown almost a hundredfold[206] and is the fastest-growing major economy in the world.[207] According to the IMF, China's annual average GDP growth between 2001 and 2010 was 10.5%, and the Chinese economy is predicted to grow at an average annual rate of 9.5% between 2011 and 2015. Between 2007 and 2011, China's economic growth rate was equivalent to all of the G7 countries' growth combined.[208] According to the Global Growth Generators index announced by Citigroup in February 2011, China has a very high 3G growth rating.[209]
China is the third-most-visited country in the world, with 55.7 million inbound international visitors in 2010.[210] It is a member of the WTO and is the world's second-largest trading power behind the US, with a total international trade value of US$3.64 trillion in 2011.[211] Its foreign exchange reserves reached US$2.85 trillion by the end of 2010, an increase of 18.7% over the previous year, making its reserves by far the world's largest.[212][213] China owns an estimated $1.6 trillion of US securities.[214] China, holding US$1.16 trillion in US Treasury bonds,[215] is the largest foreign holder of US public debt.[216][217] China is the world's third-largest recipient of inward foreign direct investment (FDI), attracting $115 billion in 2011 alone, marking a 9% increase over 2010.[218][219] China also increasingly invests abroad, with a total outward FDI of $68 billion in 2010.[220]
| <timeline>
ImageSize = width:300 height:140 PlotArea = left:60 bottom:20 top:10 right:0 AlignBars = justify DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:0 till:16000 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal Colors = id:gray value:gray(0.5) id:line1 value:gray(0.9) id:line2 value:gray(0.7) ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5000 start:0 gridcolor:line2 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1000 start:0 gridcolor:line1 BarData = bar:USA text:USA bar:China text:China bar:Japan text:Japan bar:Germany text:Germany bar:France text:France PlotData= color:tan1 width:10 bar:USA from:start till:15094 text:15,094 color:yellow width:10 bar:China from:start till:7298 text:7,298 color:tan1 width:10 bar:Japan from:start till:5869 text:5,869 bar:Germany from:start till:3577 text:3,577 bar:France from:start till:2776 text:2,776 TextData = pos:(5,1) textcolor:gray fontsize:S text:US$ bn </timeline> |
| A graph comparing the 2011 nominal GDPs of major economies in US$ billions, according to IMF data.[221] |
China's success has been primarily due to manufacturing as a low-cost producer. This is attributed to a combination of cheap labor, good infrastructure, relatively high productivity, favorable government policy, and a possibly undervalued exchange rate. The latter has been sometimes blamed for China's huge trade surplus (US$262.7 billion in 2007)[222] and has become a major source of dispute between China and its major trading partners—the US, EU, and Japan—despite the yuan having been de-pegged and having risen in value by 20% against the US dollar since 2005.[223] China is moreover widely criticised for manufacturing large quantities of counterfeit goods—in 2005, the Asia Business Council alleged that the counterfeiting industry accounted for 8% of China's GDP at the time.[224][225]
The state still dominates in strategic "pillar" industries (such as energy and heavy industries), but private enterprise (composed of around 30 million private businesses)[226] has expanded enormously; in 2005, it accounted for anywhere between 33%[227] to 70%[228] of national GDP, while the OECD estimate for that year was over 50%[229] of China's national output, up from 1% in 1978.[230] The Shanghai Stock Exchange has raised record amounts of IPOs, and its benchmark Shanghai Composite index has doubled since 2005. SSE's market capitalization reached US$3 trillion in 2007, making it the world's fifth-largest stock exchange.
China now ranks 29th in the Global Competitiveness Index,[231] although it is only ranked 135th among the 179 countries measured in the Index of Economic Freedom.[232] 46 Chinese companies made the list in the 2010 Fortune Global 500 (Beijing alone with 30).[233] Measured using market capitalization, four of the world's top ten most valuable companies are Chinese. Some of these include first-ranked PetroChina, third-ranked Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (the world's most valuable bank), fifth-ranked China Mobile (the world's most valuable telecommunications company) and seventh-ranked China Construction Bank.[234]
Although a middle-income country by Western standards, China's rapid growth has pulled hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty since 1978. Today, about 10% of the Chinese population live below the poverty line of US$1 per day (down from 64% in 1978), while life expectancy has increased to 73 years. More than 93% of the population is literate,[235] compared to only 20% in 1950.[236] Urban unemployment in China reportedly declined to 4% by the end of 2007, although true overall unemployment may be as high as 10%.[237]
China's middle-class population (defined as those with annual income of at least US$17,000) has reached more than 100 million as of 2011,[238] while the number of super-rich individuals worth more than 10 million yuan (US$1.5 million) is estimated to be 825,000, according to Hurun Report.[239] Based on the Hurun rich list, the number of US dollar billionaires in China doubled from 130 in 2009 to 271 in 2010, giving China the world's second-highest number of billionaires.[240] China's retail market was worth RMB 8.9 trillion (US$1.302 trillion) in 2007, and is growing at 16.8% annually.[241] China is also now the world's second-largest consumer of luxury goods behind Japan, with 27.5% of the global share.[242]
In recent years, China's rapid economic growth has contributed to severe consumer inflation,[243] causing the prices of basic goods to rise steeply. Food prices in China increased by over 21% in the first four months of 2008 alone.[244] To curb inflation and moderate rising property prices, the Chinese government has instituted a number of fiscal regulations and amendments, raising interest rates and imposing limits on bank loans. In September 2011, consumer prices rose by 6.1% compared to a year earlier, marking a reduction in inflation from the peak of 6.5% in July 2011.[245] A side-effect of increased economic regulation was a slowdown in overall growth – China's quarterly GDP growth fell to 9.1% in October 2011, down from 9.5% in the previous quarter,[245] and sank to 8.1% in April 2012.[246]
The Chinese economy is highly energy-intensive and inefficient—on average, industrial processes in China between 20% and 100% more energy than similar ones in OECD countries.[247] China became the world's largest energy consumer in 2010,[248] but still relies on coal to supply about 70% of its energy needs.[249] Coupled with lax environmental regulations, this has led to massive water and air pollution, leaving China with 20 of the world's 30 most polluted cities.[247] Consequently, the government has promised to use more renewable energy, planning to make renewables constitute 30% of China's total energy production by 2050.[250] In 2010, China became the largest wind energy provider in the world, with a total installed wind power capacity of 41.8 GW.[251] In January 2011, Russia began scheduled oil shipments to China, pumping 300,000 barrels of oil per day via the Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean oil pipeline.[252]
Science and technology[link]
Main article: Science and technology in the People's Republic of China
 |
| History of science and technology in China |
|---|
| Inventions |
| Discoveries |
| By era |
| Han Dynasty |
| Tang Dynasty |
| Song Dynasty |
| People's Republic of China |
| Present-day China |
China was a world leader in science and technology until the Ming Dynasty. Ancient Chinese discoveries and inventions, such as papermaking, printing, the compass, and gunpowder (the Four Great Inventions), contributed to the economic development of Asia and Europe. However, Chinese scientific activity entered a prolonged decline in the fourteenth century. Unlike European scientists, medieval Chinese thinkers did not attempt to reduce observations of nature to mathematical laws, and they did not form a scholarly community offering peer review and progressive research. There was an increasing concentration on literature, the arts, and public administration, while science and technology were seen as trivial or restricted to limited practical applications.[253] The causes of this Great Divergence continue to be debated.
After repeated military defeats by Western nations in the 19th century, Chinese reformers began promoting modern science and technology as part of the Self-Strengthening Movement. After the Communist victory in 1949, efforts were made to organize science and technology based on the model of the Soviet Union. However, Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution of 1966-76 had a catastrophic effect on Chinese research, as academics were persecuted and the training of scientists and engineers was severely curtailed for nearly a decade. After Mao's death in 1976, science and technology was established as one of the Four Modernizations, and the Soviet-inspired academic system was gradually reformed.[253]
In modern China, science and technology are seen as vital for achieving economic and political goals, and are held as a source of national pride to a degree sometimes described as "techno-nationalism".[254] Almost all of the members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China have engineering degrees.[255] Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, China has become one of the world's leading technological powers, spending over US$100 billion on scientific research and development in 2011 alone.[256] China is also rapidly developing its education system with an emphasis on science, mathematics and engineering; in 2009, it produced over 10,000 Ph.D. engineering graduates, and as many as 500,000 BSc graduates, more than any other country.[257] China is also the world's second-largest publisher of scientific papers, producing 121,500 in 2010 alone, including 5,200 in leading international scientific journals.[258]
The Chinese space program is one of the world's most active, and is a major source of national pride.[259] In 1970, China launched its first satellite, Dong Fang Hong I. In 2003, China became the third country to independently send humans into space, with Yang Liwei's spaceflight aboard Shenzhou 5. In 2008, China conducted its first spacewalk with the Shenzhou 7 mission. In 2011, China's first space station module, Tiangong-1, was launched, marking the first step in a project to assemble a large manned station by 2020.[260] The active Chinese Lunar Exploration Program includes a planned lunar rover launch in 2013, and possibly a manned lunar landing in 2025.[261] Experience gained from the lunar program may be used for future programs such as the exploration of Mars and Venus.[262]
Infrastructure[link]
Communications[link]
Main article: Telecommunications in the People's Republic of China
China currently has the most cellphone users of any country in the world, with over 1 billion users as of May 2012.[263][264] It also has the world's largest number of internet and broadband users.[265] By December 2010, China had around 457 million internet users, an increase of 19% over the previous year, and by the end of 2011 the number of internet users had exceeded 500 million.[266][267][268] According to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China's average internet connection speed is 100.9 kbit/s, less than half of the global average of 212.5 kbit/s.[269]
China Telecom and China Unicom, the country's two largest broadband providers, accounted for 20% of global broadband subscribers, whereas the world's ten largest broadband service providers combined accounted for 39% of the world's broadband customers. China Telecom alone serves 55 million broadband subscribers, while China Unicom serves more than 40 million. The massive rise in internet use in China continues to fuel rapid broadband growth, whereas the world's other major broadband ISPs operate in the mature markets of the developed world, with high levels of broadband penetration and rapidly slowing subscriber growth.[270]
Transport[link]
Main article: Transport in the People's Republic of China
Transportation in mainland China has undergone intense state-led development since the late 1990s. The national road network has been significantly expanded through the creation of a network of expressways, known as the National Trunk Highway System (NTHS). By the end of 2011, China's expressways had reached a total length of 85,000 km (53,000 mi), second only to the network of the United States.[271] Private car ownership is growing rapidly in China, which surpassed the United States as the world's largest automobile market in 2009, with total car sales of over 13.6 million.[272] Analysts predict that annual car sales in China may rise as high as 40 million by 2020.[273]
China also possesses the world's longest high-speed rail network, with over 9,676 km (6,012 mi) of service routes. Of these, 3,515 km (2,184 mi) serve trains with top speeds of 300 km/h (190 mph).[274] In 2011, China unveiled a prototype train capable of reaching speeds of 310 mph (500 km/h), the first ultra-high-speed train developed solely by its domestic railway industry.[275] China intends to operate approximately 16,000 km (9,900 mi) of high-speed rail lines by 2020.[276]
As of 2012, China is the world's largest constructor of new airports, and the Chinese government has begun a US$250 billion five-year project to expand and modernize domestic air travel.[277] However, long-distance transportation remains dominated by railways and charter bus systems. Railways are the vital carrier in China; they are monopolized by the state, divided into various railway bureaux in different regions. Due to huge demand, the system is regularly subject to overcrowding, particularly during holiday seasons, such as Chunyun during the Chinese New Year. The Chinese rail network carried an estimated 1.68 billion total passengers in 2010 alone.[276]
Rapid transit systems are also rapidly developing in China's major cities, in the form of networks of underground or light rail systems. Hong Kong has one of the most developed transport systems in the world, while Shanghai has a high-speed maglev rail line connecting the city to its main international airport, Pudong International Airport. China is additionally developing its own satellite navigation system, dubbed Beidou, which began offering commercial navigation services in mainland China in 2011, and is planned to offer global coverage by 2020.[278]
Demographics[link]
Main article: Demographics of the People's Republic of China
As of July 2010, the People's Republic of China has an estimated total population of 1,338,612,968. About 21% of the population (145,461,833 males; 128,445,739 females) are 14 years old or younger, 71% (482,439,115 males; 455,960,489 females) are between 15 and 64 years old, and 8% (48,562,635 males; 53,103,902 females) are over 65 years old. The population growth rate for 2006 was 0.6%.[279]
By end of 2010, the proportion of mainland Chinese people aged 14 or younger was 16.60%, while the number aged 60 or older grew to 13.26%, giving a total proportion of 29.86% dependents. The proportion of the population of workable age was thus around 70%.[280]
With a population of over 1.3 billion and dwindling natural resources, China is very concerned about its population growth and has attempted, with mixed results,[281] to implement a strict family planning policy. The government's goal is one child per family, with exceptions for ethnic minorities and a degree of flexibility in rural areas. It is hoped that population growth in China will stabilize in the early decades of the 21st century, though some projections estimate a population of anywhere between 1.4 billion and 1.6 billion by 2025. China's family planning minister has indicated that the one-child policy will be maintained until at least 2020.[282]
The one-child policy is resisted, particularly in rural areas, because of the need for agricultural labour and a traditional preference for boys (who can later serve as male heirs). Families who breach the policy often lie during the census.[283] Official government policy opposes forced sterilization or abortion, but allegations of coercion continue as local officials, who are faced with penalties for failing to curb population growth, may resort to forcible measures, or manipulation of census figures.[citation needed]
The decreasing reliability of China population statistics since family planning began in the late 1970s has made evaluating the effectiveness of the policy difficult.[283] Data from the 2010 census implies that the total fertility rate may now be around 1.4.[284] The government is particularly concerned with the large imbalance in the sex ratio at birth, apparently the result of a combination of traditional preference for boys and family planning pressure, which led to a ban on using ultrasound devices in an attempt to prevent sex-selective abortion.
According to the 2010 census, there were 118.06 boys born for every 100 girls, which is 0.53 points lower than the ratio obtained from a population sample survey carried out in 2005.[285] However, the gender ratio of 118.06 is still beyond the normal range of around 105 percent, and experts warn of increased social instability should this trend continue.[286] For the population born between the years 1900 and 2000, it is estimated that there could be 35.59 million fewer females than males.[287] Other demographers argue that perceived gender imbalances may arise from the underreporting of female births.[288][289][290][291] A recent study suggests that as many as three million Chinese babies are hidden by their parents every year.[291] According to the 2010 census, males accounted for 51.27 percent of the total population, while females made up 48.73 percent of the total.[285]
Ethnic groups[link]
Main articles: List of ethnic groups in China, Ethnic minorities in China, and Ethnic groups in Chinese history
| Ethnic composition (2000)[292] | |
|---|---|
| Han | 91.59% |
| Zhuang | 1.28% |
| Manchu | 0.84% |
| Hui | 0.78% |
| Miao | 0.71% |
| Uyghur | 0.66% |
| Tujia | 0.63% |
| Other | 3.51% |
China officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Han Chinese, who constitute about 91.51% of the total population.[293] The Han Chinese—the world's largest single ethnic group—outnumber other ethnic groups in every province, municipality and autonomous region except Tibet and Xinjiang, and are descended from ancient Huaxia tribes living along the Yellow River.
Ethnic minorities account for about 8.49% of the population of China, according to the 2010 census.[293] Compared with the 2000 population census, the Han population increased by 66,537,177 persons, or 5.74%, while the population of the 55 national minorities combined increased by 7,362,627 persons, or 6.92%.[293]
The 2010 census recorded a total of 593,832 foreign citizens living in China. The largest such groups were from South Korea (120,750), the United States (71,493) and Japan (66,159).[294]
Languages[link]
Main articles: Languages of China and List of endangered languages in China
The languages most spoken in China belong to the Sino-Tibetan language family. There are also several major linguistic groups within the Chinese language itself. The most spoken varieties are Mandarin (spoken by over 70% of the population), Wu (includes Shanghainese), Yue (includes Cantonese and Taishanese), Min (includes Hokkien and Teochew), Xiang, Gan, and Hakka. Non-Sinitic languages spoken widely by ethnic minorities include Zhuang, Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur, Hmong and Korean.[295] Standard Mandarin, a variety of Mandarin based on the Beijing dialect, is the official national language of China and is used as a lingua franca between people of different linguistic backgrounds.
Classical Chinese was the written standard in China for thousands of years, and allowed for written communication between speakers of various unintelligible languages and dialects in China. Written vernacular Chinese, or baihua, is the written standard, based on the Mandarin dialect and first popularized in Ming Dynasty novels. It was adopted, with significant modifications, during the early 20th century as the national standard. Classical Chinese is still part of the high school curriculum, and is thus intelligible to some degree to many Chinese. Since their promulgation by the government in 1956, Simplified Chinese characters have become the official standardized written script used to write the Chinese language within mainland China, supplanting the use of the earlier Traditional Chinese characters.
Urbanization[link]
See also: List of cities in the People's Republic of China, List of cities in the People's Republic of China by population, and Metropolitan regions of China
Since 2000, China's cities have expanded at an average rate of 10% annually. It is estimated that China will add 400 million people to its urban population by 2025.[296] The country's urbanization rate increased from 17.4% to 46.8% between 1978 and 2009, a scale unprecedented in human history.[297] Between 150 and 200 million migrant workers work part-time in the major cities, returning home to the countryside periodically with their earnings.[298][299]
Today, the People's Republic of China has dozens of cities with one million or more long-term residents, including the three global cities of Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. The figures in the table below are from the 2008 census, and are only estimates of the urban populations within administrative city limits; a different ranking exists when considering the total municipal populations (which includes suburban and rural populations). The large "floating populations" of migrant workers make conducting censuses in urban areas difficult;[300] the figures below do not include the floating population, only long-term residents.
|
Largest cities or towns of the People's Republic of China Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (2010) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | City name | Province | Pop. | Rank | City name | Province | Pop. | ||
 Shanghai |
1 | Shanghai | Shanghai | 22,315,426 | 11 | Shenyang | Liaoning | 5,743,718 |  Tianjin |
| 2 | Beijing | Beijing | 18,827,000 | 12 | Hangzhou | Zhejiang | 5,695,313 | ||
| 3 | Tianjin | Tianjin | 11,090,314 | 13 | Chongqing | Chongqing | 5,402,721 | ||
| 4 | Guangzhou | Guangdong | 11,070,654 | 14 | Harbin | Heilongjiang | 4,517,549 | ||
| 5 | Shenzhen | Guangdong | 10,357,938 | 15 | Suzhou | Jiangsu | 4,074,000 | ||
| 6 | Dongguan | Guangdong | 8,220,937 | 16 | Jinan | Shandong | 3,922,180 | ||
| 7 | Chengdu | Sichuan | 7,123,697 | 17 | Xi'an | Shaanxi | 3,890,098 | ||
| 8 | Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 7,055,071 | 18 | Wuxi | Jiangsu | 3,542,319 | ||
| 9 | Nanjing | Jiangsu | 6,852,984 | 19 | Hefei | Anhui | 3,352,076 | ||
| 10 | Wuhan | Hubei | 6,434,373 | 20 | Changchun | Jilin | 3,341,700 | ||
Education[link]
Main article: Education in the People's Republic of China
In 1986, China set the long-term goal of providing compulsory nine-year basic education to every child. As of 2007, there were 396,567 primary schools, 94,116 secondary schools, and 2,236 higher education institutions in China.[301] In February 2006, the government advanced its basic education goal by pledging to provide completely free nine-year education, including textbooks and fees.[302] Free compulsory education in China consists of elementary school and middle school, which lasts for 9 years (ages 6–15); almost all children in urban areas continue with three years of high school.
As of 2007[update], 93.3% of the population over age 15 are literate.[279] In 2000, China's literacy rate among 15-to-24-year-olds was 98.9% (99.2% for males and 98.5% for females).[303] In March 2007, the Chinese government declared education a national "strategic priority"; the central budget for national scholarships was tripled between 2007 and 2009, and 223.5 billion yuan (US$28.65 billion) of extra state funding was allocated between 2007 and 2012 to improve compulsory education in rural areas.[304]
In 2009, Chinese students from Shanghai achieved the world's best results in mathematics, science and literacy, as tested by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance.[305]
The quality of Chinese colleges and universities varies considerably across the country. The consistently top-ranked universities in mainland China are:[306][307]
- Beijing: Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University
- Shanghai: Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, East China Normal University
- Harbin: Harbin Institute of Technology
- Tianjin: Nankai University, Tianjin University
- Xi'an: Xi'an Jiaotong University
- Nanjing: Nanjing University
- Hefei: University of Science and Technology of China
- Hangzhou: Zhejiang University
- Wuhan: Wuhan University
- Guangzhou: Sun Yat-sen University (aka Zhongshan University)
Health[link]
Main article: Public health in the People's Republic of China
The Ministry of Health, together with its counterparts in the provincial health bureaux, oversees the health needs of the Chinese population.[308] An emphasis on public health and preventive medicine has characterized health policy since the early 1950s. At that time, the Communist Party started the Patriotic Health Campaign, which was aimed at improving sanitation and hygiene, as well as treating and preventing several diseases. Diseases such as cholera, typhoid and scarlet fever, which were previously rife in China, were nearly eradicated by the campaign.
After Deng Xiaoping began instituting economic reforms in 1978, the health of the Chinese public improved rapidly due to better nutrition, although many of the free public health services provided in the countryside disappeared along with the People's Communes. Healthcare in China became mostly privatised, and experienced a significant rise in quality. The national life expectancy at birth rose from about 35 years in 1949 to 73.18 years in 2008,[309][310] and infant mortality decreased from 300 per thousand in the 1950s to around 23 per thousand in 2006.[39][311] Malnutrition as of 2002[update] stood at 12% of the population, according to United Nations FAO sources.[312] In 2009, the government began a large-scale healthcare provision initiative worth US$124 billion, which is expected to eventually cover 90% of China's population.[313]
Despite significant improvements in health and the construction of advanced medical facilities, China has several emerging public health problems, such as respiratory illnesses caused by widespread air pollution[314] and hundreds of millions of cigarette smokers,[315][316] a possible future HIV/AIDS epidemic, and an increase in obesity among urban youths.[317][318] China's large population and densely populated cities have led to serious disease outbreaks in recent years, such as the 2003 outbreak of SARS, although this has since been largely contained.[319]
Estimates of excess deaths in China from environmental pollution (apart from smoking) are placed at 760,000 people per annum from air and water pollution (including indoor air pollution).[320] In 2007, China overtook the United States as the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide.[321] Some 90% of China's cities suffer from some degree of water pollution,[322] and nearly 500 million people lacked access to safe drinking water in 2005.[323] Reports by the World Bank and the New York Times have claimed industrial pollution, particularly of the air, to be a significant health hazard in China.[324]
Religion[link]
Main article: Religion in China
In mainland China, the government allows a degree of religious freedom to members of state-approved religious organizations. An accurate number of religious adherents is hard to obtain because of a lack of official data, but there is a general consensus that religion has been enjoying a resurgence in China since the late 1980s.[325] A 1998 survey by Adherents.com found that 59% (over 700 million) of the population was irreligious.[326] A later survey, conducted in 2007, found that there were 300 million religious believers in China, constituting 23% of the population, as distinct from an official figure of 100 million.[325]
Despite the surveys' varying results, most agree that China's traditional religions—Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religions—are the dominant faiths. According to various sources, Buddhism in China accounts for between 660 million (~50% of the population) and over 1 billion (~80%),[327][328][329][330] while Taoists number as many as 400 million (~30%).[331][332] However, because of the fact that one person may subscribe to two or more of these traditional beliefs simultaneously, and the difficulty in clearly differentiating Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religions, there is likely a strong degree of overlap in the number of adherents of these religions. In addition, some who subscribe to Buddhism and Taoism follow their philosophies in principle but stop short of believing in any kind of deity or divinity.[333][334][335]
Most Chinese Buddhists are merely nominal adherents, because only a small proportion of the population (around 8% or 100 million)[337][338] may have taken the formal step of going for refuge.[339][340] Even then, it is still difficult to estimate accurately the number of Buddhists, because they do not have congregational memberships and often do not participate in public ceremonies.[341] Mahayana Buddhism (大乘, Dacheng) and its subsets Pure Land (Amidism), Tiantai and Chán (better known in English by its Japanese pronunciation Zen) are the most widely practiced denominations of Buddhism. Other forms, such as Theravada and Tibetan Buddhism, are practiced largely by ethnic minorities along the geographic fringes of the Chinese mainland.[342]
Christianity was first introduced to China during the Tang Dynasty, with the arrival of Nestorian Christianity in 635 AD. This was followed by Franciscan missionaries in the 13th century, Jesuits in the 16th century, and finally Protestants in the 19th century. Of China's minority religions, Christianity is one of the fastest-growing. The total number of Christians is difficult to determine, as many belong to unauthorized house churches, but estimates of their number have ranged from 40 million (3% of the total population)[325][343] to 54 million (4%)[344] to as many as 130 million (10%).[345] Official government statistics put the number of Christians at 25 million, but these count only members of officially sanctioned church bodies.[346] China is believed to now have the world's second-largest evangelical Christian population—behind only the United States—and is also experiencing a surge in mainstream Christian publishing.[347][348] In 2011, it was reported that more people attended Sunday church services in China than in all of Europe.[346]
Islam in China dates to a mission in 651, only 18 years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims initially came to China for trade, becoming prominent in the trading ports of the Song Dynasty.[349][350] Later, Muslims such as Zheng He, Lan Yu and Yeheidie'erding became influential in government circles, and Nanjing became an important center of Islamic study.[351] Accurate statistics on China's Muslim population are hard to find; most estimates give a figure of between 20 and 30 million Muslims (1.5% to 2% of the total population).[352][353][354][355][356]
China also plays host to numerous minority religions, including Hinduism, Dongbaism, Bön, and a number of more modern religions and sects (particularly Xiantianism). In July 1999, the Falun Gong spiritual practice was officially banned by the authorities,[357] and many international organizations have criticized the government's treatment of Falun Gong that has occurred since then.[358] There are no reliable estimates of the number of Falun Gong practitioners in China,[359] although informal estimates have given figures as high as 70 million.[360][361]
Culture[link]
Main articles: Culture of the People's Republic of China and Chinese culture
A traditional Beijing opera being performed.[362]
Beijing's Forbidden City, showing its classical Chinese architectural style.
Since ancient times, Chinese culture has been heavily influenced by Confucianism and conservative philosophies. For centuries, opportunities for social advancement could be provided by high performance in the prestigious Imperial examinations, which were instituted in 605 AD to help the Emperor select skilful bureaucrats. The literary emphasis of the exams affected the general perception of cultural refinement in China, such as the belief that calligraphy and literati painting were higher forms of art than dancing or drama.
A number of more authoritarian and rational strains of thought were also influential, with Legalism being a prominent example. There was often conflict between the philosophies – for instance, the individualistic Song Dynasty neo-Confucians believed that Legalism departed from the original spirit of Confucianism. Examinations and a culture of merit remain greatly valued in China today. In recent years, a number of New Confucians have claimed that modern democratic ideals and human rights are compatible with traditional Confucian values.[363]
The first leaders of the People's Republic of China were born into the traditional imperial order, but were influenced by the May Fourth Movement and reformist ideals. They sought to change some traditional aspects of Chinese culture, such as rural land tenure, sexism, and the Confucian system of education, while preserving others, such as the family structure and culture of obedience to the state.
Some observers see the period following the establishment of the PRC in 1949 as a continuation of traditional Chinese dynastic history, while others claim that the Communist Party's rule has damaged the foundations of Chinese culture, especially through political movements such as the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, where many aspects of traditional culture were destroyed, having been denounced as 'regressive and harmful' or 'vestiges of feudalism'. Many important aspects of traditional Chinese morals and culture, such as Confucianism, Chinese art, literature, and performing arts like Peking opera, were altered to conform to government policies and propaganda at the time.
Today, the Chinese government has accepted numerous elements of traditional Chinese culture as being integral to Chinese society. With the rise of Chinese nationalism and the end of the Cultural Revolution, various forms of traditional Chinese art, literature, music, film, fashion and architecture have seen a vigorous revival,[364][365] and folk and variety art in particular have sparked interest nationally and even worldwide.[366]
Prior to the beginning of maritime Sino-European trade in the 16th century, medieval China and the European West were linked by the Silk Road, which was a key route of cultural as well as economic exchange. Artifacts from the history of the Road, as well as from the natural history of the Gobi desert, are displayed in the Silk Route Museum in Jiuquan.[367]
Cuisine[link]
![[icon]](http://web.archive.org./web/20121212070851/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} |
This section requires expansion. |
Main article: Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is highly diverse, drawing on several millennia of culinary history. The dynastic emperors of ancient China were known to host banquets with over 100 dishes served at a time,[368] employing countless imperial kitchen staff and concubines to prepare the food. Such royal dishes gradually became a part of wider Chinese culture. China's staple food is rice, but the country is also well known for its meat dishes. Spices are endemic to Chinese cuisine.
Numerous foreign offshoots of Chinese food, such as Hong Kong cuisine and American Chinese food, have emerged in the various nations which play host to the Chinese diaspora.
Sports[link]
Main article: Sport in the People's Republic of China
China has one of the oldest sporting cultures in the world. There is evidence that a form of association football was played in China around 1000 AD.[369] Today, some of the most popular sports in the country include martial arts, basketball, football, table tennis, badminton, swimming and snooker. Board games such as go (weiqi), xiangqi, and more recently chess, are also played at a professional level.[370]
Physical fitness is widely emphasized in Chinese culture. Morning exercises are a common activity, with elderly citizens encouraged to practice qigong and t'ai chi ch'uan. Young people in China are also keen on basketball, especially in urban centers with limited space and grass areas. The American National Basketball Association has a huge following among Chinese youths, with Chinese players such as Yao Ming being held in high esteem.[371]
Many more traditional sports are also played in China. Dragon boat racing occurs during the annual nationwide Dragon Boat Festival, and has since gained popularity abroad. In Inner Mongolia, sports such as Mongolian-style wrestling and horse racing are popular. In Tibet, archery and equestrianism are a part of traditional festivals.[372]
China has participated at the Olympic Games since 1932, although it has only participated as the PRC since 1952. China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and received 51 gold medals – the highest number of gold medals of any participating nation that year.[373] China will host the 2013 East Asian Games in Tianjin and the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing.
See also[link]
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Geography portal |
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Hong Kong portal |
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- Outline of China
- Index of China-related articles
- International rankings of the People's Republic of China
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- ^ "China's New Plan: A Great Leap Into The Air". NPR. 2012-05-19. http://www.npr.org/2012/05/19/152945291/chinas-new-plan-a-great-leap-into-the-air.
- ^ "The final frontier". China Daily, 27 April 2012.
- ^ a b HDRstats.undp.org (2009). UNHD.
- ^ Michael Bristow Beijing (28 April 2011). "China census shows population ageing and urban". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13218733. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ "The New England Journal of Medicine, September 2005". Content.nejm.org. DOI:10.1056/NEJMhpr051833. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/353/11/1171. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ "China to keep one-child policy". CNN. 10 March 2008. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/10/china.onechild/index.html. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ a b USembassy-china.org.cn[dead link]
- ^ "The most surprising demographic crisis". The Economist. 5 May 2011. http://www.economist.com/node/18651512. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ a b "Chinese mainland gender ratios most balanced since 1950s: census data". Xinhua, 28 April 2011. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
- ^ "Chinese facing shortage of wives". BBC News. 12 January 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6254763.stm. Retrieved 23 March 2009.
- ^ Estimation of the Number of Missing Females in China: 1900–2000 page 20
- ^ M. G. Merli and A. E. Raftery. 1990. "Are births under-reported in rural China? Manipulation of statistical records in response to China's population policies", Demography 37 (February): 109–126.
- ^ Johansson, Sten; Nygren, Olga (1991). "The missing girls of China: a new demographic account". Population and Development Review 17 (1): 35–51. DOI:10.2307/1972351. JSTOR 1972351.
- ^ Merli, M. Giovanna; Raftery, Adrian E. (2000). "Are births underreported in rural China?". Demography 37 (1): 109 126.
- ^ a b "Chinese hiding three million babies a year". The Daily Telegraph, 30 May 2010. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
- ^ National Bureau of Statistics (in Chinese). Retrieved 20 October 2011.
- ^ a b c Communiqué of the National Bureau of Statistics of People's Republic of China on Major Figures of the 2010 Population Census (No. 1). Retrieved 4 October 2011.
- ^ "Major Figures on Residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and Foreigners Covered by 2010 Population Census". National Bureau of Statistics of China, 29 April 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
- ^ Languages. 2005. GOV.cn. URL accessed 3 May 2006.
- ^ Sridhar, Asha (14 December 2011). "Round and about: Urban planning gone haywire". The Hindu (Chennai, India). http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/article2714400.ece.
- ^ Zhou Qun, Lin Yanhua. Nov. 2005/14441.html China's urbanization encounters "urban disease"[dead link], Chinanews.cn (中国新闻网), 11 November 2005. Retrieved 21 April 2005.
- ^ Harney, Alexandra (3 February 2008). "Migrants are China's 'factories without smoke'". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/02/01/china.migrants/index.html. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
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- ^ Francesco Sisci, "China's floating population a headache for census", The Straits Times, 22 September 2000.
- ^ Factbox: Education in China (2008). China-Arab Education Information Network
- ^ China pledges free 9-year education in rural west (21 February 2006). China Economic Net.
- ^ "Where And Who Are The World's Illiterates: China". UNESCO. http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/file_download.php/b44872c5f2dfd9c825236194562a2b7fRoss_China.doc. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ Premier Wen announces hefty educational investment (2007). Retrieved 6 March 2007.
- ^ "China Beats Out Finland for Top Marks in Education". TIME.
- ^ 2005 Chinese University Ranking unveiled (21 February 2005). China Daily. Retrieved 16 April 2006.
- ^ All-around Ranking (2003). Retrieved 17 April 2006.
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- ^ McGregor, Richard (2 July 2007). "750,000 a year killed by Chinese pollution". Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/8f40e248-28c7-11dc-af78-000b5df10621.html. Retrieved 22 July 2007.
- ^ "Smoking 'will kill one third of young Chinese men'". 16 August 2001. Honolulu Community College. Retrieved 17 April 2006.
- ^ "China's Tobacco Industry Wields Huge Power" article by Didi Kirsten Tatlow in The New York Times 10 June 2010
- ^ "Serving the people?". 1999. Bruce Kennedy. CNN. Retrieved 17 April 2006.
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- ^ John Vidal and David Adam (19 June 2007). "China overtakes US as world's biggest CO2 emitter". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jun/19/china.usnews. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ "China says water pollution so severe that cities could lack safe supplies". China Daily. 7 June 2005. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-06/07/content_449451.htm. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ Kahn, Joseph (26 August 2007). "As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes". The New York Times (China). http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/world/asia/26china.html. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ "Air Pollution in Yixian". Air Pollution in Yixian. 1900-1-0. http://7ride.com/rides/cycling-china-2009/day-6-fangshan-to-yixian.aspx. Retrieved 25 May 2010.
- ^ a b c "Asia-Pacific | Survey finds 300 m (980 ft) China believers". BBC News. 7 February 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6337627.stm. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
- ^ "Nonreligious, continued...". Adherents.com. http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_473.html. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
- ^ "China Beliefs". Justchina.org. http://www.justchina.org/china/china-beliefs.asp. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ Buddhism in China. ForeignerCN.com, 22 April 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
- ^ "China culture exploring assistant". Chinabusinessinterpreter.com. http://www.chinabusinessinterpreter.com/Dasiy/16.aspx. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ "Buddhists in the world". Vipassanafoundation.com. http://www.vipassanafoundation.com/Buddhists.html. Retrieved 15 June 2009. [dead link]
- ^ "How Now Tao?". Asia Sentinel. 27 April 2007. http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=468&Itemid=34. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
- ^ "Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC)" (PDF). http://www.arcworld.org/downloads/SCMP%20Daoism%2030%20April%202007.pdf. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ "Religions and Beliefs in China". Travelchinaguide.com. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/religion/. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
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- ^ "Index-China Chinese Philosophies and religions". Index-china.com. http://www.index-china.com/index-english/people-religions-s.html. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ "Memories of Dr. Wu Lien-teh, plague fighter". Yu-lin Wu (1995). World Scientific. p.68. ISBN 981-02-2287-4
- ^ "Buddhism". Adherents.com. http://adherents.com/largecom/com_buddhist.html. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
- ^ "International Religious Freedom Report 2007 – China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau)". State.gov. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90133.htm. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ "Buddhism in China". AskAsia. http://www.askasia.org/teachers/essays/essay.php?no=16. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ "TheAmericanForum For Global Education". Globaled.org. http://www.globaled.org/curriculum/china/bessay1.htm. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ "US Department of States – International Religious Freedom Report 2006: China (includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau)". State.gov. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71338.htm. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ Macintosh, R. Scott. China's prosperity inspires rising spirituality (9 March 2006). Retrieved 15 April 2006.
- ^ Watts, Jonathan (7 February 2007). "Christian population in China". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2007690,00.html. Retrieved 27 August 2007.
- ^ "China Survey Reveals Fewer Christians than Some Evangelicals Want to Believe". Assistnews.net. 1 October 2007. http://www.assistnews.net/STORIES/2007/s07100011.htm. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
- ^ "Sons of heaven". The Economist. 2 October 2008. http://www.economist.com/node/12342509.
- ^ a b "Christians in China: Is the country in spiritual crisis?" BBC News, 12 September 2011. Retrieved 2012-04-18.
- ^ God and Caesar in China: policy implications of church-state tensions. Google Books. http://books.google.com/books?id=5jfVmF6MX7IC&pg=PA2&dq=China+now+has+the+world's+second-+largest+evangelical+Christian+population+%E2%80%94+behind+only+the+Unired+Stares+%E2%80%94+and+if+current+growth+rates+continue,+China+will+become+a+global+center+of+evangelical+Christianity+in+coming+decades&hl=en&ei=vfJrTfXYF8at8AP9sK3yBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=China%20now%20has%20the%20world's%20second-%20largest%20evangelical%20Christian%20population%20%E2%80%94%20behind%20only%20the%20Unired%20Stares%20%E2%80%94%20and%20if%20current%20growth%20rates%20continue%2C%20China%20will%20become%20a%20global%20center%20of%20evangelical%20Christianity%20in%20coming%20decades&f=false. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ "Discipling the Dragon: Christian Publishing Finds Success in China". Christianity Today, 20 January 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
- ^ "BBC Islam in China (650–present)". BBC News. 2 October 2002. http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/china_1.shtml. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ Islamic culture in China – amended 1958 text. Religion-Online.org. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
- ^ "Looking East: The challenges and opportunities of Chinese Islam". http://www.hsais.org/2essay0405_4.htm. [dead link]
- ^ Counting up the number of people of traditionally Muslim nationalities who were enumerated in the 1990 census gives a total of 17.6 million, 96% of whom belong to just three nationalities: Hui 8.6 million, Uyghurs 7.2 million, and Kazakhs 1.1 million. Other nationalities that are traditionally Muslim include Kyrghyz, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Tatars, Salar, Bonan, and Dongxiang. See Dru C. Gladney, "Islam in China: Accommodation or Separatism?", Paper presented at Symposium on Islam in Southeast Asia and China, Hong Kong, 2002. Available at islamsymposium.cityu.edu.hk. The 2000 census reported a total of 20.3 million members of Muslim nationalities, of which again 96% belonged to just three groups: Hui 9.8 million, Uyghurs 8.4 million, and Kazakhs 1.25 million.
- ^ "CIA – The World Factbook – China". Cia.gov. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
- ^ "China (includes Hong Kong, Macau, and Tibet)". State.gov. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71338.htm. Retrieved 15 June 2009.
- ^ "NW China region eyes global Muslim market". China Daily. 9 July 2008. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2008-07/09/content_6831389.htm. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ "Muslim Media Network". Muslim Media Network. 24 March 2008. http://muslimmedianetwork.com/mmn/?p=1922. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ Xinhua, China Bans Falun Gong, People's Daily, 22 July 1999
- ^ Mary-Anne Toy, Underground existence for Falun Gong faithful, The Age, 26 July 2008.
"The US State Department, US Congress, the United Nations and human rights groups such as Amnesty say persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China is a continuing abuse of human rights." - ^ Xu Jiatun, Cultural Revolution revisited in crackdown, Taipai Times, 8 September 1999.
- ^ Seth Faison, "In Beijing: A Roar of Silent Protestors," New York Times, 27 April 1999
- ^ "Falun Gong said to total tens of millions". United Press International, 24 April 2009. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
- ^ "Tour Guidebook: Beijing". China National Tourism Administration. http://en.cnta.gov.cn.
- ^ Bary, Theodore de. "Constructive Engagement with Asian Values".[dead link] Columbia University.
- ^ ""China: Traditional arts". Library of Congress – Country Studies". Lcweb2.loc.gov. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+cn0133). Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ "China: Cultural life: The arts". Britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-258942/China. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ ""China: Folk and Variety Arts". Library of Congress – Country Studies". Lcweb2.loc.gov. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+cn0138). Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ "Silk Route Museum". Silk Route Museum. http://www.silkroutemuseum.com. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
- ^ Kong, Foong, Ling. [2002]. The Food of Asia. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0-7946-0146-4
- ^ "Origins of the Great Game". Athleticscholarships.net. http://athleticscholarships.net/history-of-soccer.htm. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
- ^ "Chinese players dominate at Malaysia open chess championship". TheStar.com, 2 September 2011. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
- ^ Beech, Hannah (28 April 2003). "Yao Ming". Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/asia/2003/heroes/yao_ming.html. Retrieved 30 March 2007.
- ^ Qinfa, Ye. Sports History of China. About.com. Retrieved 21 April 2006.
- ^ "China targets more golds in 2012". BBC Sport, 27 August 2008. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
Further reading[link]
- Chang, Jung (1992). Wild Swans. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-42547-3.
- Meng, Fanhua (2011). Phenomenon of Chinese Culture at the Turn of the 21st century. Singapore: Silkroad Press. ISBN 978-981-4332-35-4.
- Farah, Paolo, Five Years of China’s WTO Membership. EU and US Perspectives on China’s Compliance with Transparency Commitments and the Transitional Review Mechanism, Legal Issues of Economic Integration, Kluwer Law International, Volume 33, Number 3, pp. 263–304, 2006. Abstract.
- Heilig, Gerhard K., China Bibliography – Online. 2006, 2007.
- Lynch, Michael (1998). People’s Republic of China 1949–90. Trafalgar Square Publishing. ISBN 0-340-68853-X.
- Murphey, Rhoads (1996). East Asia: A New History. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-321-07801-2.
- Sang Ye (2006). China Candid: The People on the People's Republic. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-24514-8.
- Selden, Mark (1979). The People's Republic of China: Documentary History of Revolutionary Change. New York: Monthly Review Press. ISBN 0-85345-532-5.
- Terrill, Ross (2003). The New Chinese Empire, And What It Means For The United States. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-08412-5.
- Thurston, Anne F. (1994). China Bound: A Guide to Academic Life and Work in the PRC. Washington: National Academies Press. ISBN 0-309-04932-6.
External links[link]
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- Overviews
- China at a Glance from People's Daily
- BBC News – Country Profile: China
- China entry at The World Factbook
- Modern China: A Primer—slideshow by Life magazine
- "Rethinking ‘Capitalist Restoration’ in China" by Yiching Wu
- Key Development Forecasts for China from International Futures
- Documentaries
- "China on the Rise" PBS Online NewsHour, October 2005
- China in the Red PBS Frontline, 1998–2001
- China From the Inside A documentary series co-produced by KQED Public Television and Granada Television
- Government
- The Central People's Government of People's Republic of China (English)
- China Internet Information Center (English)—Authorized government portal site to China
- Studies
- Assertive Pragmatism: China's Economic Rise and Its Impact on Chinese Foreign Policy Minxin Pei, IFRI Proliferation Papers n°15, 2006
- The Dragon's Dawn: China as a Rising Imperial Power, 11 February 2005
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- Travel
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- Google Maps—China
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- Wikimedia Atlas of the People's Republic of China
Geographic data related to China at OpenStreetMap
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This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China
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This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
Not to be confused with Sonalee Kulkarni.
| Sonali Kulkarni | |
|---|---|
 Sonali's portrait that appears on the cover of her book So Kool |
|
| Born | (1974-11-03) 3 November 1974 (age 37) Pune, Maharashtra, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Film actress |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Spouse | Chandrakant Kulkarni (divorced) Nachiket Pantvaidya (m.2010-present; 1 child) |
| Children | 1 daughter (b. 18 Oct 2011) |
| Website | |
| http://www.sonalikulkarni.org | |
Sonali Kulkarni (born 3 November 1974) is an Indian actress. She was born in Pune. She has worked in Marathi and Hindi films. She is known for her roles in Dil Chahta Hai, Singham, Taxi No 9211, and Gair.
Contents |
Career[link]
Sonali Kulkarni first made her appearance on the screen in a Kannada film titled Cheluvi directed by Girish Karnad. She thereafter has appeared in many films, which includes an Italian film titled Fuoco Di Su Me for which she won an award in the 2006 Milan International Film Festival.
She has received a Special Jury Award (non-feature) in the 49th National Film Awards (2002) for her role in a short film in Marathi Chaitra.[1]
Apart from acting, she was an editor with Viva, a supplement of Marathi daily newspaper Loksatta from June 2005 till May 2007. She used to pen a weekly column called "So Kool". The columns are published in the book So Kool by Rajahansa Prakashan.[2] Actor Nana Patekar on the release of this book said, "Whenever I read her articles, I feel she is talking to me. There is so much of simplicity in her writing."
Kulkarni showed her dancing skills in the second season of the popular celebrity-dance competition show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa on Sony TV.
She has also worked with Doordarshan channel and did some films like 'Gulabari' in 1994 in Hindi which telecast in 1995 and 'Kata Rute Kunala' in 1996 in Marathi for which she has also got RAPA Award-Best television performance of the year.
She was also seen in one story (Kya Yahi Pyaar Hai-Directed by Tanuja Chaturvedi) of Star Bestsellers TV Series telecast in 1999-2000 on Star Plus.
Personal life[link]
Sonali was born in a Maharashtrian Brahmin family at Pune, Maharashtra. Her father is an engineer and she has two brothers: Sandeep and Sandesh. She completed her schooling from Abhinava Vidyalaya and did her graduation from Ferguson College, where she majored in Political Science and got a scholarship in Marathi literature. For her interest in acting she attended a workshop by Satyadev Dubey after which she and Sandesh formed a theater group called Samanvay. Sandesh is now a film director.
Sonali's first brief marriage with Chandrakant Kulkarni, film director and writer, ended in a divorce. Since May 24, 2010 she is married to Nachiket Pantvaidya.[3][4] Pantvaidya is MD of Fox TV Studios and this is also his second marriage. Together they have one daughter born on October 18, 2011.[5]
Awards[link]
Won[link]
- 1996: RAPA Awards, "Best television performance of the year", "Kata Rute Kunala (Marathi)"
- 1996: Filmfare Awards(Marathi), "Best Actress", Doghi
- 2002: National Film Award - Special Jury Award / Special Mention (Non-Feature Film), Chaitra
- 2004: Star Screen Awards(Marathi), "Best Actress", Devrai
- 2005: Milan International Film Festival, "Best Actress", Fuoco Di Su Me (Fire At My Heart)[6]
Nominated[link]
- 2001: Filmfare Awards, Best Supporting Actress, Mission Kashmir
- 2001: Screen Weekly Awards Best Supporting Actress, Mission Kashmir
Filmography[link]
| Year | Title | Role | Language | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Deool | Vahini Saheb | Marathi | ||
| 2011 | Singham | Megha Kadam | Hindi | ||
| 2011 | Mumbai Cutting | Hindi | |||
| 2010 | Irada Pakka | Adya | Marathi | ||
| 2010 | Ringa Ringa | Marathi | |||
| 2010 | The Camp | Sonali Manthe | Hindi | ||
| 2009 | Well Done Abba | Malti | Hindi | ||
| 2009 | Love Khichdi | Shanta Bheemrao Bhansode | Hindi | ||
| 2009 | Shadow | Inspector Sanjana Singh Rajpoot | Hindi | ||
| 2009 | Mohandas | Meghna | Hindi | ||
| 2009 | Gandha | Raavi | Marathi | ||
| 2009 | Gabhricha Paus | Alka | Marathi | ||
| 2009 | Tya Ratri Paus Hota | Marathi | |||
| 2009 | Gulmohar | Marathi | |||
| 2008 | Rishton Ki Machine | Hindi | |||
| 2008 | Vasudev Balwant Phadke | Bhawani | Marathi | ||
| 2008 | Via Darjeeling | Rimli Sharma / Sangeeta | Hindi | ||
| 2008 | Sirf | Namita Ranade | Hindi | ||
| 2007 | Sakhi | Marathi | |||
| 2007 | Strangers | Nandini S. Rai | Hindi | ||
| 2006 | Restaurant | Marathi | |||
| 2006 | I See You | Kuljeet A. Kapoor | Hindi | ||
| 2006 | Darna Zaroori Hai | Mrs. Pilgaonkar | Hindi | ||
| 2006 | Taxi Number 9211 | Mrs. Sunita R. Shastri | Hindi | ||
| 2005 | Love is Blind | Gujarati | |||
| 2005 | White Rainbow | Priya | Hindi | ||
| 2005 | Fuoco Di Su Me | Graziella | Italian | ||
| 2004 | Bride & Prejudice | Chandra Lamba | English | ||
| 2004 | Devrai | Seena | Marathi | ||
| 2004 | Hanan | Devi Bhagwati / Pagli | Hindi | ||
| 2004 | Silence Please... The Dressing Room | Reporter Aparna Sen | Hindi | ||
| 2004 | 1:1.6 An Ode to Lost Love | Asha | English | ||
| 2003 | Danav | Lakshmi | Hindi | ||
| 2002 | Dil Vil Pyar Vyar | Gauri | Hindi | ||
| 2002 | Agni Varsha | Nittilai | Hindi | ||
| 2002 | Kitne Door Kitne Paas | Jaya Patel | Hindi | ||
| 2002 | Chaitra | Krati | Marathi | ||
| 2002 | Junoon | Hindi | |||
| 2001 | Dil Chahta Hai | Pooja | Hindi | ||
| 2001 | Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya | Geeta | Hindi | ||
| 2000 | Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar | Ramabai Ambedkar | Hindi | ||
| 2000 | Mission Kashmir | Neelima Khan | Hindi | ||
| 2000 | Kairee | Kamli's daughter (adult) | Marathi | ||
| 1999-2000 | Kya Yahi Pyaar Hai | Anju | Hindi | a story of Star Bestsellers TV Series-telecast on Star Plus in 1999-2000 | |
| 1999 | Jahan Tum Le Chalo | Namrata Shorey | Hindi | ||
| 1996 | Daayraa | The Girl | Hindi | ||
| 1996 | Badalte Rishte | Ulka | Hindi | TV Serial | |
| 1996 | Vrindavan Film Studios | Radha | English | ||
| 1996 | Kata Rute Kunala | Meera | Marathi | Telecast on Doordarshan and also got RAPA Award-Best television performance of the year | |
| 1995 | Doghi | Krishna | Marathi | ||
| 1994 | May Madham | Sandhya | Tamil | ||
| 1994 | Mukta | Mukta | Marathi | ||
| 1994 | Gulabari | Gulabari | Hindi | a Doordarshan production-telecast in 1995 | |
| 1992 | Cheluvi | Cheluvi | Kannada | a Doordarshan production |
Reality TV shows[link]
References[link]
- ^ "49TH NATIONAL FILM AWARD". Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. 26 July 2002. http://pib.nic.in/archieve/lreleng/lyr2002/rjul2002/26072002/r2607200224d.html. Retrieved 1 Dec 2011.
- ^ "So Kul - the book". Sonalikulkarni.org (Official website). http://www.sonalikulkarni.org/latest.htm. Retrieved 1 Dec 2011.
- ^ "Sonali Kulkarni Marries Second Time". Times of India. 25 May 2010. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-05-25/news-interviews/28300308_1_sonali-kulkarni-love-marriage-wedding/. Retrieved 1 Dec 2011.
- ^ "Sonali Kulkarni ties knot with Fox TV Studios MD-Nachiket Pantvaidya". Bollywoodhungama.com. 25 May 2010. http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/2010/05/25/14165/index.html. Retrieved 1 Dec 2011.
- ^ "Sonali Kulkarni gives birth to a Baby Girl". Bollywoodhungama.com. 22 Oct 2011. http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/2011/10/22/16532/index.html. Retrieved 1 Dec 2011.
- ^ "Sonali Kulkarni gets best actress award for "Fuoco Di Su Me"". Indiaglitz.com. 11 Apr 2006. http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/article/21722.html. Retrieved 1 Dec 2011.
External links[link]
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Kulkarni, Sonali |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 3 November 1974 |
| Place of birth | Pune, Maharashtra, India |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Sonali_Kulkarni
Related pages:
http://it.wn.com/Sonali Kulkarni
http://pl.wn.com/Sonali Kulkarni
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonali_Kulkarni
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
Vasudeo Balwant Phadke (Marathi: वासुदेव बळवंत फडके pronunciation (help·info)) (4 November 1845 – 17 February 1883) was an Indian revolutionary and is widely regarded as the father of the armed struggle for India's independence. Phadke was moved by the plight of the farmer community during British Raj. Phadke believed that ‘Swaraj’ was the only remedy for their ills. With the help of Kolis, Bhils and Dhangars communities in Maharastra, Vasudev formed a revolutionary group called as Ramoshi. The group started an armed struggle to overthrow the British Raj. The group launched raids on rich English businessmen to obtain funds for their liberation struggle. Phadke came into limelight when he got control of the city of Pune for a few days when he caught the British soldiers off guard during one of his surprise attacks.
Contents |
Early years[link]
Vasudev was born on 1845-11-04 in Shirdhon village of Panvel taluka based in Raigad district in Maharashtra state in a Marathi Chitpavan Brahmin family. As a child Vasudev preferred learning skills like wrestling, riding over high school education and dropped out of school. Eventually he moved to Pune and took the job as a clerk with military accounts department in Pune [1] for 15 years. Krantiveer Lahuji Vastad Salve a then prominent social figure based in Pune was the mentor of Vasudev. Lahuji Salve, an expert wrestler operated a gymnasium. Lahuji preached the importance of independence from British Raj. Lahuji belonged to the Mang community, an untouchable community, taught Vasudev the importance of getting backward castes into mainstream freedom movement.[2] It was during this period that Vasudev began attending lectures by Mahadeo Govind Ranade which mainly focused on how the British Raj policies hurt the Indian economy. Vasudev was deeply hurt by how this was leading to widespread suffering in the society. In 1870, he joined a public agitation in Pune that was aimed at addressing people's grievances. Vasudev founded an institution, the Aikya Vardhini Sabha, to educate the youth. While working as clerk, Vasudev was not able to see his dying mother due to the delay in approval of his leave. This incident enraged Vasudev and happened to be the turning point in his life [3]
Revolt with the help of the Ramoshi's[link]
In 1875, after the then Gaikwad ruler of Baroda was deposed by the British, Phadke launched protest speeches against the government. Severe famine coupled with the evident apathy of the British administration propelled him to tour the Deccan region, urging people to strive for a free republic. Unable to get support from the educated classes, he gathered a band of people from the Ramoshi caste. People from the Kolis, Bhils and Dhangars were also included later. He taught himself to shoot, ride and fence. He organised around 300 men into an insurgent group that aimed at liberating India from British rule. Vasudev intended to build an army of own but lacking funds they decided to break into government treasuries. The first raid was done in a village called Dhamari in Shirur taluka in Pune district. The income tax which was collected for British Raj was kept in the house of local business man Mr. Balchand Fojmal Sankla. They attacked the house and took the money for the benefit of famine stricken villagers. There they collected about four hundred rupees but this led to his being branded as a dacoit. To save himself Vasudev had to flee from village to village, sheltered by his sympathisers and well-wishers, mostly the lower class of the society. Impressed by his zeal and determination, the villagers of Nanagaum offered him protection and cover in the local forest. The general plot would be to cut off all the communications of British forces and then raid the treasury. The main purpose of these raids was to feed famine-affected farmer communities. Vasudev performed many such raids in areas near Shirur and Khed talukas in Pune.
Meanwhile, the leader of Ramoshi Daulatrav naik who is the main supporter of vasudev, headed towards western coastal area - konkan . On the date 10, 11 May 1879, they raided palaspe and chikhali. They looted near about 1.5 lakh rupees. While returning towards ghat matha Major Daniel planted attack on the Daulatrav naik. The war is held in between both forces.During this war Daulatrav naik shot dead. Daulatrav naik's death gave a big setback to vasudev's revolt against the British raj. Due to the death of Daulatrav naik, vasudev lost the support. That's why he decided to move to south, and headed for Shri Shaila Mallikarjun shrine. After overcoming the moral defeat, Vasudev again recruited about 500 Rohilas to form strong army to start a fresh fight against the British Raj. [ref - mahan bharatiy krantikarak pratham parv 1770-1900 - by jhambare.]
Capture and death[link]
Vasudev's plans to organize several simultaneously attacks against the British Raj nationwide were met with very limited success. He once had a direct engagement with the British army in the village of Ghanur, whereafter the government offered a bounty for his capture. Not to be outdone, Phadke in turned offered a bounty for the capture of the Governor of Bombay, announced a reward for the killing of each European, and issued other threats to the government. He then fled to Hyderabad State to recruit Rohilla and Arabs into his organisation. A British Major, Henry William Daniell and Abdul Haque, Police Commissioner to the Nizam of Hyderabad, pursued the fleeing Vasudev day and night. The British move to offer a bounty for his capture met with success: someone betrayed Phadke, and he was captured in a temple after a fierce fight at the district of Kaladgi [1] on 20 July 1879 while he was on his way to Pandharpur.[4] From here he was taken to Pune for trial. Vasudev and his comrades were housed in the district session court jail building, near Sangam bridge, which now happens to be the state C.I.D. building. His own diary provided evidence to have him sentenced for life. Vasudev was transported to jail at Aden, but escaped from the prison by taking the door off from its hinges on 13 February 1883. But his escape was too short lived: he was recaptured and put back in prison. Vasudev then went on a hunger strike to death. On 17 February 1883 Vasudev breathed his last breath as a result of his protest hunger strike.[5]
Differences[link]
Vasudev sought help from many prominent people of his time to help achieve his goals. One of these was Swami Samarth Maharaj in Akkalkot, Solapur district of Maharastra. Swamiji saw this revolution with a different perspective and said that the time was not right for an armed revolution and then asked another devotee to place Phadke's sword on a tree, indicating that Phadke shouldn't fight the war, but Phadke took the sword from the tree and left
Inspirational figure[link]
Vasudev became known as the father of the Indian armed rebellion in that he provided the inspiration for fellow freedom fighters. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's famous patriotic novel Anand Math incorporated various contemporary acts of patriotism performed by Vasudev during his freedom struggle. As the British government didn't like this, Bankim had to print up to 5 editions of the book to tone down these stories.[6]
Trivia[link]
Even though Vasudev played a very important role in India's struggle for freedom there is not much recognization for his contribution in present day. In 1984, the Indian Postal Service issued a 50 paise stamp in honour of the revolutionary. A chowk in South Mumbai near Metro Cinema is named in his honour.
The 3rd BC old, Thanale-Khadsamble caves where Vasudev took refuge to escape from British, are about 8 km from Nadsur village near Pali.[7]
A Marathi movie directed by Gajendra Ahire titled simply "Vasudev Balawant Phadke" was released in December 2007
References[link]
- ^ a b Report on the Administration of the Bombay Presidency. p. 36.
- ^ O'Hanlon, Rosalind (2002). Caste, Conflict and Ideology:: Mahatma Jotirao Phule and low caste protest in nineteenth-century western India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 110. ISBN 0-521-52308-7.
- ^ Khan, Mohammad. Tilak and Gokhale: A Comparative Study of Their Socio-politico-economic Programmes of Reconstruction–. p. 3.
- ^ Hunter, William. The Imperial Gazetteer of India. p. 391.
- ^ Rigopoulos, Antonio. Dattātreya: The Immortal Guru, Yogin, and Avatāra : a Study of the Tranformative and Inclusive Character of a Multi-faceted Hindo Deity. p. 167.
- ^ Das, Sisir (1991). A History of Indian Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. p. 213. ISBN 81-7201-006-0.
- ^ Gunaji, Milind (2003). Offbeat Tracks in Maharashtra. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan. p. 228. ISBN 81-7154-669-2.
- Deccan Riots
- Vasudeo Balwant Phadke – Indian Posts
- Historical perspective
- Vasudev Balwant Phadke
- Remembering a hero: Vasudev Balwant Phadke gets a memorial at Sangam
- History of Dhamari
- C.I.D. : About us
- Short biography of Akkalkot swami Samarth
- Delayed, but modern revolutionary gets memorial
- Biased PMC demolished Hindu Shrine
See also[link]
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||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Phadke, Vasudev Balwant |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 4 November 1845 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | 17 February 1883 |
| Place of death | |
http://wn.com/Vasudev_Balwant_Phadke
Related pages:
http://hi.wn.com/वासुदेव बलवंत फडके
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasudev_Balwant_Phadke
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
