My Incredible India !
India will sideswipe you with its size, clamor and diversity -
but if you enjoy delving into convoluted cosmologies and thrive
on sensual overload, then it is one of the most intricate and rewarding
dramas unfolding on earth, and you'll quickly develop an abiding
passion for it.
Nothing in the country is ever quite predictable; the only thing
to expect is the unexpected, which comes in many forms and will
always want to sit next to you. India is a litmus test for many
travelers - some are only too happy to leave, while others stay
for a lifetime.
The country's glorious diversity means there's an astonishing array
of sacred sites, from immaculately kept Jain temples to weathered
Buddhist stupas; there's history around every corner, with countless
monuments, battle-scarred forts, abandoned cities and ancient ruins
all having tales to tell; and there are beaches to satiate the most
avid sun worshipper. On a personal level, however, India is going
to be exactly what you make of it.
History:
India's first major civilization flourished for a thousand years
from around 2500 BC along the Indus River valley. Its great cities
were Mohenjodaro and Harappa (in what is now Pakistan), which were
ruled by priests and held the rudiments of Hinduism. Aryan invaders
swept south from Central Asia between 1500 and 200 BC and controlled
northern India, pushing the original Dravidian inhabitants south.
The invaders brought their own gods and cattle-raising and meat-eating
traditions, but were absorbed to such a degree that by the 8th century
BC the priestly caste had reasserted its supremacy. This became
consolidated in the caste system, a hierarchy maintained by strict
rules that secured the position of the Brahmin priests. Buddhism
arose around 500 BC, condemning caste; it drove a radical swathe
through Hinduism in the 3rd century BC when it was embraced by the
Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, who controlled huge tracts of India.
A number of empires, including the Guptas, rose and fell in the
north after the collapse of the Mauryas. Hinduism underwent a revival
from 40 to 600 AD, and Buddhism began to decline. The north of India
broke into a number of separate Hindu kingdoms after the Huns' invasion;
it was not really unified again until the coming of the Muslims
in the 10th and 11th centuries. The far south, whose prosperity
was based on trading links with the Egyptians, Romans and southeast
Asia, was unaffected by the turmoil in the north, and Hinduism's
hold on the region was never threatened.
In 1192 the Muslim Ghurs arrived from Afghanistan. Within 20 years
the entire Ganges basin was under Muslim control, though Islam failed
to penetrate the south. Two great kingdoms developed in what is
now Karnataka: the mighty Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar, and the
fragmented Bahmani Muslim kingdom.
Mughal emperors marched into the Punjab from Afghanistan, defeated
the Sultan of Delhi in 1525, and ushered in another artistic golden
age. The Maratha Empire grew during the 17th century and gradually
took over more of the Mughals' domain. The Marathas consolidated
control of central India until they fell to the last great imperial
power, the British.
The British were not, however, the only European power in India:
the Portuguese had controlled Goa since 1510 and the French, Danes
and Dutch also had trading posts. By 1803, when the British overwhelmed
the Marathas, most of the country was under the control of the British
East India Company, which had established its trading post at Surat
in Gujarat in 1612.
The company treated India as a place to make money, and its culture,
beliefs and religions were left strictly alone. Britain expanded
iron and coal mining, developed tea, coffee and cotton plantations,
and began construction of India's vast rail network. They encouraged
absentee landlords because they eased the burden of administration
and tax collection, creating an impoverished landless peasantry
- a problem which is still chronic in Bihar and West Bengal. The
Uprising in northern India in 1857 led to the demise of the East
India Company, and administration of the country was handed over
to the British government.
Opposition to British rule began in earnest at the turn of the
20th century. The 'Congress' which had been established to give
India a degree of self-rule, now began to push for the real thing.
In 1915, Gandhi returned from South Africa, where he had practised
as a lawyer, and turned his abilities to independence, adopting
a policy of passive resistance, or satyagraha.
WWII dealt a deathblow to colonialism and Indian independence became
inevitable. Within India, however, the large Muslim minority realized
that an independent India would be Hindu-dominated. Communalism
grew, with the Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, speaking
for the overwhelming majority of Muslims, and the Congress Party,
led by Jawaharlal Nehru, representing the Hindu population. The
bid for a separate Muslim nation was the biggest stumbling block
to Britain granting independence.
Faced with a political stand-off and rising tension, Viceroy Mountbatten
reluctantly decided to divide the country and set a rapid timetable
for independence. Unfortunately, the two overwhelmingly Muslim regions
were on opposite sides of the country - meaning the new nation of
Pakistan would be divided by a hostile India. When the dividing
line was announced, the greatest exodus in human history took place
as Muslims moved to Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs relocated to India.
Over 10 million people changed sides and even the most conservative
estimates calculate that 250,000 people were killed. On 30 January
1948, Gandhi, deeply disheartened by Partition and the subsequent
bloodshed, was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic.
Following the trauma of Partition, India's first prime minister
Jawaharlal Nehru championed a secular constitution, socialist central
planning and a strict policy of nonalignment. India elected to join
the Commonwealth, but also increased ties with the USSR - partly
because of conflicts with China and partly because of US support
for arch-enemy Pakistan, which was particularly hostile to India
because of its claim on Muslim-dominated Kashmir. There were clashes
with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971.
India's next prime minister of stature was Nehru's daughter Indira
Gandhi, who was elected in 1966. She is still held in high esteem,
but is remembered by some for meddling with India's democratic foundations
by declaring a state of emergency in 1975. Mrs Gandhi was assassinated
by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984 as a reprisal for using the Indian
Army to flush out armed Sikh radicals from the Golden Temple in
Amritsar. The Gandhis' dynastic grip on Indian politics continued
when her son, Rajiv was swept into power.
Rajiv brought new and pragmatic policies to the country. Foreign
investment and the use of modern technology were encouraged, import
restrictions were eased and many new industries were set up. These
measures projected India into the 1990s and out of isolationism,
but did little to stimulate India's mammoth rural sector. Rajiv
was assassinated on an election tour by a supporter of Sri Lanka's
Tamil Tigers.
The dangers of communalism in India were clearly displayed in 1992,
when a Hindu mob stormed and destroyed a mosque built on the alleged
site of Rama's birth in Ayodhya. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) were keen to exploit such opportunities, and
led several disparate coalitions to power. Despite the dangers of
playing communalist politics, the BJP's traditionalist Hindu stance
attracted voters concerned about retaining traditional values during
the sudden onslaught of modern global influences.
In 1998 India tested its first nuclear weapons. Despite international
outrage, the nuclear tests were met with widespread jubilation and
support for the BJP. But by April 1999 PM Vajpayee had lost his
majority and was forced into a vote of confidence, which he lost
by one vote. Sonia Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi's widow, was expected to
lead the Congress Party to victory, but she was unable to secure
a coalition and India was forced to the polls for the third time
in as many years. The BJP was returned to government with a slimmer
lead.
Tensions with Pakistan flared periodically despite top-level attempts
at rapprochement, and natural disasters also took their toll. In
January 2001 an earthquake in Gujarat killed about 20,000 people
and left more than half a million homeless. In December of that
year, gunmen storming the national parliament killed 13 people,
while hundreds were killed in Gujarat a year after the earthquake
in conflicts between Hindus and Muslims.
The Kashmir situation threatened to escalate from border sabre-rattling
to all out war in 2002 with both India and Pakistan testing nuclear-capable
warheads in the region and taking the moral high ground over Kashmir.
The US and UK urged their citizens to leave India and Pakistan as
diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis stuttered in the background.
Fortunately, by late 2003 both countries had declared ceasefires
and resumed direct air links and the Indian government had historic
talks with Kashmir separatists.
In 2004, with fresh elections called, the BJP were expected to
win re-election. The Congress party was again led by Sonia Gandhi
and gained surprising support through an exhausting grassroots campaign.
So successful was she that the dominant BJP were ousted for the
first time in almost 10 years. Perhaps concerned for her wellbeing,
Sonia Gandhi declined the Prime Ministerial role, sending shockwaves
through her party. Instead she nominated India's first Sikh leader,
an anti-corruption stalwart and economic reformist, Manmohan Singh,
to lead the parliament.
Access by Air:
India's major international airports are Mumbai (Bombay), Delhi,
Kolkata (Calcutta) and Chennai (Madras); there are other international
airports at Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bangalore and Kochi. Flights from
Europe tend to arrive in India in the early hours of the morning,
which can be inconvenient if you don't have reserved accommodation
or don't like tramping around unfamiliar cities in the dark. Delhi
is the cheapest place to buy air tickets in India, followed by Kolkata
and Mumbai. International flights to neighbouring countries can
be very cheap, especially between Kolkata and Dhaka (Bangladesh),
Delhi and Karachi (Pakistan) and Tiruchirappalli and Colombo (Sri
Lanka). The departure tax on flights to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh
and Nepal is approximately US$ 5.00, but to other countries it's
US$ 10.00.
When to go:
India has such a wide range of climatic factors that it's impossible
to pin down the best time to visit weather-wise. Broadly speaking
October to March tend to be the most pleasant months over much of
the country. In the far south, the monsoonal weather pattern tends
to make January to September more pleasant, while Sikkim and the
areas of northeastern India tend to be more palatable between March
and August, and Kashmir and the mountainous regions of Himachal
Pradesh are at their most accessible between May and September.
The deserts of Rajasthan and the northwestern Indian Himalayan region
are at their best during the monsoon.

(Map Copyright - MOT, GOI)
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