History UsefulNotes / India

* Unity in Diversity - Hundreds of religions and languages, how do they coexist?
* Indian Accents
* Main/TypeCaste

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[[WMG: Transport And Communications]]
* Indian Railways - The Railway department of the government holds the Guinness Book distinction of being the world's largest commercial or utility employer.
* Indian Roads - Ah, the roadways of India. Or, alternately, your worst nightmare.

[[WMG: Law Enforcement, Military and Politics]]
* UsefulNotes/IndiansWithIglas - The Indian Military
** UsefulNotes/SainiksInTheSubcontinent - soldiers in ancient and medieval India
** UsefulNotes/TheThirdEyeOfBharat - India's nuclear arsenal
* UsefulNotes/IndianLaws - The Police, The Court System, And other organizations.
** UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw - India's colonial legal heritage. Everything but family/personal law falls under this tradition.
* UsefulNotes/TheIndoPakistanConflict - The general rivalry between India and Pakistan.
** UsefulNotes/TheKashmirQuestion - A major source of tension in the above rivalry.

[[WMG:Culture]]
** IndianMedia
** UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} - the Indian movie industry. From Bombay + Hollywood, because the industry is based mainly in Bombay, now called Mumbai.
** FilmiMusic
** IndiPop

[[index]]
[[WMG:The History Of India]]
* Indus Valley Civilization: Bronze Age civilization from the Indus river valley
* The Vedic Period
* The Mauryan Empire - Macedonian Invasion, The Battle Of Hydaspes, Unity under Mauryan Rule, decline into the Middle Kingdoms
* The Middle Kingdoms - Growth of Economy, The Mughal Expansion, Prithviraj Chauhan, Discovery by Vasco Da Gamma, Arrival of the British
* Formation of The Raj - Annexation by East India Company, Rule until 1857
** [[UsefulNotes/IndianRebellion The Sepoy Mutiny (India's First War For Independence)]]
* UsefulNotes/TheRaj - The Colonial Rule, Popularization of the [[SimSimSalabim "Savage" India]] through British Media, The JWB Massacre, The World Wars, Bhagath Singh, UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi
* UsefulNotes/TheLargestDemocracy - Independence in 1947, the partition into India and Pakistan, important events from 1948 - present

* The Vedic Age: Indo-Aryan tribes moved into the Indus valley, and then, all of northern India. They brought the Sanskrit language, which is comparable to Latin in Europe in terms of the influence it had on Asia. It also is a distant relative of most European languages such as English, French, Russian etc.

[[folder: UsefulNotes/TheRaj ]]

[[folder: UsefulNotes/TheRaj]]

[[folder: British Raj]]

* Indus Valley Civilization: One of the most ancient civilizations in the world.

(Note: A lot of the pages below are unfinished, so just go ahead and create/expand them if you think you can.)

[[folder: Pre-Independence]]

[[folder: Post-Independence India]]

On August 15, 1947, India became an independent nation, which despite its partitions, constituted the 7th largest nation in the world. The Herculean task of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_integration_of_India gargantuan task of uniting the 560+ princely states]] fell to Home Minister Vallabhai Patel, his Constitutional Advisor V.P. Menon, and (more controversially) the Britain-appointed Viceroy Louis Mountbatten. While the parts of the subcontinent under direct British rule immediately became part of the Union of India (as it was called before it became a republic in 1950), the Princely States themselves had the option of joining India, Pakistan, or remaining independent. Majority-Muslim states on the border with Pakistan tended to join Pakistan without controversy, while most others chose to join India. However, several princely states refused to follow the obvious patterns, the most notable of which are Kashmir, Junagadh, and Hyderabad, all instances where the ruling elite was a different religion from the majority of the population in the state. Kashmir, where the ruler was Hindu and the people Muslim, is quite possibly one of the biggest political cans of worms in the world today, besides the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict, [[UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar Korea]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}} Afghanistan]], and UsefulNotes/TheTroubles. The other two major instances involved a Muslim ruler over a majority-Hindu state: Junagadh's Muslim prince decided to join Pakistan despite not bordering it at all, leading India to essentially lay siege to the territory, and eventually the prince bailed out to Pakistan. Hyderabad's Muslim ruler decided he didn't much care to be part of either India ''or'' Pakistan, and Hyderabad had to be [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Polo forcefully integrated]].

A lot of the problems that nobody cared to fix before independence are still there now, most notably a high rate of illiteracy in the more rural areas, which both the government and private organizations are fighting to change (and have been improving gradually), ethno-religious tensions, the uneven spread of urbanization and since TheNineties, massive income inequality, UrbanSegregation and the rise of communal violence, and rampant political corruption. On the positive side, sixty years of quick, accelerated development later, India today is the world's largest democracy, maintaining the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Military second largest military in the world]], a nuclear superpower, and the only nation that has U.N permission to trade in nuclear fuel without having signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. For a country that has only had six decades of actual modern development, it says a lot about how fast the nation is moving forward, especially when Americans today are concerned that Indians are surpassing them in the IT sector. Poverty is still an issue, with 22% of the nation falling below the poverty line, and the nation containing a large portion of the world's poor. It is trying to deal with these problems, but it remains a slow and steady climb.
[[/folder]]

The historical period of colonial rule of the Indian subcontinent by the British Empire between 1858 and 1947."''

[[folder: Ancient India]]

The East India Company, originally chartered by UsefulNotes/ElizabethI had previously come into contact with the Mughal Emperors and initially conducted themselves in the interest of trade. The arrival of the Dutch, Portuguese and the French East India Companies as well as the great deal of instability caused by the above mentioned power vaccuum, led them to begin forming an army to protect their interests. These actions in turn got the side-eye of local Nawabs and rulers, who allied with the French or other regional heads to fight the English, often in proxy wars of European conflicts such as the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar and UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution. A good example is Tipu Sultan who, incredibly was an ally of [[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution Revolutionary France]]. However, from the victory of Robert Clive at the 1757 Battle of Plassey to the Mutiny, a century later, [[OutsideContextProblem the British East India Company established unquestioned hegemony over all remaining Indian kingdoms]], going from strength to strength with the only true challenge finally coming from [[PrivateMilitaryContractors the local sipahis]] they had brought into their ranks.

Under British Colonial Rule, first under the East India Company and [[UsefulNotes/TheRaj then directly under the Crown]], two hundred and fifty years of capital-F-Foreign rule began. Initially, the East India Company was allowed to govern [[OneNationUnderCopyright more or less by itself]], which resulted in such [[KickTheDog lovely]] policies such as abusive tax-collecting (with collectors often torturing people to pay up like a proto-mafia LoanShark), aggressive missionary activity, destruction of rural infrastructure, imperialism and annexation violating treaties that the Company formerly agreed to. The East India Company also farmed opium in India with which it tried [[TheAggressiveDrugDealer to open up China's market]].

The resulting flare up was the Indian Mutiny. This event achieved two things. It resulted in the elimination of the Mughals, the brutal and violent conquest of Delhi, and the end of any future local military threat (this was the last time Indian rulers took command in battle and the last time locals actually mounted military resistance against the Crown). It also resulted in the crown [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness abolishing the EITC]] and ruling directly and *far* more cautiously.

Britain created a modern, united, well-developed system of rule, with railways, telegraph and court systems - but the entire infrastructure was specifically designed to exploit the resources of the country, with only a minimal regard as to the consequences for the Indian people (although it also [[PragmaticVillainy a great deal of regard for avoiding doing things that unnecessarily antagonised the people]], e.g. rampant Christian proselytism; also, if doing something nice for the locals would also benefit the British or would cost them nothing, the authorities were often if not usually more than happy to do it). With that, right up until independence, there was also exactly zero interest (actually scratch that, minimal interest with zero ''support'' from the crown) in fixing social problems such as casteism, illiteracy, gender and income inequality, etc that civilizations were attempting to overcome around the world; any progress made on those fronts was either made in spite of the government or because something the government found expedient happened to lead to progress tangentially. Indeed, the British often encouraged these inequalities by establishing ethnic identities by special categories and quotas, which further spread religious divides. While the Raj became increasingly Indianized in terms of bureaucracy, true representative rule was never really put into place; the world's largest population was ruled without any direct way of voicing its wishes in government.

This is known as "The Drain" in Indian history, when India's wealth and resources were harnessed--recklessly--by the British for their own ends. Britain then proceeded to popularize this image of the 'Poor India' around the world, emphasizing that such a country of "savages" was unfit to rule itself. The British rule was also marked by periodic famines in India, which came about because of the laissez faire attitude to liberal capitalism. As UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt[[note]]Who despite his friendship with Churchill was a critic of British Imperialism and repeatedly stated that America would push for decolonization after the war[[/note]], noted, ''"Every year the Indian people have one thing to look forward to, like death and taxes. Sure as shooting, they have a famine. The season of the famine, they call it."''

->''"We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made."''
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein'''

A really long story made short - India, officially known as '''Republic of India''' ('''Hindi:''' ''भारतीय गणराज्य'', Bhartiya Gaṇrajya), is a South Asian country and the world's largest and most complex democracy. The country's modern English name is derived from its Arabic name ''"Al-Hind"'' (الهند), combined with the Latin suffix ''"-ia"'', which denotes a place name. It's particularly notable for being the birthplace of Indus, one of the five earliest civilizations in the world which together formed the foundation of human culture, along with Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Egypt and China.

[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/india-map_4618.gif]]

[[AC: Movie]]

[[AC: Comics]]
* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'': Tintin visits India halfway ''Recap/TintinCigarsOfThePharaoh'' and is still in the country at the start of ''Recap/TintinTheBlueLotus''. He visits the country again briefly in ''Recap/TintinTintinInTibet''.
* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': Asterix, Obelix and Cacofonix visit India in ''Recap/AsterixAndTheMagicCarpet''.
* ''ComicBook/SuskeEnWiske'': In 1960 author Willy Vandersteen travelled to South Asia. It inspired several stories, including the albums ''De Gouden Cirkel'', ''De Wilde Weldoener'' and ''De Junglebloem'', which are set (sometimes partially) in India.
* ''Namaste'' is a FrancoBelgianComics series about a little girl, Mina, and her parents who visit India for their vacations. They meet a local boy named Pintu who act as their guide.

[[AC: Film]]

[[AC: Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Apu Nahasapeemapetilon and his wife Manjula hail from India. In the episode ''Recap/TheSimpsonsS17E17KissKissBangBangalore'' the Simpsons family visit India.
* ''WesternAnimation/SitaSingsTheBlues'' is a 2008 animated film about Hindu mythology.

[[AC: Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/RippingYarns'': The episode "Roger of the Raj" is set in the time of UsefulNotes/TheRaj.
* ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' has the episode "Diwali," wherein Kelly invites the gang to a celebration of the Indian holiday.
* In ''Series/SEALTeam'' season 2, one story arc concerns a massive terrorist attack in the city of Mumbai where Bravo Team is deployed to secure a hotel and rescue an American Foreign Service Officer. The scenario is completely inspired by [[RippedFromTheHeadlines the 2008 Mumbai siege.]]
* ''Series/TwentyFourIndia'' is a remake of the American TV show with its story and cast reimagined in India. The lead actor is Creator/AnilKapoor, who guest-starred in the 8th season of the original series.

[[AC: Eastern Animation]]
* ''Animation/TheReturnOfHanuman'' is a 2007 spin-off movie centered around the Hindu god Hanuman.
* ''Animation/RoadsideRomeo'' is a 2008 Bollywood animated feature.

* UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} is the common name for the Indian film industry. BollywoodMovies are famous for their spectacular musical numbers and elaborately choreographed dancing.

* UsefulNotes/Bollywood is the common name for the Indian film industry.

* Of course, all BollywoodMovies take place in India and Pakistan.

* ''Film/{{Gandhi}}'' (1982), a {{Biopic}} about UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi which won the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardforBestPicture.

* ''Film/{{Gandhi}}'' (1982), a {{Biopic}} about UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi which won the Useful Notes/AcademyAwardforBestPicture.

* ''Film/{{Gandhi}}'' (1982), a {{Biopic}} about UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi which won the AcademyAward for BestPicture.

* ''Film/{{Gandhi}}'' (1982), a {{Biopic}} about UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi which won the Oscar for ''Best Picture'' that year.