South India - Chola Government

The Chola system was headed by a king, who was the highest power in the state. Religion and culture played an important part in the Chola administration, with considerable energies of the state being used in building temples and patronizing priests. An interesting development was the cult of the god-king. Deceased Chola kings were often depicted on temples and were worshipped by the people. The king in the Chola form of government was assisted by an assembly of councillors and the rajguru (priest of the royal family). There does not appear to have been any regular ministerial councils.

The administrative set up of the Chola period was a well organized one. Although the kings word was law, before it could be implemented it would have to be written down. The entire kingdom was divided into a number of provinces known as mandalams . These were divided into districts or valanadus . The districts were then further divided into groups of villages known as kurram, naddu or kettam . A big village would sometimes be administered as a single unit, and such a unit would be known as a taniyur . The Chola villages retained the administrative machinery as it was during the Gupta period, and in fact one remarkable feature of the Chola period was the amount of autonomy given to the village government. While

South India - Rise of the Cholas

After the decline of the Gupta empire, the main kingdoms vying for control over southern India were the Pallavas, Pandayas and the Cholas. The Cholas after years of bitter struggle emerged as the dominant force and set up a southern empire. Their rivals however would continue to be a source of trouble and the years in power are characterized by one of almost eternal conflict.

The Chola dynasty began in 1907, with Parantaka I coming to power and establishing their presence. During his reign the Cholas made some substantial gains as well as sustained some crushing defeats. During the next thirty years following his death there was further erosion of the Chola power. However soon luck began favoring them, and whilst the other southern powers were locked in conflict the Cholas once again recovered and in fact extended their empire, making them the dominant force of south India This was achieved by the Chola king Rajaraja I. He would be succeeded by his son Rajendra, and their reign stabilized and extended the empire. The Chola dynasty would remain a powerful kingdom until 1200AD when the decline of their empire, would pave the way for Mughal expansion into south India.

British India - Advent of the Europeans

India's trade relations with European countries goes back all the way to the days of the Greeks. There was a thriving trade between the two countries along a number of routes. However there existed some monopolies. The Arabs controlled the goods on their way to Asia and the Italians controlled the goods en-route to Europe. Although there were so many middlemen in this trade, it still remained remarkably profitable.

The western European nations noticed this and were keen to get into the trade business. However, attempting to break the existing monopolies of the Arabs and the Italians proved to be very difficult. They began to search for another route to the spice islands of India and Indonesia. In 1492 Columbus set out to discover India but ended up discovering America instead. In 1498 Vasco da Gama of Portugal discovered a new route to India. He landed at Calicut and the goods he took back with him were sold for sixty times the cost of the trip. These

Religion In Ancient India

The predominant religion in ancient India was Hinduism. The roots of Hindu religion can be traced back to the Vedic period. Hinduism is believed to be the oldest of major religions and originated in northern India. Early Aryan, or Vedic, culture was the early Hinduism whose interaction with non-Aryan cultures resulted in what we call Classical Hinduism. It is interesting to note that much of ancient, classical and modern Indian culture has been greatly shaped by Hindu thought.

The Mahabharata and Ramayana, both sacred Hindu texts, served as India's main motivating base for a great deal of literary, artistic and musical creations in subsequent millennia. The Epic Period was a golden era in Indian philosophical thought because of the tolerance of different opinions and teachings. The most popular form of Indian medicine, Ayurveda, was developed by Vedic saints and Jyotish, Hindu astrology, is the most popular form of astrology in India today. Yoga, an internationally-famous system of meditation, is one of six systems of Hindu thought.

East India Company

East India Company was formed by British traders to trade with India. They set up godowns to store the goods they traded in. The protection of these godowns served as a good excuse to build forts and maintain armies at such centers.
[Image] During this time disorganized kingdoms were fighting amongst themselves. The British took the golden opportunity to benefit from these internal quarrels and helped one king against another. In this bargain the British gained more power and wealth. The British trained Indian soldiers and employed them in their army. This army was far better trained and disciplined than the armies with small Indian kings who were just struggling to survive. Gradually the British succeeded in capturing very large parts of India. They made treaties with kings who accepted the authority of the British. They were kings only in name. The British very cleverly managed to collect huge wealth from the people and the kings.
[Image] Likewise, even the weavers of fine cottons and silks were compelled to see their cloth only to British traders at prices decided by them. Anybody found selling his cloth to a trader other than the British was severely punished. Also, no duty was charged on British goods coming to India. On the other hand, Indian exports to Britain were subjected to high imported duty. The India cottage industry also suffered at the hands of the British traders. India had a large handloom industry. But the British by now had started a very big cotton textile mills in England. They needed a lot of cotton for these mills, so cotton was purchased here at a very low price and sent to England and in return huge quantities of cloth was sold in India. The result was that the big weaver class in India became unemployed. People had to buy costlier British cloth. Such were the ways of the British to amass wealth in India to be sent back to England. Thus the Indian farmers, weavers, traders, kings, Nawabs, craftsmen were all unhappy and this discontent led to the mightiest revolts in 1857 which was also joined by Sanyasis, Fakirs, disbanded soldiers and British soldiers too.
[Image] The British conquered India with the help of Indian soldiers, but did not treat them properly. They were denied higher positions in spite of their abilities. The Indians were also traded as slaves to other British colonies. The company was indifferent to education and so the old system of education suffered under the British rule. After this revolt the Company’s place was taken by the British government directly which too was very harsh with Indians. In 1857, power was transferred from the East India Company to the British Crown and India became a British colony. India fought a total of 111 wars and with Indian money and troops, British-India finally saw peace.
[Image] The British introduced modern technology with the intention to sell manufactured goods like textiles and machines for profit. In the process of trying to make a profit and exploiting India, the British did of course benefit India. They built railways throughout India in order to make everything readily accessible. They established Law Courts, civil services and transport systems. They also established factories, schools and universities to introduce western ideas and to incorporate the idea of democracy. Missionaries came to India and spread Christianity. This was all done in the name of Britain’s economy.

The Mughal Empire - Introduction

Dateline: 1526AD-1857AD

India had been without a major empire for almost a thousand years now, it had not been since the Gupta Dynasty that an all India empire had been created. The Mughal Dynasty was the last great empire of Indian history. Such was their greatness that not only did they leave a lasting impact on Indian history, the English word Mogul (derived from Mughal) means a powerful person. The Mughals were a remarkable dynasty, and at their peak they produced a successive set of capable rulers. It was also during their reign that some of the finest monuments of India were built, most notably one of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal.

The Mughal dynasty was founded by Babur, who was a ruler of a kingdom near Persia (modern day Iran). Babur a Turk, was related to the great Mongol conqueror, Chengiz Khan and the Turkish invader Timur. The increasing power of the Uzbeks of Central Asia, was a cause for Babur to want to leave his country. The Delhi Sultanate around this time existed merely in name, and the political scene was in total disarray. The Sultan in power was Ibrahim Lodi, but the nobles commanded a major portion of power. The entire system was very unstable, and finally it cracked. Daulat Khan, a powerful noble who was dissatisfied with Ibrahim Lodi actually requested Babur to come and invade India. Babur had long cherished a desire to

The Mughal Empire - Economy

By the time of the Mughals, cities had grown in importance. The expanding economy now needed urbanization and a fixed market in order to succeed. Earlier, there were usually weekly markets where people from surrounding regions would congregate at a particular place on a particular day. Once the economy started growing, many trade centres developed which soon grew into prosperous cities. Many Indian cities of that time, according to travelling foreigners, were better than those in Asia and Europe. Communication and transport facilities had also improved during the time of the Mughals and Sher Shah. There were several metalled highways reaching various places of the empire. River transport was also important, especially those which were navigable throughout the year. River transport was a cheap and fast way of transporting goods over long distances. Bridges were also constructed to speed up the movement of land transport. Such initiatives and conditions were important contributing factors to the development of the economy.

Agriculture continued to remain an important part of the economy, but the crops and techniques still remained largely unchanged. Irrigation was largely absent although some areas did have access to canals and water works. A variety of food and cash crops were grown. The textile industry was booming and hence there was tremendous demand for cotton and silk which were important cash crops. Tobacco, introduced sometime in 1604 also became an important cash crop. One negative aspect of the Mughal administration was that they did not make any major efforts in agricultural development. Hence the citizens