India

H

Defense

All branches of the armed services of India are made up solely of volunteers. Service, however, is considered a national duty, and competition for entry into the armed forces remains high. Although defense is considered important in India, the percentage of the GDP spent on defense has declined. It was 2.6 percent in 2003. Salaries and pensions account for a major portion of defense spending. In 2004 the strength of the army was 1.1 million, the navy comprised 55,000 members, and the air force had 170,000 people. About 1 million people serve in India’s paramilitary forces, many in units that guard the borders and join with police in suppressing insurgencies. Women have long served in the medical areas of the armed services but have only recently been allowed in limited numbers to enroll as officers in other noncombatant sections of the armed services.

Military units of all branches are well equipped. India has received extensive military aid, especially from the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Many of its weapons systems, including some of the most advanced such as missiles, are manufactured in India. The country exploded its first nuclear device in 1974, leading to an arms race with neighboring Pakistan. Exactly 24 years later, India set off five more nuclear devices and declared itself a “nuclear weapons state.” Pakistan responded within weeks with its own nuclear tests.

I

International Organizations

India is a founding member of the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank). India is also a member of other organizations of the UN system, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Labor Organization (ILO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO), World Trade Organization (WTO), and Universal Postal Union. Since 1961 India has been a member of the Nonaligned Movement, a group of nations that did not align themselves with either the United States or the USSR during the Cold War. In keeping with its policy of nonalignment, India has not joined regional security arrangements. However, India has contributed troops and observers to international peacekeeping missions around the world. India is one of seven member nations of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which was founded in 1985 to provide a forum for regional economic and social issues.

VII

History

India’s history begins not with independence in 1947, but more than 4,500 years earlier, when the name India referred to the entire subcontinent, including present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh. The earliest of India’s known civilizations, the Indus Valley civilization (about 2500 to 1700 bc), was known for its highly specialized artifacts and stretched throughout northern India. Another early culture—the Vedic culture—dates from approximately 1500 bc and is considered one of the sources for India’s predominantly Hindu culture and for the foundation of several important philosophical traditions. India has been subject to influxes of peoples throughout its history, some coming under arms to loot and conquer, others moving in to trade and settle. India was able to absorb the impact of these intrusions because it was able to assimilate or tolerate foreign ideas and people. Outsiders who came to India during the course of its history include the Greeks under Alexander the Great, the Kushānas from Central Asia, the Mongols under Genghis Khan, Muslim traders and invaders from the Middle East and Central Asia, and finally the British and other Europeans. India also disseminated its civilization outward to Sri Lanka and much of Southeast Asia. Buddhism, which originated in India, spread even farther.

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Central to Indian history are the people of India who established complex political systems, whether local kingdoms or mighty empires, in which learning and religion flourished. Until the modern industrial era, India was a land famed for its economic as well as cultural wealth. Europeans visited the country to trade for the finest cotton textiles as well as spices. Eventually, the British colonized the region. Their exploitation of India’s economic wealth and the subsequent destruction of its indigenous industry provoked and then fueled a nationalist movement, eventually forcing the British to grant India (partitioned into India and Pakistan) its independence in 1947. Since that time India has developed into a vibrant democracy, making slow but steady progress in development.

A

Early Civilizations

A

1

Indus Valley Civilization

For almost 1,000 years, from around 2500 bc to around 1700 bc, a civilization flourished on the valley of the Indus River and its tributaries, extending as far to the northeast as Delhi and south to Gujarāt. The Indus Valley civilization, India’s oldest known civilization, is famed for its complex culture and specialized artifacts. Its cities were carefully planned, with elaborate water-supply systems, sewage facilities, and centralized granaries. The cities had common settlement patterns and were built with standard sizes and weights of bricks, evidence that suggests a coherent civilization existed throughout the region. The people of the Indus civilization used copper and bronze, and they spun and wove cotton and wool. They also produced statues and other objects of considerable beauty, including many seals decorated with images of animals and, in a few cases, what appear to be priests. The seals are also decorated with a script known as the Indus script, a pictographic writing system that has not been deciphered. The Indus civilization is thought to have undergone a swift decline after 1800 bc, although the cause of the decline is still unknown; theories point to extreme climatic changes or natural disasters.

A

2

Aryan Settlement and the Vedic Age

In about 1500 bc the Aryans, a nomadic people from Central Asia, settled in the upper reaches of the Indus, Yamuna, and Gangetic plains. They spoke a language from the Indo-European family and worshiped gods similar to those of later-era Greeks and northern Europeans. The Aryans are particularly important to Indian history because they originated the earliest forms of the sacred Vedas (orally transmitted texts of hymns of devotion to the gods, manuals of sacrifice for their worship, and philosophical speculation). By 800 bc the Aryans ruled in most of northern India, occasionally fighting among themselves or with the peoples of the land they were settling. There is no evidence of what happened to the people displaced by the Aryans. In fact they may not have been displaced at all but instead may have been incorporated in Aryan culture or left alone in the hills of northern India.

The Vedas, which are considered the core of Hinduism, provide much information about the Aryans. The major gods of the Vedic peoples remain in the pantheon of present-day Hindus; the core rituals surrounding birth, marriage, and death retain their Vedic form. The Vedas also contain the seeds of great epic literature and philosophical traditions in India. One example is the Mahabharata, an epic of the battle between two noble families that dates from 400 bc but probably draws on tales composed much earlier. Another example is the Upanishads, philosophical treatises that were composed between the 8th and the 5th centuries bc.

As the Aryans slowly settled into agriculture and moved southeast through the Gangetic Plain, they relinquished their seminomadic style of living and changed their social and political structures. Instead of a warrior leading a tribe, with a tribal assembly as a check on his power, an Aryan chieftain ruled over territory, with its society divided into hereditary groups. This structure became the beginning of the caste system, which has survived in India until the present day. The four castes that emerged from this era were the Brahmans (priests), the Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), the Vaisyas (merchants, farmers, and traders), and the Sudras (artisans, laborers, and servants).

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