Early History
Indian history stretches back to the stone age and is part of the oldest civilizations on Earth. Stone age shelters with paintings have been found and the first known villages date back as far as 5000-9000 years. The Indus River valley civilization contained an area known as the modern Indian state of Punjab.

Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C. and merged with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants to create classical Indian culture.

Ashoka
From around 500 BC onwards, many independent kingdoms came into being. In the north, the Maurya dynasty, which included the Buddhist king Ashoka, contributed greatly to India's cultural landscape. From 180 BC, a series of invasions from Central Asia followed (a recurring theme), with the successive establishment in the northern Indian subcontinent of various kingdoms, and finally the Kushan Empire. A number of museums around the world have a great deal of stone work from the Gupta period (ancient India's Golden Age).

King Ashoka was and still is a very influential figure. Earlier in his career he managed to consolidate power all across north India as well as southern Asia in general. He finally becoming a Buddhist in reaction to the horror of the warfare he was responsible for. From that point onward he spread Buddhism across India as well as principles of nonviolence, vegetarianism and tolerance. You will see the name Ashoka is used a great deal in modern India.

In the south, a number of dynasties made significant contributions to science and culture - mathematics, astronomy, engineering. Indians have a proud history in the field of math including the development of the concept of zero, negative numbers, algebra, calculus and the Pythagorean theorem.

Arab Invasions
Indian was invaded repeatedly by Arabs starting in the 8th century and much of the entire subcontinent was ruled by the Mughal dynasty. Nevertheless, several indigenous kingdoms remained or rose to power, especially in the relatively sheltered south. Some of the tensions generated in this time still live today.

Colonazation
During the late 15th century, several European countries, including the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and British, who were initially interested in trade with India, began to create colonies in the country. The English managed ended up dominating the other colonial powers and came to rule much of India by the mid 1800's. In 1847 the Indian's mounted an insurrection (First War of Indian Independence) against the British East India Company but failed.

Independence
In the early part of the 1900's, after a largely non-violent struggle for independence, the Indian independence movement, followed. It came to be eventually led by Mahatma Gandhi. On Aug 15, 1947 India gained full independence from British rule and later became a republic on Jan 26, 1950.

Modern India
With the great diversity Modern India has its share of sectarian violence and insurgencies in different parts of the country, but has convincingly managed to maintain its status as a secular, liberal democracy. There have been various and continuing conflict along its northern border but today (2005) tensions even in Kashmir are easing.

Economic reforms starting in 1991 have propelled India into one of the fastest growing economies with massive business interest from the West.

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