16/04/2024, 20:02 A short history of India in eight maps

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A short history of India in eight maps

Understanding the breathtaking diversity of India and Indians

Apr 12th 2024 Share

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16/04/2024, 20:02 A short history of India in eight maps

I n his decade in power Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, has

centralised the state to an unprecedented extent. Yet his ruling Bharatiya
Janata Party has failed to attract many voters in the more prosperous south.
The regional divergence is not unique to the bjp. Throughout India’s long
history, rulers have tried and failed to unite the subcontinent under central
authority. The chief reason is India’s diversity, summed up in clichés about
dozens of cuisines, hundreds of languages and thousands of gods. The clichés
may be trite, but they are also useful. A whirlwind tour through 2,500 years of
Indian history helps explain why.

Mauryan Empire 1

Circa 297 BC
Under Chandragupta

Circa 260 BC
Under Ashoka

1 000 k
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1,000 km
Source: “The Times atlas of world history”, R. Overy

India, Hindi (the language), Hindu (a follower of the religion) and Hindustan
(the country) all take their name from the Indus, the mighty river that flows
from the Himalayas into the Arabian Sea. Outsiders typically used these names
for the subcontinent and its people. A much older name is “Bharat”, used by the
subcontinent’s people itself. Scholars believe it was first used in reference to a
tribe called Bharata who populated northern India.
The history of pre-independence India is often divided into Hindu, Muslim
and British periods. The first ruler to establish a pan-Indian empire, building
on the work of his grandfather Chandragupta Maurya, was Ashoka (see map 1),
but at unfathomable human cost. Also known as Ashoka the Great, he
converted to Buddhism after reckoning with the brutality his territorial
expansion had engendered. He remains a revered figure even today for uniting
the country and for his largely benevolent rule after converting. His four-
headed-lion capital (column head) is the official emblem of the Republic of
India, and his “chakra”, or wheel, a Buddhist symbol, sits at the centre of the
Indian flag.

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The Mauryan Empire boosted economic activity across the subcontinent, but
even 24 centuries ago it was clear that a unified idea of India could not be
imposed on such a diverse population. Imperial edicts show that Ashoka’s
administrators took into account local differences.
The empire broke apart soon after he died, in 232bc. For well over a
millennium, India was ruled by a huge variety of kings, chieftains and
oligarchies. A new era started in 1192 when Muhammad Ghuri, a Muslim
chieftain based in Afghanistan, defeated Prithviraj Chauhan, a Hindu king,
near Delhi. Ghuri left behind a slave general, Qutbuddin Aibek, to govern the
territories. Upon Ghuri’s death, Aibek declared himself sovereign and
bl h d h lh S l Q b
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established the Delhi Sultanate. His majestic Qutb Minar, a soaring minaret,
still stands in Delhi and is one of the symbols of the city.

Circa 1335 Maximum extent of Tughlaq dynasty 2

Delhi

Daulatabad
Capital city
circa 1327-35

Source: “A historical atlas of south Asia”,

J. Schwartzberg, 1978

Muslim empires rose and fell over the next three centuries—too many to
include in a “short history”. But one merits mention. Muhammad bin Tughluq
of the Tughlaq dynasty, who ruled from 1325 to 1351, expanded his empire to
most of the subcontinent, the first ruler since Ashoka to manage the feat (see
map 2). To achieve this he established a new capital, Daulatabad, in what is
now the western state of Maharashtra, forcibly moving big chunks of his
population from Delhi, and burning the houses of those who were slow to
pack. Though Muhammad bin Tughluq succeeded in expanding his territory,
holding it was a different matter. He spent much of his rule trying to subdue
rebellions and rival kings.
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1525 Medieval India 3 1526-1858 Mughal Empire 4

Rajput Circa 1525

Multan confederacy Under Babur
Del
Arghun hi S
ulta
kingdom nat
e
of Sind w a
al Bengal
Gujarat M
Khandesh Gondwana
Ahmadnagar Circa 1605
Orissa Under Akbar
Berar
Bijapur Golconda Max extent
Bidar circa 1707
Vijayanagar Added under
Aurangzeb

Sources: “The Times atlas of world history”, R. Overy; “A historical atlas of south Asia”, J. Schwartzberg, 1978

By the early 16th century, the subcontinent was once more a patchwork of
kingdoms and mini-empires, both Hindu and Muslim (see map 3). In 1526
Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, a direct descendant of Tamerlane, an Uzbek
ruler, on his paternal side and an indirect one of Genghis Khan via his mother,
defeated Ibrahim Lodi in the Battle of Panipat near Delhi, marking an
important turning-point in Indian history. He lived for just four years after
taking Delhi—and in that time complained incessantly. He described India as
“a country of few charms” and took issue with the quality of its melons. But he
established one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen: the Mughal
empire (see map 4).

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Babur’s grandson, Akbar, took the empire to great heights and expanded it
across the north. He invited scholars and sages from many religions—
including Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Jainism—to his court. His son,
Jahangir, and grandson, Shah Jahan, were great patrons of the arts, the latter
ibl f h T j M h l
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16/04/2024, 20:02 A short history of India in eight maps
responsible for the Taj Mahal.
But Akbar’s great-grandson, Aurangzeb, was a puritanical Muslim with little
time for syncretism. He imposed discriminatory taxes on Hindus and
persecuted certain sects of Muslims. He too established a new provincial
capital in today’s Maharashtra and spent the majority of his reign in
expansionist mode. He became the third and last ruler of pre-independence
India to conquer chunks of the south. After his death the Mughals started a
long and ultimately terminal decline.

1857 East India Company* 5

British-controlled territory
Indian kingdoms

Lahore

Delhi

Calcutta

Bombay

Madras

Source: “The imperial gazetteer atlas of India”, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1907 *On mordern borders

In 1757 the East India Company, a British corporation with an army, defeated
the Nawab of Bengal and took over the province in India’s east. Over the next
100 years it expanded its control of the subcontinent (see map 5). In 1857, after
a bloody uprising by disgruntled troops in Company pay and even bloodier
i l b th t ll i t i B iti h
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reprisals by the eventually victorious British, control was transferred to the
Crown, making India an official part of an expanding empire ruled from
London.
Yet even this apparently single authority was substantially varied. The British
ruled both directly and via subservient local kings. The quality of rule—and the
degree of tyranny—varied enormously from place to place. Even in many
places under direct British control, the new rulers left existing administrative
structures in place, their main interest being the collection of revenue. Some
writers attribute present-day disparities in income and wealth across India’s
regions in part to the differing revenue-collection systems, which embedded
varying degrees of incentives for administrative competence.

1947 Independence 6

New national borders

Indian/princely states
British India
Other colonial areas

PAKISTAN
New Delhi

INDIA EAST BURMA

PAKISTAN

Source: “Mountbatten's report on the last Viceroyalty: 22 March-15 August 1947",

by Lord Mountbatten of Burma and Lionel Carter

The subcontinent achieved independence in 1947. Yet the realisation of a long-

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16/04/2024, 20:02
p A short history of947
India in eight maps
g
standing dream came bundled with the horrors and lasting trauma of partition
(see map 6). British India was divided into what is now the Republic of India
and what became West and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). When the British
departed, only 60% of what was left of India had been ruled directly by them.
The remainder was under the rule of 565 kingdoms commonly referred to as
“princely states”. Under the terms of partition, each princely state could accede
to India, Pakistan or seek independence.
India’s founders, chief among them Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first home
minister, worked night and day to cajole, persuade or threaten local kings into
joining India. The Muslim ruler of Junagadh acceded to Pakistan but was run
out of his kingdom after his mostly Hindu subjects rebelled. The Hindu king of
mostly-Muslim Kashmir dithered, calling Delhi in a panic when Pakistan-
backed militias invaded, leading to the first of four Indo-Pakistan wars. With
the adoption of a new constitution in 1950, India became a republic, free of the
last vestiges of British rule.

1956 Lingusitic reorganisation 7

Pakistan-administered
Kashmir, claimed by India Jammu & Area held by China,
Kashmir* claimed by India CHINA
AFGHANISTAN
Himachal
Pradesh† Sikkim Area claimed by China
PAKISTAN
Punjab (Indian
Delhi† protectorate)
New Delhi NEPAL
BHUTAN
Rajasthan Uttar
Lucknow Pradesh Assam
Bihar BANGLADESH Manipur†
Bhopal Madhya Tripura†
Pradesh Calcutta
INDIA MYANMAR
Bombay Orissa
Dadra and Nagar Haveli West
& Daman and Diu Bombay
Bengal
(Portugal) Hyderabad
Andhra
Goa Pradesh
THAILAND
(Portugal) Mysore Madras
Bangalore
Madras Pondicherry (France) Andaman &
Laccadive, Minicoy, Kerala Nicobar Is.†
& Amindivi Is.†
SRI
LANKA

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*Administered by India, claimed by Pakistan †Union territories

Source: Surveyor General of India

The new country was an administrative mess, a patchwork of states and

provinces big and small and tiny, none of it remotely rational. India thus
undertook the bold and risky project of reorganising state boundaries along
linguistic lines (see map 7), both to give diverse peoples a sense of autonomy
among their own kind and to tamp down the risk of secessionist movements.
In 1961 the Indian army annexed Goa and other Portuguese territories,
bringing present-day India close to its final shape as a single political entity
(India seized control of Sikkim in 1973 and it formally acceded to the Union in
1975).

2024 Present day India 8

Area ceded by Pakistan

Pakistan-administered to China, claimed by India
Kashmir, claimed by India
Jammu & Ladakh*† Area held by China, CHINA
AFGHANISTAN Kashmir*† Himachal claimed by India
Punjab Pradesh
Chandigarh† Uttarakhand Area claimed by China
PAKISTAN Haryana
Delhi‡ NEPAL Sikkim Arunachal Pradesh
BHUTAN
Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh Bihar Assam
Meghalaya Nagaland
BANGLADESH Manipur
Jharkhand Tripura
Gujarat Madhya Pradesh West Mizoram
Chhattisgarh Bengal
INDIA MYANMAR
Dadra and Nagar Haveli Maharashtra Odisha
& Daman and Diu†
Telangana

Goa Andhra THAILAND

Pradesh
Karnataka
Tamil Puducherry†
Nadu Andaman &
Lakshadweep† Nicobar Is.†
Kerala
SRI
LANKA

*Indian-administered, claimed by Pakistan †Union Territories ‡National Capital Territory

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India’s internal borders continued to evolve in the decades that followed. In

2000, for example, three new states were created to ease administration, and in
2019 the government dissolved the state of Jammu & Kashmir into two
separate “union territories”, which are administered by the centre (see map 8).
Its external boundaries are also contested. Most notably, India and Pakistan
both claim the entirety of Kashmir and routinely skirmish for territory. And
Chinese and Indian troops recently faced off in brutal hand-to-hand combat in
Ladakh in 2020, with India said to have lost slivers of territory.

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The meaning of “India” has evolved continuously for thousands of years. It will
continue to do so as long as its external boundaries remain unsettled. These
are difficult problems, but they are also signs of India’s greatest strength: its
diversity. The country’s wisest rulers have accommodated it, miraculously
holding a vast, poor and improbably democratic country together for nearly 80
years.
Further reading
“Baburnama: Journal of Emperor Babur”, Penguin Classics
“India in the Persianate Age: 1000-1765”, Richard M. Eaton
“The Origin Story of India’s States”, Venkataraghavan Subha Srininavasan
“Early India: From the Origins to ad 1300”, Romila Thapar
“Delhi Darshan: The History and Monuments of India’s Capital”, Giles
Tillotson
Editor’s note (April 16th): this piece has been updated to include mention of Bharat
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