ABSTRACT
The Indus Valley civilization, one of the world’s oldest, flourished during the third and second millennia B.C. and extended into northwestern India. Aryan tribes from the northwest infiltrated the Indian subcontinent about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. In the early sixteenth century, the Emperor Babur established the Mughal Dynasty, which ruled India for more than three centuries. European explorers began establishing footholds in India during the sixteenth century. By the nineteenth century, Great Britain had become the dominant political power on the subcontinent and India was seen as the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of the British Empire. Large-scale communal violence took place before and after the subcontinent partition into two separate states – India and Pakistan. India’s economic growth following the launch of economic reforms in 1991, a massive youthful population, and a strategic geographic location have contributed to India’s emergence as a regional and global power.
