ABSTRACT
Indian cultural influence extended to the countries of Central Asia, where a number of Indians had settled as early as in the third century BCE. The interplay of ideas that has gone to provide India’s civilisational attainments, dynamism and endurance, and given Indians a distinct personality. The Indian civilisation has undergone both external and multidimensional internal upheavals. The Vedas and the Upanishads gave the Indian subcontinent a set of beliefs and social practices that marked it as a distinct civilisation. In a predominantly Hindu society, Islam became the religion of a substantial section of the ruling elite for nearly 600 years. It brought to its believers a single God, a specific code of worship and a way of living. Christianity came to India well before it went to several European countries. The renewal of India that commenced during the freedom struggle constitutes one of the most fascinating periods of Indian history.
