Politics and Economy in India 1450-1914

         India had once been one of the dominating civilizations in the world.  The Gupta Empire, which lasted from 320 to 550 AD, was the golden age of Indian civilization and is often mentioned alongside China's Han Dynasty and Europe's Roman Empire.  After the fall of the Gupta Empire, India became a divided land comprised of many small kingdoms.  The individual kingdoms remained this way for many centuries, managing to fight off various Arab invaders.  These were not only political conflicts but also religious ones as well, as it pitted Hindus against Muslims.  Eventually the Muslim Mughal Empire gained control.  India, which had not existed as a unified state since the Gupta Empire, was about to spend the next half-millennium ruled by foreigners; following the decline of the Mughal Empire, India succumbed to British imperialism.
         In 1450, India was a divided land.  Many individual kingdoms existed that were ruled by different groups of people. Centuries earlier, Turkish armies had come into the region and destroyed many cities, weakening the region and making it easier for other people to conquer.  Arab sultans had joined the region into a small and weak empire, loosely ruled from the capital city of Delhi.  When Timur the Lame destroyed this city in 1398, India returned to its divided state.  The small Muslim population controlled most of the political power.  The rulers levied a tax against all non-Muslims (a policy that came directly from Islamic law), which affected almost the entire population.  In addition to several inland sections of the subcontinent under Muslim rule, there also existed several Muslim-controlled ports on the Indian Ocean coastline.
         The late fourteenth century and early fifteenth century marked the dawn of a new empire in India, one that would last for over two hundred years.  Babur, a descendent of Genghis Khan and Timur, inherited a small kingdom in 1494 as a young boy and by 1526 had enlarged it and secured the foundations of the Mughal Empire.  This sudden and drastic change in Indian political structure was caused by a combination of weak Indian kingdoms and Babur's strong leadership and military tactics (evidenced by his multiple victories against armies that were much more numerous).  The Golden Age of the Empire came under the rule of Babur's grandson, Akbar.  He abolished the non-Muslim tax, married Hindus, a Muslim and a Christian, and appointed a Spanish Jesuit to tutor his son.  This was all done in an effort to gain support and persuade non-Muslims against rebellion.  He also devised a tax that was calculated more fairly, and it brought in more money for the empire.  The Mughal Empire prospered for years and then slowly declined until 1857.  Its last major ruler, Aurangzeb, cancelled Akbar's cultural tolerance policies and outraged Hindus with his oppression and taxes.  While many things had changed during this time, Muslims ruling over a Hindu majority had existed on the Indian subcontinent for centuries and this continued to be the case.  In the 1600s, Europeans (notably the British) began to set up trading posts on the coast, but they were unable to penetrate further.
         Even though the Mughal Empire was still intact in the mid-1700s, the British East India Company became the dominant power in the region. Mughal emperors had allowed the company to trade beginning in 1617, as they did not believe it to be a threat.  However, as the Mughal weakened, the East India Company gained more power, eventually gaining the majority of political power in a battle in 1757.  The British saw India as having massive potential both for raw goods and also for market, where they could sell their goods that were manufactured in Britain. Therefore, India became known as the "crown jewel" of the British Empire.  They were able to monopolize many Indian industries such as textiles, and put many industries out of business by forcing people to buy British goods.  It was essentially a separate entity from the United Kingdom, even having possession of its own army. Britain did not take direct control over India until 1858.  Many Indian soldiers, feeling discontent over British imperialism, rebelled and captured Delhi, among other areas.  Following the mutiny, the British captured the last Mughal ruler (thus officially ending the Mughal Empire) and established the British Raj.  They wanted direct control over India so that they could prevent another similar event from happening again.  However, Indian nationalist movements continued to surface.  People not only wanted to have a more modern country, but they did not like being placed below the British in their own nation.  The struggle continued past the start of World War I in 1914.
         India began the twentieth century a much different land than it was in 1450.  A combination of strong leadership and an effort for religious and cultural toleration brought the area together and united Hindus and Muslims under the Mughal Empire.  Things then took a drastic turn in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as India fell under the control of the United Kingdom.  Profits from Indian industries now went straight to Britain.  In addition, imperialism created a resentful feeling in the Indian people, and nationalist movements developed.  These movements would carry on past World War I and would finally pay off in 1947 when India received its independence.