History of South Asia

Chapters 20 and 21

Ancient India (pg 591)• Indus River Valley Civilization was the 1st

civilization that we know of in this region. (2500 BC- 1700 BC around the Indus River (Pakistan)

• Agrarian, taking advantage of fertile riverbanks. Many small cities developed: Two were Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. Had well built homes, public buildings, and canals brought water to needed areas.

• Mystery of why it died out (1 theory was climate change/drought, another by invasion)

Aryans (pg 592)• 1700 BC Aryans came from Russia through

Hindu Kush (Khyber Pass). They intermarried the IRV people, creating a unique culture.

• Aryans spoke Sanskrit and were more nomadic than the IRV people. They brought with them new technology, animals, and ideas.

• Aryans discovered iron ore in Ganges River plains, thus developed tools to farm…Started settling down! And developed iron weapons. Kept them the dominate culture

• Mixture of IRV people and Aryan beliefs = Hindu. The Vedas are the holy books of Hindu

Hinduism• Hinduism has grown to

become the world's third largest religion, after Islam and Christianity. It is the dominant religion in India, Nepal, and among the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

• Hinduism is generally regarded as the world's oldest organized religion with roots to the Indus Valley Civilization (4000-2200 BC)

Ancient Path

Origins of HinduismOrigins of Hinduism

Although Hinduism is considered a Although Hinduism is considered a polytheisticpolytheistic religion religion by most, strictly speaking, Hinduism is a by most, strictly speaking, Hinduism is a henotheistichenotheistic religion. A henotheistic religion recognizes a single religion. A henotheistic religion recognizes a single deity (god), but recognizes other gods and goddesses deity (god), but recognizes other gods and goddesses as facets or forms of the supreme god. as facets or forms of the supreme god. (The god is (The god is reincarnated into other gods) reincarnated into other gods)

Hindus believe in Hindus believe in reincarnationreincarnation. This is . This is the transfer of one's soul after death into the transfer of one's soul after death into another body. This produces a continuing cycle another body. This produces a continuing cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth through their of birth, life, death, and rebirth through their many lifetimes.many lifetimes.

NirvanaNirvana is Hindu “heaven” where you live in eternal is Hindu “heaven” where you live in eternal peace and don’t have to be reincarnated. You get peace and don’t have to be reincarnated. You get there by living a perfect life on Earth.there by living a perfect life on Earth.

Hindu Beliefs• Karma is the sum of ones good and bad deeds. Karma

determines how you will live your next life. Through pure acts, thoughts and devotion, one can be reborn at a higher level. Eventually, one can achieve “enlightenment.”

Bad deeds can cause a person tobe reborn as a lower level, or even as an animal. The unequal distribution of wealth, power, and suffering are seen as the result of one's previous acts, both in this life and in previous lives. People are born into a Caste (social class) and it determines job,

marriage, and friends. Belief that people are NOT equal.

VideoVideo intro

The Caste System

Video

The Caste

System

• Brahmins (the priests and academics)

• Kshatriyas (rulers, military) • Vaishyas (farmers, landlords,

and merchants) • Sudras (peasants, servants, and

workers in non-polluting jobs). • The outcasts who did not

belong to one of the castes. They worked in what are considered polluting jobs. They were untouchable by the four castes, and so they were simply called the Untouchables. Now this former caste is called Dalit.

The Ganges River and Hinduism

• The Ganges River is considered sacred.

• It is believed that dipping in the Ganges will wash away one’s sins, and throwing one’s ashes in the Ganges after death may improve one’s next life.

• Devout Hindus make pilgrimages to bathe in the Ganges and to meditate on its banks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFNKdMSl2A0&feature=fvw Video LinkVideo Link

Maurya Dynasty• Maurya empire (1st empire 324-185 BC) • Emperor Ashoka unified the gov’t. Built a

palace of stone and religious Hindu monuments. (video)

• Ashoka expanded his empire across the sub- continent. He was horrified at the death he saw. He then vowed it would be his last war- converted to Buddhism and promoted peace.

• Principals for a just government and how to live a morale life were carved in stone across empire. He urged people to learn about other religions to learn tolerance for others. He encouraged loyalty, self control, kindness, etc.

Gupta Dynasty 320-500 AD (pg 595)• Most Gupta rulers were Hindu, but both

Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced.

• Created sculptures and paintings of Hindu gods and goddesses that you see today and built Buddhist temples.

• Sanskrit became dominate language

• Developed concept of 0 and the numbers we use today (Europeans called it Arabic). 1,2,3, were first written by the Gupta dynasty.

India as Crossroads• India became the halfway point of trade

between Europeans, Middle East traders, Chinese, and SE Asians. Traded spices, silks, etc. Hindu and Buddhism spread out of India, Islam spread into India via Muslim traders. CULTURAL DIFFUSION!

• Also, people fleeing Mongol invasions in China crossed Himalayans and settled in India. CULTURAL DIFFUSION!! (Mongols never invaded due to Himalayas.)

Mughal Empire• The Mughal Empire ruled

most of India and Pakistan in the 1500s-1600’s

• The Mughals brought many changes to India, two of which were centralizing government to bring many smaller kingdoms together, and a style of architecture that was very intricate and extravagant (Taj Mahal).

The Taj Mahal marks the peak of the Mughal Empire, it symbolizes stability, power and confidence.

Video

Where did the Mughals come from?

• The Mughal Empire grew • out of descendants of the • Mongol Empire who were • living in Turkistan in the 15th

• century. They had become Muslims and adopted the culture of the Middle East, while keeping elements of their Far Eastern roots.

• Babur the first Mughal Emperor, was a descendent of Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan.

Babur, the first Mughal Emperor• Babur moved into Afghanistan in

1526, and then moved on to India, apparently at the invitation of some Indian princes who wanted to get rid of their ruler. (He was an assassin!) Babur disposed of the ruler, and decided to take over himself.

• The Empire he founded was a sophisticated civilization based on religious toleration. It was a mixture of Persian, Mongol and Indian culture.

Page 610Page 610

Abu Akbar, the third emperor• The third Emperor, Abu Akbar, is

regarded as one of the great rulers of all time, regardless of country.

• Akbar worked hard to win over the hearts and minds of the Hindu leaders. While this may well have been for political reasons - he married a Hindu princess (and is said to have married several thousand wives for political purposes).

Muslim and Hindu relationships• Akbar's Muslim government included many

Hindus in positions of responsibility - the governed were allowed to take a major part in the governing. People were happy!

• Akbar also ended a tax that had been imposed on non-Muslims. This discriminatory tax was resented by all, and ending it was a popular move.

• Akbar took the policy of religious toleration even further by breaking away from traditional Islam, creating a new religion, Sikhism. (Combo of both Islam and Hindu)

• Akbar's son, Emperor Jahangir, readopted Islam as the official religion and continued the policy of religious toleration.

• Jahangir also began building the magnificent monuments and gardens by which the Mughals are remembered today, importing hundreds of Persian architects to build palaces and create magnificent gardens. Reason many Hindu buildings look very Muslim.

• Jahangir’s successor, Jahan, had the Taj Mahal built. The Taj Mahal symbolizes stability, power and confidence. The building is a mausoleum (tomb) built by Jahan for his wife who had died in child birth.

• Jahan’s son Aurangzeb was to be the last great Mughal Emperor.

• He came to the throne after putting his father in prison and having his older brother killed.

• Aurangzeb was a very observant and religious Muslim who ended the policy of religious tolerance followed by earlier emperors.

• He no longer allowed the Hindu community to live under their own laws and customs, but imposed Sharia law (Islamic law) over the whole empire.

Women were Women were now required now required to practice to practice Purdah, the Purdah, the covering of covering of their heads their heads and faces.and faces.

• Thousands of Hindu temples and shrines were torn down and a punishing tax on Hindu citizens was re-started.

• In the last decades of the 1600’s Aurangzeb invaded the Hindu kingdoms in central and southern India, conquering much of the territory and taking many Hindu as slaves. Oppressed Hindu!

The British are coming, the British are coming!

Minority ruling the majority!

End of the Mughals• The Hindu fought back against the Mughals

(Muslims), supported by the French and British, who used helping the Hindu as an excuse to take over land. (Beginnings of Colonialism. Sound familiar?)

• In the decades that followed, Europeans and European-backed Hindu princes conquered most of the Mughal territory.

• Aurangzeb’s extremism caused Mughal creativity to dry up and the Empire went into decline. The Mughal Emperors that followed Aurangzeb became British or French puppets. The last Mughal Emperor was deposed by the British in 1858.

• The power of the British spread across India and by the 1850’s, almost the entire country was under its total control.

British in India

• The East India Company continued its business affairs and India came to be known as “The Jewel in the Crown”. Sri Lanka and the Maldives also became colonies. Nepal and Bhutan remained independent because of Himalayan/ isolation.

• The British army, missionaries, and merchants brought technology, railroads, telegraphs, steamships, new ways of farming. Established British laws, and English as official language.

• Some Indians continued to live as they had, some hated British customs and laws, some adopted British lifestyle.

The Sepoy Rebellion• There was a rumor that gun cartridges issued in the

army were greased with beef and pork fat: offensive to both Muslims and Hindu. Sparked revolt!

• Indian soldiers took over a British fort and killed 200 women and children. However, the Sepoy Rebellion “strengthened the British hold on India.”

• In 1858, India (and the East India

Company) officially handed power

over to the British crown giving

Queen Victoria a new state and title,

the Queen-Empress.

Battle for Independence• In the decades following the Sepoy Rebellion and the

transfer of power to Queen Victoria, nationalism began to grow very rapidly, and there was a boycott of British goods. (British Salt boycott) Gandhi used nonviolence to fight British. He wanted all Indians to be treated equally.

• World War I did not help the British in gaining back Indian support, and in 1919 Mohandas Gandhi gained control of the Congress.

•"Nonviolence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man." – Gandhi

Gandhi • Mohandas K. Gandhi was born in 1869.In Southern Africa he worked endlessly to improve the rights of the immigrant Indians. It was there that he developed his philosophy of peaceful protest against injustice and was frequently jailed as a result of the protests that he led.

•When fellow Muslim and Hindu countrymen committed acts of violence, whether against the British who ruled India, or against each other, he fasted until the fighting stopped. Independence in 1947 was not a military victory but a triumph of human will. To Gandhi's disappointment, however, the country was split into Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan.

•The last two months of his life were spent trying to end the horrible violence between Muslims and Hindu which followed, leading him to fast to the brink of death which finally ended the riots. In January 1948, at the age of 79, he was killed by a Hindu assassin as he walked through a crowded garden in New Delhi to take evening prayers.

What other leaders have we talked about who remind you of Gandhi?

MLK, Jr MLK, Jr USUS

Nelson Nelson Mandela Mandela South AfricaSouth Africa

Jawaharlal Nehru was elected president of the Congress. Nehru was very supportive of the freedom cause, but was Western in his ideas about technology and industry, and was liked by the British. In August of 1947, after a long struggle for freedom and what some say was a WWII fighting/ally agreement between India and the British, India gained its independence and Nehru became its first prime minister. India is now the world’s largest democracy. It’s a constitutional Democracy.

India is currently India is currently the 2the 2ndnd most most populated populated

country in the country in the world, but will world, but will

soon pass soon pass China!China!

Where did Pakistan come from?• The end of 200 years of British rule in India came

after World War II. Britain promised to grant India independence if it would fight with the British. At the end of WWII Indian leaders held Britain to its promise.

• A Muslim politician at the time, Muhammad Jinnah, convinced the British to divided India into 2 countries and create an area of India for the Muslims who made up about 20 percent of the population. (The Muslims and Hindu didn’t get along, they couldn’t live among one another without violence.)

• On August 14, 1947, Jinnah flew to Karachi, the new capital; the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was born.

• The violence that followed, however, was more than anyone had bargained for.

The partition was planned The partition was planned by the British without much by the British without much thought (does this sound thought (does this sound like the Berlin Conference like the Berlin Conference and Africa???) and Africa???) The migrations that The migrations that followed pitted Muslims followed pitted Muslims against Hindus and Sikhs against Hindus and Sikhs on the other side. on the other side. The mutual hatred and The mutual hatred and distrust between the two distrust between the two rivals has led to three wars rivals has led to three wars and a race for nuclear and a race for nuclear weapons to obliterate the weapons to obliterate the other side. other side. They’re still They’re still fighting each other fighting each other today!today!

The partitioning of India The partitioning of India Page 631Page 631 The territory where 145 million Pakistani The territory where 145 million Pakistani

Muslims now live belonged to India and since Muslims now live belonged to India and since the Muslims and Hindu didn’t get along, the Muslims and Hindu didn’t get along, Muslims had to move out of India while Hindu Muslims had to move out of India while Hindu had to move out of Pakistanhad to move out of Pakistan

The partition that created Pakistan uprooted 10 The partition that created Pakistan uprooted 10 million Sikhs (a religion that mixes Islam and million Sikhs (a religion that mixes Islam and Hindu practices) and Hindus, whose ancestors Hindu practices) and Hindus, whose ancestors had lived there for generations or even had lived there for generations or even centuries, and sent them running to India for centuries, and sent them running to India for their lives. their lives.

Likewise, millions of Muslims fled India into Likewise, millions of Muslims fled India into Pakistan, because they were no longer Pakistan, because they were no longer welcomed in the land of their birth. welcomed in the land of their birth.

Mass migrations• Approximately 10 million Sikhs and Hindus, not

wanting to end up in Muslim Pakistan, moved south while 7 million Muslims, fearing a violent backlash in India, moved north across the newly formed border.

• This exodus created hardship, loss of property and life, and terror. People were forced to leave their businesses, jobs, schools, possessions, homes, fields, farm animals, and the only life they'd ever known.

• As many as one million people died in the violence. Today storiesof robbery, butchery, and murder still exist on both sides of the border,told in vivid detail by the older generation, continuing to fan the flames of ethnic and

religious hatred more than five decades later.

Two Pakistans?• Dividing India proved to be a monumental task due to complications involving location, humanitarian

needs, religious preferences, politics, and language barriers.• Two Pakistans, not one: West Pakistan (modern-day Pakistan) and East Pakistan (modern-day

Bangladesh).• The creation of the two Pakistans (East and West) was doomed to failure from the start. The two halves, separated by 1,000 miles of India, had very little in common. It was HARD to rule being separated!

The end of two Pakistans and the The end of two Pakistans and the birth of Bangladeshbirth of Bangladesh

• When it looked as if East Pakistani representatives would win a vote for independence in the National Assembly in 1971, the elections were cancelled.

• East Pakistan announced a name change to Bangladesh and declared its independence.

• War erupted, and Bangladesh asked for India's help. On December 3, 1971, India sent troops to Bangladesh, and two weeks later Pakistan surrendered.

• Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi civilians lost their lives in a matter of months.

District of Gurdaspur• The British awarded this

strategic strip of land, although mostly Muslim, to India, thus securing India's route to Jammu and Kashmir.

• Without Gurdaspur, India would have been cut off from Kashmir. It was thought that the award of Gurdaspur to India would avoid future wars by allowing the Indian army access to Kashmir, keeping a political balance. In fact, the opposite occurred. India and

Pakistan continue today to fight over Kashmir.

Both sides want Both sides want Kashmir to control Kashmir to control the source of the the source of the Indus River. Why?Indus River. Why?

Hinduism today video

Illustrations and information courtesy of:Illustrations and information courtesy of:

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india.kashmir.gifindia.kashmir.gif http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/807751.stmhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/807751.stm