INDIA

Rajput fort overlooking (foreground) Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India. officially Republic of India, Hindi Bharat or Bharatavarsha country that occupies the greater part of South Asia. It is a constitutional republic consisting of 25 states, each with a substantial degree of control over its own affairs, and 7 less fully empowered union territories. The capital is New Delhi. With more than one-sixth of the world's total population, India is the second most populous country, after China. The land of Indiatogether with Bangladesh and most of Pakistanforms a well-defined subcontinent, set off from the rest of Asia by the imposing northern mountain rampart of the Himalayas and by lesser adjoining mountain ranges to the west and east. In area, India ranks as the seventh largest country in the world, covering 1,222,559 square miles (3,166,414 square kilometres), just slightly more than 2 percent of the Earth's total land surface. India's frontier, bordered by six countries, is 9,425 miles (15,168 kilometres) long, of which 3,533 miles (5,686 kilometres) is coastline. Neighbouring countries of particular concern to India are Pakistan to the northwest and China to the north, both of which have intractable border disputes with India, and Bangladesh, which is surrounded on three sides by Indian territory. The other nations on India's frontier are Nepal and Bhutan to the north, situated between India and China, and Myanmar (Burma) to the northeast. Much of India's territory lies within a large peninsula, surrounded by the Arabian Sea on the west and the Bay of Bengal on the east; Cape Comorin, the southernmost point of the Indian mainland, marks the dividing line between these two bodies of water. Off the extreme southeastern coast, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait separate India from the island nation of Sri Lanka. India has two union territories composed entirely of islands: Lakshadweep, in the Arabian Sea, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which lie between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. It is known from archaeological evidence that a highly sophisticated, urbanized culturethe Indus Civilizationdominated the northwestern part of the subcontinent from about 2600 to 2000 BC. From that period on, India functioned as a virtually self-contained political and cultural arena, which gave rise to a distinctive tradition that was associated primarily with Hinduism, the roots of which can largely be traced to the Indus Civilization. Other religions, notably Buddhism and Jainism, also originated in ancient India, but their presence in India is now quite small. Throughout its history India was intermittently disturbed by incursions from beyond its northern mountain wall. Especially important was the coming of Islam, brought from the northwest by Arab, Turkish, Persian, and other invaders beginning early in the 8th century AD. By the 13th century much of the subcontinent had fallen under Muslim domination, and it largely remained so until the mid-18th century. In the intervening period the number of Muslims steadily increased, and by the early 20th century they formed almost one-fourth of India's population. Only after the arrival of the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama in 1498 and the subsequent establishment of European maritime supremacy did India become exposed to major external influences arriving by sea, a process that culminated in the absorption of the subcontinent within the British Empire. Direct administration by the British, which began in 1858, effected a political and economic unification of the subcontinent, the legacy of which is found in many aspects of the current Indian state, including its parliamentary system of government. When British rule came to an end in 1947, the subcontinent was partitioned along religious lines into two separate countriesIndia, with a majority of Hindus, and Pakistan, with a majority of Muslims. (The eastern portion of Pakistan gained independence as Bangladesh in 1971.) Although Hindi was declared India's official language, English continued to be a widely used lingua franca, especially by educated Indians in business and government. India remains one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. Apart from its many religions and sects, India is home to innumerable castes and tribes, as well as to more than a dozen major and hundreds of minor linguistic groups from several totally different language families. Religious minorities still account for one-sixth of the population, and Muslims alone for more than one-ninth. Earnest attempts have been made to instill a spirit of nationhood in so varied a population, but tensions among neighbouring groups abound and not infrequently result in violence. Economically and socially, India has made great strides since independence: it has a well-developed infrastructure and a highly diversified industrial base, its pool of scientific and engineering personnel is reputedly the third largest in the world, and the pace of its agricultural expansion has more than kept up with the growth in its population. Social legislation in India has done much to alleviate the disabilities previously suffered by formerly untouchable castes, tribal populations, women, and other disadvantaged segments of society. At independence, India was blessed with several leaders of world stature, most notably Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Not only were these leaders able to galvanize the masses in their own country but, because of their prestige and enduring legacy, they also helped enable India to play an important role in global affairs, often as a champion of the causes of the world's colonially exploited and less developed nations. Joseph E. Schwartzberg The articles Pakistan, history of, and Bangladesh, history of, discuss those countries since their creation. For detailed coverage of India's three largest cities, see Bombay, Calcutta, and Delhi. officially Republic of India, Hindi Bharat, or Bharatavarsha republic of southern Asia, the seventh largest and second most populous nation in the world. India is bordered on the northwest by Pakistan; on the northeast by China, Nepal, and Bhutan; and on the east by Myanmar (Burma). Its northeastern portion encloses Bangladesh on three sides. It fronts the Bay of Bengal on the southeast and the Arabian Sea on the southwest. Offshore to the southeast lies the island republic of Sri Lanka. The capital is New Delhi. Area 1,222,559 square miles (3,166,414 square km). Pop. (1992 est.) 889,703,000. Additional reading General works The following provide a wide range of information: India (Republic), Central Gazetteers Unit, The Gazetteer of India: Indian Union, 4 vol. (196578); Imperial Gazetteer of India, 26 vol. (190709), which is still useful for details on local areas; district gazetteers for many of the states (e.g., Assam District Gazetteers); India: A Reference Annual, for government involvement in various aspects of life; Richard F. Nyrop (ed.), India: A Country Study, 4th ed. (1985); R.L. Singh (ed.), India: Regional Studies (1968), on physical, social, and economic phenomena; Joseph E. Schwartzberg (ed.), A Historical Atlas of South Asia (1978, reissued with additions, 1992), with maps and supplemental text; National Atlas & Thematic Mapping Organization (India), National Atlas of India, 2nd English ed., 8 vol. (1986); Tt. Maps & Publications Private Ltd., A Social and Economic Atlas of India (1987); and An Atlas of India (1990). Geography The land Each volume in R.P. Misra (ed.), Contributions to Indian Geography (1983 ), is an anthology of the most important work in selected branches of geography. Other useful works are K.L. Rao, India's Water Wealth (1975); R.L. Singh (ed.), India: A Regional Geography (1971); O.H.K. Spate and A.T.A. Learmonth, India and Pakistan: A General and Regional Geography, 3rd ed. rev. (1967); Ravindra Kumar, Fundamentals of Historical Geology and Stratigraphy of India (1985); India, Meteorological Dept., Climatological Atlas of India (1981 ); Y.P. Rao, The Climate of the Indian Subcontinent, in K. Takahashi and H. Arakawa (eds.), Climates of Southern and Western Asia (1981), pp. 67182; and R.E. Hawkins (ed.), Encyclopedia of Indian Natural History (1986). The people Within the vast corpus of relevant literature, the following are especially recommended: Nirad C. Chaudhuri, The Continent of Circe: Being an Essay on the Peoples of India (1965), an iconoclastic, historically well-informed perspective; Louis Dumont, Homo hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications, rev. ed. (1980; originally published in French, 1967); Christoph von Frer-Haimendorf, Tribes of India: The Struggle for Survival (1982); M. Mujeeb, The Indian Muslims (1967, reissued 1985); Joanna Liddle and Rama Joshi, Daughters of Independence: Gender, Caste, and Class in India (1985); Klaus K. Klostermaier, A Survey of Hinduism (1989), on the essence, theory, and practice of India's principal faith; J. Michael Mahar (ed.), The Untouchables in Contemporary India (1972); Clarence Maloney, Peoples of South Asia (1974), an introductory overview; David G. Mandelbaum, Society in India, 2 vols. (1970), emphasizing processes of change and elements of stability; and Milton Singer and Bernard S. Cohn (eds.), Structure and Change in Indian Society (1968), an anthology. Works on settlement include Ashish Bose, India's Urbanization, 19012001, 2nd ed. (1978); Radhakamal Mukerjee, Man and His Habitation: A Study in Social Ecology, 2nd ed. (1968), a classic; and R.L. Singh, Kashi N. Singh, and Rana P.B. Singh (eds.), Geographic Dimensions of Rural Settlements (1976), symposium proceedings. On demography, Kingsley Davis, The Population of India and Pakistan (1951, reissued 1968), is an overview of the preindependence period; while Tim Dyson (ed.), India's Historical Demography: Studies in Famine, Disease, and Society (1989), offers numerous insightful case studies. Policy-oriented empirical views of India's demography include R.H. Cassen, India: Population, Economy, Society (1978); Asok Mitra, India's Population, 2 vol. (1978); and Mahendra K. Premi, The Demographic Situation in India (1982). A Census Atlas is available for each state, issued in variously numbered series. The economy Overviews are provided in The Cambridge Economic History of India, vol. 1 ed. by Tapan Raychaudhuri and Irfan Habib (1982), and vol. 2 ed. by Dharma Kumar and Meghnad Desai (1983); and Dietmar Rothermund, An Economic History of India (1988). Analyses employing a political economic approach include Pramit Chaudhuri, The Indian Economy: Poverty and Development (1978); Francine R. Frankel, India's Political Economy, 19471977: The Gradual Revolution (1978); Ronald J. Herring, Land to the Tiller: The Political Economy of Agrarian Reform in South Asia (1983); Gunnar Myrdal, Asian Drama: An Inquiry Into the Poverty of Nations, 3 vol. (1968); and Daniel Thorner, The Shaping of Modern India (1980). Among more specialized, largely empirical studies are B.L.C. Johnson, India: Resources and Development, 2nd ed. (1983); T.C. Sharma and O. Coutinho, Economic and Commercial Geography of India, 2nd rev. ed. (1978, reissued 1986); Gilbert Etienne, Food and Poverty: India's Half Won Battle (1988); M.R. Kulkarni, Industrial Development, rev. ed. (1983); Baldev Raj Nayar, India's Quest for Technological Independence, 2 vol. (1983); V.K.R.V. Rao, India's National Income, 19501980 (1983); and Jasbir Singh, An Agricultural Atlas of India (1974). Administration and social conditions Among several excellent studies of India's constitution are Granville Austin, The Indian Constitution (1966, reissued 1972); and M.V. Pylee, Constitutional Government in India, 4th ed. (1984). Critical surveys are provided by Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr., and Stanley A. Kochanek, India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation, 4th ed. (1986); W.H. Morris-Jones, The Government and Politics of India, 3rd ed. rev. (1971, reissued 1987); and Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India (1967, reprinted 1984). More specialized studies include A.R. Desai (ed.), Agrarian Struggles in India After Independence (1986); Marcus Franda, India's Rural Development (1979); Atul Kohli, Democracy and Discontent: India's Growing Crisis of Governability (1990); Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and Lloyd I. Rudolph (eds.), Education and Politics in India (1972); K. Suresh Singh (ed.), Tribal Situation in India (1972, reprinted 1986); Myron Weiner, Sons of the Soil: Migration and Ethnic Conflict in India (1978); and Myron Weiner and John Osgood Field (eds.), Studies in Electoral Politics in the Indian States, 4 vol. (197477). An excellent collection of essays appears in Francine R. Frankel and M.S.A. Rao (eds.), Dominance and State Power in Modern India, 2 vol. (198990). Cultural life An incisive overview is provided by Richard Lannoy, The Speaking Tree: A Study of Indian Culture and Society (1971). Among the classics are Percy Brown, Indian Painting, 8th ed. (1965), and Indian Architecture, 5th ed., 2 vol. (196568); Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, History of Indian and Indonesian Art (1927, reprinted 1985); and Stella Kramrisch, The Art of India, 3rd ed. (1965, reprinted 1987). More recent studies include Susan L. Huntington and John C. Huntington, The Art of Ancient India (1985); and Calambur Sivaramamurti, The Art of India (1977; originally published in French, 1974). Good surveys of the performing arts are offered in Enakshi Bhavnani, The Dance in India (1965, reissued 1979); Reginald Massey and Jamila Massey, The Music of India (1976); Firoze Rangoonwalla, Indian Cinema (1983); and Farley P. Richmond, Darius L. Swann, and Phillip P. Zarrilli (eds.), Indian Theatre (1990). A good literary survey is M.K. Naik, A History of Indian English Literature (1982). Joseph E. Schwartzberg History General works The Cambridge History of India, 5 vol. (192237); and Vincent A. Smith, The Oxford History of India, 4th ed. edited by Percival Spear (1981), offer accounts that were written during the period of British rule and that reflect to some extent the British imperial point of view. Many of the volumes in The New Cambridge History of India (1987 ) are cited individually in their respective periods below. The articles in R.C. Majumdar (ed.), The History and Culture of the Indian People, 11 vol. (195169), some vol. available in later editions, offer scholarly treatments but tend to present an Indianand sometimes a Hindu nationalistpoint of view. Indian History Congress, A Comprehensive History of India (1957 ), is an ongoing, multivolume series on various historical periods. A History of India, vol. 1 by Romila Thapar (1966, reissued 1985), covers prehistory to 1526; vol. 2 by Percival Spear (1965) covers the period from 1526 to the 1960s. Other modern overviews include A.L. Basham (ed.), A Cultural History of India (1975, reissued 1989); D.P. Singhal, A History of the Indian People (1983); and Stanley Wolpert, A New History of India, 3rd ed. (1989). India from the Paleolithic Period to the decline of the Indus Civilization (1750 BC) General surveys of the prehistory of the Indian subcontinent include Bridget Allchin and Raymond Allchin, The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan (1982); and D.P. Agrawal, The Archaeology of India (1982). For the Paleolithic Period, Bridget Allchin, Andrew Goudie, and Karunakara Hegde, The Prehistory and Palaeogeography of the Great Indian Desert (1978), contains a study of climatic and environmental changes in relation to human activity; and H.M. Rendell, R.W. Dennell, and M.A. Halim, Pleistocene and Palaeolithic Investigations in the Soan Valley, Northern Pakistan (1989), describes research and dating of prehistoric human activities in northern Pakistan.Gregory L. Possehl (ed.), Ancient Cities of the Indus (1979), contains surveys of earlier publications on the early Harappan and Indus civilizations, and Harappan Civilization (1982), is a collection of later papers. Shereen Ratnagar, Encounters: The Westerly Trade of the Harappa Civilization (1981); and Dilip K. Chakrabarti, The External Trade of Indus Civilization (1990), are both detailed discussions of the trade between the Indus Civilization and Mesopotamia. Few books cover the archaeology of the period from the end of the Indus Civilization to the rise of cities in the north, other than the general archaeological works referred to above, although Ram Sharan Sharma, Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India (1983), is useful. Frank Raymond Allchin The development of Indian civilization from c. 1500 BC to c. AD 1200 Survey histories of the period include A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India, 3rd rev. ed. (1967, reissued 1985); and D.D. Kosambi, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline (1965, also published as Ancient India, 1966). Hemchandra Raychaudhuri, Political History of Ancient India, 7th ed. (1972), remains a standard work. For economic history, see U.N. Ghoshal, The Agrarian System in Ancient India (1930, reissued 1973); and G.L. Adhya, Early Indian Economics (1966), which covers the period 200 BC to AD 300.The period from about 1500 to 500 BC is analyzed in N.R. Banerjee, The Iron Age in India (1965); George Cardona, Henry M. Hoenigswald, and Alfred Senn (eds.), Indo-European and Indo-Europeans (1970); and Madhav M. Deshpande and Peter Edwin Hook (eds.), Aryan and Non-Aryan in India (1979). A more up-to-date historical enquiry of this period is Romila Thapar, From Lineage to State: Social Formations in the Mid-First Millennium B.C. in the Ganga Valley (1984).The beginning of the historical period (c. 500150 BC) is treated in Bimala Churn Law, Some Ksatriya Tribes of Ancient India (1924, reissued 1975), and Geography of Early Buddhism (1932, reissued 1979); and in the more recent N.K. Wagle, Society at the Time of the Buddha (1966). Works on the Mauryan period include K.A. Nilakanta Sastri (ed.), Age of Nandas and Mauryas, 2nd ed. (1967); Romila Thapar, Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, 2nd ed. (1973), and The Mauryas Revisited (1987); and G.M. Bongard-Levin, Mauryan India (1985; originally published in Russian, 1973). Political histories for the period from 150 BC to AD 300 are, for northern India, A.K. Narain, The Indo-Greeks (1957, reissued 1980); and J.E. van Lohuizen-De Leeuw, The Scythian Period (1949); and for southern India, Ghulam Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan, 2 vol. (1961, reissued 1982); and K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar, 4th ed. (1976).On the period from 300 to 750, political histories include R.C. Majumdar and A.S. Altekar (eds.), The Vakataka-Gupta Age, Circa 200500 A.D. (1946, reissued 1986); B.P. Sinha, The Decline of the Kingdom of Magadha (cir. 4551000 A.D.) (1954); and D. Devahuti, Harsha: A Political Study, 2nd ed. (1983). Surveys of social and economic history are presented in Dwijendra Narayan Jha, Revenue System in Post-Maurya and Gupta Times (1967); Dipakranjan Das, Economic History of the Deccan, from the First to the Sixth Century A.D. (1969); Vijay Kumar Thakur, Urbanisation in Ancient India (1981); and Nimanshu Prabha Ray, Monastery and Guild: Commerce Under the Satavahanas (1986). Among works on the political history of the period from 750 to about 1200 are Anant Sadashiv Altekar, Rashtrakutas and Their Times, 2nd rev. ed. (1967); H.C. Ray, The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period), 2 vol. (193136, reprinted 1973); R.C. Majumdar, The History of Bengal (1943, reissued 1971); Nemai Sadhan Bose, History of the Candellas of Jejakabhukti (1956); Dasharatha Sharma, Early Chauhan Dynasties, 2nd rev. ed. (1975); Pratipal Bhatia, The Paramaras, c. 8001305 A.D. (1970); K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, The Colas, 2nd ed., rev. (1955, reissued 1975); and J. Duncan M. Derrett, The Hoysalas (1957). See also Andr Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, vol. 1, Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam, 7th11th Centuries, 2nd rev. ed. (1991); T.V. Mahalingam, South Indian Polity, 2nd ed., rev. (1967); Noboru Karashima, South Indian History and Society (1984); and, on northern India, Ram Sharan Sharma, Indian Feudalism, c. 3001200, 2nd ed. (1980); D.N. Jha (ed.), Feudal Social Formations in Early India (1987); and Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, Aspects of Rural Settlements and Rural Society in Early Medieval India (1990). Romila Thapar The early Muslim period The most detailed treatment of pre-Mughal political history is in vol. 5 of A Comprehensive History of India, cited above. Monographs for each subperiod include A.B.M. Habibullah, The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India, 2nd rev. ed. (1961); Kishori Saran Lal, History of the Khaljis, A.D. 12901320, rev. ed. (1967); Agha Mahdi Husain, The Tughluq Dynasty (1963, reissued 1976); Abdul Halim, History of the Lodi Sultans of Delhi and Agra (1961, reissued 1974); and Iqtidar Husain Siddiqi, Some Aspects of Afghan Despotism in India (1969). Political and administrative institutions are covered in S.B.P. Nigam, Nobility Under the Sultans of Delhi, A.D. 12061398 (1968); Ishtiaq Husain Qureshi, The Administration of the Sultanate of Delhi, 5th rev. ed. (1971); and Yusuf Husain (Yusuf Husain Khan), Indo-Muslim Polity (Turko-Afghan Period) (1971). K.M. Ashraf, Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan, 2nd ed. (1970), remains a standard work on the social history of the period. See also A. Rashid, Society and Culture in Medieval India, 12061556 A.D. (1969); and Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, Some Aspects of Religion and Politics in India During the Thirteenth Century (1961, reissued 1978). For the social history of the eastern regions, see Abdul Karim, Social History of the Muslims in Bengal, Down to A.D. 1538, 2nd rev. ed. (1985); and Momtazur Rahman Tarafdar, Husain Shahi Bengal, 14941538 A.D. (1965). Economic conditions are discussed in W.H. Moreland, The Agrarian System of Moslem India (1929, reissued 1968); and Simon Digby, War-Horse and Elephant in the Delhi Sultanate (1971).Basic political histories of the Bahmanis include H.K. Sherwani, The Bahmanis of the Deccan, 2nd rev. and enlarged ed. (1985); and H.K. Sherwani (ed.), History of Medieval Deccan, 12951724, 2 vol. (197374), with sections on all the kingdoms of the period. Also useful are Nilakanta Sastri's A History of South India . . . , cited above; and S.K. Sinha, Medieval History of the Deccan, vol. 1, Bahmanids (1964). The Vijayanagar empire is documented by T.V. Mahalingam, Administration and Social Life Under Vijayanagar (1940), and Economic Life in the Vijayanagar Empire (1951), both rev. and published together under the first title, 2 vol. (196975); Burton Stein, Vijayanagara (1989), and Peasant, State, and Society in Medieval South India (1980); and D.C. Verma, History of Bijapur (1974). Muzaffar Alam R. Champakalakshmi The Mughal Empire, 15261761 Ram Prasad Tripathi, Rise and Fall of the Mughal Empire (1956, reissued 1985), is still a useful general history. Irfan Habib, An Atlas of the Mughal Empire (1982), is a collection of annotated maps. Histories of individual monarchs include Mohibbul Hasan, Babur, Founder of the Mughal Empire in India (1985); Ishwari Prasad, The Life and Times of Humayun (1955, reprinted 1976); Vincent A. Smith, Akbar, the Great Mogul, 15421605, 2nd ed. rev. (1958, reissued 1966); Douglas E. Streusand, The Formation of the Mughal Empire (1989); Beni Prasad, History of Jahangir, 5th ed. (1962); Banarsi Prasad Saksena, History of Shahjahan of Dihli (1932, reissued 1973); Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, 5 vol. (191224, reissued 5 vol. in 4, 197274); and William Irvine, Later Mughals, 2 vol. (192122, reissued 2 vol. in 1, 1971). See also Iqtidar Husain Siddiqi, History of Sher Shah Sur (1971). Among works on Mughal political, social, and administrative history are P. Saran, The Provincial Government of the Mughals, 15261658 , 2nd ed. (1973); Abdul Aziz, The Mansabdari System and the Mughul Army (1945, reissued 1972); Ahsan Raza Khan, Chieftains in the Mughal Empire During the Reign of Akbar (1977); Satish Chandra, Parties and Politics at the Mughal Court, 17071740, 2nd ed. (1972); M. Athar Ali, The Mughal Nobility Under Aurangzeb (1966); John F. Richards, Mughal Administration in Golconda (1975); and Muzaffar Alam, The Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India: Awadh and the Punjab, 170748 (1986).On the economic history of the period, W.H. Moreland, India at the Death of Akbar (1920, reissued 1974), remains a standard, though somewhat British-biased, work; while Brij Narain, Indian Economic Life, Past and Present (1929, reprinted 1984), disputes Moreland's conclusions. Shireen Moosvi, The Economy of the Mughal Empire, c. 1595: A Statistical Study (1987), has elaborated on The Cambridge Economic History of India, vol. 1 ed. by Tapan Raychaudhuri and Irfan Habib (1982), and vol. 2 ed. by Dharma Kumar and Meghnad Desai (1983). For more details on land systems, see Irfan Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India, 15561707 (1963); and N.A. Siddiq, Land Revenue Administration Under the Mughals, 17001750 (1970). See also Hameeda Khatoon Naqvi, Urban Centres and Industries in Upper India, 15561803 (1968), and Urbanisation and Urban Centres Under the Great Mughals, 15561707 (1971); Stephen P. Blake, Shahjahanabad (1991), a detailed study of the life, economy, and culture of the Mughal capital; John F. Richards (ed.), The Imperial Monetary System of Mughal India (1987); Sri Ram Sharma, The Religious Policy of the Mughal Emperors, 3rd rev. and enlarged ed. (1972); Athar Abbas Rizvi, Muslim Revivalist Movements in Northern India in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (1965); and Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, Akbar & Religion (1989). Muzaffar Alam Regional states, c. 17001850 The classic writings on the 18th century and the post-Mughal states are those of Jadunath Sarkar, including A History of Jaipur, c. 15031938, rev. and ed. by Raghubir Sinh (1984). Zahir Uddin Malik, The Reign of Muhammad Shah, 17191748 (1977), supports Sarkar's view that the post-Moghul period was one of decline; while the major challenge to this interpretation is made in the work by Alam cited above. See also Richard B. Barnett, North India Between Empires: Awadh, the Mughals, and the British, 17201801 (1980); C.A. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen, and Bazaars: Northern Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 17701870 (1983), and Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire (1987); and Satish Chandra, The 18th Century in India (1986).The most important early studies of the Marathas include M.G. Ranade, Rise of the Maratha Power, and Other Essays (1900, reissued 1966); Surendra Nath Sen, Administrative System of the Marathas, 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged (1925, reprinted 1976), and Military System of the Marathas, new ed. (1958, reissued 1979); and Vithal Trimbak Gune, The Judicial System of the Marathas (1953). More recent literature includes Andr Wink, Land and Sovereignty in India: Agrarian Society and Politics Under the Eighteenth-Century Maratha Svarajya (1986); and two articles in Modern Asian Studies: Stewart N. Gordon, The Slow Conquest: Administrative Integration of Malwa into the Maratha Empire, 17201760, 11:140 (1977); and Frank Perlin, State Formation Reconsidered, 19(3):415480 (July 1985). See also K.R. Subramanian, The Maratha Rajas of Tanjore (1928, reprinted 1988); and C.K. Srinivasan, Maratha Rule in the Carnatic (1944).The Afghan role in North Indian politics is discussed in C.A. Bayly, Imperial Meridian: The British Empire and the World, 17801830 (1989). On the Sikhs, see J.S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (1990), and The Reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1981); and Indu Banga, Agrarian System of the Sikhs (1978). For the first half of the 18th century, the work by Alam cited above best discusses the Banda Bahadur revolt. For Rajasthan in the same period, see Satya Prakash Gupta, The Agrarian System of Eastern Rajasthan, c. 1650c. 1750 (1986); and Dilbagh Singh, The State, Landlords, and Peasants (1990).The south of India is covered in K. Rajayyan, Administration and Society in the Carnatic, 17011801 (1966); N.S. Ramaswami, Political History of Carnatic Under the Nawabs (1984); and Susan Bayly, Saints, Goddesses, and Kings: Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 17001900 (1989). For Travancore, see Ashin Das Gupta, Malabar in Asian Trade: 17401800 (1967); and for Mysore, see Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Warfare and State Finance in Wodeyar Mysore, 172425: A Missionary Perspective, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 26(2):203233 (AprilJune 1989); Mohibbul Hasan, History of Tipu Sultan, 2nd ed. (1971); and Asok Sen, A Pre-British Economic Formation in India of the Late Eighteenth Century: Tipu Sultan's Mysore, in Barun De (ed.), Perspectives in Social Sciences, vol. 1 (1977).A general perspective on politics and the economy is afforded in the works of Chandra and Bayly cited above; and in Tapan Raychaudhuri, The Mid-Eighteenth-Century Background, in The Cambridge Economic History of India, vol. 2 ed. by Dharma Kumar and Meghnad Desai (1983), pp. 335. See also Sanjay Subrahmanyam (ed.), Merchants, Markets, and the State in Early Modern India (1990). Cultural history is briefly treated in Hermann Goetz, The Crisis of Indian Civilisation in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries (1938). More can be gleaned from such writings as W.G. Archer, Paintings of the Sikhs (1966); S. Seetha, Tanjore as a Seat of Music, During the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries (1981); and Muhammad Yousuf Kokan (M.Y.K. Umari), Arabic and Persian in Carnatic, 17101960 (1974). Sanjay Subrahmanyam India and European expansion, c. 15001858 General works on the precolonial phase include Holden Furber, Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient, 16001800 (1976); Ashin Das Gupta and M.N. Pearson (eds.), India and the Indian Ocean, 15001800 (1987); and K.N. Chaudhuri, The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company, 16601760 (1978), and Asia Before Europe: Economy and Civilisation of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (1990).The role of the Portuguese is addressed in Bailey W. Diffie and George D. Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 14151580 (1977); M.N. Pearson, The Portuguese in India (1987); and Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Improvising Empire: Portuguese Trade and Settlement in the Bay of Bengal, 15001700 (1990), a collection of essays. For the Dutch experience in the region, see C.R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 16001800 (1965, reprinted 1990).Works on the British rulers and their rule include Percival Spear, Master of Bengal: Clive and His India (1975); and John Rosselli, Lord William Bentinck: The Making of a Liberal Imperialist, 17741839 (1974). See also C.A. Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire (1987); Jrg Fisch, Cheap Lives and Dear Limbs: The British Transformation of the Bengal Criminal Law, 17691817 (1983); P.J. Marshall, Problems of Empire: Britain and India, 17571813 (1968); David Kopf, British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Dynamics of Indian Modernization, 17731835 (1969); and M.E. Yapp, Strategies of British India: Britain, Iran, and Afghanistan, 17981850 (1980). The mutiny and revolt of 185759 is chronicled in Sashi Bhusan Chaudhuri, Civil Rebellion in the Indian Mutinies, 18571859 (1957); Eric Stokes, The Peasant and the Raj (1978), and The Peasant Armed: The Indian Revolt of 1857, ed. by C.A. Bayly (1986); and Surendra Nath Sen, Eighteen-Fifty-Seven (1957).Good studies of eastern India include Narendra Krishna Sinha, The Economic History of Bengal, 3 vol. (195670); P.J. Marshall, BengalThe British Bridgehead (1987); Sirajul Islam, The Permanent Settlement in Bengal: A Study of Its Operation, 17901819 (1979); and A.F. Salahuddin Ahmed, Social Ideas and Social Change in Bengal, 18181835, 2nd ed. (1976). For the south, see Nilmani Mukherjee, The Ryotwari System in Madras, 17921827 (1962); and Burton Stein, Thomas Munro: The Origins of the Colonial State and His Vision of Empire (1989). Western India, especially in the early 19th century, is best studied in Kenneth Ballhatchet, Social Policy and Social Change in Western India, 18171830 (1957); and for Maharashtra, see Ravinder Kumar, Western India in the Nineteenth Century (1968). Bernard S. Cohn, An Anthropologist Among the Historians and Other Essays (1987), collects his studies of the Beneras region. The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica British imperial power, 18581947 The decade after the mutiny is discussed in Thomas R. Metcalf, The Aftermath of Revolt: India, 18571870 (1964). Surveys of the British crown raj include Sarvepalli Gopal, British Policy in India, 18581905 (1965); Sumit Sarkar, Modern India, 18851947 (1983); and Judith M. Brown, Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy (1985). An excellent history of the Sikhs is Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, 2 vol. (196366, reissued 1984). Local politics in British India are analyzed by C.A. Bayly, The Local Roots of Indian Politics: Allahabad, 18801920 (1975); D.A. Washbrook, The Emergence of Provincial Politics: The Madras Presidency, 18701920 (1976); and Christopher John Baker, The Politics of South India, 19201937 (1976). Economic and social histories of this period include D.N. Panigrahi (ed.), Economy, Society & Politics in Modern India (1985); D.N. Dhanagare, Peasant Movements in India, 19201950 (1983); Arvind N. Das, Agrarian Unrest and Socio-economic Change, 19001980 (1983); and B.R. Tomlinson, The Political Economy of the Raj, 19141947 (1979). Several good studies of Indo-British race relations are Nemai Sadhan Bose, Racism, Struggle for Equality, and Indian Nationalism (1981); Kenneth Ballhatchet, Race, Sex, and Class Under the Raj: Imperial Attitudes and Policies and Their Critics, 17931905 (1980); Christine Bolt, Victorian Attitudes to Race (1971); and Francis G. Hutchins, The Illusion of Permanence: British Imperialism in India (1967). Prelude to independence A fine retrospective of Indian nationalism is Richard Sisson and Stanley Wolpert (eds.), Congress and Indian Nationalism: The Pre-Independence Phase (1988). Other good surveys of the nationalist movement and of Indian politics are D.A. Low (ed.), Congress and the Raj: Facets of the Indian Struggle, 191747 (1977); John R. McLane, Indian Nationalism and the Early Congress (1977); DeWitt C. Ellinwood and S.D. Pradhan (eds.), India and World War I (1978); R.J. Moore, The Crisis of Indian Unity, 19171940 (1974); Judith M. Brown, Gandhi's Rise to Power: Indian Politics, 19151922 (1972), and Gandhi and Civil Disobedience: The Mahatma in Indian Politics, 192834 (1977); and C.H. Philips and Mary Doreen Wainwright (eds.), The Partition of India: Policies and Perspectives, 19251947 (1970). Allen Hayes Merriam, Gandhi vs. Jinnah: The Debate over the Partition of India (1980), may be supplemented by Stanley Wolpert, Jinnah of Pakistan (1984). Hindu-Muslim conflicts and their roots are explored in Mushirul Hasan, Nationalism and Communal Politics in India, 19161928 (1979); and Francis Robinson, Separatism Among Indian Muslims: The Politics of the United Provinces' Muslims, 18601923 (1974). See also David Page, Prelude to Partition: The Indian Muslims and the Imperial System of Control, 19201932 (1982). Works on the communal conflicts in Kashmir and Punjab include M.J. Akbar, India: The Siege Within (1985); Patwant Singh and Harji Malik (eds.), Punjab: The Fatal Miscalculation (1985); Rajiv A. Kapur, Sikh Separatism: The Politics of Faith (1986); Paul Wallace and Surendra Chopra (eds.), Political Dynamics and Crisis in Punjab (1988); and Kuldip Nayar and Khushwant Singh, Tragedy of Punjab: Operation Bluestar & After (1984). The history of the Indian states during this period is documented in S.R. Ashton, British Policy Towards the Indian States, 19051939 (1982); and Barbara N. Ramusack, The Princes of India in the Twilight of Empire: Dissolution of a Patron-Client System, 19141939 (1978). The Republic of India The politics of independent India are addressed in Paul R. Brass, The Politics of India Since Independence (1990); Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr., and Stanley A. Kochanek, India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation, 4th ed. (1986); C.P. Bhambhri, Politics in India, 19471987 (1988); and Mark Tully and Zareer Masani, From Raj to Rajiv: 40 Years of Indian Independence (also published as India: Forty Years of Independence, 1988). Studies on particular topics include S.K. Gupta, The Scheduled Castes in Modern Indian Politics (1985), on the emergence of former untouchables to political power; Francine R. Frankel, India's Political Economy, 19471977: The Gradual Revolution (1978); Robert Jackson, South Asian Crisis: India, Pakistan, Bangla Desh (1975); Henry C. Hart (ed.), Indira Gandhi's India: A Political System Reappraised (1976), focusing on the events of 1975; Dilip Hiro, Inside India Today, rev. ed. (1978), a journalist's investigation into Mrs. Gandhi's emergency; and Ved Mehta, A Family Affair: India Under Three Prime Ministers (1982), an account of Indian politics from 1975 to the early 1980s. Stanley A. Wolpert The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Administration and social conditions Government The Presidential House (Rashtrapati Bhavan), formerly the Viceroy's House, New Delhi, India, The architects of India's constitution, though drawing on many external sources, were most heavily influenced by the British model of parliamentary democracy. In addition, a number of principles were adopted from the U.S. Constitution, including the separation of powers among the major branches of government, the establishment of a Supreme Court, and the adoption, albeit in modified form, of a federal structure (a constitutional division of power between the central and state governments). The mechanical details for running the central government, however, were largely carried over from the Government of India Act of 1935, passed by the British Parliament, which served as India's constitution in the waning days of British colonial rule. The new constitution, promulgated on Jan. 26, 1950, proclaimed India a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic. With 395 articles, 10 (later 11) schedules (each clarifying and expanding upon a number of articles), and numerous amendments, it is perhaps the longest and most detailed constitution in the world. For the purposes of securing justice, liberty, and equality for all Indians and to promote fraternity among them, the constitution includes a detailed list of fundamental rights, a lengthy list of directive principles of state policy (goals that the state is obligated to promote, though with no specified timetable for their accomplishment [an idea taken from the Irish constitution]), and a much shorter list of fundamental duties of the citizen. The remainder of the constitution outlines in great detail the structure, powers, and manner of operation of the union (central) and state governments. It also includes provisions for protecting the rights and promoting the interests of certain classes of citizens (e.g., disadvantaged social groups, officially designated as Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) and the process for constitutional amendment. The extraordinary specificity of India's constitution is such that amendments, which average nearly two per year, have frequently been required to deal with issues that in other countries would be handled by routine legislation. With a few exceptions, the passage of an amendment requires only a simple majority of both houses of Parliament, but this majority must form two-thirds of those present and voting. Constitutional structure The three lists contained in the constitution's seventh schedule detail the areas in which the union and state governments may legislate. The union list outlines the areas in which the union government has exclusive authority, which include foreign policy, defense, communications, currency, taxation on corporations and nonagricultural income, and railroads. State governments have the sole power to legislate on such subjects as law and order, public health and sanitation, local government, betting and gambling, and taxation on agricultural income, entertainment, and alcoholic beverages. The items on the concurrent list include those on which both the union government and state governments may legislate, though a union law generally takes precedence; among these areas are criminal law, marriage and divorce, contracts, economic and social planning, population control and family planning, trade unions, social security, and education. Matters requiring legislation that are not specifically co