Indian History Introduction HISTORY Purpose today
Description: Indian History Introduction HISTORY Purpose today two fold Large Patterns Overview to ca. 1500 (where your textbook more or less begins) For Large Patterns Indian History: A Chronological Overview Making of Classical India 2500BCE -700 CE
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slide1. Indian History Introduction<br>
slide2. HISTORY Purpose today two fold
Large Patterns
Overview to ca. 1500 (where your textbook more or less begins)
For Large Patterns Indian History: A Chronological Overview
Making of “Classical” India 2500BCE -700 CE (3200 years)
Making of Diversity 600 1800 CE (1200 years)
Europeans 1500-1900 (400 years)
Nationalism 1850-1947 (100 years)
Since Independence (70 years)
There are TWO main areas of HISTORY I would like to address
POLITICAL-ECONOMIC and SOCIAL/CULTURAL
as you will see, the two are related
A theme running through all of these is DIVERSITY, how central it has been to the make up of India
Some issues of interpretation, British and Nationalist interpretations of history, also come into the picture<br>
slide3. Overview “CLASSICAL PATTERN” What does that phrase mean? The “classical” of South Asia must include developments relating to:
POLITICAL: Kingship State formation, Empires
SOCIAL : formations, Varna / Caste
CHALLENGES : Upanishads, Buddhism, Jainism etc
Migrations and Absorption
KEY to this tradition is DIVERSITY and PLURALISM
Long Term Pattern of CENTRALIZATION / DECENTRALIZATION
REGIONAL and CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Regional Kingdoms and Languages (700-1200 BCE)
Islam 700 CE onwards: makes a new contribution, radical egalitarianism & refusal of Varna
Delhi Sultanates 1200-1500
Mughals 1526-1857<br>
slide4. “CLASSICAL TRADITIONS”: POLITICAL 2500-200 BCE Earliest INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION, ca 2500 BCE, advanced urban CIVILIZATION. Replaced around 1500 BCE with nomadic one. Don’t know quite HOW that transformation occurs.
Nomads, calls themselves ARYA, speak a language called SANSKRIT
POLITICAL: As society more complex, they had to be organized into STATES, into governments.
Kingship Emerges out of lineage assemblies that used to make decisions
STATES, fight over RESOURCES, or try to GET more resources. EMPIRES, by 230 BCE all India
LAND main resource, but people already ON land, or in forests. Displacing occurs<br>
slide5. “CLASSICAL TRADITIONS”: SOCIAL 2500-700 CE Social divisions justified by ideology. For power. Nomads called themselves ARYA, defeated folks DASA
An ideology of distinction was called VARNA. As nomads settle to agriculturalists and then towns, the 2-fold division changed to the 4-fold division we today call “The Caste System” [why all three words are wrong!]
BRAHMIN, KSHATRIYA, VAISYA-VIS, SHUDRA. AND OUTCASTE
The reason the idea spread, was
1. that it was good way for the powerful people to LEGITIMIZE and JUSTIFY their power.
2. Also, fairly flexible, A good way to INCORPORATE other groups. Between 1500 BCE and 700 CE, 2000 years, many groups enter Indian subcontinent, GREEKS, HUNS, CHINESE, MONGOL etc. Most INCORPORATED, by accepting their LEADERS as warrior and others according to status.
New rulers claim they were KSHATRIYA, pay Brahmins to fabricate lineages. So POWER legitimized. Nice little nexus between the priests and warriors, mutual backscratching!
More about this when you have questions, in the meantime read the following on course web page if interested
Powerpoint: Caste, a historical approach
British transformations and the caste system
An older, but very interesting comparison of race in the US and caste in India<br>
slide6. CHALLENGES TO THE “CLASSICAL” MODEL The same period that saw emergence of classical pattern also saw CHALLENGES to these ideas of Brahman superiority, BUDDHA, MAHAVIRA (founder of JAINISM) came from KSHATRIYA background, repudiate caste, Brahmin superiority
UPANISHADS ca. 1000 BCE even earlier
Period from circa 250 BCE to almost 700 CE (a millennium!!) is one where different empires rise and fall. Also a period when
distinct geographical cultural regions emerge
This is CRITICAL, because reflects a trend of CENTRALIZATION and DECENTRALIZATION.
Nationalists say decentralization is bad, but, really regional efflorescence. Language, cultures, political kingdoms. Only from POV of MODERN STATE, whether colonial or national, is this a bad thing.<br>
slide7. Islam “Foreign-ness” and Diversity Throughout, from about 1500 BCE at least, people coming in from NW and absorbed. Aryas, Greco-Bactrians, Huns, etc. ca. 6th century CE, Scythian immigrants became Rajputs
10-11th century saw the first group who could not be absorbed into "Hindu“ Varna system These were Muslims, own distinct ideas of religion
Central to this was idea of equality of all believers
Islam, name of religion, Muslims = followers of Islam
Sometimes termed “foreign”to India, but Islam is significantly older than Protestantism in Europe, or any form of Christianity in the Americas
British INTERPRETATION of History (justifying their own rule over India) gives us this idea
Islam adds another layer of diversity on an already diverse subcontinent<br>
slide8. The era of regional diversity, 600-1200 CE 600 - 1200 CE. Rajput lineages control the north and Cholas the south.
Earliest Muslim-ruled kingdom in SIND ca. 700 C.E.
Raids by central Asian Muslim invaders begin ca. 1000. Muslim RAIDERS like Mahmud of Ghazni, c. 900-1000 C.E.
1206 to 1526 Era of the Delhi Sultanate. Muslim ruling dynasties establish their home base in the Indian subcontinent and make the city of Delhi their capital.
SULTANS of Delhi are Muslim rulers BASED in the subcontinent unlike, e,g., Mahmud Ghazni
In structure their kingdoms are very similar to those of regional kingdoms preceding them.
Last of them defeated by BABUR in 1526.
Muslim rulers of India were not religious bigots, could not AFFORD to be (why do we have to say this?)
Conversion to Islam connected with AGRICULTURE and with RELIGIOUS work of SUFI mystics (very similar to “Hindu” Bhakti ideas) and state patronage
End of Sultanate, once again FRAGMENTATION and DECENTRALIZATION. SEE MAP, very similar to say, map around 600-700 CE!<br>
slide2. HISTORY Purpose today two fold
Large Patterns
Overview to ca. 1500 (where your textbook more or less begins)
For Large Patterns Indian History: A Chronological Overview
Making of “Classical” India 2500BCE -700 CE (3200 years)
Making of Diversity 600 1800 CE (1200 years)
Europeans 1500-1900 (400 years)
Nationalism 1850-1947 (100 years)
Since Independence (70 years)
There are TWO main areas of HISTORY I would like to address
POLITICAL-ECONOMIC and SOCIAL/CULTURAL
as you will see, the two are related
A theme running through all of these is DIVERSITY, how central it has been to the make up of India
Some issues of interpretation, British and Nationalist interpretations of history, also come into the picture<br>
slide3. Overview “CLASSICAL PATTERN” What does that phrase mean? The “classical” of South Asia must include developments relating to:
POLITICAL: Kingship State formation, Empires
SOCIAL : formations, Varna / Caste
CHALLENGES : Upanishads, Buddhism, Jainism etc
Migrations and Absorption
KEY to this tradition is DIVERSITY and PLURALISM
Long Term Pattern of CENTRALIZATION / DECENTRALIZATION
REGIONAL and CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Regional Kingdoms and Languages (700-1200 BCE)
Islam 700 CE onwards: makes a new contribution, radical egalitarianism & refusal of Varna
Delhi Sultanates 1200-1500
Mughals 1526-1857<br>
slide4. “CLASSICAL TRADITIONS”: POLITICAL 2500-200 BCE Earliest INDUS VALLEY CIVILIZATION, ca 2500 BCE, advanced urban CIVILIZATION. Replaced around 1500 BCE with nomadic one. Don’t know quite HOW that transformation occurs.
Nomads, calls themselves ARYA, speak a language called SANSKRIT
POLITICAL: As society more complex, they had to be organized into STATES, into governments.
Kingship Emerges out of lineage assemblies that used to make decisions
STATES, fight over RESOURCES, or try to GET more resources. EMPIRES, by 230 BCE all India
LAND main resource, but people already ON land, or in forests. Displacing occurs<br>
slide5. “CLASSICAL TRADITIONS”: SOCIAL 2500-700 CE Social divisions justified by ideology. For power. Nomads called themselves ARYA, defeated folks DASA
An ideology of distinction was called VARNA. As nomads settle to agriculturalists and then towns, the 2-fold division changed to the 4-fold division we today call “The Caste System” [why all three words are wrong!]
BRAHMIN, KSHATRIYA, VAISYA-VIS, SHUDRA. AND OUTCASTE
The reason the idea spread, was
1. that it was good way for the powerful people to LEGITIMIZE and JUSTIFY their power.
2. Also, fairly flexible, A good way to INCORPORATE other groups. Between 1500 BCE and 700 CE, 2000 years, many groups enter Indian subcontinent, GREEKS, HUNS, CHINESE, MONGOL etc. Most INCORPORATED, by accepting their LEADERS as warrior and others according to status.
New rulers claim they were KSHATRIYA, pay Brahmins to fabricate lineages. So POWER legitimized. Nice little nexus between the priests and warriors, mutual backscratching!
More about this when you have questions, in the meantime read the following on course web page if interested
Powerpoint: Caste, a historical approach
British transformations and the caste system
An older, but very interesting comparison of race in the US and caste in India<br>
slide6. CHALLENGES TO THE “CLASSICAL” MODEL The same period that saw emergence of classical pattern also saw CHALLENGES to these ideas of Brahman superiority, BUDDHA, MAHAVIRA (founder of JAINISM) came from KSHATRIYA background, repudiate caste, Brahmin superiority
UPANISHADS ca. 1000 BCE even earlier
Period from circa 250 BCE to almost 700 CE (a millennium!!) is one where different empires rise and fall. Also a period when
distinct geographical cultural regions emerge
This is CRITICAL, because reflects a trend of CENTRALIZATION and DECENTRALIZATION.
Nationalists say decentralization is bad, but, really regional efflorescence. Language, cultures, political kingdoms. Only from POV of MODERN STATE, whether colonial or national, is this a bad thing.<br>
slide7. Islam “Foreign-ness” and Diversity Throughout, from about 1500 BCE at least, people coming in from NW and absorbed. Aryas, Greco-Bactrians, Huns, etc. ca. 6th century CE, Scythian immigrants became Rajputs
10-11th century saw the first group who could not be absorbed into "Hindu“ Varna system These were Muslims, own distinct ideas of religion
Central to this was idea of equality of all believers
Islam, name of religion, Muslims = followers of Islam
Sometimes termed “foreign”to India, but Islam is significantly older than Protestantism in Europe, or any form of Christianity in the Americas
British INTERPRETATION of History (justifying their own rule over India) gives us this idea
Islam adds another layer of diversity on an already diverse subcontinent<br>
slide8. The era of regional diversity, 600-1200 CE 600 - 1200 CE. Rajput lineages control the north and Cholas the south.
Earliest Muslim-ruled kingdom in SIND ca. 700 C.E.
Raids by central Asian Muslim invaders begin ca. 1000. Muslim RAIDERS like Mahmud of Ghazni, c. 900-1000 C.E.
1206 to 1526 Era of the Delhi Sultanate. Muslim ruling dynasties establish their home base in the Indian subcontinent and make the city of Delhi their capital.
SULTANS of Delhi are Muslim rulers BASED in the subcontinent unlike, e,g., Mahmud Ghazni
In structure their kingdoms are very similar to those of regional kingdoms preceding them.
Last of them defeated by BABUR in 1526.
Muslim rulers of India were not religious bigots, could not AFFORD to be (why do we have to say this?)
Conversion to Islam connected with AGRICULTURE and with RELIGIOUS work of SUFI mystics (very similar to “Hindu” Bhakti ideas) and state patronage
End of Sultanate, once again FRAGMENTATION and DECENTRALIZATION. SEE MAP, very similar to say, map around 600-700 CE!<br>