Mail to poligny@webear.com Last updated on Enero 27, 2000
Touristic Countries

Copyright Poligny 1997/2000
sept/oct Indian Elections. informations on Indian elections sept 1999
INDIA
Probably the most interesting country in the world to visit if you like monuments and a very ancient civilization, it is so different from our occidental civilization that you will keep an unforgettable souvenir of it.

INDIA IS: the world second nation in population 1000m (1999, about 1/6 of the world figure), creators of Buddhism and Induism, have exploded their own atomic bomb, one of the worlds oldest and greatest civilization was around 2700BC similar in development to contemporary cultures in Mesopotamia, the worlds largest movies producer, has its own silicon valey in Bombay, it is the worlds 6th nation in surface, 2000kms wide and 2800kms high.

The Himalaya chain at the north, as young a formation as European Alps has as them the highest peak for the continent, mount Everest, which you can climb or ski not far away.

Man arrived first to this subcontinent between 400,000 and 200,000 years ago. From then on but primarely since some 5000 years ago many different etnic groups invaded India. It is believed that the first inhabitants where the tiny black people (negritos) who were pushed south by the diferent invaders. In the Indus valey there were the Harappa civilization similar to the one of Tiger and Euphratus but was overthown around 1500BC by Aryan invaders from the Iranian plateau. The Caste sistem, a class division still present today started from then. In the northeastern region around years 500BC the religious systems known as Jainism and Buddhism were founded.

In 326BC, Alexander The Great invaded the Indus valey with Macedonian troops. He later retrieted because of the discontentment of his troops. From then on we can mention the Maurya Dynasy which started shortly after Alexander retrieval and after that the Gupta dynasty (320-540AD). Then came the Indian medieval period with many invasions and an isolation from the more advanced civilization of the Arabs and the Chinese.

Cultural unity was encouraged by shrines and pilgrimages. There were hundreds of Kings and Maharajas and a countinous change of size of possesions was the rule.

Then there was the first of the Mogul dynasty, Babur, a highly cultured man from Persia. Under the Moguls, India improved its way of living. The gratest of the Moguls, Akbar, designed, like Napoleon, an administrative machinery that still partially exists today.His grandson, Shah Jahan, built a magnificent tomb for his beloved wife (the TAJ MAHAL). It is one of the worlds pretiest monuments. He had planed to buit an equivalent tomb for himself but unfortunately for him and even more for us he died to soon and is now buried near the tomb of his wife.

During the 16th century portugueze (Vasco da Gama 1498) and Dutch tried to colonize India. The Dutch fonded the Dutch East India Company the same was done by the British with he British East India Company and finaly by the French with the French East India Company. After a while war took place between the French And British (Seven Year War) in India and the British remained the largest company as they had a better navy and a more elaborated funding system.

When The Company began to be suspected of problems of corruption, the English Parliament passed the regulating Act of 1773 and Hastings became Governor- General (73-85). Lord Cornwallis (86-93) established the British Code to make governing possible.

In 1885 the Indian National Congress was formed by A.O. Hume, and was an elitist and moderate constitutional lobby. However it was a positive move to search for independence.

During the 1914'1918 Ist world war India supported England with troops but were afterwards disapointed that the Brittons were rejecting for always later the independence of India. The cohabitation became more dificult after the Brittish passed laws restricting political activity and after British troops killed indian civilians at Amritsar.

The MAHATMA (large soul) GANDHY introduced after that the very successful techniques of passive resistance and civil desobedience. During world war II the Congress insisted that Britain leave India. When Indian did not cooperate to repell the Japanese attack on them in 1942 the British closed the Congress and arrested many leaders. Some extreme Indian nationalists even fought on the Japanese side in Burma and India.

Finished the war, Britain agreed to Indian independence, which took place in august 1947 and 83% of its poeple follow the Induistic religion. Pakistan, which was created to avoid religious war as a muslim nation became independant at the same time. 5 months later an extremist assasinated Mahatma Gandhi because he considered him not hard enough with the muslims.

Jawaharlal Nehru ,a nationalist prime minister, governed India from 1947 and remained in post until his death in 1964. He tried to make India self sufficient and was the founder of the nonalined foreign policy in times when the cold war was raging.

Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, also a nationalist and surprisingly a strong hand, followed her father in office , explode the first atomic bomb in 1974. In 1977 Indira suddenly called new elections and lost her position. But she regained it later and in june 1984 decided to invade the Golden Temple at Amritsar by indian troops to get out the Siks; in october 1984 her own Sikh bodyguard assasinated her.

Indira's son, formerly non politically inclined, Rajiv Gandhy, became prime minister as his party won the dec. 1984 elections. He made a government of young tecnocrats but there were later suspicions of corruption and his party lost majority in nov. 1989 elections and he had to resign. Still out of office, in may 1991 his assasination shocked the world and the nation.

The Tajmajal

The Tajmahal Tumb of a Maharaja's wife.
Ladakh is a launching point for treks through India’s Himalaya

Photographs of India from a french traveler.

DESCRIPTION OF Indian Places
Lots of turistic information about INDIA.
Visit Pondichery in french and english.
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