WWWORLD A FFAIRS I NSTITUTE Community Service Project of Rotary International and World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh IIINDIA ATATAT CENTER S TAGE A BA B ACKGROUND P APER FOR S TUDENT D ELEGATES TOTOTO THE TTTHIRTY ---SIXTH A NNUAL WWWORLD A FFAIRS I NSTITUTE PPPITTSBURGH , P, P ENNSYLVANIA NNNOVEMBER 15, 2006 WORLD A FFAIRS C OUNCIL OF P ITTSBURGH 2640 O NE M ELLON C ENTER • 500 G RANT S TREET • P ITTSBURGH , PA 15219-4406 412-281-7970 • FAX 412-281-1795 E-MAIL : WELCOME @WORLDAFFAIRSPITTSBURGH .ORG • WWW .WORLDAFFAIRSPITTSBURGH .ORG © 2006 W ORLD A FFAIRS C OUNCIL OF P ITTSBURGH Reprinted with permission. IIINDIA ATATAT CENTER S TAGE IIINTRODUCTION A R ICH AND D IVERSE H ISTORY “At the dawn of history India started on her unending Those “who wear cotton clothes, use the decimal quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving system, enjoy the taste of [curried] chicken, play and the grandeur of her success and her failures. chess, or roll dice, and seek peace of mind or We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers tranquility through meditation are indebted to India.” herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is ~ Historian Stanley Wolpert but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us.” The Indian subcontinent is home to one of the ancient ~ Jawaharlal Nehru world’s great civilizations. Extensive urbanization and trade began in the Indus River Valley 5,000 years ago. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, uttered Over the next five millennia, India and other parts of these words as part of his famous “Tryst with Destiny” South Asia were ruled by various empires. As successive speech on the eve of India’s independence from Britain in rulers assimilated prior populations, a rich and diverse August 1947. The words could just have easily been array of cultures, ideas, traditions, and technologies was spoken today. Then, as now, India finds itself at a formed. Many of India’s current societal, cultural, and defining moment in its history. religious beliefs and practices can trace their origins to the South Asian civilizations that prospered and thrived After decades of being all but ignored by the rest of the world, centuries ago. India now finds itself the center of attention. Along with China, India is the investment destination of choice for More recent history has shaped India’s current political, multinational corporations, especially those based in the U.S. economic, and foreign policies. Part of the legacy of New Delhi, the capital of India, has become a revolving door British rule is a set of democratic institutions that have of foreign leaders, each one eager to form a “strategic been wholly embraced within Indian political culture. That partnership” with India. In a word, India’s got buzz. legacy, however, also created an Indian ruling class initially distrustful of Western countries and, in particular, But is that buzz justified? Despite its impressive track record their capitalistic economies. After gaining independence of economic growth over the last decade, India remains a in 1947, Indian leaders were determined to chart a country with high levels of poverty, millions of illiterate different course. citizens, and insufficient infrastructure. The good news is that India has a number of important assets: a young workforce; a stable, democratic government; talented, ambitious An Ancient Civilization entrepreneurs; and a resilient population. Signs of human activity in India date back to the The transformation of India that began 15 years ago is far Paleolithic Age, roughly between 400,000 and 200,000 from complete. How and whether India completes that B.C. It was not until 3,000 B.C., however, that a transformation will affect all of us who live in our sophisticated civilization, known as the Harappan, increasingly integrated and interdependent global appeared in the Indus River Valley, in what is now community. modern-day Pakistan. Over the next several thousand years, India was subsumed in various empires through a series of PPPUTTING I NDIA ON THE MAPAPAP migrations and invasions. By the end of the first century B.C., South Asia was a patchwork of trade routes and an India is located in South Asia, a region that encompasses amalgamation of cultures. Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives, Bhutan, Bangla- desh, and Afghanistan. India is surrounded by water on The next few centuries, India’s so-called “Golden Age,” three sides: the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the saw significant achievements in religion, education, Indian Ocean. It shares its extensive northern border with Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar mathematics, art, and drama. The religion that would (Burma). India is a little more than one-third the size of the later develop into modern Hinduism began to take shape United States. during this period. India is home to 1.1 billion people and, within the next few Another religion that would play a key role in the history of decades, is expected to overtake China to become the modern India—Islam—was introduced to the region in most populous country on earth. The country is divided 711 A.D. when Arab military forces established an Indo- into 28 states and 7 Union Territories. It has 16 official Muslim state in what is now Pakistan. Islamic rule on the languages and over 1,650 dialects. All of the world’s ma- subcontinent strengthened and expanded over the next jor religions are represented in India, although the vast few centuries, reaching its zenith during the Mughal majority of the population is Hindu. Empire (1526-1857). © 2006 W ORLD A FFAIRS C OUNCIL OF P ITTSBURGH On August 8, 1942, Gandhi launched the “Quit India” Arrival of the Europeans movement calling for the immediate independence of It was during the reign of the Mughals that Europeans India. It would take five years, and the ravages of a world arrived in India. The Portuguese were first, with explorer war, to convince the British that the time had come to Vasco da Gama landing in southern India in 1498. The grant India its freedom. On August 15, 1947, an British, through the East India Company, followed suit in independent India was born. the early 1600s. A little more than a century later, Britain had become the preeminent military and economic power The Partition of India in India. On Independence Day, British Colonial India was In 1857, a series of rebellions in northern and central partitioned into two countries: secular India (with a Hindu India seriously threatened British authority on the majority) and Muslim Pakistan. Pakistan consisted of two subcontinent. Although the British successfully quashed areas—East Pakistan (which in 1971 became the rebellion, it marked a major turning point in British- Bangladesh) and West Pakistan, geographically Indian relations. separated by 1,500 miles of Indian Territory. India came under direct rule of the British Crown (as This forced partition had disastrous consequences as opposed to the East India Company), and British attitudes millions of Hindu and Muslim refugees fled either Pakistan and practices shifted from cultural engagement to or India. An estimated one million people died in the insularity and xenophobia. Gone were the days of wake of communal conflict that arose following partition, Company employees living freely among Indians, and countless millions of people were uprooted. familiarizing themselves with Indian customs and languages, and even inter-marrying. After the rebellion in The Kashmir Issue the 1850s, the British withdrew into their own enclaves and were increasingly physically and culturally segregated Kashmir abuts both India and Pakistan. At the time of from their colonial subjects. partition, it had a Hindu ruler and a predominantly Muslim population. India and Pakistan each lobbied the ruler to join their respective countries. Before the ruler could The Road to Independence decide what to do, a rebellion broke out in southern In 1885, the Indian National Kashmir. The ruler appealed to India for assistance, while Congress (INC) was formed. Pakistan sent in troops to support the rebels. Its original goal was simply to The Indian army quelled the rebellion, and the ruler chose increase participation of its members—Western-educated, to accede to India, provided, however, that a plebiscite be held so that the Kashmiris could decide for themselves professional elites—in the civil whether to stay with India or to join Pakistan. India service. The INC was not initially opposed to British rule. referred the matter to the United Nations (UN) for By the early 1900s, however, adjudication. The UN resolved that Pakistan had to the INC had evolved into a withdraw its troops, India had to draw down its forces, and true political organization and a plebiscite must be held. To this day, none of the UN’s had become increasingly resolutions has been acted upon. involved in the growing Since 1947, India and Pakistan have fought three wars Mahatma Gandhi independence movement. over Kashmir and related matters, none of which has With its expanding base of support, the INC claimed to resolved the Kashmir issue. represent all of India. In fact, the INC represented only Hindu Indians. Accordingly, in 1909, Muslim Indians TTTHEHEHE WORLD ’’’SSS L ARGEST D EMOCRACY created the All-India Muslim League, whose goal was the creation of a separate and independent Muslim state. “Democracy is a great institution and, therefore, In 1920, Mohandas (also known as Mahatma) Gandhi, a it is liable to be greatly abused.” leading Indian activist, took over leadership of the INC. ~ Mahatma Gandhi That same year, Gandhi instituted his campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience, urging Indians to boycott On January 26, 1950, the constitution for the newly British institutions and products, resign from government independent India took effect, thereby creating the world’s employment, and refuse to pay taxes.