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| Official name: Republic of India (also known as Bharat, local-language
name) Head of State: President Aavul Pakkiri Jainulabidin Abdul Kalam (elected by the national and state parliaments, sworn in 25 Jul 2002) Head of government: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (sworn in 22 May 2004) Ruling party: Coalition government led by the Indian National Congress (Congress) (elected Apr/May 2004) Area: 3,287,590 square km Population: 1.09 billion (2004) Capital: New Delhi Official language: Hindi and English; 15 other languages are recognised for official use in regional areas. Currency: (Rs) = 100 paisa Exchange rate: Rs45.06 per US$ (Nov 2004) GDP per capita: US$539 (2003) GDP real growth: 7.40% (2003) Labour force: 406.00 million (2003) Unemployment: 9.10% (2003) Inflation: 4.60% (2003) Oil production: 793,000 bpd (2003) Balance of trade: -US$16.71 billion (2003) Foreign debt: US$100.60 billion (2003) Annual FDI: US$4.00 billion (2003) |
Historical profile
1200 The start of five-and-a-half centuries of Muslim rule over the region,
beginning with the Sultanate era.
1757 The region gradually came under the influence of British rule after the battle of Plassey.
1858 India came under the direct rule of the British crown after a failed mutiny.
1885 The Indian National Congress was founded by Indian nationalists.
1920s Nationalist leader, Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi, launched a campaign of civil disobedience against British rule.
1942 Congress launched its 'Quit India' campaign.
1947 The Union of India was granted independence by Britain. Hundreds of thousands died during communal violence following independence. Jawaharlal Nehru of the Congress became India's first prime minister. The Hindu ruler of Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir joined secular India rather than Islamic Pakistan when the subcontinent was partitioned at the end of British rule. India and Pakistan went to war in Kashmir. A peace agreement was signed.
1948 Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fundamentalist.
1950 India became a republic. It remained a member of the Commonwealth. The constitution of India was adopted. France transferred sovereignty of Chandernagore to India.
1954 France ceded its four remaining Indian settlements (Pondicherry, Yanam, Mahe and Karaikal).
1961 Indian forces overran the Portuguese territories of Goa, Daman and Diu and they were annexed by India.
1962 India lost a border war with China.
1964 Nehru died and was succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri.
1965 India and Pakistan fought a second war over Kashmir.
1966 Shastri died and Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, became prime minister.
1971 India-Pakistan war over east Pakistan (later Bangladesh). A Treaty of Friendship was signed with the Soviet Union.
1974 India exploded its first nuclear device in underground tests.
1975 Indira Gandhi was found guilty of instigating electoral malpractice and was barred from office.
1977 Congress lost elections for the first time.
1980 Indira Gandhi was reinstated as prime minister heading a Congress splinter group, Congress (Indira). There followed years of widespread political and religious disturbances in several states.
1984 Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguard after troops stormed the Golden Temple, the Sikhs' most holy shrine, to arrest Sikh separatists. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, was sworn in as prime minister. Widespread violence continued.
1987 India deployed peace-keeping troops in Sri Lanka.
1989 After an election in which over 100 people died, VP Singh was sworn in as prime minister. His government was the first minority government in Indian history.
1990 The Indian army opened fire in Srinagar during a protest against a crackdown on separatism, killing 38 and giving impetus to rebel campaigns. Singh resigned in November. Chandra Shekhar was sworn in as prime minister. Indian troops withdrew from Sri Lanka. Muslim separatists, trained and armed by Pakistan, began a campaign of violence in Kashmir.
1991 Shekhar resigned, and the reformist government of PV Narashima Rao came to power. Rajiv Gandhi, the former prime minister, was assassinated by Sri Lankan Tamil separatists while electioneering.
1996 Following the general elections, the post-independence Nehru/Gandhi dynasty came to an end with the defeat of Congress. The largest single party in parliament became the Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) (Indian Nationalist Party), which attempted and failed to form a government, after which the United Front (UF), a 13-party coalition, succeeded.
1997 Kocheril Raman Narayanan became India's tenth president, after five years as vice president. He was the first Dalit (untouchable) to become president. The UF government was toppled after Congress withdrew its support in the lower house.
1998 A coalition government led by the BJP was formed and Atal Behari Vajpayee was appointed prime minister. India and Pakistan each conducted underground nuclear tests, leading to widespread international condemnation and US sanctions.
1999 Prime Minister Vajpayee made a historic bus ride to Pakistan for a peace summit with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Vajpayee lost a confidence vote, but was reaffirmed, following general elections. Pakistan and India fought a brief war in Kargil in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
2000 India celebrated the birth of its one billionth citizen. New states – Chattisgarh (part of Madhya Pradesh), Uttaranchal (in the north) and Jharkand (part of the eastern state of Bihar) – were created.
2001 The US lifted sanctions on Pakistan and India as a reward for supporting its attacks on Afghanistan. There was an unsuccessful terrorist attack on India's parliament. It was thought that the terrorists were trained in Pakistan. India demanded that Pakistan should act against the terrorist groups, and imposed sanctions on Pakistan.
2002 Rebels thought to be from Pakistan attacked an Indian army camp in Kashmir, killing more than 30 people. India threatened retaliation and moved hundreds of thousands of soldiers to the border with Pakistan. The tension eased when India lifted its five-month ban on direct flights to Pakistan and ordered its naval battleships back to port. A P J Abdul Kalam was sworn in as president.
2003 India and China reached a de facto agreement over the status of Tibet and Sikkim in a cross-border trade agreement. Fifty people were killed in two bomb blasts in Bombay. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government defeated a no-confidence motion. The Indian and Pakistani armies began a cease-fire across the LoC dividing the disputed state of Kashmir and the Himalayan glacier of Siachen – the first formal cease-fire since an insurgency began in Kashmir 14 years ago.
2004 Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Pakistan in January on his first visit since 1999, for a meeting with President Musharraf. In their first talks with the Indian government, Kashmiri separatist leaders agreed on 22 January that all violence in the Himalayan region should stop. The Indian National Congress (Congress), led by Sonia Gandhi, unexpectedly won the April/May parliamentary elections, ousting the ruling BJP-led alliance; Prime Minister Vajpayee (BJP) resigned on 14 May. The premiership was turned down by Sonia Gandhi. On 22 May, Manmohan Singh was named as prime minister. In December, an earthquake in the Indian ocean caused a tsunami that devastated coastal areas in the region.
2005 The countries affected by the tsunami were as far afield as Tanzania and Somalia but the south-east Indian state of Tamil Nadu, close to the epicentre, reported many had died. An accurate death toll is unlikely ever to be known, estimates for Indian deaths at the end January puts the figure at over 16,410, dead or missing, of which an estimated 3,000 were from the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands. India assumed full responsibility for relief and welfare in their territories, as a worldwide response to the tragedy saw the combined efforts of governments and citizens donating millions of dollars to relief funds in an attempt to ameliorate the suffering of the victims.
Despite an attack by Islamic militants, the first bus-link for 57 years between
divided India- and Pakistan-held Kashmir commenced on 8 April. The Pakistani
cricket team returned victorious in May from its first tour of India in six
years; diplomatic relations between the two countries were boosted by the tour.
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