A timeline of the Indian Subcontinent

A timeline of the Indian Subcontinent/ II
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Aug 1639: The British East India Company acquires from the raja of Chandragiri its first post in India, Fort St George, near Madras/Chennai
1639: Shah Jahan begins construction of a new city, Shahjahanabad, in Delhi
1640: Holland and Portugal sign a treaty leaving most of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to Holland
1642: the Mogul construct the Shalimar water garden in Lahore
1642: Mir Jumla of Golkonda attacks the Hindu kingdoms of Karnataka
1643: Youstol Dispage Fromscaruffi dies
1646: Shivaji (Sivaji) Bhonsla, a Hindu prince, gains independence from the sultan of Bijapur around Pune
1647: the Mogul fail to invade Uzbekistan
1648: Shah Jahan inaugurates the mausoleum for Mumtaz Mahal in Agra, the Taj Mahal
1648: Shah Jahan moves the capital from Agra to Shahjahanabad (Delhi)
1649: the Vijayanagar empire dissolves
1652: Mir Jumla of Golkonda completes the conquest of the Hindu kingdoms of Karnataka
1655: Shah Jahan appoints Mir Jumla of Golkonda as the new wazir of the Mogul empire
1656: Holland captures Colombo and takes control of Portuguese Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
1657: Shah Jahan falls ill and his four sons fight a civil war (the progressive and intellectual Dara Shukoh from the capital, the conservative and integralist Aurangzeb from the Deccan, Shah Shuja from Bengal, Murad from Gujarat)
1658: Aurangzeb arrests his father Shah Jahan, wins the civil war against his three brothers, becomes the new Mogul emperor and enforces an orthodox version of Islam
1659: Shivaji (Sivaji) Bhonsla defeats Bijapur at the battle of Pratapgarh and at the battle of Kolhapur
1659: Aurangzeb forbids alcohol, gambling and prostitution in the Mughal/Mogul empire
1660: the Mogul fail to capture the Ahom kingdom
1662: England obtains Bom Bahia (Bombay/Mumbai) via king Charles II's marriage to a Portuguese princess rbr>1664: Shivaji (Sivaji) raids Surat, the busiest port of the Mogul
1664: Aurangzeb forbids the Hindu sacrifice of widows in the Mughal/Mogul empire
1668: the British acquire Bombay from Portugal as marriage dowry from Catherine of Braganza
1668: the Mogul emperor Aurangzeb orders the destruction of Hindu temples, including the Kesev Rai temple at Mathura
1668: France opens a trading post in Surat
1669: Aurangzeb orders the destruction of all Jain, Buddhist and Hindu temples
1669: The Moguls destroy the Keshavadeva temple in Mathura rbr>1670: Shivaji (Sivaji) raids again Surat
1672: France settles Chandarnagar
1674: France settles Pondicherry
1674: Having expanded his territory around Pune, Shivaji (Sivaji) founds the Maratha kingdom with capital at Raigad
1675: Mogul emperor Aurangzeb executes the Sikh guru and the Sikh stage a revolt
1679: the Rajputs rebel against Mogul emperor Aurangzeb
1680: Shivaji (Sivaji) of the Maratha kingdom dies and is succeeded by his son Shambhaji
1681: Aurangzeb's son Akbar allies with the Rajputs and rebels against his father
1686: Mogul emperor Aurangzeb conquers Bijapur, ending the Adil Shahi dynasty
1687: Mogul emperor Aurangzeb conquers Golkonda (Hyderabad)
1689: the Mogul capture and execute Shambhaji of the Maratha kingdom, who is succeeded by his brother Rajaram and by the prime minister (peshwa) Ramchandra Pant Amatya Bawdekar, while the seven-yeard old heir Shahu is jailed by the Mogul
1690: the British found Calcutta/Kolkata
1698: the Mogul defeat the Maratha at Jini but Rajaram escapes to the his capital Satara
1699: Guru Gobind Singh creates the Sikh armed wing of the Akalis
1699: Jai Singh becomes rajput of Amber in Rajastan
1700: Maratha's king Rajaram dies and is succeeded by his four-year old son Shambhaji II, with queen Tara Bai as regent
1702: the Deccan is devastated by famine and plague
1707: Aurangjeb dies, and is succeeded by his son Muazzam, with the title Bahadur Shah, who kills his brothers Azam Shah and Kam Bakhsh, while Shahu is released from jail, challenging Tara Bai for control of the Maratha kingdom, and while the Rajput Ajit Singh reconquers Jodhpur from the Mogul and bans Islam
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1709: the assassination of the Sikh guru Govind Singh starts a Sikh insurrection against the Mogul in Punjab led by the ascetic Banda
1712: Mogul emperor Bahadur Shah dies and is succeeded by his son Jahandar Shah, the protege of amir Zulfikar Khan, who becomes the new wazir
1713: the prime minister (peshwa) of Maratha, Balaji Vaishvanath, becomes the real ruler of the Maratha kingdom and the peshwa becomes a hereditary title while queen Tara Bai moves her court to Kolhapur
1713: Mogul emperor Jahandar Shah and his wazir Zulfikar Khan are overthrown by Farrukhsiyar, who becomes the new emperor, and Sayyid Abdullah Khan, who becomes the new wazir
1713: Mir Qamar-ud-Din Siddiqi, a vassal of the Mughal Empire, founds the dynasty of Hyderabad
1714: Jai Singh is appointed governor of Malwa by the Mogul
1715: Banda is captured by the Mogul and the Sikh insurrection ends
1715: Mogul emperor Farrukhsiyar marries the daughter of Ajit Singh
1715: Mogul emperor Farrukhsiyar appoints Mubariz Khan as governor of the Deccan, that becomes an autonomous state
1716: Banda is publicly executed in Delhi
1719: Mogul wazir Sayyid Abdullah Khan and his brother assassinate the Mogul emperor and install Muhammad Shah on the throne with help from Maratha peshwa Balaji Vishwanath, who obtains recognition of his independence
1719: Maratha peshwa Balaji Vishwanath dies and Shahu appoints his son Baji Rao to succeed him
1720: Mogul wazir Sayyid Abdullah Khan is overthrown and killed
1724: the Mogul governor Nizam-ul-Mulk defeats and kills Deccan governor Mubariz Khan and founds the Asaf Jahi dynasty (the Nazims) in Hyderabad
1727: Muhammad Khan seizes power in the Mogul provinces of Bengal and Orissa
1736: the Nayak dynasty ends in south India (Madurai is bought by the British)
1737: the Mogul replace Jai Singh with Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah as ruler of Malwa
1738: Persian general Nader Shah invades India and captures Delhi
1738: Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah surrenders Malwa to the Marathas
1739: Persians under Nadir Shah seize Kabul and sack Delhi and steal the Peacock Throne and the Koh-i-noor diamond
1741: Travancore sinks the Dutch fleet
1747: Ahmad Shah Duran, the Afghan commander of Nadir's bodyguard, proclaims himself the ruler of Afghanistan with capital in Kandahar and founds the Durrani dynasty
1747: Nader Shah is assassinated and the Afghans regain their independence and the Koh-i-noor
1747: Ahmad Shah Abdali, who renames himself Durrani, unites the Pashtun tribes in Kandahar while the Moghuls in India, the Safavids in Iran and the Uzbeks in Central Asia are declining, and creates an Afghani empire from Central Asia to Delhi to the Arabian sea
1749: Maratha's king Shahu dies
1751: by capturing the town of Arcot from the French, Britain becomes the leading colonial power in India
1751: The Marathas and the Mughals/Moguls sign the Ahamdiya treaty that de facto cedes the Marathas control of the whole of India from their capital at Pune
1756: The Muslim ruler of Bengal, Siraj, invades British Kalikut
1756: The Afghans of Ahmad Shah Durrani raid the Mughal capital Delhi, and de facto install their own ruler, Alamgir II, over the Mogul empire, that de jure still rules over Punjab, Sindh, and Kashmir
1757: at the battle of Plassey in Bengal the East India company defeats France and the Nawab of Bengal and installs a puppet ruler
1758: the Marathas conquer Punjab
1761: the Marathas rule over most of northern India
1761: Afghani invaders led by Ahmad Durrani defeat the Marathas at Panipat, thus starting the decline of the Maratha empire
1763: Mysore conquers the Nayakas
1764: Britain expands to Bihar
1765: Bengal revolts against the British but Britain wins and acquires more rights
1769: A famine kills ten million people in Bengal in two years
1772: Britain chooses Calcutta/Kolkata as the capital of India
1772: Afghanistan moves its capital from Kandahar to Kabul
1773: Warren Hastings, governor of Bengal (India), establishes a monopoly on the sale of opium
1774: Warren Hastings becomes the first governor of all English colonies in India
1776: the Marathas conquer Mysore
Dec 1781: The Muslim general Tipu Sultan of Mysore defeats the British army
Dec 1782: Tipu Sultan becomes the ruler of Mysore , a largely Hindu nation
1783: Oman acquires the port of Gwadar
1784: The defeated British sign the Treaty of Mangalore with the victorious ruler of Mysore, Tipu Sultan
1785: Charles Cornwallis is appointed governor of India
1786: Tippu Sahib sends emissaries to Istanbul to pay homage to the sultan as the caliph of the whole Islamic world
1789: For the first time the British employ Indian soldiers abroad, in Sumatra
1793: Britain's "Permanent Settlement" establishes fixed rates for rural taxes and ruins the Muslim elite while favoring the Hindu merchants
1794: the Marathas conquer Delhi
1795: The East India Company conquers Travancore
1796: Holland cedes Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to Britain
1797: Richard Wellesley is appointed governor of India
1798: Richard Wellesley becomes governor of British India
May 1799: Britain conquers Mysore and kills Tipu at the battle of Seringapatam
1799: the Sikh maharaja Ranjit Singh establishes the Sikh kingdom in Punjab, Kashmir and Jammu with political capital in Lahore and religious capital in Amritsar
1800: The British employ Indian soldiers in Egypt
1803: Britain takes Delhi from the Marathas
1803: British governor Wellesley builds an opulent government house in Kolkata/Calcutta
1806: Indians led by Tipu's sons revolt against the British in Vellore
1815: Britain annexes the kingdom of Kandy and unifies the whole of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and begins ferrying Tamil workers from India
1816: Nepal becomes a British protectorate
1819: Dost Muhammad founds new branch of the Durrani dynasty in Afghanistan
1820: China and India account for about half of the world's GDP
1824: Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi returns to India from Mecca and settles in the Northwest Provinces
1830: Shah Shuja, the deposed ruler of Afghanistan, flees with the Koh-i-noor diamond and gives it to the Sikh ruler of Punjab, Ranjit Singh, in exchange for his alliance
1831: Sayyid Ahmad is killed but inspires the Tariqa-i Muhammadi movement of Islamic revival, while his Bengali follower Titu Mir is also killed by the police
1832: Four men who were planning to murder Europeans in Bangalore are brutally executed by Britain
1834: The Sikh empire captures Peshawar from Afghanistan
1837/font>: The Mughal abolish Persian as the official language of the court
Dec 1838: Britain invades Afghanistan in theory to expel Iran that has taken Herat
1839: Opium represents 40% of India's exports
1839: Britain invades the Durrani kingdom (Afghanistan) and installs a new ruler
1840: India produces 20 times more opium than it did in 1783
Oct 1842: Britain withdraws from Afghanistan and Dost Muhammad is restored to power
1843: British general Charles Napier invades and annexes Sind
1843: Britain withdraws from Afghanistan and Dost Muhammad regains his throne
1845: Britain fights a campaign against the Sikhs in India
Mar 1846: Britain defeats the Singh and installs Gulab Singh Dogra as governor of Kashmir, a mostly Muslim state
1847: Roorkee is established as the first engineering college of the British Empire
1848: Britain fights a second campaign against the Sikhs in India
1849: Britain annexes the Sikh kingdom of Punjab and seizes the Koh-i-noor
1853: the British build the first Indian railway
May 1857: Bengali soldiers launch the "Indian Mutiny", the first war of independence, and conquer Delhi
Jun 1857: Nana Sahib, aiming at restoring the Maratha confederacy under the Peshwa tradition, attacks the British at Cawnpore and kills more than 100 civilians ("Bibighar massacre")
Sep 1857: The British reconquer Delhi killing thousands of Indian civilians
Jun 1858: The last Moghul/Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, is deposed by the British
Aug 1858: The East India Company is dissolved and power on the Indian colony is transferred to the British government under a viceroy, Charles Canning
1860: Indenture is abolished in British India
1862: Bahadur Shah II dies, the Mogul dynasty ends and India becomes a British colony
Mar 1862: James Elgin succeeds Canning as viceroy of India
Nov 1863: Robert Napier succeeds Elgin as viceroy of India
Jan 1864: John Lawrence is appointed viceroy of India
1866: A group of Muslim scholars from Delhi sets up the Deoband School, a Wahhabi-like madrasa at Deoband, north of the former Mughal capital
1868: Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata establishes a trading company dealing in cotton in Bombay/ Mumbai
Jan 1869: Richard Mayo succeeds John Lawrence as viceroy of India
Feb 1872: Richard Mayo is assassinated and John Strachey becomes viceroy of India
May 1872: Thomas Northbrook is appointed viceroy of India
1875: Sayyid Ahmad Khan founds the Mohammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligah, teaching both Islamic and Western subjects, that would produce the future Muslim political leaders of India
Apr 1876: Robert Bulwer-Lytton becomes viceroy of India
Sep 1876: Queen Victoria proclaims herself empress of India and takes the Koh-i-noor at the Imperial Assemblage in Delhi while millions of Indians are starving to death
Sep 1878: Britain invades Afghanistan to repel Russian expansionism
Sep 1879: Afghanistan cedes Balochistan including Quetta and the eastern Pashtun lands (the future Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, or FATA) to Britain
1879: Britain invades Afghanistan which becomes, de facto, a British colony
1880: Afghan king Abdul Rehman creates the country's first standing army and brutally puts down rebellions by ethnic minorities
Jun 1880: George Ripon becomes viceroy of India
1881: Britain withdraws from Afghanistan having obtained control of Afghanistan's foreign policy in exchange for protection
1882: Mirza Ghulam Ahmed founds in Punjab the Islamic missionary movement of the Ahmedis who oppose jihad, believe that Jesus died in Srinagar and call for a non-violent Islam
1883: Ripon allows Indian judges to try Europeans (Ilbert Bill)
Dec 1884: Fred Dufferin becomes viceroy of India replacing the much beloved Ripon
Mar 1885: The Indian National Congress is founded by Allan Hume
Mar 1889: Mirza Ghulam founds the Ahmadiyya religious movement in Pakistan
1893: Gandhi moves to South Africa
1893: Afghanistan and British India agree on a border splitting the Pashtun territories between them (the "Durand Line")
1893: Hindu-Muslim riots leave more than 100 people dead in western India, the Northwestern Provinces and Bihar
Oct 1894: James Elgin succeeds Dufferin as viceroy of India
1896: Plague in Mumbai and Pune
1896: A famine kills about one million people in two years
Jan 1899: George Curzon succeeds Elgin as viceroy of India
1902: Pramath Nath Mitra founds the independence movement Anushilan Samity in Kolkata
1904: Vinayak Savarkar founds the secret society Abhinav Bharat Society to fight British occupation
1905: Curzon partitions Bengal into a Hindu and a Muslim regions, causing agitation by the Hindus and a split of the National Congress between Bal Tilak's violent wing and Gopal Gokhale's peaceful wing
1905: Shyamji Krishna Varma establishes in London the India House for Indian nationalists living in Britain
1906: The All-India Muslim League is founded by Mohammed Ali Jinnah
Apr 1906: Barin Ghosh forms the Jugantar party advocating violent struggle for independence
Jul 1908: Tilak is arrested by the British
1910: Vinayak Savarkar is arrested by the British
Dec 1911: A new city built by the British, New Delhi, Muslim in character, replaces Calcutta as capital of British India
1911: Bengal is reunited, causing agitation among the Muslims
1912: A Muslim bomb almost kills the British viceroy
1913: Tagore becomes the first Nobel laureate of Asia
1913: Lala Har-Dayal and Sohan Singh Bhakna establish in the USA the Ghadar movement, an Indian independence movement for Indians living in the USA
1913: Dadasaheb Phalke produces the first Indian film
1913: Muslims riot against the British at the Kanpur mosque
1914: Gandhi returns from South Africa
1914: The British reallocate Tawang from Tibet to India
1915: Gokhale dies and Gandhi succeeds him as the leader of the National Congress
1916: The Lucknow Pact unites the Congress and the League in their fight for independence from Britain
1916: The Dravidian separatist South Indian Liberal Federation ("Justice Party", later renamed Dravidar Kazhagam) is founded
1917: Edwin-Samuel Montagu is appointed secretary of state for India and champions India's independence
1917: Rabindranath Tagore's essay "Nationalism"
1917: Mahatma Gandhi founds the non-violent liberation movement Satyagraha
1918: Muslims riot against the British in Kolkata
Apr 1919: British troops massacre 379 peaceful demonstrators in Amritsar (Punjab), the beginning of large-scale riots in India
1919: Afghanistan gains independence from Britain under Khan Amanullah
1919: All India Muslim League's president Maulana Mohammad Ali Jouhar founds the Khalifat Conference with the aim of restoring the Ottoman Empire
1921: Jawaharlal Nehru is arrested for civil disobedience
1921: The population of India is 306 million
1921: The Soviet Union, Iran, Turkey and Britain sign treaties with Afghanistan accepting its independence
1921: only 13% of Indian men and 1.8% of Indian women can read and write
1921: Radhakumud Mookerji's "Nationalism In Hindu Culture"
1921: 156,000 British citizens rule over 306 million Indian subjects
1921: Muslims riot in India and more than 300 people die
Feb 1922: Protesters attack a police station in Chauri Chaura killing 22 policemen
1922: Gandhi is imprisoned following terrorist acts against the British
1923: Vinayak Savarkar publishes "Hindutva", a manifesto of Hindu nationalism
1923: Britain recognises Nepal's independence
1923: Afghanistan adopts its first constitution under Khan Amanullah who introduces antireligious and pro-western laws
1924: Gandhi is released from jail
1925: The Hindu nationalist movement Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in central India
1925: Erode Venkata Ramasamy founds the Self-Respect Movement to abolish castes and for the independence of Dravidian South India
Dec 1925: The Communist Party of India is founded by Manabendra Nath Roy and others
1927: Maulana Muhammad Ilyas of the Chisti Sufi order founds in India the Tablighi, up a missionary movement to spread orthodox Islam worldwide
1928: Subhash Chandra Bose founds the Bengal Volunteers to fight the British
1928: The Girni Kamgar Union organizes the first major textile strike in Bombay, which lasts for six months
1929: Afghanistan's Amanullah is deposed in a coup and Nadir replaces him
Feb 1929: Muslims riot against the British in Mumbai
1929: Buta Singh founds the spiritual movement Sant Nirankari Mission in Delhi
1930: Allama Iqbal calls for a separate homeland for the Muslims of India comprising Northwest Provinces, Sind, Baluchistan and Punjab
1930: Surya Sen organizes a guerrilla attack in Chittagong that kills 80 soldiers
Jun 1930: Ten days of riots between Hindus and Muslims in Dacca/Dhaka
1930: Britain has built more than 67,000 kms of railway in India
1931: New Delhi is formally inaugurated
1931: Nadir conquers Herat and unifies Afghanistan
1932: The Congress Party declares "civil disobedience" against the British and the British arrest all its leaders
1933: Choudhury Rehmat Ali coins the term Pakistan ("land of the pure) to denote the country of Punjabi, Afghani, Kashmiri, Sindi and Balochistani people
1933: Guerrilla leader Surya Sen is captured
1933: Nadir Shah is assassinated and his son Zahir Shah becomes king of Afghanistan
1935: Britain makes Burma a separate colony from India
1937: First elections are held in India, won by Congress, a defeat for the Muslim League
1937: Afghanistan adopts Pashto as its official language instead of Farsi
1939: 15% of India's population is literate
1939: Britain enters World War II but this time Indians do not join the war effort
1939: Erode Venkata Ramasamy becomes the leader of South India's separatist Justice Party
1940: The population of British India is 280 million
1940: Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, a Brahman, becomes the new leader of the Hindu nationalist RSS in India
Mar 1940: Jinnah proclaims at the Muslim League Conference in Lahore that Muslims constitute a separate nation in India, i.e. Pakistan
1941: Syed Abul A'ala Maududi founds Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic party
Aug 1942: Following the "Quit India" speech by Gandhi, activists such as Jayaprakash Narayan organize a "Quit India" campaign against the British that leaves 300 people dead, and Nehru is arrested
1942: Nehru replaced Gandhi as the recognized leader of the National Congress party
1943: 3.5 million people die of starvation in India's Bengal
1944: Gandhi is released from prison
1945: Tata Motors is established in Bombay/Mumbai to build locomotives for India
Jun 1945: Nehru is released from jail
Jan 1946: The Naga National Council is formed to promote the independence of the Naga people of northeast India
Feb 1946: Units of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny against the British (223 people are killed)
May 1946: Sheikh Abdullah launches the "Quit Kashmir" movement against the Maharajah of Kashmir
Aug 1946: Within four months riots between Muslims and Hindus kill 4,000 people in Calcutta and 1,000 in Bombay/Mumbai
Nov 1946: Hindus kill 150 Muslims in Bihar, India
1946: Homi Bhabha sets up the Tata Institute for scientific research (TIFR) in Bombay/Mumbai

World News | History | Editor