Editing India (section)

==Indian History==
The Indian subcontinent has a history spanning some 5000 years which puts it next to long-runner heavyweights like Egypt or China. The history of the place can roughly be divided into a period before the 10th century AD when the various cultures were developing independently and then after the 900s when the islamic invasions happened and India was under the boots of several waves of foreign conquerors before finally gaining it's independence in the decolonization period post WW2. So buckle up as we take a walk through these five millenia.

*'''Neolithic Period''' (6000 - 3300 BC) - Human habitation in the area has been confirmed as far back as 33000 BC though it took until around 6000s before permanent habitation and agriculture would develop. The general area west of India near the border with Pakistan and within Pakistan itself is one of the so-called 'cradles of civilization' where early humans could live and develop on easy-mode and so the settlers there inhabited a valley with a system of rivers that provided fertile land for farming while being cradled safely by the mountains at their western border which kept those pesky barbarian bands at bay. This all culminated with the eventual rise of the Indus Valley Civilization.
*'''Bronze Age''' (3300 - 1800 BC) - This is where shit gets real and interesting as we proceed from typical stone-banging cavemen to a proper [[Bronze Age]] civilization - The Indus Valley Civilization. It was a contemporary of the Egyptians and the Sumerians while being the most expansive of the three and also actively trading with the Sumerians. The cities of this era are notable for the high degree of urban planning and infrastructure (sewers, drainages and waterworks) while also having buildings made of baked brick and being well versed in metallurgy (sans iron). The most notable and important cities are Rakhigarhi, Harappa and the famed Mohenjo-Daro - with an average population of 30-60k EACH, these were the veritable metropolises of Bronze Age India. The civilization started to decline after several earthquakes and general climate shift disrupted the many river that the large cities and conurbations were dependent on, ushering in a familiar pattern of cities getting abandoned as people fucked off to the countryside where there was food and less desparate people to contend with.
*'''Iron Age''' (1800 - 200 BC) - This period overlaps with the “Vedic Period,” where Indian culture starts to solidify, particularly with religion, the caste system, and the many different political domains. Hinduism becomes the dominant religion, though it’s chief rival Buddhism also crops up. Towards the end, Alexander’s short-lived invasion of India brings the subcontinent in contact with Europe for the first time, bringing with it Greek influences in the arts and even in Buddhist thought. This is also the era where Sanskrit is first developed, which is one of the oldest languages still in use today.
*'''Classical Period''' (200 BC - 650 AD) - Contact with Europe via the Roman Empire continued, as India flourished under the Gupta empire, which would set the standard for how later Indian kingdoms would be run. Major advances take place in architecture, mathematics, medicine, and classical Sanskrit Literature, when Sanskrit is finally written down after Brahmic script was invented. India gets consolidated into two large empires - the Gupta Empire and later Harsha Empire which both collapse and usher in the indian version of the Age of Strife/Romance of the Three Kingdoms callet the Tripartite Struggle/Kannauj Triangle Wars.
*'''Early Medieval Period''' (650 - 1200) - After the collapse of the major indian empires of Gupta and Harsha, [[image:1024px-Khajuraho_-_Kandariya_Mahadeo_Temple.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The good 'ol days.]]India went into a period where three polities - Pratihara Empire, the Pala Empire and the Rashtrakuta Empire engaged in a prolonged conflict that eventually saw the Partiharas victorious and rulers of central India until the islamic conquests. Far from being a time on constant struggle, this period also marked the high-point of indian civilization as some of India's finest art was made during this time and the development of what will become the main spiritual and philosophical systems in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism also took place.
*'''Late Medieval Period''' (1200 - 1526) - India fell under Muslim rule by the Delhi Sultanate.  However, they were continuously threatened by the Chagatai Khanate to their north.  Towards the very end of their rule a small new religion, something of a hybrid of Islam and Hinduism emerged called Sikhism.  They're important.
*'''Early Modern Period''' (1526 - 1858) - Goddamn Mongolians.  One of Genghis's descendants named Babur was kicked off his land in the steppe, decided he had nothing to lose, and invaded India.  They did really well at first, some rulers were pretty much A-OK with Hindu subjects, but then they ran into the Sikhs; a dickhead named Aurangzeb gets Non-Muslims oppressed, some massacres happen, and before you know it the whole of India spends about two hundred years at war.  Not continuously, and not always between the same people, but between the Mughals, Hindis, Muslims, and Sikhs, everyone had someone they wanted dead.  On top of this, the coast was SWARMING with English, French, Dutch, Danish, and Portuguese, and nobody approved of that.  In the 1700's, Kanhoji Angre went on a huge privateering spree that made him the world's most successful pirate ''admiral'' and chased Europe away from India for a few decades.  By the mid 19th century the Sikhs were on top thanks to General Nalwa, who was being spoken of as an equal to Napoleon or Washington.  Then the English defeat him, and expand governance of the East India Company over the country. This culminates until the mutiny of 1857, which resulted from dozens of reasons that we won't go into here.
*'''The British Raj''' (1858 - 1947) - After the Rebellion of 1857, India is placed under direct rule of the British. This does little to stop the establishment of political parties favoring independence. India receives infrastructure upgrades from the British, and is highly integrated into the British economy, serving admirably in both World Wars. Following the war, a political figure named Mahatma Gandhi invents the modern-day practice of Civil Disobedience, gaining massive support for the Indian independence movement and influencing civil rights movements in other parts of the world. This period is one of the skubiest eras in indian history and suffice it to say that Churchill is seen by some as going so far as to commit genocide against Indians, and we will leave it at that.
*'''Modern Period''' (1947 - 20XX) - You are here! India gained independence shortly after WWII, but was soon wracked by internal division between Muslims and Hindus, resulting in the Indo-Pakistani war and subsequent formation of Pakistan.  The Soviet Union backed the Pakistanis, but India overlooked a lot of this and even bought some Russian hardware of their own in order to maintain their very deliberately neutral stance on the Cold War.  This accelerated after the Sino-Indian border war in the Himalayas; as America worked to splinter China from the Soviets, India's animosity with China inclined them to seek favor with Russia. Also worth mentioning is that India's first prime minister Nehru made some substantial steps in moving the country forward - giving greater rights to downtrodden castes and expanding literacy. Meanwhile, ethnic nationalism and animosity between Punjabi's and Bengali's in Western and Eastern Pakistan led to a brutal civil war and the eventual partition with the Eastern half becoming Bangladesh with assistance from India.  

Since the end of the Cold War, India's chief problems have been internal.  With the second highest population and highest overall density, India presides over roughly 1/6th of the world's population.  They have a massive domestic economy and educated populace, but commercial interests run rampant.  Pollution, overcrowding, poverty, and corrupt officials are the norm in most cities.  The hundreds of minor ethnic regional enclaves with unique languages means that uniform education in the rural areas is almost non-existent.  Classism is quite literally institutionalized, with the Hindi 80% of the country representing most of the upper and middle class.  Despite these challenges, they do have a highly developed nuclear power industry (and nuclear weaponry), a fledgling space program (noticable for being the first ever Mars mission to succeed on the first attempt), and quite a great deal of productive farmland to sustain their teeming masses.

On the international scene, India is poised to overtake China as the hot-new-shit rising star country that will ¨take over the world in X-ty years¨ owing to it's still expanding demographics as China's transition into a usual slump after getting modernised and further suppressed by One-Child Policy. This has naturally lead the two major superpowers - USA and China to keep one eye on the subcontinent. For now India seems to be playing the wise game of being neutral and even subtly playing off both sides though their proximity to China causes some problems as the Chinese are (among other things) in good position to dam most of the major rivers flowing into India from their territory. Overall, India's modern situation is not terrible but as with any country that is rinsing in power and ambitions there may need to come a time when India will need to assert itself, for better or worse.