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STRONG EVIDENCE POINTS TO PAKISTAN INSURGENTS IN MUMBAI TERROR.
Hugh Graham, November 30, 2008.
On the weekend it might have been premature to convict Pakistan of being home to the Mumbai terrorists but now the United States has revealed that it had forewarned India of the attack. Confusion, of course, arises when the Indian press and politicians point the finger at Pakistan itself when in fact the Pakistani government of Prime Minister Asef Zardari reviles the Islamist groups engendered on his own soil as much as India does. After all, they killed his wife, presidential candidate Benazir Bhutto. In the words of Pakistan’s foreign minister Quereshi, India and Pakistan "are facing a common enemy, and we have to join hands to defeat this enemy."
Pakistani militants know that their fellow Muslims in India have a cause. Indian Muslims are swamped by a Hindu majority and endure higher rates of poverty and discrimination at a time when the gap between rich and poor in India is widening with the rich forging ever-closer bonds with the West. To add fuel to the fire, Indian Hindus and Muslims have competing historical claims. In 711, when the Arab Muslim invasions reached the Indus, the Hindu subcontinent lay open and vulnerable. After 1200, the Islamic Sultanates of Delhi stretched from northern India down into the central region of Deccan where the Hindu Rajputs of the Vijaynagar empire resisted them. Indeed, it may be to commemorate this outpost of Medieval Islam in the Hindu south that the Mumbai terror group called itself the Deccan Mujehadeen.
But these arrived by boat which suggests an avoidance of borders; and the nearest neighbouring country sharing the Arabian Sea is Pakistan with its Makran coast and port of Karachi. Moreover, Pakistan and India have mostly been at odds. Since Muslim Pakistan’s separation from India in 1948, it has fought repeated wars with India over the Kashmir region. Pakistani Muslim militants have resisted all of their government’s attempts at peace and have been fighting the Indian army in Kashmir for at least twenty years. In 2001, Lashkar-e-Toiba, one of the militiant groups under suspicion in Mumbai, extended its Kashmir campaign to Delhi where it launched a bloody frontal assault on India’s parliament. In India, a long history of Hindu-Muslim communal violence continued with riots and bombings, much of the worst in India’s Gujarat state, right across the border from Karachi. Over the last few years, bombings targeting India and its Hindus have often coincided with efforts by India and Pakistan to normalize relations. Recently, efforts at friendship have been accelerated, a trend reviled by Pakistani militants.
That’s the circumstantial evidence. But is there anything concrete? Ten of the attackers were killed by police and the single man taken alive has confessed to being a Punjab Pakistani and a member of Lashkar-e-Toiba. Not only is the group Pakistani but it happens to be one of the few in the region capable of launching an attack of such scale and sophistication. Moreover, according to the Washington Post, it is based in the port of Karachi and has been trained in maritime assault. Britain, meanwhile, is disputing rumours that some of the gunmen were British born Pakistanis carrying British passports. Indian officials have also disclosed that the
gunmen made phone calls to Pakistan.
Then there’s the matter of timing and motive. Before he resigned earlier this year, Pakistan’s President Musharraff had cooperated with Washington’s war on Islamic radicalism while tacitly tolerating religious militants. His successor, Asef Zardari, is more fully aligned with Washington. Zardari has also intensified Pakistan’s rapprochement with India, Washington’s main ally in the region. Peace would see a reduction of the massive military concentrations on the Indian-Pakistani border, with Pakistani troops released to confront the Taliban on its Afghan border. Moreover, the United States, India and Pakistan would be aligned against the claims of militant Islam not just in Pakistan but in Afghanistan where the Taliban are fighting for mastery and where India has become Pakistan’s direct rival for influence.
Among those who support the clams of militant Islam in Pakistan and Afghanistan -and perhaps in India too- is an old network of former Pakistani intelligence officers. They would like to see Pakistan and Afghanistan together as a single bulwark of militant Islam in South Asia in defiance of India and the West.
Pakistan did support the Taliban before the 9/11 attacks forced it into alignment with Washington. It’s a handful of former Pakistani Interservices Intelligence (ISI) officers who have defied their government by continuing to help the Taliban in Afghanistan and now inside Pakistan as well. They have also backed groups allied with the Taliban, like Lashkar-e-Toiba, the group suspected in the Mumbai bombings. These men repudiate any rapprochement with Delhi or Washington and may have extended their fifth column into India on behalf of Indian Muslims.
The old ISI group is not “shadowy” as the media often describe it. Their names have been in the news and it’s a safe bet they know more than anyone about what happened in Mumbai. One is former ISI chief Hamid Gul who has just loudly rejected claims that Pakistani groups were behind the Mumbai attacks. He was instrumental in founding the Taliban and helped form a coalition of religious parties to defeat President Zardari’s mother, Benazir Bhutto in elections. Another is a former successor of Gul’s at the ISI: Javed Nasir backed the Taliban in the early 90s and was later fired by Musharraf for refusing to cooperate with a CIA program. Then there’s Air Force officer and former ISI official Khalid Khawaja who was close to Bin laden and the Taliban as well as being linked to the Karachi group that murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl . Another is former ISI chief, Mahmood Ahmed who was linked to the 9/11 hijackers and also supported the Taliban. A focus for the retired ISI militants is another former ISI official, Mohammed Aziz.
These retired ISI militants have been lying low or in an out of jail but are otherwise alive and well and continue to have a quiet power base. While they don’t control the ISI, which, like their government, is officially pro-western, they do have influence in corners of the ISI’s massive apparatus whose resources they occasionally turn to covert aid and training for groups like the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Toiba and now, possibly, the pseudonymous “Mujehadeen of Deccan”. Indeed, Indian authorities have expressed surprise at the scale and expertise of the operation, unprecedented among attacks by Muslim militants inside India. And It doesn’t take much to guess where that expertise might well have come from.
THE HISTORIANS: The terror attacks in Mumbai are part of the long shadow cast by the Muslim Sultanate and the Moghul and British Empires in Hindu India.
"The rather fragile quality exhibited by Indian states and empires in historic times is in part attributable to the fact that men's primary loyalties lay, not with a territorial entity, but with a territorially indeterminate caste." William MacNeill, THE RISE OF THE WEST.
"The Muslims, who were few in number and based solely in the larger towns, could not rule the country except by systematic terror...Islam ruled by fear, and founded its luxury on India's general poverty." Braudel, A HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS.
"...Muslim India...has miraculously survived, and it remains hard to isolate from the shared Indo-Muslim civilization of which it is a part." -Fernand Braudel, A HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS.
"Well-meaning people thought that the (British) regime should be liberalized, to bring some Hindus into the administration, as we might say now, the loudspeaker of nationalism..." Fernand Braudel, A HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS.
TIMELINE FOR THE HISTORY OF INDIA
Civilization of the Indus
3000 BC- beginnings of civilization on the Indus.
3000-1750 BC- the highly developed civilization of Mohenjo-Daro on the Indus River.
Aryan Invasions Bring Vedic Civilization.
1500 BC- Aryan invasions bring an end to the civilization of the Indus.
1500-1200- the Rig Veda's earliest hymns.
1500 –600 BC- migration of Indo-Aryan peoples into western and northern India. Vedic religion and Aryan caste systrem develope.
The Great Books of the Vedic Period.
1500-1000- period of the Rig Veda.
1200-900- the Rig Veda composed.
1000-600 - the Brahman period.
800-550- the Ganges settled by the Aryans.
800-500- the writing of the Upanishads.
563-483- Siddhartha Guatama. (the Buddha)
The Magadha Empire of the Lower Ganges.
545-322- Magadha period.
540-512- northwest India conquered by Persia.
540-486- founding of Jainism.
The Nanda Empire
350- the Nanda Empire of Deccan in Central India.
327- Alexander the Great penetrrates northwest India.
322-298- fall of the Nanda empire to defeat by the Mauryan dynasty, founded by Chandragupta Maurya, king of Maghada.
The Maurya Empire
321-185 BC- the Mauryan empire- the subcontinent’s first state system which stretches from Afghanistan to southern India.
303- Persian emperor Seleucus driven from India as Changragupta Maurya extends an empire of the central Ganges up to Kabul, Herat and Kandahar.
298-273- reign of Bindusara.
Ashoka the Great
269-232- Reign of Ashoka.
269-232 BC- Ashoka, establishes Buddhism in the region.
250- beginning of Hinayana Buddhism.
220- Mahayana Buddhism emerges.
185-100-the Laws of Manu and the Sunga and Kanva Dynasties.
-spead of Hinduism during second century.
184- Sunga dynasty founded as Pushyamtra brings an end to Mauryan rule.
Invasions from Central Asia
90- the Saka invasions.
1-200 AD- the Central Asian Kushan empire rules from north India to Afghanistan to Central Asia.
-Pandyas of South India bring he rise oif Tamil culture.
25 -the Kushans, caught between pressure from the Hsiang-Nu Chinese in the east and Persia in the west, invade Afghanistan and Sind before conquering part of northern India. The route southeast from central Asia to the Gangetic plain of northern India will be used for repeated invasions, the invaders always coming from the Afghan region and the north.
67 AD- the Kushan people, having prevailed from among the Yue Chi, form in force on the northern edges of Afghanistan and displace the Suren dynasty from northern India.
78-101- Kanishka.
100-300- Mahayana Buddhism flourishes.
140 AD- Under Kanishka, the Kushan Empire extends into northern India. Afghanistan is divided between the Kushan Empire on the North and the Parthian empire to the south.
230 AD- the Kushan Empire dissolves into principlalities which rule until 400.
300-800- South India ruled by the Pallavas.
The Guptas
320-540- the Gupta period. Indian culture reaches its zenith.
320-335- Chandragupta I
335-376- Samudragupta.
376-415- Chandragupta II
454-500- invasion by the Huns.
500- Pandyas rule from Madurai
535 - meddieval India begins with the fall of the Guptas.
The Chalukyas
540- end of the Guptas. The Chalukyas rise at Vatapi.
606-647- reign of Harsha of Kanauj.
650- the mystical Bhakti movement.
700-800- Buddhism spreads to Nepal and Tibet.
The Arrival of Islam.
711- Indus Valley conquered by the Arabs.
The Chola Dynasty.
740-1310- southeast Indian Chola Dynasty.
750- rise of the Pratiharas
753-973- central Indian Rashtarakuta dynasty.
760- the Palas in Nengal.
788-820- Hindu philosopher Shankara.
846- Pallavis defeated by the Cholas.
900-1300- Yadavas rule in northern Indias during decline of Cholas.
939-968- Krishna II of the Rashtarakutas.
970- defeat of the Rashtarakutas by the Chalukyas.
1000- Buddhism starts to decline.
1000-1200- Chauhan and Chandella Dynasties in north India.
1000-1400- Hoysalas rule Mysore from remains of Chalukya empire.
Mahmoud of Ghazni.
1000-1027- repeated raids by Afghan warlord Mahmud of Ghazni.
1022- Chola king, Rajendra I conquers lower Ganges.
1024- Mahmud of Ghazni sacks Somnath.
1026- Cholas invade Southeast Asia.
Beginning of Muslim Rule in Northern India.
1173-1206- northern India conquered by Muhammad of Ghur. His sultanate will last until the arrival of the Moghuls in 1526.
1172- Hindu kings defeated by Muhammas of Ghur at battle of Thanesar.
1192- the Turks defeat Tarain of Prithvi Raja.
The Sultanate of Delhi.
1206-1290- the Delhi Sultanta begins with the Slave Dynasty.
1206-1526- Muslim expansion into northern India with the Islamic Sultanate of Delhi.
The Mongol Invasion.
1221- Gengis Khan and the Mongols penetrate the Punjab region.
-Pandyas dominant in Tamil South India.
1250- construction of the sun temple of Konarak.
1290-1320- the Khalji Sultans.
The Sultans of Delhi Stop the Mongols
1296-1306- Mongol occupation of northern India stopped by sultans of Delhi.
1320-1413- Tughluq Sultans.
The Hindu State of Vijayanagar.
1336-1565- Vijayanagar-the last Great Hindu State forms a bbarrier against northern, Muslim India.
1346-1564- last Hindu resistance to the Muslims.
1347-Bahmani Sultanate founded.
1398- Tamerlane invades and pillages Delhi.
1414-1451- the Sayyid Sultans.
1451-1526- the Lodie Sultans.
1469-1533- Sikhism founded by Nanak.
1485-1533- Bhakti worship of Krishna formalized by Chitanya.
Portugeuse Land in India.
1498- Portugal's Vasco da Gama lands in Calicut.
1504-1530- Babur of Ferghana takes northern India. A Central Asian warlord, his Moghul empire includes Afghanistan and India.
1510- capture of Goa by Portugeuse.
Babur Founds the Moghuls.
1526- 1530- Babur founds the Moghul dynasty, defeating the Lodi Sultan at Panipat.
1526-1707- Muslim Moghuls rule northern India.
1530-1538- reign of Hamyun, son of Babur.
1538- death nof Guru Nanak.
1538-1555- Interregnum of Sur Dynasty.
1540-1545- Babur’s son Humayun loses control to the Afghan chieftan Sher Shah.
1542-1605- in a rare reversal of the pattern of invasion, the Moghul sultans and Akbar reassert control over northern India and crosses the Indus to conquer Sindh and Afghanistan. Liberal and enlightened, he establishes tolerance and attempts to form a synthethis of Hinduism and Islam called the Divine Faith.
1546- battle of Panipat: Humayun’s son Akbar the Great recovers the area from the Afghans, extending it to Deccan.
1555-1556- Moghul authority restored by Humayun.
Akbar the Great and the Fall of Vijaynagar
1556-1605- Akbar rules Moghul India.
1565- fall of Vijayanagar.
1585- the Sikhs are autonomous in the region of Lahore, Pakistan.
1600- charter granted to British East India Company.
1605-1627- reign of Jahangir.
1628-1658- reign of Shah Jahan.
The English Appear in Bangal.
1634- English trading in Bengal.
1634- construction of the Taj Mahal.
1639- Fort St. George founded in Madras.
1658-1707- the Mogul emperor Aurangzeb pushes the boundaries of the empire southward
End of the Moghul Empire.
1707- Moghul empire disintergates with the death of Emperor Aurangzeb.
1659- Shivaji (1627-1680) gathers local hill-dwellers of Bijapur against the Moghuls. The Moghuls send a force against him but he defeats them.
1660s- Shivaji gains power- his locality growing as a “robber state” by extracting protection money.
The Hindi Maratha Kingdom.
1674-1680- Shivaji makes himself Raja of Maratha kingdom in west India as the Moghul empire declines.
-the Emperor Aurangzeb’s defence of the Muslims at the expense of the Hindus leads to war with the Marathas.
1690- founding of Calcutta.
1700-1800- the British consolidate their trading power in India through the East India company, taking advantage of the weakened Moghul emperor, Aurangzeb, and make India a British colony.
1708- death of rhe Guru Govind Singh.
Britian, France and Afghanistan in India.
1738- Nadir Shah of Persia invades Afghanistan and northern India, his empire lasting only until his assassination in 1747.
1742- Marathas invade Bengal.
1744-1748- British-French war in India.
1747- Ahmad Shah (of the Saddozai family, Abdali clan) commander of Nadir's body guard, takes the name Durrani, meaning 'Pearl of the Age' and establishes the Durrani dynasty of Afghanistan, unites varied tribes in southern Afghanistan around their common link: the Pashtun language. He invades the Gangetic plain of India conquering and weakening the last Moghul emperor Aurangzeb. The modern Afghan nation begins to take shape. His empire extends from near the Caspian Sea to India.
1750- under British and Afghan pressure, the Moghul empire shrinks to an area around Delhi.
-in west, coastal India, the Maratha empire becomes a confederacy of leading local families: Bhonsle, Gaekwad, Holkar and Sindia) under hereditary ministers (Peshwas).
-the Peshwa of Maratha asks for British intervention to settle an internal dispute.
1751- Afghans pillage Delhi.
British Consolidate Rule over India.
1757- battle of Plassey begins the British conquest of India.
1761- Ahmad Shah defeats the Marathas of India at Panipat
1765- Moghul emperor grants diwani to East India Company.
The Maratha Wars.
1775-82- first British-Maratha war.
1784- Pitt passes India Act.
1786-1793- Lord Cornwallis Governor General of India.
1792- Ranjit Singh takes comes to power.
1793- permanent settlement in Bengal.
1798-1805- Lord Wellesley is Governor General.
1799- Tipu Sultan defeated at Mysore.
1803-1805- second British-Maratha war.
1818- the Marathas destroyed in a third war with the British.
1828-1835- Governor General Lord William Bentinck.
1835- English to be used for higher education.
1839- death of Rajit Singh.
The British Move past the Indus.
1839-1842- the first Afghan War.
1840s- the region of the Indus falls under British rule.
1843- annexation of Sundh.
1849- annexation of Punjab.
1849- -the British atke over the Frontier region from the Sikhs. the Deputy Commissioner, Dera Ismail Khan (NWFP)and Bannu controls all political matters in Waziristan- even though the tribes of neighbouring North Waziristan are under the sovereignty of the Kabul government.
-in Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan, two Pashtun tribes, the Waziris and the Mahsuds use the mountainous region to resist British rule.
1850- most of India controlled by the British East India Company.
1853- India's first railway line.
The Sepoy Mutiny.
1857-1858- the Sepoy Rebellion- Britian takes direct control of India.
1860- 3000 Mahsud tribesmen attack a British regiment base in Tank (present South Waziristan).
1876- Baluchistan becomes a British protectorate.
-birth of Mohammed Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.
1880-1884- Governor General Lord Ripon.
The Indian National Congress.
1885- Indian National Concress is organized.
1890- the British acquire west Punjab.
1892- India Councils Act.
1893- the British acquire northern Balushistan.
British Difficulties in Waziristan.
1893-November , the Emir of Afghanistan signs a treaty renouncing all claims to Waziristan and the North West Frontier territories.
1893- the Durand line forms the limit of British territorial expansion into the Pashtun territories of Afghanistan. The Pashtun region, which had once defined Afghanistan, is split by the new boundary with Afghanistan. Western Pakistan is ceded to British India.
1894-95- Extensive British military operations against tribal insurgents in Waziristan.
1899-1905- Governor General Lord Curzon.
1904- large scale disturbances in SouthWaziristan resulting murder of the Political Agent and Militia Commandant at Sarwakai
1905- partition of Bengal.
1906- founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Jinnah, joins the Indian National Congress.
The Muslimn League.
1906- founding of Muslim League.
1909- Morley-Minto reforms.
1910- North Waziristan is made by the British into a full fledged agency
-the Durand line allows for the border territory of Waziristan to be autonomous, outside of effective British rule. Instead, the British ruled by paying subsidies to tribal chieftains.
-otherwise, the Pakistan region remains generally loyal to the British Raj; its inhabits fare relatively well under the British Raj and are well represented in the army and in government.
-but in northern India, where Muslims fare less well.
1912- Delhi becomes capital of India.
1913- in India, Mohammed Jinnah joins the Muslim League. As leader, Jinnah, demands greater rights for Indian Muslims.
1915- because of the stresses of World War I, the Brtish make a peace deal in Waziristan. But instead, Waziri tribes attack, inflicting heavy losses on the British. The British retalliate with aerial ombardment.
Responsible Government for India.
1917- British parliament plans for responsible government in India.
1919- Montagu-Chelmsford reforms.
1919- British road building and fortification in Waziristan only results in more bloody tribal attacks.
1919- the Third Afghan War. Pashtun tribes under Afghan warlord Amanullah, on both sides of the Durand line, defeat the British. The British concede nationhood to Afghanistan by the Treaty of Kabul. Amanullah attempts westernizing reforms.
1919- the Amritsar massacre.
1920- M.K. Gandhi appointed leader of Indian National Congress.
1921- the first Non-cooperation movement.
Mahatma Gandhi
-Mahatma Gandhi begins his first passive resistance campaigns.
1927- the Simon Commission.
The Hindu Indian National Congress vs. the Muslim League.
1930- the civil disobedience movement.
1930s- Ghandi’s vastly Hindu Indian National Congress, makes it more urgent for the Muslims in the north to form some sort of defensive association.
-as Muslims become marginalized, Mohammed Jinnah steps up the rhetoric of the Muslim League.
1931- seeing little hope in the face of the INC, Jinnah resigns.
1935- Jinnah returns to the Muslim League under popular pressure and reorganizes it along nationalist lines.
1935- the Government of India Act is established, allowing the independent election of provincial governments, and will become Pakistan’s constitution in 1947.
1937- the Muslim league fares badly in Indian elections.
-provincial autonomy granted.
1939- ministries of Congress resign over war issue.
Muslims Threaten Secession with Lahore Resolution.
1940, March 23- The Pakistan or Lahore Resolution- Muslims declare that if their lot doesn’t improve, they’ll move toward creating a separate homeland. This is especially popular in the Muslim majority states of the northwest.
1942- the last civil disobedience campaign: the August Uprisings.
1945-1946- the Muslim league makes a powerful showing in provincial elections in India.
-negotiations for then tranfer of power from Great Britain.
Governor General Mountbatten Urges the Creation of Pakistan.
-Governor General Lord Mountbatten urges the secession of Pakistan.
Indian Independence
1947- India becomes independent.
1947- Britain agrees to the formation of an independent Pakistan, separate from India.
-on partition of the sub-continent , the tribal leaders of Waziristan agreed to be a part of Pakistan, but with special terms and conditions.
Creation of an Independent Pakistan
15 August- Pakistan becomes independent, comprising Sindh, Punjab and North-West Frontier with the Durand line remaining as the border between the two nations. The border still cuts through the region of the Pashtun people- despite Afghan claims on the entire Pashtun region, which includes much of the Baluchistan region of western Pakistan. Before departing the British had drawn the frontier between west Pakistan and India in haste, forcing bordering principlalities to join either India or Pakistan.
-As Governor General, Mohammed Jinnah is Pakistan’s first head of state.
-East Pakistan formerly East Bengal, 1000 miles distant, is included in the new Pakistan.
-an exodus of about 5 million Sikhs and Hindus from West Pakistan into India.
1947- after much bloodshed, the western region separates from India to from the independent Muslim state of West Pakistan, and, on the other side of India in East Bengal, of East Pakistan.
India Annexes Kashmir; Pakistan Resists.
1948-the Raja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, a Hindu, finds himself ruling an area with a Muslim majority. After a Pakistan-supported Muslim uprising in west Kashmir, India offers help, provided that Kashmir then becomes part of India. Pakistan, angry that it wasn't consulted, supports the Muslim insurgents.
-Gandhi assassinated by Hindu radical.
1949- the UN brokers a caesefire in Pakistan’s skirmish with India over Jammu and Kashmir. A planned UN-sponsored pleiscite over the fate of the area is never held.
1949- Cease-fire Line of Control (LOC) drawn between Kashmir and Pakistan
19452- Congress Party Winds elections under Nehru.
1962- border cnflict between India and China.
1965 India-Pakistan War.
1965- war breaks out as India occupies Muslim Kashmir. Russia’s Kosygin brokers a caese-fire.
East Pakitsan Secedes from West Pakistan.
1971- When East Pakistan’s Awammi league wins the elections, West Pakistan, under Yahya Khan refuses to recognize the result. East Pakistan breaks away from West Pakistan in a civil war and becomes independent as Bangladesh.
-the civil war embraces Kashmir. India intervenes on behalf of Mujibur Rahman and the Awami League.
1972 India-Pakistan War.
-fighting breaks out on the western India-Pakistan frontier.
1972- India prevails in an uneasy peace. Cease-fire line between Kashmir and Pakistan (Line of Control) reasserted. Under the Simla agreement both sides agree to settle future disputes by negotiation.
1974- India tests its first nuclear bomb.
1975- after being found guilty of electoral malpractice, Indira Gandhi declares state of emergency.
1975-77- Indira Gandhi imprisons 1,000 political opponents.
-compulsory birth control brought in.
1977- Gandhi's Congress party loses general elections.
1978- Hindu-Muslim riots.
1980- Ghandi returns to power at head of Congress (Indira) splinter group.
1984- -in south Asia, Shia are assertive- so India and Pakistan (largest Shia pop at 30 million, after Iran) become the battleground of Saudi-Iranian rivalry in the 80s and 90s.
-India and Pakistan have both acquired nuclear weapons.
Sikhs Crushed at the Golden Temple.
1984- Sikh separatism crushed during the seige of the Golden Temple at Amritsar.
-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by her Sikh bodyguard. Her son Rajiv Gandhi succeeds her.
-gas leak at Bhopal chemical plant ills 2, 500.
1986- the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is established and relieves tension between the two nuclear powers.
1987- India sends peace-keeping troops to Sri Lanka.
1989- Congress Party defeated in general elections.
Lakshar E Toiba.
1980s-1990s- Islamist groupb Lashkar-e-Toiba first fights Soviets in Afghanistan then switches to Kashmir
1990- India withdraws troops from Sri Lanka.
-Muslim separatists begin fighting for independence of Kashmkir.
1991- Rajiv Ghandi, leader of the Congress party is assassinated by Tamil sympathizer in suicide bombing during an election campaign.
- PV Narasimha Rao leader of Congress Party is elected Prime Minister and launched economic reforms.
1992- rain storms and flooding contribute to increasing intercommunal violence.
-in Ayodha, in northen India, Hindu extremists demolish mosque, setting of Hindu-Muslim riots.
1993- government declares state of emergency due to intercommunal violence.
1996- Prime Minister Rao defeated with his Conbgress Party. The BJP Hindu nationalists emerge as the largest party
-under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, a coalition is formed with the BJP
1998- India condemned internationally for conducting nuclear tests.
1999-Pakistan's Nawaz Sharif withdraws the army from Kashmir and dismisses its head, General Musharraf, angering the army.-
The Lahore Declaration.
1999-Lahore Declaration. In historic bus trip Prime Ministers Vajpayee and Sharif of India and Pakistan swear to settle differences by negotiation.
1999- 600 Islamic militia from Pakistan occupy Indian Kashmir, provoking retaliatory air strikes from India.
2000- May- population reaches 1 billion.
-US President Clinton visits and imporves relations.
2001- -India and Pakistan mass troops along the LOC as tensions build again in Kashmir.
-to placate angry Islamists, Musharraf takes a softer policy on Kashmir.
-earthquakes in Gujarat leave 30,000 dead.
-Indian and Bangladeshi soldiers die in border clash.
-India launches a rocket that can carry a satellite.
-July- P.M. Vajpayee meets Pakistan's Musharraf with no agreement on issues including Kashmir.
-Sept. U.S. lifts nuclear sanctions against Pakistan and India in return for their support in the War on Terror.
-Oct. fighting between India and Pakistan along LOC in Kashmir.
L.E.T. Attacks Indian Parliament.
-Dec 13, - attack on Indian parliament carried out by Pakistan-based militant groups, Jaish e Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba
-India imposes sanctions on Pakistan to force it to take action against the LET and JEH.
-India and Pakistan mass troops along the border.
2002- -Musharraf bans the Islamist groups Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
-Pakistan tests missiles that have nuclear capability.
-Feb. Hindu pilgrims die in train fire in Gujarat, setting of Hindu-Muslim riots in which 1,000, mostly Muslims die.
-ceasefire between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.
-Abdul Kalam elected president.
2003- 50 killed in siultaneous bombings in Mumbai.
-November- bilateral ceasefire in Kashmir.
-December- Pakistan and India agree to airline links and overflights.
-progress in talks with moderate Kashmir separatists.
2004- May- Manohman Singh becomes P.M. as Congress wins elections.
Sept. India bids for a seat on the UN Security Council.
Nov. India begins troop withdrawal from Kashmir.
2004- December- Tsunami hits south coastal India, killing thousands.
2005- cross-border bus services resume in Kashmir.
-July- over athousand killed in floods and mudslides in Mumbai area.
Oct 8- earthquake kills thousands in Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.
Oct 29- bombs kill 62 in Delhi- the work of an obscure Kashmiri group.
2006- 26 Feb. India's rural jobs program lifts millions out of poverty.
March 7- 14 killed in Hindu pilgrimmage city of Varanasi.
-March- on visit by President Buch, US agrees to provide access to nuclear technology in return for guarantees of nuclear security
-May- Islamists kill 35 Hindus in attacks in Kashmir.
-July 11- 180 die in Mumbai train bombings. India blames Pakistan militant.
-Pakistan's SSG discovers through the arrest of Rashid Rauf that Lakshar –e- Toiba is linked to a terror group in the UK. Lashkar-e-Toyaba is also blamed for the Mumbai train bombings in July.
-Sept 8- bombings outside a mosque in Melagaon kill 31.
-Dec.- President Bush allows India access to nuclear reactors and fuel.
2007- Feb. - the New-Dehhi, India-Lahore Pakistan train is bombed, killing 68, mostly Pakistanis.
-India and Pakistan sign treaty reducing the risk of nuclear war.
-March- Maoist rebels kill 50 police in attack in Chhattisgarh.
-May- 9 killed in bombing at main mosque in Hyderabad. More killed in rioting that follows.
-May- government announces astonishing 9.4% growth.
-July- Prathiba Pratil elected first woman president of India.
2008- July-parties of the left and the right attempt to bring down the government for sacrificng nuclear sovereignty incooperation deal with U.S.
-July- -explosions in Ahmedabad Gujarat kill 59. Mujahedeen of India claim responsibility.
-Oct. -Bush signs bill re-opening nuclear trade with India.
2008 -Nov. Mumbai: -150 killed in a series of coordinated attacks in hotels, a railway station, a Jewish centre and other sits. Hundreds injured. Indian and Jewish hostages murdered. Unknown terror group announces itself at the Mujehadeen of Deccan. Media reports cast suspicion on Pakistani terror groups, especially Lashkae e Toiba.
-Dec.- India temporarily suspends peace process with Pakistan.
2009- Feb.- India anounces $700 million deal in which Russia will supply uranium to India.
2009- April- sole surviving suspect in Mumbai massacee goes to trial.
May- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Congress party win elections.
July- India and Pakistan agree on a joint effort to combat terrorism, separate from progress in their peace talks.
-homosexuality leagalized by parliament in Delhi, overturning a 148 year old Colonial law.
History never dies. It is reborn every minute of every day.
DEVOTED TO THE DEEP ORIGINS OF CONTEMPORARY EVENTS AROUND THE WORLD.
STRONG EVIDENCE POINTS TO PAKISTAN INSURGENTS IN MUMBAI TERROR.
Hugh Graham, November 30, 2008.
On the weekend it might have been premature to convict Pakistan of being home to the Mumbai terrorists but now the United States has revealed that it had forewarned India of the attack. Confusion, of course, arises when the Indian press and politicians point the finger at Pakistan itself when in fact the Pakistani government of Prime Minister Asef Zardari reviles the Islamist groups engendered on his own soil as much as India does. After all, they killed his wife, presidential candidate Benazir Bhutto. In the words of Pakistan’s foreign minister Quereshi, India and Pakistan "are facing a common enemy, and we have to join hands to defeat this enemy."
Pakistani militants know that their fellow Muslims in India have a cause. Indian Muslims are swamped by a Hindu majority and endure higher rates of poverty and discrimination at a time when the gap between rich and poor in India is widening with the rich forging ever-closer bonds with the West. To add fuel to the fire, Indian Hindus and Muslims have competing historical claims. In 711, when the Arab Muslim invasions reached the Indus, the Hindu subcontinent lay open and vulnerable. After 1200, the Islamic Sultanates of Delhi stretched from northern India down into the central region of Deccan where the Hindu Rajputs of the Vijaynagar empire resisted them. Indeed, it may be to commemorate this outpost of Medieval Islam in the Hindu south that the Mumbai terror group called itself the Deccan Mujehadeen.
But these arrived by boat which suggests an avoidance of borders; and the nearest neighbouring country sharing the Arabian Sea is Pakistan with its Makran coast and port of Karachi. Moreover, Pakistan and India have mostly been at odds. Since Muslim Pakistan’s separation from India in 1948, it has fought repeated wars with India over the Kashmir region. Pakistani Muslim militants have resisted all of their government’s attempts at peace and have been fighting the Indian army in Kashmir for at least twenty years. In 2001, Lashkar-e-Toiba, one of the militiant groups under suspicion in Mumbai, extended its Kashmir campaign to Delhi where it launched a bloody frontal assault on India’s parliament. In India, a long history of Hindu-Muslim communal violence continued with riots and bombings, much of the worst in India’s Gujarat state, right across the border from Karachi. Over the last few years, bombings targeting India and its Hindus have often coincided with efforts by India and Pakistan to normalize relations. Recently, efforts at friendship have been accelerated, a trend reviled by Pakistani militants.
That’s the circumstantial evidence. But is there anything concrete? Ten of the attackers were killed by police and the single man taken alive has confessed to being a Punjab Pakistani and a member of Lashkar-e-Toiba. Not only is the group Pakistani but it happens to be one of the few in the region capable of launching an attack of such scale and sophistication. Moreover, according to the Washington Post, it is based in the port of Karachi and has been trained in maritime assault. Britain, meanwhile, is disputing rumours that some of the gunmen were British born Pakistanis carrying British passports. Indian officials have also disclosed that the
gunmen made phone calls to Pakistan.
Then there’s the matter of timing and motive. Before he resigned earlier this year, Pakistan’s President Musharraff had cooperated with Washington’s war on Islamic radicalism while tacitly tolerating religious militants. His successor, Asef Zardari, is more fully aligned with Washington. Zardari has also intensified Pakistan’s rapprochement with India, Washington’s main ally in the region. Peace would see a reduction of the massive military concentrations on the Indian-Pakistani border, with Pakistani troops released to confront the Taliban on its Afghan border. Moreover, the United States, India and Pakistan would be aligned against the claims of militant Islam not just in Pakistan but in Afghanistan where the Taliban are fighting for mastery and where India has become Pakistan’s direct rival for influence.
Among those who support the clams of militant Islam in Pakistan and Afghanistan -and perhaps in India too- is an old network of former Pakistani intelligence officers. They would like to see Pakistan and Afghanistan together as a single bulwark of militant Islam in South Asia in defiance of India and the West.
Pakistan did support the Taliban before the 9/11 attacks forced it into alignment with Washington. It’s a handful of former Pakistani Interservices Intelligence (ISI) officers who have defied their government by continuing to help the Taliban in Afghanistan and now inside Pakistan as well. They have also backed groups allied with the Taliban, like Lashkar-e-Toiba, the group suspected in the Mumbai bombings. These men repudiate any rapprochement with Delhi or Washington and may have extended their fifth column into India on behalf of Indian Muslims.
The old ISI group is not “shadowy” as the media often describe it. Their names have been in the news and it’s a safe bet they know more than anyone about what happened in Mumbai. One is former ISI chief Hamid Gul who has just loudly rejected claims that Pakistani groups were behind the Mumbai attacks. He was instrumental in founding the Taliban and helped form a coalition of religious parties to defeat President Zardari’s mother, Benazir Bhutto in elections. Another is a former successor of Gul’s at the ISI: Javed Nasir backed the Taliban in the early 90s and was later fired by Musharraf for refusing to cooperate with a CIA program. Then there’s Air Force officer and former ISI official Khalid Khawaja who was close to Bin laden and the Taliban as well as being linked to the Karachi group that murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl . Another is former ISI chief, Mahmood Ahmed who was linked to the 9/11 hijackers and also supported the Taliban. A focus for the retired ISI militants is another former ISI official, Mohammed Aziz.
These retired ISI militants have been lying low or in an out of jail but are otherwise alive and well and continue to have a quiet power base. While they don’t control the ISI, which, like their government, is officially pro-western, they do have influence in corners of the ISI’s massive apparatus whose resources they occasionally turn to covert aid and training for groups like the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Toiba and now, possibly, the pseudonymous “Mujehadeen of Deccan”. Indeed, Indian authorities have expressed surprise at the scale and expertise of the operation, unprecedented among attacks by Muslim militants inside India. And It doesn’t take much to guess where that expertise might well have come from.
THE HISTORIANS: The terror attacks in Mumbai are part of the long shadow cast by the Muslim Sultanate and the Moghul and British Empires in Hindu India.
"The rather fragile quality exhibited by Indian states and empires in historic times is in part attributable to the fact that men's primary loyalties lay, not with a territorial entity, but with a territorially indeterminate caste." William MacNeill, THE RISE OF THE WEST.
"The Muslims, who were few in number and based solely in the larger towns, could not rule the country except by systematic terror...Islam ruled by fear, and founded its luxury on India's general poverty." Braudel, A HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS.
"...Muslim India...has miraculously survived, and it remains hard to isolate from the shared Indo-Muslim civilization of which it is a part." -Fernand Braudel, A HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS.
"Well-meaning people thought that the (British) regime should be liberalized, to bring some Hindus into the administration, as we might say now, the loudspeaker of nationalism..." Fernand Braudel, A HISTORY OF CIVILIZATIONS.
TIMELINE FOR THE HISTORY OF INDIA
Civilization of the Indus
3000 BC- beginnings of civilization on the Indus.
3000-1750 BC- the highly developed civilization of Mohenjo-Daro on the Indus River.
Aryan Invasions Bring Vedic Civilization.
1500 BC- Aryan invasions bring an end to the civilization of the Indus.
1500-1200- the Rig Veda's earliest hymns.
1500 –600 BC- migration of Indo-Aryan peoples into western and northern India. Vedic religion and Aryan caste systrem develope.
The Great Books of the Vedic Period.
1500-1000- period of the Rig Veda.
1200-900- the Rig Veda composed.
1000-600 - the Brahman period.
800-550- the Ganges settled by the Aryans.
800-500- the writing of the Upanishads.
563-483- Siddhartha Guatama. (the Buddha)
The Magadha Empire of the Lower Ganges.
545-322- Magadha period.
540-512- northwest India conquered by Persia.
540-486- founding of Jainism.
The Nanda Empire
350- the Nanda Empire of Deccan in Central India.
327- Alexander the Great penetrrates northwest India.
322-298- fall of the Nanda empire to defeat by the Mauryan dynasty, founded by Chandragupta Maurya, king of Maghada.
The Maurya Empire
321-185 BC- the Mauryan empire- the subcontinent’s first state system which stretches from Afghanistan to southern India.
303- Persian emperor Seleucus driven from India as Changragupta Maurya extends an empire of the central Ganges up to Kabul, Herat and Kandahar.
298-273- reign of Bindusara.
Ashoka the Great
269-232- Reign of Ashoka.
269-232 BC- Ashoka, establishes Buddhism in the region.
250- beginning of Hinayana Buddhism.
220- Mahayana Buddhism emerges.
185-100-the Laws of Manu and the Sunga and Kanva Dynasties.
-spead of Hinduism during second century.
184- Sunga dynasty founded as Pushyamtra brings an end to Mauryan rule.
Invasions from Central Asia
90- the Saka invasions.
1-200 AD- the Central Asian Kushan empire rules from north India to Afghanistan to Central Asia.
-Pandyas of South India bring he rise oif Tamil culture.
25 -the Kushans, caught between pressure from the Hsiang-Nu Chinese in the east and Persia in the west, invade Afghanistan and Sind before conquering part of northern India. The route southeast from central Asia to the Gangetic plain of northern India will be used for repeated invasions, the invaders always coming from the Afghan region and the north.
67 AD- the Kushan people, having prevailed from among the Yue Chi, form in force on the northern edges of Afghanistan and displace the Suren dynasty from northern India.
78-101- Kanishka.
100-300- Mahayana Buddhism flourishes.
140 AD- Under Kanishka, the Kushan Empire extends into northern India. Afghanistan is divided between the Kushan Empire on the North and the Parthian empire to the south.
230 AD- the Kushan Empire dissolves into principlalities which rule until 400.
300-800- South India ruled by the Pallavas.
The Guptas
320-540- the Gupta period. Indian culture reaches its zenith.
320-335- Chandragupta I
335-376- Samudragupta.
376-415- Chandragupta II
454-500- invasion by the Huns.
500- Pandyas rule from Madurai
535 - meddieval India begins with the fall of the Guptas.
The Chalukyas
540- end of the Guptas. The Chalukyas rise at Vatapi.
606-647- reign of Harsha of Kanauj.
650- the mystical Bhakti movement.
700-800- Buddhism spreads to Nepal and Tibet.
The Arrival of Islam.
711- Indus Valley conquered by the Arabs.
The Chola Dynasty.
740-1310- southeast Indian Chola Dynasty.
750- rise of the Pratiharas
753-973- central Indian Rashtarakuta dynasty.
760- the Palas in Nengal.
788-820- Hindu philosopher Shankara.
846- Pallavis defeated by the Cholas.
900-1300- Yadavas rule in northern Indias during decline of Cholas.
939-968- Krishna II of the Rashtarakutas.
970- defeat of the Rashtarakutas by the Chalukyas.
1000- Buddhism starts to decline.
1000-1200- Chauhan and Chandella Dynasties in north India.
1000-1400- Hoysalas rule Mysore from remains of Chalukya empire.
Mahmoud of Ghazni.
1000-1027- repeated raids by Afghan warlord Mahmud of Ghazni.
1022- Chola king, Rajendra I conquers lower Ganges.
1024- Mahmud of Ghazni sacks Somnath.
1026- Cholas invade Southeast Asia.
Beginning of Muslim Rule in Northern India.
1173-1206- northern India conquered by Muhammad of Ghur. His sultanate will last until the arrival of the Moghuls in 1526.
1172- Hindu kings defeated by Muhammas of Ghur at battle of Thanesar.
1192- the Turks defeat Tarain of Prithvi Raja.
The Sultanate of Delhi.
1206-1290- the Delhi Sultanta begins with the Slave Dynasty.
1206-1526- Muslim expansion into northern India with the Islamic Sultanate of Delhi.
The Mongol Invasion.
1221- Gengis Khan and the Mongols penetrate the Punjab region.
-Pandyas dominant in Tamil South India.
1250- construction of the sun temple of Konarak.
1290-1320- the Khalji Sultans.
The Sultans of Delhi Stop the Mongols
1296-1306- Mongol occupation of northern India stopped by sultans of Delhi.
1320-1413- Tughluq Sultans.
The Hindu State of Vijayanagar.
1336-1565- Vijayanagar-the last Great Hindu State forms a bbarrier against northern, Muslim India.
1346-1564- last Hindu resistance to the Muslims.
1347-Bahmani Sultanate founded.
1398- Tamerlane invades and pillages Delhi.
1414-1451- the Sayyid Sultans.
1451-1526- the Lodie Sultans.
1469-1533- Sikhism founded by Nanak.
1485-1533- Bhakti worship of Krishna formalized by Chitanya.
Portugeuse Land in India.
1498- Portugal's Vasco da Gama lands in Calicut.
1504-1530- Babur of Ferghana takes northern India. A Central Asian warlord, his Moghul empire includes Afghanistan and India.
1510- capture of Goa by Portugeuse.
Babur Founds the Moghuls.
1526- 1530- Babur founds the Moghul dynasty, defeating the Lodi Sultan at Panipat.
1526-1707- Muslim Moghuls rule northern India.
1530-1538- reign of Hamyun, son of Babur.
1538- death nof Guru Nanak.
1538-1555- Interregnum of Sur Dynasty.
1540-1545- Babur’s son Humayun loses control to the Afghan chieftan Sher Shah.
1542-1605- in a rare reversal of the pattern of invasion, the Moghul sultans and Akbar reassert control over northern India and crosses the Indus to conquer Sindh and Afghanistan. Liberal and enlightened, he establishes tolerance and attempts to form a synthethis of Hinduism and Islam called the Divine Faith.
1546- battle of Panipat: Humayun’s son Akbar the Great recovers the area from the Afghans, extending it to Deccan.
1555-1556- Moghul authority restored by Humayun.
Akbar the Great and the Fall of Vijaynagar
1556-1605- Akbar rules Moghul India.
1565- fall of Vijayanagar.
1585- the Sikhs are autonomous in the region of Lahore, Pakistan.
1600- charter granted to British East India Company.
1605-1627- reign of Jahangir.
1628-1658- reign of Shah Jahan.
The English Appear in Bangal.
1634- English trading in Bengal.
1634- construction of the Taj Mahal.
1639- Fort St. George founded in Madras.
1658-1707- the Mogul emperor Aurangzeb pushes the boundaries of the empire southward
End of the Moghul Empire.
1707- Moghul empire disintergates with the death of Emperor Aurangzeb.
1659- Shivaji (1627-1680) gathers local hill-dwellers of Bijapur against the Moghuls. The Moghuls send a force against him but he defeats them.
1660s- Shivaji gains power- his locality growing as a “robber state” by extracting protection money.
The Hindi Maratha Kingdom.
1674-1680- Shivaji makes himself Raja of Maratha kingdom in west India as the Moghul empire declines.
-the Emperor Aurangzeb’s defence of the Muslims at the expense of the Hindus leads to war with the Marathas.
1690- founding of Calcutta.
1700-1800- the British consolidate their trading power in India through the East India company, taking advantage of the weakened Moghul emperor, Aurangzeb, and make India a British colony.
1708- death of rhe Guru Govind Singh.
Britian, France and Afghanistan in India.
1738- Nadir Shah of Persia invades Afghanistan and northern India, his empire lasting only until his assassination in 1747.
1742- Marathas invade Bengal.
1744-1748- British-French war in India.
1747- Ahmad Shah (of the Saddozai family, Abdali clan) commander of Nadir's body guard, takes the name Durrani, meaning 'Pearl of the Age' and establishes the Durrani dynasty of Afghanistan, unites varied tribes in southern Afghanistan around their common link: the Pashtun language. He invades the Gangetic plain of India conquering and weakening the last Moghul emperor Aurangzeb. The modern Afghan nation begins to take shape. His empire extends from near the Caspian Sea to India.
1750- under British and Afghan pressure, the Moghul empire shrinks to an area around Delhi.
-in west, coastal India, the Maratha empire becomes a confederacy of leading local families: Bhonsle, Gaekwad, Holkar and Sindia) under hereditary ministers (Peshwas).
-the Peshwa of Maratha asks for British intervention to settle an internal dispute.
1751- Afghans pillage Delhi.
British Consolidate Rule over India.
1757- battle of Plassey begins the British conquest of India.
1761- Ahmad Shah defeats the Marathas of India at Panipat
1765- Moghul emperor grants diwani to East India Company.
The Maratha Wars.
1775-82- first British-Maratha war.
1784- Pitt passes India Act.
1786-1793- Lord Cornwallis Governor General of India.
1792- Ranjit Singh takes comes to power.
1793- permanent settlement in Bengal.
1798-1805- Lord Wellesley is Governor General.
1799- Tipu Sultan defeated at Mysore.
1803-1805- second British-Maratha war.
1818- the Marathas destroyed in a third war with the British.
1828-1835- Governor General Lord William Bentinck.
1835- English to be used for higher education.
1839- death of Rajit Singh.
The British Move past the Indus.
1839-1842- the first Afghan War.
1840s- the region of the Indus falls under British rule.
1843- annexation of Sundh.
1849- annexation of Punjab.
1849- -the British atke over the Frontier region from the Sikhs. the Deputy Commissioner, Dera Ismail Khan (NWFP)and Bannu controls all political matters in Waziristan- even though the tribes of neighbouring North Waziristan are under the sovereignty of the Kabul government.
-in Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan, two Pashtun tribes, the Waziris and the Mahsuds use the mountainous region to resist British rule.
1850- most of India controlled by the British East India Company.
1853- India's first railway line.
The Sepoy Mutiny.
1857-1858- the Sepoy Rebellion- Britian takes direct control of India.
1860- 3000 Mahsud tribesmen attack a British regiment base in Tank (present South Waziristan).
1876- Baluchistan becomes a British protectorate.
-birth of Mohammed Jinnah, founder of Pakistan.
1880-1884- Governor General Lord Ripon.
The Indian National Congress.
1885- Indian National Concress is organized.
1890- the British acquire west Punjab.
1892- India Councils Act.
1893- the British acquire northern Balushistan.
British Difficulties in Waziristan.
1893-November , the Emir of Afghanistan signs a treaty renouncing all claims to Waziristan and the North West Frontier territories.
1893- the Durand line forms the limit of British territorial expansion into the Pashtun territories of Afghanistan. The Pashtun region, which had once defined Afghanistan, is split by the new boundary with Afghanistan. Western Pakistan is ceded to British India.
1894-95- Extensive British military operations against tribal insurgents in Waziristan.
1899-1905- Governor General Lord Curzon.
1904- large scale disturbances in SouthWaziristan resulting murder of the Political Agent and Militia Commandant at Sarwakai
1905- partition of Bengal.
1906- founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Jinnah, joins the Indian National Congress.
The Muslimn League.
1906- founding of Muslim League.
1909- Morley-Minto reforms.
1910- North Waziristan is made by the British into a full fledged agency
-the Durand line allows for the border territory of Waziristan to be autonomous, outside of effective British rule. Instead, the British ruled by paying subsidies to tribal chieftains.
-otherwise, the Pakistan region remains generally loyal to the British Raj; its inhabits fare relatively well under the British Raj and are well represented in the army and in government.
-but in northern India, where Muslims fare less well.
1912- Delhi becomes capital of India.
1913- in India, Mohammed Jinnah joins the Muslim League. As leader, Jinnah, demands greater rights for Indian Muslims.
1915- because of the stresses of World War I, the Brtish make a peace deal in Waziristan. But instead, Waziri tribes attack, inflicting heavy losses on the British. The British retalliate with aerial ombardment.
Responsible Government for India.
1917- British parliament plans for responsible government in India.
1919- Montagu-Chelmsford reforms.
1919- British road building and fortification in Waziristan only results in more bloody tribal attacks.
1919- the Third Afghan War. Pashtun tribes under Afghan warlord Amanullah, on both sides of the Durand line, defeat the British. The British concede nationhood to Afghanistan by the Treaty of Kabul. Amanullah attempts westernizing reforms.
1919- the Amritsar massacre.
1920- M.K. Gandhi appointed leader of Indian National Congress.
1921- the first Non-cooperation movement.
Mahatma Gandhi
-Mahatma Gandhi begins his first passive resistance campaigns.
1927- the Simon Commission.
The Hindu Indian National Congress vs. the Muslim League.
1930- the civil disobedience movement.
1930s- Ghandi’s vastly Hindu Indian National Congress, makes it more urgent for the Muslims in the north to form some sort of defensive association.
-as Muslims become marginalized, Mohammed Jinnah steps up the rhetoric of the Muslim League.
1931- seeing little hope in the face of the INC, Jinnah resigns.
1935- Jinnah returns to the Muslim League under popular pressure and reorganizes it along nationalist lines.
1935- the Government of India Act is established, allowing the independent election of provincial governments, and will become Pakistan’s constitution in 1947.
1937- the Muslim league fares badly in Indian elections.
-provincial autonomy granted.
1939- ministries of Congress resign over war issue.
Muslims Threaten Secession with Lahore Resolution.
1940, March 23- The Pakistan or Lahore Resolution- Muslims declare that if their lot doesn’t improve, they’ll move toward creating a separate homeland. This is especially popular in the Muslim majority states of the northwest.
1942- the last civil disobedience campaign: the August Uprisings.
1945-1946- the Muslim league makes a powerful showing in provincial elections in India.
-negotiations for then tranfer of power from Great Britain.
Governor General Mountbatten Urges the Creation of Pakistan.
-Governor General Lord Mountbatten urges the secession of Pakistan.
Indian Independence
1947- India becomes independent.
1947- Britain agrees to the formation of an independent Pakistan, separate from India.
-on partition of the sub-continent , the tribal leaders of Waziristan agreed to be a part of Pakistan, but with special terms and conditions.
Creation of an Independent Pakistan
15 August- Pakistan becomes independent, comprising Sindh, Punjab and North-West Frontier with the Durand line remaining as the border between the two nations. The border still cuts through the region of the Pashtun people- despite Afghan claims on the entire Pashtun region, which includes much of the Baluchistan region of western Pakistan. Before departing the British had drawn the frontier between west Pakistan and India in haste, forcing bordering principlalities to join either India or Pakistan.
-As Governor General, Mohammed Jinnah is Pakistan’s first head of state.
-East Pakistan formerly East Bengal, 1000 miles distant, is included in the new Pakistan.
-an exodus of about 5 million Sikhs and Hindus from West Pakistan into India.
1947- after much bloodshed, the western region separates from India to from the independent Muslim state of West Pakistan, and, on the other side of India in East Bengal, of East Pakistan.
India Annexes Kashmir; Pakistan Resists.
1948-the Raja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, a Hindu, finds himself ruling an area with a Muslim majority. After a Pakistan-supported Muslim uprising in west Kashmir, India offers help, provided that Kashmir then becomes part of India. Pakistan, angry that it wasn't consulted, supports the Muslim insurgents.
-Gandhi assassinated by Hindu radical.
1949- the UN brokers a caesefire in Pakistan’s skirmish with India over Jammu and Kashmir. A planned UN-sponsored pleiscite over the fate of the area is never held.
1949- Cease-fire Line of Control (LOC) drawn between Kashmir and Pakistan
19452- Congress Party Winds elections under Nehru.
1962- border cnflict between India and China.
1965 India-Pakistan War.
1965- war breaks out as India occupies Muslim Kashmir. Russia’s Kosygin brokers a caese-fire.
East Pakitsan Secedes from West Pakistan.
1971- When East Pakistan’s Awammi league wins the elections, West Pakistan, under Yahya Khan refuses to recognize the result. East Pakistan breaks away from West Pakistan in a civil war and becomes independent as Bangladesh.
-the civil war embraces Kashmir. India intervenes on behalf of Mujibur Rahman and the Awami League.
1972 India-Pakistan War.
-fighting breaks out on the western India-Pakistan frontier.
1972- India prevails in an uneasy peace. Cease-fire line between Kashmir and Pakistan (Line of Control) reasserted. Under the Simla agreement both sides agree to settle future disputes by negotiation.
1974- India tests its first nuclear bomb.
1975- after being found guilty of electoral malpractice, Indira Gandhi declares state of emergency.
1975-77- Indira Gandhi imprisons 1,000 political opponents.
-compulsory birth control brought in.
1977- Gandhi's Congress party loses general elections.
1978- Hindu-Muslim riots.
1980- Ghandi returns to power at head of Congress (Indira) splinter group.
1984- -in south Asia, Shia are assertive- so India and Pakistan (largest Shia pop at 30 million, after Iran) become the battleground of Saudi-Iranian rivalry in the 80s and 90s.
-India and Pakistan have both acquired nuclear weapons.
Sikhs Crushed at the Golden Temple.
1984- Sikh separatism crushed during the seige of the Golden Temple at Amritsar.
-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by her Sikh bodyguard. Her son Rajiv Gandhi succeeds her.
-gas leak at Bhopal chemical plant ills 2, 500.
1986- the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is established and relieves tension between the two nuclear powers.
1987- India sends peace-keeping troops to Sri Lanka.
1989- Congress Party defeated in general elections.
Lakshar E Toiba.
1980s-1990s- Islamist groupb Lashkar-e-Toiba first fights Soviets in Afghanistan then switches to Kashmir
1990- India withdraws troops from Sri Lanka.
-Muslim separatists begin fighting for independence of Kashmkir.
1991- Rajiv Ghandi, leader of the Congress party is assassinated by Tamil sympathizer in suicide bombing during an election campaign.
- PV Narasimha Rao leader of Congress Party is elected Prime Minister and launched economic reforms.
1992- rain storms and flooding contribute to increasing intercommunal violence.
-in Ayodha, in northen India, Hindu extremists demolish mosque, setting of Hindu-Muslim riots.
1993- government declares state of emergency due to intercommunal violence.
1996- Prime Minister Rao defeated with his Conbgress Party. The BJP Hindu nationalists emerge as the largest party
-under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, a coalition is formed with the BJP
1998- India condemned internationally for conducting nuclear tests.
1999-Pakistan's Nawaz Sharif withdraws the army from Kashmir and dismisses its head, General Musharraf, angering the army.-
The Lahore Declaration.
1999-Lahore Declaration. In historic bus trip Prime Ministers Vajpayee and Sharif of India and Pakistan swear to settle differences by negotiation.
1999- 600 Islamic militia from Pakistan occupy Indian Kashmir, provoking retaliatory air strikes from India.
2000- May- population reaches 1 billion.
-US President Clinton visits and imporves relations.
2001- -India and Pakistan mass troops along the LOC as tensions build again in Kashmir.
-to placate angry Islamists, Musharraf takes a softer policy on Kashmir.
-earthquakes in Gujarat leave 30,000 dead.
-Indian and Bangladeshi soldiers die in border clash.
-India launches a rocket that can carry a satellite.
-July- P.M. Vajpayee meets Pakistan's Musharraf with no agreement on issues including Kashmir.
-Sept. U.S. lifts nuclear sanctions against Pakistan and India in return for their support in the War on Terror.
-Oct. fighting between India and Pakistan along LOC in Kashmir.
L.E.T. Attacks Indian Parliament.
-Dec 13, - attack on Indian parliament carried out by Pakistan-based militant groups, Jaish e Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Toiba
-India imposes sanctions on Pakistan to force it to take action against the LET and JEH.
-India and Pakistan mass troops along the border.
2002- -Musharraf bans the Islamist groups Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
-Pakistan tests missiles that have nuclear capability.
-Feb. Hindu pilgrims die in train fire in Gujarat, setting of Hindu-Muslim riots in which 1,000, mostly Muslims die.
-ceasefire between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.
-Abdul Kalam elected president.
2003- 50 killed in siultaneous bombings in Mumbai.
-November- bilateral ceasefire in Kashmir.
-December- Pakistan and India agree to airline links and overflights.
-progress in talks with moderate Kashmir separatists.
2004- May- Manohman Singh becomes P.M. as Congress wins elections.
Sept. India bids for a seat on the UN Security Council.
Nov. India begins troop withdrawal from Kashmir.
2004- December- Tsunami hits south coastal India, killing thousands.
2005- cross-border bus services resume in Kashmir.
-July- over athousand killed in floods and mudslides in Mumbai area.
Oct 8- earthquake kills thousands in Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.
Oct 29- bombs kill 62 in Delhi- the work of an obscure Kashmiri group.
2006- 26 Feb. India's rural jobs program lifts millions out of poverty.
March 7- 14 killed in Hindu pilgrimmage city of Varanasi.
-March- on visit by President Buch, US agrees to provide access to nuclear technology in return for guarantees of nuclear security
-May- Islamists kill 35 Hindus in attacks in Kashmir.
-July 11- 180 die in Mumbai train bombings. India blames Pakistan militant.
-Pakistan's SSG discovers through the arrest of Rashid Rauf that Lakshar –e- Toiba is linked to a terror group in the UK. Lashkar-e-Toyaba is also blamed for the Mumbai train bombings in July.
-Sept 8- bombings outside a mosque in Melagaon kill 31.
-Dec.- President Bush allows India access to nuclear reactors and fuel.
2007- Feb. - the New-Dehhi, India-Lahore Pakistan train is bombed, killing 68, mostly Pakistanis.
-India and Pakistan sign treaty reducing the risk of nuclear war.
-March- Maoist rebels kill 50 police in attack in Chhattisgarh.
-May- 9 killed in bombing at main mosque in Hyderabad. More killed in rioting that follows.
-May- government announces astonishing 9.4% growth.
-July- Prathiba Pratil elected first woman president of India.
2008- July-parties of the left and the right attempt to bring down the government for sacrificng nuclear sovereignty incooperation deal with U.S.
-July- -explosions in Ahmedabad Gujarat kill 59. Mujahedeen of India claim responsibility.
-Oct. -Bush signs bill re-opening nuclear trade with India.
2008 -Nov. Mumbai: -150 killed in a series of coordinated attacks in hotels, a railway station, a Jewish centre and other sits. Hundreds injured. Indian and Jewish hostages murdered. Unknown terror group announces itself at the Mujehadeen of Deccan. Media reports cast suspicion on Pakistani terror groups, especially Lashkae e Toiba.
-Dec.- India temporarily suspends peace process with Pakistan.
2009- Feb.- India anounces $700 million deal in which Russia will supply uranium to India.
2009- April- sole surviving suspect in Mumbai massacee goes to trial.
May- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Congress party win elections.
July- India and Pakistan agree on a joint effort to combat terrorism, separate from progress in their peace talks.
-homosexuality leagalized by parliament in Delhi, overturning a 148 year old Colonial law.
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