KÜRESEL GÜNEY VE YÜKSELEN GÜÇLER

With a population of more than 1.4 billion (one-sixth of the world’s population) India is the world’s most populous democracy and is the second biggest armed force in the world. Its participation in the multilateral order is strong. India is an important member of the UN, a member of the G-20 and is one of the nuclear powers of the world and is an established maritime player.

Its participation in the multilateral order is strong. India has also a number of soft power instruments: Indian movies (Bollywood), music, and spiritual teachings have a privileged position in global culture. As an example of soft power, in 2015, the United Nations declared June 21 as the international yoga day.

The changing world order is shaping two different paths for India in its effort for increased international political and military influence. India faces a defining period. Geopolitical shifts, increasing competition between the United States and China, create both opportunities and challenges. India has vested interests in preserving the existing multilateral order.

Furthermore, India faces pressing problems that might hamper its aspirations: such as environmental degradation, extensive poverty, widespread corruption, insufficient health and sanitation, inefficient governmental bureaucracy, poor public infrastructure, substandard education and social cleavages. As India moves closer to achieving great-power status, these problems will pose greater trouble and urgency. India has to cope with these problems in its forward leaning stance on the multilateral order.

Before 1947, India really referred not to the Indian national state of today but a greater region extending from Afghanistan to Bangladesh. The recorded history of India begins with the Indus Valley Civilization. Aryan tribes invaded the Indian subcontinent from the northwest about 1500 B.C. In the next five centuries, they gradually expanded eastwards. As the Aryan tribes began to settle down, a process of conflict, co-operation and assimilation between the Aryans and non-Aryans took place.

The British rule in India started with the English East India Company. The East India Company was chartered in 1600 to  trade in the Indian Ocean region. The company engaged only in trade in the first 100 years but after the disintegration of the Mughal Empire, the company started to take control of territory and then gradually increased the reach of its control to almost all of the Indian subcontinent.

The company exploited Indian resources. By the eighteenth century, the Indian cotton textile industry was the global leader in terms of quality, production, and exports. India with China was producing the world’s highest-quality silk and porcelain. However, the situation was reversed in the nineteenth century. Protectionist policies by Britain kept Indian textiles out of the British market and India became an exporter of raw cotton but not the finished products. India now has been importing more than 70% of its textile consumption from Britain. The result was that millions of spinners and weavers were driven into poverty.

Indian exports of agricultural products, such as cotton, jute, tea, coffee, wheat and oil seeds made Britain industrialists richer but made Indian peasants poorer. Millions of Indians died as a result of famines and cruel British administration.

British rule established a sophisticated bureaucracy which replaced the corrupt and inefficient administration of the old East India Company. However, that sophisticated bureaucracy excluded the people of India. The upper echelons of the administration were exclusively occupied by the British. Indians were positioned at the lower levels of the bureaucracy. English speaking Indians acted as intermediaries between the British rulers and the Indian subjects. To create a class of persons Indian blood but English in taste and opinions, the British created a system of English education in the early 19th century.

After the First World War, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) became the undisputed leader of the Congress. Gandhi introduced a non-violent method of non-cooperation and civil disobedience. The Non-Cooperation Movement was a great success and created trouble for the British authorities. It also led to a new awakening in the Indian Independence struggle, leading the first mass movement to rock British power since the Mutiny, and remaking Congress as a popular political force. After the upheaval of 1919–1921, Gandhi launched campaigns, first in 1930–31 and then in 1942–43. The campaign got massive support from millions of Indians. The size of each campaign got bigger than the last. They have challenged the British authority as well as transformed Indian politics. The British responded with political engineering to divide and defeat the nationalist movement. The nationalist movement has changed its demands from representative government to self-rule and complete independence.

The capitol of Republic of İndia is New Delhi.

The Muslim rule was established for the first time in 1206 AD.

The Mughal empire was established in 1526 by Babur. The Mughals ruled India for more than three centuries.At the time of Akbar, the greatest of the Mughal emperors, the empire extended from Bengal to Kabul, making it greater than either the Mauryas or the British.

The Taj Mahal was built as a mausoleum for Shah Jahan's beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal.

The Quit India movement turned out to be the biggest civilian unrest in India since the great rebellion of 1857. Consequently, the British accepted Indian independence.

There are three kinds of political parties in the Indian parliament: national, regional and communal

According to the Constitution, India is a union of states. The word federal is not used in the constitution.

The four major castes are the priestly class, the warrior and ruler class, the traders and the rest (workers and the unskilled) known as the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras respectively.

India is the fifth-largest economy in terms of nominal GDP and third in terms of purchasing power parity.

The inventory of the Indian Armed Forces consists mostly of Russian-origin equipment, along with a smaller mix of Western and domesticallyproduced arms.