INDIAN HISTORY TIMELINE

2500 BC Dravidian civilization 1500 BC Aryans invade India and conquered the Dravidians 1400 BC The Vedas, the Hindu scripture, was written 800 BC 800-600 BC The sacred scripture, the Upanishads written 518 BC Persians conquered Pakistan 500 BC Buddhism was founded in India by Siddhartha Gautama 500 BC Jainism was founded in India by Mahavira Jains 326 BC Alexander the Great moved into India 324 BC The Mauryan Empire was established by Chandragupta Maurya including Afghanistan and parts of central Asia   272 BC Ashoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya, becomes the emperor of India 185 BC The Maurya Empire ended 50 AD The Kushans established an empire in northern India 320 The Gupta Indian dynasty reunited northern India initiating the "golden Age" of India 700s Muslim armies from Arabia invade India 1206 Qutb ub-din Aybak establishes the Delhi Sultanate 1398 Timur conquered India resulting in the decline of the Delhi Sultanate 1498 Vasco da Gama becomes the first European explorer to reach India 1500's Christianity was introduced to India by the Europeans and in the early 1500s Sikhism was founded by Nana   1526 Babur established the Mughal Empire 1600 Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to the East India Company established trading posts in Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras   1628 Shah Jahan, the ruler of the Mughal Empire, builds the Taj Mahal 1658 The Strict Muslim, Aurangzeb, ruled India and tried to force Hindus to convert to Islam 1757 The Battle of Plassey: Robert Clive, an agent of the East India Company, leads forces which defeated the Mughal governor of Bengal   1774 Warren Hastings appointed the first governor general of India by the East India Company   1857 The Sepoy Rebellion 1858 The British government ruled India via an Indian Viceroy- called the British Raj 1876 Queen Victoria was given the title Empress of India by the British Parliament 1885 Burma became an Indian province The Indian National Congress was formed   1905 The British government divided Bengal into separate Hindu and Muslim sections 1914 1914 - 1918 First World War 1919 13 April:  The Amritsar Massacre 1920 Mohandas Gandhi became the leader of the Indian independence movement and the Indian National Congress   1935 The Government of India Act and the creation of a new constitution 1939 3 September:  The United Kingdom declared war on Germany and World War II began 1940 Muhammad Ali Jinnah demanded that a new country be formed from India for the Muslims, which would be called Pakistan   1945 August: World War II ended when United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki   1946 The British government agreed to grant India independence   1946 16 August: Indian Muslims held nation-wide demonstrations calling for the establishment of Pakistan   1947 British and Indian leaders agreed to divide the country into India and Pakistan 15 August 1947 India became independent   1948 30 January: Gandhi was assassinated 1950 26 January:  A new Indian Constitution was ratified and Jawaharlal Nehru became the Indian first prime minister