United India - A Nation of Divisions
    Between 2000 and 1000 BC settlers from Central Asia arrived in the Punjab and upper Ganges valley. They were lighter-skinned than the local Dravidian people, who originated in the south of India, and became known as Aryans from the Sanscrit word meaning 'noble ones'. The Aryans brought with them an early form of the Hindu religion, and it was probably at this stage that they devised the rudiments of the caste system to maintain their superiority over the Dravidians. From a fairly flexible set of distinctions the caste system has developed in 3000 years into the most complex class system of any society in the world.
    Four main castes were formed. They were: the Brahmans, the priest class; the Kshatriyas, who were warriors and rulers; the Vaisyas, who were originally herdsmen and later merchants and farmers: and the Sudras, who served the other three castes and carried out menial tasks. In Hindu teaching, these four classes are said to have been formed from the head (Brahmans), arms (Kshatriyas), trunk (Vaisyas) and feet (Sudras) of the god-creator Brahma.
Castes within Castes
    Over centuries, marriages between the four main castes led to the formation of subdivisions, and these were further subdivided by occupations. By the time India became independent in 1947, there were an estimated 2000 castes within the general framework of the four main classes. The lowest of all was the group known as the Untouchables, or Harijans. They were confined to occupations which were shunned by the higher castes as pulluting, such as clearing excrement or handling the dead.
    In each caste there were rules of eating, washing and religious conduct, and well-defined laws of contact with other castes. Women, for example, could marry into a caste above that into which they were born, but not below. Today, the government of India is committed to abolishing the caste system. The constitution lays down as a principle of law the equality of all Indians, regardless of caste. And Untouchability has been outlawed altogether.

The Mughal Emperors of India
    Indian civilisation goes back to 2500 BC or even earlier. But although some rulers - particularly the Buddhist Ashoka (about 273 to 232 BC)- came close to dominationg the entire subcontinent, it was not until the Middle Ages that all India became a single political unit. The dynasty that established India-wide rule was the Mughal empire - from whose name the English word mogul, for a powerful ruler, is derived. It was founded by Baber, a Muslim descendent of the Central Asian Tartar conqueror Tamerlane (1336 - 1405), and lasted until India became formally a British colony in 1857. India became independent from British rule in 1947 and has been a republic since 1950.
Ruler Reigned
Baber 1526 to 1530
Humayun 1530 to 1556
Akbar the Great !556 to 1605
Jahangir 1605 to 1627
Shah Jahan 1628 to 1658
Aurangzeb 1658 to 1707
Bahadur Shah I 1707 to 1712
Jahandar Shah 1712 to 1713
Farruk-Siar 1713 to 1719
Mohammed Shah 1719 to 1748
Ahmed 1748 to 1754
Alamgir 1754 to 1759
Shah Alam 1759 to 1806
Mohammed Akbar II 1806 to 1837
Bahadur Shah II 1837 to 1857

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