| Ancient Indian Civilization | |
| 2500-1500 BC | The Indus Valley Civilization: Mohenjodaro, Harappa |
| 1500 BC | The Hindu sacred text, Rig Veda, is written |
| 563 BC | Birth of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism |
| 599-527 BC | Vardhamana Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, is born |
| 326 BC | Alexander the Great invades India |
| 320 BC | Chandragupta starts the Mauryan Empire that rules over Northern India |
| 273-232 BC | Emperor Ashoka |
| 261 BC | Kalinga War: Ashoka's conversion to Buddhism |
| 180 BC | Menander, Greek king of Sialkot is born |
| 100 BC | The Scythians (Sakas) rule Northern India |
| 52 AD | Saint Thomas arrives in India to promote Christianity |
| 68-182 | The Kushan Empire flourishes |
| 320-490 | The Gupta Empire, the Golden Age of Indian Civilization, is established. Science, literature and arts flourish. |
| 470 | The Huns invade India, the fall of the Guptas, Decline of Buddhism |
| 528 | Defeat of the Huns by the Hindus |
| 506-647 | Harsha rules the throne of Kanauj |
| 630-645 | Hiuen Tsang, the Chinese traveller, visits India |
| 6th-7th Century | The Chalukya Dynasty of South India - Aiholi, Badami |
| 8th Century | The Rashtrakutas of Ellora, the Ganga Dynasty of Puri & Bhubaneshwar |
| 788 | Birth of Sankracharya, the Vedanta philosopher |
| The Rajput Period: 900-1200 | |
| 850 | Anangpal builds Lal Kot, Delhi's first city |
| 1000-1300 | Hoysala Empire rules the South |
| 1001-1019 | Muhammed of Ghazni raids India |
| 1026 | Looting of Somnath by Muhammed of Ghazni |
| 1176 | Muhammed Ghor's invades the North and makes Qutub-ud-Din Aibak Delhi's first ruler |
| 1192 | Battle of Tarain: Prithviraj Chauhan slain |
| The Delhi Sultanate | |
| 1206 | Qutub-ud-din Aibak becomes sultan of Delhi. His dynasty is overthrown in 1296 by Feroz Shah, a Turk, who builds Delhi's second city east of Lal Kot |
| 1297 | Marco Polo visits South India |
| 1321 | Ghias-ud-Din Tughlaq is proclaimed sultan. He starts building Tughlaqabad, the third city of Delhi |
| 1325 | Muhammed-bin Tughlaq becomes sultan and builds Jahanpanah, the fourth city. |
| 1336 | The Hindu kingdom of Vijaynagara is built in South India |
| 1351 | Feroz Shah Tughlaq builds Ferozabad, the fifth city. |
| 1398 | Looting of Delhi by Timurlane |
| 1414 | Power passes to the Sayyids |
| 1451 | Buhlbal Lodi, an Afghan noble, captures the throne and founds the Lodhi dynasty |
| 14th-16th centuries | Islam is established throughout the north. The south remains independent under the Hindu Vijayanagar dynasty |
| 1469 | Birth of Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism |
| 1498 | The Portugese arrive in Kerala, Vasco De Gama establishes Portugese trading posts, followed by the Dutch, French and English |
| The Mughal Dynasty: 1526-1857 | |
| 1526 | Babur, a warlord from Samarkand, defeats the Sultan of Delhi at the Battle of Panipat, and proclaims himself the first Mughal emperor |
| 1540 | Humayun succeeds his father, Babur, and starts to build Purana Qila, Delhi's sixth city |
| 1556 | Akbar is enthroned, aged 13. He pushes the borders of the Mughal Empire three-quarters of the way across the sub-continent |
| 1565 | Akbar starts to build the Red Fort in his capital city, Agra. Meanwhile, Muslim forces bring down the Vijayanagar dynasty in the south, which in turn is conquered by the Mughals |
| 1569-1574 | Akbar builds his "dream city" of Fatehpur Sikri, near Agra and moves his capital there, but the court returns to Agra ten years later. Akbar then starts to build his tomb at Sikandara |
| 1600 | Queen Elizabeth I grants a trading charter to the British East India Company, and in 1608, English merchants set up a trading base at Surat in Gujarat |
| 1605 | Akbar is succeeded by his son, Jahangir |
| 1627-1658 | Shah Jahan, Akbar's grandson, becomes emperor. |
| 1632 | Shah Jahan starts building the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife. |
| 1638 | Shah Jahan moves the capital from Agra to Delhi and lays the foundation for Shahjahanabad, Delhi's seventh city |
| 1639 | Shah Jahan begins work on Lal Qila (Red Fort) |
| 1646-1680 | Shivaji captures the hill forests around Poona which signals the rise of Maratha power |
| 1659-1707 | Aurangzeb becomes emperor by imprisoning his father, Shah Jahan, in the Red Fort at Agra. Following his death the Mughal Empire declines. |
| 1674 | The French setup a trading post at Pondicherry |
| 1739 | Nadir Shah, a Persian king, invades Delhi and slaughters 30,000 residents of Shahjahanabad before returning to Persia with the Peacock throne |
| 1756-1763 | In the Seven Years' War the British East India Company ousts the French from Bengal |
| 1761 | The British defeat the Maratha armies at Panipat |
| 1764 | In the Battle of Buxar, Clive receives the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa for the East India Company |
| 1774-1785 | Warren Hastings consolidates British gains |
| 1799 | Rise of Maharaja Ranjit Singh & the Sikhs |
| 1804 | Delhi Emperor is put under British protectorate |
| 1818 | By finally overthrowing the Marathas, the British establish themselves as the paramount power in India |
| 1849 | Second Sikh War: annexation of Punjab |
| 1857 | Indian Mutiny breaks out in Meerut, where sepoys are incited by a rumour that a new issue of bullets is greased with animal fat from pigs, which are unclean to Muslims, and cows, which are sacred to Hindus. The anti-British campaign spreads across India, causing much bloodshed. The British quell the rebellion. Bahadur Shah, last of the Mughal Emperors, is exiled to Burma. The reign of the East India Company comes to an end. |
| The British Raj: 1858-1947 | |
|---|---|
| 1858 | The British Crown imposes direct rule and appoints a viceroy as the sovereign's representative |
| 1869 | Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is born at Porbandar in Gujarat |
| 1877 | Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India |
| 1885 | The first political party, the Indian National Congress, is founded |
| 1906 | Foundation of the Muslim League |
| 1911 | George V, King and Emperor, announces that the capital will be transferred from Calcutta to Delhi |
| 1915 | Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known as the "Mahatma" (great soul), returns from South Africa, and starts to campaign for passive resistance to British rule |
| 1919 | General Dyer orders his Gurkha troops to open fire on a peaceful but illegal anti-British protest meeting in Amritsar, killing 379 and wounding 1,200 people in the courtyard of Jalianwala Bagh. This proves catalytic to the Indian Independence movement |
| 1922-1929 | The first workers union is established. The Congress, inspired by Gandhi, goes to the masses for support and non-violence becomes the banner for the freedom movement |
| 1930 | Gandhi's "Quit India" drive gains momemtum with his Dandi Salt March from Ahmedabad to protest against taxes on Indian-produced salt |
| 1931 | New Delhi inaugurated as the capital of India |
| 1935 | Mohammed Ali Jinnah, head of the Muslim League, calls for a new Muslim nation of Pakistan |
| 1937 | In the elections to the Provincial Assemblies, the Congress wins a majority, its relations with the Muslim League deteriorate |
| 1939 | Congress refuses to support England during the World War II |
| 1941 | Congress revises position on World War and offers support in exchange for Independence. Gandhi disapproves and leaves Congress |
| 1942 | Negotiations between the Congress and British fail. Congress launches Quit India Movement, in which thousands of Congress leaders, including Gandhi, are imprisoned |
| 1946 | Congress wins the elections, Jawaharlal Nehru angers Jinnah who announces Direct Action day. This results in an outbreak of communal riots in Calcutta, with the violence spreading all across North India and Punjab is in flames |
| Independence: 1947-Present | |
| 15th August 1947 | India gains independence from Britain at midnight on 15th August. Jawaharlal Nehru becomes her first Prime Minister. India is divided into two countries, the mainly Hindu nation of India and the Muslim nation of Pakistan. During Partition more than 10 million people migrate in each direction across the divided Punjab. Communal violence between Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims claims between 200,000 and 1,000,000 lives. |
| 30th January 1948 | Mahatma Gandhi is assasinated by a Hindu fanatic |
| 1948 | India and Pakistan go to war over Kashmir |
| 26th January 1950 | India becomes a Republic and the Consitution comes into force |
| 1954 | France return Pondicerry, Mahe to India |
| 1955 | The Non-Aligned Movement is launched with India as a founding member |
| 1961 | The Indian Army takes over the last Portugese possession in India - Goa, Daman, Diu |
| 1962 | Indo-Chinese War |
| 1964 | Jawaharlal Nehru dies. Lal Bahadur Shastri becomes India's Prime Minister and in 1965, repulses Pakistan's attacks on India in the Rann of Kutch and Kashmir |
| 1966 | Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, becomes Prime Minister |
| 1971 | War with East Pakistan leads to the creation of a new independent nation of Bangladesh |
| 1975-1977 | Indira Gandhi imposes a State of Emergency, suspends civil liberties and imprisons her political opponents. She is defeated in the 1977 elections |
| 1977-1979 | Janata Party comes to power under Morarji Desai |
| 1980 | Indira Gandhi returns as prime minister |
| 1984 | Sikhs demand independence for Punjab; 1,000 people die when the Indian army storms the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest Sikh Shrine. Indira Gandhi is assasinated on 31st October. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi becomes prime minister |
| 1988 | New opposition party, Janata Dal, is established |
| 1989 | Congress-I loses majority in general election; Janata Dal forms minority government |
| 1990 | Communal and civil disturbances in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam. Religious violence in Punjab. |
| 1991 | Rajiv Gandhi is assasinated. Congress forms a minority goverment lead by Narasimha Rao |
| 1992-1993 | Destruction of Babri Masjid in Ayodhaya by Hindu militants provokes riots nationwide |
| 1996 | The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) falls from power after two weeks in office. A leftist coalition under Deve Gowda, later succeeded by I K Gujral, takes control |
| 1998 | Election victory for BJP; their leader Atal Behari Vajpayee, becomes prime minister |