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India

Country in southern Asia, bounded to the north by China, Nepal, and Bhutan; east by Myanmar and Bangladesh; northwest by Pakistan and Afghanistan; and southeast, south, and southwest by the Indian Ocean.

Government

India is a federal republic whose 1949 constitution contains elements from the US and British systems of government. It comprises 28 self-governing states, administered by a governor, appointed by the federal president for a five-year term. Each state has its own legislature (legislative assembly), popularly elected for a five-year term, from which a council of ministers (headed by a chief minister) is drawn. A number of the larger states have a second chamber (legislative council). The states have primary control over education, health, police, and local government and work in consultation with the centre in the economic sphere. In times of crisis, central rule (‘president's rule’) can be imposed. There are also seven union territories (including Delhi), administered by a lieutenant governor appointed by the federal president. The central (federal) government has sole responsibility in military and foreign affairs and plays a key role in economic affairs.

The titular, executive head of the federal government is the president, who is elected for a five-year term by an electoral college composed of members from both the federal parliament and the state legislatures. However, real executive power is held by a prime minister and cabinet drawn from the majority party or coalition within the federal parliament.

The two-chamber federal parliament has a 542-member lower house, Lok Sabha (house of the people), which has final authority over financial matters and whose members are directly elected for a maximum term of five years from single-member constituencies by universal suffrage, and a 245-member upper house, Rajya Sabha (council of states), 237 of whose members are indirectly elected, one-third at a time for six-year terms, by state legislatures on a regional quota basis. (The remaining two seats in the Lok Sabha are reserved for Anglo-Indians, while eight representatives of the Rajya Sabha are also presidential nominees.) Bills to become law must be approved by both chambers of parliament and receive the president's assent.

History For the history of the Indian subcontinent (including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) prior to partition and independence in 1947, see India: history to 1526, India: history 1526–1858, and India: history 1858–1947.

Independence and partition

In August 1947 the first prime minister of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru, declared, ‘Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge’. India became independent from Britain at midnight on 14–15 August 1947. Lord Mountbatten, who had been sent as the last imperial viceroy to administer the handing over of power, remained as India's first governor general, and until 1949 India temporarily remained under the supervision of a governor general appointed by the British monarch while a new constitution was framed and approved. India remained within the Commonwealth.

The Muslims of British India had insisted on the creation of a separate Muslim state, and independence had been accompanied by the partition of the subcontinent into two states: the predominantly Muslim Pakistan, and the predominantly Hindu and Sikh India. Hundreds of thousands died in the communal violence accompanying the resultant mass migrations of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs.

The intervention of Mahatma Gandhi in Bengal largely stemmed the violence, but in January 1948 he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic. Gandhi had led the Indian National Congress (see Congress Party) in its campaign for independence, and although he no longer held any official position, few decisions could be taken without his approval. His power over the masses was symbolized by the success his numerous fasts had on stemming communal violence. His ideal of satyagraha, passive nonviolent resistance (see noncooperation movement), has greatly influenced Indian politics.

The Princely States and the Kashmir question

Congress, the party that had won independence, ruled with little opposition. In addition to having to deal with the virtual civil war in the Punjab caused by the mass migrations, the new government had to deal with the problems associated with the Princely States (see India of the Princes), the territories in the subcontinent that were ruled by native princes, not directly under British rule.

By the terms of independence from Britain, each of the Princely States could choose whether to join either Pakistan or India, or whether to remain independent. None chose the latter course. Hyderabad and Junagadh both had Muslim rulers and Hindu populations, but after the rulers of both decided to join Pakistan, their territories were forcibly annexed by India. In Kashmir the majority of the population are Muslim, but the Hindu maharaja opted to join India and called for Indian intervention when Muslims marched from the north on Srinagar. Fighting between Indian and Pakistani troops was brought to an end by a UN ceasefire on 30 October 1948, but Kashmir continued to be a source of tension and conflict between India and Pakistan.

Shock and sorrow at the death of Gandhi briefly improved relations between India and Pakistan, but this did not last long. In 1949 India stopped coal supplies to Pakistan, claiming that the latter was holding up supplies of raw jute. East Bengal (then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh), which before partition had produced over 75% of India's jute, was left with unsold stocks, while the mills in West Bengal had no material to process. Further cross-border migrations took place.

The Congress government and the new constitution

At independence the most important member of the Indian cabinet was not Nehru, the prime minister, but V J Patel, the minister with responsibility for home affairs and the states (as the former provinces had become). Gandhi's moral authority conditioned the relations between the two. The new structure of the country was formed largely by Patel and his secretary, V P Menon. But Nehru had free rein in international affairs, where he excelled. Under Patel the new Indian government took over the public services, and most of their personnel, almost intact. Despite opposition from Hindu extremists, India was to be secular and a compromise language formula was found, with English remaining the official language for 15 years.

The constitution adopted in 1949 was almost purely Western in character, drawing not only upon the 1935 Government of India Act (see India: history 1858–1947), but also upon the US constitution and those of Europe, including that of the Soviet Union.

Communist opposition

After the death of Patel, Nehru became the unchallenged leader of India. In the first general elections (1951–52) 173 million people voted and Congress depended for its massive success on Nehru's charisma. Although there were 59 other parties, Congress had a landslide victory. The Communists, having unsuccessfully tried revolution in the Telengana district of Hyderabad between 1948 and 1951, turned instead to the democratic process.

In the 1957 elections the Communist Party polled 12 million votes to become the largest opposition party in the central parliament. The Communist Party enjoyed great popularity in Kerala, a poor but literate state, where it governed, carrying out successful reforms from 1957 until 1959 when the ‘president's rule’ was imposed from the centre. In 1960 the Communists in Kerala polled 44% of the vote, and in the 1962 elections they formed the major opposition party in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.

The power of Congress depended on its heroic past, but its early self-sacrifice turned to corruption, and the social and economic reforms that were endorsed by the party were often not carried out. Nehru himself threatened to resign after Congress's vote was reduced in the 1957 election, and Kerala lost to the Communists, citing what he called his party's ‘deep malaise’.

The language issue

The demand, backed by violence, for the states to be organized on linguistic grounds, was a major problem. When a Telugu-speaking leader died from his fast, Nehru capitulated and new boundaries were drawn up for the state of Andhra, and a new commission advocated the creation of states on a linguistic basis. The seeds of a Punjabi-speaking state were sown when the Sikhs demonstrated, threatening a return to the partition riots. A compromise was found and the formation of a Punjabi-speaking state delayed until after Nehru's death. The States Reorganization Bill was passed in 1956. Nehru's indecisiveness allowed this bill to give power to reactionary elements intent on frustrating social and economic change.

The first and second five-year plans

Nehru's hopes for reform were embodied in centralized direction of the economy, through a series of five-year plans, administered by the Planning Commission set up in 1950. The first five-year plan from 1951 to 1956 was a success, concentrating mainly on agriculture, a base from which the second plan could proceed to concentrate on industry. But no cure had been produced to curtail the endemic poverty of the country, and Nehru recognized the need for a greater ideological framework.

In 1955 the ‘socialist pattern of society’ was set down as the objective of planning. Neglect of agriculture in the second plan in 1956 led to catastrophe, and drastic action was taken to save it. The weakness of the plan had been agricultural overconfidence and over-concentration on industry. Huge imports of grain were necessary by the beginning of the third plan in 1961. Nehru realized that there was a gap between the ideal and reality in Indian politics, stressing in 1957 ‘how poisoned we are to the very core’.

Leadership of the developing world

Nehru's foreign policy was summed up in the Pancha Sila, or five principles of coexistence, first announced in a joint statement with the Chinese premier Zhou Enlai in 1954. This policy influenced emerging Afro-Asian countries in the late 1950s and the 1960s. Equally influential was the Chinese and Indian stance of non-alignment in the ideological conflict between the Soviet bloc and the West (see non-aligned movement). Nehru's claim that India was nonviolent and Gandhian became the image that India presented to the world. At the meeting of the members of the Colombo Plan in 1954 India asserted itself as ‘leader of the developing nations’. At the Bandung Conference in 1955 Nehru and Zhou Enlai successfully advocated the Pancha Sila, and from then until the Belgrade Conference in 1961 (which was the first official meeting of the non-aligned movement) these ideals were embraced by 24 countries.

Conflict with China

India's leadership of the developing world led to isolation, and when the Chinese attacked India in 1962 the non-aligned were reluctant in their support for India. In 1950 the Chinese invaded Tibet and India could do nothing but protest. When India placed check posts along the northern frontier with China the Chinese protested, but India was obdurate throughout the diplomatic exchanges of the 1950s.

Anti-Chinese feeling built up in India when the Dalai Lama and many other refugees fled from Tibet in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule. An accidental border clash was dubbed by India as ‘deliberate aggression’. Throughout negotiations, attempts by Nehru at conciliation were greeted in India by uproar. Chinese penetration of the Himalayas border area of Aksai Chin was, however, regarded by India as an invasion of Indian territory.

As a diversion in 1961, to prove the government's bellicosity to China, India invaded the tiny Portuguese colony of Goa, in southwest India. The Indian navy and airforce were used against a territory with a mere 2,500 troops, an antique frigate, and an empty airfield. The unreality of India's attitude to China was summed up in the words of the home minister: ‘If the Chinese will not vacate the areas occupied by her India will have to repeat what she did in Goa.’ (France's few small colonies in India, including Pondicherry, had been transferred to India in 1954.)

The clash with China was partly provoked by India's intransigence, contrasting with China's apparent attempts at conciliation. China had nothing to fear from India and yet Nehru announced his belief that China would not retaliate. When in 1962 the Chinese army invaded Assam the Indian army collapsed. The shock for Nehru and India was immense, but having made their point the Chinese withdrew, and what had been thought of as a full-scale invasion turned out to be a punitive expedition. The image of India and Nehru was tarnished, and the result for India was a greater dependence on the USA and Britain, and a questioning of the policy of non-alignment.

Shastri and renewed conflict with Pakistan

Nehru died in 1964 and was replaced as president by Lal Bahadur Shastri. The ministry of external affairs, which had been held by Nehru, went to Swaran Singh. In 1964 president's rule was again imposed in Kerala, where there had been a Communist victory, and the Communist Party in India split into pro-Chinese and pro-Soviet wings.

In 1965 a skirmish known as the ‘War of the Rann of Kutch’ took place with Pakistan, but a ceasefire followed the mediation of the British prime minister Harold Wilson. A major war between the two powers broke out in Kashmir in August, which ended in a precarious ceasefire. China supported Pakistan and demanded that India dismantle military works on the Tibetan side of the Chinese border. In January 1966, under Soviet mediation, Shastri and the Pakistani president Ayub Khan signed a formal ceasefire agreement in Tashkent. Shastri died soon afterwards. Meanwhile, in 1965–66 there were severe famine conditions in Maharashtra state.

The early years of Indira Gandhi's premiership

Under the new prime minister Indira Gandhi (Nehru's daughter), ideological changes took place. Her encouragement of foreign investment was seen as a deviation from Nehru's non-aligned and socialist policies. In the same year the rupee was devalued by 36.5% and a new Hindu-majority province, Haryana, was created in the Punjab.

By 1967 the power of Congress was being eroded. In the elections it gained only 8 out of 17 states. A serious challenge to the leadership came from Morarji Desai. Kerala and Bengal were dominated by the Communists, and in the latter state sieges of managers by workers called ‘gheraos’ had become commonplace. More serious, however, was a peasant rising in the Bengali village of Naxalbari, from where the pro-Chinese Naxalites emerged to create a reign of anarchy and terror in Bengal.

Sino-Indian relations became tense again when Indian diplomats alleged ill-treatment in Beijing. By the following year, president's rule had extended to the states of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and the Punjab, and Congress's relations with Communist-controlled Kerala were strained. In an extraordinary political conflict in 1969 Indira Gandhi, while retaining majority support in Congress, was sacked from the party by a working committee of its bosses. The result was a split into the Opposition Congress and Indira Gandhi's Ruling Congress. The fourth five-year plan concentrated on food production, and stressed its socialist framework by nationalizing 14 banks. In 1970 the Ruling Congress formed a coalition with the Communist Party of India in Kerala, and the Communist Party (Marxist) was weakened.

The 1971 war with Pakistan

In 1971 agitation by separatist groups in East Pakistan led to violent suppression by forces loyal to West Pakistan, and there were mass migrations of people from East to West Bengal. Indian troops intervened to support the separatists, and the ensuing war with Pakistan led to the creation of Bangladesh from the ruins of East Pakistan. Much of India's newly increased revenue was absorbed by Bangladesh.

Indian relations with the USA were weakened by US partisan support for Pakistan in the war. India moved closer to the Soviet bloc, and on 9 August 1971 a 20-year treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union was signed. This provided for immediate consultations between the USSR and India if either country suffered attack or threat of attack by a third country, and prohibited either from entering into a military alliance that was directed against the other. Mrs Gandhi emphasized that India's policy of non-alignment had not been reversed. India supported the Arabs in the1973 Arab–Israeli War, and the same year a further 15-year economic and military assistance agreement was signed with the USSR. In June 1974 India carried out its first underground nuclear test, leading Pakistan to demand from the West a ‘nuclear umbrella’ to defend itself.

The state of emergency

In 1973 prices soared as a result of the worldwide increase in oil prices, and the fifth five-year plan, which concentrated on increasing the production of food grains, was launched. In 1974 the fifth plan was revised to cope with increases in oil prices, and food riots took place in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

In 1975, having been found guilty of electoral malpractice during the 1971 election, Indira Gandhi imposed a state of emergency and imprisoned almost 1,000 political opponents. She was cleared of malpractice by the Supreme Court in November 1975, but the ‘emergency’ continued for two years, during which period a harsh compulsory birth-control programme was introduced.

The state of emergency was lifted in March 1977 for elections in which the opposition Janata Party was swept to power, led by Morarji Desai. The new government was undermined by economic difficulties and internal factional strife. Desai was toppled as prime minister in 1979, and a coalition under Charan Singh was soon overthrown. In January 1980 the Congress (I) Party, led by Indira Gandhi, was returned to power with a landslide victory.

The Amritsar massacre

The new Gandhi administration was economically successful, but the problems of intercaste violence and regional unrest were such that the Congress (I) Party lost control of a number of states. The greatest unrest was in Punjab, where Sikh demands for greater religious recognition and for resolution of water and land disputes with neighbouring states escalated into calls for the creation of a separate state of ‘Khalistan’.

In 1984, troops were sent into the Sikhs' most holy shrine, the Golden Temple at Amritsar, to dislodge the armed Sikh extremist leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, resulting in the deaths of Bhindranwale and hundreds of his supporters. The ensuing Sikh backlash brought troop mutinies, culminating in the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in October 1984. In Delhi, retaliating Hindus massacred 3,000 Sikhs before the new prime minister Rajiv Gandhi (Indira's elder son) restored order.

In December 1984, Bhopal in central India became the site of a major industrial accident caused by the US multinational company Union Carbide failing to adhere to safety standards. More than 2,500 people were killed.

Rajiv Gandhi's premiership

In the elections of December 1984, Congress (I), benefiting from a wave of public sympathy, gained a record victory. As prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi pledged to modernize and inject greater market efficiency into the Indian economy and to resolve the Punjab, Assam, and Kashmir disputes.

Early reforms and the spread of technology, with India launching its first space satellite, augured well. Progress was made towards resolving the ethnic disputes in Assam and the hill areas, with 25 years of rebellion ended in Mizoram, which was made a new state of the Indian Union. However, Gandhi was unable to resolve the Punjab problem, with Sikh–Hindu ethnic conflict continuing, while in northern India Hindu–Muslim relations deteriorated.

Gandhi's enthusiasm for economic reform also waned from 1986, and his personal reputation was sullied by the uncovering of the ‘Bofors scandal’ by finance minister V P Singh, involving alleged financial kickbacks received by government-connected organizations from a $1,400-million arms contract with the Swedish Bofors Corporation.

In northern Sri Lanka, where an Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) had been sent in July 1987 at the Sri Lankan government's request as part of an ambitious peace settlement, Indian troops became bogged down in a civil war.

Despite bumper harvests in 1988–89, Gandhi's popularity continued to fall. V P Singh, who had been dismissed from Congress (I) in 1987, attacked Gandhi's increasingly dictatorial style and became the recognized leader of the opposition forces, which united under the Janata Dal umbrella in October 1988.

V P Singh's coalition government

In the general election of November 1989 a broad anti-Congress electoral pact was forged, embracing the Janata Dal (People's Party), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – both factions of the Communist Party – and the regional-level Telugu Desam. This ensured that Congress (I) failed to secure a working majority. V P Singh, widely respected for his incorruptibility, took over at the head of a minority National Front coalition.

Singh's main objective was the lowering of racial tensions. However, in January 1990 Muslim separatist violence erupted in Kashmir, forcing the imposition of direct rule and leading to a deterioration of relations with Pakistan. Relations were improved with the neighbouring states of Bhutan, Nepal (which had been subject to a partial border blockade by India during 1989), and Sri Lanka, with whom a date (31 March 1990) was agreed for the withdrawal of the IPKF. President's rule was imposed over Jammu and Kashmir in July 1990 and over Assam in November 1990, as a result of the rising tide of separatist violence. Punjab, where interethnic murders climbed to record heights from November, had been under president's rule since 1983.

During the summer and early autumn of 1990 V P Singh's government was rocked by a series of events, including the prime minister's decision to employ more low-caste workers in government and public-sector jobs, which resulted in protests by high-caste students and a split in the Janata Dal. Chandra Shekhar, a long-time Singh opponent, emerged as the leader of a rebel faction.

Hindu militants (the Vishwa Hindu Parishad) announced that on 30 October 1990 they would begin to build a ‘birthplace’ temple dedicated to the warrior god Ram on the site of a mosque in the northern city of Ayodhya. (Some Hindus believed that the mosque had been built on the site of a Hindu temple, considered to be the birthplace of Ram, and it remained a disputed site.) This precipitated serious communal tensions, which the government was unable to quell. On 7 November, after troops had fired on Hindu fanatics who were attempting to storm the Ayodhya mosque, the Singh government was voted out of office.

Chandra Shekhar's minority government

A new minority government was formed by Chandra Shekhar, who led a tiny Janata Dal socialist faction comprising 56 deputies and was assured of outside support by the Congress Party of Rajiv Gandhi. Violence continued, with a total of 890 people killed and 4,000 injured in Hindu–Muslim riots, and 3,560 people killed in the continuing ethnic strife in Punjab in 1990. The higher oil prices due to the crisis in the Gulf hit India's economy badly. At the end of January 1991 Shekhar dismissed the opposition-led government of the large southern state of Tamil Nadu, citing the presence of Tamil Tiger rebels from northern Sri Lanka. In March, Shekhar fell out with his backers, Congress (I), and tendered his resignation, but continued as caretaker premier until elections in May 1991.

The 1991 elections

On 21 May 1991, a day after the first round of voting had taken place in the general election, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at Sriperumpudur, near Madras (now Chennai), by a suicide bomber. She was one of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who resented the presence of Indian forces in Sri Lanka. P V Narasimha Rao, an experienced southerner, became Congress (I) party president.

Gandhi's assassination occurred in the wake of what had been the most violent election campaign in Indian history, with several hundred dying in election-related violence in northern India where Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh communal tensions were acute. Fortunately, there was subsequent calm, with polling being delayed until mid-June 1991 in seats not already contested.

Benefiting from a sympathy vote, Congress (I) emerged as the largest single party, capturing, along with its allies, around 240 of the 511 seats contested. The BJP, which had performed particularly strongly before Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, captured 125 seats and 25% of the popular vote, V P Singh's National Front and Left Front (Communist Party) allies captured 125 seats, while the Samajwadi Janata Party of the outgoing premier Chandra Shekhar captured only five seats. Congress (I) polled well in central and southern India, but was defeated by the BJP in its traditional northern Hindu-belt heartland of Uttar Pradesh, where a BJP state government was subsequently formed. The BJP's rise was the most striking development during this election.

A Congress (I) minority government was established, headed by Rao. In a new industrial policy, subsidies were slashed, inward foreign investment encouraged, and industrial licensing scrapped, bringing an end to the ‘permit raj’.

Sectarian violence continues

The president's rule was extended over Jammu and Kashmir in September 1991 for a further six months and was imposed in Meghalaya in October 1991. In Punjab, where killings averaged 600 a month during 1991, the president's rule was to remain in force until state elections in February 1992. In September 1991 a Places of Worship Bill was passed, prohibiting the conversion of any place of worship that existed at the time of independence in 1947, thus debarring Hindus from converting mosques into temples. Despite the mosque in Ayodhya being exempted from its terms, the bill was opposed by the Hindu-chauvinist BJP.

The position of Rao's minority government was strengthened in January 1992 when a split occurred in the opposition Janata Dal and a number of its deputies left and sought alliance with Congress (I). In elections held in February 1992 in strife-torn Punjab, Congress (I) won control of the state assembly and a majority in parliament. However, despite heavy security, turnout was only 28%, with the main Sikh nationalist party opponents of Congress boycotting the contest.

In December 1992 Hindu extremists demolished the Muslim mosque in Ayodhya, spreading communal violence across the country and resulting in over 1,200 deaths, two-thirds of which were Muslims. In response, Prime Minister Rao dismissed four state governments controlled by the Hindu-chauvinist BJP and ordered the arrest of senior opposition leaders and the banning of extremist religious organizations.

Foreign relations

Despite the break-up of the USSR in 1991, economic and military links with Russia remained close. A thaw in relations with China resulted in December 1991 after the visit to India of Li Peng, the first Chinese premier to visit India since the border conflict of 1962. In January 1992 full diplomatic relations with Israel were established.

Developments and events, 1993–95

In July 1993, Rao narrowly survived a confidence vote but in December 1993, with the addition of ten formerly independent members to Congress (I), the government established a clear parliamentary majority. An earthquake in Maharashtra state had earlier killed tens of thousands, and president's rule remained in force in Manipur, Tripura, and Kashmir, where 114 soldiers, 820 militants, and 577 civilians died in January–September 1993 as a result of the ongoing civil war. An outbreak of pneumonic plague in the western city of Surat in September 1994 claimed more than 50 lives.

Congress (as the party had been redesignated) suffered losses in four state elections in November–December 1994, and in the spring of 1995 lost control of Maharashtra and Gujarat to the Hindu-chauvinist Shiv Sena and BJP. It was also defeated in Bihar. In October 1995 direct rule was imposed in Uttar Pradesh following caste clashes and the collapse of a coalition government, which included the BJP. A report published in 1995 by the independent Vohra Commission showed large areas of northern India to be under the control of mafia gangs, backed by local politicians, and in January 1996 a number of politicians, including the leader of the BJP, were charged with corruption.

The 1996 elections

In national elections held in April 1996 the BJP emerged as the largest parliamentary bloc, but failed to win a majority. The second-largest number of votes was won by the leftist National Front–Left Front (NF–LF) group, followed by Congress, which suffered its worst election defeat since independence.

Rao resigned and dissolved parliament and in May 1996 the BJP formed a minority government under Atal Behari Vajpayee, but this collapsed after only 13 days.

The United Front governments

A new coalition of centrist and leftist parties was formed in June, headed by H D Deve Gowda of the NF–LF (now the United Front), which enjoyed the tacit backing of the Congress Party. The new finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram continued the liberalizing economic reforms instituted by Rao, with cuts in public spending and plans to streamline state-controlled firms and boost foreign and private investment. The United Front coalition government pledged to concentrate on the ‘concerns of the poor’, including rural development and social welfare.

In August 1996. a bill was passed changing the name of Madras to Chennai. Amid allegations of involvement in political bribery, Rao resigned as president of Congress in September 1996 and was replaced by Sitaram Kesri. In strife-torn Kashmir in October the National Conference Party (which wants the state to remain within India) won a sweeping victory in the first local elections for nearly a decade. In Uttar Pradesh, inconclusive elections and the lack of a stable majority resulted in the imposition of direct central rule.

In December 1996, the former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, who faced charges in three separate fraud trials, resigned as parliamentary leader of the Congress Party. The party's president Sitaram Kesri took over as parliamentary leader in January 1997; he criticized the programme of economic liberalization that had been introduced six years earlier, believing that the reforms had been implemented too quickly and with too great a burden being placed on the poor.

In February 1997, in state elections in the northern province of Punjab, the Sikh Akali Dal and its ally the Hindu nationalist BJP won a decisive victory over the Congress Party, which had restored peace during its five years in power. In the same month the United Front government cut income tax by 10%, as well as corporate taxes and import duties, in a pro-business budget.

In April 1997, the minority 13-party United Front government of Deve Gowda fell after the Congress Party, led by the ambitious 79-year-old Sitaram Kesri, withdrew its support and it was defeated on a confidence vote. This action by Congress was believed to have been triggered by Gowda's authorization of police investigations of its members accused of corruption. A new United Front government was formed, with Congress backing, later in the month. It was headed by the respected 77-year-old socialist and former foreign minister Inder Kumar Gujral, The new government included virtually all members of the preceding Gowda cabinet.

The Congress Party withdrew support from India's ruling coalition late November 1997, forcing the prime minister to resign in the third government collapse in less than two years. Congress abandoned IK Gujral's seven-month-old, 14-party United Front government after accusing one of its members of supporting rebels linked to the 1991 assassination of party leader and former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi. Gujral was the second prime minister to lead the nation and the United Front, after Congress withdrew support from a previous Front chief deemed ineffective March 1996.

The 1998 general election

The results of the general election held in India late February–early March 1998 showed that no party won the 273-seat majority needed to control the lower house of parliament. However, the country's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the single largest party, and India's president, R K Narayanan, asked BJP's leader, Atal Behari Vajpayee, 71, to head a coalition government. The widow of slain prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia, became president of Congress.

In response to demands for greater local autonomy, in August 1998 the government proposed the creation of three new states – Uttaranchal, Vananchal (later to be called Jharkhand), and Chhattisgarh – to be carved out of parts of the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh. Chhattisgarh, Uttaranchal, and Jharkhand were created in November 2000.

Nuclear testing

India mid-May 1998 fuelled regional tensions and angered the world's opinion by conducting nuclear tests. Three nuclear weapons, which included an H-bomb, were tested in the Rajasthan desert. Reports on the explosions contributed to further increase of tension between India and Pakistan, and in late May Pakistan conducted five nuclear explosion on its territory.

International reaction to the testing in India soon followed: Australia and New Zealand recalled their high commissioners, Japan threatened to cut off aid, and China and UN secretary general Kofi Annan expressed concern. US President Clinton announced that he intended to implement the economic sanctions of America's 1994 Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Act. President Clinton announced the full implementation of the sanctions a few days later when India reported the explosion of two further nuclear weapons. Implementation of the US sanctions would mean blocking aid, barring bank loans and banning exports of equipment, such as computers, that might have a military use. In September 1998, India announced that it was now prepared to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and would conduct no further nuclear tests, apart from those that are still legal under the treaty.

In November 1998, US economic sanctions were partially lifted. This was a reward for India's announcement of a voluntary moratorium on further tests, its commitment to the treaty, and the resumption of dialogue with Pakistan over disputed Kashmir.

State elections

In November 1998, in the four northern and central states of Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Mizoram, the opposition Congress polled strongly, securing its best election results for a decade and attracting back support from the young, Muslims and dalits (formerly ‘untouchables’). It swept the ruling Hindu-nationalist BJP from power in Delhi and Rajasthan and retained control of Madhya Pradesh. The results were viewed as a reflection of public approval for Sonia Gandhi's leadership of Congress and a reflection of public disenchantment with recent sharp food price rises under the eight-month-old BJP national government of Atal Behari Vajpayee.

In April 1999, the BJP-led coalition government was defeated on a confidence vote in parliament. In the following month the parliament was dissolved. A general election was planned for late September or October. Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of Rajiv Gandhi, resigned as president of India's Congress Party in May 1999 after senior officials said it should not be led by a foreigner. Later in May, however, Sonia Gandhi withdrew her resignation and resumed control of the party.

India's Supreme Court in May 1999 confirmed death sentences on four people involved in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Civil unrest and continuing conflict over Kashmir

Late 1998 and early 1999 saw a rise of religious unrest and a dramatic escalation of the terror campaign against Christians, mainly in the state of Gujarat.

For the first time in 20 years, India used air power in May 1999 to attack what it called ‘infiltrators’ in Kashmir. Indian aircraft attacked guerrillas operating in the Indian part of Kashmir. The persisting conflict between the two nuclear powers caused concern in capitals worldwide. The USA, Britain, China, the UN, and the EU called for the two sides to show restraint. Pakistan and India agreed in June to discuss ways to bring peace to Kashmir. The warlike conflict eased a little in July after Pakistani prime minister Sharif had a hastily arranged meeting with President Bill Clinton in Washington, DC.

A full-scale Indo-Pakistani war appeared to have been averted in July 1999 after Pakistan announced a truce with India over Kashmir, and as India's air strikes stopped and Pakistani militants from mountains in Kashmir began to withdraw.

Indian forces in August 1999 faced continued attacks by militants. Nevertheless, after celebrating the 52nd anniversary of India's independence, Prime Minister Vajpayee unveiled a formal nuclear weapons doctrine, based on a ‘credible minimum deterrent’ that would be used only after a first strike against the country by an enemy. Although the announcement did not mention the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty which India, as well as Pakistan, was under intense pressure to sign before the end of September deadline, the world community was at least reassured by the doctrine's commitment to no first use.

The ruling Hindu BJP-led alliance in October 1999 narrowly won India's third election in less than four years. Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi won their own seats. Several small parties did well. The main winners in the most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, were two lower-caste parties, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

In the Congress party's first electoral test since Sonia Gandhi took over as party president, it performed poorly, finishing with fewer seats than in the previous elections. It appeared that Sonia Gandhi's lack of political experience, her weak grasp of Hindi, and her foreign birth had all taken their toll.

Prime Minister Vajpayee made economic reform his top priority. His programme also included several important constitutional reforms: fixed terms for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, the need for a third of people in legislatures to be women, and the creation of the three new states first proposed in 1998 – Uttaranchal, Jharkand, and Chhattisgarh.

Natural disasters

The coastal state of Orissa was hit in October 1999 by the fiercest cyclone for 28 years. The government, which had been criticized for a slow response to the tragedy, said in November that the confirmed death toll from the storm had reached 9,504. Officials said they did not expect the toll to exceed 10,000. Millions of people lost their homes and livelihoods, and the state was strewn with potentially disease-causing human corpses animal carcasses. The government said almost 300,000 cattle had been reported killed.

Rising tensions with Pakistan

India's celebrations to mark 50 years as a republic in January 2000 were overshadowed by rising tensions with Pakistan. India accused Pakistan of involvement in a week-long hijacking of an Indian airliner by Kashmiri militants who demanded the release of terrorists imprisoned by India. Pakistan denied any involvement. The Indian government agreed to release three prisoners, including the Islamic religious leader Maulana Masood Azhar, who subsequently appeared in public on Pakistani soil. Shelling and clashes in Kashmir heightened tension just before the visit to the area scheduled to be made by US President Clinton. Both sides denied responsibility for attacks. The following April, India announced a record 28% increase in defence spending for the next year.

Pakistani-backed fighters in Kashmir, the Hizbol Mojahedin, declared a three-month ceasefire in July 2000, and expressed willingness to talk to the government. In response to this, the Indian army suspended all offensive operations for the first time during the 11 years of violence in which more than 30,000 people had died. However, India refused to allow the involvement of Pakistan in the peace talks, and the mutual ceasefire was cancelled after only 15 days, with rebel activity and retaliation attacks recommencing. However, in November, India announced a unilateral ceasefire to coincide with Ramadan, Islam's holy month. The ceasefire was rejected by militant groups, but despite further killings, India held to its promise, though it was still not prepared to hold talks with Pakistan on the future of Kashmir.

Internal problems

300,000 workers in India's state telecommunications industry went on strike in September 2000, claiming that employment was placed at risk by privatization plans. The same month, ex-premier Narasimha Rao was convicted of bribing MPs in the crucial no-confidence vote he faced in 1993. He appealed against the ruling. In October the Supreme Court rejected an application by an environmental group to halt construction of the controversial Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada River in Gujarat.

Earthquake in Gujarat

An estimated 50,000 people were killed after the most powerful earthquake in India for 50 years struck the northwest state of Gujarat on 26 January 2001. The quake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, injured a further 150,000 people, and left more than 1 million in need of food, shelter, and clean drinking water. It laid waste to towns and cities throughout Gujarat state; two large towns, Bhuj and Anjar, were virtually destroyed. Aftershocks continued to affect the region during the first half of February.

Bribery scandal

Increased privatization and tax cuts were unveiled in the annual budget in February, which promised a ‘new deal’ designed to encourage economic growth. Quantitative restraints on 715 categories of imports were lifted. However, India's coalition government began to fall apart when videotapes of high officials taking bribes in set-up arms deals were released in March 2001. Bangaru Laxman – the president of the BJP, the main party in the coalition – and the defence minister George Fernandes, were among those forced to resign. One of the parties withdrew its nine members of parliament from the coalition.

Ceasefire in Kashmir

India repeatedly extended its unilateral ceasefire in December 2000, January 2001, and February, though pro-Pakistan militant groups continued to deride it as an attempt to win international sympathy. In mid-January, a separatist suicide squad tried to storm Srinagar's airport. The ensuing gun battle with Indian security forces left 11 dead and a dozen injured, and led to large-scale protests. However, the ceasefire extensions received a guarded welcome from the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, the main mouthpiece of peaceful Kashmiri separatists. India unexpectedly ended the ceasefire in Kashmir on 24 May 2001, and announced that it would invite Pakistan's military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, to Delhi to discuss the future of the disputed territory. The ceasefire had been ignored by militants; the continuing violence had led to the deaths of around 1,200 people since its inception.

1 billion

India's population was estimated at 1.027 billion on 1 March 2001, making it the second country in the world after China to cross the 1 billion mark. It grew by 181 million in the preceding ten years. However, its growth rate slowed from 2.1% per year in the 1980s to 1.9% per year in the 1990s.

State elections

Elections in five key states in May saw the opposition Congress party gain victories in the states of Kerala, Assam, and Pondicherry. An ally of Congress, the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK; All-India Anna Dravida Progressive Federation), won in Tamil Nadu. The Communist Party won in West Bengal, becoming the world's longest-serving elected communist administration.

Summit with Pakistan

In early July, the government announced the release of more than 400 Pakistani prisoners as a goodwill gesture before the summit meeting on 14 July. However, despite the talks, fighting between separatist rebels and soldiers killed 49 people in the two days leading up to the summit. A strike also closed down the Kashmir Valley, and protesters and police battled for hours in Srinagar, leaving five Indian soldiers and seven separatist rebels dead. Musharraf and Vajpayee began their first summit meeting in Agra. Although the talks remained inconclusive, they were described as cordial and constructive, and the dialogue was due to continue with Vajpayee accepting an invitation from Musharraf to a meeting in Pakistan.

Protests over Naga truce

Police shot dead 13 people in June when a mob set fire to the state assembly building in Imphal, the capital of Manipur. The rioters were protesting against the Delhi government's truce with Naga separatists in the state.

‘Bandit Queen’ murdered

Phoolan Devi, member of Parliament for Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh state, India, and a former outlaw, was shot dead in Delhi on 25 July 2001. Known as the ‘Bandit Queen’, in the early 1980s she led a criminal gang that carried out violent robberies in northern and central India, and became a popular media figure. Surrendering in 1983, she served an 11-year prison sentence, and turned to politics on her release. Championing the poor and defying the caste system, she was twice elected MP as a member of the Samajwadi party.

Parliament building attacked

Five armed assailants broke into the Indian parliament building in December 2001. No members of Parliament were harmed, but the ensuing battle resulted in the deaths of the attackers and nine others, including police officers. India demanded that Pakistan take action against Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani-based Islamic militant group accused of carrying out the attack. Tension between the two nuclear powers further escalated when India accused Pakistan's intelligence services of actively supporting the attack. India recalled its high commissioner from Islamabad and announced it was halting bus and rail links with Pakistan. The two countries exchanged shellfire on 23 December and New Delhi acknowledged that it had mobilized forces near the border with Pakistan, and that its troops were on high alert. The violence continued in January 2002, as four Indian policemen died when armed militants attacked a US cultural centre in Kolkata. Two separate Islamic militant groups claimed responsibility for the attack. Clashes and deaths in fighting along the Kashmir border continued late January and early February. However, Prime Minister Vajpayee said in late January that his country would not go to war with Pakistan, and that the disputes could be resolved by diplomacy.

Hindu–Muslim violence increases

Tensions rose between Hindus and Muslims in India in February 2002. A train carrying Hindu worshippers from a religious celebration at Ayodhya, where militant Hindus demolished the Babri Masjid (Mosque of Babur) in 1992, was set on fire by a Muslim crowd, killing at least 57 people. Most of the victims were activists with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP; World Hindu Council), who had planned to start building a temple at Ayodhya on 15 March in defiance of court orders. The death toll in Hindu–Muslim clashes in the western state of Gujarat had risen to more than 700 by the middle of March.

Anti-terrorism bill

In March, parliament approved a controversial anti-terrorism bill that set strict rules for arrest, interrogation, and investigation, and allowed detention of suspects for up to 30 days without appearing before a court. Opposition parties objected, saying they feared its powers would be misused, and Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Indian National Congress, claimed the bill posed a larger threat to the freedom of ordinary people than to terrorists.

Threat of war

The government accused Pakistan of backing Islamic militant incursions into Indian-administered Kashmir in May 2002, bringing the two countries close to war. A large troop build-up on the Kashmir line of control was ordered, as Pakistan heightened the tension by test-firing missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. There was widespread international concern. In June, under diplomatic pressure from the USA, the government announced a series of measures to reduce tension with Pakistan, including withdrawing its navy from waters near Pakistan and ending a ban on Pakistani civil aircraft entering its airspace.

President Kalam

In July 2002, Abdul Kalam was elected by an electoral college for a five-year term as the 12th president and head of state of India. Despite his scientific rather than political background, Kalam enjoyed nationwide popularity as the creator of India's nuclear weapons development programme. In 2007, Pratibha Patil replaced Kalam as president.