History

The didactic nationalism of the Brahmo Samaj appealed more to the intellectual elite in Bengal, while the average Bengali found more emotional satisfaction in the cult of bhakti and yoga. The teachings of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836- 1886), a poor priest at the Kali temple in Dakshineshwar, on the outskirts of Calcutta (who was known in … Read more

. The Berlin Conference of 1884–85, also known as the Congo Conference, regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, coinciding with Germany’s sudden emergence as an imperial power. Called for by Portugal and organized by Otto von Bismarck, first Chancellor of Germany, its outcome, the General Act of the Berlin … Read more

. The Sufis were mystics. They were pious men who were shocked at the degeneration in political and religious life. They opposed the vulgar display of wealth in public life and the readiness of the ulema to serve “ungodly” rulers. Many began to lead a retired ascetic life, having nothing to do with the state. … Read more

. Jyotiba Phule (1827-1890), born in Satara, Maharashtra, belonged to the mali (gardener) community and organised a powerful movement against upper caste domination and brahminical supremacy. Phule founded the Satyashodhak Samaj (Truth Seekers’ Society) in 1873, with the leadership of the samaj coming from the backward classes, malis, telis, kunbis, saris and dhangars. The main … Read more

Mercantilism, economic theory and practice common in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century that promoted governmental regulation of a nation’s economy for the purpose of augmenting state power at the expense of rival national powers. It was the economic counterpart of political absolutism. Mercantilism contained many interlocking principles. Precious metals, such as gold … Read more

Answer. Maharashtra is situated on a plateau where a large number of local dialects were in use. Marathi grew out of these these local dialects. The Portuguese missionaries started using Marathi for preaching their gospel. The earliest Marathi poetry and prose is by Saint Jnaneshwar (Gyaneshwar) who lived in the thirteenth century. He wrote a … Read more

. During the late 1820s and early 1830s, there emerged a radical, intellectual trend among the youth in Bengal, which came to be known as the ‘Young Bengal Movement’. A young Anglo-Indian, Henry Vivian Derozio (1809-31), who taught at the Hindu College from 1826 to 1831, was the leader and inspirer of this progressive trend. … Read more

The technological history of the Middle Ages was one of slow but substantial development. In the succeeding period the tempo of change increased markedly and was associated with profound social, political, religious, and intellectual upheavals in western Europe. The emergence of the nation-state, the cleavage of the Christian church by the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance … Read more

. The rise of the Bhakti movement and the use of these regional languages by the various saints helped in their growth and development. We have already noted the various dialects that developed in northern and western India. Prithviraj Raso is supposed to be the first book in the Hindi language. Hindi evolved during the … Read more

. Raja Rammohan Roy (1772-1833), often called the the father of Indian Renaissance and the maker of Modern India, was a man of versatile genius. Rammohan Roy believed in the modern scientific approach and principles of human dignity and social equality. He put his faith in monotheism. He wrote Gift to Monotheists (1809) and translated … Read more

The capitalism possibly was grown by the technology change. Before the Industrial Revolution, the people who lived in Britain might suffer from the worse quality of living conditions. The industrialist affected the decline of the traditional handicraft. Some scientists had come up with mind and invented several new productions. Owing to the new inventions, the … Read more

After the conquest of Delhi (1192), the Turkish people settled in this region. Urdu was born out of the interaction of these settlers and soldiers in the barracks with the common people. Originally it was a dialect but slowly it acquired all the features of a formal language when the authors started using Persian script. … Read more

. Because of the indefatigable efforts of the reformers, a number of administrative measures were adopted by the government to improve the condition of women. Abolition of Sati Influenced by the frontal attack launched by the enlightened Indian reformers led by Raja Rammohan Roy, the government declared the practice of sati illegal and punishable by … Read more

. Otto Von Bismarck, the architect of the German Unification, believed in a policy of blood and iron (militarism) to achieve his object. Unmindful of the resistance offered by the popular House of the Prussian Diet, Bismarck embarked on an ambitious programme of militarisation. He not only raised a large number of soldiers but also … Read more

Apart from Telugu, Vijayanagara rulers extended their patronage to Kannada and Sanskrit writers as well. Many Jain scholars contributed to the growth of Kannada literature. Madhava wrote Dharmanathapurana on the fifteenth tirthankara. Another Jain scholar, Uritta Vilasa, wrote Dharma Parikshe. The Sanskrit works of the period include Yadavabhyudayam by Vedanatha Desika and Parasara Smriti Vyakhya … Read more

. The dawn of the nineteenth century witnessed the birth of a new vision—a modern vision among some enlightened sections of the Indian society. This enlightened vision was to shape the course of events for decades to come and even beyond. Impact of British Rule The presence of a colonial government on Indian soil played … Read more

In the period 1760 to 1830 the Industrial Revolution was largely confined to Britain. Aware of their head start, the British forbade the export of machinery, skilled workers, and manufacturing techniques. Britain’s damp climate was ideal for raising sheep, Britain had a long history of producing textiles like wool, linen and cotton. But prior to … Read more

. The Gupta period was India’s golden age of culture and one of the greatest and most glorious times. The Gupta kings patronized the classical Sanskrit literature. They helped liberally the scholars and poets of Sanskrit. This enriched the Sanskrit langauge. In fact Sanskrit language became the language of cultured and educated people. Many great … Read more

By the end of 1859, British authority over India was fully re-established. The British government had to pour immense supplies of men, money and arms into the country, though the Indians had to later repay the entire cost through their own suppression. For the British the Revolt of 1857 proved useful in that it showed … Read more

On 5 May 1789, Louis XVI called together an assembly of the Estates General to pass proposals for new taxes. A resplendent hall in Versailles was prepared to host the delegates. The first and second estates sent 300 representatives each, who were seated in rows facing each other on two sides, while the 600 members … Read more

painting was immensely influenced by Islamic culture. Humayun had spent more than twelve years in Persia as a refugee. He brought painters with him to India when he became the ruler of Delhi once again in 1555. Famous among them were Mir Sayid Ali and Abdus Samad who nurtured the tradition of painting manuscript. An … Read more

The revolt of 1857 marks a turning point in the history of India. It led to far-reaching changes in the system of administration and the policies of the British government. Even before the Revolt could be suppressed fully, the British Parliament, on August 2, 1858, passed an Act for the Better Government of India. The … Read more

. In 1789, the United States Constitution came into effect. It was the first written Republic Constitution. The Bill of Rights is the set of first ten amendments to the USA constitution and includes freedom of speech, press, religion and justice under the law. The American Revolution established the first democratic Republic in the world … Read more

An important reason of the popularity of Bhakti movement was that they challenged the caste system and the superiority of the Brahmanas. They welcomed the ideas of equality and brotherhood which the Sufi saints also preached. People were no longer satisfied with the old religion. They wanted a religion which could satisfy both their rationality … Read more

The British captured Delhi on September 20, 1857 after prolonged and bitter fighting. John Nicholson, the leader of the siege, was badly wounded and later succumbed to his injuries. Bahadur Shah was taken prisoner. The royal princes were captured and butchered on the spot, publicly shot at point blank range by Lieutenant Hudson himself. The … Read more

During the fourth century BC, the Greeks and the Persians fought for supremacy over West Asia. The Achaemenid empire was finally destroyed by the Greeks under the leadership of Alexander of Macedon. He conquered Asia Minor, Iraq and Iran and then marched towards India. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Alexander was greatly attracted towards … Read more

During the revolt in Delhi, the local infantry killed their own European officers including Simon Fraser, the political agent, and seized the city. Lieutenant Willoughby, the officer-in- charge of the magazine at Delhi, offered some resistance, but was overcome. The aged and powerless Bahadur Shah Zafar was proclaimed the Emperor of India. Delhi was soon … Read more

. The German Confederation was an association of 39 German states in Central Europe, created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries and to replace the former Holy Roman Empire. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia. Britain approved of the … Read more

. In the first half of sixth century BC, there were a number of small tribal states in north west India. There was no sovereign power to unite these warring tribes. The Achaemenid rulers of Persia or Iran took advantage of the political disunity of this region. Cyrus, the founder of the Achaemenid dynasty, and … Read more

The colonial policies of the East India Company destroyed the traditional economic fabric of the Indian society. The peasantry were never really to recover from the disabilities imposed by the new and a highly unpopular revenue settlement. Impoverished by heavy taxation, the peasants resorted to loans from money-lenders/traders at usurious rates, the latter often evicting … Read more

Mikhail Gorbachev’s reformist policies in the Soviet Union merely served to encourage opposition movements to the Communist regimes in the Soviet bloc countries. Demonstrations became more frequent. Governments were forced to accept measures, recommended, moreover, by Gorbachev, towards liberalisation. However, these measures were not deemed to be sufficient. Hopes of freedom, long suppressed by the … Read more

Weimar republic which came in power in Germany after first world war failed to solve the problems and soon Germany turned into a fascist state. The reasons for it’s failures are as follows : Republic lacked legitimacy from the outset. This was a result of the elites fleeing the nation just before the war ended. … Read more

Israel’s stunning victory in the Six-Day War of 1967 left the Jewish nation in control of territory four times its previous size. Egypt lost the 23,500-square-mile Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, Jordan lost the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Syria lost the strategic Golan Heights. When Anwar el-Sadat (1918-81) became president of Egypt … Read more

The genesis of the integration process began in Europe after the World War II. In the process of planning the introduction of a new political order in post-war Europe, it was acknowledged that the key task was the reconstruction of European economies. Western European leaders realised that only efficient and effective European economy would be … Read more

Between 1948 and 1951, the United States undertook what many consider to be one of its more successful foreign policy initiatives and most effective foreign aid programs. The Marshall Plan (the Plan) and the European Recovery Program (ERP) that it generated involved an ambitious effort to stimulate economic growth in a despondent and nearly bankrupt … Read more

. Appeasement is most often used to describe the response of British policy makers to the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. It is seen as a policy of one-sided concessions to an aggressor state, often at the expense of third parties, with nothing offered in return except promises of better behaviour in the … Read more

The dawn of the 20th century was thus a time of anxiety for the British Empire. Challenged for the first time by the commercial, naval, and colonial might of many other industrializing nations, the British reconsidered the wisdom of splendid isolation. To be sure, in the Fashoda Incident of 1898 Britain succeeded in forcing France … Read more

.  The Bosnian Crisis of 1908-09 was very much the precursor of the events in the Balkans that spilled over into the assassination of Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo in June 1914. In this sense the Bosnian Crisis needs to be analysed within the same context as the assassination that was to trigger World War One. … Read more

For Nehru socialism meant greater equality of opportunity, social justice, more equitable distribution of higher incomes generated through the application of modern science and technology to the processes of production, the ending of the acute social and economic disparities generated by feudalism and capitalism, and the application of the scientific approach to the problems of … Read more

. This significant Act was enacted in the wake of the Revolt of 1857—also known as the First War of Independence or the ‘sepoy mutiny’. The act known as the Act for the Good Government of India, abolished the East India Company, and transferred the powers of government, territories and revenues to the British Crown. … Read more

Colonialism became a fetter on India’s agricultural and industrial development. Agriculture stagnated in most parts of the country and even deteriorated over the years, resulting in extremely low yields per acre, and sometimes even reaching zero. There was a decline in per capita agricultural production which fell by 14 per cent between 1901 and 1941. … Read more

. In May 1787, fifty?five delegates from twelve of the thirteen states met in Philadelphia. Among them were George Washington (chosen as the chair), Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. As a group, the delegates were men in their thirties and forties, many were lawyers, and most had served in Congress. Although the stated … Read more

. Construction of stupas and viharas as part of monastic establishments became part of the Buddhist tradition. However, in this period, apart from stupas and viharas, stone pillars, rock-cut caves and monumental figure sculptures were carved at several places. The tradition of constructing pillars is very old and it may be observed that erection of … Read more

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was one of the most explosive political events of the twentieth century. In 1917, two revolutions swept through Russia, ending centuries of imperial rule and setting into motion political and social changes that would lead to the formation of the Soviet Union. The February Revolution (known as such because of … Read more

. The First World War began in the summer of 1914, shortly after the assassination of Austria’s Archduke, Franz Ferdinand, and lasted more than four years, ending in 1918. Though the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was the direct precipitating event leading to the declaration of war, there were many other factors that also played a … Read more

. Italian Fascism is the original fascist ideology as developed in Italy. The ideology is associated with the Fascist Revolutionary Party (PFR), founded in 1915; the succeeding National Fascist Party (PNF) in 1921, which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943. The first meeting of the Fasci of Revolutionary Action … Read more

Samkhya System The Samkhya philosophy holds that reality is constituted of two principles one female and the other male i.e. Prakriti, Purusha respectively. Prakriti and Purusha are completely independent and absolute. According to this system, Purusha is mere consciousness, hence it cannot be modified or changed. Prakriti on the other hand is constituted of three … Read more

After the defeat of Russia, the only remaining enemy of France was England. However, it was not easy for the French fleet and troops to defeat England. As England was surrounded by sea and possessed an invincible fleet. It was well known to Napoleon that England existed on the continental trade and commerce. England can … Read more

By 2600 BCE, small Early Harappan communities had developed into large urban centers. These cities include Harappa, Ganeriwala, and Mohenjo-daro in modern-day Pakistan and Dholavira, Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi, Rupar, and Lothal in modern-day India. In total, more than 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the general region of the Indus River and its … Read more

On the eve of French Revolution, France was under the ancient regime. It was the centre of autocratic rule. The French Bourbon monarchs enjoyed absolution. They declared themselves as the “Representative of God”. The French monarchs engaged themselves in Luxurious and extravagance at the royal court of Versailles. They had unlimited power. By the Letters … Read more