Earlier Invasions
The earliest invasion that happened in our country dates back to the time when Alexander visited our lands giving way to Persians to enter our motherland. Not only did he bring in a new Persian culture into our country, but made way for a lot of other invasions to come forth that way.
The earliest attacks on our country followed soon by Mohammed Ghazni and Mohammed Ghori. India at that time was a very rich county.
Rich in culture, traditions, wealth and spices. It is said that many precious gems, stones and pearls used to be sold on the streets in those ancient days, giving a picture of the richness in wealth that the country boasted of. Once the invasions from the Moguls began in India, the process of destruction began.
Vasco Da Gama, a Portuguese discovered the spice route to India when he first landed on the shores of Goa. He brought his countrymen to trade with our country and from there, grew a new era in the history of Indian trades.
The spices that were available in our country were exploited by Vasco Da Gama and he traded them off too far off Portuguese lands. Vasco Da Gama came with an intention to establish his big business empire on the shores of India.
At first, he discovered the spice route later he took notice of the mass wealth of the nation and created many other frontiers too. He went a step ahead and started spreading Portuguese culture and traditions among native people of India. Even to this day, we can find Portuguese remnants in the lands of Goa.
The religion of Christianity began spreading soon after. People were taught the importance of the Christian religion and were encouraged to make conversions into that religion.
Such was the influence that people soon began accepting Portuguese ways of living and dawned a new establishment of Portuguese culture on Indian land. This particular threat was unknown the lands of our motherland until the Portuguese came and conquered the soil of India.
The British Invasion
Following the Portuguese, the Dutch also made their away to our lands and soon after; they were followed by the British. The British strong hold lasted a big 200 years on our country and the liberation from them seemed a big might that have escalated on a high level in the pages of history.
The spice route which was under the Portuguese control till then, was lucrative to Dutch trade as well. Soon, the British set their eyes on the same and they established monopoly over the business. India soon turned into a supplier of raw materials, to be sent off to far off British lands.
The raw materials were taken from our country, imported to the British land, converted into goods and then brought back to our country again to be sold at a higher price here. So, in this way the British slowly started exploiting our country men. Initially, our country men did not realize their intentions and fell prey to their tactics.
The major factor that led to the disintegration of our country and land was the huge number of small provinces that our country had inbuilt and very less territorial unity amongst the rulers of these small provinces.
One king hated the next neighboring king and these kinds of small disputes added an undue advantage to the British rule in India.
The small factors paved a big way for British to bring in planned disputed between rulers of two kingdoms, thereby creating friction amongst our own countrymen and crating hatred for each other.
These kings always had arguments and disagreements with their neighboring counterparts. This led to a war like situation many a times between the kings of our country. They did not understand that an outsider could come and take advantage of this situation.
The British befriended kings of provinces and eventually brought in misunderstandings between them. They then supported the strong kingdom and when the kings warred against each other, they secretly supported both of them. Whoever the winner was, the British got their share in the kingdom that won.
This way, they started conquering smaller kingdoms and provinces and eventually began to rule the whole of India.
The British Exploitation
Slowly but surely, the countrymen started realizing that the British were taking advantage of innocent Indians and they would perish under their hands for no reason. In their own motherland, they were treated like slaves and monopolized and overpowered by a foreigner.
This was totally unacceptable to the people and they sought liberation and freedom. The British received orders from the queen in England and they implemented the rules here. People who went against their rule were threatened and imprisoned.
Slowly, people started understanding their true intentions and started revolting and questioning their practices Great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Bhagat Singh, Subhash Chandra Bose, etc fought together to achieve freedom for the country. Great leaders influenced common men to realize the exploitation’s made by the British on them and forced them to raise their voice against them.
The British soon took over the control of ruling the whole nation as they thought the Indians were capable of doing so. India was known as a land of snake charmers and they thought it best that Indians were suitable for petty jobs and were not made for ruling the country.
They never thought it fair to hand over the control to our countrymen in their own hands and always had an illusion that they needed a helping hand and needed to be taught how to rule a country with judicial powers.
Laws and acts created by the British, tailor made from their own motherland were being implemented here. People went against their laws as it was totally unfavorable and many of them lost their lands and homes in the process.
India was largely an agricultural constitution at those times and the very ground of agriculture was hit by their stringent laws and unruly reforms. The laws and reforms were totally in their favor and never heeded to the needs of the Indian farmers.
There were many movements like the Salt Satyagraha, Swaraj movement, the famous Jallianwala Bagh movement, Chauri Chaura incidents that we remember to this day that happened to curb the atrocities of the British.
There were leaders who followed the path of non violence under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and there were many others who revolted and protested by raising their hands and voices.
Ultimately, in the midnight of August 15, 1947 our country gained independence from the hands of the British and India became an independent country.
New Reforms
Information from one place to another could not be delivered with ease. If a message needed to be sent from one place to another, it used to require many days for the same. Hence, they introduced the postal services in India.
A big reform came by in the name of education under the British. Earlier, in our country, formal education system was not there. Children were sent to Gurukuls and Madrasas to do their education and schooling. The British were responsible for formalizing the educational process.
They built new schools and colleges in order to spread the English language and thereby to educate the common man. Their intentions were bad here too!
They wanted more number of people to follow their religion and convert to Christianity. They wanted people to render services for the British Empire, so they built many schools and colleges during their 200 year rule.
Earlier, the legal system in India was poor or hardly existed. People who were heads of villages created their own laws. They were the law makers and delivered justice in their own ways whenever there was any controversy in the villages.
The warring parties were referred to these law makers and then they pacified them with mutual understanding or punishment. The British changed this scene completely. They brought in a formalized legal process within the country. They made provisions and special sections that wrote the legal system of the country.
Difficult roads were built on terrains that could have proved impossible for a common man to even imagine. Many bridges, high tunnels and dams were constructed during their tenure.
We can see difficult rail lines constructed in high and uneven mountains in the north that are totally inaccessible. These were all gifts from the British to our countrymen. Thus, the British brought in many new reforms in our country and changed the whole picture of the nation.
Conclusion
Thus, our country came under the influence of the British rule in India for almost 200 years and suffered under their hands. Many people were kept as prisoners in far off islands so that they dare not raise their voices against the British.
Many of the pictures and scenes from the past can be seen even today. If we dig at history, we can find their exploitation’s on our country men and how they treated them. They made policies that were against the country men and that which benefited their country and their citizens.
They made a plot to spread Christianity and convert innocent lives to their religion which was handled by great leaders. People became united in their struggle for independence, which gradually led to the ousting of British from our country.
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