Dragon Fire

Briefing

British rule in India officially began in 1858, although the East India Company had been extending its grip there since the 1760s. Through trade and conquest, it controlled areas from the southern coastal region to what is now northern Pakistan. By the early twentieth century, there were growing demands for independence, pushed forward by the nonviolent campaign of Mahatma Gandhi. The culmination was the partition of India in 1947, with Islamic Pakistan ruled by the Muslim League and secular India governed by the Indian National Congress. The unresolved issue of Kashmir led to the first Indo-Pakistan War, and India’s development was plagued by other insurgencies on its borders.

During the Cold War India remained non-aligned, but forged a close relationship with the Soviet Union. Its economic policies were protective and socialist, and the United States viewed it as hostile. In the nineties, the country lost its secular umbrella and elected a government based on Hindu nationalism. It became a nuclear power and proclaimed China its long-term threat. Tibet simmered. The war in Kashmir continued and India remained the world’s biggest democracy.