Test 3 India
East India Company
A firm created to develop trade between the United Kingdom and India. Cultivated trade then exploited cheap labor and ultimately succeeded in controlling whole principalities. Did so through a strategy of setting up nabobs with British merchant advisors at their side.
asymmetric federalism
A system where power is devolved unequally across the country and its constituent regions, often the result of specific laws negotiated between the region and the central government. Ex: India
Lower House: India
House of the People, dominates India's bicameral legislature. Despite its size, India's population remains relatively underrepresented. Each representative serves nearly 2 million people. Chamber of debate between the government and the opposition. PM and cabinet are only responsible to the lower house.
emergency rule
Law invoked by Indian national government to suspend the constitution by declaring martial law. Declared by Indira in 1975 as she faced weakening public support and corruption charges. During the two years of emergency rule, riots and unrest ceased and economic efficiency improved.
Ayodhya
North-central Indian city where Babri Mosque was destroyed in 1992 by BJP supporters and other Hindu extremists, vowing to rebuild it as a Hindu shrine. This act ignited days of Hindu-Muslim rioting and violence and the killing of many Indians across the country. Muslims and Hindus deemed the site sacred and for decades it had been a point of controversy.
Amristar
Northern Indian City and location of the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine
Green Revolution
Period during the 1960s and 70s when technologically enhanced crops and cropping methods dramatically improved food production in India, particularly in the arid regions of the northwest. India is highly dependent on an agricultural economy, often called a "gamble in the rains". More than half of all Indians remain dependent on an agrarian livelihood, they are the largest population of peasants in the world.
Naxalism
Radical Maoist (or guerrilla Communist) insurgency in India. Arent willing to work within the democratic system. Movement has grown in rural areas in several of the poorest states. Recruits are drawn primarily from the low castes, outcastes, and tribal natives who are excluded from the recent economic growth.
Dalits
"Suppressed groups"; formal name of India's outcastes, untouchables.
Gandhi, Mahatma
(1869-1948) Indian nationalist and leader of the Indian independence movement. A British trained lawyer to the leadership of the Congress and the broader independence movement. Philosophies consisted of holding firmly to truth and nonviolence, or love. He taught that Western industrial civilization needed to be rejected in favor of a simpler life. Led a charismatic nationalist movement that embodied campaigns for self-sufficiency.
Hindi
one of two national languages in India, the other is English.
partition
British opted for partition, creating in 1947 the new state of Pakistan from the two regions of the subcontinent most heavily populated by the Muslims: West Pakistan and East Pakistan. The British formed India with the remaining 80% of the colony. This led to the uprooting and transmigration of more than 12 million refugees. Gandhi was killed along with over 1 million individuals from the violence of the partition.
chief minister: India
Chief executive of federal states in India; elected by the state legislature to serve a five-year term. Can be removed from office with a vote of no confidence from the lower house, House of the People.
Kashmir
Contested region in northern India claimed by both India and Pakistan. Urdu speaking Muslims constitute the majority.
Upper House: India
Council of States: represents 29 states and seven territories. Technically possess the same powers as the lower house-the right to introduce legislation-it is generally been weaker.
Indira Gandhi
Daughter of Nehru. She assumed leadership within two years of her father's death of the INC and became India's first female PM. Far more authoritarian than her father, saw the first decade of her rule divide the party between her supporters and detractors. Initiated a populist campaign to abolish poverty in the 1970's it was highly popular and initially successful.
Sepoy Mutiny
Failed 1857-58 revolt against the British, sponsored by the Indian aristocracy and carried out by sepoys, or Indian soldiers employed by the British. Sig: The mutinous Indians failed miserably because they were too divided, both by British design and by the long tradition of religious animosity that split the Hindu and Muslim conscripts. Convinced the growing number of Indian nationalists that independence from British colonialism would first require national unity.
Indian National Congress (INC)
Founded in 1885. Embodied the anti colonial movement along with the Muslim League. Major Indian political party; began as leading organization of Indian independence movement.
Muslim League
Founded in 1906, embodied the anticolonial movement along with the INC. Indian Muslim independence organization.
caste
Hindu hereditary social grouping
raj
Hindu word for "rule"
Hinduism
India's dominant religious tradition. The fusion of the Indo-Aryans and the Dravidians emerged the customs, philosophical ideas, and religious beliefs associated with Hinduism. Governs not just worships practices but virtually all aspects of life. Traditions include polytheism, reincarnation, and the social and political hierarchy of caste infused Indian society.
Nehru, Jawaharlal
India's first prime minister (1947-64) and successor to Mahatma Gandhi as leader of the INC. Lead the INC to a handy victory in India's first general election in 1951. This event gave the INC the opportunity to implement Nehru's vision of social democracy at home and mercantilist trade policies abroad.
license raj
India's highly bureaucratized and politicized mercantilist system of licenses, permits, and quotas governing virtually all aspects of the economy. Successive governments have sought to weaken this where the bureaucratic red tape requires liscensing and approval processes for operating a business or importing or exporting products. A legacy of an extensive British colonial civil service. India remains one of the most difficult places to start up and run a business according to the World Bank.
untouchables
India's outcaste groups, including tribal aboriginals who lived outside the village in the mountains or forests, and those who traditionally performed "unclean" duties like handling the dead and disposing human waste. High caste Hindus traditionally considered the touch or even the shadow of these outcastes as polluting. Dalits "children of God" named by Gandhi, 15% of the population.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Indian People's Party; Hindu nationalist party currently in government since the 2014 general election. The INC's strongest competitor. Articulates a Hindu nationalist vision, attracted supporters from all castes by the late 1990's under the banner of Hindu nationalism.
Sikhism
Indian religious tradition combining elements of Hindu and Muslim beliefs. The introduction of Islam to India gave birth to this new tradition. Sowed persistent seeds of mutual animosity among India's Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs.
Gandhi, Sonia
Italian-born wife of Rajiv Gandhi and leader of the Indian National Congress Party. Was the logical choice to become the PM but the BJP made her foreign birth a campaign issue. Sonia stepped aside and allowed Singh to become the country's first Sikh PM.
Hindutva
Literally, "Hindu-ness"; Hindu nationalism. India's primary national identity and ideal. RSS and BJP. some train members in violent tactics of religious and racial discrimination. Benign patriotism
import substitution industrialization: India
Mercantilism strategy for development in which local production is protected from imports. INC governments adopted a foreign policy of mercantilist economic nationalism promoting import substitution industrialization, restricting foreign investment and trade.
outsourcing
Moving the production of goods and services to another country to take advantage of cheap labor or other savings. English has been a major force in binding the country together but also in prompting many foreign firms to move some of their business transactions, such as call centers, to India.
Mughals
Muslim invaders who rule India for several hundred years beginning in the sixteenth century. Descendants of Genghis Kahn, Persian for Mongol. By the 18th century, Mughal rule had weakened at the hands of growing internal Hindu and Sikh dissatisfaction and expanding Western Imperialism.
Kerala
Southwestern Indian state governed by Communists; famous for its high rates of literacy, low rates of fertility, and low population growth. The largest share of party leadership and voting strength has come from the states of Kerala.
presidential rule
State-level equivalent of emergency rule in India in which the national government takes temporary control of a state by imposing martial law
nabob game
Strategy of British East India Company for controlling India by setting up puppet Mughal governorships, or nabobs. Greatly facilitated the plundering of Indian wealth and resources.
Center
Term referring to India's national government and its capital in New Delhi
Gujarat
Western India state in which Hindu-Muslim violence broke out in 2002. Muslims set fire to railcars carrying Hindu activists back from a ceremony at Ayodhya on the 10th anniversary of the event. Killed 58 people.
Modi, Narendra
current BJP prime minister since 2014 and former successful and controversial chief minister (governor) of the state of Gujarat. Swept Congress out of office in the 2014 election. A Hindu nationalist, Modi has formed a government armed with a strong mandate to carry out bold reforms.
Singh, Manmohan
former INC prime minister of India, 2004-14.
