Author: Gopa Sabharwal
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 716
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0140295216
Description
The essential reference guide to the country's political, social and cultural history over the last 1000 years.
This compilation is perhaps the most comprehensive and accessible single-volume guide available to the events and personalities that shaped India over the last one thousand years. Starting with Muhammad of Ghana's first expedition into India through the Hindu Bush, this volume covers the eventful millennium during which the subcontinent saw the rise and fall of two of the greatest empires of the world (the Mughal and the British); the birth and flourishing of at least one major religion (Sikhism); the setting up the world's largest railway network; and the launching of sophisticated satellites into space.
Arranged in strict chronological sequence(by year) for easy reference, the work presents information on a wide range of topics, from politics, religion and the law to the arts, infrastructure and sports. There is also a detailed index to help the reader make the best us of the book. Among the events covered in this volume are:
The Conquest of Sri Lanka by Cholas
The composition of Gita Govinda, one of the greatest poems in Sanskrit
The first battle of Panipat and consequent founding of the Mughal dynasty by Babur
The Printing, by a Jesuit priest, of the first book in India
The 1857 uprising
The first ascent by an Indian in a hot-air balloon
The setting up the Bombay Stock Exchange
The Dandi Salt March
All the general elections conducted in independent India
The hijacking of Flight IC 814
Packed with information, this work will be indispensable for students, teachers, journalists and researchers and will also appeal to the general reader interested in history.