Indian civilization is at least four thousand five hundred years old. Between 2400 B.C. and 1800 B.C. Indus civilization flourished. Around 1300 B.C. the subcontinent was invaded by the Aryans who are alleged to have devasted the Indus valley civilization. The most precious religious texts, possibly the oldest record in the world, is believed to have been composed between 1300 B.C. and 1100 B.C.. Around 800 B.C. the invading Aryans moved unto the fertile Gangetic valley.
By this time, they had probably created the priestly craft which is the hallmark of casteism. Casteism created hierarchy and discrimination in the otherwise homeostatic social system. Casteism proved to be a anathema of Indian society. Approximately around 500 B.C. two very famous philosophers, namely Lord Buddha and Mahavir emerged. In 539 B.C. the Greek ruler Darius-I invaded the subcontinent and annexed the Indus valley. By 326 B.C. Alexander the Great invaded Punjab, but he withdrew. After the withdrawal of Alexander the Great, Chandragupta Maurya established the famous and powerful Maurya empire (326 B.C. – 78 B.C.). After Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka ascended the throne and dazzled the country and he spread Buddhism in South-east Asian countries. Kanishka, the last emperor of the Mauryas failed to carry forward the empire.
The white Huns invaded India in 450 A.D. Their invasion did not affect the traditional Indian culture. The priest craft of Hinduism re-emerged with greater vigour. The Vedic style of life, called Arya dharma was revived. In other words, this became the Vedic dharma which internalized philosophy, ritual processes and the moral preachings derived from the Vedas. There was struggle between protagonists of the vedic dharma and proponents of the Sanatana dharma; the latter is the combination of the Vedic and popular practice of the Hinduism.
The Sanatana dharma condemned priestly craft. It embraced the Buddhist and Jaina tenets. However, the ashrama scheme of life, as delineated in the Vedas, continued. The Varnashrma dharma scheme comprised brahmacharya (student life), grahasthashrama (householder), Vanaprastha (retirement into forest hermitage) and Sanyasa (renunciation of the world in lieu of Moksha or liberation from the worldly bondage). The Bhagavat Geeta, the sacred scripture of Hindus, prescribed humanism, betterment of social life and peaceful coexistence of all.
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After the lapse of several hundred years new problems cropped up in Indian society. Sultan Mohammed of Ghazni, an Afghan-Turk invaded India, plundered and returned to his native place around 1000 A.D. Shahab-Ud-Din Ghuri, an Afghan came up to Delhi to conquer, but he was defeated by PRUTHIVIRAJ Chauhan. Again he came to India in 1192 A.D. and conquered throne of Delhi and paved the way for Muslim rule in India. Muslim rulers ruled India for 200 years. They were repulsed by Turko-Mongol in the Fourteenth century.
Timur smashed the Delhi Sultanate and created conditions for Mughal rule. Babar established the Mughal Empire in 1526 A.D. Mughal rule came to an end in 1857 A.D. when the East India Company consolidated its position as the agent of Delhi emperor. The company assumed sovereignty in India after the battle of Plassey. The British consolidated its rule in 1803 A.D. British rule opened a window for modernization of the subcontinent. They introduced the capitalistic money economy in India and destroyed the self-sufficient character of village communities. The British administration disrupted the Indian socio-cultural fabric in many ways.
Prior to the advent of British, India was never a unified country. The British government unified Indian society and integrated the regions to administration as well as through the development of various systems of communication. However, that the Indian society was non-homeostatic and non-harmonious can be seen from the blueprint of spatial distribution of population, resources and economic activities. The mode of spatial distribution was complementary to the discriminatory caste system in Indian society.