Babur Founder of The Mughal Empire in India

Babur – Founder of The Mughal Empire in India 1526 -1530 Aurangzeb – Revived the persecution of the Hindus and inspired civil war

Prince Henry the Navigator’s determination to find an eastern route to the spice markets of the Indies was realized in 1498 when Vasco da Gama landed in India.

The Portuguese were later joined by the English, Dutch, Danes and French. England’s victory in the Seven Years’ War 1756 -1763 led to dominance in India which continued until 1947. India was the crown jewel in England’s Imperial Empire.

British India included present day Pakistan and Bangladesh

Suttee or Sati – The Indian custom of a widow burning herself, either on the funeral pyre of her dead husband or in some other fashion, soon after his death. Although never widely practiced, suttee was the ideal of certain Brahman and royal castes. It is sometimes linked to the myth of the Hindu goddess Sati who burned herself to death in a fire that she created through her yogic powers after her father insulted her husband, the god Shiva.

The Sepoy Rebellion/Indian Mutiny (GB) or The First War of Independence (India) of 1857 was the defining event in British Imperial History. It was more of a shock than the loss off the American colonies 74 years earlier. The rebellion was crushed within a year but the legacy of the rebellion was the growth of a “free India” movement which came to fruition 90 years later.

The Sepoy Rebellion was characterized by bloody massacres. Many British women and children were killed. The British took fierce revenge with massacres of their own. Thousands of blameless Indians were whipped, blown from cannons, forced to clean bloodied streets with their tongues and then hanged. Source: Smithsonian article “Pass It On” 05/24/2012

Rumor and Suspicion contributed to the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857. Britain relied on 100, 000 men, half of whom were soldiers, to “control” and administer a land of 250 million people. Few British serving in India spoke Indian languages or understood the religious cultures. India’s people encountered prejudice based on race, color and religion. A wild fable that took firm hold of the popular mind was the East India Company’s officers had collected all the newly-manufactured salt, had divided it into two great heaps, and over one had sprinkled the blood of hogs, and over the other the blood of cows; that they had then sent it to be sold throughout the country of the pollution and desecration of the Mahommedans and Hindoos, that all might be brought to one caste and to one religion like the English. • One popular story, widely believed, suggested that the British were attempting the mass conversion of their subjects to Christianity by adulterating their flour with bone meal from cows and pigs, which was forbidden to Hindus and Moslems, respectively. Once defiled, theory went, men who had consumed the forbidden meal would be shunned by their co-religionists and would be easier to bring into the Christian fold, or could be sent as soldiers overseas (crossing the “black water” being forbidden to Hindus of high caste).

Adulterated Bullet Cartridges? • • A rumor that spread like wildfire among the sepoys (Indian soldiers) stationed at cantonments throughout the north of the country was that the British had come up with yet another diabolical contrivance for breaking their caste and defiling their bodies: the greased cartridge. It was no secret that the Company’s armies had been making preparations for the introduction of a new sort of ammunition for a new model of Enfield rifle. To be loaded, this cartridge had to be torn open so that the powder it contained could be poured down the barrel of the muzzle-loading gun; because the soldier’s hands were full, this was done with the teeth. Then the bullet had to be rammed down the rifled barrel. To facilitate its passage, the cartridges were greased with tallow, which, in the U. K. , was made of beef and pork fat. The greased cartridges thus posed precisely the same threat to observant sepoys as would flour adulterated with the blood of pigs and cows, and though the British recognized the problem early on, and never issued a single greased cartridge to any Indian troops, fear that the Company was plotting to defile them took hold among the men of many Indian regiments and resulted in the outbreak of rebellion in the cantonment of Meerut in April 1857.

Paternalism on the Left and “Justice” on the Right

April 13, 1919 – Amritsar Ten thousand gathered in a walled garden, Jallianwala Bagh, to protest the extension of WWI detention and deportation laws. The British acknowledged killing 379 people and wounding 1, 100 more. India National Congress representatives said more than 1, 000 died.

India’s Great Soul – Civil Disobedience and Non-Violence Were His Strategies He was assassinated in January, 1948 only months after India was granted independence and partitioned in August, 1947

The British official responsible for the partition lines establishing Pakistan and India, Cyril Radcliffe, never visited the border areas to inform himself about rivers, forests, agriculture or industry. He simply took a pencil and drew. 30 years after his work was done he said he would never return to India because he was certain he would be shot by both Indians and Pakistanis.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah – Pakistan’s Founder and first leader. He died in 1948 one year after independence at the age of 82.

Nehru – India’s First Prime Minister – 1947 to 1964. His only child, Indira Gandhi, has been the longest-serving Prime Minister 1966 -1977 and 1980 -1984.

India and Pakistan Have Fought Three Wars: 1947, 1965 and 1971 A Fourth Could Lead to a Nuclear Exchange

The Flag of India – Population 1. 2 billion (July, 2014)

Pakistan’s Flag – 199 million people, 97% Muslim Estimate Date - July, 2015 Source: CIA Factbook

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto – Pakistani Prime Minister 1971 -1977 Hanged in 1978 – charged with ordering the assassination of a rival in 1974

President Zia ul-Haq Pakistani President from 1977 to 1988. His rule was cut short when the plane he, the U. S ambassador and several Pakistani generals were travelling in mysteriously exploded.

Sikhism Holiest Place – The Golden Temple of Amritsar was the site of a siege in 1984 that left 1, 000 dead.

Sikh Extremist Leader Bhindranwale believed Sikhs were the victims of Hindu discrimination. He and his followers seized the Golden Temple of Amritsar in 1983. Operation Blue Star was ordered by Indira Ghandi in June, 1984. Bhindranwale was killed during the military takeover of the temple. Sikh bodyguards killed Mrs. Gandhi on October 31, 1984.

Indira Gandhi Served as Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977 and then again from 1980 until her assassination on October 31, 1984. She declared war on Pakistan in 1971. Pakistan was defeated an independent Bangladesh established. In 1983 the Sikh leader pictured in the next slide occupied the Golden Temple in Amritsar and began accumulating weapons. Negotiations failed and Gandhi ordered Operation Blue Star to seize the temple in June, 1984. Sikhs were outraged. She was killed by her bodyguards who shot her more than 30 times. Anti-Sikh riots killed 3, 000. She was succeeded by her son Rajiv.

Son of Indira Gandhi, Grandson of Nehru – Rajiv Gandhi India’s Prime Minister 1984 -1989. Assassinated by a female Tamil Tiger Suicide Bomber in 1991. The 24 year old assassin placed a garland of sandalwood around Rajiv’s neck and bent down as if to touch his shoe. She triggered an explosive belt killing herself, the P. Minister and 15 others. He had sent troops to Sri Lanka to aid the government in defeating the Tamil Tiger insurgency.

Tamil Tiger Insurgency 1983 -2009 – Tamil Leader Prabhakaran Before His 2009 Death

http: //www. newyorker. com/reporting/2011/01/17/110117 fa_fact_anderson Velupillai Prabhakaran – Led the Tamil Tigers Bloody Insurgency 1983 -2009

Tamil Tigers On Parade

Tamil Tiger Child Soldiers

Sri Lanka – Death of the Tiger

Tamil Tiger Leader ? Led a 20 Year War Before Being Killed in 2009

http: //www. nytimes. com/2009/12/08/world/asia/08 india. html 1992 Hindu Mobs Destroyed the Babri Mosque – They demanded a temple to the God Ram

The crisis in Ayodhya led to sectarian strife. Muslims and Hindus fought in the streets and hundreds were killed. The Babri Mosque had stood from 1528 to 1992.

http: //www. pbs. org/newshour/bb/asia/jan-june 98/nuclear_5 -28. html Indian P. M Vajpayee on the left, Pakistani leader Nawaz Sharif on the right. During the summer of 1999 a confrontation in Kashmir almost ended in war.

http: //nuclearsecrecy. com Pakistan’s Dangerous Nuclear Scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan Is Suspected of Selling Nuclear Know-How To Dangerous Regimes

One of Khan’s Customers Was….

North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il

The Flag Ceremony At the India-Pakistan Border

Indian Soldier in Brown – Pakistani in Black

General Musharraf of Pakistan – Ruled from 1999 to 2008 when he resigned as he faced impeachment. He took power in a coup d’etat removing P. M Sharif who had served as Pakistan’s leader from 1990 -93 and then 1997 -99.

Benazir Bhutto Was Killed By Al Qaeda in December, 2007. Her husband, President Zardari, nicknamed “Mr. 10%” for his corrupt reputation, leads Pakistan Today – next slide shows last 30 seconds of Ms. Bhutto’s life.

Chinese Leader – Xi Jinping with Narendera Modi BRIC Leaders: Putin, Modi, Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, Xi Jinping, and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma