India historical timeline

Chronology

c. 3300 B.C. The Indus Valley Civilisation, a Bronze Age civilisation of the north-western subcontinent, lasts from 3300 B.C. to 1300 B.C. and is in its mature form from 2600 to 1900 B.C. It is also called Harappan, after Harappa, the first of its sites to be excavated — early in the 20th century, in what was then the Punjab province of British India and is now Punjab, Pakistan. Mohenjo-daro followed. Both of the type sites of India's founding civilisation are therefore in Pakistan, across a border drawn in 1947.
c. 500 B.C. The lifetimes of the Buddha and of Mahavira fall in the centuries around 500 B.C. Four world religions began in the subcontinent — Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism — and all four are still practised by millions. Religious practice in India is visible and daily rather than private, and all four traditions still have active places of worship across the subcontinent.
268 B.C. Ashoka rules from about 268 B.C. as the third emperor of the Maurya dynasty. In his eighth regnal year, around 260 B.C., he conquered Kalinga after a brutal war, and his edicts suggest that a few years afterwards he was gradually drawn towards Buddhism; he then devoted himself to propagating dhamma, or righteous conduct, the major theme of those edicts. He is credited with an important role in the spread of Buddhism across ancient Asia. The edicts are carved on rocks and pillars still standing, and the Ashokan lion capital is on the Indian state emblem.
1206 The Delhi Sultanate is founded, beginning three centuries of Turko-Afghan rule in the north and the first large-scale Islamic architecture in the subcontinent. The layering that defines Indian cities starts here: successive empires and religions built on top of what came before rather than clearing it, which is why a single Delhi neighbourhood can hold seven centuries at once.
1526 Babur founds the Mughal Empire, which rules much of the subcontinent into the 18th century. Its architecture is what most visitors come for, and its administrative geography — the provinces, the road system, the Persian court language and the cuisine of the north — outlasted it into the British period and in places into the present.
1631 Shah Jahan commissions the Taj Mahal to house the tomb of his wife Mumtaz Mahal; the first ceremony at the mausoleum was held on 6 February 1643, the 12th anniversary of her death, and the complex is believed to have been completed in 1653 at a cost then estimated at 32 million rupees. It was designated a World Heritage Site in 1983 as "the jewel of Muslim art in India" and now attracts more than five million visitors a year — which is the crowding problem the rest of this site's advice about Agra exists to address.
1757 The British East India Company under Robert Clive defeats the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies at Plassey on 23 June 1757, a victory made possible by the betrayal of the Nawab's commander-in-chief and by much of the Bengal army being committed elsewhere against an Afghan invasion. The battle helped the Company take complete control of Bengal by 1773. A trading company acquiring a province is the beginning of British India, and it happened 101 years before the Crown took over.
1857 The Indian Rebellion. Britain responded by abolishing Company rule and transferring India to the Crown in 1858 — so the "British Raj" a visitor reads about on monuments and in museums is the second British regime, imposed after an uprising against the first, and the two are not the same thing.
1919 On 13 April, at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, a crowd gathered during the Baisakhi fair to protest the Rowlatt Act and the arrest of two independence activists. Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer surrounded them, blocked the exit with his troops and ordered them to fire, continuing as people tried to flee. Estimates of the dead range from 379 to 1,500 or more, with over 1,200 injured. Churchill, then Secretary of State for War, called it "unutterably monstrous". The site in Amritsar is preserved, and it is the point after which Indian opinion on British rule did not go back.
1930 The Salt March: a 24-day walk from 12 March to 6 April 1930, 387 kilometres from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi in what is now Gujarat, in protest against the British salt monopoly. Gandhi began with 78 volunteers; when he broke the salt laws at 8:30 am on 6 April it set off mass civil disobedience by millions. It is the clearest demonstration of satyagraha as a method, and the route is now a marked memorial.
1947 India and Pakistan legally come into existence at midnight on 14-15 August 1947 under the Indian Independence Act, ending Crown rule. Independence Day in India is 15 August.
1947 Partition displaces between 12 and 20 million people along religious lines, creating an overwhelming refugee crisis and large-scale violence. This is the same year as independence and it is the reason the two cannot be described separately: the borders, the army, the Kashmir question and the demography of every northern Indian city were all set by it, within weeks.
1948 Gandhi is assassinated on 30 January 1948, five months after independence. He did not live to see the republic, and the sites associated with his last months in Delhi are among the most visited places in the capital.
1950 The Constitution comes into effect on 26 January 1950 and India becomes a republic — 26 January is Republic Day, distinct from Independence Day. The constitution recognises twenty-two languages, creates the federal structure the states rest on, and is the longest written national constitution in the world.
1971 The war that creates Bangladesh out of East Pakistan. Together with 1947 it means the subcontinent a visitor travels in was divided twice in 24 years, and both divisions are within living memory.
1973 Project Tiger is launched on 1 April 1973, after the tiger population had fallen to 1,827 from an estimated 40,000 at the end of the 19th century. It is the reason India now holds almost three-quarters of the world's wild tigers, and the reason the national parks a visitor books exist in the form they do.
1991 Economic liberalisation opens the economy after four decades of a licensed, largely closed system. Everything that makes modern travel in India practical — the budget airlines, the hotel chains, the mobile networks, the online rail booking — dates from after this year rather than before it.
2023 Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander touches down near the lunar south pole at 69°S on 23 August 2023, making ISRO the fourth national space agency to land on the Moon after the Soviet programme, NASA and China's, and the first in history to achieve a soft landing near the lunar south pole.

Verified against Wikipedia, September 2026.

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Checked against Wikipedia — The Indus Valley Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation of the north-western regions of South Asia lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE; it is also called Harappan after its type site Harappa, the first to be excavated early in the 20th century in what was then the Punjab province of British India and is now Punjab, Pakistan, and the discovery of Harappa and soon afterwards Mohenjo-daro followed the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1861, Ashoka ruled from 268 BCE until his death as the third ruler of the Mauryan dynasty; a patron of Buddhism credited with an important role in its spread across ancient Asia, his edicts state that in his eighth regnal year, about 260 BCE, he conquered Kalinga after a brutal war, after which he devoted himself to the propagation of dhamma or righteous conduct and was gradually drawn towards Buddhism, The Taj Mahal was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his late wife Mumtaz Mahal and also houses his own tomb; the first ceremony at the mausoleum was held on 6 February 1643, the 12th anniversary of her death, the complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time at around 32 million rupees, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 as "the jewel of Muslim art in India", and it attracts more than five million visitors a year, The Battle of Plassey on 23 June 1757 was a decisive victory of the British East India Company under Robert Clive over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, made possible by the betrayal of the Nawab's commander in chief Mir Jafar and by much of the Bengal army having been committed earlier against an Afghan invasion; the battle helped the East India Company take complete control of Bengal in 1773, The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on 13 April 1919 when a large crowd gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar during the annual Baisakhi fair to protest against the Rowlatt Act and the arrest of pro-independence activists Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal; Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer surrounded the people, blocked the exit with his troops and ordered them to shoot, continuing to fire as the protestors tried to flee, and estimates of those killed vary from 379 to 1,500 or more with over 1,200 others injured, The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was condemned by the Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill, as "unutterably monstrous", The Salt March was a 24-day march led by Mahatma Gandhi from 12 March 1930 to 6 April 1930 as a direct action campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly; Gandhi started with 78 trusted volunteers and the march spanned 387 kilometres from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi in what is now Gujarat, and when he broke the salt laws at 8:30 am on 6 April 1930 it sparked large-scale acts of civil disobedience by millions of Indians, The partition of India in 1947 divided British India into two independent dominion states, the Union of India and the Dominion of Pakistan, was set forth in the Indian Independence Act 1947 and resulted in the end of Crown rule in India; the two self-governing countries legally came into existence at midnight on 14-15 August 1947, and the partition displaced between 12 and 20 million people along religious lines, creating overwhelming refugee crises and large-scale violence, Project Tiger was launched on 1 April 1973 after the tiger population in India had dwindled to 1,827 individuals by the early 1970s from an estimated 40,000 at the end of the 19th century, and as of 2022 there were 3,682 wild tigers in India, almost 75 per cent of the world's wild tiger population, Chandrayaan-3 consists of the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover, entered lunar orbit on 5 August and touched down near the lunar south pole at 69 degrees south on 23 August 2023; with this landing ISRO became the fourth national space agency to successfully land on the Moon, after the Soviet space programme, NASA and CNSA, and the first in human history to achieve a soft landing near the lunar south pole (September 2026).