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State wise Tribal Population percentage in India

Dadra & Nagar Haveli History

The Portuguese were the masters of the land. They ruled this territory until its liberation on 2 August 1954. Subsequently the administration was carried on for some time by some local administrator. The territory was merged with the Indian Union on 11 August 1961 as a Union Territory. Since liberation of the territory from Portuguese rule a Varishtha Panchayat was working as an advisory body of the administration, which was, however, dissolved in August 1989 and Pradesh Council for Dadra and Nagar Haveli was announced. Subsequently Dadra and Nagar Haveli District Panchayat and 11 village Panchayats were constituted as per Constitutional amendments at all India level.

History of Chhattisgarh

According to a mythological legend, Ram, during his Vanvas stayed in Dakshin Kosala. Which is modern day Chhattisgarh. The unbroken history of Chhattisgarh or of South Kosala can be traced back to fourth century AD and its mythological history goes back as far back as the Mahabarata and the Ramayana. About the history of the region the famous historian C.W.Wills writes, ‘in the 10th century AD a powerful Rajput family ruled at Tripuri near Jabalpur, Issuing from this kingdom of Chedi (also known as Kalchuri dynasty) a scion of the royal house by the name Kalingraja, settled about the year 1000AD, at Tuman, a site at present marked only by a few ruins in the north east of the erstwhile Laphazamidari of The Bilaspur district. His grandson Ratanraja founded Ratanpur Which continued as the capital of a large part of the country now known as Chhattisgarh. This Rajput family called themselves the Haihaya dyanasty. This dynasty continued ruling Chhattisgarh for six centuries about the 14th century it split into parts, the elder branch continued at Ratanpur, while the younger settled in semi-independent state at Raipur. At the end of 16th century it acknowledged the suzerainty of the Mughals, In Bastar, in the middle ages, Chalukya dynasty established its rule. The first Chalukya ruler was Annmdev, who established the dynasty in Bastar in 1320 .
The Marathas attacked Chhattisgarh in 1741 and destroyed the Haihaya power. In 1745 AD after conquering the region, they deposed Raghunathsinghji, the last surviving member of the Ratanpur house. In 1758, the Maraths finally annexed Chhattisgarh, it came directly under Maratha rule and Bimbaji Bhonsle, was appointed the rule. After death of Bimbaji Bhonsle, the Marathas adopted the Suba system. The Maratha rule was a period of unrest and misrule. There was large-scale loot and plunder by the Maratha army. The Maratha officials were openly surrendering the interests of the region to the British. As a result of this, the region became extremely poor and the people began resenting the Maratha rule. Only the Gonds continued to resist and challenge the advances of the Marathas and this led to several conflicts and much animosity between the Gonds and the Marathas (Captain Blunt, 1975). The Pindaris also attacked and plundered the region in the beginning of the Nineteenth Century.
In 1818 Chhattisgarh came under some sort of British control for the first time. In 1854, when the province of Nagpur lapsed to the British government, Chhattisgarh was formed into a deputy commissionership with its headquarters at Raipur. Historian C.W. Wills, writing about Chhattisgarh says, Chhattisgarh presents the remarkable picture of a Hindu government continuing till modern times outside the sphere of direct Mohammedancontrol. The British made certain changes in the administrative and revenue systems of Chhattisgarh, which adversely affected the people of Chhattisgarh. The intrusion of the British was resisted strongly in Bastar by the tribals and the Halba rebellion which lasted nearly five year (1774-1779) was the first documented rebellion against the British and Marathas in Bastar.
The First war of independence in 1857 was spearheaded in Chhattisgarh by Vir Narain Singh who was a benevolent jamindar of Sonakhan. The British arrested him in 1856 for looting a trader’s grain stocks and distributing it amongst the poor in a severe famine year. In 1857 with the help of the solders of the British Army at Raipur, Vir Narain Singh escaped form prison. He reached Sonakhan and formed an army of 500 men. Under the leadership of Smith, a powerful British army was dispatched to crush the Sonakhan army. The British succeeded after a prolonged battle and Vir Narain Singh was arrested and later hanged on the 10th December, 1857. He became the first martyr from Chhattisgarh in the War of Independence. Vir Narain Singh’s martyrdom has been resurrected in the 1980’s and he has become a potent symbol of Chhattisgarhi pride.

The Story of Chandigarh

Chandigarh is synonymous to a certain kind of architecture, along with planned landscaping     which is, not found in other cities of India, and not amenable to being strait jacketed. Here’s the story of ‘The City Beautiful’ for you.

The Government of Punjab, initially approached American town planner Albert Mayer who along with architect Mathew Nowicki became the key planners for the new city. The master plan conceived by them had a fan-shaped outline filling the site between the two seasonal river-beds. Against the beautiful background of the Shivalik Hills was located the capital complex, at the northern edge of the city. The City Centre was sited in the middle, and two linear parklands ran from the northeast to the southwest. The Mayer wanted to create a self-sufficient city, restricted in size and surrounded by green belts. Areas for business, industry and cultural activities were clearly demarcated. In August 1950, his co-planner Nowicki died in a plane crash and Mayer withdrew from the project.

This vision of Chandigarh, contained in the innumerable conceptual maps on the drawing board together with notes and sketches had to be translated into brick and mortar. Eminent architect and urban theorist, Le Corbusier, was then selected to carry forward this task. He chose to retain many of the seminal ideas of Mayer and Nowicki, like the basic framework of the master plan and its components; the Capital, City Centre, besides the University, Industrial area, and linear parkland. Even the neighbourhood unit was retained as conceived by the previous architects. However, the curving outline of Mayer and Nowicki were redeisgned into a mesh of rectangles, and the buildings were characterised by an ‘honesty of materials’. Exposed brick and boulder stone masonry in its rough form produced unfinished concrete surfaces, in geometrical structures. This became the architecture form characteristic of Chandigarh, set amidst landscaped gardens and parks.

The Master Plan

Le Corbusier saw the master plan of Chandigarh as analogous to a living organism, with a clearly defined head (the Capital Complex, Sector 1), heart (the City Centre, Sector 17), lungs (the leisure valley, innumerable open spaces and green sector), the intellect (the cultural and educational institutions), the circulatory system (the network of roads, the 7 Vs), and the viscera (the Industrial Area).

History of Bihar

“Bihar” has been derived from the word “Vihar” which was symbol of Buddhist monasteries. Bihar is one of the places which has seen the birth of ancient civilisation and Indian history. Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Muslim and Sikh Shrines abound in this ancient land where India’s first major empire rose and fell. It is land of not only the religious preachers but also of Emperors and great warriors. It had four Kingdoms: Mithila(Videh), Vaishali Ang and Magadh.
Videh: During Vedic days Videh was ruled by Janak vanshi kings and Raja Janak ,”Sita’s” father who was one of the kings. During 6th century B.C. this place had the first elected republic of the world. During the course of time, eight small republics were formed which later on merged with Lichhavi State.
Vaishali: Vishal the son of Surya Vansha formed the Vaishali state. During 6th century B.C. Vaishali became a republic state.
Ang: This state was established by a prince named Angad. Full details of this state is not available in the history except that Ang king married his daughter to Kaushambi king Udayan to save his kingdom from Puruthan the king of Magadh. Still this Kingdom could not be saved as Bimbisar of Haryak vansh conquered Ang and merged it with Magadh.
Magadh : The area of Patna and Gaya constituted the ancient Magadh kingdom having it’s capital at Rajgrih. Barahyadrath, father of Jarasandh established the Magadh kingdom in 6th century B.C. Later on Bimbisara became the ruler of Magadh. Bimbisara and Ajatshatru expanded their Kingdom covering northern Bihar. Thereafter Shishunag became the ruler and conquered Awauti state. During 4th century B.C. Ugrasen of Nand Vansh became the ruler, who was dethroned by Chanakya and his disciple Chandragupta. Chandragupta was a great warrior who forced Sikander to leave India and also conquered Afghanistan & Baluchistan and made it a part of his kingdom. Chandragupta was succeeded by Bindusar and then by Ashoka the Great, who ruled from 273 century BC to 232 BC. King Ashoka became the follower of Buddhist religion after he attacked Kaling in which 1 million people were killed and 1.5 million people were taken as prisoners. He spread Buddhism throughout the world. History of next 500 years are not of great importance. From 26th Feb 320 AD rule of Gupta regime started and Chandragupta first became the king. He made Patliputra his kingdom and ruled till 330 AD. His son Samudragupta ruled from 330 Ad to 380 AD. And degeated 12 kings of south and became famous throughout the world. Samudragupta’s son Chandragupta Vikramadutt became the ruler from 375 AD to 493 AD and conquered Gujrat, Kathivada & Ujjaini. The great poet Kalidas was one of the Ratna’s of that period. Maukhri Vansh ruled Bihar for some time followed by Harshvardhan, Sashank & Adityasen. During 743 AD Palvansh ruled Magadh and the ruler were Gopal, Dharampal and Deopal. After the death of Deopal the kingdom started disintegrating. During 1236, Muslims attacked Bihar but Shershah Suri (1472-1545) brought stability again. Akbar, the great made Bihar a separate state consisting Magadh, Tirhut and Ang . Suja became the Governor of Bihar. In 1652 the British started business form Patna and after Palasi war they started ruling Bihar . The British ruled Bihar from 1765 to 1947 and thereafter Bihar became a state under the Union of India.

Assam History

Past & Present of Assam
Assam’s history goes back to the ancient times. The base of this history can be found in Vedic literature, Tantric literature, Assamese folklore and Buddhist literature.

However, first reference of Assam is found in the epics and the religious legends. The Aryans belonging to the priestly (brahmin) and warrior classes found their way into Assam in very early times. Numerous places referred in the epics, like Mahabharata etc. are now identified with sites in this state.

Known as ‘Kamarupa’ or ‘Pragjyotish’ in the period of the Epics, Assam is inhabited by human civilisation since about 2000 BC. The people of Assam consists of the migrants from Burma and China. They settled in Assam after the mongoloid migration. Mongoloids came from Punjab through Bihar and North Bengal. Henceforth, Assam presents a blend of Mongol-Aryan culture. It is believed that, the early history of Assam belonged to be of the Varman dynasty. The reign of this dynasty extended from 400 AD to 13th century. Huien Tsang is said to have visited Assam during the rule of Kumar Bhaskar Varman in the 7th century BC. The Ahoms are said to have ventured into Assam in about 1228 AD. By 15th century the kingdoms of Ahom and Koch were established. This period witnessed a change in all the sections of life in Assam.

Ahom Kingdom weakened in the later part of the 18th century, due to internal conflict. The Burmese ran over the political authority in Assam, thus invoking British intervention to subdue the Burmese. After a conflict between the Burmese and the English, peace was regained by the treaty of Yandaboo in 1826. The British then set out to organise the administration, transport and communication. Besides the various changes, the British constructed the railways; introduced of tea plantation, discovered of coal and oil etc.. All this proved fruitful to the British during the World War II. In the post Independence period of India, Assam witnessed several separation of territories. In 1948, NEFA (Arunachal Pradesh) was separated. In 1963 Nagaland was separated. In 1972 Meghalaya and in 1987 Mizoram.

History of Arunachal Pradesh

The first ancestors of the tribal groups migrated from Tibet during the pre-historic period.
Northwestern parts of this area came under the control of the Monpa kingdom of Monyul, which flourished between 500 B.C. and 600 A.D. This region then came under the loose control of Tibet, especially in the Northern areas.
In 1913-14, the British administrator, Sir Henry McMahon, drew up the 550-mile McMahon Line as the border between British India and Tibet during the Simla Conference, as Britain sought to advance its line of control and establish buffer zones around its colony in South Asia.
The Tibetan and British representatives at the conference agreed to the line, but the Chinese representative refused to accept the line owing to domestic pressures.
The NEFA (North East Frontier Agency) was created in 1954. During the war in 1962 PRC captured most of the NEFA. However, the PRC soon declared victory and voluntarily withdrew back to the McMahon Line and returned Indian prisoners of war in 1963.
Arunachal Pradesh was administered as the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) until 1972, when it became the Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh. It was given full statehood in November 1986.

Andaman Nicobar History

There is a reference in the Hindu epic Ramayana, to the monkey-god Hanuman making a stopover in the Andaman while he was en route to Lanka in search of Sita. Aboriginals have inhabited the Islands for thousands of years – but their xenophobia and their belligerence resulted in the area remaining unexplored. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of ‘Sherlock Holmes’ fame described the islanders in his book, ‘The Sign of Four’, as “perhaps the smallest race upon this earth – fierce, morose and intractable”. Lying on the ancient trade route between Burma and India, the islands were delineated on Ptolemy’s second century a.d. map. The Chinese traveller, I-Tsing who visited India in the seventh century gave a rivetting account of these isles, as did the Venetian explorer Marco Polo (1254-1324).

The place became the naval base of the great Maratha admiral, Kanhoji Angre in the early 18th century. He frequently crossed swords with the Europeans – the British, the Dutch and the Portugese. In 1713, he captured the yacht of the British governor of Bombay, releasing it only after obtaining a hefty ransom. Though attacked later by a combined British/Portugese naval task force, Angre remained undefeated until his death in 1729. The first westerners to set foot on these isles were the Danes in the mid-18th century.

However, these offshore islands had not escaped the eagle eyes of the British. In 1789, they established a penal colony on South Andaman Island, but had to abandon it seven years later because of the unhygienic living conditions. Finally in 1872, they annexed both groups of islands. However, the only point of settlement developed by the British was Port Blair, which was converted into a prison for convicts serving life terms. For the next 70 years, the atolls remained untouched by time until the Japanese occupied them in World War II. In December 1943, the Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose, who was working in tandem with the Japanese, unfurled the Indian tricolour at Port Blair. However, the territory reverted to the British after the defeat of the Japanese in World War II. Come August 1947, and the English left our shores to go back to their island-nation, while Andaman and Nicobar became part of the dominion of India.

Modern India History

Vasco da Gama when landed at Calicut, sailing via the Cape of Good Hope in 1498, marked the beginning of the European era in Indian history. The Portuguese by the 16th Century had already established their colony in Goa.
In the next century, India was visited by a large number of European travellers - Italians, Englishmen, Frenchmen and Dutchmen. They were drawn to India for different reasons. Some were traders, others adventurers, and quite a few fired by the missionary zeal to find converts to Christianity. Eventually England, France, the Netherlands and Denmark, floated East India Companies.
During the late 16th and the 17th Centuries, these companies competed with each other fiercely. By the last quarter of the 18th Century the English had vanquished all others and established themselves as the dominant power in India. The British administered India for a period of about two centuries and brought about revolutionary changes in the social, political and the economic life of the country.
Once the British had consolidated their power, commercial exploitation of the natural resources and native labour became ruthless. By the middle of the 19th Century arrogant exploitation of the people had tried the patience of the Indians to the limit.
The six decades between the end of the “mutinous” war of 1857 - 59 and the conclusion of First World War saw both the peak of British imperial power in India and the birth of nationalist agitation against it. With increasing intrusion of aliens in their lives, a group of middle class Indians formed the Indian National Congress (1885) - a society of English educated affluent professionals - to seek reforms from the British.
The anticolonial struggle became truly a mass movement with the arrival of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 - 1948) in 1915 who had suffered great humiliation in South Africa due to the policy of racial discrimination and later commited to rid his motherland of the ills of foreign rule.
Successive campaigns had the effect of driving the British out of India in 1947, but with independence came the independence of the country into Pakistan.

Medieval India History

The Rajput period was an era of chivalry and feudalism. The Rajputs weakened each other by constant fighting. This allowed the foreigners (Turks) to embark on victorious campaigns using duplicity and deceit wherever military strength failed against Rajputs.
Mohammad Ghori defeated Prithviraj Chauhan, the Tomar ruler of Delhi, at the battle of Tarain in 1192 and left the Indian territories in the charge of his deputy, Qutubudin (reign - 1206 - 1210), who had started life as a slave. Khiljis, Tughlaqs, Sayyids and Lodis followed and this period is known as the Sultanate. When the power of the Sultans declined, the outlying provinces once again became important and the process of Hindu Islamic synthesis continued almost without any interruption.
Babur (reign - 1526-30), the founder of the Mughal Empire in India, was the descendant of Timur as well as Changez Khan. Ousted by his cousins, he came to India and defeated Ibrahim, the last Lodi Sultan in 1526 at the First Battle of Panipat. There was a brief interruption to Mughal rule when Babur’s son Humayun (reign - 1530-40) was ousted from Delhi, by Sher Shah, an Afghan chieftain.
Sher Shah (reign - 1540-55), assumed power in the imperial capital for a short while. He is remembered as the builder of the Grand Trunk road that spanned the distance from Peshawar to Patna and also one who introduced major reforms in the revenue system, gratefully retained by the Mughals.
It was Babur’s grandson Akbar (reign - 1556-1605), who consolidated political power and extended his empire over practically the whole of north India and parts of the south. Jahangir (reign - 1605-27) who succeeded Akbar was a pleasure loving man of refined taste. Shah Jahan (1628-58) his son, ascended the throne next. Shah Jahan’s fame rests on the majestic buildings he has left behind - the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort and the Jama Masjid. Aurangzeb (reign - 1658-1707) was the last Mughal ruler.
In western India, Shivaji (1637-80) had forged the Marathas into an efficient military machine and given them a sense of national identity. They adopted guerrilla tactics to maul the Mughals and put a severe drain on their economic resources.
The contenders for political supremacy in the 17th and 18th Centuries included besides the Marathas, the Sikhs in Punjab and Hyder Ali (reign - 1721 - 1782) in Mysore. Tipu Sultan (reign - 1782 - 1799) - Hyder Ali’s son and successor allied himself with the French against the British and strove to introduce the latest technical knowledge from Europe.