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Modern India timeline — full list

All 685 events, by decade. Print it, or open the interactive timeline for era tabs and Recall mode.

1460s · 1 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1460		Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal died in 1460	Nearly forty years before da Gama's voyage. The connection is generational, not personal patronage.

1480s · 1 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1486–1487		Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope	He rounds the southern tip of Africa, proving that the Atlantic opens into the Indian Ocean; the sea road to India lies open for da Gama a decade later; sailing for King John II, he proves that Africa can be circumnavigated and the Indian Ocean reached by sea; da Gama follows the route a decade later

1490s · 6 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1492	Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain, reaches the Americas	Seeking a westward route to India for Ferdinand and Isabella, he lands in the Caribbean; the Portuguese answer is the eastward Cape route
1497–1498	Vasco da Gama sails from Portugal to India round the Cape of Good Hope	Leaves Lisbon in July 1497 under King Manuel I with four ships, takes a pilot aboard at Malindi on the East African coast and crosses the Indian Ocean to the Malabar coast in about a month
Jul 1497	Vasco da Gama sails from Lisbon under King Emmanuel of Portugal	Four ships and about 170 men; he rounds the Cape of Good Hope and works up the East African coast to Malindi
1498	Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut	Received by the Zamorin of Calicut; the first direct sea route from Europe to India, round the Cape of Good Hope, initiating direct Europe–India trade Entrant (Nation/Company): Portuguese; the first of five European entrants; the Portuguese hold a near-monopoly of the Cape sea trade until about 1600, when the Dutch and English companies are chartered
Apr 1498	At Malindi, Kenya, Vasco da Gama takes aboard the pilot	Who guides him across the Indian Ocean. The lecture names the pilot as the Gujarati Abdul Majid, though standard accounts are not agreed on his identity; the crossing to the Malabar coast takes about a month
May 1498	Vasco da Gama lands at Calicut and is received by the Zamorin	The Hindu ruler of Calicut welcomes him, but the Arab merchants at court are hostile and the Portuguese gifts are judged poor; da Gama sails home with a spice cargo worth many times the cost of the voyage

1500s · 9 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1500	Pedro Alvarez Cabral leads the second Portuguese fleet of 13 ships to India	He sights Brazil on the way out, sets up a factory at Calicut, bombards the town after his men there are killed in a riot, then loads spices at Cochin and Cannanore
1501	Vasco da Gama returns, burns the pilgrim ship Miri with 380 aboard	Fort Emmanuel rises at Cochin. The Miri was carrying Muslim pilgrims home from Mecca; the fort at Cochin, the first Portuguese fort in India, is raised with the Cochin raja's consent against his rival the Zamorin
1503	Vasco da Gama sails home; Portugal switches	From private sailors to official Viceroys. King Emmanuel now sends a salaried Viceroy with a fleet and forts to run the Estado da India rather than trusting individual captains; Almeida arrives in 1505
1503	Portuguese build Fort Manuel at Cochin, their first fort in India	Raised with the consent of the Raja of Cochin, the Zamorin's rival, and named for King Manuel I; the Cochin alliance is the Portuguese foothold on the Malabar coast
1505–1509	Francisco de Almeida initiates the Blue Water Policy	Francisco de Almeida: first Portuguese Viceroy of India. A strong navy over land forts; his son Lourenço is killed by the Egyptian-Gujarati fleet at Chaul in 1508, and Almeida crushes that fleet off Diu in 1509 before being recalled
1505	King Manuel I appoints Francisco de Almeida the first Viceroy of the Estado da India	The first structured European colonial government in Asia; his Blue Water Policy puts a strong navy before land forts; his son Lourenço is killed by the Egyptian-Gujarati fleet at Chaul in 1508, which Almeida avenges off Diu in 1509
1507	Afonso de Albuquerque first subdued Hormuz in 1507, before he was Governor	1515 is the definitive reoccupation. The notes date Hormuz to 1515.
1509–1515	Afonso de Albuquerque builds the Estado da India	Afonso de Albuquerque: the real founder of Portuguese power in India. Goa taken from the Adil Shah of Bijapur in 1510 and the Bhatkal fort by friendship with Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara, Malacca in 1511, Hormuz, and the Cartaze permit fee on Indian Ocean shipping
1509	Viceroy Francisco de Almeida destroys the Egyptian and Gujarati fleet off Diu	The Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Sultan Mahmud Begada of Gujarat had combined against the Portuguese; the victory secures Portuguese naval supremacy in the Arabian Sea

1510s · 3 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1510	Afonso de Albuquerque takes Goa from the Adil Shah of Bijapur	Captured in March 1510, lost, and retaken in November 1510 with the help of the Hindu privateer Timoja; the seat of Portuguese power in the East and formally the capital of the Estado da India from 1530
1511	Albuquerque captures Malacca on the Malay peninsula	Control of the Strait of Malacca, the gateway between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, gives Portugal a grip on the spice trade of the East Indies
1515	Albuquerque secures Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf	First subdued in 1507, definitively occupied in 1515; with Goa and Malacca it completes the Portuguese hold on the Indian Ocean's chokepoints; Albuquerque dies at sea off Goa the same year

1520s · 2 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1526		Babur founds Mughal rule in north India after the First Battle of Panipat	Ibrahim Lodi, the last Delhi Sultan, is killed
1529–1538		Governor Nuno da Cunha takes Diu from Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat	Goa becomes the capital. Bassein comes by treaty with Bahadur Shah in 1534 and Diu in 1535; the Sultan dies in 1537 in a scuffle aboard a Portuguese ship off Diu; Goa is made the capital of the Estado da India in his time

1530s · 1 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1530		Mughal Emperor Babur dies; his son Humayun becomes the second Mughal Emperor	Humayun inherits an unsettled north India, with Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat in the west and Sher Khan Sur in the east as rivals

1540s · 1 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1540		Pope Paul III approved the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit Order	By papal bull in 1540. The 1534 date is the Montmartre vows of Ignatius Loyola and his companions, not the Order's foundation.

1550s · 2 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1556		Portuguese Jesuits set up India's first printing press at Goa	Installed at the Jesuits' College of St Paul in 1556-57; the first books printed in India follow, in Latin and then in local languages using Roman script. A press bound for the mission in Abyssinia that stayed at the College of St Paul; used for catechisms and religious literature
1559		The Portuguese took Daman only in 1559	Some two decades after Nuno da Cunha's death. The notes list Daman among Nuno da Cunha's gains. Diu (1535) and Bassein (1534) are the gains that fall in his tenure.

1590s · 1 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1599		Archbishop Menezes of Goa holds the Synod of Diamper	Over the Syrian Christians of Malabar. At Udayamperoor near Cochin, the Portuguese Archbishop Aleixo de Menezes brings the St Thomas (Syrian) Christians under Roman Catholic authority and Latinises their rites; the Coonan Cross Oath of 1653 later rejects that submission.

1600s · 7 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1600	Queen Elizabeth I charters the English East India Company	Royal charter of 31 December 1600 to 'the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies', with a fifteen-year monopoly of English trade east of the Cape
1602	Dutch States-General charters the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC)	A 21-year monopoly of Dutch trade east of the Cape; the Dutch reach India in 1605 at Masulipatnam; A state-backed joint-stock company, often called the first multinational; it fixes its eastern headquarters at Batavia (Jakarta) in 1619.
1604	The Portuguese introduced tobacco to India around 1604-05, at Akbar's court	Jahangir's prohibition followed in 1617. The notes say tobacco was introduced in the 17th century.
1605	Dutch East India Company (VOC) sets up its first Indian trading post at Masulipatnam	On the Coromandel coast; Pulicat follows in 1610 as the Dutch headquarters until Nagapattinam replaces it in 1690 Entrant (Nation/Company): Dutch (VOC)
1605–1664	Dutch, English, Danish and French companies enter India after the Portuguese	Dutch VOC factory at Masulipatnam 1605, English ship at Surat 1608, Danish charter 1616 and Tranquebar 1620, French company 1664
1605	Dutch VOC opens its first Indian factory at Masulipatnam	On the Coromandel coast; Pulicat follows in 1610 as the Dutch headquarters, later Nagapattinam (1690); Surat, Cochin and Chinsura come later
1608	English East India Company's first ship docks at Surat	English East India Company's first ship: the Hector under William Hawkins. Captain Hawkins carries James I's letter to Mughal Emperor Jahangir; Portuguese influence at court frustrates him, and the Surat factory is secured only in 1613 after Best's victory at Swally Entrant (Nation/Company): English (EIC)

1610s · 5 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1611	English East India Company opens a factory at Masulipatnam	Note: The Company's first factory on the Coromandel coast, in the Golconda Sultan's territory; Madras replaces it as the Coromandel headquarters after 1639
1613	English East India Company makes Surat its first Indian base	A Mughal farman permits the factory after Thomas Best defeats the Portuguese off Swally (Suvali) in 1612; William Hawkins had sought the same permission at Jahangir's court from 1609 and failed; Permitted by Mughal Emperor Jahangir after Thomas Best's victory over the Portuguese off Swally in 1612; Surat stays the English western headquarters until Bombay takes over in 1687.
1615	Sir Thomas Roe, James I's ambassador, arrives at Mughal Emperor Jahangir's court	Landed at Surat in September 1615 and reached the court at Ajmer in January 1616; he stayed till 1619, and his journal is a key source on Jahangir's court.
1616	King Christian IV of Denmark charters the Danish East India Company	It reaches India only in 1620, when it acquires Tranquebar (Tharangambadi, Tamil Nadu) on the Coromandel coast from the Nayak of Tanjore; the company had no Indian settlement until Tranquebar in 1620, and Serampore in Bengal followed in 1755. Entrant (Nation/Company): Danish; The notes date the Danish East India Company's arrival to 1616. The Danish East India Company's 1616 date is its charter from King Christian IV. The fourth European entrant, after the Portuguese, Dutch and English, and never a military rival to them; a foundation date, not an arrival date; Chartered under King Christian IV
1618	Farman of Mughal Emperor Jahangir confirms the English right to trade	And build factories. Obtained through Sir Thomas Roe's embassy to the Mughal court (1615–19); Surat had already been trading since 1613.

1620s · 1 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1620		Danish East India Company acquires Tranquebar on the Coromandel coast	From the Nayak of Tanjore. The first Danish settlement in India, four years after the company's charter; Serampore in Bengal is added in 1755; Tharangambadi in today's Tamil Nadu; the Danes build Fort Dansborg there and hold Tranquebar until they sell it to the British in 1845.

1630s · 2 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1632		Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan's forces expel the Portuguese from Hooghly	The Bengal governor Qasim Khan besieges and takes the settlement, punishing Portuguese piracy and slave-raiding on the Bengal coast; the survivors are sent to Agra as prisoners
1639		English East India Company founds Fort St. George at Madras	Francis Day obtains the site from Damarla Venkatadri, the Nayak of Chandragiri and a Vijayanagara feudatory; the fort is completed in 1640 and becomes the seat of the Madras Presidency

1650s · 1 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1651		English East India Company opens its first Bengal factory at Hugli	Note: Set up with the permission of Prince Shah Shuja, Aurangzeb's brother and then Subahdar of Bengal; Kasimbazar and Patna factories follow

1660s · 3 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1661	Portugal cedes Bombay to England as Catherine of Braganza's dowry	The marriage treaty with King Charles II; the physical handover comes in 1665, and Charles leases the island to the East India Company in 1668 for £10 a year
1664	French East India Company is founded under Louis XIV by his minister Colbert	The Compagnie des Indes Orientales, a state-backed company; François Caron opens its first Indian factory at Surat in 1668, and François Martin founds Pondicherry in 1674 Entrant (Nation/Company): French; the last of the five European companies to arrive in India; its rivalry with the English plays out in the three Carnatic Wars, 1746-63; State-backed, unlike the private English company
1668	King Charles II transfers Bombay to the East India Company	Note: Charles II, who had received it in 1661 as Catherine of Braganza's dowry, leases it to the Company for £10 a year; Bombay replaces Surat as the western headquarters in 1687

1670s · 1 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1674		François Martin establishes Pondicherry as the French headquarters in India	On land obtained from Sher Khan Lodi, the Bijapur Sultan's governor of Valikondapuram; Chandernagore in Bengal follows in 1690-92, and Mahe, Karaikal and Yanam later

1690s · 2 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1690		Job Charnock of the East India Company founds the settlement at Sutanuti	Note: The nucleus of Calcutta, on the east bank of the Hooghly, after the Company's war with Aurangzeb (1686-90) ends in a pardon and permission to return to Bengal
1698		East India Company buys the zamindari of Sutanuti, Kalikata and Govindpur	Note: Bought from the Sabarna Roy Choudhury family with the permission of Prince Azim-us-Shan, Aurangzeb's grandson and Subahdar of Bengal; the fortified factory takes the name Fort William in 1700

1700s · 3 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1707	Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb dies at Ahmednagar	The conventional start of Modern India; his sons' war of succession makes Bahadur Shah I emperor, and the Later Mughals lose the provinces one by one; Prince Muazzam defeats his brothers Azam at Jajau in June 1707 and Kam Bakhsh in 1709 and takes the throne as Bahadur Shah I
1707–1712	Bahadur Shah I, Aurangzeb's son Muazzam, reigns as Mughal Emperor	Aged 65 at accession; conciliates the Rajputs, Jats and Bundelas, releases Shahu to split the Marathas, and meets Guru Gobind Singh; nicknamed Sahib-i-Bekhabar; his burial waits a month in 1712 while his sons fight
1708	Guru Gobind Singh was fatally stabbed at Nanded in 1708 by Afghan assailants	Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, was fatally stabbed at Nanded in 1708 by Afghan assailants. Attribution to an imperial agent under Emperor Bahadur Shah I, with whom the Guru was then travelling, is contested and not the standard account.

1710s · 9 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1712–1713	Jahandar Shah reigns as Mughal Emperor under his wazir Zulfiqar Khan	Zulfiqar abolishes the jizya in 1712 and introduces ijara (revenue farming); Jahandar is defeated and killed in 1713 by his nephew Farrukhsiyar, backed by the Sayyid Brothers
1713–1719	Farrukhsiyar reigns as Mughal Emperor	A puppet of the Sayyid Brothers Abdullah Khan and Husain Ali. The Sayyids hold the offices of Wazir and Mir Bakhshi; they depose and murder Farrukhsiyar in 1719
1716	Sayyid Brothers' forces execute the Sikh leader Banda Bahadur at Delhi	Captured at Gurdas Nangal after a long siege; his rebellion in Punjab ends
1717–1724	Mughal governors found the successor states of Bengal, Awadh and Hyderabad	Murshid Quli Khan in Bengal (1717), Saadat Khan in Awadh (1722), Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah in Hyderabad (1724); each keeps the Mughal name on coins and in the khutba while ruling as a hereditary dynasty
1717	Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar's farman grants the East India Company duty-free trade in Bengal	For Rs 3,000 a year, with the right to rent 38 villages around Calcutta and to mint coins in Bengal; the Nawabs of Bengal resent it
1717–1727	Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar's farman; Murshid Quli Khan made Nawab of Bengal	Key Events / Notes: Establishes autonomous Bengal; moves capital to Murshidabad. Efficient revenue reforms; remits tribute to Delhi [212]. The farman grants the English Company duty-free trade for a token ₹3,000 a year, land around Calcutta and dastaks (not the right to fortify); Murshid Quli, already the province's Diwan, tolerates it because it comes from the Emperor; Murshid Quli Khan, already the province's Diwan, is appointed Nawab by Farrukhsiyar in 1717; he builds his revenue system on about 15 great zamindari houses and strikes coins in the Emperor's name.
1719	Sayyid Brothers grant the Chauth	And Sardeshmukhi of the Deccan to Chhatrapati Shahu. A quarter of the assessed revenue and a further tenth, in return for Maratha support and restraint
1719	Sayyid Brothers enthrone and remove Rafi-ud-Darajat and Shah Jahan II	Two puppets in one year. Both die within months; the second, Rafi-ud-Daulah, reigns as Shah Jahan II; Muhammad Shah is installed later in 1719
1719–1748	Muhammad Shah Rangila reigns as Mughal Emperor	Has the Sayyid Brothers killed by 1722 with Nizam-ul-Mulk's help; Nizam-ul-Mulk makes Hyderabad independent in 1724; Nadir Shah of Persia routs him at Karnal in February 1739, sacks Delhi and carries off the Peacock Throne and the Kohinoor

1720s · 2 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1720		Bajirao I succeeds Balaji Vishwanath as Peshwa	Chhatrapati Shahu reduced to a symbolic head. The 'fighting Peshwa', undefeated in twenty years, raises the Holkars and Scindias to power and aims at a Hindu Padshahi in the north while real authority passes from the Chhatrapati to the Peshwa
1727–1739		Nawab Shuja-ud-Din Muhammad Khan rules Bengal	His son Sarfaraz Khan briefly in 1739. Key Events / Notes: Period of stability and prosperity. However, Maratha raids (the Bargi invasions 1742-50) start toward the end, causing chaos [213]. Shuja-ud-Din died 1739; Sarfaraz's ineffectual rule ended when Alivardi took over. Shuja-ud-Din is Murshid Quli's son-in-law; Sarfaraz Khan is defeated and killed at Giria (1740) by Alivardi Khan, deputy governor of Bihar, who takes the masnad; The Bargi (Maratha) invasions of 1742-50 began three years after Shuja-ud-Din's death, in Alivardi Khan's reign, not toward the end of this one (see Corrections).

1730s · 2 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1737–1738		Peshwa Bajirao I raids the outskirts of Delhi	Treaty of Bhopal wins Malwa from the Nizam. Bajirao defeats Nizam-ul-Mulk near Bhopal and by the Treaty of Bhopal (1738) the Nizam cedes Malwa to the Marathas; the raid on Delhi (1737) shows how far Mughal authority has waned
1739		Battle of Karnal: Nadir Shah of Persia routs Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah's army	A small, well-trained force beats a huge Mughal host; Nadir Shah then sacks Delhi and carries off the Peacock Throne; Dupleix later cites Karnal as the model for disciplined sepoy armies

1740s · 11 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1740–1756	Alivardi Khan overthrows Sarfaraz Khan at Giria and becomes Nawab of Bengal	Key Events / Notes: A capable general who overthrew Sarfaraz in 1740. Fends off repeated Maratha raids (1742-1751) but at great cost; eventually cedes Orissa to the Marathas and agrees to pay an annual chauth (tribute) of ₹12.5 lakh [214]. Maintains strict control over European companies' fortifications (did not allow British to fortify Calcutta). Dies in 1756. Alivardi kills Sarfaraz in battle and later secures imperial confirmation from Delhi; his sixteen-year reign is spent fending off the Marathas and keeping the European companies unfortified; The raiders were Raghuji Bhonsle of Nagpur's Marathas; the annual chauth agreed in 1751 was ₹12 lakh by the standard figure, ₹12.5 lakh in the notes (see Corrections).
Apr 1740	Peshwa Bajirao I dies; his son Balaji Bajirao (Nana Saheb) succeeds as Peshwa	Bajirao dies of illness on campaign on the Narmada; Mastani dies shortly afterwards; under Nana Saheb Maratha power reaches its territorial zenith, from Cuttack to Attock
1742–1751	Bargi invasions: Raghuji Bhonsle of Nagpur's Marathas ravage Nawab Alivardi's Bengal	Light Maratha cavalry pillage the countryside; by the peace of 1751 Alivardi cedes Orissa to the Marathas and agrees to an annual chauth of ₹12 lakh, draining Bengal's treasury and exposing its weakness
1744–1748	First Carnatic War: English Company against the French under Dupleix	European War It Belonged To: War of Austrian Succession (1740-48) Decisive Engagement: Battle of St. Thome, 1746 Treaty That Ended It: Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748 Madras returned, status quo ante; Fought without clear orders from Europe; the French hold Madras for two years and Dupleix defies Nawab Anwaruddin of the Carnatic's demand to hand it back; Thome (1746), where Paradis's French beat Nawab Anwaruddin of the Carnatic's army; ended by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) between Britain and France, which returned Madras to the English.
1746	French under Dupleix capture Madras from the English; Battle of St. Thome	La Bourdonnais's fleet takes Madras in September; Dupleix, French Governor of Pondicherry, refuses to hand it to Nawab Anwaruddin of the Carnatic, whose far larger army Paradis's small French force routs at St. Thome (Adyar)
1748–1754	Ahmad Shah Bahadur reigns as Mughal Emperor	Punjab and Multan ceded to Abdali by 1752. The eunuch Javed Khan and the wazir Safdarjung, Nawab of Awadh, run the court; Ahmad Shah Abdali's raids from 1748 strip away the north-west
1748	Ahmad Shah Abdali first invaded India in 1748	Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Afghan Durrani ruler, first invaded India in 1748 and returned in several later campaigns. Ahmad Shah Abdali: the Afghan Durrani ruler. 1761 is Panipat, not his first incursion.
1748	Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the first Anglo-French war in India	Madras returned to the English. Signed in Europe between Britain and France; status quo ante in India, with Madras handed back in exchange for Louisbourg in North America; neither Company gained ground
1749–1754	Second Carnatic War: English and French Companies back rival Nawabs of the Carnatic	European War It Belonged To: None; a proxy war over Indian succession disputes Decisive Engagement: Siege of Arcot, 1751 Treaty That Ended It: Treaty of Pondicherry, 1754 Muhammad Ali becomes Nawab of Arcot; A proxy war after Nizam Asaf Jah's death: the French back Chanda Sahib (Carnatic) and Muzaffar Jang (Hyderabad), the English back Muhammad Ali; Bussy installs the French candidates until Clive's Arcot turns the tide; Decisive engagement: Robert Clive's 50-day defence of Arcot (1751); ended by the Treaty of Pondicherry (1754) between Godeheu and the English after Dupleix's recall, with Muhammad Ali recognised as Nawab of Arcot.
1749	Battle of Ambur: Chanda Sahib	And the French kill Nawab Anwaruddin of the Carnatic. Dupleix's forces and Chanda Sahib defeat the incumbent Nawab; Chanda Sahib becomes Nawab of Arcot under French protection while Anwaruddin's son Muhammad Ali holds out at Trichinopoly and turns to the English
1749	Chhatrapati Shahu dies; Sangola Agreement (1750) transfers all authority to Peshwa Nana Saheb	Shahu's death in December 1749 ends the Chhatrapati's real power; at Sangola the Peshwa becomes de facto sovereign and the Chhatrapati at Satara a figurehead (see Corrections on the 1750 date)

1750s · 21 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1750	Chhatrapati Shahu died in December 1749	The Sangola Agreement empowering Peshwa Balaji Bajirao followed in 1750. The notes date the Sangola Agreement to 1749.
1751	Siege of Arcot: Robert Clive seizes	And holds the Carnatic capital for 50 days with ~300 men. Clive's diversion draws Chanda Sahib's army off Trichinopoly; the Franco-Indian siege fails, Chanda Sahib is later killed, and Muhammad Ali's cause revives; the feat makes Clive's name
1751	Raghuji Bhonsle's agreement with Nawab Alivardi Khan over Orissa	Revenue right plus annual tribute. Raghuji Bhonsle of Nagpur's Bargi raids on Bengal (1742-51) end; the Marathas gain Orissa's revenue and an annual chauth for Bengal (₹12.5 lakh in the notes; some standard accounts give ₹12 lakh)
1754	Dupleix recalled to France; Treaty of Pondicherry ends the Anglo-French proxy war in the Carnatic	Godeheu, Dupleix's successor, agrees with the English to stop interfering in Indian succession disputes; the English candidate Muhammad Ali is recognised as Nawab of Arcot (the Carnatic)
1754	Ahmad Shah Abdali has seized Punjab and Multan from Mughal control	Ahmad Shah Abdali: ruler of Afghanistan. His repeated invasions from 1748 establish Afghan dominance in the north-west; Maratha expansion into Punjab will now collide with him
1756–1763	Third Carnatic War: English Company under Eyre Coote against Lally's French	European War It Belonged To: Seven Years War (1756-63) Decisive Engagement: Battle of Wandiwash, January 1760 Treaty That Ended It: Treaty of Paris, 1763 posts returned, unfortified and untenanted; Count de Lally, sent out as French Governor, takes Fort St. David (1758) but loses Wandiwash (January 1760) and Pondicherry (1761); ended by the Treaty of Paris (1763) between Britain and France, which returned the French posts unfortified and ended French political ambitions in India. Decisive engagement: Wandiwash (January 1760), Sir Eyre Coote over Count de Lally
1756–1757	Nawab Alivardi Khan of Bengal dies; his grandson Siraj-ud-Daulah becomes Nawab	Key Events / Notes: Grandson of Alivardi, last independent Nawab. Young (in his 20s), bold and impulsive. Faced internal dissent (his aunt Ghaseti Begum and others plotted against him) [215]. Determined to curb the growing arrogance of the East India Company especially their fortification of Fort William (Calcutta) without permission and harbouring of a traitor (Krishna Das) [216]. In June 1756, Siraj captured Calcutta from the British, an event marred by the infamous "Black Hole of Calcutta" incident (many European prisoners died in an overcrowded cell, which became a British rallying cry though numbers are disputed). Siraj renamed Calcutta "Alinagar" [217]. However, by early 1757, the British under Robert Clive regrouped with reinforcements from Madras. Fort William falls to Siraj on 20 June 1756 (the Black Hole incident follows); the English refugees shelter at Fulta down-river until Clive and Watson arrive from Madras; Siraj's succession is opposed at court by his aunt Ghaseti Begum and the Jagat Seth bankers; the Company's unauthorised fortification of Calcutta and its shelter to the defector Krishna Das provoke him
Jun 1756	Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah captures Fort William, Calcutta	The Black Hole of Calcutta. Holwell's account claims 146 prisoners with about 23 survivors, Indian sources put the number near 80; Siraj renames the city Alinagar and the English fall back to Fulta
1757–1764	East India Company wins Plassey and Buxar and secures the Diwani of Bengal	Clive defeats Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah at Plassey in June 1757; Hector Munro defeats Mir Qasim, Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah of Awadh and Shah Alam II at Buxar in October 1764; the Treaty of Allahabad, 1765, gives the Company the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa
1757–1760	Mir Jafar, puppet Nawab of Bengal under Robert Clive (first reign)	Key Events / Notes: Puppet Nawab controlled by Clive and the EIC. Paid huge sums to the Company and its officers as reward for installing him. Could not satisfy British revenue demands and maintain his own administration, leading to discontent. Installed after Plassey; he pays the Company and its servants huge sums and is deposed in 1760 by Governor Vansittart's council for failing to meet its demands.
1757–1760	Nawab Mir Jafar pays indemnities of £275,000 then £22.5 million	Company gets the 24 Parganas. The 'Plassey plunder' enriches Company servants (the Nabobs) and finances further expansion; the Zamindari of the 24 Parganas around Calcutta is the Company's first territorial foothold in India
1757	Robert Clive's Plassey and Hector Munro's Buxar bring Bengal	Under British domination. Bengal's Nawabs become Company puppets with no military policy of their own, the opposite of Haider Ali's militarised, expansionist Mysore
Jan 1757	Robert Clive and Admiral Watson retake Calcutta	By the Treaty of Alinagar (9 February 1757) Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah restores the Company's privileges, fortification and free trade and pays compensation; Calcutta is recovered on 2 January; a truce neither side trusts; Lieutenant-Colonel Clive comes from Madras with Watson's squadron; once the treaty restores the Company's privileges he takes French Chandernagore and opens the plot with Mir Jafar, the Jagat Seths and Omichund
23 Jun 1757	Battle of Plassey: Robert Clive defeats Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah of Bengal	Key Battles/Events: Battle of Plassey; Battle of Buxar Outcome: Clive's Company army defeats Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah of Bengal (and his French gunners) at Plassey in June 1757, helped by Mir Jafar's betrayal. After Hector Munro's victory at Buxar in October 1764 over Mir Qasim, Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah of Awadh and Shah Alam II, the Treaty of Allahabad (1765) gives the Company the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Bengal becomes the gateway for British expansion in India. Bengal's revenues thereafter finance the Company's Carnatic campaigns and its naval blockade of the French, an advantage Dupleix's successors never had; Key Events / Notes: Pivotal battle on 23 June 1757. Clive, with around 3,000 troops, confronted Siraj's army of ~50,000 at Plassey (Palashi). Through conspiracy and bribes (notably Mir Jafar, Siraj's commander, was promised the throne and held back his troops), the battle turned into a rout of the Nawab's forces [218] [219]. Siraj-ud-Daulah fled, was captured and killed. Result: Mir Jafar installed as Nawab, but real power rests with the British. Bengal effectively under Company control from this point, yielding huge revenue resources (the plunder from Bengal after Plassey was massive "Plassey plunder"). The divisions of Mir Jafar, Rai Durlabh and Yar Lutuf Khan stand idle; only Mir Madan and a French party under St. Frais fight; Siraj flees and is killed on the orders of Mir Jafar's son Miran; Mir Jafar and Rai Durlabh hold back their troops by prior arrangement; a rainstorm wets the Nawab's powder while the Company keeps its own dry
1758	Admiral Pocock's naval action against d'Aché off Cuddalore was 1758	The 1757 date is spurious.
1758	Raghunath Rao, the Peshwa's brother, expels Afghan agents from Punjab	Marathas reach Attock. The farthest north-western reach of Maratha power, on the Indus; Abdali's son Timur Shah is driven from Lahore, a direct challenge to Ahmad Shah Abdali
1759–1760	British victories at Bedara and Wandiwash end Dutch and French hopes in India	Forde defeats the Dutch at Bedara (Chinsurah) in November 1759; Eyre Coote defeats Lally's French at Wandiwash in January 1760, and Pondicherry falls in 1761
1759	Colonel Francis Forde's Company troops defeat the Dutch at Bedara (Chinsurah)	25 November 1759 in Bengal; the Dutch, invited in by Nawab Mir Jafar against the English, lose their fleet and land force and give up political ambitions in India; A Dutch expedition from Batavia, invited by Nawab Mir Jafar to check the English, is beaten; the Dutch abandon their Indian ambitions and concentrate on Indonesia
1759	Wazir Imad-ul-Mulk has Mughal Emperor Alamgir II murdered	Killed at Delhi in November 1759 on the wazir's orders while his son Ali Gauhar is away in Bihar
1759	Wazir Imad-ul-Mulk enthrones Shah Jahan III as his puppet	A claimant who sits on the throne only in 1759-60 before the Marathas remove him
1759–1760	Ahmad Shah Abdali returns; Sadashiv Rao Bhau, the Peshwa's cousin, occupies Delhi	Abdali brings a large army to reassert Afghan control; the Marathas, using Shah Alam II's name for legitimacy, take Delhi (1760); Najib-ud-Daulah's Rohillas and Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh join Abdali

1760s · 24 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1760	Hyderabad: Nizam Salabat Jung comes to terms with the Company	Outcome: Nizam Salabat Jung of Hyderabad, until then a French ally, makes his treaty with the Company after Forde takes Masulipatnam in 1759; Key Battles/Events: Early alliance and subsidiary alliance Nizam Ali Khan cedes the Northern Circars in 1766, and in 1798 signs Wellesley's subsidiary alliance, the first Indian ruler to accept it.
1760	Shah Alam II, born Ali Gauhar, becomes Mughal Emperor	Proclaims himself emperor in Bihar, away from Delhi; he spends the next decade in the east, first fighting and then depending on the East India Company
1760–1763	Company replaces Nawab Mir Jafar with his son-in-law Mir Qasim	As Nawab of Bengal. Key Events / Notes: The British, frustrated with Mir Jafar's complaints and inability to pay, replaced him with Mir Qasim in 1760 [220]. Mir Qasim proved more assertive and reformist. He moved capital to Monger (Munger) to distance from the British at Calcutta, and raised a modernized army. He also abolished internal customs duties to make trade fair (as a way to challenge the British who didn't pay taxes). This led to conflict with the EIC merchants who lost their unfair advantage. By 1763, relations broke down; Mir Qasim allied with Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh and the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II to resist the British. Mir Qasim was defeated in battles in 1763, fled to Awadh. Governor Vansittart's council deposes Mir Jafar for failing to pay; Mir Qasim cedes Burdwan, Midnapore and Chittagong to the Company, moves his capital to Munger and builds a modern army; Mir Jafar cannot meet the Company's revenue demands; Mir Qasim moves the capital from Murshidabad to Munger (Monghyr) in Bihar to escape Calcutta's influence and reforms the army and revenue
Jan 1760	Battle of Wandiwash: Sir Eyre Coote defeats Count de Lally's French army	The decisive land battle of the Anglo-French contest in India; Bussy is taken prisoner; French military power in the south is destroyed and Lally falls back on Pondicherry
1761	The Third Battle of Panipat between the Marathas	And Abdali was fought in January 1761, after Shah Alam II's accession. The lecture's causal ordering is reversed.
1761	English under Eyre Coote capture Pondicherry, the French capital in India	Lally capitulates after a long siege in January 1761; the French lose their last posts in the south and Lally is later tried and executed in France
1761	Haider Ali of Mysore held real power from 1761 and died in 1782	The 1780s-1799 bracket describes Tipu Sultan alone.
1761	Haider Ali, Mysore's commander-in-chief, seizes effective power in Mysore	He ousts the regent ministers Nanjaraj and Devaraj and rules in the Wodeyar king's name; he raises a French-trained army, sets up an arsenal at Dindigul and pays his soldiers in cash from the treasury
1761–1772	Peshwa Madhav Rao I leads the Maratha revival	Defeats the Nizam and checks Haider Ali. Madhav Rao beats Nizam Ali of Hyderabad at Rakshasbhuvan (1763), contains Haider Ali of Mysore and sends Mahadji Scindia north; he dies of illness at 27 in 1772 (see Corrections on the 'triumvirate' bracket)
14 Jan 1761	Third Battle of Panipat: Marathas under Sadashivrao Bhau	Against Ahmad Shah Abdali. 14 January 1761, with the Mughals no longer a force; Abdali's Afghans, joined by Najib-ud-Daulah and Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah of Awadh, rout the Marathas, and Bhau and the Peshwa's heir Vishwasrao are killed; Abdali cuts the Maratha supply line and starves Bhau into battle; camel-mounted swivel guns and cavalry break the Maratha army; Sadashiv Rao Bhau, the Peshwa's son Vishwas Rao and some 50,000 men die
Jun 1761	Peshwa Nana Saheb dies of the shock of Panipat	His son Madhav Rao I installed as Peshwa at 16. Balaji Bajirao collapses on hearing of the annihilation of his army; the young Madhav Rao I will lead the Maratha revival; the Barbhai Council belongs to 1774, not 1761 (see Corrections)
1763	Treaty of Paris confines the French in India to unfortified trading posts	Ends the Seven Years' War and the Third Carnatic War; Pondicherry, Chandernagore, Mahe, Karaikal and Yanam are returned to France but may not be fortified or garrisoned; Britain and France sign in Paris; France regains Pondicherry, Chandernagore and its other factories but may not fortify or garrison them; French political ambitions in India end
1763	Company's army defeats Nawab Mir Qasim, who flees to Awadh; Mir Jafar restored	Mir Qasim's abolition of internal duties provokes war; beaten at Katwa, Gheria and Udhuanala, he flees to Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh and, with Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II, forms the alliance that fights at Buxar
1763	Open war between Nawab Mir Qasim and the Company	After he abolishes internal customs duties. The abolition ends the Company servants' dastak advantage over Indian merchants; defeated, Mir Qasim flees to Awadh and forms the Grand Alliance with Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah and Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II
1764	Awadh: Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah loses at Buxar; Dalhousie annexes the state in 1856	Key Battles/Events: Battle of Buxar; Annexation Outcome: After the joint defeat at Buxar, the Treaty of Allahabad (1765) restores Awadh to Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah for an indemnity but makes him a dependent ally of the Company; Wellesley's treaty of 1801 takes half the territory, and Dalhousie annexes the rest in 1856 on grounds of misgovernment (not the Doctrine of Lapse).
22 Oct 1764	Battle of Buxar: Hector Munro defeats Mir Qasim	Key Events / Notes: Fought in October 1764 at Buxar (Bihar): British under Major Hector Munro (about 7,000 troops) versus the combined army of Mir Qasim (Bengal's ex-Nawab), Shuja-ud-Daula (Awadh) and Emperor Shah Alam II, ~40,000 strong. Hector Munro's Company army defeats the three allies on 22 October 1764; the emperor submits to British protection; The British won decisively [221]. This battle confirmed British military supremacy in North India. Mir Qasim fled (later died in obscurity), Shuja-ud-Daula retreated to Awadh, and Shah Alam II surrendered to British protection. The alliance of Mir Qasim, Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh and Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II wastes its numbers through divided command; the settlement follows at Allahabad in 1765; About 7,000 Company troops beat the Grand Alliance of Mir Qasim, Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah and Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II (~40,000-70,000, with divided command)
1765	Shah Alam II grants the Diwani of Bengal	Crucially, Shah Alam II, the Mughal Emperor, granted the East India Company the "Diwani" of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa by the Treaty of Allahabad with Clive; in return the emperor gets Kora and Allahabad and a pension of Rs 26 lakh a year, and lives at Allahabad Fort; Key Events / Notes: In 1765, Robert Clive (returned as Governor of Bengal) met Shuja-ud-Daula and Shah Alam II. Settlements: Shuja kept Awadh by British support (as a buffer state) but paid a hefty indemnity. I.e. The right to collect all land revenue in these provinces [222]. In return, Shah Alam got an annual pension (and British protection). This marks the formal start of Company rule in Bengal they now had both de facto and de jure control of revenues. Mir Jafar (restored briefly in 1763 after Mir Qasim) died in 1765; his minor son was titular Nawab thereafter, but only a figurehead. The Company shifted from indirect to direct administration by 1772. Terms: the Diwani (all land revenue) for an annual ₹26 lakh to Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II; Awadh restored to Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula for a ₹50 lakh indemnity, with Allahabad and Kara going to the Emperor; Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II grants the Diwani for an annual tribute of ₹26 lakh; Nawab Shuja-ud-Daulah gets Awadh back as a buffer for a ₹50 lakh indemnity, ceding Kara and Allahabad to the Emperor
1765–1772	Robert Clive's Dual Government in Bengal	The Company holds the Diwani (revenue, civil justice) through a deputy while the Nawab keeps the Nizamat (criminal justice) in name; the neglect feeds the Bengal Famine of 1770; Warren Hastings ends the system in 1772; the Bengal Famine of 1770 kills an estimated third of the population while Company servants go on trading privately; by 1772 the Company must beg Parliament for a £1 million loan, the opening for the Regulating Act
1765	Robert Clive takes the Diwani of Bengal for the Company	And inherits the Nawabi courts. Granted by Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II under the Treaty of Allahabad; the Company collects the revenue while Qazi courts for civil (Diwani) and Faujdari (criminal) matters run on under the Nawab of Bengal's deputies
1765–1772	Company holds the Diwani of Bengal under Robert Clive's settlement	Pre-colonial zamindari, raiyat custom and the Mughal habit of periodic assessment (Todar Mal's methods) inherited, along with the eighteenth-century resort to revenue farming (ijaradari)
1767–1799	Mysore: Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan fight four Anglo-Mysore wars	Tipu falls at Seringapatam Key Battles/Events: Four Anglo-Mysore Wars Outcome: Haidar Ali, ruler of Mysore, and his son Tipu Sultan resist through four wars (1767-69, 1780-84, 1790-92, 1799). Tipu Sultan is killed defending Seringapatam in May 1799 under Wellesley; the Wadiyar child-king is restored under a subsidiary alliance while the Company and the Nizam divide the spoils.
1767–1849	Anglo-Mysore, Anglo-Maratha and Anglo-Sikh wars complete the British conquest of India	Four Mysore wars end with Tipu Sultan's death at Seringapatam in 1799; three Maratha wars end with Peshwa Baji Rao II's surrender in 1818; two Sikh wars end with Dalhousie's annexation of Punjab in 1849
1767–1769	First Anglo-Mysore War: Haider Ali of Mysore against the Madras British	Immediate Trigger: A shifting alliance system: the British at Madras with the Marathas and the Nizam against Haider; his takeover of Mysore in 1761, his conquests in the Carnatic, and his refuge to the French Closing Settlement: Treaty of Madras (1769) Outcome For Mysore: Restoration of conquests on all sides, essentially a draw; a defensive pact by which the British promised to assist Mysore if attacked; Haider Ali detaches the Nizam and the Marathas from the British and in 1769 appears before Madras; the Treaty of Madras (1769) restores conquests and pledges British help if Mysore is attacked; The Treaty of Madras (1769) is between Haider Ali and the Madras government.
1768	Mahadji Scindia became head of the Scindia house only in 1768	The Nana Phadnavis-Mahadji partnership belongs to the period after 1772.

1770s · 16 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1770	Bengal famine; the Company bans the free movement of armed ascetics between holy sites	An estimated third of Bengal's people die under the Dual Government; Naga sannyasis and fakirs answer the ban by raiding Company treasuries and factories, the Sannyasi-Fakir Rebellion of the 1770s-80s under leaders such as Majnu Shah and Bhawani Pathak
1771	Maratha chief Mahadji Sindhia re-installs Shah Alam II on the throne at Delhi	The Marathas, recovered after Panipat, drive out the Rohilla Afghans and act as guardians of the throne; the emperor leaves the Company's protection at Allahabad
1771	Peshwa Madhav Rao I's Marathas attack Mysore	Madras reneges on the defensive pact. Haider Ali invokes the Treaty of Madras and gets no British help; the breach of faith sours Mysore-British relations for good and sends Haider back to the French
1772	Warren Hastings ends the Dual Government	Company takes direct administration of Bengal. Governor Hastings has the Company 'stand forth as Diwan': the deputy diwans Muhammad Reza Khan and Shitab Rai are removed, the treasury moves from Murshidabad to Calcutta and Company collectors take over the revenue
1772	Governor Warren Hastings' judicial plan for Bengal	A Mofussil Diwani Adalat under a European judge (the Collector) for civil cases and a Mofussil Nizamat (Faujdari) Adalat under Indian judges for criminal cases in each district; Sadar Diwani and Sadar Nizamat Adalats at Calcutta above them
1772–1776	Governor Warren Hastings farms out Bengal's revenue collection to the highest bidders	Revenue farming by auction, the Committee of Circuit touring the districts; the farmers squeeze the raiyats; chaos, oppression and arrears follow, so the experiment ends in 1777
1773	Peshwa Narayan Rao assassinated; his uncle Raghunath Rao seizes and loses power	Gardi guards kill the teenage Peshwa in Shaniwar Wada in a plot linked to Raghunath Rao, who takes the Peshwaship but is ousted by Nana Phadnavis and the ministers within months
1773	Regulating Act: Parliament makes Warren Hastings Governor-General of Bengal	With a Council of four. Lord North's ministry passes the first parliamentary statute on the Company's Indian affairs; Madras and Bombay subordinated in war and diplomacy; a Supreme Court at Calcutta sanctioned; the Governor-General has a casting vote but no veto, so Hastings can be outvoted 3-2 by Philip Francis's faction
1774	Barbhai faction under Nana Phadnavis installs the infant Sawai Madhav Rao	As Peshwa. Narayan Rao's posthumous son, about 40 days old, becomes Peshwa; Nana Phadnavis governs as regent through the newly formed Barbhai Council of twelve; Raghunath Rao turns to the Bombay British
1774	Nana Phadnavis formed the Barbhai Council in 1774	After Peshwa Narayan Rao's murder. The notes date the Barbhai Council to 1761. That is why the notes also, inconsistently, credit it with ousting Raghunath Rao in 1773-74.
1774	Supreme Court opens at Calcutta under Chief Justice Sir Elijah Impey	With three puisne judges. Jurisdiction over British subjects and Company servants in Bengal, its powers against the Governor-General's Council left undefined; the writs against revenue officials that follow are the flaw the 1781 Act must fix
1775–1819	Maratha Confederacy: three Anglo-Maratha wars break the Peshwa, Scindia	Holkar and Bhonsle. Key Battles/Events: Three Anglo-Maratha Wars Outcome: The Treaty of Salbai (1782) ends the first war on the status quo; Wellesley's second war (1803-05) takes Delhi and the Doab from Scindia; Hastings' third war (1817-18) ends with Peshwa Baji Rao II's surrender and pension at Bithur. Maratha power is broken by 1818 territories annexed or placed under British Residents.
1775	Treaty of Surat between Raghunath Rao and the Bombay British	First Anglo-Maratha War begins. Raghoba, ousted from Pune, promises Salsette, Bassein and a share of revenues in return for troops to install him as Peshwa; Nana Phadnavis's regency resists, and the Calcutta Council disowns the treaty
1776	Treaty of Purandhar: the Calcutta Council pensions off Raghunath Rao	And disowns Surat. Governor-General Warren Hastings's Supreme Council makes peace with Nana Phadnavis's regency; the Bombay faction does not honour it and war resumes
1777–1789	The Company makes annual settlements with Bengal's zamindars	Still no consistency; Philip Francis, Hastings' opponent on the Council, argues for a long-term settlement with the zamindars, the germ of the Permanent Settlement; the demand shifts yearly until Cornwallis freezes it in 1789
1779	Battle and Convention of Wadgaon	Mahadji Scindia's Marathas force the Bombay army to surrender. The British force marching on Pune is surrounded at Wadgaon (January 1779) and signs a convention to retreat and drop Raghoba; Warren Hastings repudiates it and reopens the war from Bengal

1780s · 16 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1780–1784	Second Anglo-Mysore War: Haider Ali, then Tipu Sultan, against the British	Immediate Trigger: A clash over Mahe, the French port on the Malabar Coast under Mysore's protection; the British demand that Mysore expel the French, and the seizure of Mahe by force in 1780 Closing Settlement: Treaty of Mangalore (1784) Outcome For Mysore: Mutual restoration of conquests and exchange of prisoners; status quo ante bellum; no mention of allies; Tipu's domain intact; Haider Ali dies in December 1782 mid-war; the Treaty of Mangalore (1784) is between Tipu Sultan and the English Company.
1780	British seize Mahe; Haider Ali of Mysore destroys Colonel Baillie's detachment at Pollilur	The British take Mahe, the French port under Mysore's protection, opening the Second Anglo-Mysore War; Haider sweeps into the Carnatic and Mysore rockets rout Baillie's force near Conjeevaram
1780	James Augustus Hickey starts Hickey's Bengal Gazette at Calcutta	India's first newspaper. A weekly in English, irreverent about Company officials; Governor-General Warren Hastings has Hickey jailed for libel and the paper is shut down in 1782
1781	Amending Act (Act of Settlement)	Parliament curbs the Supreme Court and shields Hastings' Council from it. Jurisdiction confined to Calcutta, British subjects and Company servants; revenue acts exempted; Hindu and Muslim personal law affirmed for Indians; the double-jeopardy clashes of 1773 end
1781	Governor-General Warren Hastings founds the Calcutta Madrasa	For Islamic law and sciences, mainly to qualify Indians for judicial posts under the Company's courts; the Company's first educational institution; Set up at the request of Muslim notables of Calcutta and at first paid for by Hastings himself; the Orientalist phase of Company education begins here.
1782	Treaty of Salbai ends the First Anglo-Maratha War	Twenty years of peace with the Marathas. Mediated by Mahadji Scindia between Warren Hastings's Company and the Maratha regency: the British keep Salsette and Broach, recognise Sawai Madhav Rao as Peshwa, drop Raghunath Rao and join the Marathas against Haider Ali; Warren Hastings's Company and Nana Phadnavis's Maratha regency settle through Mahadji Scindia; the truce frees the British to turn on Tipu Sultan of Mysore without a two-front war
Dec 1782	Haider Ali of Mysore dies of illness mid-war	His son Tipu Sultan assumes command. Tipu keeps fighting, takes British posts on the west coast and repels advances in Karnataka; the European peace of 1783 makes French support wane
1784	Treaty of Mangalore: Tipu Sultan	And the English Company restore the status quo ante bellum. Mutual restoration of conquests and prisoners; no mention of allies, so the British drop the Nizam and the Marathas; one of the last treaties an Indian power dictated to the British on equal terms
1784	Pitt's India Act: Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger sets up a Board of Control over the Company	Six Crown members in London supervise the Company's civil, military and revenue government alongside the Court of Directors (dual control); Calcutta Council cut to three; political and commercial accounts separated; wars of aggression forbidden
1784	Sir William Jones founds the Asiatic Society at Calcutta	With Governor-General Warren Hastings' patronage; its Orientalist scholarship on Sanskrit texts later fed the cultural pride of educated Indians
1786	Special Act: Parliament lets Governor-General Lord Cornwallis override his Council	Demanded by Cornwallis as the price of taking the post; a veto in cases of urgent necessity or difference on important questions; the autonomy behind the Cornwallis Code of 1793
1787	Tipu Sultan's war with the Marathas of 1785-87 closed	With the Treaty of Gajendragad (1787). The notes say the Marathas defeated Mysore in 1787 with British help under Salbai. It is generally read as a compromise rather than a Maratha victory, and no British force campaigned in it.
1788	Rohilla chief Ghulam Qadir seizes Delhi and blinds Shah Alam II in July	The emperor is robbed and mutilated during a Maratha absence; Mahadji Sindhia returns, and Ghulam Qadir is captured and executed in 1789
1789	Mahadji Sindhia's forces captured and executed the Rohilla chief Ghulam Qadir in 1789	That was months after the blinding of Shah Alam II, not immediately after it.
1789–1790	Tipu Sultan breaches the Travancore lines	Governor-General Cornwallis forms a grand alliance. Tipu attacks Travancore, a British ally, over two forts it bought from the Dutch; Cornwallis allies the Company with the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas, opening the Third Anglo-Mysore War
1789	Governor-General Lord Cornwallis freezes Bengal's revenue demand at that year's level	A hurried estimate from the averages of the 1770s-80s becomes the base of the Decennial Settlement of 1789-90 and then of the Permanent Settlement; John Shore wanted time to set it higher, Cornwallis fixed it fearing the zamindars would squeeze the raiyats

1790s · 18 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1790–1792	Third Anglo-Mysore War: Governor-General Cornwallis's triple alliance	Against Tipu Sultan. Immediate Trigger: Tipu's enforcement of his authority over Travancore, a British ally, and his breach of the Travancore lines in 1789-1790 Closing Settlement: Treaty of Seringapatam (March 1792) Outcome For Mysore: Cession of nearly half of Mysore's territory Malabar Coast and Baramahal to the British, eastern Mysore to the Nizam, northern districts to the Marathas; indemnity of ₹3.3 crores; two young princes as hostages; throne retained; Cornwallis allies the Company with the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas; the Treaty of Seringapatam (March 1792) is dictated by Cornwallis to Tipu Sultan.
1790	Governor-General Lord Cornwallis places European judges	Over Bengal's criminal courts. The district Faujdari Adalats replaced by four Courts of Circuit under Company servants, Indian qazis and muftis kept as law officers; the Sadar Nizamat Adalat brought to Calcutta under the Governor-General and Council
1791	Jonathan Duncan establishes a Sanskrit College there	Jonathan Duncan: the Company's Resident at Benares. Under Governor-General Lord Cornwallis; to encourage the study of Hindu shastras and law and supply pandits to the Company's courts
Mar 1792	Treaty of Seringapatam: Tipu Sultan cedes half of Mysore to Cornwallis's allies	Malabar and Baramahal to the British, eastern Mysore to the Nizam, northern districts to the Marathas; an indemnity of ₹3.3 crores; two of Tipu's sons go to Cornwallis as hostages; Tipu keeps his throne
1793	Charter Act: Pitt's Parliament renews the Company's charter	For twenty years, to 1813. Cornwallis's 1786 override power made general for all future Governors-General; the India and China trade monopoly continued; senior salaries, the Governor-General's included, charged to Indian revenue
1793	Cornwallis Code: Governor-General Lord Cornwallis lays down the rules of the new judicial system	Separate full-time civil judges, Collectors stripped of judicial power; four Provincial Courts of Appeal at Calcutta, Dacca, Murshidabad and Patna; four Circuit Courts; every post worth over £500 a year reserved for covenanted Europeans; promotion by seniority
1793	Governor-General Lord Cornwallis reserves every post worth over £500 a year	For covenanted Europeans. In effect every senior judge, collector and magistrate had to be British; the exclusion, later called the Cornwallisian system, held through the nineteenth century and eroded only after the open-competition clause of 1853.
1793	Permanent Settlement: Governor-General Lord Cornwallis fixes Bengal's land revenue in perpetuity	The Zamindari Bandobast, worked out with Sir John Shore; Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, later parts of Banaras and North Madras (~19% of British India); zamindars made proprietors, government share 10/11ths, the Sunset Law on default
1793	The Company demands ₹5 lakh from Raja Vijayarama Raju of Vizianagaram	As the price of keeping his territory. Northern Sarkars (coastal Andhra); the Raja refuses, and the dispute goes to arms at Padmanabham the next year
1794	Mahadji Scindia, head of the Scindia house of Gwalior, died on 12 February 1794	The notes date Mahadji Scindia's death to 1793.
1794	Battle of Padmanabham: Company forces defeat	And kill Raja Vijayarama Raju of Vizianagaram. Northern Sarkars; the Company then installs his son after extracting the payment demanded in 1793, tightening its hold on the coast
1795–1802	Maratha succession crisis: Peshwa Sawai Madhav Rao dies	Bajirao II succeeds; Holkar takes Pune. Sawai Madhav Rao dies by a fall from Shaniwar Wada in 1795 (reported as suicide, but disputed); Raghunath Rao's son Bajirao II succeeds; after he has Vithoji Rao Holkar killed (1801), Yashwant Rao Holkar seizes Pune (1802)
1798	Nizam Ali Khan of Hyderabad's subsidiary alliance dates to 1798	Under Governor-General Wellesley. Hyderabad was the first Indian state to accept the system.
1798	Lord Wellesley's ultimatum to Tipu Sultan	The Nizam of Hyderabad accepts a Subsidiary Alliance. Governor-General Wellesley, alarmed by Tipu's envoys to Mauritius and Napoleon in Egypt, demands that Tipu accept British troops and a Resident; Tipu refuses; Hyderabad signs first (1798)
1799	Ranjit Singh of the Sukerchakia misl captures Lahore	The historic capital of Punjab. Ranjit Singh takes Lahore from the Bhangi misl with the assent of the Afghan ruler Zaman Shah and is soon recognised as the pre-eminent Sikh chief
1799	Veerapandiya Kattabomman leads the Polygars of Tamil Nadu against the Company	Veerapandiya Kattabomman: Palayakkarar of Panchalankurichi. The opening of the Poligar Wars (1799-1805), fought over tribute and the disarming of the palayakkarars; Kattabomman is captured and hanged at Kayathar in October 1799
1799	Governor-General Lord Wellesley's Censorship of Press Act imposes pre-publication review of newspapers	Review by the Secretary to the Government, during the Napoleonic wars and the fear of French influence; every paper to print the names of its printer, editor and proprietor; relaxed by Lord Hastings in 1818
4 May 1799	Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: Tipu Sultan of Mysore dies at the breach of Srirangapatna	Immediate Trigger: Tipu's refusal of Wellesley's ultimatum to sign a Subsidiary Alliance Closing Settlement: Tipu's death at the breach of Srirangapatna, 4 May 1799 Outcome For Mysore: Partition of Mysore: portions to the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, a part to the Nizam, the Bangalore-Mysore core restored to the Wodeyars under a stringent Subsidiary Alliance; Governor-General Wellesley's Subsidiary Alliance ultimatum refused, General Harris's army storms Srirangapatna on 4 May 1799. General Harris's army (Arthur Wellesley commanding a division) storms the capital, aided by Mir Sadiq's treachery; a Wodeyar boy-king rules the core under a Subsidiary Alliance; Tipu's death ends organised Mysore resistance and French hopes in the south

1800s · 17 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1800	William Carey's Baptist mission press at Serampore dates to 1800	The year Carey reached the Danish settlement. The notes date Carey's Serampore printing press to 1799. Standard accounts do not support 1799.
1800	Governor-General Lord Wellesley founds the College of Fort William at Calcutta	To train newly arrived writers in Indian languages, law and revenue; opposed by the Court of Directors as costly and too Indianising, which is why Haileybury follows in 1806; to train them in Indian languages and customs; the Court of Directors orders its abolition in 1802 but it survives in reduced form to 1854, and the East India College at Haileybury opens in 1806 (see Corrections)
1801	Governor-General Wellesley takes over the Carnatic from its Nawab	Note: Wellesley pensions off the Nawab of Arcot; the Carnatic becomes the core of the Madras Presidency
1801	Nawab Saadat Ali Khan of Awadh cedes Rohilkhand and the Lower Doab to Wellesley	Note: Wellesley's treaty makes the Nawab surrender roughly half his territory to pay for the subsidiary force
1801	Ranjit Singh proclaims himself Maharaja of Punjab	Uniting the Sikh misls into one state. Lahore becomes the capital; the Sikh Khalsa army is drilled by European veterans (Ventura, Allard, Court, Gardner) into one of the strongest forces in Asia
Dec 1802	Treaty of Bassein: Peshwa Bajirao II accepts a Subsidiary Alliance	With the Company. Driven from Pune by Yashwant Rao Holkar, the Peshwa signs with Governor-General Wellesley in December 1802; the other Maratha chiefs see it as a betrayal, provoking the Second Anglo-Maratha War; Signed on 31 December 1802 with Governor-General Lord Wellesley after Holkar drove the Peshwa from Pune; British troops restore him in 1803; the Holkars and Sindhias read it as a betrayal
1803	Lord Lake's British army defeats Sindhia's forces at Delhi	Shah Alam II becomes a British client. In the Second Anglo-Maratha War under Wellesley; from 1803 the emperor is a Company pensioner in the Red Fort, still nominally sovereign
1803–1805	Second Anglo-Maratha War: Governor-General Wellesley's armies defeat Sindhia	And Bhonsle. Arthur Wellesley wins Assaye and Argaum, Lord Lake wins Delhi and Laswari (1803); Daulat Rao Sindhia (Surji-Arjungaon) and Raghuji Bhonsle (Deogaon) sign treaties in December 1803; Yashwant Rao Holkar fights on until 1805; Holkar fights on; Wellesley recalled late 1805
1803	Daulat Rao Scindia signed the Treaty of Surji-Arjungaon	And Raghuji Bhonsle the Treaty of Deogaon in December 1803.
1803	The Company under Governor-General Lord Wellesley annexes Odisha	From the Bhonsle Raja of Nagpur. Governor-General Lord Wellesley's Second Anglo-Maratha War; Cuttack taken and ceded by the Treaty of Deogaon; Khurda itself is annexed in 1804
1805	Lord Lake's siege of Bharatpur failed in 1805; it was no Holkar victory of 1804	Yashwant Rao Holkar's genuine 1804 success was the destruction of Colonel Monson's retreating force at Mukundara Pass.
1805	Rammohan Roy writes Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhidin (Gift to Monotheists) in Persian	As the class dates it. A tract for one God against idolatry, from a Calcutta polyglot who read Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and English; the Corrections place it in 1803-04, published at Murshidabad
1806	Akbar II, son of Shah Alam II, accedes as Mughal Emperor	A pensioner of the East India Company with no power beyond his palace; he later gives Rammohan Roy the title Raja and sends him to England to plead for a higher pension
1806	Court of Directors opens Haileybury College in England to train nominated civil servants	Displaces Fort William as the Company's training ground until 1853; recruits chosen by the Directors' nomination study law, history, political economy and some Indian languages
1806	Sepoys of the Madras Army mutiny at Vellore fort	New dress rules on turbans, beards and caste marks the provocation, Tipu Sultan's sons living in the fort a rallying point; crushed within hours by Colonel Gillespie's cavalry from Arcot; Governor of Madras William Bentinck recalled over it
1808–1809	Dewan Velu Thampi of Travancore revolts against the Subsidiary Alliance	Rallies the Nair militia; the Kundara Proclamation of 11 January 1809 calls for the English to be expelled; Outcome: Collapsed in 1809 when British reinforcements arrived; cornered at Mannadi in 1809 he has himself killed, and the British publicly hang his corpse; British reinforcements end it in 1809, Thampi betrayed and killing himself to avoid capture, his body publicly displayed; Region: Travancore Leader(S) Named: Dewan Velu Thampi Immediate Trigger: The Subsidiary Alliance Thampi betrayed and took his own life, his body publicly displayed
1809	Treaty of Amritsar between Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the British	Negotiated by Charles Metcalfe. Governor-General Minto's envoy fixes the Sutlej as the boundary: Ranjit Singh stays north of it, the Cis-Sutlej states such as Patiala pass under British protection, and the British recognise his sovereignty over Punjab

1810s · 17 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1813	Charter Act: Parliament ends the Company's monopoly of trade with India	Governor-General Lord Minto's last year; the tea and China trade monopoly kept for twenty more years; Crown sovereignty over the Company's territories asserted; missionaries admitted under licence; ₹1 lakh a year for education
1813	Charter Act of 1813 directs the Company to spend one lakh rupees a year on the revival and promotion of literature	The first statutory acknowledgement of education as a state duty, passed under Governor-General Lord Minto I; the money lies largely unspent until 1823 as Orientalists and Anglicists dispute its use; The clause also covered 'the encouragement of the learned natives of India' and 'the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences'; how to spend it split the Company's servants into Orientalists and Anglicists.
1813–1823	Orientalists and Anglicists deadlock over the one-lakh grant	And the funds lie mostly unused. Orientalists for Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian learning, Anglicists for English and Western science; a General Committee of Public Instruction set up in 1823; Rammohan Roy's letter to Lord Amherst (1823) pleads for Western science
1814–1816	Anglo-Nepal War: Governor-General Lord Hastings fights the Gurkhas	Note: Lord Hastings' campaign against the Gurkhas of Nepal; David Ochterlony's victories force the settlement
1815–1833	Raja Rammohan Roy's reform career	This one entry stands for the class's dating of Rammohan Roy (1772-1833), the 'Father of Modern India': the Atmiya Sabha of 1815 at Calcutta, the Brahmo Sabha of 20 August 1828 (renamed Brahmo Samaj by the Trust Deed of January 1830), the title 'Raja' from Mughal Emperor Akbar II in 1830, and his death at Stapleton near Bristol on 27 September 1833 while pleading the Emperor's pension claim in England. Organisation Or Institution Founded: Atmiya Sabha, Calcutta Year: 1815 Position Or Contribution Stated In The Class: Enlightened Bengalis discussed religious and social issues; Organisation Or Institution Founded: Brahmo Sabha Year: 1828 Position Or Contribution Stated In The Class: Theistic church: one formless God, rejection of polytheism, idol-worship and caste restrictions; enlightened Bengalis met to debate religion and social custom; his campaign against sati ran through the Bengali weekly Sambad Kaumudi and petitions to government
1816	Treaty of Sugauli between the East India Company and Nepal	Note: Nepal cedes Garhwal, Kumaon and the Terai, gives up its claims on Sikkim and accepts a British Resident at Kathmandu; the Company begins recruiting Gurkhas
1816	The Company resumes and taxes the Paikas' rent-free service lands in Khurda	Under the short-term, repeatedly revised settlements that followed the 1803 annexation of Odisha; the Khurda militia's jagirs touched thirteen years after annexation, the direct provocation of 1817
1817–1818	Third Anglo-Maratha War: Lord Hastings defeats the Peshwa, Holkar and Bhonsle	Peshwa deposed. Kirkee and Koregaon against Peshwa Baji Rao II, Mahidpur against Holkar, Sitabuldi against Appa Sahib Bhonsle of Nagpur; the Peshwaship is abolished and Satara given to Shivaji's descendant; Kirkee (November 1817) against Peshwa Bajirao II and Mahidpur (December 1817) against Holkar; Appa Sahib Bhonsle deposed; Bajirao II surrenders in June 1818, the Peshwaship is abolished and he is pensioned to Bithoor
1817	Paika Rebellion: Buxi Jagabandhu's Khurda militia drive the British out of Khurda and seize Puri	The Paikas' rent-free service lands had been resumed under the Company's short-term settlements after the 1803 annexation of Odisha; the rising of 1817 was broken by a sustained campaign in 1818, Buxi Jagabandhu surrendering only in 1825. Buxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar, hereditary commander of the Khurda Raja's forces, leads the Paikas; widespread support in Odisha; one of the largest risings before 1857
1818	The Third Anglo-Maratha War ended in 1818	With Peshwa Baji Rao II's surrender to the Company. The notes give the Anglo-Maratha span as 1775-1819 while stating that Maratha power was broken by 1818. Governor-General Lord Hastings' settlement of the Deccan; new British administration in Bhil country restricts forest access and shifting cultivation; the Peshwa's fall exposes the Kolis, Ramosis and Gadkaris who had served the Marathas as fort guards, hill police and militia
1818	Maharaja Ranjit Singh subjugated Peshawar only from 1818	And formally annexed it in 1834. The notes place the taking of Peshawar within the pre-1809 expansion.
1818	The Company's sustained campaign suppresses the Paika revolt in Odisha	Organised resistance ends, though Buxi Jagabandhu stays at large in the jungles and surrenders only in 1825; the rising shows the anger of Odisha's landed militia and peasants at Company revenue policy
1818	Bhil uprisings against the Company in Khandesh and Malwa under leaders such	As Sewaram. Region: Khandesh, Malwa, Aravalli hills Leader(S) Named: Sewaram (Khandesh) Immediate Trigger: Forest access and shifting cultivation restricted after the British defeat of the Marathas in 1818 Outcome: Conciliation: a Bhil Agency appointed and some forest rights restored; major resistance ended by 1846; The Bhils' guerrilla war under Sewaram in Khandesh ran from 1820 to 1826 before the Company turned to conciliation.
1818	Baptist missionaries at Serampore published Samachar Darpan (1818)	Edited by John Clark Marshman. Not so. It was missionary-owned, not Indian-owned. The first Bengali paper brought out by an Indian is generally taken to be Gangadhar Bhattacharya's Bengal Gazetti of 1816.
1819	Maratha confederacy finished: the Peshwa's lands annexed	Other houses bound by subsidiary alliance. The Peshwa's territories go to the Bombay Presidency; Satara is carved out for a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji; Holkar (Treaty of Mandasor, January 1818), Sindhia and the Nagpur minor Raghoji III live under Residents
1819	Maharaja Ranjit Singh conquers Kashmir	His empire runs from the Khyber Pass to the Sutlej. Multan (1818) and Kashmir (1819) fall to his generals; Peshawar is subjugated from 1818 and formally annexed in 1834 (see Corrections)
1819	Company official Holt Mackenzie writes the minute proposing settlement	With the village (mahal). The Mahalwari principle for the North-Western Provinces: assess the mahal as a unit through its lambardar; a proposal only, given legal form by Regulation VII of 1822

1820s · 18 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1820–1827	Sir Thomas Munro takes office as Governor of Madras	And expands Ryotwari across the Presidency. Settlement directly with the registered ryot, revised every 20-30 years, about half the net produce as revenue; Mountstuart Elphinstone extends it to Bombay; ~51% of British India by mid-century
1820–1826	Bhil leader Sewaram wages guerrilla war	Against the Company in the Khandesh hills. Forest access and shifting cultivation restricted after 1818; the Bhils' knowledge of the hills defeats regular troops; the Company turns to conciliation, a Bhil Agency and restored forest rights ending major resistance by 1846
1820	Rammohan Roy publishes The Precepts of Jesus in English	Distilled Christ's ethical teaching from Christian dogma to show its kinship with Hindu ideals; the Baptist missionaries at Serampore, led by Joshua Marshman, attacked the selective reading
1820–1891	Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Sanskrit scholar	And champion of widow remarriage, is born at Birsingha. Organisation Or Institution Founded: Somprakash, a Bengali journal Year: — Position Or Contribution Stated In The Class: Widow remarriage on scriptural evidence; girls' schools; Barna Parichay; Lived 1820-1891; born to a poor Brahmin family, later principal of Sanskrit College, Calcutta, which he opened to English and science. His tracts and petitions on scriptural evidence won the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act of 1856; he opened dozens of girls' schools, wrote the Bengali primer Barna Parichay ('Father of Bengali Prose') and started the journal Somprakash.
1822	Regulation VII: Governor-General Lord Hastings' government enacts Mahalwari in the North-Western Provinces	Mackenzie's minute given legal form; roughly four-fifths of the rental taken as revenue; the hurried first settlement fails and arrears mount
1822	Ramosi leader Chittur Singh leads the first Ramosi revolt in the Satara country	Ramosis, once the Marathas' frontier police, thrown out of work by the British takeover; revenue demands and famine the trigger; bought off with promises of employment and leniency
1822–1829	Ramosi uprisings of the Western Ghats hillmen	In 1822 under Chittur Singh and again in 1839-40. Region: Western Ghats hills, Satara country Leader(S) Named: Chittur Singh (1822) Immediate Trigger: 1822: British revenue demands and famine. 1839: deposition of Raja Pratap Singh of Satara Outcome: 1822 revolt bought off with employment and leniency; 1839 revolt crushed by 1840; Ramosis re-employed in the hill police; The Ramosis were the Marathas' frontier police and hill watchmen, thrown out of work by the British takeover of the Peshwa's territories.
1822	Rammohan Roy founds the Anglo-Hindu School at Calcutta	Rammohan founded the Anglo-Hindu School in 1822 and supported the Vedanta College and Hindu College. The systematic opening of girls' schools in Bengal belongs to Vidyasagar, whose dozens of girls' schools the notes correctly record. No card tests Roy and a girls' school.
1823	Acting Governor-General John Adam's Licensing Regulations require every press to be licensed	Unlicensed equipment seizable; aimed at the new Indian-language papers; Rammohan Roy closes his Persian weekly Mirat-ul-Akhbar in protest
1824	First Anglo-Burmese War: high-caste sepoys of the Bengal Army object to sea passage (Kala Pani)	Governor-General Lord Amherst's war; the refusal at Barrackpore ends in the Barrackpore Mutiny of November 1824, broken by artillery fire with heavy loss of life and the 47th Native Infantry disbanded
1825	Organised resistance was broken by 1818	But Paika leader Buxi Jagabandhu stayed at large and surrendered only in 1825.
1826	Treaty of Yandabo between the East India Company and the King of Ava	Note: Ends the First Anglo-Burmese War under Governor-General Amherst: Burma cedes Assam, Arakan and Tenasserim, recognises Manipur, accepts a British Resident and pays an indemnity of one crore rupees
1827	Jyotirao Phule lived from 1827 to 1890	Jyotirao Phule, the Mali-caste reformer of Pune, lived from 1827 to 1890 and founded the Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873. Jyotirao Phule: the Mali-caste reformer of Pune. He is a nineteenth-century figure. The class's real point is about social origin, not chronology, and the cards below test only the social-origin claim.
1828–1833	Ahom noble Gomdhar Konwar leads the Ahom revolt in Upper Assam	Against Company annexation. The Company had promised during the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-26) to restore the Ahom ruler, then annexed the territory; the rising ends with Raja Purandar Singh reinstated in Upper Assam, a rare restoration won by rebellion; Region: Upper Assam Leader(S) Named: Gomdhar Konwar Immediate Trigger: Annexation of Ahom territory after the British promise made during the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-26) Outcome: Raja Purandar Singh reinstated a rare case of authority restored by rebellion; Assam fully annexed by 1838
1828	Rammohan Roy opens the Brahmo Sabha at Calcutta; first meeting on 20 August 1828	A theistic congregation: one formless God, no images or rituals, readings from the scriptures of all faiths; renamed Brahmo Samaj by the Trust Deed of January 1830
1829	Governor-General Lord William Bentinck bans Sati by Regulation XVII	Sati declared illegal and punishable as culpable homicide in Bengal, extended to Madras and Bombay in 1830; Rammohan Roy's campaign behind it; Regulation XVII of 4 December 1829 made abetting sati culpable homicide in the Bengal Presidency, extended to Madras and Bombay in 1830; Rammohan's scriptural arguments and petitions helped legitimise it against orthodox appeals
1829	Governor-General Lord William Bentinck abolishes the Provincial Courts of Appeal	And Circuit. An economy measure; appeals in revenue and criminal cases pass to new Commissioners of Revenue and Circuit; Indian judges (Sadar Amins) given wider powers
1829–1830	Koli chief Ramji Bhangre leads the Mahadev Kolis of the Sahyadri hills in rebellion	An inland hill people, not the coastal seafaring Kolis; Immediate Trigger: Loss of hereditary watan and fort-service rights, and the demolition or garrisoning of the hill forts, after the Peshwa's defeat in 1818 Outcome: Suppressed by 1830 through military action and by co-opting some Koli leaders Region: Sahyadri hill tracts of Ahmednagar and the country around Pune Leader(S) Named: Ramji Bhangre

1830s · 25 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1830	The British suppress Ramji Bhangre's Koli rising through military action	And co-option. The Mahadev Kolis of the Ahmednagar hill tracts and the country around Pune; some Koli leaders co-opted; the loss of hereditary watan and fort-service rights left unaddressed.
1830	Rammohan Roy's Brahmo Sabha becomes the Brahmo Samaj by the Trust Deed of January 1830, in his own lifetime	Rammohan's Brahmo Sabha became the Brahmo Samaj by the Trust Deed of January 1830, in his own lifetime. He died three years later, in 1833.
1830	Mughal Emperor Akbar II confers the title 'Raja' on Rammohan Roy in 1830	Before he sails for England. Mughal Emperor Akbar II conferred the title 'Raja' on Rammohan in 1830, before he sailed. He left India in November 1830 and reached England in April 1831. The cards test only that the title came from Akbar II and that Roy went as the Emperor's envoy over pension rights, not the year of the title.
1831–1832	Kol rebellion under Buddhu Bhagat	The Kols of Chhotanagpur attack moneylenders and burn deed records. Ranchi, Singhbhum, Hazaribagh and Palamu; communally owned Kol land passing to dikus, moneylenders and zamindars; crushed after a bitter struggle with heavy Kol losses; Region: Chhotanagpur Leader(S) Named: Buddhu Bhagat Immediate Trigger: Transfer of communally owned Kol land to moneylenders and zamindars Outcome: Crushed after a bitter struggle, with a significant number of Kols killed in action
1831	Henry Derozio is forced to resign from Hindu College for corrupting youth	The Eurasian teacher whose Young Bengal circle of freethinkers questioned religion, caste and custom; he died the same year, aged 22
1831	Raja Rammohan Roy reaches England in April 1831	As Mughal Emperor Akbar II's envoy. To plead the Emperor's pension claim; the title 'Raja' had been conferred by Akbar II in 1830, before he sailed in November 1830
1831	Henry Vivian Derozio, teacher at Hindu College and mentor of Young Bengal	Dies aged 22. Organisation Or Institution Founded: Young Bengal circle at Hindu College Year: 1820s Position Or Contribution Stated In The Class: Free inquiry; first outspoken atheist/rationalist circle in India; The Eurasian teacher (1809-1831) who idolised the French Revolution and gathered the Derozians, India's first outspoken rationalist circle, at Hindu College, Calcutta; forced to resign in 1831 for 'corrupting youth', he died of cholera on 26 December 1831. Young Bengal faded by the 1840s but left the habit of free inquiry.
1832	Under Lord William Bentinck the district Collector-Magistrate becomes head of the police	The office of Superintendent of Police, created under Lord Minto in 1808, is gone; standard accounts date its abolition to 1829, superintendence passing through the Commissioners of Revenue and Circuit to the Collector
1833	Charter Act: Parliament ends Company trade Lord William Bentinck the first	Charter Act: Parliament ends Company trade: creating the Governor-General of India. The Saint Helena Act, which vested St Helena in the Crown; the Company becomes a purely administrative agency; Macaulay appointed first Law Member and heads the Law Commission set up to codify Indian law; a Law Commission to codify Indian law; Section 87 bars race or religion as a disqualification for office; the Company's servants become pure administrators, the 'white bureaucrats'
1833–1840	Robert Merttins Bird's thorough thirty-year Mahalwari settlement of the North-Western Provinces begins	Under Regulation IX of 1833, Lord William Bentinck's contribution; proper surveys, the demand moderated to about two-thirds of rental
1833	Raja Rammohan Roy dies at Stapleton near Bristol, aged 61	Raja Rammohan Roy: the Father of Modern India. On 27 September 1833, still on Mughal Emperor Akbar II's mission; buried at Arnos Vale, Bristol; the Brahmo Samaj waited on Debendranath's revival from 1842
1835	Company coinage drops the Mughal Emperor's name	English Education Act under Bentinck. The Company's new uniform coinage no longer carries the emperor's name, and Bentinck's resolution adopts English as the medium of higher education; the shift of judicial and revenue proceedings from Persian to English comes by Act XXIX of 1837, not in 1835
1835	Lord William Bentinck governed as Governor-General of Bengal from 1828	And of India under the 1833 Act until 1835. [p88, p93] The notes give Bentinck's dates as 1828-33 (and 1828-34 at ).
1835	Law Member Macaulay writes his Minute on Education	And Governor-General Lord William Bentinck decides for the Anglicists. Thomas Babington Macaulay, Law Member, writes the Minute on 2 February 1835 dismissing Indian learning; Bentinck's resolution of 7 March 1835 directs the funds to English education, the Downward Filtration theory: educate an elite who will diffuse Western knowledge; Persian gave way to English in the courts only by Act XXIX of 1837 under Lord Auckland (see Corrections); Bentinck's resolution of March 1835 concerned the education grant alone.
1835	Acting Governor-General Sir Charles Metcalfe's Press Act, Act XI of 1835	Repeals the 1823 licensing rule. Drafted by Macaulay as Law Member; Metcalfe called the 'Liberator of the Indian Press'; about twenty years of relative freedom follow
1837	Bahadur Shah II Zafar, son of Akbar II, accedes as the last Mughal Emperor	An elderly Urdu poet-king in the Red Fort, with Ghalib, Zauq and Momin at his court, while the British Resident holds real authority in Delhi
1837	Act XXIX of 1837 removed Persian from judicial and revenue proceedings	Act XXIX of 1837, passed under Governor-General Lord Auckland, removed Persian from judicial and revenue proceedings. The notes say English replaced Persian as the language of administration in 1835. The 1835 measure was the English Education Act, which concerned education, not administration.
1837	Macaulay's First Law Commission submits the draft Indian Penal Code	A single criminal code to replace Islamic criminal law and the patchwork of Hindu, Muslim and English rules; enacted only in 1860 under Crown rule, in force from 1862; a single secular criminal code to supplant Islamic criminal law
1838	The Company deposes Raja Purandar Singh and annexes Upper Assam outright	Ending Ahom autonomy. Governor-General Lord Auckland's administration; the restoration won by Gomdhar Konwar's revolt lasts only five years
1838–1884	Keshab Chandra Sen is born at Calcutta	Keshab Chandra Sen: the future leader of the progressive Brahmos. Organisation Or Institution Founded: Bharatvarshiya Brahmo Samaj Year: 1866 Position Or Contribution Stated In The Class: Progressive wing after the split; the young orator who drew the English-educated to the Samaj and pushed it toward inter-caste marriage, women's education and an end to purdah; his radicalism led to the split of 1866; Lived 1838-1884; joined the Brahmo Samaj in 1858 and pushed it toward inter-caste marriage, women's education and an end to purdah; led the Bharatvarshiya Brahmo Samaj after the 1866 split; his 'Church of the New Dispensation' (1881) and the Cooch Behar marriage of 1878 cost him the Sadharan Brahmos; influenced the young Dayanand and Vivekananda.
1839–1842	First Anglo-Afghan War under Governor-General Auckland	Note: Auckland installs Shah Shuja at Kabul in place of Dost Muhammad; the retreat from Kabul in 1842 destroys the army, and Ellenborough withdraws after a punitive return
1839	Maharaja Ranjit Singh dies at Lahore; succession chaos in Punjab to 1845	Kharak Singh, Nau Nihal Singh and Sher Singh die in quick succession; the child Duleep Singh becomes Maharaja under Maharani Jindan's regency while the Khalsa army and the Dogra ministers contend for power
1839–1840	Ramosis of the Satara hills rise again	After the Company deposes Raja Pratap Singh of Satara. The Raja had been sympathetic to the Ramosis; British outposts attacked; crushed by 1840, unrest simmering into the 1850s until Ramosis are re-employed in the hill police
1839–1905	Debendranath Tagore, later Maharshi, starts the Tattwabodhini Sabha at Calcutta	Organisation Or Institution Founded: Tattwabodhini Sabha Year: 1839 Position Or Contribution Stated In The Class: To propagate Rammohan's ideas and Vedanta study; Debendranath joined the Brahmo Samaj in 1842, bringing its members with him at Calcutta, to propagate Rammohan's ideas and the study of Vedanta; its Tattwabodhini Patrika (1843), edited by Akshay Kumar Datta, became the reformers' organ
1839	Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab died in June 1839	So a movement of the 1840s is posthumous to his reign. It was not contemporaneous with it. Standard accounts date Baba Dyal's organised sect to about 1851, with his preaching beginning in the 1840s.

1840s · 18 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1840	Bhagat Jawahar Mal begins the Namdhari (Kuka) preaching in Punjab	As the class dates it. The Corrections place the sect's formal launch by Baba Ram Singh, disciple of Balak Singh of Hazro, on Baisakhi 1857; the Kukas rejected caste, dowry and cow slaughter and boycotted British courts, cloth and posts
1842	Debendranath Tagore, later called Maharshi, formally joins the Brahmo Samaj	Brought the Tattwabodhini Sabha's members with him and revived the Samaj after Rammohan's death; gave it structure and spread it beyond Bengal to Punjab and Madras
1843	Governor-General Ellenborough annexes Sindh after Charles Napier's victories	Note: Charles Napier's victories at Miani and Dabo; the Amirs of Sindh deposed
1843	Indian Slavery Act (Act V of 1843) passed under Ellenborough	Note: Slavery denied any legal standing in the Company's territories; courts may not enforce a claim to a slave
1844	Gadkari rebellion at Kolhapur: the disbanded hereditary fort militia rise	And seize forts. Demanding their arrears and their posts back; suppressed, the survivors fleeing to Sawantwadi and Portuguese Goa to keep up low-level resistance until 1857; Region: Kolhapur Leader(S) Named: (none named) Immediate Trigger: Disbanding of the hereditary fort militia after the British takeover of Kolhapur Outcome: Suppressed
1845–1849	Sikh Empire: two Anglo-Sikh wars after Maharaja Ranjit Singh's death	Dalhousie annexes Punjab in March 1849, completing the British conquest of India, and the boy Maharaja Duleep Singh is pensioned. Key Battles/Events: Two Anglo-Sikh Wars Outcome: After Maharaja Ranjit Singh's death in 1839 the Lahore state fights the Company at Mudki, Ferozeshah and Sobraon (1845-46, ending in the Treaty of Lahore) and again at Chillianwala and Gujrat (1848-49)
1845	Denmark sells its Indian settlements, Tranquebar and Serampore, to the British	The sale to the East India Company ends 225 years of Danish presence; Serampore had sheltered William Carey's Baptist mission and press since 1800
1845–1846	First Anglo-Sikh War: the Sikh Khalsa army crosses the Sutlej	And is defeated by the British. Governor-General Hardinge's forces win Ferozeshah and Sobraon; the Treaty of Lahore (1846) cedes the Jullundur Doab, halves the Sikh army, imposes an indemnity and detaches Kashmir, sold to Gulab Singh Dogra; Mudki, Ferozeshah, Aliwal and Sobraon under Governor-General Hardinge and Sir Hugh Gough; the Treaty of Lahore (March 1846) cedes the Jullundur Doab, cuts the Sikh army, imposes ₹1.5 crore and separates Kashmir
1846	Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu bought Kashmir from the Company	For ₹75 lakh by the Treaty of Amritsar of 16 March 1846. The notes never name the instrument that sold Kashmir to Gulab Singh. That separate treaty must not be confused with the 1809 treaty of the same name discussed earlier in this class.
1846	Khond uprising under Chakra Bisoi in the Ganjam hills of Odisha	Ghumsur, Boudh and Kandhamal tracts of Odisha; the Company's suppression of the Meriah human sacrifice and the extension of revenue administration over the hills the trigger; crushed with heavy casualties, though Chakra Bisoi's resistance runs on into the 1850s; Region: Niyamgiri hills, Orissa Leader(S) Named: Chakra Bisoi Immediate Trigger: Ban on the Mariah rite together with encroachment on Khond forests Outcome: Crushed with lethal force and heavy casualties
1846	Bhil resistance in Khandesh ends	After the Bhil Agency restores some forest rights. The Company's conciliation closes the guerrilla war of Sewaram's day
1847	Annie Besant was born in London in 1847 to a family of Irish descent	She was not born in Ireland.
1848–1849	Second Anglo-Sikh War: Lord Dalhousie's forces beat the Sikhs at Chillianwala	And Gujrat. Mul Raj's revolt at Multan spreads to the Sikh army under Sher Singh; Chillianwala (January 1849) is a bloody near-draw, Gujrat (February 1849) decisive; Punjab is annexed in March 1849; Mul Raj's revolt at Multan (April 1848) spreads to the Khalsa under Sher Singh Attariwalla; Gough's Chillianwala (January 1849) is bloody and indecisive, Gujarat (February 1849) decisive; the Sikh forces surrender
1848	Jyotirao (Jyotiba) and Savitribai Phule open the first girls' school in Pune	At Bhide Wada; Savitribai, revered as India's first woman teacher, taught there against violent opposition; schools for children of the untouchable castes followed
1849	Governor-General Dalhousie's annexation of Punjab in March 1849 completed the British conquest of India	The notes say that by 1848 nearly the entire subcontinent was under British control, while the same page dates the annexation of Punjab to 1849. The conquest was not complete until then.
1849	Governor-General Lord Dalhousie annexes Punjab	John Lawrence settles it on the village pattern. After the Second Anglo-Sikh War; a lighter assessment, around 50% of rental, on the Mahalwari model to win Sikh peasant goodwill; surrendered Sikh chiefs recognised as jagirdars
1849	Governor-General Lord Dalhousie annexes Punjab after the Second Anglo-Sikh War	The Sikh Empire falls. Maharaja Duleep Singh was deposed under the Treaty of Lahore of 29 March 1849; the Sikhs then turned to introspection about faith and identity under British rule
Mar 1849	Governor-General Dalhousie annexes Punjab	The last independent large Indian state ceases to exist. Maharaja Duleep Singh is deposed and later taken to England, the Khalsa army disbanded and the Koh-i-Noor sent to Queen Victoria; British India now runs from the Khyber to Cape Comorin with a direct Afghan frontier

1850s · 59 events · Company period — arrivals, conquest, consolidation

Date	Event	Detail
1851	Naoroji Furdonji, Dadabhai Naoroji and S.S. Bengalee form the Rahnumai Mazdayasnan Sabha at Bombay	The Parsi Religious Reform Association: against superstition and excessive ritual, for Western education and the status of women; Dadabhai's Rast Goftar carried its ideas to Parsis and other Indians; Founder(S) Named: Naoroji Furdonji, Dadabhai Naoroji, S.S. Bengalee Place / Region: Bombay (Parsi community) Core Aim As Stated In This Class: Eradicate superstitions; encourage Western education and status for women; debate proselytization; the Parsi Religious Reform Association: return to Zoroastrian ethics against ritual and astrology, girls' education, opposition to child marriage, restraint in wedding and funeral spending; K. R. Cama was associated
1852	Second Anglo-Burmese War under Governor-General Dalhousie	Note: Dalhousie annexes Lower Burma (Pegu)
1853	Charter Act: Parliament renews the charter without a time limit	And introduces the ICS examination. Governor-General Lord Dalhousie's term; Legislative Council separated from the Executive, with six new legislative members from 1854; covenanted posts filled by open competition in England; Court of Directors cut from 24 to 18, six of them Crown nominees; the Macaulay Committee of 1854 designs a syllabus heavy in classics; nomination by the Directors and Haileybury's monopoly end; the age limit of 18-23 and the London venue keep Indians out at first
1853	Governor-General Lord Dalhousie opens India's first railway, Bombay to Thane	Telegraph lines follow. 34 km on 16 April 1853; railways carried delegates, newspapers and ideas across provinces, knitting a national public
1854	Ganges Canal opens and spreads irrigation across western UP	Ganges Canal: engineered by Proby Cautley. Under Governor-General Lord Dalhousie; output rises and revenue demands are revised upward at the next settlements
1854	Governor-General Lord Dalhousie's Post Office Act creates a modern all-India postal system	Uniform half-anna postage regardless of distance and India's first postage stamps; cheap correspondence linked leaders across provinces
1854	Sir Charles Wood sends the Education Despatch to Governor-General Lord Dalhousie	Sir Charles Wood: President of the Board of Control. The 'Magna Carta of English education': the state to undertake mass education in the vernaculars, grants-in-aid, universities at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras on the London model, teacher training and women's education, secular government institutions; Also known as the 'Magna Carta of English education'; its universities at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras opened in 1857 and its Education Departments from 1855.
1855	First open competitive examination for the ICS is held in London	The 1853 Act's provision, syllabus set by the Macaulay Committee of 1854; Satyendranath Tagore, the first Indian to enter, clears it in 1863 and joins in 1864; under the Macaulay Committee's scheme; Romesh Chunder Dutt, Behari Lal Gupta, Sripad Babaji Thakur and Surendranath Banerjea follow in 1869
1855–1856	Santhal Hul: brothers Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu raise the Santhals of the Daman-i-Koh against dikus and Company	Bonded labour under moneylenders, traders and zamindars the grievance; a Sat Yug proclaimed at Bhagnadihi; the rising spreads across the Rajmahal hills and is crushed with 15,000 deaths officially admitted, above 25,000 unofficially; the Santhal Parganas district carved out; Region: Daman-i-Koh (Jharkhand/Bengal) Leader(S) Named: Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu Immediate Trigger: Crippling taxes and corrupt practices under the Dikus, reducing many Santhals to bonded labour Outcome: Brutally suppressed; a separate Santhal Pargana district created
1855	Company sets up Education Departments in each province	Under Directors of Public Instruction. As ordered by Wood's Despatch; government schools and colleges follow, and Thomason College at Roorkee (1847) is endorsed as the model for technical education
1856	Governor-General Lord Dalhousie annexes Awadh on grounds of misgovernment	The notes attribute the 1856 annexation of Awadh to the Doctrine of Lapse. Governor-General Dalhousie annexed Awadh in 1856 on grounds of alleged misgovernment. The Doctrine of Lapse applied to the failure of natural heirs and did not apply here; the notes conflate two distinct instruments. Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh deposed despite his loyalty; the home of tens of thousands of Bengal Army sepoys; talukdars dispossessed by the summary settlement that follows
1856	General Service Enlistment Act under Governor-General Lord Canning	New recruits liable for overseas service, a threat of loss of caste to the high-caste sepoys of the Bengal Army
1856	Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act legalises widow remarriage	Act XV of 1856, drafted under Dalhousie and passed under Canning after Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's campaign; read by the orthodox as interference with religion; Act XV of 1856, drafted under Dalhousie and enacted under Lord Canning on 26 July 1856; won by Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar's tracts and petitions over orthodox opposition; legalised the remarriage of Hindu widows across British India
1857–1858	Revolt of 1857 ends Company rule; the Crown takes over India	The Government of India Act 1858 transfers government to the Crown, Canning becomes the first Viceroy, and Queen Victoria's Proclamation of 1 November 1858 promises non-interference in religion and equal treatment under law
1857	Meerut sepoys proclaim Bahadur Shah II Emperor of Hindustan	The British retake Delhi in September. Delhi is under rebel control from May to September 1857; after its fall the emperor is arrested at Humayun's tomb and his sons are shot at the Khooni Darwaza by William Hodson
1857	Sepoys of the Bengal Army rise in the Great Revolt of 1857	After it the Company's and the Crown's armies are unified, the European proportion raised, artillery kept in European hands and recruitment shifted to the 'martial races' (Sikhs, Gurkhas, Pathans)
1857	Talukdars of Oudh join the Revolt	Talukdars of Oudh: dispossessed by the Company's post-annexation village settlement. Dalhousie's 1856 annexation followed by a summary settlement that passed over the talukdars in favour of village bodies; the reason the reconquest of Awadh was so hard
1857	Viceroy Lord Canning reinstates the Oudh talukdars	And gives them a Permanent-Settlement-like deal. The talukdari sanads of 1858-59, permanence revived to buy loyalty; Ryotwari elsewhere moderated; the Permanent Settlement never repeated as a general method
1857	The Company issues the new Enfield rifle to the Bengal Army	Its cartridges rumoured to be greased with cow and pig fat. The paper cartridge had to be bitten to load; sepoys who refuse are court-martialled; the rumour confirms fears of a plot against caste and faith
1857	Mangal Pandey was hanged on 8 April, but the 34th was disbanded on 6 May 1857	Three days before Meerut. The notes date the disbandment of the 34th Native Infantry to April 1857.
1857	Maharaja Gulab Singh of Jammu and Kashmir died on 30 June 1857	Weeks after Meerut. The Dogra troops and supplies sent to the British during the revolt were sent by his son and successor, Maharaja Ranbir Singh.
1857	The Danapur sepoys mutinied on 25 July 1857	And Kunwar Singh took Arrah days later. He joined in late July 1857, not March, and the revolt itself had not begun in March. His age is also conventionally given as about 80, not 70. No card below tests either the March date or the age.
1857	General Havelock retook Kanpur on 17 July 1857	And Tatya Tope's Gwalior Contingent later seized it again. Kanpur's recapture is credited to Campbell alone. Campbell's recapture was the second battle of Cawnpore in December 1857. The cards below test only that Nana Sahib disappeared after Kanpur was retaken, not who retook it.
1857	Sir Syed Ahmed Khan stays loyal through the revolt	And saves British lives at Bijnor. The ashraf of North India, already declining since the Mughal collapse, sank further after 1857; his 'Asbab-e-Baghawat-e-Hind' followed in 1858
1857	Sikh regiments help the British suppress the revolt of 1857	Punjab, annexed only in 1849, supplied troops against the Bengal Army mutineers; the loyalty later earned the Singh Sabhas a measure of official patronage
1857	Baba Ram Singh formally launched the Namdhari sect on Baisakhi, 12 April 1857	By the standard account. Balak Singh of Hazro was his preceptor. The 1840 date is at best the beginning of the preaching from which the sect grew. Cards below test Baba Ram Singh as the leader and avoid scoring either the 1840 date or the Jawahar Mal attribution.
1857	Universities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras established	Under Governor-General Lord Canning. Incorporated by Acts of 1857 on the London model as examining, degree-granting bodies; Calcutta the oldest, in January 1857
Mar 1857	Sepoy Mangal Pandey of the 34th Native Infantry attacks British officers at Barrackpore	29 March; hanged on 8 April 1857; the regiment is disbanded on 6 May, three days before Meerut
Apr 1857	Mangal Pandey is hanged on 8 April	The 34th Native Infantry is disbanded soon after. The lecture places the disbandment in April; standard accounts date it to 6 May 1857, three days before Meerut
9 May 1857	Outbreak at Meerut: sepoys free 85 shackled sowars of the 3rd Light Cavalry	Kill their officers and march on Delhi. The 85 had refused the greased cartridges on parade on 24 April and were sentenced and shackled on 9 May; on 10 May the sepoys and townspeople rise, kill British officers and ride through the night to Delhi
11 May 1857	Mutineers reach Delhi and proclaim Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar nominal Emperor of Hindustan	The Delhi garrison rises and Europeans are massacred; the aged Zafar becomes the symbol of the revolt, real command passing to Bakht Khan when he arrives from Bareilly with his troops in July
Jun 1857	Siege of Delhi begins under General Sir Henry Barnard	Then Brigadier Archdale Wilson. The British Delhi Field Force holds the Ridge from 8 June after Badli-ki-Serai; Barnard dies of cholera in July; Wilson commands the September assault
Jun 1857	Nana Sahib takes Kanpur from General Wheeler with Tantia Tope	Nana Sahib: adopted heir of Peshwa Baji Rao II. Wheeler's entrenchment capitulates in late June; the Satichaura Ghat (27 June) and Bibighar (15 July) massacres follow; Nana Sahib styles himself Peshwa; the Company had refused him Peshwa Baji Rao II's pension; Wheeler's garrison surrendered after a three-week siege and was massacred at Satichaura Ghat
Jul 1857	Sir Henry Lawrence dies early in the siege of the Lucknow Residency	Sir Henry Lawrence: Chief Commissioner of Awadh. Mortally wounded by a shell on 2 July, dead on 4 July; some 1,700 people hold the Residency until Havelock and Outram fight in during September
Sep 1857	General Henry Havelock and Sir James Outram fight into the Lucknow Residency	But are themselves besieged. The first relief, 25 September; the enlarged garrison holds out until Campbell's second relief in November
14 Sep 1857	The British storm Delhi on 14 September under Archdale Wilson	John Nicholson falls; Zafar taken at Humayun's Tomb. The assault goes in at the Kashmir Gate, Nicholson mortally wounded; Delhi cleared by 20 September; Captain Hodson takes Zafar's surrender at Humayun's Tomb and shoots his sons at the Khooni Darwaza; Zafar later exiled to Rangoon
Nov 1857	Sir Colin Campbell relieves and evacuates the Lucknow Residency	Sir Colin Campbell: the new Commander-in-Chief. The second relief, 17 November; garrison and civilians withdrawn towards Cawnpore; Havelock dies of dysentery days later
Dec 1857	Sir Colin Campbell retakes Kanpur; Nana Sahib disappears, his fate unknown	The second battle of Cawnpore: Havelock had first retaken the city on 17 July 1857 and Tatya Tope's Gwalior Contingent had seized it again; some say Nana Sahib died in Nepal around 1859
1858	Parliament's Government of India Act of 1858 ended Company government	And transferred its powers to the Crown. The Company survived as a shell and was formally dissolved on 1 June 1874 under the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act 1873.
1858	Raja Jagannath Singh of Powayan shoots Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah of Faizabad	For a reward. The Awadh preacher, formidable for his hold on Hindu and Muslim masses alike, was killed on 5 June 1858 at Powayan in Shahjahanpur; the promised 50,000 rupees was paid in full, whatever the class says of a half reward
1858	Sir Colin Campbell retakes Bareilly and Khan Bahadur Khan's Rohilkhand falls	Bareilly fell in May 1858; Khan Bahadur Khan, grandson of the Rohilla chief Hafiz Rahmat Khan, had held Rohilkhand since 1857 and was later captured and hanged at Bareilly
1858	Government of India Act 1858 transfers India	From the East India Company to the Crown. The Act, passed by Parliament, ends Company rule and creates a Secretary of State for India; the Proclamation, read at Allahabad on 1 November 1858 by Lord Canning, the first Viceroy, promises non-interference in religion, amnesty and equal treatment; the Company survives as a shell till 1874; a Secretary of State for India (Lord Stanley the first) with a 15-member Council of India replaced the Board of Control and the Court of Directors; Governor-General Lord Canning became the first Viceroy; What It Did With Indian Membership: None no Indians brought into governance; a 15-member Council of India of mostly retired Company officials sat in London What It Did With Powers: Power transferred from the Company to the Crown; Governor-General also styled Viceroy Verdict This Class Gives: An administrative change, not a step towards self-government
1858	Peel Commission fixes the army at about 1:2 European to Indian in Bengal	About 1:3 in the Madras and Bombay Armies, up from 1:5 before the revolt; Sikhs, Pathans and Gurkhas favoured, high-caste Hindustani units disbanded, regiments mixed, field artillery reserved for Europeans
1858	The Crown stops annexations and rewards loyal princes such	As Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior and the Nizam of Hyderabad. Talukdars of Awadh and U.P. Get confiscated estates back; a loyalist alliance of princes and landlords with the Raj that lasted till 1947
1858	Kunwar Singh severed his own arm	Shattered by a bullet, as he crossed the Ganga near Balia on 22-23 April 1858. Shattered by a bullet. That was days before his death on 26 April 1858, not early in his campaign.
1858–1859	Sir Syed Ahmed Khan writes 'Asbab-e-Baghawat-e-Hind'	And starts a school at Moradabad. The Urdu pamphlet of 1858 (Causes of the Indian Revolt) blamed British ignorance of Indian opinion for the rising, a bold critique from a loyalist; the Moradabad school of 1859 preceded Ghazipur (1863) and the Scientific Society (Ghazipur, 1864)
Mar 1858	Sir Colin Campbell reconquers Lucknow in street fighting	Begum Hazrat Mahal of Awadh escapes to Nepal. Jung Bahadur's Gurkhas fight alongside Campbell; organised rebellion in Awadh ends, though Ahmadullah Shah and Nana Sahib's lieutenants keep up guerrilla war; Hazrat Mahal, who had installed her son Birjis Qadr as Nawab, refuses amnesty
Mar 1858	Sir Hugh Rose's Central India Field Force assaults Jhansi	Rani Lakshmibai defends it, then escapes to Kalpi and Gwalior with Tatya Tope; Rose's Central India Field Force besieges the fort from 23 March; the class credits Jhalkari Bai with decoying the British by impersonating the Rani
Apr 1858	Sir Hugh Rose's Central India Field Force storms Jhansi	Rani Lakshmibai escapes to join Tantia Tope. Jhansi falls on 3-4 April after Tantia Tope's relieving army is beaten on the Betwa; the Rani rides out with her adopted son Damodar Rao
Apr 1858	Kunwar Singh of Jagdispur dies in Bihar	Aged about eighty, days after beating a British force at Jagdispur on 23 April, having amputated his own wounded arm; the octogenarian zamindar of Jagdishpur in Bihar whose estate the Company had seized; wounded crossing the Ganga near Balia, he severed his own shattered arm, beat a British force near Jagdishpur on 23 April and died on 26 April 1858; remembered as the Lion of Bihar
May 1858	Sir Hugh Rose defeats Tantia Tope and Rani Lakshmibai's rebels at Kalpi	22-23 May; the rebels fall back on Gwalior, where Maharaja Scindia's troops desert to them in June
Jun 1858	Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi is killed fighting the British cavalry at Gwalior	Maharaja Jayajirao Scindia flees to Agra on 1 June; the Rani, in male attire, is killed on 17 June near Kotah-ki-Serai, Rose calling her the bravest and best of the rebel leaders; Gwalior retaken on 20 June; on 17 June 1858 at Kotah-ki-Serai near Gwalior, after she and Tatya Tope had seized the fort from Scindia; Sir Hugh Rose called her the most dangerous of the rebel leaders; her own followers cremated her body
1 Nov 1858	Queen's Proclamation: Queen Victoria assumes direct rule of India	Viceroy Lord Canning reads it at Allahabad. Annexations and the Doctrine of Lapse ended, non-interference in religion, equal eligibility for office, amnesty except for the murderers of British subjects; the Government of India Act 1858 had already ended Company government
1859	Bengal ryots begin the Indigo revolt against the European planters	Note: Ryots of Nadia led by Digambar and Bishnu Biswas refuse to sow indigo; the Indigo Commission follows in 1860, and Dinabandhu Mitra's play Nil Darpan dramatises the ryots' plight
1859	Bengal Rent Act (Act X of 1859) passed under Canning	Note: Occupancy rights for ryots who have held their land for twelve years
1859	Sir Syed Ahmed Khan opened the Moradabad school in 1859	And the Ghazipur school in 1863. Sir Syed's schools are both dated 1859.
Apr 1859	Rebel general Tantia Tope is captured and hanged at Shivpuri	Rebel general Tantia Tope: betrayed by Man Singh of Narwar. Betrayed by Man Singh, jagirdar of Narwar, not by Scindia; hanged on 18 April 1859 after a year of guerrilla war across central India and Rajputana
Apr 1859	Tatya Tope is hanged by the British after Man Singh of Narwar betrays him	Tatya Tope: Nana Sahib's guerrilla commander. Hanged at Sipri (Shivpuri) on 18 April 1859 after a year of guerrilla war across the Deccan and Rajputana; Amar Singh's guerrilla resistance in Bihar ends the same year
Jul 1859	Viceroy Lord Canning's forces suppress the last guerrilla bands in Bihar	Bengal and on the Punjab border. The end of organised resistance; the reprisals of the reconquest, mass hangings, blowing from guns and burnt villages along the Grand Trunk Road, leave deep scars

1860s · 14 events · Revolt to Congress

Date	Event	Detail
1860	Viceroy Lord Canning's Legislative Council enacts the Indian Penal Code	Macaulay's draft of 1837 becomes law as Act XLV of 1860 under Crown rule, in force from 1 January 1862; Islamic criminal law finally supplanted
1861	Viceroy Lord Canning's Police Act (Act V of 1861) creates the structured provincial police	On the Police Commission of 1860's recommendations; an Inspector General per province, a superintendent per district under the Collector-Magistrate; the pattern that survives today
1861	Vishnu Shastri Pandit founds the Widow Remarriage Association at Bombay	The class names Ranade, then nineteen, as founder; the Corrections make him a supporter; the Prarthana Samaj of 1867 took up the same cause; The Widow Remarriage Association of 1861 is credited to Ranade. Vishnu Shastri Pandit founded the Widow Remarriage Association at Bombay in 1861. Ranade, then nineteen, was a supporter rather than the founder. The Deccan Education Society of 1884 was likewise a group founding Vishnu Krishna Chiplunkar, Tilak, Agarkar, Apte and Namjoshi, with Ranade among its patrons and Fergusson College opened in 1885.
1861	Indian Councils Act 1861 brings nominated Indians	Into the Viceroy's Legislative Council. Viceroy Lord Canning nominated the Raja of Benares, the Maharaja of Patiala and Sir Dinkar Rao in 1862; the Act also gave the Viceroy an ordinance power and let provincial councils be set up (Bengal 1862, North-Western Provinces 1886, Punjab 1897); What It Did With Indian Membership: Indians introduced into the legislative councils for the first time, nominated by the Viceroy, too few to affect legislation What It Did With Powers: Viceroy empowered to make regulations by ordinance; provincial councils could be set up Verdict This Class Gives: Seen as the start of the legislative council system
1862	The High Courts of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras were established in 1862	Under the Indian High Courts Act 1861. High Courts at Bombay, Madras and Calcutta are dated 1865. The cards below score 1862.
Nov 1862	Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor, dies in exile at Rangoon	Buried in Rangoon (Yangon); with him the Mughal line that began with Babur in 1526 comes to an end; the British tried him at the Red Fort in 1858 and exiled him to Rangoon in Burma; he died there on 7 November 1862, and with him the Mughal line
1863–1902	Narendranath Datta, the future Swami Vivekananda, is born at Calcutta	Organisation Or Institution Founded: Ramakrishna Mission and Ramakrishna Math Year: 1897 Position Or Contribution Stated In The Class: Practical seva: schools, hospitals, famine and epidemic relief, irrespective of caste or creed; Lived 1863-1902; the English-educated youth who became Ramakrishna's chief disciple, took monastic vows after his guru's death in 1886, spoke at the World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893 and founded the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897; preached strength, service to the poor (Daridra-Narayana) and 'Truth is one, paths are many'; died at Belur Math on 4 July 1902.
1864	Sir Syed Ahmed Khan founds the Scientific Society at Ghazipur to translate Western works into Urdu	Moved to Aligarh in 1866, hence the class's 'Aligarh Scientific Society'; his journal Tahzib-ul-Akhlaq (Mohammedan Social Reformer) followed in 1870
1865	Edwin Arnold, the English poet and journalist	Predicts railways will unite Indians more than any ruler could. A paraphrase rather than a verbatim quotation, the Corrections note; the same sentiment is usually traced to Karl Marx's 1853 articles on India
1866	Brahmo Samaj splits into Debendranath Tagore's Adi	And Keshab Chandra Sen's Bharatvarshiya wings. The Adi (old) wing under Debendranath kept to religious reform; the Bharatvarshiya (progressive) wing under Keshab pressed caste critique, women's education and inter-caste marriage
1866	Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi found the Darul Uloom Deoband	A seminary to purify Islam by return to Quran and Hadith and to resist foreign rule spiritually; Hanafi in law with Sufi affiliation, heir to Shah Waliullah's reformism; no English taught, unlike Aligarh; Founder(S) Named: Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi Place / Region: Deoband, Saharanpur district, U.P. — Core Aim As Stated In This Class: Purify Islam of un-Islamic practices
1867	Dr. Atmaram Pandurang founds the Prarthana Samaj at Bombay	Brahmo-like theism without idols under Keshab Chandra Sen's influence; widow remarriage, female education, an end to child marriage; M. G. Ranade its leading light; drew on Maharashtra's bhakti saints such as Tukaram; Founder(S) Named: Dr. Atmaram Pandurang Place / Region: Bombay Core Aim As Stated In This Class: Monotheistic worship without idol; amelioration of women and lower castes
1868	Sisir Kumar Ghosh and Motilal Ghosh found the Amrita Bazar Patrika near Jessore, in Bengali	Later bilingual, and turned overnight into an English paper in 1878 to escape the Vernacular Press Act; a leading nationalist voice from Calcutta
1869	Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is born on 2 October at Porbandar	In the Kathiawar princely state where his father Karamchand (Kaba) Gandhi was Dewan; a Modh Bania family, Vaishnava in faith; he married Kasturba at thirteen

1870s · 20 events · Revolt to Congress

Date	Event	Detail
1870	Viceroy Lord Mayo's Resolution on financial decentralisation	Note: Provinces given fixed grants and charge of specified heads the first step toward provincial finance
1872	Deputy Commissioner Cowan blows 65 Namdhari (Kuka) Sikhs	From guns at Malerkotla without trial. On 17-18 January 1872, after Kuka raids on the Muslim butchers of Malaudh and Malerkotla; 66 died in all counting the boy Bishan Singh, hacked to death; Baba Ram Singh was exiled to Rangoon in Burma
1873	Jyotirao (Jyotiba) Phule founds the Satyashodhak Samaj at Pune	And publishes Gulamgiri. The Truth-Seekers' Society of a Mali-caste reformer: rights of the lower castes against Brahmin priestcraft, marriages without priests, water for all castes; Gulamgiri (Slavery) was dedicated to America's anti-slavery movement; Ambedkar called Phule a guru; Founder(S) Named: Jyotirao Phule Place / Region: Pune Core Aim As Stated In This Class: Assert the rights of lower castes and critique Brahminism; marriage without priestly interference
1873	Sikh elites found the first Singh Sabha at Amritsar	Lahore (1879) and other towns follow. Scholars, priests and aristocrats organising against Christian conversion and creeping Brahmanical custom; standardised Gurmukhi and Sikh doctrine, and later founded Khalsa College
1874	The East India Company itself was not wound up until 1874	Under the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act of 1873. The notes say the Government of India Act 1858 dissolved the East India Company. The Act transferred government to the Crown.
1874	Sasipada Banerjee began his workers' paper Bharat Shramajibi in 1874	Both the reformer's name and the paper's title are garbled in the class.
1875	Swami Dayanand Saraswati writes Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth)	His manifesto: only the four Vedas are infallible; idol-worship, avatars and birth-caste rejected; 'Go back to the Vedas'
1875	Swami Dayanand Saraswati founds the Arya Samaj at Bombay	Headquarters later at Lahore; shuddhi to reconvert, Hindi as medium, the slogan 'India for Indians' and the word Swaraj
1875	Madame H. P. Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Olcott found the Theosophical Society at New York	Universal brotherhood without distinction of race or creed, comparative religion, a synthesis of science and spirituality; it moved to India in 1879 and to Adyar in 1882; Founder(S) Named: Madame H.P. Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Olcott Place / Region: New York; headquarters moved to Adyar, Madras Core Aim As Stated In This Class: Universal brotherhood irrespective of race or creed; study of comparative religion, philosophy and science
1875	Sir Syed Ahmed Khan founds the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College at Aligarh	Modelled on Oxford and Cambridge, English medium with Islamic subjects, to make a class of Muslim graduates for administration; opposed by orthodox ulema; became Aligarh Muslim University in 1920; Founder(S) Named: Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Place / Region: Aligarh Core Aim As Stated In This Class: Western sciences with Islamic subjects; a class of Muslim graduates for administration and the professions; cooperation with the British
1876	Surendranath Banerjea and Anandamohan Bose found the Indian Association at Calcutta	Note: Set up after Banerjea's dismissal from the ICS to unite Indian opinion; the all-India agitation over the ICS age limit follows in 1877–78
1876	Royal Titles Act confers the title Empress of India on Queen Victoria	Note: Passed by Parliament under Disraeli; proclaimed in India at Lytton's Delhi Durbar of January 1877
1877	Viceroy Lord Lytton's Delhi Durbar proclaims Victoria Empress of India	Note: Held on 1 January 1877 while famine rages in the Deccan and south India
1878	Sivanath Sastri and Ananda Mohan Bose form the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj	After Keshab Chandra Sen married his under-age daughter to the Maharaja of Cooch Behar, breaking his own preaching against child marriage; the Sadharan body survives to date
1878	Viceroy Lord Lytton's Vernacular Press Act gags the Indian-language press	The 'gagging Act', aimed at papers such as the Amrita Bazar Patrika, which went English overnight; repealed by Lord Ripon in 1882; after criticism of famine relief in 1876-77; district magistrates take undertakings and may confiscate presses, with no appeal; passed in a single sitting; Amrita Bazar Patrika turns into an English weekly overnight
1878	G. Subramania Iyer and five associates found The Hindu at Madras	An English weekly for South Indians, a daily from 1889; Iyer also figures among the economic critics of colonial rule
1879–1880	Rampa rebellion: the muttadars and hill chiefs of Rampa rise in the Vizag Agency	Against the toddy tax and forest rules. The Forest Regulations of the 1870s curb podu (shifting cultivation) and forest use; police stations attacked; Outcome: Suppressed by 1880; the precursor of Alluri Sitarama Raju's Rampa rising of 1922-24; Region: Eastern Ghats, Vizag Agency, Andhra Leader(S) Named: Chenchu Dora and others foreshadowed 20th-century rebellions
1879	Blavatsky and Olcott landed in Bombay in February 1879	The headquarters reached Adyar, Madras, only in 1882; the class's 'Adyar 1879' is a named error; The notes date the move of the Theosophical headquarters to Adyar to 1879. The headquarters were established at Adyar only in 1882. The Society itself was founded in New York in 1875.
1879	Viceroy Lord Lytton's government passes the Deccan Agriculturists' Relief Act to protect peasants from moneylenders	After the Deccan riots of 1875; courts could reopen usurious debts; the class credits M. G. Ranade with helping enact it
1879	Vasudev Balwant Phadke raises an armed band near Pune	Vasudev Balwant Phadke: called India's first revolutionary. Outraged by famine and official apathy, he recruited Ramoshis, Bhils and Dhangars, raided government treasuries and proclaimed the aim of self-rule; captured, he was deported to Aden

1880s · 30 events · Revolt to Congress

Date	Event	Detail
1880	Lord Ripon becomes Viceroy under Gladstone's Liberal ministry	Note: The repeal of the Vernacular Press Act and the local self-government resolution follow in 1882
1880	Famine Commission under Richard Strachey reports	Note: Famine codes and a famine relief and insurance fund recommended, after the great famine of 1876-78
1880	Kandukuri Veeresalingam's first widow remarriage in Andhra	As the class dates it. Performed at Rajahmundry on 11 December 1881 by the Corrections' reckoning; the 'Vidyasagar of the South' also ran girls' schools and wrote plays and novels against dowry and superstition
1881	First Indian Factory Act passed under Viceroy Ripon	Note: Children under seven barred from factory work; hours limited for those under twelve
1881	First synchronous all-India census taken under Ripon	Note: The first count taken across the whole country on one date, with W. C. Plowden as Census Commissioner
1881	Rendition of Mysore: Ripon restores the state to the Wadiyar dynasty	Note: Chamaraja Wadiyar X installed after half a century of direct administration since 1831, under a subsidiary alliance and an instrument of transfer
1881	Kandukuri Veeresalingam performed his first widow remarriage at Rajahmundry on 11 December 1881	Veeresalingam's first widow remarriage is dated 1880.
1881	Bal Gangadhar Tilak starts Kesari in Marathi and Mahratta in English at Poona	With Agarkar and Chiplunkar; Kesari's editorials on economic exploitation and colonial injustice twice earned Tilak sedition convictions, in 1897 and 1908
1882	Blavatsky and Olcott establish the Theosophical Society's headquarters at Adyar, Madras	India became the centre of Theosophy; Annie Besant later presided over the Society from Adyar (from 1907)
1882	Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati starts the Arya Mahila Samaj at Pune	For women's education and against child marriage; her Sharada Sadan followed in 1889 and the Mukti Mission at Kedgaon in 1898 for widows, especially child widows; Founder(S) Named: Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati Place / Region: Pune / Maharashtra Core Aim As Stated In This Class: Promote women's education and oppose child marriage
1882–1883	Viceroy Lord Ripon appoints the First Indian Education Commission	Under Sir William Hunter. On primary and secondary education: vernacular mass primary schooling under local boards, literary and vocational tracks in high schools, grants-in-aid to private and missionary schools; Its remit was primary and secondary schooling, neglected since Wood's Despatch; it handed primary education to district and municipal boards and split high schools into literary and vocational tracks.
1882	Viceroy Lord Ripon repeals the Vernacular Press Act	And Indian-language journalism revives. Part of his liberal policy; Tilak's Kesari and Mahratta (1881), Swadesamitran, Somprakash and Hindi and Urdu papers press for reform
1883	Swami Dayanand Saraswati died in 1883 at Ajmer	The Arya Samaj's college-versus-gurukul split occurred in 1893, ten years after his death; Gurukul Kangri itself was founded in 1902. Dayanand founded no gurukul. The cards attribute the Gurukuls to Shraddhanand alone.
1883	Ilbert Bill controversy under Viceroy Lord Ripon	C. P. Ilbert's bill to let Indian district magistrates and sessions judges try Europeans provoked a European 'white mutiny'; the 1884 compromise (a jury half European) taught educated Indians the limits of British liberalism and fed the founding of the Congress
1883	Vasudev Balwant Phadke dies in jail at Aden after a hunger strike	Deported there after his capture; his short-lived revolt was the first attempt to mobilise peasants and tribals for armed rebellion against the Raj
1884	M. Viraraghavachariar, G. Subramania Iyer	And P. Ananda Charlu found the Madras Mahajana Sabha. Note: A regional forerunner of the Congress, like the Indian Association and the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha (1870)
1884	Vishnu Krishna Chiplunkar, Tilak, Agarkar	Apte and Namjoshi found the Deccan Education Society at Pune. With Ranade among its patrons; it opened Fergusson College in 1885; the class credits Ranade as founder
1885–1905	Moderate phase of the Indian National Congress	Founded at Bombay in December 1885 with W. C. Bonnerjee presiding; Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta and Gokhale press for reform by petition and constitutional means and build the Drain of Wealth critique
1885	Indian National Congress founded at Bombay under President W. C. Bonnerjee	Convened by A. O. Hume in December 1885 at the Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College with 72 delegates; O. The culmination of the reform movements, the press and the new middle class described in this class; O. Hume; twenty years of Moderate petitioning followed, which the Extremists of 1905 judged a failure that had won only 'a few crumbs'
1885	Sir Syed Ahmed Khan opposes the Congress	Called it a predominantly Hindu body that did not speak for Muslims and told Muslims to keep out of competitive politics until educated; the Aligarh movement stayed apolitical and pro-British
1886	Second Congress session at Calcutta, Dadabhai Naoroji presiding	Note: 436 delegates; the Indian Association's National Conference merges with the Congress
1886	Lala Hansraj and the modernist Aryas open the first DAV (Dayanand Anglo-Vedic) High School at Lahore	Vedic teaching blended with a Western curriculum in English; grew into DAV College and a national chain of institutions
1886	Ramakrishna Paramhansa, the mystic of Dakshineswar, dies	His young disciples led by Narendranath took monastic vows and formed the brotherhood at Baranagar, the seed of the Ramakrishna Math
1886	Sir Syed Ahmed Khan founded the Muhammadan Educational Conference in 1886	The notes credit the Ahmadiyya movement with setting up the All-India Muhammadan Educational Conference. First called the Muhammadan Educational Congress, it belongs to the Aligarh movement, not to the Ahmadiyya. No card below tests the Ahmadiyya attribution, and the Aligarh attribution is the one that is scored correct.
1887	Third Congress session at Madras, Badruddin Tyabji presiding	Note: Tyabji the first Muslim president; 607 delegates
1888	Sir Syed Ahmed Khan is knighted (KCSI)	And nominated to the Viceroy's Legislative Council. Knight Commander of the Star of India (KCSI) in 1888; he had sat on the Imperial Legislative Council from 1878; his Muhammadan Educational Conference of 1886 gave the Aligarh movement its annual platform
1888	Gandhi goes to London to study law	Keeping a vow to his mother to avoid meat and alcohol; at the Inner Temple he read the Gita in English, the Sermon on the Mount, and joined the London Vegetarian Society
1889	Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian founds the Ahmadiyya movement	Claimed to be the promised Mahdi and Messiah; universal brotherhood, jihad of the pen not the sword, printed defence of Islam against missionaries and Arya Samajists; orthodox Muslims held the claims heretical; Founder(S) Named: Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Place / Region: Qadian, Punjab Core Aim As Stated In This Class: Universal brotherhood; internal reform; jihad of the pen in place of jihad by the sword
1889	Annie Besant joins the Theosophical Society in London	The former Fabian and freethinker; she reached India in 1893 and presided over the Congress in 1917
1889	The Age of Consent Act's proximate trigger was the death of the child bride Phulmoni Dasi in 1889	It raised the age of consent from 10 to 12 for all girls, married or unmarried it did not fix a minimum age of marriage. Rukhmabai's litigation (1884-88) shaped the climate but was not the statute's occasion.

1890s · 24 events · Moderates

Date	Event	Detail
1890	Mahatma Jyotiba Phule, founder of the Satyashodhak Samaj, dies at Pune	The Satyashodhak movement passed to men like Chhatrapati Shahu of Kolhapur, who wrote Phule's ideas into policy, and later inspired Ambedkar; the Hunter Commission had already conceded non-discrimination in schooling under his pressure
1891	Viceroy Lord Lansdowne's government passes the Age of Consent Act	Raised the age of consent from 10 to 12 for all girls, married or not, after Phulmoni Dasi's death in 1889; Rukhmabai's case (1884-88) and Behramji Malabari's campaign shaped the climate; orthodox backlash led by Tilak
1891	Gandhi returns to India as a barrister	Called to the bar in London; he failed to build a practice in Bombay and Rajkot, being too shy to speak in court
1892	Singh Sabha leaders found Khalsa College, Amritsar	Modern subjects with Sikh religion; the flagship of the Singh Sabha's educational drive
1892	Dadabhai Naoroji becomes the first Indian elected to the British House of Commons	As Liberal member for Finsbury Central; the Anglo-Indian D. O. Dyce Sombre had sat for Sudbury in 1841-42; Naoroji used the seat to press the drain theory
1892	Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray founded the Bengal Chemical Works in 1892	The Bengal Chemical & Pharmaceutical Works is dated 1901. The year 1901 is when it was incorporated as a joint-stock company. Separately, hydroxychloroquine was not synthesised until the 1940s, so it belongs to the firm's much later history and not to the Swadeshi years the sentence is describing.
1892	Indian Councils Act 1892 admits indirect election to the councils	Under Viceroy Lord Lansdowne. Certain members "recommended" by landholders' associations, universities and municipal bodies What It Did With Powers: Budget could be discussed but not voted on; passed under Viceroy Lord Lansdowne in answer to early Congress demands; What It Did With Indian Membership: Number of non-official (including Indian) members slightly increased; questions allowed but no follow-up questions Verdict This Class Gives: A token reform, but the first admission of a principle of representation
1893	Swami Vivekananda addresses the World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago	Opened on 11 September 1893 with 'Sisters and Brothers of America'; presented Hinduism as tolerant and universal and India's spirituality as the equal partner of Western science
1893	Annie Besant, the Theosophist, arrives in India	Landed at Tuticorin in November 1893 to lead Theosophical work from Adyar; she founded the Central Hindu College at Benaras (1898), launched the Home Rule League (1916) and presided over the Calcutta Congress (1917)
1893	Bal Gangadhar Tilak starts the public celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi in Poona	In Poona, turning a household festival into a public sarvajanik one to mobilise Maharashtra and spread patriotic messages; the Shivaji Festival followed in 1895
1893	Gandhi sails to Natal on a one-year contract	Thrown off the train at Pietermaritzburg. Engaged by Dada Abdulla's firm for a lawsuit; ejected from a first-class carriage on the way to Pretoria despite a valid ticket, the night at the station became his political turning point
1894	Gandhi founds the Natal Indian Congress at Durban	His first political organisation, formed to fight a bill disenfranchising Natal's Indians; the bill passed, but the petition campaign made the cause known in India and England
1895	Prithwis Chandra Ray published The Poverty Problem in India in 1895	Prafulla Chandra Ray's contribution to economic nationalism was industrial (Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works) rather than the written economic critique. C. No card below tests this name.
1895	Bal Gangadhar Tilak starts the Shivaji Festival	Invoking Chhatrapati Shivaji, the Maratha king who resisted the Mughals, as a model for resisting the British; with the Ganapati festival it built the cultural base of Extremism
1896–1897	Bhikaiji Cama nurses plague victims in Bombay and contracts the disease herself	Volunteering with a hospital during the bubonic plague; her health broken, she left for Europe to recuperate in 1902 and there met Dadabhai Naoroji and Shyamji Krishna Varma
1897	Swami Vivekananda founds the Ramakrishna Mission at Calcutta	By Vivekananda on 1 May 1897 at Calcutta, for practical seva: schools, hospitals, famine and epidemic relief irrespective of caste or creed; Daridra-Narayana, God in the poor; The Mission is indeed of 1897, but the Math predates it the monastic brotherhood was set up at Baranagar in 1886 after Ramakrishna's death and was later housed at Belur from 1899. The cards test 1897 for the Mission only.
1897	Bubonic plague strikes Poona and Plague Commissioner W. C. Rand's house-search measures breed resentment	Forced inspections, segregation and evacuations under the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897
1897	Chapekar brothers assassinate Rand at Poona	Damodar and Balkrishna Chapekar shot Rand and Lieutenant Ayerst on 22 June 1897, the night of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee; both brothers were later hanged; often taken as the beginning of the bomb-and-revolver ideology; the Chapekars were hanged, the Natu brothers of Poona were deported without trial, and Tilak was jailed for applauding the act
1897	Bal Gangadhar Tilak is jailed for 18 months for sedition	After the Rand assassination. Bal Gangadhar Tilak: editor of Kesari. For Kesari articles invoking the Bhagavad Gita and Shivaji's killing of Afzal Khan; the sentence made him a national hero, 'the Father of Indian Unrest'
1898	Annie Besant establishes the Central Hindu College at Benaras	Indian learning with Western science in English medium; became the nucleus of Madan Mohan Malaviya's Benaras Hindu University in 1916
1898	Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha publishes Ham Hindu Nahin ('We are not Hindus')	Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha: the Singh Sabha scholar. The classic statement of a separate Sikh identity, written for the Singh Sabha's Tat Khalsa wing; he later compiled the Mahan Kosh encyclopaedia
1899–1900	Munda Ulgulan: Birsa Munda leads the Mundas of Chhotanagpur against dikus	Missionaries and British officials. Birsa, revered as Bhagwan, launches the Great Tumult at Christmas 1899 after failed legal redress; captured, he dies in Ranchi jail in June 1900; the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act of 1908 follows; Region: Chhotanagpur Leader(S) Named: Birsa Munda Immediate Trigger: Steady alienation of Munda ancestral land to dikus Outcome: Birsa captured and died in prison
1899	Vinayak and Ganesh Savarkar form the Mitra Mela at Nasik	The 'Friends Circle' of students that grew into Abhinav Bharat in 1904
1899–1902	Gandhi raises an Indian Ambulance Corps of 1100 stretcher-bearers in the Anglo-Boer War	His loyalist phase: he believed service to the Empire would earn Indians their rights as British subjects, and received the War Medal

1900s · 48 events · Moderates

Date	Event	Detail
1900	About 40,000 km of railway connect India's major cities	From 34 km in 1853; delegates, newspapers and pamphlets travelled the same rails, making all-India meetings such as the Congress practicable
1901	Census records Parsi literacy at 65 per cent	Against an all-India average of about 5 per cent. The small Bombay community, first to take English education, led banking, shipping and industry; its women were among India's first professionals, Cornelia Sorabji the first woman lawyer
1901	Acharya P. C. Ray incorporates the Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works	As a joint-stock company. The chemist Prafulla Chandra Ray had founded the works in 1892; it grew into a model of Swadeshi enterprise; the class dates the founding itself to 1901
1901	The North-West Frontier Province did not exist in 1866 — it was created by Viceroy Lord Curzon in 1901	The intended body is the North-Western Provinces, which got a legislative council in 1886; Bengal's dates from 1862 and Punjab's from 1897, which the notes give correctly.
1902	Swami Shraddhanand founds Gurukul Kangri near Haridwar for the traditional Aryas	Instruction in Sanskrit on the pattern of ancient hermitages, against the DAV stream's English curriculum; the college-versus-gurukul split dated from 1893
1902	Swami Vivekananda dies at Belur Math, aged 39	On 4 July 1902; his Vedanta Societies abroad and the Mission at home carried on 'service to man is service to God'
1902	Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur reserves 50 per cent of state posts	For backward classes. One of the earliest reservation orders, applying Phule's Satyashodhak ideas; a forerunner of later affirmative action
1902	Barrister Pramathanath Mitra founds the Anushilan Samiti at Calcutta	A youth fitness and spiritual society that became a cover for revolutionary work after 1905; its Calcutta branch was led by Barindra Kumar Ghosh and Bhupendranath Dutta, its Dhaka branch by Pulin Das
1902	Viceroy Lord Curzon appoints the Raleigh Commission	Under Sir Thomas Raleigh to review the universities. Curzon alarmed at nationalist activism among the university-educated; its report leads to the Indian Universities Act 1904
1903	Ezhava leaders found the SNDP Yogam in Kerala	Founder(S) Named: Founded under the inspiration of Sri Narayana Guru the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam of the Ezhavas of Kerala, with Dr. Palpu and the poet Kumaran Asan among its founders; 'One caste, one religion, one God for mankind'; fought for school entry, government jobs and later temple entry; Place / Region: Kerala (Ezhava community) Core Aim As Stated In This Class: Ezhava rights
1903	Viceroy Lord Curzon's government offers 'administrative convenience'	As the official reason for partitioning Bengal. Home Secretary H. H. Risley's note of December 1903 floated the scheme; Bengal was called too big to govern, but the line ran along religious demography
1903	Gandhi starts the weekly Indian Opinion	Published in Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil and English to educate and unite the Natal Indians; later printed at Phoenix Farm
1904	S. G. Deuskar publishes Desher Katha	Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar's Bengali indictment of the 'hypnotic spell' of British rule; hugely popular during Swadeshi; banned by the Government in 1910
1904	V. D. Savarkar and his brother Ganesh found Abhinav Bharat	The Maharashtra secret society that grew out of the Mitra Mela; its members shot Collector A. M. T. Jackson at Nasik in 1909, and Savarkar wrote 'The Indian War of Independence, 1857'
1904	Gandhi establishes Phoenix Farm near Durban	A communal settlement inspired by Ruskin's Unto This Last, where Indian Opinion was printed and followers trained in simple living and self-reliance
1904	Viceroy Lord Curzon's Indian Universities Act brings the universities	Under stricter government control. Smaller senates, a government veto on senate decisions, stricter affiliation of colleges, government grants as leverage; resented by nationalists as an attack on autonomy; Followed the Raleigh Commission of 1902; Gopal Krishna Gokhale led the opposition in the Imperial Legislative Council, and nationalists read the Act as an attack on the autonomy of Indian education.
1905–1915	Extremist phase led by Lala Lajpat Rai	Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal. Sparked by Curzon's Partition of Bengal in 1905; Swadeshi and boycott, national education, the Surat split of 1907 between Moderates and Extremists; Tilak is jailed at Mandalay 1908-14
1905	Nearly every literate Indian has access to some patriotic journal	The class notes. The vernacular press had grown since the 1860s despite the Vernacular Press Act; it made local grievances national and serialised heroes such as Shivaji and Rana Pratap
1905	Rabindranath Tagore composes Amar Sonar Bangla against the Partition	Later Bangladesh's national anthem (1971); Tagore also led the Rakhi-bandhan of 16 October; Vande Mataram, by contrast, was Bankim's, composed in 1875
1905	Abanindranath Tagore paints Bharat Mata	The four-armed Mother India of the Bengal School, carrying food, cloth, a rosary and a Veda; Nandalal Bose was his pupil
1905	Shyamji Krishna Varma establishes India House at Highgate, London	A hostel for Indian students that became the hub of the revolutionaries abroad (Savarkar, Dhingra, Har Dayal, S. R. Rana); Varma also published The Indian Sociologist
1905	Japan's victory over Russia inspires Indian youth	An Asian nation defeating a European power made armed resistance look practical, one of the causes this class gives for youth radicalisation
19 Jul 1905	Viceroy Lord Curzon announces the Partition of Bengal	A Muslim-majority East Bengal and Assam with its capital at Dacca, and a Hindu-majority West Bengal; read by nationalists as divide and rule aimed at Bengal's political consciousness
16 Oct 1905	Curzon's Partition of Bengal takes effect and Bengal observes a day of mourning	Hartal and fasting; Rakhis tied across Bengal at Rabindranath Tagore's call as a pledge of Hindu-Muslim brotherhood and of the unity of the two halves
Dec 1905	Banaras Congress under President Gopal Krishna Gokhale formally approves Swadeshi and Boycott	The first formal Congress sanction of the Bengal methods; boycott read narrowly by Moderates and broadly by Extremists
1906	V. O. Chidambaram Pillai launches the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company	At Tuticorin, running steamers to Colombo against the British India Steam Navigation Company's monopoly; the British jailed him in 1908 and the venture was ruined
1906	Calcutta Congress under President Dadabhai Naoroji admits the word Swaraj	Into its resolutions. Naoroji's presidential address used the word, over Moderate reluctance; the session also endorsed Swadeshi, Boycott and national education; Swaraj meant self-government like Canada or Australia
1906	Bengal National College opened on 15 August 1906 with Aurobindo Ghosh	As its first principal. The paragraph is reproduced as it stands and no card is built on the missing figure. The recoverable facts follow. It ran under the National Council of Education, founded the same year.
1906	Gandhi raises an Indian medical corps in the Zulu Rebellion in Natal	His last act of loyalist service; the government's failure to reward it convinced him that petitioning alone would not change racial attitudes
1906	Transvaal's Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance orders every Indian to register	And carry a pass. Disallowed by London and re-enacted as the Asiatic Registration Act of 1907, when registration began; Indians called it the 'Black Act'
Sep 1906	Gandhi first advocates Satyagraha at a mass meeting in Johannesburg	At the Empire Theatre on 11 September, against the Transvaal registration ordinance; he then spoke of 'passive resistance', the name satyagraha being coined afterwards through a competition in Indian Opinion
Dec 1906	Nawab Salimullah of Dhaka and the Aga Khan found the All-India Muslim League at Dhaka	By Nawab Salimullah of Dhaka, the Aga Khan and others at the Muhammadan Educational Conference, with Viceroy Lord Minto's encouragement; professed loyalty to the Crown and sought separate Muslim representation
1907	Dorabji Tata incorporates the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO)	Fulfilling Jamsetji Tata's plan. The class credits the mill to J. N. Tata, who had died in 1904; TISCO first made steel at Sakchi (Jamshedpur) in 1912; the Bengal Iron Works at Barakar preceded it
1907	Viceroy Lord Minto's government deports Lala Lajpat Rai to Burma without trial	With Sardar Ajit Singh, to Mandalay under Regulation III of 1818 after the Punjab agrarian agitation of 1907; released in November after public outcry; the class also dates the Punjab National College at Lahore to 1907, but the Corrections place its founding by Lajpat Rai in 1921
1907	Bipin Chandra Pal refused to testify in the Bande Mataram sedition case	Against Aurobindo in 1907. He served six months for it, a year before the Alipore case.
1907–1908	Gandhi leads the Transvaal Satyagraha against the 'Black Act'	Indians refused to register and burned their certificates; Gandhi was first jailed in January 1908, was assaulted by the Pathan Mir Alam after compromising with Jan Smuts, and resumed the struggle when Smuts reneged
Aug 1907	Madam Bhikaiji Cama unfurls the first Indian national flag on foreign soil at Stuttgart	At the International Socialist Congress; the green, yellow and red tricolour, designed with Shyamji Krishna Varma, bore eight lotuses, Vande Mataram and a sun and crescent
Dec 1907	Congress splits at Surat between Moderates and Extremists	Moderates and Extremists come to blows over the presidency and the Calcutta resolutions; Rash Behari Ghosh, the Moderate nominee, never got to preside; the Extremists were shut out by the creed adopted at Allahabad in 1908; the session under Rash Behari Ghose broke up in disorder; the Extremists under Lokmanya Tilak stayed outside the Congress until 1916, and the British then coupled reforms for the Moderates with repression of the Extremists
1908	Police uncovered the Alipore bomb conspiracy	After the Muzaffarpur bombing of 30 April 1908. Aurobindo's acquittal in the Alipore Bomb Case is dated 1908. Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki had aimed at Magistrate Kingsford's carriage. The trial ran into the following year and Aurobindo was acquitted on 6 May 1909, defended by C. R. Das. He withdrew to Chandernagore in February 1910 and reached Pondicherry in April 1910.
1908	Prafulla Chaki and Khudiram Bose throw the Muzaffarpur bomb	Meant for Judge Kingsford, it killed two Englishwomen; Khudiram, aged 18, was hanged and Chaki shot himself; the Alipore Bomb Case followed, Lokmanya Tilak was transported to Mandalay for six years and the Explosive Substances Act was passed
1908	Viceroy Lord Minto II's Newspaper (Incitement to Offences) Act lets magistrates confiscate presses	For matter inciting rebellion or violence, aimed at the Swadeshi-era papers; Tilak jailed for sedition the same year over articles in Kesari, six years in Mandalay
Jun 1908	Bal Gangadhar Tilak is sentenced to six years' transportation to Mandalay	For sedition. For Kesari articles defending the Muzaffarpur bombers; Jinnah argued his bail plea; sentenced on 22 July 1908, provoking a six-day strike by Bombay's mill workers; the Alipore Bomb Case against Aurobindo ran alongside, from the arrests of May 1908 to his acquittal on 6 May 1909
1909	Indian Councils Act 1909 (Morley-Minto Reforms) introduces separate electorates	For Muslims. Secretary of State Morley and Viceroy Lord Minto's 'carrot' after the Surat split; state sanction to communal politics; passed under Secretary of State John Morley and Viceroy Lord Minto; the official majority was abolished in provincial councils but kept at the centre, and Satyendra Prasanna Sinha became the first Indian Law Member of the Viceroy's Executive Council; What It Did With Indian Membership: Seats greatly increased; automatic official majority abolished in provincial councils; official majority retained at the Imperial Legislative Council; separate electorates for Muslims; S.P. Sinha appointed Law Member What It Did With Powers: Supplementary questions and resolutions on the budget or any matter of public interest, except defence and foreign affairs; no power to enact laws against the government's veto Verdict This Class Gives: A limited increase in Indian participation that also divided the electorate communally
1909	Satyendra Prasanno Sinha becomes the first Indian on the Viceroy's Executive Council, as Law Member	Satyendra Prasanno Sinha, the first Indian member, as Law Member; a token concession to the Moderates
1909	Punjab Hindu Sabha founded at Lahore	The class's example of 'liberal communalism'; a forerunner of the Hindu Mahasabha of 1915
1909	Madan Lal Dhingra of India House assassinates Sir Curzon Wyllie in London	On 1 July 1909 at the Imperial Institute; Wyllie was political aide-de-camp to the Secretary of State for India; Dhingra was hanged and India House was broken up, Shyamji Krishna Varma fleeing to Paris
1909	Anant Kanhere of Abhinav Bharat assassinates Nasik Collector A. M. T. Jackson	Jackson was the District Magistrate; the Nasik Conspiracy Case that followed led to Savarkar's arrest in London in 1910 for abetment, the pistols having been sent from India House
1909	Madam Bhikaiji Cama moves to Paris and founds the Paris Indian Society	With S. R. Rana and M. B. Godrej, beyond the reach of British extradition; from Paris she published Bande Mataram (from September 1909) and smuggled revolutionary literature into India

1910s · 64 events · Swadeshi to Rowlatt

Date	Event	Detail
1910	Viceroy Lord Minto's government bans S. G. Deuskar's Desher Katha	The Bengali indictment of British rule of 1904 had become a Swadeshi bestseller; the ban came in Minto's last year, alongside the Press Act of 1910
1910	V. D. Savarkar's escape attempt at Marseilles fails after his arrest in London	Held for abetting the Jackson murder, he slipped through a porthole and swam ashore at Marseilles, but the French police handed him back; the Hague tribunal upheld British custody and he was sentenced to two life terms in the Andamans
1910	Gandhi establishes Tolstoy Farm near Johannesburg with Hermann Kallenbach	Named for the Russian writer whose Kingdom of God is Within You shaped satyagraha; the satyagrahis' families lived there through the Transvaal struggle
1910	G. D. Kumar and Taraknath Das set up United India House at Seattle around this time	Meeting hall and headquarters for Indian activists on the West Coast; Das's Free Hindustan (Vancouver, 1908) had already been preaching armed revolt
1910	Indian Press Act 1910 under Viceroy Lord Minto II makes presses deposit forfeitable securities	Forfeiture for 'objectionable matter', search and seizure; over 1,000 publications lose securities by 1914; used through the war and repealed only in 1922
1911	King George V announced the annulment of the Partition of Bengal at the Delhi Durbar on 12 December 1911	And throughout: the class never states the movement's central achievement. Bengal was reunited on linguistic lines, Bihar and Orissa were separated, and the capital moved from Calcutta to Delhi. This is an omission rather than an error, and no card below tests it, but the class's account of the Swadeshi phase stops short of that achievement.
1911	King George V's Delhi Durbar annuls the partition of Bengal	And moves the capital to Delhi. The reunited Bengal lost Bihar and Orissa (a new province) and Assam and became Muslim-majority; Viceroy Lord Hardinge presided over the proclamations, and the transfer to Delhi was set for 1912
1911	Vanchi Iyer shoots Collector Ashe at Maniyachi railway station in Tirunelveli district	On 17 June; Ashe was the district Collector, and Vanchi shot himself immediately after the one revolutionary killing this class records in the south
1912	Dacca University was promised only in 1912	As compensation for annulling the Partition, and established in 1921. It cannot have been an inducement during the Swadeshi years.
1912	British India's capital moves from Calcutta to Delhi	Viceroy Lord Hardinge made his state entry in December; New Delhi, designed by Lutyens and Baker, was completed only in 1931
1912	Rash Behari Bose's group bombs Viceroy Lord Hardinge's state entry into Delhi	Basanta Kumar Biswas threw it from a rooftop in Chandni Chowk on 23 December; Hardinge was wounded and his umbrella-bearer killed; Rash Behari Bose and Sachindranath Sanyal planned it and escaped, while Biswas, Amir Chand, Avadh Behari and Bal Mukund were hanged
1912	Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Gandhi's political mentor, tours South Africa	Gandhi accompanied him; Gokhale's talks with the Union government raised hopes of repeal of the £3 tax that were not honoured, precipitating the 1913 struggle
1913	Sohan Singh Bhakna and Lala Har Dayal found the Hindi Association of the Pacific Coast	Soon known as the Ghadar Party; formally founded at Astoria, Oregon, on 21 April 1913 after a preliminary meeting at Portland in March; Bhakna president, Har Dayal general secretary, headquarters at Yugantar Ashram, San Francisco
1913	Gandhi leads the march of Indian miners from Natal into the Transvaal	The 1913 satyagraha against the £3 tax on ex-indentured Indians and the ruling that invalidated non-Christian marriages; Kasturba and many women were jailed
Nov 1913	Lala Har Dayal edits the Ghadar weekly, published	From Yugantar Ashram, San Francisco. In Punjabi, Urdu and other languages; it printed 'Angrezi Raj Ka Kacha Chittha', bomb-making articles and the story of 1857, and was smuggled to India's youth and sepoys
1914	Dr Annie Besant, theosophist and editor of New India, joins the Congress	She had made India her home and led the Theosophical Society from Adyar; her Home Rule campaign followed in 1915-16
May 1914	Canada refuses landing to the 376 Indians of the Komagata Maru at Vancouver	Chartered from Hong Kong by Baba Gurdit Singh to test the Continuous Journey regulation; the passengers held out for two months before being forced to sail back
Jun 1914	Lokmanya Tilak returns to India after six years in Mandalay jail	Transported in 1908 for sedition over his Kesari articles on the Muzaffarpur bomb; released to a changed political climate, he rejoined the Congress only in 1916
Jul 1914–1918	First World War	India sent men, money and materials to Britain's war; Moderates expected political reward, revolutionaries sought German help for a rising, and Montagu's declaration of 1917 was the eventual answer
Jul 1914	Gandhi leaves South Africa for good after the Gandhi-Smuts Agreement	The settlement repealed the £3 tax and recognised Indian marriages in return for ending satyagraha; he sailed via England and reached Bombay in January 1915
Sep 1914	Police fire on the returned Komagata Maru passengers at Baj Baj near Calcutta, killing 19	The police tried to arrest 'troublemakers' as the ship docked at Budge Budge; the outrage swelled the Ghadar returnees, many survivors vowing revenge
1915	Hindu Mahasabha founded at Hardwar	Grew out of the Punjab Hindu Sabha; the class's example of 'moderate communalism' by the 1920s; Madan Mohan Malaviya among its early leaders
1915	Mahendra Pratap and Barkatullah proclaim a Provisional Government of Free India at Kabul	On 1 December 1915, with German and Turkish envoys' support: Raja Mahendra Pratap president, Maulvi Barkatullah prime minister; symbolic, but it alarmed the British about the frontier
1915–1916	Lahore Conspiracy Trials sentence the Ghadar returnees	Special tribunals under the Defence of India Act sent dozens to the gallows or to transportation, Kartar Singh Sarabha among the hanged
1915	Dr Annie Besant helps broker the reunion of Moderates	And surviving Extremists in the Congress. Healing the Surat split of 1907; Lokmanya Tilak himself formally rejoined only in 1916, and the reunion was sealed at the Lucknow session of December 1916
1915	Dr Annie Besant urges the Congress to launch an official Home Rule campaign	The Moderate old guard delayed sanction, so she went ahead with her own All India Home Rule League in September 1916
9 Jan 1915	Gandhi lands at Bombay from South Africa	The day now kept as Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. Returning a celebrity after twenty-one years abroad; Gokhale made him promise a year of travelling and observing India before taking any public stand
Feb 1915	Ghadar rising planned for 21 February is pre-empted by British intelligence	Rash Behari Bose, Sachindranath Sanyal, Kartar Singh Sarabha and V. G. Pingle had fixed the date; the plan leaked through informers, suspect regiments were disarmed and the leaders arrested
Feb 1915	Indian sepoys of the 5th Light Infantry mutiny at Singapore	The one regiment that did rise, quickly suppressed and its ringleaders shot
Feb 1915	Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Gandhi's political mentor, dies at Poona	Founder of the Servants of India Society (1905) and the leading Moderate; the newly returned Gandhi honoured his advice to spend a year travelling and observing India before taking a public stand
Mar 1915	Defence of India Act gives the government wartime powers of detention without trial	Passed under Viceroy Lord Hardinge to hold suspects without trial for the war's duration; the model for the Rowlatt Act of 1919
Mar 1915	British crush the Ghadar conspiracy in Punjab	Rash Behari Bose escaped to Japan; the Lahore Conspiracy Trials of 1915-16 sent dozens to the gallows or to transportation
Sep 1915	Bagha Jatin dies fighting the police at Balasore on the Orissa coast	Jatindranath Mukherjee of Jugantar, cornered on the Balasore beach while awaiting a German arms landing; his was the last stand of the wartime conspiracy in Bengal
Nov 1915	Kartar Singh Sarabha, aged 19, is hanged at Lahore	The Ghadar organiser who had toured Punjab's villages recruiting for the rising; convicted in the Lahore Conspiracy Trials, he became the martyr Bhagat Singh most revered
1916	Sir P. Theagaraja Chetty and Dr. T. M. Nair form the South Indian Liberal Federation (Justice Party) at Madras	Non-Brahmin elites seeking representation and jobs against Brahmin dominance of the Madras administration; came to power in 1920 and began communal reservation; Founder(S) Named: Sir P. Theagaraja Chetty and Dr. T.M. Nair Place / Region: Madras Presidency Core Aim As Stated In This Class: Political representation and jobs for South Indian non-Brahmins
1916	Madan Mohan Malaviya founds the Benaras Hindu University	Grew out of Besant's Central Hindu College of 1898
1916	Lala Lajpat Rai publicised the safety-valve charge in Young India in 1916	Not as its originator. He took it from William Wedderburn's 1913 biography of Hume. It is also worth recording that the safety-valve account is rejected by most modern scholarship, which finds no evidence that Dufferin conceived the Congress. Cards below test who advanced the argument and what it claimed, never that it was true.
1916	Lokmanya Tilak formally rejoins the Congress	His first Congress in a decade was Lucknow that December; the four-anna membership fee sometimes placed in this year in fact came with the Nagpur constitution of December 1920
1916–1920	Banaras Patna Aligarh and Lucknow universities founded, six in five years	Madan Mohan Malaviya's Banaras Hindu University and Mysore in 1916, Patna 1917, the Nizam's Osmania in 1918 (Urdu the medium), Aligarh Muslim University and Lucknow in 1920; Banaras: Mysore. The first three predate the Sadler report (see Corrections)
Apr 1916	Lokmanya Tilak launches his Home Rule League at the Bombay Provincial Conference at Belgaum	Founded without waiting for Congress approval and headquartered at Poona; six branches across Maharashtra, Karnataka, the Central Provinces and Berar; its demands were swarajya, vernacular education and linguistic provinces
Sep 1916–1918	Annie Besant launches the Home Rule League	Tilak's league from Poona in April 1916 and Besant's from Madras in September 1916 demand self-government within the Empire; the Lucknow Pact of 1916 reunites the Congress and brings a Congress-League accord; interned in 1917, then Congress president; some 200 branches across the rest of India outside Tilak's area; George Arundale and B. P. Wadia were her lieutenants, and Pandit Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru, C. R. Das, Jinnah, Tej Bahadur Sapru and Madan Mohan Malaviya joined
Dec 1916	Lucknow Congress under Ambika Charan Mazumdar reunites the party	And signs the Lucknow Pact. Extremists returned after nine years; the Pact with Jinnah's Muslim League conceded separate electorates, weightage for Muslim minorities and one-third of central seats to Muslims, in return for a joint demand for self-government; Lokmanya Tilak defended it
1917–1919	Sir Michael Sadler's Calcutta University Commission reviews Calcutta University	And the whole structure of education. Ashutosh Mukherjee among its members; recommends 12 years of school then a 3-year degree, a separate board for the intermediate stage, and more universities; Reported in 1919 under Viceroy Lord Chelmsford; the 10+2 intermediate stage with a separate board is its creation (see Corrections), and Aligarh and Lucknow universities came in its wake.
Apr 1917	Champaran satyagraha: Gandhi defies the order to leave	And takes up the indigo raiyats' case. Place: Champaran district, north Bihar Adversary: European indigo planters Core Grievance: The Tinkathia system 3 of every 20 parts of land (15%) under indigo and heavy "release money" once German synthetic dyes made indigo unprofitable Named Associates: Raj Kumar Shukla, Brijkishore Prasad, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parekh, J. B. Kripalani Outcome As Stated: Planters refunded 25% of illegal dues; the Tinkathia system was abolished; Gandhi's first victory in India; brought by Raj Kumar Shukla, his first act of civil disobedience on Indian soil; the case was dropped, and his survey of the raiyats forced an inquiry that ended the tinkathia system and refunded a quarter of the illegal dues
Jun 1917	Government of Madras interns Dr Annie Besant, B. P. Wadia and George Arundale	Under the Defence of India Act, at Ootacamund; nationwide 'Release Mrs Besant' protests followed, S. Subramania Iyer renounced his knighthood, and Montagu remarked that internment had only multiplied her
Aug 1917	Secretary of State Edwin Montagu declares increasing Indian self-government to be British policy	The 20 August 1917 statement in the Commons promised 'the gradual development of self-governing institutions' towards responsible government in India; it led to the Montagu-Chelmsford Report and the Government of India Act 1919
Sep 1917	Madras Government frees Dr Annie Besant and lifts her ban	After three months of protest. Montagu's declaration had come a month earlier; released a national heroine, she was elected Congress President for December
Dec 1917	Dr Annie Besant presides over the Calcutta Congress, the first woman to do so	The first woman Congress president, chosen after her internment by the Madras government that June had made her a national figure; nominated by Lokmanya Tilak, a mark of Extremist trust; her presidency capped the Home Rule year, and by 1918 she withdrew from agitation once Montagu's declaration seemed to concede the principle
1918	Ahmedabad mill strike: Gandhi's first public fast in India wins arbitration	And a 35% award. Against Ambalal Sarabhai and the mill owners over the plague bonus; Anasuya Sarabhai led the workers; the owners accepted arbitration and the award was the 35% rise Gandhi had fixed; Place: Ahmedabad, Gujarat, the "Manchester of India" Adversary: Textile mill owners, including Ambalal Sarabhai Core Grievance: Withdrawal of the "plague bonus" against a wage demand set against rising wartime prices; owners offered 20% Named Associates: Anasuya Sarabhai, Ambalal Sarabhai Outcome As Stated: Gandhi's first public fast in India; owners agreed to arbitration; arbitrator awarded a 35% wage increase
1918	Kheda satyagraha: Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel lead a no-revenue campaign	After the drought. By June 1918 the government quietly ceased pressing for collection and returned seized property the campaign made Vallabhbhai Patel's name; Place: Kheda (Kaira) district, Gujarat Adversary: The Bombay Presidency government Core Grievance: Refusal of revenue remission after drought, despite the Revenue Code rule for yields below one-fourth of normal Named Associates: Vallabhbhai Patel, Indulal Yagnik, Shankarlal Banker; Servants of India Society survey Outcome As Stated: No formal waiver; a de facto concession
1918	Lokmanya Tilak sails to England to sue Sir Valentine Chirol for libel	Chirol's Indian Unrest had called him the 'father of Indian unrest'; Tilak lost the case at heavy cost, and his League's work languished in his absence
1918	Madan Mohan Malaviya, Gauri Shankar Mishra	And Indra Narayan Dwivedi found the United Provinces Kisan Sabha. The first province-level peasant body of the century, moderate in method: petitions and representations against landlord demands rather than agitation.
1919–1947	Gandhian era, from the Rowlatt Satyagraha to Independence	Non-Cooperation 1920-22, Civil Disobedience 1930-34 with the Dandi March, Quit India 1942; ends with the Mountbatten Plan of June 1947 and the Indian Independence Act, 15 August 1947
1919	Gandhi suspended the Rowlatt satyagraha on 18 April 1919	Five days after the massacre.
1919	Government of India Act 1919 (Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms) introduces dyarchy in the provinces	Reserved subjects under the Governor, transferred subjects under Indian ministers; a bicameral central legislature, separate electorates extended to Sikhs, Anglo-Indians, Indian Christians and Europeans, and a statutory review after ten years, the clause that produced the Simon Commission
1919	Sir C. Sankaran Nair resigns from the Viceroy's Executive Council in protest at the Punjab atrocities	The Malabar-born former Congress President (1897), an Indian and not an Anglo-Indian; the only member of the Council to quit over Jallianwala Bagh
1919	Amritsar Congress under Pandit Motilal Nehru agrees to try working the new Act	The December 1919 session, held in the shadow of Jallianwala Bagh, welcomed the reforms with reservations at Gandhi's urging; within a year the mood turned to rejection
1919–1920	Ali brothers, Maulana Azad and Hakim Ajmal Khan lead the Khilafat Movement	A Khilafat Committee to save the Ottoman Caliph's authority and the holy places after the Treaty of Sevres (1920) dismembered Turkey; Gandhi joined, later presided over the All-India Khilafat Committee, and welded the cause to Non-Cooperation
1919	Government of India Act 1919 (Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms) fixes a statutory review of the reforms after ten years	A commission is due by 1929; Baldwin's Conservative government brings it forward to November 1927, Birkenhead fearing a Labour ministry would otherwise appoint it
Mar 1919	Viceroy Lord Chelmsford's government passes the Rowlatt Act	Over unanimous Indian opposition. The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, from Justice Rowlatt's committee: detention without trial, searches without warrant, political trials without jury; Jinnah resigned from the Imperial Legislative Council in protest and Gandhi's Satyagraha Sabha called an all-India hartal
30 Mar 1919	Delhi observes the Rowlatt hartal a week early and police fire on the crowd	The date had been moved from 30 March to 6 April, but Delhi under Swami Shraddhanand acted on the earlier day; riots and firing followed, and Punjab's protests were already out of control
6 Apr 1919	Gandhi's all-India Rowlatt hartal is observed, largely peaceful and successful	His first nationwide action, run by the Satyagraha Sabha: business suspended, fasting and prayer; the response outran expectations and alarmed the Punjab administration
10 Apr 1919	Punjab Government deports Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew	And Dr Satyapal secretly from Amritsar. The two Congress leaders of the Amritsar hartal; the crowd that protested was fired on, banks were attacked and Europeans killed, and martial law in effect followed under Lieutenant-Governor Michael O'Dwyer
13 Apr 1919	Brigadier-General Dyer fires on the Baisakhi crowd at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar	The exit blocked, about 1,650 rounds fired into the walled ground: 379 dead officially, over a thousand by Indian estimates; the Hunter inquiry merely retired Dyer, and Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest

1920s · 73 events · Gandhian mass phase

Date	Event	Detail
1920	MAO College becomes the Aligarh Muslim University by Act of the Imperial Legislative Council	Sir Syed's college of 1875 raised to a university
1920	Justice Party comes to power in Madras under the Montagu-Chelmsford dyarchy	The first non-Brahmin ministry; began communal reservation orders (the Communal G.O. Of 1921), forerunner of today's system
1920	Sikh leaders constituted the SGPC in November 1920	And the Akali Dal in December 1920, both before the Act. The 1925 Act gave the existing SGPC statutory recognition and control of the gurdwaras; it did not create it. Cards below are worded so that the Act's function (vesting gurdwaras in an elected Sikh body) is what is scored.
1920	The Gujarat Vidyapith was founded by Gandhi only in 1920	In 1917 Kripalani was teaching at Muzaffarpur in Bihar. J. B. The class also omits Rajendra Prasad and Anugrah Narayan Sinha, who are named in every standard account of the Champaran team.
1920	Gandhi returned the Kaiser-i-Hind medal in August 1920	In his letter to the Viceroy at the launch of Non-Cooperation. Gandhi's return of the Kaiser-i-Hind medal is placed in the immediate aftermath of the massacre.
1920	Congress boycotts the first elections under the Government of India Act 1919	Turnout was very low in many provinces and only Moderate or loyalist candidates stood widely; Jinnah and Malaviya went in and were marginalised, undermining the councils' legitimacy
1920–1921	Non-Cooperators found Kashi Vidyapith Jamia Millia Islamia and Bihar Vidyapith	Non-Cooperators found Kashi Vidyapith: Gujarat Vidyapith. Alternatives to the boycotted government colleges: Gandhi started Gujarat Vidyapith at Ahmedabad, the Ali brothers and Mahmud al-Hasan Jamia Millia Islamia at Aligarh (later Delhi), and Kashi Vidyapith at Benares (with Bhagwan Das) counted Lal Bahadur Shastri among its students
1920–1921	Congress raises the Tilak Swaraj Fund of ₹1 crore within months	Launched by Gandhi in Lokmanya Tilak's memory; women gave jewellery and even courtesans donated; the money financed khadi, national schools and the constructive programme
1920	Gandhi launches the Non-Cooperation Movement alongside the Ali brothers' Khilafat agitation	Approved at the Calcutta special session (September 1920, Lala Lajpat Rai presiding) and the Nagpur session (December 1920, C. Vijayaraghavachariar presiding)
1920	Baba Ramchandra, Gauri Shankar Mishra	And Kedar Nath form the Oudh Kisan Sabha in Awadh with Congress support. Against the taluqdars' rents, nazrana, begar and evictions (see Corrections); Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru toured the Awadh villages with Baba Ramchandra in 1920.
1920	Manabendra Nath Roy formed the seven-member Tashkent group of 17 October 1920 at the Comintern's prompting	It was an émigré nucleus; the party as an organization inside India dates itself from the Kanpur conference of December 1925, and that is the founding date standard accounts and the party itself use.
1920	Lala Lajpat Rai presided over the founding of the AITUC at Bombay on 31 October 1920, three months after Tilak's death	Bal Gangadhar Tilak died on 1 August 1920 and took no part in the founding meeting; the organizing work fell to N. M. Joshi, Joseph Baptista and Diwan Chaman Lall (first general secretary) the president's name the class gives is correct.
1 Aug 1920	Lokmanya Tilak dies at Bombay on the day Non-Cooperation is formally launched	Gandhi's movement began on 1 August 1920 with the return of the Kaiser-i-Hind medal; without Tilak the Maharashtra Home Rule League faded and merged into Congress work
Sep 1920	Calcutta special session of the Congress adopts Non-Cooperation	Calcutta special session of the Congress: presided by Lala Lajpat Rai. Gandhi's resolution promising Swaraj within a year passed over the doubts of C. R. Das, Jinnah and Dr Annie Besant; Nagpur ratified and elaborated it in December
Dec 1920	Nagpur Congress under Vijayaraghavachariar adopts Non-Cooperation	And a new constitution. C. R. Das moved the Non-Cooperation resolution and Gandhi the new constitution: a fifteen-member Working Committee, linguistic Provincial Congress Committees, village-level committees and a four-anna membership fee; Jinnah made his final break with the Congress here
1921	Mahant Narain Das's men massacre Akali volunteers at Nankana Sahib	About 130 Akalis under Bhai Lachhman Singh killed on 20 February 1921 at Guru Nanak's birthplace; the atrocity turned opinion behind the gurdwara reform movement
1921	Lala Lajpat Rai founded the National College, Lahore, in 1921	During Non-Cooperation. Bhagat Singh born in 1907 joined it in 1923. A college Bhagat Singh attended cannot have been founded in the year of his birth. No card below scores 1907 for this college.
1921	Moplah (Mappila) peasants rise against landlords and the Raj in Malabar, Kerala	A Khilafat-era rising that turned violent and communal against Hindu landlords; crushed by the army, with the Wagon Tragedy among its horrors evidence of the risk in merging religious causes with nationalist ones
1921	Prince of Wales visits India amid a Congress hartal and Bombay riots	The Prince (later Edward VIII) landed at Bombay on 17 November 1921 to a nationwide hartal and black flags; the Bombay riots killed dozens and Gandhi fasted five days until they subsided
1921	Khilafat leaders Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali are jailed	Over 'incitement' statements. The Khilafat leaders were sentenced for a resolution urging Muslim soldiers to quit the army; by the year's end almost every leader but Gandhi was in jail
1921	Gandhi's fast after the Bombay riots of November 1921 lasted five days	Ending when the violence subsided. The substance that Gandhi answered violence by his own countrymen with a fast rather than with a call for further protest is correct. No card below tests the duration.
1921–1922	Tej Bahadur Sapru's Press Law Committee recommends repeal	Viceroy Lord Reading repeals the 1908 and 1910 Acts. The committee of 1921, the repeal in 1922, in the conciliatory phase of the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms; a great relief to Indian journalists
Apr 1921	Subhas Chandra Bose resigns from the Indian Civil Service	Placed fourth in the 1920 ICS examination in England, he quit before taking up his post and returned to work under Deshbandhu C. R. Das in Bengal
Aug 1921	Moplah (Mappila) tenants of south Malabar rise against Hindu janmi landlords	And British authority. August 1921, out of the Khilafat agitation; months of fighting, over 2,000 Moplahs killed, and the Wagon Tragedy in which prisoners suffocated in a sealed rail wagon.
1922	Gandhi is jailed and Non-Cooperation ends abruptly	Leaving the Congress without a plan. Six years' sentence in March 1922; the movement's suspension after Chauri Chaura split the party into No-Changers and Pro-Changers
1922	Chauri Chaura mob burns 22 policemen at Gorakhpur	Gandhi withdraws Non-Cooperation. 5 February 1922; the Working Committee's Bardoli resolution of 12 February suspends the movement
1922	Police suppress Madari Pasi's Eka movement in Hardoi	Bahraich and Sitapur and jail its leaders. Peasants had sworn on the Ganges to pay no more than the recorded rent and to resist illegal levies; the movement fell with the withdrawal of Non-Cooperation.
Jan 1922	Gandhi's deadline for the release of political prisoners expires	He had threatened mass civil disobedience, beginning with a no-tax campaign in Bardoli taluka, if the prisoners were not freed by the end of January 1922; Chauri Chaura intervened within a week
4 Feb 1922	Chauri Chaura incident: a Non-Cooperation crowd burns the police station	After police firing. On 4 February 1922 at Chauri Chaura, Gorakhpur district, United Provinces: police fired on the volunteers, killing three, and the crowd burned the thana with 22 policemen inside; the news made Gandhi halt the movement
12 Feb 1922	Gandhi calls off the Non-Cooperation Movement after Chauri Chaura	The Congress Working Committee's Bardoli resolution of 12 February 1922 ratified the withdrawal; Deshbandhu C. R. Das, Pandit Motilal Nehru and Jawaharlal Nehru protested, and Gandhi framed the 'struggle-truce-struggle' rhythm
Mar 1922	Gandhi is tried for sedition over articles in Young India	The 'Great Trial' at Ahmedabad in March 1922 before Judge Broomfield, who compared him to Tilak (also given six years, in 1908); Gandhi pleaded guilty and invited the highest penalty
Dec 1922	Gaya Congress: Deshbandhu C. R. Das moves council entry and is defeated	Gaya Congress: Deshbandhu C. R. Das: as Congress President. The No-Changers, led by C. Rajagopalachari with Rajendra Prasad, Vallabhbhai Patel and M. A. Ansari, kept the boycott; Das and Pandit Motilal Nehru resigned their Congress offices and formed the Swaraj Party within weeks
1923	Delhi AICC compromise lets the Swarajists contest the councils	While staying in the Congress. No-Changers agreed not to expel the Swarajists, who would fight the elections on a separate platform without the Congress abandoning boycott in principle; both sides remembered the cost of the 1907 Surat split, and legislative work was to yield whenever mass agitation resumed
1923	Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das concluded the Bengal Pact in December 1923	After the polls. It was endorsed at the Congress session that month; it was a consequence of the Swarajist position in Bengal rather than the means of winning it.
1 Jan 1923	C. R. Das and Pandit Motilal Nehru form the Swaraj Party	On 1 January 1923, C. R. Das as president and Motilal Nehru as secretary; formally the Congress-Khilafat Swarajya Party, pledged to contest the 1923 elections and 'wreck the councils from within'; Vithalbhai Patel, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Srinivasa Iyengar, N. C. Kelkar and M. R. Jayakar were among its leaders; founded 1 January 1923 at Allahabad after the Gaya Congress (December 1922, C. R. Das presiding) rejected council entry; pro-changers against no-changers
Nov 1923	Swaraj Party wins 42 of 101 elected seats in the Central Legislative Assembly	The largest single bloc in the Assembly, with majorities or strong presences in Bengal, Bombay, the Central Provinces and the United Provinces; officials and nominated members still let the government keep control, but the Swarajists could obstruct and embarrass
1924	Mustafa Kemal abolishes the Ottoman Caliphate in Turkey	And the Khilafat cause evaporates. On 3 March 1924, five months after the Turkish Republic was proclaimed (29 October 1923); Indian Muslims were left with nothing to show for the Khilafat alliance, and communal politics revived
1924	Gandhi presides over the Belgaum Congress	The only session he ever presided over. With the Swarajists already in the councils, he used the session to heal the rift with the No-Changers, tacitly allowing council entry while pressing spinning and constructive work
1924	Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee	And Ram Prasad Bismil found the Hindustan Republican Association. At Kanpur; aim an armed revolution for a federal republic; manifesto 'The Revolutionary' (1925); government funds to be expropriated to buy arms
Feb 1924	Gandhi is released from prison after appendicitis surgery	Freed from Yeravda in February 1924 after serving two of his six years; back in public life he did not oppose the Swarajists but urged a return to constructive work as Hindu-Muslim tensions rose, and he presided over the Belgaum Congress that December
1925	Punjab Legislative Council passes the Sikh Gurdwaras Act	Vesting the gurdwaras in the elected SGPC. The SGPC had been constituted by the Sikhs themselves in November 1920 and the Akali Dal in December 1920; the Act gave statutory control over the shrines and ended the mahants' hold
1925	Vithalbhai Patel is elected the first Indian Speaker of the Central Legislative Assembly	Elected on 24 August 1925 on the Swarajist bloc plus Moderate support; the post was then styled President of the Assembly; Vallabhbhai's elder brother, he resigned it in 1930 to join Civil Disobedience
1925	Swaraj Party president Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das died on 16 June 1925	Its only leader with a Bengal mass base. The class gives only two reasons for the party's decline and omits the decisive one. The split between Responsivists and non-Responsivists that the class does describe followed his death rather than preceding it.
Aug 1925	HRA revolutionaries under Ram Prasad Bismil	And Ashfaqulla Khan hold up the 8 Down train near Kakori, Lucknow. Government treasury cash looted on 9 August 1925; the Kakori Conspiracy Case follows
1926	Congress session at Gauhati, S. Srinivasa Iyengar presiding	Note: Khadi made obligatory for Congress office-holders
1926	Swarajists return to the councils in reduced numbers	After the November 1926 elections; the Responsivists stay on. Pandit Motilal Nehru had led the party's walkout in March 1926 over the government's refusal to concede constitutional advance; Lala Lajpat Rai, Madan Mohan Malaviya, N. C. Kelkar and M. R. Jayakar as Responsivists chose to work the reforms; the final exit came only with Civil Disobedience in 1930
1927	Maulana Muhammad Ilyas founds the Tablighi Jamaat in Mewat	As a Deobandi offshoot. A door-to-door mission to bring lapsed Muslims back to practice; the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, the other Deobandi body, backed composite nationalism against the two-nation theory
1927	Stanley Baldwin's government appoints the all-British Simon Commission	Under Sir John Simon. Appointed on 8 November 1927, two years before the ten-year review written into the 1919 Act fell due, with seven British parliamentarians and not one Indian; the Congress prepared to return to mass agitation
1927	Madras Congress under M. A. Ansari resolves to boycott the Simon Commission at every step	The Liberals under Tej Bahadur Sapru and Jinnah's wing of the Muslim League joined the boycott, the Aga Khan-Shafi wing did not; Secretary of State Lord Birkenhead's taunt that Indians could not agree on a constitution led to the All Parties Conference and the Nehru Report
1927	Ram Prasad Bismil Rajendra Lahiri	And Roshan Singh hanged in the Kakori Conspiracy Case. Ram Prasad Bismil: Ashfaqulla Khan. Sachindra Nath Sanyal transported for life; the December 1927 executions galvanise the youth who reorganise the HRA the next year
1927	Margaret Cousins convened the founding of the All India Women's Conference at Poona in 1927	The Maharani of Baroda was its first president.
Nov 1927	Lord Birkenhead appoints the Simon Commission two years early	Lord Birkenhead: Secretary of State for India. The Indian Statutory Commission: seven British MPs under Sir John Simon (Clement Attlee among them), not one Indian member; Baldwin's Conservative government in London, Lord Irwin Viceroy in India
1928	Born on 28 January 1865, Lala Lajpat Rai was 63 years	And 9 months old on 30 October 1928 nearly 64, not nearly 63.
1928	Swarajists defeat the government's Public Safety Bill in the Central Legislative Assembly	In September 1928; the Bill sought to deport 'dangerous' foreigners and was aimed at communist and labour organisers returning from abroad; Bhagat Singh and B. K. Dutt's Assembly bomb of April 1929 protested its revival
1928	Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev reorganise the HRA	As the HSRA at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi. The Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, formed on 8-9 September 1928 (see Corrections on the month); a socialist republic the goal; low-level functionaries and informers no longer targeted; The HSRA's founding is dated to October 1928. Azad, Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev reorganised the HRA into the HSRA at Feroz Shah Kotla on 8-9 September 1928. Cards below give the year and the venue only.
1928	Nehru Report of Pandit Motilal Nehru's All Parties committee proposes Dominion Status and joint electorates	Jinnah answers with his Fourteen Points (March 1929); Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose want complete independence
Feb 1928	Simon Commission lands at Bombay to 'Simon Go Back', black flags and hartals	Protests met it wherever it went: Lucknow's procession under Govind Ballabh Pant and Jawaharlal Nehru was caned, and Lahore's ended in the lathi charge on Lala Lajpat Rai in October
Feb 1928	Simon Commission under Sir John Simon lands at Bombay to nationwide protest	'Simon Go Back' becomes the slogan; black flags and hartals greet the Commissioners in every city; appointed November 1927 with no Indian member; Lala Lajpat Rai fatally injured in the Lahore lathi charge of 30 October 1928
Aug 1928	All Parties Conference committee under Pandit Motilal Nehru issues the Nehru Report	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru its secretary; it proposed Dominion Status, full responsible government at the centre and in the provinces, joint electorates with reserved seats for minorities, a bill of rights and Hindustani as the common language; Dominion Status, responsible government ending diarchy, joint electorates with seats reserved only where Muslims are a minority (none in Punjab or Bengal), universal adult suffrage, no state religion, Hindustani as common language; adopted at Lucknow
30 Oct 1928	Lala Lajpat Rai is lathi-charged at Lahore on Superintendent James Scott's order	Leading the anti-Simon procession at 63, he was beaten about the head; every blow, he said, would be a nail in the coffin of British imperialism; he died on 17 November
17 Nov 1928	Lala Lajpat Rai dies of the injuries from the Lahore lathi charge	The 'Lion of Punjab', Congress President at the Calcutta special session of 1920 and a Home Rule and Swarajist veteran; the HSRA vowed to avenge him; on 30 October 1928 (the class says February; see Corrections), under Superintendent James Scott; Lajpat Rai takes blows to the chest and dies on 17 November 1928; his death moves Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and Chandrasekhar Azad to plan revenge on the police officer responsible
Dec 1928	Calcutta Congress session under Pandit Motilal Nehru issues a one-year ultimatum on the Nehru Report	Dominion Status by 31 December 1929, failing which the Congress demands complete independence; Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose oppose the Dominion clause
Dec 1928	Bhagat Singh and Rajguru shoot Assistant Superintendent J. P. Saunders dead at Lahore	17 December 1928, Chandrasekhar Azad covering their escape; revenge for Lajpat Rai, Saunders mistaken for Superintendent James Scott, who had ordered the lathi charge; a 'shoot at sight' manhunt follows
17 Dec 1928	Bhagat Singh and associates shoot ASP John Saunders, mistaking him for Scott	Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Chandrashekhar Azad of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association killed Saunders outside the Lahore police headquarters to avenge Lajpat Rai; the Lahore Conspiracy Case followed, and Bhagat Singh was hanged in March 1931
1929	Sir Philip Hartog's committee warns that education has expanded at the cost of quality	An auxiliary committee of the Simon Commission; wastage and stagnation in primary schools, too many unprepared entrants to secondary and higher education; consolidate rather than expand
1929	The Meerut Conspiracy trial of 31 accused ran from 1929 to January 1933	The class gives only the year the case opened; the sentences were delivered in January 1933 and most were reduced on appeal later that year.
Mar 1929	Muhammad Ali Jinnah issues his Fourteen Points in answer to the Nehru Report	One-third of the central legislature for Muslims, residuary powers to the provinces, separate electorates or weightage, and safeguards for Muslim culture; the Report did not accommodate them and Jinnah's break with the Congress was complete by 1929
8 Apr 1929	Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt throw two bombs in the Central Legislative Assembly, Delhi	Non-lethal, with leaflets 'to make the deaf hear', in protest at the Public Safety Bill and Trade Disputes Bill; both court arrest
Sep 1929	HSRA prisoner Jatin Das dies in Lahore jail on the 63rd day of a hunger strike	For political-prisoner status. 13 September 1929, during the Lahore Conspiracy Case trial of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru
Oct 1929	Viceroy Lord Irwin declares Dominion Status the goal	And offers a Round Table Conference. The Irwin Declaration of 31 October 1929 under the new Labour government; the Delhi Manifesto of Gandhi and the Congress leaders asked for a conference to frame a Dominion constitution, was refused, and Lahore followed; the Irwin Declaration of 31 October 1929, backed by Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government; the class calls it a hint
Nov 1929	Gandhi, Pandit Motilal Nehru and other leaders issue the Delhi Manifesto on the Round Table Conference	Tej Bahadur Sapru among the signatories; Britain must state upfront that the RTC will implement Dominion Status immediately; Irwin gives no assurance and Congress stays away from the first RTC
Dec 1929	Lahore Congress under Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru declares Purna Swaraj its goal	It boycotted the Round Table Conference and authorised the Working Committee to launch Civil Disobedience under Gandhi; Motilal Nehru had passed the presidency to his son; the tricolour was hoisted at midnight on the Ravi and 26 January 1930 fixed as Independence Day; resolution of 19 December 1929; Nehru hoists the tricolour at midnight on 31 December on the banks of the Ravi; Gandhi empowered to launch civil disobedience at a time and issue of his choosing
31 Dec 1929	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru hoists the tricolour at midnight on the banks of the Ravi at Lahore	The Congress President's flag-raising as 1929 turned to 1930; the pledge of Purna Swaraj was taken nationwide on 26 January

1930s · 45 events · Gandhian mass phase

Date	Event	Detail
1930	Rajaji (C. Rajagopalachari) leads the salt march	From Trichinopoly to Vedaranyam in Tamil Nadu. K. Kelappan, the 'Kerala Gandhi', marches Calicut to Payyanur in Malabar; volunteers march from Sylhet to the sea at Noakhali; salt made illegally on every coast
1930	Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan's red-shirted Khudai Khidmatgar join Civil Disobedience in the NWFP	The 'Frontier Gandhi' leads them; at Peshawar on 23 April 1930 a platoon of the 2nd/18th Royal Garhwal Rifles under Chandra Singh Garhwali refuses to fire on unarmed protesters (Garhwalis, not Gurkhas; see Corrections)
1930	Assam government's Cunningham Circular threatens students who join the movement	Loss of scholarships or expulsion; issued by J. R. Cunningham, Director of Public Instruction, Assam; it backfires and pushes more students into the protests
1930–1931	Rani Gaidinliu leads a revolt against British rule in the Naga areas	Rani Gaidinliu: young Naga spiritual leader. Successor of Jadonang; captured in 1932 and jailed until 1947; Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru gave her the title 'Rani'; a symbol of tribal participation
26 Jan 1930	Congress observes the first Independence Day nationwide	With the Purna Swaraj pledge. The pledge drafted by Gandhi was read at meetings across India; the date was chosen in 1950 for the Constitution to come into force; the date fixed at Lahore, later chosen for the commencement of the Constitution in 1950
12 Mar 1930	Gandhi marches from Sabarmati to Dandi and breaks the salt law	78 followers, 240 miles in 24 days; on 6 April at the Dandi seashore he picked up salt, launching Civil Disobedience; C. Rajagopalachari's Vedaranyam and K. Kelappan's Malabar marches followed
12 Mar 1930	Gandhi leaves Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad, with 78 volunteers on the Dandi March	About 240 miles in 24 days to the Gujarat coast, breaking the salt law being the chosen act of civil disobedience; Lord Irwin is Viceroy
Apr 1930	Garhwal Rifles soldiers refuse to fire on Khudai Khidmatgar protesters at Peshawar	After the arrest of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan on 23 April the city rose; two platoons under Chandra Singh Garhwali refused orders and were court-martialled an unprecedented sign that Indian troops sympathised
6 Apr 1930	Gandhi opens the Civil Disobedience Movement with the Dandi Salt March	Salt satyagraha spreads: Rajaji (C. Rajagopalachari) marches Trichinopoly to Vedaranyam, K. Kelappan to Payyanur in Malabar; 12 March to 6 April 1930, Sabarmati to Dandi with 78 volunteers, under Viceroy Lord Irwin salt satyagraha, boycott of foreign cloth and liquor, no-tax campaigns; after Gandhi's arrest in May, Sarojini Naidu leads the raid on the Dharasana salt works
18 Apr 1930	Surya Sen 'Masterda' leads the Indian Republican Army in the Chittagong Armoury Raid	Police and auxiliary armouries seized and a provisional revolutionary government proclaimed; Ganesh Ghosh, Ananta Singh, Pritilata Waddedar and Kalpana Dutta in the group
May 1930	Sarojini Naidu leads the Dharasana Salt Works raid	Volunteers advanced in rows to be clubbed down without resistance; Webb Miller's despatches carried the scene to the world; Sarojini Naidu led the Dharasana salt works raid of May 1930, with Manilal Gandhi and Imam Sahib. Kamaladevi's own salt satyagraha was in Bombay, where she sold contraband salt and was among the first women arrested, and where the Wadala salt works raid took place. The paragraph also credits her with co-founding the ICCR: the Indian Council for Cultural Relations was founded in 1950 on Maulana Azad's initiative; her own institutional legacy is the Crafts Council of India, the Central Cottage Industries Emporium, the National School of Drama and the Sangeet Natak Akademi.
May 1930	Simon Commission publishes its report	It recommended ending dyarchy and full provincial responsible government but kept separate electorates; Indians rejected it wholesale
5 May 1930	Gandhi is arrested at Karadi near Dandi	Over 90,000 satyagrahis are jailed during 1930. Arrested in the night before he could lead the Dharasana raid; Sarojini Naidu, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, C. Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad and Maulana Azad were among those jailed as repression mounted
Nov 1930	Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald opens the First Round Table Conference in London	Boycotted by the Congress. The princes, Liberals such as Tej Bahadur Sapru and M. R. Jayakar, Dr B. R. Ambedkar for the Depressed Classes and Jinnah attend; the princes accept an All-India Federation in principle; boycotted by the Congress, whose leaders are in jail, it is deemed fruitless; Opened by King George V on 12 November 1930 with 89 delegates from British India, the princely states and the British parties.
8 Dec 1930	Binoy Basu, Badal Gupta and Dinesh Gupta raid the Writers' Building, Calcutta	And shoot Colonel N. S. Simpson. Simpson, Inspector General of Prisons, dies; Badal takes cyanide, Binoy dies of his wound, Dinesh Gupta survives and is hanged on 7 July 1931
1931	Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker's New Delhi is completed and inaugurated	As the capital. Viceroy Lord Irwin inaugurated it in February 1931, twenty years after the Durbar announcement and nineteen after the 1912 move
1931	Liberal leaders Tej Bahadur Sapru and M. R. Jayakar broker talks between Gandhi	And Viceroy Lord Irwin. Gandhi and the Working Committee released unconditionally on 26 January 1931; the Delhi talks run from 17 February to 5 March
1931	Press (Emergency Powers) Act under Viceroy Lord Willingdon reinstates much of the 1910 Act during Civil Disobedience	Securities and forfeiture for 'prejudicial' matter such as Gandhi's speeches and Congress pamphlets; Young India and Harijan proscribed
Mar 1931	Karachi Congress under Sardar Patel passes the Fundamental Rights	And National Economic Programme resolutions. The resolutions drafted with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's hand; the Gandhi-Irwin Pact endorsed and Gandhi named the sole Congress delegate to the Second RTC; held days after the Lahore hangings, which the session condemned while dissociating itself from political violence; Free speech, press and assembly, equality before law, universal adult franchise, a living wage and state control of key industries the Congress's first statement of what Swaraj would mean for ordinary Indians. Late March 1931, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel presiding
5 Mar 1931	Gandhi and Viceroy Lord Irwin sign the Gandhi-Irwin Pact	Signed 5 March 1931: prisoners released, confiscated property returned, salt-making allowed for coastal villagers, and Gandhi to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London; political prisoners not convicted of violence released, salt for personal use allowed on the coast, peaceful picketing permitted, the Congress ban lifted; Congress to attend the Second RTC; Irwin refuses an inquiry into police excesses and clemency for Bhagat Singh; The first time the Raj negotiated with the Congress as an equal; Churchill's 'half-naked fakir' jibe of 23 February 1931 was aimed at these Delhi talks (see Corrections). 5 March 1931; Civil Disobedience suspended and Gandhi sent alone to the Second Round Table Conference; Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru hanged on 23 March
19 Mar 1931	Gandhi meets Viceroy Lord Irwin again to plead for the lives of Bhagat Singh	Sukhdev and Rajguru. Irwin refuses commutation; the hangings follow four days later at Lahore, on the eve of the Karachi session
23 Mar 1931	Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru are hanged in Lahore Central Jail	The Lahore Conspiracy Case sentence carried out a day early and in secret, weeks after the Gandhi-Irwin Pact of 5 March 1931; cremated on the Sutlej at Hussainiwala; Viceroy Lord Irwin having refused commutation despite Gandhi's plea; the nation mourns as the Congress gathers at Karachi
Sep 1931	Second Round Table Conference opens in London with Gandhi	As the sole Congress delegate. Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald's National Government hosts it, Sir Samuel Hoare Secretary of State; the talks bog down in the Minorities Committee over separate electorates; Sarojini Naidu, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Dr B. R. Ambedkar and Jinnah also present; Gandhi sails home in December with nothing; Gandhi's claim to speak for the Depressed Classes was contested there by Dr B. R. Ambedkar; the British and the communal delegates kept the agenda on minorities rather than on the transfer of power.
1932	Viceroy Lord Willingdon outlaws the Congress	And crushes the resumed Civil Disobedience. Gandhi arrested on 4 January 1932 on his return from London; over 80,000 jailed within a few weeks under emergency ordinances; whippings and collective fines
16 Aug 1932	British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald announces the Communal Award	Separate electorates, already held by Muslims, Sikhs, Anglo-Indians and Europeans, extended to the Depressed Classes with 71 reserved seats; Gandhi in Yeravada jail denounces it as vivisecting Hindu society; Issued because the Second Round Table Conference's Minorities Committee could not agree; Dr B. R. Ambedkar first welcomed it as a 'ray of hope' for the Depressed Classes. 16 August 1932; 71 reserved seats under separate electorates, alongside the existing communal electorates
20 Sep 1932	Gandhi begins a fast unto death in Yeravada jail against separate electorates	For the Depressed Classes. Yeravada Central Jail, Pune; Dr B. R. Ambedkar, who had welcomed the Award, is pressed to negotiate; Madan Mohan Malaviya mediates; the fast ends on the sixth day with the Poona Pact
24 Sep 1932	Gandhi's fast in Yeravada jail ends in the Poona Pact with Dr B. R. Ambedkar	Separate electorates for the Depressed Classes dropped for 148 reserved seats (up from 71) in a joint electorate with primary elections; representation in the Central Assembly and an education fund; Ambedkar signs for the Depressed Classes, Malaviya for the caste Hindus, Rajendra Prasad and Rajaji among the negotiators; Ambedkar later said the fast had coerced him into giving up the Depressed Classes' one political shield; the pact averted the schism Gandhi feared and became a milestone in Dalit representation. Fast from 20 September, pact of 24 September 1932
1933–1934	Secretary of State Sir Samuel Hoare's White Paper	And a Joint Select Committee report prepare the new Act. The White Paper of March 1933; the Joint Select Committee of Parliament, chaired by Lord Linlithgow, reports in November 1934; its scheme becomes the Government of India Act 1935
1934	Congress Socialist Party formed at Patna within the Congress	Note: Acharya Narendra Dev president and Jayaprakash Narayan general secretary; a party within the Congress
1934	Gandhi formally withdraws the Civil Disobedience Movement	Note: Gandhi ends the movement in the spring of 1934 and in October resigns from the Congress
1934	Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Dev	And Minoo Masani founded the Congress Socialist Party at Patna in May 1934. M.N. Roy is listed among those who formed the Congress Socialist Party in 1934. Achyut Patwardhan, Asoka Mehta and Yusuf Meherally were also among the founders. Roy was in a British jail from 1931 to 1936 under the Kanpur conspiracy sentence and took no part; he founded his own Radical Democratic Party in 1940.
Jan 1934	Surya Sen, betrayed and captured in February 1933	Is hanged in Chittagong jail with Tarakeswar Dastidar. The second phase of revolutionary activity subsides as its leaders are killed or jailed
1935	British Parliament passes the Government of India Act 1935	Piloted by Secretary of State Sir Samuel Hoare; an All-India Federation conditional on the princes (never formed), provincial autonomy replacing diarchy, diarchy at the Centre, three legislative lists, a Federal Court (1937), the franchise about 10-14 per cent; Royal Assent in August 1935, Lord Willingdon Viceroy; the longest Act Parliament had passed, built on the Simon report, three Round Table Conferences, the 1933 White Paper and Linlithgow's Joint Select Committee. The framework for the 1937 elections
Apr 1936	Lucknow Congress under Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru condemns the Government of India Act 1935 as 'new chains'	Nehru's socialist presidential address; the Act to be fought from inside and outside; the Congress decides to contest the 1937 elections while leaving the question of office open; The All India Kisan Sabha was founded at the same Lucknow gathering in April 1936, with Swami Sahajanand Saraswati as its first president.
1937	Congress wins the provincial elections under the 1935 Act	And forms ministries in the provinces. Absolute majorities in UP, Madras, Bihar, CP and Orissa; largest party in Bombay, Assam and NWFP; the Unionists under Sikandar Hayat Khan take Punjab, Fazlul Huq's Krishak Praja Party with the League forms Bengal's ministry; the Muslim League wins few reserved seats; office taken in July 1937 after Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's assurance on governors' powers
Jul 1937	Congress ministries take office in the provinces	After Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's assurances. Governors not to use their special powers 'normally'; eventually eight of eleven provinces; Govind Ballabh Pant in UP, Rajaji in Madras, B. G. Kher in Bombay
Oct 1937	Gandhi's Wardha Scheme of Basic Education (Nai Talim) is framed at the Wardha conference	Seven years of free compulsory schooling in the mother tongue around a productive craft, self-supporting in part and teaching the dignity of labour; Dr Zakir Husain's committee wrote the syllabus; the Congress ministries then in office opened experimental basic schools from 1937-38, the first serious attempt at mass rural primary education.
1938	In 1938 the National Trades Union Federation, the AITUF renamed in 1933	Merged back into the AITUC. The moderate breakaway of 1929 is named only as the All India Trade Union Federation. The Red Trade Union Congress had already returned to the AITUC in 1935, so the reunification the class compresses into 1938 came in two stages.
Feb 1938	Haripura Congress session in Gujarat elects Subhas Chandra Bose	As Congress President. Haripura in Gujarat; a National Planning Committee proposed, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru its chairman; Bose openly criticises the charkha and village-industries emphasis in favour of rapid industrialisation; Bose's first term as President; the Haripura resolution on the princely states declared that the Congress sought the same civil liberty there as in British India while leaving the struggle to the states' peoples' own organisations.
Mar 1939	Tripuri Congress session after Subhas Chandra Bose defeats Pattabhi Sitaramayya by 203 votes	The ballot result was announced on 29 January 1939 (see Corrections), the session itself 8-12 March near Jabalpur; Gandhi calls Pattabhi's defeat his own; Govind Ballabh Pant's resolution affirms faith in the outgoing Working Committee
Apr 1939	Subhas Chandra Bose resigns the Congress presidency	Dr Rajendra Prasad chosen as compromise President. Resigned at the Calcutta AICC on 29 April 1939 after the Gandhian Working Committee members refused to serve under him; Bose announces the Forward Bloc on 3 May 1939 (see Corrections); the Forward Bloc followed within days.
Jun 1939	Subhas Chandra Bose organises the Forward Bloc to consolidate the Congress left	Announced on 3 May 1939, organised on an all-India footing in June; the Working Committee bars him from elective Congress office for three years in August 1939 over the anti-Federation agitation
1 Sep 1939	Nazi Germany invades Poland and the Second World War erupts	Britain declares war on 3 September and Viceroy Lord Linlithgow proclaims India a belligerent the same day (see Corrections), without consulting any Indian legislature or leader; Gandhi asks how a slave country can fight for liberty
Oct 1939	Viceroy Lord Linlithgow declares India at war and the Congress ministries resign	The Working Committee's demand for a statement of war aims and Indian freedom refused; Jinnah's League celebrates 22 December 1939 as 'Deliverance Day'; The Working Committee's direction came on 22 October 1939 and the ministries went out through late October and November; the 'twenty-eight months' truce' ended. Germany invades Poland on 1 September 1939 and Britain declares war on 3 September; Subhas Chandra Bose forms the Forward Bloc after quitting the Congress presidency
Oct 1939	Congress provincial ministries resign on the Working Committee's direction	Direction of 22 October 1939, the ministries going out between late October and mid-November (see Corrections); Jinnah's Muslim League observes 22 December 1939 as 'Deliverance Day' from Congress rule

1940s · 40 events · Provincial autonomy to Partition

Date	Event	Detail
Mar 1940	Ramgarh Congress session under Maulana Abul Kalam Azad reiterates the anti-war stance	Ramgarh in Bihar (now Jharkhand); India cannot join a war for democratic freedom while itself unfree; 'wait and prepare' while Gandhi holds back a mass struggle; Azad's presidency runs on to 1946
23 Mar 1940	Muslim League under Jinnah passes the Lahore ('Pakistan') Resolution	The Minto Park session at Lahore, Jinnah presiding; Muslim-majority areas of the north-west and east to be grouped into 'independent states' with autonomous, sovereign units; the word Pakistan never used; Moved by A. K. Fazlul Huq, Premier of Bengal, and seconded by Chaudhry Khaliquzzaman of the United Provinces; it made the two-nation theory the League's official demand. 23 March 1940, moved by Fazlul Huq; separate Muslim states in the north-west and east demanded
8 Aug 1940	Viceroy Lord Linlithgow announces the August Offer	Dominion Status the goal, no constitutional change against the wishes of the minorities, a post-war constitution-making body of Indians, an expanded Executive Council and a War Advisory Council; the Congress rejects it as too little, too late and the League reads it as a veto; Made after the fall of France, with L. S. Amery Secretary of State for India; only the enlarged Executive Council and a National Defence Council were actually set up, in July 1941. 8 August 1940; the Congress rejects it and Gandhi launches the Individual Satyagraha in October
17 Oct 1940	Vinoba Bhave, chosen by Gandhi, offers the first Individual Satyagraha	Bhave speaks against the war at Paunar near Wardha and is arrested; Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is the second, Brahma Datt the third; over 25,000 court arrest one at a time, on freedom of speech, before the campaign peters out in 1941; Kept deliberately to one satyagrahi at a time so that Britain's fight against Hitler would not be embarrassed by mass violence or communal passion; the arrests were symbolic, the message freedom of speech.
Jan 1941	Subhas Chandra Bose escapes from India through Afghanistan	Slips away from his Elgin Road house on the night of 16-17 January 1941 disguised as a Pathan and travels through Peshawar, Kabul and Moscow to Berlin; Bhagat Ram Talwar guided him from Peshawar to Kabul; he reached Berlin by April 1941 to seek Axis help and Japanese-held Southeast Asia in 1943.
Dec 1941	Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and brings the United States into the war	7 December 1941; Japan's advance through Malaya, Singapore and Burma over the next months brought the war to India's eastern border and forced Churchill to send Cripps.
1942	Tamluk Jatiya Sarkar set up in Midnapore under Satish Chandra Samanta	As a parallel government. From 17 December 1942 (see Corrections); Ajoy Mukherjee among its leaders; a Vidyut Vahini corps, relief after the October 1942 cyclone and in the 1943 famine; dissolved itself in September 1944 on Gandhi's word
1942	Gandhi and the AICC launch the Quit India Movement at Bombay	With the call to 'Do or Die'. Resolution of 8 August 1942 at Gowalia Tank Maidan; the leadership arrested on 9 August; parallel governments at Ballia and Tamluk
Mar 1942	Sir Stafford Cripps arrives in Delhi	Sir Stafford Cripps: Lord Privy Seal in Churchill's War Cabinet. Lands on 22 March 1942 under pressure from Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-shek; the Draft Declaration published 30 March: post-war Dominion Status, a Constituent Assembly, a provincial opt-out, no wartime transfer of defence; A Labour minister known to and trusted by the Congress leaders; his arrival coincided with the fall of Rangoon and Japan's advance to India's border.
Mar 1942	Japanese army takes Rangoon and the fall of Burma brings the war to India's border	Rangoon fell on 8 March 1942, while Cripps was on his way; the Andamans were occupied on 23 March and Vizagapatam and Cocanada bombed on 6 April (see Corrections).
30 Mar 1942	Sir Stafford Cripps's mission fails	Published 30 March 1942: an Indian Union with Dominion Status after the war, a Constituent Assembly, any province free to opt out, and no transfer of defence during the war. The Congress rejects it as a 'post-dated cheque' (Gandhi's phrase); the provincial opt-out, nominated princely delegates and no Indian control of defence the sticking points; the League also rejects; Cripps leaves on 12 April 1942; Talks broke down over an Indian defence member and the Viceroy's veto; the failure convinced Gandhi that only a demand for British departure remained. March-April 1942; post-war Dominion Status with a provincial opt-out, rejected by both Congress and League
Apr 1942	Congress Working Committee under Maulana Azad rejects the Cripps proposals	Dominion Status not independence, the provincial opt-out as a blueprint for Pakistan, nominated princely delegates and no wartime transfer of defence were the stated grounds.
Aug 1942	Usha Mehta's underground Congress Radio begins broadcasting from Bombay	Run with ham operators and guided by Ram Manohar Lohia and Aruna Asaf Ali, moving between locations until her arrest in November 1942
Aug 1942	Chittu Pandey's rebels oust the British administration of Ballia, UP	And declare independence. 'Baghi Ballia' holds out for about a week before troops return
8 Aug 1942	AICC at Gowalia Tank Maidan, Bombay, passes the Quit India Resolution	Maulana Azad presiding as Congress President; Gandhi's 'Do or Die' speech that night; the resolution, drafted at Wardha in July, demands the immediate end of British rule and sanctions a non-violent mass struggle; Moved by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and seconded by Sardar Patel; the Working Committee had approved the draft at Wardha on 14 July 1942.
9 Aug 1942	Viceroy Lord Linlithgow's government arrests the entire top Congress leadership	Before dawn. Gandhi to the Aga Khan Palace, Poona; Pandit Nehru, Maulana Azad and Sardar Patel to Ahmednagar Fort; the Congress banned; Aruna Asaf Ali hoists the flag at Gowalia Tank the same day and the leaderless movement erupts
1943	Nana Patil and Y. B. Chavan set up the Prati Sarkar parallel government in Satara	Nyayadan Mandal people's courts, 'Gandhi marriages', a Tufan Sena volunteer force; the longest-lived parallel regime, wound up only in 1946 (see Corrections); the longest-lived of the Quit India parallel governments, alongside Tamluk's Jatiya Sarkar in Bengal
1943	Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose proclaims the Azad Hind government at Singapore	And leads the INA. 21 October 1943; recognised by the Axis powers; the Rani of Jhansi Regiment under Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan; 'Delhi Chalo' towards Imphal in 1944
Feb 1943	Gandhi undertakes a 21-day fast in the Aga Khan Palace against the violence	As penance and protest; Viceroy Lord Linlithgow refuses to release him; three Indian members of the Viceroy's Executive Council, M. S. Aney, H. P. Mody and N. R. Sarker, resign over the handling of his health; February 1943; S. R. Sarkar and H. P. Mody resigned from the Viceroy's Executive Council in protest.
1944	Rajaji (C. Rajagopalachari) proposes the CR Formula to Jinnah	With Gandhi's backing. The League to back immediate independence for a united India, then a plebiscite in the Muslim-majority districts of the north-west and east; Jinnah rejected it, wanting whole provinces, not a district-by-district vote.
1944	Sir John Sargent's plan proposes universal elementary education within 40 years	Sargent was Educational Adviser to the Government of India; free compulsory schooling for ages 6-11 by 1984 and selective secondary education for 11-17; the Central Advisory Board of Education's post-war plan under Viceroy Lord Wavell
May 1944	Viceroy Lord Wavell releases Gandhi from the Aga Khan Palace on health grounds	6 May 1944, after Kasturba Gandhi's death there in February 1944 and Mahadev Desai's in 1942; over 100,000 political prisoners stay in jail until the war's end
Jun 1944	Japanese and INA forces, halted at Imphal and Kohima	Retreat from India's border. The U Go offensive that began in March 1944 collapses; the tide of the war in the east turns as Quit India's mass phase subsides
1945	Second World War ends in Europe in May and in Asia in August	Germany surrenders on 8 May, Japan on 15 August 1945; the Congress Working Committee released from jail in June; Attlee's Labour government takes office in July
14 Jul 1945	Viceroy Lord Wavell's Simla Conference breaks down	The Wavell Plan for an all-Indian Executive Council, agreed with Churchill's government, founders on Jinnah's claim that the League alone may nominate every Muslim member; Held 25 June to 14 July 1945 to launch the Wavell Plan for an all-Indian Executive Council with caste-Hindu and Muslim parity; Maulana Azad led the Congress delegation.
Nov 1945	British court-martial of INA officers Shah Nawaz Khan	Prem Sahgal and Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon opens at the Red Fort. November-December 1945; 'Jai Hind' rallies across India; a Muslim, a Hindu and a Sikh tried together so that no community seemed singled out; Tried for waging war against the King; Bhulabhai Desai led the defence with Tej Bahadur Sapru, Pandit Nehru and K. N. Katju, and 'Jai Hind' became the greeting of the crowds.
21 Nov 1945	Students and workers demanding the INA men's release clash	With police at Dalhousie Square, Calcutta. The 'INA Day' riots of 21 November 1945, while the Red Fort trial was still running; the public verdict came before the court's.
Dec 1945	Red Fort court-martial convicts Shah Nawaz Khan	Sahgal and Dhillon and sentences them to transportation for life. Late December 1945; transportation for life with cashiering and forfeiture of pay, not death (see Corrections); fresh protests swept the cities.
1946	Tebhaga was a Bengal sharecroppers' demand of 1946-47	And had no place in Awadh in 1920. The Awadh demands were reduction of the taluqdars' rents, abolition of nazrana and begar, and an end to the eviction of tenants. Cards below test the Awadh demands as fair rent and the abolition of begar, and reserve tebhaga strictly to Bengal.
Jan 1946	Commander-in-Chief Sir Claude Auchinleck remits the INA officers' sentences of transportation	3 January 1946; only the cashiering was confirmed, the army's own mood having made punishment impossible (see Corrections).
18 Feb 1946	Ratings of the signals ship HMIS Talwar go on strike at Bombay	And the Royal Indian Navy mutiny begins. 20,000 sailors on 78 ships and 20 shore establishments; the tricolour, the crescent and the hammer and sickle flown together; echoes at Karachi, Calcutta, Madras and Cochin; 18 February 1946, over food and B. C. Dutt's arrest for writing 'Quit India' on the ship; a Naval Central Strike Committee under M. S. Khan; Bombay's workers struck in sympathy on 19-21 February.
23 Feb 1946	RIN ratings surrender on Sardar Patel's and Jinnah's appeals	23 February 1946, on assurances against victimisation that were not fully kept; the Congress and League leadership had refused to back an armed revolt.
16 May 1946	Cabinet Mission of Lord Pethick-Lawrence	Sir Stafford Cripps and A. V. Alexander publishes its plan. The three ministers arrived in March 1946 and talked to every party through April and May before publishing their compromise on 16 May; 16 May 1946: no Pakistan, a Union limited to foreign affairs, defence and communications, provincial Groups A, B and C, a Constituent Assembly of 389 and an Interim Government; the League accepted in June.
16 Aug 1946	Jinnah's Muslim League observes Direct Action Day	The Great Calcutta Killing follows. The League having withdrawn its acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan; the killing runs from 16 August 1946 for four days; 16 August 1946, fixed by the League Council at Bombay on 29 July when it withdrew from the Cabinet Mission Plan (see Corrections); over 4,000 dead in Calcutta, then Noakhali, Bihar and the Punjab.
2 Sep 1946	Interim Government under Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru	As Vice-President of the Executive Council takes office. A Congress-led Executive Council; Liaquat Ali Khan's later use of the finance portfolio earns him the name 'Shadow Viceroy'; 2 September 1946, Viceroy Lord Wavell presiding; five seats kept for the League, which joined in October with Liaquat Ali Khan as Finance Member (see Corrections).
1947	India becomes independent at midnight on 15 August 1947	Pandit Nehru's 'tryst with destiny'; Mountbatten Governor-General of India, Jinnah of Pakistan; the Radcliffe awards published 17 August
1947	Bengal Premier Suhrawardy's Muslim League ministry introduced a Bargadari Bill early in 1947 but never passed it	No Act was passed. It lapsed amid Partition. Statutory protection for the bargadar came only with the West Bengal Bargadars Act, 1950. No card below scores the 1947 Act as enacted law; the cards test the movement's outcome as a bill introduced and not carried.
20 Feb 1947	British Prime Minister Clement Attlee announces that power will be transferred by 30 June 1948	The deadline meant to force the Congress and the League to agree, failing which Britain would consider handing over sovereignty region by region; 20 February 1947, in the Commons; Lord Mountbatten named to replace Wavell as Viceroy, with authority to bring the date forward.
3 Jun 1947	Viceroy Lord Mountbatten announces the 3 June Plan for partition	Into two dominions. The 'Dickie Bird' Plan Balkan for independent provinces dropped after Pandit Nehru's objection; Sindh to Pakistan by its assembly's vote; the Indian Independence Act passed in July 1947; Accepted by the Congress and the League the same day; Punjab and Bengal to be divided by Radcliffe's boundary commissions, referendums in the NWFP and Sylhet, and 15 August 1947 fixed for the transfer of power.
1948–1949	Dr S. Radhakrishnan's University Education Commission, independent India's first, reports	Appointed by Pandit Nehru's government with Maulana Azad as Education Minister; leads to the University Grants Commission in 1953, statutory under the UGC Act 1956 (see Corrections)

1950s · 2 events · Consolidation

Date	Kind	Event	Detail
1951		Pandit Nehru's government brings the Press (Objectionable Matter) bill	Editors protest. The Act comes into force in October 1951 and lapses in 1956; the First Press Commission under Justice Rajadhyaksha is appointed in 1952 and reports in 1954 (see Corrections); the 'reasonable restrictions' of Article 19(2) inserted by the First Amendment, 1951
1951		Parliament passed the Press (Objectionable Matter) Act under Nehru's government	It came into force in October 1951. The class says the Press (Objectionable Matter) bill of 1951 was withdrawn after a commission advised against it. The First Press Commission under Justice G. S. Rajadhyaksha was appointed in 1952 and reported in 1954, after the Act and not before it, and the Act was allowed to lapse only in 1956.

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