India — History and Geography Reading Comprehension Lesson

Reading Passage

India

India is a vast country in South Asia, the seventh-largest in the world by area and the most populous nation on Earth, with over 1.4 billion people. It occupies a large triangular peninsula that juts into the Indian Ocean, bordered by Pakistan to the northwest, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north, and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the northeast. India has extraordinary geographic diversity: the Himalaya Mountains (including the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, on its border with Nepal) rise in the north; the great Indo-Gangetic Plain stretches across the north; tropical rainforests cover parts of the northeast; and the Thar Desert occupies the northwest. New Delhi is the capital; Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata are among the world’s largest cities.

India is home to one of the world’s oldest civilizations. The Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1300 BC) flourished in what is now Pakistan and northwest India, featuring well-planned cities with sophisticated drainage systems. Around 1500 BC, Indo-Aryan peoples migrated into the subcontinent, bringing the Sanskrit language and the foundations of what would become Hinduism. India gave birth to two other major world religions: Buddhism, founded by Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) around the 5th century BC in what is now Nepal/northeast India; and Jainism, which emphasizes non-violence and has millions of followers today. The Maurya Empire (c. 322–187 BC) under Emperor Ashoka unified much of the subcontinent and spread Buddhism across Asia.

Over the following centuries, India saw the rise and fall of many empires and kingdoms. The Gupta Empire (c. 320–550 AD) is known as India’s ‘Golden Age,’ a period of extraordinary advances in mathematics (including the concept of zero and the decimal number system, later transmitted to the West via Arab scholars), astronomy, literature, and art. The Mughal Empire (1526–1857), founded by a Central Asian ruler of Mongol-Turkish descent, unified most of the subcontinent and produced some of India’s greatest cultural achievements — including the Taj Mahal, built by Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife. The Mughals were Muslim rulers who governed a largely Hindu population, and their era was marked by periods of both cultural synthesis and religious conflict.

European traders arrived in India in the late 1400s, and the British East India Company gradually expanded its control over Indian territory during the 18th and 19th centuries. After the Indian Rebellion of 1857 (called the Sepoy Mutiny by the British), the British Crown took direct control of India, making it the most important part of Britain’s empire — the ‘jewel in the Crown.’ British rule brought railways, telegraphs, and a unified administrative system, but also economic exploitation, racial discrimination, and policies that disrupted traditional Indian society. The independence movement grew through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mohandas Gandhi, using tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience, became the movement’s most iconic leader, inspiring millions both in India and around the world.

India gained independence from Britain on August 15, 1947, but the occasion was also one of great tragedy: the subcontinent was partitioned into two countries — Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan — accompanied by massive population transfers and horrific violence in which hundreds of thousands or more were killed. Gandhi himself was assassinated in January 1948 by a Hindu nationalist who opposed his efforts at reconciliation. India became a democratic republic in 1950. Today India is the world’s largest democracy, with a vibrant (if often turbulent) democratic tradition. It is also one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies, a nuclear power, and a country of extraordinary cultural diversity — home to hundreds of languages, multiple major religions, and ancient traditions alongside modern technology.

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