Religious Timelines

Hinduism and Islam in India (1500 CE - 2000 CE)

Related Pages • Chronology Index

This second timeline covers the period from 1526 until the 20th century. There is a first timeline which goes from 8000 BCE until the 16th century CE. There are five different types of color-coded dates:

• Dates of probable events in the history of Hinduism
• Dates in the composition of Hindu texts
• Important dates in the history of India
• Important dates in the history of other religions.
• Other dates in history for comparison

Words in red are linked to our glossary - so clicking on them will take you to much more information than can be included in brief chronology like this.

Mughal Empire

British Period

Nationalism

Post-Independence

Mughal Period [Top]
1542-1605	Life of Jelal-ud-din-Mohammed Akbar, greatest Mughal emperor. During his reign (1556-1605), Hindu and Muslim cultural influences blended together. He extended Mughal domination to all of North India; he abolished slavery, outlawed sati, legalized remarriage of widows, forbade polygamy, and founded the eclectic religious order, Din Alahi.
1574	Akbar conquered Gujarat.
1586	Philip II, King of Spain and Portugal, created a contract for trade in Indian pepper with the German merchants Fugger and Welser.
1600	The East India Company was founded in London.
1602	The Dutch East India Company was founded.
1615-18	Sir Thomas Roe, the first British ambassador, stayed at the Mughal court.
1618-1707	Life of the last great Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, a narrow and puritanical persecutor of Hindus.
1623	Tulsidas, Hindu poet, died. Tulsidas is the author of the Hindi text The Lake of the Deeds of Rama.
1647-1680	Hindu rebel Shivaji of the Marathas established his stronghold in Pune, Maharashtra. He opposed Muslim rule in India.
1658-1707	The Mughal empire reached its apex under the leadership of Aurangzeb, who also brought about its decline by exhausting its resources and persecuting Hindus.
1664	The French East India Company was founded.
1707-19	Three weak Mughal emperors presided over the gradual downfall of the empire.
1708	Gobind Singh, tenth Sikh guru, died

British Period: 1757-1947 [Top]
1773	The Regulation Act established the East India Company as buffer between the Indian territory and the British government by appointing a Governor General of Bengal. He was superseded in authority by a Council in London. Warren Hastings was first Governor General.
1780-1839	Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh lived.
1784	The first English translation of the Hindu Bhagavad Gita.
1799	Final defeat and death of Tipu Sultan
1828	The Brahmo Samaj (Society of God) was founded by Rammohun Roy. This group opposed image worship and argued that Hinduism is the root of a universal religion.
1836-1886	Sri Ramakrishna, Bengali mystic and Hindu saint, lived. He promoted Shankara's philosophy that all religions are equally valid.
1856-1929	Bal Gangadhar Tilak, nationalist leader, lived. He was a key figures in India's nationalist movement for independence and wrote an important commentary on the Bhagavad Gita.
1858	The East India Company was dissolved and India cane under the direct control of the Crown.
1863-1902	Swami Vivekananda, Leader of Ramakrishna Movement and first Guru to the West (1893), lived. Vivekananda opposed the caste system and encouraged social service.
1869-1948	Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi lived. Gandhi promoted Hindu concepts of nonviolence, passive resistance (satyangraha), manual labor, an end to caste system, equality of women, vegetarianism, and celibacy. His campaign of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance helped end of British rule in India and launch national independence.
1872-1950	Aurobindo Ghosh, Bengali nationalist and spiritual leader, lived. He established an ashram encouraging translation of religious sentiments into direct political action for Indian independence.
1876 - 1948	Muhammad Ali Jinnah, president of the Muslim League and advocate of separate states for areas populated mostly by Muslims, lived.
1877	Queen Victoria assumed the title Empress of India.
1879-1950	Ramana Maharshi, nearly mute teacher of advaita and influence on Westerners, lived. He taught that asceticism was the best route to Truth.

Nationalism and Independence: 1885-1947 [Top]
1885	The first Indian National Congress (INC) met in Bombay.
1896-1977	Swami A.C. Bhaktivedanta, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, lived
1893	Swami Vivekananda attended the Chicago Parliament of Religions. Vedanta societies spread throughout Western countries.
1906	The Muslim League was founded.
1911	Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation, lived.
1940	The Two Nations theory was developed by Jinnah.
1944	Gandhi-Jinnah talks ended without results.
1946	Elections with the Muslim League very successful.
1947	Independence and Partition (Pakistan: August 14; India: August 15); Kashmir conflict begins.

Post-Independence [Top]
1948	Gandhi was assassinated on January 30th by a Hindu militant.
1948	Sri Lanka (Ceylon) was granted independence from British rule.
1949	Indian law abolished the "untouchable" class, the lowest of all the old Hindu hereditary castes.
1950	The Constitution of the Republic of India was inaugurated: Rajendra Prasad became President and Nehru became prime minister.
1955-56	The Indian government approved of legislation tending to undermine traditional Hindu teachings, giving equal rights to women for inheritances, enforcing monogamy and facilitating divorce.
1964	Vishva Hindu Parishad was founded by Swami Chinmayananda.
1965	Swami Pradhupada founded the International Society of Krishna Consciousness in Los Angeles, a Vaisnava devotional movement.
1971	The Indian army helped liberation of East Pakistan which then became the independent state of Bangladesh.
1970s	Hindus in Europe and North America began construction of temples.
1984	Unrest in Punjab. Indian army action in the Sikh's Golden Temple of Amritsar led to death of militant Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Indira Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh bodyguards on October 31. Her son Rajiv Gandhi succeeded her.