anishkumar: 2008-08-24

Thursday, August 28, 2008

INDIA LEADERS

PRIME MINISTERS OF INDIA

Shri Jawaharlal Nehru
August 15, 1947 - May 27, 1964
Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri
June 9, 1964 - January 11, 1966
Shrimati Indira Gandhi
January 24, 1966 - March 24, 1977
Shri Morarji Desai
March 24, 1977 - July 28, 1979
Shri Charan Singh
July 28, 1979 - January 14, 1980
Shrimati Indira Gandhi
January 14, 1980 - October 31, 1984
Shri Rajiv Gandhi
October 31, 1984 - December 1, 1989
Shri Vishwanath Pratap Singh
Dec. 2, 1989 - November 10, 1990
Shri Chandra Shekhar
November 10, 1990 - June 21, 1991
Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao
June 21, 1991 - May 16, 1996
Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee
May 16, 1996 - 1 June 1996
Shri H. D. Deve Gowda
1 June 1996 - 12 April 1997
Shri Inder Kumar Gujral
21 April 1997 - 19 Mar 1998
Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee
19 Mar 1998
Dr Manmohan Singh 2004

P.S:- Shri Gulzarilal Nanda was caretaker Prime Minister of India twice in 1960s.

Presidents of India
Dr. Rajendra Prasad
Jan. 26,1950 - May 13, 1962
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan
May 13, 1962 - May 13, 1967
Dr. Zakir Hussain
May 13, 1967 - August 24, 1969
Shri Varahagiri Venkata Giri
August 24, 1969 - August 24, 1974
Shri Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
August 24, 1974 - February 11, 1977
Shri Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
July 25, 1977 - July 25, 1982
Shri Giani Zail Singh
July 25, 1982--July 25, 1987
Shri R. Venkataraman
July 25, 1987- July 25, 1992
Dr.S.D. Sharma
July 25, 1992 - July 25, 1997
Shri K R Narayanan
July 25, 1997 - 2002

Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam - was sworn in as the 11th President of India by ChiefJustice of India on July 25, 2002 in the Central Hall of Parliament.

indian history

INDIA

Who is India
Who is India and what is her claim? Is she as elusive to find as the insides of a seed? A mere country cannot assume the bewitching charms that hang on her slender wrists. Who is India?
Sit by the ruins, and the inscriptions in caves, and listen. Listen to the seers and the folklorists, to the waters of the perennial rivers and the echoes from the immortal gigantic mountains. Look at the personifications of prayer carved out of marble or stone, and lie under a banyan tree, and listen - Listen to India.
India is the name given to the vast peninsula which the continent of Asia throws out to the south of the magnificent mountain ranges that stretch in a sword like curve across the southern border of Tibet. Shaped like an irregular quadrilateral, this large expanse of territory, we call India, deserves the name of a subcontinent. Ancient Geographers referred India as being “constituted with a four-fold conformation” (chatuh samasthana samsthitam), “on its South and West and East is the Great Ocean, the Himavat range stretches along its north like the string of a bow”. The name Himvat in the above passage refers not only to the snow capped ranges of the Himalayas but also to their less elevated offshoots -the Patkai, Lushai and Chittagong Hills in the east, and the Sulaiman and Kirthar ranges in the west. These go down to the Sea and separate India from the wooded valley of Irrawady, on the one hand, and the hilly tableland of Iran, on the other. The Himalayas standing tall in breathtaking splendor are radiant in myth and mystery. These, the youngest and tallest mountain ranges, feed the Ganga with never-ending streams of snow. The Himalayas are home to the people of Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

Indians love these snow-capped peaks because they are a part of every Indian's life. Indian's revere the mountains, as they would, the father. Even today, when Urban india is racing against time, in the caves of the snow-clad peaks, live hermits - seeking the divine. Not a surprise when you consider that even this century has seen some great philosophers like Ramana Maharishi, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramhansa and J. Krishnamurti.
Land And Location
The Vindhya mountains cut right across the country, from West to East, and form the boundary between North and South India.
India is also fortunate in possessing one of the world’s most extensive and fertile lands, made up of the alluvial Soil brought down in the form of fine silt by the mighty rivers. Lying south of the Himalayas, these Great North Indian Plains consist of the Indus basin, Ganga-Brahmaputra basin, and the tributaries of these mighty river systems.
To the south of the Great Plains of northern india lie the Great Plateau of Peninsular India, which is divided into two parts, viz., the Malwa Plateau and the Deccan Plateau. The Malwa plateau - bounded by the Aravalli hills in the northwest and the Vindhyas in the Vindhyas form the northern half of this peninsula. Chhota Nagpur region forms the northeastern part of this plateau and is the richest minerals producing region of India. The valley of the Narmada river forms the southern boundary of this plateau. The Deccan plateau, extends from the Satpura hills in the north to Kannayakumari, in South.
Towards the west of this plateau lie the Western Ghats that comprise of the Sahyadri, the Nilgiri, the Annamalai and the Cardamom Hills. On the eastern side, this plateau merges into a layer of discontinuous low hills known as the Mahendra Giri hills, which comprise of the Eastern Ghats.

Narrow coastal plains along the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal flank the Deccan Plateau, on its eastern and western sides, respectively. The Western coastal plains lie between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea, further split into the northern Konkan Coast and the southern Malabar Coast. The eastern coastal plains, on the other hand lie between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal and like the western plains are divided into two parts - the Coromandel Coast as the southern part and the Northern Sircaras as the northern.
Towards the western half of India lies a vast stretch of land that is divided, by the Aravalli mountains, into two separate units. The area west of the Aravalli comprises of the Thar Desert - made up of sand and interrupted by rocky hills and waterless valleys, this arid land, extend deep into Pakistan. The state of Gujarat lies to the east of this range and is one of the most prosperous regions in India.
These mainland areas apart, India has two groups of islands - the Andaman and Nicobar in the Bay of Bengal and the Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea.
Politically, India as it existed before its independence, however, extended beyond these natural boundaries and included not only Baluchistan beyond the Kirthar range, but also some small areas that lay in the Bay of Bengal.
The Legends
Historically, this vast landmass - we call India, was known as Bharat-Varsha, or the land of Bharata, a king famous in Puranic tradition. This territorial unit was said to form part of a larger unit called Jambu-dvipa - the innermost of seven concentric island-continents into which the earth, as conceived by the Hindu cosmographers, was supposed to have been divided.
The name ‘India’ was applied to the country by the Greeks. It corresponds to the “Hi(n)du” of the old Persian epigraphs.Like “Sapta sindhavah” and “Hapta Hindu”- the appellations of the Aryan country in the Veda and the Vedinand - it is derived from Sindhu (Indus), the great river that constitutes the most imposing feature of that part of the sub-continent, which seems to have been the cradle of its earliest known civilizations. Rising in southwestern Tibet, at an altitude of 16,000 feet, Indus enters the Indian territory near Leh in Ladakh.
The river has total drainage area of about 4,50,000 square miles, of which 1,75,000 square miles lie in the Himalayan Mountainsand foothills.

India is blessed with a wide variety of climates and soil types which permit the growing of many unique earthy roots, precious woods, aromatic spices, exotic flowers, balsamic resins and scented grasses. Practitioners of Ayurveda (the traditional Indian system of medicine dating to at least 1000 BC) were well acquainted with the uses to which these plants could be put and prescribed them to treat the emotional, mental and physical ailments of the people. Sandalwood, agarwood, spikenard, vetiver, saffron, cinnamon, jasmine, rose, coriander and ginger were but a few of the aromatic plants recognized by them as being plants possessing pleasing fragrant charm as well as being plants therapeutic value. These plants and many others were used in food preparations, medicinal formulas, massage oils, cosmetics, natural sandalwood-based perfumes called attars, incense, floral wreaths and unguents, each of which served some special function in promoting the well-being of the people. There is hardly any aspect of Indian life, be it political, social, economic or religious that has not been profoundly influenced by these plants.
A person interested in India’s botanical treasures will find there are many fascinating worlds to discover throughout the country. Flower markets, ayurvedic pharmacies and hospitals, traditional perfume houses, incense stores and manufacturers, essential oil and attar distilleries, botanical gardens and parks, temples, spice shops and marriage ceremonies are all good places to experience the diverse ways in which the wonderful jewels of the natural world permeate Indian life.
From the pine-clad slopes of the Himalayas to the scrub and thornforests of north west and peninsular India and from the semi-arid central forests to the ever-green deciduous groves of Kerala, Bengal, the northeast hills, and the Andaman and Nicobar, India’svegetation is tailored to its diverse topography. Some of the major Indian animals which inhabit its forest and green areas are: Bengal tiger, monkeys, elephants, foxes, jackals, mongoose, Indian crocodile, the gharial, and lizards and snakes - including the cobra comprise the indigenous reptile population. Peacock - the Indian national bird joins the ranks of birds from cranes, storks, ibises, hawks, hornbills, parrots, and the common crow.
History
The spirit of India has thus fascinated the world with its very mystique. A subcontinent with a 5000-year old history. A civilization united by its diversity - India has always been known as a land where history echoes itself with all its wonders in every piece of stone and every particle of dust.

India’s first major civilization flourished around 2500 BC in the Indus river valley much of which lies within present day India. This civilization, which lasted for 1000 years, and is known as the Harappan culture, appears to have been the culmination of thousands of years of settlement. From around 1500 BC onwards, Aryan tribes from Afghanistan and Central Asia began to filter into northwest India. Despite their martial superiority, their progress was gradual. Eventually though these tribes were able to control the whole of Northern India as far as Vindhya Hills, and many of the original inhabitants, the Dravidians, were pushed into south India. As the Aryan tribes spread out across the Ganges plain, in the seventh century BC, many of them were grouped together into 16 major kingdoms. Gradually these amalgamated into four large states, with Kosala and Magadha emerging to be the most powerful during the fifth century BC. North India however came to be dominated by the Nanda dynasty in about 364 BC. During this period however, North India narrowly avoided two other invasions from the west. The first was by the Persian king, Darius (521- 486 BC) and the second by Alexander the Great who marched into India from Greece in 326 BC.
The Mauryas were the first ruling dynasty to control large parts of North India and some parts of South India, as one territorial unit. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya with the able guidance of Kautilya, the author of the famous treatise - Arthshastra - he was able to set up ahighly centralized administrative setup. The empire reached its peak under Ashoka, who left pillars and rock-carved edicts, which delineate the enormous span of his territory that covered large areas of the Indian subcontinent; these can be seen in Delhi, Gujarat, Orissa, Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh and Sanchi in Madhya pradesh . Following the death of Ashoka, in 232 BC, the empire rapidly disintegrated, finally collapsing in 184 BC.
A number of empires rose and fell, especially in North India, following the collapse of the Mauryas. The next dynasty worth a mention is that of the Guptas. Although the Gupta empire was not as large as the Maurya empire, it kept North India politically united for more than a century from AD 335 to 455.
Following the decline of the Mauryan Empire a number of powerful kingdoms arose in central and south India, among them Satavahanas, Kalingas and Vakatakas hold precedence. Later on these regions saw the rise of some of the greatest dynasties of South India in the form of the Cholas, Pandyas, Cheras, Chalukyas and Pallavas.

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Thursday, August 28, 2008

INDIA LEADERS

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