AN INDIAN HISORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Last week, I was welcomed to kickstart a seminar organised by by German Indian Business Centre (GIBC), Hannover at Hotel Gokulam Park in Cochin. This is what I delivered.

My first experience with Wolfgang Höltgen of GIBC was when he took the excursion of German SME CEOs to India. To them, I gave a historical perspective of India.

So I felt that in this meeting of introducing GIBC too, I would give a historical perspective to you the audience.

Recent genetic research indicates that the Indian subcontinent was subjected to a series of massive Indo European migrations during about 3500 BC. The Austro-Asiatic tribals or the Dravidians are hypothesized to have been the earliest inhabitants of India, while incoming Indo-European tribes may have displaced Dravidian-speaking tribals southward.

Linguistic evidence points to the Indo-Aryan languages as intrusive into South Asia, sometime in the 2nd millennium BC. Indo-Aryan migration into Punjab is thus approximately contemporaneous to the decline of the Indus-Valley civilization (what we call the Harappa – Mohenjo-Daro civilization)

The decline of the Indus-Valley civilization from about BC 1900 resulted in many Indus Valley cities being abandoned during the period, while many new settlements began to appear in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab etc. This shift by Harappan and other Indus Valley cultural groups; is the only archaeologically documented west-to-east movement of human populations in South Asia before the first half of the first millennium B.C.

The known Economic history of India begins with the Indus Valley civilization. The Indus civilization's economy appears to have depended significantly on trade, which was facilitated by advances in transport. The period was marked by intensive trade activity and urban development. By 300 B.C, the Maurya Empire united most of the Indian subcontinent. The political unity and military security allowed for a common economic system and enhanced trade and commerce, with increased agricultural productivity.

Then came the Silk Route which is referred to a historical network, extending from Europe through Egypt, Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran or then Persia, Central Asia, Pakistan, Java-Indonesia, and Vietnam until it reached China. There existed both land and sea routes. Extending 6,500 km, the Silk Route gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade along it, which began during the Han Dynasty by 200 BC.

The consolidation of Hinduism, thereafter the period of the brahmanic supremacy in it resulted the genesis of Buddhism and Jainism in India. Many famous kings ruled India at that time, Kings Ashoka, & Kanishka are some important names. The beginning of AD saw the revitalization Hinduism in India by the sage Adi Shankara.


During the first 1500 years of AD, India produced its classical civilizations. During this period India is estimated to have had the largest economy of the ancient and medieval world, controlling between one third and one fourth of the world's wealth.

From the beginning of the second millennium AD, India saw the invasion of Muslim warriors from Afghanistan, Persia and Mongol. Mohamed of Ghazni, Genghis Khan and Mohammed of Ghaur are the initial prominent invaders. In fact Genghis Khan, the fearsome Mongolian warrior of the 12th century, may have done more than rule the largest empire in the world; according to a recently published genetic study, he may have helped populate it too, It is estimated that he had close to 37 wives of which 6 were from Mongolia. During his invasions he killed the males and raped the women. It is estimated that legally & illegally he had sired close to 14000 children. An international group of geneticists studying Y-chromosome data have found that nearly 8 per cent of the men living in the region of the former Mongol empire carry Y-chromosomes that are nearly identical to that of Genghis Khan. That translates to 0.5 per cent of the male population in the world, or roughly 16 million descendants living today.

During this time came other Muslim Dynasties such as the Slaves, the Khilgis, the Tuglaqs, the Lodhis, and the Moghuls. Post the Mughals, The indigenous Marathas came into rule most of India.

India slipped into European colonial rule thereafter; the French, Dutch, Portuguese and later the British. It was plundered, looted and left totally squeezed of its wealth by the colonial powers particularly, the British.

After 350 years of the east India company and the British Raj, in 1947 our Country got independence and on August 14th midnight the country’s tryst with destiny started.

Then began The India within- the inward India with a heady mix of socialism, mixed economy, five year plans, the rules and misrules; sometimes dynastic democracy, and by 1991, India landed in the worst of its times - the Forex Crisis

The other contemporary parallel was the Soviet Union splintering into multiple nations as a result of Perestroika & Glasnost perpetuated by Michael Gorbechev

As said by one of the characters of Helen Keller, this worst of times was the best of times too. For India got opened up. LPG came into being.

By now two decades of Reform process had gone in here. India is now the IT POWER, Soft Power and the beginning of Transnational Indian commerce had started(The Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis, Mittals…)

However it was also times of worldwide religious fundamentalism & Global terrorism

That resulted in the failing America (9/11 and later economically). Now we stand at the failing Euro Zone.

In spite all these, Germany continues to be very strong. That is the Relevance of German India Business Centre or GIBC.