The Indus valley civilization saw its genesis in the holy
land now known as India around 2500 BC. The people inhabiting the Indus River
valley were thought to be Dravidians, whose descendants later migrated to the
south of India. The second millennium BC was witness to the migration of
the bucolic Aryan tribes from the North West frontier into the sub continent.
These tribes gradually merged with their antecedent cultures to give birth to a
new milieu.
The Aryan tribes soon started penetrating the east, flourishing along the Ganga and Yamuna Rivers. By 500 BC, the whole of northern India was a civilized land where people had knowledge of iron implements and worked as labor, voluntarily or otherwise. The early political map of India comprised of copious independent states with fluid boundaries, with increasing population and abundance of wealth fueling disputes over these boundaries.
Mahatma Gandhi revived these virtues again, breathing new
life in them, during India’s freedom struggle against British Colonialism. An
ardent believer in communal harmony, he dreamt of a land where all religions
would be the threads to form a rich social fabric.
