India

Edna Fernandes visits a madrassa in northern India founded in the wake of the Indian Mutiny. One of the first Islamic fundamentalist schools, its influence has spread into Pakistan and Afghanistan, among the Taliban and followers of Osama bin Laden.

Mahatma Gandhi was shot on 30 January 1948 by the Hindu fanatic Nathuram Godse. His death reverberated across the globe.

Sudeshna Guha looks at the archaeology of the Indus Civilization, the Bronze Age phenomenon of South Asia, whose study began under the British and has continued since independence and partition of the country. 

Mihir Bose discusses the paradox that India, a land of history, has a surprisingly weak tradition of historiography.

India cast off the monarchy in 1950, but the Nehru-Gandhi family have become republican royalty. How did one dynasty take centre stage in the world’s largest democracy?

Andrew Robinson recalls conversations with the famous director about his work, and in particular the recently re-released Urdu film, The Chess Players, made in the 1970s, which explores events surrounding the British annexation of Oudh in 1856.

The British victory at Plassey in Bengal, on 23 June, 1757, was a crucial event in the history of India.

Mark Bryant describes the life and works of Abu Abraham, the Observer’s first ever political cartoonist.

Francis Robinson looks for the distinctively tolerant and worldly features of Mughal rule in India and that of the related Islamic dynasties of Iran and Central Asia.