Modern India

The French established their first factory at Surat in 1664. Francis Martin founded Pondicherry in 1673 which became the headquarter of French possessions in India.

It was in 1612 that Captain Thomas Best defeated the Portuguese in the sea off Surat; an impressed Jahangir granted permission to the English in early 1613 to establish a factory at Surat.

The Dutch founded their first factory in Masulipatnam (in Andhra) in 1605. They carried Indigo, Cotton and silk textiles, Saltpetre, Opium and Rice.

Vasco-da-de-Gama reached Calicut via the cape of good hope in 1498 and was warmly welcomed by Zamorin (Ruler of Calicut).

In 1497, under the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) Portugal could claim and occupy everything to the east of the Atlantic. The situation was thus prepared for the Portuguese incursions into the waters around India.

Weak Successor after the death of Aurangzeb, absence of fixed rule of succession, very powerful nobility and practice of Ijarah system were a few reasons.

Punjab and United Provinces [HRA] in the west and Bengal [Anushilan and Yugantar] in the east were hotspots for revolutionary activities in the 1920s.

The first students’ strike in undivided India took place in 1920 in King Edward Medical College, Lahore, against academic discrimination between Indian and English pupils.

1. The trade union movement was led by All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) founded in 1920. Lala Lajpat Rai was its first president and Dewan Chaman Lal its general secretary.

Socialistic ideas also resulted in the rise of a left wing within the Congress, represented by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose.