Textbook
A Brief History of Modern India
The most-used exam book for modern India; dense, well organised and revision-friendly.
🏛 Era · India, that is Bharat
Modern India
1498 – present
European trading companies, Company rule after Plassey, 1857, the British Raj and the national movement, Independence and Partition, and the Republic of India.
Open the map in: 🗺 1760 Company rule begins🗺 1857 1857🗺 1905 Swadeshi🗺 1947 Independence🗺 1950 Republic
Polities
139
Rulers
186
Events
286
Personalities
159
Sites
18
Quiz questions
5,913
Periods of this era
Move along the chart to see which periods overlapped in any year; click a bar for the period, or empty space to open the map.
European Maritime Powers
1498 – 1961
Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, French and British trading posts and colonies.
East India Company Rule
1757 – 1858
A trading company becomes a territorial power after Plassey and Buxar.
Sikh Empire
1799 – 1849
Maharaja Ranjit Singh's empire in Punjab, annexed by the British in 1849.
British Crown Rule (Raj)
1858 – 1947
Direct Crown rule after 1857, alongside hundreds of princely states.
Dominion of India
1947 – 1950
Independence and Partition; integration of princely states.
Republic of India
1950 – present
The Constitution comes into force on 26 January 1950.
Great powers
Portuguese Estado da Índia 1505 – 1961 British East India Company 1600 – 1858 Sikh Empire 1799 – 1849 Kingdom of Nepal 1816 – 2008 British Raj (Crown Rule) 1858 – 1947 Kingdom of Bhutan 1907 – present Dominion of India 1947 – 1950 Pakistan (West & East) 1947 – 1971 Dominion of Ceylon 1948 – 1972 Republic of India 1950 – present Republic of Maldives 1968 – present Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1971 – present People's Republic of Bangladesh 1971 – present Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka 1972 – present Afghanistan 1973 – present Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal 2008 – present
📘 NCERT study guide
NCERT Class 12 · Themes in Indian History, Part III ↗ — free official textbook; each chapter links to the periods it covers on this site.
Chapter 1
Colonialism and the Countryside
Land revenue, zamindars and peasants under Company rule
📄 Read the chapter (PDF) ↗
Chapter 2
Rebels and the Raj
The revolt of 1857 and how it was represented
📄 Read the chapter (PDF) ↗
Chapter 3
Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement
Mass movements from Non-Cooperation to Quit India
📄 Read the chapter (PDF) ↗
Chapter 4
Framing the Constitution
The Constituent Assembly and the making of the Constitution
📄 Read the chapter (PDF) ↗
Turning points
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches Calicut · Zamorins of Calicut
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat · Mughal Empire
- 1540 Battle of Kannauj · Sur Empire
- 1556 Second Battle of Panipat · Mughal Empire
- 1565 Battle of Talikota · Tuluva Dynasty
- 1576 Battle of Haldighati · Mewar (Sisodia)
- 1600 East India Company chartered · British East India Company
- 1616 Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal arrives in Bhutan · Bhutan under the Zhabdrung (Druk Desi)
- 1653 Taj Mahal completed · Mughal Empire
- 1658 Aurangzeb becomes emperor · Mughal Empire
- 1671 Battle of Saraighat · Ahom Kingdom
- 1674 Shivaji crowned Chhatrapati · Maratha Empire
- 1690 Job Charnock founds Calcutta · British East India Company
- 1699 Guru Gobind Singh founds the Khalsa
- 1707 Death of Aurangzeb · Mughal Empire
- 1739 Nadir Shah sacks Delhi · Mughal Empire
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Durrani Empire · Durrani Empire
- 1757 Battle of Plassey · British East India Company
- 1761 Third Battle of Panipat · Maratha Empire
- 1764 Battle of Buxar · British East India Company
- 1765 Diwani of Bengal granted · British East India Company
- 1768 Prithvi Narayan Shah conquers Kathmandu · Kingdom of Nepal — expansion era
- 1770 Great Bengal Famine · British East India Company
- 1799 Fall of Srirangapatna · Kingdom of Mysore
🇮🇳 The freedom struggle
Leaders, reformers and revolutionaries of the national movement, in order of birth.
Lala Lajpat Rai
1865 – 1928
'Punjab Kesari' who died after a lathi-charge during the Simon Commission protest
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
1888 – 1958
Congress president and independent India's first Education Minister
Personalities
Annamacharya
c. 1408 – c. 1503
Telugu composer of devotional songs to Venkateswara
Kabirc. 1440 – c. 1518
Bhakti poet-saint of Varanasi known for his dohas
Srimanta Sankardevc. 1449 – c. 1568
Assamese saint who founded Ekasarana Dharma and the sattras
Vasco da Gamac. 1460 – c. 1524
Portuguese navigator who reached Calicut in 1498
Guru Nanak1469 – 1539
Founder of Sikhism and the first Sikh Guru
Guru Ravidasactive c. 1500
Bhakti saint whose hymns appear in the Guru Granth Sahib
Malik Muhammad Jayasic. 1477 – c. 1542
Author of the Awadhi epic Padmavat
Surdasc. 1478 – c. 1583
Blind Bhakti poet of the Sursagar
Purandara Dasac. 1484 – c. 1564
Called the 'father of Carnatic music'
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu1486 – 1534
Bhakti saint of Bengal who inspired Gaudiya Vaishnavism
Domingo Paesactive c. 1520
Portuguese traveller who described Krishnadevaraya's capital
Tenali Ramakrishnaactive c. 1520
Telugu poet famed for his wit at Krishnadevaraya's court
All 160 personalities of this era →
🏛 Sites & monuments
UNESCO
Mountain Railways of India
West Bengal · Tamil Nadu · Himachal Pradesh
UNESCO
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus)
Maharashtra
UNESCO
Capitol Complex, Chandigarh (part of The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier)
Chandigarh
| Site | Type | From |
|---|---|---|
| Golconda Fort | Capital / fort | 1518 |
| Rohtas Fort | Capital / fort | 1541 |
| Lahore Fort | Capital / fort | 1566 |
| Fatehpur Sikri Akbar's planned capital. |
Capital / fort | 1571 |
| Temple of the Tooth, Kandy | Religious monument | c. 1595 |
| Kathmandu Durbar Square | Capital / fort | c. 1600 |
| Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) | Religious monument | 1604 |
| Basilica of Bom Jesus, Goa | Religious monument | 1605 |
| Punakha Dzong | Capital / fort | 1637 |
| Red Fort, Delhi | Capital / fort | 1648 |
| Taj Mahal | Religious monument | 1653 |
| Gol Gumbaz | Religious monument | 1656 |
| Malé Friday Mosque | Religious monument | 1658 |
| Galle Fort | Capital / fort | 1663 |
| Raigad Fort Shivaji's capital. |
Capital / fort | 1674 |
| Paro Taktsang (Tiger's Nest) | Religious monument | 1692 |
| Fort William, Calcutta | Capital / fort | 1696 |
| Rang Ghar, Sivasagar Ahom royal pavilion. |
Capital / fort | 1746 |
📚 Recommended reading for this era
Textbook
History of Modern India
The old-NCERT modern India classic, from the decline of the Mughals to independence.
Reference
From Plassey to Partition and After
A balanced, analytical history of colonial India; excellent for Mains answers.
Popular history
Freedom at Midnight
A dramatic, page-turning narrative of independence and Partition.
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📄 Research papers
Paper🏛 Library access
🇮🇳 Indian scholarship
Connected Histories: Notes towards a Reconfiguration of Early Modern Eurasia
Reads Mughal India as part of a connected early-modern world rather than an isolated civilisation.
Paper🏛 Library access
Law, State and Agrarian Society in Colonial India
How colonial courts and property law reshaped land, caste and the village.
Paper🏛 Library access
Knowing the Country: Empire and Information in India
Spies, runners and news-writers: how the Company took over Indian systems of information.
Paper🏛 Library access
🇮🇳 Indian scholarship
Archaeology and identity in colonial India
How archaeology in colonial India — from the ASI to the Harappan discovery — became tied to identity.
Paper🏛 Library access
🇮🇳 Indian scholarship
The Company Army and Rural Society: The Invalid Thanah 1780–1830
How the East India Company settled retired sepoys on land, and what that did to rural society.
Paper🏛 Library access
🇮🇳 Indian scholarship
Landownership and Inequality in Madras Presidency: 1853-54 to 1946-47
Nearly a century of land records measuring how unequal landholding was in the Madras Presidency.