India is sometimes pointed out as the world's most invaded country and has seen countless migrations and invasions in the last many thousand years: we have Scythians, Greeks, Kushanas, Hunas, Arabs, Turks, Afghans, Ethiopian slave-soldiers and Persians invading in India. BY 1500 BCE THE ARYANS INVADED, SOME CALL IT MIGRATION INTO THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT, CROSSING THE HINDU KUSH MOUNTAINS. Although The Himalayas have been protecting India from outside invaders since the early times thus serving as a defence barrier but still the invaders made their way through the mountain passes trekking the foot and bridal paths. Alexander, the Great came to conquer this country through the Khyber Pass in the Himalaya. Then some followed the mighty Karakoram Pass (18,900ft) known as the skeleton trail, at India’s northern most borderline, passes through Daulat Beg Oldie to Kashgar. Some time after 1235 AD Mongol force invaded Kashmir, stationing an administrative Governor there for several years.The Kashmiris revolted in 1254–1255, killed the then Governor but In 1320 AD Zulju (Dulucha), the tyrant entered Kashmir by the Jehlam Valley without meeting any serious resistance.
It is believed that the foreigners have invaded India over 200 times and is sometimes pointed out as the world's most invaded country, the chronological order of foreign invasion of India is summed up as under.
1. (1500 BC) Aryan invasion of a Sanskrit-speaking people who laid the foundations of Vedic culture in North India.
2. (518 BC) Achaemenid (Persian/Iranian) invasion of the Indus Valley under King Darius I.
3. (326 BC) Greek invasion led by Alexander of Macedonia.
4. (200 BC to 300 AD) Incursions of Indo-Greeks, Scythians, Parthians, Kushanas from Central Asia and establishment of their kingdoms in North and Northwestern India after the fall of the Mauryan Empire.
5. (Late 5th and early 6th century AD) - Huna Invasion during the later phases of the Guptas. They were also a nomadic tribe from the Central Asian steppe.
6. Arab conquest of Sindh (712 AD) under Mohammad Bin Qasim. However, there was no Arab incursion into the mainland of India.
7. (Circa 1000 AD) Ghaznavid raids at 17 occasions under Mahmud of Ghazni - main motive was plunder.
8. (1194 AD) Ghurid invasion led by Muhammad Ghori and the subsequent establishment of the Delhi Sultanate - main motive was not plunder, but empire building.
9. (1398) Invasion of Tamerlane (Timur) that broke the back of the Tughluq rule.
10. (1526) Mughal invasion led by Babur - a Timurid prince, against the Delhi Sultanate under Ibrahim Lodi. The Mughals too adopted Indian culture and added their own contribution to it, taking Indo-Islamic culture to its climax for many centuries.
11. (16th century) Portugese conflicts with Bijapuri Sultans etc over select coastal regions of Peninsular India e.g the capture of Goa in 1510 by Alfonso de Albuquerque. Other European powers like the French, the Dutch and the Danes followed after this, but their primary motive was trade and monopoly rather than an all-India conquest.
12. 1739 Invasions of Nadir Shah of Persia and subsequent invasions from 1748 to 1767 by Ahmed Shah Abdali.
13. (1757–1857) British conquest of India. This wasn’t an overnight invasion but a protracted contest for power between the British East India Company and Indian rulers like the Bengal Sultans, the Mysore State under Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, the Marathas, the Sikhs, the Awadh Nawabs and the Later Mughals as well as.
Now the construction of metalled roads into the Himalayas have changed the long-held perception that the Himalayan range was impregnable and that it could defend the nations on either side against all enemies. Unless the country has a tremendous will and enough strength to repel any aggression, the roads constructed all along and into the Himalayas can prove counter- productive and fatal.
It is believed that the foreigners have invaded India over 200 times and is sometimes pointed out as the world's most invaded country, the chronological order of foreign invasion of India is summed up as under.
1. (1500 BC) Aryan invasion of a Sanskrit-speaking people who laid the foundations of Vedic culture in North India.
2. (518 BC) Achaemenid (Persian/Iranian) invasion of the Indus Valley under King Darius I.
3. (326 BC) Greek invasion led by Alexander of Macedonia.
4. (200 BC to 300 AD) Incursions of Indo-Greeks, Scythians, Parthians, Kushanas from Central Asia and establishment of their kingdoms in North and Northwestern India after the fall of the Mauryan Empire.
5. (Late 5th and early 6th century AD) - Huna Invasion during the later phases of the Guptas. They were also a nomadic tribe from the Central Asian steppe.
6. Arab conquest of Sindh (712 AD) under Mohammad Bin Qasim. However, there was no Arab incursion into the mainland of India.
7. (Circa 1000 AD) Ghaznavid raids at 17 occasions under Mahmud of Ghazni - main motive was plunder.
8. (1194 AD) Ghurid invasion led by Muhammad Ghori and the subsequent establishment of the Delhi Sultanate - main motive was not plunder, but empire building.
9. (1398) Invasion of Tamerlane (Timur) that broke the back of the Tughluq rule.
10. (1526) Mughal invasion led by Babur - a Timurid prince, against the Delhi Sultanate under Ibrahim Lodi. The Mughals too adopted Indian culture and added their own contribution to it, taking Indo-Islamic culture to its climax for many centuries.
11. (16th century) Portugese conflicts with Bijapuri Sultans etc over select coastal regions of Peninsular India e.g the capture of Goa in 1510 by Alfonso de Albuquerque. Other European powers like the French, the Dutch and the Danes followed after this, but their primary motive was trade and monopoly rather than an all-India conquest.
12. 1739 Invasions of Nadir Shah of Persia and subsequent invasions from 1748 to 1767 by Ahmed Shah Abdali.
13. (1757–1857) British conquest of India. This wasn’t an overnight invasion but a protracted contest for power between the British East India Company and Indian rulers like the Bengal Sultans, the Mysore State under Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, the Marathas, the Sikhs, the Awadh Nawabs and the Later Mughals as well as.
Now the construction of metalled roads into the Himalayas have changed the long-held perception that the Himalayan range was impregnable and that it could defend the nations on either side against all enemies. Unless the country has a tremendous will and enough strength to repel any aggression, the roads constructed all along and into the Himalayas can prove counter- productive and fatal.
