Northern South Asia (820–1971 CE): Empires, Colonialism, and the Birth of Modern Nations

Medieval Empires and Dynastic Rule

From the early medieval period onward, Northern South Asia experiences significant dynastic changes. Islamic empires begin exerting influence from the 11th century with the Ghaznavids and later the Delhi Sultanate, reshaping cultural and political landscapes through trade, conquest, and cultural exchanges. Simultaneously, Afghanistan becomes a crucial frontier region, witnessing invasions and rule by various Turkic and Persian dynasties, including the Timurids and the early Mughals.

Nepal and Bhutan remain largely isolated, developing distinctive Himalayan cultures and systems of governance. In Nepal, the medieval period is characterized by the rule of various dynasties, such as the Mallas, who foster rich cultural and architectural traditions.

Mughal Ascendancy and Cultural Synthesis

The rise of the Mughal Empire in the 16th century under rulers like Babur, Akbar, and Aurangzeb marks a pinnacle of political and cultural achievement. The Mughals integrate diverse traditions, fostering a unique synthesis of Persian, Indian, and Central Asian cultures. Monumental architecture flourishes, exemplified by the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort. Administrative systems established under Akbar provide stability and governance across the empire, extending influence into modern-day Pakistan, Bangladesh, and parts of Afghanistan.

British Colonial Expansion

The weakening Mughal Empire in the 18th century facilitates the expansion of the British East India Company, climaxing with the pivotal Battle of Plassey in 1757. British dominance consolidates rapidly, leading to direct British rule following the Indian Rebellion of 1857–58. Afghanistan, however, remains fiercely independent, becoming a contested region between British India and Imperial Russia, sparking several Anglo-Afghan wars.

Meanwhile, Nepal under the Shah Dynasty and Bhutan under the leadership of the Wangchuck Dynasty maintain autonomy, though both engage diplomatically and militarily with British India. Bhutan eventually signs treaties with Britain, securing internal sovereignty while ceding some frontier territories.

Rise of Nationalist Movements

Nationalist movements emerge by the late 19th century, notably with the establishment of the Indian National Congress in 1885. Parallel to this, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan spearheads educational reforms for Muslims, founding the Muhammadan-Anglo Oriental College in 1875 (later Aligarh Muslim University), laying the foundation for Muslim political activism.

Afghanistan sees modernization and centralization efforts under leaders like Amir Abdur Rahman Khan (1880–1901), who solidifies borders and establishes the Durand Line with British India, a source of enduring tension.

Independence, Partition, and the Emergence of Modern States

Intense nationalist struggles, notably under Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, culminate in independence and the partition of British India in 1947, creating the independent dominions of India and Pakistan. The partition triggers massive migrations and communal violence, significantly reshaping the region.

Afghanistan navigates neutrality during this period, balancing relations between emerging global powers, while Nepal and Bhutan maintain independent monarchies, cautiously opening diplomatic relations with neighboring nations and beyond.

Post-Independence Challenges and Conflicts

The new states face immediate challenges, including economic stabilization, integration of princely states, and border disputes, notably over Kashmir. Pakistan experiences internal turmoil, leading to the separation of East Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh in 1971, following a violent liberation struggle. India maintains democratic governance, embarking on industrialization and social reforms.

Afghanistan becomes a focal point of Cold War rivalry, undergoing rapid modernization, yet experiencing deep internal divisions, leading to instability that intensifies in subsequent decades.

Nepal and Bhutan cautiously engage in modernization while striving to preserve traditional identities. Bhutan introduces controlled development policies under the monarchy, and Nepal gradually opens to external influence.

Legacy of the Epoch

The epoch from 820 to 1971 profoundly shapes Northern South Asia, witnessing transitions from medieval empires to colonial subjugation, culminating in complex realities of independent nation-states. Legacies include cultural syncretism, unresolved regional tensions (particularly over Kashmir and the Durand Line), and socio-political structures inherited from colonial rule. These dynamics continue influencing contemporary geopolitics and societal developments across Northern South Asia.

South Asia (1684 – 1827 CE)

Imperial Fragmentation, Maritime Rivalry, and the Foundations of Colonial Rule

Geography & Environmental Context

South Asia stretched from the Hindu Kush and Pamirs to the Deccan Plateau, and from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. It encompassed the Indus and Ganges river basins, the Himalayan highlands of Nepal and Bhutan, the rice deltas of Bengal and Arakan, the Deccan uplands, and the islands of Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Chagos. The subcontinent’s position—linking Central Asia, the Indian Ocean, and Southeast Asia—made it both the heart of Asian trade and the prize of rival empires.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The waning Little Ice Age introduced alternating droughts and floods across the monsoon belt. Bengal endured recurrent famine, culminating in the catastrophic 1770 famine. Himalayan glacial advance modulated river flow; Afghan winters intensified; coastal cyclones and tidal surges devastated the Bengal–Arakan littoral. Yet elaborate canal, tank, and embankment systems buffered many agrarian zones, while island ecologies in the Maldives and Lakshadweep adapted to storm and salt through diversified fishing and coconut economies.

Subsistence & Settlement

Agrarian regimes sustained the densest populations on earth:

• Indus–Gangetic plains: Wheat, rice, sugarcane, and pulses underpinned Mughal-era prosperity. Irrigation networks, though decaying, still supported Punjab’s fertile canal colonies.

• Deccan and southern India: Millet, cotton, and pepper dominated; Coromandel weavers supplied global markets.

• Bengal delta: Rice abundance alternated with disaster under East India Company revenue extraction and coerced indigo and opium cultivation.

• Afghan highlands: Wheat, fruit orchards, and transhumant herding structured mountain economies.

• Himalayan kingdoms: Nepal and Bhutan maintained terrace rice and barley cultivation, salt–grain exchange, and yak pastoralism.

• Sri Lanka and the atolls: Cinnamon, pepper, coconuts, and fisheries supported dense littoral societies, while interior Kandy preserved upland rice autonomy.

Technology & Material Culture

• Agrarian infrastructure: Persian wheels, tanks, and Mughal canals persisted; Deccan irrigation tanks and Malabar spice terraces displayed local ingenuity.

• Manufacture: Bengal’s muslins, silk, and indigo; Coromandel chintz and calico; Malabar pepper and Ceylon cinnamon—each integrated local craft into global commerce.

• Maritime architecture: Dutch and British forts lined Cochin, Galle, and Madras; dhows, baghalas, and European East Indiamen crowded Indian Ocean lanes.

• Artistic expression: Mughal miniature and marble architecture endured in Lahore and Delhi; temple sculpture, bhakti music, and Sufi calligraphy proliferated; Newar bronzes, Bhutanese dzongs, and Kandy’s temple murals symbolized sacred power.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Overland gates: The Khyber and Bolan passes funneled invasions and caravans between Kabul and Delhi.

• Riverine and coastal arteries: The Ganges–Brahmaputra delta became a lattice of Company barges and local craft exporting grain, jute, and indigo.

• Maritime routes: VOC ships monopolized Malabar pepper and Ceylon cinnamon; the EIC expanded from Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, tying India to Southeast Asia and the Atlantic.

• Himalayan trade: Nepal and Bhutan moved salt, copper, and wool to Bengal and Tibet.

• Island networks: The Maldives exported cowries and tuna; Chagos and Diego Garcia linked the Mascarenes and India through plantation provisioning.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

South Asia’s pluralism deepened amid political fragmentation:

• Islamic & Persianate culture: The waning Mughal court still radiated refinement in poetry, miniature painting, and mosque architecture; Sufi shrines knit communities through pilgrimage and music.

• Bhakti & Sikh movements: Vernacular devotion flourished; Guru Gobind Singh’s Khalsa (1699) forged Sikh martial identity, later embodied in Ranjit Singh’s kingdom at Lahore.

• Hindu & Buddhist renewals: Temple festivals in the south, Vaishnava bhakti in Bengal, and Buddhist monastic reform in Sri Lanka reaffirmed local sovereignty.

• Himalayan states: Nepalese and Bhutanese monarchs consolidated power through Buddhist rituals and architecture.

• Island Islam: The Maldives and Lakshadweep nurtured coral-stone mosques and dynastic chronicles; enslaved Africans and South Indians in Chagos created creole religious and musical traditions.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Irrigation and water management moderated drought in Punjab and the Deccan.

• Crop diversification: American introductions—maize, tobacco, potatoes—joined traditional grains.

• Island sustainability: Maldivians rotated fishing grounds, protected coconut groves, and stored dried tuna for famine insurance.

• Famine coping: Temple and mosque endowments, grain stores, and pilgrim networks offered relief, though colonial requisition eroded many safeguards.

Political & Military Shocks

• Mughal decline: After Aurangzeb’s death (1707), provincial nawabs of Bengal, Awadh, and Hyderabad asserted autonomy.

• Afghan & Maratha wars: Nadir Shah’s sack of Delhi (1739) and Ahmad Shah Durrani’s raids (1748–1767)devastated the north; the Third Battle of Panipat (1761) broke Maratha expansion and left Punjab contested.

• Sikh consolidation: By 1799, Ranjit Singh unified Punjab, creating a modernized Sikh kingdom.

• European ascendancy:

  • British East India Company victories at Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764) secured Bengal; Delhi fell under Company protection (1803).

  • The Anglo-Mysore and Maratha wars dismantled southern powers.

  • Ceylon (1815) passed from the Dutch to Britain after the fall of Kandy.

  • First Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–1816) and Treaty of Sugauli reduced Nepal’s territory; Bhutan lost its Duars.

  • First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826) brought Arakan and Assam under British rule.

• Dutch decline: The VOC collapsed (1799); its possessions, including the Malabar and Ceylon trade posts, shifted to British hands.

Transition

Between 1684 and 1827 CE, South Asia shifted from a constellation of Mughal-successor and regional states to the nucleus of British imperial power. The Mughal world fractured into Afghan, Sikh, Maratha, and nawabi domains even as the East India Company built an oceanic empire linking Bengal to Bombay, and Ceylon to Singapore.
From Kabul’s mountain passes to the coral atolls of the Maldives, local societies adapted through irrigation, trade, and faith, yet the new imperial infrastructure of forts, ports, and plantations began to bind them into a single economic orbit. By 1827, the subcontinent stood transformed: its sovereignty divided, its resources globalized, and its cultural vitality undiminished amid the first full wave of the modern colonial age.

Upper South Asia (1684–1827 CE)

Mughal Strain, Afghan Ascendancy, and Colonial Entrenchment

Geography & Environmental Context

The subregion includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and northwestern Myanmar (the Arakan/Rakhine littoral and the Chindwin valley). Anchors: the Hindu Kush with the Khyber–Bolan passes; the Indus and Ganges–Yamuna basins; the Brahmaputra–Ganges delta; Himalayan terraces and Tarai(Nepal, Bhutan); and the Arakan littoral–Chindwin uplands linking the Bay of Bengal to Burma’s interior. From Afghan valleys to Bengal’s rice plains, this corridor bridged Central and South Asia to the Indian Ocean and Southeastern Asia.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The later Little Ice Age brought instability. Afghan winters were bitter, straining herders. Erratic monsoons produced Bengal flood years (notably catastrophic Brahmaputra floods in the 1780s) and droughts across the Gangetic and Deccan plains. The Bengal famine (1770)—drought compounded by exploitative Company policies—killed millions. Slight Himalayan glacial advance modulated river flows. Cyclones periodically struck Bengal and the Arakan coast, sweeping away crops and villages.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Indus & Gangetic plains: Wheat, barley, pulses, sugarcane, and rice remained staples; in Punjab, irrigation sustained canal colonies even as Mughal oversight waned.

• Afghanistan: Valley wheat and orchard crops; sheep, goat, and horse herding on steppe margins.

• Bengal delta: Rice thrived in normal years, but famine and coerced indigo/opium regimes under Company dominance undermined food security.

• Nepal & Bhutan: Terrace rice in the Tarai; barley and buckwheat in higher valleys; yak and sheep pastoralism; salt–grain exchange sustained frontiers.

• Arakan/Rakhine & Chindwin valley: Wet-rice expansion under Burmese (and later British) rule; Arakanbecame a rice-exporting frontier; Chindwin uplands supplied timber and forest goods.

Technology & Material Culture

Mughal canals and Persian wheels endured despite declining maintenance. Firearms proliferated—matchlocks, later flintlocks. Bengal muslins and silks remained world-renowned via European factories. Afghan and Sikh smiths produced swords and artillery. Newar artisans in Nepal crafted temples, bronzes, and paubha paintings; Bhutan raised massive dzongs (fortress–monasteries). In Arakan and Chindwin, Buddhist temples, rice mills, and logging systems marked Burmese expansion.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Afghanistan–Punjab corridor: Invasions by Nadir Shah (1739) and Ahmad Shah Durrani (1748–1767)devastated Delhi and Punjab, funnelling loot and captives north.

• Indo-Gangetic trunk roads: Continued to bind Lahore–Delhi–Agra–Patna–Calcutta, though less securely guarded.

• Bengal waterways: Became arteries for Company extraction of grain, jute, and indigo.

• Himalayan passes: Nepal and Bhutan exchanged salt, wool, and copper with Tibet and Bengal.

• Arakan & Chindwin: Incorporated into the Burmese kingdom after 1784; rice and teak flowed to coastal ports. By the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1826) these corridors drew Britain into war, culminating in the cession of Arakan and Assam to the Company.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Mughal heartland: Under Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707), Islamic orthodoxy sharpened; mosques like Badshahi(Lahore) embodied grandeur. After his death, court culture fragmented, but Persianate art and literature persisted.

• Bhakti & Sikh traditions: Bhakti poets spread vernacular devotion. The Khalsa founded by Guru Gobind Singh (1699) forged martial Sikh identity through scripture and community institutions.

• Sufi shrines: Continued to anchor towns and villages, bridging Hindu–Muslim devotional life.

• Himalayan kingdoms: Nepal and Bhutan monarchs used festivals and temples to consolidate legitimacy.

• Bengal: Vaishnava devotionalism thrived alongside Muslim pir shrine cults.

• Arakan/Rakhine: Buddhist temples at Mrauk U remained cultural centers even after Burmese conquest (1784), which dispersed Arakanese and Muslim communities.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Canal and tank irrigation buffered droughts in Punjab and the Gangetic plains. Bengal farmers rotated rice with pulses and jute—yet famine laid bare the fragility of agrarian systems under coercive Company revenue. Afghan herders diversified herds and shifted valleys; Nepalese terraces and Bhutanese dzongs stabilized alpine communities. In Arakan, embankments and polders expanded rice; in Chindwin, shifting cultivation adapted to forest clearings and timber demand.

Technology & Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

• Mughal decline: After Aurangzeb, succession wars and fiscal strain eroded authority; provincial nawabs (Awadh, Bengal, Hyderabad) grew autonomous.

• Afghan states: Nadir Shah’s sack of Delhi (1739) shattered Mughal prestige; Ahmad Shah Durrani built the Durrani Empire, raiding Punjab and Delhi.

• Sikh ascendancy: Eighteenth-century misls coalesced, culminating in Ranjit Singh’s kingdom at Lahore (1799–1839).

• Marathas: Pressed into Malwa and Delhi, clashing with Afghans at Panipat (1761)—weakening both.

• British conquest: Plassey (1757) and Buxar (1764) secured Bengal for the East India Company; by 1803, Delhi was under Company control. Nepal lost the Anglo-Nepalese War (1814–1816), ceding Terai lands (Treaty of Sugauli). Bhutan lost Duars in conflicts with the Company. In 1826, Britain annexed Arakan after defeating Burma in the First Anglo-Burmese War.

Transition

By 1827 CE, Upper South Asia was a mosaic: declining Mughal centers, rising Sikh and Afghan states, and expanding Company rule. Bengal was firmly under the EIC; Delhi a pensioner’s court. Afghanistan balanced Durrani succession and foreign intrigue. Nepal and Bhutan endured as Himalayan monarchies but were treaty-bound to the Company. Arakan and the Chindwin valley had already drawn Britain into Burmese conflicts, setting up the 1826 annexations. The Indo-Gangetic core—once Mughal—was becoming the centerpiece of a new British empire in Asia.

The Anglo- Nepalese War (1814-16) is a total disaster for Nepal.

According to the Treaty of Sagauli, signed in 1816, Nepal loses Sikkim, the territories west of the Kali River (Kumaon and Garhwal), and most of its lands in the Tarai.

The British East India Company is to pay 200,000 rupees annually to Nepal to make up for the loss of revenues from the Tarai.

Kathmandu is also forced to accept a British resident, which is extremely disturbing to the government of Nepal because the presence of a resident has typically preceded outright British conquest throughout India.

In effect, the treaty proves to be less damaging, for the company soon finds the Tarai lands difficult to govern and returns some of them to Nepal later in 1816, simultaneously abolishing the annual payments.

The return of Tarai territory is important for the survival of Nepal because the government relies on the area as a source of land grants, and it is doubtful that the country as it is run at this time could have survived without this source of endowments.

The presence of the resident, too, turns out to be less difficult than first imagined because all later governments in Kathmandu take stringent measures to isolate him by restricting his movements and keeping a close eye on the people he meets.

Nevertheless, the glory days of conquest are over, and Nepal has been squeezed into the boundaries it will still have in the early 1990s.

The kingdom of Garhwal to the west is mostly hill country but includes the rich vale of Dehra Dun.

During the late eighteenth century, the kingdom had been devastated by conquerors as varied as Afghans, Sikhs from the Punjab, and Marathas from western India.

The armies of Nepal had been poised to attack Garhwal in 1790, but the affair with Tibet had shifted their attention.

In 1803 after Garhwal is devastated by an earthquake, the Nepalese armies move in, defeat and kill the raja of Garhwal in battle, and annex a ruined land.

General Amar Singh Thapa moves farther west and during a three-year campaign defeats or buys off local princes as far as Kangra, the strongest fort in the hills.

The Nepalese lay siege to Kangra until 1809, when Ranjit Singh, ruler of the Sikh state in the Punjab, intervenes and drives the Nepalese army east of the Sutlej River.

Amar Singh Thapa spends several years putting down rebellions in Garhwal and Kumaon, towns that submit to military occupations but are never fully integrated into the Gurkha state.

The Nepalese are being checked in the west.

Nepal's single major unifying force at this stage in its history is the Gurkha-led army and its supply system.

Prithvi Narayan Shah and his successors had done the best they could to borrow military techniques used by the British in India, including modern ordnance, command structures, and even uniforms.

An entire munitions and armaments industry has been created in the hills, based on locally mined and processed raw materials, and supported by a system of forced labor to transport commodities.

The soldiers in the army are renowned for their ability to move relatively fast with their supplies and to fight with discipline under tough conditions.

They also know their terrain better than the British, who have little experience here.

Although the Nepalese army of an estimated sixteen thousand regulars will have to fight on a wide front, it has great logistical advantages and a large reservoir of labor to support it.

The initial British campaign is an attack on two fronts.

In the eastern theater, two columns totaling about ten thousand troops are supposed to coordinate their attacks in the Makwanpur-Palpa area, but poor leadership and unfamiliarity with hill warfare caused the early collapse of these campaigns.

In the west, another ten thousand troops in two columns are to converge on the forces of Amar Singh Thapa.

One of the western columns fails miserably, but the main force under Ochterlony outmaneuvers the Nepalese army and defeats General Thapa on May 9, 1815, leading to the complete loss of Kumaon by Nepal.

The Nepalese forces have already proved their abilities, so the British East India Company takes no chances the next year, marshaling thirty-five thousand men and more than one hundred artillery pieces under Ochterlony for a thrust toward Makwanpur.

Simultaneous operations by the chogyal, or king, of Sikkim are driving the Nepalese army from the east.

Major battles before Makwanpur in late February 1816 result in the final defeat of Nepalese forces by early March.

Diplomats have already begun preparing a peace treaty, which reached Ochterlony on March 5.

A Chinese army from Ili (Kulja) invades Turkistan and consolidates their authority by settling Chinese emigrants in the vicinity of a Manchu garrison.

The Chinese have thoughts of pushing their conquests towards Transoxiana and Samarkand, the chiefs of which have sent to ask assistance of the Afghan king Ahmed Shah Abdali.

This monarch had dispatched an ambassador to Beijing to demand the restitution of the Muslim states of Central Asia, but the representative had not been well received, and Ahmed Shah is too closely aligned with the Sikhs to attempt to enforce his demands by arms.

The Mughal Empire had fallen apart after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, and had declined in its ability to tax or govern most of the Indian subcontinent.

In the northwestern region, particularly the Punjab, the creation of the Khalsa community of Sikh warriors by Guru Gobind Singh had accelerated the decay and fragmentation of the Mughal power in the region.

Raiding Afghans have attacked the Indus river valleys but met resistance from both organized armies of the Khalsa Sikhs as well as irregular Khalsa militias based in villages.

The Sikhs had appointed their own zamindars, replacing the previous Muslim revenue collectors, which provide resources to feed and strengthen the warriors aligned with Sikh interests.

Meanwhile, colonial traders and the East India Company had begun operations in India on its eastern and western coasts.

By the second half of the eighteenth century, the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent (now Pakistan and parts of north India) are a collection of fourteen small warring regions.

Of the fourteen, twelve are Sikh-controlled misls (confederacies), one named Kasur (near Lahore) is Muslim controlled, and one in the southeast is led by an Englishman named George Thomas.

This region constitutes the fertile and productive valleys of the five rivers—Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Bias and Sutlej.

The Sikh misls were all under the control of the Khalsa fraternity of Sikh warriors, but they are not united and constantly war with each other over revenue collection, disagreements, and local priorities; however, in the event of external invasion such as from the Muslim armies of Ahmed Shah Abdali from Afghanistan, they usually unite.

Towards the end of eighteenth century, the five most powerful misls are those of the Sukkarchakkia, Kanhayas, Nakkais, Ahluwalias and Bhangi Sikhs.

Ranjit Singh belongsto the first, and through marriage has a reliable alliance with Kanhayas and Nakkais.

Among the smaller misls, some, such as the Phulkias misl, switch loyalties in the late eighteenth century and support the Afghan army invasion against their Khalsa brethren.

The Kasur region, ruled by a Pathan-Muslim, always supports the Afghan invasion forces and joins them in plundering Sikh misls during the war.

Ranjit Singh's fame grows in 1797, at age seventeen, when the Afghan Muslim ruler Shah Zaman, of the Ahmad Shah Abdali dynasty, attempts to annex Panjab region into his control through his general Shahanchi Khan and twelve thousand soldiers.

The battle is fought in the territory that falls in Ranjit Singh controlled misl, whose regional knowledge and warrior expertise help resist the invading army.

This victory gains him recognition.

The Afghan ruler sends in another army, which Ranjit Singh does not resist, in 1798.

He lets them enter Lahore, then encircles them with his army, blocks off all food and supplies, and burns all crops and food sources that could support the Afghan army.

Much of the Afghan army retreats back to Afghanistan.