Gujarat: History

What the official syllabus says

GPSC Preliminary Examination, General Studies, under the heading History and Culture:

• Indus valley civilisation, Vedic age, Jainism and Buddhism.
• Major Dynasties of Ancient, Medieval and Modern India and Gujarat - Their rulers, Administration, Social, Religious and Economic conditions, etc.
• The arrival of Europeans in India and their struggle for supremacy, Company rule in India, Establishment and expansion of British rule in India, Indian war of Independence - 1857 in India and Gujarat, Religious and social reform movements in India and Gujarat in the 19th century, India's freedom movement, Indian Revolutionaries in India and abroad.
• Post-Independence India and Gujarat

Topics in detail

Gujarat's history is asked in its own right in the Prelims and again in Mains. Read it by period, and for each dynasty note its rulers, administration, and social, religious and economic conditions, as the official line asks.

Harappan Gujarat

• Lothal (Ahmedabad district, Bhal region): the dockyard, bead-making, excavation by S. R. Rao
• Dholavira (Khadir bet, Kachchh): water management, reservoirs, the signboard inscription; UNESCO World Heritage Site (2021)
• Other sites: Rangpur (Surendranagar), Surkotada and Desalpur (Kachchh), Rojdi (Rajkot), Kuntasi, Bagasra
• Late Harappan and post-Harappan cultures of Saurashtra

Ancient Gujarat

• Mauryan Gujarat: the Sudarshana lake at Girnar built under Chandragupta Maurya's governor Pushyagupta; Ashoka's rock edicts at Junagadh
• Indo-Greeks and the Western Kshatrapas (Kardamaka line): Rudradaman I and his Junagadh inscription (c. 150 CE), the first long Sanskrit inscription
• Gupta rule: Skandagupta's Junagadh inscription and the repair of the Sudarshana lake by Parnadatta and Chakrapalita
• The Maitrakas of Valabhi (from Bhatarka, late 5th century): administration, copper-plate grants, Valabhi as a centre of learning (accounts of Hiuen Tsang and I-tsing)
• The Jain council at Valabhi under Devarddhi Kshamashramana, which wrote down the Jain canon
• Other early powers: Gurjaras of Bharuch (Nandipuri), Saindhavas, Chalukyas and Rashtrakutas in south Gujarat

The Chavdas, Solankis and Vaghelas

• Vanraj Chavda and the founding of Anahilwad Patan (8th century)
• Chaulukyas (Solankis) from Mularaja I (10th century): Patan as capital
• Bhima I: Mahmud of Ghazni's raid on Somnath (1025-26); the Modhera Sun Temple; Rani ki Vav built by Queen Udayamati (UNESCO, 2014)
• Siddharaja Jayasimha: Sahasralinga lake, patronage of learning; Hemachandracharya and his grammar Siddha-Hema-Shabdanushasana, written under Siddharaja's patronage
• Kumarapala: patronage of Jainism under Hemachandra's influence
• Solanki administration, trade, ports (Khambhat, Bharuch), temple architecture (Maru-Gurjara style)
• The Vaghelas: Vastupala and Tejapala, Jain ministers of the Vaghela chiefs, and their temples at Mount Abu and Girnar; Visaladeva
• Karnadeva Vaghela's defeat by Alauddin Khalji's army (1299) and the end of Rajput rule at Patan

The Gujarat Sultanate

• Zafar Khan (Muzaffar Shah I) and independence from Delhi (early 15th century)
• Ahmad Shah I: founding of Ahmedabad (1411); Bhadra fort, Jama Masjid
• Mahmud Begada: conquest of Junagadh (Girnar) and Champaner (Pavagadh); naval contest with the Portuguese
• Bahadur Shah: wars with the Mughals (Humayun) and the Portuguese; his death off Diu (1537)
• Indo-Islamic architecture of Ahmedabad and Champaner; trade of Khambhat, Surat and Diu

Mughal and Maratha Gujarat

• Akbar's conquest of Gujarat (1572-73); Gujarat as a Mughal subah; Todar Mal's revenue settlement
• Surat as the chief Mughal port and the port of Haj pilgrims; Shivaji's raids on Surat (1664, 1670)
• Decline of Mughal authority; Maratha expansion in the 18th century
• The Gaekwads: Pilaji Gaekwad (Songadh), Damaji; Baroda as the Gaekwad capital; joint Peshwa-Gaekwad rule over Gujarat
• Nawabs of Junagadh, Khambhat and Surat; Jadejas of Kachchh; rulers of Kathiawar

British period and princely states

• English factory at Surat (1613, after the Battle of Swally, 1612); Dutch, Portuguese and French settlements; Portuguese Diu and Daman
• Treaties with the Gaekwads; Kheda, Ahmedabad, Bharuch, Surat and Panchmahals as British districts
• Kathiawar Agency, Walker Settlement (1807) and the many princely states of Saurashtra and Kachchh
• Sayajirao Gaekwad III of Baroda: compulsory primary education, libraries, social legislation
• Other reforming princely rulers: Bhavnagar, Gondal (Bhagvatsinhji), Nawanagar

1857 in Gujarat

• Unrest among troops at Ahmedabad; risings in the Panchmahals (Godhra, Dahod), Kheda and Nandod (Rajpipla)
• The Vagher rising in Okhamandal led by Jodha Manek and Mulu Manek
• Role of tribal groups (Bhils, Kolis, Naikdas); Tatya Tope's movements in eastern Gujarat

Religious and social reform in 19th-century Gujarat

• Swaminarayan sect (Sahajanand Swami): reform among lower castes, opposition to female infanticide
• Durgaram Mehta and the Manav Dharma Sabha (Surat, 1844)
• Gujarat Vernacular Society (Ahmedabad, 1848; Alexander Kinloch Forbes), now Gujarat Vidya Sabha
• Narmad, Dalpatram, Mahipatram Rupram Nilkanth and the reform of social customs (widow remarriage, foreign travel)
• Karsandas Mulji, the Satyaprakash paper and the Maharaj Libel Case (1862)
• Bholanath Sarabhai and the Prarthana Samaj in Ahmedabad; Arya Samaj in Gujarat
• Ranchhodlal Chhotalal and the first textile mill of Ahmedabad (1861); growth of a modern middle class

The freedom movement in Gujarat

• Early nationalists of Gujarat; the Surat session of the Congress (1907) and the split
• Revolutionaries abroad from Gujarat: Shyamji Krishna Varma (born Mandvi, Kachchh; India House, The Indian Sociologist), Sardar Singhji Rana
• Gandhi in Gujarat: Kochrab Ashram (1915), Sabarmati Ashram (1917)
• Ahmedabad mill strike and Kheda Satyagraha (1918); Gujarat Vidyapith (1920)
• Borsad Satyagraha (1923); Bardoli Satyagraha (1928) and the title 'Sardar' for Vallabhbhai Patel
• Dandi March (12 March to 6 April 1930) and the Dharasana salt satyagraha; Dholera and Viramgam
• Haripura session of the Congress (1938); Rajkot Satyagraha (1938-39); Praja Mandals in the princely states
• Quit India in Gujarat: student martyrs, underground activity
• Tribal movements: Govind Guru and the Mangadh massacre (1913); Motilal Tejawat and the Pal-Dadhvav massacre (1922)

Post-Independence Gujarat

• Integration of princely states: the United State of Saurashtra (1948); Kachchh as a Part C state
• Junagadh: the Nawab's accession to Pakistan, the Arzi Hukumat (provisional government) and the plebiscite of 1948
• Bombay State (bilingual) from 1956; the Mahagujarat Andolan led by Indulal Yagnik (Mahagujarat Janata Parishad)
• Formation of Gujarat on 1 May 1960 under the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960; inauguration by Ravishankar Maharaj; Jivraj Mehta as first Chief Minister
• Gandhinagar as the planned capital; the Navnirman Andolan (1974)
• Major events: Machhu dam disaster at Morbi (1979), Kachchh earthquake (2001)
• Growth of cooperatives (Amul), industry, ports and the Sardar Sarovar project

Overlaps

Mains General Studies-I (A) asks for modern Indian history including Gujarat and has a separate line on the Mahagujarat Aandolan. The monuments of each period come again on Gujarat: Art, Culture and Life Traditions.