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December 3, the air force of Pakistan began preemptive air strikes on eight Indian airfields The Pakistan army surrendered on December 16 in Dhaka The Shimla Accords prevented outbreaks of any major conflict between the two countries until 1999 Scientific development went forward at a tremendous speed with the launch of a satellite into space In May 1974 India successfully carried out an underground nuclear explosion at Pokhran The program of the Green Revolution, which utilized new types of seeds, resulted in greater agricultural productivity and self-sufficiency in food production There were demonstrations and strikes in protest against inflation and the poor standard of living Indira Gandhi also was found guilty of violating election laws and she imposed a state of national emergency on June 26, 1975 Fundamental rights were suspended, censorship was imposed on the press, and opposition leaders were put behind bars When Gandhi called for elections two years afterward, the Congress Party was badly trounced, and the combined opposition, the Janata Party, came into power Morarji Desai (1896–1995), the first non-Congress prime minister of India, headed a coalition that lasted for two years The mutual bickering among coalition partners and unsolved economic problems witnessed the return of Gandhi to power with a large majority in January 1980 The rise of militancy in the Punjab was crushed by the Indian security forces, but Gandhi paid with the loss of her life at the hands of her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984 The violence that erupted against the Sikhs created another dark chapter in Indian history Rajiv Gandhi (1944–91), the son of Indira Gandhi, was the next prime minister, and he took the country toward economic reforms and expansion of the telecommunication sector and information technology (IT) India became involved in the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka The Indo–Sri Lankan Peace Accords were signed in 1987, and the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was dispatched to Sri Lankan Rajiv Gandhi was charged with corruption and the Congress lost the elections of November 1989 He was assassinated by a Sri Lankan suicide bomber in 1991 The history of India since the last decade of the 20th century has been marked by the menace of terrorism, major economic reforms, tackling poverty, tremendous growth in IT, reservation to backward classes, and becoming a nuclear nation The Janata Party ministry of Vishwanath Pratap Singh (1931– ) lasted less than a year, but reactions to the affirmative India 203 action by his government of reserving jobs and seats in educational institutions for lower classes divided India along caste lines Politicians like Singh and others jettisoned merit-based awards for the quota system Even after more than five decades of reservation, the various governments retained this system The government of Manmohan Singh (1932– ) reserved seats for lower classes in some of the premier institutions of the country India shifted from its decade-old centralized planning model to a market-driven economy and joined the mainstream of globalization on an international level at the time of the Congress ministry of P V Narasimha Rao (1921–2004) Indian workers were sought after in IT fields globally The educational infrastructure had developed so as to produce one of the world’s largest concentrations of technical personnel There had been communal violence between Hindus and Muslims following the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 over the question of the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya Violence again erupted in 2002 after a train fire in Godhra, Gujarat, resulting in the massacre of Hindus and Muslims alike Relations with Pakistan deteriorated over Kashmir, which has remained one of the major sources of conflict between the two countries The conflict assumed dangerous proportions with the specter of a nuclear conflict after the Kargil War of 1999 Prime Minister Shri Vajpayee and the Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif (1949– ) signed the Lahore Declaration in February 1999 to solve the Kashmir problem But the fourth war between the two countries began on May and lasted for 73 days In spite of the odds, India maintained a democratic system The country maintains steady economic growth and a reduction in the poverty level India also is striving for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council Further reading: Brown, Judith M Nehru: A Political Life New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004; Hasan, Mushirul The Nehrus Personal Histories New Delhi: Roli, 2006; Kamath, P M., ed India-Pakistan Relations, Courting Peace from the Corridors of War New Delhi: Promilla, 2005; Schofield, Victoria Kashmir in Conflict: India, Pakistan and the Unending War London: I.B Tauris and Company, 2002; United Nations Development Program Human Development Report 2004 New York: UNDP, Hoechstetter Printing Co., 2004; Varma, Pavan K Being Indian: The Truth About Why The 21st Century Will Be India’s New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2004 Patit Paban Mishra
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