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India wins independence from Britain after being divided into two separate nations, India and Pakistan
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India and Pakistan go to war in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir
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Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the independence movement, is assassinated
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India becomes a republic as its constitution comes into effect
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India holds its first general elections
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India and China fight a brief border war
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Jawaharal Nehru dies after five-month illness
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India and Pakistan fight war over Kashmir, which ends after a U.N. call for a ceasefire
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Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, becomes prime minister
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India and Pakistan fight another war over east Pakistan which ends when 90,000 Pakistani troops surrender and leads to the creation of Bangladesh
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India conducts underground nuclear tests
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Indira Gandhi declares a state of emergency, in which the press is censored and 100,000 people are jailed
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First non-Congress party government sweeps to power following Indira Gandhi's defeat in general elections
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Indira Gandhi wins back power, becomes prime minister
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Indira Gandhi is assassinated by Sikh bodyguard's, her son Rajiv takes over as prime minister
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A deadly gas leaks from a pesticide plant owned by the U.S.-based union Carbide Corp. in central city of Bhopal, killing about 6,500 people in the world's worst industrial disaster
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An uprising against Indian rule erupts in the Kashmir Valley, inflaming tensions with Pakistan
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Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a Tamil suicide bomber during and election campaign
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Congress party wins general elections and government launches sweeping economic reforms and dismantles decades of socialist control
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Hindu Zealots tear down a 16th century mosque in the northern town of Ajodhya, sparking nationwide riots in which about 3,000 people, mostly Muslims, are killed
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A series of bomb blasts, planted by the Muslim underworld, hit the country's commercial capital of Bombay, killing 257 people
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India launches offensive against Pakistan-backed infiltrators around Kargil in Indian Kashmir
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Fire on train kills 59 Hindu activists in western state of Gujarat. About 2,500 people, mostly Muslims, are killed in retaliatory riots
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Pakistan announces ceasefire on Kashmir and India reciprocates