Prelude :In the “Geography of History” series we have learned the evolution of mankind from hunting gathering societies to agricultural societies.The invention of agriculture led to far-reaching changes in human societies. One important result was the emergence of cities and civilizations. This series covers one of the most important civilization – Harappan Civilization – be it in prelims or GS mains or History optional . There are certain themes that UPSC has been asking for many years and will keep on asking years to come.Few of such themes are – Buddhism, Harappan civilization, Gupta age , Akbar’s policy etc.Hence from exam point of view this series is quite important.
Discovery of an Old City :-
- In 1826 an English man Charles Masson visited a village named Harappa in Western Punjab (now in Pakistan). He noted the remarkably high walls, and towers of a very old settlement. He believed that this city belonged to the times of Alexander the Great.
- In 1872, a famous archaeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham came to this place.The people of the surrounding areas told him that the high mounds of Harappa were parts of a thousand-year old city.His views concurred with the local folk tale and believed that the city was 1000 yrs old.
- But in 1924 , another archaeologist John Marshall reported about Harappa, and opined that Harappa is as old as the civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia (5000 yrs old)
Harappan Civilization:-
- The finds from Harappa had similarity with finds of another place known as – Mohenjo-Daro in Sind.
- In Mohenjo-Daro the settlement lay underneath a Buddhist monastery belonging to the Kushan period. It has been found that in ancient times if a house was destroyed for some reason people would generally use the brick or mud of the house to prepare a plinth and make another house on top of it.
- The cities were part of an age when iron was unknown.
- When Marshall published his discoveries some other writers found objects similar to those of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in Mesopotamia.
The Chronology of Pre-Hareppan and Harappan Cultures :-
- 5500-3500 BC – Neolithic – In Baluchistan and the Indus plains settlements like Mehrgarh and Kili Ghul Muhammad came up. Beginning with 3500 B.C. pastoralism with limited cultivation and seasonal occupation of the villages, permanent villages emerged. Knowledge of wheat, barley, dates, cotton and sheep, goat and cattle. Evidences of mud houses , pottery, craft-production found.
- 3500-2600 BC -Early Harappan Period –
- Many more settlements established in the hills and the plains.
- Harappan Largest numbers of villages occur in this period.
- Use of copper, wheel and plough.
- Emergence of uniformity in the pottery tradition throughout the Indus Valley.
- Also, the origins of such motifs as Pipal, humped bulls, Cobras, horned deity etc . Evidence of granary, defensive walls, and long distance trade.
- 2600 – 1800 BC – Mature Harappan Period –
- Emergence of large cities, uniform types of bricks, weights,Harappan seals, beads and pottery.
- Planned township and long distance trade.
- 1800 BC Onwards – Late Harappan Period –
- Many Harappan sites abandoned.
- Interregional exchange Harappan declines. Writing and city life abandoned.
- Continuation of Harappan Crafts and pottery tradition.
- The village cultures of Punjab, Sutlej-Jamuna divide and Gujarat imbibe the Harappan crafts and pottery traditions.
Why is it Call Harappan ? :-
- Beginning with the discovery of Harappa, nearly thousand settlements having similar traits, have been discovered.
- Scholars named it the ‘Indus Valley Civilization‘ because initially most of the settlements were discovered in the plains of the river Indus and
its tributaries. - Archaeologists prefer,to call it the ‘Harappan Civilization‘. This is because in archaeology there is a convention that when an ancient culture is described, it is named after the modem name of the site which first revealed the existence of this culture.
Early Harappan Sites :-
- This geographical space would roughly cover the areas of modern-day Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, Pakistan and some of the surrounding areas.
- The Harappan civilization represents the culmination of a long period of evolution of agricultural and semi-nomadic communities.
Geographical Feature of Harappan Sites :-
- The areas of present day Pakistan and North-Westem India formed the core region of the Harappan civilization
- Dry weather and scanty rainfall
- Regional Variation:-
- Punjab and Sind are dominated by the alluvial plains of the Indus river system
- Baluchistan are characterized by steep craggy hills , inhabited by Pastoral Nomads.These pastoral nomads with their herds of sheep, goat and cattle kept shifting from uplands to low lands in search of pastures for their herd.
- These hilly regions are fractured by many passes, like those of Khyber, Gomal and Bolan.These have acted as highways of traffic for nomads,merchants, warriors and various groups of people.
- The interaction among the population of the uplands of Baluchistan and plains of the Indus on the one hand and
the communities of Iran on the other seems to be related to this geographical feature.
Origin Of Agriculture and Settled Villages :-
- The earliest evidence for the emergence of agricultural communities comes from a place called Mehrgarh, near the Bolan pass in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan (See the Map above)
- Beginning as a seasonal camp the place turned into a settled village in the 5th millennium B.C.
- Mehrgarh is located at the place where the alluvial plains of the Indus join the uneven hilly plateau , of the Indo-lranian border-land.
- People of Mehrgarh lived in mud houses which could sometimes have five to six rooms.
- By the middle of the 3rd millennium B.C. many small and large villages had sprung up around the Indus, Baluchistan and Afghanistan area
- The better known settlements among them are Kili Ghul Muhammad in Baluchistan and Mundigak in Afghanistan.
- In the Indus flood plains villages like Jalilpur near Harappa had come into existence.
- These agriculturists gradually learnt to exploit the Indus plains and to control the flooding of the Indus
- All this led to the development of small towns. The period of this new development is called ‘the Early Harappan‘ because of certain uniformity found all over the Indus.
P.S. – In the next series we will cover the findings and importance of particular Indus Valley Civilization Sites.
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.