Impact of Geography on Indian History

In order to understand the holistic image of India, the impact of geography on Indian history is imminent.

Impact of the Himalayas on History of India

The Himalayas act as a barrier to Siberian cold winds because this climate in north India has been comparatively warm & this warmer climate has played an important role in the growth of flora and fauna.
It is suitable for human life as population density is increasing than china & other neighboring countries.
Act as a barrier to foreign invaders. Throughout Indian history, no invasion was witnessed from the Chinese side except in 1962. As the Himalayas are impossible to cross in large groups.
The Himalayas range is almost uncrossable for large groups but small passes found through the Himalayas range have enabled socio-cultural & economic contact of India with the outside world.
Because of the barrier of the Himalayas, India had been largely free from politico-military upheavals faced in central Asia.
The Himalayas are a source of perennial rivers & these rivers have been foundations of civilization & culture in India for ages.

Hills & mountains have divided India into different geographical regions. As a result of this regional culture emerged.
Vindhyas have ensured that the politico-military development in north India did not much impact on peninsular India. As a result of this culture in peninsular India continued to flourish when north India was invaded by Turks.
Aravalis divided western India into a number of pockets. Because of these, west India has always seen a large number of principalities. When these Rajput states were in power, political unification carried out in these states.
Because of the hilly terrain, Marathas could fight against the Mughals by guerilla warfare.

The availability of fertile plains in North India has ensured large empires emerged in North.

Throughout Indian history, there has been no single of when power could rule over the whole of India by starting from the south. Whoever controlled North India controlled the south but the opposite was not seen because of resources provided by fertile plains.
French failed against the British because their focuses were on the south. When the English company captured Bengal it became almost invaluable. It was the conquest of Bengal that sealed the fate of India.
It is because of the availability of fertile plains the capital was always located between Lahore and Calcutta.

Resource availability has left a lasting impact on the direction of Indian history because the most powerful empires emerged in these areas where natural resources were available in plenty.
Magadhan imperialism was far more successful than the 15 other Mahajanpadas because of the availability of iron nines, timber, and other natural resources in the Magadha region.
The availability of natural resources allowed Magdhan rules to use weapons on large scale. Their army was more successful.

The warmer climate of North India when compared with the trans-Himalayan region has ensured that most of the vegetation & human population could flourish throughout ages.
The extreme climate of the Himalayas region has ensured that the population density remained very low. The natural vegetation & other forms of wildlife could continue to survive in such low population density areas.

The alluvial soil brought by rivers has farmed extensive fertile plains in India. These plains have provided resources for the continuation of human life throughout the ages.
Rivers are narrow in foothills of mountains.
Rivers and plains were prone to flooding. These were almost possible to be crossed by early man. Gangetic plains were occupied after lakhs of years by stone-age men. Only by mesolithic age, the man started settling in Gangetic plains.
Rivers provided water for drinking as well as agriculture, i.e. why cultures and civilization emerged in river valleys during ancient times.
Rivers also acted as political boundaries throughout human history.

Coastal areas have witnessed maximum interaction with the outside world. Because of this socio-cultural life in west regions is cosmopolitan in character. People living in coastal areas have been liberal & progressive. Rigidities of feudal society were absent in coastal areas.
The extensive Indian coastline allowed maintaining trade & commercial contacts with the outside world. Throughout the ages, even when overland trade routes were obstructed due to political developments sea routes remained open.
It was because of this reason, Harappan civilization continued to flourish in the Gujarat region for many countries after its decline in north-western parts
The foreigner coming from the Arab world & Europe reached peninsular Indian before the north because of facilities provided by ports on indin wast.

Distribution of rainfall has also affected the course of Indian history in many ways.

Monsoonal rainfall reduced from east to west, so the density of forest follow the same pattern.
Areas of moderate rainfall have been most density populated because of suitability to Agri & human life
The developments in the rain shadow region in Maharashtra have been throughout ages. Because of the absence of sufficient rainfall agriculture could not progress. Similar has been a picture of Gujarat & Rajasthan where rainfall is extremely limited.

Indias has continental characters. Because of extensive geographical spread, rulers in India have faced difficulties in carrying out Political unification.
Except during few periods of the Mauryan age & Gupta age, political fragmentation characterized Indian history throughout the ancient age
Because of the extensive geographical extent, the affected Indian ruler get little time to look for a colony outside India or to subjugate the trans-Hindu kush region.
On the other hand, foreign invasions have been more frequent throughout Indian history.