Article / Updated 03-26-2016
India can lay claim to one of the world's oldest civilizations, and its economic history is truly long and complicated.
India's beginnings and pre-colonial times
The Indus Valley civilization, an urbanized society that thrived between 2800 BC and 1800 BC, was economically very sound. The city-states of Mohenjo, Daro, and Harappa were well-planned and apparently carried on a flourishing trade with other civilizations, such as the Mesopotamians, Sumerians, and Egyptians.