| > you gotta ask what India even is One, or all, of the following: * the subcontinent * the civilization and peoples that made the subcontinent its home * the borders and the political entity in control of those borders (past, present, future) The British did not create the civilization or the religions they found when they landed here. The didn't build the temples, or compose the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Itihasas, the Puranas, or the various dharma shastras. And Indian people didn't emerge out of British vaginas. The idea that India didn't exist before the British (a lot of people claim this) is nonsensical. The only claim one can make is that they became, for a time, Chakravartin.[1] They were not the first, and they won't be the last. > They didn't even hold this for 100 years. Powers (the State) and areas enclosed by the borders it claims and governs (the political boundaries; the country) are always ephemeral things. Be it 100 years or 1000 years, they will change. For most people, this has only been relevant in so far as the impact it has on their daily lives. Does the State interfere in their religious, social, personal and economic affairs? To what extent? Does it protect them from insiders and outsiders who attempt to do the same? To what extent? These are the only questions that matter. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakravarti_(Sanskrit_term) |