Before British colonization, did India exist?

Before British colonization, did India exist?

Would a Muslim Balochi feel part of the same broad culture as a Hindu from Ceylon?

Were the Burmese ever considered Indian before the British lumped them together?

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_India
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farther_India
twitter.com/AnonBabble

An Indian nation still doesn't exist, just an Indian state. India is a huge landmass full of completely different peoples, cultures and languagues that were forced together for the sake of (mostly) convinience.

Modern India is like if all of the countries of Europe were united into a big United States of Europe. It just wouldn't work at all, and it doesn't work for India.

India is as made up as all nation states, except moreso and not even recognised by a large portion of indians. A lot of people weren't even aware they had been colonised until brits announced their withdrawal.

The answer is no and they would most likely not unite.

There was India like there was Europe. The idea existed because India had been united many times in the past.

>and it doesn't work for India.
It really does though. The issues in India are not the result of unity.

But did an idea of India exist among people later designated as Indians?

Not really, no. The idea of an Indian nation only came about after the British had fully conquered the continent, and the people knew that they had to unite if they were going to kick them out, after all Britain (and the Mughals before them, and the Afghanis before them, and the Arabs before them) had only conquered so much land because it was all divided between possibly hundreds of kings and princelings, they would have to be united.

There was at most the idea of Arya Varta, which was thought to be the whole world, and venturing outside of it was anathema to Hindus, if anyone did it they were outcast.

India is linguistically much more diverse than the whole of Europe. Some would argue culturally as well.

Indian traditions as we know them are largely Western stereotypes of Northern and Central Indian customs, appropriated by Gandhi and his successors to create an India that all British Indian subjects could understand.

Not true, at least for the eastern parts of the country like Nagaland and Assam (descended from the Kingdom of Ahom, a sometimes-Chinese tributary sometimes-independent state which was closer ethnically, culturally and linguistically to Burma). Those areas are essentially under military occupation due to steong resistance; they share very little in common with the rest of the country. Many are small tribes, a large portion of people are either animists or Christians, and the states are poor and undeveloped.

>*strong resistance

POO IN LOO xD

Speaking of poo in loo, I've been wondering, is the public/open defecation dealio a Hindu thing, or an overall Indian thing? Do Indian Muslims do it? Do Sikhs?

Overall.

Also a shit in Pakistan and Bangladesh. I think even up to A-Stan but Afghanistan has a different problem entirely and its not overpopulated.

It's a poverty/population density thing

French nobility used to openly deficate in the Palace of Versailles.

In a LOO m8

Not in the street like in India.

No.

>Would a Muslim Balochi feel part of the same broad culture as a Hindu from Ceylon?
No, balochis are part of the greater iranic culture. There's a distinct difference historically, ethnically, linguistically, phenotypically and culturally between the different sides of indus river across which india begins.

No, in the hallways

Yes.

No, but the area was influenced by India.

No, but the area was influenced by India.

"United"

The brits used to throw their shit on the streets of london
Literally designated shitting streets

>ancient Indians expanded to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Tibet, Nepal, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, east Africa, Thailand, Philippines, Australia

come one Veeky Forums
just had this discussion on Greater India

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_India


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farther_India

aka Ultra India

>Modern India is like if all of the countries of Europe were united into a big United States of Europe.

Dude, India is more like Europe AND Africa lumped together. Europe is far more homogeneous ethnically, culturally and economically than India.

That's like saying the Persians, Greeks, and Afghans considered themselves one people at some point in time because Alexander united those territories.

Wow, just wow.

Inb4 Izzard

All that territory, but no loos to poo in

What the fuck. Is this the Hwan Empire of pooloos?

Every society had a public defecation problem until scarily recently.

India is more developed than much of the world, but is full of cities whose populations grow faster than can be accommodated, leading to the creation of shantytowns and apartment buildings with no room for toilets, so people just shit in the street.

The Indian government is building public toilets everywhere, but that's a huge fucking project when you have a billion people and need 300 million toilets, and probably need to hire 800,000 janitors to keep these public toilets usable.