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A long time ago, I started a thread asking wether a much earlier Mongol conquest of India might have led to an Hindu dominated India, or if the Mongols would have invevitably assimilated into the Muslim elite.

What I'd like to know now is if there is any way in which, with a POD after, let's say, the 1830ies, we could have a Muslim dominated India till at least the 1990ies.

Is it that hard? After all, when the British came to India, the Muslims have been in power in Northern India for about 600 years. They had political power, and controlled most sources of wealt: land. They kept controlling vast amounts of land after the Brisith conquest.

Even in fictional works written around 1900 the members of the non-British elite are often Muslims, who felt both Indian and Muslim, and who beileved that India was once in Muslim hands, and might be so again in the future. What's more, there were many Muslims who studied in England and became part of the educated elite -bellow the British, of course-.

Yet, according to some historians, during the British Raj comparatively more Hindus made use of the advantages the new order of things, which allowed them to search more avenues of social ascension that were previously forbidden. Education, Industry, trade were fields in which many Hindus or other non-muslims excelled. The old Muslim elite was -according to what I remember (I may be wrong)- more reticent to follow these paths, and more resentfull of the change brought to the previous order of things.

Could things have been different? If the British are forced to leave India due earlier due to an European war or some other catastroph, might a muslim elite still rule "India" or most Indian states? Is there other possibility by which we could get the same result?

I know, eventually, the majority rule will force things to change: but it might take a while (Bolivia didn't have a non Criollo president till the 2000s, South Africa till the 1990ies, South Sudan was under Muslim rule till just a couple of years ago, and so on).

Thoughts?
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