Flocculencio
Donor
Agreed. I would note that my problem with the Philhellenes is when it gets into the idea that Greeks were not only awesome but that their conquests spread awesome - as if the conquered were getting some kind of benefits package instead of foreign overlords.
I don't think Alexander had a Marshall Plan
Would there be any reason that even a larger Greek presence would matter? As in, would even a statistically measurable number of Greeks really inspire the Indians to be more Hellenic?
I don't think so. I'm not sure if cultural influence correlates with population size. Small numbers of Indians managed to Indianise the whole of SE Asia. Equally small numbers of Hellenes had no real lasting effect on India.
Even if numbers did matter there just aren't enough Greeks. India is staggeringly huge in any time period- I mean we all know that one sixth of Humanity is ruled from Delhi but even then, I was shocked to learn that India has a larger population than all of modern Africa- and I suspect this effect was even more pronounced in Ancient times.