Greater India

There are tens of millions of Tamils within India who have been peaceful as far as I know. I would think the integration of Sri Lanka would have definitely been possible.

Good point there. Anyone know what led to the separation and enmity on the island that didn't occur on the subcontinent?
 

ninebucks

Banned
Good point there. Anyone know what led to the separation and enmity on the island that didn't occur on the subcontinent?

It did occur on the subcontinent. India has been fighting secessionists and insurrectionaries for its entire existence, its just that in a population of over a billion, even quite large rebellions can be overlooked.
 
Good point there. Anyone know what led to the separation and enmity on the island that didn't occur on the subcontinent?

I think that the Tamils were brought over from the mainland by the British or Dutch in large numbers as better workers, or better workers were brought over to replace the Tamils and thus the two sides didn't like each other.

I can't remember.

Anyway, would a Greater India manage to move on from any large independence movements and become a major, major, world player.

Would we see English stay as the official, official language due to an even larger diversity amongst the native languages etc

:)
 
I think that the Tamils were brought over from the mainland by the British or Dutch in large numbers as better workers, or better workers were brought over to replace the Tamils and thus the two sides didn't like each other.

I can't remember.

Anyway, would a Greater India manage to move on from any large independence movements and become a major, major, world player.

Would we see English stay as the official, official language due to an even larger diversity amongst the native languages etc

:)

The Government of India Act of 1909 is what made division somewhat inevitable. This created divided electorates: Seats were allocated 75/25 Hindu Muslim, but only Muslims could vote for Muslim seats, and only Hindus Hindu seats. Because candidates didn't have to appeal to everyone, politicians on both sides were radicalized.

If not for this, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India could all have been one country today. Burma & Ceylon are much harder to arrange, and probably Nepal as well.

Just the absence of horrific expenditure in life and wealth in the India/Pakistan wars and rivalry would have made India a much greater power than it is, as in a major player, but maybe nor major major major. That's sort of a Catch-22.
 
Here's a map I made a while back:
Originally posted here:

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