Indianization in East Africa

I'm wondering if it would be possible to see the spread of Indianisation along the Eastern African coastline as it did in South East Asia OTL. I see Indianisation as the spread of Indian religious, philosophical and cultural ideas and the emulation by local powers of Indian social and political structures.

The most obvious way would simply to increase the number of Indian traders in Africa, but I have heard that much of the trade between the regions went through Arab middlemen. Removing the middlemen and having more direct trade links may see the spread of Indian ideas. Perhaps some kind of catastrophe affects the pre-Islamic Meccans, removing their influence. This would also remove the later influence of Islam, and perhaps even facilitate the Indianisation of the southern Arabian coastline. This could be the perogative of the Cholas, seeing the spread of Tamil writing scripts and the construction of Hindu temples in East Africa.

There's also the option of turbocharging the Austronesian expansion westward and having Malagasy-like people settle along the East African coastline, who then begin trading with India and apply Indian ideas of caste to their own situation, placing the Austronesian ethnic types above native Africans in their hierachy.
 
Your going to need a weaker Islamic society and a strong unified Indian state with East Africa as its economic and colonial target.

Heck you could even get that without a weaker Islamic society by having the Indians that do dominate East Africa be muslim. Maybe an islamic predessesor to the Mughals?

Either way its going to take alot of butterflies and a very different India, Middle East, and Europe.
 
Perhaps you could start with a longer-lasting Mauryan Empire of Chandragupta? Or have the an enduring Indo-Greek Kingdom survive as far as the Middle Ages?
 
Heck you could even get that without a weaker Islamic society by having the Indians that do dominate East Africa be muslim. Maybe an islamic predessesor to the Mughals?

True, but one of the major components of 'Indianisation' as it has been applied historically to Southeast Asia has been the influence of Indian religions and philosophy. Much less likely to see the transmission of Hindu and Buddhist ideas if the introducing vector are Muslim merchants.


Lysandros Aikiedes said:
Perhaps you could start with a longer-lasting Mauryan Empire of Chandragupta? Or have the an enduring Indo-Greek Kingdom survive as far as the Middle Ages?

The Mauryans and Indo-Greeks strike me as more land-based powers, though under the former there was an expansion of trade with Southeast Asia. SO perhaps it could work. There are also references to state-supported Buddhist prosyletisation at this time (at least under Asoka). Perhaps a delegation could be sent to East Africa. But seems a bit out-of-the-way.
 
A surviving empire of Alexander the Great?

A very recent POD: Five minutes ago, a billionaire in India hires some mercenaries to take over the government of Zimbabwe. They do whatever he tells them, in running the country, making everybody's lives much better while introducing various elements of Indian culture.

How's that?

He could also do something like that in Somalia and other East African countries. It would be terribly expensive, I know.
 
A surviving empire of Alexander the Great?

A very recent POD: Five minutes ago, a billionaire in India hires some mercenaries to take over the government of Zimbabwe. They do whatever he tells them, in running the country, making everybody's lives much better while introducing various elements of Indian culture.

How's that?

He could also do something like that in Somalia and other East African countries. It would be terribly expensive, I know.

Now that is an interesting future history, billionaries so rich and influencial that they transcend the state and can become royalty unto themselves via wealth, influence, political loopholes, western indifference, etc.
 
Theoretically I'll have nothing but time once finals are over, so its a possibility. Ah I can see it now...King Gates I of Honduras, or Maharaja Mittal of Somalia, or maybe even the House of Ford ruling Argentina after a heavy POD in the Dirty War.
 
Your going to need a weaker Islamic society and a strong unified Indian state with East Africa as its economic and colonial target.

Indianisation in SE Asia tended to be carried out through soft power projection, so to speak. It wasn't so much outright colonialism as it was cultural imperialism. Hinduism was the 2nd C version of Coca Cola, so to speak.
 
Indianisation in SE Asia tended to be carried out through soft power projection, so to speak. It wasn't so much outright colonialism as it was cultural imperialism. Hinduism was the 2nd C version of Coca Cola, so to speak.

Hinduism had cocaine in it early on?
 
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