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Comment by MPlus88 | Hacker News Reader

Until the British arrived the subcontinent was a mishmash of thousands of fiefdoms that were at each other's throat. That looks balkanization to me.

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You need to read a little more history then! India's history goes much further than that. Read up on The Maurya Empire

The Maurya Empire? Yeah right. You should thank the British for the Maurya empire. The so-called Maurya Empire was cooked up by a pseudo historian by the name of James Prinsep to instill a sense of one people for political purpose. The British at the time assumed the British empire in South Asia was forever and it was hard to rule a place when the people practically hate each other historically. This Maurya Empire thing is a way for the British to create some glue for their subjects. Called it a British duplicity if you will.

Pseudo Historian so good that he cooked up all the ancient texts, ashoka pillar, coinage, stupa, architectural remains, etc right?

Anyways! Can you cite a non-pseudo source for you claims?

Yeah, a pillar here and a coin dug up there and you can weave a whole story. It this is true I would assume the British would learn this history from the native people in the subcontinent instead of the other way. It would be like the Europeans have never heard of the Roman Empire or Julius Caesar until they learned it from Japan.

Like i said, any credible source for what you are claiming?

Surely the British arrived in India well after 0 AD. Not sure how an empire that disolved long before then would matter to what the British saw when they first reached India.

I'm just citing one example from the many. India as an entity has been dissolved and established multiples times in the history. British came at the weak period of India, essentially during a long civil war that was going on across the whole subcontinent.

"India as an entity has been dissolved and established multiples times in the history."

I found it interesting that Indians for some reason like to insist on this absurdity. There must be some benefits or advantages of making such claim.

If you keep calling historical facts as absurdity then there's nothing to debate here

At that time Britain was a mishmash of fiefdoms that were at each other's throat.

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