Many Muslim families have been there for a very long time (since the Moguls) and they have mostly been an industrious part of the community. However, the younger generations are too easily radicalized. The Hindus have a violent history too. Nobody was an angel during Partition. That was in my lifetime. Go visit there and you’ll see how unclear it all is. The Buddhists and Jains are a pacific influence. There are Christians and Jews there too, though not many. But it’s as multicultural a place you’ll find, and always has been. It’s easier for a monoculture like Japan to keep order than this cauldron of 1.2 billion specimens of humanity.
There is a REASON Britain split the country into 2 Nations an Hindu (India)and an Muslim)(Pakistan) nation... The horrors that they did to each other during the partition is as sickening as any in human history.
Their ability to live side by side peacefully in India prior to British rule is a dubious claim at best.
The mess there dates back centuries... and isn’t going to end anytime soon... Muslim conquered India and like Muslim’s do, they subjugated the majority Hindu population.... The animosity between these two groups long predates the modern state of India.
I have no doubt that some of these groups have learned to co exist, but hardly has the Hindu=Muslim relationship been one of peace and mutual respect.
“It’s easier for a monoculture like Japan to keep order than this cauldron of 1.2 billion specimens of humanity.”
I always thought that “freedom of religion” is at best a delusional pipedream, at worst a bloody camp.
How can two or more belief systems that believe theirs is the only way to salvation, with contradictory values, and who constantly rail against the others, possibly ever peacefully coexist in the same society?
islam in India predates the Moguls.
The first contact with islam was, surprisingly, peaceful — the Arab seafarers brought it to kerala in the 8th century. This was the same route St. Thomas the Apostle used when coming to India in 52 AD.
After that, it was all violence — the Ummayyads attacked what is now Sindh in Pakistan and were repulsed.
The next serious attack was in the 11th century when Mahmoud of Ghazni slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Hindus.
Since that time Islam creeped forward
buddhism and jainism are technically offshoots of Hinduism in the same way Christianity is an offshoot of Judaism.
Japan had chaos before the Shogun era - the reason it can keep order since then is the Meiji era