Although Islam came to India via conquest of the Sindh initially by Arab armies that invaded adjacent Iran (Baluchistan was not part of India historically, but Iran). Throughout Indian history, subsequent invasions of the subcontinent followed. However, the bulk of the Muslim population of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are indigenous converts to the faith of Islam. While some converted by force, the majority converted by choice. Islam for some was a means to escape the Hindu caste system, in the same way that some convert to Christianity or a means to join the mores of the dominant culture of the day.

The Indian Ocean was known by some European explorers as the “Muslim sea” because Islam was the dominant cultural force from East Africa to Indonesia. Islam served as a cultural conduit that changed and shaped what we now define as “Indian” culture from henna being imported from the Middle East, to the present form of the kathak incorporating Persian dance moves and Central Asian dress, to the Perso-Arabic script of Urdu, to dome construction as exemplified by the Taj Mahal, to Muslim innovations to the sari by introducing the petticoat for women and groom wear for Indian men. Even contemporary Hindi has numerous loan words from Arabic, Farsi, and Turkic languages which bears witness to former Muslim rule.

Not all Muslim rulers of India were enlightened, but Buddhism in India was largely driven off the subcontinent by belligerant Hindu reactions to the Sakyamuni’s challenge to the Vedic traditions.

Culture changes and Indian culture is no exception.

To me Slumdog Millionaire was a excellent means of representing India and its complexicities to a Western audience. India is no perfect society, in a society of 300 million middle class consumers, India is still home to a large concentration of poverty, child labor, corruption, sectarian violence, social dislocation, uneven distribution and concentration of wealth, and social biases against a chai walla.

Indians seem defensive about their country and how it is portrayed. This is really no different from Muslims in Pakistan who are unwilling to confront the issue of terrorism in their midst. The Taliban was created by Pakistan’s ISI to control neighboring Afghanistan. Now the policies of supporting jihadi groups has backfired as recent bombings in the main cities of the Punjab and Sindh have proven deadly.

I don’t think Slumdog is a slur, but if you post a few more times I’ll be convinced that “Slumdog is a slur” is a slur.

Please search jindal and slumdog and see common usage of the term/slur/whathaveyou “slumdog.” Or do I need to post examples on this august board?

So while colonialism in India did suck, it sucked less hard than it did for the Africans.

Your opinion…i believe the Brits were in India for about 150yrs and Islamic colonialism? I wouldn’t call it that…we know Islam “colonized” Iran, others parts of the Middle East, Africa, many indigneous religions wiped out. That’s quite sad to me. I see a lot more “inferiority” complexes in other areas of the world, which reflects the state of the country’s institutions since their hegemonized or colonial past. Islam is part and parcel of India and alongside Islamic rulers were also Hindu and Sikh rulers…no biggie. All of Europe is like that as well as South America – the way you put it you act like India is one of the few regions of the world that have had come under an empire lol. But maybe many of those indigenous religious didn’t have 1000 year old writings, have not been heard about since the new cultural powerhouse overtook them.

That just happens to only show one side of that “sectarian” violence.