.....Anyhow Was India not weaker than Persia for much of history? I mean it was ruled by outsiders for a long time.
Only a person who doesn't know Indian history would say that......but its not your fault...you'll say what you're taught....
I won't be able to teach whole Indian History here....but I'll try to give you a glimpse.....go through if you're interested to know anything apart from western propaganda.....
Apparently it might seem that India was 'weaker' than rest of the world......but if you delve deeper into Indian history you'll understand where this so called 'weakness' came from.....
Indian civilizations/Empires were culturally/spiritually inclined....remember, all the worlds Dharmic religions originated from India and most of them were non-violent like Buddhism, Jainism etc...
When rest of the world was killing each other....we were searching for the 'true meaning of life'......and this led to our destruction.....
Little did we know that the barbaric Huns,Arabs,Mongols won't appreciate out spiritualism.....which will later be adopted by the eastern countries....
Now let me show you how 'mighty' and 'brave' those western, Arab, Persian, Turk invaders were...
Throughout Indian History, the outside invaders could ONLY invade India when the Indian civilizations/Empires were in their declining stages or almost died.....
To start with, The Indus valley Civilization(IVC) after running for more than 2000 yrs declined by itself.....NOT due to any invasion....
Historians proved that the collapse of IVC was caused by drought,changes in the course of the Indus river, decline in trade with Egypt and Mesopotamia etc......as a result the civilization moved towards east of India and concentrated near the Ganges....
Indus Valley Civilization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
At this time several branches of Philosophies originated from Hinduism(the vedic religion the IVC people followed along with rest of India) and
UNFORTUNATELY their philosophies centered around NON-VIOLENCE....they were so obsessed with the
IMPRACTICAL idea of non-violence that the Jains covered their mouths with pieces of clothes so as to prevent insects from accidentally entering the mouth and getting killed....
Now, these new philosophies(religions) spread like wildfire, they prospered under the direct patronage of Hindu kings....Buddhism prospered the most(as it is more practical than Jainism)....they created several centers of learning,
the world's first universities(Nalanda and Takshila) were created by them.......
when the rest of the barbaric world was cutting each other we were concentrating on academics and spirituality(UNFORTUNATELY).....we integrated both of them.....
Its only because of these non-violent Buddhists who flourished in the north and north-west that invaders could invade these areas.....and these 'mighty', 'fearless' invaders with all their might got stuck in the north-west when they faced resistance from 'weak' hindu kings from the heartland...
It is by killing these non-violent Buddhists, In 530 BCE the Persians(under king Cyrus) conquered the north-west of India(Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan)....they remained their for 200 yrs but could not enter into the mainland....during the same time Alexander the 'great' came, he too could not enter the mainland.....but they were mighty warriors....so the explanation is, they spared India, isn't it
??
soon after, the Mauryas took back from the Persians whatever they conquered in the north-west..........AND then what happened, fortunately for the would be invaders and unfortunately for India, the great Mauryan king Ashoka(greatest Indian king) turned to spiritualism,shunned violence and began spreading Buddhism instead of running his empire....leading to complete destruction of the Mauryan Empire
Just have a look at the Mauryan dynasty and its tributaries(below pic)...when King Ashoka left it all....
File:Maurya Dynasty in 265 BCE.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is the difference.....your 'greatest' kings Alexander, Cyrus etc. were always dedicated in expanding their empires and our greatest king dedicated himself in spreading non-violence.....
Anyway, after Ashoka, the Mauryan empire got divided into smaller kingdoms and this state continued for almost 1000 yrs....
Then the Arabs invaded(after conquering Persia)....they too were NOT able to enter into the mainland(the Arabs expansion was checked and contained to Sindh in Pakistan)........and you were saying that the Indians were weaker than the Persians......
the Persians couldn't hold back the Arabs....we could....
Then the Turks invaded..... fierce battle continued in the north and north-western provinces...with the power shifting continuously from Hindu to Muslim hands and viceversa....
Then the Mughals invaded.....under so many invasions....and due to internal conflict....we finally faltered.....even then
Hindu king Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya hold a significant portion of India under his rule and there were
several small Hindu kingdoms also throughout Mughal rule...
So the bottomline is neither king Cyrus nor Alexander could conquer India.....
History of India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia