What exactly is "indosphere"? What is meant by "part of indosphere"? Following Hinduism does not make people a part of "India" or the "Indic civilization" as I have heard it referred to by some people. By that logic, all Muslim countries are a part of the "Arabisphere" - In fact, India would be a major part of the "Arabosphere". Its silly. Its just that the religion and certain customs have traveled to different parts of the world and been adopted as interactions between peoples and cultures occurred.
Most Muslim Majority countries are part of Islamic World...
Indosphere refers to areas which have been influenced by Indian culutre and religion and these lands have adopted Indian customs and adapted them...
And vast parts of the world were ruled by Muslims for centuries - does not make that part of the world an "Arabosphere". They are all still distinct nations and peoples with their own identities, though they may have absorbed some customs, culture and beliefs from their previous rulers.
Since Hinduism is not supposed to be propagated or followed in a particular way hence it cannot be compared with Islam..
therefore instead of calling it Hindu World or previously Hindu World it is called Indosphere as HInduism is less of a religion and more of a way of life.. certain customs of which have been adopted by SE Asia..
What did the Mughals and Maurya call it?
Hindustan and Aryavarta/Bharatvarsha I think...
Their "empires" would have been the equivalent of the Persian, Ottoman or Greek empires - i.e some "autocrat" conquering a bunch of territory, comprised of different nations and peoples. What lends Maurya's or the Mughal empires any more legitimacy in being considered "one nation" than the aforementioned empires did?
THe common chord at the time of Maurya was Buddhism and at the time of Akbar was Hinduism..
on the west the east and the north this land was bounded by mountains and in the south by the ocean..
this subcontinent.. had a different breed of people whom today we called south asians..
it is so called subcontinent because it was distinct from other lands..
and the culture that existed here was vastly different from what existed in its neighbours and with regional variations..
There is no such thing as "Indian cultural domination" - There is influence from Hinduism and other beliefs, that arose from the different nations and peoples of South Asia - but again, that argument is as bad as suggesting that there is "Arab cultural domination" in all the Muslim countries.
I agree... there is no domination but at the same time this culture is not relegated to the backside but is very visible and is now claimed as the culture of that country and not of India,. but is Indian in nature..
What ever domination happened, happened way back and today the culture there so followed is indic in nature as opposed to sino in nature..
Manas: Indian Diaspora, The Indic Presence in World Culture
JSOTR article anyone with Athens account lemme know and I'll give you the
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0018-2656(1968)7:3<318:IOAIH>2.0.CO;2-#
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00....0.CO;2-Z&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage
Bradley bases his analysis on an extended historical analysis, which distinguishes the traditional tolerance of diversity in the cultural Indosphere (Malaya, Cambodia, Indonesia) from the disregard of linguistic minorities and assimilating tradition of the Sinosphere (Japan, Korea, Vietnam), both these traditions going back well over two thousand years and being extremely rich culturally. (Burma and Thailand moved from the Sinosphere into the Indosphere about a millennium ago, reacting against Chinese expansion.)
Foundation For Endangered Languages. Home
What could be considered "Indian cultural domination", in the contemporary sense, would be the popularity of Bollywood and its influence on culture the way Hollywood has done - but Bollywood itself is heavily influenced by Hollywood, especially today, so it could in fact be considered an indirect American cultural domination, rather than "Indian".
this is soft power and denotes that India is the flavour of the season..
the rules of centuries of Indians over SE Asia had resulted in more Indic form of a culture in SE Asia..