Hinduism in India
After the collapse of the Mughal Empire about 1700 AD, the power of Hinduism increased as the Maratha Empire took over most of India.
What is Hinduism?
The Maratha Empire
All our India articles
Christian missionaries
But British colonizers gradually took over more and more of India: first the north, then the south. Wherever the British went, Christian missionaries went too. Most of these missionaries were Jesuits. They tried to get Indian people to become Christians.
The British in India
Jesuit missionaries
In the 1700s Protestant missionaries joined the earlier Jesuit missionaries.
What did most people believe?
A few Indians did become Christians, but almost everybody remained Muslims (in the north) or Hindus (in the south, in the powerful Maratha Empire). The British picked out Parsees and Sikhs to be their allies and get special favors. Parsees and Sikhs became richer and more powerful, but other people began to hate them for their privilege.
More about Islam
Who are the Parsees?
History of the Sikhs
Partition divides India up
When the people of India forced the British to leave India in the 1940s, the newly independent country decided to divide the Muslims from the Hindus.
Gandhi and Independence
The new government moved the Muslims north into the new country of Pakistan (part of which later split off as Bangladesh), while the Hindus moved to the new country of India further south.
History of Pakistan
Ten million people had to move, losing their jobs and houses. A million people died in the riots and fighting that went with this religious separation, the Partition.
Today, most of the people in India are Hindus, while most of the people in Pakistan and Bangladesh are Muslims. They still spend a lot of time fighting about it.
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