Given the only entity you think of India to be is a Nation State, it didn't. Which for most "west" educated people is the only type of state that can exist. But entities can exist beyond concept of a Nation State. Unfortunately, its not very easy to unlearn years of "one good way" to think.
Did Germany exist during Roman Empire or during Holy Roman Empire ? It did not as a nation state, but the people almost always felt connected.
India had much stronger bonds among people than say typical Germany, the religion/culture had elements from the entire nation, created by leaders from different parts of continent. Hinduism has verses conveying rivers and Gods from around the subcontinent as important aspects of life. Adi Shakaracharya, the religious teacher who is considered the person who made Hinduism the dominant form from among other existing interpretations of "Dharma" belongs to the southernmost tip of the region and created hindu institutions in all corners of subcontinent.
Bhakshali Manuscript is one of the oldest Indian documents with use of Zero in Maths written by Buddhist scholars in Sanskrit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakhshali_manuscript . This was discovered in modern day Pakistan [then British India]. You could argue that this is a part of Pakistan's history, but what is Pakistan's History then ?
You can somewhat imagine if a Mesopotamian state survived till today, parts of it unconverted to Islam in a sub area of fertile crescent. Would you call it the successor state to entire Mesopotamia or you would say Uruk history is not their history because the region is now part of nation state of Iraq. That is the case with India as well ! There is a reason we read Mesopotamian history as a composite and as a different topic than say Egyptian History, because Mesopotamia was a different and connected civilization. Institutions like that don't survive now and hence a modern western scholar has no ontology to relate it to, but India exists as an outlier. That is the reason what most orientalists write and what we observe on ground about India are super disconnected.
Given the only entity you think of India to be is a Nation State, it didn't. Which for most "west" educated people is the only type of state that can exist. But entities can exist beyond concept of a Nation State. Unfortunately, its not very easy to unlearn years of "one good way" to think.
Did Germany exist during Roman Empire or during Holy Roman Empire ? It did not as a nation state, but the people almost always felt connected.
India had much stronger bonds among people than say typical Germany, the religion/culture had elements from the entire nation, created by leaders from different parts of continent. Hinduism has verses conveying rivers and Gods from around the subcontinent as important aspects of life. Adi Shakaracharya, the religious teacher who is considered the person who made Hinduism the dominant form from among other existing interpretations of "Dharma" belongs to the southernmost tip of the region and created hindu institutions in all corners of subcontinent.
Bhakshali Manuscript is one of the oldest Indian documents with use of Zero in Maths written by Buddhist scholars in Sanskrit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakhshali_manuscript . This was discovered in modern day Pakistan [then British India]. You could argue that this is a part of Pakistan's history, but what is Pakistan's History then ?
You can somewhat imagine if a Mesopotamian state survived till today, parts of it unconverted to Islam in a sub area of fertile crescent. Would you call it the successor state to entire Mesopotamia or you would say Uruk history is not their history because the region is now part of nation state of Iraq. That is the case with India as well ! There is a reason we read Mesopotamian history as a composite and as a different topic than say Egyptian History, because Mesopotamia was a different and connected civilization. Institutions like that don't survive now and hence a modern western scholar has no ontology to relate it to, but India exists as an outlier. That is the reason what most orientalists write and what we observe on ground about India are super disconnected.