If India is the land of religion, how could it be invaded?

How India, the land of religion, could have been invaded by the Mughals and later subjugated by the British, with Brāhmaṇas being killed and so on?

One point many may question is how India, the land of religion, could have been invaded by the Mughals and later subjugated by the British, with Brāhmaṇas being killed and so on.

One point to consider is that religion in India decreased a lot with the beginning of Kali-yuga, and about 2,500 years ago, when Buddha appeared, the Vedic system had already declined so much that people were using Vedic ceremonies as an excuse to kill animals on an industrial scale and eat the meat. Devotion to God had been practically forgotten, and religion was followed mainly as a means to achieve material progress and sense gratification, based on the worship of different demigods.

The point is that demigod worship is largely ineffective in Kali-yuga, because we can't do the ceremonies properly. Demigod worship is mainly mechanical, awarding results only if the rituals prescribed in the scriptures are performed correctly. Demigods don't take into consideration the intention of the worshiper (which they can't even see), but only the physical actions. If the rituals are not performed properly, the worship will yield no results. Worship of demigods may thus still be valid in the sense of making a person a little religious and opening the doors for one to gradually come to the worship of Vishnu, but as a way to attain material prosperity, we can't expect much result from it. In the age we live in, only worship of God in some of His forms works, because the Lord can see the intention of the worshiper, and thus even processes of God worship that don't follow the Vedic prescriptions award benefit.

Since people in India 2,500 years ago were mainly worshiping demigods, it's understandable that societies were declining, both materially and in terms of spiritual assets. We can see that the same process of worship of different demigods was also popular in societies such as the Greeks and Romans, which were originally also connected with Vedic culture, and that these societies also declined over time.

Then, with the advent of Lord Buddha, the traditional Vedic religions were largely replaced with Buddhism, which is an atheistic philosophy, and starting from the 8th century, Buddhism was replaced by the impersonalism of Śaṅkarācārya, which is also atheistic. During the Middle Ages, most of India was thus following a mixture of sentimental demigod worship (outside of the proper rules and regulations) and impersonalism.

In other parts of the world, Christianity and Islam became the dominant religions. With all the faults these religious systems have, they are at least based on the worship of God, and not of demigods. This can help to explain how many of these societies gradually became prosperous, while India was in decline.

We can see that this tendency of decline of Indian society was present during the Middle Ages, with the Mughal invasions and internal conflicts, and continued over the 17th and 18th centuries with the increasing British control, culminating with the British Raj in the 19th century and all the hardships involved.

However, we can also see that over the same period, Vaishnavism gradually gained popularity, with the appearance of Rāmānujācārya, Madhvācārya, and other great ācāryas, culminating with Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The problem with Vaishnavism during the Middle Ages and later periods was that it was largely not based on a deep philosophical understanding. Of course, in the temples and monasteries, proper philosophy was taught and worship properly performed, especially in traditional lines, like the Sri Sampradāya and Madhva Sampradāya, but when we speak about the general population, we can study that most so-called Vaishnavas belonged to different deviant sects like the Bauls, Ativadi, different types of Sahajiyā groups, etc. There were also many caste Brāhmaṇas who adopted Vaishnava dress, Mayavadis who would worship Krsna and externally appear to be Vaishnavas, while internally maintaining the conviction that behind Krsna was the impersonal Brahman, and by such worship they would merge into that Brahman, becoming God, and so on.

Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu spread love of Godhead all over India, but the souls who took love of Godhead from Him left to the spiritual world with Him when He concluded His earthly pastimes, being imperceptibly replaced with other souls, who continued living ordinary lives.

When did Vaishnavism with proper philosophical understanding and practices become popular? Only in recent times, with the efforts of Srila Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Thākura and Srila Prabhupada in the 20th century. We can see that that was when the tendency of decline of India was reversed, with the end of the British Raj and so on. Starting from the 1970s, but especially in recent years, there has been a great popularization of Krsna Consciousness in India, and we can see that this is the period when India started ascending on the global stage, while previously dominant countries started to see a gradual decline. If this trend continues, then India may regain its former glory and become a leading power. Otherwise, the country may again enter into a period of decline.

Philosophically speaking, the root cause of all the problems and tribulations that India has passed through can be attributed to people abandoning the essence of the Vedas (the worship of Vishnu) and adopting instead superficial forms of worship based on the worship of demigods or impersonalism. Krsna Consciousness is the process that can revert both, and thus the spread of Krsna Consciousness can not only bring a revival of spiritual culture, serving as an antidote to the spread of secularism and hedonism, but also serve as a source of material prosperity to all.