Note: this is not about Afghanistan primarily or saying "everything's the fault of the Durand Line" which, ok maybe but not what I'm interested in. My question is this: suppose that Afghanistan retains its territories as of 1850 or so, maybe Russia makes very clear to the UK via diplomatic channels that they don't give a rat's ass about British India. My question is
1) how does this affect the internal dynamics of British India? at this point the Punjab is closer to the main border. Does this affect how the Sikhs get treated as the main "frontier people"? Obviously Khalistan is probably off the table but is there any scope for more autonomy for Sikhs?
2) Given that British India is doomed as a construct, how much does the lower overall Muslim population affect demands for an Islamic state in the subcontinent? Do we still get Partition, just with a smaller alt-Pakistan (probably with a different name) or is the formation of Pakistan and the Muslim league so contingent that it gets butterflied? and what does Indian politics look like in this scenario? My gut instinct is that proto-Hinduvata types(Arya Samaj/Brahmo Samaj/alt-*RSS) are still going to be a powerful enough force that Muslims are still going to want their own state but maybe not, or maybe instead we get alt-Pakistan that's much smaller and less able to pick border fights with India.
3) are there other interesting and notable changes that we'd see either in terms of Anglo-Indian or Indian culture? I'm aware that the prerequistie for this what-if is curtailing the Great Game, which has its own massive consequences, but I am interested for the moment in the narrower bit of this.
1) how does this affect the internal dynamics of British India? at this point the Punjab is closer to the main border. Does this affect how the Sikhs get treated as the main "frontier people"? Obviously Khalistan is probably off the table but is there any scope for more autonomy for Sikhs?
2) Given that British India is doomed as a construct, how much does the lower overall Muslim population affect demands for an Islamic state in the subcontinent? Do we still get Partition, just with a smaller alt-Pakistan (probably with a different name) or is the formation of Pakistan and the Muslim league so contingent that it gets butterflied? and what does Indian politics look like in this scenario? My gut instinct is that proto-Hinduvata types(Arya Samaj/Brahmo Samaj/alt-*RSS) are still going to be a powerful enough force that Muslims are still going to want their own state but maybe not, or maybe instead we get alt-Pakistan that's much smaller and less able to pick border fights with India.
3) are there other interesting and notable changes that we'd see either in terms of Anglo-Indian or Indian culture? I'm aware that the prerequistie for this what-if is curtailing the Great Game, which has its own massive consequences, but I am interested for the moment in the narrower bit of this.