Growing up I always wondered why so few Britishers managed to rule India for so long? I always got responses such as India was always peace loving and we never attacked any other country, lack of unity among ruling kings etc.
Over the years through personal experiences and now finally reading Ambedkar, I have come to the conclusion that India was never a nation then. India at that time was only an amorphous mass of people. India's deep rooted caste system was the main cause of this. Caste system only helps people to live together in a strict order without any "conscious of kind". As people lack this conscious of kind they never truly assimilate to form a society and eventually a nation. Just by living in close proximity people do not become part of society as caste system was a huge hindrance for folks to truly assimilate. Therefore, it was our very structure that caused a handful of Britishers rule us.