Re: Gifts from Invaders
Infrastructure:
As you already mentioned, GT road already existed by the name Uttarapatha. There were also other roads like Draravati-Kamboja road which connected the Kamboja kingdom in present Afghanistan and Tajikisthan to Dwaraka and other major ports in Gujarath, permitting goods from Afghanistan and China to be exported by sea to southern India, Sri Lanka , Middle East Greece and Rome. The Cholas had excellent ports and maritime industry. They also built canals.
So roads and other infrastructures were built by various empires over the centuries. So that is not something new or a concept introduced by invaders. Sher Shah Suri was a great king but he was also home born not a part of an invading horde. He modernized the ancient road and for that and his various administrative contributions , he must be acknowledged. As for the railways, it would have made its journey into India one way or the other, sooner or later even if the British were not there.
Educational Institutions:
What about Nalanda and Takshasila ? The subcontinent was home to one of the worlds most ancient universities. The Gurukula system of education also flourished in the ancient days. In fact Invaders plundered and destroyed our centers of learning. Take Mahmud of Ghazni for example who is lauded as a hero by many people here. This is what Al-Biruni had to say about his destruction of centers of learning…
In the interest of his successors he constructed, in order to weaken the Indian frontier, those roads on which afterwards his son Mahmud marched into India during a period of thirty years and more. God be merciful to both father and son! Mahmud utterly ruined the prosperity of the country, and performed there wonderful exploits, by which the Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all directions, and like a tale of old in the mouth of the people. Their scattered remains cherish, of course, the most inveterate aversion towards all Muslims.* This is the reason, too, why Hindu sciences have retired far away from those parts of the country conquered by us, and have fled to places which our hand cannot yet reach, to Kashmir, Benares, and other places.** And there the antagonism between them and all foreigners receives more and more nourishment both from political and religious sources*
Mahmud of Ghazni - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The real tragedy of the moghul rule in India IMO is that they ruled over a large area but there was no or very limited patronage to scientific studies. While they spent resources building forts and tombs and even patronized literary scholars in Persian and Urdu, the native scholars and scientific thought and studies was not something they cared for. This is what I have concluded. Please correct me if I am wrong with examples . The result of which, India which was a pioneer in Mathematics , metallurgy etc fell behind and has never managed to regain that scientific glory old yet…
Governance and Bureaucracy :
Let us not forget that while the subcontinent gave birth to excellent kings and emperors, it was also a place where republics or rule of the people flourished. Megasthenes and Arrian describe many of the states having republican governments. There are other texts that refer to a number of states having Gana Sangha, or council-based, as opposed to monarchical governments. It is believed that Ashoka’s attack of Kalinga was based on the assumption that as a republic with council members instead of a king, it would be easy picking. He was proved wrong.
At the grassroots level, the Panchayat system which is used in India today is actually one of the oldest forms of local governments in the subcontinent.
The invaders did not contribute much for the development of the subcontinent. They were barbaric hordes more concerned with their loot. The real tragedy is that too much civilization led to the gradual demise of a glorious civilization. Any ideas or innovations found today were probably introduced through trade and migrants and not by invaders.