India had 500 years of Islamic folks trying to push their thing through political means

Followed by about 250 years of Christian folks trying to do the same thing

And then about 75 years (and counting) of socialist and nationalist folks trying to do the same thing

The religions were indeed accepted and adopted by millions of individuals and continue to be quite widespread and influential. So much so that they aren't 'foreign' anymore. It's like they were never foreign in the first place.

There's also Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, etc. which are indeed thriving.

That's fine.

It's just that - considering what I've learnt about religions being destroyed and forgotten due to conquests and political policy - the crowds at the temples I've been to are astonishing to me.

More astonishing to see the number of young folks somehow becoming religious after a certain age or simply being secretive about it.

There's something about the anarchic, leaderless, canonless, polytheistic and decentralised nature of Hinduism that requires further exploration. So many sects, branches, schools of thought.

I also suspect that other religions do have most of these qualities barring probably the polythestic part.

Food for thought.