East Asians entered the modern world of nation states in self-consciously discrete secular units. By contrast, the Indian subcontinent, with two major religions and a dozen major linguistic groups, was united in modern times only under British rule.
儒家的公民文化也为成功自治的漫长历史奠定了基础。东亚的人们以一种自觉分散的世俗单位的形式进入了现代民族国家。相比之下，有着两种主要宗教和十数种主要语族的印度次大陆，则只有在英国的统治之下才在现代得以统一。