<P> Hinduism under both Hindu and Islamic rulers from c. 1200 to 1750 CE, saw the increasing prominence of the Bhakti movement, which remains influential today . The colonial period saw the emergence of various Hindu reform movements partly inspired by western movements, such as Unitarianism and Theosophy . The Partition of India in 1947 was along religious lines, with the Republic of India emerging with a Hindu majority . During the 20th century, due to the Indian diaspora, Hindu minorities have formed in all continents, with the largest communities in absolute numbers in the United States and the United Kingdom . In the Republic of India, Hindu nationalism has emerged as a strong political force since the 1980s, the Bharatiya Janata Party forming the Government of India from 1999 to 2004, and its first state government in South India in 2006, and also the Narendra Modi led Government from 2014 . </P> <P> Western scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions . Among its roots are the historical Vedic religion of Iron Age India itself already the product of "a composite of the Indo - Aryan and Harappan cultures and civilizations", but also the Sramana or renouncer traditions of northeast India, and mesolithic and neolithic cultures of India, such as the religions of the Indus Valley Civilisation, Dravidian traditions, and the local traditions and tribal religions . </P> <P> After the Vedic period, between 500 - 200 BCE and c. 300 CE, at the beginning of the "Epic and Puranic" c.q. "Preclassical" period, the "Hindu synthesis" emerged, which incorporated śramaṇic and Buddhist influences and the emerging bhakti tradition into the Brahmanical fold via the smriti literature . This synthesis emerged under the pressure of the success of Buddhism and Jainism . During the Gupta reign the first Puranas were written, which were used to disseminate "mainstream religious ideology amongst pre-literate and tribal groups undergoing acculturation ." The resulting Puranic Hinduism differed markedly from the earlier Brahmanism of the Dharmaśāstras and the smritis . Hinduism co-existed for several centuries with Buddhism, to finally gain the upper hand at all levels in the 8th century . </P> <P> From northern India this "Hindu synthesis", and its societal divisions, spread to southern India and parts of Southeast Asia . It was aided by the settlement of Brahmins on land granted by local rulers, the incorporation and assimilation of popular non-Vedic gods, and the process of Sanskritization, in which "people from many strata of society throughout the subcontinent tended to adapt their religious and social life to Brahmanic norms". This process of assimilation explains the wide diversity of local cultures in India "half shrouded in a taddered cloak of conceptual unity ." </P>

What was the religion in india before hinduism