On point 👍 If I may add, the arguments put forward by the Reddit team reeks of ‘welfare queen’ put forward by politicians to push austerity measures. If any one of them spoke English, they should read ‘social media’ and meditate on it for a moment. Social media without the social bit is largely a dud.
The article itself appears to be leaning on TC’s reputation in the hopes that the casual readers would not do their own independent verification. In other words, one business helping out another. Sadly, the article seems likely to achieve this goal. Does a good job of cheerleading Reddit’s move without coming across as such. Indie devs are forced to shoehorn accessibility features and self limit on the number of requests by the end of the month, or the door out is wide open. This is the point that the article is amplifying from what I can see.
If starting from https://www.sanskritimagazine.com/little-known-history-of-goa-and-the-portuguese-inquistion/ and working farther into the past is acceptable. A fair bit to the south of the gangetic region.
Also, depending on your end goals, which are difficult if not impossible to discern from your post as of this writing, you might want to find out the background of the authors of the book. Most stories about India as is known outside India is narrated and steadfastly owned by non Indian voices. So if you are looking to work in a think-tank for instance, you’d steer towards authors who advocate German speaking region’s interests with regards to India. Or if you are looking to work in diplomatic capacities, the authors might be of that leaning.
Bear in mind the current government’s push to own the narrative to the exclusion of outside voices. Totally understandable, whilst being something to be mindful of.
Regarding religion. Doubtful of getting anywhere without running into religion as far as India goes. The science vs religion dichotomy works differently outside of the West, for all I can see.
The India of Mahabharat era encompasses today’s Afghanistan, for what it’s worth. Going by Indian archaeologists – https://www.booksfact.com/history/ancient-gandhara-kingdom-kandahar-afghanistan.html
Also, another decent starting point would be, Constantino Giuseppe Beschi. The man who most recently resuscitated the then dying language of Tamil and led to original Christian literature being written in it. Tamil, along with Sanskrit is listed as a classical language by UNESCO IIRC.