Here is a summary of the links between modern India and it's past golden ages.
MAHATMA GANDHI AND ASHOKA
The Mauryan Empire was founded by Chandragupta Maurya and can be thought of as the empire that first unified India and brought in it's first golden age. The Mauryan Empire arose after Alexander the Great had withdrawn from India. The grandson of Chandragupta was Ashoka.
Ashoka is regarded as one of the greatest leaders ever. After leading his forces to victory in battle, he was horrified by the death and destruction of the battle and converted to Buddhism. The Buddha had lived about two centuries before.
The Ashoka Chakra is on the flag today, even though India is overwhelmingly a Hindu nation. Image from the Wikipedia article "Flag of India".
Image from Google Street View.
Mahatma Gandhi, who led modern India to independence, certainly resonated with Buddha, even though Gandhi was a Hindu. Gandhi in the lotus position working on his spinning wheel very much evoked Buddha and the Ashoka Chakra. The first of the following two images is from the Wikipedia article "Spinning Wheel", the second is from the article "The Buddha".
Both had renounced the luxuries that the world had to offer and adopted ascetic ways of life. Buddha was about inner peace and Gandhi's objective was outer peace.
THE CONGRESS PARTY AND CHANDRAGUPTA
The Indian National Congress was formed during British rule as an independence movement. After independence in 1947 it became the Congress Party and would mostly dominate Indian politics until the election of Narendra Modi in 2014.
The Congress Party revolved around the Nehru-Gandhi family. Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of the independence movement and the spiritual leader of India. The first prime minister of independent India was Jawaharlal Nehru, until his death in 1964. He had a daughter named Indira, who would become prime minister. Indira Gandhi would be assassinated in 1984 and her son, Rajiv, would become prime minister until 1989. He would be assassinated while campaigning in 1991.
Indira Gandhi was not related to Mahatma Gandhi, she was Nehru's daughter. But she happened to marry a man named Gandhi, thus gaining the name.
Much earlier in India's history, there had been the Mauryan Empire. This had been founded by Chandragupta Maurya and can be considered as India's first golden age. About 650 years later came another golden age as the Gupta Empire was founded by a leader who would take the name Chandragupta I. His grandson would rule as Chandragupta II.
Indira Gandhi started her own faction of the Congress Party, called Congress I with the "I" standing for "Indira", which eventually took over the whole party. So not only had she gotten the name of Gandhi by marriage, she had also linked herself with the founder of the Gupta Empire just as he had linked himself with the earlier Mauryan Empire, Chandragupta Maurya.
The "I" implied that Indira Gandhi's rule would begin a dynasty. Sure enough her son Rajiv would become prime minister following her assassination, effectively becoming "Congress II", the modern democratic version of Chandragupta II.
Attempting to link to India's past golden ages is nothing new. Chandragupta II, of the Gupta Empire, had an iron pillar made with his inscription. The pillar is now about 1,700 years old. Centuries after it was made the Delhi Sultanate, which was an Islamic empire that preceded the Mughals, moved the pillar to their Qutb Complex, the monuments and tombs in Delhi. This linked them with the greatness of the Gupta Empire.
The "I" in Indira Gandhi's Congress I also evoked this famous iron pillar. Image from Google Street View.
But, the way I see it, Narendra Modi of the Hindu party effectively became Chandragupta III and is now leading India into it's fifth golden age. His term in office began in 2014, the same year that India became the first nation to launch a successful Mars mission on it's first attempt and this was the beginning of India's fifth golden age.
THE CHOLA EMPIRE AND THE SPACE PROGRAM
India's space program, with spacecraft launched from Chennai, has been so successful that I wondered if there might be something behind it, besides the obvious flag symbolism. We know that history is a powerful force. We tend to repeat history, sometimes intentionally but often without realizing it.
The Chola Empire, from the Ninth to Thirteenth Centuries, was one of India's golden ages. It only ruled south India but it was a maritime empire. It conquered nearby Sri Lanka and then much of southeast Asia.
The Cholas brought Hinduism with them and this is the reason for so many Hindu temples across southeast Asia, even if they were later converted to Buddhism. One of these temples is Angkor Wat, which is today the largest temple complex in the world and is on the Cambodian flag. Image from the Wikipedia article "Flag of Cambodia".
The Cholas are why the island of Bali, in Indonesia, is still predominantly Hindu. Indonesia is actually named for India. The name of Singapore comes from the Sanskrit term for "City of the Lion".
The city of Chennai, from where India's spacecraft are launched, is in what was Chola territory and near the capital of the territory. Bengaluru , from where the space program is run, is also in what was Chola territory. I have concluded that the Chola maritime expeditions are being reenacted today as India's space expeditions, first to the moon and then to Mars. The moon represents nearby Sri Lanka and Mars represents distant southeast Asia.
THE MUGHALS AND THE BRITISH
I get the impression that the British were following what the Mughals had earlier done, presenting themselves as the new Mughals. This is a reenactment of what the Normans had long ago done in Britain, building castles and other great buildings not only for defense but to make an impression on the local people.
The Mughals had founded Dhaka, in what was then the eastern part of Bengal. The British built the fort around which the city of Calcutta grew, in the western part of Bengal. The state was later divided into East and West, with East Bengal becoming East Pakistan which is now Bangladesh.
The Mughals built the Taj Mahal, near their fort in honor of an emperor's favorite wife. The British built their version of the Taj Mahal in Calcutta, near their fort, in honor of Queen Victoria.
Delhi is an ancient city. Successive empires have built their own cities of Delhi adjacent to the previous ones. The Mughals built what is today called the Old City of Delhi, although it is far from the oldest one. Adjacent to that, the British built what is now known as New Delhi. The British moved their capital from Calcutta to New Delhi just as the Mughals had moved their capital from Agra to Old Delhi. The British built the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi just as the Mughals had built the Red Fort in Old Delhi.
The Golconda Sultanate built the Charminar, meaning "Four Towers", a gateway in Hyderabad, which was later taken over by the Mughals. The British built the similar Gateway of India, in Mumbai.
The British continued the princely states that had existed during the Mughal Empire and the Gupta Empire long before that. There were over five hundred autonomous princely states at independence. All ended up joining either India or Pakistan, but the one that is still an issue is Kashmir.
The Mughals and the British ended up leaving India on the same day, the Mughals separating as Pakistan.
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