"यूनान-ओ-मिस्र-ओ-रोमा सब मिट गये जहाँ से, अब तक मगर है बाकी नाम-ओ-निशान हमारा, कुच्छ बात है के हस्ती मिटती नहीं हमारी, सदियों रहा है दुश्मन दौर-ए-ज़मान हमारा." Greek, Egyptian and Roman Civilizations have all vanquished from this world but even today we (Indian culture, in true sense) are here. There is something in this soil that helped us (Indian culture, in true sense) survive innumerable enemies. -by Muhammad Iqbal, Politician and "National Poet" of Pakistan
The lines are romanticism by a poet and should be considered as such. We could spend hours and days comparing modern India (or several other countries) to their pasts and never reach a conclusive result. This is simply a massive variable.
Incidentally, Iqbal who wrote this, and was a champion of being Indian first, would become the first major proponent of the two nation theory and declare that Muslims could not live in a region where Islamic law wasn't followed.