If one takes a look around at those countries which have a large muslim population, it becomes quickly apparent that it is the ones that have large non muslim populations or a high degree of interaction with non muslims (either due to colonialism or otherwise) that are the most developed be they in South East asia, the Ex Soviet Central Asia, Turkey etc.

One of the tragedies of the inability of our leaders to come to an acceptable compromise in the first half of the twentieth century was that Pakistan and bangladesh were cut of from the muslim periphery and became part of the core with this they lost contact with their non muslim bretheren.

Nehru understood this and told Jinnah, Jinnah infact implicitly understood it himself for most of his close friends were Parsi and hindu. But apart from the gruesome horrors of partition what further and artificially sealed the borders was kashmir and for this Nehru shares the blame both for the initial cause and for the inability to strike a compromise, for of the sage leaders of Pre-Partition India he alone survived long enough to have settled the issue and he alone had enough political capital on both sides of the border to have done so. when he once went to Pakistan in the 50s, such was the reception accorded to him, that on his return he told his friend that he felt he was the most popular politician in Pakistan.

In India hindus too had costs due to a lack of diversity, especially in the north but India due to its size has varieties of caste, religious beliefs and virtually of civilizations, since the East and the South have geater differneces in ways of life and attitudes than those between north west India and pakistan, suffered far less. Also hinduism never had a core set of permanent inviolable beliefs, (though the cast system came close). This combined with their previous history of adjustment to different sets of foreign rulers allowed them to be better placed than muslims.

Christianity, which had a core set of inviolable beliefs had a more institutionalised religous authority whose distinctiveness worked in many ways, not excluding revolt against repression, which islam never had.

An incepient modernised middle class and intelligentia had begun to develop among the muslims of south asia in the first half of the 20th century in areas such as Academia, the press, films, radio, the all india services, in the professions etc which might have formed the kernel of reform and enlightenment for their community but it was artificially cut along with the cultural, economic, social and political ties which made the subcontinent whole. And the cleavage Partition created, Kashmir sealed.