India gets its name from the Indus River, which also lends it name to religion of the people – Hindu and the land is therefore also called Hindustan, the country of the Hindus. This country of the Hindus is the land between the Hindukush mountains in the west, the Himalayas in the north, the Arakan mountains in the east and the oceans in the south.
While there is so much to write about India, its history, culture, people, diversity, economy etc the following adds to all this – India my motherland as I see it, and understand it.
I am not a historian or a sociologist or for that matter a political scientist but a layman applying his common sense to understand his world.
Religion
I am a Hindu and Hinduism to me is the greatest religion.
The genesis of the Hinduism’s greatness lies in the fact that it developed into a religion from what was essentially a way of life. It is also probably why there is no known founder of Hinduism and when exactly was it founded is also not known. Hinduism does not have a unified system of belief encoded in declaration of faith or a creed but it is rather an umbrella term comprising varied traditions of life.
As a Hindu there is no code of conduct for me. There is no defined time, place or frequency of worship, no defined dietary restrictions nor any constraints on going to someone else’s place of worship. I can do what I feel like and I continue to be as much a Hindu as one can be.
One cannot be converted out of Hinduism or converted into Hinduism. One has to be born a Hindu. The concept of apostasy or blasphemy doesn’t exist in Hinduism. It is only in modern times that the concept of reclaiming Hindus was devised by what is called the ‘suddhi’ or purification ritual.
Further, Hinduism did not spread by the virtue of the sword. There were no religious crusades carried out by Hindu rulers, it was traders and travelers who spread to Hinduism to most of South East Asia
Casteism
While the concept of caste is not unique to the land called India, but it is most prominent here.
This system of division of labour and power in the society continues to play an important role in the Indian society. While a clear distinction for the priestly and warrior classes has existing in all societies, the Indian concept of ‘shudras’ or untouchables is some what unique.
In my opinion, the genesis of this unique concept lies in the fact that the India we know is an Aryan civilization and not the Indus Valley civilization. Aryans, people of the Caucasian mountains conquered India after destroying the Indus Valley civilization.
Aryan features are as the name suggests Caucasian, while the Indus Valley Civilisation was that of a people who were of Negroid features. When the Aryans swept into the vast plains of the Indus and the Ganga, the original inhabitants of India – the Negroes were pushed southwards towards the peninsula and eastwards towards the mountains. The conquered people were forced into the menial tasks and this created the class of ‘shudras’.
As the Aryans pushed further into India, conquering the plains was easy because of the simpler terrain, and numerous rivers for navigation. South however was slightly more difficult as the Deccan plateau and Ghats created natural barriers.
Further, over hundreds and thousands of years, inter breeding took place between the conquerors and the conquered and this (when combined with the climatic conditions of the country in various parts) resulted in the current physical features of Indians.
The evidence of this theory is the following.....
a) People in North and North West India are of fairer skin and closer to the Caucasian looks and features.
b) People in Southern India normally have darker skin and are more likely to have Negroid features than those in North India.
c) People in Bangladesh, the eastern extent of the Aryan push in the plains of the Ganga and Brahamputra are more likely to have Negroid features than those in say Punjab or Kashmir.
d) Tribal societies, in all parts of India, may have seen far less or no inter breeding with the Aryans and hence often have very pronounced Negroid features – dark skin, thick lips, curly hair etc.
e) Lower castes or the current scheduled castes are more likely to have lesser Aryan features than say Brahmins, for example darker skin.
Isn’t it strange, the worst off sections of our society – tribal and lower castes are more Indians than the rest of other Indians?
