2 days ago
India: Unauthorised (Part 1)
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Unauthorised here, means India as it has been interpreted through my eyes. No doubt some drug addict will see India differently. I'm not going to be giving you statistics about India, but what you'll get is a very real picture. I have been having a lot of second thoughts about starting this, not because I don't want to tell you about where I come from, but because talking about a country means that you leave the relatively safe realm of your head and move out into the open where other people can relate to what you are saying. And criticism is what we're all scared of isn't it?
Criticism, however can be dealt with and learned from, therefore criticism will most definitely be tolerated here. Profanity will not. Get comfy... This is going to get long.
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India, as most of you may know, is a peninsular country in south Asia. I will not waste time analyzing the shape of India and comparing it to objects, because quite honestly, although it doesn't look like anything in particular, I have always thought it looks very clear cut and well defined. Beautiful really. I guess you'll have had to grow up looking at it over and over again in a geography book to appreciate it.
India is the 7th largest country in the world, and some parts of India are not exactly attached to it. These parts include the Andaman and Nicobar islands (South east), and the Maldives islands (not shown), but we'll come back to geography later.
I remember my 6th grade civic sciences book defining India as a secular, sovereign, democratic republic. It then went on to explain each of these terms to me, which I doubt i need to do now, but I will tell you how each of those terms apply.
India is secular, i.e. tolerant towards many religions. Indeed, in no other place in the world will you find so many different religions woven into the thread of the fabric that makes India. No religion in India is seen as an "outside" religion, and no person can be discriminated against based on his/her religion. Hinduism emerged in India, and is the most dominant religion in the country, but some of the other popular religions include Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism. This said, there has been a lot of controversy and violence based on religious grounds lately, but we'll discuss that as soon as you fully understand why this happens. The presence of so many religions means we probably get the most number of holidays in the world.
India is sovereign, and it gained this sovereignty (independence) on the 15th of August, 1947, when the British Rule over India finally came to an end after nearly 200 years. This day is a public holiday and is celebrated in India as Independence Day. Any British national who is reading this is probably wondering what an Independence Day must feel like, since they have to settle for the Queen's Birthday Parade. But honestly, it feels wonderful, since I'm celebrating something that makes me swell up in pride at the bravery of my ancestors in fighting the war of independence. But don't let that conjure up images of a bloody war, large parts of this war was simple non-violent resistance, taught and demonstrated by Mahatma Gandhi.
India is a democratic republic. The people of India elect their country's leaders through a secret ballot. India became a republic on the 26th of January, 1950 with the signing of the constitution by some of our most prominent freedom fighters. This day is also a public holiday, celebrated as Republic Day. Both these holidays are very important in the Indian calendar and are marked by huge festivities, parades and a variety of other activities including song, dance, plays, skits, debates etc.
Cultural events encourage the old and the young alike to take part across the country everywhere from the schools and town centers of villages to the heart of the capital city of India (New Delhi). And they are truly wonderful to watch, since culture is where all of India unites as one. The picture above shows a number of schoolchildren in the Indian state of New Delhi, gathered for an independence day display.
The national capital of India is New Delhi, and the national language is Hindi. The hindi script is derived from sanskrit and an example is shown alongside. National language it may be, but Hindi is not spoken by the majority of the country, and is used more often in the North than in the South. This is probably because of the size of India and the influences of various surrounding regions, colonies and empires on each separate state. Incidentally, one of our prime ministers had never even learned to speak Hindi, and in his address to the nation, he had someone write each word phonetically in his own language so that he could talk to the people. "India", in hindi is known as "Bharat" (yes, I know that's my name), or sometimes "Hindustan" (Land of the Hindus).
I must now come to an end of the first part of this tour, and although this part has contained mainly background information, the next one will delve deeper into India today, and give you a more present sort of picture. For what will you understand of the present and future, when you do not know of the past?
And help me out here, if you've gotten bored with this post, it's because I don't know what you want to hear. So ask me a few question (questions damnit!), and I'll integrate them into the next part. That way, you get to learn what you want, and the extra bits :).
And help me out here, if you've gotten bored with this post, it's because I don't know what you want to hear. So ask me a few question (questions damnit!), and I'll integrate them into the next part. That way, you get to learn what you want, and the extra bits :).
Our Flag (The Indian Tricolour) - Part 2
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This was really interesting to read. I would love to visit India someday, it sounds like a beautiful country.
I'm looking forward to reading about present-day culture, because I have to admit, I know almost nothing about it.
Thanks for sharing your experiences and country with us!
T Rose
i understand what you mean, it's like the country's reputation rests on YOU now lol
Bharat, love it, man I never realized your so young, 17 thats cool. O.k you want ?'s. Here is one. If i were to take my family to India, would they be safe? Where should we go to see the real Indian culture? What do Indians do for fun? When you turn 18 are you going back home or will you live in the western world? Witch one is your favorite? I got more they are personal so don't answer if you don't want to its cool. Teach me more and maybe I'll go with my family but I don't know much about your people but I have smoked bidies, a little leaf rolled up, I was given a few when I lived in Saudi, I was young(15) and someone told me I would get a buzz hahahah what is a bidie? questions I got to many
I'll leave the questions to taxitalk, but I just wanted to say that the post was interesting. I've never given much though to India, other than when I had to do a report on Hinduism when I was in high school. I wouldn't mind hearing more about the different religions, as well as about how India has become modern.
A lot of respect must go to you my friend, I was thoroughly engrossed in your country as you illustrated her beauty with passion and finesse, keep educating the outside world so we can all learn from each other.
Hey there, this is wonderful, I never thought I'd enjoy learning so much.
Well done.
I'd also like to thank you for your support with the Mr. X issue. If you read my latest post you will find that it is no longer an issue ;-)
All my love,
S x
I feel lame because I don't really have any questions. [well the ones I had TaxiTalk bet me too lol] I can't wait for you to post more though about India!
I had a friend who lived there for his first like nine years but he didn't really have much to say.