The diary of an ordinary person — looking closely at our interesting world — Third Writeup

Prologue-Unless I write a little bit about my birthplace — Calcutta, my country India, my family root, my childhood, the perspectives of the next narratives coming up will not be clear, These will help in the perception of the valued readers.

In the second writeup of my series, I gave a brief description of Calcutta [Now called Kolkata], my birthplace . This writeup I will tell a little about my Country India, my pride and also my frustrations from my country perspective

Next will carry some details of my family root and a little bit on my childhood days, then the day wise diary will be placed before you

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India is an enormous and varied place with the genetic, linguistic, culinary and sartorial diversity which are usually found in a continent, rarely found in a single country

The name ‘India’ is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.

The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name ‘Hindustan’ combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to the land of the Hindus

Rabindranath Tagore, the first Nobel Laureate of India mentioned on our people: “We follow something which we don’t believe, and we believe in something which we don’t follow”. This great man expressed his frustrations in these few invaluable words, that’s mine frustration too

We Indians carry a civilisation legacy of more than 3,000 years, but we fall behind many civilized countries till date. In fact, we did not have a Social revolution since vedic age in 1750 BC, and India as a state has been always riddled and broken into many social fragments of caste and religions.

The first and greatest civilization in ancient India developed around the valley of the Indus River (now Pakistan) around 3000 B.C. Called the Indus Valley civilization, this early empire was larger than any other empire, including Egypt and Mesopotamia

After the great Indus Civilization collapsed in 2000 B.C., groups of Indo-Europeans called Aryans (“noble ones”) traveled to northwest India and reigned during what is called the Vedic age. The mingling of ideas from the Aryan and Indus Valley religions formed the basis of Hinduism, and the gods Shiva, Kali, and Brahma all have their roots in Aryan civilization. The Aryans also recorded the Vedas, the first Hindu scriptures, and introduced a caste system based on ethnicity and occupation

Alexander the Great invaded India partly because he wanted to solve the mystery of the “ocean,” which he had been told was a huge, continuous sea that flowed in a circle around the land

Greek sculpture strongly influenced many portrayals of Indian gods and goddesses, particularly after the conquest of Alexander the Great around 330 B.C. In fact, early Indian gods had Greek features and only later did distinct Indian styles

Chandragupta Maurya (340–290 B.C.), a leader in India, who established the Mauryan Empire (321–185 B.C.),

The subcontinent gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947

[See Note-1]

As an Indian I take pride on the below amazing facts on India

• India is the world’s largest democracy, with 1.2 billion people
• India has more population than the entire Western Hemisphere of Earth
• Indians made significant contributions to calculus, trigonometry, and algebra. The decimal system was invented in India in 100 B.C. The concept of zero as a number is also attributed to India
• Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The Father of Medicine, Charaka,consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago
• Most historians agree that the first recorded account of plastic surgery is found in ancient Indian Sanskrit texts.
• Jainism and Buddhism were founded in India in 600 B.C. and 500 B.C. respectively
• Jews and Christians have lived continuously in India since 200 B.C. and 52 A.D. respectively
• Sikhism originated in the Holy city of Amritsar in Punjab. Famous for housing the Golden Temple, the city was founded in 1577
• The Golden Temple in India feeds a vegetarian meal to over 100,000 people a day regardless of race, religion and class
• Only about 1 in 100 marriages in India end in divorce, one of the lowest rates in the world
• Judaism arrived in India 2500 years ago with norecorded instances of anti-Semitism from the local populace ever since
• Indian housewives hold 11% of the World’s Gold. That is more than the reserves of the U.S., IMF, Switzerland and Germany put together
• 60 million people come to India’s Kumbh Mela Festival, the world’s biggest gathering of humans
• The earliest cotton in the world was spun and woven in India. Roman emperors would wear delicate cotton from India that they would call “woven winds.” Mogul emperors called the fabrics “morning dew” and “cloth of running water
• India is a secular country. Every major world religion is represented in India. Additionally, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism all originated in India
• About 80% of Indians are Hindu. Muslims are the largest minority in India and form approximately 13% of the country’s population. In fact, India has the third largest population of Muslims in the world, after Indonesia and Pakistan
• With 150,000 post offices, India has the largest postal network in the world. However, it is not unusual for a letter to take two weeks to travel just 30 miles
• Alexander the Great of Macedon (356–323 B.C.) was one of the first important figures to bring India into contact with the West. After his death, a link between Europe and the East would not be restored until Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (1460–1524) landed in Calicut, India, in 1498
• With 150,000 post offices, India has the largest postal network in the world. However, it is not unusual for a letter to take two weeks to travel just 30 miles
• Hindi and English are the official languages of India. The government also recognizes 17 other languages (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali, Manipuri, Konkani, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu). Apart from these languages, about 1,652 dialects are spoken in the country.
• India has the world’s third largest road network at 1.9 million miles. It also has the world’s second largest rail network, which is the world’s largest civilian employer with 16 million workers
• India experiences six seasons: summer, autumn, winter, spring, summer monsoon, and winter monsoon
• The Taj Mahal (“crown palace”) was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1592–1666) for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal (1593–1631). This architectural beauty has been called “marbled embroidery” for its intricate workmanship. It took 22,000 workmen 22 years to complete
• Rivers have played a vital role in India’s popular culture and folklore — they have been worshipped as goddesses because they bring water to an otherwise dry land
• In India, a polling station is set up in a forest for a lone voter in every election since 2004
• Only about 1 in 100 marriages in India end in divorce, one of the lowest rates in the world
• India exports software to 90 countries.

As an Indian I am frustrated and ashamed over the below tragic facts on India

• The British Raj, or British rule, lasted from 1858 to 1947 (although they had a strong presence in India since the 1700s). British influence is still seen in Indian architecture, education system, transportation, and politics. Many of India’s worst famines are associated with British rule in India
• On India’s Independence Day, August 15, 1947, the country was split into India and Pakistan. The partition displaced 1.27 million people and resulted in the death of several hundred thousand
• More than a million Indians are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two dollars a day. An estimated 35% of India’s population lives below the poverty line
• Still 74 % of young Indians prefer arranged marriage over a free-choice one, a 2013 survey
• 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in world are just in India
• 61% of school children in India have disease-causing germs on their hands
• One woman dies every hour in India because of dowry-related crimes
• 53% of homes in India do not have a lavatory
• Between 100,000 and 500,000 abortions per year continue to be performed in India solely because the fetus is female
• In ancient and medieval India, suttees, in which a recently widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre, were common

Ancient India

Modern India

Note -1 [with web links for further reading]

History of India by period

• Prehistoric India
• Riwatian people (1,900,000 BC)
• Soanian people (500,000 BC)
• South Asian Stone Age (70,000–3300 BCE)
• Indus Valley Civilization (3300–1700 BCE)
• Late Harappan culture (1700–1300 BCE)
• Vedic period (1500–500 BCE)
• Iron Age (1200–300 BCE)
• Mahajanapadas (700–300 BCE)
• Magadha Empire
• Haryanka dynasty (684–413 BCE)
• Shishunaga dynasty (413–345 BCE)
• Nanda dynasty (424–321 BCE)
• Maurya Empire (322- 185 BCE)
• Middle kingdoms of India (250 BCE–1279 CE)
• Chola Empire (250 BCE–1070 CE)
• Satavahana (230 BCE–220 CE)
• Shunga Empire (185–75 BCE)
• Kushan Empire (60–240 CE)
• Gupta Empire (280–550 CE)
• Pala Empire (750–1174 CE)
• Rashtrakuta (753–982 CE)
• Islamic empires in India (1206–1596)
• Delhi Sultanate (1206–1596)
• Deccan Sultanates(1490–1596)
• Hoysala Empire (1040–1346)
• Ahom Kingdom (1228–1826)
• Vijayanagara Empire (1336–1646)
• Mughal Empire (1526–1858)
• Maratha Empire (1674–1818)
• Colonial India (1858–1947)
• Tipu Sultan
• British Raj
• Princely states
• Indian independence movement
• Quit India Movement
• Partition of India (1947)
• History of Republic of India (1947–present)