INDIA: EAST OR WEST (10th September 2008):
I have generally heard in serials and movies and also experienced in real life that whenever the Westerners (Europeans and Americans) refer to Asians, they usually get a picture of a person with Mongolian Features. India is generally referred to as being part of "South-Asia". They say: "Indians are South-Asians not Asians" - Now, what is that?
The countries with people having Mongolian features are: Nepal, China, Tibet (China), Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, North/South Korea and of course Mongolia. In short the whole of Far-East Asia.
One of my Filipino friends here commented on me saying, "you do not look like Asians". This was indeed a paradoxical statement for me, as Asia as a continent has of course not been determined based on Races.
While watching the stand-up comedy of Russell Peters, he also makes a comment on this perception of the westerners saying that, "Indians do not get the same credit for being Asians as the Chinese and other Mongolian countries do". We are thought of as being part of South-Asia, which is of course part of Asia as the name suggests but Russell Peters is basically commenting on the Perception of the Westerners.
Then there was a video on You-Tube which has an interview of Prof. Dean Brown of Israel who is a Theoretical Physicist and also a scholar and researcher on Sanskrit language. He says very clearly that he would refer to India as being more belonging to the west than to the east. He says that he considers the east as starting from China. The reason he says this is: All the western languages have Sanskrit as their root language or are connected to Sanskrit in some way. The video is divided into few parts in You-Tube. I am giving below the link to the video part-1, the other videos can be easily found.
Sanskrit Language: The Most Scientific, Ancient, Spiritual 1: http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=3cQ4hIG9w7c
The general perception among the people of the world is that East begins from India and this is of course true.
But given the common cultural and linguistic (Sanskrit) roots of the Western people and those of Indians, India can be considered to be a part of the west also. Also, in terms of Race, Indians look more like the western and Middle-East Asians compared to the people of Mongolian Races. Though it is wrong to say that India is made up of only one Race, there are many Races in India itself including the people of East India who look like those of Mongolian Races. India is a wonderful example of complex diversities of people and races living together belonging to one country. This is the reason India is rightly referred to as an Indian Subcontinent (Including the countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh). All these nations have the same cultural roots and were part of India at some point in the history, this is why they are rightly referred to be belonging to the 'Indian' Subcontinent.
But, this statement of considering India to be a part of the west is quite confusing. On one hand India's Immaterialistic Spirituality and on the other hand the Materialistic life-style of the west. And then we also see the whole of Eastern and Far-Eastern Culture reflecting the Indian Culture.
Seeing the influence of India on both the West and the East, it then comes to my mind that India can then be rightly called the 'Bridge or Root' between the two.
Why root? Because Indian Civilization is the Oldest known civilization of all the other civilizations and if it existed before anyone and also if it acts as a bridge between the the East and the West, then it obviously becomes the root also.
You can find so many people of Mongolian Features in India also. In fact the only Hindu Country in the world - Nepal is a country of people with Mongolian Race. Also, all the countries of Far-East Asia are the adherents of Buddha and the Buddhist Philosophy which has its roots in the Indian Culture.
I am not sure that if Chinese language has been influenced by Sanskrit or other Indian Languages, but due to Buddhism, many Indian words can be certainly found in China. In Taiwan for instance, you can see many Buddhist Pictures with a writing below them in English saying: OM NAMO AMITABH. When I visited the National Palace Museum in Taipei which has all the collection of the Historical items relating to the Chinese and Taiwanese culture, there was a section in the Museum especially for the Buddhist Philosophy and there you can find many statues with the hoarding of: "Avalokiteshwar Buddha" written below them. This Phrase is clearly a Sanskrit one.
Hence, it would perhaps be better to consider India as being a part of the both the west and the East.
Summarizing India's influence on both the East and the West:
On the West: Common Linguistic (and hence Cultural) roots.
On the East: Transport of Indian Culture to the East through Buddhism.
Furthering my discussion, I remember studying an article written by a Retired Lt. Gen. of the Indian Army in the Magazine - "Sappers". It is a Magazine especially published for Military Engineers (My father receives this Magazine as he is an Engineer Army Officer in the Indian Armed Forces).
The article describes the Strategic location of India as compared to any other country on the face of this earth. India's Strategic location is far better placed even if we compare it with that of America's Location which is beyond the Civilizational happenings of earth. He goes on further to say that: Britishers knew this fact very well (the fact of India's Strategic Location) and were bent upon the partition of India so that the Indian Subcontinent cannot look beyond their own boundaries and are totally focused on their own personal disputes.
I will end my post with the sayings of Mark Twain and Will Durant on India which reflect the facts and ideas I have written above.
(To stress on the important quotes relevant to my post, I have Italicized them).
Mark Twain, American Author:
"India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!"
"So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked."
"India is the motherland of our race and Sanskrit is the mother of Indo-European languages. She is the mother of our philosophy, of our mathematics, mother of ideals embodied in Christianity and mother of our democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all." (‘Story of Civilization’)
“It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal system.”
I have generally heard in serials and movies and also experienced in real life that whenever the Westerners (Europeans and Americans) refer to Asians, they usually get a picture of a person with Mongolian Features. India is generally referred to as being part of "South-Asia". They say: "Indians are South-Asians not Asians" - Now, what is that?
The countries with people having Mongolian features are: Nepal, China, Tibet (China), Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, North/South Korea and of course Mongolia. In short the whole of Far-East Asia.
One of my Filipino friends here commented on me saying, "you do not look like Asians". This was indeed a paradoxical statement for me, as Asia as a continent has of course not been determined based on Races.
While watching the stand-up comedy of Russell Peters, he also makes a comment on this perception of the westerners saying that, "Indians do not get the same credit for being Asians as the Chinese and other Mongolian countries do". We are thought of as being part of South-Asia, which is of course part of Asia as the name suggests but Russell Peters is basically commenting on the Perception of the Westerners.
Then there was a video on You-Tube which has an interview of Prof. Dean Brown of Israel who is a Theoretical Physicist and also a scholar and researcher on Sanskrit language. He says very clearly that he would refer to India as being more belonging to the west than to the east. He says that he considers the east as starting from China. The reason he says this is: All the western languages have Sanskrit as their root language or are connected to Sanskrit in some way. The video is divided into few parts in You-Tube. I am giving below the link to the video part-1, the other videos can be easily found.
Sanskrit Language: The Most Scientific, Ancient, Spiritual 1: http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=3cQ4hIG9w7c
The general perception among the people of the world is that East begins from India and this is of course true.
But given the common cultural and linguistic (Sanskrit) roots of the Western people and those of Indians, India can be considered to be a part of the west also. Also, in terms of Race, Indians look more like the western and Middle-East Asians compared to the people of Mongolian Races. Though it is wrong to say that India is made up of only one Race, there are many Races in India itself including the people of East India who look like those of Mongolian Races. India is a wonderful example of complex diversities of people and races living together belonging to one country. This is the reason India is rightly referred to as an Indian Subcontinent (Including the countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh). All these nations have the same cultural roots and were part of India at some point in the history, this is why they are rightly referred to be belonging to the 'Indian' Subcontinent.
But, this statement of considering India to be a part of the west is quite confusing. On one hand India's Immaterialistic Spirituality and on the other hand the Materialistic life-style of the west. And then we also see the whole of Eastern and Far-Eastern Culture reflecting the Indian Culture.
Seeing the influence of India on both the West and the East, it then comes to my mind that India can then be rightly called the 'Bridge or Root' between the two.
Why root? Because Indian Civilization is the Oldest known civilization of all the other civilizations and if it existed before anyone and also if it acts as a bridge between the the East and the West, then it obviously becomes the root also.
You can find so many people of Mongolian Features in India also. In fact the only Hindu Country in the world - Nepal is a country of people with Mongolian Race. Also, all the countries of Far-East Asia are the adherents of Buddha and the Buddhist Philosophy which has its roots in the Indian Culture.
I am not sure that if Chinese language has been influenced by Sanskrit or other Indian Languages, but due to Buddhism, many Indian words can be certainly found in China. In Taiwan for instance, you can see many Buddhist Pictures with a writing below them in English saying: OM NAMO AMITABH. When I visited the National Palace Museum in Taipei which has all the collection of the Historical items relating to the Chinese and Taiwanese culture, there was a section in the Museum especially for the Buddhist Philosophy and there you can find many statues with the hoarding of: "Avalokiteshwar Buddha" written below them. This Phrase is clearly a Sanskrit one.
Hence, it would perhaps be better to consider India as being a part of the both the west and the East.
Summarizing India's influence on both the East and the West:
On the West: Common Linguistic (and hence Cultural) roots.
On the East: Transport of Indian Culture to the East through Buddhism.
Furthering my discussion, I remember studying an article written by a Retired Lt. Gen. of the Indian Army in the Magazine - "Sappers". It is a Magazine especially published for Military Engineers (My father receives this Magazine as he is an Engineer Army Officer in the Indian Armed Forces).
The article describes the Strategic location of India as compared to any other country on the face of this earth. India's Strategic location is far better placed even if we compare it with that of America's Location which is beyond the Civilizational happenings of earth. He goes on further to say that: Britishers knew this fact very well (the fact of India's Strategic Location) and were bent upon the partition of India so that the Indian Subcontinent cannot look beyond their own boundaries and are totally focused on their own personal disputes.
I will end my post with the sayings of Mark Twain and Will Durant on India which reflect the facts and ideas I have written above.
(To stress on the important quotes relevant to my post, I have Italicized them).
Mark Twain, American Author:
"India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!"
"So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked."
"In religion, India is the only millionaire... the One land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined."
Will Durant, American Historian:"India is the motherland of our race and Sanskrit is the mother of Indo-European languages. She is the mother of our philosophy, of our mathematics, mother of ideals embodied in Christianity and mother of our democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all." (‘Story of Civilization’)
“It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier India has sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal system.”
"India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness of mature mind, understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all human beings."
posted by Siddarth Rai @ 6:04 AM
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