Ode to India ❤
A love letter to the land I call home.
Around 65,000 years back, the first homo sapiens migrated out of Africa and spread across the world. A group of them came and settled in India, which has historically been one of the most habitable landscapes in the world.
Here’s a brief history and introduction to the land we call home.
Welcome to the Indus Valley Civilization
One of the oldest, prosperous, fascinating and mystic civilizations of all time on the banks of the river Indus has been home to many of our ancestors.It had well planned cities, highly fascinating architecture and drainage system compared to any other civilization of its time.
The name India or its local equivalent Hindustan derives its naming from the river Indus.
Indus > India
Sindhu (Indus) > Sindh > Hindh > Hindustan (The land to the east of the Sindhu)
The Indo-Gangetic Plains
Home to a huge chunk of world population, it is the largest stretch of (very fertile) alluvial soil in the world.
It’s hypothesized that a severe drought spanning centuries collapsed the Indus Valley civilization and the people started moving eastwards towards the Gangetic plains.
Or, maybe, IVC wasn’t just a “Indus” based civilization, it was already a part of the Indo-Gangetic civilization; maybe we are just yet to discover artifacts from the Gangetic plains.
The river Ganga, Yamuna, Brahmaputra and their numerous tributaries has provided us food and water for centuries, giving rise to the massive population around this belt.
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal are some of the most densely populated regions of not just India, but the world.
The River Ganga
To many, it’s not just a river. It’s their mother. It’s considered holy and the lifeline of North India. From Uttarakhand to Bengal, the Ganga has impacted millions of lives across millenniums.
If you live in any of the states through which Ganga flows, the first thing that comes to your mind when you close your eyes and think of the civilization is this great river.
It’s a spiritual connection we all yearn. It’s a like a time machine to our past, capturing the essence of what life actually was and still is in India.
Agriculture
No wonder India has always been an agrarian society. You can’t grow crops in snow filled landscapes of northern Europe, or soils of the Sahara.
India’s fertile plains, combined with warm climate makes us a major food producing nation.
Even today, India and China account’s for the 50% of the world’s rice and wheat production alone.
Till a few centuries back, everyone of us grew our own crops, milked our own cows and were self dependent, ’cause why not?
Cuisine
Indian cuisine is quite unique and varies a lot from state to state. There is also a marked difference in cuisine across North to South India.
Indian cuisine is heavily influenced from Persian, Central Asian, Afghan and even British cuisines (recently, because of the 250 year rule).
Appearance
This can span an entire book — the vast span of India both latitude and longitude wise, and with varied topography — mountains, plains, rivers, oceans, valleys, forest have all have given rise to different ethnicity and culture.
A Kashmiri looks very different from a Tamil, a Gujrati looks different from someone from the North-East.
There is a lot of similarity of facial features and cultures of people residing in the Northern plains, as the topography is similar and the Ganga has acted as a cultural connector for centuries.
If you want to know, how Indians look like, there is not a single photograph to be shown. We are that diverse.
Religion and the folklore
Most people follow Hinduism. You might have heard of it before, that it’s not a religion, but more of a way of life. There are no strict rules or codes of conduct.
The Rig Veda is the world’s oldest work of literature.
The ancient epic Ramayana has captured the fascination of entire South Asia.
The epic Mahabharata, is the world’s longest poem. A whole, big, fat novel told as a poem.
It also contains the Bhagvad Gita, the teachings of Lord Krishna, considered as a code of conduct by modern day Hindus.
These are works of great sage-poets and are fascinating, overwhelming, spiritual, knowledgeable. All aspects packed into one, perhaps with a dash of creativity and imagination.
Modern India, is home to all religions of the world, Islam, Christianity, Jainism and Buddhism, the latter two being founded in India itself.
Of Kings and Empires
Gengiz Khan, the Mongol warrior, had the largest empire in history, but most this empire was unmanned grasslands.
But, the great Indian King Ashoka , once ruled over a huge chunk of the world population, and directly controlled around 50% of the world GDP.
Contrary to popular belief, India has not always been poor.
Why would it be, with such a great source of food, shelter and natural resources?
Before the British came, India, produced 27% of the world GDP. Yes, freaking 27%.
The British looted India like anything, and by 1947, it was only 4%.
Modern Times
We are bouncing back really fast. India, today is the fastest growing among developing nations in the world.
It might take us only 50 years more for us to become a formidable force in world power and productivity.
There are a thousand more aspects of India, that I can write about, and yet, the answer would look incomplete.
Western countries, including most of Europe became prosperous when the Industrial Revolution kicked in.
America, became prosperous because of its natural resources and for getting a steady flow of the best talents in the world.
The Middle East became rich only after the Automobile revolution, for a demand of oil.
But, India has always been doing substantially well, throughout history. It has been rich, it has been poor. But, it has always been a home to millions.
Millions of people across thousands of years have been fed by the fertile plains and the mighty rivers of the subcontinent.
The basic necessity of life is food and water, isn’t it?
When I close my eyes, and think of Bharat Varsha, I think of the countless generation of people that has lived here, of the agriculture — the basic sustainer of life, the eternally flowing rivers, the cities along its banks, the spirituality in the air, the diversity of cultures, the great Empires and the fearless Kings, of how bravely we fought and how gloriously we lived, of stories that are mystic and a civilization majestic.
Given a chance to be reborn, for a thousand times and a thousand years to come, I would chose it to be in India.
Jai Hind.
(Originally posted by me as a Quora answer here. Edited and refined)
