navigating culture

Attempting A Reading Into Indian History

visakanv
September 17, 2018

What is India? What is Indian? I like to start with words.

The name India is derived from Indus, from the Old Persion word Hindu. The ancient greeks referred to Indians as Indoi, or “the people of the Indus”. 

The geographical term Bharat is recognized by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country. In Hindu scriptures, Bharat is an emperor, an ancestor of the Pandavas and Kauravas in the Mahabharata. Hei s the son of Dushyanta and Shankuntala.

From a global perspective, India is one of the largest and most populous countries in the world. It’s described as “South Asian”, which I’m not a huge fan of but will have to go along with 

It’s where the Taj Mahal is located – a mausoleum built by the Mughal (what *was* the Mughal empire?] ruler Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Maha, who died in childbirth in 1631. [What else was happening in 1631? The Thirty Years’ War in Central Europe, between various Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmented Holy Roman Empire, which ended in the Peace of Westphalia. Galileo’s younger brother died.) Construction was completed in 1653, which was when New Amsterdam (pre-NYC) was incorporated. in Agra, a city in UP.

It’s where Gandhi was from. Gandhi lived 1869–1948 and was the face of the Indian independence movement against British rule. He was born in Gujarat, studied law in London. He practiced law in South Africa. He was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist.

Here’s a thread: