Europe and Indian Culture and Influence of Western Culture on Indian

Culture

Preeti Awasthi

[slide 1] ] Indian culture is an ancient and dynamic entity, spanning back to

the very beginnings of human civilization. Beginning with a mysterious culture along

the Indus River and in farming communities in the southern lands of India, the history

of the sub-continent is one punctuated by constant integration with migrating peoples

and with the diverse cultures that surround India. Placed in the center of Asia, Indian

history is a crossroads of cultures from China to Europe, and the most significant

Asian connection with the cultures of Africa.

Indian history, then, is more than just a set of unique developments

in a definable process; it is, in many ways, a microcosm of human history itself, a

diversity of cultures all impinging on a great people and being reforged into new,

syncretic forms.

Human society emerged slowly. Over thousands of years, primitive

cultures slowly evolved into civilizations. From 400 B.C. to 500 A.D., the economic,

social, and political activities of humans went through many transformations. By far,

the most important change came in the form of economic revolution. Moving from

nomadic hunter-gatherers to farmers, humans converted their entire patterns of life.

Their needs and wants changed completely, and their new economic existence drove

them to develop new social and political institutions.

[slide 2] During the Neolithic Revolution 10,000 years ago, bands of

hunter-gatherers began to form agricultural villages. In river valleys, certain villages

grew prospered and produced broader cultures. The need for trade, protection, and

irrigation moved groups to interact and pool resources into

formative civilizations with cities and social institutions. As civilizations developed

resources, they formed economic interdependencies, built great public works of

architecture, organized spiritual beliefs into religions, and created bodies of literature

and scientific and technological knowledge. [slide 3]

WesternCivilization- According to a historian Carroll Quigley , writer of

“Evolution of Civilizations”, contend that Western Civilization was born around 400

AD, after the total collapse of the Western Roman Empire, leaving a vacuum for new

ideas to flourish that were impossible in Classical societies. In either view, between

the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Renaissance, the West experienced a

period of considerable decline, known as the Middle Ages, which include the Dark

Ages and the Crusades.

The knowledge of the ancient Western world was partly

preserved during this period due to the survival of the Eastern Roman Empire; it was

also greatly expanded by the Arab World, and mostly by the concurrent ascendancy of

the Islamic Golden Age The Arab importation of both the Ancient and new

technology from the Middle East and the Orient to Renaissance Europe represented

“one of the largest technology transfers in world history.”

[slide 4] Since the Renaissance, the West evolved beyond the

influence of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Muslims due to

the Commercial, Scientific, and Industrial Revolutions and the expansion of

the Christian peoples of Western European empires, and particularly the globe-

spanning empires of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Since the Age of

Discovery and Columbus, the notion of the West expanded to include the Americas,

though much of the Americas have considerable pre-Western cultural

influence. Australia, New Zealand and most countries of Latin America are

considered part of Western culture due to their former status as settler colonies of

Western Christian nations. Generally speaking, the current consensus would locate the

West, at the very least, in the cultures and peoples of Europe, North America (namely

Canada, U.S., and Mexico), Australia, New Zealand and most countries in South

America. There is debate among some as to whether Eastern Europe is in a category

of its own. Culturally Eastern Europe is usually more or less accepted into the 'West',

mainly because of its geographic location in what is mostly Europe (and cultural ties).

However, it does not fill the traditional economic and living-standard criteria typically

associated with "The West”.

[slide 5] Culture literal meaning is what how you

cultivate or build oneself. Cult or build in multi-directionally i.e in ethically socially

even in all aspects of that lead human development. Every culture is enriched with

some good and bad features.

Indian culture is rich and diverse and as a result unique in its very

own way. Our manners, way of communicating with one another, etc are one of the

important components of our culture. Even though we have accepted modern means

of living, improved our lifestyle, our values and beliefs still remain unchanged. A

person can change his way of clothing, way of eating and living but the rich values in

a person always remains unchanged because they are deeply rooted within our hearts,

mind, body and soul which we receive from our culture.

Western culture can also be referred to as advanced culture; this is

because its ideas and values promote the development and sustainment of advanced

civilization. Western culture has had quite an influence in India but it has its pros &

cons too. There are many good things in the western culture which we have adopted.

But why do we see only the negatives? Even the Indian culture has influence the

western world. the globe is shrinking & we are all getting closer to each other in many

ways. so its very natural for us to adopt their ways and for them to adopt ours.

[slide6]

Western culture has affected almost every

dimension of society. The core religious traditions are still the same but the life style

differences can be found because of western culture. Hence we can say that western

media has not affected the core traditions of Indian society but has changed life style

and apparent characteristics of the society.

India is the world's most ancient civilization. Nowhere on earth can you find such a

rich and multi-layered tradition that has remained unbroken and largely unchanged for

at least five thousand years. Bowing low before the onslaught of armies, and

elements, India has survived every invasion, every natural disaster, every mortal

disease and epidemic, the double helix of her genetic code transmitting its

unmistakable imprint down five millennia to no less than a billion modern bearers.

Indians have demonstrated greater cultural stamina than any other people on

earth. The essential basis of Indian culture is Religion in the widest and most general

sense of the world. An intuitive conviction that the Divine is immanent in everything

permeated every phase of life," says Stanley Wolpert. Indian civilization has enriched

every art and science known to man. Thanks to India, we reckon from zero to ten with

misnamed "Arabic" numerals (Hindsaa - in Arabic means from India), and use a

decimal system without which our modern computer age would hardly have been

possible.

[slide 7] Science and philosophy were both highly developed disciplines in

ancient India. However, because Indian philosophic thought was considerably more

mature and found particular favor amongst intellectuals, the traditions persists that

any early scientific contribution came solely from the West, Greece in

particular. Because of this erroneous belief, which is perpetuated by a wide variety of

scholars, it is necessary to briefly examine the history of Indian scientific

thought. Jawaharlal Nehru wrote in his book The Discovery of India: "Till recently

many European thinkers imagined that everything that was worthwhile had its origins

in Greece or Rome ." From the very earliest times, India had made its contribution to

the texture of Western thought and living. Michael Edwards, author of British India,

writes that throughout the literatures of Europe, tales of Indian origin can be

discovered. European mathematics - and, through them, the full range of European

technical achievement – could hardly have existed without Indian numerals. But until

the beginning of European colonization in Asia, India’s contribution was usually

filtered through other cultures.” Many of the advances in the sciences that we consider

today to have been made in Europe were in fact made in India centuries ago." - Grant

Duff British Historian of India. Dr. Vincent Smith has remarked, "India suffers today,

in the estimation of the world, more through the world's ignorance of the

achievements of the heroes of Indian history than through the absence or

insignificance of such achievement.

Swami Vivekananda has pointed out that every

civilization or culture has a particular life-centre, a dominant characteristic or trend.

According to him the life-centre of Indian culture is spirituality. By spirituality is

meant a way of life oriented to the ultimate purpose or goal of life which is the

realization of the Supreme Spirit or God.

"Indian civilization is more than five thousand

years old. During this long period it produced a unique type of highly advanced and

variegated culture. In spite of the innumerable regional, social and linguistic

diversities of the country, there has always been a basic unity in Indian culture.

Moreover, this culture maintained unbroken continuity from Vedic times to the

present day, in spite of countless wars within the country, invasions from outside and

two centuries of subjugation by the British. This indestructible unity and unbroken

continuity of Indian culture are derived from its deep spiritual foundations.

Spread of Buddhism in western countries:

[slide 8]

European contact with Buddhism first began after Alexander the Great’s conquest of

northwestern India in the 3rd century BC. Greek colonists in the region adopted

Indian Buddhism and synchronized it with aspects of their own culture to make a sect

called Greceo-Buddhism which dominated the area of ancient India compromising

modern day Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan for several centuries.

Emperor Ashoka sent Buddhist missionaries to the Hellenistic world, where they

established centers in places such as Alexandria, creating a noted presence in the

region.

An interest in Buddhism had been circling among academic circles in

modern Europe since the 1870s, with philosophers like Arthur

Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche and esoteric-minded scholars such as Helena

Blavatsky. Europe has in recent times been increasingly receptive to Modern

Buddhism as an alternative to traditional Buddhist precepts. [slide 9]

1) FRANCE: Buddhism is widely reported to be the third largest religion

in France after Christianity, and Islam. France has over two

hundred Buddhist meditation centers, including about twenty sizable retreat

centers in rural areas. The Buddhist population mainly consists

of Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants, with a substantial minority of native

French converts and “sympathizers.” The rising popularity of Buddhism in

France has been the subject of considerable discussion in the French media and

academy in recent years.

Although there was regular contact between

practicing Buddhists and Europeans in antiquity the former had little direct impact. In

the latter half of the 19th century, Buddhism came to the attention of Western

intellectuals and during the course of the following century the number of adherents

has grown. There are now over 3 million Buddhists in Europe, the majority

in Russia, France and the Kingdom. By the late 1990s, it has been estimated that there

are more than 140 Tibetan Buddhist meditation centers in France. The first Tibetan

Buddhist communities in France were established in the early 1970s. The highest-

ranking head of schools to reside in France, H.E. Phendé Khenchen, established his

temple of E Wam Phendé Ling in 1973. He is of the Ngor school of Buddhism.

Buddhism in France's growth was catalyzed by visits, in 1973 and 1974 respectively,

of the Karmapa and Dalai Lama, two of the highest lamas. In 1975, Dudjom

Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, also very high lamas, visited Dordogne,

where they established retreat centers with the help of Pema Wangyal

Rinpoche. Pema Wangyal Rinpoche is the son of Kangyur Rinpoche, another high

lama who was among the first to take western disciples.

Kalu Rinpoche, also a highly

esteemed lama, led the first tradition three-year retreat for westerners in France

starting in 1976. In theKagyu lineage such retreats confer the title “lama” on those

who complete them. It is estimated that sixty percent of the centers and monasteries in

France are affiliated with the Kagyu School.

There are about twenty retreat centres representing all the

different schools as well as many town-based centres which are under the direction of

great Tibetan Buddhist masters. Dhagpo Kundreul Ling in Auvergne is said to be the

biggest Buddhist monastery outside of Asia.[slide 10]

2) Russia and Austria: Russia and Austria are the only two European states

today that recognize Buddhism as an "official", though not necessarily "state religion"

in their respective countries. On top of that, Russia also recognizes it, along

with Islam, Judaism, and Orthodox Christianity, as native to Russian soil in the

1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation – all other religious groups are

unrecognized, and must officially register and be subject to rejection by the state.

Apart from Siberian Buddhist nations, the Kalmyk people's 17th century migration

into Europe has made them today's only traditionally Buddhist nation west of

the Ural. They now live in the Republic of Kalmykia, a Russian Republic.

3) (Buddhism in Kalmykia, a Russian Republic: [slide 11]

4) Scotland:

Samyé Ling monastery in Scotland, which celebrated its 40th

anniversary in 2007, includes the largest Buddhist temple in western Europe. There

is an associated community on Holy Isle which is owned by Samyé Ling who

belong to the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The settlements on the island

include the Centre for World Peace and Health and a retreat centre for nuns. Samyé

Ling has also established centres in more than 20 countries, including Belgium,

Ireland, Poland, South Africa, Spain and Switzerland.

The Enlightenment Stupa is thelargest Stupa in Europe,

measuring 108 feet or 33 metres high. It was inaugurated on the 5th October 2003,

and was the final project of the greatBuddhist Master Lopon Tsechu Rinpoche. It is

situated in Benalmádena, Málaga in the Andalusian region of

southern Spain,overlooking the Costa del Sol.

Buddhism in Austria: [slide 12]

Buddhism is a legally recognized religion

in Austria and it is followed by more than 10,000 Austrians. Although still small in

absolute numbers (10,402 at the 2001census), Buddhism in Austria enjoys

widespread acceptance. A majority of Buddhists in the country are Austrian

nationals (some of them naturalized after immigration from Asia, predominantly

from the People's Republic of China and Vietnam), while a considerable number of

them are foreign nationals.

As in most European countries, different branches and schools of Buddhism

are represented by groups of varying sizes. Vienna not only has the largest number of

foreign residents, but is also the place with the longest tradition of Buddhism in the

country. Most of Austria's Buddhist temples and centres of practice can be found

there; some with a specific Chinese, Vietnamese, Tibetan or Japanese appearance.

The latest development has been the establishment of a “Buddhist Cemetery” around

a stupa-like building for funeral ceremonies at the Vienna Central Cemetery.

Buddhism was officially recognized under Austrian law in 1983. Russia is

the only other "European" country to forwardly recognize Buddhism as "native" to its

own soil, giving it official status, along with Orthodox Christianity, Islam,

and Judaism.

Early years:

By the late 19th century, due to the influence of Arthur

Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner, artists and intellectuals in the capital city of

the Austro-Hungarian Empire started to take interest in Buddhism. Karl Eugen

Neumann (1865-1915), who had met the composer Wagner in his father’s house.

Took great interest in what he had heard about Buddhism. In 1884 he decided to

become a Buddhist and study the original languages to be able 'to see for him'. He

managed to translate large parts of the Pali Canon into German before dying in

Vienna at the age of fifty. [slide 13]

In 1913 in Java Arthur Fitz, a man from Graz became the

first recorded Austrian to be ordained as Buddhist monk, taking the name Bhikkshu

Sono.1923 saw the foundation of a "Buddhist Society" in Vienna and Austrians were

among the participants at the 2nd International Buddhist Congress in Paris in 1937.

The political situation — an alliance between the Fascist regime and the Catholic

Church from 1933 to 1938 followed by Hitler’s conquest of Austria and the Second

World War — was highly unfavorable to the development of Austrian Buddhism.

5) Vienna (After World War II):

In 1949 the "Buddhist Society of Vienna" was founded and

interest for Buddhism started to flourish again. Due to personalities like Fritz

Hungerleider, who had returned from exile in the People’s in 1955 to become the

society’s president, and Dr. Walter Karwath, who had spent years in Asia practicing

medicine, Buddhism took a step out of literary and intellectual circles toward the

world of daily life. The late 1970s saw the establishment of Dannebergplatz, the first

Buddhist Centre in Vienna; the purchase of a rural property intended to become a

retreat centre (Buddhist Centre Scheibbs); and the establishment of the first Buddhist

Association outside Vienna (the Salzburg Buddhist Association). The latter was

founded by Friedrich Fenzl, who had been a student at the Ryukoku

University in Kyoto and who invited Kosho Otani, the Patriarch of the Nishi-

Honganji branch of Jodo Shinshu to visit Austria. Hemaloka Thero, Geshe Rabten,

the 16th Karmapa, the 14th Dalai Lama, and other eminent representatives from

different Buddhist traditions visited the country, gave talks, and

attracted dharma students.

In 1979, Genro Koudela, who was ordained as a Zen priest

in California by Joshu Sasaki, returned to Vienna, his city of origin, and established

the "Bodhidharma Zendo" there. The new Buddhist Centre at Fleischmarkt, in the

very centre of Vienna, became the home for

Zen, Kagyu and Theravada groups.Tibetan monks creating a temporarysand

mandala in the city hall of Kitzbühel, Austria in 2002.

Buddhism was officially recognized in Austria: [slide 14]

When official recognition was granted by the government in early

1983 a new era of Austrian Buddhism was ushered in. A widely visible ‘Peace Stupa’

was opened at the banks of the river Danube and a retreat and study centre, Letzehof,

affiliated with the Geluk school of Buddhism was opened in the western province

of Vorarlberg. Vanja Palmers, a Zen monk of the Japanese Soto school, and Brother

David Steindl-Rast, an Austrian-American Benedictine monk, founded a retreat centre

high up in the Salzburg alpine region. The first centre in the south of the country, a

retreat centre in the Burmese Theravada tradition was established in the early 1990s.

In 1993, Austria hosted an annual general meeting of the European Buddhist Union,

which drew participants from a dozen European countries. A series of visits to the city

of Graz by the Dalai Lama in 1995, 1998 (for the consecration of a large stupa), and

in 2002 (to speak on "Kalachakrafor World Peace") became a strong encouragement

for Buddhists in Austria.

Buddhist religious instruction at Austrian schools: [slide 15]

Official recognition also opened the doors for Buddhist

religious education at schools. In 1993, the first few groups of Buddhist children were

given the chance to hear about theBuddhadharma on a regular basis as part of their

syllabus. Twelve years after the project was started in the cities of Vienna, Graz and

Salzburg, Buddhist religious education is being made available to school children of

all age groups (6 to 19) at different types of schools in all of nine federal provinces of

the Republic. A Teachers’ Training Academy was founded in 2001 to offer in-service

teacher training for the teachers concerned.

History is full of misnomers; one such term is the New World,

as applied to the Americas. The landing of Columbus in 1492 undoubtedly created a

new life on the continents, but it neither created nor discovered a new world. Many

centuries ago Asian migrants had come to the western shore in substantial numbers.

What if the popular idea that Tibetans and American Indians have much in common

in terms of their spiritual culture is largely a result of another historical scenario?What

if Hindus and Hopis, Advaitins and Aztecs, Tibetan Monks and Mayans were part of

one world culture - a spiritual one? [slide 16]

Contribution of the Indian culture to the World:

Baron Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), an

eminent European scholar and anthropologist, was one of the first to postulate the

Asiatic origin of the Indian civilizations of the Americas. Swami B.V. Tripurari asks,

“What mysterious psychological law would have caused Asians and Americans to

both use the umbrella as a sign of royalty, to invent the same games, imagine similar

cosmologies and attribute the same colors to the different directions?"

MAYA Civilization: [slide 17]

The first Maya Empire had been founded in Guatemala at about the

beginning of the Christian era. Before the fall of Rome the Mayas were charting

accurately the synodical revolutions of Venus and whilst Europe was still lingering in

the Dark Ages the Maya civilization had reached a peak of greatness.It is significant

that the zenith of Maya civilization was reached at a time when India had also attained

an unparalleled cultural peak during the Gupta period. Indian cultural intercourse with

Southeast Asia, the Gupta period, had begun more than a century before the Mayan

classical age in 320 and Buddhism and Hinduism had been well known in

neighboring countries for centuries. If there was contact between Mayan America and

Indianized Southeast Asia, the simultaneous cultural advance would not appear

surprising. In marked contrast, this was the darkest period in Europe's history between

the sack of Rome and the rise of Charlemagne.

[slide 18]

The most important development of the ancient American or Asiomerican culture

took place in the south of the United States, in Mexico, in Central America and in

Peru. The early history of Asiomericans is shrouded in mystery and controversy due

to the absence of definitive documentary evidence, which was destroyed by the

European conquerors in their misguided religious zeal.

However, it appears that after the discovery of introduction of

maize into Mexico, Asiomericans no longer had to wander about in search of food.

Men in America, as in other parts of the world, settled down to cultivate food and

culture, a by-product of agricultural life, inevitably followed.

Of the Asiomerican civilizations, the best known are the Maya,

the Toltec, the Aztec, and the Inca. The Mayas were possibly the earliest people to

found a civilization there; they moved from the Mexican plateau into Guatemala.

They were later pushed out, presumably by the Toltecs, who, in turn were dislodged

by the Aztecs. [slide 19]

Similarities in between the ancient American Culture and the Indian Culture:

(1)Astrology:

Baron Alexander Von Humboldt, whilst visiting Mexico, found

similarities between Asian and Mexican astrology. He founded systematic study of

ancient American cultures and was convinced of the Asian origin of the American-

Indian high civilization. He said:

"If languages supply but feeble evidence of ancient communication between the two

worlds, their communication is fully proved by the cosmogonies, the monuments, the

hieroglyphically characters and the institutions of the people of America and Asia."

In 1866, the French architect, Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, also noted striking

resemblances between ancient Mexican structures and those of South India.

Hindu-Mexican Trinity:

Kirchhoff has sought "to demonstrate that a

calendaric classification of 28 Hindu gods and their animals into twelve groups,

subdivided into four blocks, within each of which we find a sequence of gods and

animals representing Creation, Destruction and Renovation, and which can be shown

to have existed both in India and Java, must have been carried from the Old World to

the New, since in Mexico we find calendaric lists of gods and animals that follow

each other without interruption in the same order and with attributes and functions or

meanings strikingly similar to those of the 12 Indian and Javanese groups of gods,

showing the same four subdivisions.” Donald A. Mackenzie and other scholars,

however, are of definite opinion that the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians were

familiar with Indian mythology and cite in support close parallels in details. For

instance, the history of the Mayan elephant symbol cannot be traced in the local

tradition, whereas it was a prominent religious symbol in India. The African elephant

has larger ears. It is the profile of the Indian elephant, its tusk and lower lip, the form

of its ear, as well as its turbaned rider with his angus, which is found in Meso-

American models. Whilst the African elephant was of little religious significance, it

had been tamed in India and associated with religious practices since the early days.

The Mexican doctrine of the World's Ages - the universe was

destroyed four consecutive times - is reminiscent of the Indian Yugas. Even the

reputed colors of these mythical four ages, white, yellow, red and black are identical

with and in the same order as one of the two versions of the Indian Yugas. In both

myths the duration of the First Age is exactly the same, 4,800 divine years. The

Mexican Trinity is associated with this doctrine as in the Hindu Trinity with the

Yugas in India. [slide 20]

(2) Use of Zero:

The Mayas of Yucatan were the first people besides the

Indians to use a zero sign and represent number values by the position of basic

symbols. The similarity between the Indian zero and the Mayan zero is indeed

striking. So far as the logical principle is concerned, the two are identical, but the

expressions of the principle are dissimilar. Again, whilst the Indian system of notation

was decimal, as was the European, the Mayan was vigesimal. Consequently, their 100

stood for 400, 1000 stood for 8000, 1234 for 8864. While the place of zero in the

respective systems of the Indians and Mayans is different, the underlying principle

and method are the same and the common origin of the Mayan and Indian zeros

appears to be undoubted. Disputes continue amongst scholars in the absence of

conclusive evidence. As chronological evidence stands today, the Mayan zero appears

to be anterior by several centuries to its Hindu counterpart.

Other similarities

In 1949, two scholars, Gordon Ekholm and Chaman Lal,

systematically compared the Mayan, Aztec, Incan, and the North American Indian

civilizations with the Hindu-oriented countries of Southeast Asia and with India

herself. According to them the emigrant cultures of India took with them India's

system of time measurement, local gods and customs. Ekholm and Lal found signs of

Aryan civilization throughout the Americas in art (lotus flowers with knotted stems

and half dragon/half fish motifs found commonly in paintings and carvings),

architecture, calendars, astronomy, religious symbols and even games such as our

Parchessi and Mexican Patilli, which have their origins in India's pachisi.

[slide 21] Both the Hindus and Americans used

similar items in their worship rituals. They both maintained the concept of four Yuga

cycles, or cosmological seasons, extending over thousands of years, and conceived of

twelve constellations with reference to the sun as indicated by the Incan sun calendar.

Royal insignias, systems of government and practice of religious dance and temple

worship all showed remarkable similarities, pointing strongly to the idea that the

Americas were strongly influenced by the Aryans. The theory is found in the Vedic

literature of India. The ancient Puranas (literally "histories") and the Mahabharata

make mention of the Americas as lands rich with gold and silver. Argentina, which

means "related to silver", is thought to have been named after Arjuna (of silver hue).

Indeed, the parallels between the arts and culture of India and those of ancient

America are too numerous and close to be attributed to independent growth. The

mythology of ancient America furnishes sufficient grounds for the inference that it

was a child of Hindu mythology.

The Solar and Lunar eclipses were looked upon in

ancient America in the same light as in modern India. The Hindus beat drums and

make noises by beating tin pots and other things. The Americans, too, raise a frightful

howl and sound musical instruments. The Carecles (Americans) think that the demon

Maleoyo, the hater of light, swallows the moon and sun in the same way as the

Hindus think that the demons Rahu and Ketu devour the sun and the moon. [slide 22]

The SWASTIC of India: The swastika is an equilateral cross with its

arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form or its mirrored left-facing form.

Archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates from

the Neolithic period in Ancient India. It occurs mainly in the modern day culture,

sometimes as a geometrical motif and sometimes as a religious symbol. It remains

widely used in Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Though

once commonly used all over much of the world without stigma, because of its iconic

usage as Hakenkreuz in Nazi Germany the symbol has become stigmatized in

the Western world, notably even outlawed in Germany.

Historical use in the East:

Historically, the swastika became a sacred

symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Mithraism and Shamanism; religions with a

total of more than a billion adherents worldwide, making the swastika ubiquitous in

both historical and contemporary society. The symbol was introduced to Southeast

Asia by Hindu kings and remains an integral part of Balinese Hinduism to this day,

and it is a common sight in Indonesia. [slide 23]

The symbol rose to importance

in Buddhism during the Mauryan Empire and in Hinduism with the decline of

Buddhism in India during the Gupta Empire. With the spread of Buddhism, the

Buddhist swastika reached Tibet and China. The use of the swastika by the

indigenous Bön faith of Tibet, as well as syncretism religions, such as Cao

Dai of Vietnam and Gong of China, is thought to be borrowed from Buddhism as

well. The symbol can also be found on many Buddhist temples throughout Korea.

SWASTIC and BUDDHISM: Buddhism originated

in India in the 5th century BCE and inherited the manji or swastika. Also known as a

"yung drung" in ancient Tibet, it was a graphical representation of eternity.[18] Today

the symbol is used in Buddhist art and scripture and represents dharma, universal

harmony, and the balance of opposites. One can see swastika on the Pillars of

Ashoka where the swastika is a symbol of the cosmic dance around a fixed center and

guards against evil.This symbol (right-hand) is alleged to have been stamped on The

Buddha's chest by his initiates after his death. It is known as The Heart's Seal. This

would predate any other particular use ascribed to it in other texts.

The paired swastika symbols are included,

at least since the Liao Dynasty, as part of the Chinese language, the symbolic sign for

the character (wan in Mandarin, man in Korean, Cantonese and Japanese, van in

Vietnamese) meaning "all" or "eternality" (lit. myriad) and as, which is seldom used.

Swastika marks the beginning of many Buddhist scriptures. The swastika (in either

orientation) appears on the chest of some statues ofGautama Buddha and is often

incised on the soles of the feet of the Buddha in statuary. Because of the association

of the right-facing swastika with Nazism, Buddhist swastika (outside India only) after

the mid-20th century is almost universally left-facing.

INDIAN CULTURE: [slide 24]

Albert Einstein says- "We owe a lot to Indians who taught us

how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been

made."

Mark Twain commented about this country in an apt manner-

"Land of religions, cradle of human race, birthplace of human speech, grandmother of

legend, great grandmother of tradition. The land that men with intellectual bent desire

to see and having seen once even by a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the

shows of the rest of the globe combined."

[slide 25] The History of India begins with evidence

of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago hominids (Homo

Erectus) from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread

and flourished in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent from c. 3300 to

1300 BCE, was the first major civilization in India. A sophisticated and

technologically advanced urban culture developed in the mature Harappan period,

from 2600 to 1900 BCE. This Bronze Age civilization collapsed at the beginning of

the second millennium BCE and was followed by the Iron Age Vedic Civilization,

which extended over much of the Indo-Gangetic plains and which witnessed the rise

of major polities known as the Mahajanapadas. In one

kingdom, Magadha, Mahavira and Gautama Buddha were born in the 6th or 5th

century BCE, who propagated their Shramanic philosophies.

[slide 26] Almost all of the subcontinent was

conquered by the Maurya Empire during the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. It

subsequently became fragmented, with various parts ruled by numerous Middle

kingdoms for the next 1,500 years. This is known as the classical period of India,

during which India is estimated to have had the largest economy of the ancient and

medieval world, controlling between one third and one fourth of the world's wealth up

to the 18th century.

[slide 27] Much of Northern and Central India was

once again united in the 4th century CE, and remained so for two centuries thereafter,

under the Gupta Empire. This period, of Hindu religious and intellectual resurgence,

is known among its admirers as the "Golden Age of India." During the same time, and

for several centuries afterwards, Southern India, under the rule of

the Chalukyas, Cholas, Pallavas and Pandyas, experienced its own golden age. During

this period aspects of Indian civilization, administration, culture, and religion

(Hinduism and Buddhism) spread to much of Asia.

[slide 28] The southern state of Kerala had maritime

business links with the Roman Empire from around 77 CE. Islam was introduced in

Kerala through this route by Muslim traders. Muslim rule in the subcontinent began in

712 CE when the Arab general Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Sindh andMultan in

southern Punjab, setting the stage for several successive invasions between the 10th

and 15th centuries CE from Central Asia, leading to the formation of Muslim empires

in the Indian subcontinent such as the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire.

Mughal rule came to cover most of the

northern parts of the subcontinent. Mughal rulers introduced middle-eastern art and

architecture to India. In addition to the Mughals and various Rajput kingdoms, several

independent Hindu states, such as the Vijayanagara Empire, the Maratha Empire and

the Ahom Kingdom, flourished contemporaneously in Southern, Western and North-

Eastern India respectively. The Mughal Empire suffered a gradual decline in the early

eighteenth century, which provided opportunities for

the Afghans, Balochis, Sikhs and the Marathas to exercise control over large areas in

the northwest of the subcontinent until the British East India Company gained

ascendancy over South Asia.

[slide 29] Beginning in the mid-18th century and

over the next century, India was gradually annexed by the British East India

Company. Dissatisfaction with Company rule led to the First War of Indian

Independence, after which India was directly administered by the British Crown and

witnessed a period of both rapid development of infrastructure and economic decline.

During the first half of the 20th century, a nationwide struggle for independence was

launched by the Indian National Congress, and later joined by the Muslim League.

The subcontinent gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, after

being partitioned into the dominions of India and Pakistan. [slide 30]

ARYANS- a thread to unite Indians with the Europeans:

The Aryans were semi-nomadic Nordic Whites, perhaps

located originally on the steppes of southern Russia and Central Asia, who spoke the

parent language of the various Indo-European languages.Latin, Greek, Hittite,

Sanskrit, French, German, Latvian, English, Spanish, Russian etc. are all Indo-

European languages; Indo-European, or more properly Proto-Indo-European

branches. In the wake of National Socialist Germany's defeat, the term fell out of

general scholarly use in both senses, and "Indo-European" (IE) became the preferred

designation of the language group, "Indo-Europeans" of both the people who

occupied the original Aryan homeland and their descendants, who gradually spread

out across Europe, much of the Indian sub-continent, and parts of the Near East.

Racial nationalists are not, of course, obliged to adopt the timid PC-lexicon of

contemporary scholarship, but we should be aware of imprecision of "Aryan" as a

racial or ethnic classification. an ‘Arya’, meaning "noble," appears in various Indo-

European languages. Its plural form (Aryas="nobles") was probably the name the

Aryans used to describe themselves prior to their dispersal, and it may survive in Eire

(Ireland) and certainly survives in Iran (Airyanam vaejo="realm of the Aryans"). The

discovery of thousands of such cognate words in widely separated languages, along

with similar grammatical structures, led philologists to conclude, early in the

nineteenth century, that most European languages had evolved from a common proto-

language spoken millennia ago by a distinct people who gradually left their original

homeland in a series of migrations, carrying their language with them.

Traditionally Greek, Latin and Sanskrit were considered

the closest languages to prehistoric existence, and much of the reconstructed Aryan

proto-language is based on them. Modern Lithuanian, however, is the most archaic

living language, closer to the original Aryan speech than any other.

Perhaps the most famous proof for the prehistoric

existence of PIE is the word for king: rex in Latin, raja in Sanskrit, ri in Old Irish,

along with a host of other cognates. All are obviously variants of a common word for

king. Since none of the peoples speaking these various languages were in physical

contact with one another during the historical period -- i.e. at a time for which written

records exist -- comparative philologists inferred that their respective languages must

have evolved from a single proto-language, which is the only way of explaining the

presence of the same word for "king" among such widely dispersed peoples. The

Romans clearly didn't borrow rex from the Irish or the Indo-Aryans; each had instead

inherited their own word for "king" from a common ancestral language.

[slide 31] Philologists can also, moreover, safely

conclude that the Aryans must have had kings prior to emigrating from their original

homeland in southern Russia. In fact a fairly detailed body of evidence about

prehistoric Aryan political, is the lost ancestral language from which organization,

marriage practices, and religious beliefs can be reconstructed on the basis of the

survival of common vocabulary in the various extant Indo-European languages: They

worshiped a sky-god, they traced descent through the male line, they raised cattle,

they drank mead , they used horse-drawn chariots (which they probably invented) as

weapons of war, etc. Even the red, white and blue/green that appears in so many

modern flags may have an Aryan pedigree.

[slide 32] Aryans, or more specifically Indo-Aryans, make their

first notable appearance in history around 2000-1500 BC as invaders of

Northern India. The Sanskrit Rig Veda, a collection of religious texts still revered by

modern Hindus, records (often enigmatically) their gradual subjugation of the dark-

skinned inhabitants, the Dasyus: e.g. "Indra” has torn open the fortresses of the

Dasyus, which in their wombs hid the black people. He created land and water for

Manu ; "lower than all besides, hast thou, O Indra, cast down the Dasyus, abject tribes

of Dasas"; "after slaying the Dasyus, let Indra with his white friends win land, let him

win the sun and water"; "Indra subdued the Dasyu color and drove it into hiding."

With all-outstripping chariot-wheel, O Indra, Thou, far-famed, hast overthrown the

twice ten kings Thou goes from fight to fight, intrepidly

Destroying castle after castle here with strength. (RV 1.53)

The Aryans were remarkably expansionist, and almost everywhere they went they

conquered and subjugated the indigenous peoples, imposing their languages and (to

varying degrees) their religious beliefs on the natives, and receiving in turn

contributions from the peoples whom they conquered. Aryan invasions -- or more

accurately, a long sequence of different invasions by speakers of Indo-European

languages -- swept across Old Europe beginning as early as the fourth millennium

BC, and over time the conquerors and the conquered melded into specific peoples

with distinctive languages. Most of the contemporary inhabitants of Europe, along

with their respective early national cultures, are the result of interaction between

successive waves of Aryan invaders and culture of the particular White people that

they conquered and with whom they later intermarried, and as a result almost all

modern European languages are members of the Western branch of the IE family tree.

[slide 33] The birth of a European culture, however, predates the

arrival of the Indo-Europeans: The cave art of Lascaux, which some have identified

as the first flowering of Western man's creative genius, was the work of Old

Europeans, as were Stonehenge in the North and the Minoan Palace culture of Crete

in the South. A pan-European religious symbolism had already evolved, much of

which was later incorporated into IE mythologies, including various regional

adaptations of the ubiquitous Old European reverence for the Mother Goddess. Many

of the principal figures in Greek mythology predate the arrival of Aryans, and during

the course of ancient history Old European religious beliefs and practices continually

reasserted themselves.

Europe is European because the conquerors and the conquered were

members the same White race, different branches on the same family tree; India is a

morass of poverty because the bulk of the conquered, with whom the Indo-Aryans

eventually intermarried, were non-White Veddoids. The lesson is obvious. Even

today high-caste Hindus can still be identified by their Caucasian features and light

skin, and the poorest and most backward parts of India are generally the darkest.

As an aside, recent genetic studies have indicated that the Basques of

Aquitaine and the Pyrenees are probably the purest form of old Europeans as they

existed prior to the arrival of Indo-European invaders. They evidently emerged from

the invasions of Europe unconquered, and they remained sufficiently isolated to retain

their own unique, non-IE language.

[slide 34 [slide 35]

The Land and It's People :

The most striking element of Indian geography is the natural

barrier formed by the mountain ranges in the north of India. For India is a continental

plate that is crashing into the Asian continental plate. As it does, both continental

plates push up the earth where they meet into a forbidding range of mountains. The

central mountain range, passing across in the shape of a sword near the northern edge

of the Indian subcontinent, is the Great Himalayas. These northern mountains, which

are less of a barrier in the west, have naturally isolated India from its neighbors.

All along the southern edge of this great mountain wall are rich

soils that are generously rained on; even though this region lies in the temperate zone,

it is lush and subtropical. To the south are the extensive flood plains of the Indus

River in the west and the Ganges in the east. With rich soil renewed every year by

river flooding and with generous summer rains, these plains in the north are among

the richest agricultural areas in the world. It was here that Indian civilization first

arose, in the fertile flood plains adjoining the Indus River. This vast stretch of flood

plain has been the home of the great Indian empires as well, the Mauryans and the

Guptas.

The southern portion of India is a large peninsula with a forbidding

mountain range all along the western coast and a large flat plateau called the Deccan

in the center of the sub-continent. The eastern coast is flat land and affords many

opportunities for harbors; from this area Indian culture had the widest contacts with

foreign peoples. The western portion, however, being walled from the sea and hard to

reach by land, subsequently became the seat of the powerful empires of the south,

such as the Muslim kingdoms.

[slide 36] India is one of the most culturally, linguistically, and

ethnically diverse regions one can imagine. Four major peoples, distinguished by the

languages they speak, make up the population of the region. The majority of the

population are Indo-European speaking a variety of languages related to European

languages such as Greek, German, or English. Precisely when these peoples arrived is

subject to much debate, but they seem to have arrived somewhere between 2000 BC

and 1600 BC, and they brought with them their own religion and social system. The

bulk of Indian religion and almost all of its literature is Indo-European. Second to the

Indo-Europeans, but more ancient in India than the later immigrants, are a people who

speak languages from the Dravidian family of languages. While we cannot be certain,

the Dravidians were probably the authors of the great Indus River civilizations

contemporary with the Mesopotamian civilizations to the west. In addition, the

peoples in the northern mountains speak languages related to Chinese, Tibetan, or

Mongolian. Finally, the smallest group, but most likely the oldest inhabitants of India,

speak languages from the Australoid family, which are the languages spoken by

indigenous peoples scattered throughout Southeast Asia and Australia. Australoids are

still present throughout the mountainous forests of the Deccan, but their traditional

way of life, which was still vital only forty years ago, is beginning to die out.

It is this last point that, perhaps, is most interesting -- the

Hindu denial of the self-existence of the natural world. To people in a culture that

values obvious trappings of wealth and visible emblems of material success, an

acknowledgement of such a proposition can only come as frightful recognition of the

tawdry emptiness of life in contemporary industrialized societies. Hinduism provides

a lasting critique of Western acquisitiveness.

[slide 37] That all people should be morally accountable for

their actions is characteristic of Greek thought. For this reason, Socrates insists on

accepting the punishment his fellow Athenians have meted out to him. Socrates is, to

the end, a believer in democracy and the will of the majority despite his grievous

doubts about honest self-questioning on the part of his fellow citizens. His friend

Crito makes convincing arguments for Socrates' escape, yet the sage remains clear-

thinking, hard-headed, and true to his moral principles: he accepts the sentence that

has been given him. The art and artifacts from the Karanis excavation provide a

useful, summary statement about the culture of ROME, the great imperial city.

Rome's greatness grew out of its imperial program of conquering others and

establishing colonies. This military expansion at once brought great material benefit

to the Roman state and guaranteed a pipeline of wealth for Rome, the imperial city.

And Rome becomes a cosmopolitan capital where high-living and material wealth

become synonymous with personal importance and success. Note how the Karanis

exhibit displays extravagant wall paintings, which did not decorate the walls of

churches or temples but rather the homes of wealthy citizens. The exhibit alsoincludes

coins, whose minting bespeaks the abiding concern for the tokens of wealth as

well.What the Romans also did was learn from other cultures. You might wonder

why Aphrodite, a Greek goddess, was memorialized in a fantastic sculpture in Roman

times (and in Egypt, no less!). To their credit, the Romans recognized the richness of

Greek art and architecture, and they sought to emulate the Greek masters -- and the

Greek styles and themes -- in their own art. To a large degree, it was the Romans who

brought Greek (and Hellenistic) culture to world attention. Romans patronized Greek

artists and artisans in the glorification of a vast world of their own, Roman creation.

It is no surprise, then, that the Roman

poet Virgil (Or Vergil) turns to Greek mythology and to the Greek epics as he

fashions his own description of the origins and destiny of the Roman state, The

Aeneid. Virgil writes his extended poem, in part, to win the favor of Augustus Caesar,

the new emperor who emerges from the conflict surrounding the death of Julius

Caesar. His other aim is to situate Rome in line with what was considered the great

literary tradition of the time -- the Greek. Virgil's work thus is both polemic and

propaganda: his blending of history and mythology provides a platform for the

imperial agenda that Augustus will undertake.

Europeans in India: [slide 38]

India was a British colony. The British left behind them in

India a strong imprint of their philosophy and culture and even today it is evident

that English which is a foreign language is the most important and respected language

in India. But the British were not the only Europeans to arrive in India and have their

imprint. Since ancient period even before the beginning of the Christian era there were

relations between Europeans and Indians. The main Europeans to arrive in ancient India

were Greeks. The Greeks are referred to in ancient Indian history as Yavanas. Even the

most famous ancient Greek conqueror, Alexander the Great, arrived in India. But

actually he arrived up to the present India-Pakistan border. But there were other Greeks

who arrived in India and established kingdoms. Many of these Greek communities later

on adopted Hinduism and integrated in the Indian caste system. Even today there are

communities in Kashmir who claim to be of Greek origin. Not all Greeks arrived in

India to conquer it. There were also Greek scientists who arrived in India for scientific

research, especially in astronomy and mathematics.

Later on other Europeans arrived in India because of

commercial reasons. The Indian sub-continent was then world famous for its spices. But

when the Muslim Ottoman Empire of Turkey ruled the Middle East, they caused lots of

problems to European Christian merchants who tried to pass through their land.

Therefore the Europeans tried to find other routes to reach India. And so accidentally

Christopher Columbus found the continent of America. Columbus tried to get to India

while sailing westwards from Europe. Columbus presumed that because the earth is

round he would eventually get to India while sailing westwards, instead he found the

continent of America whose existence was not known then to the Europeans. Columbus

thought that he had arrived in India and called the natives Indians.

[slide 39] From the 15th century the European

representatives arrived in India, namely English, French, Dutch, Danish and Portuguese.

Among these European powers the Portuguese arrived first in India in 1498 via sea after

they had circled the whole of the African continent. These representatives arrived in

India after they received from their country rulers charter to do business with India.

These Europeans at first requested from the local

rulers permission to trade in their entities. Later on they requested from the local rulers

permission to build factories. After they built factories they requested to build forts

around these factories to defend them from pirates and other dangers. Then they

requested to recruit local Indians to serve as guards and soldiers in these forts and so on

they slowly created their own armies. And so one of the European power's

representative, the British East India Company, became the ruler of India.

The British control of India was a result of several

factors. The Portuguese, who along with their business tried to enforce Roman

Catholicism on the Indians were defeated by local rulers sometimes in collaboration

with Protestant European powers. But still the Portuguese remained in India with small

pockets. Their main center in India was Goa. The Dutch, who had holds in south India

and the Danes, who had holds in east India, left India for their own reasons. The two

main European powers that remained in India were British and French. These two

powers tried different ways to control India and to defeat each other. Each of these

European powers sometimes collaborated with local Indian rulers to defeat the other

European power. Eventually the British became the rulers of India. But the French like

the Portuguese remained in India with small pockets and both these powers remained in

India even after the British left India in 1947.

The British East India Company was actually a

trading company and it received from the British crown charter to trade with the Indian

sub-continent. They arrived in India for spice trade in 1600. Like other European

powers that arrived in India, they at first requested from the local rulers permission to

trade in their entities. The British East India Company was more sophisticated than

other Europeans who arrived in India. This company offered different sophisticated

agreements to the different Indian ruling families, which made them the actual

managers of the Indian kingdoms. They sometimes used their army against local rulers

and annexed their territories with the result that there was lot of embitterment among

the Indians against the British. After the 'Indian Mutiny' of 1857, the British Crown

took back the charter from the East India Company and ruled India directly through a

Viceroy. The British gave India independence in 1947, but its last soldier left India

eventually in 1950. The French also left India in 1950. The Portuguese were the last to

leave India in 1961.

Even though the European powers arrived in India for

commercial reasons, they also started converting local Indians to Christianity. Of the

five European powers the Portuguese were most enthusiastic to baptize Indians. The

Portuguese inspired by the Pope’s order to baptize people around the world not only

fought wars against the local Indian rulers, but also they tried to enforce their Roman

Catholic prayers on Syrian Christians who were in India before the modern European

powers arrived in India .

After many wars the Portuguese were defeated by local rulers and they had only one big

pocket of control in India, Goa. Goa was made the capital of Portuguese colonies in the

eastern hemisphere. The Portuguese not only fought the Indian rulers, but they also

fought against other European powers in India especially Dutch and English. Many

Portuguese churches in Kerala were converted into English and Dutch churches after

they were captured by these powers. The English missionaries started acting in India at

a much later period. The British arrived in India in 1600 and they allowed the

missionaries to enter their territory only from 1813. The British allowed different

churches to establish missionaries in their territory. The missionaries didn’t only spread

Christianity, but they also did humanitarian deeds giving the needy the basic necessities

of life like food, clothes and shelter. The missionaries also built schools in India and

many of them exist even today and have Christian or European originated names.

The British church missionaries succeeded less than the Portuguese in

converting Indians to Christianity, but unlike the Portuguese who tried to enforce Christianity, these Protestant converts

were voluntary. The Portuguese were also aware of the Indian custom according to which the wife followed her husband’s

faith and therefore married their men to Indian women. Most of the Portuguese baptized Christians in India have

Portuguese oriented surnames, like Fernandez, De Silva, De Costa and others.

Conclusion: How there is head and tail for a coin there is both positive and negative

impact of western culture and Indian Culture. I think both cultures are unique in their own way and equally good.

] Indian culture is an ancient and dynamic entity, spanning back to the very beginnings of human civilization.

Beginning with a mysterious culture along the Indus River and in farming communities in the southern lands of India, the

history of the sub-continent is one punctuated by constant integration with migrating peoples and with the diverse cultures

that surround India. Placed in the center of Asia, Indian history is a crossroads of cultures from China to Europe, and the

most significant Asian connection with the cultures of Africa. Indian history, then, is more than just a set of unique

developments in a definable process; it is, in many ways, a microcosm of human history itself, a diversity of cultures all

impinging on a great people and being reforged into new, syncretic forms.To sum up the topic of discussion, I would like

to tell you the reaction of two eminent Europeans about this great country about which we should be really proud of that’s

INDIA, are –

The first thought is put forward by --George Bernard Shaw, (1856-1950) Dramatist, Nobel Laureate in Literature,

"The Indian way of life provides the vision of the natural, real way of life. We western veil ourselves with unnatural masks.

On the face of India are the tender expressions which carry the mark of the Creators hand."

The second one is put forward by Professor F. Max Muller , German philosopher and philologist, it goes like this

"In the history of the world, the Vedas fill a gap which no literary work in any other language could fill. I maintain that to

everybody who cares for himself, for his ancestors, for his intellectual development, a study of the Vedic literature is

indeed indispensable."

Definitely, We all agree by this.[slide 40]

Preeti Awasthi

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1988.

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----- PREETI AWASTHI