India

The Geography of India by: Eleanor Joyce City of Salem Schools For thousands of years geography has made South Asia a crossroads. Trade routes brought merchants and missionaries Two major world religions began in South Asia: •Hinduism •Buddhism 2500-1500 B.C.E Indus Valley Civilization started from immigrants from Iran They built cities such as MajenjoDaro which was highly advanced. Roots of Hinduism •1500 B.C.E Aryans invaded from central Asia •The Aryans drove out the Dravidians •The Aryans brought with them the idea of a caste system. Caste system is a rigid class system. A person cannot move between castes or classes. Hindus believe in reincarnation Cows are sacred. Sacred writing of the Hindus are the Vedas The Caste System The Brahma Cow Vishnu Shiva dharma- every person’s moral duty karma- good is rewarded: bad is punished reincarnation- every person is reborn until they are released from the cycle of rebirth. The Ganges River is sacred to the Hindus. •Highly polluted •Bath in the river to purify themselves Buddhism founded about the same time as Hinduism. Founder Siddhartha Gautama Leader today is the Dali Lama Buddhist believe in reincarnation. People reach the state of Nirvana Since the mid 1700’s Britain controlled India Britain took away a thriving textile industry and exported the raw cotton to mills in England Britain expected the Indians to purchase their ready made textile products. Many Indian textile workers lost their jobs. During the late 1800’s Indians developed a strong sense of nationalism. Many Indians were educated in Europe. One of those people was Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi. He led non violent resistance to England. Indians boycotted British Cloth. 1946 England agreed to give India its independence if they could agree on a government. The conflict in India was between the Muslims and the Hindus The only solution was to partition or divide India into Pakistan and India. The Hindus occupied India and the Muslims occupied Pakistan Later conflicts developed between East and West Pakistan and the country of Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) was created in 1971 Within the past year, Pakistan and India have tested nuclear weapons. They are in conflict of a portion India known as Kashmir. http://www/pbs.org/wnet/nature/india/index.htm