Facts about INDIA.

http://www.travel-india.com/news/1999/facts.htm

1)"India never invaded any country in her last 10,000 years of history."
2)"It is the only society in the world which has never known slavery."
3)"India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta."
4)'The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC."
5)"More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century CE was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field ofeducation."
6)"Sanskrit is the mother of all higher languages."
7)"Sanskrit is the most precise and therefore suitable language for the computer software - a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987."
8)"Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization. It is the only system which takes the holistic view of the person being treated."
9)" Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by her wealth and was looking for route to India when he discovered American continent by mistake."
10)" The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago."
11)" The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'."
12)"Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart."
13)" Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days."
14)"The value of "pi" was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem.
He discovered this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were propounded by Sridharacharya in the 11th century."
15)"The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period."
Even today,the largest used number is Tera: 10**12(10 to the power of 12).

16)" According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi."
17)"The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful lake aptly called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time."
18)" Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans,cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipments were used."
19)" Deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism,genetics and immunity is also found in many texts."
20)" When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization) The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC."


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QUOTES ABOUT INDIA
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Albert Einstein said:
We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made.

Mark Twain said:
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 instructive materials in thehistory of man are treasured up in India only.

French scholar Romain Rolland said: If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.

Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said:
India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border.

* Indus valley civilization is now being researched again with new
information about Sarasvati river and it has been found that there
about 1200 cities along the sarasvati river, that has gone underground. So Harapa and Mohan jedoro are not only two sites of Indus valley civilization.

*There is lot of work going on using sanskrit as inter lingua for
Natural language processing and Machine translation in US, NASA LAbs and in India

 

One of my brothers-in-law was born & raised in India. He earned his B.S from the Indian Institute of Technology before he emigrated to the United States. He subsequently earned his M.B.A. from the University of Rochester, and is now a highly successful businessman in New York City.

My point? My brother-in-law constantly tells us how bad the economy and political stability is in India, how thankful he is that he had the chance to come to the United States, and how he will never again set foot in India.

I have nothing against India (why would I?), but given what my brother-in-law says, combined with what I read in the news, I don't think that India will be on my short list of vacation spots anytime soon.

My question....where would you rather live and raise a family, India or the United States?


Bruce

 

Bruce asks-

....where would you rather live and raise a family, India or the United States?

My response-

Neither. I have travelled extensively in both countries, and the only good thing about India was the food. The food in the USA?? Hmmm.

Come to Australia and you will never want to leave.

Cheers,

George

 

I spent a month in India. The people were very nice, polite and considerate, for the most part. I also loved the food. I also have no desire to ever go back. It might have been really cool in 345 BC or whatever, but it is horrible now.

clint

 

I think it is the unstable political situation, illitracy and growing population has fueled for what India is right now.

 

In 345 BC you could have studied along with Buddha and Mahaveera

 

To think I was that close....

only 2341 years late....

clint

 

One of my old professors traveled to India every other Summer and gushed about the place. I think a great deal probably depends on what part of India you're visiting, and why you're there. Even Mississippi will feel like paradise if you plan your vacation really well (or have an unhealthy interest in Civil War battlefields).


Cheers,

 

Manjuap

Sounds really good until reality bites you. We all tend to believe that home is a great place.

A kindergarten kid in the old Soviet Union was told that kids the Soviet Union had lots of toys, ate really well and had very nice homes. The kid replied "I'm going to go to the Soviet Union some day"

 

I did visit for 2 weeks in 1992. If you guys would just start driving on the correct side of the road, I might have stayed.


Bruce

 

I think that it has something to do with their toilets swirling the wrong way when you flush them.

But driving on the wrong side of the road is easy when you drink as much XXXX beer as the Australians do.

 

Got to say I would not want to live in India. As I understand it many 60's folks who travelled east and were glorifying eastern culture discovered the poverty, illiteracy, etc.

Nonetheless, India does have absolutely fantastic food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The flavours............the tea.................terrific (our only restaurant closed..........sigh.......).

Also there is no doubt that India has made large contributions and is fascinating. That is a point that the Jewel in the Crown series tried to make.

It is sad to see the fanaticism of Hindu fundamentalism that is taking hold. Some news programs have said it is a sort of mix of religion and racist nationalism (ie Nazisim). It is resulting in murder & intolerance.

North

 

I have never been to India and don't know a lot about India but I do know that India has one of the most oppressive caste systems in the world and in the history of the world. Technically it may not be "slavery" but the members of the Harijan/Dalit (once known as the untouchables) [no Elliott Ness jokes please] have been the victims of massive racial oppression. This situation may be somewhat better today but in the past it was terrible.
Jack

 

And S.C. Bose was a fascist.

 

Was he a pragmatic fascist or a fascist pragmatic? Maybe just a pragmatic pragmatic.

 

Make that fascist pragmatist and pragmatic pragmatist. Shows that they will give a degree to pretty much anybody nowadays.

 

Re: Re: Facts about INDIA.

We should not forget "slavery", selling african people like "vegetables" etc by people in US and UK just about sometime back and suppression of "red indians" on this very soil. Now in India Caste system is almost gone. Dalits are given first preference in almost everyting like govt jobs, university admission, discounts in fees etc. Former president of india was a "dalit". Has that happened here? Looks like things are changing in India but not here.
Even situation in US in the past was terrible.

 

I'm with Manju here; former President K.R. Narayanan was not only a dalit, but also a Roman Catholic. Until the U.S. elects someone in a comparable ethnic and religious position--say, an African American Muslim--we shouldn't really be throwing any stones at India. (And unlike the U.S., India has also elected a woman as president. We've had women's suffrage for 80 years now; what's the hold-up?)


Cheers,

 

Lack of viable candidates. The women I think that would stand a chance in an election and would make a good President (Elizabeth Dole, Kay Bailey Hutchison) seem to have no Presidential ambitions.


Bruce

 

I didn't think I was throwing stones, just citing facts. This thread started with Manjuap stating all sorts of great things about India, including their lack of a history of slavery. I simply pointed out that their racial history was not exactly spotless (the caste system). At no point did I attempt to compare India with the US, either favorably or unfavorably. Obviously we in the US have had in the past, and continue to have our own problems with racism. The comparison with the US came from Manjuap himself in his most recent contribution to the thread. It seems that he is unable to acknowledge any deficiencies at all. I stated in my original posting that the caste system may be much improved at this point. When I point out one negative aspect of Indias past he gets all defensive and then HE starts throwing stones. India has a long and glorious history in some respects and it has a hideous history in other respects. This is true of many/most countries. I'm not trying to say it's a terrible place, full of terrible people. I'm simply trying to balance out the picture presented by Manjuap.
Jack