Hinduism

Hinduism

1

“Namaste”
                                                  (Greetings)

Born in India, but proud to be an American citizen I was only 7 when I came to this country.   Raised as a Methodist and brought up with Christian beliefs and an Indian culture I still remember all the wonderful diversity my native land offers.  
A nation of contrasts, India contains both developed industrial structure and an impoverished majority living traditional lives, seemingly untouched by the 20th century. Its population is the world’s second largest after China’s and still increasing by 2 percent a year.   The nation’s cultural diversity and remnant caste system, may explain why family planning has been less successful than in China, where the centralized government has more power to enforce its policies.   India’s efforts also have been hampered by such factors as high rates of illiteracy and infant mortality, low status of women, conflict between castes and religious groups, inconsistent government policy, poor internal communications, and, of course poverty (National Geographic Vol.174, No.6,   December 1988, p. 930).
I remember as a little girl in India when I would hear people shout Jai Hind, “Long Live India!”   Today’s India’s population has grown well over a billion.   The people in India live in a country one-third the size of the U.S., who speak more than a thousand languages and dialects, and who support more than 20 political parties in the world’s biggest and perhaps boldest experiment in democracy (National Geographic Vol. 191, No. 5 May 1997, p. 7).


Singh 2
Relics unearthed the Indus Valley prove that a distinctive Indian culture existed there at least 5,000 years ago.   Over the centuries, waves of invaders:   Aryans, Greeks, Turks, Mongols from Central Asia, Persians, and Afghans swept into the subcontinent, each to leave its mark and be absorbed in turn.   Modern India, still reflecting these influences, preserves a heritage that gave the world...