A FLAVOR OF INDIA
http://www.globaled.org/nyworld/materials/india/flavorofindia.html
By Donald Johnson
Director of International Education & Professor of Asian Studies
New York University
India is a very long and complex civilization, reaching back as an unbroken tradition
for more than four thousand five hundred years. If we date U.S. history from the time
of the first settlements in New England and Virginia, we Americans have a history of
less than four hundred years. If we count our history as a free nation from the close of
the Revolutionary War, our history is a little over two hundred tears. Indian history
would then makeup twelve of our long history and about twenty unimaginable
diversity. As the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru once noted," India contains all
that is disgusting and all that is noble. You can take your choice."
Because European geographers divided and named the continents on most of the maps
we use, Europe is usually called a continent while India is call d a sub-continent. In
reality India embraces cultural and linguistic differences as diverse as the nations of
Europe - all within one national political system. Perhaps Bengalis in the northeast of
India are as different from the Gujeratis in the west as are the Italians from the Scotch.
Certainly Tamil, the language of the southern most state of India, is as different from
the Northern language of Hindi as is Turkish from English. We should think of India,
both in cultural diversity and in its size and population, as we might think of Europe,
except that India has a far longer history. When we try to study this vast civilization we
may grasp a small part of it in a daily lesson and mistake one impression with the
whole.
A famous Indian poem handed down from the Jain tradition makes this point by asking
us to imagine that six blind men are groping about an elephant trying to explain what
an elephant is.
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind
The First approached the Elephant
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side At once began to bawl:
"Bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall."
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, "Ho! What have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear."
The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quote he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snakes"
The Fourth reached out his eager hand And felt about the knew., "
What most this wondrous beast is like Is mighty plain," quoth he;
'Tis clear enough the Elephant Is very like a tree."
The Fifth, who chanced to touch ear, Said, "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most:
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan."
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant Is very like a rope."
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong
(From " The six blind Men and the Elephant," by James Godfrey Sax)