 You are clear for launch. And with that, shut down your visors, O2 on, and prepare for ignition to O2. You can copy that and um... Hey, Mr. Ruchoff here. All right. In our previous lesson, we discussed the physical characteristics of South Asia. In this lesson, we're going to examine some of the elements that have shaped the culture of South Asia. Namely, we're going to discuss the first civilizations, the developments of religion in South Asia, as well as the story of European colonization and the subsequent independence of India. Now, remember in our last lesson, when I said the importance of the Indus River was that it was the cultural heart of South Asia? Well, the civilization that developed on the banks of the Indus River was the Harappan civilization. Dated back over 6,000 years ago, the Harappan civilization developed based upon farming and trade. Many archaeologists believe that Harappan civilization was the oldest of the world's four river civilizations. Cities of Harappa believed to have been established around 3000 BC were far more advanced than the other cities of the age. In one of these cities, the first public water tank of the ancient world has been uncovered. Additionally, sewage systems have been revealed showing how sophisticated the Harappans were for their time. Unfortunately, the Harappan civilization came to an around 1300 BC. The prevailing theory is that the climate change actually caused an eastward shift in the monsoons patterns and that reduced the amount of rainfall and thus reduced the amount of food that could be raised. Other scholars suggest that the Harappan civilization was assimilated by semi-nomadic warriors who moved into the northern portion of South Asia around 1500 BC. These were the Aryans who crossed the Hindu Kush and would spread their influence throughout India. The Aryan culture itself also changed as it met with those who were already in India and create an example of cultural and good diversions. In fact, it would be the religion of the Aryans which was largely shaped the culture of South Asia today. So let's talk about those religions. The five largest religions in South Asia are Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Hinduism is the dominant religion in the region with 80% of the people of India and Nepal being Hindu. Islam is the dominant religion of Pakistan and Bangladesh with over 90% of its population being Muslim and the island nation of the Maldives is 100% Muslim because by law, you must be a Sunni Muslim to be able to be a citizen of the Maldives. Buddhism is the dominant religion. The Bhutan and Sri Lanka would talk more about that when we talk about East Asia and a small percentage of the people in South Asia are Christian and artifact of European colonization and in the region of India known as Punjab, we find the Sikhs. Now, South Asia is important to the overall discussion on religion as it is the home of what we call the Dharmic religions which is Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. They are called the Dharmic religions because they all believe in the importance of what is known as Dharma yet they each define Dharma differently. Hindus see Dharma as the right way of learning. Buddhists define it as the cosmic law and were, while Sikhs call it the path of righteousness. By the way, there is another Dharmic religion that is centered in southwestern India known as Jainism but we will not talk about that in this lesson. Instead, we will discuss the larger three Dharmic religions starting first with Hinduism. Hinduism is a direct result of the Aryans as they migrated down to South Asia. This is because of what the Aryans brought with them was the Vedas which is the body of literature of that religion. The Vedas established the basic ideas of Hinduism and it considered the holy texts of the Hindus. From the Aryans, Hinduism has become the Dharma religion in India with over and with over 1 billion followers in the world's third largest religion. Hinduism believes in the supreme god known as Brahman. However, Brahman can take on the form of many other gods such as Vishnu and Shiva and many many others. Now the number of different gods varies between the different Hindu sects but the number ranges from 33 core deities to well over 33 million. So, Hinduism is polytheistic, right? Well, that depends. Some Hindus see it as a monotheistic religion because of each of these deities are just a form of Brahman, kind of like how Christians have God in three forms as well. Other Hindus and especially those who are not Hindu look at Hinduism being polytheistic because there are so many different gods. But even other Hindus see Hinduism as being neither polytheistic or monotheistic believing that there is just one soul that connects is and is in all living things that there is no separate god. Now let's take a closer look at three of Hinduism's main concepts reincarnation the caste system and moksha. Reincarnation is a continuous cycle of being born dying and being reborn and how you live your life will depend upon what caste you will be reborn into. Moksha is the release from this cycle of reincarnation. This is the ultimate goal of Hindus and they take several lifetimes to achieve and while the methods may vary, Hindus achieve moksha through yoga. Now in the United States we understand yoga is being a way of exercise but in Hinduism it goes beyond the exercise of the body into an exercise of the mind. It is a spiritual meditation combined with the physical yoga poses that actually may be able to bring you to moksha. Now Hinduism greatly influence Indian culture through the caste system which divided society into four basic groups. At the top of the Brahmins were the priests and the scholars. At the bottom were the sutras or the common laborers and the artists and below even the sutras were the dalits also known as the untouchables. These were the people that the people in the higher classes wanted to have no contact with. The dalits were those who did the jobs the rest of the society didn't want to do. They cleaned the sweeps, they worked with the sewage, they were the entertainers, they essentially did all the dirty jobs no one else wanted to do. Moreover the only way that you can move into a different caste is through reincarnation and what determined your caste was your karma which is the moral consequences of a person's actions. Now if you were a Dalit then you obviously didn't live properly in your previous life but if you live your life by good dharma the right way of living then you would be rewarded with good karma and reborn into a better caste. The social implications of Hinduism the caste system were important as it is another example of how religion helps structure society and manage human behavior. However this also brought discrimination especially against the untouchables. For example untouchables were often excluded from education opportunities because they were considered unneeded. And while the caste system was officially outlined in 1949 Indian constitution these still attitudes persist and it places in India. The second dharmic religion is Buddhism which began in Nepal. Buddhism is based upon the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha or the enlightened one. Siddhartha Gautama was a prince who one day left his palace walls and was horrified by what he saw. He saw poverty, illness and death. In other words he saw suffering. So he went and went to go meditate for a long time trying to find a way to escape suffering. This led him to the four noble truths. The first noble truth is their suffering. The second is the suffering is caused by our own selfish desire. The third is that there is a way from suffering and the eightfold path is the way out of that suffering. The eightfold path is how you live your life with the right understanding, thought, speech, action, likelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration. The Buddhist symbol represents the eightfold path with an eight spoke wheel. The eightfold path is also known as the middle wave in which you should live your life in moderation or without extremes. By living your life by the eightfold path and through meditation a Buddhist can may ultimately reach the highest form of enlightenment, nirvana. No, not the rock man. Nirvana is essentially the same concept as hindi as moksha which brings it into the cycle of reincarnation. Because Buddhism is the quest for enlightenment, Buddhism isn't actually about a god. In fact most Buddhist sects do not profess to have a personal god so they are neither monotheistic or polytheistic. It does have a holy text which is known as the polycanon. The polycanon has three sections which is why it is also known as the tripitaka which literally means three baskets. And then there is Sikhism. Sikhism is the youngest of the world's major religions. Guru Nanak was born in 1469 as the founder of Sikhism and he is also the first of 10 gurus or spiritual leaders of Sikhism. Now the love of the guru isn't a person at all but Sikhism wholly texts a guru of Granth Sahib. The tenth guru named the texts as his successor in 1709 and today Sikhism does not have a person as the head of its religion. Now it's simplistic to say that Sikhism is a combination of Hinduism, Islam but they have been enforced by these two religions. Sikhism for example believes in a reincarnation like the Hindus but they do not have a caste system. And as with the Muslims Sikhs only believe in one god and unlike the Hindus their god does not take any other form. Sikhs also believe that god has no form therefore is neither male or female and let's leave Sikhism to declare that everyone is equal and they also all have a direct access to god. There is no need for a priest to leave prayer as any Sikh can do so. In fact Sikhs look down at religious rituals, believe in that living honestly and taking care of others is far more important. And beyond the three dharmic religions Islam has also been an important part in shaping South Asia's culture. Islam came from the Middle East and arrived in South Asia around 1000 AD when Muslim armies began attacking into the northern portion of South Asia. In 1526 Babar led an invasion through the Hindu Kush mountains into South Asia and established the Mughal Empire. The Mughal Empire was Muslim but didn't force people to convert however it has been important to the culture of India. The Mughal Empire is what is responsible for giving India for one of its most important cultural landmarks the Taj Mahal. The Mughal Empire Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal as a place where he could bury his favorite wife. Today over 8 million people a year visit this site. Although the Mughal empire didn't force the conversion of the subjects to Islam, many South Asians did convert and today we find 90% of the people in Bangladesh and Pakistan are Muslim. And just as we've seen with the other regions in the world, South Asia has been impacted by European colonization and a quest for independence. We find that Europe has a long history with India. Alexander the Great conquered the Indus River Valley and much of Punjab by 326 BC. The Romans established trade with India by crossing across the Red and Arabian seas in the first century. But colonization really begins with the Portuguese when the sailor Vasco Vigama re-established trade relations in 1499, the Dutch would follow them and then would come to British. The Europeans came to India for three main reasons, trade for spices, to expand their empires and to spread Christianity. The most powerful of these was the British East India Company and by the mid 1880s it had displaced the Mughal Empire and then had achieved control of all of the Indian subcontinent in the name of the British Empire. Hence with many of the regions of the world, British colonization came with advantages and disadvantages. The positives were that the British brought with them better ways to farm or produce food. They built roads and even railroads throughout the subcontinent and they would introduce democracy to the region. Unfortunately, the Indian people themselves were treated as second-class citizens. Also, the British changed agriculture which made the region more prone for to have families because cash crops were more important than staple crops. This upset many Indians who wanted independence. In 1885, the Indians formed the INC or the Indian National Congress to demand rights from the British, demands that the British ignored. This began the Indian nationalism movement. Nationalism is when people claim a national identity based upon political ideas and India's goal was independence from Britain. India's independence leader was Mohandas Gandhi who led the movement to independence through non-violent non-cooperation. He would protest the British by going on hunger strikes. He led peaceful protests such as the famous Salt March. He also led boycotts when English goods such as cloth and salt. This often caused Gandhi to be thrown in jail, but his devotion to non-violent protests would serve as an inspiration to American civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. Ultimately, Gandhi was successful and after bearing the cost of Second World War, Britain finally granted India independence in 1947. However, Muslims in India also wanted their own separate independence from the Hindu dominated India and when they threatened civil war, Gandhi, who always wanted peace, agreed to split India into two parts, India and Pakistan. In this great partition, Bangladesh was part of Pakistan known as East Pakistan, but because of the partition was based upon religion, this meant the Hindus that lived in Pakistan had to move to India and the Muslims that lived in India had to move to Pakistan. All 16 million people were forced to move and of these nearly 1 million people died in the resulting riots and massacres. Today, there is still a great deal of tension between India and Pakistan and this is significant because both countries have nuclear weapons. An example of such dispute is Kashmir. Frequently, armed conflict breaks out between India and Pakistan due to both countries claiming Kashmir as part of their country. The claims largely revolve around the fact that major rivers, including the Indus River flows through Kashmir. Thus, control of the Kashmir means the control of water. What makes this even more interesting is that China also claims portions of this territory, meaning that there are actually three nuclear armed countries competing over the same portion of land. Whatever could go wrong with that. The Indian state of Punjab is also a source of conflict. Punjab is considered wholly by the Sikhs, which is why 70% of the population is Sikh. Within Punjab, there is an independence movement of Sikhs which has led to violence in the region. Another example of nationalism and cultural diversions. We've discussed the early civilization which explored the role of religion in the region to examine the impact of British colonialization and the independence movement. You now should be able to understand how all these have helped shape the culture of South Asia. Alright, until next time, keep on learning.