The Legacy of India

I can explain how Indian culture has influenced the world and compare that influence with

other cultures from around the world.

What is a LEGACY?When people 100 years from now look back on the culture

from the United States during the early part of the 21st century, what will they consider to be the important ideas/beliefs that came from this time period?

Take a few minutes and write some ideas down into a circle map.

Technology

Medical Breakthroughs

Entertainment

Transportation

New Leadership (African American

President)(1st Female President?)

Cultural Diversity/acceptance

Legacies from Mesopotamia and Egypt

When we look back at Mesopotamia and Egypt, what comes to mind as important beliefs/ideas/inventions that were left for future civilizations

to follow?

MESOPOTAMIA EGYPT

• Hammurabi’s Code• Irrigation/Farming

Techniques• Inventions (The Wheel)

• Architecture• Religious Beliefs

• Trade• Inventions• Social Class

Keep these ideas in mind. We will be comparing the legacies of Mesopotamia and Egypt to the legacy of India at the conclusion of this lesson.

The Legacy of India• India’s religious legacy

Hinduism Buddhism Gandhi

• India’s artistic legacy

Temples Plays based on Indian writings.

Religious symbols

• The Legacy of Indian Mathematics

Indian culture spread throughout Asia and eventually into many places around the world. Indian culture continues to influence

our modern world today.

India’s Artistic LegacyThe arts of India have strongly influenced the world. For example, in many

Southeast Asian nations, people perform plays based on the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata. The Bhagavad Gita has been translated into many languages and is read around the world.

Indian art and architecture have shaped other cultures. Ancient Indian artists developed visual symbols to show the Buddha’s holiness.

http://safeshare.tv/w/pjHxHUrjdm

Angkor Wat: Cambodia (Built in A.D 1125) Virupaksha: India (Built in A.D 600’s)

What do you notice about these two temples?

In northwestern Cambodia, ancient builders erected a large Hindu temple called Angkor Wat. Indian influences are seen in the design of those temples.

The Legacy of Indian Mathematics

The numerals we use originated in India. People in India have been using the numerals for 1 to 9 for more than 2,000 years. Arab traders brought these numerals to the West. As a result, we call them Arabic numerals, or, Hindu-Arabic numerals.

The number system first developed in India and used today is called the decimal system. The name comes from the Latin word decem, which means “ten”. In a number such as 5,555, each numeral is worth ten times as much as the numeral to its right. The place of a numeral – the ones place, the tens place, the hundreds place, and so on- tells how much that numeral is worth.

The decimal system would not work without a symbol for zero. It would be impossible to write a number like 504 without some way to show that the tens place was empty. In India, the use of the zero goes back about 1,400 years.

http://safeshare.tv/w/NQFOYaurim

India’s Religious LegacyFour out of five people living in India today are Hindus. Hindus also

live in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and many other countries. Also, about 1 million people in the United States practice Hinduism.

Buddhism did not remain strong in India. Not even 1 percent of Indians today are Buddhists. The religion is popular in Asia, Western Europe, and the United States.

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Hindu and Buddhist InfluencesMohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)

Mohandas Gandhi was a leader in the Indian nationalist movement against British rule. Many people consider him to be the father of his country, though he never held office. Gandhi is remembered for using nonviolent protest to achieve justice. In the United States, Martin Luther King used Gandhi’s example to demand better treatment for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s.

As a young man, Gandhi studied law in London. When he returned to India he was unable to find work. He accepted a job in South Africa where many Indian people had gone to live. While on a train in South Africa, Gandhi was told to get off to make room for a European. He refused and was beaten. Gandhi considered that incident his moment of truth. He decided he would not accept injustice. He would defend his dignity as an Indian and as a man.

Gandhi decided to use his knowledge of law to help the Indian people. He spoke to groups of Indians living in South Africa about human rights. He urged them to protest laws that were unfair. Once he returned to India, Gandhi took the side of the untouchables. He considered them to be “children of god.” Gandhi believed them to be blessed by their suffering.

Gandhi urged his followers to oppose the British through civil disobedience and non-violent protest. He urged them to boycott, or refuse to purchase, British goods. Sometimes Gandhi and his followers would sit down in factories or in the middle of streets. Women would lie across railroad tracks to stop trains. Gandhi and his followers were often beaten or jailed, but he refused to urge his followers to fight. Many Indian people began to call him the Mahatma, which means “great soul.”

Gandhi stopped wearing western clothes and began to wear cloths made from yarn he spun himself. He wanted to show that he was proud to be an Indian. Gandhi devoted two hours every day to spinning, and urged other Indians to follow his example. As a result of Gandhi’s spinning program and the boycott, the sale of British cloth in India dropped sharply.

After World War II, India’s long independence campaign finally paid off. The British decided the cost of maintaining colonial rule was too high. They agreed to grant independence to the subcontinent. India’s people had put aside their religious differences to fight the British., but with victory in sight, problems began surfacing between Hindus and Muslims. Many Muslims belt the Hindu majority would treat them unfairly once the subcontinent achieved independence. The struggle became violent.

http://safeshare.tv/w/sxNkBBQnEw

British and Indian leaders decided that the only solution to the conflict was a partition that separated the continent into Hindu and Muslim states. In 1947, the Indian subcontinent became the independent nations of India and Pakistan.

Pakistan was made up of two regions: West Pakistan on the Indus River plain, and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), more than 1,100 miles away. Important parts of what was once considered India were now in other nations. The Indus River, for which the subcontinent is named, became part of Pakistan after the partition.

Twelve million people were forced to move – Hindus to India, Muslims to Pakistan – in one of the greatest human migrations in history. Both groups moved because they feared being ruled by leaders of other faith. The journey was long and torturous. Many people were forced to leave their possessions or trade them for water. Hunger, thirst and exhaustion killed others. Additionally, an estimated one million people were killed in religious warfare.

Gandhi was a Hindu, but he considered the partition of his homeland one of the greatest disappointments of his life. He fought vigorously against the separation, and tried to end the rioting and killing. Some people on both sides blamed him for the fighting. When he was unable to stop the fighting by persuasion, he went on a fast. Because of his fasting, he stopped rioting in places around the country. On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated in Delhi.

Gandhi may have failed to unite the subcontinent, but he inspired people around the world. African leaders used his example of demanding independence from their colonial governments. Today in India, Gandhi is revered as a hero, the man who used non-violence to lead his people to freedom.