FOUNDATIONS part 2

The people who inhabited the Indus River Valley in North Western India 5000 years ago created one of the great ancient civilizations. The Indus River Civilization existed for 1500 years beginning around 3000 b.c. At its peak (c.2400-1700b.c.) it covered more square miles than any other ancient civilization including Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China. Archeologists have unearthed over 1,000 villages and cities connected with this great civilization.

By 1500b.c. Aryan tribes from the steppes of Western Asia had filtered onto the Indian subcontinent; their merger with the earlier, darker skinned, Dravidian inhabitants created a classical Indian culture. The Aryans composed hymns to nature and celebrated life exuberantly and referred to themselves as Aryas meaning 'noble'. There is much evidence to suggest that Hinduism was born form the influence of the Aryans settling in the region. As the two people groups merged hostility between the Aryans and the Dravidian people resulted in the subsequent migration of the darker skinned Dravidian people to the south.

***(side note)*** The Aryan's also migrated westward into Europe. The fair skinned, light haired "Indo-Europeans" were later identified by Julius Caesar in his, "Conquest of Gaul" as two people groups called the Celtea and the Belgae or as we know them, the Celts. The religion of the Celts bares many similarities to early Hinduism (more on that in a later post).

The Indus Valley Civilization existed in between 3000-1500 BC; the classical culture that emerged with the Aryans lasted for a few hundred years, but the results of this migration can still be seen and felt in India today. It is generally acknowledged that the darker your skin, the farther south you are from and if you have lighter skin you must live in the north. Also, if you have light skin generally you are of a higher social status than darker skinned people. The racial divide is the residual effect of this ancient migration of people. The Caste system reinforces this as well. Brahmans (the highest caste) have light skin and are revered and respected by most as a priestly caste which is closest to Brahma, the ultimate.

The events of the Indus River Civilization laid the foundation for a culturally reinforced racism that has held hundreds of millions of people in poverty for centuries. If you are a poor beggar on the side of the road riddled with disease and malnutrition it is understood that you are there because of your actions in previous lives. In essence you are doing penance or purifying your Dharma. If you are of a higher caste and not in such dire straights and you see someone in this condition you cannot help them. First of all getting too close to them could make you unclean and taint your own Dharma, secondly you would be interfering with that persons work to purify themselves, and pay for their own sins.

Thousands of years and hundreds of smaller empires have come and gone since the ancient Indo-Aryan migration, but these racially divisive cultural perspectives are still held to throughout modern day India. Much of Indian culture today has its foundation in this migration of people from the third century b.c.

FOUNDATIONS part I

India is a country of sweeping differences and complexity. From the climate to the food, from the people to the forms of religion they practice, from the peaks of the Himalayan mountains in the north to the depths of the Jungles in the south, from the sacred rivers that wash away sins, to the red-light districts where sins are committed India is a land of expansive diversity.

In order to truly understand India as it is today we must trek back five thousand years to what India was before it was India. Believe it or not the events that took place during the time of the Indus Valley Civilization continue to shape Indian culture today.

The Indus River Valley Civilization is one of the world's oldest, flourished during the 3rd and 2nd millennia B.C. and extended into northwestern India from present day Pakistan. It was home to the Dravidian people who inhabited the region for 1500 years. The cities of Harappa (to the left) and Mohenjo-Daro (below to the left) were the greatest achievements of the Indus Valley civilization.

This civilization was virtually unknown until the 1920's when archeologists unearthed the foundations of these cities and discovered that they were astonishingly well planned cities for their time. The ruins you see in these pictures are around 4000 years old.

The civilization in the Indus Valley has become well known for its impressive size, and its organized and regular layout. The cities even had drainage and sewer systems for private houses and public baths centuries before the Greeks and Romans had them designed into their cities. We do not know much about the people who inhabited these cities, they did not leave much behind for us to study. All was going well in the Indus River Valley until a migration of people called the Indo-Aryans began to make their way into the area.

(The above is a bath that was part of the Indus River Valley civilization.

They are the earliest to have a sewer system built in to their city layout.)

Foundations part 2: how the foundations of the caste system were laid and how events from the third millennium bc still affect Indian culture today...

FLAG

India’s national flag has gone through many changes over the last one hundred years. In fact there have been eight versions of the flag in that time. The Indian flag that you would see today in India was adopted on July 22, 1947, after India became independent from Great Britain. The flag was based on the design of the flag of the Indian National Congress. But what do the various elements in the flag represent?

There are three equal horizontal bands of saffron, white, and green, with a blue Chakra (24-spoked wheel) centered in the white band. Saffron is the sacred color of Hinduism and represents courage, sacrifice, and the spirit of renunciation. The white signifies purity unity and truth. And green stands for faith and fertility but originally is represented Islam. The blue Dharma Chakra in the middle of the white band symbolizes the wheel of life in movement and death in stagnation. The 24 spokes represent the hours in a day and at the end of each spoke there is a half moon. Blue is the color for the sky and the ocean.

There is a committee which sets standards for the manufacturing of the flag. It also lays out rules regarding the hoisting of the Indian flag. This committee is known as 'Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS)'. It specifies the cloth, dye, color, thread count and each and every thing about the flag.

Indian Flag Factoids:

• According to the flag code of India, citizens did not have the right to hoist the Indian flag except for some important days like Republic day, Independence day and Mahatma Gandhi's birthday.
• There is litigation in process now in the Indian court system to allow citizens the right to hoist the Indian flag on any day as long as it is done in a respectful manner.
• Some Interesting Facts
• The Indian flag was hoisted on the highest mountain peak of the world, Mount Everest on 29th May 1953.
• Madam Bhikaji Rustom Cama was the first person to hoist Indian flag on foreign soil on 22nd August 1907 in Stuttgrat, Germany.
• The Indian National Flag flew to space in 1984 when Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma went to the space. The flag was attached as a medallion on the space suit of Rakesh Sharma..

INDIA: Religulation (religious population)

The Total population of India right now stands at about 1,200,000,000 (1.2billion people). That makes it the second most populous nation on the planet. Based on current birth and death rates, estimates put the population at 1.6 billion people by 2050 surpassing estimates for the population of China. India also has within its borders some of the most densely populated urban centers in the world.

These 1.2billion people are made up of about 2,533 distinctly identified ethno-linguistic people groups. Within these groups, Hindi (and its various dialects) is the most spoken language at a little over 40% Bengali is second with just 8%.

The twenty largest ethno-linguistic people groups in India make up almost half of the entire population. The largest group in India are the Shaikh people. At about 72,649,000 people they live mostly in the north (though there are population centers throughout India and in neighboring countries as well) and are predominantly a Muslim people. Of the next nineteen, eighteen claim Hinduism as the predominate religion. In each of these groups there is no viable Christian church to reach the people with the story of Jesus Christ. All 2,533 ethno-linguistic groups adhere to various religions in the following break down.

• Hinduism: 81.6%
• Islam 12.7%
• Christianity 2.3%
• Other / Small 2.2%
• Buddhism 0.7%
• Ethnic Religions 0.4%

Stats were taken from
www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
www.joshuaproject.net

INDIA

To all of my family, friends and acquaintances,

This summer I have the opportunity to travel to Northern India for about six weeks as part of my Master’s program. I will be helping in schools churches and orphanages doing things like teaching English, tutoring in Greek, sharing about American culture, and experiencing the culture of Northern India for myself.

In the next week or so I will be sending out letters to many of you to give you some more details about the trip as well as to ask for your support. Many of you are the church going type and if all you can do to support me is to pray for me I gratefully accept your prayers on my behalf. Many of you are not church goers so you should know that I also accept happy thoughts and positive energy. For those who have the means to contribute financially the total cost of the trip is $3,200 so obviously money is important too. Your tax deductible gift will be handled by the school and they will issue you a receipt.

If you received a Christmas card from us this year, then I have your address, if not then there is a good chance that I do not have it. So if I likely don’t have your address and you would like more info on how to help me get to India you can send me your mailing address through facebook or email or twitter. You are probably reading this through one of those mediums. Also, I will be utilizing social media a lot to keep my supporters up to date on how the prep for my trip is going as well as updates of my experiences while in India, (as often as internet is available).


You can keep up with me on:

• Twitter: CDGiguere
• friend me on facebook
• check out my blog updates: vagabondragamuffin.blogspot.com
• email: caleb.giguere@gmail.com

SOLDIER

I was working at the REI a while ago and some guy came in asking about sleeping bags. As any good sales specialist I ask where he was going and what he would be doing, just so I can have an idea of the conditions he might experience while on his adventures. This is pretty standard interaction with customers for me.

He said that he needed it for training while in California but he would probably also use it for some backpacking while there as well. It turns out he was preparing to go to Afghanistan. His unit was called up and he would be heading out for some training then shipping off to fight in the infantry. This guy before long would be putting his life on the line in a foreign country for the sake of his country, wearing armor and an assault rifle and here he is asking my opinion on what a good sleeping bag would be for him.

He was a soft spoken humble guy, seemed pretty cool we talked sleeping bags and hiking conditions for a while and I sold him a bag, I don't even remember which one. I do remember walking away form the conversation feeling humbled. Here was a guy who before long would be on the front lines, and he wanted my input on a sleeping bag of all things.

I have never put my life on the line for anything. I have had things thrown at me, I have been made fun of and insulted, but as far as I know my life has never been on the line for something that I believe in. It makes me wonder, do I have it too easy?? In America I could be argued we try to avoid war whenever possible, but there are some places on earth where fighting is a way of life and people have never known anything else. Perhaps it is just that in living in a place where peace is the norm God would want me / us to leverage my / our peace for the sake of those who have not known peace. Perhaps speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves is the responsibility of those who have voice enough for the world to hear.

I don't know that soldiers name, but I have prayed for him, and I pray for us.

Just a Meandering Thought...

BARUCH

I have been doing a little reading on a Biblical character lately named Jeremiah. As an Old Testament prophet he is a fascinating character study. He told people what they did not want to hear, so almost no one wanted to be associated with him in any way. He experienced humiliation and agony for trying to make his point to people who were not even listening. All the other "prophets who were around in his day were presenting messages that contradicted his, which really made him look foolish. He was ridiculed, imprisoned, black listed and ignored for his very unpopular messages but for some reason he kept on going. Why??

There was one person who stood by his side - a little known character named Baruch. Baruch was the guy who wrote down Jeremiah's messages. When Jeremiah was in prison Baruch even carried the messages and read them aloud to their intended audience. Baruch is at least partly responsible for giving us the book of Jeremiah. Even though Baruch was just the writer/messenger he, at times, suffered side by side with Jeremiah. He experienced punishment he did not deserve because he chose to be associated with someone who was constantly pushing the envelope; he chose to be associated with someone who dared fierce obedience to God. Jeremiah suffered through some tough times, but he always had Baruch. I dare say that without Baruch, Jeremiah would not have been the prophet that we know today.

Moses had Joshua, Ruth had Naomi, David had Jonathan, Paul had Timothy, Jesus had twelve guys around him. It seems only right that we should not try to do this thing we call life on our own - separated from people who could carry us in those times when we cannot carry ourselves. We all need a Baruch in our lives who is there when no one else is willing to be there. Who do you have??

Just a Meandering Thought...