GE 2002 Regional Geography of South Asia and the Himalayas

4: Peoples and cultures of South Asia

Introduction

The Indian subcontinent has a long history of human occupation. Fossils from South-east Asia and China shows that early humans (Homo erectus) were in the subcontinent as early as 2,000,000 years ago. Modern humans (tribal societies) have been in the region for over 50,000 years. Tribal societies still persist in some of the more remote regions of the subcontinent, although they are placed under increasing pressure by the expansion of modern communities and from mining, logging, and dam construction. Amazingly, some have remained isolated until very recently, such as the Jarawa on the Andaman Islands. Tribal peoples, however, generally suffer when contact is made, through disease, direct conflict, and the erosion of traditional structures and values.


 
 

The region was one of the earliest cradles of agriculture and civilisation, and has traditions of religion, literature and art extending back longer than anything in the West. Understanding the cultural and historical legacy of South Asia is important, because it helps to place Western Civilisation in a broader perspective. Moreover, it also helps us to make sense of modern political landscape in the region, and the ways in which it has developed through the 20th Century.

Indus Valley Civilisation

One of the world's earliest urban civilisations - with elaborate cities and irrigation-based agriculture - flourished in the Indus Valley in what is now Pakistan between 3,000 BC and 1,500 BC. The major cities of the Indus Valley civilisation were Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, which had complex structures including drains, colleges, granaries, and temple areas. There is clear evidence that these cities has trading links with Mesopotamian civilisations. The origins of Hinduism can be traced to the Indus Valley civilisation, including several important deities and the sacredness of cattle. Indus Valley cities suddenly ended c. 1,500 BC for uncertain reasons. Possibilities include: collapse of soil fertility due to over-irrigation and salinization; climate change; avulsion of Indus River invasion; and conquest by Aryan tribes. However, recent work has stressed the continuity between the Indus civilisations and later Indian cultures.

Hindu Civilisation

Peoples collectively known as Aryans invaded from central Asia c. 1,500 - 200 BC. The Aryans were Indo-Europeans, from the same stock of peoples who became modern Europeans and Persians. In India, they developed a distinct local character influenced by indigenous peoples. Through time, the rich and varied Hindu culture developed with great emphasis on arts and learning: architecture, painting, sculpture, dance, music. Gradually, tribal societies developed into states and small empires; battles for supremacy between rival dynasties are recorded in mythical form in two great poetic epics: The Mahabharata, and The Ramayana. These empires reached the greatest extent under Ashoka in 3rd C. BC, who ruled much of the subcontinent (except the extreme south). The area of the Ashokan empire was larger than any subsequent empire in the subcontinent until the time of the Mughals and British.

Hinduism took form gradually, from a fusion of indigenous religions and the beliefs of the Aryans. The ancient Hindu scriptures - The Vedas - were composed prior to 1,200 BC. This collection of hymns and formulas for rituals is one of the oldest scriptures. Hinduism, however, is not so much a single religion as a vast system of philosophies, rituals and cults. Many thousands of deities exist in popular Hinduism, ranging from the sublime (e.g. the loving Krishna), to the blood-thirsty (e.g. the fearsome goddess Kali). Hinduism also has deep and subtle philosophical traditions, dealing with subjects such as the nature of the soul, perception and reality, and the origin of the cosmos. Some of the philosophical perspectives of Hinduism are explored in the great texts of the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita. Other Hindu traditions developed practical techniques such as meditation, yoga, and tantric methods.

Hindu mathematicians founded the modern number system, and were responsible for our decimal system, the place system (in which the position of a numeral determines its order of magnitude), and the concept of zero. These innovations, which underlie much of modern mathematics, reached the west through the Arab world, replacing the clumsy and inefficient Roman number system.

Hinduism (or some of its many branches) also became the religion of non-Aryan peoples such as the Tamils of southern India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and the hill-peoples of the Himalayas.
 

The Caste System

The caste or class system of India is very ancient, with earliest origins in the pre-Aryan civilisations. It still permeates Hindu society, although less so than before. There are hundreds of castes or jatis, based on occupations and social status, grouped into four basic castes: Below all these are casteless peoples, formerly known as Untouchables (now known as Scheduled Castes or Dalits meaning "Oppressed"). Gandhi, who was opposed to the caste system, used the term "Harijan" or 'Children of God' for Untouchables, although this is now regarded as a rather bad joke, and is little used. The caste system is interwoven with religious codes and beliefs, especially ideas of reincarnation and karma. According to Hinduism, all souls are subject to continual rebirth, leading ultimately to moksha or spiritual liberation. Karma (or the law of cause and effect) dictates that good actions will lead to higher rebirth, whereas evil actions will result in lower rebirth, and the delay of moksha. Hence, the misfortunes or lowly status of others are seen as the result of some misdeed in a past life, and can be used as a justification for unjust social orders. On the plus side, the caste system provided a vast and complex society with great stability for several thousands of years. Although the caste system may seem bizarre to Western observers, it is in many ways similar to Western notions of birthright, inheritance and the divine right of Kings. It was readily understood and to a large extent exploited by the British during the years of colonial rule (Lecture 5).

Until very recently, someone of low caste had little or no chance of social advancement. This was especially so for Untouchables. Recently, India has introduced laws to allow greater opportunities to such peoples, but much prejudice still remains (Lecture 8).

Buddhism

Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism, that emerged at a time of philosophical ferment in the 6th C. BC. Based on the teachings of Siddartha Gautama, who became known as the Buddha or "Awakened One", Buddhism places emphasis on personal development rather than rigid adherence to ritual. Buddhism flourished under Ashoka, and spread over much of south and east Asia. It is still the main religion in many South East Asian countries (e.g. Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma)), and in Tibet. However, it has declined in importance in its heartland of India and Nepal, due to a reassertion of Hinduism.

The Mughals

Babur

Northern India came under pressure by Muslim peoples repeatedly after c. 700 AD, who invaded north-western India in a series of jihads, or holy wars. A series of kingdoms and sultanates were established in the north-west, punctuated by periodic reassertions of Hindu power, which remained strong in the rest of the subcontinent. Additionally, there were further invasions of Muslim and non-Muslims from central Asia. One of the most devastating was the attack by Timur (Tamurlaine) in 1398, when Delhi was looted and burned. Timur's army withdrew after looting, but famine and plague epidemic followed.

Muslim conquest extending deeper into the subcontinent began in the 16th C with the Mughals. The Mughals were descendants of Mongol invaders (as was Timur) who had settled in the highlands to the north of the western Himalayas. The first Mughal ruler of India was Babur (1527), who invaded the subcontinent when he failed to take Samarkhand. His invasion helped by possession of firearms, which were just reaching west Asia at that time: local Hindu armies were still limited to bows, spears, swords, and elephants. Elephants were a fearsome weapon, but were easily panicked by forearms and cannon, causing devastation to their own side. The Moghul empire was consolidated by Akhbar, Babur's grandson, and reached its pinnacle under Jahangir. Jahangir encouraged freedom of religious belief, as did his son Shah Jahan. Such liberalism was reversed under Aurangzeb, a fundamentalist Muslim, who persecuted Hindus. Destruction of temples as part of punitive measures against rebellious princes served to strengthen Hindu resolve against Moghul rule, and empire rapidly disintegrated after death of Aurangzeb.

The Moghuls introduced Persian styles of art and architecture to India, which flourished into ever more elaborate forms, and the Mughals did much to develop the style now associated as being uniquely Indian. Indeed, the best known Mughal monument, the Taj Mahal (commissioned by Shah Jahan as a memorial to his wife) is known worldwide as a symbol of India.

The Mughals were the first rulers to unite India since the time of Ashoka. Even then, India consisted of semi-autonomous kingdoms who paid tribute to the emperor, rather than a single, stable political entity. The instability of this arrangement is demonstrated by the repeated losses and re-conquests of territory during the years of Mughal reign, and the rapid disintegration of the Mughal empire after the death of Aurangzeb. The tendency for the empire to break apart was encouraged by local dissatisfactions and religious tensions, and the empire was held together against these forces by the force of will of the emperor and the armies he controlled. The interplay between tendencies of unification and splitting apart was always a character of the Mughal empire - as it had been during earlier Hindu empires, and still is today in modern South Asia. We will return to this theme in Lecture 8.

Sikhs

Sikhism is a very young religion. It developed in the Punjab (now part of Northern India and Pakistan) from the teachings of Guru Nanak (born 1469), who wished to end the inter-communal strife between Hindus and Muslims, and to combine the best of both religions. The Sikh scriptures developed over the following centuries under a series of elected teachers or gurus. Sikhism is opposed to the caste system, believes in one God, and is at heart a peace-loving faith. However, the Sikhs became increasingly militant during the 17th C due to persecution by the later Mughal emperors. When the Mughal empire disintegrated, a Sikh kingdom arose, centred on the Punjab, which reached its pinnacle under Ranjit Singh. After his death, the Sikh kingdom embarked upon a series of bloody wars with the British Empire, and was finally defeated in 1849.
 

Conclusion

The two main religious and cultural communities in the subcontinent: Hindus and Muslims, have remained as separate communities, with little or no integration. Both have rich and proud traditions, both have added to the cultural legacy of India, both have historical claims to ruling the subcontinent. Ancient rivalries and grievances have deepened over the years, periodically erupting into fresh violence. We will look at some of the consequences of this inter-communal strife in late lectures. The Sikh religion was inspired by the desire to overcome this communal division, but in the end simply added a new dimension to the complex mix of cultures in India and neighbouring countries.
 

Internet resources

Good reviews of Indian history can be found at:

http://www.historyofindia.com

http://www.itihaas.com/index.html

A site devoted to the city of Harappa, Indus Valley:

http://www.harappa.com/

Back to course contents