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First written on December 07, 1998 Revised and Updated on July 07, 2008 Proud to be Indian (The following was received by e-mail. This appeared in a German magazine whose name was not specified. We are grateful to the unknown German Magazine for putting together these facts and bringing it to the notice of the world and our acknowledgement to them. India and Indians should be proud of their great heritage, culture and civilization. India is much more than Land of Poverty, Elephants, Rope trick and Snake Charmers and time is not far off when it will regain its rightful place under the Sun) The facts below were recently published in one of the German magazines which deals with world history. India never invaded any country in her last 10,000 years of history. It is the only society in the world which has never known slavery. (The bonded labor system was brought in by the Mogul Invaders. Bonded labor means that for some loan taken, the subsequent generations have to pay by working for the lender, usually a big landlord. Cases of fourth generation working as bonded laborers has been reported. The poor and uneducated people can never pay the principal and the mounting interest is constantly adjusted against part of the wages and the principal along with a large portion of interest remains intact. Strangely, the British Administration ignored it for more than 200 years because these rich landlords were their stooges. It is illegal but still exists in some remote parts of the country) India invented the Number System though the numerals followed today is Arabic. Vedic Mathematics has its own numerals. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta. (The accent was mental. Most of us were trained to do mental calculations in schools. I find it strange that many people after taking up a lot of time on the calculator, checking and rechecking, arrive at the wrong answers. Unfortunately, the modern system gives a calculator or a laptop to the children. I find small children not even able to recite tables) The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. Takshila is now in the modern day Sind Province of Pakistan. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda, in modern Bihar state, built in the 4th century  was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education. (The Moguls destroyed the entire university and all the Palmyra leaves, in the 15th century, containing great information and knowledge) Bihar was then known as Magadh. Magadh is the state where Lord Buddha was born though the place Kapilavastu now falls under Nepal bordering Bihar. Queen Sita, the human form of Goddess Lakshmi, was found as a baby, while ploughing the fields by the very wise and noble King Janak. He took the baby and proclaimed that she was his daughter. Hence, she is also known as Janaki. She is the daughter of Mother Earth as per Vedic Puranas. As a result, Bihar is abundantly rich in minerals, coal, oil and you name whatever riches that is found below the surface of the earth) Sanskrit is the mother of all higher languages. Sanskrit is the most precise and therefore suitable language for the computer software - a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans. Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago. Today Ayurveda is fast regaining its rightful place in our civilization. It is the only system which takes the holistic view of the person being treated. Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of development, India was the richest country on earth until the time of British in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by her wealth and was looking for route to India when he discovered the American continent by mistake. (The British plundered and looted India of all its wealth for nearly 250 years and left a hollow shell when they left in 1947. Gandhi got the credit but the fact remains that there was nothing left to loot. The priceless 'Kohinoor' diamond was cut into two pieces and is now part of the British monarch's crown jewels. If they had a chance they would have carried the Taj Mahal back home to England. The Moghuls were rulers but settlers and they cannot be accused of looting the country. They have left behind a unique Moghul arts, architecture, culture, cuisine, language of Urdu etc., The British left behind their English language, civil service, legal and judicial system. Subsequent Indian Administrations have not done a great job either. Bulk of our national wealth is sitting in Swiss Banks, Cayman Islands, Isle of Man, Guernsey etc., as black money running a parallel economy. Only 8 to 10% of the population pays income tax. In my rough estimate, 40% of the population should be paying income tax. 400 million people are below the poverty line. 200 million people fall below the minimum tax slab. 400 million people ought to be paying taxes. People have to pay income taxes for the economy to improve. Tax avoidance is different from tax evasion) The art of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'. Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days. The value of "pi" was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century long before the European mathematicians. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were propounded by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10**53(10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 BCE during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera: 10**12(10 to the power of 12). According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra. According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful lake aptly called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time. Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of  his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract, artificial limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipments were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts. When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization) The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC. Added by Madhavan T G: India gave refuge to Zoroastrians, called as Parsis (Farsis) (because they were from Persia, the earlier name for Iran), in India. They fled from the modern day Iran from Muslim persecution because they worship fire. The sacred fire brought by them from Iran still burns in their temple at Bombay. They do not cremate or bury their dead. They leave it in the 'Tower of Silence' for the vultures and carrions to eat the flesh. The great philosophy behind it that even a dead body should benefit some animal or bird. The only Zoroastrians left in this world live in India. Unfortunately, this community is dwindling in numbers. The biggest Indian business house of TATA belongs to this community. The only Indian Field Marshall, General Sam Maneckshaw is from the same community. India gave refuge to Jews who fled from Muslim persecution in the 16th century. They came and settled down in Cochin in Western India. Their synagogue still exists where prayers are held. We do not have many Jews left in India. Most of them have migrated to Israel. No country in the world has more religious tolerance and freedom than India. No culture absorbs cultural diversity like India. Sanskrit and German languages have a lot of similarity. The grammar is almost identical though the scripts are different. In both the languages you can keep on adding words and some words can be a mile long in Sanskrit. Some words are also common. For example, Lufth in Sanskrit means 'air' and Hansa means a 'Swan'. Lufthansa means an air swan. The University of Heidelberg in Germany has one of the biggest Sanskrit language department in the World. There is an erroneous belief that India was only advanced spiritually. Sorry, Indians knew how to create 'Atomic Bombs' and missiles by chanting Vedic Mantras. It was known as 'Brahmastra' and the terrible heat and light it generated was well known. Lord Rama used it once, but not against any humans. It was fired by a human against humans, in anger and out of revenge, by Ashwattama, the son of Guru Dronacharya and described in the Mahabharata. They also knew how to diffuse them. They were aware of Biological and Chemical weapons of mass destruction. This science coming under 'Atharva Veda' was deliberately destroyed by our forefathers under the orders of Lord Krishna, because in wrong hands they would have been misused. It became a forbidden science and the Vedas are strictly against use of any WMD. India has given the two greatest Vedic epics to the world - Ramayana and Mahabharata. It has also given the 'Bhagvat Gita' - the Song of God by Lord Krishna. Lord Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi were also Indians.  You Indians out there, next time some body talks ill or bad about India, its culture, its civilization, its intellectuals, you know what to tell them. It may not be a rich country today. But it is the greatest country in the world. The only civilization that comes anywhere near it is the Chinese, with wise and learned men like Confucius and Lao Tse Tzu.  QUOTES ABOUT INDIA Albert Einstein said: We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made. Mark Twain said: India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only. French scholar Romaine Rolland said:  If there is one place on the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India. Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said: India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border Note: The comments in parenthesis are by Mr. Madhavan T Gopalachary The views, opinions and interpretations are personal. Sponsorship does not mean that the sponsors endorse them. Editorial Policy © Copyright, Jul-08 . www.madgopes.com . Without prejudice. All rights reserved www.mmgindia.com is the official website of Madras Management Group, Chennai, India. www.madgopes.com and www.mmg.name are personal websites and all editorials are published under their banner to retain editorial independence. We would highly appreciate feedback from readers and it may be sent to ipr@mmg.name.