Amazing
Facts about India and Indians!
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1. India is the world's largest, oldest, continuous
civilization.
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2. India never invaded any country in
her last 10000 years of history.
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3. India is the world's largest democracy.
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4. Varanasi, also known as Benares, was called "the ancient city"
when Lord Buddha visited it in 500 B.C.E, and is the oldest, continuously
inhabited city in the world today.
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5. India invented the Number System. Zero
was invented by Aryabhatta.
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6. The World's first university
was established in Takshashila in
700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60
subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of
the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
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7. Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. Sanskrit is
the most suitable language for computer software - a report in Forbes
magazine, July 1987.
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8. 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.
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9. India has the largest
number of Post Offices in the world.
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10. One of the largest employer in the world is the Indian
Railways , employing over a million people.
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11. Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of
development, India was
the richest country on earth until the time of British
invasion in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by
India's wealth.
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12. The art of Navigation was
born in the river Sindhu 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived
from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit
'Nou'.
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13. 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.
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14. 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.
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15. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were 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).
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16. IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the
world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication
was Prof.
Jagdish Bose and not Marconi.
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17. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.
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18. According to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 CE a beautiful lake
called Sudarshana was
constructed on the hills of Raivataka during Chandragupta Maurya's time.
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19. Chess (Shataranja or
AshtaPada) was invented in India.
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20. 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 equipment were
used. Deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology, embryology, digestion,
metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.
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21. Martial Arts were first created in
India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist missionaries.
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22. Yoga has its origins in India and
has existed for over 5,000 years.
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23. The
Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupathi built in the 10th century, is
the world's largest religious pilgrimage destination. Larger
than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to the temple everyday.
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24. When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000
years ago, Indians established Harappan
culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization).
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25. The four religions born in India, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and
Sikhism, are followed by 25% of the world's population.
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26. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in
India in 100 BC.
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27. India is one of the few countries in the World, which
gained independence
without violence.
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28. India has the second largest pool of Scientists and Engineers in
the World.
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29. India is the largest
English speaking nation in the world.
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30. India is the only country other than US and Japan, to have built
a super
computer indigenously.
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SOME MORE FACTS
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1. In the next three years, up to 25% of the world's new workers
will be Indian.
Source: Indian Labour
Report via The Hindu
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2. 42% of the world's poor live in India.
That's over 450
million people living below the international poverty line of $1.25 a
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3. India's GDP per capita will quadruple from 2007 to 2020,
according to
Goldman Sachs.
Source:Goldman Sachs
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4. Property prices in Mumbai and Delhi have more than doubled in
the past
18 months.
Source: Reuters
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5. India's tech capital, Bangalore, has increased its office supply
by six times since 2006, and now has more Grade-A offices than Singapore.
Source: C B Richard
Ellis via Business
Standard
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6. Half the world’s outsourced IT services come from India,
amounting to a $47 billion dollar industry.
Source: Sourcing Line
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7. Walmart alone outsources $1 billion in IT contracts to India.
Source: SupplyChain.cn
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8. India is the world's second largest importer of arms and has
spent $50 billion on defense purchases in the last decade.
Source: Stockholm
International Peace Institute via India Defence
Online
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9. India grows 12 million tons of mangoes in a year, the weight
equivalent
to 80,000 blue whales.
Source: National
Horticulture Board
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10. India's Cherrapnuji is the wettest places on earth, receiving
425 inches of rain every year.
That's 6.3 times the rainfall of
continental America's rainiest city, Mobile.
Source: BBC / Livescience.com
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11. A bigger movie market
than America and Canada combined, India sold 3.2 billion tickets last year.
Source: Bloomberg
Businessweek
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12. The average Indian is
nearly 20 years younger than the average Japanese (26 vs 45).
Indians are also
around ten years younger than rival China, which was limited in growth by its
one-child policy.
Source: CIA Factbook
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13. In recent decades,
500,000 female births have gone missing each year due to (illegal) sex
selection and abortion.
This estimate comes
from The Lancet via The Boston Globe and
is based on 1986-
2006.
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14. India has 568 million
more registered voters than the US -- and a better turnout rate too.
Source: The
International
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15. India used to account
for 33% of the world's GDP; then fell to 3%; now may rise to 25%.
India led the world in
GDP before the industrial revolution, when population meant productivity, and
India had the largest population. Following the industrial revolution, India
entered a long period of economic stagnation. The future outlook comes from
Goldman Sachs,
which sees India passing the U.S. economy in 2050, trailing only
China.
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Famous Quotes on India (by non-Indians)
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1.
Will Durant, American historian: "India
was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's
languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs,
of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals
embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of
self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us
all".
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2.
Mark Twain, American author: "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."
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3.
Mark Twain: "India has two million gods, and worships them all.
In religion all other countries are paupers; India is the only
millionaire."
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4.
Mark Twain: "So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been
left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary
country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been
forgotten, nothing overlooked."
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5.
Albert Einstein, American scientist: "We owe a
lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile
scientific discovery could have been made."
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6.
Max Mueller, German scholar: If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most
fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the
greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India.
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7.
Romain Rolland, French scholar : "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."
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8.
Henry David Thoreau, American Thinker & Author:Whenever I have read
any part of the Vedas, I have felt that some unearthly and unknown light
illuminated me. In the great teaching of the Vedas, there is no touch of
sectarianism. It is of all ages, climbs, and nationalities and is the royal
road for the attainment of the Great Knowledge. When I read it, I feel that I
am under the spangled heavens of a summer night.
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9.
R.W. Emerson, American Author: In the great
books of India, an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large,
serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence, which in another age
and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the questions that exercise us.
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10. Hu Shih, former
Ambassador of China to USA: "India conquered and dominated China culturally for
20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her
border."
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11. Keith Bellows,
National Geographic Society : "There are some parts of the world that, once
visited, get into your heart and won't go. For me, India is such a place.
When I first visited, I was stunned by the richness of the land, by its lush
beauty and exotic architecture, by its ability to overload the senses with
the pure, concentrated intensity of its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds...
I had been seeing the world in black & white and, when brought
face-to-face with India, experienced everything re-rendered in brilliant technicolor."
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12. A Rough Guide to
India: "It is
impossible not to be astonished by India. Nowhere on Earth does humanity
present itself in such a dizzying, creative burst of cultures and religions,
races and tongues. Enriched by successive waves of migration and marauders
from distant lands, every one of them left an indelible imprint which was
absorbed into the Indian way of life. Every aspect of the country presents
itself on a massive, exaggerated scale, worthy in comparison only to the
superlative mountains that overshadow it. It is this variety which provides a
breathtaking ensemble for experiences that is uniquely Indian. Perhaps the
only thing more difficult than to be indifferent to India would be to
describe or understand India completely. There are perhaps very few nations
in the world with the enormous variety that India has to offer. Modern day
India represents the largest democracy in the world with a seamless picture
of unity in diversity unparalleled anywhere else."
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13. Will Durant,
American Historian: "India will teach us the tolerance and gentleness
of mature mind, understanding spirit and a unifying, pacifying love for all
human beings."
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14. William James,
American Author: "From
the Vedas we learn a practical art of surgery, medicine, music, house
building under which mechanized art is included. They are encyclopedia of
every aspect of life, culture, religion, science, ethics, law, cosmology and
meteorology."
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15. Max Muller, German
Scholar: "There is
no book in the world that is so thrilling, stirring and inspiring as the
Upanishads." ('Sacred Books of the East')
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16. Dr Arnold Toynbee,
British Historian: "It is already becoming clear that a chapter which
had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to
end in the self-destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous
moment in history, the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian
way."
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17. Sir William Jones,
British Orientalist: "The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity
is of wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the
Latin and more exquisitely refined than either."
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18. P. Johnstone: "Gravitation
was known to the Hindus (Indians) before the birth of Newton. The system of
blood circulation was discovered by them centuries before Harvey was heard
of."
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19. Emmelin Plunret: "They
were very advanced Hindu astronomers in 6000 BC. Vedas contain an account of
the dimension of Earth, Sun, Moon, Planets and Galaxies." ('Calendars
and Constellations')
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20. Sylvia Levi: "She
(India) has left indelible imprints on one fourth of the human race in the
course of a long succession of centuries. She has the right to reclaim ...
her place amongst the great nations summarizing and symbolizing the spirit of
humanity. From Persia to the Chinese sea, from the icy regions of Siberia to
Islands of Java and Borneo, India has propagated her beliefs, her tales, and
her civilization!"
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21. Schopenhauer: "Vedas
are the most rewarding and the most elevating book which can be possible in
the world." (Works VI p.427)
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22. Colonel James Todd: "Where
can we look for sages like those whose systems of philosophy were prototypes
of those of Greece: to whose works Plato, Thales and Pythagorus were
disciples? Where do I find astronomers whose knowledge of planetary systems
yet excites wonder in Europe as well as the architects and sculptors whose
works claim our admiration, and the musicians who could make the mind
oscillate from joy to sorrow, from tears to smile with the change of modes
and varied intonation?"
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23. Lancelot Hogben: "There
has been no more revolutionary contribution than the one which the Hindus
(Indians) made when they invented ZERO." ('Mathematics for the
Millions')
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24. Wheeler Wilcox: "India -
The land of Vedas, the remarkable works contain not only religious ideas for
a perfect life, but also facts which science has proved true. Electricity,
radium, electronics, airship, all were known to the seers who founded the
Vedas."
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25. W. Heisenberg,
German Physicist: "After the conversations about Indian philosophy,
some of the ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made
much more sense."
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26. Sir W. Hunter, British
Surgeon: "The
surgery of the ancient Indian physicians was bold and skilful. A special
branch of surgery was dedicated to rhinoplasty or operations for improving
deformed ears, noses and forming new ones, which European surgeons have now
borrowed."
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27. Sir John Woodroffe: "An
examination of Indian Vedic doctrines shows that it is in tune with the most
advanced scientific and philosophical thought of the West."
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28. B.G. Rele: "Our
present knowledge of the nervous system fits in so accurately with the
internal description of the human body given in the Vedas (5000 years ago).
Then the question arises whether the Vedas are really religious books or
books on anatomy of the nervous system and medicine." ('The Vedic Gods')
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29. Adolf Seilachar
& P.K. Bose, scientists: "One Billion-Year-Old fossil prove life began in
India: AFP Washington reports in Science Magazine that German Scientist Adolf
Seilachar and Indian Scientist P.K. Bose have unearthed fossil in Churhat a
town in Madhya Pradesh, India which is 1.1 billion years old and has rolled
back the evolutionary clock by more than 500 million years."
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30. Will Durant,
American Historian: "It is true that even across the Himalayan barrier
India has sent to the west, such gifts as grammar and logic, philosophy and
fables, hypnotism and chess, and above all numerals and the decimal
system."
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Saturday, October 27, 2012
ABOUT INDIA AND INDIANS!
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