4.14—History of South Asia

1. 4.14—History of South Asia

2. Vocabulary • Cultural hearth—a place where a civilization began and spread • Caste system—divisions in a society based on occupation which is inherited from previous generations • Hinduism—the main religion of India today

3. South Asia in Ancient Times • Like the Huang He in China, another river in South Asia—the Indus River—was the birthplace of civilization in the region. • Around 4,500 years ago people settled along the banks of the Indus River and began farming. Farming, rather than gathering food to eat, freed people to begin developing art, literature, and religion, making the area a cultural hearth from which culture and civilization would spread to the rest of South Asia.

4. Cultural Hearths

5. South Asia in Ancient Times—the Caste System and Hinduism • Two defining traits of ancient South Asian culture were the caste system and the world’s oldest still-existing religion, Hinduism. • Ancient South Asian society was broken up into four castes, which determined not only a person’s job but also their standing in society: priests (highest), warriors, farmers, and laborers. Your caste was something you inherited: if your parents were farmers, you would be one; if your parents were priests, you would be one; etc. • The caste system was reinforced by the Hindu religion—more on this in a moment. • Video: The Caste System

6. Hinduism • Hinduism is the world’s oldest still-existing religion—it is believed to have begun nearly 4,000 years ago. It is old enough that unlike most other religions, we do not know who started it, or even if any one person did. • Hindus believe that human souls are eternal and that, when we die, our souls are reincarnated into other bodies. What we are reincarnated as is determined by our good (or bad) deeds, called karma, in our previous life. This is how Hinduism is tied to the caste system—people with good karma are born into higher castes in future lives, while people with bad are born into lower. • The goal of Hinduism is to stop the cycle of death and reincarnation by acquiring enough good karma and uniting with the “universal soul” (could be thought of as God), called Brahman.

7. Hinduism and the Caste System

8. Hindu “Gods” (or “faces” of God)

9. Vocabulary • Buddhism—the religion based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha • Nirvana—a state of understanding that releases the soul from the cycle of rebirth

10. Buddhism • We have already learned a little about another religion—Buddhism—in class. Buddhism is the major religion on Southeast Asia, and one of the major religions of East Asia, but it first began in South Asia as an offshoot of Hinduism.

11. Buddhism • Around 500 B.C. (2,500 years ago), a Hindu prince named Siddhartha Gautama noticed that people all around him—common people—lived lives of suffering. This concerned him, and he set out to discover the cause of human suffering. • He discovered that human suffering is caused by desire, or our wanting of things. He also believed in reincarnation, like Hindus, and that the cycle of death and rebirth only made our suffering eternal and permanent and should somehow be stopped. • In order to end the cycle of reincarnation and suffering we should follow a code of conduct called the eightfold path. If we live well enough over enough lifetimes, we can achieve nirvana, a blissful state that releases us from reincarnation.

12. Buddhism • For his teachings, people named Gautama Buddha, which means “enlightened one”. His religion never really took hold in India, but monks and missionaries spread it to East and Southeast Asia.

13. Vocabulary • Partition—to split into two or more parts • Nonalignment—to not ally with any other country

14. The Middle Ages in South Asia • Over a couple thousand years waves of invaders and conquerors would come to South Asia, diffusing their cultures and adding to the cultures of South Asia. One of these diffused traits was yet another religion—Islam—which we will learn about in the future. • For us today, it is important to know, however, that the introduction of Islam would cause a significant split in the cultures of people in the region. • One such invader, the United Kingdom, took over all of South Asia between the 1600s and 1800s, and made what they called “India” a colony of the British Empire.

15. British India

16. British India, Gandhi and Independence • The British were unpopular rulers in South Asia. A man named Mohandas Gandhi, but nicknamed Mahatma(“Great Soul”) Gandhi, was a Hindu who led a non-violent protest movement in India to get rid of the British rulers. Like Dr. Marin Luther King Jr.—who was inspired by Gandhi—Gandhi used peaceful protests, boycotts, and sit-ins to disrupt British rule. • By the 1940s the British had decided to give up their rule of South Asia, and in 1947 gave the region its independence.

17. Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi

18. Partition and Non-Alignment • Immediately after independence, however, war broke out between the Islamic and Hindu areas of South Asia. Eventually the area was partitioned into the Islamic countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh and the (mostly) Hindu country of India. • India committed itself to nonalignment during the Cold War, siding with neither the U.S. or Soviet Union, helping to keep it out of conflicts with other countries (though India and Pakistan would fight frequently).

19. Assignment! Complete the “Word Wise” crossword on the back of your guided notes as homework due tomorrow.