CASTE SYSTEM & HINDU RELIGION--A simple explanation might be: '' Each of us is born to an appointed task, including occupation & social status. If we are faithful in living out that task we will be born to a better position in our next life.'' This rebirth stopped when they reached what they described as; “A oneness with God”. Hindus also incorporate other religious beliefs into their religion. Thus a Christian teaching they found desirable would be observed as a part of their religion instead of seeing a need to convert to Christianity.
A lot of things associated with the Hindu Religion were started by Ancient Rulers of India. Muslim rulers started the vegetarian and take no life concept. An Aryan Ruler initiated the Caste System. Cremation of wives with husbands was forced upon India when Scythians warriors invaded the country and took control of the country.
Concerning the Hindu religion, there are lots of misconceptions. One is people being reborn as animals or insects. I found no one who believed that. A belief I found was that God created man & creatures & you would not kill an animal or creature just as you would not kill a fellow human being, because God had given them a Spirit of Life. The rebirth belief was that if you lived a proper and good life you would be reborn into the next level. If you failed you came back as whatever you had been or possibly a lower position if you had been really bad. This rebirth continued until you reached the Brahman Caste. After that life cycle you were considered to have reached a type of oneness with God and the rebirth cycle stops and you became an eternal being. Growing up in the church I was around a lot of Christian that considered Hindus Pagans, doomed for Hell. What I found in India was a people who devoted their lives to prayers and whose religious teachings dictated every aspect & action of their lives, every day. Many teaching closely parallel Christianity in how to live & how to treat your fellow man. I found them much closer to a Devine Creator that I had imagined. Their only lacking was a belief in Jesus Christ. With that belief they would make some of the finest Christian in the world.
One thing I admired about the people of India was the number of times they went to the Temple to Pray. Before going to the field or starting the day’s work, you went to the temple to pray. If you went to a city, you first went to pray. When you came home you stopped & prayed. Returning from the fields on the way home you went to the Temple and prayed. At first I wasn't comfortable going to the temples but I started earnestly praying to God every time we went, while my host was praying to their gods. I prayed that God would understand and the uneaziness started to go away. I discovered their gods & godesses represented basically many attributes of one God. Creator, Protector, Sustainer, Judge, etc. Many Hindus believe in one God and see the many gods and goddesses to be faces of the one God.
I thought if we Christian spent as much time at our Church Alters praying we'd be much better Christians, the world would be a better place & the world might already be won for Christ. People have always told me, “We can pray anywhere, we don’t need to go to church.” That’s true, but I have stopped by the Church & gone to the Alter, numerous times since returning for India, knelt and prayed & there is a difference in atmosphere & attitude.
I thought if we Christian spent as much time at our Church Alters praying we'd be much better Christians, the world would be a better place & the world might already be won for Christ. People have always told me, “We can pray anywhere, we don’t need to go to church.” That’s true, but I have stopped by the Church & gone to the Alter, numerous times since returning for India, knelt and prayed & there is a difference in atmosphere & attitude.
Another misconception was the sacredness of the cow. At a time of extreme drought in India the cow provided milk and meat, about the only thing that kept the people of India alive, when the drought was over it was decided that the cow was never to be eaten again. Cows were owned & were milked. {The eating of fish on Friday by members of the Catholic Church stemmed from a similar situation, the shortage of beef in Europe, with the Church being the only body with enough influence to reach the people} It was also a law that since the oxen were needed as a draft animal it was illegal to slaughter one under 15 years of age. I often said in my talks when I returned, if we had to make hamburger out of a 15 year old steer we'd probably be a vegetarian too. The Brahman Bull was allowed and roamed, belonging to no one. Individual farmers could not afford a bull and had no way to containing them. Cows & goats were herded to what skimpy patches of grass were available & had to constantly be kept from fields of grain. So the Brahman Bull roamed freely providing services for farmers when the their cows had need of a bull. Although not common I did find meat being eaten in India. Some chicken, fish, goat, and pork, that was introduced by the German Peace Corps, that was raised on farms known as 'piggeries' By the sea coast fish & seafood was prominent. The native hog was a walking, living garbage disposal.
COMMUNICATION GAP----- Gestures that went with languages of India took a little getting used to. The one I had the hardest time learning was the little head waggle that went with a Yes answer. It was very similar to our NO head gesture & their no as well, kind of a tilting and not as much turning of the head, it took me awhile to telll them apart. . Another problem was how I phrased some of my questions. So I learned to rephrase some of my questions to eliminate confusion. I learned very little of the Indian languages, I would pick up a few words in each state. In Gujarat I learned the word “Aajo’’ [Ow-joe’] -- good-bye, Kem Chho [Kim Chow]- How are you.--- ‘’Vunacum ‘’ [Vne {like one}- uh-come] was a Tamil greeting. Nandri {Non-dree]- Thank you. Hindi phrases I learned--- ‘’Ubala Pani tanda” [eub-uh-la, pawnee, tawn-duh]- meant boiled water cold, a precaution against parasites. ‘’Chi’’[ch-eye]- Tea, Shukriyaa [shoe-kuh-rye-yah]—Thank you. ’Haan’’[hawn]-yes. “Namastee’’ [Naum-uh-stay] -- used as Hello & goodbye, along with the praying hands position & a downward nod of the head. They really rolled their r's which I never did lean to do properly. Mine were always to exaggerated.
ARRANGED MARRIAGES---Marriage customs always came up in a conversation. They found our custom of dating & men proposing marriage very strange as I found their custom of arranged marriages odd. Finding a good husband for a daughter was one of the primary, if not the most important goal of a father, whether he was highly educated and well off financially or of limited education & economically challenged. In one such discussion an Indian gentlemen said, ''In America you fall in Love and get married, in India we get married and fall in Love.'' As I thought about that comment it began to make some sense. When dating a lot of people keep hidden their less positive personality traits and sometimes pretend to be someone they really aren't. After marriage the real you begins to come out. And also people change as they go through life. I have often heard the comment as people were ending a marriage in the U.S., ‘‘They’re not the same person I married’’ and I began to think, maybe as we go through life we need to continually fall in Love with the person we married. If we, people in the U.S. or anywhere, had the attitude, "I'm going to love you for who you are'', which was the attitude of India, and not, ''I'm going to love you as long as you are what I want you to be''. There would be a lot less broken marriages in the U.S.
Some young men told me the custom of arranged marriages was changing. Of old, the marriage was arranged & the bride and groom had no choice or say. They said now when the parents would tell whom the intended bride or groom was to be & if the young person had other ideas about who to marry the parents might seek an arrangement with their parents. I am sure that probably applied to young men more often than young women though.
MONSOON RAINS---Our IFYE group got to India in September, after the annual Monsoon. They were still getting a few rains & some of the railroad lines were not repaired so some times our train routes on our 2 weeks sight seeing tour were changed. When I got to Gujarat I noticed marks & dates on buildings and light poles. There were painted marks followed by a year & height. ______ 1965- 19': ________ 1956- 16': _____ 1957- 15'. It didn't dawn on to me what they were so I ask someone, the answer was, “That was the Monsoon flood level that year”. Measuring rain in feet instead of inches & the importance of agriculture irrigation were the two hardest of things to grasp or that made a lasting impression on me.
GUJARAT [goot- rot]---- is the western most state of India, its capital is Gandhina, Its largest city is Ahmedabad. it is home to the Gujarati speaking people. It is home to major ports in India's ancient and modern history, leading it to become one of the main trade and commerce center of India. Also, Mahatma Gandhi, India's father of the nation, was Gujarati. Agriculture forms a major part of the state economy. It suffers from monsoon & dry seasons , most of the soil is Alluvial, deposited by the rivers from the Himalayan mts. Crops grown are: cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, jowar [milo], rice, wheat, grams [soybean type grain] & mangos.
 |
| Haryanna bullock in Gujarat |
MAJESTIC BULLOCKS---- June [Ks.] & I were the two IFYE'S that went to Gujarat. Arriving in rural Gujarat one of the first things I saw was a Haryana [Har-e-awn-uh] Bullock team. My first impression was, ‘‘That has to be the ugliest animal God ever created." But I learned that farmers traveled from all over India to the state of Rajasthan to purchase a team of Haryana Bullock. As I saw the oxen & water buffalo teams working the fields, I began to realize they were magnificent animals.
[[Years ago I lost my diary I kept in India so all I can go on now is my memory. I can only remember names my first two families ]]
MANHIBA DEASI FAMILY--- [Mawn-he-bah,
Dee-sigh]-- Manhiba had a huge Mango Orchard and a water buffalo milking herd. The water buffalo gave about a quart and a cow gave about a pint. When they heard I was a Dairy Farmer they always ask. ''How many water buffalo do you milk?” When I said we milked cows they couldn’t believe it. They’d ask or make comments 3-4 times. “You MILK COWS!!!!’ ‘’You don’t milk buffalo????’’ And when I tried to tell them how much milk an ole Holstein cow gave they must have thought I was the biggest liar that walked the earth. Manhiba was also a Doctor, every once in a while someone would come and he would get out his powdered medicines and wrap some up in a piece of paper and give it to the person. One day Manhiba showed me a large pot outside the house that had short green plants in it. He ask me to guess what it was. I was a little hesitant figuring it was a plant native to India, he kept asking so I hesitantly said it looked like wheat. He was delighted with my answer and informed that it was & although the climate in Gujarat was not appropriate for growing U.S. wheat varieties in India he had imported some & was growing it in small amounts for use in salads at mealtime. He said it was very high in vitamin B 12, which was good. I wasn't sure about that but could attest to how dairy cows back home really seemed to purk up and look healthier in the spring when you put them out to pasture on growing wheat.
 |
| So many Chi [Tea] Stalls looked like this throughout rural India |
The Chi Stall were most fascinating. They did not use coffee cups but glasses. The Tea was prepared in a large pot and then poured into glasses. To cool it so that you could hold the glass they would start with the glasses close together and start pouring, then they would extend there arms so that one was head high and the other below the waist. Just before one glass went empty they would quickly bring them back together and pour it into the other glass repeating the process with the hands, never spilling a drop. They did it so quickly I could never count fast enough to see how many time they made the switch. But every time I was handed a glass it was warm but alright to hold. The tea would still be somewhat hot as you would have to be careful how quickly you drank it.
MAHIVAR JOSHI FAMILY-- [Maw-he-var, joe-sigh] – Mahivar & his wife Nehraun {Knee-ran} were an unusual couple, He was Hindu, she was Christian. They had been college students together, he had proposed to her, theirs was what Indians called a “Love Marriage”.
Mahivar, his sister & brother were very involved in politics. They lived not far from Ahmedabad where there seemed to be a lot of political activity.
His sister was quite unusual for India. She was in her mid-30's, unmarried and involved in Politics. Another unusual thing was that she also rode Mahivar's motorcycle, something like a Honda 250. She made several trips to political meetings while I was staying with Mahivar. Sometimes all 3 would go by car. He and his brother drove the car so I was never sure which one owned the car as both used it. His brother lived in an adjoining house. I didn't see much of the sister so I wasn't sure of her residence.Shortly after arriving at Mahivar’s he presented me with a list of grains & wanted me to create a dairy ration. I recognized one grain as being similar to the soybean. I tried to bow out by saying grains grown in the U.S. were much different than those grown in India & I didn't think I would do a good job creating a ration. Another thing, grain of any nutritional value were used for food, what the animals got was mostly filler or stuff that had all the nutrition cooked out of it. It was then he told me an Agricultural Agent had been trying to get him too use a new ration. There was a partnership between Agriculture Colleges in the U.S. and Agriculture Colleges in India. He showed me the ration & I recognized a few minerals and vitamin additives we used in our feed at home. So I advised him to follow the Ag. Agent’s recommendations. He was still reluctant so I suggested putting part of his water buffalo on the new ration, give them a few weeks to adjust & if they produced more to switch his whole herd. A couple weeks later he said he had started the whole herd & they had tripled their production. So I learned very quickly not to try and tell them how to adapt U.S. Ag. Technology to India, but to try the methods recommend by the Ag. Colleges that studied Indian agriculture. I found India farmers had kinda the same attitude of my Dad, which was, that may work on 20 acres at K-State out behind the girls dorm but it's not going to work on 200 acres out here on the farm.
I soon became very popular with the Ag Agents who often took me to farmers meetings or went with me and my host. When farmers began to ask me about farming in the U.S. with the idea of applying it to India, I said the Ag Agents in the back had the best research for improving their farm production. The Ag Agents soon began to share their research with me. I would still talk about our farming methods but I would add things India Ag. Agents had shared with me & tell the land owners where I had learned the information. That there were Ag. Agents at the back of the room & to get acquainted with them if they didn't already know them. I gave lots of talks at school and farmers/landowners meeting.
In Wichita I had searched every camera store for a 220 slide projector. I finally found an old, show one slide at a time, projector. At one school they laid out a power cord line for 5 blocks so I could show pictures. It looked a lot like a power line, I hoped they hadn’t cut it down from between to light poles.
In Wichita I had searched every camera store for a 220 slide projector. I finally found an old, show one slide at a time, projector. At one school they laid out a power cord line for 5 blocks so I could show pictures. It looked a lot like a power line, I hoped they hadn’t cut it down from between to light poles.
 |
| My fancy Indian Clothes |
MY INDIAN CLOTHES----Since clothing changes throughout India I picked up several types of India clothing on my stay. Most were the practical everyday Clothing of the people of India. The exception is the clothing pictured at the left. It is something someone might wear at a political gathering if they were involved in politics or to a wedding. People always dressed down in daily life so if they went to the Market or merchants or people who provide a personal service wealth was not obvious and maybe they could get things at a more reasonable price.
The clothing in the picture are a combination of Southern and Northern India. The Gandhi cap was worn throughout India. The jacket is known as the 'Nehru Jacket' made famous by the Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru
{Jar-wall--Neigh-rue} and found more often in Northern India. The pants were made by a village tailor for 35-40 cents, they were light cotton that would have been found throughout India. It seems like the Nehru Jacket cost around $15 to have made, all clothing was inexpensive to have made. The towel over my shoulder is strickly southern India and maybe more common in Tamil Nadu than any other other southern state. The one I'm wearing is the fancy kind. They came in several colors and designs. There was a white one, almost like a t-towel, it was worn daily as you traveled by bus or train to cities, water would have be available but nothing to dry hands or face, or out to the fields during the day. It was very handy for drying off after washing off travel dust or finishing a meal, or splashing water on yourself from a irrigation well on a hot summer day.
 |
| This was the most common type Doti The western style shirt was less common |
Another interesting thing that happened was that late in my stay in Tamil, the sandals I had been wearing needed new soles. I took them to a leather worker/shoe maker and he showed several soles. I picked one out and 2-3 day later I went to pick them up, but instead of the leather soles their were treads of car tires. I first I was a little annoyed but then I thought, what could last longer than tire tread. I wore them for a few years after I got home to the U.S. Lots of leather straps and things broke but the soles never wore out.
3rd GUJARAT FAMILY---My 3rd family in Gujarat, the one I don’t, remember the name, was my worst stay in India. They lived in the city of Surat but had land holdings in a village not far away.
When I got to my 3rd family & explained that I wanted Ubla panee tanda [Ooo- buh-luh, Pawnee- tawn-duh. "Boiled water Cold". It had worked well in my first two families but they couldn't understand at all, why boil water & then wait for it to get cool, room temp. actually. Why not drink it cool to begin with was their question. The next day a tea pot of cool water arrived. I ask if had been Boiled, ''No'', was the reply, I tried to explain, My body was not used to the bacteria in the water as theirs was, so I would get sick. The next day I got boiling water. This little dance went on for 2-3 day. So finally I gave up, "Just bring me boiling water''. So for the rest of my stay, several weeks, every morning a tea kettle of boiling water arrived in my room & I would wait for it to cool. I detest warm water! At times it would be an hour or more before it was cool enough to drink. There are days I was almost beside myself with thirst before it was ready to drink. Away from home I always drank hot tea or a bottle drink that I knew was safe. Coke & Fanta imports were two givens. I liked Fanta. Some of their local bottled fruit juices were ok. The interesting thing about this was the people of India would not let the bottle touch their lips. They figured the drink inside was safe but wasn't sure about the outside of the bottle. So they would tip their head, hold the bottle away from their mouth a little and pour the drink into their mouth. I tried this but the first few times I didn't always hit my mouth just right and would get drink on my face, chin or clothes. There was also a knack to knowing how to swallow with your mouth open or how much to pour and close your mouth and then swallow that I had trouble getting down.
My host father had hosted several IFYE's in the past, but his only purpose was for his own political or personal gain. We would often visit Banks, Business, Civic Groups & Farmer/Landowner meetings. I'd show slides, answer questions & he'd make a big speech also. At Business places people would ask me questions, of course he'd have to translate. I started out trying to enter into the conversations, but he would always change the subject to his agenda. I never really had a clue why he said I was in India. I'm sure he made it sound like it involved one of his projects. So I eventually just went along for the ride, smiled a lot, and let him do all the talking. I could tell when he would mention the dairy herd. At first he started out with the number 45, which was our usual milking number, although we always had several dry cows in the herd, but as time went on I could tell the number increased to 55 then 65 followed by 75. I think one time he even used the number 90. I never knew if he told them I milked cows or water buffalo.
A memory of visiting one bank still stands out it my mind. All the bank employees had badges. Names like President, Vice President, & Teller were all in small letters because of the size of the badge. But I saw one at a Bank that had the name in very large letters. It carried the simple title.....PEON. I had to chuckle, almost laughed out loud it caught me by surprise so.
An Incident happened at this family that still makes me smile when I think about it. I started my mornings by reading the Bible and praying. I had done this at each of my families. At this family one morning as I was raising my head I though I noticed a blur in the window. So the next morning when I was done praying I opened my eyes but did not raise my head. I glanced at the window and saw the faces of several children. I did this for 2-3 day and each morning the window was full of children's faces. One morning I woke to a terrible commotion. I heard this loud voice repeating phrases is an India Language. I might mention that I had noticed a table in the house that had the pictures of several Hindu gods & goddesses. Plus flowers and incense burners and other things that were usually found in homes of Hindus on a special table, things of religious significance. I had been with this family for 2 weeks and I had never seen anyone at the prayer table. On this particular morning my host father was kneeling at the table and obviously repeating Hindu Prayers, all in a very loud voice. This continued for the 2 weeks that I remained there. I came to the conclusion that the children had told someone about seeing me reading the Bible and praying and they had told the host father. And that had prompted his actions. The whole incident reminded me of in the Bible where it talks about the Pharisees, where their big show of prayers & religious activities in public are their reward. This host was in the caste just below the Brahmans, which set my misconception of what a Brahman would be like.
MARRIAGE PROPOSITION----One of my most unusual experiences took place staying with this family. My host and I were visiting a Bank and my host Father was doing all of the talking. He and the Bank President were talking in Gujariti. After awhile 3 young ladies, very well dressed & quite nice looking, walked in, and stood by the Bankers desk, later, I guessed there age was mid teens to early 20's. My host turned to me and said, "Pick one. " I ask, ''What!!? He said again, ‘’Pick one”. I was trying to figure out just exactly what this meant when my host explained the Banker was offering them in marriage. So I tried to explain quite politely that marriage customs in the U.S. were different than India and although I was sure his daughters would make very good wives I would prefer to wait till I was back in the U.S. and find a wife through our customs. I could only hope my host translated it as politely as I tried to say it. The 3 young ladies left shortly, and I can only assume they were very relieved that one of them would not to be going to the U.S. as a bride. My host and the Banker continued to talk for awhile before we went home.
CRICKET----The game not the chirpy critters! I played at least 3 games of Cricket in my 3rd host family in Surat. It was with a mixture of school kids of all ages and some college student. I was completely clue less as to what I was doing, I would ask before each game, ''How do you play this game?'', ''What are the rules?'' They would alway politely explain & do a good job but I would get lost! So I just concentrated on hitting the ball. I was clueless in how to put a batter out so they were glad just to let me bat. I usually hit the ball a good distance, would throw my hand it the air, and then shout, ''Now What?'' They'd shout a reply. Of course they thought it was hilarious and would laugh heartily. I didn't understand running between the wickets so they would have to shout instruction to me as I was running so that I did the proper things to make a score or not make a out and then what to do when another batter hit the ball. It wasn't all that fun, maybe it would have been if I had know what I was doing. But I thought I'll never get a chance to place the game again and few American get the opportunity so I should take advantage. Thought maybe it would sound impressive if I told people I played 'Cricket' in India as long as I didn't tell how clueless I played.
DRIVING IN THE DARK--- Between my families in Gujarat & Tamil, only two had cars. When we would go out at night I noticed something unusual. When meeting a car, which didn’t happen often, but once in a while, both cars would shut off their lights for a few second, 3-5 seconds, several times before meeting each other. We weren’t going to fast, maybe 30 miles an hr. & it often left us in a few seconds of darkness except for the oncoming headlights. I thought this very strange but never ask anyone why they did it. The roads were narrow and each car would have to get one wheel off the pavement when they met but it never registered for several months. Finally one night I noticed that when the other car had it’s light off you could get a glimpse of what was along the side of the road beyond the other car but you could not if it’s lights were on. So it dawned on to me they shut off the lights so the other person could see if someone was walking alongside the road or if there was a water buffalo or cow walking or laying on the shoulder. The animals could wonder out onto the road as you met & passed the other car. The animals even ignored the cars in the daytime so you always had to be prepared to slow down and manouver around them, maybe even stop and lay on the horn until they decided to amble off the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment