India

Where Ancient Traditions Are Infused With a Modern Sensibility.

Indus Valley civilization, considered to be one of the oldest civilization takes their name from the River Indus. The name Indus, originates from the Old Persian word ‘Hindu’.

India or its official name the Republic of India is the second most populous country located in South Asia after China. Surrounded by the Bay of Bengal on the right and the Arabian Sea on the left, India borders Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Nepal and Bhutan up north. Historically, the valleys around were the home of the early settlers around the region. Settlers around the region formed their civilisations and it is from this region that the Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism occurred and flourished.

The caste system emerged as early as the first millennium BC. It is a system which embodies much of the social stratification and many of the social restrictions found in the Indian subcontinent.

In the 19th century, India was ruled by the British where the rigid caste system was highly favoured and encouraged for an efficient governing system. It would take years of nonviolent resistance and persuasion by Mahatma Ghandi before the country was granted its independence in 1947. The country’s independence was however marred by the resulting violence and the subcontinent was partitioned into two separate states - India and Pakistan before Pakistan splintered into two States again; Pakistan and Bangladesh.

To the present, the system is well established and deeply entrenched especially in the outer fringes of cities and slums and around the countryside. In 1947, India declared untouchability or the dalit – the lowest caste - to be illegal. Programs and other anti-discriminatory laws and social welfare initiatives have since been placed to ensure that a large margin of the population would be able to escape their fate.