Which of these facts is true or false about India?

[Odysseusa]

  http://www.nriol.com/info/amazingindia.asp


1.  India is the world's largest, oldest, continuous civilization.
  2. India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history.
  3. India is the world's largest democracy.
  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.
  5. India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.
  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.
  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.
  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.
  9. 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.
  10. The art of Navigation was bornin 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'.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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).
  14. 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.
  15. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.
  16. 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.
  17. Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.
  18. 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.
  19. When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization).
  20. The four religions born in India, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, are followed by 25% of the world's population.
  21. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.
  22. India is one of the few countries in the World, which gained independence without violence.
  23. India has the second largest pool of Scientists and Engineers in the World.
  24. India is the largest English speaking nation in the world.
  25. India is the only country other than US and Japan, to have built a super computer indigenously.

Famous Quotes on India (by non-Indians)

    * 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 Romain 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.

[stone]

The Indus Valley Civilization is one of the most astonishing things I have ever heard of. How did it work? It seems to have had no military nor religion nor civic buildings and yet had sewerage systems and clean water supplies for everyone and traded far and wide. We still can't read their script. It seems tragic that they might have got it right thousands of years ago and no one has since???


http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld ... 8y_xkV1ADg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_Valley_Civilization
The purpose of the citadel remains debated. In sharp contrast to this civilization's contemporaries, Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, no large monumental structures were built. There is no conclusive evidence of palaces or temples—or of kings, armies, or priests. Some structures are thought to have been granaries. Found at one city is an enormous well-built bath (the "Great Bath"), which may have been a public bath. Although the citadels were walled, it is far from clear that these structures were defensive. They may have been built to divert flood waters.

Most city dwellers appear to have been traders or artisans, who lived with others pursuing the same occupation in well-defined neighborhoods. Materials from distant regions were used in the cities for constructing seals, beads and other objects. Among the artifacts discovered were beautiful glazed faïence beads. Steatite seals have images of animals, people (perhaps gods), and other types of inscriptions, including the yet un-deciphered writing system of the Indus Valley Civilization. Some of the seals were used to stamp clay on trade goods and most probably had other uses as well.

Although some houses were larger than others, Indus Civilization cities were remarkable for their apparent, if relative, egalitarianism. All the houses had access to water and drainage facilities. This gives the impression of a society with relatively low wealth concentration, though clear social leveling is seen in personal adornments.

[stone]

India also has possibly the most authentic Christian tradition. St Thomas actually knew Jesus. When the Portugese first went to India they burned Indian Christian books because they thought that Thomas Christians posed a threat to Catholicism if word of it spread to Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Christians

[MediumTex]

India also has possibly the most authentic Christian tradition. St Thomas actually knew Jesus. When the Portugese first went to India they burned Indian Christian books because they thought that Thomas Christians posed a threat to Catholicism if word of it spread to Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Christians

I think that today India has the largest Christian population in the world.

India today is, however, really about two worlds--there is one that is trying to move into the First World and enjoy western-style standards of living and international cultural relevance, and then there is the other India of absolutely crushing poverty and corrupt government, both of which seem to hang on stubbornly no matter how many Indian engineers graduate from Indian universities.

One of the bizarre ironies of modern India is that it provides foreign aid to assist with poverty in other countries when the poverty in its own country is worse than that of the countries receiving Indian foreign aid. 

Everyone talks about how much people in India value gold, but few people ask why this is the case.  One of the reasons that Indians like gold is that they have become so accustomed to corrupt government, poor currency management and rigged markets that they gravitate toward an asset like gold that is immune to these other risks to personal wealth.  IMHO, a nation with a stable currency, clean and transparent markets and a legitimate political process would find a lot more money being funneled into its equity and debt markets as opposed to gold jewelry.

[stone]

There is an amazing TV series about Dharavi in India. It has the highest population density on Earth and no government (it gets overlooked). They don't have a sewerage system and that is a tragic catastrophe but in some ways it came across very well indeed.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/kevi ... e/series-1
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvan ... eview.html
"When it came to the social architecture of the slum, however, the programme was fascinating. Eighty-five per cent of Dharavi’s residents have jobs and crime is low. There are 15,000 illegal factories – and 300 bakeries, though the loaves they export don’t advertise their origins. (Would you want to bite into bread, however delicious, baked in a community where medical authorities treat 4,000 cases of deadly infectious diseases a day?) It’s amazing what a society without regulations or taxes can achieve. “Capitalism is in rude, primitive health here,”? concluded McCloud. "

[Coffee]

I always think of India when I hear Lefties argue that "Poverty creates terrorism."

[stone]

Coffee, wasn't it true that most of the 9/11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia- that emphasizes what you're saying about a lack of a link between poverty and terrorism.

There are terrorist attacks in India -both Islamists in Kashmir and Naxalites in central India:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxalite
" For the past 10 years, it has grown mostly from displaced tribals and natives who are fighting against exploitation from major Indian corporations and local corrupt officials. In 2006 India's intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing estimated that 20,000 armed cadre Naxalites were operating in addition to 50,000 regular cadres"

Personally I think poverty is a shameful thing to have in the world but I agree about it not being the cause of terrorism. Could political injustice be more of a risk factor for outbreaks of terrorism?