This week we will be taking a look at Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri which covers stories about Indians in America and India. In order to better understand their stories, perhaps it would be helpful to talk about some of the belief systems to gain a perspective of Indian culture.
India is home to many religions; its current makeup includes a majority of Hindu’s with a much smaller number of Muslims. Beyond that India is also home to an even smaller number of Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains (Kramer). Therefore, India is a very diverse nation of different beliefs.
Not too long ago the geographic area in and around current India was partitioned into different nations in 1947. Originally it was partitioned into India and Pakistan, but Pakistan has since been divided into two separate nations: Pakistan and Bangladesh (“The Partition”). These divisions of nations did not happen easily or peacefully. The initial partition of India and Pakistan was not done by the people who lived in those respective regions but rather by the previously ruling British. Therefore, the partitions caused serious problems in the area. Many of these problems related to the religious and cultural differences between people. As a result relations between India and Pakistan are still very tense. India is mostly Hindu while Pakistan is mostly Muslim (“The Partition”). This has caused problems due to members of both religions living in both nations. Although, it is incredibly important to understand that these tensions are not because people of different religions cannot get along, it is that the partitioning of India and Pakistan was not carried out by natural citizens. Perhaps if the partitioning was done more considerably to the cultures of the people of the region, then these problems would not be problems today. Or at the very least, much less severe.
References
Kramer, Stephanie. “Key findings about the religious composition of India.” Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/21/key-findings-about-the-religious-composition-of-india/. Accessed 4 November 2021.
“The Partition of India: What Happened?” British Broadcasting Corporation, https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/46428985. Accessed 4 November 2021.
I really enjoyed reading your context presentation concerning the religion in India and Pakistan. It provides great background for the novel we are reading this week. Great job!
Great post! This gives lots of context about the history of India and Pakistan and helps me understand the context behind the novel.
Your post really helped me to set the tone of the tensions of the region at the time of the reading. It was very thorough! I think the religious aspect is a very important aspect of social issues as well. Great post!
Great job! I enjoyed reading your presentation, and I think you explained everything really well. This gives perfect context for this week.
Thank you for the background knowledge on the history of India based on religion and its relationships with other neighboring countries. I definitely agree with you, if the culture was taken into consideration when the partitioning was done then there might not be much of a problem that exists today between India and Pakistan.
This post was detailed enough to provide a good background of knowledge, while remaining simply-put enough to be easily understood by those who are more unfamiliar. I was not too familiar with India’s history, and I am glad I will have a good basis of knowledge with which to interpret Lahiri’s work. Great job!
This is a great post. It is extremely interesting to hear about how India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are related and how the divide of Pakistan causes problems in the area today. I am glad you added the part about how the divide is not due to difference in religion, but more specifically to how the divide was carried out. This really helped me understand exactly what is going on in that area.
Very interesting how it is not just the resultant partitioning that matters, but rather, how that partitioning came to be. I do wonder how much of a difference there really would be in the region if it were citizens instead of the British empire who partitioned the land.
Great job on this presentation! I think it is very interesting how all these middle eastern countries are related and how it plays a role in how they are today!
Interesting read, I had no clue how many religions were actually in india. It’s also nice to learn more about the topic that I covered.
You did a great job explaining all of this. It is interesting how these divides can happen to citizens who actually do not want this. I am excited to learn more on India and the partition.
This was a great context presentation that taught me a lot about the tensions between the two countries the I wasn’t aware of until now. I agree the situation could and should have been handled differently to lessen the tension between the two nations, but the government (higher power) essentially does what they want. If government took religion into account (like America), people could live freely amongst each other no matter their religion!
Great post! I did not know India had such diverse religions. The British are also responsible for a lot of the colonial problems in the world because of how they treated their territories. They messed up much of the African countries, exploiting them for their resources. They were responsible for the Israeli-palestinian conflict that is present today. And they are responsible for the violent partitions of India.
Hello! As I read your post I couldn’t agree more about the diversity within India. Growing up in India for seven years, I fully experienced this diversity and the positives that it brings about. For example, I learned not only about Hinduism but also about other religions such as the Muslims, Christians and Buddhists. This truly allowed me to open my eyes and experience the effects of all the cultures being in one location. Overall, I also learned a lot about the history in the division of Pakistan and India which allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of the way the religions interacts with each other.
Great post and I really enjoy reading it. You provide lots of the background information of the book and this truly makes me read the whole plot easier. Nowadays, Indian Americans are becoming more and more important in the United States. In recent decades, the group of overseas Indian Americans in the United States has been growing. Especially after the introduction of the new immigration act in 1965, Indian Americans have become the second largest Asian ethnic group after Chinese Americans.
This was a very informative post. It is interesting to learn about the history of the partitions and the different religions that reside in India. It is sad to hear how the clash of different religions and cultures caused the partitions by unnatural citizens, though.
Thank you for telling the information about India and Parkistan. I knew that they have conflicts before, but do not know the reason of religion. This blog helped me understand the cultural differences and religious conflicts these countries have.
This is a great post. You give us a detailed background about India and Parkistan. Before your post, I only know India has many different religions and has a tense situation with Pakistan, but I have less knowledge about their history and why they fight. Now, I know India is predominantly Hindu, while Pakistan is predominantly Muslim. They conflict each other since people have different belif are hard to live together.
I really liked your post! I found it very informative and provided a background in India and Pakistan which furthers my understanding of the reading, as well as a better grasp on that region of the world and countries interactions between one another.
I enjoyed your post! I thought you had a detailed understanding of India’s culture. You helped me understand it a little better because you explained it well. You also gave background that helped me connect with the stories. It’s crazy how complex and amount of religions there are in India.
Great post. I love how you mentioned how diverse India it. Many people don’t realize that there are hundreds of languages spoken and many religions being practiced.
I appreciate your post. I like reading it because you provide a lot of posts about the conflicts of different religions and cultures. I found it very useful and further deepened my understanding of this article.
Thank you for the context on the reading this week! This was very informative. It helped me gain a better appreciation for the reading.
Hello, I found your Context presentation to be interesting and close to home since I am Indian. It is true that India is a very diverse country, and it has many religions. I also liked how you provided a background on Indian history and how Pakistan divided and became an independent nation.
This post was very informative about the topic how different religions can coexist in one country. I’m interesting in learning more as I continue to read more about the stories related to the conflicts that took place in this country.
I really enjoyed your post. I believe you gave great information about Religion in India and Pakistan. I also didn’t know that India was partitioned into different nations in 1947. This was very interesting to me. Thank you for giving different perspectives on the religions and how they really make up India.
Thank you for sharing this post with me about India and Pakistan. Learning about new religion that I am nor familiar with is always nice.
This is a helpful post to help readers to learn more religious history of India Pakistan. I just know that Pakistan is separated from India. It is really bad that the division of India is divided. And also this post helps me to learn more about the religions in India, Hindu, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and Buddhists. I think religion plays quite an important role in India.
Thanks for your context presentation. I can imagine on the separation between people of same culture and how much tension that can bring. At the me time, I feel that there were people whose culture and religion was greatly affected by the separation. I did not know that Pakistan was a subdivision of India.