We are studying South Asia now and unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to travel there either. A friend of mine from New Delhi invited me to travel there with her once, but I wasn't able to go. Hopefully, before I die, I'll get to visit India. I hope to go to see the Ganges River, Taj Mahal, and many other beautiful sites on the subcontinent.
The same friend/teacher generously was a guest speaker in my classroom a couple of years ago. She dressed in a traditional beautiful sari and brought authentic Indian food for my students. She told the students of her arranged marriage which evolved into love and of many other cultural aspects of her country.
Houston is a very multi-cultural city and has a large population of South Asians, so it is not unusual for us to be in close contact with this culture.
The major religion of India is Hinduism and in my class, we do a cursory study of this monotheistic religion.
Most people consider Hinduism to be polytheistic, but Hindus believe that Brahman is their one God and all the rest come from him. This is similar to the Christian trinity. If Christians believe in the father, son & holy spirit consider themselves monotheistic, then can't the Hindus who believe in the God Brahman and the other gods that come from him be considered monotheistic as well? This topic is a point of contention for some, but really if Hindus think they are monotheistic it shouldn't matter what others say.Other aspects of Hinduism & Indian culture that we study are reincarnation and the caste system. Many students will say "that's weird" or "that's wrong" when encountering beliefs contrary to their own. I try to emphasize that just because things that are different doesn't mean they're necessarily weird or wrong.
We do a caste system/reincarnation simulation where the students draw their social roles. The slip of paper tells them which caste they were born into and gives them instructions on how to behave according to their caste. The Untouchables have to pick up trash (I throw crumpled paper as the fake trash) and sit on the floor in the back of the room. There is usually only 1 or 2 Brahmans who sit in the front chair & are instructed not to talk to anyone of a lower caste. I'm including a diagram to illustrate the pyramid structure of the caste system.
The order of the Hindu caste system is a sort of hierarchy, with Brahmins at the top & Sudras at the bottom. Untouchables, aka Harijans or Dalits, fall outside of the system altogether.
