India's portrayal by foreigners

What do you think of when you think of India? Many think of the bustling, colorful markets of Old Delhi. Some envision the tranquil backwaters of Kerala. And others think of the old-world marble architecture of what is arguably India’s most famous landmark, the Taj Mahal. But India is not just whimsical towns filled with old-school charm. No, it’s so much more than that.

The subcontinent is home to hundreds of towering buildings, to winding freeways filled with Audis and BMWs galore, to massive shopping malls filled with every brand under the sun. India is a place where businessmen in Armani can get cups of steaming chai at roadside tea shops, a place where the colors of Holi and the lights of Diwali intermix with glass-and-steel skyscrapers. It’s where you can eat a pao-baji — an Indian sandwich of potatoes with spicy and sweet sauces — at a vendor on the street before heading to a five-course dinner at the Taj Hotel.

It is an incredible mixture of traditional culture and brand-new innovation, a mélange of languages and religions and ideas. But why does Western media not portray it that way?

The West is often disappointed when it gets to India and sees that it is so much more than the land of sadhus and spices that the media portrays it as. When they’re hit with a dose of reality and modernization in place of clichés, they often look around in confusion.

So, let's answer some questions:

Buddha- Indian or Nepali ?

How some western media bodies wrongly potray hindu revivalism

Is caste system exclusive to India as perceived in the West?

Is Napoleon Europe's Samudragupta?

Why is India a subcontinent when Europe is a continent ?

Buddha was born in Nepal then why do Indians claim that he was from India?

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One of the hot questions posed to Indians after the anti-Indian wave in Nepal is that 'Buddha was Nepali and not Indian, then why do Indians claim him?'. Few idiots have been flooding the social media with the same kind of question, where India and Indians were hurled abuse just because Indians own Buddha as much as (if not more than) Nepal do. So, let's answer this question.

'Siddhartha was Nepali but Buddha was Indian.'- This is what I claim. I will back my claim with facts and then you can decide for yourselves.

• Place where he meditated, attained enlightenment & became Lord Buddha -Bodhgaya(India)

• Place where he delivered his first sermon - Sarnath(India)
• Places where he preached Buddhism -Gangetic Valley(India)
• Place where he died -Kushinagar(India)
• Place where first Buddhist council was held immediately after Lord Buddha’s death - Rajgriha(India)
• Places where second, third and fourth Buddhist council were held - Vaishali, Patliputra, & Kundalvan ( India). These Buddhist councils set up the future discourse of Buddhism.
• It was because of Indian King Ashoka that Buddhism spread in South Asia. Modern day Nepal didn't even exist at that time. It was under his rule that time.

                  

Buddhists visiting Nepal -9 Lakhs, Buddhists visiting BodhGaya alone -20 Lakhs. There are many other important sites of Buddhism in India. I am not even counting them.

So, I guess it's not only Indians, but the entire world sees India as the Land of Buddha and Buddhism.

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