posted
i try not to read other folks websites or comments about thier cultues because it seems that everyone thinks they were the greatest or most advanced etc even if it's not true.
while i don't agree with some of the statements below it is good to know certain things about india in ancein times that i did not know that much before. certain discoveries india has made was made by ancient egypt and nubia too.some not as refined as india some jus tas refined as india.some made later than india,some made earlier than india. the facts that i see is that ancient sudan and the land in modern southern egypt was the most advanced culture overall but india did had some learning later in ancien ttimes that was the most advanced,but in morals,social and political advancedments i would say kush and later the later nubian kingdoms was the most advanced in ancient times.in technology both had equal high level of steel and iron making,so overall the would be on the same level but if you included other factors nubia is overall is higher.
it seems to me that india would have the second advanced civilization in the ancientt world and not the first but they are immpressive
Hindu Achievements
Cosmology:
-First people to imagine the age of the universe in billions of years (8.64 billion years, we know today that it is ~12-16 billion years old) -Idea of cyclical universe, creation and destruction, similar to the cycle of expansion and retraction in the big bang theory. -Ability to calculate eclipses -First to calculate the earth's circumference -There is an old Sanskrit Sloka (couplet) which is as follows: "Sarva Dishanaam, Suryaha, Suryaha, Suryaha." meaning that there are suns everywhere, Hindus of ancient times were the first to realise that there were other stars like our sun. -Initial ideas about gravity -heliocentric theory
Mathematics:
-Invented Algebra (which the arabs refined later on) -Invented the decimal system -Invented the zero -Discovery of Taylor series for sin, cos, tan inverse, pi before the Europeans -First usage of negative numbers -Usage of Pythagorean Theorem before Europe -Usage of Quadratic formula before Europe -First to learn how to solve simultaneous equations -Geometry usage (Gameeti in Sanskrit) -Trignometry invention (Trikonamati in Sanskrit)
Physics/ Earth Sciences:
- First people to theorise about the water cycle - A theory of evolution in terms of rebirth to a higher organism (predecessor for rebirth) - First ideas about the conservation of matter - Primitive ideas of underlying elements of matter before the Greeks - First people to calculate the age of the Earth to 4 billion years (in the fifth century BCE!) - Predecessors of the Heliocentric Theory - Preliminary theories on Gravity - First to realise that clouds were composed of water - Realised that Earth was flattened at the poles and not a perfect sphere - Knowledge of Earth's rotation - Priliminary ideas as to why twilight and moon phases occur (that are consistent with science)
Chemistry:
- Ability to build an iron pillar that still hasn't rusted 2000 years later - Built a golden statue of Buddha that shines still although it was buried for centuries - Invented the stainless steel - Built some of the strongest weapons/armor in the ancient world - Preliminary ideas about the atom (called anu in Sanskrit) - First to theorise that water can be broken into Hydrogen and Oxygen
Life Sciences:
- One of the first to study the human anatomy - First surgery - Knowledge of how to cure cataracts (opthomological surgery) - First people to do rhinoplasty (plastic surgery) - Invention of Ayurveda which contains knowledge on thousands of medicinal herbs, and a holistic approach to medicine - Ayurvedic remedies destroy the source rather than cure the disease, so although they worked gradually, they didn't have any side effects. - Ayurveda had knowledge on remedies to psychiatric ailments like Schitzophrenia - Ability to heal bones without castes - Advanced forms of meditation had the ability to alter the rate of metabolism of the yogi, allowing them to survive in the harshness of the Himalayas with little clothing. - Advanced Yoga can even help lower blood pressure, blood sugar. - First people to work on Vetinary Medicine - Preliminary ideas of evolution based on the soul reincarnating as more sophisticated organisms - Knew that trees absorbed water from the roots
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"In India I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth. but not adhering to it. Inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything but possessed by nothing"
- Apollonius Tyanaeus - Greek Thinker and Traveller 1st Century AD
Many of the advances in the sciences that we consider today to have been made in Europe were in fact made in India centuries ago.
-Grant Duff, British Historian of India
India was the motherland of our race and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages. India was the mother of our philosophy, of much of our mathematics, of the ideals embodied in Christianity... of self-government and democracy. In many ways, Mother India is the mother of us all.
-Will Durant, American Historian
Ancient Indian theories lacked an empirical base, but they were brilliant imaginative explanations of the physical structure of the world, and in a large measure, agreed with the discoveries of modern physics.
-A.L. Basham, Australian Indologist
If I am asked which nation had been advanced in the ancient world in respect of education and culture then I would say it was - India.
-Max Muller German Indologist
Indian cities are prosperous and stretch far and wide. There are many guest houses for travellers. There are hospitals providing free medical service for the poor. The viharas and temples are majestic. People are free to choose their occupations. There are no restrictions on the movement of the people. Government officials and soldiers are paid their salaries regularly. People are not addicted to drinks. They shun violence. The administration provided by the Gupta rulers is fair and just.
-Chinese traveller Fa Hien, during the reign of Chandragupta II
"We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made!"
-Albert Einstein
"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!"
-French scholar Romaine Rolland
"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 astrictive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only!"
-Mark Twain
"India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border!"
-Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA
"After a study of some forty years and more of the great religions of the world, I find none so perfect , none so scientific, none so philosophical and none so spiritual that the great religion known by the name of Hinduism. Make no mistake, without Hinduism, India has no future. Hinduism is the soil in to which India's roots are stuck and torn out of that she will inevitably wither as a tree torn out from its place. And if Hindus do not maintain Hinduism who shall save it? If India's own children do not cling to her faith who shall guard it. India alone can save India and India and Hinduism are one. "
-Dr. Anne Besant
" I am convinced that everything has come down to us from the banks of the Ganges, - astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc."
-Voltaire
"The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual evolution of endowing value to mankind. The Gita is one of the clearest and most comprehensive summaries of the spiritual thoughts ever to have been made."
-Aldous Huxley
"The religions whose theology is least preoccupied with events in time and most concerned with eternity, have been consistently less violent and more humane in political practice. Unlike early Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism (all obsessed with time) Hinduism and Buddhism have never been persecuting faiths, have preached almost no holy wars and have refrained from that proselytizing religious imperialism which has gone hand in hand with political and economic oppression of colored people."
-Aldous Huxley
" Vedanta is the most impressive metaphysics the human mind has conceived."
-Alfred North Whitehead
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We had our own evolution before Darwin: "Ages before Lamarck and Darwin it was held in India that man has passed through 84 lakhs (8,400,000) of birth as plants, animals, as an "inferior species of man" and then as the ancestor of the developed type existing to-day. The theory was not, like modern doctrine of evolution, based wholly on observation and a scientific enquiry into fact but was a rather (as some other matters) an act of brilliant intuition in which observation may also have had some part."
The Indians came closest to modern ideas of atomism, quantum physics, and other current theories. India developed very early, enduring atomist theories of matter. Possibly Greek atomistic thought was influenced by India, via the Persian civilization. The Rig-Veda, is the first Indian literature to set down ideas resembling universal natural laws. Cosmic law is connected with cosmic light, with gods, and, later, specifically with Brahman. It was the Vedic Aryans... who gave the world some of the earliest philosophical texts on the makeup of matter and the theoretical underpinnings for the chemical makeup of minerals. Sanskrit Vedas from thousands of years before Christ implied that matter could not be created, and that the universe had created itself. Reflecting this, in his Vaiseshika philosophy, Kanada (600 B. C) claimed that elements could not be destroyed. Kanada's life is somewhat a mysterious, but his name is said to mean "one who eats particle or grain" likely referring to his theory that basic particles mix together as the building blocks for all matter. Two, three, four, or more of these elements would combine, just as we conceive of atoms doing. The Greeks would not stumble on this concept for another century."
"In India, we see the beginning of theoretical speculation of the size and nature of the earth. Some one thousand years before Aristotle, the Vedic Aryans asserted that the earth was round and circled the sun. A translation of the Rig Veda goes: " In the prescribed daily prayers to the Sun we find..the Sun is at the center of the solar system. ..The student ask, "What is the nature of the entity that holds the Earth? The teacher answers, "Rishi Vatsa holds the view that the Earth is held in space by the Sun."
"Two thousand years before Pythagoras, philosophers in northern India had understood that gravitation held the solar system together, and that therefore the sun, the most massive object, had to be at its center." "Twenty-four centuries before Isaac Newton, the Hindu Rig-Veda asserted that gravitation held the universe together. The Sanskrit speaking Aryans subscribed to the idea of a spherical earth in an era when the Greeks believed in a flat one. The Indians of the fifth century A.D. calculated the age of the earth as 4.3 billion years; scientists in 19th century England were convinced it was 100 million years."
" Through astronomy, geography, and geology, go thou to all the different countries of the world under the sun. Mayest thou attain through good preaching to statesmanship and artisanship, through medical science obtain knowledge of all medicinal plants, through hydrostatics learn the different uses of water, through electricity understand the working of ever lustrous lightening. Carry out my instructions willingly." (Yajur-veda 6.21).
" O royal skilled engineer, construct sea-boats, propelled on water by our experts, and airplanes, moving and flying upward, after the clouds that reside in the mid-region, that fly as the boats move on the sea, that fly high over and below the watery clouds. Be thou, thereby, prosperous in this world created by the Omnipresent God, and flier in both air and lightning." (Yajur-veda 10.19).
" The atomic energy fissions the ninety-nine elements, covering its path by the bombardments of neutrons without let or hindrance. Desirous of stalking the head, ie. The chief part of the swift power, hidden in the mass of molecular adjustments of the elements, this atomic energy approaches it in the very act of fissioning it by the above-noted bombardment. Herein, verily the scientists know the similar hidden striking force of the rays of the sun working in the orbit of the moon." (Atharva-veda 20.41.1-3).
Markandeya Purana (54.12) speaks of Earth as being flattened at the poles and bulging at the equator, that is, not perfectly spherical.
The Vishnu Purana, in an obvious elaboration of the above quotation from the Aitareya Brahmana, also speaks of antipodes of Earth and indeed implies the existence of Earth’s rotation. In addition, even more elementary concepts like the phases of Moon and the cause of twilight were well understood, as was the fact that the blue sky is nothing but scattered sunlight. (cf. Markandeya Purana, 78.8, or 103.9)
The ancient text of Agastya Samhita describes the method of making electric battery, and that water can be split into oxygen and hydrogen.
Distance between earth and sun = 108 times sun-diameter
Distance between earth and moon = 108 times moon-diameter
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The science of chemistry in India has been a great sufferer due to the destruction of the Indian ancient literature. The long heavy iron pillar near the Kutub Minar at Delhi, standing in the sunshine and rain for more than about 2000 years without getting rusted, is ample proof that chemistry and metallurgy were sufficiently advanced in ancient India. Similarly, the long and heavy statue of Buddha in the lying pose at Kushinagar near Gorakhpur, which still shines like gold in spite of remaining buried for many centuries, is a challenge to metallurgy. Similarly, many other monuments also hide great chemical secrets.
Much of the chemical knowledge is empirical rather then deductive. This is true of modern chemistry as well. Hence simply knowing a few basic principles is not enough to arrive at the process of producing the desired material. The actual method has to be either rediscovered, or may possibly be found in some hidden literature after extensive and minute survey.
Note: Hindus made the best swords in the ancient world, they discovered the process of making Ukku steel, called Damascus steel by the rest of the world (Damas meaning water to the Arabs, because of the watery designs on the blade). These were the best swords in the ancient world, the strongest and the sharpest, sharper even than Japanese katanas. Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Persians, Turks, and Chinese imported it. The original Damascus steel-the world's first high-carbon steel-was a product of India known as wootz. Wootz is the English for ukku in Kannada and Telugu, meaning steel. Indian steel was used for making swords and armor in Persia and Arabia in ancient times. Ktesias at the court of Persia (5th c BC) mentions two swords made of Indian steel which the Persian king presented him. The pre-Islamic Arab word for sword is 'muhannad' meaning from Hind. So famous were they that the Arabic word for sword was Hindvi - from Hind.
The crucible process could have originated in south India and the finest steel was from the land of Cheras, said K. Rajan, associate professor of archaeology at Tamil University, Thanjavur, who explored a 1st century AD trade centre at Kodumanal near Coimbatore. Rajan's excavations revealed an industrial economy at Kodumanal. Pillar of strength The rustless wonder called the Iron Pillar near the Qutb Minar at Mehrauli in Delhi did not attract the attention of scientists till the second quarter of the 19th century. The inscription refers to a ruler named Chandra, who had conquered the Vangas and Vahlikas, and the breeze of whose valour still perfumed the southern ocean. "The king who answers the description is none but Samudragupta, the real founder of the Gupta empire," said Prof. T.R. Anantharaman, who has authored The Rustless Wonder. Zinc metallurgy travelled from India to China and from there to Europe.
"This universe is the outpouring of the majesty of God, the auspicious one, radiant love. Every face you see belongs to Him. He is present in everyone without exception."
"Everything in the outside world changes constantly. But the Lord of Love in the inner world never changes. He rules both the inner and the outer realities. Meditate on Him. Merge in Him. Wake up from the dream that you exist apart from him."
"Realizing who you really are, discovering your spiritual identity, is your true purpose in life. If you fritter away your time stoking the fires of your body's endless cravings, you are commiting spiritual suicide. The body is nothing more than the vehicle of the immortal spirit. You are living spirit, not the dying body!"
"God's grace is like a strong wind that's always blowing. But we have to raise our own sails."
"Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap."
"Love God and selflessly serve others. Your past evil karma will become like a canceled check."
"After a cycle of universal dissolution, the Supreme Being decides to recreate the cosmos so that we souls can experience worlds of shape and solidity. Very subtle atoms being to combine, eventually generating a cosmic wind that blows heavier and heavier atoms together. Souls, depending on their karma earned in previous world systems, spontaneously draw to themselves atoms that coalesce into an appropriate body."
"The followers of Sankhya put their trust in the words of the sages. The followers of Yoga put their trust in their own experience. There is no other wisdom equal to Sankhya. There is no other power equal to Yoga."
"One who understands the nature of the soul, the nature of karma, and the nature of the nine planets, gains knowledge of the past, present and future. Without the science of astrology, one cannot unlock the mystery of time."
"In correctly designed and aesthetically pleasing buildings, people enjoy good health, prosperity, intelligence, tranquility, happiness, and the birth of healthy children. If the laws for the proper design of a building are ignored, the people inside suffer from depression, disappointment, and ill fortune."
i am not going to respond to everything here but here are some facts i will mentions
some facts steel was invented even earlier than india in east africa and was on the same level as india.high levels steel was invented too in kush and later nubia in later ancient times in the later nubian kingdoms. Trignometry -india was not the first the invented but it did further refine it in ancient times -Invented the zero-not the only ones to do this.the maya did too -Invented the decimal system-kushites invented this too -Invented Algebra (which the arabs refined later on)- nope india did not but they did further refine it and arabs even later too and nubia,mali china europe etc starting using the more advanced form in the middle ages. science- in many ways ancient sudan and india have the same basic level of science but india most likely in some area was more advanced and some area sudan was but overall i think india was becae a bit more higher only in late ancient times but it was a different story in the middle ages and early modern times.
if anyone has a fact or correction about india please mention them too or wants to reply to the website about this article check out the link below.
Caucasoids are responsible for MOST discoveries in the world.
Posts: 12143 | From: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable | Registered: Jun 2007
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most ancient indians were not caucasoid and they were many early discoveries in early egypt,sudan,some other areas in africa and later africa and parts of asia including india.
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-Invented Algebra (which the arabs refined later on)- nope india did not but they did further refine it and arabs even later too and nubia,mali china europe etc starting using the more advanced form in the middle ages. science- in many ways ancient sudan and india have the same basic level of science but india most likely in some area was more advanced and some areas sudan was, but overall i think india may have been abit more advanced in science but only in very late ancient times ,but there is still more to learn about kush and the later nubian kingdoms in ancient times so it is possible sudan may have been just as advanced in science as india in science or abit more so but we do know that the level of science in ancient india,sudan and northern kush and later nubia was higher than rome or the greeks.we know in the middle ages and early modern times that the nubian kingdoms were more advanced in science than india.
I think axum in ancient times may have been more advanced than ancient india too if you include morals certain other factors.i have to look into that more.
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here are some facts from my point of view.first of all indian medical writings did not appear until after the 1 cen. a.d. my comments are next to the comments of the first post.
- One of the first to study the human anatomy----------nope,the first to study it was the ancient egyptians and early sudanese.
- First surgery---nope,the first to study it was the ancient egyptians and early sudanese.
- First people to do rhinoplasty (plastic surgery)---not sure maybe true
- Invention of Ayurveda which contains knowledge on thousands of medicinal herbs, and a holistic approach to medicine------others had holistic aproaches first and had a wide range medicinal herbs.early egypt and sudan dor an example.
- Ayurveda had knowledge on remedies to psychiatric ailments like Schitzophrenia---not know about that one - Ability to heal bones without castes-----not know about that one.
- Advanced forms of meditation ------not the only ones
- First people to work on Vetinary Medicine------i don't think so
- Preliminary ideas of evolution based on the soul reincarnating as more sophisticated organisms------i don't they were the only ones.
- Knew that trees absorbed water from the roots--------other may know this too
- Invented the stainless steel--------nope,the the only onres to invent.in fact in high level of steel was invented first in east africa
- Built some of the strongest weapons/armor in the ancient world----not the one ones
- Preliminary ideas about the atom (called anu in Sanskrit)-----i do not think they were the only ones.
- First to theorise that water can be broken into Hydrogen and Oxygen--------maybe the first maybe not.
- First people to theorise about the water cycle---maybe or maybe not.
- First ideas about the conservation of matter---maybe or maybe not.
- Primitive ideas of underlying elements of matter before the Greeks------and others may have done it before the indians - First people to calculate the age of the Earth to 4 billion years (in the fifth century BCE!)---------i do not know about this one
- Preliminary theories on Gravity-----not the first i think
- First to realise that clouds were composed of water-------maybe the first maybe not
- Realised that Earth was flattened at the poles and not a perfect sphere--------not theonly ones i think.
- Knowledge of Earth's rotation-------not the only ones.
- Priliminary ideas as to why twilight and moon phases occur (that are consistent with science)-------not the only ones i think.
-Usage of Pythagorean Theorem before Europe------and before india i assume
-Trignometry invention (Trikonamati in Sanskrit)-------notthe first in india
-Geometry usage (Gameeti in Sanskrit)---not the first
-Initial ideas about gravity----i do not think the first
-First to calculate the earth's circumference------not the first but maybe more on point with this in ancien times,but who knows.
-Ability to calculate eclipses--------not the first and not the only ones
-Idea of cyclical universe, creation and destruction, similar to the cycle of expansion and retraction in the big bang theory.------do know abou this.
-First people to imagine the age of the universe in billions of years (8.64 billion years, we know today that it is ~12-16 billion----do know about this
africans had a wide range of herbs and drugs.greeks and romans wrote they were the most advanced doctors they knew. and the best writers/historians of the greeks and romans wrote that ancient sudan,kush and the later nubain kingdoms in ancient times were the most advanced cultures they knew so african science in ancient times most likely the most advanced if you consider they had the best drugs,herbs and surgeons and certain other more advancements science in the region south of ancient egypt science. it would help if we could understand more of the meriotic writings so we could have a more clear view of kushite advancements in science and more bodies have to be studied too so we couldget more of a clear picture from that point of view too.maybethat study is somewhere out there alreadly.
indian math in late ancient times was more clearly more advanced,but that change in the middle ages.
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if anyone has a fact or correction about India please mention them
1. India invented the stainless steel
Steel
Cooper smelting had been going on in the West African Sahara and Sahel since at least 2000 BC. That could have been the precursor to an independent African discovery of iron metallurgy. The iron-smelting techniques of smiths in sub-Saharan Africa were so different from those of the Mediterranean as to suggest independent development: African smiths discovered how to produce high temperatures in their village furnaces and manufacture steel over 2,000 years before the Bessemer furnaces of 19th century Europe and America. (Jared M. Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997), page 394)
Iron
Gold is for the mistress, silver for the maid; Copper for the craftsman, clever at his trade. “Good!” said the Baron, sitting in his hall, “But Iron, Cold Iron, is master of them all.” -- Rudyard Kipling
The idea that sub-Saharan Africans independently invented iron is more than a century old. It goes back at least to a German scholar, Ludwig Beck, who published a five-volume history of iron between 1884 and 1903. In the first volume he wrote: “. . . [w]e see everywhere an original art of producing iron among the numerous native tribes of Africa, which is in its entire essence not imported but original and . . . must be very old.” Around the same time some Egyptologists, notably the Frenchman Gaston Maspéro, concluded that ancient Egypt had learned its ironworking from black Africans to the south. The German Felix von Luschan in his writings on the art of old Benin, also thought sub-Saharan Africans originated iron technology, as did the British metallurgist William Gowland. If sub-Saharan Africans were smelting iron earlier than the mid-first millennium BC, as some archeologists have been claiming and some historians echoing, they might have mastered the technology as early as, or even earlier than, the British or the Chinese." Source
Iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, appears in Nok civilization in Africa by 1600 BC. Source
Inhabitants at Termit, in eastern Niger became the first iron smelting people in West Africa and among the first in the world around 1500 BC. Source
The Iron Age in the Ancient Near East is believed to have begun with the discovery of iron smelting and smithing techniques in Anatolia or the Caucasus in the late 2nd millennium BC (circa 1300 BC).
The Iron Age in the Indian subcontinent introduced around 1200 BC.
Iron working was introduced to Europe around 1000 BC, probably from Asia Minor and slowly spread northwards and westwards over the succeeding 500 years.
The Iron Age in Ancient China begins in ca. 600 BC, and is taken to last until the beginning of Imperial China and the rise of the Qin Dynasty in the 3rd century BC.
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Posts: 1549 | From: California, USA | Registered: Jan 2006
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Scholar-experts on the history of science[including astronomy] such as Sarton, Negeubauer, etc, never attribute anything original to India. It's always Egypt, Greece, Baylon and Persia.
The foundations of mathematics lies in geometry and trigonometry. The AEs were the original developers of such. Civil engineering, medical science and astronomy all began with the AEs--not in India.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
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true,however these eurocentric scholars do not mention advances in the medical sciences,engineering,technology , astronomy etc too from certain other african cultures like sudan,and others .the yoruba had a advanced math system too that they invented but many folks in the west do not know about it. ivan van sertma as a whole list in his book.and there are new updated works too from others.
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^ And just to remind certain folks. There is no such thing as 'caucasoid' which is a debunked Eurocentric term. And the peoples of India consist of diverse populations most of whom are black anyway.
Posts: 26243 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: ^ And just to remind certain folks. There is no such thing as 'caucasoid' which is a debunked Eurocentric term. And the peoples of India consist of diverse populations most of whom are black anyway.
I wonder how many blacks are in india today.
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