India Part of Greater Middle East?

Originally posted by Bulldog Conservative The overwhelming majority of Pakistanis are definitely culturally and ethnically related to all of the other South Asian countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh.   I'm sorry but this comment is on parallel with an American saying   American:  "Hey hows life in Arabia"   Persian: "I'm actually from Iran"   American: "Well its all the same thing, your all Arabs, speak Arabic"   Persian: "Actually I'm not an Arab and my mothertongue is Farsi"   American: "Persian or whatever your all Arabs man whats the difference..."   Do you know any Sri Lankans? please explain the similarities between them and Pakistanis, actually please go into the similarities they have with Indian Punjabis.   India itself is so diverse, ethnically, religously, linguistically, how can one speak of India as a monoethnic/linguistic/cultural block.

Originally posted by bilal_ali_2000 ...          Ok i have to ask you back up that claim. Aryabhatta's work was written in verse very different from your traditional Greek style. And of course there were many things which were known by many cultures that doesn't make any one work derivative of another. Here is good commentary on the work of Aryabhatta by an expert in the field.   http://www.gongol.com/research/math/aryabhatiya/

Originally posted by pinguin Originally posted by bilal_ali_2000 ...          Ok i have to ask you back up that claim. Aryabhatta's work was written in verse very different from your traditional Greek style. And of course there were many things which were known by many cultures that doesn't make any one work derivative of another. Here is good commentary on the work of Aryabhatta by an expert in the field.   http://www.gongol.com/research/math/aryabhatiya/    Well, I am not downplaying Aryabhatta's work, because he is a genious I admire a lot and I have known all my life.   My point was very simple: Greeks, Indians, Iberians, and all the peoples of the Classical times knew each other and where at contact quite often. In the case of Aryabhatta, is just common sense to realize that after the age of glory of math in Alexandria, and given the contacts that city had, among others, with India, some knowledge and techniques reached India as well.   Now, with respect to Aryabhatta writing in poetry, you should realize that style is only for presenting the final works. In ancient times (in the West, too), the record of all the intermediate steps for a demonstration where usually hiden from the public, and only the results were shown (for instance, only recently a book that describe the methods of Archimedes was found!). I am certain that Aryabhatta knew many methods commonly used in his days by mathematicians, but that are not preserved fully.

Edited by bilal_ali_2000 - 05-Mar-2008 at 09:33

Bulldog, Saba

First of all I consider Pakistan a multicultural nation. However I also understand that a certain majority or elite in Pakistan runs the nation, and even that a certain language is made the national language due to cultural sensitivity and purpose of unity.

Having said that, yes Pakistan can be between two cultures much as Lebanon or Iraq is multicultural. Id also argue you dont know what my axis culture theory really means.

Id also argue your someone else on this forum under a different name. Its up to the mods to prevent this.


Edited by Mughaal - 08-Mar-2008 at 07:51

Mughaal Bulldog, Saba   I think when people put Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar in the same boat, its in reference to the Hindic Cultural Axis and not neccessarily in regards to language or physical features