Of course one tries to learn as much as one can while visiting a country, but also of course many questions are left unanswered. There are certain things I thought it would be fun to learn more about, given time and resources:
– I have read/heard that the caste system was historically strongest in South India, including especially now Kerala. Did this help lead to the communist government there?
– What is the history of Keralan emigration as overseas workers? Keralans are well-educated and easy to get along with, but they are so disproportionately represented in the Gulf.
Kerala Supermarket in Fujairah, UAE
– To what extent has the [Roman] Catholic Church formally recognized, if at all, Thomas’s life in India?
– Read some more contemporary accounts of Vivekananda’s performance at the Parliament of Religions and related fame in the West.
– How much difference is there between the various Arabic scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi and Urdu? How similar are spoken Hindi and Urdu? How about numerals?
– How long has there been an Iran consulate in Hyderabad?
– History of biryani, and the super long grain rice they have for it in Hyderabad. Biryani is food number one in Oman (though unfortunately not as good as Hyderabadi biryani)–when did it become so? Related, the origin of the world and rice dish pilaf/plov/pulov.
– More about the history of the Parsis (Zoroastrians) in India, especially in light of our trip to Iran.
One reply on “India Research Items”
I think Urdu may be more similar to Farsi than Hindi. At least, a Pakistani guy I knew in college who spoke fluent Urdu claimed that he could somewhat understand my Farsi.
Written Arabic and Farsi are very similar, though my understanding is that Arabic uses a few characters that are not used in Farsi.