What I Learned Backpacking India

I have spent the last two weeks traveling across India, with about another three to go.

Before my departure, friends and family recoiled at the mention of my trip. Their sole image of India was its filth and squalor.

Thankfully, social media was not my primary source of the subcontinent.

When I studied abroad in London for my final semester of college, I grew deeply interested in the history of the British Empire. It was no surprise, as I had been fascinated by history and geography my whole life, and the entire city oozed its imperial legacy.

Said interest brought me to investigate the great cultures which made up the empire - India undoubtedly the most significant.

And so began my dive into India, reading books like India: A History by John Keay, A Passage To India by E.M. Forster, Kim by Rudyard Kipling, Beast and Man in India by John Lockwood Kipling, and Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India by Shashi Tharoor.

Sufficed to say - this country has been at the top of my wish list ever since.

So far I’ve traveled through Delhi, Amritsar, Jaipur, Agra, and Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, with over half a dozen stops to come.

The contrast of life in India relative to where I come from in the United States is enormous.

While my culture shock was muted from my previous adventures in countries throughout Africa and the Middle East, I am no less aware of how insane this place is.

The anthem of India for millennia may have been the gentle strum of the sitar, or the cry of the peacock - but today, it is undoubtedly the squawk of endless horns from motorcycles, cars, and tuktuks. It takes a toll on the nervous system.

While the ancient and tranquil sounds still exist, you have to go far to find them. There is no question that India is in the middle of her industrial revolution.

As a result, India suffers from unimaginable levels of pollution in every form. In the local neighborhood of Agra where I stayed, the nearby canal had more garbage than water. Some of these sights are so hideous, they caused me to feel physically ill.

I listened to a YouTube lecture from an Indian entrepreneur who explained the reason for India’s massive pollution problem is a combination of government ineptitude, but more, a cultural lack of civic sense. There is little, if any regard, for a collective responsibility.

Mutual respect is far from perfect in the United States, but we are nonetheless incredibly fortunate to live in a society where it is both the expectation, and generally the default disposition.

However, India is not lacking in institutions. It arguably birthed the oldest religion in the world in Hinduism. While the Western characterization of “Hinduism” as a central theology is a fairly new concept, there is no doubt as to of how old the religious practices and beliefs are. They make Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, look like toddlers stood next to an elderly sage.

Temples abound in every corner of the country, comparable only to the number of cows that roam the streets. Even with an ancient and deeply ingrained native religion, India is an incredibly tolerant place for the other faiths of the world.

There we might learn two things.

Our culture and heritage in the West is tangible, meaningful, and worthy of preservation. True diversity is when all nations and peoples have a homeland for their way of life, not a mixing together of all into one unidentifiable mush.

And still, so long as other cultures are willing to respect the homeland’s way of life, they are in turn due respect - not as displacers, but as neighbors.

The differences between cultures can be so great, their exposure feels like a slap in the face. I spoke with my homestay host about asking a cute girl down the street out on a date, to which she replied aghast at the idea of such an informal and locally unacceptable courting.

While we might balk at the idea of arranged marriages on their face, who are we to judge so quickly? Is our romantic sphere so successful? Obviously not - the West is rife with collapsing birth rates, disconnected communities, and minuscule families.

I met a woman here who quit a job they loved, and moved across the country to care for their sick mother - tell me the last time you heard of someone doing the same where we’re from.

The concept of families coming together to be involved in a pairing seems quite sensible, while the idea of a father killing his daughter because of a premarital romance is clearly barbaric.

Free will is necessary, but not sufficient, to live a good life. Without discernment, wisdom, and virtue - we are free… to suffer and decay. All cultures in our modern world appear to be striving for a balance which both liberates the individual, and preserves the collective.

But India is not only full of people - this is after all, the land of The Jungle Book. Have you ever wondered where the phrase “lions, and tigers, and bears…” came from?

While reduced by over ninety-percent, and incredibly fragmented as a result of humanity’s disregard for nature’s value - India has megafauna biodiversity at a shocking scale.

Elephants, rhinos, buffalo, countless antelope and deer species, four species of bear, several species of wolves and wild dogs, tigers, lions, cheetah, leopards, snow leopards, all sorts of monkeys, and far more.

People imagine Africa when they think of safari - but India too holds riches in the animal kingdom.

A socioeconomic breakdown of the vast population that pressures the wilds of this land is interesting.

About one million people here are as wealthy as magnates from across the globe, with two out of the top ten richest people in the world being Indian. The upper class is made up of another sixty or so million people, who live on between sixty to eighty thousand dollars a year. The middle class is around five hundred million people, who live on about half the upper income. Finally, nearly eight hundred million people live on one thousand dollars a year, or roughly three dollars a day.

Each of the bottom three tiers strive for upward mobility. While the West witnesses the erasure of the middle class, India is still in the midst of a rapid expansion.

In sum, these first two weeks in India have brought me to reexamine three core ideas which I have found to be prevalent throughout my travels of the world.

The first is a reminder of how fortunate I am to have been dealt the hand of cards I was in this life. Gratitude for fate setting me down on the patch of dirt it did does not diminish the challenges we face back home - but neither are all challenges created equally, nor are their opportunities for solutions.

The second is an awareness of how complex life truly is. India cannot be boiled down to a dirty street - she is one of, if not the, most ancient civilizations on earth. We don’t owe any country or people our love or admiration, but do owe them precise examination and nuanced interpretation.

And finally, there are some countries that hold a magic for certain individuals. I love India for reasons I can describe, but also largely for a vibration which words are inadequate to express.

What a place.

Sincerely,

Jacob

P.S. I saw a wild tiger this morning - too far for a photo, but close enough for a lifelong memory.