wonder if someone of Indian decent could comment on this.
Hello, resident Indian here. This is actually very much a parallel to the inbred hick situation in one way. While inbred hicks bump their sisters for kicks and Indians do this for auspicious reasons, they both occur in situations of extreme ignorance. The hicks are usually trailerpark trash with a elementary school education, and the rural village indians that do this, are pretty much at that same intelligence mark. In fact, alot of the hyperreligiousness in India exists with the rural villagers, and this is where you get backward behavior like sati (wives jumping onto their husbands cremation fires to burn along with them), people stabbing their arm with a stick for some sort of religious purification, people who make vows to keep their arm in the air for the rest of their lives, and the like.
The thing about India, and much of the 3rd world, is that the disparity between wealth and poverty is HUGE, with a smaller middle class than in America. Therefore the society is more split. You have very wealthy people who, even with the currency rate, would be able to own your hometown here, and then people who have never ever TOUCHED, the indian equivalent of a $100 bill before. It's hard to concieve of for those of oyu who've never left the states, or at least, have never travelled to poorer ountries.
That's why I URGE YOU ALL - travel, see the world. You'll gain an appreciation for humanity, for the people you see who live in conditions far worse than you could imagine, but who push on each day. And you'll gain an appreciation for who lucky you are.