Why the Indian namaste is the most hygienic form of greeting

Dina Nath Batra will probably smirk and say, “But, of course! That is why we Indians invented the namaste as the accepted form of greeting. And it is wonderful that many other people in southeast Asia followed suit!” Western scientists who have recently hit upon the fact that the common handshake has the potential to cause a harmful transfer of germs —not to mention more extreme greetings practised around the world such as cheek kissing and nose rubbing — they naïvely cite the fist bump is a safer alternative. Ancient Indians, as was their wont, had that all figured out too — along with the minutiae of quantum physics and other such concerns — long ago, as Mr Batra would doubtless assert. So, they devised what is obviously the safest, cleanest and bestever option: joining the palms of both hands. No bodily contact, no transfer of bacteria. Simple.

Clearly, the efficacy of this traditional salutation has also been vindicated by the fact that it has been adopted in part by other cultures, at least as a part of their prayer rituals. Western scientists can save themselves a lot of precious time if they pay a little more attention to ancient Indian history and pick up clues about the way forward on a host of what they erroneously consider mysteries but were actually analysed and sorted out millennia ago on this subcontinent.