https://t.co/5Uhsc6BcFh
— Andrew Branca Show (@TheBrancaShow) October 15, 2026
Marco Polo, 1254-1324.
We've all heard the expression, "the more things change, the more they say the same." Turns out that's true of India too. Here is a post about Marco Polo. He visited India and he keeps circling back to how dirty and shameless everything was. Take a look at this. I know it's tiny. I'll read it for all of us.
Marco Polo wrote about Indians,
They have no conscience about what they do. If a man lies with a woman and be found out, they do but laugh at him. In fact, they are [the] most lewd and wicked people that exist. Their people are the most brutish and bloodthirsty in existence for they kill and eat any stranger that falls into their hands. The people are black and Ill favored and live in a most beastly manner. They are the dirtiest and most brutish people that exist in the world. They eat in the most disgusting fashion without any table or cloth, and put the food directly into their mouth with their hands all covered in filth. They all go about naked only covering their loins with a cloth and account it no shame to expose their persons. Even the women wear nothing but a single cloth and go barefoot and bare-headed. They worship idols of the most abominable kind covered in grease, filth, and blood. Their temples are full of uncleanness, and the priests themselves are the filthiest of all daubed with ashes and cow dung. The people have no regard for cleanliness. Their houses are built with no regard to order, and they live among pigs and dogs all manner of unclean beasts. The people are black, ill-favored, and of disgusting aspect. Their hair is coarse and oily, and they never wash it.
Now, if you talk to an Indian today and you point out how trash strewn the entire continent is, they'll tell you, "Hey, it wasn't always like this. This happened because we were colonized, and you Europeans stole all our gold. Back in the day, we were kings and stuff."
Not according to Marco Polo.
This blog does a nice job of supporting the passage the Branca reads from.
