India's
main religion is Hinduism. Worshipped by over 800,000,000 of the
population (80%) it dominates the culture and political scene. There
are four main gods in the Hindu pantheon - Brahman, Brahma, Vishnu and
Shiva - and many other less important gods. Shiva is the most
'popular' god in the foothills of the Himalayas where I stayed, the
(unfortunately badly taken ) picture on the left is of his statue in the
town of Haridwar which is important as it's where the Ganges comes out of
the foothills and reaches the Indian plains.
Shiva is the destroyer. He is also known as
the creator who creates through destruction. 
Western religion doesn't seem to have a parallel to
Shiva, though there are some parallels between the other main gods.
Brahman is formless ,eternal and the source of all existence - the Holy
Ghost; Brahma is the creator of the universe - God; and Vishnu (also known
as Krishna, Hare Rama, Buddha) is he who protects and sustains all that is
good in the world - Jesus. On the right you can see one of our
Monkey friends 
with
a Hindu temple in the background. The
temple is thirteen stories high and has many
little sections, each of which has a statue or god image on display.
There were also many bells which people clanged as they went past.
There is a monkey god 'Hanuman' (2nd from the left
in the picture on the left) which is why monkeys are sacred. The man
in the picture is a Saddhu, an ascetic who lived in a hut by the river
Ganges and relied on donations. 
He
was teaching Karma Yoga to his disciples or 'friends' as he called them.
The river Ganges (seen again right as it's such a pretty view) is seen as being a living Goddess by the Indian people. All practising Hindus must visit an bathe in the river at least once in their lifetimes.
The
Hindus have signs which are of significance. The most significant of
which is the 'om' (pronounced 'aum'). You
can see an om on the top of the building in the picture on the left.
'Aum' is pronounced during Yoga to help proper breathing and some
Buddhists believe that repeating it enough can lead to a state of
emptiness.
The Swastika on the building is in no way connected with Nazism. Hindus (and Buddhists) have long used it to represent the wheel of time. The prongs going clockwise represents things to come, and is associated with Ganesh (Shivas elephant headed son) and Vishnu, as well as the sun and is generally regarded as auspicious.
The
monument on the right signifies the Tibetan
struggle for freedom against the Chinese government. The Tibetan
people are strong followers of Mahayana Buddhism, the Chinese have sort to
remove this religious worship from their culture through imprisoning many
monks and nuns. Also the 'Panchen Lama' the second most important
Lama (a Tibetan religious leader) was abducted at the age of six years
old. The most important Lama, the Dalai Lama, lives in Dharamshala.
He had to flee Tibet and now lives in exile.
Buddhism originated in India. The Buddha was
brought up with a wealthy background and through it all a way to live the
life of an ascetic. While wandering India he decided that neither
the wealthy way of life nor the austere way of life were of much use so he
chose to follow the 'middle way' and so found enlightenment. 
At the time of writing India and Pakistan were at the brink of war over Kashmir. At the time of partition India was divided into three areas, India today is the mainly Hindu area and Pakistan and Bangladesh are the Muslim areas. That said there are still 120,000,000 Muslims in India. I took an American to visit the largest Mosque in India. Here we were stopped by a Muslim who preached peace to all in the world whatever the nationality, and that Allah is great.