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Indian Culture
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Indian Culture
Introduction
India is a South Asian country which has one of the most ancient and rich cultural backgrounds in the world. Indian culture has survived the changing world orders including the wave of globalization and is still revered and appreciated by the people (Overgaard, 2010). Indian culture is diverse and deeply rooted in the lives of the people and has been influenced by different factors including religions, philosophies, languages, art and music, traditions and governance among others. With the era of globalization, some aspects of western culture have been borrowed and accepted in India (Overgaard, 2010). Through cultural exchanges and socioeconomic partnerships with the international community, much interdependence has been achieved.
As a South Asian and having lived in India for years, I have come to appreciate the cultural diversity of the Indian people which is also shared by other south Asian countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal. I identify with this culture and uphold the customs and beliefs that this culture entails. I want to shed light on the Indian culture to all interested parties particularly the south Asians. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Indian culture in terms of the general historical Indian background, cultural identity, religion, philosophy, visual art and music, language, cuisine, family structure and clothing.
Historical Background and Cultural Identity
India covers much of the South Asian subcontinent, sharing this area with other six countries like Nepal and Pakistan (Keay, 2011). Indian culture is one of the oldest in the world and is believed to form part of the ancient civilizations dated back to 4,500 years ago. Indian culture is an amalgamation of different cultures and is identified by most people of the Indian subcontinent including the neighboring countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (Mishra & Singh, 2002). Indian culture has been influenced by a historical background that spans a thousand of years.
Dharmic religions has been attributed to the development of Indian culture and are believed to shape the much of the Indian literature, art and architecture, music and philosophy (Stafford, 2006). During Paleolithic period, hunting and gathering was the mainstay of Indian culture. This was followed by development of agricultural settlements and communities.
Around 2700 BCE, India formed the first urban civilizations across the Indus Valley and west India.
Indian culture spread to other Asian countries during the Common Era and medieval periods (Stafford, 2006). Religion, form of governance and administration, architecture and writing systems spread to other parts of India during this time. These early civilizations fell at around 1500 BCE and a variety of kingdoms mushroomed following years of war and conquests across the Indian subcontinent. These periods were punctuated by invasions by foreigners and this gave birth to the earliest religions such as Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism (Stafford, 2006).
Western societies and Europeans did not value the Indian culture since it was deemed an inferior culture. Westerners saw Indian culture as an evolving society and therefore, disregarded it as primitive and inferior to their culture (Stafford, 2006). This led to colonization of India and other culturally inferior continents like Africa and the Far East. Indians however, made major advances and achievements in the fields of architecture, mathematics and medicine which raised their image in the world (Mohammada, 2007). They invented Taj Mahal architecture, zero in mathematics and Ayurveda and Yoga medicine (Keay, 2011).
India being the second largest populous nation in the world with around 1.2 billion citizens is divided into many regions (CIA, 2010). Such enormous population affects the living standards of many people with many people living in poverty. Governments of countries in south East Asia have tried to counteract these disparities especially for minorities by providing better facilities and bridging the income gap such as Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka (Mishra & Singh, 2002). According to WHO, India has 28 states and seven territories (World Health Organization, 2011). These different regions have distinct cultures with variations in language, food and cuisine, religion and art. Indians live mostly in the rural areas accounting for almost 73% of the population. The major cities include Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Madras, Chennai and Bangalore (CIA, 2010).
Indian cultural identity involve affiliation to any of the languages and religious philosophies of Indian subcontinent (Mohammada, 2007). These philosophies guide the way of life of the people including their customs, behavior, food, clothing and religion. Ethnic relations also shape the cultural identity of the Indians. India houses many ethnic groups, castes and tribes. Caste system forms the Indian social stratification and hierarchical structure based on the family names, occupations, ranks and specific subcultures (Mohammada, 2007).
Religion
India religion is vast and diverse. Many Indians ascribe two one of the four main religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism (Stafford, 2006). Christianity and Islam are also recognized religion in India with 13% of Indians being Muslims. Hinduism and Buddhism are the 3rd and 4th largest world religions respectively. 84% of Indian population ascribe to Hindu religion (Stafford, 2006). Hindu religion has many variations depending on the geographical regions. These variations include Vaishnava, Smarta, Shakteya and shaiva. Christians, Sikhs and Buddhist account for a small percentage of the population.
Religion has a very important role in the lives of Indian people. India, as seen, has the most diverse religious affiliations and deeply rooted religious societies. However, atheism and agnosticism has also flourished in India especially within the Sramana and Carvaka movements (Raman, 2012). These atheist groups dispute the relevance and accuracy of Hinduism by questioning the existence of creator deities and ritualism (Raman, 2012).
Philosophy
Indians has many philosophical orientations based on the Brahmanical traditional classification which outlines the orthodox and the heterodox philosophies (Webber, 2000). Orthodoxy and heterodoxy is based on the philosophy’s regard of Vedas, being the only source of world knowledge. The main orthodox Indian philosophy is the Hindu philosophy. Hindu philosophy is based on six pillar or schools of thought namely Yoga, Nyaya and Samkhaya (Webber, 2000). The other three are Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta schools of Hindu philosophy. These Hindu philosophies are the approved orthodox schools of thought that are widely followed in the Indian subcontinent. Indians also believe in heterodox philosophies which include Jain and Buddhist as well as Ajivika and Carvaka (Webber, 2000). Other traditional classifications of philosophical schools are Saiva, Rasesvara and Vidyaranya.
Indian philosophies were formalized during the Common Era period at around 1000 BCE (Webber, 2000). There was a lot of competition and integration amongst the different schools during this era. Some schools were assimilated into others while some survived. Jainism and Buddhism survived as well as Vedanta and Advaita. Schools like Saiva and Ajivika did not survive and were assimilated into other schools and some of their doctrines became extinct. Subsequent years up to 20th century were colored with reformulations and various commentaries from traditional philosophers like Ram Mohan Roy (Brekke, (2002).
Language
India has no official language due to the many territories and states that occupy the land (Mallikarjun, 2004). The four main language families in India are Indo-Aryan which is spoken by most of northern Indians; Dravidian language family which is spoken by most of the southerners; Austroasiatic language family or Munda which is spoken by a number of mid-Indian region and the Tibeto-Burman language family used by most of the north-eastern Indians (Mallikarjun, 2004).
Most of the people speak Hindi language accounting for 59% of the population. Many Indians use Hindi and Devanagari script as the form of writing. Some of the other notable dialects are Bengali, Marathi and Urdu. Telugu and Tamil are also spoken by some of the Indian people (Mallikarjun, 2004).
Family structure
Indians embrace a joint family system as their family structure. This means that the family live together under one roof including the parents, children and their spouses and offsprings. The head of the family is the eldest male in that family. With advent of globalization and urbanization this trend has changed and many Indians have embraced much smaller nuclear families (Tenhunen & Saavala, 2012). Marriage is a very important transition in Indian lives. Arranged marriages have always been the way forward in India for many centuries. In the current world today the same custom continues although some families have adopted the western method of allowing children to pick their own spouses.
Historically, the arranged marriages were organized by the parents and other respectable family members and usually occurred at a tender age. Currently the age of marriage for women was increased to 21 years. Some tribes and regions still marry their daughters before the age of 18 years. Traditionally, women paid the bride price or dowry since it was considered that the woman had claim on their family’s wealth (Tenhunen & Saavala, 2012). Wedding rituals are very important in India and usually involve extensive decorations and colors mixed with music, dances and costumes depending on the religion.
Inheritance was traditionally patriarchal and many women had no claim on inheritance of family property. Currently, women and men are legally equal and have equal claim to inheritance (Tenhunen & Saavala, 2012). Divorce rates in India are low due to the strict marital customs and religious beliefs that guide the Indians.
Greetings in India are very reserved and include the famous Namaste and Namaskar greetings in Hindi (Keay, 2011). These greetings express a lot of respect for one another especially male and females in different age brackets. The family structure in India is based on caste system which each person belonging to a specific caste (Tenhunen & Saavala, 2012). Each caste has a specific family name, occupation, social status and specific subculture. The caste system is based on the social status of each family and the generations of each caste cannot be transferred to another caste. That means that no person can change from one caste to another.
Visual Art and Music and Architecture
Visual art and music and architecture form an integral part of Indian culture. Indian music is characterized by various music forms, music instruments and dance styles (Kak, 2002). Ancient forms of classification of instruments was based on primary vibration sources such as strings, air and membranes. Traditional music was heavily influenced by the Samaveda melodies and other Hindu texts. These melodies were based on tonal structure of seven key notes as produced by a flute. Traditional Indian classic music has two distinct styles namely Carnatic and Hindustani music styles (Kak, 2002). These styles are sang using a rhythmic cycle (Tala) and follow a melodic base (Raga).
Current music comprises of various religious, fold and classical music as well as pop and popular music (Kak, 2002). Current contemporary music include Filmi and Indipop music styles. Popular dance styles in India are eight distinct styles such as kathak, kathakali, kuchipudia and Manipuri among others (Singh et al., 2007). These dance styles depict the romantic nature of Indian dance which uses body sensual body movements and gestures. These dance styles depict the inner beauty of a man and express emotions and love. Indian film industry, Bollywood, has flourished over the years and has produced most of the highest ranking movies in the world.
Paintings and sculptures form part of the important visual arts in Indian culture. They are seen in houses, caves, temples and other religious monuments. They express love, naturalism and religious deities in accordance with Indian religions (Singh et al., 2007). Writings like the poem Prana by Gopal express the post modernistic perspectives of South East Asia (Mishra & Singh, 2002). One notable sculpture is the vishvakarma budhist sculpture found in the Ellora cave. Indian architecture is also very unique which makes various expressions across time and space. The famous Taj Mahal is an important work of the indo-Islamic architecture (Singh et al., 2007).
Clothing
Indian clothing is also very diverse and vary from region to region within the subcontinent. It is characterized with colorful silk saris which are worn by many women in India and dhoti clothing for men (Kalman, 2009). Women use Bindi for makeup which is worn on the fore heads. Traditionally Hindu married women wore red Bindi and Sindoor. Other popular clothes for women are Churidar, Salwar kameez and dupatta (Kalman, 2009).
Dhoti is an unstitched clothing which men tie around the waist and legs. Men also wear Kurta which is a long loose shirt covering up to the knees. In special occasions such as festivals, Sherwani is the ideal clothing for men. It is a long coat which covers up to the knees and is buttoned to the collar. Most of the Indian clothes are made from cotton and others from silk which are ideal for the climatic conditions in the region (Kalman, 2009). Men also wear turbans on their heads.
Food and Cuisine
Most of the Indians take rice as the staple food accounting for about half of the population (Chapman, 2009). The other half rely on wheat, maize, millet and barley as staple foods. There are, however, many geographical variations in diet based on religion and customs. Muslims, Sikhs and Jews in India take meat but don’t take pork. People in lower castes eat all kinds of meat except beef. Indians of higher castes and Jains are vegetarians and do not consume eggs.
Indian cuisine is diverse and complex and employ a wide range of ingredients during preparation, cooking and culinary presentation. Indian cuisine comprise of salads, sauces, vegetables, meat, spices, sensuous, bread and desserts (Chapman, 2009). Milk also forms part of the main primary ingredients. India is known for spicy foods worldwide. Indian cuisine vary from very spicy foods to mildly spicy foods and vary according to seasons and regions. Regional variance is based on local agricultural and climatic conditions. Indian cuisine is therefore, divided into five categories; the northern, eastern, western, southern and north eastern cuisine (Chapman, 2009). One of the widely known Indian cuisine is the Punjabi cuisine which comprises of chicken tikka masala, a popular food in the United Kingdom (Chapman, 2009).
References
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