India, a country in south of a giant continent ‘ASIA'. India, a Nuclear power, regional power, developing country, a major player in world’s economy, 2nd largest in world in term of population, 7th largest in term of land area and worlds largest democracy. With 29 states and 7 union territories divided on linguistic basis. India has 780 languages that makes India second in world in terms of number of languages spoken. After seeing the above facts one can easily understand the level of diversity present in India. India’s language, religion, dance, music, architecture food and customs vary from place to place. India's culture is termed as amalgamation of several culture. India's culture has profound impact across the world. India's culture is one of the oldest surviving cultures of the world. Many ancient civilisations like of Mesopotamia, Greek, Egyptian etc vanished with time and their culture went away with them. India's culture and its influence increased with time.
The key features of India’s culture are as follows:- (1)Religion:- India is birthplace of many major religions in the world like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Apart from these Indian's were very tolerant toward other religion that helped those religion to establish themselves in India. Among those religion are Islam, Christianity, Zoroastrian, Judaism etc. India has highest population of Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and India has worlds third highest population of Muslims. All these religion brings India a variety of philosophy, literature, architecture, writing system etc. All these are spreading and influencing other parts of world from ancient time. For example by trade using silk route and interactions with arab world in ancient time. Indian philosophy of ‘Ahimsa' meaning non violence spread in world and was used in movements like American civil rights movement. (2)Festivals:- India being multi-cultural , multi-ethnic and multi-religious gives an opportunity to a person to witness and celebrate variety of festivals. As Hinduism is biggest religion in India. Hinduism is a religion in which it believes that god is one and there are many different ways to pray and remember god. Because of this thing festivals of Hinduism are more and are having regional celebrations. But few of the major Hindu festivals celebrated in India are Mahashivratri, Holi, Diwali, Kumbh Mela, Ganesh chaturthi and many more. Some regional festival include Onam, Pongal, Thaipusam in south India. Durga pooja in Bengal and Rath yatra in Odisha. Gangaur in Rajasthan. Apart form Hinduism other major festival of other religion celebrated in India with joy and enthusiasm are Eid-Ul-Fitr, Bakra Eid, Brarah Wafat and Muharram of Islam. Mahaveer jayanti in Jains. Good Friday, Christmas in Christianity. Guru Nanak Gurupurab, Vaisakhi of Sikhism. All these festival provide India to showcase its culture to world. All these festivals are celebrated in India with joy and enthusiasm and giving a message of peace, brotherhood and harmony. (3)Clothing:- Clothing play a very important role in showcasing India's culture. Clothing in India varies from region to region. Major factor influencing clothing in India are local culture, geography, climate and rural & urban settings. In India major clothing for women is sari and salwar kameez with dupatta thrown over shoulders and for men lungis and kurta payjama. There are many ways to wear sari and that also varies from place to place. Indian women perfect their charm and fashion with make up, ornaments, gemstones, bangles, bindi etc. Turban and caps in India are very popular. Sikhs wear turban as it is mandatory for them to wear and it is also weared in Rajasthan, some parts of Gujrat, Harayana and Madhya Pradesh. People of Himachal, Uttarakhand and Jammu Kashmir wears caps as per their tradition. (4)Dance:- India has very old relation with dance. Indian books on dance Natyashastra and Abhinaya Darpan dates back to 200 BCE. In India there are many type of dances performed in different regions. For e.g. Bharatanatyam of Tamil Nadu, Kathak of Uttar Pradesh, Kathakali and Mohiniattam of Kerala, Kuchpudi of Andhra Pradesh, Manipuri of Manipur and many more. (5)Music:- The oldest preserved examples of Indian music are the melodies of the Samaveda (1000 BC) that are still sung in certain Vedic srauta sacrifices; this is the earliest account of Indian musical hymns. Indian music is highly influenced from Persia, Arabia etc.Today Indian traditional classical music is can be classified as Carnatic and Hindustani Music. The current music of India includes multiple varieties of religious, classical, folk, filmi, rock and pop music and dance. The appeal of traditional classical music and dance is on the rapid decline, especially among the younger generation. These are just few of the features that I have discussed there are many more like Cuisine, Architecture, Visual Arts etc. India is incomplete without its culture. We should respect and spread this culture to other parts of world as to give respect and gratitude to our ancestors who preserved this culture for these many years from many foreign factors. By:- Sam Niels
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