Indian culture is the legacy of social norms and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse nation of India. It was the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and, after 1947, the Republic of India. The term also applies to countries and cultures outside India whose history is strongly connected to India through immigration, colonization, or influence, particularly in South Asia and Southeast Asia. India's languages, religions, dance, music, architecture, cuisine, and customs vary across the country.
Indian culture, often described as a fusion of Indian Hindu, Indian Muslim, Indian Sikh, and many other cultures, has been influenced by a history spanning thousands of years, beginning with the Indus Valley Civilization and other early cultural regions. India has one of the oldest continuous cultural traditions in the world.
Many aspects of Indian culture, such as Indian religion, math, philosophy, food, languages, dance, music, and films, have had a profound impact on the Indosphere, Greater India, and the world. The British Raj further impacted Indian culture, such as the widespread introduction of the English language, which led to the creation of a local English dialect and its influence on Indian languages.
Religious culture
Indian religions like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism are all based on the concepts of dharma and karma. Ahimsa, the philosophy of non-violence, is an essential aspect of indigenous Indian religions, whose most well-known proponent was Mahatma Gandhi, who used civil disobedience to unite India during the Indian independence movement – a philosophy that further inspired Martin Luther King Jr. and James Bevel during the American Civil Rights Movement. Religions of foreign origin, including Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are also present in India, as are Zoroastrianism and the Baha'i Faith.
India comprises 28 states and 8 union territories with diverse cultures and is the world's most populous country. Indian culture, often described as a melting pot of diverse cultures, spans the entire Indian subcontinent and has been influenced and shaped by a history spanning thousands of years. Throughout India's history, Indian culture has been significantly influenced by various religious traditions. Ancient India and early Hinduism were influenced by East/Southeast Asian cultures, particularly through Austroasiatic groups such as the early Munda and Mon Khmer, but also by Tibetan and other Tibeto-Burman groups, which significantly impacted local Indian peoples and culture. Many scholars, such as Professor Przelewski, Jules Bloch, and Lévi, and others, have concluded that early India suffered a significant cultural, linguistic, and political Mon-Khmer (Austroasiatic) influence, as evidenced by Austroasiatic loanwords in Indo-Aryan languages and the cultivation of rice, which was introduced by East/Southeast Asian rice-agriculturalists using a route from Southeast Asia through Northeast India into the Indian subcontinent. They are credited with shaping Indian philosophy, literature, architecture, art, and music. Greater India was the historical scope of Indian culture beyond the Indian subcontinent. This is particularly associated with the spread of Hinduism, Buddhism, architecture, administration, and writing systems from India to other parts of Asia via the Silk Road by travelers and maritime traders in the early centuries of the Common Era. To the west, Greater India overlaps with Greater Persia in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountains. Over the centuries, India has witnessed a great fusion of cultures, including Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, and various tribal populations.
India is the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and other religions. These are collectively known as Indian religions. Indian religions, along with the Abrahamic religions, constitute a major part of the world's religions. Today, Hinduism and Buddhism are the third and fourth largest religions in the world, with a combined following of over 2 billion, and possibly as many as 2.5 or 2.6 billion. Followers of Indian religions—Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists—make up approximately 80–82% of India's population.
India is one of the most religiously and ethnically diverse countries in the world, with some societies and cultures being the most religious. Religion plays a significant and important role in the lives of many people here. Although India is a secular Hindu-majority country, it also has a significant Muslim population. Hindus constitute a majority of the population in all 28 states and eight union territories, with the exception of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Lakshadweep. Muslims are present throughout India, with significant populations in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Assam; while only Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep have a majority Muslim population. Christians are India's second-largest minority.
The diversity of religious groups in India has led to a history of turmoil and violence among them. India has been a hotbed of violent religious conflicts between people of different faiths, including Hindus, Christians, Muslims, and Sikhs. Many groups have formed separate national-religious political parties, and despite government policies, minority religious groups continue to face discrimination from more powerful groups seeking to maintain and control resources in specific areas of India.
According to the 2011 census, 79.8% of India's population practices Hinduism. Islam (14.2%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%), and Jainism (0.4%) are the other major religions in India. Many tribal religions, such as Sarnaism, are found in India, although these have been influenced by major religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and the Bahá'í Faith are also influential, but in smaller numbers. Atheism and agnosticism also have a marked influence in India, as well as a tolerance of other religions.
Atheism and agnosticism have a long history in India and flourished in the Shramana movement. The Charvaka sect began in India around the 6th century BCE. It is one of the earliest forms of materialist and atheistic movement in ancient India. Shramanas, Buddhism, Jainism, Ajivikas, and some sects of Hinduism uphold atheism and reject the idea of a creator god, rituals, and superstition. India has produced some well-known atheist politicians and social reformers. According to the 2012 WIN-Gallup Global Index of Religion and Atheism report, 81% of Indians were religious, 13% were not religious, 3% were confirmed atheists, and 3% were undecided or did not respond.
Family Structure and Marriage
For generations, the joint family system has been prevalent in India. This occurs when the elder members of the family—parents, children, their spouses, and their children—live together. Typically, the head of the joint Indian family system is the eldest male member. He makes most of the important decisions and rules, and other family members are required to follow them. Nowadays, due to the economy, lifestyle, and high cost of living in most metro cities, people are abandoning the joint family model and adopting the nuclear family model. Previously, the purpose of living in a joint family was to foster love and concern for family members. However, now, spending time with each other is a challenge as more and more of them live abroad to support their needs. The rise of the nuclear family trend has altered the traditional family headship structure, and older men are no longer essential heads of the family, as they often live alone in old age and become more vulnerable than ever.
In a 1966 study, Orenstein and Micklin analyzed India's population data and family structure. Their study showed that Indian households remained relatively consistent in size between 1911 and 1951. Subsequently, with urbanization and economic development, India saw the breakdown of traditional joint families into more nuclear-like families. In his book, Sinha, after summarizing numerous sociological studies on the Indian family, notes that over the past 60 years, the cultural trend in most parts of India has been a rapid shift from joint families to nuclear families, similar to population trends in other parts of the world. In the 1990s, traditionally large joint families constituted a small percentage of Indian households, and average per capita household income was low. He found that joint families persisted in some areas and situations, partly due to cultural traditions and partly due to practical reasons. Due to differing ideologies of rural and urban parenting, young people from lower socioeconomic classes tend to spend more time with their families than their peers. With the spread of education and the growth of the economy, the traditional joint-family system is rapidly breaking down across India, and attitudes toward working women have changed.
No comments:
Post a Comment