Characteristics of Indian Culture
Indian society consists of vast diversity, this will give us the content to understand the knowledge about the distinctive cultural values related to Indian culture to students in a different discipline. They should know the age-old traditions and multiple cultures which has enriched the Indian Society even in cultural diversity.
Indian Society:
Its composition and Diversity:
Indian society has an inherent compactness; unity. The bond of unity may be termed as Indian culture. This cultural factor is not recent achievement. It has grown since the birth of Indian civilization. Man creates civilization. He is also the maker of his society. Society and culture are interconnected with social consciousness also comes culture awareness. A tradition develops covering many aspects of man’s life. His emotion, feeling, sentiment, belongingness, possessiveness create society. Simultaneously his creativity, finer sense of mind, thinking faculties create culture. Indian society is Indian culture and vice-versa. Both has been interlinked by certain value systems. What binds together Indian society is a very pertinent question.
Indian has its geographical identity:
With the Himalayas in the North, Indian Ocean in the South. The Bay of Bengal in the East and Arabian Sea in the west is a vast subcontinent. There are perennial rivers like the Gange, Barhamputra, Narmada, Mahanadi, Godavari, Kaveri and Krishna enjoying huge flows of water and social respect for their support to human civilization. This great land is called Bharatbarsha.
A unique synthesis of cultures, languages, religions, castes and communities has upheld, its unity and integrity despite its diversities. Unity and integrity has been maintained despite sharp economic and social inequalities. In fact, India i.e., Bharat is a panorama of its own type without a parallel in the world. Our early people called their county as ‘Bharat Varsha’i.e the country of Bharat and his progeny a famous kind of Puranic age. The Kind Bharat was the son of King Dushyanta and Sakuntala Bharat Varsha is supposed to be part of an island continent known as Jambu Dwipa, one of the seven concentric legendary islands comprising the earth. India owes its name to the great river ‘Indus’ or “Sindhu” in the North–West, which is now in Pakistan. This river was a very huge river whose sight amazed the early Aryan settlers. They called this river as Sindhu which means a huge sheet of water or a synonym for the ocean.
India has a log historical depth:
Its history commenced in the unknown and unchronicled past. History remains silent about the exact origin of Indian society. It is believed that the first man of our land had arrived at about 5,00,000 B.C. The Indus valley civilization of Mahenjodaro in Sind and Harappa in Western Punjab is the earliest picture that we have of India’s past. The remarkable continuity and the capacity to withstand the challenges of time is indeed unique. Unity in diversity is the distinctive feature of Indian Society. This feature is reflected in almost all aspects of Indian society and in the life of it’s people. It has become part of India’s self-identity. This feature of coexistence of unity and diversity is well maintained throughout its history. This unique cultural tradition of unity and diversity of Indian society can be best explained it we examine and identify both the factors of elements of diversity as well as the bonds of unity.
When people belonging to different races, religions, languages and cultures live in a particular country we may call it a diverse country. As India is a vast and ancient country it has many diversities. These sources of diversity in India may be traced through a variety of ways such as race, geography, ideologies, cultural beliefs, Political Philosophies.
India is a racially diverse country:
Existence of multiple races is the most remarkable feature of Indian society. Almost all important races of the world exist in Indian society. Majority of Indian population are descendants of immigrants from across the Himalayas’. The entry and spread of the immigrant races resulted in the regional concentration of different racial elements and creation of racial distinctiveness.
Linguistically India is also a diverse country:
A large number of languages are found to be spoken by Indians. Considering this multiplicity of languages a famous sociologist A.R Desai remarked “India presents a spectacle of museum of tongues”. Regarding religious context, India is a religious diversified country. Existence of multiple religions is the most remarkable feature of Indian society. Almost all major religions of the world are found to be practised in India by its followers without any opposition. Since beginning it is a secular state. India is religiously a heterogeneous society even though more than eighty percent of its population profess Hinduism.
Geographically India is a diverse country:
It is a vast country and because of its vastness, it is considered as a sub-continent. It extends from Himalayas to the sea. At present, its territory expands two thousand miles from Kashmir to Cape Comorin and one thousand five hundred miles from Gujarat to Assam. Caste is one of the most important and peculiar Indian social institutions. It distinguishes Indian society from others. Caste is a major type of stratification in which different caste people are arranged in a hierarchical manner. It is an extreme form of closed social system.
But after all, in spite of all diversity, Unity in diversity or unity diversity is one of the fundamental features of Indian society. Despite various diversities, there are strong bonds of unity underlying these diversities and uniformity of life which very often eludes to the observer. No doubt India is a vast as well as ancient country with a museum of cults and customs, culture and social systems, creeds and faiths and inhabited by people of diverse languages, religions and races. Still, there are deep undercurrents of unity. India upholds this ideal of unity which is nurtured by time. Hence the concept of bonds of unity is not something new to India.
During British rule, Indians became united under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi waged a great weapon-less war against Britishers which is unique in the world. In spite of all, India’s unique literature, song, music, drama, dance, art and architectural treasures are other sources of Indian unity and integrity. India’s unique customs, tradition and cultural heritage and it’s greatness create unity among all Indians.
India’s religious unity is expressed through the existence of places of worship and pilgrim centres all over the country. These places of worship are several holy places where Hindus are worshipping their Lord in an emotional manner. These places are not only known as worshipping places feelings of unity among by the Indians. Religions like Buddism, Jainism and Sikhism are almost similar with Hinduism in respect of beliefs and faiths. They share almost similar philosophy. These religious were wide spread and had considerable impacts on Indians. Thus all these religious faiths, beliefs justify the fact that India is one and possess religious unity. Along with geographical, cultural, religious and historical unity India also possesses political unity. But the political unity of Indian society is derivative of religious and cultural unity.
Besides all these, from the context of Linguistic aspects, India also possess linguistic unity. India is a museum of tongues. There are more than sixteen hundred fifty two number of languages and dialects are in India. All these characteristics make the Indian culture rich and possess a strong sense of unity finds its geography, history, religions, languages and culture. There is an undercurrent of unity that runs through apparent diversities of races, languages, geography castes and religions and proved as the symbol of unity in diversity.
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