India+Culture

Overview India has seen many waves of migration from a variety of foreign forces like the Persians, Arabs, British and Turks. Though, with time, all of them retreated, they left behind their mark which is still reflected in the culture and traditions of India. From one state to another, there is so much variation in the language, attire, beliefs and other demographic aspects. However, there are some very prominent features that bind all Indians together. The cultural traditions of India have been passed on from generation to generation and have become deeply rooted in the Indian way of living.  Language India is a vast country, with a lot of cultural and geographical diversities. This has resulted in a number of different languages spoken across the country. Some of these languages are accepted nationally, while others are accepted as dialects of particular regions. The Indian Constitution declares Hindi to be the official language of the Union. English is the commonly used official language of India. It enjoys a special status and remains the additional official language of India. It is also the authoritative legislative and judicial language. There are various regional languages as well. In fact, each state of India has its own official language, apart from the numerous dialects. However, the Constitution of India lists only the following 22 regional languages:
 * History || Geography || Culture || Economics || Politics || Class Activities || Resources ||

[]   Religion Every religion significantly adds to the culture and traditions of India. With its own set of beliefs, all of them make the country appear extremely diverse. **Hinduism **, for example, revolves around numerous Gods and Goddesses that are worshipped for different reasons and thus, giving the devotees the freedom to choose their own path of life. **Christianity** believes that there is only one God and that his son, Jesus Christ, came down to this Earth in order to save mankind from death. **Sikhism** also follows one God with the prime importance of leading a life of faith, justice and discipline and ultimately the goal of salvation. On the other hand, **Buddhism** strives to create an environment where everyone lives in peace and distributes love through the teachings of Buddha. **Islam** is a monotheistic religion wherein the Muslims believe that God created the Universe and is the Supreme power that rules all. Prophets such as Ibrahim made were successful in teaching the people about the truths of life. **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Jainism ** is yet another religion known for its peace loving nature. It is taken as far as not allowing the killing of insects, as the followers believe that every living being has a soul. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">These are just a few examples of the varied and numerous belief systems that exist in India. Even in the same religion, there are different cultures and traditions which are adhered to in different parts of the country. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;"> [] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ffad00; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 25px;">Beliefs <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">**Arranged Marriage**--  <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">The traditional arranged marriage has long been a part of the Indian culture. The institution of marriage is considered very sacred in the India. The parents think that since they are older and thus, wiser, they can make better decisions in comparison to their children. Today, taking the consent of the boy and the girl before marriage is important. They meet each other before marriage, gauge their compatibility & if everything fits, they get engaged. Generally, there are several factors like compatibility of the to-be-couples' horoscopes, family background, wealth, social standing, caste and so on, which are taken into consideration by the parents of both sides under arranged marriages. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">**Touching Feet**-- <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Those who do not know much about the Indian culture and tradition get very baffled when they see children in India touching the feet of their elders. This is, in fact, the most common Indian gesture and touching someone's feet means the person who is doing the act is showing his respect to the one whose feet he/she is touching. When an elder person's feet are being touched, he /she, in turn, is supposed to touch the head of the person doing the act and bless him /her for long life, fortune and prosperity. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">**Fasting**-- <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Fasting is mentioned in many Indian religious scriptures. It is said to establish a harmonious relationship between the body and the soul. It is not only a part of worship, but an act of self-discipline too. There are specific days on which Indians fast, and for varied reasons. Some people fast on Tuesdays in respect for Lord Hanuman. Some people abstain from anything citric on Fridays, in devotion to the Goddess Santoshi Mata. There are many others who fast solely to maintain good health. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">**Henna**-- <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Whenever there is any happy occasion or festivity, the Indian women celebrate it by applying henna designs on their hands and feet. Apart from serving the role of a body art, applying henna is also considered as very fortunate. [] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ffad00; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 25px;">Superstitions <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">The standard viewpoint is that most of the Indian beliefs and values are in place to protect people from evil spirits. Superstitions are deemed important in India, and generally hint at future occurrences and can either be good or bad. Anything from the call of a bird to the falling of a utensil is considered an omen. It may seem that some superstitions are silly, but to the Indian people, they are important. Here are a few examples: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">--It is lucky to see an elephant before leaving for a journey, because an elephant represents Lord Ganesha, the Indian God of good luck. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">--The cawing of a black crow signals the arrival of guests. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">--Indians feel happy if a sparrow builds a nest in a new house because it signals good fortune. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">--Leaving one's home after a wedding or other important event is a significant occasion. Thus, Indians often consult an astronomical chart in order to set a favorable date for this. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">Even the daily life of Indians is governed by beliefs and superstitions. For example, Monday is not a favorable day for shaving, and Thursday is a bad day for washing one's hair. It is also very common for Indian people to have their dreams analyzed and interpreted. [] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ffad00; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 25px;">Etiquette <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Indian culture and tradition does not allow unnecessary touching or any form of physical contact, especially between a man and a woman, in public. Kissing in public is a not advisable here. You can shake hands with people, or better yet, stick to the traditional Namaste, the popular Indian style greeting. For this, you need to press your hands together with all fingers pointing towards the sky in front of your chest and politely say Namaste, while looking at the person you are saying it to. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #2c2c2c; display: block; font-family: arial,tahoma,verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left;">Indian manners and etiquette tips also include not criticizing the country or its people openly. At the same time, never address the elderly by their first name, unless they allow you to. It's advisable you call them sir or madam instead. With youngsters, you can choose to be informal. It is also considered disrespectful in India to use strong swear words publicly. The majority of Indians are very conservative in terms of what they wear in public. Short, revealing clothes, especially for women, is a strictly prohibited. Shoes are not to be worn inside churches or temples. []
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Assamese] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">A language of Assam that's spoken by nearly 60 percent of the State's population. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Bengali] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">An official language of West Bengal, now spoken by nearly 200 million people in West Bengal and in Bangladesh. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Bodo] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">It is the language spoken by the Bodo people of Assam and comes under the Assam-Burmese group of languages ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Dogri] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Mainly spoken by the people of Jammu region ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Gujarati] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">It is the official language of Gujarat. 70 percent of the State's population speak Gujrathi but it the most spread language not only in India but also abroad. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Hindi] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The official language of India, accent and dialect differs with different regions but almost every Indian has a working knowledge of Hindi. It is written in a Devanagiri script. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Kannada] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">A language of Karnataka and is spoken by 65 percent of the state's population. It belongs to the Dravidian family. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Kashmiri] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Though the language is mistaken as a state language of Kashmir only 55 per cent of the state's population speak Kashmiri. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Konkani] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Spoken in the Konkan region stretched across Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Maithili] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Mostly spoken in the parts of Bihar and the eastern Terai region of Nepal ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Malayalam] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The state language of Kerala. It is the youngest of all developed languages in the Dravidian family. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Manipuri/Meitei] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">official language of state of Manipur. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Marathi] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">An official language of Maharashtra. It has a fully developed literature of the modern type. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Nepali] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The official language of Nepal, it is also spoken in some north eastern parts of India ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Oriya] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">A branch of the Indo-Aryan family, is the official language of the State of Orissa. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Punjabi] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The official language of the State of Punjab. It is written in Gurmukhi script, created by the Sikh Guru, Angad. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Sanskrit] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The classical language of India that has lost it's value in the modern world. It is also one of the oldest languages in the world- perhaps the oldest to be recorded. All the ancient scripts are found to be written in the same language. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Santhali] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Santhal tribals of the Chota Nagpur Plateau (comprising the states of Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa) ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Sindhi] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Is spoken by a great number of people in the Northwest frontier of the Indian sub-continent comprising parts of India and Pakistan. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Tamil] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The State language of Tamil Nadu. Tamil literature goes back to Centuries before the Christian era and is spoken by more than 73 million people. It belongs to the Dravidian language family. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Telugu] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">A language of Andhra Pradesh. It is numerically the biggest linguistic unit in India. ||
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Urdu] || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The state language of Jammu and Kashmir and is spoken by more than 28 million people in India. Urdu and Hindi have proceeded from the same source. Urdu is written in the Persio - Arabic script and contains many words from the Persian language. ||

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ffad00; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 25px;">Education <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">After India gained their independence, education for everybody was the mission of the government. Discrimination was removed by the 86th Constitutional Amendments and education has been made mandatory for the everyone ages 6 to 14. The significant gap between the literacy rates of urban Indians and rural Indians is being bridged.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">The basic divisions in Indian education are primary, secondary, senior secondary and higher education. Elementary education is a standard 8 years, while secondary and higher secondary education consists of two years each. Graduation is between three to five years depending on the course after which there is an option for post-graduation (a two-year course) and research.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 15px;">Not all of the efforts of upgrading the standards of Indian Education are meeting with success, due to hurdles in accessibility, poverty and other factors. Due to widespread poverty, the government of India is not able to achieve higher success in the implemented projects. [] <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ffad00; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 25px;">Food <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Indian food is different from rest of the world not only in taste but also in cooking methods. It reflects a perfect blend of various cultures and ages. Just like Indian culture, food in India has also been influenced by various civilizations. Foods of India are better known for its spiciness. Throughout India, be it North India or South India, spices are used generously in food. But one must not forget that every single spice used in Indian dishes carries some or the other nutritional as well as medicinal properties.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Food in **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ffad00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">North India ** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> reflect strong Central Asian influences. In Kashmir, mostly all the dishes are prepared around the main course of rice found abundantly in the beautiful valley. Another delicious item cooked here is the 'Saag' that is prepared with a green leafy vegetable known as the 'Hak'.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">In **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ffad00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Western India **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">, the desert cuisine is famous for its unique taste and varieties of food. Rajasthan and Gujarat are the states that represent the desert flavor of Indian food. Here an immense variety of dals and achars (pickles/preserves) is used that simply substitutes the relative lack of fresh vegetables in these areas.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">In **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ffad00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Eastern India **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">, the Bengali and Assamese styles of cooking are noticeable. The staple food of Bengalis is the yummy combination of rice and fish. Usually the Bengalis love eating varieties of fish. A special way of preparing the delicacy known as 'Hilsa' is by wrapping it in the pumpkin leaf and then cooking it.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">In **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ffad00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px;">Southern India **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">, the states make great use of spices, fishes and coconuts, as most of them have coastal kitchens. In the foods of Tamil Nadu use of tamarind is frequently made in order to impart sourness to the dishes. It simply distinguishes the Tamil Food from other cuisines. The cooking style of Andhra Pradesh is supposed to make excessive use of chilies, which is obviously to improve the taste of the dishes. Another famous item of this region is the sweetened coconut milk. Yet another dish is Puttu, which is glutinous rice powder steamed like a pudding in a bamboo shoot. []

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: left;">©Rachelle Dawson 2012. Last revised: May 8, 2012. All Rights Reserved. For more information, please contact: Rachelle Dawson rdawson@gmail.com

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