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Indian Culture
Indian culture can be classified into many varied forms which are existent in their totality through India. The culture of India has been influenced by various religions and customs of the world, which has resulted in the mingling of religious values, folk idioms, and art forms while the religious influence is quite evident in the ‘classical’ Indian culture mostly found in smaller towns and villages. The urban India is now widely influenced by globalization, as well as regional diversity. Languages have created diverse traditions of culture in India.

India’s culture is marked by a high degree of syncretism and cultural pluralism. It has managed to preserve established tradition while absorbing new customs, traditions, and ideas from invaders and immigrants. Multi-cultural concerns have long informed India’s history and traditions, constitution and political arrangements. Many Indian cultural practices, languages, customs and monuments are examples of this co-mingling over centuries.

Notable architectural creations, such as the Taj Mahal and other examples of Mughal architecture, examples of Dravidian architecture are the results of traditions that combined elements from several parts of the country and abroad. The vernacular architecture displays notable regional variation.

Indian music is highly diversified. Classical music is mainly split between the north Indian Hindustani and south Indian karnatic traditions. Many classical dance forms exist including Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, kathak, kuchipudi, Manipuri, Odyssi. They often have a narrative form and usually infused with devotional and spiritual elements.

The earliest literary traditions in India were mostly oral and were only later transcribed. Most of these are represented by religious texts such as the Vedas, the Mahabharat, and the Ramayan. Sangam literature from Tamilnadu is among India’s oldest.

 

Indian festivals come in a vast variety. Many are celebrated irrespective of caste and creed. The most popular are Diwali, Holi, Onam, Dussehra, Eid, Christmas, and Vaishakhi. Religious practices are an integral part of everyday life and are a very public affair. Traditional Indian family values are highly respected, although urban families now prefer a nuclear family system due to the socio-economic constraints imposed by the traditional joint family system.
Indian philosophy through the ages has had a tremendous impact on world thought, especially in the east. Various theistic schools of philosophy, such as the many schools of Buddhism and Hinduism, have had huge influences, but also, India produced some of the longest and most influential secular traditions of logic, rationalism, science, mathematics, atheism, agnosticism, etc., which are often overlooked due to popular conception that India is a ‘mystical country’. Many of the complex scientific and mathematical concepts such as the idea of zero, found their way to Europe via Arab intermediaries.

India is one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world, with one of the most deeply religious societies and cultures. Religion plays a central and definitive role in the life of the country and most of its people.

The complex nature of Indian culture makes it almost impossible to trace the traits left by the foreigners in that remote past. In a diverse and culturally rich country like India, there remains very little difference between culture and civilization. The cultural life of a land consists of social behavior of the inhabitants as manifested in their typical custom and usages, its spiritual emancipation enriched by the advancements of ethics, philosophy and religion, its aesthetic experiences and technical abilities expressed through the medium of fine arts and other aspects of intellectual life.

India finds herself faced with difficult situations as the invaders and settlers had many uncommon cultural traits than hers. How India had adjusted to their culture as circumstances necessitated is a highly fascinating history. The Indian society is comprised of many institutions and systems, such as, the distinction of the castes, the various Samskaras (customs) which the people followed, and common ways of life. The foreign impact is rather obvious on some of those social institutions while on the others it is not quite clear.

The foreign impacts take long time to react on the sphere of religious life of the people. It seems that the human mind is more conservative in his theistic dogmas and anything that is new or branded with an exotic colouring is accepted only after a prolonged time-tested persistence. Religion is the last to yield before a fresh surge of foreign ideas. Society may accept new ways in its’ everyday life , that is, the styles may change in dress and costume, new dishes may be added to the culinary art, and acceptance of new modes and mediums of ex-pression in it’s feelings in fine arts becomes obvious, yet it adheres to its philosophical and religious beliefs of hoary past. For in India of the past, the art was the ‘hand –maid of religion’, any adjustment and inter-change of ideas in the realm of religion was bound to tint her artistic ex-pression too.

The culture of India has a history, all the while absorbing customs, traditions, and ideas from both invaders and immigrants. In modern India there is cultural and religious diversity, and the north-east, each of which have their own distinct identities. Almost every state has even carved out its own cultural niche. In spite of this unique cultural diversity, the whole country is bound as a civilization due to its common history, thereby preserving the national identity.
India has been the birth place of religious systems such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, each of which have had a strong influence not only over India but also over the rest of the world. Following the Islamic invasions and the subsequent foreign domination from the 10th century onwards, the culture of India was heavily influenced by Persian, and Arabic cultures. In turn, the various religions and the multi-hued traditions of India have influenced south-east Asia and other parts of the world.

‘Unity in diversity’ is a socio-ecological philosophy that describes a sense of oneness despite physical or psychological barriers. This phrase is widely used to describe India, which is home to a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious society. The sub-continent’s long and diverse history has given it unique eclectic culture that is often associated with spirituality. India’s diversity forces it to either evolve strong foundation of tolerance and survive or face break-up. Such a situation has forced Indian society to foster a sense of unity in diversity.