India is a famous country all over the world for its culture and tradition.
By Er Taraprasad Mishra
Jajpur, Octo 13 : India is a famous country all over the world for its culture and tradition. It is the land of various culture and tradition. It is the country of oldest civilizations in the world.
The vital components of the Indian culture are good manners, etiquette, civilized communication, rituals, beliefs, values, etc. Even after the life styles of everyone has been modernized, Indian people have not changed their traditions and values.
The property of togetherness among people of various cultures and traditions has made India, a unique country. People here live peacefully in India by following their own culture and traditions. India is a land of rich cultural diversity.
Our culture is inclusive of the customs and traditions we follow, festivals we celebrate, art practices, handicrafts, folklore, food habits, music and dance etc. Our multi religious society caters to all religions and languages alike.
Our countrymen follow various social beliefs, wear different dresses, and conduct various celebrations. National festivals are celebrated with great enthusiasm towards the country. When one pronounces the word “India,” one is draped in the smell in spices, sarees, the smell of pickles and rain, the loud music and dances, the happy faces of innocent people quite untouched by the evolving westernization. India encapsulates all of those emotions and more.
India thrives on love, languages, religion, and culture due to the diverse race of people living in the country. It can be hands down referred to as one of the world’s most culturally enriched countries. Being a country that is the home to such diverse cultures and traditions, religion plays a very significant role.
Various religions founded and followed in the country include Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, etc. Apart from these, there are also huge majorities of people having Islamic faith, following Christianity or Buddhism and various other religions which do not have an Indian origin.
Most of the religions founded in India are based on the concept of non-violence. According to the 2011 census, 79.8% of the population of India practice Hinduism. Islam (14.2%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%) and Jainism (0.4%) forms the major religions of the country. Apart from that, there are also several other religions practiced in the heart of the country.
According to the early marital rituals of India, back in the 1950’s, Indians primarily lived in large joint families where the parents, children and the next generation on offspring lived together under the same roof. However, in the more recent times due to modernization creeping into the society and western cultures being quickly inherited, joint-families are almost rare and non-existent.
Nucleated families are more common as children decide on separating from their parent’s houses to afford to have more independence and privacy. The system of arranged marriages is also highly prevalent to this day in the country.
The average age for marriage for girls has gone up to 21 years according to the 2011 census, as opposed to an earlier age of 16 to 18 years. Suffice to say that festivals form an important part of Indian culture and heritage. Due to the varied religions practiced here, the festivals are also different for each section of people.
Popular religious festivals include the Hindu festivals of Navratri, Janmashtami, Diwali, Maha Shivratri, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja, Holi, Rath Yatra, Ugadi, Onam, Vasant Panchami, Raksha Bandhan, and Dussehra. Other than these, there are also several harvest festivals celebrated by farmers such as Makar Sankranti, Sohrai, Pusnâ, Chapchar Kut, Pongal, and Raja Sankranti.
Islam forms a major part of the religion dynamics in India and festivals which are observed as a public holiday in India are Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Adha (Bakri Eid), Milad-un-Nabi, Muharram and Shab-e-Barat. Christianity is also practiced by people of India and important days for Roman Catholics such as Christmas, and Good Friday has been declared as national holidays in the Republic of India as well. Just like its religion and festivals, the cuisine in India is also equally diverse.
Foods are influenced by people belonging to different parts of the country, their way of living, the environment, and availability of goods. It is imperative that Indian food is primarily influenced by the diversity of people living in it. Hindu cuisine includes rice, chapatti, vegetable curry, fish, parathas, etc. Islamic cuisine includes Biriyani, Raita, Haleem, Kheema, etc.
In the South Indian states, people generally cook food using coconut oil as opposed to the common mustard oil or sunflower oil. This is because coconuts are so easily available in large quantities in the South. South Indian food includes Idli, Sambar, Dosa, Vada, etc.
Traditional clothing is the essence of Indian culture. Clothes depend on the place of origin, climate, and heritage of the particular place. In the state of West Bengal, and also in several southern states such as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka the authentic clothing for women is the Saree that is a single, long piece of fabric draped around the body.
For men, the authentic Bengali clothing in Dhoti and Kurta. In the state of Punjab, salwar kameez and Kurti form the traditional clothing for women while men wear headgear or turban known as the Dastar. The Bindi, Mehendi, bangles, and earrings are a part of the attire for women The first ever literary work created in India was the Rigveda, in the 19th Century.
Written in Sanskrit, the Rigveda laid the foundation of several religious scriptures and literary works in later years. Written by the Aryans, the Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda also soon followed. Other popular literary works created in ancient India are Ramayana by Rishi Valmiki and Mahabharata by Rishi Vyasa. Biographies of kings such as Babarnama (biography of Babur; founder of Mughal Empire) and Akbarnama (biography of Akbar, the greatest king of India) are also priceless literary pieces that give us information about the era.
Apart from this certain scripture written by foreign travellers such as Fa Hein and Huein Tsung gives us information about the traditions and lifestyles of people in India. The culture of India is the oldest culture of the world around 5,000 years. Indian culture is considered as the first and supreme culture of the world.
There is a common saying about India that “Unity in Diversity” means India is a diverse country where people of many religions live together peacefully with their own separate cultures. People of various religions differ in their language, food tradition, rituals, etc however they live with unity.
The national language of India is Hindi however there are almost 22 official languages and 400 other languages are spoken daily in India in its various states and territories. According to the history, India has been recognized as the birthplace of the religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. Huge population of the India belongs to the Hindu religion.
Other variations of the Hinduism are Shaiva, Shakteya, Vaishnava and Smarta. he Indian culture has gained lots of popularity all over the world.
Indian culture is considered as the oldest and very interesting culture of the world. People living here belong to different religions, traditions, foods, dress, etc. People of different cultures and traditions living here are socially interdependent that’s why there is an existence of strong bond unity in the diversity of religions.
People take birth in different families, castes, sub-castes and religious communities live peacefully and conjointly in a group. Social bonds of the people here are long lasting.
Everyone has good feeling about their hierarchy and feeling of honour, respect and rights to each other. People in India are highly devoted to their culture and know the good etiquettes to maintain the social relationships. People of various religions in India have their own culture and tradition.
They have own festival and fairs and celebrate according to their own rituals. People follow variety of food culture like beaten rice, bonda, bread omlette, banana chips, poha, aloo papad, puffed rice, upma, dosa, edli, Chinese, etc. People of other religions have some different food cultures like sevaiyan, biryani, tanduri, mathi, etc.
India is a rich country of cultures where people live in their culture. We respect and honour our Indian culture a lot. The culture is everything like the way of behaving with other, ideas, customs we follow, arts, handicrafts, religions, food habits, fairs, festivals, music and dance are parts of the culture.
India is a big country with high population where people of various religions with unique culture live together. Some of the major religions of country are Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Jainism, Shikhism, and Zoroastrianism.
India is a country where various languages are spoken in different parts of the country. People here are generally used of varieties in costume, social beliefs, customs and food-habits. People beliefs and follow various customs and traditions according to their own religions. We celebrate our festivals according to our own rituals, keep fast, take bath in holy water of Gange, worship and pray to God, sing ritual songs, dance, eat delicious dinner, wear colourful dresses and other lots of activities.
We also celebrate some National festivals by getting together such as Republic Day, Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti, including various social events. People of different religions celebrate their festivals in various parts of the country with great zeal and enthusiasm without interfering each other.
Some events like birthday of Gautama Buddha (Buddha Purnima), Lord Mahavir birthday (Mahavir Jayanti), Guru Nanak Jayanti (Guruparv), etc is celebrated conjointly by people of many religions. India is a famous country for its various cultural dances like classical (Bharat Nat yam, Kathak, Kathakli, Kuchipudi) and folk according to the regions.
Punjabis enjoy dancing Bhangra, Gujaratis enjoy doing Garba, Rajasthanis enjoy Ghumar, Assamese enjoy Bihu whereas Maharashtrian enjoy Lavoni. India is a land of rich culture and heritage where people have humanity, tolerance, unity, secularism, strong social bond and other good qualities. Indians are always famous for their mild and gentle behaviour, in spite of lots of aggressive activities by the people of other religions.
Indian people are always praises for their caring and calm nature without any change in their principles and ideals. India is a land of great legends where great people took birth and do lots of social works. They are still inspiring personality to us. India is a land where Mahatma Gandhi took birth and had given a great culture of Ahimsa.
He always told us that does not fight with other instead talk them politely if you really want to get change in something. He told us that every people on this earth are hungry for love, respect, care and honour; if you give them all, definitely they will follow you. Gandhi Ji always believed in the Ahimsa and really he became successful a day in getting freedom for India from the British rule.
He told Indians that show your power of unity and gentleness and then see the change. India is not a country of men and women, castes and religions, etc separately however it is a country of unity where people of all the castes and creeds live together conjointly.
People in India are modern and follow all the changes according to the modern era however they still in touch with their traditional and cultural values. India is a spiritual country where people believe in spiritualism. People here believe in Yoga, meditation and other spiritual activities.
Social system of the India is great where people still leaves in big joint family with grandparents, uncle, aunt, chacha, tau, cousins, brothers, sister, etc.
So, people here learn about their culture and tradition from birth. The culture in India is everything such as inherited ideas, way of people’s living, beliefs, rituals, values, habits, care, gentleness, knowledge, etc. India is an oldest civilization of the world where people still follow their old culture of humanity and care. Culture is the way we behave to others, how softly we react to things, our understanding towards values, ethics, principles, and beliefs.
People of old generations pass their cultures and beliefs to their next generations so, every child here behaves well to others as he/she already learned about culture from parents and grandparents. We can see culture here in everything like dance, fashion, artistry, music, behavior, social norms, food, architecture, dressing sense, etc.
India is a big melting pot having various beliefs and behaviors which gave birth to different cultures here. Various religions here have their origin from very old age almost five thousand years. It is considered as Hinduism was originated here from Vedas. All the holy Hindu scriptures have been scripted in the sacred Sanskrit language. It is also believed that Jainism has ancient origin and their existence was in the Indus Valley.
Buddhism is another religion which was originated in the country after the teachings of Lord Gautama Buddha. Christianity was brought here later by the French and Britishers who ruled here for almost two centuries long time.
In this way various religions were originated in ancient time or brought to this country by any means. However, People of each religion live here peacefully by getting together without affecting their rituals and beliefs. Variety of eras came and gone but no one was so powerful to change the influence of our real culture.
The culture of younger generations is still connected to older generations through umbilical cord. Our ethnic culture always teaches us to behave well, respect elders, care helpless people and always help the needy and poor people.
It is our religious culture that we should keep fast, do worship, offer Gange Jal, do Surya Namaskar, touch feet of elder in family, do yoga and meditation on daily basis, give food and water to the hungry and disabled people.
There is great culture of our nation that we should always welcome our guests like a God very happily, that’s why India is famous for a common saying like “Atithi Devo Bhava”. The basic roots of our great culture are humanity and spiritual practices.
