The Concept of Indian Culture: Myth or Reality?

  The Concept of Indian Culture: Myth or Reality? 

• Introduction
• Points to Think

• Indian culture is one of the most talked about cultures in the world. It has got vast variety in its culture. People from different countries come to India to get a touch of it. But what exactly culture is? Culture is a state of being cultivated or refined. Culture is about everything how people live, what their values, beliefs, are and then their language, food, religion, traditions and so many things. All these things together form culture. Thus everything from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata to the cave art of Ajanta and Ellora come together to create the enigma of Indian culture. Rich thoughts are essential to produce richness of cultural content.
• India’s culture is among the world’s oldest; civilization in India began about 4,500 years ago. Many sources describe it as “Sa Prathama Sanskrati Vishvavara” — the first and the supreme culture in the world. The uniqueness of our country lies in its huge cultural diversity. India is a potpourri of different ethnic groups and communities with their own set of culture and traditions. This has given rise to several varied forms of arts-music,dance,food which now have been given international recognition. The people of these various communities are bound by a set of values clearly seen in traditional Indian families.
• But in recent times a question has been raised several times: Has the Indian Culture diminished among today’s Indian youth? Has the Indian Culture become a myth today?Well one must admit the impact of globalisation and the resulting modernisation on Indian society. With globalisation, there has been an exchange of cultures and ideas between various countries and this has had a profound impact on our society in both ways-good and bad.
• Modernisation has helped to eradicate our social evils on a large scale that were prevalent in the society like sati system, child marriage, polygamy etc..Had it not been the British with their modern ways, India would have still been an underdeveloped nation. But today modernisation has gone far beyond and is slowly crippling the traditional values of our society- that binds an Indian family making Indian culture a myth.  
• Although we are trending towards west in term of how we dress, eat and live, but our mindset is still grounded and same, resulting us to stay peaceful in secular and sovereign society. We live together and embrace others’ culture and propagating the message of unity in diversity to the world. Pluralism is the soul of India, we could nurture it because of our beautiful culture. Racism is a big problem world wide and many countries have been bearing the brunt of it. In that sense, India is much better placed where all sects of people have equal rights. Women are preferred for the top position, infact, many states are being run by women, minority and dalits are treated equally. All these are possible because of our rich culture which is a Reality.

 

 

Sources of ‘Indian culture” Indian cinema, especially Bollywood, has the widest impact in terms of intensity and geography to generate and spread an idea of Indian culture. Indian architecture also gives some sense of blending of different cultures to form local variants of beliefs and customs. Monuments from the Mughal era are testimony to this. Finally, the art and literature of a particular era provides a glimpse into the culture of that time. The Ajanta sculptures, the Vedas, and the Bhimbetka caves are some examples of this.

• Temporal Elaboration
• India culture traces its origin back to almost the beginning of human civilization or roots of the Rig Veda. Hinduism, the Sanatan Dharma, has no known date of origin . The Vedic rishis through generations of spiritual research and meticulous study of matter, energy and spirit evolved the wisdom of the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Gita. No aspect of human existence, from the basic values of life to education, medical science (ayurveda), astronomy (jyotisha) is left untouched. Thus were the beginnings of what we refer to as the Indian culture today.
• It is worth remembering here that Christianity arrived in South India in the first century AD much before it spread throughout Europe. The spread of Islam, courtesy the Delhi Sultanate and followed by the Mughal Empire, had a profound impact on Indian culture. Thus Indian culture as we understand it today blends the ideas of different religions and hence cultures.
• From the Buddhism of Ashoka to the Hinduism of the Guptas, from the music of the Sufis to the humanitarianism of the Bhakti movement, from the simple wisdom of Guru Nanak to the Khalsa of Gobind Singh, from the glorious ‘jowhar’ of the Rajput women to the fight against evils like ‘Sati’ by Rammohan and Vidyasagar, Indian culture has truly come a long way

Indian culture : A Reality

• Points to think

• Unity in diversity: Unity in diversity is integral feature of Indian culture from time immemorial.Indian culture is about sharing the values and showing unity in diversity that is still prevalent in India. 
• Value and respect for other cultures:  Culture is about openness to accept the other people and respect their culture. Indians are still best at it.
• Indian ethinic wears:The dress culture must have changed but that doesn’t means that sarees and other Indian dresses are forgotten. They are making an impact on the foreigner people.
• Indian heritage sites:People from all over the world come to India to see the TajMahal, Ellora caves, taste the Indian food and many other activities. 
• Indian festivals :All the festivals in India are still celebrated with the same spirit and joy as it used to be in the past. People who stays far from their families due to their jobs ,education or otherwise still prefer to go to home to celebrate festivals with their familes.
• Namestey-Indian greeting style: The Namaste, or namaskar, or ‘namaskaara‘ is one of the five forms of traditional greetings mentioned in the ancient Hindu scriptures, the Vedas. It is one of the most popular Indian customs and isn’t really just restricted to the Indian territory anymore but being followed in foreign countries.For example: Barack Obama and Ban Ki-moon, who have been seen greeting everyone with a namaste on various occasions.
• Religious tolerance:India is land of religions and sees a large number of festivals, mainly because of the prevalence of diverse religions and groups.All the religious festivals like Eid, the good Friday Baisakhi ,the birthdays of sikh Gurus and Diwali, Holi, Makar Sakranti, Mahavir Jayanti,  Buddha Poornima, with same vigour and respect.
• Fasts or Upvas:Fasting is an integral part of Hindu culture. Fasts or Vrats or Upvas are a way to represent your sincerity and resolve, or express your gratitude to the Gods and Goddesses.  People throughout the country observe fasts during various religious occasions, Married women still keep karwachauth vrat for the long life of their husbands.
• Arranged Mariage System: The concept of arranged marriage in India traces its origin to as early as the Vedic times. For royal families, a ceremony known as the ‘Swayambar’ would be arranged for the bride.  Even today, the concept of arranged marriage remains a favourite among many Indians and is an integral part of ‘Indian Traditions’.
• Atithi Devo Bhavah:In India, the saying ‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’ is also integral. It means ‘the guest is equivalent to god’. Even today all foreign guests are welcomed in India with warm hearts.

• Indian Culture is a Myth:

• Points to think

• Disintegration of joint Families: The culture of joint family is being diluted by modern concept of Nuclear family.Today each individual member of the family takes his own decision regardless of the difficulty of others. This is leading to chaos and disrupting the peace of mind.
• Horoscope matching for marraiges:Traditionally the elders of the family used to arrange marriages but now, are mostly settled on the basis of horoscopes.Modern generation preferring love marraiges over arrage marriages.
• Religious fundamentalism and Intolerance: Indian culture has witnessesed so many religions intermingling and prospering over the ages without bias.Indian culture has always taught tolerance which has now become extinguished feature of inmdian culture.
• Craze for indian cusine fading away: Nowadays, the so called westernised youth prefer pizzas and hamburgers more to home cooked rice and chappatis. It has become a trend for everyone to  hang out with their friends and visit pizza huts,KFCs. Many find home cooked food tasteless.
• Western music taking over Indian classical music: most of Indian youth like to dance to the tunes of Western Rock or Pop or even westernised Indian Pop, but only a handful prefer Indian Classical music. Modern youth found classical songs are “too boring”.
• Degrading Value System:With westernisation, many of the youngsters seem to have lost their ethics,the respect for their elders. They like to party,hang out with their friends, but least bothered about family relationships. The values parents like to imbibe on their children, the advices they give to their kids do not appeal to them..
• Vast geographical Extent Vs Cultural Identity:The vast geography of India does not permit for one cultural identity to develop. A Bengali may find more in common in terms of culture with a Bangladeshi than a Gujarati.
• Declining interest in Indian traditional festivals:  Many of the youth feel suffocated in their homes-spending time with their family,taking part in family functions as they feel these are too ‘old-fashioned’ for them. The traditions appear to be boring for them.
• Hindi losing its Importance: One of the most important aspects of any culture is its language and in India Hindi is getting overshadowed by English. People find it a matter of shame to speak in Hindi. 
• Western outfits getting popularity: Indian culture is more about the Sarees, suits and lehengas that are even not seen in the marriages today. The place is taken by the indo western outfits.
• No one can confidently define all the aspects of Indian culture, as we have different religions, languages, and climates that contribute to the development of distinct cultures.

Conclusion

• India is undergoing a stage of transition where we are trying to accommodate various values as a unique combination. With our permutations and combinations still on the testing phase, we are trying to leave back a few good values, like our joint family, and inducing new things like night out lifestyle, increasing social moves especially between the two genders etc. These have both positive and negative impacts on the society. Still, we have not reached at an irreversible stage of damage to call our culture a myth. Indian culture is definitely an undying reality, and will continue to shine with its charm. And some changes are bound to come with time that can neither be stopped nor challenge But there could always be a way…with the introduction of value education programmes in educational institutes, to prevent our culture from completely turning into a myth.