Culture perspective of India - Dissertation Example

? Culture Perspective Of Another Country: India India is a land of diversity. There is diversity of religions, cultures, traditions, languages, norms, values, foods, beliefs and professions. Even Hinduism that is the religion of a vast majority of Indians encapsulates diversity of castes and practices. The diversity is so profound that the low caste Hindus are considered inferior to the Hindus belonging to the superior classes. Mosques, temples, mandirs and churches are located at a distance of few meters from one another. Besides, there are so many languages in India that people of North India may not necessarily know the language of people of the South India. This paper provides an insight to India through a review of its history, culture, familial structure and roles, religions, type of society, trade, employment trends, holidays, foods and customs. Culture perspective of another country India India is next to China and is among the world’s most populated countries. Covering 2.4 per cent of the total world’s area, India cultivates a significant percentage of the total population of the world i.e. 15 per cent (IndiaMART, 2011). India is a very diverse country in all respects including the religion of people, their cultures, languages and traditions. People of India are diverse in their norms, values and traditions, many of which are influenced by Central Asia, Iranian Plateau, West and Afghanistan because of the fact that India was invaded from them. The political and social organization of contemporary India is determined to much an extent, by the religion, language and caste of the people. Of the 16 official languages identified by the Indian government, Hindi is the one that is spoken and understood almost in every part of India. Indians are very particular about their familial roles and responsibilities. Family is the strongest unit in which people can dwell together. People understand the significance of relationships. The importance of relationships eradicates selfishness and inculcates responsibility in an individual. Parents consider their children their property after they have spent the whole life raising the children. Children also understand that their parents have a lot of rights over them since they fed them right from their birth and bore all their expenses to make them able to earn their own living. There is also respect for elder siblings. Younger siblings respect the elder ones while the elders are expected to be affectionate towards the younger ones. Indian people dwell in large families. There is no trend of cohabiting. Every individual is obliged to get married, both religiously and socially. Newly married couples tend to live with the parents of the groom. Although some couples do live separate, yet it is appreciated if they live in the same house as the groom’s parents. This is done in order to show their respect for the parents. Besides, the couple also draws certain benefits from this practice. For example, the couple shares the house expenses with the parents, so it relieves the burden for both the parents and the children. Conflicts between the groom’s mom and the bride are common. It is not that the two have negative intentions against each other, but they gradually indulge in certain conflicts over household matters. This can in part, be attributed to the groom’s love and attention for the bride that creates a distance between the groom and his mom as a result of which, such situations arise. A responsible son is expected to maintain balance between his mom and his wife. A son that can not maintain this balance either lives in a separate house from the start, or separates after some years of the marriage from the parents. Many Indian parents do not distinguish between sons and daughters and consider the two as entitled to equal rights, though some parents tend not to educate their daughters as much as they educate their sons, and they have a reason for that. These parents think that if they educate their daughter too much, it becomes difficult to find a groom for the daughter that is at least as much educated as the daughter. One of the factors that are taken into consideration while evaluating the eligibility of a young lad for marriage with a girl is his education and sources of earning. As most men do not gain higher education than the highly educated women, so parents prefer to under-educate their daughter so that her education would not hinder her marriage. Women coming from most of the modern Indian families are encouraged to work and earn, though there is a considerable percentage of families that discourage their women from going out for work. This is because India is a male dominated society. Women have to face a lot of challenges when they leave their home for work. Using the public transport, or traveling across the city alone is full of risk because the condition of law and order is not quite strong. A lot of women experience sexual harassment or verbal abuse in the hustle and bustle of the city life particularly when they have to work and make their living themselves. Although women all across the world are susceptible to these kinds of risks, but the law and order is strong enough in most places to provide the women with security that is not quite as available to the women in India. In the Indian culture, young son gives a significant share of his earnings to his father. Same does not hold true for young daughters. Fathers do not take money from the daughters. Most girls keep their money and use it to buy items for their dowry. Parents do not oblige them to spend the money that way, but the daughter themselves do this in an attempt to help their parents financially. Marriage of girls is one of the most pleasant things that can happen to the old parents. Unfortunately, dowry is considered one of the essentials for marriage in the Indian culture, so many girls can not get married because they do not have dowry. This is one of the biggest loopholes of the Indian culture. Indian people belong to different religions. 83 per cent of the population of India is Hindus, though with above 120 million Muslims in it, India also has one of the largest population of Muslims. There is also a considerable amount of Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis in India. Indian historical occupation is reflected by the caste system. Religion that is the biggest supporter of the caste system in India is Hinduism. There are four castes in Hinduism, namely Brahmans, Kashatryas, Vaisas and Sudras. There is also a category of outcastes that have conventionally been considered as untouchables. Nowadays, the untouchables are known as dalits. Caste system in India has always been one of the most fundamental determinants of the Indian society in spite of all the laws that have been passed to minimize discrimination on this basis and the economic modernization India has seen in the recent years. India is a newly industrialized society. From 1947, the year of India’s birth till 1980, the private sector in India displayed a restrictive growth. Private enterprises required government’s permission to establish in India, though the GDP still grew by 1.4 per cent per year between the year 1940 and 1970. Service sector’s share in the growth of India’s economy was profound in the 1990s and continued to grow in the 21st century. Indian trade has grown manifolds as a result of the rapid industrialization in the past two decades. Economic reforms have played a very important role in India’s industrialization. “One of the striking aspects of India’s recent growth has been the dynamism of the service sector, particularly information technology (IT) and IT enabled services (ITES), while, in contrast, manufacturing has been less robust” (Singh, n.d., p. 235). Exports from India have grown manifolds with the passage of time. The trade of import and export in India covers a wide array of merchandise. India assumes a central position in the contemporary global trade, and Indian people also support import by holding a special interest in foreign goods. The leading import and export companies in India include but are not limited to Rishikesh electromatic pvt., Bello Jewel Pvt Ltd., and Bhawal steel agency. Bello Jewel Pvt Ltd. exports precious and semi precious gemstones to other countries. Prakash enterprises are among the chief exporters of alloys and steel of various shapes and grades. Products include but are not limited to needle wires, shapred wires, stainless steel balls, and nipple wires. Rishikesh electromatic pvt manufactures knitting machines, textile labs, and instruments for the testing of textile. Products are exported to Indonesia, Malaysia, Canada, Pakistan, America, Korea and Africa. One of the most fundamental challenges for India is poverty. Poverty in India is so widespread that between 30 and 40 per cent of the people earn much below the national average. In the 2009 to 2010 fiscal year, the rate of unemployment in India was found to be 9.4 per cent. The unemployment rate has seen a lot of changes in the past few decades. “From 1983 until 2000, India's Unemployment Rate averaged 7.20 percent reaching an historical high of 8.30 percent in December of 1983 and a record low of 5.99 percent in December of 1994” (Trading Economics, 2011). 80 per cent of the poor people in India live in the rural areas. 70 per cent of the population dwells in above 550000 villages and the rest live in 200 cities and towns (IndiaMART, 2011). The 60 to 70 per cent of the employed people belong to a wide array of professions that include but are not limited to accounting, teaching, journalism, software testing, nursing and logistics. There is also a significant population that is self-employed and own businesses. India is home to innumerable festivals and fairs. This can be fundamentally attributed to the religious diversity in India. With numerous religions that the people of India belong to, holidays keep surfacing frequently because of their religious significance. Every month comes with at least one major festival. Many holidays are of such nature that their dates can not be fixed. For certain festivals, dates change with respect to years. Some of the most obvious festivals in India include Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Azha, Diwali, Holi, Republic Day, Muharram, Mahavir Jayanthi, Rama Navami, Buddha Purnima, Good Friday, Independence Day, Pongal, Christmas, Easter and Baisakhi. Public holidays are followed strictly on the basis of region. Holidays that are simultaneously observed in all parts of India include Independence Day, Republic Day, and Gandhi Jayanthi. The fundamental difference between the holidays in India and US is the fact that in the former, most holidays have religious significance whereas in the latter, most holidays have historic significance. This is evident from the fact that important holidays in US include but are not limited to New Year’s day, Epiphany, Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., Valentine’s day, Lincoln’s Birthday and the President’s Day. Indian cuisine is among the richest cuisines in the world, with a wide array of foods that it includes. Indian cuisine not only suits the taste of the local people of India, but also foreigners. To satisfy their cravings for food, millions of tourists drop in India every year. Because of the popularity of Indian cuisine, Indians hotels are also famous abroad and there are many in the US. Indian foods include, halwa puri, chole, pakoras, samosas, chicken biryani, chicken qorma, and palao. Indian cuisine is characterized by vegetables since a vast majority of Hindus are strict vegetarians. Vegetarian foods include but are not limited to daal bhaji, lentil dumplings, and kachori. Indian women generally wear saris, though salwar kamis is also popular among them. In fact, there are specific customs for the dresses as well. According to the custom, unmarried girls wear salwar kameez. Once they get married, they wear saris. Although some women do wear salwar kameez even after their marriage, though does not accord with the custom. Hindu women are not quite particular about covering their heads, though it is appreciated if they do because this is what the custom teaches them. Muslim women are generally clad in black burqas. They cover all their bodies except for the face and hands, and there is a significant population of Muslim women who don’t even show their faces. Muslim men generally wear white kameez shalwar and cover their heads with either a cap, a hat or a handkerchief. A vast majority of the Muslim men keep beard in accordance with the sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.). Nevertheless, young Indians, be they Hindus, Muslims or followers of any religion are not quite as particular about their dresses as their parents are. Most of the young boys wear a pant with a shirt, a jeans with a T-shirt or a T-shirt with payjamas or shorts. Common traditional dresses for the Indian include pant shirt, kameez shalwar or kameez dhoti. No discussion of the Indians is complete without mention of the River Ganges. River Ganges is considered sacred by the Hindus. Every year, millions of Hindus bath in the Holy River Ganges to purify themselves and get rid of their sins. Taking bath in the River Ganges is thought of as a means to purify the soul. Men and women bath together and no distinction is made among people on any basis while bathing in the River. When Hindus die, their bodies are burnt by their relatives until they turn to ashes, which are then put into the River Ganges. Thus, all Hindus end up swimming into the waters of the River Ganges in the form of ashes. India has a great impact on US. There is a significant population of Indians in US. The strong and unique culture of India has inspired American cuisine, values, trends, traditions and culture as a whole. Americans are very fond of Indian foods, particularly the ones that are deep fried including samosas, pakoras and halwa poori. There have been a lot of marriages between the Americans and the Indians in the past. In fact, one of the most fundamental ways in which Indians acquired the green card was by marrying Americans. What makes it all the more interesting is the fact that a vast majority of the Indian-American marriages have proved successful in the history. US has also played an important role in the modernization of India. The capitalist modernity that is a characteristic feature of modern India can fundamentally be attributed to her connection with US. A vast majority of Indians have a firm grasp over English language and can speak English quite fluently. There are some Indians that speak English with American accent, though a vast majority of them maintain their original Indian accent while speaking English, thus coming up with a nice blend of East and West. US has also strengthened Indian economy by employing millions of Indians in US, who send the remittance to India. US is like a second home to many Indians. Besides, India’s trade with US is an important reason of her economic strength. References: IndiaMART. (2011). General Information – Employment. India Finance and Investment Guide. Retrieved from http://finance.indiamart.com/india_business_information/employement.html. Singh, N. (n,d,). Services-led industrialization in India: Assessment and lessons. Industrial Development for the 21st Century. pp. 235-291. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/publications/industrial_development/2_3.pdf. Trading Economics. (2011). India Unemployment Rate. Retrieved from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/india/unemployment-rate. Read More