Indian culture ---- Yesterday and Today

Dictionary defines culture as “the total of the inherited ideas, beliefs, values and knowledge, which

constitute the shared bases of social action of a particular civilization”.

Culture is the idea, value and beliefs of a particular civilization at a particular period. It is more than

anything else, ‘A State of Mind’.

The culture of India is among the world's oldest, reaching back about 5,000 years. Many sources describe it as "Sa Prathama Sanskrati Vishvavara" — the first and the supreme culture in the world. India is a very diverse country, and different regions have their own distinct cultures. Language, religion, food and the arts are just some of the various aspects of Indian culture.

Culture is the mixture of several things like fashion, music, artistry, behaviour, social norms, architecture and even food and dress sense. A living, vibrating and dynamic activity which engulfs the whole of living, in a certain period of time. This is what makes up the whole panorama of our social fabric filtering down from the upper strata to the basic roots, to the common man on the street. The Indian Culture as we know it today is an assimilation of several social behaviours.

But now India's culture is decaying. Country's food and dress habit depends on its climatic change. The western countries weather made them to follow such food and dress habits.

As India is a tropical country, our habits are like to bound sarees and salwars. But nowadays people misunderstood this and misuse their privacy. So its our duty to preserve India's culture.

India is a diverse country, where we can find many religions, culture as it has all kind of people. So it is a secular country. No matter we respect other country's culture but at the same time we should not let our culture down. In order to make Indians to exist, we have to save our culture first. If you save your culture, culture will save you.

I don't say that everyone has to follow his own culture, if you find that there are some pros in another culture, then use them and enhance your own culture. Thus a good culture is not only following things but also adopting good points from other culture. So with this both individual as well as country's culture can develop in more prosperous way.

India's tangible and intangible cultural heritage is extremely diverse, rich and ancient. The value of the tangible heritage of monuments, temples and other works of art such as paintings, sculptures and handicrafts has been acknowledged and efforts are being made to restore, maintain and conserve these cultural expressions.

However, the less visible forms of cultural heritage, pertaining to old traditions, aesthetic and religious beliefs, rituals and festivals, arts, music, folk traditions, dances, theatre forms, performing arts and narrative styles of storytelling have not, until recently, received much

attention. The paper makes a critical assessment of the necessity, importance and significance of protecting this cultural heritage.

It then addresses several issues related to the preservation and conservation of India's intangible cultural heritage. Lastly, it suggests ways and means to preserve, safeguard, maintain and strengthen India's rich and diverse, multi-cultural, multi-linguistic cultural heritage so that it remains a vibrant, dynamic and living part of community life.

The culture of a society means its ideas, customs and art. The culture of a country is

its customs, religions, music and dance. The food habits of the people, the festivals

they celebrate, their art and handicrafts are all part of their culture.

India is a large country. A unique feature of our country is that all the major

religions of the world are practised here like Hinduism, Islam, Christianity,

Buddhism, Shikhism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism. There are also many languages 

gjid dialects spoken in different parts of the country. There are also great varieties

in costume, food-habits, and social customs.

India, being a secular country, provides his citizens the freedom to follow any

religion. But we notice many common beliefs and customs among all the religions.

On the occasion of festivals we pray, feast, go to the fairs, sing, and dance and wear

colourful dresses. We have some festivals which are religious, and there are some

festivals which are associated with seasons. Apart from these, we have National

festivals such as Independence Day, Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanti.

These festivals are celebrated throughout the country with same zeal and

enthusiasam. Some festivals such as Diwali, Dussehra, Holi, Id and Christmas are

celebrated in most parts of the country. But Baishakhi, Pongal, Onam, Guruparv,

Bihu, Basant Panchami, etc. are the regional festivals celebrated in some parts of

the country. Birthdays of gods and other great man are also celebrated as festivals,

for examples, we celebrate the birthday of Gautam Buddha as Buddha Purnima,

lord Mahavir's birthday as Mahavir Jayanti, and Guru Nanak's as Guruparv.

Our culture also includes dance, music and art. Two types of dances classical and

folk are in practice in India. Classical dance includes Bharat Natyam which comes

from Tamil Nadu, Kathak from North India, Kathakli from Kerala, Kuchipudi from

Andhra Pradesh, and Manipur from simpler and are mostly associated with

"seasons. The Punjabis enjoy Bhangra, the Gugaratis enjoy Garba, the Biharis

Chhau, the Rajasthanis Ghumar, the Assamese Bihu and the people of Maharashtra

enjoy Lavoni.

There are two main schools of classical music. North Indian School is called

Hindustani and the South Indian School is called Carnatic. In India we have the

Gharana Tradition. A student learns music from his guru by living in his house.

Apart from these, we have film music which is very popular.

So far Indian art and sculpture are concerned we have paintings at Ajanta and

Ellora in Maharashtra. Miniture art is seen in Pahari, Rajput and Mughal paintings.

There are the stupas of Sanchi and there is the TajMahal, one of the bonders of the

world.

Indian food habit also differs from region to region. Likewise the dress worn by the

people also varies from area to area. Sarees are worn in different styles in different

parts of our country. Other popular dresses are salwar kamees with dupatta, dhoti

kurta, lungi kurta, lahnga, choli, etc.

Thus we see different parts of our country have different customs, religions,

languages, dress, and food habits