Culture(s) of India

Culture is something that comprises the language, religion, ethnicity, dance, music, attire, cuisine or the way of living of people in a particular geographical region. It can have an essence of just one type of lifestyle or can be comprised of many cultures under one culture of a particular nation like we have in our country- India.

So what is Indian culture? Is it something that we have been told again and again by politically driven religious agendas or it is something beyond that? I think differently from what’s been in the society these days.
Without saying much I’ll start by saying that Indian culture is neither religion oriented nor extremely rigid unlike many other countries.
In India we come across cultures poles apart at a difference of every 100 kilometres or so. But at the same time we exist heartily with each other.

We have the culture of Hinduism which originated on the very land of India and at the same time we have the culture of Islam which originated far away on the land of Arab. We have Parsee populace and culture all the way from greater Iran in India and at the same time we have the beautiful villages of Punjab where Punjabi culture originated. Buddhism and Jainism embellished the unity in diversity notion of India. Not only this but Christianity also flourished in India. Portuguese populace and their culture can still be seen in Goa Kerala Tamil Nadu etc. We have so many languages so many dance forms so many cuisines at a distance of every few kilometre that it is distinct in its own.  But one thing is there which is one and only. We, despite of the fact that we have so many cultures in different parts of our country coexist so heartily with each other that such an example of coexistence is almost impossible to find anywhere in the world. Different cultures of many parts of the world have commingled so well with the ancient Indian culture that today it’s impossible to imagine that they were ever absent here on our land. It’s difficult to think about Indian culture today by parting it from cultures that came to India many many centuries back.
The long and short or the gist of it is that we come across so many cultures in India in every state, union territory or city that is difficult even to just remember the different facets of each culture. The beauty of Indian culture is that it is not just a culture but is a confluence of cultures making it one of its own multifaceted culture which makes Indian culture different from the cultures all over the globe.