CONCEPT CULTURE, BROAD

INCLUSIVE FORMAT OF INDIAN Unit I

CULTURE: UNITY IN DIVERSITY
INTRODUCTION
Culture, in the broadest sense, refers to how and
why we think and function. It encompasses all sorts
of things—how we eat, play, dress, work, think,
interact, and communicate.
Everything we do, in essence, has been shaped by
the cultures in which we are raised.
Similarly, a person in another country is also
shaped by his or her cultural influences.
These cultural influences impact how we think and
communicate.
Culture refers to the patterns of thought and behaviour of
people. It includes values, beliefs, rules of conduct, and
patterns of social, political and economic organisation.
Culture has two types: (i) material, and (ii) non-material.
i) The first includes technologies, instruments, material
goods, consumer goods, household design and
architecture, modes of production, trade, commerce,
welfare and other social activities.
ii) The latter includes norms, values, beliefs, myths,
legends, literature, ritual, art forms and other
intellectual-literary activities.
Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn had discovered more than
150 definitions of culture.
The first definition of culture was given by E.B Tylor. He says,
“Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge,
belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capability
acquired by man as a member of society”
Abraham (2006) defines culture as “a total way of life of a social
group, meaning everything they are, they do and they have. It is
a complex system that consists of beliefs, values, standards,
practices, language and technology shared by members of a
social group”
More recently, Clyde Kluckhohn and W. H. Kelly have referred to
culture as “all the historically created designs for living, explicit
and implicit, rational, irrational, and nonrational, which exist at
any given time as potential guides for the behavior of men”
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

•Culture is learned and acquired

•Culture is shared by a group of people
•Culture is cumulative
•Culture changes
•Culture is dynamic
•Culture gives us a range of permissible
behaviour patterns
•Culture is diverse
CULTURAL MANIFESTATIONS
ELEMENTS OF CULTURE

Language

Belief

Norms

Values

Sanctions
CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIAN CULTURE

A Cosmic Vision
The framework of Indian culture places human beings within a
conception of the universe as a divine creation. It is not anthropo-
centric (human-centric) only and considers all elements of creation,
both living and non-living, as manifestations of the divine.
This is reflected in the idea of satyam-shivam-sundaram.

Sense of Harmony
Indian philosophy and culture tries to achieve an innate harmony
and order and this is extended to the entire cosmos.
Indian culture balances and seeks to synthesize the material and
the spiritual, as aptly illustrated by the concept of purushartha.
Tolerance
In India, tolerance and liberalism is found for all religions, castes,
communities, etc. Many foreign cultures invaded India and Indian
society gave every culture the opportunity of prospering.
Indian culture accepts the manifoldness of reality and assimilates
plurality of viewpoints, behaviours, customs and institutions. It does
not try to suppress diversity in favour of uniformity.
Continuity and Stability
A special characteristic of Indian culture is – its continuous flow.
Since, Indian culture is based on values, so it’s development is
continuous.
The stability of Indian culture is unique within itself, even today.
Indian culture has always favoured change within continuity. It is in
favour of gradual change or reform.
Adaptability
Adaptability is the process of changing according to time, place and
period. It’s an essential element of longevity of any culture.
Indian culture has a unique property of adjustment, as a result of which,
it is maintained till today.
Receptivity
Indian culture has always accepted the good of the invading cultures.
Indian culture is like an ocean, in which many rivers come and meet.
Vasudaiva Kutumbakam is the soul of Indian culture.
Spirituality
Spirituality is the soul of Indian culture.
Therefore, the ultimate aim of man is not physical comforts but is self-
realisation.
Country took the form of Spiritual World, beyond the physical world. When
Indian culture originated in the times of Rigveda, then it spread with time
to Saptasindhu, Bramhavarta, Aryavarta, Jumbudweepa, Bharata Varsha
or India. Because of its strength, it reached abroad beyond the borders of
India and established there also.
Religious Dominance
Religion has a central place in Indian culture.
Vedas, Upanishads, Purana, Mahabharata, Gita, Quran and Bible
affect the people of Indian culture. These books have developed
optimism, theism, sacrifice, penance, restraints, good conduct,
truthfulness, compassion, authenticity, friendliness, forgiveness,
etc.
Emphasis on Duty
As against rights, Indian culture emphasises dharma or moral duty.
It is believed that performance of one’s duty is more important than
asserting one’s right.
Unity in Diversity.
According to Pandit Nehru, “Those who see India, are deeply moved
by its Unity in Diversity. No one can break this unity. This
fundamental unity of India is its great fundament element.”
MEANING OF DIVERSITY
oIt means collective differences, that is, differences
which mark off one group of people from another.
oThese differences may be of any sort: biological,
religious, linguistic etc.
oThe term diversity is opposite of uniformity.
oWhen we have groups of people hailing from
different races, religions and cultures, they
represent diversity.
MEANING OF UNITY
oUnity means integration. It is a social psychological
condition.
oIt connotes a sense of one-ness, a sense of we-ness.
oThere is a difference between unity and uniformity.
oUnity, implies integration. Integration does not
mean absence of differences.
oIndeed, it stands for the ties that bind the diverse
groups with one another.
FORMS OF DIVERSITY IN
INDIA
Racial Diversity
A race is a group of people with a set of distinctive physical
features such as skin colour, type of nose, form of hair, etc.
Herbert Risley (1891 census) had classified the people of India into
seven racial types. These are (i) Turko-Iranian, (ii) Indo-Aryan, (iii)
Scytho-Dravidian, (iv) Aryo- Dravidian, (v) Mongolo-Dravidian, (vi)
Mongoloid, and (vii) Dravidian. These seven racial types can be
reduced to three basic types-the Indo-Aryan, the Mongolian and the
Dravidian.
B.S. Guha (1931 census) has identified six racial types (1) the
Negrito, (2) the Proto Australoid, (3) the Mongoloid, (4) the
Mediterranean, (5) the Western Brachycephals, and (6) the Nordic.
Linguistic Diversity
the famous linguist Grierson noted 179 languages and 544
dialects, the 1971 census on the other hand, reported 1652
languages in India which are spoken as mother tongue.
Only 18 languages are listed in Schedule VIII of the Indian
Constitution. These are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi,
Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi,
Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and
Urdu.
The above constitutionally recognised languages belong to
two linguistic families: Indo-Aryan and Dravidian. Malayalam,
Kannada, Tamil and Telugu are the four major Dravidian
languages. The languages of Indo-Aryan family are spoken by
75 percent of India’s total population while the languages of
Dravidian family are spoken by 20 percent.
Religious Diversity
We have here followers of various faiths, particularly
of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism,
Jainism, Zoroastrianism, among others.
Then there are sects within each religion. Hinduism,
for example, has many sects including Shaiva, Shakta
and Vaishnava. Add to them the sects born or
religious reform movements such as Arya Samaj,
Brahmo Samaj, Ram Krishna Mission. More recently,
some new cults have come up such as Radhaswami,
Saibaba, etc. Similarly, Islam is divided into Shiya and
Sunni; Sikhism into Namdhari and Nirankari; Jainism
into Digambar and Shvetambar; and Buddhism into
Hinayan and Mahayan.
BONDS OF UNITY IN INDIA
There are bonds of unity underlying all this
diversity. These bonds of unity may be located
in a certain underlying uniformity of life as well
as in certain mechanisms of integration.
Census Commissioner in 1911, Herbert Risley
(1969), was right when he observed: “Beneath
the manifold diversity of physical and social
type, language, custom and religion which
strikes the observer in India there can still be
discerned ..... a certain underlying uniformity of
life from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin”
GEO-POLITICAL UNITY
The first bond of unity of India is found in its geo-political
integration. India is known for its geographical unity marked
by the Himalayas in the north end and the oceans on the
other sides.
Politically India is now a sovereign state. The same
constitution and same parliament govern every part of it.
The expressions of this consciousness of the geo-political
unity of India are found in Rig-Veda, in Sanskrit literature, in
the edicts of Asoka, in Buddhist monuments and in various
other sources.
The ideal of geo-political unity of India is also reflected in
the concepts of Bharatvarsha (the old indigenous classic
name for India), Chakravarti (emperor), and
Ekchhatradhipatya (under one rule).
GEO-CULTURAL UNITY-THE
INSTITUTION OF PILGRIMAGE
Another source of unity of India lies in what is known as
temple culture, which is reflected in the network of shrines
and sacred places.
Closely related to them is the age-old culture of pilgrimage,
which has always moved people to various parts of the
country and fostered in them a sense of geo-cultural unity.
As well as being an expression of religious sentiment,
pilgrimage is also an expression of love for the motherland, a
sort of mode of worship of the country.
It has played a significant part in promoting interaction and
cultural affinity among the people living in different parts of
India.
TRADITION OF
ACCOMMODATION
Have you heard of the syncretic quality of Indian
culture, its remarkable quality of accommodation
and tolerance?
Mechanisms of coexistence of people of different
faiths have been in existence here for long.
TRADITION OF
INTERDEPENDENCE
We have had a remarkable tradition of
interdependence, which has held us together
throughout centuries. One manifestation of it is
found in the form of Jajmani system, i.e., a system of
functional interdependence of castes.
Akbar, for example, founded a new religion, Din-e-
Ilahi, combining best of both the religions. The
contributions made by Kabir, Eknath, Guru Nanak,
and more recently Mahatma Gandhi, are well known
in this regard.
CONCLUSION
The unity of India should not be taken to mean that we
have always had a smooth sailing in matters of national
unity, with no incidents of caste, communal or linguistic
riots. Nor should it be taken to mean that the divisive and
secessionist tendencies have been altogether absent.
There have been occasional riots, at times serious riots.
For example, who can forget the communal riots of
partition days, the linguistic riots in Tamil Nadu in protest
against the imposition of Hindi, the riots in Gujarat during
1980s between scheduled and non-scheduled castes and
communal riots of 2002? The redeeming feature,
however, is that the bonds of unity have always emerged
stronger than the forces of disintegration