July 20th, 2007 
Deepak CULTURE
Culture according to a widely accepted definition, is the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior. Culture thus defined consists of languages, ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, ceremonies, and other related components: and the development of culture depends upon men’s capacity to learn and to transmit knowledge to succeeding generations.
INDIAN CULTURE:
The Indian culture is universal in character in the sense that it believes in MANAV DHARM and is comprehensive enough to suit the needs of all human beings irrespective of age, sex, color or race. It is on account of this universality that the Indian culture has continued to flourish for many centuries despite attempts by the foreign invaders to uproot it from the soil. It is so old that its origin cannot be traced. Therefore, it has been described as beginningless or anadi. At no stage it showed any signs of decline and is therefore also described as eternal (SANATAN).
Another notable feature of the Indian culture is its adaptability. The Indian culture has developed consistently because of its quality of adaptability. It had adapted itself to the new and changing conditions without losing its essential spirit. It has assimilated the features of other cultures which came in contact with it. In the medieval times, contact with Islam left a deep impact on the Indian culture. It not only led to the introduction of large number of Persian and Arabic words in the Indian languages but also affected a change in the religious landscape of the country. Despite the presence of the foreign elements in India, the country achieved greater cultural harmony because the Indian culture was never averse to foreign elements and assimilated what was best in their culture.
Indian culture is founded on religion but the obvious question is what religion is? DHARMA has been liberally interpreted in the Indian context, for it does not coincide with the English term religion, the latter denoting the external rites and performances. In Indian culture, the word DHARMA includes the performances of rites, but it further comprehends cultural organization and spirituality.
It is the opinion of some people that the religiosity of Indian culture is turned towards a hereafter that has nothing to do with the present world, and is therefore and escapist approach. This conception is false. Indian seers believed that the relation between the present world and the here after is a deep one that nothing can be of value if one rejects the existing world and turns to the unseen universe, that material and the spiritual are perfectly blended, and it is DHARMA which achieves this blend.
The basic aim of Indian culture is self knowledge. The originators of Indian culture , the seers and the mendicants came to the conclusion that man should know himself because that is the only way in which the truths of the world can be known in its fullness. It is for this reason that Indian religion is more introverted than extroverted, more tendentious towards the spiritual than towards the material. Sri Aurobindo has stated that spirituality which is the key to the Indian mind. It is the spirituality which has helped Indian culture to retain its novelty among all the other cultures. Spirituality is one sphere in which Indian culture has led all the rest. All the theistic and atheistic philosophies that go to make up Indian culture are imbued with the idea of spirituality. Religion and philosophy are important elements in Indian culture and both these have influenced Indian culture and civilization greatly. Everything carries a tinge of religion and philosophy in India.
Religious tolerance has been a common feature of the Indian culture. Religion was preached and propagated but it never became a source of conflict and violence. People tried to appreciate common elements of different religions and thus understood essential unity of religions.
Since its very beginning, Indian culture had been synthetic in it spirit. Aryans, the founders of Indian culture, gave it a capacity to assimilate the foreign elements which came in India from time to time. Even the inner revolts as that of Buddhism, which arose within it, gradually subsided and merged in it. Hinduism, the essence of Indian culture has accepted many different religions into its ford and has only gained there by. Even the Muslim religion could not escape the synthesizing tendency of Hindu culture.
There view point of Indian culture has never been one-sided; instead it has always been integral in its approach to life. It stressed the importance of both the material and the spiritual aspect, and advocates the advance and development of literature, music, art, science and the other disciplines. Indian culture has accepted four primary values, and in this scale, commerce and sex have been placed on an equal footing with religion and salvation. Cultural development is incomplete without economic freedom from want, which is what the Indian culture has always believed. Its aim has been integral development of man. India has allowed the simultaneous development of religion, economic theory and varieties of sex practices.
It is necessary to have freedom in the sphere of thought because the cultural development of any country depends upon the independent thought of its intellectuals.
Indian culture has always valued independence of thought. It is because of this independence that Indian has been the birth place of such varied philosophy a Hindu, Vedanta, Buddhism, Jainism, charvaka, monism, qualified monism and all the rest of the philosophic tradition. Every individual in India possessed the right to think for himself, and as a consequence different religions flourished here without any rancour and discord in a mood of harmony.
One of the unique features of the Indian society is the stronghold of kinship and kin obligations. The kinship ties are very wide, extending not only to all the members of the joint family but also to the other relatives and members of the same caste. This familial integration is identified as KULDHARMA.
We can see the strength of kinship ties in the institution of arranged marriages. At the time of celebration of marriages, festivals and feasts all the relatives are invited. This shows a strong sense of belonging to the kin group and the caste group. The old, the handicapped, the physically weak, the ailing are all looked after by the members of the family. The family ties are very strong among the Christians as well as Muslims in India.
Another characteristic value of the traditional agricultural society is respect for elders. In such a society almost all knowledge was derived through informal communication and personal experience. As a result, the older people were looked upon as the repositories of knowledge. But with modern formal education, with the introduction of new sources of knowledge like books, newspapers, the radio and television, the greater knowledge and ability of elders cannot remain unchallenged.
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