India is a country that is filled with various cultures, breathtaking landscapes, rich history, and various traditions and customs. A place where you will find a mixture of all cultures and all the different places you want to see. From the beauty of Kashmir to the coffee of Kerala, from the temples and rituals to the fun and party this country presents everything to you. India is a country in which every town, every state, and city beholds something special and unique in their culture. Many things have changed with the passage of time but there is one thing in which India is richest that is its culture.

Indian culture is a fusion of cultures of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and other Indian tribal communities. Indian culture involves Yoga, Kumbh Mela, celebrating festivals (Diwali, Eid, Baisakhi, Buddha-Purnima, Onam, and many more), clothing, beliefs, customs, ethics, social norms, art crafts, and technologies. Many elements of Indian culture (like mathematics, philosophy, food, etc.) have influenced the world too. Indian culture teaches us to respect each other, be kind, tolerant, and generous. When we look at this country’s culture and tradition it is seen that it beholds various forms of Indian culture in it. Though every state has a different and unique culture yet there is one thing which is common in all the cultures of this country and that is hospitality towards their guests. People of this country welcome their guests wholeheartedly no matter which country or religion they belong to. The Indian culture beholds several things in it which makes it so rich and prosperous, also that is today followed not only in India but in many other countries also. 

Indian society is still sticking to its culture because of its several unique characteristics like the belongingness of people with their roots, feeling of ‘we’ among citizens, adaptive behavior, tolerance, harmony, ethics of people, and many more. These characteristics are explained below-

1. Unity in diversity

India is one of the most diverse countries in the world. It has various communities belonging to different languages, religions, cultures, tribes and each community perform their different traditions, beliefs, and practices. Despite such diversity, there is ‘Unity in Diversity‘ and ‘We’ feeling among citizens. Indian Constitution is designed to recognize and hold together distinct groups despite enormous regional, linguistic and cultural diversity.

2. Tolerance

Tolerance is being patient, understanding, and accepting of anything different from your own. The Joint family system is the most prevailing in the Indian culture, where family members consist of parents, children, children spouses and offspring. Everyone in the family may have different choices (regarding food, clothes and way of living) but then also they stay together by adapting to each one’s behaviour and choices. This maintains peace and happiness without conflicting with others.

3. Belongingness

Belongingness is a human emotion of being an essential or important part of something. There is a sense of belongingness among people of India towards their nation, motherland, mother tongue, National flag, Constitution, Culture, tradition and national Anthem. In India, people worship nature (land, sun, river, trees, etc), as a gesture of thanking nature for providing us food, water, air and so on that are essential for living. Here, people are still connected to their historical roots.

4. Ethics

In India, every child is taught from their childhood about the basic ethics of living in a society. Like doing ‘Namaste’ is the gesture of greeting others by joining hands and bowing head or bending from the waist. This gesture is used to express respect, honor, gratitude and hospitality. ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ means Guest is God, the host-guest relationship in India. It says that guests should be treated like God. Holy books like Mahabharata, Ramayana teaches people about the do’s and don’t or the way of deciding right and wrong in life. Ethics of this country teaches respecting others, helping the needy, humanity and many more.

5. Cosmopolitan Behaviour

Cosmopolitan means adapting or accepting to different other cultures with their own culture. It does not involve evaluation or comparison with other cultures. Like: English language is used in India as a medium to communicate to different people of different nations. It has broadened the horizons of Indians. It has immersed itself into the Indian culture like- ‘Sugar in tea‘. Cosmopolitan behavior shrinks cultural differences and enriches one’s own culture by diverse influences. Thus, Cosmopolitan behavior of Indian culture is one of the important aspects that helps India in sustaining its culture.

Indian culture is one of the oldest and most diverse cultures in the world. Still, many Indians are stick to their culture. Indian’s way of hospitality, greeting, ethics, belongingness, unity, adapting behaviour makes India unique in sustaining it’s culture over than rest of the world. India as a nation is a cohesion of distinct religions, cultures, tribes, languages, traditions, beliefs, practices and so on. It shows that different kinds of social institutions can bring people together (ranging from family to market) and create strong social cohesion.  India is a successful example of a nation-state, that shows that it is perfectly possible to have a strong nation-state without having to homogenize different community identities into a standard type and accepting individuality.

There must be some problems or limitations to the diversity of this country related to communism, casteism, religion etc. But, despite of all the challenges India has done fairly well compared to most of the other nations of the world. India has survived not only as a nation but as a strong nation-state.