Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “Indian Culture in Daily Life” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Indian Culture in Daily Life

Culture has been defined by Mathew Arnold in Literature and Dogma as the desire and quest to “know the best that has been said and thought in the world”. It appears to be liberal and broad view of culture, but it is not comprehensive. Culture must be a total product of character and not merely an acquisition or an impulse from within.

“A nation without a cultural heritage is like an orphan who has nothing to fend upon”, said Emerson. Indian culture is deeply rooted in her past-the glorious and the not so glorious past. Indian culture is essentially religious and spiritualism is the breath of its nostrils. Religion is our soul and philosophy. It is our blood, our very life. If you take out religion from India, nothing remains. India is the motherland of our race and Sanskrit is the mother of the Indian and European languages. It is the mother of our philosophy; mother of our mathematics though our mathematics were taken abroad by the Arabs; she is the mother through the Buddha of much of the ideas embodied in Christianity; mother through the village-community of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all. The traits of culture, which India gave, can be seen in a number of foreign countries.

The continuity and vitality of Indian culture is amazing, indeed. It is a very powerful, all absorbing and all embracing process. In the past, it has received, adopted and digested the elements of many different cultures—Indo-European, Mesopotamian, Iranian, Greek, Roman, etc. With each new influence, it has somewhat changed, being influenced by the foreign culture and influencing it in return. But it has retained its peculiar traits. India has never lost the pride of her cultural sublimity. Indian culture has proved its strength and maintained its vitality throughout. The enduring quality of Indian culture represents the happy synthesis of worldliness and renunciation. Indians are developing materialistic attitude and wish to enjoy all the amenities of life, but at the same time, they are not neglecting the moral aspects of life; they are equally conscious of treading on the path of Dharma. India, a virtual continent, is the land of many people who profess to different religions and have, to an extent, a very large variety of sub-cultures. Yet unlike Europe, India continues to be a common home for all her people, practicing “a rich unity in diversity”. Another remarkable aspect of Indian culture in our daily life is its firm belief in peace and non-violence. Gandhiji simply highlighted the value of Non-violence. Gandhiji simply highlighted the value of Non-violence through his practicing what already had been preached for ages in our country.

The old way of Indian life has, however, ceased to remain unaffected by the new forces unleashed by the machine age. Western civilization is so powerful and so uniform in its character that it is bound to influence every national culture by affecting its external way of life. Indian people are being increasingly influenced by the machines. They are acquiring new rhythm of the machine, its punctuality, its speed, its cold metallic nature, and its uniformity. The study of arts like music, poetry, painting, sculpture and architecture, even of dancing makes up the aesthetic culture of man in which most of the Indians are indulging The aim of aesthetic culture is the appreciation and enjoyment of art. Art add zest to life and enlarges human sympathies

The strength and vitality of Indian culture is amazing, indeed. Pandit Nehru once stood on a mound of Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley and there seemed to him something unique about the continuity of a cultural tradition through five thousand years of history, of invasions and upheavals, a tradition which was widespread among the masses and had powerfully influenced them through the ages.

Due to a number of different societies in various parts of India, there is a large variety of cultural heritages. Still the basic Indian culture is the same throughout the length and breadth of the country. What is basic culture? May be that the Indians are God fearing people. In every house people pray to God each day for their well-being and for the well-being of everybody else. Most of their acts are reflection of their fear of and respect for God. People of this country have in-born respect for elders and love for life.

This love for life is apparent in festivals that people participate in, like Baisakhi in Punjab, Pongal in Tamil Nadu and Onam in Kerala, etc. These festive occasions are more than just occasional gatherings. On these days people settle down for better relations with friends and relieves. This, they don’t do intentionally but it happens, instinctively. It is the spontaneous outburst of Indian culture—the culture of peaceful co-existence.

In India, people have a lot of respect for their elders and the learned. There is a tradition of showing warm regards for teachers and elders by touching their feet. This may sound very crazy to an Englishman. But the teaching feet of teacher, Guru, etc., just implies a student’s deepest regards for all that the Guru or teacher preaches.

Indians date their days according to the movements of planets, moon and position of constellations and the Sun. When a baby is born in a Hindu family, the astrologers or Pandits make a birth calendar according to the time of birth assessing positions of constellations and planets. This birth calendar has the capability to foretell the future life events of the child. Thus Indians are very much ahead of others in the science of astrology. The Jantar Mantar at New Delhi is an example of this. The importance of Indian astrological technique has lately been realized by scientists all over the world and astrology has won a large acclaim all over the world. The proof of this is that scientists have studied this technique and its mathematical formulations have been used by computer now-a-days to create what is popularly known as the computerized life-calendar (Janam Patri).

The beauty of Indian culture has inseparable relationship with women of India. It is not an exaggeration but a fact. Indian culture has not only assigned special honour to the spiritual make-up of the Indian women but also to their elegance and self-consciousness. If only the mysteries of child birth had been a wonder to ponder upon them to reverence to her outlook would have been lost in the development and research of life studies. Her elegance enjoys great respect in broad Indian culture, in the visions of Mother India, in the personalities of Radha and Sita, in worship of the creator, Lord Brahma. So the women in India can never have a separate outlook in development stages of Indian culture.

Indian culture has a rich heritage, some of which has been discussed above. But in course of time many anomalies have also got introduced into Indian culture. Politically and economically also, there are many problems and no one can forecast its future. After all, the past has contributed some of the greatness which civilization and culture have built up in the history of mankind. But it is safe to predict that, whatever, the future may be, the Indians of coming generations will not be unconvincing and self-conscious copiers of European culture, but will be men, rooted in their own traditions, and aware of the community of their own cultural heritage. Though the whole face of India is changing daily yet our rich cultural tradition continues and it will never be lost.