THE INDIAN CULTURE

 Culture is a way a society run their lives including their customs, ideas and behavior. When watching movies in cinema halls or reading books from random places, we often come across the culture of the characters we interact with. It is an interesting fact to note that other people run their lives in ways that do not know of. in Kenya and world over, there are a lot of breath taking and eye catching cultures that are worth paying attention to. In this blog post, I will let you know about all the fascinating facts about the Indian Culture.

The Indian Culture

India is not only a country with vast population but it also known for its rich culture and diversity. India has up to 23 official languages and Hindi is the official language used by the government for administrative duties. Other languages that are spoken in India include Urda, Bengali, Tamil and Marathi. Other fascinating fact about the Indians are their food, way of dressing and religion. Indians mostly practice Hinduism and Buddhism and some netizens are Islam.

Religion

In order to be well acquitted with the way of life of Indians, you most definitely know about their religion. Hinduism is considered the world's oldest religion and is ranked third largest after Christianity and Islam. Hinduism is surrounded by a lot of mystery because it has no holy books nor prophets. 

Indians believe in Brahman whom they believe is the creator and the highest ranking being. They also believe in other gods like Vishnu who harmonizes the world and has many forms like Rama, Krishna and Sarasvati. Shiva is a destroyer god and Ganesha brings luck and has a human body and an elephant face. Although they lack holy books, they have Vedas which is a doctrine that is passed orally from one generation to the next. Indians have unlimited ways of worship that is accepted and unifies them.

The Hindu people are careful about eating root vegetables and living animals because they consider life to be sacred. One of the most sacred animals includes the cow. They believe that cows and humans have connections. Because of this, beef and pork is prohibited and is not consumed. Indians also believe in Karma (Whatever you do good or bad, will eventually come back to you.) Some people consider Hinduism to be polytheistic or henotheistic because they worship one god but recognize many other.

Food

Most food that is eaten in India is heavily influenced by their religion and rich, cumulative traditional practices. Most of the dishes are vegetables and vegan dishes. Indian Cuisine is made from ingredients such as wheat, ginger, garlic and chilly. Rice is considered the staple food and other type of dishes includes; Biryani (made from rice, spices, vegetables, meat or sea food.) Shukto (made with diced potatoes, broad beans, eggplant, drumsticks, raw bananas and coconut.) Chevdo (Mixture of flattened rice, groundnut, chana and masala.)

Aside from religion, historic events and international relations also played a part in discovering some of the finger-licking dishes. Indian cuisine has been well received and accepted world wide thereby influencing other cuisines across the world. Interacting with other culture has led to mixture of Indian food. Example of such mixtures include seasonings such as saffron

Clothing

Another interesting part of the Indian culture is their traditional dressing code that is both elegant and unique of its own. Their dress code is determined by the climate, tradition and ethnicity. The women clothing are of many types including Saris that is made of silk and is considered the most elegant clothing and is worn with choli tops. The long skirt that is often worn with choli and dupatta scarf is called Lehanga. Children mostly wear Puttu langa. Indian clothing follow a particular embroidery, prints and embellishment depending on occasion and purpose for wearing the clothing.Mumbai is considered one of India's fashion capital. Other ladies wear include Churidar, Gamucha and Kurta.

The men are not left behind, they also have some elegant traditional outfits. Most men wear Dhoti which looks like a rapper and is worn around the waist with a shirt to make it a complete attire. Sherwani is a long coat that exposes buttons through the length of the jacket. It's length is just below the knee and it has a Nehru collar that stands up. This outfit is worn by tight fitting pants called Churidars. It is mostly worn during weddings with the groom always wearing cream or golden. Dastar is like a scarf worn on the head by the head by Sikh community and it symbolizes faith and honour.