Cultural Diversity of India – Vasudev Kutumbakam
India is known for its cultural diversity. There is an amalgamation of various cultures, each with its ancient traditions. Indian culture is “the oldest of all living civilizations on Earth”, as considered by many historians. Each culture has its rituals performed, its festivals celebrated, its art preserved, and a different language probably spoken.
The celebration of festivals all over India is the best example that India believes in “Vasudev Kutumbakam”. There are many popular festivals celebrated across India like Diwali; hello; Dussera, Navaratri and Durga Puja; Ganesh Chathurthi; Onam; Krsna Janmastami; Pushkar camel fair and Kerala temple festival. In addition there are also festivals like Muharram, Eid-ul-Adha, Good Friday and Christmas which are being celebrated. Every festival has a story behind it, and every festival is celebrated with a ritual. The festivals help provide information about India. Each state, each province has its way of celebrating the festival, but the festivities are all held together.
Adding to the form of pride, art and dance helps to know more about India. Eight classical-type dance forms are being performed: Assam’s famous sattriya dance style; yakshagana, practiced mainly in Karnataka; kuchipudi in Andhra Pradesh; Manipuri in Manipur; bharatanatyam in Tamil Nadu; Kathakin Uttar Pradesh; and kathakali and mohiniattam in Kerala. Apart from dance, theater and drama, music and visual arts like sculpture, painting and architecture are also art forms by which India is remembered. The Red Fort, located in Delhi, Fatehpur Sikari, Gol Gumbaz, Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar are the best examples of visual arts in India. Many martial arts and sports are also practiced in India. India holds the title of cricket world champion. Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Hockey and Gilli-Danda are games played in India.
India has 28 states, including 7 Union Territories. Each state has its own language spoken mostly by the population of the state. Knowing more about India, there are many languages spoken in India out of which Sanskrit is the oldest of all. Then after Pali (language spoken during Ashoka and Buddhist era), Apabhramsa (language spoken by Central Indo-Aryan) and Pali (Jain philosophers used this language). Now, according to the census conducted in 2001, the most widely spoken language is Hindi; Next come Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali and Urdu.
In all, India is a land of cultural diversity and actually means “Vasudeva Kutumbakam”. Every art, every ritual, every thing provides information about India. Every language, every state, every union territory articulates more about India.
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