The culture of the main English-speaking countries. India

GENERAL INTRODUCCTION TO INDIA
India (Hindi: भारत Bhārat; see also other Indian languages), officially the Republic of India (Hindi: भारत गणराज्य Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh largest country by geographical area, the second most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world.[13] Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of 7,517 kilometers (4,671 mi).[14] It borders Pakistan to the west;[15] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Bangladesh and Burma to the east. India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Indonesia in the Indian Ocean.

HISTORY OF INDIA
Stone Age rock shelters with paintings at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh are the earliest known traces of human life in India. The first known permanent settlements appeared over 9,000 years ago and gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilization,[23] dating back to 3300 BCE in western India. It was followed by the Vedic period, which laid the foundations of Hinduism and other cultural aspects of early Indian society, and ended in the 500s BC. From around 550 BCE, many independent kingdoms and republics known as the Mahajanapadas were established across the country.[24]
In the third century BCE, most of South Asia was united into the Maurya Empire under Ashoka the Great.[25] From 180 BCE, a series of invasions from Central Asia followed, including those led by the Indo-Greeks, Indo-Scythians, Indo-Parthians and Kushans in the north-western Indian subcontinent. From the third century CE, the Gupta dynasty oversaw the period referred to as ancient "India's Golden Age."[26][27] Among the notable South Indian empires were the Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas, Pallavas, Pandyas, and Cholas. Science, engineering, art, literature, astronomy, and philosophy flourished under the patronage of these kings.
Following invasions from Central Asia between the tenth and twelfth centuries, much of north India came under the rule of the Delhi Sultanate, and later the Mughal Empire. Mughal emperors gradually expanded their Kingdoms to cover large parts of the subcontinent. Nevertheless, several indigenous kingdoms, such as the Vijayanagara Empire, flourished, especially in the south. In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the Mughal supremacy declined and the Maratha Empire became the dominant power. From the sixteenth century, several European countries, including Portugal, the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom, started arriving as traders and later took advantage of the fractious nature of relations between the kingdoms to establish colonies in the country. By 1856, most of India was under the control of the British East India Company.[28] A year later, a nationwide insurrection of rebelling military units and kingdoms, variously referred to as the India's First War of Independence or Sepoy Mutiny, seriously challenged the British Company's control but eventually failed. As a consequence, India came under the direct rule of the British Crown as a colony of the British Empire.
During the first half of the twentieth century, a nationwide struggle for independence was launched by the Indian National Congress and other political organizations. In the 1920s and 1930, a movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, and displaying commitment to ahimsa, or non-violence, millions of protesters engaged in mass campaigns of civil disobedience.[29] Finally, on 15 August 1947, India gained independence from British rule, but was partitioned with independent governments for the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan in accordance to wishes of the Muslim League, along the lines of religion to create the Islamic nation state of Pakistan.[30] Three years later, on 26 January 1950, India became a republic and a new constitution came into effect.[8]

Since independence, India has suffered from religious violence, casteism and insurgencies in various parts, but has been able to control them through tolerance and constitutional reforms. It has unresolved territorial disputes with China, which in 1962 escalated into the brief Sino-Indian War; and with Pakistan, which resulted in wars in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. India is a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations (as part of British India). In 1974, India conducted an underground nuclear test.[31] This was followed by five more tests in 1998, making India a nuclear state.[31] Beginning in 1991, significant economic reforms[32] have transformed India into one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, adding to its global and regional clout.[17

POLITICS
India is the largest democracy in the world.[13][49] For most of its democratic history, the federal government has been led by the Indian National Congress (INC).[50] State politics have been dominated by several national parties including the INC, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), and various regional parties. From 1950 to 1990, barring two brief periods, the INC enjoyed a parliamentary majority. The INC was out of power between 1977 and 1980, when the Janata Party won the election owing to public discontent with the "Emergency" declared by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. In 1989, a Janata Dal-led National Front coalition in alliance with the Left Front coalition won the elections but managed to stay in power for only two years.[51

GOVERNMENT
The Constitution of India, the longest and the most exhaustive constitution of any independent nation in the world, came into force on January 26, 1950.[34] The preamble of the constitution defines India as a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.[35] India has a quasi-federal form of government[36] and a bicameral parliament operating under a Westminster-style parliamentary system. It has three branches of governance: the Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary.

The President of India is the official head of state[37] elected indirectly by an electoral college[38] for a five-year term.[39][40] The Prime Minister is, however, the de facto head of government and exercises most executive powers.[37] The Prime Minister is appointed by the President[41] and, by convention, is the candidate supported by the party or political alliance holding the majority of seats in the lower house of Parliament

ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION OF INDIAIndia is a federal republic of twenty-eight states and seven Union Territories.[50] All states, the union territory of Puducherry, and the National Capital Territory of Delhi have elected governments. The other five union territories have centrally appointed administrators and hence are under direct rule of the President. In 1956, under the States Reorganisation Act, states were formed on a linguistic basis.[59] Since then, this structure has remained largely unchanged. Each state or union territory is divided into basic units of government and administration called districts. There are nearly 600 districts in India.[60] The districts in turn are further divided into tehsils and eventually into villages.

GEOGRAPHYIndo-Australian Plate.[62]

India's defining geological processes commenced seventy-five million years ago, when the Indian subcontinent, then part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana, began a northeastwards drift—lasting fifty million years—across the then unformed Indian Ocean.[63] The subcontinent's subsequent collision with the Eurasian Plate and subduction under it, gave rise to the Himalayas, the planet's highest mountains, which now abut India in the north and the north-east.[63] In the former seabed immediately south of the emerging Himalayas, plate movement created a vast through, which, having gradually been filled with river-borne sediment,[64] now forms the Indo-Gangetic Plain.[65] To the west of this plain, and cut off from it by the Aravalli Range, lies the Thar Desert.[66] The original Indian plate now survives as peninsular India, the oldest and geologically most stable part of India, and extending as far north as the Satpura and Vindhya ranges in central India. These parallel ranges run from the Arabian Sea coast in Gujarat in the west to the coal-rich Chota Nagpur Plateau in Jharkhand in the east.[67] To their south, the remaining peninsular landmass, the Deccan Plateau, is flanked on the left and right by the coastal ranges, Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats respectively;[68] the plateau contains the oldest rock formations in India, some over one billion years old. Constituted in such fashion, India lies to the north of the equator between 6°44' and 35°30' north latitude[69] and 68°7' and 97°25' east longitude.[70]

India's coast is 7,517 kilometers (4,671 mi) long; of this distance, 5,423 kilometers (3,370 mi) belong to peninsular India, and 2,094 kilometers (1,301 mi) to the Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep Islands.[14] According to the Indian naval hydrographic charts, the mainland coast consists of the following: 43% sandy beaches, 11% rocky coast including cliffs, and 46% mudflats or marshy coast.[14]

Major Himalayan-origin rivers that substantially flow through India include the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, both of which drain into the Bay of Bengal.[71] Important tributaries of the Ganges include the Yamuna and the Kosi, whose extremely low gradient causes disastrous floods every year. Major peninsular rivers whose steeper gradients prevent their waters from flooding include the Godavari, the Mahanadi, the Kaveri, and the Krishna, which also drain into the Bay of Bengal;[72] and the Narmada and the Tapti, which drain into the Arabian Sea.[73] Among notable coastal features of India are the marshy Rann of Kutch in western India, and the alluvial Sundarbans delta, which India shares with Bangladesh.[74] India has two archipelagos: the Lakshadweep, coral atolls off India's south-western coast; and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a volcanic chain in the Andaman Sea.[

THE CLIMATE OF INDIA
India's climate is strongly influenced by the Himalayas and the Thar Desert, both of which drive the monsoons.[76] The Himalayas prevent cold Central Asian katabatic winds from blowing in, keeping the bulk of the Indian subcontinent warmer than most locations at similar latitudes.[77] The Thar Desert plays a crucial role in attracting the moisture-laden southwest summer monsoon winds that, between June and October, provide the majority of India's rainfall.[76] Four major climatic groupings predominate in India: tropical wet, tropical dry, subtropical humid, and montane

THE ECONOMY OF INDIA
The Bombay Stock Exchange, in Mumbai, is Asia's oldest and India's largest stock exchange.For most of its post-independence history, India adhered to a quasi-socialist approach with strict government control over private sector participation, foreign trade, and foreign direct investment. However, since 1991, India has gradually opened up its markets through economic reforms and reduced government controls on foreign trade and investment.[32] Foreign exchange reserves have risen from US$5.8 billion in March 1991 to US$300 billion in March, 2008,[89] while federal and state budget deficits have decreased.[90] Privatization of publicly-owned companies and the opening of certain sectors to private and foreign participation has continued amid political debate.[91] With a GDP growth rate of 9.4% in 2006-07, the economy is among the fastest growing in the world.[92] India's GDP in terms of USD exchange-rate is US$1.089 trillion. When measured in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), India has the world's fourth largest GDP at US$4.726 trillion. India's per capita income (nominal) is US$977, while its per capita (PPP) is US$2700.

India has the world's second largest labour force, with 516.3 million people, 60% of whom are employed in agriculture and related industries; 28% in services and related industries; and 12% in industry.[93] Major agricultural crops include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, and potatoes. The agricultural sector accounts for 28% of GDP; the service and industrial sectors make up 54% and 18% respectively. Major industries include automobiles, cement, chemicals, consumer electronics, food processing, machinery, mining, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, steel, transportation equipment, and textiles.

Although the Indian economy has grown steadily over the last two decades; its growth has been uneven when comparing different social groups, economic groups, geographic regions, and rural and urban areas.[94] Income inequality in India is relatively small (Gini coefficient: 32.5 in year 1999–2000),[citation needed] though it has been increasing of late. Wealth distribution in India is fairly uneven, with the top 10% of income groups earning 33% of the income.[95] Despite significant economic progress, a quarter of the nation's population earns less than the government-specified poverty threshold of $0.40 per day. In 2004–2005, 27.5% of the population was living below the poverty line.[18]

More recently, India has capitalised on its large pool of educated, English-speaking people, and trained professionals to become an important outsourcing destination for multinational corporations and a popular destination for medical tourism.[96] India has also become a major exporter of software as well as financial, research, and technological services. Its natural resources include arable land, bauxite, chromite, coal, diamonds, iron ore, limestone, manganese, mica, natural gas, petroleum, and titanium ore.[50]

In 2007, estimated exports stood at US$140 billion and imports were around US$224.9 billion. Textiles, jewellery, engineering goods and software are major export commodities. While crude oil, machineries, fertilizers, and chemicals are major imports. India's most important trading partners are the United States, the European
Union, and China

DEMOGRAPHICS
country. Almost 70% of Indians reside in rural areas, although in recent decades migration to larger cities has led to a dramatic increase in the country's urban population. India's largest cities are Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), Chennai (formerly Madras), Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.[50]

India is the second most culturally, linguistically and genetically diverse geographical entity after the African continent.[50] India is home to two major linguistic families: Indo-Aryan (spoken by about 74% of the population) and Dravidian (spoken by about 24%). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman linguistic families. Hindi, with the largest number of speakers,[97] is the official language of India.[98] English, which is extensively used in business and administration, has the status of a 'subsidiary official language.'[6] The constitution also recognises in particular 21 other languages that are either abundantly spoken or have classical status. The number of dialects in India is as high as 1,652.[99]

Over 800 million Indians (80.5%) are Hindu. Other religious groups include Muslims (13.4%), Christians (2.3%), Sikhs (1.9%), Buddhists (0.8%), Jains (0.4%), Jews, Zoroastrians, Bahá'ís and others.[100] Tribals constitute 8.1% of the population.[101]

India's literacy rate is 64.8% (53.7% for females and 75.3% for males).[8] The state of Kerala has the highest literacy rate (91%);[102] Bihar has the lowest (47%).[103] The national human sex ratio is 944 females per 1,000 males. India's median age is 24.9, and the population growth rate of 1.38% per annum; there are 22.01 births per 1,000 people per year.[8]

IDENTITIES OF INDIA
PEOPLES
Peoples in India

Terms used
While the government of India refers to indigenous peoples as "Scheduled Tribes", Adivasi has become the popular term for India's indigenous or tribal peoples. It is a Sanskrit word meaning "original people". Contrary to the official government position, this term reflects the widely recognised fact that the people in question are the earliest known settlers on the Indian subcontinent and North-East India. The indigenous or tribal peoples of India's north-eastern region (the seven states Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura) do not call themselves, nor are they normally referred to in literature, as Adivasi in spite of the fact that the meaning of the term very much applies to the respective people. Representatives of these peoples prefer to use the English term "indigenous peoples".

Population In the 2001 census, 84.33 million persons were classified as members of Scheduled Tribes, corresponding to 8.2% of the total population. The census lists 461 groups recognised as tribes, while estimates of the number of tribes living in India reach up to 635. While the number of members of the largest tribes, such as the Gonds, Santals, Oraon, Bhils or Nagas go into the millions others, such as the Onge or the Great Andamanese, are on the brink of extinction.

The majority of the indigenous and tribal peoples live in an almost contiguous belt stretching from Gujarat in the west to the seven states in the north-east, with the highest concentration in the central region, where more than 50% of the tribal people live. The highest ethnic diversity among the indigenous and tribal population is in the north-eastern region, where 220 distinct groups have been identified. They comprise approximately 12% of the total indigenous population of India.

Livelihood
India's tribal people are among the poorest in the country. The "Scheduled Tribes" have the highest poverty rate of the three categories of people officially distinguished. A 1991 census showed that 52.17% of them live below the poverty line. Among the Scheduled Castes this figure is 48.14% and among other people 31.29% (the overall figure for India given in the same survey is 37.09%). This dismal situation is reflected in the health and nutritional status of tribal villagers. Especially where access to forest products to supplement their diet and to provide additional cash income is no longer possible – either because the forests have been destroyed or their rights of access are being denied – under-nourishment and malnutrition is widespread.

Most of India's indigenous peoples have been forest dwellers for centuries. Traditionally, forests met most of their fodder, food, medicinal and other needs. A long process of turning forest areas into a source of revenue and timber, and exploitation of the mineral resources, has led to deforestation, loss of livelihood and displacement of indigenous peoples. The vast majority of the labour force among scheduled tribes is engaged in the agricultural sector (the figure for all India is 66.84%). This means that almost nine-tenths of tribal families rely on natural resources for their livelihood. The majority of these are engaged in permanent agriculture but shifting cultivation still forms the mainstay of the domestic economy in many upland areas, particularly in the north-east. A few small groups in Central and South India and on the Andaman Islands live almost entirely from hunting, gathering and fishing.

Since tribal communities have been forced off most of the fertile plains they previously inhabited, the majority of tribal farmers cultivate marginal land, using rather extensive methods. Above all, irrigation is absent from most areas, the extensive rice terraces of some indigenous peoples, for example some Naga tribes in the north-east, being the exception.

Forests have always, and for almost all tribal societies, been of vital importance for their livelihood. Shifting cultivators have tapped the regenerative forces of natural forest succession on fallow land, wild animals are hunted and represent an indispensable source of protein. Forest plants are gathered for food, fuel, medicine, spices, ornaments, dye etc., many of which are sold and represent the main source of cash for tribal villagers.

Some tribal communities in Central India have become professional specialists, providing other tribal communities with artisanal products such as baskets, woven textiles, iron tools etc. A small but rapidly growing number are employed as industrial labourers.

The status and situation of indigenous and tribal women
The status of tribal women is markedly better than that in the Hindu caste society. Women play an important role in the domestic economy of tribal societies, they are usually allowed to move freely, and have the right to choose their marriage partners or at least have a large say in this (it is always, at the very least, a family affair). Divorce is usually possible and much easier, and tribal widows – unlike their Hindu sisters – have no problem in remarrying. But, again, these are generalisations and there are indigenous societies in which child and forced marriages are common. In many tribal societies, paying a bride price is part of the marriage arrangement. This stands in contrast to the dowry practice in Hindu society, which means that the birth of a baby girl represents a heavy economic burden for poorer families, with enormous repercussions on the status of women, and on the sex ratio in the population. Studies have shown that baby girls are less well-looked after than boys, leading to a higher infant mortality rate. The possibility of pre-natal sex identification has led to a rapid drop in the births of baby girls.

In hardly any indigenous society do women participate in formal political decision-making. They are often consulted, by their husbands or in community meetings. But they are not members of village councils, and cannot become the chief. They also hardly ever play an important role in religion, although they may also be spirit mediums or healers. Generally, women are valued for their productive and reproductive functions.

With the exception of a few matrilineal societies (such as the Garo and Khasi of Meghalaya in the north-east), women do not inherit land. And even among the matrilineal societies, the land is in reality managed and controlled by men. Indigenous women's right to land is usually only a usufruct right. But it is very important for unmarried women and widows. Ownership normally rests with their fathers, brothers or husbands. Men therefore tend to have greater control over agricultural production and products. However, tribal women do enjoy spheres in which they retain some control. On mainland India, in particular, gathering forest products - which has been very much a female activity - is crucial for women to maintain at least some degree of autonomy since they have control over these products.



RELIGIONS India known as the land of spirituality and philosophy, was the birthplace of some religions, which even exist today in the world.

The most dominant religion in India today is Hinduism. About 80% of Indians are Hindus. Hinduism is a colorful religion with a vast gallery of Gods and Goddesses. Hinduism is one of the ancient religions in the world. It is supposed to have developed about 5000 years ago. Later on in ancient period other religions developed in India.

Around 500 BC two other religions developed in India, namely, Buddhism and Jainism. Today only about 0.5% of Indians are Jains and about 0.7% are Buddhist. In ancient times Jainism and specially Buddhism were very popular in India. Indians who accepted Buddhist philosophy spread it not only within the Indian sub-continent but also to kingdoms east and south of India.

These three ancient religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, are seen as the molders of the India philosophy. In 'modern' period new religions were also established in India.

One comparatively new religion in India is Sikhism and it was established in the 15th century. About 2% of Indians are Sikhs. There were other attempts to create new religions in India but they did not always succeed. For example, a Moghul emperor, Akbar, who reigned between 1556 - 1605, tried to establish a new religion, Din- E- Elahi, but it did not survive. There are other religious philosophies whose believers see themselves as a separate religion, but they do not always get this recognition. For example Lingayat of south India see themselves as a different religion, while others see them as a sect of Hinduism. There are also some tribal communities who demand to be recognized as separate religion from Hinduism. In the 19th century some Hindu reformers tried to remodel Hinduism to adjust it to modern period.

Along with the religions that developed in India, there are followers of non- Indian religions. The largest non-Indian religion is Islam. They are about 12% of India's population. Christians are more then 2% of India's population. There are also Zoroastrians who even though make less then 0.01% of India's population, are known around India. There are also a few thousand Jews in India. Judaism and Christianity might have arrived in India before they arrived in Europe.


LANGUAGES
[edit] Official languages at the Union level
[edit] Hindi and English
The Indian constitution, in 1950, declared Hindi in Devanagari script to be the official language of the union.[5] Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use of English for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect, i.e., on 26 January 1965.[6] The prospect of the changeover, however, led to much alarm in the non Hindi-speaking areas of India, as a result of which Parliament enacted the Official Languages Act, 1963[7][8][9][10][11][12], which provided for the continued use of English for official purposes along with Hindi, even after 1965. An attempt was made in late 1964 to expressly provide for an end to the use of English, but it was met with protests from across the country. Some of these protests also turned violent. Widespread protests occurred in states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Karnataka, Pondicherry and Andhra Pradesh. As a result of these protests, the proposal was dropped,[13][14] and the Act itself was amended in 1967 to provide that the use of English would not be ended until a resolution to that effect was passed by the legislature of every state that had not adopted Hindi as its official language, and by each house of the Indian Parliament.[15]

The current position is thus that the Union government may continue to use English in addition to Hindi for its official purposes[16] as a "subsidiary official language,"[17] but is also required to prepare and execute a programme to progressively increase its use of Hindi.[18] The exact extent to which, and the areas in which, the Union government uses Hindi and English, respectively, is determined by the provisions of the Constitution, the Official Languages Act, 1963, the Official Languages Rules, 1976, and statutory instruments made by the Department of Official Language under these laws.


[edit] The language of Parliamentary proceedings and laws
The Indian constitution draws a distinction between the language to be used in Parliamentary proceedings, and the language in which laws are to be made. Parliamentary business, according to the Constitution, may be conducted in either Hindi or English.[19] The use of English in parliamentary proceedings was to be phased out at the end of fifteen years unless Parliament chose to extend its use,[20] which Parliament did through the Official Languages Act, 1963.[21] In addition, the constitution permits a person who is unable to express himself in either Hindi or English to, with the permission of the Speaker of the relevant House, address the House in his mother tongue.[22]

In contrast, the constitution requires the authoritative text of all laws, including Parliamentary enactments and statutory instruments, to be in English, until Parliament decides otherwise.[23] Parliament has not exercised its power to so decide, instead merely requiring that all such laws and instruments, and all bills brought before it, also be translated into Hindi, though the English text remains authoritative.[24]


[edit] The language of the judiciaryThe constitution provides that all proceedings in the Supreme Court of India, the country's highest court, shall be in English.[25] Parliament has the power to alter this by law, but has not done so.[26]


[edit] The language of administration
The Union government is required by law to progressively increase the use of Hindi in its official work,[27] which it has sought to do through "persuasion, incentive and goodwill."[28]

The Official Languages Act provides that the Union government shall use both Hindi and English in most administrative documents that are intended for the public.[29] The Official Languages Rules, in contrast, provide for a higher degree of use of Hindi in communications between offices of the central government (other than offices in Tamil Nadu, to which the rules do not apply[30]). Communications between different departments within the central government may be in either Hindi or English, although a translation into the other language must be provided if required.[31] Communications within offices of the same department, however, must be in Hindi if the offices are in Hindi-speaking states,[32] and in either Hindi or English otherwise with Hindi being used in proportion to the percentage of staff in the receiving office who have a working knowledge of Hindi.[33] Notes and memos in files may be in either Hindi or English, with the Government having a duty to provide a translation into the other language if required.[34]

In addition, every person submitting a petition for the redress of a grievance to a government officer or authority has a constitutional right to submit it in any language used in India.[35]


[edit] The languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution
The Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution contains a list of 22 scheduled languages. At the time the constitution was enacted, inclusion in this list meant that the language was entitled to representation on the Official Languages Commission,[36] and that the language would be one of the bases that would be drawn upon to enrich Hindi, the official language of the Union.[37] The list has since, however, acquired further significance. The Government of India is now under an obligation to take measures for the development of these languages, such that "they grow rapidly in richness and become effective means of communicating modern knowledge."[38] In addition, a candidate appearing in an examination conducted for public service at a higher level is entitled to use any of these languages as the medium in which he answers the paper.[39]

Via the 92nd Constitutional amendment 2003, 4 new languages – Bodo, Maithili, Dogri, and Santhali – were added to the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.[40]


CULTURE OF INDIA
When making an approach to Indian culture these cultural areas are to be contemplated

MUSIC
Music has always occupied a central place in the imagination of Indians. The range of musical phenomenon in India, and indeed the rest of South Asia, extends from simple melodies, commonly encountered among hill tribes, to what is one of the most well- developed "systems" of classical music in the world. Indian music can be described as having been inaugurated with the chanting of Vedic hymns, though it is more than probable that the Indus Valley Civilization was not without its musical culture, of which almost nothing is known. There are references to various string and wind instruments, as well as several kinds of drums and cymbals, in the Vedas. Sometime between the 2nd century BC and the 5th century AD, the Natyasastra, on Treatise on the Dramatic Arts, was composed by Bharata. This work has ever since exercised an incalculable influence on the development of Indian music, dance, and the performing arts in general.

The term raga, on which Indian music is based, was first discussed at any length in the Brhaddesi, a work from the 10th century attributed to Matanga. In the 13th century, the theorist Sarngadeva, who authored the large work Sangitaratnakara, listed 264 ragas; by this time, the Islamic presence was beginning to be felt in India. Some date the advent of the system of classical Indian music as we now know it to Amir Khusro. Muslim rulers and noblemen freely extended their patronage to music. In the courts of the Mughal emperors, music is said to have flourished, and the composer-musician Tansen was one of the jewels of Akbar's court. Though songs had traditionally been composed in Sanskrit, by the sixteenth century theywere being composed in the various dialects of Hindi -- Braj Bhasa and Bhojpuri among them -- as well as Persian and Urdu. The great poet-saints who chose to communicate in the vernacular tongues brought forth a great upheaval in north India and the bhakti or devotional movements they led gained many adherents. The lyrics of Surdas, Tulsidas, and most particularly Kabir and Mirabai would henceforth be set to music, and bhajans, or devotional songs, continue to be immensely popular.

By the sixteenth century, the distinction between North Indian (Hindustani) and South Indian (Carnatic) music was also being more sharply delineated. Though music in the north, owing to the strong Muslim presence, had been more open to outside influences, in the eighteenth century South Indian musicians were to show themselves as being quite adept in adopting foreign instruments. Sometime in the mid-eighteenth century, the violin entered the repertoire of South Indian music, an instrument which in the late twentieth century has a dazzling array of extraordinarily brilliant performers. Classical music, both Hindustani and Carnatic, may be either instrumental or vocal: the connoisseurs of music maintain, as one might expect, that the vocalists represent the music in its greatest glory, but instrumental music has at least just as large a following. Though traditionally this music would have been performed in temples, courts, residences of noblemen and other patrons, and in small gatherings (called baithaks) of music aficionados, today most classical music concerts are held in concert halls.

In the 1960s, classical Indian music entered a new phase. It found adherents in the West, and the sitar of Ravi Shankar was to be heard on the famous Beatles' album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Ravi Shankar, along with other well-known musicians like the Sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan, was to make his home in the United States, and for the first time Indian classical music began to acquire Western students. Satyajit Ray, the first Indian director to acquire world fame, and a common name in repertory art cinemas, also brought classical Indian music to the attention of Westerners, for the music of some of his early films was composed by Ravi Shankar and Vilayat Khan, sometimes described as India's greatest sitarist. Finally, collaborations ensued between Indians musicians and Western musicians, as in the case of Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin, who collaborated on a number of East-West albums. In recent years, Ravi Shankar has collaborated with the American minimalist composer, Philip Glass, on Passages; there have also been successful collaborations between L. Shankar and L. Subramaniam, both violinists, and Western musicians. This music is now routinely described as fusion. Though a musicians such as Ravi Shankar can scarcely be described as a household name in the West, he is unquestionably one of the most well-known non- Western musicians in the West, and Indian classical music can fairly be described as having carved a niche for itself in the world of concert music.

In India, however, music is most commonly associated with film music. Popular Indian films, whether in Hindi, Tamil, or any of the other Indian languages, are most often described and understood in the West as "musicals", as they are seldom without songs, though they by no means constitute a genre as did American musicals. Also popular are ghazals, poetic compositions that aspire more than do popular film songs to poetic qualities: the subject here is usually the loss, memory, and remembrance of love. Qawaalis, compositions in which the subject is also love, though here it is understood that it is the love of man and woman for the Divine, have also attained a certain following, and in recent years the Pakistani qawaali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has established a world-wide reputation

DANCE
Kalaripayatuu
A martial arts tradition from the coastal state of Kerala, Kalaripayatuu — "the arts of the gymnasium" -- is believed to have a history extending back to the first century AD. It has been suggested that kalaripayatuu was taken by a Buddhist monk from the Malabar coast to China, where it led, in turn, to those martial arts that are now familiar in the West, namely judo, karate, and kung fu. Those proficient in Kalaripayatuu are said to have constituted themselves in medieval times into elite suicide squads, known as "chavars". At some point, the Nairs began to dominate the sport. The Madhya [Middle] Kerala Sampradayam [School] is noted for its accuracy, foot movements (kalams, said to number 64), and striking power; it acquired considerable popularity in the Middle East, where Arab traders who came to the Malabar coast in search of spices first introduced it. The Kadaanada [North Kerala] Sampradayam is known for its emphasis on speed, flexibility, stamina, body balance, and remarkable neuromuscular coordination. At the present moment, Kerala has two kalaris, or gymansia: in principle, the one founded by C. V. Narayanan Nair caters to Hindu students, and the one founded by Haji Ennam Kuty attracts Muslim students, but in fact students from both faiths intermingle. As with many other phenomena, such as yoga -- which in the West has largely been reduced to hatha yoga, or a set of exercises, so occluding the various profound associations yoga in India has had with sadhana (discipline), moksha (spiritual emancipation), brahmacharya (such restraint as makes one capable of approximating the divine) -- the modern instruction of kalaripayatuu has divorced the self-defence aspect of the art form from the philosophy and rituals associated with it over the centuries.


ARCHITECTURE
One of the most enduring achievements of Indian civilization is undoubtedly its architecture, which extends to a great deal more than the Taj Mahal or the temple complexes of Khajuraho and Vijayanagara. Though the Indus Valley sites of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, and Lothal provide substantial evidence of extensive town planning, the beginnings of Indian architecture are more properly to be dated to the advent of Buddhism in India, in the reign of Ashoka (c. 270-232), and the construction of Buddhist monasteries and stupas. Buddhist architecture was predominant for several centuries, and there are few remains of Hindu temples from even late antiquity. Among the many highlights of Buddhist art and architecture are the Great Stupa at Sanchi and the rock-cut caves at Ajanta.


By the eighth century, with the consolidation of Hindu kingdoms, the southern Hindu school of architecture was beginning to flourish. The most notable achievements of the Pallavas were the rock-cut temples of Mahabalipuram and the temples of Kanchipuram. The subsequent history of South Indian temple architecture takes us, over the next eight centuries, to Thanjavur (Tanjore), to the brilliant achievements of the Hoysalas (as seen in the temples at Belur and Halebid), and the temple complexes, which represent the flowering of the Vijayanagara empire, of Kanchipuram, Thiruvannamalai, and Vellore. The most stellar achievement of the later Vijayanagara period may well be the Meenakshi temple in Madurai. In Kerala, however, a distinct style of architecture took shape. In Ellora in western India, Hindus added a new series of temples and carvings at what had once been Buddhist caves, culminating in the majestic Kailasa temple, constructed in the reign of the Rashtrakuta monarch Krishna I (757-73), while the rock-cut caves in Elephanta and Jogeshvari, in the proximity of Bombay, were most likely executed in the sixth century.

In north India, meanwhile, architecture was to be a more contentious matter. The fabled temple at Somnath, renowned for its purported riches, is said to have been destroyed by the Muslim invader Mahmud of Ghazni, and after the attainment of Indian independence, the restoration of this temple became a matter of national pride for more ardent defenders of the faith. The story of Somnath points to the manner in which histories, whether political, cultural, or architectural, have become communalized. But the period from 1000-1300 was, in any case, a time when Hindu architecture flourished throughout India. In central India, the Chandellas built a magnificent complex of temples at their capital, Khajuraho, between 950-1030 A.D. These temples, which show Vaishnavite, Shaivite, and Tantric influence, have acquired a renewed reputation today as indices of India's libertine past, allegedly indicative of India's relaxed sexual mores before puritanical Muslims made India a sexually repressed society. The sexual postures depicted in many of the sculptures that adorn some of the temples appear equally on the posters of the Government of India's Tourist Office and the pages of gay and lesbian magazines. The cultural politics of Khajuraho, as indeed of Indian architecture, still remains to be written. In the north-west, the Solanki kings spent lavishly on buildings, and the Surya or Sun temple in Modhera, some 3 hours from Ahmedabad, stills provides striking testimony to their achievements. More stupendous still is the Surya temple at Konarak, built by Narasimha-deva Ganga (c. 1238-64), though masterpieces of Orissan architecture from the reign of the Gangas are to be found in Bhubaneshwar and Puri as well. The weakness of Muslim dynasties in the north enabled Rajput kings to assert their independence; the results of this Hindu revival are to be seen in Chittor, and elsewhere in Rajasthan where massive forts dot the landscape.

CINEMA
India has one of the oldest film industries in the world. Though the first film advertisement in India appeared in the Times of India on 7 July 1896, inviting people to witness the Lumiere Brothers' moving pictures, "the wonder of the world", it was not until early 1913 that an Indian film received a public screening. Rajah Harischandra was an extraordinary commercial success: its director, Dadasaheb Phalke, who is now remembered through a life-time achievement award bestowed by the film industry in his name, went on to make a number of other films drawing upon themes derived from the Indian epics. Phalke could not find a woman to play the female roles, being turned down in this endeavor not only by 'respectable' women but by prostitutes, and had to resort to the expedient of choosing a young man, A. Salunke, to play the female roles in his early films. Among the middle classes, that association of acting with the loss of virtue, female modesty, and respectability has only recently been put into question, whatever degree of emulation actresses might appear to receive from an adoring public.

While a number of other film-makers, working in several Indian languages, pioneered the growth and development of Indian cinema, the studio system was beginning to emerge in the early 1930s. Its most successful initial product was the film Devdas (1935), whose director, P.C. Barua, also appeared in the lead; the Hindi re-make of the original Bengali film, also directed by Barua, was to establish the legendary career of Kundanlal Saigal. The Tamil version of this New Theatres release appeared in 1936. "To some extent", note the authors of Indian Film, "Devdas was a film of social protest. It carried an implied indictment of arranged marriage and undoubtedly gave some satisfaction on this score to those who hate this institution" (p. 81). The Prabhat Film Company, established by V. G. Damle, Shantaram, S. Fatehlal, and two other men in 1929, wasalso achieving its first successes around this time. Damle and Fatehlal's Sant Tukaram (1936), made in Marathi, was the first Indian film to gain international recognition, winning an award at Venice. The social films of V. Shantaram, more than anything else, paved the way for an entire set of directors who took it upon themselves to interrogate not only the institutions of marriage, dowry, and widowhood, but the grave inequities created by caste and class distinctions. Some of these problems received perhaps their most explicit expression in Achhut Kanya ("Untouchable Girl", 1936), a film directed by Himanshu Rai of Bombay Talkies. The film portrays the travails of a Harijan girl, played by Devika Rani, and a Brahmin boy, played by Ashok Kumar, whose love for each other cannot merely be consummated but must have a tragic end.

The next significant phase of Hindi cinema is associated with such figures as Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy, and Guru Dutt. The son of Prithviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor created some of the most popular and memorable films in Hindi cinema. Awaara (The Vagabond, 1951), Shri 420 (1955), and Jagte Raho (1957) were both commercial and critical successes. Many of his films explore, in a rather benign way, the class fissures in Indian society. Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin ("Two Acres of Land", 1954), which shows the influence of Italian neo-realism, explored the difficult life of the rural peasantry under the most oppressive conditions; his film Devdas (1955), with Dilip Kumar playing the title role in a re-make of Barua's film, was a testimony to the near impossibility of the fulfillment of 'love' under Indian social conditions, while Sujata (1959) pointed to the problems posed by marriages arranged by parents without the consent of their children. Meanwhile, the Hindi cinema had seen the rise of its first undisputed genius, Guru Dutt, whose films critiqued the conventions of society and deplored the conditions which compel artists to forgo their inspiration. From Barua's Devdas (1935) to Guru Dutt's Sahib, Bibi aur Gulam (with Guru Dutt and Meena Kumari),the motif of "doomed love" looms large: to many critics, a maudlin sentimentality characterizes even the best of the Hindi cinema before the advent of the new or alternative Indian cinema in the 1970s



CUISINE
VEGETARIANISM IN INDIA

Though no country in the world is as strongly associated with vegetarianism as India, a number of recent studies have purported to establish that by far the greater majority of Indians are non-vegetarians. The history of vegetarianism in India begins not with the Aryans, as is commonly believed by Hindus, but in the aftermath of the introduction of Buddhism and Jainism in the sixth century BCE. Though orthodox Hindus are shocked to hear it, the early Aryans were almost certainly beef-eaters. Unlike the Indus Valley people, who were agriculturists and traders, the Aryans were a pastoral people, and they slaughtered cattle as food. Neither the early Indus Valley people nor the early Aryans venerated the cow. Though the Buddha was an exponent of ahimsa, or non-violence, he was not himself a vegetarian, and it is said that his last meal contained pork. Nonetheless, given the Buddhist emphasis on ahimsa, vegetarianism received much impetus. The Buddha’s slightly older contemporary, Mahavira, the founder of the religion that would come to be known as Jainism, took the precepts of ahimsa much further, and it is the complete reverence for all forms of life that made it impossible for those who embraced Jainism to practice agriculture. The upper castes, who found members of their community deserting the "Hindu" fold for Buddhism or Jainism, increasingly came to adopt vegetarianism.

In 1977, the Marxist historian R. S. Sharma, then Professor of History and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Delhi University, published his textbook Ancient India. He wrote that the ancient Aryans were beef-eaters, adding in explanation that "it is because of the prominence of pastoral life that beef-eating prevailed in Vedic times." He maintained that long after agriculture had commenced, the practice of beef-eating continued among certain classes of people, especially "artisans and agricultural labourers". Sharma had said nothing exceptional, and the weight of much Indological scholarship was behind his work; even the staunchly Hindu nationalist writer, K. M. Munshi, had once noted, without a trace of embarrassment, that "in spite of Jainism and Buddhism, fish and meat, not excluding beef, were consumed extensively by the people." Yet Sharma’s remarks were construed as conveying his advocacy of non-vegetarianism, and particularly beef-eating; and so Sharma was charged with deliberately offending the sentiments of orthodox Hindus among whom the consumption of beef cannot be contemplated. A local Hindu leader demanded the "immediate banning of Prof. R. S. Sharma’s Ancient India" for his references to beef-eating in Vedic India. While more than ably defended by professional historians and much of the print media, Professor Sharma’s supporters appear not to have understood that the anxieties his remarks had raised were not to be resolved solely by recourse to an ‘objective’ and ‘scientific’ history. It is often a thin line that divides Hindus from Indian Muslims, and a beef-eating Hindu, by virtue of the transgression implied in the act, can be inferred to have become akin to a Muslim. If a circumcised penis remained one of the few ways to distinguish Hindu and Muslim men during the horrendous killings accompanying the partition, the all-consuming anxiety over beef-eating is better understood. Where substantive differences are minimal, and certainly subservient to common cultural practices, symbols are the preeminent way in which differences are exaggerated in order to permit the drawing of boundaries.

It is no exaggeration to say that for some Indians, their vegetarianism is itself their dharma. Doubtless, there are many communities where the consumption of meat or fish is very common. This is true, for instance, of people living in the coastal states, such as Kerala and West Bengal, and the entire west coast of India, as well as Bengal, is renowned for its seafood dishes. Among Muslims, as well, the consumption of meat is very common, and in finer cuisines associated with Muslims, meat dishes often predominate. In north India, among Punjabis, chicken and mutton (goat-meat) dishes are relished. Nonetheless, the perception of India as a paradise for vegetarian food is not entirely mistaken, whatever the statistics and anthropology texts may have to say about this matter. There are communities, for instance Jainas and Vaishnava Hindus, where vegetarianism is strictly observed, but millions of other Indians are vegetarians as well. Even in many Indian families where meat is consumed, it is done no more frequently than one day a week, usually on a Sunday afternoon. For many other families, meat — again, usually chicken or mutton — is partaken three or four times a year, most often at weddings.

The history of vegetarianism in India, however, goes well beyond the history of specific food practices in regional communities. Vegetarianism is also a matter of sensibility, of the ethos of a culture. Orthodox Hindus and Jainas, for instance, do not use garlic or onions in their cooking, much less have raw onions in their salad. Clearly, this prohibition has no relation to the taking of life, but every relation to the properties ascribed to various foods. Certain foods are ‘hot’, others are ‘cold’; foods are also categorized according to their supposed internal propensity to excite the passions. Whatever the medicinal properties of onions and garlic, these foods are believed to be base in some respects; more significantly, both onions and garlic give out strong smells, and it is argued, not unreasonably, that consumption of these items obfuscates the richer and softer tastes and smells associated with vegetables. Similarly, it is common to find in middle class families in north and central India women who do not partake of meat, fish, or eggs, though the men in their families do so. The consumption of meat is sometimes associated with masculinity, or with the violent conduct to which men are more often prone: to eat an animal is to turn oneself into an animal as well. Though this formulation may not describe precisely the views of Mahatma Gandhi, perhaps India’s most famous exponent of vegetarianism, it is unequivocally clear that Gandhi sought to draw a close association between the practice of vegetarianism and the observance of non-violence, understood both as the renunciation of violence and positively as conduct leading to the good of others. Gandhi attached great importance to diet, and argued vigorously that vegetarianism was more conducive to a life led according to the precepts of ahimsa. In this manner, as in many others, Gandhi had tapped on to beliefs widely shared in India

FESTIVALS
Though India is often and justly described as a land of many religions and innumerable languages, it might well be described as a land of festivals as well. One conventional authority, the Encyclopedia Brittanica, rather unabashedly and with the customary cavalier attitude with which India can be treated, says of Hindu festivals that these arecombinations of religious ceremonies, semi-ritual spectacles, worship, prayer, lustrations, processions (to set something sacred in motion and to extend its power throughout a certain region), music, dances (which by their rhythm have a compelling force), magical acts -- participants throw fertilizing water or, during the Holi festival, coloured powder at each other -- eating, drinking, lovemaking, licentiousness, feeding the poor, and other activities of a religious or traditional character. No example is adduced of "lovemaking", but one might reasonably infer that the reference is to some tantric practices.

As in any old civilization, most of these festivals have religious associations, as is the case with Holi, Dusshera, Krishna Janmashtmi, Hanuman Jayanti, Ganesh Chaturthi, Muharram, Shivratri, and Diwali or Deepavali; many are also, in a country which is still predominantly rural, associated with the harvesting of the crop, as is true of Pongal-Sankranti in South India, or otherwise commemorative of the sacred ties with the land that Indian villagers have. Still others, such as Karwa Chauth, the observance of which is strictly restricted to Hindu married women, are not festivals as such though there may be something of a festive air attached to these occasions. Some festivals are observed throughout the country, or in a greater part of it; others, such as the famed snake race of Kerala, have peculiarly regional associations. Yet others, most notably Diwali and Holi, have been instrumental in forging ties among older diasporic Indian communities, and in such far-flung places as Fiji, Mauritius, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Guyana, these festivals are celebrated with a pomp and vigor not always witnessed in India itself.

LITERATURE
Jnaneshvari

Ramayana

Vidyapati

Indian Poetics [pdf file]
"Indian Poetics and Western Literary Criticism", Indian Literature 35, no. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1992):101-107.

Folktales And Folklore [pdf file]
"Literature from Below", review of The Folktales of India, ed. Brenda Beck et al, and William Crooke's A Glossary of North Indian Peasant Life, Indian Literature 34, no.3 (May-June 1991):111-118.

Nissim Ezekiel [pdf file]
"A No Mean Poet of the Mean", Indian Literature 34, no. 4 (July-Aug. 1991):158-167.

"Exploring the Human Psyche",
Review of Bhisham Sahni, We Have Arrived in Amritsar and Other Stories,
Book Review 14, no. 5 (September-October 1990), pp. 27-28.

"Indologists' India",
Review of Cleo M. Kearns, T. S. Eliot and Indic Traditions,
Indian Literature (September-October 1989), pp. 167-72.
English, August

English, August
Review of Upamanyu Chatterjee, English, August: An Indian Story,
Indian Literature, no. 137 (May-June 1990), pp. 155-162.


STORIES BY SATYAJIT RAY
"My Useless Uncle", Indian Literature 32, no. 1 (Jan-Feb. 1989), pp. 49-56.
"The Suspicions of Mr. Sadhan", Indian Horizons 38, nos. 1-2 (1989), pp. 53-59