Why is India's culture ever changing even today ?
Answers
Being a developing nation, India is undergoing rapid changes in many fields, because of which culture is also getting affected.
To begin with, the emphasis laid on education and awareness is continuously increasing. As more and more people from the rural areas get education, they step out of the countryside, and move to cities in search of employment. This gives them a lot of exposure and based on their education and experience, they begin to question the traditions that are no longer valid, like the purdah system, untouchability and other such ill practices.
Given the access to the internet and TV, many aspects of western culture have trickled into the Indian culture. Tastes have changed over time, in terms of food choice, clothing or even entertainment. While foreign countries have adopted yoga, many in India prefer aerobics to keep fit. With the world being reduced to a global village, because of digital media, better communications and free trade, cultural changes are inevitable.
Also, as lives have become busier, people do not have the time to come together as a community like they used to in the olden days. As a result, many cultural observances have either disappeared altogether or are not celebrated in accordance with traditions. For instance, during the Lohri festival in Punjab, children used to go door to door in the neighbourhood and were offered sweets at each house. Nowadays however, this practice does not exist in cities at all, though it is still continued in some villages.
Further, with rampant corruption and commercialization, religion has also lost its place. Each year many people offer to donate their organs or even the complete body for medical research, an act that is totally at loggerheads with the religious idea of salvation. Similarly, social bindings like caste have lost their rigidity and inter-caste and inter-religion marriages have also become common.
Thus, the Indian culture is getting diluted both because of the intermingling between Indians and foreigners as well as between different ethnic groups within India. As the culture changes, some good elements are lost while yet other good elements are added to it. Culture will continue to remain in a flux for as long as mankind exists.
This is because of
* the heavy population of people in India.
* the limited amount of resources available to all people.
* the extremely diverse population.
* different laws for different relegions.
All this makes Indians very unequal in all terms from richness to happiness.