INDIAN CULTURE AND WESTERN CULTURE

 KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INDIAN CULTURE AND WESTERN CULTURE

The following are the major differences between Indian Culture and Western

Culture

·         The culture which is prevalent in India is known as Indian Culture. The culture, widespread in the western countries is known as Western Culture.

·         Indian culture has a variety of religions like Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, etc. while in Western Culture the people mostly belong to Christianity.

·          In Indian culture, joint families are common. On the other hand, in Western

culture, small families are there.

·         The traditional Indian outfit is worn in Indian Culture. In contrast to Western culture, there is no such traditional outfit.

·         A variety of Folk, Classical, Bollywood songs is preferred in Indian Culture. On the other hand, Western Culture promotes Hip-Hop, Jazz, Blues, Rap, Heavy Metal and Rock music.

·          Hindi is mainly spoken in Indian Culture but in the case of Western Culture, English is spoken in a high ratio.

·         Indian Culture is not that more open as compared to Western Culture.

·          Indian Culture gives more importance to society as compared to an individual, however in Western culture; society does not take part in the life of an Individual.

THINGS THAT ARE CHANGED

When we adapt a different culture, the culture adapted is known as Secondary culture. Westernization is the secondary culture of the Indians and this has brought a number of changes in the Indian culture like

DRESSINGS

People have different perceptions. Some believe that westernization is ruining the traditional clothing of the Indian culture while others feel that it is a matter of prestige. For example, in India, the traditional dressing includes sari, dhoti and kurta but Indians have now shifted towards clothes like jeans, tee-shirts, short skirts, tops etc. The modern dresses reveal a modern thinking and gives freedom of wearing anything in a more simplified way. In India, there is approximately more than 25% of western clothing. The Indian attire lends more ethnicity and preserves the colors of the Indian culture. The change of fashion in India is now leading to reduction of the importance of the Indian culture to many people.

FESTIVALS

The western culture has left no stone unturned in impacting the Indian festivals too. Generally festivals like Holi or Diwali are celebrated by Indians but now the trend has become to celebrate western festivals like Christmas or Halloween. People follow the trend of celebrating Valentine’s Day by dating each other.

FOOD

The Indian plate has welcomed many western foods (eg pizza, burgers, steak tacos etc.), and Indian foods like Golgapa, curry etc., are being less popular in India, however these Indian food are becoming common in Europe while the western foods are becoming more popular in India. Western foods contain too much fat and this is causing the obesity in India. In our Indian culture, one is not allowed to eat

      pork or beef however, the western foods have kicked in now, and so many Indians have changed their eating styles. But there are many who feel that it is disrespecting one’s own religion. They feel that this is decreasing the value of Indian culture. Today in India, there are more western restaurants like KFC, or Mc Donald  as compared to the Indian restaurants.

LANGUAGE

In India, there are more than 700 languages spoken. However, many of these mother tongue languages are fading away. Nowadays everywhere English is required. To get a good job, to interact with your clients in the corporate world, you must know the basic language (English) or other additional ones. So today, almost everyone is focusing on one language and are forgetting their mother tongue be it Hindi, Telegu, Malyali or any other.

LIFESTYLES AND PEOPLE

Westernization has changed a number of people’s lifestyles. Now, there is no particular lifestyle that is pure Indian. Most things have changed like the respect for the younger ones and elders, the importance of a family, clothing, festivals, foods, names, languages etc. We now only prefer a fair skin girl with a slim body, a boy with a good physique and good looks. Earlier this wasn’t the case. Now looks matter more so for that we don’t think twice (if we have money) to get a plastic surgery. This thing was never in our culture but we adopted it to be more western. People are changing themselves and are trying to adapt like western people. Westernization is also reducing the equality of lifestyles in India. In the Indian culture, in order to visit a temple, you must have the right clothing like suit a saree but now we even go in with jeans, tee-shirts etc. In Indian culture, we respect the young and elders but since the western culture has arrived, the respect  is now diminishing and now the behavior of many people is changing.

MUSIC

The Indian music was all about classical songs, folk songs, sufi songs etc. but now it has greatly changed due to westernization. Indians used to have their own traditional music and instruments like flute, dholaks, dhols, sitar etc., however, today we are using different instruments like guitars, pianos, violin, etc to make music. And this is the reason that why Indian songs now sound completely different and are nothing like what they sounded before. Indian songs now are fusions, have base guitar, electric guitar, drums, raps in it.