Cultural Heritage of INDIA

Presented By:

INDIA has the Largest and most populous Democracy in the World

12th Largest Economy in nominal dollars

Population: 1.15 billion, 1.7% growth rate

Basic Facts:

Society: Family and Customs Languages Religion Festivals Cuisine Literature

Our Culture

Strict social hierarchy

Patriarchy

Caste system

Integration of religion

Traditional Indian Families: Large joint families Mostly rural

Modern Nuclear Families

Society CustomsRespect for Elders

Respect one another

Being Helpful

Treat guests as Gods

Two major groups:◦ Indo-European or Indo-Aryan languages◦ Dravidian Languages

Northern Indian: Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Sindhi, Bengali and Oriya

Southern Indian: Tamil ,Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu

Languages

Major Religions: Hinduism – 80.4% Islam – 13.4% Buddhism Jainism Sikhism Christianity

Plays a central and definitive role in the lives of most people

Religion

National Holidays:

• Independence Day – 15th August• Republic Day – 26th January• Gandhi Jayanti – 2nd October

Harvest Festivals:

• Sankranti• Pongal• Onam

Religious Festivals:

• Diwali• Ganesh Chaturthi• Holi• Navratri• Rakshabandhan• Dussehra• Durga Puja• Buddh Purnima• Christmas• Eid and Ramadan

FESTIVALS AND HOLIDAYS

Combination of Middle East, Central Asia and Mediterranean

Major types of cuisine: North Indian: Mughlai, Punjabi, Kashmiri Western Cuisine: Gujarati, Maharashtrian, Rajasthani, Goan Eastern Cuisine: Bengali Southern Cuisine North Eastern

Cuisine

Classical Literature: Sanskrit Tamil Sangam Pali Canon

Epics: Mahabharata and Ramayana

Regional literature – as many languages

Contemporary Indian writers:◦ Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Shashi Tharoor, Vikram

Chandra, Amitav Ghosh, Jhumpa Lahiri

Literature

Thank You