Incredible India

Largest and most populous Democracy in the World

12th Largest Economy in nominal dollars

Population: 1.15 billion, 1.7% growth rate

70% Rural with severe cases of Urban Agglomeration

Basic Facts:

Society: Family and Customs Regional Diversity Languages Religion Festivals Cuisine Performing Arts Sports Literature Indian Film Industry

Our Culture

Strict social hierarchy

Patriarchy

Caste system

Integration of religion

Traditional Indian Families: Large joint families Mostly rural

Modern Nuclear Families

Society

Respect for Elders

Respect one another

Being Helpful

Treat guests as Gods

Customs

Regional Diversity

1576 mother tongues!!! 29 languages > 1 million speakers 60 languages > 100,000 speakers 122 languages > 10,000 speakers

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 & 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

Theater: Kutiyattam – oldest Folk Theater Puppet Theater Modern Theater

Dance: Folk: Bhangra, Dandiya, Garba, Ghoomar Classical: Bharatnatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Oddisi

Music: Hindustani and Carnatic Folk Music:

Bauls, Bhangra, Bhavageete, Dandiya, Lavani Popular (Filmi) music Qawwali, Rabindra Sangeet, Rajasthani

Modern Music: Indi-pop music, Rock and Metal music, Dance Music

Performing Arts

Cricket – Most Popular Indian Cricket Team (BCCI) Indian Cricket League (ICL)

Field Hockey – National Sport Indian Hockey Team Premier Hockey League (PHL)

Football (Soccer) – Popular in the East

Sports

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

Bollywood – Mumbai based film industry

Tollywood – Kolkata based film industry

Kollywood?

Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu

Indian Film Industry

"It is poverty porn at its worst. The Mumbai marauders are supposed to have done their deed to hurt India, to challenge its success, to expose its soft underbelly. But this movie has done the job better”

Is it truth alone triumphs or lies alone triumph?

Curiosity about India’s success and growing gap between the extremes

If those involved in the movie would offer their profits from the film to that movement, they would elevate themselves from exploiters to benefactors.

◦ V.S. Naipaul (India: A Wounded Civilization)◦ Vikas Swarup (Q & A)◦ Aravind Adiga (The White Tiger)

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