India – A Country with Unity in Diversity

April 29, 2010 - PRLog -- India is a beautiful country with a glorious heritage and rich custom. The country with unity in diversity embraces variety of cultures, traditions, customs, and languages. Different religion of people live here but all are undoubtedly united by one sole feeling of ‘being an Indian’.

The diversity is clearly reflected in variety of traditions being followed in India. There are Gujaratis, Brahmans, Marwaris, Bengalis, South Indians, Muslins, and even Christians. All these religion have their distinctive languages, beliefs, values, cultures, festivals, dances, music, art, and even clothing.

Festivals in India are extremely bright and colorful. Though all religions celebrate their own festivals but the motherland shines on all the celebrative days irrespective of which festival belongs to which religion. Hindus are in majority here and they have numerous festivals including the Diwali, Holi, Raksha Bandhan, Ganesh Chaturthi, and Ram Navami. All these festivals don’t have any fixed dates as Hinduism follows the lunar calendar. The there are Muslins who celebrate Eid-ul-Fitar and Eid-ul-Adah with great cheer and fun. Christians celebrate Christmas, Jainis celebrate Mahavir Jayanti, and Sikhs celebrate Guru Govind Sing’s Birthday. Apart from these there are other festivals also that are listed in the Indian calendar.

Like the festivals, even dance and music have their own origin in different religions and cultures. Bharatnatyam, Kathak, Kathakali, and Kuchupudi are all Indian dance forms but they all belong to different states and have their unique origins. Bharatnatyam is from South India, Kathak from Northern India, and Kathakali from South Indian state of Kerala. Kuchupudi is a classical form of Indian dance and similarly there is Odissi dance, Garba, Dandiya, Bhangra, and Mohiniyattam.

Diversity is also showcased in Indian Art. It’s extremely beautiful and rich with several classifications based on eras, religions, political changes, and cultural developments. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that the truth or the philosophy of life is amazingly put down on canvas. Humanization of Gods, celestial beings, human characters, ideal of life, political figures, truth of ancient history, freedom struggle, stages of development, and vast metaphors are all put to astounding art. There are many Indian artists who are known worldwide for their innovation, creation, and imagination.

When we talk about the traditional Indian clothing we feel there is no diversity because all religion and custom have adopted saree as their traditional dress. But no here too there is diversity. Though one form of attire is acceptable to all, people have their unique designs and forms of sarees as per their religion. For example, the traditional saree of Gujarat is Patola and Bandhani is from Rajasthan. Apart from these there are various forms of saree like Kanchipuram, Mysore Silk, Luckhnowi, and Gajji Silk that are specific to people of different religions. Apart from sarees there are choices of salwar kameez as well.

With so much diversity, India remains to have a beautiful blend of cultures, art forms, dances, music, clothing, and customs.

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Jennie Gandhi has a passion for writing and writes on diverse topics including fashion, beauty, automotive, educational, motivational and even technical. To know more on incredible India, click http://www.factsaboutindia.org..