culture diversity in india essay

Cultural Diversity in India Essay, Indian Diversity Essay

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Cultural Diversity in India Essay 200 Words

India, with a population of 1.38 billion people, has a rich cultural diversity. Because of population diversity, Indian culture is quite diverse. It is a mixture of numerous ethnicities from various religions, each with its own culture and traditions. Indian culture is one of the oldest in the world . Even throughout the Bronze Age, India had an urban civilization. The Indus Valley Civilization, also known as the Harappan Civilization, existed between 3300 BC and 1300 BC . India is one of the world’s most religious countries, with huge and active Hindu (80.45%) , Muslim (13.43%), Christian (2 . 34%), Sikh (1 . 86%), and other communities. 

 Unlike in the West, where religion is considered “private , ” Indians choose to make their religions open. Each state in the country has different communities that coexist while retaining and supporting its own distinct culture and traditions . From Delhi, India’s capital, to Tamil Nadu , the country’s southernmost state, the country is endowed with breathtaking natural beauty. The country also has various historical monuments that contribute to India’s diverse heritage . The Indian culture refers to the way of life of the Indian people. There is almost no other culture in the world that is as diverse and distinct as India’s.

Cultural Diversity in India Essay 300 Words

India is rich in traditions and has a distinct culture in terms of festivals , cuisines, dialects, dress, and so on. Indian heritage and culture have extended not only in India but also throughout Asia and many European countries. The nation is divided into twenty-nine states and seven union territories and is located on the Asian continent, bounded by the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal. India’s neighbors are Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Myanmar , Bhutan, and Nepal. Despite numerous foreign invasions, a vast synthesis of cultures, faiths, and languages of people from various castes and communities has maintained its unity and coherence. It is the mixture of numerous magnificent cultures that defines India . The diversity of Indian cultures is what differentiates and beautifies India. The landscapes of India are tremendously diverse, ranging from snow-capped mountain ranges to deserts, plains, hills, and plateaus. 

India is a tremendously diverse country , and so is Indian architecture . The architecture of India ranges from prehistoric caves to modern skyscrapers. As India grows, its architecture continues to diversify by returning to its traditions while adhering to modern trends. As India develops , its architecture continues to expand by returning to traditions while sticking to current trends. Throughout the country, India celebrates numerous festivals such as Diwali , Holi, Eid, and Christmas. Which, once again, is observed in many places of the world. India is a multi-cuisine country . The majority of the cuisines are South Indian, North Indian, and seafood. 

India is rich in various forms of art, dance, and theatre . Each state in India has its own folk dance culture, which is experienced at most festivals or as a welcome dance to visitors that enter the state or country. Most foreign nationals visit India to experience these traditions and desire to live, eat, and dance in accordance with Indian cultures, traditions, and customs.

Cultural Diversity in India Essay 500 Words

When we look at the history of India, we see that people from all over the world traveled to India and later became united by the Indian culture. As a result, several civilizations became mixed together. This is the true reason behind India’s cultural variety. Despite many foreign invasions, a vast synthesis of cultures, faiths, and languages of people from various castes and communities has maintained its unity and togetherness. This diversity has enriched the social lives of all Indians. Languages, festivals, religions, delicacies, dressing styles, and many more obvious facts help to explain India’s cultural variety. Each state in India is home to many communities that live in harmony with one another while retaining and sustaining their own distinct culture and traditions.

Let us know about Indian culture and its significance in detail. 

Language Diversity 

India possesses around 121 languages (22 languages and 99 languages not included in the Eighth Schedule) and over 19,500 dialects. Most of these languages are spoken by a small number of people, or they are restricted to specific regions, states , or places.

Clothing Diversity 

India’s enormous and endless variety of traditional clothing is full of attractive appearances. Fabrics, weaving procedures, embellishments , styles, and various accessories are made in numerous states around the country. Each element included in the cloth tells a tale about craftsmanship, culture, or legacy. The country is a heritage-style center. In addition to western apparel , Indians have their own cultural attire such as dhoti, kurta, sari, sherwani, turban, and so on.

Cultural variation

Cultural patterns reflect geographic differences. Because of demographic diversity, Indian culture is dramatically different, as it is a combination of diverse cultures . Different Religions, castes, and regions all over the country have their own traditions and cultures . As a result, there is variety in art, architecture, dance styles, theatre forms, and music.

Religious Diversity

India is a multi-religious country. Aside from tribal communities, many of whom still practice animism and magic, the Indian population is made up of Hindus (82.41%), Muslims (11.6%), Christians (2.32%), Sikhs (1.99%), Buddhists (0 . 77%), and Jains (0.41%) . Hindus are split into numerous sects, including Vaishnavas, Shaivites, Shaktas, and Smartas. Similarly, Muslims are classified into sects such as Shias, Sunnis, Ahmadis, and others.

Food Diversity

Indian cuisine is among the most flavorful and tasty in the world. There is no flavor homogeneity between North and South, East and West, but rather an amazing diversity of flavors . India’s food diversity is one of its assets. Indian cuisine encompasses so much that it is necessary to cover more than just “Indian cuisine.” Each region has its own culinary qualities and a variety of traditional cuisines. Each region has its own cuisine, not only at the regional but also at the provincial level.

India, the world’s seventh-largest country, has established a unique and distinct position among the world’s countries. India is one of the most diverse countries on the planet. From the clothing worn by individuals of various ethnicities to the languages spoken and even the eating preferences, the country displays its diversity and unique heritage.

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Indian Cultural diversity: The True Essence and Beauty of India

• Indian Culture
• Indian Heritage

Table of contents

India the land of diversity, diversity in architecture , diversity in indian clothing, diversity in indian food, diversity in religion, diversity in indian customs and tradition, diversity of indian languages, diversity in indian art forms, diversity in indian festivals, diversity in indian music, diversity in indian cinema, diversity in indian litrature, diversity in indian celebration.

Indian culture is one of the most ancient cultures present in the world. The country is quite diverse and is home to several communities, each of whom has their own culture and traditions. It is this combination of various splendid cultures that make India one of a kind. The Indian cultural diversity is what makes India unique and beautiful.

Situated in the continent of Asia and enclosed by the Arabian sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal, the nation, is divided into twenty-nine states and seven union territories. Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan , and Nepal form the neighbouring countries of India.

India is a land of diversity each state in the country is home to several communities who live in harmony with each other while preserving and upholding their own distinct culture and traditions. From Delhi , the capital of India, to Tamil Nadu , the southernmost state of India, the land, is blessed with amazing scenic beauty. The country is also home to several historical monuments which add to the varied heritage of India.

Recommended Read – Understanding the Culture of Indian States [Infographic]

India is a country that is incredibly diversified and that of Indian architecture . India’s architecture spans from ancient caves to contemporary skyscrapers. As India grows, India’s architecture continues to diversify through continuously reverting to its roots while maintaining current trends.

India is also classified by the Dravidian and the Nagara architectural styles as the focal focus of Hindu architecture. In the empires, in the South of India, the Dravidian style prospered, whilst in the North of India, the Nagara style predominately appeared.  India’s history, culture and religion are ingrained in its architecture.

India’s vast and boundless array of traditional dress is full of aesthetic beauty. Made from many states of the country are fabrics, weaving processes, embellishments, styles and accessories of multiple sorts. A compelling epic about craftsmanship, culture or legacy tells a story in each piece. The land is a centre of heritage mode. Its diversity was a muse for a number of notable connoisseurs of fashion. In addition to the western clothing, Indians have their own ethnic attire like dhoti, kurta, sari, sherwani, turban etc. Dhoti is a piece of cloth draped around the waist by men. Dhoti is sometimes called Laacha or Dhuti. Kurta is one of India’s famous men’s ethnic clothing. It is usually worn on holidays today by folks. Likewise, the saree is the favourite choice for Indian women. A saree is a long robe, gracefully drawn by women around their bodies. Saree is Indian women’s most trendy clothing worldwide. Indian women are mostly seen in lovely sarees during religious and cultural events. However, due to their convenience, the sarees are substituted by salwar suits for the preferred daily wear.

Indian food is one of the world’s most tasteful and nuanced. There is no flavour homogeneity between North and South or East and West but rather an incredible richness of tastes. One of India’s assets is its culinary diversity.

Indian food contains so much that one ought to discuss more  than just “Indian cuisines.” Each region offers a number of traditional meals and its own culinary features.

Each area is specialised in cuisine, not solely at regional, but also at the provincial level. The diversity in cuisine stem from diverse local cultures, geography (whether the region is near the sea, desert or mountains), and the economy. Indigenous kitchen likewise relies heavily on fresh local products and is seasonal.

Indian cuisine tends generally to seek a balance between spices and herbs that offers delicious dishes with surprising therapeutic and medicinal benefits.

Indian religions have influenced and shaped the Indian culture

The vast differences in the customs, traditional beliefs and rituals can be witnessed if one analyses the differences in the culture prevalent in the northern and southern part of India. The festivals, the art forms, and to an extent, even the dressing style of the people are quite different in Northern India when compared to those in Southern India . While most of the Indian women wear the saree, the style of draping the saree varies in different parts of India. This difference can be seen, not only among different states but also among the various communities within the same state.

Though Hindi is the most commonly used  language in India, there exist many other languages too. As diverse the country is, each state has its distinct language, such as Kannada, (which, is spoken in Karnataka), Malayalam, (which, is spoken in Kerala), Tamil , is spoken in Tamil Nadu, etc. Apart from the fact that each state has its own language, it is also worth mentioning that some states in India have more than one and sometimes more than three prevalent languages. Due to this, it would not come as a surprise that most Indians are bilingual (or sometimes Multilingual), and can effortlessly handle more than one or two languages.

The family has always been an integral part of Indian society. In an Indian family, all the members share a close-knit connection. Joint families are also common in the country. In joint families, all the members of the family live under the same roof. However, in present times, nuclear families are becoming more common. In India, arranged marriages are relatively more common. The concept of an arranged marriage might seem a bit confusing to people from the western part of the world. However, in India, arranged marriages are more encouraged and are still very much prevalent in the country.

The unique and splendid art forms of India have a significant position in the culture of India. Each state is blessed with its unique art form and differs considerably from that of its neighbour. Though, it is worthwhile to note that many art forms of India are in some ways the amalgamation of other art forms borrowed from the neighbouring states. From the elegant Mohiniyattam , which focuses on the elegant and graceful movements of the dancer to the Ghoomar , a folk dance in Rajasthan, the art forms vary from each other but are equally beautiful and magical.

The festivals of India , too, are worth mentioning. As said earlier, each state has its own festivals, from the fragrant Onam, the festival of Kerala , which is characterized by the making of a floral carpet to the Pôhela Boishakh, (the onset New Year according to the Bengali calendar), the festivals are both colourful and equally incredible.

Music plays a significant role in the culture of any country, and India, too, is not an exception. Carnatic music , Hindustani music are the most popular in India. These are usually accompanied by the tune of the traditional musical instruments such as the tabla and the veena. Indian music is quite soothing and pleasing to the ear.

The movies produced in India, too, reflect the culture of the society. Each state in India has its own movie industry, though Bollywood is the most popular among them. The movie industries in India are known by different terms such as Mollywood (Malayalam movie industry), Tollywood, etc. Owing to the number of movies produced each year in different languages across India, adding to the fact that Indians love movies, India has now become one of the greatest producers of films.

India has also been blessed with many intellectuals and legendary writers and poets who are renowned worldwide for their contributions to humanity. Prominent among them is Rabindranath Tagore , the first Asian and Indian to win the Nobel Prize . His work Gitanjali continues to spread its message and inspires all those who read it. Other prominent writers of India include Sarojini Naidu, Aurobindo Ghosh, among others. Artists such as Raja Ravi Varma, Rabindranath Tagore, and M F Hussain have helped in changing the face of Indian art.

Festivals and celebrations are a common occurrence in India as they occur almost every other day; however, the grandeur and pomp of these festivals are quite impressive. The country is also home to many heritage sites and monuments , including the Taj Mahal. It is all these facts combined that makes the Indian culture unique and distinct from others.

The seventh-largest country in the world, India has set itself a unique and distinct place among the other countries of the world. The host of a culture that has been prevalent for a long time, India is perhaps one of the most diverse countries in the world. From the attire worn by the people belonging to different communities to the languages spoken and even in the food habits, the country both reflects its diversity and varied heritage.

Cover Photo by Tom Chen on Unsplash

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very good knowledge

Very good guys

It’s very helpful for my science homework theme page: celebrating cultural diversity

Thanks Aarradhya, all the best for your class project!

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Unity in Diversity: The Essence of India’s Composite Culture | Essay Writing for UPSC by Vikash Ranjan Sir | Triumph ias

Table of Contents

India’s Mosaic: A Celebration of Unity in Diversity

(relevant for essay writing for upsc civil services examination).

India’s vibrant landscape is dotted with myriad cultures, traditions, and histories. Dive into the mesmerizing mosaic of India’s composite culture and discover how it epitomizes unity in diversity.

The Threads of Time

From the ancient Indus Valley Civilization to modern-day India, the country has imbibed, evolved, and celebrated a myriad of influences, giving birth to its unique identity.

A Symphony of Cultures

Whether it’s the resonating chants from temples, the melodic calls for prayer from mosques, or the harmonious carols from churches, India embraces them all with open arms. Languages, festivals, art – every facet of Indian life reflects its harmonious blend.

Conclusion: A Lesson for the World

In times of global divisiveness, India’s composite culture stands tall as a testament to the strength and beauty of unity in diversity.

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India, Composite Culture, Unity in Diversity, Religions, Languages, Festivals, Art, Architecture, Historical Evolution.

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Syllabus of Sociology Optional

FUNDAMENTALS OF SOCIOLOGY

• Modernity and social changes in Europe and emergence of sociology.
• Scope of the subject and comparison with other social sciences.
• Sociology and common sense.
• Science, scientific method and critique.
• Major theoretical strands of research methodology.
• Positivism and its critique.
• Fact value and objectivity.
• Non- positivist methodologies.
• Qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Techniques of data collection.
• Variables, sampling, hypothesis, reliability and validity.
• Karl Marx- Historical materialism, mode of production, alienation, class struggle.
• Emile Durkheim- Division of labour, social fact, suicide, religion and society.
• Max Weber- Social action, ideal types, authority, bureaucracy, protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism.
• Talcott Parsons- Social system, pattern variables.
• Robert K. Merton- Latent and manifest functions, conformity and deviance, reference groups.
• Mead – Self and identity.
• Concepts- equality, inequality, hierarchy, exclusion, poverty and deprivation.
• Theories of social stratification- Structural functionalist theory, Marxist theory, Weberian theory.
• Dimensions – Social stratification of class, status groups, gender, ethnicity and race.
• Social mobility- open and closed systems, types of mobility, sources and causes of mobility.
• Social organization of work in different types of society- slave society, feudal society, industrial /capitalist society
• Formal and informal organization of work.
• Labour and society.
• Sociological theories of power.
• Power elite, bureaucracy, pressure groups, and political parties.
• Nation, state, citizenship, democracy, civil society, ideology.
• Protest, agitation, social movements, collective action, revolution.
• Sociological theories of religion.
• Types of religious practices: animism, monism, pluralism, sects, cults.
• Religion in modern society: religion and science, secularization, religious revivalism, fundamentalism.
• Family, household, marriage.
• Types and forms of family.
• Lineage and descent.
• Patriarchy and sexual division of labour.
• Contemporary trends.
• Sociological theories of social change.
• Development and dependency.
• Agents of social change.
• Education and social change.
• Science, technology and social change.

INDIAN SOCIETY: STRUCTURE AND CHANGE

Introducing indian society.

• Indology (GS. Ghurye).
• Structural functionalism (M N Srinivas).
• Marxist sociology (A R Desai).
• Social background of Indian nationalism.
• Modernization of Indian tradition.
• Protests and movements during the colonial period.
• Social reforms.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

• The idea of Indian village and village studies.
• Agrarian social structure – evolution of land tenure system, land reforms.
• Perspectives on the study of caste systems: GS Ghurye, M N Srinivas, Louis Dumont, Andre Beteille.
• Features of caste system.
• Untouchability – forms and perspectives.
• Definitional problems.
• Geographical spread.
• Colonial policies and tribes.
• Issues of integration and autonomy.
• Social Classes in India:
• Agrarian class structure.
• Industrial class structure.
• Middle classes in India.
• Lineage and descent in India.
• Types of kinship systems.
• Family and marriage in India.
• Household dimensions of the family.
• Patriarchy, entitlements and sexual division of labour
• Religious communities in India.
• Problems of religious minorities.

SOCIAL CHANGES IN INDIA

• Idea of development planning and mixed economy
• Constitution, law and social change.
• Programmes of rural development, Community Development Programme, cooperatives,poverty alleviation schemes
• Green revolution and social change.
• Changing modes of production in Indian agriculture.
• Problems of rural labour, bondage, migration.

3. Industrialization and Urbanisation in India:

• Evolution of modern industry in India.
• Growth of urban settlements in India.
• Working class: structure, growth, class mobilization.
• Informal sector, child labour
• Slums and deprivation in urban areas.

4. Politics and Society:

• Nation, democracy and citizenship.
• Political parties, pressure groups , social and political elite
• Regionalism and decentralization of power.
• Secularization

5. Social Movements in Modern India:

• Peasants and farmers movements.
• Women’s movement.
• Backward classes & Dalit movement.
• Environmental movements.
• Ethnicity and Identity movements.

6. Population Dynamics:

• Population size, growth, composition and distribution
• Components of population growth: birth, death, migration.
• Population policy and family planning.
• Emerging issues: ageing, sex ratios, child and infant mortality, reproductive health.

7. Challenges of Social Transformation:

• Crisis of development: displacement, environmental problems and sustainability
• Poverty, deprivation and inequalities.
• Violence against women.
• Caste conflicts.
• Ethnic conflicts, communalism, religious revivalism.
• Illiteracy and disparities in education.

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At Triumph IAS, the Best Sociology Optional Coaching platform, we not only provide the best study material and applied classes for Sociology for IAS but also conduct regular assignments and class tests to assess candidates’ writing skills and understanding of the subject.

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Diversity of India

Last updated on April 4, 2024 by ClearIAS Team

Despite numerous foreign invasions, a vast synthesis of the cultures, faiths, and languages of the people from all castes and communities has maintained its cohesion and unity.

Even if stark economic and social disparities have prevented the formation of egalitarian social relations, national unity and integrity have been preserved. This fusion has transformed India into a singular mosque of cultures. India thus presents a situation that appears to be multicultural within the context of a single, cohesive cultural whole.

Also read: Minorities in India

Table of Contents

What does diversity mean?

The word “diversity” places more emphasis on differences than on unfairness. It refers to group disparities, or distinctions separating one group of individuals from another. These differences could be biological, religious, linguistic, or anything else. Diversity refers to the variety of races, religions, languages, castes, and cultures.

Integrity refers to unity. It is a state of social psychology. It suggests a sense of unity and togetherness. It represents the ties that keep a society’s members together. Essentially, “unity in diversity” means “diversity without fragmentation” and “unity without uniformity.” It is predicated on the idea that diversity enhances interpersonal communication.

When we refer to India as a country with rich cultural diversity, we are referring to the wide variety of social groupings and cultures that call India home. These groups identify primarily through cultural traits like language, religion, sect, race, or caste.

Also read: Environmental Racism

Forms of India’s Diversity

The different forms of India’s diversity include the following.

Religious diversity

India is a country that is home to many different religions. The Indian population is made up of Hindus (82.41%), Muslims (11.6%), Christians (2.32%), Sikhs (1.99%), Buddhists (0.77%), and Jains (0.41%), in addition to the tribal societies, many of which continue to practice animism and magic.

Hindus are divided into several sects, including Vaishnavas, Shaivites, Shaktas, and Smartas. Similarly, there are various Muslim sects, including Shi’ites, Sunnis, Ahmadis, etc.

Language diversity

The major language families among the languages spoken in India are the Dravidian languages, which are spoken by 20% of Indians, and the Indo-Aryan languages, which are spoken by 75% of Indians.

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The Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai, and a few other minor language families and isolates are home to other languages.

After Papua New Guinea, India has the second-highest number of languages in the world. India’s ethnic variety was divided into the following groups according to the 1931 census: Negrito, Proto-Australoid, Mongoloid, Mediterranean, Western Brachycephals, and Nordic.

Also Read: Endangered Languages of India

The Caste Diversity

The Caste Diversity includes members of all three major world races, namely Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid: India is a nation with Both varna and jati have been referred to as “caste” in the past. According to functional differentiation, society is divided into four groups called Varna. Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras, and an outcaste.

While the term “Jati” designates a hereditary endogamous status group engaged in a certain traditional profession. There are more than 3000 jatis, and there isn’t a single system for classifying and ranking them across all of India. The jati system is dynamic and allows for movement, which has allowed jatis to vary their location throughout time. M. N. Srinivas referred to this method of upward mobility as “Sanskritization.”

Ethnic diversity

Ethnic diversity Regional differences are reflected in cultural patterns. Due to demographic diversity, Indian culture is extremely diverse and is a fusion of many other cultures. Every region, caste, and religion has its unique traditions and culture. As a result, there are variations in music, dance, theatre, and architecture.

Geographic diversity

With a total land area of 3.28 million square kilometers, India is a big nation with a wide variety of natural landscapes , including deserts, evergreen forests, steep mountains, perennial and non-perennial river systems, lengthy coasts, and fertile plains.

In addition to the major forms of variety already mentioned, India also has diversity in many other areas, such as tribal, rural, and urban patterns of habitation, patterns of marriage and kinship along religious and regional lines, and more.

Also read: Salient features of Indian Society – ClearIAS

Factors Promoting Unity in India’s Diversity

• Constitutional identity : A single person is elected to lead the entire nation. Even Nevertheless, the majority of states adhere to a standard 3-tier structure of government, bringing
• Furthermore, regardless of their age, gender, class, caste, or religion, all citizens are guaranteed certain fundamental rights under the Constitution.
• Religion tolerance is the distinctive characteristic of faiths in India, and as a result, many different religions coexist there. The Constitution itself guarantees the freedom of religion and practice. Additionally, the state accords equal preference to all religions and has no official state religion.
• Interstate movement : Article 19 (1) (d) of the Constitution ensures freedom of movement throughout India’s territory, fostering a sense of brotherhood and solidarity among the people.
• Other elements that contribute to consistency in the criminal justice system and policy implementation include the uniformity of the law, penal code, and administrative tasks (such as All India Services).
• Economic integration : The Goods and Service Tax (GST) has paved the way for “one country, one tax, one national market,” thereby facilitating unity among different regions. The Indian Constitution also guarantees the freedom of trade, commerce, and intercourse within the territory of India under Article.
• Institution of pilgrimage and religious practices: Spirituality and religion are very important in India. Religious sites and sacred rivers can be found all over the length and breadth of the country, from Badrinath and Kedarnath in the north to Rameshwaram in the south, Jagannath Puri in the east, and Dwaraka in the west. They are closely tied to the long-standing tradition of pilgrimage, which has always drawn people to different regions of the nation and given them a feeling of geo-cultural identity.
• Fairs and festivals : These serve as integrating factors as well because people from all across the nation participate in them. Hindus around the nation celebrate Diwali, just as Muslims and Christians celebrate Id and Christmas, respectively. In India, interreligious celebrations are also observed.
• Weather integration via the monsoon : The monsoon season affects the entire Indian subcontinent’s flora and fauna, agricultural activities, and way of life, including holidays. Sports and cinema are widely popular throughout the nation, serving as unifying forces. Factors that undermine India’s unity include:
• Regionalism : Regionalism favors the interests of a certain region or region over those of the nation. It may also hurt national integration. Regional demands and the resulting law and order situation
• Polarising politics : Politicians would occasionally invoke ascriptive identities like caste, religion, etc. to gain support. Violence, feelings of mistrust, and suspicion among minorities can emerge from this kind of polarising politics.
• Unbalanced development Backwardness of a region can be brought on by uneven socioeconomic growth, poor economic policies, and the resulting economic inequities. As a result, this may spark acts of violence, ignite migrant waves, or even fuel separatist demands. For instance, numerous examples of secessionist demands and tendencies have emerged as a result of the North East’s economic underdevelopment.
• Ethnic diversity and nativism: Ethnic diversity has frequently resulted in conflicts between various ethnic groups, particularly as a result of reasons like employment competition, a lack of resources, and threats to identity For instance, Bodos and Muslims who speak Bengali frequently fight in Assam. The son of the soil idea, which links people to their place of birth and bestows upon them certain advantages, privileges, duties, and obligations that may not apply to others, has served to emphasize this.
• Geographic isolation: Isolation can also result in separatist thinking and identity problems. Geographically, the North-East is separated from the rest of the nation by a small passageway called the Siliguri corridor, sometimes known as the “Chicken’s Neck.”The area is less developed economically than the rest of the nation and has poor infrastructure. As a result, it has seen several incidents of separatist and cross-border terrorism.
• Inter-religious disputes : Inter-religious disputes not only deteriorate relations between two communities by sowing distrust and fear, but they also damage the nation’s secular fabric.
• Conflicts between states : This may cause feelings of regionalism to grow. Additionally, it may have an impact on interstate commerce and communication. For instance, the Karnataka-Tamil Cauvery River dispute
• External influences : External influences, such as foreign organizations, terrorist organizations, and extremist groups, can occasionally inspire violence and foster feelings of secession. g. Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is alleged to have supported and trained mujahideen to fight in Jammu and Kashmir and incite separatist sentiment among local groupings.

Despite the difficulties diversity might provide, there is no denying the vital role sociocultural diversity has played in maintaining and advancing Indian culture.

The handling of diversity in Indian society, not diversity itself, is the issue. Because the benefits of growth haven’t been divided fairly or certain groups’ cultures haven’t received the acknowledgment they deserve, problems like regionalism, communalism, and ethnic conflicts have emerged.

Therefore, the Constitution and its ideas must serve as the foundation of our society. Any culture that has attempted to homogenize itself has experienced eventual stagnation and decline. The most notable instance in this situation is Pakistan’s attempt to force its culture on East Pakistan, ultimately leading to Bangladesh’s establishment.

Article Written By: Atheena Fathima Riyas

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Essay on Cultural Diversity in India for Class 10, 12 and Mains Exam

Essay on cultural diversity in india for class 10, 12, mains exam (upsc, psc, ssc).

India being a country filled with different traditions, has highly diverse culture in terms of its different festivals, cuisines, languages, clothing etc.

Indian tradition and culture are spread not only in India but has spread throughout Asia and many European countries as well. One canexperience the diverse cultures of India in several parts of the world as well, as many Indian restaurants have been setup in different countries, as well as Indian clothing being exported to different parts of the world. India antiques and artifacts are also being made available in different countries of the world, making it easier for an individual to experience Indian traditions and culture in his own country.

India celebrates various festivals like Diwali, Holi, Eid, Christmas all over the country. Which again is celebrated in several parts of the world as well. Indian is a land of multi- cuisines. Major of the cuisines include South Indian, North Indian and Seafood cuisines.

India is filled with different kinds or art, dance and theater. Each state in India has its own tradition folk dances, which is experiences at most of the festivals or as welcome dance to the guest who enter the state or the country.

Indian cuisines also include a wide variety of traditional sweets prepared at each of the Indian festivals. These sweets have own delicacies and are being exported to different countries as well.

Indian traditional clothing like Kurtha, dothi, saree, dupatta, kurti etc. Are made with specially woven Indian silk and cotton. Most of these clothing is hand woven in order to give that ethnic design and makes us experience diverse customs in India.

Indian culture includes various folk-dance forms like Bharatnatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Odessa, Garba, Lavani etc., which enhances the beauty of Indian culture and its diverse forms. Several of these dance forms are practiced by other foreign nationals as well in their country of residence. These dance forms are being used at various cultural festivals which makes the festivals more vibrant and eye catchy. Navratri is one of the famous festivals celebrated in India which has a sequence of dance steps by beating bamboo sticks as per specific beats and also people wear colorful traditional attire, which prolongs for 9 nights.

Indian culture is spread all over the world. Most of the foreign nationals come to India to experience these traditions and prefer to live, eat and dance Indian cultures, traditions and customs.

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2. diversity and pluralism.

Indians are much more likely to view their country’s religious diversity as an asset than as a liability. About half of Indians (53%) say religious diversity benefits the country, while 24% say it is harmful. The remainder (24%) don’t take a position either way.

At the same time, Indians of different religious backgrounds don’t see much in common with each other. For example, most Muslims say members of their religious community are very different from Hindus or Sikhs, and vice versa – most Hindus and Sikhs see themselves as very different from Muslims. With few exceptions, India’s major religious groups perceive more differences than similarities between their communities.

By their own admission, Indians also don’t know much about religions other than their own. While many Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists say they know at least something about the Hindu religion, fewer Hindus claim any knowledge about India’s minority religions – even those, like Jainism or Sikhism, with some theological similarities to Hinduism.

India’s religiously diverse population is, therefore, composed of religious communities who are not too familiar with each other’s beliefs and practices, and who don’t see much common ground among them. Yet, many Indians take a pluralistic, rather than exclusivist, attitude toward religious beliefs. The predominant opinion among Indian adults overall, as well as within most of the country’s major religious groups, is that “many religions can be true,” rather than that theirs is “the one true religion.”

Many Indians also practice religion in a pluralistic way. For example, a substantial minority of Muslims, especially in some regions of the country, say they celebrate the festivals of Diwali and Holi, which are more commonly celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains. Many Christians also say they celebrate Diwali and Holi, while some Hindus celebrate Christmas. In addition, some members of India’s religious minority groups say they have prayed, meditated or performed a ritual at a Hindu temple. And, for their part, one-in-five Hindus in the North say they have worshipped at a gurdwara (a Sikh house of worship), and some in the South say they have prayed at a church. (See Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 for additional analyses of shared beliefs and practices across religious groups.)

More Indians say religious diversity benefits their country than say it is harmful

Indians tend to see this religious diversity as benefiting their country. Roughly half say diversity benefits India (53%), while about one-quarter say diversity harms the country (24%). Generally, Indians of different ages, educational backgrounds and regions of residence tend to agree that diversity benefits the country.

However, a sizable minority (24%) does not take a clear position on the question, saying that diversity “neither benefits nor harms the country,” that they don’t know, or declining to answer the question.

Majorities of Sikhs (60%), Muslims (56%) and Jains (55%) say religious diversity benefits India. Meanwhile, fewer than half of Buddhists (46%) and Christians (44%) take this position; about three-in-ten in both groups do not provide a clear answer either way.

The most religious Indians – that is, those who say religion is very important to their lives – are more likely than those who are less religious to say religious diversity is beneficial to the country (55% vs. 39%).

Among Hindus, a majority of those who have a favorable opinion of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) say religious diversity benefits the country (57%), compared with 45% among those who have an unfavorable opinion of the BJP.

Within the Indian population as a whole, attitudes about religious diversity also vary by region: Majorities in the North (68%) and Northeast (64%) think diversity benefits the country. The South is somewhat less positive: Southerners generally are less likely than those in other regions to say diversity benefits the country.

Hindus in the South are relatively unenthusiastic about the benefits of religious diversity: 42% say diversity benefits the country. And while roughly half of Southern Muslims (48%) say India’s diversity helps the country, in the North (68%) and Northeast (75%), higher shares of Muslims see India’s religious diversity as an asset.

Most Buddhists, Muslims and Christians see members of their own religion as very different from Hindus

Even though Indians tend to value their country’s religious diversity, India’s religious communities generally don’t see much in common with one another. Across religious groups, large shares say that, based on what they know, members of their religious group are “very different” from followers of other religions. In fact, only 36% of all Indian adults say their group has “a lot in common” with even one of the five other major groups mentioned in the survey; the remainder (64%) either say they are very different from, or do not give a definite answer about, all five other groups.

For example, majorities among Indian Buddhists (67%), Muslims (64%) and Christians (58%) say they are very different from Hindus. Jains and Sikhs, on the other hand, tend to take the view that they have a lot in common with Hindus – 66% of Jains and 52% of Sikhs say this, the only two cases in which majorities or pluralities of one group say they have “a lot” in common with another group.

Most people in India’s non-Muslim religious groups don’t see much in common between the Muslim community and their own. Most Hindus (66%) say their group is very different from Muslims, as do nearly nine-in-ten Buddhists (88%). Sikhs are the most likely to say they have a lot in common with Muslims – 36% of Sikhs say this. Still, the majority view among Sikhs is that they are very different from Muslims (55%).

While many Sikhs see common ground with other groups, members of those groups generally are less likely to say they have a lot in common with Sikhs. For instance, 52% of Sikhs say they have a lot in common with Hindus, while just 20% of Hindus say the same about Sikhs. Members of some of these groups may be less familiar with the relatively small Sikh population that is also concentrated in the state of Punjab; about three-in-ten Hindus and Muslims and four-in-ten Christians say they “don’t know” or otherwise decline to answer the question about how much they have in common with Sikhs.

People in the North of India are more likely than those in other regions to say their religious group has a lot in common with other groups. This pattern holds true across multiple religious groups. People in the Western, Central and Northeastern regions, meanwhile, generally are less likely to see commonalities among religious groups.

Indians are highly knowledgeable about their own religion, less so about other religions

Considerably fewer people say they know a great deal – or even some – about other religions. For example, roughly a third of India’s Hindus (36%) say they know at least something about Islam, and even fewer say they know something about Christianity (28%). About one-in-five Hindus say they have at least some knowledge about Buddhism (21%), Sikhism (19%) or Jainism (18%), despite theological similarities between Hinduism and these three religions. Most Hindus say they know “not very much” or “nothing at all” about each of the other faiths.

Of course, the vast majority of Indians are Hindu, and it stands to reason that non-Hindus living in India would have at least some knowledge about Hinduism. Half of Muslims and most Jains (92%), Christians (66%), Sikhs (62%) and Buddhists (59%) say they know at least something about the Hindu religion and its practices.

Yet Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Muslims generally know less about one another’s religions. For example, just 26% of Sikhs say they know at least “some” about Islam, and only 13% of Muslims say they know something about the Sikh religion and its practices.

One exception is how much Christians know about Islam. Nearly half of Christians (47%) say they know either a lot or some about Islam. Far fewer Muslims (18%) say the same about Christianity.

More Muslims in the South of the country than elsewhere say they know about other religions. For example, about half of Muslims in the South (53%) say they have at least some knowledge of Christianity, compared with 18% of Muslims nationally. And a large majority of Southern Muslims (76%) say they know at least something about Hinduism, including (27%) who say they know a lot about the country’s majority religion. By comparison, half of Muslims nationally indicate they know at least something about Hinduism, and just 9% say they know a lot about the religion.

Among Hindus, those who are college educated are more likely to claim at least some knowledge about other religions. Hindus who live in the North of India are more likely than Hindus overall to say they know at least something about Sikhism (44% vs. 19% nationally), perhaps because many Sikhs are concentrated in the Northern state of Punjab. And Hindus from the South are much more likely than those elsewhere to say they have some knowledge of Islam (54% vs. 36% nationally) and Christianity (56% vs. 28% nationally).

Indians lean toward seeing truth in many religions

The predominant view among Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Buddhists is that there are many true religions. Muslims have the largest share who take the position that theirs is the one true religion (51%). Jains are about evenly divided on this question.

Gender and age make little difference in whether people believe their religion is the only true one. There is, however, a link between education and views on this question: College-educated Indians are more likely than others to say many religions can be true (59% vs. 50%). Also, people living in urban areas of the country are slightly more inclined to take this position than rural Indians (55% vs. 49%).

Generally, Indians who are more religiously observant are much more likely to take the view that theirs is the one true religion. Among Indians who say religion is very important in their lives, 45% say only their religion is true, compared with a quarter (24%) of Indians who say religion is less important in their lives. This pattern holds among both Hindus and Muslims; for example, 53% of Muslims who say religion is very important in their lives see Islam as the one true religion, compared with 35% among those who consider religion less important.

Regionally, majorities of Indian adults in the North, East and South say many religions can be true. By contrast, those in the Central region are generally more likely to say their religion is the one true faith (55%).

Among Hindus in the North, a majority (57%) say many religions can be true. But among Northern Muslims, about the same share take the opposite view: 58% say Islam is the one true religion.

Substantial shares of Buddhists, Sikhs say they have worshipped at religious venues other than their own

In an effort to understand whether Indians of various religious backgrounds mix religious practices, the survey asked people if they have ever prayed, meditated or performed a ritual in a house of worship other than the one associated with their own religion. For example, Sikhs were asked if they have ever prayed, meditated or performed a ritual at a mosque, church, Hindu temple, Buddhist stupa or Sufi shrine. (For more discussion of religious beliefs and practices that many Indians have in common, see Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 .)

The distinction between Hindu and Jain temples is often ambiguous, so it stands to reason that a majority of Jains (67%) say they have worshipped at a Hindu temple. Some Jains (14%) also have prayed at a Sikh gurdwara.

About one-in-ten Sikhs (11%) and Muslims (10%) say they have prayed, meditated or performed a ritual at a Sufi shrine; Sufism tends to be most closely associated with a particular interpretation of Islam, although people of many faiths in India identify with Sufism (see Chapter 5 for details).

In the South, where many of India’s Christians are concentrated, about one-in-ten Hindus (12%) say they have prayed at a church, and roughly the same share (11%) say they have performed a ritual at a mosque.

Among Muslims, 18% say they have prayed at a house of worship other than a mosque, including those who have worshipped at a Sufi shrine. (Sufi shrines are most closely associated with Islam, though there is also anti-Sufi sentiment among some Muslims in parts of the world.) Excluding Sufi shrines, one-in-ten Muslims in India have worshipped at a church, Hindu temple, Sikh gurdwara or Buddhist stupa.

Overall, men and college-educated Indians are slightly more likely to say they have prayed, meditated or performed a ritual at one or more venues associated with another religion. For example, 10% of college-educated Hindus have prayed at a church, compared with 6% of those who have less education.

One-in-five Muslims in India participate in celebrations of Diwali

As expected, most people celebrate festivals associated with their own religious tradition. Near-universal shares of Hindus (95%), Sikhs (90%) and Jains (98%) say they celebrate Diwali, as do about eight-in-ten Buddhists (79%). Muslims overwhelmingly say they participate in celebrations of Eid (93%), and virtually all Christians (97%) celebrate Christmas. In addition, the vast majority of Indians (87%), regardless of their religious background, commemorate the day India declared its independence from British rule, celebrated on Aug. 15.

But many Indians also celebrate festivals that are not traditionally associated with their respective religions. For example, substantial shares of Muslims (20%) and Christians (31%) in India say they participate in Diwali celebrations. Also, notable shares of both those religious communities (16% of Muslims and 25% of Christians) say they participate in celebrating Holi, the spring festival of color that is observed by most Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains.

Fewer Hindus (and other non-Muslims) celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid. Among Hindus, 7% say they participate in celebrations of Eid, as do 11% of Christians. But celebrations of Christmas are relatively popular among non-Christians in India: Nearly one-in-five Hindus, Sikhs and Jains say they participate in Christmas festivities.

Muslims vary regionally when it comes to celebrating Diwali and Holi. Among Muslims in the North, nearly a quarter (24%) say they celebrate Diwali, and 15% participate in Holi festivities. In Western India, even larger shares of Muslims say they participate in Diwali (39%) and Holi (31%) celebrations.

Nationally, marking Valentine’s Day tends to be more popular among young adults (35% among those ages 18 to 25), those who have a college education (40%) and those who live in urban areas (27%). It also is more commonly celebrated by people who do not consider religion very important in their lives (27%, vs. 20% among those who see religion as very important).

Even though some Hindu groups have criticized Valentine’s Day as foreign to Indian culture and inappropriate for a socially conservative society, participation in the holiday is not politically divided. People who have a favorable opinion of the ruling party are no less likely than those who have an unfavorable view of the BJP to say they celebrate Valentine’s Day (21% and 20%, respectively).

• A  national survey fielded by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in 2019 found that 21% of Indians either fully or somewhat agree with the statement “Only my religion is correct, not of anyone else,” while a majority of Indians (57%) somewhat or fully disagree with it. ↩

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• Kinship, Marriage and Family

Diversity in India

• Women in Ancient India
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• Meaning of Urbanization
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Home » Society » Salient features of Indian Society » Features of Indian Society » Diversity in India

India is a plural society both in letter and spirit. It is rightly characterized by its unity and diversity. A grand synthesis of cultures, religions and languages of the people belonging to different castes and communities has upheld its unity and cohesiveness despite multiple foreign invasions.

National unity and integrity have been maintained even through sharp economic and social inequalities have obstructed the emergence of egalitarian social relations. It is this synthesis which has made India a unique mosque of cultures. Thus, India present seemingly multicultural situation within in the framework of a single integrated cultural whole.

The term ‘diversity’ emphasizes differences rather than inequalities. It means collective differences, that is, differences which mark off one group of people from another. These differences may be of any sort: biological, religious, linguistic etc. Thus, diversity means variety of races, of religions, of languages, of castes and of cultures.

Unity means integration. It is a social psychological condition. It connotes a sense of one- ness, a sense of we-ness. It stands for the bonds, which hold the members of a society together.

Unity in diversity essentially means “unity without uniformity” and “diversity without fragmentation”. It is based on the notion that diversity enriches human interaction.

When we say that India is a nation of great cultural diversity, we mean that there are many different types of social groups and communities living here. These are communities defined by cultural markers such as language, religion, sect, race or caste.

Various forms of diversity in India:

• Religious diversity: India is a land of multiple religions. Apart from the tribal societies, many of whom still live in the pre-religious state of animism and magic, the Indian

population consists of the Hindus (82.41%), Muslims (11.6%), Christians (2.32%), Sikhs (1.99%), Buddhists (0.77%) and Jains (0.41%). The Hindus themselves are divided into several sects such as Vaishnavas, Shaivates, Shaktas, Smartas etc. Similarly, the Muslims are divided into sects such as Shias, Sunnis, Ahmadiyas etc.

• Linguistic diversity: Languages spoken in India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 75% of Indians and the Dravidian languages spoken by 20% of Indians. Other languages belong to the Austroasiatic, Sino- Tibetan, Tai-Kadai, and a few other minor language families and isolates. India has the world’s second highest number of languages, after Papua New
• Racial diversity: 1931 census classified India’s racial diversity in the following groups- The Negrito, The Proto-Australoid, The Mongoloid, The Mediterranean, The Western Brachycephals and the Nordic. Representatives of all the three major races of the world, namely Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid, are found in the
• Caste diversity: India is a country of The term caste has been used to refer to both varna as well as jati. Varna is the four-fold division of society according to functional differentiation. Thus, the four varnas include Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras and an outcaste group. Whereas Jati refers to a hereditary endogamous status group practicing a specific traditional occupation.. There are more than 3000 jatis and there is no one all India system of ranking them in order and status. The jati system is not static and there is mobility in the system, through which jatis have changed their position over years. This system of upward mobility has been termed as “Sanskritization” by M. N. Srinivas.
• Cultural diversity: Cultural patterns reflect regional variations. Because of population diversity, there is immense variety in Indian culture as it is a blend of various cultures. Different religion, castes, regions follow their own tradition and culture. Thus, there is variation in art, architecture, dance forms, theatre forms, music
• Geographical diversity: Spanning across an area of 3.28 million square kilometre, India is a vast country with great diversity of physical features like dry deserts, evergreen forests, lofty mountains, perennial and non-perennial river systems, long coasts and fertile plains.

In addition to the above described major forms of diversity, India also has diversity of many other types like that of settlement patterns – tribal, rural, urban; marriage and kinship patterns along religious and regional lines and so on.

Factors Leading to Unity amidst Diversity in India:

• Constitutional identity: The entire country is governed by one single Even, most of the states follow a generalised scheme of 3-tier government structure, thus imparting uniformity in national governance framework. Further, the Constitution guarantees certain fundamental rights to all citizens regardless of their age, gender, class, caste, religion, etc.
• Religious co-existence: Religion tolerance is the unique feature of religions in India due to which multiple religions co-exist in Freedom of religion and religious practice is guaranteed by the Constitution itself. Moreover, there is no state religion and all religions are given equal preference by the state.
• Inter-State mobility: The Constitution guarantees freedom to move throughout the territory of India under Article 19 (1) (d), thus promoting a sense of unity and brotherhood among the
• Other factors such as uniform pattern of law, penal code, and administrative works (eg. All India services) too lead to uniformity in the criminal justice system, policy implementation
• Economic integration:    The      Constitution    of India secures the freedom of Trade, Commerce and Intercourse within the Territory of India under Article Further, the Goods and Service Tax (GST) have paved way for ‘one country, one tax, one national market’, thus facilitating unity among different regions.
• Institution of pilgrimage and religious practices: In India, religion and spirituality have great significance. . From Badrinath and Kedarnath in the north to Rameshwaram in the south, Jagannath Puri in the east to Dwaraka in the west the religious shrines and holy rivers are spread throughout the length and breadth of the Closely related to them is the age-old culture of pilgrimage, which has always moved people to various parts of the country and fostered in them a sense of geo-cultural unity.
• Fairs and festivals: They also act as integrating factors as people from all parts of the country celebrate them as per their own local Eg. Diwali is celebrated throughout by Hindus in the country, similarly Id and Christmas are celebrated by Muslims and Christians, respectively. Celebration of inter-religious festivals is also seen in India.
• Climatic integration via monsoon: The flora and fauna in the entire Indian subcontinent, agricultural practices, life of people, including their festivities revolve around the monsoon season in
• Sports and Cinema: These are followed by millions in the country, thus, acting as a binding force across the length and breadth of

Factors that threaten India’s unity:

• Regionalism: Regionalism tends to highlight interests of a particular region/regions over national interests. It can also adversely impact national integration. Law and order situation is hampered due to regional demands and ensuing
• Divisive politics: Sometimes, ascriptive identities such as caste, religion etc. are evoked by politicians in order to garner This type of divisive politics can result in violence, feeling of mistrust and suspicion among minorities.
• Development imbalance: Uneven pattern of socio-economic development, inadequate economic policies and consequent economic disparities can lead to backwardness of a region. Consequently, this can result in violence, kickstart waves of migration and even accelerate demands of separatism.. For instance, due to economic backwardness of the North East region, several instances of separatist demands and secessionist tendencies have sprung up in the
• Ethnic differentiation and nativism: Ethnic differentiation has often led to clashes between different ethnic groups especially due to factors such as job competition, limited resources, threat to identity E.g. frequent clashes between Bodos and Bengali speaking Muslims in Assam. This has been accentuated by son of the soil doctrine, which ties people to their place of birth and confers some benefits, rights, roles and responsibilities on them, which may not apply to others.
• Geographical isolation: Geographical isolation too can lead to identity issues and separatist The North-East is geographically isolated from the rest of the country as it is connected with the rest of the country by a narrow corridor i.e the Siliguri corridor (Chicken’s neck). The region has inadequate infrastructure, is more backward economically as compared to the rest of the country. As a result, ithas witnessed several instances of separatism and cross-border terrorism, among others.
• Inter-religious conflicts: Inter-religious conflicts not only hamper relations between two communities by spreading fear and mistrust but also hinder the secular fabric of the country.
• Inter-state conflicts: This can lead emergence of feelings related to regionalism. It can also affect trade and communications between conflicting states. For instance, Cauvery River dispute between Karnataka and Tamil
• Influence of external factors: Sometimes external factors such as foreign organizations terrorist groups, extremist groups can incite violence and sow feelings of separatism. g. Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been accused of supporting and training mujahideen to fight in Jammu and Kashmir and sow separatist tendencies among resident groups.

In-spite of the challenges posed by diversity, there can be no doubt on the role played by socio-cultural diversity in sustaining and developing Indian society.

Problem is not of diversity per se, but the handling of diversity in India society. The problems of regionalism, communalism, ethnic conflicts etc. have arisen because the fruits of development haven’t been distributed equally or the cultures of some groups haven’t been accorded due recognition.

Conclusion:

Hence, Constitution and its values must form guiding principles of our society. Any society which has tried to homogenize itself, has witnessed stagnation in due-course and ultimately decline. The most important example is this case is of Pakistan which tried to impose culture on East-Pakistan ultimately leading to creation of Bangladesh.

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Cultural Diversity In India (Essay Sample)

Cultural diversity in india.

Traditions and customs do define our cultural heritage as a country. These aspects bring out identity and recognition amidst the vast rising modernism. India is one state endorsed with such rich cultures that are distinct in language, dressing, and several activities. Religion has been the key differentiating tool among the cultures inherent in India. The country is home to major religions such as Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. For instance, the North and the South have diverse cultural niche creating a composite mixture of the Indian culture.

India is one of the most populous countries in the world. The large population enhances the Indian cultural identity and diversity across the different geographical and religious lines. It accounts for the second highest home to Muslims in the World. Religious doctrines influence culture and it is on this religious basis that the diversity of the Indian culture exists. Additionally, language also differentiates the culturally endorsed nation with several languages including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu among many others. Language unites individuals creating social groups identical to a particular culture.

Food or the Indian cuisine brings out diversity in culture due to its variation across regions on preference and preparation. Rice, wheat, pulses, curries and spices are greatly identical to Indians with cooking styles varying on regional and religious grounds. However, the largest portion of Indians is vegetarian. In spite of cultural diversity, unification exists through art and architectural aspects. Culture has been a significant influence on Indian artistic features. For instance, Muslim used mortar masonry and constructed buildings inspired by their religious-based culture. Similarly, the Hindu religious architecture influence most constructions in the country and across the globe. Evidently, cultural diversity has been a great beneficial factor to enriching the country both socially and economically.

Culture is also expressed in art, namely, music, dance, poetry, drama, and painting. Art has led to the rise of pop culture amidst the cultural diversity in India accompanied by festivals that exhibit enthusiasm, color, rituals and prayers definite to cultural heritage. The festivals include the Diwali, and Holi with ritual observation being categorical to religion such as shrines, temple, Buddha for the Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhist. Unlike many countries with diverse cultures, India stands out in its integration of the cultures especially on clothing, eating habits and in the film industry. Caste and social stratification underlie traditions in the Indian communities. This influences culture as each caste has a distinctive occupation as per the social status ascribed to that caste. Despite modernism, this practice is still evident in India thus affects social relations, political affiliations, and marriages. The distinctiveness of the castes is indistinguishable with the subculture of that particular group.

Cultural diversity creates uniqueness and enriches a country’s history and social set ups with creativity in art and architectural aspects arising from such diversity. Unfortunately, it poses a challenge where these distinctions create language barriers and enhance social segregation due to variability of individuals on tribal, caste, religious or geographical basis. Politically and economically, cultural differences act as a disengagement factor, especially on civic levels. Some cultures are disadvantaged on income levels leading to a rise in evident separation between the rich and poor identical to specific subcultures. This is particularly evident in India where the poor caste remains so over generations as the wealthy maintain their noble class intergenerational. Moreover, color and race that forms part of culture identification have led to increased discrimination and these people live at the periphery of villages excluded from mainstream society.

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Cultural Diversity in India Essay

Table of Contents

Essay on India’s Cultural Diversity

Introduction:.

India is a land of diversity, with a rich cultural heritage that is a product of its long and complex history. The country has undergone significant changes, with various cultural influences shaping its identity over the centuries. India’s cultural diversity is a reflection of the many religions, languages, customs, traditions, and beliefs that have contributed to the country’s unique identity and character.

Religions in India:

India is known for its religious diversity, with numerous religions and beliefs practiced throughout the country. Hinduism is the most widely practiced religion, followed by Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Zoroastrianism. The country’s religious diversity is a testament to its long and complex history, with various religions and beliefs shaping the country’s cultural heritage over time.

Hinduism is one of the world’s oldest religions, and its roots can be traced back to the Indus Valley Civilization, which existed from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE. The religion is characterized by a vast array of gods and goddesses, each representing different aspects of the universe. Hinduism also emphasizes the importance of karma, dharma, and reincarnation. Islam, on the other hand, was introduced to India in the 7th century and has since become the second-largest religion in the country. Christianity was brought to India by Portuguese traders in the 16th century, while Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Zoroastrianism all have their roots in India.

Languages in India:

India is home to a vast array of languages, with over 1,600 dialects spoken across the country. The most widely spoken language is Hindi, followed by Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, and Urdu. Each language has its own unique history and cultural significance, contributing to the country’s rich linguistic diversity.

India’s linguistic diversity is a reflection of its complex social fabric and history. The various languages spoken in India have their roots in different regions and cultures, each contributing to the country’s diverse linguistic heritage. The Constitution of India recognizes 22 languages as official languages of the country, with Hindi and English being the primary languages used for official purposes.

Festivals in India:

India is known for its diverse culture and traditions, which are reflected in the many festivals celebrated throughout the country. These festivals showcase India’s rich heritage and provide an opportunity for people of all backgrounds to come together and celebrate. Each festival has its own unique history, significance, and traditions, and is celebrated with great enthusiasm and zeal. From the colorful Holi festival to the Diwali festival of lights, from the vibrant Durga Puja to the harvest festival of Baisakhi, India’s festivals are a testament to the country’s cultural diversity and unity. In this essay, we will explore some of the most popular festivals in India and their significance, highlighting how they contribute to India’s cultural identity and heritage.

Food in India:

Indian cuisine is renowned for its diverse and flavorful dishes, with each region of the country having its own unique culinary traditions. Indian food is characterized by its use of spices, herbs, and aromatic ingredients, with vegetarianism also playing a significant role in many parts of the country. Some of the most popular dishes in India include biryani, dosa, samosas , and butter chicken, among others.

Indian cuisine has been influenced by various factors, including geography, climate, religion, and culture. Each region of the country has its own unique culinary traditions, with distinct flavors and ingredients that reflect the local culture and environment. For example, the cuisine of North India is characterized by its rich and hearty dishes, while the cuisine of South India is known for its use of coconut and spices.

Art and Architecture in India:

India has a rich and vibrant cultural heritage when it comes to art and architecture, with a long history of artistic expression dating back to ancient times. Indian art is known for its intricate designs, vibrant colors, and attention to detail, with various art forms like painting, sculpture, and textiles playing a significant role in the country’s cultural heritage. India is also home to a vast array of architectural wonders, including ancient temples, forts, and palaces that showcase the country’s rich architectural traditions.

Evolution of India’s Cultural Diversity:

India’s cultural diversity has evolved over centuries, with various factors contributing to its unique identity and character. India’s geographical location played a significant role in shaping its cultural heritage, with its position on major trade routes attracting merchants and traders from different parts of the world. This led to the exchange of ideas, beliefs, and traditions, contributing to the country’s cultural diversity.

India’s cultural heritage has also been shaped by its long and complex history. The country has been ruled by various dynasties, each leaving their mark on the country’s cultural landscape. The Mughal Empire, for example, played a significant role in shaping India’s art and architecture, while the British Raj introduced new ideas, customs, and traditions to the country.

India’s cultural diversity has also been shaped by various religions and beliefs. Each religion and belief system has its own unique traditions and customs, contributing to the country’s rich cultural heritage. Hinduism, for example, has played a significant role in shaping India’s art, architecture, and literature, while Islam and Christianity have contributed to the country’s linguistic and culinary diversity.

Importance of India’s Cultural Diversity:

India’s cultural diversity is an essential aspect of its identity and character, contributing to the country’s rich cultural heritage. The various religions, languages, customs, traditions, and beliefs that make up India’s cultural diversity have played a significant role in shaping the country’s history and social fabric.

India’s cultural diversity is also a source of strength and resilience, contributing to the country’s economic, political, and social development. The country’s cultural diversity has enabled it to build bridges with different countries and cultures, facilitating trade, diplomacy, and cultural exchange.

Furthermore, India’s cultural diversity is a source of pride and identity for its people. It reflects the country’s long and complex history, showcasing its unique identity and character. India’s cultural diversity is also a source of inspiration for its artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers, who draw on the country’s rich cultural heritage for their creative works.

Conclusion:

India’s cultural diversity is a testament to the country’s long and complex history, with various religions, languages, customs, traditions, and beliefs contributing to its unique identity and character. The country’s cultural diversity has evolved over centuries, shaped by its geographical location, history, and social fabric.

India’s cultural diversity is also a source of strength, resilience, and identity for its people. It has enabled the country to build bridges with different countries and cultures, facilitating trade, diplomacy, and cultural exchange. India’s cultural diversity is a source of pride and inspiration for its people, reflecting the country’s unique identity and character. As India continues to grow and develop, its cultural diversity will continue to play a significant role in shaping its future.

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• School Education /

Essay on Indian Culture in 500 Words

• Updated on  
• Dec 5, 2023

Did you know that Indian culture is one of the oldest and richest cultures in the world? Mark Twain once said, ‘India is the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.’ Indian culture is known for its rich beauty, traditional values, ethics, and social norms.

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‘We should proudly follow our cultural and traditional values, as they connect us to our age-old customs and what our culture means to us. India’s ethno-linguistically diverse culture has always been successful in catching global attention. Popular festivals like Diwali, Holi, Navratri, etc. are not only celebrated in India but also in other parts of the world.’

Also Read: Essay on Festivals

Why is Indian Culture Famous?

India’s rich and diverse culture has always attracted people from different parts of the world. A series of factors are responsible for Indian culture’s popularity, which include;

• Cultural diversity all over the country. 
• Variety of religious and spiritual practices. 
• Connections with the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, which is one of the oldest civilizations.
• Concepts like yoga and meditation, which gained popularity all over the world.
• Tradition art practices such as classical dance forms like Odissi, Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, etc. 
• Traditional art forms like Tanjore and Madhubani paintings have gained global attention.
• Our vibrant and colorful festivals like Diwali, Holi, Eid, etc. are celebrated in not just India but in other countries as well. 
• Our flavourful dishes and curries like roti sabzi, dal chawal, puri halwa, samosa, biryani, mithaiya, etc. are now sold all over the world.

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Interesting Facts About Indian Culture?

There are dozens of interesting facts about Indian culture, starting from ancient civilizations to modern times.

• One of the oldest cities in the world, Varanasi, was named the Tourism and Cultural Capital for the year 2022-23 by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
• One of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal, is located in India, which attracts millions of tourists every year.
• Zero (0) and decimal systems, used in mathematics, were invented in India. The modern numeral system is based on Indian numerical notations. (0,1,2,3, etc.)
• India is home to the world’s oldest holistic healing system; Ayurveda.
• The world’s longest epic, the Mahabharata, is based in India. This legend consists of over 1 lakh couplets (shlokas).

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Things We Can Learn from Our Culture

Our culture connects us to our age-old belief system and social norms. We are born with our cultural beliefs, values, and practices. Our culture teaches us to:

• Understand why people do things the way they want to.
• Respecting everyone around us, especially our elders.
• Emphasize the relationship between family and bloodline.
• Respecting other people’s culture and traditions.
• Reflecting on adaptability to new systems and values.
• Connects us to our roots and gives us an identity.
• Encourages the preservation of our traditional and historical knowledge.
• Emphasizes generosity and hospitality towards our guests and neighbors. 
• It focuses on creating a sense of belonging in a community and mutual support.

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Paragraph on Indian Culture

Related Articles

Ans: Indian culture is one of the most oldest and popular cultures in the world. Our culture is known for its rich diversity, traditional values, ethics, and social norms. We should proudly follow our cultural and traditional values, as they connect us to our age-old customs and what our culture means to us. India’s ethno-linguistically diverse culture has always been successful in catching global attention. Popular festivals like Diwali, Holi, Navratri, etc. are not only celebrated in India but also in other parts of the world.

Ans: Indian culture is one of the oldest cultures in the world; Zero (0) and decimal systems were first used in Indian culture; Indian culture was the first one to follow the practice of Ayurveda, one of the oldest healing systems; world’s oldest legends, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, were recorded in India; and the name India is derived from a Greek word ‘Indica.’

Ans: India was ruled by various Muslim dynasties during the Medival period. They gave this land the name Hindustan, which is derived from the Persian word Hindu from the Sanskrit word Sindhu.

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Shiva Tyagi

With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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Indian Culture Essay

India is renowned throughout the world for its tradition and culture. It is a country with many different cultures and traditions. The world's ancient civilisations can be found in this country. Good manners, etiquette, civilised dialogue, customs, beliefs, values, etc., are essential elements of Indian culture . India is a special country because of the ability of its citizens from many cultures and traditions to live together in harmony. Here are a few sample essays on ‘Indian culture’.

100 Words Essay on Indian Culture

India's culture is the oldest in the world and dates back over 5,000 years. The first and greatest cultures in the world are regarded as being those of India. The phrase "Unity in Diversity" refers to India as a diverse nation where people of many religions coexist while maintaining their distinct customs. People of different religions have different languages, culinary customs, ceremonies, etc and yet they all live in harmony.

Hindi is India's official language. However, there are 400 other languages regularly spoken in India's many states and territories, in addition to the country's nearly 22 recognised languages. History has established India as the country where religions like Buddhism and Hinduism first emerged.

200 Words Essay on Indian Culture

India is a land of diverse cultures, religions, languages, and traditions. The rich cultural heritage of India is a result of its long history and the various invasions and settlements that have occurred in the country. Indian culture is a melting pot of various customs and traditions, which have been passed down from generation to generation.

Religion | Religion plays a significant role in Indian culture. The major religions practiced in India are Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism. Each religion has its own set of beliefs, customs, and practices. Hinduism, the oldest religion in India, is the dominant religion and has a vast array of gods and goddesses. Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism are also widely practiced and have a significant number of followers in the country.

Food | Indian cuisine is known for its diverse range of flavors and spices. Each region in India has its own unique style of cooking and distinct dishes. Indian cuisine is known for its use of spices, herbs, and a variety of cooking techniques. Some of the most famous Indian dishes include biryani, curry, tandoori chicken, and dal makhani. Indian cuisine is also famous for its street food, which is a popular and affordable way to experience the diverse range of flavors that Indian food has to offer.

500 Words Essay on Indian Culture

Indian culture is known for its rich art and architecture. The ancient Indus Valley Civilization, which existed around 2500 BCE, had a sophisticated system of town planning and impressive architectural structures. Indian art is diverse and includes painting, sculpture, and architecture. The most famous form of Indian art is the cave paintings of Ajanta and Ellora, which date back to the 2nd century BCE. Indian architecture is also famous for its temples, palaces, and forts, which are a reflection of the rich cultural heritage of the country.

Music and dance are an integral part of Indian culture . Indian music is diverse and ranges from classical to folk to modern. The classical music of India is known for its use of ragas, which are a set of musical notes that are used to create a melody. The traditional Indian dance forms include Kathak, Bharatanatyam, and Kathakali. These dance forms are known for their elaborate costumes, expressive gestures, and intricate footwork.

My Experience

I had always been fascinated by the rich culture and history of India. So, when I finally got the opportunity to visit the country, I was beyond excited. I had heard so much about the diverse customs and traditions of India, and I couldn't wait to experience them firsthand. The moment I stepped off the plane and hit the streets, I was greeted by the overwhelming smell of spices and the hustle and bustle of the streets. I knew right away that I was in for an unforgettable journey.

My first stop was the ancient city of Varanasi, also known as Banaras. As I walked through the streets, I was struck by the vibrant colors and the sound of temple bells and chants. I visited the famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple and was amazed by the intricate architecture and the devotion of the devotees.

From Varanasi, I traveled to Jaipur, also known as the Pink City . Here, I visited the famous Amber Fort, which was built in the 16th century. The fort was a perfect example of the rich architecture of India and the level of craftsmanship that existed in ancient India.

As I continued my journey, I also had the opportunity to experience the food of India. From the spicy curries of the south to the tandoori dishes of the north, I was blown away by the range of flavors and the use of spices.

I also had the chance to experience the music and dance of India. I attended a Kathak dance performance and was mesmerized by the intricate footwork and the expressiveness of the dancers. I also had the opportunity to attend a classical music concert and was struck by the beauty of the ragas and the skill of the musicians.

My journey through India was truly an unforgettable experience. I had the chance to experience the diverse customs and traditions of India and was struck by the richness of the culture. From the ancient temples to the vibrant street markets, India is a treasure trove of history and culture. I knew that this would not be my last trip to India, as there is so much more to explore and experience.

Explore Career Options (By Industry)

• Construction
• Entertainment
• Manufacturing
• Information Technology

Data Administrator

Database professionals use software to store and organise data such as financial information, and customer shipping records. Individuals who opt for a career as data administrators ensure that data is available for users and secured from unauthorised sales. DB administrators may work in various types of industries. It may involve computer systems design, service firms, insurance companies, banks and hospitals.

Bio Medical Engineer

The field of biomedical engineering opens up a universe of expert chances. An Individual in the biomedical engineering career path work in the field of engineering as well as medicine, in order to find out solutions to common problems of the two fields. The biomedical engineering job opportunities are to collaborate with doctors and researchers to develop medical systems, equipment, or devices that can solve clinical problems. Here we will be discussing jobs after biomedical engineering, how to get a job in biomedical engineering, biomedical engineering scope, and salary. 

Ethical Hacker

A career as ethical hacker involves various challenges and provides lucrative opportunities in the digital era where every giant business and startup owns its cyberspace on the world wide web. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path try to find the vulnerabilities in the cyber system to get its authority. If he or she succeeds in it then he or she gets its illegal authority. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path then steal information or delete the file that could affect the business, functioning, or services of the organization.

GIS officer work on various GIS software to conduct a study and gather spatial and non-spatial information. GIS experts update the GIS data and maintain it. The databases include aerial or satellite imagery, latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, and manually digitized images of maps. In a career as GIS expert, one is responsible for creating online and mobile maps.

Data Analyst

The invention of the database has given fresh breath to the people involved in the data analytics career path. Analysis refers to splitting up a whole into its individual components for individual analysis. Data analysis is a method through which raw data are processed and transformed into information that would be beneficial for user strategic thinking.

Data are collected and examined to respond to questions, evaluate hypotheses or contradict theories. It is a tool for analyzing, transforming, modeling, and arranging data with useful knowledge, to assist in decision-making and methods, encompassing various strategies, and is used in different fields of business, research, and social science.

Geothermal Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as geothermal engineers are the professionals involved in the processing of geothermal energy. The responsibilities of geothermal engineers may vary depending on the workplace location. Those who work in fields design facilities to process and distribute geothermal energy. They oversee the functioning of machinery used in the field.

Database Architect

If you are intrigued by the programming world and are interested in developing communications networks then a career as database architect may be a good option for you. Data architect roles and responsibilities include building design models for data communication networks. Wide Area Networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), and intranets are included in the database networks. It is expected that database architects will have in-depth knowledge of a company's business to develop a network to fulfil the requirements of the organisation. Stay tuned as we look at the larger picture and give you more information on what is db architecture, why you should pursue database architecture, what to expect from such a degree and what your job opportunities will be after graduation. Here, we will be discussing how to become a data architect. Students can visit NIT Trichy , IIT Kharagpur , JMI New Delhi . 

Remote Sensing Technician

Individuals who opt for a career as a remote sensing technician possess unique personalities. Remote sensing analysts seem to be rational human beings, they are strong, independent, persistent, sincere, realistic and resourceful. Some of them are analytical as well, which means they are intelligent, introspective and inquisitive. 

Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Product manager.

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.  

Operations Manager

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Stock Analyst

Individuals who opt for a career as a stock analyst examine the company's investments makes decisions and keep track of financial securities. The nature of such investments will differ from one business to the next. Individuals in the stock analyst career use data mining to forecast a company's profits and revenues, advise clients on whether to buy or sell, participate in seminars, and discussing financial matters with executives and evaluate annual reports.

A Researcher is a professional who is responsible for collecting data and information by reviewing the literature and conducting experiments and surveys. He or she uses various methodological processes to provide accurate data and information that is utilised by academicians and other industry professionals. Here, we will discuss what is a researcher, the researcher's salary, types of researchers.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues. 

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems. 

Safety Manager

A Safety Manager is a professional responsible for employee’s safety at work. He or she plans, implements and oversees the company’s employee safety. A Safety Manager ensures compliance and adherence to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) guidelines.

Conservation Architect

A Conservation Architect is a professional responsible for conserving and restoring buildings or monuments having a historic value. He or she applies techniques to document and stabilise the object’s state without any further damage. A Conservation Architect restores the monuments and heritage buildings to bring them back to their original state.

Structural Engineer

A Structural Engineer designs buildings, bridges, and other related structures. He or she analyzes the structures and makes sure the structures are strong enough to be used by the people. A career as a Structural Engineer requires working in the construction process. It comes under the civil engineering discipline. A Structure Engineer creates structural models with the help of computer-aided design software. 

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description:  A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Field Surveyor

Are you searching for a Field Surveyor Job Description? A Field Surveyor is a professional responsible for conducting field surveys for various places or geographical conditions. He or she collects the required data and information as per the instructions given by senior officials. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Pathologist

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Veterinary Doctor

Speech therapist, gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Are you searching for an ‘Anatomist job description’? An Anatomist is a research professional who applies the laws of biological science to determine the ability of bodies of various living organisms including animals and humans to regenerate the damaged or destroyed organs. If you want to know what does an anatomist do, then read the entire article, where we will answer all your questions.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Photographer

Photography is considered both a science and an art, an artistic means of expression in which the camera replaces the pen. In a career as a photographer, an individual is hired to capture the moments of public and private events, such as press conferences or weddings, or may also work inside a studio, where people go to get their picture clicked. Photography is divided into many streams each generating numerous career opportunities in photography. With the boom in advertising, media, and the fashion industry, photography has emerged as a lucrative and thrilling career option for many Indian youths.

An individual who is pursuing a career as a producer is responsible for managing the business aspects of production. They are involved in each aspect of production from its inception to deception. Famous movie producers review the script, recommend changes and visualise the story. 

They are responsible for overseeing the finance involved in the project and distributing the film for broadcasting on various platforms. A career as a producer is quite fulfilling as well as exhaustive in terms of playing different roles in order for a production to be successful. Famous movie producers are responsible for hiring creative and technical personnel on contract basis.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Individuals who opt for a career as a reporter may often be at work on national holidays and festivities. He or she pitches various story ideas and covers news stories in risky situations. Students can pursue a BMC (Bachelor of Mass Communication) , B.M.M. (Bachelor of Mass Media) , or  MAJMC (MA in Journalism and Mass Communication) to become a reporter. While we sit at home reporters travel to locations to collect information that carries a news value.  

Corporate Executive

Are you searching for a Corporate Executive job description? A Corporate Executive role comes with administrative duties. He or she provides support to the leadership of the organisation. A Corporate Executive fulfils the business purpose and ensures its financial stability. In this article, we are going to discuss how to become corporate executive.

Multimedia Specialist

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Process Development Engineer

The Process Development Engineers design, implement, manufacture, mine, and other production systems using technical knowledge and expertise in the industry. They use computer modeling software to test technologies and machinery. An individual who is opting career as Process Development Engineer is responsible for developing cost-effective and efficient processes. They also monitor the production process and ensure it functions smoothly and efficiently.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

Information Security Manager

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

ITSM Manager

Automation test engineer.

An Automation Test Engineer job involves executing automated test scripts. He or she identifies the project’s problems and troubleshoots them. The role involves documenting the defect using management tools. He or she works with the application team in order to resolve any issues arising during the testing process. 

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Essay on Indian Culture for Students and Children

500+ words essay on indian culture.

India is a country that boasts of a rich culture. The culture of India refers to a collection of minor unique cultures. The culture of India comprises of clothing, festivals, languages, religions, music, dance, architecture, food, and art in India. Most noteworthy, Indian culture has been influenced by several foreign cultures throughout its history. Also, the history of India’s culture is several millennia old.

Components of Indian Culture

First of all, Indian origin religions are Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism . All of these religions are based on karma and dharma. Furthermore, these four are called as Indian religions. Indian religions are a major category of world religions along with Abrahamic religions.

Also, many foreign religions are present in India as well. These foreign religions include Abrahamic religions. The Abrahamic religions in India certainly are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Besides Abrahamic religions, Zoroastrianism and Bahá’í Faith are the other foreign religions which exist in India. Consequently, the presence of so many diverse religions has given rise to tolerance and secularism in Indian culture.

The Joint family system is the prevailing system of Indian culture . Most noteworthy, the family members consist of parents, children, children’s spouses, and offspring. All of these family members live together. Furthermore, the eldest male member is the head of the family.

Arranged marriages are the norm in Indian culture. Probably most Indians have their marriages planned by their parents. In almost all Indian marriages, the bride’s family gives dowry to bridegroom. Weddings are certainly festive occasions in Indian culture. There is involvement of striking decorations, clothing, music, dance, rituals in Indian weddings. Most noteworthy, the divorce rates in India are very low.

India celebrates a huge number of festivals. These festivals are very diverse due to multi-religious and multi-cultural Indian society. Indians greatly value festive occasions. Above all, the whole country joins in the celebrations irrespective of the differences.

Traditional Indian food, arts, music, sports, clothing, and architecture vary significantly across different regions. These components are influenced by various factors. Above all, these factors are geography, climate, culture, and rural/urban setting.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Perceptions of Indian Culture

Indian culture has been an inspiration to many writers. India is certainly a symbol of unity around the world. Indian culture is certainly very complex. Furthermore, the conception of Indian identity poses certain difficulties. However, despite this, a typical Indian culture does exist. The creation of this typical Indian culture results from some internal forces. Above all, these forces are a robust Constitution, universal adult franchise, secular policy , flexible federal structure, etc.

Indian culture is characterized by a strict social hierarchy. Furthermore, Indian children are taught their roles and place in society from an early age. Probably, many Indians believe that gods and spirits have a role in determining their life. Earlier, traditional Hindus were divided into polluting and non-polluting occupations. Now, this difference is declining.

Indian culture is certainly very diverse. Also, Indian children learn and assimilate in the differences. In recent decades, huge changes have taken place in Indian culture. Above all, these changes are female empowerment , westernization, a decline of superstition, higher literacy , improved education, etc.

To sum it up, the culture of India is one of the oldest cultures in the World. Above all, many Indians till stick to the traditional Indian culture in spite of rapid westernization. Indians have demonstrated strong unity irrespective of the diversity among them. Unity in Diversity is the ultimate mantra of Indian culture.

FAQs on Indian Culture

Q1 What are the Indian religions?

A1 Indian religions refer to a major category of religion. Most noteworthy, these religions have their origin in India. Furthermore, the major Indian religions are Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.

Q2 What are changes that have taken place in Indian culture in recent decades?

A2 Certainly, many changes have taken place in Indian culture in recent decades. Above all, these changes are female empowerment, westernization, a decline of superstition, higher literacy, improved education, etc.

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Essay on Incredible India

Students are often asked to write an essay on Incredible India in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Incredible India

Land of diversity.

India, often known as “Incredible India,” is a land of rich culture, history, and diversity. It is famous for its colorful festivals, diverse languages, and varied landscapes.

Historical Significance

India’s history spans over five millennia, with significant contributions to art, science, and philosophy. It is home to ancient civilizations and world-famous monuments.

Cultural Richness

The Indian culture, with its myriad traditions, music, dance forms, and cuisines, is a true reflection of its diversity. Each region has a unique cultural identity.

Natural Beauty

From snow-capped mountains to sun-kissed beaches, India’s natural beauty is breathtaking. It has numerous national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

Incredible India is a treasure trove of experiences, offering a fascinating mix of tradition and modernity. It truly symbolizes unity in diversity.

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250 Words Essay on Incredible India

Introduction.

India, often referred to as ‘Incredible India’, is a nation that boasts of rich cultural heritage, diverse traditions, and historical landmarks. This unique amalgamation of cultures, religions, and languages makes India a truly incredible country to explore.

Cultural Diversity

India’s cultural diversity is its most remarkable feature. Home to a multitude of religions, India thrives on harmonious co-existence, tolerance, and respect for all faiths. With over 2,000 distinct ethnic groups and more than 1,600 spoken languages, the country exemplifies unity in diversity.

India’s historical significance is another aspect that contributes to its incredibility. From the architectural grandeur of Mughal monuments like the Taj Mahal to the spiritual allure of ancient Hindu temples, India’s historical sites are a testament to its rich past.

Natural Wonders

India’s geographical diversity is equally fascinating. From the snow-capped Himalayan peaks to the tropical beaches of Goa, from the arid Thar Desert to the lush Sundarbans, India offers an array of natural wonders that captivate the senses.

In conclusion, the term ‘Incredible India’ perfectly encapsulates the essence of this vibrant nation. Its cultural diversity, historical significance, and natural beauty make it a country like no other. The uniqueness of India lies in its ability to maintain its cultural essence while embracing modernity, making it truly incredible.

500 Words Essay on Incredible India

The land of diversity and harmony.

India, often known as “Incredible India,” is a country that stands out for its diverse culture, rich history, and fascinating traditions. It is a land where 1.3 billion people live in harmony, speaking over 2000 dialects, practicing various religions, and celebrating numerous festivals. This diversity is not a weakness but a strength that adds to the incredible nature of India.

The Cultural Mosaic

India’s culture is a colorful mosaic of different traditions, religions, and languages that have evolved over thousands of years. Each state has its unique culture, food, dance, music, and art forms, contributing to the country’s rich cultural heritage. This diversity in culture is a testament to India’s tolerance and acceptance, where every festival, be it Diwali, Eid, Christmas, or Pongal, is celebrated with equal fervor.

The Architectural Marvels

India is home to numerous architectural wonders that reflect its glorious past. From the intricate carvings of Ajanta and Ellora caves to the majestic Mughal architecture of Taj Mahal, from the grand palaces of Rajasthan to the serene monasteries of Ladakh, India’s architecture is a blend of various styles, each narrating a unique story of its time.

The Land of Spirituality

India is known as the birthplace of many religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. It is a spiritual sanctuary where seekers from around the world come to find peace and enlightenment. The sacred Ganges, the tranquil Himalayas, the serene temples, and the vibrant ashrams all contribute to India’s spiritual allure.

India’s Natural Splendour

India’s natural beauty is as diverse as its culture. From the snow-capped Himalayan peaks to the sun-kissed beaches of Goa, from the dense forests of Sundarbans to the arid Thar Desert, India offers a wide range of landscapes. The country is also rich in biodiversity, hosting a variety of flora and fauna, some of which are endemic to the region.

Economic Growth and Challenges

India is a rapidly developing economy, with significant advancements in technology, healthcare, and education. However, it still grapples with challenges such as poverty, illiteracy, and corruption. Addressing these issues is crucial for India to fully realize its potential and continue its journey towards becoming a global superpower.

The essence of India lies in its diversity, its rich cultural heritage, its architectural grandeur, its spiritual ethos, and its natural beauty. Despite the challenges it faces, India continues to inspire and amaze the world with its resilience, tolerance, and unity in diversity. The journey through India is indeed incredible, filled with awe-inspiring sights, enriching experiences, and profound learnings. It is not just a country but a feeling that leaves an indelible mark on the hearts of those who experience it. In the words of Mark Twain, “India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grandmother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.”

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Causality Between Cultural Diversity and Economic Growth in India: Cross-State Study, 1990–1991 through 2017–2018

• ORIGINAL ARTICLE
• Published: 05 April 2023
• Volume 60 , pages 388–401, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

• Abdul Shaban   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2008-9394 1 &
• Philippe Cadene   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2779-7438 2  

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Existing studies have examined only the unidirectional impact of cultural diversity on the economic performance of countries, regions, and cities, not the other ways. They have assumed the diversity as given, while it may also grow, due to in-migration of workers and entrepreneurs, with economic growth and may be dependent on it. This paper models diversity and economic growth in a bi-directional causal frame and demonstrates that economic growth has a substantial impact on religious, language, and overall cultural diversities in the major states of India. However, the Granger causality between economic growth to language diversity and overall cultural diversity is found to be stronger and more widespread across the states than the causality from economic growth to religious diversity. The findings of this paper may have significant theoretical and empirical implications, as mainly the unidirectional way the impact of cultural diversity on economic growth has been advocated and the empirical studies have been modelled to date.

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Introduction

Mainstream theories and empirical studies on determinants of ‘economic’ growth have long neglected the impacts of cultural factors. Max Weber’s theory on the active role of ascetic Protestants in the development of capitalism (1904–1905| 1992 ) has largely been discussed among philosophers and sociologists from the beginning of the twentieth century, but economic and development studies have rarely taken his views into account (Ruttan, 1991 ). In general, economic literature has considered religion as an impediment to economic growth. Weber also pointed out the adverse relationship between religions of Asia and development ( 1951 ; 1958 ). He also highlighted the negative role of the caste system in India in its economic development. In fact, an entire intellectual tradition in the West embraces Auguste Comte’s thesis (Harrison, 2017 ) and analyses economic and social progress as a triumph of science against cultural traditions and religious immobility.

In the 1950s, exploring the determinants of economic growth and the differentiating factors between countries, Hoselitz ( 1952 ) argued that culture can be favourable to development only on the condition that it allows the dissemination of technical progress, innovation, social mobility as well as political environment and institutions conducive to change. In the following decade, Hirschman ( 1965 ) highlighted the importance of cultural barriers to development. At the same time, Myrdal ( 1968 ) also argued that culture blocked development in Asian countries. With a particular interest in India, he argued that the caste system is a handicap for its economic growth. However, Altekar ( 1929 ) considers that the caste system played an important role in the division of labour as such provided economic advantages. In this debate, the question of cultural divisions and the existence of significant cultural differentiation, even strong inequalities, between groups are considered to be key factors for growth. Entrepreneurial groups also emerge and benefit from specific cultures.

The link between culture and economy brings us also to the debate on the embeddedness of economic factors into social systems, which puts forward that the economy functions within the social system (Polanyi, 1944 ; Granovetter, 1985 ). In this regard, one of the important questions is how cultural homogeneity or diversity influences the capacity of a society to produce wealth. According to some scholars on club theory (Landa, 1981 ) and game theory (Aoki, 2010 ), cultural homogeneity would make exchanges more fluid and would limit transaction costs. Perceiving trust as a factor favourable to economic growth, others consider that cultural diversity introduces a feeling of mistrust between the economic agents and is detrimental to economic activities (La Porta et al., 1999 ). Studies also show that developed countries attract a significant number of migrants. This adds to their cultural heterogeneity. However, to date, studies on cultural diversity and economic growth have largely examined the unidirectional impact of cultural diversity on the economic performance of countries, regions, and cities, and have not considered the reverse causation or mutual causations.

The literature on cultural diversity and economic growth have largely been based on the experience of western countries, especially the USA. The immigration of skilled workers from different cultural contexts enhances the cultural diversity of the USA. These diverse groups from across the countries also bring their ways of thinking and working, and interaction among these groups in the liberal economic environment creates higher possibilities of innovation, economic growth, and mobility. In contrast to the western, especially American, cultural diversities, the cultural diversity of India is largely sui generis, internally born, and product of its regional and cultural geographies.

The following differences between Indian and the cultural diversity in the USA, which we consider as architype of western cultural diversity, for comparison with India, may be kept in mind. First, the USA cultural diversity is of recent origin and based on immigration of workers, while the Indian cultural diversities is organic in nature and grown from its soil itself. In recent centuries, there has not been any large-scale immigration in India. In 2018, 13.7% of the US population was foreign born that accounted for about 44.8 million persons (Budiman, 2020 ). In India, the foreign-born population was very minuscule, only 5.36 million, that is 0.44% of the total population in 2011 (Census of India 2011 ). Whereas the USA has immigrants from around the world, and since 2009 Asians (37% in 2018 of the total immigrants) have outnumbered Hispanics (31% of total immigrants in 2018), in India, foreign born population is mainly from South Asian stock or neighbouring countries (Census of India, 2011 ).

Second, custom, ascriptions, social norms, and values have largely determined the social and economic mobilities in India, except after the Independence in 1947 and adaptation of the Constitution in 1950 banning many ascriptive and discriminatory practices against different social groups and guaranteeing equality, liberty, and fraternity to all, while in the USA, equal opportunity through liberal democracy has paved way to the American dream based on meritocracy for a long time, though it is not to deny the fact that ethnicity and race do hinder the progress of Hispanic, Asian, and people from Africa (Hochschild, 1995 ; Vickerman, 1999 ). Third, the diversity may create high discontent as it gets associated with discriminations (Khare, 1998 ). Because of meritocracy, inequality along plane of diversity gets accepted in the western context such as the USA (Wiley and Deaux 2012 ). Meritocracy attracts the immigrants and enhances the diversity in the USA. However, in India, it is not so — foreigners do find that their status is often predetermined by custom, religion, caste, or racial origins. In India, the internal movement of population through migration has been main source of changes in cultural diversity at the state level.

Third, meritocracy leads individuals to act alone to improve their lots. However, when their success is blocked based on their belief, origin, caste, gender, etc., individuals often pursue collective actions to negotiate barriers with government and/or dominant groups (Ellemers, 1993 ; Verkuyten & Reijerse, 2008 ). As such, one finds negative association between meritocracy and assertion of ethnic identity and/or collective action (Wiley & Deaux 2012 ; Naylor 1997 ). The ethnic identity will be stronger among the low strata or groups, who feel being discriminated. In India, collective or group actions to improve their lots are quite common. India though represents a multicultural society where religious and linguistic groups cuts across many social traits and live together, equal opportunities in employment, politics, public offices remain a dream for many. The anti-discrimination and positive discrimination laws are very caste and tribe based and do not protect and empower religious and linguistic minorities in equal ways (Government of India, 2006 ).

Besides, there are many social values and attitudinal differences between western and Indian societies like those related to time (Indian are still more in social time rather than modern clock time), individuality (Indians are more inclined towards family values rather than individualism), religiosity (Indians are more religious than rational in their dispositions), and communication (Indian are less direct while westerners communicate more direct ways). In this paper, though we assume that diversity will have similar association with economic growth across societies, one also needs to keep in mind these subtler differences between the cultural diversity in western countries, like the USA, and India.

The contribution of this paper is three-fold. First, it extends the usual hypothesis of cultural diversity determining the economic performance to economic performance also constituting cultural diversity. It assumes that diversity and economic growth may be mutually evolving and causing. This hypothesis is based on the fact that economically growing regions often attract migrants from other regions, bringing different cultures. This adds to the diversity of regions and also helps in the economic growth, not only because of cheap labour, but also due to the introduction of newer ideas and specializations. The globalized cities all around the world (Taylor et al., 2011 ) seem to have evolved through this process of economic growth and diversity feeding each other and mutually constituting each other.

Second, with its enormous social diversity, India presents an excellent case study for research on such a theme. The Indian cultural diversity has evolved through centuries due to its varied geographies, and in-migration and settling down of different communities within the Indian space in ancient and medieval ages. Historically, the cultural give-and-takes between the communities led to the evolution of new cultural strands and communities (Subbarao, 1956 ). However, in recent decades, it is also experiencing a change because of internal migration (Bhagat, 2010 ). Today, the country has many official languages, each of them having ancient literature, their own cinema, television, and most recently their digital media. India also has followers of many beliefs. About 80% of the population follows Hinduism, but it is a polytheistic religion whose rites and expressions are extremely diverse. The rest of the population are followers of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. There are also followers of various forms of animism in many parts of the country.

Third, this paper uses the bootstrap panel Granger causality method developed by Kónya ( 2006 ) to measure the direction of causality between cultural diversity and economic growth among the major states of India from 1990–1991 to 2018–2019. This method overcomes the cross-sectional dependence across the spatial units. The cross-sectional dependence is difficult to overcome in panel data and often becomes a source of inconsistent and biased results (Baia & Kaob, 2006 ).

The findings of this paper of economic development–led growth of cultural diversity demonstrate that India is undergoing aspiration-led disruption in the usual residence of the people and they are moving to the states with higher economic growth and development. This accumulation of diversity in economically growing regions may later further accelerate economic growth, as we find in the case of cities, where diversity leads to economic development (Ottaviano & Peri, 2006 ; Stone 2021 ). For India, therefore, it can be important to allow the full play of the market forces to rearrange the diversity through the internal migration process for prospects of higher economic growth.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. After a review of the existing literature on the relationship between economic growth and cultural diversity, the next section discusses the diversity in India in spatial context. Thereafter, we discuss data and statistical methods employed in this study. Next, the levels of language, religious diversity, and overall cultural diversity, as well as of economic development among Indian states, are examined. The findings are presented next, while the last section concludes the paper.

Cultural Diversity and Economic Growth: a Review of Literature

The common understanding rooted in the Aristotelian framework has been that cultural diversity leads to social conflict (Lian & Oneal, 1997 ). It assumes that cultural diversity is associated with political instability which in turn retards economic growth and development. However, it is also argued that diversity will lead to flexibility, learning, adaptation, development of specialization, innovation, and socio-economic sustainability, which can also positively impact ecological sustainability.

The first specific studies on this topic were conducted in the 1960s. Adelman and Morris ( 1967 ) using data on language, religion, and ethnicity for 74 less developed countries from 1957 through 1962 found that culturally homogenous countries had higher economic growth rates. Marie Haug ( 1967 ) examining data of 114 countries found that diversity (language, religion, and race) had a negative correlation with Gross National Product (GNP) and political stability. Similarly, Lijphart ( 1977 ) considers that it can be difficult to achieve and maintain stable democratic governments in countries with deep religious, ideological, linguistic, cultural, or ethnic cleavages, and this may undermine economic growth and development. Reynolds ( 1985 ) in his study of 37 less developed countries from 1950 to 1987 also found that diversity leads to lower economic growth rates. Then, Easterly and Levine ( 1997 ) attribute 28% of the income growth differential between African countries and East Asia to the higher ethnic diversity of African countries.

Alesina et al. ( 2003 ) argue that ethnic diversity and conflict cost Uganda 2 percentage points of economic growth rate in comparison to more culturally homogenous South Korea. Montalvo and Reynal-Querol ( 2005 ) support that political instability and cultural conflict may undermine economic institutions and policies and may result in corruption and poor economic performance (see also Treisman, 2000 ; Glaeser & Saks, 2006 ). In the 2010s, Dincer and Wang ( 2011 ) using provincial-level data of China from 1982 to 2007 found a negative relationship between ethnic diversity and economic growth, and Hashmi et al. ( 2017 ) using least square estimates and data of 144 developing countries show more diverse countries are more prone to poverty.

However, from the beginning of the 2000s, globalization appears as a period of development at the world level accompanied by an increase in migrations and cultural diversity. China multiplied its GDP by 10 in two decades, India by 6, to evoke only two countries having the largest population in the world. This situation caused an explosion of inequalities (Piketty, 2013 ), but has also led to the rise of a large middle class in many countries (Kharas, 2010 ). This global economic development introduces a new organization of production and a new industrial relationship to the world in which emerging countries play a very important role. Capitalism has changed in this process, presenting different paths of development. While a new field opens for studies in comparative economics (Hall & Soskice, 2001 ), interesting academic publications focus on the construction of new diversities in a globalized world (Abeles, 2008 ). Research on global cities emphasizes the role of migrants and diaspora and the impact of media in the building of multicultural societies (Appadurai, 2013 ).

This new situation requires further exploration of the relationship between cultural diversity and economic growth. The idea of a positive link between the two is not new. In his work on the history of cities, Paul Bairoch ( 1988 ) called the cultural diversity of urban areas as an ‘engine’ of economic growth. People of various cultural origins, with various ways of producing things and with varieties of preferences of goods and services of consumption, help in diversifying the economy. In other words, the agglomerations of diverse cultures also lead to the agglomerations of diverse factors of production. Cultural diversity helps in innovation and entrepreneurship as various cultural groups with different orientations can do the same work in different ways. Introducing her thesis on the emergence of global cities, Saskia Sassen ( 1994 ) also defends the idea that the success of such places is linked to their cultural diversities. Then, Fujita et al. ( 1999 ), with their conception of ‘love of variety’, argue that diversity in the production of goods and services is key in the spatial development and enhancing the productivity of people. Further, Lazear ( 1999 ) shows that cultural diversity may raise productivity in the presence of complementarity of skills. Hong and Page ( 2001 ) argue that problem-solving ability is higher in heterogeneous groups than in homogenous ones. Glaeser et al. ( 2001 ) and Quigley ( 1998 ) state that the cultural diversity of cities also contributes to the diversity of goods and services in cities (Jacobs, 1969 ). However, the diversity of culture becomes more useful when it is accompanied by human capital or talent helpful in the production process and creation of a tolerant-syncretic and multicultural society (Shaban and Khan, 2022 ). The role of cultural diversity in cities came to increased emphasis with Florida’s recognition of the linkage between cultural diversity, creativity, and creative class. For him, creativity and creative class are ‘engines’ to economic growth and development of cities (Florida, 2002a ; 2002b ). Collier ( 2000 ) made a distinction of cultural diversity with modern political and economic institutions to that of the past and argued that in democracies and under capitalism, the culturally diverse societies perform economically better than homogeneous ones. Bove and Elia ( 2017 ) using data from 1960 to 2010 of migrants’ stock of 135 countries find that cultural heterogeneity positively impacts the growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the impact is higher in the case of developing countries. They conclude that “immigration-fuelled diversity is generally good for economic growth” (p. 236). Ottaviano and Peri ( 2006 ) using data from 160 US cities from 1970 to 1990 and the index of fractionalization as a measure of diversity find that cultural diversity has a “net positive impact on the productivity of US born citizens” (p. 11). In one of the recent studies, Chris Clarke using data from the UK’s 285 councils outside of big cities between 2011 and 2019 found that “migration and ethnic diversity are inextricably linked to economic growth in … towns and regions” (Stones, 2021 ). He also found strong linkages between “rising prosperity and rising diversity” (Stones, 2021 ), indicating the bi-directional causality between cultural diversity and economic growth.

In India, there are only a few studies that have examined the linkage of diversity with economic growth. These studies have largely been in community (caste relations and development in villages) or enterprise contexts. Iversen et al. ( 2014 ) report mixed findings on social diversity and development in Indian villages. They find that upper-caste Hindus and Other Backward Classes (middle castes) perform better in their own villages, but Muslims and Scheduled Tribes benefit more when they live with diverse communities. The Scheduled Castes also perform better in their own villages, but upper-caste dominance compromises their development in caste-diverse villages. In a case study of two villages in rural India, Anderson ( 2011 ) also found that lower caste performs better in their own villages in the absence of dominance of upper castes. Anderson’s case study shows that for the lower castes, it was difficult to buy water (or trade) from upper castes for irrigation compromising about 45% of their crop yields. However, Kaul ( 2015 ) argues that India’s diversity has huge potential for innovation and economic growth.

Many studies in India also find positive perceptions of employees about the impact of a culturally diverse workforce on firm productivity and growth. Kundu ( 2003 ) argues that sustainable competitive advantage firms must hire and retain culturally diverse employees. Vijayalakshmi et al. ( 2006 ) highlight the problem of discrimination in Indian business organizations based on their caste, religion, language, gender, etc. Jauhari and Singh ( 2013 ) with a study of 229 employees found that a culturally diverse workforce in Indian IT industry is responsible for the increased performance of the industry. Similarly, Singh ( 2016 ) finds positive relations between business performance and diversity of the workforce in Indian IT Inc. like Oracle, IBM, TCS, and Infosys. Kundu et al. ( 2019 ) using a sample of 619 employees from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) find positive perceptions of employees between diversity and productivity.

On the contrary, Saxena ( 2014 ) cautions that an unmanaged diverse workforce can be detrimental to the performance of organizations as it may lead to problems of ineffective communication, attitude clashes, or difference in perceptions. It is not surprising then that several studies in India have been carried out to understand the management of workforce diversity and its relation to organizational performance (Cooke and Saini, 2010 , 2012 ). Similar to the organizational level, at the country level as well, India needs to manage its diversity for improving its economic performance; the mismanaged diversity may create conflict and end up becoming a liability rather than an asset.

Given this, the contribution of this paper is not only to understand and add to the empirical literature on cultural diversity and economic growth in India but also to demonstrate that diversity can be both the outcome of economic growth (due to in-migration) and a cause of economic growth. The relationship may be determined by the institutional framework in which the cultural diversity works as pointed out by Collier ( 2000 ).

Cultural Diversity in India in Spatial Contexts

Studying India is specifically interesting as this country presents an enormous socio-cultural diversity. The complex geography of Indian languages reflects a history going back to several thousand years. The Dravidian languages spoken in the southern part of the peninsula, namely Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Tamil, are believed to have come down from the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation. In the north, the most widely spoken language is Hindi derived from Sanskrit. There are several other languages close to Hindi belonging to the Indo-European family: Kashmiri, Punjabi, Sindhi, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya, Bengali, Nepali, and Assamese. In the mountainous regions of the north and north-east, Tibeto-Burmese languages belonging to the Sino-Tibetan family are widely spoken. Finally, in isolated pockets in Central and North-East India, tribes are belonging to the Munda and Mon-Khmer sub-groups who speak the languages of the Austro-Asian family. It is not uncommon to find people who speak at home the dialect of a distant region that the family left long ago, watch television programmes in English, use the official language of their state in their place of work, and use in the street and at the marketplace the local vernacular of the state or territory.

At the time of Independence, Hindi was chosen as the official language by North Indian elites who were in power in Delhi while the representatives of the Dravidian South insisted on the continuance of English. It was agreed that English would remain the official language for a transitory period. However, numerous demands for the recognition of regional identities led to the acceptance of regional linguistic differences. While Hindi and English are used by the central government, 22 official languages have been recognized over the years by the Indian Constitution. Every state ensures that one or more languages are constitutionally recognized as official languages. A total of 19,569 dialects as counted by linguistic experts are spoken in India (Census of India, 2011 ). The official languages are the ones spoken by the majority in most of the states, especially in the larger states where they are spoken by more than 80% of the population, like Hindi in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarati in Gujarat, Telugu in Andhra Pradesh, or Tamil in Tamil Nadu. However, in some states, the official language is spoken only by a minority of the population. In other states, the declaration of the regional language as the official language has strengthened an already strong linguistic identity and encouraged regional cultural creativity in areas as diverse as literature, vocal music, theatre, and cinema.

In this complex linguistic context, between 1991 and 2011, in 8 out of the 16 states selected for the study, the share of major languages has declined (especially in relatively economically developed states). Such states are Maharashtra (the share of Marathi speakers in the total population of the state declined from 73.34% in 1991 to 68.93%), Gujarat (the Gujarat speakers declined from 91.49 to 85.97%), Haryana (Hindi speakers declined from 91.00 to 88.05%), and Punjab (Punjabi speakers declined from 92.22 to 89.82%) due to adaptation of other languages by natives and also because of interstate migrations. The decline of the number of speakers of major mother tongues between 1991 and 2011 is also seen in Rajasthan and Orissa. Also, in all the major states selected for this study, the number of mother tongues with more than 10,000 speakers has increased. For instance, in Gujarat, the number of mother tongues with more than 10,000 speakers has increased from 43 in 1991 to 91 in 2011, in Uttar Pradesh from 68 to 101, in Delhi 77 to 106, and in Kerala 43 to 79 during the same period (Appendix Table 4 ).

The religious diversity of India is the second parameter of its great cultural diversity. Hinduism is the dominant religion. Its followers constitute 79.8% of the total population of the country (Census of India, 2011 ). But it is a polytheistic religion, which easily adapts itself to syncretism and coexists with several other minority religions. The first of these minority religions is Islam, mainly Sunni, having more than 140 million followers (14.2% of the Indian population), which makes India the world’s third-largest Muslim country. It is followed by Christianity (follower 2.3% of the Indian population), Sikhism (1.7%), Buddhism (0.7%), Jainism (0.4%), and others (0.9%). There are also other religions practiced by even smaller minorities, particularly animistic cults followed by tribals living on the fringes of Hinduism and Indian society.

The share of Hindus in different states varies. They are for example only 54.7% in Kerala and 38.5% in Punjab (Census of India 2011 ); Muslims are in a majority in Kashmir and some districts of the north-east India. They are present in large numbers in some areas, especially in the Indo-Gangetic plain, in Assam to the east of Bangladesh and also in Gujarat in areas close to the border with Pakistan, as well as in Kerala, where there is also a sizeable Christian minority dating back to the establishment of the Syrian church by the apostle Thomas. The Christians, about two-thirds of them Catholics, are present in large numbers in the north-eastern states where the tribal populations were converted by missionaries during the colonial era. Sikhism is concentrated in Punjab with its principal shrine, the Golden Temple, at Amritsar. This syncretic faith combining the principles of Hinduism and Islam was founded at the end of the fifteenth century. Buddhism is practiced mainly in the Himalayan region bordering China. Situated to the south of Bihar and to the west of Kolkata, Jharkhand has a large tribal population practicing animistic religions or converted to Christianity. Jainism, a religion close to Hinduism, was founded in the sixth century BCE. Zoroastrianism is the religion of the Parsis that prevailed in pre-Islamic Iran. The followers of both the latter religions constitute small minorities, even though they play an important role in the economy of some of the states and cities. The Jains play especially an important role in economic activities in Gujarat and Rajasthan while the Parsis in case of cities like Mumbai.

Both linguistic and religious diversities are protected by the Indian Constitution adopted after the Independence in 1947. The Constitution is a diversity guaranteeing documents and successive governments of India have attempted to respect the same. In fact, the pillars of the Constitution are Justice (social, economic, and political), Liberty (of thought, expression, belief, faith, and worship), and Equality (of status and opportunity). Article 350A of the Constitution specially directs the Government to promote and provide education to children in mother tongues at the primary stage while Article 350B guarantees protections and promotion of languages of linguistic minorities (Government of India, 2019 ). The Constitution, in fact, attempts to bind Indians with the ‘idea of unity in diversity’. Part III of the Constitution on Fundamental Rights especially acknowledges the ethnic, religious, and language diversities of the country, and provides guarantees to preserve and sustain the same.

In recent decades, the Indian states are undergoing interesting transformations in terms of religious diversity. The religious diversity scores are showing increasing trends (Appendix Table 5 ). Except in Goa, the religious diversity has increased in all the selected states and at the all-India level, but mother tongue or language diversity has declined in 9 out of the 16 states and at the all-India level (see the average exponential growth rate) between 1990–1991 and 2017–2018. This shows that domination of major languages is increasing in those states, mainly in relatively underdeveloped states, while the opposite process is underway in the case of major religions. However, the cultural diversity score (average of the language and religion scores) shows a rising trend during the period, except in 3 states (Appendix Table 6 ).

During the same period (1990–1991 to 2017–2018), India has experienced a surge in economic growth. During the period, the average exponential growth rate of real per capita income (Net National Income) at all-India level has been 5.16%, while it was barely 3.5% before the liberalization (Shaban, 2006 ; Dholakia, 2009 ). Out of the 16 states selected for this study, eight have experienced a higher growth rate than the national average and all these states have also experienced an increase in cultural diversity.

Material and Method

The two major axes through which Indian culture can be represented are language and religion. The languages reflect the regional cultural groups while religions represent the broader segmentations of Indian population based on faiths having their own specific ways of life within the linguistic groups. Castes are integral part of the religious groups, mainly manifesting itself in Hinduism, and are hierarchical in nature. Castes exclude groups based on their birth (create pure and polluted ascriptive labels) and occupations. Castes do not allow the occupational competition within the religion as each caste are supposed to pursue their ascribed occupations, but caste groups between religions do compete. Further, the caste data from Census of India for recent years are not available. The last population census in India which counted castes was held in 1931. Therefore, we have not included caste while computing cultural diversity index in this paper.

This paper uses data from 1990–1991 to 2017–2018 on share of the population speaking different languages (mother tongues with more than 10,000 speakers) and following various religions in 16 major Indian states, which together accounted for 90.0% of the total population of India in 1991 and 85.8% in 2018 (Census of India, 1991 ; 2001 ; 2011 ; National Commission on Population, 2020 ). The data on per capita state domestic product (PCI) at 2011–2012 prices have been obtained from Reserve Bank of India ( 2019 ).

We have used method suggested by Juan Molinar ( 1991 ) to construct the score of linguistic and religious diversity as it “better reflects the distance between the two largest groups without overstating the influence of the largest” (Lian & Oneal, 1997 : 65). We have computed the average of linguistic and religious diversity scores and called it as overall ‘cultural’ diversity score of the states. The Molinar method gives a score that is higher when the diversity within a state is higher, and zero when there is only one cultural group.

We have used augmented bootstrap panel Granger causality (Granger, 2003 ; Breitung, 2005 ) method (see the Appendix of this paper) suggested by Kónya ( 2006 ) as this method has several advantages over other panel Granger causality test methods (see Kar et al. 2011 ; Pesaran, 2006 ; Zellner, 1962 ; Hurlin 2008 ; Pesaran et al., 1999 ).

Results of Causality Between Cultural Diversity and Per Capita Income

Our panel data shows presence of CSD (Table 1 ), and thus appropriateness of use of Konya’s ( 2006 ) method of augmented bootstrap Granger causality. The results presented in Tables 2 and 3 can be summarised and interpreted as follows. First, largely, there is an absence of Granger causality from religious diversity, language diversity, and overall cultural diversity to economic growth, but a large number of states show reverse causality, i.e., unidirectional Granger causality from economic growth to the variables of cultural diversities mentioned above. The reverser unidirectional Grange causality from per capital income to religious diversity is present in four states (out of 5 showing significant Granger causality); from per capita income to language diversity in 10 states (out of 12 states showing the significant Granger causality); and per capita income to overall cultural diversity again in 10 states (out of 11 states showing the significant Granger causality). Second, the results as such show that these are not religious and language diversities that are Granger causing economic growth, but the economic growth is Granger causing/increasing the diversities among Indian states. This implies that diversities can also be caused by economic growth, and this may be happening mainly because of inter-state migration and language adaptation. The migration of the population has implications for composition of religious and linguistic diversities in both the source and destinations states, as the shares of population of different religious and linguistic groups in both groups of the states change.

The inter-state migration has acquired its significance in India with rising options for better transport. In 1991, about 27.3 million persons migrated (counted as per the place of birth) from one state to another, and another 6.9 million were international immigrants in India (Census of India, 1991 ). But in 2001, 42.34 million people moved from one state to another state and another about 6.2 million were international immigrants (Census of India, 2001 ). The number of inter-state migrants in India rose to 56.3 million in 2011, but the number of international immigrants declined to 5.4 million (Census of Indian, 2011). In the absence data from Census 2021 as it is yet to be conducted, it is estimated that inter-state migrants in 2021 may be around 100 million and international immigrants approximately 7 million. It is also estimated that two-thirds of such migrants move because of work (Rajan and Bhagat 2022 ). This migration or mobility churning is reshaping and changing the cultural diversities of states. The dominant presence of unidirectional causality from economic growth to cultural diversity shows that people are largely following economic growth and moving to the states where they find better possibilities of personal economic prospects.

The cultural diversities, especially language diversity, among Indian states are also changing because in-migrant not only bringing their own languages, but these migrants also adopt the language of the source regions. This is why we find that where the number of mother tongues spoken have increased, the share of major languages spoken have also increased during the period in all the states (Appendix Table 4 ). Besides, there is another important process underway that is of acquiring proficiencies of languages of market, i.e., English language and Hindi. The middle class of India associates English language with the potential of employability or finding better paid jobs and even emigration to developed countries for education and work and/or permanent residence. This has led even lower middle classes to educate their children in English medium schools. This has generated significant demand for English medium schools across the country. As such, the younger generations are becoming multi-lingual — where they know their mother tongues, speak regional languages, and/or acquire knowledge of Hindi (which is a lingua franca in large part of northern, eastern, central, and western India) and English. Thus, multi-lingualism in almost all states is increasing. English is not spoken as mother tongue by any significant number of persons in India, but it is used as a second or third language. In 2011, only 0.26 million claimed English as their mother tongues, but 86 million and 46 million respectively claimed it as their second and third language, respectively. This made English as the second most widely spoken language after Hindi, which was spoken by 528 million persons as their primary language, 139 million as their second language, and about 24 million as their third language (Census of India 2011 ). As English is acquired after rise in the income, and so is acquisition of Hindi in non-Hindi belt (South and Eastern India) by middle and lower classes of families, it helps in raising cultural diversities of states, especially language diversity, with rise in income.

The result underscores our assumption of (a) presence of reverse causality from economic growth to cultural diversity which the empirical literature in this area have largely neglected, and as such we argue that (b) the theoretical problematization of causality between the cultural diversity and economic growth needs to be bi-directional rather than unidirectional.

Conclusions

The role of cultural diversity in economic growth has been contentious. The theoretical literature argues both its negative and positive impacts on economic growth. Both the theoretical and empirical studies assume cultural diversity as the independent variable. Furthermore, they do not consider cultural diversity and economic growth causing each other and evolving together, or cultural diversity also as a function of economic growth. The present study attempts to fill this gap by modelling the relationship between cultural diversity and economic growth as bi-directional. To test the relationship, the paper uses data from 16 major Indian states of India from 1990–1991 to 2017–2018 on religious diversity, language diversity, overall cultural diversity, and real per capita income, and bootstrap panel Granger causality method. The study finds (a) there is a substantial presence of cross-sectional dependence among the panel member and therefore bootstrap panel Granger causality method is a more efficient method for the estimation of the causality; (b) the Granger causality is largely unidirectional among the Indian states — from economic growth to language diversity, religious diversity, and cultural diversity; and (c) the Granger causality from economic growth to language diversity and cultural diversity is stronger and widespread among the Indian states in comparison to Granger causality from economic growth to religious diversity. This shows that the Indian states are undergoing cultural churning process mainly from interstate migration (as there is an absence of any large-scale international immigration) from low per capita income states to high per capita income states. This is changing the cultural makeup of Indian states. The empirical results underscore that the relationship between cultural diversity and economic growth should be modelled in a bi-directional framework rather than only from cultural diversity to economic growth, which the empirical, as well as the theoretical literature, have largely used to date.

The finding of economic development–led cultural diversity of this paper shows that increasing capitalist development in India is leading to aspiration-led disruption in the usual residence of the people and they are moving to the state with higher economic growth and development, and also adopting the market languages. The consequent rising cultural diversity in economically growing regions or factor endowed states may further accelerate the economic development in these states, as we find in the case of cities, where diversity leads to economic development (Ottaviano and Peri, 2006 ; Stone 2021 ). Policy-wise, it is, therefore, important for India to allow the full play of the market forces to rearrange the diversity through the internal migration and adaptation process for higher regional economic growth in future.

The current leading parties in India today argue for economic liberalization and development of entrepreneurship (Government of India, 2021 ), but simultaneously promote the religio-cultural nationalism leading to open and coercive violence which inhibits the diversity, languages, occupations, choices of food, practices, and expression of other religious and culturally diverse groups.

The declining economic growth in India from 2017 onwards (for the decline in economic growth, see Mourdoukoutas, 2020 ; Kishore, 2017 ) may be linked to this cultural repression and anxiety among the economic agents. During the COVID-19 period (Kakvi, 2019 ; Dara, 2019 ; Babu, 2020 ; Surya 2020 , The Hindu 2020 ), many states brought legislations that restrict the employment opportunities only to the locals, limiting opportunities for the migrants. Local governments in some culturally diverse megacities of India are becoming little accommodative to minority languages and religions. In Bangalore, Municipal Corporation rejected a multi-lingual call centre while the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai provides autorickshaw permits only to Marathi knowing applicants (Halarnkar, 2016 ). This situation recalls the case of the Middle East studied by Jared Rubin ( 2014 ) who argues that it was not the religion itself responsible for the economic decline of Middle East but the legitimacy of religious politics.

The causality between cultural diversity and economic growth needs to be further studied in other countries and contexts as well. The findings may have their own policy and regional development relevance, besides contributing to the economic theory.

Data Availability

My manuscript has data included as electronic supplementary material .

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Abdul Shaban

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Abdul Shaban: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, writing — original draft (lead), writing — review and editing. Philippe Cadene: conceptualization, writing — original draft, writing — review and editing.

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Computation of bootstrap panel granger causality and cross-sectional dependence.

Konya’s method of bootstrap panel granger causality test entails two sets of equations, as given below, $$\begin{array}{l}y_{1,t}=\gamma_{1,1}+\sum\nolimits_{i=1}^{{ly}_1}\theta_{1,1,i}y_{1,t-i}+\sum\nolimits_{i=1}^{{lx}_1}\delta_{1,1,i}x_{k,1,t-i}+\varepsilon_{1,1,t}\\\begin{array}{l}y_{2,t}=\gamma_{1,2}+\sum\nolimits_{i=1}^{{ly}_1}\theta_{1,2,i}y_{2,t-i}+\sum\nolimits_{i=1}^{{lx}_1}\delta_{1,2,i}x_{k,2,t-i}+\varepsilon_{1,2,t\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;}\\\vdots\end{array}\\y_{N,t}=\gamma_{1,N}+\sum\nolimits_{i=1}^{{ly}_1}\theta_{1,N,i}y_{N,t-i}+\sum_{i=1}^{{lx}_1}\delta_{1,N,i}x_{k,N,t-i}+\varepsilon_{1,N,t}\end{array}$$ (1) and $$\begin{array}{l}\begin{array}{l}x_{k,1,t}=\gamma_{2,1}+\sum\nolimits_{i=1}^{{ly}_2}\theta_{2,1,i}y_{1,t-i}+\sum\nolimits_{i=1}^{{lx}_2}\delta_{2,1,i}x_{k,1,t-i}+\varepsilon_{2,1,t}\\x_{k,2,t}=\gamma_{2,2}+\sum\nolimits_{i=1}^{{ly}_2}\theta_{2,2,i}y_{2,t-i}+\sum\nolimits_{i=1}^{{lx}_2}\delta_{2,2,i}x_{k,2,t-i}+\varepsilon_{2,2,t}\end{array}\\\vdots\\x_{k,N,t}=\gamma_{2,N}+\sum\nolimits_{i=1}^{{ly}_2}\theta_{2,N,i}y_{N,t-i}+\sum\nolimits_{i=1}^{{lx}_2}\delta_{2,N,i}x_{k,N,t-i}+\varepsilon_{2,N,t}\end{array}$$ (2) where y refers to log  of per capita income; x denotes the religious diversity score, language diversity score, or cultural diversity score. N is the number of the members of the panel ( j  = 1,…, N, that is 16 ), t is the time ( t  = 1,…, t, that is 28), and l is the lag length. In this paper, the procedures suggested by Konya (2006: 985–986) to generate bootstrap samples and state-specific critical values have been followed. The procedure is also explained by Kar et al. ( 2011 :690–691).

There would be one-way Granger causality from x to y if not all \({\delta }_{1,j,i}s\) are zero, but all \({\theta }_{2,j,i}s\) are zero. Alternatively, there will be one-way Granger causality from y to x if all \({\theta }_{2,j,i}s\) are not zero, but all \({\delta }_{1,j,i}s\) are zero. Both the x and y Granger cause each other in case neither all \({\delta }_{1,j,i}s\) nor \({\beta }_{2,j,i}s\) are zero. Finally, there would be no Granger causality between x and y if all \({\delta }_{1,j,i}s\) and \({\beta }_{2,j,i}s\) are zero (see Kar et al., 2011 ). Following Konya (2006), the maximal lags are allowed to differ across variables but to be the same across equations. This is done to minimize the computational burden which may result from a large lag structure (Konya, 2006; Kar, Nazlioglu, & Agir, 2011). Lags of 1–4 of x and y are used in the estimation and then choosing the combinations which minimize the Schwarz Bayesian criterion. We have used various measures to find out the cross-sectional dependence (CSD) in the data and the method used are those suggested by Breusch and Pagan ( 1980 ) (hereafter CD BP ); Lagrange multiplier statistics ( CD lm ) suggested by Pesaran (2004), and cross-sectional dependence test (hereafter, CD ) suggested by Kar, Nazlioglu, and Agir (2011).

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Shaban, A., Cadene, P. Causality Between Cultural Diversity and Economic Growth in India: Cross-State Study, 1990–1991 through 2017–2018. Soc 60 , 388–401 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-023-00833-0

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Sunjeev Sahota: ‘I’ve always been in labour movements – but I’m critical of identity politics’

The Booker shortlisted novelist on writing his first significant non-working-class character, the literary critics who inspired him and why he’s not on Facebook

S unjeev Sahota, 43, was born and raised in Derbyshire. Named one of Granta’s best young British novelists in 2013, he made the Booker shortlist two years later with his second novel, The Year of the Runaways , an “epic of immigration... that brings to mind the great realist chroniclers” (the New Yorker ). In 2021 he was longlisted for the same prize with his third novel, China Room , drawn on family history and set partly in 1920s Punjab. His new book, The Spoiled Heart , turns on a vicious leadership contest between two British Indian trade unionists divided by age, sex and class. Sahota, who teaches literature at Durham University, was speaking from his home in Sheffield. Where did this book begin? This is my first time writing a novel set entirely in the UK – for once the story doesn’t go back to India at all. It’s also my first novel properly set in my home town of Chesterfield, which my parents left between my writing China Room and The Spoiled Heart . I’ve now got no reason to go back, which freed me to write about it. I’d been thinking about my childhood in this deindustrialised former mining town and the childhood my kids are having in the middle-class suburb I’m in now. It made me want to explore how the left does or doesn’t talk about class. I’m on the left – I’ve been in a union for years and I’ve always been in labour movements – but I’m critical of identity politics and believe much more in solidarity and economic justice. Did that make it tricky to write both sides of the quarrel at the book’s core? While I do think people like Nayan who believe in class-first politics – arguments very much in line with mine – are being set aside in favour of identitarians like Megha, I had to leave my prejudices at the door: you have to try open-heartedly to give life to your characters in the most enthralling way possible. Megha is the first significant non-working-class character I’ve written and probably the hardest character I’ve ever had to write. But the novel came quickly. China Room took three or four years because I was riven with doubt about the narrator’s right to tell his ancestor’s story; with this, I wrote with an urge to put down on the page things I feel strongly about.

Were you influenced by other novels about class? Nonfiction helped more. The American literary theorist Walter Benn Michaels crystallised so much for me. I read The Trouble With Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality when it first came out [in 2006]. In my early 20s I’d been thinking about race and class. Everyone was telling me that race was the thing that was going to have the largest impact on my life. Inside, I didn’t feel that to be true. I think a lot about his essay Going Boom , which says publishing has been concerned with historical novels about colonialism and slavery because [the culture] wants to feel good for no longer discriminating against people in those ways – while at the same time the gap between rich and poor is now as wide as can be. Internet pile-ons are pivotal to the plot . Do you use social media? No, I’ve never had a Facebook account or anything. I find it depressing for people on the left to indulge the mechanisms of neoliberal tech-bro billionaires who make huge profits from algorithms that enable a bearpit mentality. One of the reasons this denunciation culture has arisen is that the left currently lacks the belief that a different way of organising the world can actually happen. It reminds me of my kids: when they don’t have a project – building a den, say - they start finding ways to fight among themselves. Working out how to create a more egalitarian world is hard. It’s easier to point to some white yoga woman saying namaste and demand that her arse gets handed to her. Which novels have been important to you as a reader? In hindsight, reading Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers in my early 20s, having grown up around friends whose dads were former miners, made clear to me the pain of the job they did and weren’t able to do any more. In my teens I was completely taken over by Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance , about destitute characters in India during the 1970s. I tried it again recently and couldn’t get through the first few pages: my idea of what I want a novel to do has changed. Did you write in your teens? No. I never kept a diary, I wasn’t scribbling stories, I just read. I didn’t have a formal education in the humanities [Sahota studied maths]: reading was my education. A big thing was discovering literary criticism: Lionel Trilling, Edmund Wilson, Virginia Woolf’s essays, James Wood . I really enjoyed reading critics trying to make sense of how novels worked or didn’t. That’s what made me want to have a go at writing one myself [his 2011 debut Ours Are the Streets ] when I was 24 or 25. What do you recall reading as a child? Mine wasn’t a bookish household. My parents had a shop and I mostly just read magazines and newspapers waiting to do the paper round. I didn’t read any fiction that I can remember, but I was always reading – even shampoo bottles. I remember intently looking at the backs of cereal boxes, wanting to read every single word, fascinated by their sounds. Where do you write? My kids are all at school, so Monday to Friday between half nine and half two at my dining table, where I’m sat now. Name an author whose work you teach. [Thomas] Pynchon. If we’re to use terms like “political writer”, he’s the kind I like. His narrative structures allow us to achieve an understanding of the systems that harm the lives of the poor, an understanding that might illuminate the problem and not simply request pity for what the problem causes.

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How China’s Nuclear Ambitions Have Changed the World

By W.J. Hennigan

Mr. Hennigan writes about national security issues for Times Opinion.

In the middle of the last century, as the United States and Russia rapidly amassed thousands of nuclear weapons, China stayed out of the arms race, focusing its energy on growing its economy and broadening its regional influence.

Beijing did build hundreds of nuclear weapons during those years, but the nation’s leaders insisted their modest arsenal was merely for self-defense. Since China’s first nuclear weapons test, in 1964, the country has pledged loudly to never go first in a nuclear conflict — no matter what. That stance, coupled with a stated strategy of “minimum” deterrence, didn’t demand the level of American fear, loathing and attention that the Russian threat did.

Now there is increasing unease in Washington about China’s nuclear ambitions. The Pentagon says Beijing is on track to double the number of its nuclear warheads by the decade’s end, to 1,000 from 500 — a development that senior U.S. officials have publicly called “unprecedented” and “breathtaking.” China has drastically expanded its nuclear testing facility and continued work on three new missile fields in the country’s north, where more than 300 intercontinental ballistic missile silos have recently been constructed.

China’s transformation from a small nuclear power into an exponentially larger one is a historic shift, upending the delicate two-peer balance of the world’s nuclear weapons for the entirety of the atomic age. The Russian and American arsenals — their growth, reduction and containment — have defined this era; maintaining an uneasy peace between the two countries hinged on open communication channels, agreement on nuclear norms and diplomacy.

Little of that nuclear scaffolding exists with China. In Washington, how exactly to interpret Beijing’s sharp nuclear buildup is still a matter of debate. At best, American officials say, their Chinese counterparts are trying to catch up with the United States and Russia, which still each have roughly a 10-to-1 nuclear advantage over China with their stockpiles. At worst, they say, this is Beijing’s boldfaced attempt to deter the United States from defending Taiwan against a Chinese invasion, the most likely flashpoint for an armed conflict between the competing superpowers.

In truth, no one knows what China is planning. President Xi Jinping’s government, as with much of its domestic policy, releases vanishingly little information about its nuclear intentions, strategies or goals, and it has been equally unwilling to engage on arms control.

That is, until now.

In February, in a rare offer for nuclear diplomacy, China openly invited the United States and other nuclear powers to negotiate a treaty in which all sides would pledge never to use nuclear weapons first against one another. “The policy is highly stable, consistent and predictable,” said Sun Xiaobo, director general of the Chinese foreign ministry’s Department of Arms Control, in Geneva on Feb. 26. “It is, in itself, an important contribution to the international disarmament process.”

The invitation came as a surprise. While Beijing has long claimed moral superiority over other nuclear powers on this issue — China and India are the only nuclear-armed nations to declare a no-first-use policy — opening the possibility for talks in such a public way is something China hasn’t done in years.

It may seem like a no-brainer to take China up on the offer — wouldn’t it be better if everyone agreed not to be the first to use their nuclear weapons? — but it has been met with public silence from Washington. For American policymakers, committing to no-first-use is deeply divisive. The United States, the only nation to ever use nuclear weapons in conflict, when it dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945, has never ruled out being first to use them again, nor has it detailed the circumstances under which it would consider doing so. This approach of calculated ambiguity is intended to prevent adversaries from taking military action against the United States — and the more than 30 allies it is bound by treaties to defend — out of fear for what could come their way in response.

It’s also a personal issue for President Biden. He supported a no-first-use policy as vice president amid deliberations inside the Obama administration, and as a presidential candidate on the campaign trail he said the “sole purpose” of the U.S. nuclear arsenal should be aimed at deterring or retaliating against an adversary’s nuclear attack. But when it came time for his own administration to adopt a declaratory nuclear policy, he decided not to break with America’s longstanding nuclear dogma and retained the first-use option.

Mr. Biden’s about-face was a sign of the times, a result of both internal deliberations and consultations with allies in Europe and Asia. According to current and former administration officials, these nations’ leaders feared a U.S. policy reversal would undermine confidence in America’s commitment to come to their defense and would potentially embolden China, Russia and North Korea.

The uneasiness surrounding a potential change to America’s first-use policy almost certainly played a role in China’s unusually public invitation to negotiate. China may simply be trying to stoke anxieties among American allies and partners — and particularly Taiwan, South Korea and Japan — by floating a public offer outside of private diplomatic channels.

It’s not the first time it has gone down this road. During the Cold War, China made offers for a mutual no-first-use pledge at the United Nations in 1971 and 1982, and presented a draft treaty in 1994 to the other nuclear weapons states. Four years later, China tried to persuade President Bill Clinton to change American nuclear policy when he visited Beijing, but Mr. Clinton decided against it, choosing instead to share a pledge to stop targeting each other with their nuclear weapons.

Such overtures have all but halted under the leadership of Mr. Xi, who has pursued a far more aggressive foreign policy. He has overseen a sweeping modernization of China’s military, including developing and fielding new nuclear-capable missiles, submarines and bombers. Meanwhile, the stockpile of warheads steadily climbs.

The White House believes that China’s recent offer is a distraction from its broader unwillingness to engage diplomatically on the nuclear portfolio, including its own aggressive buildup. The Biden administration is wrestling with how it can deter both China and Russia without touching off a destabilizing three-way arms race. Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, publicly invited the two nations last summer to hold nuclear arms control deliberations without preconditions. Russia dismissed the offer outright, while China agreed to preliminary talks. At a follow-on meeting in November, the United States proposed possible measures to manage nuclear risks, such as an agreement to notify one another when their militaries test-launch ballistic missiles.

“The P.R.C. has yet to respond or show interest in engaging substantively on these proposals,” a National Security Council spokeswoman, using the abbreviation for the country’s formal name, the People’s Republic of China, said in a written response to questions about Beijing’s recent offer. “This P.R.C. behavior calls into question the aims behinds the P.R.C.’s call for discussions of a no-first-use treaty.”

Some argue the Biden administration should take Beijing’s offer at face value. “China genuinely believes that any serious nuclear arms control discussion needs to start with no-first-use,” said Tong Zhao, a nuclear expert focused on China at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “From Beijing’s view, that’s the most effective way to reduce the role of nuclear weapons.”

Even if it is a strategic gambit, engaging with China and other nuclear nations on first-use talks could be a crucial step in establishing critical guardrails for the new nuclear era. It would be a major breakthrough for Washington to get China to the table for arms control talks. It could also help jolt the stalled relations between the United States and Russia, which together control nearly 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads.

“ U.S. administrations have not responded with great alacrity or interest to Chinese outrage on the question of no-first-use,” said Steve Andreasen, who served as Mr. Clinton’s director for defense policy and arms control on the National Security Council. “But as we look forward into … the increasing U.S. national interest in engaging China in all things nuclear, we’re going to have to cross the Rubicon on this issue.”

It’s true that it’s not an easy time for trust-building exercises; the current level of mistrust between Chinese and American military intentions is deep. Speaking to Congress in March, Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander of all U.S. nuclear forces, suggested that China’s rapid nuclear expansion indicated its no-first-use policy was no longer credible. The Pentagon wrote in an October report that, despite China’s rhetoric, Beijing might consider using nuclear weapons first anyway during a crisis if it came down to the survival of Mr. Xi’s regime, such as defeat in a war with Taiwan. It also remains unclear how exactly China would respond if its nuclear forces were hit during a conflict. Would that trigger Beijing’s nuclear use? “Unknown,” the Pentagon said in the report.

Talking through these points of contention may help Beijing and Washington understand and appreciate the factors that go into formulating the finer points of each other’s nuclear policy. The very process of dialogue and diplomacy can help the Chinese hear American concerns, and vice versa. Given the widening gulf of fear and suspicion between the two nations around Taiwan, there is no better moment for them to sit down and discuss what constitutes a credible no-first-use commitment.

It may be that an unequivocal no-first-use pledge ends up being impossible. The talks may not result in a deal anyone can agree upon, and even if a deal were to be reached, it would be impossible to verify, meaning it would be more symbolic than substantive. But that doesn’t mean Washington shouldn’t take up Beijing’s invitation. In the increasingly endangered world of nuclear diplomacy, discussions on one treaty can still set the table for another. New START, the only remaining major arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, was built on the foundation of the original START I, which was signed two decades earlier.

Under Mr. Xi, China appears to have left its policy of minimum deterrence behind. If the Biden administration is serious about arms control, it’s time to look for common ground with Beijing to build new agreements for a safer future.

This Times Opinion series is funded through philanthropic grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York , the Outrider Foundation and the Prospect Hill Foundation . Funders have no control over the selection or focus of articles or the editing process and do not review articles before publication. The Times retains full editorial control.

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W.J. Hennigan writes about national security, foreign policy and conflict for the Opinion section.