Culture has a vital role in every person’s life. This is the reason why it has to be respected regardless of whose culture it is, keeping in mind that culture is the mirror of our behavior.
Culture differs from one country to another and from one region to another. Every culture has its own uniqueness.
For the Indian and western cultures, they differ in almost every aspect. This includes food, clothing, religion, social life, language, marital life, family relations, music, and dance forms.
Indian Culture Vs. Western Culture
The existing difference between Indian culture and western culture lies in the fact that Indian culture is considered the oldest culture in the history of man. Western culture, on the same, is considered as modern culture. This Indian culture is, therefore, a diverse culture made up of different religions, festivals, languages, and many more. This, however, is not the case with western culture.
What is Indian Culture?
Indian culture is simply one of the oldest and most ancient cultures across the globe. India is well known for its cultural heritage that is quite rich. The culture’s mixture of religions, traditions, customs, rituals, languages, dressing style, cuisine, and more is what makes Indian culture a diverse country and popular one.
The numbers of religions that exist in India are very many. This includes Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, and Jainism Buddhism. Most of these religions also have different festivals. Some of the festivals include Diwali, Holi, Eid, Dussehra, Navrati, and Guruparv. Apart from worshiping God, Indian people also worship trees, stones, animals, statues, children, and rivers.
India also has over 120 languages with lots of available cuisines.
Nevertheless, the Indian culture has been changing slowly through the adaption of western values and merits. This, on the positive, has helped overcome the shortcoming that comes with the Indian culture.
What is Western Culture?
Western culture is deprived as an advanced modern culture followed by the western countries. Western culture is based on the principle of ethical values, individualism, capitalism, and rights. This means that western people are more focused on their desires, needs. Wants and happiness and focus less on what other people tend to think.
Western culture has a few religions, with the main religion being Christianity and Judaism when it comes to religions. Halloween, Christmas, and St. Patrick’s Day are some of the festivals enjoyed and celebrated by western countries. Western people prefer wearing revealing clothes.
Western culture has also been influenced by Indian culture in different ways, including cuisines, clothing, and yoga.
Difference between Indian Culture and Western Culture
- The main culture prevailing in India is Indian culture, whereby Western culture is the main culture prevailing in western countries.
- The Indian culture features numerous religions like Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, and so on. However, the common religion within the western culture is basically Christianity.
- The greeting approaches in both cultures differ in a big way. In India, they use terms like Namaste, Satsriakal, and Al-salam-Alaykum are used as a greeting. People also touch feet and join hands as a sign of respect and greeting. On the other hand, Westerns use terms such as Hello, Hola, and Bonjour. They also shake hands.
- India is the land of festivals. It has lots of festivals, with the common ones being Holi, Eid, Diwali, Guruparv, and Lohri. Western culture on the same features a few famous festivals, including Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and St. Patrick’s Day.
- The dressing code and style are also major differences between these two cultures. Indian culture dressing code involves traditional sarees, dhoti, salwar suits, and kurta pajamas. Western culture dressing code, on the other hand, applies jeans, t-shirts, skirts, tunics, trousers, and gowns.
- With marriage, Indians believe marriage is based on a joint union of two families and not just two people. A reason why they prefer arranged marriages over love. Western culture is based on love marriages, making marriage very common.
Conclusion
Both Indian and Western cultures have their main difference when it comes to almost every aspect. However, it is wrong to conclude that either of these cultures is better than the other.
For the past decades, western culture has remained an influence over the Indian culture. The Indians are now adopting most Western values, including dressing code, equality for genders, cleanliness, and frankness. This has really pushed for the removal of the Indian culture setbacks. On the same, western culture has also borrowed some of the Indian culture aspects, including yoga.
Both cultures can learn a few things from each other that can aid in making sure they both grow to become better cultures.