Culture of India
The diverse traditions, beliefs, languages, arts, customs, and social practices shaped by the peoples and history of India.
Languages of India: The languages spoken across India, spanning several major language families and hundreds of living varieties. Regional languages shape literature, public life, and local cultural identities.
Indian cuisine: The varied regional food traditions of India, shaped by local ingredients, religions, trade, and cooking techniques. Regional cuisines express local ecology, history, and religious practice through food.
Indus Valley Civilization: A Bronze Age civilization of South Asia, known for planned cities, craft production, and an undeciphered writing system. Its urban remains provide an early archaeological setting for the region’s long cultural history.
Indian nationalism: Political movements and ideas that sought or shaped national self-rule and identity in India. Nationalism drew on cultural symbols while debating how a plural society should be represented.
Indian classical music: The art-music traditions of India, especially Hindustani and Carnatic music, organized around raga and rhythm. Its two major systems show variation within traditions often treated as a single national music.
Hinduism: A diverse family of religious traditions originating in the Indian subcontinent, with varied philosophies, deities, and practices. Hindu traditions have deeply influenced Indian festivals, art, rituals, and social life.
Indian classical dance: A group of codified Indian dance traditions combining movement, music, gesture, and expressive storytelling. Classical dance transmits religious narratives and aesthetic conventions through performance.
Vedic period: An early period of South Asian history associated with the composition of the Vedas and evolving ritual traditions. Vedic texts and practices became influential sources for later religious and intellectual traditions.
Indian Constitution: The supreme legal framework of the Republic of India, establishing institutions, rights, and principles of governance. Its protections for language, religion, and equality frame cultural life in the modern republic.
Bollywood: The Hindi-language film industry centered in Mumbai, a prominent part of Indian popular cinema. Its reach is vast, but it is only one part of India’s many-language film culture.