Source:-(google.com.pk)
Indian Cultural Values Biography
At the first press conference after his election, Indian President Abdul Kalam emphasized the need for the Indian younger generation to learn scientific knowledge and also correct values from their older generations, and added that India should get rid of poverty and become a developed country in twenty years.
Why did President Kalam mention Indian values anew in his first press conference? This question deserves studying. But what’s more important is to clarify what Indian values are. Before we start, we should have some knowledge about Indian culture and its characteristics. The reason is Indian values have taken shape in the fertile soil of Indian culture, which has cultivated the specific values of Indian people and made them differentiate from those of Chinese culture and Western culture. These are issues affording food for thought and research.
CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIAN CULTURE
Being an Oriental ancient civilization, India has a history of 5000 years. And its culture, extensive, profound and mysterious, has made immeasurable contributions to the world progress and civilization. Its distinct characteristics and personalities have made scholars and experts of academia today excited and confused, arousing their interest in probing the mysteries inside. But no consensus has been reached among them up to now. Some experts divide the characteristics of Indian culture into eight aspects, while others argue that there are no more than three.
I would argue that the characteristics of one specific culture must meet two requirements as follows. One is commonality. The Indian cultural system is made up of numerous cultural elements. So the characteristics of Indian culture must be incarnated in each of the cultural elements with their own personalities, representing the mainstream of Indian culture. The other is individuality that represents the uniqueness of Indian culture and plays the role irreplaceable in the system. I would sort the characteristics of Indian culture into four categories, using the two criteria mentioned above. They are religiosity, diversity, inclusiveness and regionalism.
Religiosity
India is a religious country, and almost all the people sincerely believe in religion. Religion touches every corner of the Indian society and the soul of all the ordinary people, thus maintaining tight and close links with Indian society, politics, economy, military, art and literature. Indian people witness the great and irresistible pacts imposed by religion on themselves in every aspect of life. In short, ‘Life’ will have no meaning without religion. In the first few years since independence, the Indian Government headed by Nehru took the policy of secularism as the fundamental one of developing economy, getting rid of poverty and stabilizing the society in order to mitigate the conflicts among different religious sects. The Indian National Congress, however, didn’t comply with this policy consistently due to the deep and vast influence of religion on the Indian society. It was unable to fully pursue secularism and sometimes even made use of religion to meet some interests of the government due to the interweaving religious and caste contradictions. It’s the incomplete secularism policy of the Congress that led to the soaring power and influence of Hinduism throughout the 1980s. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used this as an excuse to attack the Congress’s secularist program and dismissed it as "camouflaged secularism" because it couldn’t represent the interests of Hindus. The Muslims, for their part, also didn’t consider this policy in their interests. This is one of the main factors that led to the humiliating defeat of the Congress Party (despite a history of more than 100 years) in the 1990 election.
If we try to analyze and do some studies on the language, literature, art, music, dance and sculpture of India, it will not be hard to find that they are all centered on religion, both in form and content. Even the legislation of the country, the shaping of individual morals and traditional customs and habits of ethnic groups are developed under the influence of religion. Religion has been fully integrated into Indian culture. In short, there will be no Indian culture without religion. For example, in literature there are many works regarded by the academia as the purely religious literature such as the well-known Pancatantra, which was edited and disseminated by religious figures especially for their descendants and is full of passionate feelings that preached the religious spirit.
Even in the liberation movement of the Indian people against the British colonial rule and for national freedom and independence, the idea of nonviolence in the movement of nonviolence and non-cooperation advocated by their greatest national hero Mahatma Gandhi also originated from the benevolence and humanity of Indian religious thoughts. It was from the tenets of Hinduism such as "perseverance in truth", "abstention from killing" and "self-renunciation" that the ‘nonviolent’ thinking derived, with which Mahatma Gandhi invented the unique path in the struggle for national independence and liberation, and won the final victory and established the Republic of Hindustan.
If we observe the life experience of Mahatma Gandhi closely, we can see clearly that he persisted in using religious tenets through his whole life to instigate people to take part in the struggle against British colonists. For he deemed that "politics will lose its soul without religion". He also strongly believed that the strength of patriotism, the willingness to sacrifice and the national dignity could be unbounded, if aroused by religious thoughts. The reason was they represented the intrinsic elements at the very core of Indian culture with a history of 5000 years and the highest ideal the Indian people pursue. For that reason, he held a firm belief that the religious and moral strength of ‘nonviolence’ thinking could eventually force the British colonists to correct their errors since they also cherished justice in nature.
Diversity
Diversity stands out as one of the most prominent characteristics of the Indian cultural system. Within this system, there are different cultural elements such as Hellenic culture, Islamic culture, Persian culture, English culture and Chinese culture. The reason for this diversity is multifaceted and the most important factor is the alien cultures brought to India by invaders. For example, the Indian Islamic culture was launched after Babur defeated Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, the ruler of Delhi, in 1526 and founded the Mogul empire. Babur, who had a Mongolian origin and came from Central Asia, was one of the descendants of the Turkish conqueror Timur. The introduction of English culture into India was completed after the British colonists invaded India and imposed colonial rule on it, which lasted for 200 years. Only the spread of Chinese culture into the subcontinent had occurred by peaceful means. Moreover, the friendly cultural exchanges between the two sides have been lasting for several thousand years. This is a matter for renewed collaboration on both sides. As Prof. Ji Xianlin put it, "it’s rare in the world history for two countries like China and India to have a history of cultural communications and friendly interactions for at least 2000 years "
Even in Indian pure vernacular cultures, there are different types of vernacular cultures with different characteristics resulting from varying periods, conditions and environments for subsistence and development. They include Vedic culture, Aryan culture, Dravidian culture, Brahmanic culture, Marathi culture, Punjabi culture, Assamese culture, if defined by time period and linguistic area. They include Brahmanic culture, Buddhist culture, Indian Islamic culture, Jain culture, Christian culture, Sikh culture and Bahai culture that rose in the modern times, if defined by religious sects. It is the diversity of Indian culture that exhibits its antiquity, brilliance and glory, making it without parallel in the whole world.
Inclusiveness
Inclusiveness is another salient characteristic of Indian culture that distinguishes it from other cultures. Of all kinds of local cultures, linguistic cultures and religious cultures of India in history, each contains a variety of elements in part from alien cultures. I have experienced it deeply since I started learning Hindi and engaging in the study of Indian culture and South Asian affairs several decades ago. Although all the major languages of the world have loanwords and alien elements, which accords with the law of linguistic development to realize their functions through constant assimilation and creation, Hindi is most salient in this respect. I want to take this as an example to prove the value and universality of the inclusiveness of Indian culture. The constituent elements of Hindi that my colleagues and I have studied are summed up as follows:
Every language has loanwords and alien elements, but those of Hindi are unique. The analysis of the etymology of Hindi shows that Hindi absorbs many words from English, Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic and even a few from Turkish, besides its own derivations. All these words integrate into the vocabulary of Hindi, perfectly representing the contents of Hindi. If we open a Hindi-Chinese dictionary, we will find that the etymologies of many words are given at the end of the entries, indicating their origins, either from English, or Persian, or Sanskrit, etc. There are also compounds, either made up of a Hindi word and one from a foreign language or composed by two alien words. The reconfiguration of words from different languages not only enriches and enhances the expression of Hindi but also enables it to express meanings that didn’t exist in Hindi before. For instance, the word "contract" and the word "separation" are both combinations of Arabic and Persian words so that they are capable of expressing meanings more accurately.
The assimilation of English by Hindi is manifested not only in its vocabulary but also in its absorption and broad use of English grammar and punctuation. English has left a great impact on Hindi, especially modern Hindi. Owing to the influence of English and its absorption and use of English, the capacity of Hindi is further enlarged both in depth and breadth and keeps up with the modern era, thus evolving for a prosperous future. The assimilation can be sorted into two aspects. First, there are many loanwords from English. The linguistic culture brought by the British after they entered India had many words to represent new things with no equivalent in Hindi. Consequently, Indian people had to copy the pronunciations and meanings from English in order to represent things absent or unrecognized in India. Second, there are some paraphrased words and mixed words. Paraphrased words are those created by using Hindi’s own linguistic materials and transplanting the meanings of English words according to its word-building rules. Mixed words are those words or phrases that integrate the borrowed components from English with the form of Hindi. Besides English, many other foreign languages also share their contributions to the development and prosperity of Hindi, which can be found if further research is to be carried out.
Indian Cultural Values Biography
At the first press conference after his election, Indian President Abdul Kalam emphasized the need for the Indian younger generation to learn scientific knowledge and also correct values from their older generations, and added that India should get rid of poverty and become a developed country in twenty years.
Why did President Kalam mention Indian values anew in his first press conference? This question deserves studying. But what’s more important is to clarify what Indian values are. Before we start, we should have some knowledge about Indian culture and its characteristics. The reason is Indian values have taken shape in the fertile soil of Indian culture, which has cultivated the specific values of Indian people and made them differentiate from those of Chinese culture and Western culture. These are issues affording food for thought and research.
CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIAN CULTURE
Being an Oriental ancient civilization, India has a history of 5000 years. And its culture, extensive, profound and mysterious, has made immeasurable contributions to the world progress and civilization. Its distinct characteristics and personalities have made scholars and experts of academia today excited and confused, arousing their interest in probing the mysteries inside. But no consensus has been reached among them up to now. Some experts divide the characteristics of Indian culture into eight aspects, while others argue that there are no more than three.
I would argue that the characteristics of one specific culture must meet two requirements as follows. One is commonality. The Indian cultural system is made up of numerous cultural elements. So the characteristics of Indian culture must be incarnated in each of the cultural elements with their own personalities, representing the mainstream of Indian culture. The other is individuality that represents the uniqueness of Indian culture and plays the role irreplaceable in the system. I would sort the characteristics of Indian culture into four categories, using the two criteria mentioned above. They are religiosity, diversity, inclusiveness and regionalism.
Religiosity
India is a religious country, and almost all the people sincerely believe in religion. Religion touches every corner of the Indian society and the soul of all the ordinary people, thus maintaining tight and close links with Indian society, politics, economy, military, art and literature. Indian people witness the great and irresistible pacts imposed by religion on themselves in every aspect of life. In short, ‘Life’ will have no meaning without religion. In the first few years since independence, the Indian Government headed by Nehru took the policy of secularism as the fundamental one of developing economy, getting rid of poverty and stabilizing the society in order to mitigate the conflicts among different religious sects. The Indian National Congress, however, didn’t comply with this policy consistently due to the deep and vast influence of religion on the Indian society. It was unable to fully pursue secularism and sometimes even made use of religion to meet some interests of the government due to the interweaving religious and caste contradictions. It’s the incomplete secularism policy of the Congress that led to the soaring power and influence of Hinduism throughout the 1980s. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used this as an excuse to attack the Congress’s secularist program and dismissed it as "camouflaged secularism" because it couldn’t represent the interests of Hindus. The Muslims, for their part, also didn’t consider this policy in their interests. This is one of the main factors that led to the humiliating defeat of the Congress Party (despite a history of more than 100 years) in the 1990 election.
If we try to analyze and do some studies on the language, literature, art, music, dance and sculpture of India, it will not be hard to find that they are all centered on religion, both in form and content. Even the legislation of the country, the shaping of individual morals and traditional customs and habits of ethnic groups are developed under the influence of religion. Religion has been fully integrated into Indian culture. In short, there will be no Indian culture without religion. For example, in literature there are many works regarded by the academia as the purely religious literature such as the well-known Pancatantra, which was edited and disseminated by religious figures especially for their descendants and is full of passionate feelings that preached the religious spirit.
Even in the liberation movement of the Indian people against the British colonial rule and for national freedom and independence, the idea of nonviolence in the movement of nonviolence and non-cooperation advocated by their greatest national hero Mahatma Gandhi also originated from the benevolence and humanity of Indian religious thoughts. It was from the tenets of Hinduism such as "perseverance in truth", "abstention from killing" and "self-renunciation" that the ‘nonviolent’ thinking derived, with which Mahatma Gandhi invented the unique path in the struggle for national independence and liberation, and won the final victory and established the Republic of Hindustan.
If we observe the life experience of Mahatma Gandhi closely, we can see clearly that he persisted in using religious tenets through his whole life to instigate people to take part in the struggle against British colonists. For he deemed that "politics will lose its soul without religion". He also strongly believed that the strength of patriotism, the willingness to sacrifice and the national dignity could be unbounded, if aroused by religious thoughts. The reason was they represented the intrinsic elements at the very core of Indian culture with a history of 5000 years and the highest ideal the Indian people pursue. For that reason, he held a firm belief that the religious and moral strength of ‘nonviolence’ thinking could eventually force the British colonists to correct their errors since they also cherished justice in nature.
Diversity
Diversity stands out as one of the most prominent characteristics of the Indian cultural system. Within this system, there are different cultural elements such as Hellenic culture, Islamic culture, Persian culture, English culture and Chinese culture. The reason for this diversity is multifaceted and the most important factor is the alien cultures brought to India by invaders. For example, the Indian Islamic culture was launched after Babur defeated Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, the ruler of Delhi, in 1526 and founded the Mogul empire. Babur, who had a Mongolian origin and came from Central Asia, was one of the descendants of the Turkish conqueror Timur. The introduction of English culture into India was completed after the British colonists invaded India and imposed colonial rule on it, which lasted for 200 years. Only the spread of Chinese culture into the subcontinent had occurred by peaceful means. Moreover, the friendly cultural exchanges between the two sides have been lasting for several thousand years. This is a matter for renewed collaboration on both sides. As Prof. Ji Xianlin put it, "it’s rare in the world history for two countries like China and India to have a history of cultural communications and friendly interactions for at least 2000 years "
Even in Indian pure vernacular cultures, there are different types of vernacular cultures with different characteristics resulting from varying periods, conditions and environments for subsistence and development. They include Vedic culture, Aryan culture, Dravidian culture, Brahmanic culture, Marathi culture, Punjabi culture, Assamese culture, if defined by time period and linguistic area. They include Brahmanic culture, Buddhist culture, Indian Islamic culture, Jain culture, Christian culture, Sikh culture and Bahai culture that rose in the modern times, if defined by religious sects. It is the diversity of Indian culture that exhibits its antiquity, brilliance and glory, making it without parallel in the whole world.
Inclusiveness
Inclusiveness is another salient characteristic of Indian culture that distinguishes it from other cultures. Of all kinds of local cultures, linguistic cultures and religious cultures of India in history, each contains a variety of elements in part from alien cultures. I have experienced it deeply since I started learning Hindi and engaging in the study of Indian culture and South Asian affairs several decades ago. Although all the major languages of the world have loanwords and alien elements, which accords with the law of linguistic development to realize their functions through constant assimilation and creation, Hindi is most salient in this respect. I want to take this as an example to prove the value and universality of the inclusiveness of Indian culture. The constituent elements of Hindi that my colleagues and I have studied are summed up as follows:
Every language has loanwords and alien elements, but those of Hindi are unique. The analysis of the etymology of Hindi shows that Hindi absorbs many words from English, Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic and even a few from Turkish, besides its own derivations. All these words integrate into the vocabulary of Hindi, perfectly representing the contents of Hindi. If we open a Hindi-Chinese dictionary, we will find that the etymologies of many words are given at the end of the entries, indicating their origins, either from English, or Persian, or Sanskrit, etc. There are also compounds, either made up of a Hindi word and one from a foreign language or composed by two alien words. The reconfiguration of words from different languages not only enriches and enhances the expression of Hindi but also enables it to express meanings that didn’t exist in Hindi before. For instance, the word "contract" and the word "separation" are both combinations of Arabic and Persian words so that they are capable of expressing meanings more accurately.
The assimilation of English by Hindi is manifested not only in its vocabulary but also in its absorption and broad use of English grammar and punctuation. English has left a great impact on Hindi, especially modern Hindi. Owing to the influence of English and its absorption and use of English, the capacity of Hindi is further enlarged both in depth and breadth and keeps up with the modern era, thus evolving for a prosperous future. The assimilation can be sorted into two aspects. First, there are many loanwords from English. The linguistic culture brought by the British after they entered India had many words to represent new things with no equivalent in Hindi. Consequently, Indian people had to copy the pronunciations and meanings from English in order to represent things absent or unrecognized in India. Second, there are some paraphrased words and mixed words. Paraphrased words are those created by using Hindi’s own linguistic materials and transplanting the meanings of English words according to its word-building rules. Mixed words are those words or phrases that integrate the borrowed components from English with the form of Hindi. Besides English, many other foreign languages also share their contributions to the development and prosperity of Hindi, which can be found if further research is to be carried out.
Indian Cultural Values
Indian Cultural Values
Indian Cultural Values
Indian Cultural Values
Indian Cultural Values
Indian Cultural Values
Indian Cultural Values
Indian Cultural Values
Indian Cultural Values
Indian Cultural Values
Indian Cultural Values
Indian Cultural Values
Indian Cultural Values
