MULTICULTURAL DIVERSITY OF INDIAN SOCIETY

India is a multicultural and multipluralistic society. It is a democracy punctuated by religious plurality.

Multiculturalism is defined as the state of co-existence of diverse cultures. Cultures include racial, religious, linguistic differences, diverse patterns of thinking and communication styles. Multiculturalism aims at preservation of different cultures and their identities within a unified society as a state or nation.

Characteristics of Multicultural Diversity of Indian society:

Religions

-     

          India is a democratic, socialist and secular republic and has no state religion.

-       

          India is the birthplace of many word religions and all major work religions are practiced here.

-       

         In India, people of different religions and cultures live in harmony. The message of love and brotherhood is expressed by all religions and cultures in India.

-          

     The major religions of India are Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism.

Watch the video presentation by clicking the link:Religions of India

Languages

-          

      The languages of India are from various language families – the major being Indo-Aryan languages spoken by 74% and Dravidian languages spoken by 24%.

-          

     Other languages spoken belong to Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman and a few minor language families

-          

      The principal official language of the Republic of India is Hindi while English is the secondary official language.

-       

         The Constitution of India recognizes 22 languages and there are a total of 1,652 languages and dialects in India.

Race and Ethnicity

Indian population is polygenetic and is made up of a mixture of races. There are many diverse ethnic groups in India.

The 6 main ethnic groups are:

Negrito – earliest people to come to India. They have survived in their natural habitat in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Some examples are Jarawas, Onges, Sentinelese and the Great Andamanese.

Proto-Austroloids or Austrics – arrived after the Negroids. They were people with wavy hair distributed all over their brown bodies, long faces with low foreheads and prominent eye ridges, thick jaws, noses with low and broad roots, large teeth and palates and small chins.

Mongoloids – settled mainly in the North Eastern regions of India in Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura. They are also found in West Bengal, Sikkim and Ladakh. They have a yellowish complexion, oblique eyes, high cheekbones, thin hair and are of medium height.

Mediterranean or Dravidian – are people of South India. It is believed that they came here before the Aryans and have different sub-groups such as Paleo-Mediterranean, true Mediterranean and Oriental Mediterranean. It is said that they build the city civilization of Indus Valley the remains of which can be found at Mohenjodaro and Harappa.

Western Brachycephals – These include the Alpinoids, Dinarics and Armenoids. The Parsis and Kodavas also fall in this category. They have broad heads and lived mainly on the western side of the country along the Ganga valley and the delta, parts of Kashmir, Kathiawar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Nordic Aryans or Indo – Aryans – were the last to migrate to India between 2000 and 1500 BC. They mainly settled in the northern and central part of India.

Caste System

This was the traditional social structure and is composed of four varnas or castes.

-       

        Brahmins – the highest caste made up of intellectuals such as scholars and priests

-   

       Kshatriyas – made up of rulers, landlords and warriors.

-       Vaishyas – composed of traders, shopkeepers, moneylenders, farmers and artisans. The main occupation was trading and banking

-       

       Shudras – composed of laborers, craftworkers, servants and slaves.

Demographic composition

Demographics is the statistical data of the socio-economic characteristics of a population in a particular region, such as age, gender, religion, marital status, educational qualification, income, etc. of the people within the population.

India is a vast country – the 7^th largest in the world. It as the second highest population in the world. India is divided in to states and each state has a different demographic composition based on religion, gender, caste, education, etc.