The Way of Life
Spirituality and family lie at the heart of Indian society, intertwining in ceremonies to celebrate auspicious occasions and life's milestones. Despite a growing number of nuclear families (primarily in the more cosmopolitan cities such as Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi), the extended family remains a cornerstone in both urban and rural India, with men usually the main breadwinners and generally considered household heads.
Marriage, Birth & Death
For all Indian communities, marriage, birth and death are important and marked with ceremonies according to religion. Hindus are in the majority in India. Around 15% of the population is Muslim.
Marriage is an exceptionally auspicious event for Indians – for most Indians, the idea of being unmarried by their mid-30s is unpalatable. Although ‘love marriages’ have spiralled upwards in recent times (mainly in urban hubs), most Indian marriages are still arranged, be the family Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Jain or Buddhist.
Dowry, although illegal, is still a key issue in many arranged marriages (mostly in conservative communities), with some families plunging into debt to raise the required cash and merchandise (from cars and computers to refrigerators and televisions). Health workers claim that India’s high rate of abortion of female foetuses is predominantly due to the financial burden of providing a daughter’s dowry. (Sex identification tests are banned in India, but they still clandestinely occur in some clinics.)
Divorce and remarriage is becoming more common (primarily in bigger cities), but divorce is still not granted by courts as a matter of routine and is not looked upon very favourably by society.
The birth of a child is another momentous occasion, with its own set of special ceremonies at various auspicious times during early childhood. For Hindus these include the casting of the child’s first horoscope, name-giving, feeding the first solid food, and the first hair cutting.
Hindus and Sikhs cremate their dead, and funeral ceremonies are designed to purify and console both the living and the deceased. Muslims bury their dead.
Indian Attire
The elegant sari comes in a single piece (between 5m and 9m long and 1m wide) and is ingeniously tucked and pleated into place without pins or buttons. Worn with the sari are the choli (tight-fitting blouse) and a drawstring petticoat. Also common is the salwar kameez, a tunic-and-trouser combination accompanied by a dupatta (long scarf).
Traditional men's attire includes the dhoti (a long loincloth pulled up between the legs) and in the south, the sarong-like lungi and mundu. A kurta is a long, usually collarless, tunic or shirt; churidar are close-fitting trousers often worn under a kurta.
The Caste System
Although the Indian constitution does not recognise the caste system, caste still wields considerable influence, especially in rural India, where the caste you are born into largely determines your social standing in the community. It can also influence your vocational and marriage prospects.
Traditionally, caste is the basic social structure of Hindu society. Living a righteous life and fulfilling your dharma (moral duty) raises your chances of being reborn into a higher caste and thus into better circumstances. Hindus are born into one of four varnas (castes): Brahmin (priests and scholars), Kshatriya (soldiers and administrators), Vaishya (merchants) and Shudra (labourers). Castes are further divided into thousands of jati, groups of ‘families’ or social communities, which are sometimes but not always linked to occupation.
Beneath the four main castes are the Dalits (formerly known as Untouchables), who hold menial jobs such as sweepers and latrine cleaners. To improve the Dalits’ position, the government reserves a number of parliamentary seats and almost 25% of government jobs and university student places for them.
Women in India
According to the most recent census (2011), India's 586 million women accounted for some 48.5% of the total population, with an estimated 68% of those working (mostly as labourers) in the agricultural sector.
Women in India are entitled to vote and own property. Although the professions are male dominated, women are steadily making inroads. They still only account for around 11% of national parliamentary members, however.
In low-income families, especially, girls can be regarded as a serious financial liability because at marriage a dowry might be demanded. Urban middle-class women are far more likely to receive a tertiary education, but once married they are still often expected to ‘fit in’ with their in-laws and be a homemaker above all else.
India remains a conservative society, and many traditionally minded people still consider that a woman is somehow wanton if she goes out after dark or does not dress modestly.
According to India's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), reported incidences of rape have gone up over 50% in the last 10 years, but it's believed that only a small percentage of sexual assaults are reported.
Following the highly publicised gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in Delhi in 2012, tens of thousands of people protested in the capital and beyond. It took a year before laws were amended to address the problem of sexual assault, including harsher punishments such as life imprisonment and the death penalty. Despite this, sexual violence against women is still a major problem. In 2015 the NCRB reported that there were 34,651 cases of rape across India, a decline of 5.7% from 2014. The NCRB reported a slight increase of 2.5% in other sexual offences, with 84,222 cases in 2015 (up from 82,235 in 2014).
In a bid to address the sexual assault problem, the government has made it mandatory for all mobile phones sold in India from 2017 to have a panic button. In addition, there will be an increase in female police officers and the opening of centres for women victims of violence. Public awareness programmes have also been launched. Although these moves are steps in the right direction, India still has a very long way to go.
Hijras
India’s most visible nonheterosexual group is the hijras, a caste of transvestites and eunuchs who dress in women’s clothing. Some are gay, some are hermaphrodites and some were unfortunate enough to be kidnapped and castrated. Hijras have long had a place in Indian culture, and in 2014 the Indian Supreme Court recognised hijras as a third gender and as a class entitled to reservation in education and jobs. Conversely, in 2013, homosexuality was ruled to be unlawful. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which harks back to 1861, makes homosexual sex legally punishable.
Hijras work mainly as uninvited entertainers at weddings and celebrations of the birth of male children. In 2014, Padmini Prakash became India's first transgender daily TV news-show anchor, indicating a new level of acceptance.
Sport
Cricket has long been engraved on the nation's heart, with the first recorded match in 1721, and India's first test match victory in 1952 in Chennai against England. It's not only a national sporting obsession, but a matter of enormous patriotism, especially evident whenever India plays against Pakistan. Cricket – especially the Twenty20 format (www.cricket20.com) – is big business in India, attracting lucrative sponsorship deals and celebrity status for its players. International games are played at various centres – see Indian newspapers or check online (www.espncricinfo.com is excellent) for details about upcoming matches.
The launch of the Indian Super League (ISL; www.indiansuperleague.com) in 2013 has achieved its aim of promoting football as a big-time, big-money sport.
Some say it was the Mughal emperor Akbar who first introduced rules to the sport of polo, but that the sport as it's played today was largely influenced by a British cavalry regiment stationed in India during the 1870s. Today there's a renewed interest in polo and, although it remains an elite sport, it's attracting more attention from the country's burgeoning upper middle class. Polo is played during the cooler winter months in major cities, including Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai.