Culture
Main article: Culture of India
Indian culture is an expression of the numerous and successive waves of influences in the sub-continent with the Northern part of India being subjected to this more than the South.
In Indian music, two main forms are the Carnatic and the Hindustani, the former from South India, a much purer form and the latter from North India deriving a lot from Muslim infuences. (See Indian classical music)
In Indian literature, oral and written forms prevail. Apart from the Vedas which are a sacred form of knowledge, there are other works such as the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharatha, treatises such as Vaastu Shastra in architecture and town planning and Artha Shastra in political science. Urdu poetry is an example of a linguistic synthesis. The literature of the Sangam period in Tamil is renowned.
Many dance forms exist in India - Bharata Natyam, Odissi, Kuchipudi, Kathak, Kathakali, etc., mostly they have a narrative form, telling stories. Other forms such as street theatre and puppetry are also found. (See Indian classical dance and Indian folk music and dance)
There are many festivals in India - Diwali, Vijayadasami, Pongal, etc. Many are not only religion-based but also involve glorifying important stages in a person's life, seasonal cycles, etc.
Indian science was advanced in ancient times - Aryabhatta and Bhaskara were important scientists who studied planetary motion. The Arabic numerals were an Indian invention.
Traditional dresses in India include the Sari (Saree), Salwar Kameez, Dhoti and Kurta.
In Indian cuisine, rice and wheat form the staple diet. Some popular dishes include Thali- a full fledged meal, Dosa, Idli and Chapati.
Movies are an integral part of everyday life in India, most notably the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu for their commercial bases, and Bengali and Malayalam for its artistic leanings. Also see Cinema of India.
Though each region has a specific culture, in recent times there is a growing tendency to merge boundaries and imbibe aspects from other regions. Also, with increasing globalization, and due to the liberalization of the Indian economy in the early 1990s, there has been influence of Western culture. So there is Indi-pop in music , Hinglish or Tanglish- English flavoured with terms from local language used most prominently in fields such as advertising, pizzas with indigenous spices, experimental dance and theatre forms, and so on. The invasion of cable TV has spawned an entirely new popular culture.
Apart from these historical and context specific forms, what an Indian sees as important in Indian culture are abstract qualities such as hospitality, family values, acceptance and toleration of differences, resilience and co-existence.
India's official national sport is field hockey, although some would assert that it is, in fact, cricket, that has become the unofficial national game. In fact, so popular is cricket that it has made India the game's financial powerhouse, even to the point that, as some observers claim, it has become India's fastest growing industry. Some other popular sports are tennis, badminton and chess (chess is supposed to have originated in India). Some traditional indigenous games are kabaddi, gilli-danda, polo and, indeed, badminton, which was invented in a British club in Pune in the 16th century.
See also: Indian architecture
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India is also the letter I in the NATO phonetic alphabet