India - The culture

I want to write a little about my observations of the culture here in comparison to U.S. culture. I mentioned before that the Indian people seem very happy generally. I think that much of that happiness comes from the way the people live their lives For one thing, they are very relationship oriented - it seems most things in life revolve around other people and relationships with those people. Because of that, there seems to be much less selfishness than in America - everything is done with a mind on the family or those in the community around the individual. A few examples of this:

* The people here are all very service oriented. They serve one another and strive to see to the comfort of those around them. This is particulary true of foreign visitors - I've been treated almost like royalty since arriving.

* The young people I spent Saturday with (see blog entry about day 9) were very supportive of one another. In the U.S. a lot of times young friends spend their time together teasing and tearing down and poking fun at each other. There is tremendous sarcasm among U.S. youth. Indian youth also have fun together, but I didn't notice a single instance where one put down another (even as a joke). They were always encouraging of one another and very friendly to one another. Even when one was a terrible dancer or a terrible singer - there were no jokes or laughter - only encouragement.

* People spend their evenings and weekends with their families and neighbors. It seems there is much less of individual media consumption (rather than playing video games or surfing the web or watching T.V. the people are relaxing with their families and visiting neighbors).

* The people live much more simply than Americans. Life is much less about acquiring things and much more about sharing what you have to make those around you happy.

Not all is well here - there are still very pronounced social divides (castes) within society here. This can be a little uncomfortable at times for a foreigner. I don't really understand how the caste system works, but there is definite division between classes of people here. For example, we were going to lunch the other day and approached the elevator to ride to the cafeteria. There were two custodians that had just gotten on the elevator as we approached. The man I was with just made some gesture and the two custodians got off of the elevator and allowed us on. There was plenty of room for them, but they were not allowed to share an elevator car with us. I've had similar experiences time and time again here.

I've talked some with the young people on my team about marriage customs here. Marriages are generally arranged by parents of the youth. People don't usually choose their spouse. One young lady told me that it's okay because with her parents are more mature and much more understanding of what marriage takes than she is. They know her well enough that they will find a young man that will be a good fit for her. Divorce is not well accepted here and marriages arranged this way generally work out.

One young man on my team is experiencing the down side of this though. He has a girlfriend that he likes very much and wants to marry, but she is from a different caste. It will be impossible for him to marry her without being abandoned by his family.

India continues to become more and more westernized all the time and some of the traditional customs are weakening a little. The changes are coming in both positive and negative ways. I've been reading in the newspaper here about a debate going on in the national government to legalize pornography. It's currently illegal to distribute pornography in any way in India. Mainstream media (television, movies) is very clean compared to American media largely because of these laws. Every article I read is supportive of easing that ban on pornography and allowing some distribution of it. I was filled with great saddness reading that - if they only knew the consequences that are coming from that movement!

Economically India is growing tremendously. I saw in the paper this morning that the gross domestic product here grew 9% in this recent quarter and seems to be growing as fast every quarter. That is bringing new prosperity to the country though there is some debate because it seems that prosperity is leaving the poor behind. I think the money will eventually trickle down to benefit everyone here though.

That highlights some of the major characteristics of Indian society I've noticed in my short time here.