INDIAN CULTURE
People flock to museums like never before, so they must have
their motives. But when it comes to art, people get
strangely afraid to ask too directly what it all might be
for, because everyone except
you might know the answer already. It’s perhaps too obvious;
it’s perhaps too complicated; the result is an awkward
silence.
What is described as the culture of India is often more
correctly viewed as the culture of northern India. Much of
India’s greats classic culture—art, poetry, literature and
music—has its roots in or
was strongly influence by Persian culture. Nationwide, there are
traditions of folk music, religious music and music associated
with theater, radio and film. In addition, India's ethnic
groups, each
have their own entertainment, religious and folklore traditions.
In the past music, dance and theater were often associated with
prostitution and entertainers traditionally belonged to lower
castes.
Many traditionalists in India find Western music and culture
offensive.
It has long been argued that the goal of art and culture in India
is tap into something universal and spiritual. On the Indian
concept of aesthetics, the Kashmiri philosopher Abhinavagupta
wrote n the
10th century: “Artistic creation is the direct or
unconventionalized expression of a feeling of passion
‘generalized,’ that is, freed from distinction in time or space
and therefore from individual
relationships and practical interests, through an inner force of
the artistic core creative intuition within the artist. This
state of consciousness (irasa) embodied in the poem is
transferred to
the actor, the dance, the reciter and to the spectator.
South Asia “has been the seat of great civilizations from time
immemorial. From the Himalayan mountains to the vast island
chains of the equator, from the Indian subcontinent to the
Pacific, the peoples
of this region have produced magnificent art for thousands of
years. Included are examples of Buddhist and Hindu sculpture in
stone and bronze, later Indian court art, miniature painting,
and elegant
personal possessions. These artworks demonstrate that the people
who created and owned them keenly appreciated the things of this
world—the luxury and fine craftsmanship that power can
command—and
at the same time probed deeply into spiritual and cosmic matters
of great complexity. South Asia encompasses the modern nations
of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The subcontinent
was
the source of a great civilization which spread to Afghanistan
in the northwest, to the Himalayan region (modern Nepal, Bhutan,
and Tibet) in the northeast, and eastward to Southeast Asia.
Culture plays an important role in the development of any nation.
It represents a set of shared attitudes, values, goals and
practices. Culture and creativity manifest themselves in almost
all economic,
social and other activities. A country as diverse as India is
symbolized by the plurality of its culture. India has one of the
world’s largest collections of songs, music, dance, theatre,
folk traditions,
performing arts, rites and rituals, paintings and writings that
are known, as the ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ (ICH) of
humanity. In order to preserve these elements, the Ministry of
Culture implements
a number of schemes and programmes aimed at providing financial
support to individuals, groups and cultural organizations
engaged in performing, visual and literary arts etc.