Spirituality and family lie at the heart of Indian society, with these two tenets often intertwining in various ceremonies to celebrate auspicious occasions and life's milestones. Despite the growing number of nuclear families – primarily in the more cosmopolitan cities such as Mumbai (Bombay), Bengaluru (Bangalore) and Delhi – the extended family still remains a cornerstone in both urban and rural India, with males – usually the main breadwinners – generally considered the head of the household.
Different religions practise different traditions, but for all communities, marriage, birth and death are important and marked with ceremonies according to the faith. Hindus are in the majority in India. Around 15% of the population is Muslim (at around 180 million, Indian Muslims almost match the population of Pakistan).
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. Discreet enquiries are made within the community. If a suitable match is not found, the help of professional matchmakers may be sought, or advertisements may be placed in newspapers and/or on matrimonial websites. In Hindu families, the horoscopes of both potential partners are checked and, if propitious, there’s a meeting between the two families.
Dowry, although illegal, is still a key issue in more than a few 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 (sex identification medical tests are banned in India, but they still clandestinely occur in some clinics) is predominantly due to the financial burden of providing a daughter’s dowry. Muslim grooms have to pay what is called a mehr to the bride.
The Hindu wedding ceremony is officiated over by a priest and the marriage is formalised when the couple walk around a sacred fire seven times. Muslim ceremonies involve the reading of the Quran, and traditionally the husband and wife view each other via mirrors. Despite the existence of nuclear families, it’s still the norm for a wife to live with her husband’s family once married and assume the household duties outlined by her mother-in-law. Not surprisingly, the mother–daughter-in-law relationship can be a tricky one, as portrayed in various Indian TV soap operas.
Divorce and remarriage are 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. Among the higher castes, in more traditional areas, widows are expected not to remarry and are expected to wear white and live pious, celibate lives. It is still legal for Muslim males in India to obtain oral divorce according to Sharia law (by uttering the word talaq, meaning 'divorce', three times); however, members of the federal government and civil society are calling for this to be abolished so there is just one common law for all Indian citizens.
The birth of a child is another momentous occasion, with its own set of special ceremonies which take place at various auspicious times during the early years of 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 cremate their dead, and funeral ceremonies are designed to purify and console both the living and the deceased. An important aspect of the proceedings is the sharadda, paying respect to one’s ancestors by offering water and rice cakes. It’s an observance that’s repeated at each anniversary of the death. After the cremation, the ashes are collected and, 13 days after the death (when blood relatives are deemed ritually pure), a member of the family usually scatters them in a holy river such as the Ganges or in the ocean. Sikhs similarly wash then cremate their dead. Muslims also prepare their dead carefully, but bury them, while the minority Zoroastrian Parsi community place their dead in 'Towers of Silence' (stone towers) to be devoured by birds.
Widely worn by Indian women, 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 the need for pins or buttons. Worn with the sari is the choli (tight-fitting blouse) and a drawstring petticoat. The palloo is the part of the sari draped over the shoulder. Also commonly worn is the salwar kameez, a traditional dress-like tunic and trouser combination accompanied by a dupatta (long scarf). Saris and salwar kameez come in a wonderful range of fabrics, colours and designs.
Traditional attire for men includes the dhoti, and in the south, the lungi and the mundu. The dhoti is a loose, long loincloth pulled up between the legs. The lungi is more like a sarong, with its end usually sewn up like a tube. The mundu is like a lungi but is always white. A kurta (shirt) is a long tunic or shirt worn mainly by men, usually with no collar. Kurta pyjamas are a cotton shirt and trousers set, worn for relaxing or sleeping. Churidar are close-fitting trousers often worn under a kurta. A sherwani is a long coat-like men's garment, which originated as a fusion of the salwar kameez with the British frock coat.
There are regional and religious variations in costume – for example, you may see Muslim women wearing the all-enveloping burka.
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. Castes are further divided into thousands of jati, groups of ‘families’ or social communities, which are sometimes but not always linked to occupation. Conservative Hindus will only marry someone of the same jati, and you'll often see caste as a criteria in matrimonial adverts: 'Mahar seeks Mahar' etc. In some traditional areas, young men and women who fall in love outside their caste have been murdered.
According to tradition, 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). The Brahmins were said to have emerged from the mouth of Lord Brahma at the moment of creation, Kshatriyas were said to have come from his arms, Vaishyas from his thighs and Shudras from his feet. Beneath the four main castes are the Dalits (formerly known as Untouchables), who hold menial jobs such as sweepers and latrine cleaners. Many of India's complex codes of ritual purity were devised to prevent physical contact between people of higher castes and Dalits. A less rigid system exists in Islamic communities in India, with society divided into ashraf (high born), ajlaf (low born) and arzal (equivalent to the Dalits).
The word ‘pariah’ is derived from the name of a Tamil Dalit group, the Paraiyars. Some Dalit leaders, such as the renowned Dr BR Ambedkar (1891–1956), sought to change their status by adopting another faith; in his case it was Buddhism. At the bottom of the social heap are the Denotified Tribes. They were known as the Criminal Tribes until 1952, when a reforming law officially recognised 198 tribes and castes. Many are nomadic or seminomadic tribes, forced by the wider community to eke out a living on society’s fringes.
To improve the Dalits’ position, the government reserves a number of public-sector jobs, parliamentary seats and university places for them. Today these quotas account for almost 25% of government jobs and university (student) positions. The situation varies regionally, as different political leaders chase caste vote-banks by promising to include them in reservations. The reservation system, while generally regarded in a favourable light, has also been criticised for unfairly blocking tertiary and employment opportunities for those who would have otherwise got positions on merit. On the other hand, there are still examples of discrimination against Dalits in daily life – for example, higher castes denying them entry into certain temples.
Rangolis, the strikingly intricate chalk, rice-paste or coloured powder designs (also called kolams) that adorn thresholds, especially in South India, are both auspicious and symbolic. Rangolis are traditionally drawn at sunrise and are sometimes made of rice-flour paste, which may be eaten by little creatures – symbolising a reverence for even the smallest living things. Deities are deemed to be attracted to a beautiful rangoli, which may also signal to sadhus (ascetics) that they will be offered food at a particular house. Some people believe that rangolis protect against the evil eye.
Devout Hindus are expected to go on a yatra (pilgrimage) at least once a year. Pilgrimages are undertaken to implore the gods or goddesses to grant a wish, to take the ashes of a cremated relative to a holy river, or to gain spiritual merit. India has thousands of holy sites to which pilgrims travel; the elderly often make Varanasi their final one, as it’s believed that dying in this sacred city releases a person from the cycle of rebirth. Sufi shrines in India attract thousands of Muslims to commemorate holy days, such as the birthday of a sufi saint, and many Muslims also make the hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Most festivals in India are rooted in religion and are thus a magnet for throngs of pilgrims. As many festivals are spiritual occasions – even those that have a carnivalesque sheen – it's important for tourists to behave respectfully. Also be aware that there have been deaths at festivals because of stampedes, so be extra cautious in large crowds.
If crowds worry you, stay away. This one’s big. Very big. Held four times every 12 years at four different locations across central and northern India, the Kumbh Mela is the largest religious congregation on the planet. This vast celebration attracts tens of millions of Hindu pilgrims, including mendicant nagas (naked sadhus, or holy men) from various Hindu monastic orders. The Kumbh Mela doesn’t belong to any particular caste or creed – devotees from all branches of Hinduism come together to experience the electrifying sensation of mass belief and to take a ceremonial dip in the sacred Ganges, Shipra or Godavari Rivers.
The origins of the festival go back to the battle for supremacy between good and evil. In the Hindu creation myths, the gods and demons fought a great battle for a kumbh (pitcher) containing the nectar of immortality. Vishnu got hold of the container and spirited it away, but in flight four drops fell on the earth – at Allahabad, Haridwar, Nasik and Ujjain. Celebrations at each of these cities last for around six weeks but are centred on just a handful of auspicious bathing dates, normally six. The Allahabad event, known as the Maha (Great) Kumbh Mela, is even larger with even bigger crowds. Each location also holds an Ardh (Half) Mela every six years and a smaller, annual Magh Mela.
India’s Adivasis (tribal communities; Adivasi translates to ‘original inhabitant’ in Sanskrit) have origins that precede the Vedic Aryans and the Dravidians of the south. These groups range from the Gondi of the central plains to the animist tribes of the Northeast States. Today, they constitute less than 10% of the population and are comprised of more than 300 different tribal groups. The literacy rate for Adivasis is significantly below the national average.
Historically, contact between Adivasis and Hindu villagers on the plains rarely led to friction as there was little or no competition for resources and land. However, in recent decades an increasing number of Adivasis have been dispossessed of their ancestral land and turned into impoverished labourers. Although they still have political representation thanks to a parliamentary quota system, the dispossession and exploitation of Adivasis has reportedly sometimes been with the connivance of officialdom.
Since coming to power, the Modi government has acknowledged that more must be done to protect Adivasis. His government has pledged to work towards greater social welfare initiatives, especially in the fields of development, education and health. He has said that under his government modern technology would be employed (such as underground mining) to lessen the impact on tribal settlements. Meanwhile, on the health front, the PM has called for measures to be taken to address the high rates of sickle-cell anaemia; 10% of tribals suffer from this affliction, with the highest numbers found in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Time will tell if the government's tribal empowerment initiatives succeed.
Read more about Adivasis in Archaeology and History: Early Settlements in the Andaman Islands by Zarine Cooper, The Tribals of India by Sunil Janah and Tribes of India: The Struggle for Survival by Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf.
According to the most recent census, in 2011, India's population is comprised of 586 million women, with an estimated 68% of those working (mostly as labourers) in the agricultural sector.
Women in India are entitled to vote and own property. While the percentage of women in politics has risen over the past decade, they’re still notably underrepresented in the national parliament, accounting for around 11% of parliamentary members.
Although the professions are male dominated, women are steadily making inroads, especially in urban centres. Kerala was India’s first state to break societal norms by recruiting female police officers in 1938. It was also the first state to establish an all-female police station (1973). For village women it’s much more difficult to get ahead, but groups such as the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Gujarat have shown what’s possible, organising socially disadvantaged women into unions and offering microfinance loans.
In low-income families, especially, girls can be regarded as a serious financial liability because at marriage a dowry might be demanded. For the urban middle-class woman, life is usually much more comfortable, but pressures still exist. Broadly speaking, she is far more likely to receive a tertiary education, but once married is still often expected to ‘fit in’ with her in-laws and be a homemaker above all else. Like her village counterpart, if she fails to live up to expectations – even if it’s just not being able to produce a grandson – the consequences can sometimes be dire, as demonstrated by the extreme practice of ‘bride burning’, wherein a wife is doused with flammable liquid and set alight. A 2015 report stated there had been 24,771 dowry deaths in the preceding three years, most in Uttar Pradesh (7048 deaths) followed by Bihar (3830 deaths) and Madhya Pradesh (2252 deaths).
Although the constitution allows for divorcees (and widows) to remarry, relatively few reportedly do so, simply because divorcees are traditionally considered outcasts from society, most evidently so beyond big cities. Divorce rates in India are among the worlds’ lowest (around 13 in 1000) although they are rising. Most divorces take place in urban centres and are deemed less socially unacceptable among those occupying the upper echelons of society.
In October 2006, following women’s civil rights campaigns, the Indian parliament passed a landmark bill (on top of existing legislation) which gives women who are suffering domestic violence increased protection and rights. Prior to this legislation, although women could lodge police complaints against abusive spouses, they weren’t automatically entitled to a share of the marital property or to ongoing financial support. Critics claim that many women, especially those outside India’s larger cities, are still reluctant to seek legal protection because of the social stigma involved.
India remains a conservative society, and despite the sexualised images of women churned out in Bollywood movies (although prolonged kissing is still rarely seen on screen), it's considered by many traditionally minded people that a woman is somehow wanton if she so much as 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, largely due to family pressure and/or shame, especially if the perpetrator is known to the family (which is true in many cases).
Following the highly publicised gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old Indian physiotherapy student in Delhi in December 2012, tens of thousands of people protested in the capital and beyond, demanding swift government action to address the country's escalating gender-based violence. It took a further year before legal amendments were made to existing laws 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, with women aged between 18 and 30 the most number of cases. The statistics showed a decline in reported rape cases of 5.7% (down from a reported 36,735 in 2014), with gang-rape incidences also dropping from 2346 in 2014 to 2113 in 2015. Despite the marginal decrease in rape cases, the NCRB reported a slight increase of 2.5% in other sexual offences, with 2015 registering a total of 84,222 cases (up from 82,235 in 2014). The country's capital, Delhi, recorded India's highest incidence of crimes against women with 17,104 cases in 2015.
In a bid to address the sexual assault problem, the government is taking a number of measures. From 2017 it has made it mandatory for all mobile phones sold in India to have a panic button. In addition, there will be an increase in female police officers and the opening of centres for women who have been victims of violence; 660 centres have been earmarked for the coming years. Various public awareness programmes have also been launched. Although these moves are a step in the right direction, India still has a very long way to go.
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 (having been legal since 2009). 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, and possibly as prostitutes. In 2014, Padmini Prakash became India's first transgender daily TV news-show anchor, indicating a new level of acceptance.
Read more about hijras in The Invisibles by Zia Jaffrey and Ardhanarishvara the Androgyne by Dr Alka Pande.
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 (Madras) against England. It's not only a national sporting obsession, but a matter of enormous patriotism, especially evident whenever India plays against Pakistan. Matches between these South Asian neighbours – which have had rocky relations since Independence – attract especially passionate support, and the players of both sides are under immense pressure to do their respective countries proud. The most celebrated Indian cricketer of recent years is Sachin Tendulkar – fondly dubbed the 'Little Master' – who, in 2012, became the world's only player to score 100 international centuries, retiring on a high the following year. Cricket – especially the Twenty20 format (www.cricket20.com) – is big business in India, attracting lucrative sponsorship deals and celebrity status for its players. The sport has not been without its murky side though, with Indian cricketers among those embroiled in match-fixing scandals over past years. International games are played at various centres – see Indian newspapers or check online for details about matches that coincide with your visit. Keep your finger on the cricketing pulse at www.espncricinfo.com (rated most highly by many cricket aficionados) and www.cricbuzz.com.
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. With games attracting huge crowds and international players, such as the legendary Juventus footballer Alessandro del Piero (who was signed for the Delhi Dynamos in 2014) or Marco Materazzi (of World Cup headbutt fame) as trainer of Chennai, the ISL has become an international talking point. The first week of the ISL in 2014 had 170.6 million viewers – the figure for the first phase of the Indian Premier League cricket was 184 million, which gives a sense of football's growth in popularity. The I-League is the longer-running domestic league, but it has never attracted such media attention or funding.
The country is also known for its historical links to horse polo, which intermittently thrived on the subcontinent (especially among nobility) until Independence, after which patronage steeply declined due to dwindling funds. Today there's a renewed interest in polo thanks to beefed-up sponsorship and, although it still remains an elite sport, it's attracting more attention from the country's burgeoning upper middle class. The origins of polo are not completely clear. Believed to have its roots in Persia and China around 2000 years ago, on the subcontinent it's thought to have first been played in Baltistan (in present-day Pakistan). Some say that Emperor Akbar (who reigned in India from 1556 to 1605) first introduced rules to the game, but that polo, as it's played today, was largely influenced by a British cavalry regiment stationed in India during the 1870s. A set of international rules was implemented after WWI. The world's oldest surviving polo club, established in 1862, is in Kolkata (Calcutta Polo Club; www.calcuttapolo.com). Polo takes place during the cooler winter months in major cities, including Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai and Kolkata. It is also occasionally played in Ladakh and Manipur.
Although officially the national sport, field hockey no longer enjoys the same fervent following it once did. During its golden era, between 1928 and 1956, India won six consecutive Olympic gold medals in hockey; it later bagged two further Olympic gold medals, one in 1964 and the other in 1980. Recent initiatives to ignite renewed interest in the game have had mixed results.
Kabaddi is another fairly popular competitive sport in the region. Two teams occupy two sides of a court. A raider runs into the opposing side, taking a breath and trying to tag one or more members of the opposite team. The raider chants 'kabaddi' repeatedly to show that they have not taken a breath, returning to the home half before exhaling.
Other sports that are gaining ground in India include tennis (the country's star performers are Sania Mirza, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi – to delve deeper, see www.aitatennis.com) and horse racing, which is reasonably popular in larger cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bengaluru.
A record number of 118 athletes competed in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, but the results were disappointing, with India taking home just one silver and one bronze medal, finishing 67th on the final medal tally. At these games, Sakshi Malik became the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal (with bronze in the women's freestyle 58kg category) while PV Sindhu (women's badminton) became the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver.