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BITS OF CULTURE - India |
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| Languages |
| Map |
| Cultural
Values |
| Main
Religion & Death Concepts/Rituals |
| Health
Care Values |
| Diet |
| Interesting
Facts |
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Languages
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Official language: Hindi
Other languages:
Assamese
Bengali
Gujarati
Kannada
Kashmiri
Malayalam
Marathi
Oriya
Punjabi
Sanskrit
Sindhi
Tamil
Telugu
Urdu
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Map
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| Cultural
Values |
- Extended families often live together, with two or more
adult generations, or brothers, sharing a house. In much
of the countryside, neighboring houses share a wall.
- Men work mainly in the fields, although where rice is
grown, women transplant the seedlings. The entire family
will pitch in at harvest time because most agricultural
work is still done by hand.
- Women fetch water, prepare meals, clean, and care for
milking animals that are stabled in or near the house compound.
- Most worship is done in the home, where a room or an alcove
is devoted to images of a god or gods.
- Young girls are expected to help with the women's work,
and girls care for their younger siblings. Boys have fewer
responsibilities, though they often herd goats and bring
cattle to and from the fields.
- In most cases a woman who marries moves to her husband’s
village from her home village. Visits to her birth family,
who may live a day's journey or more away, are generally
rare, especially as the woman grows older.
- Senior men (and their wives) exercise power in the family.
- Except for widows, who wear plain white, saris are generally
colorful and can be made of cotton or the finest embroidered
silks.
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| Main
Religion & Death Concepts/Rituals |
- Hinduism .
- Hindus prefer to be cremated; Christians & Muslims
prefer to be buried.
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Health
Care Values
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- The news should be given to the head of the family.
- Decisions regarding treatment location and options will
depend on the wishes of the patient and their family. The
extended family often provides support.
- Vegetarians may not want substances obtained from the
killing of an animal.
- Death and cancer may be taboo for some.
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| Diet |
- Consists mainly of the staple grain—rice, or wheat
in the form of unleavened bread baked on a griddle—with
stir-fried vegetables, cooked lentils, and yogurt.
- In the north, much more meat is eaten and the cuisine
is often 'Mughal style', which bears a closer relationship
to food of the Middle East and Central Asia. The emphasis
is more on spices and less on chilli; grains and breads
are more popular than rice.
- In the south, more rice is eaten, there is more vegetarian
food, and the curries tend to be hotter.
- Another feature of southern vegetarian food is that you
do not use eating utensils; just scoop the food up with
your fingers - though not with those of your left hand.
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| Interesting
Facts |
- India's national cricket team competes at the highest
international level.
- The number system was invented by India. Aryabhatta was
the scientist who invented the digit zero.
- Chess was invented in India.
- Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies, which
originated in India.
- The' place value system' and the 'decimal system' were
developed in 100 BC in India.
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