Features of Indian Society

Society is group of people interacting with each other due to similarities among them as well as
differences among them. Our Indian society is said to have Unity in diversity. Our preamble
recognizes India as a Union of States only because of the vast diversity. some of the features of
Indian society are as follows:
Hindu way of life:
Hindu religion is the indigenous religion of India. And it is said that tolerance and non-violence
of Hindu way of life shape the nation to its present form. Our society has been projected as a
traditional society based on spiritual believes giving less importance to material growth. But it is
not true at all. Today we are going towards secular, modern and stronger nation. It is true that the
traditional Hindu society believed in scribed status eg. Caste, gender, religion etc. it was a
hierarchical order where upward mobility was difficult and slow. During that period goals of life
were DHAMMA, ARTHA, KAAM, MOKSHA.
Religion:
From the Vedic period Indian society believes in Four Ashrams ; 1. Brahmacharya
2. grahasta
3. vanprastha
4. sanyas
Religion is the foremost feature of Indian society. There are 8 main religions found in India
namely 1.HINDU 2.MUSLIM 3.CHRISTIAN 4.SIKHS 5.BUDDHISM 6.JAINISM
7.ZORASTRIANNS 8.JEWS
They all have their own Gods and rituals. Out of these major religions only Hindu, Buddhism,
Jainism and Sikhism are native in character. These religions are further divided into sub
branches. Religion in India is very deeply rooted. There are many negative impacts of religion
over Indian society. To reduce these impacts our Constitution describes India as a Secular state.
Language:
Like religious diversity Indian society also has linguistic diversity. There are 22 scheduled
languages in part 8
th
of our constitution. Apart from these official languages there are many other
languages that are used locally by people. There are five families of languages; 1.Andamanese
2.Austro- Asiatic 3.Dravadian 4.Indo-Aryan 5.Tibeto-Burman. Languages play a very crucial
role in defining the regional identities. There are many states in India that were created on the
language basis eg. Andhra Pradesh ,Maharashtra, Gujarat etc. main languages of India are
1.HINDI 2.BENGALI 3.TELEGU 4.MARATHI 5.TAMIL 6.URDU etc. the love for language is
termed as linguism. It is a threat to Indian social integration.
Caste
It is an indigenous concept of Indian society and was originally found amongst the Hindus. Caste
system started with the Varna system during Vedic period. There are four Varna during this
period namely: 1.brahmin 2.kshatriya 3.vaishya 4.shudra. These were broadly divided on the
basis of occupation. Purity and pollution have been the main basis of the four Varna in all
spheres of life including occupation, food, clothing, language and standard of living etc. during
the vedic period untouchability was not there in the society. It came into existence during the
later vedic period and the untouchables or the dalits were recognized as a part of the fifth Varna.
Later on occupational diversities gave rise to Jati system. There are about 3500 jatis found in
India out of which 751 belong to scheduled caste communities. Jati system gave rise to a popular
economic cooperation system known as Jajmani system. In this system some castes are the
Patrons and other castes belong to the service class. These are called jajman and kamin
respectively. This system came to end with the advent of Open Market system.
Family and Kinship
Family is the smallest unit of society. In the ancient times the Indian families were called as joint
families. It means that the different generations of the family live under one roof. But at present
there are different types of families exist in India eg. Nuclear family, single parent family etc. the
organization of family have different structures as patriarchal (men have all the authorities),
matriarchal (women have all the authorities), patrilocal (mens house), matrilocal (womens
house), patrilineal (surname of the male head of the family), matrilineal (surname of the female
head of family) etc.
kinship is a method by which individuals as members of society relate themselves with other
members of that society. Kins are identified by marriage or by birth. Relations based on marriage
are called Affinal relations and based on birth are called Consanguineous relations. Kins in India
give rise to an analysis of the internal structure of caste and its sub-caste. Kinship system gives
the rules of prohibition and rules of preference with respect to marriage. Village exogamy
(marriage outside the village), endogamy (marriage within the village), caste endogamy
(marriage within the caste), hypergamy (upper caste male weds lower caste female), hypogamy
(lower caste male weds upper caste female), cross cousin marriage and parallel cousin marriage
are different ways of performing marriages in India.
Tribes
These have been defined as a group of native people with shallow history, a common language
inhibiting a particular geographical area. They are tied with strong kinship bonds, endogamy is
the rule, common ownership of resources and technology.
Geographically tribes are concentrated in five regions namely:
1. Himalayan tribes eg. Nagas, sherpas etc
2. Central region tribes eg. Santhal, munda etc
3. Western region tribes eg. Bhils etc
4. Southern region tribes eg. Todas of Nilgries etc
5. Eastern region tribes eg. Garo, khasi etc
6. Island tribes eg. Jarawas, Ongis etc
These can also be divided on the basis of Race.
1. Protoaustroids
2. Mongloids
3. Negrito

by Manisha Chakravarty