Culture plays an important role in everyone’s life. Be it any culture, it should be respected as it is our culture that mirrors our behavior. Culture not only differs from country to country but also from region to region. None of the cultures are the same.
When talking about Indian culture and western culture, it can be said that these cultures differ in all aspects, such as food, religion, clothing, marital life, social life, family relations, language, dance forms, music, and so on.
Key Takeaways
- Indian Culture places great importance on traditions, customs, and family values, whereas Western Culture values individuality, freedom, and self-expression.
- In Indian Culture, religion plays a significant role in daily life, while in Western Culture, religion is considered a personal choice.
- Indian Culture has a collectivist approach to social interaction, while Western Culture is more individualistic and emphasizes personal achievement.
Indian Culture vs Western Culture
The difference between Indian culture and western culture is that Indian culture is regarded as one of the oldest cultures in the world, whereas western culture is regarded as modern culture. The Indian culture is a diverse culture, having a variety of religions, languages, festivals, etc, which is not the case in western culture.
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Comparison Table
| Parameter of Comparison | Indian Culture | Western Culture |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | The culture that is observed in India is known as Indian culture. | The culture that is observed in western countries such as Canada, Spain, Europe, the USA, and so on is known as Western culture. |
| Language | The most common language in the Indian culture is Hindi. Apart from this, there are numerous languages as well, such as Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, Bihari, Marathi, Urdu, and so on. | The most common language in Western culture is English. Apart from this, Spanish and French are also common. |
| Food | Rice, paratha, idlis and dosas, curries, biryani, pickles are the staple food of this culture. | Pizzas, burgers, sandwiches, pasta, salads, french fries, soup, wraps, lasagnas are the staple food of this culture. |
| Religion | A few religions of the Indian culture include Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Jainism. | Christianity and Judaism are the common religions of Western culture. |
| Marriage | In the Indian culture, arranged marriages are more common than love marriages. | In Western culture, love marriages are preferred over arranged marriages. |
| Dance forms | Ghoomer, Odissi, Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi are the most popular dance forms of the Indian culture. | Breakdance, Salsa, Hip hop, Tap dance are the most popular dance forms of the western culture. |
| Family | In the Indian culture, importance is given to joint families. | Joint families are not common in western culture. People live in nuclear families. |
What is Indian Culture?
Indian culture is one of the oldest, ancient, and most famous cultures all over the world. India is famous for its cultural heritage which is quite rich.
The mixture of traditions, religions, customs, lifestyle, rituals, languages, cuisine, dressing style, etc makes India a diverse country and its culture a popular one. The number of religions in the country are huge. Some of them are Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
The majority of these religions have their own festivals. A few popular festivals include Holi, Diwali, Eid, Navratri, Dussehra, and Guruparv. People in India, not only worship God but also trees, animals, stones, rivers, statues, children, etc. India has more than 120 languages spoken.
The variety of cuisines available are also huge. However, it can be said that the Indian culture is slowly changing with the adoption of western merits and values. In a positive way, it may help to overcome the shortcomings in the Indian culture.
What is Western Culture?
Western culture is the advanced and modern culture that is followed in western countries. Individualism, ethical values, capitalism, and rights are the main pillars of this culture.
People in western countries give importance to their needs, desires, happiness, and wants and not to what others think about them. When talking about religions, it can be said that there are not too many religions in this culture. The main ones are Christianity and Judaism.
Christmas, Halloween, St. Patrick’s day are a few festivals celebrated in these countries. People in western counties prefer wearing revealing clothes. Western culture is also being influenced by Indian culture in many aspects, such as Indian cuisines, yoga, etc.
Main Differences Between Indian culture and Western culture
- The culture that prevails in India is the Indian culture, whereas Western culture is the culture that prevails in western countries.
- The Indian culture has numerous religions, such as Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and so on. The most common religion in western culture is Christianity.
- The ways of greeting in both the cultures differ. In India, Namaste, As-salam-Alaykum, Satsriakal, etc are used to greet one another. People also join hands and touch feet to show respect and greet the other person.
On the other hand, Hello, Bonjour, and Hola are used as greetings in western culture. People also shake hands. - India is known as a land of festivals. Some of the famous festivals celebrated here are Holi, Diwali, Eid, Guruparv, Lohri, and so on. In western culture, there are few famous festivals. These include Christmas, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick’s day, and Halloween.
- The dressing style is another major point of difference between the two cultures. Traditional sarees, kurta pajamas, dhoti, salwar suit are preferred in the Indian culture, whereas in western culture, jeans, t-shirts, skirts, tunics, gowns, trousers are preferred.
- When it comes to marriage, Indians believe that marriage is not only a joint venture of two people but of two different families. Indians prefer arranged marriages over love marriages. In western culture, love marriages are a common affair and the concept of remarriage is also common.
- https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09544780710730014/full/html
- https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/15453/bulletin1591955smit.pdf
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
