English Essay About Indian Traditions

The country I chose for my final Project was the republic of India, also known as just India. India has a history and culture that goes back to almost six thousand years back.

India’s capital is New Delhi and its government it’s a federal republic. Its currency is the Indian Rupee and it’s one of the places in the world with the largest population.

The languages that are used in India are mostly English and Hindi but there are other 14 languages that are also commonly spoken around India. The reason why English is one of the main languages in this South Asian country is because it was invaded by the British in the early 1600s and was one of its colonies until 1947 after a long independence struggle led mostly by Mahatma Gandhi. In the process of independence a large part of North West and Eastern India became what we know today as Pakistan.

Tradition:

India has a long history of culture from its caste system to modern India in which this is mostly outdated and the country is most known for its agriculture, economy and the biggest film industry in the world, Bollywood.

Before, however, while India was under the power of the British, they, the British created a system to separate communities as a part of a social stratification. This was the beginning of the Cast system in India which led to a lot of discrimination and crimes and violence against people from different castes. These groups were hereditary, which means if you were born in a caste you and your children would belong to it until they died.

The caste system was divided in four categories: Brahmins, the highest class, Kshatriya, the military class who were supposed to protect India in times of trouble and war (it was from this caste that the families in which lots of generations were involved into the military career), the Vaishyas, which took care of farms and agriculture in rural parts of India, and the Shudras which were the lower caste that was normally conformed by slaves whose duty was to serve the other castes.

There were certain groups, known as the Daltis, that were just excluded of the system completely, ostracized by society and commonly known as the untouchables.

Another interesting tradition which under certain conditions is still practiced today in India is the Hindu Wedding known as viviaha in its original language. These marital ceremonies are largely connected with the caste system, according to which people from different castes cannot get married to preserve the order in the system.

The types of marriages are:

-Brahma marriage: the most accepted one in which the father of the bride finds an educated man and offers his daughter to him, then the families accept the proposal, gifts are exchanged and there is a ceremony.

-Daiva marriage: This is a type of marriage which is no longer practiced in India in which the father of the bride gives his daughter along with ornaments to a priest as a sacrificial fee.

-Arsha marriage: The groom gives a cow and a bull to the father of the bride and takes a vow to fulfill his obligations for his wife and family.

-Prajapatya marriage: In this marriage the couple agrees to get married by exchanging Sanskrit mantras.

-Gandharva marriage: in this marriage, not religiously accepted, the couple lived together out of love.

-Asura marriage: This was not accepted by society because in this marriage the father sold his daughter to a man who was willing to pay.

-Rakshasa marriage: this was forbidden by religious and legal authorities and still is crime. In this marriage a man abducted the girl from his family and forced her to marry him.

-Paishacha marriage: This one was forbidden and illegal two, and it’s pretty much rape. It consists in a man forcing himself into a woman and forcing her into marriage while she is drugged or under other condition that doesn’t validate the consent.

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