Explore India's Culture and Politcs
Discover the rich tapestry of India's culture while getting insight to the current politics. Immerse yourself in diverse traditions, vibrant festivals, and breathtaking landscapes and an intricate governing system.
Culture
Explore India's deep, rich heritage and discover the vibrant culture that this amazing country brings.
Education
Cultural norms in India value education extremely high, families save money to send their children through a good education and children are encouraged to go into fields within engineering, law, or medicine. This has shown to be both good and bad, proving to produce well educated and motivated generations through these expectations, but also creating a disproportionate amount of workers in these fields, leaving other fields in need of more skilled workers.
Values
Families in India tend to lean further into saving their money than spending it. Indians value wedding celebrations, education, and health care and are willing to save money in other aspects in order to have more spending money for these values. Celebrations are a major part of the Indian culture and it is important to have enough savings for them.
Religion
Religion is a prominent part of most Indian’s lives, whether they practice Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, and many others. Around 80% of Indians practice Hinduism, and another 14.5% are Islamic. India creates a lot of revenue from religious tourism is home to 94% of the worlds Hindus.
Politics
Democracy
India has held a federal parliamentary democracy since their independence from British rule, operating under a constitution written in 1950. They value having the freedom to choose their government and choose the policies that they support.
Political Parties
There are two prominent political parties, the Indian National Congress (INC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The INC values secularism, social justice, and welfare programs, while the BJP promotes Hindu nationalism, strong military for defense, and economic liberalization. In recent years the country has moved toward the BJP and leans more right wing. The future of India’s constitution will be interesting, as the constitution supports secularism.
Challenges
India's government has faces a multitude of challenges, one of the most common ones being corruption, in the past, it has not been uncommon for a government official to take bribes in return for a deed. Another large challenge recently has been rising religious and caste tensions, with the government's emphasis on Hindu nationalism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leading to concerns about the treatment of religious minorities, especially Muslims.
Foreign Policy
India has had a complex and intricate relationship with its neighbors China and Pakistan and continues to work hard to maintain a good relationship with them. Most of the conflict that arises between these two countries comes from border disputes. China and India's economic ties have grown significantly over recent years, China being one of India's largest trading partners. India also makes a point to keep a good relationship with the United States.