Indian Society is a vast varied society with no singularity
or homogenity to the entirety of the nation, the language, the myths, the
practices, the culture all have their own unique origins and histories that have
developed into modern day India as we know it. In an attempt to both educate
and enlighten both themselves and their classmates, each individual of the
class had chosen a topic coming broadly under the topics of Linguistics, Races,
Religion, Family, Caste and Occupation, under the direction of Dr. Sheila
Mattews.
The
presentations began with the Linguistics group who approached the topic by
initially with the division of India into the various regions that make up the
whole, and through this exemplified the diversity that can be found in India in
that very process with the number of languages to be found in the country. With
the presentations by the individuals they attempted to bring out the manner in
which these languages have taken shape in India, the process of invasion and
colonisation and how these affected some areas but not other, yet all sharing
common aspects in their speech, or their script and so on. This uniformity of diversity and
commonality across India clearly points towards the pluralistic nature of
Indian society.
Following the
Linguistics group was the Races group, handling the various racial backgrounds
of the people in India, from all over the country. They discussed the division
of the races in India on the basis of their various physical characteristics
and the manner in which they came to be in India, through the many centuries of
history that is in India's past, from the Dravidians, to the Mongoloids, to the
Indo-Aryans and the races that followed as well as a result of interaction
between these races. How these races were spread across India and their arrival
in India itself was discussed with reference to the many conquering forces that
have come to India, the Mughals, the Mongols, and many others.
Having
gathered what the heterogenuous mass of our population roughly looks like and
talks like the presentations moved on to the beliefs of the many, many division
and denominations of our country. With the various tides of changes that have
occured over the land of India so too have thoughts and ideas about the
individual's origin as well as the origin of the world. The group that had
taken up this topic included the religions of Judaism, Zoroastrianism,
Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity and its
many denominations, Hinduism. Islam and the Tribal religions – like Sunmaism,
derivatives of the Bond religion of Tibet and others. With India being the
place of birth of some of these religions and its acceptance and adaption of
these other religions into its own practices and customs shows us the
pluralistic nature of India.
The group
following this were given the topic of Caste and Occupation and spoke of how it
was thought to be primarily a Hindu practice, but in reality how it cuts across
religions to form systems of social stratification, its presence and
prevailance in both Islamic, Christian and Buddhist practices.The idea of
reservation on the basis of Caste was discussed with reference to SCs and STs
as well as OBCs and Dalit Christians with the changes in thought about the concept
over time as well as the intial division of influencial forces in India, such
as Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi, about the issue.
The final
group's topic for presentation was Family and the discussion covered the types
of families that could be found across India, dividied on the basis of lineage,
heriditary, residence, marriage- both polygamous/monogamous and polyandry.
Looking at the family structure that could be found in the different religions
across India.
With this
concluded the presentations of PSEng on the various aspects of Indian Society-
through which one could see the pluralistic nature of India in its current
context as well as its development into such a situation.
-Michael Varghese
1214205
II PSEng
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