Approach to Indian society

Indian society offers a verity of virtually in every aspect of social life . Diversities of ethnic ,linguistic ,regional, cu ltural ,
caste and class of groups cross cuts Indian society. Indian society comprises of immense urban and rural differences ,
caste discrimination and gender discrimination .In India society also has certain changes happening over time to time
and effecting various regions and socioeconomic groups in desperate ways . As India does not have much cultural lag
"sociologic difference" but there is some non-materialistic culture differences such as thought , belief, practices,
custom, value , ethics and much more still prevails in our society . Indian society has customary laws and gender based
biasing or stereotype.

Indian society also have a social structure a way in which It exists in a form, there are many social structure
that is being talked about in our society some of them are family , economy ,politics, education. There are many
features of Indian society but the main feature of Indian society is that it is a caste base society contrary to western
society which is of course a class based society.
culture:
What is your definition of culture?
Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down
from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes
of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, art.
It is a natural evolution of a society which evolve over period which is being transmitted to generations .Talking about
the culture of India the culture represent the people of India ,how they live and how they conduct each and every
aspect of daily chores and the way they celebrate and perform every task. Indian society is mostly represented through
rural areas rather than urban areas as urbanization has somehow lead us to the start of westernization ,talking about
India's rural areas mostly consists of small towns and villages, as we dig deep down into history we will find that there
were many rituals and norms that were being followed by people. People of villages at that time were self -sufficient
and self-sustained within them self . In ancient times all kinds of people like different professions were available in the
society itself like for example farmers, barbers, washermen ,cobblers were present or were available in village but over
the time as the period pass by this unity in our society started vanishing. There were modifications in our culture with
epoch such as tradition, values ,norms. As in earlier days there were certain norms and laws according to which every
procedure of any festival or ritual has to performed by the people for example in earlier days if there were need of
washermen in society they were already in society there were no difference in the class of people . Now, in modern
times there are no such thing avail in society there are many differences that exist in our society ,many things have
been changed since then now people have forgotten humanity and many of our trait that signifies the culture of Indian
society is fading away . Our technology, agriculture, entrepreneurship and industry were modernised leading to the
economic well-being of our country. Several traditional beliefs and practices dysfunctional to society were discarded and
many new customs, institutions and social practices were adopted. Took the examples of festivals as we have learned in
this module that how the effects of our rural festivals which are celebrated on a small scale are now just getting not
much importance as in agriculture aspect of those are very important and the ways of performing such rituals is worn
out as it is being no more in practice or very less practice , now in urban areas people also even just do not know about
such small rituals , people are not taking it seriously they are just forgetting about their own culture . It seems that
people are forgetting their own existence and their credential value in the form of their culture . Indian culture has
much more to offer but with changing times we must not forget our culture ,it is the only thing that combine us all as
Indians.

Caste system in India:

Caste is the main feature of the Indian society, what is caste system? A caste system is a class structure that is
determined by birth. Loosely, it means that in some societies, the opportunities you have access to depend on the family
you happened to be born into. It is a social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of style
by occupation status and customary social interventions. According to historians caste system were not originally
discrimination ,it was originally verna system dividing people on their work in society and way to control the local
population but over the time period it got twisted and put in such a way that divided humanity into pieces . I think it's
still present because here we have been practicing it even without knowing it and it so deeply rooted in our society vie
so called protector of the caste if we need to eliminate , we have to change each people mind set. it plays a major role
in the society as caste system largely prevails in Indian society . India has followed caste system since long period of

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in the society as caste system largely prevails in Indian society . India has followed caste system since long period of
time , if we look back into the paste we will find the traces of caste system in our ancient times .The caste system in
our past was not so prevalent as earlier it was in verna system which was not dividing our society into people mindset
but caste system divide our society from thinking ability and create a gap between our society . There are such practices
in our society that even children who does not even understand what caste is they are also made to practice such norms
forcefully by their elders or our society pressurises us to do so . Caste system has many ill effects of it on the todays
system .the effects such as it hinders the unity among people ,it create a division among humans ,they just judge people
based on their caste rather from their personality ,the next thing is that it poses against the democracy ,the caste
system ran contrary to democracy , it just takes away the human rights of lower caste people , caste system does not
allow the people to live according to their will ,if a person born into a lower caste family ,he does not have a right to
cross his limits in society as there are certain barriers set in our society which cannot be broken by the peoples such as a
lower caste person has to respect or obey the caste which are higher than them . Caste system also hampers the
development of country, as the deserving candidate is not given the equal opportunity to do in the society , they have to
refrain from getting education and there are no equal treatment given to every caste .There is this hierarchy which
controls the society from being at euphoria .it also resulted in religious conversions of people as people thought they are
not going to prosper in this society so they thought as for the solution to change their caste would help them to rise up
in the society ,but unfortunately caste system has devoured the rest of the religions to , in India there is no religion le ft
in which there is no divisions exists ,every religion has a caste based division among the groups of people .so there is no
running from the caste system.it has also created a scene of prestige among higher caste people they think they had a
monopoly of wisdom .
the caste system has also some scientific so called reasons that it is required for the
betterment of people by some knowledgeable person in our society as explain in the holy books of our religions such as
caste has been originated by god "Brahma" as they have originated from his different body parts and explains the
reason for the caste to be prevalent in our society .they also associate different
type of caste as the different body parts as higher caste as mind and the lower caste people as feet as they were made
to do labour and work
These reasons are completely based on practices and on the norms set by our society .

Women in our society

the another major part of our Indian society .women plays important role in our society as they are the back bone of
Indian culture the
In Indian society, women are traditionally discriminated against and excluded from political and family related decisions.
Despite the large amount of work women must do on a daily basis to support their families, their opinions are rarely
acknowledged and their rights are limited.

From the time they are born, young Indian girls are the victims of discrimination. According to a 2005 report from the
Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the infant mortality rate among girls is 61% higher than that for boys. This
gender inequality is also present in education; only 2/3 of girls between the ages of 6 and 17 are sent to school,
compared to 3/4 of boys of the same age. Also, in the countryside, only 46% of women are literate, which is almost one -
half the literary rate for men.

Instead of going to school, girls often find themselves forced to work in order to help their families, often from a very
young age. Even more worrisome, 25% of women marry before the age of 15 and very often, they marry against their
will. This has profound consequences, notably on women’s health and their precarious situation often prevents them
from receiving proper health care. For many Indian women, poor treatment, violence and exploitation take place on
daily basis .child marriage is very much prevalent in rural areas of our country .many girl child are being married at very
fatal age they just are being used as an objects for doing the chore and for just breeding and to take forward the family
inheritance.
Women were supposed to be respected and we compare them as goddess in our culture , these are just some book
words or some script which is just written on some holy book of our religion ,we just read them and do not apply in our
daily life of our society. This leads to a major sin that now human started to perform and that is foeticide ,Female
foeticide is the process of finding out the sex of the foetus and undergoing abortion if it is a girl. Although it is illegal ,
many people continue to practice it. Besides this, there are some communities which practice female infanticide - the
practice of killing the girl child once she is born. it is a most cruel thing a person could do ,the rate of killing of a gir l child
has increased since a decade ,there are some reasons which for such practices , one of them is women discrimination in

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has increased since a decade ,there are some reasons which for such practices , one of them is women discrimination in
our society ,there is a vast gender inequality , men are considered the bread winner and women were supposed to do
the household chores and take care of the male family . Women are not given there reason of their existence ,male are
considered to take the hierarchy of a family to the next generation ,though there is a women who gives birth to the next
generation ,there is no value for her .the above is the main reason for female foeticide , Although there are some other
reasons as well such as dowery system in India , in earlier days it was not a demand rather it was a gift for the female at
her wedding ,but nowadays it has turned faces ,it is now as a prestige issue for the mail family .due to this demand
women are seen as a burden to their family members . There are many more reasons leading to such horrible
practices .

There is much more to our Indian society not

only practices but also festival and culture add a bit spice to our society ,there are some good things in our society, No
society in this world is perfect we must try end such miss conceptions and lead our society to a better version of it.

Reflection on our module:

In approach to Indian society I have learned many things about how society works .what are the basics or the building
blocks of our society how it have different features how it is different from other societies .In then starting
documentaries I came to realise that how rural areas are much different from urban areas ,I came across very
interesting rituals festivals of the rural areas ,we now just do not give much importance to these small things
happening around us ,we are just so busy with our modern life that these are just fading away from our society . I have
also learned that we must notice such rituals happening around us because it connect us with our culture ,and if we
don’t then how will pass it on to our next generation and slowly our culture will vanish ,for which India is known for
worldwide. also these practises give us knowledge that how to protect nature and create a balance between nature
and human race. These little practices also give us the teaching of care and respect, these rural norms or practices give
us a thought of calmness and simplicity in our daily life and teach us the moral values of life . I have never thought of
such practices . There are also some changes taking place in our society these modification is leading to a slow cultural
changes. these ritual also depict the human connecting with nature , understanding the way how it creates such
surrealism and how it adapt from time to time.
After seeing such documentary I became aware of society problems ,how
people dealing it with it and leading a life out of it. I have only heard or read about such things but seeing with my own
eyes made me realised that how lucky we are that we have to not deal with such problems .it also opened my mind
and expanded my way of thinking or seeing the society the way it seems to be. the problem solving ability of mine has
also increased after seeing people of different caste or colour suffering from the society pressure ,the way they deal
with it . About the caste and all, how it hamper the life of an individual , there are ways to end such discrimination
such as we just don’t follow the hierarchy of caste ,we treat everyone as human not on as some lower caste people ,
we don’t disclose our caste to other , or just don’t keep your name relating your castes . This was about caste
discrimination but what about gender discrimination ,it has to also end in order to bring prosperity. Women must be
treated as equal to men they are also human being , to end this we have to give women equal value as men in our
society, they must be given the freedom of their own will . They must not be forced to do something, we must give
them equal opportunity as men have .every person has a will and must not be forced.

we do have demerits in our society but we must try to improve them and allow ourselves to think a little over such
situations. I am ending this on note that there is always a room for improvement and we must not forget that.

Relation with design

In design field it will really help me to see the real problem and help me to visualise the effective solution of
problems ,problems related to different client we are dealing with.it would help to understand the need and the type of
the requirements we need, or help me to understand the client state of mind and help me to visualise the thinking of
person and give the solution according to their expectations.it also help me to connect with client and what do they
actually want .It also help me to design accordingly to the needs of society, what is the mass population is actually
demanding.

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