How To Confuse An Outsider

32. Which traditional Indian practice came under fire by British colonialists and was outlawed only to later be reinstated because practitioners said it was a religious practice?

In India, there are views that are not available in America. Since India is mostly rural, there are sights that are like no other. In other countries, the beauty of nature is deluded by human creations. Still, every place has its own type of beauty, India's beauty is intangible. The sights can only be experienced, not described. These sights can't be found anywhere else.

With the cultural differences, it is hard to understand why the Nacirema make these rituals a huge importance. Ethnocentrism plays a role, and is very present because it is very easy to judge one group’s behaviours and beliefs from the perspective of our own. It may be because it is something that we are not accustomed to or may find odd and unethical. If we were to put ourselves in their shoes, it is certain the cultures around the world may find our own “rituals and traditions” to be odd as well.

Throughout the different cultures around the world, there are many traditions that have been in place for many years. These traditions have been passed down from generation to generation and are looked at as being normal in these cultures. To the United States, and other parts of the world, some of these traditions are looked at as being crazy, bizarre, and even strange. There are many different cultures and unique traditions associated with them, but these are 5 interesting traditions found around the world.

India, the land of diversity, is a democratic country composed of 29 states and 7 union

“Three day bonanza of fun, dance and merriment, with an army of well wishers in the thousands- is that what it is?” my friend Colin echoed on the phone with an infectious enthusiasm. I had just mentioned to him that I was traveling to India to attend a wedding. In the same breath, he continued “Bring me stories and pictures, and get me nuggets of eastern wisdom, I am fascinated by the different cultures.” Colin’s quest for learning brought a question that was in the back of my mind to the forefront.

On the other hand, India has spent a majority of its history as a colony of England. It was not until 1947 that India became an independent nation state, after a grassroots nationalist movement started by Gandhi, and even then they were a one party congress. They are also an interesting case of democracy because of how many unfavorable aspects towards it they had, such as high inequality, many peasants, and many different languages and religions (Lecture). In 1956, India was broken up into states by the States Reorganization Act, that made state lines based on linguistic group. India’s founding leaders mirrored the ideas of America, in balancing states rights with a central government (Sil, 2014). They have also more recently gone through a liberalization of their economy. India is unique in the way that their social hierarchy is constructed because of the fact that they have a caste system. The caste system is a combination of religious practice and community organization that is a part of Hinduism (Sil, 2014). This system was officially demolished in the country, but in the country it is still very prevalent, and the focus on helping those who were in lower castes succeed has made people more aware of the way they institute social policies.

After reading the article, I think rituals have some basic structures of meaning, and there are number of ways to show that rituals are meaningful. In the following thesis I choose Hinduism as an example to show how rituals are meaningful, how it relates to the living context of the Indian people, how the Indians enact the Hindu rituals, and so on.

India is a country located in South Asia bordered by the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. Since India is located in the southern part of Asia, they racially can identify as Asian; however, Asia as a whole consists of a wide variety of ethnicities. The U.S. Census Bureau

India, or more specifically the Republic of India, is the second highest populated country in the world and holds an incredibly diverse amount of people. It is almost impossible to describe in detail the basis of the culture in India, because India itself is so diverse. It has been called a “mixing pot” of culture and religion, and represented by “the plurality of its culture.” (Molina Healthcare) Being one of the oldest civilizations, it is the home of some of the oldest religions such as Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. So it is important that possible practice of these religions is noted. Also, 40% of the population speaks Hindi, along

The traditions of rituals is strongly examined by author Nicholas B. Dirks in Ritual and Resistance: Subversion as a Social Fact, where he attempts to persuade readers of the drawbacks of ritual practices through an anthropological point of view. Dirks explains to his readers of the fundamentals of rituals as: “brimming with resistance”, “opposed to [everyday]”, along with the centrality of the subject of power (Dirks 1994, 483-503). Continuing to state his supporting arguments through the article, Dirk’s concludes that too much of regular (daily) ritual practices creates a normalization in the ritual itself (Dirks 1994, 483-503). Understanding the perspective of the creation of ordinarity of the practices, one could argue that the repetition of a curtain act of a tradition can become a normality such as Dirks states in his writings; however, if the act of tradition is not conducted daily, yet instead semi-annually/annually, there would not be a normality. Dirks presents his thesis as “[focussing] on everyday forms of resistance, critiquing both anthropological assumptions about ritual and historical reifications of [the] assumptions” (Dirks 1994, 483). Dirks finds the negative components of ritual practices, and continually supports his facts through other scholars opinions as well, however in a separate article of ritual subject matter, Niels Gutschow writes about the respecting aspects of ritual. In Ritual Chariots of Nepal Gutschow explains to the readers the

It is fascinating to learn about all the cultures around the world. It is very surprising how different they are compare to other cultures. From decades different people from different parts practice various types of rituals. Everybody has their own belief of rituals, some people think it as bizarre, while other thinks it as fascinating. However, one common thing about all these rituals is that they all come from our ancestors. This world is beautiful with all these culture practices and beliefs.

India give most importance to the social stratification such as classes and castes. The caste system is more elaborate than that in any of the other Hindu or Buddhist countries. Society is so fragmented into castes that there can

There were so many things that I was never able to tell you when I was in India—so many things that I left unsaid but that you all deserve to know. Well, I am just going to jump right into in and tell you everything.

There are almost 196 nations in the world. Each country is known for its religious beliefs and culture. In each country, there are various kinds of people living on the globe. Each religion is somehow connected to provide peace in the world. While coming to my country, India is also well known for its prosperity and richness of having different people admiring their own religions. Secondly, Indian constitution allows the citizens of India to follow their own religion. They are also allowed to change their religion any point in their lives. Several religions such as Hindu, Islam, Christian, Sikh and Buddha are followed by people living in India. However, majority of people follow Hindu religion. Over 80% of the population follow Hinduism in India. In my opinion, I would like to say Hinduism is a way of living the life rather than just only religions or bunch of beliefs. Hinduism includes all aspects of living life and inspirational sacred and epic stories taking place in the history such as Mahabharata and Ramayana.