India – Education
The school system consists of a five-year primary school and a five-year superstructure. According to the Constitution, the state is obliged to provide free and compulsory schooling up to and including the 14th year.
The superstructure part consists of a three-year lower and a two-year higher stage with built-in vocational education. A significant drop-out rate, which is steadily increasing throughout the school year, is also characteristic of the compulsory part of the examination-based education system; thus, only 54% completed the compulsory education in 1986. Many efforts have been made to prevent this dropout, such as free school uniforms, meals and books, and the improvement of buildings.
According to official statistics (1990), 90% of primary school children participate in education, while the same applies to only 50% of 11-13-year-olds and 30% of 14-17-year-olds. Illiteracy is still prevalent; only in 1991 did the proportion of literate people (52.9%) exceed the proportion of illiterates. Participation in education, which is most frequent for boys, varies greatly from state to state.
Higher education is offered partly at the approximately 200 universities and higher education institutions, partly at a large number of more technical educational institutions.
In addition to the public school system, there are a number of private schools and boarding schools based on the English model. Since 1986, especially in educationally backward areas, schools for children with special abilities, Navodaya Vidyalayas; one third of the places in the 280 schools (1990) are reserved for girls.
Responsibility for local planning and implementation of education is vested in the individual Länder and must be done taking into account religion and language as well as the centrally set framework for the education system. India’s teaching tradition is in many ways still rooted in the British educational elitist educational traditions, but is also geared towards Indian culture and identity.
One of the forerunners of a more national education system was Mahatma Gandhi, whose post-independence initiatives in 1947 had a major impact on the educational reforms of the following years. Education has since been part of the five-year economic development plans in India. One result of this is the 1985 education reform, which provided for the development of national curricula with a common core of subjects, reflecting Indian culture, equality and democracy; local conditions can also be involved.
In addition to the formal education system, adult education is offered partly through distance learning and partly through open universities, of which there are seven (1996).
ETYMOLOGY: The name India comes via Latin from Greek India, from ancient Persian Hindu ‘India, landed on the river Indus’, corresponding to Sanskrit sindhu ‘river’.
OFFICIAL NAME: Bharat (Hindi), Republic of India
CAPITAL CITY: New Delhi
POPULATION: 1,210,000,000 (Source: COUNTRYaah)
AREA: 3,170,000 km²
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE (S): Hindi, English, a total of approximately 200 languages, some of which are off. state languages, bengali, telugu, marathi, tamil and urdu
RELIGION: Hindus 80%, Muslims 14%, Christians 2%, Sikhs 2%, Buddhists 1%, Jainists and others 1%
COIN: rupee
CURRENCY CODE: INR
ENGLISH NAME: India
INDEPENDENCE: 1947
POPULATION COMPOSITION: indoariere 72%, dravider 25%, andre 3%
GDP PER residents: $ 586 (2007)
LIFE EXPECTANCY: men 63 years, women 64 years (2007)
INDEX OF LIVING CONDITIONS, HDI: 0.611
INDEX OF LIVING CONDITIONS, POSITION:
126
INTERNET DOMAIN NAME: .in
India, Hindi Bharat, is a Republic of South Asia; in terms of population, the world’s second largest country (after China).
- AbbreviationFinder.org: Find two-letter abbreviation for each independent country and territory, such as IN which stands for India.
Throughout history, foreign peoples have invaded India and contributed to the cultural, linguistic, religious and political diversity that characterizes the country. Two of the world’s major religions originate from India: Hinduism and Buddhism. The vast majority of Indians are Hindus (about 80%), while Muslims form a significant minority of approximately 100 mio.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish themselves in India; since followed French, but it was the British imperialists who, from the mid-1700’s. put the decisive mark on development and made India The Jewel in the Crown, the jewel of the empire.
India has for many years experienced significant economic growth covering most sectors. Agricultural production is rising, there are large grain stocks and India is a net exporter of agricultural commodities. The industry is also growing, especially the consumer goods industries. This is mainly due to demand from the domestic market, where the rapidly growing middle class, 200-300 million. people, constitute a huge and increasing purchasing power. However, much of the development has not reached India’s poorest, and economic and social inequalities remain high.
India – Constitution
India is a federal state. The 1950 Constitution is extensive and detailed and builds in many respects on the Government of India Act of 1935, which regulated the rule of British India; it establishes India’s status as a democratic and secular republic. In relation to 28 Länder, the State has all the powers not expressly vested in the Länder. The state of Jammu and Kashmir, however, occupies a special position due to extensive independent powers. The seven territories of the Union are administered by the Federal Government.
Legislative power lies with the parliament, which has two chambers. The upper house, Rajya Sabha, consists of a maximum of 250 members, 12 of whom are appointed by the president, while the others are elected by the legislative assemblies of each state. The powers of the upper house consist primarily of the right of veto over proposals adopted in the lower house.
The House of Commons, Lok Sabha, has (2006) 545 members. The number of members has been set up several times to keep pace with the growing population. Two members are appointed by the President as representatives of the Anglo-Indian population, the rest are elected by direct election of adults over 18 years of age. 79 seats are reserved for casteless, and 41 for tribal people. The term of office is a maximum of five years, but may be extended in the event that the President declares the country a state of emergency. The lower house has the sole power to pass costly laws; it can overthrow the government through a vote of no confidence and it can initiate the procedure that leads to constitutional changes.
The constitution can be changed by 2/3 majority in Parliament two chambers; 93 such changes have been made (2006).
The executive formally lies with the president, who is the head of state of the country; he is elected for a five-year term by an electoral college composed of the members of the two chambers of parliament and the legislative assemblies of the states. The post is largely ceremonial, but the president can, among other things. dissolve the House of Commons and declare one or more Länder in a state of emergency; the latter, however, must be approved by both chambers within two months. Incidentally, the President exercises his powers in consultation with the Prime Minister, with whom the executive actually lies. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President, but must come from a party or a coalition with a majority in Parliament. The members of the government are appointed by the President on the proposal of the Prime Minister. The government is accountable to parliament.
The states are governed by governments, headed by a prime minister appointed by the local legislature, elected for a five-year term by universal suffrage. In addition, the central government is represented through a governor, whose role at the local level is reminiscent of the role of the president in relation to the central government. The state authorities issue and administer laws concerning agriculture, the police, partly education and labor market conditions, local taxes and duties, etc.
India – political parties
India’s oldest and most widely branched party is the Congress Party, the successor to the Indian National Congress (INC), which was founded in 1885. Today (2006) the party is the largest party in the House of Commons. After independence in 1947, the party dominated Indian politics for four decades. Its original secular left-wing policy was replaced in the 1970’s by a pragmatic populism and in the 1980’s was turned in a liberal-conservative direction.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the second largest party in the House of Commons (2006), represents right-wing Hindu nationalism and has particular support in northern and western India. Janata Dal (JD) was formed in 1980 as a secular center-left party, based on agrarian populism and support from minority groups. The Samajwadi Janata Party was formed in 1990 as a split from the JD in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) was split in 1964 and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) was formed. The two parties are strong in the states of West Bengal and Kerala. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), formed in 1948, is a regional party in Tamil Nadu. It split in 1972 when All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) was formed. Telugu Desam Party (TDT) is a regional party, formed in 1982 by a movie star in Andhra Pradesh. Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), founded in 1985, is a regional party in Assam. Shiv Sena, founded in 1966 in Bombay, is a regional Hindu party in the state of Maharashtra. Akali Dal, founded in 1920, is the main mouthpiece for the Sikhs in the state of Punjab.
India – Economy
After independence in 1947, India leaned close to the socialist model, which entailed a high degree of state control of the economy according to long-term five-year plans and a high degree of self-sufficiency, which was sought to be promoted through trade protectionist initiatives. At the same time, the Soviet Union took over the role of the country’s most important political support and trading partner.
The core of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s political strategy in the 1950’s was to transform the poor agricultural land into a modern society with an equal income distribution through a large-scale industrialization plan based on domestic financing and ownership.
Scarcity of capital and an objective to increase the pace of development policy led to the state taking over full responsibility for industrial development in 1956, which led to direct control over the financial sector, energy supply and heavy industry.
The market economy was further hampered through the widespread use of production licenses in industry, and this led to a generally low productivity due to unfavorable company sizes, use of outdated technology, overstaffing, etc.
Since the late 1970’s, when it became clear that the economy was lagging behind developments in other countries in South-East Asia, the Indian development model has been the subject of a gradual rethinking. However, it was not until after the collapse of the Soviet Union and alarming developments in public budgets and the 1990-91 balance of payments that a major reform of economic principles was undertaken in earnest at the instigation of the International Monetary Fund.
This means, among other things, that private investment is opened up in areas that were previously reserved for the public sector, e.g. infrastructure, the steel industry and the oil and energy sector. Foreign investors are presented with incentives to establish themselves in the country, production licenses are gradually abolished, and the government has launched a controlled privatization of the publicly owned companies.
The capital markets have also been liberalized, but there are major problems associated with the privatization of the banking sector, which has built up significant losses and provisions for lending to unprofitable companies under socialist rule. India’s integration into the world economy is being promoted through trade liberalization through tariff reductions and other import restrictive measures, and the currency, the rupee, has been made freely exchangeable for trade purposes.
The process of liberalization and privatization is far from complete; nevertheless, economic growth since 1994 has been above 7% per year and by larger countries surpassed only by China. It is stimulated partly by the consumption and level of education of the rapidly growing middle class, including English skills, and partly by foreign investment.
The economy is versatile and also includes high-tech industries with great expertise in nuclear power, oil drilling, satellite research, IT and a large software export such as flagship.
Poverty has been reduced, both in absolute and especially relative terms, but India remains a society with deep social and geographical contradictions; for example, productivity in agriculture is generally one-sixth of the other industries. In 2006, a comprehensive job creation program was launched for rural areas, which will raise DKK 60 million. people out of poverty.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and eventually China have taken over the role of India’s most important trading partners, and at the same time trade with the OPEC countries has become more important as oil imports have been reorganized. There is a significant trade deficit ($ 40 billion in 2005) and debt service is burdensome.
Denmark’s exports to India in 2005 amounted to DKK 3.0 billion. DKK, while imports from there amounted to 3.6 billion. kr.
India – social conditions
Living conditions in India are marked by huge class divisions. While a strongly growing middle class of approximately 200 million people in the 1990’s live in conditions comparable to conditions in Western Europe, India also houses the world’s largest concentration of absolutely poor people, totaling over 400 million. according to the UN statement. The Indian government sets this figure at 250 million.
Poverty is concentrated partly in the countryside of India’s populous northern and eastern states, and partly in the vast slums of big cities. In addition, many poor people are still stuck in employment determined by their place in the caste system.
Everyone below the official Indian poverty line is entitled to ration cards giving access to the purchase of state-subsidized food. In the countryside, the state has launched a large number of infrastructure projects, whereby farm workers and small farmers can supplement their seasonal earnings.
However, underemployment and fluctuating earnings are still a major problem both in agriculture and in the large informal urban economy. However, the economic reforms of the 1990’s have made employment in the expanding private sector more attractive, while the cuts in the public sector have made employment in the large state apparatus less lucrative and status-giving than before. Check youremailverifier for India social condition facts.
India (Trade Union Movement)
In the late 1800’s. India’s industrialization began as a textile and steel industry took its first steps. With the rise of workers in railway construction and in railway operations, approaches to an industrial working class developed. However, this constituted a modest minority of the working population.
The first workers ‘protection laws were not adopted on the basis of the workers’ own struggles, but were a demand from the British textile industry, which assessed the emerging textile industry in India as distorting competition due to low wages and long working hours.
Various attempts to organize the workers and organize strikes first led to a lasting organizational formation in the first decade of the 1900’s; however, there were still weak organizations. Following an extensive strike movement, the first national organization, the All India Trade Union Congress, was formed(AITUC) in 1919-20. The first chairman of the organization was at the same time chairman of the Indian National Independence Movement, the Congress Party. The Congress Party had its strength in the bourgeois strata and had little understanding of the needs of the industrial workers. However, as its membership grew, AITUC quickly developed an independent line to defend the interests of workers. At the time of its creation, the membership was 140,000, but as early as 1924 it had risen to more than 250,000. Contributing to this was the newly formed Indian Communist Party, the CPI, which, under the influence of the prominent communist theorist Manabendra Nath Roy, emphasized the independent position of the labor movement vis-à-vis bourgeois-national movements.
Directional struggles developed in the AITUC between different political lines, mainly between the CPI, the Congress Party and a non-political, but probably almost social democratic direction. During the 1920’s and 1930’s, the directional struggles led to several divisions and new associations, in several cases determined by which trade unions the Indian LO was to join. The political contradictions were apparently overcome, among other things. on the basis of a decision not to join professional internationals. However, the merger carried out shortly before the outbreak of World War II was quickly replaced by new divisions. The Congress party opposed participation in the war, which it believed did not concern India. Roy, who had been excluded from the CPI, and his supporters, however, clearly recognized the fascist threat and supported the fight against it.
When India was divided into two independent states (India and Pakistan) in 1947, the Congress Party established its own LO, the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC). In 1948, the Socialist Party’s Socialists left AITUC and, together with Roy’s supporters, formed their own LO, Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS). However, the HSE did not succeed in becoming the comprehensive third force in the trade union movement, as a fourth LO, the United Trade Union Congress (UTUC), was established on the basis of regional and political forces. These four organizations all had a political starting point, while a LO formed in 1955, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), had its origins in the Hindu philosophy of religion and did not recognize class-based societal contradictions.
The split of the CPI from around the mid-1960’s led to the creation of several parties claiming the communist legacy. Each of these parties with often different regional centers of gravity has set up national organizations, including the Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) with the center of gravity in West Bengal, where its parent party (CPI (M)) has ruled the state for many years. The Socialist-Social Democratic HSE is not affiliated with a political organization, as the Socialist Praja Socialist Party disbanded in the 1950’s. HSE has conducted negotiations on cooperation with e.g. AITUC, which, however, has not led to a merger. In the mid-1990’s, it is reported that there were 12 national organizations.
Information on membership numbers fluctuates considerably and often depending on the political situation. The fragmentation has not promoted the professional organization of the workers. The national organizations thus also do not include all local trade unions. The organization is also complicated by the very fluctuating workforce. The figures that are known are subject to uncertainty and fluctuate a lot: Only approximately 10% of the workers have permanent jobs, the other 90% are loosely employed, often part-time workers. The Indian population is growing fast, the country has over 1 billion. residents, and the labor force is estimated to be around 35% of the total population. Almost 10% of the total workforce is professionally organized. The contradictions between the national organizations have if. some information weakened the trade union movement as a whole, while other analyzes claim the opposite. However, it is certain that the balance of power between the five largest national organizations has changed: BMS has since the 1990’s grown to become the largest, but has if. own information only approximately 7.6 million members. Based on the four other organizations’ own information, INTUC is the second largest with 4.4 million, CITU has 3 million, HSE 3.2 million. and AITUC 1.6 million. If. The Chief Labor Commissioners’ report from 1994 was the corresponding membership figures at that time 3.1 million, 2.7 million, 1.8 million, 1.5 million. and 923,000. The other organizations have less than DKK 1 million. members. In addition to the organizations mentioned, there are a number of unions of public and private employees. The other organizations have less than DKK 1 million. members. In addition to the organizations mentioned, there are a number of unions of public and private employees. The other organizations have less than DKK 1 million. members. In addition to the organizations mentioned, there are a number of unions of public and private employees.
India (Health Conditions)
Population growth fell to 1.9% in the early 1990’s. This is mainly due to a sharp fall in the number of children the individual woman gives birth to, and thus offsets the simultaneous fall in mortality, which, however, remains high. Life expectancy in 1994 was set at 61 years, slightly higher for women than for men. Of 1,000 live-born children, 79 die before the one-year anniversary (1994) against 137 in 1970; mortality is approximately 50% higher in rural areas than in cities. Maternal mortality is also high at approximately fire pr. 1000 births. approximately 30% of all children have a birth weight of less than 2500 g. It is estimated that children under the age of five have an average of 1.7 diarrhea episodes per day. year. Without prompt treatment, diarrhea is life threatening and also constitutes the most common cause of death in India. Childhood diarrhea is frequent due to
India has a childhood vaccination program much like the Danish one, but it also includes tuberculosis. Officially, the coverage is approximately 90%, but it seems to be significantly lower. Diseases caused by a lack of Iron, vitamin A and iodine are relatively common, and in 1995 malnutrition was reported in 69% of preschool children.
Malaria is estimated to hit 15 million. Indians annually with approximately 20,000 deaths. In 1993, 450,000 new cases of leprosy were found, but with effective medical treatment, 900,000 people could be declared cured the same year. Tuberculosis is growing strongly in India with 1.6 million. cases in 1991, ie a quarter of all cases in the world. The increase is expected to continue at the same time as an increasing number of AIDS cases. In January 1995, 905 people with AIDS were reported, of which approximately 90% also had tuberculosis. At this time, it was estimated that 1.5 million. was infected with HIV. Hepatitis is very common; it is estimated that 43 mill. are carriers of the virus that causes type B. Cardiovascular disease, cancer and accidents are of increasing importance, but there are no reliable figures for mortality.
The states have the main responsibility for organizing a public health service. The public sector accounted for only 1.3% of the total 6% of GDP that India spent on health care in 1994. Only 39% of the resources are used for decentralized healthcare. In 1994, the country received a total of DKK 251 million. dollars in aid for health purposes, and Denmark has over the years been a major donor. In 1992, India had 4.7 doctors and 6.8 hospital beds per 10,000 residents.
India – legal system
The British conquest of India led to a gradual change of the judicial system towards an English-speaking system. Although independence led to an increasing codification under the influence of Hindu and Islamic law, especially in the fields of personal, family and inheritance law, in terms of language, terminology, respect for precedent, etc., Indian law must still be considered strongly influenced by common law.-the system. The Indian criminal law rules (2006) are mainly based on the rules of the Penal Code of 1860, last revised in 1993, which is based on English criminal law adapted to Indian conditions. The Indian judiciary is a unitary system without division into federal courts and state courts; the Supreme Court of India is the appellate body of the High Courts of each state. See also the Hindu legal family.
India (Military)
India is one of the regional superpowers of the world. The peacekeeping force of the armed forces is (2006) at 1,325,000. The army (Bhāratīya Thalsēnā) is 1,100,000, the navy (Bhartiya Nāu Senā) 55,000 and the air force (Bhartiya Vāyu Senā) 170,000. The total reserves of the Armed Forces are 1,155,000. All defenses are equipped with a mix of Western, Soviet and locally produced equipment. The Indian industry can manufacture almost all types of equipment, including nuclear weapons and medium-range missiles. The Armed Forces’ older equipment from the 1970’s is quickly being replaced by completely modern ones. The navy has the ambition to build a regionally dominant naval force. The army is composed and trained for deployment in the variety of plain, jungleand high mountains that mark the borders of the country. It also has a key role to play in supporting the maintenance of internal security. Internal security is initially handled by the security forces of 1,721,500, which has a reserve of 1,293,000.
India’s inherited enemy is Pakistan, due to disagreement over Kashmir province. In 1949, 1965 and in 1999 they were at war due to Kashmir. In 1971, India was at war with Pakistan over the former East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and in 1962, India was at war with China. India’s armed forces participate in several UN missions and intervened independently in the Sri Lankan civil war of 1987-90.
India – mass media
Despite poverty and illiteracy, India has a well-developed and flourishing press with many hundreds of dailies in over a hundred different languages and dialects. The first newspaper, the Bengal Gazette, was founded in 1780 and was published in English.
The most influential dailies are the reputable The Times of India (Grdl. 1838), The Indian Express (Grdl. 1953) and The Hindu (Grdl. 1878). Most newspapers and magazines are small privately owned companies, but large newspapers such as The Times of India and The Indian Express are owned by influential financial families.
The country’s religious, social and linguistic differences have made conditions difficult for a national nationwide press. The English-speaking press appeals especially to the well-educated middle class in the cities and has been dominant even long after the country’s independence; since 1990, however, the Indian-language press has gained more and more ground, especially outside the million-strong cities.
Thus, at the beginning of the 21st century, one of the largest dailies is Dainik Jagran (Grdl. 1942), which is published in Hindi. The newspaper has a circulation of more than DKK 3.5 million. (2016) and covers in particular northern India. The number of magazines is also unusually large and includes the respected news magazine India Today (Grdl. 1975). The two most important national news agencies are The Press Trust of India (PTI, grdl. 1947) and United News of India (UNI, grdl. 1961).
Apart from the state of emergency in the country in 1975-77, the print media have had relatively free conditions and benefited from the freedom of the press. In contrast, until the advent of satellite television in the early 1990’s, radio and television were tightly controlled by the state. The radio began broadcasting permanently in 1927. All India Radio (AIR/Akashwani), headquartered in New Delhi, is one of the largest radio networks in the world and reaches most of the population. In 1976, Indian television was spun off as an independent part of AIR under the name DoorDarshan.
State television covers all Indian states and reaches more than 90% of the population. Door Darshan has several national channels and a number of regional stations. Although more and more entertainment television is being broadcast, radio and television are also playing an important role in the educational and social development of the country. As part of the government’s curricula, there are e.g. set up common TV sets around schools and larger squares.
In the wake of the liberalization of the television field in the early 1990’s, a number of commercial television stations emerged, and cable and satellite television has spread explosively with a sea of channels.
India – architecture and visual arts
Indian art is closely linked to religion. Architecture, sculpture and painting both serve religious purposes within the three religions that originated on Indian soil: Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. The Muslim conquests of northern India and the later Mughal Empire added a new element to Indian art. The Muslims brought with them new architectural forms and techniques, and they erected monuments that are among the finest edifices in the world. Later, much Indian art and architecture has been created with Western art as a model.
The remains of the Indus culture, which flourished approximately 3000-1800 BC, is found in Pakistan – except for a few settlements in the Indian border areas. For a very long period after the decay of the Indus culture, there are no archaeological finds of artistic significance; palaces and fortifications, built mainly of wood and clay, have been lost. The actual Indian art history begins under the Maurya ruler Ashoka (approximately 268-approx. 233 BC), when the use of stone in architecture took its beginning in earnest. Ashoka had 25 edicts carved into rock walls and stone pillars, scattered throughout the Indian subcontinent. The edict inscriptions are propaganda for Buddhism, to which Ashoka converted. The columns consist of a smooth-polished trunk with capital provided with an abacus with an animal figure.
The classical period in the 300-500’s, also called the Gupta period, is a milestone in Indian art. Gupta art managed to fully manage the legacy of former art schools. The harmoniously proportioned bodies characterize the sculptures of the period. Many of the deities of Hinduism acquired their iconographic distinctiveness, and the Hindu temple assumed a form that stylistically became the norm for North Indian temple architecture.
Sculpture
In religious art, architecture and sculpture are inextricably linked. A statue of a deity or a holy person serves as an object of worship, the reliefs often depict edifying or mythological scenes, and as pure decorative art in the shrines, plants and animals are favored relief motifs.
In early Indian art, Buddhist edifices are often adorned with scenes from the Jataka tales, which are accounts of the Buddha’s past earthly existences, such as as a king, minister, merchant or an animal. The Buddha himself is not made in human form, he is only present in the ornaments in symbolic form; the wheel, for example, is a symbol of the initiation of the doctrine. The first statues of Buddha in human form date from around 100-teKr., Produced in the two art centers Gandhara and Mathura. The Hellenistic influenced Gandhara art, which accompanied Buddhism to Central Asia, had no bearing on the development of art in India itself. The Mathura School, on the other hand, did so, producing pure images of all Indian religions in pure Indian style. In Amaravati, a third Indian art school flourished during the same period. The Amaravati style formed the basis of the Buddha figure’s design in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. The Jataka motifs became rarer in the relief decoration, and more emphasis was now placed on depicting important events in the Buddha’s life, such as his birth, his life in the palace, his asceticism, and his first sermon. New iconographic forms emerged in Mahayana Buddhism. Here other Buddhas, such as Amitabha, Variocayana and not least the Bodhisattvas, play a major role.
With the development of the tantric directions within both Hinduism and Buddhism, religious art was given new motifs. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were embraced with their female counterpart, their shakti. Simultaneously with the appearance of the Buddha statue around 100-teKr. Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, was portrayed in human form. The 24 tirthankaras (“spiritual leaders”) led by Mahavira are the central figures in the temples of Jainism. The statues, usually naked, are soon standing, soon seated with crossed legs.
The most important deities of Hinduism, Vishnu, Shiva and Durga, appear in plastic form in the first centuries AD. They are usually provided with more than two arms. Shiva was already worshiped in its symbolic form as the linga or phallus before the birth of Christ. In the time after 200-teKr. the Hindu pantheon was given new gods in visual form, and the gods were now each provided with their own “riding animal” (vahana) as a characteristic attribute. Vishnus vahana is the mythical bird Garuda, Shivas a bull and the goddess Durgas a lion.
Architecture
India. Among the Indian architects who in the latter half of the 1900-t. has made a name for himself internationally, Balkrishna Doshi (b. 1927) occupies a central place. He is inspired by Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, who have both erected buildings in India, and he seeks to reconcile the ideals of modernism with Indian cultural tradition and climate. Here is Doshi’s studio in Ahmadabad, built 1979-81.
The different religions and cultures of India have each left their mark on the architecture. The most widespread monument in Buddhism is the stupa. Originally, the stupas were burial mounds for the earthly remains of Buddha and his disciples. Later, the symbols of the Buddha were entered into in nirvana; they can also be perceived as monumental depictions of the cosmos. Ashoka built many stupas, but most have been lost or heavily rebuilt. The two most famous of the oldest stupas are located in Bharhut (begun around 200 BC) and in Sanchi (approximately 100-BC-200-BC). Other Buddhist building types are caitya (temple) and vihara(monks’ residence). The caitya usually contains a smaller stupa or a Buddha figure set up in the background of the temple hall. Vihara encompasses monastic cells that surround an open space intended for common religious activities. The oldest preserved monasteries and temples have been carved into rock walls, beginning approximately 100-200 BC and continued to approximately 650 AD They are found in Bhaja, Karli and Ellora; most famous are the 29 rock caves in Ajanta.
Many of the early well-preserved Hindu temples are also carved into rock walls, Kailasa Temple in Ellora (700-t.) And the contemporary Shiva temples in Elephanta. The oldest preserved Hindu stone temples from the 400-700’s. (Aihole and Badami) follow a simple floor plan with the shrine itself at the center. This ground plan is more or less repeated in the later Hindu temple architecture. The temple is perceived as a reflection of the cosmos, where the temple tower represents the world mountain Meru, which is the center of the Universe. North and South India show clear style difference in temple architecture. The temple towers, shikhara, in the northern style are tall with a rounded contour, while the southern towers, vimana, are lower and pyramidal. In northern India, the temple tower is the dominant element; in the South Indian temple architecture, the pyramid-like entrance portals, gopura, gradually overshadowed the temple tower itself. With the Muslim invasion waves in the 1000’s. the temple tradition in northern india was interrupted while the temple architecture in south india continued its development. Famous temples in the northern style are the Lingaraja Temple (1000-t.) In Bhubaneswar, the temples in Khajuraho (900-1000-t.) And Konarak (1200-t.) And the Jagannatha Temple (approximately 1100) in Puri. Among the numerous South Indian temples, the coastal temple from approximately 700 in Mahabalipuram, Shiva Temple (1000-t.) In Tanjore, Minakshi Temple (1600-t.) In Madurai and Hoyshalesvara Temple (1100-t.) In Halebid.
There is no independent Jainist building style. The Jainas have used local architectural forms, adapted to their own rituals. Characteristic are large temple complexes on sacred mountain peaks, paid for by wealthy benefactors, merchants and ministers. On Mount Abu in Rajasthan, in 1031, the first of a long line of white marble temples was erected.
Islam.The Muslim conquests in the 1000’s and 1100’s. brought about great upheavals for the Indian religions in the form of persecution, destruction of shrines and burning of manuscripts. The hardest hit was the already weakened Buddhism – after 1200 there are only a few traces of it in India itself. Islamic rule, however, had a positive impact on Indian art and architecture. The Muslims introduced new types of buildings such as mosques, tombstones, palaces and fortresses. The Islamic shrines are not adorned with statues – figures are only allowed in private chambers. The mosques are adorned with calligraphy, geometric patterns and stylized leaf ornaments. One of the oldest Islamic buildings is the Quwwat ul-Islam Mosque in Delhi-Lalkot, built in 1193 from materials from nearly 30 destroyed Hindu and Jain temples.
A new era began in 1526 with the conquests of Genghis Khan’s descendant Babur in India, which formed the beginning of the Mughal Empire, which flourished in 1556-1707. Akbar, who ruled 1556-1605, was open to the Indian traditions. Islamic and Indian elements formed a common style, for example in Akbar’s tomb in Sikandra and the palaces in Fatehpur Sikri. Under Akbar, red sandstone was the main building material, while his successors largely used white marble; a highlight is the famous tomb of the Taj Mahal in Agra, built by Shah Jahan 1630-48 in pure Mughal style without Indian elements.
Western influence. Several European colonial powers, including Denmark, have left their mark on architecture in parts of India, but it was especially Britain that added new forms to the country. British architecture primarily influenced major cities such as Calcutta, Mumbai and Chennai. The new capital of Delhi, New Delhi, built 1912-31, had Edwin Lutyens as chief architect; he built the mighty presidential palace (1913-31). Later, prominent modernist architects from the West created monumental building complexes in India. Le Corbusier has planned the joint capital of Haryana and Punjab, Chandigarh, and has designed several of its buildings, and Louis Kahn has worked in Ahmadabad, where Le Corbusier has also made projects.
Painting
The earliest examples of paintings of significance are the Buddhist murals from the 400’s-600’s. in the cave temples of Ajanta, showing episodes from the life of the Buddha or illustrating the Jataka tales. The oldest Hindu painting is a mural in a cave temple in Badami from 578. Illumination of manuscripts has a long tradition in India. According to the literary sources, illuminated manuscripts already existed in the first centuries AD. The oldest preserved are Buddhist religious palm leaf manuscripts from around 1000-t .; also numerous Jainist illuminated manuscripts from the 1200’s. is preserved. From the end of the 1300’s. paper became more common, and this meant that the artists were no longer bound by the narrow, elongated format of the palm leaf. In the late 1400’s. and in the early 1500-t.
Illuminated Islamic manuscripts produced during the Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526) show a clear dependence on contemporary Persian painting schools. Under Akbar, in whom the art of painting in the latter half of the 1500’s. had a generous benefactor, an independent Islamic-Indian style developed within the miniature painting, the mogul or mughal painting, which illustrated imperial biographies and Persian poetry. Also the great Hindu epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, which were translated into Persian, were richly illustrated in the Mughal style. Under Akbar’s son Jahangir (1605-27), portrait painting flourished.
In the 1500’s. a direction arose within the Indian painting art, the Rajput painting, which had its basis in the domestic traditions and developed in interaction with the contemporary Mughal painting. Since the beginning of 1600-t. In several smaller, Hindu principalities, various Rajput painting schools have emerged that can be divided into two main groups: the Rajasthan painting and the Pahari painting. The most important representatives of the Rajasthani painting are the Bundi and Mewar schools; notable are also the Marwar and Kishangarh schools. The most important schools of the Paharimaler are the Basholi, Kangra and Gulerskolen.
In colonial times, traditional Indian art languished. Only in the villages did folk art live on. During colonial times, many Indian artists performed company-painting in a European style. In the late 1800’s. and in the early 1900-t. the art of painting experienced a renaissance. In particular, the Bengali school with members of the Tagore family as forerunners are highlighted. They wanted to free themselves from Western influence, seeking inspiration in purely Indian styles, such as the cave paintings in Ajanta and the miniature painting. Important names in recent Indian painting are Jamini Roy (1886-1972) and Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-41).
India – literature
Indian literature is overwhelming. The oldest literary memorials date from approximately 1500-1200 BC, and the literary languages range from Old Indian to Middle Indian to the many New Indian languages and dialects, both Indo-Aryan and Dravidian. In addition, there is considerable literature in English.
Sanskrit literature
The oldest strata in Indian literature are literary texts of a religious nature. They reflect the great changes in the structure of society that took place in ancient India. The starting point is the Vedic religion, which the Aryan tribes brought with them when they settled in the northwestern regions of India more than three thousand years ago.
The core of Vedic literature is the four Vedas. The most important of them is Rigveda, whose oldest parts probably date from 1500-1200 BC. In Rigveda’s more than a thousand hymns, the Aryan poetic priests praise the mighty gods and sing their deeds, or they invoke the gods for assistance and help. Attached to the individual Vedic collections are a number of ritualistic prose works, the Brahmana texts, which interpret the complicated sacrificial acts of the Vedic religion. The last categories of Vedic texts are the Aranyakas and the Upanishads, which contain sacrificial mysticism and religious views of an esoteric and philosophical nature. An extensive literature group, the so-called sutral literature , arose around the Vedic texts. It consists of handbooks that, in the form of aphorisms or very short rules (see sutra), deal with various special sciences, such as phonetics, grammar and ritual, for the use of the priests.
In the Late Vedic period approximately 600-500 BC society was characterized by political, social and religious upheavals, which conditioned the rise of Hinduism. The Vedic religion fell into the background, and the Vedic texts lost their significance, although they are – at least in theory – also authoritative writings in Hinduism. The religious texts that gained importance in Hinduism are the texts that appeared in early Hinduism and the texts that were eventually created in the various ranks of the various Hindu directions. The text category that is closest to Vedic literature is the dharmashastra works, which deals with the religious and social duties of the various classes of society, the duties of the king, the administration of justice, and politics. Manuscripts(Manus lovbog), which in its surviving form possibly dates from 100-teKr., Is the most significant work of this category. An extensive text group, the Puranas, who have been created between 300 and 1300 AD, enjoy great popularity.
While the Vedic texts reflect the dominant role of the clergy in society, the two mighty epics: Mahabharata and Ramayana bear witness to a changed social structure. Here it is the monarchy and the warriors that come to the fore. The core of Mahabharata, which has been formed over a long period between approximately 300 BC and 300 AD, is the story of a family feud. In this course of action, stories about gods and heroes are intertwined. One of the inserted passages is the famous scholarly Bhagavadgita (Song of the Exalted). Ramayana with the divine hero Rama as the main character has possibly got its final form approximately 100 AD In addition to Mahabharata and Ramayana are the most extensive works of poetry produced in Indian territory, they belong to our most important sources of Hindu mythology.
Narrative literature was a favorite genre in ancient India. At an early age, fables and fairy tales were gathered to serve religious purposes. However, there are also fable and fairy tale collections that are intended to provide instruction in, for example, political science, or that have been compiled with fun and diversion in mind. The most famous Indian fable collection is Pancatantra, possibly dating from the first centuries AD. The work has had a major impact on this literary genre in Europe. A later adaptation of Pancatantra is Hitopadesha. One of the most famous fairy tale collections is Shukasaptati (The Parrot’s 70 Tales).
The Indians have from the earliest times had an urge to put their spiritual pursuits into system. This tendency gave birth to the mentioned manuals for the use of the priests of the Vedic religion. In the classical period, there have been schools that systematically dealt with all branches of science, such as grammar, poetics, law, philosophy, politics, erotica (well known in this connection is Kamasutra by Vatsyayana) and the natural sciences.
One of the prerequisites for classical art poetry in Sanskrit is fixed norms for the language itself. The grammarian who was most important for the codification of classical Sanskrit is Panini (approximately 500 BC), who in his grammar thoroughly analyzes all aspects of the language using an ingenious formula system. The art of poetry was of course also the subject of analysis. The most famous theorists are Bhamaha (600-t.), Dandin (600-700-t.) And Anandavardhana (approximately 850). Two key concepts in classical aesthetics are rasa (eg ‘taste’, here ‘mood’) and alamkara(‘jewelry’). Rasa is the term for a series of moods that must be evoked in the reader or spectator to enable him to empathize with the emotions expressed in a poem or a drama. The “jewelry” or figures of a stylistic-rhetorical nature that give a work of poetry beauty are described in the smallest detail in the theoretical works. Some of the most important figures are: upama (comparison), rupaka (metaphor), atishayokti (hyperbole) and shlesha (puns).
The Indians consider Ramayana to be their first art epic (kavya). Perhaps not wrongly, as in Ramayana several of the stylistic figures that mean so much in later art poetry are used. The first epic of significance is the Buddhist poet Ashvaghosha (approximately 150). The greatest poet of the classical period is Kalidasa (approximately 400). He is famous as an epic, lyricist and playwright. His poetry is characterized by a restrained use of the stylistic means. The many epic poets after Kalidasa place excessive emphasis on following the theorists to the letter – to the detriment of the poetic unfoldment. Great epics after Kalidasa are Kumaradasa and Bhattiwho lived about 600-t. The Rama legend underlies the action in their epic poems. From the same period, Bharavi and Magha originate, both of which use substances from the Mahabharata.
The most important lyricists after Kalidasa are Bhartrihari (600-t.), Amaru (700-t.) And Bilhana (1000-t.). Jayadeva (1100-t.) Occupies a special position. His poem Gitagovinda is a cross between poetry and drama.
The classical art novels in Sanskrit are prose works that are stylistically closely related to the epic art poems. The content of them, however, is mostly taken from the fairy tale literature, not – as in the epic poems – from the religious tradition. The most important novelists are the theorist Dandin, Subandhu (600-700-t.) And Bana (600-t.).
The genres of classical Indian drama, character gallery, action sequences, etc. is extensively dealt with in the dramaturgical works. The best known textbook is Bharatas Bharatiya-natyashastra, which in its present form probably dates from the 500-t. Significant playwrights are: Bhasa (300-h. Or earlier), Kalidasa (approximately 400-h.), Harsha (600-h.) And Bhavabhuti (600-700-h.).
Middle Indian literature
The Middle Indian languages include Pali (Old Prakrit) and the other Prakrit languages. The Theravada Buddhists’ large collection of canonical texts (Tripitaka) and the accompanying commentaries are written in Pali. The sacred writings of the Jainas are handed down on ardhamagadhi. They have spawned an extensive commentary literature on both prakrit and Sanskrit. The practice languages developed in line with Sanskrit into literary art languages. An early example is Sattasai, a lyric anthology of Maharashtri from around the 1st century AD. The anthology is attributed to the South Indian king and poet Hala. In classical drama, prakrit plays a major role. The king, ministers and Brahmins speak Sanskrit, while men from the lower social classes and all women speak prakrit; an exception, however, are women with a high education, eg courtesans, they speak Sanskrit.
Literature in New Indian languages
Two major language families, the Indo-European and the Dravidian, are dominant in India. The branch of the Indo-European language family that occurs in India is called the Indo-European. The last phase in the Indo-Aryan language development from Sanskrit over Middle Indian is the modern Indo-Aryan languages, which include 14 major regional main languages, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Panjabi, Marathi and Gujarati. The New Indo-Aryan languages have only managed to assert themselves as independent literary languages after the 1000’s. due to the role of Sanskrit as a leading literary language in northern and central India.
The Dravidian languages: Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam are spoken in South India. Tamil has an independent literary tradition dating back to the first centuries AD, whereas the earliest works of poetry in Kannada and Telugu (800-1000-t.) Are influenced by literary models in Sanskrit, after the Aryan cultural influence from the north had seriously asserted itself in South India.
High productivity in all literary genres today characterizes all New Indian regional languages. In general, it is clear that these literatures are indebted to classical Indian poetry. However, there are other factors that have left their mark on many aspects of New Indian poetry from the early stages all the way up to the present: the Islamic conquest of the late 1100’s, Christian missionary work, and British supremacy. There were religious poets who sought to unite Hinduism and Islam, and the early Urdu literature is largely Islamic in style and choice of motifs. However, it was especially the encounter with Western culture that brought in new motives. To the traditional religious, mythological and erotic motifs were added national and social.
Early Bengali literature is permeated by a poem with the love of the divine Krishna and the shepherd girl Radha as the main motif. In the Krishna cult, the sensual and the religious merged. Candidas from the 1400’s. is a worthy representative of this genre. The social and religious reformer Ram Mohan Roy began in the 1800’s. a new era in Bengali literature with its modern prose style. Bankim Chandra Chatterji took full advantage of the new style artistically in her novels, created after Western role models. Rabindranath Tagore, who is the most significant modern Bengali writer, has managed to elevate the universal above the especially Indian who permeates his poetry. Bengali poets from modern times are Jibanananda Das (1899-1954) and Bishnu De (1909-82). As a representative of the prose literature of Bengali in the 1900’s. should be mentioned Bibhutibhusan Bandyopadhyay (1894-1950).
Hindi includes several languages and dialects. In particular, awadhi, braj and khari boli have asserted themselves as literary languages. The oldest Hindu poetry is panegyric poetry. The most famous of the ancient heroic poems is Prithiraj Rasau by the court poet Cand Bardai (d. 1192). As was the case in much older Indian poetry, religious literature also spawned in Hindi poetic works of very high quality. Here, two religious writers come to the fore: Kabir (approximately 1440-1518), who wanted to unite Hinduism and Islam into one doctrine, and Tulsidas (1532-1623), who created the masterpiece Ramcaritmanas, a Rama legend.
The link between old and new in Hindu literature is Harishcandra (1850-85). He should be highlighted as an innovator of the prose style of khari boli (a kind of “rigshindi”). Premcand became the first Hindu prose writer to gain international fame with his socially critical novels. Several literary currents prevailed in Hindu literature in the first half of the 1900’s. A “romantic movement” (chayavada) had Suryakant Tripathi “Nirala” (1896-1961) and Sumitranandan Pant (1900-77) as pioneers. Another direction, pragativada (“the progressives”), arose under the influence of Marxist thoughts with Yashpal (1907-76) and Nagarjun (1911-98) as typical representatives. SH Vatsyayan“Ajneya” is often characterized as an “experimentalist” with a distinctly individualistic attitude. It is difficult to place many of the recent Hindu writers; this applies, for example, to Raghuvir Sahay (1929-90).
Urdu, spoken in both India and Pakistan, is a form of Western Hindi, but Urdu is written in Persian-Arabic letters and the language is filled with Persian loanwords. The greatest of the older primitive poets is Wali (1668-1744), who in his poems has Islamic mysticism and erotic motifs as themes. MAK Khalib, a master of the language, was the most important Urdu writer of the 1800’s, beginning his career writing short stories. Muhammad Iqbal is considered to be the founder of modern Urdu literature. His poetry, which glorifies Islamic culture, enjoys great prestige in Islamic circles. The literary Urdu traditions are carried on today in Pakistan.
The other Indo-Aryan languages, Gujarati, Marathi, Panjabi, etc., follow much the same pattern as the mentioned languages with a classical literature and a modern literature that partly follows a traditional line and is partly influenced by Western literary currents (modernism, socialism etc.). The oldest Gujarati literature is Jainist texts (1100-1300-t.). In the West, gujarati is primarily known as Gandhi’s mother tongue, which he used in many of his political writings. Marathi literature is famous for its religious classics: Jnaneshvar (1200’s), Namdev (1300’s) and Tukaram (1600’s). Much of the Sikhs’ religious literature is written onpanjabi, b.a. part of their sacred book Adi Granth (however, the majority of the hymns are in Hindi).
Large amounts of literature have been produced in all the Dravidian languages, but Tamil literature is the one that excels in the greatest originality. The oldest Tamil works we know are collections of panegyric-erotic poems. The most significant classical work in Tamil is undoubtedly Silappatikaram, a great epic, written between the 100’s and 400’s. A favorite genre is the didactic aphorism literature, whose most prestigious collection is Tirukkural (approximately 400-t.). 800-1200-t. was the time of the great Hindu hymn poets. After 900-t. began an intense influence from Sanskrit literature.
The first truly modern Tamil writers are Subramanya Bharati (1882-1921) and VVS Aiyar (1881-1925). In recent times we meet Ka Naa Subramanyam (1912-89) as an excellent novelist and novelist.
Indo-English literature
One of the first Indians to use English as a literary language was the social and religious reformer Ram Mohan Roy. Rabindrantah Tagore also used English in his poetry. His English version of Gitanjali won him the Nobel Prize in 1913.
The great Indo-English novel art first gained momentum around 1930 with Mulk Raj Anand’s socially critical novels. Raja Rao (1908-2006) experimented with language in his often philosophical novels. In All about H. Hatterr (1948), GV Desani (1909-2000) also plays with language and style to achieve comic effects. RK Narayan’s novels and short stories are imbued with a warm humor, while Bhabani Bhattacharya with great empathy has portrayed contemporary social conflicts. Indo-English literature is rich in female writers, the most significant of whom are Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Anita Desai.
With his novel Midnight Children (1981), Salman Rushdie unleashed a wave of Indo-English novels among the younger generation of writers. Most famous is his The Satanic Verses, which in 1989 led Ayatollah Khomeini to pronounce the death sentence on him.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, significant novels were published by the author Shashi Deshpande, Amitav Ghosh and Vikram Seth with A Suitable Boy (1993, da. An Appropriate Young Man, 1996). Arundhati Roy created in 1997 sensation with his debut novel The God of Small Things (since. The Small Things god, same year), which also was released in numerous countries. Outstanding Indo-English poets are Nissim Ezekiel and Kamala Das (1934-2009). There is not much Indo-English drama, but two playwrights should be mentioned: Asif Currimbhoy (b. 1928) and Prapat Sharma (b. 1939).
India – theater and dance
the origins of Sanskrit drama are not known, but it can be assumed that it has taken elements such as dialogue, parody, song, dance and recitation from the four Vedas, the various rituals and the temple narrators. A highly developed theater tradition is found approximately 200 BC as prescribed in Bharata’s great dramaturgical writing Natyashastra, in which stage conventions, drama and role types, dance technique and music are carefully described. Some of these dramas have been handed down, the most famous of which are Kalidasa’s Sakuntala, The King and the Dancer and the Messenger (approximately 400-t.) And The Clay Chariot (approximately 100-375), which is attributed to Shudraka. The Sanskrit drama was a “Gesamtkunstwerk” with dialogue on verse and prose, music, song, dance and mime.
The tradition was interrupted by the Muslim invasions in the 1100’s, but one still finds its structure and content in both folk and classical forms, and the most important element, the rasa theory, permeates the classical arts, through bhava, mood, rasa is created, the essence of a feeling whose highest expression is shringara, love. This essence is transmitted from the performer to the spectator, who thereby achieves the highest enjoyment.
There are eight classic dance drama forms: bharata natyam, kathak, mohini attam and odissi, which are solo forms, and kathakali, kuchipudi, chhau and manipuri, which use several actors. Each form has developed its local distinctiveness, but common is the close connection to Hinduism, where dance is a sacrifice to God. Common features are also the deep knee bend, the rhythmic stamping of the feet, the gestures, the dramatic expressiveness of the face and eyes as well as the dance’s close connection with the music. Kathakali has developed a distinguished literary drama tradition and a richly varied mimetic acting technique.
Each state has its own folk theater and dance forms, ritual dances, puppet theater and shadow plays. Most famous are yakshagana from Karnataka and jatra from Bengal; they are performed outdoors and use all the elements of the theater, often modern lighting effects, to capture people’s attention. The pieces draw their action from mythology, history or contemporary themes and have many different role types.
During the British colonial era, a more European-oriented theatrical tradition developed in several places in India, which resulted in translations and adaptations of European plays, new adaptations of Sanskrit dramas, and new drama inspired by folk forms and in the late 1800’s. not least national, political and social themes. The experimental theater developed especially through the many amateur groups, while the professional theater concentrated on box office successes. In the 1900’s. the main western playwrights have been translated and played. Since the 1970’s, there has been a significant interaction between theater people from the West and India.
India – music
Indian music includes both classical and religious traditions, as well as a wide range of local folk music genres and popular music, including film music. Within classical music, a distinction is made between the Hindustani tradition in northern India and, among other things, Pakistan and Afghanistan and the Karnatian tradition in South India and Sri Lanka.
History
Two conditions must be met in order to speak of classical Indian music: firstly, it must keep the traditions alive, and secondly, the performers must belong to a school, gharana, which goes back many generations; in India this is called guru-shisya-parampara, i.e. master-student relationship.
In recent times, the master teaching is on the return. Many young musicians have studied at music schools or at universities in India.
Indian sources often claim that the origins of Indian classical music (shastriya sangit) should be sought in the recitation of Rigveda (approximately 1200 BC) and later of Samaveda and Yajurveda (approximately 1000-700 BC). The recitation of these hymns, however, was not performed by actual musicians.
One of the world’s oldest musical theoretical and dramaturgical works, Natyashastra (now form around the 500’s AD) by Bharata, deals with music theory, metrics, general aesthetics, instrumental music, poetry and dance. It contains chapters on each of the four types of instruments, stringed instruments, wind instruments, cymbals and drums, as well as on playing technique and forms of accompaniment.
The next significant work is Brihaddeshi (700-800’s) by Matanga. Here the metaphysical theories from the tantra yoga are discussed, and in addition the concept of raga is used for the first time. It describes how the human body has special “energy pathways” (nadi) that can be affected through meditation, physical exercises or sound effects.
In addition, the theory of the two types of sound is described: the ordinary, audible sound, ahat nad, and the cosmic sound, anahat nad. Of later books on music should be mentioned Sangita Ratnakara (13th century) by Sarngadeva, which for many both North and South Indian theorists is the final work of the classical period and is considered with great reverence despite the fact that in practice it is quite incomprehensible today.
The division of classical Indian music into the northern and southern traditions was a result of the musical influences brought about by the Islamic invasion of northern India from the 11th century.
The Muslims brought with them both instruments and a music system which was gradually mixed with the North Indian classical music; this is in our time the most famous outside of India.
In the Hindu religion (in South India), music is associated with the temples and is perceived as one of the paths to self-realization; in connection with temple music, the two forms of the Indian oboe (nagasvaram in the south and shanai in the north) are often accompanied by drums. Nowadays, religious utility music is heard over the speakers of temple temples.
South Indian music found its theoretical form in the 18th century on the basis of Venkata Makhin’s rules of the scales; they resulted in the melakarta system with the 72 scales used today. The great composer Tyagaraja (1767-1817) used all 72 scales, which strengthened the melakarta system. In South Indian music performance, ragam, tanam, pallavi and critique are the names of the classical main forms.
For the Islamic religion, music does not have the same significance as for the Hindus, which is why song and games were secularized in northern India. Here the music was cultivated as the entertainment of the upper class by the princely courts. Musicians were employed not as individuals, but as artist dynasties (gharanas) that were generously paid for generation after generation.
The big name in the North Indian tradition was Tan Sen (approximately 1500-89). He sang in dhrupad style and was one of the great moguls Akbar’s so-called “nine jewels”. In 1597, Akbar’s court writer Abu’l Fazl wrote the chronicle Akbarnama, which mentions many singers and instrumentalists at court. Several living musicians can trace their lineage back to Tan Sen.
The Mughal period became a period in which the many styles known today were developed. The Dhrupad style was the old, strict singing style, which was further developed into khyal (Persian ‘fantasy’).
From this arose the slightly romantic style of thumri, which was the pop music of the time. From the thumri tradition, a wide range of lighter genres developed, including ghazal and qawalli. The former in particular has formed the basis of virtually all commercial pop music, not least film music; pop and film music has also recorded many features from the West.
Music theory
Absolute oscillation numbers are not known in Indian music; this means that the root tones may have different pitches. In Natyashastra the microtonal intervals, shruti, are mentioned, of which there were 22 in one octave; however, their exact location is not known today. One most often talks about “more or less elevated or diminished” tones, possibly. expressed in relation to a known raga. There is a strongly developed system of ornaments of the individual tones; it includes partly sliding tones (meend), partly vibratos (gamaka).
The concept of raga is common to the two great traditions. The word raga is derived from ranj, meaning ‘to color’. The word cannot be translated by a single Western concept; it denotes a musical structure that highlights particular tone steps and tonal movements within a scale. Each raga has its own special mood (bhava) and emotion (rasa) that the musician adheres to throughout his performance. A musician usually begins with an alap (introduction), a free improvisation, where the individual notes are combined according to the structure of the raga. Alap can be followed by jor and jhala being played in a free pulsating rhythm.
The individual tones in a raga have different weights or meanings. The most important note after the root note sa is called vadi (“the dominant”, ie the most played note); in a quintessence or a quartz distance from vadi is found samvadi. Indian ragas have traditionally been played at special times of the day or year in which they belonged; Among other things, the location of vadi and samvadi determines this time division. After the end of alap, jor and jhala, a composition is played in a certain tala (rhythm cycle).
Each number has two different aspects: partly the length of the individual beats (matra), which can usually be in three tempi (vilambit, slow, madhya, medium, or drut, fast), partly the distribution of stressed and unstressed beats within the rhythm cycle. The first stroke, sam, is the beginning stroke and the most strongly stressed stroke. Secondary stressed strokes are called tali.
Indian music is modal; this means that all notes in the melodic sequence are in harmony with a fixed root note. There is only a single melody line that is accompanied by the drone instrument tanpura and possibly. a drum. The song has traditionally been considered the most important form of music.
The latest time
In the 20th century, instrumental music has experienced a significant boom. This is partly due to the strong financial support that has been given to national art since India’s independence, including classical music, and partly to the interest that Indian music became the subject of in Europe and the United States, especially in the late 1960’s, when The Beatles and other popular groups tried to use Indian instruments and invited Indian musicians to play on their records. Especially the sitar, which Ravi Shankar has performed in large parts of the world, was very popular among pop musicians.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, it is especially the drum tabla that has fascinated the West; the big name in that regard is Zakir Hussein. The influence of film music, which is the most popular genre among the Indian youth, far exceeds the Western influence on large parts of the Asian music market.
Various types of Indian music are eagerly cultivated outside the country’s borders. In the United States, Canada, Britain, and other European countries, classical Indian music thrives; especially in the three countries mentioned, there is also great activity in popular music, the modernization of the folk music genre bhangra, developed among young people with Indian background.
India – film
India is today the world’s largest film producing nation. The film medium was introduced in 1913 by the pioneer DG Phalke (1870-1944), who aroused the interest of the Indians with the mythological drama Raja Harishchandra (ie King Harishchandra); as early as the 1920’s, over 100 films were produced annually.
In addition to the so-called mythological genre, genres such as the social, a contemporary-related, romantic melodrama, and the stunt, inspired by Douglas Fairbanks ‘ adventure film, also flourished. Then came the devotional genre’s saint portraits such as Saint Tukaram (1937) and the historical genre’s opulent blockbusters such as Sikander (1940, ie Alexander the Great).
Despite the language differences between India’s many regions, the potential of sound film was obvious when Ardeshir Irani (1886-1969) with Alam Ara (1931, ie The Beauty of the World) introduced the now indispensable song and dance scenes.
Indian production companies, such as Prabhat in Bombay (Mumbai) and New Theaters in Calcutta (Kolkata), imitated the American study system but lacked legislation and capital. The industry was increasingly tempted by opportunism and unification, and the popular Hindi film, the all-India film, with its unique blend of East and West, myth and fashion, triumphed over India.
PC Baruas (1903-51) Devdas (1935) – re-recorded in 2002 – was the prototype of a large number of socials who in a sentimental and singable way thematized the societal problems due to arranged marriages, the caste system, etc.
The genre reached its peak in 1957 with Mehboob Khan’s (1906-64) Mother India. To ensure the moral standard, the Central Board of Film Censors was established in 1951 with branches in the three major film centers of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras (Chennai). That same year, the king of Hindi film for three decades, Raj Kapoor (1924-88), presented his Chaplinic hero in Awaara (i.e. the Vagabond).
The Bengali film, which like India had been split in two in 1947, once again became the hearth of Indian film art when Satyajit Ray debuted in 1955 with the first part of the mournful trilogy about Apu, Pather Panchali (The Song of the Road).
The government agency Film Finance Corporation (from 1980 National Film Development Corporation, NFCD) began in 1969 with the controversial comedy Bhuvan Shome, directed by Mrinal Sen (1923-2018), to sponsor “parallel” films, which then also gained a foothold in other regions.
In the 1970’s, the NFCD’s film school in Puna was behind a number of fine directorial debuts by, for example, Mani Kaul (1944-2011) and Kumar Shahani (b. 1940), who were influenced by the French director Robert Bresson.
Shyam Benegal (b. 1934), who combined professionalism with political bite in films such as Ankur/The Seedling (1973) and Manthan/The Churning (1975), devoted himself since the nation’s history in, for example, The Making of the Mahatma (1996). Mira Nair also had worldwide success with her feature film debut Salaam Bombay! (1988).
The hindi films produced mainly in Mumbai are often referred to by the common name Bollywood. Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu produces equally popular Tamil films, so-called Kollywood films.
With films such as Roja/The Rose (1992) and Dil se/From the Heart (1998), director Mani Ratnam (b. 1956) stands as one of the most important representatives of the Kollywood film.
Where the so-called curry westerns of the 1970’s, such as Sholay/Flames of the Sun (1975), were inspired by American action films, the Hindu films of the 1980’s and 1990’s rather had the Western music video as a model. And it is precisely the connectedness of the music and film industry that can explain the still high production figure (800-900 films annually), which seems to ignore the threat from cable TV and video.
India (Kitchen)
Indian cuisine reflects the country’s extent over several climate and growth zones as well as the diversity of Indian society. Hindus and Sikhs do not eat beef, Brahmins are strictly vegetarian and do not use strong spices, while Muslims follow halal rules, which prohibits pork. Common to all Indian food, however, is that more and stronger spices are used than in Western food; the further south, the stronger.
In northern India, unleavened, flat wheat bread (naan and chapati) is usually eaten; in South India, cooked rice lays the groundwork and vegetarian dishes are widespread. All varieties of fruits and vegetables are used, from potatoes over lentils to eggplant, tamarind and okra, a tropical legume. The most common meat dishes are chicken and goat meat, in the coastal signs seafood. Meat is especially cooked for spicy stews and stews. Meat marinated in spicy brine and fried over an open fire in the round, domed tandoori oven is widespread in northern India.
Spices are what characterize Indian food in our eyes. The seasoning takes place both by additives during the preparation of the food and by strong pickles, chutneys and raitas, which accompany it when serving. Chili is a solid ingredient, as well as turmeric, which gives the spice mixtures the typical yellow color. Curry as we know it is not found in India but is mixed and adapted to the individual dish. An Indian curry is a sauce in which pieces of meat or vegetables are cooked.
Indian desserts, which cooked on the basis of milk, is usually very sweet – balsamic after a spicy meal.
Indian food is traditionally eaten with the fingers, but especially in the cities, cutlery has gained ground. All main courses are served and eaten at once.
There are many commonalities between Indian and Pakistani cuisine. North Indian cuisine in particular is making its mark in Pakistani cuisine.
