Culture Shock: A World Wind of India

Imajae A. Johnson

Mr. Falls Global Connections December 11, 2013

India, know as the Indus Valley civilization, is one of the world's oldest countries, flourished during the third and second B.C. and extended into northwestern India. Aryan tribes from the northwest infiltrated the Indian subcontinent about 1500 B.C. Their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. The Golden Age ushered in by the Gupta dynasty, fourth to sixth centuries A.D, saw a flowering of Indian science, art, and culture. Islam spread across the subcontinent over a period of seven hundred years. In the early sixteenth century, the Emperor BABUR established the Mughal Dynasty which ruled India for more than three centuries. By the nineteenth century, Great Britain had become the dominant political power on the subcontinent. Years of nonviolent resistance to British rule, led by Mohandas GANDHI and Jawaharlal NEHRU, eventually resulted in Indian independence, which was granted in 1947. India is also a federal republic (CIA). India is developing into an open-market economy. Economic measures, including industrial deregulation, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and reduced controls on foreign trade and investment, began in the early 1990s and have served to accelerate the country's growth, which averaged fewer than seven percent per year since 1997. India's diverse economy includes traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of services. Slightly more than half of the work force is in agriculture, but services are the major source of economic growth, accounting for nearly two-thirds of India's output, with less than one-third of its labor force. India has capitalized on its large educated English-speaking population to become a major exporter of information technology services, business outsourcing services, and software workers. In 2010, the Indian economy rebounded robustly from the global financial crisis - in large part because of strong domestic demand - and growth exceeded eight percent. However, India's economic growth began slowing in 2011 because of a slowdown in government spending and a decline in investment, caused by the governments commitment to further economic reforms and about the global situation. In late 2012, the Indian Government announced additional reforms and deficit reduction measures to reverse India's slowdown, including allowing higher levels of foreign participation in direct investment in the economy. India has many long-term challenges that it has yet to fully address, including poverty, corruption, violence and discrimination against women and girls, an inefficient power generation and distribution system, ineffective enforcement of intellectual property rights, decades-long civil litigation dockets, inadequate transport and agricultural infrastructure, limited non-agricultural employment opportunities, inadequate availability of quality basic and higher education, and accommodating rural-to-urban migration (CIA). India is seen as a happy joyful place to some people. Vacation brochures and videos, the Disney Channel movie, The Cheetah Girls: One World, which showed Bollywood and its lavish and exciting lifestyle, and what we reading on the internet, magazines, and watch on T.V. India is very traditional when it comes to the arts. One example is Dance. Dance is the art form in which human movement becomes the medium for sensing, understanding, and communicating ideas, feelings, and experiences. Dance provides a way of learning. The goal of dance is to engage people in artistic experiences through the processes of creation, performance and response. Dance has its own content, vocabulary, skills, and techniques, which must be understood and applied to be a proficient dancer. Dance can change a persons way of life and can also save someone from trials and tribulations that they face throughout their life. Dance is a way of communication. From telling a story to just moving like a bird or an object, dance can become a medium for communication or even self-enjoyment. Dance changes a persons outlook

on life. Dance can mean just more that moving to different types of music. Dance in India is a way to express history and culture. The most infamous dance in India is Bharata Natyam. It is a descriptive dance and its a classical dance from Southern India. It is said to be two thousand years old and derived from the Hindu God, Brahma (Dance of India St. Louis). According to Cultural India (2005), dance in India is considered as having three aspects: natya, nritya, and nritta. Natya is a dramatic element and most dance forms do not give emphasis to this aspect today. Nritya is essentially expressed performed, especially to convey the meaning of a theme or idea. Nritta is a pure dance where the body movements do not express any mood nor do they convey any meaning. Dance in India is the most use art form. Children are essential to todays society. Not just in the U.S, but all around the world. Children are the future to multimillionaire businesses, the latest fashion trends, and pop culture, including dances. Children have to be able to express themselves while still be instilled with the important life lessons they are taught since age one. Children cant be expected to grow if they are held back by certain circumstances in the home or even country. For example, in India children are the main resource to manufacturing (working on farms or factories), marriage, or even sexual exploitation. However, India has made some significant commitments towards ensuring the basic rights of children. Infant mortality rates are down, child survival is up, literacy rates have improved, and school dropout rates have fallen (Infochange). There are even children in orphanages in India that dont even have anything to play with because they must be provided with the basic essentials such as food, shelter, and clothes. Out of every one hundred children in India: 19 continue to be out of school 70 drop out by middle school 66 are girls

India has the highest number of child laborers in the world. Around 2.5 million children die in India every year where fifty percent being girls are more likely to die and eighty seven of every one thousand born still has the possibly of dying between birth and age five (Infochange). According to Friends of SBT (Salaam Baalak Trust) (1998-present), there are four hundred forty children in India. Over twelve million of them are child workers in India. Also, in 2007, according to Indias government, two thirds of children are victims of physical abuse, the majorities are beaten in school, and over half have to work seven days a week. Over fifty percent have faced some kind of sexual abuse, and over twenty percent of them severe abuse. Half of children also face emotional abuse. The dropout rate for children in India has a sharp decline at the primary level according to Info Change India (2007). There has been a marginal improvement in the percentage of students who stay in school until kindergarten-from 61.2 % to 62%-but this is way below the global average of 83.3% (Infochange). The Constitution of India fails to recognize education as a right for those aged fifteen to eighteen. Many children dont even make it past elementary school. As seen through Indian culture, the system is designed to push kids out of school. According to Info Change India (2007), India has the highest number of child laborers in the world. Census reports clearly point to an increase in the number of child laborers in the

country, from 11.28 million in 1991 to 12.59 million in 2001. Reports from the MV Foundation in Andhra Pradeash reveal that nearly 400,000 children, mostly girls between seven and fourteen years of age, toil for fourteen to sixteen hours a day in cotton seed production across the country. 90% of them are employed in Andhra Pradesh alone. According to Yamina de Laet of the International Chemical, Energy and Mine Workers federation (ICEM), children aged six to fourteen years represent 40% of the labor in the precious-stone-cutting sector (Infochange). Indias downfall is the children as presented by this information.